Sometimes Miracles Come In Pairs
Hey everyone! I've been working on this story for over a year now and initially had planned to publish the story when I finished writing it but after having watched tonight's episode (the last one *sniff*) I just couldn't wait any longer... I hope you like it :)
Disclaimer
I don't own any of the characters besides Sophie and Lily.
This is all fictional which means it's a fragment of my mind and a story I made up and it doesn't necessarily have to be extremely realistic which means that actions of certain characters as well as character traits sometimes might deflect from reality. If you're here to comment on how unrealistic this story might be (I'm not saying it is) just don't keep reading or be more open minded. Just pretend things do and can actually happen the way they do in my story. Don't hate. Thank you.
Have fun reading
*
8 PM, New York City, New York
With a sigh Harvey Specter closed the door to his apartment and loosened his tie. After a stressful day at work he wanted nothing more than to get out of his suit and go to bed.
A growl escaped his throat as he nearly fell over the pair of red converse that lay discarded in the middle of the foyer. He picked them up and put them back on the shoe rack. Lily wasn't the tidiest person and she had it in her to make a mess in under two minutes time.
On his way to her room Harvey picked up Lily's hoodie from the couch and made a stop at the decanter that contained his favourite liquor: a Macallan 18. The decanter was a gift he had received from Paula on their first anniversary. It was an incredibly ugly one but he kept it anyway as he didn't want to hurt her feelings.
The scotch in one hand and Lily's hoodie in the other hand Harvey gently knocked on her door before pushing it open. Lily was seated on her bed reading a book. A soft smile graced her features at the sight of her father leaning against her doorframe. Lily was the spotting image of her mother. The same fiery red hair, the same adorable freckles and the same warm hazel eyes.
"Hey Dad," Lily grinned. For being the queen of chaos Lily's room was always fairly tidy and clean.
"Hey back," Harvey's smile resembled his daughter's. It was one of the features she had actually inherited from him.
"Have you packed your stuff for tomorrow?" He asked and pointed his head towards the black school bag next to her bed.
"Almost. I think I'm missing my pencil case though and I can't find my favourite hoodie but other than that I'm done."
Harvey grinned and raised his left hand that held the said hoodie, "you left it on the couch."
He made his way to her bed and folded it neatly for her to put away. The hoodie was a Burgundy red coloured Pullover with two white stripes on each sleeve. The letters D.P. were placed right above the heart on the left side. It was an old Lacrosse hoodie Donna had forgotten here sixteen years prior and Harvey couldn't bring himself to get rid of it.
When Lily had found the hoodie in his closet and asked him why he owned women's clothing Harvey told her the only thing that came to his mind at that moment: the truth. After learning that this was her mother's hoodie Lily refused to give it back to him. It had been her favourite hoodie ever since.
Harvey ruffled Lily's hair and kissed the top of her head.
"Do you already know who your partner this year is?" Harvey asked his daughter. This summer would be Lily's fifth time attending the PSL summer camp and each year Lily won the camp competition. nothing filled Harvey Specter with more pride than seeing his little girl taking after her old man.
"Yeah, it's some girl from California, Sophie—"
Before Lily could finish her sentence the ringtone of Harvey's phone interrupted her, "Sorry, honey, it's Paula, I gotta take this." He mouthed an 'I love you' to her before answering the call and exiting her room.
Lily rolled her eyes. Since when has a phone call with his girlfriend become more important than a conversation with his daughter?
5 PM, Los Angeles, California
"Sophie, honey, I'm home early today." Donna said as she threw her keys on the kitchen counter.
A few moments later the basement door opened and revealed Sophie who was carrying a basket full of freshly washed laundry. Her dirty blonde waves were pulled up into a lazy bun and she was wearing a pair of shorts and a white oversized tee. Having inherited Harvey's grin, his chocolate brown eyes, his dirty blonde hair and what not Sophie Paulsen looked just like her father.
