Follow the Arrow

Thea supposed that Oliver was at least slightly correct. She probably should make a few weeks before making waves with her mother. Her plans for the future would work best if her family didn’t have reason to look to hard at what she was doing. “Fine, I won’t stay anything…for now.”

Thea let out a relieved breath as he said that she could borrow some clothes. “Thanks. I guess I’ve got to go shopping some time in the next few days.” The idea was not a pleasant one. She had no idea what was in fashion these days nor where to even start.

With that said, Thea made her way into her adjoining bathroom. It would take a long while to wash away five years, but she had to try, did she? Staring into the mirror above the sink, she could recognize herself in the looking glass. She had mission to fulfill.

“Thanks, Speedy.  The last thing I’d want is for you to be on the rocks with her when you just got here.”  Especially not over him.  Now that Thea was home and safe it didn’t really matter to him whether he ever got back into QC now - the only reason he’d been there before was to find her.  And given that the relationship between he and Moira was already strained to breaking, at least there would be one child in the house who didn’t dislike.

Oliver smiled.  “Yeah - I’m sure Mom would take you, if you wanted.”  He’d have suggested Laurel, but they didn’t really speak any more and he wasn’t going to be the one to heal that rift.  “Time for a whole new wardrobe.”

It wasn’t funny, she knew that, but she couldn’t resist the urge to laugh at the image that his words created in her head. “I’m s-sorry,” she said amid giggles, “it’s horrible that the b-board has banned you, Ollie. I just…I keeping imagining the stuffed shirts getting verbally reamed by the men in the black.”

As the bubbles of joy faded from her chest, Thea patted his shoulder lightly, frowning at the sight of the dirt still embedded under nails. She’d scrubbed at her hands in the hospital, but still some grime remained. Seeing the dirt in stark contrast to his suit jacket, it was a physical reminder that she supposed she’d never lose. She’d be forever the dirty, grime reality…always separated from the people she’d cared about most with no way to bridge the distance.

“I’ll take care of it, Ollie. They can’t keep you banned now.” With that said, Thea sat up once more, keeping her eyes on the thin dim line of brown beneath the hard surface of her nails. “I…um, I think I’m gonna grab a shower if that’s okay? I took one at the hospital, of course, but…” She shrugged, standing slowly, “You’re more than welcome to stay here obviously.”

Thea made her way over to her dresser, pulling open a couple of the drawers only to realize that all the clothing inside would no longer fit her. True, she’d gained little in the way of weight, gaining muscle and height instead. Turning back to offer her brother a sheepish smile, “Could I maybe borrow something to wear, Ollie? None of this is going to fit and I don’t really feel like spending the day in these hospital scrubs.”

Oliver might have been offended when Thea began to laugh, except that he saw the absurdity of it the same as she did.  A few days before there would have been nothing that could have made him smile, but now that Thea was home and alive there was nothing that his banning from QC could do .  The damage was already done, and though it hadn’t brought her home the way he’d dreamed of it had still been more than anyone else was willing to do.  “I wish I’d have been there for it, honestly.  I think I used a few billion dollars of equipment.”

He shook her head in response to her promise, though.  “Trust me, Speedy, there’s nothing good to come of arguing with Mom on my behalf.  You just got home, you might as well give it a few weeks before you make her angry with you and just enjoy her good graces for now.”  There was no redeeming him in Moira’s eyes, and that fight would only lead to bad things for them both.  “Of course it’s okay,” he nodded.  “Hospital showers aren’t all that great, especially not compared to the water pressure we get here.”  He watched as she searched for clothes, smiling at the realization that her old clothes wouldn’t fit.

“Ollie,” Thea mumbled softly reaching out for him instinctively, “Thank you.” She laid her hand upon his shoulder, “Thank you for looking for me.” A soft genuine smile molded to her lips as she shifted slightly to rest her head upon his shoulder in place of her hand, “But I hate the thought of you wasting your life on my account.” He should be out there in the world, making a name for himself all on his own. He was a strong person; he deserved to be recognized for who he was, not just because of his surname.

“Wait,” She said, looking up into his face in confusion, “What do you mean you were barred from Q.C.?”

At Oliver’s acknowledgement of their mother’s new relationship, Thea rolled her eyes before pulling back to her original position on the bed, “Why bother hiding it, though? They’re both single, aren’t they? They’re allowed to date.”

