Okay, I really am evil because this little story arc just became a three-parter. But I swear I'll get the third part up soon! Hope everyone is having a good holiday season :) and thanks for all the kind reviews on the last chapter. Glad that you're still sticking with me in spite of my inability to update in a timely manner ;)

Also, people have been asking me if I'm ever going to get this story and To Build a Home up on ao3 for ages and if you are one of those people, don't worry! That is on my to-do list for winter break, so I'll let you guys know when I get that stuff uploaded there for those of you who want to read it in pdf form or whatever on your tablets.

Chapter 11: Finding Common Ground (Part 2)

Mike's age: 21

But it was not your fault but mine

And it was your heart on the line

From "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons

On his last night working at Pearson Specter, Mike stood outside and looked up at the building for a long time before hopping on his bike to ride home. He'd done the exact same thing a few months ago on the morning he'd started, and it seemed like a fitting way to end his time there. He was wearing the same suit and shoes as he had on his first day. The suit fit him a tiny bit looser now, and the shoes were scuffed. He wasn't exactly the same Mike anymore.

He shouldn't have felt sad, but he did.

He leaned morosely against his bike and looked up at the windows where he knew Harvey's office was. The distant panes of clear glass were glowing dimly, which meant that Harvey was still in there. Good. That meant Mike could get home and shut himself in his room for the night before Harvey came in and they had to interact.

He'd mostly been avoiding Harvey for the past two weeks since he'd put in his resignation to Jessica. He suspected that Harvey hadn't really noticed—both he and Jessica were deeply entangled in trying to reach a settlement for one of their clients, Mr. Ashwood, who was trying to get himself out of a merger that hadn't worked out as he'd wanted it to. His partner, John Graham, had apparently lied to him about his financial situation when they'd merged, and now he was trying to take over the company.

Part of him couldn't believe that he was really going to do this; that he was going to turn around and walk away from the job he'd wanted and worked for since he was fourteen. But his relationship with his father was more important to him than any job was.

And so he hopped on his bike and slowly pedaled away from Pearson Specter for the last time as an employee. Tomorrow he headed into Thomson and Sons to start work under Karen Walsh. He still wasn't totally sure if this was what he wanted, but if this was what it took for his relationship with Harvey to go back to how it used to be, then he'd do it.

He wondered if Harvey would even notice that he was missing from work.

"DONNA!" Harvey barked from his office chair. "Where's Mike? I need him to research a precedent for me!"

Donna had a strange expression on her face as she edged her way into his office, the clicking of her heels oddly tentative. "Mike's not here, Harvey," she said delicately.

"Well, obviously," Harvey said with a roll of his eyes. "If he was, I wouldn't be shouting at you to go and find him for me."

"No, Harvey," Donna said. "I mean that Mike isn't here. He doesn't work here anymore. He quit."

Harvey frowned at Donna. "Are you thinking of a different Mike, Donna? I'm talking about my son, Michael. You know, that kid with blond hair, about yea tall, permanent puppy-ish facial expression?"

"Yes, I know who your son is. I certainly spend more time talking to him than you do nowadays," Donna said, and there was a resentful bite in her tone.

"Oh, so is this about the fight Mike and I had the other week? He seemed fine afterwards, but I can talk to him about it if you think he's still upset," Harvey said, slightly confused. He hadn't seen much of Mike since they'd fought in the associate bullpen about two weeks ago, to be honest. Mike had seemed distraught at the time, and he'd been quiet at home ever since. But he hadn't seemed angry, so Harvey had figured they'd talk more about it when they weren't both so mind-numbingly busy. This Ashwood merger ordeal was going to be the death of him. He was pretty sure it was giving him gray hairs—not as many gray hairs as Mike had given him when he'd gone through a brief "rebellious stage" at age sixteen, but certainly more gray hairs than he wanted to have.

"Well, I don't know if it's exactly about that fight, but Mike quit. So yes, I'd say that he's still upset. Which you would know if you stopped harping on him for a second and actually talked to him for once," Donna snapped.

"Wait…what?" Harvey said, standing up suddenly, his feet finding their familiar pacing rhythm across the floor of his office. "He quit? What do you mean, he quit?"

"I mean, he works at Thomson and Sons now. Karen Walsh recruited him. Apparently he was miserable here, so he gave Jessica his two weeks' notice and now he's gone," Donna said. The anger was gone from her tone, and now she just sounded weary.

"I don't understand," Harvey said, shaking his head. "Why would he do that? He's wanted this job for years! Why was he so miserable?"

"Because of you, Harvey! He was sick of you always criticizing him and he felt like the two of you couldn't work together without resenting one another later at home too. He didn't want to risk his relationship with you, so he stepped up where you wouldn't and removed himself from the situation. I'm sure he thought that if you two didn't work together, things could back to how they used to be," Donna explained.

