This is the story of Connor Flanagan and how he became Connor Florrick.

It all began when Connor was 15 years old and got expelled from his high school for participating in a cafeteria brawl. Mrs. Flanagan was a single mom who had a hard time getting a new school for her 'troubled teen'. She found a spot in Capstone Preparatory School thanks to the 'Inner city scholarship'. Connor thought he got in because of the quota of one white kid per year.

Connor didn't like his preppy schoolmates, until he met Grace Banskin, a wild girl up for anything…including cutting herself. Connor was in over his head and followed his mom's advice to break up with the 'actually troubled teen'. 2 weeks later, Grace Baskin killed herself.

"I don't want to go to school." Connor pleaded to his mom. "They all think I had something to do with Grace's death."

"But you didn't." Mrs. Flanagan crossed her arms. "So you have to go to school and show them you have nothing to hide from."

Connor hid behind the entrance bushes. He wanted to smoke in peace and wait for classes to be over when Grace Florrick timidly said hi to him.

At first, Connor thought Grace had ulterior motives but no, she was sincerely interested in how he was feeling. A few weeks later he asked her to be his girlfriend and Grace said yes, one small thing tho:

"We can't be seen together." Grace told him.

"What?" Connor frowned. "Why?"

"Because of my dad's campaign. The other day someone from the opposite campaign was following me and they recorded us together, while you were smoking. I don't want to get you in trouble."

"Uh." The boy thought for a moment. "I doubt they'd follow us all the way to the south side. Wanna hang out in my house?"

Connor showed Grace a side of the city she had never seen before.

"What do you mean you have never gone to the beach?" Connor asked his uptown girlfriend.

"I've been to the beach but like at the ocean beach."

"But have you ever swam in lake Michigan?"

"No."

"Oh, we're going."

Connor's family welcomed Grace to their dinners and holidays. His sisters like her very much. Connor's mom was a little bit concerned when Grace spent one Thanksgiving with them.

"Why isn't she with her family?"

"I dunno, they have an event or something" Connor shrugged. "She brought mashed potatoes."

They lasted longer than anyone would have thought. More than Connor thought he would last with only kissing. One afternoon, they were fooling around in his bedroom. The rare occasion where they were alone in his house, making out in his bed. He knew how far he could go before Grace would say they must stop. Connor's hand adventured under her skirt, but this time Grace didn't say anything. Could this be it?

"I have condoms." Connor mumbled as continued to kiss his girlfriend.

"Okay." Grace whispered

"Connor, are you there?" Three loud knocks on his bedroom door.

"Shit, my mom."

The teens separated quickly and arranged their clothes.

"Just a minute, mom!" Connor looked back at Grace, she nodded in agreement, and he opened the bedroom door. "Hey, what's up?"

"Connor, you left your laundry downstairs, please go get it and don't forget to fold it." Mrs. Flanagan looked at Grace who was clearly blushing. "Hi Grace."

"Hi Mrs. Flanagan."

"It's getting late, you should go home." the woman told her.

"Right." Grace grabbed her things and left the room.

"I'll walk you to the car."

When Connor returned to his home, his mom was waiting for him in the living room.

"We need to talk." She indicated him.

"Come on, mom. Nothing happened" Connor dragged his feet. "Besides, we already had the sex safe conversation."

"It's not about that. Please, sit down."

"Okay." He sat down on the couch and crossed his arms.

"Listen, I don't know how else to put this but Grace doesn't love you."

"What?!"

"I mean, she loves you in the you're her first boyfriend kinda way. But she's not on the same page as you. You're older than her."

"By a year in half." He pointed out.

"But you have more experience, you have had other relationships. I can see you are in love with her and you're probably aching for more but she's not gonna get you what you want."

"Wow. This gotta be the wildest way to encourage celibacy." Connor got up. "Thanks Mom."

"I'm serious. Why do you want to complicate your relationship? Didn't you learn your lesson with Grace Baskin?"

"Grace Baskin had problems."

