A/N: Pre-canon, pre-series Donna and Harvey deal with some feelings during dates with other people following TOT. This has been on my drive for ages, another fic I forgot completely about, until I opened it up and saw I only needed to add a tiny bit more to it. So, I hope you enjoy it :)

It's Friday evening and the office is near deserted, save for Harvey, working late, files strewn across the desk before him. He knows he's not going to get where he wants just by charm, to be partner, he needs to put in the work. And that means late hours on a Friday, waving off his colleagues when they invite him out for drinks, to make sure Jessica and everyone sees him working when everyone else is playing. He's not there to make friends after all, he has enough of those. And even if he didn't, he has Donna.

Donna. He groans in frustration as he hits number two on his speed dial, fully prepared to grovel and beg his secretary to return. It barely rings once before he hears her voice, high and strained over the sounds of music in the background.

"Harvey?"

Harvey hadn't expected her to answer so quickly and the highness in her voice puts him on edge.

Sitting up straight, he replies, "Where are you?"

"I'm...sorry…" Her answer is muffled, "Sorry, I have to go..."

He's about to object, that he hasn't even told her what he needs before her voice echoes through the small device.

"My boss needs me, it's an emergency I'm sorry. Call me!" He waits a few more moments, hearing her moving through people and the loud sounds of music slowly diminish.

"Donna, are you okay?"

"Yeah…yeah I'm okay." She goes quiet and Harvey suddenly forgets the reason he called.

"Are you? Okay I mean…"

Harvey's quiet on the other end, trying to process why the idea Donna could be in danger sent his heart racing.

"Harvey?"

"I need you." He says quickly and he can hear the sound of her breath hitch on the other end. "I mean, I need you to come back to the firm and help me with these case files. It should only take us a couple ho-"

"You're paying for my fare…"

Harvey hadn't expected she would arrive so quickly, knowing all too well how hard it was to hail a cab on a Friday evening. But when he sees her, he knows she wouldn't have had any sort of problem getting a ride. He hadn't expected her to arrive in a tight little black dress with large heels that emphasised her long, slender legs. Legs that he vividly remembers being wrapped around his waist not too long ago. He drinks in her smoky eyes, dark and mysterious that beckon and issue a challenge to uncover all of her secrets, the loose but intricate plait has his hands itching to tug on, to pull out so he can run his fingers through her tresses. Then his gaze falls to her lips, painted red and screaming anything but a warning.

Harvey watches those lips spread into a sly smile as his eyes travel up to meet hers.

Oh shit, he thinks, Donna had been on a date when he'd called. There's a part of him that wishes he hadn't called, that he'd let her enjoy her evening. But there's an even bigger part of him that feels like he should've asked her to stay earlier so that she hadn't even had the chance to leave the office and meet the mystery man.

"Where are the files?" She asks in a chipper tone, seemingly oblivious to the thoughts running through his mind and the effect she's having on him.

Kicking off her heels, she settles down opposite him, reaching forward to grab files and Harvey has to bite back a groan when she leans forward, supple breasts pushed together and on display. He remembers holding them in his hands, probing her taunt nipples with his tongue and fingers, sucking and kneading.

"Where were you this evening?" He asks, hoping she'll tell him about her evening out with her girlfriends and not that she was out on a date. When she looks at him with raised eyebrows asking ' you seriously don't know' as she gestures up and down her body, he plasters on his poker face and schools his features.

"A date…"

"It go well?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Tell me everything." Harvey replies, feigning coolness and ignoring that weird voice in his head that screams, no, no I do not want to know.

"Seriously?"

"We're friends right? Friends tell each other this kind of stuff…"

"Friends?"

"Aren't we?" Harvey asks, holding his breath.

Donna tilts her head to the side, a move Harvey recognises, one that shows she's trying to suss out the situation. She shrugs a shoulder before opening her mouth to speak.

"We went to this new club…"

He listens intently as she tells him how the man, Darren, had turned up at her door with a cheap bottle of wine that they passed between them in her apartment.

"The spark," Donna pauses, looking up to see Harvey hanging on her every word, "It uh… there wasn't anything there."

