Skyfall

Chapter Twenty-Three

Four days later, Harvey sat in his office, staring at the folder on his desk. He thought back to when he went with Rebecca to Brian's office after her deposition.

"Did I forget about a meeting?" Brian joked.

"No." Rebecca shook her head. "I just sat through a deposition with Travis Tanner and he has a signed affidavit from Nicole where she claims to know about Alyssa and Morgan's signed agreements."

"So we were wondering how Nicole would know about that." Harvey added.

Brian sighed deeply. "I may have let it slip one night when we were together."

"Goddammit. I asked you to tell me everything so we wouldn't be blindsided and now you've just blindsided us." Harvey scoffed. "Do you enjoy losing? Because we could lose this case now."

"It was an error in judgment." Brian sighed.

That error in judgement was going to cost him a lot.

"Are you almost ready to go home?" He asked when he saw Rebecca enter his office.

"Yeah." She nodded. "I'm ready whenever you are. I have some ideas for the case but we can go over them in the car on the way home if you want."

"Can we talk for a moment first?" He motioned for her to sit down.

"Of course. Sounds serious though." She chuckled nervously on her way to sit down. "What's up?"

"Tanner showed up earlier today."

"Really? When?" She questioned. "You didn't mention it earlier."

"It was while you were in court for the Messer hearing this morning." He explained.

"So what did he want?"

"He was dropping off a settlement agreement." Harvey passed the file to her, watching as there was a look of amusement on her face when she read it.

"Well we obviously can't accept this settlement." She refused, throwing it down on the coffee table. "Did you enjoy laughing in his face when you turned it down?"

"I didn't laugh in his face."

"Why not?"

"Don't you see? He's just going to keep coming after you unless we sign it."

"And I'm saying we can't sign it. Signing it is admitting defeat and that's not what we do."

"I told you that nothing would happen to you because of this lawsuit and I meant it. But that affidavit from Nicole could cause you problems with the bar if he turns it in."

"It's a bluff." She told him. "He won't really turn it in."

"It doesn't matter. I want to sign the settlement." He told her.

"And I don't." She scoffed. "We can still beat him."

"I'm not certain we can at this point. Brian already admitted to Nicole that he paid off the other two. The fact that he didn't pay her off as well looks suspicious and I don't think we can win this." He argued. "I also can't stand to see him come after you. You can't deny that you have exposure on this. He could easily introduce the affidavit into evidence and then the bar will see it."

"And I've already told you several times that I didn't do anything illegal. And I can take whatever Travis Tanner or the bar throws at me." She sighed. "But you still think I can't take it and that's just patronizing and condescending."

"Well I'm sorry you feel that way because I have already have this signed by everyone else. All it needs is your signature and it becomes official in the morning."

"You really went behind my back like this?" She scoffed.

"I did what I had to do for my clients." He argued.

"Brian is going to be fired because of the settlement. You can't tell me that is a good thing."

"No. But honestly, he was wrong for having sex with so many of his subordinates. Even if we won this thing, he most likely would have been fired anyway now that his bosses know what was going on. I talked to him about it. He knows that and is willing to own up to his mistakes."

"I can't believe you didn't come to me with this settlement offer before you went and got them to sign off on it." She shook her head. "So I guess all that talk about being a team just flies out the window whenever it suits you?'

"I did this for our team." He argued.

"Bullshit!" She yelled. "I'm a part of this lawsuit too and I'm not signing it. So your precious settlement agreement isn't worth anything."

"You aren't listening to me…"

"I'm listening just fine." She argued. "You think I'm weak and I can't handle Travis Tanner. Ever since the deposition you have been treating me with kid gloves, just waiting for me to break but I haven't. I'm stronger than you think."

"I know you're strong. You're one of the strongest people I know. Goddammit! That's not the issue. Don't you see? I'm the one that can't take it!" He yelled loudly. "I can't sit around and watch him come after you every chance he gets. He is only coming after you because he knows that you are my Achilles' heel. You are my self-destruct button. He can come after me all day long but he won't get any reaction. He goes after you for one minute though and he knows that I want to rip his face off and use it as a Brillo pad. You are my weak spot and he will continue to press it."

"Harvey…"

"Any other time I would say let's fight this til the end. I'd rip up the settlement and throw it in the trash so we could go kick his ass." He sighed. "But I don't want to fight this because it means keeping you in the crosshairs of Travis Tanner. You have exposure here and he could get you in some serious trouble for the settlements you orchestrated for Alyssa and Morgan. And that's something I can't let happen. So please...you can be mad at me all you want, but at the end of the day you have to realize that I am doing this for us. Travis Tanner can be out of our lives for good with just one signature. Just sign the settlement."

"You mean until the next time he figures out some other bullshit lawsuit to lodge against me because he knows you'll just settle to get him to go away." She sighed.

"Rebecca…" He knew she had a point there but he would deal with that if it happened. Right now he needed to get her out of the crosshairs. She had exposure on this case since she orchestrated the confidentiality agreements and the payouts. There was no way he would let Tanner continue to go after her. "After everything that has happened the past couple of months I just don't have the energy to deal with this anymore. I just can't. Please?"

"Ok Harvey." She said softly after a few minutes of silence. "You win. I'll sign it."

He watched as she picked up the pen and scrawled her signature on the settlement agreement. Then she got up and started walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He asked. "I thought we were going home together."

She turned to look at him and shook her head. "No. You go on home without me. I'll be home later."

