Disclaimer: All recognizable The Good Wife characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners including, but not limited to CBS. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fan fiction story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No financial gain is associated with the publishing of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: This idea has been floating around in my head for a few days as I've thought about what Kalinda's future looks like on the show. I hope you like it. Also, awhile back I wrote a piece extending the brilliant scene with Kalinda and Alicia in that Minnesota hotel room. At least, I thought I did. I can't find it anywhere in my stuff or on the site. Does anybody else remember this piece? I can't possibly be imagining having written it. -dkc
Florrick, Agos & Lockhart…and Kalinda
She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Diane Lockhart had already agreed to join Florrick Agos and now she was making demands.
One demand.
Kalinda.
Diane would use Kalinda while Alicia and Cary continued using Robyn. What Kalinda was being paid by LG would be matched by Florrick Agos and Lockhart.
It was one thing to demand it; it was another to bring Kalinda along for it.
"Diane, can we speak in private?" Alicia asked, leading the lawyer toward her desk.
"It doesn't matter what Robyn is being paid," Diane began her defense.
"That isn't the issue," Alicia leaned against her desk with her arms folded in frustration.
"Look, Alicia," the taller woman began. "I know that you and Kalinda had a falling out of sorts, the specifics I don't care about, but she's a damn good investigator and she brings a lot to the firm."
"Excuse me? This isn't about me," she said. "You don't know, do you?"
"Know?" Diane was confused.
"Kalinda and Cary?" Alicia raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
"Oh."
Alicia dropped her arms to her sides and sighed. She was still quite stunned by Cary's revelation about the matter. Saying it out loud to Diane made it all the more real.
"Let me talk to her," Lockhart asked. "Don't keep punishing her, Alicia."
The brunette stood speechless as she watched her new partner make her way through the office to the elevator. Punishing? Kalinda? What the hell did that mean?
Alicia looked up and noticed dark eyes watching her from the elevator as the door was secured and the two women began their descent. Those eyes haunted her.
Long into the evening as the lawyer watched each of her colleagues leave she kept thinking about what Diane had said. She couldn't possibly be punishing Kalinda. Not after all this time. Of course she knew now why Kalinda did what she had with Peter. She was trying to protect herself, to give herself a new life. She couldn't fault the investigator for this, but it still stung. One of the many things brought to her attention after losing Will was just how inconsequential Peter's dalliances had been. They meant nothing to him. Finally grasping this truth was a step toward her truly forgiving Kalinda.
The rickety-sounding elevator came to life as Alicia sat in the now empty office. When the door opened, the lawyer looked up to see those eyes again, those beautiful, dark, haunting eyes.
She stood from her desk with a curious though guarded look on her face. Hesitantly the shortened the distance between them, leaning against the conference table in the middle of the large space.
"Hey," Kalinda said softly as she approached Alicia.
There was something about Kalinda Sharma that could simultaneously put Alicia Florrick at ease as well as completely terrify her.
"It's late, Kalinda," she said more acidic than she meant to.
"Alicia."
That word. She had heard it said gently as often as in anger. But this was different. This was something else entirely.
"Why did you come here?" she asked with a touch of softness.
"To talk."
"The job is a matter between Diane and I," Alicia stressed.
"Alicia..."
"Stop!" the lawyer suddenly pleaded. "Stop saying my name."
Kalinda took a step toward Alicia.
"Why does it bother you?" the traces of a smirk came with the question. Kalinda was more than willing to play with fire.
"I..." she had no answer. "I just..."
She couldn't formulate a single coherent thought as Kalinda took one step closer.
"Do I make you nervous?" the sly woman asked.
"Kalinda, stop."
"Do I make you feel weak?" she continued.
Looking anywhere, everywhere but at the investigator, Alicia was flushed.
"Do you not want me here?" she asked, already suspecting the answer. "Is that why you told Diane I was sleeping with Cary?"
"You are!" Alicia burst out.
"Not anymore" Kalinda watched for even the smallest bit of relief on the lawyer's face. "And besides, it wasn't anything. It wouldn't have affected my work."
"That's not how Cary made it sound," she said, almost under her breath while looking at the floor.
"Hmm... And that bothered you?"
Looking up in a mixture of surprise and denial, Alicia was annoyed to find a mischievous look on Kalinda's face. For the first time she also noticed that the raven-haired woman had forgone lipstick for a simple gloss.
"I did find it surprising," she admitted. "Since I thought you were gay."
This made Kalinda smirk in a way that made Alicia's knees quiver.
"I told you I'm flexible."
"Dammit, Kalinda!" Do you have to be so mysterious?" Alicia's frustration was growing.
"Is that what I am?" she turned her hips perpendicular to the lawyer's, pressing one against the conference table.
"You know you are and you know it drives me crazy."
Honesty.
For Kalinda this was the first bit of honesty she pried out of her old friend in a very long time. It was refreshing. It was also a crack in the perfect exterior that kept her so closed off from those around her. She had heard Cary often talk about how despite their partnership, he and Alicia were no closer than they had been.
"Crazy?" she pressed, her long-dropped accent peaking out slightly.
The tall brunette rolled her eyes and attempted to back pedal in her mind. She couldn't ignore how close the investigator was. Another step forward and her waist would be against Alicia's hip.
"Kalinda."
One word.
Not letting the lawyer wiggle out of this, she took that small step and pressed herself against Alicia's hip, leaning forward until her mouth was deliciously close to a waiting ear.
"How crazy?" she whispered seductively.
She caught the physical reaction Alicia tried desperately to hide and plunged ahead.
"Did thinking about me and Cary frustrate you, hmm?" she spoke while barely restratining herself from latching onto the earlobe a mere inch from her lips.
