A/N: Thank you for all of the kind reviews. I do want to say, as one review pointed out - I don't want to spend the story villainizing Peter - was he perfect? Nope, but he wasn't all terrible, and I think that the show did a crappy job of showing him as a person. Either way, he is dead in the story ;) In a couple of chapters we will start seeing Will/Alicia coming a bit closer, so keep reading. Also, I've decided to take the story and apply what exists now to it - aka UBER, I couldn't tell you if UBER was operating in Chicago at the time this would have occurred in the show, but I don't think so. So while I will attempt to stay true, there will be some...modernization. Also, the struggle to get Alicia back into the courthouse will be a common trend, she not only lost her husband, but there is obviously some attached trauma to being at a shooting, so don't expect her to jump back into the courtroom tomorrow.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters
Chapter Four
"Alicia, are you sure you're ready for this?" Cary stood at the bottom of the courthouse steps. "You don't…you don't have to do this."
"It has been two months." Alicia countered, two months. Two long months of working from the office, working from home, not being in court, being anywhere except court. "I'm…"
"Don't say you're fine, you're not fine, we all know you aren't fine." Cary countered, "You were here when Peter was shot, your husband died. I know things were whatever between you but no one would be fine."
"I'm getting there…I'm…almost fine." Alicia assured him, "Cary, I need something normal, I need everyone to stop looking at me like I'm made of glass. The office, everyone stares at me, everyone looks at me…offers me coffee, helps me with everything…I just…I need to be…it's like the first time. When everything happened with Peter, everyone just stared at me, they waited for me to snap, to cry, to yell at someone…everyone wanted to know when I was going to lose it about the hooker - now, here I am, and everyone is waiting to see how I react to his being dead."
"Do you really want to go in there?" Cary asked her calmly. "Alicia, I won't stop you, but I'm here. I'm here, I can do this without you. You're not even first chair."
"You're right." Alicia finally admitted, letting out a deep breath, "I don't…I don't want to be there. I thought I did, I thought I was ready."
"You don't have to be ready yet." Cary put a hand on her shoulder, "We're fine…the firm is doing fine."
"I have a meeting with Diane tonight." Alicia told him, "I know you have to go…but, I'll call you after. I'm not sure what this is about, it could be about Peter…there is still a lot…up in the air, but I got the feeling that it might have been about something else. About the firm…"
"What does she want to know about the firm?"
"I don't know." Alicia exhaled, "It could be nothing, it could be something."
xxx
"Alicia," Diane stood up to greet her former colleague, "thank you for coming. I hope you don't mind, I…I have invited Will to join us for some of this discussion. But first…there are several… personal matters I wanted to discuss."
"Personal matters," Alicia sat down in her chair, grateful that Diane had already ordered a bottle of wine, "Peter?" She assumed.
Diane nodded as she scanned the menu quickly, "Yes, Peter. There are…things, most have been dealt with, Eli has been wonderful, attentive to everything, and as you know, the estate is being dealt with, however…there is something that Peter had recently asked us to handle."
"Peter asked you to handle something recently?" Alicia was surprised. The process of separating his personal affairs from LG and finding a new lawyer had not been instant, and that is part of what had made the process of leaving so difficult for Alicia, she felt like for every step she had made forward, away from Lockhart/Gardner, a more personal matter would pull her back in, evidently Peter's death hadn't changed that.
"He did, it had been in the works for a while, he wanted to surprise you, I believe that he was hoping that once his term was over, you might…your family might settle down…" Diane passed her a manilla folder, "Take a look."
Alicia opened the folder and she couldn't help but let out a gasp, "He…did he buy this?"
"The deal was almost done when the shooting happened, we…delayed for some time, but yes, he bought it. We were holding onto the funds in trust." Diane nodded, "I don't mean to sound too forward, but it is beautiful."
