FIC: Number One Priority (Marvey, Suits USA)
Title: Number One Priority
Author: take_this_waltz / sal-si-puedes on tumblr
Fandom: Marvey (Suits USA)
Work Type: Fic
Characters: Harvey Specter/Mike Ross, Jessica Pearson, Donna Paulsen, OMC
Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~2.3k
Spoilers: none
Written For: hannahcarrietta
Summary: In a society where Omegas have to be registered and are excluded from most activities and jobs and unbonded Alphas are regarded as society’s most esteemed and valuable assets, Harvey finds all he holds dear in life in danger when he gets summoned to Jessica’s office one morning.
Warnings: Alpha/Omega dynamics, but nothing graphic; mentions of mpreg; kid!fic (in a way)
Read it: On LJ // on AO3
A/N: hannahcarrietta - thank you SO much for the prompt and for “buying” me! I had a blast writing this and I hope it is what you wanted.
Number One Priority
Harvey can count the times he has been summoned to Jessica’s office like this on the fingers of one hand, so he knows that something is profoundly wrong even before he steps through her door. When Jessica merely raises her head and lets her eyes dart to the chair opposite her in lieu of a welcome, he silently crosses the room and sits down on the other side of the desk, folding his hands in his lap.
Jessica doesn’t speak nor move for the longest time and when she finally does move, she hands Harvey a small, rectangular piece of cardboard.
It’s a photograph and what is in it causes Harvey’s heart to miss a couple of beats.
He stares at the picture for what seems like an eternity and only when he can’t bear the sight of it any longer does he lift his gaze.
The way Jessica tilts her head when their eyes meet would most certainly go unnoticed by anyone who doesn’t know her that well. Harvey does notice, though, being very familiar with Jessica’s every tic and whim after over fifteen years of working together, side by side and day after day.
“Who is that?”
Jessica’s voice sounds flat, curt, and her words cause Harvey to flinch inwardly. On the outside he keeps as calm as he possibly can and shrugs his shoulders.
“I don’t know.”
“Harvey,” Jessica says and a sharp note creeps into her voice. “Who is that?”
After a few breathless seconds, Harvey lowers his gaze again and stares at the picture in his hands once more.
“Jessica-“ he whispers but the woman on the other side of the desk, his boss, his partner in business, his friend cuts him off harshly.
“I will ask you this just one more time. Who. Is. That?”
A boy, a beautiful scrawny little boy, about ten years old and a little small for his age, with dark blond hair, blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Autumn leaves and dusty rays of sunlight, a beaming smile and a shadow at his side. Two shadows, actually, but you can’t make that out in the picture, not really, not clearly enough to see.
“How did you get that?” Harvey has to clear his throat twice to get that one question out. “Who-“
“That is not the subject of this conversation.” Jessica gets more and more impatient by the minute and Harvey knows that she’s just seconds away from exploding into a calm fit of pure cutting cold rage.
The tension in the room increases exponentially with every moment that passes in silence and it’s slowly but gradually wearing down Harvey’s resolves. He knows what Jessica is doing, he has used that tactic, that strategy a thousand times and a thousand times over himself, but still he doesn’t seem to be able to prevent it from working on him. He knows that he’s going to fold sooner or later, so he takes a deep breath and looks up, looks at her again.
“That is Scott. My son.”
Harvey watches how Jessica moves ever so slightly, how she nods and shifts in her chair a little, how she leans forward, closer to him, and it seems as if everything is happening in slow-motion. Harvey’s heavy, viscous heartbeat and the low roar of his blood in his veins fill his ears and he feels dizzy, light-headed.
“Whose is he?”
Harvey tries to stand his ground, to hold Jessica’s gaze, but he can’t keep his eyes from fluttering down, from brushing over Scott’s beaming features once more and over the two shadows that look like one. He places the photograph onto the desk’s wooden surface, slowly and carefully.
“Mine,” he finally says and Jessica shakes her head.
“Harvey, whose is he?” She sits back and crosses her legs, smiling ever so faintly. “You’ve apparently kept him hidden for what? Nine years? Ten? And you are an Alpha, so-Whose is he?”
