Author's Note: my second foray into the world of The Good Wife. A slightly AU Will/Alicia take on the season 4 finale, which I watched for the first time on Sunday. When I set out, I was intending this to be slightly more AU than it ended up, but really all you need is the suspension of disbelief that Peter's proposal didn't happen. Picks up just before the end of the episode, before we see Alicia at the party. Enjoy, and I'd love to know what you think.

Disclaimer: Subject to the above, everything up to and including 4x22 is fair game. I own nothing apart from the season 1-3 box sets. Lyrics at the start are from 'Give in to Me' by Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester.

Time

You're gonna take my hand, whisper the sweetest words
And if you're ever sad I'll make you laugh, I'll chase the hurt

"Hey, have you seen mom?" Zach asks, leaning against the wall next to his sister as she shakes her head.

"I thought she was on her way?" Grace asked, tearing her gaze away from the party to look at her brother.

"Me too," he muses, his eyes flitting quickly around the party. "Eli," he calls quickly as the man passes by, more animated than they've ever seen him. "Have you seen mom?"

"No, and you're not the only ones looking for her," he grumbles. "Do you have any idea how it looks that she's not here? Of course you don't. Hey," he interrupts himself, rounding on them. "You two can go check outside for her," he states, looking proud of himself. "I told her to park out back to avoid the press. And if she's not there, call her. She'll pick up for one of you two, unlike me," he huffs, striding off towards Peter without waiting for any acknowledgement of his orders.

"Guess we're searching for mom," Zach muses, smiling dryly. "Grab your coat."

"Thanks for the lift," Alicia murmurs almost inanely, leaning her head back against the bricks behind her as she stares out into the night. Hyper conscious of the man standing to her right, she doesn't need to look to see that his stance mimics her own.

She wants nothing less than to leave the loose tangle of their icy fingers between them.

"You're welcome," he murmurs softly, thumb grazing over hers. "You're so tired your hands are still shaking, there was no way I was letting you behind the wheel."

"You've had as little sleep as I have," she points out softly. Again, she doesn't have to look to see his smile. The all-nighter was punishing on them all, but she knows he didn't do it for Peter. He did it for Diane. And for her.

"Little more personal for you though," he counters. "Having your son on the stand."

"Zach was… well, he kicked ass," she murmurs, letting her laughter out as her pride shines through. It crosses her mind that she should be a little more reserved, but finally, finally she doesn't feel like she has to. And it's with him.

It's liberating.

She doesn't think she's ever been prouder of the son she's raised than when she heard his calm, confident words as he was questioned. And when Will questioned him, when she saw them actually working together… something clicked.

"He certainly did," the man in question murmurs back, his chuckle reverberating through their joined hands. "You've got yourself some pretty spectacular kids there, Alicia," he adds quietly. They don't talk about her children, she and Will. When he compliments them, it sparks something warm, deep in her belly.

"Thank you," she murmurs softly, finally turning her head to the right, only to be met by brown eyes focused intently on hers. They're the most expressive yet guarded pair of brown eyes she's ever known, but right now they're not guarded. Everything he feels for her is shining right there at the surface.

She hadn't even realised he was watching her.

"Will…" she breathes, her fingers tightening on his.

"Alicia," he murmurs back, his lips barely quirking in a smile. Before she quite registers what either of them is doing, her forehead is resting against his, noses battling gently as they breathe the same air, gentle clouds in the icy air that swirls around them.

Somehow, they're still. Calm, amidst the storm that seems to rage around them, all the time. And she can't help the words that just want out, barely more than a whisper.

"This doesn't feel like bad timing."

"You should be upstairs, celebrating with your family," he murmurs softly, reaching up with his free hand to sweep her hair away from her face. There's a hint of something tight in his voice when he continues, but she's overwhelmed by the closeness of him, the barest hint of his cologne as she breathes deeply, and she can't bring herself to figure out what it is. "Peter just won the governorship," he murmurs, "Zach and Grace will be waiting for you…it sounds like bad timing to me."

"Maybe it's only bad timing if we let it be?" she ventures softly, her breathing a little shallower as she forces herself not to hide behind the words they've used so often. His eyes give nothing away for once as he gazes at her, and she runs her own shaking hand through her hair. "All I know is I don't want to leave." You, goes unsaid.

"Me either," he breathes out, something breaking in his expression. "But you have to." His words feel like ice, and she can't help the shiver that resounds through her. "You have to go be the good wife, for tonight at least. And for as long as it takes. You're… Christ, Alicia, you're everything that's good in my eyes, you know that right?" he asks rhetorically, a hoarseness in the back of his voice that speaks for his honesty. "We can't start like this. I won't do it to you," he adds fiercely.

His loyalty, his complete and utter faith in her, in her character, brings tears to her eyes. With his forehead still resting against hers, she knows he can see them.

But she doesn't think anyone has ever believed in her like that.

"Please don't cry," he whispers, his fingers halting in a gentle caress against her left cheek, ready to catch any tears that might fall. "I can't stand it when you cry, I've never been able to." She huffs out a laugh at that, pressing her forehead a little more firmly against his. It's true, and a multitude of Georgetown memories flash through her mind, unbidden.

