'I don't care about the case right now, Mozz. If anything case related comes up, just say so. What I want to know is if this guy really cares about Donna and isn't using her,' she returned. Then added, 'He seems like an open book, which means there's something he doesn't want us to know.'
A shadow came across her table in the file room. She looked up to see Donna looking down at her.
"You'd better not be working either Hessington case," Donna said, taking a mental note of the files in front of the teen. "Mike doesn't want you to. Harvey agrees... Why are you researching Stephen?"
"I really don't know, Donna," Meghan replied.
"Did Harvey ask you to do this after I started dating him?"
"No. Harvey did not ask me to look into him. Stephen claimed he was here to help Harvey get Jessica's job via this case, but I've seen him looking at files that have nothing to do with either Hessington case... Besides, this is just something I do when someone new joins my social circle. Can never be too careful when Witness Protection is trying to find you."
Six hours had passed. Meghan yawned as she closed one of the files. She rubbed her eyes to show how tired she was, but no one suggested she go home. Word had spread quickly that she was spending the night in Harvey's guestroom and the man in question had yet to leave the office at twelve thirty in the morning. He hadn't even bothered to offer his couch this time, which made her feel like an inconvenience. And she may as well have been one.
What she didn't know from where she was in the building, was that Harvey was thinking about her question of guardianship, and he needed to be alone for that.
There were so many things to consider when taking on the role of Meghan's guardian. For most children it would be a difficult, but still easier process than what he, or anyone for that matter, was looking at.
A person with an easy to trace medical condition that had a paper-trail, even using their real name, yet somehow still managed not to exist. She was even on the national transplant list. Two things that could easily get them found by the very group of federal employees they were hiding from.
Because Mike didn't go through the legal process of taking custody, and with their parent's and Edith gone, the Marshall's technically had every right to take her away. So how was he, or anyone, going to take on this role the legal way without drawing attention to her or himself?
The only way to keep her where she wanted to stay if things went South, was adoption. Not even foster-care was an option because a social service representative could relocate her regardless of how good her current care was or what was in her best interest.
By the time he checked his watch an hour later, he was getting up from his couch and heading toward his overcoat. It was one thirty in the morning and he had yet to take Meghan to his place for her to get some sleep. He went to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found.
When he did find her, she was curled up and asleep under Mike's desk. There were signs that she had tried to use the hard surface as a pillow; random files and papers stacked together. She had even wrapped it in one of Mike's spare suit jackets. Obviously, the floor was more comfortable.
He tapped her foot with his own, receiving a kick to the shin as the teen came to.
"Oh... fu-!" Harvey muttered as he hopped about on one foot, holding the injured shin like a cartoon character.
"Careful," came a young voice from under a desk. "I may use some words, but Dad doesn't let me say that one."
"How-in the hell... does-Mike... do-this... every-day!" His teeth were clenched so tight that if his inner cheek were caught between them, his mouth would have bled.
"He dumps a bottle of water over my head," Meghan replied as she propped herself up on her elbow. "Sometimes throws a shoe at me. Or sets an alarm clock and puts it on the other side of a room so I have no choice but to get up."
Harvey stopped hopping, turned his head to look at her, and said through gasps of receding pain, "W-wh-why?"
"Well... I uh... He tried shaking my shoulder to wake me once when he and Trevor were still roommates. Had to stay with them while Grammy was- not important. Anyway... I may have... broken his nose. He's been waking me from a distance ever since."
That would have been enough to tell her that he was thinking about her custody request, but her brain was rather tired. She hadn't even realized until it was too late that she told him two college students, one of which was a drug dealer, and a minor lived in that one room apartment. Not an ideal living condition for someone in her situation.
"Get your stuff," Harvey said as he sat down to take the weight off his shin. Her things weren't too far away, but Harvey waited until her back was turned to lift the pant leg. There was a red welt with a lace imprint just above the ankle.
It wasn't the first time Meghan had stayed the night at Harvey's, and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to be the last. But while she expected to wake up at Harvey's, she did not expect to hear Harvey say...
"Ah, the puppy's puppy finally joins the living," as her bare feet padded their way into the massive, adjoined kitchen and living room at six thirty in the morning. Her only response to the odd morning greeting was to send a half-hearted glare and roll her eyes.
Combining what little sleep she grabbed while waiting for him at the office with what she had in his guestroom added up to about four hours.
