Queen Mansion appeared taller than it did the last time I stood outside of its walls. The soles of my boots were firmly planted against the driveway while my hazelnut eyes remained locked on the looming building in front of me. Air stopped flowing through my body as my throat constricted at the sight of the mansion, feeling as if it was growing larger right in front of my eyes with the threat of bending over and smothering me.

After years of avoiding the Queen household, I despised how I continued to find myself on the property, standing fifteen feet from the front door. This was the second time this week I found myself back at this place with the same unbearable sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, silently wishing the ground would open up beneath my feet and swallow me into the earth.

My shoulders fell with every passing second, burdened with the weight and fear from the night of my kidnapping. I bent over with my hands on my knees, gasping for a breath, struggling to pull oxygen into my lungs. The panic overwhelmed my entire body and the process of how to breathe seemed to be wiped from my mind. I stumbled backward, uneasy on my shaky legs, desperate to put as much distance as I could between the front door and myself.

"Whoa, hey--"

Tommy skidded to a stop in front of me, the bottom of his shoes scuffed against the concrete as he placed his hands on my shoulders, gingerly straightening my body out. His voice brought a wave of comfort and familiarity throughout my body. He held up majority of my weight as he turned us around until my back faced the house.

"Hensley, breathe," he calmly instructed, noticing the visible signs of a panic attack from all of the ones he witnessed me have over the previous years. He shot a concerned look over my shoulder at Chase, silently communicating with each other. Tommy flicked his cobalt eyes back to my hazelnut ones. "Hey, hey. Look at me, okay? You're safe. You're okay. I'd never let anything bad happen to you again."

I gasped for a breath. My face grew hot before the heat traveled down my arms and the rest of my body until I was sure I caught on fire.

"No one can get to you here. You're completely safe," Tommy reassured me, eyes filled with pain as he watched me struggle.

Chase walked up beside me, walking louder than usual to give me a warning of his arrival instead of startling me.

My attention shifted back and forth between the two of them, gasping for a breath, hating how I strived to be such a badass, deadly killer when I needed to be, yet I couldn't even face the Queen Mansion after being kidnapped. I couldn't feel powerful if a building made me weak. I knew I needed to conquer this fear, especially considering Oliver was back and that meant frequent visits to his home again.

"I'm- I'm sorry," I apologized, breathlessly. I narrowed my eyes on his face, concentrating on the way he was breathing to match mine to his, a trick we learned two years ago when I became overwhelmed with a state of panic.

My panic attacks were more frequent after I safely returned back to Starling City with my father, progressively growing worse with every nightmare and touch from a person that wasn't Tommy or Dad. The first two years were straight hell with the nightmares, panic attacks, and fear of every living person and thing.

Dad helped the pain and fear lessen with every lesson he taught me, teaching me how to protect myself, whether it was with a weapon or my bare hands. With every lesson, every language, every bruise, every scar-- it taught me how to become stronger. I learned that nothing could hurt me anymore unless I allowed it.

Dad helped me become the best version of myself.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Tommy reassured me.

Chase cautiously set his left hand on my shoulder, gently rubbing his thumb into my shoulder blade, bringing me another form of comfort that helped me relax and bring my heartbeat down to a normal, healthy rate, no longer thundering loudly in my ears like a drum line. I deeply inhaled through my nose and exhaled through my mouth, grateful for my brother and Chase during times like these. They were the only ones-- aside from Dad, a few times-- who were allowed to witness my attacks. No one else was allowed to see me in such a vulnerable state.

The feeling of panic subsided enough and sat in the back of my head with the constant reminder that any sort of trigger would surge it forward once more. I felt calmer than I did a few minutes ago. Fresh air circulated through my body with ease instead of being trapped in the base of my throat.

"You don't have to go in," Tommy reminded me after he was sure I was calm. He nervously glanced at the mansion behind me before he met my eyes once more. "You can wait in the car with Chase."

I softly shook my head, not wanting the fear inside me to win anymore. "No, I have to get through this fear somehow," I breathed, briefly shutting my eyes. "It's been four years of avoiding this place, Tommy. Oliver's alive, which means we'll have many visits here."

Tommy frowned. He knew I was right.

