Time, Truth, Tragedy

Renewed Lies

Chapter 17

Renewed Lies

"There are no secrets that time does not reveal. "
-Jean Racine

Katie and Oliver stood with bright smiles as they stood on their porch waving as their guests got into their cars to leave. The couple had just spent the last couple of hours hosting the second birthday party of one Robyn Maisie Queen for some of her friends from day care and their parents.

"Is it over?" Katie asked through the her smile as she just continued waving.

"Almost." Oliver replied.

Once the final car pulled off, he brought an arm around her and lead her back inside, where they both fell back in exhaustion against the front door.

"You two look like you're having fun." John laughed as he passed the couple. He along with Felicity, Thea, and the team had stayed behind to help clean up. "You thought inviting a couple of kids over for a party would be a piece of cake, didn't you?"

"Other people's kids are just little demons." Katie said.

"And I had to pay the magician extra after those kids decided to kick him for no reason." Oliver sighed as he slid a hand over his face. He looked around, noticing he only saw John, but knew the others were there. "Where is everybody?"

"Where do you think?" John chuckled with a shake of his head before continuing to clean.

Oliver and Katie walked down the hall, and into the kitchen, already hearing the voices as they neared. The found the after party in the walk in closet where Harry and her puppies were currently staying.

"You know when you said you were going to help us clean up, we actually believed you." Katie said only to be ignored as they all seemed to be focused on the puppies.

"How do you guys have four puppies and haven't named them." Curtis cooed playing with the black and white puppy in his hands.

"Don't blame us." Ari said sitting next to Thea who currently had a puppy asleep in her lap. The teen looked over to Oliver. "The Mayor won the contest of correctly naming how many puppies Harry was going to have, and the winner was given puppy naming rights but he's refusing to give them names."

"I told you, if we give them names, it will make it harder for us to give them away." Oliver said.

"Then maybe we shouldn't give them away." Will replied, a puppy lounging in the pocket of his hoodie. He looked over to his dad. "Can't we just have five dogs?"

"No, we can't have five dogs." came Oliver's quick answer. "Now, up, there's still a lot that needs to be cleaned, and I don't want to be at this all night." He looked over to Ari. "And since, you Will and Damian decided to totally disappear after promising to help, I think you three should start with the clean up."

Damian looked over to the man from his spot next to Felicity who seemed to be cradling a sleeping puppy in her arms.

"It was a baby party. Who wants to hang out at a baby party?" Damian replied and Felicity just laughed before nudging his arm.

The boy just rolled his eyes before he and Will stood to their feet and headed out to start cleaning. Oliver grabbed the puppy from Will, much to the boy's annoyance before they left. The man lifted the puppy, his fur all white, with a streak of black over his right eye.

"You're getting attached." Bruce said from his spot at the door looking over to Oliver.

"No I'm not." Oliver replied before placing the puppy back over by his mother where he curled up next to her.