Fic - Veracity (Donna/Harvey) pg, 1/1
Oct. 24th, 2012 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abvjTHIS IS STILL A THING EVERYONE SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN:
iheartcharade @ tumblr
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donna_harvey is hosting a Harvey/Donna drabble-a-thon.
GO. PROMPT. WRITE. BE MERRY.
iheartcharade @ tumblr
donna_harvey is hosting a Harvey/Donna drabble-a-thon.GO. PROMPT. WRITE. BE MERRY.
Title: Veracity
Summary: “I’m not in love with him,” she says, trying out the words.
Rating: pg
Author's Notes: 582 words. Set pre-series. This is my first time writing Jessica in any capacity, so con-crit is welcome and appreciated. All mistakes are mine. These characters, however, are not.
“You’re in love with him.”
It is Jessica who says it first, of course, words phrased as a statement, not a question. She is, after all, the only person who could get away with such a thing. It is years before the trial run. Years before the foundation of Donna and Harvey’s relationship turns faulty, breaking under the weight of unintentional betrayal and distrust.
They are in the copy room, late at night. A case is going to trial and the whole firm is preparing for it; heels click outside the cracked door, associates working themselves into hysteria out in the bullpen. Donna doesn’t need to be near him to know that Harvey is working through it all – cool and calm, the picture of control. It’s who he is. She is digging through boxes for precedence and Jessica is with her because Jessica can be wherever Jessica wants to be.
They are friends sometimes, in the minutes that stretch between them when no one is there to see, those moments when Harvey isn’t around to serve as the undercurrent between them.
Still, the shock at her words catches Donna off guard, the incredulous laughter bubbling thickly in the back of her throat. It’s a reflex, habit almost, and it is so thick, so heavy that she nearly chokes on it, her ears tinting pink as she avoids eye contact. It isn’t the first time people have wondered, have phrased those exact words with slight variation but similar intent, but it is the first time anyone has dared to be so frank with her. It is the first time anyone has dared to look her in the eye while the words fall out of their mouth. Even then, even during what could still be considered their modest beginning, Donna was a force to be reckoned with, to be feared.
There is a beer bottle between Donna’s hands, and her legs swing as she perches herself on the edge of the desk, fingers picking at the soggy and fading label sticking to the glass. Jessica watches, face a mask of neutrality, the smallest of smiles curling at the corner of her mouth. Donna envies it a little – the ease at which Jessica walks through life knowing all the answers, the confidence with which she carries herself. Donna likes Jessica. Donna respects Jessica. Donna may also be just a tad bit afraid of Jessica.
She is, naturally, the first to look away.
“He’s my boss,” she says, chin pointed defiantly. She is careful, always, to make that distinction first, the words serving as her default, her initial defense. “He is my friend. He’s Harvey.” There is a smile, small and unsure, uncharacteristic as it strains Donna’s cheeks. The beer sweats all over her fingers. “Besides. Have you met him?”
Jessica tips her head back to laugh, shoulders shaking with the movement, and when she sobers, her eyes return to scanning the contents of the box in front of her, fingers idly thumbing through the file labels. She finds what she is looking for within seconds, and Donna decides to blame the victorious smile that spreads across the other woman’s mouth on that instead of something else entirely.
“That wasn’t a no.”
Donna shakes her head, evens her gaze with Jessica’s. “I’m not in love with him,” she says, trying out the words. They taste unnatural as they fall out of her mouth.
“Okay.”
(It’s not a lie then. This is an important thing to note.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 01:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 01:24 pm (UTC)(I am trying to warm up to Jessica because I really, really want to write the fic where Harvey and her have a conversation/argument over who is going to fire Donna.)
Are you feeling better? I saw in the community postings that you were sick!!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 01:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 05:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 05:40 pm (UTC)http://in-a-heist.livejournal.com/71823.html
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 01:57 am (UTC)Bookmarking it for when I can concentrate! Can't wait!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 02:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 03:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 05:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-01 02:41 pm (UTC)(And there is definitely more H/D to come!)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 07:48 pm (UTC)I love this.
Your Jessica is fantastic. "That wasn't a no." UGH KILL ME.
And Donna testing the words out, how they feel and sound.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 01:58 am (UTC)Thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 10:52 pm (UTC)We don't get much Jessica and Donna, but it was so true to them.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 01:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-25 12:52 am (UTC)Your Jessica feels spot on to me and of course she would be the first to actually ask it.
The last parenthetical thought is perfect, but I also really liked They are friends sometimes, in the minutes that stretch between them when no one is there to see, those moments when Harvey isn’t around to serve as the undercurrent between them. for it's clarity towards how they all relate to each other.
Another wonderful piece ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 01:59 am (UTC)Are you working on anything new right now? I need some new fic in my life!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-26 02:24 am (UTC)At any rate, not sure if you saw the one I posted outside of comment fic this week. There's that and then I'm hoping to tackle something centered on snow or the sharing of his condo soon.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-29 06:00 pm (UTC)This is perfect cause I really love how Suits writes its female relationships, especially with regards to Donna and her friendship with Rachel versus her friendship with Jessica. And you described it perfectly because in the quiet moments it is like they're friends and then other moments it's like the stifling environment around them makes that relationship too awkward to be labeled as "friendship."
As Jessica said so brilliantly, that wasn't a denial, Donna. She's a lawyer, she picks up on these things haha.
Great work! I love how this is like a hidden moment between the two where Jessica knows and Donna knows she knows, and they never speak of it again. It's so subtle and yet powerful, it plays almost like a deleted scene in my head.
Please please PLEASEEEE write more Harvey/Donna. I've been stalking the LJ comm hoping for new fic, I can't get enough of these two!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-01 02:44 pm (UTC)More H/D is coming! Quite a few people on my flist requested I write them for their holiday fic requests, so I am working on those now and in December there will be H/D, like, ALL THE TIME.
Thank you for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-01 02:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-01 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-01 02:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-04 07:45 am (UTC)I loved this. I've always been interested in Jessica's take on H/D (because she's known Harvey since before Donna and seen all of it) and I like the relationship you've established between them here. Friends in small moments when Harvey's not there. Awesome.
(I read in other comments that you're thinking about doing a fic about Jessica and Harvey's conversation about firing Donna in 2.05. I would love, love to read that because I am so curious about that conversation. I even had a go at writing my version of it which I might get back to at some point. I don't believe for a second that Harvey wanted to fire her at all, despite how disappointed and hurt he may have been, and it has so many interesting possibilities).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-06 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-06 03:15 pm (UTC)(How are you?? Haven't seen you around as much.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-06 05:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-27 09:52 pm (UTC)