"And this Grace doesn't? Her mom won an election last week, today her emails leaked and everyone knows she was banging her boss and the governor is cuckold. It's fucked up to hear about your family that way in late night shows and in tweets."

"She's not fucked up."

"Maybe she isn't. But starting having sex with you ain't gonna help. Also, you're leaving for college. What are you gonna do? Ask her to wait for you? You're gonna break up in 3 months."

"You don't know…"

"Son, I promise you, you'll have sex with someone you love and you'll have one night stands and hook ups. Don't push it with a girl who doesn't even bother to introduce you to her parents."

"I'm confused, is this about Grace's feelings or about my feelings?"

"It's about both." Mrs. Flanagan stood up too. "But if you just want to get your rocks off, go ahead, be that guy."

The next morning Grace and Connor were at their regular rendezvous before school started.

"Is your mom mad at me?" Grace asked him.

"Nah."

"Are you mad at me?"

Connor sighed. "No."

"You are."

"Did you want to have sex yesterday?" Connor asked her.

"I dunno." Grace shrugged. "Everyone is doing it, right?"

Connor leaned against the brick wall. "So what's the deal with your mom?"

"What do you mean?"

"She had an affair with her boss."

"Oh…yeah." Grace also leaned against the wall and looked at her feet. "They were in love, I guess. She doesn't….I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"Because it isn't any of my business."

Connor laughed.

"You think it's funny?" Grace asked in confusion.

"I think we should ditch school today." Connor leaped forward. "Let's go to the park, to the lake." Connor offered Grace his hand. "Let's go."

Connor realized that once again, his mom was right. He was in love with Grace, but she wasn't in love with him. The next couple months he took it easy with Grace, just cute dates and a farewell party for him at the end of the summer. Grace gifted him a bright new laptop.

Once in New York, Connor kept in touch with Grace through texting but after Peter got arrested, Grace changed her phone number. It was over and he moved on.

After graduating from college, Connor returned to Chicago. It was a city booming with new buildings and a place to be for an up and coming architect. He joined a small firm where he contributed to different projects. Then Connor met Benjamin, a music critic/journalist/blogger. They fall in love at an Orville Peck concert. The couple were living together when the news of Peter Florrick's assassination broke.

"Ben, do you have a black tie that I can borrow?" Connor asked his boyfriend.

"I think so." The young man looked at Connor's all black outfit. "Babe, are you going to a funeral?"

"I am." Connor said as he tucked his shirt. "Peter Florrick's funeral."

"Why? Did you know him?"

"No, but I dated his daughter. It feels like the right thing to do."

"Okay." Benjamin put the tie around Connor's collar. "Go mingle with the rich folk."

"They're not that rich."

"Where are they having the funeral? That's not a small church."

There were a lot of people outside the Fourth Presbyterian church when Connor arrived. He saw Grace meeting people at the door, including Governor Pritzer. Connor decided to wait for a while, he turned the corner on the street and started vaping. When the crowd was mostly inside, Connor saw Grace walking the other way, to Michigan Avenue.

"Hey, Grace."

Grace looked at him and frowned. "Connor?"

"Yeah." He straightened out his jacket and walked to her. To his surprise Grace walked to him and hugged him, he hugged her back.

"l'm sorry," Grace stepped back from him. "That was inappropriate."

"It's okay." He gave her a kind smile. "I always like your hugs."

"What are you doing here?" Grace asked. "I mean, you didn't know my dad."

"No, I didn't." He said, "I saw his death on the news and I wanted to reach out to you. But you don't have the same phone number as in high school. And I don't think you live in the same apartment. And then I thought about contacting you on social media but I figured you'd be getting too many messages. So I came here."

"You didn't have to."

"When Grace Baskin died, everyone in school blame me for it. I was the bad ex boyfriend, the scholarship kid. You were the only one who care about me." Connor shrugged. "I wanted to return the favor."

"Thank you." Grace told him. "I'm…I'm sorry for not introducing you to my parents back then, it was wrong."

