Disclaimer: you know it.

A/N: GAH! FORGOT TO UPDATE…MUST REMEDY! Also, on a side note, the date right now is the 17th of October, 11:15 p.m. in the evening…I'M FINALLY 18! WOOP! That is all…now ON WITH THE DRAMA!

Chapter Fifteen: Dreams and Diagnosis

Lauren was doing what she always did when she was upset or worried: walking. She decided to take a walk along the beach and when the time was right, she would watch the sunset. Finally, she found a place near some rocks, and sat down. As she looked out to sea, her mind drifted back to a time when things were simpler, when things were easier. A time long before everything that had happened since her visit to her grandmother's house.

"Come ON, Lauren!" screamed Willa. "We're gonna miss it! Stop taking so long!"

"Hold on!" Lauren yelled back as she struggled with her shoes. "Can you help me, Willa? I STILL can't get it right!" Her very impatient 6-year-old sister stomped over to her and tied her shoes quickly.

"Now let's go!" Willa said, dragging the hapless 4-year-old behind her. "We don't want to miss it!"

The two children ran down the beach, finally reaching their parents at their spot on the beach. Lauren looked around, as if trying to find someone. She grinned as she saw 4-year-old Wesley Crusher dragging his mother and father down the beach with one hand, saying "We're gonna miss it!" as he did.

Soon they were all seated, and the children were assured that they had not missed it. They watched in amazement as the sun began to sink behind the waves.

"Isn't that cool, Wes?" Lauren asked her friend.

"Yeah…really cool!" he replied.

"You'll appreciate them more when you're older," Lauren's father said. "Who knows? Maybe by then you'll be seeing more than the sunset. Maybe you'll be seeing galaxies, other planets, who knows?" Wesley grinned and looked at his father, who grinned back and tousled his son's hair. Those were his exact plans.

Lauren wrinkled her nose at her father, and leaned over to Willa. "Sure," she said to her sister in a voice too low for Wesley to hear. "Like that'll ever happen."

Lauren half-smiled, half-snorted at the memory of that sunset. It was one of the earliest she could remember of the joint vacations her family took with the Crushers, and one of her favorites. She closed her eyes, trying to remember more, and fell asleep.

A haze was all around Lauren. She was a baby, and she was crying. A little boy, no more than 8 years old, came over to her and started tickling her feet. She laughed and held her arms out, and he picked her up and carried her over to her baby blanket. He dangled toys above her head, and she reached for them, baby-squealing with glee.

Suddenly, he turned to look over his shoulder. He looked back at her, his face not at all happy as it had been before with the toys and the tickling. He wrapped Lauren in the blanket and picked her up. He whispered to her, telling her it would be ok, and he wouldn't let the bad lady hurt her. He gently put her on the ground between two rose bushes, and ran away.

Somewhere, wherever the boy had gone, a lady screamed…

Lauren screamed and her hand flew to her forehead as a painful headache overtook her. She was about to close her eyes when she saw Wesley kneel down next to her in the sand.

"Another headache?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Lauren said. "But there was something else too."

"What?"

"A dream. It was weird, like it was a memory or something."

"What happened in it?"

"I was a baby. I was lying on my back, in the grass, and I was crying. Then a little boy-no more than 8 years old, so it couldn't have been you-came over and started tickling my toes. Then he carried me over to a baby blanket and started playing with me, dangling toys over my head to make me laugh. Suddenly, he got afraid…he wrapped me in the blanket and carried me over to a few rose bushes…he was telling me I would be safe from the bad lady. He put me on the ground between two of them, then ran away. I heard a woman scream…then I woke up."

"You think there's a connection?"

"There has to be," Lauren said, thinking about the dream. "But it doesn't seem like a dream. I knew the rose bushes…they were from a house we used to visit on Acana VI. The baby blanket…it was mine when I was little. I still have it."

"It has to be a memory then," Wesley said.

"Then why can't I remember it?" Lauren replied as they sat together and watched the sun fall beneath the waves. After a few moments, they went inside.

Lauren sat up slowly. Wesley had just finished performing the brain scan, and was sending the data to the Enterprise.

"That felt very weird," she said. "So, when do we find out the results?"

"Soon. My mother should be sending them back within 10 minutes."

Lauren nodded, a somber expression on her face. "What are our options if your mother can't figure it out?"

"There's a process that I learned from the Traveler that might work," Wesley said. "The person performing it actually goes into the mind of the other person and opens the mental channels that are blocked. However, there is a chance that something could go wrong. I've seen cases where the person receiving the treatment went into a coma or died. Some of them came out of it with mental damage; some severe, some not so severe. The point is, there are risks involved."

"Aren't there always?" Lauren asked as the computer started beeping and feeding out information.

Wesley looked at the paper and frowned. "Nothing. They couldn't find anything out. As far as the scanner knows, your brain is perfectly normal."

"Let's try the other procedure," Lauren said, and then interrupted Wesley when he tried to protest. "Whatever the risks are to myself, I'm willing to take them. I trust you."

Wesley sighed, knowing he was beaten. "All right," he said. "Lie down and close your eyes. Let's see what we can find."

A/N 2: I know! Cliffy! But the good news is: I have the next chapter ready to go! I'll post it tomorrow if I get the chance…right now, let's respond to some viewer mail!

Star Trek Freak: Isn't it ALWAYS a big freaky problem when the Romulans are involved? But I digress…and yes, yes they do have her brother. You'll find out more about that next chapter. We go into Lauren's brain and meet her subconscious, which'll be fun…prepare for sarcasm! And when will you be gracing us with the next chapter of your story? I'm waiting with baited breath to see if they save the rest of the people!

Blue Eyed Dragon Girl: Yes, I do love those cliffhangers…and here's another one! Spiking Picard's tea…I like the way you think! I feel a humor story coming on! I'm seriously considering writing that as a story after I finish this one…unless you want to do it. You'll get to see Wesley use his Traveler powers next chapter…the procedure he's going to perform is one of them. That's the beauty of the Traveler…don't know much about him, so you can make up as much as you want!

It's me, get over it: And here's yet another cliffhanger! There won't be too many more of them, though. Once we get into the Romulan battle, then there'll be a cliffhanger. In fact, I figure I'll end a major chapter on one near the end…maybe the next to last chapter! And yes, the smile…I watched it today and spent most of the episode drooling…I am such a fangirl…

voangers806: Thanks for the review! I hope you'll still read it, even though I took so long to update!

A/N 3: It was on my mind to write a bit of a prequel to this…maybe 2 or 3 chapters long…but I wanted to get reader input on this. So, in your review, if you want a prequel to this story, say so! It would go from right after the dance to the day Lauren goes to Starfleet Medical at the beginning of the story…and yes, you would get to see the fistfight mentioned in Chapter Two of this story! So if you want it, speak up!