A Little Favor

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here.

Summary: Oliver calls in a little favor from an old friend during Damaged.

As Oliver and Laurel sat on one side of the table with Detective Lance and the Polygraph watcher on the other side of it in the interrogation room, waiting for Lance to begin his questions. Though Oliver found himself wondering when that favor he called in was going to make itself known before the man could really dive into the serious stuff. Sure, he knew he could pass the test with no problem, but he'd rather have that favor in the room with him as he knew that even if he did pass the test, Laurel's father wouldn't stop there. And this favor would be one certain way to get the man to stop, even if it did further drive his suspicions of him. The Polygraph watcher gave a nod to Lance, who then gave his attention to Oliver. Showtime. The archer thought to himself.

"Now that we're all nice and ready, let's start you off with a few questions huh? Is your name Oliver Queen?" The older man asked hating that he was having to jump through damn hoops to get this punk in prison where he belonged.

"Yes."

"Were you born in Starling City May 16th, 1985?"

"Yes."

"Is your hair blue?" Just as he asked that, an African American woman in a dark blue outfit came barging into the room like she owned the place with a briefcase in hand. Her hair was done up so as not to get in her face and she screamed a vibe that said she just didn't tolerate foolishness. Lance however glared full on at her for daring to interrupt him.

"While I'm sure the sight of Mr. Queen with blue hair is something to see, I'm here to tell all of you that not only is this interrogation over, but so is your witchhunt Detective Lance." Oliver had to hide his sigh of relief at the sight of the woman. It'd been a gamble to begin with and he hadn't really wanted to call her for a favor, but he wanted to hedge his bets as much as he could.

"Oh yeah? And who the Hell are you lady?" Lance demanded angrily while asking the very question that was on Laurel's and the watcher's mind.

The woman gave him an unimpressed look that did little to make the man happy. "I am Amanda Waller of Argus and you certainly have NO business placing one of MINE under arrest." She informed him coldly, making Laurel's eyes go wide at the implication of that statement.

Lance looked at her incredulously, unable to believe a government group would hire a punk like Oliver Queen. "Yeeaaah… Lady I don't think so, so why don't you just go back to where ever Queen here dug you up from?" He suggested with a finger pointed at Oliver, who had to wince as he knew that kind of disrespect was just going to make Waller very unhappy.

A glare from her actually made the Detective wince a bit but he wasn't about to back down despite that. Hell, he'd gotten worse from Dinah after all, along with his daughters at various points. Even Moira Queen at one point so this lady was gonna have to do more than that to make him believe she was some big shot Argus agent. "I would tread carefully Detective, or you may not like what will happen." She warned him in a cold tone of voice that Oliver was no stranger too. Even Laurel had shuddered at the tone and wondered yet again just where Ollie had found this woman.

She didn't even want to consider him sleeping with her as she had her doubts that even he would have gone for it considering how cold she could seemingly get. Lance just scoffed at the newcomer and was of half a mind to just arrest this woman for interfering in official police business, not to mention basically threatening him as well. "Lady, you are definitely not a smart person if you're willingly threatening an officer of the law."

In response to that, she sat down the briefcase on the table and indicated for him to open it up. Grumbling to himself, he did and found to his utter annoyance that she was in fact telling the truth as the contents were of the very official kind that all Lawmen were aware of thanks to being kept in the know in case of an emergency. He let off an expletive that merely made Waller smirk as she had him now and if possible, for Laurel's eyes to go wider since if he was doing that then this woman was apparently telling the truth. "And as such, Mr. Queen is employed by Argus to act as our eyes and ears here in Starling City. This allows him to be our liasion to an operative of ours that you and the Media have come to call The Hood." Waller helpfully informed the man, much to his growing shock and anger. As this meant Queen was pretty much un-touchable.

For Laurel, this explained a whole Hell of a lot about her ex and his actions since returning. But for the life of her she couldn't help but wonder how Ollie got involved with Argus! Did that mean he wasn't really on the island after all? Or was he and did he simply get enlisted? Possibly against his will even? Which if that was the case, it would explain why he would have been unlikely to return home if he had been taken off the island at some point. It also drew an uncomfortable thought in her head related to Tommy's kidnapping in Hong Kong. And if Ollie had been ordered to do that… She shuddered to think of what else he may have been ordered to do. This development was something she knew Ollie's family weren't going to like too well either.

