"Let me help," a young woman said softly, stepped into the small cabin and gently lifted River off the younger girl she'd fallen asleep on. "She normally doesn't fall asleep like this… in fact I haven't ever seen her sleep like this before."
"She's just getting the first decent sleep she's gotten since those scientists got their hands on her," The Leewit told her, helping to settle the young woman onto the small bunk and tuck her in. The feel of the new arrival… Kaylee's mind was friendly and open, which matched the welcoming smile on her freckled face.
"What?" Kaylee asked, wondering what their passenger knew about River's situation as they stepped into the hall and she shut the door.
"We have some talents in common," The Leewit explained, "I helped her block out her uncontrolled ability to hear thoughts."
"Really?" Kaylee asked excitedly, knowing what that could mean for her boyfriend's younger sister who she had come to think of as family.
"Really," she assured her, feeling the mechanic's excitement. "I've put a barrier around her mind that should let her relax while I teach her how to block others out and the rest of you how to think quieter."
"That is wonderful!" Kaylee exclaimed. "Simon will be so pleased; he's been looking for someone who can help River for as long as I've known him."
"Then it was lucky we ran into each other," The Leewit said.
"What is that noise?" Kaylee asked as a now familiar screech broke out.
"Harry's letting Jayne play with his laser pistol," she replied. "I'd say they'd get bored in a while, but they're both drinking and Jayne feels really simple."
"Yeah, that does describe Jayne," Kaylee admitted. "So, how long have you been a reader?"
"My entire life, as is my mother, grandmother… etc," The Leewit replied.
"Oh," she said, "I didn't know it traveled in families."
"River's problems come from people experimenting on her, not from her being a reader," The Leewit assured her, seeing the worries she was trying to hide. "Most readers actually have less problems than your average person, since they can understand the people around them better. In fact, a lot of them help people with problems not cause them."
"That's a relief," Kaylee said, thinking it sounded something similar to Inara and then tried to force her mind away from the subject as she recalled what Inara was hiding from Mal and the problems that was causing.
"I'm also a really good healer, with my people's entire medical database on my tablet," the little blonde witch told her, "and my name is The Leewit, Kaylee."
Kaylee winced. "Sorry, didn't mean to be rude back there, just a bit distracted. When you say you're a healer and have a database…"
"I have a good shot of curing something that you think is incurable with the help of a local doc," The Leewit said confidently.
"If you could fix machines as well as you fix people I'd call you an angel," Kaylee said honestly.
"I think Harry is better at machines," The Leewit said with a hint of a smile, "but that'll have to wait until after he's suffered through his first hangover."
"First hangover?" she asked confused, as she'd thought Harry was her father or older brother, considering her age and surely he'd have gone out drinking a time or two already.
"He's my age," The Leewit replied with a smirk, "and he's never drank before, so it'll be a learning experience for him."
"Seems a bit young to be drinking with Jayne," Kaylee said.
"Best to learn about drinking and what it feels like early," The Leewit argued, "and preferably someplace where anything you break isn't your own stuff."
"Oh, I'm not arguing about that," Kaylee said, waving it off, "I think I'm a bit young to be drinking with Jayne, but I guess it's safe enough on ship."
The screech of a laser pistol echoed through the ship.
"Mostly," Kaylee said.
"Good decision-making skills are developed by making bad decisions," The Leewit told her, "and Jayne feels like he'll be a big help with that."
"Well… you're not wrong," Kaylee agreed.
"Now, let's go visit your boyfriend and see how his medical knowledge compares to mine, we are working from different bases so we should each learn something," The Leewit said, a trace of excitement leaking into her voice.
"We can do that," Kaylee agreed, "he's just doing inventory again for lack of anything to do."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Dumbledore stood in the center of Stonehenge and rechecked his work. The wards at the Dursleys' had fallen before he'd been able to locate Harry and they'd suffered a series of accidents that had him checking the poor muggles for Malaclaw venom, but no it looked like they were just naturally that unlucky without Harry there to provide protection for them. 'Oh well, I can't allow him to stay with people with such poor luck, even if they are family,' Dumbledore decided as he prepared the ritual to enhance his familiar. "So many fires… I can't believe they are so accident prone," he muttered, as he corrected one of his symbols in the outer edge of the pentagram.
Fawkes clucked evilly, causing Dumbledore to turn and look at him. Fawkes quickly sang a song of light and hope that made the old wizard smile and relax.
"I must be getting old, I'm beginning to imagine things," he said, as the song ended and he returned to his work with a smile and renewed confidence. "Yes, I believe I have everything perfect."
Fawkes flew down to land in the center, trilling a questioning tone to his bondmate.
"I'm sure I've explained it to you before," Dumbledore gently chided him, knowing Fawkes was just pretending to be confused by what he was doing for his own amusement, "but doing it once more won't hurt. I am going to enhance your connection to the fire element so that you may search all the world in just a few seconds time and retrieve poor Harry from wherever he may be."
Fawkes chirped excitedly as flames began to dance across his feathers.
"As the sun reaches it's apex the ritual will automatically begin," Dumbledore said with a smile. "It's not as effective as some other rituals I could have performed, but I'm afraid my skill in dancing is somewhat insufficient for the movements needed and I burn too easily these days to go around skyclad."
The phoenix clucked in amusement as his body became the center of an enormous fireball and then vanished.
After nearly a minute had passed, Dumbledore frowned and rechecked his work. "It shouldn't have taken this long," he muttered worriedly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I'm taller," Harry said with a smile, measuring himself against The Leewit.
