Hi there! Here's the latest and final chapter for this story. My apologies if the ending seems abrupt. I kept going back and forth between splitting this between two chapters, but felt that'd drag the story too far. Hope you enjoy!
Huge shout out to 2ctheocean, serenity3695, and guest for leaving reviews, they are truly appreciated!
Harvey and Mike were sitting in Harvey's living room enjoying a drink. Mike had decided to spend an additional night there and would return to work the following morning. He hoped by then that the bruises would fade more. Last he checked, it definitely looked worse than he felt. He still felt sore, particularly in his abdomen, and somewhat groggy, but figured that all in all he was lucky to have gotten off as lightly as he had.
All things considered.
"You won't be able to see any clients looking like that," Harvey commented, trying to keep the tone light, "Somehow you look even worse now. Maybe it's the candle light."
Mike smirked and swirled the scotch around in his cup, "And?"
Harvey shrugged, "Just making conversation."
"I can't just wait and do nothing," Mike insisted, "What happens next time? Huh? What happens if Gallo decides to go after Rachel next? Or Donna? Or-"
"I told you, I called Cahill, he's got his people looking into it," Harvey interjected, trying to calm Mike down, "If there's anything to find, he'll find it."
"And what do we do then?" Mike ran a hand through his hair, "I can't…," he gulped and shook his head.
"Can't what?"
"It feels like I'm back there," Mike said quietly, "I can't live like that, Harvey."
"And you won't," Harvey assured, finishing off his glass with a gulp. "Also, Ray's going to be taking you to and from work from now on. At least until we get this figured out." At Mike's look, Harvey held up his hands, "Rachel's orders," he smirked, "Never thought I'd miss the days you rode your tricycle."
"I still have my bike," Mike replied with a chuckle, "It's a good bike."
Mike shook his head, a soft smile playing across his lips.
"What?" Harvey asked him, getting up to pour himself another glass.
"Oh just," Mike lowered his voice to imitate Harvey and raised a hand, " 'Life is like this,'" he raised his arm, " ' And I like this.'" He returned his voice to normal, "Seems like we've been playing at this," he raised his arm even higher, "For a while now."
Harvey shrugged again, "What can I say? We're in the major leagues." He finished off his second glass, "It's getting late. If you're still insisting on working tomorrow, you should get some rest."
Mike nodded and got up from the chair. He hissed as his body protested. Once he was sitting or moving he seemed to be alright, the pain mainly came from transitioning between the two. Or standing too long. He figured he could find enough desk work, or research, at the firm tomorrow to stay busy. Keep his mind off of what had happened.
The next morning, Mike got ready for work early. He was surprised to find Harvey already dressed and ready to go in the kitchen. Harvey made up an excuse about being behind after taking yesterday off, but Mike knew that was just Harvey's discreet way of showing that he cared.
"You ready for this?" Harvey asked as they stepped into the elevator.
Mike was looking better, seemed sharper, and a little more like himself than he had even yesterday. All the same, Harvey knew he wouldn't be able to relax until they'd held the people responsible for the beating accountable.
Mike nodded.
The elevator doors had barely opened on the firm's floor when Mike was greeted with a shriek and found himself engulfed in Rachel's arms.
"Thank God you're alright," she said, clutching him tightly.
The embrace jarred Mike's injuries, but he refused to let go.
"I'm okay," he assured her, "I'm okay."
Rachel took a step back to inspect, "You really should have gone to a hospital."
The pain in Mike's abdomen seemed to throb in agreement.
"I'm okay," he repeated.
She opened her mouth to argue, then seemed to think better of it, "Let's get you to your office, you look like you need to sit down."
"I've got a senior partner's meeting to get to," Harvey said, briskly stepping away towards the conference room.
Rachel looped her arm through Mike's as they walked towards his office, Harvey's former office. Mike was still settling in to the place. There were a few boxes that needed to be unpacked by the wall.
When they got there, Rachel unlooped her arm and smiled at him.
"What?" Mike asked, trying to ignore the way that his gut seemed to be pulsating with a stabbing pain.
"I'm glad you're okay," Rachel said, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek, "I have to get to class, maybe we can get lunch after?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Mike quickly agreed.
He kept his smile plastered onto his face until she was gone. His brow furrowed.
He sat down at his desk, maybe between the lobby and the elevator, he'd just been standing for too long.
He tried to distract himself with one of the many files that had piled onto his desk during his one day of absence.
The pain in his gut seemed to be growing with each passing minute. Compounding and building in intensity.
Something was wrong.
He groaned as another wave of pain course through his abdomen. Instead of stabbing, it felt like someone had taken a knife and twisted it. Cold sweat covered his body. His ears started ringing.
Mike could feel the breakfast he'd had at Harvey's start trying to work its way back up.
"Oh God," he hissed, trying to keep it down.
Black dots started to form on the edges of his vision. He debated whether to stay or try and rush to the bathroom. 'Harvey would never let me live it down if I get sick in here,' he thought, deciding the matter.
He placed his hands on his desk to help push himself up, feeling as though he was somehow tearing himself in two in the process.
"Ah," he kept a hand on his desk as he got out from behind it.
The nausea was boiling in his stomach. Maybe once he threw up, that'd help everything settle down. Or he could crash on the couch in the office afterwards. Maybe he just needed more rest.
He steeled himself before pushing away from the desk.
