Tommy and Laurel walked into their apartment Tommy slamming the door behind him. "What the hell was that" he asked.
Laurel turned to Tommy. "It was nothing. He's just helping me with a case" she said.
Tommy shook his head. "The Declan case? Is that why you're so willing to defend a criminal because the vigilante asked you too" he asked.
"He thinks Peter Declan is innocent and I have to say after talking to Peter Declan I think he's right" she said.
Tommy scoffed. "So now what you and the vigilante are best friends" Tommy asked.
"We're just helping each other. He wants to make the city a better place" Laurel said.
Tommy rolled his eyes. "Is that the crap he told you" he asked.
Laurel walked over to Tommy. "Tommy please just listen…" Laurel started to say but Tommy moved away from her.
"Drop the case" he said. Laurel looked at him shocked.
"What" she asked.
"Drop the case and forget about Peter Declan" Tommy said.
"I can't do that. Peter Declan is innocent. I know he is" Laurel said.
Tommy nodded his head. "Maybe but let some other lawyer prove his innocence. You're not the only lawyer in this city. The vigilante can ask one of them for help" he said.
Laurel shook her head. "The vigilante came specifically to me" she said.
"Exactly that's the problem" Tommy said.
"What do you mean" Laurel asked.
"He's a criminal and last time I checked you don't work with criminals" Tommy said.
"He's only a criminal because people refuse to give him a chance. I think Felicity might be right about him" Laurel said.
Tommy shook his head. "She's not. If you really want to work on something, work on trying to figure out who kidnapped us earlier" he said.
Laurel nodded. "I will. First I have to prove Peter Declan is innocent" Laurel said.
Tommy sighed frustrated. "How do you think your father would react to you working with the vigilante" he said.
"Are you serious? You're really using my father against me" Laurel asked.
Tommy nodded. "Your father is hunting this guy down. I don't think he would be too happy to find out your working with him" Tommy said.
Laurel shook her head. "I can't believe your actually threatening to tell my father on me. What are we five" she asked.
"If telling your father is what I have to do to keep you safe and away from that madman I would happily do it" he said.
Laurel walked away from him over to her laptop. "Well it doesn't matter what you or my father say. I'm working this case with the vigilante" she said opening her laptop.
Tommy was angry and he needed to leave to clear his head. "You're such a hypocrite" he said under his breath as he passed his wife going to get his coat.
Laurel looked at him shocked. "Excuse me" she said.
"I seem to remember when the shoe was on the other foot and I was working with criminals to help out our family you told me I had to stop" Tommy said putting on his coat.
"I also seem to remember you still doing it behind my back" Laurel said.
Tommy nodded. "Yea but then I stopped and got a real job" he said.
"This isn't the same thing" she said.
Tommy scoffed. "How is this any different" he asked.
"The vigilante is trying to help out a man who is innocent. The criminals you were helping were just trying to line their pockets" Laurel said.
Tommy walked over to the front door and grabbed his keys. "What happens when working with the vigilante gets the people he's going after to come after you and we have another incident like we did with Martin Sommers or do you not care about Becca's safety" Tommy asked.
Laurel looked at him shocked. She couldn't believe he was actually asking if she cared about their daughter. "Of course I care about Becca and her safety" Laurel said.
Tommy let out a sarcastic laugh. "Could have fooled me. I'm going to pick up our daughter. I'll be back later. Don't wait up" Tommy said leaving the apartment slamming the door behind him.
At Queen Consolidated, Felicity walked off the elevator and straight to Walter's office. She saw him sitting behind the desk. She knocked on the door. He looked up smiled at her and waved for her to come in. She walked into the office. "I've got one question. Why am I here" Felicity asked walking up to Walter's desk.
Walter looked at her confused. "What do you mean" he asked.
"Your assistant called me hours ago and said you needed to talk to me. She said it was urgent. What's going on Walter? Why am I here? You never call me to Queen Consolidated unless…" Felicity started to say but trailed off as she thought about what Walter might have to say to her. "Did something happen to Moira? Thea? Oliver" she asked panicked.
