Hi everyone! I'm back and after much tinkering, my computer is up and running once again :D :D So here's the 20-year-old Mike chapter. It might seem a little out of left field, but this plotline is actually quite relevant to my life right now haha. Timeline stuff that you should know for this chapter and just in general for this universe (if you're familiar with phoenix on cloud nine's Crayons/Lessons verse than this borrows heavily from that :D) :

Ages 15-18: Mike did all of his undergrad work at NYU

18-19: Mike went to Harvard for law school and graduated after one year

19-20: gap year studying abroad

20-21: Mike gets hired at Pearson Hardman as an associate

Sorry for all the complicated facts, but I just want to make it as un-confusing as possible for all you lovely people. Onward with the chapter!

Oh, come back when you can

Let go, you'll understand

You've done nothing at all to make me love you less

So come back when you can

From "Come Back When You Can" by Barcelona

4 months.

It had been 4 months since Harvey had last seen Mike, and he didn't know if he could handle waiting another 3 months like he was supposed to before he could go see his son.

"Don't be ridiculous, Harvey," Donna told him when he casually mentioned that it would be weird not having Mike around for the holidays that year. "What are you going to do— fly over there and go gallivanting about Europe like a madman to find him? We have no clue where he is right now."

"All I said was that it's weird that Mike won't be home for Christmas this year—I don't recall ever mentioning anything about flying over there, Donna; quit jumping to conclusions," Harvey huffed defensively— just because he'd thought it to himself didn't mean that Donna had the right to pick on him; he hadn't said it out loud!

"Well, you might not have said it out loud, but I know you well enough to know when there's a stupid idea brewing around in that perfectly-coiffed head of yours, Harvey," Donna said, sighing fondly at her boss' pathetic transparency when it came to all things Mike. "And this is a stupid idea. Mike's young—he wants to get out and explore the world, and I think you should let him. After all, there's a lot out there and it's a Friday night—he could be dancing with a beautiful Spanish woman or climbing a mountain in Switzerland or drinking beer at a pub in Ireland right now for all we know."

"Thank you, Donna, for that reassuring reminder that my twenty-year-old son is on a completely different continent running around getting drunk and sleeping in cheap hostels. Really, thank you; that makes me feel so much better," Harvey said sarcastically, turning the page of the bylaws that he was proofreading with more force than necessary and wondering why on earth he'd ever agreed to allow Mike go abroad for a year. Sure, it was a great experience for Mike—the young man had graduated from Harvard in June and had decided to take a year off and travel before settling down to apply for jobs as an associate. From the start, Harvey hadn't been crazy about the idea— a year was a long time and the world was a big place. But when Mike, the little genius, graduated from Harvard Law School after just a year of studying there, Harvey had been too pleased and proud to refuse him anything.

So Mike had left for Asia in August and had been there until late September. Then he had gone to England, where he had set up his home base near Oxford (Rachel and Harold, who were both undergrad students at Harvard, were doing a year abroad there). Since he had already taken the bar exam, he didn't have anything scholastic to do while he was over there and he didn't want to just sit around all day while Harold and Rachel were in class. So he'd gotten a work visa and somehow gotten himself hired at a pub near Oxford, much to Paul's utter delight and Harvey's dismay (he feared having a young alcoholic on his hands by the time Mike came back). He was traveling all around Europe with Rachel and Harold and other friends during the weekends and, by all accounts, was having a ball.

But it wasn't much fun for Harvey, sitting at home in New York and wondering where Mike was and if he was taking care of himself. Still, he knew that his reasons for not wanting Mike to leave were selfish—he had to allow Mike to figure out his identity and explore the world and gain his independence; it was all a natural part of growing up. But it had been hard on both of them— Harvey sometimes forgot that he had only known Mike for 6 years, because most of the time it felt like they'd lived together forever—but the truth was that Mike had had fourteen years less with Harvey than most of his peers had had with their parents, and that did have an impact on things in their relationship. Mike didn't feel the same desire as most of his friends did to challenge the authority of their parents—he and Harvey rarely fought and had a far more friendly relationship that most of Mike's peers did with their parents. Mike didn't feel the need to put lots of distance between himself and Harvey either—all of his friends had wanted to go as far away from home as possible for college, but Mike had been reluctant to move 3 hours away to go to Harvard, and although he'd never said anything, Harvey knew he'd been pretty homesick the first few months at law school. After all, he'd done all of his undergrad work at NYU right here in New York, where everything was familiar and safe. Going to Harvard for law school for 9 months last year had been a big step. And going abroad for 9 months this year had been an even bigger one.

