EPILOGUE

"Whereas, the company shall not be held liable for any damages suffered as a result of using this product..."

Harvey continued typing his own work while Mike paced and dictated to his computer a contract for one of their new clients. He couldn't very well dictate at his cubicle where it would disturb the other associates—especially since most of them were still unaware of Mike's disability anyway, a situation he much preferred—so he spent the time in here when he needed to enter something into the computer.

He could have—and sometimes did—find an empty conference room to work in, but usually only when Harvey was having a meeting or otherwise needed the quiet. The latter happened less and less as time went on, the background sound of Mike's voice becoming a familiar and welcome one, like Harvey's records.

Well, maybe not that welcome.

But it was a pleasant sort of white noise most of the time, and Harvey could ignore it if he chose to do so. He even found that it was occasionally beneficial to his own concentration, something about the steady cadence of Mike's voice reciting legalese in one form or another helping Harvey's own brain stay on track and work more efficiently.

Donna opened the door and entered, setting a stack of files on Harvey's desk and then moving over to hand Mike a bottle of water and a jumpdrive with the transcribed notes from yesterday's meeting, no doubt.

He tapped the button on the headset to mute the microphone, then took the bottle of water with a, "Thanks, Donna," downing half of it without stopping. After he'd recapped the bottle and set it aside, he took the drive.

Harvey watched them talk for a moment about the files on the drive and other documents and projects, smiling as Mike made some subtle joke and Donna laughed abruptly. They all worked a lot more smoothly together these days, even with the changes they'd had to make to their formerly established routines.

Much of Mike's work around the office could now be done with the speech transcription software, but client meetings often didn't fall into that category—especially since not everyone liked their confidential meetings with their attorneys being recorded in a sound file that could end up in hands not bound by attorney-client privilege. In those cases, Mike took the best notes he could in a form of shorthand he and Donna had developed together that reduced the amount of writing he had to do and helped keep him from getting fatigued or strained, then she typed them up into a more universally understood format. Mike would read over it to ensure it was all as he remembered and then Harvey—or whoever else needed them—got the polished copy.

It wasn't a conventional arrangement by any means, and when Jessica had found out—after discovering Mike doing his thing in a conference room one day—it had sparked a meeting among the four of them and a few appraising looks on her part, but she couldn't deny that it worked and, well, Harvey's unique style was part of the reason she valued him so much. She already knew that Donna wasn't going to be forced into any molds and the whole point of having Harvey mentor Mike was to teach the kid all of his tricks anyway, so she just told them to keep up the good work and left.

The fact that the new arrangement's increased productivity made Louis even more jealous of Harvey and covetous of Mike was just the sweet, sweet icing on the proverbial cake.

Mike ended the conversation with an apologetic reminder that he had work to do and Donna nodded and started to leave, giving Harvey a smile as she passed him that subtly reinforced how she was pleased with the way he'd put her advice to good use.

Then Donna stopped at the door and said, "Oh, Mike, I almost forgot! I got a call from Gina. She really liked what she's read of your manuscript so far."

Harvey leaned back in his chair, work forgotten for the moment, and watched as Mike's head ducked, a faint pink rising in his cheeks.

"Really?" he said. "It's not, uh..." His eyes darted to Harvey, who thought about pretending he wasn't listening, but decided that Mike could still use a little work on his confidence and instead let his genuine curiosity show through.

Donna must have agreed because she didn't say anything either, just waited for Mike to finish his thought.

It took him a moment and his voice was quieter than normal, but he said, "It's not... stupid?"

Donna beamed at him. "Nope. She said she only had one problem with it."

Mike swallowed, looking even more nervous, and his eyes again flicked to Harvey, but when he saw no censure there he squared his shoulders and said, "Which was?"

"That she already wanted more of it than she had in her hands," Donna said with a wink and then actually left, shutting the door and returning to her desk.

Mike just stared after her, blinking a little, then he looked to Harvey and cringed, turning quickly to face his computer and unmuting his microphone. His voice wasn't quite so steady as before as he spoke, but he doggedly kept going, standing in place for a moment before he sat down and pulled the laptop onto his knees. That his attention was only half on his work was perfectly obvious.

