The company at the table all froze when they heard the words coming from the hall. Malcolm took a few steps back as Moira approached closely to him, the barrel of the gun now touching his chest.
Both Emily and Oliver jumped up, but Emily's father and Diggle both grabbed her arms and held her back in her place, while Oliver run out into the hall.
"Mom! What are you doing?!"
"He killed your father. Tell me he does not deserve this."
Malcolm stopped backing down, the shock of his one-night lover, mother of Thea, his daughter, and lifetime best friend turning on him like this held him frozen where he stood.
"Mother, I have it handled." Oliver said, approaching Moira.
"No, you don't! He has you under some sort of spell!"
"I poisoned him. " Oliver said. "He might slowly be dying. Mom… Do you really want this to be so quick as a gunshot or slow and agonizing?"
Malcolm did not move, but closed his eyes for a bit. So this is what it was. Oliver had done his "experiment" on him, knowing how it would end. The recurring pain in his chest had told him as much.
His eyes closed for a moment and he threw a glance at Emily, kept firmly at the table in the room by her father and Diggle. There seemed to be no happy ending for this love story. Malcolm remembered the shattered glass Emily had kept picking up. That was all it was. Shattered glass. He squeezed his eyes and tears ran freely as he realized the heartbreak it would bring Emily, one she did not deserve.
"Moira." His voice sounded hoarse, and Malcolm Merlyn found himself begging now. "End it now. Do not put THEM through this." His hand briefly pointed at the people at the table. "Let's go out. Do you have a gun muffler? So that they will not hear."
Oliver found himself shocked at the words Merlyn was saying. He was arranging his own death.
"MOM" – he approached her and said : "That is the best way, I know how to muffle the gun, I will help you. It will be better outside."
"Come on, then." He said to Merlyn, leading him out of the now open door after Moira.
The only thing Malcolm wished he had done before this was to have hugged Emily and Tommy for the one last time.
Oliver led him by the arm, but Merlyn found himself surprised when the boy suddenly leaned over to him and whispered. "Don't worry, I will change her ammunition for blanks. Just keep your ability to fake death after she shoots you."
Malcolm felt hope hit, but then denied himself the comfort. He deserved to die, as Moira had said. Oliver could be lying for all he knew. Malcolm only now wished it had been sooner, before he had met Emily, yet another person hurt.
They arrived at the place. "Stand straight and look at me, I want to see your eyes as you die."
Moira smiled as Oliver handed her the gun, full of what Malcolm thought were only seemingly blanks.
He stood straight without his Kevlar underneath his turtleneck, and looked into her eyes. She shot the full magazine into his chest, with muffler on and he fell after a while, Oliver's poison working for him to lose his pulse for a time. Or maybe forever? He no longer cared. Moira ran up and felt the man's heartbeat was gone. She rose up, satisfied, and Oliver decided to escort her. "How did you arrive, mom?"
"My limousine."
" Let's get you home, then." He brought her to her waiting car and shut the door behind her. She drove off, satisfied with her achievement.
X.X.X
Malcolm slowly retrieved his breathing ability and sat up slowly as Oliver approached.
"Why don't you finish the job?" Oliver was surprised as he heard the man say the words when he leaned over to help him up.
"What?"
"I'm dying anyway… Slowly, as you told your mother. From the poison you gave to me… Can I beg of you the mercy to end it now?"
Then Malcolm slumped on the ground and lost consciousness.
"Merlyn!" Oliver fell to his knees beside the man. He slapped the man to wake him up. Malcolm's eyes opened with a startled gasp, his hand going to his chest as he begun coughing.
"I was just saying this to get my mother away. If the poison had worked, you would have been dead days ago. "
He softly started to remove the blank shot slugs from the man's chest.
"You said yourself you were not fully sure how this thing worked. That it was a slow agony." Malcolm said between coughs. "And Oliver, it is." – he added in a hoarse whisper.
Now Oliver was the one who started to despise himself. How could he have done this to a fellow human being, even one as twisted as Malcolm Merlyn was? The Arrow suddenly felt he was no better than a madman like the Count or all the other villains he had hunted.
He finished taking the slugs out of Merlyn's chest and pulled him up.
The man leaned onto him, coughing.
"Malcolm." He shocked the businessman by using his first name. "I swear, as I'm standing here, I will not let you die."
Merlyn took a few deep breaths after his coughing fit, then looked at Oliver, surprise clear in his eyes. He was speechless.
"Let's go back to the house." Oliver said softly, leading him back slowly to the front door.
Emily could not stand it anymore. The Ice Archer within herself waking up, she twisted her hands out of Diggle's and her father's grasp and ran outside, almost crashing with Oliver and Malcolm as they were walking in. She threw Oliver's arm away and supported Malcolm, finding in herself the strength she had not expected she had.
"Emily, I exchanged the bullets for blanks, he is not shot." – Oliver said.
"Yes, thank you for the Queen family mercy, after you had him poisoned with your little 'experiment' drug and now your bitch of a mother had just come to shoot him, and not with blanks, before you so thoughtfully changed them."
