Thanks to my editing friend! Sorry I dumped two chapters on you in one day.
I own nothing!
Fledglings: Awkward...
Thea grabbed the bag from Helena, much to everyone else's shock, and Sara's disappointment. However, both only lasted for a full second as Thea tossed it to the ground and smashed the bag, "I'm going to be strong." Thea muttered before running out of the Clock Tower.
Helena smirked.
Sara was about to go after her, before Sin beat her to it and Helena held Sara back, "I think the kid should do this, you're a little too… attached."
"But I should-"
"-she can handle this, don't worry. Just in case I'll watch them," with that Helena climbed up the central railing, presumably to go roof hopping. Leaving Sara and Felicity alone. Sara slumped down to the floor and removed her wig and mask.
"Awkward… That, was awkward... I really mean that as the actual awkward, meaning without skill or grace, not the synonym for weird that for some reason everyone believes the word means… it's not the same, but then again I should know because I'm awkward, in the real way and misunderstanding, but I mean in this case at least because everyone was just shouting at each other… and wow, I'm doing it right now aren't I?"
Sara blankly joked, "It was an awkward run on sentence."
"So, spill,"
"What?"
"Why do you care so much about Thea? I mean, I get it's not really my business, but whenever Oliver went into brooding mode, I would try to let him brood, but I failed and talked to him a lot… I mean I talk a lot, so I guess I talk even more than usual. Ok, I'm just making this worse, aren't I? I'll stop talking now."
Sara shook her head, "Don't worry, talking a lot is a part of your charm."
"Oh, really? I wasn't sure. I mean I talk more when I'm nervous, well like I said more than usual and…"
"I make you nervous?" Sara asked.
"Let's face it that blackmail thing, no one's really buying… and well, it's all of your kapow and bam!" Felicity illustrated by throwing some fake punches in the air.
"Cute," Sara let a phantom smile form, "you know, if you ever want to some 'kapow' and 'bam' of your own…"
"Yes, please. Some self-defense lessons would be great and overdue… seriously, I should have thought of this sooner, this city has issues after all."
A couple boxes in the center of the room were moved to the corner. Sara motioned for Felicity to stand in the nearly cleared space, "First, we're going to work on blocking." It was an ideal place to start, since the Clock Tower currently had no punching dummies or padding besides a mat they were standing on for Felicity to work with. Also, Sara assumed starting defensively would suit a girl like Felicity more since Sara didn't see Felicity throwing the first punch anytime soon.
Felicity stood it what she assumed would be a decent stance, but Sara spread her legs further apart, "Stronger foundation, strong punch and better balance."
"I thought we were blocking first?"
"We are, but you should be prepared to throw a punch at any time, people can surprise you or they'll make a very stupid mistake and present you with an opening. For now, always take advantage of an opening."
Sara moved Felicity's hands up and more in front of Felicity's chest, "Ok, this will be your basic stance, for now, just fall back into this position if you need to regain your balance or composure."
"I'm going to throw a punch at you, I want you to block."
Sara's first came towards Felicity before she could protest, she instinctively used her hand to stop Sara's first, "Not bad, but one problem." Sara over powered Felicity and extended her hand fully; her first never met Felicity's face, instead stopping a couple of inches before Felicity's jaw. "When blocking, keep in mind, you only have to worry about the punches that can actually reach you. You don't force contact, you only block when you need to, other wise you throw your balance off."
A few blocks later Felicity's form started to improve. Sara then moved onto punches, "It doesn't matter how much or how well you block, that means jack if you can't punch. It doesn't matter how much you endure if you never fight back."
After punches, Sara moved on basic evasiveness because in an ideal world one would only have to block long and well enough until an opening presented itself, then one solid blow later you'd win. The problem was the world they lived in ate ideal for breakfast. A lot of times people could just over power blocks, or they had weapons, or there was more than one of them, honestly, life had too many variables. Sometimes one wouldn't have a free hand available to block, hence just dogging the attack saved time. [1]
In the end of the day, Felicity had only grasped the basics of basics, but she didn't seem to mind and to no one's surprise she was an eager student, "So what's next?"
Sara tossed Felicity a towel and some water, "I'm thinking lunch, I think we still have some left over Chinese food."
