Chapter two

You're nothing like you used to be

Thea

Laurel and Thea were enjoying a lazy Saturday brunch at their apartment. It had been Laurel's idea to distract Thea from worrying about Oliver, whom they hadn't heard from in a week. Both women had expected him home a while ago, but the longer he was gone the more they wondered if they had misinterpreted his latest actions.

Thea had been extremely excited when she had gotten Oliver's phone call two weeks ago. He had asked her to look at a couple of apartments for him, which she had happily done with the help of Laurel and Dig. She had given him detailed accounts on all of them and had been surprised when her brother emailed her the signed contract for one of the places not two days later. Also informing her he had hired a moving company that would get his stuff from Felicity's, formerly her and Oliver's, apartment and that some additional furniture would be delivered on the same day. He had asked her to collect the key and let the movers into his new apartment, which was something she gladly did because it meant that her big brother was finally coming home after five long months. Everything had gone perfectly, and Oliver had called her the same evening to ask her how it went and to let her know that a cleaning crew was coming the next day.

All of this had been a week ago. And she hadn't heard from him since. The key to his new apartment was next to her and Laurel's in the foyer, just waiting for him to pick it up. Yet she had no idea when that was going to be. Maybe he had just wanted to remove his things from Felicity's apartment and didn't plan on coming home yet. But then why had he bought, that fact had surprised her, an apartment and had the place cleaned? He could just have rented a storage unit. If his sole intentions had been to get his stuff out of Felicity's place.

The two women were just talking about the movie they had watched last night when a knock sounded at their front door. They exchanged a confused look, wondering who might come by unannounced on a Saturday. They were having their biweekly dinner at Dig's tonight.

"Maybe it's your dad?" Thea wondered as she got up to open the door.

"Yeah, maybe, but then again he usually uses his key and just walks right in." Laurel's voice was tinged with annoyed affection about her father's antics.

"That's true." Thea laughed and looked back at Laurel while opening the door, not at all expecting the person who greeted her on the other side.

"Hey sis." She could hear the smile in his voice even before she saw his face.

Her head spun around in record time at the sound of her brother's voice, her whole face lighting up. It took her only seconds to jump into his arms.

"Ollie! I missed you, bro." she was holding on to him in a tight embrace.

"I missed you too, Speedy." Oliver wrapped his arms tightly around her in return, kissing her forehead affectionately.

She squeezed him real tight before letting him go and stepping aside, so he could enter the apartment. It confused Thea when her brother stretched his arm out behind his back, instead of following her inside right away, as she had expected him to. It was only after he had finally stepped inside that she could make out a person behind him. This made her realize that he had in actuality reached out, offering his hand to someone behind him. She felt a little stupid for not getting it sooner. Not that anyone could blame her, her brother's bulk had pretty much blocked the entire doorway.

"Sara?" Thea questioned once she made out the small stature of the blonde that Oliver's tall frame had hidden. She took an excited step towards her friend, so she could give her a hug too, but stopped in her tracks when she noticed Sara taking a step back and moving behind Oliver while he stepped between the two of them. Sara suddenly seemed to have Ollie's hand and arm in a death grip. Thea took a step back and felt as if she had been hit by a truck. Of course, the blood lust.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… I forgot." Her voice was full of sympathy and remorse. The reaction of the woman she considered a sister and the parts she played in it shook the diminutive brunette to her core.

Oliver looked at her warmly for a moment and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He gave it a reassuring squeeze before removing it and turning away from her to face Sara. He soothingly spoke to her in Arabic and Sara answered him in kind. They turned back to her as one, being in total sync with each other as usual, after a short conversation. By now Laurel had come from the dining room too, to join them in the foyer. The older brunette tried to hug Sara as well, and to Thea's utter surprise the blonde's reaction was the same towards her older sister as it had been towards her. This led to the four of them awkwardly standing in the foyer, neither of them not knowing what to do or say.

"Do you mind if I use the bathroom?" Sara's question seemed to come out of nowhere and thankfully broke the awkward silence that had descended upon them.

"No, of course not. You know where to go." Laurel smiled warmly at her younger sister, who returned it with her patented half smile before walking past them, making sure to leave plenty of space between them.

Oliver watched her with a concerned look on his face, waiting until they heard the bathroom door close before turning to the two women.

