A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews, this is for anyone still reading this. Sorry the update's taken so long :) Please R&R if you have time!

"Morning," Rachel greeted Janet as she wandered into the kitchen, dressed in one of her usual shirt and skirt combinations, looking shorter than normal without her semi-permanent heels.

"You got back late last night." That was Rachel, subtle as a sledgehammer as she handed her friend a steaming mug of coffee. Janet almost chuckled; she didn't think the word subtle was in Rachel's vocabulary. Didn't think even the most generous person could use that adjective to describe Rachel.

"Yeah," Janet said defensively, she'd known the interrogation was inevitable; Rachel wasn't called Sherlock for nothing. "Who made you my mother?" she snapped back slightly sharper than intended but didn't bother to rectify it. The message was clear and Rachel knew better than to push it.

"So what's the interview strategy for Freddie Small today?" Rachel moved onto safer ground, Janet responded and they were back to normal. Just two cops doing their jobs.

xxx

"Janet," Gill called her into her office before she'd even got a chance to take her coat off. She and Rachel had travelled to work separately due to irreconcilable differences in car radio station and despite Rachel's haphazard driving, Janet had still reached the office first.

"Right cock, you're in charge of this one. Don't let the power go to your head." Gill said, and after a short pause glanced up from her desk to find out why Janet hadn't responded. From the blank look on the blonde lady's face she could immediately tell something was wrong and showed a rare bit of concern as she lowered her voice; "Are you OK?"

Janet thought back to the telephone conversation – if you could call it that – she'd had with Taisie earlier. She had tried her best to placate her daughter but it was clear she had already worked herself up into a state. Janet had known the conversation was coming but the words 'I hate you' were burned into her mind and had once again made her regret her actions.

Elise had been less vocal with her judgements but in a way her quietness had been worse. Janet had heard her muffled attempts to stop Taisie's shouting but once her older daughter had gained control of the phone the conversation hadn't improved. Janet had tried to arrange to see her daughters; she knew she needed to talk to them in person and would rather avoid an encounter with Adrian as well. Elise made their excuses; Dad was taking them out for the day. In truth that sentence had hurt her more than her younger daughter's declaration of hate; it was nothing she hadn't said before but Adrian's day trip triggered a whole mountain of guilt. There was no doubt her husband was - and always had been - the more attentive parent.

Gill let out a delicate cough in an attempt to get Janet's attention, but resisted making a sarcastic comment before she'd got a response to her question.

"Yeah I'm fine, just didn't sleep very well last night." She didn't want Gill to know, definitely not yet, ideally not ever. God knows how she'd word that. Janet had spent hours sympathising with Gill about Dave and his infidelity. She'd condemned it wholeheartedly – of course she had – but what she'd done was really no better. Rachel had made her mistakes too, wasn't as perfect as Gill and that had made it easier to tell her last night.

Gill wasn't convinced by her denial but she knew Janet was a private person and would tell her eventually. Now wasn't really the time for a heart-to-heart anyway as she could sense, rather than hear, that Kevin had arrived and was already winding Rachel up.

xxx

It was almost the end of a demanding day in Manchester's Major Incident Team. There was an air of restlessness around the room; Kevin was making blu-tack models of their main suspect's car and even Janet had stopped working to check her phone. Three missed calls and two text messages, which was pretty good going if any of them had been from her daughters. Instead they were all from Andy and Janet let out a disgruntled sigh so loud that it made Rachel stop her frantic typing and look at her friend in concern.

Rachel had heard half of Janet's phone call with the girls earlier, but hadn't mentioned it. After Janet's touchiness about where she'd been the night before, her lesser used diplomacy had told her it wouldn't be wise. Plus, she knew nothing she could say would actually help.

She hadn't planned to interfere but before she could talk herself out of it the brunette detective leapt up and fled the room, hoping for once that Janet wouldn't follow. Scrolling down the contact list on her phone she quickly reached Elise's name, but as she listened to the dull calling tone Rachel was beginning to think she wasn't going to pick up.

"Hello?" Elise sounded uncertain, probably wondering why Rachel was phoning her.

"Hey kid, it's Rachel. Do you and Taisie want to come round for tea tomorrow? I know your Mum would like to see you. Indian or Chinese? Your choice." Rachel's telephone manner was short and to the point even during personal calls. She hadn't really left much manoeuvring space to say no, but that was deliberate.

"Can't we have pizza? It has to be the one with the cheesy crust." She answered back and Rachel smiled. Mission accomplished.