A/N: Here's the next chapter! If you haven't seen it already, you should check out The Mysterious Disappearance of Roy Harper by Lunammoon over on Archive of Our Own (AO3)! It's a great story! Read on and let me know what you think!
Red Arrow didn't take Connor home. As much as he probably should've, this didn't feel like a conversation that would be safe in his apartment. So instead he took the teen back to his base. He stopped his bike and turned it off when they arrived, then sighed long and low. "Go sit down in the medbay," he said.
"You mean on the cot?" Connor asked.
"…Yes, on the cot."
"Ok." Connor got off the back of the bike and slowly made his way over to the "medbay".
For a few seconds, Red Arrow just watched him walk away, unsure of what to say. There was just so much going on, he didn't quite know where to start. The sight of the 13-year-old in his medbay gave him a focal point though. 'I have to make sure he's not injured,' he thought. As he approached the teen he took off his mask and set his equipment aside. "Are you hurt?"
"No," Connor replied quietly "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Roy's eyes flickered down to the teen's side, which Connor noticed.
"Oh…well… I may have an injury on my side. It's fine though! I checked it and everything, it's not even deep."
"Uh-huh. Take your sweater off and lay down."
"But-"
"Connor."
Again, the tone of Roy's voice didn't leave any room for argument, so Connor complied. He waited tensely as Roy pulled up his shirt, then gently removed the bandages from his side. He waited, almost with bated breath, as Roy examined his wound. There was a minute of silence, where Connor couldn't think of anything to say. He studied Roy's face, but the man's expression was difficult to read.
"How did you do this?" Roy asked eventually.
"I- I was…out and someone shot at me." The hands on his side froze. "The bullet only grazed me, though!"
"You were shot?!" Roy stared at him in shock for a second. "You were- Why didn't you say anything?!"
"It was a shallow wound. I thought I could take care of it."
"Do you have any idea how irresponsible this was?!" Roy shook his head and continued before Connor could answer. "Of course you don't! You're a child, how could you?!" He sighed low. "Thankfully, it is shallow, so as long as you keep it bandaged and clean it should be fine."
"See? I told…you-" The words died on Connor's tongue as he took in the look on Roy's face.
"Connor…do have any idea, how dangerous it was going out on your own like that?! You could've been killed!"
"I wasn't-"
"That doesn't matter!" Roy rubbed his face. "God, Connor… Did you ever think about what I would do if something happened to you?! While you're here I'm responsible for you! It would kill me if something happened!"
"I- I didn't really think about it like that."
"Clearly!" Roy sighed and started pacing back and forth, his hands on his hips. "Why?! Why would you do something this dumb?!"
"Because I wanted to stay! I- I thought if I showed you I can be a vigilante like you, then you'd let me stay!"
"Connor, I'm not going to let you stay here!"
"Why not?!"
"Because- Because I just can't!" Not with what happened to Jason. Not when Connor looked so much like…him. "I'm sorry, Connor, but I can't!"
"But I really want to! Please?!"
"Why?! Why do you want to stay so badly?!"
"Because I don't want to be like him!" Connor started shaking a little bit and his voice strained as he visibly tried to keep from crying. "I- I don't want to end up like my father." Connor dropped his head, trying to hide his tears from Roy. "I don't want to be like that! I- I want to be different! I want to be better!"
Some of Roy's anger faded and he wiped his hand down his face. "Connor-"
"I know you don't like me…but I don't know what else to do! I have to do this, Roy! I just have to!"
Roy reached out and put a gentle hand on his back. "Connor. Hey, Connor, look at me." The teen lifted his head and Roy crouched down to his eye level. "You are not Oliver. You might be his son, but that doesn't mean you'll turn out like him."
Connor wiped his eyes as he kept crying. "Please let me stay, Roy. Please. I promise I'll do everything you say and I won't cause any trouble."
"Connor… I don't want to put you in harms way-"
"But if you train me and if you're there with me, then you can keep me safe!" He sniffed. "Plus…I could always keep trying to be a vigilante, even if you send me back to San Fransisco."
'…Damn it,' Roy sighed as he stood and rubbed his face again. 'He'll probably do it too.' He glanced at Connor. 'No, I know he'll do it. I recognize that determination. He so desperately wants to distance himself from Oliver that he'd do anything to make it happen.' And it wasn't as if that was a feeling Roy wasn't familiar with. 'On the contrary, I know exactly how he feels right now.' Which left him with a dilemma. Did he let Connor stay and risk him getting hurt…or did he send him back and risk him making good on his threats? Roy groaned. "Fine…"
"Fine?" Connor picked up his head and gave Roy an uncertain look. "What do you mean fine?"
