Disclaimer: Nope. Arrow still isn't mine.
The episode Dead to Rights aired on February 27, which implies Tommy's birthday is in February. However, if you actually track the passage of time in the show to then, that doesn't totally line up - I've been trying to actually line up with the show's apparent passage of time. This is the first time it's caused a meaningful discrepancy or issue in terms of show details.
So we're just gonna say for the purposes of this AU that Tommy's birthday is March 23rd, as that fits the needs of the story better. Verdant still opens on its canon date of March 20th... which yes, has a bit of an issue, but since the bulk of Episode 1x17 - "Huntress Returns" is obsolete given the changed canon, it's not much of one.
This chapter was written mostly over the course of a day due to overcaffination, a regular sponsor of my fanfics.
Vigilantes' Dawn
By Kylia
Chapter 24: Salvation At A Price
Verdant, Starling City
March 23rd, 2013
Under normal circumstances, they might have been celebrating Tommy's birthday at a later time. The last few of Tommy's birthdays Oliver had been to before the Queen's Gambit had started in the late evening, and had gone well into the night and early hours of the next morning.
About the only thing on brand with those parties that this one had was that it was being held at Verdant. But the club was still closed - it would be opening in a few hours, but right now, it was pretty empty save for five people, and a table set for dinner for those five.
"Happy birthday," Oliver grinned, handing a bag over to Tommy. The bottle of wine wasn't the only present he'd gotten Tommy, but it was the most relevant one to the dinner. While Oliver paid Tommy as well we he could afford to manage Verdant - they'd only just formally opened a few days ago - it was still a far cry from what his friend had been used to, and the bottle of wine, one of Tommy's favorites, was more than just a bottle of good wine.
Tommy accepted the bag and pulled Oliver into a one-armed hug, then gave the same to Laurel. He pulled back, "I thought Sara was coming too?"
"She's running a bit late," Laurel explained. "She texted to let me know." She looked past Tommy and offered her hand to the African-American woman in a yellow dress standing just behind Tommy.
"Joanna, I've heard a lot about you from Tommy." She smiled. "Nothing that's done you justice."
"Likewise." She smiled back. "Tommy has told me so much about you and Oliver that I almost feel like I know you." She chuckled, "Tommy told me once you were aiming to go to the same law school I ended up going to, so maybe in another life we did know each other."
Laurel shrugged, "Maybe. How is being a lawyer treating you, anyway? Did I luck out not going to law school?" Oliver was still a little surprised Laurel could so easily seem to make light of the five years they'd lost to the sinking of the Gambit, but then, it wasn't like he'd made the effort to do that too from time to time,so he could keep up the image of Oliver Queen - reformed playboy, but still a fan of a good party - for public consumption.
Tommy opened the bag and pulled out the bottle of wine. "Châteauneuf-du-Pape? Oliver, man, you shouldn't have." Oliver let Tommy pull him into another hug.
"Tommy, it's the first birthday of yours I've been able to celebrate with you for five years. Of course I'm going to bring you your favorite wine." He looked past Tommy a moment, where Laurel and Joanna were sitting down and talking. "So this is the famous Joanna." He examined the woman that seemed to have captured his best friend's interest so well. Pretty, smart, successful - and definitely a woman of substance.
With luck, she can be as good for Tommy as Laurel was for me. He hadn't been anywhere near a good boyfriend to Laurel before the Gambit, but he'd tried with Laurel in a way he'd never tried with anyone else. And he was still trying to be worthy of her.
"Famous?" Tommy grinned, "Is that supposed to suggest I talk about her a lot?"
"Well, you do, but looking at her, there's a lot to talk about, clearly." Oliver pointed out. "And based on everything you've ever said about her, and just looking at her now, it seems like she's been good for you."
"Really good," Tommy agreed. He turned to look at her, speaking quietly. "We're still doing the whole... 'dancing around each other' thing. But less than we were a few months ago." Oliver looked at his friend. He'd never known Tommy to 'dance around' with a woman, in the sense that he meant it here, but then... he'd never seen Tommy look at the woman the way he was looking at Joanna.
