This is a stupid idea. Why did he even come here, he could've called her and arranged a place for them to meet but instead he was at her door at midnight. He had made a decision to talk to her tomorrow, technically it was tomorrow, it was ten past twelve. Although he doubted she would appreciate that justification of why he was here this late. Oh what the hell, she probably wouldn't be happy at the end of this conversation even if he had scheduled it at a better time. He took a deep breath and knocked boldly on her door. Once. Twice. He was about to go for a third when he heard footsteps approaching the door. The door swung open to reveal Alicia dressed in silk pyjamas with messy bed hair; he had clearly waked her up.

"Will, wh- what are you doing here!?" Her voice was raspy from sleep.

"I already told you we needed to talk, but now that I've heard of your future plans from Cary, I think we need to do this now." He was doing his best to sound controlled and calm, but the sight of her like this, unprofessional, no makeup, and shorter because she wasn't wearing heals, was stirring up some very pleasurable memories that he was trying to repress. He remembers the first time he woke up next to her at his apartment, she looked so peaceful and natural as she slept, not to mention beautiful. Apparently her thoughts were not in the same place as his because all his last remark did to her was make her frustrated.

"Will this is totally over the line; you can't just show up here! You need to leave, we can talk later." She was whispering. Why was she whispering? Oh right. Her kids. In his rush and determination to get here and hash this out he had completely forgotten that they might be here.

"Look Alicia, I'm sorry if your kids are here but I'm not leaving we need to talk." He crossed his arms over his chest to prove his point to her that she wasn't getting out of this. Not this time.

"The kids are at sleepovers, it's not them I don't want to wake up." She looked like she was waiting for him to catch on to something, but he didn't know what. Who else would be here? He saw her unconsciously stroke her wedding ring and then the thought stuck him. Peter was here. Crap. He had not factored that into tonight at all. Talk about bad timing, this night was turning into a disaster.

"Peters here." He said to let her know he figured it out. Try as he may he couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice. He knew they were back together she had told him, but somehow he didn't actually expect them to be sharing a bed again. The thought made him sigh with anger.

She sighed to. "Look Will I don't what you expected tonight, but you need to leave. Peter won't take kindly to you coming here like this."

"No, I'm not leaving until we go over things. I don't care if Peter's here or not." He actually did, she was right; Peter coming out to them arguing in a hallway in the middle of the night would do nothing to help this situation. It would probably just end up in someone's nose being broken. But he wasn't leaving, things were getting off track and it was time to talk about what he came for, her leaving him to go run off with Cary. He did still want to talk about their feelings for each other but that would have to wait.

"Fine, talk away then." She didn't really mean it but he didn't really care. She was angry now, but somehow that just made him want to do this more.

"You're jumping ship with Cary." It wasn't an accusation; he was just stating a fact.

"Yes, I made the decision the night of the election."

"The night we kissed" she looked over her shoulder when he said it, probably afraid Peter might be standing behind them listing.

"Yes, the night we kissed. Is this what's this is about? You want to talk about the kiss?" She guessed.

"No, I want to know why leaving Lockhart/Gardner."

"Will, I'm back with Peter now and were trying to make things work. I can't do that when I'm distracted by being around you so much, especially when we're alone together. "She was talking fast probably trying to get her point across before he could interrupt.

"So that's all I was to you? A distraction?" He knew she could hear the hurt in his voice.

"No, Will no. I didn't mean that. I meant that being around you so much was making me distracted because I couldn't stop thinking about you." She froze after she said that last part probably trying to think of a way to take it back. He talked before she could.

"Do you care about me?"

The question surprised her. "Of course, you know that I do."

"Then stay. Stop this nonsense with Cary. We're adults Alicia; we can work together without more happening. The firm can't afford to lose you right now."

"No, we can't work together any more. It's too tempting, not just for me but for you to. It would be so easy to lose control for one night, when were alone together in the office. But I know that after I would feel so guilty. Peter asked me to renew our vows and I said yes. I can't stay at the firm with you anymore because I want to be faithful. To do it right this time. Being there with you every day, knowing that I could just walk down the hall and kiss you and have you for the night, it's too tempting. And I know that if I stay any longer were eventually going to give into that, and that's something I don't want to do. Not now. Not when I'm back with Peter and I've promised to commit myself to him again." She sounded resolved, like there was no room for argument in her decision.

