A/N: I know I'm suffering through this hiatus, how are all of you?! I hope you enjoy this new chapter enough to subside the waiting agony for a while! I also love all your follows, favs and reviews! (Still do not own these characters...)

The next couple of days were easier for Alicia. She felt lighter on her feet and she honestly had no idea whether it was from having a pleasant coffee break with Will, or if it was some good sleep. She was, of course, going to let herself believe it was the restful sleep. Just because she and Will were being nice now, it didn't mean that it wouldn't turn ugly again in the near future. She almost expected it to go back to that. But how could it, she asked herself as she drove to work that morning. He was leaving for New York in a few weeks. There wouldn't be any opportunity for it to get mean again, and there was no point in making nice. He wouldn't be there. She was wasting her time. As she pulled into her normal parking space she told herself that she wouldn't "bump into" Will at all. It was for the best. She started all this to get away from him, and she had to deal with the fact that they wouldn't be friends again.

She made her way up to her offices, collected her messages from the receptionist, walked to her desk and sat down. It didn't take too long before Cary was making his way over to her desk.

"Good morning, Alicia."

"Good morning, Cary. How are you?" She asked as she shrugged out of her jacket.

"Fine. I'd ask you the same but you seem to be good from what I see on your face." He took a seat in the chair beside her desk.

"I feel better right now. I've gotten some proper sleep lately, I guess."

"Good. That's what we need." The ever optimistic Cary at it again. "Now, I need to discuss the Waite deposition. We obviously don't have the space here for it, so I think we'll just do it at Lockhart/Gardner?"

"That sounds good. Have you discussed it with them? Do they agree to it?"

"I had to ask you first partner!" He jokingly smiled at her; she smiled slightly right back at him.

"How considerate. Well it's fine with me. Just ask Diane about it I guess." His face changed, it went a bit grim. He still wasn't on great terms with her or Will.

"I'll give her a ring about it soon. That's all I had to talk about, you have anything?"

"Nope, not a thing. Let me know what Diane says." He nodded and got up.

Alicia had hoped she wouldn't have to see Will anywhere, and she had completely forgotten about this case. It didn't matter, she thought. They would be busy with their work and they might not even have to talk to each other at all if it all went her way. She sighed deeply. They were still against each other in a case; they would have to at least exchange a few words. She still couldn't let herself be nice, it would defeat the purpose of letting him get mad at her in the first place.

"When did we say we'd meet them?" Will asked Diane as they waited for the other law firm to get there for a day of depositions in her office.

"Ten this morning." Will nodded at Diane. He could tell her right now that he had been playing nice with Alicia, or wait until the day was over. He decided on later. It was going to be an intense conversation and he couldn't have that this early.

"How's Kurt?" Will tried to make some of the time pass away. It was only 9:47.

"Good. He's at his place for a few days doing some work. He said he was going to take me out fishing next weekend." Her eyes almost popped out of her head, Will just laughed.

"Fishing, huh? That is not your strong suit."

"Tell me about it. The last time didn't go well. He thinks I'll be better this time. I'd rather just go shooting again. Now that was good."

"Well look at you, fishing and shooting. You're a changed woman now." He leaned back in the chair and laughed again. She joined in with him.

"I know. The me a few years back would probably have a fit, but I like it all now. I love him." She smiled in a way that was just for her and Will smiled at that. She was extremely happy with Kurt, no matter how different they were. They sat in a comfortable silence until Diane's assistant came to tell them that Alicia Florrick and Cary Agos were there.

"Here we go." Diane said to Will as they got up and walked to the conference room. As they walked into the room, Cary gave them both an intimidating look. Neither of the older partners were afraid, why would they be? Alicia just looked as though she was ready for it to be over already.

"Good morning everybody." Diane said to the whole room, while taking a seat on her chosen side of the long table. Everybody else took their sides as soon as she sat down, as if she were the judge.