"I mean fine, you can stay."
"I- I can stay?"
"Yes, but I have some conditions. I will train you, but you have to do everything I say and do it how I tell you to do it. You'll still go to school and do normal teenage things, which means you'll need to learn how to balance that with vigilante work. Understand?"
"Yes! Absolutely, anything!" There were still tear-tracks on Connor's face, but he wasn't crying any fresh ones. "So I can stay?"
"Yes." Roy started pacing again as he thought. "I'll still need to bring you to the police, only because you're missing though. Do you know who your social worker is?"
"Yeah, she gave me her number."
"Ok. Once the police bring you back, I'll contact her and see if I can get guardianship over you."
"You'll really do that?"
"I don't see another way to do it." Roy sighed, then nodded to himself. "Ok, sounds like a plan. Now, let's go home. You need to go to bed- actually we both do, it's going to be a long day tomorrow."
"Ok." Connor hopped off the table and grabbed his sweater.
Roy shook his head as he followed him up the stairs. 'I really hope this is a good idea,' he thought. 'It feels like a bad idea, I don't even know how to take care of a kid and this one looks like Ollie… God, what am I getting myself into?'
— —
The next morning, Roy took Connor down to the police station. The teen seemed nervous, but Roy put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "Don't worry, it'll be fine," he reassured him.
"Are you-"
"Raymond?" Detective Rodgerson said as he approached them. "It's a surprise to see you here."
"You as well, Detective," Roy replied.
"What're you doing here?"
"Well, I uh…needed to speak with someone about my friend here." He tapped Connor's shoulder.
"I'm not busy at the moment, come over to my office and I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks." Roy and Connor followed the detective to his office, then sat down in two chairs across from him.
"What can I help you with?"
"This is Connor Hawke. He's from San Fransisco and he's a runaway."
"A runaway?" Detective Rodgerson frowned and looked at Connor. "Why did you run away? Was anything going on at home?"
"No," Connor replied quickly. "My foster parents were great. I just… I was going through some stuff and didn't want to be there."
"I see. I'll just call the San Fransisco police to let them know we found you and see if they can give me a contact number for your social worker."
"Ok." Connor looked at his legs and rubbed his hands on them nervously. He'd been anxious from the moment he'd woken up. Worried thoughts had plagued him all morning. 'What if Roy doesn't hold up his end of the bargain? What if just sends me back and doesn't try to get me? What will I do then?' He'd meant what he said about going out on his own, but part of him was terrified after he'd been hurt.
"Connor?" Roy asked quietly. He put one of his hands on the teen's to get his attention. "You ok?"
"…Yeah. I'm fine."
"Everything's going to be fine. Promise."
"Mhm." Connor nodded to himself. 'Roy hasn't lied to me yet. I have no reason to believe he'd lie about this. It'll all be ok. It will.' He waited silently as the detective talked to someone from the San Fransisco Police Department, occasionally writing something down on a piece of paper.
"Excellent," Detective Rodgerson said. "Thank you so much." He hung up, then turned to Roy and Connor. "The good news is you're safe, the San Fransisco police are going to inform your social worker where you are and she'll come to get you. Bad news is you need a new foster home, so you'll most likely be going to a temporary one tonight."
"Were- Did they tell you if my foster parents were really upset?" Connor asked quietly. "Because I swear I wasn't trying to upset them! They were really nice and everything, I just had a lot going on-"
"Calm down, kid. It's ok. Everything's fine. The officer I talked to didn't mention them, but if you give me their number I can call them and let them know you're safe. Will that make you feel better?"
"I- Yeah, it till. I just don't want them to worry a lot and you know…spend the rest of their lives wondering what happened to me."
Connor's words sent a jolt through Roy, but he tried to hide it. He glanced at Detective Rodgerson, but the man was smiling at the teen with a smile that was humorless at his eyes.
"No, we definitely wouldn't want that," he replied. He handed Connor a small pad of paper and a pen. "Write down their number and I'll take care of it."
"Thanks." Connor scrubbed down his foster father's number, then handed the pad back.
"Thank you." Detective Rodgerson heard Connor's stomach growl and he smiled. "Hungry?"
"…Not really."
"Oh yeah?" He took out his wallet and handed Connor a couple of dollars. "There's a vending machine down the hall to the right. Why don't you go get yourself a snack?"
