This was a one-shot that was written with the intention of going up for Louis day but then life got in the way and I felt pretty meh about the result but it was done so I figured I'd post it anyways.
(I'm a sucker for writing Louis but I promise this is Darvey-centric and I bet you don't see the ending coming)
Happy Reading - xx S
Blue Team Captain
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"Harvey, are you even listening to me?" Louis whines from his place at the head of the table.
"Of course I am Louis" Harvey states absentmindedly, his gaze still lingering over Donna's exposed shoulders.
"Then what did I just say?" Louis quizzes, waiting for Harvey's response with his arms folded over his chest, impatiently tapping his foot.
"Something about cats?" Harvey shrugs sheepishly and Donna has to bite down on her inner cheek to keep from laughing.
Louis was holding their monthly partner's meeting and had been droning on about his idea to implement a bi-weekly mudding trip for the associates. While Harvey listened to the important details involving the firm, his mind had wandered to Donna and their morning adventure in the shower while Louis continued explaining the benefits of mud. In his mind, it was her fault he wasn't listening, her low-cut dress drawing his attention to her cleavage, which was simultaneously begging to be touched and ogled. She knew she had his attention when she shifted in her chair and his gaze followed her and decided to further tease him by placing a hand slightly too high on his inner thigh beneath the table, preventing him from hearing another word Louis said.
"I was talking about the procedure for the fire drill on Tuesday. God, Harvey how are you supposed to be the blue team captain when you aren't even taking this seriously?" Louis whines once again.
"I'm what?" Harvey stares back at him blankly and a small giggle escapes Donna's lips.
"You think this is funny?" Louis turns towards Donna with a stern look only causing her to laugh harder before clearing her throat and holding up her hands in surrender.
"Sorry, it wasn't funny" she smirks, "Not even a little bit."
Her hand managed to slide further up his leg while she laughed, which only amplified Harvey's distraction and he had forced himself to listen to what Louis was saying by crossing his knees and trying not to think about the blood rushing to his groin.
"I'm going to repeat myself only because I take fire safety very seriously," Louis lectures, from the head of the table and Samantha and Alex simultaneously groan having already listened to the brunt of Louis' speech.
"We are having a fire drill on Tuesday" he begins slowly as if Harvey missed the announcement the first time because he was speaking too fast.
"Samantha is going to be the red team captain, she's in charge of making sure all of the associates follow the procedure and exit safely. You're the blue team captain, you're in charge of making sure all the name partners follow the protocol."
"What if I don't want to be the team captain?" Harvey counters.
"You don't have a say, I've elected you team captain."
"Can't you elect someone else?"
"You like sports, I thought you would be thrilled?"
"I like real sports…" Harvey grumbles.
"Fire safety is not a joke! If we don't take this seriously what would happen in a real fire? It would be total pandemonium. I'm trying to run a tight ship and I will not have this firm burn to the ground because we couldn't handle a simple evacuation drill!"
"Alright fine, I'll be the captain but I'm not doing any extra work."
"Can we end this meeting? I have a deposition to get to" Samantha interrupts, excusing herself from the conference room.
"Fine, meeting dismissed. But don't forget about Tuesday!" Louis calls after them as they all make their way out of the conference room.
Donna hangs back so she and Harvey can leave together, and they stroll towards his office side by side without saying a word. When they finally reach his office, she shuts the door and turns to face him with a smirk painted across her face.
"What?" he asks with a slight cock of his head.
"A little distracted this morning, are we?" she teases, making her way over to his desk and sitting across from where he'd plopped himself, leaning forward just enough to give him a prime look down her dress.
"That's it, we're going home right now," he concludes, getting out of his chair and tossing his laptop into his bag to make a statement.
"Easy tiger, we both have work to do and besides, shouldn't you be preparing for that fire drill" she smirks with a small, hardly noticeable wink.
"The only fire I want to think about is the one you and I had sex in front of last night" he replies with a smug grin.
"Harvey!" she playfully smacks his arm and blushes, not used to him being so forward at the office.
"What? I was just…"
"I'll tell you what…" she cuts him off, "If you promise me you'll take Louis' fire drill seriously, we can get out of here extra early tonight."
"Are you being serious?"
"Dead serious."
"Well, in that case, you better let me get to work, if you haven't heard, I'm some type of team captain for this."
"The blue team captain, you're the blue team captain" she clarifies.
"Right, that's what I said."
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Monday morning rolled around far too soon for Harvey's liking, after spending Friday afternoon through Sunday locked away in Donna's apartment, he was dreading returning to work and not being able to spend his entire day alone with her.
After a hellish Tuesday of facing one problem after another, both Harvey and Donna were ready for the week to be over (and consequently were far from prepared for Louis' fire drill). He was midway through deposing a client when a blaring sound cuts him off mid-question. He tosses his head back with an agitated groan and instructs the client to ignore the instant beeping blasting through the speakers in the conference room.
