Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

AN1: So, this is going to be the last DOUBLE update for a while, and I'm doing so for a reason that will become clear in the next couple of chapters.


It has been five days since Jessica talked to Harvey about needing to focus more and ever since he has been doing his best to do so, though Mike has spent a lot of the last five days trying to prevent Harvey from either killing or firing his new temporary assistant, Cameron.

Like he spends most of his time Mike is in the file room working, trying not to think about the fact that his mother and Harvey are in a room with Tanner, and that Harvey is being deposed.

"Mike, you're never going to believe what just happened." Katrina says, walking in, "Actually, you might." She realises.

"What are you talking about?" Mike ask, looking up at his best friend.

"Harvey punched Tanner." Katrina reveals.

"When?"

"During the deposition." Katrina reveals.

"You're shitting me?" Mike asks surprised as while he isn't surprised about Harvey hitting Tanner, he is surprised that it happened during the deposition.

"Nope. About a dozen people saw." Katrina reveals, "And that's not the only bit of news you've missed out on hiding down here."

"I'm not hiding." Mike argues, though the truth is that he is finding it harder to sleep, or even spend time in, his apartment and work is the best distraction he's found, though he doesn't doubt that weed would be a better one, he's just not at the point of trying it yet, "I just prefer it down here." He admits, telling the truth as the associates being, well the associates, have caused him to nearly have flashbacks more than once.

"So you've said." Katrina comments.

"What's the news?" Mike asks curious.

"The firms doing an in house trial run of Harvey's fraud case." Katrina reveals, "Louis is playing Tanner."

"That's probably as close as we're going to get." Mike realises, "I don't even want to think about how this is going to go." He comments, "I'm going to go talk to Harvey, I'll see you later." Mike says, getting up and heading out of the file room.


Having gone straight up to Harvey's office after leaving Katrina Mike arrives just as Harvey is walking into

"So? How was it?" Mike asks Harvey asks soon as he sees him.

"How was what?" Harvey asks, though he suspects he knows exactly what Mike is asking.

"Punching Tanner. It was awesome, wasn't it? Tell me it was awesome?" Mike asks, actually managing a smile, something which he hasn't been managing too often lately.

"What are you, in middle school?" Harvey asks, trying to deflect as he is pretty sure that if Mike learns what Tanner said about Jessica then he's going to get punched again, and as much as he would enjoy seeing that he wants to protect Mike from what that would do to him, "I'm in the middle of a trial." Harvey reminds Mike.

"A mock trial." Mike corrects.

"Mock trials are for children. The adults are doing an in-house trial run." Harvey says as he and Mike head out of Harvey's office.

"Okay. Mock trial, trial run, po-tay-to, po-tah-to." Mike comments and Harvey gives him an unimpressed look, "Not potato." Mike corrects, "What do you need me to do?" Mike asks curious.

"What he needs you to do is help me." Louis says, walking up to them, and Harvey notices Mike briefly tense as he wasn't expecting him, though he manages to collect himself and accept the envelope Louis hands him, without having a flashback.

"What's this?" Mike asks.

"You've been drafted." Louis responds.

"Okay, what round?" Mike asks, looking down at the envelope.

"Excuse me?" Louis asks confused, causing both Harvey and Mike to look at him.

"Sports metaphor." Mike explains, "Oh, it's not tennis. Sports." Mike says, lightly taping Louis's shoulder.

"You've been assigned by the judge to help me in pretty boy's trial." Louis explains.

"Oh, look at that, he thinks I'm pretty." Harvey says with a smirk.

"Wait, what judge?" Mike asks confused.

"His honour Daniel Hardman." Louis explains, "I'll see you in court, sweet tits." Louis says before walking away.

"No, no. He can't." Mike says as he really doesn't want to be against his mother and Harvey.

"He can."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Harvey…" Mike starts to say.

"Listen, Louis is devious, confident, and intelligent." Harvey tells Mike.

"You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful." Mike comments.

"Now' is not the time to quote The Breakfast Club." Harvey informs Mike.

"Oh, you mess the bull, you're going to get the horn."

"Stop it." Harvey says, proving how serious he is taking this as usually he'd join Mike in the quoting, "This trial is no joke. Your Mom's going against Muhammad Ali so she better be able to beat Joe Frazier and Louis is no Joe Frazier." Harvey explains to Mike.

