❛ She would be proud ❜

Two weeks had passed since the funeral of the Carter couple. Two weeks had passed since darkness bestowed itself upon Annabelle and she was left to question everything that had made itself known in the world. Two weeks had passed since it was confirmed the Carter Mansion was an elaborate plan and not just a gas leak. Two weeks had passed since Annabelle had made eye contact with Oliver for more than five seconds.

She had told the Queen family about her proposal to accept the Carter Provision, and though they were hesitant for things to happen so soon, they welcomed her idea wholeheartedly and promised to do all they could to promote it.

Ever since the service following the funeral where people had gone and confessed their sorrows and apologies to the young woman, the family had been worrisome toward Annabelle and wondered how her mental health and physical health would be affected. She hasn't admitted any pain or troublesome, but Moira knew it was just a fragment of time before the girl snapped.

There had been countless ignored phone calls from Laurel Lance that Anna had stubbornly denied, and many video chats with Tommy that had drained on for hours as they worked together to finish her sublet's plans. They decided to collaborate on the idea and after settling on a name, Annabelle was ready to present her idea to all of Starling.

She was nervous for how the people in the Glades would respond for the entire Provision was for them. Hank Carter started his company to improve life in the Glades by supplying health care and medicine and basic survival needs for its people. And with his death, outbreaks and riots swarmed the streets with people angry at who took away their opportunity for life as they had grown accustomed to.

Things were certainly going downhill, and with two civilians dying in a clash between a gang member in the Glades, Anna was rushed to announce her plan and hopefully stall the madness.

The girl stressed as she looked down at her shaking fingers, her fresh nail polish shining under the light of the golden chandelier in the living room above where she was seated on the couch. Anna's head was dropped low as she pursed her lips and stared at her hands, her heart beating a thousand times a second. Today was the day, it all came down to this moment wherein one hour she would be standing in front of a crowd of people and asking them to accept something that could be impossible.

Her nerves would not calm and the girl took a deep breath before she began to count to ten. She closed her eyes as she tried to focus on something, anything, other than her anxiety for how this event would go. 

"Hey," someone spoke up, Anna's head jerking up at the sound of someone's voice. She turned her head and saw Oliver Queen walking into the living room with a reassuring smile gracing his lips. "Hi," she softly returned, her frown staying prominent on her cheeks. "I heard you counting," he added before cautiously sitting next to the woman. Part of him knew she still hated him for what he did to hurt her, but he knew she needed comfort especially since her stress was high. "I know whenever you count you're stressed, so I just thought I'd make sure you're okay."

She nodded, her eyes finding her hands once more. "I will be fine."

Oliver sighed and clasped his fingers togther while leaning forward on his knees, "I didn't ask for how you will be. I asked for how you are."

The girl leaned back against the couch cushions and looked at Oliver. She didn't know what to tell him, but she knew she had to tell him something. Finally, after a moment of silence, she took a large breath. "My stomach hurts," she admitted, tearing her eyes from his as worry filled them and he scooted closer. "Bella - "

"It hurts, Ollie," she repeated as she brought a shaky hand up and placed it where her ulcer was on her stomach. "Everytime I breathe, or I move ... it hurts so much," she paused, trying to find the right words to say. "But I don't want you or your mom to worry, okay?" she asked, looking up again to meet Oliver's gaze. "I do worry, Bella. What I did was so wrong and maybe it's adding to your pain."

Anna shook her head, "No, please," she begged, "Don't talk about that, and don't think that's what hurting me, Ollie. It's ... it's complicated."

Oliver sighed in defeat and rested further against the cushions. "You're going to do great today."

Anna smiled a bit, her happiness making some of the pain of her sickness drift away. "You think so?"

Oliver chuckled and dropped his head all the way back so he was staring at the ceiling, "I know so. The Taka Plan is genious," he praised. Anna blushed, her cheeks burning red at the compliment her boyfriend gave her. Though she was mad at him and they were still on a break, she couldn't help the butterflies that filled her stomach whenever he was around her. "I wanted to give her a piece of me somehow. And I thought this was the way to do it," she told him. 

The truth is, the person the plan was named after was someone that meant a lot to Anna during some of the time she was apart from Starling for five years. Oliver had only heard bits and pieces of the story, enough to allow him to understand what she went through but not so much that he needed to ask questions and pressure her on the already touchy subject. She knew his ordeals, and he knew most of hers, but some things she couldn't bear to tell him. 

