Skyfall

Chapter Thirty-One

Harvey's phone began to vibrate so he took it out of his pocket and saw it was Louis. "This really isn't a good time."

"I have a situation and I don't know how to handle it." Louis started.

"I can't help you right now. I'm kind of in the middle of my own situation that I don't know how to handle."

"It concerns Rebecca."

He sighed. Louis knew he would drop everything if something was going on with Rebecca so he wouldn't invoke her name if it wasn't important. "Ok, Louis. What's going on?"

"She'll likely kill me for telling you about this, but like I said, I don't know what to do."

"Louis, just tell me what is going on. Is she alright?" He was starting to get nervous.

"Last night when she left the office she noticed two men on the street and they were staring at her. This morning those two guys were there again. And when she went out for coffee a little bit ago the same two guys were still there watching her." Louis paused for a moment. "I tried to tell her that it doesn't mean they are stalking her. I tried to play it off as they could be surveillance hired to tail someone else. But she is clearly freaked out about it. Honestly, so am I."

"Why didn't she call me about this?" He asked. His mind immediately went to a dark place. What if those guys were sent by Marcus' bookie? What if this was the guy's way of saying 'pay me or else Rebecca will suffer the same fate as Katie'?

"She didn't want you to worry. So I suggested that she call Charles. I thought maybe he could figure out who the two guys were since he works in surveillance. But she didn't want to do that either because of Mike. Though I think she is wrong and he could help with this."

"Shit." He sighed.

"I told her I would leave with her tonight to make sure she wasn't alone going out of the building. But I don't know what else to do."

"Louis, I know it is a lot to ask, but for the next couple of days, I need you to basically shadow Rebecca. I don't want her to be alone outside of home and the office." Between the security of the office and their home she would be protected.

"What's going on?" Louis asked. "Do you think that they are actually stalking her for some reason?"

"I don't know." He sighed. "I just…with everything that has happened in my family lately, I don't want to take any chances. Can you do that please?"

"Yeah." Louis agreed. "Of course. I'll do whatever you guys need."

"Thank you. Let me know if anything changes." He ended the call and threw his phone onto the passenger seat. Now he was even more determined to get the money to the bookie today. If there was even a chance that the guys Rebecca saw were sent by this guy, then he had to do everything he could to protect her.

He needed to make a few calls to the bank and try to get them to release $500,000 in a matter of hours because he was determined to get this taken care of by the end of the day. There was no way he would let Rebecca stay in danger one moment longer than necessary.

Louis sighed after Harvey ended the call, his finger hovering over the name in his contacts list. He finally grew a pair and connected the call.

"Charles Wilson."

"Hey Charles. This is Louis…Donna's…"

"Oh hey Louis." Charles greeted. "What's up?"

"I need a favor and I'm hoping you will be able to help."

"Sure." Charles agreed. "Just tell me what you need."

Harvey tried to enter the house quietly. It was late and he was hoping that everyone was asleep by now. The last thing he needed was to run into anyone right now. He just needed to get to the bathroom and clean up a little.

Paying Marcus' bookie had been an interesting experience that he never wanted to go through again. But at least he paid everything off and the debt was cleared. Hopefully that meant the guys following Rebecca would leave her alone now.

He dropped his keys. After bending over to pick them up, he couldn't help but groan a little from the pain where they kicked him in the stomach. While he was pretty sure he didn't have any broken ribs, but he wouldn't be surprised if they were bruised.

He continued on his way to the downstairs bathroom. It didn't take long until he was in the hallway and only a few steps away when his mom appeared across from him at the other end of the hallway. While he had taken a look at himself in the car mirror earlier and didn't think he looked that bad, the horrified look on her face proved otherwise.

"Harvey…what the hell happened to you?" She rushed over to him and reached out to touch him.

"It's nothing." He moved back to avoid her touch, the motion causing him to wince in pain. "I'm fine."

"No, you're clearly not fine." She argued. She put her hand on his shoulder and gently led him into the bathroom. "C'mon."

He went willingly because at this point he didn't have it in him to argue anymore.

"Sit." She commanded, pointing to the toilet.

He did what he was told and watched as she grabbed a clean washcloth from the shelf. She ran it under running water and then rang out the excess. "This might sting a little."

That phrase took him back to when he was twelve.

