Hi everyone! I am back with my first multi-chapter fic! When I saw this prompt on Ella's twitter (mstinascamander) I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. I hope you enjoy You Before Me!

Chapter 1 - Unexpected

It had been a month since Donna had fallen into bed with Mark. After hearing that he and his wife were separating, Donna chose to reignite the old flame. They had a night full of passion and laughter at Carlyle, and Donna couldn't help but feel butterflies in her stomach at the thought of feeling wanted by someone again.

They had been seeing each other casually for dinner dates and had been spending time at their apartments together since that night at the Carlyle. Because Mark was just getting out of his marriage, the two of them agreed to take things slow, both of them wanting to see where they could go from here.

Donna also thought it was best to keep this new fling a secret from the firm. She knew what Harvey to think about her getting back with her ex he never liked, even though it shouldn't matter what he thought. He was with Paula anyways.

It was 7 at night now, and after a long work week, Donna could not wait for her first real date with Mark since their night at the hotel. As she was headed for the elevators, Harvey approached her from the other direction.

"Hey, heading out for the night?" he asked softly.

"Yeah," she replied. "The files for the Clifton merger are all at your secretaries desk."

"Oh great, thank you for all the help on those Donna, we couldn't have—" his words were cut short by the ding the elevator arriving on the 50th floor. The doors slid open and Mark Meadows, Donnas ex, walked out.

What is he doing here, Harvey wondered to himself, quickly growing hot with anger at seeing her with him again.

"Hey beautiful," Mark said, kissing Donna on the cheek to greet her.

"Mark!" Donna said with a hint of surprise in her voice, "I thought we agreed to meet downstairs."

"Oh we did," he replied. "I arrived early and wanted to surprise you, but it looks like you were on your way down anyways."

"You remember Harvey, right?" she gestured to the man standing to her left.

"Yes of course," Mark said, reaching out to shake Harvey's hand.

"Nice to see you again, Mark," Harvey replied with a tight-lipped smile.

"Well Donna," Mark began, "We should get going. Don't want to miss our reservation."

"Of course," she turned to leave with him. "Goodnight, Harvey."

And with that, the elevator doors had shut. Seeing Donna leave with Mark made Harvey's skin crawl, and suddenly he felt like his tie was too tight around his neck. Reaching up to loosen it, he allowed his mind to drift to all the times Donna would adjust his tie before a big trial or meeting.

She was always there for him when he needed her, but now Harvey found himself standing in the middle of the firm's lobby furious with Donna. Why did she keep the fact that she was seeing Mark again a secret? In fact, Mark was the one who made Donna choose between working with Harvey or a life with him, and Harvey could not stand to lose the COO of his firm.

When he returned home to Paula that night, he went straight to bed, barely having a conversation with his girlfriend. Seeing her with someone else woke something up inside of Harvey.

While going through the Clifton files the next morning, he noticed that there were a few pages missing. Before he knew it, Harvey found himself marching down to her office, already irritated with her.

"Donna, what the hell is this?" he yelled just seconds after pushing the glass door into her office open, waving a file around.

"Well good morning to you too, Harvey," she replied. "I believe that is one of the files from the Clifton merger, the same ones I told you that I left for you last night."

"I know what they are Donna, but they are missing pages! How did you miss an entire month in the files?" he yelled. "Now I have to go make a fool of myself in front of the board because your focus was elsewhere." he paused. "Oh, by the way...I hope you enjoyed your date last night," he said with a jab.

"Excuse me?" she raised her voice. "Harvey, I am sorry about the mistake with the files, you know me, I would never intentionally leave something out—"

He cut her off, "I do know you Donna, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that your focus has clearly been elsewhere."

She rolled her eyes. Why was he so bothered by the fact that she was seeing Mark?

"As I said, I will fix the files. But you have no right dragging my personal life into work like this!" she seethed through her teeth.

"Well from the looks of it last night, he dragged himself into your work," he remarked.

"Why should you care what I do anyways, Harvey? You are with Paula!" she took in a shaky breath.

"I care when it starts having an impact on your focus, Donna! The firm is the most important thing here," Harvey argued, knowing that he was entering dangerous territory.

"Don't go there, Harvey. You know that I always put the firm first. Time and time again, I have let pieces of myself go to put you and the firm first!" she paused. "Why don't you just admit that seeing me with another man bothers you?"

He stared back at her for a moment, sweat threatening to trickle down his forehead as their argument grew more heated.

"Donna—" he started, but was cut off.

"I have put this place first for years, Harvey, and believe it or not, I have a life outside of the firm. Why is it that whenever I get a glimpse of happiness away from here, you lose it? You can't keep me on the back burner while you date another woman and expect me not to move on. I won't keep doing this with you."

