You can blame phreakycat for all of these upcoming fics :p She has the best prompts in the world and I pounce on them pretty much every time I see one so the next few stories you see from me will be all her doing. She is the puppetmaster to my Muse! ^.- Hope you guys like it!
A/N: The car accident is a bit graphic so I sincerely apologize if that upsets anyone!
I don't own Suits ;_;
Mike was somewhat surprised when Harvey showed up at his house that morning. It wasn't the fact that Harvey was there that surprised him (he usually came to pick him up when they were going to meet a new client so he could ensure Mike wouldn't be late), it was the fact that Ray was nowhere to be seen and Harvey was holding the keys.
"Wow...you drove here?" He asked intelligently as he stepped out, locking the door behind him.
"Ray's sick with the flu so I'm driving today." Harvey answered simply, taking a fews steps forward with Mike trailing along behind him. "Why? Is that a problem?"
"No." Mike said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder and straightening his tie as he caught up with the older man. "I just didn't know you could drive, I always see Ray behind the wheel."
"Ha ha." Harvey rolled his eyes, sliding into the elevator with Mike close behind him. "One more quip like that and you'll walk downtown."
Mike smirked and rolled his eyes, pressing his back against the wall of the elevator and waiting patiently for it to reach the ground floor.
OOOOO
"Okay, so I was going through the statements from the McKinsey case and I noticed some inconsistencies between two of the employees about the money that went missing-"
"Did you do any research on the matter?"
"Well, no, I just found them last night and I didn't really have time to-"
"You didn't have time?" Harvey shot him an incredulous look across the seat. "You realize we're driving across town, during rush hour traffic, to meet with our client and assure him that not only will the employees who stole this money be brought to justice but also that every cent of that money will be returned to him, and you didn't have time to look into the inconsistencies with the statements?"
"Look, I'm sorry Harvey." Mike sighed in exasperation, dropping the file back onto his lap with a huff. "I don't exactly have a computer and a printer available to me at my apartment."
"Why not? Now a days its pretty common place to use a computer for every kind of research you could think of and in a job like this you're doing a lot of research."
"Well, maybe its because I'm more worried about paying for my grandmother's nursing home and rent for my apartment every month than I am about owning and maintaining a computer in my living room."
"Listen kid, I know you soak shit up like a sponge and all but that doesn't do me a bit of good if you don't have the information we need."
"I told you I was sorry! What more do you-" Mike never got a chance to finish as a tremendous crash rattled the inside of the car and the world became nothing but a haze of crushing metal and noise.
OOOOO
Harvey blinked slowly, his eyes finally focusing on the dented and buckled hood in front of him. Steam was pouring out from underneath the hood, fogging the windshield and creeping across the broken glass. The car had ended up on the curb, his door pressed up against a light pole and effectively sealing it closed.
He moved his legs experientally, his knees aching from the impact with the steering column. His elbow was throbbing, the sleeve torn a bit from its collision with the door and he could feel a damp stickiness plastering his shirt sleeve to his arm. God, whoever hit them was going to be in for a world of legal drama if he had his way about it. They had run a red light, a pretty hefty offense already, and now that there was most definitely some kind of injury, the tiles were slowly but surely stacking against the other driver. Harvey sighed in frustration. Not only was he going to have to get his car fixed, he needed to get a rental, reschedule the meeting with client, probably block out the rest of his afternoon...it was probably a good thing because that gave Mike plenty of time to do the research and-
Harvey sat up abruptly, suddenly remembering Mike was in the car. He looked to the passenger seat, realizing for the first time that the car had hit on his side and fearing the worst. Mike was sitting stiff as a board in the passenger seat, a steady steam of blood trickling down the side of his face. He was conscious but his eyes were wide and his face was pale and Harvey was silently terrified that there was a more serious injury that he couldn't see.
"Mike?" He said, wrestling with the seat belt for a second before getting it undone and inching across the seat. "Mike, you alright?"
The younger man didn't answer him. Instead, he kept staring out the broken, spiderweb windshield, eyes wide and empty. It was almost like he was watching something, a movie playing across the shattered glass that only he could see. Harvey inched a bit closer, trying his best to quell the panic building in his chest.
"Mike?"
He was sitting in the back seat, trying his best to listen to the radio over his parents arguing. His mother insisted they had gone too far and needed to turn around and his father was certain their exit was a few miles up the road. There was a paper cup in the floor boards, a remnant from some fast food restaurant, and it was rolling back and forth gently as the car moved along.
He hummed along with a familiar song on the radio, watching the street signs pass by. He'd already finished reading the book he'd stashed in the back seat and now he was stuck with nothing to keep him entertained other than what he could see outside.
The car stopped at a redlight and his parents were still arguing. They were close to compromise: drive a little bit further and if nothing looked familair they would turn around. The light turned green and they pulled forward. His mother turned and smiled at him in the back seat. Then the whole world fell apart.
