Skyfall

Chapter Forty-Eight

"Harvey should be here any minute." Rebecca told Lori as they sat in her office on Tuesday. "He is coming in from Boston so the plane was probably late or something."

"That's fine." Lori smiled at her. "If you'd like, we can get started with your signatures first."

She looked at her watch. He was already almost a half hour late and she wondered if he was even coming. They weren't talking much since she left on Sunday morning. The conversations they had were tense and awkward.

She hated leaving things like that, but she wasn't sure what else she could do. It really was killing her to watch him isolate himself from everyone. If it was just her, she would endure it and badger him until he finally broke down and confided in her. But it wasn't just her anymore. She had to take care of Lily, Ethan and Rebecca. Then there was also the precious baby inside her right now. She felt like she was being selfish putting her own health ahead of Harvey's feelings, but at the same time she had to take care of herself—if not for everyone else's sake then at least for the baby's sake.

"Ok." She finally agreed. "Let's get started."

Lori smiled and pushed the paperwork towards her.

"Sorry I'm late." Harvey said, entered the office. "Traffic from the airport was ridiculous."

"It's fine." Lori said. "You must be Harvey."

"I am." He nodded.

"I'm Lori Pierle. I've been working with your wife to find your new home. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." He smiled at her.

She watched as they shook hands before Harvey sat down in the chair next to her.

"Let's get started." Lori smiled.

A half hour later, Harvey followed Rebecca down the hallway towards the elevator, pressing the down button and silently standing next to her. He hated that there was so much traffic after he landed. It was maddening to him because he had wanted to be on time for the signing.

After entering the room, he couldn't help but steal glances at Rebecca. They hadn't been talking much since she left Sunday morning and he missed her. She looked a little tired, but even tired she was still the most gorgeous woman in the world to him.

At first he was hurt by the fact that she was leaving before the weekend was over. He was also a little anger at her rant in the backyard. But then he realized she was right. She was doing all of the heavy lifting in this relationship. He always said they were a team but he was letting her do more than her fair share of the work.

He could understand how she could get so mad. Pair that with the fact that he wasn't talking to her about Marcus and he should have expected her blow-up. She had every right to be angry with him.

"Thanks for coming to sign the papers. I know it was a long commute just to do that." She told him as they got onto the elevator.

"You're welcome." He nodded, looking over at her. "Like you said a couple of days ago, it's the least I can do."

"Harvey, I…"

"So I forgot to ask…" He interrupted her, not wanting to get too deep into their problems right now. "What are we doing about the penthouse?"

She looked at him like she was crazy. "What do you mean?"

"Well we are selling it, right?" He chuckled. "So is it on the market yet or were you waiting until after we officially move in before listing it?"

"Actually I haven't put it up on the market yet and I didn't think we would for a while."

"Why the hell not?" He realized that came out a little too harshly and cringed.

"We don't need to sell it to buy this place." She pointed out. "And to be honest, I'm not sure I'm ready to sell it yet."

"Why not?" He pushed. "It's just a penthouse."

"Maybe it is just a penthouse to you and you don't care about the place that we've called home." She rolled her eyes.

"Rebecca…that's not exactly what I meant…"

"To me, it's a special place. It's where we spent our first night together. It's where we got married. It's filled with so many happy memories of our life together. So sue me for not wanting to let it go yet." She explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I get that, but selling the place doesn't mean we sell our memories." He pointed out.

"I'm not putting it on the market yet. I'm not ready to let it go." She told him as the elevator dinged to let them know they finally reached the lobby.

"Alright." He nodded, getting out of the elevator. He could tell when he was fighting a lost cause.

"Do you have time to stay for a cup of coffee or something?" She asked. "Maybe we could go take a look at our new home?"

He looked at his watch and shook his head. "If I do that, I'll miss my flight and then I won't be back before the kids get out of school."

"Ok." She nodded.

He saw the disappointed look on her face and gave her a small smile. "If it wasn't for that, I would come to the house and see it with you."

"Sure." She nodded again as they left the building. "Can you make sure to let me know if the kids are bringing any of their furniture with them? I'm going furniture shopping tomorrow and I need to know if that includes their rooms too."

