1) Sorry for the late post. No access to a computer last night. And 2) Author's responses at the end.

Chapter Twelve: Ghosts

Naomi woke early the next morning to the feel of a very hard penis pressing between her thighs. She couldn't help the very happy, very naughty grin as she lifted one leg, took that penis and guided it into her body.

Behind her, Bill moaned. He was still asleep even as he moved against her. She pushed back against him, gripping the sheets and mattress with both hands as the rush of an orgasm overtook her again. She could really get used to this. "Naomi," he whispered. "Yes."

He thrust inside her, again and again, and she pushed back against him, until finally they finished together. "I do believe that is the best wake-up call I have ever had," Naomi declared. She stretched and luxuriated against the feel of him. "I could so get used to this."

She felt a wiggle of worry in her mind. She turned around on the mattress until she faced him and saw the frown line furrowing his brow. She kissed the furrow and hugged him close. "What's wrong?"

"What's going to happen to me?" he asked. "To us. All of us. Where am I going to live? How will I live? I don't have much in the way of useful skills."

"You have skills," she said with a teasing smile. It was enough to tease a responding smile from him. "The first thing will be to have you declared an adult. I think a meeting with a local Family Services judge should be enough to do that. Then, if you want, you can live with me.'

"But won't you be in trouble here? Will you lose your job?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I'm just not sure I care, so long as I'm with you."

Eventually they showered in the small facility the observation room provided and got dressed. They held hands as they walked to the door.

"Am I allowed out?" Bill asked.

"Yes," Naomi assured him. The two of them stepped out of the hall and were met almost immediately by Deanna.

The half-Betazoid swayed a little when she saw them. "Are you okay?" Bill asked, stepping forward to lend a hand if necessary.

"I'm fine," she assured the young man. "I'm empathic. The two of you are glowing."

Bill blushed brilliant, but couldn't help but smile. "It was a good night."

"Speak for yourself," Deanna said, though she too smiled. How could she do otherwise went basking in the glow of the young couple's love for each other? "I was trying to assure the local authorities that the power losses were only temporary and we had the situation under control."

"Power loss?" Naomi asked, wide-eyed. "How bad?"

"Most of the Bay area, but only for a second. If the power grid were any less redundant, or still had the pre-War wiring, we would have lost power for longer."

"Sorry," the two said.

They looked so absolutely adorable Deanna couldn't help but laugh. "It's all right." She walked with them toward the door. "Bill, we've informed Hope's Point that you will not be returning. I'm assuming you and Naomi reached an agreement."

"Oh yeah."

The elevator slid down to the ground level in absolute silence and they stepped into the cavernous, well-lit lobby of Starfleet Medical.

"Doctor Riker…"

"Deanna, please," she said.

"Deanna," Bill continued, "what will happen to Naomi?"

"It's complicated," Deanna admitted. "And not just for her. Last night was a risk for both myself and Admiral Bashir, the Chief Medical Officer. Although technically it wasn't our decision for Naomi to come to you, we still allowed it to happen here. So at the very least there will be a review. Worst case she will lose her license for five years and be dismissed from Starfleet. Best case, she will be diminished in rank with a formal censure on her record."

"Or I could resign," Naomi added.

"You could," Deanna said. "But I hope you don't. I think going forward you should specialize in younger children exclusively, because you have repeatedly demonstrated great skill and compassion in that area. But I won't pretend to tell you what to do. However, don't be surprised if Beverly does."

"Beverly?" Bill asked.

Naomi squeezed his hand. "You know I'm an orphan," she said. "My father died before I was born and my mother died on Voyager shortly after. I was the only child on the ship for many years. The former captain, Admiral Janeway, took me in as a foster child. But Beverly Crusher…er, I mean, Picard, she was my mentor once I started. She took me under her wing and really put my feet on the path of psychiatry. She's like my grandmother. I think you'll really like her."

"And there she is," Deanna said.

Beverly stood near the entrance of the building wearing business slacks and a pleasant green blouse that off-set her beautiful silver hair. Bill stumbled a little as they reached her.

Beverly smiled brilliantly as she pulled Naomi into a hug. "I don't think I've ever seen you so happy," she said simply.

She turned to Bill and started to hug him too, but then froze. She backed up, a confused look on her face. Bill too seemed confused. "What is it?" Deanna asked.

"He feels like Ronin," Beverly said, clearly upset.

"You remind me of someone," Bill said. "Someone I knew, but I can't remember."

Naomi shook her head. "Bill, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to be able to introduce you to anyone."

He shrugged. "Sorry."