Guilt sank like a heavy stone in Harvey's stomach. He almost never felt guilty. In fact, he could count on one hand the number of times he'd felt guilty in his adult life before Mike had walked into the picture. Now it was still sometimes a gnawing sensation; a feeling that he wasn't doing enough to be the father that Mike deserved. Today was definitely one of those days.

He collapsed in his chair, massaging his temples.

"Sometimes I still have no clue what I'm doing, Donna," He said quietly. "I thought it would be helpful if I just treated Mike like any other associate—I thought it would help him get along with the other associates if they saw that he wasn't getting any special treatment."

"Harvey, I'm not the person you need to explain this to," Donna said, leaning on his desk and looking as tired as he felt.

"This isn't working," he murmured. "I don't know how to be a father and a boss, Donna."

Donna's hand came to rest on his shoulder. "You'll figure it out. You and Mike always do," she said. "What would your father have done in this situation?"

And she left him with those heavy words.

He sat in his desk chair for a long time then, wondering how it had come to this. He should have noticed how his criticism was wearing on Mike. He shouldn't have ever made Mike feel like he needed to quit in order to maintain their relationship. And he should have been the one quitting, not Mike. He was the one causing the problem. That was what his father would have done.

With that, he was on his feet with his jacket in his hand. It was two in the afternoon—he'd just have to go to Thomson and Sons and talk to Mike and explain that he was sorry and that Mike should come back to Pearson Specter and that things would be different from then on. He realized with a jolt of guilt that he couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen Mike in the building—how long had his son been working for Thomson and Sons without him noticing?

As always, Donna read his mind as he exited his office. "Relax—he's only been there for two days," she said.

"I still don't see how I could have missed this," Harvey said, shaking his head. "Why didn't he just talk to me?"

"He probably thought you'd just correct his grammar and yell at him," Donna said off-handedly, and damn did those words hurt. He'd always tried his best to make Mike feel like he could always come to him and tell him anything that was bothering him. He knew that he wasn't the most comforting or openly loving father—but he tried to at least be good at communicating. And now it seemed that he had failed miserably in every department.

"Harvey, just the man I wanted to see," Jessica's voice interrupted their conversation. "Are you ready to leave? I want to be on time to this hearing."

That was when Harvey remembered that he and Jessica had their first hearing for the Ashwood merger fiasco in half an hour.

Harvey groaned. He supposed he'd just have to go find to Thomson and Sons and talk to Mike afterwards.

"When were you going to tell me that my son quit?" were Harvey's first words as soon as the elevator doors closed behind the two of them.

Jessica laughed. "I was wondering when we'd be having this conversation," she said. "Mike threatened to sue me if I breached employee confidentiality and told you. Smart kid."

"I have a right to know," Harvey snapped, and he wasn't sure why he was angry at Jessica. Maybe he just didn't want to be angry with himself.

"Sorry, Harvey, but he's twenty-one. Your parental authority only stretches so far. It was a shame to lose such a talented associate, but he looked burned out and I didn't have the heart to say no to him," Jessica said. Harvey knew it must have been really bad if Jessica, the queen of rationality and strategy, had felt sympathy for Mike. A burnt-out 21-year-old?

And he was the one who had done that to Mike. Mike, who cared more about his relationship with Harvey than he cared about his dream job.

Harvey had a feeling that he wasn't going to be paying attention at all during this Ashwood hearing. As Jessica's driver brought them to the courthouse, all he could think about was how he'd let Mike down; how hurt Mike must have felt that Harvey hadn't even noticed that he'd quit his job.

As he stepped into the courtroom, he was seeing Mike everywhere. In Mr. Ashwood's blond teenage son sitting next to his mother, in the tall, thin build of the security guard, in the young associate sitting with the team of lawyers arguing against Ashwood…oh wait.

That young associate actually was Mike.

Harvey had forgotten that Thomson and Sons was the team arguing on behalf of John Graham, the man who Ashwood had originally agreed to merge his publishing house with. And there was Karen Walsh, her permanent kind smile plastered firmly on. Mike sat next to her, looking slightly apprehensive and uncertain as to what he was doing sitting in court his second day on the job.

Karen looked up and smiled at Harvey and Jessica as she saw them come in. She genuinely was a nice woman, but Harvey didn't know what the hell she had been thinking, bringing Mike along when she knew that Harvey was going to be there. She was overly idealistic and probably thought that they were going to fall into each other's arms and cry dramatically and forgive all wrongs that lay between them, like a Disney movie or something. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if Jessica and Karen had come up with this idea together to try and get Harvey and Mike to reunite.

