Synchronicity

Chapter Forty-Eight

The next day, Rebecca was walking to her office when Jessica showed up next to her.

"What are you doing here?" Jessica asked.

"Working, like everyone else." She laughed. "Why?"

"Your dad…"

"I know." She interrupted her. "He was in a car accident yesterday."

"Shouldn't you be on your way to…"

"No." She interrupted her again. "I don't need to be there while he is in the hospital. It's a long story but we don't have a good relationship and I really don't see that changing anytime soon." She looked at Jessica's face and noticed her expression changed dramatically. "Why?"

"You don't know."

"Know what?" She asked slowly.

She ushered her into her office and closed the door. "It came over the AP newswire about a half hour ago. Your father's injuries in the car accident were more serious than they thought. He's dead. I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you that."

"What?" She stared at her while she continued to talk, but she had no idea what Jessica was saying. Her mind and her heart were racing. She never expected that her father would die like that. She shook herself out of the daze and focused on Jessica again.

"You can take as much time as you need to in order to deal with this. We'll help cover your clients." She offered.

"Thank you." She nodded, watching her leave. As soon as she was gone she leaned against her desk to take a few deep breaths. After a moment she took out her phone. There was only one person she wanted to talk to right now. It rang four times before he picked up.

"Hey. I actually can't talk right now. I'm about to go in to court." Harvey greeted. "I'll call you back after, ok?'

"Ok." She said quietly. She had no choice to wait until he was done with court to talk about this. It wouldn't be fair to tell him about her problems right before he had court. So she hung up. Two seconds later her phone rang again with a Los Angeles area code.

"Hello?" She greeted.

"Hello. Is this Rebecca Monroe?"

The female voice on the other end was pleasant sounding, but Rebecca didn't like her just because she knew what was coming out of her mouth next.

"Yes. This is she."

"My name is Grace Henkel. I'm with the Los Angeles Police Department and I'm calling about your father, Samuel Monroe."

"What about him?" Rebecca asked, playing dumb about the fact that Grace was about to tell her something that she already knew.

"I'm afraid he was in a car accident last night. He had some internal bleeding and a head injury. They had to go in and perform surgery to repair some of the damage to his spleen and I'm sorry to say there were some complications. Your father is dead." Grace explained.

"I see." Rebecca replied as calmly as possible. "Um…ok. Thank you."

"I have some information for you on where your father's body is and what the next steps are, if you are ready for that."

"Yeah." She answered, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper. "Go ahead…"


"Harvey, have you spoken to Rebecca?" Donna asked as soon as he got off the elevator with Mike right behind him.

"Have you been waiting here a long time just to ask me that?" He laughed.

"No. I had Ray text me when he dropped you off since you weren't answering your phone." She explained. "So have you spoken to her?"

"No." He shook his head. "She called right before I went into court to file the motion for the Boylan Industries case. I tried calling her after but it just went to voicemail. And I didn't answer my phone because I was on the phone with the client going over my next move with him. Why?"

Donna pulled out her phone and typed a couple of things before showing him the screen.

He read the headline of the article. California Senator Samuel Monroe dead from car accident.

"Shit." He closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head.

"I can't find her." Donna told him. "I had Rachel go over to her apartment but she wasn't there. And I've tried her cell phone but she isn't answering my calls either. I'm worried about her."

"Yeah." He was worried about her too. Although she said she didn't care if her father lived or died, that was still when she thought he was alive. Now that he was actually dead, it had to be a shock and a punch to her gut. The fact that she wasn't answering her phone meant she was most likely alone and she didn't need to be alone right now.

He pushed the down elevator button.

"Are you going to find her?" Donna asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. He wasn't sure where she was, but he would do his best to find her.

"Good luck." Donna smiled.


Rebecca stood in Harvey's office later that night, staring at the city. At night everything looked so peaceful. After she got off the phone with Grace she started making arrangements for her father's funeral. It was first funeral she had ever had to plan and she wasn't sure she had thought of everything. But she did her best. Then she called her father's office to get his secretary to help her with some of the arrangements she couldn't get to from New York. After everything was done, she left her office. She had to get out of the building so she started walking. It didn't take her long to end up in a park.

She found a bench and sat down, turning off her phone because it kept ringing. Since the calls weren't from the one person she wanted to talk to, she didn't care. It wasn't until it started getting dark that she realized she had been there for hours. She decided to take a cab back to the office. Instead of going to her office, her feet took her into Harvey's office. She expected to see him sitting at his desk. But now that she looked at the time, she realized he probably was already at home.

Briefly she wondered if he even knew what was going on. She probably should call him again. That's when she realized she never turned her phone back on. She pulled it out and powered it back up. Once it rebooted she saw she had over 100 text messages and 57 calls.

