When I returned to Starling City, there was a reason I never went back to Queen Mansion. The idea of returning back to the place I was kidnapped terrified me. I never wanted to revisit that place or even step foot in Oliver's bedroom again. The place where I was taken for a year from my family and put through absolute hell.

Yet, here I stood in front of Queen Mansion with a feeling of dread building in the pit of my stomach. My fearful eyes bored into the front doors of the mansion, feet planted to the cobbled driveway, unable to move in either direction. I couldn't bring myself to walk up to the wooden doors.

Tommy gently set his hand on my shoulders. His body angled towards my own body instead of facing the mansion. "Hensley, you don't have to do this." My brother's voice was soft and filled with concern.

I uneasily breathed out, willing myself not to let the tears building in my eyes spill over. Last night, Tommy announced we would be joining the Queen's for dinner for their first dinner together as a family and, of course, we were invited. Moira always considered Tommy and I as family.

"Hensley?" Tommy tried to break through my wall of fear.

"I'll have to face this mansion eventually. Why not today?" I whispered to him, afraid to speak any louder. I turned my head toward my brother, weakly smiling. My emotions shined truly on my facial features, knowing Tommy had been by my side through everything, especially since I returned home. "Besides, Oliver's alive. That's one good thing about this place now. Maybe I can make that good outweigh the rest of the bad."

"I'll be by your side the entire time." Tommy promised to me. He lightly squeezed my shoulder in comfort.

I nodded at him. I wrapped my right hand around his bicep, allowing him to lead me up to the door. Tommy opened the door, not bothering to knock and he leaned against the door frame instead of stepping inside when he saw who was standing at the table in the foyer.

My hand covered my mouth, taken aback. Oliver Queen, the guy who used to be one of my best friends, stood in the center of the foyer with a picture frame in his hand. His back was to us, but that was enough to see how much he had changed since the last time I saw him. His hair was shorter, a darker shade of blonde now. Oliver no longer looked like the player he used to be five years ago. He looked grown.

Five years was more than enough time for someone to change completely. I, of all people, understood that. Oliver would not be the same person he was before the boating accident. He was abandoned on an island for five years on his own. There was no chance that Oliver hadn't become a different person.

He wore a dark sweater with a white collared shirt poking out from the neck and sleeves. His shoulders were broader, built with muscle that he hadn't had before. I blinked my eyes several times to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

Oliver was alive.

My eyes flitted to the stairs and I felt my hand fall from Tommy's arm, emotions filing back inside of my body. My blood ran cold. I stopped in the doorway of the mansion, nervously swallowing. Goosebumps formed down my arms and spine.

"What did I tell you?" Tommy announced our arrival, a grin sat on his face as he focused on his best friend. For a brief minute, he became overwhelmed with joy to notice my sudden downfall. "Yachts suck."

An amused chuckle came from Oliver as he turned around. The smile on his lips turned broader when he saw the two of us in the entrance way of the mansion. "Tommy and Hensley Merlyn." Oliver stated.

Tommy strolled forward, wrapping his arms around Oliver in a hug. "I missed you, buddy."

I remained frozen in the doorway. My shoes felt, like, they had lead filled into them and my legs were made of jelly. No matter how hard I tried, I could not pull my eyes away from the wooden stairs that lead upstairs. Knowing Oliver's bedroom was right up them forced all of the memories of that night to be brought back up.

I remembered everything so clearly. It was the day of his funeral. The house was quiet. Moira and Thea were headed out the door as I made my way up those stairs, determined I was going to find my necklace in Oliver's bedroom. My fingers wrapped around the necklace I never took off after my brother gave it back to me in the hospital.

"Hensley?" Tommy whispered my voice, softly. From the look on his face, he understood that I was struggling to be inside of the mansion, unwillingly thinking back to that night.

I tore my attention away from the stairs, tightening my grip around the pendant around my neck. My eyes flew from my brother's, who seemed concerned for me, to Oliver's. His eyes were wide as he ran them over my body, not in a sexual way, but a way that showed he was surprised with how much I changed over the years.

"Hensley, you've turned into a beautiful, young woman, just like I knew you would." Oliver moved to close the distance between us, holding his arms out to initiate a hug.

Before his arms could touch me, I flinched away from him, out of habit. Hurt flashed across his face. A small feeling of guilt hit me at how confused he was by my actions. Oliver opened his mouth, like he wanted to ask why I reacted that way, yet he chose to remain silent.