One step. Two, so far so good. Three. The black dots were swarming his vision. Mike was about to go deaf from the ringing in his ears.
As quickly as flipping a switch, Mike went down, unconscious before he hit the ground.
…
"How's Mike doing?" Harvey asked, stopping by Donna's desk after the meeting.
She shrugged, "I don't know."
"You don't know? I thought you knew everything," Harvey teased.
Donna raised an eyebrow, "He hasn't come to visit. I thought he would. Braxton called while you were out, wants you to call him back asap."
Harvey nodded absently, tapping the desk with his knuckles, "Give me the file, think I'll put Mike on it. Keep him busy."
"Tell him to come see me," Donna ordered, handing over the file.
Harvey gave her a salute and headed towards Mike's office. He nodded greetings towards a couple of people he passed.
He didn't immediately panic when he didn't see Mike at his desk. After all, Mike had been fine that morning, he could have been doing any number of things, bathroom, getting coffee, maybe he went to get some research for one of his clients.
He panicked when he saw Mike on the ground unconscious.
"Mike? Mike!" He sprinted towards his former associate. Noting that Mike was still breathing. He stuck his fingers under Mike's chin, and sighed at the steady pulse. He tried to gently shake his former associate, "Mike? Come on, it's not nap time yet buddy."
No luck.
Mike was out cold. Harvey tried to figure out what could've caused him to pass out. The kid had eaten breakfast at his place, he had refused pain meds that morning, none of his injuries looked any worse.
'Well, the injuries I can see,' following a gut feeling, Harvey unbuttoned Mike's shirt. He quickly took in the bruising on the chest, but his eyes were drawn to Mike's stomach. He tentatively touched the injured area with his fingertips.
"Shit," Harvey hissed, feeling how rigid it was.
Without another thought, he pulled out his cell and dialed 9-1-1. This was the last time he ever listened when Mike said he didn't want to go to the hospital.
…
"Okay, thanks Sean. I owe you one."
Mike came to gradually. Instead of a prodding finger, this time it was the steady rhythmic beeping of a machine. He blinked a couple of times, taking in the noise and scratchy sheet. Hospital. He hated hospitals.
"You are so full of shit."
Mike furrowed his brow and glanced to the side. Harvey was placing his phone back in the pocket of his jacket.
"Excuse me?" Mike asked, still trying to figure out how he had teleported from the firm to the bed. He tried to think of a Star Trek quote, but his train of thought must have been moving in slow motion.
"It's like you've regressed, you're somehow a puppy all over again."
Mike was having a difficult time following the direction of the conversation. It'd been a while since Harvey had used the puppy analogy on him.
Instead of responding, he asked, "What happened?"
"You had internal bleeding," Harvey informed, almost sounding accusatory.
"I felt fine," Mike said, still looking confused.
"Well, you weren't."
"Sorry?" Mike vaguely remembered the pain and nausea, but he was still trying to figure out how those things added up to equal hospital, "I don't…"
"I found you passed out in your office."
"Oh," Mike said quietly, slowly nodding his head as the memories trickled back to him.
Harvey rolled his eyes, knowing he was placing his anger in the wrong place, but pissed nevertheless. At himself, at the fact that all of this had happened in the first place, at how scared and helpless he'd felt finding Mike on the office floor.
If he had taken Mike to the hospital the night of the attack, they could have fixed the issue then and there. As it was, the doctors had needed to do some microsurgery to repair the damage. He didn't really understand everything that the doctors had said, so he tried to focus on the fact that Mike was going to be okay.
At least, thanks to the call he'd just finished, he had some good news to share.
"Cahill called," Harvey changed the subject and tried to lighten the took a seat next to Mike's bed. At Mike's questioning look, he continued, "They found the two men who did this. You were right, off duty cops. He's going to get them to testify against Gallo. The man's never going to get out or have a chance to hurt you again."
Mike looked down at his feet, trying to absorb the news. Cahill had been willing to make two deals for him, but he didn't think the man would handle the case so quickly.
"How'd he find them?" Mike asked.
"He might have had some help," Harvey chuckled to himself, "Donna called in a couple favors."
Mike smiled, "Those are worth more than gold."
"Indeed," Harvey agreed, he could feel the anxiety from the scare that morning start to ease now that Mike was awake. He straightened his suit as he stood up, he needed to move around, put his mind on something else. Find a way to start putting this behind them.
"Where are you going?" Mike asked as Harvey stepped towards the door.
"Unlike you, I have work to do," Harvey said. He smirked, "And this time, you aren't coming back to the firm until you have a doctor's note."
"I'm not in elementary school," Mike protested.
Harvey shrugged, " 'The key to a happy life is to accept you are never actually in control.'"
"Really? Jurassic World?"
"Get better Mike, I'll see you soon," Harvey stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He saw Rachel rushing down the hall towards him, before she could say anything, he opened the door again and said, "He's awake."
"Oh thank God," she breathed, brushing past him into the room.
Harvey shook his head and pulled out his phone to call Ray to get a ride back to the firm. Mike was going to be okay. Gallo wasn't going to be able to go after him ever again.
"Ray? Hey, yeah I need a ride back, you free?"
Harvey had work to do.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read! I struggled a bit to tie this up, so apologies if it felt abrupt or too cheesy (an area I'll focus on in the future!). Regardless, I hope you enjoyed and if you have a spare moment any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again! :)