Notes: It's been so much fun rewatching these episodes in order to rework the plot for this story. Barry's just so adorable and excited about everything. Barry at his most puppy-ish.

So the episode title Three Ghosts is a reference to the three hallucinations Oliver has during the episode and possibly a nerdy little reference to A Christmas Carol's three ghosts. Shado represents the past and the terrible events on the island that Oliver had hoped he'd left behind. She's also the part of him that's afraid and wants to go back to a normal life, even though he knows that's not really for him any more. Slade represents the present and Oliver's doubts about his ability to handle his responsibilities or deal with the rising threat that the Mirakuru represents. Tommy represents the future and Oliver's desire to redeem himself - to become the kind of person, the kind of hero, that Tommy would have been proud of.

Obviously Tommy's not dead here, so he doesn't work as one of the three 'ghosts', but I've got plans or that. And perhaps not all the ghosts will be hallucinations, exactly...

Chapter 3

"So what kind of side-effects should I be concerned about from the rat poison?" Oliver finally asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Uh, mostly bleeding," Barry said, grimacing. "Since it's counteracting the coagulant, theoretically you should be fine, but... it is a blood thinner and that can make any bleeding or bruising - especially internal bleeding, though - a lot worse. So if you start noticing, like... stomach pain or..."

Oliver nodded quickly, "yeah, I know what the symptoms of internal bleeding are like. Anything else?"

"Less than one percent of people on warfarin experience hallucinations, though it's more prevalent in men. Also excessive sweating." Barry shrugged, adding, "and not knowing what the coagulant was means I can't even begin to guess at what the drug interactions would be."

That would explain hearing Shado's voice, Oliver supposed.

"Do you mind if I look around?" Barry asked, glancing around with the air of barely restrained excitement.

"Look, don't touch," Oliver warned, a smile tugging at his face when Barry literally bounced over to check out Oliver's bow in the case.

Heading over to Tommy, he said dryly, "I haven't even googled him yet."

"When he was a kid, his father murdered his mother and went to jail to the Central City Iron Heights facility," Tommy responded immediately, voice low so it wouldn't carry to the CSI, who was now pestering Felicity and Dig with questions. "Eleven year old Barry insisted his father was innocent, but the evidence all pointed one way. He spent some time in foster care before going to live with the West family. His foster father, Joe West, is a detective for the CCPD and his foster sister attends CCU. I did google him. And checked out his public Facebook page. He's got a blog too, trying to prove the impossible is possible. And he's a Vigilante fan. Dig checked up on him too, found all the same things I did."

"You're right. You and Dig and Felicity were in the position of calling the shots and all the choices were ones I hate. And I'm glad you went with the one you did." Not that he was exactly thrilled, but this was still better than waking up in the hospital with his wrists cuffed to the bed. "And you were right to assume I was going to blow up over this."

"Because you're a control freak."

"Yeah."

Tommy laughed and scrubbed his hands over his face. "At least you can admit it. First step to fixing a problem, right?"

"Are you okay?"

"Nope. You were dying right in front of me. I'm not okay and I'm going to have some really shitty nightmares about this until your next near death experience gives my subconscious something else to torture me with." Tommy shook his head. "Thea called right before you woke up. She's going to Laurel this afternoon to find out if there have been any other disappearances connected with the blood drives. You need to tell her you're the Hood before she gets herself into trouble. She's very much your sister in this; she won't let this go no matter how nicely we ask. But if she worked with us instead of at cross purposes, then maybe we can keep her out of the line of fire."

This is another argument they've had a few dozen times in the last few months. But this is the first time Oliver's actually found Tommy's arguments compelling. If it were just Roy looking into things, Oliver could just shoot the guy in, like... the leg or something as a warning to back off. Wouldn't even feel guilty about it.

Well... he wouldn't feel guilty at first. Guilt would come later, seeing him hobble around... probably.

Thea, though... Oliver would sooner shoot himself with an arrow than his sister. And getting shot at would likely just make her dig her heels in more deeply, anyway. The family stubbornness at its finest. But if she found out the truth...

