Day 3

Let It Snow

by Evenstar1002

.-*°✧°*-.

"Donna, I need you to-," Harvey barks through the opened glass door, head buried deep in paperwork.

"I already scheduled a lunch with Mr. Henderson tomorrow at 1pm," Donna shouts back, before she gets up from her chair with a sigh.

"I also need-," he begins again, but is interrupted by Donna once more, who had just entered his office.

"… me to tell Louis that the deadline for the McBishop case has been pushed back until after Christmas? Already taken care of, Harvey," Donna replies, left hand on her hip and a satisfied smile on her face, that Harvey doesn't see because he still hasn't looked up from the document in front of him.

"The Michaelson file?"

"Right on top of the stack with Judge Seymore." The last sentence finally directs his focus to Donna. His stern expression instantaneously softens, when he takes her in with a look of gratefulness.

"Thanks, Donna," he murmurs softly, leaning back into his chair with a sigh. He lets one hand glide over his head, fingers sliding through his spiky hair, while he waits for the tension to leave his body.

"Harvey, you need to slow down," Donna warns, trying to sound definitive but not really succeeding in keeping the concern out of her voice.

"I'm not familiar with the concept," Harvey shoots back, but the tiredness in his eyes is clearly revealing the lie.

"It's the week before Christmas, and you're pushing through one case after the next like a freight train out of control."

"Last time I checked, that's what brings this firm money," Harvey challenges her and while his expression is somewhat serious, there is also a slight teasing tone shining through.

"Last time I checked, that's what gives people heart attacks," she counters, crossing her arms in front of her body.

By the way his brows furrow and his forehead creases, Donna can tell that Harvey is looking for an adequate response but since he does seem to be rather tired, his bantering skills fail him. "You don't have to worry about me, Donna," he says instead, smiling at her reassuringly. "In a few days' time, I'll be in Boston and will have enough time to wind down."

"Have you bought any Christmas presents yet?" Donna wants to know, one eyebrow raised in question.

"There is still enough time for that."

"Harvey, your flight leaves in less than 72 hours," she reminds him, because he clearly must have forgotten.

"Like I said… there is still enough time for that," he repeats with a sheepish smirk.

They stare at each other wordlessly for a moment, a whole conversation transpiring between them as it so often does. It's Donna who breaks the eye contact first, as she shifts her weight to the other leg. Not in the mood to argue with him, she gives in. "Alright then. I'll be outside, if you need anything."

"I could use-," he begins, but Donna is quicker once more.

"Get your own coffee, Harvey." Spinning around to hide her smile, Donna shakes her head and saunters back to her cubicle.

…

Two hours later, Donna almost has a heart attack herself, when she passes by one of the dark and empty offices and catches a glimpse outside. Sometime during the last two hours, it apparently had begun to snow, the white flakes now magically enlightening the night, as they fall heavily from the sky.

The widest of smiles spreads on her face and with only a couple of huge strides she is back at her desk. When she sees Harvey once again with his nose buried in files, something inside of Donna snaps and she finally has enough. Grabbing first her and then his coat, that he had carelessly thrown onto her desk earlier that day after having been stuck in traffic and then almost having been late for another meeting in the conference room, she walks back into Harvey's office.

With a dull thump, his black coat lands on his files and his laptop, momentarily blocking his view.

"Donna, what the h-,"

"Enough is enough. We're leaving now."

"But… I'm in the middle of something."

"And that something will still be here tomorrow. This might not," she returns, pointing with her finger outside.

"What, Manhattan?"

"No, Harvey. The snow," Donna replies exasperatedly.

"You know I hate snow."

"And I love snow. And you, Harvey Specter, are going to take a walk through the first snow of the year with me, because you've kept me inside of this building until almost 9pm on a Friday and therefore cost me any chance of having a hot date tonight. You owe me."

"Donna, please," Harvey whines, trying to slide his coat off his desk without wreaking havoc.

"Come on, Harvey. This is the last case before the holidays. You still have the whole weekend and Monday, if needed. That's more than enough time to take care of it," Donna explains, throwing his scarf in his direction.

Harvey catches the garment before it can hit the desk. The woolen fabric lies warmly in his hands and he almost believes that her scent is emanating from it after having been in her close proximity all afternoon long.

"Up, up," she ushers him along, her words only all that much more emphasized by the waving of her hands.

With a groan, that only half-heartedly sounds annoyed, Harvey gets out of his chair. "Fine. But only for a few minutes, okay?"

"Sure, Harvey," Donna agrees, knowing full well that it wouldn't just be 'for a few minutes' because he always gave her what she wanted.

Almost always anyway.

