I wish to thank those who have made suggestions as to plot line. I will say that I liked both of them and I will do my best to incorporate some form of them into the story however I already had 22 chapters written before any of the suggestions came in so I cannot implement any of them until chapter 23 or later. Please do not think I do not value you opinion because I always love to hear your thoughts.

Chapter 14

Mike slept in the next morning; he'd only stayed up about an hour and a half later than when Harvey and Jessica have been making him recently and yet he felt as though he'd pulled an all-nighter when he'd passed out. Waking up he couldn't believe that it was nearly seven thirty. Why was he so tired? He'd always been able to get by on next to no sleep, always been able to function and keep up with everyone around him and yet he'd stayed up an hour and a half more than he had in a week and he had passed out. What the hell? Was he becoming soft? Well that couldn't be allowed to continue, it wasn't safe. With that in mind he rolled out of the bed and got ready for the day.

By the time Mike was dressed and had his bed made and the room cleaned and coffee ready, a cup already fixed to his liking (a little milk and a lot of sugar) and was taking his first sip when Harvey came out of the bathroom. "What are you doing?" Harvey asked irritated as he walked over and took the cup out of Mike's hands.

"I'm trying to drink my coffee" Mike said annoyed as he went to get it back.

Harvey poured the cup down the drain, "You're not allowed to have caffeine Mike" he said.

"Why not?" Mike asked annoyed. He couldn't believe Harvey had poured his coffee down the drain.

"Because you're already sleep deprived, you don't need to add to that by keeping yourself awake when your body tells you it needs sleep" Harvey argued. The doctor had said that it would take a while for Mike's body to fully catch up on the amount of sleep the kid's missed in his eighteen and a half years of life. Mike also functioned better when he's had both a nap and a good nights sleep, caffeine would prohibit his sleep and that wasn't healthy.

Mike scoffed, "I've been sleeping regularly for over a week, I think I'm caught up by now" he said picking up the coffee pot to pour himself another cup.

"Dr. Richardson says it'll take a while until you're fully caught up so until he says you're allowed caffeine, it's not going to happen" Harvey said taking the coffee pot out of Mike's hand.

"Hey!" Mike said.

"It's time for breakfast" Harvey said as he dumped the rest of the coffee and then started out the door knowing that Mike would follow. He was willing to give Mike a little leeway this morning; he and Jessica had spent a good hour plus video chatting with Donna last night about how Mike was trick-or-treating. Donna had been doing some research into abused children and said that Mike would probably try and push back after finally letting himself be a kid. It would be scary for him because he'd never done it before and he would try and fight them for control. Apparently Donna had decided to call her sister who was a child psychologist.

Harvey sighed as they sat down at the table, Mike had been silent the entire way down to breakfast and he didn't appear happy. He shot Jessica a look that basically said 'Donna was right' and Jessica sighed too taking a look at Mike. Breakfast was quiet, Mike didn't eat as much as usual and they both cut him some slack, they headed out to the yard after, today's sport was soccer.

Mike once again proved that he was surprisingly good at a sport. Everyone had ceased to be impressed and a lot chalked it up to Mike's youth but Harvey and Jessica couldn't help but be amazed. Mike shook his head when they complemented his abilities, he had become good at the sports for a reason, the different 'groups' (really they were gangs and drug dealers) would bet on the different teams, the teams that won were given five bucks per player and the teams that lost got nothing. You got good or you weren't picked to be on a team, there were only ten people per team and at least sixty kids would show up to play, Mike had gotten good quickly. Mike would never tell Harvey and Jessica that, they looked at the games as some actual part of childhood that Mike had been able to have, that wasn't necessarily true. If a 'group' lost a lot of money because of a team or a certain person then that team or person would show up with some cuts and bruises the next day if they showed up at all. Mike had been on the receiving end of their disappointments a few times but a lot less than the rest of the kids that showed.