"How in the hell can you be so chipper on four hours sleep?" she muttered as she sat down at the island counter. Her cell phone resting beside her with the screen facing the countertop.
"If I were you, I'd be a lot nicer to the only person who is trying to figure out a way to keep you where you are without drawing attention to you or Mike," Harvey pointed out.
Meghan apologized as a bowl of cereal and milk was set in front of her, along with one of her heart pills. She had two prescriptions, but one was only to be used if she missed more than one dose of the other or if a 9-1-1 call had to be made.
"I may have a way to do that."
"And what would that be? Because spent six hours thinking it over last night and couldn't come up with a thing."
"Marshall's keep records of every visit they make to a participant's home. Even at seven, I was pretty vocal with them about not wanting to be a part of their program..." she set a spoonful of cereal into her mouth and started chewing.
"So? What's your point? You said you didn't want to go back in."
"Just because I didn't leave the city, borough, county, or even that house, doesn't mean I couldn't be deemed a runaway. Kids as young as two have been known to run or wander away from home and the guardians don't notice until hours later."
"Let's, uh... we're gonna put a pin in that theory."
"The only way is adoption, Harvey, and that needs legal paperwork which would require my being found. And since Dad claimed he never opted out of the program, but I believe he did, there shouldn't be a problem."
"I take it you know someone who could help with that?"
He recognized the very Caffrey like grin she plastered on her face.
"You know someone, too. But I think it'd be better if my guy handled this... Which reminds me. I need to call Mozz about something."
"Ah, the elusive Mozz," he said as he grabbed her cell phone before she could. "Yes, I've been meaning to ask you about this man."
She didn't know what to do at this point. No one had eve asked them to explain Mozzie. The only reason Rachel knew about him was because he happened to be at the apartment a few times when she would drop by after a date with Mike.
"What, uh... what did you want to know?"
"How long have you known this man and how did you meet?"
"We've known him for six years and met him through Neal. He goes by Mozzie after a Mozart teddy bear that was left in a basket with him on the front steps of an orphanage. Yes, I do know his real name, but you don't need to worry about my contact with him violating any rules. Aside from monitoring our Marshall files, he's been out of the game since my brother's funeral," she replied, answering questions he hadn't even asked. "As for Alex... I haven't seen her in months."
"What does this Mozz do for you specifically?"
"I don't know what he's doing for the case now that you and Dad have benched me, but I may have him working on something else for me. Nothing to do with the case. But I thought the timing of certain arrivals to be rather suspect."
Having felt the same, Harvey asked her to continue as if wanting to know his suspicions were well founded.
"Knowing what happened with Hardman and still going through with the merger? No other company would have looked through those books and done that. Then there's Stephen Huntley. Why send someone to help on this particular case when you never needed help in the past? All you asked for was his support when the time came to vote in a new managing partner, and in walks Huntley? I don't know why but it feels like someone's trying to cover their tracks."
"How do you know so much about this?"
"Did you forget that I come from a family of con artists, Harvey? We know how to cover our tracks."
"Finish eating and get dressed. I have to be to work in an hour and I'm not leaving you here alone. I don't trust you to stay away from this case."
"Am I at least allowed to ask how it's going without getting details?"
"Only if you ask me. Not Donna, not Jessica, and not your brother."
Then she begged him to let her stay there and sleep, but he wasn't hearing any of it. If he could survive the rest of the day, and probably even late into the night, she could, too. She even tried to pretend she was asleep at the counter when he came back out from his bedroom.
Recalling his mistake from the night before, he opted for a refrigerated bottle of water. He took a towel from the oven door and placed it beside her. The second he twisted the bottle cap, breaking the seal, Meghan's head was up. A panic in her eyes that he clearly enjoyed seeing.
"Fine, I'm going..." then she grumbled all the way to the guestroom that she never should have told him how Mike would wake up for school.
Did Harvey have a problem defending someone who was accused of murder? Probably. But his job wasn't to prove Ava was one. His job was to prove she wasn't one or had been framed.
This, like a possible custody issue, was easier said than done.
Meghan's suspicions of both Edward Darby and Stephen Huntley lingered in his thoughts. Darby sent Stephen to help but all he ever did since his arrival was distract Donna and cause nothing but trouble for Ava's cases.
Knowing Mike would be late as usual, Harvey brought Meghan to his office, leaving Donna with the instruction that the kid was not to leave the room without his or Mike's knowledge. He didn't even care if she left to use the bathroom, because if she left for any reason, she was going to get her hands on the case files.
