Arrow: Objects in Motion
By: Shadow Chaser
Disclaimer:
Arrow and all characters do not belong to me; they belong to CW, Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and DC Comics.
Story:
Chapter 3 – Survivors
Tommy wished he could dive behind the bar at Verdant and fix himself a very strong drink. But it would only invite everyone within view to start asking for drinks and he had no inclination to play bartender. Instead, he had excused himself and was now hurrying down the stairs of Verdant's basement. He stopped near the last few steps and paused, closing his eyes as he took in a deep breath and released it. Oliver always made things so complicated and now he had to think of a bullshit excuse for him to get out of being suspected as the Vigilante again.
It was not like he wanted to help, but at the same time, he did not know why he had opened his mouth to support the story concocted for Detective Lance. As far as he knew, it was perjury if brought before a court and exposed for what it was, yet… He shook his head as he opened his eyes and continued down the last few steps. And Laurel…
"My life is so complicated," he mumbled mostly to himself before laughing bitterly into the silence of the basement. He sounded just like a teenager complaining on facebook.
"You, didn't have to stitch him back up," the slightly slurred voice of Felicity mumbled from behind the partition and he looked towards it to see her hunched over one of the two cots, turning the stem of a mostly empty wine glass in her hands.
"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" he walked over towards the partition and peered in between it to see that the wine bottle was at least half-empty; or half-full if he was more of an optimist he supposed.
"It's one a.m. I think I'm allowed at least half a bottle right?" she peered up at him, squinting past the glasses perched on her nose.
"Then give me the other half," he took the wine bottle by the neck and chugged at least two mouthfuls, swallowing and coughing as the alcohol burned all the way down while quickly hitting him at the same time. Blinking, he stumbled a little as he tried to set the bottle back before righting himself. Laurel loved wine and while he was a social drinker, he really much preferred his hard liquor if only because the wine really hit him faster than anything else.
Felicity giggled drunkenly before shaking her head and then stopped, holding the heel of her hand to one eye as she squinted in pain. "Ow…shouldn't have done that."
"I think you've had enough," Tommy did not feel drunk enough, but at least the wine gave him the buzz he had been craving for since he had arrived at Verdant. However, he could see that Felicity definitely did not need anything else to drink and put the cork back onto the rather expensive wine that she had opened up before putting it on a dresser of sorts at the far side of the little studio area.
She sighed and stared at the rest of the wine that was leftover in her glass, "Yeah…but I certainly don't feel like I had enough."
Perhaps it was the buzz that he had from the alcohol, or maybe it was something inside of him wanting to ask someone else about Oliver's nightly activities, but Tommy leaned against the dresser and hung his head. "Why…why do you do this?"
"This?" Felicity sounded confused as he stared at the wood paneling on the dresser, but did not quite study it.
"This, this-" he gestured with a free hand towards the area where he had seen the arrows and computer set up. "All of this! Why do you help him? He's a murderer."
"Guess that makes me an accessory to murder," Felicity grumbled and Tommy opened his mouth to snap at her before she heaved another sigh. "Maybe I have an inner sadist, or maybe it's something else, but his body count is a lot lower since Diggle came aboard and then when I arrived…"
"Yeah right," Tommy snorted. He could not believe that the so-callled 'body count' was lowered.
"I first told him that I was helping him only to find Walter. After that, all bets were off," her voice sounded muffled and he turned his head to see her ducking her head into her sweater. Even with the early heat wave that always heralded the arrival of summer in Starling City, the basement of Verdant was surprisingly cool.
"You stayed," he said flatly.
"I stayed," she agreed as she sipped more of her wine, "God only knows why. I'd like to say it was because we figured out a lot of what was happening with the earthquake machine and the Glades being the target, but…" She shook her head, her ponytail swinging back and forth, "I can't justify what he does to you Tommy. I know you're asking those questions because I asked myself the same ones. Why am I helping someone who indiscriminately kills people, even if they are small time drug dealers, murderers, those that game the system…"
She finished the rest of the wine in the glass and placed it gently on top of a small end table near her cot, "I don't really know what Ollie was like before the island, but I do know that he's trying to help others, even if it means he's a murderer. No one should die, not even the ones gaming the system, but I'm hoping, just hoping that maybe Dig and I can turn Ollie's self-destructive tendencies towards eventually not killing people."
