Chapter 10

As she closed her door she heard Mike pull out a chair from the table, presumably to get started on the files for the case.

"Sweetie, if you're so tired why don't you lie down for a bit?" she suggested gently.

That garnered her a confused look, "Who said I was tired?"

"You plastered yourself to my side all through lunch and didn't sleep last night" she explained slowly.

"I'm not tired" her son laughed.

"They why were you stuck to me at lunch?"

Her son shifted nervously, "You said you'd never stop me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you"

"No," she moved closer to her child and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm not upset that you wanted to be near me and I won't ever stop you however you were acting tired and said you hadn't slept last night"

"I didn't sleep last night but that doesn't mean I'm tired" he scoffed.

"Ok, see one not sleeping typically leads to them being tired" she tried to explain. Why did she need to explain this?

He shrugged, "I can go a while without sleep, no big deal"

What did that mean? "Sweetie, you shouldn't go without sleep, it's not healthy"

"I'm fine" Mike responded in a clipped tone.

She sighed but wasn't in the mood for a fight especially not in the middle of the office. Apparently that nap wasn't going to happen. Oh well, she'd just see to it that he went to bed earlier tonight and this time she would make sure that he actually fell asleep.

It was time to move on to other topics, "So, why were you so rude to your Uncle, Aunt and cousins?"

"What?" Mike asked confused.

"Our family." She simplified, "you ignored them and when you did answer a question it was snapped in a different language"

"Why did you drag me to lunch?" he retorted, "I mean really, what were you expecting?"

"I brought you to lunch because you need to eat and our family joined us because they wanted to meet you"

"Will you quite calling them that" Mike demanded.

"Calling them what?"

"Our family"

"They are our family"

"No." he shook his head, "They're your family. I've never met them before"

"That was the point in all of this for you to meet them. And they are our family. You're my son thus my family is your family."

"Who said I was your family?"

"You're my son! That makes you my family" she said exasperated.

"Blood doesn't make family!" Mike had shouted, "I don't even know you how am I supposed to see you as family?"

She paused. This conversation hurt. It did. This was her son. The little boy she'd spent nineteen years looking for. It had never occurred to her, in all that time, that her son might not have been looking for her.

"What's with all the shouting?" Harvey asked busting into her office uninvited.

"It's nothing" Mike answered.

Harvey shot Mike a look, "If I'd wanted your answer I wouldn't have bothered asking. Everything is nothing in your opinion"

"We were merely having a private conversation" she responded a bit annoyed. It had not escaped her attention that Mike respected Harvey and followed the older man's instructions. It annoyed her because she would rather her son look up to her that way.

"If it were so private you wouldn't have been having it loud enough to be heard from the other side of the firm. I hate to break it to you but your new found relationship isn't a secret any longer." Harvey replied.

"What?" Mike paled, "No."

She took a deep breath before turning to her child, "It was going to happen soon anyway. This wasn't the most ideal way but it's out now and we can all move forward."

"I didn't want it out at all" Mike argued.

"Why not?" She didn't understand.

"Nepotism" Harvey answered immediately.

"Nepo…" that did make sense, "Alright, I can understand why that would make you upset and I am sorry that it is out before we had the chance to talk about it however I think that this is a valid lesson that we should hold personal conversations in private settings such as our home from now on."

"Our home?" Mike had asked confused.

"Yes," she'd answered, "our home. As in the one we live in"

"Well we live in different places" Mike said slowly, "so I don't think there is an our home"

"Mike" Harvey sighed, "For a genius you sure do seem to be slow on the uptake"

"What?" Mike demanded.

"You're staying with me" she answered crisply not wanting to have this conversation again. She and Mike had fought over this very fact the entire time that he'd been sick.

"No I'm not" Mike denied.

"We're not having this argument again" she snapped, "you're my son, I just got you back, I'm not letting you out of my sight, you're staying with me"

"I'm an adult" Mike grit out, "You can't force me to live with you, you can't tell me what to do. I have every legal right to walk out that door and never come back."

"Not a chance" Harvey growled, "You and I have already discussed what your choices are were you to quit"

"What does that mean?" She demanded, "What have you two discussed?"

"Nothing" Mike squirmed.

Harvey glared at the kid but kept his mouth shut.

"Answer me Harvey," she insisted.

Harvey started to open his mouth but Mike cut him off, "NO!"

"You all need to move to another location" Donna bit out popping her head in, "You're starting to form a gathering of people trying to listen in"

Sure enough if she looked out her window there was at least thirty people ranging from paralegals to senior partners all hovering in the hallway outside of her office.

"All right pack up your things" she instructed Mike as she herself moved to gather up what she needed.

"What?" Mike asked staying where he was.

"Get what you want together because we're leaving in five minutes" Harvey clarified.

"It's not even two" Mike argued, "I still have work to do"

"You're leaving when I am" she informed her son, "whatever you leave behind is up to you"

"You can't be serious" Mike complained, but when she stepped closer he quickly gathered his things into his messenger bag.

"Let's go," she said taking ahold of her son's arm, dragging him along to the elevators with her.

While she would love to have this conversation alone with her son it didn't seem as though Harvey shared her feelings because he slid into the passenger seat of her car just as she was shutting the back door on Mike.

Getting her son into the house was easier than she'd thought. As soon as they were through the door Mike broke out of her grip and ran off to his room. That was fine, the windows didn't open and there was no other way out than through the door. Mike had learned this the first night he wasn't overcome by fever.

"So…" Harvey trailed clearly a little uncomfortable.

"You can have a seat Harvey" she drawled.

Harvey sat in an arm chair and Jessica placed herself on the couch across from him. It was the very same couch that she and Mike and been curled up on almost every night to watch a movie before she sent him to bed.

Her son had been so amazed the first time she'd turned on the T.V. and placed a disc in the player. He shouldn't have been. It should have been something that Mike had seen thousands to times before, but that hadn't seemed to be the case. Why? What had happened to her son?

"So what do you know about my child?" she demanded.

Harvey actually squirmed a little under her glare, "I know that he is nineteen, which you also know. I know that he didn't have a good childhood, again – you also know this. I also know that he doesn't like to sleep or eat and will argue until he's blue in the face about having to do so"

"That's because it's stupid to do it as much as you say I should" Mike snapped as he came into the room in shorts and a t-shirt. This seemed to be her child's preferred outfit.

Mike dropped down on the couch next to her and soon enough he was pressed up against her. She still didn't understand why her son constantly pressed himself against her but it was not something that she was determined to figure out right this second. Or for a while. Maybe it would be the last thing she looked into. Her son was cuddling up to her as often as he could! What other mother could say that about their nineteen-year-old children?

"You have to eat…." She tried but didn't get to finish.

"We've already discussed this" Harvey bit out, ignoring the fact that he was interrupting her.

She felt Mike huff against her neck at the same time the boy crossed his arms over his chest. She couldn't tell if Mike was doing this in defiance or was trying to give himself comfort by hugging himself.

"Yes…" she eyed her newest senior partner, "what have you two discussed? The way you two act I get the impression that this is something the two of you have gone over in great detail"

"Mike," Harvey prompted when the boy pushed closer into her, "If you don't tell her kid. I will"

"It's not important" Mike argued, "Personally I think we should just drop all of this," the boy gestured to her and Harvey as well as the entire room, "and move on with our lives they way they were before anyone poked their noses into things they had no business knowing."

"No" she snapped

"Not a chance kid" Harvey stated.

"Well…" she prompted after a few minutes of silence.

With one last glance at the non-responsive boy curled into her side Harvey sighed and started explaining.