Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow or any of it's characters or location. They belong to DC entertainment.
A/N: Here's the next chapter guys, hope you like it please let me know what you think.
Sara and Oliver's apartment, night.
"Did Oliver really slam the guy's head into the wall or did you just for dramatic effect?" Nyssa asks once Sara and Oliver have disappeared upstairs.
"Why would I say something like that if it didn't actually happen?" Diggle asks.
"Like I said, dramatic effect. Make Oliver come across as a tough guy." she replies with a shrug.
"Everyone in this room is well aware of Oliver's abilities when it comes to hand to hand combat, and you two probably know better than I do the lengths he's willing to go to in order to protect the people he loves and cares about. There would be absolutely no need for me to exaggerate his skills or make things up for the purpose of dramatic effect" he says.
"Did you hear what Kenneth said to elicit that kind of response from him? Oliver might be more than willing to dish out an ass kicking when the situation calls for it, but he's generally super in control of his emotions, to the point where some believe he's incapable of feeling emotions at all, bashing a perp's head into the wall just seems out of character for him." Ana says.
"I only really caught the tail end of their conversation, Oliver told Kenneth to stay away from Sara, and when I say told it was really more akin to the way a mother lion would warn others to stay away from her cubs. Kenneth didn't seem to pick up on the inherent threat that laced the warning and suggested something along the lines of just wanting to play with her for a few hours before letting Oliver have her." Diggle says.
"Go back a few years and if someone said something even close to that about Sara within earshot of Oliver they'd find themselves on the business end of one or more of his arrows. If you ask me he got off easy, all he has to show for it is a headache and maybe a mild concussion." Ana says.
"Being thrown into a wall head first is getting of easy?" Diggle asks.
"When compared with being shot in the leg, strung up by the ankles and questioned at knife point, yeah I'd say hitting a wall is getting off easy." Nyssa says.
"Has Oliver ever actually done that to anyone?" Diggle asks.
"On multiple occasions. When it comes to the safety and well-being of the people he cares about there is nothing Oliver won't do. You're a military man, and you've worked with Oliver for months now, surely you've picked up on his heightened protective instincts." Ana says.
"That and his crazy work-out schedule. I'd wager there are some boot camps that aren't as gruelling as what he puts himself through most days. Hell the salmon ladder alone would conquer half the guys in my unit and he makes it look easy." Diggle says.
"Well you may or may not be aware of this John, but there wasn't really all that much to do on the island, so we spent a fairly large portion of each day training, hand to hand combat, target practice, cardio, weights, turns out he jungle is a pretty effective gym, plus there's the added bonus of not having myriad of distractions one is subjected to here." Ana says.
"You almost sound like you miss the place." Nyssa comments.
'"There are certain aspects of life on Lian Yu that are somewhat appealing. That being said the negatives far outweighed the positives, we may have tried to ignore it, but the fact remained that most days, probably around ninety percent were passed under threat from one group or another of the people who shared the island with us over the years." Ana says.
"You seem fairly willing to talk about your time on the island, Oliver on the other hand refuses to divulge anything." Diggle says. "It would probably do him a world of good to talk about what happened to him there, but he refuses to tell me anything about it."
"Are you willing to talk about all of your experiences in the military John?" Ana asks. "If not then I hardly think it's fair of you to expect Oliver to open up about the last five years."
"You may have a point there, but can you really say that it wouldn't help him to talk about what he went through during those five years? Anyone who speaks to him can tell it had a massive effect on him emotionally and mentally." Diggle says.
"What makes you think he doesn't talk about it? He may not be open and forthcoming about his time away with you, but that doesn't mean he shuts everyone out. He and Sara talk about everything, they have no secrets from each other. He may go lone wolf more often than any of us are comfortable with but if she asks him I direct question, he will always answer it with total honesty, it's one of the things that makes them such a good team, they trust each other unconditionally. Not many couples or teams have that, it gives them an edge, an advantage and you know better than most how valuable even the smallest advantage can be when your back is against the wall and the odds are stacked against you. The only exception to that being when he's in Al-Sa-Him mode, but that almost never happens and he's not really Oliver during those times so my point still stands." Nyssa says.
