Chapter Text
“I have a case for you.”
Harvey didn’t look up from his computer screen. “And here it’s not even my birthday.”
A file landed on top of his keyboard. “No refunds, no exchanges, no rainchecks.”
Harvey flicked open the file and then grimaced up at Jessica. “Seriously? Why me?”
Jessica sat down in the chair opposite his desk gracefully. “Lauren’s parents are dear friends of mine, Harvey. John Humphrey and I were at Harvard together, and I’ve known Lauren since she was born. Her husband is making the divorce extremely difficult, and I promised John and Helen that I’d put my best on her case. Which is you.”
“This is not my area,” Harvey protested.
Jessica arched an eyebrow. “Here I thought you could do anything?” she said.
Harvey pressed his lips together.
“Harvey, the firm needs everything it can get after ousting Daniel. And the Humphrey family has a lot of assets at stake here that they don’t want Jeffrey Reynolds getting his hands on.”
“No prenup?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “It was true love,” she said sarcastically. “Why would they need a prenup?”
Harvey sighed, rubbing at his forehead. He could already tell this case was going to be a headache.
“Fine,” he bit out. “But you owe me.”
Jessica laughed. “I owe you? Oh, Harvey. We both know if we start tallying up marks, that doesn’t add up.”
Without even realising, Harvey’s gaze shifted behind her where Mike had appeared at Donna’s desk as though conjured out of thin air. He had a pile of folders in one arm and a coffee in his other hand, which he was handing to Donna with a smile. When he looked back to Jessica, she was staring at him, unimpressed.
“Harvey-“
Harvey rolled his eyes. “We are not going to have that ridiculous conversation again, are we?” he asked her, even as he subtly checked to ensure the intercom was off.
He didn’t really care about Donna listening in on most of his conversations- he’d long since learned to have any absolutely private conversations at home or while Donna was on her lunch break. But he didn’t need Donna getting ideas about this.
“You can’t blame me for wondering why you’re so insistent on keeping him.”
“You said he was the best of both of us,” Harvey reminded her.
“And that’s important to me. I doubt that is important to you. And I’ve known you for a long time Harvey. It doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that there aren’t benefits-“
“I am not sleeping with Mike Ross,” he said firmly, cutting her off.
Jessica studied his face for a moment and then nodded. “Alright.”
She swept out of the office, and Harvey watched Mike nod to her awkwardly as she passed him and then he entered the office.
“Do you want me to come back?” he offered tentatively.
Harvey shook his head and closed his laptop, beckoning him closer. “What have you got for me?”
Mike handed him the pile he carried, and Harvey let him ramble through an explanation of everything he’d done, washing over him like white noise as he skimmed it.
“What’s next?” Mike asked when he was done.
Harvey reached over and picked up the file Jessica had handed him, standing up and passing it over to Mike. “New case from Jessica. I need you to start a run-down of the Humphrey family assets and Jeffrey Reynolds.”
Mike opened the file and skimmed it quickly. Harvey caught a subtle wince and knew that Mike also knew this case could get messy real fast. But he simply nodded when he lifted his gaze back to Harvey.
“Okay. Deadline?”
“I’ll set up a meeting with Lauren Reynolds and let you know,” Harvey replied.
Mike nodded again and then headed for the door.
“Mike?”
He turned back and Harvey nodded his chin slightly. “Good job.”
Mike gave a small smile in return, but his eyes brightened before he nodded back to Harvey and left the office. Harvey resumed his seat and opened his laptop again, but his focus was shot. Checking the time, he figured now was as good a time as any for lunch.
“Donna, I need you to set up a meeting with Lauren Reynolds,” he said exiting his office. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Alright,” she said absently, immersed in an email.
Harvey headed outside, letting out a breath as the July sunshine settled over him and feeling his shoulders ease. This was the fourth time at least that Jessica had asked him about his relationship with Mike in the ten months since she’d discovered his secret, and Harvey wasn’t sure why she didn’t believe him.
“Mike goes, I go,” he’d told her back in September, setting his jaw.
She’d stared at him, lips pursed. “Are you sleeping with him, Harvey?” she’d asked.
Harvey had actually laughed incredulously. “What?”
“Are you sleeping with him?” she’d repeated flatly.
The idea had been so ludicrous to Harvey that he had rolled his eyes. “No. I’m not.”
