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Back Then
“Tommy, please tell me you see her,” Oliver bats at his best friend’s hand, staring in shock at the woman who just appeared in the middle of the mansion foyer. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a messy bun and she’s barefoot despite the fancy emerald green cocktail dress that flows to a stop halfway down her thighs. It’s a modest, fairly simple dress but Ollie finds himself thinking that he has a new favorite color.
Tommy nods, slowly. “She just appeared out of nowhere.”
Just then the girl glances around. Her eyes land on Oliver and Tommy, her eyes widening. “Fudge.”
Oliver grins at her lack of profanity, sauntering down the stairs to meet her on the ground floor. “Hey, I’m Oliver Queen, but my friends call me Ollie.”
Her blue eyes are wide as she turns to take in the room. It’s only as she spins that he notices the strange metal device in her hands. He exchanges a curious look with Tommy who looks just as intrigued by the girl. No, Ollie thinks, that’s not right. She’s a woman, at most in her late twenties, but her glasses slipping down her nose give her the appearance of being younger.
“Fudge, fudge, fudge. He’s going to kill me.” She mutters, turning back around. “Not to mention how much he’ll be freaking out. And he was already worried. Now, if only I knew how this thing actually worked.” She starts fiddling with wires before her head bounces back up to Oliver and Tommy. “Do you have a screwdriver? Wow. Stupid question. Of course you have a screwdriver. What I meant, was do you have one I could use?”
His mouth drops open in surprise at the rant before shifting into a grin. “Yeah, I got a screwdriver. I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”
She stares at him blankly, eyes darting back to Tommy. “Right...look. I just need to fix this thing and I’ll be out of your hair.” She holds up an orb of some sort with colorful wires sticking out and a couple random buttons. “But one ground rule: no hitting on me, either of you. So where can I find a screwdriver?”
Tommy chuckles and turns to Oliver. “I like her. Can we keep her?”
“How about you tell us your name first? And how you got here. Then we can talk about screwdrivers.” Oliver smirks at her, a bit annoyed that Tommy gets her pretty smile while she still frowns at him and levels that disbelieving look in his direction.
She hesitates and holds up the sphere. “Apparently, this thing is a time travel device. I was trying to figure out what it did and got a little more than I bargained for. And obviously I wasn’t planning on jumping through time because I obviously I wouldn’t be wearing a dress or come with back up or with shoes. Although, barefoot is probably better than the heels I was wearing. Now about that screwdriver...”
“How about a name?” Oliver smirks. It’s a bizarre story. This is probably some sort of stunt.
“Oliver, Thomas, I thought you were going out. Who are you?” Oliver notices the woman freeze at his mother’s voice.
“We just ran into a friend, Mom.” He smiles at her skeptical eyebrow raise.
“And you are?” She asks again, stepping around him to face to younger blonde woman.
The woman hesitates and Oliver finds himself taking pity on her. “Mom, this is Mia. Mia, this is my mother.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Queen.” She smiles politely, but it doesn’t reach her eyes as she shakes his mother’s hand.
His mother’s unimpressed eyes meet his. “Oliver, please tell me you’re not bringing girls home so you can cheat on Laurel again? Or have you broken up this time?”
The blonde laughs. “Please! I’m not interested in Ollie like that. I just came by because they had me working on this!” She holds up the orb again. “It’s supposed to be a party in a ball. You hit a couple buttons and music starts blasting, there’ll be colorful lights, maybe some confetti. I’m still working out the bugs, but I wanted to show the boys how it’s working. Of course, I don’t want to do that right here in your foyer because it would be horrible if something went wrong and your house is so beautiful.”
Oliver stares at her in shock, but his mother nods slowly, eyes darting between the three. Tommy slips his arm over her shoulders and leans into her. “Like I was saying, we should head out to the garage. That way the confetti will be easier to clean up. That okay with you, Mrs Q?”
“And how did you meet Mia, Tommy?” Oliver suppresses a wince.
“We met at Bucky’s club down on seventh street. Mia was telling me she liked inventing stuff so I offered to pay her for the Portable Party. I think the name with catch on.” Tommy shoots her a charming smile.
“I’m not so sure about the name. I still like Party in your Pocket.” She beams, tossing the orb in her hands. “Although it’s a bit large to fit perfectly in your pocket.” She frowns at the ball and his mother sighs.