"That sounds good," Felicity looked around, "Maybe we should work on making this place a bit more homey?"
"I think you should save your money, I'm not sticking around for more than a couple of months. I'm not sure about Helena, but I think she'll move once I'm gone, she hates this place."
To Helena's argument, she had a point. After all the new additions Felicity provided were low pretty low budget, since she and Helena had a similar conversation before, it ending in whole "I don't need charity" speech/glare. The training matt was to the left of the central railing. Felicity's table, an unfoldable one she kept her laptop, was by the staircase, a strategic (in case things got real and she had to flee quickly), but somewhat lonely corner. Under the desk were several thermo bags to help keep the food fresh. A few boxes, containing some first aid stuff, targets plastic targets for Helena, a some extra padding in case the sparing got rougher, and a gun, just in case the layer was compromised, were in the opposite corner Felicity's desk was, while a few unfoldable, plastic chairs were scattered about.
Felicity nervously chuckled, "Let me guess, she doesn't like the floor boards creaking?"
"That was one complaint, but hey, at least it's not cliché according to her."
Felicity asked, "…So about Thea…"
"Oh… we're back to that…"
"Well, the training was nice, but I still think you should talk about it."
Sara grabbed the Chinese food before explaining, "You know Ollie and I knew each other when we were kids right?"
"Yah, the Lance and Queen family soap opera has been mentioned time to time."
Handing Felicity some chopsticks before continuing, "Laurel and I would go over every weekend, since Mom would be too busy with her university life and Dad would be working on police business. Ollie's parents were busy too, but they would had a nanny to look after their kids. A lot of times Tommy would be there too. So Laurel, Tommy, and Oliver would always hang out, Laurel didn't always like having her little sister crashing her time with her friends, so I typically talked to Thea."
"So you were close?"
"Growing up, we hung out a lot. Let's just say, school wasn't the best for me socially."
"Seriously? I heard you were quite the party girl."
Sara took a deep breath, "It was more like I crashed parties, since no one really wanted me around. Let's just say I pissed some of the powerful popular girls off and they made school Hell… well in retrospect, that was nothing compared to…"
"Oh, yah, I get it. The same kind of girls would have done that with me, but I worked them into a position were they couldn't be mean to me."
Curiosity was present in Sara's voice, "How'd you do that?"
"I tutored most of them, so if they pissed me off, they'd fail all of their classes."
"Wow. If you think about it, besides my canary, Thea was my only friend, well no, there was one other, but that's a story for another time." [2]
"That sounded like past tense." Felicity pointed out.
Sara sighed, "Yah, well then middle school started for her and she got popular, she hung out more with friends her age and less with me. I don't blame her though, we were kids after all."
"Well I guess that's why you were friends with a bird."
"Don't insult my bird! She was a lot smarter than most people, I missed out on nothing."
Felicity deadpanned, "somehow, I can't find a sound argument against that statement."
Sara returned to the topic, "I guess she was the closest thing I had to a little sister, back then at least. Now, that's Sin. But it's weird, I still thought of her as little Speedy until recently. I mean I new she was growing up, but I never really knew until I saw it for my own eyes. Little Speedy's not so little anymore."
'So, Thea's a living, physical reminder for all of the time Sara lost after The Gambit,' Felicity sumarized.
- BIRDS OF PREY -
Fight or flight. Those are the two options people are given; it's instinct. If one doesn't fight, then they fly, or in people's case run. It was an either or, a Boolean, only two options, but Thea Queen found a third. Somehow, Thea Queen was running and fighting.
The streets of The Glades were foreign to Thea, unlike Sin and Helena who had the home field advantage. However, Helena wasn't directly chasing the young Queen, instead she just kept Thea within eyesight. Sin, on the other hand, was definitely trying to catch Thea. Thea tried weaving through the people she saw, but Sin was much more agile. Thea still managed to keep a fair distance between the two, thanks to her head start.
But Thea lost that good distance along a small staircase, as she quickly ran down them while Sin slid down on the railing, saving a lot of time.
"Hey!" Sin screamed, she was almost on top of Thea.
Thea just ignored her and kept running, down the streets, and then a sharp turn into an ally. She didn't move forward, she hit a dead end.
"Go away," Thea flatly ordered.
