It's day five and Harvey wakes up in an abandoned factory receiving area. A homeless man scours the side alley and what's left of Harvey's shredded suit clings loosely to his body. His bare feet are on pavement and most of his skin is showing. Looking around he has a hard time remembering what happened and how exactly he had gotten there.
He thought hard and he remembered being in his office. It was late and he was ready to be home but then Mike came in and that's where his memory got splotchy. He remembered the the migraine building to the point he thought his brain was going to burst through his skull. He remembers the fuzzy heat that engulfed his entire body. He remembered being upset with Mike but not why. He remembered yelling at him to get out and that was really all he remembered aside from flashes of him scaling some buildings, flipping cars, and causing damage.
He pulled out his phone and called Ray. He knew he looked like garbage but he knew he could trust his driver. One of the few friendships he knew without a doubt he could count on.
When he looked through his phone at anything he may have missed, he gawked at the articles that were already spreading like wild fire. The headlines were all over the place. Giant green man, big green monster, massive green giant, etc.
"So much for damage control." He thought to himself.
Harvey cringed at every single one of the headlines. He looked at the one blurred photo of him that they managed to snap showing a monster roughly 8ft tall and massive. Big meaty hands connected to large log sized wrists and muscles that he couldn't really be ashamed of. For a big green monster he didn't look bad. He looked at his feet and then back at the picture. Those big honking feet were big enough to crush a car but then he smirked.
"You know what they say about big feet..." He thought but it quickly went away when it occurred to him that he could be identified.
He quickly zoomed in on the partial facial view of the photo and a sigh of relief escaped him when couldn't recognize himself in the face of whatever that thing was, but he knew it had to be him, because he remembered his body breaking and growing and shifting within its own skin. That's a feeling he would never forget.
He remembered how it felt as his bones shifted and grew beneath his skin. He remembered the more he rampaged the better he felt. A sense of fear washed over him. He didn't know how to control when the shifts would happen, and the past few days he hadn't been able to control his anger outburst, and he assumed it was the anger that fueled the monster. The more he let it consume him the worse his head would hurt, but maybe it was only a one time thing. No, he knew better than that. Mainly because the migraine feeling was still there in the back of his head and it was aching just enough to let him know it's presence.
After seeing the articles he looked over his missed call list. Most of them were from Donna and one from Jessica. After the eighth time calling, Donna, left one very worried voice-mail. The janitor had found Mike unconscious in his office. Looked like he had been attacked but nobody knew what happened. She told him that he was in the hospital and he needed to get there fast.
His heart sank. Was he the one who had attacked the kid? Surely he would remember doing so...right? He was positive he would remember but maybe not. Maybe in his fit of rage he had attacked him. The realization of the danger he posed struck him hard and he nearly fell to his knees but before his thoughts could engulf him he started walking instead.
He walked until Ray pulled up next to him and got out of the car. His eyes were wide with shock and he could tell that the dots were connecting but the man said nothing. He handed him a coffee and a paper and gave him a smile. Harvey forced a smile back and got in the car. "Where to?" Ray asked as he too got in.
"Home." Harvey ordered.
They rode in silence the entirety of the drive. Harvey got glimpses of caved in walls of buildings and wrecked cars. Some of the scenery brought back instant flashbacks and he remembered being the one to cause it. That was his doing and now he had to accept it. He had to accept that something inside of him was desperate to get out and if it does...its dangerous.
As they came to a stop in front of his apartment building he was pulled from his thoughts. Ray offered Harvey his coat to help cover the condition of his clothing and his shoes to hide his bare feet. Harvey accepted and then headed inside. His apartment never looked so good. He wanted to collapse onto the couch and forget what had happened but he knew he had an obligation.
He had an obligation to keep his reputation above standard. An obligation to his job and firm. An obligation to call Donna. An obligation to make sure the kid was alright. He had obligation in every ounce of his life and he never wavered at the exhaustion that clung to said obligations. The difference is that he had made Mike his obligation and damn it if he wasn't going to hold himself accountable of everything that happened to that kid. Harvey huffed in frustration and kicked a chair before heading to his bedroom to take a long hot shower.