"Hens--" Tommy reached out for me.

I shook my head, stuttering over my words, "I-I, uh, I'm going to go to the bathroom." I rushed out of the room before I even finished my sentence. I avoided Oliver's questioning gaze and speed walked to the closest downstairs bathroom.

"Did I do something wrong?" Oliver asked when he thought I was out of sight.

I abruptly stopped in the hallway when I heard his voice. I stepped closer to the wall of the hallway, sneakily tip-toeing back to the foyer, hiding from sight to listen to their conversation. My hands shook uncontrollably by my sides.

"It's not you, Oliver." Tommy reassured him with a small, defeated sigh. He scratched the back of his neck and glanced back at the hallway. Thankfully, I was out of his sight. "A lot-- A lot happened the past five years you were gone."

The confused expression on Oliver's face grew and the lines in his forehead became more prominent. A crease formed between his eyebrows as they scrunched together. A million questions were forming on his face, all related to me.

Just how much did Tommy plan on telling Oliver about me? I knew Oliver would find out about my kidnapping, but I assumed Moira or Thea told him already. I certainly would not be telling him. It was too hard to fully talk about, even four years later.

"The day of your funeral," Tommy lowered his eyes to the ground on the verge of crying. "There was a break in at Queen Mansion. Moira and Thea were gone when it happened, but--" His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Hensley stopped by to search for her necklace in your bedroom and she was kidnapped."

Oliver looked horrified. Perhaps, even a little heartbroken because he hadn't been here to stop my kidnapping from happening. A single tear slide down my face. The memories flooded my mind.

"She was missing for a year." Tommy continued to inform him, "Dad hired a private investigator to find her because the police weren't doing a damn thing. When we got her back, she was completely different. God, she was so thin and fragile. She was skittish for so long and, she hugged me when we first reunited, but after that, Hensley wouldn't let me touch her for months without flinching."

"Tommy, I am so sorry." Oliver hugged him for the second time. "I should have been here to stop it."

Tommy shook his head, quietly crying. "It's not your fault." He sniffled, wiping at his eyes. "She went through so much that year. I wish I could kill those guys for what they put her through." His hands clenched into fists. "She was put into--"

I jumped out from where I had been hiding. "Tommy!" I snapped at him, angrily. How dare he about to go into detail about what happened to me! My own hands formed into fists, nails harshly digging into the skin of my palm. "That is not your story to share!"

Their mouths fell open.

"Hensley, it's my fault. I asked him--"

I shot a glare at Oliver. "I don't care." I snipped, rudely. I met my brother's surprised eyes. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Tommy nodded before he shot an apologetic look to Oliver. He followed me deeper into the hallway. Apologizes tumbled out of his mouth once we were out of earshot.

I held up a hand to stop him. Taking a deep breath, I wiped away the few tears that managed to tumble down my cheeks. "Tommy, I love you, but what happened to me that year is not something you can just share with anybody."

"But it's not anybody. It's Oliver." He stressed to me, clearly not understanding. His own face was distraught from crying.

"But what happened to me is not just something you can casually talk about, even with Oliver." I tried to get my brother to understand. "Tommy, that year was the worst part of my whole life. I hated what happened to me and what I had to go through. I hated all of it. I'm not the same person I was five years ago. You have to understand why I don't want you telling him. It's my story to tell, not yours, and I don't want him to know."

As I talked, Tommy's face softened with every sentence. Finally, he understood why I didn't want him sharing my past with Oliver. Eventually, Oliver would find out through another source that I was put through sex-trafficking, perhaps through an officer who worked on that case or some annoying paparazzi that would willing shout out that information with zero remorse.

Starling City knew about how I was put into sex-trafficking. However, they did not know the extremity of the whole situation. They simply felt bad for me while others wanted to do an interview with me, even four years later, because they wanted more information.

"I'm sorry." Tommy apologized, embracing me in a hug. He rested his chin on top of my head, mumbling. "You're right. I never want to do anything to ever upset you."

XXXX

I just love this story so much. There's so much planned out for Hensley. And I find it so easy to write this story. Arrow is definitely one of my favorite shows, so that helps out a lot.

This wasn't quite the reunion Oliver had been hoping for. He wanted to hug her and felt so bad when she flinched away from him.

He knows she was kidnapped, though. He doesn't know all of the details and neither do you. Like I said before, you'll learn more about Hensley as the story goes on.

Question: How do you think the dinner will go?

So, yeah!