He didn't know what happened at first. There a screech of tires and an explosion of metal somewhere off to his left and then a moment of absolute silence before the car started to flip. One, two, three times it rolled, landing on its side in a ditch and there was a short, terrible scream from somewhere in the front seat.
"Mike!" Harvey said, giving up trying to get the kid's attention by saying his name and going for the more abrupt method of simply grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. He knew he could be injuring him further but at this point he really didn't care, he just wanted some kind of response from him.
"Answer me!"
There was broken glass in his hair and in his clothes, he could feel it biting into his skin. His shoulder was pressed against the door frame, the door buckled against the soft dirt in the ditch. He was sideways, the seatbelt looped across his chest creating a rather effective bar and holding him in one position.
He could hear voices above and around him but they were muffled and distorted and he couldn't understand what they were saying. He tried to say something back but opening his mouth hurt and he was afraid a piece of glass might end up somewhere inside it if he tried to talk.
His father was hanging limply in the seat, his neck twisted to the side at a funny angle. He wanted to call out to him but he knew he probably couldn't hear him because of all the blood oozing out of his ear.
"Mike." There was a soft, pain-strained voice from the front seat and he looked up. His mother was clinging to the edge of the seat, her beautiful blond hair matted and stuck to the side of her head with blood. It looked garish and wrong against her fair hair and he wanted to tell her that. "Mike." She said again, her voice a bit softer this time. Her teeth were an odd pink color, the color of cherry Kool-Aid before water was added to it. Her lips were dark red and he couldn't remember her putting on lipstick before they left that morning...
"Mike!" Harvey was nearly frantic by now. As far as he could tell, Mike wasn't seriously injured other than the gash on his forehead that was bleeding like a leaky faucet. He wasn't too worried about that though; the one first aid class he'd ever taken in his life told him that head wounds bleed like all get out and that most of the time they looked worse than they actually were. Harvey couldn't see or feel any broken bones and unless there was some horrible internal injury he wasn't aware of, he couldn't find anything else wrong with the younger man. But Mike wasn't answering him, he wasn't even looking at him even though he was right in front of him. His eyes were glassy and blank and it reminded Harvey of someone who was sleep walking.
Blood was running down the side of his face, mixing with his tears and making them feel oily and slick on his skin. He wanted to wipe them away but his arms were still pinned by the seat belt. His mother had stopped talking and blood had now started to stain the pretty purple blouse she was wearing.
He suddenly hated it for ruining her shirt. It was such an ugly color and it was nearly black when it mixed with purple fabric. It was so rude; she had spent a lot of money on that blouse for this weekend and now the blood was going to stain it forever. She was going to be devastated when she woke up!
There was man in front of him suddenly, a paramedic wearing a dark blue uniform and a grim expression. He grabbed Mike from the seat, lifting him out and away from the broken glass and dented doors. He wanted to tell them to go get his parents, that they needed help too, but a pretty red haired lady was strapping him to a stiff board and loading him into the back of an ambulance. She looked so sad...
Harvey was running out of ideas. "Jesus kid, don't tell me a little fender bender was all it took to knock your shit loose." He muttered, looking out the window to see a flurry of people crowding around the car. He'd heard someone calling for an ambulance earlier and the driver of the other car was out and on the side walk. His car was still crunched up against Mike's door and with the other door blocked by the light pole, they were effectively stuck until they could get someone with a tow truck over here.
"Nonononono..."
Harvey frowned and looked back at his associate. Mike was trembling, his blue eyes still wide and blank, but he was whispering the word "no" over and over again like a mantra.
The older man frowned again. "No? What-?" Then suddenly, way back in the dark recesses of his mind in the folder labeled "Mike" that he had kept open for the past few months, a memory flashed on like a light bulb. Mike's parents were killed in a car accident.
"Shit." He muttered, moving a bit closer and cupping the younger man's cheek in his palm. "Mike? Mike, listen to me. You're safe, alright? Everything's okay."
Slowly, very slowly, recognition dawned in Mike's eyes and he took a shaky breath. "Harvey?" His voice sounded unsure and lost, quivering a bit in a way the older man would never forget.
"Yeah kid, its me. You back with me now? You're not going for another skip down memory lane again, are you?" He winced inwardly at that expression; the kid was reliving his parent's death and he was making jokes.
Mike didn't seem to notice though. He was looking around the inside of the car frantically, sweeping broken glass off his arms and hands and onto the floor. He looked at the broken window next to him, the shattered windshield, and then at Harvey. "I have to get out of here." He half-whispered, half-gasped and Harvey was startled when he made a frenzied lunge for the door.
"Mike." Harvey said calmly, making a grab for the younger man's hand. "We can't get out right now, we're stuck. The ambulance is on the way and they'll be able to get us out once they-" He grabbed Mike's hand as it crashed against the broken glass again. "Will you stop that! You're not helping!"