“Well then...the garage is all yours. It was nice to meet you, Mia.”
Oliver smiles after his mother as Tommy ushers the woman out to the garage. He catches up with them as Tommy asks, “So do you have a real name or should we just call you Mia?”
She moves past him, opening his father’s tool chest and pulling out a screwdriver. She immediately starts fiddling with the device at one of the work tables. “Call me Mia. It works just fine. I’ve always liked that name anyway.” She flicks on the worktable light, comfortable with the space as if she’d been there before.
“So what is that thing really?” Tommy asks, sitting on the work stool.
“I told you. It’s a time travel device. I haven’t really figured it out. I was working on it after the QC dinner, waiting for...my boyfriend to get back from his night job. And he’s overly protective so he’s going to be freaking out. And I left a batch of cookies in the oven. They are going to be burnt to a crisp.”
“Time travel? Isn’t that a little sci-fi?” Tommy asks.
“You expect us to believe this?” Oliver interjects, causing her to glance over her shoulder at him.
She stares him down over her glasses, a stern look in her eyes. “Okay, Oliver Jonas Queen, what do you want me to do to prove it to you? You did just watch me appear out of nowhere.”
“Okay...what year are you from?” He thinks she might be a little crazy, but her eyes are bright and aware. He doesn’t think a crazy person would be that aware of her surroundings. And she’s definitely not high.
“2016. What year is this? It can’t be before 2007. Based on the weather and how old you look, I’m going to say 2006? Ten years would be a nice round number.”
“How do you know it can’t be before 2007?” Tommy asks, frowning.
She point to Oliver. “His hair. Have you seen it? It’s, well, I don’t want to say completely ridiculous because it’s going to get waaay worse, but still, it definitely belongs to the pre-2007 era of his life.” She turns back to her toy. “So what’s the date?”
“March 15, 2007.”
“Wow, the Ides of March. Huh. I wonder if that has any significance. Probably not, but with our lives, who knows?”
“So you were at a Queen Consolidated dinner?” Oliver asks, joining them at the work table.
She nods. “It was boring, as usual.”
“So you’re involved in the company? And you know us.”
She shrugs noncommittally. “I know you, but not you you.”
“What does that mean?” Tommy asks.
“I’m from ten years in your future, well not quite, but you get the idea. Anyway, you’re not really the same people then.” She reattaches a wire and fist pumps triumphantly. “Yes! Got it! I hope this works!”
She jams down a blue button, but nothing happens. She waits for a moment before dropping the ball again. “Fudge muffins.”
“Fudge muffins? You do realize it’s okay to curse, right?” Tommy asks.
She throws him a glare. “Yes, I do get that. I just don’t like it, the whole cursing thing.”
“So how do we really know you?”
“Well, in five years, you’re going to walk into my office in the IT department of QC with a busted laptop and a lame excuse. Anyway, I shouldn’t be talking about the future. You know that whole butterfly effect thing. Why won’t this thing work?!” She bangs it on the work table, groaning. “Stupid, Clock King!”
...
She can’t believe it. She can’t believe she got herself transported into the past. It had been a tough week with Tockman escaping, but she had the gadget and was bored waiting for Oliver to get back. She wasn’t a huge fan of being in the Queen Mansion by herself so she had popped some cookies in the oven for a midnight snack and went to work on the gadget. And then the next thing she knew, she was staring at a pre-island Oliver and his former best friend.
She likes Tommy. Oliver always told her they would get along if they met and she can see what he meant. He’s the one who offered her a place to stay since his father wasn’t going to be around. She’s not entirely comfortable sitting in the Dark Archer’s kitchen, nursing a cup of black coffee, but she’s also not too happy to have spent the night in the past either.
“You’re up early,” a male voice calls from down the hall. She pauses her with the mug halfway to her mouth, freezing as she registers the voice belongs to Malcolm Merlyn. “And you’re not Thomas.”
“No. I’m not.” She lowers the cup to the marble counter. “I’m Mia.”
“So, Tommy’s bringing girls home again.”
“I’m just a friend, Mr. Merlyn.”
“My son doesn’t have female friends.”
