"Hello, everyone," Jessica began, her mere presence causing a hush to fall over the conference room packed with employees. "It's that time of year again, and all you Pearson Hardman veterans know what that means."

A collective groan emanated from the partners, while the first-year associates looked around anxiously. "What?" Mike whispered, leaning toward Harvey, "What's she talking about?"

"One night spent serving firm-mandated hard time," Harvey replied through gritted teeth.

"I don't want to hear any grumbling," Jessica continued, raising her voice only slightly to compensate for the cascade of whispers now filtering through the room. "The Pearson Hardman Annual Yule Ball is one of our firm's most honored traditions, and you will all be attending as the personal guests of Sebastian Hardman himself."

"Every year it's the same deal," the junior partner on Mike's other side whispered to his companion. "We've all got to run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get dates for this thing just because the old man gets his rocks off watching us swan around in monkey suits."

"Hey, at least there's free booze," the other man mumbled back.

"Would you two idiots shut up?" Harvey whispered fiercely, leaning over Mike to reprimand the two now terrified-looking young lawyers before returning his attention to Jessica.

"The ball takes place in exactly one week, so save this date, people, December fourteenth. No excuses will be accepted for failing to attend - if you think I'm bluffing, just ask Tom Greene. He used to be one of Pearson Hardman's best and brightest, until he decided to fake a cold on the night of the Yule Ball because he 'just didn't feel like attending.' Now the only briefs he gets his hands on are the ones he sells in the Men's Department at J.C. Penney."

Several of the first-year associates swallowed audibly, and Mike noticed Harold's hands actually beginning to shake.

"The party starts at eight o'clock in the Windsor Hotel Ballroom. I don't think I need to emphasize the importance of your attendance any further." She paused to look meaningfully around the room before raising her hands in a shooing motion and saying, "Okay, we're not paying you to stare, back to work!"

A brief commotion followed as the associates scrambled to get back to their cubicles, whispering frantically all the while, and the partners followed after a beat, muttering amongst themselves.

"Harvey?" Mike asked, keeping his voice low as he followed his boss down the hallway, "What did that guy mean, running around trying to get dates?"

"The Yule Ball is a barely concealed excuse for the founding partners to see which lawyers function best in...an intimate social setting," Harvey replied dryly as they rounded the corner into his office.

"Wait," Mike said slowly, reading between the lines, "You're telling me that the founding partners are actually evaluating us based on whom we're dating?"

"You're surprised?" Harvey asked, raising an eyebrow. "It is a well-known tenet here at Pearson Hardman that a great lawyer must be able to navigate a wide variety of social situations, many of which require an appropriate escort. The partners also like to see their employees in long-term relationships; it goes toward establishing responsibility and ambition."

"And yet they promoted you to senior partner," Mike pointed out dryly.

"I have proven myself exceptional," Harvey said smugly. "Others do not have the same luxury."

"Exceptional enough to be exempt from this ordeal?" Mike asked, amused.

"Unfortunately not," Harvey said with a grimace. "Jessica insists that all the senior partners set an example, so I'm as stuck as you are."

"So...I guess that means you'll be needing a date, then," Mike said, trying desperately to sound casual.

"Just because I'm being forced to go does not mean I have to perform like a trained monkey," Harvey said with a derisive snort. "I will be going stag, standing in a corner, and sipping an extremely expensive scotch all night as an act of protest."

"Well, as fun as that sounds..." Mike stalled, screwing up his courage to finish hopefully, "Don't you think you'd have a better time going...with me?"

Harvey looked up sharply from the contracts he had been glancing through. He made a point of crossing the room in a few steps and shutting the door before turning back to Mike. "Let me make something very clear to you, kid - this thing between us? It's just sex. We are not dating. I am not your boyfriend. And I am certainly not making public a relationship we are not having by taking you to a firm-sponsored event like the Yule Ball. Are we clear on this?"

"Crystal," Mike said quietly, turning toward the door so Harvey wouldn't see the hurt and disappointment undoubtedly etched all over his face. "I should go - Louis gave me a stack of files he needs read, and I still haven't finished highlighting the Parkinson briefs." He walked quickly out of the office before Harvey could think of anything even more cutting to say .

"Mike?" Donna called out as he flew past her desk, even going so far as to swing round it to grab his arm and ask, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Mike's first instinct was to lie and say that everything was fine, but one glance at Donna's expression told him that would be both futile and a distinctly bad idea; he had this sneaking suspicion she knew exactly what had happened and was merely asking as a courtesy.

"It's me, I was being stupid," he said, waving it off with a sigh, "Harvey told me when we started that it wouldn't mean anything - just two colleagues who were attracted to each another letting off some steam."

Donna's let out a gasp of surprise. "Wait, you mean that you and Harvey...?"

Mike shot her a pointed look. "Donna, I know you listen."

"Right," she replied with a guilty little smile, "Sorry. Go on."

"I don't know, I just thought...I mean, I could have sworn, these past couple weeks, it was turning into something...real. So when Jessica announced the Yule Ball, I thought that maybe..."

"Maybe Harvey would take you?" Donna finished for him, the sarcasm normally present in her voice replaced with sympathy.

