A New Beginning

It is a cold and snowy December morning when Kalinda is on her way to work. Her car had been towed away while it had been parked illegally as she was questioning one of Lemond Bishop's guys. She reckoned that Bishop had called the tow truck company on purpose since he didn't like her questioning any of his men. Hence, she was taking the 'L' to work this morning. Kalinda's working at Florrick, Agos and Lockhart now and had been since Diane joined their start-up firm about a month earlier. And yet, she and Alicia keep missing each other at the F/A/L offices. Cary and Kalinda called it quits with each other when Cary found out that Kalinda had been seeing Lana behind his back. Now Kalinda isn't sleeping with anyone for obvious reasons. Cary doesn't even tell Alicia that Kalinda is pregnant. But Diane lets it slip when she tells Alicia that she is bringing Kalinda with her to the firm. Alicia is really surprised, and just concerned whether Kalinda will be able to do her job well enough. She wonders who the father is… Cary? Can't be Cary… surely he would have told her if he was the father. Diane assures her that Kalinda is fine and able to work.

Kalinda is on the train when her water breaks. She swears and mutters something under her breath as she gets off at the next stop.

Alicia catches the 'L' to work that morning since her car is getting serviced. She is looking out the window when she happens to spot Kalinda sitting on the bench as the train stops. Kalinda has a shocked look on her face. Alicia quickly jumps off the train to check if Kalinda is alright as she is holding her stomach like she in pain. She practically runs over to Kalinda.

"Kalinda! Are you ok? Do you need me to call an ambulance?"

"Alicia….hi….um…." Kalinda doesn't know what to say. It's been over a year since she's seen Alicia face to face, this close.

"Are you alright?"

"My water broke."

"How long ago?"

"Um… about 15 minutes," Kalinda is breathing in and out slowly. Alicia can see she's in pain.

"You're already having contractions?"

Kalinda nods.

"How many?"

"Two…"

"How far apart?"

"Seven or eight minutes…"

"Have you called an ambulance?

"No… Northwestern Memorial is just one stop away."

Kalinda is breathing heavier now.

"Why didn't you get on the train?"

Kalinda looks at Alicia and raises a sculpted eyebrow,

"You try walking during labour pain."

"Okaaaayyy…. how far along are you?

"Thirty-eight weeks"

"Can I call someone for you? Who's the father? Cary?" At this, Kalinda rolls her eyes.

"No", Kalinda keeps breathing in and out quickly.

"Then who?"

Kalinda looks at Alicia for a moment and has a very worried expression on her face. Alicia's eyes widen,

"Please don't tell me Peter," Alicia gulps.

Now Kalinda's eyes widen in shock,

"WHAT?! Peter? Alicia, you have got to be kidding! I know you don't think that pregnancy lasts for more than 5 years since that was the one and only time I ever slept with him! God!"

Now Kalinda looks annoyed and perhaps a bit pissed off. But still worried about Alicia's next reaction.

"It's… Will's… " she says, looking down at her stomach, then up again straight at Alicia. Alicia's eyes go wide again.

"Will!? How!? When!?"

"Alicia…. AAARRRGGGHHHHH! I….don't….have time…..for…this…. AARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Kalinda is holding her stomach and having another contraction.

"All right, all right… let me help you onto this train that's coming up."

Alicia helps Kalinda up and supports her as she guides her to the train that has just stopped in front of them. She helps Kalinda in, all the while thinking about Kalinda and Will together. She is really shocked and angry. How could Kalinda do this to her AGAIN! How could Will do this to her!? She looks at the small woman in front of her, holding onto a pole for dear life as another contraction rages through her. An old man asks if Kalinda is alright as he gets up and offers to pull the emergency cord. They both shout at him not to pull it. He steps back defensively and the train eventually reaches the next stop and so Alicia helps Kalinda off the train. Kalinda needs to sit for a bit so they head for the nearest bench where Alicia dispatched the wild looking teenage boys off of it with a wave of her free hand and a furious look in her eyes. They scrammed.

Kalinda is breathing heavily again and looks at Alicia who has a blank stare in her eyes.

"Its not what you think… I mean, with Will."

"Oh? And what do I think?" Alicia says in a cold tone.

"That Will and I were sleeping together? We weren't."

"Ooooohhhh! So he got you pregnant by immaculate conception? That explains it."

"Oh C'mon, Alicia. It was the night before the shooting. We went out for dinner because I was telling him that I wanted to leave and make a fresh start somewhere else. Will persuaded me to stay and we started drinking. We drank a lot and we ended up in a hotel room."

"Please! Don't tell me! I don't need to know the details-"

"He called me Alicia! That's how drunk we were! And you know what? I didn't care! I wanted him to be happy! To have one more chance with you. And if he thought he was with you and he was happy, then I was happy." Tears were springing to Kalinda's eyes now.

"He what?"

"While we were having sex, he called out your name. Several times, actually. And then in the morning, we woke up and he realised-we realised what we had done." .

She looked up at Alicia who had tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry, Alicia. I didn't want to hurt you... again. Seems like that is all I ever do."

Kalinda was crying now, and so was Alicia until another contraction raged through Kalinda again.

"We need to get you to the hospital," Alicia said as she palmed Kalinda's face and actually smiled at her. Kalinda forgot to breathe for a second and then let Alicia help her up. They had to climb down a steep flight of stairs and Kalinda was suddenly feeling faint. She had to sit down again, but Alicia supported her and helped her down. They got about half way down when another contraction came along. This time Kalinda did sit down where she then passed out.

"Crap! Now what?!" Alicia said to herself. The hospital wasn't too far away from here... and Kalinda is much smaller than herself. In fact, she reminds Alicia of Grace at about 12 yrs old. She makes a decision.

Alicia scoops Kalinda up in her arms and carries her the rest of the way down the stairs and to the hospital entrance where there were nurses and doctors on standby waiting for an ambulance to arrive with a car crash victim.