Mike hadn't seen much of Harvey that day. He'd seen him slip into the elevator, he'd seen him shake Louis' hand in the hallway, he'd seen him slipping out of Scotty's office; but it seemed that every time he tired to approach him, he wasn't there. If it had been possible, he would have made some joke about some movie, but not only could he not find Harvey to say it, but his mind was too much in disarray to think of anything to say.

There had been files waiting for him on his desk when he arrived, with a note on it from Donna, so he hadn't had to go into Harvey's office that morning. He'd gone to ask him something about a case, but Donna had let him know that he wasn't there, he'd stepped out. It wasn't much later though that he'd seen him coming out of Scotty's office, at which point he disappeared around a corner faster than Mike could even realize he'd moved at all. It was not lost on Mike, that Harvey was avoiding him.

He tried talking to Donna about it, but apparently she was in the same boat as he. Harvey wasn't exactly going out of his way to chat with her either. Mike understood if Harvey didn't want to talk about what had happened the night before. Hell, he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it himself. But Harvey ignoring him had always hurt.

Time passed quickly though, as Mike went into his zone, earphones in his ears, eyes darting over documents. And it would appear he ran out of files... How odd...

Deciding it would be time for lunch – something he often skipped unfortunately – he began his way to Rachel's office; only after dropping Harvey a text that read:I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my boss go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will see you in court.

He didn't wait for a response, assuming his boss was busy somewhere, but he hoped that when he read it, it sparked the reaction he was looking for. And that reaction was any reaction at all.

"Rachel," he said, knocking a fist on either side of her glass wall. He popped his lips stepping into her office when she smiled up at him.

"Bored already?" She teased, knowing that Mike never came to her office at work unless it was important (in other words he needed her help), or it was closer to the end of the day and Harvey had been merciful with his work load.

"Hungry already." He corrected, feigning hurt. "I came to ask you to lunch." He said, taking her hand and kissing it.

"Oh, well I can't say no to that," she teased, standing up and grabbing her coat.

They made a quick stop at Donna's desk to take her order before heading towards the elevators.

"This is nice," she said once they were inside, wrapping her arms around her boyfriends waist, snuggling into him. "We don't usually go out for lunch."

"You're right," he smiled down at her before he bent and kissed her lips lightly. "We don't, which is why we are."

She laughed, understanding his jibber perfectly. When the doors opened, he unwrapped himself from her and took her hand, pulling her towards the front doors. His heart did a jump though when he saw his boss striding purposefully towards him. Or... towards the elevators anyway.

"Where have you been?" Mike called out as they approached him. It stung when Harvey barely nodded at him before stepping into the elevator himself, not so much as glancing up as the doors closed between them.

"That was weird..." Rachel wondered aloud. But Mike knew it wasn't. Well, it was – this whole thing was weird. But that response after everything that had happened could only be expected – although it sucked royally.

"Yeah... let's go." He pulled her out to the street with him, dodging his way through the crowded streets of New York, practically at a jog. He glanced down at his phone, seeing a new text message. It was from Harvey. Seriously, Mike? He grinned, pleased enough before typing out: What have you done with my boss?

"Where are we going?" Rachel chuckled as he finally stopped at the side of the road, opening up a cab door and ushering her inside.

SUITS

Her eyes glinted wickedly when a coffee cup was placed on her cubicle, but the mischief disappeared when she saw who it was from. "Harvey, you're back!" She smiled. "I actually didn't know you were leaving." As if to make her point, he walked into the office, leaving the one sided conversation behind.

She wasn't having it though.

"Where were you?" She asked, walking into the room, coffee in hand, and sitting down across from her boss.

"You know, Donna, last I checked you work for me, and I'd like to get back to work even if you don't – which you should."

Offended – as usual when he was speaking – she gave him a warning look. "How's Scotty?"

That got him. He froze, stiffening in his chair, knuckles whitening around his pen. "Don't tell Scotty." He said, angry – at himself – and quietly.

"Are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what?" He looked up, eyes cold.

