The deposition went as expected in terms of result, what wasn't as expected was how much Mike had to step in when Harvey seemed to falter or his eyes glazed over as his mind left the room. Harvey knew it was happening but couldn't stop it, the flashbacks were haunting him. Mike thankfully took it in strike, he had gone from being shut out of meetings at the adult table to running the entire thing in very short succession.
When the clients had left, they made their way back up to Harvey's office to debrief. Harvey desperately trying to come up with reasons to go elsewhere, but all of them sounded hollow, they always went back to his office.
Harvey was also dealing with the fact that the queasiness had turned into all out nausea and he was aware of a cold sweat that had broken out all over his body.
He tried to believe that it was only because he hadn't eaten yet or had any coffee, but he knew better. As they made their way to his office, Mike chattering away beside him, he noticed that his vision was starting to duplicate and Mike's voice seemed to be falling away. He turned to look at Mike as he heard him say his name, it sounded like he was in a tunnel and then it went dark.
He awoke some time later, he wasn't sure how long, lying on the fainting couch in his office. The name of the couch now made sense and he would have laughed had he the energy. As he opened his eyes, they were met with the very concerned eyes of Mike, who was leaning over him quite close, and there was a time that would have caused a thrill, but considering how his head felt at that moment he just closed his eyes again.
"Harvey? Harvey, open your eyes! Are you ok?"
Footsteps, Donna.
"The paramedics are on their way, is he awake?"
"Yeah, I think, he just opened his eyes for a few seconds, but he might be back out again."
Harvey felt the urgency rising to stop those paramedics, the last thing he wanted to do at that moment was go to the hospital and be examined, what had really happened would be pretty obvious. He struggled to find the energy to speak.
"No paramedics." He finally whispered.
"Harvey? You are awake! Are you ok? What happened? Do you want some water?"
After a few deep breathes, he found more strength.
"Ok Mike, one at a time, yes I'm awake, no paramedics, I'm fine."
Even he knew he didn't sound fine, the quiver and weakness in his voice giving him away, but he had to fight this.
"Uh, you just went out cold for a solid 20 minutes, your not fine."
"Michael, I'm fine, it's probably just some food poisoning, I'll go home, get rest and be just fine. Call the paramedics back and tell them not to bother."
"but Harvey, I think you should be checked out just in case, you…"
"Donna, call the paramedics back and stop them."
Harvey knew no matter what, she would do his bidding, even as Mike continued to protest. He heard her voice on the phone a few minutes later, telling them it was a false alarm and he relaxed a bit.
He decided to do what he said he was going to do, just go home, and went ahead and sat up, which turned out to be a really bad idea at that speed. The room spun violently and he thought for a few moments he might be sick on Mike. He felt Mike's hand on his chest, pushing him back down.
"Harvey, just stay lying down for now, since you are so insistent on not receiving medical attention."
He heard the murmering of the rubber neckers outside the door, and thought amusedly to himself that they had gotten one hell of a floor show today. He could hear Louis coming down the hall asking what had happened, and that all this distraction was getting in the way of his very important work.
"Close the door Mike, It's a little loud out there."
He felt the couch move as Mike moved off of it and heard the soft whoosh of the door as it closed, and then the returning warmth of Mike's body as he sat back down.
"Do you want anything? Maybe you should drink some water"
Still unsure of whether his stomach was going to cooperate, Harvey decided on nothing for the time being. His head was clearing and the ringing in his ears seemed to be diminishing rapidly. He decided to try sitting up again and found it easier and more successful this time.
"See, I'm fine, but" as Mike's mouth opened to protest "I'll go home anyway, we've done good work today and I think we both deserve a break so you can take the rest of the day off."
Mike looked nonplussed, Harvey never took a break.
"Mike may not be at work, but he will be busy, looking after you."
Harvey looked up at Jessica, whom he hadn't even heard enter the room and could see the mixture of business posture and genuine concern on her face.
