Jane sat at the dining table, studying a file with furrowed brows like it would tell her more than it did. Like it would give her more answers than her daughter did when she visited her best friends house. Something was bugging her, the thought that Liz hasn't told her the whole story, that all of this was bigger than they thought. She leaned back in her chair and heaved a sigh. "I really would love to talk to that Detective Danielson." She said and rubbed her tired eyes. Since she got to know about Percy's arson and the man in the woods, she barely slept and kept digging, just like her brother and Adam.

Maura was standing at the kitchen island and wiggled her brow. She was feeling the same way her wife did. "You are aware of the fact that he's living in California, aren't you?"

The Italian crossed her arms over her chest and nodded slowly. "It doesn't mean that I can't talk to him, Maura."

"But your face is saying that you'd like to talk to Danielson in person."

Jane frowned and turned her head to the smaller woman. "Am I that obvious?"

Maura smiled broadly at the other woman and nodded in agreement. "Yes, you are to me, Jane."

Jane groaned and got up from her chair, walked to the fridge and got herself a bottle of water out of it, and opened it. "You know, all of this makes no sense. I mean, what made Liz runoff and keeps her mouth shut even though she knows that all of us are on her side. I get the feeling that she's about to run again, and to leave us behind with more questions than answers."

"At least we know that she's alive," Maura stated and didn't smile when the former detective lowered the bottle slowly, but on the inside she did.

Jane opened her mouth to reply something but then she decided to give up. "Don't pretend that you haven't been worried sick for all those years, Maura."

"Oh, I have been, yes." The smaller woman agreed without hesitation and without shame.

The Italian leaned her hip against the counter and took a swig from the bottle. "It bothers me that people still say about Liz that she has mental issues. I mean, there were no indices for it."

Maura nodded slowly and licked her lips. "Time change a person Jane."

"Yeah, I know that, Maura." The former detective replied and took a deep breath. "But they make it sound like she's been suffering of it for, I don't know, since her childhood and that we didn't see it or didn't want to see it. Is it possible, Maura? If it possible that we have been too busy with our own lives that we missed our daughter's mental issues?"

Maura sighed herself and took the hand of her wife in hers, leading both of them to the living room and sat down on the couch. She had to admit it, she asked herself the same question ever since she heard of Chaz' being knocked out and the dead police officer James Waterston, and that her very own daughter had been the number one suspect. She asked herself the same question after she was told that Liz' apparently had cut her wrists. She turned to the brunette and glanced long at her before she said, "We have been busy, yes, but we never have been that busy that we neglected our daughter or to miss things like mental issues. You haven't been that busy, Jane. And you would have noticed any kind of behavioral disorders of Elizabeth, and you would have been highly alerted the moment you noticed it. And I know that you would have come to me and asked me for advice. No, we haven't been too busy with ourselves, Jane. We did everything possible we could do to raise a good child." She still saw the hint of doubt in brown eyes and skidded closer. "You are a good mom, Jane."

"Just as you," Jane mumbled and leaned back, another sigh escaped from her mouth. "Perhaps I should have been alerted when she started to sleep with every single male after she broke off with Adam."

"You mean after he was shot and almost died?"

"That's no reason to whore around." She flinched after Maura hit her shoulder hard. "What was that for?"

"For the entire sentence that came out of your mouth. Back then she was troubled."

Jane rubbed her shoulder and clenched her jaw. "I've been shot several times, too, but that didn't make you sleep with every single guy who crossed your way." She paused and furled her brows. "Or haven't you been troubled when I got injured?"

"Of course, I have been, Jane. What makes you believe I haven't distracted myself while you recovered." Maura replied and got up from the couch.

Jane blinked a couple of times before she followed the smaller woman. "You are kidding, right?" She frowned when she didn't get an answer. She knew that her wife was faithful to her, she never doubted it for a second, but Maura's silence started to worry her. "Maura?"

The former ME started to chuckle and turned to her wife. "Of course, I was just kidding, Jane. Do you really think I am a person who could cheat on her partner?"

"Actually, you cheated on your ex-husband with me." The Italian stated and regretted it immediately she saw the look on the smaller woman's face. "Sorry."

