Archive of Our Own ^beta

Harvey grabs a folder from a drawer, gets up and follows him, looking at Donna and motioning minutely for her to follow him. She does, trailing after them until they reach Louis' office. Jessica's there, on the couch, hunched over a folder.

Louis takes the chair that faces the corridor, while Harvey sits down next to Jessica, leaving the remaining chair next to him free for her. She sits down quietly, unsure of what she's witnessing.

"Okay, so, I have all the forms if you want to sign them now," Louis begins, opening a file in front of him. "We should start with 401(k) and insurance policies."

Donna frowns, looking at Harvey.

"All to Marcus," he replies decisively, opening his own folder and taking out a sheet of paper he slides smoothly across the desk to Louis. The man examines it and hums his approval, storing the page beneath a stack of papers before he checks something off on a notepad in front of him. 

"Alright. Bank account?" Louis goes on.

"Donna," Harvey says as he fishes out another sheet from his folder.

"Yes," she turns to him, but he's reading the document in his hand.

"Investments?" Louis cuts in.

"Donna as well," Harvey retorts before he places the document in front of her. 

"What?" her frown deepens and there's a slight tremble to her voice. Her eyes switch between Harvey, Louis and Jessica, but she seems to be the only one out of the loop. Her stomach flips, a sense of unease making her skin crawl.

Harvey finally leans closer. "This," he motions to the paper he just set down, "Is a list of all my passcodes and additional information to access my bank accounts and investment accounts. You already have all the numbers and institutions." He fishes out another document. "This is the power of attorney, it gives you full rights to access all my funds. If you ever have any problem, call Louis."

Donna feels like she's in a parallel dimension, like reality shifted and turned upside down and only she stayed up.

"Harvey-" she tries to protest, tries to make sense of what they're saying, of what exactly is happening here, but he's already extending the power of attorney to Louis without paying her any more mind.

"Alright," Louis ticks off a few more items on his list, "Disposable assets. Your cars?"

"The Aston to you, the Lexus to Marcus," Harvey replies and hands him another paper.

"Thank you," Louis says, a playful lilt to his voice. 

Harvey smirks, "Don't be smug, you knew that already."

Louis shakes his head, scribbling something, "Just nice to know your word still holds up." And then he chuckles, followed by Jessica and Harvey. Donna wants to scream; she feels almost invisible in the room, and she's not used to being kept in the dark, especially not by Harvey, especially not with this kind of thing. The whole moment feels like an inside joke, and while she can tell she's not the butt of it, she's definitely not in on it either.

She wrings her hands on her lap trying to settle her nerves. At some point someone is bound to explain this to her - they have to.

"Your father's records?"

"Donna can have whichever ones she wants, the rest goes to Marcus."

"What? Harvey," she turns to him again, stricken, dread curling up her spine. It almost feels like-

Louis moves on, rattling off items on his list as Harvey gives out commands, and Donna feels a surge of sickness, like she's trapped underwater. 

"Harvey," she tries again, more forcefully, eyes fixed on his profile. He infuriatingly continues to ignore her, discussing something with Jessica.

"What the hell is going on here?" Donna finally snaps, her voice loud enough to silence everyone else and draw their eyes to her.

Louis and Jessica turn to Harvey, a seemingly sheepish look in their faces.

Harvey sighs heavily. "We're planning my estate. We've always known Anita Gibbs might get to me. I just want to make sure I have all my affairs in order, just in case."

Donna's brain scrambles to connect the dots. Harvey hasn't even been formally accused of anything - not yet, at least - and she thought they were confident in their strategy. Harvey can't possibly think he'll go to jail. And even if he did, why would he need estate planning?

"Planning your estate? How long do you think you'd be in jail for?" she frowns, struggling to keep up.

"Not that long, but it's just easier to transfer some of my assets for tax reasons, and it's jail, I don't want to be caught unprepared," he explains tightly, clearly not wanting to get into it.

"Caught unprepared by what?" Donna insists, narrowing her eyes, suspicious and unsure and feeling unsafe, like something big and dangerous is at play and she doesn't know how to respond.

"Donna," Harvey gives her one of their significant looks and locks his jaw, the signature moves for 'Not now'. She wants to press him, ask him what makes him think he'll even be arrested, let alone jumped in the yard badly enough that Donna will have to collect the jazz albums assigned to her in his will. It's all surreal and utterly disturbing and she wants to scream at him again. But this is an important conversation, one she doesn't want to have in front of Louis and Jessica. So she just presses her lips together and grits her teeth indignantly.

