all_inclusive | Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

The annual Nexus New Year's Eve gala began at 8 in the evening. Too grand to be contained by the lobby or dining hall, the gardens at the front of the hotel were employed, with long strings of white lights forming a twinkling canopy from the front doors all the way to the hedge maze. The weather was temperate and calm, and the night perfectly clear.

Drinks were served at various bars set up throughout the gardens and lobby, with champagne cocktails being the specialty of the night. Wheeling through the crowd was a bartender with golden cart providing warm drinks on the go: Tom and Jerrys, rum punch, negus, and Irish coffee.

Crisply-dressed wait staff wove through the collected guests with an abundance of hors d'oeuvres for all different tastes. The Bistro remained open with a limited selection of items for those who were wanting something more substantial.

Above the front doors was hung a large, gold-rimmed clock counting down the last hours, minutes, and seconds of the current year.

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He rolls his eyes and fires off a smirk. "It was in the closet from the last time I wore it," he corrects. Though, it did actually show up in the closet the first time and that was pretty cool.

"If there is, I haven't found them yet." And, of all the things he might keep secret, Donna or Jessica or Mike being here, wouldn't be one of them. Hell, even Louis he'd tell her about.

He looks at her outfit and waves his glass in her direction. "After work, going to see Donna or going to get dinner?" It's as much a guess as anything else. She didn't ask about Mike specifically, so he opts for the second most likely options.

"After work and going to see Donna," Rachel says, deciding to neatly skirt the reasons behind going to see Donna. Donna is her friend. It isn't entirely out of the ordinary that she might want to visit her in her downtime.

"Although, I should be studying. I have a contracts exam in a few days and between work and everything else, it's hard to keep up."

He figured it was fifty-fifty between Donna and food. Or she was getting food and going to Donna's.

The next thing she says makes him frown, confused. "You're in law school?" When he left his own timeline this time, he was in the middle of the Ava Hessington case.

"Oh, yeah," Rachel says, beaming a little. "I finally broke 170 on the LSAT and I got accepted to Columbia. I'm working part time while I do my degree."

Rachel then realizes that Harvey knows that because she'd told him. "Harvey, you knew that. Remember? I had to lobby you and Jessica to pay for it and make me a summer associate."

Nope. He's still confused.

"I think I would've remembered being part of that conversation," he says. "I know people think I'm oblivious to everything outside my own office, but you're a paralegal. And I do know you took the LSAT and passed the shit out of it," Mike has a tendency to babble, "but that was the last I'd heard about you and law school."

"Well, I passed the shit out of it and I'm going to Columbia right now," Rachel says, still beaming about this. She's damn proud of what she's accomplished and she loves knowing she's actually going to be a lawyer sooner rather than later.

"I even managed to get Jessica to bend the Harvard only rule. I mean, we have an associate who didn't even go to law school. Surely she can accept someone who went to Columbia instead of Harvard."

He rubs a hand over his face and mutters something about Mike being an idiot for telling her. Harvey firmly believes that the fewer people who know, the better.

"Good luck getting Louis to agree with that. He's convinced other law schools will tarnish the firm," he says.

"How'd you get here, by the way?" he asks.

"I walked through the door of my apartment and wound up here instead of the hallway," Rachel says. She chases that with another swig of her champagne both because it's good champagne and she needs a little drunkenness to understand the mess her life is right now.

"I was going to Donna's. I ended up here talking to you, instead."

He nods. "That part is jarring even the second time," he says and takes a generous drink from his glass.

Another smirk. "Don't sound so upset. I'm not the boogeyman." An asshole for sure, but he's discovered she already knew that.

"No, you're not. I'm just a little shocked I'm in the middle of a party I'm not dressed for," Rachel admits. It's not the end of the world, though, because confidence goes a long way.

"So this is a usual thing? Showing up here?"

He grins at her. "Did you want to change that?" The lack of proper dress part, not the randomly showing up at a party part. The party bit he can't do anything about.

"Usual? No. This is only the second time I've shown up here. But, I was stuck here for over a year the first time."

