An elevator opens on the 37th floor of a large skyscraper. A few people exit, including an older woman with salt and pepper hair. This wasn't exactly what she wanted to do while in the city. She would have preferred to be visiting her son on the other side of town but she had been called as a potential witness in a case. The last time she was in town, she had unfortunately witnessed a possible dirty deal while on the way back from supper.
A headache had begun to form as she made her way back to her hotel after that supper with Harvey. She's fairly confident it started during the meal, probably right at the moment when she had unknowingly put her foot in her mouth and potentially damaged the relationship between her son and the person he was dating. When Harvey introduced Lily to Paula, she was a little taken aback. Paula was not the type of person she thought Harvey dated. She also didn't get the sense that Harvey was altogether happy. He smiled but when he did, it seemed a little forced. Nothing like the smiles which could sometimes take over his whole face.
Her mother's intuition was kicking in but given the fragility of her relationship with Harvey, she was resolved to be as nice as possible and walked a bit on eggshells. And frankly, she was not one to give relationship advice. So instead, she tried not to go into too much detail with embarrassing stories from Harvey's youth, but share a few happy moments. She also wanted to thank the person she thought had convinced Harvey to come and see her to mend their relationship. Lily was aware of Harvey's reputation with the ladies, so the fact that he was now in a more committed relationship told her that this relationship must be special, so this must have been the person. Before meeting Paula, she had thought it was the work of another. Someone Marcus had told her about on a number of occasions.
When she thanked Paula, she had no idea that she was actually right about the special someone and the repercussions that would ultimately ensue from her innocent comment. But the second she said it, she knew she was wrong by the looks on both Harvey and Paula's faces. The rest of the supper was civil but strained. As much as she wanted to spend time with Harvey, she was glad when the night came to a close and she was on her way back to her hotel.
But her night didn't improve. Two people outside of her hotel were up to no good, which she had seen so she was inevitably pulled into this case. She chose not to tell Harvey about any of this so he wouldn't worry about her or try to pull something questionably legal to get her out of it as that could just end up making things worse.
Lily walks into the reception area of the law firm, thankfully not the one with her son's name, and checks in with the man at reception. She sat down and waited to meet with an attorney from this office to go over some details about what she had seen. She was a bit nervous about being here, but Lily knew she only had to share what she had seen. She grabbed a nearby magazine while waiting and thumbed through it, but not really reading anything. The attorney she had been speaking with and who asked her to come in was a woman so when a short weaselly looking guy called her name, she didn't respond right away.
"Mrs. Johnson?" Said weaselly guy repeats.
"Oh, sorry. Lost in thought. I thought I was meeting with . . . ." She starts rooting around in her purse for the business card the other attorney had given her.
"Yes. You were to meet with Lauren. She unfortunately had a family emergency so I am filling in for her. My name is A. Elliott Stemple." Stemple introduces himself, though he doesn't look all that happy that he is filling in.
"This shouldn't take too long. Just have a few questions to go over. If you would come with me."
Lily follows Stemple down the hallway to a corner office. Fairly nice office with a wood decor look. A few steel art pieces are placed around his desk and on his bookshelves. There is a cohesiveness to everything in the office until she turns to her right and along the wall is something she hasn't seen for years.
A painting with a white background, a brightly colored crocodile laying on its back and a small doll sitting on the crocodile's belly near its face. She had seen this goofy looking soapdish that Gordon picked up on one of his tours which he had thought was cute and something Lily might like. Though it wasn't really her taste, she had kept it with her art supplies, thinking maybe one day it could be handy. That day came after one of her nieces, who had been over at the house while Lily looked after her, had left a small doll that she had been playing with that afternoon. After Lily's brother picked up his daughter, Lily began the task of cleaning up the living room and that was when she found the doll. She had placed it on her art supply pile so she would remember to call her brother later and went back to putting the living room back in order.
After the room was clean, she moved over to her supplies and she noticed that she had set the doll on top of the crocodile soapdish. For some odd reason, this provided inspiration for her next piece. She went and grabbed their camera to get a few pictures as she knew the doll would need to go back to its owner soon. She also tried to get a rough sketch down as well while the inspiration was clear in her mind.
