Chapter 5

"Harvey where's Donna", Louis demanded. She's not at her desk, Gretchen's not here and I need her to tell me what to do. "I don't know Louis, I'm not her keeper". "Well she's not been here all day, she's not picking up her phone and my life is in crisis".

"Louis I have work to do and maybe Donna knows they've run out of mud or whatever weird shit is going on with you and she's found some place she can hide so she can do her actual job" "Harvey!" "Enough Louis, I don't know where she is". Louis sulked away and Harvey checked his phone. Nothing from Donna. He dialled her number, no response. He checked her office line despite the fact Louis had said she wasn't there, nothing. Louis may have been being ridiculous but he didn't like this either, he paced around the building, IT, the bullpen, the file room, she wasn't there. He decided to head to Robert's office in case he knew where she was but as he passed her glass wall there she was sitting at her desk like she'd been there all day and she was pregnant, very, very pregnant. "Donna?" He gestured? "Hey Harvey, what do you need?" "Donna?! What's going on-how can you be?" "I told you Harvey, this is what I want" "But Donna, how already? *who* was what he really wanted to say" She shrugged. Shrugged at him. What the fuck, he needed to get out of there but he couldn't stop looking at her, she looked so beautiful, how, who, how could she dismiss his questions, his concerns after last night, this didn't make sense. "Donna this doesn't make sense" This doesn't make sense. He was jarred out of his thoughts by a noise and turned to look into the hallway, the fire alarm was sounding everyone was moving. "Donna we need to leave" he turned to find her gone. *what the hell* "Donna?" "Donna where are you?" He walked out of her office and into her apartment. In the middle of the living area where the couch used to be was a guy building a crib. "Who are you?" He barked angrily at the man "What is that noise?" He walked towards it, through the dining area into the kitchen. The smoke alarm was going off in her kitchen but there was nothing cooking, no smoke. He stood on a chair to reach the device to stop the noise, need to stop the noise. Harvey turned over in bed realising the blaring alarm was coming from his bedside. *shit* relief poured through him that it wasn't real but he still felt a sense of panic. The sight of her pregnant, woah. The thought of her pregnant, scary but scary because he didn't know what was going on, how she was suddenly heavily pregnant when he only learned she'd been thinking about it last night. Twisted brain. The thought of her carrying a child, a stranger's child? What if it wasn't a stranger what if she was in a relationship and he wasn't part of their lives. Harvey groaned and dragged himself to the shower, he needed cold water to shake him out of this. He scrubbed his body hard, trying to work out the demons in his mind by taking it out on his body. He put on the coffee and checked his phone for anything significant. After flicking quickly through his calendar for the day he picked out one of his favourite dark suits, a tie that she'd picked out for him when they'd been shopping for bags for her after that man came into their lives.

His first meeting was a deposition at Skatten. When he arrived at the offices at 10am he was pleased to see she wasn't yet at work. It turned out Robert wasn't in the office that morning so he had no need to follow up on his email explaining Donna's absence. He finished up his work from the morning and was about to head down to the bagel guy for lunch when Donna breezed into his office all poise and confidence and very 'not' pregnant.

"Donna" he acknowledge in his trademark tone.

"Harvey. Robert's not going to be back till Monday and I've decided I want to re-evaluate our secretarial contracts so I just wanted to check that's ok with you? In the short term there might be some costs but in the long term I just don't think these agencies are the way to go."

"Fine by me, you'll need to show the figures to Robert but if anyone knows the value of a great secretary it's him and I'm in no position to disagree with your strategy".

"Great, thanks Harvey, I feel like it's one area that gets overlooked and I don't think people appreciate the value of a great secretary."

She was full of confidence and Donnaness, all traces of last night seemingly a distant memory. He marvelled not for the first time at her ability to do what she does and even more so with the personal baggage she had going on.

"Well not everyone gets to be as lucky as I was"

"There was no luck in our meeting Harvey, trust me"

"Well if anyone knows what this firm needs it's you."

"I'm glad you realise" She beamed back at him, a little flustered at the direct compliment and turning on her heel she strutted back down towards her office while he watched the sway of her hips.

