"You could take a class."

Jessica rolled her eyes as she moved aside so Harvey could come in. "You came all the way to my apartment to tell me I could take a class? You could've called," she reminded him as she resisted a snort.

Harvey shrugged one shoulder. "You wouldn't have answered the phone," he said as he turned around, his expression knowing.

Jessica thought about her phone on her bed, turned off and felt a prick of irritation. "Objection, badgering the witness," she muttered, keeping the door open in what she hoped was an obvious manner. Harvey's smile was large enough that she had to turn away, and busied herself with closing the door when she realized he wasn't going to leave. "What are you here for, Harvey?" The lock on her door is endlessly fascinating for now, if it meant she wouldn't have to see the worry and concern on his face. She had promised him and most importantly herself they would never be in this position.

In a position where they wouldn't be on top.

"I'm here because you wouldn't answer your phone. I was worried."

"Well, as you see I'm fine; you can go." Jessica moved to open the door again when Harvey's hand reached out to push the door closed.

"Jessica; you won't even look at me." Jessica released the door and turned to look at him, arms crossed and mask in place. Harvey searched her expression for a crack or sign of something, but she knew he wouldn't find one. "Why won't you let me in? You have before," he said quietly. "I'm worried." About you, he doesn't have to say aloud.

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit. Jessica, you just lost your firm and your job in one fell swoop." Harvey put his jacket on the coat rack and revealed a bottle of wine. "That's not something you bounce back from in a couple of hours. There is no harm in being human for a while."

"So your suggestion is to drink?" Jessica followed Harvey down the hall to her kitchen and watched him look for the corkscrew for the umpteenth time. The memory brings a small smile to her face but it's gone before Harvey found what he was looking for and poured them both glasses filled a little more than propriety would suggest.

"Absolutely; unless you want to talk feelings sober."

Jessica reached out for the proffered glass and took a swallow quickly.

"Anything? And not get away with it?" Jessica stretched out on the couch and flexed her toes as she regarded the question. "I think I would pay someone to disembowel Daniel. I couldn't do it myself.

"Oh?" Harvey looked scornful.

"No; because you can't get blood out of good clothes." She let her head rest against the arm and laughed lowly.

Harvey shook his head. "I would want to do it myself. Not necessarily disembowel but I would really like to take him to the gym and tune him up. I'd use him as my punching bag." He looked pleased at the fantasy as he poured a refill.

"I could get behind that if we could hear him scream."

"Woman after my own heart," Harvey said.

"Then I change my fantasy to yours." Jessica laughed loudly, and felt something in her shoulders loosen slightly. Just a few hours ago she didn't know if she would have it in her to laugh or smile for some time.

"Did it feel good?" Harvey asked.

"Don't be an ass," Jessica chided, but there was nothing but fondness behind her words. "Thank you," she said after a moment. He always knew what to do to bring her spirits up and there were times she was profoundly grateful.

"It was true, what I said. If you go, I go."

Jessica frowned. "I know; I just wonder what else is there?"

Harvey looked at her like she was two years old. "We don't have to stay in New York. I know the non-compete is ironclad."

"Would have to be, considering I wrote it," she breezed as she turned on the couch. "Where else but New York? We both hate Los Angeles."

"We could start somewhere smaller, still happening. Seattle? Miami?"

"Can't do Miami; they couldn't pry your three-piece suit from your cold dead hand."

"True." Harvey looked at Jessica with a smile. "So, Seattle it is. I already know you happen to own some commercial property there."

"How do you know that?" Jessica is not surprised. Harvey learned many years ago to file away information until it became advantageous to divulge.

"I have my sources," he said smoothly. Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Fine, Mangella in Real Estate told me a couple of years ago."

Jessica sat up, the numbers and logistics running through her head.

"Now there's your real smile." Harvey looked smug as he finished the rest of his wine.

"It's going to be a lot of work. Harvey, more work than you've ever done before," Jessica warned.