"You made me cheat on Benjamin."

"Well I didn't hold a gun to your head and forced you to have sex with me, did I?" Jane retorted and furrowed her brows. She once told herself not to think back at the DA and ex-husband of Maura since she got married to Maura. She never liked this man, Benjamin Payton. Somehow, he seemed devious and glib to her, and that kept her on the edge every time he was around her. She had no idea why she suddenly was thinking of him. She pursed her lips and was about to say something else when her phone started to buzz on the dining table. She got it in her hand and furled her brows. "Well, before I'll talk to Danielson, I'll talk to our dear daughter first."

Maura recognized the seriousness of her wife's voice and walked up to her. "What's wrong, Jane?"

Jane clenched her jaw and showed the blonde the message she just received.

Maura's brows shot up.

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Liz stood in front of the house of her mothers and studied it carefully, noticing that not much had changed. She took a deep breath and knocked carefully on the door. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous, that was the house she spent most of the time as a teenager in it. She smiled forced at Maura as the older woman opened the front door, but it's accompanied with a small frown. "Hey, Mom."

Maura's face, on the other hand, was straight and Liz' smile dropped instantly. "Come in."

Liz cleared her throat and entered the house with hesitance, looking around in the entrance hall. "Okay. Um, you want to talk to me about something?"

Maura didn't look at her and led the way into the living room. "Ma wants to talk to you."

"About what?"

Maura slowed her steps for a second and glanced seriously at her daughter. "You better ask her that yourself."

"Okay," Liz replied and frowned. "what is going on?"

"You tell us," Jane stated when the two women entered the kitchen and pointed at a chair next to her. "Sit."

Liz realized that she was here because of a serious matter and did as Jane told, waiting for the older woman to look at her instead at the monitor of her laptop.

But Jane didn't, instead, she asked directly, "You still don't wanna tell us why you vanished?" Finally, she looked from the monitor when she didn't get a response only to see that Liz clenched her jaw. "It seems like you literally have fallen off the face of the earth until the day you started to work with Detective Danielson again." She stated and turned the device to her daughter to show her the information she had gotten from her friend Joe Talaro. She gave her daughter time to explain herself and leaned back in the chair. "According to my friend, there have been no bank account, no tenancy agreement and no contract of employment of yours until you partnered up with Danielson."

Liz listened carefully and took a deep breath. "That must be a hell of a friend of yours."

"Don't be a smart ass." The former detective warned and glared at her. "You kept yourself off the radar for three years, you took a hell off an effort to stay invisible and then you reappeared? There has to be a reason."

Liz' raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly. "Why don't you go and asked your friend what made me do … reappearing."

"I swear to God -" Jane growled low and shut the device forcefully. "We are trying to help you, Liz."

"I don't need any of your help." The younger woman replied louder and glared back at her mother.

"Apparently you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been under arrest for murder. Without Frankie and Adam -"

"Oh, stop that already," Liz growled and got up from the chair.

"Without them, you'd be charged with murder. Chaz, your friend was beaten up quite badly and a former co-worker of yours is dead -"

"Yes," the younger woman shouted which made Jane shut up. "Yes, Ma, I am quite aware of those facts and that I have to live with the consequences. I don't need you rubbing it in my face. If I wouldn't have shown up in Boston, Chaz wouldn't have been beaten up and Waterston would still be alive, all of this is on me and I know it."

"Why did you made a stop in Boston," Maura gently asked the moment her wife opened her mouth and she knew that this would only escalate if she wouldn't interfere.

Jane huffed and clenched her jaw.

Liz, on the other hand, relaxed at the sound of the blonde's voice and sighed. "I'm only human, Mom. The moment I knew I was going to pass Boston, I gave Chaz a call to check on how my godson and my very own son were doing, he told me to meet with him, so he'd tell me all of them." She paused and closed her eyes briefly. "It was a mistake, though."

Jane still glared at the younger woman and furled her brows. "You gave Chaz a call that you'd be in Boston, but it didn't cross your mind to inform us?"

"To keep you safe," the young brunette replied and wanted to stuff the words back down her throat the moment she saw the puzzled looks of her mothers. She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes briefly. "Otherwise, you'd be the one who ended up in the morgue, Ma."

