Skyfall
Chapter Eight
Harvey walked into the kitchen, setting down the takeout on the counter. It was his turn to bring home dinner. He looked over at her, seeing she was drinking a glass of wine and typing on the computer. "I hope burgers are ok for dinner tonight."
"Yeah. It's fine." She said, not looking up from her computer.
"Is everything alright?" He asked, approaching her.
"Everything's fine." She assured him, still typing. She only stopped for a moment to look at him and smile.
"You seem distracted tonight."
"Nope. I'm good…just busy."
"Ok." He didn't believe her, but he would let it go for the moment because she didn't seem like she wanted to talk about it. He went over and grabbed the burgers and fries from the bag. He brought her food over to her on a plate. "I got you extra bacon on your burger."
"Thank you." She took the plate and put it on the coffee table before going back to typing.
"What are you working on?"
"I'm putting the final touches on the Richardson merger paperwork." She explained. "I think I'm almost done though. Once I'm done with this I'm done for the night."
"Ok." He went over to his records and picked a Billie Holiday record. After he started the record, he got his food and sat down in the chair across from where she was sitting. He watched as she typed, seemingly laser-focused on the merger document. She wasn't even eating. She did take a moment here and there to sip some wine but that was it.
The more he watched her, the more he was convinced something was wrong. She didn't seem like herself and it hit him that she had been different ever since last night when he said he wasn't ready for kids yet. Even when she was close to him, she still felt like she was miles away.
He knew she wasn't going to be happy about him saying he didn't want kids right now, but he had to be honest with her about his feelings. She said yesterday that they were ok, but he realized they weren't as ok as she said.
Soon he was done with his dinner and saw she hadn't taken a single bite of hers. "You should eat." He said quietly.
"I'm not really that hungry." She told him, not looking up.
"Rebecca…"
"Harvey, I'm almost done with this. Please just let me finish what I'm working on in peace." She asked.
"Ok." He nodded.
It took about another fifteen minutes before she stopped typing and looked up at him.
"There." She smiled. "All done."
"Finally." He smirked. "Now will you eat?"
"I'm sorry but I'm really not hungry right now." She told him. "Please stop pushing me to eat."
"Fine." He nodded, standing up. "How about you dance with me instead?"
He saw her look at him like he was crazy.
"Please?" He asked.
She took a drink of her wine and then stood up, letting him lead her to a clear spot in the living room where they could dance without bumping into things.
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, swaying gently to the slow but steady beat of the song.
"What's with the sudden desire to dance?" She asked quietly.
"I can't just want to dance with my wife?" He chuckled. "Do I have to have an ulterior motive?"
"No." She shook her head. "But we don't do this very often. I think we've done this maybe five times?"
"We should do this more often." He smiled.
"I agree."
"How was your day?"
"It was alright. How was your day?"
"It was ok." He shrugged. "It's definitely better now that I have you in my arms." That got a small smile from her. "So do you want to tell me what's bothering you? Or would you like me to guess?" He asked.
"Nothing's bothering me."
"I find that hard to believe. Something's clearly on your mind." He prodded. "Tell me, please?"
She sighed. "Fine. I'm still thinking about our talk from last night."
"I kind of thought that was what was on your mind." He told her. "Do you want to talk about it again?"
"I don't see the point." She shook her head. "I would love to have a mini-Harvey running around, but you don't want to have kids with me."
"I said not right now." He objected.
"That's what you said, but your face said ever."
He scoffed. "You're upset because of what you think my face said?"
"No. I'm upset because I know that's what your face said. I've seen that look before. I know you Harvey."
He sighed. "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to be honest and tell me that you don't want to have kids with me!" She exclaimed. "But you hide behind saying 'not right now' when what you really mean is 'I don't want to have kids with you ever'."
"It's not that I don't want to have kids with you. You are the only woman I'd ever want to have kids with. I just…I'm not sure I want them right now. And on top of everything else, you know this isn't the right time to have kids because you work way too much. If we had kids we would both need to cut down on working so many hours. Are you telling me that's something you want to do? Because you aren't willing to work less hours for me so I don't see that changing for a baby." At that moment his cell phone started to ring. He pulled away from her to check it to make sure it wasn't an emergency and saw it was Marcus.
"It's Marcus." He sighed. "Do you mind if I take it real quick?"
"Go ahead." She sighed.
She couldn't believe he said that to her. She didn't think she was working that hard, and yes she was more focused on work than he was right now. She wouldn't apologize for valuing her career and following through with her ambitions. But she felt like she made a conscious effort to spend quality time with him, especially after he accused her of being a workaholic last week. Apparently he didn't think she had made any progress on that though.
And she could balance work and family. She knew she could. It hurt that he threw her work in her face again and seemed like a double standard. His words stung and she had to remind herself not to lash out. Nothing good would come from them getting into a screaming match about this.
She knew that he wasn't enthusiastic about having kids as she was and she had known about it from the start. But at the end of their talks he always used to say he was willing to revisit the issue and would think about it. If he was certain he wasn't going to want children then he shouldn't have told her that. Either way, the whole thing was a mess.
