Disclaimer: I own none of it, except those characters that are original. You'll be able to figure out which ones those are. The only thing I own is a desire to own a certain member of the crew...who shall remain namless...

A/N: Be gentle, this is my first fic of this type. I'm trying my hardest to keep everyone in character. Hell, I've even taped episodes as research. All I ask is that those of you who read this tell me if I am messing up any of the characters, and give me advice on how to fix them. And now, a few notes: Other than the title, anything in bold is a flashback. Italics are dreams. Flames are welcome if they give constructive criticism. Outright insults are not. Enjoy the story.

Chapter One: The Visitor

The young woman had come into the building through the front, and had stopped at the front desk to make her inquiry. She had been directed to the second floor, and there she had gone. Now she was waiting patiently outside of the office she had been searching for, in one of the chairs that stood outside the door.

She had been waiting for nearly an hour now, and her mind drifted back to another time in her life, a time when she again had been waiting for someone. The moment she had dreaded, but knew it would eventually come. A moment that she could not forget...

"Don't worry Lauren," her sister said. "He'll come over here soon. If he doesn't, I'll be forced to do him bodily harm."

"Willa, please!" Lauren said, a look of panic on her face. "I hope to God none of his friends heard you say that."

They were in the largest ballroom of the local hotel. It was the annual school formal, and they were sitting in chairs that had been set up on one end of the room. Lauren Scarlett and her sister Willa had come there that night with their closest friends: Dora Johansen; Christopher, Alex, & John Scarlett (Lauren and Willa's cousins); and Wesley Crusher. The latter had disappeared into the crowd about half an hour before (by Alex's watch), promising Lauren a dance, and had not returned.

"Lauren," Alex said, feeling bad for his youngest cousin. "You want me to go find him?"

"NO!" said the 14-year-old loudly. "I know what you'll do. You and Chris and John will end up dragging him outside and kicking his ass. That won't happen, not tonight." Willa, a year older, punched Alex in the arm before turning to her sister and trying to convince her that there was no way her cousins would do what she had imagined.

Another half-hour passed, and Lauren was now sitting alone. Her cousins had gone off to dance with their girlfriends, and Willa herself had gone to the restroom. Lauren was getting rather impatient, when she saw Drew Halloway, a friend of Wesley's, approach her with his face set grimly.

"What's up Drew?" Lauren asked, starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Um, I have something to tell you," he said, wishing that the person who gave him the message had the balls to tell the girl himself. "This is not gonna end well," he thought to himself. "This is definitely gonna come back to bite Crusher in the ass one day."

"Well, what is it?"

Drew took in a deep breath before delivering his message. "Um, I'm really sorry about this Lauren. Please don't hate me for telling you this, ok?" When Lauren nodded, looking rather confused, he continued. "Um, Wesley wanted me to tell you that he's not going to make it over here tonight. He met up with Delia Thomas and completely forgot. He says he's really sorry." Drew didn't dare look at Lauren as he relayed his friend's message, but he did when he had finished. He wished he hadn't. Lauren was looking down at her skirt, and appearing for all the world like she was going to start crying.

Instead, she looked up at Drew and said, "Thank you for telling me the truth, Drew. I really appreciate it." She then stood up and began to walk away, but she stopped and turned to Drew once more.

"If Willa asks where I went, tell her I went home," she said sadly. "Tell him the same thing if him and my cousins ask, but tell them I wasn't feeling well. In fact, tell Willa that too. I'll explain it to her when she comes home."

Lauren turned back to the door and walked away, taking short notice of a tall boy with brown hair who looked at her as she left. When she was safely out of the hotel, she began running home, crying as she ran.

Lauren shook herself out of her memory, not wanting to continue it. It had been one of the worst days in her life. She played with the small gold pin on her shirt absentmindedly, wishing that she still had her necklace. But she had given it to Wesley the day she and her family left, to remember her by. In return, he had given her a gold pin he had found when they were 7 years old. She didn't know why she had done it, really. The move took place a week after the dance, and the friendship between the two 14-year-olds had been strained at best since then. She guessed that she did it as a sort of peace treaty, to let him know she forgave him. What if her efforts would turn out to be in vain? The two of them hadn't spoken since the day she left, and in the seven years between that day and the present, she had only heard once from him and his mother. Well, really only his mother. She had sent a message to Lauren, Willa, and their family after their grandmother had passed away, and in it, she updated the family on her and Wesley's current situation.

It was from that letter that Lauren discovered that Dr. Crusher had gone to work for Starfleet Medical, and that Wesley had become a Traveller. Lauren knew that going to Starfleet Medical was a long shot, but she figured that it was worth a shot.

She was just debating whether to leave and not return, when the door opened, and a voice said, "Miss, Dr. Crusher will see you now."