A/N: This is my first attempt at a story so hope you like it! I am including a song title with each chapter that I think represents or relates to the mood of the section.

You're My Best Friend (Queen)

May 2015

In the aftermath of Alicia's withdrawal from the State's Attorney race and Kalinda's disappearance, late one night Diane and Alicia are talking in Diane's office.

"Alicia, I think you need a friend."

"Diane…" she says smiling and shaking her head slightly.

Diane interrupts her, "Wait, hear me out."

"OK, sorry." She bites her bottom lip.

"We all need friends, people we can talk to, laugh and share things with. I don't have many close friends, especially since some deserted me when I married Kurt. And," she pauses and her breathing quickens, "since Will died I have even fewer; I lost my best friend." She pauses again, smiles to herself remembering the lost lawyer and removes her glasses, playing with the arms in her hands. She takes a sharp intake of breath and steels herself before continuing. "I know you don't have many either and also feel the loss of Will and Kalinda very acutely. I think we're friends and are closer now than we have been for some time, which saddens me as it took Will's death to do that." Her eyes begin to tear as she looks at Alicia, who is rubbing her index finger under her right eye to stop herself from crying. "We aren't the only ones still hurting and feeling lonely, vulnerable even. It is for this reason that I want you to meet someone, a friend of mine," she pauses, "and a good friend of Will's."

Diane lets her last statement linger as the younger woman contemplates her response.

Alicia looks confused and a little taken aback. "Ohh-Kay," she says slowly. "Who? I, I , err," she stumbles over her words, in shock at Diane's intentions.

Diane continues. "Her name is Angela. She is a doctor and the daughter of an old friend of mine. If you want to meet her, I'll let her tell you more about herself and her friendship with Will."

"OK, erm…" she stops and sighs. "I'm not sure. I don't quite understand. You said she was a good friend, how did she know Will and why haven't I heard of her?" She said furrowing her brow.

"I know it is a little out of left field, to use one of Will's sports analogies, but she knew Will for a lot longer than I did and, although technically you knew him first, their relationship didn't have the hiatus that yours did. They first met in Baltimore and basically stayed friends for the rest of his life. They dated for a time, way back in the last century," she says, trying for Alicia's sake to make light of the romance, "and had a deep love for one another. That love was founded on friendship and although they didn't live in each other's pockets, they always knew they had each other."

Alicia takes a sip from her glass, the golden liquid burning the back of her throat. "So why didn't I know her?"

"Well, when you first started at the firm she wasn't in Chicago so there wasn't any opportunity to meet her. And, I think, that when she moved to the city you and Will were," she looks to the ceiling as she searches for the right word, "involved, and he wanted to keep you apart. I think he didn't want the two women he loved, in very different ways," she noted, sweeping her right hand and glasses through the air, "to come together. He was scared of what might happen if you met and couldn't bear losing one of you from his life."

Alicia sighs and sits back in her chair. "I don't understand, how do you fit in? Did she introduce you to Will? I thought you met through Stern?"

"David, Angela's father is an old friend, he moved to Chicago with Angela when his wife died. He is a former lawyer and emeritus professor of international law at Northwestern. He's quite revered and I think Will said he even gave a seminar at Georgetown when you were there. I met David through work and I've known Angie herself since she was a young girl, so over thirty years. Angela and I knew Will independently and it was Jonas Stern that brought us together." She smiles and her face begins to lighten as she continues, "There are some good stories out there of the early days of Stern, Lockhart & Gardner and Angela features in many of them," she chuckles. "But they are for another day."

Alicia nods and smiles at the older woman still unable to reply.

"She's a good person Alicia, and, she needs a friend too, probably more than you do. She has just returned to Chicago from a placement in Africa and is feeling a little isolated and bewildered. Like me she lost her best friend. But she was alone and thousands of miles away when she found out Will had died. What makes it worse is that she didn't know for four days and couldn't come back for the funeral, so while we had each other and could mourn him collectively, she had nobody." Diane pinches the skin at the top of her nose and sniffs quietly trying to stop her eyes from tearing.

Tears form in Alicia's eyes as she recalls the pain of Will's death, the rawness she felt and the endless search for answers after the tragedy. "I would like to meet her," she says, smiling at Diane. Diane nods and the two women raise their glasses in a toast.