Meghan Ross: Con Artist in Training

Inside Track (Part 2)

Mike sat in Harvey's office, waiting for him. He did his best to hide how proud he was of himself when he found a flaw in Harvey's work from twelve years prior. Harvey was immensely proud of himself for pulling one over on his boss, Jessica Pearson, during the senior partner's meeting. And while the by-law mistake had been pointed out to him, he was still on a high from previous events.

"Donna, when Vanessa did Mike's background check, what did she come up with?"

"Nothing we don't already know... Why? Think he's hiding something?"

"Just that the kid's got a thing for honesty. I'm surprised he's made it this long without telling anyone our secret. Heard a young woman's voice when I called him this morning."

"Jealous?"

Harvey sent her a pointed glare. "The deal, Donna. I need to know everything and everyone in his life if this is going to work, and he knows it. The fact that he's keeping her a secret? Could be something more illegal than practicing law without a license."

Donna hadn't really thought about it until now. "Gotta say, my amazingness did not pick up on that... I don't like it." She turned from her desktop to load the printer. "Let's get a pool going. Anyone who finds out he's not a degree holding lawyer and doesn't rat him out can join."

"He won't give this one up, even if his job depends on it."

"Oh, we're not betting to see how long he can keep this secret. We're betting to see when it gets uncovered."

~***~***~

Mike sat on the living room couch that also doubled as Meghan's bed. His laptop open to a window of restaurants. Every so often, he'd ask her what she thought of his choice. She almost always had something to say that would make him cross it off the list of potential locations for a Firm event he refused to tell her about.

Louis' unrealistic demands that the menu had to be tailored to his allergies and delicate digestive system was making the elimination process even more difficult.

"If you're not gonna ask Neal, why don't you just ask Rachel to help you? Isn't she like, I don't know, obsessed with the dining experience? And your work-wife?"

"You mean a foodie? And I like her, but no," Mike had told Meghan about quite a few people in the office. Rachel was mentioned almost as often as Harvey and Donna, she felt like she knew them already.

"Well, how many people do you know of who eat shrimp, red pepper, and goat cheese pizza?"

"Point taken... I'll ask tomorrow." He switched tabs to continue his research for McKernon Motors to help Harvey find someone who understood the company better than its current interim leader. "You finish today's subject?"

"One last assignment to do, but I need the laptop if you can part with it for an hour. It's a ten-page essay. The teacher adds a page for every week it's late. I guess it's supposed to be an incentive to turn them in on time."

Mike saved his progress and switched accounts for Meghan to do her last assignment. The last word of the works cited page was punched in with five minutes to spare since some of the ten pages had images that took up some of the space. She saved it to a flash drive to print at the school library

"Done. I'm doing math tomorrow, so I won't need to steal your laptop," Meghan informed.

"Do some tonight so you'll have less to complete tomorrow. And bring it with you if you go to Neal's." When they were with Neal or in their apartment, Neal was Neal. In public settings where certain identities could be compromised, he was Danny. "I never asked you this, but what did the principal say you had to do for your record?"