Title- Let There Be Light

Author- Kim

Summary- What if Green Arrow responded differently when he found out about Speedy's drug addiction?

DC owns all characters.

Notes- Some quotations in the beginning are direct from the Green Lantern/ Green Arrow issue 87 story "They Say It'll Kill Me But They Won't Say When" which of course belongs to DC

Part 6a

Ollie scooped up the damaged and discarded feathers and tossed them in the bin, he'd finished fletching the arrows he'd been meaning to fletch for the last two weeks, after packing away his equipment he walked out into the living room, glancing at the red haired teenager who was asleep on the sofa and walking over to switch off the TV.

Grabbing a blanket that was draped over the armchair, he carefully laid it over the boy.

Roy stirred then sleepily opened his eye's. "You going out?" he asked softly.

"Nah kid, I'm staying in Dinah's on JLA monitor duty tonight and she'd kick my backside if I left you by yourself just yet." Ollie replied.

Roy pushed himself up into a semi sitting position, and looking at Ollie he asked "Where'd you find my bow?"

Ollie sighed and sat down in the armchair facing the boy "The idiot you gave it to was flashing it around on the docks..thought himself a big man, not so big now he's cooling his heels behind bars he had enough junk on him to put him away for a long time." he said.

Roy nodded "Thanks." he said quietly.

Ollie leaned forward in his chair, "Why'd ya do it kid?...I mean I know you swapped it for a fix..but..You loved that bow I don't understand how ya could have swapped it of all things."

"Kids do a lot of stuff for a hit...a lot of stuff." Roy said, his voice hardly above a whisper.

"But your bow?" Ollie asked again.

"I know you don't understand Ollie..I don't expect you to, the bow ain't the worse thing I've had to do..I've done a lot of stuff..stuff I'll take with me till the day I die cause I won't ever be ready to talk about it...stuff that would make you sick to your stomach." Roy said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Ollie sat back, shocked..he had some idea what Roy was talking about, he'd dealt with street kids before, seen the types of things they would do when driven by the desperation that haunted their young lives, he didn't need Roy to say the words to understand his meaning. Ollie swallowed uncomfortably. "I...Shit kid I can't even begin to know what to say to that."

Roy looked at his hands, his face flushed with shame and uncertainty "I'm sorry." was all he managed to whisper wishing he could take his words back.

Ollie stared at the boy in front of him knowing he should say something reassuring, but having no idea what words he could use to convey what he wanted to. Finally as his racing heart began to slow to it's normal pace he managed to speak."Kid..I hope you know that no matter what you did...I ain't gonna be pushing you away..I might not know what to say and I ain't good at this sort of stuff, but there isn't anything you could have done that's gonna shock me more than walking into your room and seeing you shooting that poison into your veins." he said.

Roy looked at Ollie's eye's, studying them, looking for some sign of judgment or disgust and seeing nothing but shock and concern. "I really stuffed up bad didn't I?" he managed to blurt.

Ollie rose from his chair reaching down to ruffle the boys hair "We both did kid..we both did, now we've got to try our darndest not to stuff up again."

Roy managed a weak smile..Ollie wasn't good at emotional revelation and whilst he had only ruffled Roy's hair it was enough to convey to them both that the archer cared.

"So when can we start training again, I wanna get some target practice in?" Roy asked changing the subject to allow Ollie an escape out of the uncomfortable conversation they were having.

Ollie laughed "As soon as you can hold a bow without your hands shaking so much that I'm gonna be fearing for my life." he knew exactly why the boy had changed the tone of the conversation, and for once he was glad that Roy could read him like a book, the kid was a whole lot smarter than he gave him credit for.

end 6a