I guess I scared everyone away with the last few chapters...

Burger did a double take when Alexandra returned home later that afternoon. The surprise had turned out to be the new haircut and color she'd obviously indulged herself. Early on in their relationship, the district attorney had admitted a preference for brunette; and Alexandra had coughed up the secret that she was in fact a "bottle blonde." As her fiancé had often expressed interest in seeing her natural hair color, Alexandra had decided to indulge him in time for their wedding as a wedding present.

"Well, I'll be damned," Burger smiled in surprise as he took in the gorgeous light ash brown color. "You look incredible."

She smiled somewhat self consciously. "Light ash brown; it's my natural color. I thought you might like it for the wedding."

"I like it permanently, Alex. You're stunning."

He still couldn't tear his eyes away from her and he couldn't wait to see her on Saturday for their ceremony on the beach.

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Burger and Alexandra settled into their married lives easily over the next several months. Most of the time she beat the district attorney home, but not always. It really depended on the status of her client notes. She had decided to keep the brown hair to her husband's pleasure.

It was now early October and the baby was due within the next few weeks. Just the ring of the telephone or anyone entering his office or interrupting court the last few weeks threatened to give Burger a heart attack so great was his anticipation and nervousness that any minute now he'd learn his first child was coming. Fathers weren't even allowed to be with their wives when they gave birth so Burger wasn't even sure why he felt so jumpy about hearing when she was in labor. He realized to some extent there was some fear that something would happen to either or both of them. Even Mason had noticed how jumpy his opponent in court had become. Burger had grumbled back that he could hardly wait for the baby to arrive so he could stop anticipating that one phone call.

Mason tried hard to resist the urge to prank the hapless district attorney the next time he got a phone call in Burger's presence. Della would no doubt tell him that such a prank wasn't nice.

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Having just finished her client notes, Alexandra locked up her file cabinets and grabbed her purse. Checking to make sure she had everything, she locked the building behind her being the last one to leave and waddled out to her car. The baby had been rather active lately which surprised her this late in pregnancy. The kicks had often become uncomfortable and sometimes even painful if they struck just the right tender spots. The young woman swore she had a future football player tumbling around in there and she caressed her middle lovingly.

The drive home would take a little while, traffic depending. It was Los Angeles though so one could almost always count on traffic at this hour. Any hour really. It was for that reason that Alexandra preferred to take a slightly longer, but less densely populated route home. On the passenger's side there were tall trees and no buildings. A small lake was somewhere hidden behind the trees. The driver's side was a different story though with some homes and some businesses, including a little hideout that she knew Paul Drake spent time in occasionally. She and Ruby had gone in there periodically before Alexandra had met Burger and they had seen Drake in there more than a few times.

She had the green light at the small, deserted intersection ahead and was just about to pass through it when she caught unexpected movement out of the corner of her eye. The other car was on her so fast she had no time to react save for a gasp of shock and fear. The next thing Alexandra knew was darkness.

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The crash had been loud enough to be heard inside the bar and it wasn't long before a crowd had gathered to see what had caused the loud noise. Paul Drake had actually been enjoying the rare evening uninterrupted (so far) by an eleventh hour favor for friend and colleague Perry Mason and he charged outside immediately to see what had happened. Confirming that it was what it sounded like, Drake stuck his head back inside and yelled for the bartender to call for an ambulance and the police.

Jogging out to the corner, Drake looked to make sure the coast was clear before approaching the wreck. If anyone was alive, moving them wasn't a good idea since he wasn't a trained medical professional. At the moment, it didn't look like anything was about to catch fire so Drake simply wanted to see if the vehicles' occupants were at least alive and who they were while he waited for the ambulance to arrive.

He discovered the driver of the first vehicle he inspected to be dead, but whether that was the result of the crash or from some other cause he couldn't say. The crash wasn't exactly a mild fender bender, but from the angle that it looked as if this car impacted with the other, Drake found it difficult to believe the driver would have died from the impact.

The private investigator sighed in confusion and resignation. Even after working with Mason for years, Drake still found he couldn't quite used to finding dead bodies. There would be time for speculation later though and Drake moved quickly to the second car. He couldn't get the driver's side door open so he jogged around to the passenger's side, hoping that the door was unlocked. Mercifully it was and the tall man yanked the door open and hunched down to look at the driver. His blood ran ice cold in shock and his breath caught in his throat.

"Oh my god… Alexandra…"

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Still trying to process the surreal image in front of him, Drake had to will himself out of shock long enough to move his hand to check for her pulse. He didn't really need to as he could see the rise and fall of her chest. She must have hit her head on the driver's side window because she was out cold.

Drake was about to run across the street to try and call Burger when Alexandra stirred. Her face grimaced in pain as she opened her aqua blue eyes. It took her a moment to focus on Mason's private investigator.

"Paul…," she croaked. "What happened?"

"You were in a car accident. And as much as I'd love to ask you how it happened, I think it would be best if you remained quiet and still for right now. An ambulance is on its way."

"Hamilton…?"

Drake shook his head. "Doesn't know yet. I was just about to find a phone when you came around. I'm going to do that now. Do you think you can stay still for a few more minutes?"

Alexandra nodded weakly.

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Drake returned after about five minutes which had felt like an eternity to both him and Alexandra. Burger had left his office for a few minutes and it had taken some time for his secretary to hunt him down.

He found Alexandra breathing through what had to be contractions and the sight did nothing to stall his feelings of near panic. Normally Drake was a very calm man, but this time a friend's wife was involved and his heart hurt for Burger. He could only imagine what that poor man had to be going through. Drake had even suggested that he have Tragg drive him so Burger didn't accidentally kill himself in the rush over.

Alexandra let her head fall to the side to face Drake as the contraction subsided.

"Apparently my water broke at some point after the crash. This baby is coming," she said, trying not to sound fearful.

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