Alicia

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" The bouncing atop Alicia's bed woke her and the little voice screeching in excitement next to her ear. She squinted her eyes open, facing her god daughter's brown eyes she frowned before flopping her head back onto the pillow causing the nine year old to conclude all irritation.

"Aunt Alicia! It's Saturday morning, we're having pancakes!"

"Baby, go back to sleep" she mumbled

"But it's eight a clock" she whined causing Alicia to laugh. Exactly, eight a clock, on a weekend, which was Alicia's sleep in time.

"How about you give me some cuddles instead?" she murmured, opening her arms up with her eyes still half closed. Feeling the shuffle of her god daughter, Emily snuggled her back against Alicia's chest causing Alicia to wrap an arm around her and dig her nose into her hair. She knew the kid was wide awake and that it was useless trying to get some morning cuddles before falling back to sleep, but she tried her luck.

A few minutes of pure bliss passed until Emily pushed back, shuffling around so that she could face Alicia. She could feel little hands playing with her hair but was too zoned out to be focussing on anything.

"Emily, I told you to leave your Aunty Alicia alone" both heads turned to the voice of Liz's standing at the door, Alicia finally opened her eyes to face her best friends and smiled warmly.

"Just cuddles" Emily defended herself much to her mother's amusement.

"How about you go head downstairs and help your father prepare breakfast" Liz gestured.

Once the little girl was out of the room Alicia yawned, before turning on her back and opening her eyes fully, to stare towards the ceiling. Liz placed her coffee mug on the nightstand before flopping against the bed, next to Alicia with the both of them staring towards the ceiling.

"Are you going to visit him?"

Alicia didn't need to be a genius to connect the dots of where Liz was taking this, but still, she chose the smart outline of playing dumb.

"Who?"

"Will."

There wasn't a moment where Alicia doubted Elizabeth's ability to read through her but she really had assumed that she was doing a good enough job these last few days in hiding her thoughts, unfortunately for Alicia, Liz wasn't stupid.

"Liz" she stared at her as if she were insane. "Come on, don't be ridiculous"

"I can read through you like a glass wall Alicia" Liz replied "I know you've been thinking about him, and I also know that he's the primary reason of why you haven't visited Chicago in over ten years."

"Liz" Alicia sighed, shaking her head. "I came here to inform my family that I am marrying the man I love. Not to visit an ex-boyfriend"

"I'm pretty sure he was more than just an ex-boyfriend"

"There's no other word to describe it"

"Have you tried first love?"

First love. How unfamiliar and inexplicable that word was to her ears. Yes, Will Gardner was most likely her first love, always had been but that was it. Her first, and almost certainly her last with that barrier, considering she told herself that she wasn't in love with him anymore.

"I don't believe in first love" she replied, quietly, almost ashamed at her words.

"Really?" Liz questioned, already aware that her best friend was in all probability, lying.

"Hmm."

Even if she couldn't see it, she could clearly sense Liz roll her eyes bringing a smile to Alicia's mouth.

"I'm getting married Liz, I can't just visit an old ex-boyfriend from high school. I need to focus on the moment." She couldn't quiet fathom what the moment was though.

"What about the fact that Will just lives down the road?"

And suddenly, all sensibility in Alicia's mind was thrown out the window and replaced with contemplations and absurd thoughts entering her head. "What?" she flipped herself up and gazed down Liz who wore a look of amusement.

"Oh what? You didn't know? Yea, he lives down the long driveway next to the lake. There's a big 'for sale' sign in the front as well. Apparently he renovated the house, had it designed professionally and everything, but I haven't seen it." she shrugged

Alicia had always assumed that Will's family would have sold the house off or that one of them would have inherited it, she never expected Will to have taken to it and kept it for his own capability. She wonders if the memory that textured, from all those years ago when they experienced their first time together is still in his mind today, probably not.

Liz's words brought her back from her current, deep and over analysing thoughts. "But anyway" –she changed the subject "How was dinner with your father last night?"

"Dinner?" Alicia said confused, still in her own mental haze.

"Yea? Last night"

"Oh" recollection surfaced through her mind. Yes, dinner, Dianne, her father and everything that came with those two. "Uhh, it was, it was alright. Diane seemed…. Okay, I guess." she shrugged

"I guess?" Liz said, questionably

Alicia shifted to the side to face her best friend, suddenly recalling a time where they used to do this years ago, gossiping and talking about everyone in school.

How times have changed.

"It was odd" she started off "I mean, she's really nice and I've always kind of admired her since I listened to her speech at Georgetown in my first year of college but, I don't know. I find it weird"

"Find what weird?" Liz stated, clearly amused and interested all in one.

"They're not together, that's for sure, they just seem like really good friends but…. I don't know, she's fifteen years younger than him."

"And?"

"Do you think he's lonely? And he's searching for younger friends to fill the void of me abandoning him all these years."

Liz rolled her eyes. "You've always been one to loath in guilt. No Alicia, none of this has anything to do with that. His good looks and best charm probably just captivates younger woman. It's a thing these days." She shrugs, absent mindedly.

"Liz!" Alicia stated, shocked before bursting into full hilarity, causing the other woman to laugh with her.