He’d thought that would be the end of the matter, but it kept coming up. And it bothered Harvey, although he couldn’t put his finger on why.
Mike had settled well in the past two months since his grandmother’s death, once he’d gotten past the initial waves of grief. Harvey wasn’t one to give out praise liberally, but he was trying to give credit where credit was due; especially since the night after his grandmother’s funeral when he and Mike had gotten high together. Since he’d snapped at Mike to “get your shit together” and the kid had.
Harvey bought himself a bagel from the street cart and debated going for a walk around the block, but ultimately decided it was too hot for that. Summer in New York was not the best time to be wearing three-piece suits. When he returned to the office, there was already a meeting added to his calendar for the next morning with Lauren Reynolds. Donna moved fast.
Even as Harvey worked on other matters for the rest of the day, he found it hard to focus. He felt rather twitchy, like the feeling of having an itch on the bottom of your foot inside your shoe. The question from Jessica about whether or not he was sleeping with Mike and the supposed “benefits” she thought he might be getting from his associate kept floating around his mind. Donna was giving him odd looks, and even refused to bring him a coffee in the afternoon.
“I don’t think you need any more caffeine,” she said firmly. “What’s with you? You look confused… or like you’re trying to work out a really hard math problem.”
“I’m fine,” Harvey grumbled. “I just know this divorce case from Jessica is going to be a pain in the ass.”
That was the only explanation that made sense to him. Donna nodded knowingly. “Is this about your parents?”
Harvey shot her a look, and she raised her hands defensively. “Alright, it’s not about your parents. We’ll just pretend that you don’t get all twitchy and scrunchy whenever your mother tries to get in touch with you again, shall we?”
He glared at her until she gave up and left.
Maybe she was right, maybe handling Lauren Reynolds’s divorce was making him think of his parents’ divorce, however unconsciously. Although really, his parents’ divorce had been rather straightforward, given Harvey had been twenty and it had just been Marcus at home. The worst part had been how pissed off Marcus had been at him, for “being the one to break up the family” like Lily’s cheating hadn’t mattered at all.
Harvey began to pack up around eight o’clock that night. Donna had long gone for the day, and he was sure Mike was still somewhere in the building. He was almost at the elevator when he hesitated, and then continued on to Jessica’s office. She was still there, packing up her own things for the day.
“Why do you continue thinking that I’m sleeping with Mike?” he asked, letting himself in.
She glanced up at him. “Honestly? Because I can’t think of another reason to explain why you are so determined to keep the kid around.”
“He’s brilliant.”
“I know. I can admit that. But he is not the only smart person in this firm.”
“He cares.”
Jessica scoffed. “Since when does that matter to you? And again, are you suggesting that everyone else doesn’t care?”
Harvey made a face. “Are you suggesting that Louis does?”
Jessica shook her head with a smile. “You know what? I take it back. I can think of a reason why you’d want the kid around if you aren’t sleeping with him. Because when he looks good, he makes you look good. And the fact he is doing good without a degree- in your eyes, makes him look even better. Even if no one knows but you.”
“That would suggest I care about mentoring the kid,” Harvey pointed out.
Jessica’s smile widened. “Yes it would,” she agreed.
Harvey felt rather twitchy again.
“The kid’s done well,” Jessica admitted. “He works hard and he’s even impressed me a time or two. But as of yet, what he is doesn’t make up for what he isn’t. That day will come. I understand why he’s so loyal to you. But what keeps you loyal to him? That I’m still figuring out.”
Harvey couldn’t answer that to himself, let alone to Jessica.
Maybe he didn’t sleep well that night, or maybe Jessica’s comments were still making his mind twitch somewhat. Either way, he still felt off the next morning when Mike entered his office to brief him on what he’d found on Lauren Reynolds.
“Lauren Reynolds, thirty-four. Only daughter of John and Helen Humphreys and heiress to the Humphrey fortune. Married Jeffrey Reynolds- thirty-seven, construction worker- in 1999. No prenup. They’ve got four kids; eldest is eleven, youngest is seven months. Lauren kicked him out a year ago while she was pregnant.”
“Why? Affairs? Abuse?”
“Medical records show a few hospital visits in the months before he left, but nothing that seems off. Could all be standard pregnancy-related visits. Jeffrey’s address is listed as a studio apartment in the Bronx above an Ethiopian restaurant, and his social media pages are all focused on his kids. No suggestion of a relationship.”
