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 will be another upload this afternoon: Familiar Strangers, chapter 2.

"Boom Goes the Dynamite"
Sue & Brittany
Sylvesters Series, following 'The Family Box'
(in the timeline, following 'A Christmas Carol'/'White Christmas')

She hadn't seen it coming. She thought she would, but in reality it wasn't until the ground was already tilting beneath her feet before she understood the dive had begun, the pieces were falling into place…

If she played her cards right, she could have Brittany off the Cheerios by the end of the week, and they could finally start rebuilding, as a family. All she could hope for now would be that all the heartache had been worth it.

Everything was hanging on a stunt, on a cannon.

She had no intention of shooting her own daughter out of a cannon, especially that one, but she needed her and everyone else to believe that she would, even if no one knew that she was her daughter. But the way she saw it, this would be the thing that would push her over the edge and get her to decide staying with the Cheerios just wasn't worth it anymore.

Caution was key, one step after the other, like setting down the blocks to create a road to walk on. If she misaligned even one, she would fall, and she wouldn't rise again. She hadn't made one mistake, and even as they were all waiting to get on the bus to get to Nationals, she was just waiting for the moment when Brittany would come to her and say 'Sorry, I'm out.' Going to that competition without her, with the rest of the squad, would be alright. It had been something the two of them shared, even before Brittany was old enough to be one of them, so on some level she would miss having her there… But it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

Everything and everyone was as they were supposed to be and then her path was kicked out from under her feet, without any warning.

Brittany was quitting, yes, that was the plan. What wasn't planned was that she wouldn't be the only one. Quinn was quitting, too. Santana was quitting, too. She was losing all three of them… her stars.

What came next should not have come as any surprise then. They had lost Nationals. Attempting to replace the three of them at the last minute had been impossible and told her that her squad was in serious need of a wake-up call. When time would come for her to walk those halls again, she would have to face the problem and what it would mean for her. But for now, there were other things on her mind.

All this time, all this preparation that was to lead to this moment, now it was here and… she was finding she was scared… terrified, really. What if they were too far gone? What if all this had been for nothing and all she'd done was to not only create a rift between her and her daughter but also give it more space to grow, until it couldn't be patched up again?

So she'd gone home. She honestly had no idea what to expect, and for someone like her that was nowhere near the usual. She was used to knowing where she was going, and how it would work out. There could be surprises along the way, but she'd never be really without some sort of frame of reference as to… possibilities… Only this time it was different. She couldn't know what this turn would mean, and that scared her, properly and honestly scared her. This girl, her daughter, was the most important thing in her life, so much so that she would hatch these crazy plans, just to get somewhere, except maybe this time around, as big as the plan was, she couldn't rely on any sort of forethought, assumption…

When she'd gotten home, she'd briefly looked to the spot in her trophy case, the empty spot where she'd meant to put her Nationals trophy… It was going to stay empty now. Maybe she should keep it that way, as a reminder of all of this.

She didn't hear the door, only… "Mom?" her voice carried in the stillness of the house. Sue looked up, feeling her heart pound with anxiety. A moment later, there was Brittany just out in the hall, staring back at her. "Hi," she nodded. She was still showing signs of her zombie hair and makeup from the halftime show, Sue guessed, even though she hadn't been there to see it.

"Hello…" she began slowly, unsure what to say. So she went the safe road: she asked about her day. "How was the halftime show?" If anything could reassure her without a single word, it was to see the smile that burst on to her daughter's face. It wasn't something she could explain herself, but there were different smiles she had, different causes for her smiles, and this one was the one she hadn't seen from her in far too long. It was the one that was all hers, the one for her mother, when she could call her mother and not coach.

"It was really good," she nodded. "I love being a zombie," she declared, giving a quick sort of zombie pose to demonstrate, which got Sue to release her own smile, the one of motherly pride for her girl. After this though, they could feel the other subject hanging between them, needing to be spoken of, as hard as it was. "This was what you wanted, wasn't it?" Brittany had said, suddenly, and Sue wasn't sure how to respond – shock, hesitation, admiration…

"Well I don't know. What do you think it is?" she tried, cautious. Brittany took one step forward and then another. Was it too early to hope that maybe everything had gone right?

"I don't know," was her first response as well, "Just that maybe you wanted me off the team." Sue still hesitated to give confirmation, while Brittany still stared at her, curious and yet apprehensive. "Why?" now her voice showed something very much like hurt, and Sue shook her head.

"It didn't have anything to do with you, alright?" she made it very clear. "Well, not in the way you think."

"In what way then?" Brittany had to ask. Sue thought for a moment. Make or break, her answer here could mean everything in the long run.

"You know who I have to be, when I'm in that school, when I'm on the field or in the gym, with all of you Cheerios," she stated, and Brittany nodded. "Now I make no apologies for that, it's just how it is. But… then there's you. And as much as you being one of that group makes me… so proud, I can't help but think maybe it's not right to have you there, to put you through that. Do you understand what I'm getting at?" she asked slowly. Brittany looked at her, and that was answer enough: 'kind of.' "I wanted us to be… more mother and daughter than coach and student, to keep you from having to see me that other way as much as possible…" Brittany considered this.

"Why didn't you say so, I would have quit before then," she declared, and Sue was still forever stunned by her daughter.

"I couldn't have made you do it like that. I thought if it came from you…" she shook her head. "Looking back it does sound crazy," she admitted. She hadn't really intended to lay out the whole explanation, top to bottom, and now that she had, she wasn't sure how it would go over. If Brittany managed to keep connecting the dots, and got around to figuring all this misery of the past few months was because of this… would she hate her for it, or would she understand, or… "When did you know?" Brittany smirked.

"I think, in the parking lot," she admitted. "You didn't expect all of us to go, did you?" Sue let out a breath, once again caught by her usually… distracted daughter. "You know I'm back in Glee Club?"

"Yes," Sue nodded.

"And I'm staying there."

"Yes."

"Are you still going to do things to us?" Sue hesitated. "Please…" Brittany shook her head.

"I could tell you I won't. I could tell you that I'm going to make a complete turnaround. But I've had to do a lot of lying lately, and if I don't keep to that word then I would feel like I let you down. So, no, I can't promise I won't do anything, especially now that I've lost the three of you to Schuester." Brittany looked both understanding and disappointed. Sue looked at her for a beat, then approached her. "But I can promise that I'll try. Is that something you can accept?"

In response, Brittany had wrapped her arms around her. Sue had let out the breath she'd held since this whole mess had begun. As twisted and complicated as it had been, as hard and painful as it had been, everything had been done out of love for her, and if anyone could make sense of her madness, it would be her daughter… her sweet baby girl, back in her arms. "I love you," she'd whispered in her ear, and she'd felt the girl's smile at her shoulder.

"Love you, too," Brittany had replied.

"Three, four, five," Sue had smirked, recalling the word play from her childhood. Brittany had laughed, hugging her mother closer.

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!