Chapter 12

"What!" Heather gasped. Dr. Bashir nodded slowly.

"I've checked and double-checked. It's true. Brianna does not have cerebral palsy." A new thought struck Heather just then.

"Then...what does she have?" Dr. Bashir paused for a moment.

"Lieutenant...this may seem hard to believe, but I'm sure of my facts. Brianna has no disability at all, on the contrary. She is a perfectly healthy, strong young girl."

"But the wheelchair...and the tight muscles..." Heather stammered, unable to believe her ears. Dr. Bashir gently placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Here is my theory. A child's memory becomes complex enough to store memories when the child is about one to two years old. By that time in Brianna's life, her father was out of the picture, and she was living with a disabled mother. Now, a child wants to mimic his or her parents, right?"

"Right." Heather gasped, sinking down on a nearby biobed. She was having a lot of trouble processing this. She listened while the doctor continued.

"So Brianna's first instinct was to be like her mother. She wanted to be disabled, and in a wheelchair, like her mother, because that was all she knew. So she purposely tightened her muscles. Over time, her muscles became so tight that she couldn't walk. By the time she entered school with regular children her age, the damage had been done. Brianna had trained her own muscles to have cerebral palsy, in a sense. The power of the mind is very strong."

"Is that even possible?" Heather wondered.

"Apparently so. I can think of no other reason for the normal readings, yet Brianna's obvious disability."

The next thing she felt was her head and neck hitting the cool white floor as she fell off the biobed and fainted.

Heather woke to the comfort of a biobed. Dr. Bashir was a few beds over, checking over a young officer with plasma burns. He straightened up when he saw that she was awake. He came over to her bed and began scanning her with a tricorder.

"How do you feel?" he questioned. Heather shrugged.

"A bit tired, but otherwise OK." she replied. Dr. Bashir smiled.

"Good. You passed out, remember?" All of a sudden the memories came rushing back to her with a sickening feeling.

"Oh God." she groaned. "Brianna." Dr. Bashir's expression grew serious.

"Brianna is currently in the care of your friends from the Ability. I suggest you tell her the news as soon as possible." All of a sudden, the Infirmary doors opened and an officer staggered in, bleeding profusely.

"I have to go. You rest for a few minutes, and then you're free to go." Dr. Bashir rushed to the man's aid, leaving Heather wondering how in the world she was going to break the news to Brianna.

"You're kidding." Maureen said in amazement later that day, as Heather told her friends the whole story. Heather shook her head and groaned.

"I wish I was. God, I wish I was. I wish I could just wake up and find that this whole mess was just a horrible nightmare. That Kathleen was still alive and we were all back on the Ability. Oh dear God, what am I going to do?" Heather began to cry softly, letting out all her frustration and desperation that had been building up over the past few days.

"Shh, Heather, it's going to be OK. I promise." Bridget said sincerely. Heather took another long, shuddering breath and shook her head.

"No, it's not going to be OK. Kathleen's dead, and I'm stuck trying to comfort her daughter while I'm finding out that her daughter isn't really handicapped! And on top of it all, I'm falling apart! How the hell am I supposed to help Brianna when I can't even help myself!" Bridget and Maureen glanced uneasily at each other.

"Well, when you put it that way..." Bridget started. Heather managed a watery grin.

"You guys are the best." she told them. Then her face darkened as she thought of the confrontation with Brianna she had to face later.

"I guess I'll have to tell her." she said softly. Bridget put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"We're telling her together." she said determinedly. Heather looked at her friends in amazement.

"Oh, guys, you don't have to do that..."

"But we want to." Maureen interjected. "We. Want. To. We're not letting you go through this alone. After all, this is Kathleen's daughter."

They walked back to Heather's quarters together, where they found Brianna reading an e-book on the computer.

"Brianna?" Heather asked hesitantly. "Can we talk?" Brianna scowled and jabbed at the joystick of her chair so hard she nearly crashed into the bed.

"What?" she said sharply. Heather sighed. Her friends had told her that Brianna had been acting sullen and rude ever since the news of her mother's death.

"Bri...I've been talking with Dr. Bashir and he found some very interesting results during your physical."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" But Brianna turned to look at the three friends.

"Brianna...I might as well come out and say it. You don't have CP. In fact, you're perfectly healthy. You have no disability. You can be, well, free."

"So that's it?" Brianna said with an edge to her voice. "You've taken away the last thing I was sure about, the one thing I could count on, my own disability. First you tell me my mother's dead. That took away my entire fantasy system. And now you tell me that my disability is just...non existent? Some foster mothers you guys are. Thanks for ruining my life. Thanks a lot!" By now Brianna was sobbing freely, not in sadness, but more in anger and confusion.

"But there's an upside!" Maureen said brightly, still trying to salvage the situation. "Now you can walk, like other people! Think of how good it'll feel to walk for the first time!" Brianna glared at Maureen, whose cheerful smile slowly vanished the longer she felt the force of the glare.

"Well, maybe I don't want to walk!" Brianna shouted through her sobs. She swung her chair and nearly crashed into the wall on her way out, blinded by her tears. The three young women stared after her as her wheelchair sped down the corridor.

"Well, that was exactly what I was dreading." Heather broke the heavy silence. There was a collected sigh as all three friends let out their breath.

"So what are we going to do now?" Heather asked wearily. No one else had any clue.

A/N: Wow, that was a really long chapter. As always, review!