Chipped Blocks
An Olicity Flash Fic Story

Flash Fic Prompt #38: Strangers in the Night

Chapter Ten

Oliver didn't even give his sister a chance to start lifting her hand to knock – or maybe she'd just let herself in... considering that this was Thea, and even though it had been years since she had lived in the Queen Mansion with him, when it was convenient for her to do so, she still considered it her home as well – before he was pulling open the door and trying to both get her inside while, at the same time, rushing out himself.

He should have known better.

He was running late. Well, actually Thea was running late and throwing off Oliver's entire timetable for the evening, but his sister wouldn't see it that way, because she still lived on her own schedule. At one point in his life, Oliver had been the same way, but, when five years of your life are stolen from you, and you are forced to bend to the will of others or die, it's impossible to slip back into that same narcissistic headspace. Not that Thea was necessarily a narcissist either. She just... expected things to be a certain way, because that's how they had always been, and people adjusting their lives to fit around her was a part of that. Really, she didn't even notice it happening.

However, all of Oliver's haste evaporated when he spotted Thea's car parked directly in front of the house. "Speedy?"

"Geez, Ollie, schizo much? First, you couldn't get away from me fast enough, and now you won't even let me into the house."

"I just...," he stumbled over his words, perplexed. Usually, Oliver adjusted much better – not to mention quicker, but he had been so focused on his plan for the evening that one deviation was throwing him. Or maybe it was the ridiculousness of Thea's parking job. Her ruby red Tesla was positioned directly under the porte-cochere, not a raindrop in sight. "Why didn't you take your car down to the garage?"

His sister groaned dramatically. "That's such a long walk, Ollie." But then she became sassy (her usual mode) and petulant. "I think the better question is why don't you have a valet?"

"Thea, I haven't had a valet in years."

"I know," she said bitterly, dramatically. "And it makes even less sense now." Hands on hips, she smirked at him, "you're not getting any younger, big brother."

Somehow, Oliver found that he always regressed into shades of his younger self when arguing, even playfully, with Thea. It didn't matter how many years passed them by... or how serious the situation. It had now been three days since Mia Smoak disappeared – two since he promised Felicity that he would find her daughter, and, still, there was no sign of the sixteen year old. While he and Digg had been patrolling in shifts – one of them on the streets looking for Mia, the other at the house, manning the base with an oblivious Connor asleep upstairs, too much time had gone by without a lead. Oliver was becoming frustrated, and Felicity was well passed desperate. So, they had to come up with a new attack plan, hence Thea's presence that evening. However, despite the immediacy of the situation, Oliver still found himself pushing back, "the older I get, the older you get, too, Speedy."

"Yeah, but I'll always be younger than you. And prettier. Besides," Thea became slightly more serious, shrugging and rolling her eyes. "What does it matter where I park? It's not like you ever have visitors, and I'm only going to be here for a little while."

"Actually, I need you to spend the night," Oliver contradicted her before Thea could respond. Her mouth fell open in confusion just as the rest of her delicate features pinched in irritation. Using the opportunity that presented itself, Oliver snatched her key fob from her loose, lax grip. "I'll just move your car and... be right back."

He started to jog out the door, hoping his reprieve from his sister's undying curiosity would last long enough for Oliver to escape and think up a solid excuse for his all-night absence before her questions would start up again, but he'd never been that lucky. "Wait, what do you mean 'spend the night?' Why? Where will you be? And why didn't you tell me this over the phone when you called me earlier? I thought Connor just needed my help picking out something to wear or choosing what type of flowers to buy?" After only a brief pause to breathe, Thea continued, "this isn't about homecoming at all, is it, Ollie?"

Believing his best course of action was just to act nonchalant, Oliver ignored his sister's questions. All of them. Instead, he simply offered her a carefree wave as he slid into the cramped driver's seat of he car. "Five minutes, Thea," he promised her. "I'll see you in a few."

