Every damn thing about him was focused on helping her, finding answers. When his eyes met mine I may as well have been looking in a mirror, well a mirror from ten years ago. I waited until we got outside and back in Baby before I said anything and he was too busy fuming about Rebecca being in so much pain to talk.

"Two things, first, you didn't want to come along just because of Oliver's leadership style did you?"

He kept his eyes focused front but shook his head.

"Right, okay, second thing. Shove that anger down, save it for later. Now how about you tell me the real reason you're here."

"We don't help the people of the city anymore, at least I don't feel like we do."

"Didn't you guys just save them from the League?"

"Which would never have been a damn issue if Oliver hadn't sheltered Merlyn!"

He was beyond pissed.

"He did that for Thea."

"Bullshit! The best way to protect Thea would have been to be upfront, you know that Dean!"

If he clenched his jaw any tighter he was going to break some teeth. I should know. "We've been over this. Why are you holding onto it still? He made his choice, right or wrong, if you want to work with him you've got to get past shit like this."

I figured we may as well take the long way to the next house and turned onto a side road that seemed to lead up into the hills.

"It's been months since we actually stopped drug dealers or helped the police catch actual damn criminals. What we used to do. All his "choices"," he put a pretty bitter emphasis on that word, "have kept us from doing our real job. Help the actual people, save them, put criminals behind bars. Dig and I had a huge conversation a few weeks back about how when Oliver first showed up as the Hood he had a list of people to kill from his Dad. Some conspiracy thing that Merlyn was a part of. Then Dig convinced Oliver to actually fight for the people, not his own agenda. That's why I'm still alive, because Oliver was trying to stop crime."

"Okay, and?"

"Then Merlyn comes back, starts shit and all of a sudden we're back on Oliver's agenda. I've tried to go do things on my own but it's seems like every damn minute Oliver needs something or is off trying to get killed without telling us why."

"Anyone know you're out doing the solo vigilante gig?"

"No. And yes, I know hypocritical that makes me."

"Wow, pot, kettle and all that. If it makes you feel any better you've been acting the same way Sam and I used to. Congrats, you've learned everything you can from us. I'll get you your hunter/vigilante diploma and you can be on your way. Good luck." He didn't even grin a little at that. "So you came out with us to what?"

"Felicity and Oliver told me about what you guys have done, at least what they know and it sounded like no matter what happened you guys still remembered to do your job. Save people. I just wanted to see how you managed to stay on track even with the world blowing up all around you, and.."

He gave this sort of half shrug thing and stopped talking. "You wanted to help people without all the drama?"

"I guess. Just do what feels right for once."

"Well, I won't argue with you there. I know that feeling all too well. Let's get back to it then. Rebecca, her story, what did you think?" The topic change threw him off, I figured I owed him an explanation, "One of my other guiding principles in life, no chick flick moments."

That cracked him up and it was kind of obvious he hadn't had much to laugh about in a few months.

"All right, I'll remember that. I didn't really get any red flags other than the cops being lazy."

"Lazy or covering for something. That many bodies dropping and the cops don't go right into the hills when someone gets reported missing?" I let him mull on that for a few minutes.

"I see where you're going. Sam told me vampires sometimes have nests. Is this normal for a group of them feeding?"

"Every hunt is a little different. We came across a nest that was pissed one of theirs had switched to eating bagged blood and became a cop. They were killing people in his area simply to piss him off and try to get him back in the group. They ended up killing him because he refused to start hunting again."

"Wait? A vampire was a cop?"

"Yup, a pretty decent one too from what we found out. Did you think monsters were any more black and white then people?" He didn't answer but he didn't really need to. "Any monster that either used to be human or is somewhat human-like can be technically good. They can make the right choices, try to live without killing people. Some do, some don't. Some days we just decide to wait and see, if we have to come back later and take'em out we will." We'd come to a stop sign so I took a long, hard look at him, "I get it, you want to help people. Nothing about that goal, no matter what way you decide to do it, vigilante, hunter, lawyer, cop, doctor, therapist, doesn't matter; all of those jobs and lives will always have hard choices, choices you'll regret and choices that even looking back you have no idea how the hell you got so screwed up. Easy is not part of any of those job descriptions."

"I know, I don't want easy. I just want something that makes sense, feels right."

A car was pulling up behind us so I started driving again, "Sometimes those things don't even apply."

"Are you telling me to quit then? Go home and be a mechanic or something?"