She doesn't tell him how as soon as they'd met up, the musky smell of his cologne had been overpowering and how when he'd kissed her it felt like two different pieces of a jigsaw being smashed together. And Donna definitely doesn't tell him that when Darren's hands had held her waist as they danced, all she could think of was Harvey's own hands on her hips, holding her in place just weeks before as she rode out their concurrent orgasms. After that, she hadn't wanted the man's hands to touch her at all, it felt like they burned her, not setting her on fire in any good way. She hadn't been repulsed but whatever fire had burned within her when they'd agreed to the date, was well and truly put out. When her phone rang not too long later, with Harvey's name illuminated on the small screen, she won't ever tell him that was the first time she truly smiled that evening.

Harvey clears his throat and Donna shakes her head, refocusing her attention to him.

"Let's get started then."

He snorts, "Yeah, can't imagine spending your Friday evening with me is high on your list of ways to start your weekend."

Donna chuckles nervously, hoping he doesn't pick up on the fact that spending a Friday evening with him is quite possibly high on her list of ways to end a week.

.

.

Harvey knows it's not a competition, who can get over the other time first, but he can't help but feel something knowing Donna had come to him the night before from a date. It had only been a couple of weeks since they'd met at the diner, and they'd both agreed to put that night they shared to the back of their minds. But he'd be lying if he said he hadn't not thought about it, when he's lying in bed and stretching his hand out to the empty pillow beside him, or when he's in the grocery store picking out fresh fruit, he steers clear of strawberries because he can't not associate them with her.

He's told himself that he'd been too busy with work, trying to propel his career upwards, to go out on the town and pick up a girl. But in truth, he hadn't felt the urge to pick up anyone since Donna and that whatever ache his body felt, was for the redhead. Seeing Donna dressed up, having been out on a date, has Harvey feeling something that he just can't place.

He doesn't know why he feels bothered, why something is bubbling within him at the thought that had he not called and needed her to work, she could have taken the other man home to her bed. Where he'd been not long ago and still felt like he belonged.

So he does the first thing he thinks, he gets himself back out, back at a bar - not his usual, not the one he'd first met her at - and finds himself a pretty blonde. He forgets her name as soon as he hears it but she's easy to look at, smiles and laughs at all the right moments. He orders them shots, slinging his back just so he can feel the burn in his throat because the sound of her laughing almost hurts his ears. It's loud and brash, not soft and giggly like Donna's. As he shuffles her into a waiting taxi, he can't help but draw similarities between the two women.

He follows her up the steps into her apartment and watches as she opens the door, turning around to lean on it as she beckons him in. Harvey has to blink twice when he sees the can of whipped cream, and then slightly shakes his head when he doesn't see anything in the woman's hands before him. In a matter of minutes, she pulls him down on top of her and it's almost like a dream, how time seems to move quickly and suddenly she's goading him inside of her. Harvey rocks back and forth if on autopilot, grimacing when the woman digs her fingers a little too hard into his skin. He looks down and is disappointed to see light blonde strands - not fiery red - fanned out on the pillow.

"Harvey?" The woman's voice drags him back to the present, realising he'd stilled above her and he forces his lips down onto hers, and receives a satisfied, muffled moan in response.

He closes his eyes, pretending he were in another's bed. And it almost works. Almost. Until he's just about to reach his climax and it's Donna's name that escapes his lips.

.

.

She's waiting for him when he arrives on Monday morning, a coffee in her outstretched hand that he takes as he walks by. Donna follows, documents in hand and ready to go through his day with him.

"Good weekend?" Donna asks as she settles down, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes when she sees him pause before a smirk spreads across his features.

"Can't complain…" Harvey replies with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

It's her turn to pause before she too plasters on a smile, "Do you remember her name?"

"Of course I do..." He smirks, knowing all too well he doesn't remember what it even started with.

Donna doesn't say anything in response, just gives him a look and a smile that for him screams that she wants to say something, to challenge him. But she doesn't, she just gives him a nod and Harvey thinks perhaps he's a better actor than he gives himself credit for.

"Let's get to work then…"

"Yeah," He nods, a real smile spreading across his face, "Let's get to work."

Thanks for reading!