A Single Spark

By Agent Malkere

Disclaimer: I do not own Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, or any of their characters.

A/N: This story takes place at approximately the same time as "Only Ashes Remain" and before "From the Ashes." Knowledge of those stories is not necessary to understand this.

The only good thing that Oliver Queen could say about the Lords' reign was that at least they hadn't made coffee illegal. Well, and nobody missed the paparazzi. Ollie tried not to think about the Lords too hard because when he did, his thoughts inevitably went back to Roy. Roy, who had tried to stand against the Lords before Ollie had finished putting a plan of action together. Roy, whose right arm was now a prosthetic below the elbow. Ollie had received the ultimatum from Batman only hours after Roy had been admitted to the hospital screaming in pain - if Green Arrow tried anything, then his former sidekick would lose his left arm as well. They weren't thoughts worth dwelling on. They accomplished nothing and just filled Ollie with a helpless rage.

The coffee shop was about a block away from Queen Industries, and Ollie was a regular. The paparazzi used to ambush him there, but they weren't around anymore. People mostly kept to themselves these days - quiet and unnoticed was the best way to survive. It rankled, Ollie hated it, but Roy's life had already been ruined enough as it was.

There was a blonde woman at the front of the line. Her hair was quite short with a slight wave to it, and a blue silk scarf was wrapped stylishly around her neck. Ollie had seen her there once or twice before, sipping coffee at a table by herself, but he'd never had time to stop and talk to her like he wanted to. Today was no exception. But there was just something about her that drew his eye. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Instead of giving the barista her order, the woman handed over a slip of paper. Odd. When she received her change- That was sign language. Ollie watched the woman leave curiously.

Ollie hadn't meant to pick up the book on sign language, but his thoughts kept straying back to the blonde woman, and it was something to do while Roy was in physical therapy. He had been going with Roy for moral support. It was the least he could do. It was also pretty much all he could do. His company was struggling. Roy was spiraling dangerously close to depression. Learning sign language seemed more constructive than brooding over everything that had happened. (He spent a lot of time learning sign language.)

It was nearly three months before Ollie finally put all his practice to use.

She was sitting at a table by herself again, staring out the window. The latte in front of her was still untouched. Ollie walked up to the chair across from her and waited for her to glance at him. Her expression was unimpressed and somehow resigned. Ollie gave her his best winning smile and slowly signed out the phrase he had memorized,

Hi. Mind if I join you?

Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise.

"I've been wanting to say hello for a while, but I wanted to work my way around the communication barrier first. It didn't seem fair to say hello if I couldn't understand your response," he told her and then signed, I still new at hands.

Ah, the embarrassment of having a very limited vocabulary. The woman didn't seem to mind though. She looked… just a little overwhelmed. Hopefully, he hadn't come across as creepy. Ollie watched her hands carefully as she brought them up and started to sign.

You learned - so you - talk to me?

Ollie nodded. He hadn't gotten every word, but he'd caught the general gist of it.

"You looked like you could use someone to talk to."

She smiled like she'd half forgotten that she knew how. It was a beautiful smile nevertheless. She gestured to the chair across from her invitingly. Ollie sat down and watched as the woman pointed to herself and then carefully spelled out with her fingers,

D-i-n-a-h-L-a-n-c-e.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dinah. My name's Oliver Queen, but I prefer Ollie."

Dinah's smile grew wider.

Dinah's name sign for Ollie was a variation on the sign for 'olive,' because it sounded sort of like his actual name and she thought that it was funny. She had moved to Star City several months after the Lords had come to power. She was patient with Ollie as her learned to understand her signing better and better, though sometimes they both got frustrated. She was funny, sexy, cynical, and smart, and she always wore a scarf of some sort wrapped around her neck, no matter the weather. Dinah had had a panic attack the one and only time Ollie had tangled his fingers in her short hair. It also only took her three months of dating him to figure out his former secret identity.

"Yeah, I was Green Arrow," Ollie confirmed, taking the bow from Dinah's hands. He hadn't been as careful about keeping it hidden since- well, since what had happened to Roy. He ran his hand over the grip. Ollie still kept in practice even if there wasn't much point. "Batman's got an eye on me, though. One false move and Roy loses his other arm." His shoulders sagged. It was such a relief to finally be able to tell someone. It had been eating away at him for almost a year now. A grief that he had no one to share with. Roy was doing better these days, but he could still barely handle his own problems, and nobody else knew who Ollie was out of costume. Most of his colleagues from the hero community, few though he had, were either in hiding or dead.

