A/N: Hi Suitors! This is my first post here, I hope you'll enjoy it. English is a foreign language to me. Any reviews that would help me improve my written English are strongly appreciated. It may become a multi-chapter if I get positive reviews.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.

1.

[music: Wish You Were Here by Lee Field & The Expressions]

There he was, sitting at his desk, with all those memories crowding his mind and leading his stare into the distance and at that empty desk beyond the glass wall.
All of a sudden he felt dizzy. A void that couldn't be filled, no more a big shot of the best whiskey could compensate his father's loss.
The well had long run dry.
All those office noises in the background, nothing really mattered anymore.
It came up gently, sneaking out the backdoor of his unconscious.
But it was as heavy as lead: he had to get Donna back.

Wandering in a trackless desert too long is no good thing: one would do anything for a tiny drink of water. And no matter how long he had been sitting at the grown-ups table, Harvey was no exception. He had to be patient. Okay, he was the best closer in Manhattan, but feelings... Well, feelings weren't exactly his area, let alone whatever the hell was making him dizzy and confused and he still hadn't the guts to name. What a wuss! How could he ever have been so blind? How could she still be there for him? Again he had to be patient.
He had to play it right. He'd better win this: it was his ultimate chance. Close it Harvey, or die.

.::.

"Hey!"
She was just glaring at him in front of her condo door, no words, a bad sign. She stood still a couple of seconds and then turned right, and started walking in the opposite direction.
"Donna!"
No answer.
"Donna!" he called out again, picking up her pace, "Please..."
She stopped and kept on staring at him.
"I had no choice. All I want is to get you back"
"You had no choice?" she asked scathingly, raising her left eyebrow.
"And I'm getting you back."
"You're getting me back? ... How can you be so sure that's what I want now?"
"It is," he added quietly.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you: as you have come to know in twelve years, this beautiful woman still makes a perfect legal secretary and has already been hired by one of the best firms in the city which, by the way, is not yours. Now, if you excuse me, I have to be at work by 7:30. - She started walking again.
"Please, Donna..." urged Harvey staying her pace.
She stopped, "Please, please, please... I don't want to please you anymore, Harvey!"
"Then don't. But let me just tell you I feel so sorry, Donna. I feel sorry you shredded that memo. I'm sorry you didn't come to me in the first place. You wanted to protect me, and that's a thing I didn't ask for but... believe me, it's the only one in this damn muddle I'm not sorry about. You wanted to protect me because you care and... well... I... I care that you care," he grinned to his last sentence. He could do better, he thought.
Her widening eyes steadily in his, a question unasked. A question both of them didn't want to address before and he'd better find the guts to answer soon. No, not there, not now, just... soon. She was still too resentful and he had to stay focused to close this. Focus Harvey!
"Look Donna, I did fight for you, and I'm still fighting for you right now. I'm not Bruce Wayne, I can't win all the battles, but you bet I'm gonna win the war."
"Plus... there's still something that doesn't fit into place..." he added after a couple of seconds.
"What?"
"That document. You not remembering it ever crossed your desk. Sarah Layton, the CM Quality Control Manager, telling me she didn't put anything in writing. That dickhead of Tanner... he has done it before, I mean he has already planted evidence. And this time he was highly motivated: remember I crashed him in the Emerson Petroleum class action? And, for the records, I also punched him in the face during my deposition last week..."
"You punched him in the face..."
"You see, I'm not the Harvey you used to know... hell knows what happened to that smart guy..." he smiled at her.
"I don't swallow it, that's exactly the douchebag I used to know..."
"Well, maybe you're right or maybe... he's just grown bigger balls," he replied with a smirk.
She couldn't help an undetectable smile and was forced to look away from him.
"That dick brought up my mother, you know..." he added, "point is he knows a hell of a lot of things about me. It looks like someone took good care in prepping him. Now I'm getting a close look into his business."
She was silent again.
"Donna..."
"Well, here I am, Harvey... all the best with your investigations," she said while pushing the revolving door of a dark granite building at 10W 57th Street.
She was gone again.

