Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was the first day of Mike Ross's second week as an attending physician at NYP emergency department when dispatch called in three victims with multiple gun shot wounds. It was a drug deal gone south and they were coming in under police escort.

Julie Kim, now Chief Resident, eventually called Mike in to consult on John Doe number one who had a bullet lodged so close to his brain stem that one wrong move and the guy would end up either dead or comatose.

"Too much noise artifact," Mike said, looking at the x-ray images. "All we can say for certain is that the bullet is lodged next to his brain stem. The resolution on this thing is crap. Where's the CT?"

"I know. I've ordered a CT, but they're backed up at the moment, which is why I got the x-ray first," Julia replied. "We were taking one for his shoulder anyway, might as well look at his head. Took care of the shoulder wound by the way, bullet went straight through and didn't hit anything vital."

"Good," Mike replied. "Push the CT through and find out who's on call in neurology. This is going to be one of theirs."

It wasn't until they were wheeling the guy out to get his CT that Mike recognised the unconscious figure on the gurney.

Trevor Evans.

And just like that, Mike's vision of the world tilted on its axis, as his past came crashing through to the present. Mike could feel his pulse speeding up, his breath quickened; signs of an anxiety attack, his brain told him.

"Are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost," Jo Wilcox, the newly promoted head nurse, asked when Mike found himself seeking refuge at the admissions counter, focusing on his breathing in an attempt to not give into the sheer panic his hindbrain seemed to want to send him into.

"I think I might have," Mike replied. Ignoring Jo's confused look, Mike reached for his cell in his lab coat pocket. "I need to make a call. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me."

Mike shut the door the moment he stepped into the cramped office he shared with Dr Elizabeth Damar, the other permanent attending physician at the ER who was usually on the afternoon shift. He hit the speed dial for Harvey; it took a handful of rings before Harvey picked up.

"Mike?" Harvey answered.

"Bad time?" Mike asked, even the distracted tone of Harvey's voice was enough to clam him down slightly. He wanted to speak to Harvey, but now that Harvey was actually on the phone, Mike realised that he had never actually told Harvey about Trevor, and that was not a conversation he wanted to have over the phone while both of them were at work.

"Charlie's here," Harvey's tone was curt, like he usually was when he was focused on a serious problem. The fact that it was related to Charlie didn't bode well.

"In your office? Is everything all right?"

"No, not really. I'll talk to you over dinner?" Harvey's tone had softened slightly at the last statement, but not by much. Mike immediately picked up on what Harvey's not saying; not something he wanted to discuss at work and over the phone. Just like Mike's own problem then.

"Yeah. I'll see you then."

The fact that Harvey simply hung up without saying goodbye was again not a good sign. If Charlie was in the sort of trouble that he had to go to Harvey for help, Mike's ghost from the past could wait; he had managed to forget about Trevor for over fourteen years, he could wait a few more hours. He had to.

* * *

"You didn't have to blow off Mike like that," Charlie said as soon as Harvey hung up. They were in Harvey's office, Charlie on the couch while Harvey stood, pacing. The door was closed and Donna had strict instructions not to let anyone interrupt them unless the building was burning to the ground.

"He'll understand," Harvey replied. It might sound like he was taking Mike for granted, but Harvey was confident that after over a year together, he knew Mike well enough to say he wouldn't mind. Mike had enough self-confidence and awareness to know not to take it personally. "How the hell did this happen, Charles? You haven't even been back for five months!"

"I don't know! I have a feeling it's been going on since before I took over the project and they're just setting me up as the fall guy. Who would ask questions when it's the new guy who screwed things up, right?" Charlie said, rubbing his face with his palms. Harvey had never seen his brother this stressed out before. "Two people are in ICU because of that shoddy foundation work, I know I don't have anything to do with it, but I still feel responsible."

"Don't say that anywhere outside this office," Harvey warned. "The fact that they've told you to take some time off instead of asking you to help with the investigation is telling me that they think you're guilty of whatever it is that happened."

"Harvey, the part of the building that collapsed was built months before I took over the project. Surely they can't blame me for it?"

"It depends on what they find," Harvey replied. "Without knowing what they want or what information they have, there's nothing much we can do at this point. They might not even do anything."

"You think that's likely?" Charlie asked, skeptical.

"I honestly don't know, not without having more information," Harvey shrugged, not liking the situation one bit. "I'll do some digging. You go home and keep Janice company. Isn't the baby due any day now?" Harvey asked, steering the conversation to happier grounds.

"Yeah, in about three days actually," Charlie smiled, and then he frowned again. "Harvey, if this thing goes south, I'm not sure I can afford your hourly rates. Not with the new house and the baby."

"Don't worry about it. You can pay the expenses and disbursements, and I'll take care of the rest. Besides, we might not get to that point."

"I'm sure you don't believe that. You wouldn't be trying so hard to look unconcerned otherwise."

Harvey sighed. "I forgot who I was talking to," Charlie had always been able to see through his facade. "Like I said, Charlie. Let me do some digging and we'll see what we turn up. Go home and give Janice my best, and don't worry until I tell you to. I've got your back, and this is definitely something they won't expect."

"What? That I have a big brother?"

"That your big brother happens to be me," Harvey replied, confident. "I haven't lost a case since I made Junior Partner, I'm not going to start with my own brother," and Harvey knew it was true. If Hartford Construction came after Charlie, they would be in for one hell of a surprise.

* * *

Mike had stared out of the window in his office for over a minute before he felt calm enough to think straight again. With their history, there was no way Mike could remain objective enough to treat Trevor. It didn't matter that Trevor was likely to be transferred to neurology after the CT scan, Mike was not putting his name down on Trevor's charts as the supervising doctor, he was not going to open the hospital up to the potential fallout that it might bring.

With that in mind, Mike went straight to the office of the head of the department. Over the years that he'd been with the NYP, Mike hadn't actually worked that closely with Dr Richard Hughes before his appointment as attending physician. The middle-aged doctor had always been somewhat of a fatherly figure of the department and encouraged everyone to seek him out if they had any problems. The few times Mike has had to seek his consult because Davidson had been otherwise occupied and the situation was too urgent to wait, Hughes had been more than happy to jump into the foray. Mike had got the feeling that Hughes, now in a more administrative and research intensive position, missed the day-to-day insanity of the ER.

"Ah, Mike, what can I do for you?" Hughes greeted him after Mike knocked on his opened office door. Hughes quite literally had an open door policy to anyone in his department. He never shut his doors unless he was in a confidential meeting with colleagues or patients.

"Dr Hughes, I was wondering if you have a couple minutes to spare?"

"Of course, have a seat. And what did I said about calling me Richard?"

"Thanks, uh... Richard," Mike shut the door behind him. Hughes looked at Mike, curious and assessing.

"What can I do for you, Mike?"

"I think I need you to take over one of the patients who came in earlier with multiple GSWs. He's still in CT at the moment and quite likely will be transferred to neurology once he's stabilised, but until then, I can't be the supervisor on record for him," Mike said in a rush.

"And why's that?"

"The patient's listed a John Doe at the moment, but his name is..." Mike found himself tripping over Trevor's name. "Trevor. Trevor Evans," he finally managed. "I knew him from school."

Hughes was quiet for a moment, he merely looked at Mike. It was then Mike realised he might actually have to tell Hughes what happened between him and Trevor and Mike had to fight down the urge to panic.

"I'm assuming that you have a negative history with Mr Evans?" Hughes eventually asked.

"Very," Mike answered, then he took a deep breath and continued. "We were friends, but we had a fall out. He was high on god knows what and completely lost control. He came at me with a baseball bat."

"He assaulted you?"

"Yes," Mike nodded. "I haven't seen him since I identified him to the police."

"I see," Hughes replied, thoughtful. "I'll take over Mr Evans's care," Hughes agreed, but Mike had a feeling that he was not done, so he didn't say anything and waited for Hughes to continue. "I'm glad you're smart enough to come to me with this instead of trying to deal with this yourself."

"I wouldn't want to compromise the hospital's standard of care," Mike replied.

"That's not the only reason, Mike, and I think you realised that. You have a level of insight that I'm sad to say, escape doctors many years your senior. How much longer until the end of your shift?" Hughes asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Mike looked at his watch. "Three hours. Why?"

"Go home. Go find that young man of yours and try not to have a panic attack. Yes, I noticed you've been trying to keep your breathing under control, and you're doing a very good job of it, but I've been practicing medicine for a while. You can't fool me that easily," Hughes said kindly. "You're in no shape to be treating patients right now."

"Are you sure it's not because you're looking for an excuse to get back in the ER?" Mike replied jokingly, trying not to sound too relief and knowing he probably failed.

"Well, that too. Two birds with one stone. I'm amazed at the brilliance of my solution," Hughes smiled. "I mean it Mike, go home. Or go see Dr Wilson in Psych if you need to."

"No, I'll be fine. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Mike left Hughes's office feeling a little more like himself; he would not have to see Trevor and for now, the rest could wait for a bit.

* * *

The first inkling Harvey had that something might be wrong with Mike was when he received a text from Mike saying he was getting off work early.

As soon as Harvey was done talking to Vanessa on the phone, he rang Mike.

"What's wrong?" Harvey asked as soon as Mike picked up the phone.

"What makes you think there's something wrong?"

"You called me in the middle of a shift, and less than half an hour later you text me to say you're getting off work early; over three hours early. Now, I admit I was too distracted in the first instance to realise that something was amiss, but now I'm sure something's definitely wrong."

Mike sighed. "I'm on my way to your place. I'll talk to you when you get home."

"You do realise that's not at all reassuring, right?" Harvey asked. Mike usually preferred his own more modest apartment than Harvey's condo, which Mike thought was just a bit too 'modern minimalist' for his taste.

"What's going on with Charlie?" Mike asked instead.

"There was an incident at the site of the project he's working on, people were hurt. He's concerned that they might try to put the blame on him. I'm having someone looking into it for me. And for the record, just because I answered your question doesn't mean that I don't recognise a diversion tactic. Talk to me, Mike."

"I will. Just don't want to be doing it over the phone when I'm sitting in a cab in the middle of Manhattan traffic."

"You're taking a cab? Okay, now I'm really worried," Harvey said, alarmed. Despite Mike's considerable financial means, he didn't often indulged in things like designer clothes or taking a cab when he could ride his bike or take the subway, the only exceptions were when he had to rush back to the hospital due to some emergency. The fact that Mike had voluntarily, as far as Harvey knew, got into a cab to go to Harvey's place suggests that Mike was either physically incapable of riding home due to some injury, or –

"I'm fine. I'm not injured or maimed or any of the hundred horrible things that're going through your head right now," Mike said before Harvey's mind could spiral out of control and conjure up with more worse case scenarios. "I'm just a bit...rattled. Thought it was probably not the best state of mind to be biking through city traffic."

"Right. Good thinking," Harvey replied, getting his thoughts under control. He was a lawyer, it was his job to anticipate the worse, Harvey can't help that his mind automatically jumps to the worse case scenario. "I'm going to get Donna to reshuffle my meetings and –"

"You don't have to. I can wait until you get off work," Mike protested.

"Mike, you called me in the middle of the day," Harvey said, his voice soft. He needed Mike to know that Harvey got his message; that Harvey knew that whatever it was that managed to rattle Mike, it was a big deal. Because Mike was not easily rattled, he dealt with life and death on a daily basis and was trained to remain calm and level headed in a variety of emergency situations; Harvey had witnessed it first hand.

"Yeah, I did."

"I'll get home as soon as possible."

"Okay," Mike sounded relieved, and Harvey knew he made the right call. "Love you," Mike said, voice quieter than before.

"You too. I'll see you soon."

As soon as Harvey hung up, Donna was in his office informing him that she had rescheduled all his meetings for the afternoon except for Henderson, who was already waiting in the boardroom.

"You want me to get rid of him?" Donna asked.

"No. It shouldn't take more than half an hour. And stop listening to my private conversations," Harvey admonished, knowing that it was part of their ritual. Donna would continue to do what Donna does, and Harvey would let her.

* * *

The moment he stepped into Harvey's condo Mike finally felt a sense of safety that he wasn't even aware had fled him. He made his way into the bedroom, leaving his messenger bag by the door, and headed straight for the balcony.

The January air was bitingly cold this far up, but Mike didn't care, he needed to see New York from up high, to hear the muted noise of the traffic far below; to physically remind himself how far he had come since he was seventeen and clueless.

Mike was no longer the confused kid in love with his best friend, whom his mother and grandmother disapproved of; whom Mike himself knew was bad news. The relief he felt after leaving Hughes office was short lived. Mike's mind, normally his best asset, was betraying him, threatening to replay the entire sorry episode back to him in high definition and stereo surround sound. He had barely held it together during the cab ride, and if Harvey hadn't called when he did, Mike was sure he would've had a panic attack right in there in the cab.

So Mike breathed, fighting his memories and the tide of emotions that were associated with it; hurt, anger, pain, betrayal, and worse of all, fear.

It was completely illogical, Trevor was no threat to him now, if anything, he was utterly helpless, and Mike quite literally had the power of life and death in his hands. One extra zero in his dose of medication, a wrong diagnosis, accidental slip of the scalpel during surgery – which Mike could request to assists in – nicking a small but important vein, it would be so easy....

"Mike?" Harvey's voice snapped Mike out of his thoughts, and Mike felt disgusted at himself for sinking to that level. He was a doctor, he took an oath to do no harm, and yet here he was, actively thinking of ways to harm a patient.

"In here," he called out, turning around just in time to see Harvey walking into the bedroom.

"It's freezing."

"Sorry, should've shut the door."

"Have you been standing out here since you get here?" Harvey asked, stepping out onto the veranda to join Mike

"Yeah. Needed some air to clear my head," Mike shrugged as Harvey moved to stand right in front of him, eyes scanning Mike's face for whatever clue Harvey was hoping to find.

"Doesn't look like it's done any good," the concern in Harvey's voice was clear, and Mike felt his control slipping. Harvey must have seen some signs, because the next thing Mike knew, he was in Harvey's arms, and Mike held onto him as though his life depended on it. "I've got you, whatever it is, I've got you," Harvey murmured into his ear. "God, you're trembling. Let's go back inside, all right? You're freezing."

