CH11- Meeting Oliver Queen

-3rd Person View-

-January 18th, 2013-

Between everyone who knows about the relationship between Isaac Allen and Thea Queen, it was now no longer a secret that those two had the same exact birth date. In January of 2012, the Queen family had invited him to share his birthday with Thea's.

They had a big party and the two had exchanged cute gifts to each other. That day was all about them. This year would be extremely different. The Queen family had invited him once again, but this time, Isaac had received an official and special letter to come.

It was written and signed by Oliver Queen himself. The man who recently came back from a dangerous island and survived there for 5 years.

Since in a few days, it would officially be Isaac's 18th birthday, Joe no longer had to drive him around all the time to every single location. Although he wanted to, Isaac insisted on taking the train this time around.

The usage of train transportation was ironically faster than Joe driving him.

The party starts at 7 pm, Isaac arrived at the train station at 5 pm. It was stated by Oliver that he wanted to see him earlier to discuss things with him. A black car picked up Isaac and drove him to the Queen mansion in haste.

-Oliver Queen's View-

I looked at my watch and waited patiently for this so called Isaac Allen to arrive.

'I'm the only one home right now. Walter is at the office doing last minute work and Moira and Thea are out shopping before the party. This leaves me plenty of time to figure out his character personally.'

I strategically planned for his arrival, I wanted no interruptions during this. I take Thea's personal life seriously, and if she plans on being with this person for who knows how long, I think it's important for me to assess him naturally.

The black car pulled up to the front of the house. The driver got out first and opened the back door. A young man in a white suit stepped out.

'His eyes, they hold the emotion of someone who's gone through things, but I'm not referring to him getting shot in the back.'

Thea had told me the story about how he saved her life in a gang shooting for an event our family was holding, she wanted me to be trusting towards this kid when I meet him, but she shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place.

"If he has dangerous people like that following in his shadow to eliminate him, then he could be pretty dangerous himself." I muttered.

I put on the fake smile that I use to greet people all the time and walked down the stairs to the front door. Before he could knock on it, I opened it. There was a few seconds of silence, before he clears his throat and out stretches his hand.

"Oliver Queen, nice to meet you." He said with a calm demeanor. That threw me off as well. He wasn't like normal kids when they met me after being rescued.

'There's definitely something up with him, but I sense no bad intentions from him right now.'

"Nice to meet you too Isaac. Come on in, this won't take too long." I shook his hand and led him inside. I looked outside and nodded at the driver, Diggle. I planted him in the car to drive him here and gain any idea on his intention. The smile on Diggles face is perhaps him insinuating that my views on him are wrong.

'I'll see that for myself.' I closed the door and showed him the way towards our living room. I sat on one couch and he sat across from me on the other one. Diggle shortly entered the room to make sure it was secure.

"So, what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you this early Mr. Queen?"

"Just call me Oliver, Isaac." I said. "I'm sure that you actually know what this meeting is about. It's about Thea. I know your background. You're a boxer with an undefeated record of 30-0 and all of them were knockouts, your coach was Mickey Goldmill, and his boxing gym is located on Jefferson St."

His face was unwavering until I mentioned his late boxing trainer, Mickey.

'They must've had a close relationship. Hopefully I didn't cut too deep.' I thought I might've started to drive him away, but his smile slowly returned after a few seconds.

"Your information is correct Oliver. What is your goal in telling me this though? I can't help but wonder?"

"Just telling you that I think you're more than capable of taking my job of protecting Thea when you're here and I'm not." I half lied. What I just said was true, but that wasn't my intention at the start of this interaction.

This truly wasn't someone using me or my family to secretly get to me, this was just a kid who wasn't even 18 years old yet.

"You and Mickey were close?" I asked, trying to break the tension. If I drove this kid away, Thea would never forgive me if he told her about this interaction. The way she talks about him, it's obvious she loves him.

"Yeah, we were. He was like a grandpa to me. Taught me everything he knew from his own experiences and people he coached. His heart attack left me in a pit, but your sister helped me get out." He said, sadly smiling.

"Mick had no children or family left, but he treated me as his own. That's why after his death, I learned that my name was the only one in his will. In a few days, everything that was his will be mine." I listened, lost in this story as flashbacks of me and my dad played in my mind.

"The old car he used to drive me to school in sometime, the house I would spend nights at when it got too late to go home, the fighting gym where I learned all my skills." I could see Isaac holding back his emotion, not wanting to show weakness in front of me.

'Emotion isn't a weakness kid, it's life.' I stood up and brought him into a hug, something a few hours ago I never thought I'd ever be doing.

'Thea found a good one.'

"You alright now?"

"Yeah, thanks Oliver." He sat back down.

"It's fine, let's cheer up and look forward to the party." He nodded in agreement as we talked about other menial things. My gaze went to Diggle who looked back with an even bigger grin that antagonized me.

I mouthed "shut up" to him when Isaac wasn't looking and Diggle returned my gesture with a middle finger.

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