The shot was loud and unexpected and it burned.
She had never been shot – and how crazy it was that she had to say that, and how crazy was that now she could flag that particular box in her non existent and not wanted list – she had never been hurt that much, never seen so much of her own blood on her hands.
Everything was too fast to really understand what was happening: one moment she was at the bar in front of the judge, arguing with SA Polmar like no one else was in court but the three of them, and the next she was facing her own client, the gun on his hands pointed in her direction, and then she was on the ground, one hand instinctively at her neck and then again in front of her to see what the stickness was and the blood was so red and was her blood… and all was burning.
When the parents of her client called few days before the trial and told her they weren't satisfied with Will's defense of their son and that they wanted her to step in instead, the first thing she had thought was to call Will to inform him. It wasn't that unusual that a client wanted to change his or hers attorney, but it as extremely unusual that late in the trial they didn't only want to change the lawyer but also the firm. Expecially not to one so new and in such bad relationship with each other.
She tried to tell them that it wasn't very wise to change lawyer so late in the trial and that Will Gardner was one of the best lawyer she knew, but they were irremovable and, well, she was no one to reject a paying client, even if that meant working very late the next few days.
Of course he didn't like very much to lose a client, to her firm none the less, but in the end they hadn't parted with bitter words, not this time.
"I decided to warn you. I was thinking if I was in your shoes and I had a client calling behind my back, I would want to know."
"Alicia. Thanks."
"Hey, we might have our differences, but you're the better lawyer."
"I am, aren't I?"
In the end, they had smiled to each other and that was really a big step forward in their relationship later on.
The brief conversation, his soft eyes and his croocked smile made her remember why she fell in love with him so hard when they were young, and again when they met for the first time in twenty years and probably why some part of her will always fall in love with him.
In the end, she was there, on the floor, and someone – and it was by chance Polmar? She couldn't tell, everything seemed not in focus and not really important in that moment – was moving her through the room and pressing a hand on her neck and on her chest, where it burned most.
Everything was becoming even blurrier and she knew that someone was talking but she could not hear a thing or make out a single, discernable, word. Something in her knew that she was in shock and that she was losing to much blood and that the only thing that was stopping her to bleed out on the court floor was a pair of hands pressing very firmly on her wounds, but that something couldn't stop the panic that was growing in her or giving her some comfort at all.
She was scared. She didn't want to die, not there. Her children still needed her, her husband, her mother and brother, Cary and her firm needed her. Will.. She couldn't die and leave all the thing with Will unresolved, not now that they could talk civilly and not before she could apologize for hurting him. She tried to speak, she needed to tell him.
"W..W.. Will…" she murmured without making a real, audible, sound.
"Alicia!" Kalinda? What was she doing there? She sounded not very Kalinda-like, her voice almost cracking just like before crying.
"Paramedics!" She heard at last, before everything became dark and unconsciousness took her.