That got Tommy's attention, "Self-destructive tendencies?"
"You really think someone who's spent so much time alone wants to dress up in a costume to fight crime?" Felicity shook her head, looking at him, "Ollie's got a mission Tommy, and even if it means taking out the worst of the criminal underworld, he will go down with him. He will never say it out loud, but he knows that he's just as bad as them. So he feels a sense of responsibility to go out there and take them out. Maybe he's waiting for someone to take him out, but he believes if he makes a difference and dies with it, maybe he can atone for whatever mistakes he thinks he's made in his life."
"H-How…how do you know this?" it was hard to believe that Felicity could be so perceptive that even he did not pick up on Oliver's actions.
"No one who wants to survive would stab themselves through with an arrow to take down the person that had nearly killed him before," she stared at him with a leveled gaze, all traces of drunkenness in her eyes gone. "He could claim that he was surviving, but in actuality, I think he stopped surviving the moment he returned from the island."
Tommy did not know what else to say with that revelation, but at the same time, he wanted to deny those words. Oliver never had a death wish – that just wasn't possible. He had grown up with him after all and he knew his best friend. Yet…
"I don't even know who he is," he said to Detective Lance as he watched his father being wheeled into the ambulance. The gala in honor of his father's humanitarian efforts had turned into something else entirely.
But did it justify Oliver being a murderer? He had killed so many, had claimed to try to protect those he loved, but Tommy could count on one hand in the past year how many times he had been nearly gunned down by psychopathic assassins, see the results of someone kidnapping Laurel, was captured and tranquilized by thugs in horrible red masks, and even see his own father gunned down by a sniper. And now…to learn everything…
"Are you going to say that it's up to me now?" Tommy asked Felicity, but the threat was hollow.
"Frankly, I think I'm already on the Detective's shit list. If it wasn't for Ollie's call regarding the earthquake device, I probably would be sitting in a jail cell. I guess I'm not that great of a hacker if I can't remember to cover my own tracks from time to time," she smiled, her voice tinged with bitterness. "My only saving grace right now is that the SCPD is dealing with this and more interested in restoring order than to prosecute the IT girl who's been helping the Vigilante."
"There's Thea to consider…and the rest of the Queen Consolidated employees," his time working under his father had oddly made him more aware of the employees that Merlyn Global employed, having commuted to the office on a day-to-day basis. If Oliver was exposed as the Vigilante, then the employees of Queen Consolidated, no matter what, would be considered suspect in any future job applications due to their association with the company.
Even now with Moira's confession, the employees, especially those who had been with the company for a long time; if they were to look for a new job, it would be disastrous. There was not an official black list for such companies, after all labor laws put that to bed, but the court of public opinion sometimes overrode the written laws.
Laurel would probably be one of the few to escape this whole thing unscathed in the public eye, but amongst her friends, she would be a pariah – especially for dating the two men who were scions to their respective family companies. Poor Thea would be scrutinized and vilified by the public along with the rest of the Queen family. Even Walter Steele who had recently served Moira with divorce papers would come under scrutiny, the media pundits probably speculating whether his divorce meant that he knew what was happening and perhaps even faked his own kidnapping.
"I can't…" he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, "it's too complicated…and Ollie roped me into his bullshit story to the Detective…"
"You didn't have to agree. He specifically said to Dig that he was going to say he forced you to come here," Felicity shrugged, "I was pretending to sleep after Ollie woke up."
"He's my best friend…former best friend…ahhhh, I don't know!"
"Just…think on it, okay? Dig and I have our own reasons for helping him, but I can tell you that even he keeps secrets from us. Maybe, maybe you can be the person he talks to since he won't ever tell Laurel."
Tommy snorted, "Yeah, Laurel…" He pushed himself away from the dresser and turned to politely thank her but stopped as he saw a hesitant expression her face. "What?"
"I know you and Oliver have your differences regarding Laurel, and it's definitely not my place to tell you about your complicated love lives, but maybe you could be the one to tell Oliver not to abandon the others whenever Laurel's in trouble?"
