Fanfic: Elevator Ride
Title- Elevator Ride
Fandom- Suits
Ship- Harvey/Mike
Rating- PG-13
Genre- angst, hurt/comfort, slash
Warnings- unbetaed
Wordcount- 3400
Disclaimer- I do not own Suits
Summary- Mike is sick and Harvey tries to take him home. They get stuck in the elevator for hours, while Mike's condition slowly worsens.
A/N- written from a prompt here on suitsmeme: I would love to see Harvey getting stuck in an elevator with a very feverish and sick Mike. Trying to keep up in the firm and keep from disappointing Harvey, Mike has been running himself into the ground and won't stop long enough to take care of himself. They get stuck in an elevator and Harvey is left to take care of his new Associate until they can get out. I'd love it if he gets worse the longer they're stuck in there and Harvey gets more and more concerned.Bonus points if Mike passes out at one point and Harvey completely panics! ^.-
Harvey and Mike had been working together in Harvey’s office all morning and well into the afternoon, going through stacks of paperwork that the opposition had handed over to them. Mike had been sniffling since noon, and in the past hour it has escalated into coughing as well. The noise was making it very difficult for Harvey to concentrate on the papers in front of him, and he kept glancing up at Mike even as the younger man worked diligently through the sniffles.
Harvey supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that Mike was sick. After all it was winter in New York City, with the first snow of the year falling hard and fast outside his office window, and Mike was still riding his bike to work. Not to mention that Harvey had seen the scrap of fabric that passed for Mike’s coat; it was ragged and patched, and Harvey suspected the only reason Mike didn’t freeze to death wearing it was because the bicycling kept him warm. Harvey winced at the noise when Mike sneezed into a tissue. He knew he couldn’t deal with this sniffling every day without going mad, but he certainly didn’t want Mike to get worse and have to stay home. Harvey was beginning to think he might need to pick Mike up in his car and drop him off at night, just to keep him healthy and save Harvey’s sanity.
And if he was honest with himself, it wasn’t just the cold that made Mike sick. Harvey had seen the way the younger man pushed himself, doing more work than any of the other associates, to prove that he was worthy of the job and could do it just as well as the kids from Harvard. Harvey was sorry to say that he’d encouraged that work ethic, had pushed Mike to work harder and longer by giving him a few words of praise when he did more than the usual share of work, and none at all when he did as much as the other associates. He had thought it would encourage Mike to do better, to live up to his full potential, which Harvey knew was vast. It had never once crossed his mind that the workload might actually have an effect on Mike’s health, and Harvey felt guilty now that he saw it had. He knew how much it meant to Mike for Harvey to praise him, and he had exploited that for his own gain.
Mike coughed again, breaking Harvey from his thoughts. It was a deep, chest-rattling cough, and it didn’t stop. Harvey watched Mike apprehensively, and just as he was about to go over and try to help somehow, the coughs stopped. Harvey picked up a mug of hot coffee from his desk and took it over to Mike. He gently tugged the papers from Mike’s hands and set them down. When Mike looked up at him questioningly, Harvey thrust the warm mug into his empty hands.
“Maybe you ought to take some cold medicine and lie down,” Harvey said, putting the back of his hand against Mike’s forehead. He could feel the heat coming off of his body, and it worried him.
“I’m fine,” Mike insisted, but his thick voice betrayed him. “Besides, I only had a few pages left. It won’t take long.”
Harvey hesitated, considering his options. “Fine,” he said at last, “but I’m getting you some cold medicine.” He pressed the intercom button, but Donna, who had been listening as usual, told him that she didn’t have any. Mike coughed again, and Harvey made a decision. “Alright, enough, put those down.”
“What? Why? I’m almost done!” Mike protested.
“I’m taking you home,” Harvey told him. “But first we’re going to stop and get you some cold pills.” Harvey pulled a whining Mike to his feet by the arm, and pushed him towards the door. He picked up his phone and called Ray to have him pick them up. Harvey managed to get Mike into the elevator, and pressed the button for the ground floor.
“I could have finished that,” Mike sulked as the elevator doors closed. “I could at least have taken some of it home to work on.”
“You won’t get better if you push yourself while you’re sick,” Harvey said, watching the floor numbers count down. Suddenly the lighted numbers dimmed, and the overhead light, and then the elevator jerked to a stop.
A second later a row of dim lights near the floor clicked on: emergency lights powered by a backup generator. “What happened?” Mike asked in a low voice.
