I don't own Arrow. All rights go to their respective owners.
Chapter Twenty
Starling City
Two motorcycles zoom down a street, side by side.
They keep on driving for some time before Oliver's phone starts ringing.
"Hello?" Oliver answers the call, pulling in.
"Mum said I'm supposed to remind you to pick her up for lunch." Thea's voice travels through the phone.
Oliver raises his eyebrow, looking between Sara and Slade.
"Was I supposed to have lunch with her today?" He queries.
"She said she left you like five messages. I'm guessing you thought you were spending the day with Sara and Slade?"
Oliver's momentary silence gives her the answer.
"Look just bite the bullet and have a Cobb salad with the woman, bring those two with you if you never want her to have lunch with you again!" Thea suggests.
"You know Thea sometimes it's difficult to remember which one of you is my mother!" Oliver grumbles before hanging up in annoyance before turning to Sara and Slade.
"I'm sorry. I've got to go for a lunch with my mother." Oliver mutters miserably.
"Really? I thought we were going to look at apartments!" Sara sighs.
"I wont hear the end of it if I don't go, you guys can come with me if you want." Oliver suggests as Slade rolls his eye at him.
"Rather not." He mutters as Oliver smirks.
"How about you two go on ahead and look at apartments? Sara you're in charge." Oliver says and Sara smiles.
"Kid!" Slade glares at Oliver in protest.
"Oh come on Slade! You'd live in a hole in the ground and you'd be happy! We want a nice play to live in." Oliver laughs as Slade actually nods in agreement.
"Can't argue with you their, kid. I'm not exactly picky about where I stay."
Oliver grins in response as Sara climbs off the back of Oliver's motorcycle.
"I'll walk if you want to borrow this." Oliver offers as Sara shakes her head.
"No, you're late as it is and I think your mother will probably kill you if you're any later then threaten death to Slade and I!" She says with a laugh, kissing Oliver goodbye.
"And surprisingly Slade can actually drive a motorcycle better then his does a car!" She says.
"That's because I never used to drive a car unless I had to, I used to have a motorcycle back in Australia. I only ever drove a car when I was in the ASIS." He explains with a smile.
"Now he tells us!" Oliver laughs as Slade rolls his eye at him once more.
"That explains why you nearly killed Sara and I on that drive from the courthouse!" Oliver adds, his thoughts going to that rather painful drive back to The Foundry after being legally resurrected!
"Enjoy lunch with your mother!" Slade smirks, his voice laced with sarcasm.
Oliver all but whines in response.
"If we find anything nice, we'll tell you about it later." Sara nods.
"Or call me and get me out of lunch, please!" Oliver all but begs.
"Ohh no you did promise your mother, kid!" Slade laughs sarcastically.
"Slade!" Oliver whines.
"Whine to your mother, not to me, kid." Slade laughs as he and Sara zoom off into the distance, leaving Oliver miserably alone!
Queen Consolidated
"Mrs. Queen. All I'm asking for is a chance to sit down and discuss our proposal." Paul Copani requests as he follows Moira down the steps of Queen Consolidated.
"If that's all it is then I can save us both the time." Moira sighs as she comes to a stand still.
"It's rejected." She adds as Copani sighs in frustration.
"I see." He murmurs before adding.
"Can I ask why?"
"Do I really need to answer that, Mr. Copani?" She sighs as in the distance she sees Oliver pull up on his motorcycle, luckily seemingly without Sara and Slade!
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm meeting my son for lunch!"
Oliver waves at her from across the road, hoping to get this done with as soon as possible so he can join Sara and Slade in the hunt for a new home!
The sudden squealing of tires makes Oliver turn his head as a motorcycle zooms past, on it is a man who suddenly pulls out a gun.
"GET DOWN!" Oliver cries as the man opens fire on his mother and the man who she was meeting with, both fall to the ground...
Frozen in shock, Oliver begins to run across the street to where his mother is.
"Mom! Are you ok?" He cries worriedly as he pulls her to his feet, scanning her quickly to see if she had been hit anywhere.
"I'm alright." She shakes her head as he helps her up.
"You're not hurt?" Oliver asks quickly as she shakes her head again.
"No, I'm fine." She nods as she hugs her son.
"Are you sure? You sure you're fine?" Oliver tries to confirm.
"Yes I'm fine!" She replies as Oliver sits her down carefully.
"Call 911!" He yells at passerby's as he races toward the building, after the shooter, who is still escaping on the motorcycle.
Oliver's races after him, running down alleyways, pathways to try and catch up with the guy who almost got his mother killed!
He picks up a metal pole as he runs and throws it at the back of motorcycle.
He tries to catch up as it slows due to the received hit yet before he can a lorry cuts him off, allowing the shooter to escape.
Oliver shakes his head in disbelief when the lorry clears as the shooter is already long gone!
Starling City General
"Ollie!"
"Kid!" Slade and Sara call as they race toward Oliver, their faces masks of worry.
"You alright? You hurt?" Slade growls at him hurriedly as they reach Oliver's side.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Oliver smiles wryly as Sara throws herself into his arms, placing relief filled kisses on his cheek as Slade rests a hand on his arm, both of them beyond relieved that Oliver seems to be safe and unharmed.
"The shooter got away." Oliver murmurs.
"We'll get him kid, don't you worry about that!" Slade mutters in response.
"What happened?" Sara pulls away to rest her hands on his chest.