* * *

"Ronin was an anaphasic life form linked to the women in my family," Beverly explained over a very strong Romulan martini at the Observation Deck. "I'm not sure he was very harmful to us, but he was dangerous to anyone who tried to separate him from us. He actually lived in a candle, believe it or not. He was able to enter us and it was a rather erotic experience."

"I know all about that, now," Naomi said.

"What happened?" Bill asked.

"I had to destroy him after he killed a man," she said. She could not help the slightly wistful tone in her voice.

"Beverly," Bill asked, "where does your family come from?"

"Originally, Scotland."

"Do you…have you ever heard of the name McGonagall?"

Beverly sipped her blue martini while she thought about it. "You know, if you go far enough back, I think we do have a McGonagall in our family. How do you know that name?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "But you're describing a ghost."

"There's no such things as ghosts," Beverly scoffed. "He was an alien being who happened to be made up of energy."

Bill looked down at the half-eaten sandwich. "Could anyone else see him?"

"No, not really."

"I think that wasn't because of him," he said. He very carefully reached out and took her hand. "You're like us, Beverly."

She sat up. "What?"

Naomi, though, was staring at her mentor with an open jaw. "That's why," she whispered.

"Why what?" Beverly said, now disturbed.

"Why I felt more comfortable around you than anyone else, even Auntie Kate," Naomi said. "You are one of us."

"One of what?" Beverly demanded.

"Whatever we are," Bill said with a shrug. "I bet you have the prapacratex or whatever you call it that we have."

"Paracortex," Naomi corrected with a laugh. "I bet you do. Did you ever go through a deep-rez scan?"

"Yes, I have!" Beverly said triumphantly. Then she frowned. "Not for my head, though. It was just for my leg. But it did not hurt at all."

"Whatever is inside of us wasn't active for you," Bill said. "Whatever makes us like we are, it's been sleeping. In a way what's happened to the others is my fault, because when they got around me the power woke up. And now that you've been around me, yours will too."

"Oh, this is silly," Beverly said. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small medical tricorder.

"You carry a tricorder in your purse?" Deanna asked, obviously amused.

"I never leave home without it," she said. She did a scan over herself, and then pressed it against her skin. She stared at the results in shock. She then used the tricorder to access her personal medical records.

"I'll be damned," she whispered. "I completely forgot about my DNA test at the Academy. It was tagged as abnormal but was attributed to a mutation." She looked up. "I really am one of you." She developed a devilish grin. "Does that mean I need to sleep with you, Bill? Think you can handle a woman with real experience?"

"Beverly!" Naomi said. "I may end up sharing him, but not with you! You have your own."

"I'm just teasing," Beverly assured the younger woman. "Although if I start flinging objects around in my sleep I am blaming you."

"You're taking this awfully well," Deanna noted.

"I'm sixty-eight years old," Beverly said. "It isn't going to change my life, and it is interesting."

"I bet there are others too," Bill said, desperate to change the subject. "The power is just sleeping."

"So why do you feel like Ronin to me?"

"If he was a ghost, only we could see him," Bill said with a certainty he couldn't explain. "And…well, I think I was a ghost too. It would explain everything. I think I was a ghost, and something happened that gave me a new body."

"Susan was lying," Deanna said. "When she talked about how they found you. It may be time to talk to her."

"I think she wanted to tell me," Bill nodded. "Before all this started, anyway."

"We'll talk to her," Naomi added. "We are free now. I don't think this is a Starfleet issue any more."

"She's right," Beverly said. "Now it's family."

Bill choked on his water. "Family?" The word obviously had special meaning to him.

"I haven't seen my son in ten years," Beverly said. "I married again very late in my life. As far as I am concerned, Naomi is family. And it is very obvious to me that you are now a part of her life. So yes, family." She stood. "Besides, I'm the wife of the elected leader of the planet. You'd be amazed at what doors that can open. Are Susan and her friends in school?"

Deanna nodded. "I would love to go with you, but for the sake of my career I had better not."

Beverly leaned over and hugged her. "Don't worry, dear, I'll take recordings."

* * *

As the First Lady of Earth, Beverly rated a security contingent of four dark-suited men with discreet earpieces and very well hidden personal adaptive shields and phasers. They were waiting by a jitney with the Parliamentary Flag on the doors to mark it as an official government vehicle.

Beverly knew all four of her guards by their first names. She had them thoroughly wrapped around her finger as they allowed their boss and her two guests to climb in. Deanna waved to them before talking back to the Starfleet Medical campus nearby.

As soon as the doors were sealed and the four of them were in the private cabin, Beverly looked from the blushing Bill to the radiant Naomi and said, "Well, how was it?"

"Better than I could have ever imagined," Naomi said as she took Bill's hand.

"I'm glad," Beverly said. "I was hoping you would find someone. Granted, I didn't think you'd be sharing, but that's what it looks like."

