A/N: Okay this one's a little on the dark side, it mentions Suicide, Child Abandonment, Rape, and Murder, but nothing is very specific and everything is very vague.

Pepa hadn't meant to take Julieta's place. Honestly, she hadn't. But what exactly was she supposed to do when she walked into the kitchen in the middle of the night to find her sister in the middle of a mental breakdown, exhausted and spread too thin, ready to end it all?

She did what she needed to do to help her sister. She had already failed her brother, she was not going to let Julieta slip through the cracks as well. She had held her sister as she vented at the unfairness of life. Her precious baby girl was denied a gift, struggling to understand what had gone wrong, needing so much more love and attention to help her through this traumatic time. Their Mama pressuring them to have another baby, despite the miscarriage that nearly cost Julieta her life a few years ago. Her hinting that they send their youngest, their five-year-old daughter to live with Agustin's side of the family on the far side of the Encanto. How she always seems to have something that she needed to do urgently whenever she tried to spend time with Mirabel, reassuring her that everything was okay. How the food orders had tripled since the failed ceremony. How she didn't have time to spend with Agustin. How Isabela and Luisa were just as confused as Mirabel, how they needed her just like Mirabel and there just weren't enough hours in the day.

She had been spread too thin and just couldn't handle it, and Pepa had offered to help. She couldn't do the cooking, and she couldn't get Mama to lay off Julieta, and she was for sure not going to spend time with Agustin for her, but she could help with the children, and out of all of her children, Mirabel was the most demanding of them. It wasn't her fault she was young, she still needed help washing her hair and doing up buttons. She still needed someone to read her a bedtime story and check underneath the bed for monsters each night. She needed someone who could turn the lamp down just right so that it wasn't too bright to sleep, but not too dark should she wake in the middle of the night.

A couple of weeks, that was all it was supposed to be. That was all she had agreed to! But when she suggested that Julieta put Mirabel to bed at the end of the weeks, Julieta asked if she could do it for her.

It wasn't like Mirabel didn't try to keep her parents and sisters in her life. Dolores confirmed that the five-year-old always went to Julieta and Agustin before going to her. The results were heart-wincing, to say the least. When she went to Julieta beaten black and blue by a bully, Julieta healed her up, told her to be more careful, and sent her on her way. Pepa had thundered and hailed and made it perfectly clear what would happen if there was a repeat.

When the new school year started and Camilo and Mirabel started attending, Mirabel approached her father with complaints that her head hurt and she couldn't see what the teacher was writing on the board. He promised to set up an appointment as soon as he possibly could to get her new glasses. When he still hadn't made an appointment three weeks later, Felix had taken her in.

Yet these incidents had been side by side with Agustin and Julieta doing her bedtime routine with her or sitting down together to read a book or do homework. It didn't happen very often, just enough to spark hope in the little girl's heart that her parents did care for her and that her Tia's excuse that they were busy was true. It also prevented Pepa from strangling Julieta.

What was supposed to be a couple of weeks, turned into months, which in turn turned into years, and somewhere during this time Mirabel started to change. Looking back, Pepa couldn't remember when Mirabel started calling her Mami, just like Dolores and Camilo did. Had she been six or seven, eight perhaps? The transition had been so natural that at the time it had gone unnoticed.

When Felix's parents came over after the birth of Antonio, they brought presents for the baby and the rest of the family. Pepa remembered quite well crying that night, her hormones not quite back to normal, and never really being all that stable anyways because, Felix's parents brought Mirabel a "Congratulations on your new hermanito," present just like they did Dolores and Camilo. By this time she was calling them Mami and Papi, and more often than not was dressed in Pepa's family colors. Although come to think about it, Pepa wondered why she and her siblings needed to color code everything, including their husbands and kids. But that was what Mama wanted, and Mama always got what she wanted.

Yet no one noticed, no one cared, sure Mirabel continued to call Julieta and Agustin Mama and Papa, but she went to her Mami and Papi for everything, and she meant everything. She could still remember that day, back when Mirabel was twelve when Mirabel knocked on her door face pale as she explained that she was bleeding "Down there". She had gone to her mother's food stand but had, as usual, been given an arepa, hug, and kiss and told to be more careful.

That had been the first time that Pepa had truly been furious with her sister through this all. It was obvious what was going on. This was not something that could be healed by an arepa. The way Mirabel was shaking told her that she had no idea what was going on. Why, for the love of the Miracle, had Juileta not listened to a word that Mirabel said to her? This wouldn't be the first time that a girl, unsure of what was going on had gone to Julieta their first time! She was willing to listen to a complete stranger and help her figure out the changes happening to her body, but she wouldn't do the same for her own flesh and blood!

She had some choice words for Julieta that night, after she had calmed Mirabel down, assured her that what was happening was perfectly normal, and how to take care of it.

The second time she was truly furious with Julieta was when Mirabel was almost fifteen, a week away from her quinceanera, which of course was up to her and Felix to do everything for if they wanted her to have one. When Mirabel came into her room, clothes torn and filthy, tears in her eyes as she told her the one thing no parent wants to hear happened to their child, ever.

