A/N: Oh my god! You guys are all - still - here, I'm so excited! Bewilclerment pointed out to me that a whole new audience might be discovering The Good Wife due to Julianna's stellar performance in The Morning Show, so if that's the case and any of them finds fan fiction: welcome! Either way, your reviews gave me a massive energy boost to take this story a lot further. I'm excited to share it all with you and genuinely hope it will meet your expectations.
Summary: Will & Alicia. Set mid season 5: "Oh my God," she mutters and leans back in the car seat. "Oh my God..." She repeats and zooms in one of the photos, still holding on to some sort of wishful thinking that it might be explainable. That they were talking. That nothing happened. But the photo is merciless.

Scandal

Part 2.

Exposed

She feels like she's running out of air when she reads the first headlines on her phone. As if the oxygen in the room isn't meant for her. As if she's been disqualified from a game she didn't know she was playing.

Within thirty minutes of arriving in the office that morning, she's already back out. It's only when she's alone in her own car that she finds the courage to read the articles behind Now the other Florrick cheats, Alicia Florrick spotted kissing former boss and Governor Florrick betrayed by his wife.

This is when she sees that there are photos, too. Her heart drops in her stomach."Oh my God," she mutters and leans back in the car seat. "Oh my God..." She repeats and zooms in one of them, still holding on to some sort of wishful thinking that it might be explainable. That they were talking. That nothing happened. But the photo is merciless.

Alicia has been outed.

It would make more sense, perhaps, to feel anger towards the ruthless person who took these photos and sold them to some newspaper. But it's only heartbreak and sorrow that's welling up inside of her. Because even though Alicia can't possibly oversee the consequences of all this, she does know one thing: whatever it is she and Will had going on was gone now. Like thin glass shattered into a million pieces, scattered across the streets of Chicago.

Then her phone starts buzzing unceasingly. Eli calls three times and Peter texts her a flat 'where are you?'. That's when she turns her phone off.

/ / /

"Oh my," Owen says when he opens his front-door and stares in the distraught eyes of his sister. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"Yes," Alicia replies with a broken voice. "I didn't know where else to go."

"Come here," he pulls her into a hug. "You can stay as long as you want."

"Thank you," she mumbles against his shoulder.

"Coffee?" Owen asks once they're in his kitchen.

Alicia nods indifferently and sinks down on a chair. It's only ten in the morning but she feels like she's been up twenty-four hours, drained from all the tears that streamed down her face while she drove over here. And she'd felt so good yesterday morning. So confident, so in love, so... happy. Happy… God, how could she have been so incredibly naive? Will was right, asking her about a plan. Of course they needed a plan. And getting photographed definitely wasn't part of it.

/ / /

"That went well," Will concludes after the end of their monthly staff meeting. "Don't you think?" He answers the sceptical look of David who's standing next to him. They're the only ones left in the conference room.

"Sure," he nods. "Everyone behaved, steady cashflow, it's all very decent. But who on earth approved that diversity presentation? Diane?"

"Diversity and inclusivity. I did."

"You're joking."

"Come on David, we should, you know, move with the times, remain relevant. You understand that."

David scoffs at that. He's already on his way out the conference room when he takes his phone out to check his messages, but then sees the headlines popping up on his phone. He stops in his tracks and drops a low "Would you look at that…"

"What?" Will frowns. He's heard this tone before and with David, that's rarely good news.

David's lips turn into a thin, small smile as he continues to read.

Confused, Will now takes his phone out of his pocket as well. His world collapses when he sees himself and the love of his life - because that's who she is and will always be - in a news article. For the whole world to see. How is this possible? Who did this?

"Have to give it to you Will, you do know how to remain relevant."

Will clenches his jaw, trying to hide the rage and embarrassment that's overwhelming him on the inside. He shouldn't let David provoke him, he's smart enough to know that.

"Maybe an integrity session next month?" David adds and heads out after that.

