"Are you sure I can't get you something?" Officer Alto offered my mother.

She shook her head slightly, her loose curls swaying with the motion. Even though I've always seen my mother as one of those people who can't seem to even be still, one of those people who almost always has to be in motion or doing something productive and moving around, I'd never seen her fidget so much while she struggled to sit in place.

I could kind of understand her fidgetiness.

It can't be easy having your daughter ask you to drive to the police station, especially the morning after a night of heavy drinking, to talk to the officer handling my case and having to hear him retell the entire story over again of everything that's happened to me so that maybe the news will sink in and she'll step up and be mom.

She agreed after a few reluctant moments of hesitation but I don't think she pictured how hard it would be to hear the story all over again as Stan laid out the case for her.

"Coffee perhaps?" his partner Mark offered although he seemed to be reconsidering offering caffeine the more she moved around.

She used the arms of her chair to straighten herself up for about the hundredth time.

Officer Alto and Mark looked as concerned as I was about her inability to sit still. They shared a brief look before turning their attention back to my mother. Maybe the situation is as bad as I thought. Maybe even worse.

"No, no I'm fine," she declined again.

She tugged on the work uniform she was wearing before crossing her legs only to unfold them seconds later.

I couldn't take it anymore, watching her fidget so much. It's out of character. I just want my understanding, useful mother back.

I put my hand over hers on the arm rest.

"Mom, sit still," I gently say.

She looks at me the way she use to. It's just for a moment but her green eyes search my brown ones for a few seconds before looking away suddenly unable to even look up again. Her hand slowly pulls out from beneath my own.

It hurts.

She pulled away from me.

My mother pulled away from me when I need her most.

I can't face that fact that Officer Alto and Mark have seen this so I stare at a spot in the carpet when he clears his throat to start talking again.

"This is not an easy situation to handle, obviously," he begins, " but it is a situation in which your daughter needs as much support as she can get, especially from family."

The clock on the wall ticks once, twice, before my mother responds in a quiet voice.

"Our only other family, my mother, died last year," she says. "It's just us now." She's it as if she's only just now realized that it's me and her and that we need each other.

"Exactly," Officer Alto agrees, "It's just the two of you and you need one another for support when I see that Mr. Ivashkov is arrested and this case goes to trial," he says echoing my thoughts, sounding so certain this will turn out the way he intends for it to.

When my mother doesn't say anything he uprights himself from where he'd been leaning forward on the desk. All signs of the gentle Officer slowly fading as he realizes it's tough love that my mother might need to knock some sense into her. I notice this a second before he speaks and before I can warn him that tough love doesn't really work on my mother, that my grandmother gave her tough love her entire life, her's already talking.

"Look, you're going to have to see that you're the parent in this situation, you're Rose's mother-"

"But I'm not a very good one am I?" she interrupts finally looking up at me.

Her statement catches me so off guard I don't know what to say for a few seconds. Luckily the officer helps me out.

"That's not the issue here. Whether you believe you're a good mother or not, if you stand by your daughter, help her deal with some of this like with finding a lawyer, that's being a good mother."

Mark was nodding along in agreement with his partner.

"I'm so sorry!"

She's crying so suddenly it's like someone flicked a switch on inside of her, rivers of tears down her face. Even the two Officers look a little uncomfortable at the sudden emotion.

"I just...I don't know what to do...I should've done something...I should've known...a good mother would've known!"

"It's not your fault," I say automatically.

"I should've known!" she says louder this time, her face turning pink as she cries harder.

"It's not you're fault," I repeat feeling like she should be saying these words to me, not the other way around.

"Something as terribly disturbing as that happens to your daughter and a mother should know! I can't even look at you," she weeps.

I feel like I've been slapped.

She couldn't tell me things would be alright, she couldn't just give me a kiss on the forehead and a hug, she couldn't handle me touching her and now...I'm a sight for sore eyes.

Despite this, there's a part of me that hopes this is her breaking point. She just needed to cry it out a little and then she'll be able to take her role as protective mother again and we'll get through this. Together.

I'm reaching out to touch again, hoping she'll let me this time but she's up and stumbling out of her chair before I get the chance. She's struggling to put her purse on her shoulder and sniffling back her tears.

"I have...I have to go...I have...work. I have to go to work," she says clearly after a deep breath and then she's gone, leaving the office and the police station faster than I've ever seen her move, seemingly forgetting that she drove me here.

"What...just happened?" Mark ask breaking the weird silence that follows my mother's outburst and sudden absence.

My thoughts exactly.

My mother's reaction came completely out of left field.

"I thought talking to you would make her step up, it'd make her understand and handle this better," I say looking at Officer Alto.

He leans back in his chair, his hand against his temple. "We have situations like this sometimes. Some parents are so heavy with guilty that they forget their child is in pain too if not more."

That could explain or her reaction.

Or maybe it's exactly as she sais.

Maybe she's just not a good mother.

Maybe grandma was right.

"Well, I'm sorry you had to see that," I say awkwardly.

"I should say the same to you," Alto says gently. "Don't apologize for her. Like some parents it'll take a little time."

His voice sounds hopeful, not as certain as when he'd talked about making sure this case goes to trial but hopeful. I want to be hopeful to. I want to wish it's that simple.

Just a little more time. That's all she needs.

I get the feeling it's more than that though.

I have a foreboding feeling in my stomach that this is just the beginning.

A/N: Kinda dull chapter, I know. I wanted to give you guyssomething so I took this from the beginning of the next chapter (that has yet to be finished). I also know some of you guys are waiting for me to pick up the pace soooo...just thought I'd share that there is definitely Rose and Dimitri fluff coming up!

As usual, you guys are awesome!