Summary: Veronica must decide whether to stand by her husband, the sheriff, or her first love, and brother, Duncan Kane, as history repeats itself. Slightly AU future fic.

Spoilers: Anything in season 1 is fair.

Rating: PG-13/R for incest, mainly in later chapters.

Pairings: Veronica/Duncan, Veronica/Leo

Disclaimer: I don't own VM, and am in no way affiliated with those who do.

Chapter 8- Elly

"I know who Dad's mystery girl was." Lilly's words singsong their way through my head again. I haven't been able to get them out since Lizzie told me she knew her. That was why I drove back to my uncle's mansion, to ask him. Now, Mom's words join Lilly's in their dance. "I know you aren't over it," and "I don't want you to take it the wrong way, but I love you." What was he not over? How was there a wrong way to take your sister telling you she loves you? I had a vague suspicion, so vague I refused to give it life, even in my head. And I needed it denied.

I knew Lilly used to hide things in her air vents. I knew how to sneak into Lilly's room. I slipped through the dining room window, and wound up the stairs. Duncan was immersed in the videos, piecing together the bits that Lilly would want to be remembered by. He didn't hear me.

Lilly's door was open. I wasn't at all surprised. I slipped the screwdriver out of her underwear drawer, which, as she had known, her father hadn't touched, even in the two weeks since her death. I hoped, I prayed, that Lilly had learned the identity of Duncan's mysterious first love in a picture, or a letter, not by word of mouth. I carefully moved a chair, opened the vent, stuffed everything in it down my shirt, closed the vent, and replaced the chair, and screwdriver. I slipped back to my car, and drove back home.

I waited until I was safely in my room, with the door locked to look. I extracted the papers, but kept my eyes closed. Here was the evidence. What it was the evidence of, I wasn't sure. Maybe there would be a clue as to why Mom and Duncan had fought. Maybe there was even a clue about who killed Lilly. Or, maybe I would just be ending a playful game. Maybe there was no reason, maybe Duncan had kept it a secret for the sake of the game, not because it was a secret. Maybe, by looking, I would only set myself farther from Lilly.

I kept my eyes closed as I picked the papers back up, and pressed them to my chest. I put them in my drawer carefully, being careful not to look. Not knowing was something I had shared with Lilly. And, really, what were the chances that it held any clues?

All through school the next day, I couldn't get my mind off the papers in my dresser. When I got home, I ran straight to my room, and pulled the drawer open. After all, I reminded myself, Lilly had known at the end. I refused to think about what the end was.

The paper on top was a love note, but not one for Uncle Duncan, or from him. It was from Sam Casablancas, a boy a year older than Lilly, and it was for her. I remembered my uncle saying that his sister Lilly had been boy crazy, breaking hearts left and right, and it was what had gotten her killed. It looked like my Lilly really was a lot like her. I put it aside, laughing for the first time since she died. The next paper was a photo of Uncle Duncan, Aunt Lilly, Mom, and Lilly's boyfriend, Duncan's best friend, Logan. Lilly and Mom were making kissy faces at the camera, while Duncan and Logan stood back. There were more pictures of the four of them. Duncan and Mom were obviously close, once, hugging, acting as if they were going to the dance together, not accompanying their sister, and her boyfriend.

Then I saw it. Pictures of Mom and Duncan kissing. On the lips. They were clearly not just acting like a couple, to accompany their sister to the dance. They were a couple. I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

That was how she found me, sobbing over the toilet, throwing up bile. She asked me what was wrong. I told her to go look on my bed. She went. She came back, and knelt beside me, cradling my head in her arms, letting me sob into her shoulder.

"How could you?" I choked. "How could you?"

"I didn't know," she said soothingly. Trying to pacify me.

"Didn't know what?" I snapped, the coldness in my voice made less harsh by the tears and tremors.

"I didn't know he was my brother. I didn't know that my mom cheated on my dad. I never thought for a second that Keith Mars wasn't my father. My mother was too scared, or too ashamed, or something, to tell me that she'd had an affair with my boyfriend's father, and that he might be my father, too. Duncan started pretending I didn't exist one day. When I told Lilly, she said she'd talk to him, and she did, but then she changed her mind. One day, she said we were meant for each other, the next, she said we would never work out, and I should give it up. And I didn't know why.

"I finally found out, and Duncan and I tried to be friends. But then, after my dad got a paternity test done, after I knew I really was, without a doubt, his sister, we couldn't maintain that friendship. I guess there was always some longing, that was more okay when we only might be related, but knowing that we actually were..."

"It wasn't okay anymore." I said, and she nodded in confirmation. "If Keith's paternity test showed that he was your father," I started, wondering why Mom had never asked me to call him Grandpa, "would you have married Dad?"

"Probably not." There it was, then. Dad was her second choice. As much as I loved Uncle Duncan, as much as I probably would have loved to have him as a father, I couldn't accept the notion. I wouldn't be me. Lilly would never have been born. And I wouldn't know my father, except as the sheriff, who sometimes worked with my mother and grandfather. My sweet, beloved father had never been more than my mother's second choice. Those words hurt and confused me almost as much as learning that Lilly was dead.

"But I can't say I'm too disappointed with the way things turned out," Mom continued. "I know you're thinking that means that Leo was just my backup, that I only wanted him because I couldn't have Duncan. And, that's how it was, at first. If Duncan was not my brother, I might never have had the chance to fall in love with anyone else, and I did fall in love with your father."

"But, now, if you found out that Duncan wasn't your brother, what would you do?" The silence was deafening.