Brother from another mother

"Remember how that felt".

"I'm watching you."

"Excuse me?" Mike looked up from his cubicle to find Louis standing there.

"I'm watching you. Just remember that." And Louis walked away.

Holy shit. What did Louis know? What was he planning? Why was he watching him? Mike's head started to spin. He reminded himself that no one but Harvey and Donna knew of their arrangement; there was no way Louis could know.

Unless, he supposed, Louis had actually checked with Harvard....

No. He hadn't said anything about that, so surely that wasn't the case.

A few hours later, Louis was back. "Are you done with that deposition yet?"

Mike almost jumped out of his chair. "N-no, not yet," he stammered nervously. "You said you didn't need it till the end of the day, and Harvey needs this statement of claim done by noon, so...."

"Of course. Harvey's work comes first. Just remember, Harvey can't protect you from everything." With that cryptic statement, Louis departed.

This did not sound good. What was Louis up to? How much did he know? And if he knew, why hadn't he just come right out and said something? Blackmail? What did he want? What did Mike have to give? Not money. Louis certainly had more of that than Mike did. His legal services? Louis already had those. Mike didn't want to think of anything else.

He finished the claim for Harvey and then set to work on Louis's deposition. He skipped lunch and had a cup of coffee, and then another cup of coffee. He needed the energy boost from the caffeine. Soon he'd lost count of how many cups he drank.

When the deposition was finished, Mike walked it over to Louis, who examined it intently, making Mike worry that he'd made a mistake, even though he knew it was perfect. Finally, Louis finished his examination and smiled. "Very good, Mike. Keep up this level of work, and there should be no problems."

Mike didn't know what to make of that statement, but he had the feeling it wasn't as straightforward as it sounded.

When he got back to his desk he found an email from Harvey requesting his presence in Harvey's office. As soon as he got there, Harvey handed him a huge pile of papers. "Read these," he ordered. "Find the loopholes, the errors, the omissions — anything I can use against these guys."

Suddenly Mike got dizzy. He could feel the walls closing in on him. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He started to hyperventilate.

"Mike? Mike? Mike! What's happening?" Harvey could tell that something was seriously wrong with his associate. He looked for Donna. She knew everything. She would know what to do. But his secretary was nowhere to be seen.

Mike was continuing to gasp for air. He was shaking. Harvey put an arm around Mike's shoulders and guided him to the couch. He recalled someone he'd known in college who'd had a problem like this. It was called a panic attack. His acquaintance had said it felt something like a heart attack. It was caused by severe anxiety. But said acquaintance had never mentioned whether there was anything that could be done to help someone who was panicking.

What could be causing Mike's anxiety, Harvey didn't know. But he had to help his associate somehow. He kept his arm around Mike, patted his back, and tried to talk to him calmly, even though he felt like panicking himself.

Donna arrived at that moment, and, seeing what was happening, came into the office. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Mike's having a panic attack. Can you get him a glass of water?" He didn't know if water would help, but at least it was something practical.