Chapter Text
At first, Donna’s almost as bored by these interviews as Harvey is. Then, after the fourth cookie-cutter wannabe, Harvey pauses, turning to her. “Donna, we’re gonna need to streamline this. Give each guy a hard time before you send him back. Give me a wink if they say something clever. Cool?”
“Okay. What are you looking for?”
“Another me.”
She really should have seen that one coming. On the bright side, it gets a lot more fun after that. Donna is in her element finding clever ways to mock each new applicant. Though, really, people like Chip and the one whose name she forgot immediately because he looked like an eleven-year-old in Daddy’s suit? They just make it so easy.
But would it kill any of them to come up with an answer that’s even a little bit not pathetic? Seriously, they’re supposed to be lawyers from the best law school in the country. Maybe they should start recruiting from Stanford, maybe West Coast baby lawyers are more interesting. At this rate, they’re going to have to extend the interviews beyond today, and then Donna will be stuck with a grouchy Harvey. Joy.
Rick Sorkin is a no-show, and it looks like Michael Ross is going to be one too. Then, just as she’s about to call the next name, someone walks up. He’s moving too carefully, left leg stiff, and she realizes he’s trying - mostly unsuccessfully - to disguise a limp. “Michael Ross?”
“Mike.”
“Well, Mike, you are five minutes late. Is there any reason why I should let you in?” She expects a sheepish or annoyed explanation about the limp, maybe a play for her sympathy. What she gets is a wry smile.
“Sorry, elevator was busted, and a cripple trying to run up the stairs? It just doesn’t work that well. Gets messy sometimes too.”
Hmm. Not bad. He’s got a sense of humor, at least. Something about the way he stands makes Donna think military background - and is that an Air Force pin on his lapel? - so he might not be exactly another Harvey, but he shows more promise than the wannabes have so far. So when Harvey comes out a moment later, she gives him the first wink of the day.
Hopefully it’s the last one too, Donna thinks, studying the waiting applicants shifting in their seats. Because she has a feeling that none of them are going to be any better than the rest of the idiots she’s already sent back.
***
Donna winks at him, so Harvey’s curious. He can’t see why at first glance - the kid’s suit isn’t bad, but what the hell is with that skinny tie? And there’s something... familiar about him. Harvey can’t place him, though, so he just sits back down as the younger man walks to the chair on the other side of the desk.
Glancing down at the resume, Harvey notes that this Michael - Mike, the kid had told him - Ross was in the Air Force before he went to Harvard. Medical discharge, which explains the limp that Ross is trying to hide. “It says here you were in the Air Force, but not what you did.”
“Intelligence - translation and codes, mostly.”
“Why become a lawyer after you were discharged?”
The kid smiles, an ironic twist of lips. “I did Legal Studies at the Academy, was always gonna go to law school. Only question was if I was going to do it as an Air Force officer or a civilian. The choice ended up being made for me.”
Ross isn’t boring him yet, Harvey’ll give him that. But he’s not sold on him either. “I’m not looking for a soldier here.”
“Good. I’m not a soldier. I’m also not a carbon-copy Harvard douche, and I can guarantee I’m more useful than anyone waiting out there.”
Well, this is taking a turn for the amusing, at least. “OK, hotshot. Prove it.”
“That’s a BarBri Legal Handbook on the desk there. Read me something. Anything.”
Harvey’s curious enough to do it. He opens to a random page and begins reading - only to be cut off by Ross, who recites the rest of the page and the first few lines of the next. Verbatim. “And,” he continues, “looking at the edition number on the spine, you’re on pages 394 and 395.”
Harvey glances at the page numbers, then back up at Ross with something like shock coursing through him. Because the kid’s right. “How did you do that?” Knowing the information’s one thing; Harvey knows it himself. That degree of precise memorization, though, that’s something different.
“I consume knowledge like no one you’ve ever met,” Ross tells him, matter-of-fact. “When I read something, I understand it. Once I understand it, I never forget it.”
Harvey considers the man in front of him for a long moment, then crosses the room, opening the door. “Interviews are over,” he tells Donna with a grin, then turns back to Mike. “Lose the skinny ties, flyboy. That’s an order.”
The grin he gets in return is downright evil. “Sorry, Mr. Specter. You said you didn’t want a soldier.”
Okay then. This might actually be a little fun.
***
Anya’s the only one there when Mike gets back to his friends' apartment, where he's been staying while he goes to New York interviews, and she gives him a quizzical look, setting aside the book she’s reading. “Okay, that expression tells me nothing, Misha. You get the job or not?”
Mike laughs, sinking down onto the couch and rubbing his knee. “Oh, I got it.”
“Then shouldn’t you look pleased, not weirded out?”
“Yeah, well, uh... Remember that guy I told you about, the one who picked me up when you, me and Bianca came out here for a week summer before our first-class year? I called him Harvey Dent?”
“Yeah, that was... Gorgeous eyes, surprisingly good at both topping and bottoming, definitely one of your top five one-nighters, right?”
“That would be him. He, uh, he just hired me as his associate.”
Anya stares at him for a long moment, then laughs so hard she ends up tumbling off of the couch. Peering up from the floor and pushing brown hair out of her eyes, she grins wickedly at him. “Oh my God. Think he remembers?”
“Well, I sure as hell hope not. Can you imagine?”
“I can see how it might be awkward if he did. Though, really, it was a decade ago. Who but you would remember, Cam Jansen?”
Mike rolls his eyes. “Ha, ha, ha. You do have a point, I’ll give you that.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter in the end. I just need to do my job right.”
“And not imagine kinky office sex while doing said job.”
“Anya!!”