On one level, Harvey knew that Mike was completely fine and that he was having the time of his life—he had received numerous postcards and pictures from the twenty-year-old from some incredible places in Europe and Asia, each of them enthusiastically detailing the adventures that he was having with his friends.

And he had seen with his own eyes that Mike was healthy whenever the two of them managed to Skype (which wasn't very often—since Mike was moving around so much, it was difficult for him to find places with good internet and with the time difference it was hard to coordinate their schedules). But he'd Skyped with Mike just last weekend (Mike had been sitting in a McDonalds with free Wi-Fi just outside of London, waiting to catch a train back to Oxford) and he had seemed fine—a little thin and a little tired, but his smile had been genuine and he had been bubbling over with enthusiasm to tell Harvey all about his recent trip to Paris.

But on another level, part of him would always worry about Mike, whether or not he was off on a wild Euro-trip or sitting in a lecture at Harvard or sleeping in his bedroom at the apartment. It was just that his worry was heightened somewhat when Mike was off on the other side of the world—there was so much that could go wrong, and Harvey hated not being there to pick Mike up when he stumbled—what if he ran out of money while traveling and got stuck somewhere? What if he got lost in a city where he didn't speak the language? What if he got mugged or robbed?

But, he supposed, there were some things that Mike needed to learn for himself. And to tell the truth, there was some benefit to Mike taking a year off before working—Harvey didn't want him starting work as a lawyer too early. Mike tended to throw himself into things passionately, and Harvey knew that Mike would be running himself absolutely ragged as an associate next year when he came back to the US and started working (hopefully at Pearson Hardman). Harvey was in no rush for that to happen—Mike had his whole life in front of him, and he might as well use the time while he was young and not tied down by work to travel and see the world instead of burying himself under legal textbooks and killing himself in an attempt to become, as he said, "the best damn lawyer that Harvey had ever seen." That would all come later—Harvey wanted Mike to make the most of his youth.

So he had bravely allowed his 19-year-old to leave the country for 9 months— and as it turned out, 9 months was a very long time— after all, his 19-year-old was now a 20-year-old as of October. It had been 4 months since Mike had left for Asia, and this was the longest that they'd ever gone without seeing each other in the past 6 years. Even when Mike had been at Harvard last year they'd seen each other at least every month or two—Harvey occasionally had business out in that direction, and he and Mike had been able to meet up for dinner a few times throughout the year when he was in that neck of the woods. Not to mention that Mike had been home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break last year. This year he hadn't been home for Thanksgiving. Now it was almost Christmas, and Mike wasn't coming home for that either—instead, Harvey was going to have to wait until spring break. He was going to England at the end of March for two weeks to visit Mike, but that seemed ridiculously far away from the time being and Harvey didn't want to wait another 3 months.

And so he had entertained the completely innocent idea of possibly flying out there now to meet up with Mike for Christmas, but now Donna was shooting him down. Maybe she was right—maybe he should leave Mike be. Just because Harvey wasn't ready for this intense separation from Mike didn't mean that Mike wasn't ready for it.

But the apartment had seemed so empty the past few months, and especially now that it was almost Christmas. He had half-heartedly decorated for the holiday, partially because of Donna's urging and partially because it just felt too weird not to decorate after 6 years of having a tree and lights.

But something was definitely still missing— the lights were there and the tree was there, but it wasn't the same as all the other years, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. But still, that was no excuse for Harvey to be getting all mopey and depressed. Mike was an adult, he was an adult, and one Christmas apart wouldn't kill either of them.

