A/N: Holy freakin' smokes! I FREAKIN' LOVE YOU GUYS! I got upwards of forty reviews for the first chapter! I'm like...speechless. Man, if I'd known it would be so well received I would have started posting this sooner! I've never...just...wow...So, there's no possible way I could respond to everyone's reviews individually (and bang out this update tonight, that is) so I thought I'd pose the question to the masses. How do you guys prefer to be thanked for reviewing? Is saying 'thanks' in the A/N enough? Do you want to be mentioned by name? Do you like getting PMs from the author? A quick update? Cyber cookies? WHAT CAN I DO TO SHOW MY LOVE FOR YOU AND YOUR REVIEWS? *ahem* Do try to get back to me on that. :-)

Also, apparently, kid!Mike sounds like Elmer Fudd in my head. Sorry about that...


Chapter Two – You Wanna Feel How It Feels

Mike steered clear of Harvey and Donna's desks for the rest of the morning. Every now and then Harvey would catch Donna's eyes and she, never having been able to stay angry at him for long, just gave a quick shake of her head.

No, she hadn't seen him.

Still, she wasn't surprised when she spotted the young associate walking toward her desk not even five minutes before lunch, carrying all the folders Harvey had dropped on his desk that morning and a few extras.

"Hey Donna," he said, sounding more tired than the short morning seemed to have called for. He gave her a weak attempt at a smile and she felt a pang of pity for him that she tried not to let show on her face.

"Hey," she stood up, "how are you?"

Mike almost seemed to wince at the question. "I'm fine. I just have those files for Harvey that he wanted. For the case. The um, Burman case. Found the loophole he was looking for so, no trial. Just like Harvey likes." He smiled again but there was a note of strain in his voice, an edge to the way the words rolled of his tongue that made Donna's stomach tighten.

He was tense, off balance, like his whole world had shifted and he couldn't decide if he wanted to relax or not.

Donna's eyes flicked to the piece of paper on her desk that she'd printed not even half an hour ago. She really hoped she was wrong about this.

"Donna?"

She blinked and looked back up at Mike who had his eyebrows raised expectantly.

"So…would it be alright if I left these for him?"

Donna glanced inside Harvey's office, she'd almost forgotten he had that meeting with the Senior Partners today.

"Yeah Mike, go ahead." She nodded and watched Mike enter the office to leave the papers on Harvey's glass desk, then turn to leave as quickly as possible.

"Mike." She called out when he tried to slip past her desk and head back toward the cubicles.

He turned to face her warily, the words please don't written plainly on his face.

"Mike," she repeated, and came out from behind her wall to approach him, lowering her voice to a gentle murmur, "you know you can…talk to me. Right?"

The younger man's shoulders slumped just slightly but he nodded.

"Of course I do, Donna."

She nodded and let him walk away, knowing that acknowledgment was a step in the right direction. The smallest step possible perhaps, but a step nonetheless.

Still, she couldn't help hoping he would turn around and come back and confess everything to her (because there was something to confess, she was sure of it). She knew men didn't do 'feelings' and they didn't like 'talking' but she couldn't help hoping…

Donna very nearly grinned when Mike's footsteps stuttered and then came to an all out halt not even twenty feet down the hall. She kept her face carefully neutral and went back to straightening items on her desk so as not to appear like she was staring at him as he turned around and came back.

"Donna?"

"Yes?" She looked up, maybe too quickly. Mike wore an expression close to a grimace and he had his hands stuffed into his pockets, looking uncomfortable.

"Could you do me a favor?"

She nodded, "What is it?"

"I um," he reached up to scratch the back of his neck and then looked off to one side, "I've finished all the work Harvey needed for today. I think I might…I just need to," he sighed and dropped his arms to his sides, "I need to go see someone. And I might be gone for a while. Could you please just…" he made a vague gesture toward Harvey's office and his eyes were just so big and wide and blue.

Donna sighed, pushing the disappointment and worry bubbling up inside her back down to a manageable level.

"Sure Mike, I'll take care of it," she pursed her lips in a half-hearted smile and Mike nodded appreciatively turning to leave, "on one condition."

Mike froze and looked at her.

"Yeah?" he asked hesitantly.

"Tell me what's going on," she paused and added, "please Mike. I want to help."

Mike sighed, running a hand over his face, his eyes taking on that faraway look again.

"I just…cant right now, Donna." He shook his head, and added in a near whisper, "please don't ask me."

Donna felt her heart break at the desperation in his voice. She would have given him the moon if he'd asked for it in that moment.

She stepped toward him again, resisting the urge to reach out to the younger man.

"At least…at least tell me where you're going. For when Harvey asks."

Mike looked like the world was on his shoulders then. Thin, young shoulders that had had too much weight on them for too long.

"Everest Cemetery. Brooklyn."


"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street wittle eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, though the sun was shinin' and the sky a harsh blue."

Amanda's brows furrowed and she paused on her way toward the stairs at the sound of the high pitched, familiar voice. Shifting the full basket of laundry against her hip, she peaked back through the doorway. She spied her son Mike, three weeks shy of four years old, sitting in the middle of the living room rug playing with alphabet blocks on the floor.

