A/N: Inspired by this prompt from Twitter: /CreativeSlump_/status/1706707905456853206?s=20
Title from "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees.
Hope you like it :)
Harvey strolls into the bullpen letting out a huff she can hear all the way from her desk, and she braces for impact, knowing this is going to be a long day. Harvey can get moody as hell, and when he does, it's often hard to make him shake it off. And, since most people at the DA's office are either too annoyed or too intimidated by him, it usually falls to her to bear the brunt of his mood swings.
She has already learned how to handle them, and she gives as good as she gets, lest he start thinking he can walk all over her and she will just take it. But still, it's never a fun day when Harvey is on edge, and she gathers his correspondence neatly in her hands, hoping to at least offset a bit of his obvious impatience with her efficiency.
The fact that he doesn't spare a single glance around the room as he crosses it tells her it's probably something work-related, which makes her things trickier because she can't use work to distract him from it. Still, she stands up bravely and follows him into his office, closing the door behind her as he settles into his chair.
Except before she can even say anything, he's already glaring at her. "I am never letting you convince me to go out with those idiot ADAs again."
She blinks, completely taken aback by his accusation. "How the hell is this on me?"
"I told you I didn't want to go to that stupid mixer Loyola organized and you still managed to convince me otherwise, and it was a waste of my time," he complains, voice strained with anger, and her mind starts spinning thinking of the possible scenarios that might have unfolded for him to still be this mad one day later.
Harvey has some... relationship problems around the office. He's arrogant and conceited, and he doesn't like people knowing he actually cares about his cases so he always makes it seem like he doesn't, which, in turn, makes everyone else think things just come easy to him because he's charming or Cameron's favorite, instead of because he's extremely hard-working and dedicated.
He may think he doesn't need anyone other than himself to advance in life and in his career, but Donna knows that's far from the case, and she tries to blunt the edges wherever she can, but there's only so much she can do. It's important for Harvey to cultivate positive, lasting relationships here, especially for once he leaves to go back to his old firm.
So, sometimes, when an opportunity arises, she tries to coax him into improving his image around the office and strengthening his ties with his colleagues. This time the opportunity was a gathering at Puzzles for Loyola to gloat about his recent murder case conviction, and, to be fair, Donna couldn't think of a more boring outing if she tried, but all the ADAs would be there and Loyola had gone to Harvey's first conviction celebration, after all. She figured it would make him look supportive of his peers and interested in the DA community - which Donna knows is not at all true, but he is a grown man and she figured he could pretend for just a night.
Clearly her strategy to bribe him into going by promising to tell him her latest Big Bertha intel this morning backfired massively, because not only did he not come out of it with a better relationship with the rest of the ADAs, but he is also blaming her for whatever happened.
"Well, I'm sorry for trying to make sure you don't eventually get poisoned with your own coffee or something," she fires back, hand on her hip and voice dripping sass. "Can you at least tell me what it is that I forced you into that was so horribly traumatizing?"
He works his jaw and looks away from her, firing up his computer. "They're just a bunch of juvenile, moronic assholes who have no real sense of their own stupidity and uselessness. I could feel my brain shrinking the whole time I was there."
Donna has no clue what that means, but, frankly, she's not in the mood to decipher him today. If he wants to act all superior without even giving a proper reason for it, she won't stand for it. So she just rolls her eyes theatrically and lays his correspondence on his desk. "Geez, alright, Your Highness. Don't forget about your 3pm meeting with Cameron for the Hefford case," she tells him dryly and leaves his office without another glance.
She goes the rest of the morning giving him the silent treatment, and, though she can sense his annoyance has died down a bit, he doesn't make any move to apologize to her either and she refuses to give him an out. She goes out for lunch alone and uses her full hour, instead of coming back early to chat with him over coffee.
It's when she comes back and takes her water bottle to the cooler for a refill that she runs into a couple of the other ADAs' secretaries, huddled together and chatting.
Never one to refuse fresh gossip, Donna lays on her conspiratorial smile and struts towards them. "Hey, ladies," she smirks knowingly, "What are we discussing today?"
"Ugh, just the usual," Carla rolls her eyes, "How much we hate it here, how much we want to stab those guys in the eye with a pencil..."
Donna purses her lips sympathetically, silently thinking she herself wouldn't mind it if Harvey were to spill coffee down his shirt today or something.
"You know last night's outing?" Sheryl jumps in, and she nods. "Melanie was there with some friends and overheard them talking. They actually ranked us on our 'hotness'," the girl air-quotes, "And then spent half an hour ranting about how 'stupid' we are just because we can't understand what the hell they want when they scribble complete chicken scratch on the back of a coffee shop napkin and call it a brilliant legal strategy."
"Apparently Roberts also made a dirty joke about how big Lucy's boobs are now that she's pregnant, and the rest of the guys actually laughed. They're disgusting," Andrea scowls, rolling her eyes.
This isn't the first office Donna has worked at, and it's certainly not the only one filled with macho men being inappropriate towards female employees, especially when they're secretaries. She will never understand why it is that the male fantasy surrounding sexy secretaries runs so rampant, and she herself has been the target of more than a few comments, "jokes" and even attempts.
