QUEEN CONSOLIDATED CEO AND FOUNDER ROBERT QUEEN AND SON, OLIVER QUEEN, MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD AFTER YACHT GOES MISSING
SEARCH FOR MISSING MEMBERS OF THE QUEEN FAMILY CONTINUE ON MONTHS AFTER INCIDENT
OLIVER QUEEN, PRESUMED MISSING AND DEAD FOR FIVE YEARS FOUND ALIVE AND IS BACK IN STARLING CITY
The spread of newspapers continued on over a large black oval desk going on about the events of the Queen family. Months of searching, effects on the family and the future of Queen Consolidated as a company. And the entire city it was just one story after the next and then everyone moved on with their lives whether it be living it up in their mansions or trying to survive day to day life down in the Glades.
A glass of whiskey poured out to the glass next to the papers filling up halfway and lifted up to help wash out and drown the painful memories these headlines brought. One sip turned into two, then two turned into an empty glass and a desire for a refill until footsteps approached from behind.
"You looking to frame these or something? Hang them out in the club for people to look at while they party?" Tommy walked into the main office of the club holding a drink of his own. "Or you can stop trying to hiding in the office and come join the hundreds of party guests downstairs in the club."
"I'm not hiding, I swear. I'm just, I don't know, I needed a few moments away from it." Oliver poured himself another drink and turned his body around towards Tommy to face him. "You know sometimes it still takes a lot out of me to be around huge crowds again and that's coming from me, the dumbass who thought it was a good idea to open this club in the first place."
"Come on pal, this place is great. This whole city has never felt more alive since you've been back." Tommy watched on as his best friend downed another glass of hard liquor and how eager Oliver was to set it back down and begin to pour his third glass in five minutes. "Maybe save a little of that for the night, huh?"
Oliver shook his head. "I'm fine." Three drinks down and it burned this time. Ever since coming back home, Oliver's desire for drinking skyrocketed tremendously. It certainly helped get him through the tougher times as of late but it did no such thing for his relationship with his family and others around him. Even Tommy, who was just as grateful to have his best friend back, noticed that the Oliver Queen that stood before him now was a different Oliver Queen from five years ago. But it was so hard to blame him for wanting to drown out his demons night in and night out.
Their yacht crashed during a storm, Oliver watched his father die in front of him, he's been gone for five years from any sort of familiar civilization. Not to mention everything that changed in Starling City while he was gone. His mother and sister having to bury empty caskets in the ground for him and his father, the future of Queen Consolidated nearly ending in closure, and his relationship with one Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of Frank Bertinelli, had been destroyed when he went missing.
"I'll believe that when I see it." Tommy placed a hand to Oliver's shoulder with a firm squeeze with it. "Look man." His voice went low. "I get it. Things haven't been easy since you came back. The spotlights in this city tend to do that to people like us but we have to get through it and clearly you have your way at the moment. I'm here for you, buddy. Always have been." After a moment a reassurance from his friend, Oliver closed the bottle shut for the time being even if it was temporary.
Tommy lightly chuckled. "Now, if I do so recall, we have a whole party to get to downstairs with loud music and tons of attractive women that I could use a wingman for. I thought I caught an eye of a certain brunette down there and I'm feeling pretty lucky tonight." With the third drink starting to wake his body up for a night of partying, Oliver followed Tommy back downstairs to the nightclub where the sound music bumping and people partying already sounded better than ever for a man who was isolated for five years.
Only a few hours had passed by from his brief disappearance to his office upstairs and the night had only just begun for Oliver Queen. Countless nights were lost when he wasn't home where he could have partied like this with all of his friends or flew away on vacation all around the world blowing thousands and thousands of dollars and eating at the most delicious restaurants. All of that aside, being able to have Big Belly Burger again was a great victory.
He and Tommy had moved onto shots of all sorts and Tommy had forgotten about slowing down the amounts they were consuming. Oliver had already been the wingman for him to account for his fourth phone number of the night.
