Summary: Buoyed by his success in telling Thea the truth about his vigilantism and how well things have been going since Tommy joined Team Arrow, Oliver tracks down Sara's latest haunt to try and convince her to reach out to Laurel. Turns out he's not the only one who's hoping to bend her ear that evening.
Notes: If something doesn't mesh with canon here, just assume I'm deliberately ignoring it.
Part of The Scientific Method verse and follows after "The Scientific Method". Background Oliver/Barry mentioned.
The Caged Bird
Oliver can't say he's surprised when he finally tracks down Sara and she's found herself a room with a view. She's squatting in an abandoned building in the Glades, nicknamed the Watchtower for reasons Oliver can't remember. Or maybe he never knew. But the building itself is in good condition, if very cold given the below freezing weather they've been having every evening this week. The room Sara's taken for herself, though, is nice and toasty.
He still has to bite his tongue to keep the first thing he says from offering her a place to stay that isn't an abandoned building with what's likely an illegal tap on the electrical grid. Based on the smirk on Sara's face, he's a little obvious about it too.
"You followed Sin, didn't you?" Sara asked as she let Oliver inside.
"Maybe." He hugged Sara, more relieved than he'd thought he'd be to see she was okay. Though, considering the number of times she'd 'died' over the last six years, it probably shouldn't be that surprising. "How've you been?"
"Oh, you know, kicking the asses of would be rapists and stealing the supplies I need to turn this place into a kickin' bachelorette pad," Sara responded facetiously.
"Well the place does look cozy," Oliver allowed, eying a tent in the corner that was clearly stuffed full of blankets, pillows, and probably an inflatable mattress. And at least one stuffed animal.
Sara followed his gaze, blushed, and immediately moved to zip up the tent, hiding the stuffed kitty from view.
"Come to guilt trip me about Laurel?" Sara asked.
"No, but a little yes," Oliver admitted. He grinned when she rolled her eyes expressively at him. "I ran into a mirakuru soldier the other day."
Sara immediately sobered. "Ollie, that's not funny."
"No, it really wasn't. Asshole nearly killed me." Oliver waits for that to sink in.
Her eyes widen fractionally when it does. "You're serious."
"Unfortunately." Oliver glanced around and then settled on a stool that had clearly been swiped from a display at a Target or Walmart. "He was stealing the supplies to make more, but he wasn't alone. Whoever he was working with is also mirakuru enhanced. And they've already been dosing people with it. Sin tell you about her friend Max?"
Sara nodded, expression turning sorrowful. "She's really torn up about him. She mentioned..." Sara winced. "Bleeding from the eyes. He didn't survive the initial injection."
"We think he got abducted from a blood drive run by Sebastion Blood's campaign." Oliver paused a beat and then went for it. "I could really use your help on this, Sara. Is there anyone Ivo was sharing his research with. Someone he was communicating with who wasn't on the ship with the rest of you?"
Sara shook her head. "No. The only place he ever called was the care facility where his wife was being treated. Early onset Alzheimer's mixed up with... something else. Whatever it was, it was a bad combo for her memory and cognitive abilities. Whenever he talked to her... I always felt bad for him. Even though... what he was doing to me."
At the time, Oliver hadn't entirely understood what went on with Sara and Ivo. But he gets it now. If a person's only choices are having sex with someone they loathe or enduring a very terrible thing, it's still rape. So Oliver absolutely would not be asking her about that bastard if there were any other choice.
"Did he ever talk about how he learned about mirakuru or anyone else who might've been interested in developing the drug?"
She shook her head negatively again. "No. Not for lack of asking, but..." she gazed at one of the glazed windows blankly for a long moment, then raised a hand halfway to her cheek before shaking her head and letting the hand drop back to her side. "All he ever wanted to talk about was the mirakuru. You don't think any of the other survivors..."
Oliver was the one shaking his head this time. "No. I don't think so."
"I didn't either. Someone else must've found the same trail Ivo did, then. Only this time they've made Starling their testing ground." Sara went still where, once upon a time, she might've fidgeted nervously instead. "If you run into another mirakuru soldier, give me a call. I'll help."
"Thanks." Oliver tilted his head to the side and changed the subject. "I told Thea I'm the Hood."
"I thought you were rebranding," Sara teased. Then her eyebrows went up. "How'd she take it?"
"The rebrand is mostly for the comms." Oliver shrugged, adding, "I don't really care what the tabloids call me. And Thea took it a lot better than Tommy did. She wants to learn to shoot a bow."
Sara snorted with laughter. "You deserve her, Ollie. You really do."
