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DRAKE’S APARTMENT
Drake
A WEEK LATER
“You have the plates set out and ready Will?” I ask Will as I grab the boxes of pizza and walk towards the kitchen island as there is a lot of Christmas decorations created by me and Will. I set the pizzas and see Will set down the disposable paper plates next to the boxes of pizza of different toppings and types.
“it’s almost time till they come!” Will says excited and I nod seeing him dressed nicely with his hair combed and everything. He wears a Green Arrow symbol shirt and jeans and I smile at it knowing his father would be proud of him.
I invited everyone for an early Christmas party tonight and it’s almost time that the party starts. I look at my phone and look around the apartment seeing the DIY Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree lit up. Will helped of course creating almost all of the decorations with this arts and crafts books I found at a store for him and he’s almost too good at it.
After bringing Silver Siren in, life got back to it’s new routine with Will included now. My producer has accepted all the lyrics and music sheets I’ve wrote and they’re ready to be recorded when I come back to Gotham. My manager has found a gig for me next week that includes me and my band to sing live for the morning show here in Star City. Time to bring the music back home.
I stopped hunting down for The Ghost Archer and let the Justice League deal with it. It’s their problem now, they can finish it for me. Although, to me it seems like something personal, I’m trying my hardest not to take it that way. Many people want me dead or on the other side, so it’s no big deal to me. This is different, it involved Ollie’s past. I can’t get the thought of it out of my head.
I hear a knock on the door as it gives me a break from my thoughts and I just know it’s the team. “They’re here!” I say excited and Will looks at me with a smile and runs to the door opening it. As he opens the door I spot the entire team standing together, Curtis, Felicity, Rene with his daughter, and Diggle with his wife and son. They all dress for the occasion in big coats and ugly Christmas sweaters. Clearly I didn’t get the memo.
“Merry Christmas!” They all shout giving Will the attention and I smile walking up behind Will letting them in. As they walk in they carry wrapped presents and I hug each and every one of them thanking them for coming. This has been the first Christmas party I’ve celebrated in awhile and it’s good to have the people that are important to Ollie and I here.
“Thank you for coming, make yourselves at home, there’s wine in the table if you guys want.” I say as I press cheeks against Lyla and greet Diggle and the rest. I let them all in and I watch them make their way to the kitchen and stand around looking at the wine and making themselves comfortable. Felicity takes Will’s hand and they hang out with each other talking like an aunt would to her nephew.
Rene is last to walk in and he stands there looking at me confused. “Where’s the ugly Christmas sweater?” He says teasing me and looking at me as I’m wearing a regular dark grey shirt with some comfortable black skinny jeans.
“No one told me about the memo.” I say teasing him and then let him in and his daughter hands me a Christmas decorated bag to me. I grab it from her lightly and look at them confused.
“Open it up.” He says and I grab the bag from him and look inside of it seeing a Christmas sweater. I take it out of the bag and hold it in front of me looking at the design seeing a canary design in the center with Christmas colors. I chuckle at it and then give a smile to Rene. “Merry Christmas.” He says with a smile and I look over at him proud and happy.
“Thanks.” I say and then give Rene a warm hug knowing how much this means to him and I. The both of them walk in and I close the door behind them and I put on the sweater over my shirt. I walk towards the team and see them feeding themselves and get happy with this.
The party goes well as Zoe and Will play together in the living room. They watch TV and talk to each other about superheroes and how they would love to be one day. Will rambles on about how he wants to save the world and how he wants to meet Superman one day. I smile at the idea and Rene does so too as everyone chats.
I walk away from the party and go outside in the balcony as it’s night time. The stars shine bright again, and I look out into the moon starring directly at it as it shines bright. From behind me I hear the door to the balcony open and I turn around to see Rene follow me from behind with two bottles of beer.
“Hey.” He says in a soft voice and I turn around welcoming him in. Rene walks towards me and stands next to me handing me a bottle of beer.
“Thanks.” I say holding on to it and staring at it. I move the bottle around swishing the beer inside around and then take a drink out of it. We both stand in silence starring out at the city skyline hearing the unique city noises of Star City.
“I wanted to say thank you…” Rene says and I turn my neck to look at him confused but knowing what he’s talking about. “For saving my ass the other day.” He says being serious and I look away back into the ground of the city and take a drink of the bottle not feeling the alcohol to get wasted.
