Oliver and Laurel were in the bunker, waiting for Alena to get a hit on Diaz's Vertigo supply when John reentered.
"Laurel, Alena, can we have the room please?" John asked and both women nodded as they left.
"Get some air?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, I did and with it some clarity. Well, Oliver, it's totally within your rights to keep the hood. It's yours, and you're right. My frustration was never with the uniform. It was with the man underneath it." John said, much to Oliver's surprise.
"- I don't understand." Oliver said.
"- I didn't either, not at first. I so appreciated your apology, but something about it gnawed at me That you needed to be the Green Arrow, that it completed you. This was supposed to be about saving the city, helping the people, not ourselves." John said.
"I know that. It's a little too dangerous, and I've lost just a little too much along the way for it to be about that." Oliver reminded him.
"But yet here you are. You got married, raising a son. - You've become the mayor." John said.
"- So what?" Oliver asked.
"So, Oliver, you were never supposed to stretch yourself so thin and in so many different directions that the people suffer." John said.
"We have been in tough spots before." Oliver reminded him.
"We have, with a team. Even before Curtis, Rene, and Dinah, there was Roy, there was Thea. But, Oliver, the way you lead alienates everyone and everything around you. Look! Putting the team under surveillance was a mistake. We had an opportunity to save the vigilante. You made a different call." John said.
"Yes John, I did make a different call. I wasn't willing to gamble the life of one man who was metahuman with healing abilities and has just as much blood on his hands as I do over the lives of all of the innocent people in this city and I thought that you would have made the same call. The lives of the many outweigh the lives of one, that has always been how I do things. And as for putting the team under surveillance, you're right, that was a mistake, if only because I only put Curtis, Dinah and Rene under surveillance. I should've put you and Felicity under it to. Felicity has plenty of dirt on her that could've gotten the FBI to have her testify against me and you, well, last time I checked, the only thing keeping from that hood, was me, so how would I know that you didn't rat me out just to get the hood back And last time I checked, every time I've made a call like that, you were right there by my side." Oliver said, not willing to put up with John's attitude any longer.
"Begging you to exercise restraint, caution, Oliver, but that's not you. You have changed, and you've grown so much, and it's been my honor, it's been my privilege to watch you, but, Oliver, you're still you, and if you're just doing this for you, like you just admitted." John said only to have Oliver interrupt him.
"I didn't say I was doing it just for myself!" he shouted.
"If this isn't 100% for our city, then you are not the hero that it deserves, and you never will be." John said.
"Ricardo Diaz has God knows how much of our city in his grip, and you're picking now to lecture me or to whine about not getting a promotion?" Oliver asked him incredulously.
"Promotion? This isn't about a promotion, man. This is about you. And Diaz? You still can't see it." John said.
"See what?" Oliver asked.
"He's already won, Oliver. He has the city wired, and it happened under your watch." John said.
"He showed up while you were the Green Arrow! You bought drugs from him, John! You funded what he is doing right now! The entire time I put you in that hood, and you hid having a drug problem!" Oliver argued.
"And I was putting my body through hell for the sake of our city." John said, but Oliver didn't believe that for a minute.
"No. You put the team at risk by lying! I had to dive off a bridge to save Rene's life because you were in the field, you weren't 100%, and nobody knew it!" Oliver shouted.
"Your wife is dead because you started a fight with our former teammates." John said.
"They started that fight, not me. I never forced any of them to fight, but when they attacked, I defended myself. Do I regret the fight, yes, but I do not regret being alive because I defended myself John." Oliver shouted.
"Sure you've changed, but what comfort's that to William, whose mother's dead because of the bad decisions that you've made? Or to Donna, who's daughter died because you fought against the people who were allies." John asked, finally crossing the line, causing Oliver punch him.
"You're right, I do leave a trail of bodies in my wake, but the thing is John, I've never denied that. Felicity and Samantha are just the latest additions to my list. A list that includes my mother, Tommy and so many others. But at least I never killed my own brother." Oliver said, since if John was going cross lines, so was he.
John snapped at that as he punched Oliver back and the two began fighting as Laurel rushed back in.
"Enough. What is the matter with you 2?" Laurel asked as she pulled them apart.
"He provoked me." Oliver said, glaring at John.
"I don't know what is going with you 2 right now, but it needs to stop. We're a team, but this is worse than it was after Oliver kidnapped Lyla." Laurel said.
"Laurel, how can you follow a man who's actions have already destroyed this team? Every call he's made this year has only split us up further." John said.
"Because he's not the one who made the call that sentenced me to 2 of the worst years of my life." Laurel said, causing both men to look at her.
"What?" John asked.
"John, last time I checked, Oliver wasn't the one who made the call to trust Andy. You were. Just like how you were the one who made the call to use Andy as a double agent in Hive. And that is what caused Darhk to escape and allowed him to fake my death and put me in a prison cell for 2 years. So excuse me if I trust the man who didn't have something to with that little incident." Laurel said, shutting John up.
"You see John, I'm not the only one who makes bad calls. The only difference is that I don't call people out for it and cross lines that shouldn't be crossed. And besides, I think we both know that I never truly trusted the others because they did nothing to earn it. That's how it is with me John. Trust has to be earned, but given and they have not given me a true reason to trust them." Oliver said, shutting John up effectively.
"I don't know what came over me." John said as he felt his anger at Oliver finally start to drain away as he realized that Oliver was right.
"Me neither, but call me when you figure it out." Oliver said as he walked away.
"Oliver's not wrong about crossing lines John. Bringing up Samantha's death, that was low. As in something I'd expect from maybe Oliver during his first year back, but not from you. And yes he crossed a line by bringing up Andy, but you basically asked him to do that." Laurel said.
"Why are you 2 always ganging up on me?" John asked.
"It's not fun is it John? Oliver told me how you and Felicity tended to gang up on him a lot back in the day. Not so much fun when you're the one being ganged up is it?" Laurel asked as she then followed her boyfriend out of the room, leaving John to think.