"Yes," The Leewit replied, amused even though this was the fifth time he'd said that.
"We're synths," Harry said thoughtfully, before leaning over and hugging her.
"Yes, we are," The Leewit replied, happy that he was evolving so quickly, already feeling his mind gaining definition and depth as he actively drew in klatha from their surroundings and the connections between his memories started multiplying, his sense of self growing.
"Are we still us?" he asked suddenly, radiating confusion.
"We are enough 'us' not to worry about it," she told him firmly, giving him a squeeze.
"Okay," he agreed with a relieved sigh, trusting her implicitly.
"I never had any questions about if I was me or not," Linda said, "seems kinda silly. If you aren't you, than who is asking the question?"
"There's some wisdom in that," The Leewit agreed, amused.
"It's not about not being you, it's about not being the source of your series," Sally explained.
"Oh," Linda said, nodding in understanding, "but since the human body replaces all its cells every seven years they really don't have a better claim than we do."
"I don't believe anyone has ever looked at it that way before," Dr Li said thoughtfully.
"No one sane anyway," Sally said with a shrug. "Still… she isn't wrong."
"Yes, if you slowly replace every part of a ship… is it still the same ship in the end?" Dr Li offered. "It's called the Theseus' Paradox. I ran across it in a book I read recently."
"Pretty sure the bones remain the same, but we aren't just our bones," The Leewit said. "Also, I think these bones are a pretty big improvement over human ones."
Harry picked up The Leewit and sat down with her in his lap, a bright smile on his face.
"He's enjoying being bigger than me so he can cuddle me now," The Leewit explained, ignoring the blush that was slowly growing on her face.
"He still seems pretty unfocused," Linda noted.
"Harry has a complex creation of klatha that enhances his power, it's still rebuilding itself. I'm sure by the time it's complete he'll be back to normal," The Leewit assured them.
"You don't have one?" Sally asked curiously.
"No, it's something unique to Harry," she said. "Or at least his people. We'll have to track them down when we're older and see."
"Why wait?" Linda asked.
"Because his people would probably try and make us stay with some family and learn to live in their society," The Leewit replied, trying not to show how much she was enjoying feeling Harry enjoying holding her. "Being witches themselves they'd do a better job keeping us there, so it's just easier all around to wait until we would be considered adults in their society before visiting."
"Hopefully that'll be a while," Linda said, "otherwise I'll have to have another pair of you made and then they'd run off… so I'd get another… and then it would happen again… I think there would end up being a ton of you guys and really an even dozen should be enough to make everyone happy."
The Leewit giggled despite herself at the idea of a dozen of her and Harry living in The Institute. There was a burst of heat and a large bird, composed of golden flames grabbed a hold of Harry's shoulders and the three vanished in a swirl of fire.
The three stared at where the two preteens had been sitting in stunned disbelief for a few seconds.
"Okay, that was an outcome I didn't see coming of this experiment," Dr Li admitted.
"Want to fire up the machine and make another six pairs?" Linda asked.
Dr Li and Sally stared at her.
"What?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Leewit was shocked at the explosion of flame and felt themselves being moved through something familiar but not quite the same as the Egger Route, though that may have been because the fire was obscuring her senses. The fire was warm and welcoming, and she could feel Harry draw it into himself, the klatha construct rebuilding in seconds what should have taken hours if not days. She pulled some into herself, while clutching tightly to Harry, trying to get a feel for it and what was going on, but there was only a sense of vast amounts of time and amusement before they appeared in the center of a ring of stones in front of a strange old man and she found herself brushing hair from her face.
"It worked," the old man said with relief.
The Leewit instinctively reached out for Harry as he did the same and their klatha threads wrapped around one another forming an even stronger bond than they had previously. She made a mental note to start layering protections on her mind when she had time as Harry set her down, keeping a hold of her hand.
"Pardon my rudeness," the old man said. "My name is Albus Dumbledore and I've been trying to find Harry for a while since he went missing from his relatives. Sadly, I have to say they aren't fit guardians for you even if they are the closest family you have," he said apologetically.
"My name is The Leewit," she introduced herself. "I've been taking care of him." She squeezed Harry's hand possessively, making him smile.
"That was quite nice of you," Dumbledore said, taking note of their strange clothes and the changes Harry had undergone, as he looked to be bursting with health and had hair so red he would have fit right in with the Weasleys, possibly a side effect of traveling with a ritual enhanced Fawkes. As Harry brushed his shoulder length hair out of his face the old man saw that the curse scar was gone and positively beamed.
"How did you teleport us here?" Harry asked curiously, getting a welcoming chirp from Fawkes, who was still dripping excess flames and was clearly amused by it.
"Once I knew you were missing, I set about trying to find you," Dumbledore explained. "I wear quite a few hats in our world, so it falls to me to make sure you are taken care of."
"Sorry, I'm afraid that position is taken," The Leewit said firmly, "he's mine now."
Harry beamed, completely in agreement.
Dumbledore hid his grin behind his hand. "Yes, well I'm sure we can discuss that over lunch."
"Alright," she agreed, "Harry is feeling a bit hungry, and I suppose I could eat."
"We can use fire travel to arrive there instantly," he said, "grab my hand and Fawkes will take us." Dumbledore offered his hand while holding out an arm for his familiar and Fawkes leapt onto his head almost knocking him down. "Must you do that every time?" he grumbled while the phoenix chirped in amusement.
Beta by: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows