Kalinda, from the conference room, has one eye on the meeting in Diane's office. She watches the client rise, kiss Diane's hand, and move toward the exits. She assesses him through the glass.

"You know him?" Will asks Diane.

"I knew him," she answers. "It was a long time ago, in D.C. We were in our thirties. I haven't seen him in all that time."

"So you can give us a leg up in the competition for the contract?" Will is always strategizing for the win.

"Not likely, unless he's changed a lot. I remember him being a by the book type," says Diane. "I haven't followed his career over the years, so I don't know if he's loosened his principles with age and battle … and money. What do you think of the survey requirement?"

"I picked up on that too," says Will. "He means personality test. There's a new undercurrent in the Department of Defense contractor space. A lot of firms are opting to do it, calling it Snowden insurance. It's about the loyalty measure. They have to eat the cost of the testing. It's not an authorized project expense."

Diane passes her legal pad to Will, on which she's written some names. Kalinda's name is at the bottom. "I'm not sure we need Kalinda on this kind of team. I wouldn't think she'd take well to a personality test."

"It's good to have her authorized if we need her for something. I'll talk to her," says Will.

"If loyalty is the focus, it's her strength," says Diane. "If it gets much broader, she could buck."

"Ya."

Will emerges from Diane's office. He can feel Kalinda's gaze. With a motion from him, Kalinda makes her way to his office.

"K, you got a second?"

"Ya. Sure."

They take their usual seats at Will's desk.

"What are you working on?" asks Will.

"Something for Diane," responds Kalinda. "I can do more. What do you need?"

"You know about our proposal for the Fisher & Li business, right?" asks Will.

"Some. Not much."

"Fisher & Li is an electrical engineering company. They won the circuits development contract with the Department of Defense for the next generation military drones. High security."

"So that guy is Fisher & Li?"

"Not directly," says Will. "He's their legal contractor. But his firm doesn't want to resource the DOD contract. He's hiring outside legal for the project so his firm can step away from it. We're in the final three."

"That's good."

"This guy knows Diane," says Will.

"I noticed that," says Kalinda.

"I want to use his history with Diane to give us the advantage. See what you can find out about him. Here's his name." Will slides the man's business card across his desk until Kalinda can read the print.

She captures a picture with her smart phone, and then flips the card over. Blank. She slides it back over the desk to Will. "No problem. It's strange his firm wants to pass on the work. What aren't you telling me?"

"He's got some unsavory clients. His firm doesn't want to be subjected to the extra vetting," says Will.

"We have some unsavory clients too," says Kalinda.

"We're a bigger firm. We can compartmentalize better to mask our warts. Here's Diane's list of associates."

Kalinda scans the list, finding her own name at the bottom.

"Vet them all again. Let me know if any of them have any skeletons in their closets. We'll substitute others if we need to."

"Anything in particular I should be vetting for?" asks Kalinda.

"Be more thorough than usual," says Will. "The next phase is DOD background checks, then personality surveys."

Background check. Personality survey. Personality survey! The words bounce off the walls and echo in Kalinda's head.

DOD! She feels her constitution starting to reflex into fight or flight changes. Since the trauma of Nick's surfacing in Chicago last year, her instincts are raw. At the slightest risk to her secrets, she goes on alert. Her adrenal glands are exerting more influence than her brain for the time being.

Will is continuing to talk, she's sure of it. She can vaguely hear the sound of his voice, not clearly or at normal volume, but she can hear him. His words, however, are barely intelligible.

"Next week" garble garble, … fading to a numb hum.

Her heart is racing.

Will is intently focused inward, strategizing. He's not noticing her panic.

She tries again, more intently, to focus on Will's words but it's difficult. Her ears are filled with the pulses of rushing blood. The edges of her field of vision are becoming fuzzy, like she's going to faint, but not. The walls are closing in. Refuse? Run? I have to go.

"Ok, I got it. I have to go. The time." I can't feel my hands.

Kalinda takes her leave of Will, and walks down the hallway toward the elevators, her head in a fog. She doesn't remember calling for the elevator to open, but there it is, in front of her, and she enters. The door closes to surround her. With an involuntary deep inhale, she realizes she has not been breathing. The sense of panic is familiar to her. There is always a risk that a background check can expose her Leela identity. DOD. Background check. Personality survey. Will's words are still ringing in her head.

