Skyfall

Chapter Thirty-Five

The next morning, Harvey turned over in bed to find Rebecca still beside him. He took a moment to stare at her. He really was lucky to have her in his life.

It wasn't right that he didn't tell her everything about Marcus' gambling debt. Leaving out the parts that were the most disturbing wasn't fair to her. And not telling her about the fight he had with Marcus the next day wasn't right either.

She had a right to know, and he knew it wasn't a good idea to keep secrets from her. But he didn't want to worry her and to be honest he wasn't ready to talk about the fight with Marcus.

It was wrong to tell him about the baby Katie was carrying when she died. He realized that and felt bad about rubbing it in his face. But he was so angry and got blinded by his rage. It just slipped out while he was trying to show Marcus tough love. But he went too far and he knew it.

While he had recognized he had changed a lot in the past few years, he found it alarmingly easy to slip into his old patterns of lashing out and shutting down. His words to Marcus clearly hurt him and he knew he needed to apologize. He would give Marcus a little bit of time to cool down before going back over there.

Maybe someday he tell her the truth about Marcus' gambling and Katie's death. But not right now. They had too much to deal with and it wasn't the right time. Right now he would keep it to himself.

He saw her start to stir and smiled as she opened her eyes. "Morning."

"Morning." She smiled back at him, scooting over as close as she could to him. "Were you seriously just staring at me?"

"Maybe." He smirked.

She chuckled and reached up to kiss him. "How long were you staring?"

"Not too long." He admitted. "I just missed you."

"I missed you too." She told him.

"Can you come up here every weekend?" He asked. "I realize it's a lot to ask, but…"

She silenced him with a kiss. "I promise to try and come up as much as I can. I was already going to try and do that because I don't like to be away from you."

"Good. Neither do I." He smiled. "Can you also just stay here with me all morning?"

"As much as I would love to stay in bed with you all morning, we should get up and make sure that the kids have gotten breakfast."

"I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind getting their breakfast if we wanted to stay in bed a little while longer."

She reached up and gave him a long, slow kiss and he thought he had convinced her to stay with him. But then suddenly she pulled away and got out of bed.

"Not fair." He laughed.

"Sorry." She laughed, getting a pair of jeans and slipping them on.

Later that day, they decided to take the kids to a nearby park. Ethan stayed underneath a large tree with a book, saying it was what he wanted to do so they let him. Olivia wanted to climb and swing, but with her broken arm those activities weren't possible. So they brought along a bubble machine. But she wanted to play tag first.

So she was playing tag with Olivia and Harvey.

Right now Harvey was the one who was it and they were both running away from him. "Olivia! You go that way!" She yelled, pointing to the left. "I'll go this way!" She pointed to the right.

"Ok!" Olivia grinned, running to the left towards the tree Ethan was sitting under.

She didn't know who Harvey would go after first, and was mildly surprised when he came after her first. He must have run faster to close the gap between them because the next thing she knew he had a grip around her waist and pulled her off the ground, spinning her around.

"Gotcha!" He laughed, kissing her neck.

"Yeah. You caught me." She laughed once he put her back down on the ground. "Now you have to go get Olivia."

"She is too fast for me." He complained. "Care to help me out? Maybe distract her for me?"

"You really want me to help you cheat at tag?" She scoffed.

"Yes please." He grinned.

"Are you sure that's the example you want to set for your niece?" She laughed.

"I'll make it worth your while tonight."

She thought about it and then smiled. "Ok. Just this once though."

"You're the best."

She went over to Olivia.

"Did Uncle Harvey get you?" Olivia asked.

"Yes." She looked back at Harvey, who was still a little ways back from where they were standing. "So Uncle Harvey thinks you run too fast for him. He sent me over here to slow you down while he sneaks up on you."

"But that's cheating!"

"I know. That's what I said too." She nodded. "Do you want to help me play a trick on him to teach him not to cheat?"

"Yes!" Olivia nodded enthusiastically.

"Ok. So we are going to continue to pretend to talk and then when I scratch my nose, that means run away as fast as you can. Got it?"

"Of course!" Olivia laughed.

"Ok. He is getting closer." She warned. A few moments later she scratched her nose, causing Olivia to run away seconds before Harvey could get her.

"What was that?" He chuckled.

"What was what?" She asked, watching as Olivia stopped running and stood in place.

"You tipped her off with the nose thing, didn't you?"

"Maybe." She grinned. "Us girls have to stick together!"

He sighed. "Fine. Well I don't think I can play any more tag right now."

"Fine." She chuckled. "Olivia! You win!"

"Yay!" Olivia cheered as she ran back to them.

"Uncle Harvey gave up because he can't handle any more running." She teased. "I guess his physical stamina isn't as good as he thought it was."

Her comment earned a playful glare from him and she knew she would pay for that comment later.

"I would just like a small break." He clarified.

"Why don't you stay here with Ethan and we will go play with bubbles?" She suggested.

"I wanna play with bubbles!" Olivia chimed in.