Will's standing in the middle of the room. Alone now. He needs to control himself. Stay calm, he tells himself. Think. Think. But he isn't thinking anything, he's blinded with rage and panic. Will feels how the hand holding his phone is starting to tremble, how his breathing increases and his chest starts heaving up and down. "Fuck!" He yells and kicks over a chair.

/ / /

Ultimately, Owen convinces his sister to turn her phone back on. She asks him to do it and scoots over to the other side of the couch, as if distancing herself from the device will somehow mean the notifications won't reach her.

Owen calmly browses through the messages and missed calls. "So many unknown numbers," he mumbles. "Grace called, Cary, twice…Eli tried calling you four, no wait, five times—"

"—- I can't deal with Eli right now."

"There's a text too…" Owen says and falls silent for a moment. "Oh shit." He looks up to her. "He texted 'they have more.'"

That makes her sit up straight immediately. "What?!"

/ / /

"I don't want Peter here," Alicia says when she opens the door for Eli.

"Morning to you too. What are you doing here?" Eli replies frustrated. "Everyone's looking for you."

"Does Peter know I'm here?"

He rolls his eyes. "I haven't told him, no."

"Good." She holds the door for him to enter the apartment. "There's more of what?"

"More photos. And you don't want those to get out."

Alicia follows Eli into the kitchen. "Hi Eli," Owen says.

"Oh, Owen, yes, hi," Eli changes to a more polite voice for Owen, but then switches right back to Alicia. "What the hell were you thinking?" He hisses at her.

"No," she replies. "I need details first. What do you mean more photos? Of the other night?"

"There's other photos of you and Will in a car."

"That never happened," Alicia lies. It definitely happened. Over six months ago, but it did happen.

"Never or not recently? You can't afford bluffing here."

Alicia swallows her words.

"Alicia," Eli walks up closer towards her and looks her straight into her eyes. "If we want to control this, and I don't know if we can, you need to come clean. To me."

"Since when are you my confidant and not Peters?"

"Since you became the subject of a scandal."

"Jesus," Alicia snaps.

"Look. You've been seen in a car. They claim it was during election night. Alicia, if that's true—"

"—Yes," she admits. "We were in a car. I slept in his car. It was in the middle of the night. But nothing happened."

"They say you two were seen…you know, making out."

"God," Alicia sighs and closes her eyes for a second.

"Think about it," Eli says, stricter now. "If that gets out. If you had an affair with your boss who also happened to be your husbands lawyer during—"

"No. That is not the issue. My clients, Will clients, they will think…Eli, whatever they have, that photo can't get out."

"I know. That's why I tried calling you. Five times."

"I needed some time. So, what can we do?"

"If you're willing to give a statement exclusively to them, they won't publish it. Needs to be in before eight."

"Okay. Okay, we can do that."

"So then we do need Peter here," Eli says and takes out his phone.

"No," Alicia snaps and takes the phone out of his hands.

"Alicia. It has to be a mutual statement. Acknowledge you were going through a rough patch, a separation maybe, I don't give a damn, as long as you conclude you're working on your relationship—"

"—Eli stop it. I'm not doing that."

"Then what do you suggest?"

She takes a moment to find the courage and then calmly states, "The statement will be that I'm divorcing Peter."

Eli's mouth falls open. He stares at her with big eyes, then regains himself and lets out a sarcastic laugh.

"Alicia, no."

"I'm dead serious Eli."

"I… No. That's ridiculous. You're panicking—"

"—I'm not. You better get used to the idea," she answers and sits down on a kitchen chair.

For the first time ever, Eli's so shocked that he doesn't have an answer in return. He knows Alicia long enough to know this isn't an upwelling. An awkward silence follows. All that time, Owen's been observing the conversation from a distance. "Coffee?" He tries. Two miserable faces stare at him and nod weakly.

/ / /

On the other side of town, Will has been glued to his laptop for a good two hours, ignoring passing colleagues in the hallway, reading article after article, tweet after tweet. He's never been into social media, doesn't even have a Twitter account, but he can't help himself. A self-imposed punishment that he has to read each and every spin on it. Earlier, in the spur of the moment, he tried calling Alicia but it went straight to voicemail. He was actually quite relieved that she didn't pick up, because what was there left to say?

