Skyfall
Chapter Thirty-Six
Three days later, Rebecca walked into Louis' office with her head buried in a folder. "Hey Louis, do you happen to have the other file for…" She looked up and immediately stopped when she saw who was sitting at the desk. "Shelia! I'm sorry. I was looking for Louis. But I didn't mean to intrude."
"Oh, it's ok." Shelia smiled. "He had to take care of something and will be right back if you want to wait for him."
"How are you doing?" While she had talked to her a few times recently, she hadn't seen the woman since she got engaged to Louis.
"I'm good."
"How are the wedding plans going?" She remembered the flurry of activity surrounding wedding planning, even though Donna did most of the work. There were still tons of decisions to make.
"It seems like it will never end." Shelia laughed. "Between his family being Jewish and my family being Catholic, it is a nightmare trying to make sure that no one is offended too much."
"Well just remember that your wedding is for you and Louis—no one else." She advised. "And try not to stress too much about it. The important thing is that at the end of the day you and Louis are married."
"That's good advice." Shelia smiled.
"Have you set a date yet?"
"We haven't." Shelia explained. "But I think we want to do it within the next three months. That's actually why I am here. We need to set the date before I meet with the wedding planner later today. To be honest, I'm kind of glad I get the chance to talk to you. I was so glad that those two guys ended up not being a threat to you."
"Thanks. Me too." She nodded. "Though I guess to be honest maybe I was a little too paranoid about it. I really appreciated Louis' help. You've got one of the good ones."
"Well Harvey wanted you to be protected and you are a good friend to him. He'll do anything for his friends." She explained. "He just felt bad that he couldn't get any real answers from Charles about who those guys really were."
"Wait a minute." She couldn't have heard her right. "He told Harvey and Charles what was going on?"
"Yes." Shelia nodded. "Was he not supposed to?"
"No. I didn't want him to." She shook her head. It was understandable that Louis would tell Shelia and she had no problem with that. The last thing she wanted was for him to lie or keep it from his fiancée. But for him to go behind her back and tell two people she specifically didn't want to know, well it made her mad.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I feel like I just got him in trouble."
"It's ok." She put on a fake smile.
"He was just worried about you and didn't know what else to do." Shelia explained.
"Like I said, it's ok." She shrugged. "I'll come back later for that file. It was nice to see you again Shelia."
She walked back to her office and sat down. The whole reason she went to Louis was so that he wouldn't tell Harvey. She wondered why Harvey didn't tell her he knew about the guys. She didn't want to wait until they Facetimed tonight so she pulled out her phone and typed a message.
Is there a reason why you didn't mention that Louis told you about the guys I thought were following me last week?
It only took a few moments for the three dots to appear, telling her he had read it and was typing a response.
Probably the same reason you didn't tell me when you thought they were following you. Did he tell you I knew?
No, Shelia did.
About five seconds after she sent that text, her phone rang and his face popped up on her screen. It was one of her favorite pictures of him—a candid one that she snapped one lazy Saturday when he was laughing about something. She couldn't remember what. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't stare at the picture all day so she answered the call.
"I didn't want to get Louis in trouble with you because I knew you would be upset." He explained without greeting her first. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"I didn't want to worry you." She explained. "And I didn't want to get Charles involved because…"
"I know." He interrupted. "You still think that he will be an issue regarding Mike."
"He is an ex-FBI agent who still investigates people." She pointed out. "It makes me worry."
"I know, but I don't think we have anything to worry about with him." He pointed out. "He seems to be head over heels for Donna. I don't think he would do anything to hurt her."
"I hope not."
"Are you mad that Louis told me?"
"I'm not mad." She assured him. "Are you mad that I didn't tell you about it?"
"I'm not mad. Though I would have liked it if you felt you could tell me." He admitted.
"It wasn't that though." She assured him. "I knew that you were busy trying to get used to everything and taking care of Marcus' case. I also knew you were already worried about me and I didn't want to make you worry more, especially since it turned out to be nothing. But I still should have told you and I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too. I should have told you I knew about it this weekend. I just didn't want to waste what little time alone we had together this weekend talking about it." He admitted.
"I guess that makes sense." She sighed.
"Are you mad at Louis? He just wanted to help. You know how he gets sometimes. He wants to help and then ends up overstepping."
"I know." She sighed. "I guess I shouldn't be too mad at him. I mean nothing came of him going to Charles so maybe I was being too paranoid about that too."
"So we are good?" He asked.
"We're better than good." She smiled. "We are amazing."
"I like the sound of that." He told her.