Oliver had been lucky not to lose Tommy. And their friendship was so much more fragile feeling now than before. Part of Oliver was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. For Tommy to finally realize that Oliver wasn't really a good person anymore and not worth the effort to help. He couldn't bear to find himself in the same situation with Thea. Or to lose her altogether.

It was selfishness and he knew it. But Oliver still said, "I'll think about it."

Tommy rolled his eyes in response. But he changed the subject. "Tonight is your return to society party for Moira. How's the RSVP list looking?"

"Sparse. Maybe that was a bad idea."

"No shit, Sherlock." Tommy sighed. "Give me the list of people who haven't RSVP'd yet. I'll see if I can work some magic."

"Was that a wizard joke?" Oliver asked, unable to help himself as he smirked.

"I hate you." But Tommy was smiling anyway.

"Hey, Felicity, Dig, I think I've got a print we can run of the guy who attacked Oliver," Barry said, keeping his voice down because, well... if this didn't work then no point in getting Oliver's hopes up... right? It's totally not because he wants to impress Oliver or anything like that...

"What? How?" Felicity asked, looking excited.

"Uh, while Oliver was unconscious I, um... the bruising on his neck has a distinct finger pattern to it. I applied this to absorb the residual oils from his skin," he held up a polymer gel strip from the kit he'd brought along when Tommy fetched him from the Queen residence. "It works better on dead people because... doesn't matter. It's a long shot, especially because Oliver was sweating so this could easily wind up distorted but... we might also have a viable fingerprint."

"Let's check it out." Dig showed Barry where he could scan the print into the computer while Felicity pulled up the police database to run it.

The print runs and a name spits back out a few minutes later. Cyrus Gold.

Dig calls Oliver and Tommy over while Felicity reads out the information they've got. Gold's fairly clean - sealed juvie record for shoplifting that Felicity unseals with ease - and ties to an orphanage that was shut down in the Glades some years earlier.

"I've got facial recognition software searching for him. If he turns up, we'll know," Felicity promised.

"Right, well, I've got stuff to do elsewhere, but if he does anything stupid," Tommy said, pointing at Oliver and giving Felicity a significant look, "call me and I'll get back here okay. Barry? Do me a favor?"

"Y-yeah?" Barry asked.

"Stick with Oliver for me? If he starts having negative side effects, you're probably the one best suited to help him right now."

"I don't need a minder," Oliver protested.

"No, you need a babysitter," Dig said, giving Oliver a distinct 'you heard me' look when the vigilante started to respond.

"I'd, uh..." Barry stammered nervously, not wanting to offend Oliver but not wanting to irritate Tommy either. Oliver might be the infamous Hood, but Tommy was maybe just a little scary too.

"Come on, it's still early enough we can pick up donuts and let my mother think that's where we disappeared off too," Oliver offered. "And swing by to check on Thea while we're out."

"Should you be driving?" Barry asked, adding quickly when Oliver frowned, "it's just if you do start experiencing side effects..."

"Then I shouldn't be behind the wheel. Fine. Yeah." Oliver grimaced but nodded and tossed Barry his keys. "Let's go."

He's standing in the overlook watching the submarine floating in the water below.

"Have you forgotten me, Oliver?"

He turned around to face the speaker. Shado. She's as beautiful as Oliver remembers. "How could I forget? I let you down. I let you die..."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Oliver. Ivo had already chosen who would live and who would die. He just wanted to mess with your head first. He's still messing with your head." She walked up and cupped his face in her hands. "Have you forgotten me?" she repeated.

"I wear your hood to honor you." Oliver's words echo in the sudden emptiness. "Shado? Shado!" He started running into the woods, seeing her hair sometimes, flicking ahead of him between the trees, but... he trips over something, falling to his knees and she just there again.

"I wanted us all to have the chance to go home. To have our lives back. You could still have that Oliver, that life I wanted for you." She's laying on the ground as she speaks, staring up at the stars. Or is she staring at him? It's... kind of hard to tell.

Or maybe she's lying there dead.

"I can't go backwards, Shado. I can only move forwards." He feels like he's making excuses.

