Summery: Thea and Merlin have some daddy daughter discussions.

Thea Queen walked across the gavel parking lot towards the black limo.

Lies.

Her whole life was made of them.

One after another, after another.

Was honestly to much to ask for?

She was accustom to schoolmates, and the media lying to and about her. She expected that. she was taught to expect it.

They didn't live with her. They didn't watch her grow up. The didn't know her struggles.

Sometimes people she called friends would lie about her too. When that happened it hurt, like no other pain. She had let them people into her life, into her inner circle, and they took her trust and threw it on the ground like it was worthless before tramping it under their designer shoes. When that happened she would cut them from her life like a baby from the umbilical cord.

But you're warned about that; abut other people. You don't think it'll happen to you - you don't think the stories in the news about high society families can happen to you - until it does, and when it happens you want to run to those who care about you, but you can't.

Her father. Her mother. Her brother. Her boyfriend. Everyone. Everyone had lied to her.

Maybe things could be different this time. Oh Thea, if you let yourself believe that then you are deserve everything that has happened to you in the last two years.

He had lied too. He never told her. Besides, he's a terrorist; a murderer. He could not be trusted for a second. Maybe that was the point.

How could she be doing this? She had been taken advantage of and embarrassed by the very people who were suppose to protect and love her.

Maybe she was being to hard on them. Maybe she was expecting too much of them. Maybe honesty was too much to expect from people.

Maybe lying was the only way to live.

All the more reason to bark up this right tree.

Thea got into limousine and sat down crossing her legs. Malcolm Merlin was seated across from her with his typical, smug smile on his face. Thea watched her birth father closely as he picked up a glass bottle and poured the carmel colored contents into a crystal cup.

"So, where are we going?" Thea asked.

"Where ever you want." He replied.

Thea was surprised, and curious. "S'up to me?"

"Why not?"

Merlin seemed relaxed. It put her on edge. She tried not to show it. "Because you're a wanted man."

"By whom? Everyone thinks I'm dead."

"Yeah, but if they did know you were alive they'd come after you: the police, the government… the Arrow."

Merlin's continence seemed shaken at the mention of the Arrow. So that was who scared him. Good to know.

"You're very perceptive Thea. Knowing what buttons to push, and what doors to peek behind to find the truth. Your mother had that talent. Yes, if someone were to find me it would be unfortunate, for both of us."

Thea couldn't see that she frowned, giving away her own discomfort.

"So, why come to me?" He asked.

"You came to me first."

"Still." He wanted an answer.

Thea took a deep breath. No point in lying, right? "…I don't want to feel this pain again. I don't wanna hurt, or get hurt - never again. I think you can help me with that."

"That's what I'm here for." He smiled broadly, taking a drink from his glass.

Thea rolled her eyes.

Merlin continued to smile. "So, where too?"

"…Well," Thea began after a short moment of thought. "I was going to go to Paris before-" Thea stopped herself before she said to much. Would Merlin want her to continue?

Without another word Merlin tapped on the glass that separated him between and his driver behind him. The man in the front seat slid open the little window to his passengers. "Call my pilot. Tell to be ready to take off when we get there."

"Yes sir, Mr. Merlin." With that, the limo pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the road in the direction of the Starling City Airport."

Thea watched the familiar sights of her birth city wash before her eyes. As

Maybe a good family was to much to ask. Maybe it wasn't for her. The amount of maybe's in her life made her head hurt, and she was tired of the pain, the questions and the confusion. Thea let the scrolling of scenery and the rhythm of the road numb her overheated soul as she and…her father, rode to the airport.

One thing was very clear to Thea as the limo headed towards her new life, she would never be the same again.

"Goodbye Starling, forever!"