Hey, Guys! I want to thank each and everyone of you who has followed, favorite and reviewed! You guys are so supportive! And to my amazing Beta Mrs. Thor Odinson. I suggest you guys go check out her stories.

Orthankg1: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you keep coming back!

Letonlee: Thank you for your review! I know! Slade and Victoria's relationship has been my favorite to write out of all my other pairings! I'm glad you think it was well written. It's been a little hard coming up with all of these filler chapters but at the same time I'm happy to fill in the gaps. Don't worry the wait is over, the next chapter is here for all my lovely readers!

Nikahlee: I know, they both are idiots at relationships! You've got to love Slade throwing in that she is crazy though when he is also telling her that he loves her, classic Slade. I'm so glad that you're excited about my story and looking forward to how it all will end :) I hope I'll be able to delivery! I'm also excited to write it and find out what people think about things. I'm expecting to get far but not sure how far yet. Well, for your other questions you'll have to wait to see what happens ;) Don't worry, I always think way too far ahead :) I'm so glad that my story got you pulled in and wanting to see what happens next! Thank you for your review!

The Other Queen chapter 16

Chapter 16

Lian Yu 2008

Victoria was rocking in the middle of the sea, Oliver was sitting beside her in the life raft, looking half awake half asleep. Her father was looking wild his eyes were wide, Victoria looked down to see a gun held tight in her hand, it was trained on her father's head. Oliver was yelling in the background, she could faintly hear him begging her to stop, she was frightening him. But she was only half listening, instead, she continued to point the unforgiving metal gun at her father with shaky hands. Her father had wide eyes but he didn't look angry only pleadingly, but he didn't move to grab the gun from her.

"Please, Victoria," he begged with a determined look.

"No, dad! No, make me do this. Please, I can't," she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Victoria, you and Oliver have to survive this. I'm an old man, you have your whole lives ahead of you," he replied. Looking at her intensely.

"Dad, please. Please, I can't do this," she pleaded.

"Victoria, sweetheart. It's going to be alright. Just pull the trigger, baby."

"No, Victoria don't!" Oliver shouted as if far away.

"Victoria, do it!" Robert yelled.

Without another word and without realizing what she was doing she pulled the trigger and watched as her father's head jerked back and a giant hole in his head had blood flowing freely from it. She felt a sob rock her body and she lunged forward to grab her father. Oliver was yelling at her to stay away from their father, that this was all her fault. Victoria knew it was. If it wasn't for her being here her dad and Oliver would have probably survived. There wasn't enough food for the three of them. And she had pulled the trigger.

"Dad," she cried as she held his lifeless body in her arms.

"Victoria, this is your fault!" Oliver shouted at her.

"I know, but he asked me to! I didn't want to! He begged me to!" Victoria continued to sob.

"I don't care! You killed him! You killed him!" Oliver replied.

Victoria felt herself jerk up into a sitting position in her small makeshift bed in camp. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. Everything was a blur until her eyes came into focus. Kneeling beside her bed was a concerned looking Slade who moved closer to her as she looked over at him. She looked at him with a frightened look. She looked ahead of her to see a half-asleep Oliver standing in the middle of the camp looking at her with anxiety. She felt a sharp pain in her arm and looked down to see her good hand grabbing at her sore shoulder. She remembered faintly a man with cold eyes and a British accent shooting her, Fyers, Fyers had shot her in the shoulder. She was still recovering from the wound.

Slade slowly neared her, only for her to flinch away from him. He ignored how hurt he felt at she turned away from him. But she didn't look frightened of him but for some reason frightened for him. "Victoria," he said reaching out to her once more.

"No, stay away. I don't want to hurt you," Victoria said quietly as she pulled away from him once more.

"Victoria, it was only a dream. It's alright. You're alright," Slade reassured her.

More tears flowed down Victoria's pale white cheeks, she knew it was just a nightmare. She continued to cry silently as Slade looked at her in concern. He had seen her after some of her nightmares but it had never been this bad.

He looked over at Oliver who looked like he had no idea what to do. Slade tipped his head towards Oliver's bed, silently telling him to return to bed. Slade didn't think that Oliver being here would make things any better. Oliver simply looked at him confused, taking a step forward. Slade suppressed a growl and instead spoke to Oliver in a hushed voice, "I've got this, kid. Go back to bed."

Oliver looked a little relieved by this and turned around back towards his bed. Shado looked over at him to which he flashed a half-hearted smile and climbed into the bed and placed his blanket upon him. She laid back down and wrapped the thin blanket around her.

Slade let out an audible sigh as Oliver climbed into bed. It was three weeks since Victoria had gone and fought Billy and her nightmares only seemed to have gotten worst. She was frequently waking most of them up with screams or loud whimpers in her sleep. He wished more than anything that he could somehow make them all go away. But he knew he couldn't. He moved closer to her as her sobs became audible once more he wrapped his arms around her and she continued to cry into his black tank. She clung onto him tightly, which surprised him but he smiled that she was allowing him to comfort her. He rubbed circles on her back and spoke quite words of comfort, "Shush, it's okay. I'm here. It's okay."