Harvey nods at Louis.

"Okay. Now property. Your condo?" 

"Jessica?" Harvey turns to the woman. 

"I have it here, signed and certified," Jessica slides her folder forward, and Donna catches a glimpse of what's inside it - a donation agreement.

"The Boston apartment?"

"I drafted it in Lily's name with the express provision that she transfer it to Marcus within five years, it's all cleared with her lawyer," he explains and hands Louis another donation agreement and the deed. Donna swallows, dizzy from the fact that she didn't even know he had a Boston apartment, and from the fact that he's giving it to his mother as if it's nothing.

"The West Village one?"

The West Village one?

"Marcus."

"The brownstone?"

"It was already in Donna's name, but I have the terminated lease and the rest of the paperwork here."

What.

Donna turns to him immediately, mouth agape and eyes wide, but Harvey just shoot her a sideways glance.

A brownstone? In her name? What the fuck?

Her heart is racing, pulse thrumming in her veins. The whole atmosphere of the room is gloomy - all four tired and disgruntled and overworked. Harvey is giving away his possessions as if he’s in his death bed and Louis and Jessica seem to be fine with it. And now she hears there’s a house - a brownstone - in her name out there somewhere.

It’s insane and absurd and she feels so overwhelmed she can barely comprehend what all this means. She remains in a state of complete shock, counting down the seconds until this shitshow is over so she can get a proper explanation.

And soon it is. Harvey hands Louis a few more documents, they all sign stuff - she doesn't even read anything she signs, too stunned to string the letters together - and Louis and Jessica get up.

Donna follows Harvey down the hall back to his office and watches, silently planted by the door, as he gets his jacket and closes his laptop.

"Are you fucking serious?" she finally asks, exasperated. She is well aware Harvey is the captain of avoidance, but even so it's hard to believe he'd essentially name her his heir and carry on with life normally.

He sighs heavily once again, as if she's a nuisance, or being unreasonable. He drops his jacket and makes his way over to the whisky, pouring himself a glass.

"I'm a lawyer, Donna. I need to think of these things. It doesn't mean anything," he offers by way of explanation.

"And were you planning on telling me?" she crosses her arms and takes a few steps towards him as he heads to his desk, leaning back against it, his back curving in defeat.

"It didn't really occur to me, no," he purses his lips and faces her defiantly. She can hardly believe his nerve, not only to do all that but to give her this kind of lip afterwards.

"Oh, so I was supposed to just wake up one day owning all your money?" she sasses and it's such a ludicrous scenario - in any other moment she'd be thrilled to be suddenly entrusted with management of all of Harvey's accounts. But not like this. Not when it's real and when the implications of that are swimming nauseatingly in her stomach.

"Donna, this is just precaution," he drops her gaze and wipes a tired hand across his forehead. "Louis handles all my affairs and you know how he is with these things. We'd probably end up doing it at some point anyway, this just provided context."

Donna shakes her head, completely unwilling to agree to even entertain any other possibility than Harvey owning all of his assets for many, many more years to come.

"Look," he starts again, a little softer this time, "I trust Mike. But I don't know what's gonna happen. And, if push comes to shove, I don't want to have to worry about this. I've discussed this with Louis before, he knows what to do and when. Tonight was just dotting i's and crossing t's." He extends her his glass and she debates for a moment before closing the distance and accepting the offer. The liquid burns a bitter trail down her throat and she hisses.

She licks the inside of her teeth, watching him as she gathers her thoughts. "And now I own half of your estate?"

He snickers, his eyes taking on that insufferable gleam. "You don't really own anything yet. Not until Louis files all the paperwork. And that might never happen, so you'll just have to settle for the usual complete control of my corporate card."

It's just like him to joke about something like this, but it somehow helps. She lets out a long exhale, dropping her shoulders and releasing part of the tension that's been sitting there for the past hour. Donna bites her cheek and shakes her head. "Harvey, I don't need this. Shouldn't you have left it all to Marcus?"

"Are you kidding me? You know how much money is in there. Marcus is terrible with money, I don't want him to squander all my fortune,” Harvey rolls his eyes. “The insurance payments will be enough to keep him happy for a while, after that you can arrange whatever you want with him," he smirks and takes another sip of his whisky.

