A/N: A quick short one-shot about Darvey to tide you guys over, through the eye's of Harvey's first major nemesis, Tanner! This takes place before his first interaction with him, so somewhere around season one or two if I'm not mistaken. This fic is dedicated to Rina17 who suggested writing through Tanner's p.o.v, hope they like it !

Keep Your enemies close

Tanner was losing it. Sort of. He'd never had to actively stalk his opponent before. Learned a little of their history, sure, maybe browsed their online credentials to build up a case against them with personal hits. But if Tanner wanted to make the Big Leagues he'd have to step up his preparation, because Harvey Specter? He was no small feat.

He'd spent his week tailing the guy, both online and in real life. It started out with digesting every single public case he could get his hands on that Harvey played any role in. From his college law student days, to his time at the District Attorney's office before he went to Pearson Hardman. He then spent half an afternoon scoping out Harvey's routine, his morning jog, his dumb coffee stop before he went to Pearson Hardman at the cart a block away from the entrance…and that was it. The man occasionally went out to a bar or some restaurant with a girl, or some associate, during the night time out of his office but he didn't do anything that Tanner could use to build personal hits against him.

After a few more days of light tailing, coming up with nill, Tanner realized he needed a way into Harvey's sanctuary, which was the law firm itself. So Tanner scoped out the hallways and waiting areas, nitpicking who he needed to charm and distract to get into Harvey's office for a sneak attack. Just as he was about to cross the hallowed visitor's pass he swiped from a charmed front desk operator across the metal turnstile screens that would flap open and let him in- A flurry of lawyers, paralegals, and assistants all came out of the woodworks, scattering from elevator doors and cases of stairs like mice, chattering loudly as a short, stocky, balding man spoke the loudest. "Alright everyone, listen up! Pearson Hardman employees need to find another place to work from today! I don't care if you have to crawl up your mother's ass this is not an excuse to take the day off! We have billable hours we need to work on people!" Tanner quickly shuffled to the side, trying not to get runover by the pack, scanning the group quickly looking for his target.

"Louis!" Tanner recognized the person yelling as Jessica Pearson, the esteemed managing Partner, trying to control Louis's outrage apparently.

"Sorry Jessica, but we need to get our point across. Now we do have rented office space ready to go at WeWork for just this exact scenario. But we can't all fit in there, it's going to be a tight pack, you guys better have clean hygiene and mints stored away because we're gonna be practically riding one another at that office space." Tanner rolled his eyes as he overheard the man's backup plan.

"-Now the associates, mine at least, will absolutely be working from there. Porter, Cavannaugh, and Specter pick out your legal teams as you get first dibs too. We'll need assistants too-" There was a pause to Louis's yelling as he whirled around in his spot looking for someone. "Specter? Specter! God damn it." He yelled in annoyance, causing Tanner to realise that Specter must've snuck out. Tanner searched the area quickly before letting his gaze snap to the exit doors, seeing Harvey's dumb slicked back dark hair swinging the door open as he ushered some redhead along with him, who held what must've been Harvey's latest caseload with her.

"Bingo." Tanner muttered to himself as he gave them a headstart of one minute, before following them out, leaving a disgruntled 'Louis' ranting about Harvey's level of unprofessionalism as a newly appointed senior partner leaving his people behind.

Tanner followed Harvey's taxi cab all the way to some random slightly upscale cafe that was about seven blocks away from the law firm.

Tanner waited exactly eight minutes before entering the cafe behind them, not wanting to be too obvious with his tailgating.

The cafe was respectable. Not packed and overcrowded with loud music and bustling hippies working on screenplays that'll never go anywhere. It seemed like a business meeting place, appropriate for the city's best alleged closer, with its soothing classical music and dark marble walls that made the place feel lofty and important, with chandeliers scattered around the high ceilings.

Tanner scanned the place quickly before spotting the red head quite easily, her hair standing out in a sea of blondes and brunettes. She was grabbing a cup of coffee from the nearby counter and heading, presumably, to where Harvey was sitting. Tanner followed her steps to the lounge area, where Specter was seen sitting without his suit jacket, simply donning on his longsleeve white dress shirt and grey vest, as he tried organizing the mess of scattered paperwork everywhere, taking up not one but two circular tables shoved together haphazardly.