Mike nodded against Harvey's shoulder, not trusting himself to speak without completely losing it.

They made their way back into the bedroom, Harvey still half embracing Mike. Shutting the sliding door behind them, Harvey steered Mike towards the bed. Mike let go of Harvey when they sat down on the edge of the bed and let himself fall backwards to lie on top of the covers, staring blankly at the ceiling.

A minute later, Mike felt the bed dipped beside him, he turned his head to find Harvey, sans jacket and waistcoat, lying on his side watching Mike.

"Talk to me," Harvey prompted gently.

"Did you have a best friend? When you were a kid, I mean," Mike asked.

"Yeah. Rick Jones. Grades five through sophomore year in high school. We used to hang out at his place, spend the afternoon watching Star Trek on video. He was the one who got me hooked."

Mike couldn't help but smile at the mental image of a young Harvey sitting in front of the TV, enthralled by the adventures of Captain Kirk. "What happened to Rick?" Mike asked.

"His dad got a promotion and their family moved to Seattle just before senior year. We lost contact."

"Not a bad way for a friendship to end," Mike turned his attention back to the ceiling. He wasn't sure if he could get the story out if he was looking at Harvey. "Trevor Evans, I knew him since we were six. We did everything together, and practically all my firsts were with him. First prank, first fight, first exam cheat, first smoke, first love, first high, first kiss..." Mike trailed off. "And just five minutes ago I was imagining how I could make sure he didn't walk out of the hospital alive."

"Mike?"

Mike could tell Harvey was shocked. Whether it was from Mike's disclosure about the fact that he'd been a cheat and an addict, that he'd contemplated killing someone or a combination of both, he wasn't sure.

"I haven't seen Trevor since I was seventeen. He was expelled and spent eight months in juvie for drug possession and putting me in the hospital. Earlier today he was wheeled into the ER, my ER with multiple GSW," Mike took a deep breath, steeling himself of what was yet to come. "I did some stupid things with Trevor, got high on pot, helped him cheat on exams, all sorts of crap I never told you about. I knew I was doing the wrong thing, but somehow, Trevor always, always managed to convince me it was a good idea. I think the fact that I was in love with him didn't help either. Mum caught us one day when she got home early from work."

"Caught you doing what?"

"Each other, and a bag of weed," Mike replied. "She kicked Trevor out and basically locked me in my room until I sobered up. Then she sat me down at the kitchen table, the bag of weed between us, and asked me what she had done wrong."

"Ouch."

Mike snorted. "Yeah, major guilt trip. She didn't say anything about my apparent preference for guys, just the drugs. I swore to her that I would never get high again, and I've kept that promise. Trevor wasn't too happy about it, kept calling me a spoilsport, party pooper and god knows what else. Mum and Grammy wanted me to stop hanging out with him, but I couldn't. I kept thinking that I could get him to change and give up the pot," Mike let out a bitter laugh. "The whole time that we were together, he had a girlfriend, Jenny. The three of us would hang out together, and all that time, I was screwing her boyfriend behind her back. God, I was an asshole."

"Mike –"

"Harvey," Mike turned back to look at his partner. "Let me finish. I need to get this out now or I never will." It was something he had kept to himself for a long time, not telling anyone at first out of fear, then it became important that his mum and Gammy never find out because it would hurt them, but Harvey was different. Harvey was more than capable of taking care of himself.

"All right."

"Trevor was constantly prodding me, and after a couple months of it, I decided to break things off with him. Jenny had become a friend and I couldn't do that to her. Trevor wasn't too happy about it and considering the fact that I was the only one putting out, I can see why. I probably picked the worse moment to tell him about it though. That night, his parents were away and he'd somehow got his hands on some pills, god knows what they were, probably amphetamines come to think of it. He was completely out of his head, wouldn't let me leave and that was when things got violent."

Mike stopped, not sure if he was able to go through with this. Mike trusted Harvey, there was no doubt about that and he wanted Harvey to know; he needed Harvey to know, but now he wasn't sure if he was actually capable of telling it.

"You said earlier he put you in the hospital?" Harvey prompted. Mike felt Harvey's hand slowly running through his hair, the gentle caress was comforting and Mike drew strength from it.

"I was in the wrestling team, I could hold my own in a normal fight, but whatever Trevor was on, had him so pumped that he barely cared that I broke his nose. It just made him madder and he found a baseball bat from somewhere and just came at me."

The first swing Trevor took went wide and Mike duck out of the way, but the second swing managed to hit him on his left ribcage. Mike moved with the motion, trying to lessen the impact, but it didn't help and he went down. Seemingly satisfied now that Mike was incapacitated, Trevor tossed the baseball bat aside, as Mike struggled to get back on his feet. Trevor grabbed Mike's wrists and pinned him back onto the ground.

"Let me go!"

"No. No one leaves me, and you're not leaving me, Mike. You're not. We're so good together, we could do great things!" Trevor declared, a manic grin on his face. With the blood still dripping down from his broken nose and lips, and his half swollen eyes, he looked like a monster from one of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

"Great things? You barely passed math in junior year and almost flunked history last term. If it hadn't been for me, they would've put you in remedial!" Mike spat out, trying not to pass out from the pain on his side.

"Shut up!" the grin was gone, replaced by pure fury.

"Admit it. You need me more than I ever needed you."

"I know you're in love with me, you need me!"

"Past tense, Trevor. I was in love with you. Then I realised you're not worth it, and all you've ever done was to pull me down with you."

"Shut up!"

"That's all you were ever good for Trevor, getting into trouble. I was always the one who had to get us out. Get off me you fucking asshole!" Mike tried to flip Trevor over with one of his wrestling moves, but the pain in his side made any movement excruciating. "What would Jenny think if she knew you had to cheat to even get a D average? What would she think of you when she realised that you couldn't even put two and two together to get four? That you're an idiot?" Mike taunted.

"I'm not an idiot! Shut up!"

"And what would she think when I tell her you've been cheating on her all this time? With a guy!"

"Shut the fuck up or I'll make you!" Trevor yelled, his grip on Mike's wrists tightening, cutting off the blood flow, and Mike could feel his hands slowly going numb. It was getting harder to breathe especially with Trevor resting more and more of his weight on Mike.

"Get the fuck off me and go fuck yourself, Trevor. I'm done with you!" Mike yelled.

"But I'm not done with you Mike. I'm not done with you at all, and for once I'm going to make you shut up!"

It was then Mike noticed Trevor's erection pressed against his thigh and started to panic.

"I tried to get away, but I almost passed out from the pain," Mike said, his voice had gone quiet.

"Did he..." Harvey sounded tense.

"For months after," Mike continued, his eyes closed. "I swear I could still feel him at the back of my throat, his taste still on my tongue," Mike felt Harvey shifting beside him, a palm on his cheeks, gently turning his head towards Harvey. Mike swallowed hard, opening his eyes he was a little surprise to see pain and hurt reflected back at him. "I'm sorry," Mike said, reaching up to grip Harvey's hand with his own and holding it close to his chest.

"What for?"

"It wasn't my intention to hurt you by telling you about this."

"I'm glad you told me."

"I've never told anyone before. They know about the baseball bat and the drugs, but I never said anything about..." Even after fourteen years, Mike still couldn't bring himself to say it.

"The rape." But Harvey didn't seem to have the same problem.

"Not even my mother or Grammy knows."

"I'm not going to tell Edith," Harvey reassured, gently squeezing Mike's hand.

"It took months, but I managed to put it behind me. I buried the memory, poured all my energy into college applications, taking as many AP classes as I could and acing every single one of them. I contemplated going to CalTech, getting as far away from him as I possibly could, but I didn't want to let him win. And if I ran, he would've won," Mike paused, trying to slow down the flood of emotions that the memories had brought back.

"Did you get any help dealing with it? A counselor?"

Mike nodded. "Mum and Grammy made sure I went."

"But you never told them the full story." It wasn't really a question.

"I think everyone knew better than to mention Trevor's name to me after that, so that made forgetting easier. And some of the stuff the counselor had me doing to deal with the assault, that helped, too. But seeing him today again, with no warning...everything just came back and I don't know how to make it stop," Mike closed his eyes and swallowed, breathing deeply and trying not to fall apart more than he already did.

He felt Harvey moving again; moments later Mike's head was resting on Harvey's chest and Harvey's arms around him, holding him close with his hands rubbing up and down against Mike's back. Breathing in the familiar scent of Harvey, Mike knew then, without a word having spoken, that whatever happened, Mike would get through it because Harvey had his back.

* * *

Harvey had always been good with words, he may not like the uncertainties of going to court, but when he was in front a judge making his arguments, he was one of the best. Harvey was a master in the art of persuasion; words were his tools, which he wielded to great effect. Yet, despite his mastery of words, he had often found himself at lost when it came to expressing his thoughts and feelings to people he cared about, so he relied on his actions instead. When Mike finally stopped speaking, Harvey wasn't sure what words there were to express what he was feeling.

Sorrow? That Mike had gone through something so horrible and had borne the burden alone for so long.

Anger? At the man who did this to him, a man Harvey hadn't even know existed until an hour ago yet he now wanted to maim.

Pain? That Mike was hurting from an event that happened half a lifetime ago, that Harvey wasn't able to help. It was a physical ache that Harvey could feel in his chest.

Pride? So very proud that Mike had survived and thrived despite of it.

And the overwhelming sense of love for the man in his arms; ridiculously smart, confident, compassionate, funny, and all those ludicrous adjectives one find in personal ads that he and Mike would occasionally go through on a Sunday morning for mocking purposes. Every new thing Harvey learned about Mike only served to confirm that he was also one of the most resilient people Harvey had ever met. To have someone like Mike also be completely in tune with Harvey was something he had never expected. Mike was, in every sense of the term, Harvey's better half.

How was it possible for Harvey to put that all into something he could easily express? So all Harvey did was hold Mike close, and hope somehow Mike knew what Harvey was not able to put into words.

Harvey wasn't sure how long they were lying there before he felt Mike relax a fraction, the grip he had on Harvey's hand loosen slightly.

"What's going on with Charlie?" Mike finally asked, just slightly above a whisper, unwilling to disturb the quietness that surrounded them.

"Mike – "

"Unless you can't tell me because of attorney-client privilege?" Mike raised his head to look at Harvey and Harvey could see it in his eyes, a plea to for Harvey to distract him, to give Mike's brain something else to focus on other that the constant replay of a past event that he was cursed to remember every single detail of.

"No, Charlie's fine with me telling you. I've cleared it with him. It's just that there's not much to say beyond what I already told you over the phone. I'm looking into things, and until we find something or his employer does something, there's nothing much for me to go on with."

"What happened though?"

"Couple days ago the foundation on the building project he was working on caved in and collapsed. It was the end of the day so most people had left the site by then, but two workers were standing on top of it when it happened. They're both in ICU at the moment and the doctors aren't sure whether they will survive."

"And they think it's Charlie's fault?" Harvey was pleased to note that Mike seemed to be sufficiently distracted, he was sounding a lot more like himself than he had merely minutes ago.

"We don't know for sure, but it's looking that way. Instead of asking him to investigate and find out what went wrong, they put him on leave. He's has only been working on that project for the last two months and he said he had been noticing some discrepancies with some of their records and the architectural plans," Harvey elaborated.

"What sort of discrepancies?" Mike asked, twisting around so he could look at Harvey.

"Records that may indicate that they were cutting corners with the materials they were using and taking short cuts. He didn't have enough to actually go to anyone about it yet, but he had been making copies of files just in case."

"And you think that someone might have figured out what he was doing and is now scapegoating him to get him out of the way? I take that you have Vanessa on the case?" Mike lifted his head off Harvey's chest.

Harvey gave Mike a dirty look. "Did you read my mind?"

"I just know you," and the small smile Mike gave him was encouraging.

"You should've gone to law school. Together, we could've ruled the galaxy."

"Harvey Reginald Specter, you did not just go Darth Vader on me!" Mike's surprised laugh sounded even better to Harvey. "Oh god, did you just imply that I was Luke?! That's just wrong, dude, so very very very wrong!"

"God, I should've never told you my middle name!" Harvey groaned, hiding his grin by leaning up to capture Mike's lips in a kiss. Harvey had realised for a while now that he would never regret any actions that would make Mike happy, or in this case, forget (even if it was only just for a little while) his troubles. At the back of his mind, Harvey made a mental note to himself to find out everything he could about Trevor Evans.

* * *

Hughes must have said something to the staff in the ER about not bringing things up with Mike, because no one mentioned anything about Hughes taking over his patient and the remaining of his shift. Mike hadn't slept much the night before. It was a bit of a surprise that he hadn't had a nightmare. On the other hand, Mike would have to be asleep to dream, so maybe it really wasn't that unexpected. He had ended up keeping Harvey up half the night with his tossing and turning, but Harvey had outright vetoed the idea of Mike taking the guest room when Mike suggested it at three in the morning.

Mike was thankful that it had been a relatively normal day at the ER with no major catastrophes and Mike could pretend to be doing paperwork in the tiny office, only venturing out when he was called upon for the occasional consult when no one else was available. Mike was just finishing up his notes on his latest patient at his customary position at the admissions desk counter and was starting to think he might just be able to finish his shift without any drama when a familiar voice from his childhood called out to him.

"Mike? Mike Ross?"

Mike looked up from his paperwork the to see Margaret Evans standing at the front desk. Trevor's mother looked pretty much like the last time Mike had seen her. Her hair was shorter with a little more grey than auburn, and there were a few more lines on her face, but she was still recognisable from the woman who used to sneak him an extra cookie before he headed home for dinner.

"Mrs Evans," Mike acknowledged her with a nod.

"I got a message on my phone that Trevor was brought in here," Mrs Evans looked concerned but not agitated; there was something about her expression that seemed to hint at a sense of resignation, like she had been expecting something like this to happen. "I... I didn't know you work here," she stammered, almost as though seeing Mike had caught her off-guard.

Mike gave up all pretense of working on the chart. "I'll take over from here, Jo," Mike said, standing up and making his way around from the back of the counter, not bothering with his lab coat which he'd taken off earlier and was now slung over the back of the chair he was sitting in.

"Dr Ross?" the fact that Jo was addressing him by his title spoke volumes to Mike about just how much she had worked out about his history with Trevor because he was certain Hughes had not divulged any details. Jo had never bothered calling Mike by anything other than his name since the first day of his residency over four years ago.

