Title: Emergency Stop

Written for: Fireworks 13: The [Totally Not] Annual femslash_today Porn Battle

Prompt: The Good Wife, Alicia/Kalinda, fight

Author: schwarmerei1

Rating: M

Fandom: The Good Wife

Characters: Alicia Florrick, Kalinda Sharma, Will Gardner, Diane Lockhart

Pairing: Alicia/Kalinda

Warning: Sex between women, Poor fingering technique, Adultery

Disclaimer: I mean no disrespect, CBS, Scott Free, and the Kings own them

Spoilers: Through episode 4.22 "What's in the Box?"

Author's Note: I was tasked with defending the honour of the Kalicia ship. Blame sweetjamielee, but thank her for her help in making this much much better.

Summary: What happens when Alicia and Kalinda are finally alone with each other in the Lockhart Gardner elevator?

Alicia had been holding onto the naïve idea that if she went to Will and Diane and formally resigned, ibefore/i they discovered her plans, she might be spared the indignity of being thrown out of the building. She'd even had some foolish scenario in her head where she offered to serve out her notice…

That wasn't what happened in Will's office. Will was wounded into a stunned silence, but Diane paused only to lash her with a furious glare before turning heel. She didn't even grant Alicia the privacy of making certain phone calls from her office, instead grasping the phone from the desk of Will's assistant.

While Alicia stumbled through platitudes like "thank you for giving me that chance" and "time for new challenges" to a Will who was still valiantly trying to think the best of her, she could hear Diane's voice hissing words for everyone to hear such as "Mrs. Florrick" and "block her access" and "send security!"

She heard footsteps and there was Diane, still baleful, and the requested security guard.

"Escort iMrs./i Florrick to get her handbag and coat and then see her out, please." And she was sent on her way.

Everyone was watching her, knowing what had just happened. Well; not everyone. A certain pair of dark eyes didn't see her shame. Alicia wasn't sure if that was a relief or if she half-hoped that Kalinda, ever-valiant, would leap to her defence.

Shaken and trying not to show it, Alicia stepped into the elevator when it opened. The security guard was an edifice of indifference as she turned to face out. Then, coming into focus, she saw iher/i... striding rapidly from the corner of reception to make it inside before the doors closed.

Kalinda didn't have a plan. She was driven by instinct alone. But she wasn't going to let Alicia walk out of Lockhart Gardner, out of her life (for the second time,) without a fight.

They were alone. They hadn't been alone for a long time - at least not in the true sense of the word. Not since that night in Minnesota. Kalinda's "I miss this" had asked for more; for Alicia to allow her further back in. Instead, Alicia had shut her out of everything but work - made no more invitations to drinks. If Kalinda dared ask her, the campaign was readily available as an excuse. Even when Alicia needed Kalinda's special skills to solve something, she nearly always managed to convey the request via phone.

Kalinda looked at her, said nothing - her face unreadable.

They descended ten long floors before Kalinda's hand suddenly reached out to slap the emergency stop button.

"So this is how you repay Will."

It was a shock to feel Kalinda direct a judgement at her for the first time.

Kalinda wanted to stalk, circle, get right into Alicia's space. Instead she retreated into one corner.

"He's given you everything." Kalinda's face was cold, so different from how Alicia was used to seeing it. "And then you do this."

"I didn't promise the rest of my life when I took this job."

"And you didn't have to steal his clients and staff to get a change of scenery."

"They only made me partner to shut me up."

"And Will almost got disbarred, but never blamed you for a second."

There was no way to counter that. 'I never meant that to happen' was pathetic.

"Loving you is a tough gig."

No doubt, Kalinda was referring to Will, but it set Alicia off.

A little voice in her mind had once asked if Kalinda liked her. Yes, like ithat./i It had been easy to silence it with a stern warning not to be another of those straight women she suspected had played out their repressed fantasies with Kalinda Sharma. Back then she'd felt like Kalinda was real with her, that they were different. Special.

Later she'd been forced to rethink everything through the prism of Kalinda's lies. Now, desperate to deflect, needing to turn the tables, and not just a little curious, she wanted to know for sure.

"I don't think this is about Will, Kalinda. What happened to 'everything on the table'? All that time you were trying to push me into bed with him, just what was that about?

Kalinda glared at her. Trying to sell a line like 'I wanted you to be happy' was beyond her at the moment.

"You know, when I first found out..." Alicia watched that twist in Kalinda's guts yet again. "…I thought you felt guilty - that you were trying to make up for it. Now I wonder. Was it even about friendship, or did you want something else from me?"

Kalinda had thought Alicia had run out of ways to hurt her, but apparently not. To take the best part of herself, the part that gave everything and asked for nothing in return and make it dirty... Hurt flared into anger, and her anger burst into cold flame.

"What was that about?" repeated Kalinda, turning to look at the timber veneer of the elevator car briefly, then back at Alicia. "What about 'who's Donna?' and 'are you gay?' and all those questioning looks?" She took a step closer without meaning to. "Why does it matter so much who I fuck?"

It hadn't mattered. But there had been a time when everything in Alicia's life felt difficult except for her new unlikely connection with this mysterious woman. And some nights, lying in bed wondering exactly what Kalinda liked to do and with whom was the most delicious part of her day.