Oliver stuck his tongue out at her. "I didn't tell her about you. Not yet, anyway, but if you're really willing to help out with the mirakuru stuff then it's only a matter of time."
A grimace graced Sara's face. "I already hate it that Tommy and your new best buddies know. I don't want Thea to find out."
"She's insisting on getting to help run comms and provide cover stories. Which I expected when I told her about me. She's part of the team now, Sara."
"You and your team." Sara rolled her eyes. "When did you become such a team player?"
"Since I realized I can't do everything myself. This is my not at all subtle way of telling you that you should talk to Laurel, by the way." Oliver's pleased when that earns him a startled laugh.
Sara shook her head. "Laurel's safer and happier this way."
She's really, really not, but Oliver's not going to argue that with Sara again. Instead he tells her, "when I was working for ARGUS, after my first turn on the island... I was sent back here. To Starling. And I saw... everyone I loved from afar. I even snuck into Tommy's birthday party and, uh... might've had an altercation with some asshole who tried to sell Thea drugs." By which he means he killed the guy when he not only recognized Oliver but laughed at him about getting Thea high.
Not Oliver's finest moment. And not one he's managed to regret yet, though he knows he probably should.
"I could've gone home. I could have walked up to my own front door and rung the doorbell. If I'd made enough of a media splash, there wasn't a damn thing Waller could have really done about it to force me to complete her mission."
"So why didn't you?"
"I told myself it was because the mission really was just that damn important. And it was important, but it wasn't why I didn't go home. I was ashamed of myself, Sara. I hated myself for living when everyone else had died and I hated myself for what I was becoming and I just... hated myself. And I was afraid if they saw me, saw who I was now... they'd hate me too. I didn't come home last year for them. I came home because I'd put off dealing with the List for too long and I knew I was running out of time." Oliver took a shuddering breath and then continued, "but they didn't hate me for not being the same Oliver they'd lost. Even Laurel ended up forgiving me for what happened with you. I didn't deserve any of it - I still don't. But it was never going to be about what I deserve, I suppose. It was always going to be about what they needed.
"Laurel needs you, Sara. Your parents need you. And whether you want to admit it or not, you still need them."
"You're an asshole," Sara muttered, turning her head and wiping at her eyes.
Tactfully, Oliver doesn't say anything further.
"I'm not ready. To even consider it." Except that she clearly is considering it. Oliver can hear that in her voice.
He doesn't say anything about that either. He just nods and sits in silence with her, wondering if she's going to be kicking him out now.
Instead she asks him, amusement curling along the edges of her lips, "so who was that cute guy you got breakfast with the other weekend?"
Oliver feels his cheeks heat up. And Sara's amusement turns into a full on smirk because, yes, he's blushing. "He's a new friend."
"A new friend whose mere mention makes Oliver Queen blush. Come on, Ollie. Dish."
"Barry Allen. He's a CSI from Central City." Oliver shrugged, "I barely know the guy, but there's just... something about him, I guess."
"Well, the paparazzi photos certainly caught his cute side." Sara grinned, a shark's smile that promised trouble. "And here I thought you'd given up your one-night-stand days."
Oliver can hear someone just outside the door, just as surely as Sara can. Seems like he's not the only one interested in tracking Sara down tonight. The question was... Sin or Quentin? Either way, it was a good thing the Arrow business was out of the way for now.
"He's not a one-night-stand." Oliver shook his head. "I... we didn't... you know, Sara." He groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration.
"Ooooh, did Mr. Barry Allen become the one who got away?" Sara laughed in delight. "You really like this guy, don't you?"
Which is when Quentin finally worked up the nerve to push open the door and walk inside.
"Hi dad," Sara chirped. "Know anything about this cute CSI Ollie's all worked up over? Inquiring minds need to know."
"He's twenty-four and looks maybe eighteen," Lance drawled, smirking at Oliver. "You were the one who asked if his parents knew where he was," he added mockingly.
Oliver rolled his eyes. "That's because he just walked into my warehouse - and your crime scene - without an invite. It was annoying. When I'm annoyed, I'm kind of an asshole. You may have noticed that about me." Oliver paused a beat and then added, "he does not look eighteen, though I admit I'd have guessed, like, twenty-one or twenty-two. He's definitely going to be carded at bars long past when it's funny."
"At twenty-four, trust me, it stopped being funny at twenty-three," Sara said with a long-suffering sigh. There was definitely a story there. "Still, can't believe you had a guy that hot within your grasp and you failed to actually hook up with him."
"Can we not have this conversation in front of your father?" Oliver asked.
"Apparently Allen was even staying at the Queen's place," Quentin threw in, trading a smirk with Sara that made it so very obvious where hers was inherited from.