"It's okay. I had a bad boy vibe." Connor fixed his hair.

"No. You were always nice to me." She told him. "I need to go back inside, I'm reading John 14."

"Is that from the bible?…I'm sure it's good." Connor shrugged. "I'll just sit on the back."

Connor would date Benjamin for another 2 years, they broke up because Benjamin didn't want to change his free lifestyle, while Connor was looking to settle down. His sisters would try to set him up with 'nice' girls and guys, but Connor took it easy. He tasted the waters but he didn't find the spark again. He began questioning his decision of leaving Benjamin, what if he was THE love of his life?

"Dude, Benendetti got arrested for DUI." his coworker, Yasin Abdul, told Connor.

"Really?" Connor continued to work with his 3D model on his computer.

"He got in a fist fight with the cops. I think he has a rage problem." Yasin finished the story as he leaned against the office door. "Anyway, it means the partners want you to go to the charity gala in his place."

"Oh." Connor perked up. "I never turn down a nice dinner and a chance to impress the partners."

So Connor got his nice suit and attended the charity gala, to his surprise he found out Grace Florrick was giving a speech there.

"Hi there." Connor approached Grace when she got off stage.

"Connor? Hi!" Grace smiled when she saw him. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm with Nelson and Associates, way over there." He pointed at the back of the room. "We didn't get the really expensive tickets."

"But you're still contributing to a good cause."

"Yeah, sure. Save the children, the trees, the monkees. What is this for?"

"It's for cancer research."

"Right. Why are you here giving speeches?"

"My grandma is a big donor of the charity, but she can no longer attend so I took her place for tonight."

"I didn't know your grandma was rolling like that."

"Well, her second husband was pretty wealthy." Grace shrugged.

"Grace, honey, you have to talk to so many people tonight. We have to keep it going" Selina Perez, Grace's campaign manager, came looking for her. "Hi, sorry I have to take her away."

"Alright." Connor nodded. "Are you working or something?"

"I'm...you'll see it soon enough." Grace said with certain naughtiness. They hadn't announced she was running yet.

"Hey, can I have your number?"

Grace stared at his blue eyes, she bit her lip. "Sure, I'll give you my number."

"Here." Connor unlocked his phone and gave it to Grace so she could put in the number.

"I hope you call me…soon."

"I will."

Connor felt they had a spark, so he took his chance and he called her the very next day. "I can meet you tonight."

"Tonight?" Connor didn't expect Grace to be so aggressive.

"If your girlfriend doesn't mind, we can meet at your place."

"I don't have a girlfriend." Connor said.

"Good, me neither." Grace replied. "See you tonight."

Connor made sure his apartment looked good, he made sure he looked good too. He left work early to go pick up Grace and took her back to his place.

"Are you sure you don't want a drink? I have wine, beer."

"Sparkling water is fine. Don't worry." Grace took a sip from her glass.

They talked about their college experiences, their work, their family. They got caught up after a decade of not seeing each other.

"Honestly, I thought you'd be married by now." Connor told her.

"Oh my God. Why?" Grace laughed.

"I dunno. I thought you'd meet someone in law school and marry them." Connor said.

"Well, I didn't." Grace put her glass on the coffee table. "What about you? Why aren't you married?"

"I was close, sort of. I was ready and Benjamin wasn't."

"Must have been hard."

"For a while, but you can't force things, you know."

"Yeah, of course."

Connor was intrigued by Grace's decision to have their date in his apartment. Was it the familiarity they had before? Connor stared at Grace's brown eyes.

"What?" She asked. "What is it?"

"You have no idea how crazy I was for you in high school." He confessed. "It always bothered me that…"

"That we never went all the way?" Grace suggested. The sentence worked on Connor, he was aroused. "Because we can go all the way tonight."

Grace put her hand on his thigh. Connor responded to Grace's advances and they began kissing on the couch. Then Grace's phone interrupted them.

"Sorry, it's my manager. I got to answer it." Grace separated from Connor's embrace.

"Manager?"

