Dr. Alicia Hunt looks over her calendar for the day.
Kalinda Sharma is on the schedule for 18:00. There's really no telling if she'll show up. I suppose if I'd like to increase the chance of seeing her, a change of venue could be a good tactic.
The doctor grabs her smart phone and begins composing a text for Kalinda. 'I can't spend one more hour in this office! Pick a place for us to drink and talk tonight, 18:00ish'. Almost immediately, the doctor gets a response, an address. Small victories. They can feel so big sometimes.
Dr. Alicia arrives at the bar a few minutes early. She grabs a quiet booth for two and orders a drink.
Her drink is arriving when she sees Kalinda walk in. Kalinda spots her and nods. She stops at the bar and orders a drink. Kalinda is known here. While she waits for her drink, she is surrounded. Kalinda bewitches the men and women alike. It is a privilege to watch this exquisite wild animal in her natural habitat, top of the food chain.
Kalinda picks up her drink from the bar and starts to walk the long corridor to the booth where the doctor waits. The doctor notices that she is a little dressed down compared to their last meetings, no leather. Especially notable, though; her hair is in a ponytail, not pinned up.
"You let your hair down, sort of," says the doctor.
Kalinda sits down opposite her in the booth. "For you. I feel naked."
"It's really long. It must be beautiful flowing loose," remarks the doctor.
"It is," Kalinda teases, telling her with a look alone, 'you'll never know.'
The doctor picks up on it right away. She lets out a guffaw and her whole face lights up. It is a noise almost primal, uncharacteristic, unexpected, mismatched to her outer aura of the consummate professional. Kalinda likes her just a little bit more for it.
"How are you?" asks the doctor. "You've been through a lot this week."
"I'm fine. Really."
Dr. Alicia reads her face. "Something is new. What is new?"
How does she do that? "My mother kept diaries," Kalinda says. "I'd never opened them before. No wonder I'm all effed up." She thinks the doctor will appreciate her attempt to downplay the obscenity.
"Were there surprises in the diaries?" asks Dr. Alicia.
"Nothing earth shattering. Everything we had assumed. A little more. It was more unsettling than I expected to have the details confirmed. Her marriage was hard on her. Her childhood didn't prepare her to be anything other than a princess. Maybe I'm lucky. Mine prepared me to be hard as nails and self-sufficient."
Dr. Alicia smiles. "Is this the part where I pretend to believe that you are hard as nails?
Should we meet and talk about it?"
"No," answers Kalinda. "Actually, I feel like I'm handling it ok."
The doctor looks for signs for how to proceed. "Ok," she says, trusting Kalinda's self-assessment.
They sit in silence for a minute.
"Can I ask about this horseshoe necklace? I've seen it three times now. It doesn't look like fine jewelry, so I'm guessing it has sentimental value?"
"It was a gift from the neighbor girl that night I lost my mother. She took it off her own neck and gave it to me. It was good luck from her grandmother she said. She was worried that it might be forbidden or something in Hindu, but I knew little to nothing about Hindu."
"And you've worn it every day? Since you were 14?" asks the doctor.
"Nearly every day. Ya."
"So, do you come here often?" The doctor immediately hears how pick-up-line that sounds and they both laugh. "I just mean that you seem to know everyone here. You're a pied piper. Are all those people your friends?"
"I know some. Some are new to me."
"Everyone is attracted to you."
"Ya, to my charisma. You're immune."
"I'm not immune," says the doctor.
"I collect people, but I don't have real friends. I'm not too forthcoming as a friend. People either accept that or they're gone." Kalinda remembers confessing to Will from a place of pain, 'I never have to confide in anyone.' "It scares the crap out of me… how much I say to you."
"Do you want to change that? Honestly, I'd be disappointed if you did. But I'd respect your choice."
Who is this woman, thinks Kalinda? She's never met anyone before who didn't have something she was selling or buying. Kalinda can't find her ulterior motive.
"Can I say something serious and then I'll lighten it up?" The doctor doesn't get any objection. "About what we've been through together this week, I do understand how traumatic this talking is for you, and I'm honored because I know you don't share or trust ever."
"So, what? Are we friends now?" asks Kalinda, trying to start that lightening up.
Dr. Alicia hesitates a moment as she processes the suggestion. "I have some obligations to the Fisher & Li contract, so I'm constrained a little bit, but outside of the confines of that, I'd like that very much. Was that too convoluted?"
Kalinda is enjoying watching the doctor juggle the variables in her head. "Spoken like a true shrink."
"If we're friends, I can't be your therapist."
"Easy choice for me," says Kalinda. "I shouldn't need a therapist. I have a friend." Oh, gees, this is her livelihood. I bet she doesn't give it away. "Are you cool with that?"
"I'm cool with that," says the doctor.
"I haven't had good luck with friends named Alicia in the past."
"That's the first time you've addressed me by my name. So, are you going to tell me now? Who is THE Alicia in your life?"
Kalinda's weighing the decision; to share; or to refuse.
The doctor can see exactly what she is doing. It's all over her face.
"Alicia Florrick. The governor's wife."
"Of the big scandal?" says the doctor.
"Yes."
"Wow. That surprises me. That's an unexpected pairing."
Kalinda let her eyebrows respond for her.
"She's straight," says the doctor.
Kalinda smiles. So, the doctor doesn't miss a thing.
"Very straight. What? You don't think I can have a straight girlfriend?" asks Kalinda.
"I see a little this, and a little that."
"Are those clinical terms, doctor?" They both laugh.
"Ya," Kalinda continues. "She was always trying to put me in a box too. I don't distinguish."
Dr. Alicia took a moment to evaluate the meaning of 'I don't distinguish.' "You flirt with me a little."
"I flirt with everyone if I like, or if I need something," Kalinda volunteers.
"Can I ask? Why aren't you friends anymore?" The doctor watches as Kalinda's face subtly changes from playful to pained.
"It's hard to talk about it."
"Ok." Dr. Alicia physically leans away a little, so as to respect the distance Kalinda seems to need from the memory.
"He fixed some problems I had with my name change."
He? Who he? Peter Florrick?!
Suppressing her shock like the pro she is, the doctor calmly comments, "That's sounding maybe not so strictly legal. And there was a price for his help?"
Kalinda isn't responding.
Like everyone in the state, Dr. Alicia remembers the news stories about the previous State's Attorney's proclivity to entertain women not his wife.
The doctor turns on protective mode. Kalinda's been through enough this week. Change the subject. Drink. People watch. After all, what better place than a bar to do that? Laugh.