After they cleaned up the popcorn, Alicia excused herself to her room to change out of her court clothes. She glanced at the clock and figured she had time for a quick shower. Grace continued to pop popcorn while Zack and Owen played cards.

When Will left his office, he took a six pack from his office mini-fridge to avoid having to make any stops on the way. He wasn't exactly sure what he had gotten himself into. He hadn't done any family nights since high school, maybe college on school breaks. And he certainly was not used to being around kids. He suddenly felt old and really, really not cool as he realized he knew absolutely nothing about teenagers were into these days. He started to second guess his agreeing to join and was thinking about calling to cancel when he got an idea. He just needed to make one quick stop on his way...


There was a knock on the door.

"Pizza's here." Grace called out.

"I'll get it," Owen offered.

Will's nerves had calmed down by the time he got to Alicia's apartment. It wasn't his normal version of a normal Friday night, but it was a normal thing to do, for a family, he supposed, to watch movies together on a Friday night. He also supposed it was normal for friends to be invited. Nothing to get nervous about. He would just be normal. Everything would be normal. Her kids couldn't be that intimidating. He shouldn't be so worried about making a good impression. He convinced himself he was being silly and to just knock on the door already.

He heard footsteps approaching the door from the other side. He was definitely surprised to see a thirty-something-year-old man open the door.

"Sorry. I must have the wrong address." He looked from the man to the number on the door.

Owen noticed the lack of pizza boxes and realized this rather good-looking-yet-confused man must be Will.

"You're Alicia's friend?"

"Yeah." He was feeling unsure about this whole thing. He hadn't expected Alicia would have invited other men.

"Come in. I'm her brother Owen." Will sighed an inward sigh of relief. He was still feeling a bit awkward. She hadn't mentioned her brother would be there too.

"Zack, Grace, your mom's friend's here."

Zack waved from the other room, and Grace waved from the kitchen.

Owen had noticed Will was holding a six-pack and a few grocery bags. "Do want me to put that in the fridge?"

Will handed Owen the six pack. "Sure. Thanks." He followed Owen into the kitchen.

As Alicia was getting dressed, she heard voices from the other room and realized Will had arrived. She glanced at the clock and realized she had taken longer than she planned. She hurried out into the kitchen in a pair of faded jeans and a Georgetown sweatshirt. She looked more like the Alicia he remembered from their school days now than she did in her court clothes. He felt a bit taken by surprise; although, it totally made sense that she would be dressed more casually in her own home on a Friday night than the other times he'd run into her. But as soon as he saw her, his nervousness faded away, and he just felt completely comfortable. Everything felt - normal.

"Hey, I see you've met everyone."

"Yeah." He remembered the bags in his hands and placed them on the counter. "I hope you don't mind, but I picked up some ice cream on the way over."

"I don't think anyone will mind ice cream, but that looks like more than just a container of ice cream." She raised a skeptical brow...

"Well, since I didn't know what flavors your kids liked, I got a variety." He began taking out the cartons and placing them on the counter. "Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Brownie, Chubby Hubby, and last, but not least, for you, Mint Chocolate Cookie." He specifically handed the last carton to Alicia. "I wasn't sure if it was still your favorite."

She was touched and surprised that he remembered. "It is, thank you." She smiled softly as he handed it to her, memories if Mint Chocolate Cookie and study sessions with Will flooding her mind.


Georgetown - Fall 1991 - First Semester of Law School

They were supposed to have started working already. Will was twenty minutes late. Alicia was reviewing her notes alone and was growing increasingly annoyed that Will wasn't there. She had called his apartment ten minutes ago, no answer. Even if he had just left right before she called, it didn't take more than ten minutes to get from his apartment to hers. Had he forgotten? She really did not need to be paired for this assignment with someone who was not responsible; even if he had given some brilliant answers in class over the past few weeks and was incredibly good looking.

Two minutes later there was a knock at the door.

"Sorry I'm late."

She let him in. "It's okay." It really wasn't because they planned on 2 o'clock, and 2 o'clock means 2 o'clock, not 2:22, but she didn't really know him well enough to lecture him on punctuality.

"I figured this would take a while, so I decided to stop at the store to pick up some snacks." He indicated to the grocery bags in his hands. "I was standing in the checkout line for close to a half hour." He had put his books and the bags down on the table. "Oh, this needs to go in the freezer." He took a container of ice cream out of the bag. She took it and went to put it in the freezer. "Mint Chocolate Cookie?" she read the label.

"It's Ben & Jerry's newest flavor. Thought I'd be adventurous and try something new." She thought she might be adventurous and try something new too, ice cream before homework. It did look good. Cookies and Creme and Mint Chocolate Chip were her favorite flavors, and this seemed to be a combination of the two. "Wanna try it now?"


