Note: No Will in this chapter. This is more a set up for next chapter.

She entered the doorstep very silently, not wanting to wake up Peter or the kids. So many thoughts running through her mind and she was just too tired to talk about that evening. "Hi". She jumped, taken by surprise. Peter was sitting on the couch, reading a book. "Hi, you scared me." "You ok"? He laid down the book and turned to face her with a concerned look. "Yes, just tired. It's been a hard night. I'm going to sleep." She started to head to her bedroom when Peter went on. "And how's Will?" She stopped, her heart starting to throb. Without looking back, she said quietly "A couple of cracked ribs, he will be fine…. Goodnight." Peter was still looking at her, he stood still for a moment, pondering if he should ask for more, but he wasn't really in the mood for initiating a fight, and he knew that talking about Will would inevitably always end up there. "Goodnight", he said instead, before returning to his book.

She was late for work. It took her longer than expected to dress up that morning and she felt nervous. She had a strange feeling of excitement and fear, as if the storm was soon going to replace the late quietness. What would happen now? What would she be doing? Will, her marriage, the kids, so many thoughts, she couldn't just think straight, with all the events of the previous night still so fresh in her mind. "You're going to be late" Peter was standing on the doorstep watching her getting ready. "Yeah, I know, I'm leaving now". She was wondering if Peter could tell she was so nervous and the real reasons. "I gotta go. See you tonight." A quick kiss and she was out of the door.

She was heading to her office when Kalinda joined on her way with a worried look. "Hey, you okay? I heard about yesterday's night!" Alicia loved having her as friend, Kalinda just listened, gave precious advices and never judged her. "Oh, I'm fine, I guess I was just a little scared, but I'm fine. Did you see Will? Is he in the office?" She just needed to know, they needed to talk, she needed to talk to someone about what happened. "No, he took a day off. I heard he got injured. Is that bad?" It was bad he wasn't in, that was sure. "Two cracked ribs… and we kissed". That was it. She said it. In a soft voice, she let it slip away. "You what?" Kalinda was not sure she heard well, Alicia-that's-not-like-me finally made a step? She couldn't hide a smile. "Don't pretend you didn't understand" she rolled her eyes and smiled. "Girls' night out?" Kalinda proposed. It was so clear Alicia wanted to talk about it so badly and they hadn't a good talk together in ages. "Yep! Now can we do some work?" They both laughed as Kalinda started to gave her news on the Pickett/Romero case.

Alicia was tired. It had been a long day and was happy she got at least the time to get home and get a shower before meeting Kalinda. She headed to her door when her attention was caught by a small envelope on the doormat. There was a business card, it said Mr. Lai. She shivered, remembering the night before. She opened the envelope and found a CD inside. What the hell did he want from her? What could he possibly want to show her? She headed inside home, not stopping to watch the business card and the CD. "I'm home!" She called for the kids but got no reply. Instead Peter appeared from the kitchen. "They are out, having dinner at Nisa's, her mother called this afternoon. Can we talk?" She was relieved the kids where out, so she could watch the damn CD and have her night out. "Actually, not now, I got some work to do and then I'm going out with Kalinda. Can we talk later?" She was nervous and curious. "Is is later today or later someday?" Peter was a little irritated, she seemed to avoid discussing lately and wasn't happy at all. All his efforts to rebuild his marriage seemed to lead to nothing. But she was already heading to Zach's pc. "Later today, I promise." she said from there. There was a video file. She hesitated before clicking on it, worrying about what she could possibly see, but sure at the same time that nothing would be worse than watching the images of Peter having sex with that blonde hooker. She stood there for a moment, not really sure of what she was watching. It seemed something already seen, yet different. The video of Peter with the hooker, she thought at first sight, why did they want her to see it? She had already been through that and although it would still hurt. But there was something different. It took her a while to realize that it wasn't the same woman. It wasn't the same woman at all, actually she wasn't even blonde. She froze. She stopped the video, took the CD off and put it back in the envelope. She went back in the living room, Peter was sitting there reading some papers. She stood there for a moment, looking at him, not knowing what to do, what to say. Peter turned to face her and before meeting her eyes he was saying "Ready to talk now?", then he noticed her look. Her eyes were wet, he could say she was on the verge of crying. He stood up and started to approach her but she took a step back. "Get out of here. Now." He stopped, wondering what was going on. "What?". "Get out of here. Now!" She was crying now and he couldn't realize why she was so upset. "How could you do it? How could you do it!" What did he do it? He didn't know. "Alicia, what are you talking about?" he was lost. "Kalinda!" She couldn't know, he thought. Yet, she knew. He had no idea how to handle this. He was unprepared for something like that. Alicia couldn't breath, she needed some fresh air, she felt like she was about to faint. She rushed out of the door, then turned around in tears "I want you out of here before I'm back. I want you out of my life!" and left.

tbc...