Okay, I slipped in a small reference to the comic book version of Bart Allen. The mother's name, Meloni, is the comic book version of Bart's mother, Meloni Thawne-Allen. Also, they never named the parents in the series.
Either that or you can take it to mean Christopher Meloni from Law and Order SVU. Your choice.
D: Smallville isn't mine. The comics aren't mine. SVU isn't mine. Okay?
And, I repeat the warning.
JL BA AC JJ CK DL OQ VS CS JL
At sometime in the night, they must have slipped into sleep. The next thing Oliver awoke to was sunlight coming through the window. His arms were around Bart; they were still on the floor. It took Oliver a minute to process last night and what he had heard.
At that moment, Bart started moving a little in his arms. His face took on a pained expression. He instinctively hugged Bart tighter. He rubbed his arm a couple of times while the head buried further into his chest, just like what a child would do with a pillow. His mind traveled to the conversation they had.
--
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Bart fidgeted with a loose string from his shirt. "And what? Tell the guys that I got used as a blow up doll by my own father." He pulled the pillow back to his chest and started hugging it again.
"What else has he done?" Oliver kept his arm around Bart's shoulders. Bart stared at the floor. "How about the scar on your back?"
"I was visiting this girl down the block. Her dad was an officer and he saw the bruises. He came out a couple of times and saw him hit me once. I was taken away, but he got me back when he went through counseling. It didn't work. She saw me again, they got called again and Dad talked his way out of it. He took a knife and…" He pointed to the scar.
"When did he start?"
"First day of school, I came home with a project. He called it horrible and tore it up. I started crying and he slapped me; he said that I was too much of a girl."
Oliver made a mental note never to call him a girl and another note to tell the guys later. "Tell me about the facility."
Bart closed his eyes, trying to block out the sight of the memory. "I woke up earlier than they intended. After everyone left, I started trying to escape and he started talking. He kicked me a couple of times. He said he had something better and that I was taking Mom's place." He was breathing shakily and tears were starting to fall again. Two arms encircled him and he turned toward Oliver to hide his face against his chest. "After he was done, he knocked me out again. I woke up in the chamber. He wasn't there."
--
Oliver got interrupted from his thoughts by a knock at the door. Vic stepped in with AC. "Anything you want to tell us, Ollie?" Vic asked. AC held an amused look on his face. Oliver made a couple of movements to quiet them down and not wake Bart up. Problem is he woke up from the movements. He pulled himself out of Oliver's arms and noticed the people in the room.
--
All of them were around the table in the kitchen. Bart was on his second plate of food while the others were only drinking coffee. He set his plate in the sink and rejoined them for his own cup of coffee, which Oliver took after seeing him with it. "What?" he asked, trying to grab it back.
"You don't need coffee," Oliver said, setting the cup on the counter.
They waited a minute before AC had the courage to ask the question. "What was going on last night?"
"Nightmare," Bart simply said, not wanting to go into details.
"And why was Ollie there?" Vic asked.
Bart simply looked at Oliver, looking unlike himself, worried. "It was a nightmare; he woke up. You don't need to know much more than that. Not until Bart's ready to share it himself." Oliver settled the matter and neither of them asked any more questions.
--
The tower had everything. It even had a branch of a popular fast food chain, which is where Bart was. He was eating five hamburgers and three orders of fries. Most of the people that past by him looked at him in disgust, but he ignored them, content on eating everything before going back up and dealing with the homework his tutor left him.
The only elevator that went to Oliver's apartment was hidden in the back of the office. Most of the secretaries had gone home for the day. The only person in the office was the cleaning guy. Bart noticed it was a different guy than Troy, the normal guy that all four of the guys knew. He couldn't tell who the guy was though; his head was down and the face was purposely hidden.
He started to get anxious and was tapping his foot while the elevator got down. He did notice the cleaning guy getting closer to him, but didn't notice the gun he had pulled out. The elevator pinged to note the arrival of the car. Bart walked into the car and noticed the guy trying to come in after him. He slammed on the close door button to force the doors to go faster. The last thing he noticed was his father's face, older with more lines and a flush of red as he was glaring at his son. The gun was coming up to meet Bart.
The doors closed and Bart sank to the floor of the car, hugging his legs and focused on his breathing for the two minutes before the car hit the apartment. No one was at the door waiting for him, so he assumed no one was watching the monitors. He walked down to Oliver's study. He was on the phone so Bart waited outside until he was done with the call.
"Lunch was okay?" he asked as Bart sat in the chair in front of the desk.
"Yeah," he mumbled, "what happened to Troy? I noticed he wasn't the guy cleaning today."
"I don't know. I was out before the cleaning crew came in. I didn't hear that anyone was sick."
"Troy wasn't the one cleaning the office. I was curious." Bart left before Oliver could question anything else. Oliver wondered what would lead him to ask about the cleaning guy, so he made a call down to the employee office. Nobody had called in and Troy was supposed to be cleaning on the fifth floor for the last thirty minutes.
"Bart?" Oliver was looking around Bart's bedroom. He looked over to where Bart had been last night. Bart was staring off into space with his legs up to his chest. "Who was the cleaning person that you met in the offices?"
"You checked?"
"Troy was supposed to be on the fifth level. Who was it?"
"Dad."
JL BA AC JJ CK DL OQ VS CS JL
I actually don't have a lot to say, except there's this cool story that I want to read over in livejournal and I wish the person would work on it.
Thank you for reading and reviewing. Now, Reed (read :)) please, review pretty please.