"You…you don't mind?" Bill said.

"If you…if we are a truly different branch of humans, it is entirely possible that we may have different needs. Issues of morality are often shaped by physiological need. For instance, among Deltans it is immoral for a Deltan to have relations with another species, not because they can't, but because they are so sexually permissive and expressive, the non-Deltan partner would essentially be ruined for any other relationship. We may be looking at something similar to that."

"Speaking of Deltans, I wonder if Katherine's mother's hair ever grew back," Naomi said. "She is a Starfleet commander and I believe she may be suffering some lingering post-traumatic stress. Her relationship with her daughter is tenuous at best, and they argued on the way up to do the scan. By the end of the argument Commander Dunningham was completely bald."

"Hmm," Beverly said as she touched her hair, "remind me never to get any of you mad."

They finally arrived at the high school. Even Beverly was impressed—"It's as large as Starfleet Medical!"

Fortunately class was in session when the First Lady, her security retinue, and her two guests walked into the administrative offices. At first the secretary did not recognize her. Then she stared a moment at the long, silver tresses and the four security guards before putting on a strained smile and buzzing the principal.

Ten minutes later, they had their own conference room. Five minutes after that, the girls started to arrive. Katherine was first, and the moment she stepped into the room she ignored everyone else and ran for Bill.

Their kiss caused the lights to flicker. "That's an interesting effect," Beverly noted. "Was that you last night?"

Naomi nodded as Mary came in, and did the same exact thing with the same result. Diana actually squealed a little as she jumped into Bill's arms and started kissing him so sensuously that Naomi started to get hot again.

Finally Susan came in. She paused at the door and saw the others there, but didn't really see them. Her eyes were locked on Bill. He put Diana down gently with one last kiss, then walked to the door and Susan.

Her lip trembled. "I'm sorry for getting you in trouble," she said.

"I'm not," he told her. "Because now we know more than we did before." He deliberately placed his hands on her cheeks, and slowly leaned down until they kissed. The lights went out for two seconds before power was restored.

Susan's eyes were still closed as their lips parted. "I've been dreaming about that for so long."

"All of us have," Diana said.

The four of them looked at Naomi. "But you were first," Katherine said with certainty. "We all felt it."

Naomi didn't try to deny it. "I was of age, and more importantly, I was willing to wear scanners so that we might have an idea of what was happening."

Then, and only then, did the four of them realize who it was who pulled them out of class. Diana started stuttering, while Susan grinned brightly. "You're just like we are!" she declared. The other stared first at her, then at Beverly, before they similarly smiled.

"If it's that obvious, maybe I should wear a sign," Beverly said. "I take it then you know who I am? As to why I am here, Naomi here was my protégé during her medical academy days, and I came to care for her a great deal. Which of you is Susan? Ahh, yes. Well, Susan, I understand that you have something to say to us."

"I…I gave my report to Starfleet," Susan said.

"We're not Starfleet," Naomi said. "This is family. I've made my choice. I am with Bill. Beverly is here for me, but she's not with Starfleet. This is for us to know and no one else."

"Does that mean…" Diana looked around the room. "Does that mean we all…how do I say this…"

"This bond we have with him affects us all," Naomi said. "We studied it as much as we could and there is no denying the fact that we are all linked. When I went to him last night, I knew that I wouldn't be the only one. And while I'm a little confused by it all, I'm okay with that."

"I am too," Diana said. "In fact, I think it's kind of neat. With five of us, Bill will never get his way!"

"Or he'll have us all wrapped around his finger," Mary said.

"Our parents will kill us," Katherine predicted.

"The hair hasn't grown back yet?" Bill asked.

"She's getting follicle therapy, but so far it's not working and she's wearing a wig."

"So," Beverly said. "Here we are: a gorgeous woman in her prime, five not-quite as gorgeous but certainly lovely young ladies, and a young man who is either the luckiest person in history or the most doomed. What we want to know, Miss Chamberlain, is what really happened in Scotland."

"I've wanted to tell Bill before," Susan said. "I've been carrying everything around hoping I could. How much do you remember from that day?"

"Not much," Bill said.

"Do you remember the rabbit?" Mary asked.

"Rabbit?" Bill blinked at her.

"We believe Bill's body is new," Naomi said. "If that's true, then he may not have actually retained memories of his first few hours."

Susan took her backpack and placed it on the table. She removed a very large picture album, the shattered, twisted sword handle, the decorated stick, the smaller hand-written book, and finally Grams' hologram. She placed it on the floor and they all watched.