"We need more shots!" Tommy shouted to an uproar of cheers and laughter. It was Oliver's turn to go get the next round and standing up took some strength this time around. He needed to slow down but his mind and body were at a standstill tonight with each other. His mission was to drink to forget even if it was only temporary. He thought about his warm bed back at home and slowly that thought drifted to the warm bed he used to share with the one he had left behind.
Helena.
Even thinking her name in his head shot a sharp pain to his forehead but he pressed onward back towards the bar to order another round of shots. The bartenders obliged of course, it was his money paying them regardless.
What would she think of him if she knew that this was his life now? Constant drinking and careless acts of hiding out every night in his newly opened club trying to play catch up on his life? She would think of it tasteless and she wouldn't back down to tell him that to his face if she ever saw him again. It was too much to think about right now and thinking was the last thing he was trying to do.
A platter of freshly poured shots were lined up on a tray for him to take back to him and Tommy. From the other side of the bar, a dark hair brunette made her way down to where Oliver was waiting as he stared off into the television sets displayed above the bar.
"Oliver Queen, it's a pleasure to meet you. I don't mean to ambush you like this but I was hoping to have a few words with you." The woman was in a very elegant looking black dress that showed off her gorgeous bronze legs with a prominent V-cut shape that met with her upper abdomen, cleavage at the perfect display complete with the perfect shade of red lipstick on, very attractive enough to get anyone's attention that was merely in sight of her. And Oliver Queen was no different. He was never one now to turn down an attractive woman such as this one.
"You don't look like anyone I know that lives in Starling City!" His words shouted at her a bit louder than expected. "How about I offer you a drink, miss?"
"Iris West. And no thank you, it's best that I don't." The ever so stunning Iris watched on as the billionaire playboy downed a couple of shots right in front of her before he extended her hand out to her to shake. "I'm a reporter, well, lead reporter if you will over at Central City Citizen. I was only hoping I could ask you a couple of questions about your return home to Starling City and why you've decided to open up a nightclub instead of taking on a role at Queen Consolidated."
"Well to start, the fact that a gorgeous individual like yourself came all the way from Central City to come see me. Even if it makes you look good on paper, right?" Taking deeper breaths, Oliver brought a hand up to his chest and fanned himself out with his shirt and a little sweat beginning to form around his forehead.
"Not a fan of the press I take it, especially nowadays I get it." She pressed like it was her job. Literally.
"Just bad timing is all, Miss West." His hand came up to his forehead and grabbed a lose napkin to wipe the sweat that became heavier on his skin. Suddenly the walls of the club started to feel like they were closing on him and he was starting to feel trapped. "Excuse me, I think I need to step outside for some air." Completely uncharacteristic of him as per his usual go at everything as hard as possible, he excused himself from bar side and quickly staggered his way towards the front doors of the night club. He asked the nearby valet to bring his car around front for him and leaned himself against one of the pillars, trying to shake his nerves off.
His car was pulled up at the same time Iris had followed him outside and took his side. "Mr. Queen I don't think that's a good idea. I've covered enough drunk driving stories to see where this is headed."
"Would you like me to walk in a straight line for you next, officer?" Oliver pushed himself off the pillar and towards the driver side of his car where he got inside. Surprisingly enough, the passenger door opened up on the other side and Iris buckled herself right in after him. She was always putting herself in the way of danger which was something her father always got on her about since she was a kid. The windows rolled down and Oliver sped right off into the streets of Starling City hitting high speeds instantly.
Iris grabbed the handle above her seat to support herself even when Oliver had well slowed down a bit from his take off. The cooler air hit against his face and it helped combat the intense heat his body was washed over with in the club. He could breathe again. His eyes trailed over to Iris West in the passenger seat and came to a stop at a red light just barely over the line. She chuckled at him for being so dumb but could see now how women loved the charm he never seemed to switch off of him.
The two exchanged a quick little glance and Oliver quirked an eyebrow up to her taking in her beauty once again. He hadn't actually seen someone look so stunning since, well, since Helena in his eyes.
Helena.
He remembered their relationship, all the years again in his head, and it made the cut go that much deeper. All the the promises they made together, gone. The future they wanted with each other, gone. It all flashed before his eyes again and so did the Gambit going down. The light turned green and Oliver remained frozen and his breathing intensified.