"Give me a second." The lawyer got up and answered the call in the kitchen. Connor felt something was off.

"Everything is okay?" He followed her to the kitchen.

"I have this..project in three days. I have a million things to do." Grace told him. "But if we hurry now."

"Hurry?" Connor wasn't expecting or wanted a 'quickie'.

"Did I kill your mood?" Grace asked.

"I'm just surprised." Connor shrugged. "Was your intention to just have a one night stand?"

"Okay. I killed your mood." Grace returned to the living room and took her coat. "I think we should call it a night."

"Alright." Connor told her. "Can I see you this weekend?"

"I'm pretty much book for next month."

"With your secret project."

"I have too much on my plate right now." Grace said. "I can't date anyone."

"I don't think I'm 'anyone'." Connor replied to her objection. "Is this bad timing?"

"Bad timing? No, this is a choice. I really can't do romance right now." Grace headed for the door. "Goodnight."

A few days later, Grace announced her candidacy. Connor saw the conference on his phone. Did he really want to be involved with a politician? Nah. But he was still thinking about her.

"I saw your girlfriend on the news today." Connor's sister called him, mostly to tease him. "How does it feel to date someone famous?"

"We're not dating."

"Why not? Get on it, bro."

Why not?

Connor showed up at Grace's campaign headquarters. He had never been in a place like that. Photos of the candidate on the wall, volunteers on the phone, a screen showing local 'trends' on social media.

"Hi!" An over joyful college student approached Connor. "Are you here to volunteer?"

"Not, really."

"Wanna make a donation?"

"Uh..no." Connor said. "I want to talk to the candidate, do you know where I can find her?"

"If you have any request or any issue you want Ms. Florrick to address, you can write a letter…"

"It's okay, Tiffany." Selina Perez patted the young woman on the back. "I'll take it from here. Hi. Connor, is it? I'm Selina, Grace's campaign manager."

"Hi again." They shook hands. "I'm here to see Grace. Is she busy?"

"Yes, she is." Selina replied in a 'duh!' tone. "I can take a message."

Connor looked over Selina's shoulder and spotted Grace stepping out of her office with Ramona. "Hey, there she is, I'll go talk to her. Grace!"

Grace's eyes widened. "Connor."

"Hi." He smiled at them.

"Hello." Ramona said when she noticed Grace wasn't taking any action.

"I'm sorry, Connor, this is my mom…nope, my stepmom." Grace laughed nervously. "This is Ramona Lytton."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Ramona replied. "Alright, I'll give you a moment. I'll wait in the car."

"Thank you." Grace opened her office's door. "Please, come in."

Selina from afar pointed at her watch so Grace would know, they didn't have much time.

"I don't have much time." Grace told him.

"I'll be quick." Connor leaned against the desk. "I think we started off on the wrong foot."

"Started? What have we started?"

"I don't know." Connor replied. "But I can't stop thinking about you."

"Connor, I'm…"

"You're busy. I know. We don't have to date." Connor shrugged. "I could call you and ask you how your day was. You could text me your favorite memes."

"So be friends?"

"Sure. We haven't even had sex." Connor said. "That'll make it easier."

"I'm not asking you to wait for me." Grace told him.

"No, you're not." Connor stood up and got closer to her, close enough to kiss her. "Let's just keep in touch, you have my number."

Connor's plan worked, they started talking almost everyday. Just quick phone calls near midnight, they often talked about the craziness of the campaign.

"My coworker tried to show me your porn video." Connor told Grace one night.

"Jesus, it's a fake video. I didn't have a threesome with 3 black men."

"Isn't then a foursome?"

"It's frustrating." Grace said. "Did you actually watch it?"

"No. Yasin tried to show me the video and…well…I kinda threw his phone out of the window."

"What?!"

"I don't know. That was my reaction." Connor looked at the time, it was past midnight. "It's getting late, I'm sure you have to wake up early tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm gonna be interviewed on the morning show for WGN 720 AM." Grace yawned. "Not a big deal, I just have to come across as smart and likable."

