Late Again

A/N: this is not my first fan fic just my first on here, first suits one though, please R&R

p.s.: monica dont ruin any surprises please

Disclaimer:I wish i owned suits

Summary: Mike Ross is good at hiding pain, always has been. No one at Pearson Hardman knows much about his past, Harvey's only scratched the surface. When Mike comes limping into the office 10 minutes late one morning, Harvey is sure that he's faking for sympathy, not that he got hit by a car.

Mike sat up and looked at his watch, 8:35, crap. He sat up, ran his hand through his hair and started to get ready for work, quickly. By the time he got out of the apartment it was 8:50, it was a 20 minute ride to work if he went normal speed, 15 if he raced. He was definitely going to be late. Harvey would have his ass this time, second time he was late this week and it was still only Thursday.

Mike took off on his bike as fast as he could, willing himself to go faster, to make it in time. A traffic light took nearly half a minute of his time and aggravated him farther. He took off as fast as he could, going nearly twice as fast as he normally would have. He would only be about 3 minutes late, he pushed harder, rounder a corner and flew from the bike.

If Mike Ross had been going just a fraction of speed slower he would have been able to stop in time. He hadn't seen the black Lincoln town car that collided with him and his bike squarely on the right side. Now the Mike Ross in question is...special. Not special education, rather he is a genius. No, he is smarter than a genius. He is eidetic, or photographic. Mike Ross remembers everything he has ever read, or even seen. A page of numbers that he glances at is imbedded in his memory forever. That is what make's Mike Ross so smart. This is what makes him the perfect lawyer, the perfect associate for Harvey Spector. The sensation of flying didn't stop his brain from picking up everything he saw as he was tossed into the air.

The sensation turned from that of flying to one of questioning and ultimately, fear. Why am I still in the air? What is Harvey going to say when I come in late and looking like crap? Why the hell did I have to crash today? Why haven't I hit the sidewalk yet?And then he did. Instead of a sidewalk though, he hit the rougher pavement of the street. The street. He had to move or he'd get run over. Blinking stars out of his eyes Mike felt pain rush through him in waves. Shit, now I have to sit through court in pain. He let out a groan and tried to focus, he was hearing sounds in a tunnel effect, not uncommon for him though. Reaching for his bag he found that he couldn't move his right arm without searing pain flooding through his shoulder to his elbow. He tried to stand and was offered a hand by, presumably, a passer by had seen him crash and decided to help. The man handed him his messenger bag and started talking, although Mike couldn't hear him properly he knew what the man was saying, 10+ years of earphones on 24/7 had made him the perfect lip reader.

"oh, my god! I'm so sorry I didn't see you come around the corner. Do you want me to call an ambulance." So I didn't crash I got hit by a car, that would explain the pain. "can you hear me? Did you hit your head?" The man was tall, almost Mike's height, he had dark brown eyes and was nearly bald.

" I'm fine, sorry about that." Mike shuck his head back and forth, successfully clearing it.

" you sure kid? I just hit you with a car, you know that right?" The man eyed him skeptically. " you don't look so good" He added when Mike winced trying to walk out of the street. A searing pain exploded in his leg as he tried to step. He tested the limping method, wasn't as bad.

" yeah I'm sure, I gotta get to work...uh thanks for making sure I was alive I guess." Mike tried not to wince as he walked the remains of his bike to the rack on the sidewalk, he didn't even bother locking it, it wasn't worth stealing anymore. The front tire was bent almost completely in half and the frame had a huge dent in it. Not to mention the back tire was flat, and the chain snapped in two.

Mike tried to hide the limp and the way he was holding his right arm to avoid moving it. He timed his breathing in time with the waves of pain that were radiating from his leg and shoulder, trying to reduce the nausea that hit along with the waves. Getting into the elevator he let out a groan when he saw that one of the more annoying of his fellow associates was on his way up also.

"You crash your bike" The guy was actually surprised to see Mike in bad shape, he knew the kid wasn't you run of the mill associate, but he thought he knew him to be smart enough to avoid Harvey when he was already in the dump.

"Something like that, and I'm already gonna be under the bus when I get to Harvey's office, I don't need you rubbing it in" Mike talked with a snipe in his voice and an irritated tone. The fellow associate noticed how Mike was swaying in time with how he breathed, he looked about ready to pass out.

" Are you okay? You look like your about to fall over." He eyed him suspiciously as the elevator doors opened and Mike took off, well as fast as he could with the pain he was in. "kids hurt bad" The fellow associate muttered as he pressed the button on the panel for the File Room.

Mike Ross tried to not limp, he tried to hold his arm at his side, not tight to his stomach, he tried but failed miserably. He was at Donna's desk, she ignored him but he caught a reflection of her calling someone, most likely Harvey, as he walked past.

Donna wasn't one to not notice. She had a way of making everyone tell her everything, she knew secrets that even Luis didn't know about the firm. She was Harvey's secretary, and she was good at what she did. Really good. As good as Mike was at remembering things she was at getting people to forget them. She picked up the line into Harvey's office.

