Post by adrini on Jul 5, 2013 15:11:12 GMT -5
Oliver walked onto the back porch, smiling as he saw his better half sipping her coffee and looking at the evening light fall on the grounds. “It’s a shame we don’t go outside more.” He said and sat down. She was laying in a lounging chair and relaxing after a long days work at the outreach. He took the one next to her.
Dinah looked at the fading shadows and nodded. She smiled at him. “You know, five years ago if anyone had told me I would I would be here I would have laughed.”
“Are there no happy endings in Blüdhaven?” He asked. He wished they had met sooner, if only so he could have rescued her from the place.
“For all you know there isn’t next week. Happy anything depends entirely on how much you can force yourself to smile.” She shook her head. “I stayed way too long.”
He grabbed her hand. It was nice to have her in a non-drugged state. Her leg had healed nicely and she had even been cleared for training. Being a meta-human gave her healing that came in handy.
“Well, now you’re staying here.” He said and she wove her fingers into his. “Mine.”
She smiled at him and got out of her chair, curling into his side on his. He felt her settle her head on his chest. “I can live with that.” She said.
They watched the sun go down, and the exterior lights of the house turn on for a while. Moments like this made the trials of the past worth it.
A few minutes later he looked up to see Diggle walking onto the patio, looking for something. Oliver waved his hand and smiled as the man walked over. Dinah waved as well. “Looking for something, Digs?” He asked.
The man looked at the two of them and shook his head. “You, both of you. Got a minute?”
He felt Dinah sigh and get up, and he did the same. Digs pulled out chairs at the cast iron table. “Is there some new trouble?” Dinah asked, once again sipping from her cup once she sat down.
Diggle nodded. “I wanted to wait until everyone was okay. You gave us quite a scare.” He looked at the woman.
Dinah tilted her head. “It wasn’t enjoyable on my end either.” Oliver felt his hand move to grab hers again. Seeing her flayed open on the ground, a wide pool of blood surrounding her. Breathing that continued to get fainter and fainter. It was an image that would always haunt him. He could feel a part of himself begin to die just watching that day.
Diggle nodded. “Cavanaugh.” He said.
Dinah looked confused. Oliver was confused, he didn’t know what Diggle meant.
“What do you mean?” Dinah asked next to him, speaking the words he was about to.
“Roy said that you killed him.” Diggle said, looking squarely at him.
Oliver nodded, that was true. He had killed the man. Thinking on it now it was odd that the memory brought no real feeling of anything.
He looked at his old friend, and pseudo father. “I did.”
Diggle nodded again, searching for words. “Do you want to talk about it?” He said after a time.
Oliver searched for the right words of his own. “I can. I know it should bother me more, but I can’t say it does. Dinah was dead, for all I knew. He was trying to kill Roy. Thea was close by and distracted. Dinah had told me enough of what he had done in Blüdhaven that I knew this wasn’t his first killing spree. He wasn’t some lost kid or unlucky man who got all the wrong breaks. He knew what he was doing. Until someone stopped him he was just going to keep killing people. I sure as hell didn’t enjoy it. But... but until he was down I couldn’t get to Thea and see if Dinah was even still with us. There wasn’t time to play.”
Next to him Dinah squeezed his hand. She knew how much the memory bothered him. He watched Diggle slowly nod.
“Never said you didn’t have the justification.” The man said. “But have you asked yourself what the line is? When does that call get made?”
He saw Dinah smile grimly, he did the same. “We’ve been talking about this a lot as of late.” He said.
“It’s something I started thinking about in Jersey.” Dinah said. “It comes up.”
Diggle nodded for her to continue.
“We have the same people there, year after year. We catch them, lock them up, they get out. Escaping or good behavior. Either or. A week later there’s another bomb or fire or god knows what. More dead mothers and fathers. Widows and orphans, usually a few dead kids just to finish the mix. Best we could hope for was they’d get promoted to the big leagues up in Gotham” Dinah closed her eyes against a memory. “Thing is, these are not people we had any illusion were redeemable. They were never going to get a nine to five, never take in a few rescues, start dating and make a life for themselves. They were going to get out and go right back to what they were doing before.”
Oliver saw her throat tighten, he took over.
“Every time she would go in with Jade and Kate to try to clean up the mess. They would take out the baddie of the week, watch the police haul them off if they were lucky. Watch them run off if they weren’t to attack another day.”
Dinah spoke again. “Every time there would be kids, husbands, wives, friends asking why this happened, why their loved one was taken away. Each time the faces changed, but the questions, the “why” did not.”
Oliver looked at the woman, she nodded and took a moment to calm down.
“We’ve been-” He searched for the word. “ considering the question of it. Killing in the name of justice is a dark path, frankly one that needs to be avoided. But there are the people that die when these villains are allowed to continue doing what they do. Jails can and are broken out of. Judges can be bought. I guess what I’m saying is it’s not a black and white question. I don’t know what the line is. I hope I never do, I hope it never comes up. But to simply say that it’s wrong to ever take one of these people out? That I can’t get behind. I’m glad Canavaugh is dead. It means, that at least from him, my wife and family will be safe. I’m okay with that.”
Dinah gave a dry laugh. “It’s just a dangerous path no matter which way you go. Killing will take you all kinds of places you really don’t want to go.”
Oliver finished the thought. “Not killing has a good chance of getting a lot of innocent people killed down the line. Pick your poison.”
Digs nodded again. “What is your poison?” He asked the young man.
Oliver looked at his better half but she shook her head. “You have to make this call for yourself, we all do.” She said.
Oliver took a moment. Dinah was pointedly drinking from her mug, so she couldn’t give any cues. John was looking at him intently.
“Only in extreme circumstances” He said at last.
John nodded for him to continue.
“I’m not signing on for life here. “ He said. “ But only in circumstances like we had at the fort. When you or Di or someone else will die shortly unless someone just leaves us alone. And if they run? I’ll have bigger fish to fry. We can settle it some other day, hell I’ll even injure them if it means the same effect. But if I’m put in the position of them or my family, it won’t be a hard call. Even in civil law we are allowed to protect our families. Am I a super villain yet?”
“I think the proper term is anti-hero,” Di laughed into her coffee.
“No, just a man who wants his loved ones to be safe. There are alot of other men in uniform who feel the same way. Just so you know to be careful.” Diggle almost sounded proud.
“Good company to be in.” Oliver nodded, smiling. Somehow if Digs approved he felt better about his ‘line’.