Culpability

Chapter Eight

"I have my first solo session with Stan this afternoon." Harvey mentioned as he and Rebecca were getting dressed the next morning.

"Are you nervous?" She asked, looking over at him.

He watched as she put on her blouse. "A little. But I'm sure it will be fine."

"It will." She smiled.

"And I also plan on talking to my mom tonight to make sure she knows she can start relying on me as well."

"Thank you. Maybe if we both let her know that, she will be more likely to lean on us."

"That's the hope I have as well." He told her as he finished buttoning his shirt. "Louis comes back today." He pointed out a few minutes later. "I bet you are happy about that. You can stop working his cases now."

"Yeah, I guess so." She said as she zipped up her skirt.

He put the finishing touches on his tie and stopped to look at her. "That didn't seem very enthusiastic."

She turned to look at him. "I just liked being busy at work again."

He sighed softly. "This is still about me taking your clients?"

"Look, I get why you did it." She shrugged. "I just don't agree with it or like it very much."

"Do you want them all back?" He asked, going over and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Because a couple of your clients are real pains in the ass and I wouldn't mind getting rid of them."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Let me guess…Jenkins and The Mowry Group?"

"Bingo." He smirked. "How can you stand them? They are douchebags who don't want to listen to anything I say."

"Easy." She winked. "I'm a woman. So I just wear slightly more low-cut tops when I have a meeting with them. They end up staring at my cleavage and agree with anything I tell them."

"You saucy minx." He laughed. "Now I'm not sure I want you to have those two clients back."

"Oh come on now." She lightly tapped his shoulder. "You're telling me you have never once flirted with a female client to get what you wanted or make the meeting go by easier?"

"Well…" She had a point there. "I have done that in the past. But I haven't done that since we got together."

"Oh."

She looked surprised by that, like he had caught her off-guard and moved back from him a couple of steps. To be honest, he thought it would be disrespectful to her if he flirted with his clients, even if it was just to make the case go smoother or get what he wanted from them.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized. "I shouldn't be doing that anymore either."

"It's ok."

"No, it isn't." She insisted. "I won't do that anymore. I don't know why but until right now I never really realized that it isn't fair to you at all. Will you forgive me?"

"Like I said, it's ok." He assured her, giving her a kiss. He hoped the kiss would alleviate her fear that he was mad because he really wasn't. He pulled away so he could look at her face. "You know you never answered me though. Do you want your clients back?"

"I've thought about it a lot and I still don't like how you went about stealing them. I know why you did it and I understand your rationale for trying to look out for me. But I don't appreciate being left out of the decision making process and not getting a chance to say my opinion. I think you went about it the wrong way." She explained. "With that being said, I think taking most of my clients was a very gallant thing to do in some ways. Still, I'm so bored."

"What about your new client, Gold Star Financial?" He chuckled.

"Ugh. Don't remind me." She groaned. "They call or email me at least ten times a day with questions. But that's nothing I can't handle. My point is, maybe I don't need all of my clients back yet. But I would appreciate some more of them back."

"Ooh. A compromise. I like it." He smiled. "And I think Stan would be proud of us for communicating what we want like adults."

"I agree. We may have started out extremely rocky, but I think we are rocking at this therapy thing now." She smiled back. "So is it a deal? You'll give me back some more clients?"

"Of course." He nodded.

"Thank you." She leaned in to kiss him. "And if I ever get pregnant again after we have this little one, I want you to promise you aren't going to do it that way again. We'll discuss my workload together like mature adults."

"Of course." He promised.

"Wonderful." She smiled, giving him one last kiss. "Now can you please go make sure the kids are ready for school while I finish packing their lunches?"

"As you wish." He watched her walked out of the room before grabbing his suit jacket and going to check on his niece and nephew.

Rebecca opened up the two lunch boxes on the counter. She placed a water bottle in each one before looking up and seeing Ethan standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "Hey."

"Hey." Ethan came in and sat on a stool next to the counter.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she put the sandwiches into the lunch boxes.

"I have a quiz in science class today and I'm worried about it." He answered.

"Did you study?" She asked.

"Of course." He nodded. "I studied for two hours last night."

"Alright." She gave him a smile. "Then relax and just do your best."

"What if I fail the quiz?"

"If you fail, then as long as you have tried and done your best, everything will be ok. Worst case scenario is we get you a tutor for a few weeks to catch you up." She explained.

"I don't want a tutor though." He pouted. "If anyone at school found out I had to get a tutor, my life would be over."

She had to keep herself from laughing at amount of pre-teen angst pouring off of Ethan in waves right now. But if she laughed it would just set him off and she didn't want to do that. "We could always get you a tutor from another school if we have to go that route."

"That would be better, but I'm going to try and prove that I don't need a tutor at all." Ethan sighed.

She zipped up his lunch box and handed it to him. "It's going to be ok. Like I said, just try to relax and do your best."

"Thanks." He gave her a small smile as he took his lunch box and left the kitchen.

She was zipping up Olivia's lunch box when she came barreling into the room. "Well good morning to you!"

"Hi Aunt Becca!" Olivia smiled.

"You are certainly in good mood today!"

