She was furious when she received the call. Maybe a little worried as well but now the fury was definitely outweighing the worry. On a Friday night she wasn't supposed to sit in a cab on the way to her boss because he must've felt the urge to hit Travis Tanner at one of his boxing sessions.
Especially not on this particular Friday night where she was supposed to be going on a date. A date that she has been waiting for a few months. A good-looking investment banker she met at the theatre wanted to take her out to one of her favorite restaurants. He was attentive, charming, intelligent and most importantly, he had absolutely nothing to do with lawyers. Even though she tried to tell herself that she didn't want to be involved with a lawyer because she already spent her entire day around them but there was another reason why she was avoiding them in her private life.
She sent him a quick text from the cab telling him that she couldn't make it because of a "work-thing" but she knew how that all sounded so she was prepared to never hear from him ever again. Her "work-thing" was still at the gym where Jessica had ordered Donna to go, after she got the call that things have getting out of hand. She agreed because she wanted to do her favor. Jessica had enough problems and she was glad to help out. Still, she was mad. Mad at Harvey because even though he didn't know about her date, he ruined it.
Just because he couldn't keep his anger under control.
Temper-management had never been his strong suit.
She was still at work when Jessica told her to look after him even though it was way after her normal time to leave the office.
When she arrived, she paid the cab driver and made her way towards the gym. It was an old, rusty looking building that she would never have expected Harvey to go to. She was clearly wearing the wrong attire for this kind of place with her tight black dress, matching five inch heels and her Hermès bag. Rolling her eyes when two men catcalled her, she swung the huge metal door into the boxing area open.
There was no one in their except Harvey who was standing with his back to her a few feet away from her. He didn't turn around, truth be told, she was the last person that he would've expected at a place like this.
When Tanner came in here, rubbing the entire Hardman thing in his face, he couldn't stop himself, nor did he feel any of the hits he took. At some point, they must've been pulled apart by someone and eventually Rodrigo, the owner of the place and an old friend of him must've called Jessica. He forced Harvey to wait because he didn't know him like that. Aggressive and completely out of control.
This wasn't due to Tanners sole presence, more to what he said.
"Couldn't you have played fight club at any other night?", he was ripped out of his thoughts by a familiar, slightly annoyed voice.
"What is it Donna?!", he wasn't supposed to sound that harsh.
She let out a heavy sigh and made her way towards him because he still hasn't turned around.
"Harvey, don't you dare play these stupid games with me!", she got angrier as he still didn't acknowledge her properly.
As she was walking up closer to him when he finally took the courage to turn around, jaw clenched and arms crossed.
He avoided facing Donna out of fear of her reaction.
"Harvey! What the-", she screamed when she got to look at his face. There was blood running from his left eyebrow and his right cheekbone was wounded as well. Out of reflex, she lifted up her hand to his cheek to examine his injuries further.
"It's not as bad as it looks", he gave back but that wouldn't calm her down. Her voice had gone from annoyed to worried and he hated that he was the cause of that. He didn't want her to be worried.
"Why aren't you at the hospital, you look hurt", she only whispered the last part of her sentence. He had his jaw clenched and he couldn't deny that it hurt but it wasn't nearly as dramatic as she made it seem.
"Donna, don't overreact-", but she had already interrupted him.
"Don't overreact?! Are you kidding me?! Jessica sends me here in the middle of the night, not knowing what to expect and then I come here and I see this- You hurt like this and the only thing you have to say is that it isn't bad. I am sorry Harvey but it looks pretty bad!", she nearly screamed at him.
He barely ever saw her like that, tears forming in her eyes from all the anger.
"I am sorry, Donna", he tried to calm her down in a soft tone.
"You could've gotten really hurt and I can't-… why did you do that?", she sounded tired and he immediately started to grow a bad conscious, so he stretched out his arms to draw soothing circles on her upper arms which made her shivered underneath his touch.
He was stunned how she still managed to look so amazing after a twelve hour day of work.
"Let me clean that up before we go see a doctor and don't you dare contradict", she gestured forcefully.
He knew that he couldn't convince her otherwise so he gave in.
She pulled him towards the changing room where she gestured him to sit down when she made her way to the bathroom to get some wet towels.
Donna didn't say a word when she started her work and sat down on the bench closely next to him.
"You shouldn't have let it come so far", she let out, still focussed on her task.
"Who said that this was my fault?", he was starting to get annoyed.
"Please-", she didn't need to say anything more, her rolling her eyes was all that needed to be said.
She knew that Harvey must've added his fair share of provocativeness to this fight.
"Donna, let it go, you don't even know what happened!", he didn't mean to sound that angry.
"Of course I know. He challenged you and you couldn't handle getting your ego scratched!"
"Donna-", he said in a demanding tone.
"Don't you dare Donna-me right now!", her hands were getting more harsh with cleaning the wound but he didn't flinch a bit.
"Please, stop-", he started getting even more mad.
"Harvey, you know I am not the one who will just agree to everything you do. I am going to tell you what I think", by now she was mirroring the tone in his voice.
He was clenching his fist and hated her for not letting it go. Why couldn't she?! She knew that he didn't want to talk about it but still didn't accept it.
"Maybe you shouldn't!", he got angry.
"Harvey why are you attacking me? I am not the enemy here!", she had let go of his face by now and took a few steps back to lean back against the white tile wall.
The usual desire to be so close to him has faded and right now the two feet that were between them weren't enough.
In fact, she would've just left if she had wanted to but he needed her whether he knew it or not. And to be honest, she was the one who needed to know that he was okay.
He didn't answer, just looked down to the ground, avoiding her worried and mad gaze at all costs.
"He fucking said that he was going to get me fired, take my place and take everything and you…and I just lost it", he got up with all the rage, taking a step closer to her.
"Harvey, I don't need you to fight for me", she just whispered, distracted by him suddenly being so close.
"And I won't ever accept anyone saying that you just slept your way to my desk and that he will…-", he didn't dare to finish his sentence and by now he was looking directly into her hazel eyes without any regret to what he had just said.
It was the truth, he would always fight for her and protect her.
"Harvey-", she gave back in a soft voice.
She was speechless. For the first time in seven years she didn't know what to say.
"I am sorry", his voice has gone soft as well.
"For keeping you here, not for fighting him", he tried to apologize because he had recognized that she didn't look that great after a long day of work without a reason.
Her lips were painted in a darker shade of red and she had added a black belt to show off her delicate frame in her short and tight black dress so he figured that she had something planned for the night. A date. With another man.
He felt like an idiot, not only because he hated the thought of Donna being with another man. In addition to that, he had messed up for her to be happy when she had to put up with him and all his work the entire day and even some nights. She deserved a nice night off with someone who wasn't making her unhappy like he was doing right now.
"Donna, you don't need to be here, you can go. I'm fine", his voice and stayed in his special soft tone.
She didn't hear him talk like that very often. In fact, he only talked like this when he was with her.
"Harvey, I am not going to leave you", she didn't mean for it to sound as deep as it did.
"You know you're stubborn", he gave back with a little smile on his face.
"Funny that it's you who's saying that", they were still standing mere feet away from each other, her head resting on the cold stone wall while her arms were crossed over her body.
He couldn't stop staring at her even though he knew that it would come off as weird but he simply couldn't get his gaze off her.
It may sound cheesy but she was too beautiful to not look at her all the time.
She noticed that their gazes have locked and that this wasn't supposed to happen.
"We should get going", she tried to break the tension and most importantly to remove herself from the situation of closeness.
She grabbed her bag from the bench and out of reflex grabbed his right arm with her left hand to steady him as they were walking outside to hail a cab.