Wednesday came to quick. Alice woke Sylvia up with a solemn smile and helped her get ready. Dressing her in a formal black dress that fell to her knees a pair of cut up stockings that ended just above her cast on one leg with a long dark navy blue coat and a dark grey scarf. "there we go" Alice smiled down at her work. "It's not a funeral so you can have some colour in there".

"This is okay right, Alice?" Sylvia asked fitting the crutches under her arms looking up at the older girl, "like this isn't rude that I'm going, right?"

"How could you possibly be rude Sylvi?" Alice laughed as she helped the child out of her room and down the stairs. "Just because you don't remember them doesn't make them any less important, they were still your family don't forget that"

Sylvia could only nod in reply. She briefly considered telling Alice about the human family she had also forgotten but nerves stole the words from her mouth so instead resorted to chanting 'do this for Amelia' in her mind as she descended the stairs for breakfast. 'Do this for Amelia.'

Eventually, Jill was knocking on the door dressed in a long dark coat and dress pants that only made her appear taller. Her face held a solemn smile matching the one's Alice and the rest of the Cullen's sent Sylvia's way. Sylvia had trouble feeling anything other than uncomfortable. All this talk about her dead 'family' was creating an itch in her mind she couldn't quite reach, her brain was grasping again for images she didn't understand. If she focused on them hard enough she could almost make out a lady standing across a road in a sea of red but she couldn't be sure making her mad. These imaged she couldn't make out were getting quite annoying so to push this particular one aside Sylvia returned to nervously chanting 'do this for Amelia' in her head.

Before walking out the door Edward caught her shoulder gently and bent down to whisper quietly in her ear, "Amelia would be grateful". He then gave her a reassuring smile and waved her out the door.

.

Not much was said on the painfully long drive to Juneau. Jill tried her best to be joyful, she explaining as unemotionally as one could about what to expect at the memorial, what they were expected to do and what was going to happen. It was an informal gathering of friends at the Jones old house where each close family member (or in this case friend) will say a little something, usually poems and quotes from various books and people. Jill explained how she had already spoken to the family running the event and explained Amelia's situation to them. Jill said they were overjoyed that she was okay and promised to make sure she was not bothered too much. This made Sylvia feel a great deal better but not enough to be able to sit comfortably on the drive down south, the idea of paying respects to a family she should know but didn't made her skin crawl.

.

They arrived 10 minutes late and the road was already packed forcing Jill to park two streets down. The house was even worse. It was a small building packed full of sad faces from friends young and old remembering the good old times, everyone was dressed in dark clothes and young children weaved their way among the adults' legs blissfully unaware of the event purpose.

The house wasn't familiar at all and neither were the people in it, making Sylvia feel even more like an intruder to this sad event than she did in the car. Jill held her shoulder firmly as they made their way through the crowd looking for a lady named Maddie (Mary- Amelia's mums best friend) who was organising the event and the one Jill had spoken to over the phone. They didn't make it half way through the house however when Sylvia was collided into by a girl her age who was almost sobbing.

"Amelia I'm so glad you're okay" the girl choked out as she clung to Sylvia, who just stood there shocked, losing hold of her crutches in the process.

The interaction was almost over as soon as it began as an older lady pried the new girl away from Sylvia begging her to be gentle. "I'm so sorry Amelia, Emily has just been very worried about you" she spoke hugging the child, "ahh you must be Jill" The lady extended her hand to the tall woman who was currently preoccupied bent down making sure her charge was still able to stand and walk.

Gently handing back the crutches to Sylvia Jill smiled wide and took the woman's hand "and you must be Maddie, thank you for inviting us".

"No, it's my pleasure, thank you for bringing Amelia back down to see us again" the woman then bent down to her distraught child telling her to run and find her father, which she did without looking up. "how are you feeling dear" the woman turned to the slowly panicking Sylvia once the girl named Emily had left. "You probably don't know who I am, do you? I'm sorry, I'm Maddie I was friends with your mum."

Sylvia tentatively took her hand and shook it with care, "nice to meet you I'm Syl- Amelia…" she caught herself just in time and let her head drop in shame, she shouldn't be here.

Maddie gave a shocked look but pushed it aside, "it's good to see you safe, we've all missed you."