The elevator opens, delivering her to the garage, the level where her car is parked. The realization hits her. "Calm yourself!" she says aloud. Nick is not ever coming for you again.

She reaches her car, unlocks the driver side door and gets in. It all rushes back on her; Alicia telling her that Nick was selling drugs again; that she had confronted him, and withdrawn her legal services. But it was the next statement from Alicia that chilled Kalinda's blood. He threatened her. Kalinda remembers the timbre of her voice very clearly. "And I'm not in danger?"

"You won't be." With those three words, Kalinda remembers feeling Leela reincarnate. Leela was the only one who could successfully manage Nick when he went over the line.

She remembers going to the F&E yard to confirm, finding drugs, and leaving a message for Nick, at the low, low cost of more of Bill's bones.

She remembers the trepidation of driving over the border into Canada, something she had avoided for 15 years; the irrational fear she wouldn't be let back into The States. The bus station was just over the border. She put money into a locker. She remembers slipping the key into her pocket. From a public phone in the bus station, she called the Chicago PD and reported drug trafficking activity at the F&E yard. As always, it took longer to pass through the Canada-to-US checkpoint than it ever took to go in the opposite direction. On that day, she remembers the queue as excruciating.

By the time she got back to the firm, the last attorney was closing his office for the night. She prepared a map for Nick. She composed a text message to Lamond Bishop on her phone. It needed to be unmistakably understood by Mr. Bishop, and at the same time stealth, to protect her and the recipient from implication later; 'Nick Severese, F&E, doing business in your territory.' No. She changed the word territory to the word neighborhood. She left it unsent for now. Then she waited for Nick to arrive.

She remembers how unreasonable he was. He refused the map and key. He refused to believe she'd sent the cops to the F&E yard. He refused to go back to Canada. Couldn't he understand she was trying not to have to hurt him? She was so tired of his world of thugs. He wanted her to be her old self again. But she had grown past that. Her new world had changed her; for the better, she felt. She didn't want to give it up. Surely he could see the changes in her. She had exhausted every way to persuade him. He dared her to launch Plan B. He knew she'd have one. She agonized over hitting the button. Send text. She knew the recipient would act in his own best business interests. She exited the offices of Lockhart Gardner, alone. Kalinda never knew any more detail of what transpired that night.

She's willed her attentions back into the present. She starts her engine. She is feeling relieved. The background check won't bring Nick's interference back into her life. How can it? She is expected at the party and she is late.

She reaches her destination, parks, and gets out of the car. Glenn Childs! The thought of him jumps to the top of her mind. "How can I be so stupid!" she says. How much does he know about arson, identity theft, false citizenship, impersonating an officer, testifying under oath under an assumed name? Even if Nick is no longer a worry, there is still plenty to lose from a background check.

It is with these worries fresh in her head, she enters the bar where the celebration is already underway. The place is abuzz with people and drink and music. Everyone is celebrating. Kalinda puts all her effort into assuming party mood, and steps into the crowd. It is a crowd where she knows everyone and everyone knows her.

It doesn't take long for a friend to find her, an attorney from a competing firm. He thoroughly enjoys their 'dance'. Each time he sees her, he tries to recruit her away from Lockhart Gardner. His is a much better firm, he assures her, each time he makes the pitch. Tonight is no different.

"So, when are you going to come work for me?"

"How about tomorrow?"

He is already three sheets to the wind, but he is lucid enough to realize that isn't her usual answer to his offer.

"You're not serious. Are you thinking of leaving Lockhart Gardner? No." He leans in to look at her a little more closely. Indeed, Kalinda can smell that he has been at the party for a while. "I know you're joined at the hip to Will Gardner." He laughs at the thought of it all, and moves back into the center of the party.

Kalinda does her social duty. She mingles, she drinks, she flirts with the men and the women, she listens intently; the usual things that insure this group is her source of contacts when she needs them. Well, they are her friends too. She isn't made of stone. Sometimes she likes the companionship of a select few.

