Chapter Text
They had been married about five years when the condo finally became too small to contain their lives. They were both partners now and the need for more space had just hit an all time high. That’s when the serious talk about kids began. Harvey, a man who had always been indifferent at best to the idea, knew it was something Mike had wanted. So they sat and negotiated. How many? Any preference of gender?
They settled on one for now. No gender preference. Mike suggested young and Harvey reminded him they were both busy men and too young would mean constant child care, so ready for a least preschool was where they landed. There was a beautiful house in West Midwood they settled on. The commute would be what it was but the house was gorgeous and they could both have their own office and still have a guest room if they really wanted.
It had been a year and, now that Harvey had no excuses, they were finally in the adoption process. Olivia was the second child they were interviewing with.
The first had been Amerisa, an eight year old who they were heavily considering. She’d been given up by her father who had custody of her after he’d divorced her birth mother. Turned out though, the mother had lost rights due to drug charges that were flimsy at best and honestly likely staged by the child's father. The father had given Amerisa up for adoption to get back at the mother and it was all quite messy.
Harvey and Mike were happy to do the pro bono work and got her back to her mother without much legal hassle. Luckily the father didn’t realize when he put her in the adoption system he couldn’t get custody back and Harvey basically made it his mission to get that written out by a judge just in case he came sniffing around for her.
They were at Olivia’s foster family’s house which was about thirty minutes out of the city. The family was fostering a few kids, a couple of teens and an infant. They clearly had their hands full. Harvey listened to the foster mother, Carla, go on about Olivia and her interests; very into My Little Pony, which was a huge gut punch to Harvey of course.
She liked to be read too and knew all her numbers and letters, even a few words. Harvey asked a few polite questions but was very distracted by the fact that Mike was very distracted. He kept glancing into the kitchen, which Harvey couldn’t see from his angle on the couch.
“Olivia hasn’t been to the city, but she’s seen it a lot on TV.”
“I wash Law’n’Odor.” The three year old nodded sagely.
The foster mom laughed nervously. “Nana watches it sometimes when she looks after the youngest two. I don’t think Olivia actually follows the plot.”
Olivia shrugged.
Mike finally turned his attention back to the mother. “So the other kids? Are they all fosters?”
“Oh, the two big kids are. The baby is mine and my husbands. After about ten years of trying, you know? We’ve fostered about thirty kids over the years. We plan to keep doing it.”
Mike gestured to the kitchen. “How old are the other two?”
“Markus is seventeen and Liam is eleven.”
Mike nodded. Harvey could hear the wheels turning in Mike’s head. The adoption agent, Stacy, who was with them cleared her throat. “Perhaps Olivia could show you her room?”
“Yeah!” She ran over and grabbed Harvey’s hand leading him towards the stairs, with the foster mom right behind them. Mike didn’t ascend the stairs with them and Harvey could tell when he was being left out.
Olivia sat him down on the floor of a room with a small bed and a crib. “This is me and baby Sofie’s room.” She handed Harvey a Barbie with the choppiest haircut he’d ever seen on a doll and grabbed one for herself. “If you’re, if you–um if you’re my dad can I–do I get my own room?”
Harvey smiled. “Yeah.”
“Cool.”
They played with the Barbie’s more like baby dolls (he put one down for a nap and was then adamantly told to rock her). Mike still hadn’t come up after about ten minutes. “Is it alright with you, Olivia, if I head to the bathroom?”
She nodded.
“Thank you, Carla. I’ll be right back.” He stood and heard all his joints crack. The floor was no place for New York’s best closer but he made exceptions for children. There had been a bathroom down the hall but he went down the stairs to pretend to find the one he’d used on the main floor. Sure enough, he found Mike back in the living room, staying just out of the line of sight of the kitchen. He looked very caught when Harvey spotted him and Harvey waved him into the foyer. “Do you mind cluing me in on why I’ve been abandoned to the mercy of our potential toddler? And where is the adoption lady?”
Mike fidgeted. “So the eleven year old, Liam, he was in the kitchen and just… sitting there and he looked… I don’t know. So I asked Stacy–adoption lady– about him. Harvey… He lost his whole family to a gas leak. His mom, his dad, sister, grandmother…he was at a friend's house.” Mike started to ramble in the way Mike did when he was trying to work through a case and Harvey tuned it out.