He stared at her, a surge of unexpected anger rising within him at her callous words. Just when he had thought she was insightful and considerate… How dare she-
"Oliver doesn't think straight whenever Laurel's in trouble and from what I know, Laurel's job forces her into positions that I know her dad, Oliver, and even you don't like her to be in, but, I'm just saying…" Felicity wrung her hands, "I'm sorry, really sorry, I know I shouldn't have said that-"
Tommy shook her head, tamping down on his anger. It was not his place to snap at Felicity, for all that she had done, yet at the same time, he cursed her insightfulness for actually seeing what he had been trying to tell Laurel all this time. It was partially one of the many reasons he had broken it off with her, Oliver hooking up with Laurel not withstanding. He knew how much CNRI meant to her, but some of her clients were up against the worst scumbags of Starling City and the events of this past year just proved that danger followed Laurel around more than how Oliver sought out danger.
At the same time, he could not help but admire her courage in the face of the danger and her unshaken resolve to see justice done to those who had harmed her clients. It was one of the first things that made him attracted to her. She had the qualities that he wished he had instead of running away from the elephantine problem in the room – his father.
"I'll…think about it," he said quietly as Felicity nodded numbly. He shook his head inwardly as he left the studio and went to grab more water for the others upstairs. He did not know whether he could support Oliver in his crusade against those who had harmed Starling City, but at the same time, he also knew that he could not turn his best friend into the authorities. It was the worst Catch-22 if ever…
Tommy did not realize he had been gone long, but when he emerged from the basement once more, securely locking the door behind him, he was surprised to see that Verdant had cleared at least half of the population out. Juggling the two crates of water in his hands, he made his way over to the main Red Cross table and placed them down to the grateful nod of one of the nurses on duty. "Is…everything okay?" he asked, looking around.
"We started to direct those who weren't terribly injured to a different warehouse where they can use it as a shelter area for the time being since this is mostly the check-in point," the nurse replied, a middle-aged woman with black hair that was starting to just grey.
"That's good," he glanced beyond her towards the small partitions set up for medical beds and tented areas where some light surgery were going on. Many of the more seriously injured people had already been immediately shipped off to local area hospitals as well as air lifted to other city hospitals judging by the sound of rotors that buzzed the area once in a while. Where the helicopters found a place to land was beyond him, but Tommy figured it was best that way.
"I just wanted to thank you on behalf of some of my colleagues here for lending us Verdant's space. I know that it's normally open for business hours right now, but thank you," the nurse spoke up, "and no matter what the press is saying about your father, you're still good in my book, young man. You and Mr. Queen."
"Err…thanks," he scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to say after that, "um…do you know…?"
"Over there-"
"Hey! Don't you go blaming Susan and my kid for this you asshole!" the sudden shout of a man from one of the tents was followed by a crashing sound before two men suddenly threw punches at each other, tipping over a medical cart as well as damaging some of the partitions.
Screams and shouts of surprise erupted in the area and Tommy reacted on instinct, rushing over, noting some of the stationed police officers also rushing to stop the brawl between two burly men.
"Adam! Stop!" a woman shouted as she rushed out of the ruined partition, trying to force herself to stop the brawl. She was followed by a small child who also tried to wedge himself in between the two fighters.
"Hey!" Tommy reached the group and grabbed the two fighters by their arms, "break it up! This is a Red Cross center! Not your own playground!" He managed to grip the arm of one and shove him off of the other man, but just barely as the two backed off, the woman and child also standing by, all of them out of breath.
"He started it!" one of the two men wiped his bloody lip, cursing underneath his breath at the blood on his hands before glaring at the other, "and who the fuck are you to interfere-"
"You're Tommy Merlyn," the other man interrupted staring at him with eyes that seem to smolder with hate and Tommy had an extremely bad feeling as the others within hearing vicinity turned to stare at the altercation. Even some of the police officers who had arrived to help stop the brawl had paused, their hands going to the butts of their guns, but they did not draw it. Tommy did not want to know whether or not they would try to shoot him or shoot the once-brawling men who were now staring at him with something akin to mutual hate in their eyes.
