Skyfall

Chapter Ten

Harvey unlocked the door to the hotel room and let Rebecca go in first. He brought their bags in and watched as she fell face first onto the bed.

He chuckled softly. "Tired?"

"Exhausted." Came her voice, muffled by the fact her head was buried in the sheets. "Between talking to your mom until the early morning and getting awakened by the kids earlier than I would have liked, I'm beat."

"Me too." He admitted, laying on the bed next to her. As soon as he did, she turned and curled up next to him like he was a magnet. He kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I was really hoping when I woke up this would be a bad nightmare." She told him in a quiet voice.

"Me too."

"So you spent a lot of time with him last night. How is Marcus doing?"

"He's devastated." He answered. "I think having to walk in on that scene and see that scene is going to haunt him for the rest of his life."

"It probably is unfortunately." She agreed. Then she propped her arms up so she could look at him. "Hey…I know we were in the middle of an argument last night, but you know how much I love you, right?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Of course I know."

"And you know that I don't ever want to be without you, right?"

He smiled at her. "I know that too."

"Good." She smiled back at him before reaching up and kissing him. Then she laid her head back down on his chest.

"You know I feel the same way about you, right?" He asked a moment later.

"I know." She replied.

"I was actually thinking about it after Marcus explained what happened with Katie and all I could keep thinking was that I honestly don't know how I would pick myself up and move on without you if I was in Marcus' position. I don't know how you did it because I swore I would never be one of those guys…but you mean everything to me. Not to get too mushy or anything, but I'd never be able to go back to the life I had before you. It would drive me crazy. You're my best friend and my favorite teammate."

He was quiet for a moment, expecting her to say something. "Rebecca?"

It was then that he realized she had already fallen asleep. With a soft chuckle, he sat an alarm on his phone and then closed his eyes to get a nap as well.

After freshening up at the hotel, Harvey was driving them back to his mom's house. "So you and my mom seem to be getting along pretty well." They were at a red light so he looked over at her and saw she was now looking at him.

"Yeah. She's a nice lady and I like her." She asked. "Why? Does that bother you?"

"Honestly, yes." He answered. "It does bother me."

"So just because you have your issues with her, I have to have issues with her?" She questioned with a chuckle. "Is that how you think this is supposed to work?"

"Well…yeah. I mean, are you Team Harvey or Team Lily? Because you sure seem like you are on her side."

"Harvey you should know by now I'm always going to be on your team. Like I've told you before though, being on your team doesn't mean I turn a blind eye to when you are wrong." She rolled her eyes. "That woman has lost someone she considered to be a daughter. I'm not going to do what you are doing to her and completely freeze her out. It would be cruel."

"So now you're saying I'm being cruel to her?" He asked as the light turned green and he continued driving.

"I'm saying you could afford to show her some compassion." She explained. "She loved Katie too and she is also hurting right now."

"As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't exist in my life and I don't see why I should have to pretend that things are fine between us just because Katie is dead."

"Then to answer your earlier question, yes. I do think you are being cruel to her."

"I can't believe you would say that to me. You know what she did." He was getting angrier and angrier with her as the moments passed by.

"I know all about what she did and how it made it you feel." She told him. "But I also know that was a long time ago. At some point, don't you think you should try and make peace with her?"

"Kind of like you made peace with your father?"

She scoffed. "That was a totally different situation."

"Sure as shit sounds the same to me. He hurt you, lied to you and made you feel like crap your entire life. So did my mom. But I didn't see you forgive him. Hell, you wanted to turn him in to the police before he died."

"He killed my mom!" She pointed out. "I'm sorry but that is way more serious than asking you to lie to your dad. So it was a more complicated situation."

He looked over at her and saw that she was getting angry.

"You know, Harvey, at some point you need to grow the hell up and realize that while she was wrong to do what she did, you were just as wrong to shut her out of your life for the past two decades. You're not completely blameless in this situation either so stop playing the role of innocent victim."

"I have been just fine without her in my life so far. I don't need her and I don't need you telling me that I need her or that I've been wrong."

"Fine." She sighed. "I'll just stop talking about it if that's what you want. And I'm sorry if bothers you but I actually happen to like your mom and I plan on letting her into my life. So you'll just have to grow up and deal with it."

"Fine." He grumbled. They were silent as he drove the rest of the way to his mom's house.

There was a chance he was overreacting. He knew that she wasn't trying to make him mad and she was on his side. But being back here and seeing his mom while also trying to deal with Katie's death…it was almost too much. He also shouldn't have thrown her father in her face. That wasn't fair.

He had been doing so well not lashing out and saying hurtful things like that when he was mad. Now he felt like he took two steps backwards.

He pulled up to his mom's house and saw Rebecca was about ready to get out of the car. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Wait."

She stopped and sighed before turning to face him. "I don't have it in me to go another couple rounds with you on this. Can we please not fight?"

