Skyfall

Chapter Thirty-Two

Harvey entered his mom's home art studio the next day after taking the kids to school. He had to think quickly to explain the cuts on his face this morning when the kids asked him what happened, settling on the lie that he fell. Olivia bought the story immediately. He could tell that Ethan wasn't convinced, but he thankfully didn't make a big deal about it.

"Harvey." His mom greeted, putting down her paint brush.

"Do you have a moment?"

"Depends on why you are in here." She answered. "If you want to fight again, I'd rather you just walk back out the door. I don't have it in me today to go another twenty rounds with you after what happened last night."

"I'm not here to fight." He told her. "I'm actually here to apologize for the way I acted last night."

"It's fine." She shrugged. "I should have known that your forgiveness was too much to ask for."

"No it isn't fine." He sighed. "You took care of me last night and I appreciate it. We started to make progress and then I stomped all over it like it meant nothing."

"Harvey…"

"The thing is that I'm so angry." He interrupted. "I'm angry about all of it and I don't want to be angry anymore but I've held in this anger for so long that I don't how to stop…or even if I can stop. It's been this security blanket that I've covered myself with all these years. I've convinced myself that I'm the one who was right and that I did nothing wrong. But that's not the truth and I need to own up to it."

He paused for a moment because the next part of what he had to say was hard for him. "I'm sure that it hasn't been easy for you to see me cut you out of my life for so long."

"No it hasn't." She agreed. "And I appreciate you recognizing that."

"The thing is, without the anger…I don't know…it's like I'd be someone else or something. It feels weird to even think about letting it go, even though I know I need to now."

"Well let me start by saying how sorry I am for all the pain and anger I have caused you."

"You don't need to tell me how sorry you are." He told her. "You've done that enough."

"Yes...I do need to say it." She insisted. "Harvey, we both played a part in the way the last twenty years have gone. Neither of us is entirely blameless. But I was the adult and I put you in that position. It was the worst position you could ever be put in because you essentially had to choose which parent you were more loyal to and I never should have done that to you. It wasn't fair to you and it was the wrong thing to do. I understand your anger. Not a day has gone by that I don't understand why you hate me. I was your mother. I was supposed to protect you, not scar you like that. Harvey, I am so sorry."

She started to cry. Seeing it was like a switch turned in his brain. "I don't hate you, mom." He whispered softly. "I just hate what you did and I'll probably always hate it, but I don't hate you."

"I'll take that." She chuckled softly, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I love you Harvey."

She moved towards him and the next thing he knew he was hugging her for the first time in two decades. It felt right, like a new start. It didn't mean they were going to be close yet, but it was a good starting point.

"I love you too mom."

Rebecca got out of the car and looked at Louis as he came around the other side. She thought that having Louis pick her up from home and bring her to the office was overkill, but he told her he was going to stay with her until they figured out what was going on. She was glad to have such a good friend. She looked around.

"They aren't here." She smiled.

"Yeah." Louis agreed. "I don't see them either."

"Maybe I was just being paranoid." She laughed.

"Well either way, I'm just glad they seem to be gone."

"Thank you Louis." She turned to smile at him. "You are a really good friend and I appreciate you not telling anyone about this, especially since it turned out to be nothing."

"You're welcome." He nodded.

"Can you imagine what Harvey would have said if he knew about this?" She laughed. "I'm glad he doesn't know."

"Yeah." Louis nodded. "Let's get inside."

Later that morning, Harvey was parked outside the rehab facility. He was about to go in when his phone rang. Seeing the caller id, he answered it quickly. "What is it, Louis?"

"I just wanted to let you know that this morning those two guys weren't outside the building." Louis explained. "Looks like it isn't something we need to be worried about after all."

"Good." Harvey breathed a huge sigh of relief. Paying the bookie really did alleviate the danger surrounding Rebecca. Though it did make him even more furious now that he knew for sure that Marcus' behavior had put another family member in danger.

"Also, I know she didn't want me to, but I called Charles to look into it anyway." Louis added. "I figured she would already be mad at me for telling you about it. I might as well go ahead and do that too."

"Really?" He was aware Rebecca would be mad at Louis for that as well. He was surprised that Louis went ahead and did another thing he knew Rebecca would be upset about. "What did Charles have to say?"

"He could only tell me that it wasn't any federal agency watching her. Since they weren't here this morning I told him he could stop and didn't have to look any deeper. I hope that's ok."

"That's fine." He agreed. There was no reason to look any harder because he knew who the guys were and that they wouldn't be back. "I appreciate your help with this Louis. I owe you one."

"Nonsense. You know I'd do anything for my friends. You and Rebecca are my friends. So it's fine. You don't owe me anything." Louis assured him. "I'm just glad that everything is back to normal now."

"Yeah. Me too."

"I'll talk to you later. Don't forget we have the partner meeting later tonight. Do you still want to Skype in for that?"

