AN: Hello everyone! This story has been haunting my head for years, and I finally took the time to write it. Let me state that this not an original idea. I s̵t̵o̵l̵e̵ borrowed heavily from the late great Jmaka (u/1243130/Jmaka) who wrote something very similar for the Gilmore Girls FF. I never could be as great as she was. Of course, I adapted the idea to the Darvey context, but I also took some scenes roughly or lines verbatim from Jmaka's "Stars Hollow Trivia Luke's Bet". I hope she gives me her blessing from fanfic heaven, where she sadly has lived for years now.
These first couple chapters have no sex (yet), but I still put this in the M-category from the start.
Since I am almost done with the dozen or so chapters, you can expect weekly updates.
The biggest thanks go to my betas Yvonne and BellaDonna! Bella's Sex Toy Advent Calendar was a huge inspiration for this fic.
And now enjoy!
Scotch and eggs
Something had shifted between them. After months of borderline awkwardness and being quasi-estranged, there was some kind of light flirting going on again. Their situation undoubtedly was kicked up a notch when they both admitted they were never quite able to put "it" out of their minds and still fed off that night in their fantasies. Donna decided it had felt good to talk about that, and to feel openly admired by someone whom she had secretly admired for as long as she had known him. Harvey knew it was a baller move to put it out there, to mention the night they weren't supposed to talk about, and to tell her he was thinking about her when he pleasured himself. But she had neither slapped him nor run for the hills, so he counted that as a win.
And winning was on Donna's mind as well. They had a couple of drinks in Harvey's office once he had returned from Boston. They talked about Marcus' divorce and Louis' current fertility issues. Two drinks quickly turned into three.
Harvey chuckled. "If Louis really does get Sheila pregnant, I think the world won't survive it."
"Why would you say that?" she asked and wondered if their knees had bumped together for the second time that night on purpose or accident.
"Because Louis as a father would be too much and then there's the whole Litt offspring."
"Oh, come on. A baby won't turn the world on its axis..."
"Louis' baby, however, could. It doesn't matter, anyway."
"Why?" she asked curiously.
"Because no way in hell will Louis get Sheila pregnant."
"You're a fertility expert now?"
"No, I am using my common sense."
"How so?"
"Donna, Louis came in the mud. Twice."
She made a face, but stayed quiet.
"Plus, Sheila is in her forties. And Louis? Some people shouldn't procreate. He thinks I use tomatoes as my mental stimulus to jerk off to."
"You're a mean drunk tonight! You're only like that because of what happened with your brother. And since Louis gave up mudding for the time being, I would bet that he, in fact, will get Sheila pregnant."
Harvey took a sip from his drink and paused for a moment. "Really? Care to make it interesting?"
"What do you have in mind?" she said as she tried to get over the fact that his lowered voice sounded incredibly raspy and sexy.
"A wager."
"A wager? What is this, ninth grade?"
Harvey got up to his desk to get them each a piece of paper and a pen. "Here," he said as he handed her hers. "Write down your bet."
"What are we talking? Money?"
"No! We have money. I was thinking something different."
"Like?"
"Anything you can imagine. Within reason. And don't write something like Harvey picks up my dry cleaning for a year. Let's limit this to a month tops."
"But I have everything I want." Well, not everything... As much as she tried to deny it, Donna really did not have everything she wanted. Harvey's voice pulled her from her thoughts.
"Material things. I bet there are things you'd want if you got the chance to have them."
Donna gulped. He sounded so casual, while her brain was already deep in the gutter because of that night that may have occurred twelve-and-a-half or possibly thirteen years ago.
"All right," she said and took some time to ponder.
Anything you can imagine. Sounded tempting. Images of him leaning in and whispering It's really strawberries and whipped cream as he raised his eyebrow flooded her mind. It made her feel desired by him. Add to that his scent that made her light-headed. They also had touched more this evening than they had cumulatively for half a decade.
And then there was the whole thing with the very, very inappropriate sex dream she'd had after their mutual confession. Flashbacks of the one night they had spent together had been haunting her basically constantly since, not only in her dreams. She was craving to be with him, and that was a feeling she usually knew exactly how to suppress. She had gotten rather good at it over the years. But ever since their dance at Mike and Rachel's wedding, she wanted to feel physically close to him again. But sadly, nothing had come of that night. It had only given her false hope. And so, she had worked hard to put Harvey, and them, securely back in the friends category.
