A/N: Hey, readers! I don't know about you guys, but I had a strange and stressful week. But luckily, this update schedule won't change. So, enjoy and leave a review to let me know what you think.
The night passed into the morning too slowly for Roy. He stayed awake the whole night, going over his case files and keeping an eye on the sleeping assassin. Thankfully, Cheshire slept soundly through the night and into the morning. 'Either that pain medicine knocked her out,' he thought as he checked on her. 'Or she hasn't had a good night's sleep in a couple days.' Given how easily she'd been overwhelmed last night, he had a feeling it was the second one. Footsteps on the stairs altered Roy to someone coming down. He turned around and smiled as Mia stepped into the cave.
"I was on my way to therapy and thought you could use some breakfast," Mia said as she handed Roy a bagel and a travel mug of coffee. "Connor's at the library."
"Thanks."
Mia looked around Roy to the woman sleeping on the cot. "So…that's the assassin?"
"Yes."
"And you really thought letting her into our secret headquarters was a good plan?"
"I know what I'm doing, Mia."
"If you say so."
"I do. Go to therapy, I'll pick you up later."
"Ok." Mia gave the sleeping assassin one last curious look before she left.
Roy shook his head as he took a bite of his bagel. 'I know what I'm doing,' he thought. 'Besides, she's injured. If she did try to attack me, I could take her.' He took a sip of the coffee in the travel mug. There was a quiet moan from the cot and he turned to see Cheshire trying to sit up. "Morning."
"Hmm…" Cheshire rubbed the sleep from her eyes wearily and grit her teeth as pain stabbed at her abdomen.
"Want some pain medicine?"
"If you didn't offer I'd just take some."
Roy set his breakfast aside to get her some pills and water. "Do you need help, or-" The items were snatched from his hands and Cheshire downed the pills in one swallow. "Ok. How do you feel?"
"Horrible."
"You look horrible."
"Thanks." Cheshire swung her feet over the edge of the cot but was barely standing for 10 seconds before she collapsed.
"Cheshire!" Roy booted around the cot and reached out, only for her to shove him away. "I'm trying to help."
"Well, I don't need your help, hero. Just leave me alone."
"Unless you plan on crawling out of here, you should let me help." There was a moment of hesitation, then she slowly took his hand. Roy eased her back onto the cot. "At least you didn't pull out the stitches." He grabbed his bagel, then held out half. "Here."
"Why are you doing this?"
"What?"
"This. Helping me."
Roy sighed. "I don't really know to be honest. But I do know that I meant what I said, you and I aren't that different. I just had someone to save me."
"Lucky you."
They lapsed into silence as both of them at their breakfasts.
— —
"—and so I'm really happy with my new boyfriend," Hayley said, swinging her feet idly as she talked. "And he doesn't even do drugs."
"Thank you for sharing, Hayley," Ms. Kylie, the woman who ran the group said. "Everyone, why don't we show our support for Hayley?" A dozen girls all sitting in the circle clapped politely.
'Joy, oh joy,' Mia thought, trying not to roll her eyes as she clapped. A glance at the clock told her there was still another 45 minutes of Group left. 'Ugh…why does this go so slow?' One-on-One with the therapist at the Women's Resource Center wasn't horrible, since she usually just let Mia play Uno the whole time, but there was nothing to do but talk during group. It wasn't that she didn't care about these girls, they seemed alright, but she didn't want to spend an hour and a half every week with 13 people trying to convince her she'd been trafficked. Because she hadn't.
"Mia?" Ms. Kylie asked. "Would you like to share anything about your week?"
Mia shook her head.
"Are you sure?" When Mia, shrugged, Ms. Kylie pursed her lisp a little. "We can only move forward by sharing, Mia."
"Nothing to move forward from," Mia said quietly. "I'm fine."
"Ok. Shauna, would you like to share anything with the group?"
The girl next to Mia nodded and sat up a little straighter. "So…I was walking in the park with my foster parents and…Mike was stalking us. My foster dad called the police, but he was gone by the time they got there."
"Did you talk to him?"
"No. I- I don't want to talk to him ever again. I'm just so tired of it, you know? Him telling me how much he loves me and how good thing will be if I come back. And things are good for a while, but it always goes back to the way it was. I get pimped out to a bunch of gross pervs twice my age and never see a single cent. I'm never going back to Mike. He wasn't my boo, he was my pimp."
"I'm sure we're all glad to hear that, Shauna. Girls, why don't we show her our support?"