Caress ran up to her mistresses' side, baring her fangs at him. Tommy had woken up at all the screaming and moved aside on the couch as he saw the state his father was in. All the anger he had at the man went out of him then and he laid a hand on his arm as he sat down.
"Caress. Guard them both. No one approaches them, except me." Emily barked in a steely voice and the intelligent wolf complied, growling at Oliver, who took a few steps towards them.
"Emily, I did what I did to keep my mother from killing him." – he said in a placating voice.
"Yes, after you drugged him with this thing that has him in almost constant agony right now! Do you think I'm blind?!" – she screamed.
"Well, he is not a saint, as you know all too well. You fell in love with a murderer!"
"As if you were any better!"
Vanderbilt saw this was getting out of control, so he stood up painfully from his chair and approached the screaming duo, but not before Emily backhanded Oliver in the face.
Emily's father walked up and held her back. However, the slap and Vanderbilt's placating look seemed to have sobered Oliver up from the oncoming fight.
Meanwhile, Diggle had moved to Talia's body, deciding to take her out of the corridor, out of view. Her dead presence did nothing good here, only raised already hot tempers even more.
"Emily…" Oliver tried the calm approach again. "Let's not fight. I'm sorry for what I did to him. We are supposed to be allies. I want this to work, not explode."
Emily seemed to sober up from her fury a little as well. Enough damage has been done recently, they were still in danger from the League and Moira. Sophia and Tommy still needed care and so did Malcolm and her father. More strife would not bring any good.
"All right." She said with a sigh, but kept Caress guarding Malcolm and Tommy. Only she would be allowed to approach them.
Vanderbilt saw things were getting as normal as they could be again, so he slowly walked back to his chair. Diggle returned, having moved Talia's body to a distant room in the house, out of view. Emily sat by Malcolm and Tommy on the couch, while Felicity distributed some more water to all the wounded. Malcolm took his with a bit of a shaky hand, but the liquid seemed to restore him a bit. Emily leaned on his shoulder, not wanting to hurt his battered chest more than it was. Oliver sat at the table, not wanting to approach the fang-baring wolf guarding the couch.
Felicity felt at a loss what to do for a while, but decided the people needed more nourishment. Her eyes met Emily's.
"I'm going to order some more food right now, I guess we all need it." – Felicity said. "I'll use my middle name – Megan, and my mother's maiden name, not to alert anyone. I know a good Italian place that has both pizza and spaghetti. And I know a place with stakes as well, she said, answering Diggle's unspoken question. It will be all taken care of."
"Take extra extra meat with the spaghetti, will you? And an additional salad for Emily. In fact, why not order everything double? I feel we will need some food later too. No use ordering it twice." Vanderbilt spoke up and Emily smiled, knowing her father's meat- loving preferences.
That was going to be one HECK of an order and the owner of the restaurant Felicity trusted would be one very happy person.
The food arrived, this time with no additional company or trouble. Felicity put the portions out on plates and ran the dishwasher to clean those from earlier.
Emily did not leave Malcolm's side. He napped for a while, Tommy and him and her leaning on each other's shoulders, but he woke up when Felicity served the food. He surprised everyone in the room when he first turned to Tommy and helped him with his plate, as the boy was still battered and weak, clearly not having much appetite.
"Now go on, Tommy, eat at least a little bit. You need your strength." He watched like a falcon to make sure his son had taken some nourishment. Only when Tommy had finished most of his plate did Malcolm start slowly eating his food, clearly not having much appetite himself.
Oliver watched, his fork suspended, he was startled with shock. This man.. this man Tommy had said was so ice cold after he had returned from his trip, Oliver's arch enemy had suddenly started radiating warmth, even hours before, when he was about to be killed by Moira. He was changing before their very eyes, into a better, caring person. Oliver's eyes shot onto a side table where the picture of Malcolm, Rebecca and Tommy was placed. Maybe the man he had been back then was returning?
Malcolm felt all this was a bit unreal. He had been sure he would die, so recently, facing Moira and her gun. Now he found himself in his own brightly lit living room, with this great company of people, Emily and Tommy next to him. Then Oliver said what he had said, shocking him with his kindness.
Now he had to make sure Tommy was ok and the boy seemed to regain some of his strength after Malcolm practically had to force his food into him. A while later, Tommy tentatively reached for his salad and Malcolm could not suppress a smile.
He found himself slowly regaining his appetite, though the pain in his chest kept killing him, both from the poison and the impact of the blank bullets. He looked at Emily, who kept digging into her food with gusto. He threw a look over the room and met Oliver's eyes briefly.
They shared a smile, of all things. It all felt more and more unreal.
Then his eyes met Vanderbilt's and the man nodded, smiling as well. Malcolm nodded back, grateful that he was accepted as Emily's suitor.
Then Felicity jumped out from her seat, slowly approaching Emily and Malcolm, staying warily at a safe distance, away from the wolf.