She's done her duty. She needs to be alone now. Her mind is on overdrive and she is exhausted. She says her goodbyes to the party goers and heads to the car for the drive home.


Kalinda isn't getting any sleep. She tosses and turns in her bed, worrying about passing a background check by the US Department of Defense.

If Peter Florrick was as good as he claimed he was, if he was truly worth the high price she'd paid, her identity as Kalinda Sharma should be tied up tighter than a drum. She thought back on the path that got her to this place, this jam.

For a year, Leela had planned to flee Nick and Toronto. From Toronto, she monitored the Buffalo death records looking for a woman her age, preferably East Indian. When she found someone close enough, she forged the documents to assume her name, social security number and birth certificate. Among her new documents was a diploma from St. Mary's Catholic School, Buffalo. When the day came, everything was ready for Leela Tahiri's death. She lit a flame, and it was done. She was over the border. Niagara Falls, USA. She was Kalinda Sharma, 26, and unmarried. There were no criminal records on Kalinda Sharma. A background check wasn't a problem. She got a job as a clerk for the Buffalo PD and began paying federal and state payroll taxes in the name of Kalinda Sharma. She even paid off several of her overdue bills to seal the deal. She was laying groundwork.

After two years in Buffalo, the rehabilitation of Kalinda Sharma's credit rating, and a U.S. passport, it was an easy move to the Cleveland PD.

In Cleveland, she was different, ambitious. Cleveland PD was huge and she was bored as a clerk. She could do more, much more. She wanted to learn and there were plenty of cops who were happy to teach, some altruistic, some for a price. All she needed was a resume for the next move. For two years, she quietly forged the resume and documents of a police detective.

She held her breath through the entire application process. She could hardly believe she got away with it. She was a police detective with the Chicago PD. Proving she was an experienced detective took everything she had that first year. She made a lot of friends and contacts; some male, some female; some platonic, some not; all useful. They were vital to her keeping up the ruse. There wasn't anybody she didn't know. There wasn't anybody who didn't know her. She was proud to be counted among the most effective investigators. She felt it had been a glorious five years. By this point, Kalinda's problem was hubris more than it was background check.

At first, she thought the ASA was kidding. "Peter Florrick is looking for an investigator. He's looking at you. He wants only proven winners in the State's Attorney's office. Peter is going places. He's going to be big one day. Get on the train."

She bit. That's when her bravado got checked. Nine years safely out of Toronto, out of Nick's sphere, now at risk. Peter wanted a meeting; a pre-interview interview. She remembers meeting him for the first time. There was something alluring about his presence alone. It seemed too big to be contained in the small room where they met. She was not immune to his draw. She wondered. Is this that undefinable thing you must possess to make it in high level politics; to enchant masses of people to work for you, to chant for you, to vote for you? Kalinda had been all about hiding. They couldn't have been more different. It was reflex to him… his appreciation of a beautiful woman in his presence. She thought it would keep her safe. She was wrong, just the opposite. He was the governing class, not at its finest. She was the prey. "You look wonderful," he said to her, "setting aside your date of death, Kalinda, well, both your dates of death, Leela." She was frozen in place. "How can I help you with this? I can expunge Kalinda's date of death? Would that be good? It could permanently disconnect the clue that led us to Leela. Or should I let your husband know you're alive and safe and here? Is he a little dangerous?" She couldn't move. He noticed. "Now, I have many friends who speak very highly of you. They say you are grateful when they do big favors for you. Do you know what they say?"

"You want me to buy you a drink?" she said, knowing this wasn't where he was going.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly drink in public with a woman who is not my wife."

She was trapped. She took one deep breath. "One night. No repercussions."

That's what he was waiting for. "Are you offering?"

Why is she hesitating? She's conducted business like this before. Well, not like this. It had always been on her terms before. This is different. "Yes." And tomorrow you wake up. The rest, as they say, is history.

Politics, from inside the State's Attorney's office, was a cut throat business. Kalinda became collateral damage in the Peter vs Glenn carnage.

When Kalinda needed a job, Will was there. He did a background check before he hired her at Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. She knows it was clean because she never heard otherwise. Peter had delivered what she'd paid him for.