It was after 7 when he decided he'd had enough for the day. Since lunch time Harvey had only seen Donna fleetingly and it wasn't at appropriate moments to check if she was still up for dinner. Shutting down his computer he grabbed his jacket and walked the short distance down the hall. He found her across from Louis with the lawyer gesturing frantically at some crisis he was clearly in the middle of. He had a strong sense of deja vu, his dream was clearly not entirely removed from reality. Ignoring the really strong temptation to pull faces and make her laugh through the glass Harvey walked in to the office and quickly deduced that whatever this was, it had something to do with Esther and he was immediately uncomfortable.

"Louis, I know you know this" he heard Donna say "but you're not in a position to help Sheila with this and Esther is and whatever you think of Esther can you honestly sit there and tell me she isn't am amazing mother"

"No Donna I can't"

"And can you honestly tell me you know what it's like to be a Jewish mother?"

Harvey was desperate to jump in but she shot him the sharpest look to silence the words on the tip of his tongue so instead he turned to pour himself a drink.

"Or would you rather she get her advice from your mother?"

"Fine they can talk to each other but no lunches or shopping trips without me"

"ok Louis, maybe you might need to talk this through with Shelia now"

"ok thank you Donna, Harvey." Thanking Donna and acknowledging Harvey Louis slinked away in a not too dissimilar way that Harvey had seen in his dream. He shuddered at the memory a movement that wasn't lost on Donna.

"What?"

"Nothing just a…memory" he wasn't going to admit to dreaming about Louis for anyone.

"I didn't tell you to take the morning off so you could stay here late"

"Harvey it's hardly late and I'll have you know I've been incredibly productive today, I just have a bit more to catch up on from yesterday"

"It can wait."

"How would you know what can wait and what can't?"

"I'm pretty sure it can wait because if it couldn't you wouldn't have taken time this morning and besides, I was hoping we still had plans"

Displaying an unexpected acquiescence to his request to stop work, she pressed a few buttons on her tablet and folder it up.

"I wasn't sure if I dreamt that. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. You need a minute?"

"No actually I'm good, where are you taking me?"

When Ray pulled up and wished them goodnight out the front his block she was a little confused but she went along with it. He might need to pick something up. But after lighting the fire, pouring her a drink and leaving her to disappear into is bedroom she was even more so. "I thought I was getting five star dining" she called out, but Harvey didn't respond. She walked over to his record player and chose one of her favourite recordings.

She didn't hear him come out behind her and when she turned back to the couch was taken aback to see him in dark jeans, a sweater and an apron. She grabbed her phone and flicking on the camera snapped the picture much to his chagrin.

"I'm not missing the opportunity to record this moment. Are you seriously cooking dinner?"

"You've seen me in an apron before"

"Well yeah but that was when you were rescuing me from a splitting sauce disaster, I didn't know you actually cook meals."

"Well prepare for the Specter Special, I'll have you know I'm really awesome with a potato peeler"

She was pretty sure she'd already had the Specter special but it turns out he was in fact a great cook. She sat back watching in joy and amusement as he sliced, diced and prepared what really was an amazing meal.

"If I'd know you could cook like this for the last thirteen years I could have saved you a fortune in restaurant bills"

"My Grandparents ran a restaurant in Boston, Marcus and I used to stay with them on vacation and help out so we learned a lot about cooking well. I can make a mean Martini too."

"How old were you?"

"Not old enough to know it wasn't legal" he smirked.

"Maybe you can throw a cocktail party for Louis and Sheila's engagement?!" She offered excitedly, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Since when were they engaged?" He asked, a little hurt his friend hadn't told him they were engaged again.

"They're not" she reassured him "but it's only a matter or time, there's no way Louis is having child without proposing and it would mean so much to him if you did that for him"

"Don't even think about suggesting it" he glared. "Time to change the subject" he stated.

"You're quite full of surprises tonight. I wasn't sure if you'd still want to talk about things"

"Donna I told you, I'm not backing out, I want to be part of this"