Jane makes an exit, leaving the two of them alone.

"Why are you staring at me, like that, for?" Maura questions.

"I'm hungry."

"We just had dinner."

"We went to dinner. I didn't eat. You stormed out before I could have two bites."

"I'll make you something. What would you like?"

"I don't know."

"I can make..."

"Do you have any macaroni, and cheese."

"Seriously?" Maura raises an eyebrow.

"I spent twelve years in boarding school. Immediately following that, I was sent straight to an Ivy league college. They don't serve macaroni, and cheese."

"I have some pasta, and..."

"I just want mac, and cheese out of a box. Is that too much to ask?"

"No. It's not."

"Just once I wish that I had a normal life."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted you to have opportunities that I couldn't give you."

"I'm grateful, but... I never asked for all of that."

"I did what I thought was best."

"You always say that. Everyone always says that. But nobody ever asked me what I wanted. What everyone else wanted for me..."

"It's not the same?"

"No. I just wanted to be a normal kid. I never got to be normal. I was always pushed to be extraordinary. I never wanted to be extraordinary. I just wanted a family I could come home to. A house, that wasn't always empty, when I came home. A family that sat around the dinner table, and ate together. Parents who worked hard, and still made it home for dinner, even if it was just mac and cheese."

"Allison, I'm sorry."

"For what? For giving birth to me? Why did you even have me? What did you think was going to happen? You thought that everything would go back to normal? You thought that you could just go on with your life, and forget the fact that you had me? You really thought that you could just pretend that it never happened?"

"No. I knew that I couldn't just pretend that it never happened."

"Then why did you?"

"You never came to see me. You never called, or wrote. You never did anything, that any mother should do."

"I have made a lot of mistakes."

"Like getting pregnant, at sixteen? Like having me? Like keeping me?" Allison probes as tears trickle down her cheeks.

"No."

"No? You think that I am dense enough to believe that you don't think that I was a mistake?"

"No, of course not. I know how bright you are..."

Allison cuts her off, "Don't say it."

"You are gifted."

"I do not want to be. I never asked to be. All I ever wanted to be, was loved."

"I am sorry that you didn't feel loved."

"You're sorry about a lot of things."

"What would you like me to say? What can I say, or do, to make this all better?"

"It's too late."

Maura leads her into the living room. She plants her on the couch. She takes a seat next to her.

"I have never once regretted having you. You were not part of my plan, but you weren't a mistake."

"Really? It has always felt that way."

"I am sorry you never felt loved, but you were."

"By who? My absentee, fake, parents. The nuns?"

"By me."

"That's not true. You have never loved anyone, but yourself."

"I love you."

"No, you don't. If you did, you would have made different choices."

"You have no idea."

"I know that you chose your career over me. Everything else was always more important. You never made time for me."

"Any time you have ever called, I have been there for you."

"I shouldn't have to call. You are the adult. Me, needing my mother, needing you, that was inherent."

"I have never missed a birthday, or a Christmas."

"A Christmas card doesn't count."

"Just because you didn't see me, doesn't mean that I wasn't there for you."

"Really? I don't remember you ever being around."

"When you were two you got chickenpox. You had been sick for three days, your fever was uncontrollable, and you wouldn't stop crying. As soon as I found out, I flew home. I stayed with you, for four days."

"I don't remember that."

"When you were six, and you had your first piano recital, I was there."

"What song did I play?"

"The Waltz Of Flowers, by Tchaikovsky. Everyone was so impressed that you could play so beautifully, and flawlessly, at six. I assumed that you chose it, because the previous Christmas I had taken you to see the Nutcracker. I know how much you loved it."

"I see it every year."

"You made me take you three times, in one weekend, when you were five. That was what inspired you to start ballet. When you were twelve you played the role of Clara. When you were fifteen you took up horseback riding. Much to everyone's disdain you took up western pleasure riding."

"I always assumed that they bought the horse, but they didn't, did they?"

"No. Speaking of which, the board bill is due. When you were seventeen you were given a full academic scholarship to Brown University, which you turned down, to go to Northwestern, which I will never understand."

"I may have been chasing after a boy. That didn't, work, but I liked it there, so I stayed."

"Have you ever considered transferring."

"Transferring? Where would I transfer to?"

"You could move here."

"Why would I do that?"

"I..."

"You what?"

"It would be nice, if you would move closer."

"Why?"

"Then I could see you more."

"Our relationship is never going to be rainbows and fairies, you know that right. There is a lot of time that can't be gotten back. There are a lot of things, that can't be fixed. You know that right?"

"I know. I would like to try, and rectify this."

"I don't know if that can be done."

"I'd like to try."