A/N: Hello! This story was written as a birthday gift for someone who, like Donna, is amazing and kind and brilliant. She often told me how she would like to get away. I hope this story offers her a sweet escape. Much love, my dear friend. xoxo -Fantomette

(this story will have six chapters, so stick with me! Hope you will enjoy it!)

-Chapter 1-

He should have said something.

But it isn't like he didn't say anything, he asked her what she meant by "wanting more" and she replied she didn't know. It would have been a bad idea to burden her with the weight of his needs and love again, right? If she needs to figure some things out, does she really needs him to be part of the equation?

(He wanted to be part of the equation.)

He dreamed they were happy, he knows now that those feelings he has for her, this is LOVE.

Maybe he should have been honest, but also, she cried. Maybe the timing wasn't right.

Timing.

It was something that was always off with them, he spent years lying to himself, believing what they had all those years ago wasn't love, but it was. Love, true love, once in a lifetime love knocking at their doors. But they both refused to open that door, true love is scary. She grew up in a world full of insecurities with her father, she needed calm and security. He grew up in a world of lies and manipulations, he needed loyalty and truth. They both were willing to provide each other what they needed. It was more than enough. For a while.

It grew between them, without noticing. Slowly and deeply, until one day he couldn't deny it anymore: she was the one person he couldn't live without. He was in love with her.

Now she needed more, and this more maybe didn't include him.

This morning, as he enters the firm bearing his name, his heart is thumping more and more loudly with each and every step leading him to his office. He wants to tell her…

He sees her empty cubicle, his heart sinks.

Maybe she's in Rachel's office, he thinks. He walks there fast, rehearsing in his head what to say. 'We need to talk…I've been dreaming about you.' No, too needy… 'I know you need time to think, but please do know I am in love with you.'… Is it too much, he wonders? Or maybe not talk. Just walk up to her, hold her, kiss her and take her breath away. How would she react?

But he has to say it. He has to tell her. He can't go on like this.

He enters an office occupied only by Rachel who immediately gasps "Harvey…You're here." Right away he senses something is wrong.

"Where is she," he hears himself say.

"Harvey, listen…" Rachel gets up and takes an envelope from her desk. "She's gone, but she left this for you."

He feels like the whole world is swallowing him whole and he can't find air to breathe properly. "What do you mean, gone?"

Rachel is now a foot from him, staring at him with…pity? Sadness? He can't quite decipher the expression on her face.

"Harvey, she just asked me to give you this and that you should go back to your desk and read this letter." Rachel sighs heavily. "I'm sorry Harvey…I can't tell you more right now. But…she hoped you would understand."

Everything between this moment when he takes the envelope addressed to him and the moment he sits at his desk is a blur. He opens the envelope with shaky hands and starts reading the words, handwritten by her on a white paper.

"Dear Harvey,

When I told you I wanted more and you asked me what I meant, I wasn't lying. I don't know. I need time to think. I need time away from the firm. I consulted HR and of course I accumulated a great amount of vacation days over the years so I won't be there for a few weeks. Don't worry about replacement, Gretchen has a very skilled friend who will stop by later today. Thanks for understanding.

Your friend,

Donna. P.S.: here's the key to my apartment if you could water the plants once a week that would be much appreciated. If not, leave the key to Rachel."

As he folds the piece of paper neatly and places it back in the envelope he leans just in time over the trashcan to vomit the breakfast he had on his way to the firm this morning.

He then rests his head on his arms, crossed on his desk, feeling the pearls of sweats dripping from his forehead. His eyes are itching with tears.

She's gone.

She left thinking she is just a secretary, replaceable.

She left before he could tell her she's irreplaceable because she's his whole life and that he needs her, not because of work, but because he is in love with her.

As she's handing her passport to the agent she feels nervous. She shouldn't be. Every day, millions of people travel and take the plane, but this is something new for her, going away on an adventure.

It's not like she waited for Harvey, she wasn't a woman who 'waited', it wasn't like she was in love with him all this time either. It was just…COMPLICATED. Their story was complicated. Something always hanging between enough and not quite. He asked her what she wanted and she, the woman who always had an answer to everything, had no idea. It's like she had lost herself somewhere along the way.

Now she needed to get away from it all to, hopefully, to find some missing parts of herself again.

"American Airlines. Last boarding call to London Flight 100. Passengers please board gate 4."

She smiles uneasily at the boarding crew and she silently sits on the plane minutes later, hoping this trip will provide her with the answers she's been looking for.