Paula, Donna, and Harvey - Take Two
Chapter 8 - Intensity
Harvey stood at the door of Donna's office and watched her work for a few minutes. She was so engrossed with writing and flipping files that she had not heard his footfall. Normally it was hard to surprise her because she was always so aware of him. There were very few times that he could surprise her even when she was his secretary. He had always fought the urge to come up behind her and grab her from behind and kiss her neck. He had been able to do it recently and he was rewarded with a squeak and an embarrassed grin. Harvey smiled at that memory.
However, in the past few days, there had not been much to smile about. Donna was up to something and she did not want him to know. He knew she had her way of protecting him and normally it was seamless but lately she was giving too much away in her face, in her kiss, in her lovemaking. It had been a month since she had returned. Also a month since they had had that argument about Paula when he discovered that Donna had once been pregnant with their child.
"Hey," Donna said looking up and seeing Harvey standing in her doorway.
"Hey."
"To what do I owe this visit? I know it's too early to leave and I am pretty sure you have a client or two waiting for your wonderful advice," Donna said smiling has Harvey proceeded slowly to a chair and sat down.
Harvey gave her a little smile and said, "Donna what's going on?"
"What do you mean what's going on?" Donna asked as she smiled as innocently as she tried. She knew Harvey suspected she was up to something behind his back. Donna had heard nothing from Vanessa about Paula's pregnancy yet, and Donna knew these things could take time. For Vanessa to find anything concrete could take more than the month she had been given. Donna just needed to have proof with her in order to convice Harvey that Paula was not carrying his child. He was a lawyer and he always needed proof even if his heart was still saying the opposite.
"You've been a little secretive with me about something. You can't hide it from me any longer, you know. I'm not as blind as I used to be about you and that's your fault."
Donna put down her multi-color Bic pen, sighed, and then looked at her beloved and said, "I'm not up to anything. I'm just extra tired these days. A lot on my mind."
"Donna, you haven't been straight with me. I ask you questions and you just change the subject. I know I'm not the best when it comes to figuring people out when it comes to emotion, but I thought we were much closer than that. If it's Paula's pregnancy that has you worried, I'm not going anywhere just because Paula's pregnant with my child. I'm still in love with you..."
"No, Harvey, it's not that. I know you love me and you're not going anywhere," Donna said. I'm going to have put on the performance of my life here so I don't blurt out the fact that I'm having Paula investigated by Harvey's own PI.
"Then what is it? Is it the job? You know, Robert, probably wouldn't mind you taking a couple of days off. You haven't stopped since he started as Managing Partner. As a matter of fact, my schedule is light for the next couple of days. We could both use a vacation."
"Harvey Specter doesn't take vacation," Donna said.
"He does now that he has Donna Paulsen as his fiancee and a reason to take some time off," Harvey never hesitated in stating. He saw Donna's face light up with happiness at his voiced thought.
Donna shook her head and then rose. She came to stand in front of Harvey's seat half sitting on her desk. Harvey took her hands and looked up at her with adoring puppy dog eyes.
"I'll go to Robert myself and plead that you need a couple of mental health days."
Donna smirked and then bent forward and pecked him on the lips. "Harvey. How would that look? The COO doesn't have the guts to tell the managing partner that she is taking a couple days off to snuggle in bed with his top name partner."
"I like the second part of that sentence." Harvey said in his vibratingly deep bedroom voice.
Donna leaned forward again and their lips again met in a quick but lingering kiss.
"Ugh, you guys! Get a room already will you? This is a place of business," Louis said catching Harvey and Donna at the right time while they were kissing. They knew he was kidding. He more than anyone was glad for them. Donna had never been more radiant and Harvey had never been more kind and caring toward him.
"Just because you're jealous," Harvey teased back not having taken his eyes off Donna. Over the last couple of years, much of the banter between Harvey and Louis had lost alot of the acidity it once held. Mainly due to how loyal Louis was of Mike and having to work together to put the firm back on its feet after Mike's arrest and now departure for brighter shores.
Turning back to Donna, Harvey said seriously, "This isn't over." He then walked out as he saw Louis take Donna's attention.
