"What happened?"
Harvey paused in his inspection of himself in a mirror. He didn't turn but started adjusting his tie.
"You had a heat stroke," he said simply as if he were merely stating facts at a trial.
"Yeah, I remember that part," Mike replied wincingly. His head still ached and his muscles still burned with the memory. "After that."
Harvey still didn't look at him. Mike took the opportunity to close his sensitive eyes without the fear of getting reprimanded and lectured.
"I dragged your ass in here," Harvey answered with an annoyed huff as if Mike's passing out had seriously impacted his day by distracting him from other, more important matters. "No easy chore, I assure you," he added.
Mike chuckled, his closed eyes oblivious to the small, fleeting smile reflected in the mirror.
"I told the security guard to call an ambulance and Donna to get cold water while I took off your clothes."
"Quite the nurse, aren't you."
"I've seen a fair share of heat exhaustion and stroke while on the field. I know what to do when I see it."
Granted, Harvey's knowledge of the potentially fatal condition likely saved Mike's life, but the image of Harvey removing Mike's clothes in the firm's bathroom was amusing as it probably instigated some embarrassment in Harvey. Mike didn't feel the effects quite as strongly. He had been too busy overheating to be conscious or embarrassed. Plus, the embarrassment he did feel was lightened with the teasing he was giving Harvey.
"So, 'you're a Doctor, not an athlete' now?" Mike asked, doing his best impersonation of Dr. McCoy while having a sore throat. He opened his eyes in order to see Harvey's reaction.
This time Harvey did look back at him, one brow raised in feigned annoyance. His smirk, however, countered its full effect.
"Please proceed, Doctor," Mike grinned.
The smirk faded and eyes darkened as Harvey looked away again, this time focusing on his collar and vest. Mike's own grin faltered as a change seemed to come over the older man. His back had stiffened and he plucked at his vest a little too roughly.
"Donna came back with water and splashed you but you didn't wake up," Harvey continued.
Mike frowned. Harvey's tone had changed too. It was no longer as nonchalant and impersonal as before. There seemed to be something weighing down the words, causing the air they resounded in to grow heavy.
"Your temperature was too high. You weren't waking up. More water didn't help." The words were clipped and curt.
Harvey had given up trying to pretend to attend to his attire. His kept his back to Mike, his head lowered slightly to look at his hands that were clenching the sides of the sink.
"We both went to get more water."
Mike glanced at the bathroom sinks, wondering why Harvey hadn't just used the closest source of available water, but didn't voice his question aloud.
"When I came back, you were finally awake." A pause and a swallow. "And here we are," Harvey finished. The familiar featureless tone was back but sounded too harsh and forced.
Mike stared at Harvey's back. Silence consumed the enclosed space.
Harvey had pulled him out of the unrelenting heat and had acted swiftly in order to wake him and prevent the heat stroke from causing permanent damage. And, judging from the way Harvey had come running into the bathroom with a coffee pot of water, his actions may not have been entirely free of panic.
Though the moment had been fleeting, Mike could have sworn he saw genuine concern in the eyes of the man claiming to have no emotions.
Then again, within that next moment, the bathroom walls had reorganized themselves. Perhaps what Mike saw had merely been another illusion.
But he couldn't even convince himself of that.
"Harvey," Mike started hesitantly, tilting his head to better look at Harvey.
His boss turned slowly to meet the gaze of his associate and Mike could see a heaviness that matched the weight of his voice around Harvey's eyes. A heaviness caused by fear. Fear of losing something important. Someone important.
Mike knew the look all too well. It was a look more commonly associated with himself and it looked strangely out of place while in the disposition of his boss.
So it had been no illusion. Harvey had truly been worried about Mike.
Mike opened his mouth in preparation to speak.
"Harvey, the paramedics are here," Donna interrupted, poking her head into the bathroom. Both Harvey and Mike turned their attention to her in surprise. She paused guiltily at having ruined a private conversation, eyes widening in realization.
Harvey recovered first. "Thank you, Donna. Lead them here."