"There seemed to be no color in anythin' except the posters that were plaster'd everywhere. The black…pistachio face gazed down from every commandin' corner." He hadn't noticed her yet, and she quietly set the basket down, listening to him ramble on to himself, fully concentrated on seeing how high he could stack his blocks before they toppled over with a spectacular crash. He always squealed with glee when they did that.

"Mikey, baby. What are you doing?" She asked lightly, wondering at the mature words that tumbled awkwardly over Mike's baby teeth. The boy looked up at her, shocking blue eyes bursting from beneath white blonde hair. She was going to have to take him to get a haircut soon.

"Tellin' a story mama, wanna hear?" He asked, grinning.

Amanda nodded, still looking a big puzzled, and settled herself on the floor beside him, absently twirling the cube marked with 'x' in her hands.

"There was one on the house front immediatewy opposite," Mike continued, back to concentrating on his blocks but putting on a big, manly voice, trying to sound the way his father did when he read to him at bedtime. "BIG BWOTHER Is WATCHING YOU, the caption said."

Amanda gasped and her dark eyes darted over to the well worn copy of 1984 that sat abandoned on the floor in front of the couch. She got up to retrieve it just as the front door opened.

"Amanda, I'm home." A man called out, his hands working feverishly at loosening the tie that was around his neck.

"Steven Ross," Amanda barked, startling both her husband and her son.

"Have you been reading this book to Mike?" She wagged the offending copy accusingly.

"What?" Steve shook his head, glancing down quickly at Mike and then up at his wife, "what are you talking about? Of course not."

"Oh really?" Amanda said, not sounding at all convinced. "Then please do explain to me how our three year old son, who doesn't know how to read, managed to quote it word for word."

"What? I-"

"I can wead Mommy." Mike called out helpfully from the floor. Both adults turned to look at him, stunned. Mike unfolded his legs from beneath himself and went to his father, his shoelaces dragging behind him. Small fingers wrapped around a piece of mail Steve had brought in and Mike tilted his head at it.

"You have alwedy been apwoved for a new low intwest wate." He read slowly, then held the envelope up over his head, smiling triumphantly. "See? Easy."


Harvey massaged his neck as he walked past the row of offices that were lined up beside his. Those damn bi-monthly Partner meetings were nothing but an excuse to subject him to three hours of eyestrain.

"Did Mike finish those files Donna?" He asked as he passed her desk and went into his office. He dropped into his chair with a relieved sigh.

"Right in front of you."

He opened one eye and then the other.

"Good. Have him come down here, will you?" He said, sitting forward and rubbing his eyes, mentally preparing for another two hours of work at least before he could think about heading home.

"He's not here, Harvey."

"What do you mean he's not here?" Harvey turned a frown up to face Donna's back.

"He left. Had to go take care of something." She said, still not pausing in whatever she was typing on the computer.

"And who gave him permission to do that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I did."

"And you were promoted to his boss...when?"

He watched Donna throw her head back, possibly mutter 'give me strength' to the ceiling, and then push back her chair to get up, coming into his office. She stopped right in front of his desk, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm not going to tell you how to manage your associate Harvey."

"All evidence to the contrary." Came Harvey's snappy retort.

"But I don't think Mike is just your associate," Donna continued as if uninterrupted. "I think you also consider him a friend." She paused, letting that sink in and was privately pleased when Harvey didn't protest. "And he's a friend who needs you right now."

She turned to leave, knowing there was no good that could come out of pushing Harvey when he didn't want to be pushed.

He probably didn't need it either.

Harvey approached Donna's desk no more than ten seconds later.

"Okay, tell me what you found."

Donna immediately turned toward him, handing him the pair of papers she'd printed off earlier.

"Todd Nevins was a prosecutor in New York for nearly thirty years."

Harvey nodded, he'd run across the name more than once when he was in the DA's office.

"Specialized in prosecuting especially violent crimes," Harvey mused aloud. He read a few lines on the page and looked up at Donna, whose eyes were dark and worried, "you think this is the Mr. Nevins Mike's grandma mentioned earlier?"

Donna sat back in her chair, fidgeting with her pen. "I do."

Harvey waited, but Donna didn't continue.

"And you already have an idea as to how Mike's connected to this guy, don't you?"

Donna sighed, looking torn. "I think Mr. Nevins has a lot of sealed case files that I can't get access to and that everything about Mike's past before he turned twelve is also sealed in court records and I think that those two things are probably not a coincidence." She threw her pen down on the desk and looked up at him. "And yes. I have an idea. But for Mike's sake, I hope I'm wrong."

Harvey caught the slight waver of emotion in Donna's voice that she was trying valiantly to keep hidden. And if she saw the worry on his face too then she knew better than to say so.

Harvey nodded, folding the papers to tuck inside his suit jacket pocket.

"Do you know-"

Donna placed a small pink post it note with an address in front of him.

"Everest Cemetery in Brooklyn. Ray's outside."

TBC

So, someone mentioned that they hoped this wouldn't get AU. If I'm remembering right (and I like to think that I am) all we know about Mike's past is that he was raised by his grandmother because his parents died when he was relatively young and that he had a strained relationship with his father. If thats the case...then no. This won't be AU...

Don't forget to tell me what you thought!