Mia wrapped her arms tighter around her torso as everyone else clapped politely again. Her stomach twisted into knots and her heart pounded in her chest. Every person in the circle was suddenly too close and the quiet claps were like thunder booming in the clouds. She swallowed and shook her head. 'Fuck this!' Mia left her seat without warning and didn't pay attention to anyone as she left the room, slamming the door behind her. She walked down the narrow hall to the water fountain. Her hand shook as she pushed the bar on the front and took a long, cool drink. She dipped her forehead beneath the stream of water for a few seconds, then lifted her hand. The hall was completely deserted; the only sound her own erratic breathing. Mia swallowed, then sat down with her back against the wall before her legs could collapse.
'I hate therapy!' she thought as she buried her face in her legs. 'I hate it! They're trying to convince me of something that didn't happen by making me listen to everyone! But it didn't! I wasn't trafficked, I wasn't!' Mia grabbed the fabric of her jeans to stop the shaking. 'I wasn't trafficked, I wasn't.' She kept repeating the words in her mind, but it never made them feel more real.
"Mia?" a soft voice asked.
Mia jerked her head up and quickly wiped away the ghosts of a few tears that had escaped her eyes. It was Ms. Nicky, her one-on-one therapist. "What?"
"You looked upset. Why aren't you in Group?"
"Group is stupid and I didn't want to be there."
"You understand that attending Group is a condition of your probation, right?"
"Yes, I do! Christ! Can you people stop reminding me that I'm one goddamn slip up from being sent to juvie for one week?!"
"I'm sorry. That's not my intention, I just want to help."
"You can help by leaving me alone. I don't need to be here. I'm not…like those other girls."
Nicky paused for a moment. She'd only had Mia as a client for a couple months, but this was a constant theme in their meetings. "Would you like to for a walk?"
"Where?"
"Around the grounds. It's a beautiful day out today."
Mia sighed. As much as she didn't want to, sitting on the floor wasn't a fun option either. "Sure." She stood and shoved her hands into her pockets as she followed Nicky.
"Is your foster dad picking you up after?"
"Yeah. Ray's coming later." Where they would inevitably tell him that she'd walked out of Group. Again. "You gonna tell him I'm still being a bitch about this?"
"We want him to be a part of the healing process, Mia. The more involved Ray is, the greater chance we have of success." A few moments of silence passed. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You can ask, doesn't mean I have to answer."
Nicky stopped in front of the double-doors that led to the small, fenced-in lawn behind the center. "If I were to tell you that behind the left door is your foster dad, and behind the right door, is your pimp-"
"Boyfriend."
"But you could only choose one door, right here right now, which would you choose?"
Mia frowned. "What kind of fucked up mind game is this?"
"It's just a thought exercise. Which door? Left or right?"
The silence stretched into a minute as Mia remained silent. "Why does it matter?"
"It matters, because if you belonged with Richard, as you've so often claimed, then you wouldn't hesitate to choose the right door."
"So, Ray's not a complete jerk. What does that prove?"
"To me, nothing."
Mia glared at her. "If you got to ask me a question, then I should be allowed to ask you one."
"Ask away."
"Why do you do this? Why go through all this trouble to help these girls?"
"Because I was like you once." They left the building and began circling the yard. "I started being trafficked by my own parents when I was five. I was 14 when I ran away from home and met my pimp. He was…handsome and glamorous. Drove a nice car and brought me pretty jewelry and took me to out for good food. I was convinced he loved me because he kept saying he'd give me a far better life than my parents had. Even when he sold my body to other men, I stood by him. I was arrested when I was 16, then again when I was 21."
"When did you…stop?"
"When I was 27. I was addicted to heroin and he beat me so bad that I was hospitalized. My nurse was so nice and understanding. I was so used to everyone judging me and accusing me of ruining my own life, that when she offered to help I didn't know what to think. But I did know I was tired. Tired of the drugs, the prostitution. Tired of my pimp telling me he loved me one day and beat me the next. So when the nurse offered me help, I took it. It wasn't easy, especially getting sober, but I made it and eventually got my psychology degree so I could help young girls like yourself."
Mia wrapped her arms around herself. "I'm tired of it sometimes…" she admitted quietly. "I see all these girls my age who get to go to dances and the mall. They don't have to sleep with all these men just to survive."
"You don't have to go back to it, Mia. You can have a better life."
