Chapter Text
Harvey knew things were serious the minute he saw Jessica sitting at her desk, her face blank as she tracked their progress down the hall and towards her office. He had learned the art of passive manipulation from her, but today there wasn’t a brief, settlement agreement, or open laptop in sight to distract her attention from their arrival. It was a very bad sign.
Mike didn’t say anything, but Harvey could tell he had come to the same conclusion as he took a deep breath to calm himself down.
“Easy,” said Harvey, putting his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Remember what I told you.”
“Yeah,” said Mike, his voice somewhat faint.
Harvey opened the door to Jessica’s office and put on a concerned smile. In truth, he was too shaken to manage what Donna condescendingly called his “megawatt courtroom charmer”, and he had known Jessica far too long to think that she wouldn’t see right through it anyway.
“You asked to see us?” he said, keeping his voice conversational.
“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to the two seats in front of her desk. Her ability to remain unreadable, even to Harvey, was maddening on some days, no more so than at that very minute.
“Mr. Ross, I spoke with an associate of yours this morning. I believe you know Trevor Evans?”
Harvey chilled as he realized she was hiding behind the worn-out courtroom interrogation tactics. It meant Jessica was almost as worried as he was.
“Yes, I do.” said Mike. Harvey inwardly beamed as he volunteered nothing. The kid was learning from him, after all.
“Mr. Evans has made several allegations that, to be quite blunt, will prove catastrophic to this firm and its reputation should they prove to be true.” Harvey tried not to wither under the gaze currently focused like a laser in his direction.
“Jessica, do you want to tell us what this is about?” he said, trying to sound incredulous.
Jessica ignored him and shifted her gaze to Mike. “Mr. Ross, did you arrange with Mr. Evans to obtain an acceptable score on the LSAT for him in exchange for payment?”
Harvey felt for the kid. From the look on his face, Jessica might as well have punched him in the gut. Fucking Trevor, he thought, trying to stave off the anger that was bubbling to the surface.
“What? No!” said Mike, losing his composure. “Trevor never had any interest in going to law school. Is that what he told you?”
“He told me a lot of things,” said Jessica, sighing wearily now. “I get the feeling the score you obtained for him on the LSAT was not the one he had paid for?”
A few months earlier, Harvey would have stepped in to rescue Mike from Jessica’s wrath. But he had watched the younger man grow a backbone since then, and Mike had made it very clear that he preferred, and was capable, of fighting his own battles when necessary. Harvey spectated.
“First of all,” said Mike, his voice a little shaky, “Trevor has been a friend since grade school. If I ever did cheat on the LSAT for him, which I have not, it wouldn’t have been for payment. And second, Trevor has never in his life so much as picked up a law book let alone demonstrated any aspiration to a law career.”
“Harvey, have you met this kid?” asked Jessica suddenly.
“Yes, and I can tell you everything Mike is saying is accurate,” he said truthfully.
“Ms. Pearson, there must be some way to access the LSAT registry to verify that Trevor never attempted to take the LSAT,” said Mike. “Allegations of criminal activity typically overrules their confidentiality policies.”
“That is true,” said Jessica with a small smile. “I’m having our HR people look into it."
Harvey tensed as he watched Mike begin to relax. He knew Jessica far better than Mike did, and this had been far too easy. Mike thought the squall was over, but Harvey knew they were only in the middle of the eye of the hurricane. He was proven correct a few seconds later when Jessica added, “Now, on to the major issue at hand."
Mike’s eyes met Harvey’s for a brief second, and as much as Harvey wanted to respond, he kept his face blank.
“Which is,” said Harvey.
“Mr. Evans has suggested that you did not, in fact, graduate from Harvard, and in fact that you have not graduated from any law school. Given your performance at the firm, and your association with Harvey, I find this hard to believe,” she said, shaking her head.
Mike was still young, and inexperienced, Harvey reminded himself, as his associate slumped a little in his chair. Not yet, kid, this is far from over.
“Nevertheless, an allegation has been made. In order to protect the firm’s interests, we will need additional paperwork for your file.”
“Harvey, I assume you didn’t pull this kid off the street randomly and give him a job as an associate?” She said it as a joke but he knew her well enough to know better. It painted him in a corner. Either he admit what he did and suffer the fallout, or he blatantly lied to her face over something that could bring the firm to its knees.
