"You have to give it up, honey," Quentin said as Laurel wrapped yet another birthday present for Oliver.
It had been five years and there was no indication that he was coming back. They'd had a funeral and she'd spoken at it. Everyone else had moved on with their lives without Oliver in it. To be honest, he was glad the poor sap was gone, Laurel had gotten so much more done without him there.
She shook her head though, and finished putting the ribbon on the box. "He's still alive," She said to him.
This conversation was a point of contention that always came up. "Honey, we've talked about this, he's gone. The whole world has moved on, why haven't you?" He asked, concerned for his only daughter. He loved her so much. With Sara dead and Dinah gone, all they had was each other.
She ripped her eyes away from the present and looked at him with deadly force. "Because I can still see color. He's alive. I'm right, I know it. Besides, having a present is just good planning. Even if it is a couple of weeks away." She said as she went back to the present and put it up on the shelf with all of the other unopened presents she had gotten him over the years.
She met Oliver and Tommy when she was eight years old and she had begun to see hazy colors at that point, but real color had come when she was fifteen and Oliver had become a bit sweeter to her. They noticed each other to the chagrin of Quentin and there had been a very innocent courting period, but then it had gotten real for the both of them.
Living in color was so much more than they ever told you. When she first experienced true color, she didn't know how to feel. Vibrant didn't even really cover it. The world felt like you belonged in it and when Oliver took her by the hand and gave her a kiss on it, his lips touching her skin with all that saturation, it was incredible.
Quentin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, we're having dinner tonight, right?" He asked her. He didn't want her alone near his birthday. Which meant a lot of these dinners together the month of his birthday. That man cheated on her and she claimed she could still see color because he was still alive. How could you love a guy like that? He had to believe she was just lying and really heartbroken, but she got especially emotional around his birthday.
She waved him off as she made some coffee and stuck her nose in another law book or journal or something. She kept very up to date for all of the stuff she was doing for CNRI, which kept her busy, which he definitely liked because it kept her far away from the painful memories that he was trying to keep her from.
Dinner ended up being uneventful of chinese food and Laurel said goodnight to her father and took her leftovers inside and put them in the refrigerator. She pulled out a case file and sat down at her desk and worked until she fell asleep.
The next morning, she got up, put on her work clothes and went to work. Something felt a little bit different, the colors were a little bit more vibrant and everything seemed a little bit sharper, but she chalked it up to he was finally having a good day in whatever hell hole he was in.
She went through the mail with Joanna running after her, "Laurel, we are a legal aid office. Not miracle workers. We can't win this," Joanna exclaimed.
Laurel was undeterred though, "If we can't win a class action lawsuit against a man who swindled hundreds of people out of their live savings and homes, then we're not fit to call ourselves a legal aid office," She said, with little regard for the idea that people would call them crazy for going up against such an oppenent. She knew it was a little crazy, but this is exactly why they did this. To do the crazy thing and win.
Like Quentin, Joanna was a little more practical about the whole big dreams thing. She also thought Laurel was crazy for believing that Oliver was still alive after all this time. She'd been begging her to get back out on the scene and believed that some of Laurel's craziness at work came from the fact she didn't have love in her life. "And if we go bankrupt in the process, we will not be a legal aid office," Joanna reminded her. "Hunt has an army of lawyers and they're ready to bury us,"
Laurel looked up from the mail and looked to Joanna and smiled, "You and me, against an army. I love those odds," She said as she went back to her desk and looked at all the information they had on Hunt. They could do this. They had all the pieces of the puzzle. Or at least most of it. They just had to be fearless.
"And in other news, details as to the castaway story you've all heard about, the son of a very wealthy billionaire will soon become a legendary story."
There was a blast of color on one of Hunt's pictures they had collected over the past several months once she heard those words and then she looked over to the TV screen to see what the hell was going on. What the hell was going on with her sense of color?
"Jessica now has more details and the complete castaway story," The anchorman said as he threw to Jessica.
And then Laurel relived one of the worst days of her life through Jessica's retelling of the story, "The Queen's gambit was last heard from more than five years ago. Mr. Queen has reportedly confirmed he was the only survivor of the accident that took the lives of more than seven people, including local resident Sara Lance. Survived by her sister, Laurel-" Which is when she cut off. She couldn't take it anymore.
Of course, that caused its own set of problems, because while everyone knew that Laurel was intense, they didn't know where it came from and now it was all out there on display. She dropped the remote and walked away, picked up her bag and left.
Quentin came bursting into her apartment where he found her blank faced and staring at the wall where she had put all of his presents. "Oh honey," He said.
She shook her head. "Don't," She said as she went into her kitchen and poured some more coffee for herself.
If he had to guess that was probably about her eighth cup and he wished she didn't do that to herself. It wasn't good for your nervous system. That stuff could kill you and he knew that she coped this way. He shouldn't let her throw herself into work, that was going to be worse.
"What can I do to help you?" He asked.
She chuckled. "You can leave me alone," She said, "I have a lot of work to do. Adam Hunt isn't just going to hand us an easy verdict and I have a lot of things to take care of to make sure all of these people who are counting on me, they get their justice," She told him as she stirred her coffee and moved to her office.
"Honey," He said as he followed her, "Are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean you have a lot to process. Oliver being alive is a lot for you to deal with, no one would blame you for taking a couple of days off," He said as he came further in the room, but she shook her head.
She backed further to her desk. "He's alive, so what?" She shrugged. "And if I take more time off, I'm just going to be behind and the people won't get their justice, so just go home, dad. I'm fine." She said and he reluctantly left.