Oliver wanted nothing more than to play it off like it was nothing.  It was what any good big brother should do, after all, and the sad fact was that he hadn’t actually found her.  Hadn’t actually been the one to help bring her home.  Turning his head when she laid on his shoulder, he kissed the crown of her head and smiled.  “It was never a waste.  I don’t regret a single minute of it.”  He didn’t have that much to offer the world anyway, he was sure.

“Uh...” that had slipped out, and he regretted letting her know it.  “Long story short, those military drones and satellites I repurposed were...well, I didn’t exactly have permission for any of that.  The military had some harsh words for the company, and the company had some harsh words for me.  So yeah, technically I’m not allowed within five hundred feet of the place anymore.”

The knowledge that he had continued the search long after everyone else had given up warmed her heart. “Why bother, Ollie?”” Realizing how that might’ve sounded to her older brother, “Not that I don’t appreciate it, because I do, but if everyone else gave up…” She trailed off slowly unable to truly articulate her thoughts on the subject.

The topic change to her mother and Walter was surprisingly easier to handle than how Oliver stood alone in his search for their father and herself. “So they’re fucking now?” In all honesty, Thea didn’t truly care whether they were banging or not, it was more about the fact that they didn’t think enough of her to know she’d put it together.

“Because I’m not everyone else,” Oliver murmured.  “They might have given up on you, but I wasn’t going to.  Hell, if I wasn’t barred from Queen Consolidated property I’d have had those drones flying until the day you came home.”  You weren’t just some sunken ship, or some lost flight that was a vague memory after a month.  You’re my sister.  You’re Speedy.  And I wasn’t going to stop until I knew where you were.”  At least, that had been the plan.

“Really?” Thea asked, eyes widening slightly, “drones are legitimately a thing now? That’s so cool.” She’d known that the world had changed in her absence, but this was the first specific example of it. “But it doesn’t seem like the type of stuff you would be into.” Last time she’s checked Oliver had been into women and drinking, was it possible that he’d changed that much?

“So,” she said, dragging out the syllable slowly, “what did I miss, Ollie? Fill me in. Start with Mom and Walter, please. They must think I’m blind or something, but it’s so obvious there is something going on.”

“They’re still pretty niche, but the military’s made some pretty incredible ones,” Oliver nodded.  And tapping into those was one of the reasons he wasn’t allowed on company property anymore.  “They weren’t...” he licked his lips and tried to come up with phrasing that wouldn’t make Thea worry unnecessarily.  “They weren’t ‘for fun’ hobbies.  There was only so many ways I could keep the search up after it had been called off, and those were the best of them.”  He wasn’t going to go into his other hobbies unless Thea pressed him on it.

Thea was half-tempted to laugh as Oliver claimed that his story wasn’t as exciting as hers was. She didn’t need exciting stories, nor did she want them, she just wanted to hear his story. Five years was a long time to be apart and she wanted to be clued into his life…at least a little. Of course, what information he offered her wasn’t exactly of any value.

He was being vague on purpose, that much Thea could tell based upon his body language and word choices. Why was not as easy to deduce, but she wasn’t about to call him on it directly. If she did so, Oliver would no doubt clam up on the matter. It would be better to go slowly and glean what she could from their conversation as a whole.

“I know,” she said softly, leaning slightly in his direction so as to bump his shoulder lightly, “that you all must have done the best that you could.” She turned onto her side and looked him directly in his eyes. She was desperate for him to understand that she wasn’t blaming him, wasn’t blaming anyone, for not finding her. There was nothing that they could have done. “I just couldn’t be found yet.” 

Her eyes light up a little at the mention of a new hobby, “Oh? Like what?”

Oliver bit down hard on his lip, trying to keep himself from responding negatively to her assurances.  Maybe Thea was willing to forgive them for not discovering her location for so long, but it would be a long time before he was willing to extend that forgiveness to Laurel and Tommy - their fight when both of his friends had declared their involvement with the search ended was the sort of knock-down, drag-out one that cut their lines of communication forever.  No matter how much it hurt to keep searching alone, Oliver wasn’t willing to let bygones be bygones.  When Thea looked at him he met her eyes for just a moment and nodded, trying his best to smile.

Thea smiled a little, watching as he took a seat next to her. It was certainly a bit of a shock seeing her room as it had been, but it was even more jarring to see Ollie as he was now. This, however, was a good shock. She’d meant what she’d said to him in the foyer. He had indeed been with her the whole time she’d been…gone.

