"Hey!" Will said, a smile dancing on his lips. Alicia glanced up.

"Will Gardner! It's great to see you," she said, almost laughing.

"Alicia Florrick. I haven't seen you since Georgetown."

"Another life ago." She sighed. "You work here?"

"In this building? No. On Madison. What about you?"

"I just got a job. Wells and Rolins."

"Good firm," he said, nodding, "Well done."

"Thanks."

Alicia peered down at his shoes, which didn't match his crisp formal attire. Instead they were grey and blue sneakers, slightly mud-trekked.

"Nice shoes," she commented with a slight smile.

"Oh, a baby threw up on my shoes," Will said, sighing. The elevator doors opened and Will began to walk out but something stopped him. He held the door open again and said,

"Hey, I'm sorry about all that crap with your husband."

His crass way of putting it made Alicia's heart feel just a little bit lighter.

"Thanks," she replied, "It'll die down."

Even as she said it, Alicia didn't believe it herself.

"It will," he reassured and the pair shared a moment of eye contact, something that reaffirmed all of the memories they had shared at Georgetown. Just for a moment, Alicia wondered what had happened if she had chosen him that day in Criminal Law 101, but she ignored it. It was too late now.

"Call me sometime," he said, the door now threatening to close on his fingers, "I'm at Stern, Lockhart and Gardner."

"Hey! You got top billing."

"I'm an impressive person," he said, trying not to make it sound flirtatious.

"That you are," Alicia muttered sorrowfully, as he let the doors close. She could have been just like him. They were in the same year after all. If he did it, she could have too.

Alicia blinked as the memory faded away. Her document was no longer empty. It had two hefty paragraphs and the last word in the sentence was 'Will'. She repeatedly clicked the backspace button. Will would have a field day if he heard her mention him in her speech. She thought he would cry out mid-speech in outrage, disregarding the entire assembly. Alicia told herself she was being silly. Will wouldn't turn up at her keynote anyway. He would try to stay as far as possible. He'd done it before and she was sure he wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Her head was in the clouds. Immediately, her thoughts drew to a glass of wine to help her relax. She opened the mini-fridge. There wasn't any wine in there so she headed down to the lounge with her laptop under her arm.

"One glass of wine, please," she said to the bartender, who nodded and provided her with it. She eagerly took a sip and went to go find an armchair. When she opened her computer, her head was suddenly more clear. Instead of writing that she met Will, she wrote, 'Fortunately, a second opportunity came my way.'

She spotted Cary from across the lounge. He was talking to an attractive slinky woman, wearing a silk teal dress. That woman kept sliding her hand down his arm with a flirtatious smile. Cary didn't accept these advances and kept moving his arm out of her reach. Alicia chuckled at this woman's desperateness to get laid. She went over to rescue him.

"Cary, a word?" she said, beckoning him to her armchair.

"Sure, Alicia," he said, sounding relieved, "What do you want to talk about?"

"When you first met me," she said, once they were out of earshot of that woman, "what did you think of me?"

Cary's face had a bemused expression as he sat down on the arm of her chair. He said,

"I thought you seemed nice."

Alicia scoffed. "Don't lie, Cary. I thought you were a cocky young boy, fresh out of law school."

"I thought you were entitled," he spluttered. Alicia gasped in mock-horror.

"I was entitled," she admitted.

"And I was a cocky associate."

"Then, the idea of us teaming together would have sounded like a fairytale," Alicia said softly, "You hated me."

"I didn't!" he protested, "I didn't… like you, but I didn't hate you."

"I was the same," she said, nodding slightly, "Thanks. I know what I have to write next."

After spending a feverish three hours writing the rest of her speech, which included many daydreams of Will that she had to physically be snapped out of by people bumping into her chair, Alicia had finished her speech. Reading it back, she remembered Will's words. He had made her. He had every right to be mad. Almost half of the speech was about him, though not by name.

A heaviness set in the pit of her stomach as she remembered all of the retaliating words she had put against him. She had even changed into an outfit that she knew would get him riled up. In hindsight, she knew that they would end up in the courthouse bathroom, one layer away from having sex. She knew that Will would be the one to pull apart this time and not her, because her husband didn't mean anything to her, apart from being the father of her children. She knew the hurt he had in him would become too much, but when it happened everything seemed too real and she wanted to beg for him to come back, wanted to beg for her to hold him forever and murmur apologies against his ear.

"Alicia," Cary said, sitting on the end of his bed. Alicia jumped, looking around wildly.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

"You walked? I'm presuming. You have to get a good night of sleep. You have to be prepared for your keynote. Remember Rayna Hecht is coming to see it? She's expecting great things from you. Do you want me to read it again?"

"No!" Alicia burst out, clutching her laptop to her chest, "It's… it's best you wait until I'm actually saying it at the keynote."

"Alicia…" Cary said softly, recognising the expression on her face, "You wrote about him, didn't you?"

Cary didn't have to say who the 'him' was. They both already knew. Alicia gave him a small nod, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Cary walked up to her with his arms outstretched.

"C'mere," he said gently, wrapping his arms around her. She tried to hide the tears falling against his shoulder but there were too many of them.

"I just…" she said, sobbing, "I just didn't think it would be this hard to remember."

"I know," Cary murmured, "I know."

The man she once viewed as a young boy was comforting her, and she was crying about a man that wasn't even her husband.