"Doctor?" Mrs Evans looked surprise at hearing Jo's revelation. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you were always the smart one."

"He's in the ICU on level seven," Mike replied, getting straight to business and trying his best to be professional. He had fond memories of Mrs Evans, and it really wasn't her fault that her son turned out to be a bastard despite her best efforts, but it was hard not to feel let down and disappointed by her. It didn't help that Mike's memories of Margaret Evans were inescapably tied up with that of her son.

"How is he?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't ask," Mike knew he sounded callus and unprofessional to be talking to a patient's next of kin the way he was, but given their personal history, it would be the height of hypocrisy to pretend otherwise. "You want me to bring you up?" Still, he couldn't help but offer.

"If you don't mind?" Mrs Evans looked hesitant, clearly unsure about where she stood with Mike. She wasn't the only one.

"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Mike replied. He turned to Jo. "Jo, I'm going to show Mrs Evans to the ICU. Page me if anyone needs me." When Jo nodded her understanding, Mike turned back to Mrs Evans. "Elevator's this way."

Neither of them spoke as they waited. When the elevator came, they were the only occupants.

"I'm sorry," Mrs Evans said just as they passed level two. "I never got the chance to apologise to you after – "

"Don't," Mike interrupted. "You weren't the one who beat me up and left me for dead."

Mrs Evans was visibly taken aback by Mike's directness. "No, but – "

"Mrs Evans, you didn't do anything. He is responsible for his actions. You have nothing to apologise for and I will never accept his apology even if he did offer me one." The ding of the bell announcing their arrival shattered the awkward silence that followed Mike's statement. Mike led the way towards the ICU admissions desk, only vaguely aware that Mrs Evans was following behind him.

"Ah, Dr Ross," George, one of the ICU nurses greeted him from behind the desk. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?"

Mike smiled at George's antics despite himself. "Just making sure Mrs Evans didn't get lost on her way up. Which ward is Trevor Evans in?" Mike asked, somewhat surprised by the fact that he hadn't stumbled over Trevor's name, nor did it send him on the verge of panic. He was still tensed, and was actively trying to breathe normally, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was the day before.

"That would be Ward Four," George answered without even consulting the charts. "You want me to get Dr Raj?"

"Yeah. He will probably want to talk to Mrs Evans. Thanks George."

"No problem, Dr Ross."

"This way," Mike indicated to Mrs Evans to follow him. Ward Four was the second last room down the hallway from the admissions desk. Mike really had no desire to see Trevor, he wasn't masochistic enough to test the limits of his control to that extend, but he also didn't want to just leave Mrs Evans. "Dr Raj is one of the best neurosurgeons in the region; he'll be able to tell you more about Trevor's condition."

"You seem to know everyone."

"Not really. But my job in the ER means I'd have to consult with most of the departments in the hospital, so I have at least a couple of contacts in each department," Mike shrugged as they stopped in front of Ward Four. The ICU ward was all glass and sliding doors for ease of observation and access; Mike turned his back towards the entrance to the room, not even wanting to catch sight of Trevor. "Dr Raj should be here soon. I need to get back to the ER."

"You seem to have an important job," Mrs Evans commented. Mike wasn't sure if she was just trying to make conversation or whether she really wanted to know.

"I'm basically a supervisor," Mike replied, not really wanting to go into too much detail with a woman he hadn't seen for half a lifetime. While she might have been, at one time, as familiar a sight to him as his own mother, the passage of time and distance had rendered Margaret Evans practically a stranger.

"I'm glad you didn't let him drag you down," Mrs Evans said. "Ever since he got out of juvie and went straight back to the drugs, I knew something like this would happen," the sadness and regret in her entire being was obvious even to the most casual observer. "I'm only surprised that it took this long."

"Mrs Evans – " Mike started.

"Go back to work and save some lives, Mike," she interrupted, her words eerily similar to those of Mike's own mother's weeks before she died. "Trevor has reaped what he sowed, I've long been expecting this and I've made my peace," Mrs Evans gave Mike a sad smile and Mike watched as she walked into the room towards his unconscious son.

Mike left, feeling uncertain and almost a sense of pity for Mrs Evans, he wanted to call Harvey but thought better of it. Harvey was probably in meetings, having to play catch up from the day before. As he stepped back into the familiar pandemonium of the ER, Mike felt some of the tension drain out of him and his breathing became easier. It was only a couple of hours until he got off work; that would be soon enough.

* * *

It had been one meeting after another for the entire day and Harvey had never felt more grateful to Donna, who had handed him files and memos just as he needed them, and generally made sure everything ran smoothly. Harvey also found himself in a rather strange position of being pleased of Harold, for getting everything done in time and exactly the way Harvey wanted it, saving him the time it would've take to amend the documents.

The day felt far longer than it actually was, and it didn't help that he was worried about Mike after the revelations the day before. With the Anderson deposition running late, Harvey had to skip lunch to make it to his next appointment on time. By the time four o'clock rolled around, he was starving, having only had a coffee and a banana muffin for breakfast over nine hours ago.

Over breakfast that morning, Harvey had been tempted to tell Mike to take some time off, but he knew that Mike would just end up dwelling on the past if there was nothing to distract him, so he kept his mouth shut and made sure everything went on as normal. If he had seemed reluctant to let go of Mike this morning as they kissed each other goodbye in the car, it was just a coincidence.

"Mr Richards rang. He's stuck in traffic and will be late. You have 15 minutes to yourself," Donna announced, handing Harvey a sandwich as he came back from the meeting room on level 53.

"Donna, marry me?" Harvey took the sandwich and immediately tore into it.

"Took care of that seven years ago. But I had to get a divorce last year before Mike found out and killed me. By the way they only had ham and cheese left."

"It's food. I don't care," Harvey said between bites, glad to have a bit of a breather after a day of marathon meetings. "And Mike wouldn't kill you, it'd upset me."

"He's a doctor. He can make it look like an accident and you wouldn't even know what happened."

Of course, Harvey's cell rang the minute he sat down behind his desk. Leaving the half eaten sandwich on his desk, he fished out the ringing phone from his jacket pocket, fully intended to refuse the call when he saw who it was.

"Vanessa, I know you work fast, but this has to be a record," Harvey answered.

"Just some preliminary information that I thought you should know about as soon as possible."

"That doesn't sound good," Harvey frowned.

"I'll let you be the judge of that. Meet me tonight at eight. La Luna."

"I'll be there," Harvey replied. "Listen, I was going to call you a bit later. I have another job for you," Harvey dropped his voice, not wanting anyone who happened to be wandering past his office to overhear. "Need you to dig up as much as you can on someone named Trevor Evans. This one's personal."

"My my, Harvey, at this rate you'll be funding my next holiday to the Caribbean," Vanessa purred.

"Work your magic and I just might," Harvey replied. "Don't mention the second job tonight."

"What second job?"

"Exactly."

Hanging up, Harvey quickly typed out a message to Mike.

Pick you up at 7:30pm. Smart casual. ie. Suit, tie optional.

As soon as Harvey hit send, Donna was calling out to him that Richards had arrived, and Harvey was once again out the door for more meetings.

By the time Harvey made it to Mike's apartment two meetings later, Mike was already waiting by the front of his building. Underneath his winter coat and scarf, Mike was dressed in a charcoal grey suit and white shirt with its top button undone.

"Hi Ray," Mike greeted. "Harvey keeping you away from your family again?"

"Hi Mike. I'll be on my way home after I drop you guys off," Ray replied, pulling out into traffic as Mike fastened his seatbelt.

"Am I not sitting right here?" Harvey protested. "And you," he pointed at Mike. "Not even a hello?"

"Hello," Mike said obediently. To Harvey's eyes, Mike still looked a little more frazzled than normal, but the cheeky smile was nevertheless a good sign.

"Ah, fuck it," Harvey undid his seatbelt, scooted over to Mike's side of the back passenger seat and dragged him into a searing kiss, to reassure himself that Mike was all right, and because Mike in a suit was hot and Harvey had never been particularly good at denying himself something he wanted, and he very much wanted Mike.

Mike's lips parted under his, and Harvey took full advantage of the situation, exploring and claiming Mike's mouth with his own. Gradually, Harvey felt Mike relax, the tension leaving him and he melted into Harvey's arms. They were both breathless when the parted god knows how long later.

"Now, that's a proper hello," Harvey said, resting his forehead against Mike's.

"Are you sure you didn't mean improper? Because any more of that, I wouldn't be able to get out of the car without being horribly embarrassed."

"How was your day?" Harvey asked, still not letting go of Mike.

"Weird," Mike replied, seemingly content to let Harvey hold him when normally he'd at least be squirming with his inability to sit still unless utterly exhausted. "Trevor's mother turned up. I wanted to be angry at her, but she seemed to have completely given up on him, and I just felt... sad for her."

"Bleeding heart," Harvey accused, leaning in for another quick, and this time chaste, kiss. He didn't think he would ever get tired of kissing Mike, Harvey had been hooked ever since their first kiss outside of The Snail. "You just can't help it, can you?"

Mike sighed, closing his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder if it's such a good thing."

"It drives me a little nuts, but that's what I love about you. And that's why you have me."

"So you can save me from caring too much?"

"Exactly."

Mike chuckled, gently pushing Harvey back. "Buckle up. I don't want to be treating you for another head injury."

Harvey reluctantly let go of Mike and returned to his seat, putting on his seatbelt as instructed.

"Where are we going anyway?" Mike asked.

"La Luna. It's an Italian fusion restaurant on the Upper East Side."

Mike frowned. "How do you even do Italian fusion? More importantly, why would anyone want to mess with perfection?"

"Beats me," Harvey shrugged. "Vanessa was the one who suggested the place. She's meeting us there by the way."

"P.I. Vanessa? I finally get to meet her?" Mike visibly perked up at the thought of finally meeting the mysterious Vanessa with no last name.

"I didn't exactly tell her I was bringing you along."

The meeting with Vanessa didn't go down the way it usually did. For one, Vanessa seemed taken aback by Mike's presence, which she recovered from rather smoothly. If Harvey hadn't been as good at reading people as he was, he probably wouldn't even have noticed her slight hesitation at the sight of Mike.

"I see you brought your puppy," Vanessa said, taking a seat at the third chair at their table near the back of the restaurant.

"He's not my puppy. He's my partner," Harvey corrected.

"Partner?" Vanessa asked, puzzled. Harvey was somewhat gratified to have been able to catch her off guard.

"Boyfriend," Mike chimed in.

"You brought you boyfriend?" she looked at Harvey in disbelief.

Harvey rolled his eyes. "I hate that word."

"Gets the point across though," Mike said.

"I'll give you that," Harvey conceded.

"Since when did you do relationships, Harvey?" Vanessa asked, eyeing Harvey as though reassessing her mental image of him.

"Since Mike. And now that we're done discussing my personal life, what have you got for me?"

Vanessa didn't answer immediately. Instead, she turned her attention to Mike. "Hmm, boy toy?"

"Oh for god's sake!" Harvey swore. What was it about him and Mike that made people jump to the wrong conclusion every single time? Sure, Harvey was slightly older and prima facie more successful, but nine years really wasn't that big an age gap and Mike was practically a real life Doogie Howser. And why would anyone think he would ever have to pay for sex in the first place?

"Harvey, calm down," Mike said, taking the situation in stride. Harvey could never understand how Mike could stand letting people think he was anything other than Harvey's equal. "He tends to get a little over protective," Mike said to Vanessa, giving her a smile that looked utterly innocent but Harvey knew it was anything but; Mike wanted to have some fun with Vanessa.

Despite Harvey's desire to find out what Vanessa had discovered about Charlie's problem, given what Mike's been dealing with in the last couple of days, he figured they could spare a few minutes and indulge him. "I may not be making as much money as Harvey, but I have my uses."

"Such as?" Vanessa walked straight into it. Harvey leaned back against his chair, deciding that he would enjoy seeing Vanessa's reaction.

"You really shouldn't be wearing those heels, not with the knee and lower back pain you're having."

"How did you – " Vanessa's eyes widened in shock.

"Left knee worse than right," Mike's eyes gazed over Vanessa, cataloguing and assessing. "And right now, you're trying to fight off a headache, took something just before you arrived. Tylenol? It's working, but not as fast as you like."

Mike's keen observation skills were honed through his work as an emergency physician who has to able to observe and diagnose a problem quickly and often on patients who are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate about their injuries. He didn't often show it off, but it always amazed Harvey when he did. While Harvey was good at playing the man, reading people's intentions and motivations, Mike was good at the physical aspects as well as being scarily emphatic at times.

"Of course, the headache's probably related to that shoulder injury you suffered a few days ago."

Mike in action was a glorious sight to behold and Harvey intended to enjoy every minute of it.

"Okay, stop it. That's just... creepy." Harvey smirked at the befuddled and alarmed look on Vanessa's face.

"Any more questions, Vanessa?" Harvey asked.

Vanessa scowled at him. "Hartford Construction is clean," she said, getting straight to the point and obviously wanting to stop drawing Mike's attention to her various health problems. "Can't say the same for the foreman on the site your brother was working on, Ray Paterson. He has the ears of Hartford Construction's management. He's worked for them on a number of projects in the last ten years, they trust him. He's the one who has been putting the word out that Charlie might be responsible for the incident. I'm in the process of finding out who Paterson is connected to because there is no way he is doing this alone. Your brother needs to watch his back, because it looks like Hartford is listening to Paterson, and they will be going after Charlie if Paterson has his way."

"Who do you think Paterson might be linked to?" Harvey asked, getting serious.

"Best guess? The Mafia," Vanessa replied. "They've been taking advantage of the construction boom in the last decade to funnel money through various projects. The GFC closed that avenue off quite a bit, but I'm sure there are still at least a few operations that are on-going despite the downturn."

"Charlie pissed off the freakin' Mafia?!" Mike hissed. "How the hell are you supposed to get him out of that? Last I heard, they aren't really that bothered with the law, which is kind of the point of being the Mafia," he said to Harvey.

Mike was right. If Hartford Construction was the one screwing Charlie over, then there were countless legal avenues that Harvey could have pursue. To be dealing with the Mafia, that was a completely different ball game. "I'll just need to find out what they want," Harvey finally said. "And then I'm gonna make them an offer they can't refuse."

