Chapter 9

Harvey's alarm started blaring far earlier than he would have liked. He groaned and rolled over, hoping to catch a couple extra hours of sleep before he had to start his day – if he were too late he'd just tell Jessica that he had a 'morning meeting,' He'd said it before.

Harvey had just reset his alarm and closed his eyes when he caught whiff of a wonderful smell emanating from outside of his room. Groaning, Harvey got out of bed and padded out towards the kitchen, following his nose.

Harvey was just about to open the door to the kitchen when Emily came out carrying a platter of eggs and bacon, followed by Mike who had another pan in his hands.

"Finally up?" Emily asked, "I thought lawyers worked from sun up to sun down."

"Harvey needs more beauty sleep than most," Mike informed as he came out of the kitchen again carrying a plate of toast and some jams and butter, "Get the juice will you?"

"Sure," Emily agreed.

"So what is all this?" Harvey asked. Looking at the time, he noted that it was only six fifty in the morning and this looked like quite a spread.

Mike shrugged, "Up early. Promised, Emily."

"Here's the juice and I grabbed the fruit salad as well," Emily informed, coming back in.

"Well then, I guess it's time to eat." Harvey clapped his hands and sat down at the head of the table with Mike and Emily taking either side. "So what do we have here?"

"What?" Mike asked.

"What did you make?" Harvey reiterated.

"You don't know what eggs are?" Mike queried, looking confused.

Harvey rolled his eyes. Smart ass kid. "I know what eggs are, thank you. What's in the pan?"

"Hash brown casserole," Mike answered simply.

"You made the bread!" Emily squealed in delight as she took a bite of toast.

"Made the bread?" Harvey questioned.

Mike ignored Harvey's question though. "I was up and bored. I also switched out the bread on your sandwich and packed some poppers for a snack."

"Yes," Emily cheered, "Thank you."

"It's no problem," Mike smiled at her, before taking a small bite of his own food.

Emily gave Mike a sympathetic look, as though she understood why Mike had prepared all this food. Harvey was curious himself.

The rest of the meal was relatively quiet and quick. The food was amazing – Mike could cook! Still, Harvey had put Mike to bed at midnight last night and from the looks of it, Mike hadn't slept for very long. Bread takes a few hours to prepare because it had to rise, meaning that Mike got no more than two or three hours of sleep in the past two nights. That wasn't healthy; the kid would be taking a nap later today.

Harvey waited patiently to talk to Mike until after Reynolds had picked Emily up for school. "She'll be back around four," Reynolds informed him.

"That's fine," Harvey nodded.

"Don't forget your lunch," Mike said, holding out the lunch bag.

"Oh yes, very important!" Emily agreed, snatching the bag from Mike. Harvey didn't blame her. If he remembered correctly, there was cake in that bag.

As soon as the door was shut, Mike thrust a piece of paper in Harvey's hands. "What's this?"

"One to fifty," Mike grumbled, before stalking away to the kitchen.

Harvey looked down at the paper, and sure enough, Mike had finished his punishment to Harvey's satisfaction. Sighing, Harvey just chalked it up to another thing his associate had done while he was supposed to be sleeping. Wonderful.

Harvey walked into the kitchen where Mike was cleaning up from breakfast and putting the leftovers into containers. Stepping over to the sink to help with the dishes, Harvey started off the interrogation, "So what time did you get up?"

Mike kept moving, but took a minute to answer, "I got enough sleep."

"What time did you get up?" Harvey repeated firmly.

"When my body woke me up."

"Mike," Harvey ordered. When that was ignored, he tried again, "Michael."

Mike froze. Harvey had rules and he knew that Mike knew what those rules were. If Harvey had to use Mike's full name, then the kid had one last chance.

Harvey waited the kid out; Mike would answer if given the time.

"I woke up at…"

"The truth."

Mike's shoulders slumped. "Two thirty."

Harvey sighed, "Why?"

"That's when my body woke me up."

"Mike, what's going on?" Harvey was confused. Why had Mike only slept two and a half hours? Why had he been so reluctant to go to sleep last night? Why was Mike avoiding his questions?

"Nothing's going on, Harvey," Mike answered despondently.

"Mike."

Mike exhaled and turned to look Harvey in the eye, pain radiating off the boy in waves, "Nothing new is going on, Harvey."

