Hope you've looked forward to this chapter as much as I've like writing it...


Scottie's letter had yet to be opened by Harvey. Amidst the turmoil in the firm, he had initially forgotten about it, and when it had crossed his mind he just couldn't bring himself to open it. At least not without something very alcoholic. It was only two weeks after the fateful day that Harvey had his ass handed to him by Jessica, that Harvey found time to sit and collect his thoughts. He had tried his level best to throw himself at his work in order to drown his sorrows- a technique that had worked exceedingly well in the past. Sitting on the sofa next to the coffee table, Harvey's eyes skimmed across Scottie's letter, which he had carelessly thrown on to it after receiving it. After getting a tumbler of scotch (and imbibing in a few before hand), Harvey sat by his coffee table to open the letter.

Dear Harvey,

I'm sorry I wasn't more upfront about my feelings. I just didn't know how to approach you, so this was the only way I could see to get your attention. I didn't mean for all of this to blow up in your face. Darby just called to tell me that I am to report to the England office first thing Monday morning, because he was rescinding my termination. I guess even when I try to do something for you; you beat me to it. I guess it really is 0 and everything when it's me against you.

Love,

Scottie

Harvey's hands trembled slightly after reading the letter. He wasn't used to getting letters like this. Heck he wasn't even used to getting letters. At least Scottie had got her job back, even though it was in England. When Darby had asked where he would have had her work, he had just stared at him and mumbled an answer before walking away back to his office with some half-assed excuse. Scottie's handwriting was distinctly messier than he remembered, as if she had been trembling while writing this. Even the handwriting itself spoke volumes in terms of the emotions it held. Harvey's eyes lingered at the word love; how could anyone still love him after everything that had happened, specifically Scottie? Harvey was torn between shredding the letter into pieces and picking up the phone to talk to Scottie. Finally as the internal argument seized, Harvey picked up his phone at which point he realized that with the time difference it probably wouldn't be wise to call her now.

It was Friday evening, and all Harvey really wanted to do was to get back to work even though there was no work left to be done, just to get rid of the mind-numbing myriad of emotions he felt at the moment. Even the scotch wasn't helping- if anything it was magnifying his emotions. At this point Harvey gave up trying to not feel, instead just hoping for a good night's sleep in order to get his thoughts in order.


Almost all the lights were off in the Pearson Darby building; save for the lights in the file room in which a certain Mike Ross was sitting in. Whoever said that mostly cars caused global warming, clearly hadn't been inside a law firm because the amount of paper which Mike was surrounded by had definitely come from at least 12 different forests. Mike was sitting red eyed in the midst of the papers committing it all to memory so that he could type up the notes later, to hand in to Jessica. This must be the most grueling job ever, Mike thought to himself. It was just plain cruel of Jessica to give him all of this to handle on his own. The various mergers, class actions suits and other various cases were overwhelming. Darby's clients sure liked to get their money's worth out of their clients, Mike thought. It had been 6 hours since he had started going through the files, and he had managed to get through one of the twenty boxes he had to go through.

One of the firms was quickly becoming the bane of Mike's existence was a private security firm that seemed to sue everyone and everything in its path. From patents to mergers to employee termination to environmental charges- the Altech Securities faced far too much litigation for one firm, at least in Mike's opinion. What was odd was that even for the small, employee termination contracts, Darby was personally handling everything. Mike was confused; why would the managing partner of a firm personally deal with such trivial paperwork and cases; especially one like Darby who didn't hesitate to put his 'no. 2' in his steed when trying to beat Harvey. It was half past one by the time Mike decided to call it a day, and head back to his apartment.


Monday morning saw Mike making a discovery that put him back in Harvey's good graces.

Something about Altech Securities just wasn't sitting right with Mike so he spent his hour for lunch researching the firm. The firm was based in the UK, and was starting to branch-out. The CEO, Connor Alfred, came from nothing until a kind benefactor took him under his wing and led him up the ranks of his artillery business. This kind benefactor (who Mike couldn't even find a name for) passed his business onto Alfred after which he converted it into a private securities firm with a specialization in creating bespoke weapons. There were a number of things, which didn't sit right with Mike; firstly no one just gives their life's work to some stranger off the street. Secondly, out of all the cases for Altech, which had proceeded to court, Darby had managed to win every single one of them for Altech. While Darby was a decent lawyer, convincing a grand jury 21 times of his client's innocence was unlikely. The fact that the jury voted unanimously in favor of Altech in every case was setting off alarm bells in Mike's mind. Mike didn't know what to do, he could go to Jessica with this but, going to Harvey just seemed more natural. And maybe Harvey would know what to do with the information and even stop his cold war with Mike. With his mind settled, Mike set of for Harvey's office with his files in hand.


Donna was sitting at her cubicle ready typing away, when Mike approached her. "Hi Donna.." Mike said tentatively, as if expecting her to scold him. "Aren't you working with Jessica right now? Climbing the corporate ladder?" Donna questioned with a smirk on her face. Mike wasn't as adept as Harvey as reading Donna's sarcasm and immediately started apologizing and trying to explain his actions. "Its okay Mike, I know what Jessica's like. What do you need to see Harvey for?" Donna's curiosity piqued, she knew Mike had given in all of Harvey's paperwork before leaving to work for Jessica so it couldn't be that. "I found something odd on the files Jessica was having me go through and I thought that maybe….", Mike tailed off and shrugged hoping Donna would get the message. Donna always got the message so he need not have worried, she smiled sympathetically at him and motioned him inside. "Be careful." she warned, "He opened his letter from Scottie last night and well, it wasn't pretty.". Mike nodded and cautiously entered the lion's den.


Harvey was staring out the window when Mike entered the office, oblivious to his associate's presence. "Harvey, I had something for you.", said Mike cautiously as though expecting Harvey would cause him bodily harm. "Me? But you're Jessica's lapdog right now aren't you?" Harvey countered. Just because he had forgiven him doesn't mean he still wasn't livid. "I… but…no.." Mike stammered.

There was an awkward pause. That's when Mike took his cue to start talking.

"Look I'm really sorry Harvey but I found something that might stop the merger from officially going through. There's this private securities firm that looks really odd on paper, as do all of its cases and I thought that maybe you would, um, want to see…" Mike tapered off again. "Why didn't you go to Jessica?", Harvey spat her name out as though it had a bitter taste. "I thought that maybe you uh…", finishing sentences didn't seem to be Mike's strong suit today. Harvey looked up at Mike for the first time since he had entered the room, "So what do you want me to do about it?" he questioned. Mike shrugged at him and turned to walk out of the office with his head down when Harvey called out to him, "Mike, come and explain the entire situation to me, in full sentences preferably, and show me what exactly is odd." Mike allowed himself a small smile turned around to explain.

Outside the glass office, Donna smiled- her boys were back.


And there's that!

Raven Carmichael- Thank you! Hope your writer's block soon clears :D

Thirdjack- Thank you!

Iheartlife- Thank you :D

Hikeyosemite- Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Gohan108- Thank you :D