Because Harvey could see where it was going already, watching his husband spiral in a way that was familiar at this point. Without a word, he walked past Mike to the entryway to the kitchen. Liam was a short eleven year old, kind of skinny. Harvey suspected he wasn’t eating enough. He had dark skin and a crew cut. He had airpods in his ears and had his back to Harvey so he couldn’t hear but he was staring down listlessly at what looked to be math homework–math homework that was complete but he was still slowly pretending to do. Harvey looked back at Mike who had the decency to look very guilty. The adoption worker came back in with more papers then she’d had originally.
“How is it going with Olivia?”
“She’s amazing.” Harvey pinched the bridge of his nose.
“That’s great! We’ll definitely be able to set up another interview, maybe this time at the agency. See how comfortable she is outside the house–”
Harvey hitched his thumb towards the kitchen, cutting her off. “What’s up with this one?
Stacy didn’t even flinch. “Oh yes, Liam is also in foster care. He’s been having a rough time it seems. I was… just pulling up his file–”
“Were you now?”
She nodded, pointedly not looking at Mike. “Yes. He’s moved foster families three times in as many months. As I was telling your husband, he’s suffered a major loss and the grief is still fresh. He had no other immediate family.”
Harvey nodded back. “Do him and Olivia get along?”
Mike perked up and looked like he was holding his breath.
“I’d–... Yes, surprisingly. He previously had a younger sister a little older then her so he’s taken a shine to her.”
He looked at Mike who looked like he was about to explode waiting for what Harvey said next.
“What’s the process to start an interview with him too?” Out of the corner of his eye he saw the kid in the kitchen’s head, so slightly, lift up. Harvey smirked.
Stacy was kind enough to feign surprise. “I thought you and Mike were only interested in one child. You were very clear–”
“Plans change.” He sighed and walked past Mike again on his way back up the stairs, giving Mike’s shoulder a squeeze as he went. “I’ll let you two figure it out. Batiffany is probably up from her nap at this point and I need to go check on her.”
It was two months later and Mike had not been this nervous in a long time. They’d had two interviews with Olivia, everything was going great with that but a little slow. When they’d started this Mike knew adoption took a long time but this seemed criminally dragged out. When he first caught a glimpse of Liam he’d tried to ignore the kid.
They’d already heard Olivia’s story; she’d been left on the side of the highway and found by a trucker who’d luckily been an upstanding man and gave her over to the police. Neither her mother or father could be located with DNA databases. Olivia was an obliviously happy kid.
But the kid in the kitchen? Mike could see in the way he sat there this kid had lost everything.
He knew because the same thing had happened to him. He pulled Stacy aside and asked if that was the case with Liam. And having guessed, she told him all the kid had lost.
Mike felt incredibly lucky in that moment. Not just that he didn’t end up in the system, but that Liam had been in that kitchen.
Because Mike wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he didn’t at least try.
And Harvey? In the five years they’d been together he wasn’t sure he’d loved Harvey more than in that moment. Harvey knew what he’d wanted to ask him and without hesitation, without even being asked, immediately caved.
Now, Liam sat across from them. They’d had him brought to the agency instead of doing the interview in house, mostly due to his previous behavioral issues.
Stacy was beaming. “Liam, I’m sure you saw the Specters at your house a few weeks ago.”
He stared at them with dark eyes, unimpressed. “Yeah, you were adopting Olli. What you want to talk to me for?”
Mike tried not to visibly flinch. “We wanted to see if you were interested in becoming part of our family.”
Liam shrugged. “Nah, I’m good.
Mike leaned forward. “Yeah?
The kid shrugged again. “Yeah, not interested.”
“Cause you like it with your foster family?”
Liam shrugged again. Mike was beginning to wonder if it was a nervous habit or an attempt to appear indifferent. It was hard to tell with kids. “I’m no charity case.”
Mike leaned back, thinking on that a moment before choosing his words. “Is that what you feel? That we’re taking pity on you?”
Liam looked at Stacy who looked like she didn’t know what to say to that. Harvey was blissfully silent.
The kid shrugged even harder. “I don’t know. What you want me to say? Oh please sir, take me in? Nah, that ain’t me. I’m good. Take Olli. She’s cute and small and will call you dad someday. I’m not interested.”
Stacy looked like she wanted to intervene but Mike put up a hand.
Mike smiled. The kid had an attitude, that was for sure. “You got me. I may be treating you like a charity case but it isn’t because I feel bad for you. It’s ‘cause I was an orphan at your age too. ”
Liam did his best to not look surprised or interested in anything he had to say. “So? You gonna go around adopting every sob story? There are plenty other kids in New York.”
