AN: Thank you all so very, very much for your awesome support! It means the world to me.

MicRiddy, how many times can I say how awesome you are and Thank You! Words are not adequate! :D

Again, Rennie, MicRiddy and I wish it were different but the CW owns all things that are Arrow!

Chapter 26: Siblings

Mixed POV

"How are you the Arrow? Why didn't you tell me? What the hell happened to you?" Thea asked with tears in her eyes. She could not believe that Oliver was the Arrow and that he had been able to, and had wanted to, keep it a secret from her. She was hurt that he didn't trust her.

Oliver slowly stood and walked to where Thea stood in the doorway. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a small reassuring smile.

"Thea, I know you have a lot of questions right now and I promise I will answer some of them, but not right now. Yes, I am the Arrow. I didn't tell you because being close to me can cause people to get hurt. Just look at Mom, Walter, and the Lance's. They all didn't know who I was until this incident and the fact that they are close to me is the main reason that they were taken. I'll explain later, but for right this minute I need to let Sara finish her work or she's going to get irritated okay." Oliver gave Thea the brief explanation. He couldn't help the small laugh that came at the last words. He knew that Sara wouldn't say anything, but he was just trying to lighten the tension in the room.

"What happened?" Thea asked with concern as Oliver turned to go back to his chair.

"Malcolm Merlyn was extremely upset about the fact that his Undertaking did not go as planned. He blamed each one of us for having a part in that and he wanted to punish us for it." Felicity briefly explained as she brought Thea over to sit down and talk while Sara finished taking care of Oliver. She knew the young woman would need some explanation as to what happened and she decided to help out with that so that not all of it would be left to Oliver, especially since he was still in so much pain. Not that he's going to admit it.

"Did he really whip you Oliver?" Thea asked with genuine concern and disbelief that anyone would actually do that to another person.

"Yes Speedy. Malcolm was mad at me more than anyone and wanted me to feel the most amount of pain out of anyone there." Oliver replied honestly. He knew that he would not be able to keep secrets from Thea as he had in the past and he decided that this was the time to start with that honesty, no matter how hard it was.

"How many times did he whip you?" Thea asked, a bit more calmly since Oliver was finally talking to her and Felicity was sitting next to her in support as well.

"Several. He had a lot of anger that he had to get out Thea." Oliver replied. He was trying not to worry her further, but was unable to keep the seriousness from his voice. Even he was still working through dealing with what had happened. "But you don't have to worry. Sara knows what she's doing and has stitched up the places that needed it and has bandaged me up just fine. I actually kind of feel a bit like a mummy." He finished with a smile, trying to get Thea to realize that he really was okay now.

"What else did he do to you? Did he cut you? Are those burns?" Thea asked as she had noticed that there were bandages on his chest as well. "What happened to your side?"

"Yes, he gave me a few cuts and yes, they are burns. As for my side, he decided that he wanted to shoot me." Oliver said, again being completely honest with his sister. "Felicity was able to take care of my side and the burns right after they happened so you don't have to worry about that." He explained, looking to Felicity with a look of sincere gratitude. Thea didn't miss the love in his eyes either. Does Ollie love Felicity?

"What happened to your shoulder?" Thea asked pointing to the bandage on his right shoulder.

"The same thing that happened to Felicity's. Malcolm was the Dark Archer that plagued the City a while back. He chose to use an arrow on the Arrow." Oliver stated with a bit of a chuckle. "Kind of ironic isn't it?"

"He shot you too?" Thea asked, turning to Felicity and noticing her arm in a sling for the first time. She had been too focused on Oliver and all of his injuries to really notice that the blonde was injured as well. She felt bad now that she hadn't noticed and wanted to check if she was alright. "Are you okay Felicity?"

"I'm fine Thea, thank you for asking." Felicity said with a smile to reassure Thea. "He knew that I have been working with Oliver for a while and he knew that I talked Detective Lance through disarming the first of the earthquake machines. He thought that by cutting me with one of Oliver's arrows and then shooting one of his own through my shoulder that I would become afraid of them. I can't say I like them too much right now, but he did not succeed in making me afraid. I trust Oliver too much to let myself be scared of the tools that he uses to keep the city safe." Felicity wanted both Oliver and Thea to know that Malcolm had not succeeded in his plan. If anything, he had made her trust Oliver and his abilities even more. "Besides, now I have a second scar." She said with a great deal of pride in her voice and a huge grin on her face.

"We have matching scars." Oliver said thoughtfully as he looked at Felicity with a grin on his face.

Sara could no longer contain her laughter. Not only was Felicity letting everyone know that Malcolm was an idiot to think that he could turn her against Oliver, but she was bragging about her scar and Oliver was grinning like an idiot over the fact that they had matching scars. Never get between Felicity and Oliver. Will the scum of the city ever learn that one? Sara thought as she finished with the bandages on Oliver's back.

"Ollie, your back is done but I need to redo your side." Sara said to Oliver letting him know that she was almost done.