Whenever things got too much on the island, she’d returned her attention to happy memories, most of which Oliver’d a starring role in. When she’d flounder for what to do or how to handle a situation, she’d just tried to imagine what her big brother would do if their places were reversed. While it didn’t always end well, Thea always knew she did the best that she could. Unconsciously, she muttered under her breath, “God, I’ve missed you.”

Mirroring his relaxed posture, Thea shook off the melancholy thoughts, “Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been in the past five years, huh? Still breaking hearts and taking names?”

Oliver wasn’t sure whether Thea had meant for him to hear what she said, and so he decided not to respond and call attention to it.  But he had missed her more than she could ever know as well, and he certainly echoed her sentiment.  Having her back beside him, in the room she’d grown up in, was almost too good to be true; and if it hadn’t been for the fact that he’d spent the morning getting glared at by Moira he’d be tempted to write it off as a fevered hallucination or the leftovers of whatever he’d taken the night before.  But his fantasies didn’t generally include his mother.

Thea jumped slightly, startled as he came to rest upon her shoulder. “yeah, I-” she sighed, “guess I never thought that I would have to face who I used to be like this, you know? It’s…hard.”

He might not have thought that being reminded of who she once was was a bad thing, but Thea did. That girl was naive, weak. She had been useless; a pretty ornament for their family tree. Yet, despite knowing all of that, Thea worried that she’d fall back into her old habits and lose track of her goals.

No, I won’t allow myself, Thea reprimanded herself mentally. Her trunk was a heavy remainder in her hand. I have things to accomplish. “It’s just a room,” she echoed, pulling herself to her full height and reaching for the doorknob.

As the door opened with a rather ominous squeak, Thea moved into the door-frame, her eyes sweeping around the room, taking everything in. While both her mother and brother had assured her that everything was how she left it, she was somehow still surprised to see it exactly as it had been. There wasn’t even a layer of dust on anything (she assumed that was courtesy of the household staff.) It was as if she’d stepped back in time.

With Oliver’s presence at her back, Thea moved further into the room, setting her trunk down in front of her empty fireplace before moving towards her bed. She ran her hands over the flower-patterned bedspread, hopping up on it after a moment.  She patted the spot next to her on the queen-sized bed, “Come sit, Ollie, talk to me.”

“I can imagine...well, no, I can’t imagine, but I can make an educated guess at least.  I know it’s got to be tough to come back to everything after this long, and how weird it’s got to be to walk into this little time capsule.  But even if the room hasn’t changed, you have - just think of it like an old yearbook photo at a high school reunion.  You used to be this person, now you’re this person.”  There had been at least one argument about modernizing it a little before she got home, but Moira had won that one handily.

“Just a room,” he repeated one more time as she opened the door and stepped in.  As much as he wasn’t going to admit it, it was hard for Oliver to be there too - especially with Thea in the room.  He had sat on her bad, unbeknownst to his mother, more than once over the years and had conversations with an absent sister.  It had been much too long since he’d had the real thing to talk to, but his concern was that she might actually see under the mask he wore to the shell of a person he’d become.

Music wasn’t Thea’s primary concern at the moment. Hell, it wasn’t even on her list of things to deal with, but it felt like a safe enough topic of conversation. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She noted the odd exchange between mother and son, but said nothing in the moment. Oliver and Moira had always been close as any normal parent-child relationship. In fact, their closeness had been something she’d enived as a kid, for she and her mother had always felt a bit like strangers who were tolerating each other because they had to. There was something off in the way that her eyes narrowed and her tone of voice though when their mother spoke to Oliver. Thea resolved to pry the answer from her brother later when it was the two of them.

“No, I got it,” Thea said, hefting the trunk a bit higher to emphasis her point, “but thanks.” She offered him a small smile before starting up the stairs, heading up to the bedroom that she hadn’t seen in five years time.

Once at the top of the stairs, Thea slowed her stride to match Oliver’s and together they reached her bedroom door. Despite herself, Thea couldn’t quite manage to put her hand on the knob and turn it. All of the sudden going in there felt too huge, too monumental of a task. The room beyond that door, if it was indeed exactly as she had left it, belonged to a girl who no longer existed. A girl whose only concerns in life were homework and boys, trivial things.  There was no part of Thea that even remembered that naive child. She knew that she must seem like an idiot to her brother, just standing in the hallway, staring the door without saying anything.

