Disclaimer: again, not mine (cries) Just playing with them, will have them back before their curfew.

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Chapter 3

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He remembered the first time he met her. He didn't even like her at first. He thought she was some spoiled little brat who wanted to go to law school because her parents had the money and it sounded good. He was at Georgetown to visit his boss's nephew, he was supposed to help him with his exams. Anything to for his career, right? He had met her when his boss's nephew had introduced her as one of his classmates. One afternoon he was walking around and passed by the Moot Courtroom . There was a mock trial going on and he decided to stay and watch for a moment. She was there arguing for the defense and doing a great job. That moment he fell in love with her. She was feisty, she could adapt quickly and was incredibly smart. She was nothing like the snob he thought she was. When they had finished he had walked up to her and asked her out. They had been happy the last few years or at least so he thought. He didn't really know what had happened. Well, yes, besides the fact that he had screwed up major. This morning she was gone. He had walked in to the kitchen, expecting her to be there with a cup of coffee preparing for the day to come. But she wasn't there. He had knocked on her door but when no one responded he opened it only to see that she wasn't there either. She probably had an important case and was called in early. He went back to the kitchen and started to dial her number when he saw the note on the kitchen table.

" Peter, I'm going to be gone for a few days. I need to think about us. About what we are going to do. Tell the kids I love them but that I am very busy the next few days. They can call me if they need me. When I get back we're going to need to have a talk. Alicia"

No "love Alicia" just her name. That instant he knew she was going to leave him. And now he was pacing trough the room. When he told Eli he would drop out of the race and try and get Alicia back Eli had freaked out. But he knew he had to drop out if there was any chance of getting her back. What he had done was unforgivable but the last few weeks he had thought that they where going in the right direction. They talked again, had meals together. It was like they where dating. He thought she was starting to forgive him. He didn't even know why he had slept with those girls, she was great. Everything he wanted in a wife. He had thought about it many times in the last couple of months but never found a satisfying answer. Eli was going to talk to Alicia, he was already gone for over an hour, so he should be back anytime. He wanted to call her but Eli had assured him that calling her wasn't the best idea. She was a woman, sometimes they need some time, and she would only get angrier if he called her.

What is taking Eli so long. His phone was in his hand. What the hell, he was just going to take the chance. He had to know.

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"You were talking to Wade, I heard it on the tapes. I only got one voicemail Will. The you one where you told me to forget about everything." Her voice was soft filled with emotion. Will could barley hear what she was saying.

He didn't say anything, couldn't even think about anything relevant to say. He was shocked. All this time he had felt miserable only because she hadn't got the voicemail. He should have listened to Wade. He should have told her in person. Well there was no time like the present.

"Alicia, what?..how?.. I'mean.."

Shit, Tammy. Ok, she kept saying he shouldn't fall in love with here but he knew she felt something more. Why couldn't anything in his life ever go easy. What was he still thinking about? The woman he loved was standing in front of him, looking at him waiting for a reply. He watched her, she looked scared. He smiled, trying to comfort her. It worked her face started to relax a little. A phone started buzzing. It was hers. Peter probably found out she was gone.

The phone was lying on her desk and she decided to ignore it, again. Peter had called 8 times in the last couple of minutes, or at least she thought it was Peter. His eyes followed hers to her desk ,their eyes locked and he spoke.

"Alicia, I'm sorry, I didn't know. After the voicemail when you didn't reply, I was hurt. And all this time you didn't even know that there was a second voicemail. I don't know what you heard but.."

"I know now there was second voicemail, I just don't know what you said." She saw his internal argument. What if she had gone too far? It had been a few months since he had left her the message. What if he changed his mind. He had Tammy now. "You don't have to tell me if it complicates things to much for you. But I do like to tell you something."

Alicia had been a little scared when he didn't reply. He was just standing in her office looking around in shock. She could see the emotions on his face changing from shock to disbelieve, anger and maybe there was a little bit of hope in there.

"I need to tell you that I am going to leave Peter, not because I don't care for him. I mean, in some kind of way I will always care for him. It's just that I really can't live with what he has done. I can't forgive him. The next few weeks are probably going to be a mess. I could use a friend around that time." Now the ball was in his court. If he wanted to tell here what the message said he could, if he thought it was to late he could just talk around it. Alicia thought.

"I get it, I mean with all the press you got last time. This won't be a fun ride" Probably not a good time to tell her that he loved her. He got the message loud and clear. Maybe she wanted him. Now just wasn't the right time. Their famous timing again.