Walter laughed and shook his head. "Everybody's fine. Don't worry" he said.
Felicity let out a sigh of relief. "I assumed when your assistant called and said it was urgent I assumed someone might have you know" Felicity said making a motion of slitting her throat.
"I called you here because I wanted you to look into something for me. A variance of $2.6 million on a failed investment from three years ago. It was authorized by my wife" Walter said handing Felicity a file. She took it and opened it looking through it. "I was hoping you could find out some of the details of the transaction for me" Walter said.
"Find out" Felicity asked.
"Dig up. Discreetly. No one can know not even Oliver" Walter said.
Felicity nodded and smiled at him. "I'm your girl" Felicity said going to walk out of the office but she stopped before she reached the door. She turned around. "Why me? You have a bunch of qualified staff members who could look into this. I'm just wondering why you asked me" she said.
Walter smiled at her. "Your family Felicity. I don't know if I ever told you this but I consider you to be almost like a daughter to me. Plus there's no one I would trust more than you with something like this" Walter said.
"Thank you" she said smiling at him and leaving the office.
Matt Istook walked to his car. He put his briefcase in the car and opened the driver's side door when he felt something hit his neck. He took it out of his neck and saw that it was a dart. He looked at it as he started to feel drowsy. He started swaying on his feet. "What the…" he asked as the tranquilizer started to take affect and he fell to the floor. He woke up slowly a couple hours later. His head was swimming and he felt dizzy. He went to reach up to touch his head but found that he couldn't. He looked at his arm and saw that he was handcuffed to train tracks.
"Matt Istook" Oliver said standing above him dressed as the vigilante. Matt jumped and saw the vigilante standing above him. He sat up and looked at the hooded man. Oliver stared down at him.
"Your him. The hood guy. You're the guy that's been terrorizing the city" Matt said.
"Peter Declan. Your lies helped put him on death row. Now, either it's time to tell me the truth, or it's time for the 10:15 to Bludhaven" Oliver said.
"Ah. OK. OK. Brodeur paid me to say that Camille never spoke to me" Matt explained as the train whistle started blowing. "I didn't have anything to do with her death, I swear. Oh, God. Please let me go. I'll do anything. You can have the file" Matt said.
"What file" Oliver asked.
"Camille gave me a file of evidence against Jason Brodeur" Matt said.
"Where is it" Oliver asked.
"Let me go, and I'll tell you" Matt said. Oliver started to walk away as the train was approaching. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't go! Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't go! Uh, part of the file is in my desk, the other part of it is at a secret organization known as Argus. The part of the file that I have is in my desk at the office! You can have it! Get me out of here" Matt said. The train was approaching fast. Oliver shot an arrow at the handcuffs holding Matt to the train tracks. Matt jumped out of the way of the train as it passed. Oliver looked at him from the other side of the tracks. Looked like he would have to pay a visit to Matt's office and Argus.
Lian Yu
The man who shot Oliver was cooking something over the fire. Oliver looked up at it. "What is that? I'm so hungry" Oliver said getting up. The man didn't acknowledge him. Oliver started to walk over to the man. "It smells pretty good" Oliver said. He went to reach for it but the man grabbed him and flipped him. Oliver screamed. "Hey, fine, don't share" Oliver said getting up.
"Hey" the man said. He pointed over to the cage with the bird in it and made a motion with his hands to kill it. The man started speaking in Chinese.
Oliver looked over at the cage and saw a bird walking around in it. He looked back at the man. "I'm not going to kill the bird" Oliver said. The man spoke in Chinese again as he began eating his food. Oliver just stared at him.
Present
Oliver went to Matt Istook's office and got his part of the file from his office. He headed over to Argus. He was able to sneak into Argus and found out that the file was in Amanda Waller's office. She was out of Argus right now so he figured it shouldn't be too difficult to steal the file. He got into her office and got into her filing cabinet. He found the file on James Brodeur and was about to leave when an update came through on Amanda's computer. "The package is secure" the message said. That didn't concern Oliver so he figured he should just leave. Across the hall though, the criminal David Baker was being escorted through Argus by guards. David smiled to himself. These guards were such idiots. He wanted to be caught so that he could be in Argus and he could find the third part of the doomsday device he needed. "It came today" one of the guards asked as the other guard nodded his head.
