Chapter 2.

Harvey sighed and looked at his watch again. Mike was so late. He was annoyed about it and had been for an hour now. Sure, Mike was often late, but two hours was kind of stretching it. They were going to finish up the case, and Mike was sitting on some of the information. He was going to have a talk with the kid about this. Harvey looked passed his tardiness most of the time, but this was too much. Mike was going to have step it up and take the whole thing of coming to work on time a bit more serious.

He stood up and walked outside to Donna's desk.

"Have you seen Mike?" He asked, leaning towards her desk.

"No, I haven't. Did you try to call him?" She asked without taking her eyes from her computer screen.

"Yes, I did."

"How many times?"

Harvey narrowed his eyes. He didn't feel like telling her that. But she raised her eyebrows at him then, so he had to.

"Four."

"Well, Harvey, if you are that worried, maybe you should go over to his place."

"I'm not worried." Harvey muttered. "Just send him to me when he gets here." He went back to his computer and tried to ignore that fact that Donna's comment about him worrying wouldn't leave his mind. He rolled his eyes at himself; he wasn't even worried. But he didn't get why Mike couldn't just answer his damn phone.

He managed to wait about half an hour before he called again. Just as before, signal after signal went through but without an answer from Mike. Mike was now two and a half hours late. That must be some kind of record.

He once again walked out to Donna. She looked up at him and smiled a little. "I haven't seen or heard from him. I tried calling him as well, but no one picked up."

"Damn it. Where is he? This is not normal even for him."

"I agree. You should go to his place and make sure nothing has happened."

"Come on, Donna. I can't go over there. He might think that I care."

"Oh please, Harvey. Who do you think you are fooling? Everyone already knows that you do. Including Mike."

"What are you talking about? Everyone?"

"Every person with eyes." Donna teased him, but Harvey had suddenly gotten a sort of uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. Could people really tell right away that he cared about Mike? His mind took him back to the day before and to the encounter outside the court.

"Harvey are you alright?" Donna suddenly said. He looked at her. "You were staring out in space."

"It's nothing." He said.

"So, do I need to reschedule your lunch meeting?"

Harvey shook his head. "I'll give him some time, if he's not here when I get back, I'll head over to his place." Harvey decided.

Donna nodded but didn't say anything else. Harvey went back into his office and really hoped that Mike would turn up before that. He didn't know why he felt so uneasy. It was just stupid. The kid was probably just sleeping in or had forgotten his phone somewhere. Harvey wasn't going to be the one who went over to Mike's place just to find him having overslept.

The lunch meeting went well, and he had managed to forget about Mike's tardiness. But when he walked through the bullpen he stopped for a moment at Mike's desk and leaned over it to checked to see if Mike's stuff was there, since the man himself wasn't. He didn't see any traces of the man and he felt annoyed again. It was almost two a clock!

"Have you heard from him?" Harvey asked as soon as he saw Donna.

She frowned and shook her head. "He's still not answering his phone. I searched the office as well, every place I could think of. But he is not here." She said. "Are you heading over there now?"

"I shouldn't have to watch him like this, he's a grown man."

"But you are worried, so just go, before I will."

"I'm not worried." Harvey started to claim, but she wouldn't have it.

"Yes, you are, I can tell Harvey. Will you just tell me why?"

He sighed a bit and then mentioned towards his office. She followed him in there and closed the door behind her before sitting down.

"Do you remember the case about that factory we put out of business?" He asked her.

"Yes, a bunch of people were let go from one day to the next."

"Yes. Well, yesterday outside court Mike and I was approached by two of them. They wanted me to take on some case which would involve a lot of having to play dirty. They said I owe them. When I turned them down the guy said I would regret it."

"Oh god, and now you think they might have done something to Mike?"

"No, of course I don't think so. It's just a bit, I don't know, unnerving that the kid's not here today of all days."

"Harvey, what if they actually did something to him? Do you think they would be capable of that?"

"No, I don't think they would go after him like that. Mike wasn't even involved in the case; it was years ago. I don't get why they came now."

"But you can't be sure."

Harvey sighed and looked away.

"No, you can't. Just go Harvey. If you are so worried about Mike mocking you, if he's just sleeping in, bring a file with you and tell him he needs to get it done."

Harvey rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'm going." He decided not to bring any files with him though. If Mike had overslept Harvey would just yell at him for doing so on a workday. In the car on his way over to Mike's place he tried to tell himself that it in fact was possible to sleep in for about seven hours.