"I thought politicians are now just unhinged people."

"Maybe I'll just talk about weird conspiracies, I'll be relatable." Grace closed her eyes. "More relatable than Ulises Samuel at least. He was on the same show last week, too many candidates right now."

"Ulises Samuel? Fuck that guy." Connor said. "There's something shady about him."

"Well, if you have any intel…" She was exhausted. "Goodnight Con…"

He knew she had fallen asleep. "Goodnight, Grace."

One Friday evening Connor received Grace's call while he was still at work.

"Can I see you tonight?"

"Of course. Is everything okay?" Connor noticed Grace's urgent tone.

"Not really." Grace told him. "Can I come over to your apartment? I can take the blue line and be there in an hour."

"Okay, meet you there."

Connor rushed to his apartment and waited for Grace. He was anxious, he knew something was up. Grace arrived at his place, they sat down in the living room, he waited for Grace to talk first.

"Well, by Monday I'll be out of the race." She informed him.

"What happened?"

"My mom...not it isn't my mom's fault. It was a bad plan." Grace shook her head. "A deal with a big donor is not gonna come through. So the party will go with Ulises over me."

"What are you gonna do now?"

"My campaign manager says I can run as an independent but I don't want to divide the votes." Grace told him. "I'll try again later. They say a candidate is done after 3 losses. I think this counts as the first one."

"I see." Connor nodded. "So…are you here because you have free time?"

Grace sighed. "I don't want you to think you're second fiddle."

"What do you want, Grace?"

"I want you. I want to know what this is."

With that answer Connor leaned forward and kissed Grace, the desire was palpable.

"Come on." the young man got up from the sofa and extended his hand to Grace. "Let's go to my room."

Connor and Grace spent the weekend having sex, eating take out, watching movies and more importantly ignoring the outside world. Then Monday morning came around.

"Are you going to work?" Grace was resting her head on Connor's chest, still in bed enjoying the feeling of new love.

"I can take a day off. What about you?"

"Actually, I'm unemployed." Grace told them. "I should figure that out."

"But not right now."

"Wait…" Grace sat down, she heard the bananaphone song. "That's my cellphone."

"You've been ignoring your phone all weekend."

"That's my sister's ringtone." Grace got out of the bed. "I told her to call if she ever had an emergency."

The lawyer rushed to her purse and answered the phone. "Angie?"

"Don't hang up." It was the voice of her campaign manager.

"Selina?"

"You're in, Ulises is out. You're the one and only democratic candidate."

"What? How?"

"An audio was leaked of Ulises calling his daughter 'retarded'. So he's out, you're in. A car is waiting for you, so take a shower and meet me at the headquarters now."

"You know where I am?"

"Honey, of course I know you ran to your boyfriend. I gave you some time, I tried to text you but now, you have to move."

"Oh." Grace looked at the bedroom where Connor was. "Give me 5 minutes."

Grace hung up the phone and went back to the room. Connor saw her puzzled expression.

"Is your sister okay?"

"Not my sister, my campaign manager. Ulises is out, I'm in."

"Wow." Connor smiled at her. "Grace, what do you want?"

"I want you and I want to be Cook County State's Attorney!"

Once the party picked Grace, the campaign was full steam ahead. Connor found it fascinating to see the persona Grace was as a politician. He saw the different mannerism, the chosen words, the smile for the photos, he saw the earnestness. In contrast, Connor appreciated how Grace was with him, with her guard down, he got the real Grace. This time they were on the same page, this time he knew Grace loved him back.

"Alright. I'm done for the day, it's gonna be radio silence until tomorrow morning. I'm turning my phone off."

It was the night before the election, Grace was gonna spend the night at Connor's, away from any news or last minute polls.

"And tomorrow morning it'll be the last push." Grace put away her phone.

"Starting with voting for yourself, right?"

"I asked my dad about that once, he said he always voted for himself early and often." Grace took a deep breath and sat down on the couch. "Okay. I just need to relax and not think about tomorrow."