Mike paled dramatically when he saw Harvey and Jessica, but he did a valiant job of trying to cover up his surprise. He looked so young, sandwiched between Karen and John Graham, and Harvey fought the urge to pull him into the hallway and settle this with him once and for all.

But then Judge Crowley was calling for order, and was asking Harvey to call up his first witness. Trying not to look over at the Walsh-Ross team, he called up John Graham, who was sworn in and took the stand.

"Mr. Graham," he said, feeling completely out of his element. Seeing Mike here sitting at the other bench had thrown off his game. "Mr. Graham, is it true that you and Mr. Ashwood agreed that you would combine your two publishing houses and equally share the profits?"

"That is not true," Graham said. "We said it would be 51-49, with the 51% going to me."

"Did you lie to Ashwood about the fact that your company was about to go bankrupt, and ask him to merge only because you knew that you were going to go under otherwise?" Harvey asked.

"Objection!" Mike's voice was slightly timid, but he was standing tall at the bench. Karen looked like she wanted to clap her hands with glee, and Jessica's eyebrows shot up, observing the situation with a mixture of interest and amusement. "Leading the witness."

"Sustained," Judge Crowley said, and Mike grinned shyly, looking proud of himself.

"Maybe if they had communicated better, none of this would have ever happened." Harvey wasn't sure what made him say it, but he was looking at Mike the entire time as the words spilled from his mouth. Mike's eyes widened as he understood the deeper context of what Harvey was referencing, and Graham looked confused.

"Er—are you talking to me?" Graham asked.

Harvey shook himself. "Right. Yes. We were talking about your financial situation at the time of the merger—"

"Maybe if Ashwood hadn't felt so backed into a corner, he wouldn't have tried to get out of the merger. Graham was making it a hostile workplace. First he lied about his financial situation, and then he tried to take over their shared publishing company; constantly humiliating Ashwood and critiquing his leadership abilities," Mike said, his voice clear and steady.

Harvey turned around to stare at him.

"Why is my lawyer arguing on behalf of Ashwood?" Graham asked, sounding bewildered. Ashwood shrugged from his spot next to Jessica, whose lips were twitching with laughter.

"Maybe Graham didn't know that he was being too harsh on Ashwood. Maybe Graham is sorry now and regrets it," Harvey said, feeling a bit ridiculous speaking in such obvious code like this.

"I don't, though," Graham said in befuddlement.

"You're both arguing for the wrong sides," Ashwood spoke up. Crowley began banging his gavel for order. He knew Harvey; they went way back to Harvard law school together. He would overlook Harvey's confusing statements.

But it seemed that he wouldn't overlook Mike, who he had never met before, speaking out of turn and arguing on behalf of the other party in his courtroom.

"Mr. Ross, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the courtroom. You aren't welcome back until you've learned when it is appropriate for your side to speak in court, and who you're arguing for. Until then, stop wasting our valuable time," Crowley barked at Mike, as though he were a stupid child who hadn't bothered to do any research on the case. In reality, Harvey suspected that Mike had already memorized all the files related to this case.

Mike looked mortified and hurt as he gathered up his things and quickly left the courtroom, avoiding Harvey's eyeline. Karen looked disappointed that they hadn't gotten the Disney ending she'd been hoping for when she'd decided it would be a good idea to bring Mike to court with her.

"Go, Harvey," Jessica murmured in his ear. "I'll take care of this for you."

"I have to…um—go," Harvey stammered, racing out of the courtroom and leaving behind a very befuddled Ashwood and Graham.

"MIKE!" He shouted as he burst out of the courthouse. Mike had just hopped on his bike and crossed the street. He turned at the sound of his name and shook his head furiously at Harvey. Harvey couldn't tell from this far away, but it looked like Mike might have had tears in his eyes.

Harvey was desperate to get to Mike and to apologize and entreat him to come back to Pearson Specter that he stepped into the street without looking.

He didn't see the car until after it him; didn't feel the weight and pain of the impact until after the car skidded to a half several feet in front of him; the panicked young driver jumping out and running over, furiously dialing 9-1-1 on her cell phone.

The only thing he did see as he crumpled to the ground in the middle of the street, darkness blossoming across his vision, was the horrified look on Mike's face from across the street.

Okay, yes, I know I'm cruel. I know that I always beat Mike up, but it's Harvey's turn now. And once again, I still know nothing about how court hearings work, so ignore any legal inaccuracies.

On a completely different note, I've begun posting an original story over on fictionpress. So if you're interested in reading that, PM me and I'll link it to you! No pressure, obviously. It's very different from this fanfic and I don't blame anyone for being uninterested.

So...yeah. Sorry about another cliffhanger, but just think about all the great h/c this is going to create next chapter! XD