Being in one of his suits helped him feel like himself again. He's told Mike that a suit makes all the difference in the world and he still stood by that. You always have to have a good suit and he had quite a few and none of them were duplicates. Harvey Specter didn't do the same suit twice...even if one of his favorites was torn to shreds. As he picked up the remains of said suit and threw it in the garbage he muttered, "What a shame," and then head out the door and back to his car where Ray waited.
Walking into the hospital made the realization of last night hit harder than before. He was the root cause of this situation and he would be lying if he said he wasn't dreading what was about to unfold. In fact, his heart fell into the souls of his feet the moment he saw Donna, and when she began to very quickly approach him, he thought he might turn and flee. Instead, he took in a deep breath and embodied what he would usually do.
"Where have you been?" She demanded as she closed the distance between them. "I called you eight times! You couldn't even call me back or send a text?" Her eyes were like daggers and her gaze was the only thing that could make him falter.
"I broke the rules and turned my phone off last night." He lied. "I really just needed to clear my head and give myself a chance to get over that migraine."
Donna looked as if she didn't buy it but she must not have been too concerned with the story. "They are currently moving Mike to a recovery room. They want to monitor him for 24 hours to make sure he's stable." She informed.
Harvey internally winced at the word stable. "How is he? Do they know what happened?"
"He's going to be fine. His right side took the brunt of it apparently. His right arm is broken, bruised his ribs, minor concussion, and his back is going to be very sore. They said he will need at least a week of rest once he's released but don't worry. I've been taking care of him." Donna smiled sadly at the end.
Broken arm? Bruised ribs? Concussion? He didn't remember doing anything to cause any of that. "How long until I can see him?" Harvey asked.
It took fifteen minutes and forty two seconds for a nurse to come out and inform them they could go back. Harvey was beginning to get annoyed wondering how it could possibly take so long to move a scrawny kid to a different room. The annoyance toyed with understanding too, though, because he knew the staff were busy. A Manhattan hospital always was.
When he entered to low lit room he felt his stomach doing leaps and he didn't know what he was going to say or do. Did Mike remember what had happened? Was he going to freak out when he saw him? The possibilities of what could go wrong reverberated around in his head so much he had to loosen his tie a bit so he could breathe.
Upon entering the room, relief knocked down his stress, and he was able to relax when he saw Mike sleeping in the too big hospital bed. Guilt crept in, though, and he resented himself for the sight before him. Mike's right forearm was in a white cast, Donna must have already signed it. The right side of his face had bruises and his lip looked busted. Harvey couldn't stop looking at the damage he had caused and Donna must have noticed his staring because she spoke up to pull him out of it.
"He's on pain killers, that's why he's sleeping." She explained softly. "He kept asking for you when he woke for the first time. He seemed worried that you may have been in trouble."
Her voice sounded pained. Not her typical theatrical performance either. "And I reassured him you were fine...but you wouldn't answer my calls and you never called me back."
She cleared her throat. "I kept telling myself that you're the great Harvey Specter. That you would show up eventually but I began to have doubt." She paused. "And now here we are!" He whacked him on the shoulder with her hand. "Don't you ever do that to keep again, Harvey!" She scolded quietly.
Harvey felt bad. He knew he should have called her but he didn't feel like talking on the phone. He knew it was selfish, and he knew it would get him heat from her as well, yet he still just couldn't bring himself to call.
"You think I'm great?" He cut the heat with a tease and that earned him another whack.
"Of course I think you're great. Otherwise I wouldn't be your assistant." She said in a matter of fact tone. "Now, I've been here all night and morning. Surely you can watch your pup while I'm gone." And with that she turned and left leaving Harvey with a sleeping puppy.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading Chapter 2: Aftermath
I know I was supposed to post Ch. 2: The Shark Feeds but that will now be Ch. 3
I know this fic is out there and probably wont draw much interest but if you are here and you are reading this then thank you so much for giving it a go! I appreciate it so much!
As always reviews are welcome I just ask that you be nice and if you wish to critique please use positive criticism :)
p.s- I'm now on episode 10 of Suits :D