"The things I do for love."
"Easy, Jaime. You're letting up, Mike… So it's my turn then…"
Of course, it was a hopeless endeavour to try to win at such a game against Mike. The goddamn kid remembered everything every character had ever said on screen.
Normally, Harvey wouldn't have tried a game he couldn't win, but there was not much else to do.
"'Chaos is a ladder.'"
Mike rolled his eyes. "Littlefinger."
"Nope." Harvey let a mischievous grin steal on his face.
"What? Of course it was him. „Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder… He said that to Varys in the throne room."
„He might have. I was thinking about the time when Bran said it though…"
"Bran? Bran never… Damn, that's in one of the episodes I haven't seen yet! That's not fair, Harvey! Also, I was technically right!"
"What is not fair is playing this game with you having an eidetic memory. I win."
Mike snorted, but couldn't help smiling. He had been to the point where he thought he would never see Harvey again and he just could not be mad at Harvey's obnoxious self.
He bit his lips, not sure how to bring up the next topic without Harvey biting his head off. He seemed in a good mood now and while Mike knew that Harvey never would have wished him any ill, his own passing out had certainly helped Harvey as the doctors' concern was on Mike now.
But even though Harvey was fine according to all the tests the doctors had run, Mike knew that something was slightly off with him. He couldn't place a finger on what it was exactly, and maybe he was just imagining things. But even if there wasn't anything, he still needed to talk about this.
"Harvey," he said softly and he could tell by the way Harvey's head snapped around that the lawyer knew something was up.
"Yes, darling?" he said though, to which Mike rolled his eyes. He so regretted the fiancé-move, as Harvey just refused to let it go.
"So, we leave tonight, spend the night at the hotel and then tomorrow we fly back to New York."
"Yes…? Your point being?"
"It just… It just seems too soon. You know what happened on the last flight…"
Harvey gave a long sigh, but he didn't seem ready to jump at Mike yet. "I do. But Mike, that has never happened before. Maybe it will not happen again. I just want to go back." Harvey looked at him with pleading eyes.
"I know…" Mike grasped for words. His gaze fell on Harvey, Harvey who was almost back to his normal colour and if one had put him in a suit, he might have looked just like his normal invincible self. But again, Mike tripped as he ran his eyes over Harvey because something, something was off.
"Mike?" Harvey prompted, shifting under Mike's gaze. He lowered the magazine he had been holding.
"You're right handed!" Mike blurted out, as the pieces finally started to come together.
"What?!" Harvey looked at Mike as if he had lost his mind, now Mike was certain.
"You're right handed, but you're holding the magazine with your left. You've also used your phone with the left earlier." Mike went through his memories, noticing more and more incidents where Harvey had favoured his left hand.
"You're crazy." But Mike had already gotten off his bed.
"Mike!" Ignoring Harvey's attempts to draw it away, Mike reached for Harvey's right arm. Harvey hissed when he took it and Mike found the lawyer's wrist swollen and bruised.
"Goddamn it, Harvey, I've been wondering the whole time what was wrong with you! I thought you were hiding chest pains!"
Harvey grimaced as Mike felt along his wrist.
„Could you be a bit more careful? That kind of hurts…"
"Oh, yes, God, sorry…" Mike drew back, trying not to laugh with relieve.
„Should I go get a doctor?" Mike added noticing how Harvey was cradling the swollen wrist to his chest.
Harvey gave a shrug.
Mike reached for the call button and sat down on Harvey's mattress. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I don't know," Harvey muttered, gaze fixed on his slowly moving fingers. "I suppose I didn't think it was that bad at first…"
"How bad is it?" Mike said, carefully reaching out to gently move his fingers over the swollen joint.
"It's fine when I don't move it," Harvey replied evasively.
"You're such a lawyer." Mike shook his head in exasperation. "How did that even happen?"
"Fell off the bed when you were still asleep. It wasn't too graceful."
Mike stepped back when the doctor came, watching as she asked Harvey to flex his fingers and rotate his wrist.
"That hurts!" Harvey snapped when she started prodding his wrist, trying to withdraw it. But it only made him wince in pain.
"Well, it's definitely sprained, Mr Specter," the doctor said, as she got up. "I'll schedule an x-ray to check for fractures. You should just keep it still until then."
Harvey nodded sullenly, a pained scowl on his face.
"Can't you give him some painkillers?" Mike called after the doctor as she left.
"If he wants them?" she asked shooting Harvey a questioning glance.
"No," Harvey said stubbornly, still glaring at his wrist.
The x-ray showed no fractures so that Harvey was given a simple brace and told not to use his hand for the next couple of days.
It seemed to Mike that Harvey could not quite decide whether to be all whiny or just pretend nothing was wrong. At the moment he seemed to have settled on complaining when it couldn't hurt more than a little and to hide his pain when there actually was any. That seemed more than a bit contradictory to Mike but as long as Harvey wasn't going to try any push-ups, he would simply roll with it.
"You really just brought suits?" Mike asked, carelessly tossing everything that was not causal wear out of the suitcase. They were about to leave the hospital and he needed to find something for Harvey to change into.
"Mike," Harvey said warningly, only just catching a 2000$ vest before it hit the floor. "No, I didn't bring anything else, so just give me a suit and be done with it."
"Fine," Mike said, picking a two part suit, as he had never really liked the vests anyway.