"Okay, I get it. You want me to help Louis think outside the box." Mike realises.

"Exactly. Now, how would you come after me?" Harvey asks.

"Well, first of all…" Mike starts to say.

"Don't tell me, tell Louis." Harvey says before walking away, "Because you and I are not discussing this trial during this trial." Harvey says before stopping and turning around, "Oh, you were right." Harvey reveals.

"I know." Mike says, without thinking, "About what?" Mike asks confused.

"Tanner." Harvey says as he mimics punching someone, "It was awesome." Harvey reveals before once more walking away and as he does Mike once more finds himself smiling.


Having spent the rest of the day working on the case it is quite late when Mike returns to his apartment and the second he gets there he is, just like always, overwhelmed by the memories of what Trevor did to him.

"I can't do this tonight." Mike says, heading to his closet and grabbing another suit and everything else he needs before heading out of his apartment, but it isn't until he is half way down the stairs when he realises that he can't go to his mothers, or Katrina's because it would be admitting that they were right, and he isn't quite sure he's ready to do that, though he does know he needs a night away, and so, instead he calls the car service his mother arranged for him and asks them to pick him up and take him back to the firm.


Due to how late it is it doesn't take Mike long to get back to the firm, and once he is back he heads straight to his mother's office where he puts his suit on the table, sets an alarm on his phone before heading over to the couch where he makes himself comfortable, knowing that it's not the best option but it's the best one he has and that as long as he wakes up when his alarm goes off no one will be any wiser.

Once he is comfortable on the couch it takes a surprisingly short time for Mike to fall asleep and unlike if he was at home he doesn't have nightmares.


The next morning, while Mike is changing his suits in the bathroom, Harvey is waiting outside the house of the person he needs the most at the trial run, Donna.

"How long have you been waiting?" Donna asks as she walks out of her apartment.

"How long were you gonna ignore my calls?" Harvey ask.

"Last I checked, you haven't called." Donna informs him.

"I left you ten voicemails in the last week." Harvey argues, walking towards her.

"Huh, that's so weird. I seem to remember your assistant leaving me ten voicemails." Donna points out.

"You know I don't know how it dial out. Is it eight? Is it nine?" Harvey asks.

"Do you know how to use your cell phone? Because if I were your assistant I would have totally programmed my phone number into it." Donna tells Harvey, "oh, wait." Donna says, snapping her fingers, "I did. When I was your assistant." Donna says, walking away.

"Okay, look. I'm an asshole." Harvey says, walking towards Donna.

"Did you come here to tell me things I already know?" Donna asks, turning to look at him.

"No, I came to see how you're doing." Harvey corrects.

"You came to get me to do the trial run." Donna says, knowing that for a fact as Katrina has been keeping her up to date on the firm gossip, so she knows that Harvey punched Tanner.

"Donna, it's important." Harvey informs her.

"Yeah, important for me to get up there and say I screwed up trying to protect you?" Donna ask.

"You did screw up." Harvey confirms.

"Yes. To protect you." Donna reminds him.

"Which I never asked you to do." Harvey tells her.

"No, you just expected me to do it. Like I expected you to fight for me." Donna informs Harvey.

"I did" Harvey argues.

"Really? It doesn't seem like it to me, Harvey, because when you fight, you win." Donna reminds him, "And you didn't even respect me enough to fire me yourself."

"That's not true." Harvey tells her, "Jessica insisted that she be the one to let you go." Harvey explains.

"And since when have you ever done anything Jessica wanted if it wasn't what you wanted too?" Donna asks, becoming upset.

"Donna, I need you there. I need you to tell them that I didn't do this." Harvey tells his friend, needing her to understand that he needs her at the trial.

"I'm sorry, I can't." Donna informs him, "I've hired an attorney. If this thing goes to trial, I'm going to be taking the fifth. So if you need another Donna at the firm, just have anyone say, 'I decline to answer' because that's all you're gonna get out of me anyway." Donna says before once more walking away.

"Donna…" Harvey says.

"I decline to answer." Donna responds as she walks.

"Really? Really?" Harvey asks angrily as he watches his friend walk away.


Hours later Jessica has hired an old employee of Pearson Hardman as a jury consultant and Harvey has testified, a testimony that during which Hardman basically allowed Louis to testify, and it has become perfectly clear, though they suspected earlier, that it's not just Louis against them, but Hardman too.