Before everything went to hell, Tommy and I were always at the Queen Mansion, whether it was to hang out with Oliver or Moira invited us over for dinner. Some nights, I found myself sleeping in an extra bedroom while my father went on a business trip-- later finding out that those trips were a different type of business, ones that often involved bloodshed.

My arm snaked around Tommy's arm and held it close to my side, resting the tips of my fingers against his bicep over the tan leather jacket he wore, nodding my head toward the mansion. "Let's do this."

He didn't move right away. Worry still pierced his blue eyes as he gazed down at me. "If it becomes too much for you, tell me right away, okay?"

I nodded.

"We can have our own code word to keep things discreet, like 'grapefruit'."

My face scrunched into confusion and partial amusement at his choice of a code word. "Grapefruit?" I snickered.

Tommy shrugged. "It's the first word that popped in my head."

Chase quietly snickered under his breath.

"You don't like grapefruit," I pointed out, choosing to ignore how he slyly inched us closer to the front door, purposely distracting me with the ridiculous conversation.

"Which means it won't come up in conversation that often and make things confusing."

The smile stretched out on my brother's lips were too joyous to not copy, feeding off of his easygoing attitude, momentarily forgetting how we passed through the Queen threshold without turning back because of my anxiety. However, I did notice the scowl on Chase's face when he realized the Queens didn't lock their front door after we walked right in without having to knock.

"Okay, but what if we stumbled upon a restaurant that solely sold grapefruit and we had to order our food?" I countered with him. It was easier to slip into our playful, sibling banter than stress about being in the mansion.

Tommy rolled his eyes at my question. "Well, neither of us like grapefruit, so we wouldn't be there in the first place," he stated and led us through their large foyer toward the hallway, listening for their voices to pinpoint where they might be in the massive home.

"Yeah, but if we go to a restaurant we both like and they just so happened to change the menu to only grapefruit, we would be obligated to order grapefruit--"

"If we happened upon a restaurant that only sold grapefruit, we would probably just leave--"

"What if we couldn't leave?"

"That doesn't make any sense, Hensley. They can't hold us there--"

"Oh, my God. Shut up," Chase heaved an overly dramatic sigh at our bickering. He broke his usual quiet and stoic behavior when on duty to shoot any annoyed, yet playful glare in our direction.

We glanced back at my bodyguard behind us in the hallway. I pressed my lips together to muffle my laughter until I accidentally locked eyes with my brother and we simultaneously began to snicker. We knew Chase wasn't actually annoyed by the two of us. Tommy and I never really fought when we were growing up, but we often found ourselves in imaginative arguments that would never happen in the first place-- much like the one that just happened.

Chase grinned at me when we made eye contact one last time before I turned my head back around, reassuring me he wasn't truly frustrated by our childish behavior. In fact, I think he was secretly happy to see I had a proper smile on my face instead of being stuck in my head where all of my negative thoughts were piled high.

"-- just read out a brief, prepared statement to the judge and then your death-in-absentia judgement will be voided," Walter's strong voice carried out to the hallway from the sitting room.

Tommy smirked at Chase before he moved to step through the doorway of the sitting room with me still on his arm, ready to announce our arrival.

"It's fine, Walter. I've been in a courtroom before." Oliver stood with his back toward the doorway, clad in a dark suit and unaware we were standing behind him.

My eyes instinctively swept across the room, a habit I adapted after many lessons from Dad. Past Oliver, Moira and Walter stood a few feet in front of him, matching the formal style of the afternoon. Walter wore a similar suit with a deep red tie while Moira stuck to a pristine, white blouse tucked into a beige skirt past her knees and a matching colored blazer.

A police sketch of Starling City's new vigilante appeared on the television screen to the far right. My left eyebrow subconsciously raised for a few seconds at the drawing, curious to know who the man behind the mask was and why he saved my brother the other day. This guy was causing trouble in my city and I was determined to find out who he was before anyone else did. Chase and I had discussed ways of how to find the vigilante, ultimately realizing we would need to spend many late nights waiting in the shadows for the vigilante to show themselves when they thought no one was around.