Over the next few weeks, Lily had transferred her sketch onto a larger canvas and using her photos as reference, began bringing the creation in her head to life. Many times Harvey would sit nearby, doing his homework, reading, or trying to draw something himself. She vaguely remembers Gordon coming home one afternoon and taking a picture of the two of them. After she had finished, she had surprised Gordon with the painting reminding him of the silly soapdish he had brought home once. He laughed, telling her he loved it.
She didn't really think about Gordon taking the picture while she was working on the painting and certainly wasn't aware he had the picture developed, blown up, and framed until she had gone over to his apartment one day after their divorce to discuss something regarding the house. After a period of time, she and Gordon had attained a friendly relationship and were able to speak without pain. She had walked into his place and saw the photo on the wall. Gordon explained that he hoped that she and Harvey would find their way back to one another at some point, but for now he had a reminder of how wonderful the relationship between mother and son had been.
She didn't notice the actual painting on his wall and wondered if maybe he had it hanging up in another room, but she didn't want to open up too much of the past. Little did she know that Gordon had given the painting to Harvey about a year after the big blowup that resulted in their divorce and Harvey effectively removing himself from the family. Despite Harvey's hatred towards his mother, Gordon knew that Harvey was still sentimental and would not do anything to harm the painting. Little did Gordon know that the painting would be placed on Harvey's office wall wherever he worked (whether the DA or Pearson Hardman or whatever the current name of the firm was). Not hidden away but hung where everyone, including Harvey, could see it. That is until Stemple.
Years later, Gordon had left the photo of Lily and Harvey to Lily in his will. He had also left a fairly long letter in which he remembered the good times, why they got married in the first place, and how proud he was of their children. He explained that by leaving the photo to Lily, he wanted to give her a reminder of those great years and all the fun times between Lily and Harvey with the hopes that she would try to reach out to their son at some point.
Gordon knew how hurt and how stubborn his oldest son could be, so he didn't think Harvey was likely to be the person to make the first step towards reconciliation. He also knew that despite their friendly relationship, Lily was still the one responsible for cheating and making Harvey keep that secret.
Gordon admitted in the letter that he hadn't been home much and had placed the entire responsibility of their family on her, which wasn't fair. While Lily had made the decision to cheat, Gordon knew he had a part to play in the breakdown of the family and wanted Lily to know how sorry he was.
Lily was honored to receive the photo from Gordon and loved having a picture of Harvey as a child before everything went to hell. She didn't see her painting among Gordon's things and it wasn't mentioned in his will or his letter to her. It is possible she might have found out if she had allowed Harvey in when he attempted to take the first step at Gordon's wake, but she had messed that up by trying to force Harvey to immediately accept Bobby as her partner. She regretted that decision the minute Harvey walked out the door and every day for a long time. In the back of her mind, she also wondered where the painting had ended up but didn't seek it out until it no longer was in the front of her mind.
Lily turns back to Stemple, wondering how the hell her painting ended up in this guy's office. She doesn't remember the name Stemple coming up in any conversations with Gordon over the years or after his death. She's pretty sure she has never heard the name at all.
Stemple works through the questions the other attorney left for him methodically and without much emotion. He clearly wanted this conversation over as soon as possible. Once he was done, he tried to quickly end the meeting and send Lily on her way.
"Before I go, I love all of the art pieces in your office but that painting over there doesn't seem to go with the theme. Is it special?" Lily inquired. She frankly thought the pieces Stemple had in his office were ugly as sin but she could also tell he was the kind of guy who liked to be complimented.
"Oh that. Yeah, it definitely isn't my taste. I frankly think it is revolting and ugly. The colors almost make me sick. But it has fond memories whenever I look at it." Stemple responds with a slight grin on his face.
"Really? Was it given to you by someone special?" She asks, trying to sound innocent.
"I did receive it, though not by someone special. More like someone I detest and was able to conquer." Glee fills Stemple's face as he looks to the side clearly remembering something that makes him happy.