Paula was walking up her street when she noticed that Harvey's car was on the way to her house. She quickly turned back and met him as he got out of the car. Feelings of deja vu made Paula shiver through her winter coat and scarf.
"Harvey what a wonderful surprise! Would you like to come in?"
Harvey lowered his head and tried with all his might to be stern and uncaring as he once more was going to utter his plea.
"Paula, I know you don't want to, but I'm going to need you to take that DNA test. If you refuse again, I can get a court order which would mandate you take it."
"I thought we had this settled. You believed me that I'm carrying our child."
"Please, Paula, if you once cared about me at all, you would have this test. If it's ours then what is the problem? Is there a chance that it isn't mine?"
Paula shook her head and stated emphatically and loudly in the middle of the street, "It is yours! I told you what the doctor said. You heard it's heartbeat. How can you be so unfeeling about this?"
"Look, Paula, you're making me do something to someone that I care about. I just want to be sure because if it's Eddie's then he should do the right thing by you and give up this case against you and support you and the baby."
Paula began to walk away and Harvey swiftly reached out and grabbed her arm. Paula looked down and then she pulled Harvey toward her and kissed him full on the mouth.
Unlike when Donna kissed him out of the blue, Harvey pulled back immediately.
"Paula, stop it! I'm not in love with you, you know that. I just need to know about this baby."
"Or will Donna leave you if it is yours?"
"No, Donna's not like that. If you knew her as well I did you would know that she does everything to protect me and I do anything to protect her."
Paula's light blue eyes became wild at that statement. She still was on no meds and was not allowed to try homeopathic remedies because of the pregnancy, so she was volatile at best.
"What about me? Did you try to protect me when we were together? I know the whole time you must have been thinking of Donna. I tried to tell you she was no good for you, but you insisted on leaving me anyway!"
"Paula, that's not fair. I tried. I admitted I couldn't give you what you wanted. I really did want it to work, but I came to the realization that Donna was always the one. What do you think is going to happen here? If you insist to not have this simple blood test that Donna is just going to leave me and then I'd be free to come back to you? Is that what you really want?"
"Yes, Donna can't stand it that I'm pregnant with your child. She's jealous."
Harvey finally shook his head and walked away. "Goodbye Paula. I will be in touch to see how you're fairing. Call me if and only if there's an emergency with the baby."
Paula crossed her arms and watched as Harvey drove away.
Donna sat at her desk waiting for Vanessa to call. It had been a month and there was still no news from her. Donna jumped when the phone rang.
"Hello, Donna." An unfamiliar voice said in her ear.
"Hello?" Donna answered.
With a little laugh, the voice continued, "Hi, this is Lily, Harvey's mom."
With a big sigh of relief, Donna smiled into the phone, "Hi, Lily?"
"Yes. I know we've never spoken or met, but Harvey told me he proposed and you accepted. So I would very much like to throw you two an engagement party up here. Your family, of course, is invited."
Now, through the years, Donna had spoken to Harvey's father, brother, sister-in-law and even his niece and nephew; but she had never spoken to Lily as Harvey's mother had been the foundation of all Harvey's insecurities when it came to abandonment.
"An engagement party?" Donna asked incredulously. "Uh, did you speak to Harvey about this? I'm sorry, Lily. It is wonderful to finally speak with you. I'm so glad Harvey and you have reconciled after all these years." Donna was shocked into stating. Geez Paulsen this is your future mother-in-law and although she put Harvey through hell he does love her.
"I knew it! You're the one! Finally, I didn't put my foot in my mouth and found the very special woman which helped my son and I find one another again. Thank you so much! I am not sure you know how much that means to me."
"It meant so much to Harvey as well. He does love you. It has definitely helped him. What did you mean you found the very special woman?"
"When I had asked what finally had spurred him to making up with me, he said someone very special. At first I thought it was Paula because we were sitting at dinner together one night when I was in the city a few months ago and I was so happy to see Harvey happy and meet Paula that I made the mistake of thanking her for bringing Harvey back to me. She admitted that she wasn't the one. She didn't say who, but Harvey knew."