"This guy with a gun just opened fire on my mom and some guy she was meeting with. Mom didn't get hit, she's just in there but I think the other guy…" Oliver trails off.
"Your mom ok then?" Sara questions worriedly.
"Yeah. I was just about to go check on her, Thea should be here about…"
"Ollie!" Thea cries as she races over to them.
"Is mom ok? What happened?" She looks between the three of them.
"Yeah, I think she's ok. I was just about to go in, wait here a moment Speedy." Oliver smiles, almost expecting her to protest about being left with Sara and Slade yet she says nothing.
Oliver enters the room, relived to see his mother sitting up and looking around anxiously, her face softening when she sees Oliver in the doorway.
"Are you ok?" Oliver questions as she smiles at him.
"I'm fine." She notices the worried expression on Oliver's face.
"I'm fine." She repeats as Thea moves in behind Oliver.
"Did you reach Walter?" She looks to Thea, who shakes her head sadly.
"No, I'm sorry." She murmurs as she leans against the door.
"As I was telling your mother, the CAT scan showed a grade two concussion." The doctor in the room makes himself known for the first time.
"She can go home, so long as someone stays with her just to make sure there are no after effects." He adds as Oliver nods gratefully.
"Thank you." He responds as the doctor exits the room, leaving only himself and Moira in the room as Thea appears to be talking to Sara and Slade.
Oliver looks at them quizzically for a moment before turning to his mom.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have left you. I thought you were fine." Oliver stammers.
"What'd you think you were doing anyway?" She shakes her head at him.
"Yeah, I wanted to get the license plate of the guy who took a shot at you."
"Well that was foolish." She cuts him off.
"What were you thinking Ollie?" Thea chimes in from the door.
"Oh, he isn't known for his brains." Slade chuckles in an attempt to stop the questioning.
"Yeah." Oliver nods simply as he embraces his mother.
Honestly, just happy that she's alive.
"So did you get the license plate?" Thea questions as Oliver leaves his mother be to rejoin Sara and Slade.
"No he got away." Oliver responds calmly.
"Maybe you should spend a little less time trying to be a hero. You're obviously not very good at it." She folds her arms.
"That's cute."
"I wasn't trying to be." Thea cuts Oliver off, a solemn look on her face.
"You left mom in the street, alone and hurt in the street to get a license plate?" Thea glares at him, doubt evident in her voice.
"You don't believe me?" Oliver questions.
"I love you, mom loves you, but it's getting hard when you won't be truthful with us." She mutters, turning to go back to her mother yet stops again.
"And it's not just that Ollie. What if you had been shot? What if that crazy lunatic had killed you! We lost you once, we can't go through that again." Thea shakes her head as Oliver sighs, wishing he could just put her mind at rest somehow yet before he can say anything she wraps her arms around him.
"I'm still mad at you but I'm overjoyed that you didn't get hurt." She sighs as Oliver smiles before she pulls away.
"I'm gonna go help mom. Sara, Slade." She addresses them both by name, causing Oliver's eyes to widen in shock.
"Thank you for coming." She thanks them with a small smile before heading back into Moira's hospital room.
Oliver, Sara and Slade stare after her with confusion in their eyes.
"Did that just happen?" Sara breaks the silence.
"What was she talking to you guys about when I was with my mother?" Oliver questions.
"She was just thanking us for being here, she was nice to us." Sara raises her eyebrow in disbelief at the whole affair as she explains it to Oliver.
"Something wrong with her?" Slade mutters as Oliver rolls his eyes at him.
"She must have some hidden agenda or something." He resolves.
"Slade!" Oliver shakes his head in disbelief.
"Hey kid, she hasn't said one word to me before now that wasn't insulting." Slade reminds him, Oliver nods in response.
"We'll get to the bottom of it eventually. Whatever it is." Oliver resolves as Quentin and Hilton appear at the end of the corridor.
"Hey dad." Sara smiles as the three of them saunter over to the detectives.
"Detectives, do you have any leads on the shooter?" Oliver questions.
"Not yet." Quentin shakes his head regrettably as he embraces his daughter.
"Did you get a clear look at him?" Hilton cuts in.
"No, he was wearing a helmet." Oliver responds as Quentin nods.
"Don't worry. We'll find him." He assures Oliver.
"My head of security is on his way. I want to make sure there are men outside my mother's door. She needs to be protected." Oliver requests.
"You have a head of security when you've got that guy?" Quentin looks at Slade before Oliver in momentary disbelief.
"I don't exactly see eye to eye with Mrs. Queen." Slade mutters, yet with a smile at Quentin's comment.
"You saved both of my daughters lives, I think anyone who has a guy like you around should count themselves lucky." He nods kindly to Slade.
"I wouldn't worry yourself Mr. Queen, your mother wasn't the target. The guy she was with though was connected, mobbed up to the eyeballs connected." Hilton cuts in as Oliver looks to Slade and Sara momentarily.
His mother wasn't the target but she had almost been a casualty.
Which means that the people who orchestrated the hit need to be punished.
A task that The Man In The Hood, The Woman In Black and The Man In The Mask will take great pleasure in for filling!
Authors Note: Thank you all so much for reading, next chapter is already in the works so it hopefully won't take me too long to update! Thank you to all of you who have followed, favorited and sent me such kind reviews, please tell me what you thought of this chapter, see you all next update!