Specter of Oliver Queen

Chapter 22

Tommy just happened to go by CNRI to talk to Laurel and he overheard that one of their biggest donors was backing out and the law office would not be able to survive without them. Tommy mentioned to Laurel that he could throw a party to raise money, but she was not to thrilled with the idea, but after talking to Joanna, she decided to let Tommy do this for CNRI.

A few nights later Laurel was at the party that Tommy was throwing for her and she was thanking all of the people who had donated to CNRI when Oliver walked up to her. "This turned out really good. I am glad Tommy came up with this idea." Oliver said.

"Yeah, it did turn out well. I just wish there wasn't always some ulterior motive with Tommy." Laurel said.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked although he already had a clue what she meant.

"Tommy has been trying to get me to go out with him for the last few weeks and I keep turning him down, but he won't stop asking." Laurel said.

"Would it be so bad to give him a chance?" Oliver asked.

"Probably not, but I don't have the time to date right now Ollie. With my job and Conner." Laurel said.

"If you want to give it a try. I can take care of Conner for the night." Oliver said.

"Thanks for the offer, but I am not really interested in Tommy in that way right now." Laurel said.

"Ok. Just know that if you want to date, I can take care of Conner." Oliver said.

"Thanks, but everything is going good right now. I don't want to mess that up." Laurel said.

"Ok, well you should probably go and mingle. I will talk to you later." Oliver said as he left to go to the bank to take down the Reston family at the bank they were robbing.

About a month later it is time for Christmas and Oliver decides that he wants to throw a Christmas party like the Queen family used to before the Gambit went down. He told his family that he would take care of everything. Thea didn't seem happy to be having a Christmas party, but the rest of the family thought that it might be a good idea to get back in the swing of things after not celebrating for the past five years.

Around this time a copycat archer was taking out people that Oliver had visited since he had been back home and become the Hood. He got an arrow from Quentin and took it to Felicity to see if she could find out where they were shipped. Once he found that out he went back to his lair and changed so that he could go and find this archer. When he got inside of the place, he found that it was rigged to blow so he got out of the building right in time.

Later that night, the Christmas party was happening at the Queen Mansion. Oliver was there greeting the guest as he saw Laurel walk in with Conner. Oliver waved them over and they went somewhere that they could have some privacy.

"Thanks for coming. It means a lot that the both of you are here." Oliver said.

"Well, it looks like everything is going well. Where is Thea?" Laurel asked.

"Who knows. I don't think she was so thrilled about the party." Oliver said.

"Well, I guess without celebrating for the past five years she might not want to celebrate because she is used to it." Laurel said.

"I guess you have a point. So, I better go and mingle with the guest. I will be back to talk to you two in a bit." Oliver said as he went to greet mor guests.

Oliver sees Thea heading up to her room with a boy and he follows them and barges into Thea's room and sends the boy home and gives Thea hell about trying to be like him back in the day.