Chapter 11
Harvey walked into the office at around 5:30 that evening. He was a bit surprised to see that Donna was not at her desk, but decided to wait a few minutes before going to look for her in case she had just run to the bathroom or the file room for something. Harvey waited impatiently for the next ten minutes before getting up and going to see if Jessica knew where Donna had gotten to.
Harvey walked to Jessica's office and was almost there when Louis stopped him. "What do you want Louis?" he asked annoyed at the interruption.
"Harvey," Louis said a bit nervous. He had just been on his way to inform Jessica of his dealings with Devon, Kyle and Seth. "Look, I just want to say that I'm sorry about what happened with Mike…" Louis started.
"Mike?!" Harvey exclaimed. "What happened to Mike?" How could something have happened to Mike? He was only out of the office for two and a half hours, and he comes back and Louis is apologizing and apparently something is wrong with Mike.
"Mike's f…" Louis started, but he was once again interrupted this time by Jessica opening her office door.
"Boys, I don't think this is a conversation that needs to occur in the middle of the office," she said as she ushered them into the - near - privacy of her office.
As Harvey and Louis walked into Jessica's office, Donna stopped reading and both she and Mike looked up. When Donna saw Louis, she immediately started to question him "What did you do to them? It better have been harsh Louis or I will take it out on you and them," she said.
"It was," Louis assured.
"What's going on?" Harvey asked, starting to become annoyed. When he walked in, he had seen Mike sitting on the couch with Donna. He had his head on her shoulder and she had one arm slung around him, pulling the kid close as she held a book in her hand and was reading to him. Harvey hadn't expected that scene. From what Louis had said, he was expecting Mike to be hurt, but the kid was just eerily silent.
"There was an incident with three of the associates while you were gone," Jessica answered Harvey's question.
"What kind of incident?" Harvey asked as he turned to Louis. The man was in charge of the associates and Harvey had been getting really tired of the way they had been treating Mike before he knew about Mike's age and now Harvey wasn't going to put up with it.
"It seems as though they noticed Mike in your office today and they became jealous that he was allowed to lounge on your couch reading, while they were assigned the paperwork that was supposed to have been given to Mike," Jessica said to Harvey. "Although, giving Mike a stack of work that you then had to spread around six other associates isn't exactly fair or appropriate distribution of labour," she said, turning to Louis.
"What did they do?" Harvey asked Jessica. To Louis, he exclaimed, "Six other associates? Really, Louis?"
"ENOUGH!" Donna yelled. She had been watching them fight as they got more and more agitated, and she knew that all of the yelling wasn't going to help anything. "There are too many conversations going on at once. First discuss what Louis did with the three imbeciles and then discuss Louis loading Mike with obscene amounts of work," she said once she had gotten everyone's attention.
"OK, what did you to do the three associate?" Jessica asked Louis.
"I…" Louis started, but he was interrupted, only this time it was by Mike.
"Why did you have to do anything to them?" Mike asked. He hadn't liked what they had done, but it hadn't been the first time that he had been cornered in a room. Only last time, he had been eight and it had been a tiny closet in an abandoned building that he had been chased into by some older kids who had seen a restaurant employee sneak him some real food.
They had beat the employee within an inch of his life when the man refused to give them any. Then they had hunted Mike down, chased him into that closet, and then shifted guard for three and a half days, before Mike had no choice but to come out or die of dehydration. When Mike came out, he was also beaten, but he was so weak that they didn't hit him for too long. It had taken Mike two weeks to fully recover. In Mike's point of view, what Kyle, Seth and Devon had done hadn't been all that bad, other than the stupid reminder they'd given him.
"They threatened you and trapped you in a conference and then said that they were happy to wait until you came out so that they could continue," Jessica said.
"They did what?!" Harvey yelled.
"They've been dealt with," Louis assured.
"They didn't need to be dealt with," Mike insisted.
"That's it!" Donna said, loudest of all, and once again, she had the attention of everyone in the room. "This is ridiculous! No one is getting anywhere!" she said. Turning to Mike, Donna started, "What they did to you was anything but alright, and there has to be consequences for that kind of behaviour or they'll soon end up in jail," she explained.
Donna waited for Mike to give some sort of reaction. "But what they did wasn't really that bad. I've had worse," Mike said.
That was not what any of them expected nor wanted to hear. "Worse?" Louis choked out.
Mike looked up a little startled; he had forgotten that Louis was there in the midst of everything. "Nothing," he said quickly.
Harvey, Jessica and Donna were willing to let this drop for now because they knew that they were never going to get an answer from Mike with Louis in the room. Louis, on the other hand, wanted an explanation if for no other reason than sheer curiosity. However, a pointed look from Jessica and a nudge from Harvey kept him quiet.
