The Starling Saviour

Chapter 31

But I never got to the coffee shop. The Reverse Flash enjoyed interrupting my journeys.

'It seems I didn't make myself clear,' The Reverse Flash growled. 'I told you to stay away from Oliver.'

'I realised that I made a terrible mistake not being friends with him,' I stood up to him. 'And you can't to do anything to me that'll change my mind.'

'Not even Marcus could stop you,' The Reverse Flash said with disapproval. 'I guess he's no use to me now.'

'You're the one who Marcus works for?' I exclaimed with astonishment.

'He never loved you, Aria,' The Reverse Flash said as though he was laughing underneath all that camaraderie. 'He was just doing what I told him. To keep you away from Oliver Queen. But it looks like you don't care about him anymore.'

'You... Know I left him?' I asked, surprised yet again.

'I know everything, Miss Coleman,' he jeered menacingly. 'I know that you don't love Marcus anymore.'

'Well apparently we didn't have anything in the first place!' I said angrily. 'That's what you said, anyway.'

'Be warned, or I may have to kill you myself,' The Reverse Flash threatened.

But I didn't care what he had to say. I was going fix things with Oliver, Tommy, Laurel and the Queen family before it was too late.

---

Walking back through the city square, I found another old friend. Tommy.

'... Hey,' Tommy greeted me awkwardly. 'What brings you here?'

'I... Went on a walk,' I said quickly, trying to cover up my brief meeting with The Reverse Flash. 'I forgot you took your Sunday walks here.'

'I thought you'd do anything in your power to stay away from me,' Tommy joked, but soon realised something had happened. 'You don't seem... Yourself. Where's Marcus? You're always with him.'

'He's not important here,' I denied anything that had happened between us. 'I just found out that someone I knew wasn't who I thought they were. And that they didn't love me.'

'It is Marcus,' Tommy carried on like he was a sleuth or something. 'What did he do to you?'

'I left him, okay,' I said with a sigh. 'He was too controlling. I realised that he kept me away from you. And Oliver. And Laurel.'

'Finally!' Tommy said with happiness, making me laugh. 'Now you can actually go out with us on a Friday night. You don't have to worry about him anymore.'

'Maybe I don't want to go clubbing with you and your Playboy pals,' I said sarcastically.

'I mean me, you, Oliver and Laurel,' Tommy explained. 'It'll be like a non-romantic double date.'

'Well, not for me and Oliver,' I agreed. 'But you and Laurel - Tommy, I know you're both together. Her father likes to frequently rant at me about how he disagrees with the relationship.'

'But, we're not officially... A couple yet,' Tommy said, lowering his voice in panic. 'What does he know?'

'Do you think you can hide something like this from him for four, even five years?' I supposed, trying not to laugh at Tommy's naïvety.

'No,' Tommy agreed with me. 'But I thought Mr Lance would want to try to believe we weren't a thing.'

'He's a detective, Tommy,' I reminded him. 'He can read between the lines way too easily.'

'Do you wanna grab a coffee?' Tommy invited me to join him.

'I was just about to go to SC Jitters actually,' I remembered what I was doing before The Reverse Flash showed up. 'I'd love to.'

We talked for hours, catching up on each other's lives. I really had missed these meet ups, and I was glad I had resolved them.

'Do you know where Oliver keeps disappearing off to?' Tommy asked me in a hushed voice. 'He's been acting... Weird lately.'

'He just returned to civilisation after 5 years,' I told Tommy. 'Of course he's going to be acting weird.'

'Do you think it changed him?' Tommy asked me with prolonged concern. 'Being on that island, it must have been awful. He won't talk about it, Oliver.'

'I'm sure it must've been hard,' I said, trying to be as vague as possible to cover up my past on the island. 'Being lonely for that long. Away from your friends, your loved ones. Oliver will have changed; his survival instincts will have kicked in and he would have had to adapt to his surroundings. But now, he's adapting back to what this city is like, and I'm sure he'll get used to it all soon enough.'

---

Returning to Laurel's apartment, I unpacked the groceries I had bought her and sat down on the couch, happy at last. I had not only one, but two more people in my life who I desperately wanted to see all these years, and now Marcus was out of the picture, I was free to do anything I liked and converse with anyone I wanted. He really had been too controlling, and it had taken me four years to realise that.

After a few hours of solitude, I heard a strange noise from outside the window. Peering out through the glass, I caught sight of a shadow of a man lurking at the side of the building. The noises became louder, and so I hid in the nearest cupboard, defenceless.

After five minutes of peering through the gap between the door and the frame without a show, I heard the door of the apartment unlock. Laurel was back. It was silent, she obviously realising something was wrong too.

And then he came into view. The Hood was there, standing in Laurel's apartment.

But why?

'Hello Laurel,' The Hood said in a rather robotic voice.

'Don't move,' she yelled firmly, pointing her emergency gun at The Hood steadily.

'I'm not gonna hurt you,' The Hood said, showing her that his bow was unloaded.

'Stay back,' Laurel demanded. 'My father's a cop. You're making a huge mistake.'

'I'm not the person you think I am,' The Hood explained. 'And I need your help. Peter Declan is gonna be executed in 48 hours. I think he's innocent. Declan's wife was gonna blow the whistle on Jason Brodeur. Brodeur had her murdered.'

'There are a thousand lawyers in Starling City,' Laurel argued. 'Why me?'

The Hood pushed Laurel's gun down, now inches away from her. She lowered it, giving in to The Hood and his charm.

'We're both trying to help,' The Hood further explained his ways.

'What makes you so sure I'm going to help you?' Laurel questioned him.

'Because I know you'd do anything to save the life of an innocent man,' The Hood answered her, before disappearing.

But was Laurel actually going to take up The Hood's request and believe that Declan could be innocent? I was just going to have to wait and see.