"Ahhh!" The former drug dealer prison escapee screamed in agony and fear as an arrow attached to a thin steel cord entered his leg, causing the man to collapse into the street in pain. Only a few feet behind the perp, a man wearing a green hood quickly rappelled down the side of a nearby building using his bow and one of his arrows before nimbly landing on his feet onto the street without stumbling forward so much as an inch. The hooded vigilante cursed. "Damn it!"
The com link in the hero's ear crackled to life, and the sound of another man's voice was emitted by the device just loud enough for the vigilante to hear. "What happened?! Don't tell me the scum bag who sold those drugs to children got away?!"
The hooded man sighed as he pulled the cable out the still screaming perp and used that same cable to tie the once and future convict to a nearby telephone pole after he made sure that the man's wound wasn't putting him or his leg in eminent danger, and told Felicity to contact Officer Lance to pick the lowlife up. "No, Diggle. I got him. I just sort of… shot him in the leg by accident, instead of tripping him up with a cable arrow like I was trying to. But he's fine, and I got him tied up for Officer Lance to apprehend."
The man on the other end of the line sighed. "You are seriously off your game tonight. That was the second time you missed a shot tonight, after you winged that gunrunner in the arm earlier. You need to get your head in the game!" Beneath the man's stern reprimand, however, was a tone of concern, which both he and Oliver knew also meant: "Are you okay?" But both men knew that thought didn't need to be voiced aloud.
A woman on the other end of the vigilante's line, however, being the nervous rambler that she was, spoke that thought anyway. "Are you okay, Oliver?! I mean…twice in one night! You usually never miss with that bow of yours. I mean, some guys have been fast enough to deflect one of your arrows, or even catch one in the air, but you don't just…miss! Something must be really wrong for you to…"
Oliver Queen smiled under his hood as he noted the obviously high level of care for his person that was evidenced by the woman's voice. Truth be told, he actually found Felicity's nervous rants to be somewhat endearing, even if they were occasionally annoying. Not that he would tell her that. For a number of reasons. Fixing his face back into a stony expression, the man tried to push his thoughts away from the crush that he was all too aware the tech expert of his vigilante team had on him. Because thinking about the kind hearted Executive Assistant's feelings for him always took his thoughts in a depressing direction. Again, for a number of reasons. The vigilante sighed as he used his bow to draw himself up to another rooftop before he began his long trek back to the Lair. "No. I'm fine, okay? I just… I've had a lot on my mind the past couple of weeks, and I guess it's been making me too tired to aim right. I guess that just means it's time for me to turn in for the night and head back to the Lair."
Diggle and Felicity replied simultaneously. "Sounds like a good idea." "That's the most sensible thing you've said all night."
Without another word being exchanged, the hooded vigilante began his track across the rooftops of Starling City all the way back to the Verdant. As he did so, the man was completely oblivious to the pair of eyes that followed him from an alleyway at street level as he used his bow and arrow to get onto a nearby roof. A pair of hazel eyes, which were currently narrowed in interest and suspicion, that belonged to an individual wearing an all-black jumpsuit and matching ski mask. Nor did the vigilante see the svelte female frown before she got back into her vehicle and sped away.
…Several minutes later…
Once Oliver Queen arrived back at his team's Lair, he was bombarded with the expected barrage of questions. Including, "What's going on with you, Oliver?" from Felicity, and "Where was your head at tonight!?" From Diggle.
The vigilante sighed as he changed out of his gear in a dark corner off the room out of his partners' field of vision. Although Oliver knew all too well that Felicity secretly wished she could watch him change, even though modesty, and respect for his person, kept the hacker from doing so. Not that that was something Oliver wanted to think about now. He had enough problems on his mind as it was. He wanted to ignore his friends' questions, but he knew they wouldn't leave him in peace until he gave some kind of answer. So he gave them one that he thought they could handle. "Like I said, I've just had a lot on my mind, is all. Between my mother's trial, facing the possible takeover of my family's company, and trying to juggle handling all of the crime out there since the Undertaking happened and a bunch of inmates escaped from prison, and at the same time be a CEO…"
"Co-CEO." Felicity blurted out. "You know because of Isabel and…" From the annoyed look the two men in the room gave her after Oliver stepped back into view wearing the business suit he had on that night at Queen Consolidate before changing into his hero persona with the spare outfit and bow and arrow set he kept hidden in secret room at his company's main building, Felicity knew it was time to stop talking. "Right. Not helping. Sorry."
