'Here you go,' Isaac pushed a mug towards me.

'Thank you,' I sniffled. 'Herbal tea?'

'It's something to help you get through today,' Isaac smiled, taking my hand. 'You're a good person, Aria. You deserve people to care about you.'

'Are you sure about that?' I asked Isaac subjectively. 'Ever since I left home, I've not been cared about. Well, apart from you and Elliot. And when someone does 'care' about me, they do something like what... he did.'

'Other people care about you,' Isaac pointed out, sitting opposite me. 'Helena. Moira. Laurel. Even the whole of the SCPD!'

'Laurel doesn't care about me,' I denied. 'She just cares about being with Tommy. She made it out to be all my fault. I just got here, for goodness sake!'

'You couldn't have known what was going to happen,' Isaac said warmly. 'You couldn't know what happened between Laurel and Tommy last year either. You weren't here!'

'That's the problem,' I dwelled on my past. 'I couldn't keep my relationship with Tommy together if I wasn't even there! It was bound to happen. He was obviously going to move on. He gave up on me.'

'Many people didn't,' Isaac said optimistically. 'The police officers carried on the search. And, for all her faults, Laurel also helped her dad try to find you.'

'Well, she's not helping me now,' I added angrily.

'You need to make up with her,' Isaac said seriously, looking into my eyes. 'She's just confused. You need to show her the truth.'

'Okay,' I said with a slight shrug.

'I probably should get going,' Isaac announced, taking his jacket from the coat stand near the door. 'I don't want to be late for my first day being Assistant Head of the Computing and Statistics Department.'

'Have fun,' I laughed at Isaac, before taking a sip from my tea.

I still had a day until I started work at the SCPD. Monday was just around the corner, but for now I had to relax like Lance had said. Unfortunately for me, the struggles of very recent happenings had made it virtually impossible to relax.

I couldn't speak to Laurel. Not that day, anyway. I needed things to settle down before I tried to fix everything.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

'Hi.'

It was Laurel.

Immediately closing the door on her, she stopped it from locking and came inside.

'Why are you here?' I asked frustratedly, wanting her to just go away.

'I'm here to say sorry,' Laurel started genuinely. 'I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. It wasn't your fault, what Tommy did.'

Keeping quiet, I turned my head away, still angry at her.

'I want us to be friends, Aria,' Laurel carried on. 'You've been through so much, and I want to help you to settle into the city.'

'Well you shouldn't have said that you wouldn't care if I was dead!' I exploded, my rage getting the better of me. 'You may have used Tommy as an excuse for it, but I know what you really meant!'

'I really didn't mean it, Aria,' Laurel apologised again, wide-eyed. 'I have to go to the law school now, but if you still want to be my friend, I'll be at my apartment at 6.'

'Okay,' I dismissed her coldly, still looking away from her.

I knew I was being petty, but I couldn't forgive her. She knew that when I was found I would want to be with Tommy, so how could she expect me to forgive her for assuming I would be dead?

To take my mind off things, I decided to go for some 'retail therapy'. Maybe it would help to use shopping in place of my relationships with Laurel and Tommy. After all, I had hardly  any clothes after being shipwrecked for a year.

---

Taking my purchases out of the shop, I walked through the city's mall. Many couples passed me, their love for each other making me miss my love for Tommy. I really did love him, but I couldn't get back with him after what he did. He had done something unforgivable

Suddenly, I heard gunshots ring throughout the mall and people screaming as if their lives depended on it. Glass fell to the floor in smithereens, meaning I had to dodge as much debris as possible. What was happening? And why here, of all places?

And then I saw the culprit. He wore a black balaclava that only left holes his eyes and mouth, and he held a gun.

So cliché.

'Move, move, move!' He shouted, pointing at various people to sit in the middle of the mall, tying them to the benches so they couldn't run away.

I needed to save these people. And stop this man. I would be no good tied up, so I ran into a cupboard labelled with 'Staff Only' and looked through a crack in the door. Luckily, the gunman hadn't noticed me. But it was a matter of time before someone got hurt.

