"I didn't think you'd just go home..." Maggie said, approaching Emily and Alex where they were pretending to be shopping. They hadn't wanted to ambush her, but it was coming off a little like stalking, having shown up at her work unannounced.

"I'm like a bad penny," Alex said with a conspiratorial little smile, as if the two of them were sharing in some kind of inside joke, though they hardly had the kind of relationship that had inside jokes... "Who watches Finley while you're here?" she asked, and it was almost conversational. Almost.

"Who do you think?" Maggie deadpanned, "Killian. His mom. Or maybe you think I just tie him to a tree until I get home..."

Alex's jaw hung open a moment at the accusation. "You're a good mother, Maggie. I know that."

"Right."

With a weary sigh, Alex tried to sidestep the brewing malcontent between them. "I was merely wondering how things are going for you with this new job..." she said with polite curiosity.

"Well, I just started, so..." She shrugged, intentionally letting the participle dangle uselessly at the end of her sentence.

"We don't want to get you in trouble, sweetheart," Emily said softly. She'd long seen just how similar Alex and Maggie could be and knew that that kind of dual stubbornness often ended in butting heads. "Can we buy you lunch?"

Maggie spent several long moments debating that. "My break isn't until noon," she said at length. A beat. "I'll meet you at the diner across the street."

"I was going to write...once we got settled," Maggie explained. "It was kind of a...last minute decision. Coming here." She shrugged her shoulders up near her ears sheepishly. She clearly knew that leaving without so much as a word had hurt both Alex and Emily and that truly hadn't been her intention.

"That Killian's decision?" Emily asked pointedly. She knew, of course, that it hadn't been Maggie's decision, but she spoke the accusation aloud nonetheless.

She let out a small humourless bark of a laugh. "You met Moira..."

"Well, we found you. That's what's important," Alex chimed in. She was smiling in that way that meant she was doing her best to keep the conversation light and civil for the sake of the many witnesses, any of whom could easily be a Doyle spy... "Finley looks bigger. He's growing so fast."

Maggie's face lit up, clearly excited to talk about her son. "He's counting to ten now! He used to just say the words, now he knows they go in order. And I'm working with him on his alphabet. He can spell his name."

"He was smart, right from the start," Alex said proudly. The fond smile playing about her lips was the one reserved solely for her grandson and – once upon a time – her son...

Maggie seemed to soften upon being reminded of just how much Finley meant to them. "He misses you..." she said. "Both of you."

Alex's smile was soft now, sad. "We miss him too," she said. "Both of you. That's what we wanted to talk to you about, Maggie. And I won't beat around the bush..." She then proceeded to do just that. "I remember when Ethan first introduced us. This wonderful girl he'd told us so much about. No family of her own, but..."

She raised a pointed brow. "I thought you weren't going to beat around the bush?"

Heaving a sigh, Alex reluctantly said what she'd ultimately come here specifically to say, "Let Finley come back with us. Not just a visit, I mean... For good."

"You want me to give Finley to you? Want me to give up my son?" Maggie's expression said she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Which, admittedly, was understandable.

"He'd have a good home. One he knows, one he remembers," Alex said, tone just short of outright begging.

"Stop!" Maggie snapped. "No! God, stop. I can't hear this!"

Alex wasn't about to be dissuaded now that she'd gotten started, though... "I saw Killian hit Finley," she said deliberately. A beat. "On the street. I saw him hit you. And it didn't look like a first time." Maggie was avoiding her gaze, chewing her lip timidly as she was confronted with her shameful secret. "A little or a lot. No amount is good."

"That's why you came to take him?"

"We came to help," Emily said. "Whatever the situation is...Finley can't stay there. Can't stay here."

Her bottom lip was wobbling, then, as she begged, "He needs his mother..."

"Then come with us!" Alex also begged. "You and Finley. We'll take care of you. Live with us, like before."

"Come and stay with us," Emily echoed.

Maggie shook her head slowly. "He'd kill me. Him and his mother. She couldn't care less if I fell off the face of the Earth, really, but... She'd never let me go. Or Finley." She gave a small, wet laugh. "Killian got away from her once. She's never going to let that happen again." For several long moments, she was silent, seemingly debating whether to say the next part aloud. "I don't want Finley to grow up like them... I don't want him to be like them."

"Then you know what's right," Alex whispered. Seeing their former daughter-in-law welling with tears, she felt her heart go out to the young woman, knowing she was struggling, just trying to do what was best for her son. She moved to sit next to Maggie. "Honey... You want us to drive you out of here? We can do that. Right now. Right, Emily?" She turned to her wife for confirmation. "The three of us, we can get Finley, pack you up..."

"No!" Several long moments of tense silence. "I'll meet you. Everyone's usually asleep by midnight. I'll have to wait. To be sure."

Emily's cop instincts were prickling. Nothing about this situation felt safe, felt right. But she also knew that they had to play this by Maggie's rules. "We should come get you, sweetheart..." she tried to insist.

"No. This is the way. The safest way. Trust me..."