NOTES: As I thought Rachel's talk with Donna had fitted in quite well after 'All In' but before 'Sucker Punch', this takes place around Episode Nine but is a little AU from there just in case of future spoilers.

ALWAYS, SPOILERS WARNING WARNING WARNING BLARRING SIRENS.

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Real Human Being & A Real Hero. – Song Quote.

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HOME PART 3

As Donna opened the door to her apartment, the man behind it stiffened, standing a little straighter than she remembered. She knew this day would come eventually. It was only a matter of time after you've continued to dodge a person's calls for a good working week.

The first had started with a "Donna, I, Call Me." and by the end of the week, had graduated to a pretty impressive "Donna I need to talk to you okay? Call me back."

Not the assistant on any one of the six times, though it wasn't a huge surprise to her. Whenever she'd pointed something out that he'd done wrong he had always challenged her on it or done the exact opposite of what the accusation was in the first place. He had a way of infuriating her to the very core, almost always on a Monday morning.

Today was a Tuesday afternoon. She'd expected better.

"I was going to knock but I-" He began, but she cut him off.

"What Harvey? What do want now?" She fired at him, flicking the purse that she clutched in one hand. She was beginning to hate the gut reaction that ran up her stomach and out of her mouth every time she saw him. And For a moment, he just looked at her, pensive, calculating…something.

"Uh, I don't have time for this-" She said, turning to pull the door to as his hand stretched and he grabbed the frame.

"I'm Sorry…For everything." His words exhaled out of him, slumping a little at the admission.

Watching her silent form, he continued. "About Louis, I mean-"

"Look, like I told Mike, you should have known how Louis would be about this, he's a creep when nice so god knows what you were thinking putting that pony in the ri-"

"Mike told me he came to see you."

"Twice." She said. "I think the kid has a crush, if he hadn't been trying to bone Rachel for months I'd have said a crush on you but-"

"Donna could you just…" He gestured, lips forcing a tight line. "I'm trying to *think* here."

She was rambling, she couldn't help it. She was still angry and nervous and the man in front of her was clearly not the Harvey Specter she'd known and she didn't want to deal with that today.

But he looked *so*…

He wore a white shirt and a silver grey tie that was strained around the knot. Same as he'd worn at the trial. She knew what that meant. This man was tired, worn out even and not in control of his life at the moment. And of course he wasn't, for the first time in years the man didn't have her making the world around him work for him. The man was unravelling. Louis had been right about something, she'd not only been this man's work secretary, she'd been his life secretary, and that was a lot to be ripped away from in a week.

"Sorry. Continue." She shifted, still vaguely aware that they were stood in a hallway, *her* hallway. And that he'd actually made his way into her building in the first place…without the security code.

For a second she saw him gather himself, like if he were to lose focus the ground beneath him would crumble.

And then he said it.

"I miss you."

The force in his eyes made her blink. "I know." She said.

Harvey immediately flashed his trademark tone of mock annoyance. "What? *How* do you know?"

"I'm Donna. I know."

"Okay Smartass how do you know?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes and decided there that perhaps she wasn't going out for lunch today, ignoring the sound her stomach made and opened the door turning back into her apartment. Moving towards the kitchen she tossed her purse on the sofa.

"Mike told Rachel, Rachel told me." She replied matter-of-factly. "I still have my spies in Pearson Hardman you know." She eyed him with one raised eyebrow.

Even when she was very angry at this man she could still play with him and maybe even enjoy it.

"We settled a deal on the Tanner case."

His words stopped her dead. Not *his* case, she noted.

"What was the deal?"

"One hundred thousand to each Partner in the firm, no disbarment, no trial."

He hadn't taken a chair like he would usually.

"But, that's…really, nothing else? How did that turn around?" She asked.

"Hardman found dirt on Tanner."

"Oh. Is that..." Everything coming out of his mouth was slightly off, like there was something missing, a penny to drop suddenly. She clutched a mug as she flicked the kettle on, the kitchen counter acting as a barrier.

"Is that a good thing? Hardman's not exactly Mr Trustworth? I mean the guy bleeds tar."

"No probably not. But Mike made me realize. I can't hurt anyone else if we settled. I can't hurt you again." He cleared his throat. "So, I made a choice."

Suddenly everything became clearer. That damned kid. He did fix it. She was silently thankful she wouldn't be going against Tanner, to be humiliated and thrown in jail before renouncing herself as the founder of the I-Heart-Harvey-Specter-and-I'd-do-it-again fan club. Somehow though she was sure if this man continued to be in her life, he'd probably hurt her again whether by accident, on purpose or as a residual debris of his hectic life. He was who he was, after all.

"How's Jessica taking it?" She asked. No bad blood…

"Well, Jessica wanted the trial. The moment I voted, the swing vote, Hardman, the son-of-a-bitch double played us for a Managing Partner vote. I've basically screwed her over."

The weight of his words settled for a moment.

"Oh. Harvey I'm so sorry." Something occurred to her in a flash. "Wait, are you… sure he didn't orchestrate all of this? I never saw that…Memo."

"I don't know." And there came out a real truth to his words.

None of them knew.

