A/N: I am sooooooooo sorry. If there are any of you who still care about this story, bless you and I'll save the long apology for after the chapter, if you even want to read it... ;-; I'm so sorry again

Chapter 10

The next time Mike woke up he was greeted by Donna's worried yet relieved face very near his. He tried to back away but the sudden movement made all of his wounds make themselves known.

"What's wrong? Do you need me to call the doctor? Mike?" Donna's panic filled voice sounded above the pounding in his head.

"I'm fine" Mike ground out between clinched teeth.

"Sure you are. That's why you look like you're about to cry. Donna go ahead and call the doctor in." Harvey's voice was somewhere in the room. Mike couldn't see since his eyes were screwed shut in pain, but it was nice to know Harvey kept his promise.

Donna hastily left to go find the doctor leaving Harvey with a look that said 'if you don't talk to him, you'll be in the hospital right next to him' Harvey got the message and made his way to Donna's previous seat.

"Mike, how are you feeling, kid?" Harvey debated whether or not to put his hand on Mike's arm. Seeing Mike in pain like that however, had made up his mind for him. Because when he looked at Mike, he didn't just see an associate. He saw a friend, and most importantly, he saw a brother. Mike had become like another little brother to him. Harvey's hand found its way to Mike's arm and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

"Mike, it's okay. Donna went to get the doctor. He'll give you some medicine, okay?" Harvey asked in a softer voice.

Mike didn't speak, he just nodded his head. He wanted to thank Harvey for being there and for saving him. He still hadn't had the chance to really tell him. He wanted to before the meds kicked in and made him fall asleep.

"Thank you Harvey"

Harvey just smiled. "No need to thank me kid. I'm just glad you survived." Harvey knew Mike would probably give him crap for that, but he felt like Mike needed to know.

The door opened and the doctor walked in with a syringe full of pain-killers. "Mister Ross, this is going to help you with your pain. It's pretty strong so it'll probably knock you out too. But that's okay, you could use the rest." The doctor emptied the syringe's contents to Mike's IV tube.

Mike started to feel the effects almost instantly. He felt the cool liquid flow through his arm. The pained started fading out, as did most of his focus. The edges of the room were slowly turning to black. He didn't really mind, he was really tired still. He looked at Harvey one last time and smiled as his vision went black and he went to sleep.

Mike woke up again sometime later to Donna and Harvey talking in the doorway. Donna was the first to notice Mike staring at them. She walked by Harvey and sat down near the head of Mike's bed. She gently brushed her hand through his hair.

"Hey sleepyhead. How do you feel now?" She asked softly incase Mike was in any pain.

"A lot better, thanks," he hesitated. He had no idea what to say next. Luckily Harvey spoke up before the silence became awkward.

"Doc says you're recovering nicely. You should be able to leave in about three days, if everything goes well." Mike breathed a sigh of relief. He hated hospitals.

"Good. I wanna go home as soon as possible." Harvey and Donna exchanged a look. "What?"

"You're not going home. You have to stay with someone until you get cleared for work." Donna said matter-of-factly. "So you get a choice. Do you wanna stay with me, or Harvey?" She gave an evil smirk. He gave an involuntary shudder. Mike could imagine all too well how staying with Donna would be. She would smother him within an inch of his life. He knew with Harvey he could at least have some privacy.

"I'll stay with Harvey, thanks. That is, if you don't mind…" Mike trailed off, feeling bad for imposing on his boss. But the truth was he didn't want to stay alone. He knew that as soon as he was, he would be haunted by nightmares and memories alike. He wanted to put off being alone for as long as possible. He'd deal with it at some point, just not now.

"That's fine, Mike." Harvey's voice was soft.

With no further complications, aside from whining, Mike was released later that week. He was uneasy about staying with Harvey. Mike felt like he would be intruding on his boss. He would never be able to thank him for saving his life then letting him recover at Harvey's condo.

They rode in silence during the car ride to the condo. Harvey figured Mike was either in pain or just tired. Mike, on the other hand, assumed that Harvey was just uncomfortable about the whole situation. Mike pressed his forehead against the glass and blew out an exhausted sigh. His ribs were starting to flare up in pain. Ray looked up and glanced at Harvey in the rear view mirror in question.

"Mike?" Harvey asked softly

"Hmm?"

"You feeling alright? Do you need some pain meds?"

Mike sat up and forced a smile. "Nah, just resting my eyes. I'm beat."

"Well, we'll be home soon. You can rest when we get you settled in."

Mike studied his hands for a good long moment before looking at Harvey. He needed to properly thank Harvey for saving his life and for everything really. He took a deep breath readying himself to speak.

"Harvey, I want you to know how much I appreciate this. And I'm really sorry to have to impose on you-"

"You're not imposing Mike. I offered. Hell, I forced you into it." A moment of silence passed while it seemed that Mike was letting that sink in. "Kid, I'm glad you're okay." Harvey's voice was barely above a whisper but he knew that Mike would hear him. "You really scared me there. I thought… I thought that maybe, for a second there, I really thought you weren't going to make it… And let me tell you," Harvey fidgeted in his seat before continuing, "I don't ever want that to happen again."

Mike just stared at Harvey, who was looking out the car window. The car rolled to a stop and Harvey was already getting out of the car, coming round to help him out.

"Thank you" Mike whispered to the empty car

The End

Okay, I know it was a crappy ending to a crappy story written by a crappy, piece-of-crap author. If you read it, I love you. Feel free to hate me for not updating in like, two years. I've had a rough time. If you don't want to read my sob story, exit now. I lost inspiration a while back and could never find it again. Then I got really depressed and went through some bad times. I lost a friend in the process. It's my fault, really. I acted like an idiot. Now I have to live with that. Anyways, here I am, like, two years later and I just wanted to finish this. It was killing me. So, I hated this chapter. I feel like it is horrible. If I ever get more inspiration, I may come back and fix it. Probably not though. I have an epilogue written, so I'll try to post that sometime tomorrow. Again, I apologize about the massive wait and crappy ending. Feel free to hate me as much as I do. Have a great life, readers. 3 Thanks for sticking with me. This was my first story and each and every one of you that reviewed, favorited, followed, and just even read it made it so special for me. I am so sorry to let you down.