"I can do that."

"Thank you."

He saw Ray was waiting for her since they texted him before they left Lori's office.

"Why don't you have Ray take you to the airport?" She suggested. "I can get a cab."

"No it's fine. I don't want to make you take a cab." He shook his head.

"I don't mind." She shrugged. "Besides, you haven't gotten to see Ray for a while and I know for a fact that he knows the best route to get you to the airport on time. You can't always trust a random cab driver to know that."

He had to admit she was right about that and grinned. "Ok. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Bye."

"Bye." She smiled.

He got in the car and watched her as they drove away. The smile that was on her face faded when she thought he wasn't looking. He turned his attention to Ray once he couldn't see her in the window anymore. "Hey Ray, can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Ray smiled. "What can I do for you?"

"How has Rebecca been lately?" He felt bad about using Ray to spy on Rebecca, but it was a good opportunity to find out information about her well-being from an impartial third party.

"She…well she's been stressed." Ray answered. "I can see it written all over her face."

"Is she working a lot of late nights?"

"Yes." Ray nodded. "There are a lot of late nights and then early mornings. It seems like she is constantly running around to different places. And if you don't mind me saying so, I think she is putting up a pretty good front, but I don't believe she is happy right now."

"I agree with you. I don't think she is very happy either." He hated to know that she was working so hard. She shouldn't have to carry all of the burden of taking care of things and he felt guilty that she was in charge of so many things while also trying to be pregnant. Although the risk of an ectopic pregnancy was something they didn't have to worry about, he wondered if she was still worried about having a miscarriage. He was worried about that.

Maybe the best thing about moving back here this weekend would be that he could take the work burden off of her. If he took over at work then that would free up some of her time and maybe she would be able to relax a bit more. Plus it would give him something to focus on that wasn't family-based.

He hated being the reason she was unhappy. Every day he fought an internal battle between telling her what he was going through and keeping it from her. Every time he thought he was ready to tell her everything, he would have a dream where Marcus would point out why it was a bad idea. As stupid as it was to listen to a dream, he couldn't help but admit that dream Marcus made sense about certain things.

Still, it hurt to see Rebecca sad and he was conflicted.

"How have you been?" Ray asked after a few minutes.

"I've been better." He admitted.

"Rebecca told me all about your brother and the hard time you've been having." Ray said softly. "I'm very sorry to hear about it. All sudden deaths are terrible to deal with. When it is an intentional death, it can become even more difficult for those left behind to deal with properly."

"Are you speaking from experience?"

"Yes. My best friend growing up. He killed himself when he turned eighteen."

"I'm sorry to hear that." And he truly was. He didn't think of Ray as just an employee. After all of these years he thought of him as a part of his extended family.

"I wish I could tell you that the thoughts you are probably having will go away." Ray pointed out. "But they don't. They just get quieter and quieter until you can tune them out."

"What thoughts would that be?" He asked out curiosity.

"Thoughts that you should have been able to stop it from happening." Ray explained. "I could be wrong and if I'm overstepping my bounds here, please stop me. But I know there were plenty of times I wondered if I could have said or done something to help him before he got to the point where he felt like taking his own life was his only option. The truth of the matter is though if a person truly wants to kill themselves, they will do it. And they will not listen to anyone."

"I'll keep that in mind." He nodded. He was starting to wonder if Rebecca suggested he take the car to the airport on purpose so that she could have Ray talk to him. He certainly wouldn't put it past her. She was clever enough to plot something like that and couldn't help but chuckle at that thought.

"So I know you saw the pictures and the video I took, but what do you think once you see it in person?" Rebecca asked Lily as they finished their tour in the kitchen.

"I love it." Lily smiled. "I think you did a great job."

"Thank you." She smiled. "Do you think the kids will like it? I know they liked the pictures, but…"

"I think they will love it."

"Oh, that reminds me. I'm going furniture shopping tomorrow. Did you want to bring anything from your house up here when we move the kids or do you want some of the new furniture?"

