Fucking shitty day, Harvey thinks as he presses the button to the 50th floor. No, scratch that. Fucking shitty week.

Half a dozen cases, all urgent. Half a dozen clients, all royally pissing him off. Why couldn't people just stick to the agreed upon plan? But no, this week they had all decided they fucking knew better.

He shuffles impatiently, looking up at the elevator ceiling. The merciless bright light does nothing but aggravate his headache. The latter has been a constant companion of his for the last four days. Not surprisingly, though. He's been working nonstop, missing meals, missing sleep. Missing Donna.

He'd called her about an hour ago when he realized he'd be a bit late for a meeting with a client, asking her to distract the woman until he got there. He had been pressed for time, though, so it was a straight to the point conversation that lasted under twenty seconds.

Not unlike most of our interactions during the past few days. And wasn't that just the cherry on top off all the other crap piling ever higher on his lap.

The twisted feeling of satisfaction he was getting by allowing himself to dwell in his own bad mood was rudely interrupted by a familiar ding indicating he'd arrived at Specter Litt Wheeler William's floor.

All right, here we go. Let it never be said Harvey Specter was not good at compartmentalizing the shit out his problems when it came to charming a client.

This particular one's name was Anna Doyle, of Doyle Manufacturing. The company had been with the firm since the latter was still called Pearson Hardman, but Anna had only recently stepped in as CEO after her husband's heart attack had left him confined to his bed for the foreseeable future. They were being sued by one of their own former clients, who claimed Doyle leaked proprietary designs into the market after negotiations between the two companies fell through. From what Harvey had gathered so far, there was a good chance that was indeed the case.

He's halfway to the conference room when he crosses paths with the newly appointed CEO.

"Mrs. Doyle!" he says, putting on his most apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry I'm late for our meeting."

"No harm done, Mr. Specter. And, please, call me Anna", she replies, seeming genuinely not offended by his tardiness.

"Harvey. Shall we?" he gestures towards the glass door.

"Actually, I was just on my way out. I've spoken to Mr. Litt and he'll be handling this case for us."

"What?"

"Look Harvey, Tom told me you've been his guy from day one of our company's relationship with this firm, but the current situation is very delicate. This suit could not have hit us at a worst time. His doctors have made it clear he cannot handle any more stress, so we need the issue settled as easily and as quickly as possible."

"Anna", he touches her shoulder reassuringly. "I completely understand and I guarantee you I'm your best bet to make that happen."

"I was told ours would be the seventh case on your plate at the moment." She points out, looking skeptical. "Isn't that right?"

What. The. Hell.

"I've been around the block for a long time, Anna" he replies smoothly. "I never bite more than I can chew."

"And that's probably true but, as I've said, we cannot take the chance that this time it won't be."

"Anna."

"I'm sorry, Harvey" she smiles softly, but her tone clearly indicates this is the end of the conversation. "I've spoken to your partner and I feel confident we're in good hands."

He can only watch, dumbfounded, as she walks away. Goddamn Louis.

"You know, Louis" he says loudly as he barges into the man's office. "I thought the days of you going behind my back to try and steel my clients were over, but I guess old habits die hard and your deluded need to try to cross the finish line ahead of me dies harder."

Louis looks up from his computer with a frown. "What are you talking about, Harvey?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Louis. I'm talking about how in the span of fifteen minutes while waiting for me in the conference room Anna Doyle decided that she needs a lawyer who will be able to give her case his undivided attention, and given that I'm currently juggling six other cases, she feels you're probably a better man for the job."

"Harvey" the man begins, standing up.

"Tell me, Louis" Harvey continues without pause. "How would she know how many cases I've got going on and how did she arrive at the conclusion you, apparently, is as free as a bird?"

Truth be told, despite the fact that Harvey was the one that brought Doyle to the firm, the client is probably guilty and he's already juggling so many things his portrait would look like a Hindu God. Not having to add another ball to his act is actually a relief. But people had been making decisions left and right this week without even giving him a cursory by the way first, and that pissed him the hell off. This was just the last straw.

"Harvey", Louis steps forward, hands raised in surrender. "I assure you, I did not went to Anna Doyle behind your back and talked her into giving her case to me. In fact, I didn't even know she was in the building until Donna told me she had requested that I be her lawyer."

That gives Harvey pause.

"Donna told you."