Harvey looked at Mike questioningly. “Why his social media?”
Mike smirked. “Because like most people of your generation, he’s lax with his privacy settings,” he said.
Harvey gave him a pointed look. “Yes, thank you. I meant, what gave you the idea of looking at it?”
Mike leaned forward in his seat, clasping his hands together earnestly. “Okay. See, Harvey- sometimes, people have these things called ‘lives’ that involve other things besides their jobs. And then they share them on the internet for what we call ‘friends.’”
Harvey narrowed his eyes. The kid wanted to play it that way? That was fine, he’d regret it as soon as Harvey got the right opportunity.
“Harvey, Lauren Reynolds is here,” came Donna’s voice over the intercom.
Harvey rose from his chair immediately, buttoning his suit jacket. Mike was right on his heels as he headed for the door to greet Mrs Reynolds. She looked younger than thirty-four, was Harvey’s first thought; but she was very pretty, with honey coloured hair and blue eyes. What Harvey hadn’t expected though, was the baby on her hip or the three other children with her.
“Mrs Reynolds? Harvey Specter,” he greeted her, extending a hand.
“Hi,” she said, shaking it quickly. “I’m so sorry, Mr Specter. My usual baby-sitter called in sick this morning with food poisoning and my parents are out of town. I didn’t have anyone else to leave the kids with.”
Harvey forced a smile. “No worries at all,” he allowed, even while his brain was whirling to figure out what to do with four children while he tried to conduct a serious client meeting.
Donna, behind Lauren Reynolds, was eyeing him pointedly and shaking her head; just daring him to leave the children with her, he knew. And then his shoulders lightened and his smile became more genuine as a quite frankly brilliant idea came to him.
“Mrs Reynolds, this is Mike Ross, my associate- great with kids,” he said, and he felt Mike freeze beside him. “Why don’t we get them set up in the conference room and then you and I can talk in my office?”
Lauren’s shoulders eased with relief as she looked at Mike. “That would be so great. Do you mind?”
“Uh, no. Not at all,” Mike stammered slightly, and Harvey suppressed a wide grin.
“Great. Donna, would you mind showing-?”
“Of course.”
Mike turned to Harvey as Donna started leading the way to the conference room. “I hate you so much,” he murmured.
“Payback’s a bitch, rookie,” Harvey replied with a smirk before they followed.
“You’re taking the bit about not letting me sit at the adults’ table a little too literal,” Mike grumbled for only Harvey’s ear, and he grinned.
Lauren left her children in Mike’s hands with a flurry of instructions to him, stern reminders to behave to the kids and then thrust the baby and all the things in her arms at Mike.
“Is Mike actually any good with kids?” Donna whispered to Harvey.
“How the hell should I know?”
Donna chuckled. “Oh, this is going to be good.”
And so Mike found himself alone in the conference room, holding a baby awkwardly on one hip, while two little girls stared at him with wide eyes and a pre-teen boy slumped in the nearest chair. Harvey led Lauren Reynolds away with so much as a backward glance at him, but Donna shot him a wave and a wink as she returned to her desk.
“Um, hi,” he said awkwardly. “I’m Mike.”
“I’m Millie,” said the eldest little girl brightly, holding out a hand to Mike in a way that told him someone had taught her how to introduce herself to adults.
It made Mike smile sadly, because his mother had taught him the same thing at probably the same age.
“Hi Mille,” he said gently, shifting the baby more securely onto his hip so that he could kneel down on the ground and shake her offered hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Mille beamed, and her little sister hurried forward to grab at Mike’s hand.
“Hi, what’s your name?” he asked her, although he knew from researching the family her full name and date of birth.
“Ava,” she said shyly.
“Hi, Ava. I like your ribbons,” he replied, nodding to the blue ribbons in her hair.
She offered him a tiny smile. “Blue.”
“Is blue your favourite colour?” she nodded and Mike grinned. “Mine too.”
Her smile widened.
“This is Emme,” Mille said matter-of-factly, pointing to the baby in Mike’s arms. “She’s just a baby.”
Mike turned his head to look at Emme, who was staring up at him with wide dark eyes, a hand in her mouth. She was, indeed, just a baby. Seven months old, according to Mike’s research.
