Chapter 5

He was really getting sick of this. He'd been called in on a robbery, and they'd caught the guy not ten yards from the house, trying to steal someone's car. In the middle of the fucking day. He hadn't even resisted arrest, which was a rarity and nice, but at the same time, Lance wanted nothing more than to just have a day off.

It was great having Robert around, that was for sure, but he wanted to just take a day off so that he didn't have to do his job.

It was selfish, yes, but he felt that he deserved it.

Earlier that morning, after Queen had left, he and Robert had continued to work on the case, and then as people began to arrive, Robert had been sidelined as everyone was lining up to say hi to him, to say that they were glad to see him again, and even rookies who had never even met him were lining up to talk to him because of his infamy in the precinct's history.

During his mob, Quentin's mind had had time to wander and wonder, and, of course, it led him nowhere good. His thoughts, for some odd reason, seemed to think that they should be lingering on Oliver Queen; the man who had made him let down his guard earlier and actually had him relaxing around him, only to make him slam the walls back up when Queen had pushed it too far. The millionaire playboy was just impossible to deal with, and he knew it, yet he found himself looking forward to their meetings with some sort of sick pleasure.

Each time the two of them met, it was a chance to see if he could push the man, to see if he could make him snap…into confessing, of course, and providing proof of that confession. For no other reason than that…and yet, in the back of his mind, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Robert Banner seemed to whisper, You know that's not true, Quentin…you're hoping he might snap and do something else entirely…

He ignored the voice and went back to booking the thief that they'd nabbed, attempting to fill out paperwork, and then looked back across the precinct at Robert, who was, once more, being inundated by cops.

Cops, his ass. They were behaving like teenage girls in front of one of their favorite hot, young celebrities.

Of course, who could blame them? The older British gentleman had definite charm and appeal, all the way from his impeccable manners to his sly looks from under his lashes.

And then Lance's eyes narrowed as he saw one of the younger officers, Officer Sanders, who he knew frequented a certain special bar, approach the older man and begin to talk to him. Whatever he said to him had Robert giving him one of those smiles…the one that started soft and then turned into a smirk at the corner of his mouth. It was utterly disarming and could level nearly anyone at the knees, be it male or female.

Sanders then seemed to be stuttery, and then Robert just placed a hand on his shoulder and said something in return…

..and suddenly Quentin felt an elbow in his side.

He looked over and saw his partner looking him in the eye, obviously wondering what was keeping him distracted, but he just shook his head and went back to filling out the paperwork.

He kept his head low as he did, and, because of that, he was completely unaware and unhearing when Robert's phone rang…

Robert finished talking to the young Officer Sanders, sending off the well-intentioned young man with one of his infamous smiles, and then was surprised when he felt his phone vibrate in his coat pocket. He quickly answered it, as not many people had the number and he mostly only used it in emergencies.

"Hello?"

A low chuckle on the other end of the line.

"Hi, Robert. This is Oliver Queen, we met earlier today, and I was calling in the hopes that maybe we could get some dinner tomorrow night? You see, I don't think I made a good first impression, and I wanted to get to know the man who is so infamous in the history of our city's law enforcement."

Taken completely off guard, but finding himself insatiably curious about the man, he glanced around the precinct and then stepped out into the hallway and walked down it to the front door as he answered, "This is somewhat unexpected, but, of course, I would love to."

He could almost hear the other man grin over the phone.

"That's great…I was afraid you were going to say no, but it seems that Quen-I mean, Detective Lance, hasn't yet indoctrinated you with the usual 'Oliver-Queen-can't-be-trusted' speech. Good thing I acted quickly."

Robert chuckled, realizing that Queen had nearly called the detective by his first name, and then replied with, "Oh, I believe he tried to this morning, actually…"

Of course, he didn't mention the fact that the detective had been trying to warn him off the Vigilante, but now that Banner had heard the young man's voice a second time, he was fairly positive that the low scratchy voice that he'd heard on the roof belonged to one and the same person.

"Great. I'll pick you up from the precinct? Or, would you like to meet me somewhere else?"

Robert then realized what Queen was trying to do. Make the detective jealous, of course. As much as he was amused by the fact, he was subtly aware that it might not be a good idea to flaunt their dinner out in front of him.

Carefully, he said, "How about you meet me at my hotel? I'm staying at the Queen's Landing. I'm sure you know of it."

"Yep, sure do. Great. Then how about at six? Will that work for you?"

"Perfectly."

"Excellent. I'll see you then."

And with that, he hung up, feeling strangely as though he had taken a step into a world where things were going to no longer be as clear as he wanted them to be. And then he realized that Oliver Queen should not have been able to get his number…how the hell had he gotten his private cell phone number?

He put that onto the list of questions that were forming in his head about the young man, and then found himself grinning as he made his way back into the precinct.

He couldn't wait for tomorrow night…but then he caught sight of Quentin and he realized that he couldn't keep it from him.

Robert sighed, and resigned himself to that fact that he was not going to be the detective's favorite person for the next couple of days.

He stepped back over to the detective's desk just as the detective himself sat back down at it, and Robert sat on the edge, taking up what he now considered to be his usual position. Casually, he grabbed the open file from the top and moved it in his direction, giving a cursory glance over the photos, but not really paying attention to them.

He could tell that Quentin looked hassled, so he decided to gently bring it up.

"So…anything interesting about the burglary this morning?"

Quentin just grunted and shook his head and threw himself into the pages in front of him.

"Well, in that case," Robert said, trying to be as careful in his wording as was possible, "You might be interested to know that something interesting happened to me only a few moments ago…"

At this, Lance's eyes snapped up to the older man's and he seemed to almost glare at him. There was a look about him that seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. It seemed…territorial, almost, or even jealous.

Quentin then turned his glare back to the papers and said, "Yeah, it have somethin' to do with Officer Ian Sanders?"

The poison in his tone was almost biting and immediately Robert knew what the look was that he'd been giving him. It was one of jealousy, and at realizing that, he felt a surge of affection for the younger man. It was nice to know that he could still be wanted and, well, sought after. Especially by him.

He gently corrected the detective's thoughts.

"No, actually…" Quentin relaxed, and Robert squared his shoulders to deliver the blow. "…I got a call from Oliver Queen." The tension in the younger man's shoulders returned, but Robert continued anyway, knowing that he had to get it over with.

"He's invited me to dinner tomorrow night and I have accepted."

At this, Quentin's eyes snapped back up and he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest after shoving the files away from him across the desk.

"You're havin' dinner with Queen?"

"Yes."

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Lance said, "Milk his money for all it's worth, then. Have him take you to Bellini's."

He looked up at his old friend and flashed him a bright, white smile…and Robert laughed.

"He's picking me up at six tomorrow night at my hotel. I assume that you have no problem with the arrangement, then?"

Quentin nodded.

"Nope. Like I said, just make him pay for everything and use up as much of his credit card as possible. That, alone, will keep me from thinking about the fact that you're practically going on a date with the guy," he finished, leaning forward once more and dragging the files back to their previous position.

There was still a hint of jealousy, but Banner resigned himself to that fact. That was pretty much inevitable with him.

He would take what he could get for now.

And with that taken care of, he sat back down in a proper chair and began to help him put together what all they could on the case.

Part 5/?