"Harvey Reginald Specter!" Lily yelled. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing mom." He said quickly, trying to rush past her.

She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him into the bathroom, closing the door behind them. "Sit." She commanded. "And tell me what happened."

He watched as she got out a washcloth, antibacterial cream and some bandages. He didn't want to tell her what happened, but he figured he probably should before one of the other parents called her.

"This might sting a little." She warned.

"Marcus has been getting bullied."

"What? She looked confused as she pressed the washcloth on the cut on his bottom lip. "He hasn't said anything to me or your father about that."

"He's been too afraid to say anything to you guys."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Apparently a few weeks." He replied. "He told me about it yesterday."

"So what did you do?"

"I went and confronted the kids bullying him. They won't be a problem for him anymore." He replied confidently and with a smile on his face.

"Harvey, what have we told you about fighting?" She cleaned up the cut above his right eye.

"I didn't throw the first punch." He pointed out. "I only fought back after they started it."

"You shouldn't have been in that position to begin with." She scolded.

"So I shouldn't have tried to protect Marcus? Is that what you are saying?" He scoffed. "C'mon mom. You can't deny that Marcus needs protecting. He always has and he most likely always will. Besides, he is my brother. I can't just sit back and watch him get bullied when I can go do something about it. So I went and I fixed it."

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to protect him. I am proud of you for wanting to help protect your brother. But there are other ways to fix it than going and threatening someone else." She pointed out, putting the antibacterial cream on the cut above his eye. "You should have come to me or your father."

"No offense, but my way was a lot easier and more effective. You guys would have just talked to the parents and then Marcus would be bullied even more."

"Alright. You're allowed your opinion. Just know that you are grounded for a week." She told him.

"But that's not fair!" He protested.

"You know the rules about fighting in this family." She explained. "We have a zero tolerance rule about it."

"Can't you make an exception in this case because I was trying to protect my brother?"

"No. I can't." She shook her head. "You have to learn that violence is not the answer."

"Harvey? Did you hear me?"

His mom's voice brought him out of his trip down memory lane. "Sorry. What did you say?"

"What happened?" She asked. "It had to do with Marcus, didn't it?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "He still owed some money to a bookie. So I went and paid off his debt."

"You paid it off and they still did this to you?"

"Trust me…It could have been a lot worse." He was well aware that he got off easy by only getting beaten up a little.

"You're still protecting your brother." She let out a small chuckle. "I can't tell you how happy and proud that makes me."

"He's my brother and I love him no matter what…even when I want to strangle him for his stupid decisions." He explained.

"You just don't have that same feeling towards me." She pointed out as she put the antibacterial cream on his wound.

"Look…I…"

"It's ok Harvey." She sighed. "I know I hurt you and I know you can't forgive me."

"I want to though." He admitted quietly.

"You don't have to say that just because I am sick." She told him.

"I'm not." He assured her. "Look, I'm not going to lie and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I hate what you did. I hate that you cheated on dad. I hate that it broke up our family. I hate that you made me lie for you. I hate that I formed this hard exterior where I can't accept any kind of betrayal or disloyalty from others. I hate that it shaped who I was and made it almost impossible for me to form a healthy relationship. And I'll hate those things for the rest of my life. But I think I'm finally ready to forgive you."

"Why now?" She asked. "Are you sure it isn't just because I'm sick?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's not just because of that, although I won't lie and say that isn't a factor. To be completely honest, Rebecca wants to have kids. And I knew she wanted to have kids before I even proposed but in the back of my mind I always thought I could put it off. I thought I could dodge the question until she gave up asking. I mean I've been dragging my feet about it ever since we got married. But that isn't healthy or mature and it sure as shit isn't fair to her. I haven't wanted to have kids for several reasons. One of those is because I don't think I'd be a good father, although being here with the kids is making me rethink that. But there is one reason in particular that I have never told her about…have never quite wanted to even admit to myself or anyone else. Deep down, I have this fear that I will screw up my kids like I was screwed up. I fear I will do something to make them to hate me. I fear that I will perpetuate the same cycle as the one that's happened between us."

"I'm sorry you feel like I have screwed you up." She apologized. "It was truly never my intention to harm you. But you shouldn't fear that Harvey. You wouldn't make the same mistakes I made and your kids would never hate you. Whether you want to believe it or you're your heart is too big and too caring to do what I did."

