if she'd been covered with glitter

[maleficum]

Comments

[kapiushon]

I'm not saying that. She's my daughter, of course she can keep herself hidden. But, I don't have to like her hiding a part of herself from me and you helping, Barry.

( Because it feels that black and white. )

[supertardiness]

Even if it was for your own good?

[And because he can't help but worry, he has to ask:]

Are you having any trouble? Break-through memories? Anything ... weird?

[kapiushon]

Other than my newly installed revolving front door of guests? No.

( But, that lands, because he thinks he gets it now. )

Mia when she was called?

[supertardiness]

That's what she said. I've been asking around -

[And by asking he means he called Ray Palmer and asked to talk to his wife.]

- And apparently when Slayers are called they get memories and instincts from all the previous Slayers get shoved in there. So I talked to J'onn and he said that shuffling things around in that way could have knocked some things she wasn't supposed to remember loose.

[kapiushon]

Across universes. Should we be worried? Could there be - consequences?

( Barry was so worried about him, why shouldn't they be worried about Mia? )

[supertardiness]

Maybe?

[Barry doesn't have a definitive answer to that. Mia was only a year old during Crisis so he wasn't exactly warned to worry about her memories being effected. He was given a real warning about Oliver though.]

Do you want me to see if J'onn can come out and check on her?

[kapiushon]

If he can see something we can't, then I want you to make sure my daughter's not walking around with a ticking time bomb in her psyche.

( And then they'll deal with the Oliver of it all. But, Mia is his worry. )

[supertardiness]

Fair enough. I'll see when he can drop by.

[There's a pause.]

How are you doing with all of this? The whole Slayer thing on top of the memories.

[kapiushon]

She's back. Right now, that's all that matters.

( He's glitching at least once a day from it, but his better half is talking him down and through. )

[supertardiness]

Okay.

[... Barry will also have J'onn check on Oliver too.]

I'm sure she'll be okay, man. She's a tough kid.

[kapiushon]

I know. I just wish she didn't inherit everything from me.

( She's living with two versions of herself in her head, ones Oliver can't wrap his head around, he doesn't know enough. Would it help to know? )

[supertardiness]

I think she's got plenty of Felicity in there. It's just not as immediately obvious.

[William carries a lot of the most obvious Felicity qualities, despite not being her biological child, it can be easily overlooked. But Mia has Felicity's compassion, her cleverness - even her loyalty. She is, in a lot of ways, a fairly even blend of both her parents.]

And I think we like to forget sometimes that Felicity got herself into her fair share of trouble.

[kapiushon]

She did get herself into trouble.

( Quite a few times. Stuck her nose in things, went off on her own, tried to fix things when she could. And held her own sense of guilt, too. He and Felicity really were birds of a feather when they finally found their way to one another, after the drama and sudden kids and ex-cop boyfriends. )

[supertardiness]

Yeah, she did. And got us out of our fair share.

[There's a small pause, because it never doesn't hurt.]

I miss her.

[kapiushon]

Me too, Barry.

( For a long time, they were star-crossed. But, Oliver has lost people he loved before. Now, he makes space for them inside his heart and his memories. Laurel helped him with that. )

I came in hot, didn't I?

( It involved his kids. )

Tell Iris I'll curb my attitude next time.

[supertardiness]

I'm sure she will appreciate it.

[Iris is not as scared of Oliver as Barry is.]

She also probably thinks I should just suck it up when you're mad at me because I probably did something to earn it.

[kapiushon]

Probably. Tell her the truth. You did what you thought was right.

( He might do the same. )

[supertardiness]

I'll do that. And if you need me for anything, all you have to do is call.

[Deep breath, and his phone buzzes in his ear, which he pauses to check.]

J'onn texted me back. He'll be up to check on Mia in a couple days.

[kapiushon]

Thanks, Barry.

( He really turned around the berating, didn't he. He can do this being friend's thing. )

[supertardiness]

Anytime, Oliver.

[And with that he will hang up and go back to spending quality time with his wife.]