Anything you can imagine. Anything? Everything? Her heart was racing. His everything and her everything were two completely different things. Everytime she had tried to even inch into that direction, she regretted it for months. Maybe she should put her idea of everything on hold, and offer something that was more akin to his notion of everything. What the hell, she thought and quickly scribbled her wager on the piece of paper. Maybe they should've stuck to their usual two-drinks limit. "What do we do with this?"
"Gimme. I'm gonna put it in my safe," he said and put both papers in the lockbox hidden behind his records.
Over a month went by without Donna really giving the matter a lot of thought. She was busy kicking ass at work, as again everything and everyone came flying in her direction, and she was putting out fires left and right. The wager was a huge fantasy of hers, and as much as she wanted her friend to become a father, she knew Harvey's doubts were real. Even with all the best fertility doctors in the world, chances weren't too good for Sheila to get pregnant. Therefore, she was all the more surprised when she received Harvey's cryptic text one night at work. Meet me in my office ASAP.
She rushed to his office where she found him with a weird grin on his face.
"What happened?" she asked, sounding worried.
"Time to take a look at those wagers."
"What?" Donna asked incredulously.
"Sheila's pregnant."
"For real this time?"
"For real this time."
Oh my God, Donna thought. She was in serious trouble. "Wow, I didn't think it'd come to this."
"What? You sounded so sure."
"I had three generous glasses of scotch in my system, Harvey. I would've bet water was flowing uphill that night."
"Come on, it wasn't so bad."
"Just remember that I was really tipsy, even if I didn't seem to be, OK?"
"Donna, relax. We were just having some fun," he said and was now seriously wondering what on earth she could have written on that piece of paper. He went to his records and pushed aside the Chet Baker to get to his safe.
He handed her his piece of paper while he kept hers. Neither of them flipped the folded sheets open. Donna didn't know where to look, what to do, what to think. She felt the heat rising in her cheeks as time seemed to slow down. Fuck, she thought.
"Harvey, maybe we should forget it. I mean, I wasn't thinking clearly when I was writing this down," Donna said, trying to convince herself.
"This is getting more and more interesting," he grinned.
"I'm serious. This is way too extreme," she declared with a wave of her hand.
"I don't think so."
"In fact, I wanna take it back."
"You can't take it back," he claimed.
"I can do whatever I want," Donna insisted.
"All right, I'm gonna take a look at it, but there's no obligation for the wager to be put into practice," Harvey conceded. He wasn't keen on insisting on something that made her uncomfortable. No matter what it might be, he still was curious to find out what she had bet.
She swallowed. His eyes were glued to the column of her throat. "All right."
Donna opened his paper with sweaty palms. Her eyes barely registered his scrawl when she heard him gasp. Looking into his eyes, she noticed his furrowed brow. He almost looked like he did after she had kissed him in her office, the signs of utter surprise and maybe even shock clearly visible on his features. The COO dropped his piece of paper in her lap as he got up from the couch, her wager still in his hand. She knew she had majorly overshot the mark. She was just hoping that this didn't mean their friendship was going down the drain.
"Harvey?" Donna said, but he was now pacing the floor. "Say something."
He glanced at her briefly, trying to get his heart rate back to normal. Now he understood her reservations and why she so adamantly insisted to ignore the whole thing. This was huge. Harvey couldn't tell where this idea came from. Had he misread her so much? He honestly wondered if he really knew her all that well. Not that her wager wasn't incredibly intriguing to him. He never would have guessed that she would suggest something even close to that. His own wager seemed tame in comparison.
After a while, he stopped pacing and just stood around in his office, a minute later he was sitting back down next to her. Would it be the right thing to do? At this point, he didn't care if it was right, because it felt right.
He took a breath and looked her in the eyes. "OK, let's do it."
"A-A-are you sure?" she stuttered.
"Yes." He sounded determined.
Donna released the breath she had been holding. Taking the paper from his hands, she read what she had written down over a month ago, wondering what she had been thinking. She swallowed again, then nodded. More to herself than to him. The COO read the words again, and this time she almost imperceptibly shook her head.
I want to spend thirty nights in Harvey Specter's bed.
Donna was certain about two things: Louis's determination to father a child won her the bet. And she was in so much trouble.
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