A\N: The title is self-explanatory. This is a Willicia oneshot for you Angels.
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It's been a month since their argument in the partner meeting and they're still not talking to each other, causing concern among the partners.
A month ago.
"This makes no sense. Why would she stay with a cheating asshole? Everyone knows the saying: once a cheater, always a cheater." Alicia says, looking at the plasma screen at their recent case file. Will snorts and rolls his eyes.
"You'd know the answer to that, wouldn't you?" He asks under his breath, Alicia's head snaps to him so hard that the partners are surprised that her neck isn't broken, her eyes narrowing as their eyes lock together in a heated glare.
"Excuse me? What does that mean?" She questions, Will shakes his head: it's been two months since she broke off their affair, and it's still a fresh wound for both of them.
"It doesn't matter." Will replies quickly, Alicia shakes her head.
"Oh no, Will, you're going to say what you were going to say." She growls at him.
Will's own eyes narrow as their glare grows harder. "Alright: your husband cheated on you 18 times with a hooker, sucked her toe and the tape got leaked, and you stayed with him, and for what? Why the hell did you stay with him, Alicia? Because he loves you? Because he's sorry and promised that he'll never do it again?" Will fires at her, Alicia scoffs and stands up, Will doing the same thing on the opposite side of the table.
"I stayed with him because he made a mistake, because he's the father of my children and he is sorry." She argues.
"Newsflash, Alicia: he's a cheater, you said so yourself: once a cheater, always a cheater. Why did he cheat on you with a prostitute if he 'loves' you? He doesn't love you, Alicia, if he did, he wouldn't have cheated on you, he wouldn't even have thought about it!" Will is shouting now.
"You're a bastard, Will." Alicia says. "He does love me, Will. You wouldn't know what love was if it came up and slapped you in the fucking face!" Alicia shoots back. Will looks at her in disbelief.
Both of them have tuned out Diane and the rest of the partners who are trying to rein them in. It's just the two of them.
"I know what love is, Alicia but it's clear you don't if you're still with your cheating husband who doesn't love you!" It's turned into a screaming match between them.
"He does love me, Will!" Alicia screams back, tears flowing down her face.
"No he doesn't, Leesh! He's manipulatingyou into staying with him, because he's scared of what his life would look like, at what the press would do to him if he doesn't have you at his side, being the good wife. He held you back for years: you gave up law, something you fought tooth and nail for for three years, because he told you to, and you've let him manipulate you since you met him." Will's voice is loud, louder than anyone has heard it.
"My husband is not manipulating me, Will. He loves me, and I love him." Alicia's tears have stopped for the time being.
"God, Leesh! Who are you? I don't even recognise you anymore!"
"I'm the same person I've always been, Will, it's you who's changed." She replies.
They're both silent, their chest heaving with heavy breaths as the anger flows through them.
"If you 'love' him, then why did you sleep with me for 7 months?" He suddenly asks her with a smirk.
The sound of Alicia's hand meeting his cheek fills the room, causing Will's head to snap back and the partners to wince.
"You know why." She whispers to him before she leaves the room, slamming the door behind her, ignoring the looks from the partners, and Will.
Diane, Julius, David, Cary and Kalinda have all had enough of this silent war between the former lovers and best friends and have all tried to get the two of them to make up, to no avail. Both Will and Alicia are stubborn.
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Will is in his office talking on the phone to a client when Julius and David storm in, looking pissed.
"I'll call you back." He tells the client placing his phone in its cradle and looking at the two men who look like they want to kill him. "What can I do for you two?" He asks as they both take the chairs in front of his desk.
"Make up with Alicia." David says bluntly. Will scoffs.
"There's nothing to make up. We got our cards out on the conference room table a month ago, and as far as I know, they're still there." Will says. David sighs.
"My god, you're a damn idiot, the two of you." The Family Law lawyers mutters, Julius nods in agreement.
"Look, Will, we know you're hurting, but you've hurt Alicia in the process by what you said to her." Julius says. Will sighs. "She hurt me too, guys, in case you didn't hear her that I didn't know what love is." That stung when that left her lips: he knows what love is, he's loved Alicia for 17 years, and counting.
"We know she did, but you've both hurt each other, in more ways than one. We all know you love her, so make up and tell her you love her before you lose her forever." David says before getting up and leaving his office. Julius follows, closing the door, Will turns around in his chair so he's facing his bookshelf, staring at a picture she took of the present he gave her when he was being a dick to her. He remembers when he received the picture at her wedding, where he surprised her, after declining the invitation.
She looks beautiful in her wedding dress, her bump showing proudly. He's by the bar watching as she dances with her husband, his heart breaks: he dreamt that it would him as her husband someday, not Peter, but he can't do anything about it now, it's too late, though he doesn't know it, today is just first many of bad timing between the two of them.
"Will!" He hears her shouting as Peter releases her from the dance floor, she's running towards him, her hair flying behind her as she hurtles into him, her arms wrapping around his waist, her face in his chest, he buries his nose into her hair which smells like cherries and a whole can of hairspray, he smiles as he wraps his arms around her, lifting her off her feet just a little bit, being careful of her baby bump.