"Then let yourself move forwards, Oliver." She's standing and it's daylight again. Hood over her head and arrow nocked in her bow. "The path you chose doesn't mean leaving the people you love behind. We're your strength. But how can we give that to you if you keep us in the dark?"

Only... she isn't Shado anymore, when she turns to look at him, the hood falling back to reveal her face...

Oliver startled awake as the car jerked to a halt.

"Asshole," Barry muttered and then blushed. "Oh, you're awake. That wasn't about you. I was definitely not calling you an asshole. There was a driver who just cut us off and then ran the red light and turned right from the wrong lane in front of us. I hate driving. Anyway, your phone says were almost there."

"I figured it was someone else from the feeling of the brakes," Oliver replied easily. "Sorry for falling asleep on you."

"It's fine. You probably need more rest anyway."

"Not if I'm going to have dreams like that," Oliver muttered. It's not the first time he's dreamed about Shado since her death. Usually nightmares. That was just... weird. And he's not really sure who took her place at the end there. But he suspects Thea. Or maybe Laurel. Probably not Sara since she was having her own trust issues and hidden secrets - like the fact that she was, in fact, alive and not a drowning victim twice over - but Shado would've pushed him to tell his sister. Tommy would've liked having an ally in her on that subject. And while Laurel wasn't the love of his life he'd pretended she was when he was on the island - a pretense he'd needed to cope with the situation he was trapped in - she was still a dear friend. If he told her the truth, she wouldn't betray him.

He missed Shado, though, and despite what she'd said in his dream... her death still felt like it was his fault. Slade had thought so too. But Ivo was the one with the gun. Ivo was the one who pulled the trigger.

It was time, perhaps, to finally let it go.

"So if you don't mind me asking," Barry said, dragging Oliver back to the present, "but what's up with the grease paint? It's really a terrible way to disguise your identity. Namely because it doesn't really disguise anything."

Oliver snorted in amusement. "I've yet to find a mask that conforms perfectly to my face and doesn't affect my ability to aim while I'm on the run."

"You should look into compressible micro-fabric," Barry replies, grinning as he follows the tinny directions from google maps to turn left and pulled into the parking lot of Roy's apartment complex. "It could be great."

"Does it come in green? I've got a color scheme going on," Oliver joked.

"So I guess I was right about the whole forest training ground. But... what you said about honoring the person who taught you..." Barry trailed off uncertainly. "I mean, obviously, you don't have to tell me."

"Her name was Shado." The words slip out too easily after his dream. But... maybe he needs to talk about her. She kept asking if Oliver had forgotten her and, for all that he did do to honor her teachings... he never talked about her. Keep her memory alive in a different way. "She taught me how to use a bow."

"She must've been a pretty interesting person," Barry said as he turned off the car. "Sounds like she didn't make it off the island, though."

"She didn't." Oliver shook his head, unable to say more. Getting out of the car, he led Barry over to Roy's apartment, knocking on the door.

A sleepy looking Thea opened the door for him. "Ollie... and Barry, hey."

"We brought donuts and coffee," Barry offered with a grin.

"You're officially one of us," Thea declared, grabbing one of the donut boxes from Barry and letting them inside.

"You have to share those," Oliver called after Thea. That was the box with the chocolate covered apple fritters, so she damn well better share...

"You're not the boss of me," Thea called back. She relented once they all settled down on the couch, however. Sin was half asleep and leaning against Roy, who had seemed comfortable with the situation right up until Oliver came into view. At which point he glanced nervously between Thea and Oliver.

Oliver, however, just raises an eyebrow at Thea as he snags a donut.

In typical Thea fashion, she raised her eyebrow back and gave Sin a cup of coffee, their fingers brushing lingeringly before Thea relinquished the drink completely.

"I heard from Tommy you guys found Max last night," Oliver said, once everyone had a donut and coffee cup in hand.

"He didn't OD," Sin said emphatically. "Max didn't do drugs."

Oliver nodded.

