The last two months had been great, everything had seemed to fall right into place. Winter arrived quickly and they were both heading back to New York, to spend Christmas at home.
This was one of Jessica's favourite holidays, not so much for Harvey, but he partook in all the pre-Christmas activities she asked him to. He helped Jessica decorate the apartment while her flatmates were out of town, which he ended up enjoying a lot. For Harvey events with his whole family was around, made him uncomfortable because of the secret he was keeping from his father, which recently had put a massive strain on his relationship with his parent.
Harvey had driven them back to New York a day or so before, which Jessica had protested as she would have preferred a 1hr flight than a 4hr drive back to Harvey's family home in Riverside NY, he pulled up to Jessica's drive in the Hampton's and his eyes widened. He had seen her parents' usual home, their apartment on the upper east side but this house was something else. Jessica had mentioned her family spent a lot of their Christmas and summers up here, with most of her extended family. Harvey knew that her parents were both successful, but he never knew to what extent till now. The white house, he now understood why people who had been to Jessica's home called it the white house. The place was grand and as white as snow with perfectly cut hedges and foliage surrounding it, which had been dusted with a blanket of snow from the December weather.
He stopped the car and unbuckled his seat belt slightly mesmerised before jumping out the car and helping Jessica with her bags.
"I'll see you later then?" Jessica said as she placed the last of her bags inside the house"
"yeah"
"don't be late" she said before kissing him.
"I won't. I promise" he said before heading off
Tonight, was the night, the first time Harvey would be meeting Jessica's parents. It had been playing on his mind for weeks and it was too late to back out now. Initially this wasn't Jessica's idea, she had told Harvey several time that, her parent weren't the easiest people, who would most likely pull their 3 month relationship apart and she wasn't done with their honeymoon stage yet, but since she had met Harvey's parents (although on accident) who hadn't stopped talking about her, he was itching for her to introduce him to the family. The weight on the evening had begun to dawn on him and he had a feeling he wasn't going to get the same reaction his parent had towards Jessica, her Mother was going to be the easiest to "woo" but her Father not so much, Jessica was a daddy's girl, she could do no wrong in his eyes (other than study law instead of becoming a doctor), which meant he was going to get grilled, Alan wanted nothing less than perfection for his little girl.
Harvey stood in the mirror checking his outfit, he had on a navy suit with a burgundy tie and medium brown dress shoes, he'd remembered that Jessica was wearing burgundy and thought it would be smart to have his tie match her dress. The suit fit slightly too big, but he looked dashing as always. He was defiantly anxious but knew he had the tools to make her parents like him at least.
He rang the doorbell before clearing his throat. Jessica opened the door to see Harvey perfectly on time, dressed as smart as ever with two bouquets of flowers in his hand, red roses for Jessica and white lilies for her mother.
Harvey looked at Jessica and smiled, she looked stunning. "You look beautiful" Harvey said handing her the flowers.
"Thank you" she blushed slightly as she gave a smile before taking the flowers.
"you nervous?"
"should I be?"
"No, I'm sure they're going to like you"
"your Mom maybe but your Dad," he said in a hushed voice
"Jessica" her mother strode gracefully into the main entrance "this must be Harvey"
"it a pleasure to meet you Ms Pearson" he said shaking her hand before handing her the lilies
"Oh, why thank you, these are my favourite. I'll just go and place these in some water" as she walked off, then stopping momentarily "Jess your father is in his office, you should let him know our guest has arrived"
"Yes, mother" Jessica took a deep breath before taking Harvey's hand and walking to his office.
They pause, just as Jessica was about to knock Harvey let go of her hand
"what are you doing?" she looked at him slightly confused
"I don't know? I feel like we shouldn't touch" Harvey said slightly anxious
Jessica let out a small laugh "All right then"
Before she could knock her father open the door
"Jessica" a smile on his face as he pulled her in for a hug
"Daddddd" she cleared her throat "dad this is Harvey my-"
"the guy distracting my little girl from university" he offered out his hand
"yes, I mean no." Harvey cleared his throat "pleasure to meet you sir" taking his hand a firmly shaking it.
Stepping past them he said "well we should be getting to dinner"
They were now on to dessert and it was going well, to Jessica's disbelief her father had been relatively well behaved.
"so Harvey how far do you live from here?"
"about 30 minutes away"
"I take it you drove? so that's your 1968 black Chevrolet Camaro, outside? How'd you afford a car like that?"
"Dad!" Jessica said shock in her voice
"it's a fair question, I didn't grow up in a mansion." Harvey let out a light laugh before noticing, Jessica's mother giving a smile, slightly amused, Jessica shaking her head and her father not so amused "My dad's best friend is a mechanic, who buys and sell cars, he gave it to me at a discounted price. To be honest it wasn't worth much as it should have because the engine was a piece of… errrm you know wasn't running, so after school, he would come by and help me fix it up"
"so, you a hard worker, do you have any plans for a future in law?"