As it is lunchtime Mike is in the library with Katrina who is going to be playing Donna and the two of them are doing a run through of what is going to happen when Katrina is on the stand as Donna.

"Ms. Paulsen, did Harvey Specter order you to shred this document?" Mike asks.

"I decline to answer pursuant to my fifth amendment rights." Katrina answers.

"So you don't want to take this opportunity to state your employer's innocent?" Mike asks.

"Objection." Katrina says.

"You can't object." Mike reminds her.

"Your Mom will, and you know it." Katrina points out and Mike just looks frustrated.

"Fine, I'll move on." Mike says annoyed, "Ms. Paulsen, do you consider yourself good at your job?"

"I do."

"Have you ever stated to a Katrina Bennett and a Rachel Zane that you are indeed the best legal secretary in the city?" Mike asks.

"Mike, not a good idea." Katrina tells her friend, realising where he is going with his line of questioning.

"I have to, and you know it." Mike responds, "Ms. Paulsen, there was a personal date stamp from five years ago on the document that you're accused of shredding. Was it yours?" Mike asks.

"I decline to answer."

"Did it look like your date stamp?"

"I decline to answer." Katrina once more answers.

"Okay. Then let me ask you this. Would you believe that the best legal secretary in the city didn't know about a document, even though it had what appeared to be her date stamp on it?" Mike asks.

"I decline to answer."

"And would you believe that that same secretary would have destroyed that document without explicit orders from her boss?" Mike asks.

"This is going to be bad, isn't it?" Katrina asks worried.

"It's already bad, it's just going to get worse." Mike says frustrated, throwing down his papers, "I'm sick of it, I'm just so tired. This trial, Hardman, Tanner, Trevor and that trial, Donna getting fired, it's just one bad thing after another and everything's just getting worse and worse." Mike says, sounding not just frustrated, but done, and honestly he doesn't realise that it's the first time he's said Trevor's name out loud in weeks.

"Okay, that's enough pretending to be Donna." Katrina says, standing up, "Talk to me, Mike." She says, walking over to him.

"I need to go talk to Louis." Mike says, attempting to walk away but Katrina has blocked his path.

"No. You need to talk about what's going on with you." Katrina tells her friend, "Everything is just going to get worse if you don't."

"Haven't you been paying attention? Things are going to get worse anyway." Mike says, before side stepping around his best friend and walking out of the room.

As she watches her best friend walk away Katrina can feel her worry grow and even though she would love to go running to Jessica Katrina knows that with everything going on and the way Mike just would it would do no good, so instead Katrina promises herself that she will watch her best friend closely and help, whether he likes it or not, if she feels he really needs it.


After Louis attempted to find out if he knew anything about Harvey that could use, an attempt that involved a polygraph, Mike declared that he would get Donna to agree to do the trial run, and because of that, after a night of basically no sleep in his apartment, Mike is waiting for Donna outside her palates class.

As she walks out of the class Donna smiles as she walks up to Mike and for a second he thinks she's glad to see him, which she is to a degree.

"The answer's no." Donna informs Mike.

"I didn't even ask a question yet." Mike says as Donna starts to walk away and Mike follows.

"Yeah, well you were going to." Donna says, knowing that.

"Yeah, and you were going to say no, but instead you're gonna say yes." Mike informs Donna.

"Oh. That's funny, because I already said no to Harvey and you, my dear are not…" Donna starts to say.

"Are not, Harvey." Mike finishes, "No, I'm the guy who told you not to destroy that document and you're the girl who promised me she wouldn't." Mike reminds her.

"You know that I…" Donna starts to say.

"Broke your promise."

"Well, then I guess I just suck. Because I'm breaking another one right now. I told my attorney that I wouldn't talk to anyone at the firm until after this was over." Donna reveals, though the truth is she doesn't count Katrina as they don't talk about the case, they talk about everything else.

"You hired an attorney?" Mike asks shocked.

"Yeah. I'd rather not go to jail. I don't do roommates, and I definitely don't do orange." Donna says.

"Nobody's going to jail, Donna." Mike tells her.

"You can't guarantee that." Donna points out.

"Maybe not, but Donna we both know is that what Harvey loves most is his job and if you don't help him prep for Tanner he's gonna lose in court, he's going to get disbarred. and he is never going to be able to do what he loves again." Mike tells Donna, hating himself for going with such a low blow but he honestly doesn't know what else to do, all he knows is that he has to help Harvey.

