"Did you even sleep?"

Walking into the study I spotted my mom sitting at the chess table that sat in the center of the room. It was made of glass with each game piece reflecting the sun's gaze from the wide open window from behind. Mom's gaze was focused as she started at the board in front of her clearly deep in thought about something.

"I haven't slept much since you kids were born." Mom's words were clear but I could tell by her voice that she was far away from here.

"I feel like even before then you didn't get much sleep."

Mom let out a scoff of laughter at my comment, this time actually looking up at me. Though I knew she hadn't slept she still looked refreshed, her eyes bright and awake. Her skin glowing in a way that only a teenager could be jealous off.

"No, I guess I didn't." Responded mom stretching out her back. "My life was what you would call entertaining at the very least. There was hardly time to breath never mind sleep."

Now that was the truth.

Over the last few weeks mom had told me about her life when she and dad were young. Sometimes I couldn't believe the stuff that they were in the middle off from they were teenagers but there was something to admire about it as well.

Mom never seemed to complain that this was her life. She never complained who her birth mother was when most people would break at the fact that there parents was one of the most powerful crime bosses when they themselves had nothing to do with this world before that.

Mom might not have been raised for this world, but she was born into it and as soon as she found out about that she embraced it with open arms.

Slowly I made my way over to the chess set and sat down across from my mom looking down at the pieces and taking them in one by one. If I knew my mom she wasn't just sitting here playing a game, she was planning her next move in the real world.

"I want to know." My eyes were looking down at the board trying to piece together which piece represented what in the real world.

After all that was how my mom looked at this game.

"Know what?" There was a grin on my moms face as she lifted the rook off the board making it out to be that she was studying the piece when in reality I knew she was studying me.

"What are you going to do now?" leaning forward I moved one of the chest pieces. Mom glanced down at the board with a grin before putting the rook back down to where it was before she lifted it.

"Depends what they do next." Responded mom as she moved her queen, her chin resting on the palm of her other hand as she got comfortable.

"I want to be part of it." I move another piece but this time I don't even glance at the board as I stare at my mom. "You said I can be apart of dad's world but I want to be a part of yours too."

Mom glanced at me carefully and silence fell between us. After a few seconds she picked up the Queen this time and studied it.

"If this board was real life could you tell me what piece represents what?"

She was testing me.

Just like how she had tested Reagan. Reagan had told me she had asked him this question years ago but he never told me what she told him. He had told me that if the times comes she would tell me herself.

"Who represents the Queen?"

It was a simple question. A question that could have any answer but I wanted to give her the answer that she wanted.

"Yo-" but I cut myself off, I was going to say her but that wasn't right. It was too obvious and if this was a question coming from my mom things were never as simple as they seemed. She looked amused as I cut myself off, raising her eyebrow as she waited expectantly.

In chess the Queen was the most famous piece. Everyone knew it and what it could do, it was basically the picture of the game. To protect the King was the aim off the game, so dad couldn't be that piece.

Dad didn't need protecting, he was the one that made the moves in this world. He was the one that represented us all because when people thought of the Kennedy crime family he was the name that first came to their lips.

Dad's name was on the tip of my tongue but it scared me to say it out loud. Looking up at mom she waited patiently for me to answer and as each second passed her grin grew. She knew what I was thinking and with that look a surge of confidence ran through me.

I knew what I was thinking was correct.

"It's dad."

Finally mom smiled and held the Queen out between us so that I could see it more clearly. A warm smile crossed her beautiful features with pride that I had never seen before.

"Looks like it's my daughter after all who was able to get the question correct."

Taking the piece from her hands I let her response register in my mind and my eyes snapped up to look at her once more. "Reagan had gotten it wrong?"

I didn't even bother to hide the surprise in my voice as I set the piece back down to were it belonged.

"Your brother thought it was me, which I get but when you truly think about what the piece are able to do it's the wrong answer." Mom smiled once more. "Which is what I'm guessing you had thought about too, to come to such an answer as well."

"Dad's the face of this world. You work from behind the scenes, you're basically his right hand without it ever being said out loud."

Mom nodded agreeing with my thoughts. "Your father is all about attacking and blunt force while I on the other hand am the one that moves the pieces into position. I get them to go where they need to be and your father is the one that takes them down. So which piece am I?"

Mom looked at me expectantly as I looked back down at the board and my mind looked at the other pieces and took them in one by one. It wasn't long before I had my answer.

"The Rook." My voice was more confident in my answer this time knowing that were my thoughts where going were the thoughts that my mom wanted to hear. There was no doubt in my mind that, that was the right answer.

"Nobody can doubt that you're not my daughter."

Warmth swelled in my stomach at the pride that I had going through me.

"The Rook is the second most powerful piece." Explained my mom even though I already knew the answer. "It can move both horizontally and vertically as well as being able to move on the black and white squares. It's a perfect piece to set up moves with and it's the perfect piece to take down a lone king with."

"It works in the background."

"Pretty much." Agreed my mom, this time she handed the Rook to me. "If you try moving the Rook to early it makes it vulnerable because it can't escape it's position on the board but if your patient with it and slowly move it, it's too late for your enemy to notice it before you've blocked them into a corner. It works in the Shadows, your opponent knows it's there but never pays much attention until it's to late for them to do anything about it."

Looking down at the board I started to look at each piece in a different light.

No wonder mom was the best as what she did. She seen the world in a different way.

A way that I was just starting to understand.

"Do you know what's my favourite piece?" This time moms question was a rhetorical one so I shook my head and she went on. "The pawn."

"Pawn?" I didn't hide the surprise in my voice.