They all eventually made their way outside to the slightly less crowded back yard and Sylvia was given a seat. Maddie then began introducing her husband and the relentless stream of friends that begun crowding around giving their condolences. Sylvia felt quite strange with the whole affair, seated in a circle of adults who were desperately trying to get her attention and trying to wish her luck and happiness. 'Is this what it was like to be a queen?' she thought while wishing herself that they would all go away. Eventually, the official ceremonies begun and her adoring crowd was forced to disperse.

The event ran just like Jill had explained, everyone stood in fount a large tree in the yard and listened to an endless stream of poems, anecdotes and stories from friends of the family, some school mates of Amelia's siblings stood and said a few words, and Maddie spoke fondly of going to college and living with Mary. Finally, it was all over and Jill made a move to stand when Emily, the girl from before came up again and looked deeply into Sylvia's eyes.

"Um Amelia, do you really not remember me at all?" she asked fiddling with her dress.

"Sorry no, it's nice to meet you, however" Sylvia extended her hand, faking a smile. It wasn't nice to meet Emily, not at all. She kept calling her Amelia -a name she was Quickly detesting- and Sylvia hoped dearly that once this day was over she would never have to be called it again. It made her feel sick, like an imposter, and she hated it. Emily though only looked at her stunned.

"Why do you sound so funny" the girl scrunched up her nose in confusion.

"What you do mean" Sylvia looked to Jill for help but saw the lanky woman had found herself some adults to chatter with and wasn't paying her any attention. Groan.

"I don't know, it's just not like you" the girl swayed in contemplation "hey say garage" Sylvia complied saying like she normally would when Emily almost started laughing. "Why'd you say it like that"

"Like what" Sylvia was getting mad at this, but tried to stay calm, 'do this for Amelia' her mind chanted but the phrase was quickly losing meaning.

"like GARR-arge" Emily sounded out the word emphasising Sylvia's apparent mistake giggling to herself. "I think you hit your head too hard". The girl got her to say a series of other words, some extracting thunderous laughs from the child others not too much. It wasn't until it was getting dark that Jill finally said it was time to head home and pulled Sylvia away from the aggravating situation.

.

On the drive home after getting pizza and ice-cream in town Sylvia asked Jill.

"Do I sound funny"

"Who told you that"

"Emily, she kept making me say words and then laughing when I said them different to her"

Jill was quiet for a moment wondering on how to word this appropriately. "Well dear I'm not sure where you get it from but you do have a slightly Australian accent?"

"Australian? What's that" Jill just laughed as she begun explaining to the little girl what countries were and how people from different places said things in different ways.

Sylvia was fast asleep by the time they made it up to the house in the hills and Jill handed back custody to Carlisle and Esme who carried her into the house to bed. Jill simply smiled looking at the love in Esme's eyes as she held the child in her arms. 'Amelia's going to be just fine' she thought as she got in her car and drove away.

…

Carlisle sat looking over Sylvia's brain scans and blood tests desperately trying to spot something he had previously missed. The child was unusual to say the least and the three short days she had spent with the family proved she was even more so. Her unfortunate amnesia was the cause for a great deal of her peculiarity. It stripped away her general knowledge leaving her completely incapable of understanding sarcasm or sayings, unable to see past the literal meaning of a sentence. She had particular difficulty with idioms when Esme commented that it was 'raining cats and dogs' Sylvia was frightened into racing to the window expecting to see actual cats and dogs falling from the sky as opposed to lots of rain. Her amnesia had also affected some more obvious aspects of her memory, she was completely unable to read or write, her history and geography were also all but non-existent. For these reasons, Esme had insisted on home schooling the child for a few months so she wouldn't get bullied for being in special classes.

However, Sylvia's behaviour extended past what her amnesia could explain. She was mostly quiet lacking the natural enthusiasm most children her age possessed, but when she did speak it was almost always confusing or unsettling reminding everyone constantly that she knew more than any human should. She wore gloves when handling paper to avoided cuts, she never ran about the house or tried to play like normal kids, her eyes would go glossy when handling books and photographs and never volunteered to spend time alone with any member of the family besides Carlisle himself. Some might take this for nervousness being surrounded by new people but it was the way she instinctively avoided Jasper over the rest of the family, giving him bright smiles and warm waves from across the room to interact, whispering her good nights to him and hugging Alice as little as she could to "not make his wife smell like a human".