"It's not healthy."

"It's life," Mike shrugged, "Now what do we have to work on today?"

"Mike, you can't just…"

"What work do we have for today?" Mike asked firmly.

Harvey shook his head, but left it alone for now. Mike would be taking a nap after lunch, regardless of how this fight turned out. "Donna dropped off the files for the McKesson case and we have to prepare a motion for court for the Rogers case for later next week."

"I'll take the Rogers case," Mike said, heading towards Harvey's desk.

"Why Rogers?"

"Because I prefer working for Rogers."

"And why is that?" Harvey queried.

Mike looked over at Harvey, "Because McKesson's a racist, violent bastard."

"What?" Where the hell had that come from?

Mike sighed, "When we last met with him it was Jeffry – a African American man - who brought him up to your office, McKesson showed nothing but contempt and disgust for him. Then there's the fact that he likes to lash out at anyone who defies him in even the smallest way."

"OK, I understand why you say he's a racist. I hadn't really paid attention but then I don't typically pay attention to any of the associates except for my own. I do have some questions on how you know he 'lashes out' at people," Harvey asked.

Mike gave a harsh laugh, "I know when someone has a short temper, Harvey. Trust me on that one."

Harvey stilled there. Sometimes it was easier for him to forget that Mike's past was as awful as it was, especially when the boy 'acted' completely happy and innocent. But if anyone would be able to tell that someone was likely to be violent… it would probably be Mike.

"So then I take it Rogers is a saint?"

That got a semi-real laugh out of Mike, "If by saint, you mean sleeping with his secretary, then yes, he's a saint."

"How the hell do you know the man's sleeping with his secretary?"

Mike shrugged, "It's obvious."

"How is it obvious?"

To that, Mike merely smirked, before taking the Rogers files and heading off to the spare room that had been set-aside for him. Harvey just shook his head and let the kid work; he'd stop him at eleven thirty for lunch and then a nap after.

As Harvey sat down and started working on McKesson's files, he couldn't help but think about the man differently. He was almost tempted to just put in a small loop hole that would let the other side win, but he couldn't do that... If he did that, he'd be no better than McKesson himself. Still, didn't mean he had to give it his best, just enough to win. Then he could let the man go. It's not like McKesson brought in that much money anyway.

Three hours later and Harvey had lunch on the table and was knocking on the door to Mike's room.

"What's up?" Mike asked, turning around at his desk.

"Lunch," Harvey informed the kid.

"Not hungry," Mike replied, returning to his work.

"Not an option," Harvey said as he took the files from Mike and started walking towards the dining room. He heard Mike huff from behind him as he sat down.

Mike ate approximately half his lunch, before pushing it away. Harvey let it alone not in the mood for two fights back-to-back.

"Files," Mike said, jerking Harvey out of his thoughts.

"What?"

Mike just rolled his eyes. "I need the files, Harvey," he said slowly.

"I'll get them." Harvey stood before him and started taking his plate toward the sink, before continuing, "After your nap."

"What?!" Mike exclaimed as he jumped up and followed Harvey into the kitchen.

"You've slept for a total of two and a half hours in the past two and a half days. You're taking a nap," Harvey told the irritated boy in front of him.

"But…" Mike started to complain.

Harvey knew better than to let this continue. If he let Mike complain now, then he would never hear the end of it. "Michael." That shut the kid up. "Couch or bed?"

Mike hesitated for a moment, before huffing and letting his shoulders slump. "Couch, I guess."

"Good boy," Harvey praised.

Mike jerked his head up at the statement. Any form of praise always got a reaction out of Mike. The kid practically salivated over even the smallest thing.

It took a little nudge to get Mike to lie down on the couch. Harvey couldn't help but think how young Mike looked lying there in shorts and a t-shirt, barefoot and curled up in a ball. He looked so small, so helpless, and it killed Harvey to think of all the things that Mike had gone through in his short life.

Harvey shook his head to clear out his thoughts as he draped a blanket over Mike and headed back to his desk.

Harvey worked diligently for the next forty-five minutes in silence while Mike slept on the couch nearby. Everything was going fine until Mike suddenly shot up on the couch panting hard.

"Mike!" Harvey exclaimed.