Brother from another mother

Harvey as a dad. [Part-2]

"I'm not letting you bill me for babysitting if you're passed out drunk on my balcony." Mike snapped awake to Harvey's voice looming somewhere over him and behind.

Mike groaned for a minute, sitting up and rubbing his eye. "What time is it?"

"A little after midnight."

"And I'm not drunk, I had two beers." After scrubbing the sleep out of his eyes he grabbed the remainder of the beer at his elbow to swig out the disgusting taste in his mouth. "Besides, I needed to confer with my client."

At least Harvey didn't try to bullshit around him and pretend they didn't have anything to talk about. He had been avoiding Hunter and Mike the entire day.

"You didn't know?" Mike asked. Harvey didn't even have to answer, Mike could tell. Harvey hadn't known. He might not be able to read his boss completely, but he had a few tells Mike was becoming aware of. "One night stand? Ex?"

"You're my Associate. You don't get to grill me on my personal life." Harvey was still standing behind him when Mike finally climbed to his feet and turned around. Everything about Harvey screamed to back off, his arms were crossed, his face closed off, and he looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world.

"Oh no, you just made your personal life into my professional life, so now I get to grill you about your personal life, Harvey. You don't like that, you shouldn't have had me babysit your kid for the last sixteen hours." Mike stood closer now, giving Harvey his best semi-intimidating glower, even if he couldn't quite match his boss in height. "Now sit down and tell me what you should have told me this morning."

"I didn't know. Naomi and I..." Harvey sat down on the lounge chair Mike had vacated, elbows perched on his knees, fingers messing up his hair. "She was with the Department of Justice, I met her when I was in the District Attorney's office. We... had a minute." Harvey didn't say anything else for several long moments, finally running his hands over his jaw and the slightly overgrown five-o'clock shadow there. "I left the District Attorney's office to go to Pearson Hardman, I asked her to marry me, she said she wasn't going to marry someone who chose money over justice, and then she moved to Washington."

Where apparently she'd had Harvey's kid and never spoken to him again rather than reveal the existence of said kid. The thing that Mike realized - that would obviously burn Harvey under the circumstances - was that Mike knew just how dirty Cameron Dennis had been, and maybe it hadn't been the best choice Harvey could have made, but bailing on the DA's office had been good for his soul.

"So now you have a kid."

Wrong thing to say. Mike watched Harvey's cheek twitch, clenching his jaw in an obviously displeased fashion. "You get him into school, you do whatever it takes for him to not be too screwed up, and I'll call it a win."

"Harvey, I'm your Associate, not your co-parent." Mike tried to keep his voice from getting too loud, but he wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards his boss. "Do you have any idea what your kid's going through right now?"

"No, but you do?"

"Yeah, Harvey. I do." Mike didn't sit down, started to pace. "Why the hell would you shove your son on me if not to make sure I did that thing you claim to hate? Me empathizing with the client doesn't get me anywhere, right? Except when you want to dump your kid and everything he's going through on me. So I'm taking Hunter to his school interviews tomorrow and then that's it. You can't contract out fatherhood, you either bill the damn hours or you don't make the cut."

Mike picked up his beer bottles and started to head back inside.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to crash on your couch. Hunter and I have to be at the first interview at eight." Mike shook his head, not quite believing Harvey. He could be an ass, he really could. "And this is low, even for you. I put up with a lot from you, because I know you'll fight for me, but if you ever manipulate me like this again..." Mike didn't know what he'd do, Harvey was a bastard but he was his bastard, and Mike apparently was attracted to that bastard even when he was being a dick.

"What did I do?" Harvey asked, and he sounded... so damn bewildered.

"You don't even know?" Mike rubbed his forehead, tried to shake the fog that was setting in from too little sleep. "Jessica didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Mike took a deep, steeling breath, trying desperately to feel charitable toward Harvey. Harvey hadn't known, that made the completely cavalier foisting of Hunter onto him only slightly better, but only just. "My parents were killed by a drunk driver when I was twelve. I got kicked around in the system for a few days while my grandmother - who had been about to retire - tried to get her life in order to raise another kid after she'd just lost her son. She didn't really want me; she loved me, she always loved me, but she just wasn't ready for a genius who was struggling with losing his parents. So you get your shit together, Harvey."

He'd expected Harvey to fight back. Harvey always let Mike rage, and always had a comeback, but this time he just took a deep, shaky breath. "Go to bed, Mike. You've got an early morning and you want to make a good impression on Hunter's school."

Harvey was... Mike had never seen him like that. He'd seen Harvey upset and a bit unsettled, he'd seen his face when he was about to fire Mike. He knew a lot of different facets of Harvey but the man sitting on the balcony with Mike was a different animal entirely. Mike reached out and gave Harvey's shoulder a squeeze. Harvey didn't even react.

Mike left him like that, slightly concerned about leaving him, but maybe this was Harvey in the process of getting his shit together. Mike wouldn't know, he'd only ever seen Harvey when he had all the answers. The only time he'd ever seen Harvey not certain of what to do, he'd been about to beat a confession out of a murderer. A Harvey who didn't know how he was going to get what he wanted was a scary Harvey.

"You'll get it worked out," Mike found himself assuring Harvey.

Harvey just nodded, back still toward Mike. He did need to sleep, he was dead on his feet as it was.

"I have your back."

No answer. Reluctant, but knowing he had little other choice, Mike left Harvey to his brooding.