A/N: Thanks again to my beta 'The Yankee Countess' and thanks to everyone who welcomed me to the Downton fandom!:-) The rest of this story will be a flashback of Sybil's life up to the 'accident'. Tom isn't in this chapter yet but he'll make an appearance soon, I promise! Can't comment on whether Sybil is going to live or not, sorry…

Chapter 1. The day it all began

A mind is a very strange phenomenon. You think you have control over it, but most times you don't. Very much like a stubborn child, a mind will go off on its own accord whenever it pleases, and grounding it doesn't always help.

Sybil's mind for example thought it best to take her back to the day that changed her life forever.

The shrill and urgent sound of a ringing telephone woke her up at 4 AM in the morning. Sybil groaned and threw a pillow over her head to drown out the noise. When the phone rang for the tenth time in less than four minutes, she finally answered.

"Sybil?" She heard her mom's worried voice ask from the other end of the line.

"Mom?" Sybil sat up straight, all thoughts of going back to sleep immediately forgotten. Her mom let out a somewhat distressed sigh.

"Oh Sybil" her mother whispered. "It's your father; he's had a heart attack….."

-Two weeks later-

There were too many clocks. Three were hanging on the wall above her head; one of them was a Cuckoo clock, which was not a very fitting name because the bird inside it whistled rather than made a 'Cuckoo' sound. A pair of old grandfather clocks guarded the entrance on both sides, and they somehow managed to look more menacing than any ordinary security guard ever could. After nearly 30 minutes in which she could only stare at the dull grey wall and listen to the ticking clocks, the notary finally sauntered into the lobby. "Miss Crawley?" he asked looking around as if she was far from the only person present.

Sybil rolled her eyes. "Here," she raised her right hand and nearly knocked one of the clocks down.

"Careful!" the notary yelped, shooting her a dirty look. Now Sybil remembered why she had always hated the coming here in the first place.

The notary combed a hand through his greying hair (or what was left of it), and pushed his obscenely red glasses further up his nose. "Step into my office, please," he rasped, leading the way.

The office was just as dull as the reception hall, just with fewer clocks. The walls were a boring brown, and in the middle of the tiny office stood a single mahogany desk with a computer and some cheap looking chairs placed around it.

"I'm terribly sorry for your loss Miss Crawley," the notary said as Sybil took the seat opposite the computer. He closed the door to his office, waddled over to the PC, and dropped himself behind it on the only comfortable looking chair in the room. "Thank you," Sybil murmured, politely.

"I gather none of the other family members were available today?" He gave her a disapproving look and Sybil knew exactly what he was thinking. Even Sybil herself had objected when her mother had urged her to be the one to go to the reading of her fathers will. Sybil and her father hadn't been on speaking terms for years and if her mom wouldn't go, at least one of her sisters could have. Yet her mom had insisted Sybil had to be the one to go and she was about to find out why.

"It seems your father has left everything to you," the notary said, fixing her with a stern look that said 'you had better not screw this up.' He pushed his square shaped glasses back up his nose and gave Sybil some time to consider.

"I'm s-sorry…" she stuttered. "Everything?"

Surly her dad wouldn't have been stupid enough to leave all his possessions to her. She could easily think of a handful of people much better prepared to take care of his dog, his house, and most of all the company.

His company.

"Everything," the notary confirmed. He rustled through some papers and pushed a few of them towards her side of the desk, along with a shiny brown pen. "I'd like the pen back," he said, eyeing her suspiciously. Obviously most of his clients liked to keep a little souvenir of their visit to his offices.

Sybil hesitated, still not sure what all of this meant. Why hadn't he left everything to her sisters, or mom, or even his new girlfriend?

"Of course you don't have to accept this inheritance," the notary said with a smug smile, as if he knew she was having doubts. Sybil had never liked her father's notary very much, but her dad always insisted he was the second most reliable man he had ever known. He had never told her who the first was.

"No, I'll accept it," Sybil replied with as much confidence as she could muster. She grabbed a hold of the slippery pen and brought her shaking hand down on the paper. After less than a minute, she had signed everything, making her the new CEO of Crawley Tech, a software development company in Dublin, Ireland.

"After your father's passing a temporary CEO was instated, who will take care of business until you are ready to make the journey and wrap everything up," the notary explained.

"Wrap everything up?" Was he implying she should sell the company or leave someone else in charge? Of course he was, and he was right, she had no experience whatsoever and she certainly didn't want to inherit anything in the first place! The sooner she took care of this, the better.

"Again my deepest condolences Miss Crawley," the notary said with a sad note to his voice. He gathered all the papers and folded them into a neat stack. "Your father was a great man." There it was again. She had lost count of how many people had said that to her over the last two weeks. She gave the notary a polite nod and left his office with a mixture of fear and resentment.

As she neared the ever menacing grandfather clocks, she slowly grew aware of a strange noise she hadn't heard before. It was as if a small crowd had gathered outside and they were all talking to one another at the same time. She didn't have much time to think any more of it as the notary came storming out of his office. "Miss Crawley, it seems a small crowd of reporters has gathered outside."

Sybil stared at him as if he'd just grown a second head.

Surely those reporters were here for someone else? "Why? Is the president here or something?" She looked around hoping against all odds she'd spot someone famous, but no, it was just her and the notary who seemed on no accounts happy his little office was surrounded. "Is there a back door?" Sybil asked hopefully, but the notary shook his head.

"Not unless you want to jump out the window?" he helpfully supplied.

Sybil thanked him for the 'kind' offer, but decided she preferred a group of reporters over the bushes of nettle which she was sure grew outside the notary's balcony in large numbers. "Here we go," she muttered under her breath as she opened the double glass doors and stepped out into the crisp winter air. The crowd immediately fell silent. Sybil's cheeks turned red when she saw all eyes were on her.

Less than two seconds later, she was surrounded.

"Miss Crawley?" one particularly perky red-headed reporter asked. "When will you be taking over your fathers company?" She pushed her microphone so close it nearly hit Sybil in the face.

All the other reporters who clearly thought "Miss Perky" had just asked a brilliant question started copying her, and within two seconds Sybil had three cameras and five microphones in her face, all waiting for an answer to the same question.

"I'm not taking over anything," Sybil blurted out as she pushed a few cameras away. "I'm selling it." She pushed her way through the crowd. "No further questions please." She rushed to the secured parking lot nearby without looking back to see if anyone had followed her. Sybil quickly spotted her Candy Apple red Toyota, a birthday gift from her mother and sisters. She was thinking of having it repainted in a more subtle colour, but then again, she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides it did reduce her chances of not being noticed on the road. "Crap," she muttered as she realized it would also make her much easier to follow for the nosy reporters. The last thing she needed was for them to know where she lived.

Walking back to the main road, she hailed a cab and asked him to drive her to the one place she knew she could unleash all the feelings that had been cooped up inside her all day.

Downton Place.

TBC

Let me know what you think!:)