"Harvey, are you ok? What happened?" She moved forward to take Mike's suddenly vacated place on the couch next to him.
"I'm fine, probably bad sushi, a little rest and I'll be back at it."
"Well, go home, take a few days if you need them, you look tired."
"Thanks, what a compliment."
"I'm serious Harvey, you have been killing yourself with this account, take some time, your exhaustion has clearly caught up to you."
"Fine, I'll take the rest of the day, but I don't need a babysitter."
"Think of him more as a caregiver, I don't want you passing out again and hitting your head on something. You have a lot of sharp angles in your place."
"Really, Jessica, I'm fine, I just…"
The look on Jessica's face meant no argument; he decided he would offload Mike some other way, on the way home perhaps. He knew that no matter what, he couldn't and didn't want to be alone with Mike.
After a somewhat awkwardly orchestrated performance of getting Harvey down to the car, much of it Mike's doing, they began the crawl through mid morning traffic. Harvey rested his forehead against the cool window and closed his eyes. He could feel Mike's eyes boring holes into the side of his head, but he was tired enough not to care at the moment. His intention was to tell the driver when they got to his place to carry on to Mike's and just leave him in the car. He knew this sounded great in theory, but would be far more difficult to achieve in practice. Mike was one stubborn bugger.
"Harvey?"
"Yes Michael"
"Ok, stop calling me Michael for one thing, and just what hell is going on?"
"Nothing Michael, stop reading into things."
"Stop hiding things! Why don't you trust me?"
That's not the problem, Harvey thought sadly, it's more that I don't trust myself, and I'm scared of losing you, but I can't tell you these things because to say them out loud would be insane.
"I think it's safe to say I do trust you, considering I hired you despite everything, stop projecting your personal life on me."
Harvey knew that was a cold answer, but he needed Mike to stop pressing the issue, and to also hopefully upset him enough that he would willingly let Harvey go home alone.
Harvey felt the car slow and then stop and knew they were there, the timing had to be right. As fast as he could manage he opened the door and stepped out, the driver looked stunned as he started moving towards his door to open it for him.
He quickly gave him Mike's address and told him to take Mike home and no where else, and started walking quickly to the door. The pain in his legs somewhat impeded his progress, but he was determined.
He heard Mike protesting with the driver behind him but kept walking. He hit the button on the elevator and stood there willing it to come quicker. Why was it when he was in a hurry both elevators were on the top floor?
Then he heard his doorman trying to stop Mike coming in the door and then he was beside him, panting from running away from the driver and doorman, and also somewhat in fury.
"What the fuck? You know what Jessica said, and frankly I'm a little concerned too, let's be honest, you haven't been yourself today, so deal with it, I'm coming up there to keep an eye on you."
Harvey smarted at the hurt in Mike's voice, he knew his concern was genuine. But he had to keep trying to deflect.
"At what point today have I not been myself, other than passing out." He asked incredulously.
"Oh gee, I don't know, the way you spaced out through the entire deposition, or…" Mike paused, and Harvey could see him fighting with not infuriating his boss and still getting his point across. "You just haven't been you."
Harvey knew there was no point in arguing this fact, Mike was Mike, he knew how Harvey normally was and this was what he knew would happen once he got around Mike. Hiding from him was quickly no longer becoming an option.
"You're not watching me sleep, you freak, so if you insist on coming upstairs, then you will remain in the living room."
Mike relaxed with Harvey's relenting and agreed to the terms quite energetically.
Once upstairs, Harvey gave him the TV remote, informed him of his boundaries and then retreated to his bedroom to sleep. Sleep actually became him lying in bed in the fetal position listening to Mike's every move, but he eventually drifted off, feeling almost safe with Mike being only a few feet away and Harvey knew then that he was on a dangerous and slippery slope, but couldn't help it.
How dare he try to fob me off to the driver.