He finally shuts down his laptop and sits down on his leather chair, trying to calm his mind while playing with his baseball. He doesn't succeed. All he can think about is how wry this situation actually is. He's dreamt, for years on end, about one day being able to tell the world that they chose each other. Without having to hide and be secretive about their feelings. But now they're outed and it's all so very different.

A knock on his glass door makes him look up. Diane, back from court. She doesn't come in immediately. Instead, she makes eye contact with Will through the glass, her hand on the door handle. It's a look of sympathy. And Will knows how this is going to work. The way she looks at him now is because he's a dear friend and she's always known about his feelings for Alicia. She's seen the dynamic between the two of them outside the courthouse after the shooting. Diane, truly, wants to see Will happy and deep down she also knows that Alicia would play a major part in that. But in the end, they're also partners. Professionals, who built up a firm from scratch, who've suffered low after low and can't afford any more mistakes. She doesn't want to be demanding, but she'll have to be.

He gestures her to come in.

"I didn't know this was still going on," she says and closes the door behind her.

"It's not," Will answers with a hoarse throat. "It was a one time thing."

Diane sighs deeply and sits down on his couch in front of him. "Will. This will never be a one time thing."

Will keeps staring at the baseball in his hand.

"I mean it," she continues. "You need to take care of this. Explain yourself. To your clients, to your partners… To me."

He nods. "I'll think about it."

"No," Diane corrects him. Now he does look up to her. "This is not a negotiation."

"What if it blows over."

"Trust me, it won't. Not within this firm."

Will rubs his eyes but says nothing.

Diane sighs and stands up from the couch. "I have six clients wishing to speak to me. I don't have time sitting around until you're able to oversee the consequences."

She walks back to the door. "Have you two talked about this?" She asks before she leaves, sounding friendlier than before.

Will shakes his head.

"You should. Call her." Then she disappears into her office.

/ / /

Alicia agrees to meet Peter in his office. She quickly enters through a backdoor the press doesn't know about. Owen's words keep repeating her in mind. "Whatever you do, don't apologize," he had whispered when they hugged goodbye. He was right, she knew that. She needed to stick with it, push through this time. Divorcing Peter had been on her mind for the past five years, but there had always been reasons not to. Sometimes, she really did believe their marriage could work, other times she stayed for her children and the last time, it was purely out of strategy that she stayed by his side. This time, she's run out of excuses. There's no reason left. That mere realisation takes a weight off her shoulders she forgot she'd been carrying for so long. Perhaps some good could come out of this drama eventually.

It takes only two minutes of them together in his office before the fighting starts. Even two strategic minds can lose their senses. Peter shouts that what she did is selfish, especially towards Zach and Grace. She tells him not to drag the kids into this, but then he yells, "Their mother is on the front page of every fucking newspaper sticking her tongue in the mouth of her former boss!"

"I know that," she yells back. "And don't be a hypocrite. Your son saw photos of you screwing hookers, Peter, how's that for a happy childhood!"

It all gets so ugly quickly because for Alicia, every accusation he throws at her is like looking into a mirror that takes her back five years, when she was the hurt one. And what she did, what happened the other night, isn't half as bad at what he's done to her. But they don't have time for comparing. She'll need to bite her tongue because the statement deadline is approaching and she hasn't even mentioned the d-word yet. So finally, she ties in and tries to calm down the situation.

"You're right," she admits. Tired of all the yelling, she sinks down on his couch. "I made a mistake. It wasn't supposed to happen. Not like that."

"What part?" Peter spits at her.

"The public part."

Peter scoffs at that. "And the affair part?"

Alicia's quiet for a second and stares straight into his eyes when she says as clearly as she can, "That's none of your business."

"Well, as far as I know, you're still my wife."

"So then that has to change," she answers him. This is it, she realises. She'll have to push through now.

Peter stares back at her, out of breath from all the yelling. His dark eyes urge her to take back her words, to rephrase what she just said. But Alicia does none of that.

"Peter. I want a divorce."

