A/N Hello everyone! I hope there are still some out there wanting to read this after my long break. Thank you all again for the wonderful reviews and all the feedback. I really appreciate it! Let me know what you all want to see from here on out. There are several ways I can take this to a happy ending, but I want this be enjoyable for all my readers.

"I'm not quite sure how to act around you when Chase is with us," Will said, over the phone as he stared into the bathroom mirror combing through his hair.

"What do you mean?" Alicia responded, smiling into the phone.

"I've never been very…affectionate with women in front of him for all the reasons we've discussed." He thought briefly she probably didn't believe him. The Will she knew ten years ago never had a problem showing affection towards a woman in public.

"This is different. We're different. So, what do I do? Act like we always do? Put my arm over your shoulder at dinner? Hold your hand? Kiss your cheek when we meet at the restaurant? Or do I refrain from all of it until he gets to know you better?" He nervously unbuttoned the top button to his shirt that he'd just seconds before fastened staring back at his reflection. He hoped desperately he didn't look as nervous as he felt.

"I'm going to leave that up to you." She smiled at Alison across the room. "I think you should do whatever you think will be most comfortable for him."

He sighed heavily. "I like the way we are. I want him to know this is different. That I really care about you. I'm just…nervous," he admitted.

She couldn't help but smile doing her best to not laugh at the irony of the whole situation. "Nervous? You?"

"Yeah," he chuckled under his breath. "This is far more nerve wracking than arguing a big case in court."

"Mmhm," she chuckled. "The butterflies in your stomach are making you nauseous. Your hearts pounding so fast it feels like it found its way to your throat making it difficult to breathe properly. You feel like jumping out of your skin to get away from the panic that's creeping in? Is that about right?"

"Yeah, that's a pretty accurate description." He was excited for Alicia to meet Chase, but there were so many ifs he felt like he was going crazy. Would the two people he loved most in the world get along? Would they like each other? Would Chase really be okay adding another person to their duo? He shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself trying to read too much into one dinner.

"It's kind of nice having the tables turned," she said. "That's exactly how I felt when you met Zach for the first time." She ran a hand over the sweaters Alison had laid out on the bed for her. The truth was she was nervous too. After pulling half the clothes in the closet out unable to decide on what to wear, she'd asked Alison for her opinion. It mattered a great deal to her what Chase thought of her. She didn't want to get off on the wrong foot by wearing something he'd consider uncool.

Will chuckled spritzing on some cologne. "I made a complete fool of myself that afternoon."

"I don't think he noticed. I on the other hand, came close to a full blown panic attack."

"Really?" he said, surprised.

"Yes, and you asking me later if I thought you should meet the kids formally didn't help. If I allowed you to come over for a, meet the kids dinner, that meant I would have to admit that our thing was more than just friendship and really great sex. In the back of my mind I knew it was more, but I wasn't willing to admit it."

"I get it. I was admittedly disappointed at the time, but I understood."

"You always did. You were far more patient with me over the years than I ever deserved. You rarely got anything in return," she mused, with a little guilt.

"Well, you can pay me back by helping me out tonight."

"Okay, see you soon."

After hanging up he continued to stare into the mirror. Janie had been right the day before when she told him he looked exhausted. He was. It didn't help that he was once again nursing a sore shoulder, and tight thigh muscles from a heart pounding run and trip to the batting cages. Unfortunately, a long hot shower and shave hadn't improved any of these things very much. It felt like the past few weeks had been nothing but a constant internal attack on his emotions. Keeping it all together was a bit challenging.

Was being with her, having this relationship with her, worth all of it? He thought to himself. Yes, only because he believed this time it would work. This time it would last. This time was different.

They met at the restaurant. The same pizza parlor Chase and Will had been at the week before. It was family style with wood burning pizza ovens, yet appealing to a broad crowd with multiple television screens and live music on weekends. He'd let Chase pick the place in an attempt to make him feel more comfortable with Alicia.

She looked amazing in a soft cream colored sweater and skinny jeans as she approached them. Out of habit Will slid his arm across her lower back when he introduced her to Chase. Chase didn't seem to think anything of it. Off to a good start, he thought.

He knew there were two ways this night would go. Chase was by nature shy, especially around adults he didn't know. It was possible Chase would be quiet and reserved all night, but if he felt comfortable, he'd engage fully in the conversation.

To Will's relief, Chase was engrossed in the conversation after only a few minutes. Alicia seemed a natural when it came to communicating with teens. It shouldn't surprise him so much. She'd always been able to communicate well with everyone who crossed her path. It certainly didn't hurt that she had a son. It warmed his heart that she seemed genuinely interested in what Chase had to say.

"I know you play baseball, but I don't think your dad ever told me what position you play," Alicia said, after they ordered their food.