“Hey, Emme,” he greeted her quietly. “Are you going to be okay hanging out with me for a little bit?”
She babbled at him happily, apparently not bothered at all by being held by a stranger.
“That’s Jack,” Mille continued, pointing to her brother who was slumping in the nearest chair.
“Hi Jack.”
Jack just eyed him warily and said nothing. After all this time working with Harvey, Mike wasn’t put off by the silence.
“Alright, what do you guys want to do while we wait for your mom to get back?” he asked them.
They each had a little backpack with them- well, Lauren Reynolds had thrust one at him that he assumed was Emme’s diaper bag.
“Jack has homework to do for summer school,” Mille informed him.
“Millie,” Jack whined at his sister.
“What?” she asked innocently. “Mommy told you in the car that you had to do it. I heard her.”
Mike did not have siblings, but he had Donna, so he sympathised with Jack.
“Alright, well while Jack does his work, what do you and Ava want to do?” he asked her, not sure if this was the right question to ask and hoping they were going to choose something feasible.
Millie wrinkled her nose thoughtfully. “Colour?”
Mike’s shoulders eased. “Colour we can do,” he agreed.
The girls had colouring books and pencils in their backpacks, so Mike helped them get set up at the conference table- and settled Emme and himself on the floor nearby, trying to amuse her with some toys from the diaper bag.
It took five minutes before Jack reluctantly pulled out a book from his bag.
“The Secret Garden,” Mike noted the title. “A classic.”
“It’s dumb,” Jack grumbled. “It’s for girls.”
“Nah,” Mike said easily, letting Emme use his fingers as a brace to try and pull herself up to a standing position. “I enjoyed it. Dickon is a pretty cool character. Where are you up to?”
“Chapter six,” Jack mumbled.
Mike wasn’t sure if he actually had read up to that point or if that was the page he happened to open the book to, but either way, he could work with this.
“The next day the rain poured down in torrents again, and when Mary looked out of her window the moor was almost hidden by grey mist and cloud. There could be no going out today,” he began to recite.
He saw Jack freeze out of the corner of his eye, but Mike kept his attention on Emme.
“What do you do in your cottage when it rains like this?” she asked Martha.
“Try to keep from under each other’s feet mostly,” Martha answered. “Eh! there does seem a lot of us then. Mother’s a good-tempered woman but she gets fair moithered. The biggest ones goes out in th’ cow-shed and plays there. Dickon he doesn’t mind th’ wet. He goes out just th’ same as if th’ sun was shinin’. He says he sees things on rainy days as doesn’t show when it’s fair weather. He once found a little fox cub half drowned in its hole and he brought it home in th’ bosom of his shirt to keep it warm. Its mother had been killed nearby an’ th’ hole was swum out an’ th’ rest o’ th’ litter was dead. He’s got it at home now. He found a half-drowned young crow another time an’ he brought it home, too, an’ tamed it. It’s named Soot because it’s so black, an’ it hops an’ flies about with him everywhere.”
Jack just stared at him openly now. “How did you do that?” he demanded.
Mike tapped a finger against his temple. “I have what’s called an eidetic memory,” he explained. “It means-“
“Like photographic?”
Mike flashed him a grin. “Yeah, exactly. Which means, once I read something or see something, it’s stuck in my brain forever.”
Jack looked at the book in his hand. “You read The Secret Garden?”
“My mom read it to me when I was Millie’s age,” Mike explained. “It was one of her favourite books. And then I read it myself when I was your age in school. Fifth grade, right?”
Jack nodded, eyes wide. “I’ll start sixth grade in the fall… if I pass this stupid summer school,” he scowled at the book.
Mike opened his mouth to say something hopefully reassuring, but Jack cut him off. “You could really quote this whole book?”
“Yep,” Mike confirmed. “Or any other book that I’ve ever read.”
He saw Jack’s scepticism and grinned at him. “Try me, dude,” he issued the challenge, and of course Jack wasn’t going to refuse the chance to try and prove him wrong.
But Mike had been doing this trick for a long time. Even Millie, once she realised what was happening, wanted to “play” and see Mike’s “magic trick.” She was absolutely thrilled that Mike could recite There’s a Wocket in my Pocket from Dr Seuss- what she proclaimed was her favourite book ever. And gradually, Mike could see Jack let his guard down a little and he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
Harvey, meanwhile, was dealing with a clearly stressed and emotional Lauren Reynolds as she detailed her marriage breakdown and everything her estranged husband had done to try and prolong the divorce proceedings.
