Artifacts of the Forgotten

by supercode

One shot. Takes place during the last chapter of "The Demon Queen". Possibly AU (see authors note inside) to my Olibel (Oliver/Isabel) trilogy. Connor Hawke-Queen makes a startling discovery that changes his relationship with his family forever. A Queen family story featuring Olibel, the loss of innocence, complicated relationships, and a whole lot of secrets.

This story is categorized as "possibly AU" because I wrote this story in a fit of madness.

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. But it certainly feels that way.

Years ago, at the end of my original Olibel (Oliver/Isabel) trilogy, I promised I would not be writing anymore stories with that pairing. Apparently, I lied. And there's a lot of blame/credit to go around for that.

The primary "blame" for this story's existence comes from my own stubborn mind, which would not let go off a loose plot thread that I left hanging at the end of "The Demon Queen." The idea for creating a one-shot (which mutated into a long story as I wrote this) to address that plot bunny has not left my brain since I finished my last Olibel story, and that idea has not left me alone since then. So here you go, stubborn brain. I wrote this story for you. Now please let me focus on writing other things.

By the way, although I try to explain what is happening in this story pretty thoroughly, you might be a bit confused if you haven't read my Olibel trilogy, starting with "The Sins of the Father, the Deeds of the Son." So if you haven't read those stories yet, and want to understand this one, you might want to read those stories first. At least some of that material is decent. I promise.

Anyway, in addition to my mind, some credit for this story's existence also goes to some individuals I've corresponded with on this site, including Czarna Pantera, feeling that I took "the easy way out" by having Isabel say she had never truly been "in love" with Robert Queen. I think those individuals are right. So I wrote this story with the assumption that Isabel had once been in love with Robert, but fell out of love with that dead man after falling in love with Oliver, for whom Isabel's love never faded, even many centuries after Oliver's "death" in my Olibel trilogy.

So, this story IS an Olibel story, but is also a PAST Isabel/Robert story. If any of my readers are uncomfortable with that, I don't blame them. You can just write this story off as AU from my other Olibel stories, if you want. Or just skip it entirely. Got that? Good.

For those of you still with us, I hope you enjoy this story, which is about the end of a young man's innocence, mistakes of the past, love that last forever, and, above all, a family, and all the love and conflict that comes with it.

Without further ado, I present to you, my readers, "Artifacts of the Forgotten"!

A hazel-eyed brunette woman who looked like she was in her late twenties, but was about a decade older than that, yelled up the stairs of the Queen Mansion. "Connor, it's almost time for me to take you to football practice! Get your stuff so that I can drop you off before your dad's and mine's board meeting at Queen Consolidated!"

Connor Hawke-Queen huffed in annoyance, but the gray-eyed, blonde-haired teen made sure that none of his anxiety entered his voice as he loudly answered Isabel Rochev-Queen, his mother in all but blood. "I'm coming, mom! I'm just having trouble finding my jersey…"

Isabel rolled her eyes and called up the stairs again. "Do you think your little sister might have stolen it again? You know how she's always taking your shirts and using them as capes when she plays 'superhero' by herself. I've talked to her before about taking your stuff, but…"

Connor chuckled as he interrupted his stepmother. "No time to worry about that now, mom! But if Natasha did steal my jersey, I think I know where she has it…"

Connor started running towards the Queen mansion's attic, which had always been one of Natasha's favorite hiding/playing spots. Sure enough, when Connor climbed the already extended ladder into his family's attic, his little brunette, gray-eyed sister (technically half-sister, but Connor had always loved both his stepmother and sister too much to ever think of Natasha that way) was already there. Connor rolled his eyes when he saw his little sister, with his jersey around her neck, extending her arms and making whooshing noises while running and jumping around the attic as she said. "Never fear, random citizen, Supergirl is here to save you! I'm Kara Zor-El, one of the greatest heroes of all time! I die during the first great multiverse crises, but don't worry! I get better!"

Not knowing whether his sister was only goofing around or acting out one her strange prophecies again, Connor ruffled his you sister's long hair with one hand, then quickly untied his jersey off Natasha's neck with the other, then took his jersey back with a quick flick of his wrist while saying. "I'll be taking that back, squirt! I've got football practice, and I'm not letting a magic midget like you make me late for it!"

Natasha crossed her arms and huffed at her older brother. "I'm telling! Mom and dad say we're not supposed to call people names!"

Connor rolled his eyes. "And what do they say about taking things that aren't ours?"

Natasha cast her eyes downward and said "That we're not supposed to. I know that, but it's not my fault! The cape kept calling to me, Connor! His voice is so loud, and he wouldn't shut up until I played with him in the attic! I couldn't help myself!"

Connor shook his head and sighed. He couldn't tell from Natasha's tale about his jersey if his sister had been hallucinating, having a vision, or just messing with him, and he knew he didn't have time to express either worry or anger towards his younger sibling right now…especially over a trivial matter like a stolen jersey. So instead, Connor just smiled at Natasha and said. "Tell you what. You forgive me for calling you names, and I'll forgive you for stealing my jersey. And neither one of us tells mom or dad anything. Deal?"

Connor extended his hand towards his little sister, who rolled her eyes and said. "Deal. But we've got to use our secret handshake to mark this solemn agreement."

Connor sighed at his unusually precocious nine year-old sibling. "Nat! We haven't done that handshake since I turned twelve! It's too long, and I'm in a hurry to…"

But Natasha glared back at her older brother with a steely resolve in her eyes, which were just as gray as Connor's. "Secret handshake or I'm telling dad you called me midget and squirt, no matter what you tell our parents! Mom and dad always punish you harder than they punish me, anyway, because you're older, and because all I have to do is make my face like this…"

Natasha made her eyes as wide as possible, and pulled her lips down into a frown as she pretended to cry, actually succeeding in producing a single tear out of her left eye in the process. "And daddy will forgive me and take away my punishment, or at least lessen it if mommy won't relent, because I'm daddy's little princess!"

Connor shook his head. "That would be funny if it wasn't true. But don't forget that I have mom wrapped around my little finger almost as much as you do with dad! Still…" Connor put his arms to either side in front of him, with his palms facing towards Natasha, but slightly to the side, while his little sister mirrored his pose with her own hands facing towards Connor. The two siblings then exchanged hand claps, with Connor's and Natasha's right hands gently collided, then both of their left hands. Then the two siblings lightly slapped all four of their hands together at once, with their palms facing away from each other. Finally, the two youngest Queens circled around each other while spinning around, before lightly touching each other's noses, then giving each other a "high ten", in the air, just above their heads, then finally shaking hands. Connor shook his head. "I hate it when you make me do that!"

Natasha grinned. "Then you shouldn't have helped me make that handshake up!"

Connor rolled his eyes. "Yeah, when you were three, and I was nine! Whatever. A deal's a deal, right? We forgive each other, and nobody tells mom and dad anything about what happened today in this attic, right?"

"You got it, big brother!" Natasha nodded with a smile. But then, suddenly, the smile vanished from the little girl's face and her eyes became vacant for several seconds. Connor had learned long ago that this meant his little sister was having some kind of vision, usually of the future. That's why Connor was very nervous when the vacant look left his sister's eyes, only to be replaced with sadness as his sister started to cry, for real this time. "I'm so sorry, Connor! Like I said, the cape made me take him! I didn't know this would happen until just now, but….the voices say you needed to know, and…I'm so sorry!"

Natasha ran past her brother, taking a path slightly to the right of the center of the attic as she did so. Connor tried to follow his little sister while asking, "What's wrong, little Nat…."

But before he could catch up to his sister, who slammed the heavy attack door, ladder and all, behind her with her telekinesis, Connor's foot hit an old wooden plank that Natasha had spent years running and jumping on during her play sessions, and the weight of the young Starling High quarterback was just enough to cause the board to collapse!

"Ah!" Connor shouted in panic as his foots sank past the now broken wood plank, right through the floor! For a moment, Connor thought that the rest of the floor he was standing on would collapse beneath him as well, and that he would end up falling all the way down to the first floor of the Queen mansion. A fall that would surely kill the young teen. Or at least, paralyze him for life.

Thankfully, this did not happen, and Connor's foot hit solid oak, as well as…something softer, a lot sooner than the young man had anticipated. After convincing himself he was out of danger, fear gave way to curiosity, and Connor lifted his foot out of what he could now recognize was a hidden compartment, much like the ones that his mom and dad would store emergency team Arrow gear in around the mansion. Connor shrugged, then peeled back the rest of the half-rotten floorboard that he, his sister, and Anna, his former best friend turned girlfriend turned "stranger" (after her adoptive parents had forbidden their "daughter" from seeing Connor again about a year ago), had slowly worn down together during their playdates over the years, in order to see what was inside the hidden compartment that he had accidentally broken into with his foot.

Looking into the compartment, Connor found a large group of carefully preserved papers, folded into neat little squares and wrapped in a three packages made of a kind of old plastic that Connor had never seen before. If Connor had known that the simple decision of looking into that compartment would lead to the single worst week that he would experience during his entire young life, the young man probably would have taken the contents of the plastic bags and burned them up, never to be seen by him, or another pair of eyes, ever again. But Connor did not know what was inside the plastic bags, or that reading the papers inside them would lead to him learning an old family secret he was never meant to know. A secret that it would take Connor a week to forgive his family for keeping from him, and years to fully process and get past the trauma of discovering that secret, himself. Unfortunately, Connor didn't know any of this, so when his mom yelled at him from downstairs to "Hurry up, Connor!" the curious young man quickly raced to his room and put the plastic bags inside his clothes drawer, before quickly racing down the stairs with his jersey in hand while yelling, "Coming, mom!"

… Hours later…

Connor collapsed into bed with a sigh as he nursed his sore ribs. Today's practice had been a rough one for the young Queen. Connor's football team, Starling High's own "Emerald Warriors' (inspired by Starling City's greatest hero, off course) was going to go to the state championship for the first time in five years, thanks largely to Connor's hard work as the star quarterback. So coach had decided to push his team, especially Connor, especially hard to prepare them for, in Coach Becker's words, "The single biggest challenge of your young lives!" Connor knew that next week's opponents, the Central City Sonics (formerly the Central City Flashes, before the Scarlet Speedster himself had politely asked that school NOT to associate his name with a sport as violent as football) would be tough to beat on the field, and that they had won the state championship three times in the last seven years, but Connor still thought his coach's methods to prepare his team had been a tad excessive.

Even Connor's parent's had been concerned after they picked him up late that night, when the young man told Oliver and Isabel Queen that Becker had forced the team to run laps for an hour straight, then do strength training with tackling dummies for another two hours. The man then had his pupils run practice plays for another two hours after that, during which time the Emerald Warriors linebackers were instructed to double, then triple, team Connor in an attempt to tackle their quarterback.

Due to Connor's natural agility, as well as the self-defense and conditioning training his parents had subjected him to over the years, so that the young man could defend himself, or preferably, run away, in case one of team Arrow's enemies came after him, as well as Connor's recent vigilante training, most of the linebackers attempts to tackle him had failed. But the three times that his teammates had succeeded in tackling him, once due to bad luck and poor timing, and twice, near the end of practice, because Connor was too tired to dodge and run properly in his heavy football pads, had hurt like hell. And even though Connor had ensured his parents he would be alright, and took five minutes to assure them there was no need to report the coach. or sue the school district, his own words couldn't stop the very real pain in his ribs now. Even the pizza that his family had gotten later that night, to celebrate Connor being a good sport, and his team going to state, had not made Connor feel any better, nor did the shower that the young teen had taken as soon as he got home.

The pain from Connor's injuries was so great; in fact, that the teenage boy found it hard to go to sleep that night. The blonde-haired young man sighed and pulled his covers off after an hour of tossing and turning in a futile effort to fall asleep. After deciding to bite the bullet and take some painkillers (which Connor avoided whenever possible, due to his aunt Thea's past struggles with addictive substances, which Thea had mentioned to her niece and nephew once), Connor got back and bed and decided to do some reading to pass the time.

At first, the young man reached for one of the philosophy books he had been reading lately, which were on the table by his bed. But then Connor remembered the mysterious papers he had literally stumbled upon earlier that day in the attic. Deciding that looking at the mysterious papers, and perhaps learning a bit about the history of the Queen family or the mansion they lived in, might be a more enjoyable way to spend a sleepless night than reading Kierkegaard or Nietzsche, Connor opened up one of his dresser drawers and pulled out the three large plastic bags he had snagged from the hidden compartment in the attic. After carefully setting the lights in his room to a setting low enough not to wake his sister, or notify his parents he was still up when they got back from their second meeting of the evening, but bright enough for reading, the blonde young man then opened one of the three bags at random as he sat on his bed. Connor then carefully took one of the folded up pieces of paper out of the bag, gently handling the parcel with just his fingertips as he opened it.

The inside of the parcel was yellowed with age, just as the exterior had been, and the ink on the page was slightly faded, so that Connor had to strain his eyes slightly to read the writing on the page in the dim light of his room. Despite the poor lighting in his room, however, Connor's quick mind was able to pick up three things based off what little he could make out on the page before him. One, judging from the format of the paper in front of him, Connor was looking at an old love letter, as indicated by the document beginning with the word "dearest," and ending with the word "love", and the name of a man that Connor had never met, but had heard lots of things about. Second, as was made obvious by the signature at the bottom of the page, the letter had been written by Robert Queen. And, most troubling of all for the young man, Connor saw that his late grandfather had addressed the letter to someone he referred to as "My dearest Isabel."

Connor quickly closed the letter in front of him, and then put it back inside the bag, even as the young man's breathing became slightly erratic and his heart rate increased slightly. However, after forcing himself to take deep breaths and quite his thoughts, a technique his stepmother had taught him years ago to help him when he became anxious, Connor tried to analyze what he had just read (or what little of it he could make out, anyway) as dispassionately as possible. Connor had been hearing rumors about his grandfather from his richer friends as long as he could remember. And a lot of them were bad.

Connor had heard tales that Robert Queen had been a bad man who had been known to fire workers without warning, and cheat them out of their pensions, that he had often put running his business before spending time with his family, and even that Connor's grandfather had been a philanderer that had often cheated on his wife, Moira Queen, while Robert had still been alive. And despite his father, Oliver Queen's, repeated insistences to the contrary, that Robert Queen had been a good, at times even heroic, man, who had simply "made some mistakes" while he was alive, this last rumor of Robert's infidelity, as well as the name at the beginning of Robert's old love letter, Isabel, was making his stomach churn now.

