Chapter Thirty- Nine:
"Kid's got potential," Slade noted from the balcony they were observing from.
"He's way out of his league doing this alone without any training, though," Oliver replied worried for the kid's safety. They both tensed as the other guy pulled a knife out and before either of them had hit the ground the kid had been stabbed. Slade didn't even hesitate going after the stabber, as he knew Oliver was better at the people side of things. He knew his medical training but he had never been a good nurse, as Oliver knew. He had taught the kid all the basics and he was slowly moving into the more advanced stuff and Oliver absorbed it all like a sponge. Being an archer Oliver had precise aim and steady hands, which were essential for dealing with injuries out in the field. He grinned as the idiot turned down an alley he knew was a dead end. He would leave him alive and get Felicity to anonymously call the police later.
Oliver, however, had been having a hard time patching the kid up. The knife had nicked a major vein luckily because if it had been an artery the kid would have already bled out. He knew the kid had to go to the hospital because he didn't have a small enough sterilised needle on his to fix it for him.
"Oliver Queen?" the kid whispered surprised. Oliver inwardly cursed, he had bent to close to the kids shoulder where the knife had stabbed him to make sure it was just a vein and not an artery and it had been close enough for him to be identified.
"What's your name?" Oliver asked resigned to the fact the kid was coming home with them and Shado could patch him up. He couldn't take the kid to the hospital if he was going to tell everyone he was the Hood, which would lead to Slade being identified eventually as Deathstroke and Shado as Fei. The Police knew of them, sort of. The majority of those they visited didn't report it but a small few did. Felicity took care of all security cameras and other footage so all the Police Force had was some very dodgy sketches and horrible descriptions. Deathstroke was apparently Texan, Shado was African American and Oliver was between 30-40 years old. He had suspicions that Lance had helped to keep the descriptions horrible but the man wouldn't admit it when Oliver asked.
'Roy, Roy Harper," the kid whispered and then groaned, due to the pain from Oliver applying more pressure. Slade came back into the alley and raised an eyebrow at Oliver.
"Nice to meet you Roy, well let's get you back to my place so we can patch you up," Oliver said. Keeping pressure on the wound he gently helped Roy up and Slade helped by going to the other side of Roy to let him lean on Slade.
"Why is he coming back with us?" Slade asked.
"He saw who I am," Oliver replied quietly waiting to be chastised. Slade however just closed his eyes momentarily and then the three of them made their way slowly back to where the van was parked.
"Shado can you get the surgery kit?" Oliver asked loudly as they made their way into the mansion.
"Who is it this time?" Shado called out as she made her way towards the entry with the kit in her hands.
"Roy Harper," Oliver called. Suddenly he could footsteps from the living room as Tommy and Walter made their way towards them. Sara was currently upstairs saying good night to Joe and Thea.
"Okay Roy, well first we need to get you out of the jacket," Shado said. Slade smiled at how well Shado adapted to any situation, which then quickly disappeared when he noticed the side glance that Shado was giving to him. It didn't matter though it was the kid's fault, not his. Roy with Oliver's help slowly took off the jacket causing Oliver to frown when he saw how small Roy was underneath the thick hoodie.
"How old are you?" Oliver asked suspiciously.
"21," Roy prompted.
"And I'm the Queen of England, try again truthfully," Shado said inspecting the wound.
"17," Roy sighed. He didn't mention that he had only very recently turned 17 from the disapproving look all these adults were giving him, or that he had been working the streets in some shape or form for a lot longer.
"What are you doing facing down an armed attacker when your 17 and have clearly had no training?" Slade questioned in the tone he reserved for when either Oliver or Joe did something stupid. Oliver grinned and sat down next to Roy.
"Oh, you're getting the dad voice. It's about time someone else apart from me got it," Oliver said grinning.
"You deserve it every time kid and don't encourage Roy to follow in your footsteps," Slade chastised. Roy looked curiously between the pair feeling more comfortable as they bickered like old married people he knew. Oliver put his foot near Roy's.
"He would have to take pretty big steps to follow in my footsteps," Oliver pointed out cheekily. Roy could help but chuckle.
"Oh god, there's two of them. If I didn't already have some grey hairs they would have just immediately appeared," Slade said exaggerating his sigh.
"You have grey hairs?" Oliver and Roy asked at the same time. Shado giggled as Slade placed extra emphasis at pretending to collapse into a seat.
"Okay Roy, it is up to you whether I use some local anesthetic on the area. I've already dealt with the vein, it was only a very tiny nick and some very special heating swabs closed it. You'll only need three, maybe four stitches to get the whole wound closed," Shado explained, curious to see what the boy's pain threshold was like. He hadn't even moved or twitched when Shado had applied the heated swab to his vein or when she had used hospital grade cleaning alcohol to get rid of the dirt around the wound.
"I'll be fine, just please be quick," Roy decided bracing himself. Slade got off of the chair and walked behind Roy quickly grabbing hold of the boy and preventing all movement. Roy looked confused.
"Just be glad he's not sitting on your lap," Oliver muttered though everyone heard and burst into laughter.
"Huh?" Roy asked confused and he was intrigued so much he barely felt the first pierce of the needle. Slade told him exactly what happened while they were on the boat coming to Starling and Roy was laughing his head off by the time Shado had finished and cut the thread.