"Did you take any photos?" Barry spoke up. "I probably won't be allowed near the crime scene since I don't work for the SCPD and I kind of got the impression that Detective Lance thinks I'm a nut, but maybe you got more on camera than you realized."

Roy traded a look with Thea and then nodded, handing over his phone for Barry and Oliver to check out. The first was an up close view of Max's face and the blood trailing down from his eyes. There was no doubt in Oliver's mind this was a failed mirakuru experiment.

"It's not hyphema, at least not a normal form of hyphema," Barry said, frowning and zooming in to better inspect the picture.

"Hyphema?" Sin echoed.

"Uh, when a person's eyes are bleeding it's called hyphema - but that's generally a form of internal bleeding within the eye itself, not external like this. While hyphema is a potential side effect of several different street drugs, this looks more like bleeding behind the eyes that used the eye socket as an escape point." Barry shook his head and moved to the next picture, which had a wider view of the darkened crime scene. "Looks like a body dump, though. The way he's laid out is wrong for an attack or collapse. Someone clearly positioned him post mortem. To hide evidence and obscure the actual crime scene, no doubt." He handed back the phone. "I'd be willing to bet the ME finds evidence of a brain hemorrhage."

"Tommy said you were going to ask Laurel about disappearances linked to the blood drives?" Oliver asked.

Thea nodded. "Maybe I should ask her about so called OD's that bleed from their eyes first too," Thea said. "Thanks for taking a look, Barry."

"I'm really sorry about your friend, Sin," Barry said quietly.

Sin just nodded and leaned back against Roy again.

They finished the rest of their sugary breakfast in silence and then Oliver and Barry moved to head out. Oliver caught Thea in a hug and then said, before he could change his mind, "there's something I need to talk to you about. Could you meet me at Verdant this afternoon when you're done with Laurel?"

"Sure. I'll give you a call when I'm on my way there," Thea promised. "Everything okay, Oliver?" she asked, giving him a worried once over. "You look about how I feel right now."

"Just didn't sleep well last night. I... I've been kind of stressed about QC and... had some unpleasant reminders about my time on the island." Which was all true, technically.

Thea relaxed and nodded. "This afternoon, then."

Back in the parking lot, Oliver tossed Barry his keys again. Next stop, the Queen family residence.

Barry does not like driving. And that's in regular cars. Not expensive cars that probably cost more than his salary in a year.

Somehow, he manages to drive to the donut shop and to Roy's apartment and then to Queen manor all without getting into trouble. Though he's still a little freaked out over the one shitty driver who'd cut him off earlier. His anxiety is still threatening to spiral over it, though flirting with Oliver helped him calm down surprisingly enough.

(It's with good reason Barry prefers public transportation.)

They arrive back at the manor and Oliver gifts the last of the donuts to his mother. While they talk for a few minutes, Barry heads upstairs to the guest room. He texts Iris to let her know he's staying one more day, though he might take an evening train back to Central. He's not sure yet.

He gets a text back pretty quickly telling him to relax and enjoy his vacation for a change and see if he can get a picture of the Vigilante's arms. Which must be all gorgeously muscled.

She really has no idea. Though Oliver's arms? Glorious. Absolutely glorious. He really needs an excuse to touch those arms again...

There's a knock at his door, drawing Barry out of his thoughts. Mostly out of his thoughts. Oliver's leaning against the doorway and Barry's eyes are drawn to those very arms.

Absolutely glorious...

"So, planning to stick around a little while longer?" Oliver asked. "I know you have to be back in time for work on Tuesday, but I was hoping you'd stay one more night. I... I'm sort of throwing a party, for my mom tonight. Which seemed like a great idea until I realized almost no one was RSVPing. Tommy's promised to try and fix the guest list, but... I guess what I'm saying is that I don't have a date and I was kind of hoping you'd agree to be my plus one."

"Yes. I have nothing to wear, though." Barry didn't even hesitate, just blurted out the agreement. What if there was dancing? Barry had two left feet... but that was when he was leading. He was less awful when following though there was still the potential for stepping on his partner's feet. "Also I'm not a great dancer." He might as well admit it.

Oliver looked him over, blatantly. "You're what... six feet tall?"

