Comfort

(Set in 4x11 after Louis confronts Donna about Mike's secret. I think the scene is pretty amazing as is, but part of me wishes Harvey would have comforted Donna. Written for the very lovely Cassie (darveypainted))

"This isn't your fault and I never want to hear you say it again."

But Harvey could see the pain and guilt on her face, her devastation at having been broken, at having been unable to protect him. The tears brimming in her eyes, the tremble of her lower lip, the overall shakiness she seemed to be exuding. Louis had rattled her.

Without thinking his hand reached out, thumb brushing ever so softly over her cheek, clearing away a stray tear that had slipped free. The action startled both of them. The feel of her soft, warm skin beneath his palm was an instant reminder of why they didn't usually touch. It was easier if they didn't.

Easier to ignore.

Easier to pretend.

Easier to forget.

Touching always pulled down their shields, left them bare and revealed. Touching always brought them too painfully close to truths they couldn't admit, caused a shift between them that took days or weeks to return back to normal.

So it just became easier if they didn't. They drew careful guidelines around their relationship, silent agreements of what was and was not allowed. Of what did and did not push too closely to the line of all the things they couldn't say.

But tonight he had been unable to stop himself. Seeing Donna hurt had always been like an arrow to Harvey's heart and his instinctive need to comfort her had momentarily overridden the knowledge that he shouldn't. That they couldn't.

His hand continued to rest against her cheek, and he could feel her still trembling ever so slightly beneath his palm, see the worry still etched over her face and Harvey figured he'd already stepped over the line, already caused that seismic shift between them tonight that came with touching, so he might as well go all in.

He slid his arms around her shoulders, pulled her tight against him, wrapping himself around her. He felt the brief flicker of shock wash over her body, but then with a shuddering breath Donna let herself sink into him, letting go of the emotion she had been fighting to keep under control all night.

"You did everything you could have done," he whispered to her, his lips moving against the silky strands of her hair.

Harvey tried to remember when it was he had last held her in his arms, when they were last this close. Maybe they hadn't been since the other time. She was soft and warm in his arms, her perfume swirling around him and he felt himself getting lost in her, lost in the moment and that was why they didn't touch.

He held her to him until he felt reality begin to seep between them, until the thoughts and feelings and memories started resurfacing and he had to let go and step back. Had to move away before this slipped over the line of comfort and into something else that would be even harder to come back from.

A slight air of awkwardness settled in the air around them. They had brushed hard against that line tonight, the truth of what existed between them blurring a little. Harvey knew they would be raw and tentative with each other in the days that followed, it's what always happened when they let the lines slip.

But Donna gave him a small smile, just the tiniest upward twist of her lips and he knew it was her way of saying they were ok, that normal would eventually return, as it always did. Harvey knee that this would just become another one of those moments they didn't talk about.

Because they couldn't. Because they shouldn't.