Not sure if I like imagining Harvey or Mike with hEDS and the other finding him collapsed behind his desk more.
On one hand we have Mike with hEDS:
-> Harvey going by Mike’s desk late at night, still seeing the light on for some reason. He’s about to make a sarcastic comment and move on when he sees that Mike’s not there.
-> His brows narrow, walking over to it. Maybe he just forgot to turn off the lights?
-> His heart drops when he sees behind the chair, Mike is on the floor. His shoulder is bent in a visibly wrong direction. He’s grinding his teeth in pain, holding one knee to his chest.
-> “Fuck?!” Harvey legs iut sharply, crashing down to his knees. He asks what happened. He almost calls 911. Mike hurriedly tells him not to, explaining it’s normal for him. He lets him know or his diagnosis.
-> Harvey knows, if anything, Mike doesn’t want to be pitied. So he’s subtle in the way he cares.
-> He keeps a discreet, small container of pain meds in his own briefcase.
-> When he notices Mike repeatedly shaking out a joint, he reaches for a desk drawer he keeps KT taped tucked away inside. He slips it into the inside of his jacket and while walking by drops it silently on his desk.
-> When it arrives that Mike needs a specific surgery, he mentions in passing conversation to Rachel that he has a surgery and is freaking out since his insurance is being a dick about not covering it, not knowing Harvey was in earshot. When he gets a call later from the hospital to confirm the time and date they let him know an anonymous person funded his surgery, paying for it in full.
-> After said surgery Harvey also makes a specific point to take care of Mike directly after he’s discharged from the hospital and for the following couple days. He does this despite Mike’s reluctance to accept any form of help at first.
-> When Mike checks his work portal he realizes that for some reason—even though he knows he’s taken multiple hours off for appointments with specialists and PT, not to mention entire days off for extreme flare days, for some reason none of his PTO has gone down. Still staying full, not even an hour down.
On the other hand, we have Harvey being the one to have hEDS:
-> Mike knows Harvey stays late a lot of nights. He had just finished some research for a case and figured it was worth showing it to him before hesring oIt for the night.
-> The second he entered the room something felt wrong. His lamp was on, his laptop was open, and his pen was still uncapped. When his eyes traced down he saw it. Harvey’s ankle peaking out from behind The large, regal desk.
-> Bolting around it, he knelt down by his side. Freaking out, he offered to call 911. Harvey snapped, almost a flash of vulnerability in his eyes; dismissing him even in his own pain. -> He also went to explain his EDS in minimal terms. A connective tissue disorder. Dislocations were normal for him. He didn’t need help.
-> Mike respected this and once he knew he was alright he went home.
-> That night he stayed up even later into the morning going on a research spiral. He scrawled down pages of notes, marking his questions and what shocked him. The correlations between EDS and gastrointestinal issues, neurodivergence (which he made a point to note “makes sense” in the margins by), and a whole other host of other conditions. -> The next morning he tucked these papers into a folder containing monotonous paperwork, making it as discreet as possible. He went to Harvey’s office, closed the door, and proceeded to spew everything he learned. Making a point to point out how reckless it was of him to push himself as far as he was.
-> Harvey listened, nodding and watching him pace while passionately listing information he already knew about his own condition. He would usually tell anyone doing this to shut up, but seeing how much he had poured himself into actually caring about helping him stopped him. -> Another time Mike goes to drop off paperwork his upstairs neighbor had asked him to hand inro her PT office. She was a sweet older woman who had broken her ankle and didn’t have an appointment to get the papers in. Mike being Mike, he agreed to swing by. While there he saw Harvey, struggling to do a basic exercise and looking visibly frustrated with himself. He had tried to pick a PT office that none of his wealthy, attorney colleagues would ever be at. He didn’t know it would ever place him in a position where he’d be seen by one of the few people he cared about the opinions of, seeing him truly struggle to do something.
