As usual, I don't own anything except an imagination and a heart that loves Suits (and White Collar).
He was falling. He was sinking. He was leaving.
The water surrounded him, wrapping shackles around his body, forcing him to stay under. It was dragging him away from reality, keeping him from oxygen. The world around him, a decent shade of blue, started to turn black at the edges. His body convulsed, and the darkness engulfed him.
Mike Ross doesn't know how to swim. It wasn't a problem...until now.
"Hey, Mike! How are you?" Renee, one of Louis's associates, asked Harvey's protégé as she walked up to stand beside him by the large pool in Louis's house.
"I'm better now that you've brought me out of my thoughts of Louis swimming in this thing." He answered pointing to the pool he stood next to and smiled at her warmly. Although she worked for Louis, she had always been nice to Mike. She was rather quiet, so her response shocked him.
"Yeah, he probably doesn't even wear anything." She laughed, though it wan't very pronounced.
Mike laughed, but shivered at the thought. "Okay, now I"m back to where I was. Worse actually."
The two laughed and glanced around the room. Everyone from Pearson Hardman was gathered in Louis's house for some reason Louis had more or less made up, just to show off his new real estate. Everyone seemed to be having a decent time, but Mike was on the verge of squirming out of his skin. He hated parties, especially business parties.
"Do you swim?" Renee's voice, brought him out of his trailing thoughts again.
"Huh?" He looked at her and blinked. She motioned to the water. "Oh, no. I never learned how, but I wasn't ever around a place to swim, so it makes sense."
She nodded her head in understanding. "Me neither."
Mike caught the sight of Harvey standing alone for the first time all night next to where they were serving drinks.
"Excuse me." Mike placed a hand on Renee's arm as he excused himself. "I need to speak to Harvey."
Mike slowly wormed his way through the crowd of people to get to Harvey.
His boss was leaned against a table sipping at what Mike knew had to be a very expensive wine.
"There you are. You're like the President or something. I felt like I had to dodge secret service to get to you." Mike said as he stood in front of the older man. Harvey just smirked at him as he took another sip of his drink.
"Oh, hey. Do you know what Louis swims in?" When Harvey raised an eyebrow at him he hurriedly said, "Well, I mean I was standing over there and then Renee, one of his associates, said he probably doesn't wear anything and then I thought that if-" But Mike stopped rambling when Harvey just stared at him with a disgusted expression.
"I'm not sure where you're taking this conversation, but I'm ending it before it gets there."
"No, I just- . Nevermind. When will this party end, so I can go home?" Mike asked, as he tugged at his tie, one that wasn't skinny.
Harvey chuckled. "You act like a kid at a Christmas party who had to wear the sweater his Grandmother made him."
"Hey! For your information, I had a lot of those." Mike countered. For moment, Harvey felt, well if he cared or had emotions then he would have felt a little guilty for saying that, but Mike didn't act offended. Instead, he continued, "And they were a lot better than wearing this scarf around my neck."
"Scarf? Really?" Harvey asked, standing up a bit straighter. Mike nodded. "No. That is a grown man's tie. So, if you think it's to big for you, maybe you aren't a grown man."
Mike rolled his eyes, but shared the laugh with Harvey.
"Whatever. Oh, here comes Jessica. I'll go let Aunt Myrtle squeeze my cheeks, while the grown ups talk."
"If you're a good boy, maybe we will let you open a present early." Harvey shot back, as Mike walked away.
Mike was standing next to the pool, this time talking to Rachel. He was in the middle of telling her his reasoning behind wearing skinny ties, when someone's elbow rammed into his back, causing him to stumble forward.
He was vaguely aware of hands reaching out to him, but missing my inches, and very pronounced gasps, before he heard a splash and was submerged in water.
Harvey was in the middle of his conversation with Donna when they both briefly glanced in Mike's direction, just in time to see Kyle nudged his associate in the back. Anger flared through him, as he curled his hand around his drink tighter, but everything turned to slow motion as he watched Mike stumbled forward and fall into the swimming pool. There were several gasps, a few laughs, but everyone was just staring at the spot where Mike's body broke the surface of the water, but had never came up. Rachel was standing near the edge searching frantically, but after a few seconds when Mike didn't surface, she started taking off her heels. However, Harvey felt she was moving to slow, slower than the slow motion his world was stuck in.
He dropped the glass he was squeezing in his hand, and didn't even think about it as he heard the shatter of glass behind him as he took off running through the crowd towards the pool. He took off his jacket, throwing it on the floor like a piece of scratch paper. He took a split second to scan the water as he made it to the edge, before diving in.
Donna stood next to Rachel, straining her eyes to see the through the splashing water, as Harvey dove in. She couldn't help but count the seconds until Harvey resurfaced, dragging a limp Mike up with him. The older man shook his head, his hair flying to the side out of his eyes and took a deep breath, but it occurred to everyone that there was only one deep breath taken, not two. Only one man was gasping for air as he swam to the side of the pool, dragging his associate with him. He lifted the body up into the arms of some other male associates, who pulled Mike up onto the sidewalk. Rachel and Donna knelt down beside Mike who was laying motionless on his back while Harvey placed his hands on the side and pushed down as he lifted his own body out of the water. Harvey crawled the short distance to his protege's side, and watched as Rachel leaned down to listen to his chest. Her head snapped up immediately.
"He's not breathing!"