"That's not fair." Donna tells Mike.

"No, what's not fair is Harvey taking the blame for your mistake." Mike says angrily, "You know what, do whatever your attorney wants. Come in, don't come in, go to the movies, take platies, I don't give a shit. Because whatever you do, you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life." Mike says before walking away, and walking back to where he left his car and driver.


Hours later Jessica has been called to the stand and given a testimony that honestly looked better for Louis than for Jessica and Louis has just called Donna, but instead of Katrina going up to the stand and pretending to be Donna the real Donna has walked in.

"Ms. Paulsen, did Harvey Specter order you to shred that document?" Louis asks.

"I decline to answer pursuant to my fifth amendment rights." Donna answers.

"Did you put your date stamp on the document?" Louis asks.

"I decline to answer."

"Um, I'm not gonna ask questions that you're just gonna plead the fifth to." Louis says as he crumbles up the script that Mike wrote, "Had Harvey Specter asked you to bury something five years ago, would you?"

"He wouldn't ask me to do that." Donna answers.

"That's not what I asked." Louis says, "If he did would you do it?" Louis asks and Donna pauses, "Oh, see you're pausing which means you're hiding something."

"No, I'm not." Donna says and Mike can feel his anger growing as he knows that whatever Louis is about to do is his fault.

"See, I think you'd do anything for him, and I know why." Louis comments

"Is there a question?" Jessica asks as Louis walks over to behind Harvey.

"Do you love Harvey Specter?" Louis asks.

"What?" Donna asks shocked as she wasn't expecting that question, and like she and Katrina talked about there is no way for her to explain hers and Harvey's relationship to Louis as he'd never understand as he's never experienced it.

"Do you love him?" Louis repeats.

"That has nothing to do with…." Donna starts to say.

"It has everything to do with it." Louis comments, "Why did your last boyfriend break up with you?" Louis asks, and Donna looks to Mike, who desperately wants to help, but he doesn't know how to, "Ms. Paulsen, why did he end it with you?" Louis asks.

"He thought I prioritized my work over our relationship." Donna answers.

"Your work? He asked you to choose between him and Harvey, didn't he?" Louis asks.

"Yes."

"Who'd you choose?" Louis asks and as he does Donna looks to everyone for help, even Hardman, before finally answering,

"Harvey."

"Because you love him."

"Louis, stop." Harvey tells him.

"It is not that simple." Donna says, knowing that, as far as she knows, the only people in the room who will understand how she feels about Harvey, and her relationship with him, are Harvey, Katrina and Mike.

"Do you love him, yes or no?" Louis asks, and Donna doesn't answer, "Answer the question."

"Louis." Harvey says.

"Your with him all the time. Your work revolves around him. Your life revolves around him."

"Objection. Badgering." Jessica says and unsurprisingly Hardman does nothing.

"Your don't have a boyfriend, but the one you did wouldn't share you with him." Louis says.

"Your honour!" Jessica objects.

"Please, I need a…." Donna starts to say.

"Do you love Harvey Specter? Do you love Harvey Specter?" Louis says, getting closer and closer to Donna.

"That's enough!" Harvey says angrily as he stands up and Donna gets up and heads out of the room, followed by Harvey while Louis goes and sits back down.

"What the hell was that?" Mike asks angrily.

"What I had to do." Louis says standing up.

"NO! You didn't have to do that!" Mike says, not caring that he is raising his voice, "We had a script! That was out of line!" Mike says and Louis starts to walk away, but Mike follows, "That cruel Louis, and…." Mike says, becoming angrier the more he says.

"Enough! You're coming with me." Katrina says, grabbing Mike's unplastered hand and dragging him to the file room so that he can calm down.

"Why'd you do that for?" Mike asks angrily.

"Because you needed me to." Katrina tells him, "What Louis just did was horrible, and yeah, as Donna's friend I want to kick his ass for it, but you're close to losing it Mike, and that's something I haven't seen in a while." Katrina tells him, "Talk to me." She says, stressing each word.

"I did this." Mike tells Katrina.

"Mike…" Katrina starts to say.

"I got Donna to come in, Katrina! It's because of me she had to sit through that!" Mike says, clearly blaming himself, "Got I hate this so much." Mike says swinging around and his plastered hand to hit, and knock over, a box.

