Eloise Bickerton awoke with the need to fight. She would not have her daughter's "boyfriend" or whatever her daughter was trying to justify him as speaking to her in the manner, he had the night before. It was unacceptable and both of them would be hearing about it. She's ready to stomp into the kitchen, prepared for battle when something stops her. She stopped short of the living room doorway when she heard her daughter's giggle. It's not the fake, high-pitched giggle of a ditzy blonde forced to attend one of her parent's dinner parties - Lord knows Eloise had heard that one plenty of times when Fiona was a teenager. This giggle is different. It's genuine. It's softer; tinkling like a little bell. It's playful and childish. It reminds Eloise of when Fiona was a mere child and giggling that little bell-like giggle when she was being scolded. Perhaps it was the innocence. The innocence of a child not knowing that while her friends could play in jeans and t-shirts and get dirty, she had to wear dresses like a proper young lady and stay out of the puddles of rain water that her friends splashed in.

Fiona had been so innocent as a child and her giggles had reflected that.

That was the last time Eloise had ever heard her daughter giggle in such a manner; with each passing year Fiona's laughter had grown increasingly and alarmingly ditzy and fake. Until now. Now it seemed as if the genuine, child-like giggle had returned. She wondered what her daughter could be giggling about so early in the morning and discretely peeked into the living room where they were. Looking perfectly relaxed and for all the world like a genuinely happy - not that Eloise would know what that looked like - couple, Eddie and Fiona were doing nothing more than enjoying Saturday morning television. Eddie was sitting against the arm of the couch, his arm resting on the arm and his other arm wrapped securely around the small blonde tucked into his side; her messy blonde ponytail splayed out on Eddie's shoulder.

"Do you have to work today?"

"Not today. Had another Inspector take my shift." Eddie twisted his body around so that he faced Fiona, when he noticed that her giggling stopped completely. "Something wrong, sweetheart?"

"I have Saturdays off and I'm not sure I want to be alone with my Mother." Fiona admitted, her voice small and quiet as if she's too shy to even say a word to anyone. She's so drawn into herself - more so than Eloise ever remembered her being. Eloise can only remember the bright child she used to be. The one who seemed brave and fearless but restrained to the tight confines of a proper societal upbringing. Her daughter was like a caged bird, constantly wanting to take flight but never able to because of always having the wings of her creativity clipped and always having the door between restraint and society and exploring the world, closed in her face.

She had trapped her daughter in a world, that Fiona's naturally adventurous spirit just wasn't meant for. She had left her daughter no room to learn from mistakes, explore the world and see for herself what life outside of proper society had to offer. She had been so strict and kept her daughter so tightly restrained to keep her from making mistakes that now she felt as if she was constantly making mistakes because she wasn't living her life like her mother wanted. She didn't even want to be left alone with her own mother for fear of screwing up.

"You don't have the best relationship with your Mother," Eddie's observation drew a dry chuckle from her daughter who just looked at Eddie like he had no idea - and he doesn't, but Eloise thought Fiona might be on the verge of sharing. "What happened?"

"I was always too adventurous for my own good. At least that's what Mother said." Fiona shrugged, "I didn't understand it. All I knew was that while other kids were playing in jeans and t-shirts, I had to wear ridiculous dresses and sit properly and stand a certain way. I couldn't eat without being instructed on how a lady holds her fork. It was a ridiculous world. I wanted to explore. I wanted to find out what life was like but I never had any room. I could never make mistakes. I could never quite escape that world. College seemed to be my only way out so I took it. I did attend college. For three months before I realized that it was nothing more than a boarding school for adults. I hated it."

"Your mother didn't see it your way?"

"No. Not in the slightest. We always fought. I wanted to explore. I wanted to learn for myself but she wouldn't let me. I had to do things her way." Fiona looked down, shoulders slumping forward in exhaustion - the type of exhaustion no twenty-four year old should ever experience. "I had a very restrained childhood. Very strict and proper. A childhood that I would wish on nobody. Nobody should ever have to go through what I went through. I wanted out constantly. The only way out was my father who understood. He understood my need to be out from under my mother's society wing."