Harvey's eyes widened and looked down at Mike. The kid was pale, his lips already turning a shade of purple. He looked back at Rachel.
"You breathe and I'll do the compressions." Harvey ordered, as he placed on hand on top of the other and placed both on Mike's chest. Rachel nodded weakly, pulling back her hair and did as she was told. They worked together for few minutes, each willing Mike to breathe, to rejoin them. Donna knelt there, her hand in Mike's damp hair as tears were slowly sliding down her face, but soon they turned to tears of happiness, as Mike's body jerked and he started coughing.
Rachel leaned back and sighed with relief, while Harvey rolled Mike onto his side and patted his back.
"Easy, kid."
Mike coughed for several minutes, before finally rolling over onto his back. He blinked up at Harvey as he gasped for the desired air that flooded his lungs. Harvey just knelt next to him, resting a hand on his chest.
"Not so fast. Try to breathe slow." Harvey's command was as gentle as Mike figured the older man could be. Mike sluggishly closed his eyes, but reopened them when he felt a hand tap the side of his face.
"Hey, stay awake, kid!" Harvey's voice came to him firm, but became light. "If you fall asleep you won't get to open one of your Christmas presents early."
Mike laughed, which quickly turned into coughing. He stared up at the older man as he forced more air into his lungs, but his focus point started to move out of his sight and he reached for the man's wrist.
"No."
The word was said so quiet, sounded so small, as if Mike still had water in his throat, but Harvey caught it. He looked up at the horror stricken faces of everyone that worked at Pearson Hardman, desperately wanting to maintain his reputation, then looked back to Mike.
The kid looked shaken, scared, and in a split second the mass of people staring at them, became invisible. Harvey saw the trust and need shining in the blue eyes that stared at him.
"No." Harvey nodded his head, agreeing to stay with the younger man.
"I- I guess that...means that I ...was a good boy, huh?" Mike asked. Harvey looked confused for second, then he realized that Mike was referring to their previous conversation.
"Almost drowning doesn't fall under the category of being good." Harvey shot back, as he shook his head.
"So, you just felt sorry for me, so you're going to give me a present. Now you're going soft."
"No. I'm not going soft. Your present is actually a skinny tie."
Mike tilted his head to the side. "But you don't like my skinny ties."
"You're right. I don't, but I've decided I don't like you wearing grown up ties either."
"Why's that?"
"Because you always get into trouble...more trouble than usual, when you wear grown men's ties."
Mike looked at him for a moment then shook his head as he tried to sit up. Harvey helped him with a hand on his back. The younger man closed his eyes while the dizziness subsided. Once it was gone, he opened them and looked at the water for a few seconds, before he turned to the side and vomited. Harvey rocked back on his heels in disgust, but his hand never left the kid's back. Mike wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned to Harvey.
"I just realized that I swallowed water that Louis's naked body was in." He whispered, hanging his head and closing his eyes.
Harvey laughed. "That is enough to kill a man...or woman for that matter." Harvey said, loud enough for only Mike to hear.
He noticed the kid swaying a little and decided it was time they both got up. For the first time since Mike grabbed his wrist, he looked up at the people surrounding them. The looks of horror were mostly gone and replaced with some dumbfounded looks and some in awe of the sight before them. Rachel and Donna still had relieved expressions on their face. Louis looked disgusted, which was fine with Harvey and Kyle looked fearful.
"Come on, kid. Party's finally over." Harvey said, helping Mike to his feet. Donna grabbed Mike's other arm and the three of them ignored everyone else as they walked out of Louis's house.
They were almost to Harvey's car, when Mike finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry about your suit." He motioned to his boss's drenched clothes, but the older man shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just do me a favor and don't ever go near water again. Don't even ride your bike through puddles." He shot back, with a smirk.
"Aye, Aye Captain." Mike said giving him a sluggish one arm solute. "And thanks, you know, for ...saving my life."
"Oh, don't thank me. Although I did jump in and get you, it was Louis who gave you mouth to mouth." Harvey smiled, as he watched Mike's face loose what little color it had. He knew the kid was about to gag, but Donna spoke up.
"Don't listen to him, Mike. Rachel gave you mouth to mouth." She confirmed. Mike nodded slowly in realization and then shot Harvey a glare. "Harvey just showed everyone at Pearson Hardman he does have a heart." Donna mirrored Mike's look as she stared at Harvey. The older man squirmed slightly, until Mike laughed.
"Don't worry, Harvey. I'll wear a grown up tie tomorrow, get in some kind of trouble and you can call me out in front of everybody." Mike supplied, in a joking way.
"If you don't show up in a skinny tie tomorrow, I'll kick your ass." Harvey said, opening the door and shoving Mike inside the passenger seat.
"Had I known I just had to have a near death experience to be able to wear the tie I choose, I would have jumped into a pool a long time ago." Mike teased, as he leaned his head against the head rest.
Harvey didn't reply. Instead he shut the door, and walked around to the driver's side.
"Harvey! Play nice with the puppy." Donna warned as she started walking back into Louis's house.
"I will. You take care of...things." Harvey countered, as he opened his door and got in, knowing full well that Donna was going to handle Kyle. That is, until he saw him tomorrow at work, because nobody tries to drown a puppy. Especially ones, no, the only one, that belongs to Harvey Specter.
AN: A little idea that popped into my head. I know I left out a bunch of medical stuff and paramedics (I was lazy and didn't want to write that in) hahah. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading! :)