When he arrived at Mike's place, he didn't think much about the broken bike that was laying thrown next to the entrance to Mike's apartment complex. It was missing both wheels and the handle looked like someone had tried to saw it off. Harvey walked up the few stairs and felt the door. It was locked. Damn it. He was at a loss on what to do for a moment, but then to his luck a young mother with her child stepped out of the door. She just glanced at Harvey as he walked past her inside. He wondered how Mike could actually live in a place like this as he walked towards the stairs. It was trash thrown on the floor and smelled a bit weird.

When he reached Mike's floor, he knocked and waited. He tried to listen for some sounds but didn't hear anything. He knocked a few more times before trying the door handle. He wasn't surprised to find it locked. He even yelled Mike's name then after knocking again. He didn't get a reply. Either the kid ignored him, or he wasn't home, most likely the second option. He swore as he walked back to the stairs again. Where was he?

He stopped close to the door when he got down to the exit. He thought that he maybe should leave Mike a note or something on his door to let him know he had been there looking for him. That would give the guy some well-deserved guilt. Of course, he didn't have anything to write on with him, so that's why he decided to take a closer look at the trash by the wall to see if someone had left some piece of mail or something that he could use to leave Mike a note.

That was when he saw the messenger bag.

It looked just like the one Mike had. It was thrown on the floor, the strap of it, broken. Harvey went to pick it up and swore when things fell out of it. At once he felt himself stiffen. That file folder, now on the floor, looked suspiciously similar to the ones the firm used. He picked that up as well, still keeping the bag in a tight grip. He drew a deep breath when he realized that it was the briefs Mike had been working on yesterday that he was holding in his hand. It was Mike's bag.

He searched the floor and with an increasing feeling of unease he ended up with both keys and a phone in his hands. He pressed the button on the phone and swallowed hard as the display lit up showing seven missed calls. What was going on here?

He found his own phone and dialed Mike's number. Sure enough, the display on the phone in his hand lit up again. Not that he had doubted that it in fact was Mike's phone, but now he knew. He put the stuff back into Mike's bag and rushed up the stairs again. The key opened up the door revealing an empty apartment. Harvey swore to himself as he locked the door behind him to leave. He brought Mike's bag with him. What the hell had happened here and where was the kid?

Before heading back to his car again he stopped by the bike he had passed earlier. It must be Mike's. Something had happened here, either last night when Mike got home, or this morning before he got out of the door. He had no idea what. And what should he do now? Should he call the police?

If something had happened to Mike it would have to had happened no earlier than eighteen hours ago, and if it was this morning, maybe six or seven hours. And what would he tell the cops? That he found Mike's stuff outside his apartment, behind a locked door? He was pretty sure they would dismiss him.

After some thinking he decided to head to the office and give it a try anyway. He could be persuasive after all.

As soon as Donna saw him in the corridor she stood up and came towards him.

"Harvey? What is that? Is that his bag?"

"Yes. Something is wrong. He wasn't there, and I found this on the floor in the hallway of his building. Look, it's ripped." He showed her the bag. She took it from his hands, and he watched her horrified expression. She looked up at him.

"And he wasn't there? There was no sight of him?"

Harvey shook his head. "No, I found his phone and keys on the floor. I went up there, but the place looked untouched."

"Oh my god, what do think happened to him? This can't be good right?"

Harvey shook his head. "No." He said, took the bag back and went into his office. Donna followed him.

"What are you going to do, Harvey? You need to find him!"

"I know Donna."

"How? What will you do?"

"That I don't know. I don't know what happened. He might just be…"

"Be what? Do you think this has to do with what happened yesterday?"

Harvey closed his eyes for a moment at her question. That was what had been on his mind ever since he had found Mike's messenger bag. He shook his head.

"Why would they go after him? It doesn't make any sense. It must be something else. Maybe he got in trouble with a neighbor or something."

Donna reached for the bag again and inspected it closer. "This looks like it was ripped. Maybe he was mugged?"

"Why would they leave it all behind then? Even his phone was there."

"Oh god…" Donna whispered. Harvey nodded.

"Don't worry. I'll find him. I'm going to call the police."

Donna nodded and stood up to leave.

Harvey got his phone out and placed the call, but as he had thought he was met with resistance. The police officer he spoke to questioned if the bag on the floor was all the evidence of wrongdoing that Harvey had. Harvey then told him about the incident from yesterday. The officer questioned if there had been a threat or not. Harvey could place a report with them, but so far, they wouldn't do much about it. Harvey was angry and questioned it.

"Something has obviously happened to him, and you won't do shit!"

"From what you are telling me, he could be anywhere."