"I don't want to fight with you either. We need to be supporting each other and not tearing each other apart." He told her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"I'm sorry too." She leaned over to kiss him. "It's not fair for me to simply tell you that I want to let your mom into my life. I should run that past you first."

"It's fine, I guess." He shrugged. "Just don't go inviting her over while I'm around."

"Deal." She gave him another kiss.

Later that evening, Rebecca sat in the kitchen having a glass of wine with Lily. They had agreed to take over the planning of the funeral for Marcus so it was one less thing for him to worry about. It had taken most of the afternoon, but they had everything set up for the funeral to be the day after tomorrow.

By then the police would be done with the autopsy and would release the body to the funeral home. The police investigation hadn't turned up any leads yet and she hoped they would be able to catch whoever did this so they could be punished to the full extent of the law.

Marcus had gone back to the house with Harvey to get some more clothes and stuff for the kids because they would be staying at Lily's house for a while. The kids were both asleep.

"I think we are finally done." Lily sighed.

"Yeah. I think so too." She nodded.

"I appreciate your help with this."

"It's not a problem." She assured the older woman. "I'm just sorry I can't do more to help."

"Nonsense. You've been a great help." Lily assured her. "I told Harvey this earlier but I'll also tell you. I think he chose very well when he married you."

"Thank you." She smiled.

"I wasn't sure he was ever going to get married." Lily confessed.

"I don't think he thought he would either." She laughed.

"How did you two end up together?"

"It's a long, complicated story." She sighed. "But the short version is that there were a lot of issues we had to work through first."

"Were his issues caused by my actions when he was younger?" Lily asked.

She didn't know how to answer that without making the woman feel bad.

"The fact that you have to think that hard about your answer leads me to believe that is a yes." Lily sighed.

"I'm sorry. I just…it did impact our relationship." She finally settled on that statement because it seemed like the safest thing she could say. "But to be fair, I had my own issues that impacted our relationship too."

"That's fair of you to say because you could have said I screwed him up very badly and was a horrible mother."

"I don't think you were a horrible mother." She explained. "I think you love your children. But I also think you made some choices that weren't the best and you've been paying a heavy price for them for a long time."

"Harvey doesn't believe that." Lily pointed out. "He doesn't believe that I love him or that I'm sorry about everything that has happened."

"Well Harvey isn't always right, though he thinks he is." She laughed. "Sometimes he needs a little push to realize it."

"That's true." Lily laughed. "He's always been that way."

"What was he like as a kid?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Well he was always extremely confident. Nothing seemed to faze him." Lily explained. "He was also protective of Marcus, even when Marcus was a baby. They were very close growing up. Then they grew apart. It's been nice to see them get their relationship back on track, and I have a feeling that is because of you."

"I don't know about that." She shook her head.

"Katie always said that Harvey took a greater interest in them after he met you. Before you were in his life, he barely contacted Marcus at all." Lily told her. "She believed that you brought out a side of him that was long buried. After seeing him again, I have to agree."

She wasn't sure what to say to that so she just smiled and drank from her wine glass.

"Is there any chance that you and Harvey will have children anytime soon?" Lily asked.

She almost spit out her wine back into the glass and coughed. "Um…"

"I'm sorry." Lily chuckled. "Is that too personal of a question for me to ask?"

"No." She shook her head. "It's fine. I just don't have a good answer for you on that. It's actually something that has become a bit of an issue for us lately."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Lily apologized. "I'm sure you will find a way to work it out though."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Me too."

Harvey came into Marcus' bedroom with two suitcases. "I think I packed everything that was on the list for the kids. If not, I can come back tomorrow and grab it for you." He looked at Marcus, expecting his brother to be done packing his own suitcase. But Marcus was just sitting on the bed next to an empty suitcase with his head in his hands.

He put the suitcases down and sat next to Marcus on the bed.

"I can't be here, Harvey." Marcus whispered. "I just can't. I see Katie everywhere I look. It hurts too much."

"I know." He patted his brother on the back. "Why don't you take the kids' suitcases to the car and I'll pack up some stuff for you?"

"Thanks."

He watch Marcus get up and take the suitcases. Perhaps it was a bad idea to have Marcus come back here tonight. At the time it seemed like a good idea though. He got off the bed and headed to the closet to start pulling clothes for Marcus. While putting clothes in, he looked around the room.

There were three picture collage frames on the wall that caught his eye. One was for Ethan, one was for Olivia and one was for Marcus and Katie. The ones for Ethan and Olivia had pictures detailing everything from Katie's pregnancies to their most recent school pictures.

The one for Marcus and Katie has pictures from when they started dating, their wedding and just random pictures from their entire relationship. He looked at the pictures and saw how happy they looked. It was just a painful reminder that his sister in law was gone.

He took a moment to sit on the bed and released a heavy sigh. Katie was family. She was a good mother, wife and sister. He would miss her and this whole thing wasn't fair. He knew that he needed to get this done for Marcus so they could leave. So he got back up, pushed his feelings to the side and finished packing.