I own none of the characters. They belong to the wonderful people at USA. Shenan and Drennis are mine and therefore, I can do whatever I want to them.

Final chapter. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to send me a review or a comment. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I love you all and I hope that you enjoy the ending.

What Does It Take To Open Your Eyes

Chapter 8

The building was completely silent, tendrils of smoke caressing the ceiling. Harvey paused, looking about frantically, panic clouding his normally good senses. Drennis passed him brushing his shoulder as he moved toward a flimsy looking set of stairs. Harvey nodded as he followed the taller man but both stopped dead in their tracks at the sound of a gunshot. It seemed to echo throughout the building. Harvey's blood ran cold and he raced for the stairs, just a half a step behind Drennis.

The top floor if the building was flooded with smoke. It curled through the air, stinging Harvey's eyes, and burning his throat. Harvey had no idea which of the rooms was Mike's, but as he moved toward the closest one, Drennis stopped him.

"Not that one. Mike's is at the end of the hall, I'll check mine, you check his. Then we'll check the others." Drennis moved down the hall with familiarity, and vanished into one of the far rooms that was lit with a dull reddish glow.

Harvey raced down the hall to Mike's ajar door, coughing slightly at the smoke. He glanced around the room, his fear and worry rising at the flames that licked out of the open door down a short hall. Harvey knew that once they reached the main room, that was full of Mike's books, it would spread instantly. "Mike! Mike!" Harvey's eyes frantically scanned the room twice before finally noticing the prone form on the floor. He knelt on the ground, shaking Mike back and forth. "Mike!"

The blond was apparently unconscious, and Harvey's heart stopped before he noticed the purple bruise on the side of his associate's head. Harvey didn't stop to check Mike's pulse, didn't think about anything but getting Mike out of the flaming deathtrap that was once his apartment.

Harvey had just picked Mike up, briefly surprised at how light the kid was when Drennis appeared in the doorway, covered in soot and looking disturbed. He immediately darted forward to help Harvey. "I found Mr. Hader... He shot himself in my apartment." The tall man spoke just loud enough for Harvey to hear.

Harvey nodded, far more concerned with Mike than anything else. Between the two, they reached the stairs in record time, as the fire in Mike's apartment finally became close personal friends with the books and expanded, enclosing the entire apartment.

When the two exited the building, sirens were blaring and Harvey silently thanked Jessica with a brief glance before turning all his attention to Mike. Now in the relative safety of the parking lot, Harvey finally took the time to check Mike's pulse, looking back up at Jessica with fear in his eyes.

Before anyone could do anything else, the lawyer was being pushed aside by a overly calm paramedic, who along with her partner, started taking care of Mike. Harvey stood there, looking completely lost, his suit ruined, and soot smearing his face, eyes unable to look at anything except for Mike's pale face.

Jessica, after several attempts, finally managed to move the shell-shocked lawyer back a few steps and was talking to him, but Harvey couldn't hear her, all he heard was one of the paramedics shouting for someone to bring her the crash cart.

Harvey jerked so hard that he completely lost all balance and fell out of his bed, hitting the floor with a sharp bang. For several minutes, he couldn't move, and it took every ounce of his self control to try and calm his erratic breathing. He ran a shaky hand through his mussed hair unable to think about anything except for the horrible scenes that were flashing through his mind.

'A dream... it's only a dream. Calm down, Specter, it doesn't mean anything.' No matter how many times Harvey told himself that, he couldn't make himself believe it. Lifting himself up off the floor, Harvey shook his head before scrambling around his apartment. No matter what Harvey told himself, his mind refused to accept it until he saw Mike. It didn't matter that his plane for Chicago left in four hours, or that it was barely two in the morning, Harvey had to see Mike now. Throwing on an old leather jacket, and just barely remembering to grab his shoes, Harvey raced down to the street and hailed a cab.

He spent the entire ride tapping his foot anxiously and constantly shifting. When the driver pulled up at the building that made Harvey actually shudder, the lawyer threw a few bills at man without even looking at them and raced into the building, taking the stairs faster than could be deemed safe. The minute he reached Mike's door, he banged on it insistently, trying to force himself to calm down.

After a few minutes of what could politely be called knocking, he heard the sound of several locked being removed and the door opened slightly, revealing Mike's bleary eyes and tousled hair. "H'rvey? Wh't're ya doin' 'ere?" The door opened a bit more, as Mike rubbed one of his eyes.

The door next to Mike's opened, and a face appeared that made Harvey still completely. "Mike? Are you alright?"

The blond waved. "Sure..I'm good." Mike yawned, wondering why his boss was standing on his doorstep at two thirty in the morning. "I'll see you later, Drennis... We'll take Shenan to lunch this afternoon, okay? You're picking her up later, right?"

