A/N: This is a character I created for the Downton Abbey universe, who ends up in the Crawley's custody after Emily loses most of her family. This story is based on a dream I had that featured this character so I decided to write it down. Just note that I will also be including Jack and Rose from Titanic in this story, but not in the way you might be expecting. I know that it will require a big suspension of disbelief, but those of you who are willing to do so, I hope you enjoy it.
Emily Atkinson was born on a cold winter morning in Nova Scotia Canada just a few days before Christmas. She was considered a Christmas miracle by her parents because as soon as she took her first breath, fresh snow began to fall around their small sea-side home. She was born the first and only daughter of the Atkinson household, who enhanced their already prestigious family name by creating a small fortune through constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway. Emily grew up under the protection of her big brother Marius and lived around the coast, spending many happy hours learning to swim, sail, and running along the sand.
When war broke out in 1914, Emily said goodbye to her brother as he was shipped overseas as part of the battalion. During the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Marius was reported MIA in battle. Grief-stricken by the loss of her big brother, Emily suffered terribly as did her parents for quite a long time losing a significant member of their family. When Spanish Flu broke out in 1918, Emily suffered two more tragic losses when both her parents succumbed to the disease. She personally believes that their grief over Marius weakened them to the pandemic. Emily then became the sole heir to her parents' estate. However, due to her father failing to update his will, his desire to split the estate equally between his children being seen as bizarre, Emily's young age, and one-half of children presumed deceased, the money went to the next, very distant male relative, leaving Emily with very little and a broken heart. She was then sent to Ontario to live with her grandmother for several years until her grandmother passed on of old age.
A section of her father's will was read and Emily found out she would be moving to England as her father had fought in the Spanish Wars and befriended a man named Robert Crawley. The two kept in touch over the years, attended each other's weddings, and maintained a strong fellowship ever since. Emily was to be put under the family's care if anything should happen to her immediate family.
The girl reluctantly went overseas to meet a house of complete strangers who were to be her new family. It was hard at first being in a strange new land, but soon Emily began to love the Crawleys, especially the youngsters in the house.
To her great shock, her brother Marius reappeared having been living in France and struggling with amnesia all these years. He was now married and had a family on the way. Emily was angry and upset at first, but she eventually came around to embracing her brother again despite his absence. Marius and Collette were welcomed into the family.
With Collette's due date approaching, Marius and his wife came to Downton for a visit, only for Marius to be arrested and charged with murder and rape. Several years back, Emily's brother had come to England while on leave in the army and ended up in bed with a dead prostitute with no memory of how he got there. The fierce Atkinson daughter worked desperately to help free her brother because due to his amnesia and blackouts, he cannot create an alibi for himself. Taking the issue to court, Emily managed to acquire the evidence that the prostitute had heart problems and the results of the autopsy to free her brother, just in time as Collette gave birth to twins.
Emily, Marius, Collette, Jacob, and Joy now live happily in England as Emily begins to expand her horizons and search for a potential suitor herself.
However, this bliss is all about to change...
I do not own any of the Downton Abbey characters, aside from the ones that I have created. All rights go to the creators Julian Fellowes and PBS.