Thea's Bad Day
Thea Harper sat on her bed rubbing her extended tummy where her son rolled and flipped. At 36 weeks, there was very little room for her very active little boy who thought it fun to kick his mommy in the side. She watched as her husband came back from the kitchen carrying a bowl full of chocolate cereal.
"Thank goodness, I'm starved", she said grabbing for the very large bowl.
Roy laughed and then his face grew serious, "Are you sure you'll be alright here by yourself today?"
"Yeah, Babe, I'll be fine. I'm not due for another for at least another three weeks. Don't worry so much", Thea said as he leaned down to kiss her.
"If you're sure", he said as he began to walk towards the door.
"I'm positive. Everything will be fine", Thea said with a smile as she watched her husband sigh and then walk out the door.
She'd failed to mention the slight twinge she'd felt earlier this morning knowing it would just terrify him and he would refuse to leave her side for the next few weeks. Thea felt suffocated as it was with her family hovering, she didn't need an overanxious husband butting in on her alone time before junior got here.
She grabbed the remote and watched her favorite cooking show while devouring her bowl of cereal. After slurping up the last of the chocolate milk in the bottom of the bowl, she began to feel drowsy. This was nothing new, so she laid back down and closed her eyes.
She didn't know how long she'd slept, but she was awoken by her front door banging open. She bolted upright, only to decide it must be her husband.
"Roy, how many times do I have to tell you! Don't slam that door", she yelled.
When no reply came, Thea began to get frightened. If it had been Roy, he would have yelled back something equally as sassy. However, all that met her trouble ears was silence. The lack of sound was almost deafening, and then a man came walking into her bedroom.
He was tall and had a mask over his face. She could barely make out the cold blue eyes that burned through the eyeholes in the ski mask he wore. His voice was muffled when he spoke, causing Thea to strain to understand him.
"Thea Harper, you have failed this city!"
Wait, this wasn't Starling City's vigilante. That voice she knew, those eyes she knew. This man was not her city's hero. Thea scrambled out of the bed as quickly as her baby bump would allow and ran for the bathroom. She was intercepted, and a sweet smelling cloth shoved in her face before everything went dark.
Roy stopped his training session with Digg to check his phone for the thousandth time. He had called his wife three times and she still had not called him back.
"Guys I'm getting really worried. Once I could have lived with, but three times."
"Roy if you're worried go home and check. There's not much to do here and if it would set your mind at ease then it's time well spent", Oliver said from his place leaning over his wife's shoulder.
"Alright, I'll be back in a little while", the younger man said as he quickly made his way to the exit.
When he reached the door to the apartment the sight made his blood run cold. The door was shattered and the once pristine apartment was in shambles. He ran to the bedroom and found no sign of his wife. He ran through each room calling her name, but when no answer came he began to panic.
A thought finally entered his terror-ridden mind, he had to call Oliver. He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed his brother-in-law. The deep voice on the other end only heightened his fear.
"She's gone. Thea's gone and I don't know what to do."
Oliver could hear Roy's panic and knew he had to get him to calm down.
"Alright. I'm on my way. Don't go anywhere", Oliver stressed.
He found Roy huddled against a wall with his knees drawn up to his chest and a vacant expression on his face. The kid was in shock, so he would be no use right now. Oliver went through the apartment looking for any traces of the people who'd taken his sister. He could feel the rage bubbling up inside his chest and the urge to put an arrow threw someone was getting stronger by the moment.
He decided to call Felicity and have her look at the traffic footage. Maybe she could identify the vehicle and they could get a license plate number. He could hear her typing furiously in the background and he almost felt her sigh as she said that she'd found nothing.
"I'm coming back, and bringing the kid with me. He's pretty out of it, and I don't know what he's going to try to do when he comes back to himself. Have Digg get a tranq ready just in case."
With that Oliver gently helped his brother-in-law up from the floor and then out to the car. Unfortunately, Roy decided to freak out and try to jump from the moving car on the way back to the Arrow Cave. Oliver was forced to knock him out to prevent him from hurting himself.
When he had finally dragged the red hooded figure down the metal stairs, he got him situated on the couch and went to talk to his wife.
"Felicity, I need you to go get the twins out of school and bring them here. I don't know if Thea's kidnapping was in connection with me or not, but I would feel much better knowing you and the kids were safe."
"Ok, I'll go get them right now", she said seriously.