She continued to cry but this seemed to calm her down considerably. Finally, he heard her whisper something that he didn't catch.

"What?" he inquired gently.

"Promise me that you won't leave me," she begged while her face buried deeper into his shoulder.

Slade's heart skipped a beat, she wanted him to continue being in her life. It wasn't her outright telling him how she felt about him but it was the closest she had come to it yet.

He tightened his hold around her and he replied, "I promise."

At this response, she tightened her arms around his waist and she let out a sigh. They just stayed in this position until Slade could hear her breathing even out to a normal pace. He pulled the tiniest bit away from her and scanned her face. She had drying tear tracks down her cheeks all the way down her long pretty neck. Without a word, Slade reached out and followed one of the fresh tears down her cheeks all the way down her neck, she shivered at the contact and let out a moan. A fervent desire raised in Slade as another moan sounded from her lips as he placed a gentle hand upon her neck. He looked up in her eyes and noticed her moving forward, towards him. He closed the space between them as he gently kissed her lips, another moan rumbled in her throat, he licked her lips to allow him entrance which she did. Their kiss became passionate as he continued to stroke her tongue with his own and searched her mouth, a moan of his own sounded in his throat as her tongue searched his mouth.

The need to go up for air was the thing that pulled them away from their kiss. Slade opened his eyes to find her eyes clouded with a look of desire in them, a small part of him wanted to ignite it but just then he heard a small snore sounding in the direction of Oliver's bed. He let out a sigh of annoyance and he looked over to see Victoria looking over in Oliver's direction as well. She looked over at him with a look that was a little annoyed but he knew it wasn't at him, they weren't along, it told him as loud as if it had passed her lips.

Slowly he pulled away from her further and was almost out of her reach before she quickly pulled his hand, "Please…" she started, not quite knowing what to say.

Slade looked at her in confusion. "Yes?" he breathed.

"Please, just sit here on the bed, until I fall asleep. Please?" she asked.

He nodded his head and helped her back into her blankets. It took a little while for her to get herself comfortable once more but once she found her favorite place on the bed to sleep and he watched as her eyelids began to flutter and her breathing became even, soon a small sleeping noise purred from her lips as she allowed herself to fully give into sleep. Slade smiled as he watched her sleeping peacefully. As silently as he could he got up and placed a soft kiss upon her rosy cheek, a smile seemed to spread across her face as she continued to sleep. He walked over to his bed and got into the blankets, hoping that Victoria's dreams won't wake her again tonight.

#

Oliver looked over at his sister in concern, early this morning she had awakened them from their sleep again with a loud plead. It didn't take a lot to know that Victoria's nightmares were getting worse. 'Dad,' she would always mention dad in screams or pleads in her sleep. Oliver felt sorry for her, he didn't really have dreams anymore, he thought this was a blessing in comparison to Victoria always seemingly having the same horrible nightmare repeat itself. Not that it didn't bother him in waking hours though, his father's bloody and mangled head would probably haunt him till his dying day.

Just then Slade slide over next to Victoria by the side, breaking Oliver from his train of thought. Slade had a large animal he was carrying and he went straight to work helping Victoria clean the animal for eating. Oliver smiled as Slade and Victoria smiled and chatted as they worked. They seemed to make living in this hell a little easier for each other. Of course, they still fought like cats and dogs but more often than not they would just be sitting next to each other comfortable or he'd catch them sparring, normally talking or looking content in the silence.

He now knew that he had been blind to their slow developing a romantic relationship, he had no idea if they had talked about it, confirmed their feelings, hell he didn't even know if they had had sex, not that he wanted to know. At first, he wasn't sure what he thought of the two having this…. thing between them. As time went on though he realized it wasn't really any of his business and he knew that Slade would take care of her, that's another reason he started to like their relationship. Oliver knew that he wasn't the best big brother, he knew that he had missed out on a lot of Victoria's life already, he knew that he hadn't been there when she needed him the most. Slade, however, was there for her in ways Oliver never could be for her, he was good to her and was good for her.

Looking around him, Oliver knew he wanted to get to know all of them better, Slade, Shado, Victoria, he wanted to know them, the real them, not the masks they showed everyone else. He had been doing that for years, living under his mask of billionaire playboy, he was realizing that wasn't even him anymore. Maybe, somewhere deep inside he still was but he felt different, like he had seen and done too much to be the same.

His eyes lingered on Shado, she was stretching out, a distance away from the fire, where they usually spared. She held out one of the bamboo sticks in her hand and was incorporating it into her routine. Oliver watched her silently, she was beautiful. Not only did she move slowly, she moved gracefully. Slowly she arched her back from her bowed position and stood up straight. As she rose he saw her flutter just a bit as their eyes locked, looking away from him she continued her moves until she was finished. Once she finished Oliver strode over to her with a smile.

"You were moving… very gracefully," Oliver shuttered.

