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Opposition Research

"Alicia?" Kalinda picked up the phone the second it rang.

"Are you alone?" The lawyer's question was a usually dead giveaway as to why Alicia was calling.

"Mmhmm," Kalinda's voice was flirtacious.

"I didn't call for that."

Alicia's tone was flat, something that made the investigator to worry.

"Oh," Kalinda was now serious. "What's going on?"

"I talked to Prady," Alicia sighed. "He said something."

"About the campaign?" Kalinda didn't much care for the campaign and had tried to talk Alicia out of running.

"About me."

"Alicia," Kalinda wanted to portray her support. "Tell me."

"He assumed I would be attacking him with the rumors about his sexuality," she explained.

They had talked about how much Alicia would hate to out her opponent. And they both knew why.

"And?" Kalinda knew that wasn't the end of it.

"He implied that he and I were the same."

"What exactly did he say?" she needed the details to know how to react.

"After I told him that yes, my campaign did have information about him being secretly gay that would make him untrustworthy in the eyes of voters, he said 'I have the same oppo research on you.' The same, Kalinda!" Alicia's concern was increasing as she relayed the conversation.

"Oh," the woman on the line said, attempting to be neutral. "Maybe he meant something else."

Alicia didn't know what to say. She was still stunned by what he said and worried about what he might do. She also couldn't help but be quite curious how he knew what he knew.

"That isn't possible," Kalinda had now processed it all. "We've been very careful."

"That's what I thought. God, K, we haven't been seen together in months. Everyone assumes we had a falling out and no longer speak. We've stuck to our plan. How could he know?"

"We did have a falling out," she found herself saying aloud, thinking back to those troubled days in their friendship.

"You know what I mean…" Alicia droned.

"I don't know how he could know. Should I look into it?" she only had her investigative skills to offer, unfortunately.

"Couldn't that make it worse?" Alicia found Kalinda's calm voice to be exactly what she needed despite her continued worry.

"Not nearly as bad as if I walked onto the set of your next debate and kissed you..." she paused for effect, "…with tongue."

The smirk Kalinda had on her face resonated in her voice even through the phone.

"Dammit," Alicia's voice was now sultry. "You are not helping."

Kalinda chuckled in the subdued way that Alicia found endearing.

"How can I help?" she stopped teasing.

"What are we doing wrong?" Alicia asked. "We can't be any more discreet, can we?"

"Leesh..." Kalinda sighed. "We never see each other at your house. You come in the back entrance to my apartment. We leave Chicago when we want to have a private dinner together. Your kids don't even know."

"I know," Alicia didn't like how awful their arrangement sounded when laid out like this. "I'm sorry."

"No," Kalinda insisted. "We agreed this was the best way. For now."

"I'm terrible," Alicia's emotions were caught in her throat.

"You are not. Don't think that. We are doing what we have to do. It won't always be this way."

"You are too wonderful," she said. "Tell me what I should do."

"He can't know anything, maybe a bluff. Maybe he's fishing. You can't react."

"Should we do something to be more careful?" the hyper vigilant lawyer couldn't drop it.

"We could utilize a gag," Kalinda's voice was rich with innuendo. "Quiet your moaning and screaming."

"And begging," Alicia added with her own hint of a smirk.

"Exactly."

"Thank you for calming me down."

"Of course," Kalinda smiled. "That's why I'm here."

"I better go, Eli and Johnny are expecting me."

"Good luck."

"Oh, Kalinda?" Alicia felt the heat rising in her cheeks. "I'll be sneaking in the back entrance tonight."

"A girl could misinterpret that, you know."

"Kalinda!" Alicia realized the other possible meaning to her own words.

"Bye, Alicia."

"Bye."

Whatever Prady knew or didn't, Alicia Florrick wasn't going to resort to hiding in her house and avoiding the person she cared deeply about. She'd made enough sacrifices. She had done enough hiding. The campaign and her faux marriage weren't worth this.

That night she walked in the front door of Kalinda's building.

-finis-