Barry nodded, mouth dry.

"You can borrow my clothes," Oliver told him. "I'm only an inch taller. Slightly different builds, but I think my things will still look really good on you."

"Okay," Barry squeaked. And then blushed in embarrassment.

Blessedly, Oliver changed the subject. "Thanks for giving Sin your opinion on the crime scene photos Roy took. I don't know her that well, but I think it helped for her to hear that the scene was staged and the signs really don't point to an over dose as the cause of death."

"When people keep telling you that someone you care about did something wildly out of character, it definitely helps to have someone willing to validate what you know is true," Barry said, thinking about his father. Hear a lie or untruth enough times and it can start to sound like fact, distort a person's perceptions of reality. Which was why Barry kept reminding his dad that he believed in Henry Allen's innocence, no matter what everyone else kept saying. Henry needed to hear it... and Barry needed to see the relief on his dad's face. To know at least one other person remembered that night the same way Barry did.

As terrifying as it was to consider, Barry's childhood nightmares were very real.

"What made you decide to become a CSI? If you don't mind me asking," Oliver said, letting the door shut so no one would overhear. Presumably, anyway.

"You... you probably know about my parents, right?" Barry sat down on the bed as Oliver nodded affirmatively. "It was... it was the week after my eleventh birthday. I woke up to this awful noise downstairs. So I went down there and... it sounds crazy. That's what everyone tells me. That I made it up so I wouldn't have to remember what really happened or that I'm lying to protect my dad. But I didn't make it up and it's not a lie."

"What isn't?" Oliver asked, coming over to sit beside Barry. "I've seen some truly unreal things in the last several years. Not just super soldiers but... things that are truly out there. Whatever you saw that night, I believe you."

"I saw a lightning storm inside the house. Red and yellow lightning, circling my mom. Dad was trying to get to her, but he couldn't. And she couldn't get out. But when I got to the bottom of the stairs and looked into the room... something in the lightning saw me too. And... there was a man in the lightning. I remember him stopping in front of me. Staring down at me, dressed all in yellow. Red electricity in his eyes and his face just a blur... I remember yelling for me to run and then suddenly I was just... blocks away. I started running home immediately, but by the time I got there, mom was dead.

"The man in the lightning stabbed her, using one of our kitchen knives. But he was wearing gloves. No prints. My dad is a doctor. The first thing doctor's are taught to do with knife wounds is stabilize them. Don't remove the knife, but instead find a way to minimize movement to prevent worsening the wound until the patient can be brought into surgery."

"So his prints were all over the bloody knife," Oliver concluded. "Trying to save his wife's life got him thrown in prison for her murder."

"Yeah. It's... it's fine if you don't believe me..." Barry said, voice hitching because... it was ridiculous and he knew it. Wishing that there'd been someone like the Vigilante - like Oliver - around when his mother died. Someone who would have listened to Barry and found the real killer. Joe never believed Barry; how could he expect Oliver to think any differently?

"I believe you," Oliver told him firmly.

The utter certainty on Oliver's face took Barry's breath away. "You do?"

"Yeah. I do." Oliver took one of Barry's hands in his. "I've never heard of anything like you described before. But I might know someone who does. Have you ever heard of a guy called John Constantine?"

Barry frowned and shook his head.

"He deals in... the weird and the crazy and the occult. Which probably doesn't sound promising, but he is very good at what he does. And he owes me a favor. He's not easy to get ahold of, but if you want then the next time I get in touch with him, I can send him your way."

"Yes, I... thank you, Oliver," Barry rubbed at his eyes, feeling tears on his cheeks. No one ever believed him just like that before. But here Oliver was, promising exactly that... and offering a potential lead on top of it all. Even if this Constantine guy didn't work out...

Impulsively, Barry kissed Oliver on the cheek.

Oliver actually blushed. He opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by the ringing of his phone. Glancing at the caller id, Oliver answered with, "you found something, Felicity?" After a few moments, he said, "we'll be right there."

"Cyrus Gold?" Barry asked as Oliver ended the call.