Mike flicked angrily through the channels in Harvey's ridiculously expensive apartment on his ridiculously expensive couch. His initial fury outside the elevator had evaporated in concern at the pain in Harvey's face. But with Harvey safely tucked away in bed, he had time to be mad. He wasn't sure what Harvey was trying to hide, but Mike knew it was big and it was affecting him a great deal. He had never seen Harvey off his game like that with a client, and to see him collapse like that in the hallway. Mike took in a shaky breath at remembering that moment. He had never been so scared.
Taking this job had been risky, but what he felt for that boss who had charmed him initially but had infected his every thought and dream since was even more risky.
Mike hated seeing him like he was right now, and really hated not knowing what was wrong or how he could help. The pain was so clear in Harvey's eyes it was crushing and he just didn't know what to do.
He got up and started pacing around the living room trying to decide how to get Harvey to talk. Harvey was one hell of private human being, but Mike liked to think that he had cracked the shell a little bit since he started working with him, but now he wasn't so sure.
After about an hour of wandering about the room he went into the bathroom and noticed a pile of clothes in the corner. At first he paid them no attention, and after finishing, washed his hands and went to use the towel on the rack just above the clothes and stopped dead. The clothes had blood on them. Mike slowly picked up what he quickly identified as a t-shirt and looked at the large reddish brown stain. It was on the left shoulder area and appeared to have come from a fairly serious wound.
He started to shake a little, who had done this to Harvey? What the hell was going on? What the hell had happened in that office?
Then he heard footfall behind him and turned just as Harvey came in. Harvey was startled at first at seeing Mike standing there, but once his eyes landed on the bloody shirt, he blanched and slowly backed out of the room.
Mike dropped the shirt and followed him quickly, and that was when Mike noticed that Harvey was limping.
"Harvey, talk to me, what the hell happened? Who did this to you?"
"Don't worry about it Mike, it's none of your business anyway. Look, I'm fine, go home."
Well there wasn't a chance in hell of that happening, Mike was in full on protection mode now, even though he knew nothing of what he was protecting Harvey from, he wasn't leaving him now.
"No, I'm not going anywhere, is someone after you?"
"If they were, what makes you think they haven't found me already?"
Harvey had a point, the shirt indicated that an altercation had already happened.
"Why are you limping? What happened to your shoulder? Is it bad? I should take a look at it."
Harvey whirled around at this and the panic in his eyes make Mike jump.
"No, you will not, it's none of your business, just go home."
The shaking in Harvey's voice gave him away and Mike quickly closed the distance between them. Putting a hand on his seemingly uninjured shoulder, Mike tried to sound as soothing as possible.
"Harvey, I'm not here to make anything worse, just talk to me, maybe I can help like you helped me with Trevor."
Harvey gave a short sarcastic laugh, shrugged off Mike's hand and backed up a few steps.
"Trust me when I tell you, there is nothing you can do, and I don't want you getting in the way."
He was back in Harvey Specter mode, the steely gaze fixed on him, but it didn't last too long when he wobbled a little and Mike didn't even think when he jumped forward to catch him before he hit the floor. He guided him to the bed to sit down and his concern was only raised when Harvey openly winced as he sat down.
"How bad are you hurt?"
"I'm not great, but I'll survive."
Finally an answer.
"Who did this?"
"None of your business."
Shit, he's shutting down again, new tactic.
"Are they gone?"
The look of sadness on Harvey's face at that moment made Mike hold his breath.
"Not even close." Harvey whispered.
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know, look, are you done with the Spanish inquisition yet, or are you going to let me sleep?"
And steel Harvey was back, the moment of vulnerability gone.
Mike sensed that this was end of the discussion and decided that he needed to give him time. The pushing tactic hadn't worked, so he was going to try the waiting one.
"Ok, yeah, go to sleep, sorry."
"Thank you, back to the living room, and this time, stay there."
"Ok boss."
As he closed the door behind him Mike was even more confused and worried, this was bigger than he thought, and he wasn't sure what he was facing, but he did know that Harvey wasn't facing this problem alone. He would make sure of it.
