Harleen Merlyn is the youngest daughter of Malcolm Merlyn and grew up in Starling City her whole life. Despite being Tommy's younger sister she spent most of her days with the trio; Oliver, Tommy, and Laurel. Although, she was closer with the two bo...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I walked out of my bathroom that night, toweling my wet hair after my shower. John had cross matched a 74 Ford Pickup at the scene of Danny's murder and a recent fire that Oliver had gone to check out. I was waiting for him to get back to fill me in on what happened.
I startled when I saw Oliver sitting on one of my chair over by my balcony, still in his Hood costume. "Oliver..." I breathed out, making a point of locking the door so anyone couldn't just walk in and see him like this before tossing my towel into the hamper. "How'd it go."
"I got a pretty good look at him," he told me, but didn't look up from the table top. "He's got a burn scar on his wrist and a Tattoo of a firefly. All the men in Engine Company 15 had firefly tattoo's. Anyone of them could be the killer, that should be enough to start an investigation."
My face fell at that, crossing my arms tightly against my chest, "so, you're really not going to see this one through?"
"I can't right every wrong in this city."
I scoffed at that, "I get that, Oliver, so don't try and act like I'm clueless - like I don't know what this is really about."
Oliver finally looked up at me, resting against the back of the chair and tilting his head slightly, "what is it about, then, Harley?"
I didn't say anything, just reached inside my drawer and pulled out one of my knives. Without a word, I threw it at him and he easily ducked out of the way so it landed in the wall where his head once was.
He looked at me, startled, "what did that just prove?"
"That this thing that's going on with you, it isn't physical..." I shook my head, taking a couple steps forward. "It's mental."
"I never said I had a problem." Oliver's voice rose slightly as he jumped to his feet.
"You didn't have to," I rose my voice right back, not backing down from his intense gaze. I took another step forward, "I can see it every time I look at you. This Copy Cat, he got in your head, and he took something from you."
"Harley..." he trailed off, his voice low and held a silent warning in it.
I ignored it, taking another step forward and placing a hand over his heart, "that little thing in your heart, that lets you jump off buildings and stop bad guys without a second thought. He's making you doubt yourself."
Oliver shook his head, his jaw set, "thanks for the analysis."
"You can avoid it all you want Oliver and you can lash out at me, but it's not gonna fix anything." I slid my hand up his chest and to his face, forcing him to actually look at me. Forcing him to see how serious this was, and how I wasn't going to just let him walk away from this. "But, until you face that fear inside of you, you're letting that other Archer win."
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took a step back from me to answer it, "text from Tommy." I scoffed at that. "He needs me to run an errand for the benefit."
"No," I caught Oliver's hand as he tried to leave, shaking my head. "No, you don't get to walk away from the conversation this time. You can't keep hiding from this."
"I'm not hiding," he insisted, his voice low.
I cocked my head at that, "then what are you doing, Ollie? It's not like you to sit back and let the police, of all people, handle things. I can't read your mind... you have to talk to me."
"I'm not hiding," he echoed. "I'm not afraid. I've... I've been close to death on the island more times than I can remember, and I never feared it... because I had nothing to lose." I loosened my grip on his hand, but I didn't let go, my gaze holding his. "But, when that archer almost killed me, when I stared death in the face then... I thought about all the people I've let into my life since I've been back. My family... Laurel, Tommy... you..."
"Oliver..." I whispered, feeling his hand tighten around mine.
"And that made me afraid," he admitted. "I thought about what would happen to all of you, if you lost me... again. And for the first time in a long time... I had something to lose."
"You're wrong," I told him and he looked at me curiously. I grabbed his other hand, gripping them tightly and peering up at the taller boy. "Caring about someone... loving them, it's not a bad thing. You can face death with something to lose or not... but, when you do it makes you stronger... it give you a reason to fight."
Oliver was silent as he stared down at me and I slowly let go of his hands to place my own hands on my hips, "so, are you in, or not?"
"I'm in," He gave in, giving me a curt nod that made me smile brightly at him.
"Good, now that unit you were talking about. Engine Company 15... they disbanded 2 years ago after the Nodell Tower Fire..." I moved around him to the computer and quickly pulled up an article. Oliver sat down to scan it, but I still gave him a quick over view. "Nothing in the building was up to code and the fire ate away at the structure within minutes. 18 firemen and only this guy died," I pointed at the picture in the article. "Garfield Lynns."
"It says here that the bodies were so badly burned that they couldn't even identify them by dental records," he pointed to a small paragraph and I scanned it quickly, before cocking my head to the side to look at him. "What if Garfield Lynn's didn't die."
"That's a stretch..." I told him and he shook his head.
"No, intuition," he corrected me and I smirked.
"It'd explain why he's knows which guys were previously apart of his old unit," I caved, frowning slightly. "But, why would he be attacking his own comrades."
"Let's ask the Fire Marshall when we see him tonight." I met his gaze to see him with this knowing look in his eyes - a look in his eyes I hadn't seen him have in almost six weeks now.