"Hey." Iris spoke up to him and brought a hand over to his shoulder. "Are you okay? Maybe we should go back to the club and we can talk about everything some other time." She bit her lower lip and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze, it was Oliver Queen after all and any woman would kill to be in her position right now. "Here, why don't I take some of that edge off for you?"
Oliver's foot accelerated to the gas pedal as soon as Iris' hands maneuvered their way down below the belt of his pants to undo them. He was trying to concentrate on not crashing into anything rather than the fact that the lead reporter of the Central City Citizen had shifted herself over in her seat and ducked her head down in between his legs. His grunts and gasps were a better sign that he wasn't caught in another trance though he was still trying to keep both hands on the wheel and not moving one to the back of her head.
His foot pressed down the pedal harder each time she nearly took all of him causing the vehicle to reach high speeds again. This immediately caught the attention of some of Starling City's finest who flipped the switch up on their flashing red and blue lights and took off towards the speeding vehicle. The siren blared off and made Iris ease up, lifting herself up from the billionaire's lap and sat back in her seat to fix her hair and makeup quickly while Oliver tried to readjust himself and tuck away, returning the chuckle back to the reporter. It was definitely one of the better welcome home gift he's received than some others in his mind.
"Please telling me you're pulling over." Iris was beginning to put her image first this time. Oliver still wasn't slowing down, he was feeling on top of the world right now. "Mr. Queen, please. My reputation could be at stake here."
Oliver sighed knowing he couldn't fight that argument and potentially damage her career any more than he did by putting her life at risk as well as his own. He pulled the car over to the side of the road while one cop car closed in from behind and another hitting a U-turn to box the car from the other side. They knew exactly who was behind of the wheel of this particular car. The whole precinct did at this point. This was the fourth time in the last two weeks they've pulled this exact car over now.
A blinding light shined into the window and into Oliver's face forcing him to roll it down and be blinded even more. The light went to Iris to identify her before back to Oliver.
"Well well well, Oliver Queen." One of the two officers spoke up. "I really want to say I'm surprised at this point. Wanna take a guess this time as to how fast you were just going before?"
"You cost me a really good orgasm, you know that?" Oliver quipped to him. "So good I couldn't really tell if I was going fast or slow to be quite honest with you." To the side, Iris took that as a small compliment as one of her many skills. The officers exchanged looks to each other wondering how a jackass like him was even in the presence of someone who looked like Iris right now.
"Sorry to spoil your fun, rich boy. Step out of the vehicle right now. Have you been drinking at all this evening?" The faint smell of alcohol that came off of Oliver's breath answered that question quickly for them and they weren't treading this lightly anymore. "This is the umpteenth time now since you've been back home you little shit. Get him up against the hood!" The other officer grabbed Oliver with force out of the driver's seat only to be shoved off from him causing a small scuffle between them. But the alcohol in his system was now starting to catch up with him along with the numbers game, and face down to the hood of the car went Oliver Queen with handcuffs being put on his wrists.
Oliver began to chuckle against the hood. "Go ahead, take me in. My bail will be as much as your salaries combined and I'll make it with no problems."
"Don't you worry, asshole. We got something special for you this time." One officer helped Iris out of the passenger seat and offered her a ride back to wherever she was staying for the night while the other stood in front of Oliver prominently and grabbed his radio to chime in. "Dispatch, this is Officer Snart reporting in with Officer Rory, come in. We've got what Captain Lance likes to call the new resident asshole in custody again. Waiting on confirmation to bring him in, over."
Oliver couldn't make out the response to well on the other end of the radio but thought he might have heard that bringing him in wouldn't be necessary for the night. "Miss West if you need a ride you're more than welcome to take my car back to the club. I have three models just like this anyhow."
"Come on, dickhead. You're coming with me." Officer Snart pulled him to the side of his squad and opened the door to help him inside the back seat. "Mick, take Miss West here wherever she needs to go. I got this handled for tonight." While Officer Rory and Iris went back to his squad car, Officer Snart got back into the front seat of his with Oliver into the back, finding the billionaire playboy what looked as if he was on the verge of passing out now. He sighed and switched off his lights and set the GPS directions to the address of the Queen family mansion.