"Do you really think this is an appropriate situation to be butchering The Godfather?"

"Okay, first, I did not butcher it, and second, we're talking about the Mafia, if that's not an appropriate time to reference The Godfather, I don't know what is."

"Harvey, Charlie has pissed off a real life Godfather, focus!"

"I am focused; it doesn't make my point any less valid." Harvey protested. "Find out what they want, give it to them, and they generally go away. Of course, we'll also have to find something else that they don't want anyone else to know to make sure they don't come back. So Vanessa is going to find out exactly what's happening and how Paterson is connected to it all. Then once we have all the information, we can go on from there."

"You realise you're talking about possibly blackmailing the Mafia, right?" Vanessa shook her head. "It won't be easy."

"If it was, I wouldn't have called you," Harvey replied. "You're going to have to earn that Caribbean holiday."

"What Caribbean holiday?" Mike's attention was immediately back on Harvey. "Anything you want to tell me?"

"I'm not going with her," Harvey's response was immediate and automatic, which caught him by surprise, and was seemingly to Mike's amusement.

"You better not," Mike replied, but his tone was light.

"The two of you are like an old married couple." Vanessa commented as she stood up. "I've got to go. I have my work cut out for me on this one."

"Heat pack. Or hot bath, or both. Should loosen your upper back muscles and get rid of the headache," Mike said.

Vanessa frowned. "Are you a doctor or something?"

"Or something," Mike grinned, clearly enjoying stumping Vanessa.

"Unbelievable." Vanessa shook her head even as she walked out of the restaurant.

"You do know she's going to run a background check on you?" Harvey asked, signaling for the waiter. Mafia problem or not, Harvey was starving.

"I've got nothing to hide," Mike shrugged. "And you already know everything that matters."

And just like that, the tension was back. Mike's hands that were resting on the table curled into fists, and he took several deep breaths. Harvey reached out and covered one of Mike's hands with his own.

"You want to go home?" he asked, mentally slapping himself for reminding Mike about his past.

"No," Mike shook his head, uncurled his fingers and turning his palm up to grasp Harvey's hand. "Let's have dinner. You look like you're about to pass out from hunger, don't think I didn't notice." He gave Harvey a small smile and turned to the approaching waiter.

After the waiter left with their orders, Harvey lifted Mike's hand and placed a gentle kiss on his palm. He was not normally prone to PDAs, but Mike clearly needed the reassurance even if he hadn't said anything. "I love you," Harvey said, and he knew he did the right thing when the troubled expression on Mike gave way to one of contentment.

* * *

That night Mike dreamt about Trevor. He dreamt that both his parents died in the car crash, that he continued smoking pot and taking drugs with Trevor, never went to college or med school, and that he never met Harvey.

Mike woke up with tears down his cheeks and clinging desperately to Harvey. For a terrifying moment, Mike was convinced that he was utterly alone and stuck in a condemned apartment with walls that were collapsing on him. It took Mike a minute to actually remember that they were in Harvey's room, the sense of openness created by the glass walls managed to convince his brain that he was in no physical danger.

"Shh, you're safe," Harvey whispered into Mike's ear, holding on to him as tightly as Mike was hanging onto Harvey. "You're safe. I'm right here and I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

Right then, Mike felt himself giving in, letting go for the first time in fourteen years, trusting Harvey to be there to pick up the pieces and put Mike back together again once he was done falling apart.

The next morning, Mike could tell that Harvey again wanted him to take the day off; that Harvey himself wanted to take the day off and spend it with Mike, but he was glad that Harvey didn't say anything because Mike needed his work. Work was something Mike had control over, and that was what he needed now and Harvey seemed to have realised that.

"Pick you up after work?" Harvey asked, finishing his coffee and placing the mug in the sink to be cleaned up later.

Mike nodded. "I'm on call tonight though," he replied, still sipping his own mug of coffee at the kitchen counter. They didn't usually spend every day of the week together, but their current circumstances was far from usual and Mike had a feeling that Harvey's protective instincts were screaming at him, and he needed to see Mike as much as Mike needed Harvey to be there.

Giving in to his impulse, Mike walked around the counter and hugged Harvey, resting his head against Harvey's shoulder. He felt Harvey's arm going around him automatically.

"Don't forget to have lunch," Mike murmured. "You brain won't work without glucose."

"Have a working lunch scheduled, so I'm all set for today," Harvey replied, his voice equally soft.

"Good."

Neither of them spoke for a minute and merely held each other. "I hope you remember that I'm not usually this clingy." Mike finally said.

"I remember. Given the circumstances though, you're allowed to be clingy for the foreseeable future."

"Thanks."

"Not necessary, but you're welcome."

* * *

Much to Harvey's relief, the next few days passed without any further major drama. Of course, Harvey was expecting the mysterious envelope with a generic USB drive that had turned up on Harvey's desk containing everything there was to know about Trevor Evans: high school drop out, small time drug dealer with multiple related convictions, police records, and even the file for his first juvenile conviction at 17 for the assault of Michael Ross, which should have been sealed. Vanessa even had photos of Trevor's current hospital file at NYP, listing him as being on life support. He wasn't about to ask Vanessa how she had gotten hold of those files.

Though, that was not to say there weren't minor incidents. Charlie had called him a couple nights ago, after the expected arrival date of the newest Specter had come and gone and Janice still showed no sign of going into labour. Thankfully, Mike had been on hand to talk Charlie out of an anxiety attack.

"Charlie, don't worry about it," Mike had said. They were at Mike's apartment, in the middle of having a late dinner. "Babies are notorious for not arriving when you expect them to. What did Becky tell you?" he asked, referring to their obstetrician Dr Rebecca Holt.

"That we shouldn't be too concerned," Charlie replied, still sounding uncertain over the small speaker on Harvey's cell phone.

"And I'm telling you the same thing. Give it another week or so, if Janice still hasn't gone into labour by then, I'm sure Becky will schedule to induce."

"Yeah, I think she had penciled in Janice for next Wednesday if the baby's not here by then."

"There you go, Charlie," Harvey said. "Your OB and Mike are of the same opinion. Now get off the phone and let me have dinner in peace."

Charlie had laughed, wished them goodnight and hung up.

While Mike hadn't brought up the topic of Trevor Evans, Harvey could tell Mike was slowly recovering from the unexpected sighting of the ghost from his past. The nightmares that had started the second night had been getting less intense and last night, Mike had actually slept soundly; distancing himself from Trevor seemed to help.

Of course, given that somewhere along the way when Harvey wasn't paying attention, his life had turned into a daytime soap opera, Donna had to walk into his office just as he was finishing a call with a client, and stuck a yellow post-it note on top of the file on his desk.

The note read:
Charlie rang. Your parents are in town. Surprise visit. !!!!!!!

Harvey picked up the sticky note as he hung up the phone. "What do you mean my parents are in town?" he asked Donna, who was still standing in front of him.

"That's what Charlie said. I'm only the messenger," Donna replied, raising her arms in the universal sign of surrender.

"Great," Harvey muttered.

"I know you haven't been in contact with them for a long time, and New York's a pretty big city, shouldn't be that hard to avoid them, right?" Donna asked. "If they're staying with Charlie, they'd be all the way across town."

"I should've seen this coming," Harvey sighed. "Janice is having their first grandchild, of course they're going to show up."

"You have been pretty caught up with Mike," Donna replied. "And then there's Charlie's problem. Of course, the Mike thing has been going on for eighteen months; who knew you could be such a romantic at heart?"

Harvey glared at Donna.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," Donna reassured. "Your reputation as a heartless bastard is still intact."

"It better be," Harvey scowled. "Haven't I given you enough work to do today?"

Donna rolled her eyes at Harvey and walked back to her desk, muttering under her breath about slave drivers.

Harvey crumpled the post-it note and dumped it in the wastepaper bin by his desk. It was not the time or place to revisit his teenage angst, Harvey had work to do.

* * *

Dinner had been a quiet affair. Mike had decided to have Chinese delivered since he really didn't feel like going out, and Harvey had seemed unusually preoccupied, even the famous custard doughnuts Mike had picked up from The Snail on his way home only managed to elicit a small smile instead of the usual enthusiasm for the junk food. They were sitting next to each other on the couch in the living area with the evening news on the TV in the background, and the remnants of their dinner on the coffee table.

"Did Vanessa got back to you about Charlie's Mafia problem?" Mike asked.

"What?" Harvey turned to look at Mike. "No, not yet. At least nothing concrete, apparently it's hard to gather intel when no one's making any obvious moves, and you know, its the Mafia. She said it might take a couple more days. I did get a preliminary bill though, and she's definitely aiming for the Caribbean holiday."

"What's bothering you then? I'm pretty sure my fireplace isn't that interesting."

"Nothing," came the automatic reply, but Mike wasn't buying it.

"Harvey, I can tell when something's bothering you."

Harvey continued to stare at the fireplace. Mike was starting to think that Harvey had completely shut him out when he finally spoke.

"Charlie left me a message this afternoon. Apparently our parents decided on a surprised visit. They're staying with him."

Throughout the time they've known each other, Harvey hadn't told Mike much about his parents beyond the fact that they weren't on speaking terms. Mike had a feeling that no one beyond family knew exactly what had happened between Harvey and his parents. If Harvey got this quiet and somber just from learning that they were in town, the fall out must have been spectacular.

"You don't talk about them much," Mike said.

"No, I don't. Mostly because they haven't been part of my life for so long that they don't really cross my mind," Harvey let out a humourless laugh. "The last time I thought about them was when Charlie told me Janice was pregnant. Then it just... slipped my mind, and somehow I completely forgot to factor them into the equation now that the baby's about to arrive." Harvey frowned at himself. "What kind of a person forgets to consider their parents?"

It was then Mike realised that this went further than Harvey being upset about the possibility of an unpleasant encounter with his parents. For some reason, Harvey was blaming himself for the state of his relationship with his parents.

"I haven't spoke to them since I was 21 when they found out I was bi," Harvey continued. "Every time I called, they either hung up on me, or if Charlie picked up the phone, they would yell at him to hang up. Charlie's finally given up trying to talk them around after more than ten years, and I've long since accepted the fact that they won't be a part of my life."

"Even though you want them to?" Mike asked gently, sort of seeing the problem now. The Harvey everyone else seemed to know was an uncaring bastard who would do anything to win. While Mike understood that it was an image Harvey had cultivated in order to thrive in the cut-throat world of corporate law, it was not who Harvey really was, because the Harvey that Mike knew and fell in love with, cared very deeply. He might be pretty terrible at expressing it at times, but Mike knew he wouldn't have fallen for someone who was as much of a dickhead as Harvey seemed to want others to believe him to be.

Not all of it was fabricated of course, because Harvey really could be an arrogant and obnoxious asshole sometimes, with an ego to match, but Mike's own self-esteem was well matched and he had never been afraid to take Harvey down a peg or two if necessary. Compared to some of the surgeons Mike has had to deal with over the years, Harvey doesn't even make it to the top 10 of Mike's list of egomaniacs, something Harvey had once took offence on.

"Did you know I didn't attend Charlie and Janice's wedding?"

"You didn't want to cause a scene?"

"It was Charlie's big day. I didn't want to turn it into an argument about me. I wasn't at Charlie's graduation either. A part of me is still angry at them for making me miss them, but I'm mostly angry at myself for being a stubborn bastard who refused an olive branch when it was offered to me."

Mike moved closer towards Harvey and rearranged an unresisting Harvey around himself so that they lay sideways on the couch, with Mike spooning behind Harvey, arms around Harvey's waist. It was a close fit, but as long as neither of them fell asleep, there wasn't any risk of them falling off.

"Maybe they've mellowed a bit in their old age?" Mike suggested, not able to even contemplate how his own life would have turned out if his mum and Grammy had not be able to accept the fact that Mike was a solid four on the Kinsey Scale. It hadn't even been an issue with his mum and Grammy had merely asked a few of questions that made Mike wished that he would die from the embarrassment just so he could stop having the conversation with his grandmother.

Mike felt Harvey shake his head. "I doubt it. I inherited the stubbornness streak from both my parents," he took Mike's left hand in his and placed an absentminded kiss on Mike's knuckles. "I just can't help wondering about the 'what ifs'. What if I had said 'yes, it was just youthful experimentation' instead of throwing that option out the window. Maybe I could've worked on changing their minds and...."

Harvey trailed off, unsure of how that scenario might have turned out. "If you've done that, then you wouldn't be who you are today," Mike said, squeezing Harvey's hand in reassurance. "You'd be hiding yourself from the world and lying to everyone. That's not the Harvey Specter that I know and love."

Harvey let out a sigh, but didn't say anything else. Mike didn't know what else he could say or do to convince Harvey that it wasn't his fault that his relationship with his parents fell apart, mostly because Mike knew that Harvey, on an intellectual level, already recognised that, the heart though, was not as easily convinced.

"If you want, we could sic Grammy on your parents. She could totally take them."

The surprised chortle was a good sign. "Now that's a mental image."

"Harvey," Mike started, after another moment of silence. "Did you ever consider if you'd ended up with someone like Scotty instead of me, whether your parents might've – "

Harvey had maneuvered himself around to face Mike and stopped Mike from finishing his sentence by drawing him into a kiss. Mike felt his eyes drifting shut as he returned Harvey's kiss, losing himself in the sensation of it all. Even after all this time, it still amazed Mike how a simple act could make him utterly forget himself, his world narrowing down to the feel and taste of Harvey, the intimacy and the connection between them.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Michael Ross," Harvey warned, sounding breathless and slightly desperate. "Don't you ever dare. Nothing will ever make me regret meeting you, and I mean nothing. Do you hear me?"

"Yeah," Mike replied, feeling his throat tightened at Harvey's utter conviction. "I hear you."

* * *

When Vanessa finally rang Harvey the next afternoon, she didn't sound happy. As a matter of fact, she sounded downright concerned. This time, he turned up at the meet alone; it was at a small cafe just a couple of blocks from Mike's work which was Vanessa's way of telling Harvey she'd done a background check on Mike since their last meet.

Vanessa was already waiting for him when Harvey walked into the cafe, a half finished cup of coffee in front of her.

"What did you find out?" Harvey asked without preamble.

