Chapter Text
From the Heart
"No."
Harvey feels the first tendrils of something that's definitely not panic clench his gut together, but he forces it down. This is a negotiation, after all, and if there is one thing he knows how to do, then it's how to negotiate a deal so that he gets what he wants.
To be fair though, most of the lawyers he's normally holding negotiations with don't hold a candle to his current foe. Hard brown eyes are staring back at him, and slowly but surely Harvey gets the feeling that he's not going to sway this particular negotiation in his favor.
So he does what any lawyer, and especially any man, worth their salt would have done – he tries flattery.
"You know that you're the only one who knows how to handle these things. I'd be completely lost without you."
One perfectly plucked eyebrow raises, and somehow Harvey feels just as chastised by that simple action as if his own mother had just given him one of her infamous lectures.
"That's exactly the problem, and the reason why my answer is and will remain no." Donna says, crossing her arms in front of her chest as if to underline her point. "It's your family, Harvey. You know them, you love them, and occasionally you seem to be capable of coherent thought. You should be able to put these things together and buy their Christmas presents all by yourself."
Harvey's palms are getting sweaty at the mere thought of what Donna is suggesting.
"Do I need to remind you what happened the last time I did what you're suggesting I do?"
Donna rolls her eyes at him, but it's clear from her posture that she is not going to budge on this one. Harvey is seriously going to reconsider her Christmas bonus if she keeps this up.
"I do remember all too vividly. In fact, every year since then your sister keeps asking me to remind you that just because she enjoyed her trip to Cuba does not mean she appreciates being gifted with cigars."
"That was one time," Harvey tries to interrupt, but Donna just brushes him off.
"She doesn't smoke. And even if she did, I doubt she'd smoke hand-rolled Cuban cigars."
"Well, we'll never know since she didn't even give it a try! Is it my fault now that she's so narrow-minded?"
Donna shakes her head and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. It's a clear sign that she's losing patience with him, and if Harvey wasn't this desperate for her help on the whole issue with the Christmas shopping, he'd probably see it as the warning he'd normally recognize it as.
"The fact that you'd rather have your sister pick up an unhealthy habit than admit that you didn't put any thought into her present is a sad, sad thing, Harvey. And that's exactly the reason why you're going to make an effort this year, and you're going to make it on your own. I'm not going to bail you out again, and if I receive only one e-mail or phone call that tells me that you gave your nephews shaving kits…,"
"It were quality sets, and Martin said they love to pretend they're shaving just like he does!"
"…that you gave your pre-pubescent nephews shaving kits with real blades, or that you bought your niece an abstract painting…"
"It was called The Dragon and the Princess! Little girls love that kind of thing!"
"It made her cry, Harvey! Linda sent me a photo of the thing and seeing it made me want to leave the lights on at night, so I don't want to hear another word about it. If I ever hear about any present like those again I will make you regret it. No matter if it's an investment into the future, or the work of an up-and-coming artist that's going to double in worth over the next couple of years, this year you are going to buy your family real Christmas presents. Things they can actually use, and which they're happy about. At the very least, you're going to go out and buy your niece and nephews some presents that they'll actually like!"
"They have trust funds!"
"Which is something your sister and brother-in-law are grateful for. And I'm sure the kids are going to appreciate it once they're old enough to understand that Uncle Harvey is putting them through college, but until then they're still children, and they don't want financial stability for Christmas, they want a present that shows them that their uncle cares about them. They don't need expensive gifts, Harvey." Donna's expression softens, and she puts a hand on his arm. "I know that you can do that if you just put some thought into it. I'm not going to help you evade this for another year, Harvey, and that's my final word on it."
She squeezes his arm once, and then she's gone from his office and back at her desk before Harvey can think of a suitable thing to say that would help him dodge this particular bullet. He's not going to sway Donna, that much is obvious from the looks she's shooting him through the his office's glass walls. Which is a problem.
For the past two years, Donna has coordinated his Christmas shopping for him. Not because of any kind of laziness on Harvey's part, and neither because he doesn't care about his family. He does. Harvey loves his family, though at times they drive him crazy. He's just not good at this whole gift-giving thing, and he never has been. It's easier to pick presents for the women he goes out with. There's a framework he can move in with those – a range from flowers and dinners to the rare case of jewelry – that, while it doesn't get him points for creativity, never proved wrong so far.
Family is…it's different. A whole lot more difficult, too. Harvey simply isn't good at translating feelings into gifts, and that won't change just because Donna leaves him stranded less than a week before Christmas Eve. He needs help, and the one person on the face of the planet who could help him refuses to do so.
He's definitely going to reconsider the size of Donna's Christmas bonus.
A knock on his office door tears him out of his musings, and when Harvey raises his head – not in the hope that Donna might have changed her mind and come in here to offer her apologies right along with her help, absolutely not – he is at first a little disappointed to see that it's not Donna but Mike who is coming into his office. But the disappointment quickly turns into an idea.