"On second thought, we'll go get them together. Anything could happen between here and the high school."
Felicity would have smiled if the situation wasn't so serious. Watching her husband fuss like an old mother hen was one of her favorite past times, but right now his fussing wasn't in vain. There could be someone out there targeting members of their family and their children needed to be where it was safe.
Not for the first time, Felicity was thankful they'd been forced to tell the twins Oliver's secret. It made things like this so much easier. Both kids had their own stations in the Arrow Cave to keep them busy. Archer had a desk covered in computer parts and Olivia had a target for practicing.
Soon, the black car pulled up in front of the school and both kids rushed to a door. Their mother had called ahead saying that they would be leaving early due to a family emergency. This had immediately caused them both a good deal of alarm until their mother texted them about the situation. The twins were of course worried about their aunt, but that paled considerably to the fear they'd experienced that this might be the call telling them that something dreadful had happened to their Dad.
When both teens were buckled up, the Bentley sped back to the Lair. The family quietly made their way back down the noisy staircase and then went their separate ways.
Then Felicity got a hit on Thea's location and everyone but the twins and their Uncle Roy left in search of the missing woman. Archer and Livy moved to sit on the training mats to discuss their course of action.
"I think they're looking in the wrong place", Archer said, "That picture came up way too quickly to have been a stroke of luck."
"You're right. They're either walking into a trap or being sent on a wild goose chase. What do you think we should do?"
"I think I can trace that picture back to the original IP address. That should give us the location of Aunt Thea's captors, or at least where they've been recently."
"Ok, good plan. However, I'm good but not good enough to take down more than three men in hand-to-hand."
Archer nodded, knowing his sister was being serious. She was a darn good fighter, trained by the very best and she could take on three grown men at one time because he'd seen her do it.
"I think you should wake up Uncle Roy", he offered.
"What! Dad would kill us!"
"No, not if we talk some sense into our dear uncle first. Wake him up slowly, but tie him up first. That will allow us to have his full attention while we explain our plan."
"Ok, let's get to!"
Thea woke to a bright light shining in her face. She tried to move her hands, but found that they'd been tied behind her. She shifted in her seat and nearly cried out as a sharp pain raced down her back. Whoever she was dealing with was not a very nice person. Who tied a pregnant lady to a hard wooden chair with her hands behind her back?
In the next moment, a voice sounded from the shadows.
"Now, Thea. May I call you Thea?"
The man didn't wait for an answer, but instead went on.
"Your family, both families, has caused so much destruction in Starling. Your mother and biological father were apart of the undertaking. Merlyn has been a part of more corrupt deals than I care to count. With that being said, you're probably wondering what you're doing here. Well, Mrs. Harper, someone has to pay for these crimes and since neither of your parents are readily accessible, that person will be you."
Thea felt the blood drain from her face and tears begin to fall down her cheeks.
"Please, I had nothing to do with any of that", she pleaded.
"It doesn't matter. Someone always has to pay.
Archer gave a victory whoop as the IP address he'd been backtracking to popped up on the computer screen. He quickly got the physical location of the computer and ran to where his sister was sitting before their uncle.
Roy was just beginning to rouse from heavy sedation. His head lolled to the side and before Archer knew what she was doing, Livy splashed cold water in their uncle's face. It had the desired affect, and Roy came to with a gasp.
"What are you two doing? Where are your parents and Digg? Why am I tied up?"
"They are out looking for Aunt Thea, however they're looking in the wrong place. We think we may know where she's at, but we need your help to get to her", Livy explained.
They both watched as their uncle's eyes widened.
"Why did your parents go to the wrong place?"
"They were scared and too emotionally invested", Livy again supplied.
Roy stared at his niece in shock. No wonder Felicity called her daughter the ice princess. She took after Oliver's "burry your feelings so deep not even you can find them".
"Ok, show me where to go and I'll handle it", he said beginning to get angry.
"We can't let you go alone. We don't know how many men will be there. Livy can be your backup and I'll run comms like Mom does for Dad and Uncle Digg", Archer said confidently.
The kids seemed to have everything all figured out. Roy found himself nodding and then felt the ropes loosen. He watched has his niece grabbed a green hooded sweatshirt and his nephew grabbed his beloved computer.
"We're ready when ever you are", they chimed in unison.
