Chapter 37 - Bows

AN: Big shout out to Delena4eva for being an absolute sweetheart & advertising this fic on her Fb page – without me asking! That was very kind of you, thank you! KenyanCougar thanks loads for helping me through this chapter which did not want to cooperate & for being a fantastic beta in Rennie's absence – love ya hun! All mistakes remain mine however!

As always, thoughts, memories, & unspoken conversations are in italics :)

Disclaimer: The CW owns Arrow completely.

Thea thought for a minute, before finally understanding. He wasn't speaking as my brother, as Oliver, he was giving an order to his Team as The Arrow. As much as Thea didn't like the idea of being ordered about by her own brother, she knew and understood that it was necessary, and she respected his skills and experience enough to not argue – even if that went completely against the grain for her as his little sister, as his Team Member she realized it was right and she needed to follow those orders.

Mixed POV

Most of the rest of the day was spent in training and archery practice. When they stopped to eat Oliver had told them that if he was happy with their skills at the end of the day he would take them to go and see the graves tomorrow and so everyone was working especially hard. Moira and Thea had already asked to go to see Robert's grave and, once they knew about it too, Walter, Laurel, and Lance had also wanted to pay their respects, as had the rest of his Team. Oliver had therefore decided to stick with his original plan for the whole group to go together, feeling it was safer than splitting them up now that they knew Slade was watching. Oliver was being careful to ensure that they understood that he was in charge, he knew they could not afford a repeat of the disagreements that had taken place on the way to the fuselage and then to the cave. Especially not with Slade watching.

Oliver spent some time working with Lance and Walter as he wanted to see their skills for himself and he knew that Roy could handle practicing the archery alone for a while. He asked Thea to do some more sparring too as she would need to be able to defend herself physically as well as with a bow. Oliver was sparring with both men at the same time as he wanted them to know what it was like to fight more than one person and to have to anticipate blocks from different directions simultaneously. Lance found that easier than Walter did and Oliver knew that was because he would have been used to being outnumbered at times as a cop. Walter of course had done all of his training in a gym and so that was completely different, even though it was clear that his step-father had worked hard to learn all that he could.

Oliver gradually sped the pace up without teaching them any more advanced moves. It was important for their reactions to be good even if their range of techniques was limited and Oliver thought back to that Bruce Lee quote Sara had given the previous day. Fear not the man who has practices 10,000 different kicks, but fear the man that has practiced one kicking technique 10,000 different times. He continued to train with them for a while before leaving them to it.

"Keep working, you need to have that foundation as strong as possible." Oliver said as he left them to continue to train and both men nodded their agreement, remembering Sara's lesson with Felicity and Laurel.

"Thea, Roy, would you join me at the cave again please." Oliver asked.

Both of them stopped their own practicing and went to join him as requested. Roy saw that Oliver was picking up the rest of the wood and vines that they had brought back earlier. This should be interesting, how on earth is he going to turn all ofthat into two bows?!Roy knew that Oliver would be able to do it, he knew that Oliver wouldn't have spent the time collecting the materials if he couldn't, but still Roy didn't see just how he was going to turn it into two bows. Should be interesting, can't wait to see Thea's face when he tells her Roy thought with a hint of a smile.

Oliver caught sight of the flicker of a smile passing over Roy's face and knew what he was thinking. He gave a hint of a smile back, sharing the younger man's thoughts about how Thea would react. Oliver put the rest of the wood and vines on the flat-topped rock they had used earlier and took out his knife again.

"More arrows Ollie?!" Just how many are you planning on using – and why is this wood different than what we used before?" Thea asked. If Oliver really wants us to make more arrows then that's fine, but if he wants us to be ready to see Dad's grave tomorrow then wouldn't we be better off training?Thea thought, confused at her brother's actions. She caught the hint of a smile passing over both Roy's and Oliver's faces in turn, which only served to confuse her more.

"Arrows aren't all that much good without something to shoot them from Speedy." Oliver pointed out with a bigger grin.

"Okayyy." She replied cautiously. What's my brother got planned now?Thea couldn't help but think warily.

"I've shown you both how to make arrows, now it's time you learned how to make a basic survival bow." Oliver explained, enjoying the look of stunned surprise on his sister's face. She had always been hard to genuinely surprise when they were growing up and so he was taking great pleasure in the times that he had been able to properly surprise her over the past few days that they had been on the Island.