Oliver shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's not like I don't already know that the Vice President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor International is trying to take over my company and break it into a thousand pieces. And she seems to have taken the fact that I've stopped her from doing that, at least for now, quite personally for some reason…" For a long moment, Oliver wore an expression on his face that seemed to indicate his thoughts were far away from where he was, but the moment passed before either Diggle or Felicity could even begin to guess what the vigilante was thinking about. And in any case, both of Oliver's allies were too tired to guess what their "boss" was thinking at the moment, and they just wanted to go home and go to bed…unlike the third member and unofficial leader of the team, who shook his head. "You know what? It's late, you too should go home and go to bed. I'll need to see you both in the morning for work anyway."
Diggle frowned. "What about you? You need your sleep too, Oliver. Aren't you going to let me drive you back to the mansion to get some shut eye?"
Oliver frowned. "I don't think I could sleep just yet, Diggle. I'm going to go through some of those files on our computer on all those prisoners who escaped from Iron Heights Prison. It should help me take my mind of some of the other stuff that is going on in my life. Don't worry, I'll get myself home later and get at least three hours of sleep. Believe me, I've run on a lot less."
Diggle nodded his head, and Felicity awkwardly imitated the head motion of the black man as he spoke. "Fine. Just promise me you'll get some sleep before you go into work tomorrow."
The blonde haired man nodded before turning towards the computer in the middle of the room. "I promise I will do that."
Deciding to get in a few parting words of her own, the Hood's bespectacled tech expert added. "And be sure not to miss the Queen Consolidated meeting tomorrow morning, Oliver. Every time you miss a meeting, Isabel gets angry...well, angrier. And she seems to enjoy taking it out on me whenever that happens with verbal barbs and large piles of paperwork for me to do, and whatever else she can think of to make my day miserable. So just…try to be on time, okay?"
The gray eyed man nodded silently, not allowing either of his companions to see the contemplative, confused expression on his face as they walked out the door. The man sighed. He hated keeping secrets, especially from his friends. But it seemed lately, it was the only thing he was good at. Technically, everything he had told Diggle and Felicity had been the truth, it just hadn't been all of it. He was worried about his mother, and the future of his father's company, and about how he was going to contain the continuing fallout from the near total destruction of the Glades, which he still felt guilty he hadn't managed to stop. But there was something else bothering him too. Or rather, someone.
The truth was, in addition to all of the other concerns the man had, Isabel Rochev was on his mind a lot these days. And not just because she was trying to take over his company. The first day he had met the woman, she had seemed angry and hostile, but also very controlled and self-assured to the point of arrogance. But for a moment, just before the Hood imitators had broken into the board room of his company, he had gotten a good look at the woman's eyes. And what Oliver had seen there had spoken volumes more than the relatively few words the woman had spoken to him since then. The look in the woman's hazel orbs had revealed something about her he hadn't been prepared for. They suggested that, underneath the woman's anger, and from the hostility that Isabel showed Felicity, and indirectly, himself, on a daily basis, there was a lot of that, there was pain. A pain that only a person who had lost everything, or who believed they had, could possibly understand.
It was the same look that Slade had in his eyes after Shado had been killed by Dr. Ivo. And, more disturbingly, the same look that Oliver saw in his own eyes every time he looked in the mirror ever since he had returned from the island the first time. A look that exhibited that there were scars on an individual's soul that could never seem to heal. Evidence of a pain that never went away, and a loneliness that stayed with a person even if they were in the middle of crowded room, or in the privacy of the bedroom in the arms of a lover. All of this came with the feeling that one was completely and utterly alone, that there was no one who could possibly understand what it was they were going through, because words just feel so dismally short of being able to describe that feeling. Oliver had known that indescribable feeling all too well since the events that had occurred on the island, and the events that had occurred since then, and it seemed that Isabel knew what it was to feel utterly alone as well. Oliver Queen just didn't know what even had made the brunette woman feel that way, or why so much of her anger (an emotion that Oliver was also no stranger to, although he knew it was only a symptom of pain and loneliness) was directed towards him. What was worse, Oliver wasn't really sure whether or not he wanted to know the answers to those questions.
Because the male executive of Queen Consolidated knew it would be simple enough for him to try to find out. He could ask Felicity to do a background check on his business rival, and see if there were any traumatic events in the woman's past that would have led her to become the seemingly heartless ice queen she was now. Honestly, Oliver was surprised his assistant hadn't already run such a background check on Miss Rochev to find any weaknesses in the woman's armor. It was quite odd that his assistant hadn't done so, really, considering Felicity had mentioned that the female Co-CEO would frequently insult her in ways that were borderline abusive, and find other ways to make the life of Oliver Queen's Executive Assistant a living hell. For these reasons, Felicity had called Isabel a fair number of four-letter words and all but stated that she hated Oliver Queen's business partner. And the fact that the usually kind and compassionate Felicity hated Isabel spoke volumes about just how bad the woman's treatment of his assistant must be. Oliver knew that was something he needed to address as well, and that he really should just confront Miss Rochev and demand to know what was behind the woman's mistreatment of Oliver's assistant. If he could even get the woman alone with him for five minutes, that is.