Meanwhile, the bell had rung again, and this time it was the pizza. Owen walked back in the kitchen and put the boxes down on the counter. "So I guess Movie Night can officially begin."

Owen opened the first box and started distributing the pizza, while Alicia snapped herself from her thoughts and put the ice cream in the freezer.

Everyone made their way to the family room. Owen, Alicia, and the kids all sat on the sofa and Will took the chair off to the side. There was a second pizza on the coffee table as well as a big bowl of popcorn and a few drinks to get everyone through the first movie.

As they sat down Alicia asked, "So what's tonight's theme?"

"Theme?" Will asked.

"Yes." Owen rolled his eyes. "All Florrick Family Movie Nights have a theme."

The kids took over. "The movies have to have some sort of common denominator." "And popcorn and pizza both start with P."

Will smiled thinking that was so Alicia. Throughout their days in law school she had always been super organized; themes, color-coding, plans...

"Anyway, tonight's theme is Robin Williams."

"We've got Dead Poet's Society."

"Because Grace has a thing for Knox Overstreet," teased Zach. Grace rolled her eyes.

"Hey, he is a good-looking guy," Owen added in her defense.

"And The Birdcage because Mom thinks Christine Baranski and Nathan Lane are awesome."

The evening flowed comfortably. As much as Will enjoyed sitting at home watching a game, there was something subtly more appealing about the idea of sitting at home with a family. At some point in the past year, he had begun to second guess his choices in life. In his twenties and even thirties, the only thing he was focused on was his career. He had made it his life. Then as he approached forty, he all of a sudden started noticing how men his age had families; wives and children to go home to. Their kids were teenagers already, like Alicia's, and he felt sort of like it was too late to get started, like he'd missed the boat by not being more interested in marriage and building a family when he was younger.

He pondered how Peter could have done what he had. The media had been very unfavorable towards Alicia following the news of Peter's infidelity accusing her of being frigid. He had found those accusations hard to believe, and seeing her here in her home with her kids, he just couldn't imagine Peter was forced to find affection elsewhere. Will had had his fair share of empty meaningless sex, but if you asked him to chose between a roll in the sack with a perky young blonde like Amber Madison or having a wife and kids like this to come home to everyday, he realized, he'd rather have this.


She had invited Will on a whim. She wasn't one to do things on a whim, and she had second-guessed herself repeatedly, but once he had gotten there, everything had just felt so natural, as if it were a normal occurrence that he would join them for dinner and a movie. Everything had always been easy and comfortable with Will. It was strange how you could not see someone for fifteen years and everything just falls into place as if you last saw each other the day before.

She was glad he had come. She hadn't known that Owen would stay. The kids had been asking to do a movie night like they used to, and she had been putting it off and had finally agreed. Having Will and Owen there helped distract her from the fact that he wasn't there. The fact that even before he was arrested there were many Friday nights that he wasn't there. Only now, she had more of an idea where he had really been, or rather, what he had really been doing. She tried to avoid those thoughts; they hurt too much. It was easier to loose herself in court cases or in watching movies or in anything that would keep her busy and/or distracted from thinking those thoughts. It wasn't until the still of the night, when she would sit in her room alone after the kids had gone to bed that she would be forced to battle those thoughts until sleep took over. If she didn't keep busy and distracted, she was sure those thoughts and feelings would drown her.


They had started with The Birdcage, after which Owen had left, and were now part way into Dead Poet's Society. With Owen's spot vacant, Will had joined Alicia and the kids on the sofa.

"Hey, Mr. Gardner, now that Uncle Owen left there's room for you on the sofa." The kids had taken to him rather quickly. The abundance of ice cream had helped him make a good impression and the small bits of conversation here and there had flowed easily.

He felt a bit uncomfortable, as if he was intruding on their family space. "I'm fine here."

"But you can see better from the sofa," Grace argued. "Zack, scoot over."

"I think she's going to be a lawyer some day too," Zack commented as he scooted over towards Alicia, who scooted a drop closer to Grace as she added, "Will, there's plenty of space for four, and Grace is right, you'll have a better view."

So now he was sitting on the end next to Zach, with Alicia between the two kids as he felt himself identify with Knox Overstreet in a way he never had before. He wondered if Knox really knew what it was like to pine over a girl that belonged to someone else; not a guy she was going steady with, but a man she was married to. And just like Chet Danburry didn't seem to deserve a girl like Kris, Peter sure as hell didn't deserve Alicia. He silently cheered Knox on in his pursuit of Kris. He thought back to how many missed chances he had had to 'seize the day' with Alicia. If he had the chance again, he wouldn't mess it up next time.


A/N: Thank you for reading, and as always, reviews are very much welcomed.

Just for reference: Mint Chocolate Cookie was first introduced sometime in 1991 and would have been new at the time of the Georgetown flashback. Knox Overstreet, one of the characters in Dead Poet's Society, was played by Josh Charles.