Mike Ross sighed as he sat at his desk in the associate cubicles. This wasn't exactly the best day for Louis Litt to be aggravating him too.
He glanced at the photograph of himself and his identical twin brother, Peter Ross, when Mike had graduated college. Peter had been expelled after the dean thought he was Mike and Mike had gone to Harvard as Peter, but the professors had known the truth. It had been six years since Peter had disappeared after a plane crash. Mike still missed him like hell. But no one knew about Peter.
Until Donna nearly had a heart attack when Mike showed up to work with a man that looked the exact same as him "Mike, who's this?" Donna Paulsen asked, Mike smirked again. The man beside him grinned the exact same way, the two knew this would happen. "Donna, meet my twin brother Peter, it's been over six years since I last saw him" Mike said, then Harvey then appeared as well.
He looked at the twins and rubbed his eyes "okay, why am I seeing double?" He demanded of Mike, who rubbed the back of his neck nervously "Harvey, my twin Peter, Pete, my boss Harvey Spectre" Mike said, still nervous with Harvey. Harvey glared at Mike "why wasn't I told?" Mike gave a nervous laugh "uh...see about that, Harvey I haven't seen Pete since his plane crashed over six years ago" Mike said, Peter glanced at his brother "seriously? Mike, what's with you and telling people about family?" He said, Mike just shrugged at him "could ask the same damn thing with you being lost?".
Harvey shook his head "pleased to meet you, Peter" he said, shaking Peter's hand "same here, mate. Mike doesn't shut up about his work" "Does he really?" Harvey glared at Mike, who shot a withering glare at his identical twin.
Peter grinned and laughed, Mike rolled his eyes and dragged him to his cubicle where Kyle met the other Ross brother and just gawked at the two brothers comically. Peter looked at Mike "Douchebag?" He grinned, Mike snorted as he threw himself at his desk "what happened at Harvard when you took my place?" Peter asked "ah, nothing much...great to be away from Trevor mind you" Mike said, Peter laughed and leaned over his brother's shoulder.
Mike glanced up as Louis came over "uh oh" the two looked at each other "who's this?" Louis demanded, Mike glanced at his brother who just grinned and nodded "my twin brother" he said, then turned back to his work "hey Mike, this doesn't add up. Think he's playing dirty?" Peter asked, Mike looked at the sheet Peter had "yeah, wait 'til Harvey gets a load of this" the two hi-fived and took off for Harvey's office.
Harvey was surprised when Mike showed back up to his office and with his brother in tow, but smirked when Peter handed him the copy of the file he was helping Mike on "playing dirty?" Peter suggested, Harvey nodded and smirked again. Peter was like Mike in so many ways, but he hoped he wasn't like Mike with drugs and pot. "Mike, keep watch, Hardman's back" Mike's face darkened at the mention of the former managing partner.
Peter looked confused "Mike, who's Hardman?" He asked, Mike glanced at his boss then at his brother "the former Managing partner, he was kicked outta the firm five years before I came to work for Harvey for Embezzlement" Mike explained, then his face lost colour "oh boy" Harvey muttered a curse under his breath as Daniel Hardman walked into Harvey's office and saw the Ross twins "Michael, who's this?" He asked, a false pleasant smile on his face "none of your concern, Hardman" Mike snapped irritably at him.
Peter knew this guy was bad news, this wasn't going to be good for either Ross. But Hardman looked confused on how there were two Mike Ross' "Mike, this Hardman?" One asked, the other smirked "yeah, that's Hardman, Mike" Harvey knew what the twins were up to and quickly motioned to Donna not to let anyone else know the 'Mike's' name was Peter. She nodded and gave the twins a small smirk. They loved to play tricks on people growing up, especially Trevor. The drug dealer couldn't tell still which Ross was which, unless he looked at them closely, which he never did.
Hardman walked out and Harvey turned to the twins "okay, how can I tell which Ross is which?" Mike looked at his brother "Pete and I were born with a sliver of grey in our hair, mine's on the right. Pete's on the left" he said, then Harvey noticed the small streak of silver in Mike's blonde hair. He usually overlooked it as he was often too busy yelling at Mike or not paying attention to his usually messy hair "thanks, and peter, tell Donna so she knows which one of you she's talking to" he asked the other Ross.
Peter smirked "aye-aye, Captain" Mike hi-fived his brother and Harvey just groaned. Yep, they were definitely related. Now what? Jessica wasn't going to be happy with two Ross' around the firm, but maybe that could be used to their advantage. When Mike was in trouble, Peter could pose as him and prove Mike was innocent. When that happened, Mike could pretend to be Peter so that people couldn't tell the difference between the twins.
Harvey presented this idea to Jessica after he had a meeting with her "Mike has a twin? Since when?" Harvey shrugged "I just found out today" Jessica looked over at the two twins playing a prank on the other associates, but they had no proof it was either Mike or Peter. "yes, we could use this. But we have to protect those twins, maybe I can pull a few strings at Harvard and remove the black mark on Peter's records" she said, Harvey smirked "I think Mike would like that" he said, Jessica smiled at the twin brothers.
