Mike sat in Harvey's office, waiting for him. He did his best to hide how proud he was of himself when he found a flaw in Harvey's work from twelve years prior. Harvey was immensely proud of himself for pulling one over on his boss, Jessica Pearson, during the senior partner's meeting. And while the by-law mistake had been pointed out to him, he was still on a high from previous events.

"Donna, when Vanessa did Mike's background check, what did she come up with?"

"Nothing we don't already know… Why? Think he's hiding something?"

"Just that the kid's got a thing for honesty. I'm surprised he's made it this long without telling anyone our secret. Heard a young woman's voice when I called him this morning."

"Jealous?"

Harvey sent her a pointed glare. "The deal, Donna. I need to know everything and everyone in his life if this is going to work, and he knows it. The fact that he's keeping her a secret? Could be something more illegal than practicing law without a license."

Donna hadn't really thought about it until now. "Gotta say, my amazingness did not pick up on that… I don't like it." She turned from her desktop to load the printer. "Let's get a pool going. Anyone who finds out he's not a degree holding lawyer and doesn't rat him out can join."

"He won't give this one up, even if his job depends on it."

"Oh, we're not betting to see how long he can keep this secret. We're betting to see when it gets uncovered."

Mike sat on the living room couch that also doubled as Meghan's bed. His laptop open to a window of restaurants. Every so often, he'd ask her what she thought of his choice. She almost always had something to say that would make him cross it off the list of potential locations for a Firm event he refused to tell her about.

Louis' unrealistic demands that the menu had to be tailored to his allergies and delicate digestive system was making the elimination process even more difficult.

"If you're not gonna ask Neal, why don't you just ask Rachel to help you? Isn't she like, I don't know, obsessed with the dining experience? And your work-wife?"

"You mean a foodie? And I like her, but no," Mike had told Meghan about quite a few people in the office. Rachel was mentioned almost as often as Harvey and Donna, she felt like she knew them already.

"Well, how many people do you know of who eat shrimp, red pepper, and goat cheese pizza?"

"Point taken… I'll ask tomorrow." He switched tabs to continue his research for McKernon Motors to help Harvey find someone who understood the company better than its current interim leader. "You finish today's subject?"

"One last assignment to do, but I need the laptop if you can part with it for an hour. It's a ten-page essay. The teacher adds a page for every week it's late. I guess it's supposed to be an incentive to turn them in on time."

Mike saved his progress and switched accounts for Meghan to do her last assignment. The last word of the works cited page was punched in with five minutes to spare since some of the ten pages had images that took up some of the space. She saved it to a flash drive to print at the school library

"Done. I'm doing math tomorrow, so I won't need to steal your laptop," Meghan informed.

"Do some tonight so you'll have less to complete tomorrow. And bring it with you if you go to Neal's." When they were with Neal or in their apartment, Neal was Neal. In public settings where certain identities could be compromised, he was Danny. "I never asked you this, but what did the principal say you had to do for your record?"

"I have to write a term paper on one of three topics; one of which is Big Brother himself, and a hundred hours of community service."

They spent the next hour spit-balling ideas of what she could do for community service. There were obvious choices like soup kitchens or homeless shelters.

"Pro-bono work?"

"Harvey or Jessica would have to sign off on it."

"Shouldn't that tell you it's time to let him in on this piece of Rossomeness?" Meghan gestured to herself. "He might be able to do what you did should you get caught."

He had to think about that for a moment. It would be relaxing to know provisions were made in Meghan's care should such an event occur.

"I'll think about it."

"Said every parent when they mean no," she replied.

Meghan Ross, please come to the office, was heard over the PA system.

She went back over the day, trying to figure out where she went wrong. Aside from her still past due assignment that were starting to make their way back to school, nothing came to mind.

Her eyes became saucers at the sight of US Marshall jackets. Something was off about this Marshall.

