This chapter is dedicated to Sophia the Scribe. Without her inspiration, this would have been a very different chapter.

So without further ado...

Reunited

They were waiting.

Roy, Jade, Artemis, Wally, Mia, and the kids had been waiting ever since he and Ollie had left for Swanann City. When Ollie had had him leave, Royce had joined in the waiting.

They all had been waiting at Mia's place, hovering for that phone call, checking phones every half minute.

It had been three days now.

The tension was bad enough that when it did, they all jumped.

It was Royce's phone that rang.

"Answer it!" cried Roy.

The other five people in the room waited anxiously as Royce picked up the phone and hit accept call.

"Ollie?"

"Hey, Royce."

"Did you find her?"

It came out as a whisper, and he cursed himself for sounding so pathetic, asking that question, in that tone. But they were all thinking it. Roy was going to leave marks in the table, the way he was gripping the edge. Artemis had frozen as soon as the phone rang. Royce was surprised that Wally wasn't running circles. Mia was staring at his phone. Even Jade was anxious, despite her attempted look of detachment.

"Yeah, I did." He could hear the smile in Ollie's voice. That had to be a good sign, Ollie wouldn't sound like that if she was gone.

"Are you still in Star City?" As if he could have gone anywhere else with these people insisting that they all had to be here when Ollie got back.

"Yes."

"Good. Meet up at the house? I just need to call your siblings..."

"No need. They're here with me right now."

*****************Oliver's P.O.V.*****************

The parade of cars came up the drive. Mia's red one followed by Roy's, followed by the green one that was presumably Artemis's.

He and Dinah waited as the cars parked and their kids came to the door.

Royce, who was in front, didn't even bother to knock.

Oliver watched Dinah stiffen as they came in the door. Was she ready for this? Was he ready for this?

They all stood in a group, still in the entryway. Oliver could see Lian and Cynthia looking out from behind their respective parents.

"Mom?"

It came from either Roy or Royce, as their voices were nearly indistinguishable from the other.

But neither were prone to calling Dinah 'mom'...

Roy and Royce both pushed to the front; it may have been that both of them had spoken.

"Roy." It was unclear which man she meant. Everyone stared in silence, Oliver and Dinah on one side of the room, the rest of the family facing on the opposite side.

"How could you have left us? HOW?" Royce demanded.

Dinah flinched, and started to reply when a new voice drifted in.

"Mommy? Daddy? Who are they?"

The entire group turned to see where the young voice had come from. That was when the elder children saw the youngest child. Olivia was standing on the final stair on the staircase; her head tilted in curiosity.

It was Artemis who asked the hanging question. "Uh, who is she?"

Well, this was not how he was expecting to reveal the fact that they had a younger sister, but oh well. When did anything ever 'go according to plan' in this family?

"I'm Olivia. Who are you?"

"Wait." Oliver could see Mia connecting the dots, her eyes widening as she came to her conclusion. "She's our sister, isn't she?"

And pandemonium reigned.

"WHAT?"

"...wait a second"

"HOW?"

Till it was conquered by:

"That still doesn't explain ANYTHING!"

It was Royce.

"Where did you go?" he demanded of Dinah.

"Roy. I can explain..."

"No. You CAN'T. You will NEVER be able to explain, to give ANY reason for what you've done."

"Roy..." she tried to interrupt his rant.

"You LEFT us. You ABANDONED us. US, the ones who looked up to you, who were raised by you. And you LEFT when we needed you MOST."

"Roy..."

"No. There is NO reason you can give to justify leaving US, YOUR KIDS."

"ROY!"

"I'M NOT ROY! I'M ROYCE. And you don't know that, because you LEFT."

"Quit yelling at my mommy!"

While Royce had been distracted, Olivia had moved in front of him, hands balled up in fists, and anger written all over her face.

Royce looked down and opened his mouth, clearly prepared to tell the three year old just what he thought of that suggestion...

"You're right."

Heads turned at the sound of Dinah's voice. She had tears cascading down her face, arms wrapped around herself.

"You're right. I can't give you an excuse, because there isn't one." She drew in a shaky breath. "The best I can do is an explanation.

"I left because I wasn't going to raise Olivia in front of the entire world."

"That doesn't explain why the rest of us were left behind." It was Roy who said it, but the other three were thinking it.

"No it doesn't, R-" uncertainty flared in Dinah's eyes. "Do you still go by Roy?"

He nodded in response. "I go by Roy. He," gesturing to the fuming man, "goes by Royce."

Dinah nodded slowly.

