A/N: Please, please enjoy. And share all your thoughts, I love to hear what you all like to think about this little thang of mine. And here we go..

Alicia couldn't explain what had happened that night in the elevator. If she was being honest with herself, which she tried to be ever since the incident, she somewhat enjoyed being so open with Will. She missed his friendship and company. And if she really was being honest, she missed more of him, everything about him. The gesture of him giving her his coat warmed her up completely and she had no reason to have the coat but she knew it would smell like him so she took it.

Alicia spent the few days thinking about him. Even when she was with Peter and the kids at family dinner that they rarely so got to have, she was thinking about the way he wrapped her cold feet in his scarf and when she leant her head on his shoulder, he let her. The thing about the night that upset her was the end, that moment when they knew they had no sexual tension. Alicia knew that it was better off that way, that they don't feel in the moment anymore, but she also missed it. The feelings that arose. The ones that she never felt with Peter anymore. Maybe it was just as simple as the attraction to something she can't have; it could be torture to experience that. And Alicia Florrick knew the feeling well.

It was less than a week until Will moved away, she noted to herself as she took a very large bath. She and Cary decided to take a weekend off from work. They had a lot of work to do, but they agreed that they'd just work from home and spend some time away from the offices, like hitting the refresh button. So Alicia had treated herself as much as she could, with a long, long bath and a big glass of wine.

When she eventually got out of the tub, she was thankful that both the kids had decided to stay at friends' houses. It was quiet, finally quiet. No sibling banter or loud music or the TV blaring, she took in the moment and savored it. She had no idea when that miracle would happen again. So she decided to just sit on the couch in her fluffy towel robe on, her feet up and just listen to the nothingness.

But of course, after a few minutes of her just trying to relax, thoughts of Will came into her head. Alicia pondered for a while whether she should allow them or not and she decided on yes, there was no harm in thoughts of any kind. After a short while, she heard her phone ring. She glanced at the clock and discovered it was earlier than she thought; only a little past 9pm. Alicia quickly got off the couch and went to her phone, which was in her bag, in her bedroom. She reached into her bag, finding it almost immediately and answered it without looking at the caller ID.

"Alicia, hey." It was Peter, unexpected but welcome, Alicia thought.

"Hi Peter."

"How is the alone time going?"

"It's almost the best time I've had in days."

"I will try not to take offence to that." He said sarcastically.

"Peter, that's not what I mean."

"I know, I'm messing with you."

"How very high school of you."

"Indeed."

"So what have you called for Peter?"

"I just wanted to check in on my beautiful wife. Everything good?" Alicia sighed. She liked that he cared but it felt like she was being monitored some of the time.

"Everything's good. How's everything with you?" She felt obliged to return the caring gesture.

"Good, good. Eli says hello."

"Well tell Eli I said hello back. Oh Peter, that's my call waiting." Alicia said on cue of hearing the small beeps.

"Okay, I'll let you go. Have a good night."

"Sure." And she switched the lines over, not knowing who else would be calling her.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Alicia." It was most definitely Will's voice on the other end of the phone. She didn't like to admit it to herself, but she felt her pulse quicken.

"Will." She had nothing else to say, which she noted as embarrassing.

"I, uh. How are you?"

"Good. Taking the night off, kids are at friends places."

"Wish I could do that, but I can take some time off tomorrow if you want to go grab some dinner?" Was she really hearing it? Of course she was, they had already agreed to it. She just didn't prepare for the moment they would actually decide on grabbing a slice of pizza.

"Tomorrow? I think I can make it work." Play it cool Alicia, keep calm, she told her inside voice who was screaming yes.

"Okay, good. The place we used to go, I guess?"

"Of course, where else?" The laughed a little together. "So how's your Friday night?" She moved herself over to the bed and fell backwards onto it, looking up at the ceiling.

"Boring. There's been a lot of paperwork to get through if we are going to be ready to even open the new firm."

"I assume Diane is helping with that a lot?"

"She's too good not to help me out on it. Besides, she's helping me learn for when I'm in New York."

"You certainly need the help." They once again laughed with each other and continued to talk for at least an hour about his new branch, how her firm was going and even about their home life. Will didn't bring up Isabel as much as he thought he might have, and Alicia barely mentioned Peter.

The next day went easy but incredibly slow for Alicia. She woke up late, got dressed lazily into jeans and an old t-shirt, and cleaned the apartment. The kids got home around 3pm and packed fresh clothes to go out to Peter's for the rest of the weekend. Jackie hadn't seen them in a while and instead of causing a highly unwanted fuss, Alicia just let them go see their grandmother.

