Malcolm woke up with a startled gasp, all his senses alert. Emily was holding his hand and he squeezed it, but felt something was wrong.
"Where is Sophia?" he asked suddenly, his breath coming in haggard gasps.
"She went home, I let her out hours ago, while you were sleeping"
"Call her, please. And call Tommy." – he barked out, standing up, FEELING something was wrong.
Emily first thought he had had a nightmare, but decided to trust his instincts. Neither Tommy or her aunt picked up the phone.
Tommy might still be angry with his father and just block the connection, but her aunt had ALWAYS answered. Heck, she usually called Emily first, fawning over her favorite niece.
Dread almost made Emily fall, her heart starting to beat a hundred a second.
"They are not picking up, Malcolm."
He was standing by her side, but she moved away.
She quickly dialed her father's phone.
"Hello, Emily, how is it going in the States?" – he said casually, clearly on a break from a business meeting of sorts.
"Dad, get out from wherever you are. RIGHT NOW" – she screamed.
"Emily, what?. I'm in the middle of…" Then his phone clicked off.
She collapsed on her knees on the floor.
Malcolm picked her up and held her close as Oliver, Diggle and Felicity ran out from the basement, alerted by her screams.
"What happened?" – Oliver asked Merlyn curtly. "Where is Tommy?"
"Something is wrong."
"What?"
"Tommy left a while ago, we cannot reach him, neither Emily's aunt and her phone connection with her father just got broken."
"It's all your fault!" Oliver screamed, approaching the man menacingly. "You made another damned mistake that put us all in danger!"
Malcolm pushed Emily softly behind him as he faced the furious Vigilante.
"I did not do ANYTHING, I was asleep goddamn it!"
If Oliver wanted a fight, he would get one.
"Then what the hell is going on?!" – the boy screamed. "Aren't all the murders you committed enough?! More innocent people have to pay?! Your son included?!"
Malcolm felt the pain in his chest rise again, but anger was stronger.
"Hah, speak about YOURSELF some more, will you? The Starling City Vigilante, oh so innocent. No casualties involved in YOUR activities." – he snarled.
"Not as serious and cruel as yours!" – Oliver screamed, approaching ever more closely.
Diggle met Emily's eyes. There was a silent, mutual agreement. This was getting too much out of control. It had to be stopped.
Emily was at a loss what to do, but the only idea she had was to run between the two men, while Diggle put a firm hand on Oliver's arm.
"Shut up and stop it, the both of you, That's ENOUGH!" – she screamed at the top of her voice, and boy, the woman had a voice and it froze them in their places, like the Ice Archer she was. Everyone in the room flinched at the pitch of her voice, Felicity covering her ears with pain.
Diggle pulled Oliver a few paces away and spoke something silently in his ear.
Emily turned on Malcolm. "What on Earth are you doing?!"
He never saw her this angry. At him, nevertheless. Caress, the wolf, came out growling from one of the rooms.
Malcolm decided they were facing a crisis as it was, they did not need more.
"Oliver" – he said levelly, the pain in his chest rising again.
The boy seemed to have calmed down a bit from whatever Diggle told him and approached Malcolm, without menace this time.
"Yes?" – he said just as levelly.
Malcolm decided to go straight to business. He took a deep breath, not letting his pain show, then said: "Tommy and Sophia and Emily's father are clearly missing. I KNOW something is wrong. We have to face this and not fight."
"Allright." Oliver said with a sigh, and turned away from the man, throwing him a look of disgust over his shoulder.
Diggle, Emily and Felicity all breathed a sigh of relief. At least they were facing one war now, not more.
The pain in Malcolm's chest suddenly rose at the look Oliver had given him. He kept standing straight, closed his eyes for a beat, but it all became too much to bear. Tommy despising him, now Oliver, even he despised himself.
"Oliver…" - his voice came out in a hoarse whisper that made the young man turn back around in surprise. Like Emily before, Oliver noticed the haggard way Merlyn looked.
"I don't want to fight with you anymore… I'm tired of this." – Malcolm said, taking a few hesitant steps toward the boy.
His chest kept bursting with pain as he held back a gasp, stopped and looked at Oliver, at a brink of breaking down.
Oliver looked into Merlyn' eyes, seeing something there that he had never seen before, even when the businessman had been thrashing in his car from the poison.
Truth.
The blue eyes held his and there was not a trace of deception in them now, not even confidence. He had never seen this man like that.