“He’s refusing to respond to the petition. Every time I have to try and serve the papers again, he suddenly is out of town,” she explained. “He’s saying that he’s going to fight me for custody, that I can’t take his kids from him. But he’s the one who kept saying he wanted out- until I actually told him to leave. I’m offering fifty-fifty custody! In the meantime, he only bothers to come see the kids on Sundays, and half the time he’s late or ‘something comes up’ and he can’t make it at the last minute- while the kids are sitting around waiting for him. Emme is seven months old and she barely recognises him.”
She rubbed at her forehead. “I just want this to be over with.”
“We’ll get it done,” Harvey promised her. “Let’s talk about what you want, and some alternatives.”
After almost an hour and a half, Harvey shook her hand and escorted her to the office door. He wasn’t planning on following her to the conference room, but Donna subtly beckoned him as she gestured for Lauren to follow her and Harvey fell into step with her, intrigued by the look on her face. He wasn’t sure if he’d seen that expression from her before.
“What?”
“You have no idea what you’ve just started,” Donna told him.
Harvey frowned. “With what?”
“Mike texted me,” she whispered. “Because he needed to get the baby a bottle.”
“Okay?” Harvey wasn’t following.
“Harvey. Do you know what the appeal of Three Men and a Baby was?”
“Tom Selleck?”
Donna rolled her eyes as they approached the conference room, drawing Harvey to a stop and allowing Lauren to go ahead of them. Further down the hall, Harvey noted two female associates standing with their heads together, whispering over a file although they were smiling in a way that Harvey didn’t think had anything to do with work.
“I don’t…”
Harvey trailed off as his gaze moved into the conference room. Mike had shed his suit jacket and tie, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. He was sitting at the table in the conference room with the toddler next to him, talking to her with a smile on his face and occasionally handing her coloured pencils. All the while a baby slept curled up against his chest.
There was a distant ringing in Harvey’s ears and his vision slipped in and out of focus as he watched Mike offer Lauren Reynolds a smile as she entered the room, talking to her for what seemed to be a minute at least. She was nodding as he spoke and whatever she said, it made Mike blush in a way that was evident even from where Harvey stood. Harvey had seen Mike blush before, usually when he or Donna were mocking him, but it had never been this endearing before. As Harvey watched, Mike got to his feet carefully, rubbing small circles on the baby’s back while Lauren helped the toddler pack up. The boy helped his other sister do the same.
Harvey was vaguely aware that Donna was whispering to him, but he didn’t really hear any of it. He watched as the eldest girl scrambled off her chair and over to Mike offering him a piece of paper, which Mike accepted with a soft smile. The toddler did the same and Mike said something to her with a smile that made her visibly giggle.
When all the kids were packed up and heading for the door, Harvey expected Mike to hand Lauren back the baby. Instead, he grabbed one of the backpacks and slid it easily over his other shoulder, following them out into the hall and leaving his jacket and tie behind. As he followed them away from Harvey and Donna towards the elevator, the toddler broke away from her brother and reached up for Mike’s baby-free hand. And that tiny motion made Harvey’s chest ache.
“-I swear, every woman on the floor- and some of the men- have found an excuse to linger past the conference room for a bit in the past hour,” Donna was saying, her voice coming back into focus like sliding a radio dial. “This is the one perk of having all these glass walls.”
Harvey made a noise in his throat that he hoped was affirming, before spinning on his heel and returning to his office in a daze.
Harvey liked kids, in theory. He’d never really felt the need for his own, and he’d never felt the need to coo over a friend or colleagues’ baby when they had them (his niece and nephew were the exception), but kids of a certain age were great. They had no filter and had such a fascinating view of the world that Harvey could get some enjoyment out of talking with them. His date with Zoe Lawford was proof enough of that. But watching Mike with a baby in his arms had incited a reaction that Harvey had never felt before that he could remember. It was as though someone had punched him in the gut, picked him up and spun him around. And as his world settled back around him and Harvey regained his sense of equilibrium, he became aware of one terrifying realisation.
He was in love with Mike Ross.