“Just how desperate do you think I was, Jessica?” he managed a sly smile.
“That’s not an answer, Harvey. “
“How would some kid off the street be able to function as an associate without any kind of legal training?”
“Harvey, I don’t have either the time or inclination to put up with you being coy right now. “ Jessica said, growing irritated. “Do you have any reason to believe that Mr. Ross is not a graduate of the 2010 class of Harvard Law?”
Oh God, this IS it, he thought, inwardly panicking. When he hired Mike, he had a vague notion that the day might come when they would need some kind of damage control, but he never anticipated the way he would feel having to break years of long-standing trust. From the look on Jessica’s face, she had reluctantly painted him into a corner, but as Managing Partner, she had no choice. They both knew that if Mike wasn’t a licensed attorney, Harvey had compromised the firm the minute Mike had met their first client. He could see the glimmer of hope and expectation in her eyes, matched with an underlying unease that she had misjudged her protégé so completely.
Mike took that moment to clear his throat. “Excuse me, Ms. Pearson, but would a copy of my diploma suffice?”
Harvey was glad he was sitting down because he probably would have collapsed into a chair at that moment. What the hell? He did his damndest to keep his face neutral at Mike’s words.
Jessica smiled, relieved. “It’s a start,” she said. “Of course, we’ll have to compare the registry number on your diploma to the Dean’s registry for verification. About ten percent of our applicants have Harvard diplomas that they bought off the internet.”
Harvey’s heart sank, though his mind still whirled in a surreal haze. In spite of that freaky brain of his, was Mike dumb enough to think that whatever Harvard documents he purchased wouldn’t be verified?
“Not a problem,” said Mike, with far more confidence that Harvey felt at that moment. “I’m sure when you check with the Dean’s office you will find everything in order. Um,” he hesitated a moment and then added, “Harvey and I had a full plate this afternoon, but if you’d rather, I can go get it now instead of bringing it in in the morning.”
“No, tomorrow morning will be fine,” said Jessica, exhaling the stress she had been holding on to. “Something to add, Harvey?”
Harvey realized that he had managed to keep his jaw from hitting the floor but was still staring at Mike like a guppy.
“He’s dumbfounded at the idea that I could go home and find anything on demand in my apartment,” said Mike, apologetically. He turned to Harvey and said, “I told you it’s an organized mess.”
He gave Jessica a mock conspiratorial whisper “In my own defense, I have never ever misplaced so much as one sheet of paper that I’ve brought home from the office.”
“Better not start now,” said Harvey gruffly, inwardly grateful for the few seconds Mike had given him to regain his composure.
“Well then, gentlemen, I’m glad that’s settled. Harvey, stop giving the kid a hard time about the state of his apartment. God knows we don’t give the first years time enough to sleep let alone tidy up.”
“As it should be,” said Harvey, smugly glancing at Mike.
“ And Michael, resolve this situation with your ‘friend’, would you? If I see him in the offices again I will press charges.”
“Yes, Ms. Pearson,” said Mike hurriedly. “I apologize that you had to waste time dealing with this. I will have my diploma on your desk first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you,” said Jessica warmly. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I need to speak to Harvey for a moment.”
Mike made a quick exit and Harvey suddenly felt much too alone.
“He’s a good kid,” she said, watching Mike stop and chat with Melanie, her AA. “A little too bleeding-heart for my taste, but he seems to come through in a pinch. Now who the hell is this Trevor kid and why is he trying to destroy Mike’s career?”
It was one of the things that he loved about Jessica, that the same ferocity that drove her in the courtroom turned her into an angry lioness when someone went after one of her people. He himself had been the most recent beneficiary of Jessica’s own particular brand of militant affection. He told her an abbreviated version of Mike’s history with Trevor, downplaying the pot angle but making it clear the kid was trouble.
To her inquiry as to Trevor’s grudge against Mike he said “Do you remember Mike’s character witness in the mock trial? Cute little blonde?”
“Yes? What does that have to do with-“
“Trevor’s ex.”
"Ah. That explains pretty much everything," said Jessica. "It’s always about the women, isn’t it?”
Harvey headed for the door and said meaningfully, “After the week I’ve had, you’re goddamn right it is.”