Harvey never would have thought he would ever be in a lasting relationship with anyone. But Donna wasn't just anyone, and Harvey found himself enjoying the couple-like lifestyle more than he cared to admit. They had been living together for a few weeks without really discussing it. They had fallen into a pattern where she always ended up sleeping at his place. She soon enough had her own half of a wardrobe at Harvey's, before she actually took out of his space.
"I don't understand why you need all these clothes" he nagged one day, when he couldn't find a t-shirt amongst her clothes.
"The art that is Donna needs all the elements possible" he heard her answer from the other room. "Do you think looking as fabulous as I am comes without the appropriate wardrobe?" she asked, stepping behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"As far as I'm concerned, you look even better with nothing on" he turned around to face her, holding her close by the waist.
"Well you do have a point. Maybe I should ask Louis what he thinks, that would save me a lot of trouble" she teased him, as she saw a spark in his eyes, his hands holding her even closer so that they're lips were brushing against each other.
"Don't ever say that again" he said with all the possessiveness in the world. His breath on her lips tickled her skin, as she decided to keep up with him.
"Why not?" she whispered seductively, her hand caressing his hairline softly.
"Because you're mine" he whispered back, biting her ear before kissing his way to her neck.
She wanted to make some comment about his choice of words, to tease him about how she was no one's property, but Harvey knew exactly what he was doing when he softly kissed her weak spot, just on the space below the collarbone.
"Let's see if you deserve that" Donna teased again, slipping from his grip and running around in the house as he followed, trying to catch her in his arms.
[The week after]
Harvey had been acting weird that morning, more distant than usual. They had arrived to work together, like every morning, but his mind was clearly someplace else. She swore she had woken up at 4 in the morning and found his space next to her empty, as she threw a glance to find him on his laptop. She didn't say a word about it.
It's only when he checked his phone for the third time in one minute that morning that she finally said something.
"Are you expecting a call?" she asked, her eyebrows rising in curiosity.
"No" he immediately answered. "I'm just waiting for Gretchen to send me my schedule" he mumbled. Gretchen was his newest secretary. She was old, experienced, not afraid to lay it out as it is. She however kept her distance, doing only what Harvey requests.
Donna nodded in silence, not fully convinced of what he had said. Her suspicions were confirmed when she stopped at Gretchen's desk that morning, while he had a meeting with one of the big clients of the firm. After conversing with her for a couple of minutes, Donna decided to give her some advice.
"Hey Gretchen, I think it's better if you send Harvey his schedule a day earlier?" she said nicely, "it would save him a lot of trouble and stop him from being an ass to you" she added with a smile.
Gretchen looked at Donna in confusion before explaining: "It's what I do. I sent him today's schedule yesterday" she said.
Donna bit her lower lip, nodding courteously before walking away. He was definitely hiding something, and Donna's feelings told her it was a bad thing. She decided to investigate the matter; after all she was Donna, and she would know shortly. Her plan fell short when Louis swamped her with work, pushing her investigation till lunchtime.
She decided then to approach him upfront; they were in a committed serious relationship, they were adults, they should be able to talk about whatever was going on. As soon as Louis went for lunch, Donna walked towards Harvey's office to find it empty, just as her old desk. She ran into Mike near the elevator, stopping him in his tracks.
"Hey puppy, where's Harvey?" Donna asked Mike, who seemed to be surprised to see her.
"Euhm, I'm not sure, I thought he was with you" Mike said.
"Why would you think that?" she questioned.
"I don't know, he was in such a hurry, and when I asked him where he was going, he said it was none of my business" Mike explained. "He seemed excited, he even said something about 'fresh day'. I just assumed you were going for lunch together…" he mumbled, stopping himself from talking more when he saw her worried/hurt expression.
"I'm sure he has something" Mike tried to comfort her. "Wanna join Rach and me for lunch?" he suggested.
"No thanks, I have a lot of work to do anyway, I'll order in" she answered with the hind of sadness. She turned around towards her new desk, picking up the phone to call him. It rang too long before he picked it up.
"Hey, where are you?" she asked, her tone soft.
"Don, I have a meeting I'm sorry I didn't pass by earlier" he said.
"At lunchtime? With whom?" she pressed.
"Yeah, with Fitz and Moore" he said, Donna immediately noticing he was lying.
"Oh" was all she managed to say, hearing car sounds around him.
"Listen I'll pass by when I'm back at the office alright? I have to go now" he said, as Donna heard a female voice in the background, saying: "we're here Harvey".