But at least he was able to steal that elusive smile and that meant only one thing: she remembered that silly conversation they had when he was promoted junior partner as much as he had secured it in his mind:
"Finally an office big enough for your balls."
"Okay, I'm not touching that one."
"You would if you had bigger balls."
It just took him only five years to touch it, or probably twelve... who'd count them anyway?

.::.

[music: Bright Lights by Gary Clark Jr.]

Donna woke up to the beeping of her mobile phone: a message. A shrub of messy red hair re-emerged from a white pillow. She had been literally shattered by a night-long epic battle against a host of fully armored nightmares. She wearily stretched her left arm out of the blankets and up the bedside table to grab the phone. It took her a couple of seconds to focus the name blinking on the display.
Harvey.
-Good morning, let's have dinner. I've got important news.- Fuck your dinner, Harvey. She pressed vehemently the delete button, while sinking her head back into the pillow.
Her alarm clock would have gone off in five minutes.

She started thinking about the previous morning. He was handsome and he knew how to deal with it. See, that was the problem with him. That and the hard fact he was an asshole. Not a call in weeks, and then he had appeared out of nowhere to get her to do the trial run. She knew they had eventually settled, her attorney told her. And the previous morning... that was something she hadn't been expecting. By the way, she shouldn't have wasted those five minutes thinking about a man that didn't respect her enough to fire her himself.
Another beep. Harvey again.
-Just something I forgot to tell you yesterday: it had to be Jessica. You know I could have never stayed afloat in _your_ pool of tears.-
Jeez! What was he, some kind of mind reader? She thought glowering at her phone display.
A long buzz of the alarm clock suddenly broke the silence: time for her Saturday jog in Central Park.

She didn't realize a man was jogging at her side until she turned left and her eyes bumped into his face. She almost startled: there it was, that cocky smile she knew all too well.
Harvey said something and she pointed at one of her earphones indicating she couldn't hear. He stared at her cross-eyed while jogging along. She pulled out her left earphone.
"How comes you haven't replied to my message yet?" he asked.
"You won't get a reply."
"Waaph!" he buzzed.
He was wearing a blue sweatsuit. She was wearing a blue sweatsuit. The perfect match.
"Donna, you can't stand me up. I've already reserved the best table at the best spot here in Manhattan. No frills: just you, me and the most stunning view of the city skyline you can get... from my apartment. There's something I need to show you."
"What? Your butterfly collection?"
"Oh, I've even got major butterflies right now if you're so interested in them," he replied teasingly.
"Uh, no thanks: they'd fly away at the first Summer storm anyway."
"That's strange... I was under the impression that they were here to stay," he said and then added "Listen, Mike is helping me: we've dug out something. All the documents are in my apartment, I couldn't risk somebody in the office, particularly Daniel, suspecting we are still working at the CM case. I need you to see what we've got and help me connect the dots. You're the only person I can trust who worked at the case with me four years ago. What we've found indicates you didn't fail to turn over that memo, Donna. You didn't because there has never been a memo."
She stopped and plonked herself down on one of the green benches along the path.
"Okay, I'm listening," she uttered still out of breath.
"Ray is going to pick you up at your place, be ready at 8:30 this evening," he said, sitting down at her side and wiping away the sweat from his face with his forearm.
[music: I'm Still Here by Tom Waits]
She turned serious and locked her eyes in his "Why are you doing all this, Harvey?"
He smiled directing his look straight ahead into the distance "Because it's simpler than what you'd tell to a trial run jury."
He turned to her again beaming like a baby. She was holding his gaze, unable to stop a silly smile lighting up her face.
He kissed her.
And, you know, some kisses may well taste like eternity.
Then he whispered, his forehead skimming hers "See? It's because you love me."
"Wait a sec... it's you, you love me," she muttered regaining control over herself.
"You bet," he said quietly, his heart beating like he had never felt it before.
"Mmmmph!" he groaned slowly pushing himself away from the bench as if he was glued to it.
"8:30, be on time! ...Later!" he said finally standing up and turning back to his jog along the Turtle Pond on his way home.