I'm sorry 'bout the attitude I need to give when I'm with you but no one else would take this shit from me.
And I'm so terrified of no one else but me and I'm here all the time and I won't go away.
- Matchbox 20, Long Day
Harvey leans back in his chair scrubbing a hand over his face and sighing heavily into the phone. "I understand that Henry but... yeah, of course. I'll send them through now." He hangs up pressing the intercom with a bark, "Cameron."
The young assistant startles and several of his colour coded cards go flying causing Harvey to roll his eyes. "Email the documents that came through from Eloware this morning to Henry Carter." He lifts his finger and pulls open the lid of his laptop rolling a stressful kink out of his neck. The entire handover is at a standstill, with Drake maintaining his innocence, but he checked the documentation over himself. The young business entrepreneur's name is there in black and white and now he has a backlog of cases all demanding his immediate attention.
He has no idea where to start and lets out a low growl, catching a flash of red heading his way. The firm's COO would know exactly which jobs to prioritise but he's spent two sleepless nights obsessing over the comments Louis made regarding their relationship. He doesn't have time to deal with overthinking right now and when she closes in he drops his gaze immersing himself in the hundreds of unread emails filling up his inbox.
Donna senses the vibe immediately and edges her way in with a light knock on the glass. "Hey, you busy... I thought we could go for lunch?"
"Swamped actually. Rain-check?"
He doesn't offer any further explanation and she nods folding her arms over her chest. "Sure."
The comment goes unacknowledged and she turns preparing to leave but stops hooking her fingers around door-frame. The last two days he's barely managed to string a sentence together she pivots on her heel striding up to his desk and placing her hands on her hips. When he finally deems it necessary to look up she fixes him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you avoiding me?"
"That would be a little hard given all these glass walls." He laments casually, hoping she'll let it drop. Truth is he has been avoiding her. There's a hundred and one things that could've all seriously benefited from her advice but he's trying not to be so reliant. On her at least. Cameron is a different story and he reaches forward buzzing the intercom again, "tell me you rescheduled my four o'clock today?"
There's an unintelligible muttering in the background and Donna feels a pang of sympathy for the young man. She's knows how stressful it can get working for Harvey and she leans forward replacing the lawyers hand with her own, "Cameron keep the four o'clock. "
Harvey immediately bristles at the unwanted input. "What are you-"
"Louis rescheduled last Thursday. You want to keep them happy you need to suck it up and take the meeting." She straightens matter-of-factly, "now... you want to tell me what's going on or should we just start lighting matches?"
He angles back toward his laptop with a heavy sigh. He knows he's beat but as a lawyer it's common knowledge that in order to avoid suspicion he has to stick as closely to the truth as he can. "I thought you might want some space, that's all." His hands move in circles back and forth over the keyboard feigning a purpose. All he's trying to do is keep things from getting complicated and now he finally understands what she meant when she said their lines had been blurry from day one.
She catches the awkwardness in his voice and it leads her directly to where she assumes the problem is. "This is about Thomas."
It isn't a question and swallows sharply deciding humouring her is better than an outright lie. "I've been a threat in the past."
The audacity of the comment catches her by surprise but it really shouldn't. Some would argue that his tendency to be conceited is part of his charm but in this instance it's entirely unwarranted. "Because you were my boss," she points out, arguing the relevance but he catches her on a formality.
"Technically I still am." His hands stall and he glances up trapped by the sudden fear he's being too transparent until he sees a flash of confusion in her expression.
"Harvey?" She holds his gaze trying to determine if he's genuinely trying to help or if there's something else at play like the issue of Thomas being a client rearing again. "Does the fact I'm seeing him bother you?"
"No." It's quick and adamant, a little too defensive, and he breathes out slowly, "of course not."
The admission eases the tension that's been brewing and she relaxes, a glimmer of amusement quirking her lips. "Then can you do me a favour?" She waits for his acknowledgment and gives a proper smile, "please stop trying to help."
He concedes with a brief lift of his mouth. It's not like he has a choice and the weight of her absence has been an additional stress that, honestly, at the moment he could do without. "I'll meet you downstairs in five."
Relief washes over her but she keeps it from showing deciding to play her trump card instead. "Good..." she insists, "because while we're out I thought we could go over the Hylux prototype, your meeting with Mr. Teasdale and write the budget report for Friday. Also your Thursday could do with a reshuffle and I figure if there's time after that I might be able to work some Donna magic on your inbox."
She winks and he leans back in his chair, a sense of bewilderment washing over him as she sashays out of the office but the feeling quickly descends into dull ache spanning across his chest. He's always appreciated her. Hell, he nearly lost his mind when she went to work for Louis and that forced him to stat showing his gratitude but even now he lets it slip far too often. She deserves better, someone who can actually process emotion, and he pushes Louis' criticism to the back of his mind.
He isn't a coward.
A coward would ruin everything and run because that's easy but he's fighting with all his god-given strength to do the opposite.
It's a tiring notion and he folds down his laptop pushing the thought aside and dragging himself up from the desk. On the way through he tells Cameron to hold all of his calls. One hour with Donna working her magic is all he needs to get his mojo back on track and then maybe, just maybe, the rest will all fall into place.