"It doesn't matter what I say dose it, you won't change your mind about staying" he said resizing she wasn't changing her decision.

"No, I want to do this. Not just because of you but because I want to be in a firm that isn't shady. If I go with Cary I can make decisions about how the firm is run, and I'm not being disrespectful to you and Diane but now that I'm a partner and I see the way you make decisions and I don't like it. All the partners care about is money, and half of them don't do anything! Like Howard, the only reason he's there is because you wanted his vote. And I don't want to work like that anymore."

"Oh come on Alicia! Why do you think people work at firms, to make money! Stop living in your dream world, people don't just do things for the right reason. There's always an ulterior motive. "Now he was angry. She pissed him off when she started criticising the way he ran his firm.

"You think you're doing this to help people?! To make the world a better place? The only thing you're doing is betraying me by leaving."

"I don't see it as a betrayal." She sounded upset now. Good.

"We'll I have no other way to see it. I gave you the job when you were desperate, I stuck my neck out for you when people undermined you and I have always gone along with what you've wanted when it comes to our relationship. I've never pushed you or given you an ultimatum, or gotten mad at you when you picked Peter over me. I've always been understanding and stuck by you. And when our relationship starts getting complicated again, you just go and run away! Not to mention the fact that you're taking my employees and clients with you." He was so close to her now. During his rant he got right up into her face to try to intimidate her, because let's face it he couldn't yell. Peter would wake up and he wasn't in the mood for a pissing match over Alicia right now.

"I don't know what you want me to say Will. You want me to say I'm sorry? That I'll miss you when I'm gone? Well I am and I will, but it still doesn't change anything!" She didn't flinch away from him when he invaded her personal space, in fact she moved closer. He'd only have to move his head forward an inch to kiss her, but that's not what he came here for. He took a step backwards so that he'd have a clear head.

"We'll I guess that's it then. I would say good luck with your new firm, but seeing as where going to be rivals I wouldn't mean it." He gave her a polite smile and turned to walk away. His walls were up. He was done. He found out why she was leaving, that was all he came for right? Ok maybe a small part of him was hoping she might try to make a play for him. But that hope had been overshadowed by determination to find out why she was leaving. Until now, now he was hoping she might try to grab his arm and say she was sorry and wrong. But that wasn't like her, and if she was doing all of this to get away from him so she could be with Peter properly, he would let her go.

"I'm sorry Will. I'll always be grateful for the ways you helped me. You're a good friend." They both new she meant that he was a good friend, seeing as this night had basically severed all ties between them. But she was nice enough not say it.

"I hope you're happy with Peter and Cary, Alicia." He wasn't lying; at least one of them should turn out happy because of this. Because he sure as hell wasn't.

She didn't say anything else but he heard her enter her apartment and close the door behind her. As he walked to the elevator he realised that basically all of his anger had evaporated. Even if he didn't like it sometimes, he did love her. And a big part of why he loved her was the side of her that was always trying to be responsible and good. This is what she thought was the right thing to do, and even if he didn't agree with her, he respected that she was so invested in doing what she thought was right.

For the last four years (it was actually twenty but four sounded less pathetic) Alicia has owned apart of his heart, and ever since she began to work for him, she took over a little more each year. But now she was hell bent on making it work with Peter and he couldn't change her mind. So he'd just stay out of her way and let her live out her fantasy.

If six months from now things end up not working out with peter and her, and she showed up at his doorstep telling him that she missed him and was sorry and that she wanted him back, he'd like to believe that he would tell her no, because he'd moved on and she should too. But who knows. Alicia Florrick always had a way of making him love her, even when he didn't want to.

Authors note

I originally planned this to be longer and have more chapters, but as I was writing this chapter it turned out differently than I planned and I'm happy to leave it as just these two chapters. I had an idea of writing this as an argument but I just couldn't picture Will being mean to Alicia. So I wrote it a bit differently. Hope you enjoyed.