Author's note: Hey everyone! Here I am with my new Will/Alicia fanfiction. I decided to go with the one that takes place in Georgetown instead of the sequel of You open yourself up to suffering, because I kind of needed a break from that storyline. So, the sequel will come when I'm done posting this new story. This one takes place during the Georgetown era. I really hope you enjoy it! - hannahorgrace

Disclaimer: I do not own The Good Wife.

Chapter 1

The first impression Will Gardner had of Alicia Florrick — Alicia Cavanaugh, at the time — was not a good one. It wasn't a bad one, but it wasn't a good one either. To be fair, he hadn't made such a good impression on her either.

Will had never been the kind of guy who showed off just for the sake of it. It wasn't as if he lacked confidence and wanted people to get a better opinion of him than he had of himself (he was pretty confident already). From a young age, he had always organized his life around goals he set for himself and what it would take to get him there.

He wasn't a hard worker, buried in books and living at the library type of student, but he worked hard enough to turn challenges into successes, whenever it really meant something to him. He was subtle, also, in the way he dealt with these things. He did go to the library, but he didn't spend enough time there to make people think that he was the kind of guy who devoted all his free time to his studies. But what the other students didn't know was that, once back home, he would shut himself in his room and spend a few more hours studying, you know, just in case.

When it came to baseball, he never missed practice, even though he always made sure to arrive at the last minute, so that everyone would think he was a laid back type of guy, but he would go back to the field every Sunday and practice on his own. You know, just in case.

And on the matter of girls, well… it was pretty much the same. He had discovered in high school that the trick was in the subtlety, in the art of seduction. Somewhere in between I'm interested in you and I want you to know it, and I'm sorry, what was your name again?

Alicia, on the contrary, had a problem with self-esteem. It wasn't the result of something someone had put her through. Her parents were supportive, her brother looked up to her, her friends encouraged her. Rather, her lack of confidence had originated from something she had created for herself. Her parents had always been proud of her, not exceedingly, but enough so that disappointing them was one of her biggest fears. She was the first child, so she had always felt the pressure of setting an example for Owen. And of course, she was a woman. No matter how much she fought against the idea that being a woman, she had to work harder to prove herself, she did it anyway. But the reasons didn't matter to her; whatever it was that made her fight, whether she felt the reason was legitimate or not, she didn't care: she fought.

The problem, when you convince yourself that you have to prove something, is that every failure hurts twice as bad. Instead of being just an accident, she saw every defeat as a disappointment to her parents, a letdown in the eyes of her brother, and a downfall in her own. So to prevent that, she spent unnecessary hours in the library reading over cases she already knew by heart, from the arguments on the brief to the dissenting opinions written by the minority. It was stupid, she knew, and it reminded her of her insecurities in high school, when she had a math test and she made herself type "4 x 10", and she sighed in relief when the calculator showed "40". Of course she could do the math on her own, but when she lacked confidence, her brains stopped functioning, and she had to go through these stupid rituals because you know.

Just in case.

(To this day, Alicia has never admitted to anyone having ever typed "4 x 10" on a calculator.)

With time, she had learned to work through her self-esteem problem, and turn it into positive energy that made her work even harder. So she spent longer hours at the library, sat in the front rows, read every book the teachers recommended, went to every class. It gave her the feeling that if she did all these things, then she would have it all under control, and nothing could get in the way of her achievements.

So when Will Gardner met Alicia Cavanaugh for the first time, it wasn't the smoothest of encounters.

Will was sitting in the back of the classroom, because he didn't want anyone to think he was trying too hard. Alicia was sitting in the front rows, because she didn't care if people thought she was trying too hard.

Alicia was listening intently to the teacher, paying attention to everything he said, and Will was too busy discussing last night's game to pay proper attention to the class — or so their teacher thought. So when a burst of laughter came from the back and Alicia turned around and gave him a killer glare, he smiled at her, provocative.

"Maybe Mr. Gardner can answer my question," their teacher had said.

And it turned out he could. So when he mentioned Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade as landmark cases that had been litigated based on the first section of the 14th Amendment, Alicia frowned at him, and he smiled in return, making sure she caught it.

From that moment, Will decided a great distraction for him in class would be to annoy Alicia Cavanaugh. So when the time came for their first mock trial, he saw the perfect opportunity for his new challenge to try to upset her.

And upset her he did.

Every question she asked, he would try his best to find grounds to object. Beyond the scope. Hearsay. Argumentative. Calls for speculation. He had learned them all, in order to try to throw her off. And it didn't disappoint.

In the end, her team ended up winning, but he didn't care. He had played his part well, regardless of who had won the case. So when she came up to him after their pretend hearing, he was surprised.

"What's your problem?" she asked, one arm carrying her books, the other on her hip.

He grinned. "My problem?"

"Yeah. What was that about?" she frowned.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings?" he chuckled.

She scoffed. "You didn't hurt my feelings. We won."

"Good, so what's your problem?" he said, throwing her question back at her.