“The power went out,” Harvey sighed, pressing the emergency call button. “It must be the snow storm.” Harvey waited for the power to come back on, hoping it would only last a few seconds. When those seconds ticked by and nothing happened, he pressed the call button again, starting to become agitated.
It was several seconds before they got a response. “This is Carl from maintenance. We’ve had a power outage from the storm, and the elevators are stuck. The power might come back at any moment, but we’re going to call the fire department to open the doors.”
“Thank you, Carl,” Harvey replied tiredly. The phone crackled as it disconnected, and Harvey turned back to Mike.
“Well, thank you very much, Harvey, for being so concerned about my health that you stuck me in a sealed room the size of a coat closet,” Mike quipped. Harvey rolled his eyes and moved to lean against the far wall. “What if I have to pee?” Mike wondered out loud, and Harvey snorted. He just hoped that the elevator would start moving before that happened.
As time passed, Mike’s condition continued to worsen. He began to sniffle and cough again, and the cough grew progressively louder. He turned his head towards the corner when he coughed, and muttered apologies to Harvey every few minutes, obviously concerned about getting Harvey sick.
Harvey, on the other hand, was more worried about Mike. After a particularly intense coughing fit, Harvey went over and laid a hand on Mike’s shoulder. Mike pulled away sluggishly, and put a hand to his head like he was dizzy. Harvey gently pushed the hand away and replaced it with his own, feeling the heat radiating off Mike’s body.
“It’s too hot,” Mike mumbled, reaching up to loosen his tie. Harvey helped him take it off completely, and undid the top buttons of his shirt to make him more comfortable. He wasn’t sure if he should be trying to cool Mike down, or keep him warm. He put his hand to Mike’s forehead again, debating with himself. If Mike got too hot, it could kill him. On the other hand, with the power off and the heater probably off too, the metal box they were in was rapidly cooling, and the cold would probably only make him more sick.
“I need to sit down,” Mike mumbled, and Harvey gently eased him to the floor of the elevator in one corner. He stood and watched for a moment as Mike leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes closed, his face flushed. Harvey felt like he was slowly going insane, both from being trapped in a small space and from worrying about Mike. He felt like he needed to do something, but inside the elevator there was nothing he could do.
“Mike, stay with me, okay?” Harvey knelt down and patted Mike’s cheek, forcing him to open his eyes.
“I’m awake, “ Mike said, though his gaze was unfocused.
“Good,” Harvey said, trying to keep his voice calm, even though he himself was anything but. “Stay that way.” Mike nodded, his head hanging for several seconds before bobbing back up. Harvey started to pace.
They had been in the elevator for almost three hours. Harvey had been pressing the call button every fifteen minutes, and then every ten, and finally every five minutes to check on the progress of the fire department. They’d managed to haul some kind of equipment up the stairwell to the floor where the elevator was stopped, and now they were trying to get it open. It might take several hours. Harvey had told them that Mike was sick. Over the three hours he had been in there, Harvey had alternately pleaded, ordered, and incentivized the workers, anything to get the doors open faster. It surprised him how quickly he had been to throw the mask of indifference away when Mike was truly in danger. Harvey wondered if Mike had even heard the things he had said; the younger man seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, not fully aware of his surroundings. Every time his eyes stayed closed for more than a few seconds, Harvey’s panic grew.
“Hey,” he murmured, trying to keep his voice calm. “How are you feeling?” Mike mumbled something incoherent. “What was that?” Harvey urged, patting the younger man’s cheek. “Mike?” Mike moaned softly, but didn’t open his eyes. “Mike?” Mike leaned away from the wall, into Harvey’s hand, and toppled over onto the floor. He still didn’t wake.
“Mike?!” Harvey called, his voice rising in panic. He put his hands on Mike’s shoulders and shook him, but Mike didn’t respond. His head rolled limply, and his eyes stayed closed. Harvey pressed a hand to his forehead and found he was burning up, more so than the last time Harvey had touched him.
Harvey went to work on the buttons of Mike’s jacket, intent on getting him cooled down as fast as possible. He pulled off Mike’s jacket and shirt, ignoring the buttons that popped, and laid him flat against the cool floor of the elevator. Then he immediately went to the call button and pressed it again, over and over, desperate for a response.
As soon as the phone crackled to life, Harvey shouted into it. “I need a medic in here! Call an ambulance, have them waiting outside, and for the love of God, get this damn door open now!”
“Mr. Specter,” Carl’s voice said calmly. “Harvey. The team is almost done, and there are EMTs waiting just outside the doors. We’ll have them open for you in just a few minutes.” He waited for a moment while his words sank in. Harvey closed his eyes and willed his breathing to steady. Just a few minutes.
