"Will, it's Karen…I-I don't really know what to say. You um, you don't have to call me or anything. I just want you to know that…that I'm sorry."

Will's finger lingered over the "erase" button on the answering machine. It was exactly the 16th time he had listened to her message in the past 24 hours. He knew Grace hadn't heard it, because it had gone to his mailbox only. He had been back from Paris for a week and hadn't talked to Karen since storming out of her hotel suite. He didn't know that barely two hours later, she had run to his hotel, searching for him frantically, only to find that he had already checked out.

He wanted to erase the message. He wanted to erase everything that had happened between them - but he couldn't bring himself to permanently delete the sound of her voice. For all he knew, he might never hear it again. He hadn't asked Grace about her yet, whether she was back or not. For now, Grace's office was off-limits in his mind, in case she was there. He wouldn't even begin to know how to deal with her. The last time this had happened, things hadn't ended so much as they had just been put on pause. She knew exactly how he felt, and there were no loose ends to tie up. Each knew exactly where the other stood, and even though they weren't necessarily happy with their situation, they knew how to handle each other. But this time was completely different.

The sound of Grace opening the door of their apartment brought Will out of his thoughts, and without thinking it through, he quickly deleted the message. As soon as he did it he regretted it, but he turned and smiled at Grace, hiding all of his inner turmoil.

"Hey sweetie!" she greeted him, two large brown grocery bags in her arms. He hurried to her and grabbed one, closing the door behind her as she went into the kitchen. "Did you call Karen back today?"

"What?" Will asked, surprised. Had she heard Karen's message?

"Well she said today that she's been trying to get in touch with you but you haven't returned any of her calls," Grace explained, unloading the bag she had just set on the counter.

"Oh, um…no, I haven't," Will answered. He mechanically opened the refrigerator to put in a new jar of mayonnaise.

"Well you should. She seemed kind of upset," Grace explained. "Did something happen?"

Will closed the refrigerator and looked at her, his face eerily serious. Grace frowned, giving him a "what?" look.

"No, no…I just- you know, there's some legal stuff," Will mumbled, turning his back on Grace to dig into the other grocery bag.

"Oh…" Grace muttered, confused. She shrugged, not too concerned about Will's weirdness towards Karen. It was no secret that they had a strange relationship - sometimes friendly, sometimes not. "Oh, by the way, she told me today that while she and Stan were in Europe they had some big falling out and they decided to separate," Grace told Will, the gossip spilling out of her mouth.

"What?" Will practically shouted.

"I know!" Grace exclaimed, her mouth full of the stuffed grape leaf she had just taken a bite of.

"Did she say why?"

"No, she said she didn't really want to talk about it. She just said that as soon as they got back, he packed up and moved out of the manse. She was also very emphatic about the fact that I was allowed to tell you this news, which was kind of weird."

Will didn't say anything, lost in his thoughts. He barely noticed when he knocked the open container of grape leaves off the counter.

"Sorry," he muttered, bending down to clean up the mess.

"Don't worry about it," Grace told him. "I'll get more tomorrow. Are you OK?" She bent down next to him and looked him square in the eye.

"Yeah, why?" he asked, turning his face back down to the floor.

"You just seem a little weird."

"No, I'm fine," Will lied, standing up. "I'm just tired." Grace stood too and nodded in understanding. "So when is Nathan coming over?"

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The next afternoon, Karen rushed across the street to Grace's office building. She threw her purse over her shoulder as she opened one of the glass doors to the lobby, just in time to see the lift closing.

"Wait!" she called, running over to it. Whoever was inside pushed the button and the grate opened back up as she stepped inside. It was only then, as the grate clicked shut and they lurched upward, that Karen realized she was sharing this elevator ride with Will.

Their eyes only met for a brief second before Karen looked away, suddenly ashamed. She was caught unprepared and was not yet mentally ready to deal with him. She wedged herself into the opposite corner from him as the silent tension between them grew.

Will fidgeted. His anger toward Karen had subsided slightly after learning from Grace last night that she and Stan had separated. Although she still wasn't his, at least now she wasn't Stan's, either. At least she had finally followed through with the original plan. Neither of them breathed a word, and it was quickly becoming clear that their uncomfortable silence would not be broken until they reached Grace's office.

Suddenly, the dim fluorescent lights of the lift flickered as the elevator churned to a halt.