"I know that you never meant to hurt me." He acknowledged. "Deep down, I think I've always known it. I just never wanted to admit it. I never thought that your intentions would matter much. But I think I'm finally ready to forgive you. I think I have to forgive you now, because hanging on to this anger just doesn't feel right or good anymore. It physically hurts to carry it around and I'm tired of it. If I truly want to move forward with my life and embrace the possibility of the future, I need to let go of the past."

"I can't tell you how happy I am to hear you say that." She smiled widely. "And I want you to know, that I forgive you too."

"Forgive me?" He scoffed. "For what? I didn't do anything wrong in that situation."

"No. You're right. You didn't do anything wrong with that situation. I forgive you for everything you have said or done to hurt me these last twenty years and for you being gone all those years."

"I had my reasons to be gone…very valid reasons."

"Yes, you did, when you were younger. But you're not a child anymore, Harvey and you haven't been for quite some time. You could have stopped this a long time ago but you didn't. And I know it was because you weren't ready to let it go, but it still hurt."

"I can't believe this. You're actually turning this around on me?" He shook his head. He was trying to be calm about this but it seemed ridiculous that she was now forgiving him.

"I'm not turning it around, Harvey. I'm simply saying you don't know what it is like to have a child who acts like you don't even exist…who acts like they don't care if you live or die."

"Well you don't know what it's like to have a mother who asks you to lie to his own father for her." He shot back angrily. "That tore me up inside! It destroyed me!"

"Harvey, I never, ever should have done that. And I have been trying to apologize to you for years. But you haven't wanted to hear it. And until right now you made it very clear to me that you had no interest in whether I lived or died."

"Because I didn't!" He exclaimed.

"Well can't you understand how that could devastate someone?"

"I can understand how this was probably a mistake." He scoffed, getting up. "Because you are the same selfish, self-centered, disloyal woman you always were."

"And you are the same self-absorbed, childish man you always were." She shook her head. "Does it make you feel better to trade insults and call each other names? Because I certainly don't like it."

He didn't say another word, choosing instead to walk to the door. Once his hand was on the doorknob, she spoke again.

"Oh, there you go. Leave. That's what you do best. Take a look in the mirror Harvey. Because I may have neglected my family in the past, but I've been here day in and day out. You on the other hand, have been neglecting this family for as long as I can remember."

He shook his head and left the bathroom.

"Hey." Rebecca greeted as she picked up the phone. "No facetime tonight?"

"No." He shook his head. "I figured we would do this old school over the phone tonight. How are you?"

"I'm ok." She answered. It was probably a good thing they weren't facetiming tonight because if they were he would see how nervous she was about the guys who were stalking her outside of work. She knew that they were stalking her, even though Louis tried to get her to believe that they might be surveilling someone else. She just didn't know why and it scared the shit out of her. "How are you?"

"I've been better."

"What's wrong?" She asked. "There's something off in your voice. What happened?"

"I had a talk with my mom." He told her. "It didn't go well."

"I'm sorry to hear that." While she was glad he was talking to his mom, she realized that nothing would be solved in just one conversation. She wondered if he realized that too or if he thought things could be solved in 30 minutes like a cheesy sitcom.

"I told her I was ready to forgive her. Then she had the audacity to say she forgave me." He scoffed. "Can you believe that? I didn't do anything wrong."

"Didn't you though?" She said without thinking.

"Great. You're on her side with this too?" He exclaimed.

"C'mon. You know I'm on your side." She assured him. "But think about it from her perspective. She had a son who completely ignored her for twenty years. That has to hurt. There has to be some anger there. But the fact that she was able to express her feelings to you is a good thing, just like you being able to express your feelings to her is a good thing."

He sighed. "I guess."

"I'm proud of you for taking the first step to forgiving her. But it is going to take more than one conversation to fix your problems with your mom."

"I wish I was home with you instead of here."

"I wish that too." She admitted. "But if it helps any, I've decided to come up this weekend."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She told him. "I don't like being away from you. And I want to check on how everyone else is doing too."

"I can't wait to see you." He sighed.

"The feeling is definitely mutual." She told him. "Harvey…I'm proud of you for taking the first step in forgiving your mom. Just don't let her forgiving you derail your progress. Ok?"

"I'll do my best." He told her.

"Ok. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Goodnight." She ended the call and put the phone down because she still had work to get done.