She heard someone's footsteps and turned to see Mike.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hey." She greeted back. "Harvey isn't here."

"I know. I'm just dropping this off for him." He put a file on the desk. "He's actually still out looking for you."

She looked at Mike like he had grown a second head. "What?"

"He left a few hours ago trying to find you after he got back from court and Donna told him what happened with your father." Mike explained. "I am sorry by the way about what happened."

"Thanks." She gave him a small smile. "He's really out looking for me right now?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"I just needed some time." She explained. "This is the second parent I've lost to a car accident."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know about your mom."

"It happened when I was ten."

"I know how that feels and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." He told her. "Both of my parents died in a drunk driving accident when I was eleven. It's rough."

"Yeah. It is." She nodded. "I'm sorry about your parents."

"Thanks."

"So I'm officially an orphan now." She laughed nervously.

"Welcome to the club." Mike laughed.

"Are there a lot of meetings?" She asked. "Because I don't know if I can make it to many."

"No." He shook his head. "There's just a weekly newsletter that we send to your email."

She laughed again. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"I needed to laugh. So thank you." She explained. "But if Harvey is looking for me, I should probably go let him know where I am."

"I might have already done that before I came in here." Mike confessed.

"Thanks Mike." Harvey said from the doorway.

"And that's my cue to leave." Mike said, giving her a smile before leaving the office.

"Hey." She greeted. "I'm sorry. I turned off my phone and I didn't know you were out looking…"

Before she could finish that statement he came over and gave her a hug. She stopped talking and wrapped her arms around him as if he was a life preserver. As much as she had convinced herself that she wasn't going to cry in front of him or cry about her father's death at all, she couldn't control it and started to sob.

He gently guided her to his couch and let her curl up next to him, placing her head in his lap. He stroked her hair as she cried.

It was a weird feeling sobbing around him and having him comforting her. She knew that he wasn't a huge fan of emotions, but he was letting her cry it out with no judgment.

And the fact that he went looking for her today meant a lot to her.

She wasn't sure how long she cried, but after a while she felt like she had come to a stopping point. She raised her head and tried to wipe the remaining tears from her face. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about." He told her, using his left hand to wipe some tears from her face.

"I didn't know you were out looking for me." She explained. "If I had known, I would've…"

"I know." He interrupted her. "I just didn't want you to have to be alone."

She reached over and placed a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me." He shook his head. "How are you doing?"

"I hated him." She stated. "I truly hated him for everything he did and everything that he said to me. I don't understand why I'm so shaken by this."

"At the end of the day, he was your father." He reasoned. "It means something."

"Can I go home with you tonight?" She asked quietly, staring him in his eyes.

"Of course you can." He gave her a small smile and slowly got up, holding his hand out for her. "I have Ray downstairs waiting. Are you ready?"

She just nodded and grabbed his hand.


When they got to his place she immediately went to the bedroom and changed out of her clothes, opting to wear his old Harvard shirt like she always used to in the past. She walked over to him in the living room and he handed her a drink.

"Thanks." She said, going over to the couch.

He didn't say anything as he went to sit on the other side of the couch.

"It's a little weird being back here." She told him.

"I know the reason isn't good, but I have to say it is nice to have you here again." He spoke up.

"So I leave for LA tomorrow afternoon." She told him after she took a drink.

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"Just a couple of days." She replied. "The funeral is set for two days from now."

"Do you…should I…do you want me to go with you?"

She looked over at him and smiled. "No. Harvey, you don't have to go."

"I didn't ask if I had to." He pointed out. "I asked if you wanted me to."

She downed the rest of her drink and sat her glass on the coffee table before crawling across the couch until she was straddling him. "It's not going to be fun and you don't have to go."

"I know it won't be fun. And that's still not a real answer. Shouldn't we talk about it?"

"No, because I don't want to talk anymore, especially about my dad." She told him. Without giving him a chance to say anything else, she started to kiss him while her hands started working on his belt.

He was aware what she was doing. She wanted a distraction from thinking about her father's death. While he would love to take her to bed, he knew that it would be wrong. She wasn't thinking clearly and he had to be gentleman. He put his hands over hers and gently slid them away.

"What?" She asked breathlessly after he pulled back from her kisses.

"We're not doing that tonight." He whispered.

"Why not? Isn't this what you want?"

"Of course it is. I always want you." He assured her. "And may I point out that you're on my lap right now so you obviously know that's true. But it isn't the right time and I don't think it is what you really want. I think you just want something to distract you from what's going on and I can't be that distraction tonight."

She rolled her eyes at him and went to sit on the other side of the couch.

"You can't tell me I'm wrong can you?"

"Do you ever tire of being right?" She asked.

"No, and I never will." He smirked, getting up and holding out his hand to her. "C'mon. Let's go get some sleep."