"You can do that?!" Thea exclaimed, completely taken aback by his words. She hadn't even known that such a thing as a 'survival bow' had existed, let alone that he would know how to make one and be able to do so out here with no tools whatsoever apart from a combat knife.

Oliver however proceeded to do precisely that. He knew that it would take more time than they had for them to be able to learn to make one themselves, but regardless of that he decided it was important to show them the steps as they needed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of what would become their own bows. He taught them how to strip the wood of all bumps and knots initially, being careful to remove only what was absolutely necessary from the wood, before cutting them to the correct lengths for Thea and Roy respectively. Oliver then showed them how to push down on the wood, or the stave as he told them it was called, to see which way it naturally swiveled in order to find the back and the belly of the bow stave. He showed them how to push outwards gently on the belly side of the handhold to see where wood needed to be trimmed in order to shape the bow into its proper curved shape and encourage it to bend properly without weakening it or taking anything from the handhold area.

Once he was happy with the shape of both bows, Oliver showed them how to notch the areas for the drawstring and how to weave more of the fibrous threads from inside the vines into a string for the bow. He taught them how to fix them to the bows themselves – warning them strictly to not pull on the drawstring yet, to do so would risk breaking the bow. Next he took both bows with Thea and Roy over to a tree where he hung Thea's bow horizontally to check and balance out the tillering to make each limb of the bow bend evenly and equally, explaining that the limbs of the bow needed to be a mirror image of each other. Oliver kept gently stripping away at the wood and testing the drawstring little by little until he had it to the correct draw length for Thea. He set the draw weight for her, getting her to draw it again and again until Oliver was finally satisfied with it, having set it on the absolute limits of what she was currently able to draw properly, knowing that she would continue to get stronger and he didn't want to have to adjust it too frequently if possible.

Oliver warned them both how dangerous it was to dry fire the bow and lectured them to ensure they never did that – a survival bow was not suitable for firing without an arrow nocked. He was also careful to warn Thea that it would not be strong enough to use in a fight the way he did with his bow. Oliver explained that he had already told Roy that when she looked at him askance, clearly asking why he was only warning her. Oliver gave Thea a few arrows and told her to practice and get used to the feel and draw of her new bow, while he finished making Roy's. He followed the same procedure for the tillering and everything else, but being careful to ensure that it had a far heavier draw weight to compensate as much as possible for the Mirakuru. Finally Roy's bow was finished too and Oliver instructed Roy to take some arrows and practice just as Thea was.

"Make sure that there is only one of you loosing at a time though okay Roy. Otherwise you can explain to Felicity why her sewing kit is needed yet again!" Oliver threatened, knowing that Roy was far more scared of Felicity than of him and smiling slightly at the look of fear from Roy in response to his comment.

Oliver returned to the rest of the group, leaving Roy and Thea to familiarize themselves fully with their new bows. He was pleased to see that everyone was taking the training a lot more seriously and it seemed like Sara's and Felicity's lessons the previous day, coupled with everything that had happened last night, had hit home. Finally they are starting to get it! Oliver thought with a sense of relief. He knew that they would still be taking a big risk in going to see the graves, but equally he knew how important it was for Thea and his Mom to see his Dad's grave.

"Ready to train Oliver, John?" Sara asked with a grin as she spun her new bo staff in her hands. Oliver and Diggle looked at each other recognizing that for the challenge it was and knew straight away that she was looking forward to truly testing the strengths and weaknesses of the staff.

Felicity turned to spar with Moira and Laurel, having already noticed that Oliver didn't want them to only practice one on one. She had heard the challenge in Sara's voice too and even though she knew that this was going to be an impressive sparring session she was determined to not let their own training ease up in response. No distractions this time! Thea needs to see her Father's grave, and Oliver needs to be able to take her too, so we need to do as much training as we can.

Within seconds Felicity could hear the continual thuds of bamboo and wood striking each other and didn't need to look to see that Oliver and Diggle had accepted Sara's challenge. From the sound of it, Sara was getting in more strikes that either of the men and Felicity knew how much she was enjoying having a staff now. She knew that for Sara the bo staff was as much an extension of her own body as the bow was for Oliver.

On several occasions Felicity noticed that Laurel was being distracted by Oliver, Sara, and Diggle, but she made a point of getting in a solid blow every time and after this had happened several times Laurel got the message and focused back on her own training. Moira had done the same thing once and Felicity had had no reservations over catching her hard too. Slade's not going to take it any easier on her than on the rest of us after all. Felicity thought as she justified her actions to herself.

