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Chp 2
Clark stood there, staring at the younger Queen for several moments. Then rolled his eyes. "Figures Ollie would have a brother and not say anything about it."
Tyler shrugged. "That's my brother." He cocked his head to the side a bit. "Um, not that I'm unhappy to see you Ollie, but can you two give me a moment? I'll get dressed and explain."
"Oh, you'll explain all right." He turned and walked back out of the room with Clark.
Once they were back in the main room, Clark turned to his friend and raised an eyebrow. "When were you planning on telling me that you have a brother? And did you mean, when you said 'me' like that, that Tyler knows you're the Green Arrow?"
"Clark, we've known each other about a month. You may have already found out my biggest secret, but Tyler's family." He was quiet for a few moments. "Besides, it's not only my decision to make."
"Okay, I'll give you that, but what did you mean by 'me'?"
"He knows what I do at night. You're the first person that's found out about my brother. Least in this manner. Actually, he's helped me come up with a few more devices to use on my nightly patrols. Did the security for the Arrow room as well as the penthouse security."
"Sounds like he's a handy person to have around, especially in your 'extracurricular' activities."
Oliver snorted. "Yeah well, Ty can hold his own, least most of the time." He poured himself a glass of water and took a long drink as he thought about all the different reasons his brother could be here. It wasn't that he was upset that Tyler was here, but his little brother usually called before he made an appearance. Something was bugging the younger Queen for him to show up unannounced.
"So how much older are you?"
Oliver chuckled softly as he turned back to face Clark. "Six years. Sometimes, I wish it was more and sometimes I wish it was less." He shook his head. "Didn't get to see a lot of him growing up after our parents died except during the summer and holidays. Least, not until he hit the 7th grade and then I saw him almost every day. He got skipped a couple of grades so he turned up at Excelsior when I was a sophomore." He grinned again. "Made my life a living hell, that's for sure. Then again, it let me see the kind of person he was becoming."
"Seems like he's doing okay."
"Yeah well, maybe on the surface, but something's bothering Ty for him to show up unannounced."
Tyler took a seat on the bed, the towel still wrapped around his waist, and put his head in his hands, taking note of the tenderness still present in his left wrist. He'd really expected more time to come up with something to tell Oliver and get some rest, but it seemed that the fates were not going to let him have that chance. A soft groan escaped him as he flopped back on the bed. Before he could stop himself, his eyes closed and he started drifting off.
Oliver checked his watch, frowning when Tyler hadn't shown 10 minutes later. "He should have been dressed by now." He set his glass down and started towards the bedroom.
Clark reached out a hand to stop him. "I think he's asleep Oliver. His heartbeat's slowed down a bit from what it was earlier."
"I still need to check on him Clark." He looked at him. "He's my brother."
With a nod, he dropped his hand and let Oliver go by.
He stood at the door and watched his brother for several minutes, mentally cataloging the changes in Tyler since he'd last seen him a month ago. A frowned deepened on his face when he noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the fading bruises on his side. He moved forward slowly and laid a hand on Tyler's forehead, accidentally waking his brother.
Tyler looked up and met the concerned gaze of his brother, leaning slightly into the touch. "I'm okay."
Oliver took a seat on the bed. "Funny, you sure don't look it and you're warm."
"Been a rough couple of weeks."
"Talk to me Ty, tell me what's been going on. Why didn't you call me if things were going bad?"
He sat up slowly, wincing slightly as his stomach muscles protested the move. "Things got a bit rough in my last training session with the school demo team. One of the guys was trying to make an impression on some scouts for the mixed martial arts teams and decided to use me as his punching bag. Guess he didn't think I'd fight back." He stood and went over to the dresser, pulling out clean clothes, opting for more comfortable clothes than anything else, dressing as he talked. "We fought for almost half an hour. Finally, one of the guys on the team realized that it was more than just a friendly training session and grabbed him. Ended up taking 3 of them to keep him off of me."
"How long ago was that?" It worried Oliver that his brother had been through something like this and he was just now finding out about it, especially considering how long his brother had been involved in different forms of martial arts. Personally, he'd never want to piss Tyler off bad enough to get in a physical fight with him. True, he had some experience in that field as well, but he couldn't hold a candle to his brother.
"About 3 weeks ago. I ended up spending a few days in bed under Andrew's dire threats to 'tan my bottom like I was a child again' if I didn't." He walked back over and took a seat beside his brother. "Then it was right back into the thick of things for school. Sleep has started to become a figment of my imagination."
Ollie sighed and slipped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "Come on, let's get you something to eat and then you can rest, okay?" As he waited for a reply, he couldn't help but wonder what else had brought his brother to Metropolis because he knew Tyler well enough to know when he was holding something back from him. For now, he'd let it alone, but he would get the rest of the story from him and soon.
Tyler nodded and let Ollie help him get to his feet, leaning slightly into his brother as they walked into the kitchen and found that Clark had been busy while they talked.
"Figured we could have lunch here. That way Tyler can get some rest after we're done."
"Thanks Clark. I still owe you a lunch out." He pulled a chair out for Tyler before taking a seat next to him.
"Looks good, thanks Clark." Tyler put a couple of sandwiches on his plate, but pretty much left the rest of the stuff alone. Eating took energy and he didn't have that much to spare at the moment. A double major with a double minor, finished in about 3 years, along with competing on several of the school teams didn't leave him time for much else, especially around exam time.
