Chapter 17: A night at the circus

3 weeks and 5 days until deadline

Connor whipped a hand over his forehead. God his head hurt. He had spent the last three days working around the clock looking of Check after it was reported that Check had taken four women over the last five days. He had barley slept and now he had to sit through a whole day of meetings pretending that he cared all while those women could be anywhere, facing god knows what.

His phone vibrated from in his pocket and Connor removed his phone quickly trying to make sure no one notice. The last thing he wanted was someone to comment on his lack of participation.

Try to stay awake I promise it will be over soon. Jen x

Connor looked up and searched for Jenna. She was sitting across the table taking notes as the head of PR Joan Walters talked. Connor couldn't help but smile. Jenna looked like she was paying attention but the text said otherwise.

I keep telling myself that but Joan just keeps going. Will there ever be an end? C x

Connor watched Jenna closely watching to see when she got his texts. But just like him her movements were quick and if he hadn't been watching her so closely he was sure he would have missed it.

The corner of Jenna's mouth turned up as she tried to fight down a smile.

You know you could always make her stop. I mean technically your her boss. Jen x

Connor shook his head. He would never use his family name like that but he would be a lair if he said he wasn't tempted.

"Everything ok Mr Queen?" Joan asked.

Connor looked up. The whole room silently watching him. Connor risked a quick look at Jenna but her face was firmly turned to watch Joan. Clearly if he got caught Jenna was letting him go down alone.

Connor cleared his throat.

"Of course." Connor replied, putting on his most dashing smile.

"Please Ms Walters keep going." Connor insisted.

Joan looked at him for another moment before her continuing her rant about public image.

I see now that I am all alone when it comes to Joan. C x

Jenna bit her lip as she looked down at her phone. Clearly she wanted to laugh.

Of course you are. Joan Walters is one scary women. Jen xx

Connor couldn't help it, he laughed. It rose deep within him and him ending up laughing loudly.

Joan was a tiny women in her early fifties. With a shot pixie grey hair. It was hard for anyone to imagine someone finding Joan scary.

"Mr Queen are you sure you're alright?" Joan asked looking at him like he had lost the plot.

Connor stood up.

"Please forgive me for my rudeness Ms Walters I have a bit of a headache and I am afraid I am not at my best." Connor told her honestly.

"Of course Mr Queen." Joan said instantly.

"You should go home and rest Mr Queen I am sure we can email you any problems?" Joan said looking around the room.

Connor followed her eyes and found his employees nodding, sending him kind smiles and warm wishes.

"Thank you everyone." Connor said before heading towards the door.

He felt guilty about leaving them but it was better than failing them by not listening. When Check was caught he would make it up to them.

Connor stopped when he reached the door. He couldn't leave Jenna in a meeting she was only ever in to take notes for him.

"Jenna, there are a couple of things I need to do before I leave." Connor said giving Jenna the opportunity to leave with him.

Jenna stood up quickly and hurried out.

"Thank you." she whispered and followed him out.

Connor nodded.

"So are you looking forward to tonight?" Jenna asked.

Connor frowned.

"Tonight?" He asked confused.

Jenna sighed.

"Please tell me you haven't forgot about the night at the circus." Jenna begged.

Connor hadn't forgotten he just wasn't going. Jess was taking her dad and his parents and Sara was bringing her parents. While him, Tommy and Andy looked for Check.

"Oh no I'm just not going, Jess is taking our parents." Connor told her.

Jenna nodded happy that had remembered.


Parker Check studied the petit girl with chocolate brown hair. She was cute but a little plan for his tastes.

Finding out about the Arrows identity had been harder than Parker anticipated. The Arrow and his team were more cautions then Parker first thought but with contacts in the right places it didn't take long to find out that the Arrow's base was inside of the Glades. After that Parker set up a plan to take a couple of girls wait for the Arrow to check on the scene then follow him.

Parker hit the jackpot when on the third day of following him the Arrow he yanked down his hood in annoyance and Parker got to see who was under the hood.

Thomas Queen, loveable playboy and apparently Starling City's very own hero. At first Parker thought about going after his brother to get to him just like the Arrow had gone after Dominic but then he saw her. He saw the way in which the arrow looked at her. He saw the way that he only smiled when she did. There was no doubt in his mind that this girl was the way to go to hurt the Arrow.

