Synchronicity
Chapter Fifty
Rebecca knocked on the door and bit her lip. She was nervous about what she was about to do. She relaxed a little when Rachel opened the door and smiled at her.
"Hey!" Rachel greeted. "What brings you all the way out to our place?"
"I was actually hoping I could talk to you and Mike for a moment." She smiled. "Is now a good time or a bad time?"
"It's a good time." Rachel nodded. "Come in. Would you like something to drink?"
"No thanks." She shook her head. This conversation was something she wanted to have completely sober. She followed Rachel into their house and sat down in one of the chairs in the living room. Mike was already sitting on one of the couches.
"Hey Rebecca. What are you doing here?" Mike greeted, putting his stack of papers down on the coffee table.
"I have something I need to run past you both. I have an idea for the firm and I wanted to see if you would be up for the challenge." She explained.
"Sounds mysterious." Rachel chuckled. "Do tell."
"So as you know, my father died last week. His entire estate belongs to me now…all $18 million of it."
"I'm sorry…" Mike interrupted. "Did you say $18 million?"
"Yes." She nodded. "Anyway, I want to get rid of the money. But I also want to do something meaningful with it. That's where you two come into play."
"How?" Rachel asked, exchanging a glance with her husband.
"Are you giving us $18 million dollars?" Mike joked.
"Well…yes and no." Rebecca laughed. "I want to go to Jessica and ask her to use my money to fund a pro bono department for the firm. And I want you two to run it."
"Us?" Rachel asked. "Why us?"
"Rachel, you have one of the biggest hearts of anyone in that office. But you also have a killer instinct. And Mike, Harvey has told me in the past that you don't like only helping out big corporations. You want to also help out individuals and do good things with the law. I can't think of two people better suited to head a pro bono department." She explained.
"Do you think Jessica would even go for something like this?" Mike questioned.
"I don't know yet." She shrugged. "She may or she may not. But I wanted to see if you two would be on board with it before I went to her."
"I think this is something we need to discuss." Rachel told her after a few moments. "Can we get back to you about it?"
"Absolutely. Take your time and really think about it" She nodded. "And let me know if you have any questions."
"We definitely will." Mike told her.
"Ok. I'll go ahead and see myself out." She gave them one last smile before she left.
Two days later, Rebecca was walking down the hallway towards her office when Mike came up to her.
"We're in." He said without preamble.
"Really?" She smiled at him.
"Really." He nodded. "We talked about it, and if Jessica gives you the go ahead, we'll run it for you."
"Thank you!" She smiled. "I'll go talk to Jessica right now."
"What are you going to talk to Jessica about?" Harvey asked, walking up to them.
"I need to go finish a filing." Mike chuckled, leaving abruptly.
"Why is he acting weird?" Harvey questioned.
"Who says he's acting any weirder than normal?" She chuckled.
"So what are you planning on talking to Jessica about?"
"I have a proposal for her." She told him, going into her office and grabbing the folder with her proposal in it.
"I hope it isn't like the one I had for you a while back." He said quietly.
She remembered when he had out of the blue asked him to marry her a few weeks ago. But as far as she was concerned that wasn't a real proposal. She smirked. "No. This proposal is actually real and not hypothetical."
She watched his scowl at her words and felt bad.
"Are you going to talk to her right now?" He asked.
"Yeah, I was. Why?"
"As a name partner I have a right to be there too."
"Ok." She turned so she could get to Jessica's office. He didn't say anything else as he followed behind her and she wondered if she had truly made him mad by calling his proposal hypothetical. It was a joke, but apparently he didn't think it was funny.
"Is now a bad time?" Rebecca asked from Jessica's doorway.
"I have a couple of moments." Jessica replied, waving her in. "What brings you and Harvey in to see me together?"
"I'm just here to watch her talk to you about whatever she had going on." Harvey spoke up.
"Ok." Jessica stood up. "Now I'm intrigued."
"I am the executor of my father's estate and he has left me a lot of money. I need to do something good with this money to counteract the kind of man he was, and a large part of me feels guilty for the part I played in Xavier's death." She started to explain.
"So you want to get some kind of penance?" Jessica asked.
"Exactly." She nodded, handing Jessica the folder. "And I was thinking that maybe…with your permission, I could give the money to the firm so they could start a pro bono department."
"That's all fine and good." Jessica told her. "But starting a pro bono department would cost this firm millions."
"I have $18 million, minus estate taxes, to get it up and running." She smiled. "And when word gets out that we have a dedicated pro bono department, we will gain more clients and be able to fundraise for the money sustain it."
"You certainly have thought this through." Jessica praised her. "But the thing I don't understand is who are you going to get to run it? Are you planning on running it?"
"No." She shook her head. "I have Rachel and Mike on board with running the department." She looked over at Harvey, expecting to see him happy that she found something to do with her father's dirty money. Instead he looked pissed off.
"That's very interesting." Jessica said, sitting back down. "Give me some time to think about this and run it past the other partners. I'll let you know what happens."
"Thank you." She smiled at Jessica and left the office. Harvey was definitely mad and she knew it wouldn't be long until he came looking for her.
"You can't approve this and you shouldn't even take it to the other partners." Harvey told Jessica once Rebecca was out of earshot.
"Why not?" Jessica sighed. "It's a very well thought-out plan and we could always use the good publicity."
"She can't have Mike." He said. "He's my associate. She only a senior partner. She can't just start appointing associates to different positions without asking."
"You sound like a little kid picking a fight over the last blue crayon." Jessica pointed out.
"You're calling Mike a crayon?" He chuckled.
"I'm also calling you a little kid." She laughed. "I guess that part slipped right past you. Look, I know Mike is like your protégé, but if he wants to do this then you need to let him."
"Like hell I do." He muttered under his breath as he left Jessica's office. He stormed down the hallway to Rebecca's office, closing the door behind him. "You have a lot of nerve trying to take Mike and box him into a pro bono department."
"I'm not trying to box anyone into anything." She insisted. "I simply asked if he and Rachel would be interested. They said they were and they wanted to do it."
"You have no right to take Mike away from me."
"C'mon Harvey, that's not what this is and you know it." She finally understood why he was mad. He thought she was trying to punish him by separating him from his best friend. "You were the one who has told me several times that Mike wants to do good things with his law degree for real people and not just corporate conglomerates. This gives him a chance to help real people."
"I don't like this." He told her.
"I can tell." She smiled. "Look, I didn't think you would have such a big problem with this. I thought you would be happy that I figured out something good to do with this money. But apparently I'm wrong about a lot of things today."
"You shouldn't do things like this without consulting me first." He pouted.
"I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt. And I probably should have told you what I was thinking about doing before. I'm sorry about that. But Mike is a grown up and he can make his own decisions about his life." She sighed.
"He's my Goddamn associate!" Harvey yelled.
"Like I said, I'm sorry you are mad and hurt by this, but if this is what Mike wants then your problem is with him and not me. We can talk about this more later if you want. But if you'll excuse me, I have work to do on the Sullivan case before the deposition in an hour."
He begrudgingly left Rebecca's office.