“Harvey?” Carl asked when he hadn’t answered in a few minutes. Harvey cleared his throat and forced himself to speak calmly.
“Can you-can you put one of the EMTs on?” Harvey asked, torn between embarrassment and continued concern.
“Of course,” Carl said, and there were indistinct murmurs as the phone was passed.
“Harvey, my name is Shelly Jackson, I’m one of the EMTs,” a soothing female voice said. “Can you tell me what’s wrong with your friend?”
“He’s sick, he has a fever,” Harvey said in a rush. “He’s burning up, and he passed out. What should I do?” His voice cracked on the last part, and Harvey might have been more embarrassed about it if he hadn’t still been so worried.
“The doors will be open soon,” she said gently. “For now, just try to cool him down. If he’s wearing a coat, take it off of him. Try not to touch him a lot; your body heat will keep him from getting cooled down.”
“I’ve done that,” Harvey said.
“Then just sit tight until we get these doors open. It won’t be long now.” Harvey hung up the phone and swallowed past the lump in his throat. He turned back to where Mike was lying, his eyes closed, his breath coming in slow, harsh rattles. Harvey wished more than anything that he could go to Mike and offer some comfort, but the EMT had said that touching Mike would keep his temperature elevated, and Harvey couldn’t let that happen.
To keep himself from walking the two steps to Mike’s side, Harvey sat on the elevator floor and concentrated on watching Mike’s chest slowly rise and fall. He wondered what would happen when the doors opened. Surely the EMTs would rush Mike to the hospital, but would Harvey be able to go with him? Would Mike be alright? No, that wasn’t even a question. Mike had to be alright. How long would he be in the hospital? What would happen when he was discharged? Harvey wanted to take Mike to his apartment. He wanted to be able to look after him, and to escort him to and from the office when he was well enough to work again.
Harvey’s thoughts were interrupted when the scraping at the door that had become constant over the past few hours suddenly rose to an ear-piercing shriek. The doors shifted a few inches, stopped, and then moved apart again more slowly, until there were about two feet of space between them. The floor between two levels was at knee height, and a young woman in a white coat climbed down into the elevator.
“Harvey, I’m Shelley, I was on the phone with you,” she said calmly. “I’m going to have to ask you to get out of the elevator now. My partner and I need to assess your colleague’s condition before we can move him.” Harvey nodded gravely, and stepped out onto the floor above, ducking his head to get through the small space. He stepped back enough to let a second EMT enter, but remained close enough that he could clearly see Mike through the opening.
Harvey watched as Shelley took Mike’s temperature and pulse and checked his pupils. The two EMTs spoke in hushed voices, and then the second, a young man, lifted Mike into his arms. “Harvey,” the male EMT said, and Harvey thought that he might be annoyed by all these people calling him by his first name if it hadn’t been for the fact that it did help him to calm down. “I can’t carry him through this space, so I’m going to pass him to you. Can you hold him?”
“Yes,” Harvey replied, and knelt to take Mike’s limp form from the EMT. He could feel the heat coming off of Mike as his bare back rested against Harvey’s arm. The two EMTs climbed out of the elevator, and they allowed Harvey to carry Mike down the stairs to where the ambulance was waiting. He rode with them to the hospital, but was left to wait in the lobby while they took Mike into the emergency room.
Harvey stared around the lobby blankly. He hadn’t realized, but night had fallen while he and Mike had been trapped in the elevator. Somehow as soon as the thought struck him, Harvey suddenly felt the exhaustion from the entire day come upon him at once. He dropped down into a chair and cradled his head in his hands, silently willing Mike to be alright.
Harvey must have dosed off, because the next thing he knew Donna was nudging him to wake him up. “Hey,” she whispered. “How you feeling?”
“It’s Mike you should be worried about, Harvey replied.
“I am, but right now you’re the only one I can ask,” she reasoned. Harvey sighed and ran a hand over his face before looking back at her. Donna smiled sympathetically. “Here. I brought you some coffee and a sandwich.” Harvey took the food and ate gratefully.
“What time is it?” he asked between bites.
“Almost seven am,” Donna replied. “Jessica told me to take the day off to check on you. Did you know it was ten o’clock by the time they got you out of there?” Harvey didn’t answer. If it had been ten when they got here, or at least a little after, then that should have given the doctors nine hours to fix Mike. Somebody should have woken him and let him know.
