Second Chances: Arrow

Chapter 8

Okay, now we're finally back to the present day. No more Arrow flashbacks. Now on with the chapter. Also, get ready to see a new familiar face from a different show in a capacity that I don't think anyone was expecting.

Oliver was now standing in a hospital room in Hong Kong, looking out the window like he had the first time he'd come home from Lian Yu, thinking about how different things were from the last time he'd come home from Lian Yu. Now he was fully equipped with knowledge of what was coming and he could stop it.

However, all those thoughts left his mind when he heard the door open and turned to see his mother, still alive, walk into the room and Oliver felt himself get a bit choked up at seeing her again.

"Oliver." Moira said, tearfully, unable to believe that she was actually seeing her son again for the first time in 5 years.

"Hi mom." Oliver said with a tearful smile as she rushed up and hugged her son, crying tears of joy and letting go of the sadness she'd been feeling for the past five years.

"I missed you so much." Moira said.

"I missed you too. Everyday I thought about getting back to you." Oliver said as he rubbed his mother's back as he let her sob into his shoulder, knowing that she wasn't just crying tears of joy at seeing him alive, but also her letting go of the guilt she'd no doubt been feeling for having a role in her son's supposed death. And while at one point, he'd be pissed at her about the Gambit, now he was just so happy to see she was still alive and this time she'd stay that way, since now Slade could no longer get in his head the way he once had.

"Is there any chance your father?" Moira asked, needing to know, only to have Oliver shake his head.

"He died saving me. He, his bodyguard and I made it to the life raft and dad shot Hackett before he shot himself to make sure that little food and water we did have would be enough for me to survive and it did. It kept me alive until the raft reached that island." Oliver said, since not telling the truth about Hackett had caused enough problems.

"I'll have to reach out to Dave's family and let them know." Moira said and Oliver nodded, hoping that this would keep Sam from going down the same path he did before. Though if he'd learned one thing from his time as the spectre, it was that some things couldn't be changed, but he had to try.

"Good. I think that they should keep a close eye on Sam, just to be safe." Oliver said and Moira nodded as she continued to hug her son.

At the same time, back in Star City, Laurel Lance was currently suited up as Black Canary, taking down a local gun running ring that she was almost positive provided illegal weapons to every major crime syndicate in the city, which reminded her, when Oliver did come home, she needed to talk to him about using his connections in the Bratva to maybe get them to back off the city a bit, since that was the only criminal enterprise in the city they had any kind of control over.

Anyways, it was times like this that Laurel was very happy that she wasn't a solo act anymore. Her team was no longer just limited to herself in the field and her half sister Felicity Smoak running mission control. Now they also had a team doctor, something Team Arrow had never actually had before, Dr. Abby Sawyer and now Laurel had someone out in the field with her. Her sister's new girlfriend, Dawn Granger, or as she called herself now, Dove and Laurel now understood the connection Oliver had with Roy, since she'd already developed it with Dawn. The only reason Dawn was involved in this world at all was because she and Felicity had been together for about a year and she'd started to get suspicious about why Felicity kept disappearing on her, so one night, she followed her and discovered that Felicity was a vigilante and that Laurel was the Black Canary, even though until now, no one actually knew that the Black Canary existed, since Laurel's choice of weapon wasn't that uncommon, not to mention she never killed anyone, so it never made the news like the Hood's attacks had. Mainly because Laurel didn't want anyone to think of her as the city's hero, since that was Oliver's title. She was happy just being his partner.

Anyways, when Dawn found out, Laurel, Felicity and Abby, who'd already joined the team by that point, had been nervous that she'd either force Felicity to leave the team out of concern for her safety or worse, she'd turn them in and get their entire operation shut down. Fortunately, neither of those things had happened and instead Dawn had insisted that Laurel train her to be a vigilante like her, since both her parents had been killed due to gang violence in this city and she didn't want anyone else to suffer from that either. Laurel had been reluctant at first, since she'd never thought of herself as a teacher before. In fact, her plan had been to put Dawn off until Oliver came home so he could train her, since he was the one with experience in that department, but Dawn took the choice out of her hand when she began following Laurel to Black Canary scenes and getting into trouble until Laurel finally caved and agreed to train her and to her surprise, Laurel found that she was a natural teacher and Dawn had proven to be a quick study and soon Laurel had reached out to Bruce who'd had his people develop a silver and blue suit complete with a cape that resembled bladed feathers. And now Laurel was finally bringing her out into the field with her since the best teacher was experience and it was time for Dawn to start getting some. Especially if she wanted Oliver to keep her on Team Arrow, though now she'd have to come up with an explanation about why she was giving up command to Oliver, though she'd probably think of something regarding Oliver's military background.

Anyways, Black Canary and Dove had just finished taking out the last of the gunrunners and were preparing to bail before the police arrived when suddenly their comms became active.

"Black Canary, Dove, do you copy?" Felicity asked over the comms.

"Go ahead Overwatch, what is it?" Laurel asked.

"You guys need to get back to the Bunker now. There's something you need to see." Felicity said, causing Laurel and Dawn to look at each other.

"We're on our way." Laurel said as she and Dawn made their way to their bikes to head back to the bunker.