++++++ I honestly couldn't resist! There is a lack of Arrow OC fics on this site so I decided to give it a go! I am a fan of Olicity but there are still not enough OC fics out there.

I do not have a beta so all mistakes are my own and I will try and keep them down to a minimum.

I do not own Arrow, all rights belong to their respective creators ++++++

One

Imagine that the last thing that you ever tell your mother is that you hated her.

Imagine the pain you would feel because on that one occasion you didn't swallow your pride, hug her and tell her that you love her but you'll be okay.

Well I don't have to.

I didn't know my mother was trying to protect me, all I knew was that she was trying to stop me from ruining her dreams of my life and making the biggest mistake I could have ever made by getting on the boat with my father.

I thought it was cool to go to work with my dad on a three week vacation to China. At sixteen, I'd be able to tell all my friends that I got to spend three weeks on a yacht with party boy Oliver Queen-yes he had a girl with him but hey-I still got to spend three weeks on a yacht. I didn't care about school or the fact that my parents were going through a divorce, all I cared about was being able to brag to my friends, I mean-what sixteen-year old wouldn't?

Given what I know now, I still would have gotten on that boat but instead of yelling at her I'd hug her and tell her I love her.

Every day, every goddamn single day I was on that miserable island all I thought about was my mother and how she told me that the Queen's were dangerous and that my father was working for dangerous people.

I should have listened to her than but even now I wouldn't listen.

For five years I thought about her but with every passing day, her face drifted further and further away until I could no longer remember what she looked like, only a laugh, maybe a flash of a smile but nothing whole, nothing solid.

If I had been alone, I would have died but thankfully, I wasn't.

Oliver Queen, the only son of Robert Queen also survived. Every girl dreams to be stuck on a deserted island with their ultimate crush but the reality of it was harsher than anything I'd ever experienced in my life. Oliver was seven years older than myself and although we knew virtually nothing about each other he looked after me.

We weren't always this close, in fact, we were at each others throats to begin with when really we should have been helping each other. I don't remember much after the boat sank, only that Robert wanted his son to right all his wrongs and made him promise to do so before he shot himself…

How Oliver was supposed to right Robert's wrongs after being stuck at sea, had me stumped. If we didn't have each other I'm sure we would have gone mad.

The island tested us.

It pushed us and tortured us but in the end, it made us better than who we were-me most of all.

We learnt to do things on that island, it stripped us down to our bare essentials, leaving us raw and exposed before building us up bit by bit until we became stronger.

I lost track of day and months than very soon years.

Oliver swiftly went from crush to big brother in a manner of months. Don't get me wrong, the selfish Oliver Queen took a while to get rid of, he stuck around for a while until realizing that there was no way he could get off the island without becoming something better.

Me? I was a sponge, easier to mold. I was obsessed with three things, Doctor Who, parkour and hard metal music. A teenagers mind is truly void of many things.

We could have lived a whole life out on that island and died there alone and no one would have known. But we were lucky, we were lucky and were found by some Chinese fishermen who were fishing in the coastal waters off the edge of the island.

Oliver and I didn't realize how much the world had changed...neither of us were ready to return to Starling City and see how far into hell it had gone.

The rich had gotten richer whilst the poor suffered and died.

I didn't know how Oliver intended to right his father's wrongs but after five years on that hellish island, there was no way he was leaving me behind. In blood, I swore I would help him, and if I had to spill blood to do so-so be it. Oliver had spilt enough blood for me.

The name of the island they found us on is called 'Lian Yu'. It's Mandarin for 'purgatory'.

And in all honesty, that's what it felt like.

It felt like Oliver and I had been punished, thrown into purgatory for something in our past.

It was hard to not take it personally at first.

It was the happiest day of my life when we were rescued on that island, the fishermen that found us gave us warm clothes, proper food and delivered us to civilization.

I couldn't wait to see my mother again, my sisters, but the knowledge that there was a job to do weighed heavily on my mind. I had no idea how Oliver planned to do it.

When we were brought back to Starling City, Oliver and I were given separate evaluations from physical to psychological. I was x-rayed, given MRI's, asked a million questions that I didn't know the answer to so I didn't say anything.

It was late at night when I first heard the shriek in the corridor outside my room. I used to be able to tell the time but the city lights were messing with the sky. I already missed the silence.

I pulled the pillow over my head as I sat on the floor, suddenly regretting the fact I was home and alive. Oliver wasn't here, he was in the room beside mine, I'd heard his mother in with him earlier.

"River?" a timid voice called out. "River…it's mum."

I pulled the pillow down a little, keeping my face covered and my hand gripped around the scalpel I had stolen. The first weapon I had, was confiscated, the scalpel was easier to hide.

"River, honey…where are you?" she asked, her heals on the ground came to a stop just at the end of my bed. A small gasp escaped her mouth. "River, honey…what are you doing on the floor?"

I tucked the scalpel underneath the chest of drawers before pulling the pillow completely off my face. My mother had aged gracefully in the past five years, the green eyes that my mother and siblings had stared down at me, trying to make something of me. She knelt down in front of me, hesitantly putting her hand on my arm.

The first thing I noticed was the wedding ring on her finger. The new wedding ring.

"Mum," I whispered.

That word sounded so foreign to me.

Mum.

She pressed herself forward, wrapping her arms around me and squeezing me tight.

I winced internally, ignoring the pain from the bruises I'd gotten from Oliver a few days ago. He was better at close quarters, using strength to fight, I was more of a hit and run type, striking than coming back, hitting major organs to kill someone.

I put my arms around her and buried my face in her shoulder.

She smelt like fake apples and cinnamon.

That same smell I'd forgotten.

I closed my eyes and sighed, the sound of sirens roaring in the distance bore into my bones.

Yup…I was certainly home.

…Oliver Queen is alive.

The Starling City resident was found by fishermen in the South China Sea two days ago. Five years after he was missing and presumed dead following the accident at sea which claimed The Queen's Gambit.

…Queen is the son of Starling City billionaire Robert Queen, who was also aboard but now officially confirmed as deceased.

…five years after disappearing in a boating accident. Trust fund bad boy Oliver Queen isn't the only survivor of the ill-fated voyage. River Quinn, daughter of Queen's Head of Security, Roger Quinn, believed deceased, has been confirmed to have survived.

…their return has everyone talking. Where were they? And how did they survive all those years?