Skyfall

Chapter Fifty

"Hey." Rebecca greeted, walking into the kitchen Sunday morning. She noticed that Harvey was making breakfast. He and the kids had arrived yesterday and it was still strange getting used to having everyone under the same roof in a place other than Lily's house. Their first night together in the new house had gone well though.

"Morning." He greeted, not turning around to look over at her.

"Did you ever come up to bed?" She asked. "It seemed like your side of the bed was still untouched this morning."

"No." He shook his head. "I'm not sleeping well anymore so I thought I would just sleep in the guest room from now on so you can get the sleep you need. I know you are exhausted because of everything you are doing and also the baby, so I don't want to risk waking you up."

"I appreciate that. It's sweet." She said with a small smile as she walked over to him. "But I thought part of the whole reason we moved in here was so that we could all be back together. And I thought part of that was being back in the same bedroom."

"It was." He sighed. "But I really am not sleeping well and I'm not going to keep you from sleeping."

"And let me guess…you still don't want to talk about it either."

"Not really, no."

"Ok." She sighed. She didn't like the fact that he was wanting to sleep in a different bedroom from her, even if it did seem like the underlying reason was a kind one. But she would try talking to him later about it. "So what are you making?"

"Pancakes and bacon…with extra bacon for you."

"Thank you" It was nice that he was making breakfast and that he remembered her love of bacon. She was about to ask what he planned on doing today when Olivia came running into the kitchen.

"I smell bacon!" Olivia practically yelled.

Harvey chuckled. "That's because I'm frying it up right now."

"Yay!" She cheered. "Is it almost done?"

"Almost." He promised.

"Why don't you go sit at the counter?" She asked. "And I'll get you some milk while you wait."

"Ok Aunt Becca!" Olivia replied.

She went over to the fridge and pulled out the milk. She then got a glass out and put the milk in front of her niece.

"Thank you!" Olivia smiled.

"You're welcome." She smiled back.

Later that day, Harvey stood on the doorstep of the elaborate brownstone and rang the doorbell. It didn't take long for Jessica to answer the door.

"Harvey." She smiled. "What is so important that you have to interrupt my weekend?"

He chuckled. Since there was a smile on her face he knew she was just kidding around with him. "Like I said on the phone this morning, I need to talk to you about Rebecca."

"Come on in." She moved off to the side so he could come in. "First of all, welcome back. It hasn't been the same around the office since you left. But you would be proud of Rebecca. She has handled every single one of your clients perfectly. Some of them are going to be sad to come back to you."

He chuckled. "I don't doubt that. She is much better at making clients feel valued than I am at times. It's good to be back and it will be even better tomorrow when I get back into my office. I've been out of the game for too long."

"So how are you really doing?" She asked softly.

"Depends on who you ask." He shrugged, knowing he couldn't tell Jessica the truth. "I think I'm coping as well as can be expected. I think I'm doing alright, considering everything. Rebecca…well she…"

"She's your wife and she's worried about you." Jessica interrupted him. "You're lucky to have that, Harvey. I hope you realize that and don't throw it away."

"I'm not trying to throw it away."

"Good." Jessica smiled. "So then you aren't here to tell me that you and Rebecca are splitting up and you want her to somehow be pushed out of the firm?"

"No." He shook his head. Her question confused him. "Why the hell would you think that?"

"You asked to come here to talk to me on a Sunday instead of waiting to talk to me in the office tomorrow. That's something you only do if it is an emergency or you feel it can't be said in the office. You said it had to do with Rebecca and Rebecca has looked pretty miserable around the office lately. I was just reading cues. If I read them wrong, then sue me." Jessica explained.

"We aren't splitting up…" He thought about it. "At least I don't think we are splitting up. I hope we're not splitting up. Truthfully, our relationship has hit a rough patch lately because of everything that has happened."

"That's understandable." Jessica nodded. "You've both had to make a lot of adjustments to your lives lately."

"Yeah. There is something I need to tell you and it is a secret. No one is supposed to know about it yet. So you can't say anything."

"You know I am aware of what a secret means?" She laughed. "I know a secret means not to say anything about it."

"I know." He rolled his eyes. "Rebecca is pregnant."

"Congratulations." She smiled. "The look on your face tells me it wasn't a planned baby though."

"No it wasn't."

"Are you happy about it?"

"I am." He said, truly meaning it. The baby still scared him because he wasn't prepared to take care of an infant. But he was happy she was having his baby. It was the one thing that made him truly happy lately.

"She isn't out of her first trimester yet so we aren't really telling people about it. But I needed to tell you because of what I am about to ask." He explained.

"You want some kind of a favor?" She guessed.

"Yes." He nodded. "I want you to assign the majority of her cases over to me for the time being. I know she has been handling both her clients and mine for weeks now. And dealing with that while also being pregnant and trying to make the transitions better for the kids, looking after my mom while she is getting treatments and just everything else has been taking a heavy toll on her. I would like to take something off her plate and I think work would be the best option."

"You do realize she isn't going to like this though, right? She loves her job almost more than you do."

"I know." He nodded. "But this is for her own good and the good of the baby. I'll deal with any fallout. I just need your approval since she is a name partner."

"Ok." She nodded. "I will temporarily give you control of her clients, but you have to give them back."

"I will." He promised.

She grinned. "Something tells me you haven't discussed this with her yet, have you?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's a surprise."

"She will definitely be surprised." Jessica chuckled. "But I don't think it will be a good surprise. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I am." He nodded.

"Ok." She agreed.

"Thank you Jessica." He smiled.