Pepa had immediately gotten up to get Julieta, who thrust a premade arepa into her hand and told her to give it to Mirabel.

No, she hadn't meant to take Julieta's place with Mirabel. All she wanted to do was help her sister out during a rough point in her life, and give her a helping hand like the good sister she was. Just like she hoped Julieta would do for her if the situation was reversed. She hadn't meant for Mirabel to come to her for every scraped knee and bad dream, to seek her comfort over that of Julieta's, but what's done is done. After that day weeks before the biggest day of any Colombian girl's life, Julieta fell from her pedestal and Pepa could not lie, despite how much she had tried to deny it. Mirabel was her's, plain and simple, and there was nothing Julieta could do about it because she slammed her door in Mirabel's face one too many times.

That was why she was so mad now, Julieta freaking out, screaming at everyone to help her find her baby. A baby that she hadn't taken care of for over ten years, Claiming the girl after ignoring the girl for ten whole freaking years. If she still had her gift, the number of cold-blooded murders she committed would go from one to two at that moment.

"Pepa," Julieta cried out, grabbing her by the shoulders, her eyes wide with panic, "Have you seen my baby?"

"Why do you care?" even Pepa was surprised by the harsh tone that came out of her mouth, "You haven't cared a smidge for her for the past ten years, so why to start now," she demanded, pushing her sister away from her as ten years of suppressed emotions raised to the surface, oh yes, if she still had her gift her sister's blood would be on her hand. The sad part was, she wasn't sure if she'd regret it. She didn't regret the other murder either, she would do anything to keep her children safe, all four of them.

"I've cared," Julieta spluttered, surprised by the accusation, "I've just… I had Luisa and Isabela to take care of as well, and you know that my gift was more time-consuming than yours."

"There's a difference between being busy and freaking not caring!" Pepa screamed, "I offered to take Mirabel for two weeks, you hear me, two weeks, so that you could deal with Bruno's disappearance and the gift ceremony fallout without having to worry about her. Two weeks that was the deal…"

"You know just how time-consuming my gift is!" Julieta snapped, "If you didn't want to help with Mirabel, why did you offer?"

"I never said that I didn't want to help raise Mirabel, the problem is, I didn't help raise her, I did raise her. You didn't even notice!"

"What do you mean I didn't notice?" Julieta demanded, "I spent time with her, sure I was busy, but I always gave her a hug and a kiss when I saw her, and I made sure that she knew how special she was."

"Empty words," Pepa snarled, "Actions speak louder than words, Julieta, for every hug, kiss, and 'You're special to me you gave there were twenty bloody knees, nightmares, and fist fights that you never asked about."

"How could I ask about them if I didn't know about them?"

"You would have known about them if you had listened to her!"

"When had I not listened to her?"

"How about the time when she was twelve and started for the first time? She didn't know what was going on, yet when she went to you, all you heard was the fact that she was bleeding and handed her an arepa and sent her on her way. Yet, two hours later you closed your stand, sent Dolores for supplies and explained to the Martinez girl what you refused to explain to Mirabel," Pepa snapped, breathing heavily, unaware of the family gathered around her, or her husband shaking his head at her Mama telling her not to intervene, that this was ten years in the making. Honestly, Mama should be happy that she was releasing this now, while she didn't have her gift, and not earlier.

"Okay, so I messed up once," Julieta admitted.

"It wasn't once," Pepa insisted, "She started calling me Mami when she was six, started wearing my color when she was seven, and you never said a word, not even when she stopped calling you Mama. You'd think that you'd react when she called you Tia but no, no response once so ever. Honestly, you're lucky that she claimed you as a Tia. After what you did to her, I would deny ever knowing you!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, I was busy? My gift…"

"Your gift, your gift… all you and Mama ever cared about were the gifts. Mirabel suddenly wasn't good enough for you because she didn't get one so you jumped at my offer to help and pushed her onto me. She was suddenly less than everyone else."

"What are you talking about?"

"Two weeks before her last birthday, her fifteenth birthday, if any of you've forgotten, I knocked on your door and told you that Mirabel was hurt and that we needed you. If it was anybody else in the Encanto you would have gotten out of bed and checked on them, but what did you do? You handed me a stale arepa and went back to bed. Your daughter had been freaking raped and you went back to bed leaving me to deal with her. She hasn't called you Mama since, and I'm struggling to call you Sister. Go ahead, tell me that you were busy because you couldn't have been that busy."

"She was raped?" Julieta squeaked, staring at Pepa in disbelief.
Pepa shrugged, "You would have known if you cared. You had your chance Julieta, and you blew it. Mirabel is mine now, I'm the one that stayed up with her the most nights. Now if you excuse me, my daughter is missing and I need to find her."

Pepa turned on her heels and made her way out of the rubble of Casita her family following close behind as she started to search for her Mariposa.

A/N: So Pepa totally killed the man that hurt Mirabel, and Why the heck is the family color-coded and why haven't I noticed that before?