Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all of your continued support! Just a note that all the italics are the internal thoughts of the characters

Chapter 22

The next morning, Alicia woke up to a large amount of sunlight shining through her window – one of the signs of an oncoming summer. She glanced at her clock and began to panic when it read 9am, but then relaxed because she remembered that it was Saturday. Phew, she thought to herself, it's been a long week.

She dragged herself out of bed to grab a sweater and made her way out into the kitchen area to make herself a cup of coffee, and discovered that both Zach and Grace were still asleep. Chuckling to herself, Alicia remembered all the late lie-ins she had had as a teenager, and sat down at the kitchen island to check her phone. No text messages - only one voicemail from Peter.

Alicia almost groaned at the sight of Peter's name as she hit the play button on her voicemail screen. "Hi Alicia, it's me," he began, "I was wondering if you could come over to my offices sometime today because we're finalizing stuff for the State Dinner…and I would love if you could introduce me before my speech. Remember the dinner is next Friday. Love you." Beep.

While taking another sip of coffee, Alicia scrolled through her calendar and saw that the State Dinner was indeed on her calendar – she had just forgotten about it a little because she had scheduled dinner with Will for the same evening. Great, she thought, Guess which dinner I have to cancel? The one I actually want to attend. She composed a short and concise text to Will that said, Just realized I can't do dinner next Friday. Have to go to State Dinner. I'm so sorry. –A

Alicia felt a pang of guilt as she sent the text to Will, and felt frustrated with Peter for ruining her dinner plans. And soon after, Alicia began to remember the internal conflict she was struggling with.

Why did I marry Peter when I had such a connection with Will?

Where would I be if I had married Will instead of Peter?

Stop thinking about the past, Alicia – you've made decisions and now you have to deal with what you chose.

But what if I want the new relationship and not the long lasting one?

What if I actually want to be with Will?

But Peter would hate me, Alicia admitted to herself, And how far would he go to destroy me or Florrick/Agos or LG? He never liked Will to begin with.

"Morning Mom," Zach said as he strolled into the kitchen, with his younger sister in tow. "Morning," Alicia replied, "How did you both sleep?"

"Fine," they replied unanimously. Alicia glanced at the time and realized that she had been thinking debating with herself for almost thirty minutes. Grace, surprised by her mother's uncharacteristic silence, asked, "Mom? Are you okay?"

"What?" Alicia replied, caught off guard.

"Are you okay?" Grace repeated.

Alicia sighed, then stood up and said, "Come and sit down over in the living room. I need to talk to you." She heard Zach and Grace say, "Okay," suspiciously as they walked over and sat on the couch across from her. Alicia put her coffee on the table, sighed, and began to speak, still unsure of how she was going to get it all out.

"You know I love you both of you very much, right?" When Grace and Zach both responded positively, Alicia continued, "Your father and I have been distancing from each other for some time now, and I'm sure you know that. And…"

"And what?" Zach asked, curious as to what their mother was going to say next.

"As a result of my distancing from your father, I have reconciled with Will," Alicia blurted out before she decided to not say it. She waited anxiously for Zach and Grace's reaction, and when they started throwing glances at each other, Alicia got slightly confused. "Do you want to say something?" she asked. "Because I am fully willing to hear any comments that you may have."

"Well, Mom," Zach began, "We're really happy for you, but…"

"But?" Alicia asked, bracing herself.

"We suspected that you and Will had gotten back together," Grace said, smirking, "And we promised each other that we wouldn't laugh if we found out that we were right, but right now, I'm finding that kind of hard!"

Alicia laughed out loud, causing Zach and Grace to join in. "It's okay, it's okay."

"So, are you going to divorce dad?" Zach asked, returning to the seriousness of the topic at hand.

"I've been debating for a really long time, but in the end, my decision comes down to what you two want because you are the most important people in my life."

"Above Will?" Grace asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Above Will," Alicia affirmed, not even having to think for a second. Touched by their mother's response, Grace said, "You know, Zach and I have talked a lot lately about what might happen between you and dad. And we both agree that we want you to be happy. So, if that means that you are happier with Will, then we want you to be with Will."

"We can still see Dad, though, right?" Zach asked.

"Oh, of course!" Alicia assured, "He will still be in your lives, just in a slightly different way."

Zach and Grace both nodded, and Grace asked, "So…what do you think about the divorce now?"

"If you're okay with it, I'm going to divorce your father," Alicia concluded. Zach and Grace agreed and Alicia pulled them into a tight hug. Afterwards, Zach asked, "Can we spend some more time with Will if we are going to be seeing him more often?"

"Of course," Alicia said, happy that Zach had asked, "In fact, I will call him right now and see if he can come over sometime."

"How about sometime today?" Grace asked somewhat enthusiastically.

"I can't today. I've got to meet with your father to discuss State Dinner related things," Alicia admitted, "But I will see if he can come over tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Grace agreed.