"Listen-" he held his hands up in an effort to get them to back down.
"Your family's apparently responsible for all of this, yeah?" the man who had identified him growled, "so maybe I shouldn't be blaming Joe here, but you, right?"
"Uh-" he dared not take his eyes off of either man or the slightly growing crowd of curious on-lookers, or were they going to join in this impromptu lynch mob, he did not know. As far as he had known, everyone knew that Verdant was owned by Oliver Queen and managed, until recently, by Tommy Merlyn, but he supposed that he had put himself unobtrusively out of sight since people had begun to arrive that others had not noticed him until now.
He really was not a fighter, and it really looked like the two men could go straight through him like wet paper…and that thought was not pleasant. It certainly didn't help the recent buzz of wine in his system making him a bit queasy.
"Oh shit," he breathed under his breath as the first man suddenly moved to throw a punch and tried to duck-
Only to find the man's fist caught in a very firm, tight grip in Oliver's right hand as he appeared out of nowhere, standing protectively in front of Tommy. He gaped at the sight and watched, horrified and oddly fascinated as he could literally hear the bones creak in the man's fist as Oliver slowly crushed it to pieces. This close to his face, he could see the minute shaking of the fist and the cold, eerily steady one that was Oliver's.
"Don't even think about it," Oliver's voice was cool and calm as he stared at the man who threw the punch, "this is not the man you want to fight."
"Why?!" the other man replied, pain evident in his voice, "it's his family-"
"It was his father, whom Tommy here had no contact since he was eight. His father, not him, who was responsible for this," Oliver continued as if he was holding a normal conversation and Tommy cautiously straightened as he saw Diggle appear at the edge of the group, unobtrusively holding the other man in place to prevent him from throwing any punches.
"Yeah well how about yourself, Mr. Queen?!" the man sneered, but in the end was grimacing. Just how tight was Oliver holding onto the man's fist, Tommy had to wonder?
"I can be blamed for it, after all, I was given a position within my family's company and rejected it," Oliver replied calmly as if nothing was wrong, "yes, I could have stopped it, but instead I ran away. I'm sorry."
"Sorry isn't going to-ow-" Oliver finally released the man's fist and he stepped back, shaking it out, "isn't going to cut it rich boy. Not when you and cake eater over there can just waltz in and out of here like nothing matters-"
"You're right, we can do that. But I'm asking you not to blame Tommy. If you know Tommy, you know what he lost a long time ago. He's lost his parents and a lot more for a long time now. He's only trying to help," Oliver continued and Tommy grimaced. He did not want anyone's pity, but at the same time he could not help but listen to the words that Oliver said. They were certainly very persuasive and Tommy realized that Oliver really did not know how to lie, but rather, knew how to grey the truth and to occasionally gild it with gold. It was creepily fascinating as he recalled the times he had heard Ollie outright lie versus the times he had told a version of the truth.
"We don't need charity from you Queen, or your little buddy there Merlyn. We want justice-"
"And you will get it," Oliver interrupted in earnest, "just don't blame the children for their parents' sins."
"Or the abandoning of their parents?" the other brawler, Joe, Tommy vaguely remembered, at least he thought his name was Joe spoke up, his voice dark and Oliver turned, staring at the other man for a long moment before nodding. "Fine then," he shook off Diggle's grip on his arms, "fine then. We'll let justice run their course, but don't forget Queeny-boy, you'll get what's coming to you, if the Hood has anything to say about it. You and all of your one-percenter friends."
It took far greater amount of effort that Tommy realized not to laugh at that statement as the crowd started to disperse. He reached out to stop Oliver to grudgingly talk to him, but his friend moved away before he could say anything, his left arm now in a sling. The fact that Oliver was able to stop the man with just one move, even injured, surprised him as he saw him talking with a small heavyset man who had a wrinkled face, but sharp blue eyes. He looked Slavic, but Tommy wasn't quite sure from his vantage point as he saw Oliver gesture before the Slavic man looked at him.
He recoiled at the sharp blue gaze and made to look elsewhere, but then the man's eyes returned to Oliver before he nodded several times and the two shook hands.