"What name are we going by, today," she said once she recognized the balding head and black rimmed glasses. Outside of their little circle, no one called each other by name until they knew which alias was being used. And Meghan didn't know Mozzie was well as her brothers did. Mozzie nodded to the people in the office, saying they could leave.

"Big Brother is watching," Mozzie said once they were alone.

"Okaaayy. Are we talking Mike, Neal, or the other Big Brother?"

"The suit has been having Neal followed," he replied.

"Neal gave the okay last night. What changed?"

Mozzie went on to explain the aftermath of the port explosion. He saw an opportunity and replaced the U-boat's stolen artifacts with Neal's paintings, both original and forged.

"And you thought if you dressed like a Marshall that the Feds wouldn't think anything of it?" This was so out of character for Mozzie, all she could figure was something other than the explosion must have happened in the last week. "So, Peter's keeping a tighter leash on Neal. Have you wiped our communication?"

"What am I? An amateur?" He feigned offense. "Avoid contact with him unless he uses the safe-word."

"Which wine?"

"A bottle owned by Noah?"

"So, we're waiting to hear about a four-thousand-year-old clay vat of wine? You chose it, didn't you?" Mozzie gave her a sheepish look before sending her back to her classes.

Mike followed through on Meghan's suggestion to ask Rachel about a restaurant since Neal hadn't contacted him yet. At first, he seemed to have her on board with helping him, but somewhere along the way, she'd changed her mind. And Mike was left alone, talking to himself.

He had just finished telling Meghan how it went down when his phone rang. "Yeah, Grammy," he answered. There was a knock on the door. Mike gestured for Meghan to open it. "No, I told you we were coming. We're—We're on our way, okay? Yeah. Um, 15 minutes. Okay. Bye."

He turned to see why his sister hadn't even said hello to the person at the door. It was Jenny, and she was mad. At both of them.

"Hey, what are you—" he was interrupted by a slap to the face. "Okay, what was that for?"

This wasn't a conversation Meghan wanted to be part of now that Mike knew everything she'd done for Trevor.

I'm going to wait outside she signed, then left the apartment.

"If you cared about me, you would have told me what Trevor was up to a long time ago."

"I was trying to protect you," Mike answered. The weight of the world was on his shoulders. He was protecting everyone, Harvey, Grammy, Meghan, Jenny. Even Trevor had made the list since Mike wouldn't turn in his best friend.

"How is hiding the fact that my boyfriend is selling weed protecting me? And what does Meghan know about this?"

"You want to know the truth? Your boyfriend also happens to be my best friend, all right? I didn't feel like ratting him out. But I also didn't know he had Meghan working for him until two weeks ago when I put an end to it."

Jenny challenged his friendship. She acted as though her boyfriend's choices had Mike as their driving force. Only Jenny, and possibly Trevor, were the ones wearing rose colored glasses, trying to put all the blame on Mike and Meghan. She couldn't believe the siblings were letting her boyfriend throw his life away.

"Let him? Let- I've never let Trevor do anything. Have you met him? If he really did listen to me, Jenny, he never would have started dealing in the first place."

"He is throwing his life away, and you ditched us. Both. Like we didn't mean anything to you." It looked and sounded like Jenny was about to cry. While he could take it from Meghan, if there was one person Mike couldn't bare to see or make cry, it was Jenny.

"I'm...We're late."

Mike and Meghan made it to the home with time to spare. The visit was going well, but there was a lot on Mike's mind after Jenny's visit. Am I the driving force behind Trevor's choices? Since when did Trevor start listening to me?

He was playing chess against Edith. Meghan would participate in parts of the conversation, but neither grandchild saw that Mike was about to lose.

"So, what if you took a trip to Russia with another man? I mean, that was before you met Grandpa Jimmy, right?"

"He didn't care it was before I met him. Never shut up about it," Edith mumbled.

"So, what was this other guy's name?" Meghan asked. Like any family, they picked on each other. And if Meghan didn't ask, Mike would have.