Lunch was spent with the two brothers catching up and Clark filling Tyler in on some of the things in his past to help the younger Queen get to know him. It was as easy to talk to the younger Queen brother as it was the elder, but he noticed there were subtle differences in how the information that he imparted was processed. While Ollie had taken it all in by having to swallow a little bit of pride at being found out himself, Tyler was absorbing everything like a sponge and asking questions that actually had Clark pausing before he could answer them.
They ended up calling an end to things as Tyler started falling asleep where he sat. Clark took pity on him and picked him up, carrying him back to the bedroom despite his protests.
"I can walk you know." When he didn't get an answer he sighed and mumbled as Clark laid him in the bed. "Bad as Andrew." He glared at Ollie as he came at him with a glass of water and something cupped in his hands. "Not taking whatever it is you've got."
"Just Tylenol kiddo, I promise. You need to rest and if you're as sore as you look, these will help. Although, I would prefer it if you let me take you to a doctor."
Clark bit back a grin. There had been a couple of times since they met that Oliver had needed a doctor and trying to convince the older man of that had been like pulling teeth. He'd been successful once, but that had been by guilting him in to going. It made Clark wonder if Tyler was just as obstinate as his brother.
Tyler was quiet for several minutes, watching his brother, almost forgetting that Clark was even in the room. It was then that he realized he'd scared Ollie by showing up unannounced looking like he did. Slowly, he nodded his head, taking the pills from his brother and downing them without arguing.
Ollie sat with him as he fell asleep while Clark left to take care of their dishes. When Oliver finally joined him again in the common room, he looked like he was carrying a heavier load.
"If you want, I can check to see if he has any broken bones." He watched as his friend slowly nodded, not talking just yet. Clark moved past him and slowly opened the door to the bedroom and walked in. For a moment, he just stared at the sleeping figure, noticing the slight differences between him and Ollie, then he moved closer. He laid a gentle hand on his forehead, noticing that Oliver had been right earlier about him being a little warm. A quick scan with his X-ray vision showed several small fractures, but nothing serious and almost all of them seemed to be healing. Slowly, he left the room and went back out to tell his brother.
"So what's the damage?"
"Well, you were right about him running a fever. He's also got a few cracked ribs and then he's got a hairline fracture in his left wrist. None of it is really serious, but having a doctor look at his wrist might not be a bad thing."
"I'll wrap it after he gets some sleep and take him in tomorrow to get it looked at." He sighed and sank back into the couch. "Think I'm also going to arrange for him to take his finals from here. He can do with the rest until graduation."
Clark raised an eyebrow. "You really think he's going to let you do that for him?"
Oliver nodded. "Actually, yeah. It wouldn't be the first time and I'll make sure he can still walk at graduation, but he needs to rest. There's no way he'd do that if he was back in Star City. At least I keep my extra activities confined to at night." He pulled something up on his PDA and showed it to Clark. "That's what his schedule for a week looks like."
The room was silent for a moment while Clark read over the list, then looked at Oliver. "Okay, so maybe trying to see if he can take his finals from here isn't such a bad idea after all."
He watched as Clark took a seat. "When I went missing for a while, Tyler took over as controlling shareholder for me. He wasn't even 18. Found out that he'd tried to handle all the duties of Queen Industries and still try to keep up with school. Ended up dropping out 6 weeks after a memorial service was held for me. When I was found and eventually brought back to the States, one of the first things I did was to find Tyler."
When he paused, Clark noticed that unshed tears filled Oliver's eyes. After finding out who the Green Arrow was, Clark had done some research into Ollie's past and knew that he'd been missing for a couple of years. No account was really given about what he'd gone through during that time. Now, Clark was really starting to wonder what all had happened during those two years.
Ollie sighed as he started telling Clark about his reunion with Tyler.
2 Years Ago
When Ollie had finally made it back to civilization, he took a couple of months to find out exactly what all had been going on while he was gone, especially with Queen Industries and Tyler. He was only slightly surprised to see that it had taken almost 2 weeks for Tyler to give in and have a memorial service, something that Ollie knew his lawyer would have pushed for more than his brother. It was the fact that no declaration had been made to have Oliver declared legally dead that out-right shocked him. He had felt certain that he'd be untangling a lot of paperwork to get himself declared alive again, but after making a couple of calls he had verified that Oliver Queen was still only declared missing. That, more than anything else, prompted him to see his brother before making contact with anyone else.
A little more digging had shown him that Tyler had assumed the role of majority shareholder, making him glad once again that he had a codicil in place that would allow Tyler to step in if he was ever indisposed for a length of time. The fact that his brother had dropped out of school shortly after had him realizing a little of how hard this had all been for the younger Queen.
So, without waiting any longer, he had headed for Star City, going straight to the office building. When he noticed what time it was, he went straight up to the penthouse. Almost immediately he spotted Tyler staring out over the city, oblivious to anything that was going on around him. He used that time to study his little brother.
He could tell immediately that Ty had lost weight and was paler than normal, making him wonder if his brother was sick. Then again, it had taken Tyler almost 3 years to get back to anything resembling normal after their parents had died. His desire for contact with his brother had him overriding his common sense as he laid a hand on Tyler's shoulder, only to find himself instantly on the floor.
The look on Tyler's face had him sitting up as his brother crashed to his knees and Oliver leaned forward, pulling his brother into a hug as sobs wracked the youngster's body.
"The first month after I got back, Tyler refused to let me out of his sight. It was a battle some nights to get him to go to bed and there were more times than not that I'd wake up and find him standing at the foot of my bed, just watching me. Other nights, I'd find myself running into his room as he woke up screaming."
As if on some sort of weird cue, a terrified scream rent the air, sending Oliver at a run to his brother's room.
