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Donna Paulsen was definitely a successful woman in most aspects of her life and she was always right about certain things. One of the things she was always right about was people, especially the Pearson Hardman – now Pearson Specter Litt people, who trusted her and cared for her. And one of the things she was more right about was when she found Harvey Specter the right associate. Donna knew what she was doing; she didn’t choose him at random with all the good associates out there waiting to be shipped off to work. She knew Mike was special from the moment he entered that room just trying not to get caught by the cops, and he was everything that Harvey Specter needed. Donna just wasn’t wrong about this.At the beginning, Donna was a little worried about all the fights in the middle of the office, when Mike would refuse to be treated like a hookie who were incapable to win a simple housing case, as Harvey loved to imply, and everyone knew it was just a twinge of jealousy because Mike Ross, somehow, was just as good as Harvey. However, they worked great together and kept each other in line even if it meant to have a few heated words. That was when Donna started to accept the bets that were going around the office. They ranged from “Harvey will make him ask for resignation”, which came from Jessica, who worked with Harvey for hours enough to know the man was a pain in the ass, to “They will work together for around a year before they get sick of each other and ask to be reassignated” by Louis, who used to work with the pair in some cases once in a while. Even the rest of the associates ensured their part in the bet. That’s why the entire staff laughed in disbelief when Donna put 200$ on “Married within a year. Maybe two”. Yes, Donna knew Mike was kind of dating Rachel, the Paralegal, but it wasn’t really a problem.The relationship between Mike and Rachel actually became one of the main reasons for Donna to believe her ship was ready to be sailed. Especially when Rachel discovered that Mike was a fraud and had not actually gone to Harvard and left him instantly as if he'd cheated on her with her best friend. After that, it became easy to see the fights between Harvey and Mike slowly fading into just a playful bickering and they were seen together not just in the office. Donna now was completely certain of her ability to know exactly what everything about people. Throughout that year working with Mike, she was even more convinced that he was the perfect choice for Harvey. And at that point, the associates were paying up the lost bet to Donna, who waved the victory around for a lot longer than she should have. However, even Jessica and Louis began to get nervous as Harvey and Mike became even closer. Donna gave them an opportunity to withdrawal their bets before they lost embarrassingly.
Louis was the first one to quit when he found out the truth about Mike and Harvey did everything he could to protect the kid. He didn’t need to be a FBI Agent to know that Harvey and Mike would end up together after all. Even though, Jessica was still confident that the two’s time was going to end very soon. With everything that was going around, the whole thing with Mike going to prison to protect the firm and many clients going away, there came another bout fightings. And for the first time since this had all started, Donna began to feel little shivers of doubt in her choice. Not that she would let Jessical or Louis know about it. Donna never knew what they were fighting about. She would only see the partners yelling at each other through the phone, and unfortunately, she could also see the smug looks on Louis’ face. Thankfully, the smug look went away pretty quickly when the two showed up together in the morning right after Mike got out of prison and Donna couldn’t help but leaned back in her chair, smirking at Louis as if it was her brilliant plan that was coming together beautifully. It became a silent truth that the two were in a relationship now and Donna wished Jessica had stayed long enough to see those things like Harvey bringing coffee in the morning to Mikes Junior Partner Office, almost a year later. Her face lit up in a huge grin when he saw the couple sharing a bottle of scotch in one of their offices one night. She woundn’t know that if she hadn’t silently returned to her desk to grab something she had forgotten. But she would know they spent that entire night together just by the way Harvey’s eyes denounced in the morning after that hr had had just the best night in months. And in that morning, Donna felt like some sort of genius cupid, because their relationship bloomed, bringing out the best in both of them.And finally here they were, a couple of years later, an engagement E-Mail had been sent out and Donna was happily collecting her winnings from the bet. At this point, however, most of the office was already rooting for the couple and very happy to hear the news, that is until they had to fork over the money to their smug looking now COO. After collecting, she went back to her office and happily counted her winnings thinking about how she was going to have no problem buying a gift for her two guys - which was obviously Louis’ idea.There was a knock at her door and she looked up to see Harvey Specter standing outside her office. Donna motioned for him to come in. He walked in unusually silent and stood up, walking over to congratulate her with a handshake but she was shocked when Harvey looked right past her hand and just enveloped her in a hug. Donna stopped for a second but then hugged him back, smiling, severely proud of her once “hopeless” uptight attorney.
“Thank you.”
Donna nodded and patted his arm before circling around to her desk. Harvey made his way to the door and opened it to leave, but stopped halfway out, the classic Harvey Specter half smile on his face as he looked back.
“I mean it, Donna. Really. Thanks to you I have to put up with that annoying and persistent kid.”
Donna paused, smiling and then added in a dramatic whisper, “Yes. Forever...”