Tanner got a seat only one table away from them, holding up the menu as a decoy lest Specter recognize him. Before Tanner could focus on their conversation, a waitress came by interrupting him.

"Hello Sir, What will you be having today?" She asked kindly, holding out her hand to take the menu.

"I'd actually like to keep this menu if you don't mind, and uhm, a cup of coffee and any slice of pie you have will be just fine, thanks doll."

The waitress sighed before shooting him a smile and nodding her understanding. "Of course, sir. One cup of- I'm assuming plain black hot coffee and a slice of her famous blueberry crumble pie?"

The redhead and Harvey were still talking. "Yeah, yeah that's fine." Tanner dismissed the waitress as he zeroed in on them.

He started to overhear Harvey complain about having to work in such a random place.

"Well I'm sorry this was the only place available, maybe if I had 24 hour notice that our office was gonna shut down from a random blackout- oh wait, I couldn't have!" the Redhead replied sarcastically.

Harvey sent her a look as he cocked his jaw to the side "You know Donna, you don't get nearly enough credit for your sarcasm."

So that's who the redhead was, Donna Paulsen, Harvey's secretary.

"Don't I?" Donna murmured into her cup as she sent her own knowing look at Harvey. Harvey seemed to fondly roll his eyes at her before glancing back at his paperwork. A few minutes of quietness passed, with nothing happening beside's Harvey discreetly glancing at his assistant every five minutes or so. Donna suddenly piped up again "Holy shit I got it."

"Got what?"

"The smoking gun! Look, here it is this is everything you need just tie it back to-"

"The subpoenas they filed back in '07" Harvey continued her thought as he leaned slightly over her shoulder to get a glance at her files.

"The fashion fads that year were almost as bad as their business decisions." Donna smartly quipped at Harvey who snorted. "Didn't you wear a really fuzzy pink sweater and a lot of grey eyeshadow back then?"

Donna smacked his shoulder. "Hey! That sweater was great."

"Made your rack look great." Harvey replied with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"I will leave you here high and dry if you utter one more fashion related comment."

Harvey's grin got wider, before Donna spoke up again. "Can't believe you remembered that sweater."

"Oh yeah, you wore it the first time we met, remember? I call it your lucky sweater."

Tanner wanted to gag at the obvious cheesy one liner he assumed his secretary would fall for- hook line and sinker. Instead she hit back. "That's not my lucky sweater, my lucky sweater is my sweetheart neckline from college. That baby got me into every backstage concert." Harvey laughed at her response.

"Donna Paulsen as I live and breathe!"

"Like you're actually surprised by that." Donna asked with a cajoling raised eyebrow.

"No," he agreed with a soft smile. "I'm not."

Tanner's eyes glimmered in glee, already envisioning the many ways he could use Harvey's clear soft spot-if not love- for his secretary against him. He already had a suspicious feeling that Harvey's secretary who had been with him since the beginning of his career, moving with him from the D.A.'s office to Pearson Hardman, was obviously a close friend to the jackass of a lawyer. But he wanted to see exactly how close with his own eyes, finding it hard to believe that such a notorious player could potentially have feelings for a companion. But Harvey's eyes as he secretly glanced at the redhead next to him, with a sincere close lipped smile that caused lines to occur on the side of his face showed how much he adored the gal. Tanner finally found a weak spot, after days of searching. "Jackpot" he murmured to himself as he left a wad of twenty dollar bills on the table to cover his order of coffee and pie. He was ready to tackle New York's alleged most successful closer, and he couldn't wait to wipe the floor with him. Maybe he could even have fun with it after all, Harvey seemed to have fine taste in women he thought to himself as he pictured Donna's curvy body and dazzling hair. The flirting, the teasing, the secretive looks, Tanner would have fun getting under Harvey's skin by maybe getting under Miss Paulsen herself.