Harvey stood and went to the front desk of the hospital. He asked the woman about Mike Ross, but she didn’t have him in her system. Harvey tried not to panic, and instead asked if she knew about a patient admitted by ambulance with a high fever after being trapped in an elevator. She said she’d just started her shift, but remembered the previous desk clerk mentioning it. She did a quick search and found that an unidentified male removed from an elevator had been admitted to the emergency room and later moved to the intensive care unit, and was now able to take visitors.
Harvey and Donna went to Mike’s room, though Donna waited outside while Harvey slipped in. Mike was still unconscious, or perhaps asleep, but his breathing sounded much better. Harvey pulled a chair to the edge of the bed and sat down, watching Mike’s serene face as he breathed.
A few minutes later Mike’s doctor came in the check on him. The doctor introduced himself to Harvey and told him that he could take Mike home the next day, but should try to keep him inside and not to let him work. Harvey assured the doctor that he would, not bothering to correct the clear assumption that they were already living together.
The doctor left, and Harvey continued to sit by Mike’s bed. Donna checked on him every few minutes, bringing coffee and food and some simple papers from the office for Harvey to work on. It wasn’t until almost noon that Mike woke, moaning softly and trying to roll in bed only to be stopped by the tubes attached to one of his arms.
“Morning, sleeping beauty,” Harvey drawled when Mike opened his eyes and blinked up at him confusedly, but he didn’t bother to keep the grin from his face at the sight of Mike awake.
“What happened?” Mike asked.
“We got stuck in the elevator.”
“I remember that part,” Mike replied. “Thanks for dragging me in there, by the way. What happened after that?”
“You passed out. Then the fire department got the door open and an ambulance drove you to the hospital. It’s the next day, in case you were wondering. Almost noon.” Mike nodded thoughtfully, probably trying to process the information.
“What he’s leaving out,” Donna’s voice said from the door, “is how he was begging and pleading and trying to bribe the people from the fire department to get them to open the door faster, and how he started screaming at them when you passed out.”
“You worried about me?” Mike asked, sounding both amused and surprised. Harvey could feel his face heating up, and he resisted the urge to look away.
“I wouldn’t want to lose my associate. I’ve gotten used to having someone to do most of my legwork.”
“I’m so sure that’s why,” Donna said smugly. She sauntered over to the bed, holding a cluster of balloons emblazoned with the words “Get Well” and a large card. She set the balloons by the bed, and handed the card to Mike. Inside were several signatures from people around the office, including, Harvey noticed, Jessica herself.
“Everyone was worried about you,” Donna told him. “Jessica knows you’re going to need to stay home for a couple days to recover, and she knows Harvey will be taking those days off too,” she said, directing the last to Harvey.
“Wait, why are you taking time off?” Mike asked.
“To look after you,” Donna said before Harvey could even open his mouth to either explain or object, though he wasn’t sure which he would have done.
Mike still seemed confused, and Donna sighed in frustration. “Harvey is taking you to his apartment to get well. Once you can work again, he’ll be taking you there in his car so you don’t get sick riding your bike in the snow. I don’t know when or even if you’ll move back into your own apartment. That’s something you two will have to discuss as a couple. And trust me, by the time you’re well, you two will be a couple.”
Both Harvey and Mike gaped at her, Harvey managing to be slightly more dignified in it, as Donna smirked at both of them, turned, and left the room. They stared after her for a moment. Harvey’s mind was racing. He wondered how Donna had found out something he hadn’t realized until he’d been trapped in an elevator, though he wasn’t truly surprised considering how well she knew him. He wondered why she’d said it out loud to Mike, and if that meant she thought Mike felt the same, and if she knew him well enough to tell. He also couldn’t help but be amazed that she knew the detailed plan he’d set up for Mike’s recovery without him having said anything to her.
Mike was the first to speak, turning to look at Harvey with a dazed expression. “You like me?”
There was no denying it now, so Harvey wisely didn’t bother. “Yes. I do.”
Mike smiled goofily. “Good. I like you, too.” Harvey allowed himself a small, fond smile. He reached out and gently pushed Mike back into bed.
“I think whatever they’ve got you on has you disoriented. You should rest more.”
“I’m not high,” Mike objected, before his sentence was interrupted by a yawn. “I’m just happy.”
“I know,” Harvey murmured, gently smoothing Mike’s hair back from his face as Mike blinked sleepily up at him. Harvey leaned down to press a light kiss against Mike’s forehead, which he noted with satisfaction was much cooler now. When he straightened up, Mike’s eyes were closed and he was breathing softly. Harvey smiled tenderly and sat back in his chair, planning to watch over Mike for the rest of the day.