Once the teen was taken care of, Harvey returned to the lobby and was heading for the door when Mike moved away from a nearby wall.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked of his boss and friend.
"Whatever you have to to get Ava out, because Cameron's gonna try and keep her in."
"You really think he's gonna try and deny her bail?"
"I know it."
Mike stopped walking, wanting to make sure Harvey knew just how Jessica's actions had truly changed him. "Harvey, one thing-"
"Hey, look, if you have a problem defending someone who's accused of murder, I don't want to hear it."
"You won't, 'cause I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win whether she's innocent or not."
"Then come with me."
Mike was excited. The closest he had ever come to meeting Ava was when Harvey wasn't speaking to him and he had Benjamin get him Harvey's latest case files.
"Butch and Sundance are back."
"Ooh, no go."
"What do-what do... what do you mean, no go?"
The reply came in true Harvey form, "I mean, you're not Butch or Sundance."
"Why not?"
Butch was the leader, and Sundance was the gun. And in Harvey's mind, and because Harvey believed he was always right, meant he was both and everyone was just gonna have to accept that.
"Okay," Mike began thinking aloud. "Sundance couldn't swim, and Butch never shot anyone, so that makes you a loser."
"Better than a fraud."
Though Mike took it as the running joke it had become, he sighed. "I think it's time for some new material."
"You write Midnight Train to Georgia, you don't just sing it once. And speaking of Butch Cassidy, let's go start a knife fight."
A prison interrogation room soon found Harvey, Mike, and Ava.
There were questions that had to be asked. What Ava claimed to know of the murders was her knowledge of a demonstration or protest, said demonstration had turned ugly, and people died.
She didn't know the victim's were the demonstration's leaders. All she knew was that the deaths happened. She owned thousands of acres. The location was volatile, and people killed each other on a regular basis.
"So you just chalk it up to coincidence that the six leaders of this demonstration, against your company's policies, on your company's private property, were murdered?" Mike asked, simply doing his job. Though the tone behind it sounded like an attack to Ava.
"It was reported as a combat incident, not a murder."
"You just said all you know about these deaths is that they happened. Now you know it was a combat incident. Which one is it?"
"Harvey, what the hell is this, and who the hell does he think he is?"
"Mike's just doing his job," Harvey replied, listening to every word.
"Well, Mike," she nearly spat. "Every death in that country is reported as a combat incident, and for your information, there were thousands of people opposed to our pipeline."
"That's all we need right now. Would you please excuse us?" Harvey said to Mike, dismissing him from the following conversation.
"How exactly did you manage to get your head so far up your own ass? You told me to take this deal. I did, and now here I am," Ava said once the door had closed behind Mike.
"I didn't know about these murders," Harvey answered.
"What you don't seem to believe is neither did I."
"We were doing our job. Cameron Dennis will come at you with worse."
"Do you think I did this?"
"What I think is irrelevant."
"That's not what your little protégé seems to think," Ava said referring to Meghan. It was a test phrase evidently because even if it was the response she was hoping for, she still got one. "The child never told you such a question was asked of her."
"I just want to make sure I know all the evidence against you." But no one knew what that evidence was just yet.
"I had nothing to do with it, and you say it's irrelevant, but it's not irrelevant to me. Do you think I did this?"
"Do you want a lawyer who thinks you're innocent and loses or a lawyer who doesn't want to know and wins?"
"You know the answer to that."
Harvey got up from the chair across from Ava and headed toward the door. "Then don't ask me that question again, 'cause after I win and you're free, what I think won't matter." After that, he walked out.
Mike quickly followed in what could only have been described as true puppy fashion. His questions were like a dog begging for something from the table.
"So, what did she want to talk to you about?"
"She wanted to know if you were single." The back and forth went on all the way to the road. "Listen, when you get back to the office—"
Mike was still feeling guilty for what happened with Louis. It wasn't just the guilt, though. It was the type of bond, the respect between employer and employee. What could have been a true friendship.
"We can talk about this later. Right now, I have your sister stashed in my office and need you to talk to her before I have a little chat about failing to tell me everything."
"And what makes you think she'll know what I'm talking about? I don't even know what I'm asking about?"
"Just tell her Ava asked me the same question. If she's as smart as we all know she can be, she'll figure it out."
Donna was temporarily away from her desk, and no one was watching Harvey's office. So, Meghan was able to slip out of said room just moments before Katrina slipped in to place the work she had tried to do for Louis onto Harvey's desk.