Oliver buried his face in his hands and quietly muttered, "why is this my life?"
Sara was cackling with delight now. "Oliver Queen, you used to have game."
"What is with you and Tommy?" Oliver scowled at her. "I've go priorities now, Sara."
Quentin snorted softly, but gave Oliver an innocent look when he glanced over at the older man. "Maturity suits you," the detective offered with an amused lilt to his voice.
"I'm going to see him again," Oliver told them, smiling quietly at the thought. Plane tickets were already purchased for Friday afternoon and he was getting a rental car since Barry didn't have his own car. "I'm planning on going to Central City this weekend."
"Are you staying at a hotel or is he going to return your hospitality and put you up at his place?" Sara gave a laugh of delight when Oliver didn't answer. "Oooh, you are staying at his place. He must like you too. No accounting for taste, I suppose."
"I'm pretty sure you just insulted yourself," Oliver griped.
"Oh, I know. I did." Sara cackled with delight as Oliver stood up.
"If you're going to be like this, I'm leaving," he informed her, pouting a little though he'd never admit it out loud. "Think about what I said before you brought up Barry, okay?"
Sara's expression turned irritated. "You're not my big brother, you know."
"Thank god for that," Oliver said... at the exact same time Quentin Lance said the same thing word for word.
The two men exchanged looks and then Oliver decided to get out of there before the conversation got any weirder.
Sara watched Oliver metaphorically tuck his tail and run away. And it was hilarious, though it worried her just a touch too.
Oliver knew Barry Allen for, what, three days? Barely three days at that. And he was gone on the guy already.
That was a point of weakness that'd be all too easy for whoever was running the mirakuru to exploit. If things got serious, then being halfway across the country would protect the guy to some degree, but it also put him at higher risk too. If someone took Allen to use him against Oliver, then it'd take longer for them to find out. And there was no telling what Oliver would be willing to do if his boyfriend were threatened or went missing...
Maybe that was another reason to take back her life. If she went to spend time with her mother in Central City, that would give her a reason to, very quietly, keep Barry safe. Except... she didn't have to take back her life to do that. She could just pull up stakes and hide out in Central instead of Starling.
The truth was, Sara wanted to be herself again. She wanted out of this cage she'd made for herself. And if it were just her mom and dad she had to reveal herself to... she'd have done it already. Her dad already knew, after all. But Laurel... complicated things.
As far as Laurel knew, Sara had died doing something terrible and awful. She'd betrayed her sister's trust in the worst ways. And Sara still felt so fucking ashamed of what she'd done. She didn't know how to face her sister's anger and disappointment. She'd tried to one-up her sister and not only did it backfire spectacularly...
Even if Laurel knew Sara was alive, she'd still be dead to her sister. No one held grudges like Laurel Lance.
"I almost feel bad for the guy," her dad muttered, pulling the door shut after Oliver walked out.
"Who? Oliver or his adorable new beau?" Sara grinned as her dad rolled his eyes.
"Both."
Sara snickered. "So, Ollie found me by following Sin. How'd you find me? Following Ollie?"
"I, uh, I've been looking into the death of Sin's friend Max. Took over the investigation and listed it officially as a murder. Didn't do it so Sin would tell me where you were, which she didn't but... she did point me in the general direction which was a nice bonus." Her dad shrugged awkwardly. "Process of elimination from there. Whoever murdered her friend used some kind of drug to do it and, well, my source says people who survive that drug turn into the same kind of super strong, unstable asshole who killed my partner and put me in the hospital the other week."
Mirakuru. Her father was investigating a mirakuru related case. Oliver hadn't mentioned that her father was looking into it too. And if her father was looking into it... then it was only a matter of time until Laurel started poking her nose into things too.
Sara felt herself go cold. She wanted to put him off the case. Make him promise not to go near it with a ten foot pole.
But Quentin Lance was where the worst of Sara's stubborn nature was inherited from. Once she got it in her head to do something, there was no dissuading her. Her father was exactly the same. So if she pushed hard to make him stay away from danger, he'd push just as hard to be involved in it.
The only safe course was to tell him what she knew and hope that forewarned was forearmed.
"Mirakuru. It's called mirakuru. The Japanese government developed it in World War Two and then discarded it due to the low survival rate and the insanity it induced in those who did survive. If you asked about it through official channels, though, you'd be laughed at for believing in fairy tales. The cover up was very thorough."
"Then how do you know about it? How does the Hood know about it?" And there was Detective Lance. But yet, still Quentin, worried father.
"After... after the Queen's Gambit sank... I was rescued by a man called Ivo. He wasn't... a good man. But he wanted to pretend he was." Sara looked away from her dad. She didn't know what to say to him.