…

The cold air hits them like a slap in their face, when they exit the firm's building ten minutes later. Ray drives them the few blocks over to Central Park and since the snow is picking up in intensity, Harvey tells his driver to get home safely as quickly as possible.

They enter the almost empty park moments later and for the first few minutes, they walk side by side in utter silence, both giving each other time to leave work mentally behind.

When Harvey does break it after a while, it isn't with words Donna had expected at all.

"So… would you have?" His voice is so low that Donna almost doesn't catch it.

Her head twists slightly so she could look at him, finding him already studying her. "Would I have what?" She already has an inkling what he had wanted to ask but she needed him to say it out loud just the same.

"Would you have had a hot date if I hadn't kept you in the office?" His eyes are probing and just like that, they are treading very thin ice once more; and it has nothing to do with the snow that is still falling around them.

Their lines had always been blurry, but for weeks now they seemed to have become even flimsier than before. Ever since Harvey has gotten back from Boston after making up with his mother, he seemed like a changed man. Not necessarily in the way he conducts his business, but most certainly in the way he tends to his personal relationships. He is more attentive, more open, as the walls that he had been carrying around within him for most of his life are slowly coming down brick by brick. And it feels like he's getting closer. To being the man Donna always knew he could be. To being the reason why she would never be able to move on.

For a moment, she contemplates her answer; trying to decide if she should tease him or push him, but there is still a look of slight uncertainty and fear in his eyes and she knows that the time isn't right just yet.

"No," Donna replies, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance and bumping her shoulder into his side. "I was speaking theoretically."

"Good," Harvey murmurs, even lower than before.

"It's good that I don't have a date?" Donna asks, curiosity getting the better of her for just a second after all.

"Yes," Harvey responds with a nod. "I mean, no," he corrects himself a second later. "I just meant… I would have felt horrible if I had destroyed your plans."

'Would you have?' she wants to ask, the words already tingling at the tip of her tongue. But she holds herself back, knowing that she wouldn't get an answer that would make her happy. "Don't worry about it, Harvey."

His next words tumble from his lips immediately. "But I do worry and care. You know that, right?"

The look in his eyes tells her that they are treading very, very thin ice indeed.

"Of course I know," Donna smiles at him gently, their gazes staying locked for a few more moments before they focus on the path ahead again.

The snow keeps falling from the sky relentlessly; the usually green fields to their left and their right already covered with a white blanket. Golden light from the street lamps reflects and sparkles on the ground, guiding the way deeper into the park. Every now and then they come across joggers or strollers, all of them bearing witness to how nature is turning the big and loud and hectic city into a calm and peaceful and magical winter wonderland. Only distantly can they now hear the buzz of Manhattan, the snow dulling the sounds to a barely-even-there level.

They are way past 'only for a few minutes' by the time they near one of the popular ice rinks, and after sharing a wordless glance they take a left turn at the next crossroads that leads them away from the crowds and the music. Unconsciously, Donna is inching closer towards Harvey, as the wind picks up a little; the leafless trees surrounding them only a weak shelter from the cold.

To distract herself from the ice creeping through her clothes, Donna focuses on Harvey again.

"So. Are you excited yet about going home for Christmas?"

"Yeah. I mean… you know that I've never been a big fan of the holidays but I think it's gonna be nice to spend some time with my mom and Marcus and the kids," he shrugs nonchalantly.

"And what about Bobby?" Donna asks carefully, not wanting to overstep any boundaries.

"Well, he is family. I gotta accept that. And maybe Christmas will help us both to mend some fences," Harvey muses, a deep exhale fogging the air in front of his lips.

Donna looks at him from the corner of her eyes, a small and proud smile forming on her lips. "It will definitely help. And I think it's great that you're going there with that kind of mindset. Just be open, Harvey, and it'll all fall into place, you'll see."

His warm gaze finds hers and he nods. "Thanks, Donna. I'll try to remember that."

"And if it escalates, you can always call me and I'll get you out of there."

Her offer triggers a deep and throaty chuckle and he can immediately feel how a bit of the inner nervousness is falling away. "I will definitely remember that."

They both walk on, inwardly smiling and relishing in the emotional closeness they are both feeling in this very moment.

"How about you? Excited to see your parents?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely. Even more so since this afternoon," Donna replies eagerly.

"Why's that?"

"My sister texted earlier that she won't be able to make it home this year. One of her fancy new boyfriends is taking her to Aspen." Harvey laughs quietly, as he listens to Donna. "I wonder how long it'll last this time before the poor guy realizes that she's walking all over him."

"Do we know anything about him?"

"He's a vet."

"Say no more," Harvey laughs, before he pretends to be more serious again. His fingers come up to scratch his chin. "Hmm… I think my money is on four and a half months this time."

