Chapter 2 – Interrogations

AN: Thank you to those who have already followed and reviewed, I am so grateful to you! As ever I am utterly grateful to Rennie75 for continuing to be such a fab friend & beta, she makes my work make sense - all mistakes are mine however.

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except my mistakes lol. CW owns Arrow. I'm only playing.

Lance realised he had come as far as he could on his own. He decided that he needed to speak with Sara; he needed answers to all these questions, she owed him that much after everything they'd been through and him agreeing to keep her secret for those months until she was ready. Time for Sara to answer some questions.

Lance's POV

Lance was relieved when Sara showed up at the Chinese restaurant. He hadn't been completely sure that she would show when he'd told her they needed to talk – in private. He'd suggested that location as it had been their place to meet before she'd been willing to let anyone else know she was back, she was alive even. He figured that as she'd chosen it to start with then she might feel safe enough there to talk a bit more freely.

"Sara, thank you for coming honey. I wasn't completely sure you would show."

"You said we needed to talk?" Sara queried warily. Lance guessed he should have expected that wariness. Even now she was looking around watching, calculating escape routes or something he supposed.

"Yeah, listen Sara honey. I've been thinking, truth be told I've been doing nothing but thinking for the past few weeks." He was trying to keep his tone light but firm, but wasn't sure he was succeeding.

"About?"

"You … and the Arrow … and Oliver Queen." He wasn't imagining it, Sara had tensed the minute he had mentioned the Arrow and that tension had got worse the second he mentioned Oliver's name in the same sentence.

"What about them?"

Sara is better at this light tone thing than I am, a tiny part of his brain registered. Okay, so much for hoping that Sara would slip up and say 'him' instead of 'them'. But then he supposed she had lived for the past six odd years by her wits and been a part of this League of Assassins, expecting her to slip up so easily was pretty unrealistic. Lance had to keep reminding himself that he wasn't interrogating some two bit petty criminal. This was his daughter – and yet not.

"Like I said, I've been thinking. Trying to work things out really. I've got questions and I know you've said before that it wasn't the time for questions, but it's different now. Sara I need to know the answers to these, you can't keep putting me off. I kept your secret for you and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. Well now I need your help, I need you to explain some things."

"What things Dad?"

Lance was lost for words, didn't know how to continue. This is ridiculous, I interrogate murderers and drug dealers all this time, yet I can't ask my own daughter a few questions without getting stuck? He settled instead for getting out his notebook and opening it to the page where he'd written all his notes.

"These things." Lance said simply sliding the notebook over the counter to Sara. He went silent giving her time to read it and the expanded notes he'd now written next to each point. Lance knew she'd need time to process it, and to figure out what she was going to say in response. He stayed quiet, watching her face for any subtle clues she might give away. After all, even the most skilled operative gives things away sometimes when they're surprised. He was a Detective after all, even if he didn't currently hold that rank that didn't mean that all his training disappeared. He'd always prided himself on being good at reading body language – a skill that had come in very handy with two teenage daughters.

Lance wasn't sure if he was annoyed, relieved, or proud, when Sara gave away nothing whatsoever though. He figured that his best move was to not make a move, but just stay silent and wait her out. After a few minutes had passed in complete silence he started to realise that whilst waiting it out might work with most of the criminals he dealt with, Sara was a completely different matter and to be honest she could probably wait him out. Apparently a totally different rule book applied when dealing with Sara now than it did had when before she had gone on that damned boat trip.

Eventually Sara looked up at him; she was gauging his face, his body language, he realised. So much for me being the one reading the body language.

"Is this what you think Dad? That Oliver is the Arrow?

Trust Sara to get straight to the point. It hadn't taken Lance long at all to realise that the Sara who came back to him had little intention with messing around ever and now tended to come straight out with things – regardless of how uncomfortable that might be. None of his bullet points actually said that he thought Oliver was the Arrow, but that was still the end result of all his questionings. It had taken him hours, weeks if he was honest, to figure that much out. Yet Sara had come to that in a matter of minutes. Is that because it's true, Oliver is the Arrow – and Sara knows that?

If Sara was going to answer his questions with ones of her own instead of giving him a straight answer, then he had no intention of giving her one either. Two can play at that game!

"Is he?" Lance queried. "Is that why you trust the Arrow, trust Oliver, so completely? Why you don't seem to be concerned about his safety?"

"Can you give me a minute Dad, there's someone I need to speak to?" Sara said, but although she'd phrased it as a question it was clear to Lance it was anything but. Sara got up and, saying something in Chinese (Where did she learn Chinese anyway?) to the owners, she walked out the back of the restaurant getting out her cell as she went.

Barely a few minutes later she returned. "Dad, I understand all these questions you have, but they aren't mine to answer." He wasn't certain but thought that a flicker of concern passed over Sara's face for the barest fraction of a second. Whilst Lance wasn't all that happy with what she'd said, he couldn't help but be proud of her loyalty to the people (person?) in her life.

"So … I have arranged a meeting for you later this evening, with the Arrow." Sara said with a hint of hesitation in her voice. Was she unsure of whatever it was she had planned?

"Sara, honey it's not the first time I've met the Arrow, you know that." Lance said unsure as to what his daughter was actually planning.

"No, but it will be the first time that you've met him without the voice changer on." Sara replied.

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