Discovery Devotion Destiny

Invasion: Part III

"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good."

― Elizabeth Edwards

It was her face. Grace Robins. It had been years since Katie had taken a moment to just think of her mother. To sit and remember her, remember her face or her voice, her laugh or her relentless attempts to be funny.

Given everything that had happened, it was logical that Thea would want to sit the rest of the fight out. So she volunteered to watch Robyn and Ari since Nyssa had skipped out and was nowhere to be found. Nate navigated his time ship to the large backyard of Bruce and Felicity's where they were now. Katie sat on the edge of the bed in the guest room after her shower. She'd just changed before she sat down, once again pulled back to that face. A knock at the door brought her back to reality. She looked up and stood to her feet.

"Uh, come in." she said as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She turned to see Ari who came in and folded her arms over her chest.

"Look I already know what you're going to say and-"

"Stop talking Ari." Katie says turning to the girl who rolled her eyes before turning away. "You bought a plane ticket and took that plane from Blue Hill to Star City alone."

"You and Oliver were MIA!" Ari snapped turning back to the woman. "Something was wrong and I needed to figure out what."

"No you needed to do what we told you to do. We told you to stay with Robyn and Nyssa. Instead you put yourself in danger." Ari just shakes her head as she turns away. "I needed you to be responsible Ari." Ari turned back to her.

"No you were abducted by aliens. You needed help." Ari said before turning and stalking out of the room.

Katie let out a sigh before following the girl out of the room. "Ari! Get back here, we're not finished!" Ari continued walking, heading downstairs, stopping at the sight of Bruce who glanced from the girl to Katie.

"It's your fault!" she yelled at the man. "She's gone! You yelled at her, and you-"

"Ari, stop!" Katie said moving to stand beside Bruce. "You think Nyssa left because Bruce yelled at her?" Ari turned away. "Nyssa didn't care about Bruce yelling her, hell she barely listens to Bruce." Ari still refused to turn around. "You know why she left and yet you're determined to point the finger at everyone but yourself." Ari dropped her shoulders and looked down. Katie let out a sigh. "You're going home with Thea and Robyn." Ari lifted her eyes. "These Dominators still need to be stopped and so we need to go."

"And what happens when you're abducted again?" Ari just let out a huff before turning and stalking upstairs to get her things.

"She reminds me of you." Bruce suddenly said and Katie turned with a quirked brow to him. "She doesn't listen to anyone, and does the opposite of what she's told when she thinks she's doing the right thing." Katie just looked at him with a shake of her head. "Forget it." Bruce turned to walk off.

"You yelled at Nyssa." Katie suddenly said and Bruce stopped and turned to her.

"Not you too. Listen, she was standing there yelling at your daughter. She's lucky I didn't do much worse than yell at her." Bruce said and Katie just looked over to him with amusement. "I can't believe Oliver asked her to be your back up. I can't believe you let him. You shouldn't have trusted her with those kids."

"And yet I did." Katie said with a shrug. "I think I still do." Bruce looked over to her like she was crazy. "The demon doesn't train us on how to take care of a child. To be vulnerable to those emotions, to be caring and to be lost and confused. He taught us to always win, but with a child the solution isn't always obvious. Sometimes you just make it up as you go."