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threeguessesWord Count: 1 500+
Disclaimer: Disclaimed!
AN: Originally written a long, long time ago for![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=2)
lowriseflare's prompt (ensemble: take your daughter to work day) in sweetjamielee's The Good Wife Comment Fic Meme. I finally decided to post it here in all its odd, snippet-fic sketchiness.
Title and summary from Loudon Wainright's Daughter. The poem Kalinda and David Lee quote is, of course, La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
Everything she takes, she takes apart
Grace insisted on coming. She was armed with a green binder and three new mechanical pencils, had done her hair in a knot, high and sophisticated. It made her look older. Alicia sighed, cupping the new curve of her daughter’s jaw, sharp and getting sharper, and caved in the face of its unfamiliarity. (Grace was already wearing a cross around her neck, going to church; Alicia didn’t want to miss anything else.)
“I won’t be in court,” she warned, but Grace had stars in her eyes. She’d packed her own lunch, was waiting and organized long before Alicia had finished getting ready.
“Can I have some lipstick?” she asked, leaning on Alicia’s vanity. She was wearing her most grown-up sweater dress. Alicia missed her round cheeks, her childhood belly.
“Sure.”
Grace insisted on the red but let Alicia put it on, obediently tilting her head and rubbing her lips together on command. Her mouth looked wide and foreign.
“Okay?” She peered nervously at the mirror.
“Lovely,” Alicia smiled.
Zach rolled his eyes at them over his cereal, but Peter caught Grace’s chin and pronounced her his “beautiful girl”. She lit up like the sun.
“We’ll be late,” Alicia said quietly. They turned to look at her as one and Alicia felt out of place and separate, outside their private father-daughter moment.
Then Grace smiled, shouldering her grown-up messenger bag (no patterns or large logos or pink because Mom, how will anyone take me seriously?) and the spell was broken.
Inside Lockhart-Gardner, Alicia quickly realized Will hadn’t been lying when he said Take Your Daughter to Work Day was an encouraged tradition (she worried, sometimes, that he was only saying what he thought she wanted to hear). There was a gaggle of preteens in the lobby, bassinets on some of the assistants’ desks. A solemn, wide-eyed girl was sitting on Courtney’s lap.
“My niece,” Courtney explained. “Karin.” The girl hid her head into Courtney’s neck. Her tiny patent-leather shoes tugged at something deep and half-forgotten in Alicia’s abdomen.
“I’m Grace,” Grace said easily, reaching over to shake Courtney’s hand. She smiled at Karin, a soft maternal smile to go with the sharp new lines of her jaw.
“First up is the staff meeting,” Alicia explained once they were inside the office. Grace’s eyes raked curiously over her desk, over the file folders and the post-its and the neatly organized pens. “I’m not sure if you’re allowed,” Alicia told her, “but I’ll check.”
She caught up with Kalinda in the bullpen. “Go for it,” Kalinda said with a shrug and a flick of her hand, “I think legal’s bringing at least one baby.” She paused, watching through the glass as Grace sat down gingerly in Alicia’s chair. “She looks almost nothing like you, you know.”
Alicia followed her gaze, sighing. “You should have seen her when she was little,” she murmured. “The blondest curls. Like fairy-hair.”
“Are you having a moment here or something?” Kalinda said, but her face was fond. She squeezed Alicia’s wrist lightly. “I’ll save two seats.”
Legal brought three babies. One of them, the closest to Alicia and Grace, was silly and dimpled with agile feet. Alicia caught its tiny kicking sock in one hand, but it only had eyes for Kalinda.
“It’s the notebook,” Kalinda sighed, shifting the orange cover beneath a folder and offering the baby her finger instead.
“Do you have any kids, Ms. Sharma?” Grace asked politely. She seemed mildly star-struck.
Kalinda widened her eyes at the baby playfully; it collapsed into gurgles. “Not a one.”
Nearly everyone at the meeting made a point of introducing themselves to Grace. ‘How’s school’ and ‘Do you want to be a lawyer?’ were common themes. When Will came over Grace turned wary, sharp shoulders raised and bristling. But all she did was shake his hand. All she said was “pleased to meet you,” voice measured and clipped.
“Alright,” Kalinda whispered in Alicia’s ear with a smirk. “Now I can see it.”
Alicia shushed her, a mix of guilt and pride settling in her chest at the sight of her daughter’s poker-face.
After the meeting, Grace did her homework quietly while Alicia prepped an opening statement, lined up the order of her witnesses. A few people slipped in and out over the course of the morning - some ignored Grace, some didn’t.
“And what are you working on, young lady?” David Lee asked, giving her his ‘what-alimony?’ smile.
