Chapter 2

Jessica entered the firm a little before five in the morning on November 1st. She wanted to get in early so that she could organize a few things, namely, Christmas decorations.

She used to love Christmas, growing up she could hardly wait until Halloween was over so that they could decorate the house. Yes she knew that Thanksgiving came first however there wasn't exactly a lot of decorations that one could do for thanksgiving so while it was still celebrated Christmas was at the forefront of her mind. She had always put out the Christmas decorations and started the Christmas music as soon as November started, that was, until she lost her son.

Ever since Mike had been abducted she had lost her interest in celebrating anything, even Christmas. Yes there was always a firm Christmas party and she still spent the day with her parents however she always held off on the decorating at the firm until the week before Christmas and never put any up at her home. Now though, she had her son back and while he may not know who she was to him he was still in her office every day where she could keep an eye on him. She had her son back in her life, she'd found him and once again she was in the Christmas spirit.

It had currently been twelve days since she'd learned that Mike Ross was her son and it was four days of Mike working from her office. She knew that the case would take at least three more months, having specifically picked the most time consuming case that the firm had. She would have her son with her on Christmas and thanksgiving and every other holiday for the rest of her life.

Ever since she had brought Mike into her office she had been studying the boy even closer than she was before. She had occasionally asked random questions in-between questions on the case at the end of every day when he gave her an overview of what useful information he had learned. The questions confused him, she could tell, but she couldn't help it she was curious about her son. With the information she'd learned she had started re-decorating his room to fit his likings. She had finally removed the crib and baby furniture (she had kept the room exactly as it had been when Mike had been abducted but now she needed it to be available for her son and the baby items wouldn't work any longer. She had put a queen-sized bed in the room and a dresser, a desk, a nightstand and two large bookshelves. From what she'd learned her son really liked to read so she had done her best to learn what kind of books he enjoyed only to learn that the only requirement that he had was that it had a lot of words and few pictures. With that in mind she'd filled half of the shelves with a mixture of almost every genre only foregoing the romance (and any other female oriented books), anime and children's books. She also made sure that there was an extremely comfortable chair for him to sit and read in. Learning that his favorite color was blue she had used that to paint the walls a nice light blue and then put a darker shade of blue as the bedding. She even put blue towels in the bathroom. She had gone so far as to get a small set of clothing for him in what she hoped was the appropriate size.

This morning she had taken the teddy bear off of her bed, having moved it there the night of her son's disappearance and keeping it there ever since, and had put it on the bed in her son's bedroom completing the space. After having done so she'd headed to the office so that she could draft an email to maintenance to inform them to get the Christmas decorations out of storage and starting to set it up though the trees would wait until December.

She smiled as she got into the elevator; she had enjoyed the last four days immensely. Having her son in the same room all day long was amazing. She had sent him out every day for lunch insisting that he was not allowed to work on the case while he was supposed to be taking time to eat. On the first day she had seen him walk into Harvey's office but he'd only been in there for ten minutes before he dejectedly walked out – Harvey had followed her instructions and given her Mike exclusively. After that first day he had always headed to the elevator so she counted that as a victory. She had also made sure that he left at six thirty every night, to make sure that he actually left she would leave at the same time. They always parted in the lobby because he didn't park in the garage; she had been meaning to give him a pass so that he could do so. Sure the garage was meant for the partners only but not all partners used it since a lot had personal drivers. Still though she was worried, despite having the extra free time Mike still looked as though he hadn't eaten a decent meal in months and the bags under his eyes had been getting worse as well. She didn't understand it and was debating on stepping in a bit further but didn't want to scare Mike off.

She stepped off the elevator already drafting her email in her head when she saw a light on in the bullpen. Curious as to who would be at the firm at this hour she walked over. Needless to say she wasn't happy to see her son hunched over his desk with headphones in his ears working on files. She redirected herself and went straight over to her son.

She pulled the file out from beneath his grasp and watched as his eyes snapped up to her widening in surprise as he took in who had interrupted his work. "I thought I said that you were not to work on the case after hours or out of my office" she said once he had taken the headphones out of his ears.

"You did" he responded somewhat skeptically.

"Then what do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Louis' work" he answered.

She paused. She had told Harvey that she was taking Mike exclusively but she had failed to inform Louis of the same thing and as Louis was in charge of the associates and also gave Mike work, she should have thought this through a little more. Well, she'd handle it now.

"Um… Could you hand it back?" he asked, "Please" he added hastily.

She looked at him, he had deep bags under his eyes and there were numerous cans of red bull littering his desk as well as a well-used coffee cup however she noted that there was no food wrappers or leftovers anywhere in sight, not even the trashcan. So he was sleep deprived, starving, and running on nothing more than caffeine and sugar, she also noted that he was breathing through his mouth, there were several Kleenexes in the trash and sweat forming on his forehead. "No" she stated simply.

"Huh?" he asked scrunching up his brow in confusion. "Louis wants these first thing"

"How long have you been at this?" she asked.

"Uh…" he looked down at his watch, did he always wear it backwards? "seven hours"

Her eyebrows shot up and she took a look at what all was on his desk, there were over twenty folders there and they weren't thin. He had completed all this in seven hours? He really was good. As proud as she was of what her son was capable of it also meant that he had been at the firm since 9 last night thus he'd only been home for two and a half hours, that wasn't good. "And how often does Louis leave you work?"

"Everyday" Mike answered still appearing confused as to the point of this conversation.

"Did I not tell you to go home?" she asked.

"Yes and I did"

Gesturing at their surroundings she turned to him, "So this is your home then?"

"No. I went home, cleaned up, changed and then came back"

"Every night?"

"Every night for the past few"

"How long?"

