A/N: hello friends. it's liz here. writing about the other time. we can't possibly be surprised. anyways, it's a thing and i wrote it. i hope you like it. as always special shoutout to my savior alyssa (donnandharvey) without whom i would not be here and would be wondering around lost in the woods.

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'begin again'

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But on a wednesday
in a cafe
I watched it begin again

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The last few weeks have been some of the best and worst of her life. The best because after over a decade of misunderstandings and misinterpretations, Harvey and her were finally on the same page. The worst, because Faye Richardson is wreaking havoc at the firm. Their firm.

This thing, this forever thing, with Harvey is better than she ever could have imagined. He's open and honest and loving and can't stop touching her to save his life. He cooks her dinner and pours her wine and holds her hand and runs his hands through her hair. They've only spent one night apart with Harvey declaring the following day that no matter what that will never happen again. It's perfect. They're perfect.

So perfect, in fact, that every night she nearly forgets how much of a disaster her professional life continues to be. Simply because of one woman. That woman. Faye.

Faye Richardson came barreling into the firm in a hazy dark cloud of resentment under the pretense of professionalism. Professionalism, my ass. More like controlling bitch. She had the audacity to question Donna's worth to the firm and attempted to reassign her to be "just a lowly secretary". Something Donna Paulsen never was.

Harvey was struggling, Louis was going mad and Donna was just plain sad. The stress of having her in the firm was taking a toll on her. She was coming in earlier and staying later and had slowly become the definition of overworked.

Just today, she had arrived early at the firm to a stack of paperwork taller than a fifth grader and worst of all, she'd barely seen Harvey all day. He had been in and out of the office attempting to fight fires from every direction. At one point, he popped into her office, placed a salad on her desk, kissed the top of her head and then promptly left again, only receiving a mumbled "Thank you," from his favorite redhead.

She was stressed. To say the least. But for now, she was done. She didn't care that it was only 7:30. She didn't care that Faye was walking by her office with wide eyes and a quizzical expression. She didn't care about any of that.

She only cared about the fact that it was date night and that she was leaving hell to pursue perfection.

Checking her phone as she finished packing up the rest of her things and grabbing her purse, she texted Harvey to say she was through for the night. She waited patiently for those three little bubbles to appear and as Harvey's response came up on the screen she paused. "242 W. 83rd Street." An address. Donna, not recognizing the address and too consumed with thoughts of work, Donna simply messaged him back saying she was on her way, and left it at that.

"Harvey Specter, what are you up to?" She whispered to herself making her way to the elevator.

As she made her way down each floor and out to the street, she hailed a cab, gave the driver the address and then proceeded to spend the entire ride thinking about all the expense forms and associate interviews she still had left to do before the end of this dreadful work week.

Perusing emails on her phone, she realized the cab was slowly coming to a stop. Glancing up, she suddenly realized that Harvey had obviously picked a restaurant close to her apartment, given the corner the cab was depositing her at. As she thanked and paid the driver, she gathered her belongings and made her way up the street to the address she'd been given.

As she approached the door to the restaurant, she had to pause. "Harvey," she whispered to herself with a shake of her head. Taking a deep breath with a smile on her face, she pushed the door open to make her way inside. The quaint little diner that greeted her was all too familiar to her and to them. Thoughts of can openers, jealousy and longing conversations enter her mind and she glances around for him.

With a smile and a shake of her head, she sighs and greets his eyes. There he was. There was her Harvey, sitting in what she could only refer to as "their booth" wearing her favorite suit and the biggest grin she's ever seen. Damn him. That smug idiot.

"You must be awfully proud of yourself, Mister," she said approaching the table and sliding into her side of the booth.

"I love pulling one over on you," he said in that deep tone she loved so much.

"What are we doing here, Harvey?"

"I love this place," Harvey said, gesturing to the rest of the diner.

"You've only been here twice before," she said with a raise of her eyebrow.

"How'd you know that?" Harvey said with a knowing smirk.

"I know," Donna said with a definitive smile.

"Yes, you do know," Harvey said with a telling smirk.

Continuing to stare and smile, there is a completely comfortable silence that overtakes them. The last time they were here it was under entirely different circumstances, with both of them failing to say what they really mean, how they really felt. Now it's different. They're different.

It's the most surreal feeling - realizing how much everything's changed yet there's still that air of the same, because it's always been this way between them.

As the waitress approaches, takes their order and exits as quickly as she appeared, Donna can't stop staring at Harvey. Lord, this man.

"Harvey," she starts but is quickly interrupted.