Eventually Harvey was asked to contact them again later if Mike still wasn't found. Harvey felt furious when he hung up. Basically, it was nothing they would do. Harvey had only gotten vague reassurance that it would be looked into.

Harvey felt frustrated, mostly because he didn't know what the next step for him to take was. He didn't have a clue on where he should search for Mike. He didn't know what had happened or if the kid even was in trouble. Everything pointed towards that he was.

It was a normal Friday and Mike was supposed to be at work. Harvey had sent him home earlier last night for doing a good job the other day, and now he didn't show up. Something was definitely wrong.

It was almost five a clock now, Harvey regretted waiting this long with looking into Mike's whereabouts. Where the hell was the kid? He really needed to find him, but how do you find someone in a city like New York, when you had no idea on where to look.

He did have one clue though, and that was the incident from yesterday. It felt far stretched but what if Mike's disappearance actually had something to do with those guys.

Harvey had first seen them on Wednesday when he walked to his car that morning. Normally he wouldn't have noticed something like that, but these guys hadn't been subtle. They had been standing close to the entrance of his building, but far enough away so that building security wouldn't react. Mike's place didn't have any security. Harvey had stopped for a while to glare at them, two men that didn't belong in this neighborhood. They had just stared back at him and hadn't moved when he got inside his car. Harvey had thought then that they had looked familiar, but it was first yesterday outside court that he had remembered from where. At least one of the guys had been present in the court when Harvey had won a case against their employer, which had led to the company being forced to let a lot of people go.

Harvey now regretted that he hadn't kept the paper that had been pushed into his hands by one of the guys. He didn't remember any details of what had been printed on it. He should have had Mike take a look at it as well, he would have remembered. It wouldn't have helped him now though, because Mike wasn't here.

"Donna, get in here!" He called for her. He needed her help. He explained the phone call with the police and explained what he wanted to do.

"I don't know if this is related, but it's the only thing I got. We'll start look into it, and if we can't find something, I'll just head out and look for him."

Donna just nodded. "You should let Jessica know." She said.

"As soon as I know something more, I will."

"Harvey…"

"Let's just go through this, I need a name."

They started to work with going throw the files and documents of the case. Once in a while one of them tried again to call Mike. Donna even went to search the office once more, but with no luck. Why would Mike be there but not come to see them? It was almost eight when Donna looked up from what she had in front of her.

"Harvey, what if this got nothing to do with what happened to Mike? I know this is the only lead you got, but maybe you should head out and look for him."

"I know this might be a dead-end Donna, but where do you suggest I search?" He stood up and went over to a window to look out, he needed to clear his head a bit. That was when his phone beeped. He turned towards it and for a moment he locked eyes with Donna. Then he grabbed the phone.

"It's says it's from an anonymous number."

"Well, what is it?"

It was a text message with a picture attached. He clicked on the picture at first to enlarge it, and then he couldn't tear his eyes away from it. He just stared at it as he swore again and again quietly to himself. This was so bad.

The picture was pretty dark and a bit blurry, but Mike was in it. The upper part of his body was visible, and he was tied to a chair. He was looking straight into the camera with a defiant expression even though you couldn't see much of his bruised-up face since a piece of tape was covering his mouth.

"Oh my God! Mike!" Donna had come over and was looking at his phone over his shoulder.

Harvey clenched his teeth and forced himself to relax his grip on his phone a little.

"They took him. The bastards took him."

"Oh God…" Donna mumbled again and threw her hand over her mouth. She already had tears in her eyes.

Harvey forced himself to close the image to read the message. It was short but forceful.

One million. You have three days.
No police or he dies.
Further instructions on Monday.

Harvey breathed out deeply. If Donna hadn't been standing right next to him, he would have had grabbed the nearest thing and thrown it across the room. He wanted to scream. Someone took Mike. Grabbed him at his home and now wanted Harvey to pay them one million dollars in ransom. One million! One million or Mike would be killed. Involve the police and Mike would be killed. And this was all on him. Mike had nothing to do with this. He had been taken because of his association with Harvey. This was his fault. Mike was hurt because of him!

"Harvey?" Donna brought him back to reality. He looked at her. Tears were still in her eyes. "What are we going to do?"

Harvey swallowed and stared at her. Her question echoed in his mind. What were they going to do? What could he do other than to pay? He shook his head a little.

"I don't know Donna. Damn it! How the hell could this happen? I'm going to kill them! I'm going to fucking kill them."

"Do you think it's the people from yesterday?"

"It must be. Who else?"

Donna didn't answer, instead she took the phone from his hand and opened the picture again. She sank down in a chair with the phone in both hands.

