Chapter 1 - The aftermath & coming home

The flight to Starling City had been tiring. Though Oliver didn't have to suffer any troubles a commercial flight might bring along, which, frankly, was one of the many advantages of being a billionaire, the flight in his private jet had been long, boring and tiresome. Even more so because he was not particularly looking forward to come home. On the contrary. And not only because of the fact that anyone bearing the Queen familyname should be wise enough to avoid Starling City, of all places..

Which was true, by the way. Ever since the Undertaking had levelled a large part of the Glades, the Queen family name had been associated with mass murder. During the five months since that fatal night, it was clear that not all the city's residants were ready to move on and start the rebuilding. Things had gotten worse. There was no force, no man, who could have prevented those people from getting from bad to worse. Not even the vigilante, or The Hood as some preferred calling him. He had lost this spark which used to fill people with awe.. It seemed as if he was reluctant, or perhaps he was not up to the task anymore, to which he had assigned himself nearly a year ago. Fact is, that after the Undertaking, he did nothing for the city, or the people. Everything went back to normal, as if he never existed. This lead, ultimatically, to certain people taking control for themselves. If no one listened to them, of no one stood up for them or understood them, what was the point? All these selfish businesspeople.. So fine, so upstanding! But in the meantime.. They were the real scum, the rats and the disease that threatened the city.

Luckily for Oliver, he hadn't had to experience much of these fits of rage. He left as quickly as he could, a broken man, not wanting to face anyone. Where he had gone, no one knows, and no one questioned him. In some way, it was of no importance. Everyone had their own reason to grieve. But he did come back on the day of Tommy's funeral. Only few people attended the service; Laurel and her father, Oliver and Thea, some friends from college, and of course Diggle, who stood in the back, in the shades of the trees, acting as the Queen's personal bodyguard.

Felicity had thought it best not to join the service. She had not known Tommy very well, she had only seen him ocassionaly, and hadn't spoken as much with him, with the exception of some 'hello's' and 'hi's'.. Besides, no one really knew the extent of her friendship with Oliver and Diggle..

And then their was Laurel. Torn between her love for both Oliver and Tommy, she felt as if both Sarah and Tommy were standing between Oliver and her now. At first she could not even bear to look at him. He did, from time to time, glance her way. He could sense some sort of coldness, an aloofness about her. Tommy's death had taken its toll on both of them.

The fact that Tommy died, thinking things of him the way he did, made him doubt himself, his cause, and the way he handled everything. He had lied to him, assuring him that he had not murdered his father. One day Tommy had said to him that he was sorry Oliver had not died on that island. Now, he could not agree more. He had failed Tommy, his father, everyone.. But most of all, he had failed this city. How could he ever redeem?

With Moira in prison, awaiting her trial after all investigations were finished, the board had taken over the daily control of the company. With Oliver gone, Thea lead Oliver's club, Verdant. Although the club was in the Glades, the club's damage had been minimized. The renovations did not take long, and in due time club Verdant opened its doors again. Most of the storage rooms were being used again, except for the largest - the basement. There was a security system to it which no one was able to unlock. It was Oliver's friend Felicity, who had come to Thea's aid. She had explained -or at least had tried to explain- to Thea that there was some sort of server room downstairs which held all the club's data and stuff - or something like that.. Oliver had asked her, being a computer geek after all, to take care of it all. Thea wasn't at all interested in all this. She had given Felicity free reign to renovate this server room, and was a bit curious about what she was constructing when she saw both Felicity and John Diggle carry all sorts of materials around. She wasn't curious enough to come check on them, even if she wanted. The code to the security system was top secret, because they couldn't risk any sabotage to the computer system. And it really didn't matter that much to her - all she cared about was having this club up and running again, so when her brother got back, they would at least attempt to lead a somewhat normal life again.. But if he didn't...

At 3 p.m., he landed on Starling City Airport. He casually picked his iPhone out of his breast pocket to text Diggle to come and pick him up. Some kind of nervousness that was alien to his nature, kept him alert to his surroundings. There was nothing abnormal around him, still he would not put down his guard until he was in the confines of his car, on his way to Queen Consolidated.

A few days ago, a text from Diggle that had alerted him, and had made him decide to come back after all. Felicity, now being the company's Head of IT, had heard rumors during one of her meetings, that Isabel Rochev, Vice President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor International, one of Queen Consolidated's competitors, was interested in taking over the company, due to QC's bad reputation and downfall. Now this was something that Oliver wanted to prevent, at all costs. He was determined to preserve this part of his father's legacy, or what was left of it. He had failed his father once, and that was bad enough.

Within a few minutes, Diggle texted him that he was on his way. Oliver leisurely walked towards the parking lot, his hands jammed into the pockets of his expensive dark blue Armani pants. Breathing in the crisp spring air, he laid his head in his neck and let the sun warm his skin. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, just past his elbows. His red tie hung loosened around his neck. Looking from his left to his right, he didn't even recognize much of what he saw. Or perhaps the problem lay in him not wanting to recognize, to be comfronted by reality.

Growing impatient, he pulled his phone out of his pocket every few minutes, to check what time it was, or to stare at the screen numbly, as if he were waiting for the thing to come alive and talk to him. Time passed incredibly slow, or so it seemed. After checking his phone for the umpteenth time, he heard a car honk from a close distance. Oliver walked briskly to where the sound had been coming, and found Diggle had parked his car in a side street close to the airport.

Without greeting his friend, he sat down on the backseat of the car, but attempted to smile at him in the rear-view mirror. Diggle, though sensing his friend's reservation, greeted him nonetheless, in a way as if Oliver had not been absents for almost five months.

"Hey man, are you ready to kick some ass at the company? I'm sure you'll want to get there as soon as possible to -"

"Sure Digg, whatever. Let's get this done with as soon as possible", Oliver cut him off, not really interested in what Diggle had to say.

Diggle chuckled. He would never easily admit it, and especially not to Oliver, but he had missed his friend/employer/partner in crime. If the circumstances had not been as they were, he would have driven him to a cosy cafe, bought him a large draft beer, or a good glass of wine. Perhaps they could've gone to a baseball game and support the Starling City Devils, and eat way too many hotdogs with too much glasses of coke.

But now was not the time. He was not even sure if the time would even come. Not in the near future, that much was certain. It all depended on Oliver's plans, if he had any..

So, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Got some recommendations? Please share your thoughts, I'd love to read them! :-)