"You're going soft, Harvey," Harvey muttered to himself in frustration as he forced himself to return to his work, scowling at his reflection in his sleeping computer screen.

"And crazy too," Donna's voice jerked him out of his reverie and he startled so badly that he knocked his computer and woke it up, the monitor blinking to life. "Talking to yourself and forgetting that I'm still in the room? That's rookie stuff, Harvey," Donna said, shaking her head in mock sadness.

"I'm cutting your Christmas bonus in half," Harvey said gruffly as he turned back to his computer, determined to get something accomplished with his valuable, highly billable time. Donna rolled her eyes at the empty threat and drifted back to her desk to finish up her work for the afternoon.

It required a lot more effort than Harvey was willing to admit to to force himself to close up the internet tabs that he had opened to search for flights to Europe.

The morning of Christmas Eve found Harvey sitting at home alone with nothing to do, wishing he had ignored Donna's warnings and just gone to Europe anyway.

Said secretary was visiting her sister for the afternoon, and Paul and his wife Alicia wouldn't arrive until that evening. And Mike…well, supposedly Mike was spending Christmas in Florence, Italy and he had promised to Skype Harvey the day after Christmas when he got back to Oxford.

Edith and Henry Morris had decided to stay in Florida that year for the holidays since Mike wasn't around to visit in New York, so that was another two people who were usually around that weren't there this year.

So Harvey sat next to his sparsely decorated tree, nursed a scotch, and attempted to force himself into some semblance of Christmas cheer.

He was at the point where he was very seriously beginning to consider going into the office to work for awhile when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller I.D.—if it was Donna, then he didn't want to answer it and have her force him to talk about his feelings about Mike's absence— and was surprised to see that it was Jessica, of all people, calling him. She sometimes stopped by his apartment on Christmas Day for a drink when everyone was there, but she'd never called him on Christmas Eve before.

"Hello?" He said upon answering the call.

"Harvey, good, I'm glad you answered," came Jessica's calm, cool voice over the phone. "I'm afraid Louis has made a grave error on the Santos paperwork and I'm going to have to ask you to go into the office this afternoon to fix it. I'm sorry to ask but Mr. Santos is absolutely frantic and he's about to go hunt Louis down and—"

Harvey sighed. "Don't worry, Jessica. I'll fix it. Consider the matter taken care of," he said, rolling his eyes in amazement at Louis' utter incompetence. It was a bit strange that Louis should have messed this case up since it was all about number-crunching and that was Louis' specialty. But he supposed that if anyone was going to mess up on their specialty, it would be Louis.

To be completely honest, though, he was a bit relieved to have something to occupy him for the afternoon. At least this way he could bury himself in his work and not think about the fact that Mike's bed was empty and that there were considerably fewer presents under the tree this year.

He headed into the office and spent the afternoon hard at work, completely immersed in the mess that was the Santos financials. It was giving him a headache; how Louis had managed to mess up this badly was completely beyond him. And he was starting to remember why he had hated math and finance in college.

But he dutifully worked until his phone rang at 6 o'clock and startled him out of his mess of calculations.

"Hello?" He said, not bothering to look at the caller I.D.

"Hey, Harv. Just calling to let you know that Alicia and I have landed in New York," Paul's voice said over the line.

"Hi, Paul," Harvey said, rubbing at his temples. "Look, this isn't a great time; I'm actually trying to finish up some work at the office—"

"Oh, come on, Harv. It's Christmas Eve and I know you miss Mike but that's no excuse to go locking yourself up in that big glass box you call an office to distract yourself from your girly emotions. Get your ass to your apartment and we'll meet you there in half an hour once we get our bags."

"Paul—"

"Harvey, Alicia and I didn't fly all the way from Chicago to New York on Christmas Eve—the most stressful flying day of the year, mind you— to sit in your empty apartment. Plus," Paul's voice brightened, "I just got you the greatest present here in the airport; you're going to love it," he said coaxingly, as though trying to convince Harvey that he would love it.

"Why are you buying me airport presents?" Harvey asked, wincing as he imagined all the terrible things that Paul could have bought him—a New York City paperweight? A romance novel from one of the airport bookstores? An overpriced crappy cup of coffee?