Thea yelped as another sharp pain expanded across her back and abdomen. These had nothing to do with the chair, she was in labor. She could feel herself begin to panic, and tried to remember her breathing from lamaze class. Her greatest wish at the moment was to get out of the dingy, dark room she was being held in so she could safely deliver her baby boy in a nice clean hospital. So, she concentrated on that. She was so deep in her concentration that she failed to hear the bangs and clangs coming outside the locked door.
The younger version of Team Arrow pulled up in front of the abandoned warehouse and began to ready their gear. Roy took the offered earpiece from his nephew and watched his niece do the same. He looked over to find the girl straight faced and determined. Most teenage girls would either be hysterical or giddy, but not Olivia Queen. No, that girl had her father's cool demeanor under pressure.
The pair grabbed their bows and stealthily made their way to the large metal door at the corner of the building. Before Roy knew what was happening, Livy was pulling arrows from her quiver and firing them in all directions. He watched as three guards lay unconscious on the pavement. In that moment he felt sorry for any guy that chose to cheat on her in the future.
They made their way inside the building undetected thanks to Livy's quick shooting. They ran down a long hallway, and then heard a loud screech come from the door at the end.
"Thea", Roy breathed before he began to race to the door.
He could hear his niece's quieter footfalls coming behind him. They made it to the door, but not before three more goons came pouring from one of the other doors.
"You get Aunt Thea! I'll handle these three morons", Livy said with a shout over her shoulder as she sighted in her shot.
Roy hesitated for only a moment before breaking down the door and making his way to his now screaming wife.
"Are you ok, sweetheart", he asked as he knelt to untie his wife's bindings.
"Do I look alright?! I've been kidnapped and now I'm in labor. Of course I'm not alright, just get me out of here", Thea growled.
Roy nodded and gently lifted his wife from the chair and began to hurry to the door. Once back in the hall, they saw their niece standing triumphantly before three more unconscious men.
"Oliver is so going to kill you", Thea whispered as another pain hit.
"I hope not because I really want to meet our son."
"Well if you don't hurry your going to meet him in the van! Now hurry up!"
They all three made it back to the van and Roy drove like a maniac to the hospital. He took Thea inside and left the kids to call their parents.
"You do it!"
"No, you do it!"
They argued back and forth.
"Fine, give me the phone", Livy said with a groan.
She dialed her mother's number knowing she would be the easiest to talk to.
"Hi, Mom. No we're fine. Are you coming back to the Lair anytime soon?"
"Why? What did you two do? Roy isn't awake and tearing the place apart is he", their mother asked with concern.
"No, we're kinda at Starling General", Livy said with a cringe as her mother began to squawk. Then her father's deep voice sounded over the line.
"What's happened? Are you and you're brother ok", he asked, terror causing his voice to shake.
"No, Daddy. We're fine. Uncle Roy found Aunt Thea, but she's gone into labor."
"What?! How?!"
Livy pulled the phone away from her ear as her father's booming voice echoed in the confines of the van.
"We'll explain when you get here", she said and then quickly hung up.
"We are so dead", Archer said with a sorrowful shake of his head.
Oliver and Felicity ran into the waiting room and found their children quietly looking at a People magazine.
"Ok, spill it", Felicity said with a frown on her lovely features.
"Well, I got to thinking that the picture popping up was a little coincidental", Archer said squirming in his seat.
"So, he traced it back to the physical address while I woke up Uncle Roy so we would have back up", Livy said with a shrug,"Then we went and rescued Aunt Thea and now we're here."
"What have I told you two about taking matters into your own hands", Oliver said rubbing his hand down his face.
"Not to, but there was no other choice. You guys would never have made it in time. We were very careful and I think you would have been proud of us Dad", Livy said with a smile.
She watched her father's eyes as they hardened, and then softened as he smiled.
Oliver hugged both of his children and watched as his wife did the same.
"Next time tell us before you go all young vigilante on his, ok", Felicity said as she smiled at her son and daughter.
"We promise", they said in unison.
Soon, a soft lullaby sounded over the waiting room speakers and Roy came rushing in.
"He's here", he said with a huge smile on his face.
The family went back and watched as little Robert Harper was cleaned, weighed, and measured.
"He's beautiful", Felicity cooed.
Oliver smiled at his new nephew, but soon his eyes were drawn to his own children. They were wonderful, more than he could have ever hoped for. He put an arm around each of them and then they all pressed their faces against the nursery glass to look at the latest addition to the Queen family.
Thank you so much for reading! If you have a minute, I would love to know what you think! So, please review :)
