"I don't want to do this..." Alex whispered shakily. She stood in the doorway to the bedroom that Finley had occupied since Ethan and Maggie had first brought him home from the hospital.

Emily sighed, stopped what she was doing and stood so she could properly meet Alex's gaze. She offered her wife a faint smile, though it was a pained one. "I know," she agreed. "I don't want to do it either. But we don't have a choice."

Alex either didn't believe that or didn't want to believe it. "I disagree," she said plainly, hands coming to rest on her hips.

"Alex..."

She shook her head firmly. "Don't," she urged. "Don't talk to me like I'm a child." Before Emily could say anything else, she started to bargain, "We could just not..."

"We're not abducting our grandson from his mother," Emily said flatly before she could finish the thought. And with that, she returned to the task at hand: packing up the remains of Finley's possessions to be moved to his new home with his stepfather.

"Aren't you scared!?" Alex demanded. "Our grandson has lived with us every single day of his entire life and now he's leaving! He's not going to be down the hall, he's going to be..."

"Across town," Emily finished for her. "I know, Alex. I know. I know I won't get to tuck him in and kiss him goodnight every day. I know I won't be there in the middle of the night when he has a nightmare. I know I won't get to greet him when he wakes up in the morning. I know. But he's not our son."

Alex growled, "Do not give me the 'he's not our son' speech right now."

"Well, when would be a good time for the speech?" Emily retorted, "Because you seem to be forgetting where our rights as grandparents end."

All the fight seemed to leave Alex in that moment. "I'm just trying to protect him," she whispered. "Don't tell me that you're not concerned – that you don't have that feeling in your gut telling you this Doyle kid is bad news..."

Emily moved to wrap her arms around Alex, pulling her tight into her chest. "I feel it," she agreed quietly, stroking Alex's hair soothingly – though it was just as much for her as it was for Alex. "I feel it, but we can't prove anything on instinct alone."

There was a knock at the door, then, interrupting the gravity of the moment.

When she opened the door, Finley threw himself into Alex's arms. "Gigi!" he exclaimed eagerly. (Apparently he hadn't realized this was the last time he'd be seeing her for awhile...) "Mama taked me to the playground!"

"Really?" Alex said, matching his excitement, "You're a lucky boy." She lifted him into her arms and balanced him on her hip. "You're getting so big, Finny."

He nodded proudly. "I gots a big boy bed at Killian's," he informed her.

Alex did her best to keep the smile from falling off her face, but it was hard... "That's exciting," she said, without an ounce of conviction. "But I'm going to miss you when you're gone." Finley seemed confused by that, but he didn't have the chance to say as much before Maggie entered the foyer behind him. Instantly, Alex's attention was on the young woman. "Maggie, what happened to your eye?"

Maggie's cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she suddenly seemed intensely interested in the floor. "It's nothing," she mumbled.

It was clear, though, that Alex didn't believe that for a single second. She opened her mouth as if to ask further questions, but Emily's arrival preempted any words poised on the tip of her tongue.

"Gramma!" Finley hollered, a grin lighting up his face as he threw himself at her, nearly toppling her off her feet, box of Finley's things in her hands preventing her from trying to maintain her balance. "Mama said we's gonna live with Killian. Are you and Gigi coming too?"

At that, Emily glanced over her shoulder at Alex, catching the heartbroken expression on her face as they both realized they were going to have to explain to their only grandson that they weren't going to be living together anymore. "Oh, Finny, umm..." she stammered, "It's just going to be the three of you living together."

Finley's bottom lip began wobbling at that, tears clearly imminent as understanding dawned on him.

Emily rolled over in bed, stretched her arm out to wrap it around Alex's waist, only to find her side of the bed empty. "Alex?" she asked on a yawn, "Come back to bed..."

"I can't," she said from where she was pacing in front of the window, arms wrapped tightly around herself as if to ward of a chill. "I can't stop thinking about her black eye. Em, you know..."

She groaned, propping herself up on her elbow with great reluctance, knowing she wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon. "You don't know that she got the black eye from..."

"Whose side are you on?" Alex snapped without letting her finish the statement.

"I'm on Finley's side," she replied flatly, really not interested in getting in an argument, certainly not at this hour. "And right now, we don't have any proof that anything is wrong."

That wasn't what Alex wanted to hear. "How much more proof do you need?" she demanded.

Emily yawned, rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. "Alex, right now, all you're going to do by talking about it is alienate Maggie and send her further away than she already is. You know how these things go as well as I do..."

"Emily..."

"Please, just...don't push her. She'll come to us when she's ready."

Alex pursed her lips in a clear indication that she didn't like the way this conversation was going, but she also knew that Emily was right...Maggie was the only connection they had to Finley and if she pushed her away, then they might never see him again.