"Nothing good," Vanessa replied. "As I suspected, the Mafia's got their hands all over this one. Good news is your brother seemed to have made at least some friends at Hartford Construction because they are starting to ask questions instead of taking Paterson's word for what happened. As I suspected, Paterson's connected. As a matter of fact, he's one of the son-in-laws of the Trapani family and he's been helping old man Trapani clean some dirty money through various construction projects over the last decade. They 'invest' in various projects, and in the meantime, Paterson substitute the original building materials for inferior quality materials and the money from the 'savings' then gets funnel back to the Family."

Vanessa paused, taking a sip of her coffee before continuing. "Looks like when Charlie took over the project, he started looking a little too closely at the books and spooked Paterson. The cave in was an accident, probably due to the inferior building materials Paterson substituted, and there is no way they can pin that on Charlie. Paterson is looking to take Charlie out. If he can't do it through Hartford, I'm afraid he might get the Family involved."

"Are you telling me they might take a hit out on Charlie?" Harvey asked, alarmed because the situation was quickly turning into something akin to a B-rate gangster movie with a high body count.

"Not right now," Vanessa answered. "You have no idea what it took to get you this information. While Charlie's on their radar and one wrong move and they will go after him, so far they're considering him a small fish. He's been keeping his head down, and that's good. If he doesn't do anything, they might not consider him a threat and let it go."

"I told him I'll take care of this, and he's been distracted. His wife is about to have a baby and he's freaking out over that instead of thinking about his work. Are they watching him?"

"No," Vanessa shook her head. "At least not when he's not doing anything. Hartford is investigating the incident. Sooner or later, they will find out about Paterson, once that happens, the Family's attention will be directed at the company, not Charlie. If I were him, I'd take a long paternity leave, and then find a new job." Vanessa slid a USB drive across the table towards Harvey. "Everything I know is in there."

"Thanks," Harvey replied, pocketing the drive and handing over a bulging brown envelope in return.

While Harvey trusted Vanessa to a certain extend, he wasn't about to let slip the fact that Charlie had evidence against Paterson. Harvey had a feeling that the less people know about those papers in Charlie's study, the better.

"So," the slow grin Vanessa gave him signaled the end of their official business. "Going to swing by to pick your boy up from work?"

"He's a fully grown man, not my 'boy'," Harvey retorted, rolling his eyes. "Besides, he's on night shift for the next couple of days."

"Now I know why you always pretended not to care. You're too adorable when you do," Vanessa said as she stood up and walked out of the cafe with a parting wink. Harvey narrowed his eyes and glared at her until she walked out of sight.

Harvey was just about to order himself a coffee to takeaway when his cell rang.

"Harvey Specter," he answered.

"Mr Specter, it's Jo Wilcox from NYP ER. Your sister-in-law had just been admitted to the ER. She's in labour and we're trying to contact your brother now."

"Why wasn't he with Janice?"

"I'm not sure."

"Never mind, I'm on my way."

* * *

To be honest, Mike had not thought about what he was going to do after completing his residency. He had contemplated pursuing the fellowship route and gaining a subspecialty certification in either internal medicine or pediatric emergency, but when Davidson announced his decision to return to research full time, Mike figured he could put off making a decision by applying for Davidson's job.

Mike never thought he would actually get the job since he hadn't even received his results from the ABEM yet when he applied. But apparently his work as a resident had impressed the higher ups so much that they decided to pick him over the more qualified external candidates. Davidson was even supportive enough to stay until Mike was officially board certified and qualified, which given their barely civilised relationship over the previous four years, was a surprise.

"You've been doing good work," Davidson had said during their handover meeting. "You're familiar with the department, you know the facilities inside out, you know the people, the paramedics, security, and everyone likes you Mike, of course you were going to get it. Besides, all the budget cut means they can save some costs on induction training and there'll be no time lag in trying to get someone external up to speed with how things work. And they don't have to pay you as much since you're newly qualified."

"You're saying that they picked me because I'm more cost effective?"

"That's only a small part of the decision. They wouldn't have appointed you if they didn't think you could do the job. They'd be opening themselves up to malpractice suits otherwise."

After more than five years in the ER, for some reason Mike still wasn't prepared to be greeted with the sight of his partner's sister-in-law being wheeled through the ER screaming bloody murder through labour pains literally five minutes after his shift started.

"Contractions gone from six minutes apart to two minutes apart in the fifteen minutes it took to get here," one of the EMT reported.

"Mike!" Janice called out as soon as she caught sight of him.

"Beth Israel was closer, but she insisted to be brought here," the EMT continued, smirking at Mike.

"Oh shut it Jones," Mike replied. "Janice's my partner's sister-in-law. Someone page Dr Holt from maternity!" He called out to his staff in general, confident that one of the nurses would attend to the matter. "Janice, where's Charlie?"

"Out for dinner with his parents. I wasn't feeling up to it, so I didn't go. Guess I now I know why," Janice managed before another wave of pain hit her and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Just keep taking deep breaths," Mike said as they wheeled Janice into one of the empty examination rooms. "I'll get someone to call Charlie, but I'm not sure he's going to get here in time. The little one seemed to be trying to make up for lost time."

"Oh my god, I'm going to kill him when he gets here!" Janice said before screaming from the pain.

"I'm going to get you something for the pain. Just keep breathing," Mike said as he stepped out of the examination room and flagged Jo down. "Where's Dr Holt?"

"They're completely swamped upstairs in maternity. Apparently they're two doctors down and had a whole load of unscheduled arrivals. She said she'll be down here as soon as she can. Also, both Mr Specters are on their way," Jo replied, taking Janice's charts off Mike's hands where he's written down his notes and prescription for epidural.

"Both?" Mike asked in confusion. "You called Harvey?"

"Yeah. There was a note in Janice's file that say to contact him if we couldn't get her husband. I couldn't get Charlie the first time, so I rang Harvey. Why? Wasn't I supposed to?"

"Nothing you could have know, Jo," Mike had to suppress a groan at Jo's announcement. "Charlie's out with his parents, so I'm assuming they'll be here with Charlie, and Harvey..."

"Doesn't get along with his parents?" Jo guessed.

"Yeah," Mike confirmed. "Like I said, nothing you could've known."

"Sorry," Jo apologised. "Guess I should warn everyone to expect some family drama this evening?"

"Just go give Janice her epidural and I'll deal with the family drama," Mike shooed Jo off before reaching for the phone. "God knows, I'd have to eventually," he muttered. "Dr Holt please, this is Mike Ross from the ER."

"Mike?" Becky answered the phone a moment later, sounding like she'd ran all the way. "I know Janice's been admitted, but we're absolutely beyond capacity up here. Anything wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure there's nothing else I should be keeping my eye out for. They've kept me in the loop so far about the pregnancy, but I wanted to be sure they hadn't inevitably left anything out."

"Everything normal as of last checkup. Other than the baby being slightly late, of course. Pretty standard pregnancy, though she did go through a bout of low blood pressure in the first trimester, but that was resolved. Should be a pretty standard birth. Can you handle it?" Becky asked, and Mike could hear someone yelling out for her in the background.

"Yeah, I've delivered my share of babies. I'll call if anything changes."

"Thanks, Mike. I've gotta go."

"Mike!"

Mike turned around to see Harvey making his way towards him. "How did you get here so quick?"

"I was just finishing up a meeting a couple blocks away. How Janice? And where's Charlie?"

"Janice is fine. Cursing her husband to hell and back, but that's pretty normal," Mike replied, taking Harvey through towards the examination room. "Charlie's out with your parents, and I have a feeling they're going to be coming over with him."

"Great," Harvey grumbled, but didn't show any other outward signs of unease. The slight narrowing of his eyes though, told Mike everything he needed to know.

"Harvey," they stopped outside of the examination room. "I didn't know Jo was going to call you."

"It's fine. I want to be here. I've missed enough important moments in Charlie's life; I'm not doing it any more."

"Okay," Mike replied, pleased that Harvey was finally taking a stand against his parents for attempting to cut him out of Charlie's life. "Should I get security to stand by?" he asked with a smile. But whatever Harvey might have said in reply was drowned out by the scream coming from just beyond the door. "Do you want to come in?" Mike asked instead, amused to see the ever composed Harvey Specter paled slightly.

"Uh..."

"Get in there. You can hold her hand until Charlie gets here." Mike chuckled as he pushed Harvey into the room.

"Harvey," Janice gasps when she caught sight of Mike and Harvey. "Where's that idiot brother of yours?"

"On his way, or so they told me. How are you feeling?"

"Like it's totally his fault that I'm here right now. He'd be lucky if I ever let his dick near me ever again!" Janice managed before another wave of pain overtook her. "Mike," she called out.

"Sorry Janice, I've given you as much epidural as I can," Mike replied, checking her blood pressure and pulse. A fetal monitor had also been hooked up but the readouts seemed a little off. "Contractions are now less than a minute apart, shouldn't be long." Mike said, not letting his concern show given the high rate of false positive that EFMs are notorious for. Sitting down on the stool that had been placed at the foot of the bed, Mike raised Janice's hospital gown to check the dilation.

"Men! I hate every single one of you!" Janice swore even as she tried to breathe through clenched teeth when another contraction hit.

Everything seemed normal from Mike's examination, but something still felt off. "Annette," Mike said to the nurse who was checking the epidural drip. "Get me the ultrasound machine."

"Is something wrong?" Janice asked, her heart rate picking up.

"I think the baby's not completely turned around. Nothing you should worry about. It just means he or she might be coming out feet first. I just need to double check to make sure we're prepared for it," Mike's reply seemed to have calmed Janice down, but a quick look at Harvey, who was standing next to Janice's bed told Mike that his partner wasn't buying Mike's story.

Annette returned with the ultrasound less than a minute later, and a quick examination confirmed Mike's initial diagnosis, the baby was not completely turned around. A quick check of the EFM readout showed that the baby's heart rate was slightly below normal, but not dangerously so.

"Janice, the baby's not in the right position," Mike started. "It's what we call a 'shoulder presentation' and instead of the normal head-down position it's lying sideways with the shoulder down. I know you wanted a natural birth, but we might have to do a c-section."

"Can't you turn the baby around?" Janice asked.

Mike shook his head. "The shoulder's pretty much wedged in the birth cannel. The baby must've gotten stuck when the contractions started. Janice, it's nothing to be worried about. This is more common than you think. I'm gonna get you transferred up to Becky as soon as possible. I'll be right back," he said, stepping out of the examination room towards the nearest phone.

"Mike, I'm kinda busy right now!" It sounded like she was in the middle of delivery and the phone was probably set on speaker, Mike could hear a woman screaming in the background.

"We have a shoulder presentation, Becky," Mike said. "She'll need a c-section. Contractions are less than a minute apart and fetal heart rate stable but slightly lower than normal at 105bpm."

"Prep her then. Mike, you're going to have to do it. That's it Michelle, you're doing good!" Becky must have been speaking to her patient. "I'm sorry Mike, we literally have our hands full up here. I know you've done this before in your obstetrics rotation."

"That was three years ago!" Mike protested. Though they both knew that with Mike's memory, that was a piss poor excuse, but Janice was essentially family and Mike wasn't sure if he was comfortable with operating on her under the circumstances. There was more screaming in the background and urgent voices calling out stats that didn't sound good to Mike.

"Mike, I'm sorry. I have to go."

Mike hung up the phone and he was just on his way back to the examination room when Annette came rushing out. "Mike, fetus showing signs of distress. Heart rate down to 80bpm and falling."

"Shit, Jo!" Mike yelled at the head nurse across the room who looked up from the patient she was talking to. "Prep trauma one for an emergency c-section and get me Julie!" Rushing back into the examination room, he saw Janice was looking at him in confusion and pain with Harvey playing the unusual role of trying to reassure her.

"What's happening?" Harvey asked.

"We need to get the baby out now," Mike said as a team of orderly and nurses unhooked the various equipment Janice was connected to and started to wheel her towards the trauma room around the corner.

"I thought everything was fine with the pregnancy?" Harvey asked.

"Pregnancy was fine. The labour, not so much. Baby's in distress. Not sure why, probably a compressed umbilical cord cutting off oxygen supply. Harvey, you need to get Charlie in here as quickly as possible."

Harvey nodded. Mike could see he had more questions, but knew now was not the time to ask. He had never been more thankful for Harvey's ability to read a situation and judge what's appropriate.

Everything was already set up by the time Mike stepped into trauma one and Julie was trying her best to reassure Janice that everything was going to be fine. The next ten minutes passed in a blur for Mike as he battled against time to save a new life.

"No breath sound," Julie called out as she examined the baby girl. "Airways clear as far as I can tell. Pulse ox falling."

"Julie, swap," Mike called up and they quickly switched positions, Mike taking over the care of the baby while Julie attended to Janice. There was a reason why Mike had considered pediatric emergency as a possible area of subspecialty training. When the oropharynx suction and facemask did not produce any result after a minute, Mike made the call. "I'm going to need to intubate," he announced. "Get me the .12 tube."

Mike was so focused on the baby that he didn't even register the yelling outside the trauma room. Within seconds, the tube was in and the assisting nurse was manually pumping oxygen into the baby's lungs. "Good breath sounds, pulse ox normalising. I think we got to her in time," Mike said, letting out a relieved sigh as the baby started kicking and waving her arms. "We need to transfer her to neo-natal for observation."

"Mike, what's going on?" Janice called out, sounding frantic. "Is the baby all right?"

"The baby's going to be fine, Janice. We've had to put a tube in to help her breathe, but we should be able to take the tube out within a day or so if she's doing well."

"She?"

"Yep. You have a girl!" Mike said, smiling. "Congratulations!"

"Oh good, I won the bet with Charlie then. Can I see her?" Janice asked, beaming.

"Sure," Mike signaled the nurse to push the basin into Janice's sight. "We're transferring her to neo-natal for observation, so you can't hold her yet, but here she is."

Mike heard some commotion from outside the room and then suddenly Charlie burst through the door. "Janice?!"

"Charlie, you owe me a dress." Janice said, turning her head to look at her husband.

"We had a girl?" Charlie asked, his eyes automatically landed on the tiny form next to Janice. "What's wrong with her? They wouldn't let me in before and said you had to resuscitate the baby."