This was bad, for Harvey, for Jessica, for Mike and the firm. Daniel Hardman was out for blood and they were all a just dominoes waiting to be bowled over. This would be a dogfight, and suddenly not much else from the last week mattered. In one fail swoop this man had been at the hand of the oncoming storm only to have it change hands into a whole room of people's worst nightmare.

She looked at him, and felt,

Perhaps this *was* love?

In a flash he could turn her from stone to fire and then sunshine. She glanced back at him to find have him eyeing her cautiously, still standing motionless in the doorway.

"Come In?" She joked, eyeing the space between him and the open door.

Pushing the door to a close with a slight flick of the hand, he moved towards her couch and sat, shifting awkwardly on the brown cord to unbutton his suit jacket. He looked so classically out of place, like gleaming steel on orange tweed. She sat down next to him and propped two cups of onto the coffee table.

This man, this strange and wonderful man that she had protected for so long was now so vulnerable on her couch, even in his big hotshot suit, hair slicked, shoes shined he looked: defeated, broken. She tried to not let it show how so, focusing on her mug.

"That assistant is a Jackass." He said after a minute of her sipping the French Cinnamon. Two sugars. Foam.

"Oh, you didn't get a hot twenty year old giraffe to letch over then?"

"Donna Paulsen, I'll have you know I am no letch, and I'm sure he's twenty. Deer in headlights idiot look about him."

"Oh, of course! He's a young guy! Oh, give him a break."

The subject of someone else doing her job seared a little, so she masked the topic with some jovial encouragement.

"He'll be fine, just give him time."

"The guy colour codes the urgency of messages. And, tells me the colour before giving me the message."

"Oh, God. Let's shoot him now." She nudged his shoulder with her arm, and from it came a small real laugh and real colour in the man's face since he'd appeared on her doorstep. He relaxed a little and lent his head back briefly against the sofa cushion closing his eyes and letting out a long audible breath and she watched him for what seemed like an eternity before deciding there and then.

"You're tired."

"I'm Fine." He retorted, voice thick with sleep.

Donna shot up from the couch on automatic pilot, taking her hand in his. "Come on, let's go."

"Donna, what-What are you doing?" he resisted slightly but seemed to allow her to pull him down the corridor despite his protestations.

"Come On. Vamanos, Mr Specter."

"Donna wait, what-" Came a rather fractured questioning.

"Could you just stop being the Boss, for like two minutes? Come on."

The rest of their short journey to her bedroom was met with silence as she brought him through the door. She'd been suffering with a stress ache for the past week so her shutters were half down. She turned to him letting go of his hand, swearing that she felt a small squeeze before he did so. Taking his lapels she very lightly removed his jacket, following it round to his back, for a second caught the light aroma that was his cologne. Ignoring a slight dizzy warm feeling, the smell of cut grass, fresh air and something innately him, she folded the jacket and draped it over her dresser chair as he watched her. Then she moved towards his tie, her fingers making their way to the knot, only to pause for a second, feeling the silk that rested there and hesitating at the touch, like she'd overstepped a sacred mount. She leant into him ever so slightly.

"Donna I…"

"Take your tie off or it'll get creased."

Swallowing whatever words were threatening their retort, he slowly complied, quietly undoing his tie before letting her take it from him and watching her place it next to his jacket, leaving him in his crisp white shirt. His eyes never left her once.

She took his hand once more and moved him gently to the bed.

"You look tired." She stated simply, pressing him by the shoulders ever so slightly until he began to lie back on the cushions. "Now, sleep." She said, an encouraging smile playing on her lips before she turned for the door.

"Stay with me."

"Harvey, I don-" She warned, turning to face him.

"Please." He asked, voice cold and hard and needing.

She eyed his face; jaw tensed a little, but his eyes, his eyes were dark and withholding but yet somehow had softened slightly since he'd arrived. And more words were playing there in their depths, mixing up her insides. Sighing in quiet defeat, she shut the door, moved to the side that he laid on, flicking off her shoes and shrugging off her cardigan to the floor as she sat down in the space he'd made for her. She pulled out a pillow from underneath the quilt and faced away from him on her side.

"FYI Mister this is a no-groping zone."

She heard a small chuckle erupt from him as his hand snaked through the space between her right arm and waist landing on her stomach. Her stomach muscles under his hand tensed and she tried to mask the audible sigh it caused as he pulled himself to rest flush against her.

Any other man and he'd been a beat away from a kick in the balls. But this was Harvey Specter, and she knew him enough. Did her know her enough? The answer to that question she was unsure of and it took her a moment to mentally relax herself. She wasn't sure what was happening, or what her intention had been in bringing him to her room now that she was lying next to him. Maybe she didn't care anymore.

A moment passed, where only breathing could be heard.

"I'm still angry with you." She said simply.

"I'm still angry with *you*." He answered. "I still have my shoes on."

"Ssssh. We're sleeping." She whispered, feeling him smile against the base of her neck that caused her to shiver.

She let her eyes flutter shut. She wasn't sure what was coming for them, or what they were, where she was going or what mattered most, but for the moment and for the first in a very long time she felt like she was,

Home.

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Please feed the kitty if you want more. There may be more. Here's the kitty. _