"We have it under lock and key. No one will be able to get it" the other guard said.
"Welcome to your new home freak" one of the guards said as he opened the cell in front of him. David walked into the cell without a word. The guards closed the cell and David got to work. He unlocked his cuffs and got them off. He had studied the Argus facility very thoroughly and knew his way through the vents. He climbed through the vents and made it to the room he was looking for. He dropped down and smiled. It was time for him to claim his prize. He took it off the shelf it was on and an alarm went off. Crap he thought to himself. He went back up through the vents and dropped down into the man entry way. He was surprised to see who was standing there. The vigilante. He smiled at him and pulled out a gun he had hidden.
"I would love to stay and chat but I have delivery to make" David said as he started shooting. Oliver ran behind a desk and waited for him to finish shooting. Oliver quickly shot an arrow without looking and when he got up and looked the man was gone. What the hell? He thought to himself. Just then a bunch of Argus agents ran into the room pointing their guns at him.
"Freeze don't move" one of the agents yelled. Oliver looked around. He was surrounded. He quickly threw out a smoke bomb and when the smoke cleared he was gone.
Oliver found out that Laurel went into the office. That was good because he figured this would be better than showing up at hers and Tommy's place again. Tommy tried to shoot him before. Who knows what Tommy would try to do him if he saw him with Laurel again. Laurel was sitting at her desk taking notes off the computer. She couldn't be around Tommy right now so she came to the office. She loved him but sometimes he was so frustrating. How dare he insinuate that she didn't care about their daughter? Of course she cared. She loved Rebecca with all her heart. She had to fight for what was right and proving that Peter Declan was innocent was what was right. She would do anything to prove it even if it meant working with the vigilante. She just wished Tommy could understand that. Laurel was taking notes when all of a sudden the lights turned off. She looked around. The files thudded onto her desk. She looked at the files surprised. She grabbed them and looked at them.
"Compliments of Matt Istook" Oliver said in his distorted voice.
Laurel saw the vigilante standing across the room in the dark and stood up. "What's in here" Laurel asked.
"Leverage on Jason Brodeur. Enough to help save Peter Declan's life" Oliver said while Laurel read through the files.
"As an attorney, I never would've gotten files like these. I always though the law was sacred. It fixed everything" Laurel said while Oliver just stared at her.
"Now, Laurel? Now what do you think" he asked.
"I think there's too many people in this city who only care about themselves. People who are selfish. I think they need someone who cares about the lives of other people. Someone like you. Maybe Felicity was right about you" Laurel said. Laurel looked back down at the files. Oliver let out a small smile. Even when Felicity didn't know it was him she still believed in him. He walked away turning the lights back on as he left. Laurel looked across the room and saw that the vigilante was gone. She smiled.
At the Queen mansion, Oliver walked into the living room smiling at the flowers on the table. "Oh, my God" Thea said walking in. Oliver turned around to look at her. "What's wrong with your face" she asked.
"What do you mean" he asked.
"There's something really weird on it, like this thing with your mouth" Thea said walking up to her brother. Oliver smiled at her. "It looks like it's in the shape of a smile" she said.
"Yes. That's cute" Oliver said.
"So why are you grinning" Thea asked.
Oliver shrugged his shoulders. "I'm happy. I think your advice about Felicity might actually work. I'm going to be myself with her when I see her again. I think it'll be OK. It helps that she stuck around this long" Oliver said.
"I got mad relationship skills, bro. Let me know if you need trendy places to propose " Thea said.
"I think you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself. Little bit" Oliver said.
"Why? You were going to propose before" Thea said.
"I just don't think we're ready right now" Oliver said as Thea left the room.
Just then Tommy barged in through the front door. Oliver turned around and saw his friend walking up to him. "Tommy I think we should…" Oliver started to say but was cut off when Tommy punched him in the face. "Talk" Oliver finished.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I thought I made myself perfectly clear. Stay away from Laurel" Tommy said.
