A/N.: I haveno idea where I'll go from here, but I'll try to update as fast as I can. I'm a little unsure about this chapter, so please, please tell me what you think (good AND bad).

Thanks for the reviews and Mike for beta-reading.

Alicia jumped a little and almost dropped her glass of wine when she heard the bell ring. She rushed to the door, but stopped a little before opening it, resting her trembling hand on the door knob. Pulling it wide open to reveal Cary on the other side, she shifted her weight to her other leg, "tilting" her hip a bit.

"Thanks for agreeing to do this here."

"Sure, what are you thinking?" Cary asked, barely able to contain his eagerness.

"I'm in." Alicia answered, hoping she conveyed the confidence she didn't have.

"So, Florrick, Agos & Associates, huh? What made you change your mind?"

At that moment she looked over Cary's shoulder, only to see an open mouthed Will. His eyes met hers and she noticed as the surprise was replaced by anger and then mixed with deep hurt. This time it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her, Will was really there in her foyer turning around to leave in the same elevator he came in.

"Will!" Alicia shouted. Cary turned around, oblivious to what was happening. She rushed past the young lawyer to catch the elevator before its doors closed. She wasn't fast enough and could only watch as the luminous sign showed the numbers changing, floor by floor. Alicia pressed the button repeatedly, but it would take too long until the machine could come back up to take her to the ground floor. Will would be gone by then. Without thinking twice, she headed for the emergency exit to take the stairs.

"Alicia, where are you going?" She heard Cary shout behind her. Crap. She had forgotten about him.

"You can go inside and wait for me there." She shouted back over her shoulder, not daring to stop and let him in properly.

Rushing, no, actually running down the stairs, her knees tempted to fold, but she refused to let them. Heels weren't the appropriate shoes for this, but she didn't care. Her only thought was to get downstairs as fast as possible. With each flight of stairs she thought was the last, but wasn't, she just got more frustrated. It seemed like a lot more than nine floors.

Finally! The street! Alicia saw Will in front of his car trying to open the driver's door. Or maybe, he was winding down before getting inside behind the wheel? It didn't matter. He was still there. She caught him by the elbow to gain his attention, still unable to talk, out of breath from the run. He turned around and she smiled, but it faded as soon as she saw his dark eyes. Alicia had never seen them like this, not even when he had come to her office to confront her about the Thief mock trial. The night they had ended in a passionate kiss.

"Will, please wait." She pleaded still catching her breath.

"What do you want, Alicia?" Will spat the words.

"Wait." She breathed in deeply, "You came here. Why?"

"I came here to talk." Uh-oh "The talk we said we'd have when the election was over." Alicia felt like all of that had happened a lifetime before and not less than 24 hours. "I came here prepared to tell you everything I should have, but didn't all these years. To tell you in person what I said in that voicemail three years ago." Wait. What? He came there to tell her that she had made the right decision with Peter? "What I really said in the second voice mail." He explained. It was amazing how he could read her so well. "I lied when you asked me about it that day in my office. It had taken me so long to get past your rejection that I didn't want to bring all the awkwardness between us back. So I lied and left things the way they were." He took a deep breath before continuing, "And I've been kicking myself for it ever since that day." So she had been right all this time in thinking he had said something passionate the day of the press conference. "Against my better judgment, I decided to stop being polite and come here to tell you, face to face, that I love you. Without hiding behind a voicemail, a phone call or saying it was an accident. I came here to fight for you. Because I do love you. I'm in love with you, Alicia." Oh my God. All air escaped her lungs and her heart threatened to explode in her chest. "I came here for all that, only to arrive and see you agreeing to join Cary's firm. A firm you swore wasn't happening, wasn't going to be a problem. You were part of it all along, weren't you? You've said it yourself, you were the ring leader. Were you playing us all this time?"

What? Alicia felt like she had been punched. She was having a hard time processing all that information. She was still absorbing the 'I love you', unaware of the small smile on her lips. Then in her train of thought, all the sweetness was run over by the bitter part of his speech about her betrayal, turning her grin into a frown.

"No, Will, it just happened, now." She tried to reach him, but he took a step backwards.

"Were you even going to tell m…us about your betrayal? Or was I just going to find your resignation letter on my desk?" Will started pacing in the middle of the street. "And this…this is the perfect timing! With Peter having just been elected." Perfect timing. His choice of words stung in her ears. "The first lady of Illinois starting a new law firm. Very smart." Her eyes burnt with the tears she was trying to hold back. Will suddenly stopped in front of her and spoke in a tone only above a whisper. "Why would you leave?" All the anger seemed to be gone, leaving only the hurt gushing from his eyes.

"You know why." Her tone matched his and her eyes pleaded for him to understand and accept.

"No, Alicia, I'm sorry, but this time I'm not just giving you an out. I've done it too many times and I regret each one of them. I need to hear it either way."

She blinked and one teardrop rolled free over her cheek. She looked down. "Will, we've tried everything. Avoiding each other, being friends again, moving on… and look where that got us." She looked up at him into his eyes. Another drop ran down. "I'm back with Peter and we're going to renew our vows." Two drops made their way down her cheeks. "I'm trying to get my family back together. I can't be sleeping with you after that." He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "You know that's what's going to happen. And it can't. So, I'm leaving the firm." The tears were flowing, probably leaving mascara traces on her face. She made no attempt to hide or clean it. She didn't care.

Will took a few steps forward coming close to her. For one moment Alicia wished he would take her in his arms and comfort her or maybe even kiss her. What was wrong with her? He took her face in his hands. His big hands felt so warm against her cold skin. Will ran his thumbs over her wet cheeks, drying the tears. Without a word, he turned around and walked away to his car.

With all the energy drained from her body, Alicia slowly made her way back up. She took the stairs again, needing the time and the walk to process all that had happened. Will had come here to tell her that he loved her. He loved her. She didn't have a hard time believing it, he had let it show a few times, but she didn't expect him to admit it so bluntly. And, oh God, he had said that in that voicemail. What happened to it anyway? Would it have changed anything if she had heard it that day? Alicia shook her head to push those thoughts away. It didn't matter. Not anymore. Especially now. The plan was to stay away from him and apparently she had already succeeded, because he was so angry he wouldn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. Alicia arrived at the front door of her apartment, still lost in thought. On autopilot, she started looking for her keys. When she couldn't find them, Alicia started retracing her steps to figure out where she could have left them. That's when she finally remembered the previous events of the evening. Shit! Cary was there. The last thing she wanted to do was face anyone, let alone talk about business plans. She had to get inside, so she rang the bell and tried to hide the trace of her tears the best she could. Apparently Alicia did a poor job, judging by the look of sympathy on Cary's face as he opened the door.

"I'm sorry, but can we do this tomorrow?" She considered giving him an excuse. Saying she was tired because of the all-nighter the day before, or because of the election. Alicia decided against it in the end. There was no point in hiding that she was shaken because of her conversation with Will.

"Sure. Sure." He passed her on the way to the door to leave. Before he went through the threshold, Cary turned around and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, adding, "Alicia, if you've changed your mind, you can still go back. It's okay, I'll pretend tonight never happened."

His thoughtfulness managed to make her express a small smile, but she shook her head. "Thank you, Cary. But I'm still in."

"Okay then. See you tomorrow, partner." He exited the apartment and closed the door behind himself.