"Uh…sure." Connor glanced at Roy, who nodded.
"Go on," he encouraged. "I'll be here when you get back."
"O-Ok." Connor left, nervously playing with the bills as he walked.
"He seems attached to you," Detective Rodgerson noted a hint of suspicion in his voice. "How did you find him again, Raymond?"
"It was a coincidence," Roy said. "I was walking around in my neighborhood and just happened to come across him. I could tell he'd been sleeping on the streets, so I offered to take him to a youth shelter. He freaked out and seemed pretty upset, so I just offered to let him sleep at my place."
"Why didn't you bring him straight here?"
"I just found out he was a runaway."
"Did he tell you anything about these 'problems' he had that caused him to run away?"
"…A little. He said he wanted to track down his birth father, despite not knowing who the man was. I managed to convince him that maybe it wasn't in his best interest. What with them never having met and all."
Detective Rodgerson nodded sadly. "Poor, kid. He seems nice, I'm sure he's just not dealing well with the stress of so many life changes so quickly."
"It can be hard."
"I'm just glad you found him and not someone who would've hurt him. Runways are at a high risk of being victimized by all sorts of crimes."
"I know. He's a really good kid too, you know?"
"In my experience they usually are." The detective's voice was sad as he picked up the phone on his desk.
'What a nice guy,' Roy thought as Rodgerson called Connor's foster parents. 'Damn, why does he have to be so nice? It makes it harder for me to decide how I'm going to lie to him.'
A few minutes later, Connor returned with a small bag of cheese and crackers. He sat in the chair next to Roy but didn't move to open his snack. He sat still, watching Detective Rodgerson talk on the phone. When the man finished, he squeezed his legs. "What did they say?" he asked.
"They were relieved to find out you were ok and safe," Detective Rodgerson reassured him. "They were a little upset that you took off like you did and your foster mother seemed sad they couldn't take you in again."
Connor nodded and looked at his legs. "At least they know now."
"Absolutely. So, Raymond, I can take care of Connor from here if you want to leave-"
"No!" Connor looked at Roy, his eyes wide. "Please don't leave. You promised."
"I know, I know," Roy assured him. "It's ok, just relax." He turned to Detective Rodgerson. "Would it be ok if I stayed?"
"Of course." Rodgerson looked at Connor. "Why are you so intent on Raymond staying?"
"He-He's been taking care of me. I trust him and I like him."
"That's ok. He can stay with us." Detective Rpdgerson gave Roy a small smile before he looked at some paperwork on his desk.
Since it was a few hours before Connor's social worker would arrive in Star, Roy didn't expect Detective Rodgerson to just let him and Connor sit at his desk, but even after an hour passed, he never asked them to leave. Roy passed the time by mentally lining up his best arguments for him to keep Connor. 'Even if Connor has to leave the city tonight, I need to make sure his social worker understands I want to take him in,' Roy thought. Every one in a while, he glanced at his young companion, but Connor mostly looked at his snack and picked at it. By the time they heard someone approaching, the teen had only eaten two of the six crackers in the pack. Roy and Connor turned around in their chairs as a middle-aged woman approached them.
"Detective Rodgerson?" she asked when she reached them.
"The very same," Rodgerson replied as he stood and shook her hand. "This is Raymond Wayne, the man who found Connor."
"Kelsey Bartlett."
"Nice to meet you," Roy said as he shook her hand.
Kelsey turned to Connor. "Are you ok?" she asked him, a hint of both concern and anger in her voice.
"Yeah," Connor nodded, his voice quiet. "I am."
"Good." Kelsey turned to Roy and Detective Rodgerson. "Thank you both, for finding him and returning him to my care."
"Of course," Detective Rodgerson nodded. "I'm glad we're able to help."
"Mrs. Bartlett, can I talk to you about something?" Roy asked. "Alone?"
"Of course." Kelsey glanced at Detective Rodgerson, who smiled at Connor.
"Let's go get you a drink for the ride back to San Fransisco," he suggested to the teen.
Connor glanced at Roy, who gave him a nod. "Ok," he agreed quietly. His gaze lingered on Roy before he stood and followed Detective Rodgerson.
After he left, Kelsey sat in his chair and looked at Roy. "What can I help you with?" she asked.
"I want to keep Connor," Roy said, getting right to the point. "I want him to stay with me."
"Why?"
"We've…really bonded over these last couple days."
"You do realize what you're saying, right? Taking care of a child is a big responsibility."