Donna was surprised. She knew Harvey had gone to see his family when he was deciding between she and Paula, but Donna had not known that Harvey had called her very special to his mother, and somehow Lily had drawn the conclusion that it had been a woman who persuaded and cajoled Harvey to fly to Boston and mend fences with his mom after Jessica left.
"So in honor of the good news and the happiness of welcoming another daughter-in-law, I thought it would be nice to have an engagement party. I called the bride first because that is ettiquette. Really, though, I am not that formal, but Harvey is so happy. He radiates it on the phone when we speak."
Donna was touched. She was now very eager to meet this woman. She may have been a hindrance in Harvey's life at first, but it was plain to see how much his mother really loved him and wanted to love her because Harvey did.
"When were you planning to throw this party?" Donna asked. She knew that her mother and father would be intrigued. Her brother would be happy for her. That reminded her that she owed her brother an update on the situation and then Donna's thoughts strayed to her friend, Alan O'Keefe.
"Donna?" Lily asked hearing the silence on the other end.
"I am so sorry, Lily. I was just thinking the logistics of the party. I also wanted to say thank you and what a wonderful gesture. I can't wait to meet you," Donna said.
"Nonsense. You, of all people, know what I did to my son and I just felt I owed you something for bringing him back to his family."
"Well, thank you, but I think Harvey knew it was time. No one moves Harvey unless he wants to be moved. I've known that all these years."
"You take yourself too lightly. You are his everything and for that, as his mother, I am so happy someone was there for him."
Donna smiled. She admitted to herself that not many women would have their future mother-in-law completely seduced to her side when it came to marrying her son.
After loosely making party plans for about a month from the present time, Donna hung up her phone. Her focus had been pulled away from her earlier thoughts as she had looked out the window and now returned to her work which was starting to pile on her desk. Her assistant, Charlie, must have sneaked into her office with finished product several times in the interim of the call because Donna looked at her desk and all the reports and memos she had Charlie type and proofread were all in front of Donna in lovely black and white.
She hit the intercom and said, "Thank you, Charlie. Efficient as always."
He called back and said, "Hey, Donna, that woman you said to look out for is here."
"Is Harvey back? I didn't see him pass by my office," Donna said knowing that the woman in question was Vanessa. Harvey would think it odd of Vanessa to be in her office when he did not know that Vanessa had even been called.
"No he hasn't come by reception. His light isn't on in his office as far as I can tell."
"Ok. Thanks, Charlie. Go to lunch, will ya. It's gotta be almost 3."
"Past it. Sure. Going now, Donna."
Vanessa made her way into Donna's office. It was an unusual way for these two women to officially meet. Donna had only ever talked to Vanessa on the phone because Harvey was circumspect when it came to how he retrieved information from Vanessa. Donna knew that sometimes he would see her in the middle of the street or at a bar. Never in his office. However, this was not company business it was personal so it really did not matter if anyone else saw her.
"Vanessa? I'm Donna. Glad to meet you in person at last," Donna said rising from her seat coming over to the threshold and shaking her hand.
"Hi Donna. It is nice to put a face to a voice. Harvey always talked about you in glowing terms."
Really? I didn't think he talked about anybody in anyway when I worked for him Donna thought.
"Have a seat," Donna said and shut the door to her office. The other door had already been shut when Harvey walked out of it hours ago.
"Ok, so what did you find?" Donna said taking a seat behind her desk and folding her hands in front of her. She was perched on the edge of her chair trying not to shake with anticipation of finding the smoking gun.
Vanessa threw up her hands and shook her head and said, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Clean as a whistle. I think she's telling the truth. I did manage to get only a glimpse of anything which would make me suspicious like her medical records, irregular behavior or trips to nonsensical places. Nothing."
"Nothing?" Donna asked exasperated that the best know corporate PI in the world could not find a blessed thing on Paula Agard.
"Look, I followed her to a maternity shop and a craft shop which I did think was odd. The only reason I could think of why a pregnant psychiatrist would venture into a craft shop was to have something made."
"What about medical records?" Donna asked thinking if there's proof of wrong dates it would be there.