“Mine,” Harvey repeats, clenching his jaws until his teeth violently and painfully grind against each other. “He’s-He’s-Mine. Just mine.”
“He’s an Omega, I assume?”
Harvey just nods and he can feel how the blood drains from his face. She knows. She knows so much, far too much.
“He’s not registered,” Jessica carries on and picks up the picture, turning it over in her hands and tapping against it with her meticulously manicured nails. Red daggers.
“No,” Harvey mouths and swallows drily. “No, he isn’t.”
“Look, Harvey.”
Harvey hates the fake gentleness, the fake fairness in Jessica’s words. He hates that she has a right, that she has every right to do this.
“There are exactly three ways we can do this. You tell me,” she counts One with her fingers, “whose that Omega is.” Two. “Or I can have you scanned.”
Harvey’s body betrays him with a shiver he isn’t entirely able to suppress and he cringes at Jessica’s smile widening.
“Or.” Three. “I can have him scanned.” She nods towards the picture in her hands and before Harvey can even finish thinking it a word is out of his mouth. One word.
“No.”
“What’s it going to be, then, Harvey?”
Harvey swallows and rubs his palms over his thighs. They’re sweaty and his hands are shaking.
“Are you going to tell me or-“
“Please,” Harvey whispers and closes his eyes. He will do anything. Anything. “Don’t make me do this.”
“You know what,” Jessica snaps and Harvey visibly flinches. “Let’s make this a little easier for you. Limit your options. You tell me or he gets scanned.”
Harvey knows she could do it, he knows she would. She has every right, but he hopes against hope that she’ll let it go. She doesn’t.
“Decide.”
Taking a deep breath, Harvey can feel how the fiery ball of fear and anger in his stomach settles there for good. He straightens his back and raises his head, looking her square in the eyes.
“He’s Mike’s.”
He holds her gaze for as long as he can but when she speaks again, he averts his eyes.
“Mike Ross?”
When his chest constricts around Harvey’s heart, he wonders if she’s doing this on purpose or if she’s just surprised. If she really wants him to betray Mike again.
“Yes.” He closes his eyes and bites his lips. Please, he thinks, don’t make me do this again.
“Mike Ross is an Omega,” Jessica drawls, the hint of a question swinging in her words, and Harvey doesn’t want to listen. He doesn’t want to hear the realizations spoken out loud. “An unregistered Omega.”
“Yes.” His voice has dropped to a mere whisper and he grinds his teeth together so forcefully his jaws hurt.
“And this,” she raises her hand that holds the picture of Scott up a little so he’s forced to look at it again, nodding towards the portrait. “And this is his son. Your son.”
“Yes,” Harvey presses through his teeth and he feels as if he can’t get enough air into his lungs. “Jessica-“
“Shut up,” she interrupts him curtly and leans forward again. “You know I have to report this.”
“Jessica,” Harvey tries again, whispering through his pain and fear. “Please don’t do this. They-They are all I have.”
“No, they’re not.” With a quick movement, Jessica rises from her chair and pushes it backwards, leaning forward, her hands left and right of her laptop, the picture of Scott sliding across the table towards Harvey’s side. “This-“ She gestures vaguely around the room and then at herself. “This is all you have. This. This firm. This job. This partnership. You’re a name partner of this firm, Harvey. My partner. This is your number one priority. This.”
“You-“ Harvey blinks and clears his throat. He doesn’t know how to say this. He isn’t prepared. “You don’t understand-“
“Goddammit, Harvey,” Jessica cuts into his words a second before he would have fallen silent by himself. He can see the look on her face change as realization slowly seeps through. “Goddammit,” she echoes and sits down again, paling visibly. “You claimed him.”
There is nothing left to say. There is only a head left to be held high and dark, glittering eyes to meet with one’s own.
“You bonded with him.”
Harvey breathes. In and out, deeply and slowly, trying to mask the tremble in his breathing.
“You fucking son of a bitch.”
Jessica almost never uses profanities and her cold outburst causes Harvey to flinch. He still doesn’t know what to say so he keeps his mouth shut and his hands balled into tight fists on his thighs.
“You betrayed me. You betrayed this firm, Harvey.”
“I know.” His own voice sounds unused to him, rusty, raw. “I am sorry.”