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Author's Responses:

First, I'd like to thank the following people for their reviews and comments:

Sharnorasian Empire; Helena; Sir Trib the Bold; Maximillian1; Isis the Sphinx; Roosterman71; Taure; rio45; gaul1; damon blade; cruailsama; Gogolu; Libri Ignis; SomeGuyFawkes; Chrisgocountyjr (clever--I liked that show); GinaStar; Debbster21; Obsidius; dajohu; D.J.J.L.D.H.B.'M-PC'7th Steve (yes, even you), dragonlord; kb0; prudiisten; Midoriryu; Pointer3109; immortal7; Tilius; JEKrug01; Tilius; OrionTheHunter; Ryan Chessman aka Crys; Wonderbee31; impatientuser; arturus; Sam74au; GinnyLover14; Manus Dei; jenstarfire; Michae1ange1o; starboy454; idlejim; Katsuhito; and Rylia.

Thank you all for your reviews and comments, good and bad. I appreciate it.

Now for Questions and Ansers:

Q: Good God Man, PLEASE use *FORUMS* to communicate, and to ask and answer questions about your story. You have been around here long enough to know that.

A: Until such time as the administrators of this site formally update the guidelines and TOS to specifically forbid authors from having the courtesy to respond to reviewers in posts, which I assure you they have not done, then this is the method by which I will communicate. I tried forums once before and nothing came of it. It you wish to use the forums I have established, I will be glad to respond in kind. As for your issues with TEXT-2-SPEECH, I'm very sorry but please do not think I am writing this for you. As harsh or as rude as it may sound, I am not. I am writing stories that I want to see and read, and then I share them with others who might also want to read them. How you choose to read them, or even if you choose to read them at all, is entirely your responsibility and prerogative. Again, I'm not saying this to be mean or combative. This is just the way it is. Again, if the site changes its TOS or guidelines to require something else, I will consider changing accordingly.

Q:Also, this paracortex thing, is this the first step in science being able to identify and quantify magic itself? Would be interesting if it did, as it seems to be a rather mysterious force in harry potterland.

A: I can't believe I'm pulling a George Lucas, but I'm attempting to take the approach of how Starfleet would describe magic (just like the prequals tried to scientifically describe the Force). The Books make a point of distinguishing magic users as being different than muggles. And so I've taken the step of describing how. They are a separate species entirely that emerged from humans through evolution. Nothing canon in it, it's just the way I've approached the story.

Q: Hope you don't mind that I skipped [the sex scene] once I realized how detailed you were going to get.

A: Not at all. That was actually a bit of my concern. I'm not sure that level of detail was needed. The morning after scene was a little more toned down, and I don't intend it getting any worse.

Q: Um, please translate: Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

A: I could answer your question but to do so might reveal essential plot points. But the points excite me into an evil laugh.

Q: You treat Harry as animals now. Basic desires and such. Please add intellect to the mix.

A: I'm not sure I see it that way, but I think I understand where you're coming from. It will change.

Q: If in fact the genetic component was always present (squibs) and contact with Harry/Bill 'woke up' or generated their Magical cores, would it not be a relatively simple matter for Starfleet Medical (or starfleet intelligance/section 31 who care much less about ethics) to track down other squibs who register similar genetic drift and have been overlooked so far because no one knew it was significant?

A: Hmmm...maybe. Can't say more than that.

Q: What's with the bitchiness between "Beverly" and "Kathryn"? This hardly seems in character. They are both too professional and intelligent to snipe that way, and why would they be antagonistic anyway?

A: Excellent question! Kathryn is deeply, angrily bitter about being moved from essentially commanding the whole fleet, to commanding the sciences division. The move guarantees that she can never move up again, and so she's hit the pinnacle of her career. But she is completely alone. Beverly is bitterly angry that when Kathryn was promoted, she was promoted over a senior and vastly more deserving Jean Luc Picard, which made the man retire from Starfleet. In the end, they actively despise each other. That said, my goal was not to make Janeway OOC. The bitter older woman from the end of the series who violated all the rules to save her younger self gave hints that she had this in her.

Q: Will Starfleet mistake Bill as a Q?

A: While there is a mild comparison made by Chief (Now Professor) O'Brien, they do not make that mistake.

Q: Will Harry and his "mates" travel off world to say either Vulcan or Betazed to investigate the similarities in their brains?

A: That is discussed toward the end.

Q: So, how quickly will this one be posted in its entirety?

A: Twenty-four chapters, one post a week. This is chapter twelve, so thirteen more weeks. Although, I'm playing with the idea of combining chapters 13 and 14, since one of them is very short.

Thanks for the feedback regarding the sex-scene. It was mixed--some liked it, some didn't. I'm still unsure, but I've posted it and I rarely go back to a story once it's finished.

Well, things are moving. If I combine the next two chapters, then that will leave us with Bill's full memory the next chapter after.

Thanks for reading!