"Why did you say your mom 'let you go'?" Doctor Anderson inquired her patient, Grace leaned back on the couch and exhaled.
"It felt like my mom was my last safe line and she cut it." the lawyer replied. "It was seven years of supporting the family no matter what. And in the end, it was just me and my mom. No one else was there, no Zach, no Veronica, no Owen, no Jackie, no Marissa. Just us, I thought we had each other back. I was so lost, I was asking for help, I was asking to stay. My mom answer was to send me away 1800 miles away. Why? For my own good? Or so she could have all the time she wanted with her new boyfriend."
"Your mom choose romantic love over you?"
"Yes! And I get it, I swear to you I get it." Grace hunched over and covered her eyes with her hands. "I get my mom needed romantic love to get over dad, but why...why discarded me like that?"
Doctor Anderson grabbed the box of tissues and offered one to Grace.
"I was 18, I wasn't a kid, I wasn't going to ask mommy if I could sleep in her bed because there's a monster in my closet, you know? Like she could've dated Jason, or whoever and be my mom just a little bit longer. I remember thinking: Maybe if I promised her I won't get in her way, she let me stay."
Grace wiped away her tears. "So I got on that plane hating my dad and feeling abandoned by mom, no one to talk to with my brother in France. When I came back home for Thanksgiving, my mom told me she was moving to New York and I thought: Okay, you hate me, you want to put more distance between us, fine." The lawyer crossed her arms in anger. "And I was content, you know? My mom became just a phone number, an email, some one I see once every 3 years."
"When was the last time you saw your mom?"
"She came visit me when Debbie was born. So a year ago."
"And having Debbie made you want to start therapy" Doctor Anderson summarized.
"It's been years and I still feel this way, if I could move on, if I could understand this, I could prevent it, right? I won't make the same mistakes with Debbie."
"Yes, Grace. Therapy is about giving you tools for a better mental and emotional health, and will make you a better equip parent." Doctor Anderson said. "And just like with your dad, admitting your feelings is the first step."
Connor and his sister Nicky were at the Jewel picking up party supplies for Debbie's first birthday. They were going to have the party in grandma Samantha's house.
"Are you going to be one of those dads?" Nicky asked her brother as he put 3 packages of colorful napkins in the cart.
"One of those dads who gives their kids everything they didn't have? Yes, I am." Connor said. "Your are jealous because your first birthday party sucked. Debbie's party is going to kick ass."
"A kick ass party for a one year old? Okay…" Nicky's phone started to vibrate, she ignored the call and then got a message. "Shit. I forgot to tell you."
"What?"
"This journalist, a guy named Miller; he tried to contact me, he was waiting outside my class a week ago."
"What did he want?"
"He wanted to talk to me about my arrest during the Aukerman protests. I blew him off, but he was pretty insisting." Nicky said. "He just texted me that it was my last chance to get something on the record and he's publishing the story with 'Declined to comment.'"
"What story?"
"I don't know."
"What news outlet?"
"Uhm...Justice something…Chicago Justice Pundit"
Connor didn't like the sound of that. "Go pick the Minnie Mouse plates, I'm calling Grace."
Grace was leaving therapy when she got the call from her husband explaining the situation. "Shoot! I never disclose Nicky's arrest because it didn't matter."
"I think it's going to matter now."
The next morning inside the State's Attorney office, Grace and Aaliyah were assenting the situation.
"'Florrick Family Corruption Tradition'. This Miller guy writes very catchy headlines." Grace said out loud as she read the article.
"Chicago Justice Pundit is nothing but a sensationalist, far right website, run by nut jobs."
"And yet, others are picking up the story. Basically they're saying I set my sister in law free and to cover up I let the rest of the protesters go. Showing a pattern in my administration, because I also didn't go after my mother in the John Doe case."
"Fuck them." Aaliyah said. "You know this is Lieutenant Prizky. He's still angry about the Aukerman case and how you disrespect his boys in blue."
"Maybe." Grace shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They want to play the game of who knew what and when."
"But you found out about Nicky after you made the choice. There's nothing that says other wise. You didn't email anyone about Nicky. You didn't call anyone about it, right?"
"You're right, I didn't." Grace smiled. "Let's get ahead of it, let's give them what they want: A pointless investigation. Who do we know in the Inspector General office?"