"I'd probably go corporate or work for the DA's office"
"helping the rich stay rich, by taking from the poor type of work"
"well, I'm not really a probono kind of guy" Harvey joked
"strange policy for a guy who came from nothing"
"Dad"
"it's all right Jessica" he paused "did you save many lives when you were a plastic surgeon or was it help the rich spend their money kind of work?"
"Harvey!"
"no, I'm sorry Alan, I was out of line"
"you damn right you were out of line, I think it best if you leave"
"you can't be serious?" Jessica added
"he will not come into my house and disrespect me"
Jessica began to speak before being cut off by her mother "I think its best if he goes, it will give everyone a chance to cool off"
"I'm going to go Jess" Harvey stood up from the table "Thank you for the meal and having me over Mr and Mrs Pearson"
Jessica cleared her throat before placing her napkin in her plate and stand-up once Harvey had left the room "you don't have to like him, but you could have tried"
"he's not good enough" he father standing his ground
Harvey grabbed his car key and jacket before opening the front door
"Hey, wait a second" Jessica called from the foyer
"I'm sorry Jess, I lost my cool and that wasn't okay"
"you're damn right, you lost your cool. What were you thinking? That man is my father and I know he can be petulant at times but, you could have handled it better"
"I tried, I apologised, you could have at least stood up for me"
"As a matter of fact, I did because I love you but I'm not about to pick sides between you and my father Harvey, I won't do it"
Harvey slightly dumbfound stared at Jessica. He had said I love you about a month ago and hadn't gotten a response, she seemed to glaze past it, as she did with everything, she didn't what to talk about. Harvey has sussed that when this happened, she was either scared of being vulnerable, losing a discussion or was 'ignoring' a problem she didn't have time to deal with.
After a long pause, a confused Jessica broke the silence "what?"
"no, nothing you just told me you love me"
She smiled rolling her eyes "I'm trying to have a serious conversation here"
"this is a serious conversation because I said it a month ago and you never said it back"
The realisation hit her "no I did not"
He kissed her "say it again"
"I love you"
Stopping the kiss, she smiled "you better go before you get me in trouble"
They kissed once more before she closes the door behind Harvey.
They decide to take a second shot at "meet the parent" on New Year's Eve. It was going well Alan had been polite and respectful, while Harvey had gelled well with the rest of her family. Things were going smoothly and Harvey had begun to relax slightly joining her father in his study for a glass of scotch.
"so why my daughter? Why Jessica?"
"other than the fact she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, she makes me smile, she is far more intelligent than I am, she make me what to do better, be better and I'm a better man because of her" a smile lit up on his face as he spoke about her. Harvey paused.
"Can I be frank? Why don't you think I am the man for her?"
"you strike me as a man who has no regard for the rules, for structure. You act before you think and would rather ask for forgiveness rather than permission and that's my problem. She is a lot more caring than she lets on and her veil of strength, wither when she is around you. I can tell you love her, but she has worked too hard, to have a man stray her away from her path, to- to engulf her"
"I do love her, more than I think she may every love me and don't think anyone could engulf Jessica Pearson"
"be that as it may, you are not the man for her, she needs stability, someone who is dependable, not a project, or a man that she will have to carry"
"for the record, I might have come from nothing, but I don't plan on staying there"
"was this before or after you met Jessica?"
Harvey scoffed "is this the part where you offer me money to leave her?"
Alan smiled "by the look on your face you wouldn't take it and I could and would never do that to her"
"what are you saying, sir?"
"to tread lightly," he said as he patted Harvey on the back. "I think we should get back"
Harvey took his drink and walked out the deck taking a deep breath in of the cold winter air, looking out into the garden.
Jessica wrapped her shawl around herself shielding her from the cold air.
"you all right?"
"Yeah, getting some air"
"how did it go?"
"what?"
"your one to one with Dr Alan Pearson"
Harvey gave a light chuckle "I think he likes me"
"Uhhh, is that right?"
"It went well"
"that's all I'm getting?"
"that is all I'm going to say" a smirk on his face
"so are you going to stop staring into the distance out here and come inside before the count down so I can get my new year's kiss or- "
Harvey gave a loose smile
"are you sure you are all right?"
Harvey began to speak before being cut off by Leah.
"You two might want to stop being gross, everyone is coming out for the fireworks, also Jess Mom wants you help bring the chairs and fireworks out"
Jessica smiled rolled her eyes at her sister "and what are you doing?"
"delegating," she said with a bright smile before heading back inside.
"could you get the fireworks? While I help out with the chairs?"
"Ermm Jess" she turned to face him
"yeah"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter" at that moment Harvey had decided he wasn't going to share what happened between him and Alan, as not to drive a wedge between Jessica and her father
"okay" she smiled giving him a knowing look.
They welcomed the new year with a countdown kiss and watching the fireworks erupt in the night sky.