"What? I'm serious! It's hard to believe he's just turned sixty, he looks more like forty. It's no wonder that women couldn't keep her hands off of him"

"Okay, as much as I enjoy this friendly chat, I don't like talking about my father's sex life" they both laughed as Alicia shuffled off the bed, within in instinct she moved straight to the window and gazed outside into the front view of the house and the open dirt road that distinguished the area was definitely on the outskirts of Chicago, her eyes fell upon the long driveway a mile away from the house and her thoughts immediately returned back to Will.

The rest of the morning was a blur for Alicia; between having breakfast with Chris, Liz and Emily, her thoughts still couldn't distract from the possibility of Will just being down the road, she told herself it was because she hadn't seen him in over a decade and that resulted in him taking over her thoughts constantly since she arrived.

She occupied herself by running through Liz's old wedding magazines but they seemed useless in activating her mind, eventually, as Liz and Chris left for the day to take Emily to soccer practice, Alicia ended up scrubbing the house clean, trying desperately to rid her brain waves but ultimately, it was absolutely hopeless.

She just had to get a glimpse of him, or the house or anything regarding Will Gardner at the moment, she felt like she was going mad, and the only way to ease her emotions was to secure a decent sight at the house that she had often thought about, in the last ten years. It wasn't exactly a foolish idea to just rock up, in which, hopefully he wouldn't be there and she could say that she was looking into real state, except, that didn't explain the need to dress up.

She told herself, it was because Alicia Cavanaugh never walked out of the house without looking somewhat substantial.

Her hands shook as she showered, taking deep, long breaths she managed to calm herself as she breathed in an out. She took the liberty of blow drying her hair, ensuing that it came out silky and wavy in its brunette and dark brown form. She fixed her makeup, brushing minimal mascara and placing a deep spot of maroon, red lipstick against her lips before she brought the dress out. A labelled Theory Orinthia sheath dress blue (dark navy) that skimmed across her flat stomach accentuating her curves and ended a few inches above her knees. An elegant cut modernized with a banded collar and tailored panels for a refined look, she knew it was too short, it was definitely inappropriate for the courtroom but she told herself that it was perfect for today, considering Chicago's climate suited it and she'd never worn it before either.

Looking down at her long, bare porcelain legs, she noticed for the first time her calve muscles stand out causing her to slip into her black three inch heels and glanced at herself through the mirror. She looked amazing, between courtroom master and runway model, it was the perfect way to accentuate her personality, although, she did think the dress was a bit short but discarded it. She grasped her black, leather handbag and her dark, black sunglasses, slipping them on she left a note to Liz, a brief explanation in that she was heading to town for a while.

Slipping into the hired car, she took one glance at herself through the rear view mirror, sighing as she took in her appearance. "What are you doing you stupid woman" she mumbled to herself.

The short distance from Liz's driveway to his took longer than expected as she drove at snail's paste. She stopped as she reached the corner, took one more deep breaths and ignored any signs of why she shouldn't be doing this, telling herself that she was only there to take a look at the house, but who was she kidding? She wasn't there to see the house at all.

She pressed the pedal down and drove the long, dirt road until she reached grass and from a far, she could easily see the second story of the house. She choose to focus on the pathway instead of the large content and as she reached the front of the house her heart stopped for a brief second as she saw Will.

His backside was facing her as he clearly had ear phones in his ears, the music blasting with an axe in his hands, chopping wood in a noticeable, angry manner.

She didn't know if it was a result of spending so much years away from each other but, he looked completely different. Sweat was beading through the fabric of his dark, navy t-shirt and his black, Adidas shorts highlighted his toned legs. Her gaze shifted from his figure to the house. For a brief moment she just sat there, gazing at it until she gathered her baring's and opened the car door.

Letting her heal touch the soft grass, she slowly led her other foot onto it, standing up from the car seat, she stood between the door, leaning her arm against the side of the car she grasped the full view of the house. Slowly pulling her sunglasses off, she held them within her fingers as she stared, in awe at the home that sat before her.

It had been built into two floors and had a much wider landscape than what she last recalled, it had a balcony that surrounded the front area of the house with open windows and doors looking into the house. White and blues highlighted the colour of the somewhat antique house but it was the top half of the house that captured her eye, there was a balcony that faced off towards the lake, in which she could only assume was connected towards the master bedroom that faced off towards the lake, following the gaze her eyes met the wavy waters of the lake below and the shiny waters, bringing many memories to her viewpoint.

She could vaguely see a figure walking closer from the corner of her eye, turning to face its outline, she was met from a few miles away, Will, staring at her in an expression that she couldn't quite describe.

Astonishment? Shock? Puzzlement? speechlessness? As far as she could tell, it was an expression all in one.

Few minutes of brief silence passed in which Will was still staring at her, his brows furrowed in astonishment and his jaw slightly dropped. She could hear his heavy breathing from a far, obviously finished a tired workout.

Clearing her throat, she said, "Hello." and smiled awkwardly.

I'm sorry for the pattern of these cliff hangers, blame the state of my mind with the fact that I clumsily, and idiotically twisted my ankle during tennis training early this morning, it's fine, just swollen, but I am working on the next chapter which is all Will and Alicia! finally after ten years! lol