"Mike," Julie interrupted before Mike could respond to Charlie's question, her tone urgent. Janice was about to say something before her eyes rolled back and she passed out, with the monitors around her going crazy. "PPH."

"Charlie, you have to leave," Mike ordered, taking up position beside Julie who had been taking care of the after birth.

"What's going on?" Charlie demanded. "What's happening?!"

"Get me two units of O-neg, and point 2 milligrams of methylergometrine IV drip," Mike ordered. "Charlie, I don't have time to explain, you need to go out, now! And someone get me a surgeon and an OR!"

"Mike, please!"

"Charlie, Janice is bleeding out. We need to stop the bleeding," Mike explained quickly even as he was trying to locate the source of the bleed. "I need you to wait outside and stop distracting me."

Mike proceeded to ignore Charlie, trusting his staff to take care of Charlie and focused his attention on trying to locate the site of the bleed. The drug seemed to have the desired effect and the bleeding slowed slightly, but there was still too much blood for Mike's liking.

"Placenta accreta?" Julie asked.

"Most likely," Mike confirmed.

It was another few minutes before the surgeon arrived, took one look at Janice, confirmed Mike's diagnosis and wheeled her up to the OR for emergency surgery. Thankfully, the surgical team didn't object when Mike decided to play the primary doctor card, budge in, and assist in the operation because there was no way Mike was leaving Janice's side.

* * *

"Charlie, your pacing is making me dizzy. Sit down." Harvey said.

They were in the waiting area near the operating rooms, waiting for news of Janice. Thankfully, Charlie had sent their parents off to be with his newborn daughter because Harvey wasn't sure he was up for round two of public airing of private business right this moment.

When they had initially spotted Harvey at the ER, his father had gone berserk, accusing Harvey of trying to corrupt Charlie and his family while his mother stood by looking deeply disappointed. Harvey had yelled something back, but he couldn't remember what he said because that was when Jo came out and told them that the baby wasn't breathing. Their shared concern for the newest member of the family finally managed to shut everyone up.

"What's taking them so long? Do you think Janice's okay? It was supposed to be smooth sailing!"

"You heard what Dr Kim said. This was nothing either of you could've prevented. You did everything right, it was just one of those things that no one could've predicted. Mike's in there with her right now, so don't worry, he's not going to let anything happen to Janice."

In the end, it took over two hours before Mike appeared at the entry of the waiting area, looking exhausted. There was another older African-American doctor by his side.

"Janice is fine," Mike was quick to reassure them. "She's in recovery now and you should be able to go see her in about half an hour. This is Dr Robert Smiley, he's the surgeon who operated on Janice. Rob, this is Charlie Specter, husband, and Harvey Specter, brother-in-law."

Harvey had stopped listening by that point, all he needed to know was that Janice was all right; Mike could fill him in on the details later. Charlie though, was listening to every word Dr Smiley was saying, just as he should.

"What a night," Mike commented, sitting down beside Harvey.

Harvey snorted. "To put it mildly."

"You could go home, but I still have to get through the rest of my shift."

"As if I would be able to sleep after this. Charlie wasn't the only one freaking out," Harvey said.

"The great Harvey Specter, admitting that he has feelings. If anyone from Pearson Hardman were here, I would have my hands full treating everyone for brain aneurysms." Mike paused, when Harvey didn't react, he continued. "See, that's funny because that's just a fancy way of saying their brains would explode."

Normally, Harvey would've found Mike joking to be reassuring, but for some reason, it wasn't enough tonight. The meeting with Vanessa earlier, the encounter with his parents, the baby almost dying, Janice almost dying, trying to stop Charlie from completely losing it, all within a four-hour period.

"How do you do this everyday?" Harvey asked, voice quiet.

"It helps that I'm not related to 99.9% of them," Mike answered, equally quiet. "I was a complete mess when mum was sick."

"Oh god," Harvey looked up to see Charlie collapsing in relief into a chair opposite where he was sitting with Mike. "She's going to be fine. They're both going to be fine. And I'm about to have a heart attack."

"Stop being a drama queen, Charlie," Harvey admonished, mentally pulling himself together, the hospital waiting room really wasn't the place to lose it. He could feel Mike's gaze on him, Harvey reached out and gave Mike's hand a brief squeeze, and Mike, as usual understood what Harvey wasn't saying.

"You guys want to head down with me to the ER?" Mike asked as he stood up. "Collect some of Janice's stuff she came in with? By the time you're done, you should be allowed to see her then."

"Yeah, beats sitting here and looking at the same blue walls for another half an hour." Charlie replied.

Since Mike was still holding on to Harvey's hand, Harvey decided that it would be easier just to follow Mike's lead.

Harvey was honestly amazed that he wasn't more surprised when they bumped into his parents back in the ER. Apparently they were trying to get more information about Janice's condition.

"What are you still doing here?" Harvey's father demanded sharply.

"The same reason you're here," Harvey replied reasonably.

"I don't know what lies you have been telling Charles to get him to agree to all this," Gordon started.

"Dad, Harvey didn't get me to do anything," Charlie said, but their father ignored him, pushing Charlie out of the way to get closer to Harvey.

"Agree to what?" Harvey snapped, standing toe to toe with his father. "To talk to his only brother? To have me listed as an emergency contact? What exactly did I talk Charlie into agreeing?" Harvey has had enough. For years his father had done nothing but pretend Harvey didn't exists, what right did he have to stop Harvey from being here for Charlie and Janice? For his newborn niece? Harvey may have made the mistake of rejecting his mother's offer of a way out, but he'd attempt to reach out to them over the years with every effort rebutted; Harvey knew how to take a hint. Mike was right, Harvey wouldn't be who he was today if he'd had to lie about a fundamental part of himself, and he liked the person he'd become.

"He wouldn't have moved to New York if it weren't for you! He and Janice would've been home where they belong and none of this would've happened! They said the baby almost died! And then Janice almost bled out and had to have surgery, all from a simple childbirth!"

"Yes, none of these things would've happened had they been home and not under my deviant influence," Harvey replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Never mind the fact that they're in one of the best hospitals in the country receiving the best care possible. No, staying at home and having a midwife instead of a team of doctors to deliver the baby, that would've been much better."

"Just because you went to college doesn't mean you know better than me. You think you're smarter than the rest of us?" Gordon countered.

"Actually, it does and I probably am," Harvey put on his most arrogant facade, knowing full well it would drive his father up the wall.

"All the lies you've been telling Charles, trying to get him to talk us into believing what you did was right, poisoning his mind!" Gordon continued as though Harvey hadn't spoke. "What did you tell him? That you were born this way? That you couldn't help it? Your mother certainly didn't give birth to a homosexual and I certainly didn't raised one!"

"Guess what? She did, and you did!" Harvey didn't even bother arguing semantics with his father.

"Harvey, don't you talk to your father like that!"

"He hasn't been my father for over twenty years!"

"I'm glad I told everyone you died," Gordon spat. The words felt like a physical blow to Harvey's chest and for a moment, he couldn't breathe. "Because I will not carry this shame around with me!"

"Enough!" Everyone's attention snapped to Mike, Harvey felt himself letting out a breath, they could handle this, he and Mike, together they could handle his parents.

Outwardly Mike looked calm, but his eyes told Harvey a different story; Mike was absolutely livid. Harvey couldn't recall ever seeing Mike this angry.

"Either pretend to get along, or get out of my ER," Mike said, eerily composed and completely professional. "This is a hospital, not the Jerry Springer Show. Mr Specter," Mike looked directly at Gordon. "In this city and in this hospital, we treat everyone who walks through that door no matter their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. One more prejudicial word out of your mouth, sir, and I will ban you from setting foot in here. This is a place of healing; you do not come in here and verbally attack anyone. Have I made myself clear?"

"I apologise, doctor," Harvey's mother said, grabbing hold of his father by the elbow. "We didn't mean to cause a scene. Come on Gordon, let's head back upstairs."

Gordon's face was a deep shade of red, Harvey wasn't sure whether it was from anger or embarrassment for being dressed down in public with everyone watching, but he followed his wife and left the ER without another word.

"Charlie, Annette has Janice's personal effects," Mike said, gesturing to a young nurse who had been standing to the side watching the whole thing unfold. Harvey noticed her snapping her mouth shut when she realised Mike was talking about her. "You should be able to see Janice by the time you get the paperwork sorted. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me," the last statement was addressed to the general ER staff before Mike stormed down the hallway in the opposite direction of the main examination area.

After a moment's hesitation, Harvey followed Mike, who must have anticipated Harvey's action and left the door to his office open.

"Close the door," Mike said the moment Harvey stepped in, his back was to Harvey and he was looking out the window towards the visitor's parking area.

"You all right?"

"That was supposed to be my question," Mike replied, turning around. Harvey could see the anger slowly dissipating, leaving only concern. "What he said to you, God, Harvey. I'm so sorry."

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit," Mike said, crossing the room and closing the distance between them. "I saw the look on your face."

"I can – " Mike's finger on his lips cut him off. Harvey reached up and pulled Mike's away, but he didn't let go of Mike's hand, instead he intertwined their fingers. Mike reached out with his other hand and pulled Harvey into a kiss, and Harvey felt himself surrendering, allowing himself to acknowledge and accept what he couldn't change; taking comfort from the one person he knew would never use this moment of weakness against him.

* * *

Mike had been wrong when he thought the dramatics for the night ended with the Specters's departure. Just before 2 o'clock in the morning, Mike spotted Mrs Evans sitting in the ER's waiting area, looking out one of the windows.

The waiting area was quiet, almost empty except for Jacob the homeless guy who was sleeping spread across three seats in the corner farthest from the door, and a couple other people who looked like they had sprained or twisted something from slipping on the ice on the ground. Mike's first instinct was to leave Mrs Evans alone, but something in her body language made Mike changed his mind and he walked up to her.

"Mrs Evans?" Mike called out when she didn't seem to have noticed his presence.

Startled, she looked up at Mike, and he noticed the balled up tissues clutched in her hand and her red puffy eyes. She had been crying.

"Are you all right?"

"I don't know," she replied, looking lost.

"Do you need anything?" Mike offered.

Mrs Evans shook her head, sniffling a little. "Dr Raj said the chances of a full recovery, or any recovery at all, were remote," she finally said after a moment of silence.

"Mrs Evans – "

"Mike – " They both started at the same time. "I took him off life support an hour ago."

And Mike's mind went blank. Wordlessly, he sank into the chair next to Mrs Evans, a sense of relief washed over him, followed by guilt. Just a week ago, Mike had been wishing for Trevor's death, and now that it has actually come to pass, he was utterly confused over how he felt about it.

"I'm sorry," he finally managed. Not because Trevor was dead (Mike was not that much of a hypocrite) but for Mrs Evans's loss. Trevor's sins were many, but he was still her son.

Mrs Evans shook her head. "No, Mike, I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry." It was as though the words finally broke a dam in her and the sobs were heartbreaking. Mike reached out and put his arms around Mrs Evans shoulder, offering what little comfort he could.

"It's late, Mrs Evans," Mike said when the sobs finally subsided. "Do you want me to help get you a cab home or something?"

"No, it's fine. I can manage."

"It's no trouble Mrs Evans."

So Mike rang for a cab, made sure Mrs Evans was safely on her way home, and went and hid in his office. He was about to dial Harvey's number when he realised how late it was. Instead, he opened a new text message window and stared blankly at the screen. Eventually, he typed in two words.

Trevor's dead.

Less than 30 seconds later, Mike's phone was ringing.

"Hey," Mike answered. "Thought you'd be asleep by now. It's almost three in the morning."

"Are you kidding me? After the night we just had? And you being at work doesn't help." The implication of Harvey's words made Mike smile, its sentiments bringing a welcomed sense of warmth to his heart.

"Not that I'm doing much work at the moment. I feel like all I've been doing since becoming an attending is hide in my office."

"Extenuating circumstances. The last couple of weeks definitely fit the bill," Harvey paused. "Mike?"

"I'm fine," Mike said, answering Harvey's unasked question. Then he changed his mind. "No I'm not. Wait, actually, I don't know." Mike stumbled through his answers. "A part of me is glad that he's gone, then I feel guilty about thinking that especially when his mum was sitting right in front of me sobbing her eyes out," Mike let out a sigh. "The baby, Janice, your parents, and now this, the last 10 hours is officially the worst ever," Mike declared.

"You're preaching to the choir, love."

Mike blinked. "Harvey, did you just call me 'love'?" he asked. While Harvey could be quite physically demonstrative while they were in private, he had never been particularly good at verbally expressing his feelings, something Mike had always thought ironic given Harvey's profession and reputation as a sweet talker. "Have you been drinking?"

"You have a problem with me calling you 'love'?"

"No, I actually find it rather endearing, and you're avoiding the question."

"I may have had a couple of drinks, but I'm not drunk. Also, I'm taking a mental health day tomorrow, later today, whatever. Having a long weekend sounds like the best idea I've ever had."

"Are you at my place?"

"Yeah."

"Stop drinking and try and get some sleep, Harvey. I should be home in a couple of hours."

While Harvey didn't sound drunk, the fact that he had likely been drinking since he left the hospital over three hours ago was not a good sign. Harvey was an expert in pretending not to care, but Mike had never had any trouble seeing through the pretense.

It had been disconcerting at first to see Harvey with his mask in place, though that had never stopped him from being fiercely protective of Mike when they were out in public at one of the many networking functions Harvey had to attend. Of course, to everyone else who didn't know Harvey as well as Mike did, it came across as possessive instead of caring, which suited Harvey just fine. He had seemed composed when he left the hospital earlier, and even though Mike knew that Harvey needed some time to come to terms with what happened, he hadn't expected the late night drinking insomniac behaviour.

With so much going on with Harvey and his family, including Charlie's still unresolved predicament with the Mafia, Mike couldn't help but feel guilty about adding his own problems to Harvey's already full plate.

* * *

The weekend was thankfully relatively quiet, which gave Harvey some time to regain his balance.

It had been almost six on Friday morning by the time Mike made it home. Harvey was in bed by then, but still wide-awake. Mike had sat on the edge of the bed, changing into his customary sleepwear before Harvey put a stop to it. Despite the obvious exhaustion, Mike gave in easily and the sex had been a slow affair, both of them taking the time to assure and be reassured.