"Tommy I know your mad and I'm sorry. I truly am but I need Laurel's help to get Peter Declan off death row" Oliver said.
Tommy shook his head. "Why Laurel? There's thousands of lawyers in this city" he asked.
"I don't trust any of them like I do Laurel. She'll help make sure Peter Declan goes free because she's a good person and wants to do what's right. We can't just let an innocent man die" Oliver said.
Tommy thought about that for a second. "How sure are you that Peter Declan is innocent" he asked.
"I found proof that Jason Brodeur framed him" Oliver said. Tommy let out a sigh.
"What happens if Jason Brodeur decides to go after Laurel" Tommy asked.
"I'll protect her. Nothing is going to happen to Laurel or Rebecca. You have my word" Oliver said.
"Yea because that means so much. Tell me have you told Felicity about your nighttime hobby yet" he asked. Oliver looked away. "That's what I thought. After this case is over and Peter Declan is a free man that's it. Stay away from my family" Tommy said.
"Tommy I can't just…" he started to say but Tommy interrupted him.
"Stay away from us or I'll tell Felicity who you really are. I'm sure she would love to know that the man that she loves doesn't trust her enough to tell her his big secret. Deal? I'll keep my mouth shut if after this case is over you stay away from me and my family" Tommy said holding out his hand for Oliver to shake.
Oliver sighed and shook it. "Deal" he said. Just then Rob walked into the house. Both Oliver and Tommy looked at him. "Rob. You gotta keep up" Oliver said.
"I'm going to go" Tommy said leaving the house.
At the Merlyn mansion, Malcolm and Evelyn were watching the news. They saw Paul Hoshaw get arrested. Abel walked into the room. "It's all over the news" he said.
"He's in police custody now" Malcolm asked.
"Yes" Abel answered.
"This is Paul Hoshaw, I believe" Evelyn said.
"Yes. Apparently he snuck out this morning. He had been… rambling about making a show of his devotion to the two of you" Abel said.
"We ordered for none of them to leave" Malcolm said standing up and walking over to Abel.
"I know the man in charge of his group has been… chastised" Abel said.
Evelyn got up and walked next to her husband. "We warned you to be more discriminating in your choice of new members. This man clearly had a history of mental infirmity" she said.
"I throw myself upon your mercy" Abel said bowing to the two Merlyn's.
"We're alone Abel. You don't have to do all that" Malcolm said.
"How did it go with Tommy and Laurel" Evelyn asked.
"Not good unfortunately. They want nothing to do with any of it" Abel said.
Malcolm nodded, walked over to the table and poured three drinks of wine. "That's not surprising. My son could be a problem" Malcolm said handing a glass to Evelyn and Abel.
"We'll deal with him later. Now we move our focus onto Oliver Queen" Evelyn said.
"What do you want me to do" Abel asked.
Evelyn shook her head. "Nothing now. Get some sleep. In the morning we'll pay Mr. Queen a visit" Evelyn said.
Abel drank his wine and nodded. "Good night" he said.
"Good night. I'll expect you here bright and early tomorrow" Evelyn said. Abel nodded and left the room. Evelyn walked back to the couch and sat down on it. Malcolm sat down next to her rubbing her shoulders.
"We really have to figure out what to do about Tommy" Malcolm said.
Evelyn shook her head. "That's a problem for another day. Right now I just want to be here with my husband" she said kissing Malcolm. Malcolm deepened the kiss.
In the morning Abel knocked on the door to the Queen mansion. Raisa answered the door. "Hello is Mr. Queen there" Abel asked.
"What is your name sir" she asked.
"I'm Abel" he said holding out his hand for Raisa to shake it. She did.
"It is incredibly important I speak to Mr. Queen" he said. Raisa nodded and moved aside letting Abel in the house.
"I'll go get him. I'll be right back" Raisa said walking upstairs. Abel looked around the mansion. The Queens sure did live nicely. He walked over to the far wall and looked at the photos on it. They were photos of Oliver Thea Moira and Robert. They were a very nice looking family.
