She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. How did they end up here?
Well, there was an easy answer to it, they had spent years working day and night together, they had so much in common to make it easy, and they were different enough to make it interesting. Will was handsome, funny, the eligible bachelor boss who made no secret of the woman he had shared his bed, but with a good heart, that made it easy to forget about his flaws. Diane was the ice queen, the good looking ice queen, with legs to die for, who turned many heads despite not being in her twenties, she was a woman who used her brain, and a lot of men had to find that out the hard way.
They were human, and they had grown close, build up a strong friendship, but neither of them could pinpoint the exact moment they noticed there might be something else, that there was more. Someday, Diane felt something else besides pity or humor when Will came in late, or the case when some of the women he had or would share his bed with came by. Or when Will began to doubled check the men who walked inside her office, or the rare chase when he actually saw a man who picked her up for a date and felt a pang of jealousy and had to keep himself from interrogating the man like it was his business.
They both were passionate people and good at their job, they often bumped heads, but it was mostly their joined skills and effort that made this law firm one of the best in the city. And someday the passion for their job and their feelings for each other had mixed. Diane was also pretty sure that Kalinda had been intentionally meddling with their feelings for each other once she found out both felt more than friendship.
But not like many were always suspecting, nothing ever happened in their office. It happened one day after a fight over finances. There was a big Gala at the Waldorf Astoria, and they both had to be there, hunting for new clients, because Stern was in another country horseback riding or swimming with goldfish. So whether they liked it or not, they had to play the friendly law firm partners in front of everybody.
Will and Diane kept arguing with hissed accusations and growled insinuations towards each other as they made their way through the crowd. At some point, they had forgotten their fight but had continued the game of roasting each other, which then had turned to other guests. Hisses had turned to whispers, and the glasses of Scotch had only helped to lighten the mood and their tongues.
And then, unnoticed by anyone, the present partners of Stern, Lockhart, & Gardner had disappeared. They couldn't really explain to themselves what had happened, and the Scotch could certainly not be blamed that they found themselves in an elevator up to one of the rooms that had wisely booked for the evening, kissing like they were a newlywed couple and not partners in a big law firm.
It had been a miracle Diane's dress had survived the elevator ride and the short way to the hotel room. But as soon as Will had kicked the door close, their hands and mouths had been all over each other. In his haste to get the dress off her body, Will had almost ruined it, and two buttons were missing from his shirt because Diane had also lost her patience.
What had happened that night, in that hotel room, had been unbelievable good sex, the kind that shook the earth, that made you forget everyone else on the planet. And their first time couldn't be called anything else than fucking, the almost animalistic need to feel, taste, and smell each other in the most intimate way. To finally be with the person they desired for so long, chasing an explosive orgasm together.
Afterward, they had laid next to each other, sweat glistening on their bodies, and they were trying to catch their breath and comprehend what had just happened. At first, they agreed to never talk about it again, that it was a one-time thing, that it couldn't happen again. That intent had positively lasted twenty minutes.
Then it had happened again; it was still incredible sex, but this time with feelings, honest feelings. They explored each other's bodies, found out what each other liked, what elicited the most pleasurable moans from their mouths, and fueled their desire for each other only more.
This time there were sweet words whispered, beside hunger and desire, there was something else in their kisses. There was something in the way Will buried his face in her neck, inhaling her scent, placing kisses to the delicate skin of her neck, and how he palmed her breasts. There was something in the way Diane moaned his name as he slowly but deeply thrusted inside her, how she pulled him as close to her as possible, how her hands ran over his back and through his hair.
After it they talked. They talked as they laid cuddling on the bed, Diane's head pillowed on his shoulder, the sheets draped around their bodies, Will's hand slowly stroking up and down the skin of her back. Her right and his left intertwined over his chest, their fingers slowly playing with each other.
They talked the rest of the night about their feelings and everything else; they slept in late as it was the rare occasion when both had a weekend off. They ordered room service, and Will got his things from his room as they had ended up in Diane's, before renting the room for another night. They talked the whole day about them and everything that came to their minds; for a few precious hours, they lived in their own little world. Which consisted of talking and having sex with a little bit of sleep and eating in between. A world that only partly stopped existing once Sunday morning had come, because when they left the hotel, they were not the same people who had entered almost 48 hours earlier. Diane and Will left hand in hand, with a new relationship growing between them.