Oliver was already pulling away before she could object. As he drove the car towards the impressive, both in the size and grandeur of the building itself and the collection it held, Queen garage – that was one aspect of his former life he refused to downsize, Oliver struggled. He was uncomfortable, but he had learned long ago to not mess with the settings of his petite sister's car seat. Plus, he was trying to call Digg one-handed, never quite able to figure out all of his phones' settings before he inevitably broke them. It would have been so much simpler if he could have just used Speedy's hands-free system, but Oliver expressly kept his sister separate from the portions of his life in which Digg existed, and even a simple, seemingly innocuous phone call would risk his sister's inner-busybody and bring her snooping into parts of his world never meant to touch her.

By the time Oliver made it to the garage, he had gone off the driveway twice, nearly clipped a stone retaining wall, and had resigned himself to not placing his phone call until after the Tesla was safely parked. His knees loudly protested their brief confinement once he was able to stand from the car, the joints' creaking a stark reminder of Thea's not so subtle and yet entirely accurate dig at his age. He wasn't getting any younger, and the past few nights, out on the streets looking for Felicity's daughter, had proven that as well. It was more than just his age, though. It was him; it was who he was now.

Finally able to dial, Oliver located John Diggle's name and then waited for the other man to pick up. Years ago, Ollie Queen wouldn't have had a problem finding the type of trouble Mia Smoak was unfortunately tangled up in. While he hadn't specifically had a dealer, he knew people who knew people who did. Now? Now, when Oliver came across teenagers and twenty-somethings who had such connections, his first instinct was to scare them straight or, if they were too far gone, send them to jail. And it didn't matter which suit he wore out on the streets, which mask, nobody would talk to him. Oliver had been half tempted to approach his sister, to ask Thea to show around Mia's picture in her club, and see if she could get any leads, but the idea of Thea knowing people who knew dealers smacked up against his need to protect her... even if from his own naivety, and Oliver had dismissed the thought. Plus, asking her to help with Mia would mean telling her about Felicity, and he wasn't ready for that either.

Verdant wasn't the only club in Starling City, however.

If Thea found out he was planning on spending his night inside of the competition, there would be hell to pay, but Oliver could handle his sister's wrath much better than he could her inquisitiveness about and snooping into his personal life. They still hadn't recovered from the bomb that he had a son; Oliver planned on giving her a little while longer before he dropped Felicity on her as well.

"Oliver, why are you calling me instead of living this hell with me? This was your plan, you know."

He could barely hear Digg over the resounding base and impatient calls for drinks coming from the background. "I'm running a little late."

Inside a busy, loud club or not, Oliver couldn't miss the saltiness in Digg's tone. "You don't say."

"Look, I'm sorry. You know my sister; you know that she operates on her own schedule. She just got here, and she's not very happy with me."

"Maybe that's because you're having her watch your seventeen year old son like he's seven." Sighing in resignation, Digg relented somewhat. "Look, man, I get it. I'm a dad, too, you know, and I realize that you're still adjusting, still getting used to what it means to be responsible for someone else. But Connor's a good kid. He doesn't need a babysitter, and, if he finds out you got him one, he's going to think that you don't trust him. That's the last thing the two of you need."

"It has nothing to do with trust, Digg, and Connor's smart enough to realize that."

"Your kid is book smart, I'll give you that," the other man agreed. "But, when it comes to common sense, he's dumb as dirt. I haven't spent much time with him, but I swear, that boy lives in his own world."

A cyber world. Ever since Felicity revealed how Connor had so quickly gotten her personal information online, Oliver had been paying closer attention to his son... well, when he managed to stop long enough to spend a few moments at home and when Connor didn't protest too vocally to his presence, and Oliver was starting to put some of the pieces together which made up the seventeen year old. Diggle wasn't kidding when he said that Connor was smart. Oliver would even go so far as to guess his only child, somehow, was a genius – with or without a keyboard in his hands, but with? Well, with a keyboard, he was more than just smart; Oliver believed he might just be dangerous.

That wasn't his immediate concern, though, and finding Mia was. "I can't worry about that now, Digg," he returned to the conversation. "After everything I've seen this week..." Maybe he'd failed in finding Mia, but she wasn't the only teenage addict on the streets, and the thought of Connor like that only solidified Oliver's need to reunite Felicity with her daughter. "Well, let's just say that I'll suffer my kid's wrath if it means he's safe."

"It's your funeral, man."