"Hey Mom." Sophie answered surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Well…" Donna said taking the laundry basket from her daughters hands, putting it on the floor in order to give her a hug. "Since you're leaving tomorrow and I won't be able to see you for three whole weeks I took the rest of the day off to spend it with you. God you're growing up so fast! My baby girl is going away all on her own for the first time in her life, I can't believe it." Donna allowed herself to become a tad sentimental.
Sophie chuckled. "Mom, I'm almost sixteen! Also you do realise that I'm in the middle of packing, right? You could help me though. The faster we get this done the faster we can watch a movie and stuff ourselves with Chunky Monkey." Sophie wriggled her eyebrows seductively at the last part. Another thing she must've inherited from her dad. Harvey used to do that all the time back in the days.
"That's my girl!" Donna beamed and followed her daughter into her room.
Half an hour later Donna and Sophie had packed up everything she needed into a big suitcase and a small travelling bag pack for the plane. Donna went through the checklist one last time making sure they hadn't forgotten anything.
"… sunscreen?"
"Check"
"Flight Tickets?"
"Front pocket in my bag pack, check"
"Charger, mobile, and headphones?"
"Check"
"Okay, you've got everything." Donna sighed. "Are you excited?"
"Yeah, I've never been to New York before but I think it'll be fun."
"I really don't want you to go" Donna chuckled nervously, doing a bad job in hiding the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
"Mom…" Sophie rolled her eyes. "I'll only be gone for three weeks. You'll be busy filming anyway and besides it was you who told me to look for a camp of my choice during summer that matches your schedule in the first place."
"I know, I know. But that doesn't mean I won't miss you! And you've never been this long without me."
Sophie raised her eyebrow, "you mean you've never been this long without me."
Donna laughed and pulled Sophie into a hug "I will miss you pumpkin."
"I'll miss you too, Mommy."
New York City, New York
Lily and Harvey were sitting on the couch watching a movie and having take out for dinner. Out of all the restaurants in the city Lily's favourite was that shitty Thai place that once used to be Donna's.
After the movie Harvey broke the silence.
"I totally forgot to ask you, how was your day with Grandpa and Grandma?"
Lily who had barely touched her food shrugged, "good. Can I go to bed now?"
Harvey frowned. He sensed there was something wrong. Lily wasn't usually this quiet and she always had a good appetite. "Lily, you haven't said a word all evening, you've barely touched your dinner and now you want to go to bed? It's not even 11pm."
Lily exhaled, "I'm just tired, Dad." As she got up Harvey caught her wrist and pulled her back down into his arms. "Come on Lily, I know there's something. Talk to me."
"It's just…" Lily hesitated. "Is Paula moving in with us?"
Harvey was taken aback by her question. "What? Why are you asking?"
Lily sighed, "I just feel like she's interfering and kind of invading my personal space. She's always here, trying to shrink me, trying to get me to talk and open up to her when I just really don't wanna talk to her let alone be with her plus you barely have time for me anymore. I mean we haven't done take out and a movie in ages because you've alway spent your evenings with Paula. We can't even have a normal conversation without her calling you."
Harvey's face fell. He always prided himself with being good at reading people – especially when it came to Lily – so how did he possibly miss this. Learning that his own daughter felt neglected by him stung.
"Lily," Harvey let out a sigh and pulled her closer to his chest. "Even if Paula is my girlfriend you will always come first. Always. Yes, I have been spending a lot of time with her recently and yes, we haven't done takeout and a movie in a while but that doesn't mean that I'm forgetting about you. If you want to spend the evening with me and I happen to have a date with Paula I will gladly call her and cancel because there's nothing more important to me than spending time with you." Harvey reassured pressing a kiss to her temple as Lily snuggled further into his arms.
"I didn't know you felt that way about Paula."
"Well now you do," she grumbled.
"She's just trying to bond with you. Give her a chance."
LAX, California
Some were saying goodbye some were saying hello. Out of all the different nationalities and cultures gate three consisted of only one redhead who currently had trouble keeping her tears at bay. Donna was known to be a strong minded and fierce woman but when her little girl was leaving for a summer camp that happened to be on the other end of the country those façades crumbled and left a protective single mother behind who was bidding her daughter goodbye.