She watched as he talked to Marcus. She figured that Marcus was calling to tell Harvey the good news about Katie being pregnant and didn't want to make him miss that just because they were arguing. But the look on Harvey's face wasn't a happy one and she grew worried.
"Ok…whoa…Marcus slow down…what happened?…shit…yeah…ok…ok…ok…yeah. Don't worry. We'll be right there…no it's fine. We'll be there." Harvey shoved the phone back into his pocket and looked over at her.
"What's going on?"
"We have to get up to Boston as soon as possible." He told her.
"What? Why?" She asked. He was starting to turn pale and she was even more concerned. "What's going on?"
"When Marcus came home tonight he found Katie in the kitchen. She had been shot." Harvey explained.
"What?" That was the last thing she expected to hear. She thought the next words out of his mouth would be that they needed to get to the hospital. She figured Katie was on her way to surgery or something. But as the seconds went by without him saying that, a sense of dread filled her. "Harvey…she's ok though…right? She'll be ok?"
She watched as he seemed to fumble with the words, which was unlike him. There was only one thing that could make him hesitate like this.
"No. She's gone." He said it quietly. "She didn't make it."
"No." She shook her head, as if that would make things alright again. "No. That's not possible…Harvey…no. There's gotta be some kind of mistake. She can't be dead…the baby…and her kids…Marcus…"
"I'm sorry." He closed the gap between then and gave her a hug.
She felt numb and couldn't even hug him back. Her arms stayed at her side because they felt too heavy to raise. She was like that for a minute or two before she finally snapped out of it and went into crisis mode. She pulled away from him and started to pace.
"Ok…um…Here's what we need to do. I'll pack for us. You call Donna and Jessica. We're going to be gone for the next three to four days. So Donna needs to make sure Mike can cover for us and Jessica needs to know we'll be out of the office. We'll need plane tickets up there on the next available flight, as well as a rental car and a hotel. Donna might be able to help us with that too so you better call her first."
She looked over at him and saw he wasn't moving. "Well what are you waiting for?"
"I'm sorry." He apologized.
"For what?" She asked.
"Earlier…before the call…what we were talking about…I shouldn't have…"
"I'm sorry too. But I can't even think about that right now." She interrupted him. "We need to work on getting up to Boston. That's what is important. So make the calls. I'll go pack."
She saw him take out his phone again so she hurried into the bedroom, going straight to the closet to pull out their suitcases. She paused after pulling out her suitcase, sinking to the floor and sobbing.
Now wasn't the time to fall apart though. There would be a better time for that later. So she stood back up. She wiped her cheeks, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before getting Harvey's suitcase out of the closet.
Harvey looked down at his right hand, which was holding on to Rebecca's left hand. They were incredibly lucky to make it to Boston on the next flight out. It was a quiet flight for them. Neither knew what to say to the other so they just sat in silence the whole time. She had wrapped her arms around his and put her head on his shoulder. From time to time he would turn to kiss her head.
He looked over at her now in the car, seeing that she was staring aimlessly out the window. He was worried about her. She was extremely close to Katie. Anytime they visited in Boston, the two of them would immediately go off into the kitchen together. He would hear their laughter filter through to the living room and it was always loud enough to be heard over the television and the kids.
He remembered what happened the last time they visited Boston, almost three months ago.
He watched as Rebecca rang the doorbell. It didn't take long for Marcus to answer the door.
"Hey guys." Marcus greeted with a smile.
"Hey." He greeted back, watching Marcus and Rebecca hug.
"You look great, Rebecca." Marcus told her.
"Why thank you." She smiled.
Marcus then looked over at him and chuckled. "So why are you still with my loser brother? He's not aging very well and you know you could do better."
Rebecca laughed. "You know why…it's the money."
He knew they were joking because Marcus made the same joke every time he saw them. Rebecca at least had the creativity to come up with a different bullshit reason every time. Some of her reasons were extremely clever and detailed.
"One of these days you'll stop doing this joke." He told them.
"Yeah. And that will be a very sad day." Marcus laughed.
"So where is your better half?" Harvey asked.
"I'm right here." Katie said, appearing next to Marcus and immediately giving Rebecca a hug. "I've missed you!"
"I've missed you too!" Rebecca told her. "Wow you look great. Those five pounds you lost this month are really noticeable in a good way."
"Thank you!" Katie smiled. "I think I'm only going to try for a few more pounds, or maybe just work on muscle mass."
"Well whatever you're doing is working." Rebecca smiled back. "Where are the kids?"
"They are in the backyard playing. Let's go into the kitchen. I'll pour you a glass of wine and we can talk freely." Katie suggested, looking at him and then Marcus.
"That means they want to talk about us." Marcus whispered to him.
"I figured as much." He laughed, watching as Rebecca went off with Katie to the kitchen, whispering and giggling the whole way.
"I'm starting to think that Rebecca married you so she could be sisters with Katie." Marcus laughed.
"It wouldn't surprise me if that was one of the reasons." He joked back.
They seemed to call or text each other all the time and he knew that she was going to take Katie's death hard.
