Shooting Star-Dinah Drake

Bratva...

"Yeah, probably because you just produced the sound of a thousand Beyonces." Curtis looked at her astonished. "I mean, polyphonics doesn't even begin to explain what you're doing."

"Can you guys please...keep it down?" Felicity asked, clearly agitated. "Okay. Walker has gone completely dark. There is no way of pinpointing his IP or his GPS from his phone, which is probably just a burner anyway."

"That's good." Tina said silently.

"How is that good?" I asked her.

"Military men tend to be creatures of habit." She smirked. "If Walker's using a burner, odds are it's the same model used in the United States."

"And the only one making calls to the Markovians." Felicity concluded. She turned around and started to type viciously until finally giving us an answer. "Walker's flip phone of choice is an old model. The only network here that supports it is detralink DST."

"Can you hack it?" Curtis asked Felicity.

"I mean, I could, but it would take a lot of time. I think I know someone who could get us a shortcut." She stood up triumphantly.

"You have contacts in Russia, too?" Rory asked her, shocked.

"Kind of. Uh, he might need a little bit of convincing. Think you two could look like Bratva?" She asked the two men.

"Hold up, why just the guys?" Dinah asked her.

"No reason." She lied. She and I both knew that she didn't trust Tina and I was supposed to watch her.

XXX

Then, Oliver took Dinah and I was left alone in the house.

XXX

Shortly after they came back, Oliver was talking to Felicity and John while the rest of us wandered around the house. That was until a whole bunch of Bratva members showed up. Immediately, I rushed to find Oliver.

"Uh, there's a whole mess of angry Russian dudes outside."

XXX

"I have location for Walker and men to help in fight, but we need to leave now." Anatoly told Oliver.

"Спасибо большое. (Thank you so much)." Curtis said.

"Your strange friend's pronunciation is horrible." Anatoly said, sort of offended.

"Yeah. I'll tutor him later. Давай выезжай. (Let's move out)."

XXX

"To Rory and his amazing nuke-stopping rags, which hopefully doesn't give us all radiation poisoning." Curtis toasted. The mission went exactly as it sounded like. Rory used his rags to stop a nuke. That's the only way I can describe it. Curtis and Felicity practically choked on the strong shots while the rest of us downed them quickly.

"Wimps." I muttered.

"Yeah. Can't you hold your vodka?" Dinah added.

"Now you're my favorite American." Anatoly smiled and hugged her.

XXX

While the party was happening inside, I found myself sneaking away. Sure, the party scene was fun, but I always took a minute- every night, to come outside and look at the stars for a moment. It's what my dad did with me before he died. I expected to be out here for a while, thinking about how much my dad would have loved this. What I didn't expect, however, was to hear Dinah's voice behind me.

"Hey, I saw you sneak out. Everything okay?"

"Yeah." I said, not looking away from the stars. "Just wanted to look at the stars."

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." We both sat in silence for a moment before Dinah spoke up.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I nodded. "Back in Star City, did you mean what you said? About your father?"

"What, you mean that he died for me? Yeah." I chuckled. "He always told me as a little kid. 'A father's job is to protect his child at all costs. And to keep them locked up until they're 30.' He always wanted to be the hero. My hero. And he was." Tears started to fall as I was telling the story. "Sorry, you don't need to be hearing this." I wiped the tears away quickly.

"I asked." She reminded me, placing her hand lovingly to my cheek, wiping another tear off. It was clear that there was tension between us. Our faces slowly inched closer, but Curtis' innocent voice stopped us.

"Hey guys- oh sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um, Oliver says it's time to head out."