"My— what?" she asked, obviously taken aback. "I don't have a problem."

"Great," he said through a smile. "Then there's no problem."

She stood frozen as he walked past her.

"What was that all about?" Alicia's roommate Sarah asked.

"Nothing," Alicia mumbled, turning around. "What a jerk."

Sarah smiled as she walked next to Alicia. "A cute jerk though."

It turned out Will wasn't such a jerk, in the end. A few times, they ended up sitting at the same table — not on purpose, admittedly — and she had seen him take the time to explain certain legal principles or reasonings behind cases, to some of their classmates who hadn't quite understood the teacher's explanation. He wasn't as self-assured as Alicia thought he was, and it wasn't long before their classmates found them sitting at the same table — on purpose, this time — to study together.

And then they were grabbing coffee before class together, or walking home after class together (they didn't live in the same building, but Will's place was just a couple of blocks after Alicia's apartment).

And then there were study sessions at her place and movie nights at his.

"People are taking bets," Sarah had told her once they'd walked out of the library one night, on the way to their apartment. "On how long it is before you guys get together."

"What?!" Alicia had said, her pitch a little higher than usual. "That's never going to happen."

"I know, that's what I keep telling them."

Alicia frowned. "Why would you say that?" she asked, trying to hide the fact that she was a bit offended.

"He has a girlfriend, remember?"

Alicia sighed. "Oh, right, yeah, he does. I know."

"So, you know," Sarah went on. "That's why you guys can't…"

"We wouldn't— I mean, even if he didn't have a girlfriend, we wouldn't…" she said, and she realized she didn't quite believe herself. Of course, Will did have a girlfriend, and there had never been any ambiguity between them, so there hadn't really been an opportunity for her to even consider anything.

"Right," Sarah said, her lip curving upwards into a half-smile that Alicia decided to ignore.

What if Will didn't have a girlfriend though? She thought of all the times he had walked her home after class, or after having spent the evening at the library going over cases, and all the movies they had watched together on his on her couch. She thought of the friendships she had with her other male friends — actually, both male and female — and how none even compared to the one she had with Will. He was her best friend, she realized. So even if Will didn't have a girlfriend, she didn't think that they could ever be more than that. Friends.

And to her surprise, she felt sad.

She didn't know if this realization was what made her accept Samuel's offer to take her out on a Sunday night, a few weeks before finals, but she accepted.

He took her out for drinks after dinner, and it was nice because they had a lot of things in common, and he made her laugh, and he made her feel appreciated. After her third drink, he moved closer to her on the booth and pressed his lips against the corner of her mouth. She'd been surprised, but nicely surprised, so she let him.

They stayed a little more, he bought her another drink, and then she didn't know what was happening but he was paying the bill and handing her her scarf and coat.

Outside, he kissed her again, and she kissed him back. It was nice, and it was warm, and she didn't notice how it had started to snow.

But when he walked her to her apartment and followed her to her doorstep, she felt like he wasn't ready to say goodbye to her just then. She explained that she was tired and didn't want to go to sleep too late, because tomorrow was Monday, and she didn't want to start the week by being completely exhausted on the first day.

He'd glared at her then, asked her if she was serious, and when she nodded, he scowled and moved away from her. As he walked away, he just said that he should have listened to Will when he'd said she wasn't the kind of girl who was going to put out on the first night.

"What the hell did you tell Sam about me?" she asked the next day, when they met at the coffeehouse before classes.

"What?" Will asked, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed.

"Samuel. Your friend", she said, eyes piercing. "You told him something about me."

Will yawned, then took a sip of his coffee. "Yeah," he started, rubbing his temple. "He asked if you and I were, you know, seeing each other. He thinks you're beautiful or something."

Alicia frowned. "And?"

"And," Will said, yawning again. "I told him we weren't."

"And that's it?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's it. Alicia, what's wrong?"

She moved in front of him then, forcing him to stop.

"That's not what he said to me yesterday."

Will sighed, looked into her eyes. "He said he wanted to take you out for drinks and, you know…"

Her eyes stared deeply into him, searching, almost accusing, so he went on.

"He said he wanted to get you to sleep with him. So I told him I didn't think you were the kind of girl to do that," he added, and her mouth slowly opened up in disbelief. "I mean, you know, I didn't think— Alicia, what's going on?"

She scowled, and shook her head. "You don't know me as well as you think you do, Will."

He frowned then, a little bit unnerved by her reaction. "Look, he asked because he knows we hang out a lot. I just told him what I thought."

"Yeah, okay," she said. Then she turned around and hurried towards the building where they were having their first class, not letting him catch up with her.

She didn't let him sit next to her and when the class ended, she was gone before he could say anything.

Author's note: So, here is the first chapter. I really hope you enjoyed it. I have a few more chapters ready to post, so let me know if you'd like to read more! I'm going to try to be consistent with my updating on this story, so if you're interested, I'll try to have a new chapter up every Monday or so. Please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading :) - hannahorgrace