Brother from another mother

Harvey's parents.

"Hey, Harv - Mom's not well and she said she wants 'the kids to visit'. I tried telling her that her favourite son was already coming up - that would be me, by the way - but for some reason she laughed. So I think you should bring the munchkin for a visit - we could have a family road trip going home. You know, stay for a few days, beat Dad at poker... What do you say?"

This was not the sort of phone call Harvey was accustomed to halfway through his workday. It was amazing how different his relationship was with his family since Mike came into his life. He guessed that Nick would now be pretty much a staple part of his life from now on - he could tell the younger man loved being called 'Uncle Nick' - and his parents had always wanted to be grandparents. He knew they would love to meet Mike. They had been dismayed when Nick was the one to tell them Harvey had a kid.

They didn't really know the details. All Nick had said was that Harvey had been granted custody of the rugrat after his mother died - the brothers decided that their parents would be much more accepting of the small boy if they thought Mike was biologically related to them. And to soften their yelling at Harvey, Nick had made it clear that he hadn't know that Mike existed until he got the call about the kid's non-existent mother.

"I don't know, Nick - I know they want to meet Mike but I don't know if he wants to meet them," he said cautiously.

"Who?" Mike's head shot up at his name. "Meet who? Can I meet them? I want to meet them!" Mike babbled happily, pulling at Harvey's knee after climbing out of the playpen that Donna thought would be a good idea for when Harvey was working.

It wasn't.

Nick laughed in Harvey's ear. "Seems like he wants to meet them."

"He doesn't even know who it is," Harvey grumbled to his brother before turning to Mike and placing his hand on Mike's head, ruffling his hair softly. "We're talking about my parents, Mike. Nick wants us all to go up and stay with them for a few days."

He had in all honesty expected Mike to go very quiet and shy and mumble something about not being sure. Instead, his eyes lit up and he gasped. "Can we? Please? I want to meet your Mom and Dad! Can we stay overnight? Where do they live? Do they have pets? I want to go! Can I sit with Nick in the car? Can we go now?"

Harvey lifted him onto his knee, mindful of his suit pants and tried to shush him. "Mike, I'm on the phone," he heard Nick laughing and smirked. "Why don't you talk to Uncle Nick for a bit instead?" He passed the phone down to Mike who spent a good ten minutes babbling excited questions to Nick.

"Mikey, I'm very close to having a burst ear drum," Nick told him. "Put your dad back on."

Mike blushed but passed the phone back up to Harvey. "When did you have in mind?" Harvey asked, feeling quite proud when both Nick and Mike let out excited yells.

The packed bags were sat next to the door and Mike was determined to put as much in them as possible. "Mike, I packed these," Harvey reminded him tiredly, sipping some coffee. It was too damn early for Mike to be awake and so alert. Harvey had assumed the morning would have gone something like waiting for Nick to arrive and then just putting a sleeping Mike in his car seat and not hearing anything until about 2 hours into the trip.

But it was as if Mike had gotten hold of some coffee before Harvey woke up.

"But you missed things!" Mike complained, trying to reopen the bag.

"Mike, leave it alone - you have clothes, books and toys in there," Harvey told him. "You don't need anything else."

"Except his awesome Uncle Nick," they heard him before they saw him, as he walked in grinning. "Hey - excited?"