"Stupid, right?" Mike let out a bitter, little laugh. "Thinking Harvey actually cared, let alone cared enough to show it in public."

"Come on, Mike, it wasn't stupid," Donna said soothingly. At the incredulous look Mike sent her, she amended, "Okay, we'll say incredibly optimistic, but I don't want to hear yourself calling yourself stupid. Only I may do that."

Mike laughed and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Donna - I needed that."

"Don't think I'll be making a habit of it," she warned, though she couldn't help giving his shoulder an affectionate squeeze before he turned to leave.

As Donna watched Mike shuffle dismally back to his desk, fall inelegantly into his seat, and run both hands through his hair, looking thoroughly miserable, she felt a sudden surge of anger, the level of which she normally reserved for Louis.

"Do you know how many irate clients I have to pacify for you?" Donna asked, storming into Harvey's office.

"Donna, while being yelled at by you would normally be the highlight of my workday, I really have to -" Harvey began, but Donna cut him off.

"Hundreds. And do you know what I always say to them?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me," Harvey quipped breezily, although the look in Donna's eyes was beginning to scare him.

" 'Harvey Specter may seem like just another selfish jerk,' I say, 'but trust me, everything he does is because he cares about winning your case. The callousness you're seeing is a front he has to put up to swim with the other sharks in this business. Believe me when I say there is no one you'd rather have representing you.' "

"I should give you a raise," Harvey said, unsure where this was going.

"Damn right you should," Donna agreed, "But that's not what we're talking about here."

"Donna, the reason you are the only administrative assistant I have ever agreed to work with is that you don't play games - not with me at any rate. You're a straight-shooter, and I love that about you. So why don't you tell me what we are talking about here?"

"I've only been telling the clients that because I believed it, Harvey. I also believed that underneath that 'I don't care about anyone' line, you had a great heart; I wouldn't have agreed to work with you otherwise."

"Believed, as in past tense?" Harvey observed, reading between the lines.

"In the five years I've been your assistant, I've seen you be a hardass, and a scrapper, and a bit of a bastard, and I've never judged or disapproved because, ultimately, I knew you were doing it to help somebody. But what you did to Mike earlier? That wasn't the necessary means to an end, Harvey - it was just cruel."

"Oh, come on, Donna," Harvey scoffed, trying to push down the waves of guilt he could feel Donna's fierce stare stirring inside him. "I'm not the 'prom date' kind of guy - I know it and you know it. All I did was do Mike the favor of making sure he knew it."

"That's the trouble with defending people for a living, Harvey," Donna said, her voice hard. "It gets so nothing's ever your fault."

"I'm not breaking any promises," Harvey objected. "I made it very clear from the start that anything emotional between us was strictly off the table."

"You've gone to an awful lot of trouble to assume no liability for a man who's done nothing wrong," Donna shot back, "I think you knew from the beginning, even if Mike didn't, that there was no way in hell he could keep his emotions out of it. He's just not built that way."

"Why do you care so much, anyway?" Harvey interjected. "Mike's a big boy; he can take care of himself."

"Because, unlike you, I have no problem admitting that there are people I care about, and I don't like it when they're hurt," she said matter-of-factly. "You know, when you started this thing, I was worried that he was sleeping with you to get ahead, that he wasn't good enough for you. Now, I'm starting to think you're not good enough for him." She whirled around to leave.

"Come on, Donna, that's not fair," Harvey called after her, surprised at how much her words stung.

She paused in the doorway and turned to look back at him. "Just remember, Harvey," she warned, "If you tell yourself a lie one too many times, it starts to become true."

She left Harvey standing there with a stunned look on his face and went in search of Mike, whom she found sitting at his desk haphazardly highlighting files.

"Hey," she said, carefully perching on the edge of his small desk, "Do you still want a date for the ball?"

"I don't know, Donna," Mike said with a sigh, "I can't afford to have the senior partners thinking I'm not Pearson Hardman material, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to mislead anyone..."

"You won't have to," she said firmly, "if you take me."

"I couldn't let you do that," Mike objected, amazed and touched at the offer. "You must have twenty different guys begging you to raise their profiles at this thing."

"The current waiting list tops out at forty-seven," she said complacently, but her face softened as she added, "but none of them ever bring me coffee with whipped cream and sugar. Besides, I'm dying to see what Harvey looks like jealous."

Mike's eyes lit up. "You really think we could make him jealous?" he asked hopefully.

"Honey, you go with me, and we'll make everyone jealous," Donna promised and was gratified to see a real smile spread across Mike's face for the first time that day. "All right, then it's settled. Meet me in the lobby at nine, and we'll begin the lessons."

"Lessons?" Mike asked, confused and a little scared.

"Well, of course! You don't honestly think that I'm going to let you escort me to the firm's most prestigious social event of the year without some serious preparation, do you? For the next week, I am Henry Higgins and you are my Eliza Doolittle."

"Righty 'o, gov'nr," Mike said, tipping an imaginary hat toward Donna, his smile fading when he saw the horrified expression on her face. "What? That was good!"

"Better move up the meeting to seven," she said, shaking her head. "You're in much worse shape than I thought."