A/N: Thanks for all the follows, favourites and reviews. Sorry for the long wait for an update – been so busy lately. Trying to update all my stories this week.

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If You Leave Me Now (Chicago)

Chicago, April 2014

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David Austen sat opposite Diane Lockhart in her office in the newly minted firm of Lockhart/Gardner & Canning.

"I'm pleased you kept Gardner in there," he mused.

"Yes, me too. I am part of Lockhart Gardner and I really wanted to maintain that. Louis felt we should keep it out of respect to Will, which was nice. I was pleased as I wasn't in the mood to argue."

"Dee, I have a problem."

"Oh?" she enquired.

"Well, it's not a problem, per se, but I have a letter that Will wrote, I guess, in the same vein as yours, to give to Alicia Florrick. I'm not sure whether I should go to her home or her office. She doesn't know me and I don't want to unduly upset, given what you've said about her and Will."

Diane sighed and removed her glasses, folding them in her hands. "I see," she said thoughtfully looking down at her glasses. "I understand your reticence. She is not in a good place at the moment and has been a little withdrawn," she said by way of offering some insight into Alicia's current state.

David nodded and looked a little pensively at his friend. "What do you mean by 'withdrawn'?" he enquired.

"As we all have, she has been in mourning and has had difficulty coming to terms with Will's death. I think it hit her particularly hard because of their friendship and," she paused, lowering her voice a little, "past relationship."

David nodded, "I understand they were close," he said.

"Yes," Diane confirmed. "Alicia took some time away from Florrick Agos and, I believe, fought with Peter. She questioned herself over and over, which I don't think helped her recovery. She focused on a partial voicemail that Will left her and tried in vain to reconcile her feelings for him."
David looked downcast, "So do you think I should wait to give her the letter?"

"No," Diane shook he head, "I think it might help her heal, to read Will's words again," she took a short breath, "even if they aren't exactly what she hoped."

David nodded before beginning again, "Diane, I have another question that I hope you can answer."

"Okay," she said slowly, leaning forward on her arms.

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When he returned home, David hung up his overcoat and walked into his office. He pressed the switch to turn on the green banker's light on his desk and sat down behind it. He sighed lightly as he opened the top drawer. Taking out a black folder he slid back the elastic binding and pulled it open to find the slim cream envelope labeled 'Alicia Florrick.' Laying the envelope on his blotter, he returned to the folder to retrieve several unsealed envelopes; some had been ripped open, possibly in haste, others had been carefully unsealed with a letter opener. The letters were all addressed to the same recipient: Alicia Florrick. The handwriting on the envelope was the same, but the ink often changed. David noted that these were previous versions of the letters, replaced over time by new versions culminating in the pristine copy in front of him.

His question to Diane still lingered in his mind: should be give Alicia all of the envelopes or just the sealed one? Bound up with this question was another concerning why Will kept them, and to that matter, whether he intended all of the documents to be read by Alicia in the event of his death? His logical mind suggested he just give her the most recent letter as each other recipient received only one. However, his heart urged him to present the entire collection. He would never break his friend's trust and read them, but he reasoned that the content changed a little over the years. David was also concerned that words of love possibly written in the early years might have been replaced by vile phrases and hatred in the months before his death. If that was the case, he didn't want to give Alicia something that would upset her further, especially given what he had learned from Diane. He didn't want to be the one responsible for a dark cloud to continually hover over Mrs Florrick.

He picked up one of the envelopes and tapped it on the blotter as he leant back in his chair. He would visit Alicia tomorrow.

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A/N: This was just a short update to introduce Alicia's letter or letters. Let me know what you think. Should she see all the versions? Would it upset her too much?