"I wouldn't." Jane laughed.

"Tell that Waterston," Liz mumbled under her breath and the former detective frowned.

Maura glanced long at Jane and then she stepped a little closer to Liz. "Why do you think that your mother and I would need protection?"

Liz started to wring her hands nervously like Jane did when she was bothered by something and sighed. "I'm talking about everyone for whom I truly care."

That made Jane sit up and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Who is coming after you?"

Liz looked long at the former detective and told herself that her mother wasn't wrong when she told her that her instincts weren't sharp any more. She heaved a sigh and licked her lips. "I don't know."

Maura was the one who as highly alerted now. "Someone is harassing you," she asked and the younger woman simply wiggled her brows. "For how long?"

Jane got up from her chair and stepped closer to her daughter. "Let me take a wild guess. For five years, right?"

Maura took the silence as a yes and asked with a high-pitched voice. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Mom." Liz groaned.

"Because the person who is still after she threatened to come for us if she'd let us in, that's what Elizabeth made leave without a second thought."

Maura looked confused at her wife. "Why are you thinking so?"

Jane didn't break the eye contact with Liz and sighed. "Because that's the only thing that would make me leave without saying a final goodbye: And that would be the only thing that would make me stay away from the ones I love even though it'd kill me bit by bit every single damn day."

Liz was silent and licked her lips, closing her eyes without realizing that a tear ran down her cheek.

Jane sighed but her voice was gently when she asked, "How the hell got you into that, kid?"

The younger woman took a deep breath and shrugged, brows furrowed. "Actually, I have no idea. I mean, I still was on maternity leave and went to the park or the grocery with Zane then usual when I got the feeling that someone was watching and following us. With time I also started to feel paranoid but shook the feeling off, told myself that I'm about to go crazy. But then I started to receive emails and voicemails that someone would come for me and those I love and kill them when they're fast asleep and if I tell someone about it. I got pictures of persons … people who were … slaughtered … literally. And there were messages under it which were written Your husband is next … Your son is next … Your Ma is next … Do not get involved in police business again."

Jane waited and frowned. "After you left, you started your private investigation?"

Liz sat down on her chair again and heaved a sigh. "Not exactly. I also have connections, Ma. After some time, I asked a friend of mine to trace the messages and that led me to California, I was trying to find the bastard who was threatening my family and my friends, and it led me to the police department I was working for."

"So got into police business again?"

"And things got worse. The person who is doing this is watching you guys. They sent me pictures of you the present day, all of you. That's why I agreed to meet Chaz, besides the fact I've really craved to hear how you guys are doing, all of you. I am not that cold, Ma."

Jane nodded slowly and glanced worriedly at her wife. "What made you return to the police?"

Maura obviously shared Jane's worries but kept her mouth shut.

Liz glanced at both women and shrugged. "A friend of my friend was investigating cases of cops who appeared to be dirty and he asked for an insider. I owed my friend and I volunteered for the job."

"Danielson is dirty?"

"I'm not sure of that, but he's hiding something."

Jane started to head for the front door. "I'm so going to see that guy."

Maura made a step forward. "Jane -"

The former detective turned to the blonde and frowned. "No one's gonna hurt my baby." She glanced at her daughter as soon as she saw the smile of Maura. "I'm talking about Liz."

"I know." The former ME laughed and Liz grunted.

But then the younger woman was the one who followed the older woman. "Ma?"

Jane craved to hear the name but turned with a sigh. "Yeah." She found herself in a tight hug of her daughter and stiffened for a moment, but then she relaxed and hugged Liz back. "I'll be alright, kid. Don't worry about me."

"Easier said." The younger woman mumbled and released her mother again. "Please take care."

"I will, Lizzy."

"And Ma?"

"Yes, kid?"

"I have to get something off my chest for a while."

Jane tensed again. "Go ahead."

Liz smiled broadly and said, "I love you, Ma."

A smile broke free and Jane nodded once. "I love you, too, baby. Very much." She pulled away again and looked at the smiling doctor. "Now I'm even more craving for a chat with Detective Danielson."

Maura nodded slowly in agreement