This chapter contains mention of spanking.
Mike was 8 the first time Jessica and Harvey grounded him. They've scolded him multiple times in the past and threatened to ground him a few times, but they've never acted on their threat. Mike was usually a well-behaved child. He always followed the rules and Jessica and Harvey were patient with him.
Nevertheless, this time, Mike had gone way too far. It was a Sunday and Jessica had the day off. Harvey was working in the morning and he would be joining them in the afternoon to go to the zoo.
Jessica was cooking their lunch while Mike was playing outside with his friend Trevor. The two boys lived not too far from each other. Every weekend, Trevor and Mike would spend the entire day playing outside, whichever the weather. Trevor's mother had even volunteered to watch after Mike when Jessica and Harvey had to work on the weekends.
Jessica was in the middle of making a giant soup when Mike came running into the kitchen. "Mom, Trevor wants to go to the park with his mom, can we go?" he asked, breathlessly.
Jessica hated to say no to him, but Harvey would be there soon, and he would want to leave for the zoo early enough. When Mike and Trevor went to the park, there was no way they would be back before it was dark outside. "No Mike" Jessica told him. "Your father will be there soon" she explained.
"But- "he began to answer.
"No buts. You must not leave the neighborhood. Now, you have a few minutes left before lunch is ready, why don't you go back and play for a while." Jessica said to her son.
Mike putted but went back outside, nonetheless.
Maybe 15 minutes later, lunch was ready, and Jessica went to fetch Mike outside.
"Mike, say bye to Trevor, lunch is ready" she called from the backdoor. She waited for a few moments to hear Mike's footsteps coming back inside the house, but none came. Odd, she thought. Maybe he didn't hear her. She put on her shoes and went to see him outside. Normally, Trevor and he would play soccer or hockey in the backyard. But they weren't there. Sometimes, they would go to Trevor's house. Sighing to herself, Jessica went to Trevor's. She had thought she didn't need to mention to Mike to not leave too far away.
Arriving at Trevor's, she knocked on the front door. She waited a few moments, but no one came to answer her. She then went around to see if they were in the backyard. She knew Trevor's mom wouldn't mind. But then she saw no one. She immediately started to panic. Her son and his friend were nowhere to be found, but she had seen Mike not 20 minutes ago. She ran back to her house to see if Mike had miraculously appeared. He was still not there.
She ran inside the house and grabbed her cellphone. She directly called Harvey. He didn't take time to answer, as usual. "Jess, I just finished, I'm on my way over" he told her, oblivious to the situation.
"Harvey, it's Mike. I don't know where he is", she told him with a panicked voice.
"What do you mean?" Harvey was instantly listening.
"I went to call him to eat but he is not in the backyard. I went to Trevor's house; he is not there also."
"Did he talk about somewhere he wanted to be?"
"Yes… He said he wanted to go to the park, but I told him no" Jessica explained. The idea of going to the park to see if he was there had crossed her mind, but she knew he wouldn't disobey her like that.
Harvey sighed at the other end of the line. Until then, Mike had been the perfect little boy, but he knew he would try to push the boundaries. "Listen Jess, I'm going to go at the park. You stay there in case he comes back" he explained his plan, trying to sound calm.
"No, Mike always obeys me. He wouldn't do that" Jessica argued.
"That's what we're going to see. I'll call you if there is anything" Harvey then hung up. He instructed Ray to go to the park first. He had a feeling he would find Mike there. Until then, Mike has been their perfect little boy. He was bound to disobey once. Harvey had tried to consult Jessica about how they would handle Mike's discipline, but she always said they would cross the bridge when they get there. Mike had never needed more than a few words to be put back on tracks. But it was different this time.
When Harvey was a kid, his father would spank his ass if he ever had to disobey or if he did something mischievous. Even though he loved his father, Harvey would not do that to Mike. He could not bear to ear him cry and knowing he was the cause of that pain.
Harvey knew Jessica's parents has a similar approach. She may be an amazing lawyer who didn't show her emotion, but she also wouldn't be able to make Mike suffer. They had to find a way to discipline their son that would please them both.
Soon, Ray pulled over at the park. Harvey got out and his driver waited for him inside the car.
It didn't take two minutes that Harvey had found his son on the monkey bar alongside his best friend Trevor. The child was laughing at something his friend had said. His fun was about to end very soon. Harvey crossed the park in three strides. He was furious. A part of him knew the child would disobey, but he still hoped he had been wrong. Seeing his child there, unknowingly worrying both of his parents, had Harvey seeing red. Lying to Jessica and leaving without telling her was inacceptable and Mike was about to see why he shouldn't disobey his parents.
"Mike" Harvey yelled from across the park. As soon as the child saw his father, all the color drained from his face. He knew he was in big trouble. Harvey crossed the park in a few strides. "Do you know in how much trouble you are?" the father asked as soon as he was near his son. Mike couldn't speak as fear was setting in him. "Your mother is worried sick at her house. You disappeared without saying anything." Harvey explained.
"Sorry" Mike croaked.
"You will be sorry" Harvey promised before dragging Mike across the park by his arm.
Trevor's mother, who was watching the two boys play came to see them. "What's going on, Harvey?" she asked. She put her cardigan around herself as the wind was blowing hard. It was clear to Harvey she was unknowing to his child's shenanigans.