"Look, physical contact is something she's seriously struggling with right now. Give her some space and time. Let her come to you, let her be the one who initiates the physical contact. She still doesn't trust herself around people. It took her a while to get used to my presence too, and even longer to be comfortable with my touch. She'll get there in time. Just respect the boundaries she's setting for now and let her get used to your presence again." Oliver's tone was warm but serious while explaining Sara's situation and current struggles.

"Okay, thank you for telling us this and explaining. Do you guys want to stay? We're just having brunch and there's plenty of food. I also promise neither Thea nor I have cooked any of it." Laurel smiled at Oliver gratefully and gestured towards the inside of the apartment, which reminded Thea of the fact that they hadn't moved from the spot since Sara had left and were still standing just inside the apartment door.

"Thank you for the offer and we'd love to under different circumstances, but we've been travelling for days and just came by to pick up the keys, so we can head home and get a hot shower and some much-needed sleep." Her big brother looked apologetic and a little awkward.

"But how about tomorrow?" He added after he had noticed how her face fell when he declined Laurel's offer.

"Yeah, sure. We understand. Tomorrow's fine. Wh…" Laurel was about to say more when Oliver turned away from them and his full attention focused on Sara, who just returned from the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" His voice was quiet and laced with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just ready to crash." Sara did sound tired and different. But then again, everything about her seemed different. The way she held herself and moved, the way she behaved and the way she looked even, but she couldn't really pinpoint what it was about Sara's looks that seemed different. There was just something…

Thea knew that there was a word she was looking for to describe her appearance in its entirety, it just evaded her at the moment.

"Yeah, me too. C'mon let's go home." Her brother smiled at the younger Lance sister and held out his hand. The blonde laced it with hers as soon as she was within reach of it, letting him pull her closer as soon as their hands were entwined.

Laurel handed Oliver the keys to his new apartment, and they said their goodbyes right after. The only man amidst them promising to text them details for the next day and their plans.

"Did we know that Sara was travelling with Oliver?" Laurel turned towards her with a questioning look on her face as soon as the door had closed behind their respective siblings.

"No, we did not. We also didn't know that 'we' are apparently a 'we' that talks for each other and shares a HOME." Thea made sure to emphasize the words while the two women walked back to the table to finish their brunch.

"Do you think they're back together?" Their conversation about the movie was forgotten for the rest of their meal and replaced by speculations about what was going on with their siblings.

Oliver had texted Thea last afternoon, just as promised. Letting her know that Sara and he would come over in the afternoon.

Laurel had called Quentin the previous evening and mentioned that Sara was back in town, which led to Quentin coming over too. The subject of Oliver had also come up during the biweekly dinner at Dig and Lyla's. Where everyone ended up decided to join Laurel and Thea the next day and the two women had then recounted what Oliver had told them earlier. That Sara was struggling around people. That she did not like physical contact and that they should respect that and try to act normal around her despite it.

Surprising enough, everyone showed up on time or a little early. Dig explaining that Lyla and Baby Sara couldn't make it.

What had really surprised both Thea and Laurel was that Felicity, who hadn't been sure last night, came too. It didn't take them long to realize that Donna was the reason why the IT genius had come. The older Smoak woman had come with Quentin and according to Felicity had insisted on her daughter joining them, to welcome Oliver and Sara back home.

The guests of honor were the last ones to arrive. They hadn't planned on everyone coming over to welcome the two of them back but it just kind of happened, so Thea had texted her brother in the morning letting him know and Oliver had said that it was all right. The younger Queen sibling wondered for a moment if maybe they had changed their minds and decided not to come after all. Only to have her thoughts interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

Thea couldn't help but notice how the atmosphere changed the moment Ollie and Sara stepped into the living room. Turning from happy anticipation to seeing their friends again to surprised or shocked confusion once they noticed her brother's hand tightly interlocked with the small blonde's. He didn't even let go of it while embracing people. He just took a couple of steps forward to provide Sara with some space and gave one armed hugs. A decision that led to the atmosphere turning awkward and strained and Sara's lack of acknowledgement of anyone, including her sister and father, did not help the situation at all. Their behavior was very peculiar from the moment they arrived and it would only get stranger as the afternoon progressed.