Inside the Queen family mansion, Officer Snart had brought Oliver into his home with the help of Walter Steele as they gathered into the living room. Being sat on the couch and the handcuffs being removed from his wrist, Oliver found himself surrounded by the members of his family including Moira and Thea Queen with Walter, and Officer Snart standing behind Captain Lance with a very disappointed but not surprised look on his face. He barely remembers anything after being slammed on the hood of the cop car and was starting to feel the effects of that now.
"Oh Oliver..." He heard his Mom's voice as they all looked over him having seen tons of better days than this.
"Mr. Queen, are you with us?" Captain Lance waved his hand in front of his face trying to get his eyes to follow completely but seeing that he was almost in and out of the conversation. "I don't know what else you want me to do, Mrs. Queen. Your son has been accounted for drunk driving, reckless behavior, noise complaints, you name it over the past couple of weeks. Tonight will be his fourth DUI in the last two weeks and that's not something I can let slip by in this city any longer."
"I understand, Captain. Yes." She responded to him while looking at Oliver and shaking her head again.
"Now I could just suspend his license from him but that's something we tend to do more towards the younger crowd, you know? Two weeks later he would just have it back and do God knows what again." Captain Lance sighed and weighed out the other options he had floating around in his head. "Look the way I see it, he has two paths he could take. One of the paths obviously would be some serious jail time."
"Much deserved, I would say." Officer Snart chimed in and immediately received glares from the family and even from Captain Lance. "Sorry."
"We just got my brother back, officers." Thea finally spoke up in a quiet tone. "We lost him and my dad we all thought for good and we just got Oliver back. Please don't take him away from us again." Walter pulled her into a hug when tears started to form in her eyes.
"What's the other option, Captain Lance?" Moira asked concerned.
He sighed again deeply looking over how deep they cared for him and all he could do in return was barely be awake for them. "We have a program that we offer down at the precinct to anyone that struggles with addiction of any kind and trauma and all that. Sort of like an AA group but with a one on one approach. My daughter is the one who actually runs it herself. She hasn't had a ton of clients as of late but this is the only other option that I can give out to your son right now. We can set it up as soon as possible and she will schedule sessions with him and try to get him to clean his act up better. That or community service but there aren't enough hours to amass some of the damage he's done. He's lucky he didn't crash into something again." He walked over to the couch and leaned over a bit to look into Oliver's eyes. "Your choice, Mr. Queen. Will it be jail or would you like to grow up and be a man?"
Oliver's eyes opened up a little to meet Captain Lance's and offered him a small chuckle. "You want to set me up with your daughter, Captain. Now who's being reckless?"
Captain Lance smiled at his wit and clapped his hands together softly looking back to the rest of his family. "It's settled then. I'll make sure my daughter gets him in right away, actually I can probably even get his first session to be tomorrow morning. So I'd get some sleep if I were you, Sally." He quipped back to Oliver.
"Thank you so much for your help tonight, officers. I promise this will never happen again." Moira offered to escort them out to their vehicles out front while Walter and Thea took each one of Oliver's arms and helped him upstairs to his bedroom. Thea shook her head hoping that her brother would be okay and walked out of the room, Walter took the time to remove Oliver's shoes and get him underneath the blankets in his bed.
Meanwhile back outside, Officer Snart had handed Captain Lance his initial report tonight of arresting Oliver Queen with Iris West being on the scene and fellow Officer Mick Rory in assistance. He dismissed Officer Snart for the night for one more patrol through the city before he finished up. Captain Lance pulled out his cell phone and pressed the name 'Laurel' on his contacts to call, knowing for a fact she would still be at the precinct finishing up any of her projects.
"Sweetie hey, it's Dad. Yeah I'm about to turn in for the night too. I have something for you for tomorrow morning, you think you can do that for me?" He spoke into the receiver. "Oh yeah, this one is a real piece of work too. I hope you'll be able to put some sense into him. Pencil him in for tomorrow at 10 AM. Name, Oliver Queen."