"Jessica called me because she didn't know where Mike was. You wouldn't know anything about it?" he asked. At his side, Mike dropped his eyes to the floor.
"Jessica didn't know?" she said, surprised. "Mike assured me she was okay with him coming to the park with Trevor and I. If I had known Jessica didn't approve, I wouldn't have let him come" she added.
"Thank you. I believe you. We'll let you know when Mike will be out of punishment." Harvey said as he continued to drag his son to the car. Ray was still waiting for them. Harvey and Mike got inside the car. Harvey instructed him to drive them to Jessica's house. On the way there, Harvey phoned Jessica to let her know he had found Mike and they were on their way. All the way to the house, Mike was silent. Clearly, he felt guilty. Good, thought Harvey.
Soon, they arrived at the house. Jessica was waiting for them on the porch, arms crossed. Mike got out of the car, he went directly inside the house, without looking at Jessica. As he went by, the managing partner just wanted to smack him on the back of his head. "Go to your room. We'll talk there when Harvey and I will be ready" was all she said to her son. She could hear his little footsteps up the stairs.
Jessica looked at Harvey with what he could describe as disappointment. Mike was their little boy and he had disobeyed them without second thought. Jessica had been worried sick. She had thought about all the scenarios that could have happened. Losing Mike would be the hardest thing to happen to her and she knew Harvey felt the same.
"I can't believe he did that" she finally said.
"He didn't mean to make you worry. He just wanted to spent time with his friend."
"Still, I told him no. He should've listened" Jessica insisted.
Harvey could only nod. They needed to deal with his behavior. Together they went up the stairs. When they opened the door to Mike's room, they were surprised to discover all his clothes and his favorite toys were all scattered around his room. Mike was generally pretty messy, but they could always see the floor. Not this time. In the middle of his room, Mike putting everything he own in his Batman suitcase. Tears were making their way down his cheeks. From time to time, he would sniffle. He hadn't notice them yet, too busy with his mission.
"Mike?" Harvey called. He was preoccupied by his son's behavior. He had never imagined he would want to run away, even at 6 years old.
They saw Mike's shoulders jump but he didn't look up at them and he continued to pack his things away.
"What are you doing, sweetie?" Jessica asked, while kneeling to his height. They could hear their son was crying harder.
"You're going to send me away" was all Mike could say between sobs. That broke Jessica's heart. It was the last thing she wanted him to believe.
"We would never" she assured him.
"But you're not my real parents. You are my foster parents. Ricky at school told me foster parents got rid of kids easily" Mike explained to Harvey and Jessica, finally looking up.
According to Mike's teacher, Ricky was bad news. He was a bad influence on his peers and Jessica and Harvey wanted him as far away as possible for this exact reason.
It was Harvey's turn to kneel. "Listen Mike. Yes, you screwed up today. We are disappointed in you, but we would never send you away. This is not what we do" he said, placing his hand on top of Mike's little one.
Mike found the courage to look directly at Harvey's eyes to see if he was serious. He just hoped it wasn't one of his joke that he was playing on Mike. But he only saw seriousness and love.
Mike smiled at him, reassured by his words. He started getting everything out of his suitcase.
Harvey and Jessica were glad their son had changed his mind. They had read foster kids had sometimes a hard thrusting their foster parents, but it was definitely not Mike's case.
Jessica, being the nearest to Mike, wrapped him in a big hug, relieved he was finally safe at home. When they parted away, Jessica and Harvey became serious again and were ready to talk about Mike's behavior.
"Mike" Harvey started "we want to know why you went to the park, even though your mother had forbidden you"
The little boy looked down at his hands in his lap. He knew they had to talk, but he wanted this conversation to wait.
"You don't know how worried I was" Jessica confessed. "I've looked everywhere for you "
Mike felt guiltier. He never wanted for his mother to be worried. "When I told Trevor you didn't want me to go the park, he told me that if we told his mother you'd agreed, no one would know it"
Harvey wasn't surprised by this confession. He'd never liked Trevor. He was always putting wrong ideas in Mike's head. "So, you believed Trevor?" Harvey asked. Mike nodded. His father sighed.
Harvey and Jessica shared a look. They needed to come up with a punishment. "Mike, you are forbidden to see your friend Trevor for the next three weeks. You can't play with your video games too." Harvey said. He wanted Mike to remember his punishment but didn't want the boy to be miserable. One look at Jessica told him she agreed with him.
Mike sighed. It wasn't as worst as he had expected. The last thing he wanted was for his parents to send him away. Anything else wasn't a punishment if he had Jessica and Harvey by his sides.
"And it begins today. We are not going to the zoo." Jessica added.
Mike looked disappointed but he knew better than to argue. He nodded at them.
Jessica was about to leave the room when Harvey stopped her by putting a hand on her arm. He got some papers out of his coat and handed them to Jessica. Mike was watching with interest.
"I wanted to talk to you both about this over dinner, but seeing we are not going, I'll talk to you about it now" he started. "I asked for some adoption papers. If you both agree, Mike will be our real son by the end of the year. I have a few contacts." He explained with a smile. He knew both Mike and Jessica would be thrilled by this. They've talk about it a few times, but they've never acted on it.
The way their faces lit up told Harvey what he wanted to know.