"Oh sweetie…" She whispered. "He looks hurt Harvey. His face is all bruised up. They hurt him!"

Harvey walked over to her.

"Let me see." He looked at the phone again. He studied Mike's face closer, zoomed in. Donna was right, he did look hurt. He had a bruise along one of his cheeks. Rope was wrapped around the kid's chest, and his wrists. That looked painful as well. Harvey hated seeing Mike in this position. A rage, stronger than he probably ever had felt, started to grow inside him. How could someone do this to his associate?

"Should we call the police?" Donna asked.

"You saw what they wrote, they'll kill him."

Donna was still in the chair and now pressed her hands over her mouth.

"But one million dollars, Harvey. Do you have that kind of money? If you don't, I have some saved that you can…"

"Don't worry Donna. I got it covered."

They looked at each other for a bit. Donna had collected herself a little, but desperation was still visible in her eyes.

"They are going to keep him until Monday."

"I know." Harvey closed his fist hard, and did his best to keep himself somewhat calm, even though he really wanted to rage and scream. He just felt so damn angry about this.

"Goddamn it, I saw them yesterday and I didn't do shit! Mike was concerned and I just dismissed him. They were outside my place Donna!"

"Do you think they planned to grab you too?"

"I don't know. Maybe." He closed his eyes a bit. "Maybe they figured Mike was an easier target. Shit! He would be no match for them, they are twice his size."

"Oh God…" Donna whispered, and Harvey saw that she yet again got tears in her eyes.

"I'm getting him back, Donna. Don't worry." He said forcefully.

She nodded. "But what if they hurt him?" When she blinked, tears ran down from both her eyes. "How will you get him back? Are you going to involve the police?"

Harvey shook his head. "You saw what they wrote, they'll kill him."

Donna shook a bit at his words. "Do you think that if you just pay, they will let him go? Both Mike and you have seen them, you basically know who they are."

"No, I don't."

"You'll figure it out, they must know that."

Harvey shook his head.

"You should talk to Jessica, Harvey." She said, after a moment. "Hear what she thinks."

"Donna, I don't want to get her into this mess as well."

"Mike is her employee too Harvey. She might not care for the way he got here, but she respects his work."

Harvey nodded then. "Fine. Let's go right now."

Phone in hand he marched over to Jessica's office, Donna following him. He just hoped she hadn't left yet.

Luckily, she hadn't but looked like she was about to.

"Jessica, we have a situation." Harvey told her. She sighed and let go of her handbag.

"And you are saying that this situation can't wait until Monday, I presume."

"It can't."

She looked between them, saw Donna's expression and nodded for them to sit down. Donna did but Harvey couldn't. He went straight to the point.

"It's Mike. He has been kidnapped."

He looked straight into her eyes when he said it. He saw her eyes widen in surprise.

"Kidnapped. Is this a joke?"

"No, Jessica. Someone took him right when he got home last night. They must have followed him or waited for him. He didn't show up for work today and I just received a text with a ransom note."

He handed her the phone and saw her expression change as she saw the message. It was almost like she shrank in on herself.

She shook her head. "That kid brings nothing but trouble." She mumbled. Harvey wanted to yell at her when he heard it.

"They took him to get to me! It's my fault. It's on me." He exclaimed. "Mike is totally innocent in all of this."

He then proceeded with telling her the whole story. She listened in silence to it all. She asked a few questions and then wanted to look at the text message again. Harvey could see how her eyes lingered on the image of Mike. She got something hard in her eyes but didn't say anything about it.

"And this is the only contact you have had so far?"

Harvey confirmed.

"And how can the number be anonymous? I didn't know you could do that with a text. So, there is no way of contacting them?"

"I don't know. We could try to reply to the text." Harvey said.

"And write what?"

"That I want to talk to Mike."

"You can always try."

So, Harvey did. Maybe they should have thought through it a bit more, but he was angry and felt an almost desperate need to do something. However, the message he sent couldn't be delivered. Harvey swore.

They then discussed whether they should get the police involved or not. Jessica was for it, but Harvey against it. Donna didn't say much.

"You did see the part about them killing him if we involve the police, right?"

"But how will they know that we do. The police might be able to trace the message and get a location on Mike."

"I'm not betting his life like that, besides when I called the cops, they just dismissed me."

"So, you will just bend down and do what they say. Pay them and hope you get him back. And what says that he won't get killed anyway as soon as they get your money." Jessica pushed on.

"I'm not risking Mike's life. After I get him back, I'll send the police after them, but I'm not going to put Mike's life in the hands of the police."

"Harvey, this is their job…"

"Did you forget that I worked at the DA's office? I have seen up close how they work. This is what we are doing."