"Attention passengers. This is the final boarding call for United Airline's flight 372A to New York City, JFK Airport. Please proceed to gate 3 immediately. I repeat. This is the final boarding call."
"Mom, I really have to go now." Sophie said as her Mother was holding onto her for dear life.
Donna chuckled through her tears, "I know, I'm sorry. Have fun, honey. I love you" She gave her daughter one final kiss on the cheek and let her go.
Watching Sophie walk through the doors that led to the aircraft must have been one of the hardest things she had ever done. Donna wanted nothing more but to run after her and hug her one last time but she knew in the eyes of her daughter she was acting ridiculously overprotective and embarrassing. After her daughters wavy mane disappeared behind a corner Donna made her way back to her car.
With a sigh she wiped the last few tears off her cheek, ignoring the constant camera clicks of a few paparazzis that had managed to find her in this crowded airport. She had a few busy weeks ahead as she was filming the sequel to the thriller movie "one way street". Being a movie star and raising a daughter all alone was harder than than Donna made it seem.
Pearson Specter Litt Conference Room, New York City, New York
The conference room was filled with a dull and constant noise that could be mistaken with humming of a swarm of bees. In fact it was filled with approximately fifty teenagers that were all taking part at the "Pearson-Specter-Litt Summer Camp".
As a tall African American woman entered it seemed as if someone had pressed mute. The room became silent in an instant.
"Good Morning everyone. My name is Jessica Pearson and I am the managing partner of Pearson Specter Litt. Welcome to our annual summer camp that provides an insight into the world of law. Our firm is specialised on corporate law and by the end of this camp you hopefully know one or two things about it. As every year you will be assigned to a partner with whom you will work throughout the next three weeks. You will work on cases that were prepared by our creative and young associates especially for this occasion and you will accompany some of our most successful partners to court. As always you have the chance to win the camp trophy by collecting points for your team. If you need help with anything you can you can ask anyone around here. We're all nice people and we don't bite. The only thing on your schedule today will be exploring the facilities and settling in. Have fun and good luck!"
Jessica Pearson left the room as fast as she entered it: in determined and quick strides. The woman left no time or room for questions but a lasting impression and Sophie was definitely impressed.
Along with all the other people in the room she left her seat to find her partner. The names were printed out on a list that hung on the conference room wall. Skimming the list she searched for her name and soon found it next to the name Lily Specter.
She felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around to be met with a girl her age. She had fiery red hair and her face was covered in freckles. Sophie immediately noticed something very familiar about that girl but couldn't put a finger on it.
"Are you Sophie?" The red head asked, "because if so you're my parter."
"Yeah, I'm Sophie," she said sticking out her hand for Lily to shake.
Lily smiled and returned the handshake, "I'm Lily, Lily Specter."
Sophie cocked her head, "Specter?"
"Yeah, my Dad is a name partner, actually he should be somewhere around here," Lily shrugged.
"Your Dad is a lawyer, that's pretty cool,"
"Yeah, no, actually it isn't. The job might be cool but your dad having the job? Not cool. It's probably one of the most time consuming jobs one can have. I'm sure your dad has more time for you than my dad has for me."
"I wish he would. My dad doesn't have any time for me seeing as though he stuck around for about five months until he left. I live with my mom in LA."
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Nah, it's alright I'm pretty much over it. I don't even know his name or how he looks but it's better this way. My mom is my best friend and the coolest person I know. I'm really lucky to have her," Sophie smiled.
Lily's smile faded slightly making Sophie frown. "Hey, you okay?"
"What? No, it's nothing… I just," Lily sighed letting her gaze drop to the ground. "I don't have a mom. I wish I had but she took off when I was about half a year old. I don't know what led her to make this decision but it is how it is."
"I'm sorry, that's terrible. I could never live without my mom and I can't imagine how you must be feeling. Have you ever seen her though?"
