So, I have discovered a whole new world in Arrow, and I like it! I ship Olicity like crazy, but I'm not quite brave enough to publish the few drabbles I've written yet. Perhaps soon. I really like the dynamic between Thea and Roy, and it drives me crazy that Oliver largely wasn't there for her while Moira was on trial because she so clearly needed him. That said, I kinda feel sorry for Oliver. It can't be easy living two separate lives and having none of your own.

Rant over. Any mistakes are mine, and I don't own anything. Arrow and all its lovely characters belong to the tv! Enjoy!

"Miss Queen, would you care to comment on your mother's incarceration?"

"Thea, how are you coping without your mother?"

"Miss Queen, where is your brother?"

Thea lowered her head and struggled to pass through the swarm of reporters that barricaded her way from the courthouse to the car waiting outside.

A hand gripped hers tightly, and a set of broad shoulders appeared in front of her. Thea let out a sigh of relief as Roy parted the throng of bodies with a few curt orders and a refusal to let them get any closer to her.

Sliding into the car, Thea closed her eyes and exhaled. Her hands were trembling slightly in her lap and she folded them tightly together so that nobody would see. Roy slipped in on the other side and nodded to the driver and she opened her eyes long enough to cast a quick look at him.

The cameras clicked furiously outside and Thea closed her eyes again, wondering what photograph of her would make the morning papers this time.

Roy looked at the paper that Raisa had laid on the breakfast table and swore under his breath. Thea's face was all over the front page again, but this time it looked different to the usual snap of her trying to get away from reporters.

This picture had captured a photograph of her just as he had gotten into the car. Damn vulture photographer must have had one of those lenses that got through tinted windows, Roy thought angrily.

Thea was sitting in the back of the car, hands clasped tightly together. Roy distinctly remembered that she had had her eyes closed when he got in. He had deliberately looked at her, knowing that her eyes would reveal everything she wouldn't tell him.

Thea's eyes were open in the photograph and the sight of them made him ache for her. They were big and bright, filled with a mixture of fear and anger and a bewilderment that was heartbreaking. The headlines made reference to the poor little rich girl all alone in her mansion.

"Hey."

Roy looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled. In her pajamas, with tousled hair and a wide yawn, Thea looked like a small child. It was extremely endearing. "Hi."

"What are you looking at?" Thea crossed to his side and leaned into him as he slid an arm around her waist. "Oh." She paled slightly and shook her head. "Not the most flattering one I've seen."

Roy tossed the paper face down on the table and wrapped the other arm around her, pulling her to face him. He leaned down and kissed her softly, drawing out the kiss until he felt the rigidity leave her shoulders and the colour come back to her cheeks slightly.

"You're beautiful," he whispered gently, pushing a strand of brown hair behind her ears and wiping at a stray tear that fell. "And they're all wrong."

Thea didn't need to ask who he was talking about. She leaned gratefully against him and let herself be held. Outside, a light rain fell against the windows and she sighed. Grateful as she was for Roy's constant presence, she was desperately worried about Oliver.

"I'm sure he's fine," Roy murmured, hiding his anger at Oliver's disappearance when Thea needed him the most. The man needed to be told a few home truths and Roy was just the person to do it, if he ever came back from wherever the hell he was hiding.

"I know," Thea replied quietly. "Ollie's tough." She gave him a rueful smile. "All Queens are tough. Comes with the territory."

"You don't have to be that tough," Roy contradicted. "Not always."

"Mom needs me." Thea rubbed at her eyes and looked up at him. "I'm glad you're here, though."

"Always," Roy said without hesitation.

"So you're back," Roy said conversationally to Oliver, who had shaken his hand and thanked him for taking care of his sister in his absence.

"I'm back," Oliver stated simply, watching as Thea studied the invoices in front of her and waiting for her to notice his presence.

"It's been hard on her," Roy said, ignoring the deadly glare the older man gave him. This was for Thea, he reminded himself, thinking of the nights that she had woken up calling for Oliver, her mother and even her father following the bombing of the Glades. Roy had comforted her to the best of his ability, but he had known even then that she needed her family.

They had left her alone to muddle through the humiliation, the doubt and the anger of Moira Queen's involvement and at times he hated them for it.

"It's been hard on all of us," Oliver said quietly.

"She's been alone." Roy kept his voice as even as Oliver's. "She had to go through the preliminary court hearing, the sentencing, the press – all of it - alone."

Oliver's blue eyes slammed shut and he inhaled sharply. When he opened them again, the momentary flash of pain was gone. "And I'm very grateful to you for taking care of her while I was...unable to do so."

"It's not a chore," Roy said sharply. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for her." He stepped back as Thea looked up and her eyes lit up like a child's.

"Ollie!"

Roy watched as Thea threw herself into her brother's arms and frowned. "You should have been here," he muttered under his breath.

"Where have you been?" Thea demanded sharply, poking Oliver hard in the chest. "Where the hell have you been? Five months, Ollie? Really?"