Mike cut back what he ate at lunch, it wasn't that he couldn't have eaten the food in front of him and then some but he was becoming too compliant with everything that was happening. He had enjoyed Halloween and he loved all the candy he'd gotten but it had been a child's activity and Mike refused to be a child. Mike wasn't a child, he never had been, he'd been the person taking care of his grandmother, he'd been the one who'd gotten out of a very bad situation and survived on the streets for seven years. He knew that whatever was happening here it would end, no matter what Harvey or Jessica said, this wouldn't be continuing for much longer. Everyone got sick of him eventually. Mike had no intention of quitting the firm; he was respected by many of the senior and junior partners now and knew that any one of them would be glad to give him work to do which was nice. He also knew that he wouldn't find work as a lawyer anywhere else if he left Pearson Hardman, his age always stopped him, he wouldn't have his job now if he hadn't lied to Harvey.

Mike had made up his mind to head back to his own place after work on Tuesday and he wouldn't be going back. He knew it would hurt him, he actually kind of liked having someone look after him for a change but it wouldn't last and it would hurt a hell of a lot more when they dropped him so he would just get away first. Harvey and Jessica would be pissed but no one else would care so he would still have work to do and he would still be able to pay his bills, he'd just need to buy some new suits.

With his plan in mind Mike didn't argue when they told him to rest he just laid there on the bed feigning sleep for an hour and a half. He kept thinking about the past couple of weeks, hell the past month, and the way things had changed since Jessica had learned his secret. Mike couldn't help but feel mortified as he recalled crying on Jessica and burying his head into her shoulder, it had felt so nice at the time to be comforted but now, now it was just embarrassing. Mike wasn't one to cry, he hadn't cried since the day he ran away from the Donner's. He didn't cry when those older boys had him cornered in a closet for days and then beat him until he was unconscious and left him for dead, he'd just gotten up and limped out of there as soon as he could. He didn't cry when the security guard had him cuffed to a chair threatening him and hitting him he'd just waited the man out and then picked the lock on the cuffs and ran. He hadn't cried when the gang had jumped him and the rest of the kids on his team after they'd had a big loose, he'd just taken his punches and then left showing up the next day and winning. He hadn't cried when a couple of the older boys had learned that he was getting work at a local bar under the table, they had dragged him by his hair over to the owners house and chained him up and made him watch as they tortured the man for his safe code, Mike had agreed to crack the safe if they let the man alone (turns out he didn't know the combination, it was his partners safe). They had left after cleaning out the safe and then Mike had been left chained to the wall and been forced to watch the owner bleed out unable to help. Mike had tried to get the paperclip that was just out of his reach so he could get out of the chains and call 911 but he hadn't been able to, the last thing the owner had done before he died was push the clip into Mike's reach. Mike had picked the lock, wiped down his prints from the chains and safe and then run, calling 911 from a payphone three blocks over. Mike hadn't cried in eleven and a half years and yet one nightmare and he was bawling on Jessica's shoulder, he was becoming weak and that wasn't OK.

Mike got out of the bed as soon as he hit the hour and a half mark; Harvey and Jessica had made it clear that it was the least he was allowed to rest for. He looked around the room until he found the seminar sheet, it was an hour until the next seminar series started and there was no work to do so Mike figured he'd look over the sheet again. He wanted to pull out his Gameboy but he wouldn't, he wasn't a kid and he wasn't going to act like one anymore.

Harvey had been watching Mike as he 'slept'. Mike was good at faking sleep, if Harvey hadn't been in here each day during this time and each night, he would have believed that Mike had been sleeping. Harvey knew that Mike hadn't slept a wink however, Mike tended to look peaceful in his sleep unless he was having a nightmare, Mike hadn't been having a nightmare and he had looked completely blank, he hadn't been sleeping. Harvey wasn't surprised that Mike had gotten up as soon as possible, he had been a bit shocked when Mike had gone for the seminar list over the backpack though but he let it be, Mike wasn't doing anything wrong so Harvey wasn't going to stop him.

