Daughter of the Arrow

Chapter 6: Starting From The Ashes

Time to change this up!   Introducing... Dinah's P.O.V.

Warmth.

That was the first thing to filter through her mind, in that early morning.   It was also distinctly not the warmth of waking up in warm blankets.   At least, not entirely, she could feel the presence of said blanket.   However, she could feel another source of heat, something behind her.   She pressed her back into what was not something, but some one, behind her.   Her eyes flew open.  

Who was sleeping in her bed with her?

She tried to twist around, but found that the other person in the bed had his arms wrapped around her.   She struggled around, and came face to face with Oliver Queen.   Memories of the previous night came flooding back.

He was alive.

She drank in the sight of him.   The darkness of the night hadn't allowed her to get a complete look at him.   He had a full beard now, and as much as she and the kids had enjoyed teasing him over his it, she had loved the look of that dorky goatee on him.   Not that the beard looked bad... but it another thing that had changed, how ever minor that it was.   She wondered what the kids would think of his absent goatee.   The kids... no she didn't want to think about them.   It hurt too much to think of them.  Especially since the hurt was her fault.

She dragged her thoughts back to Ollie, not that that involved too much dragging.   It was nice to be able to think of him without feeling like she was about burst into tears of grief.   She might cry with joy though, but that was better.   

There were newer, though faded, scars on his face and arms.    She disentangled one of her arms, and reach up to touch his face.   It just felt too good to be true, but here he was.  Her Robin Hood was back.

He stirred, his eyes opening to reveal those green eyes that she hadn't seen in over four years.  

Yet she had seen them every day for the last three years.   When Olivia was born, she had looked very much like Dinah.   Olivia looked so much like her, that Dinah had worried that Olivia wouldn't have any features that was obviously Ollie's.   Then one day, about six months after Olivia was born,  Dinah had picked up her sleeping daughter.  Olivia had begun to wake as soon as her mother had picked her up, and her eyes had opened then for a split second, giving a flash of green.   Dinah had frozen, disbelieving what she thought she had seen, but then Olivia  fully opened her eyes, blinking sleepily and giving a small yawn.    Dinah hadn't imagined it, Olivia eyes had settled.   And they had settled in the shade of green that Ollie's had been.   Or rather, were.

"Morning, Prettybird."

Her breath caught in her throat, it was the nick-name she had never expected to hear again.   Her breath was just going to keep getting caught and stolen away from her today, wasn't it? 

"Morning, Ollie."

Ollie seemed content to hold her, and as much as she simply wanted to lie there with him for the rest of the day, she knew that they had things to do.   It was a good thing she had today off from the store.   If she hadn't had it off, she would have been calling in to get it off.  

The first order of business, it appeared, was to disentangle herself.   Ollie eased his hold on her as he realized that she was getting up.   She walked over the chest of drawers, dug through a lower drawer, and threw the articles of clothing at Ollie.   She was choosing her own clothes to wear for the day as Ollie called out:

"Now I have to wonder what you were doing having my clothing in your possession."   She didn't have to see his face to know that he was joking.   She just rolled her eyes and ignored him.