So fair warning a lot of cursing in this chapter cause Carter got mad….really mad.

A month later

Date: February 13

My phone rang while I was on my way to the zeta tube for another night shift at the Watchtower. I answered it and pressed it against my ear. "Yes?"

"See you finally turned your cell phone back on," Dinah's voice said annoyed.

"I finally got around to it," I said neutrally. I could understand her annoyance, I was almost two months without a cell phone just because I didn't feel like it.

"They found him."

I was silent for a moment, "They found Roy?"

"Yeah," she said with a sigh of relief. "Carter, he is in bad shape."

I took a deep breath, "How bad?"

"He needs help, we are going to try to make him see reason tonight," she said, trailing off.

"And you want me to be there to bust his balls?" I finished for her.

She let out a small laugh, "If anyone can get through to him you can."

"No promises but I'll try."

"I'll send you the information."

I watched as he tumbled to the ground. He had shot an arrow into the wall of the building we stood on. He flew down the wire from another building and couldn't stick the landing. He landed right in front of Oliver.

"Hey, Roy," Oliver said reaching a hand down, "Need a hand?"

Roy slapped the hand away and got up, "No."

"Well, we think you do," Dick said from his spot. We all walked out into view Oliver, Dinah, and Dick suited up with Wally, Jim Harper (Cadmus clone of Roy's uncle and used to be Guardian) and myself were in civilian clothing.

Roy immediately went on the defensive, "I have nothing to say to any of you. Nothing to explain, nothing to justify," he said angrily. He picked up his bow off the ground and began to storm away. Oliver grabbed the stack of cash hanging out of his back pocket. An hour earlier he stopped a burglary of a corner store and took some of the money for himself as a reward.

"Nothing?" Oliver asked.

Roy didn't turn around, "It's not what it looks like," he said and he turned around, "I mean that store owner won't miss it and he offered me a reward anyways. Besides, I deserve it. He wouldn't have any of his money back if I hadn't stepped in."

"Do you hear yourself?" Wally asked angrily.

Roy snatched the cash out of Oliver's hand. "Look, I need it. I need it to find Speedy the real Roy Harper."

"No, Roy," I said stepping forward, "What you need is a fucking shower. What you need is to stop trying to drive yourself insane over someone who might not even be still alive. What you need is to come home."

"Really do you have any room to talk about what someone else needs?" he said icily.

I narrowed my eyes, "You want to go there, Harper, fine let's go there. Do I drink my sorrows at three am in the morning with wine? Yes, have I been a basket case for the past year ever since Kaldur left? Yes, but guess what, asshole, I can at least admit that and I am finally doing something about it." I walked up to him and stopped. "What's your bull shit excuse?"

"I don't have to hear any of this," he said defensively, "I am trying to find the real Roy Harper and it's costly when the rest of you have given up."

"Roy, I know you feel lost," Dinah said approaching him.

He turned his back and walked a couple feet away from her, "I'm not the one who is lost."

"When was the last time you trained? The last time you slept?" she asked.

"Don't even start," Roy said, "I'm in the best shape of my life."

"Oh really," Dinah said. She began kicking at him he kept backing away until the back of his legs hit the edge of the roof and he began to fall. Dinah caught him by his shirt and pulled him back. "Best shape of your life?" she asked in muted anger, "That was me holding back, way back." She softened up and released her hold of his shirt. "Roy, you used to treat your body as a temple but now—"

She was cut off by him falling to the ground, "My body is no temple," he protested, slightly out of breath. "It's a cheap knock off. A clone."

Oliver approached him and held out a hand. "Roy, come back to Star City," Oliver begged, "It can be like old times training fighting crime, just hanging out."

"I'm sorry you must have me confused with the real Roy Harper," Roy said angrily getting in Oliver's face. "You know, the one you stopped looking for."

"Because there were no more leads," I said angrily, "We tried everything, Roy, every lead we could find was a dead end."

"You stopped trying when I found your family," he snapped.

"I didn't stop looking because you found Cassie and Jackson. I stopped looking because there was nowhere else to look and life got hard, Roy."

"Stop calling me that," He said, "That shouldn't be my name I stole it like I stole everything else. He was the original, the one you stopped looking for. Me, I am just a—"

"We get it," Jim said approaching us, "You are a clone. But you are not the only clone on this roof top. And I know from personal experience how tough it was to come to grips with being a copy of someone else. That's why I gave up my identity as Guardian, so that I could figure out who exactly Jim Harper was and who Jim Harper is supposed to be."

"That's not the only thing you gave up," Roy stated angrily.

"Roy, you know we both spent years looking for the original Speedy and everyone else here did the same and no one else found him. Because the light didn't keep him alive. It was Cadmus policy to delete the source material," Jim said sternly before relaxing. "He is dead, Brother, which is all the more reason you have to live. To honor the Roy that was."