When Harvey finally slid into the warm heat of Mike's body, the both of them kneeling on the bed with Harvey's chest pressed tightly against Mike's back, Harvey finally felt everything falling back into place. Mike leaned back against Harvey, letting Harvey take most of his weight. The angle wasn't perfect but Harvey didn't care, he could feel Mike around him, hands holding onto Harvey's arm around his chest, and he could hear Mike gasp at Harvey's every thrust into his body.

"Harvey," Mike breathed, his eyes closed and head resting on Harvey's shoulder. He turned his head towards Harvey and Harvey bent down to capture Mike's mouth with his own. Harvey felt Mike letting go of his arms, reaching down to touch himself.

"Don't," Harvey murmured against Mike's lips. "Let me." Mike's hand stopped its descent, reaching back up to clutch at Harvey's arm.

"Please," Mike pleaded, eyes half opened as he looked at Harvey.

Harvey had untangled one of his arms from Mike's clutch, reached down and started stroking Mike's erection in counter rhythm with the thrust of his hips. He felt and heard Mike's breath hitch, before he let out a moan that sounded like it could have been Harvey's name. Harvey took his time, letting the heat between them build, drawing it out because he could forever live in this moment, with Mike in his arms.

Eventually, Harvey felt Mike tense, groaning Harvey's name as he tipped over the edge. The sight of Mike's orgasm and the feeling of the tightness around his cock as Mike clenched down on him send Harvey into his own climax.

They had spent Friday morning and most of the afternoon in bed, catching up on sleep before Harvey drove them back to the hospital to see Janice and the baby. Of course, Mike rang the hospital to make sure Harvey's parents weren't around before they left; the last thing Harvey wanted was to put more stress on Janice by getting into yet another argument with his parents while she was recovering.

As Mike had predicted, they have removed the breathing tube from the baby and little Alison Specter was breathing fine on her own. Both Janice and Alison have to stay a few more days for observation but both mother and daughter were recovering well.

"You sure you don't want to come along?" Mike asked Harvey on Saturday. "Grammy would be disappointed."

"I'll make it up to her next time. I've just been reminded of why I don't normally take time off work," Harvey replied wryly, tapping to close the email app on his phone, disgruntled. He wasn't even contemplating replying to the flood of email on his phone, he'd develop carpel tunnel before he was done. "I'm gonna head back to my place. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah. Don't work too hard."

By the time Mike made it back to Harvey's condo just before dinner, Harvey was going through the files Vanessa provided him, which included copies of inventories and building specifications of all the previous projects Ray Paterson had worked on. Every single one showed discrepancies similar to the small sample that Charlie had managed to get copies of.

"What are you working on?" Mike asked, leaning over Harvey's shoulder to look at the laptop screen.

Harvey immediately shut the laptop. "Nothing you should be looking at. Not with that memory of yours," Harvey turned around to find Mike frowning at him. "Vanessa managed to dig up quite a bit on Hartford and Paterson. Until I figure out what to do, the less you know, the better."

"Oh," Mike nodded in understanding. He walked around and sat down on the couch next to Harvey. "Does Charlie know about this?"

"No, and he won't. He's got enough to deal with right now."

"So do you," Mike said, his eyes soft. "It feels like all you've been doing lately is deal with Charlie and my problems." Harvey was about to protest when Mike held up a hand to stop him from interrupting. "I know that's how you operate; when shit hits the fan, you want to be in control and solve whatever problem it is. I just want to make sure you're okay, just like you're making sure Charlie and I are okay."

Harvey reached out and rested his hand on Mike's thigh. "I'm fine, Mike. I swear. Just another thing to add to the pile of crap that my father has ever said to me. Nothing I haven't handled before."

"You know you don't have to deal with it alone, right?"

"I wasn't alone," Harvey replied, gently squeezing Mike's thigh.

Mike smiled, then gestured towards the laptop. "Find anything interesting?"

"Maybe," Harvey replied, leaning back against the couch and removing his hand from Mike.

"Are you really going to blackmail the Mafia?"

"I don't know yet. But the families of the two injured workers are suing Hartford."

"Of course they are," Mike said. Harvey didn't even have to look to know that Mike was rolling his eyes.

"Hartford's financials shows that their profit has been down for the last few years and they're barely staying afloat; asset rich but cash poor. They can't afford the lawsuits, not without liquidating some of their assets." Harvey was thinking out loud, working through the information he had been reading over. "Getting anyone to buy in this current financial climate is close to impossible."

"But you know someone?"

"Possibly," Harvey could feel the beginning of a plan forming in his head, but it was still too insubstantial for him to grasp it fully.

"What? You're going to blackmail Hartman instead?" Mike frowned. "How would that help Charlie?"

And with that, everything clicked into place in Harvey's mind. "Mike, you're a genius!" Harvey exclaimed, reaching out to cup Mike's face in both his hands and planting a sloppy kiss on him.

"Well, yeah, we know that already," Mike said. "What exactly did I just do?"

"You'll see," Harvey smirked and grabbed his laptop from the coffee table. There were emails to be sent and meetings to set up.

* * *

While Harvey was typing furiously on his laptop, Mike got off the couch and went to the kitchen. A quick look in the fridge confirmed that Harvey didn't have anything to eat beyond some bread, eggs, and milk, and Mike really wasn't in the mood for breakfast at 6pm.

"What do you want for dinner?" Mike called out, already grabbing the cordless from its charger on the kitchen island.

"Anything's fine," Harvey replied.

Mike shrugged and dialed a local Indian place. The temperature outside had plummeted when Mike had been on his way to Harvey's place, and some hot curries sounded good right now. He replaced the phone in its cradle once the order was placed and made his way back to the living room just in time to see Harvey turning off the laptop.

Now that Harvey was done with his work, Mike needed to speak to him.

"You're about to tell me something I won't like, aren't you?" Harvey asked, looking up at Mike, who was standing next to the coffee table.

"Don't freak," Mike started, not at all fazed that Harvey had managed to pick up on his intention. He sat back down next to Harvey.

"I hope you realise that every time you say that, it's a guarantee that I will freak?"

"I'm going to go to Trevor's funeral," Mike finished in a rush.

Mike could tell by Harvey's expression that it was probably taking everything in his self control not to yell 'What the fuck?! Are you crazy?!' at Mike. That or shake him until Mike saw sense.

"Listen, Harvey," Mike quickly added before Harvey lost his cool. "I need to do this."

"Why? I never took you for a masochist."

"I'm not!" Mike protested. "And because I need to put it behind me once and for all."

"And you wanted to make sure he's really six feet under? That, I kinda get."

"What? No, nothing like that! I mean, seeing his death certificate was enough for me to be sure," Mike let slipped.

"You looked up his death certificate?" Harvey asked, incredulous.

"Uh..." Mike really hadn't meant to say that previous bit out loud. What he did was totally illogical. There was no reason not to believe Mrs Evans when she told him Trevor was dead, but seeing the certificate for himself, with Dr Raj's signature and the cause of death listed clearly on the record made it seemed more real, solidified the abstraction of Mrs Evans words and tears to something in reality. He'd have gone down to the morgue if the thought of ever seeing Trevor's face again, even in death, was too much.

"Never mind. I'd probably do the same thing if I were in your shoes. But do explain your rationale behind the whole 'attend his funeral' plan."

Mike let out a sigh. "I talked to Grammy about it. Not about that part, but about Trevor dying. She made me realised that I never did mourned for the friend that I lost that night. I went from denial, to anger, and just buried everything and got on with my life as though I'd never known Trevor."

"And you have a problem with that?" Mike could tell from his tone that Harvey did not see any problem with how Mike dealt with the situation.

"Yes." Recent events proved that burying the memories wasn't that good a long term solution, not especially if something from his past could trigger an avalanche like what happened when Mike saw Trevor. "I never really reconciled Trevor my childhood best friend with Trevor the addict drug dealer," Mike ran a hand through his hair, undoubtly messing it up even more. "There was a decade worth of good times, all of which were overshadowed and tainted by what happened that night. Harvey, I need to be able to remember the good times, or the entirety of my childhood will be defined by that single night. I don't want that."

"And you think going to the funeral would help?"

"Grammy said I needed to mourn the loss of my friend, I figured what better way to do it than his funeral, right?" Mike shrugged. It made sense to him, hopefully it'll make sense to Harvey as well.

"When is it?" Harvey asked, letting out a sigh.

"Wednesday morning. You don't have to – "

"If you think I'm going to let you go by yourself, you're crazier than I though. I'll get Donna to clear my morning."

* * *

The first thing Harvey did on Monday morning was to get Charlie to deliver all copies of the documents he had copied from the site office to him.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Charlie asked, handing over the file.

"Don't worry about it Charlie, I'm taking care of it."

"You know no one at Hartford has contacted me, right? They're still paying me my salary, but they're not talking. All Andrew would say when I rang was I'm most likely off the hook," Charlie said, referring to the friend who got him the job in the first place.

"They're still investigating the incident, and getting sued by the families of the two injured workers, so I'd say their hands are a bit full at the moment."

Charlie narrowed his eyes. "There's something you're not telling me."

"Nothing you need to know," Harvey replied, sitting down in his chair behind his desk.

"Harvey, this is my career you're talking about, I think I need to know."

"Trust me, Charlie. Your career will be just fine. I'm working on a solution, and if everything works out, which it will because I'm just that good," Harvey smirked, pretty happy with himself for coming up with the plan that was now being put into motion. "It'll be like none of this ever happened."

"I have no idea how Mike puts up with that ego of yours," Charlie glared.

"It helps that he thinks he's a deity," Harvey quipped. "And works with people who think they're God."

Charlie snorted. "The pair of you, you deserve each other."

"We think so, too. You going straight to the hospital after this?"

"Yeah. If everything goes well, they should release Janice and Alison in the next couple of days, but I'm sure Mike already told you that. I'll make sure mum and dad aren't around if you want to visit later?"

"I'd appreciate it."

Harvey's intercom buzzed. "Harvey, Mr Keller's here," Donna announced.

"Show him to the boardroom. I'll be right there," Harvey replied, standing up. "Charlie – "

"Yeah, I heard. I'll get out of your hair."

Harvey showed Charlie out and made his way towards the boardroom where Tom Keller was waiting. Pleasantries were exchanged and Keller got straight to the point.

"Harvey, what did you mean when you said Hartford Construction might be looking to sell some of their assets? I've been asking around over the weekend after I got your email, but no one's heard anything."

"That's because you haven't made them an offer," Harvey replied. Ever since Harvey landed Keller as his client, thanks to Harold's bumbling attempts at trying to make an impression that had amused Keller enough to agree to a meeting with Harvey, Keller had been asking Harvey to keep an eye out for opportunities to diversify his business. "I know you've been looking at a few of the properties they own, and I can tell you they have a problem on their hands that require a significant cash flow to take care of."

"What makes you think they would have to sell anything to deal with whatever problems they have?"

"They're being sued for millions, Tom. They are barely keeping their heads above the water at this point, they don't have the cash."

Keller looked thoughtful. "I trust you, Harvey. You know what I want, if you can get a good deal out of them, I'm in."

"Good, I'll set up a meeting with Hartford and let you know," Harvey smiled. Step one accomplished, now to convince Hartford that it's in their best interest to do exactly what Harvey wanted them to do.

Piece of cake.

* * *

Contrary to what Hollywood would like everyone to believe, it doesn't always rain or snow during a funeral. It was actually a nice winter's day, the air was crisp but the sun was shining, with the occasional clouds floating by. It was one of the nicest days in New York for the last couple of weeks. Mike briefly wondered whether it was some sort of sign.

It was a small service, the only people in attendance were family and some faces Mike recognised from high school. No one, as far as Mike was aware, was from Trevor's drug dealing life. Mrs Evans was clearly taken aback when she saw Mike, and her eyes briefly lingered curiously on Harvey, who stood silently by Mike's side.

They stayed at the back of the gathering, Mike didn't approach anyone, and other than a few curious looks in their direction, no one approached them.

If asked, Mike could honestly say he had no idea what was spoken or who had done so at the service, his eyes never leaving the closed coffin, lost in the distant past.

It was the first day of school, Mike's parents had made the decision against letting Mike skip a couple of grades, wanting him to be kept with children his own age to learn the appropriate socialising skills. His mother, being a high school teacher herself, was more than capable of providing Mike with more challenging work when he got home.

Third period was English, one of Mike's favourite subjects because it often involved his mum and dad reading him stories in funny voices. Mike completed the classroom task set by his English teacher within minutes, but the dark haired boy with a rather funny looking bowl cut sitting next to him seemed to be having some trouble, so Mike leaned over and helped.

"Thanks!" the boy said after completing his task. "I'm Trevor," he introduced himself, his grin revealing a missing front tooth.

"I'm Mike."

"Hey, did you watch Transformers yesterday?"

"Yeah! Megatron was totally un-cool, what he did."

And the two first graders bonded over their love of robotic cars until Mrs Greene noticed the increasing chatter at their table and gently put a stop to it.

Mike felt a gentle nudge at his elbow, turning, he saw the questioning look Harvey gave him. Mike managed a nod and a small smile for his partner before turning back to the last of the ceremony.

Reaching out, Mike grabbed Harvey's hand, holding on; the image of the toothless dark haired boy with the tragic bowl cut in his mind as the coffin was finally lowered into the ground, the voice of the elderly priest's recitations in Latin its only accompaniment.

* * *

They left soon after the conclusion of the service, Mike stopping briefly to speak to Mrs Evans and a woman Harvey later found out was Jenny Wilson (nee Griffith). Harvey was on the phone with Donna, having to put out a fire that Louis made Harold start.

Mike, looking sad, but somewhat at peace after the service, went home to change before heading to the hospital for his afternoon shift. Harvey on the other hand, went straight back to his office, grabbed the file he needed, and headed right back out again to Hartford Construction's head office six blocks away.

"Mr Specter," Cameron Pearce, the CEO of Hartford Construction greeted him. They were meeting in his personal office instead of a meeting room or a boardroom as Harvey had expected. There were also two other people in the room that Harvey had not expected. "This is our CFO Robert Grayston, and in-house counsel Janet Chan. I hope you don't mind them joining our meeting?" Pearce continued.