She doesn't expect much from men in general, and she does agree with Harvey that the rest of the ADAs is considerably less bright than him - and she finds it completely absurd that there are such few female ADAs and that they're usually left out of the little boys club, though she guesses it's for their own good. And she knows Harvey isn't some prime example of model feminist ally; she's had countless conversations where she wanted to smack him in the head for how he spoke of a woman he was interested in or treated someone he was seeing, and she's called him out on ingrained sexism more times than she can count.
Still, she can't deny there's a sting at hearing he joined in on all of this, that he objectified and diminished her colleagues and friends and had fun doing it. That he heard her being objectified and diminished by other men and stood by, not doing anything. It makes her feel a little humiliated, not because she has never gone through that, but because she didn't really think she'd ever go through that at his hands.
It's true that Harvey propositioned her on the very first night they met, but ever since she started working for him he has never acted inappropriately towards her. He flirts and jokes, sure, but it's harmless banter she has fun engaging in and he knows it. He has never actually made a pass at her, or forced himself on her in any way. Beyond being a pretty typical womanizer, he has never given her any indication that he would take part in that sort of thing, at least not towards her, and disappointment blooms in her chest, leaving a sour taste in her mouth.
"You should count yourself lucky," Martha nods towards Donna, shaking her from her reverie. "Melanie said the only guy who wasn't going along with all of it was Specter. She said he seemed really put off by the whole thing, wouldn't say a word, just sipped his one beer and left."
"Yeah. Apparently the only time he jumped in was to defend you when you came up on the ranking," Andrea adds, a tiny, almost invisible smirk on her lips, "Said it was stupid and could open all of them up to a harassment lawsuit, and that he didn't want to have to be co-defendants with them."
"Yup. She said he even defended you while they were all ranting about us," Sheryl goes on, "He apparently said you could 'run circles around all of them'. You should ask her, she'll give you more details."
Donna listens to all of that in complete shock, frozen in place as she feels her cheeks start to burn and internally chastises herself, willing her skin not to grow too flushed. The girls have teased her about her relationship with Harvey several times before, but it doesn't seem like that's what they're doing now. Still, she doesn't want to give anyone fodder for anything, especially considering the topic of their current conversation, so she just clears her throat and lets out an exaggerated scoff, shaking her head. "These men are a menace, I swear to God," she complains, eyes widening for emphasis, and the rest of the women nod in agreement, immediately - and thankfully - jumping right back into where they left off.
Donna quickly gets her water and makes her way back to her desk, unable to stop thinking about what they said. While it's true that she didn't expect him to take part in such lewd comments - he may be a douchebag sometimes, but he's not usually that disrespectful, and, most of all, he's not stupid -, she never would have thought he would go out of his way to defend her either, especially in a room full of his peers and no woman around to guilt him into defiance.
She can't say Harvey fully values women as much as he should, but he doesn't just see them as pieces of meat either (at least not all women). And the fact that he felt compelled to speak out when it was her getting attacked makes something funny flutter in her stomach. She doesn't want to be a pick-me girl, and she's certainly not in need of a knight in shiny armor, she can take care of herself very well, thank you very much. But, yeah, she can't deny it makes her a little giddy to learn she was wrong in assuming he would disrespect her like that, or stand by as others disrespected her.
She reaches her desk and sees him through the blinds, focused on his work, and the rest of whatever annoyance she felt this morning melts away, giving way to an acute fondness. She wants to bring it up with him somehow, thank him for what he did, tell him she appreciates him looking out for her. But the fact that he didn't outright tell her what happened this morning shows her he doesn't want to talk about it, probably afraid of coming across as actually caring about something or someone.
So she tucks her gratitude away, focusing on getting through her immediate tasks instead. As soon as she's done with the more urgent ones, she slips out and runs to the corner shop, getting him his favorite coffee and a cream doughnut for good measure.
When she barges into his office and slides the offerings towards him on his desk, he quirks an inquisitive brow at her, clearly curious about her sudden change in attitude.
She doesn't come out and say it. She knows Harvey, knows what makes him tick, and she knows he'll probably be more embarrassed than glad if he discovers she found out about his act of chivalry and basic human decency from last night. Instead, she relies on the fact that he knows her pretty well too, and so he'll probably know what exactly she means when she perches herself on the arm of one of his guest chairs and tells him, "I think you'll be very pleased to hear that the secretaries may or may not have sprinkled the powdered contents of half a laxative into the common coffee pot. I'm guessing we'll have a pretty quiet day at the office tomorrow, what with all of the ADAs who went out last night having to stay home from loose bowels."
Harvey frowns in initial confusion, and then his face unfurls into one of cautious curiosity.
She presses her lips together and nudges the doughnut further towards him, a silent show of Thank you and even a little bit of I'm sorry.
Her true intention finally clicks and he purses his lips a little sheepishly, clearly feeling caught. But she just watches him expectantly, waiting for his response, and he must understand she won't actually say the words out loud and that he's in the clear, because he finally takes the doughnut and gives it a bite. "Good," he says around a mouthful, "Maybe we'll finally have a productive day around here."
She grins, trying not to let her smile get too wide as she thinks to herself that she really should count herself lucky.