Fandom- Suits
Ship- Harvey/Mike
Rating- PG-13
Genre- angst, hurt/comfort, slash
Warnings- unbetaed
Wordcount- 3400
Disclaimer- I do not own Suits
Summary- Mike is sick and Harvey tries to take him home. They get stuck in the elevator for hours, while Mike's condition slowly worsens.
A/N- written from a prompt here on suitsmeme: I would love to see Harvey getting stuck in an elevator with a very feverish and sick Mike. Trying to keep up in the firm and keep from disappointing Harvey, Mike has been running himself into the ground and won't stop long enough to take care of himself. They get stuck in an elevator and Harvey is left to take care of his new Associate until they can get out. I'd love it if he gets worse the longer they're stuck in there and Harvey gets more and more concerned.Bonus points if Mike passes out at one point and Harvey completely panics! ^.-
Harvey and Mike had been working together in Harvey’s office all morning and well into the afternoon, going through stacks of paperwork that the opposition had handed over to them. Mike had been sniffling since noon, and in the past hour it has escalated into coughing as well. The noise was making it very difficult for Harvey to concentrate on the papers in front of him, and he kept glancing up at Mike even as the younger man worked diligently through the sniffles.
Harvey supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that Mike was sick. After all it was winter in New York City, with the first snow of the year falling hard and fast outside his office window, and Mike was still riding his bike to work. Not to mention that Harvey had seen the scrap of fabric that passed for Mike’s coat; it was ragged and patched, and Harvey suspected the only reason Mike didn’t freeze to death wearing it was because the bicycling kept him warm. Harvey winced at the noise when Mike sneezed into a tissue. He knew he couldn’t deal with this sniffling every day without going mad, but he certainly didn’t want Mike to get worse and have to stay home. Harvey was beginning to think he might need to pick Mike up in his car and drop him off at night, just to keep him healthy and save Harvey’s sanity.
And if he was honest with himself, it wasn’t just the cold that made Mike sick. Harvey had seen the way the younger man pushed himself, doing more work than any of the other associates, to prove that he was worthy of the job and could do it just as well as the kids from Harvard. Harvey was sorry to say that he’d encouraged that work ethic, had pushed Mike to work harder and longer by giving him a few words of praise when he did more than the usual share of work, and none at all when he did as much as the other associates. He had thought it would encourage Mike to do better, to live up to his full potential, which Harvey knew was vast. It had never once crossed his mind that the workload might actually have an effect on Mike’s health, and Harvey felt guilty now that he saw it had. He knew how much it meant to Mike for Harvey to praise him, and he had exploited that for his own gain.
Mike coughed again, breaking Harvey from his thoughts. It was a deep, chest-rattling cough, and it didn’t stop. Harvey watched Mike apprehensively, and just as he was about to go over and try to help somehow, the coughs stopped. Harvey picked up a mug of hot coffee from his desk and took it over to Mike. He gently tugged the papers from Mike’s hands and set them down. When Mike looked up at him questioningly, Harvey thrust the warm mug into his empty hands.
“Maybe you ought to take some cold medicine and lie down,” Harvey said, putting the back of his hand against Mike’s forehead. He could feel the heat coming off of his body, and it worried him.
“I’m fine,” Mike insisted, but his thick voice betrayed him. “Besides, I only had a few pages left. It won’t take long.”
Harvey hesitated, considering his options. “Fine,” he said at last, “but I’m getting you some cold medicine.” He pressed the intercom button, but Donna, who had been listening as usual, told him that she didn’t have any. Mike coughed again, and Harvey made a decision. “Alright, enough, put those down.”
“What? Why? I’m almost done!” Mike protested.
“I’m taking you home,” Harvey told him. “But first we’re going to stop and get you some cold pills.” Harvey pulled a whining Mike to his feet by the arm, and pushed him towards the door. He picked up his phone and called Ray to have him pick them up. Harvey managed to get Mike into the elevator, and pressed the button for the ground floor.
“I could have finished that,” Mike sulked as the elevator doors closed. “I could at least have taken some of it home to work on.”
“You won’t get better if you push yourself while you’re sick,” Harvey said, watching the floor numbers count down. Suddenly the lighted numbers dimmed, and the overhead light, and then the elevator jerked to a stop.
A second later a row of dim lights near the floor clicked on: emergency lights powered by a backup generator. “What happened?” Mike asked in a low voice.