Harvey twirled his pen and considered his associate for a few moments before glancing to Donna. She wasn't looking his way, but her posture, attentive with a slight tilt to her head and only slow and subtle movements of her arms, indicating she was typing but her focus wasn't fully on it, said she was listening to hear his reaction to her calculated revelation.

Harvey considered, then gave his response, his tone casual as he said, "You planning on leaving your job as a fake lawyer to become a real author?"

Mike's shoulders twitched as he shrank down a little and he tapped the mute again to say, "I'm not... It's just a— a short story I've..." He cleared his throat. "I mean," he clarified with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's not anything spectacular. Just something that's been in my head for awhile now."

Harvey had a feeling that "awhile now" was a lot longer than a few days or weeks. It wouldn't even surprise him that it had been there for years and only Mike's belief that he couldn't write had held him back from sharing it with anyone outside of an oral rendition—and maybe not even then.

"I didn't know you had an interest in writing stories," Harvey said honestly.

"I— I mean, I guess..." Mike stopped talking and stared at his computer, his fingers nervously tapping on the keyboard, though not hard enough to input any of the characters into his document. "It's a stupid thing—" he mumbled.

"Is it going to interfere with your work?" Harvey asked. He saw Donna twitch and then turn to regard him with narrowed eyes, but he ignored her for the moment.

Mike's head popped up and shook back and forth vigorously. "No! Never! I know I have to do this first," he said with a wave of his hand to indicate the firm. "It's my number one priority still. It's just, now that I have the software and... I have a little more free time without having to scan and cross-reference as much so—" He looked away and Harvey could practically see his metaphorical tail tuck between his legs and his floppy, pointed ears flatten back along his skull with guilt and shame.

"Relax, Mike," Harvey said gently. "I'm not against you having a hobby." Mike's eyes shifted to Harvey and this time they held hope.

"You're not? I mean... What happened to 'a hundred hours a week'—"

Harvey snorted. "Anyone who actually works a hundred hours a week is doing something wrong."

Mike bit his lip and Harvey remembered that not too long ago Mike probably had been putting in a hundred hours a week, which only validated his statement, but they'd corrected that mistake so he didn't retract it.

Then he made his expression stern and pointed the pen at Mike and said, "As long as you're still getting your work done on time and with the same high quality I've come to expect, it's not a problem."

"Of course! Yes! Always!"

Harvey held the expression for a moment, then turned back to his work, leaning forward. "Then I'd like a copy of your story."

His peripheral vision showed Mike freezing into place.

"What?" he finally said, voice strained.

"I want a copy of your story. It's got to be pretty good if Gina likes it."

"I..." Mike floundered like a landed bass for a moment.

Harvey let him while he signed a page with a flourish, then said, "I did say it wasn't supposed to interfere with your work." He gave Mike a pointed look.

Mike started and then looked at his computer. He unmuted the mic and picked up where he'd left off, still a little shaky for a few minutes until he became immersed in the work again.

Harvey made sure the smirk was only visible on the side of his face Mike couldn't see and then glanced up at Donna who was smiling back at him as she nodded her approval.

Harvey let his shoulders relax just a little bit more and then followed his own advice to Mike and returned his focus to his work. It wouldn't do to have his own protégé showing him up, after all. Well, any more than he already did.

And yet, somehow, Harvey didn't mind that as much as he probably should have.

~fin~

This was at times painful, at times cathartic, but always worth it to write. Thanks to huffydoo for the prompt and GallowsHumor for the much needed beta. Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review if you enjoyed it! Or even if you didn't... *shrugs* Whatever the case, I'd love to hear from you.

PROMPT:

Mike has a learning disability in English. He struggles with spelling and grammar. He tries using spell-check but it is often a frustrating experience. He avoids writing like the plague but he has good and creative ideas. Usually Donna secretly takes anything other then general case notes. She takes and types them so that people will deal with the content and not the process. She doesn't like the smart-ass comments of people making comparisons between spelling and work ethics or intelligence. One day Donna is late with a dentist appointment. Harvey reads the brief, unsigned. He starts joking with Mike and everyone about the writer, etc. He thinks he's being witty. Mike is laughing on the outside and he is crying on the inside. He finds an excuse to leave work debating getting high, feeling again like a screw-up. Donna hears about the floor show and rips into Harvey. Just as Mike is about to take a hit, Harvey shows up at the door.