By lunch time they all had very intense looks on their faces. They were back to the fighting, as Alicia had predicted. Cary was interrupting all over the place, making the others frustrated. And they came back with doing the same to Cary. Alicia hadn't done much interrupting, she didn't see the point. That was her reasoning at least, she just didn't want to speak much with Will. And Cary wasn't impressed with her performance.

"What was that in there?" He practically yelled at her while they were in the elevator of L/G going to their cars at lunch time when they decided to stop for the day.

"I didn't see the reason to use excessive force in there. You had enough for the both of us, Cary." She looked back at him and stared straight into his eyes.

"I'm trying to win this Alicia. If you can't be strong on this then maybe you should just not come along next time. Stay away from this place." He turned away from her and faced the doors.

"If you want that then fine. I'll stay at the office." She couldn't believe he was being like this with her. She thought that he assumed it was because she was at Lockhart/Gardner. She knew it wasn't and that was what mattered, she told herself. As the elevator was slowly getting to the ground floor, Alicia reached into her bag to get her phone and found the lack of a notepad in there. Great, just what she needed, to go back up to the 28th floor and probably see Will.

Ding

Cary stepped out of the elevator and looked back at Alicia who didn't move. "I forgot my notepad upstairs. I have to grab it." She told him as she pushed the button. Cary nodded and started to walk away.

The ride up was agonizingly slow for Alicia. She hoped she could dash in, grab the folder and run out again. She happened to be in luck. She didn't see Will at all. Diane saw her dart into the conference room, grab her notepad and swiftly walk out. Alicia noticed Diane looking at her and wished she wouldn't be questioned.

Alicia got back into the elevator, thankful that she got in alone too. It didn't move for long. It stopped on the 27th floor. Her heart began to beat faster. The doors opened and as fate would have it, Will was standing there, waiting to get in. Why was this bad timing still working against the both of them? Will just looked at her for a few seconds and then smiled. He walked into the elevator and stood right next to her. She was a bundle of nerves, she really should not be this close to him.

"So that was an interesting morning."

"Uh, yes." She didn't want to be talking. She couldn't be talking.

"You guys have a strong case."

"As do you." The words were flowing out. Maybe she was just too good of a person to ignore someone who was being nice. Even if it was Will Gardner.

"So we've bumped into each other." He pointed out, and laughed quietly.

"So we have. I don't see any coffee around though." She had to keep this conversation at bay.

Ding

The doors opened at the 16th floor but no one was there.

"I hate this elevator. Always broken." Will said. Alicia gave a small laugh. She knew how the thing behaved sometimes. The doors closed again.

"So I guess no coffee today?" He asked her and tilted his head towards her.

"Nope."

"We could always go grab a bite to eat?" She widened her eyes. Did he just offer to eat lunch with her? This was getting out of control now, she thought. He was getting more weird about them being on better terms now.

"I have to get back to the office." She didn't dare turn to him, which would probably cause her to agree to his nonsensical offer.

"Right, of course."

Ding

They had finally reached the ground floor.

"See you." Alicia said and she saw Will nod. She walked fast. She had to get out of there and not look back. Alicia knew that she couldn't get herself caught up in that again. Even if it was just an innocent cup of coffee or a simple elevator ride. As soon as Alicia got back to work she buried her head into everything she could. No one tried to approach her; she looked too focused in her work. And every now and then she would groan in frustration. She worked late into the night, not noticing how late it was until her phone rang with Grace's ringtone. She noticed the time. 11.18.

"Grace, I'm so sorry. Time got away from me. I'll head home right now."

"It's okay mom, I was just worrying a little. Drive safe."

"I will. Love you."

"Love you too."

As Will went home that night he kept thinking how stupid he was. Why did he ask Alicia to have lunch, he wondered with fury. He didn't even want to have lunch with her. It just popped out, which was why he was concerned. If his brain was causing that to just come out then he needed to re-think the whole situation with Alicia over. He considered calling Kalinda to talk about it but it was not something she would want to hear.