Donna's look could only enhance the exasperated vibes she was shooting off.

"Well?"

"Harvey, you know what happened last night." Her words were loud whispers even though the door was shut.

"Do I, Donna?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you didn't, what's this for?" She raised up her cup as if it were worthy evidence, and took a meaningful sip, watching him.

He sighed. "Donna, I don't know what happened, I don't know what came over me, life was just sucking and I got caught up and it didn't mean anything."

Donna wasn't convinced. Of course she wasn't. Donna knows. Donna always knows. "Does Mike know that?"

He looked up, throwing her a questioning glance. "What does that matter? Mike has a girlfriend, who I'm pretty sure he won't be saying anything to either."

"You didn't see him last night." Her lips pursed together, eyes trying to hold back emotion as the remembered. She shook her head slowly. "You didn't stick around long enough to see."

"To see what?" He demanded, pen, long forgotten, hitting the desk. "To see Mike writing up harassment charges?"

"He wouldn't do that."

"We almost just lost him, Donna, and I almost ran him out of here – hell I'm surprised he hasn't run back to that banker already."

"Harvey..." she warned, knowing his own emotions would get control of him again, like they always did. One could only suppress for so long...

"No, Donna, there's nothing to say. There's nothing to see. It's done. It never happened."

Nodding again, she rose and headed back to the door. Pausing with the door half open, she turned slightly to face him. "But Harvey? If you ever want to talk..."

She let the words hang in the air, and he nodded appreciatively, staring down at his desk again before she left.

SUITS

"So what is going on?" Rachel demanded of the world, voice hushed, throwing her arms up in frustration.

"I'm not even sure myself." Donna replied, shaking her head.

They'd been sitting in Rachel's office for a while now, trying to figure out the details – even with Donna holding back on them.

"He was just so upset..."

"I know."

It was quiet then, neither knew what to say. Really, what was on Donna's mind was how Rachel was going to react to the news when she found out. Surely mike wouldn't leave Harvey, and surely Rachel wouldn't be comfortable with them working together. But maybe she wouldn't find out. Maybe it was just a weird happenstance and it really did mean nothing. But then why was Harvey acting so weird? Maybe he was worried about a harassment suit. But Mike had been so upset... Or maybe he'd just been thrown over the edge after all the stress he'd been enduring. She just wished Harvey would talk to her.

"How is he today, do you think?" Donna asked, hoping she could scope out some sort of sense. If the men weren't going to get the office back in its usual working order, it was going to have to be up to the women.

"He seemed fine..." She thought, finger pressing into her cheek while she thought. "I mean, he was checking his phone during lunch, I don't think he noticed that I noticed though..."

"Well he is a lawyer," Donna smirked, earning a giggle.

"Sure, but they aren't on a big case right now are they?" Well... they probably weren't. If Mike hadn't said anything... But maybe Harvey hadn't told him. And Harvey wasn't telling anyone anything at the moment so they wouldn't know.

Donna smiled, concluding the secret meeting, realizing she had probably best be getting back to her desk. "I'm sure we can get to the bottom of this."

SUITS

"Harvey!" Mike shouted across the floor, hurrying towards the elevators, but the doors closed before he could arrive. Harvey was gone. "Dammit." He cursed, hands gripping the hair at the back of his head. The trip home was miserable. Harvey hadn't responded to his last text, and he hadn't made any effort to at least exist at all that day. Mike wasn't even worried about that... thing... that had happened the night before. He was only worried about if Harvey would ever acknowledge his existence again. It was almost like that time he fired Mike... except this was worse because Mike didn't even know if he was angry or hurt or anything.

He finally arrived at his apartment, giving his girlfriend a big hug and kiss on the top of her head when he found her curled up on the couch with a book.

"You read all day at work," he teased. "Why do you do this to yourself?"