"Donna, I cannot access them unless there was a court order or a subpeona. I have no grounds with which to pull that kind of weight. There are laws in place that prevent me from even seeing those records by accident."
"Well, do you think it's hopeless?" Donna asked trying her best to not to get discouraged that Paula was telling the truth about the baby being Harvey's.
Donna bit her lip for a moment and asked, "What did Paula look like? I know she probably had a wintercoat on so you couldn't really tell, but could you see if she had a baby bump yet?"
Vanessa blue eyes became lidded as she thought back to the craft shop trip only yesterday.
She did have her coat open and was wearing a skirt. It was a A-Frame skirt and it did look a little tight in the abdomen but not like big baby bump or such. Why do you ask?"
"Just trying to do a little math here. "It's been about a month since Harvey and I became engaged. Paula told Harvey she was eight weeks along then so that would make her about twelve weeks along now. So she may not be showing yet that would make sense. Did you see what she was having made in the crafts store or what she was buying in the maternity shop?"
"Oh, I see where you're going with this, Donna. If the baby was conceived while Harvey and she were together she should be getting a bump by now. If she were too big than that meant.
Donna rose from her seat leaning over her desk and handed Vanessa a slip of paper.
"Donna, you don't have to pay me. That's not how this works. I didn't find anything," Vanessa offered.
"No, it's fine. You did this for me. It's the least I can do."
Vanessa rose to leave and as she turned around ran into Harvey.
To say the least Harvey was surprised to see Vanessa in his firm's office let alone Donna's.
"Vanessa? Did we have an appointment?" Harvey asked giving some suspicious looks to his fiancee who still stood behind her desk.
"She's here because I called her, Harvey. There's a matter that I thought she could handle well for us," Donna said trying to diffuse the situation. She knew damn well that that excuse would not be satisfactory with Harvey and that she was in for a long interrogation.
"Oh, then, I didn't mean to interrupt. Donna, my office, when you get a minute," Harvey stated kindly but the look he gave Donna was rather severe.
Vanessa said her goodbyes as Harvey stomped his way down the hall to his office.
"I'll be there in a minute, Harvey," Donna said to Harvey's back as he proceed to his office.
"You did what?!"
"I thought it couldn't hurt to have Vanessa investigate and see if Paula were telling the truth Paula's baby being yours. I thought since she was being so cagey with agreeing to take the DNA test and you were being blind to the need I would take matters into my hands...as I always do."
"Yes, you always do and I welcome it, but this is not yours to handle." The minute Harvey said it he wanted to crawl under his desk.
"Not mine to handle? I am trying to protect you...as I always do," Donna protested.
"Aren't you being a tad selfish in this?" Harvey asked. Again he wanted to crawl under his desk but he really had not wanted his fiancee to handle any of this predicament. He was perfectly capable of persuading his former girlfriend to have a truly harmless test if the child was his.
"If you want to think that then fine. But I agreed to be your wife, Harvey, so what that means is that what effects you effects me. You do understand that, don't you?"
Harvey bowed his head and agreed softly, "Yes, I do, Donna. You're right."
He came from around his desk and took Donna's hands into his own and kissed them.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so indignant. I know you only had our best interests at heart."
Donna kissed him on the lips and then they put their foreheads together. The old Harvey would have denouced her for being disloyal and betrayal although she would have done the same thing for the same reasons. She loved him so much and did not want him to become too attached and then discover that the baby that he thought was his and one he so looked forward to meeting had nothing whatsoever to do with him. Abandonment and desertion: still Harvey's two biggest fears.
When their quiet moment was over, they looked into each other eyes and saw the peace and love that lie there.
Donna moved first asking, "So where were you all day?"
"I went to see Paula. So you see I had to try again after our fight last month when you came home. And how we've fallen out of sync lately."
"What did she say?"
"Same thing. So I told her not to call me again unless she's either going to take the test or there was a medical emergency with the baby."
"Oh," Donna said.
"So other than seeing her pass by in here talking to Louis about her case, let's not mention her," Harvey said.
Donna nodded.
They released each other's hands and then went back to work.