"Gregory mind your own business." Edith's distraction tactic worked. The game was over and she had won. "So, Michael, this has been fun. Now why don't you stop beating around the bush and tell me what's going on. Or should I ask Meghan?"

"Trevor," Meghan replied without any prompting.

"It's Trevor. It's always Trevor," Mike sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "He's gotten himself into some really bad... stuff, and I think he needs my help to get out of it, but I've been under so much pressure. I know you've always told me to be there for people..."

Mike had been sending Meghan pointed glances, telling her to keep quiet about the Trevor related things she'd been involved with. What came out of Edith's mouth shocked them. They'd heard her say certain things, but never that.

"No, no, listen to me. Screw Trevor… You're moving forward, and he'll do whatever he can to keep you where you are."

"Yeah, but..."

"But no buts. That kid is an anchor. You need to cut him loose."

"You're not the only one who thinks that," Meghan practically sang. "His new boss told him that, Neal has said that all throughout their friendship—"

"Nobody asked you, Megs."

"Whatever… I'm not the one with my head in the sand… anymore."

Meghan leaned against the railing above the water. Neal came up behind her and did the same.

"You shouldn't be here, Megs."

"I know. Mozz told me… Came to my school dressed as a Marshall… Just be glad I didn't run the other way when I saw the jacket."

"What do you need?"

"Essay notes. To clean up my school record, I have to write a term paper on you. It has to look like someone who doesn't know you write it."

"Mike said there was something else?"

Meghan turned to look at him. "Community service. And he's asking his boss about my doing some at the Firm, working pro-bono cases."

"What's the cover?"

"Not related, we just happen to have the same last name. My school is a Firm client, which means that I can also be represented by them depending on the situation and need to fill in community service hours as part of the settlement agreement." Neal sighed. Mike clearly didn't have a lot of time to come up with something better. "When I'm not working for Mike, I'm to help as a paralegal, get coffee and food orders and whatever else the associates need."

"Sounds like you'll be a busy bee."

"Let's just say he doesn't want me to have even a second to my own thoughts during those hours now that I've lifted things from my teachers' desks."

Until her curfew neared, Neal and Meghan continued to talk about the new direction life was taking her. Depending on when Mike's request for her to work at the Firm was granted, if it was granted, she was going to start very soon.

The paperwork had been filed and Jessica had approved Meghan's community service application. But she didn't tell Mike that she would be checking up on the teen's background. He was still naïve enough to think she wouldn't after the last client he'd brought in. She

The weekend had gone by, and Mike was back at the office, continuing his research while on the phone with Meghan's school. But first, he had to meet Harvey in his office.

"I understand, Sir. Yes, I am aware of how late her assignments are. We've spoken with her teachers, and she has been turning in her current and past due homework as of this past Thursday… As of today, I have her doing pro-bono work with me after school to fill her community service requirements… and I have to go. Let me call you back." He ended the call in time for Harvey to stop at his desk.

"Who was that?"

"A client from one of my Pro-bono cases wants a troubled student to participate in the Firm's community service program," Mike lied. "What do you need me to do?" If Harvey saw Meghan three weeks after Mike's interview, questions were sure to arise, especially when he would see her last name on the badge that lets her go beyond security without an escort.

"I need you to prepare the draft CEO candidate speech for Thursday."

"Well, I thought you were supposed to back off."

"Yeah, I'm supposed to do a lot of things. I'll call you with the plan on my way back."

"From where?"

"From convincing the man who hates me to do what I say."

He spent the day completing Harvey's orders, hiding the window on his computer if and when he saw Louis, or Jessica, come by his desk to ask if Harvey had backed off or closed the deal. A message was shot to Meghan's phone to meet him in the lobby after school, and he had returned the call to confirm details for their records.

Meghan had annoyed him from the moment she entered the building. She was constantly asking questions about their current case, hoping to have a hand in it, but was disappointed to have an envelop filled with cash handed to her along with a list of about twenty-five coffee orders.

