The Starling Saviour

Chapter 26

'How was the session?' My boyfriend, Marcus, asked me as he picked me up from outside the psychiatrist's office.

'Mr Yates?' A receptionist called from behind her desk.

Marcus responded to her, walking up to the desk at once. They looked deep in conversation as I looked on from afar, and although it probably was about me, I just hoped it wasn't.

After all, all our sessions were 'confidential'.

'What was that about?' I asked quietly as Marcus rejoined me.

'Nothing, just about paying for your sessions so far,' Marcus smiled, at once giving me a fulfilling sense of certainty.

'I've already told you, I can pay for them myself,' I said stubbornly. 'You don't have to do this for me, Marcus.'

'But I do,' he said, squeezing my hand lovingly. 'I was the one to suggest the idea in the first place. The least I can do to help you is this.'

'But-'

'Aria, I'm paying for them,' he insisted, making me pipe down.

'So, how was work?' I asked after a while of silence.

We were now at Marcus' car, him holding the door open for me in a gentlemanly way.

'Not too bad, actually,' he smiled, sounding as if he had surprised himself. 'Mr Steele wants to branch out to more businesses overseas. Again.'

'I still don't understand why Moira didn't take up the company,' I said, shaking my head. 'I always assumed she had after Robert's death.'

'They're married, Aria,' Marcus reminded me with a raised eyebrow. 'Moira and Walter Steele. Of course he would've taken over the company.'

As we drove through the neighbourhood, we had to take a detour to the edge of the centre of the city, next to signpost marking the entrance to the Glades. The city was even more divided now, the gap between wealth and poverty increasing daily. Seeing the area for the first time in a while gave me sudden flashbacks about my Vigilantism, and how I both hated it and longed to defend my city once again. But I was a different person now; I had grown apart from Ted and become grounded in my new life with Marcus, my first partner in many years.

But my new life came with complications. The SCPD had refrained me from acting as an officer due to my new mental state, and I felt helpless as a Forensic Scientist. Yes, I had responsibilities; I had adopted my role as the Head of the Forensics Department, but somehow I didn't feel like I was doing enough.

I wasn't saving people.

To block out my unnerving thoughts, I turned the radio on to push my memories to the back of my mind. The last chorus of the overplayed popular tune 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen came to a stop, Marcus grinning at me as I rolled my eyes at the song.

'I swear I've heard this song on the radio every single day this month,' I remarked, my taste in music much different to what the rest of the world seemed to enjoy.

'Why are you always so hipster?' Marcus joked, laughing at me.

'Oh shush,' I sighed comically, before being interrupted by The News segment of the radio show.

'Oliver Queen is alive,' the anchorman said in a secrete surprise. 'The Starling City resident was found by fishermen in the North China Sea five days ago, five years after he went missing and presumed dead following the accident at sea which claimed the Queen's Gambit.'

Oliver was alive? How could this be? I had witnessed his death on the island, but all of a sudden he was walking the earth?

Shaking suddenly, I tried to control myself. My emotions were getting the better of me and I knew I needed to regain my strength. It was as if he had resurrected from the dead, and it was too overwhelming for me to comprehend.

Noticing my distress, Marcus pulled over and tried to calm me down with a hug.

'It's okay Aria,' he said quietly. 'It's okay.'

'How can he- he-' I stuttered, trying to comprehend such ideas.

He could've at least given some indication of his whereabouts, or that he was alive. But if he had been on the island for all that time, how could he?

One thing was for certain; Oliver Queen was back. And he wouldn't be the same Oliver that left.