"Do tell. Love a good story about getting one over on someone. I have quite a few people in my life I would like to do that to myself. Maybe I'll get some tips." Lily tries her hardest to act interested in his tale of vengeance, though in her stomach she has a bad feeling that someone she knows was hurt in the process.
Over the next 5 minutes, Stemple goes on and on about how he was able to wrench the painting from his rival from Harvard. The one he had been able to top in school but at their last meeting his rival was the victor. He goes into detail about how he heard about Pearson Specter Litt had hired a fraudulent "attorney," even using air quotes when relaying the story. The minute Stemple said the name of the firm, she knew exactly who he had taken the painting from.
She bit her lip and squeezed her hands together in order to tamp down her instinctual and motherly need to punch this so-called man in his face for hurting her son, but she knew that she couldn't let him know who she was. Thankfully she was known by her now-married name, at least in this instance. She had been reluctant to drop the Specter from her name, but she realized that she needed to in order to move on with Bobby. Therefore, Stemple wouldn't be able to connect her with Harvey. And couldn't connect her with the painting as she had only signed the painting "L.S."
As Stemple continued to relish in his story, Lily tried to sit and show she was interested in his story, providing a few "ooo"s and "wow"s when she thought it appropriate. By the end of the story, she could tell that Stemple was quite proud of his accomplishment but also expressed that he really didn't want to have the painting around anymore, that the colors were just too much. As if a lightbulb appeared above Lily's head, she thought this was her chance.
"Sounds to me like your revenge is complete but you know what could top it would be to get rid of the painting. That way if you ever see this loser again, you can stick it to him that his beloved painting is now gone, never to be found. Ooo, that would hurt." She tried to sound uninterested in him getting rid of the painting.
"Oh my god. You are so right. He would just die knowing that he can't get it back from me, no matter what he tried. And every time I can just push the dagger in further. Thank you. That is the best idea. Hey, you interested? You came up with this idea, I should at least offer it to you first. And you know what I'm not even going to charge you much. Say $500. $500 would kill him. Show him that his priceless painting is chump change." Stemple responded, adding his disgust when he said priceless.
"Oh, I couldn't . . . .Though it would make a lovely gift to my soon-to-be-grandchild. And I can't really afford $500." Lily hems and haws a bit more. "Would you be willing to part with it for $100?" She hopes she isn't going too low to price herself out of getting Stemple to agree, but luckily he does.
"Absolutely. Frankly, the less money I get for it, the better. I can needle Harvey with that again and again. His precious painting is in the wind and only worth a measly $100. Ha ha! Deal!" Lily really has to bite her tongue at her son's name but uses it in her disguised excitement about getting the painting for her soon-to-be-grandchild.
Stemple doesn't need to know that she already had two grandchildren but the one she was referring to was her hope for the aforementioned son. Lily knows that Harvey would make a wonderful father someday and she hoped said day would be soon, especially since he had recently found his "one," though found isn't accurate since she had been right in front of his face for years. But at last he knew that.
"Wonderful. Is cash ok?"
"Perfect, because that way I don't even have a record of selling it so he can't look anything up if he decides to investigate. Haha." Stemple gladly takes the $100 bill Lily offers. "But I am an attorney, so let me put something down in writing so that if he ever does happen to find you, you have proof of a bona fide sale. He can't argue with that." Stemple scribbles a few things down on a piece of paper, writes his name, her name and then both of them sign and date it.
He goes over to his wall, takes the painting down and hands it to her. "Here you go. Take this piece of crap away." He laughs as he puts it into her hand.
"Thank you Mr. Stemple. It was an honor doing business with you." She throws a wink his way, shakes his hand, and then leaves. She tries to quickly walk out without looking like she is trying to make a clean getaway. Once in the elevator, she lets out a long breath. "Wow, what an idiot." She says under her breath. "Fuck you Stemple." She says slightly louder since no one else is in the elevator and as she admires the painting she did so long ago.