“How long? How long has this charade been going on?”
“Jessica, I-“
“How long, Harvey. I have a right to know.”
“Twelve years next month,” Harvey confesses almost tonelessly. Two years before Scott was born, he adds in his thoughts. Twelve years. A whole lifetime.
“To think,” a slight shake of her head accompanies Jessica’s words when she finally breaks the deafening silence, “how good you could have been all those years had this been your main focus as it should have been. As you pretended it was. As you got paid for. As this firm-as I had every right to expect of you.”
“I am sorry,” Harvey says again, biting his lips. He keeps his thoughts fixed on his goal. His only goal. His family. His number one priority. He will do anything. He keeps his eyes fixed on Jessica’s.
“You know I have to report this,” Jessica says again and Harvey nods. He knows. Of course he knows. He has done the same more than once over the years. He knows that this is over.
“I know. Just-“ He swallows around the dry lump in his throat and briefly pulls his lower lip between his teeth. “Just let me call them. Please. One phone call. Just let me call Mike so they can-“
Jessica narrows her eyes and Harvey knows he has lost. His mind is still fixed on his goal but he knows that he has failed his family. He takes a deep breath and-
“I am informing you,” Jessica says, her expression absolutely neutral, “that your services here at the firm are no longer needed. And amending all of those by-laws accordingly will take up most of my time today, thanks to you, so-“ She quickly tilts her wrist to glance at her watch while Harvey holds his breath. “So I think I won’t be able to contact the authorities on this matter before 6 p.m. tonight.”
Jessica briefly nods at Harvey and returns her attention to her laptop. “That will be all, Mr. Specter.”
As if in a haze, Harvey reaches out to pick up the photograph and rises from his chair ever so slowly. He walks towards the door of Jessica’s office without looking back und before he closes the door behind himself he stops and turns around.
“Thank you.”
Jessica doesn’t even look up from the keyboard but Harvey thinks he sees a small smile playing on her lips.
*****
“Donna, call Mike. Tell him to be ready to leave in an hour.”
Harvey strides past Donna’s cubicle and into his office. He has to keep a clear head now, he has focus on what’s most important. His number one priority.
“Tell him to be here in an hour. Tell him to bring the pick-up.”
He can sense how Donna rises from her chair and follows him into his office.
“Oh my god, she found out.”
“Yeah,” Harvey confirms and briefly turns around to look at her. “She’s giving us a day’s head start.”
Donna bites her lips and covers her hand with her mouth before she speaks again, watching Harvey rummage through the files on his desk.
“You’re making a run for it.”
“Yeah,” Harvey nods again and stuffs some papers into his briefcase. He then walks around the desk and casts a glance around his office. Donna walks up to him and he hands her the photograph.
“Here, keep this.”
“Harvey, I’m so sorry, I never meant-“
“It’s all right, Donna,” he soothes, touching her upper arm briefly. “It’s not your fault.”
“Will you-“
“Yeah, we will,” Harvey says, smiling. “We got twelve years like this, we never thought it’d last that long. We are prepared.”
He nods at her and makes his way for the elevators. He knows she’s on the phone talking to Mike before the doors slide open and he steps into the cabin.
*****
Donna watches from the huge windows of Harvey’s empty office how fifty stories below a large brown pick-up truck slows down in front of the building and stops at the curb.
She watches Harvey step out of the building’s shadow and the driver’s door open. Mike climbs out and walks around the front end of the car to where Harvey is standing. He stops one step away from the other man and they look at each other for a long, quiet moment. Donna can’t see if any of the two says anything but after a while Mike closes the distance and steps right into Harvey’s embrace. They hold on to each other for the longest time and only when the front passenger’s door flies open and a small, scrawny boy of about ten years of age jumps out, a boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a beaming smile, do they let go.
Harvey crouches down and Scott flies into his arms. He lifts him up and smiles at Mike, nodding. Mike takes their son from Harvey’s arm and climbs into the passenger seat with him on his lap.
Donna watches Harvey walk around the car and climb into the driver’s seat. She watches how the car sets into motion, gathers speed and finally disappears around a corner at a green traffic light.
She looks down at the picture in her hands and she smiles.