"Because I forgot to buy you a present in Chicago, obviously," Paul said bluntly, and Harvey could hear someone laughing in the background. "Now come on, we'll be at your apartment in half an hour. You'll love the gift, I swear on Mike's life," Paul said, substituting 'Mike's life' in for 'my mother's life,' no doubt because their mother's life was such a sensitive topic.

"Paul Oliver Specter, don't you dare swear things on my son's life—" Harvey started sternly before he heard Paul's laughter and then the line went dead.

He began packing his work up since he supposed he did owe it to Paul and Alicia to spend time with them since they'd come all the way out here. Or at the very least he owed it to Alicia, because she was actually nice and he liked her. Paul, on the other hand…..

He headed back to his apartment, resigning himself to a rough 48 hours acting sociable and playing the polite host to the friends and family. He had never enjoyed hosting parties before, but it was an especially un-thrilling prospect this year. For some reason it was just easier to bear when Mike was there, running around and trying to feed and help everyone, his tie hopelessly crooked and his hair messy from running his hands through it and his shoelaces perpetually untied.

As he drove back to the apartment, Christmas music playing softly in the background and snow falling lightly and silently outside, he wondered where Mike was right now. Was he already in Italy? Was he flying there? Or was he still in Oxford with Rachel and Harold? Was he happy and safe? Was he missing home? Was he thinking about Harvey and his grandmother and everyone else on the other side of the world?

He parked the car and took a deep breath. You can do this, Harvey. Toughen up, he told himself before climbing out and heading upstairs. He thought he saw a car in the parking lot that looked an awful lot like the old Mustang that Henry Morris drove but he brushed it off as an odd coincidence.

His apartment door was unlocked and the lights in the foyer were on, although it was oddly silent inside. He figured that Paul and Alicia were already there, but it was hard to imagine his little brother just sitting quietly and behaving himself in his older brother's apartment.

Hoping beyond hope that Paul hadn't managed to set anything on fire or damage the apartment too badly, he headed forward into the living room.

"Paul? Alicia?" He called as he kicked off his shoes and hung up his jacket on the way into the next room.

"We're in here, Harv!" Paul's voice called. "We've got your present in here but it's not wrapped so close your eyes, and no peeking! I'll know if you peek!"

"Or you could stop being 5 years old and just hide the present away until tomorrow morning," Harvey suggested sarcastically.

"Nope. It's better to give you this one now, trust me. It won't keep til tomorrow in wrapping paper. Come on, Harvey. I'm hungry," Paul wheedled. Harvey shook his head in exasperation but closed his eyes, figuring it was best to just get this over with.

"Alright, fine. Have it your way. But if this gift involves the Chicago White Sox in any way, so help me god I will—"

He had just crossed the threshold into the living room, his eyes dutifully shut, when someone who was presumably Paul clamped a hand over Harvey's mouth.

"You're much more fun when you don't talk," Paul's voice said next to him. "Okay, open your eyes on the count of three."

There was a moment of silence.

"Are you going to count to three?" Harvey asked dryly, the sound muffled by Paul's hand in front of his mouth.

"Oh, right. Sorry. 1—2….3!" Paul exclaimed dramatically, pulling his hand away from Harvey's mouth with a flourish.

Harvey opened his eyes and the first thing that he noticed was that there were suddenly a lot more people in his apartment than he had been expecting. Way more than just Alicia and Paul.

The room was dim, lit up only by the lights on the Christmas tree. It was mellow and picturesque with the snow swirling around in the background outside, and as Harvey squinted through the relative darkness, he was pleasantly surprised to see that Donna was there, as well as Edith and Henry Morris. He hoped they hadn't come up all the way from Florida just to keep him company over the holidays, but he was warmed by the thought all the same. That would explain why he'd seen their car in the parking lot.

Alicia was sitting on the couch, and Harvey noticed that there was someone else standing, partially obscured by the Christmas tree. The figure stepped forward when he noticed Harvey's gaze travel in that direction.