As 5pm rolled by, Alicia began to get ready to see Will. She wanted to look nice but not like she was actually trying, of course. And besides, why would she need to dress up a little bit for Will, she thought. It was just a casual dinner with an old friend. So she decided on her best pair of jeans, the ones that made her ass look great, and a tight V-neck sweater, in crimson red because she knows how he loves the color on her. She takes a look in the mirror and knows she looks good, and trying to look good but not truly caring what she has on.

Will texted her during the say what time he would be able to meet, which was 6pm. Alicia had no complaints about probably spending so many hours with Will, it could be the last time they ever did this. She wasn't ready for it, she wasn't ready to say goodbye to her oldest friend. It wasn't goodbye forever, but they would almost never see each other again. She wasn't ready to not see him around the corner in the court house, or somewhere in the street. Just seeing him gave her a rush of adrenaline sometimes, and it would be what she needed during a long day.

Alicia grabbed her keys and handbag, locked the door behind her and headed off to their pizza place. It was a little hole in the wall almost equal distance between her apartment, the offices and his apartment. They used to go there together for lunch or dinner sometimes during their affair, because a hotel was only five minutes away from it. They had some really good gourmet pizza and cheap beer. Alicia and Will had discussed how much it reminded them or their law school days; secluded and open until 4 in the morning. They would always study late into the night and have cravings for pizza. It was a weekly tradition to go grab midnight pizza. And it had even been reinitiated during their affair, but there was nothing midnight about this particular meeting. Alicia walked into the establishment and looked around for Will. He had sat himself towards the back of the place in a booth. He looked up at her and she took note that he looked stunned by her. Maybe she had over done it with her outfit, she thought as she walked her way through tables to the booth.

"Alicia, hey." Will stood up and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

"Will. Haven't been waiting long I hope?"

"Not at all, I only got here a few minutes before you did." She smiled a slid herself into the booth.

"You look nice." She said, noticing that he too had his nice jeans on and a black dress shirt with the top buttons undone and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. So yes, he looked way better than nice.

"So do you." He let out a cheeky grin.

"You have a good Saturday?"

"Yeah. I mean, it mostly consisted of a lot of paperwork but it was alright. How about yours?"

"I got absolutely no work done." She voiced.

"None?" He was shocked.

"None. And it felt good. I'd normally feel guilty but I feel good about not having done anything."

"That sure doesn't sound like the Alicia I know." They softly laughed together.

"I feel like that Alicia is long gone." She bowed her head down.

"I know she isn't." He sounded comforting, and it got Alicia to look back up at Will. They looked at each other for a while, recognizing that he was right. The Alicia he knew hadn't gone anywhere; she was always there when she was with Will.

When it became too much for either of them to keep looking into each other's eyes Will picked up his menu. Alicia did the same, feeling that they should not keep staring into each other like that.

"I like the look of the supreme." He casually said, still looking over his menu.

"You always have it though. Try something different Will." She begged.

"But it's what I like. I don't really want anything I don't like." He slowly looked up at her, and as soon as he caught her eye, she looked away. She knew what it meant.

"Just share a Mediterranean with me."

"Fine, but only because I also feel like eating that kind."

"Sure, sure." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Want a drink?"

"Oh yeah." They laughed and Will got up and went to the counter to order their food and drinks. As he was at the counter, Alicia's phone rang. She grabbed it from her bag and read the ID. It was Peter. She could answer it, but she chose not to. She was at dinner with Will, someone who was always a tough topic in their marriage, and she wouldn't give in to her husband that night. She let it ring out and plopped the phone back into her bag.

"Who was that?" Will asked as he got back to the booth with their bottles of beer. Alicia started to panic a little. Should she tell him or not? He probably wouldn't mind who it was but it might make him feel awkward, and that isn't something Alicia was willing to do. It was their dinner and Peter would not be interfering with that, at all.

"No one really." She covered it up, but he knew. He'd always known when it was her husband. She reached for a bottle and took a long gulp, she needed out of that one. Will did the same, Alicia thinking that he wanted to get out of it too.

After four more beers, two shots, and a whole pizza, Alicia and Will were ready to say their goodbyes. The whole night had been fun and easy, like the old days. The atmosphere between had changed a lot but it was still comforting and warm to Alicia. She loved every moment of it. She loved it more than any dinner she'd had with Peter in years. She didn't want it to be that way, but that was how it was. She took a cab back to her apartment, after Will telling her he'd have someone pick up her car and drop it back off to her in the morning. She was very hesitant but she didn't knew she wouldn't have time to get it since she would have to spend her Sunday working.