Thea caught my eye and gave me a brisk smile with her lips pressed together. Her arms were firmly folded across her chest in a manner that made her appear she didn't want to be in the room, but the look in her eyes proved she felt guilty for the things she said at the party.

"Four times by my estimate," Tommy announced to everyone, nonchalantly strolling into the room with Chase following closely behind us to help ease my nerves.

Everyone in the room angled their heads around to see the three of us. Oliver's eyes flicked over Chase, who promptly moved to stand against the closest wall, eyes focused forward with his hands clasped in front of his body. He knew how to make himself invisible by remaining silent and still.

"You know," Tommy continued with an amused grin. "There was the DUI, the assault on that paparazzi douchebag, the guy who drunkenly hit on my sister,  stealing that taxi, which was just awesome, by the way--"

I raised my right hand in the air and brought the attention to me. "Uh, don't forget to count the time he peed on the cop."

"Right." Tommy nodded. "Who could forget that?"

Oliver rolled his eyes at our need to remind everyone of his past mistakes.

"I wish everyone would," Moira commented with a pointed look at the two of us.

Walter grabbed a dark colored coat from the back of a chair and draped the material over Moira's shoulders.

"I'd hang," Oliver began and turned toward us, hand instinctively reached out to touch my shoulder until he remembered how I flinched the last time and quickly placed it on Tommy's instead. "-- but we're headed to court."

"I know. That's why we're here," Tommy explained. He looked over to Moira and Walter as he added, "My best friend is getting legally resurrected. We wouldn't miss this for the world."

Oliver sighed in defeat, whispering, "Right. Okay."

I jabbed my elbow into my brother's ribcage. "We're also here as moral support, Oliver," I tried to reassure him. A warning glare was shot up at Tommy. "This won't be an easy task and we just want you to know we'll be right by your side through all of it."

A small smile slipped on Oliver's lips. The hand on my brother's shoulder was removed.

"Right," Tommy strongly agreed with a nod.

"What about you?" Oliver focused the attention onto his younger sister across the room.

"Uh, I think the first four times of you in court was enough for me," Thea coolly responded as she marched around the small, round table in the room and made a beeline for the door without another word.

"Fair enough," Oliver breathed, showing short-lived feelings of disappointment.

A part of me wanted to reach out and touch Oliver's shoulder in a form of comfort, but my hand felt like twenty pounds of lead by my side. The hairs on the back of my neck rose just from the thought of touching Oliver when my body and mind hadn't adjusted to him being back quite yet. I wasn't sure if I would ever be okay with him touching me.

It was different when I was in vigilante mode. I didn't care if I touched the men on my list because the only reason I needed to touch them was to force pain upon them. The hollowness in my heart disappeared for a few moments after I killed one of the men. My mind and body craved for that kind of touch. It was my own personal kind of therapy.

"Mrs. Queen." Diggle, Oliver's new bodyguard, entered the sitting room immediately after Thea left. "Car's ready."

Tommy and I stepped to the left while Oliver moved to the right, leaving a gap big enough for the older couple to pass through. Moira smiled warmly as she passed by and followed Walter and Diggle out of the room.

"Right this way, Ms. Merlyn," Chase stepped away from the wall and gestured to the hallway outside of the room. A small smirk played on his lips, amused at himself for referring to me by my last name.

XXXX

Oh. Hi there. Hello, how's it going?

This chapter was supposed to be longer, but then I started to proofread/rewrite it and I'm getting tired. I just really wanted to post a chapter tonight, so I decided to stop it here and then I'll continue on with the next chapter tomorrow. I have over half of it written already, but I need to rewrite it and finish off the rest of it.

Not much really happened in this chapter, but you did get to see some playful, sibling banter. I always enjoy that between Tommy and Hensley. I love their relationship. I always thought it would be good for Tommy to have a sister. He just always seemed like he would be a great brother.

Also, while you're here, please go read the new chapter of Caught in The Middle (unless you haven't read that story then start at the beginning.) It's a Supergirl story and I just love it so much and I'm SO PROUD of the entire thing. It would just mean the world to me if you checked it out and told me what you think.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's been awhile since I've updated. Sorry about that.

Question: How did you feel about their banter? It's cute, right?

So, yeah!