"All done," Shado announced.
"Come with me and I'll find you a room," Oliver said.
"Get him a change of clothes too, the top and hoodie are ruined," Shado said taking note of the clothes. Slade noticed the devastated look on Roy's face at the mention of the hoodie. He gently picked it up and looked Roy in the eyes.
"I'll see to it that it gets fixed up," he told the boy gently.
"Thank you," Roy said sincerely and began following Oliver up the stairs wondering how a decision to stop a man raping a woman had led him to staying the night at the Queen Mansion.
"Morning," Roy said hesitantly as he came into the dining room. The middle of the table had three different kinds of cereal boxes, a plate full of pancakes and a plate full of toast with jars of jam, honey and a weird yellow and black jar called vegemite.
"Morning," Oliver mumbled through a mouth full of toast. Shado just shook her head sadly.
"I swear you had more manners on the Island," Shado lamented.
"The kid has never had manners Shado," Slade pointed out as he finished putting a heavy amount of vegemite on his toast.
"Come sit down and help yourself to some breakfast," Walter offered, Roy sat down and looked around, there were new people he hadn't seen last night.
"I'm Thea and this is Joe," Thea said noticing Roy looking at them.
"It's my birthday today," Joe announced proudly.
"Happy birthday," Roy told the boy slowly reaching out to grab two pieces of toast.
"Will you be staying for my party?" Joe asked as he reached over the take the jar of vegemite from Slade.
"Party?" Roy repeated dumbly.
"We're all going to start setting up after breakfast, Mr. Lance and Laurel are coming!" Joe said excitedly.
"He really needs more friends his age," Shado pointed out.
"He starts school soon, he'll make friends there," Sara pointed out. Slade grumbled but went back to eating his toast.
"I'm fine dad, I have Thea and all of you to play with," Joe stated finally finishing applying a layer of vegemite as thick as his dads. They both smiled and tapped their pieces of toast together before taking a bite.
"That was so cheesy," Oliver pointed out with a grin.
"I got it," Tommy declared with a smile. Slade held out his hand for the small camera and Tommy handed it over reluctantly. Slade looked at the photo and then his face broke out into one of his rare full-face smiles. He lowered the camera to show Joe and he grinned too.
"I like that photo," Joe told him.
"How about I get it framed for you as a late birthday present?" Tommy offered. Joe nodded enthusiastically.
"So are you going to stay for my party? Oliver said he was going to bake me a cake," Joe asked. Oliver spluttered in the middle of having a mouthful of water.
"I what?" Oliver asked.
"Well you made one for Laurel and she didn't even eat it so I thought you were going to make me one for my birthday," Joe said looking devastated and producing a full lip pout in Oliver's direction. Oliver looked shocked and then guilty. He got up and made his way to the kitchen muttering about the Wilson puppy dog face curse. Slade snorted when he heard that.
"Chocolate?" Oliver called out.
"Yes please," Joe called back, he swiveled around to check Oliver was in the kitchen and then high fived his dad.
"I can't believe that worked," Joe whispered loudly.
"Did you just guilt him into baking your cake?" Tommy asked incredulously.
"Yep," Slade and Joe said together. Tommy just shook his head with a massive grin on his face, impressed with the two of them. Roy decided to grab the jar of vegemite across from him and put the same amount of spread that Joe and Slade had put on. He didn't notice Slade watching him from the corner of his eye as he took a bite of his toast and promptly spit it out.
"I could have told you that stuff is nasty," Thea said.
"Why didn't you?" Roy asked as he gulped down water to get rid of the taste.
"You ate it at Aussie level, you need to dull it down to American," Joe explained grabbing a new bit of toast and putting the thinnest layer of vegemite on it and handing it over. Roy looked at it in distrust.
"Trust me, it tastes really good if you use the right amount," Joe explained. Roy shrugged and took a bit of it and paused. The taste was incredible and he couldn't think of anything similar and it fit really nicely with the taste of toast.
"It's good," Roy remarked.
"When you get used to it you slowly put more on," Slade explained as he finished his last bit of toast.
"I'll remember that, and if you really want me here for your birthday I can stay. I didn't get you anything though," Roy said, not wanting to mention the fact he didn't even know it was Joe's birthday until this morning.
"That's fine, I already got my dad back this year, and made lots of new friends, that's more than enough," Joe replied.
"Well I guess I'll be taking back these then," Tommy said referring to the pile of presents sitting on a small coffee table near the wall. Joe immediately ran over to them happily opening each one and thanking the person who got it for him.
Joe's birthday was a success. Oliver's chocolate cake had been a hit and they had all sung 'Happy Birthday' at the top of their lungs for Joe. They all participated in party games and Shado had won all but pin the tail on the donkey, which Joe had won. Tommy had continued to take photos throughout the day and was going to the all hours mall after Joe had fallen asleep to get them printed so he would have them tomorrow. Felicity had shown up after work and had gotten him his first notebook laptop. Laurel and Lance had shown up not to long after Felicity with a cricket set, which Joe had to immediately try out and so teams were formed. They had been discussing what to do as they had odd numbers when Barry showed up apologizing for being late. Barry had got Joe a soft throw blanket with a space theme containing the planets and stars. They continued to have fun until Joe began falling asleep where he stood and Slade lifted him up and began carrying him to bed wrapped in the blanket.