"But this life is all I know. My dad started raping me when I was 6 and then with Richard… What if this is it? What if there's nothing better for me out there? Things are good with Ray right now, but…what if they don't stay that way? They always start out good and then it all goes to hell."
"It doesn't have to be. It seems like Raymond really cares about you. He's gone through a lot of trouble to get you back into school."
"Yeah, he's really got this nice-guy-hero complex."
"I'm sure it's more than that."
'It is. I know it is. Roy's told me about how he was abused when he was my age.' And yet she still couldn't turn off the voice in her head that insisted it was a trap. That it was all going too well with Roy and Connor. Another shoe would drop like it always did. "Am I wrong for wanting an…escape route?"
"What do you mean?"
"Whenever I start to think about how things can go wrong, I remember that Richard is out there. It makes me feel better because, if it is horrible, I can always run and go back to him. It might not be great, but at least I feel better."
"You aren't wrong for thinking it, but I must emphasize that no matter what's happening at home, you can always come to us. We're to help."
'As you keep reminding me.' Mia nodded. "I still don't like this whole…therapy thing. I'm not crazy."
"Therapy isn't for crazy people. It's for anyone who needs help."
"Well, I'm fine." Even if she still had nightmares about hands grabbing and touching and pinning her down. Even if she needed to roll herself up in her blankets like a burrito to sleep, no matter how hot it was. Even if thinking about what had happened made his heart pound and her breathing erratic. Because the other option was that she had even more than HIV chasing her for the rest of her life. So she was fine. Mia didn't need therapy. She was absolutely fine.
— —
When Roy picked Mia up from therapy, the teen was silent as usual. "How was it?" he asked.
"Fine," Mia said. "I ran out of Group again, so you'll probably be getting a call about that."
"Thanks for the heads up, I guess. Can I ask why?"
"Because Group is stupid and pointless."
"Therapy isn't pointless, MIa. It's there to help you."
"I don't need help. I'm fine."
"I went through years of therapy to be fine."
"Well, maybe I'm just more resilient than you." Mia winced at how callous that sounded but bit her tongue. 'Great job, idiot. At this rate, I'll get myself thrown out before things go bad.' If Roy was hurt by her words, he didn't show it. But there was a long silence.
"We're going to my office so you can train today. Cheshire is still there, so I'm going to give you sunglasses to wear and call me by my codename. Understand?"
"Yeah. Is Connor there?"
"He is."
"Ok." Mia looked out the window silently for the rest of the ride. When they got to Roy's office, she followed him downstairs to the Quiver. As they walked, he handed her a pair of sunglasses, then put on a pair for himself. Connor was shooting at one of the targets while the assassin, Cheshire, Mia presumed, was watching him.
"Teach the kid yourself?" Cheshire asked, nodding her head at Connor.
"I did, but he already knew some basics when he found me," Roy replied.
"Hmm…" Cheshire watched as Mia tied a blanket around her neck, then strapped a quiver to her back and grabbed a practice bow. "What's with the blanket, girly?"
"I want to have a cape, but Ro- Red Arrow says that archers shouldn't have them," Mia explained as she stood in front of the second target.
"Capes are impractical for an archer," Roy reaffirmed as he walked over to Connor and adjusted teen's hand on his bowstring.
"But if I keep practicing like this, I can prove him wrong."
Cheshire smirked. "Guess so…" she replied.
"Alright, come on, M- Little Arrow. Let's see you shoot ten bullseyes," Roy said.
"I'm not taking the codename 'Little Arrow'," Mia muttered under her breath as she nocked an arrow and drew back the bowstring. It was said so quiet, but she saw the corner of Connor's mouth go up.
It was relatively quiet for a long time as Roy moved between Mia and Connor, watching them shoot. 'Mia's stance is getting much better,' he thought as he watched her. 'Her accuracy still needs improvement though, and her hand-to-hand combat isn't ready for my specialized fighting technique yet. But she's really coming along.' He turned to Connor and smiled. "Speed shooting, time, GA. Two minutes, and…go!"
Connor moved as fast as he could. He pulled arrow after arrow from his quiver and shot them off the bowstring as fast as he could. His heart pounded in his chest as he kept shooting.
"Time." He did a quick count of Connor's arrows. "…Well, technically you hit the target 16 times, but only 14 of those were bullseyes."
"Is it really that important that we have so many bullseyes?" Mia asked as she pulled arrows from the target, having only achieved 9 bullseyes in a row.