"Oliver-" Tommy started, but his friend moved off without another word, leaving Tommy standing there.
It was by the reckoning of lightened clouds and the first peaks of a midnight night sky giving way to lighter purple and blue hues that Tommy finally had a chance when he wandered outside to physically check the hydro-fuel generators. He found Oliver standing by one of the gauges, staring at it as if it was the most fascinating thing ever and saw his friend start a little at his approach, treading gravel with each step.
"Did you sleep?" Oliver asked quietly as he tapped the gauge several times, but otherwise did not turn to face him.
"Can you sleep?" Tommy countered as turned to face the bay and marina where Verdant was located near.
"Not really," Oliver had turned and joined him in watching the sun slowly make its presence known, "not after…"
"How's the shoulder?" he asked, feeling awkward.
"Better. The doctors re-stitched it after getting a portable MRI and x-ray on it. It's now happily numb…or at least I've been taking painkillers to make it numb," he wriggled his fingers and wrist in his sling.
"Don't forget, no raiding Verdant's alcohol stash," he joked, wincing at the forced humor, but Oliver chuckled lightly at the joke and memory. The two of them had experimented with drug-alcohol combination and while it gave a strangely pleasant buzz, it was also trippy as heck and was one of the many things swept under the rug by both families.
"I gave Thea access to the manager's office so she can sleep in peace," Oliver continued, "Roy's outside the door."
"Big brother instinct," he knew Oliver would disapprove of any boyfriend of Thea's, but during the brief time he had employed Roy Harper, he happened to like the young man, even though he was a little…obsessively intense at times. Plus he kept Thea steady and on the right track, so he could not be all that bad – except for the various small time crime list he had amassed. "He's still outside the door last time I walked by."
"Good," Oliver growled out.
"Where's Diggle?"
"Asleep downstairs along with Felicity," Oliver replied and Tommy nodded and wanted to say that Felicity had some interesting insightful theories on him, but kept that thought to himself. It was clear that Felicity harbored something towards his friend and while he was all for encouraging her to act on it, he did not want her to get hurt if Oliver ended up rejecting her for Laurel again, like he was always going to do.
"So…"
"So…"
"…Laurel?" Oliver started after a moment of silence.
"Later," Tommy shook his head, "but thank you, for…earlier with the whole brawl that was about to be stopped and I was about to be pancaked-"
"At least you know how to handle a gun," Oliver murmured before wincing, "sorry, not the way it was supposed to come out."
"Yeah," Tommy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "but I think I should probably tell you this before more shit hits fan or whatever. I…I can't accept the Vigilante-"
"Tommy-"
"You're a murderer Oliver. I know that I don't have the right to tell you that and I don't know what you went through on the island, and I know it hurts you to keep it a secret from others, but…it's something that I can't accept, not right now. Just…don't ask me to do that, okay?"
"…Okay…" his friend looked a little sadder, but Tommy placed a hand on his uninjured shoulder, bringing his gaze to him.
"You have my support though. After…after my dad-" he took a deep breath, "it's something I also can't get and probably will never get, not until I ask my Dad what really happened, but… Listen, I will cover for you about what happened up on the roof of Merlyn Global, but that's it, all right? Don't…don't ask me for anything else." He met Oliver gaze with a steady one of his own and saw the acceptance in his best friend's eyes.
"Thank you," the corner of Oliver's lips quirked up in an attempt to smile, but this time Tommy was certain that this was Oliver's real face and that he had forgotten how to smile. And somehow, it hurt to see that.
"Just…do me one favor, all right?"
"What?"
"Don't…don't kill anyone anymore."
Oliver turned away from him and shook his head a little, "I can't guarantee it…"
"I know," Tommy replied, "but it's all I'm asking."
Silence greeted his statement as Oliver nodded grimly. It was not an affirmative, nor a denial, but it was something, and that was all that mattered to him.
Author's Notes:
I have a semblance of a plot! Sorta…still plotting the whole thing out, but it's more firm than the last two weeks. Also, apologies for posting this two weeks late, but I'm also writing in another fic at the same time, so both are getting my loving attention.
