Chapter Nine
Will was confused. One minute he was angry as hell, wanting to take down Florrick, Agos and Associates, and Alicia with it. The next minute he was worried about her, wanting to do everything he could to make sure she was okay. His conflicted feelings were taking their toll.
"You look tired" Laura mentioned, walking past him to the fridge.
Will stood at the kitchen bench, sipping from a beer bottle. Subconsciously he knew that Alicia was manipulating him emotionally, but he also knew that she didn't mean to. She wouldn't have come to him about Cristian if it weren't really important, and it was. Besides, he took a guilty pleasure in the fact that she came to him for help; even if it was Kalinda that she was really after.
Will shook his head, tossing his jumble of thoughts aside.
"Yeah" he replied to Laura, looking at her over his shoulder.
"Tough day?"
"No, just long" Will said, taking another swig of beer.
"Are you okay?" she asked, coming up next to him and laying a hand on his arm. "You seem really distracted lately."
"It's just work."
"Will – you can talk to me."
"There's nothing to talk about" he said dismissively, walking over to the fridge, just as an excuse to move away from her. Will knew that he was being unfair, but if he were to speak his mind that would involve talking about Alicia, which would just make Laura pissed.
Which didn't matter, in the end, because his attitude was enough to put her off.
"Fine" Laura said, moving into the lounge room and picking up her jeans from the floor. She put them on. "I think I'm gonna go home."
"Oh, come on" Will sighed, throwing back his head, fed up with the pointless arguments he always seemed to find himself in with her. "I'm sorry."
"You're not."
"I am, really" he said in his best sincere voice.
"I'm just going to call it a night, okay?" Laura said, picking up her handbag and kissing Will on the cheek. "Call me tomorrow?"
"Sure" Will said, resigned to spending the night sleeping alone.
"What's that?" Will asked, confused to see Diane on her office floor amongst a confetti of white paper.
"Seating charts" Diane remarked, keeping her eyes focused on the floor. "For the wedding."
"Am I invited?" Will asked, looking over her shoulder for his name tag.
"Only if you're good" Diane joked, standing up. "Actually I wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
"Well, Kurt and I need one witness each, and I was wondering if you would be mine."
"You want me to be your maid of honour?"
"Yes. I was thinking a high necked gown of gold brocade, it would go beautifully with your eyes."
"Diane, I –" Will was lost for words. "I'd love to."
Walking forward to give her a kiss on the cheek, Will smiled. "I'm happy for you" he said.
"Thank you" Diane replied, as Kalinda walked in.
"Got something for you" she told Will, holding up a yellow envelope.
Will squeezed Diane's arm and followed Kalinda into his office, shutting the door behind him.
"So, this work I'm doing for Alicia, on Cristian Romano" Kalinda began, taking a seat at Will's desk. "Do I clear it with you first?"
"You can probably just go straight to Alicia with it" he said, taking a seat opposite the dark haired investigator. "I don't want to pry."
"Trust me, you want to pry" Kalinda insisted. "This man is dangerous."
"How so?" Will asked, his voice low and serious.
"He's on the run from a Cuban drug lord, Hector Rini. If Cristian is found, Rini isn't the sort of man to care about casualties. He's actually quite the fan of killing his enemies with open fire in public places."
"Have any of these incidents happened in America?"
"No" Kalinda admitted. "But there's a first time for everything, and it seems like Cristian owes Rini a substantial amount of money."
"Do we have any sort of evidence to persuade Cristian into leaving town?"
"Not yet, I'm working on it."
"Okay, keep going" Will said, picking up his mobile. "I'll ring Alicia and tell her what you found out, thanks Kalinda."
It felt wrong, manipulating Alicia into hiring Kalinda for him. But as Peter kept telling himself, it was for the safety of his family, not his career. Alicia had come to him with some preliminary information that Kalinda had dug up on Cristian, but it wasn't enough. They needed more.
Peter ran a hand through his hair, sipping from a glass of scotch and reading over some paperwork. He sat in companionable silence with Eli, who was working on some crisis management for a client. Something to do with chicken, Peter wasn't really listening. His phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Florrick, hello, this is Claire Hammond" said a soft, sultry voice. "We met at the Fairmont Hotel? For the Harbor Hospital Fundraiser Gala?"
"Claire, of course" Peter smiled, remembering her blonde hair and white dress. Eli looked up from his paperwork, curious. "You were going to get back to me."
"I was, sorry it took me so long. I was wondering if we could meet?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. Just tell me when and where."
Being First Lady of Illinois wasn't everything it was cracked up to be. Alicia was exhausted. When she made a list of all her responsibilities in her head, she realised that her participation in Peter's career was at the bottom. Alicia loved her children more than anything, and although it was gratingly hard work, her job made her happy too. But the interviews and press conferences and other First Lady duties just weren't enjoyable anymore. It wasn't worth the stress. And if Peter went on a presidential campaign, like Eli was pushing him to, Alicia wasn't so sure that she could handle it.
"Where've you been?" Alicia asked Peter as he walked through the bedroom door.
"Babe, you're still awake?" he asked, crawling onto the bed and kissing her.
"I waited up."
"You didn't have to do that" Peter said, getting undressed.
"I wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
"Are you…playing by the rules?" Alicia asked hesitantly, hoping Peter wouldn't try to skirt his way around answering her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, are you clean? I've been hearing some things, about the campaign."
"From who? Will?" Peter said his name in a guttural tone, always so quick to jump to Will as a conclusion.
"No, actually" Alicia replied truthfully, frowning in annoyance. "Cary did."
"Cary?"
"He's been hearing things from his friends at the State's Attorney's office, so has Robyn" Alicia went on. "He came to me this afternoon, to give me a heads up. I wanted to ask you if there was any truth to it."
Peter took a moment, thinking. Weighing up whether it was better to tell the truth or not.
"I'm clean" Peter replied, unable to look her into her eyes as he lied. "There are rumours after every campaign Alicia, it's nothing. Let's just focus on dealing with Cristian for now, okay?"
"Okay" Alicia sighed, suddenly aware of how tired she was. "You're right. Good night."
Alicia snuggled down under the bed covers and turned over, facing away from Peter. It was a while before she got to sleep, and when she did, it was restless.
Authors note:
I'm sorry that this chapter was a bit choppy - I usually try to keep to one plot thread per chapter, but there were just a few things I needed to get across before the next chapter, which is quite an important one! The ideas are also starting to merge and get more complicated, so I'm navigating my way through them as best I can. I hope you still liked it and, as always, thank you for all the kind reviews, I appreciate them greatly :)
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fan fiction using characters from The Good Wife television show, which is trademarked by Robert and Michelle King and CBS. Alicia Florrick, Will Gardner, Diane Lockhart, Cary Agos, Kalinda Sharma, Kurt McVeigh, Laura Hellinger and Peter Florrick are all characters created and owned by Robert and Michelle King and CBS. I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of The Good Wife. The story I tell here about The Good Wife characters is of my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of the King's story canon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line. I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story. I am grateful to Robert and Michelle King, and all the other writers for The Good Wife, for their wonderful show, as without it, my story would not exist.
