Author's note: So since I didn't update yesterday... tonight I am updating 5 chapters... enjoy and review

Disclosure: I owe none of Arrow but am proud of our captain for hitting a homer!

"Who could that be?" A quiet knock drew the woman off her couch, where she been constantly watch her young child play. She crossed through the small apartment to answer the door. She peeked through the peephole then pulled the door open in a hurry. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Lyla! Is Dig home?" Thea asked.

"Of course sweetie coming on in." Lyla opened the door further so the small woman could cross over the threshold. As soon as the door closed, she called out, "Johnny, you have a visitor!" Then she leaned and hugged the visitor before crossing the room to pick up her baby girl. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah. I think so. I hope so. I just need to clear up some stuff with Dig." The woman moved towards the small child, who was a few months shy of being a year old, and brushed her cheek while smiling down at her. "Wow she gets bigger every time I see her. She seems to grown so much from just two weeks ago. It's crazy. Plus she gets cuter."

"That is all her mother." Diggle answered as he stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

"I will let you two talk." Lyla commented then moved to his side. "Be nice."

Diggle leaned down and placed a kiss on his wife's lips and his daughter's cheek then the two moved to the back of the apartment. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk. Clear the air if you will let me." Thea replied.

"Shouldn't it be Oliver doing that?"

"Be fair. Would you even answer the door or phone if he tried?"

He shrugged in agreement then moved to living room to sit down. The woman followed him and sat down on the other end of the couch, leaving a small space between their bodies. "So he sent you? Yes, I know he is back. I saw the news."

"You really think he would do that? If he knew I was here he would kill me. No I came to fix this because he has no idea where to start. But he wants to fix it. It's killing him that you guys are fighting, Dig. I haven't seen him like this since Tommy."

"Yeah well he should have thought of that while he was planning kidnapping my wife and leaving my daughter all alone here."

"Dig, he knows he messed up. He told me that. He hated doing it."

"So what do you expect me to do, forget it all happened?" Diggle shouted and stood as his temper began to increase.

"Of course not, Dig." Thea folded her hands in her lap and stared deeply at them "When he came back, he was so shut off and scary that I thought that he would never be the same again. He wasn't my brother. He was just this shell of a person. All he seemed to care about was staying away from all of us. Now I know that he was hooding up all those times. He told me about some of them yesterday. I took him to our his and father's gravestone one day. I told him what it was like for me while he was gone. I finally think he realized that he was not the only one to suffer his loss at that point. I told him he needed to let someone in. You were that person." Thea took a breathe, as she fought back the tears that were trying to break free of her eyes. "You were the first to join his crusade. I know it started out because he needed to save you but something changed in him when you two started to work together. He started to care about other things than the mission." Thea finally looked up as she wiped a few tears away that broke free. "Dig, he needs you. He needs his friend. He told me that he thought of you as a brother, please don't abandon him when he needs you most. Ollie is about to start a whole new chapter of his life. He will need someone to call him out on his bull and smack him around when he is being an idiot. If you don't do it for him, then do it for the rest of us. Laurel and I are new to this vigilante business and we have no clue what we're doing. I mean my psycho dad trained me; taught me all he knew from the League, but no one should trust him because a year before he tried to blow up half the city and ended up killing his own son, my half brother. In the last 8 years I have lost my dad, my mom, my half-brother that I didn't know about until after he was dead. I thought I lost another brother, only to find out he came back from the dead but lost part of himself on that stupid island. I also lost my boyfriend because he faked his life to protect my stupid brother. I can't lose anymore. I won't be able handle it." Thea broke down in tears at this finally, allowing herself to give into all the emotions she had been hiding for months now.

Diggle crossed and sat back down next to her, closer than before. He engulfed her in his arms, pressing her into his chest. He rocked her as he heard her sob the tears she had been holding at bay for so long. He let her seek comfort in him, waiting as she dropped her walls and their weight for a few precious moments. Finally when her breathing evened out and the sobs stopped, he glanced down at her. "I'm sorry Thea. I know you have been through a lot these last few years. I know how much it hurt to see what happened because I watched as your brother tried to protect you."