He was acting like that boy in college again. The one who didn't know what he would do or say around Alicia. He knew that was a bad sign. He was incredibly mad at her not so long ago. He kicked himself over his actions. He had to stop trying to be maybe-friends with Alicia. She left because she didn't want that and it made sense to him. He wanted to leave it there. He found out why she hurt him and that was his goal. He had to stop.

The next day was Friday, the day Alicia and Cary told Diane and Will they would meet and try to discuss some sort of settlement on their current case together. They all agreed they would meet at Florrick/Agos as a change of scenery. Nobody put 'nice' in there. It couldn't be nice compared to L/G, but Cary and Alicia were still proud of what they had.

They had said they could meet at 3PM but as the time came around, not a single person showed up.

"You think they're just stalling?" Cary asked Alicia.

"Probably. It seems like them." They waited another fifteen minutes until Alicia was told that Will Gardner was calling her. She walked back to her desk and answered her phone.

"Hello?"

"Alicia, hi. I'm sorry. We'll have to postpone our meeting for a couple hours. Diane and I got called into court." Alicia looked over to Cary and rolled her eyes. He sighed and shook his head.

"That's alright. We're a little swamped over here right now anyhow, so it works out great." What else was she going to say? She and Cary were just waiting around for them, doing nothing?

"Okay good. So a couple of hours and we'll be there."

"See you then."

Alicia went back over to Cary. "They got called into court." She said with a higher pitch than normal, she didn't know if Will was lying or not so it was best to assume they were stalling.

"How long do we wait then?"

"A couple hours at the least."

"I have to get to that meeting with Daniel Edwards around then."

"Oh right! Well we can go over it now together and I'll just talk to Diane and Will when they get here."

"Okay, done." They set to work and went over the possible compromises. They both knew Alicia would be fine. Cary apologized at his outburst the day before. He was confident that Alicia would do well on their home-ground.

At 6:12 Will walked into the office, alone. Alicia thought where Diane could be, probably parking her car somewhere, she thought. Will saw Alicia at her desk and wandered over to her.

"Will, hi, take a seat." She gestured to the chair opposite her desk.

"Hey. Diane couldn't make it. She has to be with a client right now and she apologizes." He smiled at her to reassure her that he was telling the truth.

"That's okay. Cary had a different meeting scheduled and couldn't make it either." She began to get out her notepad which had notes from her discussion with Cary. What was acceptable if they offered this or that. Will reached to his briefcase and did the same. They got stuck into it. They hit a few bumps, sighs, eye-rolls and "You can do better" "You're asking for too much" 's, but they finally settled on an agreement an hour later. Everybody else had gone home for the day. Alicia felt it was risky being all alone with Will but she definitely had the stronger power to not think it would go anywhere. Of course it wouldn't. They packed up their things and started to leave. It just happened to be at the same time, and it was okay. They waited for the elevator to come up. It wasn't the fastest, even if it was only four floors. The both of them got in without saying a word. Neither of them had anything to say, since they had told themselves that all non-work related topics were off-limits. The elevator started to move but suddenly stopped within a few seconds.

"I'm sorry. My elevator is worse than yours." Alicia joked. Her and Will started to laugh together. It didn't start back up again. They waited and waited. They got frustrated and Alicia started to feel the small feeling of butterflies in her stomach. She got out her phone and went to Cary's number.

"I'm sorry Will. I'll call Cary to see if there is a way to fix this from the inside." She held the phone up to her ear.

"Alicia, hi. How'd it go?" He answered on the third ring.

"Good Cary. Hey listen, has the elevator ever stopped on you? I'm inside now and it just halted."

"Oh, Alicia, there's a huge blackout in that part of town. A few power lines went down I heard." She didn't want to hear what he had said. He couldn't be stuck in this elevator with Will for who knows how long.

"Okay. I guess I'll have to wait it out. Thanks for telling me Cary. I never would have known."

"That's okay. I hope you get out soon."

She hung up and looked to Will, who looked inquisitive.

"There's a big blackout around this part of town. I'm not sure how long we'll be stuck here. I'm sorry."

"That's, uh… I don't know."

"Crap." She stated.

"Yeah, crap."