He watched her leave and sighed. There was a part of him that wished she had stayed and yelled at him instead of just walking out. But at least he could send the settlement papers over and this whole thing would be finished tomorrow.

Rebecca walked around aimlessly on the nearly empty floor. It was late and there wasn't anyone still here. Maybe it wasn't fair to send Harvey home by himself. The look on his face when she left told her he was upset about it.

But after everything that happened she felt like she needed a moment to think. She had a lot of emotions swirling around and was worried she would say something she'd end up regretting. She was angry, hurt and strangely honored by his earlier speech.

The anger and hurt came from the fact that she didn't appreciate him cutting her out of the decision making process. He always told her that they needed to be a team and work together as a team. But this was a perfect opportunity for them to be a team and he went off on his own.

The honor came from the fact that she didn't realize he thought of her as his Achilles' heel. It was one of the sweetest compliments he had ever given her. But if she was totally honest she didn't want to be the reason he had to settle lawsuits. She was supposed to be building him up and making him stronger, not becoming a liability.

"What are you still doing here?" Donna asked, suddenly appearing next to her.

"I could ask you the same thing." She laughed. "I would have thought that you would be at home with Charles. Is everything alright with you two?"

"Oh. Yeah. We are fine. He is working a big case tonight so I thought I would get a jump start on stuff for tomorrow because I don't want to have to go home and unpack by myself."

"That's understandable." She smiled.

"You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here this late?"

"I'm hiding out from Harvey." She admitted sheepishly.

"Oh." Donna laughed. "Is this about the settlement?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I really wanted to fight Tanner and beat him to a bloody pulp. But Harvey unilaterally decided against it."

"Did he explain the reasons why?"

"Yeah. And that's why I signed it. I want so badly to be mad at him for it. But I have to admit he has a good reason for it. I just don't completely agree with him."

"He was trying to…"

"I know what he was trying to do, Donna." She sighed, interrupting her friend. "But I really don't like that he made the decision himself. He has done that every step of the way on this case, even though we were supposed to be working together."

"I know." Donna nodded. "Maybe you should just tell him how you feel."

"Again?" She laughed. "I've told him before."

"Keep telling him until you work it out." Donna advised. "But you know, nothing can get worked out if you are here talking to me instead of at home with him."

"You are so right." She smiled at her friend. "Thanks Donna."

"Anytime."

A short time later, she entered the penthouse and closed the door behind her. After walking the short distance down the hallway she threw her bag on to the kitchen counter. She then searched for Harvey. It didn't take her long to see that he was sitting on the balcony.

It looked like he had a drink already so she stopped and poured herself one before going out there. "Is this seat taken?" She asked, pointing to the chair next to him.

"You don't ever have to ask." He looked over at her and smiled.

"So about earlier…"

"I'm sorry that I ambushed you with the settlement like that." He interrupted her. "I should have talked to you about it before getting the other signatures. I know you probably feel like I backed you into a corner."

"I just was hurt because I thought we were making those kind of decisions together. When you didn't consult me, it made me angry." She shrugged, taking a drink. "But I'm sorry that I got mad at you and tried to make it all about me. I didn't think too much about how this case might have been affected you. That was a little selfish on my part."

"Well I probably could have done a better job communicating it to you." He admitted. "I can see how you would think that I was just being condescending."

"I know if the roles were reversed, I wouldn't want to see someone coming after you like that either." She admitted. "But my anger is really about the fact that you told me we could work as a team on this case and then every time we had a chance to be a team you went behind my back and cut me out of the decision making process."

"Yeah. I guess I did." He admitted. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I just really wanted to protect you from Tanner."

"Tanner doesn't scare me." She laughed. "He rattled me for a moment…made me doubt some things that I shouldn't have doubted…but he doesn't scare me now that I realize what his main issue is."

"And what is his main issue?"

"He is jealous of you." She pointed out. "You have the life he wants. You're name partner at a top law firm, while he just keeps getting bumped around from firm to firm…never staying in one place long enough to advance. You have a proven track record of wins, while he just keeps racking up losses. You are incredibly sexy, while he is definitely not. And let's not forget one of your greatest assets…"

"My mind?" He joked.

She playfully smacked his arm. "I was actually talking about me. But your mind is a great asset too."

"I am well aware that you are one of my greatest, if not the greatest asset I have." He grinned, leaning in for a quick kiss.

"I just don't want to become a liability." She confessed.

"How would you turn into that?" He chuckled.

"I kind of already have." She explained. "It's because of me that you feel like you are forced to settle this case."

"You aren't a liability." He assured her. "I promise."

"Ok." She nodded.

"So are we ok?"

"We're ok." She smiled at him, putting her hand on his leg. "Are you ok?"

"With you by my side? Always." He smiled, grabbing her hand from his leg and bringing it to his lips.

"I'm actually kind of proud of us."

He chuckled. "Why?"

"We have been doing much better lately about arguing and fighting fairly without letting things build up to the point where we have blown up arguments like when we first got together."

"Yeah." He nodded. "God, those arguments were the worst."

"Yeah they were." She rested her head on his shoulder.

"I still can't believe you ever forgave me after some of the shit I said to you." He admitted.

"What can I say?" She laughed. "I've been head over heels for you for a long time and even then I knew you were someone special. But look at where we are now. I mean, we still argue and we always will. But we are better about it now."

"We have been doing better about not trying to destroy the other person while angry. I am kind of proud of us too."

She took a drink. "So what do you say we go celebrate that in the bedroom?"

"You never have to ask me twice." He smirked.