He wasn’t surprised when Thea turned down his offer to carry the trunk, although he was secretly pleased - if she was carrying it, then it was less likely that he’d fall as he ascended the stairs.  The shakes had nearly stopped, but he knew his balance wasn’t up to that this early in the...well, afternoon, but the point was the same.  Oliver followed behind her, keeping a firm hand on the rail and ignoring the way he could feel their mother’s gaze boring into the back of his head.  She must be dying to say something, but she was clearly going to wait until they were alone once more.

A small answering chuckle followed Oliver’s teasing statement, “They weren’t horrible, Ollie; they were fun and upbeat. Unlike your taste in music which was…too loud, bass-heavy, and far too depressing. Seriously, Ollie, I hope you grew out of that angst-y, teenage-boy-like phase of yours.” She jest in return, pulling out of the hug slowly, but keeping a hand on his shoulder, just in case.

Suddenly remembering that they were not alone, Thea turned to the rest of the people watching them, “I’m a little worn out. I was thinking maybe I could go get settle in my room?” With that said, she moved to grab the wooden trunk she’d left by the main entrance and moved back to Oliver’s side easily enough, “Why don’t join me, Ollie? We can get caught up a bit.”

Oliver shook his head, glad to have something to talk about that wasn’t very serious.  “I’d argue with you, but I think you’ve probably earned the right to listen to as much Backstreet Boys and...whatever the other ones were that you want after everything.  And I’ll pretend you didn’t say that, because we both know my taste in music is outstanding.”  If anything his tastes had gotten darker since she left, but it wasn’t the time to get into that.  Chances were she’d hear some of it when he was drowning out their mother.  Thea’s hand on his shoulder was good - solid, steady, and there.

“Of course, dear,” Moira began, but her eyes narrowed when she invited Oliver to join her.  “Don’t bother her for too long, Oliver.  I’m sure your sister has some catching up to do.”

Thea watched Oliver move towards her; her sharp eyes taking in every slight misstep, every little wobble. A small frown turned down her lips, but she refrained from mentioning it. She did, however, move to meet him halfway so that he didn’t have to walk further than necessary.

Once in his arms, Thea wrapped her arms around his upper back in return. She rested her head just below the top of his shoulder and snuggled into his warmth. She took a small breath, inhaling his scent, and underneath the stale aroma of alcohol, Thea could smell the comforting notes that had always belonged to Oliver; the scent of home. 

“I missed you too, Ollie,” Thea whispered, pulling him tighter to her unconsciously. He felt slightly skinnier, a touch too unsteady in her grasp. What happened to him in the last five years? “You were with me the whole time.”

@tipofthearrow​

While he didn’t mention aloud, there was no small amount of gratitude in Oliver’s hug when Thea kept him from having too much further in front of their mother.  Not that his condition was any secret to her, but the last thing she needed was one more example to rub in his face.  That happened enough already.

Having his sister in his arms again felt like finding the last piece of a puzzle.  The family hadn’t been whole without her, and that was doubly true of him.  Having her back wasn’t going to be a magic solution that fixed the family screw-up, but at least he had something that made him feel more grounded, more connected to the world even without a fresh drink in his hand.

Thea looked up the stairs and felt a weight lift from her chest as her green eyes landed on her brother. He looked older, but not just the five years worth of it that was to be expected. Not to mention the bags under his eyes and the way that he generally appeared unkempt, the suit didn’t seem to fit him exactly right either. Why? she wondered. How had their years apart treated him?

“Hi, Ollie,” she said, letting the first easy smile grace her lips. It felt odd; it had been so long since she’d a reason to smile. Despite the obvious differences in his appearance, he was still her Ollie.

She’d thought about him quite frequently while on Lian Yu. She had pondered what he was up to, if he was still debating between the Lance sisters. Had he finally gotten his act ‘together’ and found the right woman? Had he found his life’s calling? Thinking about his life was her bit of escapism on that damned island.

“It’s been awhile…” she said with a lilting tone, pushing her long hair behind her right ear. 

Oliver’s answering chuckle was weak, despite how good it felt to see his sister in the flesh.  The long hair was going to take some adjustment, so radically different from the last style she’d worn, but aside from that she looked beautiful.  The years she’d spent god knows where, doing god knows what, had agreed with her in ways that he hadn’t expected.  She’d blossomed from a gangly teenager into a beautiful young woman, even if her time in exile had given her a hardened edge that looked strange on her face.