"That help?" Katrina asks, becoming even more worried about her friend.

"No."

"Go, go talk to Donna. We both know that you'll never forgive yourself until you do, and once you do we're going to have a little talk about everything else that is going on." Katrina says, knowing that there are clearly other things bothering her best friend and if she had to guess she would say that what Sunday is has something to do with it.

"We can talk once this trial is over." Mike says before leaving the file room, knowing that Katrina is right about him needing to talk to Donna.


Hours later Mike isn't the only one who has gotten mad at Louis as Harvey yelled at him in the bathroom because of the way he treated Donna on the stand. Having taken Katrina's advice Mike went straight to Donna's and he has been sitting on her step, waiting, for a while.

"Are you kidding me? Go home. Shoo! Go the hell home." Donna says, walking towards Mike who stands up.

"Look, I didn't know he was gonna do that." Mike reveals.

"And if you had known, would you have done one thing different?" Donna asks.

"I am so sorry." Mike tells Donna, completely meaning that.

"Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit." Donna tells him.

"Okay. Donna, I'm not…." Mike starts to say.

"Harvey." Donna finishes, "I know, but you know what, sweetheart, maybe you are." Donna says, heading to her door, "And I do not mean that as I complement." She says, starting to open the door.

"Look, I did what I did for the same reason you did wat you did, to help Harvey that's all." Mike informs Donna.

"Well, that worked out the same for you as it did for me, because, in case you hadn't noticed, in addition to screwing me, you completely shafted Harvey." Donna tells him.

"We had a script." Mike tells Donna.

"Wait, you trusted Louis?" Donna asks, turning to look at him, "You trusted Louis?" she asks angrily.

"Yeah, I thought he would stick to it." Mike admits.

"Well, he didn't, and you should have known that, because this is just who he is." Donna informs Mike.

"I am sorry." Mike tells her, "But I'm…." Mike starts to say as a realization comes to him, "People are who they are. Thank you!" Mike tells Donna, sounding amazed, "Okay, I can fix this!" Mike reveals, being tempted to hug his friend but instead he runs to the car service that has been waiting for him, knowing exactly what he has to do.


A little while later Mike is in one of the conference room at Pearson Hardman working on his plan. He has been working for a little while when Mike hears footsteps and he looks up and sees Hardman, one of the last people he wants to see.

"What's all this?" Hardman asks.

"It wouldn't concern you." Mike says, not looking up from what he is doing.

"Why is that?" Hardman asks, looking at the files.

"Because you want to settle, even if it means Harvey getting disbarred." Mike says, not even caring about the lack of respect in his voice.

"If he loses in court, he'll get disbarred anyway." Hardman informs Mike, "My concern is for the firm, your mother's firm, it's not a personal attack against Harvey." Hardman informs Mike.

"This whole thing is a personal attack against Harvey." Mike says angrily.

"And you're gonna do something about it?" Harvey asks, disbelieving.

"Tanner's cases, transcripts, appeals, decisions. I know he did something illegal, because that's who he is, and I'm gonna find it, because that's who I am." Mike reveals, honesty not caring about how long it will take.

"What are you planning on doing with it? Leveraging that for a settlement?" Hardman asks.

"I'm not against settling. I'm against Harvey getting disbarred." Mike reveals.

"You really admire him." Hardman realises.

"I do." Mike says, knowing that it is one way to describe his feelings for Harvey, but definitely not the only way, of course he'll never tell Hardman those other feelings.

"Loyalty. You can't buy that." Hardman comments.

"No, you can't." Mike confirms as Hardman sits down, "What are you doing?" Mike asks.

"I offered to work all night with you once, you refused, this time I'm not offering, I'm helping, whether you like it or not." Hardman informs Mike.

"Okay." Mike says, not overly sure that it is a good idea, and the two of them get to work.


The next afternoon Mike is once more in the conference room having spent the day listening to Harvey testifying again, during which Jessica treated him as hostile and Mike found out a bit more about why Harvey is the way he is, something which he liked to see and found fascinating, as well as Louis testifying. Louis's testimony pushed the case in Harvey's favour, though because it was Louis and not Tanner Mike knows that it will never happen for real.

As he continues to look Mike hears the door open and he turns to see his mother walk in the room.

