Connor Queen knew he was in trouble when he walked up to the house and noticed his bedroom light on. He had made sure to leave the light off when he snuck out of his window and scaled the tree outside so that his parents would think he had gone to bed. This wasn't the first time he had snuck out of the house to hang out with his friends, but it was the first time that he had been caught doing so.
Seeing no point in scaling the tree a second time when he had clearly already been caught, Connor walked to the front door and squared his shoulders. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped into the house.
He was immediately engulfed in the arms of his mother, who started to babble about how worried she had been when she went into his room only to find it empty and then couldn't track his cell phone and how late it was and how he could have been hurt and how much she loved him. He let her speak for at least thirty seconds before grabbing her arms from around his neck and forcefully stepping away from her embrace.
Over his mother's shoulder, he could see the equally relieved and stern faces of his father and his Uncle Diggle and couldn't stifle a groan.
"Did you have to call in the cavalry?" Connor asked, exasperated.
"You're lucky they only called me instead of going to the police the moment they realized you were gone," Diggle replied. "I better call off Roy's search. I'll see you guys tomorrow for dinner, Lyla's making lasagna."
Diggle stepped around Felicity and Connor as he walked toward the front door, fishing in his pocket for his cell phone as he went. With a clap on Connor's shoulder for good luck, Diggle opened the door to the cool night air and stepped out. The beginning of Diggle's call to his Uncle Roy was the last thing Connor heard from him as the door closed behind him.
Turning back toward his parents, Connor prepared himself for the looks of disappointment on their faces. While it hadn't been his intention to make them worry, he wasn't the least bit sorry for temporarily slipping the short leash he had lived with since coming to live with his biological father and his biological father's wife and daughters in order to spend a few stress free hours with his friends.
"Son, do you have any idea how worried your mother and I were when we found your room empty?" Oliver asked, closing the distance between him and Connor and placing his hand on the small of Felicity's back.
"Oh please, like you didn't sneak out a hundred times when you were my age?!" exclaimed Connor, rolling his eyes. "And I didn't even come back piss drunk, so at least I have you beat there. Peed on any cop cars lately, Dad?"
"As a matter of fact, I haven't." Oliver said with a clenched jaw. "And neither will you, considering you're grounded for two months. Your mother and I have already discussed it; no cell phone, no computer, and laundry duty for the next eight weeks."
Connor turned to his mother, who was usually a little more lenient when it came to discipline, only to find her looking just as resolute as Oliver did, if a little glassy eyed. She reached out to him but seeing he wasn't going to get any help from her and thinking the entire situation had been blown completely out of proportion, he started storming off to his room, shouting as he went.
"I can't wait until I can move out and start living my life. You guys are such hypocrites; do you know what Dad got up to when he was my age? I just want to be treated like an adult for once. I hate the short leash you give me and I hate living here and I hate you both. You're not even my real mother." Connor yelled as he walked down the hall to his bedroom door, slamming it shut to emphasize his point.
With the door shut behind him, Connor finally stopped to think about what he said in the heat of the moment. Regret and shame washed over him, but he was too wounded by what he felt was an overly harsh punishment to open the door and apologize.
He turned off the light in his room and fell into his bed fully clothed, tossing and turning for the rest of the night and getting no real rest.
When Connor entered the kitchen the next morning, he found his father making pancakes for his little sisters Sophie and Emma, his mother no where in sight. Sitting at the breakfast table next to Sophie and reaching for the plate of pancakes, his hand was smacked away by his father, who then placed a box of bran cereal in front of him.
"Pancakes are for the kids, you can have adult cereal," his dad said with a reproachful look at him.
The next few minutes were passed in tense silence as Connor moved lumpy cereal around his bowl and Oliver flipped pancakes at the stove. After finishing loading Emma and Sophie's plates with pancakes and syrup, Oliver grabbed Connor's shoulder and led him into the hallway.
"Are you going to apologize for last night?" Oliver asked in a low tone.
While Connor knew what he had done and said the previous night was wrong, his wounded pride was once again enflamed after his unsatisfactory breakfast rebuke.
"I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth, you guys are both hypocrites and I'm sick of it." Connor said vehemently.
"So you don't care that your mother cried herself to sleep after you stormed into your room like a child?" Oliver questioned.
It was clear from the look on Connor's face that this news took him by surprise and that he did regret what he said, but the Queen men were nothing if not prideful and stubborn. Connor simply raised his chin and said nothing.
"If you don't care about the fact that you made the woman who has loved you unconditionally for the past ten years cry herself to sleep, then you better start caring about the fact that that woman is also my wife and I expect you to treat her with respect. You want to be treated like a man? This is what I would very politely suggest to a man who made my wife cry. Go apologize." Oliver ordered through clenched teeth, walking back to the kitchen and leaving Connor in the hallway outside of his parent's bedroom door.
Connor approached the door and knocked softly, hearing Felicity's voice beckoning him inside. He opened the door to find her lying on her side in bed with smeared eye makeup and a worried lip, still visibly upset from the confrontation last night.
Connor was wracked with guilt as he crossed the room and kneeled in front of her, reaching for her hand and trying to fight his own tears at seeing the state she was in.
"Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I don't hate you; you have to believe me. I love you. I'm so sorry, I just wanted to hang out with my friends. I love you, you are my mother. I'm sorry that I ever made you think differently," Connor babbled. Once the words started, they didn't stop and by the end of his speech, Connor was sobbing on the floor of the bedroom, his face buried in the comforter.
Felicity's hand went to his cheek and he looked up to see her eyes shining at him, a soft smile on her face.
"I know that you love me, Connor. I guess you just hit on some insecurities that I thought I had moved passed years ago." Felicity said in a forgiving tone. "I think I always feared you would wake up and realize that you didn't need me."
"I do need you, Mom. I absolutely need you. I'm just a stupid kid who said a stupid thing that I didn't mean and I'm so sorry," Connor replied immediately.
Felicity scooted back a little in the bed and pulled on Connor's hand, initiating a comforting embrace as she had countless times since he had come to live with the Queens when he was seven. As Connor lay snuggled into the embrace of the only mother he had ever known, he realized that he had inherited more than just his physical appearance and stubborn nature from his father. He had inherited the love of a woman he so clearly didn't deserve and he resolved to be more open with his thankfulness to Felicity for accepting him as her son when she already had two children of her own flesh and blood.
An hour later, Oliver, Sophie, and Emma found the two huddled together, laughing and telling stories with wild hand gestures. Sophie and Emma immediately ran to join Felicity and Connor in the middle of whatever anecdote Connor was in the middle of, but Oliver stayed back long enough to take in the four most precious human beings in his life with a moment of gratitude.