Still, wanting to believe his own father's words that his grandfather had been a good man, and wanting to believe anything other than the theory that had immediately sprung to Connor's mind when reading the first letter, that his grandfather and stepmother had once had an affair, the son of the Arrow immediately started thinking of alternative explanations for what he had just read. Perhaps, the letter that Connor had found had been addressed to a completely different Isabel. And for that matter, while the document in question was clearly a love letter, which had obviously been written by the real Robert Queen, whom Connor had seen many old photos of (Connor had also seen various samples of his grandfather's handwriting over the years, on both official documents, and birthday and Christmas cards the man had addressed to Moira and his children), there was no indication that Connor could see that it had been written after Robert had married Moira. For all Connor knew, Robert might have written these letters to an old girlfriend of his when the late Queen patriarch was just a teenager, or in his early twenties. And maybe Robert had only kept these old love letters to his long ago girlfriend, who had nothing to do with the Isabel Connor now, out of a feeling of harmless nostalgia. Yes, of course. That must have been what these love letters were about.

Connor almost laughed out loud as he calmly put away the bags and letter back into his dresser drawer, then turned off the light and crawled into bed. Connor couldn't help but mentally hit himself for being so foolish as to doubt both his grandfather's, as well as his stepmother's, characters based on such and innocuous, old, and worn document that only had a few words still legible! After all, like Oliver, the Isabel that Connor knew had always stressed the importance of fidelity in relationships, and she would never have had an affair with a married man, even in the time before she had met Oliver! And if Connor's own father's words were to be believed, Robert Queen had been a good man, and good men didn't cheat on their wives! Everybody knew that.

Feeling the painkillers in his system starting to kick in, Connor closed his eyes and turned over in bed so that he could fall asleep. The young man hoped that he would have another dream about Anna, whom Connor hadn't been able to sneak away to see for a while because the Jones' family that had adopted his best friend had recently increased the number of guards around their mansion. Connor smiled as he thought about the girl turned young woman, whom he was becoming surer, as years went by, and the youngest male Queen dated more and more girls, was the only person Connor would ever be in love with. But then Connor's eyes shot open, and his pleasant thoughts about the girl he'd met at Happyfield's Orphanage, all those years ago, a few days after Anna's parents had died in a ski accident, were derailed as a single doubt entered his mind. A single, small doubt that grew bigger and multiplied into multiple doubts as several minutes passed: Why would Robert Queen have kept love letter from a former girlfriend after he married Grandma Moira?

Connor sat up in bed and his eyes widened after one question led to other in the young man's mind. Like, why did Grandpa Robert feel the need to hide the letters in question as carefully as he did, if the content of those letters were completely innocent? Did Robert Queen just not want Moira to be jealous if she found old love letters her husband had written to a former girlfriend, or was there something more going on? Furthermore, the letters Connor found were old, but not that old. If they were written when Robert Queen was still a young man, shouldn't the love letters that Connor's grandfather had written have crumbled to dust by now? And if…if, heaven forbid, the letters Connor had found were evidence that Robert Queen had been unfaithful to his wife, as so many of Connor's friends insisted was the case, how sure was Connor that his stepmother wasn't the Isabel mentioned in grandpa Robert's letters? After all, Connor had heard Isabel mention once that she had been an intern at QC many years before returning and becoming one of the CEOs of the company her and Connor's father, Oliver Queen, still ran. Was it really out of the realm of possibility that Robert Queen and Isabel Rochev could have had an affair back then, years before Isabel had met Oliver Queen?

Connor tried to push these questions down. Tried to roll over, go to sleep, and forget he had ever read that fragment of that accursed love letter, while banishing what the young man had just read to a dark corner of his mind, to be forgotten forever. But it didn't work. And finally, after about another half hour of tossing and turning in his bed, Connor Hawke-Queen's curiosity got the better of him, and he opened his dresser to retrieve the letters and read them. Not letting himself think about it, the young man opened the bags into three neat piles, letting all of the old letters spill out on the desk next to his bed, picked one at random, and, after turning the lights all the way up in his room so he could see better, Connor began to read.

Even with the aid of the full intensity of the fluorescent lighting in his room, Connor wasn't able to see all of the faded words on the page in front of him. But he could make out just enough from the yellowed page in front of him to confirm one of Connors fears as he silently read the second letter, which had been written by a smaller hand that Connor was starting to suspect he was familiar with, which was almost certainly the hand of a female. For this reason, Connor's stomach dropped when he read what he could make out from the contents of the letter, which was this. "My beloved Robert….I still don't think that it was very wise that you instructed….correspondences via letters from now on….Moira might catch us. But I must admit…love letters are very romantic…With all my love, come what may, Isabel."

Connor's felt a little nauseous as he quickly stuck the offending letter, which had a lipstick stain and several X's and O's at the end, back into the bag he had found it in. So it was true then. Grandpa Robert had been having an affair behind Grandma Moira's back, with the "Isabel" named in the letters! Robert Queen was not the good man that Oliver had told his son about; even if the older man had saved Oliver's life off the coast of the island Connor's father had been trapped on for five years.

Connor still believed his father when he said that his grandfather had died for Oliver. But the young man also couldn't help but believe, given the evidence in front of him, that his grandfather had cheated on his grandmother while Robert was still alive. How could both of those things be true? Bad men didn't sacrifice their lives for others. And good men didn't cheat on their wives. So which one had Connor's grandfather been?

Fighting the urge to hyperventilate, and forcing his hands to remain steady, Connor opened another letter to see if he could find some answers to these questions, and also to find out, once and for all, if the "Isabel" that his grandfather had an affair with was really the same Isabel that Connor knew. The Isabel that Connor had considered his second mom since he was five, while his birth mother, Sandra Hawk, had passed away when Connor was a year old. Connor wasn't sure if he would like the answers to any of his questions, but he needed to know them all the same, so he pressed on. It seemed that each letter had slightly more legible ink than the last, and had more and more (thankfully, non-graphic) details about the affair between Robert Queen and the Isabel the older man had written to.

By the time Connor was halfway through "Isabel's" next letter, which, as far as he could tell, read…"Dearest Robert. .I'm not sure I can do this anymore…Moira knows. I can tell by the way she looks at me whenever she comes to the office….from accounting called me…whore. And…I feel like one…makes me feel so guilty! Besides, I don't want to be….secret. I want to be your wife!...love you so much, but I don't think I can do this anymore….give me another assignment in the company. I don't care where. If…I won't be able to resist…hurts too much to be your secret love… And you deserve better than your marriage to your shrewish wife, with her…bastard….Deserve…completely devoted to you, like I am. But…Regretfully yours, Isabel."

Connor knew he really shouldn't be reading these letters. But the young man's curiosity kept getting the better of him, and he kept reading every grisly detail he could find about his late grandfather's adulterous relationship with a coworker named Isabel. These details were like roadkill, or a bad soap opera. Horrible to gaze upon, but Connor couldn't force himself to look away.

So, Connor read another letter. And another. Frustratingly, however, most of the letters just contained sentimental, and disturbing, nonsense. Exchanging I love you's. Some crap about Robert Queen and the Isabel in the letters being "soulmates." One long, stupid rationalization of their affair after another, chief among them, Thea being Malcolm Merlyn's illegitimate child (a fact that Connor had known about for years, thanks to some careless words let loose from the mouth of the Dark Archer on the Christmas after Connor turned six). In point of fact, his late grandfather's and the old man's former mistress's flimsy justifications for their torrid affair only made Connor angrier at Robert Queen and the Isabel in the letters. In Connor's eyes, they were both clearly bad people, lower than pond scum, for cheating, or taking part in said cheating. But neither Robert, nor "Isabel", had even had the guts to admit that much to themselves. Well, maybe the Isabel in the letters did. She, at least, had seemed guilty about the affair, and had expressed a desire to end it at one point.

Then Connor stumbled upon a slightly more interesting letter. This letter was clearly Robert's reply to "Isabel's" lament that she did not want to be his mistress anymore. As Connor read the reply, he briefly wondered why that previous letter had been near the middle of the first bag, and the reply to it was near the back of the third one, when all the other letters had been neatly sorted in the order they had been sent or received. Connor shrugged as he read his late grandfather's reply to his former mistress's misgivings. Maybe his grandfather had nearly been caught looking at these letters, and had been forced to put one of "Isabel's" letters away quickly, in a haphazard manner, shortly before Robert Queen had died? Connor supposed he would never know. What mattered were the very interesting contents of the letter in Connor's hand, which were almost completely legible, and read. "My dearest soulmate, Isabel Rochev. Please withdraw your request for a transfer for a different department of QC. I can't live without you! You are right that I have been treating you poorly….these months. I'm sorry that we've had to keep our relationship a secret, and that the gossip…has been hurtful. I'm also sorry that our relationship had to start as an affair, and the ways that relationship has hurt the mother of my children. But I need to face…my marriage to that woman is over. So let us run away together, you and I. We'll work out the details about how I can continue to be a good father to my children while getting divorced from Moira, later. Right now though, I just want us to take a much needed vacation and give you my undivided attention in a tropical paradise somewhere. You pick the place, I'll bring the plane tickets. Let me give you the "happily ever after" a hard-working princess like you deserves. And in time, we will see about making you my wife. Love, your soulmate, Robert Queen."

Connor's fists clenched into fists as yet another hard truth that he's already strongly suspected was confirmed. The same Isabel who had been having an affair with Connor's grandfather, who had referred to Robert Queen as her "soulmate" several times in her letters, and whom Robert Queen had, at one time, been willing to leave his wife for, was also the Isabel that Connor had known most of his life. The same Isabel who had latter married Connor's father, Oliver, Robert's son (it was honestly that part of all of this that made Connor want to throw up the most), and that Connor had considered his mom since he was five.

Connor shook his head as another dichotomy entered his thoughts. The young man now had irrefutable proof that his stepmother had an affair with his grandpa Robert, years before she met Oliver Queen. And that past affair, according to the very values that Isabel Rochev-Queen had helped Oliver teach Connor, made Isabel a bad person. And yet…

The Isabel in those letters had also hugged Connor on the first day she had met her husband's (then boyfriend's) son. The Isabel in those letters had always been kind to Connor, had told him she loved him, and allowed him to call her mom for years, and stuck up for her stepson whenever she thought that his teachers, Grandma Moira, or even Oliver Queen, was being too hard on the youngest male Queen. And during his earlier years, Connor remembered, Isabel had often read him bedtime stories, then kissed him on the forehead and told him to fall asleep at bedtime. The Isabel Connor knew was also a great mom to Natasha, and, along with Oliver, spent as much time with her "special needs" child as her duties as a co-CEO would allow.

Furthermore, much as Connor hated to admit it just now, he knew Isabel really loved his father. Anyone who watched Oliver and Isabel interact for more than five minutes could see that much. Even when Connor's stepmother and father where attending a formal and/or public event, the two of them couldn't stop looking at each other with love in their eyes. And at home, in private, Oliver and Isabel could often be found hugging, kissing, or otherwise fondling each other. Even, much to Connor's chagrin, right in front of him and Natasha sometimes. Furthermore, despite Oliver and Isabel's attempts to be quiet during intimate moments, at least when their children were in the house, Connor could often hear the faint sound of laughter coming from his parents….his dad and stepmom's room at night.

Connor sighed as his fist continued to clench so hard in anger that his hands started to bleed, even as his eyes filled with tears of sadness from being burdened with the hard truths he had just learned about his grandfather and moth…step-mother's, past actions. And if learning that Grandpa Robert had been an adulterer had been hard, learning that Isabel had participated was even worse. Because Connor knew for a fact, based on her actions over the years, that Isabel had been a good mother/mother figure to Natasha and himself, that she was a good wife, who loved Oliver very much, and that Isabel was also a good friend to Connor's aunt Thea, aunties Laurel, Sara, and Felicity, and uncles John Diggle and Tommy Merlyn. And Connor just couldn't reconcile those two competing pictures of his stepmom. The Isabel in his grandfather's letters was an evil adulterous. But the Isabel who Connor had known all of his life and loved like his own mom, was a good person, mother-figure, wife, and friend. Yet somehow, both of those Isabel's were the same person. And Connor had no idea how to handle that.

The last letter from Isabel, which Connor read though his tears, only added to his confusion. Coincidentally, this letter had tear stains all over it. Due to both the water that smudged the ink on the page, and the age of the ink, Connor was only able to read a small portion of the letter, which had originally been several paragraphs long. "Robert…I don't know why….cruelly cast aside after …run away together…Here are all the letters you…sent me…don't blame you…blame your family….keeping you from me…but I forgive you…won't change my number…can call me if…change your mind. "

But the last paragraph of the final letter was somehow still completely legible, and even through the tears in his eyes, Connor's morbid curiosity pushed him to read the whole thing. "I can only guess that you had a sudden attack of conscience. That abominable enemy of yours that keeps punishing you for complete accidents like what happened at the foundry that day, or financial necessities like laying off the workers at that same location, years later. But I would have hoped by now that you would have seen the truth of the words that were in that book you let me borrow once. The one that I always thought explained our relationship quite well. "What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil." I love you, and you love me. That is the only truth that matters to me. Come back to me, my love, and break away from the people who are holding you back from being happy with me. I will wait for you until the day one of us dies.. Unrepentantly yours, Isabel."

Connor didn't just put that letter away. Rather, he tore it to pieces with his bare hands. It was now clear to Connor that, whatever the circumstances of their parting, his stepmother had once been in love with his grandfather. Finally after a full minute of crying, hitting his bed, and clenching his fists, Connor was able to pull himself together when he heard the front door of the Queen mansion opening as his pare…his dad and stepmom, returned from the late night meeting at QC they had gone to immediately after they had dropped Connor and Natasha off at home. After the two adults started talking to each other. Connor raced to his bedroom door to spy on his par…dad and stepmom, with the aid of a voice amplification device Bruce Wayne had given him for one of his birthdays, while resolving himself to tell his father about Isabel's dark history with his grandfather the first chance he got, as soon as Oliver Queen was alone.