Parker looked at her one more time.

"I'll see you soon Jessica Harper." Parker mumbled happily to himself.

He had a couple more things to take care off before he put his plan into action.


Roy hated surprises, but he would do anything for his daughter and Jess wanted to surprise him.

"Are you ready?" Jess asked suddenly.

She stop the car outside an old run down theatre.

Roy frowned.

"What are we doing here?" Roy asked as they got out of the car.

He followed Jess as she walked towards the building. She stopped just outside the door and looked at him. She looked nervous.

"You ok?" he asked now worried.

Jess nodded and licked her lips like she didn't know where to start.

"When I moved out I found this box in with my stuff." Jess started.

Roy nodded for her to continue, happy that she had found Sin's last words.

Jess swallowed hard.

"Inside there was a bunch of pictures of mum, and a journal." Jess continued.

Roy could see it was hard for Jess to talk about. How her eyes glasses over with tears.

"I know Jess." He told her saving her the trouble.

Jess's eyes widened.

"You do?" she asked.

Roy nodded.

"I know I never made it easy for you to talk about your mother because of my own grief and for that I'm sorry. I wanted to change that so I put the box in with your stuff hoping you would find it." Roy told her.

"I hoped it would help you get to know her better." Roy added.

Jess relaxed a little.

"It did especially once I found this list." Jess said.

Roy closed her eyes. He felt bad that Sin never got to finish the list like she wanted.

"She was so sad that she never got to finish that list." Roy told his daughter.

Jess nodded.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Jess said.

"I've been finishing the list for her." Jess added.

Roy couldn't help but smile. Sin would have been so happy.

"You have?" Roy couldn't help ask.

"Did you have fun?" He added.

Jess smiled and nodded.

"So much but I couldn't have done any of it without Tommy." Jess told him honestly .

She looked so happy as she talked about Tommy. No father will ever think that any man is good enough for their daughter but if Tommy continued to make Jess this happy she was, Rou wasn't going to protest their relationship.

"I'm glad." Roy told her honestly.

"So have you completed the list?" Roy asked.

Jess shook her head.

"Not quite, I have three things left to do." Jess told him.

Roy opened his mouth to ask her what they were when the door to the theatre opened and Sara stuck her head out.

"You ready?" Sara yelled at Jess.

Jess shook her head.

"Not yet." Jess said.

"Give me a couple more minutes." Jess replied.

Sara nodded. She smiled at him before going back inside.

"Tonight I was hoping you could help me with one of the items on the list." Jess asked slowly.

Roy titled his head to this side in question.

"One item on mum's list was spend a night at the circus, she said she wanted to take you because you had never been before." Jess told him.

Roy smiled as he remembered when he read through the list with Sin. She had been so mad that nobody had taken him to the circus before.

"She was mad that I had never been before." Roy told his daughter.

Jess smiled.

"There are no circus in town so we had to improvise a little." Jess told him pointing to the theatre.

Roy nodded in understanding.

"So daddy are you ready to spend a night at the circus?" Jess asked.

Roy nodded.

"Definitely." He replied.


Tommy looked up as Andy ran down the lair stairs, to where he and Connor were standing looking over some surveillance camera feeds.

"We have a problem." Andy told them.

"What is it?" Connor asked instantly.

Andy looked at Tommy.

"There is a rumour going round saying Check knows who the Arrow is." Andy told them.

Tommy froze.

"Is he saying who?" Tommy asked knowing it would be a really problem if he was.

Andy thankfully shook his head.

"No. Check wants to deal with you all by himself, the last thing he needs is everyone else coming after you." Andy replied.

"Anyone have an idea on what Check is going to do with that knowledge?" Connor asked.

Andy shrugged.

"Not really, most rumours is that he is going to go after someone the Arrow cares about for payback for Dominic." Andy replied.

Tommy nodded that made sense but who would Check go after.

"We should warn Dad." Connor suggested and Tommy nodded in agreement.

Their whole family was at a theatre completing an item on the list.

Connor turned to pick on the phone, then froze.