"I'm a pitcher," Chase responded.

"Just like your dad was. I bet you're pretty good." She glanced at Will with a gentle smile that brought back memories of his college playing days.

"Yeah, I do okay. I'm going to go to some baseball camps in the spring to help improve my pitching techniques. I want to try out for the high school junior varsity team next year, but it's pretty competitive. I need to improve my pitching speed and some of my pitches. There's this other camp at the beginning of the summer where some of the top MLB players come run clinics and do one-on-one practice sessions with the participants. It's in Seattle at the Mariners' practice facility. Dad said I could go if I earn some of the cost."

"That sounds like a fair deal," Alicia responded.

"Yeah, but it's like a billion dollars and trying to get a job when you're thirteen is nearly impossible," he said with emphasis, shooting Will a piercing look.

Will couldn't help but laugh under his breath. "I told you all you'd need to do were some extra chores at home. And in the spring a few of the neighbors offered to pay you for some help with their spring clean-ups." He leaned forward clasping his hands together on the table. "It's not impossible. It's just going to take some extra work and patience."

Chase sighed turning his attention back to Alicia. "Was he really as good a player as he tells everyone? I mean I never met anyone who knew him back then." He leaned slightly over the table. "He told me he used to be good enough to play in the Minors before he hurt his shoulder. I mean he's good. He knows the game, but the Minors?"

Alicia managed to hold in the laughter at Chase's skepticism. She turned and looked at Will squeezing his leg under the table. "Yes," she said softly, "he really was that good." She looked back to Chase. "But he was good because he practiced really hard. That wasn't easy to do in law school. In the spring of our first year he would drag me to the practice field in the middle of our study sessions so he could work on his pitches. I'd sit in the bleachers working on outlines, or class readings while he practiced."

"I drug you?" Will said, chuckling in his defense. "I never forced you to come."

"Mostly true. The fresh air was good for me. And I liked watching you pitch. But it's a better story if I say you drug me."

"Did you go to all his games?" Chase asked.

"No, not all, but I did see quite a few of them. I was there the night he hurt his shoulder. Has he ever told you the story?"

"Yeah, a thousand times. That's why we have to do so many warmup drills at practice. And why he won't let me pitch every game. He doesn't want me to overuse my muscles."

Alicia and Chase continued talking. Will's mind wandered back to the night he'd torn his rotator cuff during a game.

- It was the bottom of the eighth inning. Georgetown was ahead four to two. His shoulder had been hurting more than usual during the game, but he brushed it off. He wound up and threw a pitch to strike the batter out. As the ball left his hand, he heard a popping sound and then felt excruciating pain.

He was transported to the hospital by ambulance. Alicia got there as quickly as she could, rushing into the ER, insisting she stay with him despite his protests.

"Leesh, they're going to bandage me up, give me some meds, and I'll go home and sleep it off. You don't need to stay. I'll be fine."

He couldn't help but laugh through the pain at the incredulous look on her face.

Placing her hands on her hips, she frowned at him. "Bandage you up and send you home? Will, you tore your rotator cuff. You're probably going to need surgery. You won't have use of that arm for weeks. You're going to need some help."

It was then that the reality of the situation started sinking in. No use of his arm for weeks? The season would be over in five weeks, and he was at the top of his game. He couldn't sit out now.

In the end he did need surgery. Alicia stayed at the hospital with him all night and all of the following day. In the following few days she'd gone to class but stayed at his apartment the rest of the time nursing him back to health, making sure he kept up in class, typing papers he dictated to her and going over lectures he missed. She made him food, or ordered in, and was constantly making sure he was comfortable by adding pillows under his arm, making sure he took his medication, and making certain he didn't do anything that would irritate his shoulder. The thing is she was the only person during his recovery that didn't drive him batty. In fact, he liked having her around. She knew when to leave him alone. She wasn't offended when he snapped at her out of frustration from his lack of movement and ability to do things. She was the only one who could handle all of his mood swings.

He went back to class two weeks later, but the injury had shattered his dreams of playing in the big leagues. She was the one he went to six weeks later in the middle of the night after a devastating doctor appointment that had led him to a bar for a few drinks and then aimlessly wandering the streets before ending up on her doorstep.

After knocking several times, she finally cracked the door glaring at him in her pajamas. "Will, it's the middle of the night," she said, groggily, trying to wake up. Her eyes scanned his body. "Are you drunk?"

He was a little drunk. She could probably smell it on his breath. He certainly didn't look very good after wandering around in the rain. He was exhausted, in pain, and in need of his best friend.

"Leesh, I…" He looked down doing his best to hold in the emotions, but it was too much.

She opened the door further looking concerned. "You what? What's wrong?"