They made a deal that every day they were apart they would talk at least twice a day. One would be in the morning and the one in the evening would be a Facetime. So far they had stuck to their deal, although they usually ended up texting and calling each other during the day too. It wasn't the same as having him right next door to her at work, but it was the best she could get right now.
"Try not to be too hard on Louis." He suggested. "He was just trying to help."
"I know." She sighed. "I'll be nice."
"I need to go pick up the kids from school." He told her. "I'll call you later tonight?"
"You better." She laughed. "Love you."
"Love you too."
She ended the call and put the phone down.
That night, Harvey sat around the dinner table with the kids and his mom. "So are you all packed to go tomorrow?" He asked his mom.
Her first treatment was going to start on Friday so they decided she would stay in Boston until Thursday and then head down to stay with Rebecca. That way it gave her a little more time with the kids to get them prepared for the idea.
"I think so." Lily nodded.
"Do you have to go?" Olivia asked.
"Yes honey, I have to." Lily answered, smiling at the girl.
"It's not fair." Ethan sighed, pushing his food around on the plate.
"I know." Lily told him. "But we are going to Skype every day and Uncle Harvey will be here with you."
"Uncle Harvey, can we have pizza every night?" Olivia asked, putting on the adorable smile she uses when she wants to get her way.
"No, we can't." Harvey chuckled. "Sorry."
"Rats." Olivia sighed, the smile draining from her face.
She was getting ready to leave for the day when she saw Louis appear in her doorway.
"Hey." He came inside and placed a folder on her desk. "Shelia mentioned you came in earlier looking for a file. I figured it was probably for the York merger."
"It was." She nodded. "Thanks."
"She also mentioned that you know I told Harvey and Charles about what happened last week."
"Yeah." She nodded again.
"Are you mad?"
"I was at first." She admitted. "But then I realized that you were just trying to look out for me so I'm not mad anymore."
He looked relieved and smiled at her.
"Next time though, if I say I don't want to do something, please don't go behind my back."
"I promise." He held up his hand to swear.
"Thank you." She smiled.
Harvey brought out a beer for him and a tea for his mom, placing the tea in her hands before sitting next to her on the top step of the deck in the backyard. Since it was a nice night they decided to sit outside and talk.
"So…I honestly never thought I would say this, but it's going to be weird not having you here." He started the conversation.
"It will be weird not being here." Lily admitted. "I haven't been away from those kids for more than a week at a time. I have to admit that I am worried about the toll this will take on them, especially Ethan."
"I'll take care of them and I'll keep an extra close eye on him." Harvey assured her.
"I know you will." She nodded, looking over at him and smiling. "I know you told me you are worried about being a good parent, and I don't want to freak you out or anything…but you are already acting like a good parent with them."
"It does kind of freak me out a little." He admitted. "But not necessarily in a bad way. I've already learned a lot."
"Are you sure that you will be ok with them by yourself though?" She asked. "It's not too late. I can still cancel this trip and stay."
He reached over and put his hand on top of hers. "You don't have to cancel your trip. I'll be fine. The kids will be fine. You can go take care of yourself without feeling guilty or worrying."
"You say everyone here will be fine. What if I'm not fine?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Harvey, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about this clinical trial. The whole thing makes me worried."
"What exactly are you worried about?"
"I'm worried about you and the kids being alright without me here. I'm worried about Marcus and all of his troubles. I'm worried that Rebecca is getting her hopes up too much about this treatment working. I'm worried about what the treatment is actually going to do to my body. I'm worried about getting my own hopes up. Should I go on with my list?" She chuckled.
"Well first of all, I know this has to be scary." He told her, giving her hand a light squeeze. "But the kids and I will be fine. And Rebecca knows the odds of this treatment not working. We all do. We know that this treatment may or may not work. But we also know this is your best shot. She is just trying to remain positive about the outcome because that is how she is trying to cope with things."
"As for Marcus…I can't tell you not to worry about him because I'm worried about him too. But here is my point. I would imagine it is completely normal to be worried in a situation like this since there are so many unknown variables. But everything is going to be fine."
"I'm proud of you Harvey." She smiled.
"That was random." He chuckled. "What brought that on?"
"You've turned out to be good man…just like your father." She told him softly. "I know he is looking down on you and is happy. If he were here he would definitely tell you how proud he is of you."
"I hope so." He smiled.
"I know so."
"I'm going to miss you mom." He told her, chuckling softly. "That's another thing I never thought I'd say."
"You don't know how much it means to me that we have started to get past everything. It's all I've wanted for so long and to finally have it now, amidst all of the chaos going on…"
"I know what you mean." He said, leaning in and giving her a hug.