(Book 5 Arrow/Spn xover) Family Is Who You'll Kill For

Harsh Truths

"So we doin' this now?" Dean asked, "Or saving that for after we take on evil Dad?" 

"I think we should tell her now," Felicity stated, "Especially if we do manage to turn that bastard over she should know why her Dad has disappeared. I'll call her." She grabbed her phone off the table, turned and walked up the stairs away from the men. 

Sam looked around and wondered just how much longer Oliver and his team would be able to hold things together. He could sense the bonds that Felicity, Dig and Oliver had built over the last few years fracturing; the air was thick with hidden feelings, things unsaid and lingering questions. He looked at Dean and could tell his brother felt it too. "Dig? Should we take off?" Sam asked, "I mean, Thea doesn't know us and she's going to have a lot to process." 

Dig crossed his arms, leaned against the desk where Felicity usually sat and stared at Oliver's suit, hidden in plain sight inside it's glass case. "Huh, how he displays that suit is a rather apt metaphor these days. The Arrow protected by something that's so easy to shatter and destroy, and the suit covering a faceless mannequin," he shifted his gaze back to the brothers," Honestly guys, I think having complete strangers verify Felicity's story may actually help. Everyone she knows has lied to her, she went with Merlyn, who in a lot of ways was a complete stranger, because he offered her blunt honesty. or she thought he did." A small chuckle accompanied his next words, "And we all know both of you deal in blunt honesty pretty well when it's called for." 

Dean answered Dig's chuckle with his own wry smile, "Yeah, true. Especially these days. It's your call Dig." 

Dig straightened up from the table and headed towards the stairs. "I'll get you some beers while we wait." 

"Thanks," Sam said. 

Dean waited until Dig was out of the room before he shook his head and walked closer to the display case that held Oliver's suit, "Damn, I don't even think the machete would cut through all the tension in this place. Those three used to be a well oiled machine." 

"Yeah, it's like they aren't even on the same page anymore. I mean, I get Oliver and Felicity having issues, what with the whole relationship that wasn't one we picked up on last time we were here but even Dig seems lost. Whoever this girl Sara was, her death must have really shattered Oliver somewhere deep down because he's not acting rational at all. Felicity and Dig know it too." 

"Hey.." Dean muttered right when they both heard footsteps on the stairs. They saw Felicity's feet first and realized that it wasn't Dig that was with her. A petite woman, slightly shorter than Felicity was walking down the stairs with her. Thea, that's who Sam assumed it was, exuded this sense of being incredibly resiliant yet emotionally fragile and brittle at the same time. Her close cropped, brown, wavy hair, framed a very mobile, open face; which was currently terrified, confused with edges of horror and betrayal already showing as she looked into the very center of her brother's hidden life. He was torn between wanting to tell her to run in an attempt to protect her and just telling her everything as fast as he could to get it over with. 

"Wait..." Thea said, "This...this can't be, not Oliver...no." She wrapped her arms around herself at first but then he saw something in her, some source of strength welled up from deep within her. Her brown eyes went slightly out of focus as she started thinking back over the last few years. "When he came back...that's when the Arrow sightings started...his scars, Slade." The confusion started to fade and anger came roaring like a flame onto her face, "Why the hell didn't he tell me? Did keeping his secret keep Mom from dying?! Tommy! Sara! No! If we had known we could have taken steps!!" She stalked toward the Arrow suit and Sam thought he'd have to restrain her from punching through the glass,  "You self righteous, overprotective, misguided, selfish bastard! How dare you!" She spun around and her eyes fell on the bow and arrows first, but her eyes kept moving as if finally truly seeing what was in front of her. "He, you, all of you have hid down here for years?" She finally looked at he and Dean. "And who the hell are you? Some more strangers that knew my brother's secret before I did?"