"Mike just got here. Go easy on the poor kid, he's hurt and he doesn't want people to know it. He's good at hiding it, but I see right through it." She spoke quietly about Mike being hurt, the way he was obviously trying to hide it was reason enough, let alone that if the information met the ears of Luis it would be every associates gossip for the rest of the week.

"i don't care if he's hurt. He's late and we have court today." Harvey Spector was mad, at his associate who couldn't seem to remember to set his alarm, and at his secretary for sympathizing with him. Come to think of it, Harvey was sure Mike wasn't even that 'hurt' at all, but trying to get out of the lecture about appearance and being late again.

"you have 5 seconds until he walks in" Donna waited for a reply but only heard a muttered curse from Harvey as she hung up.

The Office

Harvey sat at his desk, toying with a pen. He wasn't a patient man, but he could act it. He had been being patient for the last 10 minutes, since 9:00 when his associate was supposed to be there, with the briefs on his desk.

"You have 5 seconds until he walks in" Harvey didn't reply, instead he looked up when he heard the door open, the pissed off look on his face just got worse. He cussed under his breath and Donna hung up.

"What the hell?" Mike was a mess, his pants were wrinkled and he had either a very nasty bruise or an ink stain on his face. But he held in his left hand the briefs, filed in Mike fashion, the most important on the top the last resort on the bottom in its own folder.

"Don't ask. Here's your briefs." Mike started towards Harvey's desk ignoring the pain in his leg and only limping slightly. Harvey looked pissed, very pissed.

"No, I will ask and you will answer. Now give me the file and sit down before you pass out." Mike was relieved that Harvey was allowing him to sit, he needed to take the pressure off his leg, and hopefully not moving would help the throbbing of his shoulder.

"I'm not going to pass out. And if you must know I crashed my bike on the way here, okay." Not a complete lie, just not the whole story.

"Are you sure you didn't get high last night and fall down the stairs?" Harvey was playing on Mike's tendencies, especially the pot smoking one. But then again if it hadn't been for his dealer friend, Trevor, Mike never would have hid in the interview and shown Harvey what he really was. Harvey Spector had gotten a genius associate because of a briefcase full of marijuana.

"I haven't smoked since that thing with Luis' client. And you've seen me high I don't ' fall down stairs'. Also if you need evidence I think you can see my bike from the window, its the bent one outside the coffee shop across the street." Harvey actually contemplated looking out the window before he realized the tone of Mike's voice. The kid wasn't lying or joking, his voice was serious, not a common thing for Mike.

" Really? And True, your balance is actually better when your breaking the law."Mike smiled a little at that, turning his head to his bag as a wave of nausea and pain flooded him, he pretended to look for his phone, he just hoped that Harvey wouldn't catch on that he should know exactly where it was. Or the fact that he was trying to make in non-obvious that he was only using his left arm to 'search'.

"Donna warned you didn't she? Told you not to give me too hard a time for being 10 minutes late." Mike said once the nausea had passed.

"She might have. Now go and get cleaned up, we have court in a half hour." Harvey looked the younger man over. He saw how no matter how hard he tried he couldn't not limp, and the way he opened the door was off. Something about the way his hand moved was wrong. And then Harvey got it, not as off as he thought, maybe he'd just never realized the kid was left-handed, but something in the back of his mind told him otherwise.

Court

Mike sat in the uncomfortable chair in the court room. He was second chair, handling the paperwork and giving Harvey the right files. His head was spinning, his shoulder was pounding and his leg was throbbing in waves.

"you know I have every right to fire you for being an idiot, but I just can't bring myself to have to do the paperwork." Harvey said to Mike as he stood to leave the court room, Mike hadn't even realized the case was over, that they'd won.

" Donna would kill you if you fired me, and you would get so far behind without me you wouldn't know what to do." Mike tried to stand but his leg wouldn't support his weight and he fell back into the chair, a sense of vertigo washing over him as he did so.

"Because I'm in a good mood right now I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Get your ass out of that chair, we need to get back to the office, you have paperwork to do." Harvey looked back at the younger man, " now you look like you are going to pass out." Mike had his eyes closed tightly and was fighting off waves of pain and nausea, he opened his eyes and Harvey saw the pain he was in, it wasn't normal for the kid to be this out of it.

" I'm fine. Just give me a minute, stood up to fast." his voice was pained. He stood and slowly walked from behind the table, swallowing the pain that every step caused. The walking also caused his arm to begin to throb again,adding to the problem.

" When we get back, show me your bike. I want to see if you were telling the truth this morning." Harvey eyed his associate skeptically and turned to walk out the court room, Mike close behind him. "your going to need to file these under Polsner not Credich because Credich was deamed unresponsible, and Polsner agreed to it being under him."

"why don't I put them under irresponsible and label it Credich?" Mike wasn't trying to hid the limp any more, it hurt to bad and Harvey had seen him almost fall standing earlier, there was no use to hiding it from him anymore.

" Because there's two copies of the files. The ones you went over and made the brief from and the copy I had this whole time with my side notes."

" you want your copy under Polsner and mine under Credich, because you showed Polsner yours but not mine and he wouldn't recognize mine as the same case." Mike saw a man out of the corner of his eye, a bay-lift that was familiar. It was the man with the black Lincoln town car, he just hoped the man didn't see him. But of course he did.