How could the pawn be anyones favourite.

"Surprising right?" Responded Mom with a laugh. "But the pawn can be just as a powerful piece as any other."

"But why is it your favourite?" It was a question I couldn't help both ask.

Mom started to reset the board and I watched as she skilfully but everything back in the correct place.

"That's something I think you'll work out in your own in time."

There was a glint in her electric blue eyes that told me that she had faith I would work it out. I had already gotten her other questions right so there's no doubt I would be able to get this one as well.

"You did a good job with Enzo by the way." Mom made the comment like it was an every day situation, and maybe in this family it was.

"What a surprise you were watching." I scoffed not one bit surprised but I couldn't help but smile at her comment.

"I'm always watching." Remarked Mom with a shrug. "But Zoe told me this one, she was watching you deal with them on the cameras throughout the city. She was ready to call Zane but she seen you hold your own so she let you deal with it."

If Zoe had of called Zane that would've caused an all out war on the streets and that wasn't something we needed in our own city.

"She seen me almost get hit by a car then."

"True." Remarked Mom as she started to move the pieces on the board once again. "But I wasn't that worried, if any of my children can handle a hand to hand fight it's you. Plus I seen the car in garage, you adding it to the collection or something?"

"Something like that." I laughed as I moved one of the pieces on my side letting my mom know I was willing to play.

"I might be waiting for Luca to make the next move but do you want to do me a favour in the mean time?" My moms eyes lit up in amusement as my head shot up to look at her.

"Of course I do."

My back straightened as I sat tall waiting for every word my mom was about to say. This was what I waiting for and it wasn't until now that I realised just how much I wanted this.

How much I wanted her to involve me in her side of this world.

"I need you to cause a scene." Mom let out a warm laugh when she seemed to think of something. "Shouldn't be to hard for you."

"A scene?"

"Do you remember Davis? The head of the F.B.I that you had met a few weeks ago."

Thinking back to the older man who talked to my mom like they had known each other all their lives. There was something about the way they acted with each other that told me that they might be on opposite sides but there was a respect there for each other.

"Of course how can I forget." I would never forget about the man who looked at my mom like she was deadliest creature alive.

"He has a, what should I say, tenancy to stick his nose in the middle of everything. More so when it comes to the likes of me and he knows something is going down. So what I need you to do is throw him off my path and pull him onto yours."

Of course there was always more to what mom said but I knew if I asked anymore questions she wasn't going to give me them.

It would be up to me to piece the rest of it together.

She was giving me a challenge and I was more than willing to except it.

"A distraction?" I responded more to myself than anybody as I stood up from my car. "Trust me it won't be a problem at all to cause a scene."

"That's what I thought." Remarked mom as I started to make my way towards the door but she called out to me again making me stop in my tracks. "What ever you do, leave Martinez out of it. Your brother might act like he doesn't care what happens to her anymore but we all know it's a lie."

"Reagan said her dad was a detective that's why he pushed her away."

Mom scoffed. "That's not even half of it Daniella's grandfather is Davis himself. Her mom went to the same school as me and Damon and she even put Damon in his place one day in the school lunch line. Her dad is Latin American, clearly the girl took after her fathers side and not Davis because you would never think they were related unless you knew."

Shock took over as I thought back to when I had first met Daniella and Davis. The two of them had gotten on like they were nothing more than a boss and a agent.

"You would never know they were related." I agree with mom as I thought back to the both of them. "So that's why Reagan pushed her away. It wasn't because her dad was a detective, it was because her whole family basically has law enforcement in their veins. Not only that but it's at the highest end as well. I suppose how could he keep someone close who fights against the very thing he is. Who his family is."

"Reagan's actions were of his own making." There was a slight annoyance he in her tone, something I had never seen before in Mom. "If he really wanted to, he could've made it work but instead he ran away for the situation. Me and his Riker wouldn't have cared who she was or what she does. Reagan made his choice thinking he did it for our family when he should've been thinking about what he wanted. So if your brother ever tells you it was for the best just knows he's lying. There's ways around everything in life and they would've worked something out. In fact if being with her was what he truly wanted he knows that I would work something out for him if he couldn't."

This was something that clearly annoyed my mom. I've heard and watched her talk on the world with nothing more than a blank expression of indifference but this was something that she felt strongly about.

"After all look at me and your dad." She continued on, her tone softer this time. "We were destined for two different worlds and if it wasn't for a situation we would've probably never be where we are today. Your dad and me made it work because it's what we wanted. I've watched your dad get stabbed, shot at and so close to death. How many woman do you know that can handle that? Instead I'm there for him and support him because I know his world is the world he wants to live in. I know fine rightly your dad would walk away from it all if I asked him to but I never would because it's what he loves to do. It's the same way he would never ask me to step away from my world. How many men do you know that would be intimated by the power I hold? I'm one of the richest and powerful women in this world and most men don't like that. They don't like it when woman are more powerful than them because in their fucked up heads we are below them but your dad doesn't see it that way. The two of us made our worlds work together because we want them too and because of it we walk side by side as partners who can't be brought to there knees."

Taking in my moms worlds I knew she was right and I seen my brothers situation in a knew light. My moms annoyance was justified because she was in a similar situations when she was a teenager but her and dad wanted it to work.

And look where they are now.

"Reagan's a coward." Mom laughed at my response and I couldn't help but smile too. We both knew I looked up to Reagan so for me to say something like that was surprising.

"Your brother will make it work somehow it's just a matter of when."

A thought popped into my head, but it was a dangerous one.

"And I just know how to make it happen while giving you your distraction."