"I'll give him three. He attended university and got a doctorate. He can't be that dumb."

Another laugh rumbles through Harvey's chest; the sound making Donna all tingly inside. She knows that it shouldn't and if she could, she'd turn it off right then. But the easiness and the intimacy of the moment is making it extra hard tonight and Donna is realizing with a sudden clarity why the two of them usually don't venture out of the office just by themselves on a regular basis.

"Speaking of. You still owe me those fifty bucks from last time," Donna reminds him with a wink.

"Right, I forgot. I'll put it in the account tomorrow," Harvey promises, with a hand to his heart.

"With the next failed relationship, we're good to go for that next dinner," Donna replies, a nervous giggle escaping her.

"What, we've already collected 500 bucks again? In what, a little more than one and a half years?"

"Yeah. Roughly," Donna confirms, her head stuck somewhere between a disbelieving shake and an amused nod.

"That woman is unbelievable," Harvey chuckles, as they keep on walking on their loop through the park.

Another gush of cold wind is blowing in their direction, the breeze making the snow dance through the sky. Harvey can feel Donna inching closer into his side, the realization alone enough to spike the heat inside of him. He's tempted to close the remaining distance, tempted to lift his arm and wrap it around her shoulder to keep her warm. The urge becomes even stronger, when she crosses her arms in front of her body, clearly suppressing the slight shiver that has taken hold of her.

But they don't touch. Apart from the fleeting brush of shoulders or hands when they walked side by side through the hallways or the accidental contact of fingers when they hand each other a glass of Scotch, they just didn't touch. Because those touches, as fleeting and accidental as they might be, always shake them to their cores; where they stir up emotions and memories they had both agreed to never mention again. So, Harvey restrains himself from reaching out, instead loosening the scarf around his neck and turning towards her.

"Here," he says, holding the black cashmere piece in her direction. "I'd offer you my coat, but I don't wanna freeze to death on a walk that I didn't want to take in the first place." With a smirk on his lips now, Harvey doesn't wait for a reply, instead stepping in front of her without a warning and pulling the scarf around her shoulders.

"I didn't hear you complain in the past forty-five minutes," Donna reminds him, even though the expression on his face tells her that he already knows.

"Yeah, well." He shrugs his shoulders, bringing together the two ends of the scarf in front of her body and holding on to it longer than necessary.

"You can just say it, you know," Donna replies, looking up into his eyes.

Confusion flashes over his face as he stills in his movements. "Say what?"

"That taking a walk in the snow isn't as horrible as you made it out to be." She looks at him expectantly, her breath hitching as his smirk melts into a soft smile.

A quiet second passes, as they get caught in a moment that hasn't happened in this kind of intensity in a very long time. All of a sudden, Donna doesn't feel as cold anymore, while the tension rises and heat fills the tiny space between them; a different kind of flame crackling between them.

"Taking a walk hasn't been that horrible," Harvey agrees at last, the words eliciting another wave of warmth inside of Donna. "But that has more to do with the company than it has with the walk or the snow."

His openness and honesty are catching Donna off-guard and it takes her a second longer than usually to come up with a quip reply. "Careful, Harvey. Someone might overhear us and think you're flirting with me."

"We're alone, Donna," he states and the tone in his voice transports more meaning than the words ever could.

They still hadn't moved an inch; Harvey still holding on to his scarf in front of her body and Donna still standing a little too close and looking up into his probing eyes. The air is charged and something is brewing between them. Everything is brewing between them, if only one or the other would be brave enough to go after it.

The snow begins to fall in slow motion, as time decelerates and comes to a halt altogether, when gravity and magnetism send out their overpowering draw. It has Harvey's heart hammering against his chest and it has Donna trembling despite the heat and it's almost all becoming too much to withstand, when all of a sudden a bright flash of light harshly breaks the spell they had been caught in. A lone cyclist speeds by, neither party really taking notice of the other.

As if he had touched the sun, Harvey finally lets go of his scarf and takes a step back from Donna. Immediately the cold wind rushes between them again, taking the last remnants of their moment away on its wings. A sad smile forms on Harvey's lips and frustration invisibly takes a hold of Donna's heart, having her trembling intensify.

"You're cold," Harvey assesses, his voice gradually returning back to business. "Let's find a taxi and get you home, alright?"

Donna takes a deep breath, waiting another second before she trusts her vocal chords again. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

They set themselves in motion again and with every additional step they take, they remove themselves from the thin ice some more.

They had come close tonight. So very close to crossing the line.

And while frustration still simmers in the pit of her stomach, more than ever another feeling shines through now.

Hope.

Hope, that soon they would be ready.

Because it is only a matter of time now.

.-*°✧°*-.