A/N So hopefully ties in nicely. Tried to keep it light but some drama and emotional past coming up to the forefront. I really hope you like it. This is where it was always going to go but I've had so much fun getting there! Happy endings are in touching distance. Thank you all again! Never tire of saying thank you.. British so comes with the territory!

Emma had been out at work early the following morning photographing a cheating husband and his elderly lover. Honestly, these cases were just getting weirder and weirder. She couldn't work out why she was being hired when the guy had obviously made no attempt whatsoever to be subtle about his granny fetish. It had taken her all of 20 minutes to follow him to a residential home and snap some incriminating pictures. Ruby was right, people were really into this crap right now.

She was trying to wipe the images from her mind as she turned the key in the front door of her apartment. She froze when she saw the person sat in her armchair.

"Mom! What the hell are you doing her?"

"Language Emma! Just because you choose to condemn yourself to eternal suffering doesn't mean I should have to listen to your blasphemy." Her Mother scolded.

Mary Margaret was a devout Christian of Irish descent and extremely critical of her daughter. When Emma had announced her engagement to Lily, her Mother had refused to accept it, prayed relentlessly for God to expel the gay demon that was controlling her daughter. Needless to say, they had not been on good terms.

Mary Margaret continued her assault.
"I came as soon as I heard. Praise the Lord you finally came to your senses and liberated yourself from that... well, we don't need to dwell on the past now do we, hmmm?"

Emma gave her Mother an icy look. She couldn't believe she had the nerve to show up and let herself into her apartment after everything that had happened between them.
"Mother, I haven't heard from you in over two years and suddenly you show up, unannounced and make yourself comfortable in my apartment?!"

"Yes, well now, I wasn't comfortable with your prior living arrangements, shall we say. That Lilith, well she would be named after a demon! Now that's over, I thought we might go about mending some bridges. You see, I've been visiting with Pastor David and he suggested that we might be able to help you back on the path to redemption if you were to take a husband and Beryl's son Killian has just lost his dear wife, God rest her soul, and Pastor David said that.."

"Just stop it!" Emma screamed, interrupting her Mother's ramblings. "I am not in the market for a husband Mother! I am, always have been and always will be, a dyke!"

"Please Emma, will you stop with the vulgarity and let me finish." Mary Margaret waved her hands around her ears as if she were able to stop the word from polluting her pure mind.

"I've been doing a lot of soul searching these last two years and I realise now that, well, it is most likely my fault that you think you are they way you are.."

Emma was trying to interrupt but Mary Margaret was a persistent meddler and used to getting her own way so she just raised her voice and continued talking.

"If I hadn't come down on you so hard back in the day and made you give up your son, even though he was born out of wedlock and it would have bought shame on our family..."

Emma had turned white and was shaking all over, trying desperately to hold back the tears at the painful memories of her past that her supposed Mother was now shitting all over. It had been bad enough living through it once and until today, it had never been spoken of since.

"..I think you would have followed a different path and made a decent life for yourself with a good man. I'm so sorry for what I did. I honestly thought it in your best interests at the time what with your soccer career taking off and the church and all." Mary Margaret finally paused for breath and the pain on her face was beginning to show through as a sort of remorse.

"You made me give up my child for your own selfish reasons. You wanted me to be the perfect daughter with fame and fortune so you could brag about me at your church meetings. You never once considered the welfare of my son, or me!" Emma couldn't hold the tears back. They streamed freely down her face as she allowed herself to recall the most painful memories of her life.

She was 17. She had been drinking with some friends from Church and one of the boys had taken advantage of her relaxed and impaired state. She had shrugged it off telling herself it was her own fault for being a rebel and that she probably would have slept with him at some point anyway. None of her friends knew what had happened and she never told anyone until a few weeks after she'd missed her period. She told her Mother what had happened. She had called her a Jezabel and taken her away from their hometown and made arrangements for Emma to have the baby in secret and give him up for adoption. Emma had pleaded to keep her baby but her Mother had refused. Emma swore she would come back when she was old enough to find her son and because of that, her Mother arranged a closed adoption.

She had a baby boy but she never got to hold him. She saw him as they took him away and she promised herself that one day, she would find him somehow.
Emma had become a Private Investigator for that reason but had stopped searching three years ago realising it would be too late to get him back. That's when she met Lily.

"Emma, my darling child. I am sorry I caused you so much pain. I've been trying to make it up to you. I've been searching for him. I spoke with the adoption agency and admitted I had made a terrible error in 's why I'm here. I've made contact with him. Emma, I've found your little boy and he's here in Boston! You see it was your destiny to come here and be close to him. It was your maternal instinct driving you towards your son."