A/N: Yay! Finally some down time when I can update some of my fics! I'm so amazingly overwhelmed with the amount of positive feedback I've received from just one chapter. Thank you guys so much and I hope you enjoy the rest of this story! I am no longer going by the summer update schedule, and have yet to determine a new one, so please bear with me for maybe two or three weeks of irregular updates until I figure it out :D

Chapter 2 - Opportunity (Posted 27 August 2011)

When Mike got home the first thing he did was crack open the files Harvey had given him. He hadn't been lying when he told him he would work. And even though he quit, he didn't want to leave this last job unfinished. He did it because he was honestly going to miss the job, not because he owed it to Harvey. At least that's what he kept telling himself.

All through the night his mind kept jumping between different thoughts. I can't believe my gram is gone. There isn't enough evidence to prove this yet, but that person could be a witness. What am I going to do without her? Oh, I didn't read it like that before. I wonder if Harvey will be disappointed in me. I'll be the only one at her funeral. There's no record of where that money went. Trevor isn't even here to offer me any false comfort. I was a liability anyway.

After finishing the last bit of work he'd ever do for the firm, he decided to get some sleep. He needed to let his unrelenting mind rest for a while. Even though he could always be thinking about millions of things at once, the loss of his grandmother was something he just couldn't handle.

X

The next morning as Harvey walked into work, he frowned disappointedly as he saw a certain empty cubicle in his peripheral vision. He continued on to his office and almost walked right past donna.

"What, no 'hello'?" Harvey asked her, knowing she usually had something to say to him every morning. But she gave no indication that she heard him. "Donna, when you see Mike-"

"He dropped this off for you." she handed him a file folder without looking at him.

He took it, confused at both Donna's coldness and the fact that Mike had gotten in before him. He took a peek inside and recognized it as the case he'd given him last night. "Where is he?"

Donna shrugged, still refusing to take her eyes off her computer.

"Well I need to speak with him about leaving early yesterday."

She finally whirled her head around, red hair whipping around her head like a flash flame as she glared at him. "His grandmother is dead, Harvey. And all he asked for was an afternoon off to do the rest of his work at home. The rest of those pansy associates out there would have been boo-hooing to their bosses for a paid week off. And you know what? They would deserve it because no one should have to work when something like that happens."

"I knew what I was doing, Donna." Harvey said. "I'm his boss, I couldn't just say 'yeah, sure go home' and send him on his way."

"You told him he'd lose his job if he left."

"How many times have I given him that ultimatum?" Harvey asked her, trying to prove a point. "I never mean it. And he knows that. That kid has quit so many times I bet even he's lost count by now. He always comes back in the end. We have a talk about it, I tell him he has to get his act together, and things go back to normal. That's how it works."

"Not this time, Harvey." she shook her head at him.

"What do you mean 'not this time'? He brought these files in. And look," he pointed to something on her desk, "he even brought you coffee. He's obviously here. I'll go find him and everything will be fine."

"He's not here." Donna told him crossly. "He came in early this morning and asked me to give you those files. Then he handed me the coffee and his badge as he told me he's sorry he won't be bringing me coffee anymore. And then he left. I didn't even have time to say anything witty or ask him what he meant before he was gone. I went to his desk, it's completely empty. All that's left is whatever the company put there before we hired him."

Harvey looked at her and then at the employee badge she held up in her hand, contemplating what to say next. "He'll be back. He always comes back."

"This time is different, and you know it. Leaving your badge and walking out is one thing, if he comes back before his resignation is processed he can still have his job while only suffering minor penalties. But handing in your badge is considered instant termination. And I'm required to either give it to you or Jessica. Now you know that if I give it to her, he's done for good. But if I give it to you, you can still fix it. So, what's it gonna be?"

Again, Harvey was almost at a loss for words. "He can't just quit. Not after I put my career on the line for him." He stuck his hand out for Mike's badge, but Donna pulled it out of his reach, earning a scowl from her boss.

"Wrong. Care to try again?" she raised her eyebrows like she was giving him the opportunity to win the grand prize on a game show if he said the right phrase.

"There's lots of work to be done and having my associate quit is bad for my reputation."

Donna simply glared at him, telling him that was incorrect as well.

"What do you want me to say?"

"That you've grown attached to the poor kid don't want to see him throw his life away by giving up on his dream and going back to a life of drugs and loneliness."

Harvey blinked at her, a bit surprised at her sudden forcefulness. He wasn't so much surprised that she was being forceful, but at the fact that she was doing it to protect Mike.

"Or how about that despite the fact that you claim to not care about anyone, you obviously care a lot about him and would rather be able to keep an eye on him twenty four-seven but settle for only doing it at work because you don't want to come off as creepy or caring? Or what about the fact that you've been smiling a hell of a lot more since you hired him and you go out of your way to try and protect him from making bad decisions. Or maybe you'd like to finally admit that you like mentoring him and you feel bad when you let him down because you know you can and should be doing a lot more for him. Face it, Harvey. You screwed up. And if you don't fix it, you're not only going to lose a great associate, you're going to lose a friend."