"What are you doing?" Mike asked her, clearly not pleased to find her there. But there was something else he wasn't happy about.
"Dropping off something for Harvey."
"You don't have any cases with Harvey."
"I will when he sees what's in here."
Mike laughed. "No. You're not taking credit for my ideas again."
"Harvey's gonna know I built this airplane."
"Harvey's not gonna know anything. You're a little late to the party. He and I are working together again."
"I'm not looking to take your place."
"Oh, really? You just happened to prepare a document for him, thinking he didn't have an associate?"
"He's working a case that I'm right for."
"That's not how it works around here. Meghan and I handle all of his cases."
"Does Harvey know that?"
"What Harvey knows is that I'm the A team, and you're the B team, so you can leave the folder, or you can take it with you, but if you're looking to ride some partner's coattails, you're gonna have to look somewhere else."
"Well, the B team worked at the D.A.'s office and came up with a defense strategy based on a specific knowledge of Cameron Dennis. The A team quotes him movies. We'll see who Harvey does and doesn't value."
The two were so caught up in their banter that neither had noticed Donna walk through the door until she said, "Katrina, Mike is Harvey's guy. When he tells you he's speaking for Harvey, he's speaking for Harvey. And please don't come into this office when I'm away from my desk again."
Meghan's absence did not go unnoticed by Donna, but it had by Mike.
"Boy, am I glad I never snuck into Harvey's office when you weren't around before," he joked. This was it. The sign he was waiting for that told him his many apologies had been accepted. "Thanks, Donna."
"I still expect free, exotic, caffeinated beverages for the foreseeable future."
Mike turned his head back into the room with a chuckle as he spoke, "Hey, Megs. Harvey said there was... some-thing I needed... to..." no one was there.
If chasing down leads for this case wasn't going to be hard enough, locating his sister was. He vacated the office quickly.
Moments later, Harvey and Jessica met in his office to discuss matters from the case, to their distain for the opposition's representative, to the brother who was currently trying to find his little sister by wandering through the firm's halls.
"Cameron Dennis. Son of a bitch," Jessica said with such a slight impression that seemed to go right over Harvey's head. The woman prided herself on being difficult to beat, never letting anyone have the upper hand.
"He played us. He slid that guilty plea right by. I should've seen it coming," Harvey replied, beating himself up. He knew the man on a professional and personal level.
"We should've seen it coming," Jessica corrected. "I'm the one that convinced you to take that deal. What's done is done. Question is, what's being done?"
"I'm working on getting Ava off these charges, and I got Mike working on getting her out on bail."
"So you're back with him."
"What's the point of having a right arm without a right hand?"
"Good."
"Is it? He threatened you. I've never known you to be forgiving with someone who threatened you."
"I've never known you to be particularly forgiving either. Where's the kid?"
"Don't know. She was in my office until I told Mike to come back here and talk to her about something Ava asked me. Security's checking each floor for me. Called the favor in as a medical reason after what happened last week."
"Can never be too safe."
Coming into Harvey's office without knocking had become either a tradition or a specialty of Mike's. And this time was no exception. He stopped himself from coming any further than the door in case he had to run away from Jessica.
"Um, I'm sorry, I'll come back."
"It's okay," Harvey replied, waving him in. "We're all good."
"We're good?" Mike asked of Jessica.
She equated working with anyone who fought back to be the same as working with tigers. But it's the same with any animal really. You push the right buttons and eventually, you'll get hurt. And she liked the challenge.
"Now, where are we on the prep for Ava's bail hearing?" She inquired.
"Well, I was thinking, since Cameron used the settlement to double-cross us, why don't we use the bail hearing to double-cross him?"
The bail was set, and Ava was free to go for the time being.
Hoping she could get back to Harvey's office before anyone knew she was gone, Meghan made a call to Peter. It was a long shot since she wasn't allowed to discuss matters of the case with law enforcement as they were on the opposition's side.
"There has to be a legal reason for me to check this guy's background, Meghan. What you're asking me to do can get me suspended at best for misuse of government resources."
"What kind of background check can you do if I said he was from London and here on business indefinitely?"
"Check for a business visa, if he has anything that should have kept him from getting a visa... Why are you even working this case? Mozzie said you weren't supposed to be anywhere near it... Look who I'm talking to. Of course, you're gonna go against a superior's orders. You're a Caffrey."