Lily shook her head, "nope, my dad refuses to tell me anything about her the only thing I know are her initials because i own an old hoodie of her."
"Okay, this conversation just got very depressing very fast. Let's talk about something else and maybe you can show me around a bit?"
Lily let out a relieved sigh and smiled, "sure, let's go"
Lily showed Sophie the library, the bullpens and the partners kitchen- basically everything one needs to know the directions to when taking part at the program.
"Alright that's pretty much all there is to the 50th floor but lucky for you you have me as a partner. Everyone knows me around here which gives me the privilege to show you the partners offices and pretty much every room that you would normally have no access to." Lily grinned and cocked her left eyebrow triumphantly.
Sophie's eyes widened and she stopped walking.
Lily turned around noticing Sophie wasn't at her side anymore "What? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Sophie shook her head, "that thing you did with your eyebrows in combination with that smile just really reminded me of my mom. She does the exact same thing. But I guess it's the red hair. My mom has the same hair colour. Kinda scary though."
"Oh, yeah I guess in some way all redheads look pretty similar." Lily shrugged as she continued walking.
A few moments later they arrived at a small but yet nice looking corner office.
"This is my uncle Mikes office, well godfather actually but he's more of an uncle to me. My dad and him have known each other for years."
As they entered the office the computer was still on but the office was empty. "maybe he's at Rachel's office." Lily thought out loud.
"Who is Rachel?"
"Oh, Rachel is Mikes wife ergo my godmother. She's got her office at the end of the corridor. Mike sometimes goes there to work on cases with her although I hardly think that's what they're doing..."
"Are you kidding?" Lily mumbled as they entered Rachel's clearly empty office but a look at her watch made her realise what time of the day it was.
"Oh. Right. They have lunch break right now. No wonder we can't find them anywhere. Everyone takes their lunch break at 1:30 pm beside my dad so we'll most likely find him in his office. You coming" Lily asked but never got an answer. As she turned around she found Sophie staring at Rachel's desk.
Lily walked up to Sophie and followed Sophie's eyes. Sophie was looking at a picture that was almost completely hidden by a pot plant and several stationary items. As she reached for the picture a cloud of dust emerged into the air.
"Oh wow," Lily said coughing from all the dust, "I've never noticed this picture, it must've been there for years though."
The picture was a photograph from the one of the galas the firm had attended together. It was a group of people consisting of Mike, Rachel, Louis and Jessica but the eye catcher of the photograph was Harvey Specter resting his hand on Donna's visibly pregnant stomach and pressing a kiss to her temple. Donna's hand rested on top of Harvey's.
Sophie turned to Lily confusion written all over her face, "why is there a picture of my mom in Rachel's office and who is the guy next to her?"
"Wait that is your mom? I can't tell you why she's in this picture but I can tell you who the guy next to her is. That's my dad."
Sophie's mouth dropped open and she whispered, "do you think that's me my mom is pregnant with in this picture or do I have a sibling I don't know of?"
Lily turned the frame around, "the picture was taken on February fifth 2002, when were you born?"
"May fourth 2002," Sophie said. Her mom was indeed pregnant with her the time this picture was taken. Her head snapped up as Lily dropped the picture frame on the desk.
"You're kidding are you?"
Sophie frowned, "no, why?"
"Because my birthday is May fourth twenty two as well. What if my dad and your mom were together at that time?"
"Wait that would mean that your dad is my dad and my mom is your mom." Sophie froze finally realising what Lily was pointing out.
"Sophie, that means we're twins."
Sophie swallowed, "Oh my god… oh my god… wait, but how can we be sure? Maybe this is all just a big… misunderstanding?"
Lily pondered for a second, "well if we really are twins my dad must have something confirming it. Like a birth certificate or something like that. I know he wouldn't keep it at home because there is literally no place where you can hide stuff. And believe me whenever he tries to hide things I find them. So there's really only one place where we could look: his office."
"And how exactly do you want to do this when he's not taking a break."
