Time, Truth, Tragedy

Damage control

Chapter 3

Damage control

"A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work."

-John Lubbock

It was a strange feeling. Katie felt like she got knocked out of her body. Felt as if she were still sitting on that couch looking at the television screen. In reality, she did stand up and her and Oliver talked to Will and Ari and assured them that everything was fine and that they had everything under control. They gave them the option to stay home from school, but both chose to face whatever was waiting for them.

Once they were gone, Oliver stayed behind, still waiting for Katie to give some kind of reaction. She stood with him, helping him assure the kids that everything would be alright, when he's almost positive she doesn't believe any of it. At the moment, she disappeared into the bathroom. He took Robyn back to her room, and placed her in her crib, where she immediately stood to her feet and cried to get out.

"No dada, out, out!" she jumped up and down and Oliver sighed because he knew he wasn't going to leave her like this.

He picked her back up and brought her with him to their room. When he walked inside, the bathroom door was closed, so he walked over and knocked.

"Hey Twinkie, please come out so we can talk." he waited for her to respond, but he didn't hear anything. He glanced down to Robyn, seriously not wanting her to be here in case he had to break the door down. "Twinkie, we're going to be ok. I will take care of this." still nothing and he was starting to get worried. He shook his head because, he needed to put Robyn back in her room crying and all because he needed Katie out of the bathroom where he could see her and see that she was fine. He turned and only took a few steps before he heard the sound of the bathroom door open. He let out a sigh of relief. "Twinkie-"

"Stop." she said immediately. She walked over and took Robyn from him and met his eyes. "Just stop. If you're going into work, you need to get dressed and go." she moved around him, out of the room about to head to Robyn's room to get the girl dressed.

"Twinkie, I will fix this." Oliver said.

Katie stopped walking. She didn't immediately turn to him. Her eyes dropped to her daughter who just looked up to her mother and smiled. The truth, Katie was still downstairs sitting on that couch watching that television screen, replaying that image that the whole world could see. She couldn't be that woman on the couch now. The woman on the couch was bawling her eyes out and screaming and breaking things. So she'd be the calm and collected woman she is now. For her kids, and for Oliver even if he doesn't know it. She glanced back to him and just nods.

"Ok." she replies simply before stepping into Robyn's room.

Oliver dropped his shoulders, because he knew she really didn't believe him.

Felicity needed coffee and a lot of it. She was heading over to the bunker to see if they could figure out what they were doing next after the photo leak. After getting dressed, she headed downstairs to the kitchen and stopped because she didn't see her husband or step son. She narrowed her eyes before turning and heading down a hall that lead to a wall of pictures. She smiled at a picture of her, Bruce and Damian, the boy with a scowl because he didn't want to take the picture, but Bruce made him. She pulled the picture up and placed a palm on the wall. A scanner read her palm and the wall beside the pictures opened up. She walked over, climbing down the stairs, already hearing the clanks of bow staffs. She let out a heavy sigh as she reached the bottom of the steps and found the pair sparring.