"Merry Christmas, Dad!" a familiar voice said, the words woven together with care and warmth and the sound of home.

Crash.

The glass of scotch that Paul had pressed into his hands at some point slipped from his hands and shattered on the floor.

"Mike?!"He breathed incredulously, stepping forward cautiously, his heart racing.

"Yeah, it's me," Mike said, laughing. "Watch out for the glass shards," he cautioned, and then he was suddenly in Harvey's arms, smelling of cold and fitting just as perfectly into Harvey's embrace as he always had.

"I— you're actually here? How—" Harvey sputtered incoherently, drawing back to look at Mike properly. He looked older and far more mature than Harvey remembered, and beyond exhausted from travelling. His hair was a bit too long and his face was scruffy. But he was home.

"I think you're right, Paul, Harvey does like your gift," Mike said, grinning at his uncle.

Paul laughed. "I knew he would. Told you so, Harv," Paul exclaimed gleefully. "You should have seen your face when you noticed he was here!"

"Wait, were you all in on this?" Harvey asked in shock and bewilderment. This set off a collective round of laughter between everyone gathered in the apartment.

"Of course we were, Harvey," Donna said. "You almost messed it all up by trying to buy tickets to go surprise Mike in Europe. Thank god I managed to talk you out of that one."

Harvey felt his eyes widen as several strange little things that had been niggling at the back of his mind for days suddenly made a lot of sense. "Wait a second—the Santos financials?"

Donna laughed again. "That was just a way to get you out of the apartment for the afternoon so that we could smuggle Mike in here. Louis has never even looked at that case, it's going on his desk after the holidays. But Jessica was more than willing to help us out by calling you. We were all getting sick of you moping around without Mike," she explained sagely, and Harvey resisted the urge to face-palm at what an idiot he'd been. He should have put all these pieces together much sooner. Of course Louis wouldn't have messed up a financial case that badly. And he felt a little embarrassed too—he hadn't been that obvious when it came to missing Mike, had he? He thought about voicing this question, but had the sneaking suspicion that it would just earn him another round of laughter from the assembled group.

"It all worked out really well, actually," Paul chimed in. "Mikey's plane landed right before mine and Alicia's so we snagged him from the airport and brought him back here just after Edith and Henry Morris got here from Florida. And voila, here we all are."

"How long have you been planning this?" Harvey asked, his hands still resting on Mike's shoulders.

"About a month or so," Mike said. "Being abroad is great, really, but after being gone for three months I started thinking about how lonely the holidays would be alone in Europe. My boss said I could take as much time off as I needed and so I've got two weeks before I've got to be back. I hope you're not mad, the plane tickets were really expensive, but I just wanted—"

Whatever he had wanted was cut off as Harvey roughly tugged him back into an embrace.

"Don't say another word about the tickets. This was worth it, no matter how expensive it was," He said in a low voice in Mike's ear.

Mike was beaming when they broke apart. "Merry Christmas, Dad," he said quietly.

"Happy birthday, Mike," Harvey replied. Mike frowned at the apparent non sequitur, looking mildly concerned for Harvey's mental health.

"Er, Harvey, you do know that that's the wrong occasion?" He asked.

"No it's not. Your birthday was in October, and I haven't seen you since August. So Happy Birthday."

Mike laughed, although it was the kind of laugh that said dad-you're-such-a-weirdo. He slung an arm around Harvey's shoulders, suddenly looking a lot more serious. "Love you, Dad," he said quietly.

"Love you too, Mike," he responded, his throat feeling oddly tight. It was rare that they actually said these words out loud, but tonight Harvey wouldn't mind shouting it from the mountaintops after 4 months apart.

He realized that he was suddenly feeling a lot more festive than he had 5 minutes prior. He allowed himself to be drawn into Edith's embrace and then visited with Henry Morris before moving on to catch up with his brother's life, Mike never straying far from his side.

That night, Harvey felt like everything in his life was complete for the first time in 4 months.

The two weeks that he had with Mike flew by, as Harvey had known they would.