Lily smirked mischievously, "Oh I know how. My dad has a girlfriend. She's literally the worst. She's a shrink and super annoying. Unfortunately my dad doesn't think so. He jumps whenever she calls or wants something. If I were to tell him that she's in the lobby waiting for him he would be out of his chair in seconds. Not to mention that we are on floor 50 which basically means the ride to ground floor will take ages and our lobby is pretty big ergo he will look for Paula at least fifteen minutes until he realises that she's not there."
Sophie grinned, "you're a genius!"
In a matter of seconds Lily and Sophie reached Harvey's office knocking on the door before pushing it open.
Harvey looked up from his laptop, and smiled at his daughter, "Hey, how's it going? Are you two having fun," he asked as he stood up to shake Sophie's hand.
"We're all good, thanks I just wanted to introduce Sophie to you, my partner."
"Sophie? A very pretty name," he said letting go of Sophie's hand.
Sophie blushed, at the thought that this was her first encounter ever with her father or at least her potential father.
"Oh and Dad," Lily piped up, "I think I saw Paula in the lobby, you might wanna check in on her."
Harvey frowned, "are you sure? We weren't supposed to meet for another hour."
"Yeah, I saw her when I showed Sophie the lobby,"
Harvey sighed and flipped his computer shut, "alright, I'll see what's going on. Be right back."
Lily turned to Sophie as a triumphant smile played on her lips, "told ya he'd jump."
Sophie gave lily a high five and looked curiously around the big office. It had huge glass walls that gave a stunning view over New York City.
"Hey, your dad has a secretary? That's so cool." Sophie said as she spotted the empty cubicle outside Harvey's office.
"No, he used to have one - I wasn't born yet, and when she resigned dad refused to get a replacement because apparently she was irreplaceable. I asked him about her but he wouldn't tell me anything. Anyway let's look if my dad has any good hiding places in his office.
Sophie's eyes wandered to the shelves that held all of Harvey's records. With awe she went through all the different EP's and LP's. "Are all of those your Dad's vinyls?"
"Yep, he loves to collect them. All of those," Lily pointed at the upper row, "are albums Grandpa Gordon recorded. He plays he saxophone and let me tell you he is brilliant."
"I love your Dad's taste in music." Sophie went through the vinyls and stopped when a certain artist caught her eye. "He even has Miles Davis' first LP. He's one of my favourite artists." She took the vinyl out of the shelf as an envelope fell out of the case. Lily picked it up and Sophie placed the record back on the shelf her attention suddenly being on the envelope. They sat down on the couch in their Dad's office and stared at the envelope. It's front had both of their names in black ink written on it. Carefully Lily ripped it open. It contained three pictures.
The first picture was a picture of Harvey and Donna. They looked young and in love. Neither of them was looking at the camera as they only had eyes for each other. Harvey had his arm around Donna's waist and Donna's one Hand was placed on Harvey's chest while the other one gently cupped his cheek. Even a blind person could tell how in love they were.
The second picture was a photograph that was taken shortly after the birth of Sophie and Lily. Donna was laying in a hospital bed while one of the twins was laying as a wrapped up bundle in her arms. Harvey was laying next to her holding the other twin. Their smiles brighter than ever. They looked like the perfect little family.
The last picture was a picture of the twins laying next to each other. Both their birth certificates were placed on the blanket next to them. "Sometimes miracles come in pairs" was written on the back of the photograph in the same black ink that was used on the envelope.
Looking at those pictures brought a sense of reality into the situation. With trembling hands Lily put the photos back into the envelope.
"Looks like we have our confirmation," Sophie laughed as she embraced her sister. "We're twins!"
Los Angeles, CaliforniaBack in LA Donna dropped down on the couch with a glass of red wine after her first exhausting work day on the set of her new movie. Checking her emails she came across a rather unsettling one from her assistant who managed her finances. She quickly dialled his number which she knew by heart and waited for him to pick up.
"Donna?"
