Skyfall

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"Uncle Harvey, what's for dinner?" Olivia asked as she entered the kitchen.

"We are having spaghetti tonight." He told her.

"With garlic bread?" Her eyes lit up like Christmas trees.

"Absolutely!" He chuckled.

"Sweet!" She cheered before leaving the kitchen.

Sweet was something she apparently picked up from one of her friends at school and she had been saying it non-stop for the past two days. It was cute the first few times, but now it was getting a little old. He looked at the clock on the stove and saw that Rebecca and his mom should be arriving soon. While Rebecca had been coming up every weekend, this would be the first time that his mom came with her. The kids were very excited.

When he heard the excited squeals of Olivia coming from the living room, he knew that his mom and Rebecca were there. He went back to stirring the sauce for a moment because he knew she would come find him.

It didn't take long for arms to wrap around his waist. He let himself lean into her embrace, taking in her perfume and closing his eyes for a moment. "You have no idea how glad I am you are here."

"Oh I think I do have an idea about that." She chuckled, whispering into his ear. Then she kissed his cheek.

He turned around put his hands on the sides of her face, planting his lips on hers. "I missed you."

"I missed you more." She smirked.

"That's impossible." He chuckled, taking a good look at her. For the past couple of days he could have sworn there was something off about her behavior. He couldn't put his finger on it but he knew there was either something wrong or something she wasn't telling him. He was concerned and knew there was no way she was leaving this weekend without telling him what was going on. She looked tired, but that couldn't be what was bothering her.

"Spaghetti for dinner?" She asked, looking over at the stove.

"Yes, with my apparently famous garlic bread." He boasted. "Olivia loves my garlic bread almost as much as you do."

"It is pretty good." She conceded.

"Pretty good?" He chuckled. "You always end up having at least three or four pieces every time I make it."

"Because it's pretty good." She smirked. "If it was amazing I'd have five or six."

"Oh I see how it is." He joked.

"So your mom is out there with the kids." She stated. "I thought I would stay in here for a moment and see if you needed any help so she can have a few minutes alone with them. You should have seen their faces light up when they saw her."

"They have really missed her." He nodded.

"They miss their father too."

"I know."

"Has he said why he won't take any of my phone calls?" She asked. "I call him every other day and they keep saying he refuses to talk to me. What is going on with him?"

"I don't know. He hasn't said anything to me about it." He answered truthfully. Since he wasn't able to visit with Marcus, he didn't know. He could guess that Marcus was still hurting and angry about their last conversation. That could be why he was pulling away from everyone. But he couldn't tell her that without having to explain everything. And that was something he didn't want to do.

"Your mom calls him every day and he only answers maybe once a week or so. Even then he only asks about her and the kids and then finds some excuse to leave before she can ask anything about how he is doing. Does he say anything about it when you visit him?" She asked.

She figured he was visiting Marcus every week, and rather than correct her he let her continue to think that instead of telling her the truth. Now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. "No." He lied. "He doesn't say anything about it."

"I just want to check in with him and see how he is doing." She continued. "Is he mad at me for something? It doesn't make sense for him to ignore me like this."

"I'm sure he isn't meaning to ignore you. But I'm sure he is just busy working on his treatment plan."

"Maybe I should go visit him this weekend." She suggested.

"No." He shook his head. If Marcus actually let her see him, then he would undoubtedly tell her everything that happened. He didn't want that. "Marcus will be out of rehab soon. Then you can try to figure out what is going on. But I'm sure it is nothing against you."

"Ok." She shrugged. "It just worries me."

"I know." He nodded. "I don't think there is anything to be worried about."

She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "Thank you."

"So if you are going to keep me company while I finish dinner, why don't you tell me some of the gossip going around the office?" He reluctantly disentangled himself from her and went back to stirring his sauce.

"Well…Jessica is getting very serious with Jeff."

"What do we know about him?" He asked.

"He seems like a nice enough guy." She shrugged. "I've only met him twice in passing though."

"We should try to spend some time with him and make sure that he is good enough for Jessica." He suggested.

She chuckled. "When do you suppose we do that?"

"I don't honestly know." He laughed. "But we should try once things calm down. What else is going on?"

"Donna and Charles are doing well. They seem to be really happy. He has been coming by at least once a week to take her to lunch and they are cute together."

"I'm glad Donna is happy."

"Me too." She nodded. "I kind of like him now."

"You aren't worried about his profession anymore?" He questioned.

"Well I would prefer that he wasn't ex-FBI, but the more time I've spent talking to him the more I realize he is a good guy. After all, he has even let me tag along to their lunches a couple of times. And you were right. He is head over heels for Donna. I don't think he would do anything that would hurt her."

"I'm glad I was right." He grinned.

"Rachel and Mike are thinking about taking a major pro bono case against the New York Housing Authority. They are pretty passionate about it."

"Are they sure they want to take on the Housing Authority?" Harvey asked.

"Yes." She nodded, adding a chuckle. "Mike is chomping at the bit about it. Rachel is more reserved about it but this case deserves to be fought."

"Anything else going on?"