/ / /

The governor of Illinois spends another two hours in his office with his wife. He bursts out the room at first, but comes back after half an hour. Meanwhile, Alicia started drafting a statement on her phone. She'd already thought of the direction it should take during her drive over here. Once Peter comes back, he takes his defeat with dignity and tells her that he agrees and that, in all honesty, he knows that there's no way out.

A lot can change in twenty-four hours.

After the two of them talk to Eli and walk through the statement, Alicia announces she needs to go see Cary. That's a lie, because she wants to speak to Will first. She calls him once she's back in her car. Their conversation is transactional at best, but he does agree to see her. To avoid the paparazzi, she proposes to meet in Owen's apartment. For lack of a better alternative, Will tells her he'll see her there.

/ / /

"Hi Will," Owen says as he opens the door for the man he's always been rooting for. "Alicia's in the kitchen. I'm gonna get some food, be back in an hour."

Alicia's leaning against the kitchen counters when Will walks in. He looks miserable. His eyes don't display any emotion when they make eye contact. It's an odd situation to be standing in front of each other in Owen's kitchen, as if they're two strangers who don't yet know how to behave around each other.

"Are you okay?" She asks.

"Are you?"

"I don't know," she replies dejected.

He looks around the kitchen, taking in his surroundings and sits down at the kitchen table.

"I'm so sorry," Alicia mutters, but it doesn't trigger a response from Will. All she gets is another blank stare. "I hate this so much," she says. "This shouldn't have happened."

Still no response. She can see his jaw muscles tighten, as they always do when he's angry and tries to prevent himself from saying something unreasonable.

"Will," she pleads, unable to hide the emotion in her voice.

"I'm sorry," he finally answers. His voice is low and flat. "I don't know what to say," he says with a desperation that brings tears to her eyes. He can tell that she's emotional, but he's so very outraged about the whole situation that he doesn't know how to make it better. So he just stares at her while she swallows her tears away.

Unsure how to make this situation better with Will being this distant, she stops with the apologies and tells him, "They have another photo."

That gets his attention.

"Eli got a call from the Chicago Tribune. There's a photo from us in your car. Election night."

The look in his eyes only darkens further. "What? How—"

"—I don't know. They must have been following me for months. Or since then, I don't know. But it can't get out."

Will shakes his head in disbelief.

"Eli negotiated they'll hold it back if I give a statement today before eight, exclusively to them. And I will. I wanted you to know that."

"Shouldn't we do that together?"

"I don't think we have to."

He gives her a questioning look.

"I spoke to Peter an hour ago. We're going to announce our divorce. That will be the statement."

"What?" He frowns at her. "Now?"

She nods. "It's the only way out."

"You got to be kidding me."

Alicia's taken aback by that response. It was supposed to be good news, a solution.

"We'll say we'd already separated which, well, in many ways, is true."

He scoffs at that. "God Alicia, that's hypocrisy at it's finest."

"What? How?" Alicia asks stunned.

He snickers. "For years, this is off the table. There's always a reason not to. Your children, his career, whatever excuse is convenient to you at that in point time. And now, now that announcing a divorce is helpful to that… scheme you two have been keeping up, you can make this decision in an instant?"

"That's not fair."

"None of this is."

He leans with his elbows on the table, buries his face in hands and then looks up again. "You do realise this isn't all about you, right?"

"Will, of course. That's why we're here now. That's why that photo can't get out. I know this affects you too."

Suddenly, Will slams his fist on the table "Affects me?" He spits at her, shoves his chair back and gets up from the table. "This is not just affecting me. I lost three of my top clients in the last five hours. And that's only the beginning of it."

"Oh my god," Alicia mutters, bewildered by this sudden outburst.

"And how's your statement gonna make that better? When you and Cary left, I personally convinced them to stay with our firm, to not come to you. It looks like a personal feud to my clients, some even think we struck a deal. And now they're bringing their business elsewhere. Diane's been getting the same calls. I shouldn't even discuss this with you, because it's clearly none of your business, but here I am, in your brothers' kitchen, while this very second Diane is preparing how to push me out."