She's not sure if she was even able to say "ok" before hanging up. She tried to work on the tasks assigned to her, suddenly not feeling hungry at all. Her focus was out of place, as she battled out with her demons. Could Harvey be cheating on her? No, it was exactly what he hated the most. But then again, he was acting very strange, and that voice she heard sounded one belonging to a young hot women. She replayed the couple of days before over and over, trying to catch where his bad behavior had started. When she realized it was leading nowhere, Donna decided to finish her work and ask Louis to leave early. She felt like going to her place, eating a bowl of chunkey monkey and indulging herself with a long bath, in an attempt to ease her mind.
It's around 5 that she finally leaves the office, with still no sign of Harvey.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Louis had asked her.
"Yes Louis, I'm just tired" she answered with a smile.
Two hours later, Harvey walked into the firm with his swaggered walk, a big smile on his face. He walked immediately to Donna's desk to find it empty, clearly emptied for the day. Louis wasn't in his office as well. He assumed they didn't have much work and he had allowed her to leave early.
Gretchen welcomed her boss with the messages left in his absence, before he asked her about Donna.
"I haven't seen her since this morning, she passed by when you had your Eriksen meeting" Gretchen answered.
He thanked her, reading to enter his office and call Donna when he saw Louis in the firm.
"Louis, why are you still here?" Harvey asked him.
"What do you mean why am I still here? I work here remember? I'm a goddamned named partner!" Louis said defensively.
"Woah easy, I just thought you were done for the day, seeing as Donna is not at her desk" Harvey explained.
"Oh yeah, she left early, said she wasn't feeling well" Louis said, walking away, leaving a perplexed Harvey.
[Back at Donna's]
Donna had just finished a bowl of chunkey monkey when the water had filled her bath, ready to welcome her with open arms. She lied in her tub, but not before pouring herself a glass of wine, leaving the bottle near her. Her phone had been buzzing for an hour now, and she knew it probably was Harvey, but decided to ignore the phone call for now.
Her mind started analyzing everything again, wondering if he had grown bored of her and decided to look elsewhere. She finally realized she was mopping around, refusing to be that kind of girl. She looked at her phone to find 5 voice messages from Harvey, voicing his concern, along with 3 missed calls from both Mike and Rachel.
She finally picked it up, calling him.
"Donna, what the hell, you scared the shit out of me" Harvey said, the worry clear in his voice.
"I'm fine" she answered briefly. "I'm just home, taking a bath" she added.
"Oh, so you're wearing nothing" he asked with a flirty voice. "I think I'm going to ditch work and come join you. Are you using my shampoo again?" he joked.
She couldn't understand how happy he was, the thought of him satisfied from another woman making her stomach ache.
"I'm at my place" she said.
"Is everything ok? Louis said you weren't feeling well" Harvey asked concerned.
"How did your meeting go? Did the founder of Fitz and Moore turn into a girl?" she finally spit it out.
"Donna, I don't know what you are talking about" Harvey answered calmly.
"Don't you? I'm talking about you acting weird since this morning, I'm talking about that mysterious meeting with a woman that lasted around four hours" she said, hurt.
"It's not like that" he argued, still calm.
His calm drove her even angrier.
"Then please explain to me what it's like" she said.
"How about you finish your bath I come pick you up and we talk about it somewhere?" he suggested.
"You can come over and talk about it here" she answered firmly.
"Come on Donna, I wanna take you somewhere" he pushed.
"We can talk and then go out, if things go well" she said.
"If? Is that how much you believe in us" he asked, the tone of a joke in his voice.
"Harvey this is not funny" she pouted.
"I'm not joking. Come on, I'll pick you up in forty minutes. Sounds good?" he asked her.
"Fine" she agreed reluctantly, before hanging up.
Forty minutes later, Donna was dressed in comfortable jeans and a green t-shirt, when Harvey called, telling her he was waiting under her building.
She found him standing against his car, with a small smile on his face. She found it odd that he was in a pair of jeans and a black v-neck shirt, rather than his work suit. He had also gotten his car, personally driving it instead of Ray.
"Hi" he said, looking at her tenderly.
She didn't answer, waiting for him to move to open the door.
"Oh come on Donna, silent treatment again?" he pouted, before giving up.
"Fine, come in my lady" he joked, bending down as he opened the door for her.
She suppressed a smile, entering the car, before Harvey got into the driver's seat.
The ride was silent, Harvey choosing to respect her silence treatment, only putting jazzy music on. He knew she would crack eventually.
"Where are we going?" she finally broke the silence.
"You'll see" he said, as he drove towards the exit of the city.
"Harvey, I'm not in the mood for surprises" she said.
"Who said anything about a surprise?" he asked then, not noting her hurt expression.
"Could you stop pretending like nothing is wrong?" she spoke again, a few minutes later. She noticed that they had entered the suburbs, recognizing a road that looked familiar. It was dark, something that didn't help her situate herself.