"I'm done. Finished. I won't ever pitch again." He hoped desperately the raindrops running down his face would conceal the tears that had sprung from his eyes. Will Gardner never cried. And he certainly didn't want anyone seeing him do it now. But that was the thing about Alicia. He could let down all his defenses around her.

"Come on," was all she said, taking his hand and pulling him into her apartment. He shed his wet clothes in the bathroom while she dug through her closet for an old pair of sweats Owen had left after a visit and Will's hoodies she'd worn home a few days earlier.

After he changed she put him in her bed, made him some warm tea, gave him some aspirin, and climbed into bed next to him, letting him rest his head against her shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Will. I know that was your dream."

"I don't know what I'm going to do now," he admitted in complete defeat, swallowing back the tears.

"You'll turn to plan B. Be the best defense lawyer this country's ever seen."

That was all that was said between them in the darkness as the rain continued to splatter against the window. It was comforting to lay there snuggled under the soft blankets next to her warm body. For the first time in hours felt like maybe his whole world hadn't ended." -

When the pizza arrived, Chase was skeptical that Alicia would actually want to eat what he and Will had ordered. Plain old pepperoni pizza. Nothing fancy, no vegetables, no special sauce, which is what every other adult woman he knew always seemed to want, if they even ate pizza at all. The few women who'd ever eaten out with them didn't even like pizza. Janie was the same as all the others. She'd just have salad when they ordered in or went out for pizza.

"You're really going to eat the pizza?" he blurted out, before thinking he maybe shouldn't ask such a question to someone he hardly knew.

Will and Alicia exchanged a quick look of amusement. "This is the best kind isn't it?" she responded.

"Yeah, but most girls don't like pizza. And if they do, they want to put all kinds of weird stuff on it."

Will couldn't help but laugh under his breath. "That's one of the reasons I liked Alicia back in law school. She was always willing to share a pepperoni pizza with me any time of day."

"There was one night I thought we should try something different. My roommate really liked chicken on her pizza."

Will groaned placing his hands on his stomach. "Do we really have to discuss this?"

"Why? What happened?" Chase asked, eagerly.

"I ordered a specialty pizza, barbeque chicken. Your dad and I both ended up with food poisoning."

"It was awful," Will added.

Alicia chuckled. "You and I spent the entire next day practically dead on your couch. I was too sick to get back to my own apartment."

Will's eyes lit up. "Yeah, as sick as I was though it was kind of fun spending the day with you watching movies, drinking ginger ale, and ignoring school."

"It was," she responded with a gentle smile.

Later on, Alicia asked Chase about school. "Do you still like your science class?"

"Yeah, my teacher's pretty cool. We get to do lots of experiments during class."

"Have you thought about what you want to be when you're older?"

"Yeah, I want to do something in the science field if I can't be a pro baseball player."

Will interjected. "Chase and his friend Brian think they have it all worked out. They're both going pro. They'll buy a huge mansion together and play video games all day when they aren't at practice." He and Alicia shared a look of amusement at the enthusiastic, but naïve aspirations of the thirteen-year-old.

Alicia nodded her head. "And what's your favorite video game right now?"

Chase sat back placing his hand to his chin. "That's a hard one. I always like to get the newest version of MLB {major league baseball} but Brian and I like to play Underworld, Avengers, Madden, Spy 16. Have you ever heard of any of those?"

Alicia shook her head. "A few sound familiar. My son Zach still likes to play video games. I bet he's heard of all of them."

"Cool."

Despite the stress he felt, Will couldn't ignore the feeling that after years of yearning for a sense of wholeness, completion, within the little family he'd created with Chase, he may be close to attaining it now. He couldn't get over how normal it felt to be here on a Friday night with his son and the woman he'd always wanted to be the mother of his children. The only person he'd ever wanted to share this kind of domestic life with. He'd thought up so many versions of this over the past thirty years it was hard to believe this was real.

Part of him wanted to take Chase and Alicia to a new city and start over completely. The witness protection lifestyle was in his blood now. Despite the isolation it posed, it wouldn't really matter to him if the two people he loved most were with him. They'd never do it of course, but the idea of being the Browns, or the Hansens, or Smiths, the couple who'd just moved from a little town in Montana and had been married for twenty years with a thirteen-year-old son, was very appealing. It seemed so simple compared to the current reality.

He sat back lifting his arm to drape it across Alicia's shoulders, but then thinking twice of it, scratched his head instead. He'd gone to hold her hand several times during the night, but had avoided it, hoping Chase hadn't noticed his few awkward movements. Things had gone well, but he was still apprehensive about showing too much affection.

"Is Alicia coming home with us to watch the game?" Chase interrupted his thoughts.