They sat there for the next fifty minutes before Harvey stood up, "Which seminar did you want to go to today?" he asked. The seminars today were more for entertainment than it was about law. Jessica had set up a German language seminar and an Italian language seminar (she was expanding the firms business to overseas companies) another seminar on cyber security (Mike was banned from that one) and the last one was on patent law.

Mike looked over at Harvey, "The cyber security one" he answered.

"You're not allowed to go to that one Mike, remember what happened last time?" Harvey asked, the whole reason it was available again was because it got so off topic that they had disbanded not long after Mike had been taken out.

"But I already know the others, I don't want to sit through them" Mike complained.

"What do you mean you already know the others?" Harvey asked.

"I already know how to speak, read and write in German and Italian and I learned patent law after that mishap with the satellite phone patent" Mike explained.

"You speak German and Italian?" Harvey asked surprised.

Mike shrugged, "I speak a lot of languages, spent a couple of months living out of the foreign language section of a rather large library during a bad winter once" he said in explanation.

"How many languages do you know?" Harvey asked.

"Um…"Mike thought for a moment, "36" he said finally.

"36, Mike how the hell did you learn 36 languages in a couple of months?" Harvey asked in awe.

"Oh, no, I only learned 11 languages in two months, I picked up the rest around New York, China town is a wonderful place to learn new languages and little Italy is good too. You just have to know where to go" Mike finished. Harvey just stood there in awe, "So, the cyber security seminar?" Mike said as he stood and headed towards the door.

Harvey turned and caught his arm, "No, you're still not allowed to go to that seminar" he said.

Mike was going to argue further but there was a knock at the door, "I'll get it" Mike said as he wrenched his arm out of Harvey's grasp and moved to the door.

"Harvey I…" Hardman said but he trailed off when he saw who was at the door, "Oh, Mr. Ross, I wasn't expecting to find you here" he said.

Mike was still in a rather irritated mood so he might not have spoken as politely as he should have, "I was made to share a room with Harvey" he said.

"Mike" Harvey admonished, he might not like Hardman but that did not mean Mike was allowed to be rude either. He walked over and put himself between Mike and Hardman, "What are you doing here?" he asked Hardman.

Hardman directed his attention to Harvey as Mike crossed his arms and glared at Harvey for being pushed back, "I was just wondering if something had happened to you, I didn't see you in any of the seminars downstairs earlier" Hardman said.

"Everything's fine I just had some work I needed to get done" Harvey answered politely as Mike scoffed in the background.

"Oh, well I'll just let you be then" Hardman said shooting one last glance at Mike before turning and heading down the hall.

Harvey shut the door and turned to Mike, "What's with the attitude?" he asked. Harvey was really trying to keep calm, it was clear that Donna's sister had been correct, Mike was pushing the limits and Harvey had been doing his best but Mike was really pushing it.

"What attitude?" Mike asked snarkily. He was sick of being treated like a kid, he was sick of being given special treatment and he was sick of having his movements restricted.

"Mike, drop the attitude or you'll be standing in the corner" Harvey warned.

Oh that struck a nerve, "I'm not standing in the fucking corner Harvey" Mike stated.

Harvey stepped forward, "Corner now" he ordered.

"No" Mike growled back.

Harvey took Mike's arm and led him towards the nearest empty corner. Mike struggled the entire way but lost the battle and soon found himself staring at a boring wall. "You will stand there until you calm down and when you're ready to talk civilly let me know otherwise stay quiet" Harvey ordered.

Mike stood there all of three seconds after Harvey backed away. He started heading right for the door only to be stopped by Harvey, "Let me go" Mike said.

Harvey dragged Mike back to the corner without saying a word, once Mike was standing there Harvey walked over to the desk and sat back down.

It went on like this for a good forty minutes before Mike finally gave in and just stood there. He was there for another thirty minutes before he was just too bored and exhausted to fight any longer and turned around to talk to Harvey. "I'm ready to talk" he said quietly.

Harvey looked up at Mike, "Take a seat" he said gesturing to the armchair.