“Don’t worry about it.” I say with a small smile and then go back to looking at the moon and thinking about all the pain, anger and loss I’ve experienced in my life. They’ve shaped me into the person I am today… tonight.
When I left Star City, I left behind everyone. When I left Star City I was hoping I could leave behind the pain but it only grew on me. I left behind everyone who cared about me, especially my father. Leaving my father, the LAST family I had left, was a mistake. I haven’t spoken to him and I haven’t heard anything back from him. I hope he’s safe.
“You alright?” Rene asks me and I nod. I take my phone out and go through my camera roll looking at a photo of dad, Sara, Laurel and I all together.
“Just thinking about my dad.” I say and Rene smiles. Rene grabs the phone looking at the photo of all of the Lance siblings and dad together.
The Canaries and Captain Lance, always saving the world.
“He was heartbroken when you left without a goodbye.” Rene says and I regret it. “You were his last child.” He says and I remember the day I left Star City. It was after Ollie’s memorial, after I said my goodbye to him and the city. I was there, and the next minute I was on a flight to Gotham to join my band. It must’ve killed my dad to know I was gone.
“I thought about getting in touch with him while I was gone, at least send an email that I’m okay, that I’m safe at least, but I figured he doesn’t want to hear from me.” I tell Rene opening up to him about it.
“I think your dad knew you were already safe. Seeing you on TV perform at Award shows and spotting you on serious reality TV shows with the Kardashians. I think we all knew you were safe.” He says and these last 2 years have been an entire new experience for me. “You’ve gone on tour in every big city around the world and from what I saw, joined the Justice League.” He says cheering me up and reminding me of the good times.
“It wasn’t always good.” I say remembering David and how much he meant to me. “Before going on tour and first moving to Gotham, I experienced a low in my life. The gigs that my manager were giving me at first weren’t taking me anywhere but dead ends and bar fights. In the middle of all those alley way fights I met Batman and his family.” I say as I remember the cold winter night in Gotham and the glowing neon signs that lit the alley up.
I walked out of that club after my performance through the backdoor and saw a group of men beating up a man on the ground. I heard him yell in pain for them to stop but doing nothing to protect himself. Not even a punch. I did what I did best. I screamed and kicked like Ollie told me I did best. When the men were down, I helped the defenseless guy up and he introduced himself to me as Dick Grayson. From behind me someone dropped to the ground and there he was, The Dark Knight.
“Batman?!” Rene says shocked and I chuckle knowing that Bruce has helped me get to where I am today.
“Batman knew I had potential and a talent that the whole world deserved to hear. I’ve went on world tour before, but it was small.” I say knowing Bruce cared for me and treated me like family, especially after loosing one. I got to meet my best friends, Dick, Tim and Barbara. Barbara turned out to be like the sister I’ve lost. She reminded me of my Laurel, they both were so full of light and hope. “He gave me a family…”
“You’ve been through it all and you came out stronger and bolder.” He responds and I look over at Rene as that’s only the beginning. I gained and lost during my disappearance from Star City. “I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to call your dad D.” He says getting comfortable as he calls me by a nickname. I make a small smile and Rene pats my back softly and leaves. I watch him enter and play with his daughter and Will and decide to do the right thing.
I look back at my phone and open up Dad’s contact and stare at the call button. I press the call button and watch my screen turn to the dial screen and hear it ring. I place my phone near my ear and hope he answers getting nervous. I try to breathe calmly keeping my nerves down and try to get my mind together.
Suddenly the ringing stops and I hear the background noise of what sounds like a heavy breath. “Drake?” I hear his voice as he’s shocked, confused and happy.
“Hey Dad… it’s been awhile?” I say smiling trying to hold back all the emotions I’m feeling. I hear his laugh and chuckle as well.
“It has been son. I’ve missed you.” He says being calmer and he sounds proud of me now.
“I missed you too. We have a lot to catch up on don’t we.” I say as I want to know everything that he’s done while I’ve been gone as much as he wants to know about me.
“Yes we do and I want to hear it all.” He says and I smile. There’s not enough time in the world right now to tell him everything but I’ll spare the details for later. I’ll give him the highlights of it all.
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