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 6b

Green Arrow stepped down from the JLA transporter tube into the satellite headquarters of the super team, Roy stepped down behind him carrying his bow and quiver, he wasn't dressed as Speedy, he wasn't ready to return to his other persona yet.

Superman and Batman were standing to one side of the room discussing something on the large computer screen in front of them. Batman glanced at the two Archers and nodded a greeting.

"Hello Ollie." Superman said before glancing at Roy who quickly looked to the floor to avoid eye contact with the man of steel,"Roy..how are you feeling son?" he asked.

"Ok" Roy mumbled.

Aware of his wards discomfort Ollie spoke up."Yeah he's ok...listen were gonna hit the gym and set up some target practice." he said heading out the door.

Roy kept his head down and followed him out of the room towards the gym. Once they were out of sight of the other two hero's Roy spoke up. "You told them, didn't ya?" he asked annoyed.

"Course I told them kid...we aren't talking about a common cold here this was some serious stuff you were dealing with ..I wanted to know why the hell Bats kid didn't notice you had something bad going down." Ollie stated.

"It wasn't Dick's fault, how was he supposed to guess what was happening when you didn't, besides the Titans disbanded almost a year ago, and things weren't as heavy then."

"Yeah..I know kid, don't worry Bats pointed that out pretty quick...listen the next time we come across them or anyone else for that matter I don't wanna see you hanging your head like you aren't good enough to look them in the eye..you understand me kid?" Ollie said pausing to get a response from the boy.

"Come off it Ollie, I won't ever be as good as them..that's a fact that there's no denying."

"It isn't a fact son...We've all had to deal with issues in our lives, them included..but ain't nobody here walked in your shoes, and until they do...until they know what you've been through they have no right to pass judgement..and I can tell you now that none of them have or would." Ollie continued walking untill the came to the entrance of the gym.

Roy walked inside the door, behind Ollie and over to a target area that was designed for the older archer.

After setting up the targets, some still and some moving, Ollie walked away and leaned against the wall to watch his ward.

Roy nocked an arrow and prepared to shoot, aiming at one of the easier standard targets, he stood for quite a while, lining up the shot, a faint quiver in his hand preventing him from releasing the arrow.

"What the hell are you waiting for kid?...it's not gonna grow legs and walk closer to you, shoot the damned thing." Ollie's gruff voice came from behind him.

"But I'll miss." Roy said as he tried to still his shaking hands.

"Well don't freakin miss...you can hit that blind folded, now shoot."

Roy released the arrow,and watched as it sailed to the target, hitting the bullseye, but almost imperceptibly to one side.

"You missed." Ollie said surprised "You can do better than that, that's not even a challenge, how the hell did you miss that."

"I told you I would miss." Roy snapped.

"Whats the freakin point of dragging you up here for target practice if your just gonna waste my time." Ollie grumbled.

"Well if your so god damned upset about me missing it..you shoot the damned thing." Roy yelled in anger as he whirled around and fired of a volley of arrows each one hitting its target perfectly.

Ollie started to chuckle.

"What? You think it's darn well funny?...You've got a warped sense of humor you know that?" Roy snapped.

" Nah..it's not funny kid..missing a target never is, but pulling your strings is."

Roy looked confused "You stirred me up on purpose?"

"You've been moping around for the last couple of weeks acting like a totally different kid...I wanted to see if you still had some fire in your belly..."

Roy turned to look at the targets "Your such an ass Ollie." he mumbled, a faint smile playing on his lips.

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Roy say at the kitchen table, concentrating on sharpening a couple of arrow tips, rubbing the sides with fine sand paper and stopping every now and again to run his thumb across the edge to test the sharpness. It was one of the more mundane tasks that the archers had to do to keep their equipment in order, but it was necessary and even a bit therapeutic, the repetitiveness of the task helped Roy to relax and unwind which was probably the reason Ollie had asked him to do it in the first place. Although things had been much better between the two of them, and Ollie was definitely making and effort to stay home much more, the two of them often locked horns, they were too alike Dinah had said a long time ago and Roy knew that she was right, it was inevitable that they would have the odd argument.

Voices behind him made him turn around, Dinah had come to visit and she and Ollie walked into the kitchen.

"Hi Boyo, the slave master got you working?" Dinah asked.

Roy smiled, happy to see Dinah, she hadn't been around for a couple of days. "I always get the dirty jobs." he joked.

"Hey what do you think sidekicks are for." Ollie chuckled.

"To sharpen arrows, restring bows and repack quivers." Roy laughed.

"Hey I feed ya don't I?" Ollie said feigning annoyance.

"Yeah...though it would be nice to have something other than chilli most nights."

"Don't criticize the chilli boy, it'll put hairs on your chest."

"Or burn 'em off." Roy said lightly as he packed up the objects in front of him and headed out of the kitchen.

"He's looking well..getting his color back." Dinah remarked.

"Yeah, he was a bit quiet for a while but I'm beginning to see some of the old fight back in him." Ollie replied frowning slightly.

Dinah caught the look, "You two been arguing again?." she asked.

"A bit, nothing major, he wanted to go out yesterday...I asked him where he was going and he said he didn't know so I told him he couldn't go"

"Ollie, he is sixteen you know..you have to look at it from his point of view, one minute your not around hardly at all , then all of the sudden your in his face telling him what he can and can't do all the time when he's used to making those decisions himself..."

Ollie cut in "Yeah I know..we sorted it out, he blurted something about me not trusting him and I made the mistake of saying he hasn't proven himself to be trustworthy in recent months." he looked at the floor, feeling a little shamed at the memory, as soon as he had said it he had wanted to take it back.

"Ollie you didn't...there's no way that would have gone down well." Dinah said shocked.

"Yeah...kids got a mouth on his when his angry, I won't tell you what he said I was, my ears are still burning."

"Well you damned well deserved it, you must have known how he would react to you saying something like that." Dinah said, anger tingeing her voice.

"I know, I know..it just kind slipped out..anyway, he stormed off, but after a while he came back and we talked."

"And?" asked Dinah.

"And I apologized." Ollie said his cheeks flushing slightly.

Dinah looked stunned.."You?... You apologized?" she asked shocked, apologies were one thing Ollie was not good at.

"Yeah that's what I said didn't I...any way it actually worked, the kid actually calmed down..well he sulked for a little while, but he got over it." Ollie sounded surprised, as if he'd never thought something as simple as apologizing could defuse a situation so quickly.

Dinah walked over and hugged the archer, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek, "You boy's are going to be ok you know that, your both learning so much from each other, and as long as you can both give a little, things are going to work out just fine...I'm so proud of you." she said kissing him again.

"You are...Wanna show me how proud." Ollie asked bouncing his eyebrows mischeiviously.

"I'm gonna puke." Roy said as he walked back in the kitchen.

"Shut up brat." Ollie said playfully cuffing the back of the boys head as he walked past. Yes things were definitely going to work out ok he thought.

end 6b