"What," she grinned. "You don't read for pleasure? Well I guess you have memorized every book in existence, cover to back." She winked, looking back down at chapter four of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"Oh come on!" he groaned. "Tell me you're rereading that. You never read Hitchhiker's Guide?" He scooted to be next to her, looking at the page number she was on. Page twenty-seven. He then began to recite, "The island of France was about twenty miles long, five miles across the middle, sandy and crescent shaped. In fact it seemed to exist not so much as an island in its own right as simply a means of defining the sweep and curve of a huge bay. This impression was heightened by the fact that the inner coastline of the crescent consisted almost entirely of steep cliffs. From the top of the cliff the land sloped slowly down five miles to the opposite shore. On top of the cliffs stood a reception committee. It consisted in large part of the engineers and researchers who had built the Heart of Gold – mostly humanoid, but here and there were a few reptiloid atomineers, two or three green slyph-like maximegalacticans, an octopoid physucturalist or two and a Hooloovoo (a Hooloovoo is a super-intelligent shade of the color blue). All except the Hooloovoo were resplendent in their multicolored ceremonial lab coats; the Hooloovoo had been temporarily-" Rachel had finally gotten a hold of her laughter enough to cover his mouth with her hands.

"Stop it!" She shouted between fits of giggles. "You're ruining the book!"

"Oh, I'm sorry; I thought you'd like it if I read to you." His expression was that of mock sadness.

She laughed again before climbing on top of him, pressing her lips down onto his and tossing the book away. "I wouldn't call that reading." She laughed, lips still pressed against his.

He pulled her down closer to him, arms sliding around her waist as he kissed across her jaw and down her neck.

She mewled into his hair and brought his lips back to hers, deepening the kiss.

"And cue all interruptions." Mike groaned as a knock came to the door. With a sigh, he picked the girl up and sat her back down on the couch, straightening himself out, and moving to the door.

He opened it and was met with reddened, brown eyes. "Harvey?"

"Mike," the man responded, breath smelling of alcohol.

"Have you been drinking?"

Sounds from inside reminded the older lawyer that Mike no longer lived alone, and quickly he pulled him out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

"What's going on?"

"I'm sorry," he said dumbly, fighting his intoxicated mind for a dictionary. What are words...?

Mike stared for a moment, confused. "Harvey, you've done so much for me. I'm sorry. I should never have even considered that job." He shook his head, looking down.

A strong hand grabbed his chin, pulling it back up to meet those eyes again. Deep golden brown... "You did what I said you should do." He chuckled lightly, "The one time you actually listen..." He took a deep breath. "Mike, you had a get out of jail free card, and you could have used it. You could have saved us both." Mike went to respond, but he covered his mouth, stepping closer. "But I don't want you to leave. Ever. For an reason." His eyes were intense, and Mike knew not to press the subject further. "I should have told you that before."

Mike nodded, understanding. "I won't, Harvey. Not for anything."

Eyes brimming again, he stepped closer yet, pulling Mike into a firm hug. "Don't," he said, choking over his own words. He tightened his arms around Mike when the younger man hugged back, a tighter grip than Harvey would have expected. When Mike nuzzled his face into Harvey's shoulder, the world seemed to disappear, and Harvey let his cheek rest down upon Mike's head, simply enjoying the feel of him. Chances were that this kind of hug would never happen again. They were lawyers. They didn't hug. More so, Mike was his employee and it was wildly inappropriate. But for now, they let that thought sink to the backs of their minds. They'd almost lost each other, and for some reason, that didn't seem at all acceptable.

The minutes passed and Harvey began to pull back, stepped ever so slowly away from the man. "I should let you get back to your girlfriend." He was more telling himself that than Mike, but Mike wasn't having any of it.

"Can you just... can you stay for a bit?" After all that had happened, he wasn't ready to say goodbye to his mentor yet. He needed that safe feeling that only Harvey could bring him.

Standing straighter, Harvey moved to the wall, sinking down until he was sitting on the floor, propping himself up against the cold smoothness behind him. Taking that as an invitation, Mike sunk down beside him, closer than either of them would have expected. And they sat; mere inches apart, staring at the far wall. Not speaking, just enjoying that they wouldn't be losing each other any time soon.