Embracing Change

Summary: Harvey gives in to sleep easily but Donna stays up a little longer embracing the change.

Warning: Contains spoilers for 9x01.

AN: Putting down the paper bag I'm hyperventilating into in the hopes writing something will remind me how to breathe haha.

He collapses on top of her and she has no mind to move him, the steadiness of his breath urging her fingers up through his hair. He mumbles about it all changing, his voice thick as it tickles her neck, and she agrees but doubts he'll remember when they get up. He's too far gone, probably hasn't slept right in days, and she draws the sheet a little higher covering his back, overcome by the urge to protect his vulnerability and prove he didn't risk anything by coming to her.

He didn't, but Thomas weighs briefly on her mind as the state of her nakedness ignites an awkward guilt. She'd tried to make it work with him but he'd left the apartment under no illusions; her heart is tied to someone else and tomorrow she's going to clarify what she couldn't say when he asked; that he's amazing man and she truly is sorry.

She is but that doesn't mean she has regrets, Harvey's light shift against her breast stealing back her attention. It's not a rouse; he's genuinely out cold and she bites her lip almost tempted to wriggle free and call Rachel, find an outlet for the excitement preventing her from following his lead. He wouldn't wake up, she's fairly certain, but the comfort of his weight keeps her still. Like him, she doesn't want to move yet either. Life has a way of throwing them curve balls and she's always been wary of where to tread in inevitable minefields. He's the one who goes in guns blazing, just not usually with his heart, and she wants to savour the quiet calm- reflect while her body comes down off its high.

They weren't as vigorous this time but there was an urgency, twelve years of pent up sexual frustration exploding in beautifully chaotic mess. They found their rhythm where and when it mattered but everything else was an instinctive need to have skin on skin, fumbling their way around youthful expectations. In her eyes it was better. They weren't just connecting they were learning each other, setting up markers for the long run and the thought reverberates in place she can't identify, filling every aching muscle with a sense of completion. It takes her by surprise and she swallows an unexpected lump, her fingers falling back to the base of his neck.

If she's honest, she was never going to stop hoping that one day he'd come around and the reason why he did niggles at her but his unaffected state absorbs the fleeting panic. He wouldn't be dead to the world if he had an ounce of regret and she wouldn't have opened the door if she'd thought for one second he was going to. They're both finally on the same page and she rests her forehead against his, letting their breaths mingle until she braves drawing her arms in and rolling over- smiling as he adjusts around her without missing a beat.

He was right, everything has changed... and she's fully ready to embrace it.