Wasted

It took Tommy Merlyn two days to make himself at home at Felicity's house and the first thing that he brought with him was a bottle of scotch. Or four.

"He wasn't always like that you know. The cold, distant, murdering bastard." Felicity tucked her feet beneath her to get herself into a more comfortable position by his side, not knowing what else to say or to do. She had just gotten home from visiting Diggle at the hospital to find the house dark with a very distinct smell hovering on the air and Tommy draped over half of her couch.

"He may not have always been around but he did make a point to make it to the important parts of my life. Small awards, my pre-school graduation, my pee-wee games. He woke me up when I had nightmares and he made me smile." There was a bright yearning in his eyes that was shadowed by confused guilt, wondering what he could have done to lose the man that he knew that broke Felicity's heart.

She reached out and held his free hand, needing to comfort him any way she could. "He sounds like a great father."

He let out a dark chuckle. "He was my dad. He was like superman in my eyes." She felt him loosen her grip on his hand and push his fingers through hers. He turned away from her and took another large gulp of his scotch, a far away look on his eyes.

"There was this one time. I don't think there was any actual special occasion. I think I was around seven or eight? It was just this random day to me. Then my dad just randomly walks into the room and announces that we were going to take a family trip. No warning.

"I remember my mom got mad at him because he didn't give us any preparation. Just told us to up and go. She was so scared at first but he just wouldn't stop smiling. He said it was an adventure."

She smiled at the image in her head, of a younger looking Tommy Merlyn who was all smiles and excitement about to go off to an unknown adventure. A far cry from the broken man that sat next to her now.

"We ended up taking one of the convertibles but we didn't put the top down until we were in the interstate. I remember my mom complaining about her hair but it wasn't really in a mad way you know? My parents used to be so fucking happy. I swear you'd wanna throw up just watching them for a few minutes. It's like they were still teenagers on their first day out without any parents.

"We ended up at some park with this big ass waterfall in the middle of nowhere. I don't even remember where. I just remember that it took us hours to get there. It was so beautiful Felicity. I remember that it only had this little balcony overlooking the whole thing."

Felicity felt her heart swell at the amazement in his voice that was now devoid of any drunken slurs. She could feel the subtle happiness radiating from him at the memory.

"Turns out it was an anniversary of some sort for them. My dad said it was a decade to that day that he knew without a doubt that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom, that's why my mom had no idea in the first place. He said it was on some trip that they took to the Niagara falls. Well he said that it was seeing her on the passenger seat as they drove toward it.

"My dad was a sap. But yeah. And he said that this waterfall was the closest he could replicate the day, drive and all, in the west coast without actually flying us to the east and possibly giving away his plan."

His features grew somber again as he refilled his cup, all traces of happiness slowly fading away. "I think we ended up staying the weekend there. I don't really remember a lot of what else happened. Hell I don't even know how accurate my story was and how much of it was my romanticizing what happened again and again after my mom was gone...just trying to get a semblance of that happiness from that day."

They sat in silence after that. Just letting the heavy mood pass, because really what can a person say to that? What can a person say to alleviate the pain of a lost childhood?

Nothing appropriate really. So what the hell. She grabbed the cup from his hand, ignoring the pissed look on his face, and downed the remaining drink in one gulp. "Wanna go hack the news station and mess with the ticker tape?"

"Seriously?"

Felicity just placed the cup on the coffee table and stretched out her feet to his lap. "No. Maybe." She paused a second weighing how much damage they could cause by doing so. "I mean I could. If you really wanted to. We would have to go by the station to plug in though just to make things easier…so maybe not?"

Tommy just raised an eyebrow incredulously at her making her face heat up.

"I was just trying to help." She inwardly her cursed her rapidly heating cheeks and the way that her voice rose in pitch due to embarrassment. "Screw this I'm getting another glass and I'm going to educate you in Dr. Who."

"The original or the new one?" Felicity could only look at him in shock.

"What? It's not like I have a job." He continued on defensively. "Although there's this one guy in the new one that looks alarmingly like my father. It's actually kind of creepy."

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

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