Can't remember who asked this question but the lyrics at the start of the last chapter were from a song called 'She's the One' and is by Robbie Williams. Ok, formalities out of the way, on with the story.

17. I haven't ever really found a place that I call home/I never stick around quite long enough to make it/I apologize that once again I'm not in love/But it's not as if I mind/ that your heart ain't exactly breaking/It's just a thought/only a thought/but if my life/is for rent/and I don't/learn/to buy/well I deserve/nothing more than I get/cos nothing I have/is truly mine

Faith had come back from work early. Jelly hadn't needed her for much, mainly to find a case file that she had filed away. It amazed her how the man could be so dopey and not even look in the file cabinet. Upon arriving back to her apartment she had slipped back into some comfortable sweats and an over-sized jumper. Realising she hadn't had breakfast she started on that too. Even though it was past three in the afternoon. Better late than never she supposed.

"Hey Mom! I'm home!" Emily announced as she entered the small apartment. Faith glanced up from her paper, long enough to flash her daughter a smile.

Emily unwrapped her scarf, trailing it off her neck as she began to unbutton her coat with her free hand. She looked around, scanning the place for her mother's ex-partner.

"Bosco gone?" she asked, realising there was no sign of him.

"Yeah…he left a while ago…" Faith mumbled, concentrating on the page in front of her. Emily's gaze fell on the table. Her mother kept her eyes firmly fixed on the paper, while alternately feeding herself cereal from a new blue ceramic bowl that came from a set her and Emily had recently bought.

"So…you were pretty lit last night," Emily said, moving into the kitchen. Faith nearly choked on her cereal, spluttering as she fought the morsel that threatened to block her airway.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh come on Mom. You were," Emily smiled, reaching into the fridge for a bottle of diet coke. Her mother's eyes narrowed.

"I was drunk Emily, don't speak like that again," she warned shuffling her paper. Emily merely shrugged as she sipped from the cold bottle.

"Whatever, lit, drunk, intoxicated, hammered…all means the same thing," Emily replied as she screwed back on the cap. The paper fell to the table and Faith looked up. She was in no mood for her daughter's cheek. She had a bad enough headache without her high-pitched voice lecturing her.

"Emily really. This is your last warning. I'm not in the mood."

Emily bit down on her tongue so as to prevent another smart answer escaping. Instead she thought of Bosco and thought maybe he was a better topic of conversation. "He was really good to you last night."

"What?" Faith sighed, squinting at her daughter in bewilderment.

"Bosco. He took real good care of you when you came in," she informed her, settling into the seat across the table. Faith looked at Emily, wondering whether she was still being smart or not.

"How do you know?" she asked. Emily grinned.

"I saw you when you came in," she conceded with a giggle, "Oh Mom you were so funny!"

Faith was horrified. She was sure Emily could see the blush in her cheeks and hung her head in a feeble attempt to hide it.

"Don't be embarrassed, I'm glad to see you finally having some fun!"

"Being drunk isn't fun Emily. It means forgetting where you are, who you're with, what is happening to you…"

"Mom!" Emily cut in holding up her hands, "I know ok? Don't need a repeat on the lecture. I'm just saying…it's good to see you go out and let your hair down…"

"Well I shouldn't have. It was a mistake I'll never make again," she replied, folding her paper. She knew her daughter wasn't going to give her peace to read it and so she had given up on the thought of some time to herself.

"What? You mean you're not going to go out with Keith again?" Emily asked, shocked. Faith met her young eyes and shrugged.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Don't you like him or something?" Emily persisted.

"It just seems inappropriate now, I shouldn't be showing you these kinda things. This isn't the right way to live life."

"Come on Mom! Don't try and pin this on me! I am not gonna be your escape route this time!" Emily retorted, pointing at her mother. Faith was taken back with how forward she was, and her jaw hung open as words failed to materialize.

"Listen Em…"

"Mom, you like this guy right?"

"Yeah, I suppose. He's nice…and fun…"

"Well then? Even if this doesn't turn out to be anything more than a fling what harm can it do? The worst that can happen is that you enjoy yourself," Emily smiled. Her mother couldn't help but return it – her daughter was really getting wise in her old age…

"And the best that can happen?" Faith questioned. Emily grinned, leaning back in her chair, her slim arms folded across her chest.

"You make Bosco insanely jealous," she replied. Faith shook her head, laughing softly.

"Now why would I want to do that?"

"Because…you know he has the hots for you…" Emily explained.

"Emily! Bosco does not have the 'hots' for me!" Faith chuckled, disbelieving of her daughters' crazy assumption.

"Sure he doesn't…" she humoured her mother, nodding over-enthusiastically.

"He doesn't! He's seeing someone Emily. And he's a very old friend," Faith told her, her eyes narrowed.

"What's the old saying Mom? Best friends make the best lovers?"

"Emily Yokas! I am not comfortable with the direction this conversation has taken!" Faith cried, upon hearing her daughter's overly mature statement. Emily giggled into her hand.

"Chill Mom. It's just a saying…" she said, smiling smugly.

"Ok, who are you and what have you done with my quiet teenage daughter?" Faith teased, amused by the banter.

"I'm still your daughter. Just perhaps a little more observant than before," Emily suggested.

Both females fell quiet, Emily staring at her mother, Faith staring at the floor.

"Seriously though Mom…Bosco is good to you."

"It's 'cause I'm his partner Em – he feels obligated to take care of me," Faith replied with a quiet sigh.

"Since when has Maurice Boscorelli ever felt obligated to anything?" Emily asked, wrinkling her nose, "Mom it goes way deeper than the whole 'partner' deal you two hide behind on a regular basis. He was so good to you last night. You came in all drunk and he took care of you. He doesn't have to do that… he wants too."

"Because I'm his friend Emily. He cares for me. And you. And Charlie. We're the closest thing he has to family. He'd do anything for us…"

"Mom you and I both know that Bosco isn't exactly the 'family' type. He cares for me and Charlie because of you. I mean take a look around this place! He's basically living here! You clean his clothes, you make his dinners, you watch movies together, you go walking together…you and Dad never did any of those things."

"We never had time to Emily. And the reason I do all those things with Bosco is 'cause I'm all he's got-" Faith stopped abruptly, her daughter smirking as her mother freely admitted to her and Bosco's unique relationship.

"You said it not me," Emily smiled.

"That came out wrong, it sounded bad," Faith mumbled. Emily just looked at her, still smiling.

"I'm not justifying what I said to you Emily, you're my daughter! Not the other way round!"

"I never said anything!" Emily chuckled, holding up her hands.

"Yeah well don't…because you coerced me into saying all that stuff. You manipulated it."

Emily nodded. "Whatever."

Faith sighed, exasperated. "What…oh never mind. I'm going to go to bed for a while…if anyone calls I'm out…"

"That include Bosco?" Emily asked, raising her eyebrows playfully. Faith spun around on her heel as she dumped her bowl into the kitchen sink.

"Yes Emily…that includes Bosco," she gritted through clenched teeth.

"Just checking."

Faith padded across the tiles, her feet kicking at a scrunched up ball of paper on the floor. She bent over to retrieve it, carefully unravelling it. She read the headline and recognised it from the magazine Emily had bought for her yesterday. Frowning she held it up in the air.

"You lose this?" she asked her daughter. Emily looked up and shook her head.

"Nuh-uh," she replied, "But uh…"

"What?"

"Bosco was reading it last night…maybe he tore it out…" she suggested. Faith glanced back at the page in her hand, more than confused.

"Maybe."

She stared at it for several moments before scrunching it up in her hand and throwing it into the trashcan.