“Yeah, it has,” he finally answered, crossing the floor toward her with a wobble in his step.  Five years of alcohol and worse hadn’t exactly left him in the best if shape, and despite his best efforts he knew that it showed in his motions.  He wasn’t about to lay any of that on Thea, though, and he planned to keep silent about his bad habits - playing off his shakiness as a bad night if she asked.

Thea entered the foyer of their family mansion slowly, weary of the memories that threatened to overwhelm her. She set her wooden suitcase down by the door before following her mother’s subtle directive to join the small group lingering near the staircase. Moira stood next to their family acquaintance, Walter Steele, who had no compunction about pulling her into an unsolicited hug.

“It’s so good to see you, Thea.” Walter said. Thea didn’t return the hug or sentiment, choosing instead to just stand in his hold until he released her.

Before anyone could say or do anything else, Thea heard a tell-tale click from the second floor of their home. Given that she could see Raisa behind her mother, there was only one other person that could be upstairs then. A small smile started on her lips as she approached the bottom of the staircase, waiting for him to finally appear.

@tipofthearrow

“Thea’s been found.  Do you think maybe you could drag yourself out of your stupor long enough to greet her when she comes home?”

Moira’s words had been, as they always were, delivered with an icy edge.  Since his father and sister had disappeared and been declared dead after the sinking of the Queen’s Gambit, Oliver had spent his days becoming ever more of a disappointment to his mother.  The late nights, the drinking, the women - and those were just the things she knew about.  If she’d suspected in any way just what he got up to in the bars and clubs he knew that he’d never hear the end of it.

The demon made an assumption, on how Thea would have reacted to Oliver’s actions and statements, and rolled with it. “They are not lies, Oliver,” it snapped in a pretty good imitation of anger, “Malcolm’s my father. He cares about me. He wanted to bond with me.” She glared at him, furious, undoing the seat belt on the airplane seat and stood in the narrow, “What’s so wrong with that? What’s so impossible about that? Just because you only care about me and my life when its convenient for you doesn’t mean everyone else has to.”

Completely ignoring everything else that he continued to say, the invading spirit marched away from their seats towards the back of the plane. He’s infuriatingly stupid, why do I have to keep him alive? It grumbled in her head, as if Thea would sympathize with its plight. Why does Malcolm insist on keeping him around?

The threatening grumbles didn’t worry Thea. She knew, as did her body-snatcher, that Oliver was vital to Malcolm’s plot and that the demon had to listen to its master. It pulled back the navy blue curtain to the galley and stepped inside the tiny cramped. Two flight attendants looked over at her in surprise, “Miss? Can we help with you?”

The incorporeal being gave them a shaky smile, “No, thank you. I’m just a nervous flyer and I need some air.” That was the right explanation apparently because the two employees gave twin nods and went back to their work.

Whatever might be going on with Thea, Oliver wasn’t going to let those comments ride without a response even though she was walking away from him.  “Don’t give me that!” he called at her back.  “My mistakes don’t have anything to do with the fact that your loving father tried to destroy a good chunk of the city, and this faux affection he’s showing you doesn’t change that he’s a psycho.  Open your eyes, Thea, you know better than this!”

Once she was in the galley, Oliver gave in to his earlier urge and reached over to slap Roy in the back of the head.  “What the hell was that?  I hope you never play poker, because you basically gave away everything I was telling you in your face.”  He tried to reply, and Oliver just glared until he closed his mouth again.  “There’s something not right with her, and we both know it.  I don’t know what Merlyn did, but we’re going to have to figure out how to...deprogram her, or whatever the right word is.”

“We should call in one of those cult specialists,” Roy offered unhelpfully, and Oliver was sorely tempted to hit him again.

He might not have minded leaving the mansion behind, but Thea hadn’t had as many options. Sure, she had a few friends who wouldn’t have minded letting her crash in their house for a night; that was a very temporary fix, however, and only had granted her a brief reprieve. Oliver, on the other hand, could have stayed away for whole weeks if he’d so wished. 

“If you say so,” Thea mumbled under her breath. After all, it wasn’t as though she had a reason to doubt the veracity of Oliver’s assurances, but it was a suspicion that she’d harbored for too long to let go simply because her brother said otherwise. The notion that she might be a cause of strife in their family had taken root in her mind many years prior. Shaking off the negative emotions as best she could, Thea chose instead to focus upon the current moment.