"Dad deserves to know the truth", Connor quietly told himself, even as he opened his door a crack to spy on Oliver and Isabel downstairs, the former of which Connor could now hear talking. "I shouldn't have let those foreign dignitaries make me eat all that food at the board meeting, Isabel! Especially right after we had pizza with Connor and Natasha!" The blonde man sighed heavily and patted his stomach, which Connor just now noticed was a little bigger than usual, but definitely didn't qualify as a belly. "I think I've gained five pounds in the last week! And even though I'm keeping up with my training, I don't know…this body of mine just can't seem to keep the pounds off like it used to. I'm sorry that you have such a fat husband, Isabel."

Isabel huffed, and even though Connor could only see the back of her head from his current vantage point, Connor knew his stepmother was probably rolling her eyes right now. "Don't be ridiculous, Oliver! Connor's team is going to state, and that was worth a pizza celebration! And it was important for you to eat the meal those Chinese delegates paid for so that we didn't offend them. QC needs to continue to do business with that country. And damn it, Oliver! You are not fat! For heaven's sake, you still have a six pack!"

Oliver shrugged. "It's not as chiseled as it used to be. And I have gained weight lately, I can tell."

Isabel huffed again as she squeezed Oliver's still pretty ripped stomach. "Maybe a little. But you're still sexy. And you've only gained two pounds, three, tops! You're still in excellent shape. You're just getting a little older, that's all…" Even from the top of the stairs, Connor could hear the undercurrent of fear in his stepmom's voice, the tone that was always present when she referenced the fact that Oliver, unlike her, was still ageing, or when she found evidence for that fact, such as one of Oliver's hairs turning gray. "And with crime at an all-time low in Starling lately, Team Arrow hasn't had to go on patrol as much, so you've had less physical activity than usual. Plus, work has been keeping us both super busy lately. Oliver! So it's excusable that you would gain a few pounds during a stressful time like this. As long as you don't become overweight, or too unfit to be in the field, I'm not going to worry about your weight, and you shouldn't either!"

Oliver kissed his wife, and Connor found himself making a disgusted face and looking away from the scene, for more than just the usual reason, but he could still hear his dad's voice through the device the boy was holding in his hand when Oliver spoke over a minute later. "Whatever did I do before I met you, Isabel?! It's moments like these I realize how much I need you all over again. I love you so much! But...maybe it's time for me to start eating more sensibly. Less Big Belly Burger, and more of those salads that you usually have at lunch time."

Connor twitched a little as he heard the joy and care in Isabel's reply to his father's words. "Well, I certainly won't say no to you trying to eat healthier, and I will definitely help you with that! I want you around as long as possible, after all. I…I love you so much, and…I don't know what I would do…what I will do, without you, Oliver…"

Connor turned the gadget in his hands off after he heard his stepmother start crying, then sighed heavily as he shook his head. Who was he kidding? Connor knew his father loved Isabel, and needed his wife in his life. Furthermore, for all of her past transgressions, it was now doubly clear, from where Connor was sitting, that his stepmother really did love his father. For these reasons, Connor decided that he no longer felt it would be right to tell his father about Isabel's past relationship to Robert Queen, and risk sabotaging a relationship that Connor knew was one of the few sources of happiness in his father's life.

Connor felt a knot grow in his stomach. He didn't like keeping secrets. He never had. In fact, it had taken years for Connor to grow comfortable enough to lie without guilt about his family's secret identities as members of team Arrow. But in Connor's mind, the secret of Isabel's past sordid relationship to his grandfather was an even bigger one. One that it was already tearing Connor up inside to keep.

It wasn't fair, Connor decided, that he would have to be the one to carry the burden of this secret. Because the young man had no idea how he was going to keep evidence of such and important, and potentially devastating, relationship to himself. So lost was Connor in his own thoughts that he barely heard Isabel, who had apparently gone upstairs already to go to bed with Oliver, calling out to him from the hallway. "Connor? Are you still up?"

Connor cursed himself for leaving the light in his room on after reading his grandfather and Isabel's letters. Connor immediately started putting the letters, and the plastic bags they had come in, back inside his dresser, including the letter he had torn up. At the same time, the tall, muscular young man leaned his free arm against the door to his bedroom, in case Isabel tried to open the door before Connor had removed the evidence that he knew of his stepmom's past misdeeds. But to prevent that from happening, Connor called out to his stepmom. "Yeah, I'm actually getting ready for bed right now. So please don't come in."

Isabel's reply came back from the other side of the door. "Of course I'll respect your privacy, Connor. But I'm glad you're getting ready for bed now. I know Saturday night is still the weekend and everything, but I'm sure your body needs rest after that horrid football practice you just had."

"Yeah." Connor said, with an angry edge he couldn't keep out of his voice as he finished putting the papers away and closing the drawer. "About that. I don't feel like playing sports anymore." Realizing his friends on the team would be let down if he didn't play next week, Connor added. "At least after next week. Sports suck. Everything sucks!"

Isabel sighed on the other end of the door. "Don't you think you're being a little dramatic, Connor? I understand if you don't want to play football anymore. And I can help you tell your father that later. Personally, I'm relieved you don't want to participate in a game as violent and dangerous as football! Your dad and I do worry about you when you're on the field sometimes. But physical fitness is important, and you should probably pick another sport to try out for next year instead. Especially if you want to be in good enough shape to keep training with me and your father to be a vigilante someday. Maybe you could try out for something less violent, like basketball, or track…"

"I said I don't want to play sports anymore! Get off my back, Isabel!"

By this point, Connor was back in his bed, reading, or at least trying to read, a random book he had pulled off his nightstand, so he couldn't stop Isabel when she said. "Get dressed quickly. I'm coming in!" Then, after waiting thirty seconds, Isabel opened Connor's bedroom door.

Connor continued to pretend to read from the book in his hands, but out of the corner of his eyes, Connor saw his stepmom looking at him with a concerned expression on her face, not even noticing the book her stepson was reading as she did so. "You never talk to me like that. And you're always telling me that you love the rush you get from participating in sports. What's really wrong, Connor? Are things not going well for you at school, or is this still about not being allowed to see, Anna? I'm sorry Connor, your father and I have talked to the Jones' a bunch of times about their daughter over these last two years, but they won't budge on their policy not to let you see her…"

Connor shook his head. "I told you, Isabel, I'm fine! I'm getting straight A's in school, as usual, and things with Anna, well…they're no worse than usual. Just leave me alone. I want to do a little light reading before going to sleep."

"Fine, Connor. But I do want you to tell me what's really bothering you in the morning. And why you're suddenly calling me 'Isabel.' You've been calling me mom since you were six years old!"

Connor shrugged, and then spat out, in a voice laced with venom. "But you're not my mother, are you, Isabel!?"

Connor felt bad for the words immediately after they came out of his mouth, and he had to bite his tongue and remind himself what Isabel had done in the past to keep himself from apologizing when he saw the expression on Isabel's face, which was full of hurt, concern, worry, and pure, maternal love for his own person. "No…you're right. I'm not your biological mother, Connor. I just thought that….never mind. Try not to stay up too late. And if you ever need to talk about anything, just know that your father and I are both here for you. Good night."

Connor pretended to look back down at his book, to hide the fact that he was hanging his head down in shame for having hurt someone who had loved him like her own son for almost as long as he could remember. As Connor attempted to distract himself from his guilt however, he realized that he was currently holding the copy of "Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil" that he had borrowed from his late grandfather's personal library last week. And as luck would have, Connor had randomly opened the book to a page where his grandfather had highlighted a single sentence in yellow marker, and placed a yellow question mark at the end. A single sentence that Connor instantly recognized from what he assumed was the last letter Isabel had written his late grandfather before Robert Queen had died. "That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil."

"Where did you get that book!?" Too late, Connor realized that he had read the offending sentence aloud, while his stepmother had still been close enough to his room to hear his voice, and Isabel had responded by walking back into his room with a frown on her face. Connor looked up from the book towards his stepmom, who Connor now noticed was looking at the book in his hands with a worried look on her face.

Connor quickly schooled his features into a stoic mask, as he'd seen his dad do many times before. "From my grandpa's old library. Why?"

Isabel continued to frown, while looking at the book in her stepson's hands, for several seconds, before she shook her head and said. "No reason, Just…be careful while reading that book, Connor. Some of the ideas expressed in it are…a bit radical for my taste. Like that quote you just read, for example."

Connor shrugged.. "I guess. So you don't agree with Nietzsche then? About things done out of love being beyond good and evil?"

Isabel sighed and sat down in front of the desk that was next to Connor's bed. "I used to. When I was younger and really, really naïve. I'm not sure I really understood back then, or if I understand now, what that philosopher actually meant by those words, though. All I know now, after having a bit more life experience, is that people always have to be mindful of the potential consequence of their actions, no matter what their motives are. Otherwise, it can be very easy to unintentionally hurt people when someone does what they think is the 'wrong thing for the right reasons.' Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Connor wouldn't look Isabel in the eye as he nodded. "Yeah, I think I understand just fine."

Isabel chuckled. "Of course you do. You've always had a better head for philosophy than I did. Well, good night, Connor. I love you."

Isabel then tried to hug her stepson, but Connor quickly drew his body away from her, as if being burned. Isabel then sighed and said, with a sad look in her eyes. "Good night, Connor."

Isabel then stood up and walked out of Connor's bed room, shutting the door behind her while saying. "Try to get some sleep."

After trying and failing to focus on reading to distract himself from the hard truth he had just learned, Connor sighed, turned off his room light, and tried to sleep. But it took several more hours of tossing and turning with a grimace on his face before the young man wore himself out enough to fall asleep. And when Connor did finally manage to become unconscious, he did so with tears coming out of his eyes as he dreamt of his grandfather and stepmother kissing and laughing behind grandma Moira's back, among other things.

The next day was worse that the last for Connor, and it started with his alarm, which he had accidentally turned on last night, going off at six in the morning. Connor groaned and slammed his fist down to stop the alarm before it could wake up the rest of his family on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Connor was unable to fall back asleep after that, as his nightmares about his stepmom and his grandfather being together, some of which were a bit more graphic than Connor would have liked, kept replaying in his mind, filling the young man with disgust and anxiety. So, after trying and failing to go back to sleep for fifteen minutes, Connor decided to get ready for his day. After suffering through a shower that didn't make him feel the least bit better, then tidying himself up, Connor went downstairs to watch television.

Connor tried finding something good on by channel surfing. But to Connor's dismay, he found that every time he changed that channel, he would find something that reminded him of the disturbing family secret he had stumbled upon the day before.

CLICK! The image of a gray-haired, bearded man, slightly resembling Connor's grandfather, appeared onscreen. The older man was kissing a younger, brown-haired woman in an ad for a pill that promised to cure erectile dysfunction. Connor quickly swallowed the bile in his throat at the image of Isabel and Robert Queen making out this created in the young man's mind, and Connor quickly changed the channel. But…

CLICK! The image of another brown-haired woman, this one with hazel eyes, appeared on screen. Connor's eyes widened. On the screen, the half-clothed brunette woman, who was saying something about nuclear power cells, hardware and software that Connor didn't have enough context to understand, while a young man appeared to be reaching towards her chest, was the spitting image of Isabel. In fact, if Connor didn't know better, and if the woman on the television didn't look slightly younger than his stepmom, the young man would have sworn that brunette speaking in a monotone voice about something related to cancer was Isabel's long-lost twin! Since Connor really didn't want to think about his mom…stepmom, right now, he quickly changed the channel again.

CLICK! To another image of a couple, a younger one this time, on what appeared to be an episode of one of the soap operas that his grandmother would watch in front of him from time to time. The married couple on the show, a man with gray eyes, and a woman with hazel orbs, neither of which Connor had ever bothered to remember the names of, were yelling at each other. The gray-eyed man was currently pointing an accusing finger at his wife as he said. "How could you cheat on me with my own father?!" By the time the hazel-eyed woman had a chance to finish her reply, some nonsense about "He understands me and…" Connor was already reaching for the remote. .But…

CLICK! Someone had already beaten Connor to it, and turned the TV off entirely. Connor turned around to thank whomever had saved him from having to watch another second of the mindless drivel that his grandmother called television…but he was stunned into silence instead when he was met with the sight of the last person he wanted to see right now. Isabel, having no clue that her stepson found her presence in the room offensive right now, smiled down at Connor, from her position standing behind the living room couch. "And that's enough of that! Honestly, Connor, I don't know why your grandmother watches that program, but you really shouldn't subject yourself to that crappy show when you don't have to! Besides, it's a beautiful day outside! If you're going to get up this early on a Sunday, you should be…I don't know, playing basketball in the park or something. Or you could join your father and I on our early morning run, if you want! You're usually not up in time to join us, but I'm sure you could keep up! Hell, with your conditioning for football, you may even be able to outrun your dad and me!"

Connor looked down, avoiding eye contact with his step-mom at all cost, since seeing her this morning was bringing back memories of the horrific and explicit nightmare he'd been having until an hour ago. "Actually, football practice really tired me out last night, and I'm still a little sore. So is it okay if I just stay home and play video games instead?"

Isabel frowned in concern. "Of course, Connor! And we can talk about last night later, if you want. If you need to rest, you should rest. I knew that glory hound coach of yours was pushing you too hard last night! But if you still don't want me to give him a piece of my mind…"

Connor scoffed. "That's really not necessary. I'm fine."

Isabel nodded. "Alright then, I won't say anything…as long as you, or another one of the boys on your team, don't get seriously hurt. I'm sorry you're still sore from practice though. Do you need an ice pack for your ribs? Or maybe some painkillers and a glass of ice water? Or maybe…"

Connor turned towards Isabel just long enough to shoot his step-mom a glare. "Damn it, Isabel! I said I'm fine! Like I said last night, you're not my mom! So you can stop with the whole overprotective mother act and leave me the hell alone now, alright!"

Connor hated himself as a concerned, hurt look appeared in Isabel's eyes as she shook her head in disappointment and sighed. "I'm going to assume that was your pain talking, Connor, because you never talk to me like that! So I'm going to let your disrespectful words from last night and this morning slide this time, and not tell your father you cursed me out. But don't push it! Oliver and I are going to take Natasha to the park with us after our run. You can come with us, if you want, if you can promise to be more respectful for the rest of the day."