"Umm" Mr. Merlyn, where can I find the wine and other liquors? I think we need some with the food. And…after this ordeal." – she said, a little hesitantly, but he nodded to reassure her.
"The wine is in the basement, where you ate the pizza before, the other liquors are in the library room, three doors on the right." – he said levelly. "Just call and I will escort you if you can't find your way." – he spoke courteously as she was leaving, which earned him another dose of smiles. Even from aunt Sophia, who seemed to be recovering, digging into the plate on her couch-like chair.
Felicity found her way ok and returned with two red wine bottles and some carafes of drinks on a trace.
"So who wants what?" She asked. Diggle, Vanderbilt, Malcolm and, surprisingly, aunt Sophia chose whiskey. The rest ordered wine. Tommy seemed to be napping. Felicity ran to the kitchen to retrieve some glasses from the dishwasher and distributed the drinks, leaving one bottle of wine on the side table by the couch where Tommy, Emily and Malcolm sat, the other on the dinner table, carafes as well. As she carefully approached the wolf, Emily said "Stay" to the animal who laid down on the floor and let Felicity through.
"Listen, I'm sorry I'm leaving you to do all the work. But I cannot bear to get away from Malcolm and Tommy." Emily whispered as Felicity leaned in to put out the drinks. "It's ok, I understand." The other girl whispered, managing to squeeze Malcolm's shoulder as well.
"So, continue eating, everyone!" – Felicity said, sitting down by the table, eager to down the rest of her meal.
Malcolm softly woke Tommy up, who seemed to have fallen into a little nap, and poured him a whiskey, knowing his son's preferences and feeling he could use one. "Eat up and have a drink, son" he said quietly and Tommy obliged with a thankful glance at his father.
Emily noticed with satisfaction that Malcolm seemed to regain more and more of his appetite as well.
It was a strange sort of meal. Pasta, with slices of pizza, steak and salads. And drinks. But everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Then the doorbell rang. This time everyone froze. Malcolm started to stand up, but Emily grabbed her bow from her bag and said, in a steely voice: "I got this."
If this was Moira again, she would hear a sob story about Malcolm being dead and would not enter this place. "Caress!" Emily called the wolf over her shoulder as she exited the room to approach the door.
It turned out the last ordeals had made them all paranoid.
It was only a delivery guy with the rest of their meals and cake, which Felicity had ordered as a surprise. Emily grabbed her credit card from her back pants pockets and paid him, extra tip for his trouble.
"Thanks, have a good night!"- he said, turning to go back to his car.
Emily breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay, the more food we ordered got delivered!" – she screamed from the hall, to reassure everyone. Felicity came running out and they both went and put the rest of the pizza, pasta and steaks into the fridge.
They did not ask, but served everyone a piece of the chocolate cake Felicity had ordered as a surprise. After everyone finished their meal, they dug into the desert with gusto.
Chocolate had magnesium in it, which strengthened the muscles, the warrior part of Emily thought. They could all use it.
She leaned in and put her head on Malcolm's shoulder as they ate. Tommy was awake and eating too, so that was a good sign. Caress had returned to lie by the couch.
Suddenly Oliver was standing nearby the couch.
"May I speak to Malcolm?" He asked, eyeing the wolf.
Emily stared him, but decided to move from the couch and called Caress after her, walking up to her father, leaving Oliver and Malcolm to talk. Tommy stood up stiffly and moved slowly to the table after Emily, deciding to let the men talk.
Malcolm took a gulp of his water before speaking anything to Oliver, then waiting for the other man to talk first, as he was the one who approached him.
"Listen…" – Oliver began, hesitantly. "I meant what I said earlier. I won't let you die."
It took a beat as Malcolm stared off into space, away into the night beyond the window.
"Why?" Malcolm asked simply, his head suddenly bowed, eyes lowered.
"Because…" The boy tried to find the right words for a few moments. "Because you deserve the chance. Because… I need your help, if you are willing to give it to me."
"What kind of help?" Malcolm asked silently.
"You…" Oliver hesitated again, then continued on. "You, and the group you were working with on the Undertaking. Before you came up with this idea of leveling the Glades… You kept doing good things. Let us get back do doing good things like this. Promise me to hold off on this destruction for a few more years and keep helping me do the work I do."
Malcolm swallowed deeply, then smirked bitterly. "You won't have to deal with me for 'a few years.' Moira has taken care of it. Ra's Al Ghul will get to me soon, even if you saved me this one time."
"I don't believe you are ready to give up this easily." Oliver's words shot out. "Yes, you are tired, worn out by mine and my mother's actions. But Ra's al Ghul will not get you, and you know it."
Now, that was even more unreal. Oliver Queen giving him a pep-talk?
Malcolm reached for the drink Felicity had left him and took a few gulps.
It was getting late, so the others had moved upstairs to get some sleep, Felicity and Emily making the room arrangements.
"I will help you." Malcolm said quietly, but firmly. "For as long as I can."
He sat there in silence for a while and then the front door was kicked in and Nyssa came in.
"I'm here to pick up my sister's body and claim the life of whoever killed her."