Mike.
Mike who oozes care all over the place like a leaky faucet.
Mike who surely has no problem translating feelings into appropriate Christmas gifts.
Mike who quite probably has a whole cache of ingenious gift ideas that he'd be more than willing to share with his boss.
Harvey is a lawyer. He's used to people trying to blind sight him, and one of his strengths has always been his ability to adapt to any new situation and turn it into a win. The beginning of a plan is starting to stir in the back of his mind, but he keeps his face impassive and does his best not to let anything on. Mike is not as good as he is at reading people, but he's not a slouch, either. It wouldn't do to let him in on the fact that something is up too quickly.
Mike steps up to the desk and holds out a file.
"The Panetti briefs, proofed, summarized and indexed, and on your desk ten minutes before the insane deadline you set me. Here you go."
Mike places the folder on Harvey's desk with a flourish, and Harvey picks it up and starts to flip through it. It's good work – and he has come to expect no less from his associate, but considering what he's about to ask of him, it's probably best to go for the carrot instead of for the stick for a change.
"That's good work, Mike."
Mike starts a little at that, just as if he hadn't expected the praise, and Harvey enjoys the small, satisfied smile that flits across his face for a second.
"Uh…thanks. You might want to look over clause 118b once more before you have it signed; the phrasing leaves the client open for litigation. I marked it and made a note. Do you have anything else for me? Because if you don't, Louis wants me to look up precedents for his current case."
Mike's face pulls into a small grimace at the mention of the junior partner's name, but he doesn't seem generally adverse to being subjected to library work for the rest of the afternoon. Harvey knows that Mike enjoys the occasional quiet hour or two in the library, flipping through reference works and taking in insane amounts of information, so he's not going to deny him that today.
"As long as you're done until four; Henderson pushed up his meeting one day."
Mike nods. "Sure thing. I should be long done by then."
"Good." Harvey takes a deep breath. Time to bite the bullet. He'll either do it now, or he knows he probably won't do it at all. Best to take it head-on. "Do you have any plans this Saturday?"
Mike's eyes widen for a moment, as if he had expected any possible question but that, and if Harvey didn't need his associate's help this badly it would be funny to watch him gape like a fish out of water.
"I…Satur…what?"
Harvey can't suppress the subsequent eye-roll entirely. "This Saturday. I need to get my Christmas shopping done, and I need company for that because if there's one thing I dislike nearly as much as I dislike Louis, it's Christmas shopping. So, do you have time?"
Mike only shakes his head. "You don't like Christmas shopping?"
The question is delivered with a degree of incredulity Harvey would have thought impossible up until this point, and he shakes his head with a sigh. Apparently, he's going to have to explain this in a lot more detail than he thought he'd have to.
"No, I don't. I don't like pushing through throngs of people, I don't like stores filled with frantic last-minute shoppers, I don't like the Christmas music they force you to endure in every single damn store. It grates on my nerves, and I don't have the patience for it. Normally, Donna does my Christmas shopping for me, but apparently she's on strike this year."
Mike raises his eyebrows, and Harvey has the feeling that he still doesn't get the point.
"And why can't you go on your own?"
Harvey sighs. "Because I'll go crazy if I have to face this madness on my own. Worst case scenario is that I do something I might regret, in which case I'll probably need a lawyer of my own, and you're going to be stuck working for Louis for the rest of eternity. And we both know you don't want that."
Mike shudders a little at the thought, but somehow Harvey has the feeling that it wouldn't have taken him painting such a drastic scenario to convince the younger man.
"So you want me to stop you from going on a Christmas shopping rampage?"
"And maybe help me pick out some presents, since I've been told that I'm not particularly good at it."
Mike considers this for a moment, then he nods.
"All right."
"All right?"
"All right, I'll help you with your shopping. I don't mind Christmas shopping, and I need to get Grammy's present this weekend, anyway. As long as you don't mind combining the two, I'll help you with your shopping afterwards."
"Sounds good to me. Ray and I are going to pick you up at your place at 10 am sharp."
Mike nods again. "Okay. So, unless you have something else you need my help with, I'm going to bury myself in precedents in real estate law until our meeting."
"Have fun," Harvey brings out in way of dismissal, and with a grin Mike turns around and leaves the office. Harvey sits there for a moment, then he breathes a sigh of relief and reaches for the file Mike brought him. He's not yet sure what to expect from this upcoming shopping trip, but he won't have to tackle the whole Christmas shopping mess on his own and that alone is worth something.
Mike is a caring soul, he'll surely have plenty of ideas that are going to help Harvey out of his tight spot. He's going to show Donna that he doesn't need her help with this after all.
Maybe he'll give Donna's Christmas bonus to Mike instead. That'll teach her.