Lying against the wall of the cupboard, I juddered in shock as I heard another gunshot. They reminded me of when I was on Ivo's freighter, how scared I was and wishing to be free. But I couldn't waste these memories. I needed them to remind me of how I had the courage and persistence to get through any situation, and save people from the perils I experienced.

They weren't going to die. No one was going to die today.

Grabbing my gun from my bag, I decided to go for it. I slipped out the cupboard and walked up behind him ever so quietly whilst he made his speech.

'Count yourselves lucky you're all still alive!' He shouted at the group of hostages. 'But you're all gonna be dead before the cops come here! Every single one of you.'

Short cries from the hostages showed how scared they were, praying to be free. They had no experience of these types of things; they were merely civilians, like me. But I had the island to thank for my differences to them.

'No they're not,' I said as calmly as I could, pressing the end of the gun on the back of the criminal's head.

This was my make or break. If it went as smoothly as it could, everyone would come out alive. But if not... Well, you know what would happen.

'Everyone's going to die!' he laughed, somehow twisting away from me and pointing his gun at me before I could react. 'And now we have a bonus!' He said madly, pointing at me.

Boy, he was good. But the thing was, I didn't understand how I let my guard down like that. Let him get away. It was like since I had been away from the Island, my skills had dwindled dramatically.

'Brothers!' He shouted, calling his three accomplices, whom all appeared out of shops and knocked my gun out of my hand, locking my hands together and holding me back from doing anything in retaliation.

'Who wants to go down first?' One of the 'brothers' growled menacingly.

'Try me,' a low voice announced from the back of the room.

It was the Vigilante. The one Issac, Elliot and I had seen on the news channel. He was there, to help us.

Swinging a nunchaku around, he walked towards the men to gain dominance.

'You really scare us,' another of the 'brothers' smirked, drawing out a knife. 'Vigilante.'

'So, you wanna do it like this?' The Vigilante asked rhetorically, taking a knife of his own out from his belt of weapons.

As the other criminals were distracted for a split second by the Vigilante, I grabbed my gun from the floor and kicked my captor in the groin. He dropped his gun, and I picked it up with the other hand.

'Untie them!' I shouted at him as the other three were busy fighting the Vigilante. 'Do it!' I shook the guns at him.

Being the coward he was, he followed my orders, freeing every one of the twenty hostages.

'Now, get on the floor,' I ordered him, pointing both guns at him.

He complied, and I tied him to the bench, so well that he was unable to move. This way, when the police got there, at least one criminal would be available to interrogate and arrest.

Now I needed to help this Vigilante. But how? Maybe if I created a distraction, a good distraction, I could manage to tie them up like their 'brother'. The only problem was there was three of them and two of us.

'Hey, over here!' I shouted, before shooting at one of the water pipes near me.

The pressure increased, steam filling the room as I punched and kicked the men so they would fall, my experience on the Island making me able to deal with little things like smoky vision.

Dragging one of the men to the benches, I tied him up too, the Vigilante tying the other two up.

'Come with me,' the Vigilante instructed me in a hushed voice as we heard the SCPD coming towards us.

I followed the Vigilante through a shadowy passageway outside the mall, where no one would follow us. I didn't want to have to explain to my fellow work colleagues the next day that I had happened to help a man working outside the law.

'Thank you for your help,' the Vigilante acknowledged my little actions that seemed to have saved the hostages. 'You were extremely brave. And you had good skills.'

'People were in danger so I made sure they were safe,' I said simply. 'You don't have to thank me. You did most of the work.'

'Work with me,' he asked suddenly. 'I need a partner to stop crime in the Glades.'

'I would, but I have another... cause,' I turned down his offer, thinking about my quest to ruin the Merlyn family. 'I need to take care of a few other things. But what I am doing is going to help this city too.'

'Well, if you change your mind,' he passed me a card. 'You know where to find me.'