A/N: Sinclair, the name of the town in this story as well as the title, doesn't actually exist (at least to the best of my knowledge). I made it up. Where exactly it would be, I don't know. I was thinking rural Northern Idaho, but that might just because that's where I grew up. This story contains outright references to child abuse, underage substance abuse, and a hint at death. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I do not own Twilight, but Anna St. Johns, the entire town of Sinclair, and its other residents belong to me. This project is my baby, so to speak. Please ask before commandeering.

Sinclair

Chapter 1

Savannah "Anna" St. Johns had gone crazy. Or at least that she was very fucked up. Why else would she be covered in bruises and not fully remember how they got there? Her head hurt like it had been stepped on, almost as if she had a hangover, but she didn't have access to alcohol whenever her father left to go hunting. There was no way she had gotten drunk last night. It wasn't like she had any friends to get drunk with anyway…

Loud, migraine-inducing snoring forced her into alertness. Her father, Rex, must have come home last night. It would explain the bruises and the dump on her head. He had never hit her to the point where she blacked out before, though. It looked like she was going to have to skip school (again) until the swelling went down.

Not that anyone at Sinclair High School would notice. Sinclair was a small but rich town, and most of its residents were too absorbed in their own lives to do more than laugh at her clothes. That wouldn't be so sad if Anna's family hadn't money once too. Her mother was a descendant of the one of the founders. She had disappeared when Anna was five and Rex had gone crazy.

He sold most of the old Sinclair family estate, keeping only the original cabin. They lived entirely off the land, the only contact with the outside world happening when Anna went to school. That occurred irregularly. Anna had been held back twice now, making her the oldest student in the freshman class.

She didn't look sixteen, though. She had barely grown since she was in elementary school and she practically swam in the clothes she stole from the lost and found. It didn't matter how she looked, of course. Even if she was healthy, nobody cared. Nobody cared about you if you didn't have money. In Sinclair, money spoke louder than words.

Anna stood, having no more than a sweatshirt for a pillow and a small blanket for a bed, and went outside to wash up in the creek. It proved to be raining hard enough that most of the dirt and dried blood would wash off before she got to school, so she quickly changed her mind and went back inside.

She had fallen asleep in her jeans and tank top, so all she did was pull on her sweatshirt and slip on her ratty old boots. Since it was near winter, she knew her fingers would likely be blue before she got to the school but she had to get to class before homeroom. Leaving before sunrise was essential.

Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale stood at the entrance to Mr. Karlin's classroom, Jasper not breathing and Alice looking nervously up and down the hall, as if waiting for someone.

Mr. Karlin stepped out of the classroom to glare at the duo. "Cullen, Hale, you are not freshmen. What the hell are you doing in this hallway before homeroom?"

Alice spoke, her musical voice showing her complete confidence in her vision of today's events. "We're waiting for Anna."

"I don't make an effort to learn students' first names, Cullen. You'll have to elaborate."

"Savannah St. Johns."

Mr. Karlin shook his head. "St. Johns has not been in homeroom for two weeks, Cullen. I'm beginning to hope she's died." His tone was completely serious.

"She'll be here, Mr. Karlin. I assure you."

As if on cue, a thoroughly soaked, albeit cleaner, Anna ran into the building. She winced a little as she ran, gently rubbing her side, but managed to reach the freshman hall before the warning bell. She didn't speak as she skidded to a stop beside the door. She put her hand to her chest and Alice looked meaningfully at Jasper.

Without apparent warning, Anna crumpled into Jasper's waiting arms like a rag doll.

Dr. Carlisle Cullen had seen many cases of abuse in his few hundred years as a doctor, but little Savannah St. Johns was quite high on his list of worst cases ever. She had been unconscious for nearly five hours and her entire body was covered in varying ages of bruises and cuts. One of her ribs and been broken within the past twenty-four hours. She had a concussion and severe malnutrition. The worst part was her scars. This had been going on for years.

Luckily, she was breathing on her own.

Her heartbeat was irregular enough that he called for an emergency echocardiograph without needing to explain himself. Alice had warned him that Anna had some sort of heart defect. If it really was the case, she was in no condition to be wheeled into open heart surgery.

She stirred, eyes widening in shock. With a string of profanities no girl should know, she tried to get off the bed. "Pa's going to kill me!" she said in a surprisingly out of place, but faint, Southern accent.

Carlisle couldn't find a part of her body without a bruise on it, so he spoke without restraining her. "You are in the hospital, Miss St. Johns. No one is going to hurt you here."

"He says hospitals are the places where the devils work!"

Given his status as a vampire, Carlisle nearly laughed at the small girl's statement. Instead, he said, "That most certainly explains your lack of hospital records."

"What's gonna happen to me now, mister? You're not gonna get my Pa, are ya?"

"We're working on finding him, Miss St. Johns. You still have a lot of healing to do, so we are going to put you under with some sedatives. Do you know what that means?"

She bit her lip, thinking for nearly two minutes. "I'm going to be asleep for a while…"

"Yes, you are. Now, do you know if you have any illnesses?"

"I don't know, but sometimes, in gym, my heart feels like it's going to beat right outta me."

"All right. I'm going to go out in the hallway to speak to some nurses. If you need anything, press that little red button."

She barely managed a nod.

Carlisle was practically jump by the town social worker when he entered the hallway. "What are thinking, Dr. Cullen?" she demanded. "You've got the only surviving descendant of the founding family in there and you're telling me it's abuse?"

"It doesn't matter whose family she belongs to, Miss Rogers," Carlisle replied. "There is a sixteen year old girl in my hospital. She is covered in bruises and scars and appears to have taken a boot to the head. Abuse is the only answer. Now, if you'll excuse me, she needs to be put in a comma so she might, by some miracle, survive."

"Might?" the woman practically roared. "Are you telling me…?"

"That if I worked at the police department, I would have Mr. St. Johns arrested for attempted murder. Yes. Now, please excuse me. I need to have a word with the cardiologist."

"We don't have any foster families in the county trained to take care of someone with medical problems," she called to his retreating back. "What am I supposed to do?"

Since it was a Friday and the impending death of a classmate had little effect on them, Alice, Rosalie, Nessie, and Bella all decided to go shopping, Bella somewhat hesitantly. Sinclair had a very nice mall, full of pricey clothes. Alice, for the first time in a long time, went to one of the children's stores.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked. "No one in the family needs children's clothes."

"Anna's really small," Alice said. "Smaller than I am, in fact. I'd have things custom made, but that would make her nervous."

"Anna?" Bella asked, since she hadn't been in school that morning. "Who's Anna?"

"We're in study hall together." Nessie smiled at her mother, placing her hand on the side of her face. "See?"

The image of the pale, redheaded girl with a dirty face and flat blue eyes surprised Bella to the point that she nearly jumped. "She's in high school?"

"She's sixteen," Alice said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "She's so small because her heart is barely strong enough to pump blood, let alone help her grow."

"She's dying, isn't she?" Rose asked.

"She needs a transplant," Alice explained. "But she's not going to get it. One of us is going to save her. I think it's going to be Esme, but I'm not sure."

"Are you sure?"

"I see it nearly every time I search the future. It'll be a few weeks before she comes to live with us and about a year until she is changed."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rose practically screamed.

"If Jasper and I hadn't been in front of Mr. Karlin's room this morning, she would have hit her head on the floor and died. I wasn't entirely sure if he was going to let us stand out there and wait for her."

"And Carlisle and Esme are okay with this?"

"Esme doesn't know yet. Carlisle will have it figured out by the end of his shift. Trust me. Nothing bad is going to happen."