"Damn," Rachel says. She doesn't know if she could handle it if she was stuck here for a year and then it hits her - Harvey was stuck here for a year and she never noticed he was gone? Even though it had been the middle of the Hessington Oil trial? How is that even possible?

"I'm used to you making the impossible happen but how did you manage to be in two places at once? You were never missing, Harvey."

He frowns a little, because he will have to call on all of the science fiction (and some fact) references he has to explain this. He shakes his head and finishes his drink. "I don't know exactly how it works, but time is different here," he says. "When you go back - if you go back -" he doesn't do 'false hope' "you'll be walking out the door to go see Donna. It'll be like you never left. That's why you didn't notice I was gone."

"So I'm not missing class or work or anything like that? I'm here," Rachel says, pointing to the floor of the hotel where she and Harvey are standing, "and I'm also there?"

It's kind of like a gift in the best way - now she has all the time in the world to do everything she hasn't had time to do.

Another shake of his head. "No, you're just here. Time here is moving faster than time there. As far as everyone there knows, you're still leaving your apartment. When you go back, you'll still be leaving your apartment, and you won't be here anymore."

It's a little mind boggling. Rachel is used to impossible things being flown by her on a regular basis since she lives with Mike and works with them both but to see it in action is something else. Besides, this is far-fetched, even for them. This breaks the laws of the universe.

"You know, this is going to make law school a hell of a lot easier."

He feeds her a look. "You already have a huge headstart on law school. You already know probably 3/4 of the case law." And how to find the rest.

"Besides, how do you know you won't come wandering in here two seconds before a huge test with no study materials?" Yup, he's a jerk. Life sucks.

Rachel narrows her eyes at him. "What you're supposed to say is that I'm going to come in here with my arms laden with books and have infinite time to study for the bar exam, which I will pass on my first try in three different states."

It sounds nice even if it's so not her luck to waltz into something like that. She took dozens of times to get the LSAT down - what's the bar going to be like?

He doesn't quite go so far as to pinch the bridge of his nose at her response, but it's close.

"First, you're not me." That's about passing the Bar for three states on the first try. "Second, who the hell carries books around all the time? Though, you could end up with some incredible biceps that way. Third, who says you're stuck here? You could go through a door and end up right back where you were in the next ten minutes." Or, so the theory goes. He doesn't get to leave that often.

"Well, I have to carry books around all the time, I'm working a full time job and going to law school," Rachel shoots back.

As to being able to go back, that's an important bit of information. She isn't ready quite yet. With everything all out of sorts because of Mike, she wants some time to just clear her head.

"I think I want to enjoy the party for a little while before I go back. It's been a while since I've just had time to relax."

"Don't books come all digital now?" Though, he is aware of the legal profession's - and law school's - stick-in-the-mud attitude toward changing anything.

He doesn't give much of a facial reaction when he says, "Something big happened right before you got here." It's not a question, but a statement. Why wouldn't she want to go back unless there was a reason to stay away?

"Some do. I like having them in my hand." Rachel pauses at his statement, however. The last thing she wants to do is tell Harvey all about how things went sour with Mike. It's something that she hasn't had a chance to wrap her own head around, much less explain it to someone else.

"Yeah, it's...it's personal stuff. With Mike. That's all."

"You're a masochist," he says. Carrying books just because? Of course, this is coming from the guy who 'jerked off' the whole time he was at Harvard and still graduated near the top of his class.

He frowns. "I'd ask what it's about, but I don't really care," he says flatly. He sips his drink. Then, "So what are you going to do with your new-found downtime?"

"I doubt that you are as unfeeling as you say but I'm happy to drop it. Right now? Not really sure. Studying is only going to take me so far," Rachel admits. "And it seems like a waste to have a vacation from responsibility and use it to be responsible. I think I need to take some down time and just enjoy getting a moment to sleep in and relax before going back to the grind."

A slow blink. "You're just going to sleep and do nothing?" He shakes his head. "I'm bored already. And you sound like Louis." He finishes his drink. "You need to have a little adventure."

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