"I wanted to ask you something…" Connor said as he knelt in front of her.

"What is it?" Grace was curious.

"I'm an atheist." The architect had thought all day of what to say, how to say it. "I don't believe in a god, I don't believe I have a soul…but you almost make me believe I have one. When I'm with you I can almost feel like that ethereal magic energy is fucking real."

"Are you…what are you saying?" Grace didn't want to guess.

"You make me believe in soulmates and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Connor took out the engagement ring out of his pocket. "Grace, would you marry me?"

The lawyer gasped. "I…yes!"

Grace jumped in Connor's arms, they kissed.

"I'm so happy right now." Connor told her.

"Me too." Grace replied. "I should call my mom, no, my stepmom, your mom? You know what? We don't have to tell anyone tonight."

Connor laughed. "I can't wait to find out what those slips are about."

"It's nothing." Grace shook her head.

"Okay, just us tonight. We can start talking about possible dates, venues, where to live…"

"Oh I have my house!"

"Your house?"

The couple made the drive up to Highland Park, they left the car on the driveway.

"Look, those are my hands." Grace pointed at the hand-prints on the cement. "My mom knocked out the mailbox with the car, dad fixed it and let me put my hands on the fresh concrete, he told me I was like a Hollywood star."

"How old were you?"

"Like 3 or 4 years old." Grace answered. "They're still there. Come on, let's get inside."

"So no one lives here. You just own an empty house."

"I know it's bad. The homeowner association hates me, they want me to sell already." Grace told them as they walked to the front door. "I paid a gardener to come once a month to fix the yard. I rent the place sometimes."

"Like an airbnb?"

"No, more like a filming location. Indie movies, insurance ads." Grace opened the door. "During the COVID lock down I brought Angie here and we had a 'summer camp'."

Grace turned the lights on. The house was empty and dusty.

"No alarm system?"

"I haven't upgraded it." Grace told him. "But I don't have anything of value. And old fridge? No one is coming from the city to rob an empty house. I did have a break in once, but it was a couple of horny teenagers."

They stood in the hallway, Connor looked around the house.

"What do you think?" Grace asked him. "It's a beautiful house, right? 4 bedrooms, 2 and half bathrooms, two car garage…have you seen the yard? It goes all the way to the trees. I had a lot of birthday parties there."

"Okay." Connor walked through the kitchen, took a look outside.

"You don't like it?"

"It's far from the city." Connor stated.

"Not that far."

"If you haven't lived here in years, there's gonna be things to upgrade and fix."

"Oh definitely, there is a weird noise when you turn on the kitchen faucet." Grace told him. "But with the price of houses these days."

"Are you holding on to this house for sentimental reasons?"

Grace sighed, crossed her arms and looked around the empty house. "I grew up here. I remember coming down the stairs on Christmas to open the presents, I remember my mom making pancakes on Sunday mornings, I remember my dad filling the kiddie pool in the summer. I don't want those moments back, I want new moments. And despite what happened with the Florricks who used to live here, I know this is a good place to be a family."

Connor had a realization, standing there in a 2 million dollar house so far away from the South side, he was in love with a politician, someone with a legacy, with privilege. He had to be all in. "Okay, let's get married and be the Florricks. I'm gonna change my name. I'll be Connor Florrick."

"Whoa. I'm not asking you to change it, we can be…"

"The Flangan-Florricks? Too long, won't fit on the mailbox. My last name? Whatever, I haven't seen my dad in 25 years." Connor said. "Come on, Grace. I'm in. You're gonna win tomorrow, we're gonna get married and we're going to be the motherfucking Florricks."

Forward 2 years later, Grace stood there asking her husband. "So maybe we rushed our marriage. But I don't regret it, do you?"

Connor didn't have to think about it too much.

"No, I don't…But there's still time, you know. You can still have sex scandal or two." Connor laughed, deflating the tension.

"Shut up."

"Come here." Connor hugged her tight. "I love you."

"I love you too."

I don't blame you if you skipped this one, but there are some nuggets for the real fans.