Alicia cleared her throat for the fourth time in the last minute. The event organiser eyed her warily, wondering if she would come down with a cold. She wouldn't. She was clearing her throat from the heavy lump pressing against it. She watched as around three hundred chairs were placed in front of her by the hotel staff.

"We think it'll be full tonight," the event organiser said, sounding pleased. Alicia bit her lip. The hall would be filled with people but the person she truly wanted there wouldn't be one of them.

"That's reassuring," Alicia said sarcastically, planting a fake smile on her face. She had found it harder and harder to smile after the event in the courthouse bathroom.

"Is there anything you need?" the organiser asked her politely.

"A speech?" She chuckled, but at his alarmed expression, she went on to say, "It's a joke. I've got one. A speech, I mean."

She cleared her throat again.

"Okay, you should go rest now, Mrs Florrick," he said, "We don't want you getting sick before the speech."

"Sure," she said, turning away without another word.

Five hours later, Alicia was in the wings with Cary, who had his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. She looked to the floor so that no one could see how nervous she was. It wasn't about the speech-giving. Alicia had given many speeches or had to stand next to her husband while he was giving speeches. She was used to it. It was the speech she had written. She had no idea if she had gone too far.

"Welcome to the stage, Alicia Florrick, who is here to talk to us about being opted back into law."

Will was talking to Elsbeth Tascioni in the main hall of the hotel. He thanked her for helping him with a legal matter and also congratulated her on her talk about imagining you were in the middle of a giant pillow.

"It's no problem!" Elsbeth responded with her usual cheery self, "See you around, Will. We've got that Jones/Myers case in two weeks, don't forget!"

"I won't," Will said with a chuckle as she left. Elsbeth always managed to brighten his mood. After standing in the main hall for a few minutes lost in his own thoughts, Will heard a voice he recognised intimately coming from inside one of the lecture halls.

"I prepared by looking in a mirror," Alicia said. Will could hear laughter coming through the door. He examined the sign outside the room, which explained the talk. It said Alicia was talking about opting back into law. Will remembered how she had opted back into law. It was almost all because of him and her natural talent too, but he knew he played a bigger role.

Given their predicament, Will had no idea if she would mention him or not but he wanted to find out. On a usual day, when he hadn't been in such a good mood, he would have headed in the opposite direction, not wanting to hear Alicia's story of success one more time. But today, he wanted to know. After hesitating for a few seconds, Will pushed open the door and located a seat at the back. Alicia didn't notice - not that he had expected her to, but it would have been nice. Alicia said,

"When you are sitting across the desk from someone who can hire you, you feel every single one of those thirteen years. But luckily, I had a very good interviewer. He asked me if I was 'up to it'. Coming back to the workplace."

Will inhaled sharply. He didn't expect her to mention him so soon. He held his head up and followed the movement of Alicia's lips as she continued,

"The interviewer pointed out that I was arguing reasons against myself. He said I should stop giving reasons why I shouldn't be hired. What did I learn from this? Use everything you have."

That you did, Will thought to himself, I just didn't think you really meant everything… Will recalled the evidence he asked Kalinda to bury, which helped Alicia get the interview in the first place. Thirteen years before then, her law firm had been pushing to fire her because she was too timid and lacked a killer instinct.

"Of course, the advantage of being a woman opting back in is that no one ever questions why you opted out in the first place." A slight chuckle from the crowd. "Women are cut little slack on this. Men even less." Now, Will felt the corners of his lips curve up in a half-smile.

"Would I have done it any differently if I were a man?" Alicia said. A man in the fourth row stood up and left. That haltered Alicia's speech. Will studied the man as he left, wondering what Alicia had said that bothered him so much. Even as he watched, he knew he should have been doing the same thing. Slowly, more and more people began to walk out until it crescendo-ed to what Will saw as four-hundred people. Alicia continued speaking despite the interruptions. Now, there were only about fifty people left in the hall. Rayna Hecht was one of them. Alicia looked around, trying to fixate on something that could keep her grounded enough to finish her speech despite the tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

She saw someone sitting at the back. Their dark silhouette looked a lot like Will's. She fixed her eyes onto him and delivered the rest of her speech to the Will-lookalike. Will noticed that Alicia's eyes had fixed to him. He didn't stop making eye contact. He was certain that Alicia couldn't see him clearly and that she probably thought he was a random stranger but that didn't matter. Alicia wasn't looking at him with malice. She was watching him with earnest eyes, trying to tell him that she really meant what she was saying.