DISCLAIMER: If I owned YJ, it wouldn't be on hiatus.

A friend of mine got me hooked on this series, and after finishing the series my muses were going nuts. I love Black Canary, and I think she and GA make a cute couple. I don't call him Oliver because...well, I just don't.


Ollie finds Dinah perched on top of a skyscraper, the tallest in the city and dwarfed only by Mt. Justice on the horizon. His footsteps click on the concrete roof, but she makes no acknowledgement of his presence, which causes his worry level to ratchet up two or three notches. When the archer is close enough to touch her, she still won't respond to him, and it is only when his gloved hand finds her cheek that she turns. The anguish in Dinah's sky-blue eyes makes what is left of his heart ache fiercely; it is already broken from finding out what Kaldur had done to his protégé. "Dinah," he says softly, bringing his free hand up to tenderly cradle her face. "You scared me, running off that way."

There is a gentle reproach in Ollie's words, but his love doesn't respond, and that in itself reveals how much she is truly hurting. "I'm sorry," she says quietly, voice thick in a way he has never heard before. "I just…reacted. Of all the things to happen, I never thought Artemis would be the one…and she didn't even want to do this; it was a favor for Nightwing. I don't know how Wally is going to react…he loves her so much…" Abruptly Dinah pulls away from him, standing up and wrapping her arms around herself as she faces the cityscape. "Those kids were—are…" She falters, and guilt blossoms in Ollie's chest; Dinah had wanted children for as long as he had known her, but due to a combination of commitment to the League and not much "alone time" the two never managed to try for a family. He steps up behind Dinah, his arms encircling her waist as her body leans on his.

"I know." His voice shakes as he buries his face in her hair. She smells like cherries and warm summer air. "She was my apprentice, Dinah. I thought there was nothing more I could have taught her; that she was…well, not untouchable, but damn close." He begins trembling, thinking of the original Roy—kidnapped with no clue as to where he'd gone or what had happened after—and then Artemis, murdered by someone who had once been her big brother. "I seem to be cursed."

"Ollie, that's ridiculous." Her voice is stronger now, but exceedingly gentle as she turns in his arms to link her own behind his neck. "This is in no way your fault. I was her combat teacher; what happened is…my failure." A shudder ripples down Dinah's spine, and her face presses to his chest to muffle the sob that threatens to break loose.

Ollie's arms tighten around Dinah, and he silently vows that he'll empty his quiver into Kaldur if the Atlantian traitor is unfortunate enough to cross paths with him. "If I don't get to blame myself, you certainly don't," the archer teases gently. It works; he is rewarded with a watery laugh and feels Dinah thump the heel of her hand against his shoulder.

"I love you," she murmurs, and suddenly he finds his mouth captured in a blazing, crushing kiss. Ollie sputters, caught off guard, but Dinah's hands in his hair hold him steady and it isn't long before he is responding with equal force. This isn't like most of their kisses, tender and sweet; this is fueled by grief, by guilt and desperation and the overwhelming need to just forget.

When the need for air forces them apart, Ollie rests his forehead on hers and gasps, chest heaving, "I love you as well."

They don't speak after that for a very long time.