Dinah sat down on the couch next to him and twisted her hands together for a few moments, not looking at him. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she reached for her scarf and pulled it free for the first time. There were two neat scars on her throat. Two neat, very distinctive scars. Her hands were shaking as she tried to sign.

I was- She stopped and tried to start again. I was- But her hands were trembling too badly. Frustrated tears began pooling in her eyes.

"You were Black Canary," Ollie murmured softly. Dinah's chin bobbed slightly as she tried to dash the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. He remembered her press conference, her stand against the Lords, the horrific and very public consequences. Ollie leaned forward and cupped her cheek with one hand. "You are, by far and away, the most courageous person I know." Then Ollie wrapped her up in his arms as Dinah's entire body shook with grief. A few silent tears of his own slid into hear hair.

Things were easier after that. They both loosened up around each other more. Sparring became something that they did together on a semi-regular basis, and never in all his life had Ollie enjoyed having his ass repeatedly handed to him quite so much. The world was still breaking apart all around them, but when Dinah was with him, it didn't seem quite so bad. Even when Roy finished his physio and moved back out to the West Coast, claiming he needed space to find himself again, things didn't seem completely bleak and hopeless. Separately, they were lost and twisting in the wind, but together, Dinah and Ollie were strong. In the darkness of reality, they clung to each other and hoped for the dawn.

Ollie was awakened by an ice cube being purposefully stuck in the middle of his forehead. He flailed upright in a surge of adrenaline and windmill-ing limbs. Dinah was standing over him wearing nothing but one of his button up shirts and a frustrated yet excited expression. She was practically bouncing on her toes – a move Ollie would have appreciated much more normally (since she wasn't wearing a bra and Dinah curved in all the right places), but she was also holding an incriminating ice cube in one hand.

"What the hell, Dinah?! It's Saturday and," Ollie glanced at his bedside clock, "7am." He tried to flop back down again, but Dinah caught his arm before he could. Ollie groaned. His girlfriend was evil. And a morning person. It was a horrible combination. She gave his arm a good hard yank, and Ollie finally surrendered. "Alright, alright – you win. I'm up." He snagged his pajama pants off the floor and slid them on. Dinah dropped the ice cube in the waste basket by his dresser. "What was with the ice cube, anyway?"

You weren't waking up, and you need to see this! Dinah was back to practically bouncing again as she hurried out of his room. It was just as good a look on her from behind as from the front. Ollie followed her at a more sedate pace and took a moment to appreciate the view as he normally did when the opportunity arose. His girlfriend may have been evil, but she was also gorgeous.

The television was on and playing the news.

"In breaking news, authorities report that Justice Lords Superman, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter are depowered and in custody. Their fellow Justice Lords Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman remain at large, though evidence indicates that both of the latter have also been depowered. No official statement has been released, yet, indicating how these events came to pass…."

Ollie gaped at the screen as the image switched to footage of the armored vehicle supposedly transporting the three captured Lords to a secure facility and the news anchor rambled on, obviously straining to maintain a proper level of professionalism. The tightly contained relief was still coming across with every word, though. Ollie's head swirled. He looked from the screen to Dinah and back to the screen again. Part of him kept expecting to wake up, because this was just too good to be true.

"I'm not sleeping, right?"

I used an ice cube for a reason, Dinah signed, though Ollie could see the same anxious hope reflected in her face. Ollie stared at the television screen for another long moment and then finally let out a whoop of joy, a grin split his face so wide that it hurt. He picked Dinah up and spun her around and around, laughing with delight. Then he set her back on her feet and kissed her, because, come what may, this was a moment worth celebrating.

Ollie had never thought that he would put on his mask again, but in the wake on the Lords, the world was in turmoil. Star City wasn't one of the worse off, but it was in need, and he could help. It was odd, but as Ollie stared at the mask in his hands, he was almost reluctant to put it on.

Dinah put a hand on his shoulder. She was already geared up in her new Black Canary costume. No more fishnets and heels, and now she had her own variation on a utility belt.

Are you ready for this? she signed.

He slid his mask into place.

"Definitely," Green Arrow grinned. Together, he and Black Canary headed out into the night to take their spark of hope and make a bonfire.

A/N: Written as a prize for espiderhan. I hope you enjoyed it!

If you'd like to read more about Dinah and Ollie in this universe, check out "From the Ashes."