Roy smirked as Oliver winced. "That's my girl," he murmured as Thea's eyes flashed fire at her brother. "You tell him."

She looked so terribly alone, Roy thought as he marched purposefully into the club, his old boxing gloves dangling at his side. Waving a hand in front of her face to alert her to his presence, he inhaled at the desolate look in her eyes.

Her assurances at the courthouse that she was fine may have fooled her brother, but Roy hadn't been convinced. His anger grew as he thought of how easily Oliver overlooked her pain. Sure, Big Brother had his own life and the whole ordeal was hard on him too, but right now, he didn't know how Oliver could look at Thea and not know that she was dying inside.

Her punches didn't hurt him physically, but he flinched mentally at each blow, because they hurt her.

When Thea collapsed against him, hard shudders wracking her small frame, Roy caught her easily and pressed a kiss to her hair. "It's alright," he whispered. "I've got you."

Thea's breath hitched and she looked up at him, her eyes filled with anguish. "I'm scared," she whispered, sounding like a lost child. "I'm really scared that Mom will go to prison and I'll be alone again."

"Hey," Roy soothed, sinking to the floor with her still cradled against him. "Would I leave you alone?"

"Don't." Thea's urgent plea lanced straight to the heart. "Please."

"Not even if you ask me to," Roy promised.

Thea burrowed against him again, and a small sound made Roy look up. Oliver stood in the shadows, his face contorted with a mixture of emotions. Behind him, his blonde haired secretary – Felicity Smoak, Thea called her - laid a hand on his arm and Oliver briefly clasped it in his before disappearing towards his office.

Felicity gave Roy a sad smile and followed him, casting a look at the young couple over her shoulder.

Roy tightened his hold on Thea protectively, vowing to have a word with Oliver at the next opportunity.

"Oliver, she needs you."

Felicity's voice carried through the upper level of Verdant and stopped Roy in his tracks. He had left Thea in what she insisted on calling Tommy's office, stretched out on the sofa and sleeping soundly.

"I know, Felicity." Oliver's reply was barely audible but it gave Roy the resolve to barge into the office without knocking.

"Then excuse me, but where the hell have you been for five months?" Roy ignored Felicity's shocked gasp and the big, hulking bodyguard Thea called Diggle that was never far from either of them. "You left her, all alone. She didn't know where you were, or if you were okay. You just left her!"

"You really don't know what you're talking about," Oliver said quietly, his blue eyes turning icy cold.

"No disrespect, Mr Queen, but I know her better than you do." Roy stood firm, not budging when Oliver advanced on him, fury coming from every pore.

"Who was there when your mother announced to the city that she was a mass murderer? Or when the man she thought of as a brother died? Who was there for her for the last five months when she was alone in that big house? Who was the one who held her when she cried? Or when she had nightmares?"

"Mr Harper," Diggle spoke up. "You're out of line."

Roy rounded on the bigger man, his own anger matching Oliver's. "I know that you guys are close. You're always together and that's fine. Everybody needs somebody that they can trust." He turned back to Oliver and lowered his voice. "But Thea had nobody." He sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I've tried to be there for her. I've made sure that she's safe and that nobody hurts her, but she needs you, Mr Queen."

Oliver closed his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I know I've said it already, but..."

"Don't thank me, Mr Queen," Roy answered curtly. "Just be there for needs you." He exhaled and rubbed at his eyes. "I don't mean to be out of line, but for her, I'd do anything. Sorry to have interrupted your meeting. Ms Smoak." He nodded at Felicity and turned to leave.

"Oliver." The word was spoken in a low tone.

"What?" Roy turned back around to face Oliver.

"Mr Queen was my Dad," Oliver said, with a small smile in Felicity's direction that was returned immediately. "It's Oliver."

Roy shook the outstretched hand. "Oliver."

"And I'm Felicity," the blonde woman said with a bright smile. "Now that we're all friends." She frowned. "Not that we weren't before. Even though you don't really know me, or I don't know you, but you seem like a very nice guy and Thea has great taste." She stopped and closed her eyes, blushing furiously. "Three, two, one..."

Oliver rolled his eyes and Diggle smirked. "Thank you, Felicity. I'm sure Mr Harper knows exactly what you meant."

"Roy," she corrected, then blushed again, turning towards Roy. "I mean, if you call him Oliver and I'm Felicity, then he should really call you Roy. Everybody calls Diggle, well, Diggle, so that's a moot point."

"Thank you, Felicity," Oliver repeated, a genuine smile breaking across his face.

"I need to get Thea home," Roy said, grinning at Felicity. "Thanks." He looked at Oliver. "See you there?"

"Count on it," Oliver assured him.

Roy believed him, and three hours later when he came into the huge sitting room at the Queen mansion, Diggle and Felicity both in tow, he saw Thea's eyes light up with the first real happiness he had seen in months.

For Roy, that was enough.

I'd welcome constructive criticism on this one, if you could manage it, just as long as there's no meanness in it. Mean isn't nice.