"Why do you believe in me so much?" she asks quietly, looking up at him.

"Because I love you," he sighs out quietly, pressing his fingers against her lips as she lets out a soft gasp. "I'm not taking it back this time."

"I don't want you to," she whispers, feeling like her heart might beat right out of her chest. Because this, leaning against a redbrick wall at the back of a hotel, on the night her husband became Governor of Illinois, might just be their moment.

"Okay then," he murmurs with a smile. And before she knows it, they're both laughing, almost hysterically. She can't tell whether she's shivering from the cold or the laughter or the feel of his fingers still tangled with hers, but it feels good.

It feels right, in a way nothing has for a very long time.

And suddenly, she's not crying any more.

"We will talk, Alicia. I promise you that," he murmurs quietly. "But for tonight, you need to go upstairs and be amazing." She nods quietly and leans her back against the wall once again, so that the only contact between them is their tangled fingers. She knows it's true, but that doesn't mean she has to like it.

"Five more minutes?" she asks softly.

"Five more minutes."

As it turns out, they don't quite get their five minutes. She's laughing softly at Will's scathing impression of Patti Nyholm, when the little bubble they've wrapped themselves in pops with the intrusion of her children's voices.

"It's freezing out here. Mom won't be hanging around outside."

"I know, but let's just check if her car's out here. Then we'll know if we need to look for her inside."

"Zach!"

"Time's up," Will murmurs softly as the kids tumble around the corner, Zach causing Grace's exclamation when he spots them first.

"Zach, Grace," Alicia breathes out, reluctantly untangling their fingers as she gestures her children over. "What are you doing out here, it is freezing."

"We could ask you the same," Zach points out as they walk over, suddenly sounding every one of his eighteen years. "Everyone was looking for you upstairs, so Eli told us to come find you." Alicia can't help rolling her eyes, because she's sure she knows exactly how that conversation went, and she's not sure that it really should have led to her children wandering around in the cold of the night.

But that's an argument for another time.

"I should get going," Will offers quietly from her side, digging his hands into his pockets and inadvertently drawing the attention of both kids to him.

"Will gave me a lift," she tells them both quietly, and she thinks with that one comment she might finally be done lying to her children, because even if she doesn't quite know what the truth will turn out to be, that's the truth for now.

And that's a start.

When Will speaks, she knows he knows it too. That finally, this might be the tide changing in their favour.

"Your mom was pretty tired, I figured it was the least I could do," he chips in, giving them both a smile. "Zach, you did really well in court last night. I didn't get a chance to tell you yesterday."

"Thanks," Zach answers easily, and something that started to thaw in Alicia's chest when she watched her son all but grin at the man who's always had her heart in a courtroom eases a little further. "That was pretty cool, how you turned everything around." She can only watch as Grace nods her agreement, because suddenly the combination of her children and Will doesn't seem like such a foreign concept.

"Hear that, Alicia? I'm cool," Will smirks slightly, letting his fingers graze lightly against hers as he pulls his keys out of his pocket. "Say congratulations to Peter for me, okay?"

"Thanks, Will," she says softly, opening an arm for Grace as Will heads towards his car. "Goodnight," she calls out impulsively, fighting back a smile as he raises an arm without turning back to them.

"We like him, mom," Grace offers quietly as the three watch his car drive away.

"Yeah," Zach chimes in, and she has to crane her head a little to get a look in his eyes. "So don't worry about us, okay?" She has to close her eyes at the wisdom in her son's eyes, and she leans her head back against the wall.

"We want you to be happy," Grace adds softly, and she finds that she can do nothing but pull both her children to her in the tightest hug she can manage, because they've just proven that they're neither stupid nor oblivious.

And it means more than she can imagine that it seems that they'd rather have her happy and apart from their father than with him and miserable.

It feels like it's taken her longer to realise that than them.

"I'm so proud of you two," she murmurs, hearing the emotion in her own voice. "But for now, let's go inside and congratulate your dad," she tells them softly. "Because I'm freezing, and I could really do with a glass of wine."

"Can I have some?" Zach asks, as they start to head towards the back doors.

"Do you see your grandma around?" Alicia asks, laughing softly as she cuffs Zach around the ear.

"Worth a try."

When she steps into the bathroom to freshen up a couple of hours later, everything feeling a little overwhelming all over again, there's a text message from Will on her phone.

You're amazing. As are your kids. Call me when you get home if you want. I'll wait up.

She steps back out of the bathroom with a smile on her face.

And when the night is over, they do talk.

The voting scandal comes to a somewhat ugly public head just over two months after the election, long after Alicia has finally told Peter that there's no future for their marriage. Will turns up on her doorstep the very same night, looking like he has something to tell her. She kisses him, sitting on her sofa after he tells her the whole story.

It's the first time they kiss since that night in his car.

Grace wanders in looking for some help with her homework while he's still holding her hand, and Will surprises them all by proving himself to be a bit of an expert when it comes to algebra.

She's always known he was a bit of a geek at heart.

He stays for pizza with her and the children, charms Zach and Grace effortlessly and kisses her goodnight on the doorstep, with the taste of red wine on his lips and away from the prying eyes of her children.

The news of Alicia and Peter's split goes public about a month afterward.

fin.