"It is. When you're shooting at people it's important that you don't miss. Most of our arrows are non-lethal, but when you're using sharp arrows it can be easy to kill someone."
'Cute,' Cheshire thought as she watched the two younger archers re-load their quivers. 'He's really that concerned with trying not to kill people.'
Roy turned around to see the amused look Cheshire was giving him. "What?"
"Nothing, it's just so cute to see you instilling your silly hero values in the next generation."
"It's not silly," Connor said. "Heroes shouldn't kill people."
"Not even people like Green Arrow?"
"Ignore her," Roy told the teens. "Keep practicing." He took a moment to make sure they were shooting before walking over to Cheshire. "Can you not say stuff like that to them?"
"Why? Didn't you tell them about our past with the Emerald Archer?"
Roy winced. "I have, but you still don't need to say stuff like that. I don't kill."
"I know."
"I take that rule very seriously. Its the only thing separating me from Green Arrow."
Cheshire raised her eyebrows. "Really, the only thing, hero?"
"Well- maybe it's not the only thing, but its an important part of it." Roy crossed his arms. "And as long as you're here, you need to respect that."
"…Fine…" Cheshire resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 'I should probably stay on the good side of the guy with access to pain medicine.' And speaking of that… "Do you think I could have another dose?"
Roy checked the time, then nodded. "Of course."
"…How long is she here for?" Connor asked as he watched Roy get some pain medicine and a glass of water. Mia stopped shooting to look as well.
"I- I don't know. Until she's healed enough to leave, I guess."
"So…she's just gonna hang out here?" Mia asked.
"How's that going to work?"
"Yeah, you can't stay in the Quiver 24-hours a day to watch her."
"The Quiver?" Cheshire asked, almost laughing.
"The Arrow Cave isn't called the Quiver," Roy cut in. "And…I don't know. My training didn't cover what to do if you find an inured assassin and have to bring her back to your search headquarters." Although considering Bruce's fascination with Talia al Ghul it really should've. "And it's not like we can bring her home-"
"Why not?"
"Because that would give away our secret identities."
Cheshire rolled her eyes. "Ok, look, hero, I know who you are. I've known for years."
"What- How?!"
"I worked with your former mentor when he was working for the Light. He might've brought your name up once or twice." Every five minutes. The degree to which Oliver Queen had been obsessed with his ex-sidekick had been both annoying and concerning.
"Who are the Light?" Connor asked.
"No one," Roy told him quickly. He turned back to Cheshire. "You really know who I am?"
"I do, Roy. So here's the situation. I can't leave because if I go out on my own like this, I'll definitely get killed. I need to wait until I'm healed enough to get revenge on that Dead-Man in Coast City that set me up. In the meantime, I already know who you are and I'd like to sleep on something slightly more comfortable than your cot."
Roy hesitated for a few seconds, very aware of Mia and Connor staring at his back. "Even if you know my identity, I have to protect them." He gestured to the two teens behind him.
"Giving away your identity would do me no good, but I'll offer you a trade. Let me stay until I'm healed enough to leave, and I'll keep your little family here a secret. Agreed?"
Roy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Guess you don't leave me much of a choice." With another sigh, he took off the sunglasses.
"Hm…Nice eyes."
"…Thanks." Roy looked back. "You guys can take your glasses off." Connor and Mia looked at each other, then shrugged and took their own sunglasses off. "This is Connor and Mia."
"Nice you meet you kids."
"You too…" Connor said slowly. "I guess…"
"Sure…" Mia agreed with the same amount of uncertainty. She looked at Roy. "Does this mean she's living with us now?"
"For the time being, yes," Roy replied. He checked the time again. "It's almost dinner time. You guys put your equipment away and I'll help Cheshire-"
"Jade," she said. The three heroes looked at her. "My name is Jade."
"Fine. I'll help Jade get home. Got it?" Both teens nodded before moving to put their bows and quivers away. Roy walked over to Had and helped her put her shirt on. "So…Jade?"
"Figured I should level the playing field a little more. Fairness and all that tingly stuff you heroes love."
"Right." Roy helped her stay for a second, then picked her up in his arms. 'I can't believe I'm doing this,' he thought as he followed Connor and Mia up the stairs. Somehow his quiet life in Star had come to include, Oliver Queen's biological son, the in-denial-but-still-obviously-traumatized victim of human trafficking, and an assassin. 'Yeah this…good. Nothing overwhelming about this at all. None what so ever.'
And honestly, what other curve balls could life throw him at this point?