"It's Monday! I get to see my friends again! Why wouldn't I be in a great mood?" Olivia laughed.

"So true." She laughed. "I don't know what I was thinking." She handed Olivia her lunch box. "I hope you have a great day."

"Thanks!" Olivia grabbed the lunch box and scurried out of the kitchen, almost knocking Harvey over. "Bye Uncle Harvey!"

"Bye." He laughed as he came in.

"Is your mom still walking them to school?" She asked.

"Yes. They are leaving right now. Olivia getting her lunch was the last thing they were waiting on before going."

"Good." She smiled.

"Yes." He smirked, walking over to her and effectively trapping her against the counter. "Very good."

"Harvey…" She chuckled.

"What?" He asked innocently as he started to kiss her neck. "We have the whole place to ourselves. That doesn't happen often enough."

She closed her eyes and moaned softly. The combination of him kissing her neck while also letting his hands roam her body mixed with the pregnancy hormones was making it hard for her to say no to him.

"You know I have that meeting with Louis this morning." She managed to say.

"You can be late for that." He assured her. "You know he won't mind. Once you tell him you are pregnant he will be so focused on it that he will forgive you being late."

She laughed because she knew he was right.

"C'mon." He stopped kissing her neck and looked her in the eyes. "Unless you don't want to…"

She stopped him by bringing his lips in to meet hers. "Oh, I definitely want to."

"Then what are we waiting for?" He smirked.

"You're a bad influence." She giggled.

"Yeah, but you love it."

"Yeah, I do." She agreed.

"Don't worry." He told Rebecca in the elevator forty five minutes later.

"How can you tell I'm worried?" She chuckled.

"You're doing that thing where you slowly sway back and forth in the elevator. You only do that when you are worried." He explained.

"Yeah, I guess I do." She said after a moment of thinking. "I didn't even realize that. How did you…"

"I know you." He smirked.

"Yes, you do." She linked her arm with him.

"You're still worried Louis will be mad that you are late?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"I'm telling you. Play the pregnancy card. It will make him forget that you are twenty minutes late." He laughed.

"I'll keep that in mind." She laughed as the doors opened. They walked out and headed towards their offices.

Once they were close to their offices, he leaned in and kissed her. "I'll see you later."

She just smiled as she went off to her office.

"Hey, there's the newlywed!" Rebecca greeted a few minutes later, walking into Louis' office. "I am so sorry I am late."

"I was starting to get worried." Louis told her. "You're never late for meetings."

"I know. I'm sorry." She shook her head.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Everything is fine."

"No, there is something you aren't telling me."

She saw him looking at her intently, his brow furrowing.

"Why don't you tell me about your honeymoon?" She asked, trying to distract him.

"It was great. Shelia and I had a wonderful time. It was nice to relax and just enjoy each other's company." He explained. "Now spill it. What's going on? You're looking cagey."

"Cagey?" She laughed.

"Yeah, cagey…secretive…wily. Take your pick of the words because they all mean the same types of things."

"Alright. There is something going on." She confessed. "It came out at your wedding but I didn't want to steal your thunder so I made everyone keep it a secret until you came back. But the thing is…I'm actually pregnant."

She watched as Louis' face froze. She wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad sign, especially since he was being extremely quiet. This was Louis. He got excited over every little thing. Her being pregnant wasn't a little thing though. She wasn't sure what she expected, but she thought that he would have some kind of reaction. This non-reaction was starting to worry her.

"Louis?" She called out. "Did you hear me?"

"Oh I heard you all right." He said, still not moving. "I'm just…surprised. That's all. And to be honest, I'm trying to figure out if this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Why would it be a bad thing?"

"You and Harvey…" He trailed off. "You can't deny that there has been significant tension between the two of you lately…"

"That's true." She acknowledged. "But this pregnancy is a good thing. Harvey and I are actually doing better now."

"Really?" He questioned.

"Yeah." She nodded. "We are in a much better place with our relationship now."

"Well that's great then. What a difference two weeks can make. I hope you know my hesitation to be happy is just because I'm trying to look out for you."

"I know." She nodded. "You're a good friend, Louis."

"So how far along are you?"

She could see him staring at her midsection, as if he was able to tell just by looking at her. It was slightly off-putting, but that was Louis for you. He was good at unintentionally being intense.

"I'm just past the first trimester." She answered.

"This is great news!" He smiled. "Have you been taking care of yourself enough? Eating tons of extra fruit and vegetables? Would you like me to start making you a prunie every morning when I make mine?"

She smiled and shook her head. "I appreciate the offer but I don't think I need to start drinking prunies right now. I'm making sure my diet is healthy."

"Ok. But if you change your mind I would be happy to make you one." He assured her.

"I will keep that in mind." She knew she had to get the conversation off of her diet before he mentioned prunies again. "I have the files with everything that happened with your clients while you were gone if you would like to go through them and catch up."

"Oh yeah. That would be nice." He took the file from her. "Thanks again for covering these past two weeks."

"It was no problem." She shrugged it off.

"I still can't get over it." Louis said softly. "Harvey as a dad to a baby. This is going to be fun to watch."