It broke her heart, but also healed her heart to hear Stemple's story about how he had noticed the painting on Harvey's wall for years, from his days at Harvard all the way to his office at his current law firm, though she wasn't sure of what exactly the name was now but she knew her son's name was on that wall. Despite all that had happened between them, Harvey still carried a piece of her in his heart, otherwise Stemple wouldn't have exacted such pain as he described when telling her the story of walking out from Pearson Specter Litt with her painting. And now she gets to return that piece of his heart to him. How fitting since she was well aware of how she had broken his heart in the first place.
Once she arrived at the lobby, she took out her cell phone and made a quick phone call to Harvey's secretary. There was no time like the present to come full circle so she made sure that Harvey had no meetings and wasn't likely to leave the office anytime soon. She told his secretary that she was in town and wanted to surprise him so she asked that Harvey not be made aware that she was on her way but also not to let him leave.
While on her way, she remembered that the last time she was in New York, she went into this small artisan bakery in order to grab a quick snack in between her museum tours and though she didn't have time to try it, she noticed they had a strawberry pie on their menu. Since it was on the way to Harvey's office, she decided to stop in and get one to share with her son. It probably wouldn't be as good as her own recipe, but would make due on such short notice. Once she had said pie boxed up and in a bag, she was on her way to Harvey. She couldn't wait to see him and his reaction.
A couple of weeks later...
It was well past the time when most people had left the office, so Elliott was not surprised to see that there were only a few offices lit up. As he makes his way down the halls of the firm, he sees Harvey's light is still on and once closer, he sees that Harvey is typing away on his laptop. To his left, he sees a bookcase along the wall filled with record sleeves. On top of the bookcase is a framed picture. It isn't easily seen and most people wouldn't recognize, but the picture shows a boy watching a woman work on a painting. The very same painting that Elliott had managed to rip away from Harvey a couple of years ago. Seeing that this picture was in almost the exact spot the painting was when he did said ripping brings a bit of glee to Elliott's heart.
He never found out the reason but really didn't care. He only cared that he knew that the painting was special in some way to Harvey and that it would hurt him to not only take said painting but now to hear that he was able to get rid of it so cheaply and to some stranger. Well that's just a chef's kiss.
Good luck Specter on tracking down that piece of shit. Probably hanging above some mewling baby in their nursery. How fitting. Elliott thinks to himself as he walks through Harvey's glass office door, noting that Harvey looks up at him and rolls his eyes.
"Hello Elliott. To what do I owe this displeasure?"
He and Harvey were currently on opposite ends of a case, where Harvey decidedly had the advantage, which Elliott knew and caused him much consternation. He came here this late at night to try and see if he can come to some kind of compromise as without it, Elliott's client will take a substantial hit. A hit Elliott will not allow to come from Harvey. That cannot happen.
"Harvey. How are you?" Elliott's face has the most plastered on smile that Harvey has ever seen.
"Like you care. What do you want? Because if you are here to try and take my foot off the gas in the Global Connections case, you can think again. I got your client right where I want them and I am not backing down." Harvey responds sitting back in his chair clearly showing his self-satisfied attitude. "So what else could I possibly help you with?"
"Well, well Harvey. You think you pulled one over on me. Frankly, I don't care because I have already hit you where it hurt. Or did you remember the last time I walked in here at night and proceeded to stab you in the heart. Oh, what a night that was. Got to say that the painting looked great in my office, though it was ugly as hell. Just knowing that I could look over at it and instantly see your face that night I procured it. Loved it."
He looks over at Harvey with a smirk that reminds Harvey of the bad guys seen in silent films. All Elliott needed was a mustache he could twirl, though Harvey questions whether he could even grow any facial hair. "And what now fills me with glee is that I sold your piece of crap painting for $100 to some nameless person. Yeah, your 'priceless' piece of art is now in the wind." Elliott goads him further.
Harvey's eyebrows go up with the rest of the face remains stoic. He knows Elliott is expecting some heartbroken or angry response.
"You mean THAT piece of art?" Harvey keeps his eyes on Elliott but points his finger at the wall that directly faces his desk. Elliott is confused but turns around. His jaw drops when he sees what is on Harvey's wall.