Alicia took a steadying breath before turning abruptly to face the captivating woman whose hips her hands directed backward until flush with the table. She closed the remainder of space between them, her mouth one of the few parts of her not suddenly pressing against Kalinda. She smiled as she both heard and felt the other woman's breath catch. She had surprised her once friend.
"You don't always have the upper hand," she chided.
"I do if in the proper position," came the barely veiled reply.
Stifling a groan, the brunette was beginning to wonder what she had in mind when she pressed Kalinda against the table. She had thought she was testing Kalinda, pushing her to the edge of the boundary she had set for herself, but the more she pushed and the more the other woman pushed back she realized she was in a hopeless situation.
She wanted Kalinda.
Want. A desire. Was it a crush? No. She was far beyond any schoolgirl crush. Was it infatuation? No. If anything, Kalinda was the one with the infatuation. It was something more than she had felt for anyone in her life since the first days of her torrid affair with Will. This was a pull, an attraction that she could no longer deny. If Kalinda was going to follow Diane to the firm, Alicia needed to get this out of her system.
But as she stood pressing Kalinda into the conference table, their bodies converging, she regretted taking the step that brought with it the knowledge of what her body felt like against this woman's.
"It's okay, Alicia," Kalinda was letting her off the hook having seen the regret wash over her friend's face.
"Shut up."
And with those two words the lawyer erased the distance with her needy lips. Her fuller lips pulled at Kalinda's, finding the faint taste of coffee intoxicating. Without realizing it her hands were now urgently clutching Kalinda's hips.
No longer a passive participant in this unexpected and long-wanted kiss, the investigator's hands tangled in Alicia's hair. When her tongue snuck out to trace the brunette's lower lip, she was rewarded with an unconstrained moan. The kiss then plunged into an erratic exploration of one another's mouths. It was the most erotic kiss Alicia could remember experiencing. Whether that was because it was shared with a woman, a beautiful one at that, or because this was Kalinda, she wasn't sure. Kalinda seemed to bring out the hedonistic part of Alicia and there was no denying the magnetism the investigator possessed.
"Oh, god," Alicia murmured as Kalinda traced the line of her jaw with her skilled lips.
As Kalinda's mouth reached Alicia's ear, taking into her mouth the earlobe that had so tormented her moments before, Alicia's hands left their spot on the woman's hips. Sliding up the sides of Kalinda's leather jacket, Alicia found the zipper that would reveal what was underneath what she viewed as the investigator's armor. She slowly unzipped the jacket and found a tight shell. There was no hiding how aroused Kalinda was now, her erect nipples giving her away.
"Are you going to do more than look?" the woman asked in a seductively goading tone.
Without saying a word Alicia's mouth gravitated toward Kalinda's pulse point where she pressed her lips softly before darting out her tongue to fully taste the olive-toned skin.
Her hands still tangled in the brunette's free-flowing locks, Kalinda's fingers tightened as she felt Alicia's hands slowly glided from her collarbone across her breasts and abdomen before once again finding her hips. It wasn't her hips the lawyer wanted but the bottom hem of the shell. She slid her fingers beneath the silk fabric and felt scalded at the touch of smooth skin. Though her hands were occupied, her mouth continued along Kalinda's neck where she couldn't resist sucking.
"Fuck," the investigator swore.
Alicia's hands had traced the undersides of her bra-covered breasts and we're now grazing her hardened nipples.
"Mmm..." the woman in control hummed as she took an earlobe into her mouth to nibble.
Despite having not done this since her days at Georgetown, Alicia was certain she was pressing all of the right buttons.
Shit.
Just as the brunette's hands moved behind Kalinda's back to unclasp her bra the elevator came to life. They heard the door being pulled closed on the floor below and the lift coming to life.
Alicia immediately dropped her hands and took a step back. She tried to smooth her hair and attire before subtly tracing her lips with her tongue to wipe away any stray lipstick.
The investigator walked in the opposite direction of the elevator, smoothing her shirt before zipping up her tight jacket.
Never had Kalinda been more off balance.
"Oh! I didn't know anyone was still here," came the chipper, though quirky voice of Robyn, the in-house investigator. "Why are you still at the office?"
By now Kalinda had retreated to the bathroom to splash water on her face.
"Contracts," Alicia said. She hoped by being so vague she could get away with having to create a story.
Right as Robyn began to seek clarification, Kalinda emerged from the bathroom.
"Kalinda? What are you doing here?" Robyn was beyond surprised.
"Signing papers," she lied easily.
"You're coming with Diane?" Robyn felt threatened.
Nodding, the investigator finally made eye contact with Alicia. They shared the exhilarating feeling of nearly having been caught.
"I'll be on my way," she said as she walked past Robyn.
Alicia's eyes followed her every step of the way. Wishing, now as she glimpsed it, that she had been presence of mind to squeeze Kalinda's backside while they were kissing.
Kalinda reached the elevator and stood in it looking straight at the lawyer before reaching for the door. The last look Alicia got was of Kalinda, smirk on her face, winking.
The brunette was immediately weak in the knees.
At the end of the week she was standing at that same conference table across from Diane, Dean and Kalinda. She handed them each a folder containing various agreements as part of their new contract with the firm. She noted how Kalinda's eyes had yet to meet her own. She tried not to analyze this, knowing that a week was hardly enough time for either she or Kalinda to decide if what had happened that night in the office would ever happen again.
When Robyn walked in with a box of new pens, she couldn't keep her mouth shut.
"I thought you already signed your contract, Kalinda?" she asked.
Looking at Kalinda, Alicia caught it. A smile.
The lawyer now had the distinct feeling that having Kalinda at the firm would turn out to be both professionally and personally beneficial. No, not beneficial. Rewarding. God knows Alicia Florrick deserved a reward. And the mysterious investigator would make one hell of a reward.
-finis-