Oliver offered Tommy a small smile. "Look, Tommy, I'm not going to say you should rush this if you don't want to, and yeah, there'd be problems, since she works for your dad, but you know, and she knows there's no pressuring going on."
"I know, I know, I know..." Tommy looked at Joanna for a long moment, then nodded. "You're not wrong. She's certainly worth taking the risk for, if she agrees." He smiled. "But right now, it's time to celebrate." He lifted up the bottle of wine. "I'll get this open and grab the food from the kitchens."
Cooking for Tommy's party wasn't technically in the job description of Verdant's chef, but Oliver had paid him overtime for the work.
"No, you sit down, I'll get it. It's your birthday." Oliver clapped a hand on Tommy's shoulder lightly, and headed into the back, taking the dinner back out to the table. Sara was walking in just as they arrived.
"Perfect timing," Tommy filled the last glass as Oliver set the food down. Laurel handed one glass to Sara as they all stood, and Tommy raised his glass.
"A toast, to the first Birthday I've enjoyed in a long time. I got two of my best friends back," nodded at Laurel and Oliver, "and I've got the people closest to me here, with me, to celebrate one year older." He nodded to all of them, smiling as he looked to Joanna, then carefully took her hand in his. Oliver couldn't miss the way Tommy gave Joanna an out, but the lawyer didn't take it, squeezing his hand back.
"Cheers," Oliver said with everyone, and they all clinked their glasses, taking a sip of the wine.
"Last few months have been... hard." Tommy chuckled. "Had to learn to live within my means, for a change, had to move to an absolutely tiny apartment... but I've also learned a lot. What matters, who matters... and honestly, I learned actually like having a job. Me, being responsible. Imagine that," Tommy added that last bit in a deadpan tone then held up his glass again. "So, another toast - to learning." They all clinked glasses and took another sip. Oliver sat down, but as they did so, Sara grimaced.
"I hate to ruin the mood, Tommy, but I saw your dad's limo coming as I came in."
Tommy inhaled sharply. "Of course. Now he decides to show for one of my birthdays." He muttered that under his breath, but they all heard it. He cleared his throat and stood up. "I'll get rid of him."
Oliver looked to Tommy, silently offering to come with him, but Tommy held up a hand, and Oliver nodded. Tommy could deal with his absentee father. While his friend walked over to the front door to intercept Mr. Merlyn, Oliver tried to think back to the last time he'd actually seen Malcolm Merlyn at one of Tommy's birthday parties.
Had to have been before Tommy's mom died. Mr. Merlyn had always done the coin trick at the party too, sometimes even producing a ten or twenty from time to time.
Something about that niggled at the back of his mind for a long moment, as he watched Tommy standing in the doorway, speaking quietly with his dad. Then he looked away, not wanting to intrude on their privacy. He turned back to Joanna.
"So, Joanna," he said. "Tommy's told me a lot about you, but he's never mentioned how you met. Please don't tell me it was helping him out with the cops. A drunk and disorderly charge seems a terrible way to meet someone." He laughed self-deprecating a bit, since he wasn't throwing stones at any glass houses here. Oliver was pretty sure that even counting anything that had happened in the five years he'd been gone, Tommy had had to be bailed out or needed things smoothed over a lot less than he had.
Joanna chuckled, "No, nothing like that. Actually, I spilled my drink on him. It was just about two years ago, actually. I was at a club with some friends from work, unwinding after doing our small part during some acquisition negotiations when I saw him over by the bar. Recognized him from when he sometimes showed up at the office, or from the tabloids occasionally." She smiled, remembering the night.
"I don't know, we were all a bit tipsy, so it seemed like a great idea that one of us should go up and 'accidentally' spill a drink on him." Her cheeks darkened slightly as she flushed. "I drew the short straw, and it's a good thing I did... in a lot of ways, but also because I interrupted him with the person he was talking to."
"Telling stories about me?" Tommy asked as he came back towards the table, a small present complete with a bow in his hand that he set aside on the bar counter carelessly before sitting down.
Joanna grinned teasingly at him as he sat down. "Just telling Oliver about how we met."
Tommy laughed lightly, "Ah yes. And how you saved me from investing a hundred thousand into someone's new club venture." He shook his head. "Still now sure how that guy nearly reeled me in."