Thea nodded absently as Oliver admitted to having not scoped out the leaf-situation. Such things were her territory, not his, and she’d figure it out when the chance arrived. “Alright, it’ll probably take me awhile to weave the beds together anyway. It’ll be better to wait to start that.”

Oliver didn’t miss the muttered statement, but he didn’t reply to it - it wasn’t as if he could offer Thea any evidence one way or the other to prove his case, and it was up to her in the end to believe what he was saying or to not.  It wasn’t exactly uncommon for children of troubled marriages to blame themselves for those troubles, and clearly Thea was no different than so many others.  He’d been honest with her, though, as far as he knew, and he didn’t believe that she’d had anything to do with the problems in the Queen marriage.

His assessment of the vast deviations in their parent’s marriage was accurate, even when seen through the lenses of childhood as Thea had. “Yeah,” she agreed softly, picking the path of least resistance through the underbrush, “the arguments were the worst.” Oliver might not have had as much experience with hearing them, having spent fewer nights at home than she had, but he’d heard some of them surely. 

“Were they always that bad?” Thea wondered aloud as she walked on, “Or was it just after me that they were at each other’s throats like that?” In all honesty, she didn’t expect an answer from Oliver; she was just speculating aloud. Hell, he was probably rolling his eyes behind her back right at the moment. She knew that most likely that theory was just inspired by childish thoughts, but even as she’d grown older, Thea still occasionally wondered about it.

Deciding that their conversation had been morose enough for one trek, Thea abruptly changed the subject, “What should we do first when we get to the new place? Do we start by crafting our new beds or should we unpack the suitcase?” Then a thought occurred to her, “are there strong enough leaves for beds nearby or will we have to journey back and collect them for near our cave?”

Oliver mused as he watched Thea navigate about just how much they’d both learned about surviving on the island.  She avoided the hazardous plants with practiced ease, finding the easiest path through the undergrowth like she was a seasoned explorer - which, he supposed, she was.  They both were.  “They were.  When they got like that, I didn’t at all mind being away from the house.”  Thea’s question made him frown, though, and he shook his head even though she couldn’t see him.

“It was before you,” he told her.  “Trust me, Speedy, there were a lot of problems in that marriage but you were never one of them.  Mom and Dad love...loved you,” he corrected his tense with a frown, at least as far as their father was concerned.  “You didn’t cause anything in that marriage that wasn’t already there, I promise.”  If anything she’d helped paper over some of the cracks, at least for a little while.

“Of course,” Thea agreed easily enough. She hadn’t meant to imply that he wouldn’t have a family or a life outside of the club scene. There was no doubt in her mind that, if he’d wanted such a life, he could have found a woman to go there with him. It was just that she hadn’t thought he wanted it. He had been happy to go clubbing and partying or so she had believed.

“Yeah, me neither,” Thea tossed out over her shoulder idly. “The only example I have of what it’s like to live with a guy is Mom and Dad and, well, they weren’t always the best example, were they?” Of course they weren’t the worst example either, but the point remained. “Still, if we’ve managed to avoid killing each other this long I doubt we’re in any danger of doing so now.”

His joking comment inspired a truly heinous snorting chuckle from her as she maneuvered around some questionable plant-life. “If only we had a bar for you to go to, guys for you to spend time with, or hell, even a toilet seat to leave up.” She gave him a small, tight smile. “As is we’ll have to settle for not scaring the living daylights out of each other by not deviating from plans, you know?”

It was difficult for Ollie to know what exactly his future might have looked like.  If he was truly honest with himself, which usually happened during the all but silent nights on the island, he could really only see two possible outcomes of the path that he’d been on.  The first was that his drinking and partying would have eventually turned darker and more serious, and ended up cutting his future short.  God knew he’d seen enough guys in the clubs headed that way.  The other was that he’d have grown up.  Cut the drinking back to the social variety, maybe joined the family business, and found a wife to love.  Maybe some kids.  Carrying on the Queen family name.

“Not exactly,” he agreed.  “I mean, I learned everything I know about marriage from them, but it wasn’t exactly a traditional marriage.  Sometimes they were great together, and sometimes it seemed like they barely tolerated each other.”  That sort of fire and ice approach had extended to himself and Thea sometimes as well, and it had made for a confusing life sometimes, for both of them.  “You’re probably right, though, I don’t see either of us snapping tomorrow and suddenly going postal on each other.”