Yelak- oh dear. You think it twists now? Just you wait until you're done with this one. lol. I'm glad you like it so far.

Blue Leah- Um, in a way yes. I tried to straighten that out for you in this chapter. Hope it's not too confusing.

Blood Angel- I tried to email you but it wouldn't show up. stupid Anyway, you always give me great reviews. Thank you. And Dylan will be here. He'll be mentioned quite a lot actually. But for plot purposes I shall say nothing. lol

Sloan Miette- you will find out about the "wacko" this chapter. lol

Lindsay- I'm so sorry you're confused! I hope it will clear up for you eventually.

melissa- I'm sorry about the translations. I suck at Italian and the traslator sucks too. lol.

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"Well, let's try to catch you up, yes?"

Marco shifted uneasily and signaled for the two of them to sit on the end of the bed, throwing a shielded glance over their shoulders to the two in the corner who had yet to say anything at all. He'd need to ask about them later.

The first to speak was Ellie as she situated herself atop the white bedspread and wiggled around excitedly. "What do you want to know first?"

"Oh, I guess everything. It's a little crazy right now." Marco said, giggling slightly. Ellie had changed her demeanor completely, going from hysterical to bubbly in a few seconds time. He didn't mind, it was just hard to get used to. And if he was completely honest with himself (something he was avoiding at the moment) he'd even say that he enjoyed the company of this more emotionally revealing Ellie than the bland, watered down girl he had known in his mind.

"There's one thing that's throwing me off. In my world...er, my head I mean, you were there...." Marco said, stopping short and glancing up at the girl with a confused expression. "But, El, you were so different. Nothing like what you are here."

She quickly looked down at her folded knees and Marco caught the movement of her hands, like she was pretending to pop a rubber band over her wrist. Perhaps not everything was so different. "Did you like me better there?"

Her voice sounded so sad, and yet again, Marco was amazed by her abrupt shift in emotions, though still mad that he had upset her at all. He reached forward, grabbing her hands in his and making sure she made eye contact with him before he spoke. "No, no. You were just different. There....there you were so quiet and you never cried." He cocked his head to the side and sighed tiredly, as if realizing something. "You didn't smile all that much either."

Ellie smiled one of those smiles in his direction and squeezed his hands, nudging his nana with her elbow and earning a smile in return. On que, the elderly woman pitched in. "Ellie was like that...until she met you."

Marco looked suitably surprised and begged for them to tell him the story. And Ellie complied, bubbly as ever..

"You'd just come to school in grade ten, and I liked you immediately. We were friends for quite awhile. I guess you could say we fell for each other due to less than desirable circumstances." A sad smile gave her away, and Marco knew they would need a conversation about this comment later. Smiling encouragingly at her in return she sighed and continued.

"Then we started dated. One night, we went upstairs and when I tried to kiss you I could tell you were put off." Nana started giggling next to her and the woman recieved raised eyebrows from every other person in the room. Two in Marco's case. The nana in his head was quiet, never speaking, and stern, but at the same time he sensed something inately the same about her. Seeing her giggling like a smitten school girl was quite a sight, though not one he minded.

"Anyway, insane Nana aside, that night you told me you might be gay and ever since then we have been the best of friends." Now Marco grew hesitant.

"Have...have I ever dated anyone else, El?"

Ellie's eyes grew very very sad and she shook her head slowly. No Dylan here. Numbness was spreading from his fingers outward. There was no Dylan here. NO, his mind screamed.

Nana saw their expressions and she jumped up immediately. "I think we should probably leave and let Marco sleep more, yes?" Ellie nodded and, after a moment's hesitation, crawled forward on her hands and knees, kissing Marco's forehead and then his nose, making the dead feeling in his stomach stop short and slowly turn warm. What would he have done if Ellie had never been there? Here or anywhere else?

