"You said you'd get rid of him," said Hardman as he stood in front of the same man from two weeks ago. A little bit of anger trickled into his usually calm voice. "Yet, he's still alive."
"Do not worry. Next time there will not be a mistake."
"There better not be. I want him dead and I want him dead now."
Jessica wanted it to be Hardman because that meant a definite way to get him out of the firm. However, she hoped for his own sake that it wasn't him because if it was, the rest of his life would be the most miserable years a human being had ever lived.
She was almost positive that he had been the one to send that text from her phone. However, there hadn't been any other finger prints besides her own on the phone meaning that there was no proof that it was Hardman.
Trying to get evidence, Jessica hired a private detective to scout Hardman when he left work. Most of the time he went home or to a restaurant. Nevertheless, every once in a while the detective would lose Hardman, anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour. During those times, Jessica had no idea where Hardman had gone to and she didn't like it. It made her wonder if the detective she had hired wasn't as good as she had originally thought, or if Hardman was just that much better at ditching the detective, if he knew he was being followed everyday that is.
Jessica kept in touch with the police, wanting to know immediately if they found anything. So far it seemed like they had hit a dead end but she hoped that they would eventually figure out who had hurt Harvey.
Speaking of Harvey, she tried to see him as often as she could. Sometimes he was alone but more often than not Mike and or Donna were with him. She found out that Donna was also checking into Hardman as well. It irritated Jessica that Harvey had asked her do this without asking her first but she didn't stop Donna from investigating. If Donna, the police, and herself were all working on trying to figure who had done this to Harvey then it was much more likely that they would find the perpetrator that much quicker.
She also kept a close eye on Donna and Mike. Donna had seemed to get herself together but Mike still seemed greatly troubled though she couldn't really blame him, he truly was only a kid. He seemed emotionally more distant and instead of the normally witty remarks that he shot at his fellow associates when they messed with him he just stayed quit and ignored them. Thankfully though, Jessica had asked Louis to make sure that he kept the associates in check and so far he seemed to be doing that. Despite all this, however, Mike's work was not affected which was good.
Jessica just hoped that no one would try to take Harvey's life again.
The work that he had once enjoyed doing so much had simply become a distraction. He hated thinking of Harvey in that hospital bed, pale, weak, broken, bruised. However, everyday he had to face that because every day he came went to see Harvey.
When Donna was there, all three of them talked about how Donna was doing with finding anything on Hardman. However, when it was just Mike and Harvey they talked about nothing in particular. Sometimes they would discuss how things were going on at work, what was new in the world, or whatever. At one point, Harvey got Mike to talk Star Trek with him and another time Mike mentioned the idea of a vacation later that year.
Mike was with Harvey right now. It was Thursday, five days since Harvey woke up, and it was a little pass six o'clock. Harvey took a bite of the crappy hospital food as Mike asked, "Anything interesting happen today?"
"Besides sitting in a bed all day, nothing much. The day passed pretty slowly and it didn't help that there weren't any hot nurses." Harvey added the last part, laughing at Mike's glare. "I'm kidding but yeah, not much happened. I did catch the movie Star Trek: The Final Frontier on TV though."
"Not Star Trek again!" Mike cried as he eased into his chair. "How much Star Trek is there anyway?"
"Let's see," started Harvey, "including the new Star Trek movie there are eleven movies I believe, and there are five TV shows, not counting the animated series or fan made series."
"Good lord," muttered Mike as he shook his head.
Harvey chuckled at his expression as he took his first sip of his decaf coffee and then immediately spit it out.
"Harvey are you—"
"Get someone. Quickly!" said Harvey as he tried to spit out any of the coffee that was still in his mouth.
Mike did as Harvey asked, thankful that Harvey's doctor, Dr. Benton, was right in the hallway. Telling him to come quickly, they made it to the room. Harvey was trying to get the rest of the coffee out of his mouth anymore and was now just sitting there, looking deathly pale.
"What's wrong?" asked Dr. Benton worriedly.
Harvey gestured to the cup of coffee. The doctor took it, sniffed it, and put a small drop of the liquid to his tongue. His eyes widened at what he tasted.
"You didn't happen to get almond decaf did you?" asked Dr. Benton. Harvey shook his head no.
"What does almonds have to do with anything?" asked Mike, completely confused.
"Cyanide smells like almonds," replied Dr. Benton. "Now, I'm not positive and we'll have to test it, but I do believe that Mr. Specter was just nearly poisoned."