"But none of that's true," Alicia tries, panicking now. "We never—"

"—It's not about truth. I'm damaged goods, Alicia. If I wasn't already, I am now."

Alicia's unsure what to say to a version of Will she hasn't seen in a long time. Will takes a few deep breaths through his nose, trying to calm himself down.

"You shouldn't have kissed me," he then says.

"Oh god," Alicia snaps. "Now that's my fault? You didn't exactly hold it off, did you?"

"No. And maybe I should have."

"And then it wouldn't have happened?"

"Not like this, no."

"But it wasn't just that, was it? I thought—" Alicia can feel her emotions taking over again. It wasn't only that kiss, that night, was it? There was more to it. She'd felt it, she feels it, so why is this going in this direction?

"What did you think Alicia? Cause I have a hard time following you. For two years, we're out of the question," he says, raising his voice again. He walks closer towards her. "Nothing could ever happen because you have your life and your principles and now, suddenly you see me differently, because of what? Because you thought I died in that courtroom? Is that it?"

Alicia gasps at the harshness of his words. Tears spring back into her eyes. She opens her mouth and stammers something but she doesn't know what to say.

"Will…," is all she gets out before her voice breaks and tears start rolling down her cheeks.

He glances up the ceiling. "I'm sorry," he sighs defeated. He only sees the tears when he looks back at her. "I'm sorry," he says again and takes her in his arms. Alicia cries, her shoulders shocking against his body and he tries to hold her as tight as he can. "I didn't mean that," he says and kisses her hair.

"Don't cry, it's okay. I know that's not how it is."

"I don't want this to happen to you," she mutters against his chest. "I know what it's like and it's awful. You don't deserve any of this. I didn't meant to drag you into this…"

"I know, I know," he sighs and pulls back a little so he can look at her. "Look, I'm exhausted. With everything that happened these past weeks…I need time."

Alicia nods and wipes the tears off her cheeks. "We'll handle it together, we—"

Will shakes his head and it makes her stop talking.

"You know that's not an option," he says in a gentle tone, even though the message is a harsh one. He caresses her cheek and then steps away from her. "If it ever was, it isn't now."

"I don't want it to be this way," she mutters. "Do you?"

He sighs. "Sometimes it's not about what we want."

"So what do you propose?"

"Go home. Go see your kids, they need you. I should go too," he says.

"At least promise me we'll talk when things calm down."

Will nods. "When things calm down," he repeats. "Good luck tonight."

/ / /

"You can say all you want about Alicia, but she's a good speaker," Kalinda says once Alicia concludes their mutual statement and she and Peter leave the stage. "Lovingly chosen to separate, who wrote that you think? Eli?"

"They did, Together," Will says dryly and refills their wine glasses. Kalinda showed up to his place unannounced about half an hour ago. She brought him a bottle of red wine. They watched the statement together.

"It's a smart move," Kalinda concludes.

"It sure is," he answers. "Always getting their own house in order."

Kalinda turns away from the television to face him. "I don't think I've ever seen you this bitter."

"You might be right."

"You do realize people will forget about this?"

"I doubt that. Why not dig deeper? It's too good of a story. For journalists, the republicans…"

"Sure, but that will about them, not you. Look, I don't want to burst your bubble but you're not… you know, that important."

"That couldn't be further from the truth," he says, trying to sound serious.

Kalinda laughs at that.

In turn, that makes him grin, but it fades quickly. "Diane's pushing me out," he then says.

"What makes you think that?

"I lost us five clients in a day. And apparently she's meeting Canning tomorrow morning."

"Don't you think you're being a little paranoid?"

"Wish I was."

"Ok. And what if it's true?"

He shrugs nonchalantly. "You were planning on leaving, right? Didn't you tell me that the night before the shooting?"

Kalinda opens her mouth but doesn't say anything, waiting to see where this is going.

"Why don't you come with me?"

"Come with you where?"

"New York."

I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know in the reviews, they really do motivate me to continue. And I know, don't hate me for complicating things, I promise it will be worth it :)