'Please don't remind me…' Roy tried not to cringe. It was a huge responsibility he definitely wasn't prepared for. "I realize that, but I want to do this."
There was a moment of silence as Kelsey studied him, then opened her bag. "I'm not trying to dissuade you," she said as she pulled a file out of it. "God knows you'd be doing me a favor, but I feel it's only fair for you to see Connor's file."
"Why?"
"Because I know there's information about himself he hasn't shared with you. He all but begged me not to tell his former foster parents about it."
Roy's chest tightened a little and his heart started beating faster, but he still took the file. 'What could possibly be in here that Connor wouldn't want me to see?' he wondered. Inside, the first page held the teen's standard information. Name, age, date of birth, etc. As he read, Roy filed way some of the information, so he would have info about Connor. The next page had a list of disciplinary actions that had been taken against Connor. It was here Roy nearly gasped and his ribs constricted against his lungs. 'He broke another kid's arm?! Fractured another's jaw…' Complaints about Connor's behavior from teachers and administrators were listed and they only served to dry up Roy's mouth.
Severe anger issues.
Trouble with self-control.
Prone to violent outbursts.
'What was it Connor was afraid of? That he was a lot like his father?' Apparently, he was even more like Oliver than Roy had known. Even through his rising panic though, Roy tried to use the rational side of his brain. 'This is nothing like the Connor I know. None of this reads like the quiet and polite kid who's been staying in my guest bedroom.' Clearly, Connor had changed. Something in the last few years had allowed him to gain control over his anger issues and work through them. 'Which is what matters. It doesn't mean he has something to hide. I definitely know a thing or two about having a past you aren't proud of.' He nodded his head, then looked at Kelsey. "This doesn't change my mind. Like I said before, Connor and I have sort of bonded and I'd like to take him in."
"It's hard to say no. Given his record and now with a runaway mark against him, it'll be harder to find a good home for him. Especially one that was as good as the last one." She studied Roy for a moment. "I'm going to give you a tentative yes."
"Tentative?"
"Yes. Connor does seem attached to you and I have a few kids I need to place right now. If you pass the background check and the home inspection, then I'll place Connor with you."
Roy smiled widely. "Thank you, so much."
"You're the one who found him and decided to keep him. I should be thanking you." They stood and shook hands. "I'll schedule your background check and home inspection for later this week. If all goes smooth you should be able to assume guardianship over Connor in about two weeks."
"Sounds good. Uh…would you mind if I said good-bye to him before you left?"
"Not at all."
Roy looked in the direction Detective Rodgerson and Connor had disappeared in to go find them— only to see the two approaching them. 'That detective really has some kind of sixth sense…' he thought. Roy walked over to meet them halfway.
"Am I staying with you?" Connor asked before Roy could say anything.
"Probably," Roy replied. "Your social worker says I have to pass a background check and home inspection first."
"How long will those take?"
"A couple weeks." A look of panic flashed over Connor's face. "Con, listen, it's going to be ok. Two short weeks and you can live with me. Understand?"
"…Yeah…" Connor looked at the ground. "You promise I'll see you in two weeks?"
"…Promise." If for some reason, he didn't pass the background check and inspection, then he would see what Red Arrow could do to help him. 'I promised Connor he could live with me, and even though I've only known him a couple days, I can't stand the thought of breaking that promise to him.' Roy gave the teen's shoulder a squeeze. "Come on. Let's go so we don't hold your social worker up any longer."
"Ok…"
Roy kept his hand on Connor's shoulder as they walked back to where Kelsey was waiting. "Everything all set?"
"Absolutely," Kelsey replied. She looked at Connor. "Let's go. We have to get you to your temporary home."
"Ok," Connor mumbled. He stepped away from Roy, then looked back at him. "Bye, Ray."
"See you soon, kid," Roy replied.
"Bye Detective Rodgerson, thanks for all your help."
"Of course," Rodgerson replied. He pulled out a business card and handed it to Connor. "If you need anything just give me a call."
"Thanks." Connor put the card in his pocket.
"Raymond, Detective Rodgerson," Kelsey said, nodding to each of the men. "Thank you."
"Any time," Rodgerson replied.
"I hope to hear from you soon," Roy said.
"I'll be in touch."
Roy watched Connor leave with Kelsey, especially the way the teen seemed to become even more depressed the closer they got to the door of the police station. 'It'll be ok, Connor,' Roy thought as he watched pair leave the station. 'I promised I'd train you to fight crime and I never break a promise.' Hopefully, this wasn't a promise he'd regret keeping.
