Skyfall

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Olivia is finally asleep." Rebecca sighed as she entered the bedroom that evening. She fell onto the bed.

"Did she do that thing where she makes you do all of the character voices and they all have to be different or else you have to start over?" He asked, coming over and laying down next to her.

She closed the gap between them and cuddled up to him. "Yes. And then she told me that my voices aren't as cool as yours. You've really made quite the impression on her this week."

"I have to admit it's been kind of nice taking care of them this week. It's exhausting, I have no clue what I'm doing and I'm pretty sure I've already made a ton of mistakes. But other than that it's kind of fun." He laughed.

"You're being too hard on yourself. Ethan says you are doing a great job." She told him.

"Really?"

"Yes." She pulled away from him and sat up, sitting cross-legged on the bed and staring at him. "Don't look so surprised!"

"I can't help it." He grinned. "I thought I was doing a bad job, but maybe I'm not."

"I wish you had as much faith in yourself about your ability to take care of them as I have in you." She told him.

"I figure it's fine because you have enough faith in me for both of us." He grinned.

"That is true. So how are things with your mom?" She asked. "Ethan says it is weird to see you guys getting along. After seeing the way you were talking to each other at dinner, I have to agree with him. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly enjoying it and not complaining. I love seeing you two actually interact with each other in a nice, civil way. I'm just not used to it."

"Neither am I." He admitted. "But it is long overdue. In hindsight, I should have forgiven her sooner."

"Well maybe if you had tried earlier, you wouldn't have been ready." She pointed out. "Maybe it had to happen now."

"Right when she is sick and dying?" He scoffed. "Yeah that hardly seems fair."

"About that." She bit her lip. "I hope you don't get too mad at me for this. But ever since your mom told me about what was going on with her health, I started looking into things."

"What kind of things?" He asked.

"Clinical trials." She explained. "I've been looking at clinical trials for people with her kind of cancer to see if there is anything out there that looks promising."

"You've really been doing that?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Why would I be mad at you for doing that?"

"Because…" She paused. "I don't know. Why wouldn't I?" She noticed that he was looking at her strangely. "What's with that look?"

"I'm just surprised you would go to that trouble for my mom." He explained. "I know you've had a lot on your plate this week."

"That's true." She agreed. "But she is your mom and she is important to a lot of people…including me."

"Shit. I've been an ass, haven't I?" He groaned.

She laughed. "What do you mean?"

"I've been so wrapped up in everything going on here that I haven't once asked you how you are doing with the news about my mom." He explained. "I know you two are close. At this point you are probably closer to her than I am. This must be really hard for you."

"Yeah." She nodded, willing herself not to cry. "It is hard. The last thing I want is for her to die. There are so many who depend on her and you need a chance to get to know her again. And I was just starting to think I'd gotten a second chance at having a mom figure in my life. But it's ok that you didn't ask me about it. I know you have been incredibly preoccupied with everything…"

"That is no excuse." He shook his head and grabbed her hands. "I'm so sorry. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I feel like I just started to get to know her. I don't want to lose her." She explained. "I'm sure you understand how that feels."

"Yeah, I sure do." He nodded. "You know, I don't think I have ever said it, but it really means a lot to me that you are so invested in my family. You've created these deep relationships with everyone and you genuinely care about them. And it isn't just my family here…it's also my work family too. You have thrown yourself into my world."

"Of course I care about everyone." She laughed. "They may be your family, but they became my family too as soon as I agreed to marry you. And for the record, it isn't just your world anymore. It's our world."

"Yeah. It sure is and I love our world." He smiled.

"I do too." She smiled back.

"But I guess what I'm trying to say is not everyone would research clinical trials for their mother in law."

"Well your mom isn't like most mother in laws." She pointed out.

"True. So did you find any clinical trials that might work?"

"I found one that I think she would be perfect for and I already have them holding a spot for her for the next week." She answered.

"That's amazing that you found something already." He smiled.

