A\N: this has no Happily Ever After, takes place after Alicia, Cary and the other fourth years have left. I hope you enjoy this one, Angels.
Oneshot 5 title: Loss
Oneshot 5 summary: Will has lost her all over again and he's not sure he'll ever recover from this one.
POV: Third person
Chapter count: 1
It's late, dark outside and he's alone in the office, drinking Scotch thinking about her, thinking about how he had lost her once again and her betrayal that felt like he had taken a knife to the back.
He offered her managing partnership, he offered her a chance to run a law firm together with him, their law firm, a dream they had wanted since they were law students, and she had gone behind his back and started a law firm with Cary Agos and the other fourth years.
He's lost her before. They've always had bad timing: college, the kiss a few months after she started, the voicemail he left on her phone where he finally said he loved her and had since Georgetown and that he'd give everything up to make a plan with her, their 'just one hour' which had led to the entire night which had led to a seven month secret affair, she ended it the day after her daughter had gone missing. They tried not to be awkward but it was. The argument on the Thief drink case had ended in an angry kiss and in her as an Equity Partner. The kiss the night of the election had brought back all his locked up feelings that he had hidden away. He wanted to talk after, wanted to tell her that he didn't care if her husband was the Governor, he wanted to be with her in public but they never had the talk.
Then he had offered her name partner, a chance to run the firm with him, like they had always dreamed of in school, to make her dream a reality because it was her dream more than it was his. He wanted to make her dream come true, and he had offered her a way to make it come true. He thought she had chosen to be his partner and he was happy, happy that the woman he's loved for 20 years was going to become his partner, that she had finally had her lifelong dream of owning a law firm.
Then Diane had dropped the bombshell that started him on a warpath.
She was leaving with Cary Agos and the other fourth years who had their partnerships rescinded when he had offered her managing partner. He had offered it to her when she was considering leaving.
When he saw her in her office, he didn't want to believe Diane but when he asked her if she was leaving and she said yes, anger flooded through him and he swiped her things off her desk. He saw the fear in her eyes when he looked at her when all her stuff was on the floor, but she knew he'd never raise his hand to her. He was still angry and was betrayed and wanted to lash out so he lashed out at her: called her poison, said that no one wanted her, told her the truth then had the security guards escort her out of the building. He saw the tears that were threatening to spill as she stood in the elevator when she told him that it wasn't meant personally. He didn't give a damn is what he replied as the door closed on her.
He and Alicia have been a civil war and in some ways it's fun: using what they know about each other to win their cases, but it's also draining and sad that this what they've reduced each to, this is what their friendship which was so strong in law school, has been reduced to using their past against each either, and cold looks between them, and jibes to get a rise out of the other one.
He never thought his friendship with Alicia Cavanaugh would be like this 20 years later. Everyone: Liz Lawrence, Tony Brigs and the old gang from school thought she'd see Peter for who he was before the wedding, before she got pregnant with Zach, and break it off with Peter Florrick and get with the handsome Will Gardner, but she never did. She married Peter Florrick, a man who didn't care about what she wanted. He cared about having a trophy wife to hang onto his arm and look good in photos.
He drains his drink and places it on the desk and sighs. He lost her 20 years ago, didn't have any contact for 13 years, the last time he saw her was at her wedding, then he stuck his hand in between the closing elevator doors and their eyes met, matching smiles appearing on their faces. He wanted to wrap her in a hug and tell her everything would be okay but they weren't students anymore, they were adults, and Alicia wouldn't have believed it even if he did say everything would be okay.
He lost her again briefly after she ended things between them the day safer her daughter went missing. But now… now he's lost her again and he's not sure that they'll ever find themselves again.
No Will Gardner has lost Alicia Florrick for the last and final time.
A\N: The fifth oneshot is complete! I hope you enjoy my Angels.