Maggie was sitting at her desk typing a report into her laptop and looking toward the open office door when someone knocked on the doorframe. She furrowed her brows and closed the laptop when she recognized the surprise visitor. "Hi," she said, automatically glancing at her wristwatch before she began frantically scanning her desk for something. "Did I forget a hearing?" Maura, standing by the door, started to smile and entered the office. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No, you didn't." Maggie relaxed momentarily and looked questioningly at her mother-in-law. "Please have a seat." Maura tucked her chin in surprise and drew her eyebrows together. "If I didn't know better, I'd think I was a slate mother monster." The redhead relaxed instantly and took a deep breath. "Sorry, it's just --" She gestured to one of the empty chairs in front of her desk and raised her shoulders as her mother-in-law took a seat. "We've all been a little tense for the past few days. By that, I mean the entire BPD." "Not just the BPD," Maura replied, pressing her lips together briefly. "Jane and Elizabeth's case has the Justice Department and the Senate in turmoil ... Again." The redhead smiled broadly. "How could it be otherwise," she replied, folding her hands. "So, Maura, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?" Maura looked at the young woman long and hard and licked her lips before answering, "I haven't seen you and Liz since the last time we had dinner a week ago. I just wanted to see how you two were doing. Since Liz is out of BPD, so I thought I'd stop by your place." "Liz isn't at BPD?" asked Maggie, a little surprised, checking her cell phone and reading the message her wife had sent her while performing an exterior postmortem. Went to the last crime scene. The doctor took a deep breath and set the device aside again, now licking her lips. "Liz and I hardly see each other these days, I mean, since we've had this series of murders." "Yes," Maura sighed with a slight frown, "I can very much relate to that." Maggie suffered under the absence of her wife, but also her mother-in-law of her. Even if Jane, after the hunt for Legion at that time, Maura had promised to step back a little in work, everyone knew that such wouldn't be easy for the chief. What had also proved true after the beginning of the series of murders. Contrary to all expectations, however, Maura had come to terms with the new situation and had even promised to cooperate fully with the BPD, provided that the evidence was sufficient. That promise also meant that Maura, who had considered retiring during the past case, became fully involved in her office to satisfy the investigators needs. Maggie nodded slowly. "It's hard, but nothing Liz and I couldn't handle." Maura nodded and inevitably began to smile as she again eyed her daughter-in-law long and hard. "What is it?" the doctor asked, a little confused when she saw the lawyer's smile but smiled back. Maura opened her mouth and immediately closed it again as if she had changed her mind, keeping to herself what had crossed her mind at that moment. She changed her sitting position and crossed her legs. "I was just thinking about how hard it was for Liz to admit back then that she didn't like men; she liked women." She paused and rolled her eyes. "Well, she was at the beginning of puberty then, and Kate was teasing her about it at the time because she just didn't know any better." Maggie sucked in her lower lip and nodded again. "Yeah, Elizabeth told me about that. When Dionysus's case was going on, she realized she was different from other girls and hadn't fallen in love with the cool boys in the school like her female school friend, but with just her female classmates." Maura brushed an invisible wrinkle out of her expensive designer suit pants and took a deep breath. She wondered why she had never talked about it all the time Elizabeth had been with Maggie or why the subject had never come up. "The time Liz had found herself, her sexuality, was pretty hard. Jane and I were separated --" She made a face and waved it off. "No, scratch that. Jane and I were divorced, bickering over every little thing and fighting over our children's favors while we hunted Dionysius together. And then --" Maggie listened intently to her mother-in-law and, after a while, the lawyer continued to be silent, said, "And then you disappeared." "And at some point, I was presumed dead," Maura added after swallowing hard. She still found it difficult to talk about past events, even though she had years of therapy behind her. She licked her lips with a deep frown. "I think by the end, Jane and Elizabeth were the last ones who held on to the fact that I was still alive. Even Angela, Vince, and Frankie stopped believing. And at some point, so did Kate. They thought I was rotting at the bottom of some lake or dead in another state dump or roadside. Faceless, identity-less." "A fate that far too many suffer," Maggie said as she stood up and walked to the door to close it. This conversation was one that not all of her co-workers necessarily needed to overhear. "Yes," Maura sighed, following her daughter-in-law with her eyes, "unfortunately, far too many. Even today." She sniffed briefly before clearing her throat to regain her composure. "Anyway, Liz had difficulty finding herself and standing by who she was. And then, at some point, Sarah came along." She paused when she noticed the doctor looking at her hands for a moment. It hadn't escaped her notice that Maggie only knew half the story and decided to add the rest. "Before Sarah came into Liz's life, Elizabeth lived a very 'normal' life in the eyes of society. She had had boyfriends and dated men back then, while she had been in the police academy, and had had sex with them, even though she kept saying it wasn't fulfilling and made forays into the lesbian world. She had considered herself much more bi than lesbian at the time." Maggie furrowed her brows as she listened intently to Maura's words. She realized she was about to learn a little more from her wife that Elizabeth would not volunteer. Maura took a deep breath. "And then Sarah came into her life." Maggie knew that Sarah was Elizabeth's first love but didn't know how much it had impacted the detective's life. She exhaled loudly. "Liz's first real big love." Maura smiled sadly and nodded. "Sarah is why Elizabeth is herself today, not hiding behind a personality more pleasing to the public. Jane and I modeled for her that it was perfectly okay to love women instead of men, no matter what society thought, but Elizabeth couldn't stand by herself until Sarah came into her life. Sarah didn't care what people thought when she and Liz held hands in public or kissed in front of everyone in the park. Sarah showed her that it was okay to be who you were." Maggie smiled broadly even though her heart felt heavy at that moment. "So Liz wasn't the big bad cop she is today?" Maura laughed out loud and shook her head. "No, she was a young woman who didn't know who she was until she found a woman who brought her closer to herself. Liz never willingly introduced Sarah to me. As you know, she was an aspiring investigative journalist and had intercepted me after a press conference. She asked me if I was Liz's mother, and after I answered in the affirmative, she introduced herself to me as the woman who was dating my daughter." Maggie laughed heartily. "Charming." Maura laughed as she remembered the day. "Very." But then she turned serious again and looked piercingly at her daughter-in-law. "You gave us back our daughter." Maggie chuckled and frowned deeply as she remembered that she had made a bet with Elizabeth that included dinner and steak, and she knew she would win that bet, too. What she hadn't counted on was that Elizabeth would ask her out for a second, third, fourth, and fifth date and eventually propose marriage. "I was just calling in a betting debt at the time." Maura laughed heartily; she could never talk to Sarah that way. "Thank you." Maggie grew serious and looked at her mother-in-law in confusion. "For what?" "For really loving my daughter," Maura breathed. Maggie inhaled sharply and was about to say 'Of course', but paused and smiled honestly. "I think we brought back each other, Maura."