“The power went out,” Harvey sighed, pressing the emergency call button. “It must be the snow storm.” Harvey waited for the power to come back on, hoping it would only last a few seconds. When those seconds ticked by and nothing happened, he pressed the call button again, starting to become agitated.
It was several seconds before they got a response. “This is Carl from maintenance. We’ve had a power outage from the storm, and the elevators are stuck. The power might come back at any moment, but we’re going to call the fire department to open the doors.”
“Thank you, Carl,” Harvey replied tiredly. The phone crackled as it disconnected, and Harvey turned back to Mike.
“Well, thank you very much, Harvey, for being so concerned about my health that you stuck me in a sealed room the size of a coat closet,” Mike quipped. Harvey rolled his eyes and moved to lean against the far wall. “What if I have to pee?” Mike wondered out loud, and Harvey snorted. He just hoped that the elevator would start moving before that happened.
As time passed, Mike’s condition continued to worsen. He began to sniffle and cough again, and the cough grew progressively louder. He turned his head towards the corner when he coughed, and muttered apologies to Harvey every few minutes, obviously concerned about getting Harvey sick.
Harvey, on the other hand, was more worried about Mike. After a particularly intense coughing fit, Harvey went over and laid a hand on Mike’s shoulder. Mike pulled away sluggishly, and put a hand to his head like he was dizzy. Harvey gently pushed the hand away and replaced it with his own, feeling the heat radiating off Mike’s body.
“It’s too hot,” Mike mumbled, reaching up to loosen his tie. Harvey helped him take it off completely, and undid the top buttons of his shirt to make him more comfortable. He wasn’t sure if he should be trying to cool Mike down, or keep him warm. He put his hand to Mike’s forehead again, debating with himself. If Mike got too hot, it could kill him. On the other hand, with the power off and the heater probably off too, the metal box they were in was rapidly cooling, and the cold would probably only make him more sick.
“I need to sit down,” Mike mumbled, and Harvey gently eased him to the floor of the elevator in one corner. He stood and watched for a moment as Mike leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes closed, his face flushed. Harvey felt like he was slowly going insane, both from being trapped in a small space and from worrying about Mike. He felt like he needed to do something, but inside the elevator there was nothing he could do.
“Mike, stay with me, okay?” Harvey knelt down and patted Mike’s cheek, forcing him to open his eyes.
“I’m awake, “ Mike said, though his gaze was unfocused.
“Good,” Harvey said, trying to keep his voice calm, even though he himself was anything but. “Stay that way.” Mike nodded, his head hanging for several seconds before bobbing back up. Harvey started to pace.
They had been in the elevator for almost three hours. Harvey had been pressing the call button every fifteen minutes, and then every ten, and finally every five minutes to check on the progress of the fire department. They’d managed to haul some kind of equipment up the stairwell to the floor where the elevator was stopped, and now they were trying to get it open. It might take several hours. Harvey had told them that Mike was sick. Over the three hours he had been in there, Harvey had alternately pleaded, ordered, and incentivized the workers, anything to get the doors open faster. It surprised him how quickly he had been to throw the mask of indifference away when Mike was truly in danger. Harvey wondered if Mike had even heard the things he had said; the younger man seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, not fully aware of his surroundings. Every time his eyes stayed closed for more than a few seconds, Harvey’s panic grew.
“Hey,” he murmured, trying to keep his voice calm. “How are you feeling?” Mike mumbled something incoherent. “What was that?” Harvey urged, patting the younger man’s cheek. “Mike?” Mike moaned softly, but didn’t open his eyes. “Mike?” Mike leaned away from the wall, into Harvey’s hand, and toppled over onto the floor. He still didn’t wake.
“Mike?!” Harvey called, his voice rising in panic. He put his hands on Mike’s shoulders and shook him, but Mike didn’t respond. His head rolled limply, and his eyes stayed closed. Harvey pressed a hand to his forehead and found he was burning up, more so than the last time Harvey had touched him.
Harvey went to work on the buttons of Mike’s jacket, intent on getting him cooled down as fast as possible. He pulled off Mike’s jacket and shirt, ignoring the buttons that popped, and laid him flat against the cool floor of the elevator. Then he immediately went to the call button and pressed it again, over and over, desperate for a response.
As soon as the phone crackled to life, Harvey shouted into it. “I need a medic in here! Call an ambulance, have them waiting outside, and for the love of God, get this damn door open now!”
“Mr. Specter,” Carl’s voice said calmly. “Harvey. The team is almost done, and there are EMTs waiting just outside the doors. We’ll have them open for you in just a few minutes.” He waited for a moment while his words sank in. Harvey closed his eyes and willed his breathing to steady. Just a few minutes.