"You're welcome Harvey."

"Hey." Harvey greeted his mom as he walked into the kitchen. "It seems quiet in here."

"Rebecca took the kids out to dinner because she wasn't sure when you would be home." Lily replied.

"Why didn't you go with them?" He asked, sitting next to her at the kitchen island.

"I was hoping you would come back while they were gone and we could talk."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm in trouble?" He laughed softly.

"You're not in trouble, Harvey." She told him. "I'm just worried about you."

"You don't have to worry…"

"I wasn't finished." She interrupted. "Now I've been watching everything silently since Marcus died. I didn't want to get involved because I wasn't sure how you would take it since we started reconnecting recently. But I have spent a lot of time with Rebecca lately. I see exactly what you saw in her when you decided to ask her to marry you. She is a wonderful person with a big heart, she's intelligent, she's hard working and she just wants to do whatever she can for those she loves."

"She is pretty amazing." He interjected. "I love her more than I thought I could love anyone."

"And yet you and she are having troubles." Lily observed.

"It's complicated." He explained.

"I'm sure it is. Marriage is never simple." Lily acknowledged. "Look, I know I haven't known you two as a couple for very long. But…I see the stress Rebecca is under. I see how she tries to connect with you and then I see the sadness when she can't. I see you pulling away from her and I see her trying to reach you less and less. I'd like to offer whatever help I may be to you. You know you can tell me anything. Right?"

"I know."

"I'm always going to be there for you, no matter what." She promised.

"I know, but there's nothing…"

"Don't tell me there is nothing wrong." She chastised him. "I know you. We may have been estranged for a long time…but you are my son and I know when something is bothering you. You get this little crease in the middle of your forehead and there is a look that pops up in your eyes when you are trying to hide that something is wrong."

"I'm working through it." He told her. It was only a half-lie. He was trying to work through it. So far he hadn't made much progress. He still felt completely responsible for what happened to Marcus. It was part of the reason why he worked so hard to get the restaurants put into the kids' names and why he was going to split the profit of Marcus' house with them. He wanted to make sure they were taken care of no matter what happened in the future.

"May I suggest working through it as quickly as possible?" She chuckled. "I don't want to see you alienate your wife any more than you already have. The farther away you push her now, the harder it will be to pull her close later on. Just think about that."

He watched as she patted him on the shoulder and then left the room. She was right. There was only so far he would be able to push Rebecca away until she finally snapped and left him.

Rebecca walked through the living room that night, picking up Olivia's toys.

"Olivia needs to be the one to do that." He said softly. "We need to be making her do it herself."

She didn't turn around to face her husband, instead continuing to pick up toys and put them in the toy box. "I'll get to that. But right now she has had a lot of changes going on in her life. I want her to get used to being here before I impose too many rules."

"Ok." He replied.

She turned to look at him. "I know what I'm doing."

"I never said you didn't." He conceded, holding his hands up in defeat.

"It felt like you were criticizing me." She said quietly.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Ok." She nodded. Now that the living room was picked up, she was going to go to bed. She walked past him, stopping when he lightly grabbed her arm. "What is it?"

"I wanted to talk to you about work." He answered.

"Ok. What about it?"

"I have spoken to Jessica. She says you have done an excellent job of handling my clients while I was in Boston."

"I did my best." She admitted.

"I know. And I know it wasn't always easy. So thank you." He smiled at her.

As much as she tried, she couldn't help but smile back at him. There was something so charming about his smile that made it almost impossible for her to resist smiling back at him. "Well, you're welcome."

"While I was talking to Jessica, she agreed to what I asked."

"What did you ask her?" She suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

"I'm taking over the majority of your clients for a little while." He told her.

"To hell you are!" She scoffed.

"Just listen to me please."

"Why do you want my clients?" She put her hands on her hips and stared at him.

"I don't want your clients." He explained. "I just want to lighten your workload. You've been overworked lately and I am trying to help you out."

"By going behind my back?" She couldn't believe him. It was a nice gesture, but he shouldn't have gone to Jessica before talking to her about it. This wasn't the kind of help or support she wanted or needed.

"I was trying to do something nice."

"No." She scoffed again. "You're doing whatever the hell you want again, like always. I didn't ask you to sleep in another bedroom and I sure as hell didn't ask for you to take my cases and I don't want you to."

"Well Jessica already agreed to it."

"You're unbelievable, you know that, right?" She rolled her eyes.

"This way you can focus on more of the stuff going on here with my mom and the kids. You won't have to do all of that and work 60 hours a week at the office. It can't be good for you or the baby to be working this hard all the time."

"Oh now you care about the baby?" She scoffed.

"What does that mean?" He sighed. "Of course I care about the baby."

"Really?" She chuckled. "Because that's news to me. Why don't you just be honest about what you are doing? You are trying to subtly push me out of the firm so that when you finally push me out of your life for good you no longer have to work with me."

"That's not true!" He objected. "Why does everyone seem to think I want to split up from you?"

"Who else said that?"

"Jessica." He admitted. "She mentioned something about it today."

"She's a smart woman and she's known you for a very long time. So maybe…"

"No!" He yelled. "I don't want us to end! Ok? That is the absolute last thing in the world I want!"

"Ok." She conceded. "You may not want us to end, but we can't stay frozen in this limbo forever."

"Rebecca…"

"Look, I don't even want to fight about this with you. You want most of my clients, take them. I really don't care anymore." She pushed her way past him.

A/N: To quote Harvey Dent from "The Dark Knight": "It is always darkest before the dawn. But I promise you, the dawn is coming."