With the house in sight and knowing that he needed to end their call before going back inside, Oliver refocused them. "Don't try to make a buy until I get there. This is my mission, Digg, not yours. While I appreciate your help, I won't risk you getting into trouble over this. Besides, between the two of us, I'm the one more likely to try and score."

"Yeah, cocaine maybe," the former soldier quipped. "Or speed, or X, or whatever designer drug out on the market is popular right now. But heroin? Heroin's a street drug. No one's going to believe that your pampered, white ass wants to score some smack. Trust me, Oliver. Let the black man handle this."

"That's exactly why you shouldn't be anywhere near this," Oliver argued, his voice rising. "Whether it's right or not, if you get caught with dope, they'll throw the book at you. But, if Oliver Queen gets caught buying some heroin..."

"Heroin, Ollie? Are you freaking kidding me right now?"

Without a single word in explanation or a goodbye, Oliver hung up on Diggle. He'd been so distracted by their conversation that he had failed to spot Thea lying in wait for him outside. Sure, it was dark out, and, yes, she had conveniently selected a spot deep in the shadows and far away from any of the mansion's lights or the glow of the moon, but he was supposed to be better than that. Nickname or no nickname, Speedy never should have been able to get the drop on him. "What are you doing out here, Thea?"

"Oh, no," his sister yelled, advancing in Oliver's direction. Her left index finger stabbed against his solar plexus, and her eyes sparked with green fire. "You do not get to turn this around on me, Oliver Queen! I thought you were passed all of this: the partying, the self-destruction."

He sighed in exhaustion, in resignation. So much for keeping Thea out of this. "It's not what you think, Speedy."

"Look, I know that things have been... tense lately – what, with finding out about Connor and all, but that's not an excuse to fall back on bad habits."

Taking his sister by the shoulders, Oliver shook her slightly to get her attention. "Thea." Her gaze met his, and he watched as she seemed to deflate before his eyes. "I'm not using heroin, I'm not partying, I'm not self-destructing."

"But I heard you say..."

It hurt – the fact that his little sister could hear so little and jump to so many conclusions, that she believed him still capable of throwing his life away with both hands. Yes, he kept distance between them, but it was for her own good, and, until this evening, Oliver had believed that he had shown her enough for Thea to realize just how much he had changed... even if she couldn't know about his promise to their father and how, even with his mission against the list complete, Oliver, along with John Diggle, continued to try and protect and keep safe the people of Starling City. But, apparently, he had been wrong. Never before, even after returning from the island, had he ever felt so much of a disconnect between them. And, while Oliver had no one to blame but himself, he did hold Thea somewhat responsible, because it seemed like, no matter what he did or didn't do, she refused to see that he wasn't still Ollie Queen – that he had grown, and matured, and become so much more than the screw-up she remembered and loved from childhood. In fact, the only changes she could see were those she didn't like – his reluctance to open up, how he was aloof, and withdrawn, and even reclusive at times.

"I have... this friend," Oliver started. He realized he was struggling to explain, but it still frustrated him when Thea wouldn't give him a chance to do so either.

"You mean, this is about a woman."

"No." At his sister's raised in disbelief eyebrows, Oliver amended, "I mean, yes, there is a woman, but it's not about her; it's about her daughter."

Thea pulled away from him, tossing her arms up in the air. She'd gone from anger to disappointment within a matter of seconds. "You've gotta be kidding me! At least tell me she's legal."

He... he couldn't look at her, not like this, and maintain control. So, closing his eyes and clenching his hands into fists to the point of pain, Oliver gritted out through his clamped teeth, "don't go there, Speedy. It's not like that."

"Then what is it like?!"

"If you'd stop jumping to conclusions and just listen for once in your life, I'd tell you." Thea stayed quiet, and Oliver tried to settle down his breathing... which he realized was so elevated his chest hurt. "I... I met someone. It's still really new, but... it's different. She's different. But her daughter? She's in trouble. Drugs. Heroin. And she's missing."

"And you're trying to help," Thea realized. But the disappointment still wasn't gone from her voice. This baffled Oliver enough that his lids flickered open, and he stared, amazed, as his little sister chastised him. "That's what the police are for, Ollie. And rehab. Maybe a family counselor. You have no business getting involved, especially not now – what, with Connor in your life and all."

"I think Connor gives me even more reason to try and find this girl, Thea."

