Brother from another mother

High Noon AU

Harvey was in a bad mood. No, scratch that; Harvey was very irritated. No, scratch that too; Harvey was just plain pissed off. He'd been in an awful mood all day and there was very little, if anything, that could make it any better by the end of the afternoon. He'd been reamed in court earlier that morning because his witness had forgotten to mention a few key elements like accepting bribes from the opposing lawyers in order to give them a stronger case and basically sabotaging all the hard work he'd put into that case. Jessica had given him an ass chewing as well because that case had been high profile and she had been counting on him to close it and add another notch to Pearson Hardman's bedpost. All of this coupled with the fact that he'd had a headache since he woke up that morning had done absolutely nothing to improve his mood.

He flipped the file on his desk closed and pushed it away in disgust. He was tired of staring at it and until Mike got finished with the other part of the file, he was basically dead locked. He stood suddenly, pushing away from the desk and taking long, deliberate strides to the door. He needed that file. Mike should have had it on his desk an hour ago. The kid was slacking and he had no patience for slacking right now. Not today.

He breezed past Donna, ignoring her questioning gaze, and walked down the hall to Mike's desk. Usually, he liked to instill the fear of God into the younger man just because it was kind fun to see him squirm a bit. Today though he was just irritated and he was going to instill the fear of God AND Harvey into Mike in order to get that file done by the end of the day.

He stopped at the younger man's desk and was torn between being surprised and even more pissed about the fact that the kid was just sitting there, staring at the computer screen and getting absolutely nothing done. He wasn't typing, he wasn't looking at anything (the screen was on a blank spread sheet) and he certainly wasn't working. He was just...staring at the screen, big, blue puppy eyes wide and blank.

Harvey felt a muscle in his jaw begin to twitch. If there was one thing he couldn't stand it was laziness, especially when that laziness was coming from HIS associate. He slammed a hand on the top of the wall separating Mike's desk from the hallway, causing the younger man to start just a tiny bit, blinking owlishly up at his boss. Harvey didn't care, it got the desired affect and that's all he cared about.

"There better be a damn good reason you don't have those files done and have decided to instead spend the afternoon staring at a blank spreadsheet." Harvey half-growled, half-snapped as he took in the blank expression from the younger man. If he was tired and zoning out he needed to do it on his own time, not here at the office.

Then, before Harvey got the answer he wanted, Mike stood and brushed past him, heading straight for the bathroom and disappearing behind the swinging door. Harvey frowned, somewhere between yelling "come back here and answer me, dammit!" and following him. Finally, curiosity won out and he walked toward the bathroom, opening the door and stepping inside, locking it behind them. No one else was in there but he and Mike, all the stalls and urinals open and vacant. It was the perfect place to get some answers.

Mike was hunched over the sink, his hands wrapped around the porcelain basin so tightly his knuckles were turning white. In fact, he was looking pretty white himself, all the color drained from his face and giving him a very gaunt and haggard look. Harvey felt a very tiny fraction of his irritation ebb away into something that was not quite concern. It was curiosity, he reminded himself. He didn't give a shit about Mike, he just wanted to know why those files weren't done and on his desk when he'd told him to. He was just about to break into a tirade that included all those points when Mike spoke.

"The nursing home called..." He said in a croaked, breathy voice. "My grandmother had a stroke..."

And just like that all the irritation and anger that had filled Harvey all day was gone. It left him like a rush of hot air and he felt like a ball of lead had formed in the pit of his stomach. "I'm sorry." He said, hating how hollow and empty the words sounded. He wanted to ask, he needed to know, but he didn't know how to approach the subject. "Is she-?"