He paused, "This would be my… sixth night"

"With me. Bring your things" she instructed walking back towards the elevators. She could scream. Her son hadn't gotten sleep in six nights! Clearly she wasn't keeping a close enough eye on him. Well that would be fixed.

"Where are we going?" Mike asked as they entered the elevators.

Jessica didn't answer just stared straight ahead as she listened to her son's somewhat labored breathing from congestion. As they walked off the elevator she stopped at the security desk informing Mike to wait at the edge while she went over and collected copies of the security footage since Mike had started working there. It took a few minutes before she was walking out with a three discs in her purse, she paused when she saw her son joking around with the night security guards.

It amazed her how many people Mike seemed to know. From what she could tell he knew the people in IT (at least two others had come in to fix both her computer and the one she had in the office for Mike after there was a freak system malfunction and they had both known Mike and had discussed some others whom she guessed worked in IT as well). He also seemed to know every paralegal and had suggested the ones that would help her with her work when she had asked, apparently there were some that had specialties and some to avoid. He also knew every secretary in the building and greeted him or her all by name when he passed. Yesterday she'd learned that he knew the janitorial/maintenance staff as well. There had been some type of issue on the forty-fifth floor and she had been forced to go down and deal with it. The floor was empty for updating and when she'd gotten down there she had met with both the head of maintenance and the head of janitorial. Once she was done fixing the issue she had headed back out, as she walked towards the elevator she had seen Mike sitting and talking with multiple workers from both areas. She had let him alone because it was his lunch break but had been curious.

She shook her head as she walked over and collected her son. They headed down to the parking garage and straight to her car. "Get in" she instructed once the doors were unlocked.

Mike froze, "I don't think that's such a good idea"

"It wasn't a suggestion. We have some things to work on and I would like to go over them during breakfast"

"It's 5:58"

"And I know a good restaurant that opens at 6. It has a wonderful breakfast menu. Now get in" she said again.

Mike hesitated for a moment before finally complying.

Once they were both out of the garage Jessica turned up the heat and watched as her son finally stopped shivering, granted he was really good at hiding it. It wasn't two minutes into the drive though and Mike was bouncing his leg up and down and tapping his knees. Shaking her head she turned on one of her CD's hoping that it would stop the constant movement. It was a Christmas CD that she'd dusted off and put into the player just this morning, she had expected a question or two, a curious glance at the least. Instead she saw surprise cross Mike's face before a small smirk appeared and he settled back into the seat movement having ceased.

"I like Christmas too" Mike said suddenly a few minutes later.

Jessica looked over at him partially surprised, partially thrilled. "It can never come soon enough in my opinion" she said wanting to continue the conversation. She couldn't believe it but was thrilled, she did enjoy finding something that she had in common with her son.

"I know what you mean. Best day of the year"

She smiled and pulled into the parking lot. They were seated and had ordered before she had the chance to continue the conversation. "So, do you have any special traditions for Christmas?"

Mike hesitated before answering, "I… sit down and have a filling meal" he said eventually.

He had answered casually, as if he were somewhat joking even, but she couldn't help but hear the slight sadness that he had hidden in there. Was Christmas one of the few times he actually had enough to eat? If that were the case what could have happened to cause it? Still she just laughed slightly and moved on.

The food came shortly after and then discussed the case and they ate. Jessica kept watching her son; she was worried at how little he was actually eating. In hopes of getting him to consume more she slowed her pace to give Mike more time. Halfway through his plate though Mike put his fork down and pushed it away a bit. "Not hungry?" she asked casually.

Mike snapped his head up and looked at her in slight surprise, "Uh… full" he said eventually.

She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from prodding him into eating more knowing that it would only confuse and possibly scare him away and she didn't want that. "So, when was the last time you slept?" she asked.

"What?" he asked.

"You have admitted that you've been working both day and night for the past six days, when was the last time you have had a proper nights sleep?"

She felt horrible at the amount of time it took Mike to come up with the answer. "A few days" he answered eventually.

She could tell he was lowballing it and that hurt her all the more. "How long have you been sick?" she asked continuing her interrogation.

"I'm sick?" he asked.

She watched him questioningly as he did his best to hide a yawn and keep from rubbing his eyes. He was tired and having food in his stomach only made the issue worse, she was willing to bet that soon he wouldn't even be fully awake and it would be somewhat easy to get him home and into bed. "I would say that a fever and a stuffy nose is being sick" she said.

"Oh." He responded looking a bit dazed, "I have a stuffy nose?"

Well that was all she needed to hear before cementing her decision. "Let's go" she said standing up once the waiter came back with her recite.

Jessica led Mike back to her car and cranked the heat before putting the music on low so that it played lightly in the background. By the time she pulled into her own garage Mike was lightly dozing in the passengers seat. She avoided waking him completely as she led him to his room and helped him get changed into the pajamas that she'd placed in there for him. By the time she was pulling the covers up over him he was dead to the world and clutching his bear. She leant down and kissed his forehead before heading out, leaving the door slightly cracked.

Sitting down in the living room she called her driver and had him run a few errands for her and then typed up the email to maintenance she had been planning on sending earlier. She also typed an email to all senior partners to inform them that she would not be in today for personal reasons but if there were any issues her cellphone was always on. Lastly she rescheduled her calendar.

Her driver came back an hour later with everything on the list. The first thing she did was take out the ear thermometer, clean it and then head to her son's room. She wasn't thrilled when the reading came back at 101.3 degrees but at least it wasn't anything too serious. She sighed, as she made sure that he was wrapped up in his blankets and then headed back out. She paused at the door and just took in the sight before her. It was a dream come true; her son was safely asleep in his bed, in his room, in her home. She had almost given up hope that it would ever happen. She let a tear slide down her face as she walked back to the living room and started in on her work.