“Yeah, people keep saying that.” She tilts her head as she observes the man in front of her. This is the man who planned to level the Glades, killing thousands of people. Well, technically, right now it’s just a plan. He’s the biological father of Thea Queen, trained by the League of Assassins and he could easily kill her right now without batting an eye. “He offered me a place to crash while I’m visiting. He’s still sleeping but I’m used to waking up early. I found your coffee and decided to make some. I hope that’s alright.”
He could kill her right now for making herself coffee. It’s completely ridiculous for her to think that, but it’s a distinct possibility and she knows that. After all, he isn’t going to kill hundreds of people over coffee.
“No, that’s fine. We do have a staff that does that.” He raises an eyebrow but pours himself a cup of the coffee too. He takes a careful sip and then a deeper one. “Although, you make better coffee than my chef. You looking for a job, Mia?”
Felicity shakes her head with a smile at the idea of the Dark Archer surrendering because she makes fantastic coffee. “No. I’m working on starting up my own tech company. Coffee is just a hobby of mine.”
“Your own tech company? Tommy’s girls aren’t usually that ambitious.”
“I already told you, I’m not one of his girls. I slept in your guest wing last night.” She smiles and takes another sip. It takes all her focus to remain relaxed as she faces one of Oliver’s worst enemies.
“You know, I hear Queen Consolidated is pouring more money into their Applied Sciences division. Robert is always looking for brilliant minds and he pays well.”
She shrugs. “I’m not looking for a job.”
“It’s not an easy market to break into. You could go places in QC.”
“That’s what they tell me, but I have bigger ideas.” She leans back, away from the counter, hands still wrapped around the mug but ready to move just like John and Oliver taught her.
Malcolm assesses her with cold eyes, calculating her worth. “I like someone who knows what she’s doing with her life. I’ve been looking for projects to expand into. You haven’t found any investors, yet, have you, Mia?”
“I’m very specific about who I go into business with,” she replies.
“And Merlyn Global doesn’t fit your profile?” Amusement sparkles in his eyes.
She shrugs. “It’s the lack of integrity that I take issue with. Let’s just say I value human life in all my undertakings.”
He pauses at her words, a frown settling on his face and he braces his hands on the other side of the kitchen island. “And what would you know about that?”
Well, she knows that if she’s stuck here, she’s going to stop him. “I know that you’re trying to destroy the Glades because your wife, Rebecca, was murdered there. You’re just biding your time, which I have to say, you have a crazy amount of patience which is scary when you combine it with your homicidal tendencies and your League of Assassin training.” She forces herself to take another sip of coffee. “So congratulations, you’re all around terrifying.”
“If I’m so terrifying, why would you confront me in my own kitchen with no other witnesses?”
“Because I have a big mouth,” she mutters ruefully. “I really need to learn how to keep it shut. And besides, it’s too early to stop you right now, anyway. Not all the pieces are in play. You could try to kill me, but what good would that do? You’ll fight me, I’ll fight back. There’s no guarantee you would win. You were trained by Al-Owal. I was trained in part by Nyssa Raatko, so I’m not really sure who would win.”
She really isn’t sure. She knows she’s a better-than-average fighter, but she’s never fought Malcolm or anyone league trained before.
“You trained with a daughter of the Demon?”
“She prefers Heir to the Demon.” She’s surprised by his smile this time. She tilts her head to the side, again. “What are you smiling about this time?”
“Tommy should bring home girls like you more often.”
She frowns as her phone starts going off in her pocket. She didn’t have much choice in clothing because all she had was her green cocktail dress. Really, she was lucky she had stuffed her phone in her bra and it had come with her. She actually hadn’t expected it to work. Newsflash: it did. So she’s dressed this morning in a pair of borrowed sweatpants from Tommy, a sweatshirt, and a black tank top. She frowns at Oliver’s face on the phone and picks it up.
“Hello?”
“Thank God! Felicity, where are you?”
She closes her eyes at Oliver’s voice, her Oliver. She doesn’t know how it’s possible unless she’s in some crazy episode of Doctor Who. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Are you okay? Do you need me to come get you? You left cookies in the oven and your car is still here-“
“I’m as fine as I can be.” She glances at Merlyn. “I mean, I could be better, but...”
“But? What’s going on, Felicity?” She can hear the worry in his voice, imagine his hands curling into fists in anxiety.