Will looked at Alicia. They hadn't made any plans for after dinner. They wanted to see how dinner went first, and Will didn't know how Alicia would be feeling physically. She'd called him from Zach's late the night before to talk, in an effort to keep her mind off the pain.

"It's up to her," he responded.

"I'd enjoy that," she replied.

"Would you two like to come over to Zach and Alison's for dinner and games on Sunday?" she asked, just before Chase went up to his room for the night.

Chase looked at Will across the kitchen bar with a hint of anxiousness. "We were going to put the tree up that night, and watch a Christmas movie," he said. "It's tradition. We always do it the Sunday after Thanksgiving."

Will set the empty popcorn bowl in the sink. "Maybe we could do that in the afternoon, and go to Zach and Alison's in the evening," He didn't think a little compromise was a bad idea.

Chase's shoulders slumped in disappointment. Alicia gently reached and squeezed Will's arm. "No, it's fine. Traditions are important. We can do it next weekend?"

Chase immediately perked up giving Alicia a grateful look. She's already won him over, Will thought. Give it a few weeks, and it will be her and Chase against him. He could almost feel the power shift happening right in front of his eyes.

"Dad, can we do it? Please? Alicia could come over here Sunday and help us."

Will glanced at Alicia who nodded. "Okay. Did you want to tell her what the rules are, or were you going to leave that up to me?" The truth was, Will was thrilled Chase wanted Alicia to join them for their annual tree decorating night.

"Rules?" Alicia questioned with raised brow, leaning against the counter next to Will.

"Yeah," Chase said. "We only listen to Christmas music. You can't use your phone unless there's an emergency. You have to wear a Santa hat. And we have to watch a Christmas movie we've never seen before."

Alicia looked surprised at how elaborate it all seemed. Will couldn't blame her. Ten years ago, the thought of him wearing a Santa hat and decorating cookies would have never crossed her mind.

"That sounds great. Although, I don't own a Santa hat."

Will got a mischievous grin on his lips. "I'll make sure I have one for you."

"Cool! Goodnight," Chase said, turning to go up to bed, but then spun back around looking at Will. "And Dad, it's okay with me if you hold her hand. You look kind of funny trying to avoid it."

Will blushed. Alicia had to do everything she could to not laugh out loud as Chase turned and went up to bed.

Once he was out of sight Alicia chuckled turning to face him. Will sighed with embarrassment. "He's a sharp kid. What can I say?"

Alicia nodded. "He is. Not surprising with you as his father. But Cookie decorating, Santa hats. You do all of that?" she questioned, pointing her finger at him.

He straightened up as though he were about to cross a witness in court. "Yes," he answered proudly, closing the gap between and wrapping his arms around her waist. "We also make hot chocolate, and Chase get's to open a gift."

"It sounds…"

"Over the top," he said.

"No. I was going to say fun."

He moved closer. "As you can imagine Chase never really celebrated Christmas before I adopted him. He'd usually get one present each year that had been donated to the school he attended. Our first Christmas together after the adoption I probably went overboard, but he was so young I wanted him to have the whole Christmas experience. I thought he'd grow out of wanting to decorate sugar cookies, and wearing the hats, but he never has. So, we do the same thing every year. Put up the tree. Eat take out and a bunch of junk while we watch a movie."

Her eyes sparkled as a gentle smile crossed her lips.

"Yesterday when we were at the Marshall's for Thanksgiving, I over heard him complaining to Brian that he couldn't hang out on Sunday because he had to help with the tree, and that I was forcing him to watch some sappy Christmas film afterwards."

"But he seems so excited about it," Alicia said with surprise.

Will chuckled. "He is excited. And as you saw, it's important to him. But admitting to your friends that you'd rather stay home and hang out with your dad than spend the evening playing video games isn't exactly cool."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You've done a wonderful job raising him. He's perfect," she said, softly. "You probably don't see it, but he acts just like you sometimes. He walks like you. The way you two discuss sports together. The way he negotiated with you a few times tonight. That dark brown hair. He may not share your DNA, but he's definitely your son."

He leaned in and pressed his warm lips to hers. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to melt right into her. His body yearned for her. Despite all the challenges he wanted to feel close to her. But there was so much they needed to discuss. And even if he wanted to move this further, he knew he couldn't. She was still healing, and mending. They were both still trying to make sense of everything that had happened to her.

The kiss lingered for a few moments before they pulled apart for air. He looked into her hazel eyes, keeping his arms around her waist. "I really like having you here in my house," he said, softly.

"I've enjoyed being here," she responded with a content sigh.

"Would it be too presumptuous to say I wish you were always here?"

It took a few moments for her to respond, and he was sure he'd ruined the moment. But she slid her hands across his back and closed the small gap between them.

"No, it wouldn't be too presumptuous."