Disclaimer: I am not a writer or a producer or anyone involved in the production of suits as you may or may not have already deduced.

A Nosebleed.


Mike tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the elevator doors to open. He opened his satchel and rifled through ticking off all the documents he was supposed to have in his head. He then ran through all the files on his desk and worked out which he should start on first, running through various deadlines and appointments coming up in the next few days. He had a sinking feeling that something wasn't going to get finished on time, there was just too much but there wasn't really anything he could do about that at the moment. He sighed and ran a hand over his face tiredly.

The elevator opened and Mike pulled himself together and began to walk purposefully towards Harvey's office, he didn't have time to be weary.

He ran through the information once more in his head. He wasn't working on anything major, nothing firm threatening which was a nice change but the paper work had started to pile up. He could handle it, it was just going to require a couple nights at the office and a few dozen cups of coffee.

He nodded at Gretchen as he passed and pushed open the glass door seeing Harvey lounging at his desk reading over some a few files. He glanced up briefly when mike entered and then went back to reading his file non-committedly while he waited for him to speak.

"So, I read through the revised contract." He began taking out the appropriate files as he spoke. "It seems pretty air tight but they didn't take into a-"

"Mike" Harvey cut him off sounding surprised "your nose."

"What are you...?" Mike trailed off as he felt the odd sensation of something slightly warmer than his skin trickling down his face and a coppery taste in the corner of his mouth. Confused he brought his hand to his face and brought it away to see his fingers stained crimson. His mind froze in panic for a few seconds at the sight of the blood before his mind caught up with situation and he realised he was having a nose bleed.

He watched passively bemused as Harvey opened a drawer and took out a box of tissues. He swiftly pulled out enough to bunch up and took the file out of his hands replacing it with the soft bundle. Mike brought the bundle up to his face attempting to stem the flow.

"Take off your jacket, unless you want to dye that red too."

Mike glanced down to see his white shirt starkly contrasted with bright red trickles and blots of his blood. Miraculously his jacket had survived thus far and he quickly made to take it off. He attempted to shimmy out of the sleeve awkwardly with one hand still pressed to his face with little success.

He heard Harvey snort "here, you look pathetic" Harvey told him and in an uncharacteristically helpful move removed his jacket waiting for him to switch hands before pulling each sleeve off and throwing it over a chair.

Mike felt Harvey put a hand on his back and gently direct him over towards the leather couch. He sat down, still slightly dazed at the unexpected occurrence. He couldn't remember the last time he got a nosebleed, at least not one that happened for no apparent reason.

He tilted his head back to try and slow the steady trickling. Suddenly he started coughing when he felt the blood start to trickle down the back of his throat. He spluttered frantically when he felt Harvey's hand behind his head coaxing his head back down. "Whoa, head forward Mike, you could choke"

Right, Forward. He knew that. Harvey patted him briefly between his shoulder blades before picking back up the box and pulling out some more tissues and handing them to Mike in a clump. Harvey took the blood soaked tissues from him without hesitation and put them in the thrash.

"Thanks" Mike managed around the tissue.

"You alright?" Harvey asked looking concernedly at his associates pale face.

"Yeah, sorry" He told him quickly not wanting him to think he was freaked out by something so childish "I never really get nosebleeds is all."

"Pinch the bridge of your nose."

He did as he was told and after a minute or so he felt the blood thin and eventually stop. Harvey passed him a bottle of water and he took it gratefully taking a few gulps before wetting some tissue and attempting to dab the blood on his face.

At least it had happened in Harvey's office, it wasn't the worst place in the world to start choking on his own blood. He had been talking to Jessica earlier and he cringed inwardly thinking about how embarrassing that would be. He couldn't imagine her being as easy going about spewing blood on her carpet. Then again the alternative is being in his office not noticing until someone came in and he looked up from his work like some crappy low budget zombie film. Harvey passed more water and then dug around in a drawer and tossed him a pack of Panadol.

"You're good at that" Mike said without really thinking about it.

"What's that?"