"Yeah, no. Neal is the only Caffrey sibling. But I did inherit the Caffrey genes... While I've got you on the phone... And we're just spit-balling some ideas here. What would be a legal way to keep me here instead of the Marshall's being able to relocate me regardless of what I want? Considering all of the high-profile cases I've been witness to, they're not likely to just let me be."
Peter ended the call with a promise to get back to her on that and see if there was anything on this Huntley fellow now that he had a little bit more of a reason to check the man's background than just a hunch.
Everyone was either busy with their own cases or the business side of the Hessinton case that Meghan was able to make her way back to Harvey's office completely unnoticed until... Donna.
"You weren't supposed to leave Harvey's office."
"I know, and there's no-"
"Your brother has been looking for you, trying desperately hard to find you so that Harvey didn't find out."
"I had to make a-"
"Harvey sent security to search for you."
"Crap... is he mad?" she asked, knowing the question was stupid the second it left her mouth.
"What do you think?"
"Well, my normal response would be to go to another part of the building until he or Dad have had a chance to cool down, but something about your confrontation here, and the looks he's currently sending my way, tells me I should go in there, sit down, and shut up."
There was some drama for her brother and Rachel that she chose to ignore because once again, a grown-ass person was acting like a toddler to get what they wanted. And the petty acts of revenge should have been beneath all of them.
She followed Harvey's direction of entering his office and sitting down, just as she had predicted for Donna, remaining silent the entire time.
"You asked me to think about being your legal guardian, Meghan. I can't do that if you keep doing stuff like this or failing to tell me everything."
"I did tell you everything... almost everything. While you were outside the interrogation room talking to Cameron, she asked me if I thought she did this."
"And what did you say?"
The there was a pause, Harvey had no doubt her reply was honest.
"It isn't any of my business if she did or didn't. My opinion doesn't matter, only that I did my job, and I did it well."
"Good. Now tell me why you left my office for hours."
"There were some calls I had to make without someone listening in."
Harvey thought that meant Mozzie.
"Peter's out of the question as far as Ava goes. How is she now that she's out?"
It was then that Harvey told her Ava fired the firm. Ava didn't want to be represented by a firm that wasn't going to do everything in its power to defend her, and apparently anything meant being willing to break the law.
But there was more to this story. Stephen made it look to Harvey as if he were stealing the client, then said he had convinced her to stay with Pearson-Darby.
"Mike learned that at least three of Cameron's witnesses were part of a guerilla faction. One of them is the Colonel who could be placed at the scene.
"Does she realize there is a way to get an innocent verdict without breaking the law, and it would be clear of all doubt? Where if she bribed her way to said verdict, there would always be doubt?"
"Ava doesn't care. She just wants her life back. Her own company is trying to get rid of her."
"Uh-"
"Don't even start comparing what I'm doing to what's happening to the client. I'm doing this because I may respect Jessica, but I don't like being stabbed in the back and having something that was promised to me used as a powerplay. Hessington Oil is booting her out because they actually believe she was behind this."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"Nothing. She's back with the Firm. Mike is handling the case and speaking with Ava about the witnesses. What I need you to do is some damage control between the secret couple and Katrina Bennett."
"What kind of damage control?"
Harvey pulled up the video Katrina had created to humiliate Mike and posted online for the entire Firm to see. How had she missed this.
"I've already told her she's not getting any higher than where she is now. She's done nothing but use how she got here to advance her career. Had to deflate that ego somehow." He poured himself a drink and offered her a water.
"Again... what do you want me to do about it?" she broke the seal of her water bottle.
"Make a friend? I don't know and I don't really care... What do you think about Ava? It isn't the client's business what you think. But it is mine."
"Based on your drink of choice, and the fact that you're about to pour a second for Dad, I'd say it's two against one. And I will continue to believe that until Mozz or Peter get back to me about you-know-who."
Meghan was allowed to leave the office in time for Mike to come in and give Harvey the same answers his sister had given to Ava's question. He took the drink Harvey offered him and said he agreed.
The team of three was officially working toward the same goal with two different agendas.
"She did it. We, uh... We never had drinks before," Mike pointed out.
"I know."
"Harvey, we just admitted to each other that we're defending a murderer. Doesn't really seem like cause for celebration."
"It's not a celebration... Remember when you said Butch and Sundance were back? They weren't."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it's time I told you I made a deal with Darby to take over the firm from Jessica."