“I was playing with Tockman’s device...and it was activated and I sort of ended up...having a talk with Ollie and Tommy. I’m having a conversation with Malcolm Merlyn right now, as a matter of fact.” She smiles at Malcolm as she hears Oliver grind his teeth through the phone.
“What do you mean you’re with Malcolm Merlyn? He’s in A.R.G.U.S. supermax right now.”
“Yes, he is,” Felicity agrees. She waits as everything else she said sinks in.
“Wait...Tommy? Are you saying...That’s not possible.”
“Oh, I assure you it is. It’s my phone that’s confusing me at the moment. Anyway, I’m working on it on my end. I’ve still got the device, but I’m not sure what I did. It might take a while.”
“Are you sure, you’re okay? You’re stuck in the past with the Dark Archer-“
“I’m fine. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”
“I love you. Be safe.”
“I love you, too.” She ends the call and slips the tech back into her pocket. The phone is ten years too advanced and she doesn’t want to deal with Merlyn’s questions.
“Boyfriend?”
“Yup.” She pops the ‘p’ with a smack of her lips, taking another sip of coffee.
“Someone I know?”
“You could say that.”
“You don’t like answering questions.”
“Nope. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” She hops off the stool, but Merlyn rounds the corner. She pauses just out of arms’ reach. “What?”
“Follow me. I promise not to kill you,” he offers with a wink.
Without much of a choice, Felicity follows him through the winding halls of the mansion to an outside, covered patio. It offers a nice view of the perfectly manicured lawn and sparring mats offer a cushion for her bare feet. She watches Merlyn pulls off his suit jacket and tie. He deposits both on a bench and rolls up his sleeves. She crosses her arms against the morning chill, watching him carefully as he sets up across from her.
“Let’s see what you can do.”
“You’re not serious.” He stares at her with a smirk. “Oh. You are serious. Um...”
“No weapons. Just hand to hand. No face hits or breaking bones. No killing. Sound good to you, Mia?”
Against her better judgment, Felicity pulls off her sweatshirt and drops it on the bench with her cellphone carefully concealed. She walks back to the center of the mats, facing off against Merlyn. Her nerves dissipate as soon as he attacks. There’s no room for anxiety as they move into the deadly dance drilled into her by two assassins, a bodyguard, and a vigilante. She’s so used to analyzing everything that her mind keeps up with the whole fight in pictures of motion, foregoing words completely as the world blurs into punches and kicks, ducks and blocks. Adrenaline surges in her system. She’s sure her body will protest as soon as it wears off, but in the moment it sings, humming with anticipation as the fight continues and she loses track of time.
It could take minutes or it could take hours until she gets the drop on Merlyn, sending him crashing into the floor before pressing the edge of her barefoot into his throat. She comes back to her body as he taps her leg to bow out of the fight. Her breathing is labored, but she’s still steady on her feet as she backs away. Merlyn stands, rubbing his side and limping slightly. She doesn’t remember hitting his leg that hard.
“You’re good.”
A loud clap starts by the door and Felicity’s eyes dart back to the opening. Ollie leans against the door with his ridiculous looking hair. Although, she has to admit that the hair is making it so much easier for her to remember he’s not her Oliver. He saunters out onto the mats.
“That was amazing, Mia. Mr. Merlyn, it looked like she got you good. I’ve never seen anyone match him before.” Ollie winks at her.
She nods, rubbing her shoulder for a moment before moving past him to grab her sweatshirt and her phone again. She can feel Merlyn’s eyes on her as she heads back into the house. She hears his polite words to Malcolm over his shoulder and then his footsteps as he catches up with her. She’s not used to being able to hear him walking around and his hand coming to rest on the small of her back surprises her. She thought that was all Oliver and not Ollie.
“You never said you could fight.” Ollie actually sounds impressed.
“You never asked.”
“Where did you learn that?”
Felicity tilts her head to the side as she slips back into the guest bedroom and throws her sweatshirt and phone on the bed, pulling Tockman’s device out from the nightstand once more. She twists it around before dropping it to bounce on the bed. Oliver sits down and starts tossing the ball into the air. She grabs it from him.
“Don’t touch my stuff. If you do, I will leak every secret you’ve ever had to the press. Now, I’m going to take a shower.” She grabs yesterday’s dress, preferring it to the sweaty clothes she’s wearing now. He stands with her and she spins back. “You are not joining me.”
