Thea goes into labour.
Of the many benefits that came with not living a life of vigilantism, the one that Oliver immensely appreciated was the substantially decreased amount of injuries sustained. His seven years of retirement provided an opportunity for many of his nagging injuries to heal and while he had yet to sustain another grave injury since his first fight with Azrael, his body still ached from the constant stress it was being subjected to. A stress that it hadn't felt in close to a decade.
As Oliver stretched in his living room to increase the blood flow to his sore muscles, he wondered how he'd managed to live like this for so many years. Was it that his younger body could stand up to the wear and tear or was it that he had simply become so accustomed to the pain that it didn't bother him anymore? Probably a combination of both.
There was a knock on his door and he rose from the floor to answer. It was Roy.
"Roy. Is something wrong?" he asked.
"An odd way of greeting a friend," he replied, smiling, "Does something have to be wrong for me to visit my brother-in-law?"
"I guess not. Come in." He stepped aside to let Roy enter before speaking further. "I haven't seen Thea in a while. How is she?"
"She's good, surprisingly zen. She's the one giving birth and yet I'm the one who's far more nervous."
"She'll be fine. So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" asked Oliver.
"I just want to talk."
"About?"
When Roy didn't reply immediately, instead averting his gaze and fiddling with his fingers, Oliver rolled his eyes and sighed, knowing precisely what Roy was about to say. "I want to help."
"Roy, we are not having this conversation again. You're about to have a kid, you shouldn't even be thinking about this."
"But that's the thing, Oliver. I can't stop thinking about it because of the fact that I'm about to become a father. I don't want my kid to grow up in the same city that I did. I want to make it a better place for him."
"I wasn't there when William was born. I wasn't there either for the first nine years of his life, and there are very few things that I wouldn't give up to change that. I never had the opportunity to experience those moments, but you do. Don't throw it away."
"You kept Diggle on the team when he had JJ. What makes this any different?"
"Because we're also talking about my sister, Roy. I don't want her to end up a widow."
"You don't think I can take care of myself? I'm still as sharp as ever. Let me prove it to you."
Oliver scratched his head, frustrated with Roy's persistence. As much as he had matured and grown into a fine man, he could still be a lot like that hothead kid who had to take an arrow to the knee to concede. Oliver didn't have any arrows with him right now, so he settled for his fists instead.
He whipped a hand forward, but Roy saw it coming and slipped out of the way. With no intention of letting the test end there, Oliver immediately followed the single punch with a combination, winging out several fully-powered shots as fast as he could.
But somehow, Roy proved himself right. Despite Oliver's best efforts, he dodged every strike before countering with a punch of his own. A left hook thrown with minimal power, merely meant to let Oliver know that he was there to be hit.
Oliver gently touched his lip, checking to make sure that he hadn't been cut.
"See," said Roy.
An involuntary smile tugged at the corners of Oliver's mouth. "I must be getting slower."
"If I'd thrown that with full power, you'd be on the floor."
Oliver chuckled. "Yeah. Okay, you've proven your point, but let's first wait for the baby to get here before we make a final decision."
"Hopefully, that's going to be soon."
As fate would have it, his phone began buzzing, taking it out to see a call from Thea. His heart skipped a beat, and he answered immediately.
"Yeah?" It wasn't Thea, rather one of the doctors at Starling General. "Right now?! Okay, I'm on my way."
"Relax. Everything is going to be fine." Oliver tried to calm Roy's nerves as they paced to Thea's ward in Starling General but in truth, he was just as anxious. He felt like he was the one about to have a child.
"You sure about that?" asked Roy.
"Of course. One hundred percent."
"Oliver, I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out, man," said Roy, panicking and stopping in his tracks.
"Well, then stop freaking out," replied Oliver.
"That's not very helpful!"
"Roy, listen to me… you need to calm down so that you can support her. That's all you have to do. Just be there for her. The worst that's going to happen is the baby looking ugly."
Roy frowned.
"Immediately after birth," quickly added Oliver, "Once he's cleaned up, I'm sure he'll be pretty cute. Now let's go."
They continued hastily walking to the ward, with Roy practically sprinting in as soon as they reached it. As Oliver took a seat in a nearby waiting area, he couldn't help but smile as he thought back to the night that he realised Roy and Thea were more than friends.
He'd just saved Roy from Joseph Falk. Standing on the upper level of Verdant, he watched as Roy approached the distraught Thea, who immediately wrapped him in a tight embrace. It seemed like a million years ago, yet just yesterday. At that moment, Oliver thought of them as nothing more than infatuated young adults. He could've never imagined in his wildest dreams that they would end up where they were now.
But with the excitement and exhilaration that the past few minutes had brought, Oliver had felt a strong sense of grief and heartache accompany it. Roy was here, present for the birth of his first child, and that only reminded Oliver that he hadn't been there for his. For as great of a bond he'd formed with his son, there were still things missing in their relationship. Certain voids that could never be completely filled, certain wounds that may have healed but had left scars, all stemming from the fact that Oliver had not been there when William was a child.
It compelled him to make a call. William answered after just three rings.
"Hey, Dad."
"Hey, Will. How are you?"
"I'm alright. You?"
"Great. How's the studying going?"
"Oh, you know, breezing through it as always."
"Of course. Hey, um… I'm… I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For not being there when you were a kid."
"You didn't know that I existed, so I can't blame you for that."
"But I should've. I should've been there."
"Dad, are you okay? Where is this coming from?"
"Thea just went into labour. It's giving me a lot to think about."
"Look, you may not have been there when I was a kid, but… you did your best, Dad."
"Was it enough?"
"More than enough… And who knows, maybe one day, you'll have a second chance to give your next child what you weren't able to give me."
"Yeah… One day."
"Mr Queen."
Oliver was woken with a gentle nudge from a nurse. "Hmm?"
"He's here."
Oliver sat straight up, scratching his eyes. "Oh, that's great. That's wonderful."
He glanced at his wristwatch, seeing that ten hours had passed since he and Roy had arrived. Aware that the labour was likely to last for several hours, Oliver got comfortable once he'd ended the call with William and decided to catch up on some recently lost sleep.
Immediately as he stepped into the ward and saw Thea on the bed, holding her child, he felt a radiating warmth flow through his body. The warmth of jubilation.
"Hey," he said, walking closer.
"Ollie. Meet your nephew, Liam," she replied.
"Liam. That's a great name." Oliver peered over, taking a look and noting that both of his hands were up close to his chin. "He's definitely your boy," he said, turning to Roy, "Holding his hands up like that, he's a fighter."
"Hopefully he doesn't get into as much trouble as his father used to," replied Thea.
"Used to, being the key phrase," replied Roy.
Sensing that Thea was tired from the delivery, Oliver decided to leave to let her rest and give them some more time with their newborn.
"I'm going to be on my way. Congratulations. You're both going to be amazing parents," he said before leaving the ward. As he exited, he took out his phone and made a call to Mia. The sun had set, meaning that it was time to remind the criminals who the streets of Star City belonged to.