"Do you have a minute?" Harvey asks the question while walking into Donna's office and dropping a file on her desk. She looks up at him, "and if I say no, you'll take that file back and walk right out again?" She raises an eyebrow. He tilts his head a little, "well… No," he admits, and she smirks. He lowers himself in one of the chairs in front of her desk and smiles at her, "I can be quick about it, if you're really busy?" He offers. She shakes her head, "it's okay, Harvey. I'd prefer anything over these reports." She tells him, gesturing to her laptop.
"If you play your cards right I might be able to offer you something you do like," Harvey proudly smirks at her. Donna glares at him, thinking it's a thinly veiled innuendo. But then she looks at the file and the pieces click in her brain, "you want to set up a client meeting?" He nods, "I've had a few meeting with this guy, and he's determined to see it through, so I thought I'd send him to see you before setting everything in motion."
It's something new, something that has started here in Seattle; sending prospective plaintiffs for a chat with Donna before fully diving into a case. It started in a week where Mike and Rachel were out with the flu and she took over a few of their meetings, where she certainly didn't give out any legal advice, but she did manage to make people feel at ease and discuss any potential concerns. Especially for plaintiffs on a class action, who represent whole groups and often feel a large sense of responsibility, conversations with her really helped them to have faith in the lawyers and the whole process. So Mike – as managing partner – decided to have a meeting with Donna be a regular occurrence for clients, whenever any of the lawyers feel like a bit of a human touch is needed.
Donna smiles at Harvey, glad that he is coming to her with something she likes rather than all the administrative duties her job as COO entail. She accepted immediately when Mike and Rachel offered her the job, but as it turns out, at this firm she operates a little more like a regular COO and a little less like the superhuman glue that she used to be back in New York. She doesn't mind, she understands that her position here is different and she has to get to know people before she can grow into what she was so good at. But she was very glad by the new opportunity Mike created for her with these meetings, and they have quickly grown into her favorite part of her job; talking to people with the sole purpose of empathic listening and subsequently problem-fixing. It's what she was born to do and she's glad to be able to put her talents to action.
"Remember the case against that pharmaceutical company?" Harvey starts. He started working on it a few days ago and he is quite certain he mentioned it over dinner. Donna nods, pulling the file he put on her desk towards her, but she keeps looking at him, clearly waiting for an elaboration. "They created that new drug for high blood pressure, but it turned out to have unintended effects on the blood sugar in patients with diabetes when taken together with an anticoagulant."
"Your lead plaintiff was that man who lost his wife, right?" Donna remembers. Harvey had told her a few nights ago, and he had seemed unusually bothered by it. "Yes," he responds, "she had type I diabetes since her childhood, but it had been stable for years. And then she took this drug and her blood sugar got so dysregulated she slipped into a coma and passed away. She wasn't even that old, she was in her fifties, leaving behind her husband and a seventeen-year-old daughter."
"God," Donna sighs, "that's terrible." She looks at Harvey, who just nods, "it should be fairly easy to get enough evidence to prove the pharmaceutical company made a mistake. But still, they are powerful and this might take a while. And it's an emotional case, an emotional man too, so I think it's good if you have a chat with him." Donna offers him a faint smile, "of course," she turns towards her laptop, pulling up her calendar, "when is your next meeting with him? It might be good to plan it together, that way he doesn't have to come up here more often than necessary."
While Harvey gets his phone out of his pocket to look at his own calendar, Donna opens the file, glancing at the contact information. When she sees the name, her breath catches in her throat. She suddenly hears her heart pounding in her ears and for a second she is frozen in place. Then Harvey tells her a date and time and she manages to snap back to reality and regain her composure. She schedules the meeting 'Donald Grayson' for eight days from now, at three thirty. But her heart is still pounding and she already dreads the moment she has to walk in there.
From that moment on, Donna tries to block all thoughts of Donald Grayson and the upcoming meeting. It's not even a conscious action, just the default her brain diverts to when it tries to protect her. And during the occasional times she has to think about him – when Harvey brings him up – she desperately forces herself to at least keep her mind in the current time and not let it wander back to all those years ago. Because that's something she can't face.