Connor shrugged, refusing to make eye contact with Isabel again as he picked up a videogame controller and turned on his console of choice to play a game. "Actually, I'm really sore and tired, Isabel. I would rather just stay home all day."

Isabel sighed again, then nodded. "Suit yourself. I hope your feel better soon. Enjoy your videogames." Connor looked up just quickly enough to see that Isabel had a disappointed look on her face as she left the room.

Connor played videogames the rest of the morning, only acknowledging his family (one of whom was a liar and cheat, another of whom had been duped into marrying a woman who'd had an affair with his father in the past, and the third of which had been conceived in an unholy union between the first two) with a nod and a half-hearted wave of his hands, when they all left the house a couple hours later to go to the park. Or rather, Connor tried to play videogames, but he kept losing because he couldn't concentrate with so much on his mind. Specifically, Connor couldn't help but wonder two things. One, if he really should tell his dad about what he knew about Isabel and Grandpa Robert. And two, if Natasha had known about the letters in the attic somehow. After all, she had apologized to him about something just before Connor had found the letters. Was it possible Natasha already knew about her mom's previous affair with her and Connor's paternal grandfather?

Finally, after several hours of Connor failing badly at every video game he played that day, Connor heard his dad, little sister, and Isabel enter through the front door of the Queen mansion.

"Connor, we're home!" Oliver called out, before Natasha loudly lied that she's had a vision that Connor' was upstairs, sleeping off his injuries from the night before, and he should be allowed to rest. Even so, Isabel, Oliver, and Natasha continued talking and laughing as they entered their home. Isabel, in particular, was laughing the hardest, as she exclaimed, in a voice just loud for Connor to hear in the living room. "Natasha, it wasn't nice for you to tell that mime in the park that he wasn't good at his job!"

"I didn't say that, mommy!" Connor heard his little sister protest. "I just said that he would make a better clown than a mime! I saw it in a vision! That man is going to be bigger than Bozo!"

Oliver laughed. "Where does our daughter learn about these things, Isabel? Little Nat is far too young to know who Bozo was!"

By this point, Connor had snuck closer to the front of the house, so he could hear his dad's next words to his daughter, which were not that loud. "You're remarkable, you know that!?"

Natasha just smiled at her dad as Oliver turned towards Isabel and shrugged. "I don't know, Isabel. It doesn't sound like our little girl said anything wrong today!"

Isabel rolled her eyes. "Of course you think that, Oliver! You're way too soft on our daughter, you always have been!"

Natasha smiled. "That's because I'm daddy's little princess!"

Isabel chuckled. "Alright then, princess! Fun time's over for today! It's time for you to go upstairs and practice your magic lessons, like Mr. Constantine taught you."

Natasha sighed and looked right at her father with puppy dog eyes. "Do I have to, daddy? Uncle John's lessons are so boring! He won't let me do any of the exciting spells yet, and I've already mastered the easier hexes and cures. Can't I skip spell practice today?"

Oliver's frowned, and Connor thought he might give into his daughter's pleading, until Isabel gave him a look that said, "Don't you dare undermine me in front of our daughter". So Oliver shook his head instead, then told Natasha that: "You heard what your mom said! Listen to your mother, and go practice your magic lessons until we call you downstairs for dinner! And if you're really good the whole rest of the day, you can have ice cream after dinner, too!'

"Yay! I love ice cream!" Natasha briefly hugged her dad, and then ran up the stairs to go to her room. The little girl only took a moment of that time to shoot Connor (for she was the only one in the house who had noticed that Connor was spying on his family) a glance that the older boy could have sworn was a sad, apologetic one, before she disappeared up the stairs.

Isabel sighed and shook her head at her husband. "Honestly, Oliver, our little girl really does have you wrapped around her finger! That's the third time this week you've promised her ice cream in exchange for good behavior!"

Oliver shrugged. "What can I say? It got her to do what we wanted, didn't it?! And I only promise that when Natasha is focused and happy, which she so often isn't, due to her abilities. I want our daughter to enjoy the time that her advanced mind allows her to be present with her family!"

Isabel sighed and nodded. Natasha's visions had been distracting the little girl a lot more often lately, and long periods of lucidity and emotion, like Natasha had been experiencing for the last couple of days, were sadly, all too rare for the little girl. So Isabel could understand her husband being so forgiving of Natasha when she acted out, and wanting to spoil their daughter when the young girl was actually able to live in the present moment.

"Besides," Oliver added while Isabel was still thinking. "When she's fully awake, Little Nat's always running around, burning calories. So it's not like a little ice cream now and then will hurt her, or anything! And I'm not going to be eating any ice cream myself this time! I promised you I was going to eat better from now on, and I meant it."

Isabel frowned. "And I'm happy about that, but neither your eating habits, not Natasha's tendency to run around as fast as a hummingbird flies when she's not caught up in her visions of the past and future, are the point, and you know it! I know you love our daughter as much as I do, and we both want Natasha to be happy in the moments that are possible, but bribery isn't a good parenting technique! I just don't want our daughter to get too spoiled!"

Oliver sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have promised Natasha ice cream without asking you first. We'll figure something else out next time we need Natasha to do something."

Isabel smiled at her husband, then gave him a quick kiss while squeezing Oliver's abs, a sight that made Connor want to throw up as his traitorous mind wondered if his step-mother had ever done something like that to his grandfather. A second later after pulling away from her husband's lips, Isabel said, with a sly grin on her face. "But…since you did offer Natasha ice cream for dessert tonight, it's only fair we give Connor some too, right?"

Oliver shook his head. "I don't know, Isabel. From what I've seen, Connor hasn't been very sociable all day. He's barely said two words to his family today, and he wouldn't even go to the park with us on our family outing! Plus, he's calling you 'Isabel' instead of 'mom' all of the sudden, and he just seems…"Oliver shrugged. "Moody, I guess, since last night. Do we really want to reward that kind of anti-social behavior?"

Isabel rolled her eyes. "Please, Connor's a teenager! It's normal for him to want to be alone and keep to himself sometimes! Hell, compared to you or me when we were growing up, Connor's practically been a saint his whole life. He was overdue for a little bout of teenage attitude, to be honest. It's just a phase, Oliver! Connor's a good ki…young man. He deserves the benefit of a doubt from us, and if his next few football practices are as rough as yesterdays, he's going to need all the energy he can get from food for the rest of this week anyway! "

Oliver smiled. "I guess you have a point there. Of course…you always have gone easy on Connor whenever he messes up."

Isabel shrugged. "What can I say? I love our son. He's a very sweet little boy…I mean, young man. He has been since the day I first met him at the orphanage, which is why…" Isabel sighed and admitted. " Maybe I have been a bit easy on Connor since he accepted me as his second mom when he was six.. In fact, I think Connor's too sweet to be playing football. You know how much Connor is afraid to hurt someone on the field, even to push them out of the way for a play. Maybe he should try out for a less violent sport next year. Track, maybe. We can train him to grow out of his reluctance to hit people in a safer setting during his vigilante training."

Oliver chuckled. "We can talk about football later. But let's face it, you spoil and overprotect Connor as much as I spoil and overprotect Natasha!"

Isabel blushed in embarrassment. "I guess that's true. I suppose we'll have to keep each other in check in the parent department then, to make sure neither of our children becomes too spoiled!"

Oliver smiled. "I guess so. In the meantime, Mrs. Queen, since Connor's still resting up from yesterday, and Natasha's busy studying in her room, I was hoping maybe we could stop being parents for five minutes and start acting like a married couple again?"

Connor made a disgusted face and turned away when Oliver touched Isabel's thigh, just before Isabel replied in a seductive tone of voice. "I would like that Mr. Queen, but we'll need at least an hour for what I have in mind…"

While Oliver and Isabel's eyes naturally closed as they made out for the next couple of minutes, Connor took the chance to silently dash up the stairs and into his room. He had already seen too much of his dad and stepmom's displays of affection today.. He really didn't want to see anymore. Especially not with the knowledge of Isabel and Robert's past affair rattling around in his head.

Only five minutes after entering his room, however, Connor's thoughts were interrupted by the familiar sound of a small fist knocking on his bedroom door. "Go away, Nat!"….

"Not until you let me in!" Natasha whispered. "I need to talk to you! It's about mom!"

"Isabel, you mean?!" Connor growled, but got up and opened the door to his room anyway. "What do you want, Natasha!?"

Connor tried to block the entrance to his room with his arms, but Natasha laughed and ducked under her older brother's right arm while running into the room. Connor grimaced when Natasha jumped backwards and plopped herself down on Connor's bed, spreading her arms and legs as far out as she could, "Why are you being so mean, Connor!? You only call me Natasha when you're mad at me!"

Connor shook his head and sighed at his sister's attempts to keep him off his own bed.. "I'm sorry. I won't call you Natasha, again. Now, move it magic midget!"

Connor pushed his little sister off his bed and lied down on the mattress himself. But Natasha's body remained floating above Connor's bedroom floor instead of crashing unceremoniously to the ground, so the little girl in question ended up sticking her tongue out at Connor rather than crying out in pain. "Meanie! That fall could have really hurt! I should hex you for that!"

Connor shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Please! We both know, puppy dog eyes or not, dad and Isabel would ground you pretty much forever if you put a hex on me! Besides, I've watched some of your lessons with Mr. Constantine. You're getting pretty good at that spell stuff, so I knew you'd be able to catch yourself in the air…"

Natasha looked thoughtful for a moment before a vindictive smirk appeared on her face. Then, with a wave of her hand, Connor found himself pushed to the far side of the bed, against his bedroom wall, although his head stopped and inch form hitting the wall before Natasha's tiny body landed on the side of the bed closest to the door. "Hey!" Connor yelled in frustration, but smiled a little, because he knew Natasha was only paying him back for pushing her off his bed.

The two fully clothed sibling just laid there in comfortable silence for a moment, not touching each other at all, as they had done many a night when Natasha's dream or visions got too scary for her to want to alone. After a time, Natasha, whose head was now resting near the foot of the bed, while her brother's head was on his pillow near the headboard, laughed and said. "You know, it's a good thing I'm good at spells too, or your head would have gone through that wall instead of stopping in front of it!" When Connor only harrumphed in reply, Natasha put a more serious look on her face and said. "I know what you found in the attic last night, big brother. I know what you found out about mom and grandpa"

Connor gave his sister an angry look. "How long have you known?!"

Natasha looked away from her older brother. "I don't have grandpa's memories, so I only knew about the letters in the attic after I had a vision there yesterday afternoon, after you caught me playing with the cape…I mean, your jersey. I wanted to stop you from breaking that floorboard after that, I really did, but the voices in my head wouldn't let me! They said that's not what happens! That you would find those letters! That's not what I wanted to happen, but that's just how it goes! How it has to go! Do you understand!?"

Connor sighed. "Not really, Nat, but…I know your visions aren't always under your control. That you can't always change the futures you see. So I don't blame you for not stopping me from finding out…what I did. Even though I really, really wish I still didn't know about that…you know. But that wasn't the question I was asking. I meant, how long have you known…"

"That mommy had an affair with grandpa before she met daddy? I've always known."

Connor grimaced. "What do you mean, you've always known?"

Natasha rubbed her thumb and forefinger together, and watched her right hand as she did so, even as she spoke. "I mean that, ever since I became conscious inside mommy, I already had all of her and daddy's memories. I try not to focus on them too much, or I can forget who I am for a while. And I especially don't like to think about some of our parent's more private and/or awkward memories, and I've learned to block those kinds of memories from my conscious awareness over the years, but…I've always known about mom's affair with grand.."

"Isabel's." Connor quickly interrupted Natasha.

Natasha gave her brother a confused look. "What?"

"Isabel's affair with grandpa. Not mom's." Connor clarified. "Isabel's your mom, not mine! She's only my step-mom!"

Natasha glared at her brother. "So I guess I'm only your half-sister, then?!"

The little girl huffed, then stood up from the bed, not making eye contact with Connor at all as she clenched her fist and began breathing heavily. Right then, Connor knew that he had said the wrong thing. That bringing up the fact that him and Natasha had different biological mothers in such a rude, blunt fashion was already starting to drive a wedge in between him and his sister, whom Connor loved a lot, and would die to protect, even if she could be weird, or a bit of a pest, at times. So the young man sighed as he sat up on the edge of the bed. "Nat, you know I didn't mean it like that! I'm mad at Isabel and grandpa for what they did. Especially since Isabel had the audacity to marry our dad after being our grandpa's lover in the past! But I'm not angry at you! Just because I don't consider Isabel my mom anymore doesn't mean I love you, my sister, any less!"

Natasha still wouldn't make eye contact with her older brother as she crossed her arms. "You can't have it both ways, Connor! Isabel is my mom! So if you don't think much of her, you can't think much of me, either!"

Connor shook his head. "That's not true! You have nothing to do with what happ…"

Natasha turned and glared at her brother, and several objects in the room, including some of Connor's sports trophies and academic awards, started to shake due to a bout of uncontrolled telekinesis from the young girl. "I have everything to do with that! Mommy wouldn't even have met daddy if she and grandpa hadn't…done what they did." Natasha sighed and shook her head, and the objects in the room became still again as she added. "I wish you could see time like I can, Connor. The good decisions, and the bad ones, they're all connected! Each choice is built on all the ones made before it, and influences all the choices that are made, that even become possible, later! And all of those choices led to you and I being here, living at our family's home with mommy and daddy, now!"

Connor snorted and shook his head as he got off the bed, then crossed his arms in front of his chest. "So, what? You're saying that everything is predetermined, and that makes what Isabel and grandpa did, okay?!"'

Natasha shook her head. "No. Very little is predetermined. There aren't that many fixed moments in time. And I'm not saying that…what happened was okay. And mommy knows that, Connor. Even before I was born, mom knew her affair with Grandpa Robert had been wrong, and she was so ashamed of what happened that she has been lying to herself about never having had…" Natasha coughed. "Certain feelings for Grandpa Robert. Please don't make me spell that out."

Connor's face quickly turned the same sickly green tone that Natasha's visage was already sporting when he realized that his sister meant that their mo…Isabel, had been lying to herself for years about having been in love with his and Natasha's grandfather at one point. "Gross! I didn't need to know that!"

