ok since i'm throwing out my suits au ideas around instead of writing chapters for fics that may never be completed here's another one: mike did not get kicked out of college, he went to law school -- does not neccesarily have to be havard could be Yale or Stanford -- became a lawyer and joined the DA's office. all was well. grammy was proud. thennnnnn as an ADA he discovered someone tampering with evidence in many many cases and compiled evidence and started an investigation blah blah blah except he didn't realise it was cameron dennis doing this shit at that point. dennis does find out what mike is doing and decides to take care of the situation before the kid finds something and tells someone -- he gets mike fired and his lisnce of practice is put under probation as he's put under review. basically he had mike accused of practicing law while under influence of substances (and he got high over the weekend with trevor so the drugs were in his system on monday so tests proved shit, but not entirely enough to suspend his license). Mike's license is essentially buried in red tape and his reputation and credibility destroyed. cue a few years down the line he's depressed as hell, no employment because he's essentially given, doing weed constantly, hanging around trevor and then grammy needs an uplift in care. (sweet canon here we come.) and he runs into harvey specter in the chilton the rest is history except ofc he cant even pretend to practice law half of the legal community of new york has seen his face. harvey hires him as a paralegal, tries to convince jessica he doesn't need an associate blah blah blah mike will do just fine. she tells him he'll be buried in paperwork blah blah blah its not company policy blah blah blah. she'll agree eventually.
[I'm not sure if i want harvey to find out mike's history with cameron dennis because he'd probably figure out the reason behind mike getting fired very quickly in a way even mike doesnt know -- mike has no idea yet that it was dennis who did the tampering -- which means he'd probably keep these details a secret from mike in the begining which is very angsty for when mike finds out but im not sure if thats in charcahter for harvey. second option is mike just tells harvey he actually was high -- or just that "i made a mistake" and the details of the enquiry and lets harvey assume the accusations are true and harvey still hires him because come on man this is not worse than hiring a fraud who didnt even go to college.]
paralegal!mike is brilliant, even though the most minor reminders of how he's not a lawyer upset him. He'd probably make friends with rachel better (I'm assuming she'd give him more benefit of doubt since he's not another havard douchebag associate, and judging from her intro in season 1 they typically have a habit on hitting on paralegals and being too haughty blah blah blah). Romance is author's choice (any author who shows interest in this prompt), but for me this is a marvey fic so they'd only be besties. I think Mike would eventually tell Harvey the real story behind what happened to him at the DA's office and Harvey would spend days trying to figure out how to tell Mike because at this point he's as loyal to mike as mike is to him and this is a lot like deciding to tell his dad about his mom. Mike may tell rachel too -- they bond over him trying to help her for the LSAT, and his secret's not illegal this time so he'd have an easier time telling her things and making friends -- and she could tell him he should fight for his license back submit his findings to the justice department or whatever, because its clear he was set up cause he knew too much. and even if he doesnt get his license back, doesnt he owe it to himself to do it? so mike does it, he finds out the old files, his theories and sends it over to the DoJ. A few weeks later alexandra leeds comes knocking.