Harvey's office was laid out a little different than what it was the last time he was here. Instead of shelving covering the entire wall, there was now a space in between two pillars of shelving. Below the space was a decanter and glasses on top of a couple of lower shelves. The pillars and lower shelving helped to frame a space on the wall. That space was filled with the very same painting he had taken such pleasure tearing away from Harvey in order to save the firm from the fallout of Mike's arrest and imprisonment. The painting Elliott wrenched from Harvey was again on Harvey's wall.
"What the hell? How? What?" Elliott stumbled and struggled to form words, let alone sentences.
"See Elliott. I think you knew that your client has no shot in hell to win and you didn't come here to try and come to a settlement. You knew I wasn't going to budge. You came here to try and needle me. To hurt me. Whether you thought that would be enough to get me to do anything for Global or you just wanted me to hurt, well on both accounts, you lose. Stemple, you lose. I won."
"What's funny is you think selling that painting would hurt me. And selling it cheap would hurt me more. Nope. Last time you gave up on a potential multi-million dollar windfall just to get that painting. This time, to get the painting back cost me $100. Say that's a bargain. Well, actually it didn't cost me a dollar. The person you sold it to decided to give me the painting and put it back where it belongs. Because that nameless person you sold the painting to so cheaply was my mother. I won and I didn't have to do a damn thing."
Harvey chuckles. "Listen closely, you really should know who you are talking and selling things to. She told me all about how you went on and on about how you got one over on me to get it. And how you were more than happy to sell it to her and how she even got you to lower the price to $100. Now everytime I look over at that painting, I get to think about how my mother was able to win against the great A. Elliott Stemple."
"Is there anything else I can do for you Stemple?" Harvey stares at Stemple with his eyebrows raised.
Elliott continues to struggle to form words. Harvey is pretty sure that he can see steam coming out of Elliott's ears and his face is approaching the color of Donna's hair. "Nothing to say? Ok. now get the fuck out of my office. I'll see you in court when I destroy your client."
Elliott slinks out without saying another word. Harvey silently watches him leave with a very satisfied look on his face.
Harvey knows it is a bit late to call but he feels compelled to share what just happened. Just knowing that he can make this call brings a smile to his face and being able to share in something that connects to a happy time in his life despite the turbulent times in between then and now is something he treasures and will always treasure. Harvey reaches for his cell phone and dials a number, trying to wait patiently for the other side to pick up.
"Hello Harvey? What's wrong?" Lily says once she answers the phone sounding a bit anxious. When her phone flashed Harvey's name, she looked at the clock and saw the late hour. Her mind immediately thought something must be wrong for him to call at this time which resulted in her juggling her phone in her haste to answer.
"Nothing's wrong Mom. Sorry to call so late but I just had to tell you what happened." Lily can practically see the grin on Harvey's face with the joy he has in his voice.
Harvey puts his feet up on his desk and leans back in his chair. "Do you remember the last time you were in New York City and you dropped by the office . . . ."
So a little AU occurring sometime in season 9 but before 9x07. In my little world, Harvey still took the road trip with Samantha, Donna still missed him, and she still got him a present. Said present would be Gordon's music library (along the line of my earlier story HBD HRS, though decidedly Paula-free and Donna was there to see the look on Harvey's face.) Harvey would then still call his mother and reminisce as we saw on screen.
I just really like the idea of Lily doing the rescuing of the painting and maybe closing any remaining holes she left in Harvey's heart. Plus, though I know Donna can do magic, reaching out to Alex to find a forger, Alex finding a forger, said forger being able to recreate a painting without much reference (unless Donna had taken pictures of it at some point), forger getting the forgery back to Alex, Alex getting it to Donna, and then Donna doing her Thomas Crown Affair shit in the span of two days or whatever small time period the episode covered seemed a little too much for me. But that's just me.
And in my world, Lily didn't die of a heart attack at the end of the next episode. If someone did have to go, I vote Marcus (hence my twitter prompt. Hehehe). But that's another story, whether or not it comes from me.
Hope you enjoyed this small adventure through my brain.