Natasha sighed. "Imagine how I feel! I know a lot more about daddy and mommy then I want to. But like I said, I can block their memories out, most of the time. The point is, no, what mom and grandpa did, years ago, wasn't right. But the chain of events that affair set in motion made it possible for mommy to meet daddy, for our grandma to survive the assassination attempt of a bad man named Slade Wilson, and still be alive today, for dad to find you before you were out of your teens, and of course…." Natasha pointed to herself and smiled. "For me to be born. That's why I forgave mommy and daddy for their bad choices a long time ago. Not only are they both sorry for those choices, but without them, our family wouldn't even exist! And you need to forgive mommy too! Just like daddy did a bit after he found out about…"

Connor's fists clenched before he screamed loud enough that Connor would later realize, in retrospect, his parents really should have been able to hear, but apparently, had been too…busy, to do so. "You mean he knew?! Our father knew that Isabel had slept with Grandpa Robert, his own father, in the past, and he still choose to marry her?! He had no right to forgive Isabel for that, much less marry her or…."

"Have a child with her?!" Natasha glared at Connor, daring him to answer her. "Is that what you were going to say, Connor?! That daddy and mommy shouldn't have had me!? That I should never have been born?!"

Connor shook his head, but couldn't find a way to answer his little sister without contradicting himself, or hurting Natasha's feelings, so he eventually settled on "What I'm saying, little Nat, is that this entire family is built on lies, and I hate dad and Isabel for that!" Connor punched the nearest inanimate object in front of him, which just so happened to be a portrait of the Queen family on his nightstand, and the glass frame shattered into a thousand pieces before it hit the floor.

Natasha looked down at the broken picture, then silently started crying. "And you hate me, just a little, don't you Connor, for being mom and dad's daughter? After all, there is no me, without them! That's okay, big brother, I love you anyway, even if you are being really stupid and mean right now! Excuse me, I think I need to go away for a while, until you stop being a jerk!"

With that, Natasha quickly left the room, using her mind to slam Connor's bedroom door behind her using her mind, and forcing it to stay shut, despite Connor's attempts to open said door, until Natasha was safely locked away in her own room. Realizing how upset he had just made his sister, Connor sighed as the attempted to clean up the mess he had just made in the center of his room, but accidentally pricked his finger on an a shard of glass as he did so, After removing the offending shard of glass, and cleaning up the rest of the broken picture frame, Connor looked down at the family photo itself, which now sat on his desk.

It was ruined.

Connor sighed and shook his head. There was no doubt about it. This picture could never be displayed again. The young man admitted to himself that most of the years old picture, which had been taken the day the Queens had attended Barry and "aunt Felicity's" wedding, days before that couple had bought a home together in Central City, was perfect. In the image, Connor and Oliver both wore matching tuxes and smiles, and Connor's dad was resting one hand on his son's shoulder, while his other hand was draped over his smiling wife's back, while Isabel and Natasha, who were wearing matching purple dresses, stood on the on the other side of the picture, where Isabel was embracing her daughter and Oliver on either arm. In point of fact, before today, the picture of the smiling, happy family had been absolutely perfect, but it now bore a fatal defect.

On the very right side of the picture, separating the image of a smiling Connor from the rest of his family, there was a small trail of Connor's own blood staining the photo. And the blood was still wet.

Right after Connor realized how he had permanently defaced one of his family's photos, Connor shed a single tear as he realized that the discovery he had made the night before might have permanently hurt his relationship with the rest of his family as well. It was around this time, when Connor was ruminating on how his family had changed, that he heard someone banging on Natasha's door across the hall. But Connor ignored this as he got in bed and covered his whole body with blankets, shut his eyes, and put his hands over his ears, in an attempt to block out the world. It didn't work.

Less than ten minutes after his argument with Natasha had concluded, Oliver and Isabel unlocked their son's door using a house key, and entered Connor's room wearing house robes, with their hair still disheveled from earlier activities.. To Oliver and Isabel's credit, as…preoccupied as they had been, the married couple had finally noticed that something was wrong with their children after they heard both Connor and Natasha's doors slam, just seconds apart from each other. And after checking up on their daughter, Oliver and Isabel had decided to check on Connor next. "Connor, please get up. Your father and I need to talk to you!"

Connor, not ready to face his stepmother, who had just spoken, just yet, didn't respond, and several seconds later, Oliver Queen pulled the sheets off of Connor's body and said, in an angry tone of voice. "Hey! Your mother is trying to talk to you! Show her some respect!"

Connor opened his eyes to glare at Isabel, but he still refused to get off his bed as he said. "Isabel's not my mother, dad!"

Oliver's pupils dilated, and his breathing became more rapid, which Connor knew meant his father was on the verge of yelling at him, which had only happened a handful of times in Connor's young life, when Isabel gently rubbed her hand along her husband's arm and said. "It's okay, Oliver. He's right. Technically I'm just…" Isabel sighed, and Connor, even in the midst of the anger he was feeling towards his stepmom, still saw the pain in Isabel's eyes as she continued speaking. "Connor's stepmom. He's right about that."

Isabel then turned towards Connor and forced a smile. "Connor, you don't have to call me mom if you don't want to anymore, but your father and I both care a lot about you and your sister. Which is why we get so concerned when you and Natasha fight. We heard you and little Nat slamming your doors earlier, and your father and I noticed that both of your doors were locked, which they usually never are, so we thought we'd check in on you two. And when we tried to talk to your sister…"

Oliver's breathing had slowed down, and his voice was softer than before, but Connor could still see there was anger and, something else (fear maybe?) in his father's eyes when the current patriarch of the Queen family interrupted his wife. "Your sister is almost catatonic, Connor! She's lost in one of her visions again, and nothing your moth…Isabel and I say or do will get her to focus on the real world this time! "

Connor's father shook his head. "Your sister was having one of her longest good periods in years, Connor! Natasha had almost hit three days of lucidity in a row, and then after one argument with you, she completely withdraws from the present again! Son, I'm trying to be as calm as I can, but I really need you to tell Isabel and me what you and your sister were arguing about before she walled herself off from the world! Maybe we can use that knowledge to get your sister to start interacting with us again, so we don't have a repeat of the Disneyland incident!"

Connor sighed. He, and the rest of his family, were all too familiar with the chain of events that the Queens now referred to as "The Disneyland incident". During the family's one and only visit to the so-called "Magic Kingdom", the family had been having a good time until they visited an attraction which featured an animatronic mad-scientist type character. During that particular ride, Natasha had yelled out something along the lines of "He's going to take him away from me! I'll lose my impulse, and my mind!" several times in a row. The little girl's eyes had gone vacant after that, and despite several interventions by John Constantine, the Star Labs team, and several medical and mental health professionals, Natasha had gone silent, and been unable to respond to anyone, including her own family, for a whole month. Oliver and Isabel had actually started considering having their daughter committed to an in-patient mental health facility when their daughter had finally "woken up", giggled, and said "Got lost for a little bit there, but I feel better now." Even so, Natasha either couldn't, or wouldn't say what had been on her mind when she had "lost herself" for so long, and the whole Queen family, including Connor, were afraid of the possibility that Natasha's mind might drift away again, perhaps permanently.

With Natasha's mental problems in mind, Connor shook his head. "I'm so sorry! I didn't want to upset Natasha, and I certainly didn't want to make my sister go away again! I would never want to hurt my little sister!"

Isabel gave her stepson a reassuring half-smile. "We know that Connor! You're a good bo…young man, you always have been! Your dad and I are sure you didn't mean to upset your sister, but we still need to know what you two were arguing about so we can wake her up, okay?"

Connor pulled away from his mom, who had tried to put a comforting hand on her step-son's shoulder, and turned away from the hurt expression in his mo….Isabel's eyes. In that moment, a maelstrom of different emotions bombarded the young man. Connor felt rage, possibly even hatred, towards Isabel, for the affair she had with his grandfather over a decade ago. He also felt anger and disappointment in his father for marrying, and having a child with, Isabel, despite having, apparently, known about Isabel's sordid past with the Queen family. And yet…Connor also felt love for his parents, who had loved him and raised him for most of his life, and he still remembered them as the couple who had loved him and hugged him the day Connor had been picked up from the orphanage. And Connor certainly loved Natasha, his only (as far as he knew, for Connor was well aware that his father had an "active social life" in his younger days) sister, even though she was Oliver and Isabel's daughter. For these reasons, Connor also felt guilt, for upsetting Natasha enough to cause her mind to drift away again, and, to a lesser extent, for repeatedly hurting the feelings of the only mother he had ever known (or at least, the only mom he could remember) by shying away from her touch and repeatedly rejecting her as a mother figure since the night before.. To put it mildly, Connor was quite confused.

But Connor did, instinctively, know one thing. And that was that he absolutely could not tell his parents what he and his sister had really been arguing about. Conner sneaked a sideways glance at the ruined family picture on his bedside table. Somehow, Connor knew that if he let himself talk about the discovery he had made the night before, about Isabel's previous affair with grandpa Robert, that every ugly, spiteful, and shameful thought and feeling that he was trying so hard to keep a lid on around his pare…dad and stepmom would coming pouring out of Connor's mouth. And if that happened, Connor believed that he, his dad, and Isabel would all end up saying things they would regret. Things that state of affairs could lead to a build-up of anger, distrust and other bad feeling between the young man and his dad and step-mom that might never go away, and would eventually isolate Connor from the rest of his family forever. So, with a heavy sigh, Connor lied. "Nat and I weren't arguing about anything important, okay? I was just getting onto her about stealing my stuff sometimes and she just started freaking out! Then she moved some shit with her mind, slammed a couple doors, and went to her room! That's all I know!"

Oliver sighed. "Okay, Connor. If you say that's all that happened, I believe you. But I just don't see how that could have caused your sister to…"

But Isabel cut her husband off as she looked at Connor with a mixture of concern and anger in her eyes. "Why are you lying to us, Connor?! I know you are, because my superior senses let me hear your elevated heart rate, smell the slight amount of perspiration on your skin, and see your slightly dilate pupils, but lying isn't like you! Please, Connor, whatever you and your sister were really arguing about, you can tell your father and me! We promise you won't get in trouble, no matter what happened…"

Oliver opened his mouth to argue, but Isabel gave her husband a slight glare to tell him to please be quite, then turned back towards her stepson and repeated, in a soft, reassuring tone of voice. "No matter what you said or did, you won't be in trouble if you just tell us what happened. We're just really worried about your sister, and we really want to help her, so please tell us…"

Connor shut his eyes to keep from crying as he said. "I'm sorry. I can't tell you."

Oliver raised his voice. "What do you mean you can't tell us what happened?! This is your sister's mind, her very safety we're talking about here! You have to…"

"Connor…"

Isabel once again tried to put her hand on her stepson's shoulder, but the young man pulled away as if he had been burned. "Don't touch me, you bitch!"

Oliver was fuming now as Isabel cried a single tear before brushing it away quickly. " I told you not to talk to your mother like that!"

Connor matched his father's intensity with his own yelling. "And I told you she's not my mother, dad! So back the fuck off and leave me alone!" Without thinking, Connor jumped out his already open bedroom window, and landed on the second story roof with a loud THUD! Then, using his vigilante training faster than his stunned family could think to react, ran along the roof, and shimmied down a long storm drain, all the way to the ground before running towards the Queen family's garage. After breaking a window of said garage, setting of a bunch of alarms the young man ignored, Connor ran towards the key ring, grabbed the keys to Isabel's red Porsche, then climbed into said vehicle, turned on the ignition, and…

CRACK!

Rammed his way through the garage door, destroying said door and damaging the front of his stepmom's vehicle as he drove right past him dad and step—mom, who were running after Connor, before driving right off the family property! Connor ignored the blood on his hand from when he had broken the garage window as he drove off into the night at full speed with no particular destination in mind. All he knew was, right now, anywhere was better than home…

Several hours later…

Isabel was fuming, and her face was stretched into a scowl when she picked her step-son up from the Starling City Police Department in the Glades. Connor wouldn't even look at his step-mom when the bars to his cell were opened. Isabel sighed, thanked the guard for releasing Connor into her custody, then told Connor to "Follow me. We're taking the limo home, because your dad's car is in the shop, and you absolutely totaled mine."

Connor shook his head as he followed Isabel to the front of the SCPD building, although he had to focus a lot more than usual while walking, and almost stumbled a couple of times, due to the drug in his system.. "I'm sorry…"

Isabel kept walking, not even shooting a glance at Connor. "We'll talk later. Get in the car."

Connor did what he was told, and got in the back of the limo, sitting as far away as possible from his step-mom as he did so. The car pulled away from the GCPD precinct, then started it's half-hour journey back to the Queen mansion. After nearly five minutes of silence, Isabel glared at Connor. "Your father and I are very disappointed in you, Connor! "

Connor sighed. "I know…"

Isabel shook her head and scowled at Connor. "No, Connor! You don't know! Not only did you steal my car, when you don't even have a driver's license yet, you then proceeded to get high, ON FUCKING VERTIGO of all things, and totaled my car! My son, on Vertigo! I can't believe it! Don't you remember what that stuff did to your aunt Thea?! She almost died from taking that shit! Not to mention everything Team Arrow has done to rid this city of that vile substance! I thought we'd destroyed the last batch of Vertigo years ago! But now, here Vertigo is again, back on the streets and pumping through my son's veins!"

Connor sighed, then tried to hold his head someway that wouldn't hurt. "Stepson. I'm just your stepson, Isabel!"

Isabel huffed, then nodded, but Connor was sure he could see pain behind the anger in Isabel's eyes when she replied. "Right. You're my stepson. And I'm only your step-mother. I guess after all these years of you calling me mom, it's hard to break the habit of calling you my son. Be that as it may, what you did tonight was stupid, Connor! And…"

Connor covered his ears. "I know! I know! Please stop shouting! I already have a splitting headache from the shit that dealer gave me!"

Isabel sighed, then nodded and spoke in a softer tone. "Sorry. Your father and I are very angry with you, Connor, but I don't want to hurt you anymore than you've already hurt yourself. How's your hand? The medic at SCPD says that it was lucky the glass in that window only gave you surface level cuts, and your head wound from the crash isn't very serious. But things could have easily gone so much worse for you, Connor! I'm so glad you're not dead!"

Connor sighed, briefly looked at his bandaged hand, then felt the bandage on his head. "Me too. I'm fine, apart from loud noises hurting like hell, and my head aching a little. I can't believe that crash totaled your car so bad, though!"