"Yes. And I did point out to her that I had no wish to step on your toes, but she told me you wouldn't mind me taking this one off your hands given how busy you were with the Dillinger merger and everything else."

He can feel the steam coming out of his ears now. He could deal with Louis doing shit without talking to him first. I mean, what else would be new. But Donna?

"I'm really sorry, Harvey. I honestly thought I'd be helping you."

But Harvey is already stomping out the door.

"Donna, what the hell did you say to my client?"

Her expression tells him his reaction is not unexpected, and that, for some reason, just pisses him off even more.

"Harvey, before you say anything, there's something you should know."

"What I do know, Donna, is that I was running late for a meeting and I asked you to please keep Anna company until I got here, not to somehow convince her that it meant I was too busy to handle her case!"

"Yes, you did ask me to keep her company, Harvey", she keeps a conciliatory tone. "And while doing that, I found out something that made me think Louis would be a better fit for her case."

"I don't care what you found out!" he's full on yelling now. "You don't reassign my case without talking to me first!"

"She cheated on her husband, Harvey!" she stands up from her chair, finally raising her voice and effectively shutting him up for a second.

"Yeah", she continues more calmly. "And she thinks there's a good chance the guy she had the affair with was the one who leaked the information."

Donna steps closer to him, purposely making sure only he can hear her before continuing. "And given your issues with infidelity I knew that, once you found out, fighting to save the woman's company would have been a hard pill for you to swallow, so I steered the case towards Louis."

Another day he would have made an effort to actually hear what she's saying to him. He would have looked at her, wide eyes staring unwaveringly at his own, and inevitably crashed into the reality that it's Donna talking. But today he's in no mood to be the one doing the listening.

"Donna, Louis may be managing partner now, but this was Jessica's firm and when she left it, she left it to me, because I'm the best goddamn lawyer here. I'm perfectly capable to put my personal feelings aside to represent a client."

"Maybe you are the best lawyer, Harvey", she counters. "But you're not the best lawyer for Anna."

"That wasn't your decision to make!"

"Maybe not! But I was the one in the room and I had to make a choice!" she exclaims, running out of patience. "I chose based on what's best for the firm and for the client, and I'm not going to apologize for it!"

"Bullshit!" he shouts. "We're not playing against time here! Hell, the clock has barely even started running! You could have come to me, made your case and let me make up my own damn mind! Which is, by the way, how you and I have always operated!"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you changing the M.O. now, given the other thing that's changed recently, says a lot."

"You think I was afraid to argue with you because we're sleeping together?" she asks incredulously.

"I think if you were worried my personal shit would interfere with my professional behaviour, you should probably take a good look in the mirror" he says as he walks out of her office.

She knows she should give it a minute or sixty before going in for round two. Yep. In the mood he's in, there will be a round two.

But the reality is that she was all out off her usual coolness long before he came barging into her office to bite her head off. She's had a headache for the past four days. Not surprisingly, though. This week she's had to put out one fire after the other, none of them her own, and people have a harder time remembering to be grateful when they're in the middle of a shitstorm. She misses going longer than five hours without wearing heels, misses being spoken to in an acceptable volume. And she misses Harvey.

They had barely talked to, let alone seen each other during the past few days. The business filled half a minute run-ins and phone calls served only to rub her face in the fact that she's had to wake up alone in the morning.

And after thirteen years I don't deserve another fucking day of that shit. And she also didn't deserve to be accused of not doing her job properly by the very person she's been wanting to crawl into to find some peace.

So it's not ten seconds before she's marching off after him. She has the presence of mind to close his office door before restarting the match.

"I don't care how bad your day was or what you think I did, but you do not come into my office and start yelling at me like I'm a first year associate!"

He rounds in on her lightening fast. "Oh, so I can't talk to you like you're a first year associate but it's ok for you to hand off my cases to someone else as if I am one."

"Quit the bullshit, Harvey" she retorts. "You know full well that's not what I did. Just like you know Louis handling Doyle is the right call."

"You know what, Donna, I don't have time for this."

"Neither do I, Harvey. You're not the only one who's busy and you certainly don't have the monopoly on having a shitty week."

He turns around and heads for his desk, but she's not leaving before she gets a goddamn apology.

"My M.O. has always been to do what I had to to protect the firm. To protect you. And every time I've kept something from you or I made a decision regarding the firm without consulting you, it was with that goal in mind."

