Here's Chapter 4!

Same as always... I own nothing, so stop assuming that any of us do.

A Chase

He followed her out into the night. She knew the city, he had to give her that. She was being less cautious than she was earlier, he noted. She had realized someone was following her early on, and so she had started using evasion tactics. She was good too. Even if she wasn't who he thought she was, he could see that she was good, very good in her skill set. Someone with less skill than he would have lost her long ago. He had backed off, following her from a greater distance. This gave the illusion that she had lost him, and that gave him the advantage. If she didn't think he was following, it would be easier to track her.

She came to a residential area, carefully making her way around. She pulled her hood down as she neared a backdoor to a house. Blond. Even more likely that it was her. If she wasn't... no, he refused to even think about it. It had to be her, she had to be her.

What? Had he annoyed some powerful being four years ago?

Why was this so hard?

Why?

Royce had insisted to going to Swanann City with Oliver. Oliver enjoyed spending time with his son, but once they had established the general patrol of the vigilante he had informed him that he was doing the finding alone.

"What!?" Royce was furious with him. "Why!? I've come this far with you! If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have found her! She's important to me too! She's my mom."

Royce whisper the last part, and he refused to meet Oliver's eye.

Oliver wished it could be different, but he knew that this was something that he had to do by himself, alone, without the help of his kids. He had left that day four years past, so he had to be the one to bring her home.

"Royce."

Royce turned away, deliberately refused to look at his dad.

"Look. Royce, this is my fault. If I hadn't gone and appeared to have died she wouldn't have left. So-"

"But what if she had! What if you hadn't gone and she had still left us!? How do you know she hadn't planned to leave anyways!?" Oliver could see Royce's eyes starting to tear up as he screamed at his father.

"She wouldn't have left! And you know it! Because if you knew her at all you would know that she never would have left!" Oliver was furious, beyond furious in fact. Dinah had helped raise Royce! How could he possibly be saying the things that he was saying!

"But she DID! She LEFT us! We were all still grieving over you, and she left! NO goodbye! NO warning! NOTHING! She LEFT!"

He was crying . He was never the one to cry, not Royce, not even as Roy. But he was now.

And it broke Oliver's heart.

But what broke his heart most, was that he knew it was all his fault.

Completely.

He had left on that mission, causing Dinah, for whatever reason, to leave. He had let him fall into Luthor's hands, all those years ago. He had stopped looking, twice. He had never found him. He had allowed him to stray, wandering with no guidance, no help. He had abandoned him.

Completely, entirely his fault. All of it was.

"I left first."

Royce looked up, finally.

Oliver repeated himself. "I left first." He reached, putting his hands on his son's shoulders. For the first time in a very long time, possibly for the first time ever, Royce didn't pull away. In fact, he pulled Oliver closer, and the father embraced his son.

"You know I need to do this alone."

"Yeah," Royce sighed.

"She left because of me. I need to be the one to bring her home."

"Be safe… Dad."

Oliver glanced at Royce. He considered the man his son, but Royce had never indicated what he thought in return of Oliver. Royce had never given even a minor sign, let alone calling him 'Dad'.

"Go. Please. Bring her back. We won't admit it, none of us, ever, but we need her." While Royce was always raw, usually with anger, Oliver wasn't used to him being this exposed. He guessed they all needed to be more open. Just add it to list of changes needed, he supposed.

"I need her too." He regarded his son. "Now go, your siblings are waiting for an update."

With a glance back, Royce left the room.

Oliver got dressed, mentally preparing for what was to come. He had always been like that, if he had a moment before doing something crazy, he took it to think and prepare. And this definitely counted as crazy.

He started following the vigilante about an hour later, as her route passed by where he was waiting, watching for her. He followed, from a distance. It was better view than he and Royce had previously had, never getting a clear look at the vigilante. He could be certain that the vigilante was a woman. He couldn't tell if it was Dinah though, she was dressed head to toe in black, with a hood covering her head.

He followed her, watching for a clue, for a sign. The acrobatics held no clear sign, nor the choice of patrol route.

He heard a scuffle ahead of them, and the vigilante had too. It was a trio of would be robbers, who had dropped equipment while trying to break into a building through a window. He watched as she sneaked up behind them, and, knocking one unconscious from her first attack, engaged the remaining two.

There! The fighting style, that was it! Dinah had always had her own unique style for fighting. No one else he had ever met fought quite like her. The kids on the Team, past and present, had adopted parts of her style from her teaching them, but no one fought exactly like her.

But this vigilante, did. Exactly like her. It had to be Dinah.

The fight ended quickly, the police showing up at the end. Just before they possibly could have seen her, she leapt into the shadows. Her quick movement threw him off, and he inadvertently moved from his hiding spot. She froze, realizing that there was someone else around. She took off abruptly, and clearly realizing the possibility of someone following her, began to try to lose him.

She clearly had thought that she had lost him by the time she went into the residential area. He watched hidden by a bush as she approached a small, unlit house. He started to follow her, freezing as she paused. He dared not even breathe, as she reached up and pulled down her hood. By doing so she unleashed a waterfall of wavy, golden blonde hair that he knew so well. She continued to the house, her pause not caused by anything he had done. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. Before she went any farther, Oliver came up behind her.

"Don't move."

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