Across the pond, in the Trousseau Hospital; Zach couldn't stop shaking his leg. He was sitting in the maternity wing waiting room, Natalie was 7 months pregnant and felt sick, felt an acute pain that morning, they rushed to the hospital. The father to be was waiting for good news.
"Monsieur Florrick?" the brunette woman asked for him.
"Oui, c'est moi." Zach got up immediately. He listen to the doctor but between the nervousness and the medical terms, he wasn't following what the doctor was saying. The doctor noticed it.
"Est-ce américain?"
"Oui, mais je parle français. Même s'il existe un jargon médical, c'est un peu difficile pour moi."
"I can explain again in English." The doctor offered.
"Yes, please, Doctor Jardiner." Zach smiled to the doctor.
"You can call me Mina." the woman said. "Short for Wilhelmina."
"Thank you, Mina."
Grace was planing out her strategy for the investigation and spin the situation in her favor, she wondered how many times did Eli did something similar for Peter. An email from Alicia brought her back to the present.
From: Alicia Florrick |aliciaflorrick at florrickandcanning|
To: Grace Florrick |gracieflorrick at gmail|
|Hi, Gracie! Debbie's birthday is coming up. Are you doing anything special?
|Hi mom! The party is going to be next Sunday. We're going to celebrate it in Samantha's house so Debbie can be with her cousins.
|Sounds lovely. At what time will the party take place? I could call you and congratulate Debbie.
|The party starts at noon. We'll be cutting the cake around 1.
The next morning Grace had already come up with set up for the investigation and the key people who would be interrogate, including Nicky.
"This isn't a grand jury, right?" Connor asked his wife as she explained the plan during breakfast.
"No, it's an investigation to see if we get to a grand jury." Grace told him.
"I see, it's bullshit."
"You're not supposed to say that part out loud." She joked. "Anyway, I need Nicky to give her testimony."
"Uh, what happened to not getting my sister involve?"
"Now, she's getting involve. Besides she only has to tell the truth." The lawyer said. "If she wants something in return, let me know."
"Oh, I love it when you get all politician." Connor bite his lips.
"Yeah?"
"If you give me five minutes…"
"Only five?" She teased him.
The State's Attorney office release the statement about the internal investigation to various degrees of scrutiny. The testimony started the very next day with a friendly, but not to obvious friendly, lawyer from the Independent Inspector General office guiding the investigation committee; all the statements were going to be public and any news outlet could attend, no cameras allowed.
"Miss Nicole Russell, you were arrested the night of June 12h during the Aukerman protests." The lawyer started the questions after a brief presentation. Nicky sitting on table in front of the small panel.
"Correct."
"Did you informed your brother Connor Florrick and/or your sister in law Grace Florrick that you were attending the protests?"
"No. I thought they would try to talk me out of it." The young woman said. "And as a black woman in Chicago, it was very important to me."
"You never contact them during the protests?"
"No. I didn't." Nicky said. "I didn't even had my phone with me."
"You didn't have your phone?"
"We read books about protesting and what to wear, I had my hair cover, no baggie clothes, boots, no id and no phone, so the cops couldn't get any extra information."
"Did you contact your brother Connor Florrick and/or your sister in law Grace Florrick while in jail?"
"No. The only number I had was the lawyer that the organizers provide. I was told to just give that number and ask for representation."
"When were you release from jail?"
"In the morning with the other protesters, all our charges were dismiss."
"Did anyone from State's Attorney office talk to you?"
"Yes, someone explained to me I was free to go."
"You don't remember their name?"
"No." The young woman shook her head.
"The records show that it was John Wilmowski. Did you recognize Mr. Wilmowski? Have you meet before?"
"No." Nicky shrugged.
"You both attended Mrs. Florrick wedding. Did you meet him there?"
Nicky smirked. "There were a lot of people at my brother's wedding and I was celebrating with my family, not hanging around Grace's co workers."
"Thank you, Miss. Russell."
"Good morning, Mr. Wilmowski."
"Good morning, sir." The pale man adjust his tie.
"What is your position at the State's Attorney Office?"
"I'm a junior assistant, I usually work with the crime bureau."
"In the day June 13th you helped dismiss the protesters. Do you usually do that?"