"Ooh. I saved the best gossip for last. The wedding invitations for Louis and Shelia's wedding went out this week and everyone in the office acted like it was the end of the world if they didn't get invited." She laughed. "It was surreal. Even those who don't like Louis were walking around on eggshells waiting to see if they were invited."

"I assume we got invited." He laughed.

"We did." She smiled. "And I already RSVP'd yes since you are the best man."

"That means I have to plan a bachelor party, doesn't it?" He groaned.

"Yes." She nodded. "It does."

"When is the wedding?"

"About five weeks from now."

"I can tell you right now there will be no mudding at his bachelor party." He scoffed.

"Louis will be disappointed by that." She laughed. "He has always wanted to get you into mudding so you can be mudding buddies."

"You are the only one I would ever even consider rolling around in mud for." He promised her.

"I feel honored." She smirked.

"You should." He smirked back. They light banter made him incredibly happy. Only seeing her in person on the weekends the past few weeks was rough. And while they still talked all the time during the day, it wasn't the same. He felt like having this much distance between them wasn't good for their marriage. No matter how much they both tried, it still felt like they were living separate lives. He was hopeful he could get Marcus' charges dismissed so that he didn't have to stay in Boston and could come home to her.

"What does a person have to do to get some dinner around here?" Lily asked with a laugh as she entered the kitchen. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?"

"Not at all." Rebecca said, taking the wooden spoon from his hand.

He realized she did that so he could go hug his mom so he smiled at her before crossing the room. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing better." Lily explained as they hugged. "It's good to see you Harvey."

"Good to see you too, mom."

"Since Olivia dragged my mom into her room to read to her tonight, I just went in and checked on Ethan. He is already out like a light. It must have been a rough week for him." Harvey chuckled as he came into the kitchen. He walked over to where she was washing dishes and wrapped one arm around her waist, using his other hand to push her hair off of her neck so he could start kissing it.

"Harvey…" She chuckled. "That is incredibly distracting."

"That's the point." He whispered in her ear.

She put the washcloth down and turned to face him. "You have me trapped."

He did indeed have her trapped between the sink and his body. "Are you complaining?"

"I'd never complain about this." She smiled. "Just making an observation."

"Are you almost done with the dishes so we can go upstairs?" He asked, winking at her.

"Almost." She nodded. "But things would go a lot faster if you helped me dry."

"Of course." He leaned in and kissed her before letting go and picking up the dry dish towel to start helping her.

They worked together on the dishes in silence for a few moments. While drying, he caught her looking over at him a couple of times.

"So what is bothering you?" He finally asked straight out. He was tired of dodging the question and trying to figure it out for himself.

"Who says anything is bothering me?" She asked, keeping her focus on the dishes and not looking at him anymore.

"Rebecca, I know you." He pointed out. "You have been acting incredibly weird for the past few days and you have been quieter than normal. There has to be a reason for it. Is it work?"

"No." She shook her head. "Everything at work is fine."

"Something to do with our friends?"

"No. I told you all the big stuff. Everyone is doing alright."

"Did I do something?" He finally asked.

She finally looked over at him and shook her head. "You didn't do anything."

"Then what is it?" He asked. "I'm running out of things to guess."

"Because you're guessing the wrong kind of things. But you are right. There is something on my mind that we need to discuss." She put the washcloth down again. "It is something important that I figured we should talk about in person instead of over technology."

"Ok see now you are starting to worry me." He put the dish towel down. "Are you ok? Is it something bad?"

"I don't think it's anything bad and I'm ok." She reassured him. "It's just something happened and we need to talk about it. Harvey, I'm…"

Before Rebecca could finish that sentence, he saw his mom come into the kitchen.

"I just got a phone call from the rehab center." Lily said in a frantic tone. "Marcus is dead."

"What?" Harvey scoffed. "That can't be right."

"They didn't give me any other details. They just said that there was an incident and that it resulted in Marcus' death. They asked for someone to come down there." Lily explained.

Harvey looked at his mom and then at Rebecca. His mom was crying so hard she had to sit down at the counter. Rebecca looked like she was in shock and wasn't moving as she stared off into space.

"I can't believe this." Lily cried.

"I'll go down to the rehab place." Harvey volunteered.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked. "I'd go but I just don't think…I can't…"

"Yeah. I'll go." He nodded, going over and giving his mom a hug. He then looked at Rebecca, who seemingly hadn't moved at all. He gently pulled her with him towards the door.

"Are you ok?" He asked when they got to the front door.

She didn't say anything, instead just wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head in the crook of his shoulder. He held on to her tightly, never wanting to leave her arms. But he had to go so after a moment he pulled away a little.

"I'm so sorry." She told him, her eyes filling with tears. "Do you want me to go with you or stay with your mom?"

"Stay with her." He said. "I'll be fine."

"I don't buy that for a second." She called him out.

"I know. But my mom needs you more than I do at the moment." He kissed her forehead. "I'll be back soon."

Before he could leave, she pulled him back for another hug. He closed his eyes and held on to her tightly for a moment before extracting himself.