They finally broke for food as the light started to fade, finishing off the rest of the food that Oliver and Roy had brought back that morning. None of them were full, but they were fed and Oliver decided that would have to satisfy them for now. He knew that going back out to check the traps and hunt again tonight would only be asking for trouble. He strongly doubted that Slade would give more than one warning shot a day and really did not want to have to remove yet another bullet if he could help it.

While they were eating Oliver had been carefully watching all their faces and body language and that had confirmed his suspicions from earlier. Felicity has definitely spoken to them after last night. He saw too many looks of pity that flashed over faces only to be determinedly smothered by other emotions and he made a note to ask Sara what had been said. Initially Oliver had intended to ask Diggle, but he saw several pitying looks stop on receipt of a warning look from Diggle and suspected that he had had something to say too. As Sara finished eating Oliver decided to take the chance to speak to her alone.

"Sara, time to swap weapons." Oliver made it clear that it wasn't a suggestion and Sara agreed readily enough.

Sara frequently practiced with his bow while he would use her bo staff when they were at the lair and both knew it was important to keep that going. Sara was currently the only other one who could truly use his bow and it was important to have as much coverage on the weapons as possible in case one of them was injured. They both ignored the quizzical looks from those who didn't already know that she could use the bow too as they headed over to the smaller clearing where Roy and Oliver had worked the previous day, picking up the bow, quiver, and bo staff as they left the main clearing.

Both made a start on their training waiting for the others to stop watching before they started speaking. They knew that the Team would be distracting the others for them. Oliver knew that both Felicity and Diggle had understood that he wanted to speak to Sara in private. After a few more minutes of training Sara finally paused shooting to speak.

"Felicity spoke to them while you and Roy were gone, Diggle said a little too." She kept her voice very low and quiet so that it would not carry and there was no way any of the others would be able to overhear. "She said a lot, she let them know how upset and distracted she was by hearing you say 'five years where nothing good happened' the first time she heard you say that. I don't know how she does it but somehow Felicity managed to let them all know she understood what they were feeling." Sara paused, full of admiration for the remarkable blonde. "She told them they had to stop being distracted, that they had to stop the pity because you don't need it and definitely don't want it." Sara saw Oliver's nod of agreement and added one of her own. The last thing either of them wanted was pity.

"Diggle told them about when he spoke to you about secrets having weight, said that you told him he sees how hard you work out." Sara let out a small sigh at that, understanding both Diggle's words and Oliver's response to them. They are both right, secrets do have immense weight – and we do work out so hard to try to avoid dealing with them, to allow ourselves to keep going. She loosed a couple more arrows on target before continuing to speak.

"Felicity told them they had to focus on the strength that your scars show, not the injuries, to see them as a reminder of the amazing man you've become because of everything you've overcome. She said they needed to see the man that never gives up, never gives in; the one who goes up against arms dealers with loaded weapons with only a bow and arrows and wins. She told them to see the man under the hood, the Hero." Sara finished speaking, letting a little emotion into her own voice to show both how impressed she was with what Felicity had said, and her own agreement with her words.

Sara saw the look on Oliver's face even as he continued to practice with her bo staff, using the surrounding trees as training dummies. She knew that he needed some time to think through Felicity's and Diggle's words and she put the quiver down carefully before holding out the bow to Oliver in one hand while holding her other out for the bo staff. Oliver looked at her after a few seconds, nodded his thanks and took the bow, returning the bo staff at the same time. She left him there as he was strapping on the quiver, knowing that he simply needed the quiet simplicity of target practice to ground himself again.

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When they settled down for sleep that night Thea took her place with the rest of the Team again, pleased to see the looks of approval and acceptance from the rest of the Team. She was surprised and happy at how readily they had welcomed her and included her in their Team and she knew that was due in no small amount to Felicity. Thea hadn't failed to notice that Oliver and Felicity were lying closer to each other again, their fingers touching surreptitiously, and she hoped that that meant that her brother would again be able to sleep. Please let him have one night without a nightmare! She thought, knowing how desperately Oliver needed the peace that it seemed only Felicity could give him. Thea looked to Diggle who was taking the first watch and realized that he was thinking the same thing. When did I start to understand what he's thinking without needing words too?

AN2: Instructions for the survival bows have been taken from several websites & I apologize for any mistakes/inconsistencies. I am no archer & have never made a bow, but have simply done my best from the research I could find.

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