"You need help?" he asked gesturing towards Harvey's wrist.
"I'm fine, thanks," Harvey said with a glare.
Of course, he wasn't. He got the suit on well enough, and even managed to button his shirt one handedly, but binding his tie and his laces was just impossible.
Mike watched him struggle for a while, trying not to start laughing.
"You know," he said when he walked over to Harvey to take the tie from his hands. "I think now I know how it looked when I tried to bind that bow tie."
"No way," Harvey said, holding his head up so that Mike could bind the tie. "You were a lot worse." Mike rolled his eyes and bent down to do Harvey's laces.
"Voilà, little Harvey all set to go," he said when he was done. It brought him another glare but he didn't really care.
"I suppose we're not going out for dinner?" Harvey sighed, letting himself drop on the bed.
"Actually," Mike said, "I thought we could maybe risk going out… That is as long as you promise not to run away again."
Harvey raised a hand. "Scout's honour."
"You were a scout?"
„No, I just thought it sounded cool."
"Whoa, what do you think you're doing?"
They had just come back from dinner, which had been nice even though Harvey had been forced to stick with vegetables rather than steak. He had to admit though that eating steak would have been hard anyway. He had taken off the brace for dinner but it was still hurting and he couldn't have cut anything with it.
Anyway now they were back in the hotel and Mike showed every intention of following him into his room.
"Hm?" Mike asked innocently. "I just figured you'd need some help to get out of that suit of yours..."
"I don't," Harvey snapped, but he didn't object when Mike sat down on one of the armchairs.
Harvey hesitated a moment, then started to undress himself. He was tired, and he doubted Mike was going to leave any time soon.
Undoing laces and ties was easier than doing them, so he managed on his own. But when he tried to force the shirt over his hurt wrist, he twisted it and winced.
"You know they gave you the brace for a reason," Mike pointed out.
"To make me look ridiculous?" Harvey prompted.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Mike grabbed a pillow and threw it at Harvey.
It was supposed to be playful but by instinct Harvey lifted his hands to shield himself and gave a pained cry when the pillow hit his bad wrist.
"Damn it, Mike," he shouted, clutching the hurting joint to his chest. The pain was bad enough to make his eyes water, pulsing through the whole arm with every heartbeat.
"Shit, sorry," Mike exclaimed. Harvey felt his hands on his upper arms trying to guide him to the bed. "Come on, sit down..."
"I don't want to sit down!" Harvey snapped, half blind with pain. "Just leave, Mike!"
"Harvey, please, you know I didn't mean to hurt you..." Mike sounded desperate, but Harvey did not care. He was in pain and he wanted to be alone.
"Go!" he yelled, glaring at Mike in a way that would have sent even Donna running.
"Fine," Mike said backing away with raised hands. "I won't leave the room though."
If he had been in any condition to do it, Harvey would have thrown Mike out by the collar but even #the#thought of seizing anything with his throbbing right hand made him feel nauseous.
Eyes squeezed shut in pain he sank to his bed, just hoping that the pain would go away eventually.
Mike had withdrawn to the armchair again, his eyes never leaving Harvey, as the man sat there on his bed, face screwed in pain.
Mike would have liked to offer him some pain meds but by the look Harvey'd had on his face when he had tried to help earlier, he feared Harvey might try to hit him then. Mike did not really care about taking a punch, but it would only worsen Harvey's sprain.
It took some minutes but at last Harvey's breathing evened out and Mike quickly pretended to read through the hotel's menu. He also pretended not to notice when Harvey rummaged through his suitcase and did not step in when the lawyer tried to apply the wrist brace himself.
When he finally felt that Harvey was more frustrated with the brace than with him, Mike went over to the minibar and took out a bottle of white wine.
"I'm not supposed to drink," Harvey said with surprise, as Mike sat down next to him.
"It's for your wrist, stupid" Mike explained rolling his eyes and reached for the injured joint.
Harvey audibly winced when he touched the swollen wrist and Mike was careful not to twist it as he strapped the brace to it.
"Thanks," Harvey muttered, a shredder of relieve running through him as Mike held the cool bottle against his throbbing arm.
"You're welcome. And it is sort of my fault."
"I should have worn the brace." Harvey swallowed and for a while they just sat there in silence.
"You're not going to leave, are you?" Harvey asked at last.
Mike shook his head. "Not unless you actually throw me out."
"I yelled "Go!" at you half an hour ago. Feel like that should count as actually throwing you out."
"You didn't mean that," Mike pointed out.
"No I didn't..." With a sigh Harvey lay back on the bed. "I don't think I can sleep knowing you're watching me."
"You did just fine in the hospital," Mike pointed out.
"I was more tired then..."
"No you weren't," Mike said with a smile, and bent down to lift Harvey's feet onto the bed too. He reached for the duvet then and gently tugged Harvey in.
"You need to sleep too," Harvey protested but his voice was already thick with sleep.
"I wouldn't anyway," Mike pointed out, knowing it was true. He had slept for almost twenty-four hours in the hospital, and even if he hadn't he couldn't shake the image of Harvey having a heart attack in his sleep and not being there to hear.
"Should sleep," Harvey muttered again, and Mike wasn't sure if that referred to him or Harvey himself.
Either way, to lawyer's breath soon changed to the even rhythm of slumber and Mike returned to the armchair, just watching Harvey's chest rise and fall.