"Just because worse things have happened doesn't make what they did any less wrong," Harvey said to Mike.
Mike stared at Harvey for a few moments, warring with himself, before asking quietly, "Then what does it make what happened before?"
"Something that never should have happened and something that should have been dealt with back then. I'm sure it would have put a few people into jail," Jessica said.
Mike was silent after that and Donna made the decision that the kid really didn't need to be here for this. They were all used to Mike joining them during important conversations, but this was just too much. Mike was a kid and they needed to remember that. A conversation like this wasn't something that he could be apart of anymore; they were going to have to monitor certain things around Mike from now on.
Donna decided to start here. "Alright, well, Mike and I will be heading out while the three of you talk," she said.
Mike whipped his head around to look at Donna. "I'm not going anywhere," he said.
"Mike, head over to my office. I'll be there in a little while," Harvey said. He also believed that Mike shouldn't be in the room. Not after Mike's outburst when he learned that Louis had punished the other associates.
"I'm not going anywhere. I want to know what happened to Kyle, Seth and Devon," Mike stated.
"Michael," Jessica said. "Go with Donna to Harvey's office," she ordered.
Mike looked from Harvey to Jessica and then to Donna, hoping that one of them would relent, but none did. Harvey and Jessica just stood waiting for him to go and Donna stood next to him, waiting for Mike to stand up.
"No," Mike said.
"Wasn't an option, kiddo," Donna said as she grabbed Mike's arm and started dragging him out of the room. Much to Mike's annoyance Donna won and he soon found himself on his was to Harvey's office.
Once Mike and Donna had left, Harvey and Jessica turned back to Louis. "I lectured to them, I fired them and then I made it so that they can't get a job anywhere in this state," Louis said quickly.
Harvey and Jessica thought about this for a moment. It wasn't a bad punishment at all. Louis really had handled this. "Good," Jessica said.
Louis breathed a sigh of relief, but that ended once Harvey spoke, "Now, why is it that you give Mike work that gets passed out between at least six other associates?" Harvey said.
Louis gulped. "Mike's the best associate in the firm," he said honestly. "The kid gets more work done in an hour than the rest of them can do in a day, so I give him more."
"He's also my associate!" Harvey exclaimed, "While he can get more work done, he also already has work from me. All you're doing is overloading the kid."
"This is going to stop," Jessica said.
"But he does more work than the others. Things get done faster with Mike around. We're actually caught up on out paperwork," Louis reasoned.
"Paperwork is not more important than a person's health, Louis. We were doing fine before Mike came, and he is not required in order to get things done around here. I'm not saying that Mike isn't a great asset, but he isn't the only associate we have," Jessica said.
"I work him no harder than I worked as an associate," Louis said.
"But you were an adult in his late twenties whereas Mike's just a kid!" Harvey said.
"What do you mean?" Louis asked. He knew that Harvey and Donna often referred to Mike as 'the kid,' but Louis just figured that had to do with Mike being younger than the two of them. Louis would admit that Mike looked younger than the other associates, but not by much. That was, until today. Today, Mike looked as though he would fit in at the local high school.
Harvey just about slapped himself; he had just basically told Louis that Mike was really a child. He was about to correct himself when he realized that this wasn't really a required secret. Mike wouldn't be fired just because he was eighteen since he had a real degree from Harvard Law School. The only reason he was debating this was because Mike didn't like his own age. "He's eighteen," Harvey said.
"He's how old?" Louis asked.
"You've heard of the teenager who tested out of Harvard, right?" Jessica asked him.
"Yeah," Louis said, "Who hasn't? The kid's a legend, first person to ever test out, and the youngest person to ever graduate."
"Well, that person's Mike," Harvey said.
"What?" Louis asked, "Is this a joke?"
"No," Jessica answered, "We're serious, Mike is eighteen. He really is that kid. I did the background checks myself."
Louis paused. He hadn't known Mike's age. He treated Mike like every other associate because he had thought that Mike was like every other associate. "I didn't know," he said.
"We know. However, you know the truth now, so I expect you to cut back on the amount of work you assign Mike," Harvey said. He couldn't be too upset with Louis since he was also guilty of overloading Mike. Granted, not as badly, but still.
"If you give Mike the same amount that you give the others then everything should work out. He's still a fast worker, so it shouldn't be too much work," Jessica said.
"Agreed," Louis said.
With the discussion over, Louis left and Harvey turned to Jessica. "What do you say we get Mike out of here in about an hour? We can go to my place and I'll make dinner," he said.
"Agreed, only we'll go to my place since that's where Mike is staying," Jessica said.
"Agreed," Harvey said and then he left Jessica's office and headed towards his own. As Harvey walked into his office, he heard Donna and Mike arguing.