Thanks again for the reviews, favorites and follows. This is the last chapter. Hope you'll like it.
Stay With Me chapter 5:
Harvey sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. Louis hopped nervously from one leg to the other. Neither of them said anything. Harvey sat down behind his desk again, trying to organize the mess they had created that night.
He had expected Louis to wander off to his own office again, but Louis remained standing. Even worse, he kept looking at Harvey with intense confusion on his face.
"What are you still doing here?" Louis ironically asked eventually.
Harvey raised his eyebrows.
"Me?!"
"Yeah, you! Go make things right with Donna!"
Harvey pushed his chair back and got up.
"I have to make things right? You are the one responsible for this disaster!"
"Yeah, well, apparently, you have a shot with the most amazing woman on earth, for goodness sake, go after her and fix it!"
Harvey threw him a cynical look.
"I do not have a shot with Donna, and it doesn't even have anything to do with what happened tonight…" Harvey confessed.
Louis got even more confused. Before he could ask anything else, Harvey continued.
"Besides, I think you're right. Chances are, I probably will hurt her…"
"No, don't say that!" Louis interrupted. "I only said that because I was angry with you, I had no idea how much you felt for her..!"
Harvey walked over and stopped in front of Louis.
"It's for the best to leave it like this, Louis."
Louis looked utterly defeated.
"Let's get out of here" Harvey said as he grabbed his coat.
Louis hesitated and looked over at the coffee table.
"If it's alright with you, I'm gonna stay a bit longer and go over the things you found tonight."
Harvey nodded.
"Goodnight, Louis."
"Goodnight, Harvey."
As Harvey made his way out of the office, he tried his best not to think about tonight's events or Louis' words just now.
'…You have a shot with the most amazing woman on earth…'
He remembered the way his heart beat when she sat next to him. He also remembered the hurt look on her face when she realized what the reason was why he had stopped things the night before.
Even with all her arguments why they shouldn't be together, even with her stoic way of dealing with what happened between them, even if she truly believed they shouldn't be together, she had wanted things to continue between them.
She wanted to be with him, or else she wouldn't have let things go so far as she had the previous nights.
And God knew, he wanted to be with her. Badly.
As soon as he stepped outside the building, he called for a cab to her apartment.
It was past two in the morning when he knocked on her door softly, as to not wake the neighbors.
No response.
Two more knocks, a bit louder.
Still nothing.
"Donna" he just above whispered.
"Donna, please let met in…"
He knocked again, quite loudly this time. She didn't answer.
He hesitated for a bit longer before realizing that she wasn't going to open the door for him.
Eventually, he turned around and left.
.
Twenty minutes later, he opened his own front door and stepped inside. As he closed the door behind him, he saw her and only then did he realize how relieved he was to see her.
Donna stood in the middle of the open space in his living room.
"Donna…" he breathed.
She looked like she wanted to say something but the words didn't come.
Harvey walked towards her.
"I'm glad you're here. I went to your house, but you weren't there… Obviously."
Donna still didn't move a muscle.
"I'm really sorry about what happened tonight. I know I should have never let Louis dictate your life like that…"
Donna blinked shortly. Harvey continued.
"But in all fairness, I did think you wanted the same thing as him…"
"I did. I do…" Donna responded quickly.
Harvey took a step closer to her.
"Why?" he asked.
Donna looked surprised.
"What do you mean? We talked about this, you agreed we should just stay friends, it's for the best" Donna rambled, reciting the arguments she had been repeating in her head over and over.
"I know" Harvey sighed. "We have been happy as colleagues and friends. We have nothing in common, we keep hurting each other when we try to be more…"
Donna eyed him suspiciously.
"Exactly" she said with caution.
"Donna, I don't care. You're right, with our history, any attempt at a relationship will probably end in a disaster, but I don't care. With all the odds stacked against us, we can only exceed our expectations. I want you and I want all of you. I love you, Donna. And the past nights have been the greatest nights in my life, despite what's going on with Mike. You talk about how we're not supposed to be together, but all it does is make me love you more. So maybe you're right, maybe I am an idiot for not seeing that we were never meant to be, but to me it feels like we were never meant to be apart."
Donna blinked away the tears fervently.
"It could never work…" she whispered through the tears she was trying to hold back.
"You're right, we shouldn't expect anything. It would be silly to be anything more than friends" Harvey whispered as he took another step closer to her.
"Harvey…" Donna warned.
"All we would do is argue about how lame Shakespeare and the Yankees are" Harvey added.
Donna looked so desperately it tug at his heartstrings.
"We should say goodbye now and never mention this again" he whispered softly, his lips almost touching the skin on her cheeks.
Donna closed her eyes to keep the tears from falling.
His lips hovered above her tear-stained cheek. His hands were raised but frozen mid-air to keep himself from pressing her against him.
Harvey stayed still for a few moments. He badly wanted to touch and comfort her, but he needed a sign from her that she did feel the same way. He looked down at her face and noticed the tears rolling down despite her efforts to keep them in.
But she didn't move. Harvey's heart broke. She really didn't feel the same way. She hadn't been afraid and she hadn't been punishing him when she said they weren't supposed to be more than friends. For her, the possible issues between them were insuperable.
'So this is really it' he realized. The moment they would say goodbye to any other them.
He felt his throat close up with emotion and tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. Still, he couldn't be mad at her. His feelings were never a guarantee for hers to be the same.
"Goodnight, Donna" he whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
Donna pressed her eyes shut even firmer but tears kept rolling down nonetheless. She opened her eyes but avoided his gaze. Hesitantly, she moved her hands upwards and let them hover around his face for a second. Then, she let her fingers gently trail over his cheeks, before she quickly settled them on his chest. Harvey tried to swallow the lump forming in his throat. How he wished he could kiss her.
Donna sighed and looked up at him with those dark pools he loved so much. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, before Donna finally spoke.
"I love you too, Harvey."
And then she kissed him. Soft and lovingly. Harvey was so surprised he didn't respond at first, but soon his instincts kicked in and he finally hugged her body close to him and kissed her with all his heart.
And he kissed her again when they woke up that morning and pulled her even closer to him. She smiled.
Never again would they be apart.
.
THE END