"Yes he tried but all it did was cause more problems because he was never honest with me. Not once until a few months when he finally explained everything. By then so much happened to me due to his decisions and lies that we weren't sure how we would be able to come back from it. It took a lot of work from both of us and it is going to still take more but we are getting better. I know he took your wife from you, but you got her back, Dig. I lost my entire family because of his planning and decisions and they aren't coming back. If anyone should be pissed at him it should be me but I am beginning to forgive him."

"Yes but he is your brother so of course you trust him."

"It didn't say shit about trust!" she shouted a bit louder than she had intended. They both glanced towards the back of the apartment and awaited to see if there was any noise of someone joining them. When no change occurred she continued, "he still has to work to earn that back. That is what takes time. Even the forgiveness took some time. I talked to him for about two hours yesterday, getting to know this new man that my brother is. He opened up about his deals with you and Felicity. Then this morning we talked more and I see a new man. One who wants to live finally. The Ollie I grew up with never came back from that island. Oliver came back was darker and had no desire to live. All he wanted to do was his mission and fulfill my dad's dying wish. With all he went through this last year, it changed him. He wants to really live and fight for what he wants in his life now. He wants to be happy finally. I got my brother back. Not that stupid playboy Ollie, not the creepy soulless Oliver, but the brother I knew when I was younger who would sit with me and watch movies all day when I was sick, would braid my hair and cared with his whole heart."

Diggle had been studying her the entire time she spoke. Her eyes shined with such a genuine love and devotion to her brother that Diggle was almost willing to forgive him already. It surprised him that he could be knocked down by such a tiny person. "So what do you expect me to do, Thea? Why did you come here? If you know it's going to take time, what are you doing here?"

"I want you to give him the chance. Be pissed with him. Beat the hell out of him. Rip him down and tear him apart. That's fine if that's how you two deal with this stuff. But just do it. Don't push him away. Don't block him out. That will kill him. I think if Ollie was to ever really lose either you, me, or Felicity, it would break him completely. He puts up a strong front but he needs you there just as much as he needs me or Felicity. Felicity is the love of his life. I'm his sister and you are the closest thing to a brother he has ever had besides Tommy. As much loss as I have been through these last couple years, Ollie has had it worse. I mean can you imagine watching your best friend and mother die in front of you and knowing you save the city on a weekly basis, but you couldn't save those two people. I know he blames himself for their deaths, but I don't."

"You don't?" Diggle looked both confused and shocked at the same time, something that was not easy to do to him.

"Yeah I mean Tommy died saving Laurel, the woman he loved, from a building that was knocked down our psycho evil father. As for my mom, she gave up her life to protect her kids from a crazy dude hell bent on hurting my brother because the woman he loved was killed by some other dude. He blamed Ollie because he choose to protect Sara. He had done the same thing my mom did but that scientist jerk didn't like that idea and killed the other chick. If anyone is at fault for that death it was the jerk, but Slade was crazy and needed someone to hate so he locked on my brother."

Diggle sat further back and stretched his left arm across the top of the couch. He propped his head up on his other arm, using that hand to scratch his temple. "Wow. Are you sure Oliver is your brother?"

"Yeah why?"

"Because he is never this level headed and wise. I would say it came from your father's blood, but we both know that's not true." Diggle chuckled.

Thea fell back, laughing openly. "God no! Tommy was an idiot just like him. Maybe it is just a female thing."

"Definitely!" They heard a quiet voice behind them. They turned to see Lyla in the hallway coming into the living room to join them. "She is down for her nap."

"Well I should be going too. I have a lot to do. We are having a team dinner of sorts tonight at Big Belly Burger around six if you guys wanna come. I know it would mean the world to Ollie and Felicity. I'm not sure how long they're in town. They are trying to figure things with the company and all. Ollie said they would tell us their plans tonight. Just think about it." Thea leaned in and hugged Lyla. Diggle stood and followed her to the door.

Before leaving, Thea turned once more to him and said, "Think about everything please. I would really love to get to know those that have been such an amazing influence on Ollie. If you guys can change him and Roy like you did, you're both incredible people and I think I would like having you in my family as well." She then wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and hugged him finishing it with a small peck on his cheek before exiting. A smile graced her lips as she moved out the building knowing that she had just taken the first step in helping to mend a dear friendship that would be important in Oliver's future.