The tall man nodded, looking at Harvey oddly before going back into his own apartment. When Harvey looked back at Mike, he found the same expression on his associates face. "Mike.." Harvey's voice sounded slightly shaky.

Mike blinked, and opened the door wider, inviting his boss inside. "What's going on?" He closed the door after Harvey slid inside.

The older man shook his head, eyes scanning Mike, reaffirming that he was perfectly fine. "I.." He jerked then, grabbing his associate in a tight hug.

Mike was completely awake now, and worried because his boss would never wake him up in the middle of the night to hug him. For a minute, the blond just stood there, before returning the hug. "Are you okay?"

"I am... but.. you weren't.." Harvey's voice was muffled, and he paused for a moment, tightening his hold before releasing Mike and gripping his shoulders. "Mike. I love you."

Mike had to mentally rewind and replay that statement several times before he was able to respond. During that time, he just stared at Harvey in shock. "You.. LOVE me?" His voice was stunned, like he wasn't able to wrap his mind around it. "But... you.."

"Whatever I told you before, I lied." Harvey admitted quietly. "I just.. didn't realize it until now..."

Mike was struck with the overwhelming need to sit down, but he couldn't with Harvey holding his shoulders like Mike was about to fade away into nothing. "But... I don't... understand... You never even hinted..."

Harvey, even more concerned about his odd dream after hearing Mike talk to his neighbor, shook his head. "I know. I'll explain it to you, but you'll think I'm crazy."

"Harvey." Mike carefully removed Harvey's hands from his shoulders, keeping a light grip on one and leading his mentor toward his couch. "You just told me that you love me. That's..." Mike looked confused and slightly embarrassed. "Not something I ever expected you to say..." He grimaced at the look on the older lawyer's face. Harvey looked... scared. His boss was never scared. "No matter how much I wanted you to..." Mike muttered, entirely disturbed by Harvey's expression.

Harvey smiled slightly at Mike's roundabout confession. He took a deep breath and gripped Mike's hand tightly when the blond tried to remove his hand. He quietly, and with far more calm than he felt, explained the dream that had resulted in his sudden appearance on Mike's doorstep. When he got to the end of the dream, his hand gripped tighter, the gut-wrenching terror refusing to dissipate.

For his part, Mike was shocked. Some of the things Harvey told him about were things Mike was absolutely certain his boss couldn't know. He sat there, letting Harvey hold his hand and trying to understand what that kind of dream had to have felt like. When it was plain that Harvey had finished, Mike nodded, unsure what to say.

"Mike... I know that it sounds crazy, and believe me I was starting to think so until I saw your neighbor. I.. had to tell you. I didn't want something like to to happen and you to now know..."

Mike shook his head. "Well... I can honestly tell you that I'm not spending any time here tomorrow...but.. Harvey.."

"I mean it, Mike. It might have taken... something like that for me to realize it, but, I do love you." Harvey's voice dropped on the last words, the sheer emotion in them telling Mike that the older man wasn't kidding. "Don't stay here, please?"

Mike's answer was a firm kiss that Harvey instantly reciprocated. "I never thought that you'd ever tell me that... let alone twice.."

"I'll tell you as many times as you want." Harvey vowed, solemnly. "Mike.. I mean it.. don't stay here."

"I won't... but.." Mike's voice was worried now. "What about.."

Harvey released Mike and shook his head. "We'll take care of them."

"But, Harvey, you have to leave for Chicago.."

"Forget it. Jessica can send Luis instead. I'm staying here and making sure that nothing is going to happen to you." Now that Harvey had calmed enough to think normally, he promised himself that nothing was going to stop him from making sure that his dream did not become a reality.

Mike was never exactly sure how Harvey managed to convince Jessica to send Luis instead or how he managed to find the one policeman in all of New York that believed him when he insisted that Mike's building was a possible target for a deranged man, but he did. Mike wasn't even sure exactly what happened after the policeman arrived and evacuated the building. He had always known that Harvey could do nearly anything, but now, he was sure that his boss/boyfriend? could do everything. All that Mike was really sure of was that Harvey had refused to let Mike out of his sight. Not that he was going to complain.

Harvey, on the other hand, was taking his promise very seriously. He had insisted on Mike leaving his apartment immediately, even making arrangements for Mike's two neighbors to stay at a hotel for the next couple days to ease the younger man's protests. There were no words to express the relief that Harvey felt when the policeman called him, explaining that the man had been arrested and would be going to jail for resisting arrest and shooting an officer in the process.

To this day, Harvey has never been able to explain to Jessica how he knew about the malpractice case before she did, or why he had taken a case, pro bono, and won against a decorated detective based solely, in Jessica's opinion, on the word of one man. Harvey didn't mind that he had Jessica double checking everything he did for nearly two months afterward, because every time he looked up, he saw Mike at his cubical, and he knew that no matter what time, Mike would eventually come home to Harvey's condo, and ultimately, that was what really mattered.