But still, he hadn't anticipated it going by this quickly. It was somehow already the day that Mike was flying back to Europe, and the young man was scrambling around and frantically trying to pack all of his possessions that had gotten scattered throughout the apartment over the course of the past 2 weeks.

"Dad, have you seen my—"

"Here you go, Mike," he said, handing the young lawyer his phone charger.

"Thanks, but I was actually looking for my—"

"And this too," Harvey said dryly, passing over Mike's favorite sweatshirt.

"Huh, I hadn't even thought of that. But hey, have you seen my—"

"Yes, here's your passport," Harvey said, handing the final item.

Mike heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay, I think that's everything. Grammy and Henry should be here any minute to pick me up," he said, struggling into his jacket. Edith and Henry Morris were leaving for the long drive back to Florida today, and they'd promised to swing by and take Mike to the airport on their way out of the city.

Harvey nodded, not entirely certain if he was ready for this to be happening. Now he had to wait another 3 months to see Mike again.

As if reading Harvey's thoughts, Mike suddenly sobered. "Bye, Dad. It was really good to be home. I'll miss you," he said, looking away and chewing on his lower lip. "I'm excited to be going back, though, and I can't wait til you visit and I can show you everything and everyone I've met." He brightened at this and struggled to lug his suitcase out to the hallway, glancing around the apartment one last time with a slightly wistful smile.

"Bye, Mike. Take care of yourself, okay?" He said, drawing Mike into a brief, manly embrace. He wanted to shout you're not allowed to leave! with every fiber of his being but he didn't. Just let him go, Harvey, he told himself. He'll come back when he can.

"You take care of yourself too, Dad," Mike said seriously. "I know you miss me, but there's no need to go around burying yourself in your work for 20 hours a day. Take it easy. I'll see you in a few months, okay?"

They heard a honking noise outside and both knew that it was Edith and Henry Morris.

"Well, I guess that's my ride. Bye, Dad," Mike said one last time, the cheer in his voice seeming a bit forced. "Can't wait to see you in March!"

"Bye," Harvey said quietly as Mike began pulling his suitcase down the hallway, away from Harvey and away from home. He suddenly looked so grown up to Harvey, and he found himself missing the scrawny, plucky fourteen-year-old who had lugged a suitcase into this same apartment six years earlier for the first time when he'd come to live with Harvey.

"Mike—" he called out, not sure of what exactly he wanted to say. Mike turned around and looked back at Harvey for a long minute before letting go of his suitcase and running back and throwing his arms around Harvey for one last hug.

"I'll miss you," Mike said, his voice muffled by the collar of Harvey's shirt.

"Miss you too," Harvey said, his voice suddenly strong and certain as he realized what he needed to say. "But you're going to go get on that plane and go back to Europe and finish having your adventures while you're young and you have the opportunity. Don't regret being away from home, we'll all still be right here waiting when you get back."

These words seemed to give Mike the strength that it took to walk down the hallway and down and out to the car. With a final wave, he disappeared into the elevator.

Harvey instantly felt a sense of loss when Mike was out of his eyeline, but he knew that he was doing the right thing by letting Mike go. After all, they'd made it 4 months already. 3 months til March wasn't such a long time, and then they'd take it from there as each day came.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he realized he'd just gotten a text from Mike.

Can't wait to see you in March! You'll have to visit me at the pub when I'm working on St. Pat's Day, I make great Irish car bombs now:P

He groaned as he let himself back into the apartment.

Come to think of it, maybe it hadn't been such a great idea to let his twenty-year-old son loose on a continent where he could legally drink.

But at least it could lead to some interesting stories and blackmail opportunities in the future. He'd definitely have to charge his camera before his trip to England.

So that's that :D I know it was a bit random, but hopefully you all enjoyed reading the reunion little scene as much as I enjoyed writing it (studying abroad has turned me into such a sentimental sap). Once again, I just want to thank everyone for their kind reviews, favorites, and follows. You guys are the greatest. I'm coming up on finals season, so I don't know how much time I'll have for writing in the next few weeks, but I'll do my best. A lot of people have been asking for a chapter about Mike's time at Harvard, so I think that's what I'll be working on now. Until next time!