"Not usually but there were 42 people arrested that day, if I remember correctly. We need extra hands to process them quickly."
"Who assigned you to Ms. Nicole Russell?"
"Aaliyah Carter." The lawyer replied. "It was during the morning briefing about the case."
"During that meeting, did Aaliyah Carter or Grace Florrick give any particular order in regard of Ms. Russell?"
"No, sir."
"When you processed Ms. Nicole Russell release, did you know she was Grace Florrick's sister in law?"
"No, sir."
"You didn't make the connection?"
"No at all, sir. I don't want to sound...insensitive but Mr. Florrick and his sister don't look alike nor have the same last name."
"Thank you Mr. Wilmowski." The lawyer said. "That would be all for today."
At the State's Attorney office, Aaliyah and Grace were discussing how their plan was going.
"The committee playing ball with us." Aaliyah said. "They looked at all the emails and memos, nothing there. And tomorrow; I'll do my part."
"You don't have to."
"I know what you did and didn't do. These attacks are uncalled for, you're doing a good job Grace."
Grace smiled at her friend.
"Don't look at my like that." Aaliyah warned her. "We're peers and I'm just telling you, you're doing a good job."
"Thank you." Grace nodded.
"Okay enough tooting our own horn." Aaliyah grabbed her papers. "I have work to do."
"Wait before you go, does Herbie has any food allergies? I need to confirm the cake order for Debbie's party today."
"No allergies. Still no presents?"
"No presents."
Yasin Khan saw his friend and co worker, Connor Florrick working in his office, he saw the opportunity to talk to him.
"Hey, got a minute?" Yasin peaked his head inside the office.
"Sure, what's up?" Connor looked away from his monitor and stretched his back.
"Are you...Are you mad at me? Did I do something to upset you?" Yasin swallowed. "Is this because of me and your sister? We were going to tell you."
"No, I'm not mad...wait, which sister?"
"Paige."
"Then I don't care." Connor shrugged it off. "No, Yasin, I'm not mad at you."
"Then why did you drop out of the Julks project?" the architect asked. "We were lobbying for the department complex for months and now you don't want to do it?"
"Aw, man." Connor shook his head. "Listen, don't tell the partners okay?"
The friend nodded.
"The last time we worked on a project like this, we were always working late, visiting the site, and video calls on the weekend." Connor said. "And don't get me wrong, it was fun do it but now, I just want to go home."
"Go home?"
"To my wife and kid. I'm tired of having to call my mother in law and ask her if we can pick up Debbie late, then Grace also works late so we're not seeing each other. You know what you mean?"
"You wanna hang out with Grace and your baby?"
"Yeah, I like them, they're in my top 5 favorite people."
"Alright." Yasin replied. "Dude, the bosses are going to realize you're only taking small jobs."
Connor sighed. "I know."
Zach sat down next to Natalie in the hospital room. She was going to stay one more night for observation, if everything was okay, he would take her home. As the mother of his unborn baby was sleeping, Zach began crying. He realized over the last few months that he wasn't in love with Natalie anymore. What was wrong with him?
Two days later the investigation committee gathered again, it was Aaliyah's turn for questioning.
"Mrs. Carter, you were the main attorney in the people vs Aukerman, correct?" The lawyer from the committee asked.
"That's correct."
"The morning after the protests you assigned Mr. Wilmowski to release 5 protesters, including Nicole Russell."
"Yes, among other 5 attorney assistants." Aaliyah replied. "We needed many lawyers handling the releases to not slowdown the circuit that day."
"When did the State's Attorney decided to not prosecute the protesters"
"It was discussed late that night, June 12th. She informed us all in that morning briefing and later told the public in the press conference."
"Were you aware that Grace Florrick's sister in law was among the protesters under custody?"
"No."
"When did you find out?"
"Grace told me in a later meeting about the case."
"You mentioned working late the day before, correct?"
"Yes."
"Did Connor Florrick visit his wife that day?"
"Yeah, he was there. I think to picked her up from work." Aaliyah said.
"Did he mention anything about his sister being arrested?"
"No to me."
HAPPY #1 BIRTHDAY DEBBIE!
The yellow and pink banner welcome the party goers into the house. The guest of honor arrived in time.
"She was taking a nap in the car, I think she's still a little bit sleepy." Grace held her baby daughter.