"Oliver and I may have both been on Lian Yu, but our experiences there were completely different. If he wants to talk about it he will, but until such a time comes, and until he instigates a conversation about what happened there, what the people there did to him no one and I mean no one has the right to judge him for keeping it to himself. Same goes for Sara, and just for the record, if I hear of any incident in which you attempt to divulge information about what they went through the last five years, you will answer directly to me, and it will NOT go well for you. Sara and Oliver are my family, and I will do anything to protect my family. Even if that means taking out a friend." Ana says, before getting up and making her way towards the stairs, pausing for a moment in the doorway and turning back to face her friends. " Nyssa jeg legger meg til sengs, fortell Oliver og Sara, jeg skal se dem i morgen."*
"Vil gjøre, sov godt min venn." Nyssa replies.**
"Du også" Ana calls over her shoulder before disappearing up the stairs.***
"On a scale of one to ten, how serious was that threat?" Diggle asks the assassin a few moments later.
"On a scale of one to ten? I'd say about 17." Nyssa replies. "Now if you don't mind Mr Diggle, it's been a long day and if this undertaking is half as bad as it's starting to look we're going to have a lot of long days. From personal experience long days always run more smoothly when one comes into them after a good night's sleep."
"Is this you politely kicking me out of your house Nyssa?" Diggle asks with amusement.
"This is Oliver and Sara's house, technically I am just a guest like you, only the owner of the property has the right to 'kick you out' as you put it. But I am going to bed. Stay if you so desire, keep in mind though that you are in a home with four highly trained killers who's first instinct when startled is to go on the offensive." Nyssa responds.
"I think I'll go home." Diggle says.
"Wise decision John, the last person to startle Oliver at night spent seven months flat on his back in hospital after falling from a fifth-floor balcony." Nyssa says. "and the one before that received a knife to the thigh, to this day he still has a scar and walks with a slight limp when it's cold."
"What is your motivation for telling me this? Is it an attempt to scare me? Because it's going to take a lot more than a couple of camp fire tales to scare me." he says.
"Trust me Mr Diggle if I wanted to scare you I would use something a lot more effective than dredging up memories of the past." she counters with a smile before brushing past him and disappearing up the stairs to her room.
CNRI, the glades, next day
"I have that file you asked for, and here's your coffee. Double shot latte, extra hot, one sugar." Thea says handing Laurel a folder and setting the coffee down on her desk.
"How is it that you a teenage girl with no job experience is able to get so much more work done than any other intern we've ever had?" Laurel asks looking up at the young woman in front of her.
"Dad used to bring Ollie and me to the office. Sometimes we'd get bored and re-arrange the filing cabinets in his office." Thea said. "he always made us put them back how they were, but we kept doing it because he'd give us a soda and let us watch cartoons when we were done. I think he found it amusing, he'd never admit it but Ollie says he caught him trying to hide a smile a few times."
"Sounds like you had a lot of fun." Laurel comments.
"Yeah, I loved going to the office, not only because dad gave us soda but because I got to spend time with Ollie. He was always coming up with new games for us to play, I remember one time we were playing hide and seek with one of the security guards, and Oliver somehow managed to get us to the top floor and out onto the roof. We were up there for quite a long time before they found us." she says smiling at the memory.
"You must be glad to have him back." Laurel comments.
"You have no idea, I'll never forget the moment they told me Dad and Ollie were missing and presumed dead. Everyone tried to comfort me, tell me it was going to be ok, but the only person I wanted in that moment was Ollie, he always knew how to make me feel better." she says wiping away a tear. "I remember feeling like my world had just been ripped apart, I was obviously upset about Dad, but the thought of never seeing Ollie again scared the crap out of me."
"How did he take the news that your mum is remarried? That must have been a bit of a shock." she asks.