The day of the meeting, Harvey is out of the office all morning. It sets Donna on edge not to have her husband close, while simultaneously making her feel relieved for not having to face him and pretend to be fine. He gets back a little after noon and coaxes her into having lunch with him. He is in a good mood, his morning went well and he tells her all about it, not noticing how withdrawn from the conversation she seems. After lunch, he suggests going over the case once again before the meeting, but she declines, telling him she needs to finish something else.
At three thirty-one, Donna is still in her office, blankly staring at her laptop. The numbers in the corner jump to three thirty-two and she abruptly stands. She can't do it. She can't go in there. That's the only thought in her head. A thought that has been spinning round and round since she got back to her office after lunch. She tried – really, really, tried – to calm her nerves, to focus, to get herself to face this. But she can't. So when she makes her way out of her office – afraid Harvey might come looking for her there – she doesn't turn right to the conference room. Instead she turns left, heading towards the exit. Literally fleeing.
Harvey meets Donald Grayson in the lobby of the firm at three twenty-nine and takes him to the conference room. It's not really like him to be this punctual, but he knows Donna is. Just like he knows that she prefers to make an entrance instead of being kept waiting. So he makes small talk with the man for a minute. And then another one. And another. After five minutes, he gets a little annoyed. He asks Grayson to wait while he fetches her, but when he gets to her office he finds it empty. Her purse is still there but her coat is gone, which tells him she left.
On the short walk back to the conference room, Harvey tries to stuff his annoyance down. He takes a breath before he walks in and offers Grayson an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry about this, but I think we might need to reschedule," he sighs, "Donna – Ms Paulsen, our COO-" He starts, but his is interrupted by Grayson, "Donna Paulsen is your COO?" He asks. Harvey narrows his eyes a little, surprised by the question. He nods, "why?" He asks then.
For a moment, Grayson hesitates. It makes Harvey a little uneasy, although he can't really explain why. "We… have a history." The man eventually tells Harvey, which does nothing to quell the unease. "A history?" He raises his eyebrows. "A private matter." Grayson seems to think that is the end of it, but Harvey won't give up that easily. "As it happens, she is Mrs. Specter now. She just prefers to use her own name at work. But as you can see, her private matters concern me too." He tells Grayson, his jaw set. It's quiet for another moment, "I think it's best if you ask her." Grayson then decides. Harvey nods shortly, before gesturing to the open door, "I'll set up a new appointment with her, I'll let you know the time and place."
It's an hour later when Donna returns to the firm. Her hands still clammy and her heart still pounding. But now on top of that also messed up hair from the wind and typical Seattle drizzle. She leaves her coat in her office and then turns to go to the bathroom to fix her hair. But before she can leave her office, Harvey appears in the doorway and blocks her way. She closes her eyes for a moment, gathering courage, before opening them and facing her husband.
"Where were you?" Harvey decides to come straight to the point. Since seeing Grayson out, his mind has been switching between annoyance for disappearing without telling him and worry about what history might mean. When he looks at her, she seems uncharacteristically nervous; fiddling with her hands, her eyes cast down. It tells him that she deliberately missed the meeting – something he already guessed after Grayson's revelation. But it still doesn't give him a clue to the why of it all.
Donna's eyes search Harvey's face, looking for clues that tell her how much he already knows. He seems frustrated, his brow knit together in a frown. But there is worry simmering behind his eyes and she deduces that he doesn't know the full story. If he did, he wouldn't be so conflicted between anger and concern. He would know exactly what he would feel. "I couldn't do it, Harvey," she admits, deciding that honesty is the best policy, "I'm sorry."
Harvey sighs, "what does history mean?" He asks her then. She runs a hand through her hair, "it's complicated." She murmurs, her gaze on the floor. "Complicated? Jesus, Donna," Harvey huffs, "you knew that this was coming before today. Whatever history and complicated mean, you should have told me. You should tell me. I'm your husband!" He rants. She swallows, "not here, Harvey. Not now" she tells him, her voice low. "Fine." He snaps, before he turns on his heel and walks out of her office without so much as looking back.
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Yesss, there we go again. First chapter of my newest multichapter. I'll tell you it's going to be a complicated situation, but I hope you'll like :)
x
(PS: as always; feedback is very welcome!)