"Really?" he shoots at her. "You were protecting me when you decided to tell Kessler about Lowe going back on their deal after you said you wouldn't?"

It feels like he's just slapped her. Like her brain can't process what she's heard, but her gut got the message just fine. She doesn't want to cry in front of him, however the tears come so fast her vision is blurry in a second. So she just turns around and walks away.

Harvey regrets the words before he even finishes saying them, but the look on Donna's face afterwards makes him want to go to Hardman with a gun and tell him to just pull the trigger, because he's the biggest fucking asshole, ever.

He watches her walk out of his office but the apology gets stuck behind the knot in his throat. He's so fucking tired. He's lost count of how many times this week he thought about just telling everyone to go to hell before grabbing her hand, taking her back to his apartment and doing nothing that couldn't be done from inside the perimeter of his bed.

He wants to close his eyes and hear nothing but her breathing, feel nothing but her body against his, and he wants to be home.

Donna decides everyone can go to hell, grabs her purse and heads to her apartment.

She kicks off her heels at the door, pours herself a glass of wine and almost spills half its contents when she lets herself fall against the sofa cushions. She's so fucking tired. And she's hurt. She had apologized to him the morning after they finally got their shit together for not trusting him to come through during Thomas' deal fiasco. She had been well in her rights to want to move on, but that didn't mean she hadn't made a wrong choice. And she's lost count of how many times in her mind she has apologized to him since, because she's never been good with letting go of guilt, especially when it comes to Harvey.

She wants to close her eyes and hear nothing but his heartbeat, fell nothing but his warmth around her, and she wants to be home.

It's a few hours later and he's standing in front of number 206. He knows he sucks at this, but he also knows what are the first words that need to come out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry", he says as soon as she opens the door.

She's still wearing the same dress she wore at the office, but her hair is messy, like she's been carelessly raking her hand through the strands, and she looks as exhausted as he feels. She steps aside, silently inviting him in.

"Do you want a drink?" she asks, making her way to the kitchen.

"Yeah."

He perches himself at edge of her dinning room table, keeping his distance as he watches her grab two glasses from the cupboard and set them down on the counter. His eyes follow her as she moves around and that alone soothes him. For the past thirteen years, whenever he felt himself drifting, just looking at her has usually been enough to ground him.

He only registers she's in front of him when she hands him his glass. He gently takes it along with the one she has in her other hand, setting them both on the table.

"I was out of line earlier", he begins. "When I yelled at you in your office… and in mine."

He rubs his forehead, shaking his head. "If I had to defend Doyle I would, but yeah, Louis will probably do a better job than me on this one. I guess I owe him an apology too", he adds sheepishly.

He takes her silence to mean she doesn't disagree.

She looks at him, tie hanging loose around his neck and hair sticking out at weird angles, like he's been aggressively raking his hand through the short strands. He looks as exhausted as she feels.

"What I said about Thomas", he starts with a deep breath.

"You're still angry with me about that", she interrupts him.

He looks up at her. "I was never angry with you, Donna."

"Could have fooled me."

He tilts his head and purses his lips.

"Fine", she concedes. "You weren't angry. But you were hurt. Still are", she adds the last part softly.

"Perhaps I am", he says.

"Harvey", she steps closer to him. "If I could go back and change it…"

"I know", he pauses. "But you shouldn't."

She's about to ask, but he beats her to it. "I'm here now, so everything turned out the way it was supposed to."

Her heart clenches at that, because the last time she herself had said those words, she'd been dead wrong. At this moment he's right, though, it's time they both let this go.

"You were right too", she tells him.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that so I can get it on record?" he says, and has the audacity to be goddamn smirking.

Donna rolls her eyes at him, biting a smile, and turns to walk away. He pulls her right back and wraps his arms around her waist, holding her in place.

"What was I right about?"

He still looks far too pleased with himself, but honesty deserves honesty, she thinks.

"About me changing the M.O."

Harvey looks surprised at that statement.

"Maybe I did want to avoid arguing with you now that we're…"

She doesn't finish the sentence because 'sleeping together' doesn't really cover it.

"Partners?" he offers.

From idiot to goddamn perfect in less than ten seconds.

"Yeah", she breathes softly.

"Don't worry", he blinks. "I've entered this relationship fully expecting that the lectures would increase in frequency, not the other way around."

And we're back to the first adjective.

Luckily for her, now she has a new and much more satisfying way to shut him up.

Home sweet home.