"You want to tell me just what in the sweet suffering hell was going through your head?" Harvey demanded, stalking up and down behind his desk. "You want to give me some sort of goddamned explanation I can take to Jessica?" Throwing the offending file down on the surface top with a snap, he let out a low, frustrated growl. "What is going on with you? You've been answering me back, deliberately defying me and being a general pain in my ass on this case for days now."

He shot a glare across the desk at his maddeningly unabashed associate.

"Answers, Mike? You got any?"

The kid had the audacity to shrug his shoulders and stare out the window over his head.

Harvey started his counting. It was only this counting that allowed the boy to progress into his late twenties. If he hadn't discovered the counting technique, at Donna's insistence, chances are…the genius would be stone cold dead long ago. Rubbing a hand across his tired eyes, Harvey shook his head in disbelief. "Mike…I told you, in no uncertain terms, not to do anything on that deal. Open that genius mouth of yours and tell me why you defied me. You don't, and I swear to god I will kick you back into that associates pool so fast it'll knock the gel out of your just fabulous hair."

He resolutely ignored the disapproving glare Donna shot in the glass doors.

If she had her way, Mike would happily run riot across the New York legal sector.

"I don't know, ok?" the associate blurted out, "I'm just not made like you, alright? This whole hard edge, I don't give a shit about anything or anyone, that's not me. Those people were being screwed over by that developer and we could help, but you decided we weren't going to give them three hours of our time. Three hours, Harvey, to save five families homes? You don't think that's a decent trade?"

The respected closer increased the tempo of his counting.

"You know, for a boy wonder…you can be incredibly dense at times Mike. Newsflash, I always planned to help those people. On my own time, off the books and with no need for our client or Jessica to ever know. Did you ever think about that? You know, back when you were playing the legal vigilante? There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. You're barely out of the damned womb, so when I give you a strategy to work with, that's the one you goddamned well use. Not some half baked, save the world crap. Are you hearing me?"

Mike's mouth was suddenly rather dry.

That thought…had never crossed his mind. Yet now, it seemed starkly obvious. Harvey had been shifty about certain aspects of the deal, deliberately concealing them from Jessica. Looking back, without the obscuring veil of indignation that had hung over him, Mike realised it was plain as day what his boss was planning. A dull flush coloured his cheeks as the righteous poise slipped away from his shoulders.

He'd royally screwed up.

Seeing the seeping realisation and the corresponding flush creep across his associates face calmed Harvey somewhat. But not much. He was tired of having his decisions second guessed by a kid, gifted though he was, still didn't know his ass from his elbow in some respects. Running a hand through his hair, he shook his head with such obvious disappointment that Mike couldn't help but flinch. He knew, that Harvey knew, that he knew what he'd done wrong now. It was like that with them, they didn't need many words.

"Go and wait for me in the conference room. You know the one."

The bottom of Mike's stomach fell out. That conference room, the practically abandoned and secluded one, never spelled anything good for him. Shaking his head frantically, he wasn't surprised that Harvey was unmoved. "No?" he challenged quietly, "You want to do this here then?" He gestured towards the desk, with a raised brow and pursed lips. "That's fine by me, kid. You might want to ask Donna to turn off her side of this conversation though."

If Ross men were to vomit in horror, Mike would have upchucked all over the expensive carpet.

He couldn't tell that Harvey was bluffing, and would never actually follow through with his threat, because Harvey could be devastatingly convincing when he wanted to be. His trip off the reservation, so glaringly unnecessary seemed to stick in his throat as he shook his head weakly. He would quite frankly rather die, unaware of the fact that if looks could kill, Harvey would be keeled out in front of him from the venomous look Donna was shooting his way.

"Harvey…no, c'mon man please…."

The elder man held up a silencing hand, still ducking the mutating looks that were pinging off his expensive suit. "Then go to the conference room. It's your choice, Mike, but I've had it with you thinking you can question me, defy me and downright ignore me when you think you're right. You're an opinionated kid, and I respect the hell out of that. But there is a line, and you've crossed it." He paused to glower in exasperation.

"You've crossed it…yet again."

Mike winced. That was a valid point, and one he couldn't argue with. Sighing, he cursed his asinine stubbornness that had so clouded his judgement. Jessica was fuming with Harvey, because the client was fuming with the firm, and now…Harvey was fuming with him. It all came back to him and he knew it. Glancing guiltily across at the man who had done so much for him, he managed to square his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Harvey. I was…well, I was an idiot."

The lawyer snorted.

"Was?"

This time, there was no dodging the murderous look an equally murderous looking red head sent him and he sighed, softening somewhat. Mike…he'd a good heart. One he wore on his sleeve, and that frightened Harvey. It made him vulnerable to pain and manipulation. Not to mention the never ending threat of career suicide that seemed to hover around the kid. Breathing in deeply, he ran an exasperated hand through his thick hair.

"I didn't mean that," he grunted, "You're not an idiot. Not really."

A slightly, oh so very slightly approving look sailed through the glass door over Mike's head, who brightened a little. "So…does that mean I don't have to go to the conference room?" It took all of Harvey's negotiating experience to keep the fond smile from crossing his face. Kid was nothing if not sharp. "Nice try, Mike. Go on now, go. I'll be there once I calm down a bit. You know where to wait."

The air seemed to drain from the room as the rookie fought to nod his head in misery.

Exiting the office, to the background of Harvey's exasperation, he caught Donna's sympathetic look and sighed. "Any chance you can make him go easy on me?" he implored, putting his brown eyes to their most devastating effect. Squeezing his shoulder gently, she tipped him her trademark wink.

"I'll see what I can do. Now, best you get a move on and get it over and done with." Nodding at the accuracy of her reply, Mike was beat to the verbal punch by a fed up voice that suddenly bellowed through the innocuous speaker on the cubicle desk.

"For the love of…." growled Harvey, "Mike, get your ass to that conference room, now! And as for you Donna…" he trailed off as she turned to raise a delicate and dangerous brow. "Uhh…I was just wondering what bag you said you wanted for secretaries' day? Prada, wasn't it?" Shaking his head at the sheer unfairness of life, Mike turned and began the solitary journey to the conference room of doom, muttering all the while under his breath.

"When do I ever get Prada anything…."

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A/N: First chapter of a two-shot because I miss writing Mike and Harvey!

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