"Felicity's algorithms found him. She's calling us all back to the Foundry."

Barry squeezed Oliver's hand gently for a moment before letting go and standing up. "Am I driving again?"

"I think I'm good to drive this time."

"Oh thank god."

They get back to the Foundry at about the same time Dig does, but Tommy's running late.

"He's at the corner of Delgado and 25th right now," Felicity calls as the three of them approach her work space. "But we're just about to lose him."

"What else is at that intersection?" Oliver asked.

"Parking lot, market, motel..." Felicity rattled off. "He's headed in the direction of the motel."

"Could be where he's holed up," Dig muses.

Oliver wants to say that he's got this. That he's fine. Despite hearing Shado's voice on waking - the first time he woke up today, anyway - he's been fine. No signs of negative side effects to the rat poison.

(He's not quite sure he's ready to let that go. Rat poison saved his life. Sometimes even Oliver marvels over the absurdity his life has become.)

But Tommy would be pissed to find out Oliver's taken point on even something as minor as a quick recon, when it hasn't even been twenty-four hours since his latest near death experience. And he'd be right to be pissed off too.

It was probably annoying for Dig and Felicity that things they'd been trying to tell him for months, Tommy managed to make him listen to within weeks of joining the team. But Tommy had been managing Oliver's bad impulses since they were kids and it was just... an easy pattern to let himself fall back into. Because if something was important enough for Tommy to call Oliver out on screwing up, then it had to be important enough for Oliver to be willing to fix it.

"Dig, you should handle this one." It's outside the safe 'radius' around Verdant, however. "I'll be your back-up. Just in case."

A pleased smile appeared on Dig's face. "I keep a book of crossword puzzles in the glove box if you get bored," Dig teased.

"Funny," Oliver grumbled. "You okay to stay here?" he asked Barry.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, I'll probably annoy Felicity by rambling about how cool everything here is." The scientist did have a bit of a kid in a candy store look to his eyes...

This was definitely not innocent flirting between them anymore. But... Oliver was finding he much preferred it this way.

Oliver waits until he's in the car with Dig to ask, "do you think I should tell Thea I'm the Hood?"

Dig's eyebrows went up. "Finally caving to Tommy's arguments on that?"

"Maybe?" Oliver shrugged uncomfortably. "I know what Tommy thinks and Felicity's made it pretty clear she agrees, but you've been kind of quiet about it."

"She is your sister. And Tommy's sister. So it's not really..." Dig trailed off when Oliver turned to look at him. "I think it'd be good for you to have less to hide from her. It'd be healthier for both of you. But telling her means you'll have to tell Roy too, because god knows she isn't going to hide anything from him and he's a hairsbreadth from figuring it out himself anyway."

Dig put the car in gear and started them towards their destination. "I wasn't sure having Tommy on the team was going to be a good idea. He was intensely uncomfortable and angry after he found out you were the Vigilante and that was even after you saved his father's life. And he did have every right to feel that way, but I was concerned that... he'd wind up becoming a distraction. Instead, he's helped us become a more cohesive team and I finally have someone around who isn't so distracted by your chiseled good looks when you're doing the salmon ladder that I wind up losing my conversation partner every time you so much as side-eye that thing."

"I think it's more about the salmon ladder than my 'chiseled good looks'," Oliver objected, half teasing. "Felicity got just as distracted by Sara when she was in the Foundry a few weeks ago."

"That's fair. Sara is much prettier than you are," Dig retorted.

"So you think I should tell Thea," Oliver said, switching back to the topic at hand.

"I do. And you should make telling Roy her choice, because you'll be showing her you trust her decisions." Dig hesitated for a moment, "and if she wants to be part of the team, then I think that'd be a good thing too. We all bring something important to the table, even our temporary fifth ranger Barry Allen."

"With him in Central City, it's too much to ask for him to run forensics for us... but I was thinking he'd still make a good contact for crime scene analysis. He was able to tell just from pictures of Sin's friend Max that it was body dump."

"You just want an excuse to stay in touch with him," Dig teased. Then, more seriously, "he's better for you than Helena was."