“Harvey?” Carl asked when he hadn’t answered in a few minutes. Harvey cleared his throat and forced himself to speak calmly.
“Can you-can you put one of the EMTs on?” Harvey asked, torn between embarrassment and continued concern.
“Of course,” Carl said, and there were indistinct murmurs as the phone was passed.
“Harvey, my name is Shelly Jackson, I’m one of the EMTs,” a soothing female voice said. “Can you tell me what’s wrong with your friend?”
“He’s sick, he has a fever,” Harvey said in a rush. “He’s burning up, and he passed out. What should I do?” His voice cracked on the last part, and Harvey might have been more embarrassed about it if he hadn’t still been so worried.
“The doors will be open soon,” she said gently. “For now, just try to cool him down. If he’s wearing a coat, take it off of him. Try not to touch him a lot; your body heat will keep him from getting cooled down.”
“I’ve done that,” Harvey said.
“Then just sit tight until we get these doors open. It won’t be long now.” Harvey hung up the phone and swallowed past the lump in his throat. He turned back to where Mike was lying, his eyes closed, his breath coming in slow, harsh rattles. Harvey wished more than anything that he could go to Mike and offer some comfort, but the EMT had said that touching Mike would keep his temperature elevated, and Harvey couldn’t let that happen.
To keep himself from walking the two steps to Mike’s side, Harvey sat on the elevator floor and concentrated on watching Mike’s chest slowly rise and fall. He wondered what would happen when the doors opened. Surely the EMTs would rush Mike to the hospital, but would Harvey be able to go with him? Would Mike be alright? No, that wasn’t even a question. Mike had to be alright. How long would he be in the hospital? What would happen when he was discharged? Harvey wanted to take Mike to his apartment. He wanted to be able to look after him, and to escort him to and from the office when he was well enough to work again.
Harvey’s thoughts were interrupted when the scraping at the door that had become constant over the past few hours suddenly rose to an ear-piercing shriek. The doors shifted a few inches, stopped, and then moved apart again more slowly, until there were about two feet of space between them. The floor between two levels was at knee height, and a young woman in a white coat climbed down into the elevator.
“Harvey, I’m Shelley, I was on the phone with you,” she said calmly. “I’m going to have to ask you to get out of the elevator now. My partner and I need to assess your colleague’s condition before we can move him.” Harvey nodded gravely, and stepped out onto the floor above, ducking his head to get through the small space. He stepped back enough to let a second EMT enter, but remained close enough that he could clearly see Mike through the opening.
Harvey watched as Shelley took Mike’s temperature and pulse and checked his pupils. The two EMTs spoke in hushed voices, and then the second, a young man, lifted Mike into his arms. “Harvey,” the male EMT said, and Harvey thought that he might be annoyed by all these people calling him by his first name if it hadn’t been for the fact that it did help him to calm down. “I can’t carry him through this space, so I’m going to pass him to you. Can you hold him?”
“Yes,” Harvey replied, and knelt to take Mike’s limp form from the EMT. He could feel the heat coming off of Mike as his bare back rested against Harvey’s arm. The two EMTs climbed out of the elevator, and they allowed Harvey to carry Mike down the stairs to where the ambulance was waiting. He rode with them to the hospital, but was left to wait in the lobby while they took Mike into the emergency room.
Harvey stared around the lobby blankly. He hadn’t realized, but night had fallen while he and Mike had been trapped in the elevator. Somehow as soon as the thought struck him, Harvey suddenly felt the exhaustion from the entire day come upon him at once. He dropped down into a chair and cradled his head in his hands, silently willing Mike to be alright.
Harvey must have dosed off, because the next thing he knew Donna was nudging him to wake him up. “Hey,” she whispered. “How you feeling?”
“It’s Mike you should be worried about, Harvey replied.
“I am, but right now you’re the only one I can ask,” she reasoned. Harvey sighed and ran a hand over his face before looking back at her. Donna smiled sympathetically. “Here. I brought you some coffee and a sandwich.” Harvey took the food and ate gratefully.
“What time is it?” he asked between bites.
“Almost seven am,” Donna replied. “Jessica told me to take the day off to check on you. Did you know it was ten o’clock by the time they got you out of there?” Harvey didn’t answer. If it had been ten when they got here, or at least a little after, then that should have given the doctors nine hours to fix Mike. Somebody should have woken him and let him know.