These were all things Jasper was overly grateful for but they made the rest of the family suspicious. Rosalie more so than the others had been outwardly rude to the poor child confronting her constantly as to the origins of her unusual knowledge. Sylvia would always smile and reply the same "I read it in a book once". When Esme asked if she was okay with the way Rosalie was treating her Sylvia responded with more maturity than any child should possess "I know she doesn't hate me, she's just trying to keep me safe in the best way she knows".

Carlisle was convinced that she could not possibly be normal, or at least of sound mind and had spent the morning since Sylvia left for Juneau to study her medical records paying meticulous attention to the brain scan they took while she was still in her coma from the crash. He could find nothing particularly interesting despite the bruising on her brain caused by accident and the result of her amnesia. Frowning the Dr pushed aside his papers and placed his head in his hands for a rest. Edward said that Sylvia fully believed that it was merely a book where she attained her information about the family but aside from that had been rather secretive about what she was thinking. Her book excuse was a possibility Carlisle found to be unacceptable, no book about his family's past or future could possibly exist, especially not one so detailed or one that was handed to a normal 8-year-old. Carlisle suspected that her strange knowledge was only the product of something more unsettling something out of this realm but he didn't know what. Jasper, as always preparing for the worst had proposed that maybe she was being used as a tool by another coven to try and separate them or gain information. That idea also seemed unlikely, they had no real enemies or none that would go to such lengths to use a human child.

There was also her impeccable patience. He first noticed it at the hospital, catching glimpses of her simply sitting at the end of her bed swinging her legs and swaying with a non-existed breeze. She was waiting. For what Carlisle wasn't sure, he didn't know if she was aware of what she was doing. But he could not find anything sinister in her still, unrelenting patience it was only unsettling to watch her live in this purgatory. More so now considering how attached his wife was becoming to the child. First Esme loved the human for the smiles she was able to coax out of Edward but now she was beginning to love her simply for herself and that was dangerous. Carlisle already feared that Esme's attachment to the human was much too strong that if this bizarre girl turned out to be dangerous like Jasper proposed it would be almost impossible to ignore his wife's devotion and remove the child from their lives easily. He only wished he made the right decision by bringing her into their lives and hoped what she was waiting for wouldn't harm his family. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his office door, it was Rosalie.

"Come in" Carlisle called, and the girl entered her face cautious and shameful, "what's the matter, dear".

Taking a seat from across his desk looking down she spoke, "do you think it would be okay if Emmet and I went and spent a few days with Tanya?" Although he expected some of his family would want to go and spend a few days with their cousins he had assumed it would be Jasper and Alice who would leave first, but to his credit, Jasper was putting a great deal of strength into being around the child as much as possible. Even if his intentions for doing so was to watch a possible threat, Carlisle was still proud.

"You know I can't stop you, but I do want to know your reasoning"

"I just, I need to get my thoughts together, having a human here isn't… I just need time to think, okay. The girl is way too strange it's unsettling, but I don't want to make her hate me so maybe if I go away then she can forget I was so mean and…"

"You know she doesn't hate you Rose" Carlisle sighed leaning back in his chair, "but if you need time I believe she will understand, she knows you way better than you think she does"

Rosalie stood immediately slamming her hands down dangerously hard on his mahogany desk he gave her a sharp warning look but she ignored him. "That's the problem! She knows me too well she knows all of us to well. You know she asked Emmet the other day if it was appropriate to refer to him as a bear since that was the same way he died! I don't understand…" She slumped down into her chair again looking at the hand marks she left in Carlisle's desk "sorry".

Pushing papers over to cover the hand prints he turned to his distraught daughter. "Desks are replaceable, people and the experiences you have with them are not, spend a few days up with Tanya but please do come back, Esme will be distraught if you leave for too long"

"Thank you, Carlisle, we'll leave immediately" Rosalie made a move to stand again.

"make sure you say good bye to Esme before you go" Rose nodded and left the office allowing Carlisle to go back to desperately scanning over Sylvia's papers vainly hoping for something new to jump out at him.

#####

There we go, I hope it didn't get too messy at the end there. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a review.

Anyway, thanks and see you in the next one!