He started again, "Donna, you know I didn't mean—"

"You know what, Harvey, I don't care what you did or didn't mean anymore. Figure out what you want!"

Donna could feel the room start to spin, and a lump was beginning to form in the back of her throat. She stood from her chair and snatched the file from Harvey's hands.

"And I'll fix your damn file!" she yelled as she was already out the door of her office.

"Wait!" Harvey yelled back, but she was already gone. He knew he had messed up big time bringing her personal life into her work, after all, he was with Paula. Donna was right. Why did he care so much about seeing her with Mark after all these years?

Donna made a beeline straight for the women's restroom, sweaty but freezing at the same time, and threw up in one of the toilets. She was not the type of person to have such a physical reaction to an argument, so she chalked her nausea up to the seafood she and Mark had shared for dinner the night before.

. . .

As she laid in bed that night, she couldn't stop her mind from replaying the argument she had just had with Harvey.

It was always the same double standard with him. Why was it that every time a new man came into her life he would pull some kind of stunt or tell her that he didn't approve of her relationship? He chose to move on, so why couldn't she do the same?

Things between her and Harvey had been rocky for weeks, and they had been at each other's throats at work too many times to count even before Donna chose to reach out to Mark.

Everything felt easy with Mark, which was something that Donna had not experienced in any of her relationships in a long time. Once they broke that boundary again, all of their old memories flooded in. She couldn't help but picture a future with this man as she did all those years ago.

However, Donna was reluctant to be seeing him again too. Mark had already forced her to choose between him and the firm once before, and thinking about it now, Donna didn't know if she would make the same choice this time. After today's spectacle in her office with Harvey, she was beginning to lose her patience with him, something she never thought would happen. Maybe it was time for a change after all.

. . .

Harvey had felt terrible all day following the argument with Donna. They had been going at it for weeks, and frankly, he felt like he just kept making it worse. As he drifted off to sleep, with Paula laying next to him in his bed, he could not help but worry about the fact that Donna had mentioned moving on. He knew he couldn't live with himself if he lost her over this.

Paula was awoken to Harvey swinging his arms around in his sleep. She could hear him mumbling something to himself, and tried to wake him from his nightmare. As she grabbed a hold of his arm to shake him awake, he screamed

"Donna, I love you, please don't leave! You know I can't be me without you!"

. . .

Donna shot up in bed the next morning half an hour before her alarm went off and made a run for her bathroom, throwing up again for the second time in two days. While one time could have been due to bad sushi, twice seemed suspicious to her.

She showered and got dressed for her day, but the feeling of nausea still remained with her as she pulled out her phone to check her calendar, seeing what meetings and appointments she had scheduled for the day. As she looked through the lengthy list, one notification stood out to her… her period was a week late.

Donna felt her stomach drop but decided not to panic until she could take a test later that day. She picked one up on the way to work and pushed the thought from her head until she could focus on the possibility of having a child with Mark.

. . .

Harvey woke up the next morning alone in his bed, and something felt different to him. "Paula?" he asked as he walked into his kitchen in search of his girlfriend.

The blonde was sitting at one of the stools near his kitchen counter, boxes sitting next to her.

"Paula? What are you doing?" he questioned.

"Harvey," the British woman started, "This was a mistake, and we both know it. Your heart is someplace else."

He was confused, "What are you talking about Paula? I asked you to move in with me, I chose you."

She stood from her chair and collected her boxes, "I'm sorry, Harvey, but I can't. When you figure out what you want, give me a call." And with that, she was gone.

Harvey was left standing dumbfounded in the middle of his apartment. Twice in the last twenty-four hours, the two most important women in his life had told him to figure out what he wanted. What did Paula mean that his heart was somewhere else? He knew that he was angry seeing Donna with Mark, but he wasn't in love with his COO, he convinced himself.

The lines between Harvey and Donna were clear. They always had been, and he was with another woman who made him happy, so why was there a little voice in the back of his head that always brought Donna back into the picture?

. . .

Donna took the test as soon as she got home from work. She paced back and forth in her bedroom as she waited for the timer to go off. When she heard the ding, she took a deep breath, walked into her bathroom and stared down at those two blue lines on the little stick. She was pregnant, about 4 or 5 weeks by her estimate.

As she held the test in her hands, she was overcome with emotions; fear, happiness, and even disbelief. It took her four days to come to terms with the fact that she was going to be a mother, and another three to figure out how she was going to tell Mark that what they wanted to be a casual thing was about to be more than he had bargained for.

Before she knew it, she had been sitting on this news for a week. Her plans to have lunch with Mark were today, and although she still had no idea how to tell him, Donna believed that everything would turn out okay.

While she had been processing the idea of motherhood, she and Harvey were barely on speaking terms. Donna had noticed that something was different with him, but for the first time, she could not put her finger on what it was.