She still hadn't fallen apart yet. He remembered how she fell apart when her father died, and he was a guy she didn't have a good relationship with. He could only imagine what her breakdown over Katie's death would be like.
They were sitting at a red light so he squeezed her hand lightly. It caused her to look over at him and give him a small smile.
"I think we are almost there." He told her. They were on their way to his mom's house. That's where Marcus and the kids were. If he had his way, he would never step foot inside his mom's house. But Marcus needed him so he would put aside his feelings for the woman and do what was necessary.
"Are you going to be ok with seeing your mom again?" She asked in quiet voice. "I know it has been a long time."
He appreciated the fact that even though she was going through a lot she still wanted to check in with him. "I'll be fine. I'm honestly more worried about you."
"I'll be fine." She told him, echoing his words before going back to staring out the window.
The light turned green and he continued driving down the streets of Boston. About five minutes later they pulled up into his mom's driveway. He turned off the car and got out, walking over to her side of the car so he could hold her hand as they walked to the front door.
He knocked, careful not to knock too loudly. It was the middle of the night and he didn't want to wake up the kids. It didn't take long for the door to open. There in the doorway was his mom. He had to admit she looked like a mess, but it was understandable considering the circumstances.
"Harvey…" Lily reached over to hug him.
He stepped back out of her reach.
"I'm sorry for the reason you are here, but I can't deny it is good to see you." Lily smiled. "It's been far too long."
"Where is Marcus?" He asked, ignoring her comment.
"He's out in the backyard." Lily motioned to behind her. "It's just past the kitchen."
He wasted no time pushing past his mom to head out towards his brother.
Rebecca took a look at Lily and felt bad for her. She obviously just wanted to be able to hug her son, which wasn't an unreasonable request given what was going on. But Harvey didn't want anything to do with her.
"Well this is awkward, isn't it?" Harvey didn't introduce them and although she recognized the woman from pictures she saw in Katie and Marcus' house, she had never met this woman. Now she was here on one of the worst days of Lily's life.
"It doesn't have to be." Lily gave her a kind smile. "I must say you are prettier in person than in Katie's pictures."
"That's kind of you to say." She smiled back.
"Come in dear. You don't have to stay out on the porch all night. After all, you are family." Lily motioned for her to come inside and then led her to the living room so they could sit on the couch.
"How are you doing?" She asked the older woman.
"It's still surreal." Lily answered. "I can't believe this is happening."
"I know what you mean." She agreed.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm having trouble believing this is real too. It's like a nightmare." She admitted. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened? Marcus obviously didn't go into much detail on the phone with Harvey."
"Katie brought the kids over after lunch because she was going to make a special dinner for Marcus. She was going to tell him about the baby. The next thing I know, Marcus is calling me telling me he came home and found her in the kitchen. Someone had shot her and she was dead. I guess it looks like a robbery gone bad." Lily explained.
"Do the kids know yet?"
"No." She shook her head. "We thought it would be best to tell them in the morning. Let them get one more good nights' sleep before we make their world come crumbling down around them."
"Yeah. They deserve that since everything will change for them tomorrow."
"You have some experience in that if I'm not mistaken." Lily said quietly. "Katie talked about you constantly. She told me about your mother."
"Yeah." She nodded. "I was only a year younger than Ethan is right now when I lost her."
"I imagine it is hard at any age." Lily stated.
"It is." She nodded.
"I know this is the first time we've met, but I have to tell you that I feel like I already know you. Katie was always telling me things about you. She loved having you in the family."
"I loved having her in my family too." She smiled. "I finally felt like I had a real sister."
"She always said the same thing." Lily nodded.
Harvey stood in the backyard, staring at his brother. Marcus was sitting in one of the swings on the playground with his back to him. On the ground next to him was a six pack of beer. Four of them looked empty already. He took a deep breath and walked over to the empty swing, sitting down.
"You actually came." Marcus scoffed.
"Of course I did." Harvey told him. "I told you I would. Marcus, you're my brother and you needed me. Where else would I be?"
"I just thought because of mom you might…"
"Mom doesn't matter right now." He cut Marcus off. "I'm here for you and I'm here for the kids too. So why don't you tell me exactly what happened?"
"I came home and called out to her. But she didn't answer. We had this routine where I would yell out 'honey I'm home' and she would call back 'it's about time'. When I didn't hear her, I started to get nervous. I got to the kitchen I found her on the floor by the sink in a pool of her own blood. There was just so much blood there Harvey…It was everywhere. There were also footprints leading out the open back door. I called 911 and tried…but she was already dead when I got there."
"Marcus, I'm so sorry." He didn't know what else to say to his brother. This was a nightmare and he could only imagine how it felt for him to lose Katie like that.
"I was supposed to be home about an hour earlier." Marcus continued. "She wanted me home at 6. I didn't get there until after 7 because I was finishing up some things at the restaurant. But I should have been at home. If I had been there…I could have…maybe she wouldn't…"
Harvey stood up and pulled Marcus up into a hug. "It's not your fault and you can't think about the what-ifs."
"She's gone, Harvey." Marcus sobbed. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"
"It's going to be ok." Harvey told him.