Donna nodded, mouthed an apology, and disappeared again.
Harvey exhaled deeply as he returned his gaze to Mike. Some of the weariness lifted from his shoulders with the news that medical help had finally come for Mike.
"What were you going to say?" Harvey asked, glancing distractedly at the bathroom door; slipping his hands into his pocket as if unsure of what else to do with them.
Mike struggled for a moment, debating whether or not to call Harvey out on his displayed emotion. He smiled instead.
"How much do I owe you?"
"What?" Harvey blanched, his full attention back on Mike.
Mike gestured at his suit-less body pointedly, an impish grin on his face.
Harvey stared at him in surprise and then his own devious smile curved his lips. He promptly took the coffee pot of water and deftly dumped it over Mike.
Mike gasped as the cold water suddenly cascaded over him.
"If I was going to charge you, I'd have told you beforehand," Harvey smirked, his usual air of impassive superiority back. He replaced the coffee pot and opened the bathroom door for the approaching paramedics. Without looking back, he stepped through and walked out of sight.
"The Wedding Date," Mike called after him. "Big mistake. You just admitted to watching a chick flick."
Donna slipped into the bathroom; two paramedics and a gurney behind her. Hiding a smile, she hovered over Mike as he was lifted onto the gurney. Ice was shoved under his arms and legs while one of the paramedics fiddled with an IV drip. As he was wheeled away, Donna took her place beside him, one hand resting on the gurney near his shoulder.
The gurney turned towards the front door and Mike turned his head to look back for Harvey. He caught a glimpse of his boss going back into the bathroom and then coming out again to stand in the hall, arms folded over his chest, a dripping jacket hanging from one hand. Mike managed to catch the reassuring smile Harvey gave him before he was forcibly turned away as he was pushed out the front door and carried down the steps.
"Question," Mike said aloud.
"Yes?" Donna answered.
"Why didn't Harvey just use the water in the bathroom?"
"He said it wasn't cold enough."
Mike looked up at Donna in shock. She smiled warmly back down at him. Mike breathed out a laugh and shook his head.
Why didn't Harvey just admit that he had been worried about Mike? Didn't he know Mike and Donna could see through his façade?
"Question," Mike repeated as he was pushed towards the waiting ambulance.
"Yes?" Donna answered dutifully.
"Was I lying on Harvey's jacket?"
"Yes."
"The same jacket that is now wet and likely ruined?"
"Yes."
Mike cringed, and not from the heat this time. "Do you think he'll make me pay him back?"
"No."
Mike looked up at her hopefully.
"I know he will."
Mike sank further into the gurney. A new wave of nausea that had no connection with the heat the paramedics were rapidly working to get him out of churned in his stomach. They quickly lifted him into the back of the ambulance. Donna stood firm by the open doors, keeping her eyes on Mike as he was settled. The paramedics, sensing her unwavering determination, didn't bother to politely ask her to leave. Neither one wanted to take the risk since each time they made a move to, Donna shot them a glare that could freeze deserts or melt the artic.
"You think fifty dollars will be enough?" Mike asked as one paramedic took his seat beside Mike and the other hopped back out onto the sidewalk.
"I'd say you're three hundred short," Donna replied with a knowing smile.
Mike laughed (the action quickly reverting to a cough) as the second medic closed the doors and trotted up to the front of the ambulance. He should have known perfectly well that Donna had overheard their earlier conversation. She had probably been standing outside the bathroom door the entire time.
He sobered when he realized that, while Donna had been quoting the movie, she had probably also given him an honest estimate as to how much he owed Harvey for ruining his suit jacket.
Disliking the thought, Mike was glad when the combined effects of exhaustion and soreness took over and allowed his mind to slip into the dark.
The ambulance rumbled away from the curb, lights flashing, and raced off to the hospital.
Donna watched the ambulance drive out of sight. The moment it had, a black car pulled up to the curb in front of her. She turned her head expectantly to see Harvey already at her side. He opened the car door for her and she slipped inside, Harvey coming in after her.
Then, the black car pulled away and took off after the ambulance.