Diggle and Emily shared a look again, but none of them moved. This moment was pivotal and belonged to the two men who stood in front of each other.
Malcolm forced himself to take a few more steps and now he and Oliver were inches from each other.
It took all the strength Malcolm had to hold himself straight. He did not want to make any sudden moves, not to make Oliver think he was tricking him, so he just reached out to shake his hand. The boy grabbed it and Malcolm surprised both of them as he pulled Oliver into an embrace.
"I'm sorry" he whispered the words he found he kept saying more and more often recently, now so quietly only Oliver could hear them. The boy surprised him by holding on and whispering, as low as him:
"I know." Malcolm leaned on Oliver, almost collapsing against the boy with the relief of not being rejected.
Felicity decided to come up to them, saying – "I think we all need more food." Her eyes shot to Emily, female understanding female. "We order the meat pasta again?"
Emily nodded and Felicity grabbed her phone.
Diggle had an idea. "Let's order some steaks too. I know a place." He took out his own phone.
"Ok." Was all the girls said and Emily wordlessly brought the rest of the wine to the table as Malcolm and Oliver slowly walked up and sat on the couch. She ran for more glasses too and poured generous portions for both of the men.
"Umm, Diggle." she piped up. Order an extra steak for Caress, will you?"
"Of course."
She ran to bring the dog some water in a bowl. Poor thing had been forgotten in this ordeal.
Oliver tentatively moved slightly closer to Malcolm as Emily brought them the wine. There were no toasts this time, either.
Malcolm kept taking silent deep breaths, and Oliver suddenly realized he was still in pain from the poison he had administered to the man. Heck, he had no idea what the thing did in the long run.
"Merlyn?" He grabbed the man's shoulder and he turned towards him.
"It's still the poison, is it not?"
The man swallowed, lowered his eyes. "I don't know." He said slowly, taking a small sip of the wine.
Oliver knew he was being cruel again, but he could not help but ask. He felt like the Count who had sold Vertigo, but he had to ask to know the full effects.
"What does it feel like now?"
Malcolm took a deep breath and touched his chest.
"Mainly pain." He said vaguely, not looking at Oliver.
"Where exactly?" The boy kept pushing, his cruelty taking over for a while longer.
Merlyn swallowed thickly.
"My chest." In a sudden gesture, he pulled Oliver's hand to the place where it hurt most.
Oliver left his hand there, all the cruelty leaving him, compassion replacing it. He felt how fast Merlyn's heart was beating, how he tried to keep his breathing even, but the boy had gone through too much suffering not to know this was a façade.
Malcolm slowly removed Oliver's hand from his chest, leaning over to take another sip of his wine.
Oliver had to admire how this man could handle pain.
Felicity suddenly ran up with two water bottles for them and they both drank it thankfully. Malcolm downed the whole bottle in a few gulps, making Oliver see how dehydrated he must be.
."Bring some more, if you can." he asked.
"Sorry, more will come with food delivery. We have to wait."
Oliver looked at Malcolm. The man seemed to nap, but then his eyes suddenly snapped open.
"There should be water in the basement. A whole container." – he said.
Oliver ran down, and it turned out Merlyn had remembered right. There was a six bottle pack of water in the basement fridge.
He took the whole thing. "Felicity, we have a six pack of water from the basement!"
He handed Merlyn a bottle and he had drank half of it before Oliver could blink.
"Thank you" – Malcolm said, putting back the water and reaching for the wine, taking another small sip.
His eyes closed for a moment as he leaned on the couch and then Oliver pulled him closer, falling into a nap himself.
Felicity went into the room and almost fainted as she saw the two arch- enemies holing each other in a nap together. Emily came running after her and smiled softly at the sight.
The doorbell from the delivery man woke up the men again and brought Diggle out from the same library/ office room Emily had stayed in before. Emily paid the man, took the food and handed it to Felicity to put on the plates.
Then they sat at the table to eat.
Caress was wagging her tail as she bit into her steak a few meters off.
Emily eyed Malcolm, but he seemed to have developed some of an appetite and dug into his Bolognese and steak with gusto.
Oliver and Diggle seemed even more ravenous. So they ate even faster than him. Felicity and Emily had developed even more appetites, with all the running around, so they dived into the Bolognese as if there was no tomorrow.
They were almost finished with their meal when Malcolm telephone rang.
"Yes?" He answered with some annoyance, thinking it was someone from the company. Then his hand froze on the phone and he glanced shortly at Emily.