"Flattery, Tommy." Joanna teased. "Your ego could do with a bit of puncturing from time to time." Oliver chuckled as well, while Sara hid her smirk behind her glass of wine.
"Well, that's what I have all of you fine people as friends for," Tommy shook his head a little, still smiling. He looked to Oliver. "I was talking to this guy - called himself Victor Black. Real smooth, talking about this club he was going to open in Opal City, how he just needed a few more investors to wrap things up."
"When I got close enough to hear what they were talking about, I could practically smell the con-artist coming off the guy." Joanna explained. "The way he was explaining his profit-sharing agreement, the kind of return on investment he was talking about... well, studying corporate and financial law can be useful outside of work too, as it turns out."
Tommy nodded, "I was so sure I'd bumped into her and spilled her drink on me - and besides, who turns down the perfect excuse to buy a drink for a beautiful woman? Joanna was apologetic, saying it was her fault,"
"Which it was," she pointed out, but let Tommy continue.
"So as I'm getting her a new drink and getting as much of her last one off my shirt as I can with the napkins when she explains to me how Mr. Black's pitch is bullshit, in detail. All in a few minutes. I joked she should be a lawyer if she can argue that well." Tommy finished. He looked back to Joanna and took her hand in his again for a moment, squeezing it lightly. "So yeah, I'm lucky for several reasons you drew the short straw that night."
"Me too," Joanna added. They started to eat, and then after a moment, she asked, carefully, "What did you dad want?"
Tommy sighed, "Just dad being dad. I'd rather not talk about it right now." He gave Joanna another smile. "Later, I promise," he added quietly. It was good that Tommy could confide in her, Oliver considered.
Thankfully, they managed to avoid too much tension for the rest of the party, though the visit from Malcolm Merlyn had sucked a bit of the party atmosphere out of the room. But trading stories about Tommy with Joanna, and just enjoying the good food, good wine and good company managed to chase most of that away.
Oliver was curious as well, about what Malcolm was up to, suddenly showing up, but he could talk about it with Tommy later.
Verdant, Starling City
March 24th, 2012
"...my father wasn't perfect," Oliver said softly. It was the end of the night, the club was closed - well into the early hours of the next day - and Oliver had finally caught a moment to talk to Tommy about his dad's visit.
Oliver had remembered the two years Merlyn was gone, but only because the absence had been noted when they'd tried to find Al-Saher - the Dark Archer - based on Nyssa's clues. Clues that, vague as they'd been, had turned up a lot of possibilities, including Merlyn.
"He made mistakes. A lot - more than I ever knew... before." Working with the man behind the List, cheating on his mother with... who knew how many people. More than one, his mother had made clear. "I... don't... I don't talk about it but... I'm - I'm angry at him, Tommy. I'm not sure, knowing what I know now, how easy it would be to forgive him." He inhaled.
"But he's still my dad. I'd give anything to have him back, right here."
Tommy sighed, "The problem isn't that my dad's dead, though. It's that he might as well have been for the last twenty years of my life."
"He tried to reach out," Oliver pointed out.
"Not the first time he has this year. Did I tell you- about a month after he cut me off, he invited me to dinner. Said the whole 'cutting me off' thing had been to jolt me in adulthood, and I went and got a job, so he wanted to... well, implied he wanted to mend fences." Tommy explained. Oliver shook his head - Tommy hadn't mentioned anything like this.
"Turns out the whole thing was just so he could close my Mom's clinic, in the glades. Needed my signature too." Tommy shook his head. "With my dad, there's always an angle. I don't know what he's thinking this time, what he's planning but - Mom's death hit him hard, yeah. Hard enough he all but forgot he had a son. That clinic... it was one of the most important things in the world to Mom, and he was ready to just throw it away. Like garbage."
"I'm not saying you have to accept his peace offering, Tommy. I'm just... I don't want you to regret anything with him." Oliver was about to say more when he got a text message. He was about to ignore it, but Tommy let out a breath and stepped away.
"I... I get what you're saying Oliver, I do. I - can you handle the rest of closing? I need some time. To think. And..." he trailed off.