Isabel chuckled mirthlessly, and a frown soon returned to her face. "That's what happens when you wrap a sports car around a telephone pole, Connor." Isabel sighed. "But this isn't about the car. Your father and I make enough money that we could pay for another hundred just like it. No, Connor, Oliver and I are furious that you endangered your life, and put your entire future at risk, all in one night! Did you know how many favors your father and I had to call in for your DUI incident not to go to trial? We had to get both Laurel and Quentin Lance to vouch for you and cover your ass, and convince SCPD to give you a slap on the wrist because this was your first criminal offense and you didn't hurt anyone else with your little stunt! You're lucky that the DA is a friend of ours, and that Mr. Lance doesn't retire from being police chief until later this year! "

Connor shook his head. "You didn't have to do that…"

Isabel shook her head. "Of course we did, Connor! Your father loves you, and, despite whatever problem you seem to have with me all of the sudden, so do I! The only reason your dad isn't here right now is that he's out running an errand…" Isabel lowered her voice and said, in a voice to quiet for the driver in front to hear. "Cracking heads open as the Arrow, trying to find out who's behind Vertigo coming back to Starling City so that he and Team Arrow can destroy the last of it!" Isabel brought her voice back to a normal volume. "Your father and I weren't about to let you rot in jail! But, in exchange for having all the charges against you dropped, I promised Police Chief Lance to make sure that you wouldn't be taking any controlled substances in the future. Also…." Isabel lowered her voice again. "Your father and I need to know where the new Vertigo shipments are coming from. Think, Connor. What do you remember about who sold you that shit!?"

Connor sighed and held his head in his hands as he looked down. " I…I can't remember much of tonight after stealing your car. It's all a little…fuzzy. But….okay. I can't remember what the guy who sold me that stuff looked like, and I swear, I didn't know it was Vertigo, Isabel! I was just told the stuff I took, which was blue, instead of green, by the way, was "something that would make me forget about my problems." However, I do remember the dealer called himself "The Fixer", and he only spoke Cantonese. I was only able to understand him because you and dad have been teaching me and Natasha multiple languages since we were old enough to talk. Oh! And this guy sold me that stuff near the docks in the Glades!"

Isabel scowled. "Fucking Triads! How many times is Team Arrow Going to have to kick their heads in for them to get the message they're not welcome in Starling City!? Thank you, Connor. That was very useful information. Your father, the rest of Team Arrow, and I will be paying the Triads a little visit tonight after I drop you off at home! And if I could, I would have Thea, Roy and their team fly in from Titan's Tower to help, or even bring the rest of the Justice League into this, but that might take too long. So Team Arrow will take care of the Triad's ourselves! No one sells my son…sorry, stepson, drugs and gets away with it!"

Connor shrugged and half-smiled. "Glad I could help."

Isabel huffed. "It still doesn't change that what you did was really stupid, Connor! And you're grounded! Indefinitely!"

Connor threw up his hands. "Come on!"

Isabel ignored Connor's protests and added. " That means no leaving the house except for school and football practice! No vigilante lessons either, until you can prove to your father and I that you can be responsible again! And you're paying for my new car out of your allowance for the next six months! Not because your father and I need the money, but because you need to learn to take responsibility so you don't fuck up this badly ever again! You could have died, Connor! And up until we got that phone call from SCPD, after five hours of no word from you, Oliver and I feared you had! Your father and I were worried sick about you, do you know that!?"

Connor sighed when he saw Isabel cry a few tears, then quickly wiped them away. "I'm sorry, Isabel! What I did was stupid, I know that. I promise I won't endanger myself like that again!"

Isabel gave Connor a half-smile. "Good. I'm glad you're okay. And…" Isabel sighed. "I really shouldn't do this. Your father's right, I do spoil you sometimes, but… If you can be good for the rest of the month, I'll talk to your father about letting you out of the house again. You'll still have to pay for the car, and it will probably take you longer than that before we trust you vigilante sessions, but…it's something, right?!"

Connor sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Also…" Isabel sighed again and said under her breath, "I really shouldn't be doing this…" Then added, "Your father wanted me to take away your phone too. But… I'm not going to…IF you promise me you won't use it to buy drugs, or anything else that's illegal!"

Connor nodded and smiled. "I promise. But…not to look a gift horse in the mouth, or anything…why…"

"Why am I letting you keep your phone, which I will deny doing, and say you stole your phone back from me, if your father catches you with it?" Isabel smirked, then tapped her right ear with her left index finger. "I have enhanced hearing, Connor! There's very little that goes on in the Queen mansion that I don't know about! And I know that you use your phone to call Anna in the middle of the night sometimes, even if you're not supposed to contact her anymore! I guess I figure, if you can't talk to me or your dad about whatever's been bothering you lately, although our door's always open if you change your mind about that…maybe talking to Anna will help. She's a very bright, sweet girl, after all. Besides…"

Isabel shrugged. "As someone who was a little…rebellious in her relationships when I was not much older than you, and didn't always follow the rules when it came to love, well…What can I say? I have a soft spot for you and Anna's little forbidden romance, especially since you just dumped your latest girlfriend of the month last week. What was her name? Jennifer?"

Connor shook his head, and his stomach turned a little because he knew exactly how much of a rebel Isabel had been in her younger years, but the young man forced himself to answer Isabel's question anyway. "Heather. Jennifer and I split three weeks ago, the day before I started dating Heather."

Isabel chuckled. "Right. How could I forget which of your 300 or so girlfriends you were with last? How silly of me!"

Connor chuckled right back, despite himself.

But there weren't many laughs for Connor for the rest of the week. The day of Connor's arrest (for it was already early in the morning before Connor was brought home) was a bad one for the young man, despite his parents letting him taking a sick day and stay home that Monday. Besides the fact that he was sick as a dog, and kept throwing up every time he tried to eat, Connor was unable to sleep because, despite the herbal medicine his parents had given him to combat the newer, more powerful strain of the decades-old illicit drug in his system, Connor still suffered through some disturbing hallucinations for the rest of that day, many of which involved his grandfather and Isabel kissing or…other activities that Connor would always turn away from before he "saw" too much.

Needless to say, by the end of the day on Monday, even though the Vertigo in his system had worn off by then (just, as Oliver assured Connor, the drug had once again been purged from Starling by Team Arrow), Connor was deeply traumatized. Traumatized enough that, when Isabel had come home that day, and delivered Connor's homework, Connor refused to even look at his step-mom, who sighed and said. "So, now you're back to avoiding me, Connor? I'll let that slide for now, since I know you've had a really rough day, albeit one of your own making. Still, you'd better do your homework tonight. I called in sick for you today, but you're going to school tomorrow with all your assignments done! Your father and I aren't going to reward your bad behavior by letting you slack off in your studies. Be that as it may, Raisa says you have hardly been eating all day, and you don't need to be working on an empty stomach, so please come downstairs for dinner in an hour, okay?"

When Connor just nodded, Isabel tried to hug Connor while she said. "I love you, Connor! Whatever you're upset with me about, I hope we can move past…"

But Connor jumped away from Isabel's hug, climbed into his bed, and hid under his covers, as the hallucinations that the young man had been experiencing all day returned to his memory then. And Connor couldn't see that Isabel's eyes were filled with maternal love and concern as he screamed. "Don't touch me! I'll do my homework! I'll do chores! I'll pay for your car! I'll do anything you ask me to do to make up for last night, but please don't touch me!"

Dinner that night was a quiet, somber affair. Natasha was still catatonic since her argument with Connor yesterday (which still made the young man guilty when he thought about it), so that the young woman had to be spoon-feed her food by Oliver and Isabel. Connor, on the other hand, was still wrapped up in guilt and anger, over his action the night before, and Isabel's affair with his grandfather, respectfully, so his stomach was in knots, and he barely ate any of the chicken or mixed vegetables on his plate. Oliver and Isabel were much the same, as both parents were too worried about their children to have much of an appetite, or to hold interest in a conversation. So, after Oliver had echoed his wife's sentiment that Connor's actions the night before were foolish, going over the boy's punishment for those actions again, and telling Connor "But I do love you, and Isabel and I are very glad you're still alive and not in worse shape than you are in!" Not much was said by the adults in the household either. In addition, Connor continued to avoid looking at Isabel at all cost, for fear his graphic hallucinations would start up again.

By the end of the evening meal, very little had been said, and every member of the troubled family had finished less than half the food on their plates by the time Oliver asked Raisa to clear the table. Nobody asked for dessert that night. And nobody had any midnight snacks, either.

The end of the meal also marked the end of Natasha's day. The little girl's parents helped their youngest child get ready for bed and tucked her in right after dinner. However, the rest of the family's day continued for a few more hours. And it did not improve at all during that time.

Connor couldn't focus on his schoolwork, as he was tired from lack of sleep, and had a pounding headache as an after effect of the Vertigo, so he put little effort into his assignments that night. He knew this would probably result in him getting bad grades for his homework, but Connor was too tired and miserable to care at the moment, especially since he was forced to hear his parents…dad and Isabel arguing loudly for just before he went to bed that night.

Connor was unable to hear the whole argument, but his guilt over treating Isabel so badly over the past few days resurfaced as he heard his stepmother defend him at the conclusion of her loud argument with Oliver. "You didn't see Connor's eyes earlier today, Oliver, or see how fast he jumped away from me when I tried to touch him! I'm telling you, something is wrong with our son!...No! This isn't just teenage rebellion, Oliver!...Just because you acted out in your teens because, by your own admission, your dad was usually busy working, and your mom let you and Thea do whatever you wanted, doesn't mean Connor is like that! Connor's always been a good kid, and we raised him to be better than this! I'm telling you, something else is going on with our son!...Yes, I'm sure! Connor's rebelled against our authority before, but never like this, especially not with me. I don't know why but Connor seems angry with me lately for some reason! I mean, Connor, our Connor, called me a bitch! And as of today, our son even seems like he's scared of me for some reason! I know Vertigo causes hallucinations, and I think it made whatever's going on with Connor get worse! I…I think our son's punished himself enough, Oliver! I'll still make him pay for my car, but maybe grounding our son wasn't the best idea!"

Connor had loudly slammed his door then, allowing Oliver and Isabel know he could hear them arguing, and was trying to block the sound of their voices. To the older couple's credit, Oliver and Isabel kept their voices down the rest of the night, and Connor wasn't able to hear them arguing after that. But Connor had a rotten feeling, in the pit of his stomach, that his father and Isabel had probably kept arguing late into the night. And Connor knew that was his fault.

The rest of the week wasn't any better. Connor continued to avoid talking to Isabel, who continued trying to get Connor to open up to her about what was bothering him, even though Connor would always end such interactions by telling Isabel to "back off", or calling her a "bitch", or some combination of both of those responses, leaving his stepmother angry, hurt, and worried for Connor after each of those conversations. At school, Connor was too tired to focus on schoolwork, since he was afraid to sleep at night for fear about having more nightmares about Isabel and his grandfather, and Connor found himself ditching class several times throughout the week to hang out with some of his more "rough around the edges" peers.

While Connor spent time with his school's "undesirables", some of the metal heads, goths, and self-proclaimed "gangstas" that Connor fell in with pressured Connor into partaking in illicit substances. Although these individuals weren't able to get Connor to take any "hard drugs", as Connor did not feel the need to experience anything like Vertigo ever again, some of his peers successfully pressured Oliver into smoking pot (which had been legalized years ago in Connor's state) and drinking alcohol (even though the legal drinking age was still 21) several times that week. As a result of these circumstances, Connor's GPA took a small hit that week, and the young man was nearly cut from the football team for losing track of time and missing a practice while high.

Things were even worse at home, where Connor was subjected to repeated lectures concerning the dangers of drug and alcohol use, as well as the importance of keeping his grades up, and the young man heard his father and Isabel loudly argue about "What we need to do about Connor" every night, with Oliver always recommending some kind of punishment, "like the kind I should have received when I was growing up", while Isabel kept insisting that "No, Connor needs professional help! We should send him to see a psychiatrist!" In the meantime, Connor tried to avoid both of his parents, and Natasha, who was still lost in her visions, up through Friday night.

Friday night was the worse night of that week, as Connor got home very late that night. Connor had, begrudgingly, attended both school and football practice that day, as he had been told he would be suspended, and lost his place on the team, if he missed one more class or practice. But the teen had been too preoccupied by troubles at home to focus on lectures that day, and he had failed an important math test. Furthermore, Connor's coach drilled him extra-hard that day, since "The Big Game" against Central City was the next day, and Connor had already missed one practice that week. Therefore, by the end of practice that night, Connor had been tired, sore, miserable, and stressed out, and the young man had decided to ditch his father, as well as his family's driver, in favor of spending time getting high with some of his new "friends" after practice. This did not go over well at home.

When Connor had finally arrived home that evening, Oliver and Isabel were both waiting for him in the living room, ready to read him the riot act. But this lecture was bit different, in addition to saying how disappointed they both were in how Connor had been behaving, Oliver and Isabel had handed Connor a flyer for "Shady Acres rehab", and Oliver threatened that "If I see you come home this late again, Connor, or if Isabel and I have any suspicion that you've been taking drugs again, much less smell alcohol and pot on your breath, like we can tonight, we will send you to Shady Acres!"

When Connor had protested that "That's not fair! I haven't even been taking any hard drugs since Monday! You can't do this to me!" Isabel had shook her head and openly wept in front of her step-son. "Your father and I will do whatever we have to get you better, Connor! You used to be such a good student, son, and brother…And look at you now! You avoid your father, me, and your sister all the time, you call me a bitch every other conversation, even though I've loved you like you were my own flesh and blood since the day I met you, and your grades are slipping! Your father and I are scared, Connor! Because whoever it is that I've been talking to this last week, he isn't the sweet little boy that I've known since Oliver and I picked him up at the orphanage! You're becoming someone we don't recognize, Connor! Someone we don't want you to become!"

