"MOM!"

"You'll catch flies with your mouth open like that darling"

Donna rolls her eyes at being chastised like a 5 year old.

"Good to see you too".

Suddenly looking nervous Donna's mother takes her daughter in, feeling guilty for missing so much of such an important time in her life.

"May I come in?"

"Of course" Donna moves out of the way, both of them walking into her living room "Take a seat, I'll bring us some drinks".

As she walks back, handing her mother a coffee she sits next to her on the couch.

"Well, you look a damn sight better than I did at 6 months pregnant I'll give you that much. Then again you always did take after your grandmother more than me".

While the relationship she had with her mother had never been overly affectionate, it was never awkward, the memories of their last conversation clearly hanging over them.

"What brings you by Mom? You've never been one to arrive unannounced".

"That's true. I came to apologise to you" she says looking into eyes the same colour as her own. "And to make sure that you're okay"

"You could have just called Mom. It's a long way to come just to make sure I'm okay, which I am by the way. Thanks for asking"

Her mom smiles at her and takes a deep breath reaching across to her.

"No honey I had to see you" she says, a serious tone taking over her voice.

Donna tilts her head, clearly missing something

Her mother elaborates "I heard you had a bit of a scare last night. You went into hospital to get checked over. And one thing you will learn very quickly if you haven't already is that when you find out something has happened to your baby, there is nothing more frightening and things get put into perspective for you"

The shock on her face is clear, she looks down at her lap, instinctively her hands cover her belly trying to control herself as the feelings of the night before come back to her.

"Harvey called you?" she says looking back to her mother, wiping her eyes.

"He did" she says giving Donna a smile. "He called me this morning to tell me what happened. I could tell he was trying to be as diplomatic as possible when he was telling me to get my head out of my ass but the message was delivered loud and clear". The thought makes Donna laugh.

"He said that despite of what I thought of him, that you deserved better. That her mom should be here with her. And he's right". This flaws Donna.

Did Harvey really do that, for me?

"He said that?" she says softly

Her mother nods, sharing the look of surprise. "I'm sorry for what I said when you first told me, I was shocked but it's still no excuse. I handled it terribly".

"It's okay Mom"

"You know I may have been wrong about him".

Donna looks at her shaking her head, smiling. Thinking about how Harvey had fought for her.

"Mom, I always knew he had it in him but he's surprising even me"

"The things we do for the people we love are often surprising".

Blushing, Donna feels the need to clarify things.

"We're not quite like that Mom"

Her mom looks at her, unconvinced.

"Donna if anyone spent more than 5 minutes with the two of you they would realise that it's exactly like that. I saw it the first time I saw you together. He looks at you like you hung the moon Baby".

As timing would have it Harvey walks back through the door balancing a suit bag, duffel bag and grocery bag. He almost drops all three as Donna and her mother turn around on the couch to face him.

"Caroline"

"Harvey"

Oh fuck

He looks at Donna but can't work out how she felt about her mom's impromptu visit. He can't help but think that he's in trouble.

"It's good to see you?..." he looks at Donna again to see if it really was good to see her. Donna gives him a smile and he relaxes, but only a little bit.

"I'll just put this stuff away" referring to the groceries. Leaving his duffel and suit bag at the door, he makes a beeline for the kitchen.

Unpacking the items he bought to make their dinner, her voice interrupts, a teasing lit to it

"You sure were busy while I was sleeping. Did you call anyone else that I need to know about?"

Turning around to face her, he at least has the decency to look sheepish.

"I'm sorry if you thought I was interfering. It's just … you deserve to have your family supporting you, to be as excited as my family. And she's your mom, she should be here with you, especially after what happened last night. I'm sorry if I've overstepped some boundaries, but I was hoping she'd call you. I didn't know she was actually going to come down and visit".

Donna looks up to him, tilting her head "It was definitely unexpected" she says with a grin. "But I'm not mad, at all. I wanted to thank you, for the giving us a push in the right direction"

He was looking at her, smiling "Well you helped me with my mom, I guess I wanted to return the favour".

"Are we keeping score now?" she says her voice barely above a whisper

"Well if we are I've got a long way to go before I even get close" Harvey says understanding that the tone of their conversation has changed. As he takes a step forward, Donna backwards so that she is leaning against the bench, effectively trapping herself with Harvey in front of her.

She feels him lean into her slightly, pressing into her belly. She looks up at him hyper-aware of their proximity.

"You're pretty close now Specter"

"Yeah, I guess I am".

Taking a chance Donna leans forward, watching for Harveys reaction. She feels him place a hand on her hip. They pause for a moment as she takes a hold of his bicep to steady herself and plants a kiss in the corner of his mouth. Lingering for a few seconds was all she would allow herself. Donna leans back and sees Harvey slowly open his eyes, locking with hers. "Thank you, again". She gives his arms squeeze and a smile that starts a fire inside him. She whispers "I better be getting back to my mom". Acknowledging her with a slight nod, he moves back, giving her space to return to the living room.

Jesus you're in deep Specter he says to himself, smiling and not entirely unhappy about it. Maybe her feelings were changing?


"Are you glad she didn't want to stay for dinner?" He says cheekily.

She looks at him and can't help but laugh "I honestly don't know if we would have made it through a meal together".

He's watching her struggle to get comfortable, trying to hide his amusement "what are you doing?"

She looks up, daggers in her eyes "I'm trying to find a happy medium where it doesn't feel like my back is on fire and I can still put my feet up and have it not piss off your kid. And it is becoming increasingly difficult"

Feeling sorry what her, he tries to help "Well here, what about this?" he says as he swings her legs up onto his lap, letting her rest back against the side of the couch. She gives a little yelp of surprise. "Better?"

"Yeah" she says "Thank you. Feel free to massage my feet if you want". Harvey gives her a look telling her not to push it as the movie they are watching starts.

Innocently she continues "I'm just saying, being on my feet all day, carrying your child around is really taxing". Biting her lip and arching a brow at him, wondering if he'll bite. He scoffs, shaking his head but doesn't stop watching the movie "I was wondering how long it would be before you started guilting me with that".

She smiles, relents and turns to watch the movie with him. He can help but sneak a glance at her while her attention is diverted. It's not more that 30 seconds later that Donna feels the pressure on her legs, of Harvey slowly massaging her calves and feet. Both of them smiling to themselves as they watch the rest of the movie.