"I'll see you later, hun." Marco watched as she shifted off the bed, looking very much like a cat, and then walked over to the other four in the corner. He watched as Sean lifted an arm and placed it over her shoulders and kissed her temple. Atleast that hadn't changed. Sean was good for her in his world, and he didn't doubt he was just as great for her mental state here. Sean also threw an arm around the other girl's shoulders, and whispered something in her ear that made her smile tiredly at him.

"Wait!" They all stopped and stared back at him. "Sorry, it's just. I-" Marco stopped and smiled at the brunette girl. "I never got to meet you."

She beemed at Sean, as if saying "I told you so" and disentangled herself from his arm, walking over to the bed and hugging him tightly. "I was afraid you wouldn't remember me," she whispered. "I'm Bryce." She stepped back and through an endearing look over at Ellie. "I met you through El there almost three years ago."

"Three years ago? How is that possible?"

Nana looked at him strangely, but walked forward to sit on his bed again. "What do you mean, caro?"

"Well....I've only been at Degrassi for two years." The strange looks grew almost comical at that.

"Marco, you been here for three years. You're a grade twelve." Marco stared at his grandmother as if she had sprouted a new head. "What?"

"You're seventeen! You been at Degrassi for three years!" Oh. My. God.

"But....but I should atleast know that! I should remember Bryce! I-...I thought this was just amnesia! I thought everything up until the bashing was real!" Ellie rushed over and forced him to lie down, cooing nonsense in his ear. "Calm down, Marco. Just calm down."

"El- El, what's going on! Why can't I remember?! Mr. Vaughn never said anything about this!"

"Shh....you have to calm down. Typically, in these cases, the patient doesn't remember anything at all. Usually just people and places, maybe a few events. But usually, their life in general is taken away from them. You're a senior...and you've known all of us since then. Please, love, you've got to calm down."

Marco was still breathing very heavily and his eyes were still bouncing all over the room as if looking for an escape. Everything? Everything was gone? He'd thought perhaps the things before the bashing were all correct. Things he could go off of....but now he was wrong yet again. He was having to start over at the very freaking beginning. Start from scratch.

"I-...oh God. I think I need some time....and some sleep. I just...oh man." Ellie nodded and kissed his crown again, smoothing the hair back. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "I'll watch over you tonight. It's my turn anyway. I'll be here when you speak to Mr. Vaughn. Okay?"

Marco nodded so slightly it was almost unseen and Ellie climbed off of him, and the four left, leaving him to stare at the ceiling in a whirlwind of fear and uncertainty.

Everything was gone.

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It was dusk now. The room was thrown into a world of burnt oranges and yellows, the mellow golds sliding up his bedspread towards his limp hands that lay on top them. The door had been left open after they left and he felt calmer being able to listen to the steady stream of voices outside his room that seemed to match the warm atmosphere surrounding him.

They had left two hours ago and he'd never really fallen asleep. How could he? He also didn't think he'd ever cried this much in his life. He felt completely and utterly drained....from everything. And quite disgusting from not having a shower in what felt like weeks.

He had found time to get up and look at his mirror reflection at one point. He had had dried tear tracks all over his cheeks and his eyes were ringed in red. His hair had been a surprise, easily past his shoulders and making it's way down. Marco supposed being locked away in a room for four monthes would keep him from a haircut, but yuck!

He also noticed the sharp edges of maturity creeping up on his face around his jaw line, nose, and brow. He definitely looked older. And thinking back, he was amazed to find that the Ellie, Sean, and Nana he had seen earlier had also showed very subtle changes in their appearance, though he hadn't noticed at the time.

Ellie looked practically the same, though she had finished developing and had finally reached her adult height. The laugh lines around her eyes made Marco feel better, knowing that she seemed very happy in this world....though the tell tale lines from worry that were also apparent made him feel guilty.

Age had made the most affect on Sean, he noted. And, Marco thought, he looked much better for it. He had lost a lot of the baby fat he had once had and his face was definitely more angular than it had once been. He was taller and thinner, but also looked stronger than before. Marco wondered how he hadn't noticed, because now, the overall change hit him hard. Sean wasn't ugly...that was for sure.