"No, I'm just not going to lie to you. You wanted answers, that's why you came with us. These are the answers I've got. Never said you'd like them." He turned away from me and stared out the window, I wasn't really trying to crush his dreams but he needed to know the truth. "Look, for what it's worth you handled Rebecca perfectly. Got her to open up, talk. That's a huge part of what we do. What we see in the news is usually nowhere close to the real story."

He shrugged and didn't seem all that excited with my attempt to make things better, "She wanted to talk, it wasn't that hard."

"Maybe. Next one may not be as easy. Ex-husband."

"After that, then what?"

"We hook back up with Sam, get lunch and figure out our next move."

"Sounds good."

We got to the ex-husband's house. I took one look at the door and just kept on driving.

"Wasn't that the house?"

"Yup, a couple days of newspapers stacked in front of the door."

"You think he's not home?"

"Probably not. We'll swing back by after dark, check the place out."

"You mean break in."

"Well yeah, it's not like we can get a warrant. We may not even have to depending on what Sam finds out."

He just shook his head and sighed, "I think it's somehow possible you break more laws than we do."

"No way. With what Felicity hacks into? Please. That woman breaks more laws in five seconds then we do in five months."

"Point, hadn't thought about that."

Just as we pulled back into the city limits my phone buzzed and Sam's name popped up on the screen "Hey. So?"

"ME is scared and stonewalling. He just kept telling me that everything was in his report, wouldn't look at me and kept checking his phone. We may want to relocate outside the city limits."

"Crap. Think he's checked in with someone?"

"Either that or the janitor thinks my ass is hot."

"Picked up a tail already. Lovely. How far down?"

"Three blocks east, around the corner, I'll shake him."

"Got it."

I hung up, looked at Roy and saw he was all business. "Someone made Sam?"

I dug out the room key for Sam's and my room, "Someone made the fact that Sam was asking questions. I'll drop you off back at the hotel, grab the bags and your car. We'll get a hold of you in about thirty minutes with a new hotel. Spend that thirty minutes seeing if anyone is following you."

"Sure thing."

He was out of the car and moving before I even came to a full stop in the hotel parking lot. As much as he'd said Oliver hadn't trained him I saw Oliver in how he moved. He wouldn't be as devastating as Oliver was in a fight but he'd more than hold his own. I accelerated, texted Sam I was taking the long way and to give me a landmark to pick him up at. Seconds later I got a picture of an antique store sign and an address. I double backed, took a few u turns and in general drove like a lost tourist till I was pretty damn sure no one was tailing me, pulled up in front of the store and he was moving fast up the alley. I pulled out before he even shut the door. "Find a new hotel, text the address to Roy. I'll play in traffic some more and see if your tail has wheels."

"On it. I lost him, I think. I'll give you directions as we go."

"Sweet." There were a few suspicious looking SUVs but unless our friend had a whole horde of soccer moms working for him it wasn't too likely any of them were trailing us. By the time I headed in the right direction to get to our new digs none of the cars that were on the street where Sam get into Baby were behind us. "Clear. We'll go over everything once we get into the rooms. Check with Roy on what he wants to eat, fast food joints coming up on the right."

A few texts later Sam spoke up, "He said he already ate, no one's following him. He got all our stuff and is heading to the new place. Want him to get the rooms under Henderson?"

"Should be safe, Rebecca's not in on whatever this is and it's a common name."

He nodded and sent the texts. We grabbed some food and made it to the new place about twenty minutes later. Roy had texted our room numbers to us which was handy.

"Either he got lucky or is thinking ahead," Sam in between drinks off his soda.

I didn't quite catch what he meant till I started looking at the room numbers. Ours were on the corner, second floor which gave us a rather useful view of the intersection and both sides of the street. It also came with a handy dandy parking space around the side that couldn't be seen from the street; all thanks to the wall in front of the place. "Nice."I parked next to Roy's car and spotted Roy in his street clothes standing on the balcony, watching the traffic.

As we headed up the stairs he flashed a quick thumbs up sign to us and opened a door to a room, "No one followed you from what I can tell. No cars slowed down or double backed."

"Good eyes," I told him, "You ask for these rooms?"

"Yeah. The clerk was twenty something girl who seemed lonely," he answered with a quick grin. "It's a suite, the rooms hook up through the bathroom. She gave me the FBI discount and her phone number."

"Told ya, play to your strengths." Sam and I settled down at the table, ate fast and then we started comparing notes.