Was it her, or did Sara seem worse than she had been when she had left Star eight months ago? The way she seemed to put as much space between herself and everyone who wasn't Ollie, whose personal space she seriously disregarded, was very concerning. The youngest Lance was glued to her brother's side the whole time, holding on to Ollie's hand and arm as if he were her lifeline.

The conversation flowed easily enough. There was a lot to talk about, given the fact that there were five months of events to catch each other up to. Or mostly catch Oliver and Sara up to. Well, Oliver anyway. Sara didn't seem to be interested in the conversation and wasn't taking part in it at all. She had yet to say a single word since she had arrived. She didn't even appear to be listening to a single word that was being said.

It wasn't hard for Thea or anyone, really, to notice the changes in Sara's behavior.

Oliver was another story, but still it didn't take Thea too long to notice the small things that were different about her older brother. Just as Sara seemed to be permanently attached to his side physically, except for whenever she went to the bathroom, which was quiet a lot, now that she thought about it. That was strange. Of course, it could simply be an excuse for her to leave the room and get some time away from everyone. She seemed to be uncomfortable around crowds or people who weren't Oliver. On top of her apparent disinterest in the conversations and people gathered, and it made her wonder why she had chosen to join Oliver and come to visit them if given the fact she seemed to rather be anywhere but here.

The tall man's eyes seemed to follow the blonde's every move whenever she left his side, looking anxious while she was gone and he appeared to be hyperaware of anything Sara did. Oliver also spoke on her behalf. The woman had yet to utter a single word. The looks he gave Sara were clouded with worry and all of this made Thea wonder if it was just about the blood lust or if there was more to it than that. Could there be more going on with Sara than they were aware of? And if so, what?

What was going on with those two? It was obvious that they were keeping things from everyone. Sara didn't talk at all and seemed to have completely checked out of the conversation ages ago. She was mostly staring into space now, not even pretending to show some sort of interest in anyone or anything, her thoughts probably a million miles away.

And Oliver, Oliver was taking part in the conversations, even laughing sometimes, when the story requested it and he did a good job pretending that everything was normal. Even sharing some stories about his and Sara's travels with them, confirming that yes, they had been travelling together for a while. But that was just it. He was obviously pretending, and no one was buying it, no matter how good an actor he was. The simple fact alone that one of Sara's hands was interlaced with his and the other one was holding on to his arm at all time was proof of that. Even if Thea were ignoring all the other less than normal things that they were doing, that alone was proof that something was wrong here. Neither Sara nor Ollie were big on public displays of affection, not that it could really be called that, but still, this was not normal behavior for them at all.

Her older brother was also avoiding or simply ignoring all questions concerning their behavior. She was reminded a lot of the person Oliver was back when he had first returned from Lian Yu five years ago. All of this just made her wonder and worry more about what had happened to the two of them in the last five months and whether any of Ollie's emails had actually been the truth or if he had just made things up to keep her from worrying.

Part of her felt bad that she was questioning her brother's honesty, but on the other side Oliver and her whole family were known liars. And it was a fact that her brother had never once mentioned Sara. Not in his emails, not during any of their calls, in none of the postcards he had sent, and the blonde also hadn't been on any of the pictures Oliver had taken. If he had actually taken those pictures. And just for how long had they been travelling together? None of the stories he shared gave any indication as to how long they've been on the road together. It made her wonder what was going on and whether the two of them had gotten back together?

Thea was ripped from her musings by her brother suddenly standing up, with no warning.

"It was great seeing you all, but we're still a bit jet-lagged, so we're going to head home." Everybody looked as surprised as she felt. Where had that come from? They had just started to tell Ollie about the latest adventures of Baby Sara. Her brother's reaction made no sense at all. He loved Dig's daughter more than anything. So, he should be interested in how she is and what milestones he had missed. Hearing about her should be something he was revelling in. Instead of standing up from one moment to the next and deciding to leave. Sara did a great imitation of being Oliver's shadow, from that moment on. Their goodbye was quick, and Sara was pretty much just ignoring everyone now, being protectively tucked under Oliver's arm, tightly pressed to his side by the looks of it trying to disappear inside of her brother, her face mostly hidden in his chest.

One thing became crystal clear throughout the entire time that the pair was at their apartment; Ollie and Sara seemed to be keeping something from everyone.

There were only two questions that sprung to her mind: What were they keeping from everyone? And how bad was it?