Mike shrugged a little, not himself entirely sure what he was referring to "Nosebleeds" He settled for, popping a couple of pills hoping they would prevent the headache he could feel developing in the base of his skull.

"Ya, well I've had practice. Marcus used to get them all the time when we were kids"

Mike stored this piece of information along with all the other titbits of information Harvey had dropped about his life. Mike pictured Harvey at twelve years old mopping up his littles brothers face. He almost smiled at the thought. It suited him, he could imagine protective older brother Harvey.

Mike eventually threw remaining tissue in the bin and stood up feeling a little light headed. Harvey watched, eyeing him critically. "Tell me you have another shirt here, we have the settlement meeting in forty minutes"

"I have another shirt here" He replied without missing a beat.

"Really?" He said looking pleasantly surprised.

"No…" He admitted.

Harvey rolled his eyes looking simultaneously amused and irritated. "Wait here" He said walking out the office.

"Okay" he agreed tiredly easing back down to sit on the edge of the couch.

He came back a few minutes later holding a neatly folded white shirt. He tossed it to him. "Put this on" He thanked him and got up to leave.

"Do your best not to bleed on it" He called after him.

Mike went to the bathroom to change. He peeled off the bloody shirt which had started to stick to him, he realised with mild revulsion and shoved it into the bin. He pulled on the new one and quickly buttoned it up noticing with irritation it was quite noticeably too big for him. Harvey wasn't that much bigger than him. Was he? He tucked in as much excess fabric as he could and headed back to Harvey's office to collect his jacket and his files.

He walked back into the office ignoring the curious stare he was getting from Gretchen. Harvey was behind his desk again, opening the file he had taken from Mike. He looked up and scoffed at the sight of him, looking thoroughly amused. "Don't worry I'm sure you'll grow into it"

Mike rolled his eyes "yeah, yeah" He said grabbing his suit jacket from the chair.

Harvey grinned widely before giving him a strange look.

"What?" He asked self-consciously looking down at himself.

"Nothing, you just look like the whiny pussy who started working here four years ago" He said jokingly watching his associate drowning in his ill-fitting shirt suddenly looking as young and out of place as he did back then.

"To be honest I didn't really realise you stopped looking like that"

He cast his mind back to the young associate when he first started working here with his ridiculous suits and complete lack of basic legal knowledge. It was hard to marry up that image with Mike now and he found himself slightly missing the ditzy kid who stumbled into that interview looking for a second chance. He found he couldn't remember when the transition occurred and mike became a professional reputable lawyer, up until the nosebleed that is…

"You actually turned out pretty well" He told him sincerely.

Mike was prepare to come up with a witty retort but the pride in his tone caught him off guard. The words themselves sounded so like something a parent would say he was taken aback. He wondered if Harvey realised how he sounded, He doubted it. It took him a second to respond.

"Uh, thanks" He let out in a slightly strangled tone.

"Maybe you should take it easy before that meeting, you're looking a little pale."

"Can't, I have a million briefs to go through" He sighed reminded of the endless amount of work ahead of him.

"I'll dump it on one of the associates." He told him, quickly adding "I don't need you keeling over on our client"

"Really? Thanks" He said gratefully not believing his luck.

Harvey watched him carefully concealing his fondness for the exhausted associate. He looked like Christmas had come early with an expression of disbelieving relief.

Mike grabbed his satchel and nodded attempting to conceal his relief and gestured toward the door. "I'll see you in twenty and listen Harvey I, ah-thanks for… uh-"

"Don't be late" He interrupted "I'm serious, if you mess this up your back in that cubicle" He told him seriously, cutting of his thank you.

Mike nodded gratefully looking relieved and left, waving amiably to his secretary on the way back to his office.

Harvey smiled as he watched him leave, Marcus never knew how to say thank you either.


Thanks for reading! I really hope you liked it. If there's interest I'd like this to be a series of one shots around this theme of everyday occurrences. I'd love some prompts too if anyone has any . Constructive criticism very very welcome I'm just starting out and I just want to improve.