"Should we be acknowledging that?" the client asks, referring to the alarm.
"Don't worry about it it's just a dumb drill" Harvey explains, continuing with his line of questioning.
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Clipboard in hand, Louis quickly saunters down the corridor of the fiftieth floor making the rounds to be sure the office had been evacuated while the alarms continued to honk.
"Donna! Why are you still sitting here?!" Louis asks as he comes to a halt in her doorway.
She's seated at her desk going through a massive stack of forms, seemingly unbothered by the noises echoing off the office walls and causing Louis' ears to ring. She calmly tucks one leg behind the other as she shifts slightly in her chair, moving to her next form.
"I do Louis, but I was supposed to have this done by yesterday afternoon and I was feeling a little out of sorts yesterday and didn't get a chance to finish it," she gestures towards the stack of unsigned forms littered across her otherwise spotless desk.
"It's a fire drill, it isn't optional!" Louis flushes, his arms flailing above his head accompanying the exaggerated sigh that leaves his lips.
"Exactly, it's a drill, I'll be fine" she explains, focusing most of her attention on the paperwork in front of her.
"Donna," he begins to try and reason with her, "You are one of the finest women to have ever graced this earth, I couldn't live with myself if this was a real fire and you were to be trapped in here!"
"I think I'll be alright Louis…" she tries to reason with him but she can tell by the reddening of his cheeks that she's getting nowhere.
"Donna, I swear if you don't leave right now, I'll carry you down those stairs myself!"
"Louis…"
"My god… What would Harvey have to say about this if he knew you weren't taking this seriously?" he puffs his chest out slightly while he fishes around in his pocket for his cellphone.
"You know what, I'm calling him! Maybe you'll listen to him, seeing as he's the one who's sleeping with you…"
"Louis!" she exclaims, scolding him for bringing up her sex life at work after she'd given him explicit instructions it was off limits.
"What? Are you telling me he doesn't hold more sway over you because he knows how to get you off?" Louis asks innocently and Donna drops her pen, her cheeks deepening to a maroon shade.
She stares back at him with her mouth hung open for a few moments, not knowing how to respond to such a blunt, but factual statement. By the time she manages to find her words, Louis already has his phone pressed to his ear, waiting for whoever was on the other end to pick up.
He waits as the phone rings, pressing it further into his side so he could hear the ringtone over the insistent blaring of the fire alarms and sighing in frustration when the call goes to voicemail.
He impatiently dials again, tapping his foot against Donna's office floor while he waits for Harvey to pick up.
"What Louis? I'm in the middle of a deposition!" Harvey snaps into the receiver.
"Could you please tell your girlfriend that she needs to evacuate the… wait a second, did you just say a deposition? Harvey! You're the blue team captain if you're still in the building who the hell is leading the blue team?!" Louis yells into the device, his face flustered and dripping with rage. He hoped Gretchen was having better luck with her rounds of the 49th floor because at the rate he was clearing his floor, his entire senior staff would have burnt to crisps.
Before Donna has a chance to say anything, Louis is storming out of her office and up the hall towards the conference rooms to give Harvey a piece of his mind. Midway through his journey, he catches a glimpse of blonde hair in one of the offices so he detours his route and finds himself standing in the doorway of Katrina's office.
"Katrina?! Unless you've suddenly lost your ability to hear to the point that you're deaf, do you care to explain what the hell you're still doing here?"
"I'm just finishing this…." She begins to explain, hardly acknowledging him from her seat.
"Do not even attempt to finish that sentence!" he cuts her off, stepping into her office completely.
"DOES NOBODY AT THIS FIRM TAKE FIRE SAFETY SERIOUSLY?" he fumes, his hands balling into fists at his side.
"We take it seriously Louis, we're just busy."
"Would you please just…go…outside…NOW" he sighs in defeat. How was he supposed to run a tight ship when his black swan wouldn't even take his direction?
Katrina, knowing when to pick her battles with Louis, reluctantly stops what she's doing and follows Louis out into the hall. He begins to make his way to the conference room and notices she's still trailing behind him.
"What is it Katrina?"
"Nothing, I just assumed you'd need my help to get people to listen."
"I don't…" he begins to explain why he has the situation under control but quickly silences himself when he spots Harvey still holding his deposition in conference room C.
"Fine, let's go" Louis says, redirecting his anger towards his peer who seems to be oblivious to the fact that they were supposed to be evacuating.
"Harvey!" he calls as he bursts into the room, flinging the door open so hard it comes flying back on Katrina.
"Can't you see I'm in the middle of this Louis? You can't just come storming in here!"
"I don't know if you've noticed anything a little bit off around here lately, hmm, I don't know perhaps the alarm because we're having a FIRE DRILL!"
