Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 62nd cycle. Now cycle 63!

"Diverting Energy"
Sue & Brittany
Sylvesters series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Brittany had made her desire to get out of the hospital and back in her own bed more than clear. So when she'd finally been given permission to get checked out of the hospital, she was the first one ready to go. She had been told she would need to take things easy for a week or so still, but she didn't mind, so long as she was home. Besides, she had plenty to look forward to.

She still wasn't used to the idea that everybody knew her secret now. She had been keeping it for so long, she didn't remember what life was like before. She would get to call her mother Mom before, but only when they were home, just the two of them, and sometimes when they were at her father's house, or with the door closed in her office at school. She never got to call her that when there were other people in the room. Even now that she could, while a part of her felt like punctuating each and every one of her sentences with it, the whole thing was still too new, and she needed time. Looking at her, she had a feeling her mother was going through the same thing.

When they had arrived home, her mother wanted her to go lie down in her bed, but Brittany got her to compromise and let her sit in the living room, on the couch, so they could watch television. She liked the idea of taking things easy, because she could put that left over energy into spending time with her mother, figuring out this new chapter in their lives.

Her mother was always on hand to care for her when she was downed by a cold, or when she'd had her tonsils out, or when she'd pulled her hamstring, and this was no exception.

"Can we watch a movie?" Brittany had asked her.

"Of course you can w…"

"No, not just me, both of us," she corrected.

"Oh, well… sure," Sue agreed. When Brittany had gone to pull the box from the shelf though, Sue frowned. "You're not going to make me watch that thing again, are you?"

"I like watching you watch it," Brittany smirked.

"Why?"

"It's funny when you yell at them," she admitted, and Sue couldn't keep her smirk hidden so well.

"Alright, fine, but know once you're better there will be none of that," Sue shook her head at the DVD case when Brittany handed it over.

"Got it," she promised, taking her seat and tapping the spot by her side. She was too giddy for Sue to even try to resist her. As was to be expected, they weren't two minutes into the movie that Sue began to shout at the screen, calling on mistakes. Brittany laughed along, anticipating what she knew would get her mother ranting next.

By the time the movie was over, Brittany was sitting with her arms around her mother's arm, resting her head on her shoulder. When the credits rolled, she finally had up the courage to ask the question she'd been meaning to ask.

"Is there going to be a funeral? For grand… for your mother?" she asked; she didn't see the point of calling Doris Sylvester her grandmother. Even if that was what she was, biologically, she had never met the woman who had been at the root of this years-long secret they'd been keeping. Sue looked at her; they hadn't mentioned the fact that she'd died in the last few days; she'd almost deluded herself into thinking she could forget about it.

"I set it up. No matter what we went through as mother and daughter me and her, she still deserves to have one. It doesn't mean that I have to go."

"Sure it does," Brittany told her. "I think you should go, I think we both should go." Sue paused.

"You would want to go?" Brittany nodded. "Even if you never met her?" She nodded again. "Even if she's the reason we…"

"She's not the reason, you are. She's… the cause."

"That's the same thing."

"No, it's not. Mom, I want to go. Please?" Sue let out a breath, contemplating it.

"What would you achieve by going?"

"I could introduce myself. I know we'll never know each other, me and her, and I wouldn't have wanted it anyway…" Her mother's face was asking it: then why go? "Sometimes I feel bad that I don't feel anything for her. I feel bad for what we never got to be because of who she was. Grandma Catherine died before I was born, so I never knew her and that's not her fault. She could have been my one grandmother, but she wasn't, because of how she was with you and Aunt Jean. So, now that we're not hiding anymore, I want to say a real goodbye to her." She looked to her mother and she thought she might actually cry.

"Alright," Sue had told her, clearing her throat and nodding. "We'll go to the funeral."

"Then after, can we go to Breadstix for dinner, just you and me?" Sue's smile won out over the incoming tears, and she nodded, taking her daughter's hand in hers.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea, it really does." Brittany smiled back to her, peering at the screen, which was back to the movie menu.

"Can we watch another one? I'll let you pick this time," she promised.

"No, it's alright, you pick," Sue told her, so Brittany returned to the shelf. She looked for a few seconds before pulling one, realizing only once she held it that it wasn't the one she'd intended, but then her mother had already seen the cover. "Alright, now that's a movie," Sue pointed. Brittany frowned.

"I couldn't sleep for two days the last time I saw it," she admitted. "If I can't sleep tonight, can I come stay in your room?" she begged.

"I don't see why not."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!