Harvey stood and went to the front desk of the hospital. He asked the woman about Mike Ross, but she didn’t have him in her system. Harvey tried not to panic, and instead asked if she knew about a patient admitted by ambulance with a high fever after being trapped in an elevator. She said she’d just started her shift, but remembered the previous desk clerk mentioning it. She did a quick search and found that an unidentified male removed from an elevator had been admitted to the emergency room and later moved to the intensive care unit, and was now able to take visitors.
Harvey and Donna went to Mike’s room, though Donna waited outside while Harvey slipped in. Mike was still unconscious, or perhaps asleep, but his breathing sounded much better. Harvey pulled a chair to the edge of the bed and sat down, watching Mike’s serene face as he breathed.
A few minutes later Mike’s doctor came in the check on him. The doctor introduced himself to Harvey and told him that he could take Mike home the next day, but should try to keep him inside and not to let him work. Harvey assured the doctor that he would, not bothering to correct the clear assumption that they were already living together.
The doctor left, and Harvey continued to sit by Mike’s bed. Donna checked on him every few minutes, bringing coffee and food and some simple papers from the office for Harvey to work on. It wasn’t until almost noon that Mike woke, moaning softly and trying to roll in bed only to be stopped by the tubes attached to one of his arms.
“Morning, sleeping beauty,” Harvey drawled when Mike opened his eyes and blinked up at him confusedly, but he didn’t bother to keep the grin from his face at the sight of Mike awake.
“What happened?” Mike asked.
“We got stuck in the elevator.”
“I remember that part,” Mike replied. “Thanks for dragging me in there, by the way. What happened after that?”
“You passed out. Then the fire department got the door open and an ambulance drove you to the hospital. It’s the next day, in case you were wondering. Almost noon.” Mike nodded thoughtfully, probably trying to process the information.
“What he’s leaving out,” Donna’s voice said from the door, “is how he was begging and pleading and trying to bribe the people from the fire department to get them to open the door faster, and how he started screaming at them when you passed out.”
“You worried about me?” Mike asked, sounding both amused and surprised. Harvey could feel his face heating up, and he resisted the urge to look away.
“I wouldn’t want to lose my associate. I’ve gotten used to having someone to do most of my legwork.”
“I’m so sure that’s why,” Donna said smugly. She sauntered over to the bed, holding a cluster of balloons emblazoned with the words “Get Well” and a large card. She set the balloons by the bed, and handed the card to Mike. Inside were several signatures from people around the office, including, Harvey noticed, Jessica herself.
“Everyone was worried about you,” Donna told him. “Jessica knows you’re going to need to stay home for a couple days to recover, and she knows Harvey will be taking those days off too,” she said, directing the last to Harvey.
“Wait, why are you taking time off?” Mike asked.
“To look after you,” Donna said before Harvey could even open his mouth to either explain or object, though he wasn’t sure which he would have done.
Mike still seemed confused, and Donna sighed in frustration. “Harvey is taking you to his apartment to get well. Once you can work again, he’ll be taking you there in his car so you don’t get sick riding your bike in the snow. I don’t know when or even if you’ll move back into your own apartment. That’s something you two will have to discuss as a couple. And trust me, by the time you’re well, you two will be a couple.”
Both Harvey and Mike gaped at her, Harvey managing to be slightly more dignified in it, as Donna smirked at both of them, turned, and left the room. They stared after her for a moment. Harvey’s mind was racing. He wondered how Donna had found out something he hadn’t realized until he’d been trapped in an elevator, though he wasn’t truly surprised considering how well she knew him. He wondered why she’d said it out loud to Mike, and if that meant she thought Mike felt the same, and if she knew him well enough to tell. He also couldn’t help but be amazed that she knew the detailed plan he’d set up for Mike’s recovery without him having said anything to her.
Mike was the first to speak, turning to look at Harvey with a dazed expression. “You like me?”
There was no denying it now, so Harvey wisely didn’t bother. “Yes. I do.”
Mike smiled goofily. “Good. I like you, too.” Harvey allowed himself a small, fond smile. He reached out and gently pushed Mike back into bed.
“I think whatever they’ve got you on has you disoriented. You should rest more.”
“I’m not high,” Mike objected, before his sentence was interrupted by a yawn. “I’m just happy.”
“I know,” Harvey murmured, gently smoothing Mike’s hair back from his face as Mike blinked sleepily up at him. Harvey leaned down to press a light kiss against Mike’s forehead, which he noted with satisfaction was much cooler now. When he straightened up, Mike’s eyes were closed and he was breathing softly. Harvey smiled tenderly and sat back in his chair, planning to watch over Mike for the rest of the day.