"Listen, I know things have been rough for you and I know we said we wouldn't let work get between us, and it's not. But I just thought a little trip down memory lane might help ease the stress a bit," Harvey states before taking a sip of his water and smiling.

Looking around at the familiar surroundings of this place that holds so much meaning for them, Donna pauses. "So are there any other surprises up your sleeve tonight? Anything else I should know?" she questions.

"Well, now that you mentioned it… there is something I've been meaning to get off my chest."

"Ah, and what's that?"

"Well, I never did put it out of my mind, ya know."

"Imagine my surprise," Donna says with a roll of her eyes and a smirk.

Then there's a moment of comfortable silence as their meals are delivered. As they dive in, they chat lightly about their day, just meaningless catch up. Harvey tells Donna about the disaster he had to work through with Alex and Samantha and Donna confides in Harvey about missing Rachel. They decide to plan a trip shortly, just for the weekend, to see their best friends.

As the waitress approaches and tops off Donna's decaf, collects their finished dishes and places the check on the table, Donna finds herself practically beaming at him again.

"You really are something else, you know that?" Donna says with a light and teasing lilt to her voice. "I was so stressed about work before I got here and now I can't even remember why."

"Mission accomplished," Harvey says on a smirk.

Her face continues to beam at him, glancing away only to shake her head and laugh. Reaching out for her hand on the table and grasping it, he gently glides her thumb back and forth across her hand causing Donna to glances back at him. Seeing the slightly serious look on his face, she braces herself.

"What?" she questions.

Continuing to lazily drag his thumb back and forth across her hand, Harvey says "You know, the first time we were here, I told you that I didn't want to find out what kind of lawyer I'd be without you."

"Mhm, I remember."

"What I should have said was I don't want to find out what kind of man I'd be with you," Harvey says with a serious tone.

"Harvey," she says in a whisper.

With a tilt of his head, he continues, "You know, even then, I knew that whatever this was between us was what I wanted. That you were what I wanted. Even if I didn't fully realize it. But, I knew I couldn't give it to you the way you deserved. I wasn't ready," he explains. "So I asked you to come and work for me because that was all I was capable of giving you. It was all I was capable of giving myself. And if I couldn't have you the way I really wanted…"

"You wanted to keep me close," Donna says, interrupting him. Harvey sighs.

"I wanted you near me, whatever that meant. I had to have you near me, close to me, any way I could. And if that was the only way, then that's what I had to do."

As they sit there just gazing at each other, still refusing to let go of each other's hand, Donna realizes she owes him a confession about that day as well.

"Well, since we're confessing," she starts, giving him that knowing look of hers. "When you called that day for me to meet you, I thought you wanted… this. Us. I thought you wanted me."

"Donna, I -"

"No," she interrupts with a shake of her head. "Let me finish." Harvey nods gently at her and she continues.

"I got your call and I immediately got scared. I knew you weren't ready, but I wanted this and I was willing to say yes, take the plunge, be with you, even though I wasn't ready myself. But then I showed up here and you asked me to come with you and I just knew. I knew that it wasn't the time. I knew that we both weren't ready, I wasn't ready to face my feelings for you and you weren't ready to be the man I knew you could be." With a tilt of her head, she keeps going. "So I said yes, I said I'd come work with you, because I knew the potential you had and I knew that you were who I wanted to be with. Whatever that meant," she says with a smile.

Harvey, glancing down at their clasped hands, slowly directs his gaze to her eyes again and says, "Well, we were just ruined from the start, weren't we?"

"I'll say," Donna quips.

"Come on," Harvey retorts, "Let's get out of here. I want to take you home," he says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

As they both smile and chuckle to themselves they both realize what they already knew. That everything's changed, but that they're finally where they're supposed to be. They're finally on the same page.

Making their way out of the diner, hand in hand, Donna got that warm fuzzy feeling all over. That content feeling of knowing that this is them and this is forever.

As they finally take their leave of what will now be considered "their diner", Donna stops and tugs on Harvey's arm.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just -" she starts, shaking her head. Leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to his lips, she whispers, "Thank you, Harvey."

"For you? Anything," He responds in that sweet tone that belongs only to her.

Pressing one last quick kiss to his lips and breaking away with a smile, Donna takes his hand in hers as they turn and walk the last few blocks to her apartment.

This is what she needed. This is what she always needed. No matter how long it took to get here, they're here now.

This is what forever looks like. And forever looks perfect.

—

Walked in expecting you'd be late
But you got here early and you stand and wait
I walk to you
You pull my chair out and help me in
And you don't know how nice that is, but I do

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thank you for reading! reviews / comments / kudos / thoughts are all welcomed and encouraged! i love you all!