"Did you ever tell your mother any of this?" Eddie asked her, reaching for his girlfriend's hand.

"Constantly but she never listened." Fiona looked up at him, squeezing his hand tightly. "I was much happier on my own than under her wing but I couldn't make her understand that."

Her daughter. Her own daughter had felt trapped and smothered as a child but Eloise had been a society snob and had put her own need for a social status above her daughter's happiness. She had never bothered to care about what society might have been doing to her daughter. She never cared to see that much like she had been in her childhood, Fiona was her own person. She needed her independence. Perhaps if she had bothered to put her daughter's happiness above her own social standing, she might not have been standing out of view of the couple in the living room, listening in on a conversation that was giving her new insight into her daughter.

"I'm sorry, Fiona."

xxx

She can't bear to stay in the house any longer but there never seemed to be a right time to leave. Her suitcases are packed and she's fully prepared to disappear back into the world of high society. Her daughter was clearly happy with the way her life was going and after witnessing the conversation earlier that morning between Eddie and Fiona, it's obvious there's nothing she can do to change that. She didn't want too.

She's tucked away in the guest bedroom, unable to confront either Eddie or Fiona, when she heard the unmistakable sound of something shattering followed by a sharp, frightened scream. Her maternal instincts kicked in and she rushed to the kitchen to see what the commotion was about. It wasn't more than Fiona simply losing her grip on a wet dish but the fear in her hazel eyes quickly alerted Eloise to her daughter having a problem than ran far deeper than just having broken a dish that could be easily replaced.

"Fiona?" Eddie bolted into the kitchen, reaching for Fiona without a second thought. "Hey are you alright?"

Frozen to the spot, Fiona numbly pointed to the shattered remnants of a porcelain plate laying on the tile floor. Eddie looked between the broken dish and Fiona, wondering why the broken dish would cause such a panic in his girlfriend. Her hazel eyes had darkened considerably and she looked for all the world as if her mind was blurring that line between fleeting memory and vivid flashback. It doesn't take but a second for realization to flood Eddie.

It hadn't been the dish at all but the sound it made.

"Hey, it's just a plate." Eddie squeezed her hand, pulling her closer. "Fiona, it's just a plate, honey. Look."

Her dark eyes barely manage to spare a glance at the broken dish on the floor. It's only when Eddie's voice resonated, thick and deep, in her ear does she manage to look at it for more than a second. It took everything she had not to give in to that fleeting panic that kept her on edge. The hostage situation hadn't quite faded into a distant memory and some days she could feel herself walking that fine line between being okay and wanting to just give into the panic. Today she was definitely edging more toward panicky and nervous.

"Whatever is the matter with you, Fiona?" Eloise can't help but murmur, despite her best attempt to keep quiet. "You're shaken and pale. What has happened?"

"Six weeks ago, Fiona was held at gunpoint in the store she worked at." Eddie told her quietly, squeezing Fiona's hand as he turned to her. "Fiona?"

"I'll be in your room, Eddie." Fiona mumbled, an embarrassed flush spreading from her cheeks down her neck and chest as she darted out of the kitchen.

Eddie sighed as he turned toward the pantry to grab the necessary supplies to clean up the mess. He swept up the large pieces of glass first and disposed of them before carefully and thoroughly sweeping up the smaller pieces. He was very thorough, Eloise noted. More thorough than any maid would have been. He had even swept his hand along the area, checking for any slivers of porcelain he may have missed. once the plate was cleaned up and disposed of, he put the broom away and retrieved several items to prepare for lunch.

"What happened to my daughter, Detective?" Eloise asked him point-blank, sitting down at the kitchen table and dropping her hands into her lap. "I want to know. Why was she acting like that?"