The problem with Oliver's grand plan to confront Miss Rochev was simple. The woman seemed to be avoiding him since their first encounter. Oh, she would attend company meetings whether or not Oliver was there (although, as Miss Rochev seemed to never tire of reminding him through e-mails, or by using Felicity as a go between, that she attended such meetings far more often than he did). But otherwise, the blonde man's business rival seemed to avoid face to face communication with him like the plague, and she now avoided eye contact with Oliver whenever she did see the man in person, usually during a company meeting or when chewing him out for missing such a meeting. In short, Isabel seemed to have been just as shaken by her first encounter with Oliver Queen as he had been, and she had (temporarily) retreated away from the man as much as she possibly could while continuing to try to take over Queen Consolidated. Because, Oliver was sure, she knew that he had seen something in her eyes the first time they had meet, and there was something there that she really didn't want him to see. Something dangerous. And Oliver couldn't shake the feeling that knowing what that something was might be even more dangerous for him than not knowing. Which was why he hadn't gone through with the background check, either. Because, if, as Oliver suspected, Miss Rochev had gone through experiences similar to what he had gone through. If she had experienced true loss, and loneliness, and pain as Oliver had, the blonde haired man suspected that knowing whatever those experiences were might make him hesitate to act against, or maybe even make him sympathize with, his business rival. And that could make him weak, and vulnerable to whatever traps the woman might set for him.
None of this, however, made Oliver's curiosity over what made Isabel Rochev tick diminish in the slightest. And no matter how hard he tried, Oliver couldn't seem to get that woman, or the haunting look she had given him with her hazel eyes, out of his head. After an hour of sitting at the computer, going over escaped inmate files while his brain barely registered what he was reading. Oliver decided to give up not trying to think about Isabel and just go home to get some sleep. Hopefully, getting a few hours of rest would clear his head, and the situation with his business rival would seem clearer in the morning. But in the back of his mind, Oliver Queen doubted the situation with the woman would be that simple to resolve.
….Meanwhile…on the other side of town
The black sports car sped into the abandoned warehouse as soon as the door was opened, stopping only inches away from the one eyed man wearing an eye patch that was standing in the middle of the small building. Less than a second later, an individual clad entirely in black stepped out of the vehicle and slammed the door shut, just before the individual yanked off her ski mask in a motion simultaneous to the closing of the large door behind her.
Isabel Rochev scowled at her true business partner and mentor, Slade Wilson. "We have a serious problem, Slade! It seems you have allowed us both to greatly underestimate our common enemy. My… business partner, for the time being, is a lot stronger than we thought he was. I think it's only fair that you should know that our target, Oliver Queen, is the Hood!"
Slade Wilson smirked. "I know."
AN: Well, that's it for chapter 2. I hope you enjoyed it. I am a let concerned about my characterization of Oliver Queen so far. Namely, if I made my version of the character more introspective than he was on the show. I like to think that Oliver does a lot more thinking than his words express, but that's just my opinion. And yes, Isabel is still, more or less, a b!%$#y ice queen at this point, because I figured true character change takes time. But, as you can see, things have already started to change for that character because of Oliver's actions. For those of you wondering what Oliver's private musings about Felicity's feelings for him were about…you will find out later in the story. All I will say is that my version of Oliver has his reasons for not pursuing Felicity, in a romantic sense. Also, as you can see, in my story as least, Isabel did not know that Oliver was the vigilante until the events of this chapter, because, for reasons you will see in the next chapter, Slade did not tell her.
Furthermore, I know that the first two chapters of this story have been short, highly introspective and light on dialogue, but rest assured, that will all change as the story goes on, especially after the tipping point in my story, when everything will start to change. Finally, let me know if I made a mistake on the name Starling City has for the vigilante during this time. I was under the impression people didn't start calling him "the Arrow" until episode 3 of season 2, and this chapter is set before the events of that episode took place, but please let me know if I am wrong so corrections can be made.
Also, I would like to thank all of my reviewers for this story so far, highlander348, Troll99, and last, but certainly not least, Dante 101, who gave me some excellent advice about breaking up my paragraphs more for this story. I tried to do a better job with that when writing this chapter, please let me know if I succeeded.