That was the face of a woman who was definitely not fine, but he didn't know how to help her. He never had been good at helping her. Hell, for the last five years, she had been the one helping him, because he'd been in a not good place. What was he supposed to tell her? That even though he had thought she'd been crazy in the notion that Oliver was still alive, that she shouldn't keep all of that emotion inside? That would just upset her. Mostly, he also didn't want to have to admit he thought she was crazy at any point either.
The next morning, she went into work and Joanna found her quickly, "Laurel, I just got this from Hunt's lawyers. They just filed a change of venue," She informed her cofounder. "We are now in front of Judge Grell,"
Grell. Perfect, Laurel thought. All of that hardwork she'd done on the judge and the right way to go about making the most convincing argument right out the window. All of that stuff she'd worked on so hard last night, just down the drain, "Hunt funded Grell's re-election campaign," She said and Joanna made an affirming noise, "He's got Grell in his back pocket," She said.
Joanna nodded. "You know, it's fun being your best friend. I get to say 'I told you so,' a lot." She said and Laurel grinned at her.
"No," Laurel said, "Adam Hunt is not smarter than we are,"
Joanna agreed with that assessment. They were easily smarter than Adam Hunt. They had put more work into getting their own coffee than he had through most of business school. "He's just richer and willing to commit multiple felonies,"
"We don't need to go outside the law-" Laurel started as she started back to her desk to reformulate their plan of attack. They couldn't win it with the judge, so they had to find a way to make sure the judge didn't see this case. Making it seem like he had skin in the game.
Joanna nodded again, "To find justice. Your dad's favorite jingle," Joanna said with some affection. It was actually nice having a cop on their side for their clients. It meant that they had some sway.
Joanna left Laurel alone and Laurel turned back to her desk and she saw him, Oliver and god all of the color seemed to radiate from him, but all she could see was red, because how could he?
"Hello, Laurel," He said like five years hadn't gone by, like they couldn't do this anywhere else. Like him coming to her office was a good idea. She loved him, he made her live without him in color for five years. He didn't even have the decency to let her heart move on. And then he was just there and she almost couldn't believe it was real.
She shuffled him out the door as she told Joanna that she'd be back soon.
Laurel walked down the street with him and wasn't quite sure where to look with him. There was so much about him that hadn't changed. The way he had that knick of a scar on the right side of his jaw and his kind eyes, but there was something different behind those eyes. They had been changed irreparably by those five years.
"So you went to law school. You said you would," He said, trying to keep it light for a second.
She didn't really feel like keeping it light though. That seemed like such a mockery of what they had both been through. "Yep. Everyone is proud," She said to him shortly.
"Adam Hunt's a heavy hitter. You sure you want to get into the ring with him?" He asked, attempting to keep it light one last time. Maybe, she would just back down and see him and have things to say to him.
She didn't go for it though.
"Five years and you want to talk about Adam Hunt?" She asked him as she looked him in the eye for the first time since they had started the walk, which was actually impressive, because even when she was mad at him five years ago, he was never denied her eyes looking at him.
He conceded her point though, "No. Not really,"
"Why are you here, Ollie?" She asked him and god help her if what she wanted was a simple answer. I love you. I want you. I came back for you. I was running from lots of stupid things but I came back because you're here and I love you.
But he didn't say any of that.
Instead, he simply said, "To apologize. It was my fault," And it was clear that there would be simple answer. "I wanted to ask you not to blame her," He said. Like there was one simple thing or person to blame.
But more importantly, while Sara was a part of the problem, she was never the problem. She shook her head. "For what?" She asked. "Falling under your spell? How could I possibly blame her for doing the same things I did?" She asked him and the fierceness in her eyes, god, he loved that. That fierceness had gotten him to see things the right way so many times, but this time it just felt painful.
"I never meant to-" He started.
But he was cut off. "She was my sister. I couldn't be angry because she was dead. I couldn't grieve because I was so angry. That's what happens when your sister dies screwing your boyfriend." She told him and then she looked around and took a breath. She looked at him once more with more tender eyes. "We buried an empty coffin. Because her body was at the bottom of the ocean where you left her," She said and steeled herself up.
"It should have been you," She told him, almost ready to leave.
His heart broke when she said that. He saw in color because she was safe at home and she was there and the look of disdain on her face, it absolutely shattered him. "I know it's too late to say this," He said, "But I'm sorry,"
"I'm sorry too," She said to him, "I'd hoped I hadn't wasted my color on someone I couldn't stand the second I saw their face after five years." She told him.
He stopped her for just a second and looked at her, "You still-?"
She nodded. "Yeah, but there were plenty of days that I wished I hadn't. There were days that I hoped I would wake up and the world would be black and white again." She said as she took her arm from him before she opened up the trunk of her car and gave him all the presents that she'd amassed for him over the years. "Happy you're still alive," She said as she went back into the office and went to reformulate all of the plans she'd so carefully shaped over the past two days.
He looked stunned as he held all of the presents and he looked over to Tommy who rolled his eyes. "Told you that one didn't want you back home," He said.
Oliver shrugged. "I don't know," He said, with a little bit of a smile on his face, "She still sees color. She never lost the ability to see color," He told his friend, who just nodded along to Oliver's crazy ramblings.
The world had always been black and white to him until after Oliver died, when he finally got Laurel to really see him. But a world in color wasn't so different, it just had great greenery. Of course, Laurel and Oliver had their colorbearers back in each other's lives, things would be different for the three of them again.