"I don't know. He seemed to take it ok. She didn't tell him right away though, he just kinda picked up on it by himself. The first night we had dinner Raisa tripped over apologized to Ollie because she almost spilled something on him, he said something to her in Russian and Walter was like 'I didn't know you took Russian in college, Oliver.' And Ollie just looked right at him and replied with 'I didn't realize you wanted to sleep with my mother Walter.' And then went right back to eating his soup like nothing had happened." Thea says.
"That sounds like Oliver, he always did have a tendency to be a little blunt." Laurel says with a chuckle.
"Does it bother you?" Thea asks before she can stop herself.
"Does what bother me?" Laurel asks.
"Nothing, forget I said anything. I should get back to that filing and let you get back to whatever case you're working on." the younger girl replies.
"You want to know if it bothers me that my ex-boyfriend is dating my little sister." Laurel says.
"How did you know that?" Thea asks.
"Because that's exactly what I'd want to know if our roles were reversed." Laurel says.
"Well if one of my ex's ever starts dating Oliver, you'll be the first person I talk to about how that makes me feel." Thea jokes.
"I was angry at first, I felt like they betrayed me. I really wanted to hate them, and I did hate them for the first few weeks I wished they had never come back. But then Sara came here to see me, Oliver was with her but he stayed at the door while she came to talk to me. I told her I didn't want to see her and that she should have just stayed dead, because as far as I was concerned she was dead and I didn't want anything to do with her." Laurel says "she just left without saying a word and I went back to work thinking that was it. But then someone tapped me on the shoulder I turned around and it was Oliver. Before I could get a word out he told me that he understood that I was upset, apologized for what he had done, told me to blame him for everything and that if I wanted to hate him he would understand. He let that sink in for a bit and I thought he was done, but then just as I was about to walk away from him he continued and told me that if I ever said or did anything to hurt Sara again I would have to deal with him and that I wouldn't like the results. I looked out the window to watch him go and Sara was outside with tears streaming down her face, I'd never seen her cry like that, not since she was a little girl and broke her arm falling down the stairs. Then Oliver came out, she went straight to him and had her smiling within minutes. That's when I stopped being angry with them, I saw how much he loves her, how much they love each other and how happy she is with him, happier than I'd seen her for a long time even before the island."
"You didn't have to tell me all of that." Thea says "But I'm glad you did."
"Well we're probably going to be sisters in law someday in the not too distant future" the lawyer comments. "as soon as Oliver gets his act together and plucks up enough courage to propose to her, I know she'll say yes, there's not a doubt in my mind that she will say yes."
"That's not gonna happen until Quentin stops acting like he's public enemy number one." Thea says. "Ollie doesn't want Sara to feel like she has to choose between him and her father. If Quentin continues on this path of hating everything about Ollie I'm afraid he's going to take himself out of the picture to spare her from having to choose between them." she adds unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"You really think Oliver would do that? Take himself out of the equation?" Laurel asks.
"If he got it into his head that that would be what's best for Sara then you bet he'd take himself out of the equation. He loves Sara and want's what is best for her, if he thinks cutting himself out of her life to keep her from losing Quentin he'll do it, completely disregarding his own feelings in the process. That's how Ollie is, when he loves someone he'll do anything for them, put their needs above his own." she says.
"But Sara loves him, I've never seen her as happy and content as she is now with him. There's no way that him removing himself from her life would be best for her, not now, not ever." Laurel says
"Well then you'd better hope your father stops treating him like pond scum, because if he doesn't I'm telling you right now, Ollie will take himself out of the equation, he knows it hurts Sara that they don't get along and he thinks it would hurt her less to lose him than to lose Quentin, particularly since your mum isn't in the picture anymore." Thea says "The only other alternative would be that he leaves, she follows him and neither of them set foot in Starling again."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Laurel comments softly.
"If it comes to that I will make it my personal mission to see your father kicked off the force and sued for defamation of character, police harassment and anything else I can think of. I just got Ollie back, I'm not going to lose him again because of some petty little grudge based on a mistake from five years ago." Thea says with a hard edge in her voice that makes it clear she means every word.
"I'll speak to him, try and get him to realize that his treatment of Oliver is hurting Sara." Laurel says.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like such a bitch. I just don't want to lose Ollie again." Thea says.
