Initially, that story was a one-shot, but as some of you already said, it begs for a second chapter. There it is. I tried to stay in character as much as I could and I hope I managed to do that. Enjoy! x
Donna was the first one at work, as she always was. Nothing could give away that anything was in any way different than it was yesterday morning, even if she was technically still not sober yet and had spent the night with her colleague, best friend, boyfriend? She had no idea what the correct term for him was. What she did know, however, was that she had gotten no sleep whatsoever. Or barely any. And she knew this would eventually catch up on her. She put down her coffee and started working. This place would go to the dogs within days if she didn´t do as much as she did, she mused. She sometimes had that thought. And it wasn´t arrogant, it was the truth. She was the whisperer in the background who kept everyone and everything in check.
It had not been that long after she had sat down to work when Harvey entered the building. She saw him in the corner of her eye when he made a beeline to her office. She couldn´t hide a smile, she knew they were at work and everything had to be normal. But despite her efforts to not show that anything was different, she couldn´t help but smile when she saw him.
"Good morning," he said and gave her a smile that sent a shiver down her spine.
"You are unfashionably early this morning. Did you fall out of bed?" she replied, trying to keep up the pretense of not actually having woken up in the same bed as him.
"I had a girl over last night and I didn´t get much sleep, so I figured why not come into work earlier," he quipped.
"A girl, huh? Aren´t you a little old for staying up all night?"
"Old, huh? Did you steal Mike´s joke now? Don´t you worry, she had no complaints about me being old."
"Didn´t she?"
"No."
He had moved closer and closer to her the more they talked. She was leaning against her desk now. She couldn´t help but try to be a little closer to him. Before she knew it, his lips were on hers. It was a soft, gentle kiss. She sighed into the kiss, then realized where they were and pushed him away gently.
"Harvey, not here. What if somebody sees us?"
"Who should see us, barely anybody is at work yet."
And with that his lips were on hers again, His lips were warm and enticing and she wanted to spend the rest of her life kissing those lips. If she had a choice she wouldn´t even have come to work but make up for thirteen years of not kissing those lips. But reality had called and demanded her presence. She got lost in that kiss for a second, put her arms around his neck, but it was too risky for them to kiss here. She didn´t feel safe, so she broke it off.
"There are plenty of people at work already. Plus, this is an office."
"You didn´t have so many objections last night," he remarked.
"Yeah but that was different. There was nobody but us."
That was a feasible excuse and she knew it, both of them did. They both had gotten lost in the moment, unwilling to break apart and impossible to resist each other. The alcohol had been a secret wingman, too. He took a step back, smirking at her.
"I will be out most of the day, do you want to go and have dinner somewhere tonight?"
Of course, he was aware that she knew he wouldn´t be around much today, but he still had the feeling to tell her. It didn´t go unnoticed by Donna and she got that tingly feeling in the pit of her stomach again. That short line made her feel warm and fuzzy, like drinking coffee or schnapps in cold winter.
"Surprise me," she replied looking at him. For a moment their eyes locked. They honestly needed to get away from each other if any of the two would want to get any work done today. Harvey cleared his throat, finally making attempts of leaving her office.
"Okay, will do. Just for the record, I did ask."
"You know I trust you, Harvey." And again they stood there for just a second too long, just marveling each other. This time it was Donna who burst the bubble. "You need to go. You don´t want Samsung to wait." He nodded, half-smiled and left "I'll see you later." Donna smiled and looked after him until he was out of sight before she sat down again.
Meanwhile, Louis passed Gretchen's desk who greeted him. She had sensed something was off by the way he marched towards his office. When he nearly bit her head off instead of wishing her a 'good morning' as well, she knew something was definitely wrong. Gretchen gave Louis a minute before she would enter the lion's den and sound out the reason for his glorious mood this morning. While she had decided to stay put for the time being and let him calm down, Louis was on a whole new level of feeling as if he stepped into a parallel world where Harvey and Donna showed no restraint whatsoever to show their desires.
Last night after his unfortunate encounter with the couple, he had immediately called Lipschitz. He had no idea how to deal with this. He couldn´t even think about either of them without having the picture in his head of Donna grinding against Harvey, kissing fervidly, the thought of seeing them in person on top of that, made him want to run away. Now, when he had entered the office trying to avoid them, he saw them kissing in her office. By instinct, the only thing he could do was to shield his eyes with his hand.
He had learned a lot of techniques and ways to handle situations rationally. But his encyclopedia of ways to not act on impulse did not include seeing his two best friends having sex. Lipschitz was the only man he could talk to. Hell, he didn´t even have the balls to talk to Sheila about it. But Lipschitz was not available until tomorrow. He would probably have to call in sick if either of them tried to approach them. And until Lipschitz gave him a solution, he acted upon the Louis-Litt Handbook of Emergencies: avoidance, anger and lashing out.
"Louis, is everything alright?" he heard his secretary, catching him off guard. He had not heard her enter his office.
"Why shouldn´t everything be just dandy?" he barked, "Where are the files for the deposition this afternoon? From what I see they are not here, and they should be lying here. Have you already called AC Technologies or do I have to do that myself too? What do you even do? I am not paying you for standing around!"
Gretchen had raised her eyebrows, pondering for a second whether to shoot back or not. She knew, however, that this would be counterproductive. She knew her boss only too well by now, sometimes too well she thought. What he needed was a friend who would talk to him and with that thought in mind, she went in direction of Harvey's the reception.
Meanwhile, Harvey had informed Robert that he´d be out most of the day, in case something came up. He was heading to the elevators when Gretchen stopped him, clearly waiting for him at the reception.
"You need to see what´s up with Louis," she requested in a tone that left no room for a way out.
"Why?" now looking at her curiously.