“An essay on Keats,” Grace said shyly. Her lipstick had long since worn off.
“Ah,” David Lee exclaimed, drawing himself up. “‘Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing.’” Grace smiled tentatively as he waggled a finger at her. “A wonderful poem. Befits your lovely mother, don’t you think?”
Grace opened her mouth to reply, but he was already out the door.
“What did he mean, Mom?” she asked, brow furrowed.
“Nothing worth repeating,” Alicia said exasperatedly, praying that Grace’s class was studying something else. To Autumn, Ode on a Grecian Urn. Anything. “Don’t worry about it.”
Grace bent her head back over her essay, but she was frowning.
“David Lee compared me to a malevolent fairy in front of my daughter,” Alicia announced when Kalinda stopped by an hour later. Grace was inspecting the vending machines in the office kitchen.
“O-kay,” Kalinda drawled, giving Alicia her ‘I’m-not-sure-why-I-like-you’ look. “Anyways. Want to go do a couple of the interviews for the Kaluski thing?”
“I thought those weren’t needed until Friday.” Alicia began frantically sifting through the papers in her to-do tray.
Kalinda stopped her with a laugh. “They aren’t, but I figured sitting in your office might not be a teenager’s idea of fun.” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
“Oh,” Alicia said, surprised. “Wow. That’s— very thoughtful of you, Kalinda, thank you. But I can’t,” she continued on a sigh. “I have a meeting with Diane to discuss the Farrow case.”
Kalinda shrugged. “That’s alright,” she said, heading towards the door. “See if Grace still wants to.”
“Really?” Alicia gasped, delighted. “You’d take her anyways?”
“Sure,” Kalinda smiled. “Besides, having a kid along might actually help with the interviews.”
“Oh, Kalinda, thank you so mu—” She stopped. “Kalinda Sharma, are you planning to involve my daughter in illegal activity?”
Kalinda looked exasperated. “No.”
“Okay,” Alicia said skeptically. She paused. “But don’t— don’t flirt in front of her,” she said finally. “Don’t use your… wiles to get the information you want, or, or—” she raised her voice over the sound of Kalinda’s pealing laughter “—if you do, for god’s sakes do it subtly. If she comes back asking me for—for leather boots and a lock-picking kit, you don’t want to know what I’ll do.”
“No?” Kalinda looked up from under her eyelashes. “And what might that be?”
“Hi,” said a bright voice to their left – Grace, back from the vending machines. She was holding a Kit-Kat bar, some M&Ms. “What’s going on?”
Kalinda turned away from Alicia, still smirking. “Hi,” she told Grace. “Feel like going on a field trip?”
Grace begged and begged. And when Alicia eventually agreed, Kalinda’s knowing smile had nothing to do with it.
They were gone through lunch. Alicia tried her very best not to worry about that.
She was sitting at Courtney’s desk with Karin on her lap (Courtney had dashed out to get salads) when Will dropped by, purposeful gate slowing to a stop as he spotted her.
“Will. Hi.” She felt strangely exposed, as if he’d caught her at something. There was as a pause as she struggled to sit up against Karin’s warm baby-weight. “What can I do for you?”
“Oh.” Will looked awkward. “I was just… I wanted to meet Grace more properly.”
Alicia smiled, touched. “You’re out of luck – she’s off with Kalinda learning how to bend the letter of the law.”
“Life skills for every teenager,” he said, smiling back. He hovered by the desk, touching the corner of Karin’s sippy cup. “And whose—?”
“Courtney’s niece.”
“Cute kid.”
“She is.”
And then there was nothing to say. Karin’s patent leather shoes seemed to be making the words stick in their throats. There was that time, in Georgetown, when they had thought— but then the stick hadn’t turned blue, and Alicia met Peter, and—
“Well,” said Will. “I better head back.”
“Yeah,” Alicia agreed softly. “You should.”
Courtney breezed in five minutes later, two salads and a Kinder Surprise tucked underneath her coat. Karin was ragdoll-floppy, sleepy and acquiescent in a way Alicia’s own kids had never been. Alicia was both sad and relieved to give her up.
“Awesome,” was all Grace said when she came back, dashing off to phone a friend from Alicia’s office.
“Do I want to know?” Alicia asked a sly Kalinda.
“Mmm, the million dollar question.” Kalinda peeled off her gloves, ignoring Alicia’s exasperated smile. “‘I met a lady in the meads…’” she murmured, trailing off and cocking her head. “I would have gone with Tennyson, myself. If I were going to insult you poetically.”
“God, did Grace tell you? I was praying her class hadn’t read it.” Then: “Which Tennyson?”