"With Helena I was so fixated on our similarities, that I ignored our differences and your good advice," Oliver said quietly. "I'm sorry about that, Dig. I should have listened more. I wanted to change, I just needed help to do it. I wanted things to be the same way with her, but Helena was more interested in punishing the people she saw as responsible for her fiancé's death... especially herself." He tapped his fingers along the arm rest in the passenger side door. Helena had been a mistake made out of loneliness. But Oliver wasn't lonely anymore. Not in the way he'd been last year.

"Not the sort of problem you'd have to worry about with Barry," Dig agreed. "And, honestly, having reasons to get out of Starling from time to time would be good for you."

"I asked him to go to tonight's party with me."

"And he agreed," Dig guessed, grinning. "Good."

Dig leaves Oliver in the driver's seat of his car and heads to the motel's side entrance. "F-Overwatch," Dig nearly cursed himself for the slip. Tommy really did have a point about them needing code names. "Which room am I looking for?"

"Room 34 is rented out to a Solomon Grundy," Felicity said over the comms.

Then came Barry's voice, "it's from the poem by the same name. The poem's about a man who goes by the name Solomon Grundy, but whose real name is revealed to be Cyrus Gold when he died."

"That's a little on the nose, but the obscurity makes it a decent alias," Tommy added.

"Not that obscure," Oliver muttered.

"Alright, pipe down," Dig said, heading for room 34. The downside to having a growing team was more voices on the comms, increasing it's potential to be a source of distraction.

One picked lock later and Dig was into the apartment. "I'm in," he said as the door swung open with an unfortunate squeak. "Place looks clean." Too clean. Was this really the right room? It didn't look like anyone was actually... "There's a book, open to that poem you mentioned." Dig's eyes scanned the first line of the poem before darting off to check for where the next room was. He still hadn't cleared the place and he couldn't afford to start hunting for clues in here if there was a hostile in the bedroom or bathroom.

"The poem is supposed to symbolize the seven stages of life," Oliver mused absently. "From birth to death."

Dig doesn't have time for a pithy response to that, however, because here comes their very own Cyrus Gold running at Dig to twist his arm around. At least, Dig assumes it's Cyrus Gold; with the black mask obscuring his face, it could easily be someone else. Dig's gun goes off behind his back - thankfully not shooting himself in the process - and it's a struggle to get out of the man's grip.

"Heading for the fire escape," Oliver's voice came over the comms, and the knowledge that he's got a quick escape headed his way give's Dig the second wind he needs to kick his assailant off of him. Then it's a bee line for the window, which Dig breaks shoulder first before reaching out to break his fall on the metal bars of the fire escape.

It's two short drops and then a run down the ramp that extends downwards under his weight... and then he's in the alley, diving into the passenger side of his car.

"He picked me up like I was nothing," Dig breathed out as the car took off with a squeal.

"Overwatch, call for back up."

"Is this about Sara?" Detective Lance asks, so hopeful. "You heard from her?"

"No. I'm sorry," Oliver apologized, and meaning it. "This is about something else." Oliver handed Lance the file in his hands and then explained about Cyrus Gold's connection to the break in at QC.

"So that CSI from Central City was right," Lance said, flicking through the file. "Kid made it sound like the guy was some kind of monster. What is it, steroid's or something?"

"Or something," Oliver replied. "It increases a person's strength and reflexes, but induces heightened aggression, paranoia, and hallucinations as well. He's extremely dangerous, Detective."

"Why come to me?" Lance asked, though Oliver could tell the detective was already mentally pulling together a team for this.

"Yes, why go to him? Another person for you to get killed in this crusade of yours, Oliver."

Oliver froze. He didn't dare glance around. He knew that voice and he knew it wasn't real. They weren't on the comms and they weren't here.

They were dead. He was dead, just like Shado.

"I was poisoned last night. The antidote has... side effects. I'm compromised." It hurts to admit, but he doesn't exactly have a choice. That was Slade's voice in Oliver's head.

It's almost funny that they're fighting against a super soldier who is likely having violent hallucinations... and here's Oliver having a little auditory hallucination of his own. Except really it's more frightening than funny.