Kalinda reaches for the phone to check the time. 01:03a.m. It is almost like her fingers are moving without direction from her mind. Contacts. Peter Florrick. Hit the call icon. It rings twice.

He picks up on the other end. "Kalinda? Is Alicia all right?"

"Yes. As far as I know. Peter, can I make it through a serious background check?"

He hesitates a moment. His head is foggy from sleep. "I'm sure. The record trail is solid." He pauses to let his head clear. "There's nothing I can do, though, about what Glenn Childs may think he knows. Except that he'd be able to produce absolutely no evidence to back up a story. He's moved on to a new life. I can't imagine he'd find any profit in ruining something for you."

"I paid your price for this to be air tight."

"Kalinda," he says, his voice heavy with guilt and regret. Most of the little people he'd used, chewed up and spit out, on his way up the ladder, were anonymous to him. He preferred it that way.

"Then I paid Alicia's price," says Kalinda.

"I'm sorry. I tried to tell her you were blameless, but she couldn't hear through her rage. I'd never seen her like that before." He pauses a moment before he offers more. "There's a piece of her missing now. You loved each other like sisters."

More. That familiar sharp pain in her chest returns. She thought it would subside over time, but…

"Half of that has drowned. The other half is gasping for air." She is a little surprised she's verbalized that. She normally keeps it very close to the vest. It must be the hour and her exhaustion.

"Why am I able to get through to you on the old number?" asks Kalinda. "You're the governor now."

"I keep my old phone for family."

"Good night, Peter."

"Good night, Kalinda."

Kalinda's mind is still moving too fast for sleep. No time like the present to run background checks on the LG team for the Fisher Li project. She'll do the check on herself first. The suspense is killing her.

Three failures. Will and two others. Kalinda chooses three replacements, runs their checks, and completes a list of eight who can pass background checks.

The profile and background check on Diane's old colleague didn't take much time. Straight as an arrow. The unsavory clients of which Will spoke, are pretty small ball.

The email to Will is time stamped 04:34a.m.

Can she still get two hours of sleep? At least try.


Two days later.

Diane and Will are talking and walking when they spot Kalinda. They momentarily suspend their conversation. Diane addresses Kalinda. "Good job, Kalinda."

Compliments are fuel to Kalinda.

Will puts his hand on her back, leans down until his head is level with hers, and quietly speaks. "I just sent you an email. Everyone passed background checks. Only two firms left in the running."

Will and Diane disappear around the corner.

Kalinda opens the email. Will has forwarded the client's original message, with a preface from him. "Here are our next step instructions for Fisher & Li. Appreciate everyone's quick response to the link."

Following Will's comment is the client's message of congratulations, and a link to a website for the pre-meeting survey.

Kalinda takes a deep breath. Then she clicks on the link.


It is nearing the end of business hours when Kalinda's phone rings. The screen flashes Will's picture and name.

"Hey Will."

"K, I want to talk to you. After court."

"Ok," says Kalinda. "Where?"

"That place next to the thing."

"Ok," says Kalinda.

That quickly, he's disconnected.

The exchange leaves Kalinda smiling. She has always taken comfort in their shorthand.


Will finds Kalinda at the bar, an empty seat for him next to her. He places his hand on her back as he takes his seat. He motions to the bartender for a drink. What she's having.

"What do you need?" asks Kalinda.

"The ones who didn't pass your vetting. Why?"

"First guy was beating his ex-wife. Charges of domestic assault were expunged. Quicky divorce. Her dad was a celebrity politician in the middle of an election at the time. Second guy had a complicated credit record. And yours, the suspension was a problem, and the gambling history came up. Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. You did exactly what I asked you to do. I'm more interested in getting the contract than having you stroke my ego at the expense of new business. That doesn't mean you shouldn't stroke my ego anytime there is the slightest legitimate reason."

They laugh. They talk easily about everyone and everything. As their conversations almost always do, especially when drinks are involved, the subject rolls to Alicia. As they almost always do, they commiserate a moment for both their losses, and then pretend she doesn't really mean that much to either of them. A moment of silence always follows, to reflect on the lie.