"Refusing to admit defeat even after defeat, you really are becoming like Harvey." Jessica tells her son.

"I'm pretty sure that I learnt that from you." Mike tells his mother, "And I'm not entirely sure that being Harvey is a good thing." Mike admits.

"Well, who would you rather be?" Jessica asks her son curious.

"Someone who believes it's more important to win fairly than to win." Mike comments.

"Like I said, Harvey." Jessica tells her son as she looks at what her son is doing.

"Yeah. Not in this case." Mike tells his mother, "You both cheated." He tells her.

"Excuse me?" Jessica asks and Mike looks up at her.

"Louis's testimony pushed it over the top, but that jury, they didn't see Louis Litt believing Harvey's innocence, they saw Travis Tanner, and that is never gonna happen in court." Mike comments.

"You do realize that you are chastising your mother, and your managing partner?" Jessica asks her son as she swings his chair around to look at her.

"With all due respect, it's not gonna matter what you are if Harvey gets disbarred." Mike reveals to his mother.

"We'll find a way to win." Jessica says, walking to the other door.

"You should be finding a way to settle." Mike says, turning to look at him.

"There isn't an acceptable offer." Jessica comments.

"Yet." Mike tells his mother and she turns to look at him, "Not just a pretty face." Mike tells her.

"Let me know how things pan out." Jessica tells her son before leaving the room, leaving Mike to work.


A few hours later Mike is still in the conference room when he hears footsteps and a voice saying.

"Hardman got Tanner to settle." And Mike turns to see Harvey.

"Are you kidding?" Mike asks with a laugh, "It worked?"

"So it was your idea to use dirt to get a deal." Harvey realises, confirming what he was suspecting.

"No, it was my idea to use Tanner against Tanner." Mike explains, "Box, me." Mike says, using his hand to make a square around his face, and side stepping, "You're welcome." Mike says, walking across the room.

"I didn't thank you." Harvey tells him.

"It's okay. You don't have to." Mike responds.

"And I'm not going to, 'cause we're not taking the deal." Harvey informs Mike.

"Because you don't trust Daniel." Mike says, hitting the chair with his arm.

"This isn't just about me. Every partner is…" Harvey starts to say.

"Everyone is paying now." Mike says angrily, "Do you have any idea why Donna showed up to testify?" Mike asks and Harvey slightly shakes his head, "Because I convinced her to."

"What?" Harvey asks.

"Yeah, I made her do what I needed instead of what she wanted. I did what you do." Mike says, pointing at Harvey, "And look where that's gotten us, you, me, Mom, Louis, everyone. Take the deal, Harvey." Mike says angrily.

"What did Hardman find in those files?" Harvey asks.

"I don't know, and I don't care, because he just got every single one of us off the hook." Mike informs Harvey.

"He can't be trusted, and you should know that by now." Harvey says, walking towards Mike.

"No, what I know is that if you take this trial, it's gonna coast a hell of lot more than money." Mike says with an angry scoff, "And if you don't know that by now, after all this, then I don't think I should be the one learning from you." Mike says before walking out, leaving Harvey alone in the conference room to replay Mike's words.


It has been three days since Harvey and Mike talked about Harvey taking a deal something which lead to Harvey voting to settle, and Hardman using that to call for a vote for him to replace Jessica as managing partner.

It is Sunday, and only midday and Mike is already drinking, in fact he has drunk quiet a lot of a bottle of tequila. As he drinks Mike hears a knock on the door, which he just ignores and keeps drinking as he stares at a photo of him and his biological parents.

"Mike, I'm using my key and coming in." Jessica's voice says, doing so because she doesn't want to scare Mike by entering without warning him, and a few seconds later Jessica walks in, carrying a bag of food and walks over to her son, "Mike." Jessica says in a concerned voice, realising how bad shape he is in.

"Fifteen years Mom." Mike says, turning to look at his mother with tears rolling down his face, "They've been gone for fifteen years." He says as Jessica puts the bag she is holding down on the table as she sits down next to her son.

"I know." Jessica says, wrapping her arms around her son and pulling her in for a hug.

"I miss them; I miss them so much." Mike says as she cries into his mother's chest.

"I know." Jessica says as she just holds her son and lets him cry, wishing like she has so many times before that she could take her son's pain away as he has suffered so much, and she hates that there is nothing the she can do to take it all away.