"And how is one of my favorite clients?" the coffee cart vendor asked when he saw Meghan.

"Just here for these coffee orders, Man. I'll take thirteen now and be back for the other twelve."

"Sure you wouldn't like one for yourself?"

"My brother would kill me if he caught me with that stuff again." It seemed like casual conversation to anyone outside of the know.

Meghan walked through the associate's bull pen with the first set of orders, announcing their arrivals, the flavors, along with the number of creams and sugars per cup. As the orders were announced, the corresponding associate rose and came for their drink. Whatever was left from this trio was brought to the partners' breakroom and the process was repeated until all twenty-five coffees had disappeared.

After all the coffees had been dispensed, and before she moved on to her next task, Meghan stopped at Mike's desk.

"So, now that I'm working here to fill my hours, does this mean I can go to that dinner?"

"Introduce you for real to Donna and Harvey? Nice try… We are not supposed to know each other, and you have some printers to refill," he said without looking away from the screen.

"You know, for a supposedly eco-friendly era, this company uses a crapload of paper." Mike chuckled. "So, did she agree to help?"

After the previous hour's events that could have been construed as a hostile work environment, Mike chose to talk in slight code. None of his co-workers would have figured it out since they were too busy acting like children.

"No, she didn't. But we are going on a date tonight," he lowered his voice so that authority in which he now spoke wasn't noticed by his colleagues. "So go to Danny's or home and finish today's subject. I had to convince and prove to the principal that you are doing your assignments and they are being turned in."

"I'll go load the printers and see what else I have to do before I pull out my homework."

"You don't do that here. You're not here to do homework for school. You're here to learn and take responsibility for your actions. I chose this job for your hours because I know for a fact you can keep a secret."

Mike's mini lecture was over, and he was now on his way to a conference room for a client meeting, and Meghan was not invited.

Louis snapped his fingers at Meghan to get her attention. She had been ignoring him for the last ten minutes, so he snapped them again, in her face.

It is not okay to break his fingers. Quit thinking about and plaster that Caffrey smile everyone thinks is genetic.

He went through the whole act of firing someone on the spot for supposedly not doing their job in order to make an example out of them.

"I do understand what you're trying to do, Mr. Litt. Could I make a suggestion to your little performance? Maybe hire a professional actor, and not use the same one every time."

"What are you talking about? I really did fire an associate named Gary."

"And I'm sure that would be believable, more so if Gary didn't smile while walking out the door as if he were being paid to do this charade of yours."

"No one's ever seen through it. Even Mike Ross, the associate who got you this position didn't see through it."

"Huh… I guess being raised by con artists has its benefits," Meghan commented.

Mike laughed so hard he almost hit the floor once they were inside their apartment. There could have been tears in his eyes. Even after two weeks, it had felt like ages working for Louis and he wanted to pull one over on the man so badly.

"How did you see through Louis' act? Even I didn't notice that smile when he gave me the same speech."

"Yeah, that's what he said… So are you gonna tell me the progress of your case? Or will I have to ask Donna?"

"You don't have to ask Donna. And since you technically work for me now… We're looking into Dominic to take over as CEO."

"Not a bad choice. He did design the engines after all… What? You honestly think that I go to sleep before you? Once I know you're sleeping harder than a rock, I read your case files. My question is, why is someone who clearly knows nothing about cars or the money the engines bring in through advertisements in charge of the company?"

"That's why Harvey wants to get rid of the current interim CEO. Well, part of why he wants to get rid of him."

"I don't need to hear the rest."

"What are your plans for tomorrow?"

"You said I couldn't go to the rookie dinner because of the alcohol consumption, so I'll either be with Grammy or Neal after my hours are complete. Have fun without me."

"Don't I always?"

"You know you don't trust me when I'm not by your side, so I'm gonna say no."