Title: She Loves DC in the Fall

Pairing: Alicia/Will

Summary: She fell in love with DC that first fall of her first year at Georgetown. For her, DC in the fall meant new beginnings.

Author's Note: Late Response to The Good Wife Summer Hiatus Comment Fixathon

Prompt: orbythesea on June 1st, 2011 12:23 am (UTC); Alicia/Will - She loves DC in the fall.

Words: 956

There are two times during the year that are really great to play a tourist in DC. The Spring time – with the Cherry Blossoms and its festival within walking distance in the first. The other time is the Fall, at night, when you can put on a jacket and wrap a scarf around your neck and walk arm in arm with your best friend – viewing the monuments and memorials under the light of the stars. It gets dark early in the fall so you can take a walk at 7PM but it's still early enough that it's safe, and that is where Alicia finds herself now.

It's Parents' Weekend. She drove Grace to Georgetown just last month for her freshman year of college but it's Parents' Weekend and Grace begged her to fly to DC because Peter was bring his new 20-something girlfriend and how can she leave Grace alone the entire weekend to deal with Peter and his new girlfriend. Plus, she loves DC in the fall.

Sometimes she thinks that if there had been no Peter, she would have stayed in DC after law school because she fell in love with DC that first fall of her first year at Georgetown. For her, DC in the fall meant new beginnings, starting law school and Will.

She met Will on a hot August night. At a pool party during orientation but within a few short months, it felt like Fall and they were inseparable. As luck would have it, their class schedules allowed them to sit together, eat together, study together and drink together.

"I can't do this anymore, I need a break," Will whined.

"You always need a break," Alicia answered, not even stopping to look up from her notes.

"I'm being serious. We've been in DC for three months and all we've done is study. I'm getting cabin fever, I need a …"

"Break. I heard you the first time."

"Right, let's go for a walk. I need some fresh air."

"It's cold outside."

"No it's not," and when he saw Alicia raise her eyebrow, challenging his last statement, he added, "I'll buy you a hot chocolate."

She doesn't know where they are going but they leave their books scattered across the tabletop in Will's kitchen. He doesn't buy her a hot chocolate, instead he brings a flask of tequila with him and they take turns taking sips of it as they walk.

"We can go to jail for this."

"For what? What are we doing wrong?"

"Public intoxication."

"We're not drunk yet."

"But we're getting there."

"God, I hate tequila," he says after a rather long gulp.

"Good, more for me."

"It's always the good girls."

"Right, because we're catching up."

Walking with Will, she can't help but smile and wish she had gloves with her because her hands are so cold. Then, because the tequila is starting to affect her, she wraps her arm around Will's like it's the most natural thing in the world. And it feels nice to be this close to him, to feel his breathe on her neck when he laughs, to smell his cologne, to walk around DC, arm in arm with him. Before she realizes it, they are walking past the monuments and memorials.

"We came to DC to study the law," he says, "but the history of the law is just as important."

He goes on to regal her with the histories of each monument and memorial. Under the light of the stars, they read the plaques together, makeup fake histories about the Presidents and laugh. She falls in love with DC and Will that night, even though she's not consciously aware of either.

"Hey," he startles her from the memory, finding her walking around the Mall this chilly fall night.

"How was your flight?" she asks, as he gives her a kiss.

"Fine, sorry I missed dinner, late verdict."

"No worries."

"How's Peter?"

"Fine."

"Behaving?" he asks, taking her cold hand in his in an effort to warm her a bit.

"Yes, he usually does when the kids are around."

"And how's the new girlfriend?"

"Ahh . . . blond, boobs and brainless."

"Fantastic, I can't wait to meet her," and Alicia playfully slaps him on the shoulder in response.

"How's Grace?"

"Good, she loves it here."

"I suspect it's a Georgetown thing."

"Yeah," Alicia sighs. "She wants us to get married."

"I agree with her."

"I know."

"What do you think?" he asks.

"I think the kids aren't kids anymore."

"No, they aren't."

"Marry me," she says, and it comes out less of a question then she hoped but not quite a statement either.

"No," and Alicia raises an eyebrow in surprise so he continues, "No, that is not how we do this," he says, while grabbing her hand again and forcing her to stop walking and face him. "Alicia, it was more than 20 years ago that I met and fell in love with you. I've loved you all these years and I return here, to the scene of the crime, to say, I love you more than I could ever imagine and would be . . . ecstatic if you agreed to marry me . . . please!"

And Alicia wasn't expecting so much emotion from Will and maybe that's one of the reasons she loves him, he's constantly surprising her. And before she can get any words out of her mouth, Will is removing a ring box from his pocket.

"So you and Grace had this planned?" she asks.

"Maybe . . . and you haven't said yes yet."

And she did and she always loved DC in the fall because it meant new beginnings, the law and Will.