"I'm hurt if you don't know by now that I'm not afraid of hard work, Jessica." He moved closer and took her hand. "Are you sure you want to do this again?"

Jessica scoffed and moved away from Harvey and off of the couch. "You ask that just as you've talked me into it? What the hell kind of lawyer are you?" She convinced herself the feeling in her stomach was coming from too much wine and nothing substantial to eat in the past forty-eight hours.

"The good kind, but right now I'm your friend. Are you sure you want to start over? There is no shame in retiring. I know you can afford it. You'd go out at the top of your game."

No, Jessica thought. She wanted to go back to her firm and go about business like things had never happened. As if they had been as smart as they were so sure they were. That the misstep with Hardman made her wonder if she could put her trust in another white man again, and not expect to get screwed over. "You don't know what the top of my game is, Harvey," she snapped. "My best days aren't behind me, they're ahead of me, I assure you. If you don't want to bet on a winning horse then you can just show your ass to the door."

"Hey."

Suddenly Harvey was right in front of Jessica, in her personal space. His expression was kind and that was probably what sliced through the last of her defenses. "You once told me it was important to mourn when we lose things. When we lose things we truly cared about."

"I bled for that firm," she whispered, and the bitterness is not only laced in between the words but in her throat as well. "I spent so much time protecting our people - They're going to wither and flee in the day to day reality of Daniel's command. He's going to run that firm and all we've built, all I built into the ground. And for what?" she asked. "Because he liked to think he won?"

"The only consolation you have now is that your name is not on the door any longer." Harvey looked vaguely sick. "Something tells me that will be a small mercy."

"I shouldn't have quit." Jessica moved away from Harvey to go stand by the window. She bought the apartment as soon as she'd seen the view; it had comforted her on more than one occasion and when she came home alone, again, it was like a wonderful companion that lifted her spirits.

She would miss it.

"You couldn't have worked for that asshole. He was going to do or say something that would've come to blows. Someone told me that grace was important, too."

Jessica snorted at that. "You have a habit of quoting lessons you have yet to learn."

"Only because it makes you smile when I do it. That and I am really good." Harvey's smile in the reflection of the window is wide enough to crinkle the edges of his eyes and Jessica wanted to turn around and smooth those lines away. The Harvey in the reflection is older than the Harvey in her memories. In her memories he's still the young man in the mail room, outraged at what an associate did to win.

The Harvey at her back was by no means an old man, but he was older, and even more sure of himself, if that was possible. He was a man who knew what he wanted and had most of the tools needed to get it without question. They had spent the last five years running Pearson Hardman together, no matter what it said on the door.

"That's probably my fault," Jessica said aloud. "I've taught you to overvalue yourself." She turned away from the window and the view to actually look at Harvey.

"No, you just reaffirmed what I always knew." His smirk was almost unbearable, but she rolled her eyes anyway.

Jessica shook her head. "If we're going to do this we'll need to get started tomorrow. Bright and early."

"Not one day, seriously?" Harvey's expression and tone had immediately soured. "I was hoping to sleep in until nine."

"Sleep when we're dead," Jessica breezed as she moved toward her home office.

Rebuilding. She still wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, but she had a plan, and she'd be damned if Daniel Hardman would think he'd won for long.

"There's another thing."

Jessica looked up from where she turned on her computer to find Harvey leaning in the doorway like he owned the place. "Oh?" she asked.

"We're going to be partners this time," he said as he came into the room.

Jessica nodded. "I would rather not do it without you," she admitted.

Harvey's smile was tight and a little nervous. "Real partners, Jessica."

"Pearson Specter it is," she said. He merely looked at her. "What do you want, Harvey? Spit it out."

"Stupidity doesn't look good on you," he said.

"Excuse me?" Jessica stopped, incredulous.

"You know exactly what I mean. I think now's the time for you to consider my marriage proposal, for real."