"Tommy, always. Do what you need to do." He pulled Tommy in for a quick hug, then stepped away, pulling out his phone. It was a text from Diggle - seemingly innocuous, but the real message was to call him. Oliver pulled out the more secure phone and dialed Diggle's secure phone, the one they only used for the real world.
He stepped away, into a corner, keeping an eye on the staff as they finished up clearing the tables,moving them, prepping to clean the dance floor, et cetera.
"Go," He said quietly.
"Felicity is still trying to get through the phone's encryption for the target, but I think we might know who hired him," Diggle explained. "Last place he called was Jade Dragon." Oliver recognized the name, as Diggle no doubt had.
"Somehow, I doubt he was ordering authentic Szechuan," Oliver stated the obvious. "You think the Triad hired him?"
"Most likely, yeah. Question is, who does the Triad want to kill?"
"Only one way to find out." Oliver pointed out. "I think I'll have to see if Laurel is interested in Chinese food for dinner tonight." It was far too early to call and make the reservation just yet, but that would be the best way to get into the building. No need for the Hood or Black Canary to make an appearance.
"Felicity will keep working the phone in the meantime." Diggle explained, and Oliver nodded, hanging up the phone and putting his attention fully - more or less - to the club for the moment.
Merlyn Global Headquarters, Starling City
March 25th, 2013
Felicity had come through on the target's name, but they were on the clock. Based on the schedule of the evening's events that Felicity had pulled off the Starling City Municipal Group's website, Malcolm Merlyn was about to start his acceptance speech, and that would be a perfect opening to take him down.
"Sara, are you on your way?" Laurel spoke into her earpiece as she moved the motorcycle down another alley, trying to shave as much time as she could.
"I said I got a tip the Triad was going to kill Merlyn and that the Hood and the Black Canary would be there to stop them. That sort of two for one has us moving as fast as we can. Is Oliver ready?"
"I'm ready." Oliver said over the comms. "Diggle, anything yet?"
"Nothing. Felicity's hacked into the camera feeds, so far so noth-" Diggle let out a half-dozen swears in Arabic and Pashtun, "Fire alarm is going off. It's an ordered exit, security's getting everyone moving, but that's the perfect opening for a sniper."
"And there's too many vantage points for an angle on the exit." Laurel said as she pulled out of another alley into view of the Merlyn Global building.
"Merlyn's not going outside." Diggle's voice in her ear as she practically leapt off the motorcycle, breaking open a side entrance door and moving quickly. "He's heading up - he's got Tommy with him." Damnit.
"There's an exit on the second floor. That's got to be where they're headed," Felicity added, the sound of her furiously typing going.
"I'm almost done -I'll cover that exit, you make sure Tommy and his dad get to it."
"Just make sure you get them both out of there, Ollie," Laurel murmured. "Felicity, Diggle, which way?"
"Left, then right, then up the stairs." Diggle told her. "You'll be in a position to intercept them-" he cut off. "The triad's got people moving into the hallway between the stairs and the exit, they're going to try to block him. You should be able to come around behind. They're packing serious heat."
Laurel nodded, racing up the stairs. She reached the hallway behind the two triad members - dressed like the catering staff, which said bad things about the prospects of the real caters being alive - as they pulled out their guns and started to shoot, Tommy and his father coming around the hall.
With surprising speed, Malcolm pulled Tommy into cover, and Laurel moved, hitting one in the back his knees, then ducking and rolling under the spray of bullets, knocking him to the ground as well.
"Go!" Laurel shouted, voice modulator in effect. Laurel barely paid attention as they moved, back the way they came, and Diggle commented they were going up. Oliver took over for them, laurel busy fighting triad reinforcements, all dressed as caters. One down, another - she got one in the head, sending him reeling and unconscious, then kicked another as he got up in the gut, sending him flying into the wall.
She swung her tonfas around in a hail of blows, getting the last one just in time for someone else to arrive.
Someone she recognized, by appearance, and by name.
China White. The woman who'd led the attack on Sara so many months ago, who Laurel had learned a lot about by reputation through her work in and around the Glades.
"You," the woman said as she removed her wig, revealing her namesake shock-white. "Why are you protecting Malcolm Merlyn?"
"Why does the Triad want Merlyn dead?" Laurel countered, voice still modulated.