She had a normal morning; woke up, cooked herself some breakfast, had a shower. But after her morning routine she couldn't settle down and get to work. She couldn't put her finger on it, but Alicia felt very out of sync. So she walked around, trying to find more housework to do. She washed the kids' clothes and washed her three dishes from breakfast. Then wandering again, figuring out what to do. Eventually she sat down at the dining table with her work, a hot cup of coffee and tried to work with all she had.

Three hours down the track and Alicia had done half an hour worth of work. She had given up trying, which wasn't making her feel great, but she literally could not work. She couldn't think. Until she received a text message from Will. Then she knew clear as day that he was obviously the reason for her not getting anything done. She wasn't even thinking straight, and now it all made sense. She couldn't open the message up fast enough. Whatever he had to say, no matter if it was a simple 'How's it going?', it would mean a lot to her, more than he'll ever know.

'Your car get home okay?'

'It sure did. Thank the man who dropped it off for me?' She replied while smiling the whole time. She liked talking to him now, and she would take every opportunity to talk with him since it was 5 days when he would move.

'I can do that for you. Did you also get home okay?'

'Thanks. I like that you were more concerned about my car this morning than me first.'

'It was the first thing that came out so I went with it.'

'Well alright then. And yes, I got home fine. Thanks for dinner last night. It was really good.'

'Don't mention it. It was nice though.'

'The pizza was great!' Alicia felt like she was being a teenager. The thought of Grace came into her head. Her daughter would sit in the corner of the couch sending countless messages to her friends and no doubt the boy she was seeing. Every now and then she would giggle mindlessly. And occasionally she would come up for air and get a drink, or even say hello to her mother. And Alicia felt like she was doing this. Absentmindedly sitting at the kitchen counter and sending texts to and fro with her ex-lover. Then her phone buzzed again.

'I now trust you to always pick the type of pizza I have from now on.'

'You should, I know something good when I see it. Or in this case, taste it.'

'I have no doubt you do.' Was that flirty? Alicia had thought so, but through text it was hard to understand what he meant, even if she did know it was meant to be a bit flirty. It didn't catch her off guard though.

'I have no doubt that you can choose good things in life too.' Yes, she'd fallen into a flirting round and she had to get out.

'You know I do.' Alicia couldn't get into a flirting battle, it was too time consuming. Flirting had to be thought out and she was not going well with her brain that day, so she took it back into a more realistic conversation.

'So, good Sunday so far?'

'Oh yeah, taking it easy. Hearing complaints from David Lee is how I like to spend my free time.'

She laughed out loud to his message. It wasn't all that funny, nowhere near funny enough to merit a laugh out loud of any sort but he'd turned her upside down last night and she immediately got bothered by that. Here she was, flirting through texts with someone she so recently had a huge falling out with and made up again. How could he do that with just a couple hours of pizza, beer and casual conversation. Granted, it got a little too friendly when she touched his arm and when he placed his hand on her lower back during their talk. But she had enjoyed it. She liked it. It made her feel special and like it was just them again. She once thought that if it was this way between them again it would just hurt. But it didn't. Not one bit of it all felt like it was crushing her soul. She had rebuilt the relationship she used to have with Will. Before all of the tension, they were friends, and it felt like that again. And it occurred to her that soon after she realized this the first time, five years ago, it made her want him. It made her notice all the little gestures he had for her throughout the day. The way he cared for her and looked out for her. He had always had her back when everything was crumbling down around her. He was always there for her. Whenever she had a problem or was upset, he was there to comfort her and tell her that is was all going to be okay, it would all work out. He was there before Peter, he was there through Peter, and through 15 years of nothing between them, and he had come out on the other side always caring for her. Loving her.

It had hit her slowly. It felt like she was getting struck with a baseball bat everywhere on her body in slow motion. She'd known it for a while before, and thought she had forgotten everything about how she felt about Will before she left him, but this was new. This was her actually admitting it to herself. She had nothing to fear anymore because she'd tested how it would be if she didn't feel this way, and she discovered that it would be like this forever.

He would always be in love with her, and she would always be in love with William Paul Gardner.

"I love Will Gardner. I love him." She said it out loud. It really wouldn't be real if she couldn't say it, but she did and she knew it was right.

"You what?" Alicia spun around to the wide open front door and was faced with her speechless children, and a fuming husband.