"She, no, we just want to help," Sin was initially referring to Sara.
"So you kidnapped me?"
Sin shrugged, "To be fair, I think it's initiation of some kind, Helena kidnaped Felicity, be happy she didn't put her crossbow to your head… Helena I mean."
Thea deadpanned, "Sounds like one dysfunctional family."
"If that's the case, I'm not the dad," Helena said after jumping down from the building's roof and to the ground with the rest of them.
"I think we've established you were the cool aunt," Sin reminded.
"Then what's birdy?"
"I'd say the big sister for me…"
"Wait, so I'm her aunt too? That I don't think that works, I mean we're about the same age…"
"…uh hi? Remember me?" Thea asked, annoyed they left her out of the conversation, sure she could have bolted, but the ally entrance was blocked and she doubted she could climb the fencing before Sin. Talking seemed like the only answer.
"Oh, right…" Helena muttered, no one could tell if she legitimately forgot Thea, or if she was just being her normal trolling self.
"Uh, so do you a speech prepared for her?" Sin asked.
Helena threw her arms in the air, "I thought you had the speech prepared?"
"No, I was just chasing her down," Sin clarified.
Thea face palmed, "Does this normally happen?"
"If you mean, do we normally kidnap a kid for a heroine addiction, she runs off, and we chase her down, but fail because we have no speech prepared? Then no, not typically," Helena and Sin answered in perfect and deadpan unison.
A sigh escaped Thea, "Why me?"
"Drug addiction? Remember we just went over this," Sin asked completely sincere.
"Right," Thea's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Helena declared, "Ok, time to wing it!"
Sin and Thea shared an 'are you kidding me?' look.
"Geese, you have the same sense of humor as your brother, in other words: non-existent."
Thea's eyes narrowed a little at the mention of Oliver.
"Yup, definitely seeing the resemblance," Helena noted.
"I'm surprised he told his girlfriend anything," Thea spat.
"Wait, time out, you dated her brother?" Sin asked.
"It's a long story," Helena said.
'Wait, Helena is Huntress…' the gears in Thea's head were starting to turn, 'Oliver and Helena dated around the same time as The Huntress teamed up with the Hood…' Thea's eyes widened in realization, "My brother was the Hood?!"
Sin and Helena both went slack jawed. "Didn't see that coming," Sin said is genuine shock while Helena flatly stated.
"FU-"
"-Laurel?" Thea asked, now noticing behind Helena and Sin was none other than Laurel Lance.
- BIRDS OF PREY -
Laurel held a paper bag in her hands, she glared at Helena before turning to Thea, "Get, out of here," it was a definite order.
Thea and Sin wisely took this opportunity to leave, Thea in utter confusion and Sin presumably to do damage control, or to warn Sara.
"Laurel Lance, the plot thins," Helena snarked.
However, Laure wasn't having any of Helena's attitude and pulled out the contents in her bag, a gun.
Pointing the gun at Helena, Laurel's hand shook a little, "Call her."
Despite the gun faced towards her, Helena remained as bold as ever and continued to play her game, "Who ever do you mean?"
"The blonde vigilante."
"Oh, then not happening."
Helena wondered if Sara would want to even meet her sister, especially under these circumstances.
Laurel cocked the gun. "Call her," this time her voice much calmer, but more threatening and demanding.
"So you'll point a gun at her?" Helena asked.
The question slightly unnerved Laurel, what was she going to do? She wanted answers for why she felt a connection to this stranger. Laurel wondered if she ever had an idea for how the meeting would go if, no, when she finally caught the vigilante. But, she probably never thought about pointing a gun at her.
"Since when do you care about other people?" Laurel tried to distract herself.
Helena simply answered, "She's my friend."
Lowering the gun Laurel asked, "Please, call her."
Helena heard something else in Laurel's voice, it was still calm, but it wasn't an order, instead there was something else. She guessed it was desperation. If Helena had the chance to see Michael again she probably be pretty desperate too. But would she still try to find him even if Michael didn't want her to?
Helena didn't know.
But, Laurel, she knew.
She knew exactly what she'd do.
Damn a lawyer's conviction.
But.
Helena respected that.
She pulled out her phone.
In the end this was still Sara's choice.
"Put it on speaker, please," Laurel asked.