"Oh Debbie." Grandma Samantha grabbed the baby's cheeks. "You look so pretty for your birthday."
"Uncle Connor! Uncle Connor!" Debbie's cousins came out to greet them. "Can I take Debbie to see her presents?"
"Sure, but be careful." Connor worn the young girls. They took the baby hands and helped her walk to the pile of presents.
"We said no presents." Grace saw looked at the colorful boxes with Debbie's name on them.
"People like giving presents." Grandma Samantha said.
The living room had balloons and Minnie Mouse posters, a bunch of kids running around a table with the birthday cake.
"Go outside!" Samantha told them. "Not running in my living room."
On the backyard there was a bouncing house for the little kids, the older members of the family were keeping an eye on them while having a beer and a hot dog. Grace found Ramona outside.
"It's a nice fall day." Ramona told her stepdaughter.
"Yeah, not too cold, enough sunshine."
"How's your non a grand jury pre-investigation?"
Grace smirked. "It's going well. I'll be answering questions Monday morning. In the name of full transparency."
"I read the original article, it brings up the John Doe matter."
"Again, I didn't do anything."
"Except texting me who was going to get the Peter Florrick Scholarship." Ramona took a sip from her beer. "She's doing well, by the way. Issa Bayer is in advance calculus."
"Roja's niece had applied to the scholarship before. They won't make the connection." Grace didn't like having this conversation on her daughter's birthday. "Why are you bring this up?"
"I'm sorry. I think these low sun days makes me paranoid."
"Don't be." Grace told her with a smiling confidence. "Come on, lets get a picture with Debbie. Where is Angie?"
"Hanging out with lan." Ramona replied. "So, probably getting in trouble."
"You don't seem concern about it."
"Teens need to get in a little trouble now and then. It's good for them."
"Really?"
A loud noise came from behind the fence in the alley, it turned out Ian had purchase firecrackers for Halloween but decided to 'save them' for her cousin birthday party.
After the firecracker commotion Grace spotted Nicky on the porch and went to talk her.
"I want to thank you for accepting answering questions for the investigation."
"I just don't want this to become a bigger deal." The young woman said.
"It won't." Grace assured her. "But still, I want to thank you. I know you want to get into medical school. I can get you a couple of nice letters of recommendations. You just let me know when you start applying, okay?"
"Wow, thanks." Nicky smiled at her sister in law gesture.
"Especially if you're applying to Northwestern." Grace winked at her sister in law.
As a modern grandmother Alicia was getting ready to video call her daughter and assist virtually to Debbie's party.
"It's not too formal, right?" Alicia showed Daniel her red blouse.
"I think you look great. But it's a video call, you could use one of those funny filters and wear anything you want."
"Yeah, well, I can barely get it to work normally, I'm not trying any filters." Alicia looked at the setting again. "Technology hates me...Okay, here we go...and I got no sound."
Grace talked and waved at her through the video feed.
"I can't hear you, can you hear me?" Alicia asked her and Grace nodded. "So she can hear me."
"It's the little mic at the left." Daniel pointed out. Alicia put her glasses on to see better.
"No, but that's my mic. Where is my sound?"
"Hi Alicia!" Connor saw Grace holding the tablet and greeted his mother in law.
"I don't think she can hear us." Grace said.
"Oh."
"I can hear you now!" Alicia voice came through the speakers. "Sorry, it was my Bluetooth settings."
"Alright, let me go get Debbie." Connor hold the baby up while Grace put the tablet in front of them.
"Say hi to Grandma Alicia." Grace said.
"Hi Debbie! You look adorable."
"Hi" The baby repeated and waved. "hi, hi."
"Alright, let's cut the cake."
Family and friends gathered around the table and sang Happy Birthday to Debbie. The girl giggle during the song and she was excited to blow the candle with help from her mom. They cut the cake and opened up a couple of the presents, after that it was time to end the call with Alicia, she took the tablet the kitchen to have some privacy.
"Debbie is so big now. Time flies doesn't it?" Alicia said. "I wish I could see her more."
Grace detected sincerity in Alicia's statement. She also wished the same thing, didn't she?
"Come home for Thanksgiving!" Grace blurted out. "I know it's kinda of last minute, but you should come to Chicago. Ramona and Angie are going to Nashville to visit Lauren. So it'll be just us and maybe Connor's mom. I don't know if you're already have plans or..."