"Who do you think he will go after?" Connor asked.

"If he really knows who Tommy is then I think you Connor." Andy guessed.

"A brother for a brother." Andy added with a shrug.

Connor shook his head.

"I think it might be Felicity or Jess." Connor said and Tommy's heart speed up.

He couldn't let that happen.

"Call dad." Tommy ordered his brother before looking over at Andy.

"Call yours too we need to make sure they are prepared then we can hit the streets around the theatre, if he is going to go after our family we need to be there to stop him." Tommy told him.

Andy nodded and picked up his phone.

Tommy walked over to his phone. He just needed to hear Jess's voice to know she was fine.


Jess hadn't laughed so much in a long time. The circus was incredible. Jenna's friend worked for a theatrical company and they had been so excited about putting together a night at the circus experience. It was everything she imagined and so much more.

Her dad looked like he was having fun too, which is why she really didn't want to leave the room to answer her phone but it just kept vibrating over and over again. That only happened if someone really wanted to get hold of you.

She slipped out of her seat and walked towards the back door. She pulled out her phone just as a call came to an end.

She frowned. Who had been calling her and why was it so important?

Tommy had called her eight times.

She walked out the back door, so she could call Tommy back and closed the door behind her.

"Hello Ms Harper." a voice said and Jess froze.

She looked up slowly. The voice was not friendly and neither was the man it came from. He was a big man in all sense of the word with dark hard eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Tonight was a closed performance, there should have been no one here but the actors and her family.

The man smiled.

"I'm Parker Check." he introduced and Jess was hit by a wave of fear.

Parker Check was the man that the boys were looking for and now he was here staring at her like she was he prey.

"Why are you here?" Jess asked trying to be brave.

Check laughed like it should have been obvious and Jess realised that she was his prey. He was here for her. Somehow Check must have found out who Tommy was and he was coming after her to get to him.

"He will come for me." Jess told him. She had never been surer about anything in her entire life.

"Oh I'm counting on it." He told her and before she could say anything else Check yanked her forward.

He pushed her towards a black SUV and Jess had no choice but to go with him.


Tommy flood the bike towards the theatre.

"Anything?" he yelled desperately through comms.

No one had answered their phones. It shouldn't have been a surprise considering where they were but it was frightening.

"No, how far out are you?" Connor replied.

"A few minutes." Tommy told him.

"Ghost?" Connor asked.

"Just behind him." Andy said.

Tommy just hopped that everyone was ok.


Felicity had no idea what possessed her to look at her phone but she was glad she did when Connor words lit up her screen in a text.

Check knows who T is be careful. Please call in to let us know you are alright. Love you C xx

Felicity heartbeat speed up. She nudge Oliver and handed him the phone before looking round the room to make sure everyone was accounted for. Her eyes froze when she reached Roy. Hadn't Jess been sitting next to him?

"Jess." Felicity whispered.

She looked at Oliver, he had come to the same conclusion she had. Jess was missing. Fear rose within her. Where the hell was Jess?

Oliver got Dig and Layla's attention. They both looked worriedly around the room.

"You and Layla search the bathroom, Dig and I will search outside." Oliver ordered.

Felicity nodded and followed Layla towards the bathroom.

"Please be here?" Felicity repeated over and over again as she pushed open the bathroom door.

"Jess?" Layla called but no one replied. All the stall doors were open. There was no one here but them.

Felicity looked and Layla. Jess wasn't here. They walked back into the hall just as the show came to an end and waited for Dig and Oliver to return hoping they would have better luck but Felicity had a bad feeling that she would already know the answer to that.


Tommy pulled up at the theatre just in time to watch his family walked out of the theatre. He counted their heads from above making sure they were all there.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Roy's voice boomed and Tommy dropped to the ground not caring who saw him. If someone was missing he had to know who.

As he approached them he could see Sara and her parents, his mum and dad, Uncle Roy. Tommy froze on Roy, he looked so scared and Tommy knew there was only one person who could make his Uncle lose control like that. Jess. Tommy looked round, where was Jess?

"Jess." Tommy said.

He met his father's eyes.

"I'm sorry son, we think Check has Jess." His dad said and Tommy's world crumbled.