"How can I help you" Abel heard his name called. He turned around and saw Oliver Queen standing on the stairs. He smiled and walked over to him. He held out his hand for Oliver to shake. Oliver shook it.
"My name is Abel and I work for the Merlyn's and there is some business they need you to attend to" Abel said. Oliver nodded and followed him out of the house.
Oliver and Abel got in a limo and Oliver was surprised to see Evelyn sitting on the other side of the limo. "Hello Oliver. I see you met my associate Abel" Evelyn said. Oliver nodded. Evelyn signaled for the driver to start driving and he did.
"Where are we going" Oliver asked.
"To see one of our investors. I think he will be able to show you why you should sign up with us" she said pouring a glass of wine. She offered it to Oliver. He shook his head.
"About that, I don't know if I'm really the right person to team up with" he said.
Evelyn shook her head. "You're the perfect person and you will see why when you meet our investor" she said. Oliver still didn't trust that offer. He knows Evelyn said they were trying to save the city but he didn't know. Something seemed very off about the whole thing. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it all felt so off though. There was just something about Evelyn that he didn't fully trust.
At Jason Brodeur's office, Jason was freaking out about possibly going to jail. "Declan's lawyer's pulling me into this. I'm going to go to prison, if not for murder, then this dumping thing" Jason said.
"That won't happen. There are steps we can take" Ankov said.
"You saw her. She's going after me" Jason said.
"She'll wanna meet with her client after what happened in court today. We have friends up in Iron Heights. Prison can be a dangerous place" Ankov said stepping closer to the desk. Just then there was a knock on the door. Jason's assistant Becky stepped into the office.
Jason rolled his eyes. "What do you want Becky? Can't you see I'm busy" he asked.
"Mrs. Merlyn is here to see you" Becky said.
Jason's face changed into a smile and he nodded. "We're just about done here. Let her in" Jason said. Becky nodded and left the room. He turned back to the two men in front of him. "I think we're done here. Let me know how that goes" Jason said. Ankov nodded and him and his associate left the office as Evelyn, Abel and Oliver walked into it.
Evelyn smiled at him, walked over and hugged him. When she broke the hug she turned back to Oliver. "Oliver this is Jason Brodeur. He is the investor I was telling you about" Evelyn said. Jason held out his hand for Oliver to shake. Oliver stared between Jason and Evelyn but then shook Jason's hand. He definitely didn't trust this. Jason Brodeur was the man he was trying to help Laurel take down. He definitely didn't want to work with him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you" Jason said.
"Oliver is thinking about teaming up with us. He's a little nervous about it though. I thought you'd be able to calm those nerves" Evelyn said.
Jason nodded. "Take a seat Mr. Queen. I'll explain everything and tell you why you should join with us" Jason said.
Oliver stood there for a moment not saying anything. He just looked between the three people in the room. "You can call me Oliver" Oliver said sitting down.
Jason nodded. "Of course Oliver" Jason said. Oliver sat there for over two hours listening as Jason explained why he should join up with them. The three of them all watched Oliver closely and he watched them closely. Why did they want him to join up with them so bad? What did they get out of it? After Jason was done explaining everything Oliver left and Evelyn stayed behind to talk to Jason. "You and your husband told me I didn't need to worry about anything. You told me the framing of Peter Declan wasn't going to come back on me" Jason said.
"Relax. You're going to be fine" Evelyn said.
Jason shook his head. "Laurel Lance is coming after me" he said.
"I'll deal with Laurel Lance. You did good with that explanation. I think Oliver bought that we're trying to help the city" Evelyn said.
"Why do we need him? Can't we do it without him" Jason said.
Evelyn shook her head. "Unfortunately not. Oliver Queen is a very important part of our plan. We need him to cooperate" Evelyn said.
"What if he doesn't" Jason asked.
"Me and Malcolm have a plan in place to make sure Oliver cooperates. He's naïve and easy to manipulate especially since we know his weakness. He will join us soon. I guarantee it" she said. Jason Evelyn and Abel all smiled at each other. Everything was going exactly as planned. Soon they would all have everything they wanted.