Over the course of the same week, Harvey had tried calling Paula multiple times since she ran from his apartment, but there was never an answer. After what felt like a thousand unanswered phone calls, he showed up at her house, banging on the door for a few minutes until she finally opened it.

"Harvey," she began, "What are you doing here?"

"I want answers, Paula!" he spat back. "I ask you to move in with me and the next day you are leaving me with no explanation. People in my life always leave me, and you know that, so why the hell—"

He was cut off by her cold words coming back towards him, "Oh Harvey, trust me, I know how you feel about people leaving you," she sighed.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he retorted.

"Gosh, you really are clueless," she rolled her eyes at him. "Harvey, the night I left, you were having a nightmare. I tried to wake you and you screamed out in your sleep that you loved Donna, and that you couldn't go on if she left you."

He took a moment to process and then spoke. "Oh, so now we are back to this aren't we?"

"Yes Harvey, we are," the psychiatrist spat back, "because even if you haven't realized it yet, you love her, and I should have known better than to get involved with a patient that had clear feelings for someone else. I thought that I could make you forget about her, but I know that she will always be a part of your life, and I simply cannot compete with that."

"Paula—"

She stopped him. "I'm sorry Harvey, I really am," she said as she shut the door.

He was furious with her, but deep down, he knew she was right. There was no competing with Donna Paulsen.

. . .

Donna took a deep breath as she stepped into the restaurant she had chosen for lunch with Mark. It was a quaint spot with comfort food and natural lighting, not that there was a perfect spot to drop a bomb on someone's life.

He was already sitting at their table when she arrived, and he stood up to kiss her.

"Hi gorgeous," he whispered into her ear, "I've missed you."

She smiled at him and sat down at the table. She was Donna, so of course, she had put on a cool exterior, but on the inside, she was freaking out.

They talked for a while about how their weeks had been and how work was going, and as lunch went on she was reminded why she fell for Mark in the first place. He was still the same intelligent, captivating, and charismatic man from all those years ago, and she knew that he would be shocked to find out she was pregnant, but he would stand by her.

She took a sip of her water in preparation and decided it was now or never.

"Mark," she started, "I have some news, and I don't know how you will react…" her voice trailed off.

He reached across the table and took a hold of her hand, stroking her fingers with his thumb. "I'm sure whatever it is, it will be great news," he reassured her.

"So as you know, it's been about five weeks since we uhh, reignited our relationship,"

"Oh I know, I remember that night fondly," he remarked.

"Well," she took a breath, "Last week after our sushi date, I was nauseous the next morning. I chalked it up to food poisoning, but when I woke up the next morning I had to run for the toilet. At first, I thought it was all because of an argument I had with Harvey, but when I was checking my calendar, I noticed that my period was a week late." She glanced up at him, gauging his reaction before continuing, "Mark, I'm pregnant...and you're the father."

She watched his face fall as his hand pulled away from hers.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. I am never late. I took a test to be sure," she said, confused as to why he pulled back.

"Oh, Donna," he said, running his hand through his hair. "When we started seeing each other again, I wanted a casual thing...I never pictured this happening. He leaned towards her and lowered his voice, "Have you considered terminating the pregnancy?"

His words cut like knives as she processed exactly what he was saying. Mark did not want their baby.

"Well…" She trailed off as she felt a lump in her throat form and tears pooling in her eyes. She took a deep breath at an attempt to keep her composure and continued. "I know that this is all happening very fast, but I want to keep this baby, and I didn't want to keep it a secret from you." She told him as she could feel her hands shaking under the table.

He sighed. "Well, maybe you should have, just like you kept us a secret from Harvey."

"Excuse me?" she said, clenching her fist under the table in order to hold back her tears. "What do you mean I should have kept this a secret? And what does Harvey have to do with any of this?"

"Wow," Mark paused. "For once, the all-knowing Donna Paulsen is the one asking the questions. I'm sorry Donna, but this isn't what I signed up for." He took a breath, attempting to justify his decision, "I can't be the man you need me to be, and I never wanted to be a father."

A tear escaped her eye as Mark continued to shatter her heart into pieces, "What we had going was fun, but I never wanted a big commitment. You know I'm just getting out of a marriage, I don't want to be tied down into another one right now."

He pulled out his wallet to pay the check.

"Oh, and I saw the way that you two still look at each other the night I surprised you at the firm. I thought it would be different this time, but I'm not going to force you to make the choice between me or him again, because I know you will always choose him."

He said, standing up from the table, placing a 100 dollar bill on the table and kissing Donna's head.

"Goodbye Donna," he said, and was gone.

Thank you so much for reading! As always, reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated. Again, a huge thanks to Ella for letting me bring her lovely idea to life, to Elle for being my incredible beta, and to Alyssa for your input and feedback! Love you guys.