She could never tell her father the full truth of what Ivo did to her. He'd never judge her for it, but he might fall off the wagon. Her death had driven him to drink once already. She didn't want her survival to do the same.
"He found records of the Mirakuru and was trying to recreate both it and a cure. So he could heal his sick wife without her suffering the after effects. But it went wrong. And... the man who is the Hood now... he was there. I helped him and a few others stop Ivo and destroy his work. Ivo was killed along the way and... when it was done his ship sank too. And I was lost to sea again." Sara pinned her father with a sharp look. "If it's really Mirakuru then this whole city is in trouble."
"That explains why you're willing to work with the Hood now, I suppose." Her dad walked a few steps closer. "Can I, uh..."
Sara closed the distance and let him pull her into a hug.
"I'm so sorry you went through all of that," he whispered softly, pressing a kiss against her temple. "I'm proud of you. I need you to know that. You went through so many terrible things and you survived them. You made it home."
"So you still..." Sara hesitated. "I'm not the same Sara who left Starling all those years ago."
"You're changed." Quentin pulled away in order to let her see his face as he spoke. To see how serious he was. "There's no denying how much you've changed. But a father's love is a constant thing. I'm your dad and you're still my Sara. You're always going to be my Sara."
"I'm bi," she said abruptly, words popping out without her permission.
He grinned at her. Not that Sara had worried about him accepting this particular part of herself. It's just everything else she's become over the last few years she's worried about.
"Got a significant other I need to do my fatherly duty and threaten?"
Sara snorted in amusement. "No. Not dating anyone right now. I just got out of a relationship that... it was intense. Nyssa..."
Oliver said he told Thea the truth and all she wanted was to learn to shoot arrows. But how would her father take the news of how Sara had spent the last few years. He said he loved her no matter what. But that was without knowing everything Sara really was. What she'd become to survive in Nanda Parbat. And there was, really, only one way to know for certain if that 'unshakable' paternal love was as unconditional as Quentin Lance believed it was.
"Nyssa saved me after... after what happened with Ivo. But she also brought me to the... to the League of Assassins. Her father was their leader and no one leaves without his permission. Either you join or you die. So I joined. He didn't like that Nyssa and I were in love, but he didn't want to kill his own daughter's lover. So he told me to leave. A clean slate. So long as I never returned and never had anything to do with Nyssa again, he promised to leave me alone. That's... that's when I came back to Starling." Sara could feel her father's grip tighten on her shoulders as she spoke. "But for the last several years I've been an assassin. And it's something I've been good at."
"That's..." Quentin Lance at a loss for words. As a kid she thought she'd never see it. But it's happened more than a few times now since her seeming return from the grave.
He hugs her again. And, honestly, that says things better than words ever could.
"I'm sorry," Sara muttered, burying her face against her father's shoulder and trying to pretend there weren't tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"Sara," he murmured softly, stroking her hair. "Still my Sara."
And she feels a the way she had as a little girl, admitting to stealing and breaking Laurel's favorite Barbie doll. Though, obviously, this is so much worse. Sara begins to sob. "I'm sorry, daddy."
"Oh, Sara. It's going to be alright. It's going to be alright."
When her dad says those words, Sara can almost even believe them.
There are different kinds of cages in the world. And a lot of people live inside the cages they've built for themselves.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Sara watches her sister from a distance and marvels at how free she seems. Laurel always seemed so free. And here's Sara watching from a distance, through the bars of a fire escape that remind her of nothing so much as a bird cage.
But if Sara is in a cage, then it's one with the door open. She's only in it still for fear that she's forgotten how to fly.
And maybe she will. One day. Soon even.
But not tonight.
Notes: So after much consideration I've decided to toss in a background xOver with the movie Batman Begins. That way I'll have a reason to toss out the Arrow's third season plot because Ra'as al Ghul will have gotten himself killed over in Gotham already. Admittedly, that gives me a fun starting point with the fallout over the League of Assassins/Shadows having lost their leader and the power grab that goes on afterwards giving Nyssa, Talia, and Malcolm stuff to do. (I'll probably ignore the two follow up Dark Knight movies, though, especially since the third movie's version of Talia doesn't really interest me...)
Anyway, for the story here, Sara is looking for excuses to just do what she wants - which is to take back all of her family - but she's still really scared. Honestly, Oliver did a good job of identifying the heart of her fears here. Sara kind of hates herself for what she let herself become to survive and she fears that the people she loves will feel the same way about her that she does. But Quentin, of course, loves his daughters with all his heart. And having one person in her family know the truth and still love her stirs up hope that maybe, just maybe... it won't be only him who feels this way about her.