Connor had screamed something at Isabel then, although later, he honestly couldn't remember what he had yelled at his stepmom out of anger, only that whatever was said made his step-mom leave the room in tears, and made Connor feel guilty for hurting the woman he had called "mom" for most of his life, even though he was still angry with her due to her past. So Connor didn't even protest when his father yelled at him, although he refused his dad's command to "apologize to your mother right now!" Furthermore, the young man was too emotionally drained to care when his father said that "We'll only send you to Shady Acres if we suspect you've been taking drugs again, Connor, and even then, it wouldn't be a punishment. Your grandma even thought about sending your Aunt Thea there when she used to have a drug problem, years ago, and the facility has only gotten better since then. In fact, Isabel even says it has the best mental health counseling facilities for addicts in the state! But please, Connor…don't make us send you there. And stop calling Isabel names! It really upsets her. Your stepmom has shown you nothing but love since the day she met you, she doesn't deserve to be treated like that!"

Connor just nodded to his father's words, and once Oliver saw he wasn't getting through to his son, the Arrow shook his head and sighed. "Go to your room, Connor. But we will talk more about your substance use problem, and your disrespectful words towards Isabel, later. Just… remember that I love you, son. And if I'm hard on you, it's just because I don't want you repeating the mistakes I've made. Also…I hope you do well at State tomorrow. Your mother and I are very proud that you and your team have done so well this season, and we'll definitely be there to cheer you on after your mother and I are done meeting with the board tomorrow morning."

Connor hadn't really know how to respond to his father's words, so he just nodded again, then trudged up the stairs and into his room. Once his door was firmly shut, and the young teen had spent several minutes hating himself for single-handedly, albeit slowly, destroying his entire family, and wishing he had never found the infernal letters that had sent him into a downward spiral, Connor sighed and decided to do something he had resisted doing since Monday morning, solely because Isabel had recommended this particular course of action. Connor called Anna.

As the young man hoped, Connor's childhood friend turned forbidden love interest had picked up her phone on the first ring. "Connor! You finally called! Why did you have to call me now?! If I get caught talking on the phone at this hour, my parents will ground me for sure, and they'll find out….You know what, never mind, I'm just glad you're finally talking to me again! I've heard my parents talking about you all week! They say you're acting out, doing drugs, even stealing cars, and that they were right to forbid me from seeing you last year! What the hell is going on with you Connor?! Did I do something wrong, to make you love me less than I love you, or act out like this?! Because I must have called you a dozen times, and left you a hundred text messages and…"

Connor smiled despite himself, before cutting his on again/off again "girlfriend's" rambling off, no matter how much he loved the sound of Anna's voice. "I'm sorry I haven't messaged or called you lately, Anna. You haven't done anything wrong, I still love you so much! I just…I didn't know what to say to you. I've….been through a lot this past week, and I didn't know how to talk about it. But I think, maybe you're the only person I can talk to about this stuff. And I'm sorry it's so late, but I do need to talk to you, right now, or I think I'm going to go crazy!"

Anna's voice became deadly serious as she simply said. "Tell me everything, then." So, Connor did. At least in very general terms.

Connor told Anna that all the rumors her parents had heard about him that week were true, but that he had only been acting out because he was troubled due to a secret he had learned about his family. Eventually, after over an hour of discussion and persuasion, Connor had (partly) revealed what that secret was. " I recently discovered evidence that…." Connor sighed. "That my step-mom had an affair with a married man!"

Anna gasped on the other end of the line. "Isabel cheated on your father!? I can't believe it! Your step-mom has always been so nice to me, and you've often told me that she's been such a good step-mom to you, that you consider her your second mother! And Isabel always seemed so in love with your dad whenever I came over to your house. Your parents were always making eyes at each other or kissing in front of us…."

Connor quickly interrupted his girlfriend's second ramble of the evening. "My dad and Isabel still do that stuff. Or at least they did, until they started arguing about what to do with me this week. But no, Anna! As much as I don't like her right now, I know Isabel would never cheat on my dad, and that my dad and step-mom still love each other a lot. No…Isabel had an affair with a married man, but it was years ago. Before she met my dad."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, before Anna said. "That's it?! That's what you're so upset about?!"

Connor scowled as he replied to Anna's words. "What do you mean, that's it! Don't you think it's a bit hypocritical that Isabel's always drilled the importance of fidelity into my head, to the point that I don't even feel right calling you when I'm dating somebody else, because I can't date you, the one girl in the world I'm actually in love with, when Isabel herself had an affair with a married man when she was younger!? Don't you find that the least bit upsetting?!"

Anna sighed on the other end of the line. " Not really. Your dad and Isabel probably just raised you to value loyalty in relationships so much so that you didn't repeat their mistakes. And I can respect that. What I find upsetting, Connor, is that you won't call me when you're dating other girls that you don't even love! It upsets me that you use young woman the way you do, just because my parents have went to great lengths to make sure that you can't date me anymore."

Connor shook his head. "Anna, we've talked about this…"

"Yes…" Anna interrupted Connor on the other end of the line. "And we're going to talk about it again, but not right now. Right now, I evidently need to convince you take your head out of your own ass."

Connor's eyes widened. "What are you talking about, Anna!? You never talk to me like that!"

Connor could practically hear Anna rolling her eyes on the other end of the line. "That's because you're not usually this stupid or petty! Yes, your step-mom had an affair with a married man years ago! And yes, that was wrong. But if it was before she met your dad, you should just forgive Isabel, not that it's your place to sit in judgment on her for what she did in the first place, and move on with your life! Because what Isabel did back then has nothing to do with you or your family!"

Connor shook his head, and silently thought about how wrong Anna was about that last statement, but he couldn't bring himself to drag his late grandfather's name in the mud by telling Anna who Isabel had an affair with, years ago. And besides, despite the fact that it had been Robert Queen that Isabel had an affair with back then, Connor was starting to think Anna was right. Since that affair had occurred years before Isabel had met Oliver, maybe, Connor thought to himself, he really should just forgive Isabel and let it go. Still wrestling with this line of thinking after almost a minute of silence, Connor shook his head and replied into his phone. "I'll think about it. I love you, Anna. I'll try to call you more often from now on. Good night."

Connor could almost hear Anna's frown on the other end of the line when she replied in an exasperated tone of voice. "Goodnight. And you'd better. Because I love you too, Connor. Even if you can be an idiot sometimes!"

Friday night, like every night since Connor's discovery in the attic, was filled with nightmares for the young man. But instead of visions of secret trysts between his step-mom and long-dead grandpa, Connor dreamt of a dark future he knew he never wanted to come to pass. He dreamt of Natasha being locked in a mental institution because she wouldn't talk to people anymore, and giving her older brother an accusing stare before she was led away in a strait jacket, He dreamt of his dad permanently checking him into a "rehab facility" where doctors would poke Connor with needles several times a day, and the young man wouldn't be able to sleep due to the screams of the other patients at night. Connor dreamt of his dad and Isabel in divorce court, and both of his parents pointing to Connor and saying "This is all your fault, Connor! We were happy before you read those notes you had no business reading, and became such a bad kid! We're splitting up because of you! I hope you're proud of yourself!"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Connor woke up screaming and crying on Saturday morning. But his tears were quickly wiped away by a gentle, but somewhat leathery, hand that had been ravaged by over sixty years of aging, and Connor was soon drawn into the embrace of a woman he had known most of his life, but whom he had not seen in a while.

"Shh. Shh. It's alright, Connor! It's alright! It was just a bad dream!"

Connor opened his eyes and smiled at Moira Queen. "Grandma!" The young man then frowned at his grandmother, whose tired face and sunken eyes, as well as the hair she had recently lost (which had, naturally, been replaced by an elegant blonde wig made of real human hair) made her look older than her years. As Connor looked at the worn-looking woman in front of him, he started to see why, as he had overheard from one of his dad's recent conversations with Isabel, his father feared "grandma Moira" would die soon. Like his father and Isabel, Connor hoped that his sister's prophecy of a "Lazarus Project" coming to fruition sometime in the future, would come to pass, and that the blood sample the Queen family had collected from Moira years ago, could revive his grandmother as a healthy woman someday. "What are you doing here, grandma?! Aren't you supposed to be at home, resting between chemo treatments?!"

Moira rolled her eyes. "Sick or not, I'm still strong enough to see my grandkids! Your parents' usual sitter canceled on them, so Walter and I volunteered to watch out for you and your sister during your father and Isabel's board meeting. I heard that neither you, nor Natasha, are doing very well lately, Connor, so I decided to check on you this morning while Walter tried talking to your sister. Natasha always has responded better to my husband than to me, after all." Moira gave Connor a sad look, then forced a smile as she said. "But I think you and I have always understood each other, haven't we, Connor?"

Connor just nodded, then Moira started walking away from Connor's bed as she shook her head and said. "You know, when Isabel told me, since your father is too stubborn and proud to tell me when he needs help most of the time, what was going on with you and Natasha, I honestly had no idea what to think about how to help your sister. Natasha is…special. Gifted, and cursed, in ways I can't even begin to comprehend. But when I was first told how you've been acting out lately, I thought I knew just what to expect. That you were just being rebellious, like your father was when he was younger. Except that….you've never been like your father in that way. You've always been so sensible. Focused. Stable. Things your father never was, at your age. That probably says more about my parenting than I'd like to admit, but that's the truth. So then, I started thinking. What if you're more like your Aunt Thea than your father?"

Moira opened one of Connor's dresser drawers, and Connor's gasped when his grandmother touched one of the letters he had found a week ago with a frown on her face. "What if you only act out in response to traumatic stimuli? Liking reading letters that you were never supposed to lay eyes upon, for instance?"

Connor got out of bed and glared at his grandmother. "You went through my things!"

Moira shrugged. "Of course I did. Just like I should have went through your aunt Thea's things when I first started to suspect she had a drug problem, all those years ago. Just like Oliver and Isabel should have done when they discovered you had been partaking in controlled substances! Although, in retrospect, I'm glad they didn't go through your stuff." Moira held up the three packages full of illicit letters in her hands and sighed. "Your father or Isabel finding these would probably have just opened up a lot of old wounds. Now, I assume finding these letters, which I unfortunately, just spent over an hour reading, was the reason for your…distress these past couple of weeks?"

Connor just shrugged and looked down while clenching his fists. "I guess. How long have you kno…"

Moira sighed. "How long have I known that your stepmother had an affair with your grandfather years before she met your father? A long, long time. About a month into my late husband's clandestine affair with Isabel, I believe. I'm so sorry, Connor. You were never supposed to know about that affair, and a great deal of time and effort has been spent making sure you would never have to carry the burden of that knowledge. I'm afraid your family failed you in that regard."

"I don't want to talk about that right now! What I want to know is, if you knew about my stepmom's affair with grandpa…." Connor sighed, then lowered his voice from a shout to an angry whisper as he gazed at his grandmother's ancient looking eyes. "How could you let my father marry Isabel!? How could you let him do that!?"

Moira chuckled at that. "'Let him?' Connor, I had a hard time controlling your father when he was a minor, let alone after he became a grown man! Your father, Oliver Jonas Queen, knew all about your stepmother's history with this family long before he married Isabel, and he chose to love her anyway! That was his informed choice to make as an adult, and I had no business getting in the middle of their relationship! Besides…"

Moira half-smiled. "Isabel's proven herself to me, and to the rest of this family, several times over since your father and she started dating. So I forgave her for her part in this…" Moira held up the sealed packages of letters. "Sordid affair, and welcomed her as my daughter-in law years ago. As far as I'm concerned, that little 'incident' is in the past now, and this family should just move on…"

Connor frowned and tightened his fists again as he spoke just below yelling volume again. "How could you say that?! How could you forgive Isabel for…"

Moira frowned at her grandson as she interrupted him. "Because she's saved your life, for one thing! More than once!" Connor frowned too, as he dimly remembered one of his nannies kidnapping him when he was six, and the Midnight Sentinel saving him. The young man also suddenly remembered that, the day after that incident, Isabel had used a kitchen knife to defend him from a brain-washed dark-haired woman. And suddenly, Connor remembered why he had, for years, been nervous around Auntie Sara's wife, Nyssa.

Connor closed his eyes, trying to retrieve as much of those old memories as he could as his grandmother kept talking. "In point of fact, she's saved the life of every member of this family at least once! And she's helped build a happy home with you, Natasha, and Oliver. And of course, Isabel apologized to me for her affair with Robert a long time ago. And, as I said, I accepted that apology, and forgave your stepmom, years ago.."

Connor nodded again as he remembered all the birthday parties, family activities, and QC company events that he had seen his step-mother and Moira coordinate on over the years in the Queen mansion, and the numerous times that his family, and Moira and Walter, had visited each other since the young man been formally placed in his father's care when he was five years old. He also remembered that Moira and Isabel had been pleasant around each other most of the times they had interacted, even laughing at each other's jokes on occasion. Connor's eyes widened as he also remembered the handful of times one of Moira's friends would try to bring up something about Isabel's past in front of his grandma and himself, when the name of Oliver's wife was mentioned. Moira would always cut off those women's questions, which always started something like "Wasn't Isabel the name of the woman who…", by saying something like "That's all in the past now. And Isabel's been a good wife to Oliver, and a good mother to both of his children! Now, let's talk about something more pleasant in front of my grandson, please." Then Moira would nod at Connor, the other ladies present in those conversations would look embarrassed, and the subject would quickly be changed.

Connor then looked at his grandmother and shook his head. "And now you're defending Isabel. Unbelievable. I still don't understand how you could just forget what her and grandpa did. How could you forgive her and my grandpa for…"

Moira scoffed. "I didn't forget anything. I just chose not to dwell on that particular bit of unpleasantness. And…" Moira shook her head and closed her eyes. "I never said I forgave your grandfather for his part in that affair. I've tried to, over the years, I really have. I know it's not decent to hold grudges against the dead, and I know I'm a hypocrite for judging Robert for his affairs when I had one of my own, and got Thea out of the bargain, a sordid bit of our family's history that you, unfortunately, have known for years, thanks to the late Malcolm Merlyn." Moira Queen hadn't even tried to disguise the contempt in her voice when she spoke of her daughter's biological father as she continued speaking. "But…Robert Queen left this family so many troubles when he died. Some of which your father will probably tell you about when you're older. I'm sorry, Connor. I know I shouldn't say this, especially in front of you, but, other than giving me Oliver, and trying to be a good father to Thea, even after he found out her parentage, Robert Queen accomplished so little good in his life. And unlike Isabel, my late husband never once apologized for…"

"You're wrong." Connor suddenly interrupted his grandmother with tears in his eyes. "About my grandfather not accomplishing anything good with his life. Dad told me, a long time ago, that grandpa sacrificed his life to save him off the coast of the island he got stranded on for five years. My dad wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for grandpa!"