"He´s gone all weird - weirder than usual," she replied, adding the last part, stopping him from making a remark. "He is clearly not himself, but he won´t talk to me. Instead, he chose to bite my head off, mine and probably everyone´s who comes close to him in a ten-mile radius. You´re his friend, maybe you can get him to talk."
"Sure, I´ll do it when I get back. But my client is waiting."
"Of course, Mr. Specter and thank you." he gave her an affirmative nod and pushed the elevator button.
A few hours had passed, nothing major had happened. Louis had mainly managed to keep to himself and not insult any more people. Donna was working, too and was now trying to call Harvey. Some news about David Fox, their landlord had come to her attention that bore no delay.
"By the way, Gretchen stopped me this morning. She said something´s up with Louis. Have you noticed anything?"
"I haven´t seen him yet, but I´ll check in on him, see what´s wrong."
"Thanks. I'd do it myself but I don´t know how long I´ll be out and it sounded important to Gretchen."
"I´ll do it, don't worry."
"Thanks."
They kept on talking about their plans for tonight, or rather Donna tried to squeeze information out of him and just to tease her, he didn´t say a word. Donna not knowing something for once, that was a memorable day and it drove her crazy.
That phone call had definitely saved his afternoon. She wanted to trust him with this but secretly, not knowing really drove her up the wall. But she had to let it go, and focus on her work again.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a hustle and bustle, with trying to keep everything and everyone going, while trying not to think too much about Harvey and quite honestly being awesome.
It was late in the afternoon when she finally had time for a much-deserved coffee break. If she could drown her stress and exhaustion in coffee, she would gladly have done it. Pouring coffee in her mug, she heard someone enter the kitchen. Judging from the way the person had walked in, it must be Louis, she turned around to see if she was right. She was like she usually was. She hadn´t even greeted him properly yet when she noticed that Gretchen definitely was right. There was something seriously off with him. He sometimes had tendencies to be overdramatic, but this was just weird, even for him. He stood rooted to the spot, like a deer in headlights. Before she could say anything, he mumbled something inaudible (something about a phone call, she thought?) and hurried off, in his classic-Louis run. She had no idea what that just was, but she knew she would find out. After her coffee.
A short while later, she walked to Louis office, wondering what could put Louis into such a mood. Greeting Gretchen, who gave her a meaningful look and warned her.
"He is in a weird mood today, I'm not even sure you can hold him accountable for his actions today," the older woman said shaking her head while looking towards her boss. Now Donna wondered if anything happened with Sheila. It had to be that, Sheila was the most important person in his life - well, and Esther - if something with either of the two had happened, that could have that effect on him? With that guess, she smiled and nodded at Gretchen and went to the glass door.
When she entered his office, however, he was on the phone. He wasn´t on the phone when she walked towards his office, that much she knew. She had seen him looking at her, wide-eyed. He must have picked up the phone when she had her quick chat with Gretchen. It just didn´t make sense. He wasn´t avoiding her, was he? It was very unlike him, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. She would find out sooner or later. She mouthed that she´d go, but would check in later again, while making hand signs to emphasize what she meant. He smiled - a little too broadly for her liking though. A little bewildered, she went back to her office.
Before she knew it, it was evening and she still hadn´t managed to go back on her promise to find out what was bothering her friend. All the work kept her from talking to him. She had promised Harvey she would do it. She knew he would be back soon, but she wanted to give it another try before he actually got in. The thought of going to see him now hadn´t even fully come to her when a very agitated, frustrated and irritated and clearly over-emotional Louis stormed into her office.
"Louis," she said "I meant to come to you…" But he didn´t let her finish. Instead, he started ranting. She desperately tried to understand what he was on about. He talked about a handbook and social situations and people acting in a certain way. He had lost her at the mention of a handbook. He had to calm down first before, she could try and understand what was going on, but the suggestion only resulted in him biting back that he was calm. He continued, this time it was about morality, decency and him not being able to go mudding. So it was Sheila? He couldn´t go mudding because they were trying to have a baby, and something must have upset him and mudding usually was his solution. She decided to let him finish, hoping he had calmed down by then and ask him quietly what was bothering him. That moment she saw Harvey heading towards her office. She was relieved because now she might be able to calm him so they could see what made Louis the way he was at the moment.
"Hey, what´s going on?" he greeted them, but his look immediately went to a Louis who now glared at him, eyes bulging.
"You! And you!" he hissed angrily while gesturing wildly at them and then storming out of her office. Both Donna and Harvey stared after him for a second. Harvey was the first to speak.
"What was that?" He asked puzzled, finally looking at Donna.
Donna meanwhile was still staring at her door, her hand covering her mouth in shock. She had finally understood.
"What?" Harvey asked because he still didn´t know, growing a little worried now, at the lack of a reaction from her side. Still staring after Louis who had long gone, mumbled.
"He saw us."
"What?" he felt like an old record player, but he was still clueless. Clearing her throat, she finally looked at Harvey, her face lost a bit of its color. "He saw us - last night.", she almost whispered.
"Oh," was all he managed to say, clearly uncomfortable.
"I thought we had been alone."
"We were! He must have come back."
They both were uncomfortable at this point. They both had been aware of their surroundings when it happened last night, but they didn´t think that anyone would see them. They had been too much in their own bubble. Louis had seen them and both Donna and Harvey knew what Louis must feel like, seeing him in such a position, filled them with dread. It was Harvey who pulled Donna out of her reverie
"Should I talk to him?"
"No, not yet. We will both talk to him together, but I think we should give him a little time to process things, talk them through with Lipschitz and then we´ll talk."
Harvey nodded, he wasn´t too crazy to have that talk with Louis of all people. Sex education had probably less awkward than that conversation would be.
