Honor Among Thieves

There were a lot of things in her life that Emily's mother hadn't been privy to – since she was fifteen and any semblance of a relationship they'd had collapsed altogether. Since much earlier, if she were being honest.

And as much as she didn't believe in God or fate or the machinations of the universe, she had to wonder if something bigger than herself was at play, bringing her mother back into her life when it did after so many years had passed between them with only the most formal of communications between them when they bothered to communicate at all.

If she were being honest, Emily had been wanting to reach out for awhile now, but hadn't for fear of being rejected the way she had so many times growing up. But Elizabeth Prentiss seemed genuinely lonely, genuinely sorry...

And being a mother herself had changed Emily. Made her soft. Made her careful and reckless all at once.

She supposed that was why she'd called Ian and Declan and told them to meet her for dinner without pausing to consider whether it was a good idea to introduce her mother to Ian...or vice versa.

When she parked in front of the restaurant, Emily turned off the engine, but made no move to get out of the car. She chewed one thumbnail anxiously, only vaguely aware of how much her mother hated the nervous habit, as she tried to figure out the best way to broach the subject of the surprise family she was about to foist on her unsuspecting mother.

"Something the matter, dear?" Elizabeth asked, watching her rather warily.

Emily sighed and plunged in head-first. "There's something I should prepare you for..."

"Emily?" It was clear in her voice that she was struggling to reserve judgement, which wasn't exactly her strong suit.

"I invited my fiancé and our son to join us for dinner," she said in one quick breath.

"You..." she started, stopped. "You have a son?"

"I adopted him. He's my fiancé's son. His name is Declan, he just turned six, and he's the sweetest little boy you'll ever meet." It was clear in her voice that she desperately wanted her mother to love Declan as much as she did.

"I can't wait to meet him," Elizabeth said with a diplomatic smile.

Emily had chosen Declan's favourite restaurant. It wasn't exactly up to her mother's five star dining standards, but it had a massive fish tank in the centre of the room. Declan could watch the fish happily for hours, sometimes to the point of forgetting to eat. Or forgetting to be excited to see her.

He had his back turned towards the door when Emily arrived, hands and nose pressed up against the glass. She couldn't help but smile at his innocent fascination and silently prayed he'd never lose his joy over the little things in life.

"Dec, go say hi to your Ma," Ian told the boy, sharing a smile with Emily when he continued to fail to notice her.

Elizabeth watched as the boy flew into Emily's arms, watched as Emily wrapped the boy in her embrace and pressed a kiss to his messy curls, watched as she whispered a greeting in his ear and tickled his sides until peels of laughter rang out from his rosebud lips.

Emily glanced over her shoulder at her mother and flashed her a smile obviously full of nerves. "Schnecke, I want you to meet someone really special," she said softly to the boy with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "This...is your Grandma Elizabeth."

Declan smiled shyly at her, but made no move closer. He glanced back at Emily, his blue eyes filled with wariness, obviously seeking out his mother's reassurance. Emily whispered something in his ear, then looked in his eyes with a motherly smile, stroking his cheek tenderly. After a moment, he nodded, then mumbled a shy greeting to his new grandmother.

"It's very nice to meet you," Elizabeth said with all the warmth she knew how to muster, then immediately wished she'd said something sweeter, something more grandmotherly. Then, she wished she had some kind of gift to give him. Anything but a tight awkward smile.

Elizabeth watched Emily with her son.

She watched Emily be a mother. Watched her be gentle and loving and soft. Vulnerable.

All the things she hadn't been able to be when Emily was a child.

For so many years, Elizabeth had worried that she'd failed Emily. By being too distant, too strict. By being a parent without being a mother. By being absent when it mattered. For a whole host of reasons she couldn't list if she had all day.

Now, though...after seeing the way Emily's son adored her so clearly, it seemed Emily had managed to break the cycle to become the type of mother Elizabeth had always wanted to be, but had somehow fallen so short of.

"I'm proud of you," Elizabeth said, breaking the silence in the car as Emily drove her back home.

"Proud of me?" Emily repeated and, if she sounded entirely too surprised to hear those words coming from her mother, well, she couldn't exactly be blamed for that. "For what?"

"You've become a wonderful mother."

"And you're surprised by that?" she asked, a little hurt.

"No, of course not – I just never thought you'd settle down, you always seemed so focused on your career. I worried I'd screwed up your ability to trust, to risk your heart... I admit, I wasn't a very good mother, but I wanted better for you. Better than me, than the example I set." She paused, thoughtful. It seems you've found it."

Emily opened her mouth to say something, but sharing anything more real than polite small talk with her mother wasn't exactly something she was good at. Instead, she replied with something only tangentially related. "I was worried you wouldn't like Declan, wouldn't accept him because he's not mine."

"He is yours. I see that in the way you look at him, the way he looks at you. I see that unconditional love, that unspoken bond." A bond the two of them had never really shared.

Emily gave a watery smile and reached across the centre console to squeeze her mother's hand, the gesture feeling entirely foreign, but comforting all the same. "That means a lot, Mother."

"Emily..." Elizabeth started. Stopped. Sighed. "I want to do better. To try harder. I want to be a part of your life, your son's life. I don't want to be a stranger anymore."

Emily wanted to tell her she wasn't a stranger, but knew it would be a lie. "I'd like that," she said finally.

"And, Emily... I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't try harder when you were a child. I should have done better. You deserved better. I know it doesn't make up for anything, but you've always been everything to me."

"I know," she whispered.

"And I'm going to start by being a good grandmother to your son," she said resolutely.

"You could start by calling yourself Nana instead of grandmother," Emily said, trying not to laugh. "Or Granny..."

Elizabeth tried not to roll her eyes. "You always were a smart aleck."

It wasn't a magic wand, waved to erase the years of distance between them...but it was a start.