"It is as you may have already figured out, in-advisable to arrest The Hood as he too is essentially un-touchable. Any attempts to arrest him or even Mr. Queen here, will not be something we will tolerate. This is your one and only warning Detective Lance and you will do well to ensure it is known to everyone. I believe it goes without saying that interference in these operations will also NOT be tolerated." The Polygraph watcher could swear the air got pretty cold from the seriously cold tone from the woman's voice and he just really wanted to get the Hell out of there!

Lance was backed up against a wall and he did not like it, not one damn bit but this broad gave him no way out of this. The thought of Queen and the Hood, whom he believed were the same person running around unchecked by all but Argus did NOT sit well with him. But he knew any attempts to try and mess with that would not be pretty results for him. Standing up abruptly and sending his chair flying into the wall, he glared angrily at Queen before turning it on to Waller. "You may have bailed the punk out this time, but there will be a slip up and then I'll have his ass then. And that's something you can damn well bet on!" He angrily told her with a finger pointing at her.

It was then that Oliver spoke up for the first time in minutes and he knew this was likely not going to end well, but he knew it would be true. "Detective… I know you hate me but Sara… Sara wouldn't want this. This vendetta against me helps no one and only serves to keep her from resting. Trust me, I regret bringing her on board my father's yacht every damn day. But I try to live on anyway cause I KNOW she would want me too instead of wallowing away." He finished strongly with more emotion in his voice then Laurel and Quentin had ever heard from him.

For Laurel, she wasn't quite sure what to think of Ollie using Sara's memory like that but she knew he had a point with what he had said. Quentin just looked at him in disgust as his dislike bordering on hate for the punk ass little bastard who got his babygirl killed came boiling to the surface more then what it was already. Figuring it was best he left before he said something that could be used against him, he walked towards the door, opened it and left with a slam of the door that nearly shattered the window. His only daughter watched the whole thing sadly while Oliver watched on with regret in his heart over Sara. The Polygraph watcher cleared his throat while feeling very uncomfortable with everything and then took off as well.

Waller looked towards Oliver and the two had something of a staring contest with Laurel looking on a bit uncomfortably as well. She also got the vibe that these two most likely didn't really like the other that well. The fact this woman didn't let that stop her from doing what was necessary said a lot about her as well. "Thank you for coming Waller." The archer said without breaking eye contact.

The woman smirked at him while also not breaking eye contact either. "Oh it was my pleasure Mr. Queen. The thought of the favor I get in return from you was simply too much to ignore." She told him with what sounded like happiness from her. Or at least what passed for happiness for her.

Laurel watched her ex grimace at that and realized it must have cost him big to get her to help him out like this. And cause of that, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to even think about what that favor was. "I'm sure it was." Came her ex's response through gritted teeth, something that got a smirk from Waller in return.

Maybe I should have went with what I originally had in mind… Oliver grumbled in his head as he took the Polygraph equipment off of him and stood up and looked down at Laurel who looked to be in quite a bit of shock, not that he could blame her for that really.

"Laurel… Thank you." He told her with sincerity and it was enough to snap out of her state of shock.

"Um… Y-yeah no problem." She responded a bit uncertainly before deciding that perhaps Ollie and this woman wanted some privacy.

"I'll um… I'll see you later yeah?" She asked, not sure of a whole lot at the moment and left once she got a smile and nod from him.

Waller watched her leave before turning her attention back to Oliver. "Hmm.. So that's the infamous Laurel Lance. Quite the experience in seeing her in person." She commented, as if merely discussing the weather.

But Oliver knew she was essentially making a point in talking about his ex. And that point was basically that he'd best keep his mouth shut on a lot of things. Its not like she had to remind him of that though, he wasn't stupid enough to go around talking about certain details. Though he knew he was going to have to explain himself to his family and to Tommy at some point cause he figured Laurel would say something to him about this little revelation. "Yeah… She's something." And walked out the door, leaving Waller alone in the room as she smirked to herself knowing she had a victory over him.

The favor she had in mind would involve the father of a friend of his due to certain intelligence that was being gathered about the man and his plans for a section of the city. She figured Queen would balk at it because of his friend, but once he knew the full scope of things he'd be more likely to do the job. Thus ensuring that one more mad man was taken out of the equation. And she had no desire to have someone in her Squad who would potentially undermine her to a point that she lost control.

Author's Notes: A little something for you guys as I work on the next chapter of 'Ghosts', which is wanting to take its time in getting done. Shout out to Naitch03 as his Past is Prologue story continues to be a big help in creating fics like this. For those wanting another 'Hard Dose of Reality' type story, I do have something in mind and it will be during this particular scene in 'Damaged'. So that'll be something to look forward too! And hopefully I won't have you guys waiting too long for it. Anywho, keep on with the Nerd Life and R and R!