Why was he acting all goofy around her? He had already known he found her attractive, why was he acting like a school boy? He had been acting like this a lot lately, when they sparred or when she taught him Mandarin. Oliver was starting to think he wanted to give things a go with his relationship with Shado, it wasn't like Laurel wasn't probably trying to get over him back in Starling City.

Her brown eyes seemed to lighten up as she smiled up at him. This time Oliver felt his throat tighten and he felt himself being drawn to her even more. He watched her as she went over to their weapons pile and instead of placing the bamboo stick back upon the others she pulled out three more sticks. Oliver looked at her quizzically as she walked over to him and handed him two of the sticks.

"We need to work on your blocking," she simply remarked, as a way of an explanation.

"Okay but remember to go easy on me, I haven't been training since I could walk," he teased her.

She sent him a look as if telling him 'you think so, don't you?' and then stood a few inches away from him.

"It was since I was five, not since I could walk," she replied with a playful smirk.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're right I was completely off with that statement," Oliver deadpanned back.

This time Shado seemed to have to hide a chuckle as she straightened her posture, or at least Oliver liked to think that he had almost made her laugh.

She didn't take long until she was lunging at him with one of her stick, Oliver managed to block this attack only to have her strike his side with her other stick. Oliver groaned as he felt the solid wood hit into his side, Shado hit him again as if proving her point that he had left himself open.

"Okay, I still need a lot of work," Oliver commented.

"Would you just shut up and get into another defensive pose," Shado ordered.

Okay, all business now I see, Oliver thought as he pulled away and moved into another defensive pose like she told him to do. She could be gorgeous as can be, but just as scary it seemed. This time she didn't even wait until he was ready but he was surprised to find that he blocked both her strike to his shoulder and the one that tried to get him off balance. However, this progress was slowly turned around as Shado moved to attack him again and managed to hit the bamboo onto his neck. Ouch! Oliver thought as the stick hit his windpipe. And this is when she isn't trying to kill me.

"You're focusing too much on other things besides my strikes," Shado pointed out, pulling the object away from his neck.

Oliver bent his head down just a little, he knew he wasn't focused enough, for some reason he couldn't concentrate.

"You have too many things going on in your mind. It's like the bow. Your target is to block my strikes," Shado described.

"It's easy when you say it like that, but I can't seem to be doing that," Oliver whined.

"Breathe, everything breathe," Shado quoted.

"Shado," Oliver started.

"Oliver, this isn't about my father. This is about you learning to defend yourself. When I was being taught how to fight my father would always say that to me. It helped. Don't over think. Just plan how to defend the attack."

Oliver took a deep breath and awaited the attack from Shado, this time focusing on her hands and arms. She made to swipe his arm which he blocked with ease, next she rose her other arm high above her as she thought he was focused on her last strike, again Oliver surprised her by blocking it. This went on for a while, Oliver managed to block almost every strike of Shado's, some still managed to take him off his guard but he rallied afterward and seemed to improve.

Once they had finished their sparring they just stood there looking at each other, Oliver thought he almost saw a look of pride coming from her eyes. She smiled at him and he felt a flutter in his navel. Nodding silent she showed him respect. Oliver bowed in return with a grin spreading slowly across his face, which only seemed to deepen hers.

"Hey, kid, are you just going to stand there grinning like an idiot? It's time to eat," Slade growled.

Oliver was surprised to see that Slade had managed to walk up behind him and was currently sending him a glare. What in the hell is his deal? From the fire, he could see that Victoria was trying not to laugh at the situation. Yeah, laugh all you want. At least you managed to get on his good side if he has one. Oliver still didn't understand why Slade snapped at him so often. He was starting to think he treated everyone but Victoria like that.

Shado was the one who moved first from her position and placed her weaponry in the pile and headed to the fire to join the others. With an audible sigh, Oliver followed her movements and was sitting beside Slade next to the fire. Slade seemed less annoyed and held out a portion of the meat to him. He gladly accepted as he was growing to notice just how hungry he was.

"Thanks," Oliver said with a smile, hoping that Slade would stop looking so damn serious.

"Don't thank me, kid. Your sister made me save you some food," Slade confessed.

"Well thank you, Victoria, for letting me have some as well," Oliver commented, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"For God's sake, would you just use Toria like Slade and Shado do," Victoria declared with a smirk. She seemed all too happy to give him a tough time as well.

"Jesus," he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that, kid?" Slade asked, with a chuckle. No doubt finding it funny that Victoria had got in on picking on Oliver as well.

"Thank you, Toria for this lovely meal," Oliver retorted with a flourish.

"I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to start calling her that," Shado added with a smirk of her own.

"Why me God?" Oliver mumbled to himself. "You're in on this too?" he asked Shado.

All he got in response was all three of them breaking into laughter. He looked hurt at first for them all laughing at him but as they continued and Shado said in between laughter, "Oh my god! You should have seen your face." He couldn't help but start laughing with them. Damn this island is making me way too serious, he thought. I need to stop taking myself so bloody serious all the time. And with a smile, he continued to laugh with his friends and sister.

I don't know why I love writing Victoria's nightmares so much but I do.

Please tell me what you thought of the chapter in the reviews! And please follow and favorite.