Moira shook her head. "Oliver never told me that. I wish he had, though. I wish I had known, all these years, that in his final moments, my late husband was a good man that loved his family that much! I think…." Moira cried into her hand a little bit before she continued speaking with a smile on her face. "I think this changes things, actually. Now that I know Robert died a good man, saving Oliver, I think I can forgive him for all the ways he's wronged me, and this family. Or at least, I can start to forgive your grandfather for all that. And you should forgive Isabel too, Connor, and stop doing drugs and missing school. For one thing, you don't want to become a bitter old bat like me, old before your time…"

Connor forced himself to chuckle at his grandmother's bad joke as Moira Queen kept speaking. "And for another thing, what your stepmother and your grandfather did back then, all those years ago, had nothing to do with you. I was the one that was wronged back then, Connor. Not you. And I've let what happened go. You, on the other hand, have no business sitting in judgement on your stepmother, especially since she's done nothing but love you, as if you were her flesh and blood son. Can you do that for me, Connor? Can you let the past go? Forgive, even if you can't forget?"

Connor nodded "I…I guess. Yes, I can let this go now."

Moira smiled at her grandson and gave him a hug. "Good. I'm proud of you for making such a mature decision."

The Queen matriarch then pulled away from Connor and added. "And Connor? Just remember this moment, next time you start judging a person. Just remember that you don't always know the full story, and that people are complicated. Not everyone can be divided into heroes and villains. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. Like you and Anna, with your secret romance…"

When Connor's eyes widened again, Moira just smirked, as if to say 'I know things.', before she added. "That's why it's important to give people, even people you think are bad, the benefit of a doubt. Do you understand?"

"I understand. And I agree." After Connor smiled and nodded, and the wheels in the young man's head began to turn as he decided, right then and there, to give the villains he battled in the future, as a vigilante, the benefit of a doubt and never kill any bad guys after he had stopped them, Moira smiled and said. "Then you're a much wiser person than I was at your age, Connor. It took me many years to learn not to sit in judgment on others. I guess, in your grandfather's case, I'm still learning that lesson. With Walter's help, of course."

Connor chuckled. "I guess you're a pretty slow learner, then."

Moira laughed loudly at that. "I suppose so! So what do you say? Do I burn these letters in the fireplace, so we can leave these whole, sordid mess behind us?"

Connor grinned. "That sounds like a good idea. Some things are better left forgotten. Let them all burn!"

But as Moira opened the door to do just that, Natasha Queen literally flew into Connor's room and gave him a big hug, nearly tacking Connor to the floor with her momentum in the process. "Yay! I knew you could do it, Connor! I knew you could forgive our mommy! Now we can be a family again!"

Moira gave Connor an accusatory look, but before Connor could even open his mouth to defend himself, his sister, who was still hugging him, quickly assured Moira that. "Connor didn't tell me, grandma. I've always known all of my mom's mistakes. But I love her anyway, and I'm glad that now, Connor loves mommy again too!"

An out of breath Walter ran into the room then, as the older black man said, in between panting. "I'm…sorry….your granddaughter just…woke up all the sudden…and flew…right out her room…before I could catch her."

Moira shrugged, then smiled at her hugging grandchildren. "That's alright, Walter. I'm just glad that both of my grandchildren are doing better now! I had a feeling helping Connor would help Natasha! Growing up, both of my children would always start acting out when the other one did, and as I hoped, Connor and Natasha are the same, and I was able to kill two birds with one stone by helping one of them. Now…." Moira smiled at her grandchildren and said "Grandma has to dispose of some documents downstairs! You two can stay here and talk while I do that while Walter watches you both…" Moira briefly kissed Walter, then gave her husband a look that said she would explain later, and Walter just nodded, before the Queen matriarch turned back towards her grandchildren and said. "Walter and I will have to go soon, to go reserve seats for Connor's big game later today. I'll see you both there. I love you both!"

"We love you too, grandma!" Connor and Natasha both laughed as they drew away from their hug and spoke simultaneously, and Moira smiled and the display of sibling synchronicity before going downstairs. As Moira Queen turned on the fireplace in the main living room of the Queen mansion, the Queen matriarch threw the first of many of Isabel's, and her late husband's, sordid letter into the fire. At that moment, a peace came over the oldest living Queen, as she somehow knew in that moment, even though she was slowly dying from cancer, that the Queen family was going to be just fine without her in the future.

Minutes later, just after Moira had finished burning up the last of the letters, Oliver and Isabel Queen got back from their board meeting. Moira smirked as she saw Isabel kiss Oliver near the front door for several seconds before the married couple pulled away from each other long enough for Isabel to say. "I'm so glad that we're home, and that long meeting was over in time for us to still make it to Connor's game!"

Oliver smiled. "Me too! Despite how he's been acting lately, I wouldn't want to miss our son winning a state championship for his school!"

Isabel finally noticed Moira Queen standing in the living room then, and turned towards her mother-in law with a smile. "Thank you so much for looking out for our children today! I know you've been sick lately, but with the way things have been for Connor and Natasha, I really feel like they needed someone to look out for them this morning after their sitter cancelled, and…"

Moira smiled. "It was no trouble at all! Both of your and Oliver's children were very well behaved today, actually."

Oliver's eyes widened. "Really?"

Moira smiled. "Really. In fact, I think your children would probably want to talk to you right now. Connor, Natasha! Your parents are home!"

"Mommy! Daddy!" Oliver and Isabel cried tears of happiness as their daughter literally glided downstairs and gave her father a hug, but Isabel's waterworks went into overdrive when Connor ran down the stairs only a few seconds later, then gave Isabel a big hug, which his stepmom gladly returned. "I love you, mom! I'm so sorry that I've been such a jerk this last week! I've just…been through a lot, but I'm better now, I promise! You and dad can punish me however you feel you need to, but I just want you to know that I am so, so sorry for how I've acted, especially calling you a bitch, when you've never done anything wrong by me! When you've never been anything but a great mom to me."

Isabel dried her tears with her hand and smiled. "I forgive you, Connor! I'm just glad that both of my children are okay, now!" Natasha drew one of her arms away from her father, to embrace her mother with her other arm, leaving the entire nuclear family in a group hug for several seconds before Isabel said. "And no matter what, you, father, and I have the best two children any parents could ever ask for! I love you both so much!"

"We both do!" Oliver quickly chimed in as he continued hugging his family.

Moira smiled after seeing her son's family was becoming close again, and the Queen matriarch only stayed in the Queen mansion with Walter, who had come downstairs thirty seconds ago, long enough to make a show of turning off the fireplace. "Better turn this off now! My old bones get cold sometimes, but I won't need this anymore while I'm driving to Connor's big game.'

Isabel's eyes widened as her mother in-law and Walter departed. "The game! Connor, I forgot to tell your grandmother to drop you off at school! "Isabel looked at her watch, then sighed, took a deep breath, and quickly formulated a new plan. "Connor, it's too late for you to join your team on the bus, but I can call your coach and tell them we will bring you to the game ourselves! But we need to leave now! Do you know where your gear…"

Natasha grinned as Connor's jersey, pads, and other football equipment floated down the stairs, a process taking a little over a minute. Connor then gave his little sister a grateful look and picked that equipment off of the floor and saying. "What are we waiting for? Me and my team have a game to win!"

….Hours later…

Isabel smiled as her husband let out a loud yawn at the same moment as Connor and Natasha ran up the stairs, playing another one of the little girl's super-hero games. It was finally the end of a very long day. A very good day, though.

Isabel had driven her whole family in her newest hybrid sports car like a bat out hell, breaking many traffic laws as she did so (something Oliver had not been too happy about, but the kids found quite amusing), while using her superior senses to avoid obstacles and police interference. Still, even with Isabel's mad driving skills, Connor had barely managed to reach the locker room of the Coast City Stadium in time to suit up and join his teammates on the field for warm-ups. Meanwhile, Connor's dad, sister, and step-mom joined Moira and Walter in the stands to cheer their favorite quarterback on. The "epic showdown" between the Central City Sonics and the Star City Emerald Warriors was a grueling one, but in the end, the Warriors conditioning over the last month, as well as Connor's natural talent, won the day, and Connor scored the game-winning touchdown in the last thirty seconds of the game, ending the athletic contest with a score of 26-14.

After the trophies were awarded, the extended Queen family had then joined Connor, his teammates, and all of their families for a post-victory celebration at a dinner slash arcade back in Starling City for a few hours. On the drive home afterward after telling Connor how proud of him they were, Oliver had then sighed, and chosen this moment (while Natasha was asleep in the seat next to Connor in the back) to bring up a tougher subject. "Your mother and I are very proud of you for playing so well tonight, Connor, and for apologizing to us for your behavior this week. But I hope you realize you're still grounded, indefinitely."

Connor had just nodded and sighed. "I know. "

Isabel had then added. "And we're going to run a drug test on you once a week from now on, just to make sure that you don't start using again. Until we're satisfied that you're going to stay clean."

Connor had nodded at that too. "That's fair."

Oliver had then smirked and added. "You can keep your phone, though. As long as you promise not to use it after your bed time, or for anything other than calling loved ones or school work."

Connor had smiled. "Thanks dad!" Too late, the boy caught himself and said. "You mean, Isabel will give my phone back now, right?"

Oliver had chuckled. "Nice try! I know Isabel let you keep your phone so you can talk to Anna!"

"Guilty." Isabel had smirked then, not looking the least bit ashamed as she did so, which had caused Oliver to laugh." I can't say I blame your mom, though. After all…" Isabel had wondered if Connor had caught a brief look between his dad and her that he hadn't been meant to see, and the boy had smiled when his father added. "I know what it's like to love someone you're not 'supposed to' so…I can sympathize you following your heart, son. Just as long as your remember the difference between breaking rules and compromising your morals, I think you and Anna will be just fine…"

Connor had seemed to smile all the way home that day, and even though something in the boy's eyes seemed to suggest he knew something about his parents relationship he didn't before, Isabel had not pressed the issue. After all, after a week of turmoil, her and Oliver's little family was happy again. Why would she want to rock the boat now?

Isabel's thoughts were driven back to the present as Oliver started kissing her neck as soon as the married couple reached the living room. Isabel smirked and said. "Not so tired anymore, I see!"

Oliver laughed as he brought Isabel into a deep kiss that lasted over a minute, before the blonde man pulled away and said. "What can I say? I may be getting older, but you're just as young and beautiful as the day we met, and I can't keep my hands off of you!"

Isabel gave her husband a sad smile then as she said. "Slightly older or not, you're just as handsome as the day I met you as well! What do you say we take things to the bedroom now, dear husband?!"

When Oliver nodded enthusiastically to his wife's words, Isabel returned her husband's lecherous grin…until she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Something that definitely should not be there. Isabel's grin diminished slightly as she told her husband to. "Make yourself comfortable in our bedroom upstairs! I'll be right up. I just need to take care of something first."

Oliver continued to smile. "That sounds fine. Just don't keep me waiting too long, Mrs. Queen!"

Isabel's smile widened again as she said. "Never, Mr. Queen!"

After Oliver had gone upstairs, Isabel quickly ran next to the fireplace, which had a small scrap of half-burned paper lying in front of it. The brunette's heart pounded hard in her chest as she bent down to pick up the scrap of a familiar type of parchment, which only one person she had once know had ever used, since that all-too familiar paper type was so expensive to make, it had been discontinued at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Isabel sighed in relief when she realized that the parchment was mostly burnt up, and the bleeding ink on the page made the words on it completely illegible. This feeling of relief would increase when, days later, Isabel would ask her mother-in law, the last person who had used the Queen mansion's fireplace, about the burnt parchment, and Moira would reply in a casual tone that she had found some of her late husband's old documents in the study while watching Connor and Natasha, and had burnt the late Robert Queen's "redundant business files" in the fireplace so her son could have more filing space in his office, since the outdated paper was not recyclable.

Even so, the discovery of the illegible parchment shroud did bring back a lot of unwelcome memories of misspent youth for Isabel. In particular, the parchment reminded her of her ill-advised affair with Robert Queen, a man who had used the same type of parchment paper to write her love letters. Love.

Isabel frowned as she remembered that, despite years learning to lie to herself about that very subject, partly out of shame for her previous affair with a married man, and partly to feel better about her current relationship with that man's son, she had been in love with Robert Queen once. Still, Isabel now knew that her relationship with Robert had been wrong, for a number of reasons, and the brunette was very glad that she had ended up with Oliver, and helped that younger man build a family that her and her husband could be proud of, instead of the previous Queen patriarch. Besides, Isabel was certain that she didn't love the late Robert that way anymore, whereas she knew in her heart that love for Oliver would last forever. With these things in mind, Isabel threw the last scrap of parchment that Moira had neglected to finish burning that morning into the fireplace and ignited the gas powered flames just long enough to burn said parchment into ash, and along with it, her guilty thoughts.

Some things were better left forgotten.

And so it was, by the time Isabel entered the room she shared with her husband, then took off all her clothes in front of a very appreciative Oliver, all of Isabel's thoughts were on Oliver Queen.

Oliver cleared his throat then. " I love you so much! You still look amazing Isabel! But before we started, I just wanted to make sure…Is everything all right? With whatever that matter was downstairs, I mean?"

Isabel grinned at her husband as she slowly took off Oliver's clothes, while saying. "I love you too, Oliver. That little matter's been dealt with. Don't worry about it. Everything is just perfect!" Then, like many nights before and since, Isabel drew her husband into her embrace and gave him a deep kiss, which kicked off a love-making session that would last most of the night. For there, in Oliver Queen's arms, Isabel knew she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

The Queen family's story continues in the Final chapter of "The Demon Queen!"

Well, that story's done. I hope you all enjoyed it, even if was a bit more focused on family elements than romantic ones, unlike my usual stories. But please feel free to leave a review to let me know how you really felt about this story!

I would like to thank all of my readers over the years for their constructive criticism and encouragement! I would especially like to thank Czarna Pantera, and all of my other readers whose ideas challenged me to write a story with a slightly different take on the past Robert/Isabel relationship. And an extra special thanks goes out to my beta reader, for keeping my writing at least somewhat decent. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Until next time, I am…

-supercode