Disclaimer: All characters in this story belong to their respective creators/writers/studio. I'm just borrowing them temporarily.
A/N: This is my first fanfic ever. Something about the last scene in 'Warrior' inspired me to do this character study of Oliver. I'm just taking a dip in the writing pool so chapters will be pretty short. Hope you like it.
A Glass of Scotch
Oliver stared at the bottle of scotch as he slowly drank from his glass. Drinking used to be an escape, a welcome numbness to suppress the pain and disappointment. Now he was handling it better, didn't have to crawl into a bottle, or several, to escape the unpleasantness in his life. The penthouse bar was always well stocked but he didn't have any plans to get smashed. He truly appreciated a good single malt every once in a while and tonight was such a night. As his body and mind relaxed with each slow sip his thoughts turned to what had transpired in the last couple of weeks.
He hadn't purposefully ignored it but at the same time he'd never given it much thought. Not until Vordigan targeted Lois, Chloe and Mia. When he joined the Brotherhood of Sion he willingly took his vows to accept no lovers, no allies, no disciples. It made perfect sense to eliminate distractions in order to hone his skills. He realized now it was also meant to keep members removed from human emotions and unswervingly loyal to the Brotherhood. He'd learned much in just a year under Vordigan's tutelage but he had no desire to become the man Vordigan was making him. A man of the Brotherhood may have been ruled by the darkest parts of his being, empty of mercy or remorse, but not Oliver Queen. Despite the darkness in his soul, he just cared too damn much. Given the significant number of women whose lives he'd breezed through he wasn't sure if it was irony or karma that the most important people in his life, the ones he cared about the most, were women.