Chapter 2: Roy Harper Queen

Roy was pissed. Oliver had gone out as Green Arrow drunk, but what was worse, Red Arrow hadn't even noticed his father was completely wasted until halfway through their patrol when the elder archer had nearly shot an arrow at his son instead of the criminals they were chasing.

The duo had been out on patrol when they spotted Count Vertigo and a group of his men down at the pier stealing tech from a shipment that was supposed to be headed to S.T.A.R Labs.

The archers watched the exchange for a few minutes gathering as much intel as necessary before breaking up theft. When Red Arrow jumped down firing a flutter of arrows at the henchmen below, he took for granted that Green Arrow would be behind him backing him up.

That was not the case. Roy had taken down five of the henchmen when he noticed he was alone. Green Arrow was staggering, struggling to defend himself against only one of the goons. Roy frowned. That was never a good sign.

While he was looking at Green Arrow, the henchmen took advantage of his momentary pause and had grabbed him. Red Arrow kicked him in the back of the knee using the man's own weight against him. He flipped backwards and was successfully fighting off Vertigo's henchmen when the Count hit them with wave of vertigo from his eye.

Both he and Green Arrow struggled to grab a bow from their quivers and line up a decent shot at the man. Roy couldn't focus. He punched at the henchmen attempting to grab him and managed to toss the man at Vertigo breaking the Count's disorientation over them. Roy was fighting with two more of Vertigo's henchmen when one of Green Arrow's arrows winged him.

"Hey!" The teen shouted out at his father wincing from the pain.

"S-Sorry," Green Arrow slurred lining up his bow for another shot.

Roy shoved the side of his bow into the henchmen's throat knocking him down. "Don't bother, I got them. Where's Vertigo?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth did Vertigo appear on top of a shipment of crates and was looking directly at them causing another wave of nausea and disorientation to overcome them. The two vigilantes could barely stand let alone aim their arrows, but that wouldn't stop them from trying.

Unfortunately, neither archer was able to take a shot before Vertigo's men kicked them over the side of the pier, taking a few shots at them while they struggled to stay afloat in the water.

Red Arrow recovered first, grabbing Green Arrow and managing to shoot a net arrow at the edge of the dock nearly a mile away from the pier and drag them both to safety.

Roy frowned, exhausted as he hauled both himself and his father out of the water. He groaned collapsing along the end of the dock. His shoulder killed. The pain had begun to set in as his adrenaline was wearing off and the realization that his father had actually shot him was seeping in.

He looked at the emerald archer sprawled out on the dock beside him and let out an annoyed sigh. He could see the faint rise and fall of the man's chest and that was enough for him to confirm that the man was alive, but that did little to quell the rising anger in his own chest.

"Hey honey, you're home early." Dinah greeted when she saw her son. Her expression quickly changed to worry when she saw her husband draped haphazardly around her son's shoulders as he dragged the man through the house.

"Oh my God. What happened?" she asked running to his side trying to help.

Roy shooed his mother away and dropped Oliver on the couch. " 'Mm fine, Dinah. Red drowned us to save us." Oliver slurred out as a response. Roy rolled his eyes.

"What?" Dinah asked confused.

Roy looked at his father and sighed shaking his head. "He means I saved us from drowning. After he nearly got us killed."

Dinah frowned as she followed Roy into the kitchen. "Okay, what happened?"

Roy turned and looked at his mother. "He's drunk." the teen snapped. "He went out on patrol drunk and he shot me!"

Dinah took a step forward examining her son. Her eyes fell on his still bleeding shoulder. She grabbed a towel off the counter and applied pressure to the open wound. Roy held the dishtowel in place while his mother ran off to grab the first aid kit.

It looked worse than it actually was, Roy realized after a moment. But it still hurt like a mother. He took a seat at the kitchen table and let Dinah fuss over him.

"It's not as deep as I thought but he did manage to hit you right in between your shoulder and clavicle." Dinah said attempting to clean and stitch her son up.

"I can still shoot if that's what you're asking." Roy hissed before biting his lip from the pain as his mother stitched him up.

Dinah gave him a small smirk. "I believe you."

"He was drinking while we were out." Roy said looking up at her. "I don't know how I missed it. He reeks of booze right now. It didn't even occur to me and I saw him taking swigs from his water bottle and the thought never even crossed my mind to check it. Not even once. How could I have been so blind."

"You weren't blind." Dinah attempted to comfort her son. "It was something normal, something easily overlooked. You didn't think to check because you normally don't need to and you shouldn't have to."

Roy leaned back in his chair. She was right. He hadn't thought anything of at the time because it seemed so normal. They were sitting on a rooftop and GA had taken a sip from his water bottle. When Red Arrow patrolled with Artemis they would do stuff like that all the time. Eating or drinking something while on patrol was normal. Hell, he and Artemis would even stop by McDonald's sometimes and order breakfast or just grab a sweet tea. So yeah, Green Arrow taking a break and drinking from a water bottle would normally be no big deal, only it wasn't water that he was drinking.

Roy shook his head. "No. He could have gotten us killed tonight!"

Dinah sighed as she finished up and taped a bandage on her son's shoulder. "You know he's been under a lot of pressure with things at his company lately."

"So that gives him an excuse to be shit-faced during patrol?" Roy was still pissed, probably from nearly being killed because of his partner. They should have been able to take down Count Vertigo easily. And they would have, had his partner been sober enough to help. "He has a problem." The teen continued. "You know how he can be when he drinks."

Dinah glanced back toward the living room where her husband was no doubt passed out on the couch by now. She turned back to Roy. "Did he hurt you?"