They will be all right.
~fin~
Author: take_this_waltz / sal-si-puedes on tumblr
Fandom: Marvey (Suits USA)
Work Type: Fic
Characters: Harvey Specter/Mike Ross, Jessica Pearson, Donna Paulsen, OMC
Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~2.3k
Spoilers: none
Written For: hannahcarrietta
Summary: In a society where Omegas have to be registered and are excluded from most activities and jobs and unbonded Alphas are regarded as society’s most esteemed and valuable assets, Harvey finds all he holds dear in life in danger when he gets summoned to Jessica’s office one morning.
Warnings: Alpha/Omega dynamics, but nothing graphic; mentions of mpreg; kid!fic (in a way)
Read it: On LJ // on AO3
A/N: hannahcarrietta - thank you SO much for the prompt and for “buying” me! I had a blast writing this and I hope it is what you wanted.
Number One Priority
Harvey can count the times he has been summoned to Jessica’s office like this on the fingers of one hand, so he knows that something is profoundly wrong even before he steps through her door. When Jessica merely raises her head and lets her eyes dart to the chair opposite her in lieu of a welcome, he silently crosses the room and sits down on the other side of the desk, folding his hands in his lap.
Jessica doesn’t speak nor move for the longest time and when she finally does move, she hands Harvey a small, rectangular piece of cardboard.
It’s a photograph and what is in it causes Harvey’s heart to miss a couple of beats.
He stares at the picture for what seems like an eternity and only when he can’t bear the sight of it any longer does he lift his gaze.
The way Jessica tilts her head when their eyes meet would most certainly go unnoticed by anyone who doesn’t know her that well. Harvey does notice, though, being very familiar with Jessica’s every tic and whim after over fifteen years of working together, side by side and day after day.
“Who is that?”
Jessica’s voice sounds flat, curt, and her words cause Harvey to flinch inwardly. On the outside he keeps as calm as he possibly can and shrugs his shoulders.
“I don’t know.”
“Harvey,” Jessica says and a sharp note creeps into her voice. “Who is that?”
After a few breathless seconds, Harvey lowers his gaze again and stares at the picture in his hands once more.
“Jessica-“ he whispers but the woman on the other side of the desk, his boss, his partner in business, his friend cuts him off harshly.
“I will ask you this just one more time. Who. Is. That?”
A boy, a beautiful scrawny little boy, about ten years old and a little small for his age, with dark blond hair, blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Autumn leaves and dusty rays of sunlight, a beaming smile and a shadow at his side. Two shadows, actually, but you can’t make that out in the picture, not really, not clearly enough to see.
“How did you get that?” Harvey has to clear his throat twice to get that one question out. “Who-“
“That is not the subject of this conversation.” Jessica gets more and more impatient by the minute and Harvey knows that she’s just seconds away from exploding into a calm fit of pure cutting cold rage.
The tension in the room increases exponentially with every moment that passes in silence and it’s slowly but gradually wearing down Harvey’s resolves. He knows what Jessica is doing, he has used that tactic, that strategy a thousand times and a thousand times over himself, but still he doesn’t seem to be able to prevent it from working on him. He knows that he’s going to fold sooner or later, so he takes a deep breath and looks up, looks at her again.
“That is Scott. My son.”
Harvey watches how Jessica moves ever so slightly, how she nods and shifts in her chair a little, how she leans forward, closer to him, and it seems as if everything is happening in slow-motion. Harvey’s heavy, viscous heartbeat and the low roar of his blood in his veins fill his ears and he feels dizzy, light-headed.
“Whose is he?”
Harvey tries to stand his ground, to hold Jessica’s gaze, but he can’t keep his eyes from fluttering down, from brushing over Scott’s beaming features once more and over the two shadows that look like one. He places the photograph onto the desk’s wooden surface, slowly and carefully.
“Mine,” he finally says and Jessica shakes her head.
“Harvey, whose is he?” She sits back and crosses her legs, smiling ever so faintly. “You’ve apparently kept him hidden for what? Nine years? Ten? And you are an Alpha, so-Whose is he?”
“Mine,” Harvey repeats, clenching his jaws until his teeth violently and painfully grind against each other. “He’s-He’s-Mine. Just mine.”