Oliver glanced around at his kids. Olivia was looking bewildered. Royce was seething. Roy looked angry, but resigned to the fact. Artemis was looking at Dinah with distrust, something that Oliver knew was a cover for her disappointment in the failure of another parent figure. Mia looked like she wanted to go back to how it use to be, but was restrained by something.

"I made a decision. Good. Bad. I didn't know, but I had to make it.

"And I'm sorry."

She looked at Mia. "There was no way for you to be completely ready to defend Star on your own. And I'm sorry that I left you with no one to fall back on."

Mia regarded her mom with sad eyes, and said with a small smile, "It made both of the Roy's come home, so it wasn't a total loss." She bit her lip for a moment before, making up her mind, she flung her arms around Dinah in a hug.

Dinah held her daughter for a moment before turning to Artemis. "I know that I left you to figure out how to be a parent on your own, and I'm sorry I wasn't there to meet your child."

Artemis stared for a moment and said, "Well, you can meet her now." Artemis brought Cynthia out of her hiding place behind her mom. "This is Cynthia."

Cynthia gave Dinah a wary look before hiding behind Artemis again. Artemis glanced at Dinah and reached over to take her son out of Wally's arms. The little boy was, somehow, still sleeping. "And this is Will."

Turning to Roy next, Dinah gave him an apprehensive look. "You were still putting your life back together. I broke it more, and I'm sorry for that."

Roy regarded her with a look that had faded from anger. He gave her a nod, with a small semblance of a smile.

"This is ridiculous." Heads turned to see Royce heading for the door.

Dinah called out to him, "Royce."

He kept walking.

"I know it doesn't make it any better, but I am going to say it anyways. I'm sorry. Sorry, that you were left, again. Sorry, that this has left wounds. Sorry, that I made what is turning out to be a mistake."

He whirled. "Turning out to be a mistake!? For us, or for you? If it wasn't for him returning from the dead, you never would have come back."

He stormed out the front door.

'what is turning out to be a mistake... The best I can do is... Sorry, that...'

Her words played over and over in his head as he stormed out of the house. Coming into the driveway, he groaned, realizing that since he had driven here with Mia in her car... he was stuck here. He slumped down, sitting on the edge of the curb.

He heard footsteps behind him. Expecting it to be one of the others, he snapped, "What?"

"You're not very nice."

He twisted around. It was the brat. Royce now understood what Jason meant when he complained about the 'brats' in his family.

"So what?"

"Why aren't you nice?" She sat down next to him.

He moved farther over. "Cause I'm not."

"That's not an answer." She scooted closer again.

He moved farther over, again. She followed, scooting along, again.

How could he explain it, to a child? To someone, who was still innocent of the world and its cruelty. How could he explain that their parents had abandoned him, not once, but twice.

No. Oliver and Dinah weren't his parents, they had made that clear. But he had thought of them as his parents for years, and he had been trying to stop thinking of them as his parents for years. It had never worked. If he accepted it though... it would mean admitting that all those annoying people were his siblings.

But...

He was stuck with the clone, the assassin, and their brat, whether he thought of Ollie and Dinah as his parents or not. He liked Mia, she was one of those people you couldn't help but like. He butted heads with Artemis, but he liked that. Her husband was annoying, but he liked their kids...

His siblings weren't an issue.

Although this one might be if she didn't stop following him!

"Why are you following me?"

She looked at him like it was the most apparent thing in the world. "You haven't answered the question."

"Maybe I don't like questions."

"Mommy says questions are a good thing."

He sighed. This was Ollie's kid, there was no way that any kid of Ollie's was not going to be utterly obnoxious.

"Your point?"

That shut her up for a little while, but before long...

"Why don't you like Mommy?"

That threw him off guard. He didn't not like her, she was his... Gah! There was that thought again! She wasn't his mom!

She wasn't!

"Do you like Daddy?"

Totally Ollie's kid...

"Are you my brother?"

Like a punch to the head, there it was.

Was he?

Was he not?

Most terrifying of all... if he was, did he deserve to be?

What had he done besides causing them all pain? What had he done besides creating division amongst them? Besides creating problems within the family?

"Are you? Cause if you are, you should go apologize. You hurt some feelings."

She was right.

He had created more pain, again.

He had created another line in the sand.

He had started to create another problem, while everyone else was trying to solve the last one.

Damn.

The brat was right.

He got up, heading for the front door. Hopefully they would give a second chance.

Again.

For those of you thinking this chapter would be the last, SORRY.

You still have to put up with me for 1 more chapter.

-Dookeeper