Kalinda smiled her secret smile. “The Lady of Shallot.”
“‘I am half-sick of shadows.’” Alicia shook her head ruefully. “I’d rather be the malevolent fairy.”
“Wouldn’t we all,” said Kalinda, and waltzed off down the hallway.
Disclaimer: Disclaimed!
AN: Originally written a long, long time ago for
lowriseflare's prompt (ensemble: take your daughter to work day) in sweetjamielee's The Good Wife Comment Fic Meme. I finally decided to post it here in all its odd, snippet-fic sketchiness. Title and summary from Loudon Wainright's Daughter. The poem Kalinda and David Lee quote is, of course, La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
Everything she takes, she takes apart
Grace insisted on coming. She was armed with a green binder and three new mechanical pencils, had done her hair in a knot, high and sophisticated. It made her look older. Alicia sighed, cupping the new curve of her daughter’s jaw, sharp and getting sharper, and caved in the face of its unfamiliarity. (Grace was already wearing a cross around her neck, going to church; Alicia didn’t want to miss anything else.)
“I won’t be in court,” she warned, but Grace had stars in her eyes. She’d packed her own lunch, was waiting and organized long before Alicia had finished getting ready.
“Can I have some lipstick?” she asked, leaning on Alicia’s vanity. She was wearing her most grown-up sweater dress. Alicia missed her round cheeks, her childhood belly.
“Sure.”
Grace insisted on the red but let Alicia put it on, obediently tilting her head and rubbing her lips together on command. Her mouth looked wide and foreign.
“Okay?” She peered nervously at the mirror.
“Lovely,” Alicia smiled.
Zach rolled his eyes at them over his cereal, but Peter caught Grace’s chin and pronounced her his “beautiful girl”. She lit up like the sun.
“We’ll be late,” Alicia said quietly. They turned to look at her as one and Alicia felt out of place and separate, outside their private father-daughter moment.
Then Grace smiled, shouldering her grown-up messenger bag (no patterns or large logos or pink because Mom, how will anyone take me seriously?) and the spell was broken.
Inside Lockhart-Gardner, Alicia quickly realized Will hadn’t been lying when he said Take Your Daughter to Work Day was an encouraged tradition (she worried, sometimes, that he was only saying what he thought she wanted to hear). There was a gaggle of preteens in the lobby, bassinets on some of the assistants’ desks. A solemn, wide-eyed girl was sitting on Courtney’s lap.
“My niece,” Courtney explained. “Karin.” The girl hid her head into Courtney’s neck. Her tiny patent-leather shoes tugged at something deep and half-forgotten in Alicia’s abdomen.
“I’m Grace,” Grace said easily, reaching over to shake Courtney’s hand. She smiled at Karin, a soft maternal smile to go with the sharp new lines of her jaw.
“First up is the staff meeting,” Alicia explained once they were inside the office. Grace’s eyes raked curiously over her desk, over the file folders and the post-its and the neatly organized pens. “I’m not sure if you’re allowed,” Alicia told her, “but I’ll check.”
She caught up with Kalinda in the bullpen. “Go for it,” Kalinda said with a shrug and a flick of her hand, “I think legal’s bringing at least one baby.” She paused, watching through the glass as Grace sat down gingerly in Alicia’s chair. “She looks almost nothing like you, you know.”
Alicia followed her gaze, sighing. “You should have seen her when she was little,” she murmured. “The blondest curls. Like fairy-hair.”
“Are you having a moment here or something?” Kalinda said, but her face was fond. She squeezed Alicia’s wrist lightly. “I’ll save two seats.”
Legal brought three babies. One of them, the closest to Alicia and Grace, was silly and dimpled with agile feet. Alicia caught its tiny kicking sock in one hand, but it only had eyes for Kalinda.
“It’s the notebook,” Kalinda sighed, shifting the orange cover beneath a folder and offering the baby her finger instead.
“Do you have any kids, Ms. Sharma?” Grace asked politely. She seemed mildly star-struck.
Kalinda widened her eyes at the baby playfully; it collapsed into gurgles. “Not a one.”
Nearly everyone at the meeting made a point of introducing themselves to Grace. ‘How’s school’ and ‘Do you want to be a lawyer?’ were common themes. When Will came over Grace turned wary, sharp shoulders raised and bristling. But all she did was shake his hand. All she said was “pleased to meet you,” voice measured and clipped.
“Alright,” Kalinda whispered in Alicia’s ear with a smirk. “Now I can see it.”
Alicia shushed her, a mix of guilt and pride settling in her chest at the sight of her daughter’s poker-face.
