Title: Sweet Sixteen
Summery: Lian's fifteen
Disclaimer: All Characters belong to DC
Feedback: please.

Daddy, can I go to the mall this afternoon with Shannon?" asked Lian.

Roy paused for a moment, and looked up from the arrows he was busy fletching. His little girl was growing up too fast he thought, she'd just turned fifteen, and was as independent as any fifteen year old, more so, Roy thought wistfully. "Who's Shannon?" Roy asked

"A friend from school, we're gonna meet Sarah there, and maybe we can go to a movie if there's something good showing."

Roy hesitated, than said. "I don't see why not, Sarah's a good kid, I'll drive you there and you can call me when you need to be picked up."

Lian pouted, "Sarah's a good kid?...That's why I can go? because I'm going to meet Sarah, and she's a good kid?"

Roy laughed knowing exactly what his daughter was frowning about. "No silly, I'm letting you go because you're a great kid, not just because Sarah's a good kid…..It just makes me feel a bit more at ease to know who you'll be hanging out with." He reached up and tousled her hair.

"Daaad" Lian tried to use a stern voice but only ended up giggling. "The hair." She added pointing to her messed up hair.

"Oh, sorry Miss Picture Perfect, wouldn't want to put a hair out of place on that pretty little head of yours.' Roy laughed

"Oh you can talk Mr Vanity." Lian quipped as she walked into her room to call her friend.

Roy chuckled, he had the best kid.

An hour later the doorbell rang and Lian answered it, "Grandpa" she yelled, giving Oliver Queen a joyful hug as she let him in the door.

"Hey hey, Pretty Princes" said Ollie, "I'm in town for a business meeting and I've got a couple of hours to kill, thought I'd come by and visit my favorite girl."

"Cool" said Lian, "But I'm going out with some friends in an hour, I can cancel if you want?"

"Nah Princess, you stick to your plans, I'll just have to make do baby sitting your father for a while……Where is he anyway."

"He's locked in his weapons room, doing something that involves explosives and I'm not supposed to go in when he's mucking around with that stuff. Hopefully he won't burn his eyebrows off this time." Lian laughed, referring to an incident that had happened two years earlier.

Ollie cackled at the memory of the incident, it had taken six weeks for Roy's eyebrows to grow back.

Lian walked to an intercom and pushed the button, "DAAAD, GRANPA OLLIE"S HERE, YOU GONNA GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE?" she yelled.

Roy's voice came back over the intercom. "Yeah I've just finished, won't be long."

Lian opened the fridge, "What do you want to drink, Dad's got beer if you want, or soda, juice or water otherwise we've only got instant coffee, and I know you don't like the instant stuff."

Roy waked in at that moment and Lian held out a beer for him which he took. "Thanks Baby Doll" he said. "Hey old man." He added giving Ollie a quick wave.

"Beer" Ollie said to Lian and accepted the offered bottle before sitting down in the sofa as Roy settled into a chair opposite. "You still drinking that instant coffee crap kid, I thought I taught ya better than that." Ollie joked.

"You did, I'm just lazy is all, can't be bothered making the real stuff." Roy said as he took a swig of his beer.

"Daddy, I called Shannon and he's gonna come here fi…….."

Before Lian could finish Roy had spat most of his beer out his nose and was busy trying not to choke to death. Lian moved over and began patting him furiously on his back, while Ollie just cocked an eyebrow looking bemused and wondering if Roy had swallowed the beer too fast or something.

When Roy finally had himself back under control enough to speak, he looked at Lian with watery eyes and rubbed his nose to ease his irritated sinuses and asked in a slightly panicked voice. "Wh……What did you just say?"

"Shannon's coming here first so you can drive us both to the mall together." Lian said.

"No..no, the other bit." Roy said.

"What other bit?" Lian asked patiently, she was used to her father's slightly odd behavior and had a feeling this was going to be a Roy moment.

"The he bit……The bit where you said HE is coming over." Roy blurted out with more than a slight tone of panic to his voice.

"Yes, he is coming over so you can drive us both there." Lian repeated rolling her eyes slightly, yes there was definitely a Roy moment on the way.

"How…….How old is HE" Roy spat the word he out with marked contempt.

Lian looked at Ollie, he had moved to her end of the sofa away from the spat beer and was very intently staring at the pattern in the carpet at his feet.

"Daddy he's nearly sixteen, he's very grownup." Lian said hoping the fact that Shannon was quite grown up would ease the worries her father had.

"SIXTEEN" Roy boomed. "SIXTEEN" he yelled again "HE'S SIXTEEN AND GROWNUP?"

Lian looked dumbfounded, ok, maybe it wouldn't ease his worries.

"Nuh uh, no way….not even." Roy's voice was minutely quieter but not much. "This ain't happening, no way, never…you can just call him and cancel."

"Daddy he'll be here in half an hour I can't cancel now, and you told me I could go, you knew I was going with Shannon. And Sarah will be with us when we get there." Lian didn't know weither she should laugh or cry, she could guess what had set her father off, but had thought he was open minded enough to understand girls and boys could be friends without being girlfriend and boyfriend…. Maybe he wasn't being serious, maybe it was some kind of warped joke, her father could come up which some really weired jokes at times.

"That was before the word he was mentioned, I THOUGHT SHANNON WAS A GIRL FOR CRYING OUT LOUD." Now Roy was standing up, pacing back and forwards with his hands on the back of his head.

Ollie made the mistake of looking up at him, and promptly burst into laughter.

Roy stopped and started incredulously at Ollie, "ARE YOU INSANE OLD MAN, THIS IS SERIOUS, HE'S SXTEEN."

Ollie added "And very grownup."

"Shudup" Roy snapped

"Daddy, didn't you have both boys and girls as friends when you where my age?" Lian added, it seemed odd that her father couldn't understand that it was possible to have both genders as friends, he was usually a pretty cool guy, as Dads go.

Roy tried to calm his voice down. "Honey your Fifteen…. He's sixteen." Roy stated as if that explanation made the situation perfectly clear.

"He's nearly sixteen Daddy." Lian stated patiently, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.

Ollie looked from Roy to Lian and back again, he always had fun when he stopped by Roy's place, this could keep him entertained for hours, but on looking back at Lians face and seeing the child was on the verge of tears he decided, wether it was his business or not, it was time to stick his nose in. "Oh come on Roy they're only Kids." He said.

Roy turned to Ollie. "Only kids? ONLY KIDS?...Ollie she's a kid…….HE'S SIXTEEN FOR GODS SAKE."

"Nearly sixteen, that means he's still fifteen, just a kid, leave them go, 'sides what can go wrong Lian said another young girl will be there so she won't be on her own, so what can happen?"

"What can happen?" Roy hissed, "Hell…. A lot can happen, I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN AND HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO OUT WITH TWO GIRLS." The moment he said it Roy wanted to suck it back in.

Lian looked sweetly at her father and asked. "What happened when you went out with two girls when you were sixteen Daddy.?" Lian could guess what her father was ranting about, but he needed to understand that not all boys thought they were studs like he thought he was, she and Shannon were just friends.

"Your gonna have to tell me that story some day son." Ollie laughed.

Roy gulped.

Twenty minutes later, Lian and her friend Shannon, headed out the door and started down towards Roy's car, Roy hung back a little, and once the two youngsters were out the door, turned to Ollie and handed him a piece of paper, "What's this?" Ollie asked.

It's the security code for the alarm, lock up on your way out, I'm gonna be hanging round the mall for awhile and I might even take in a movie, with that Roy grabbed the car keys and walked out, frowning at Ollie's laughter floating down the hall behind him.

The End

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