Author's Note: I just wanted to say that I really appreciate all the kind reviews, even if I'm not always responding (because I'm too socially awkward)
I do apologize for any mistakes or if any of the writing seems rushed.
I did rush to get this together since it's my birthday the 13th and I have decided to gift myself a week off from the stress of writing, social media and internet in general and just spend some time with my family, my friends and my beloved cat.

As always thank you so much for reading :)

CHAPTER 16

It was absolutely impossible to get his work done when he had no idea where his kid was.
His stomach was in knots and he couldn't really focus on anything other than the different horrible scenarios that his mind kept coming up with.
For a second, he had been calmed by the text he had received but then he imagined that Mike had been kidnapped or murdered and that the kidnapper/killer had sent the text to make him not worry.
The more he thought about it, the more worried he felt and the more vivid his mental images became.
It was a horrible thing to imagine, his son being murdered, but he couldn't seem to stop his brain from doing it.
The more vivid the mental images became, the harder it got to breathe and Harvey closed his eyes while trying to think about literally anything else than his child's lifeless body.
He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, eyes closed ad struggling to breathe properly, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Harvey jumped slightly before opening his eyes to see Donna looking at him, her face showing a mix of worry and sympathy.

"You need to relax or you're going to have a panic attack."

She said softly before grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair and handed it to him.

"Go home, I'll cover for you."

Harvey opened his mouth to protest but Donna didn't even give him the chance.

"Go home so that when Mike comes home in one piece you can hug him tightly before giving him hell for worrying us."

Her words managed to make him smile, and even if she had no way of knowing id Mike was okay or not, he chose to believe that this was a situation where she knew exactly what she was talking about.
Harvey got up and put his jacket on before quickly hugging Donna and thanking her, he knew that she was worried too but she had been able to push that aside to make him feel better.

It did feel a little better being at home, even if he was still worried out of his mind.
He kept himself calm by nursing a glass of whiskey, getting some fresh air on the balcony and repeating Donna's words over and over again in his head.
He even managed to get some work done, even if it wasn't even a quarter of the amount of work he'd normally got done in a day.
His eyes kept looking over at the door or his phone but the time passed without any sign of Mike.
The phone rang and he felt hopeful until he saw that it was Donna calling him and not the kid.
Harvey picked up the phone and started to talk to his secretary while getting up from his seat to stretch his legs.
Donna didn't even mention Mike's name, in fact she talked about absolutely anything but Mike and he realized that she tried to take his mind off it, and even if it didn't completely work, he really appreciated her efforts.
His secretary was in the middle of describing some terrible movie that she had watched last night when Harvey turned around and saw Mike standing there, he hadn't even heard the door open.
The kid was shaking like a frightened puppy, with big tears rolling down his cheeks.
Harvey immediately ended the call, without even bothering to say goodbye to Donna.

"Mike, what happened?"

He asked in a worried tone but the boy didn't answer, he just ran over to him and threw his arms around him in a tight hug.
Harvey was slightly taken aback but didn't hesitate to hug him back while he wondering what on earth had happened to his son.

It took several minutes before Mike had stopped crying and felt ready to tell him what had happened.
They sat down on the couch before Mike started to tell him where he had been all day, his words slightly rushed and scrambled since he was still pretty shaken up.
Mike told him how he had decided to skip school with Trevor, how they had gone to the cabin with Trevor's brother, the weed and the alcohol that the older boys had consumed and lastly the drunk driving.
Once Mike was finished with his story, Harvey stayed silent while he tried to process the information.
He felt a mix of worried and angry, a part of him wanted to hold Mike tight and thank all of his lucky stars that his kid was alright while the other part wanted to yell at him for getting into that car and then ground him for life.

"Please, say something."

Mike finally said, the silence apparently making him uncomfortable.
Harvey stayed silent for another minute while the worry and the anger kept fighting but eventually the anger won.

"What were you thinking, Mike? How could you get into that car, knowing that he wasn't capable of driving, especially after what happened to your parents?!"

The boy looked down on his hands while sniffling.

"I wasn't thinking."

He mumbled as an answer.

"I don't believe that, I do however that you allowed Trevor to think for you."
"Don't blame Trevor for this."

The kid immediately went into a defensive mode as soon as Trevor was mentioned and Harvey felt like banging his head against the coffee table in frustration.
Despite the fact that Mike had made it obvious that Trevor had been the driving force, he was still so quick to defend the kid.
Mike was a smart boy but for some reason he seemed unable to see how bad Trevor was for him, even when he put him in danger.

"Mike, Trevor is a bad influence."
"No, he's not."
"The smoking, the skipping and then this? You could've died."
"But I didn't."
"You could have. Just think about what happened to your parents."

Mike looked away again, clearly not comfortable with talking about his parents' deaths.
Harvey guessed that Mike had thought about his parents but the need to please Trevor had been stronger and that was a serious problem.
It was obvious that they didn't have a healthy friendship and Harvey couldn't even imagine what sort of trouble Trevor would drag Mike into if this continued.

"I don't want you to hang out with Trevor anymore."
"You can't tell me who I can and cannot hang out with."
"Yes I can, I am your father and I'm forbidding you from ever seeing Trevor again."
"Well I don't care, he's my best friend."
"Trevor's not your friend, he is an anchor dragging you down."

Mike let out a frustrated sigh before he got up from the couch and started to walk towards his room, obviously feeling done with this conversation.

"Cut him loose."

Harvey called after him.

"No."
"Mike it's for your own good."

He didn't get an answer until the boy had reached his door.

"I HATE YOU!"

Mike yelled at him before slamming the door behind him and Harvey sighed.
Why did parenting have to be this hard?

Harvey thought that once Mike had calmed down, everything would go back to normal but apparently, he was wrong.
Mike had stopped talking to him completely, not even greeting him and according to his grandmother, who the kid still happily talked to, he was hanging out a lot more with Trevor in school just to protest.
He probably would have hung out a lot with Trevor outside of school as well if it wasn't for the fact that Harvey had grounded him.
Harvey had kind of hoped that Mike would hang around in the office again but the kid had absolutely refused and spent his afternoons at his grammy's instead and when he was at home, he spent the time in his room.
Even if he had tried to forbid Mike from seeing Trevor because he thought that it was the best thing for him, Harvey had started to feel like a villain.
Both Edith and Donna had told him that Mike would get over it but Harvey was really starting to lose his mind over this.

Harvey was more than a little surprised when Mike suddenly walked in his office that Friday afternoon.
At first the kid didn't say something, but Harvey didn't really expect anything else, he just sat down on the couch.
Mike sat on the couch for several minutes, fidgeting, before he finally decided to talk again.

"I'm sorry."

Harvey looked up at the boy, just to make sure that he had really said that and it wasn't just his imagination.

"Trevor's brother was in another crash, he's in a coma."

Mike told him before getting up from the couch and slowly walked over to his desk.

"That could've been me, I could have been in a coma or dead because of Trevor."

It was clear that the kid had fully realized what kind of danger his friend had put him in.

"You are right, Trevor is a bad influence and I know that but I don't want to stop being his friend.
I am going to start thinking for myself though."

Harvey wasn't fully satisfied with that but it was better than nothing.
Mike walked over to his chair and put his arms around him and once again Harvey didn't hesitate to hug him back.
He lifted his head to see Donna looking at them with a smug smile that seemed to be saying "I told you so."