Mike was shaking all over now, his face completely devoid of color which made the blood on his face stand out even more. "No...I need to get of here Harvey. Right now. RIGHT NOW! Jesus Christ, just get me out of this fucking car! Please!" He was breathing too fast, his chest heaving as he struggled to take in oxygen but it looked like he was fighting for it.
He gave Harvey a pleading look that could have broken down a brick wall. "Harvey please...I can't be in here...I need to get out...please...please..." There were tears in his eyes now, not falling but just on the verge of it, and he was gripping Harvey's arms tight enough to make bruises. He was breathing faster, shaking his head back and forth slowly and squeezing his eyes closed. "Harvey please..."
Harvey had never seen his associate this shaken up before and it was something he probably could have lived the rest of his life without ever seeing. Mike's fists were clenched in his sleeves, amplifying the pain in his elbow, but he ignored it. He moved closer, cupping the younger man's face in his hands and bringing his forehead to rest against Mike's. "Mike, listen to me okay." He said in a soft, even voice. This was not the Harvey Specter voice he used when he was trying to win a case. This voice was gentle and almost friendly. "Everything is going to be alright, we just have to sit tight for a little while. Just take a deep breath, nice and slow...just like that..."
He breathed slowly, hoping Mike would do the same and was rewarded a few seconds later when the kid drew in a slightly slower, shaky breath. "There you go...deep breath in...just keep breathing, alright?"
Someone was knocking on the shattered window, pieces of broken glass showering into the seat around them, and Mike jumped, a panicked look in his eyes. Harvey tightened his grip just slightly on the sides of his face. "Don't look at them Mike, just look at me. Just pay attention to me, okay?"
Mike had closed his eyes again, his grip loosening ever so slightly on Harvey's sleeves. "Harvey..." He breathed, his voice still shaky and unsure like he was teetering on the edge of falling back into a full-on panic attack.
"You're fine, Mike. Everything's okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise." Harvey was somewhat surprised at the surge of protectiveness he felt in that moment but he pushed it aside to dwell upon later. He didn't have time for psycho babble right now.
There was a harsh scraping sound and the other car was dragged away, freeing the passenger side door. A paramedic appeared a few seconds later, wreching the door open carefully and peering inside. He motioned for something and a few seconds later another paramedic appeared with a cervical collar. Harvey was gently pulled from the car and led over to a waiting ambulance while the other paramedics dealt with Mike.
After a few minutes of assessment, they determined he did not have a neck injury and the head wound was little more than a cut that needed cleaning. A young woman held him by the arm carefully while a taller, male paramedic walked right behind him in case he fell. They led him over to another ambulance and sat him down in the back while another woman came to kneel beside him and check his vitals.
Harvey was a few feet away, sitting in the back of a neighboring ambulance and having his forearm and elbow wrapped. There were a few minor gashes in his arm from the broken glass in the car and the pain in his elbow was mostly due to the impact of the collision. The paramedic had cheefully told him that there were no broken bones and that he probably wouldn't even have to have stitches. That was all fine, well, and good but it didn't make up for the fact that she had just cut the sleeve off of an $850 suit like it was made by Fruit of the Loom. When she finished with him, she released him to go over to the other ambulance, his arm bound tightly in shiny, white gauze.
Mike was still sitting in the back of the other ambulance, a shock blanket wrapped around his shoulders and another paramedic cleaning the wound on his head. Harvey was glad to see a little bit of the color had started to return to his face and even more relieved to see that the head wound wasn't nearly as serious as he thought it was. It looked ugly and there was a dark purple bruise forming beneath it but it was closed up with a couple butterfly bandages and a lot of the garishness disappeared with them.
"Hey kid." Harvey said as he got closer, catching the younger man's eye. "Feeling better?"
Mike nodded sheepishly and looked down, fumbling with the edges of the blanket a bit. "Um...sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to...you know...freak out on you in there."
Harvey shrugged his uninjured arm casually. "Nothing I couldn't handle."
Mike gave him a grateful smile but he still looked uneasy. "I...uh...I didn't want you to see that. I mean, I didn't really want you to know. I usually manage to keep that kind of stuff tucked away, you know? I'm sorry."
Harvey rolled his eyes. "Don't be an idiot." When Mike looked up at him, eyes wide and confused, he elaborated. "Mike, we all have shit we have to deal with; its part of life. So you freaked out today, big deal. Its not the end of the world and I certainly don't think any less of you because of it."
That seemed to release some of the tension in the younger man and he smiled a bit more easily now. "Thank you...for what you did in the car. It helped...I mean, like, really helped. So...thanks."
Harvey shrugged again and this time it was his turn to avoid eye contact. "Like I said, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You're a pain in the ass but I'm kind of used to it by now." He ignored Mike's oh-my-God-you-accept-me face and stared instead at the remains of his car. "Man, Ray is going to be pissed when he finds out about the car..."
Lol, aww poor Ray. Now he's going to have to drive a new car :/ Damn the luck!