"I..." Alicia looked over at Daniel who was relaxing reading a book with Ruffles on his lap. Her plans were to tag along with him and her daughter, he would understand. "Sure, I'll love to. I'm going to book my flight right now."
"Great!" Grace smiled. "I can't wait!"
"Me too."
"Okay, uhm...bye."
"Bye. See you soon."
The video call ended leaving Grace with the realization. "I invited mom for Thanksgiving."
"I heard." Connor was standing by the door, holding Debbie. "Debbie, are you ready to see your mom freak out?"
"Oot." The baby imitated her dad.
"That's right." Connor said. "She's even more nervous for that than her testimony tomorrow."
Monday morning; Grace was waiting for her turn to talk in front of the investigation committee. In the meantime she was going through her emails and texts looking for any messages from Zach.
"I like your commitment to this bit. A bullshit show and you have to perform." A bold man with glasses said to Grace. "I'm Miller Johnson. Editor in chief of the Chicago Justice Pundit."
"Nice to meet you, Miller." Grace offered to shake his hand, the man kept his hands in his pockets.
"I see you do the politician trick of repeating the person's name right away, to make us feel like you care." He smirked. "Like we're special to you."
"Cult leaders do it too." Grace said. "Now if you excuse, Miller. It's time to end the investigation."
"Madam State's Attorney, again thank you for collaborate with this investigation." The lead lawyer began, Grace saw Miller shake his head behind them.
"No problem." Grace smiled. "I believe in government's transparency."
"Thank you, Mrs. Florrick. We're trying to establish a timeline here." The investigator said. "In the Aukerman protests, when did you decide to not prosecute the protesters?"
"The idea started the night before as the protest was happening, and the official order was giving the next morning, before my press conference."
"When did you first know that your sister in law, Nicole Russell was arrested?"
"Well after my press conference, around 1 pm."
"When did your husband found out?"
"A little bit earlier than me."
"When he visit you the day before, he didn't know yet?"
"No."
"So when Nicole was arrested, no one in her side of the family informed you?"
"I believe that Nicole was following the organizers' orders and didn't contact her family, the only contact was the civil rights lawyers who at the time were concern with the possibility of having to post bail for many protesters." Grace said. "In the chaos of that night, Nicole's mom was trying to find out if she was arrested, or was she injured, or was she stuck in a different part of the city."
"Why didn't you disclose when it happened?"
"Because I didn't want to divert attention from the trial of official Aukerman and the murder of Kendrick Campbell."
"Thank you for your time, Madam State's Attorney."
Grace made a little bow to the member of the committee and to the press members before leaving the room. The Florrick Farce' will be the next headline, but that one didn't matter.
At their apartment, Zach and Natalie were back from the hospital, she and the baby were out of danger but mom had to rest and take it easy. To help them out, Natalie's mom was staying with them. Zach was making tea when Grace called him.
"Hey." He was lethargic. "What's up?"
"Zach, is everything okay?" Grace asked her brother. "Are you okay?"
"How did you…? Wait, what do you mean?"
"Zach, Debbie's first birthday was this Sunday and I didn't hear from you. It didn't seem like you to forget."
"We were in the hospital, we're fine now, I mean, Natalie and the baby are fine."
"Oh my God, I'm sorry Zach." Grace said. "You must've been so scared."
"I was. Worst couple of days in my life."
"Zach, I…"
"Don't worry, I'm doing better now. I still need to sleep more than 3 hours." Zach said with a yawn.
"I'm going to call you tomorrow. And you should call me if you need me."
Zach laughed. What could Grace do from another continent? Maybe just hearing a familiar voice could help him. "Alright, will do."
At the end of the day Connor arrived to Grace's office carrying Debbie.
"Hey, you're here early." Grace welcomed them with a kiss.
"It was a slow day at firm, I left a little bit early." Connor explained.
"Well, I'm not done. I have to reply a few more emails and they're bringing me something to sign. I don't remember what it is…" Grace tilted her head. "I'm sure it's important."
"Sure." Connor smiled then the dad sat down on the couch with Debbie on his lap, Grace returned to her desk. "We'll just wait here. We'll be ready when you are."
Next: Thanksgiving.