"If this is a bad time, I can come back" the client offers, pushing back his chair and straightening out his jacket as he rises to his feet.
"That won't be necessary Gary, Louis was just leaving" Harvey says, sending Louis a look that tells him if he doesn't get out of this room, he's in for an ass kicking.
With a scoff, Louis leaves the conference room and begins to pick up his pace as he works his way back up the hall towards Donna's office.
"You're just going to let him get away with treating you like that? You're the managing partner, and managing partners deserve to be treated with respect" Katrina gushes, hot on his heels the entire walk.
"If I've learned anything about Harvey over the years, it's that the more you tell him to do something, the less likely he is to do it."
"So, we're just giving up?"
"We're doing the next best thing, we're convincing Donna to follow the protocol so we can count this fire drill as a success."
Storming back into Donna's office with Katrina at his side, he makes his way straight to her desk, slapping his hands down against the surface and demanding her attention.
She looks up at him with wide eyes and finds an equally wild-eyed Louis staring back at her. She'd known Louis to do some crazy, eccentric things over the years, but nothing rivalled the look of crazy lingering in his eyes in this moment.
"Donna, I'm going to ask you this nicely and I'm only going to ask once," he begins in a surprisingly calm tone.
"Please, follow Katrina down the stairs to the designated meeting spot."
"I would love to participate Louis, really I would but I really don't have time right now" she sighs, regretting her decision to stay at her desk when the alarm initially went off but knowing she had no choice but to stick with her guns now. She'd felt so off her usual game this past week. Normally, she would muster up some of her typical Donna charm and convince Louis to leave her be, but she just didn't have it in her to argue with him today.
"Then you leave me no choice, Katrina, grab her purse!" he instructs before rounding Donna's desk and effortlessly scooping her up and tossing her over his shoulder despite her protests.
"What the hell are you doing?" she yelps, flailing her legs trying to get him to put her back down but all it manages to do is kick her heels off.
"If you won't leave willingly, you'll leave forcefully" Louis explains, gesturing for Katrina to grab Donna's shoes before beginning to make his way down the hall carrying Donna.
"Louis put me down! I'll go willingly!" she cries, still squirming against his hold.
"I don't know if I can trust that, you also said you would participate in the drill" he reasons, and she resigns to his hold, stopping her fight and giving in as he made his way towards the conference rooms with her head hanging over his shoulder, his arms secured around the waistline of her deep blue dress.
She spots Harvey still seated in the conference room as Louis trudges past it, flashing him a look that conveyed both help me and how Louis is this, and he's immediately on his feet and at the door.
"Louis what the hell are you doing?" he calls after the trio.
"I'm carrying Donna to safety, no need to thank me for filling in as her knight in shining armour" he offers a small smile before taking another three steps towards the door.
Donna tries her hardest to stifle her laughter as she watches Harvey's protective instincts kick in, his face hardening as he picks up his pace and until he's matched Louis' stride and is planted in front of them.
"Put Donna down, now!" he instructs and Louis obliges, gently placing Donna on the ground barefoot.
"Good now that I have both of your attention, can we please get the hell out of here so I can wrap up this drill and everyone can get back to work?" Louis asks, gesturing towards the stairwell doors.
"Wait a second did you carry me all the way over here to get Harvey to follow?" Donna asks, and Harvey's client decides it would be best to follow Katrina and leave using the stairs, leaving Louis alone with Donna and Harvey.
"I knew he'd want to be the hero" Louis explains.
"The hero? It's not even real!" Harvey exclaims, his voice dripping with frustration.
"Then why did you rush out here?" Louis challenges, arm hovering near his sides and begging to be folded over his chest.
"Because you were carrying Donna!"
"To safety!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Donna interrupts their cat-fight with a stern voice.
"Can we just go so I can get back to work?" she sighs, pushing open the door to the stairwell.
She steps out onto the concrete floor, barefoot and waits for Harvey and Louis to follow suit. Harvey joins her with a defeated sigh and Louis tells them he needs to double check that the floor is clear before joining them and excuses himself to "take a lap" as he called it.
"Are we really going to walk down fifty flights of stairs?" Harvey asks, turning to face her.
"I don't see what else we're going to do" she peers over his shoulder at the pending flights of stairs to be descended, oblivious to the mischievous grin that takes over his face.
"I know a few other things we could do," he whispers, backing her into the wall of the stairwell and letting his hand rest next to her head.
His breath lingers above her ear as he leans in and minimizes the distance between their bodies, their sudden close proximity overwhelming her senses as she catches a whiff of his cologne and her eyes flick upwards to find his.
"That dress…" he hums before leaning down and placing a semi-innocent kiss on her lips, "is really working for you."
