Pinky Promises Should be the Backbone of America

Harvey walked out of the elevator with his head still buried in his BlackBerry, which in turn caused him to miss the fact that Mike was in his office, with a girl. Harvey opened his door while sticking his tongue out at Donna after he caught some off handed remark about how his ties seem to be losing weight, to see Mike standing next to his couch, his hands in his pockets and carefree smile that Harvey had never seen the likes of on his face. Perched on his couch was a young girl, 18 at the most, she was short and kind of pudgy. She had a round face and thick blonde hair that only reached her jaw line and was straightened to perfection. She had a dark blue cotton skirt on and a V-neck white tee with a black fleece jacket overtop and dark blue converses on her feet, decked out with what appeared to be glow in the dark pony beads. The most interesting thing about her was her eyes, the right was a deep, dark blue, and the left was a dark gray with blue streaks. She was smiling at Mike when he walked in and was now looking at Harvey calmly, as if waiting for him to catch up.

Harvey unfroze his body and continued to his desk where he put his keys and wallet in the top drawer of his desk and locked it, before shoving his phone in his pocket and came to stand in front of Mike and his guest, who had abandoned the couch and was now standing next to his associate, a hand on his arm, squeezing it nervously, her eyes wide and looking at her shoes.

"Harvey, this is Olivia."

Harvey nodded at Olivia's soft 'pleased to meet you, Mr. Spector.'

"I knew her older brother Nathan from high school."

Harvey saw Olivia swallow when he just nodded again, still looking at Mike silently and watched as she put her game face on out of the corner of his eye.

"Mr. Spector, I'm sorry to have interrupted your morning but I had to speak with Mike, I'll just be going then, I can call him later." Olivia bent to get her tote bag from where it was leaning against the couch, it had a logo from a military base in Mississippi on the front with lettering across the bottom that read, 'My brother is in the Army'. Harvey saw the hurt in her eyes as she looked longingly at Mike and he realized just how short she was when Mike wrapped her in a hug as she sniffed.

"Since you came all this way, you might as well talk to Mike here. I will not however, be kicked out from my own office."

Olivia looked up from where she had buried her face into Mike's chest and nodded solemnly. She pulled away from Mike but kept his hand in both of hers and swallowed. She looked at Harvey again, with this look that he couldn't place almost as if she was telling him to get out while he still could, but she looked away before he could really analyze it anymore. Olivia took one more deep breath.

"Nathan isn't coming home. He was caught in a road side bomb, his whole convoy;" she paused to blink and breathe, "they all died. His body is being shipped to Germany first and will be held up there for a couple weeks and then shipped to the base in Mississippi, then trucked to Arlington cemetery in Washington. In total, his unit commander said that it would be about a month before he reached Arlington and then another week before his funeral will be scheduled. They'll do the autopsy in Germany, but the promised me the full report."

Mike viably slumped at her first sentence, but nodded at the information Olivia was telling him. Harvey listened as she spoke in soothing tones about another human being's body being manhandled overseas and across the country, he watched her thumb stroke the top of Mike's hand as she spoke and noticed the tears leaking from her eyes taking her eyeliner with them. Olivia nodded at Mike and he nodded back. She took her hands from Mike's and hugged herself tightly while looking down and away.

"We knew this may happen, Liv." Mike soothed as he ran a hand through his hair. Harvey watched Olivia's face visibly crumple at the use of the nickname. "They warned us."

It seemed Olivia had reached her limit of strength as her knees shook dangerously and started to give but Harvey rushed forward to catch her, looping his arms under her arm pits. Mike's face was contorted in worry as he took one side of Olivia's sobbing form and helped Harvey sit her on the couch, she had a hand wrapped in each man's suit jacket and refused to let go as she perched on the very edge of the couch and cried unashamedly, never trying to cover her face. Olivia started to hyperventilate and Harvey and Mike pushed her back into the couch where she drew her knees to her chest and stared straight ahead, her fingers still gripping the fabric of both man' jacket so hard her knuckles were white. Mike slung his arm around her and rubbed her back.

"I, I…" She broke off in another sob, "I have no one left." Olivia hiccupped and closed her eyes, crying harder. Slowly she wore herself out, and her head began to tip backwards in sleep. Her grip slowly loosened and Mike pried himself out of her hand before removing the other from Harvey who sat there, feeling like he was intruding on something very personal. Mike silently offered Harvey a hand up, which he took, and looked into Mike's wounded, but dry eyes. As soon as Harvey was standing, Mike gently laid Olivia down on the couch and straightened her legs before taking his jacket off and throwing it over her bare legs and turned, surprised to find Harvey handing Mike his own jacket, which he draped over Olivia's torso. Mike looked back to Harvey seeing a hundred questions in his eyes and signaled with his thumb over his shoulder towards the door before exiting the office. Mike curled his finger at Donna, who had tears in her own eyes having heard everything, and continued away from Harvey's office. Harvey closed the glass door and waited for Donna who grabbed her box of tissues from her desk and they followed Mike to an empty conference room, both with a million questions floating around their heads but the first one that popped out of Donna's mouth as Harvey closed the door behind himself and Mike pulled the blinds was, "What just happened?"

A/N; I know an evil place to stop, sorry. It's just to make sure you keep reading! Anyway, I have a brother that just shipped out to Afghanistan Friday, but I have no idea about the shipping process of the returning soldiers, so I'm sorry if I'm wrong. I'm not out to dreg up any bad memories for anyone, this is more of a therapy for me, my older brother by two years who I'm very close to just left and I won't get to see him for a very long time. I'm not dealing with it well, but I'm taking it day by day. Anyway, I really don't know if/when I'll update this; it depends on how many reviews I get. Thank you for reading and please remember to R&R. P.S. Ideas for a title? Please leave them in a review.