“He’s an Omega, I assume?”
Harvey just nods and he can feel how the blood drains from his face. She knows. She knows so much, far too much.
“He’s not registered,” Jessica carries on and picks up the picture, turning it over in her hands and tapping against it with her meticulously manicured nails. Red daggers.
“No,” Harvey mouths and swallows drily. “No, he isn’t.”
“Look, Harvey.”
Harvey hates the fake gentleness, the fake fairness in Jessica’s words. He hates that she has a right, that she has every right to do this.
“There are exactly three ways we can do this. You tell me,” she counts One with her fingers, “whose that Omega is.” Two. “Or I can have you scanned.”
Harvey’s body betrays him with a shiver he isn’t entirely able to suppress and he cringes at Jessica’s smile widening.
“Or.” Three. “I can have him scanned.” She nods towards the picture in her hands and before Harvey can even finish thinking it a word is out of his mouth. One word.
“No.”
“What’s it going to be, then, Harvey?”
Harvey swallows and rubs his palms over his thighs. They’re sweaty and his hands are shaking.
“Are you going to tell me or-“
“Please,” Harvey whispers and closes his eyes. He will do anything. Anything. “Don’t make me do this.”
“You know what,” Jessica snaps and Harvey visibly flinches. “Let’s make this a little easier for you. Limit your options. You tell me or he gets scanned.”
Harvey knows she could do it, he knows she would. She has every right, but he hopes against hope that she’ll let it go. She doesn’t.
“Decide.”
Taking a deep breath, Harvey can feel how the fiery ball of fear and anger in his stomach settles there for good. He straightens his back and raises his head, looking her square in the eyes.
“He’s Mike’s.”
He holds her gaze for as long as he can but when she speaks again, he averts his eyes.
“Mike Ross?”
When his chest constricts around Harvey’s heart, he wonders if she’s doing this on purpose or if she’s just surprised. If she really wants him to betray Mike again.
“Yes.” He closes his eyes and bites his lips. Please, he thinks, don’t make me do this again.
“Mike Ross is an Omega,” Jessica drawls, the hint of a question swinging in her words, and Harvey doesn’t want to listen. He doesn’t want to hear the realizations spoken out loud. “An unregistered Omega.”
“Yes.” His voice has dropped to a mere whisper and he grinds his teeth together so forcefully his jaws hurt.
“And this,” she raises her hand that holds the picture of Scott up a little so he’s forced to look at it again, nodding towards the portrait. “And this is his son. Your son.”
“Yes,” Harvey presses through his teeth and he feels as if he can’t get enough air into his lungs. “Jessica-“
“Shut up,” she interrupts him curtly and leans forward again. “You know I have to report this.”
“Jessica,” Harvey tries again, whispering through his pain and fear. “Please don’t do this. They-They are all I have.”
“No, they’re not.” With a quick movement, Jessica rises from her chair and pushes it backwards, leaning forward, her hands left and right of her laptop, the picture of Scott sliding across the table towards Harvey’s side. “This-“ She gestures vaguely around the room and then at herself. “This is all you have. This. This firm. This job. This partnership. You’re a name partner of this firm, Harvey. My partner. This is your number one priority. This.”
“You-“ Harvey blinks and clears his throat. He doesn’t know how to say this. He isn’t prepared. “You don’t understand-“
“Goddammit, Harvey,” Jessica cuts into his words a second before he would have fallen silent by himself. He can see the look on her face change as realization slowly seeps through. “Goddammit,” she echoes and sits down again, paling visibly. “You claimed him.”
There is nothing left to say. There is only a head left to be held high and dark, glittering eyes to meet with one’s own.
“You bonded with him.”
Harvey breathes. In and out, deeply and slowly, trying to mask the tremble in his breathing.
“You fucking son of a bitch.”
Jessica almost never uses profanities and her cold outburst causes Harvey to flinch. He still doesn’t know what to say so he keeps his mouth shut and his hands balled into tight fists on his thighs.
“You betrayed me. You betrayed this firm, Harvey.”
“I know.” His own voice sounds unused to him, rusty, raw. “I am sorry.”
