Title: The Beginning of a Plan
Pairing: Will/Alicia
Summary: I spent hours, days, weeks even, waiting for you to call, wanting you to talk to me, and while I waited, I came up with different plans. Under the circumstances, most of my plans won't work, but regardless, we need to come up with this together.
Author's Note: Takes place after "Closing Arguments."
Words: 1,135
"Wait! Before you go, we need to talk."
"Will . . ."
"No Alicia. I messed this up once before, I'm not going to screw this up again," he said as he got out of the bed and pulled on his boxers and undershirt. He then sat at the table in the dining room of the Presidential Suite and motioned for Alicia to take the seat across from him.
She followed because his tone seemed serious; he was all business now, just sans suit. So she mimicked him, she became all business, adjusting her suit jacket before sitting down at the table with her hands folded on the table's surface, waiting for him to begin.
It took him a few minutes to start but she didn't dare press him, whatever he was going to say now, she had the feeling it was going to be important to him. She just hoped he wouldn't hate her after this was all over.
"I need you to let me talk for a few minutes, I need you to not interrupt me because if I don't get this all out in the open, if there are any more misunderstandings, I'm not sure I could handle that, okay?"
"Okay," she reluctantly replied, wondering if it was still possible to avoid this conversation, wondering if it was still possible to escape the room.
"Okay, so you wanted a plan. I called you, told you to drop it, and then I called back and said that we needed to get together and formulate a plan together."
"I still believe that. I spent hours, days, weeks even, waiting for you to call, wanting you to talk to me, and while I waited, I came up with different plans. Under the circumstances, most of my plans won't work, but regardless, we need to come up with this together."
"Alicia," he said, reaching out for the hand she had on the tabletop still, holding it, he continued, "I want us to be a team, I want us to make all the important decisions together."
"That's what your second voicemail said?" Alicia asked him, her eyes looked directly into his, baring into his soul like they were searching for the truth.
"More or less . . . I need to know, do you plan on divorcing him?"
"Yes, I wasn't sure a few days ago, but I'm positive now."
"Okay, divorce takes time. Does Peter know? Do the kids?"
"Peter suspects, he knows I'm done trying to make this marriage work . . . the kids, Zach and Grace, don't want it to happen."
"I imagine Peter isn't too happy either," not asked as question but said as statement of fact by Will.
"No, and his mother, she might cause some minor problems."
"Who else knows?"
"No one really, David Lee."
"David Lee? Oh, you went to him?" and Will was more than a little disappointed to find out that Alicia didn't come to him first.
"Yes, for advice. Don't worry; he's going to bill me."
"No, I'll talk to him."
"No Will, this needs to be something I handle."
"Alicia, if anyone else in the firm were getting divorced, I wouldn't make them pay."
"I understand, but it's not going to look good. It's going to look like you paid for my divorce. I can't have that; I don't want to drag you into this. The media . . . "
"Don't worry about it," he said, cutting her off, while thinking that he could always make sure her check was never cashed. No one outside of accounting would have to know she didn't actually pay for David Lee's legal services.
"Anyone else know?" he asked.
"hmm, Peter's mother, Owen, Eli Gold, actually, how did you find out? I didn't exactly tell you."
"Kalinda."
"Oh," and Alicia's entire posture stiffened.
"We're going to need to talk about that, I'm not sure what's going on with you two but . . ."
"No Will, this is just between Kalinda and myself."
"Not if it affects your work."
Alicia couldn't help but laugh at that, "really? You're going to play the boss card? Now? As you sit in a $7800 hotel room with your employee, while wearing just your boxers?"
"Hey," he said, sounding mildly offended, "I'm wearing a tshirt too."
"Yes, but you can't interfere with Kalinda."
"No, I will give you a few weeks to figure it out, if you haven't and it's affecting your work, I'm going to have to step in."
"Sounds reasonable."
"I can be very reasonable. Speaking of reasonable, when can I see you again?"
"Ahhh, yes. I think we're going to have to hold off on that."
"Why?"
"Because I need to start divorce proceedings, I need to talk to Zach and Grace."
"Peter thinks we're sleeping together," again, not a question by Will, another statement of fact.
"He does, we had . . . words, the other night. He accused me of sleeping with you. I don't want it to become a thing."
"It's already a thing. He practically threatened me. Told me that it would be "funny," being on opposite sides. I got the feeling he wasn't just talking about the courtroom."
"I didn't want that."
"I know, but there is no way to prevent it."
"You're my boss," Alicia blurted.
"Yes, but we'll figure that out too. I'm going to need to tell Diane. She needs to know because I'm going to take a step back from working with you."
"What?"
"One of my original plans. I just think I should take myself out of the work equation. Make Diane you mentor, make her responsible for addressing your raises, promotions and bonuses."
"Is that a good idea?"
"Yes, Diane has come to respect you, to like you. She'll be fair and I won't."
"Sounds like the beginning of a plan."
"There is one last thing."
"Yeah?" Alicia is nervous again. So far, this conversation had been going much better than she expected. Will wasn't asking for a lot, but would this last thing be the one thing she couldn't give him.
"I need you to talk to me. We need to talk to each other about what's happening. Not just work, but the other stuff too. When we don't talk, I assume the worst."
"I do too, so we'll talk."
"Every day!"
"Yes, every day."
"Okay."
And with a lightness Alicia hadn't felt in years, she got up from the table, crossed over to where Will was seated and kissed him. The kiss wasn't passionate like the others they had shared tonight, but it was a kiss that felt like it happened every day, that felt like it would happen every day.
"See you later Will," she said as she walked toward the door.
"See you later."