Hello all my amazing readers! I apologize deeply from the very bottom of my heart for my extended absence from uploading. I felt so bad, but I was just busy with school and then summer was just as busy and then I started college and that was busy... but even though life got less busy I still couldn't upload because I had writer's block. I know where I want this story to go, but I just don't know how to get there. This is simply a transitional chapter, a little bit boring in my opinion, but it's something so I figured I would go with it.
Please help me out, if I get over this writer's block then I can upload another chapter sooner! If you have any ideas for future chapters or what should happen between Harvey and little Mike, please write about it in a review! I would love to hear your ideas and if I use one of them I will personally thank that person and dedicate the chapter to them!
Oh and one more thing: I know Harvey may seem a little out of character, but if you all remember, Harvey can actually be quite good with kids. There was that one girl that he was dating that was taking care of her niece and Harvey interacted very well with the little girl. So I'm writing Harvey's character with some proficiency in dealing with children.
Little Mike peeked his eyes open slowly but then awoke with a sudden start when he didn't recognize his surroundings. There were no signs of dilapidation in the room, no cracks on the ceiling, no stains on the wall and no critters scurrying around anywhere. Instead of his twisted expectations, his bright blue eyes took in a gentle light seeping through the light blue curtains to his left and his tiny body enjoyed the comfort of the queen sized bed covered in a lush baby blue comforter. Despite his baseball bat having rolled onto the floor during the night, he felt incredibly at peace. A sleepy smile crept onto his face and he relished in the delight induced by the dream. It was such a lovely dream, he thought, the first good dream in a very long time.
When the door creaked open, Mike turned his head to see a suave man in a three piece suit standing in the doorway. His smile slipped off of his face as he realized that this was reality. Now it was time for the adult man to abuse him or do strange things to him.
"Mike, you're awake. I have some breakfast for you; come eat before we go to the office." That's right, he had chosen Harvey for a reason. Now was no time to back down scared with his tail between his legs; he needed to toughen up and be brave.
Harvey watched as the child wrestled out of his covers and hopped out of bed. Little feet patted against the carpeting and soon Mike met Harvey at the door. Breakfast was a quiet affair and Harvey was itching to know the thoughts that were running through the little boy's head. The intelligent lawyer could tell that Mike was thinking hard about something, but he was happily surprised when the previously distrusting child hadn't brought his baseball bat with him. Finally, Mike turned his gaze to Harvey and put down the toast that he was munching on. "I'm sorry I was so distrusting of you. I realize that it may seem irrational from your perspective. After all, I was the one to single you out. Whenever it's dark I just get scared all of the sudden and you can't trust anyone in the dark because you can't tell who anyone is," Mike finished in a sorrowful tone.
"It's okay kid, I understand. It's not irrational for you to be distrusting, it's very important to be cautious and protect yourself. But I promise you can trust me, Donna will vouch for me. I'm not going to hurt you or touch you in any way that would make you feel uncomfortable," Harvey said clearly and calmly. It was good that the boy was opening up to him, but at the same time it gave him a weird pain in his chest to hear the hurtful words of such a small child.
After Mike had finished eating and then gotten dressed in some of the new clothes Harvey had picked up for him, the two climbed into the car. Instead of the ride to the office being silent however, the little boy was bouncing and squirming and talking a mile a minute and Harvey couldn't believe the sudden transformation. Mikey expressed his great enthusiasm to go to work and see Donna and read and do everything a lawyer does, and when he had ran out of things to talk about then he decided to play twenty questions with Harvey. "What case are you working on right now? Louis looks like a funny rat. What is Louis like? Donna said you two don't get along, why don't you get along? Are you and Donna married? What's Donna's favorite color?" Mike rambled on not even providing enough time in between questions for Harvey to answer.
Finally Harvey was fed up. "Enough! Calm down you little energizer bunny!" the man said with great irritation. The little boy flinched and shrunk back at Harvey's angry eruption. Once Harvey noticed this, he did his best to calm down and hide any annoyance in his voice. "What's gotten into you?" he asked hoping his tone was kind enough to set Mike at ease.
The little boy looked as if he wanted to shut himself up, but his mouth simply wouldn't obey his brain. "I can't help it, I suddenly have all this energy and I can't contain it! My everything is twitchy and my thoughts are going so fast I can't catch them!" he cried in a conflicted voice.
"You didn't dump sugar on your toast did you?" Harvey asked in confusion. What could possibly make the boy so hyper all of the sudden?