Mike shook his head. “Nope, just you… oh and Olivia. If that’s okay with you. We do like Olivia.”
Liam looked at Harvey. “You got anything to say?”
Mike looked to his husband and begged him not to say anything to scare the kid off. Harvey just chuckled. “You’re smart. I like that. First night we saw you, could see you’d finished your homework but were pretending to still finish it so you’d be left alone.”
Liam made a face. “What are you? A cop?”
“A lawyer.” Harvey gestured between him and Mike. “We’re both lawyers.”
The kid shook his head. “Talk like cops.”
“We’re not that kind of lawyers to be fair. More business lawyers.”
“You make a lot of money?”
Harvey laughed. “Enough to afford two kids in this economy.”
Stacy winced. “Liam, maybe we can talk about some–”
He didn’t let her finish. “Can I get a PS4?”
Mike laughed as Harvey pinched the bridge of his nose. “We already have a PS4.”
Liam wrinkled his nose. “I would’ve guessed you were an Xbox dude… you play Madden?”
Every muscle in Mike’s boy relaxed as he informed Liam that he did in fact play Madden. Little by little through the interview Liam opened up, finally talking about his interests and favorite things.
His favorite subject was science but he was good at math. He wanted to be a doctor when he grew up because he knew his dad had wanted to be one but didn’t have the money for school. Mike nodded along and asked leading questions and realized he could see himself loving this kid.
As they wrapped up their time they got up to leave and Mike, on instinct, reached out a hand to shake Liam’s. The kid gave it a firm shake but when Mike went to let go, the kid held on. “Can I ask you somethin’?”
“Sure, kiddo.”
“You said you were an orphan too?”
“Yup?”
Liam looked at their hands held together. He looked on the verge of tears. “Did… did it ever stop?”
Mike got down to eye level with Liam. “No. It is always still kind of there. But I was lucky. I had my grandma there with me. And we were going through it together.” When the tears started Mike looked up at Stacy and she nodded. Mike held out his arms and Liam tentatively hugged him. “We aren’t looking to replace your family. I just… I saw a sad lonely kid going through it and I couldn’t sit back without offering to help. So all I ask is you think about it? We can talk again later if you want to.”
Liam pulled back and wiped his face. “I’ll… I'll think about it, ‘kay?”
“‘Kay.”
Mike and Harvey left the room and out in the hallway, when they were immediately out of sight, Mike pulled Harvey into a hug. Harvey held him for a while, standing there and just breathing.
“I know, I know he’s not what we agreed to–”
“We can afford them both.”
“You didn’t even want kids.”
Harvey laughed into his shoulder. “Well, I want these kids.”
“And Harvey Specter gets what he wants.” Mike held his husband tighter. “He’s not going to be like that all the time. He’s going to be angry sometimes too. And say he hates us. And that he wishes we’d died instead of his family. And probably a lot of other awful things.”
He couldn’t see it but he could hear Harvey was smiling, “Well, we have two advantages. The first is you know he’ll do that because you’ve been through it so we will do our best to not take it personally.”
“And what's the second?”
“We can afford to put him through therapy.”
Mike buried his head in Harvey’s shoulder. “Fuck, I forgot you can do that.”
“What, go to therapy?”
“Yeah, I was poor, remember? We didn’t do therapy.”
“You go to therapy now. That was part of your whole thing on us becoming parents was going to therapy.”
“Yeah and it didn’t magically fix our problems, as Dr. Garret loves to point out.”
Harvey finally pulled back. “And what did she have to say about you imprinting on this kid?”
“That I am doing it because when I was a kid I felt like a burden to my grandmother and that by adopting this kid I think I could finally pay forward the debt I feel to her.”
“So… did she think that’s a good idea.”
“She said that it’d likely be very good for Liam to have somebody who has gone through what he’s going through as a caregiver, and as long as I don’t make Liam feel like a broken thing I need to fix, it should be good for us both. But I shouldn’t put too much pressure on him.”
Harvey pulled back, smiling. “It’s us, Mike. We can do anything.”
It hit Mike then how far they’d come. There was a time he was terrified to be five minutes late for work. Ruined a perfectly good suit and everything.
Now? He couldn’t imagine his life without Harvey.
Harvey could be the most selfless partner on the planet. He was kind and thoughtful, and still the best closer in New York.
Maybe even America.
The bastard.
11.03.2024