"How can we tell which one's which?" She asked, Harvey told her about the streak of silver in their hair "Mike has it on the right, Peter's is on the left" he quickly explained, as the said twin troublemakers walked in "Ms Pearson" they said in sync, Jessica smiled and turned to Peter "pleased to meet you, Peter" she said, noting the silver streak on the left side of his hair, Peter smirked "five bucks, bro" he said to Mike.
Mike groaned "damn you, how the hell...you know what...never mind" he said, digging out a five dollar bill and handing it to his brother, Harvey smirked at them "what was the bet?" He asked them "Peter bet me five bucks Jessica could tell which one was which, you told her didn't you?" Mike said, Harvey smirked "come on, Harvey!" Mike complained. He hated it when his boss did this. But that was Harvey Spectre and nothing got past him or Jessica.
Mike took Peter back to his apartment "sorry it's a dump, but I've been a little busy lately to think about moving" he explained, Peter shrugged "doesn't matter, it's still home with my little bro" Mike threw a pillow at him.
"I'm five minutes younger than you!"
"Thus making you my little brother"
"Shut up, Peter!"
"Aww...Mikey, you really hate me?"
Mike dragged his brother on the floor and ended up in a play-fight with him like they did when they were growing up with their late grandma after the car accident that took their parents from them. "How's Trev?" Peter asked, they were sitting on Mike's couch with a beer each "don't speak to him anymore after the amount of trouble he got me into at work" Mike said, taking a long drink of his beer, Peter nodded "never liked him, still speaking to Neal?" Mike laughed "he doesn't live that far, he's just moved back to New York after faking his death to get his freedom and his handler, Peter Burke, asked him to return as a trainee White Collar agent" he said, Peter laughed "amen to that."
Mike and Peter had grown up with the former White Collar criminal, but Mike and Neal had grown apart after Trevor had gotten Mike addicted to Pot and Peter had been in that plane accident. While Peter was in New York, an anonymous tip placed Mike into a whole heap of trouble. Shelia had told a defense attorney named Anita Gibbs that Mike had taken his twin's place at Harvard and was actually a fraud. Mike was having an arm wrestle with Peter in Harvey's office while Harvey was in a meeting with Jessica, when two NYPD officers marched in "Micheal James Ross" Mike kept his attention on his brother "yeah, that's me" he replied, slamming his brother's arm on Harvey's desk "damn, now i owe Harvey thirty bucks!" Peter complained "don't make a bet with my boss. You'll always, well mostly, lose" Mike grinned and turned to the officers "what can I do for you?"
Mike was shocked when he had his arms forced behind his back, handcuffed and led from Pearson Hardman "Harvey, Mike's been arrested!" Donna and Peter came into Jessica's office "for what?" Harvey sighed, Mike better not be dealing Pot again "for being a fraud!" Peter panicked, Harvey clenched his fists n rage "who ever did this, I'm gonna kill them" He snarled, he was furious. Mike was no fraud. Yeah, he took his brother's place at Harvard as Peter had willingly been expelled from college to give Mike a decant life.
Anita Gibbs looked at the shocked Law Associate "well, someone looks surprised" she sneered, Mike's surprised look turned into one of Harvey's patented glares in the space of seconds "I'm not answering any question until I speak to my lawyer" he snapped. He knew he was innocent and that Shelia wanted Mike gone from the firm ever since she had found out he took his twin's place. Louis knew, like Harvey did, but he didn't care. He liked both the Ross twins and the senior staff were all going to get Mike and Peter cleared.
"What do you mean, your lawyer?" She sneered, then her face lost colour as a pissed Harvey Spectre stormed in with Peter Ross behind him "you want one of the Ross twin? Fine, take me and leave Mike alone. He didn't break the law, I willingly took Mike's place to get expelled. For my brother" he snapped, Mike grinned "know which of us is which?" He teased, Harvey sighed in irritation. "Here we go again" he thought "Michael is the one next to Mr Spectre, Peter is in front of me" she sneered in glee. Mike burst out laughing with Peter "no, I'm Mike" he said, the other standing next to Harvey smirked "and I'm Peter" the twins prided each other on confusing everyone they met, excluding Harvey.
Harvey looked at Gibbs in anger "what right did you have to arrest my associate and threaten his brother?" he snarled, no-one messed with Harvey Spectre. Then in walked Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke "need some help, Pete?" He asked, looking at Peter Ross "thanks Neal" the other twin said, Peter Burke smirked at Gibbs "we'll be taking Mr Ross into White Collar custody until further notice" Gibbs stood quickly "you have no right to do that!" She snapped, Peter smirked at Neal who passed her a slip of paper "what is this?" She demanded "a warrant, Mike goes with the FBI since he had close ties with them thanks to former White Collar, Neal Caffrey" Neal smirked as he un-cuffed Mike and led him out "I owe you Neal" Mike said, Neal grinned and slapped him on the back "nah, just doing what I do for my brother" he said.