He throws her an innocent smirk and falls back on the bed. She doesn’t trust Ollie, but she trusts him more than Merlyn so she’ll let him stay in the room, but she locks the door all the same still unable to relax in the house of the enemy. She needs to get home soon because she’s really out of her depth when it comes to Malcolm Merlyn.
...
Ollie’s playing with the orb again when the phone starts ringing under the sweatshirt. The sound of electronics breaking reaches his ears and he grimaces at the damaged ball on the floor. Glancing quickly at the closed bathroom door, he chucks the ball onto the bed and pulls the ringing rectangle out, lifting it to his ear.
“Hello?”
Silence radiates from the other end.
“I can hear you breathing.”
“Oliver Queen,” comes a heavily modified voice.
“How to you know who I am?”
“That doesn’t matter. I need you to put Felicity on the phone.”
“Felicity?” The name feels weird on his tongue, but likes the sound of it as the syllables slip out. “Do you mean, Mia? So that’s her real name. She wouldn’t say. I like it better...Fe-li-ci-ty.”
“Just put her on the phone,” the voice growls.
“Whoa, cool your jets, dude. There’s no need to freak out.” Some people are crazy. Seriously. It’s not like its life or death. And what’s with the scary voice, anyway? “She’s in the shower.”
He rolls his eyes at the growl, going back to playing with the orb. A little compartment has opened and a couple of wires are sticking out in a weird kaleidoscope of color.
“Get. Her. On. The. Phone.”
“Seriously, dude? Did anyone ever tell you you have anger issues?”
The phone is plucked from his grasp by a petite blonde that he swears looks better in that same dress now than she did yesterday. She throws him a withering glare as she answers the phone.
“Yeah, I’m here...no. I haven’t had the chance...Merlyn wanted to spar...No. I’m fine. I’m all in one piece...Yeah, its right here...Trust me, you’ll be the first to know if it works. Well, I guess the second because I’ll be the first to know as I’m the one moving through time. But I’d let you know as soon as I was home...No...actually, I won the fight, but that’s not the point...yes, we were holding back...Listen, sweetie, the sooner I get off the phone, the sooner I can fix the device and get home...uh-huh...I love you...bye.”
Ollie raises his eyebrows. “That was your boyfriend? He sounds kind of harsh.”
“He’s stressed because I’m missing. Well, not that I’m missing because he knows exactly where I am, but he can’t protect me here so he’s nervous.” She picks up the orb and then glares at him. “I told you not to touch this.”
“If you ask me, it doesn’t look like you need protection. You took care of Merlyn all by yourself. Your boyfriend just seems like an ass.”
She chuckles at his statement. “And sometimes he’s a complete dick with his head up his ass. Just do me a favor and remember that years from now.”
“That your boyfriend’s a dick?”
“No. That I can take care of myself.” She pulls out the screwdriver and starts playing with the broken panel. “Oh, hello! What’s this? Ouch! It shocked me!”
“So, what kind of name is Felicity?”
She pauses for a moment, not glancing up from her maze of wires.
“That’s what your boyfriend called you: Felicity. I like it.”
“Your approval is not necessary.” She sighs, lowering the screwdriver. “I’m going to need some more wires. We have to get back to your garage. I could use some of those parts. Why don’t you go wake up Tommy and we can go?”
He holds his hands up and obliges, backing out of the room. He likes her. He can’t put his finger on why, but he likes her.
...
It’s like living in a soap opera, Felicity decides as she takes a seat at the worktable again. As soon as they had pulled up to Queen Mansion, Laurel Lance had come running outside to embrace Ollie, telling him she was sorry for overreacting to him flirting with a waitress and that they had to get back together. And it was followed by a shameless make out session where Tommy had thankfully dragged her away before she saw too much. Although it was already etched painfully into her brain.
And now they had followed her into the garage and were talking loudly behind her.
“But who’s this girl?”
She wants to turn around and stare down Laurel, glaring at her, but she knows that in just a couple months she’s going to be heartbroken and grief-stricken and angry. Felicity curses her good heart and just keeps working.
“This is Mia. She’s helping us with our Portable Party idea.” Tommy claps her on the back.
“It’s a Party in Your Pocket,” Felicity corrects.
“Whatever. We can work out the details later.”
“So, you’re like a huge nerd?”