"Sounds good to me." Harvey replied.

He watched as Rebecca and Olivia got the bubble machine started. A flurry of different sizes bubbles flew all around them and he couldn't help but laugh. Seeing her running around with his niece made him feel a kind of happiness he didn't know he was missing before.

He turned his attention to Ethan, sitting down next to him. "What are you reading?"

"A book."

"Well I know that." He chuckled. "What is the book called?"

"A Catcher in the Rye." Ethan replied without looking up.

"Aren't you a little young for that book?" He couldn't help but question it.

"Mom said it was ok." He shrugged. "It was one of the books in the box she and dad gave me for my birthday."

"Ok." He shrugged. He remembered Katie telling him about that present. She gathered up all of her old books and some new ones as a huge present to Ethan. "So you really enjoy reading, don't you? Because it seems like you are constantly reading.

"I do like to read."

"You must have gotten that from your mom's side of the family because your dad and I never read books like that." He chuckled.

"What did you guys read?"

"Comic books." Harvey replied. "We had a ton of comic books."

"Do you still have them? I'd like to see them."

"I don't have them. But if anyone knows where they are, it would be your grandma. We can ask her when we get back."

"Cool." Ethan smiled.

"So what is going on that we needed to talk out here?" Lily laughed.

Harvey looked back at Rebecca and then back at Lily. "We have something to talk about and we didn't want the kids to somehow overhear it." They were sitting at the table on the deck in the backyard after the kids were asleep.

"Ok." Lily nodded. "It sounds serious. Is it about Marcus?"

"No." Harvey shook his head. "It's about you."

"Me?" Lily laughed again.

"You and your health." Rebecca clarified.

"Oh." The smile left her face. "Why would you want to talk about something as depressing as that?"

"Because Rebecca has done some research and we want to talk to you about what she found." He explained.

Rebecca pulled out a folder and slid it across the table for Lily to look through. "After you told me about your diagnosis, I didn't want to stand around and do nothing to help. That's why I volunteered to stay here and help you with the kids. But then Marcus insisted Harvey stay, and I'm actually glad he did because I think it's been working out well."

"I agree with that." Lily nodded with a smile. "We may not have been able to get things straightened out if he didn't stay here."

"So I started to think about what I could do to help and I researched drug trials for your specific kind of cancer." She continued. "In that folder is the most promising drug trial going on right now. It is a combination drug that mixes one kind that is considered the standard drug with two new drugs. It's supposed to specifically target the cancer cells and destroy them. There is more information about it in the packet but that's essentially how it works."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "It's administered through an IV twice a week for the next six months. And the trial is based in New York City."

Lily sighed. "I know you mean well Rebecca, but you have to understand why I need to say no to this. It's the worst possible time for this. The kids need…"

"Mom, just hear us out." Harvey interrupted. "Marcus may have said some things about me that I don't necessarily believe or like, but he was right when he said I have been selfish for the past twenty years when it comes to you and him. I have. I went off to New York City, I created a whole new life and rarely looked back at what I left here. I know you are worried about the kids, but I can handle it."

"Harvey…"

"I'm serious!" He had been thinking about it all day and came to the conclusion that he needed to do this for his family. He wanted to do this. Even though it would be rough to take care of the kids by himself, it was something that needed to be done. "Let me do this for you and for Marcus."

"We want you to have a fighting chance at being around longer." Rebecca spoke up.

"I want to be around longer too." Lily sighed. "And if the trial was somewhere closer so I could stay here and help then I would say yes without a moment's hesitation. But the fact remains that running off to New York City for a trial that may not do anything while leaving my family when they need me the most is selfish."

"It's not selfish to try and live longer, which is what you would be doing." Harvey pointed out.

"We would have to tell the kids why I'm leaving." Lily pointed out. "Do you really want to have to tell them about my cancer? Because I don't."

"I'm not looking forward to that either but I think it is necessary if it means giving you a better chance to fight this." Rebecca chimed in.

"What if I do this and then it doesn't work I've wasted six months?" Lily asked.

"I won't lie. That is a possibility." Harvey told her. "But I think the positives outweigh the negatives on this."

"And what about when Marcus gets out of rehab?" She pointed out. "If I'm not here to help him, what's going to happen?"

"We are trying to figure out a plan for that too." Rebecca told her. "No matter what, we are going to make sure that Marcus and the kids have as much help as they need. We may not know how it will all work yet, but we're committed to making it happen."

"So you both think this is a good idea?" Lily sighed.

"We do." Harvey said, grabbing a hold of Rebecca's hand that was resting on the table.

"And you really think you will be able to handle the kids by yourself?" Lily pressed.

"Hey…If I need to know anything I don't already know, there is always Google." He joked.

Lily was quiet for a moment. "Ok. I'm in."

"Really?" Rebecca grinned.

"Really." Lily repeated.

"This is wonderful!" Rebecca got up from the table and gave his mom a hug.

"I'm glad too." Harvey spoke up.

"I guess we will tell the kids in the morning." Lily stated.