Unravel Me | Arrow [ COMPLETED ]

chapter seven

"There's dread in my heart and fear in my bones
And I just don't know what to say"
SAM SMITH – 'Pray'

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Waking up was like wading through molasses. Cali hated molasses. Her entire body felt heavy and numb, and her brain didn't seem to want to work properly. Her muted hearing could pick up some sort of dulled talking, but she couldn't differentiate the words. They were just swirly voices. God. she felt like she'd been drugged.

She hadn't been drugged, had she? She didn't remember being drugged. She didn't remember much after drinking her hot chocolate on the couch, the soothing music of the Lilo and Stitch introduction lulling her to sleep.

She groaned, the sound muffled by the fact that her face was smushed into a pillow. Even her tongue felt sluggish. Gingerly, she peeled her eyes open, blinking slowly in an attempt to clear her vision. How long had she slept for? Surely not that long, because she hadn't been woken up for Oliver's-

She sat bolt upright, even as her head spun

Oh my God, Oliver's court case.

"Easy," a voice soothed. "Everything's okay. You've been pretty deeply asleep."

'Malcolm?' Cali meant to ask, except her body still hadn't started working yet, so it came out sounding like, "Mmmlak?"

A hand rested on her shoulder for a moment, and a cold glass was pressed into her hands. She gripped onto it without thinking, her body managing automatic functions even if it couldn't manage thought-driven tasks currently. Robotically, she lifted the glass to her mouth and took a drink. The cold water seemed to kickstart something in her brain.

"Malcolm?" She tried again, blinking again to clear her vision. Slowly, very slowly, things came into focus. The 'swirly voices' turned out to merely be the news, playing quietly on the TV. Malcolm was crouched in front of her, watching her with keen eyes.

"Morning," he greeted easily. "Or late afternoon, I should say."

"Mm," Cali agreed intelligently, draining her glass of water. Her head was still spinning slightly, and the couch dipped and swayed under her, but a pressing anxiety forced her to focus. "Oliver's court case? Did it go okay? Why did you let me sleep? Why didn't Tommy ask for me? Malcolm-"

Malcolm shushed her, taking the glass from her now-trembling hands. "I texted Tommy and said you weren't feeling well. And then I couldn't wake you this morning so I just let you sleep."

"Oh."

She settled back down on the couch, cuddling into the blanket that was settled over her body. Her attention drifted to the TV, which was, coincidentally enough, playing a recap of Oliver's appearance at court that morning.

"As it stands, Oliver Queen's death-in-absentia has been vitiated, resurrecting the young billionaire and releasing him back into civilisation as a living man. Oliver refused to comment about his time away, and made no mention of the loss of his father. What a bittersweet morning the Queen family has faced."

Cali stopped listening, focused solely on the photo of Ollie that was plastered on the screen. Oliver's face was haunted and his lips were tight and thin. Cali had been right. He'd been forced to tell the story, and it had tugged at his carefully maintained tapestry of 'ignoring the problem until it goes away because I'm perfectly fine.'

Oliver was clearly not fine. Cali clearly should have been there for him. Tommy had been. Thea had been. It was Oliver's first week back and Cali was failing at being his friend. Maybe she'd changed too much to stand by him as she once had.