"Hey, Eric, I just got your email about Sophie's camp. Is everything alright?"
"Uh, well, this is kinda hard to tell you and I'm pretty sure it is going to be even harder for you to digest but you might want to check out the receiver of the money for Sophie's camp you had me transfer."
"Okay… You're making me nervous though," Donna said as she opened another tab typing the domain of her bank into the search bar. She clicked on recent transfers and scrolled down to the day when Eric had transferred the money. A gasp left her lips as her phone slipped out of her hand and hit the floor with a dull thud. In bold letters Pearson-Specter-Litt was listed as the receiver of the money.
As if in trance Donna picked her phone up from the ground telling Eric she would call him back. With trembling hands she dialled the one number she swore to herself sixteen years ago she would never call again. Her heart rate was increasing with each second she waited for him to pick up. Suddenly she heard his voice again. For the first time in almost sixteen years she heard the deep baritone that haunted her in her sleep.
"Harvey Specter speaking."
Donna took a deep breath before saying, "Harvey, it's me, Donna. We need to talk."
*
Sophie and Lily sat together in the partners kitchen discussing their newly discovered relationship as twins. They told each other everything about their lives and their parents and soon discovered how much of a perfect match Harvey and Donna were and how they had to make them meet again.
"You do realise that we have to tell Dad about me," Sophie said as she took a bite of her granola bar.
"Yeah I know. How could they do this to us? I mean how can you live with the fact that you have another child in this world that has absolutely no knowledge of you at all?"
"I don't know but what I know is that not having you I'm my life for the past 15 years sucked!"
Lily grinned from cheek to cheek and nodded eagerly, "I definitely agree with you!"
"Okay we should go and tell dad now. Any ideas how?" Sophie asked as her nervousness increased.
Lily shrugged, "Easy. We'll just tell him. No talking around it. No chickening out."
Sophie let out a breath before getting up. "Well then what are we waiting for?"
*
Sighing Harvey exited the elevator. He just spent twenty minutes looking for Paula in the lobby. Twenty very valuable minutes of his very valuable time. Annoyed by the situation he called Paula who informed him that she was still in a meeting with a patient but took the time to tell him about the restaurant she had discovered in some alleyway and was really eager to try out with him. The only problem was that the restaurant was none other than Del Posto. Those two little words were able to make his blood circulation stop in an instant.
Del Posto wasn't only the restaurant he had met Donna for the first time all those years ago, it was also the restaurant he had told her he was completely and unconditionally, head over heals in love with her. It was the restaurant she had told him she was pregnant with their two daughters. It was the restaurant he would take Donna to whenever she was mad at him because he had screwed up in some way or when they had something to celebrate. It was the restaurant that had a picture of the both of them kissing under a mistletoe during Christmas hanging on a wall and it was the restaurant that had Donna's favourite dessert named after them: The Paulsen-Specter-Chocolate-soufflet. Del Posto was their restaurant. Never in his life had he brought another woman but Donna to this place and that sure as hell wouldn't change now.
Harvey draped his coat over the armrest of the couch in his office and let out an exhausted sigh.
Now that he made it back to his office he was eager to get to work as he was working on a crucial case that demanded his full attention. He had just flipped his laptop open when his phone rang again. Not looking at the caller ID he answered it.
"Harvey Specter speaking."
All the colour drained from his face when a very familiar voice he hadn't heard in almost sixteen years sounded through the receiver.
"Harvey, it's me, Donna. We need to talk."
At the same time Lily and her partner walked through his office doors.
"I don't care who you are talking to dad, but you better hang up right now because I want to know why you never told me about my twin sister," Lily said cocking her eyebrows the way Donna always did.
Sophie stepped forward and gave Harvey a shy smile.
"Hey Dad."
*
There you have it! The first chapter of my new fanfiction. Yes, Suits might've come to an end and yes, I'm still crying over it but I hope stories like those can keep it alive - at least for us fans... this story in unbeta-ed so I apologise for any mistakes. I hope you liked it. Lmk in the comments :)