"They didn't delete her siblings as source material," Roy said angrily.

"That's because Lex Luthor is a selfish egotistical prick who wanted to make sure his cancer didn't come back," I snapped, "Or who knows? Maybe he was actually being sentimental. But unless it isn't for his or the Light's personal gain he doesn't give a shit."

"Are you done?" Roy asked glaring at me. If I didn't feel so sorry for him, I would have thrown him off of the roof. He is lucky….so lucky. "You want to salvage someone's soul? Go get Kaldur to see the light, I hear he needs course correcting but leave me out." He walked to the edge of the roof, "Write me off or don't. Either way, blow." He jumped off the edge.

I looked to Dinah and Oliver they both nodded at me. "I don't think he knows I placed it, find out where he is staying," Dinah said, during her fight she had placed a tracking device on Roy.

"I'll find him," I declared, "And I'll try not to beat the crap out of him… no promises."

I followed him to a crappy neighborhood twenty minutes away from our little pow-wow, entering an abandoned building. I stayed out of sight and waited to see he knew I was there. I went to make my move when I saw someone else slip into the building. "What the hell is she doing here?"

I flew myself over to the building and entered floor below. "Chill, Red, I'm not here to fight," Cheshire said. I was just outside the door now. "I'm here to make you clean up your act." Why the hell do you care? I thought mentally.

I heard Roy sigh, "Ugh, not you too," I heard footsteps and then the springs of a couch, "Well forget it, Jade, you lost the right to back seat drive when you left me for a life of crime."

They were together, I thought, God, Roy, what have you been doing?

"That's not why I left," Jade said amusingly, "It was just a side benefit. Besides, I am still your wife," my jaw dropped. "Legally, grants me certain privileges to knock sense into you." I heard footsteps and she got closer to the door. "Roy, I left because your obsession with finding Speedy was all consuming. There wasn't room in your life for anything else or anyone else. Not me and not your daughter."

…WHAT?

"I have a daughter?" Roy asked astonished. Good, at least I am not the only one that doesn't know.

"Lian Nguyen Harper, she needs her father, Roy," Jade said. "You have to get your head on straight for her and that means you need to exorcise Speedy's ghost. Once and for all. So while I was away, I called in every chip I had. I got us a lead, Red, one last chance to find the original Roy Harper."

I opened the door and leaned against the door frame. "Great, when are we leaving?"

"You followed me?" Roy said jumping up from his spot of the couch. He took off his domino mask and the dark circle under his eyes concerned me and he held a bundle of green in his arms.

"You got fucking married?" I asked in the same angry tone he used. "And don't put all the blame on me. If you were in the 'best shape of your life' you would have realized Dinah put a tracker on you the minute you leapt off the building." I turned to Jade, "So, does you sister know about your union of holy matrimony or is this going to be news to her too?"

Jade smirked and shrugged, "What do you think?" she asked teasing.

I shook my head and smacked my forehead. Then I smiled and let out a laugh. "Oh, this is great. Just fabulous. I can't wait to see how you explain this to Oliver, Dinah, and Artemis. Oh, wow, Artemis is going to castrate you."

"What are you doing here, Carter?" Roy said not amused.

"I came to hopefully knock some sense into you," I said, "Or maybe make you take a shower or sleep since apparently you haven't been doing either for a year."

"I think I have had enough of people telling me what to do tonight," he said exasperated.

I stayed silent and sighed. "I can't make you do anything, Roy, you are a grown ass man. And now your grown ass is apparently a father. You need to clean up. Sleep, get healthy, because frankly I don't think Jade wants to be left a widow and single mother by the time she's thirty." I paused, "And I want my big brother back, and his name is not Jackson."

He looked at me and then looked at the little girl in his arms. Then he looked at both of us and nodded. "For Lian."

I gave a smile and looked down at the bundle in my arms. I turned to Jade, "Can I see her?"

She looked at me skeptically, "Yes, I suppose you are her aunt." I sat down on the couch beside Roy and looked at her in amazement.

"She looks just like you, Roy," I said with a huge smile on my face. She truly did, honestly. Her hair matched his auburn colored and her facial features were a perfect combination of Roy and Jade.

"Yeah, she does," he said in amazement, "My daughter."

When I went to bed that night I dreamt of children playing in the park. There were three children, one girl with Roy's auburn hair. A boy and a girl both with brown hair, the boy had brown eyes, the girl had a familiar silver pale green eyes. I woke up with tears streaming down my face. I wiped them away with my sleeve and got up from my bed. I walked down stairs and headed to the kitchen. I really need a glass of wine.