The first thing Andrea did when she arrived home was kick off her shoes and rummage around in her freezer for the fresh tub of chocolate marshmallow ice cream there. Not bothering to get a bowl, she grabbed a spoon out of the drawer and trailed into the living room, collapsing on the couch as she tugged the cover off the carton and dug in, quickly eating her way through a quarter of the tub. Once her initial hunger had been satiated, Andrea picked up her purse from where it had fallen and pulled out the letter she had received.

Looking at the envelope, she could see that it was almost identical to the first one she had received. Again, there was no return address, and the postmark was local, but other than that, she had no way to identify who was writing her. Letting out a sigh, she set the letter aside before digging into the ice cream once more and picking up her phone, scrolling through her notifications. There were texts from Andy, Provenza, and Rusty, which she promptly ignored, along with a few emails that she knew could wait until she was in a better frame of mind.

Shaking her head a little, she unlocked her phone and went into her work email, knowing that there were likely to be a few there, since she didn't get notifications due to the sensitive nature of her work. The one that stood out the most was from the director of HR. Pressing on it, she let her eyes quickly scan the words there, feeling the bottom of her stomach drop out when she read that she was being called in to meet with her and the DA the next morning. There was no mention of if she should reply to the email, it just appeared that she should understand that the meeting was non-negotiable.

Though she had known that something like that was likely to happen, she still felt like her hands and feet were beginning to turn to ice as she wondered what they were going to say to her. She knew that she would deserve whatever was said, since she had no right to go off on Rusty while they were working together, as it was far from professional, but it had needed to be said. Swallowing thickly, she ran through the rest of her emails and responded to the ones that needed an answer, all the while continuing to eat from the tub of ice cream.

It wasn't until she hit the bottom of the carton that she paused and took stock of just how many empty calories she had consumed so early in the day. It had been so easy to just drift along on autopilot as she had gone along. "That was stupid of you, Hobbs," she whispered as she wiped her hand on her trousers, getting to her feet and heading into the kitchen. Throwing the carton into the trash, she tossed the used spoon into the sink before opening the fridge and pulling out her water bottle and padding back into the living room. Her stomach had started to ache, now that she was finished with her binge, and she sipped at the cold water, hoping that could settle her stomach.

Knowing that she had to read the letter, even though she was emotionally compromised, Andrea reached out and took hold of the envelope, sliding her finger beneath the flap of it and slowly tearing it open so as not to ruin the envelope. There was just one sheet of paper inside, like before, and she unfolded it, letting her eyes run to the bottom to see if there was a signature this time. There was not, and she frowned deeply as she slumped back into the sofa and began to read.

Andrea,

I know that you must be so frustrated with Rusty, but I know that you can be better than just randomly going off on him because you want to defend a friend's honor. You can't bring back the dead, and you can't make him see the error of his ways. All you can do is focus on you and how you react. I know that you miss Sharon, and I truly wish that there was a way to change things, but there isn't. And you can't let your life slip through your fingers as you continue to mourn after a woman who has moved on to a different place. She would want you to be happy, after all.

And I know that you were so upset to lose that case, but I know that you will close the next case with a win. You're too good to let one loss cause you to stumble into a funk. There is always going to be a time of struggle, and what we do in response to that struggle is truly who we are. And you are a strong, resilient, woman who kicks ass and takes names. Never forget that.

That was the end of the letter, and again, she found herself perturbed by the letter writer, wanting to know who was sending her encouraging notes without signing their name. Again, the writer knew very personal details about her life, which told Andrea that it was someone close to her, but if it were one of her colleagues, she knew that they would tell her to her face what she needed to hear. The need for secrecy unnerved her more than anything, even though she knew that the writer intended the letters to be encouraging and friendly.

Slipping the letter back into the envelope, Andrea tossed it onto the coffee table as she stretched out on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling, her mind reeling between the way she had acted that morning and the letter she had read. The stress only served to make her stomach roil all the more until she could no longer hold everything inside.

Standing up in a hurry, she rushed over to the downstairs bathroom and thudded to her knees as she threw up all the water and ice cream she had just consumed. And as she threw up, she began to sob, wondering when her life had so quickly spun out of control. Finally, she stopped heaving, and pushed away from the toilet get control of her body once more. Shakily getting to her feet, Andrea staggered the few steps to the sink and rested her body on it as she took a look at herself in the sink.

"You've really fucked up this time, Andrea," she murmured as she turned on the water and washed her face clear of the traces of sickness before letting out a deep sigh and trudging back to the living room and collapsing on the sofa once more, curling up on her side and reaching out for her phone, ignoring the notifications on the screen as she unlocked the device and began to read the book she was currently in the middle of. She found her focus lacking and when she realized that it had taken her twenty minutes to read four relatively short paragraphs, she sighed and gave up, turning on her television as she tucked the phone into her trouser pocket, then flipping through the channels until she found a marathon of Boston Legal, losing herself in a show that was more absurd than her life currently.