"Well, what I was going to tell you is that we all agree, you can have some days off. We were just wondering if you could stay until the Donner case is finished that will probably take 2 or 3 more day's .After that you can take as much time as you need." The air cleared, saying this made the whole situation a lot less awkward.

Alicia felt her stomach turning. He didn't want to tell her what he said in the voicemail. He was over her. He loved Tammy not her. She was too late. "Yes, no problem. Will, thank you, you are a good friend!"

There was that friend again. "No problem Alicia, anything for you. Hey, where are you going to stay? Do you have a place to go?"

"I don't now yet. I was going to go to my brother, but here… I'll just stay at a hotel, or maybe I can stay at Kalinda's. I'll be fine" She hadn't thought about that yet. She who always planned everything in the detail didn't know where she would sleep tonight. Well she could always sleep in her office. She smirked. If she did that she would have one hell of a backache tomorrow morning.

"If you need a place to crash, you could stay at my place for a few days until you can go to your brother's . I mean I'm your friend, I'm here for you" He said casual. He would take the couch she could sleep in his bed. I would be better if she would be sleeping in his bed with him in it but.. Ok, stop thinking about this. You heard her, she needs a friend.

"You know I can cook a mean Lasagna, you love my lasagna" he was teasing her now. Trying to get rid of the strange atmosphere that was hanging in the room.

"Doesn't Tammy mind if I stay at your place for a few days?" She really could not stay at his place! Not now. It would be to.. awkward, to painful.

"No she doesn't, Tammy and me… it's complicated. I mean you heard her at the dinner. As soon as I fall in love with her she will be gone and break my heart. Alicia, come one, I know you love my Lasagna and you need a place to stay tonight." He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes, it would be nice staying at a friend's house instead of her office or a hotel room. Was she actually considering this? What was it about this man that he could let her do about anything he wanted with that grin.

"You can talk, I can listen, or we could do some fun stuff like the old days" When she didn't reply he said. "Ok, that's settled than, you will come with me, we leave at 7 have some dinner and than we are going to watch some movies and I'm going to quiz you for the exam we have tomorrow"

She laughed . At Georgetown they would always do it like that. Have dinner, watch a movie and do their home work. Sometimes they would fall a sleep during the movie and forget all about their homework. She laughed again at that thought. They had some great memories.

"I'm going back to work, meet me in my office around 7 and we'll go to my place"

She smiled and nodded.

He left her office and walked up to his own. On the stairs he looked back, he saw her sitting behind her desk, probably working on the case. Ok, she would stay at his place tonight. No sweat, she needed a friend and he was her friend. He knew she wanted to talk about what happened. When they where at Georgetown they would talk about everything. How often didn't he come to her place in the middle of the night when I he had had a fight with one of his girlfriends and she came to him with all of her problems. They often spend the night together, nothing sexual just friends. But this time they weren't law students, they were adults, colleagues and he was in love with here.

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"Eli, good you're here! Did you see her, where is she? I tried calling her a dozen times but she doesn't pick up the phone."

"What did I tell you? Just don't call her. The one thing I told you not to do and you do it" He didn't say it in an angry way, more in an "I knew you weren't going to listen to me" kind of way.

" Eli, come on, did you find her?"

Eli had never seen Peter this way, the looked devastated. Looking for any information about his wife. He liked them both, Peter and Alicia. But he knew she was going to leave him.

"I found her, she's at the office. She is trying to get some days of to go to her brother. She's just needs some time. The past year has been very difficult on her. You should know that.

"I need to go there, need to talk to her, convince her not to leave me. I need her." He was already on his way to get his coat.

"Peter! What are you going to do when you get there? She left for a reason, if she wanted to talk to you right away she would have stayed besides there are more important things to talk about right now." He still had to tell Peter and Alicia about the YouTube clip. This campaign wasn't going to be a nice one. The clip with Grace in it already got a lot of hits. They had to stop this.

"You take care of it. I have to talk to her, she'll understand." He had put on is coat and was now looking for his car key's.

"There is a clip on internet, one of Grace telling the reporters where to stuff it because it was and I quote "Just one hooker". We have got to fix this Peter."

"Does she know?"

"Not yet, but it won't be long before everyone is talking about it. So let's get to work."

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a/n: Thanks for reading! So now you can thank me by telling me what you think or by leaving some thoughts about where you want me to go with the story! I don't know how long this story is going to be but I'll try to keep it in sync with the series. Just adding a lot of a/w!