"I don't think we should bother with bringing any of my furniture up here considering we don't know how long I'll be around." Lily reminded her.

She frowned. "You know the doctor said you can't put any stock into the test results yet."

"But they showed very little change." Lily pointed out.

"Exactly." She chuckled. "The doctor said it himself. If the medication wasn't working, you would be getting much worse by now. But there isn't much of a change at all. I think that means the treatment is working."

"Maybe." Lily relented.

"Besides, the doctor said they don't really have a good grasp of how the treatment is progressing until the four month mark and you haven't reached that point yet. But when you do, we will know that the treatment is working."

"We will know if the treatment is working." Lily corrected her.

"It will." She smirked.

"You don't know that for certain." Lily pointed out. "The way things are going for this family, I wouldn't be surprised if the treatment doesn't work and I'm dead in three months."

"It will work. It has to because you have to be able to meet your newest grandchild." She smiled.

Lily laughed. "I love how positive you are about this."

"Well someone has to be." She pointed out. "So do you want us to bring any of your furniture down or do you want new?'

"To be completely honest, it doesn't matter much to me." Lily shrugged.

"Ok. New furniture it is!" She chuckled.

Harvey unlocked the door to Marcus' house that night and let the kids inside. It was the first time they had been back since Katie's death. He brought them back because he was in the process of getting the house ready to be put on the market. He thought he would split the profits of the house and put half in each of the kids' trusts so they would have some money to help them achieve their dreams.

He knew that he would personally put them through college without making them take out any loans. Education was important and the least he could do was pay for it. The money from the house and a quarter of the restaurants was Marcus' legacy to them. It was something that they could look at and say they had because of their parents and they could do whatever they wanted with that money.

Since they closed on the house back home and would be moving this weekend, he figured this was as good of a time as any to let them choose what they wanted to bring with them to New York City. Besides, this was a good way for him to find out if they were taking furniture with them so that he could tell Rebecca before she went shopping.

Olivia was excited about being back in the house again and immediately went running up the stairs. He assumed she was going to her room. He looked over at Ethan, who was more subdued about the experience.

"Don't you want to look around?" He asked his nephew.

"Why?" Ethan shrugged. "I know what the place look like. I doubt it has changed."

"I know, but this is probably the last time you'll see it. I'm putting the house up for sale soon." He explained.

"That's fine with me." Ethan nodded. "It's just a house."

"Aunt Becca wanted to know if you and Olivia were bringing any furniture with you from this house. Maybe you're bed or anything like that?"

"I'd like to take my bookcases. Although I think I need more now because I have more books." He said.

"I'm sure we can get you more bookcases, but if you want the ones from your room here we can definitely take those." He told his nephew, glad to see a smile form.

"Thanks." Ethan nodded.

"You're welcome. You sure you don't want to look around? Maybe for old times' sake?"

"I guess I'll look around." Ethan relented.

Ethan had been acting weird towards him lately and he wasn't sure why. He was more standoffish but wouldn't say if anything was wrong though.

He went off in search of Olivia, finding her in Marcus and Katie's room. "Hey. What are you doing?"

"I was never allowed in here by myself." Olivia said. "Does that rule still apply?"

He chuckled at the look of panic on his niece's face. "No. I think you're safe."

"Oh good!" She sighed. "I was worried I would get punished."

"So what are you doing in here?" He was curious now.

"I'm just looking around." She explained, walking around the room. "I don't know why they didn't want me in here. It's just a bedroom and it looks boring."

"Grownups have to have their own space so they can do grown up things." He explained, not wanting to go into much detail.

"Oh." She nodded. "Ok."

He was lucky that she didn't press him for more information on that and considered it a freebie. "You know, Aunt Becca wanted me to ask you if there was any furniture in your room that you wanted to take with you to the new house in New York City."

"Oh I definitely have to take my princess bed!" Her eyes lit up. "Are we taking all of my toys and clothes?"

"Yes, we're taking all of that. And I'll make sure we get your princess bed too."

"Thank you Uncle Harvey!" She ran over and gave his leg a big hug.

"You're welcome." He said, smiling down at her. At least one of the kids still liked him.