"Why do you think?" Alicia dared her.

"Did you want a fantasy, Alicia? Billowing sheets, rose petals and soft kisses." Kalinda took another step forward. "Hours and hours of gentle caresses to make up for what the world put you through. Is that what you think it would be like?"

It was embarrassing, but yes, she had imagined Kalinda lavishing such attentions on her. She had no reply for that.

Just like the present stagnation of their relationship, they were at an impasse. Kalinda decided that for once, she wasn't going to wait for Alicia to take the initiative.

One hand at the back of Alicia's head, the other grabbing a hip, Kalinda tilted up to her mouth and kissed. Not how she'd normally kiss someone, let alone a straight woman, for the first time. She exploited the way Alicia's lips parted in surprise, or was it instinct, or even desire? Her mouth opened Alicia's further. She meant to startle, to show Alicia that she was a person - not a toy to be picked up and played with only when it suited. Instead Kalinda revealed the passion she'd been keeping as tightly bound as her hair.

When they broke apart, both were breathing heavily through mouths that shared a combination of Alicia's bright red and Kalinda's darker lipstick.

Alicia had one brief moment where she wondered if someone from building maintenance would be coming to investigate the frozen elevator only to find the First Lady of Illinois in such a state. Then she forgot everything but the woman in front of her.

She used her height to shove the smaller woman against the wall. The resulting look of arousal on Kalinda's face was impossible to misinterpret. It spurred Alicia further. She pushed Kalinda's skirt up, above her thighs, above her stocking tops, until it was bunched about her waist. Then, with a hand on either side of Kalinda's underwear, she yanked downwards. Her hands kept dragging down until she freed Kalinda's left foot. Her right hand caressed the smooth leather of Kalinda's boot until it reached the back of her knee. Then Alicia stood again, pinning Kalinda against the wall with one leg raised and at the mercy of her left hand.

Kalinda felt the cold, sharp edges of the metal trim that surrounded each timber panel bite into her naked flesh as she braced herself in anticipation of Alicia's next move.

With no experience to guide her, Alicia had to guess. Two fingers seemed tentative; three felt like she meant it.

How could Kalinda be so hot... so wet... that quickly? She could hear it, not just feel it.

Alicia didn't know the niceties: like filing down nails, or taking off jewellery. Kalinda could feel the graze of Alicia's rings with every thrust of her hand - her wedding band, and the new gaudy rock that her ring finger had been sporting since the election.

It hurt. And it seemed perfectly apt to Kalinda that this bliss at the hands of Alicia should be tinged with pain.

Alicia's hand didn't relent. "Is this was ihe/i felt like?"

Kalinda didn't need to ask who was being referred to. She had no way to defend herself. As it was, she struggled to sob out "No!" Nothing had ever felt like this. No one would ever feel like Alicia.

When Alicia had imagined Kalinda having sex iafter/i, she thought of "I do that," and "It means nothing to me," and envisaged Kalinda all coolness - merely satisfying a biological need whenever and with whomever the impulse took her. But a tiny voice in Alicia's head had begun asking additional questions as Kalinda had courted her way back into Alicia's life. Would Kalinda be like that with her? Would they be different?

The answer was before her as Kalinda twisted Alicia's jacket lapels in her hands for support, her mouth slack, breath coming in pants as though what Alicia's hand was doing to her would prove terminal.

There was too much truth in Kalinda's eyes for Alicia to stand looking in them for long, so she kissed Kalinda instead. Her mouth as punishing and pleasurable as her hand.

Kalinda twisted her head sideways with the urge to breathe. Alicia didn't allow it. Instead she forced Kalinda to inhale Alicia's exhalations with each gasp.

Alicia had pondered one more question about Kalinda. Would she find it difficult to tell when Kalinda came?

The answer was no.

Alicia felt her stiffen. Her breath held. Muscles clenched Alicia's hand. And then everything was frantic, more frantic... Until it wasn't anymore and Kalinda slumped against the wall of the elevator, trembling, her eyes closed.

Alicia let go of Kalinda's knee. The other woman stumbled as her heel hit the floor.

Alicia stepped back to look at her, skirt still pushed above her hips, underwear hanging from the ankle of her right boot.

"Clean my hand."

Kalinda opened her eyes and complied, lips and tongue as obedient to Alicia as the rest of her body. She paused over Alicia's rings, sucking hard to remove the traces of herself from the symbols of Alicia's marriage. For the first time since this shared insanity had started, it occurred to Alicia with a shiver, that Kalinda was married too. That she was now also the other woman.

Alicia stooped to rethread Kalinda's panties over her left foot, pulled them up, then smoothed down her skirt to its proper position.

"Do you have your keys?"

Kalinda shuddered, quite sure that Alicia repeating her own words of long ago back to her was deliberate. She nodded.

"The kids will be home by now. We need to go to your place."

Alicia didn't break eye contact as she hit the button to resume the elevator's descent. Kalinda caught Alicia's hand before it fell back to her side. Kalinda's fingers were small and hot inside Alicia's palm - it felt like they belonged there.