Mike's eyes went wide and he shoved his fists in his lap while fidgeting. "Well no but… I did try some of your gross chocolate milk but it wasn't very sweet so I just tried to get some sugar from the sugar bowl. Maybe I put too much in… it was only like four spoonful's."
The lawyer's mouth dropped. No wonder he didn't remember finishing his cup of coffee; Mike must've finished it off when he went to the bathroom. The caffeinated coffee along with four table spoons of sugar would definitely explain a hyper active seven year-old. "Mike that wasn't chocolate milk, that was coffee; you should never drink an adult's drink. And don't ever add sugar to anything, it's just gross and not healthy. " he softly scolded.
Those baby blue eyes communicated a sheepish and sorry look and Harvey could hardly stay mad. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again," the child said in a pitiful voice and then added in a small whisper, "You're not going to punish me are you?"
The adult quickly shook his head and then placed a reassuring hand on Mike's shoulder. "I'm not going to punish you, but you better stop bouncing or else you won't be allowed to work," Harvey told him. Never in his life would the great Harvey Specter have thought that he would have to threaten a child with not being allowed to work. The threat worked too and Mikey's fidgeting quickly died down and he clamped his little hands onto the edge of the seat and looked as if he was trying with all of his might to not move.
"I will be so still," he told his boss with great determination.
The two arrived at Pearson Hardman and Harvey walked briskly through the halls like he owned the place and was just daring someone to ask him why there was a small child following close behind him. Mike on the other hand was still jittery and couldn't help but to look all around and notice that he was the only one not wearing a tie. He really needed a tiny suit for himself and decided that was the first thing he would spend his paycheck on.
As soon as Mike saw Donna he waved at her, "Hi Miss Boss!" he said in an excited voice.
Donna came out from behind her desk and greeted Mikey by ruffling his hair, "Hey Mikey, did you get a good rest? I got some puzzles for you and put them in Harvey's office, why don't you go check them out?"
The little boy nodded and proceeded to enter Harvey's office in search of the puzzles. Before Harvey could follow after him, Donna grabbed his sleeve. The combination of Donna's troubled expression and her sudden unexpected contact made the man worry. "Harvey I did some research on Michael Ross, what I found out isn't good." Harvey swallowed; even though he already knew Mike's childhood was anything but good, it still made him cringe to hear it. He turned to see Mike in the office opening one of the puzzle boxes and then returned to Donna and nodded for her to continue. "His parent's died in a car crash with a drunk driver when he was four years-old. His grandmother was his only family left but she was too sickly to care for such a young boy and so he was placed into a foster home. Mike stayed with Charles and Caroline Baylor for a year and a half but one day his kindergarten teacher noticed some bruises on Mike's torso and a cut on his cheek. She was concerned so she called the Division of Child and Family Services to investigate. They found evidence that the Charles Baylor was physically abusing Mike, but when they came to take Mike and arrest Charles, it turned out that Mike had ran away the day before. He ran away a month before his sixth birthday, but the police never found him."
By the end of the story Donna's eyes were shimmering with tears but she refused to let one fall in front of her boss. Harvey had heard enough of the poor boy's life story, and he didn't want to make Donna any more upset than she already was, but she needed to know what happened after Mike ran away.
The usually unemotional lawyer wasn't sure how to start what he was about to say, but he just jumped right into it without any warning. "I saw where Mike was staying; it was an abandoned and probably condemned apartment building. It was so horrible it even made me sick," and that was saying something because Harvey was not one to get queasy, "I accompanied him into the building and he pulled a baseball bat on me in order to protect himself. Donna, he thought I was going to sexually abuse him," Harvey finished with a strained voice that was barely more than a whisper.
The two adults turned their attention to the innocent little boy sticking puzzle pieces together in Harvey's office. In the past couple of minutes he had completed the first puzzle that consisted of 500 pieces and now a jungle scene with a leopard and tiger lay across Harvey's floor. Both adults were amazed at the child's intelligence and they couldn't believe at the unfortunate life that had befallen the young genius. He didn't deserve this; the poor child deserved a fair chance to succeed in life and be safe and provided for. Harvey may not have cared for many of his clients, or many adults in that case, but kids were different. Kids were supposed to be innocent and untainted by the corruption of the world. Mike's misfortune wasn't right; it was horrible, and Harvey felt the need to fix it somehow.
Thanks so much for reading! Sorry it's a short chapter after so many months of not posting anything... once again, please leave a review with either ideas or just comments.