"I'm a liability right now," Oliver insists when it looks like the detective might argue the point. "Take as many men as you can and do not hesitate to kill Cyrus Gold. He won't hesitate to kill any of you." He doesn't wait for a response, but instead uses a grappling arrow to get off the top of the building in a hurry. Talking to Lance during the day is already chancy enough; doing so when he's having auditory hallucinations is an absolutely awful idea.

Either Lance will follow Oliver's advice or not. It's out of his hands now.

"What's the matter, Oliver?" Slade asks, voice a gruff a rasp that featured in Oliver's nightmares as often as Shado's murder. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"So," Oliver said casually into his comms as he headed for the rendezvous point for Dig to retrieve him, "I'm having auditory hallucinations now."

"I'll need a blood sample when you get back to the Foundry," Barry said immediately. "The hallucinations should stop when the warfarin leaves your system, but I don't know how long that'll take without checking your blood levels first."

"He thinks the world of you, you know," Slade mocked. "A fan of the hero vigilante of Starling City. And it's a lie. You're not a hero. You're a murderer. And the blood on your hands... that never washes clean. What would he think if he knew the truth? What about any of them?

"What would Tommy think, if he knew about Hong Kong? His face in your crosshairs?"

Oliver swallowed hard, feeling sick at the memory Slade's voice conjured up. And of course that was when Tommy spoke up.

"Do we need to change the rendezvous point? Spartan can come to you."

"No, it's fine. I'm almost there anyway." Oliver's hands were shaking, though.

"You're putting these people in harm's way when you're still perfectly capable of fighting. But then," Slade taunted, "you always were a selfish bastard. You can look for atonement all you want, Oliver. You're never going to find it. The island didn't make you strong. It just laid all your weaknesses bare."

It's so tempting to argue back, but what could Oliver even say when part of him believed Slade's words?

Tommy's relieved when Oliver gets back to the Foundry and let's Barry take some blood for analysis without complaint.

"Who were you hearing?" Tommy asked quietly.

"Slade," Oliver responded. "It's... he stopped... I stopped hearing him before I reached Dig, but... the things he said..." Ollie stopped to gather his thoughts. "He was my friend, before the mirakuru turned him into... into a monster."

"I'm gonna hug you again," Tommy warned before doing exactly that.

"Tommy!" Oliver grumbled, submitting to the hug gracelessly.

"Whatever he said, those were your fears and self doubts, Oliver," Tommy said, letting him go reluctantly. "We're all our own worst critics."

"He mentioned..." Oliver trailed off and shook his head. "He mentioned something that took place after he died. Something he never could have known about."

Something that, presumably, was still gnawing at Oliver. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. If I told you... you'd hate me. And you'd be right to."

"This self-flagellation fetish of yours really needs to stop," Tommy muttered, rolling his eyes as Oliver choked. "Look, is whatever you're talking about relevant to this whole mirakuru shit storm?"

"No?"

"Then we'll worry about it later. But if this last year has taught me anything? It's that I'm literally not capable of cutting you out of my life. You are more my family than my father ever was and I'm not going to ditch you no matter what stupid shit you've pulled in the past. I have no doubt that I'll get pissed off, though whether I get pissed off at you for what you've done or the circumstances that forced you into it or both our dad's for tipping of the dominos that led you there or god in general or back to you for thinking I'd hate you for it in the first place..." Tommy shrugged. "I'll find something to be pissed of at, regardless. That won't change the fact that Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen will always be best friends."

"Thanks, Tommy," Oliver muttered roughly. "Do you think..." he shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Oh, no. You don't get to tweak my curiosity like that. What were you gonna ask?"

"Do you think I'm capable of being a hero some day?"

Tommy could feel his heart break, just a little. "Ollie." He put a hand on Oliver's shoulder and squeezed. "You already are."

Notes: Originally, Thea wasn't supposed to find out about Ollie being the Arrow yet, but Thea takes after Tommy and demanded she know so... *shrugs* characters are like this sometimes. At least Laurel is being patient about getting her own story.