"You're not going to lose him. Not if I have anything to say about it. If I make dad see how much happier Sara is since she came home, and the way she lights up whenever she's around Oliver maybe he'll let up a bit and give Ollie a chance to prove himself." The lawyer says.
"Thankyou." Thea says smiling at her friend.
"There's no need to thank me Thea, I don't want Oliver to leave either and I think you're right if he does leave Sara will follow and that will be the last we see of either of them." she says.
VERDANT BUNKER NIGHT
"Can I ask you a question?" Sara asks as she and Oliver are sparring with escrima sticks in the middle of the room.
"You can ask me anything, you know that." Oliver replies blocking his girlfriends attack "don't hold back, I know you can hit harder than that and you know I can take it."
"I do know that, but I also know that we have a dinner party tomorrow and it would probably be best if we didn't host sporting a black eye or a bruised ribs." she says.
"You may have a point there, but if we're going to go easy on each other there isn't much point in continuing with this session." he counters.
"Ok, you really want to all out? I can go all out." she says with a smile before pulling her left arm back and aiming at her boyfriends head with renewed force.
"That's more like it!" he responds blocking the incomimg blow with his own stick.
"I got plenty more where that came from." she says with a smile.
"Bring it on." he says before adjusting his position and going on the offensive hitting out at her in a move that is almost faster than sight.
"Someone's been practicing." she comments as she blocks his blow inches from her ribs. "your sessions with John must be paying off."
"He's improving. At first he was going down in two minutes but now he's lasting more than five. His blocking and speed variation still need work, and it's going to be a long time before he's good enough to give me any real challenge, but he's not giving up and is always wiling to learn so I'm willing to teach him." he says "Now if I recall correctly you had a question for me, would you like to ask it or was the question merely to ask me if you could ask me a question?"
"To answer your question, no my question was not to ask you if I could ask a question. My actual question is this….how many people have we got coming to the dinner party tonight and what time are they arriving?" Sara asks "and yes I am aware that I technically just asked two questions."
"When you say how many people are coming do you mean how many including the four of us who live in the building, or how many are coming as guests?" he asks.
"How many people total." she confirms.
"Anna, Nyssa, Raisa, Thea, Moira, Walter, Tommy and Laurel. I invited Felicity and Diggle. Felicity is out of town visiting her mother for a few days, but Diggle is coming and he' s bringing his friend Lyla." he says.
"Felicity's not coming? Oh what a shame" Sara says sarcastically.
"Something happen between the two of you I should know about?" he asks raising an eyebrow at her tone.
"No, of course not, what makes you say that?" she asks.
"Lets just say your disappointment about her absence seemed somewhat less than genuine." he replies.
"You noticed that?" she asks with a sigh "nothing happened between us, she's fine, I don't have a problem with her, she's good at her job, she keeps our secret and that's great. I just don't like the way she flirts with you at every opportunity she gets."
"Babe, you have nothing to worry about. Felicity can flirt all she wants, it's not gonna make the slightest bit of difference. There's only one woman in the world I'm interested in flirting with and she's right in front of me." he says setting his escrima sticks down to wrap his arms around her and kiss her firmly on the lips.
"So umm…I guess we're done with the sparring session, are we?" she asks a little breathlessly.
"We can go back to that if you want" he responds, "or we could engage in another kind of physical activity."
"What if someone comes down here?" she asks setting her sticks down next to his.
"I locked the door. They won't get in without the key and I have the only set right here." he says reaching into his pocket and pulling out a set of keys.
"I thought the door locked with a code you punch into the keypad." she says.
"It does, but I thought we should have some extra security, so I installed a lock a few days ago. Not just any lock though, this one is modified so that it needs a different key to open it depending on what side of the door you're on." he says.
Translations:
*translations: Nyssa, I am going to bed, tell Oliver and Sara I will see them in the morning.
**Will do, sleep well my friend.
***You too.
A/N: Thanks for reading guys! Hope you like it, sorry it took so long to update. I will endeavour to update sooner next time.