"Hey kid, how's that leg of yours? You get to work on time" The man yelled out and walked quickly over. Harvey gave him a look that clearly said 'what the hell'.

" Care to introduce me to your friend Mike. He seems to know more about what happened this morning than I do." Harvey was looking pissed again, and Mike let out a sigh, well this sucks, he thought.

"Hello again, this is my boss Harvey. Now I really need to get back to work, I have a lot of papers to file." Mike tried to walk away, but of course not, the man started talking again.

" You know I feel really bad about what happened, if you got in trouble with your boss I could apologize to him." Mike hit his left palm to his forehead as Harvey gave him the death stare.

" Really it's fine, he wasn't too mad, and no harm no foul, I'm fine." The man didn't look convinced as he eyed the wide purple and black bruise across Mike's jaw line and cheek. " I've got work to do, I really need to go."

" Funny, you've never used the excuse of paperwork to avoid a conversation before, I think you should tell me what really happened this morning. All of it."

Mike let out a sigh again, and then an unexpected explosion of pain rocketed through his shoulder, coursing to his finger tips and making him double over in pain. He could feel two pieces of bone rubbing together, he knew his collarbone was broken, and badly. He let out a gasp, and reached for his right arm, holding his elbow, trying to support his shoulder with his left hand. He'd let the perfect cover go away, he couldn't just say it was a muscle spasm and expect Harvey to except the excuse.

" Mike, are you okay?" Harvey bent down to look his associate in the eye, noticing how the man was breathing in short rapid breaths.

" will be" Harvey guided the younger man to a bench at the side of the hall. Looking him in the eyes and seeing pain and...embarrassment.

"What the hell happened to my associate?" He asked the bay-lift, standing his full height, a good 4 inches over the other man.

"He didn't tell you?" the man looked utterly bewildered at the concept.

" He told me he crashed his bike, you however seem to know more than he's letting on too, and seeing as he just nearly collapsed in pain because you laid your hand on his shoulder, I think an explanation is warranted." Harvey looked back to Mike who was sitting bent over on the bench clutching his right arm.

" He didn't just crash, I ran into him. Didn't see him round the corner and ran smack into him with my car, he told me he was fine, and that he needed to get to work. He was more concerned with getting to the office than with the fact that I'd just sent him flying over the hood of my car." The man's eyes were wide, Harvey looked over to Mike on the hall bench.

" Is that true?" Mike just nodded keeping his head down and trying to catch his breath. Waves of pain were flooding through his arm, worse than before, much worse.

" What's wrong with your arm?" He looked to be in extreme pain. Mike could feel that the two pieces of bone had shifted when the man laid his hand on his shoulder, they where no longer aligned and breathing was painful as it moved the two pieces.

"Collarbone. It's broken." Even his voice was strained. He looked up to see Harvey curse under his breath. The pain was making his hearing go out again, so he resorted to reading lips and expressions.

" I hope you know I'm going to advise him to sue,and ill represent him." Harvey took a card from the inside breast pocket of his suit and flicked it at the man. "Google me."

" He said he was fine, and limped off." The man looked desperate. "please don't sue me, I swear I asked if he needed an ambulance and he said he was fine." The man looked toward Mike who had an odd expression on his face that Harvey had never seen before, it looked as it he was trying to remember something. Perfectly normal for a normal person, not someone with Mike's memory.

"You told him you were fine, and he believed you? What are you trying to remember, is your head messed up too?" Harvey would have been worried about the associate, that is if he cared, he just really hated interviews and knew he wouldn't find another Mike in the Harvard soup.

" I was already running late, and I knew you'd be pissed. I looked like a mess and today was a court day, I couldn't be any later than I already was, so I came around the corner right out front too fast and didn't see him. As for what I'm trying to remember it's the guys license plate. You ever realize how many you see a day? Imagine every single license plate you've ever seen in our head. I'm was trying to remember the right one, the numbers 8b90yhk, black Lincoln town car." Mike took as deep a breath as he dared to without risking moving the bones in his shoulder anymore.

" No I get pissed at you when your late to work because your hungover, or you forget to set your alarm. I don't see how you could forget to set an alarm clock, or how you always lose your phone, well not lose but forget because you always know where it is." Harvey looked his downed associate in the eye, " I don't get pissed at you when your late because you got hit by a freaking car and your arm's broken. I would have not had the brief but oh well, I would have used my copy of the file, gotten another associate to tag along. I would have been pissed when you came back the next day, but only if you didn't call, or email Donna." He looked back at the bay-lift, "i will be contacting you soon."

"Harvey, you really do care, don't you?" Mike looked at his boss and let a small smile creep to his lips.

" I don't care. I truly don't, I just hate interviews. And there isn't going to be another you in the Harvard soup." Harvey pulled out his cell phone and dialed Ray's number, no matter what the kid said he was going to the hospital.

" Because I'm not Harvard soup." Mike slowly tried to stand, finding his balance was off and letting go of his right arm to catch the wall.

End of chapter one