"I squeezed you! Did I hurt you Ollie because I totally didn't mean to. I didn't know you were hurt! Why didn't you say anything?" Thea asked, concern evident in her voice as she became agitated again.

"Thea. I'm fine. We were going to need to redo the bandages anyway. This is as good a time as any. Don't worry, you didn't hurt me!" Oliver said turning to Thea again. He wanted to be honest with her now, but didn't want her to feel guilty so he kept the fact that it had actually hurt and still did, a lot, to himself. Well, he and Felicity, and Sara, and Diggle, and Roy probably noticed too. Okay, but he didn't want any non-Team Arrow members to know though.

Felicity looked to Oliver. She knew that he had been hurting when Thea was hugging him, she had seen the slight look of pain on his face and heard the hiss of pain upon impact. He was not fooling her and she knew that Sara knew it too. Oliver was, yet again, trying to protect the ones that he loved.

"Done. You are good to go as long as you don't move." Sara said sarcastically – again. She was trying to make sure that the mood stayed light despite the circumstances.

"So, how did you guys get out of there anyway?" Thea asked, trying to change the subject from the torture that she knew they had endured as evidenced by the wounds and bandages that she could see.

"We had a bit of help from the Black Canary and her friend." Oliver replied. He knew that Sara would not want Thea to know just yet that she was the Canary. Sara gave him a grateful look before she went to clean up from patching him up.

"The news said that the Arrow was there. They found your hood and jacket. How are you going to get that back?" Thea asked genuinely curious how he was going to get his stuff back from the cops.

"Detective Lance has taken care of that. They were returned earlier today and things were taken care of so that the cops can't identify me as the Arrow." Oliver explained, still extremely grateful to Lance for returning his hood and jacket. "Thea, what you now know about me being the Arrow, you can't tell anyone okay. If people knew who I really was then really bad things, worse than what has happened this last week, could happen and everyone I love could be in a lot of danger." Oliver wanted her to know that he was trusting her with the biggest secret of her life and she couldn't tell anyone. He needed her to realize how important it was.

"Does that mean I can't tell Roy?" Thea asked, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

"Can't tell me what?" Roy asked as he walked into the room. "Everyone's starting to wonder where you guys are." He explained to the questioning looks Thea and Felicity were giving him.

"Thea wanted to know if she could tell you that I'm the Arrow." Oliver supplied to his question.

"You mean he knows?" Thea asked, confused and curious.

"Yep, for quite a while now. I've been using his help to get information from the Glades." Oliver answered. He wanted Thea to know that Roy was helping him, doing good.

"You knew and didn't tell me! How could you Roy Harper." Thea said as she turned and punched him playfully in the arm. She was genuinely irritated but proud of him at the same time.

"It wasn't my place to tell." Roy stated matter of factly as he looked to Oliver to let him know that he was indeed keeping the secret.

"Wait a minute!" Thea said as she turned to Oliver with an accusing look. "You shot my boyfriend!"

"I take that to mean that she knows now?" Diggle said. He had come looking for the group at Moira's request and walked in right as Thea turned accusingly to Oliver. He joined the rest of the group as they started to laugh.

"Hey! I'm being serious. How could you shoot him?" Thea was getting madder the more they laughed.

"Thea, he was just trying to protect me, protect us. He was working on a really dangerous case at the time and I was butting in where I shouldn't have been. If he hadn't have shot me then I would have followed him and probably gotten myself killed. It was totally my fault and I have since learned my lesson." Roy told Thea seriously. He wanted her to know that he didn't blame Oliver, nor did he hold a grudge against him. He was just doing what he thought he had to in order to keep Thea, Sin, and I out of it. If he hadn't then I really would have probably gotten myself killed.

"Fine, I'll drop it. For now!" Thea still wasn't ready to forgive Oliver right then but she was willing to at least put this argument off until later. Right now she just wanted to enjoy having her brother back and was extremely thankful that he was talking. "Don't think either of you are off the hook though." She said as she glared at Oliver and Roy.

"How you feeling man?" Diggle asked as he walked up to Oliver. He knew the younger man had been in a lot of pain when they first arrived and wanted to be sure that he was still doing okay.

"I'm fine. Sara's re-bandaged everything so I'm good now." Oliver said with a reassuring smile. He was still in pain but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. After all, he had been through a lot worse before.

"So what are you guys? His sidekicks or something?" Thea asked the group.

Not a single person in the room could hold back their laughter. This was the first time they had been called sidekicks. Oh they had been called a lot of things, a black driver, Abercrombie, and IT girl or blondie, but never sidekicks.

Oliver had a hard time controlling his laughter as he stepped up beside Thea, turning her so that she was standing where she could see the whole group. He had a huge, genuine smile on his face as he replied.

"Thea, meet Team Arrow!"

AN: So, How did you all like it? Please do me a favor and let me know in a nice review. Thanks!