"I understand. Thank you. Stay in touch, SOON.." He clicked off, but his gaze returned to Emily and he rose from the table, walking up to her. Everyone stopped their eating, watching him approach her.
Emily dropped her fork and jumped out from her seat.
"Darling…" He surprised everyone else by the table except Emily with the tenderness and the endearment he called her.
"It's about your mother's murder. It was the League, in some connection with the mob, my contact just told me."
Emily made them all jump up by suddenly laughing madly.
"Of course, my daddy and mommy had to have had dealings with ALL of them." She kept laughing bitterly, until she suddenly stopped, staring at the table. She took the empty glass from the wine and threw it against the wall in violent anger.
Caress stepped away from her bowl, the wolf growling in sync with her mistresses' wrath.
Both Malcolm and Felicity walked up to her, but she threw their hands off, clearly in a world of her own. She went up to the crashed glass and started gathering it up.
"Bring me a bag." She shot over her shoulder.
Felicity ran to the counter to oblige, leaving Merlyn by her side.
"Emily." He said firmly and he put a hand on her arm, not to be discussed.
"Malcolm" she almost whispered, after a beat, softly removing his hand from her arm. "I need a few moments, okay?" He let go, reluctantly, and moved back.
Felicity returned with the bag and Emily kept removing all the… shattered glass. Her whole life seemed like it now. But she was a Vanderbilt, or a Merlyn soon? She kept at it. There was no trace left after she took a rag and wiped the wall, with Felicity's help.
They were both so determined, so strong. The men tried to come up and help but were waved off every time. They could only admire their resiliency.
Once they were finished, both Felicity and Emily said in sync: "Time to move out of here."
They were almost on their way to the cars when suddenly too many people crashed through the windows.
Malcolm recognized them as members of the League first and jumped for his bow.
"Grab yours, now!" was all he had to scream to Oliver. Emily dug in her bag for hers, withdrawing fast, Diggle taking out his gun and diving into a strategic place in one of the rooms to hide.
It was The League and Talia leading the way.
She kicked the door open, a smile on her face.
They were ready with their weapons, but not for whom she was pushing tied in front of her. Tommy, Sophia and Emily's father.
She walked in like she owned the place. "Well, look who we have here."
She saw Oliver and Malcolm, bows drawn, but the other members of the League had them surrounded.
"Hmm, whom shall we torture first?" - She said leisurely.
Like Malcolm had said before, he was tired of all this.
He kept his bow drawn and aimed at Talia, but he surprised all of them when he suddenly turned and shot one of her warriors who had gone through the windows. His aim was true, as always, and the man was dead before he hit the floor.
Oliver understood what he was doing. Should an arrow go astray, they would risk shooting one of the hostages. He did a fast turn and another League member who had jumped in through the window was down.
Emily was not far behind. She made sure Felicity was hidden under a bed, with a gun, of all things they had found in a drawer… Malcolm seemed to have had hidden weapons all over the place.
She quietly moved to the next room, not to draw opponents to where Felicity was and shot another League member who had come from the window.
Two more remained, aside from the three who came in after Talia, leading in the hostages. Caress had jumped out of her place and kept growling, standing next to Emily. Emily found herself behaving like her wolf, baring her teeth at Talia and diving for her. Having observed Malcolm, she also had ordered a knife which he now strapped to her hand belt.
"Emily, no!" Malcolm managed to scream, but it was too late. The two women crashed and grabbing Emily, Talia laughed gleefully. "Guess you are the first one to be tortured, along with your daddy." Talia did not know what she was in for. Both Emily and her wolf seemed to be beyond determined and hungry for blood. Emily used her bow to hit Talia, like when she saw Malcolm fight, and Caress bit into her leg.
Malcolm saw the women fight but from this distance he could do nothing to help, so he turned and aimed his bow at the League warrior holding Sophia. He managed to kill him, a shot straight to the heart.
Oliver aimed at the one holding Tommy. His aim was true as well, and the man was down.
Now the only one that remained was the one holding Emily's father. He was a smart one, pulling his hostage in front to protect himself.
Oliver felt surprised when he heard Malcolm draw his bow. Only the warrior's head was sticking out slightly. The arrow shot out and the warrior was down, shot through the eye. Emily's father was free.
Whoa. Oliver found himself admiring the other archer and realizing how much he still had to learn.
