Alicia knew she should be happy. She'd gotten what she wanted, hadn't she? A seat at the grownup's table, a real stake in the firm, Diane's breezy admission that they were peers now… But it didn't feel as good as she'd expected. In the back of her mind, one of the bastions of total honesty with herself, she knew if she'd passed and the offer had made its way to Cary, he would not have sold her out like this. The proposition would've trickled its way through the fourth year ranks until someone was unscrupulous enough to seize it. And that was how she felt. That was why the smile she flashed as she shook the hands of her new 'equals' did not reach her eyes.

Yes this was Chicago, and a law firm, and she was playing on a field rife with politics and favors and shady deals… It was what she wanted but she shouldn't have gotten it like this.

On the inside looking out, she spotted Cary through the glass walls. She felt like an excluded specimen, a goldfish in an expensive tank… populated by sharks. The look on his face was unreadable, just for a moment, before he quirked his mouth into a sort of smile and gave her that little nod of his. The "it's all right" look, the implacable mien of someone calmly accepting defeat. She had a second to ponder if he really meant it, if they could still be friends (even though in her heart she reassured herself that Cary's time would come and that it was for the best if she worked the system from the inside) before her attention was claimed by yet another new 'colleague' welcoming her to the fold.

If her gaze had held a moment longer, she would've seen Kalinda sidling up around the corner, a look of faintly disapproving pride on her face. She would've noticed Cary's demeanor instantly change to reveal a mix of pain and betrayal… and a flash of indecipherable sadness touch his eyes.

Cary had turned in the hallway outside the main conference room to bid farewell to a coworker when he'd spotted Alicia through the glass. God, she was graceful, impeccable, smooth as silk as she moved through the bland throng of equity partners like a tropical fish in a populated aquarium.

He was engaged in a mental debate as to whether he should leave before she spotted him or stay and see when her eyes met his. A breath caught in his throat as he stood like a deer pinned in the headlights of a semi, and the oddest urge to turn tail and run coursed through him. But he was no coward, and thanks to his father, he could turn expression on a dime. He'd grown up learning the hard way the value of a pop-up poker face.

He gave her the smile, the little exhale through his nose, the quick nod and watched the relief flood her expression before she turned away. The instant her eyes flicked away, he felt his face harden, the smile turn down to a hard line. The quiet shhh of fabric sliding over the wall reached his ears just as a sandalwood trace hit the air, alerting him to Kalinda's presence around the corner. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her ease a little closer and cross her arms over the front of her indigo cashmere sweater dress.

"So…there goes our girl," she commented in a neutral tone. Cary strove to be just as cool in his reply. "I don't think she's ours anymore."

"You're probably right, but a girl can hope." Kalinda being Kalinda, she noticed his eyes still pinned to the subject of their observations, and spotted the tinge of pain in his steadfast gaze. Deftly changing the subject, she leaned over and touched his elbow with hers in a gentle bolstering tap. "Buy you a drink?"

The smile that tweaked his mouth was wistful, and probably a little bitter, but his gaze turned from the woman before him to the one beside him and he pulled himself up straight. "Make it two, and you've got yourself a deal."

As they turned to walk down the hallway, Cary couldn't stop himself from taking one final look over his shoulder. She was still engaged in a circuit of welcomes and conversational introductions. Probably just as well, Cary thought. If she'd seen his face at that moment, she would've seen it all.

Author's Note: so that's all there is. Hope you liked it. Even if you didn't... you know the drill. Please read & review.