After the meeting, Grace did her homework quietly while Alicia prepped an opening statement, lined up the order of her witnesses. A few people slipped in and out over the course of the morning - some ignored Grace, some didn’t.
“And what are you working on, young lady?” David Lee asked, giving her his ‘what-alimony?’ smile.
“An essay on Keats,” Grace said shyly. Her lipstick had long since worn off.
“Ah,” David Lee exclaimed, drawing himself up. “‘Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing.’” Grace smiled tentatively as he waggled a finger at her. “A wonderful poem. Befits your lovely mother, don’t you think?”
Grace opened her mouth to reply, but he was already out the door.
“What did he mean, Mom?” she asked, brow furrowed.
“Nothing worth repeating,” Alicia said exasperatedly, praying that Grace’s class was studying something else. To Autumn, Ode on a Grecian Urn. Anything. “Don’t worry about it.”
Grace bent her head back over her essay, but she was frowning.
“David Lee compared me to a malevolent fairy in front of my daughter,” Alicia announced when Kalinda stopped by an hour later. Grace was inspecting the vending machines in the office kitchen.
“O-kay,” Kalinda drawled, giving Alicia her ‘I’m-not-sure-why-I-like-you’ look. “Anyways. Want to go do a couple of the interviews for the Kaluski thing?”
“I thought those weren’t needed until Friday.” Alicia began frantically sifting through the papers in her to-do tray.
Kalinda stopped her with a laugh. “They aren’t, but I figured sitting in your office might not be a teenager’s idea of fun.” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
“Oh,” Alicia said, surprised. “Wow. That’s— very thoughtful of you, Kalinda, thank you. But I can’t,” she continued on a sigh. “I have a meeting with Diane to discuss the Farrow case.”
Kalinda shrugged. “That’s alright,” she said, heading towards the door. “See if Grace still wants to.”
“Really?” Alicia gasped, delighted. “You’d take her anyways?”
“Sure,” Kalinda smiled. “Besides, having a kid along might actually help with the interviews.”
“Oh, Kalinda, thank you so mu—” She stopped. “Kalinda Sharma, are you planning to involve my daughter in illegal activity?”
Kalinda looked exasperated. “No.”
“Okay,” Alicia said skeptically. She paused. “But don’t— don’t flirt in front of her,” she said finally. “Don’t use your… wiles to get the information you want, or, or—” she raised her voice over the sound of Kalinda’s pealing laughter “—if you do, for god’s sakes do it subtly. If she comes back asking me for—for leather boots and a lock-picking kit, you don’t want to know what I’ll do.”
“No?” Kalinda looked up from under her eyelashes. “And what might that be?”
“Hi,” said a bright voice to their left – Grace, back from the vending machines. She was holding a Kit-Kat bar, some M&Ms. “What’s going on?”
Kalinda turned away from Alicia, still smirking. “Hi,” she told Grace. “Feel like going on a field trip?”
Grace begged and begged. And when Alicia eventually agreed, Kalinda’s knowing smile had nothing to do with it.
They were gone through lunch. Alicia tried her very best not to worry about that.
She was sitting at Courtney’s desk with Karin on her lap (Courtney had dashed out to get salads) when Will dropped by, purposeful gate slowing to a stop as he spotted her.
“Will. Hi.” She felt strangely exposed, as if he’d caught her at something. There was as a pause as she struggled to sit up against Karin’s warm baby-weight. “What can I do for you?”
“Oh.” Will looked awkward. “I was just… I wanted to meet Grace more properly.”
Alicia smiled, touched. “You’re out of luck – she’s off with Kalinda learning how to bend the letter of the law.”
“Life skills for every teenager,” he said, smiling back. He hovered by the desk, touching the corner of Karin’s sippy cup. “And whose—?”
“Courtney’s niece.”
“Cute kid.”
“She is.”
And then there was nothing to say. Karin’s patent leather shoes seemed to be making the words stick in their throats. There was that time, in Georgetown, when they had thought— but then the stick hadn’t turned blue, and Alicia met Peter, and—
“Well,” said Will. “I better head back.”
“Yeah,” Alicia agreed softly. “You should.”
Courtney breezed in five minutes later, two salads and a Kinder Surprise tucked underneath her coat. Karin was ragdoll-floppy, sleepy and acquiescent in a way Alicia’s own kids had never been. Alicia was both sad and relieved to give her up.
“Awesome,” was all Grace said when she came back, dashing off to phone a friend from Alicia’s office.
“Do I want to know?” Alicia asked a sly Kalinda.
“Mmm, the million dollar question.” Kalinda peeled off her gloves, ignoring Alicia’s exasperated smile. “‘I met a lady in the meads…’” she murmured, trailing off and cocking her head. “I would have gone with Tennyson, myself. If I were going to insult you poetically.”