Nana had changed too...but her being so old, one couldn't really tell. Her eyes gave her away. They looked as if they held so much more than they once did. More pain. More joy. More fun. Marco felt upset that he missed all the events that made her gaze at him in that fond way.

It wasn't fair! During his two hours of silence he had thought about a lot of things. Questions had been moving around his brain nonstop, and they were still zooming about just as unanswered as they had always been.

A soft knock on the door frame brought him out of his thoughts with a jolt, and he watched in something akin to relief as Mr. Vaughn walked into the room exuding the same fatherly charm he had earlier.

"Hello, Marco. Adjusting I hope?"

Marco yawned lazily, grimacing inwardly at the pop his jaw made. "Adjusting yes. Adjusting well? Not so much."

The doctor smiled down at him and took out his pen before beginning. "Eleanor called me a moment ago to tell me she would be here in a second. Would you like to-" Mr. Vaughn was cut off as a flurry of red ran into the room, harsh breathing filling the air.

"I'm here! Sorry! Nana's car was acting up."

"Quite alright Mrs. Nash. Come join us." Marco grinned softly and held out his hand in invitation for Ellie to sit beside him. Once she was seated and holding tightly on to his hand, the doctor turned to Marco.

"Ellie told me you got a bit of a surprise earlier?"

"Um, yes. The way you phrased it....I...I thought I'd only made up tiny bits and pieces...not the entire thing."

"Yes, I'm very sorry about that. It must be very hard for you to wrap your mind around all of this. Do you have any questions?" Marco shook his head no. "Alright then, I'll question you."

"Could you perhaps describe to me what Mrs. Nash was like in your world?"

Marco looked to Ellie and felt bad for the things he was going to say. "She was quiet. She never showed much emotion or anything like that. You hardly ever got to see her laugh and when you did you could tell she was holding back. I always got the feeling she was deathly afraid of being hurt, so she never allowed anyone to get close enough. I was always worried about her. Especially when she started to date Sean, because that was a lot to get used to for her."

With a deep breath he finally finished and stared down at their joined hands. He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a squeeze. Marco glanced up to see Ellie smiling at him. Perhaps he really had nothing to worry about. She'd baby step with him.

"Interesting. What about Mr. Cameron?" Oh. Strange.

"Well, we were never really close. I only knew him through Ellie really. He didn't seem to like me much, because Ellie was always around me instead of being alone with him. I don't know much about him."

"Hm." To Marco, that hm seemed to say a lot more than it should have. A look at Ellie told him it meant more too.

"And what of Mrs. Carmichael?"

"Huh?"

Ellie whispered to him. "That's Bryce."

"Oh, oh, uh, nothing. Nothing at all."

The questioning went on for the better of an hour. Marco didn't really see what the questions helped any. They were about people. His family was never mentioned, only his friends. The doctor hinted that friendships, often times, were remembered more easily.

He was asked to give a timeline of his life with the stupidest things included, like when he said his first words. A few times though, Ellie would muffle a sob behind her free hand, like something he remembered was heartbreaking.

The doctor finally left around seven, and nightfall was fast approaching, the sky turning slowly more and more purple as time progressed. Ellie was still looking down at him and holding his hand, mournfully playing with his hair in an absent minded manner.

"This is hard El," he whispered.

"I know," she replied, equally soft. "You want to talk about it?"

Marco sighed and kissed her hand. One thing had been bothering him. "Ellie, no one has yet to mention ma and pa. Have they been at work all this time?"

The second the words were out of his mouth he knew he never should have asked. No sooner had he finished his sentence had Ellie's face crumpled completely and she had dove her face into his chest. Marco could feel the hot tears soaking the hospital gown he was wearing and he felt like crying himself. This could not be good.

A muffled sob into his chest made him look down at her. "What?" She raised her tear stained face and kissed his forehead, still crying very hard.

"They're dead. Marco."

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Review! Pleeeeease.

Sorry about all the errors too. I'm in a hurry and about to walk out the door. It will be better next time.