"No, not at all," Harvey replied, shaking hands with each of the individual as Pearce introduced them.

"I admit, I was a bit surprised to receive your call," Pearce said, gesturing to a reasonably sized side table to the right of his office where they all took their seats. "I didn't know Charlie thought it would be prudent to seek legal advice over the matter when the investigation is still on-going, especially not if he had nothing to hide."

"Mr Pearce, I can assure you my brother has absolutely nothing to hide. As a matter of fact, he doesn't even know that I'm here right now talking to you. As far as anyone's concerned, this meeting has nothing to do with Charlie."

"Your brother?" Grayston asked, clearly surprised.

"Yes. We do share the same last name," Harvey wondered how incompetent the man could be to not have noticed something that obvious. It wasn't as though Specter was a common last name.

"Mr Specter, why exactly did you call for a meeting?" Pearce asked. "You were rather vague over the phone."

"I'll get straight to the point. You're being sued by two of your former workers. Each lawsuit is worth millions on its own, and you don't have the cash flow to finance the litigation, nor anywhere near enough to offer a reasonable settlement."

"Your point, Mr Specter?" Chan asked.

"My point is you need to liquidate."

Grayston snorted. "What do you think we've been doing for the last week?"

"Robert," Chan's tone clearly indicated that it was a warning not to say too much. It didn't matter, Harvey already knew all he needed to know about Hartford Construction's legal and financial positions.

"Are you offering to buy?" Pearce asked, curious.

"No, but my client is interested in diversifying his portfolio and may be interested in a couple of your properties," Harvey replied, careful not to give away Keller's name or which property he was interested in.

"And what do you want in return?" Chan asked, wary. Harvey had to give her points, she was sharp.

"That you clean up your act. What happened on that site wasn't an accident. I'm sure your investigation has managed to turn up some inconsistencies between the building plan specifications and the work orders – "

"How did you know about that?!" Grayston demanded, clearly alarmed. "We just got that report back on Monday!"

"It doesn't matter how I know," Harvey said. "All that matters is you know who's responsible, and this wasn't the first project he's handled. Look through your records and you'll see the same thing on every single project he's handled over the last decade. Frankly, I'm surprised something like this hadn't happened sooner," Harvey said, watching as Pearce grew paler as the implication of Harvey's words sunk in.

"Last ten years? Paterson has handled dozens of project in that time! If he's been doing this all along..." Pearce trailed off, either unable or unwilling to continue.

"That's not possible," Grayston protested. "Someone would've caught him by now if he's been doing this for ten years."

"Not if he's been covering his tracks," Chan added. "Paterson was brought in by the old board of directors. They trusted him, and since Cameron took over, no one bothered to look into him."

"Go through your paperwork. You'll find all the evidence you need in there," Harvey said. "My client just needs assurance that he's dealing with a reputable company with a clean record. If you turn in whatever evidence you find against Paterson to the authorities, they'll be more than happy to sit down and talk about possible acquisition of several of your properties," Harvey leaned back in his seat, knowing that he had the complete cooperation of Hartford Construction. "It really is in the best interest of the company's reputation and its future that this Paterson guy is dealt with appropriately by the law."

Chan was nodding in agreement. "He's right, Cameron. If Paterson has been doing this for the last ten years, then all the building projects he's handled are potentially structurally unsound. If we don't act against him and anything happens with one of them, we'll be opening ourselves up to a whole lot more lawsuits and the company's reputation will be worth absolutely nothing by the end of it."

"By exposing Paterson and then ordering an inspection of all the buildings he worked on, you'll be seen as the responsible corporate, one of the good guys," Harvey added, knowing that Pearce was already sold by the end of Chan's analysis of their situation, but a little extra something to sweeten the deal wouldn't go amiss. "Gentlemen, lady," Harvey said, standing up. "Let me know when you have turned in the evidence to the appropriate authority. I'll set up a meeting for you with my client then."

Pearce and his staff got to their feet as well.

"Expect a call from my office early next week, Mr Specter, and please pass on our congratulations to Charlie for the arrival of his baby girl."

"Thank you, Mr Pearce. I'll pass on your regards and look forward to hearing from you."

The deal wasn't finalised yet, but it was pretty much in the bag as far as taking care of Paterson was concerned. The Trapani family's attention will now be on damage control and by the time the FBI were done with Hartford's documents, Harvey would be amazed if there was still a Trapani family left, Charlie would be the farthest thing from their minds. The fact that Harvey got to bill Keller for this work was just a bonus.

The moment Harvey stepped out of Hartford Construction's building, he felt as though a weight has been lifted from his shoulders. Charlie was going to be fine, Mike seemed to be doing all right, and all was well in Harvey's world... as soon as his parents leave town.

* * *

When Mike got home, he was somewhat surprised to find his living room buried under piles of files and papers, with Harvey sitting in the middle of it all looking like a war-time general strategising over maps of enemy territories. That is if war-time generals wore t-shirts and sweat pants.

"You do realise I have a study you could've used right?" Mike asked, taking off his coat and hanging it in the closet by the door.

"Hm?" Harvey looked up, his mind clearly still on whatever case he was focusing on.

"Never mind," Mike replied, knowing Harvey was currently lost somewhere in his head and would probably need a couple of minutes. Whatever Harvey was working on must be complicated because Mike was usually the one who got this preoccupied thinking through a problem.

It had been over two months since Trevor's funeral and Mike was finally starting to feel like things were getting back to normal for him and Harvey. Other than the fact that they've taken to spending all their free time together, which was definitely not normal pre-Mike's disclosure about Trevor. Before that, they were lucky if they managed to see each other more than twice a week, and Mike had come to realise that he didn't mind the changes at all.

There had been a few late night/early morning frank discussions with Harvey in the few weeks after the funeral on both their parts, occasionally with alcohol involved. Mike finally agreed to see a therapist and Harvey, after several heart-to-hearts Sunday sessions with Grammy, seemed to have come to terms with his relationship with his parents. As Mike suspected, it wasn't anything Harvey didn't already know, but coming from another parental figure, with Grammy's rather unique way of problem solving, had put things into a better perspective. Watching Harvey as he flipped through a stack of papers, making notes as he went along, Mike couldn't help but think this was where Harvey belonged, in Mike's life.

Smiling to himself, Mike made his way to the kitchen, his stomach reminding him that 9:30pm was definitely way past time for dinner. Unless Harvey had eaten them, there should still be some left over Chinese from the night before.

Mike was startled when he felt an arm around his waist just as he opened the refrigerator door. "Oh Jesus! Make some noise will you!"

"That would defeat the purpose of possessing stealth ninja skills," Harvey said, hugging Mike from behind and resting his chin against Mike's shoulder.

Mike grabbed container with the leftover fried rice, shut the refrigerator door and turned around in Harvey's arm. "Socked feet are now considered stealth ninja skills?"

"Do not diss the socked feet. And I was so stealthy that the Mafia didn't even see me coming," Harvey said, referring to the large scale arrest of various members of the Trapani family that was all over the news today after Paterson, who had been arrested weeks before, turned evidence against them in exchange for being put into the witness protection program. Harvey leaned in to give Mike a quick kiss before Mike wriggled out of Harvey's arms to get to the microwave. "What were you smiling about?"

"Huh?"

"Before I came in here, you were smiling about something."

"Oh, nothing," Mike replied, punching in three minutes on the microwave timer. "Just a thought," he continued, turning around to face Harvey who was now leaning back against the kitchen counter, looking completely at ease.

Harvey raised a questioning eyebrow at Mike.

"What? I can't have a private thought?" Mike quipped.

"Fine. I respect your right to have a private thought."

"Thank you," Mike nodded solemnly. "It's a right I hold dear to my heart along with my constitutional rights, human rights, and my rights under the Geneva Conventions."

"Geneva Conventions? Are you saying you're my prisoner of war?" There was just a hint of mischief in Harvey's voice and Mike realised had pretty much dug himself a hole on that one.

"Didn't know you were into kinky role playing," Mike soldiered on because backing out would just mean endless teasing from Harvey for days to come.

Harvey abandoned the kitchen counter and, there were no other words for it, stalked towards Mike. "I'm game if you're game," he said, voice low and standing right in Mike's personal space.

The microwave beeped, but Mike ignored it in favour of studying the man before him. It boggled the mind how Harvey could make an old t-shirt, sweat pants, and white socks looked sexy, and at the same time, completely relaxed and comfortable.

"Move in with me," the words were out of Mike's mouth before his brain could even fully process the thought.

Harvey seemed dumbfounded, and suddenly the uncertainties came rushing in. Mike wondered what the hell he'd been thinking, blurting something like that out in the middle of the kitchen with no warning.

"This is your place," Harvey said carefully, his expression serious and thoughtful.

"Yes. And?"

"And you don't really like my place."

"I never said I didn't like your place, just that it could be a little less modern minimalist."

"As I said, you don't really like my place."

Then Mike's 'Harvey to plain English' dictionary kicked in and it was his turn to be taken aback. "Wait, are you suggesting...."

"Why not?" Harvey grinned.

And Mike laughed; this was Harvey Specter, of course he had to up the ante and suggest that they buy a house together.

* * *

Epilogue

"Are we done yet?" Mike knew he sounded like a whiny 5 year old, but they've been at it for months. If he thought getting a tux with Harvey was hard work, it was nothing compared to house hunting with him. Four and a half months and god knows how many viewings later, it looks as though Harvey's finally found a place he was happy with.

"It'll need a bit of work. A double sink in the kitchen, and a bigger closet for the master bedroom, maybe convert the smaller one into a walk in as well, but otherwise... Mike?"

"It's fine. The last dozen and a half places we looked at were fine, too. God, if I knew how tedious this was going to be, I would've just insisted that you move in with me!"

"You don't just walk into a listing agent's office and buy the first place you see."

"I did. Worked out pretty well, I thought," Mike retorted.

Harvey looked at Mike in dismay and Mike noticed Maggie, the estate agent trying not to laugh. Maggie was their third agent after the first two failed to come up with anything that met Harvey's precise standards and Mike's only requirement that it be approximately half an hour away from the hospital by bike.

"The current owner's happy to do a bit more work on the kitchen, but I'll have to get back to you about the closet and see if that's structurally possible," Maggie replied.

When Harvey still looked like he was thinking about it, Mike made the decision for them. "We'll take it."

"Mike!"

"Look, it's got a great view, better than the one you currently have I might add. Top floor with a private elevator, which you seemed to like, enough room for all our crap and guestrooms for anyone wanting to stay over, and terrace with more great views. You seemed pretty taken with the kitchen, which I don't really give a crap about seeing as according to you, I can't cook anyway. It's half an hour from the hospital, which is all I wanted, so just take it already and put me out of my misery."

"Don't you at least want to know how much the place is?" Maggie asked, clearly amused.

"Is it within the budget I sent you?" Harvey asked.

"Of course," Maggie replied.

"Then it's all good," Harvey said, walking towards the widow at the living room.

"Well, he might not be, but I'd like to know how much of my life I'd be signing away," Mike said, rolling his eyes at Harvey's antics.

"Six point two-five million," Maggie said at the same time as Harvey started protesting over Mike's implication that Harvey would let Mike do anything so stupid.

Mike almost choked at the price. "Uh, Maggie, can you give us a minute?"

"Sure, I'll head down to the lobby and let you guys talk things through. Take as long as you want."

"Thanks," Mike said with a smile as Maggie turned and headed towards the exit. Then he joined Harvey at the window, taking in the view of Central Park and the reservoir across the road. From the 19th floor, it was a spectacular view. "That's a lot of money."

"We can afford it."

"Harvey, you can afford it. I can afford maybe a third of it if I mortgage myself up to my eyeballs," Mike protested. "What was the budget you set for Maggie anyway?"

"Seven and a half mil," Harvey replied, turning to look at Mike. "I have my financial planner worked it out based on our joint assets and income."

"It's still mostly your income though."

"Mike - "

"I know, I know. I was the one who told you to deal with the financial stuff. I just didn't realise that the purchase was going to be this big," Mike sighed. He might have often teased Harvey about being emotionally stunted, but when it comes to their finances, Mike was the one having problems adjusting.

Except for the first summer in college when Mike severely underestimated his expenses and had to ask his mum for a loan, Mike had been financially independent since he started college. The idea of having to rely on anyone financially, even Harvey, was something he was having a lot of trouble getting used to. If his name was going to be on the property title as joint holders, he wanted to be able to contribute equally to it.

"And shouldn't you be worried about protecting your own assets and all that?" Mike asked.

Harvey shrugged. "It's only money."

"So says the guy with a whole load of it," Mike commented.

"Do you like this place?" Harvey asked, sounding slightly exasperated.

"Yes," Mike replied. "But – "

"We're buying it then. No buts."

"Harvey!"

"Look Mike, I know you'd like to be able to contribute equally to this, but think about it. I'm almost 10 years ahead of you in terms of career progression. Unless you win the lottery, which isn't possible since you don't play the lottery, I will be making more than you until you finally make up your mind about what you want to do with your career and go for it, and you being you, it might take a while. Besides, by the time it's time for me to retire, you'll be the one still working. In the long run, it all balances out."

"You're thinking about retirement already?"

"It's never too early to plan for your retirement."

"And I'm in your retirement plans?" Mike asked, fighting the urge to smile stupidly at Harvey.

Harvey took a sideways step, closed the distance between them and pulled Mike into a half embrace in front of the window. "You're in all of my plans," Harvey said softly before turning and placing a kiss on Mike's cheek.

Mike felt himself melt into Harvey's embrace.

"So, what do you say? Want to sign our lives away to the banks for this joint?"

Mike snorted. "You'd probably redraft their agreement before you'd let that happen."

"Can't say you're wrong. So?"

"Yeah, fine. Buy the damn place and your private elevator," Mike said, sounding grumpy but he was smiling, and he could see from their reflection in the window Harvey returning his smile.

"Good. Now I can have my weekends back."

"What?" Mike chuckled. "You're not going to be personally overseeing all the remodelling work you want done? I could see you mentally redesigning the place when we did the walk through."

Harvey groaned. "Couldn't you have given me five minutes?"

The chuckle turned into a full laugh, and Mike twisted around to give Harvey a proper kiss, stopping any further protests. "Come on, I think we've kept Maggie waiting long enough."