...
They sit down for a light lunch not far from the office both ordering a salad that pairs nicely with the weather outside. It's mild and sunny, the window providing a view of happy people milling by and a comfortable conversation accompanies the meal until they're both finished and ready to start working. Harvey waits for their plates to be cleared dragging his phone out and checking his messages. He has six, all from an unknown number, but the explicit content gives away the sender. They're all from Drake Carter and he drops the device on the table, ignoring it and firing up his laptop.
Donna already has his calendar on her tablet and is scrolling through the dates with a thoughtful crease in her brow. "Louis wants to host drinks on the twentieth. You've got an investor's meeting in the morning but Frank's wife is coming back from Italy that afternoon so it shouldn't run over."
"What kind of drinks?" He asks confused, taking them back a step. He might not win any awards for godfather of the year -he'll stick to running the firm- but he's fairly certain that's around when the baby is actually due.
"A client soiree-" she waves her hand in an elaborate gesture, "just to reassure them everything is in place for when he goes on paternity leave."
Surprisingly it isn't a bad idea and he's almost about to admit it when his phone vibrates with another rapid succession of texts. It's the same unknown number and he thumbs the screen with a distracted nod. "Sure sounds good."
She can tell by the dismissive tone he isn't paying attention and glances up frowning at the stiff line of his jaw. "Everything okay?"
He clears his throat waving off the concern. "Yeah its just Louis." The lie slips out easily and he feels a stab of guilt but reasons it isn't worth getting into. They have more important things to focus on and he leads them back to the conversation. "Venue?"
"I was thinking-"
The phone goes off again and this time she absorbs the frustration for him. "Tell me he's not still going on about the Mildred case?"
"Like a dog with a bone." He shrugs feeling heat spread across the base of his neck. It's his job to bluff and he's damn good at it but Donna is different and he's about to tell her the truth when the table buzzes for a third time and her hand shoots out before he can stop it. "Wait-"
"Shit." He curses as her eyes widen at the screen. There's no point even trying to deny who the messages are from and he scrubs his face with a sigh. "I told you the guy's an asshole."
"Harvey this isn't regular asshole, this is borderline psychotic." The fact he lied takes a back seat as she scrolls through the texts warning him to 'back off the case' and threatening to 'make him pay' if he doesn't. It's almost frightening and she glances up at him with a concerned expression. "You need to report this to the police."
"No I don't." He snatches the device from her hand leaning back so it's out of her reach. Any sort of retaliation, especially involving law enforcement, will blow the whole thing widely out of proportion and that's the last thing H&B Carter or Henry needs at the moment. "He found out I have a copy of the draft agreement with Eloware and he's pissed. Once he realises he's backed into a corner he'll calm down."
"You hope." It's a big assumption and she bites the inside of her cheek at odds with the decision. Doing nothing doesn't sit well with her and neither does the fact he chose to lie about it.
"I was about to tell you," he insists reading the look on her face, "besides... you think I can't take a pipsqueak like Carter?"
"Not the point." She throws back, only slightly comforted by his arrogance. He might be able to hold his own in a fight but that doesn't mean he's a match for crazy and she breathes out a wary sigh. "I just think you should be careful, that's all."
"I'll be fine." He assures, a smirk quirking corners of his mouth, "but it's sweet of you to worry."
She rolls her eyes at the comment dragging the base of his laptop towards her and moving them back to their original conversation. Maybe he's right, maybe antagonising the situation would only make things worse but she still doesn't like it and makes a mental note to seek out Samantha's advice when they get back to the firm. She can imagine the women's had a comparable amount of threats to Harvey over the years and she puts the concern out of her mind as they start working through their agenda.
They breeze easily through an hour rearranging his schedule, prepping for meetings and finishing off the budget report then spend an extra thirty minutes prioritising his emails. When she finally deems his inbox to be in an acceptable state she closes down the laptop with a fresh grin. "Next time you want to avoid me try waiting until you have a lighter case load."
He's actually in agreement with the humour, his lips quirking in response. "What if I pay you double and you come back as my secretary? I'll give you every on-season in the Bahamas off and I'll even throw in Halloween."
She laughs at the offer raising an eyebrow. "You do realise I'd be earning more money than Louis."
"Come on-" he urges, shoving the computer back into its case with a wink, "we both know who the real managing partner is."
A faint blush covers her cheeks at the acknowledgement but there still a flaw to his plan. A big one. "I'd also be earning more money than you." She folds her arms teasingly, enjoying the lighthearted banter. She's missed it recently and can tell he feels the same when his expression softens, his eyes still gleaming.
"You're right, that might be a bit much for my ego take..." he breathes out a low chuckle but an edge of seriousness slowly creeps back into his tone, "thank you for this. I don't know how you do what you do but-"
"I'm awesome at it? I know." She grins, pushing up from her chair and reaching out to graze his arm. "Come on Pretty, you miss that four o'clock and all this effort will have been for nothing."
He stands with her feeling like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, forgetting for a moment that things between them took a slip. All he has to do is steer clear of her mentioning the name Thomas Kessler and he might be able to keep his emotions running on blatant denial.
For the sake of his sanity it's worth a shot.