He turned off the engine, stepping out of the car, and opening the door for her. She rolled her eyes at how much of a gentleman he was, even when they were fighting.
"What's wrong?" he asked locking the car as he started walking, and she wondered where they were going.
"What wrong? How about we start with you finding the urge to look at your laptop at 4 in the morning, or better yet your long meeting with a mysterious woman, or the fact that you lied to me when you said you were waiting for Gretchen to send you your schedule" she started shouting, trying to keep up with Harvey's fast walking pace.
"It's not like that" he repeated, making her even angrier.
"You've been saying that all day. Tell me then, what is it like?" she asked, noticing that he was looking around. "Goddamn it Harvey are you even listening! Can you stop walking and look at me when we are talking!" she shouted again.
Harvey stopped near what seemed to be a gate, barely open, turning to face her.
"Okay" he breathed. "Listen" he said, his hands clasping each other.
"Oh my God you did something" she gasped. He was nervous, as if about to confess something. His hands were sweating, his eyes too agitated to look in one place.
"Yes" he agreed.
Upon hearing that syllable, Donna felt her heart shrink in her chest. She wasn't sure what emotion was dominant, the disbelief or the hurt. Her eyes started welling up.
He turned around, walking through the gate behind them. Donna's peripheral vision was blurry from her own tears, as she speeded her pace to keep up with him.
"No! You don't get to walk away, you tell me what you did right now Harvey!" she shouted. "Who is it? Some random woman?" she continued, her tone defeated.
Harvey's eyes widened in surprise at her question, before he finally spoke.
"No look Donna, these past few months have been amazing, and I loved that you moved in" he said, above a whisper.
Donna swallowed hardly. "But it's not working for you anymore" she said, in a statement rather than a question, her voice shaking.
"It's not" he said, noticing a tear falling on the side of her face.
Goddamn it Donna don't cry, a voice was shouting in her head.
"So I've suffocated you? You want your space for random hookups? Like today's?" she asked, the sadness in her voice cutting a knife through him.
"I think that after all this time…" he started.
Shit, shit, he is breaking up with me, she thought.
"We need to get a bigger house" he said, turning on a switch next to where he stood, lights filling a huge backyard with a swing.
The first thing she realized was that this wasn't any home. It was the one she had spent five years of her childhood in, before the government took it into its possession, due to her father's money problems. She was so devastated despite her young age, having her heart broken for the first time.
She noticed then that she hadn't spoken a word yet, seeing an anxious Harvey waiting for her to react. She slapped him on the chest then, once, twice, three times until he literally held her from the wrists to stop her, and she crumbled in his arms, letting out all the tears she had been holding.
"I fucking hate you" she said.
"No you don't" he whispered, teasing her.
"I thought you were-" she started
"Cheating on you? You of all people should know that I would never do that" he said, his tone serious this time. She could see he was hurt.
"I'm sorry" she said sincerely.
"It's okay" he whispered, kissing her forehead.
"It's just the mysterious waking up in the middle of the night, the sound of that girl on the phone" she explained.
"I was making sure I made the last bid. The woman you heard, she's a state representative, with whom I finalized everything" he explained.
"But Harvey how were you able to- this house, it wasn't up for sale" she asked.
"I know people" he said proudly.
"Oh you do now?" she teased, before holding his face in her hands, kissing him soundly.
"Is that a yes?" he asked, "would you move in with me here?"
"Nothing would make me happier" she whispered, kissing him again. "But Harvey New York is the center of your world. We're 30 minutes away, are you sure you want to be far?" she asked him, concerned.
"Donna, I am looking at the center of my world. We could be in fucking Taiwan for all I care" he said, holding her close. He kissed her over and over again, before she spoke again.
"I know you need a huge space for your ego, but don't you think that's a bit too much?" she teased.
"Not with six kids" he said, sure of himself.
Her heart melted at his confession, before she joked again. "Six? Never" she said.
"Oh come on, five" he bargained.
"Four tops, and even that I cannot promise" she settled. "Can you image the consequence of our genetic make up on them?" she added.
He took a few seconds, pretending to think it through. "You're right, the world cannot handle so much beauty and brain"
"Oh no Harv, this is not how genetics work, they need to get half of yours too, so that would even things out" she teased.
"Very funny" he said throwing his arm around her shoulder, walking her inside.
"I love you" she whispered, burying her face in his neck
She realized how ironic it all was: the person responsible for years of her second biggest heartbreak had managed to mend it all.
There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust
This is a place where I don't feel alone
This is a place where I feel at home.
And I built a home
for you
for me
Hello readers! I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I have been lacking inspiration lately. I hope this (long) chapter makes up for the time I took to update.
Let me know what you think,
-G