"It happened two months ago." Eddie sighed, easily slicing a few cherry tomatoes in half to prepare a salad. He dropped the knife onto the cutting board and turned to her. "Fiona worked at a cosmetic store downtown. I don't know if you knew about that."

"That was the one part of my daughter's life, I was aware of, yes." Eloise nodded, motioning for him to continue.

Eddie sighed as he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's not an easy story to tell. Some idiot, an incompetent bastard, really, walked in and held up a gun. Told everyone in the store to get down or get shot. They followed orders."

"Fiona was one of them." Eloise understood immediately.

"Luckily she's small. The agents who went in almost didn't find her. I learned later that she had balled herself up in a corner." Eddie dropped his arms to his sides and clenched his fists. " Anyway, we negotiated for hours. We got nowhere. He had given no indication of what he wanted so we were negotiating something that may or may not have existed. We were in the middle of negotiating when the shots were fired."

"Was my daughter shot?" Eloise was shaking worse than her daughter had been, despite Eddie shaking his head.

"No. No. It was the display cases." Eddie sighed, "Six bullets took out the display cases without a problem. The glass flew. A piece lodged in Fiona's scalp. She got it removed and her scalp was stitched up. It's healed and she's fine. She's relied on sleeping pills for a month to be able to sleep. The flashbacks kept me home for a while but she got through it. We got through it. The memories, the flashbacks, they aren't as bad but they're not gone. She bordered on a Post Traumatic Stress diagnosis for a couple of weeks."

"My daughter was almost killed and I...I treated her like she was an incompetent child." Eloise reeled back in shock. "How could I - ?"

"Before you go blaming yourself, let me clue you in to something. When I first started renting this house, I thought Fiona was nothing but a pain in my ass." Eddie told her softly, walking over to the table. He leaned down, resting his hands against it. "But then I realized that the reason I hated her so bad was because I saw so much of myself in her. Yes, okay, maybe she's stubborn but that's one of the reasons she survived. Her stubbornness...that fiery determination you see in her...that's why your daughter survived. That's why I love her. Because she's so determined to live life in her own way. I know it may seem like she has no idea what she's doing with her life but she does. She has a better grip on how to live than most. Because of how she lives. She lives on her own, essentially. Yes, I live here but Fiona is still independent. She can make it on her own if she has too and she has. She's made it on her own...far better than I did at her age. I don't know what you think of her now that you know all of this but just know this...your daughter is the reason I haven't left London yet."

"Mister Arlette," Eloise looked up at him curiously. "I've been a horrible person and for that I'd like to sincerely apologize. I'm hoping both you and my daughter could forgive me?"

"Missus Bickerton, you need not ask for my forgiveness. Your daughter should be your first priority." Eddie nodded toward Fiona's room. "I think it's time you two had a chat."

Eloise nodded and stood up, starting toward Fiona's room only to turn on her heel and meet Eddie's eyes. For the first time since she had arrived, Eddie saw the genuine gratitude in her eyes. Her voice was soft and sincere as she spoke; "Thank you, Mister Arlette."

And as she continued down the hall to speak with her daughter, Eddie couldn't help but think about how much alike Eloise and Fiona truly were. They were stubborn, determined and no-nonsense women but when need be they were full of class and grace and spoke with such sincerity that you'd almost wonder if it was real.

Perhaps Eloise and Fiona had more in common than they thought.

So once again, I turned to my ever faithful muse, She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5 for this chapter and finished it in just a few minutes. I love doing that! Anyway, I had to tweak it to make just how I wanted it and the whole monologue that Eddie gives to Fiona's mother was unplanned but when I started writing it, I just thought what the hell, I'll keep it just because I liked it and because well...my muse is an odd thing :) Anyway, I hope you like this. Leave me some love, Dolls.

Love ya,

RobertDowneyJrLove

P.S. The reason I started off with Eloise listening to her daughter giggle and then seeing her daughter freak out like she did was because this chapter was to in part show you, the readers, and show the character of Fiona's mother just how much her daughter has changed from that innocent little girl to a grown woman with a life of her own.