"Well hold that thought until you hear all of it." She warned. "The clinical trial would require her to stay in the city with me for the next six months."

"Oh."

She watched as he started to understand the ramifications of that. It would mean he would be solely responsible for the kids while Marcus was in rehab.

"I know that wasn't the deal you agreed to before with Marcus." She stated. "You agreed to help with the kids while your mom was also here to help make sure everything went smoothly. If she did join this clinical trial, you would be here with the kids by yourself while your mom comes back with me. I don't know if that is something you would…"

"I can do it." He interrupted her. "I will do it."

"You'll do it? Just like that? Without giving it any thought?"

"Is this the most promising study you found?" He asked.

"Yes, it is." She nodded. "They are in the second stage of testing. The first stage was much more promising than they thought it would be so they are even more optimistic about it than before. I have all of the information in my bag. Do you want to see it?"

"No." He shook his head. "I trust your judgement. If you think this is her best shot, then we need to bring it up to my mom tomorrow and get her to agree to go." He reasoned.

"Are you certain that you are ok with this?" She didn't want to overwhelm him.

"I'm sure." He assured her. "Look, I just got my mom back. I wasted all those years with her. I don't want to lose her right now either. So if this may help, then we have to do it."

"Ok." She nodded. "We'll talk to your mom about it tomorrow. But you realize that after Marcus gets out of rehab…"

"Look, I don't know what's going to happen with his case. There is a chance I can't pull a rabbit out of my hat and get him off these charges. And if my mom is in New York City instead of here, we may have to reevaluate what happens with the kids after he gets out of rehab. But we can cross that bridge if and when we have to."

"Alright." She was quiet for a moment. "So can we talk about your face now?"

He smirked. "Do you want to talk about how handsome it is?"

"Oh trust me, your face is the most handsome one I've ever seen or ever will see." She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "But I want to talk about what happened with Marcus and why you didn't tell me about the bookie."

"I didn't want to worry you." He explained. "And honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. Can we please stop talking about it?"

"Harvey…" She sighed. "Let me ask you something first. What do you think your reaction would be if I kept something like that from you? If the situation was reversed and I went to pay off Marcus' bookie and ended up getting beaten up, would you like it if I kept it from you or would you be upset?"

"I would be furious that you put yourself in that kind of danger in the first place, let alone that you kept it from me." He admitted with a heavy sigh. "But I can handle…"

"No Harvey." She interrupted. "You can't hide behind a double standard on this. There is no but. You said it yourself…you would be furious. So I'm going to ask you again and I want a straight answer this time. What happened?"

She watched as he sighed deeply and took a moment.

"I found out that Marcus owed a lot of money from his gambling. I went to pay the bookie off so that it would be one less problem for him. They weren't happy that it took him this long to pay it off so they roughed me up a little. That's all." He finally said. "Are you mad because I used our money to help him out?"

"I couldn't care less about what you use our money for. You could spend every penny we have on some stupid magic beans that don't do anything and I would be ok with it because we can always make more money." She laughed. "But I call have to call bullshit. There's something else bothering you. If it isn't about the bookie thing, then it is something else. Because you have been acting weird since last night and I want to know why. I deserve to know why and you know I'm right."

"It's nothing." He shrugged. "Just a little brotherly fight."

"What happened between you two?"

"Marcus and I got into it verbally." Harvey explained. "That's all. Brothers have fights sometimes. It doesn't mean anything."

"What was it about?"

"I don't want to talk about this." He said in a commanding tone.

She knew from that tone she wouldn't get any more information from him right now. So she decided to drop it. "Ok." She held her hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry." He apologized immediately.

"It's ok." She assured him. "You obviously aren't ready to talk about it yet."

"Because there is nothing to talk about." He assured her. "Really."

She didn't believe him, but she decided to let it go for now before they ended up fighting about it. "Ok."

"Now are you going to come over here so I can show you how much I missed you this week?" He smirked. "Or do I have to come over there?"

She chuckled and wordlessly climbed across the bed to his arms.