"I don't see why I should tell you. I'd settle for your archer boyfriend, but you'll do too." And then she lunged. Laurel fought back, catching her blows on her arms and tonfas, dodging others, but China White was as skilled and fast as she was, it seemed, dodging and ducking. Laurel pushed for an edge, an opening, trying to force White back, or at least get enough of an opening to grab her sonic device.
Unfortunately, she wasn't getting anywhere.
They moved around the hallway, each of them trying to get by and around the other, coming at them from the side - China White's knife flying as fast as Laurel's tonfas, trying to slash, stab, cut, anything.
White kicked at her legs, and Laurel feinted, acting as though the blow knocked her off, dropping - and rolling backwards, enough distance between them that she could pull the sonic device and activate it, dropping it to the ground between them.
Laurel shouldn't have been surprised that White didn't double over or cover her ears, just smirking. Earplugs. Vanch had had them, so why wouldn't the Triad. But the sound still made the glass on either side of white shatter and explode, pelting her in shards - and unlike Laurel, the triad killer was only wearing a white evening gown. So at least that much threw White off her game, and Laurel moved in, knocking the other woman to the ground with a half-tackle in that split-second of opening the glass gave her, standing over the woman on her right side.
"It's been fun-" Laurel growled, moving to step onto White's wrist, ready to break it so she'd be easier prey for the police - Sara had to be almost here - but before she could, she heard the sound of a gun click behind her. No, two guns.
"Freeze! SCPD!" Laurel nearly went completely still at the sound of her father's voice behind her. Quentin Lance and McKenna Hall were both right there, guns pointed at the two of them.
Damnit.
"Some other time, Detectives," Laurel replied, dropping to the ground, rolling, and grabbing her sonic device, setting off on a lower setting as she ran past the two now distracted officers, the bullets they'd fired - aiming where her legs and shoulder had been, rather than her center of mass. They were trying to take her alive.
Commendable. Diving through a closed glass doorway, Laurel bit her lip a moment as some of the glass cut through her outfit and scraped across her skin nearly drawing blood. She didn't have time to linger beyond making sure she couldn't see any blood there, the sound of at least one of the detectives chasing her. There was a window ahead.
Good thing this is only the second floor. Laurel set off the sonic device one last time for now, shattering the window in her way and jumping through the opening, tucking and dropping, rolling, ending up back on her feet in seconds.
She raced off, moving towards the motorcycle. "Ollie," She said quickly and quietly as she ran, "Please tell me you got Tommy and his father to safety."
"They made it to the Penthouse," Oliver started, and Laurel nearly let out a sigh of relief. Nearly. Because then Oliver kept going. "The windows were blown in, some sort of grenade to take out the glass. Mr. Merlyn got shot. He's fine and Tommy's fine." Oliver added the last bit quickly, before Laurel could reply.
"He got shot by a sniper and he's fine?"
"I didn't exactly stick around once I was sure he was safe - but he was wearing a bulletproof vest. It looks like he had a grazing shot on his neck, but he was alive and conscious as I left. I didn't get the sniper, but he failed." Oliver explained.
"Good... good." She let out a shuddering breath. "Sara - tell me you guys at least got China White." They hadn't taken care of the real assassin, but Merlyn was safe, and she doubted the Triad would make another public go at attacking someone so prominent.
Why was he wearing a bulletproof vest? At an event honoring him? She supposed it was possible it was normal for him - maybe some sort of silent coping mechanism for his wife's death by gunshot, but...
Maybe he knew he was into some sort of business that the Triad would be upset by? Maybe he'd received threats, or bought out some sort of front company.
"No dice. McKenna tried to get her while Dad chased you, but she managed to get away, barely," Sara answered apologetically. "But Merlyn's alive, and so is Tommy. I call that a win."
"So do I," Laurel agreed. "But we're going to have to worry about White again, sooner or later." Laurel shook her head. "She got this close to beating me, Oliver. I'd say she's as good at hand to hand as I am, and she has no qualms about killing."
"But she didn't beat you, and she won't," Oliver countered.
"This time," Laurel murmured. "Alright, I'm on my way back to the Foundry. Felicity - thank you for your help on the cameras. But I'm sure you'd like to head home now."