"She would be proud of you, Bella."

Anna pursed her lips, "I hope so. She's the reason I was able to move on from Sara's loss. Without her I may still be lost in my own thoughts at the bottom of the ocean. It was them who rescued me, but it was Taka who saved me. She was so innocent, Ollie. She was perfect."

"I wish I could have met her."

"You would have loved her," the woman said as she stared off into space with a lost look in her eyes. Naming the plan had been difficult for her. She suffered through so much on and off the island in those five years that naming the plan after someone that helped get her through it seemed ideal. She was stuck between titles, and after finally deciding on the Taka Plan, she decided to name the individual clauses that made up the plan after Sara and a man on the freighter that she had met.

No matter how much she wanted to move on, Anna had to take pieces of her past with her. Without them, she wouldn't be who she was.

•••

Eyes of every color stared at Annabelle as she stood on a small stage in front of the very large Carter Provision office building. People were lined up in the street, many waiting for what the girl was going to say and others wanting her to share her stories of Lian Yu. Everyone was expecting something different from her that day, yet she was only standing to announce that the world did in fact need to move on from the Carter's deaths. 

With so many people standing before her, the girl felt quite nervous and before she began she wiped her sweaty hands on her dark blue dress, one that hugged her sides and disguised all her scars. She glanced up from the wooden podium and looked to where the Queen family and Tommy Merlyn were standing in the front row. She caught Thea's eye and the girl gave her a wink, one which Anna returned with a smile.

Standing behind Tommy was his father, someone Anna hadn't seen in quite a long time. She had seen him at her parent's funeral but that was only for a moment, but before that she saw him once when she was at the hospital. He had come to express how grateful he was that she was alive and she had returned his hug and welcoming arms. The two had never been so close, but Anna was willing to accept anyone's thankfulness that day that she never bothered to ask why Malcolm Merlyn had come to say hello. 

Anna recognized many faces in the crowd. There was Lance with Laurel beside him. Diggle was next to the Queen's with members of Queen Consolidated behind them. She even recognized Felicity whom she had only seen on the Queen Consolidates Staff webpage, but she had known how the girl helped out in Oliver and her silly charades.

Anna had to stop herself from staring at everyone in the crowd otherwise she would never begin. So with a deep breath, Anna smiled at everyone and began.

"I've learned that time doesn't wait for you," she started, seeing the interested eyes of everyone before her. " - but instead, we wait for time. It's a funny thing, really. How we are all controlled by something so inanimate, something that we'll never truly understand, yet we do whatever it tells us to without ever asking why." 

Anna paused and looked down as an indirect moment of silence for her parents' passing. This was all for them, every bit of it, and she would never forget it nor would she let anyone all the same. "It's been a while, Starling," she said with a little laugh of irony leaving her mouth. "It certainly has." She halts and looks at everyone. 

"Some of you are probably looking at me and wondering how I survived, others may be asking why I got the chance to live when some other valuable lives were lost, and some may be thinking how easy it would be to kill me now," she admitted, understanding how easy it would be for a sniper to be standing on a building nearby with a target to her head, even though the police had surveyed to area to make sure she and the guests were safe.

"To be honest, I think the same thing when I look in the mirror every morning. I ask myself why I was lucky enough to survive an isolate island for five years, why I was given the opportunity. I lost many friends that day. Sara Lance, Robert queen, some crew members who left family behind here. It's true, and I'm sorry. I wish they were here, but today it's me. I'm here. No matter how much I'm not wanted, or how much it hurts to know I made it and those people didn't, I'm still here. And because I'm here, I was given the chance to reconnect with my friends. I didn't say family because I didn't have the chance to say anything to them. My parents didn't believe I was truly alive, and it hurt to know that I was still gone to them. When they died a few weeks ago, it was like my life fell apart all over again. I kept asking why. Why them, why now, why, why, why. The more I asked, the less answers I got. I realized that sometimes we aren't meant to know these things. I get that now, I really do. I wasn't planning on taking over Carter Provision so soon, I didn't know. I had actually began working on my own company several months ago. It gave me something to do to take my mind off the island. My friend suggested it to me, actually," she said, gesturing to Tommy in the front as he smiled and waved to the people behind him. Anna laughed lightly at his 'modesty' and bit her lower lip before continuing. 

"I was hesitant at first, but I decided to give it a shot, something to really improve the Glades. And today, I am excited to not only announce my new position as CEO of Carter Provision, but also the new implementation of the Taka Plan into the company." Anna waited as the gasps of people hearing that she would be taking over settled before she progressed into explaining what the Taka Plan truly was and would do.