"What if Sandra finds out?"

"Finds out what," he questioned cluelessly.

Thea spoke to him like he was an idiot. "You're dating a woman whose daughter is an addict, Ollie. No mother would trust someone with that bad of judgement with their son."

Incredulous, he asked, "you're... blaming Felicity for Mia's illness?"

"Obviously."

"That's not... that's like saying mom and dad were to blame for all my problems growing up, for yours."

"Weren't they... at least in part," his sister challenged.

"No," Oliver argued, stepping back from her and holding up his hands to warn her from getting any closer. "No, we're not doing this. You're not doing this. Felicity is a good mother, Thea. You don't know her, and you don't get to judge her."

"I can, and I will," she snapped back, ignoring his warning and stalking towards him. "For seventeen years, you had nothing to do with your son. He's been in our life now for three months, and I won't allow you to throw that all away for some cheap – what kind of name is Felicity, anyway? It sounds like a stripper's name – piece of..."

He couldn't allow her to finish that thought. "I didn't even know about him," Oliver exploded.

If he thought the sheer volume of his voice or the animosity behind it would be enough to thwart his sister, he obviously wasn't the only one who failed to see their real sibling. "What do you mean? Of course you knew about him, Ollie. You told me yourself about Sandra coming to tell you she was pregnant when I questioned Connor's paternity."

"Yes. And I also told you that I thought she lost the baby, that that's what she told me happened."

"And you never checked into her story?"

"Why would I," he asked rhetorically. "Back then, I thought I'd dodged a bullet, and, years later, after... everything that happened, I thought she dodged a bullet." Bitterly, he snapped, "turns out, she only got two million dollars."

"I don't understand," Thea struggled to connect the pieces of what Oliver was telling her.

Sighing because... how had their conversation gotten to this point?, Oliver relaxed. His voice dropped, and his shoulders fell in defeat, in disillusionment. "After Sandra told me she was pregnant, I was scared. Mom sensed something was wrong, and, when she confronted me, I confided in her. I only found this out when Sandra came to me a few months ago, but she told me she lost the baby, because Mom paid her two million dollars to do so."

"That only proves my point for me, Ollie: we are the result of our parents' parenting... just like this Mia girl and her problems are the result of Felicity's."

"You're wrong," a third voice entered the fray. Gravel crunched underneath Connor's feet as he moved closer to where Oliver and Thea were standing. "I don't know Mia, and I don't know anything about addiction, but I do know Ms. Sm... Felicity. She's a good person, Aunt Thea. The best."

"Great. When it comes to women," Speedy snarked underneath her breath. "Of course, they're like father, like son."

But Oliver ignored her, turning towards his kid instead. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough. Enough to... understand a few things better now and to know that Mr. Diggle is going to be beyond pissed when you finally show up... wherever you're meeting up to look for Mia."

"Shit," Oliver swore, already turning towards the house and heading inside to grab his own keys. While the plan was to go in as himself in plain clothes, his gear was already stashed in the car he was taking that night... just in case. "You're right."

Connor just chuckled in amusement. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Thea. She doggedly followed after him, talking the entire time. "Where do you think you're going, Ollie? We're not finished here! You need to listen to me. This is a ridiculously bad idea – you, riding in on your white Porsche to save the stripper's day!"

"Felicity's not a stripper," Connor corrected his aunt. At this point, Oliver was on his way back out of the house and taking off at a fast clip once more towards the garage. "She's my comp-sci teacher."

"Of course she is," Thea mocked. Oliver didn't need to be looking at his sister to see her epic eye roll. Then she changed tactics. "Ollie, what the hell am I supposed to do here all night? You don't even own a TV!"

He didn't. If he wasn't working or working, then he was training or sleeping. When he needed to relax, kick back and have some fun, Oliver went for a drive. "I don't know," he yelled back over his shoulder. Then, figuring he might as well get one dig in, especially since he wasn't going to be the one to have to deal with the fallout (poor Connor), Oliver suggested, "why don't you try out my gym."

"Oliver Queen," Thea screamed towards his rapidly retreating figure. "Did you just call me fat?!"

He could still hear her faintly shrieking... and Connor laughing... as he drove down the long, winding driveway.