"Actually, I will just call in. I don't need to Skype." He didn't want to have to answer questions about why his face was battered. It was bad enough that he would have to explain it to Rebecca when she got here this weekend. Telling Jessica and Louis about it too wasn't something he relished.

"Ok. Bye Harvey."

He put the phone down after Louis hung up and sighed. He didn't want to go in but he needed to, so he took a deep breath and exited his car.

Rebecca was in the middle of typing a brief when her cell phone rang. She answered without looking at the caller id. "Hello?"

"I hope I'm not disturbing you." Lily greeted.

"No." She assured the woman. "Of course not. You could never disturb me. What's up?"

"I don't know if you have talked to Harvey this morning but we seem to have reached a break through today. And I think I have you to thank for that."

"I'm thrilled. I wish I could take the credit for that, but it was all Harvey." She chuckled. "I talked to him this morning but you didn't come up. I did hear about your talk last night when he called yesterday. So I'm guessing it was a better talk than last night?"

"Much better."

"I'm so glad." She couldn't help but smile.

"I'm just so relieved. I think Harvey and I might be able to actually be here in the house together without it being so awkward and uncomfortable."

"That's wonderful news."

"I feel like I have you to thank for this." Lily said softly.

"No, you don't." She assured the woman. "I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Yes you did, even if you aren't aware of it. Katie always did a good job of keeping me up to date on any updates about Harvey and his life that she was aware of. We had countless conversations where we worried that Harvey would hold this grudge until he died and about how he was going to end up dying alone. But then you came along and all of that changed. I now know he will be ok because he has you in his life."

"I don't think it's really fair to give me the credit for the changes in Harvey." She deflected. "He has been the one doing the hard work of growing up and everything."

"You were the catalyst though." Lily pointed out. "He wouldn't have started down this path without you."

"Ok." She laughed. "I'll take 10% of the credit and he can have the other 90%."

"Deal." Lily laughed.

"I paid off your bookie." Harvey said without any preamble when he went to go see him. "Everyone is safe now."

"Thank you." Marcus replied.

He could see that his brother looked contrite but he was still angry with him. "Did you know that Rebecca was next?"

"Next how?"

"She had men following her…men that were sent by your bookie." He explained. "She was next and could have ended up dead like Katie if I hadn't paid your debt."

"Shit." Marcus sighed. "Harvey, you have to know that I never meant for them to go after Reb…"

"I don't give a damn what you meant anymore Marcus!" He yelled, interrupting him. "You have put so many family members in danger lately that it isn't even funny at this point. It never seems to end with you."

"At least now the bookie is out of our lives. Everything will be alright."

"Are you stupid or just living in a fantasy world?" He scoffed. "You were arrested for some very serious charges…charges that I don't know if I can get you out of."

"Of course you can." Marcus chuckled. "You're Harvey Specter."

"I am…but I'm not a miracle worker." He pointed out. "There is a very real chance that you are going away to prison for this."

"Harvey, I'm sorry…"

"I know. You're always sorry. But here's what is going to happen, Marcus." He interrupted his brother. "You're going to shut up and listen to me. You understand?"

"Yes." Marcus nodded.

"I've tried my whole life to do my best to protect you because I thought that was what you needed. I thought that if I protected you from stuff and took care of your problems for you, it would help you focus more on getting better and doing better. I thought that I was helping you. But I was wrong about that and I'll take responsibility for it. What I was really doing was enabling and hurting you. Protecting you and shielding you from everything was the worst thing I could have done for you because it made you completely unprepared to take care of your problems yourself." He explained.

"That's not true." Marcus interjected.

"I think your recent life choices prove me to be correct." He pointed out. "Keeping your gambling debt a secret, allowing a bookie to come into your home and kill your wife, developing a drinking problem, driving drunk with your daughter in the car, embezzling money from your business, putting Rebecca at risk…"

"Ok! I get it!" Marcus yelled, interrupting his list. "You can stop now!"

"Do you?" He asked. "Do you really get it? Because your actions have hurt everyone you say you care about. There hasn't been a single person in this family who has been immune to the consequences of your actions…and no one has suffered more than your children."

"I'm well aware of that." He sighed. "Ethan and Olivia have suffered a lot because of my mistakes."

"I was also talking about your other child…the one that Katie was going to tell you about that night."

He watched as Marcus' face twisted.

"Harvey…Bro, that's not funny." Marcus shook his head.

"I'm not joking." He said. "Does it look like I am joking?"

"Why would you lie about something that cruel?" Marcus yelled.

"I'm not lying. You can ask anyone because we all knew about it. She kept it a secret because she wanted to surprise you."

"What the hell, man?" Marcus continued to yell. "Are you really that mad at me that you want to hurt me this much?"

"I'm just trying to wake you up and make you see that your downward spiral needs to stop right now. It's called tough love."

"No it's called being a giant dickhead. Just leave, Harvey. And don't come back because I don't need you here anymore."

"Fine." He scoffed, leaving the room and slamming the door.