"Taka will serve its purpose of reaching those in the Glades that are unwilling to stand for themselves. The people that are kicked down when they cannot get back up. The people that have been murdered due to hateful actions of an opposing gang. The Carter Provision was created by my father to reach those who needed health care and resources, but the Taka Plan has been created by me and assisted by Thomas Merlyn to give everyone a fair chance at redemption. Nothing hurts more than to see someone so loved be murdered by someone so hated. This will no longer be the case. There will be justice, there will be redemption, and there will be answers. No one will be left behind in this battle for humanity. The borders of Starling City will no longer exist. There will be no higher class and lower class. We all have our downfalls. The only difference is some of us have the support system to get back up. The question is: why don't we give that system to others? Is it because of how we look? How we act? What food we eat? Stores we shop at? Our friends? Our family? The answer is yes. That is what has defined us in the past. But that does not have to define us now. It's time to change, Starling. My father wanted that. And now, so do I."

As she concluded, cheers and applauds erupted from the crowd. People were whistling and screaming out their agreements. Others were smiling and nodding their heads silently, just thanking God that finally, someone was going to change their life for them. Moira had a tear streaming down her cheek as she was so proud of a girl she wished to one day call her daughter-in-law. Thea gave Anna a big thumbs up. Oliver smiled wide at the girl and clapped louder than anyone around him. Lance wiped a stray tear as well with Laurel giving him a tissue that he shook away and tried to act so brave for. 

Anna didn't want to be treated like she was famous or a celebrity, but that was her life, and she was just thrilled to have finally gotten this done so she could move on to really make the Glades a better place.

•••

"Sir?" Anna asked softly as she knelt on a sidewalk in the Glades. A man in front of her looked up and he smiled as she offered him a water bottle, something he hadn't had in nearly a week. "Thank you so much, dear," he smiled through his toothless mouth, hope returning to his eyes. The girl nodded and stood to her feet before wiping off the bottom of her knee-length dress where she just knelt on dirty concrete. 

She continued on, walking away from the homeless man and instead shuffling down the sidewalk where Diggle was standing and watching her to make sure she was alright while she was alone in the Glades. She kept her distance from him, opting to have a moment to herself instead of being in the company of people who wanted to praise her for the good deeds she had done that day.

It gave her a moment to think of something she hadn't thought of in a while. 

With a sigh, Anna leaned her back against the cool brick of an alleyway and closed her eyes. She remembered something she read in her journal that morning, an entry that she would never forget. 

"Tell me more please," the girl requested in a hushed whisper as she looked through the rusted metal bars at a man who was cuddled in the corner with sad, droopy eyes. Anna held out a small piece of bread and a tiny bowl of water and the man crawled forward, accepting the gesutre as Anna slid it under the bars. 

"I told you much," he replied softly, knowing very well that it was after midnight and if Anna or he was caught talking to one another they would both be killed for their actions. "Tell me more, you must have more," she begged, watching the man bite into his stale bread and breathe out in satisfaction of the meal.

"Is beautiful place," he responded, glancing to the girl who was so intrigued. "Trees around the house, beautiful garden. People happy," he said, remembering the village he grew up in on the island of Kyushu in Japan. "One day, China man come and tell us story. Tell us shengcun. We all thought man was crazy," he continued. "He not crazy. Next day, men come and take me from home. Shengcun the man told us day before."

Anna frowned. "I was farmer, not samurai. Samurai out of town so men take me instead."

"I am so sorry," Anna said quietly, dropping her head in sadness. "That is sad story. Moral of story is shengcun."

"Survive," Anna replied, having learned from the man countless days of the months she had been aboard the freighter. He nodded, "Survive."

"Tell me another, please, Daiki."

The man smiled at her persistence and nodded. "I ever tell you of man who chase chicken? Is funny story," he said with a light laugh, watching a smile grow on Anna's face as she prepared to be happy for a little out of her evening before she would return to her room and make sure Sara was healthy and okay. 

"Tell me."

Anna's eyes fluttered open and she smiled lightly at the memory of Daiki, a friend she had made that told her all these silly stories and fables of his Samurai town in Kyushu. She thought he was a lovely man, but she forced herself to shove the happy memory down because the memory that followed haunted her and helped make her the person she was today, a woman she hardly recognized and someone she did not want to be.