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Mike Ross, an associate as Pearson Hardman, works under the one and only Harvey Specter. They have a good working-professional relationship, as does Mike and Donna. Though, Donna would definitely be one to admit she looks out for Mike and cares for him. She does all she can to keep Harvey in his place from being too harsh on the kid and consistently refers to him as their puppy; well, Harvey's puppy.
Mike walked into Harvey's office holding some briefs and contracts Harvey had needed done earlier that morning, he threw them down proudly on his desk.
"Here you are, sorry they're a bit late; took longer than expected."
Harvey just scowls at Mike, annoyed they were over an hour late. Normally Harvey wouldn't be overly bothered by Mike being a little late with documents, even if they were important, however Mike had come into work later than usual and so it was entirely his own fault rather than just taking a little longer to proof them and find what they needed.
"You finally did what you were asked, do you want me to congratulate you on that?" He raised an eyebrow at the younger man.
In return, all Mike does is frown and look down at the ground, then promptly leaves Harvey's office. As he leaves, Donna shoots Harvey an annoyed look through the glass, knowing he went about that in an unnecessarily rude way. Harvey just rolls his eyes at her, knowing she was still watching him.
However, this doesn't remain a one time thing and more often Mike's mornings would go a little similar to this. The only new rendition would be Harvey's response and steady-growing stares and glances; if you don't count Mike's increasingly paler looks.
*
Ever since Mike started working at Pearson Hardman he had indeed been able to pay for his Grandmother's care however it wasn't enough and he still somehow couldn't keep on top of it even with his shiny new well paying job.
In truth, she had been getting sicker and sicker recently so her cost of care was by consequence getting more and more expensive. But, Mike too had expenses he had to pay for. Namely, his own medication for a disease he'd been suffering with since he was born. He was quite lucky with it, not needing anything more than regular check ups and medication during his childhood, even now he wasn't taking much medication and sometimes went longer than he should've because he didn't believe he needed it.
Mike now had an excuse not to buy his medication, he couldn't afford it anymore. He hadn't been regularly taking it since he got kicked out of college and had to take care of his Grammy but he got it whenever he had spare money left over if he could scrape enough of it together. Due to her more expensive care at the moment, he hasn't had any for a couple of months and it began to affect him negatively. His work performance had been dropping slowly and it was harder to get out of bed in the mornings because he was in pain more often than not.
*
On one particularly bad morning for Mike; he was in pain; he was late to work; he'd visited Grammy the night before and seen how she was doing.
Of course, he hadn't confided in anyone so he was prepared to get shit from Harvey, Louis, maybe even Jessica if she was around. Like he had for the past couple weeks, he got into the office at 9:30 but as he had approached his desk Mike saw Donna was there waiting for him. She ushered him to follow her and she led him to Harvey's office. All she could do was give Mike a sympathetic smile, almost as if she knew something was up but at this point everybody probably did; Mike looked like absolute shit. He was ghastly pale, had dark bags under his eyes and seemingly lost a ton of weight.
"I made sure he'll go easy on you Mike," Donna said tenderly, almost trying to reassure the young man. He nodded in response and went inside Harvey's office. Harvey was standing facing the window, peering down at the city beneath them.
"Do you know why you're in here Mike?" Harvey asked bluntly. There was no beating around the bush, but Mike supposed there wouldn't be.
In between stammers and stutters Mike managed to reply, "I do Harvey, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't be slacking off so much. I've been l-late and-and I'll do better I promise."
Harvey sighed, expressing his frustration towards the younger man at the moment. He turned around to face Mike and just from the sight of him Harvey immediately offered him to sit down on the couch. Mike would normally refuse but he knew he needed to.
"I was going to fire you, if I'm being honest Mike." Harvey stated while he grabbed a chair and sat opposite Mike, who was now on the couch. "But.. Donna convinced me otherwise and I know this isn't your usual performance, even if it's become regular the past two weeks. Seeing you now, I'm convinced something is going on and I should've checked in on you sooner."
Mike seemed to just stare at Harvey blankly but in reality he was processing what the older man had just said. Did this mean he was concerned for Mike? It appeared so.
"I'm fine, Harvey. I just need to focus more."
He wasn't convinced, not at all. "You don't need to lie to me Mike, you look like shit."
Mike took a deep breath in, wincing slightly as he did so and in response Harvey's face scrunched up into a frown.
"I-I don't have much money right now. My Grammy's getting sicker so her care costs have gone up which means I don't have enough money for my meds." Mike didn't look at Harvey for a single word that came out of his mouth, he was staring at the floor at his feet, like he was ashamed of himself.
Harvey felt sorry for the kid, he didn't know why. Harvey Specter doesn't feel anything for anyone. He doesn't care. Except... maybe he does.
"What kind of idiot are you, Mike?" Harvey said, trying to lighten the mood.
"It's not life threatening!" Mike jumped to say in his own defence, "well... not yet at least," he added more so saying to himself than to Harvey.
"Mike, you have meds for a reason, come on. I'll give you the money and you don't have to worry about that." Mike knew Harvey really would as well, for as long as he needed to, but he was stubborn and didn't want to rely on his boss for his health.
"Thank you Harvey, I would let you but I don't know when I'd be able to pay you back or when I'd be able to pay for it on my own again."
Harvey sighed again, this time in compassion, putting his hand on Mike's thigh to try to calm him down and reassure him. "You don't have to worry about any of that, I promise."
Mike finally made eye contact with Harvey and a small smile started to cross his face , "Really? I'm not going to lie to you, there's a lot and they're expensive"
"Really, I promise you Mike. Whatever they are, I will pay for them as long as you need." He smiled back at his associate.
*
Later that week, a Saturday morning Harvey goes with Mike to a local pharmacy near where Harvey lives since he refused to go to one by Mike's apartment because he doesn't trust that area.
When they're inside and waiting in line, Harvey turns to Mike to ask the now extremely frail and weak looking kid if he brought the prescription. Mike nodded in return and they stood in silence as they waited in line.
Harvey had paid for the medication Mike needed and gawked at both the price and the amount of meds he needed in the first place. As they walk out of the store he tries to come across as sarcastic, while fully meaning it.
"You're going to have to explain what the fuck is wrong with you at some point because that's the most medication I've ever seen one person need."
In response Mike laughs, "Oh I'll tell you alright."