Suddenly, they heard gunshots behind them, both turned in a flash and saw the two remaining warriors dropped by shots… from two rooms? The machine gun ones were clearly Diggle's. But the other one? Oliver ran to the next room and saw Felicity holding a gun just shot, while Malcolm ran to Emily and Talia.
"I..I..I killed him, didn't I? " – Felicity asked, holding the gun down.
"Yes you did."
"Wow, I never downed a bad guy before."
"Now you did."
Talia and Emily kept exchanging hits, but the League woman was surprised by Emily's ferocity. Then Malcolm run close, but he stopped. "Kick her in the ribs, Emily. They surely have not healed since the last time I did it."
Emily did not need to be told twice. The Ice Archer kicked and kicked again, like the Dark Archer instructed and he had been right.
Talia collapsed, her ribs still clearly healing and hurt, but Emily kept kicking with the ferocity the Dark Archer himself would be proud of. Talia seemed unconscious or dead on this floor, but Emily did not care. The woman had hurt her, Malcolm and her father. Both her greatest treasures. There was no forgiveness for this.
They ran through the corridor, meeting Diggle, Oliver and a shaken Felicity on the way. Emily embraced the other woman.
"Is Talia dead?" Diggle asked.
"Dead or unconscious?" Malcolm asked. Diggle walked to the fight site, holding his gun, just as Malcolm followed, holding his bow.
"She needs to be dead." Diggle said to Merlyn, getting ready to aim his gun.
"Wait." Malcolm said, readying his bow.
"I will be the one to do this."
Then he aimed and shot an arrow straight through Talia's heart. Diggle stared for a while at the man doing the job he had intended on finishing, then reached out and squeezed his arm. He believed it was the first time had he had seen the Dark Archer at his craft personally.
Malcolm turned and they looked at each other, mutual respect of fellow warriors expressed wordlessly. Talia's shocked eyes remained opened and Malcolm surprised Diggle by kneeling over her and closing them.
Emily had ran to her father to untie him and help him up.
"Daddy!" she whispered in a small voice as Felicity tended to Sophia and Tommy. She saw how battered they all were, but her father was not a weak man and he stood up with a little of her help, taking in a deep breath, staring a little at the bow in his daughter's hands.
They noticed Diggle and Malcolm walking up. "The bitch is dead." Diggle said flatly at the unasked question in Emily's eyes.
This was the first meeting of Malcolm and Emily's father and Merlyn reached out his hand to shake the other man's. Janus Vanderbilt was not one to hesitate and reached out his, carefully eyeing the man his daughter had clearly begun to love so deeply.
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Vanderbilt, although I wish it was under other circumstances." – Merlyn said curtly, but kindly.
"I wish so too. There has been enough tragedy in both these families already."
Malcolm only nodded silently and his eyes then shot to Tommy.
Diggle was kneeling over him, checking for damage as the boy moaned. Malcolm felt the pain in his chest rise again as he ran over and kneeled next to Diggle. The military man had examined the boy and said to reassure Merlyn :"No permanent damage, but he is pretty battered."
"Tommy." Malcolm held his child to his chest and wished for the umpteenth time in his life that he could undo what had been done. He felt such relief as the boy leaned into him and did not throw off his embrace with anger. "Dad." – Tommy whispered softly.
"Sophia is mainly okay too, although battered as well". Diggle informed loudly, having had moved to the woman, whom Emily and Felicity kept fawning over, to give son and father their privacy.
Again, Merlyn and John's gazes met as they nodded in silent warrior understanding.
They had to go to the living room and let the wounded rest. Malcolm grabbed Tommy, Emily led her father by the hand and Felicity and John supported Sophia. Tommy was carefully laid on the couch, Sophia on a large, couch-like armchair and Emily's dad sat in a chair in front of them. Bottles of water were distributed and everyone drank gratefully.
"I guess it is time for another food order." – Felicity piped up and Emily nodded, taking out her phone, just as Diggle did the same.
"I will take care of the steaks, you the Bolognese." He said and Emily nodded quickly. Malcolm slowly went to his study for some more whiskey, thinking everyone deserved a stiff one. They all accepted it thankfully as he brought the carafe and poured. The food was ordered and they all waited. Half an hour later a doorbell rang. Malcolm went up to open and was he in for a surprise.
Moira Queen stepped through the door, a gun aimed at his chest. "I come here courtesy of Ra's al Ghul. She threw a look at the dead Talia lying on the floor. "I came to finish the job she failed to do."