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 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!

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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!

This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: The Customer You Are Trying to Reach..., chapter 1.

"Familiar Strangers"
(Future) Finn & Elsie (OC)
Series installment #1

A/N: This story is dedicated to the most BAMFtastic Anne on her upcoming birthday this Sunday!
A/N2: The female protagonist in this new series was named in memory of a young cousin.

1. Guess Who

In the back of his mind, maybe he'd always known this was how it would end up. Rachel had belonged in New York, and he just didn't. The breakup had been fairly amicable, really. And in the five years since then, they had kept in touch on and off. But he had moved on, and he had no regrets. For so long he'd thought he needed to leave Lima to be happy, to feel like he was making something of himself. But now he had come to see that his life wasn't a bad one to have. He had his work, and his band, and one day he could see himself with a house, a wife, kids… But that would be some day, not today.

He would stop in at the diner almost if not every day that he worked. He wasn't the lunch packing kind of guy, and except for the vending machine which was half empty all the time, food was not going to be found at work. So he made the three minute walk and got his lunch at Dee's Diner. When he walked through that door, everything would be just as he'd expect it to be, some people he knew and who knew him, good food, and…

There was someone new that day, or at least… their being there was new to him. From the moment he saw the waitress though, it felt as though he should have known who she was. He couldn't explain it, there was just the feeling… She was new to the diner, as far as he could tell, and it so happened that when he sat at the counter it was her who approached to take his order.

"Welcome to Dee's Diner, what can I get you?" she asked, pulling a pad from her apron before ever looking up to him.

"I, uh…" he hesitated, still thrown by the sight of her, and the nagging feeling that he should know who she was. That drew her attention and she now looked to him. As soon as she saw him, she had that same look of recognition, only in her case there was something more. Whereas he had seen her and couldn't figure out where he knew her from, she looked to him and had the very clear look of someone who knew exactly who he was from the moment she'd laid eyes on him. And if he hadn't figured it out from her look alone…

"Oh, hey," she smiled. "Been a while," she nodded.

"Yeah, definitely, a while," he nodded back, nothing better to do, only she was right on to him for that. She knew he couldn't place her and, rather than helping him along…

"So what can I get you?" she asked again, nudging the menu toward him.

"I've never seen you here before," was all he could come up with.

"You probably haven't," she agreed. "I used to work the night shift, but I switched with Karen." It finally occurred to him to look at her name tag, knowing if she didn't help him then at least that would do it…

"Elsie," he read off the tag. She looked down, laughing.

"Did that do it?" she asked, and he looked back to her.

"No, not really," he frowned. She just kept on smiling.

"Well you should probably order something or I'll have to move on to another customer," she pointed out, and he sat up.

"Right," he looked to the menu. He tapped fingers on the pages, trying to focus for a moment… it wasn't working so well…

"How about we start with something simple," she suggested with a smirk. "Thirsty?"

"Just… water," he nodded.

"I think I can manage that," she nodded, reaching for a glass and a pitcher, filling the glass and putting it in front of him. "I'll let you look at the menu, no pressure," she told him, getting flagged down by another customer.

He watched her go, frowning at his inability to figure out who she was. Elsie… He would have remembered that, wouldn't he? But no matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, he couldn't connect the face – which was definitely familiar – and the name – which drew absolutely no recollection. She looked to be about his age though, so it would have been at school, wouldn't it?

"So, any progress?" he was startled and looked up to find she was back in front of him, smiling, pad and pen at the ready.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" She shook her head. "Burger and fries," he told her and she marked it, ripping the ticket from her pad.

"Coming right up!" She was gone again, and at this point he had nothing better to do than to continue his search his mind.

Maybe she just reminded him of someone? She was blonde, though that wouldn't be enough… Either way, he knew he didn't have it wrong, that he did know her from somewhere, he just didn't know where exactly. That she went to McKinley he was about 99% sure of, but then so did hundreds of others, so that wasn't more of a frame of reference than 'blonde' was.

"Burger and fries," she appeared a couple minutes later, placing the plate in front of him. She stayed there, leaning against the counter. She knew it was bugging him, where he knew her from, and it seemed to amuse her to no end to hold that power over him.

"I'll figure it out," he vowed with a half smirk.

"If you say so," she shrugged, matching his expression.

"But you did go to McKinley, right?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Come on, Hudson, think hard," she had taken his power away and then brought it back. She knew his name, so that was… Well, he was on the football team, the basketball team, Glee Club, and he was known around the school… Now his power was gone again, apparently.

"So you're working the lunch shift for good now?"

"As far as I can tell," she shrugged. "Don't miss the night shift, too slow for my taste."

"Okay, then if you're not going to tell me then I'll have to get it out of you," he challenged and she squinted, offering her hand.

"Works for me. Eat your food."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW AFTERNOON)