A/N I'm sorry for the wait. Once again, time seemed to escape me. Plus this monster has been giving me trouble. There will be another chapter, I don't know when but there will be.
Days passed in the little hospital room, Mike sedated. Sleeping, he looked serene, peaceful. But Harvey couldn't get the image of torn up Mike in the hallway, ragged gasps dragging air that didn't seem to help. He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, tears pooling at the lip of his too red eyelids. Shutting them, his tears fell like flash on a camera, blindingly. His gruff hand wiped them away as he took in a breath. Bruises littered his arms, his words beating them up as he yelled about how oblivious he was. He had shut Mike out, his vision blurring around him, his sixth sense deserting him.
Blue eyes blinked up and him and Harvey straightened.
"Harvey." Mike whispered, confused, drained.
Silent, Harvey swooped he kid's hand up in his own, warmth spreading to the pale, limp thing attached to his old associate. He needled the blond hair through his clunky fingers, awkward and jerky but Mike moved into it and Harvey sighed. He had lost Mike, he had lost the innocent, babbling little kid that he discovered. Somewhere in the path of evolution, the guy had been thrown another curveball and didn't adapt, instead breaking into shards of glass, reflective of his life.
Harvey fit into it somehow, he knew. He knew that he had dropped his gaze, the one that lingered and made sure that Mike was okay, that the smile on his face was real. But the thing was, in Mike's evolution Harvey had cracked a bit too. He had been worn down by worry and panic much the same. He was lost, feeling abandoned and betrayed that Mike was leaving, had left. Sure he visited but it wasn't enough, it would never be enough. And now, now that the boy was back , Harvey was too bitter to pick back up on the Father-like presence, the watching and waiting. The real looking.
They were both a little bit broken and Harvey knew that they needed each other to be put back together again. Two trees leaning against each other, growing up entwined, as strong as the nearest Oak.
"It's okay kid, you'll be okay. Rachel's outside you want to see her?" Harvey asked, trying to seem normal, not shaken, not just a little bit broken.
Mike nodded his head yes, his heart sinking a bit into a void of darkness that had become a friend. No matter what Rachel was the one who sent him off the deep end, but Mike loved her. It left him confused in the wake of pain and panic and he didn't know what to do about it. So before she entered, Mike turned to Harvey and asked for something his pride had prevented before.
"I need help. I'm sinking into something dark and I can't get back out," Mike sighed, the weight of loneliness lightening a bit.
"Of course," Harvey reassured, pride swelling up, recognition striking deep inside him. this was Mike, the one who was missing and buried but there nonetheless, that meant there was hope. And with hope Harvey could perform miracles, "I'll be here, go talk to your girl."
Harvey stepped out of the too small room, crammed with pained memories, the air thick with emotion. He tapped the brunette on her shoulder and pointed to the room, a shrug in his features. She nodded, freckles bright against the raw, red, tear stained skin. Harvey waited for the door to close before, sinking down the orange wall in the hallway. Head in his hands, a throb in his head and his heart. Mind whirling. What was he going to do? How was he going to fix this? He jumped when a click echoed through the hallway, Brown eyes jumping up to meet Rachel staring, nervously twirling her dark hair around her finger. He peered through blue glass into the room, spotting a blanket laid on top of Mike. The blonde fingering it as a lifeline, patchwork was etched into the blanket and Harvey's eyebrows rose as he saw what it was. His Grammy's quilt. A silent question erupted through his mouth, opening and closing in the least composed manner a lawyer could ever be.
"The nurse kicked me out, I wanted to give Mike something to remember home. His home, not ours," Rachel explained, her voice a long sigh, air being let out of a balloon.
"How's that going?" Harvey asked, the words jumping out like overactive bunnies. Hopping around before he even realized he'd released them.
Rachel looked weary, her kitten features screwed up in a scowl, "I messed up, big. I can't go back and fix that. We're still good but something is with him. I broke his trust and he just won't talk to me. Harvey, I thinkā¦" She trailed off
"What?" He asked frantically.
"I think he's having panic attacks, I think I broke him. He's been left too many times and I was the only one there for him. Until, I wasn't. Until Logan was there instead of him," Rachel finished in a quaint voice, guilt sharpening each word.
It made sense to Harvey, relative to Mike. It made complete sense, Mike had grown up his whole life being left. By his parents, by Trevor, by Jenny, by himself and Donna in their times of doubt and anger, by his Grammy. But lastly by Rachel, the girl he had fought for. The first person he'd really chosen, whom he won over instead of being paired with. Harvey nodded, not a reassurance but almost a verifying nod. A yes to all Rachel's awful theories and her shoulders slumped with the information.
But Harvey couldn't focus on that now. He needed to focus in Mike. On fixing him now what he knew was broken. He had to show Mike that he mattered, he was important, to Harvey and Donna and Rachel. He had people there and they weren't planning on taking off.
Pushing past Rachel, Harvey reentered the room, Mike now sleeping. His pale form back to looking so young. Harvey noticed the empty table, void of cards and balloons, proof Mike was missed, worried about. He felt he would resolve it, start with the small things and build upwards until there was no more vacuums sucking up all of Mike's air.
"Donna, we need to talk," Harvey spoke into the phone, the feeling of a plan settling into the room.
A/N Please, please, please review. I'd really appreciate it. Thank you for all the feedback from last chapter. Once again there will be at least one more chapter after this