“How long? How long has this charade been going on?”
“Jessica, I-“
“How long, Harvey. I have a right to know.”
“Twelve years next month,” Harvey confesses almost tonelessly. Two years before Scott was born, he adds in his thoughts. Twelve years. A whole lifetime.
“To think,” a slight shake of her head accompanies Jessica’s words when she finally breaks the deafening silence, “how good you could have been all those years had this been your main focus as it should have been. As you pretended it was. As you got paid for. As this firm-as I had every right to expect of you.”
“I am sorry,” Harvey says again, biting his lips. He keeps his thoughts fixed on his goal. His only goal. His family. His number one priority. He will do anything. He keeps his eyes fixed on Jessica’s.
“You know I have to report this,” Jessica says again and Harvey nods. He knows. Of course he knows. He has done the same more than once over the years. He knows that this is over.
“I know. Just-“ He swallows around the dry lump in his throat and briefly pulls his lower lip between his teeth. “Just let me call them. Please. One phone call. Just let me call Mike so they can-“
Jessica narrows her eyes and Harvey knows he has lost. His mind is still fixed on his goal but he knows that he has failed his family. He takes a deep breath and-
“I am informing you,” Jessica says, her expression absolutely neutral, “that your services here at the firm are no longer needed. And amending all of those by-laws accordingly will take up most of my time today, thanks to you, so-“ She quickly tilts her wrist to glance at her watch while Harvey holds his breath. “So I think I won’t be able to contact the authorities on this matter before 6 p.m. tonight.”
Jessica briefly nods at Harvey and returns her attention to her laptop. “That will be all, Mr. Specter.”
As if in a haze, Harvey reaches out to pick up the photograph and rises from his chair ever so slowly. He walks towards the door of Jessica’s office without looking back und before he closes the door behind himself he stops and turns around.
“Thank you.”
Jessica doesn’t even look up from the keyboard but Harvey thinks he sees a small smile playing on her lips.
*****
“Donna, call Mike. Tell him to be ready to leave in an hour.”
Harvey strides past Donna’s cubicle and into his office. He has to keep a clear head now, he has focus on what’s most important. His number one priority.
“Tell him to be here in an hour. Tell him to bring the pick-up.”
He can sense how Donna rises from her chair and follows him into his office.
“Oh my god, she found out.”
“Yeah,” Harvey confirms and briefly turns around to look at her. “She’s giving us a day’s head start.”
Donna bites her lips and covers her hand with her mouth before she speaks again, watching Harvey rummage through the files on his desk.
“You’re making a run for it.”
“Yeah,” Harvey nods again and stuffs some papers into his briefcase. He then walks around the desk and casts a glance around his office. Donna walks up to him and he hands her the photograph.
“Here, keep this.”
“Harvey, I’m so sorry, I never meant-“
“It’s all right, Donna,” he soothes, touching her upper arm briefly. “It’s not your fault.”
“Will you-“
“Yeah, we will,” Harvey says, smiling. “We got twelve years like this, we never thought it’d last that long. We are prepared.”
He nods at her and makes his way for the elevators. He knows she’s on the phone talking to Mike before the doors slide open and he steps into the cabin.
*****
Donna watches from the huge windows of Harvey’s empty office how fifty stories below a large brown pick-up truck slows down in front of the building and stops at the curb.
She watches Harvey step out of the building’s shadow and the driver’s door open. Mike climbs out and walks around the front end of the car to where Harvey is standing. He stops one step away from the other man and they look at each other for a long, quiet moment. Donna can’t see if any of the two says anything but after a while Mike closes the distance and steps right into Harvey’s embrace. They hold on to each other for the longest time and only when the front passenger’s door flies open and a small, scrawny boy of about ten years of age jumps out, a boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a beaming smile, do they let go.
Harvey crouches down and Scott flies into his arms. He lifts him up and smiles at Mike, nodding. Mike takes their son from Harvey’s arm and climbs into the passenger seat with him on his lap.
Donna watches Harvey walk around the car and climb into the driver’s seat. She watches how the car sets into motion, gathers speed and finally disappears around a corner at a green traffic light.
She looks down at the picture in her hands and she smiles.
They will be all right.
~fin~