"Do you…do you mind if I look over this at home?" Alicia swallowed the lump appearing in her throat, "I will get back to you by the end of the week." The rollercoaster of emotions since Peter had died never ceased to amaze Alicia. The initial shock and trauma of it all was still there, but her day to day…Peter hadn't been a part of her day to day for quite some time. So while she missed him, she missed his occasional presence in her apartment, she ached for him when it came to their kids, but the more time that passed, Alicia was understanding that she wasn't mourning a lover or a partner even, she was mourning the loss of a friend, she was mourning the loss of her family…but she also knew that she had lost the illusion of a husband a long time ago, long before Peter died. There were days when Alicia was broken, barely able to put her mascara on and function while absorbing the shock of it all, but there were also days, most of her days, she could spend a good portion of her day forgetting that Peter was gone, until someone gave her the look. The sad, compassionate nods and half smiles she received from colleagues, acquaintances, even strangers on the street.
"Of course." Diane nodded towards the entrance of the restaurant, "Will is here."
Alicia smiled as she looked towards the door and saw Will striding towards the table, "Hi." She embraced him warmly after Diane. "I wasn't expecting you."
"I like to make an entrance, keep people on their toes." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and Diane, "No Cary?" He noted, "Have you asked her?"
"I have not." Diane took a sip of wine, "I thought I would wait for you. Why don't we…have a drink first."
"You make it sound so …." Alicia paused.
"Don't worry." Diane assured her, "We just…everything between us, our firms, the bad blood…the back and forth with the clients. I think we need to…calm the waters."
"We." Will corrected her, "We think we need to calm the waters."
Alicia noticed how Will had put himself in the middle of the statement, he didn't want this to be cast as Diane's idea, he was making sure that she knew that he was alright with whatever this proposal to calm the waters was going to be. "And how do you suggest we do that?" Alicia smiled, taking another long sip of her wine and placing the tall glass on the table in front of her. She watched as Will stared at her intently, he was wanting to gauge her reaction to what was coming next.
"Merge." Diane spoke calmly.
"Merge?" Alicia repeated, thankful she had put her glass of wine down. "Diane, we have barely been gone. Cary would…Cary would never agree to this."
"So talk to him." Diane suggested, as though it was the simplest thing in the world.
"Why?" Alicia looked to them both, "Why? Is this because of Peter? Is this…an edge you think you have? Are you out of money? Publicity? What is it? Why do you want Cary and I after everything that has gone on."
Will had expected this kind of question, he knew she wouldn't just jump at the idea. Alicia had craved independence - when Peter was in jail, she had needed to support herself, when he got the SA job, he was earning more, enough that she probably didn't need to work, but Alicia didn't want to go backwards, she didn't want to fall back into the familiar habits. Will wasn't sure about what went on, what happened between her giving an interview that basically sealed his election to them becoming involved with each other, he had never asked for details, but he knew that the Alicia he had known for the last few years was not one who wanted to be taken care of. "Our clients." He told her simply, "They are bouncing back and forth between us, and when one jumps from us to you, that is good for you, and a return to us is good for us, but we are throwing money away by dealing with the administrative bullshit that goes with it. Collecting outstanding debts, transferring paperwork multiple times, wasted resources being caught up on what we have missed…fighting with each other it isn't good for any of us. People are going to start packing up and finding a firm with less issues, they don't want to be splitting custody, holidays…every other weekends…they don't need the bullshit with the firm."
"So you want to merge because you think it would be less paperwork?" Alicia couldn't help but chuckle, "Come on Will, don't give me that shit."
"It's not shit." Diane interjected, swirling her glass of wine in front of her nose, "The back and forth on the McArthy case, it cost us fifteen thousand dollars for the transfer, not to mention the wasted billable hours…and that was one of the small examples. We are throwing money out the window by fighting like this. We don't want you to work under us Alicia. We want you and Cary to return to the family, we want to welcome you home."
"As name partners." Will added.
Alicia's eyes shot up, thinking to all of the plans that she had once had for her time at Lockhart/Gardner, back when things had been different, simpler. "Florrick/Agos/Lockhart/Gardner?" She let a grin escape her lips as she considered the offer. "You don't have enough office space."
"We'll buy another floor." Diane suggested.
"Lockhart/Gardner/Florrick/Agos and Associates." Will countered with a wink, "Don't get too far ahead of yourself."
"You have a proposal I assume?"
Diane nodded as she pulled another folder from her briefcase, "We do." She handed it across the table. "Just consider it."
"I should go." Alicia took the folder and stood, "I will talk to Cary about this, and Diane I will be in touch on the other matters we discussed."