Felicity laughed, "It would be nice to get some sleep before going into work tomorrow. I'm glad your friend and his dad are safe. I'm sorry - I wish I could have gotten through the encryption faster."
"You worked as fast as you could and practically pulled an all nighter last night working on it," Laurel pointed out, reassuring her. "Get some sleep."
The Foundry
March 25th, 2013
As it turned out, Sara got to the Foundry first. With their attempt to 'catch' the Hood and Black Canary a failure - apart from arresting a bunch of Triad members with priors, parole violations and suspected charges against them -, there wasn't much to keep her, apart from a bit of paperwork, but her father had decided to take care of that. She was worried about how hard he was burning the midnight oil here, but... she couldn't do much about it.
She couldn't exactly try to talk him out of his hunt for the Vigilantes by saying one was his daughter.
Sara tapped in the code for the side door and entered... and her hand immediately dropped to her gun as she saw someone standing there, arms crossed, waiting in the still darker portion of the basement.
"I wouldn't bother to do that," The woman said, her voice speaking with a familiar accent. "I'd have to stop you before you could point it at me, and I do not think Tayir 'aswad -" the woman cleared her throat, "- Laurel would like it if I injured her sister." She stepped fully into view, confirming Sara's suspicion once she'd heard her voice.
"Nyssa Raatko. Or... Nyssa Al Ghul," Sara said. The woman was as gorgeous as she had been last time Sara had seen her, but Sara didn't stare this time, looking the woman over for weapons - beyond the obvious bow and arrows across her back. Unlike the normal, casual looking clothing she'd worn in the library back in December, now Nyssa wore an outfit very similar to Laurel's, but with some red on her shoulders, her wrists guards and the edges of her sleeve.
Sara didn't take her hand off her gun. "I thought Laurel had more time. If you're here to-"
"I am not here to hurt your sister," Nyssa assured her. "She does have more time, as granted by Ra's al Ghul." But if she didn't, would you kill her? From what Laurel had said and implied about Nyssa, Sara could only surmise the other woman was a victim of what could really only be called some serious brainwashing, and abuse - emotional and mental at least, and probably physical as well, if the League was half as monstrous as Laurel had hinted at.
So yeah... she probably would.
"I am here to assist her, in finding and eliminating Al-Saher intime," Nyssa added. Right. Laurel said Nyssa might come back to help. Sara relaxed her grip on her gun, then moved her hand away.
"They should be on their way back-" the door opened as she reached the bottom of the stairs and sure enough, Oliver and Laurel were there. Both of them reacted to Nyssa's presence, Oliver grabbing his bow, Laurel reading to leap down from the stairs towards the new arrival.
But then they both relaxed as they realized who it was. Sara stepped out of Laurel's way as her sister came down the stairs quickly and approached Nyssa.
"Nyssa. I wasn't sure if you'd be able to come back," Laurel said softly. She added something in Arabic that Sara didn't understand, but then. "It's good to see you again,"
"And you as well," Nyssa replied, something of a smile playing across her face. "You have a very protective sister." She nodded to Sara, offering her a slight smirk.
"I'm very protective of her as well," Laurel noted, and Nyssa turned back to face her.
"It was not easy getting here - were my father to learn of my location, he would be most unhappy." Nyssa murmured. "But I could not leave you without assistance." She was about to say something more when she turned, facing one of the computers, which had a feed of one of the local news channels playing, muted. Felicity must have forgotten to shut that off. Sara moved a bit to get a better view at the screen and the headline below the reporter speaking.
VIGILANTES SAVE CEO MALCOLM MERLYN FROM MAFIA HIT.
Well, that was fast. An image of Merlyn's face took up one side of the screen, and Nyssa turned back to Laurel and Oliver quickly, her head snapping back to them almost so fast as to seem like it would be painful.
"You saved this man now, tonight?" Her tone was almost accusatory, but also almost scolding.
"The Triad was trying to kill him," Oliver explained. "And he was a friend of my father's... his son is my best friend."
"One of mine as well," Laurel nodded. "Why does it-"
"Because that man, Laurel, is Al-Saher." Nyssa all but growled out, as she pointed to the screen.