Felicity grits her teeth as her hands clench around her screwdriver at Laurel’s grating tone. 3...2...1... “How’s law school going, Laurel?”
“Well, I’m still studying for all the tests...how did you know about that?”
“Oh, Ollie mentioned it.” She waves it off, glad to hear them muttering to each other now and not distracting her.
Tommy leans closer. “So let me guess: in the future, she’s a lawyer.”
“Or maybe, in the future, Laurel is my best friend and she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer, but gave up the dream to become a roller derby champion.”
He snorts, but is left wondering when she doesn’t respond.
“What are you kids doing in here?”
“Hey, Dad, sorry! We just needed a workspace-“
“Workspace? Do you think I’m stupid? I don’t want you messing around with my cars. Remember what happened last time?”
For the first time in her life, Felicity sets eyes on the infamous Robert Queen. He’s imposing in his pristine suit, but he lacks the predatory undertones of Malcolm Merlyn. Maybe it’s just because of all the stories she’s heard, but she can see a hint of kindness glinting in his eyes, especially when they fall on Ollie and Laurel, but like a lot of things she’s witnessing, she’s trying not to think about it too much.
“Sorry. I needed to borrow some of your tools, Mr. Queen.” She offers him one of her own winning smiles as she holds up the screwdriver to demonstrate. “I’m working on a device for your son and Tommy. It just need to work out a few kinks.”
“And you are?”
“Mia. It’s nice to meet you, sir.” His hand is large and envelops her own as he shakes hers.
“Mia. Are you an inventor, Mia?”
She laughs. “I wouldn’t call myself an inventor. I like computers and seeing how stuff works. And if I can improve something I do.”
“Really? You know, we’re-“
“Looking for help at QC. Yeah, Mr. Merlyn mentioned that when I ran into him this morning. Like I told him, I’m not looking for work. I’m setting up my own tech company right now. I’m just helping your boys out.” She smiles widely into his assessing look.
Robert Queen’s lips twitch at the corners and she’s struck by how similar Oliver is to his father. “Well, Mia, I will watch your career with interest.”
“It’s going to be an interesting ride,” she agreed. Suddenly her phone started blasting again and she frowned at the orb warmed under her hand as well. Turning it over in her hands, she lifted the phone to her ear. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know what you did to that thing, but Tockman claims he couldn’t get it to work.”
“Well, I think it’s the reason my phone’s still working. And if that’s the case I should be able to follow the signal back.” She turns away from her crowd to open the orb back up. And laughs. “Here it is! I got it. Stay on the line.” She drops the phone into her pocket, pushing the panel of the orb back into place. She turns to her audience with a bright smile, her joy bubbling out at her success. “Well, this was fun.”
“You fixed it?” Tommy asks, staring in shock at the completed orb.
Felicity smirks. “Yup. Did I forget to mention I’m a genius? Anyway, nice meeting you, Tommy, Laurel, Ollie.” She saunters past all of their shocked faces. She stops next to Robert Queen. “And you should know that you’ve got some great kids.”
She smiles at his confusion as she presses the button on the side of the orb and disappears.
...
Oliver pushes off the wall of the garage, ending the phone call as he reaches out to pull Felicity into his arms, sighing in relief only when she’s nestled firmly in his arms. “You had me really worried there.”
She returns the gesture and he feels her relaxing in the circle of his arms. “I didn’t even realize it happened until you and Tommy...”
“I remember.”
“You remember? Everything that just happened to me, you remember?”
“Sort of. It’s like a hazy dream.” He chuckles, reaching up so his hands cupped her face as he looked down into her eyes. “Although I’m pretty sure that’s the moment green became my favorite color.”
She shakes her head at him, but her smile doesn’t slip. He loves that smile. It’s the one she only has for him. It’s what brightens his nights and his worst moments. It was that smile that drove him to search for her so hard. It’s the smile he wants to see every day for the rest of his life, but now isn’t the right time to ask that question. So instead he thoroughly kisses her, molding them together until their clothing starts getting in the way and he has to take a step back to calm down.
He rests his forehead on hers, running a thumb over her kiss-swollen bottom lip. “I missed you.”
“I’m back now. And I’m not going anywhere.” He nods in agreement as she steps away, pulling him with her back towards the mansion. Her next words fill his soul with warmth: “I’m with you: I’m home.”