To almost everyone else, nothing changed. They were still the same people who almost acted the way before the faithful weekend at Waldorf Astoria. When they were in a good mood or celebrating, there might be longer looks exchanged between them, a few more subtle touches here and there. When they fought, there was a new heat in their arguments, but the changes had been so little that people were thinking they always had been this way.
And those who whispered that there was something going on between the partners didn't actually know how right they were. The only one who had noticed was Kalinda, because especially Diane, as her best friend, didn't respond with the right attitude whenever she teased her friend about Will.
But even Kalinda had only found out after one of the rare mistakes that had happened. Will had accidentally broken Diane's new perfume in the haste of getting to an emergency meeting with a client and spilled perfume on his shirt. He had then asked the Investigator for help, explaining the situation, that he had destroyed the new perfume of his 'recent bed companion', not knowing it had actually been a gift from Kalinda, who put two and two together.
Nobody at their firm or in Chicago, who wasn't a family member or close friend, knew that Diane Lockhart and Will Gardner were a couple. They didn't want the whole city to gossip viciously about their relationship because it was none of their business what they did in their free time. And even though they knew they were able to separate their private and work life just perfectly, doing their best to represent their clients even though they were a couple, there were enough people who would use that against them. And neither Will nor Diane wanted to risk that, their work was their life.
So first months, then years passed with no one really noticing their bosses were a couple, apart from the usual rumors. Will and Diane could explore their new relationship in private without anyone putting their noses where they didn't belong, and it paid off. They were now in the longest relationship both ever had.
Everything was wonderful until the day they sat on their couch in their apartment and watched the news. The press conference of their going to be Ex-States Attorney of Cook County.
"I knew Alicia back in law school," Will said as Diane walked in with two glasses of Scotch for them.
"Really? Get your feet off the coffee table," Diane said as she sat down next to him and handed him the glass, while Will laid his arm around her.
"Yeah, we were in the same year and became friends,"
"And you slept with her." Diane stated, and Will chuckled. She didn't have a problem with that, it was ages ago, they were both adults who knew they had their fair share of partners in their life, and they were in a stable and happy relationship. Though Alicia Florrick probably thought the same when she saw the news that her husband had slept with a prostitute.
"That I did," Diane nudged him in the side, and Will pressed a kiss down on her hairline.
"Spare me the details, okay?" she said, but Will could hear her smile, and his fingers danced up and down the bare skin of her arm.
"There's nothing special to tell." and there wasn't. They had been young and relatively inexperienced. But even Will was a little surprised that he felt nothing besides pity for the woman he had been so in love with years ago. Now he was with Diane, and he couldn't imagine being with anybody else anymore. He loved her more than he had loved someone ever before.
"Jesus, I don't even want to imagine what this must be like," Diane murmured as they watched how Peter and Alicia Florrick stepped up to the podium. "Not in one million years would I stand there with you and play the good wife, looking pretty and be quiet," she then looked up at him, "I warn you, if you ever fuck around with hookers, don't waste your last days trying to hold a 'I'm sorry' speech, you better run from me." Will chuckled again.
"It's noted," he said, and they watched as Peter resigned from his position as State's Attorney. "I never liked him, but damn it, Childs sure as hell is the worse of the two."
"Some of the few things we agree on. This won't be pretty." Diane said as she sipped at her drink.
"Definitely," Will answered.
If someone had told them how right Diane was, they wouldn't believe it for anything.
Hello dear readers!
I thought I might post the beginning of another little Lockner story. This time it's going to be a bit happier, I know it doesn't sound that way, and their will be drama and everything, but there is also going to be a great portion of happiness! I can't put Will and Diane through hell in every story, can I?
Well, I hope you like the beginning of this little piece, and if you did, please tell me so in a comment! Thank you very much! And I hope you and your family still had a lovely Christmas under the circumstances! All the best!