"Is it now?" she flirts, tilting her head back against the wall, allowing him to kiss down her neck.
"Mhhmm, it's working for me too," he adds, his lips crashing down on hers in a brief moment of euphoric bliss. It was electric, kissing her. He'd noticed that it didn't matter how many times he got to do it, kissing her always brought about a charged energy that coursed through his body and made him question why he ever wasted time kissing anyone else. Even kissing her in the dingy stairwell of the firm, the feeling her touch brought about made every nerve ending in his body come alive and he was elated, desperate for more while simultaneously wishing he could slow down time and saviour every moment of every touch and feeling pulsating through his body.
Sometimes, he found himself wondering if it had felt this good to kiss her during the other time, and his conclusion was always the same; it had, but it was different. Back then she was his for the night, and now, she was his forever.
"Are you two seriously canoodling instead of evacuating?!" Louis calls from the platform above where they'd stopped against the wall.
"We were just...waiting for you" Harvey suggests, stepping away from Donna who straightened up her dress and couldn't help but smirk.
"Oh okay, well then...shall we" Louis suggests and the trio begin to make their way down the stairs.
By the 37th flight, Louis had to pause to catch his breath, leaving Harvey and Donna to be ahead by a floor, giggling to themselves as they continued the journey.
"Need me to carry you yet?" he teases, noticing her shortened breaths.
"No, do you?" she fires back with a slight eyebrow raise.
"I work out" he points out, as if her question was offensive.
"So do I" she retorts.
"Hmmmm I don't know if yoga counts" he smirks and playfully nudges into her side, his gaze giving her a once over as they pause at the bottom of the flight of stairs to let Donna catch her breath.
"If the two of you keep pausing to undress each other with your eyes you won't have to worry about whos undressing who first because the flames will do the dirty deed for you!"
"It's a drill Louis..." Harvey states, staring back up at Louis.
"You don't know that"
"We do know that you announced it to the entire firm"
"Damn me and my preparedness!" Louis curses as he finally catches up to the pair.
After the 30th flight, Donna gives in and lets Harvey carry her, seeing as she's having a hard time catching her breath and begins feeling sick.
He always considered her to be fairly in shape and is almost as surprised when she asks for a hand as he was when he noticed she was panting, perhaps she was catching a cold.
Once they hit the 15th floor, the end is near and most of the bickering between him and Louis had subsided.
At the 3rd floor she instructs him to put her down and the three of them climb down the rest of the stairs and join their colleagues outside.
Louis claps his hands to get everyone's attention and jumps up on a park bench before he begins speaking, all eyes on him.
"Before we go back inside, I want to thank everyone… well, almost everyone," he glares towards where Harvey and Donna were standing, "for their cooperation with today's firedrill. Fire safety is an extremely important thing and I hope now everyone is feeling prepared in the instance we were ever to have a real fire. You guys truly were the fire safety champions today!"
Once everyone had been excused, Katrina finds Donna next to Harvey entering the lobby and makes her way over to return her heels and her bag.
"Donna!" Katrina calls out to get her attention before the redhead could make it to the elevators.
"I have your stuff!"
"Oh, thanks Katrina" Donna smiles, using Harvey's shoulder to balance herself as she steps into her heels.
"No problem" the senior partner smiles, handing over the bag.
"About your purse, I accidentally dropped it while coming down the stairs, I'm so sorry I picked everything up and I don't think I missed anything!" she gushes and Donna's eyes fall to hers and ask a silent question that Katrina fails to pick up on.
"Thanks Katrina" Donna replies, a mixture of gratitude and relief flooding her voice that peaks Harvey's attention.
Before turning into the open elevator that had arrived, Katrina turned back towards the couple and offered a sincere smile, "Oh, and congratulations" she calls before the elevator shuts and Donna and Harvey are left standing alone in the lobby.
"What was that about?" he asks, turning to find her face painted in panic.
"It was nothing" she tries to brush it off but his glare holds her in place.
"Donna, it wasn't nothing, what's going on. First you ignore Louis' fire drill, and I mean I get why I ignored it but it's so unlike you to disregard what he says… and then on the stairs…"
"I didn't plan on telling you like this, but that stupid drill got me thinking, what if this were a real fire and I'd have lost the chance to tell you altogether. What if I didn't tell you and then something terrible happened to me, to us-" she breathes, allowing her hand to come up and rest on her stomach with a small smile.
"Donna, are you?"
"Yes, at least I think so" she breathes, retrieving the pregnancy test she'd taken that morning from her bag; the test Katrina must have seen when the contents of her bag spilled.
"Say something" she whispers, watching his eyes widen and his pupils dilate while he processes what she's telling him.
"I love you" he replies, scooping her up and twirling her in a hug.
"Both of you" he adds before pulling her into his chest and bringing his lips down to meet hers in a celebratory kiss.