"Congratulations, Leesh." He whispers into her hair, kissing the brown locks. "Thank you., thank you for coming." Her voice is muffled by his suit jacket but he doesn't care: he can hear her perfectly.
"Oh! I got you something." She suddenly says before leaving his embrace towards a table piled with gifts.
She returns with a gift wrapped in black wrapping paper, thrusting it at him with a bright smile. "Here, open it!" And he does open it, shocked at what he sees;
It's a photo of the champagne glasses he gifted her with in L1 after he was a dick to her. He got them for her as an apology. Underneath the black and white is a note with her handwriting, her painted thumb in the photo:
You can apologise to me a thousand times but only the first apology will truly mean the world to me.
He places the framed picture on the bar counter and pulls her into another hug.
"Dance with me?" She requests softly when they pull away, he silently offers his hand to her and leads her to the dance floor, wrapping one hand around her waist while is other stays in her hand. Their eyes stay locked together as he twirls them around the floor, well aware that everyone is looking at them, including her husband who has never liked him, but no one dares to interrupt them, it's almost like they know that this will be the last dance dance shared between the best friends.
The song ends but neither of them stop dancing as another song begins. Alicia's eyes are full of tears and she goes to say something but Will starts talking first, his own eyes full of years.
"You know I'm proud of you, right?" Alicia nods her head. "You're gonna be one hell of a mom, and the best lawyer the city of Chicago has ever seen. You're gonna take over the world and I can't wait to witness it, Leesh." Alicia chuckles watery.
"So are you, Will." She replies, putting her head on his chest once more, listening as his heart thumps in her ear.
They walk off the dance floor, back to the bar.
"If you ever need me, you know my number, and where I am. I'll come to you, day or night, okay?" Will tells her, Alicia nods.
"This is going to be the last time I'll see you for a long time isn't it?" She asks, looking at him as tears slip down her face.
He reluctantly nods his head as his own set of tears start to fall down his face: only Alicia has possessed the ability to make him cry. Alicia pulls him in for one last hug and holds him tight as her body shakes with sobs. "Thank you for being the best friend I've ever had." He whispers into her hair. Alicia nods her head, returning the sentiment non verbally.
Will pulls away his best friend, blinks away his tears, wipes away hers, kisses her hair one last time and grabs his present from the bar counter, giving her one last smile.
"Go start taking over the world, Cavanaugh." He says, Alicia laughs and puts a hand on her bump.
"Roger that, Gardner." She replies.
He walks away, sneaking a look over his shoulder just in time to see Peter wrap his arms around cradling her bump, Alicia's head buried in his chest.
His heart is shattered but he's so proud of her. She's going to take over the world, she'll blow everyone to smithereens and light the world on fire, and he can't wait to witness it all.
Will comes out of the memory, unsurprised to see his eyes full of tears. That memory has always made him cry, even years afterwards.
He gets to his feet, grabbing the picture off the shelf and leaving his office.
He has an apology to make to the woman he loves.
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He finds Alicia with Diane and Kalinda in her office. He storms into her office, the door slamming on the opposite wall. He ignores the startled looks of Diane and Kalinda, and just focuses on Alicia as he walks up to her, hooking his free hand around her waist and slams his lips to hers in a bruising kiss. She kisses him back as he gently pushes her back against the wall, their kiss deepening.
He pulls away abruptly and drops the picture on her desk. "You can have that back, I'm done, Alicia, I'm fucking done. We're done! I've been in love with you ever since Georgetown, that's 17 years of my life, I've lived in love with you! Hell, I was in love with you at your wedding! And I still didn't say anything! I know you loved Peter but it's clear by the prostitute that he doesn't love you not anymore. I can't keep doing this, Alicia. I can't keep being the secret you hide from everyone, I can't be the person you come to for comfort sex when Peter does something that upsets you. I've loved you for nearly half of my life, but I can't do it anymore." He ignores the tears falling from his eyes, running slowly down his cheeks, and he ignores the look on her face as he looks at her one last time before walking out of her office.
Out of her life.
For the final time.
He's done letting her break his heart again and again.
He keeps walking away from her, walking past David, Cary and Julius, walking past the conference room, walking past his office, walking past Diane's office, toward the elevator, not stopping and turning to face Alicia who is running after him, begging him not to break her heart.
She's broken his heart a thousand times over, it's time for her to know what that feels like.
Their eyes lock together as he steps into the elevator waiting for the doors to finally close on what was never going to happen.
The last thing he hears as the doors close between them is a tearful:
"Will."
He doesn't reopen the doors, they remain closed on her.
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A\N: Okay I'm in bed at 8:10 writing this because I feel like dog shit and the ending completely took me by surprise because I envisioned a Happily Ever after moment between them but I guess my muse didn't want a Happily Ever After ending, I'm not complaining one bit. I have a few more stories to do, including a few The Morning Show ones, but i have a feeling I'm going to do a few oneshots surrounding this story. Enjoy my Angels.