“God, did Grace tell you? I was praying her class hadn’t read it.” Then: “Which Tennyson?”
Kalinda smiled her secret smile. “The Lady of Shallot.”
“‘I am half-sick of shadows.’” Alicia shook her head ruefully. “I’d rather be the malevolent fairy.”
“Wouldn’t we all,” said Kalinda, and waltzed off down the hallway.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 05:45 am (UTC)Such a great premise - and well executed at that. Loved the little moments of Alicia's observations of Grace, not to mention the really well-chosen dialogue!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 05:50 am (UTC)Awwww, so adorable! And haha, I love this portrayal of Kalinda as great with kids as long as they are someone else's kids!
Eh... I so don't have the headspace for poems.... Well, except for that vegetarians are evil one. But to be honest, I don't even remember how that one goes completely. And grrr, never did like David Lee, and then today I remembered why, he's Richard Chessler, the boss from Fight Club! XP
And woah with that mention of Will & Alicia & the could have been blue stick back in Georgetown. That was a very sombre moment in a mostly hilariously adorable fic! Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 10:13 pm (UTC)And eh, some poems have just been drilled into my brain from way back in high school English, La Belle Dame Sans Merci among them. And holy crap, David Lee is in Fight Club?! *scurries to imbd*
I'm glad you liked the fic. &hearts
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 07:44 pm (UTC)I loved this.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 10:17 pm (UTC)Happy you enjoyed. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 09:37 pm (UTC)And Kalinda and Grace hanging out=letter perfect. Kalinda is full of surprises. Also, the awkwardness with Will (but him wanting to meet Grace more properly=cute).
Loved this!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-04 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-06 09:06 pm (UTC)I think you're brilliant. The way you spun this together, and the way you incorporated the ensemble, and the details that are so imbued with meaning... gah. *has giant fic-crush on you*
Organization of things I adore which may or may not devolve into mindless squee:
1. Your Grace here is so much more likable than canon!Grace. I adore her enchantment with Alicia's professional world, and how she takes it all so SERIOUSLY.
2. Alicia's bittersweet reveries about her little girl growing up almost made ME a little teary. And loved Kalinda not understanding it at all (this is the woman whose solution to parenting issues is "get your tubes tied"), but being endeared by it all the same.
3. Grace's reaction to Will, and Kalinda seeing evidence of Alicia's genes in the poker face -- PRICELESS.
4. OMFG KALINDA AND BABIES JSJAKSJDJDLAFS.
5. LOL at David Lee. He's so sly.:)
6. Okay, I know this isn't an uber-explicit shippy fic or anything. But Kalinda taking Alicia's daughter to the meeting? Makes me see puppies and sparkles and hearts and unicorns.
7. On a related note, this whole thing:
“Okay,” Alicia said skeptically. She paused. “But don’t— don’t flirt in front of her,” she said finally. “Don’t use your… wiles to get the information you want, or, or—” she raised her voice over the sound of Kalinda’s pealing laughter “—if you do, for god’s sakes do it subtly. If she comes back asking me for—for leather boots and a lock-picking kit, you don’t want to know what I’ll do.”
“No?” Kalinda looked up from under her eyelashes. “And what might that be?”
If I could take any lines of any fic to a hotel room for a night to do illicit and unspeakable and possibly illegal acts with, IT WOULD BE THESE. BRILLIANT.
8. Willicia. "Then the stick hadn't turned blue." D: D: OICWYDT. YOU'RE EVEN SLYER THAN DAVID LEE.
9. I love that Kalinda knows poetry. And that she knows tragic poetry. And that she thinks of Alicia and tragic poetry and compares them. And I just love them. And you.
Never stop doing this. Eeeever.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 04:50 am (UTC)Ah Grace - I wanna like her in canon, I really do. Sometimes she's likable (see: when she's fucking over Eli), but most of the time... eh. I figure Alicia must love her though (parental instincts, blah, blah), so a fic from Alicia's pov = a saner Grace? Who even knows. Either way, Alicia-as-a-mom is an angle I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
As for Kalinda: dude, this fic was originally way, way shippier. I had to pull it back because, you know, ensemble prompt, but it was so hard Jamie, oh my god. Gen: I can no longer write it.
And Will - see, I ship them at Georgetown like burning, but you know what else I apparently ship? Awkward/tragic-fallout of Georgetown. That's totally a genre, right?
In conclusion: basically I just wanted to write about Kalinda interacting with babies and quoting poetry. Yes.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-12 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 08:44 pm (UTC)