Daughter of the Arrow

Chapter 11: Forwards

Oliver stared, unseeing, at the door that Royce hadn't shut when he stormed out.   This was not going as well as he had hoped it would.   He had no illusions that everything was going to back to the way it was before as soon as they came home, but he had hoped for better.  

He knew that Royce was going to be resistant, but he hadn't anticipated Royce to storm out.   Royce was the one who had given the information to find Dinah.   He had helped Oliver find her.   Royce had clearly wanted Dinah to come back home , so why was he acting like this?   Why did his son have to be such a pain?   At least the others were taking this better.

They were taking this better, right?

He glanced at his other three kids, doubt rooting its way in.      Mia was glancing at the other two, trying to get someone to speak.   Artemis looked like she was wary of something.   Roy was staring at the ground, muttering something about immature, childish brothers.  

In that moment, everything fell into place.

Mia had tried her hardest to fill the holes he and Dinah had left.   She had tried to be the glue, the centre.

Artemis had already came from a damaged home.  With this fighting and this division, was this any better?

Roy was the most distant; the eldest but not the eldest.   A life that wasn't his own, a fact that had nearly wrecked him.

Royce was the one who didn't fit anywhere, the one who had fought, blamed, and caused the others reciprocate with the same.

This family was so... broken.

Oliver himself had been so lost for years, with fame, on the island, with life.   He didn't fit with the heroes.   Dinah didn't fit in the top of the world.   Mia had never had a family.   Royce had lost what was his life to someone else.   Roy struggled with his own image of who he was.   Artemis grew up in a family of conmen and villains.   Because of that terrible mission, Olivia hadn't had a father.

So many broken pieces.

Why had they ever thought this family had any hope?

At what point did a family become too broken to be called family?

Everyone was still standing in awkward silence when Royce's voice rang out as he reentered the room.   "Alright, who sent the brat after me?"

"No one sent anyone after you," Roy told Royce, giving a dull glare that Royce returned briefly.

"Wait, who do you mean by 'brat', Cynthia and Lian are both still in here," Mia asked her brother.

"No, the other one."   Royce gave his sister an eye roll.

"Do you mean Olivia followed you out, and none of us noticed?" Mia questioned in shock.

"None of you noticed the three year old following me outside," Royce said in disbelief.   "Seriously?   No one?"

That was the moment that Olivia chose to reenter the room.

"Olivia!   What on Earth were you doing outside?" Dinah cried.

Olivia looked in slight confusion.   "I followed him."   She pointed at Royce, who crossed his arms and glared at her in response.

"Why did you follow Roy-ce?" asked Dinah, stumbling over the end of Royce's name.

"Cause no one else was," Olivia said, looking like the model of innocence.

Why hadn't someone gone after him?  

Were they to use too him leaving?

Those were scary thoughts, and it was clear that they all, not just Oliver, were thinking it.

"Look," Royce said abruptly.   "I know you all want that easy, stupid, mushy, 'make up and move on like this never happened' reunion."   He sighed, dropping his gaze to the floor.   "But it's not that easy."   He glanced at his siblings.   "Maybe you all have the ability to just... drop and ignore everything that has happened.   Whether it be from before Ollie went missing, during it, after it, or whatever else.   But I just..." he trailed off with a frustrated sigh, refusing to make eye contact.

"I just can't," he finished quietly.   "As much as I want to, I can't.   Not now.   Not right now."

"What about someday?"

The adults turned at the soft voice that spoke up.   Shyly, Olivia spoke again, "You said not now.   So what about someday?"   Green eyes met blue as the four year old petitioned to her older brother.

Royce knelt down to her level.   "Maybe someday," he agreed.

"Okay," she said before attacking him with a hug.   He awkwardly hugged her back.

After his little sister let go, Royce stood up and turned to Dinah.   Hope sparkled in her eyes, though tapered by remorse.    "I'm sorry, and I mean that," Dinah said to him.   "I hope that someday you'll excepted it."

"Maybe someday," Royce repeated.   He turned to Oliver.   "I'm going to leave now, but I will be back."   He glanced around at the entire group.   "You can't ditch family forever.".

Oliver watched his son walk out the front door, again.   But this time, Royce moved with purpose, not undirected anger.   And this time, Oliver knew that he'd be back.   This family wasn't splitting up again.

Things were never going to be easy, he had known that the day he had become the Green Arrow. The day he adopted Roy.   The day he fell for Dinah.   The day that he had gone to Artemis's mother to ask about Artemis becoming part of the Team.   The day he found out that there were two Roy's.   The day he adopted Mia.   The day he left for that ill-fated mission.   The day he came home.   And everyday between.

But none of that mattered.   Because he had his family.   As crazy, broken, damaged, whatever you wanted to call it, as it was; it was his.   And he wouldn't trade it for the universe.