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: The Cautionary Tale of Lucy Collins, chapter 4.

"The Would-Be Catherine Pierce"
Brittany & Sue - Joseph, Joe, Cat & Izzy Pierce
Extra to the Sylvesters Series

It had been some time now since she had met her father and been made to be a part of his family as well. Still in the grand scheme of things it really had not been very long. And as time went by she could tell how she had missed so much, as she had not grown up with them, in their world. She'd had her grandfather, yes, and she cherished him every day of her life, but this was different.

Cat and Izzy were her sisters, half by blood but full sisters in her heart. Standing them side by side, you couldn't deny it. But there was still a place where they stood apart. They had grown up with the father they all shared, been all he knew to have as far as children, and they had shaped a bond, from the moment the girls were born. Brittany would have been a part of that universe if not for the events that had led to her mother raising her on her own, never telling Joe that she even existed.

One day, the three of them girls had been looking at albums of photos from their father's life, from when he was a baby, a child, teenager, adult… Brittany had been so taken with the pictures from his childhood, seeing him with his parents, with her grandfather Joseph and her grandmother Catherine, who had died before Brittany was born. The woman had that smile that Joe had, that all three girls had…

Then Izzy had gone on about how Cat had been named after her, about how their father had wanted to honor his mother's memory. The whole thing hadn't clicked in the elder Pierce girl's mind until later, as she was lying in bed, but still it came.

That was supposed to be her. Catherine Pierce. That could well have been her name if her mother and father had stayed together and raised her together. A whole other life that would have been hers, only… Every time she thought about something like that, she would get this pinch in her heart, like she was making it sound as though her life wasn't alright, that it needed changing. Sure, some things weren't always idea, but she wasn't lacking in happiness to offset it. And then if she was there, then what would have happened to her little sisters? They wouldn't even exist, or at least not as they were, and she didn't want to change them either…

Still it was nice to dream sometimes. It was all it was ever going to be, her imagination. She wasn't going to deny sometimes she so wished she had a father. She had her mother, and her grandfather, but that wasn't the same as a father. She saw Joe, the way he was with Cat and Izzy, and it was the familiarity that she longed for. Those people had been together since the girls were born, and it showed. Oh, for certain her father was good to her, the best, but it wasn't the same. Some days it was all she wanted, for things to be the same with her as they were with her sisters. She tried to picture it. She'd look at herself and try to see herself as this Catherine Pierce, instead of her sister. Inevitably she'd have trouble even hearing herself be called by a name that wasn't her own. Her name was her own, so now to picture another, it just didn't sound right…

She couldn't talk about this to her father, didn't want him to feel bad for not having been there, even if it was out of his hands, which he already did. She didn't want to put this on her sisters, especially with what it could have meant for them if she had gotten to be raised with their father… And then there was her mother, but that was not going to be a good idea either. So she'd turned to her one lifelong confidant, her grandfather Joseph.

She didn't even need to bring the pictures with her. She'd looked at the picture from her grandparents' wedding so many times, sitting there on his nightstand. It wasn't like she knew nothing about the woman, far from that. Her grandfather had told her about his late wife many times, and she loved hearing the stories. But that wasn't even about that, not in this case.

When her grandfather saw her arrive that day, he welcomed her happily as he always did. He'd start to put together some sort of snack for her, and she could tell how much good it did him to see her there. As they sat down, she thought back to the pictures, her grandmother, her father, the name… the one that would have been hers.

"They were close, right?" she started, and Joseph looked to her as she looked back. "Dad and Grandma Catherine," she explained, and he got that little look he'd get, whenever he thought of her… Brittany could always tell when he did.

"Very much. Me and him, we had our differences for a long time, and eventually it drew us apart. Your grandmother still saw him, and I never held that against her," he shook his head as though he really needed her to understand that, and she nodded. "One of my biggest regrets is that she didn't live to see us end this… feud. Until last year, the last time I saw your father was at her funeral. It could have happened. Right then, we could have stopped acting like idiots and just made peace, but… we had our pride, and our grief, and we just couldn't."

She paused, thinking about it, thinking about what it meant, and he could read it right on her face.

"I cost you your father that day," he declared.

"No," she shook her head, not wanting him to think like that.

"If we'd made up that day, then a few years later, when your mother came looking for him and found me instead, I could have been in a position to put her in touch with him," he insisted and her eyes saddened at seeing the guilt on his face.

"Is that what you've been thinking all this time?" she asked. "My mom could have kept looking for him but he didn't. It wasn't your fault," she insisted. "And you did bring us together," she pointed out. "When you were in the hospital; that was how we met."

"I guess you're right," he gave a small nod, grasped her hand. She smiled to him, nodding back. "Why did you want to know about them?" he asked, no doubt sensing his granddaughter's question had a reason.

"He would have named me after her, right? Grandma Catherine… If he'd been with my mother when I was born…" she asked, explained. Joseph smiled, nodded.

"He would have," he agreed, and she breathed out. "But I have to say, I'm pretty set on Brittany," he gave her a smile and she smirked.

THE END

PLEASE READ: This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!
As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.
If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,
please send them my way, preferably in a private message,
but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.
I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D

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!