Despite the fact that she has no ties whatsoever to him, she has to admit he has a point. Marcus wouldn't know how to handle it. And she does already have access to all his accounts, she knows how he invests and how he manages his assets. It's just... surreal, to think that if anything were to happen to Harvey, she'd inherit all of that. The enormity of that statement, of its meaning, bumps against all the other doubts floating in her head and she can't seem to latch onto one, can't seem to untangle the threads in her brain.

Donna chews on her bottom lip for a minute before she finally settles on what to ask next.

"And the brownstone?"

Harvey stares down into his glass, swirling the liquid inside. "What about it?"

"Care to explain what that was all about?"

"I occasionally like to invest in property," he tries. She glares at his attempt at deflecting.

He sighs. "You probably don't even remember this but you mentioned wanting a brownstone once. Back when we had just started here. It sounded like a good idea, so I bought one," Harvey shrugs, as if that explains everything.

"And it's in my name because...?" she lifts her brows pointedly.

"Well..." he trails off, one hand coming up to scratch his cheek, "Because you wanted it."

Just like that.

She almost laughs.

"You bought me a house because I wanted it? Harvey, what the fuck?"

"Donna, it's not a big deal. You commented you'd like to have a brownstone someday. I saw one on the market some days later, thought it was a good business opportunity. I've been renting it out, I wasn't planning on passing it over to you yet, I just bought it in your name to make the transfer easier down the line." He says it like it really isn't a big deal, but she can hear the nervousness in his voice clear as day.

"Why put it in my name at all?"

He hesitates, looks around the room as if searching for the answer. "I don't have a lot of family, Donna. And I'm not going to pretend I'm sentimental, but you know it's not about the money for me. It only makes sense if I can do something with it. I know I don't-" he stops, swallows, and Donna feels her throat constrict. "I'm not... good at this," he continues carefully, "But it doesn't mean it's not true."

He looks at her then, carefully, reservedly. His eyes are soft and deep and it’s surprising that, even through the audible nervousness in his voice, he holds her gaze steadily. Donna isn't sure exactly what he was going to say, but somehow she knows exactly what he means.

Harvey has always been a man of action. He doesn't talk about his feelings, but, even despite their fight - the unbearable chasm that opened up between them, that she is still trying to understand and fully bridge - you can always see how Harvey feels about someone.

He cares about her, that much has always been clear. And maybe he couldn't tell her how he loved her all those months ago, but he did buy her a house. The house she wanted. The house she told him she wanted as a throwaway comment who knows how many years ago.

She can hardly believe he even listened. The fact that he actually bought it, that he was going to give it to her someday is... It’s exactly the type of disproportionate, outlandish, incredibly thoughtful thing Harvey does. He’s a mess of opposites, always in constant struggle with himself because he doesn’t want to let emotion show but he can’t help it.

She wishes he’d told her how he loved her. She wishes he’d told her so many things through the years, from cases to feelings to her. But he’s telling her something now. Something about family, and legacy, and trust, and care. He’s telling her about the future - their future, her future - and he’s telling her about selflessness and just who he is willing to be selfless for.

And this realization settles heavily in her gut, makes her chest warm and her eyes swim.

It's a lot to process, a lot to unpack. She wants to say something, to squeeze more out of him, to understand. But she feels drained by this week and this conversation and the mess they are all in, and Harvey doesn't seem to be faring much better. And so she figures there is not much harm in letting it slide, letting this little giant thing slide into the corner like every other little giant thing they have ever been through.

And, at the end of it all, she's grateful. So grateful for him and to him. And scared and worried and completely pissed off. But tonight she's choosing grateful.

Even as she feels her heart thundering against her ribcage, she squares her jaw. "Well, for the record, I could have paid for it myself."

His eyes lift to hers again and his lips stretch into a tired grin. "I know you could. But then I'd miss the chance to force you to admit I'm actually a good gift giver."

"Please," Donna rolls her eyes, "This is one out of thousands."

"Yeah, but it's a house," he presses on, clearly amused by her ribbing.

She falls silent again, as does he. She doesn't thank him, doesn't even know if she should thank him because if she does get the house and the money and the records, the last thing she'll be feeling is thankful. But the gratitude for him is still there, and she lets it shine in her eyes as she fixes his stare with hers. He seems to understand, because he just nods once and finishes his drink.

.

A few days later, Mike makes a deal. 

Harvey is no longer under any kind of threat from Anita Gibbs. The documents and agreements they signed that night all get shredded, except for the ones pertaining to the brownstone.

Donna visits it one weekend, runs her fingertips down the wall, takes in the space and the street and light and she thinks, One day, maybe.