Helena did so, a couple of rings later Sara picked up, "Hey Birdy, look we have a little, situation," Helena chose her words carefully.
"What kind of situation?" the voice over the phone asked.
Laurel seemed to freeze for a moment after the response, did that voice sound familiar?
Helena wondered, would she recognize Michael's voice after all this time?
Probably not.
"Laurel Lance."
There was an uneasy silence that lasted what felt like several years.
"Ok, I'll be there soon."
Laurel's grip went limp and the gun clanked against the ground.
"What? Aren't you happy?" Helena asked.
"Huh?" Laurel seemed to be in a daze.
"You're getting what you wanted."
Was this what Laurel wanted?
Sure, the Lance had spent the last few weeks tirelessly searching for this woman, but… but for some reason there was some sort of foreboding feeling in her stomach.
Especially since she heard that voice on the other line.
She remembered someone else telling her, "The first thing you forget about a person is their voice."
Who said that?
Laurel couldn't remember.
"I just didn't think it'd be this easy."
Helena stated, "A lot of things are easy, if you just ask."
"Still, this feels so anti-climatic to me."
'Oh, there's going to be a climax that's for sure, whether or not Sara told Laurel.' Helena was sure.
"Look, I know we aren't friends, we probably never will be."
"You can leave out the probably," Laurel didn't mean that to come out as rude or mean, despite how it sounded. But honestly, how could goody-two-shoes Laurel Lance ever get along with a hardened criminal who's committed several murders.
Helena picked up on this but kept her thoughts to herself, 'If you can't see yourself getting along with me… then how is she going to react with Sara?'
"Do me one favor, put the gun away before my friend comes."
Helena walked up to Laurel and picked up the gun, "on second thought, I'll take it."
Laurel looked frightened, the Huntress had a gun and was only inches away from her.
Helena sighed, a click was heard, "Here," Helena placed something in Laurel's hand.
It was the gun's ammunition.
"I think I'll ask for a different favor, if you don't mind."
Laurel didn't protest she was still a little surprised by Helena's gesture.
It was small.
But it was a gesture nonetheless.
"When my friend gets here, go easy on her…"
The request didn't surprise Laurel as much as she thought it would.
"…please."
But, that, that did.
"She's been to several Hells and back. By surviving all sorts of horrors she's stronger for it. But I know…"
Helena trailed off a little, walking away, out of Laurel's sight.
Her back to Laurel.
"…that you're the only thing, the only one, that could truly break her."
That last part was barely above a whisper so only Helena heard.
Leaving a very confused Laurel in the ally.
- BIRDS OF PREY -
Laurel waited, it felt like years, but according to reality and her phone, it was only three minutes since Helena left.
'She wouldn't blow me off would she?'
'Then again, she'd just be another member of the Stay Away from Laurel club. Other members consisting of, her mom, her dad, Tommy, Oliver, and… Sara.'
'Sara.' Laurel wondered what Sara would do in her position, though she didn't know why she was even thinking about that scenario.
'Sara's dead.' She reminded herself.
"Hi, Laurel," another voice said. That voice.
Laurel looked up and found herself staring into a familiar set of fearful, deep blue eyes.
[1] I used to do some karate a long time ago, so I used some of that knowledge and some Youtube videos to write that scene.
[2] That story will be revealed later, much later. But let's just say Sara knew someone else in the DC universe before they became their costumed namesake… who might be showing up later… No, it's not Nyssa or anyone from the League, Sara's not really looking at her League days very fondly right now, so she's not including any people she met during her League time in that count.
Seriously loving Legends right now, despite the plot holes in the past few episodes. I think Merlyn lied about Sara's bloodlust being cured, he does lie a lot, so that's excusable, but I have to be blunt here: The Legends were idiots. I have no idea why they didn't grab Vandal's body, wait for him to heal and then have Kendra kill him in his weakened state. Arrow's episode, it's like we're back to season 2 quality! However, with Flash I'm hoping they address Barry feeling left out soon, 'cause seriously it's pretty sad when they say stuff like "I'm so happy to have my first son!" (Joe to Barry) or "I'm happy to finally have a brother!" (Iris in front of Barry)…ouch. Also, another cliffhanger! Don't hurt me?
Thanks for reading and please review!
2/7/16