"There is a key." Diane told her vaguely, "If you want to go and see it."
"Thank you."
"Can I walk you out?" Will stood just after Alicia.
"I would like that." Alicia smiled "Thank you again Diane, for everything."
"What was that about?" Will asked as he placed his palm on the small of Alicia's back as they walked out of the restaurant.
"Peter." Alicia told him, giving the half smile she had given so many times since the shooting.
"You ok?"
"I am." Alicia held the paperwork tightly in her hand, "Thank you…for the funeral…for listening to me fall apart."
"You didn't fall apart Le-" Will started to call her by the pet name he had used for her so many times before he corrected himself, "Alicia, you are going through something impossible."
"Is it though? Is it impossible?" Alicia chuckled, "My life is a mess."
"What did Diane have for you?" Will asked her softly as they stood under the dim streetlights, cars zipping by them as Alicia took note of the three minutes until her Uber would arrive. "If you don't mind my asking."
"Peter bought me a house." Alicia laughed softly, she could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. "Well, he bought us a house is what Diane thinks. That he wanted to settle down there later."
"Wow." Will digested the information, it didn't surprise him…for as long as Will had known Alicia and Peter, Peter had been a fan of grand gestures, trying to sweep Alicia off her feet. "That is big." Alicia nodded her head in return, suggesting that she herself wasn't yet sure how to digest the information. "Are you going to tell us to fuck off?" Will grinned, changing the subject, "Or is Cary? The merger…are we nuts."
"You're not nuts Will." Alicia assured him, leaning forward to give him a gentle, friendly kiss on the cheek, "Thank you for the drink." She told him as she stepped into the car which had approached to pick her up.
xxx
"Who the hell bought this place?" Cary laughed as Alicia opened the door at the address she had texted him on her way out of dinner, "Lamond Bishop?"
Alicia chuckled to herself, "No."
"Is this a case? Another one of your Highland Park babysitters kill someone?" Cary winked.
"It's not a case." Alicia told him, "It's mine." She waved an arm around the expansive foyer of the Highland Park home that Peter had secretly bought for her, for them. "Peter bought it before he was shot…Diane handled the paperwork and just told me about it. I guess it closed last week."
"Alicia, this place is ridiculous." Cary walked further into the home, "What is this? Ten thousand feet?"
"Thirteen."
"Well, it's pretty cool, what are you going to do with it?" He asked her.
"I don't know." She admitted, "But…as beautiful as this is, it's not why I called you to meet me here." Cary raised an eyebrow as she spoke, "It isn't, I didn't want prying eyes, ears hearing us. My kids at home, the staff at the office…" Alicia assured him, "my meeting with Will and Diane was…interesting."
"Will was there?" Cary was surprised. He hadn't spoken to Will much since they had left L/G, but he certainly knew there wasn't much love lost between them. He had seen Alicia and Will talking after Peter's funeral, but had simply chalked it up to old friends, he never considered that Will was anything but furious with the two of them.
"He was." Alicia walked into the formal living room and sat down, gesturing towards the folder on the table with the contents of Will and Diane's proposal. "They want to merge."
Cary's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he took a seat across from Alicia and grabbed the folder, "Did you tell them to go to hell?"
"I did not."
"You…you want to do this?" Cary looked up as he scanned the proposal in front of him.
"I don't know what I want Cary, but Diane made a good point. There are obvious benefits to being together under one umbrella, but we are wasting money and time fighting with them. They spent fifteen grand on the administrative aspect of the McArthy transfer, it probably cost us another ten when we wooed them and five when we lost them again…we're chasing our tails."
"So we agree to stop poaching clients from them Alicia, we don't merge with them."
"Cary, what do you want for the future?"
"I want a legacy, I want to leave a mark on Chicago."
"When? One year? Two years? Five? Ten? Twenty?"
"What does that have to do with anything Alicia. The waters at Lockhart/Gardner are certainly not clear, and if you want to talk about wasting money, we have a while left on our lease. L/G doesn't even have the floorspace for us, or our people."
"They can buy another floor, we could buy another floor." Alicia repeated what she had been told earlier in the day. "Cary, we don't have to take this proposal, but I want you to think about it. Promise me you aren't just saying no because it is them."
"Promise me you aren't just saying yes because it is him."