"You mean aside from shooting me with an arrow? That wasn't enough?" Dinah shot her son a look and Roy sighed shaking his head. He wasn't going to let her defend him. Not this time. "No, mom I'm perfectly fine. Dad was the perfect role model tonight. Everything I want to grow up and be." He couldn't help the venom that seeped into his tone as he spoke.

"Roy..." Dinah started, but her son was shaking his head at her as he stood up. He wasn't hearing it.

"You know exactly how he gets. You have to talk to him." The teen demanded.

Dinah could see that this was a pointless argument. Roy was headstrong, just like his father. "Fine," she relented. "I will say something when I get back, but talking to him right now is useless."

Roy frowned as he watched his mother stand up and push in her chair, closing the first aide kit.

"You're leaving?" Roy asked surprised. He looked up at his mother and noticed for the first time that she was dressed in her costume.

Dinah nodded. "I just got the call before you came back home. Black Canary is needed at the Watchtower."

Roy nodded. "Is Artemis home?"

"No, she's on a mission with the team." She picked up Red Arrow's bow from the table and handed it to her son. "Why don't you change out of that uniform and I'll clean up your father before I go."

Roy shook his head and looked behind them towards the living room. "No, I got it. Go, I'll take care of dad, change and finish patrolling myself."

Dinah gave her son a grateful smile and kissed him on the cheek before leaving. She told him to be careful and that she would try to check-in in the morning.

Roy dragged a tired hand over his face and took out his cell phone to text his sister to spend the night at the cave before remembering that she had a habit of leaving her personal cell at home whenever she went on missions. He couldn't say that he blamed her. It actually made sense. He tried her comm and got static.

"Damnit." he swore. He checked the couch again. The old man was probably out cold. He quickly changed out of his uniform and into a dry one and popped two painkillers for his shoulder.

He dragged the old man from the couch and stripped him of his uniform and dropped him in the shower turning the water on him. He had done this enough times to know that if he left Ollie there the man would eventually get up and dress himself before dragging his own as to bed.

Roy checked his watch. It was late but he still had enough time to finish patrol. Maybe he would be able to catch up to Vertigo. He was itchin' for a rematch.

It was nearly three a.m. when Roy returned home. He had searched for Vertigo but turned up nothing. The truck with the tech for S.T.A.R. was empty and he'd found no new leads.

He had changed out of his costume down in the arrowcave before entering the house. It was late and he was exhausted. He needed and deserved some sleep.

He opened his room door and was about to collapse onto his bed and was in the middle of faceplanting when he saw a flash of blonde hair and realized Artemis was in his bed.

The fifteen year old was asleep, snoring softly and taking up half of the redheaded archer's queen sized bed. Roy was too tired to care. He shoved his sister over making room for himself and climbed into bed falling asleep almost instantly.

He hadn't been asleep an hour when a kick to the side of his leg and the sound of soft crying woke him up. He groaned rolling over and remembering the girl that was asleep in the bed beside him.

"Artemis?" Roy croaked out wincing as he sat up. The younger girl was still asleep, crying quietly as she fought off an attacker in her dream.

"Artemis, wake up." Roy tried calling out to the girl. Artemis continued tossing and turning in her sleep. He shifted in the bed so that he was directly beside her, shaking her gently as he pulled her into his arms, attempting to wake her up.

"Art, come on. You're okay." Roy soothed whispering to the girl as she came to. "I got you. It was just a dream. You're okay, I promise. You're fine. It was just a bad dream."

Artemis shifted in her big brother's arms, turning so that she could cling to him as she sobbed silently against his chest. Roy winced, cringing slightly when her head brushed against his bandaged shoulder, but he didn't move her. He just continued rubbing soothing circles in her back as she cried, allowing her to fall back asleep against him.

He leaned back in his bed getting comfortable as he continued to comfort his sister. With his free hand he pinched the bridge of his nose staring off at nothing in the darkness of the room and he closed his eyes. He was beginning to get a headache. He needed to sleep.

Artemis shifted against him and he knew that she was beginning to fall back asleep. The slight shudder of her shoulders had ceased as the sobbing stopped and her breathing had begun to even out. The nightmares were becoming progressively more frequent and more intense lately, especially when Ollie had been drinking he noted.

Roy yawned. He would have to talk with Artemis about that later. If she and the old man were fighting when he or Dinah weren't home to referee things could get bad. Oliver Queen had a bit of a temper when he drank.

Sure, Roy fought with his father all the time, but that was different. Roy was older, bigger, stronger than Artemis. He could handle their father's drunken abuse. He didn't want Artemis dealing with that. Most of the time Roy was home to intercept their father when the man had a few too many. He didn't mind bearing the brunt of the old man's verbal and physical abuse. He could take it. Artemis was different. Granted, she could put on a brave face and hold her own for the most part, no problem. But she was still his baby sister and he knew there were times when she was close to cracking. So no, he wouldn't allow her to deal with Oliver on her own. It was his job to protect her.

His arm tightened around her and she snuggled in closer. They were safe as long as they stuck together.

His alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning. He awoke in a panic and shooting up in his bed and gasping for breath. His heart was racing and beads of sweat decorated his forehead and chest. He reached out with a groan silencing, the alarm his hand springing back and grabbing his shoulder. Damn, he was in pain.

He looked down and saw Artemis in heap beside him still sleeping. He climbed out of bed and headed for his bathroom feeling like he was going to be sick. Great, he thought splashing cool water onto his face. It was going to be one of those days.

To Be Continued...