"Fine." Jessica said when they locked eyes. Harvey felt relieved. He needed her to be on his side in this. "We will do what you want Harvey. But I'm really sorry, the firm will not be paying any ransom. I just can't allow that."

"Who says that the firm will pay? This was directed to me."

"It's a million dollars Harvey. That's a huge amount."

"Which I will pay."

"So, you are going to pay a million dollars to get that kid back? Harvey, you do realize that you might never see that money again. Especially not if you won't involve the police."

"I don't care. I'll have Mike work for free for a couple of years."

"Harvey!" Donna said now.

"It was a joke, Donna." He tried to smile at her, but she only looked angry. "Like I said I don't care. I can make more money." He let the rest of that sentence remain unsaid, but there was only one of Mike.

"I respect your decision Harvey. It's yours to make. But this doesn't sound like you. Are you just going to pay them the money and do nothing?" Jessica looked him in the eyes.

"Who said I'll do nothing?" Harvey said. He just didn't know what to do at the moment. The text had said that more instructions would come on Monday. That was the whole weekend. Why did they have to wait for so long? Why couldn't they have done the whole thing today? Because this meant that Mike would be held for at least two more days. God knows what they did to him. And Harvey didn't know how he going to just wait for Monday to come without doing anything to help Mike. He really wanted to help him, right now. But he had no way of contacting the kidnappers. He had no way of knowing if Mike was alright or where he was.

Was he just going to go home and spend his weekend with the knowledge of that Mike was kept somewhere against his will, and maybe getting hurt, all because of Harvey? Because this was all on him.

He didn't intend if doing nothing. He would do everything that he could think of to get some more information.

"Harvey are you even listening to me?" He noticed then that Jessica was talking to him.

"No, I wasn't. What did you say?"

"I said that I'm really sorry that this has happened. I hope you will get him back. If there is anything I can do to help you know my number."

"Thank you, Jessica." He wanted to say something about how she could just go home after knowing what had happened. But it was late, and it wasn't that much that they could do anyway at the moment. Harvey didn't know what to do. Donna followed him back to his office and he sat down by his laptop. He convinced her to go home.

"It's late and we won't get much done now anyway." He said.

She made him promise to call her as soon as he had any sort of news. She looked close to tears when she said that. Maybe he should have comforted her somehow, but he didn't know how. There wasn't much he could say. Mike had been kidnapped because of him. Mike was hurt because of him. Mike that was his responsibility. He was supposed to look out for the kid. Have his back.

In this case he had been totally blindsided, it had come as a total surprise. He never thought that they would go after Mike when they couldn't get to him. What if they had hurt the kid? How would he best able to face Mike after that? Or worse, what if they killed him like Jessica had said?

Was it wrong to not involve the police? There was no way of knowing, but he had to go with his gut. It was telling him to handle this himself.

He sat there staring out into his office. He suddenly wished that he could somehow go back in time and stop this from ever happening.

He took out his phone and opened the message again. He pressed the number area, but no call connected. No surprise there since it was from an anonymous number. It meant that he had no way of contacting the people who had Mike. He had no way of knowing if they really had him, if he was alright. If he was still alive. The last part scared him. It was all so frustrating.

He didn't know what he would do if Mike was seriously injured or even killed, he didn't think he would be able to handle it. He forced himself to look at the picture of his associate. Mike looked into the camera and Harvey thought that he could see the defiance in his expression. That was good. They hadn't broken him. But then it was the faint signs of injury that was harder to watch. And the way Mike was tied up, rendering him totally helpless. Harvey wondered how that would feel.

They would be in contact again on Monday, it was late at Friday night now. Harvey had the whole weekend to just agonize and wait. Damn it! He swore and barely suppressed an urge to throw his phone across the room.

He needed to do something! The only thing he could think of doing was to keep go through the case with the men from yesterday. It was the only lead he had, and it just had to be them.

He didn't get that far. He didn't have any names of the men that had approached him, but he would search out everyone with even the slightest connection to this case.

By the time he left his office that night it was early morning and he had a plan. Thankfully as he was able to fall right asleep when he got home, he was that tired. He had a nightmare about Mike being held in a dark room somewhere. Harvey had been standing outside a room looking in through a window. Mike had been bound on the ground and had looked lifeless. Harvey had banged on the window and screamed but Mike hadn't moved. Harvey had no way of getting into the building. He had searched all over and had woken up just as he had spotted another door he hadn't tried yet. The fear and frustration from the dream lingered in him at such an extent that he wasn't able to go back to sleep.

-SUITS-