Title: Stages of Recovery
Words: 2112
Genre: friendship/comfort
Characters: Sara, Oliver, Laurel
Status: Done
Summary: Sara and Oliver run into Laurel at a bookshop and invite her to dinner where they apologize.
She walked into the bookstore to find a specific book for her client. Some young adult dystopian 'the world is ending and i, the special brunette snowflake am going to save the world' book. It apparently put her client in a zen place.
She marched forward at a brisk pace, looking down at the sticky note she'd written the title and the author's name on and headed straight for the young adult section.
When she ran into Oliver. Literally. "Laurel," He greeted with a smile. "Fancy seeing you here."
She dusted herself off. Not that he was dusty. He really wasn't. But habit. "What are you doing here?" She asked with an eyebrow quirked. "I thought you didn't read books. You have people for that," She joked.
He laughed. "Sara needed a book. Apparently, there's some French designer who's rising up in the ranks. And you know Sara, she just has to know everything about those guys," He said and put his hand in his pockets. "Why are you here?"
"Client. She has this craving for this book. I don't even really know what it is, but you know, the client comes first, so here I am." She said as she showed him the sticky note.
He took it from her and smiled. "I know exactly where this book is." He said.
"Really?" She asked, she didn't want to be in here long. She didn't eat earlier and now she was starving.
He nodded. "Yeah, come this way," He said as he led her to a table full of books with that exact name and author. Laurel's belly grumbled and he looked amused "You should have dinner with me and Sara." He said, inviting her back into his life permanently.
"Ollie," She tore herself away from looking at the book and looked to him. "I don't know if that's the best idea right now. You two are in a good place. And I would just be a reminder of how it could go irrevocably wrong."
He shook his head. "I don't know how you got this idea that you're bad for us," He said as he cradled her jaw in his big palms, "but you're not. Your recovery is going well. We want to be in the same room with you. Both of us." He whispered to her as he wiped a tear from her cheek.
He had watched her recovery from afar, keeping his promise to not run after her until it was necessary. With Helena. He told himself, it was to make sure that she kept going, but really, he knew that if he saw her up close he'd want to curl his body around her and make it better. Make the pain go away. And she needed to be able to do that on her own. When she cried though, he couldn't stop himself, he wiped the tears away. "You sure?" She asked, a little choked up.
He nodded and held her "Yeah, come to dinner with us. We were going to order thai and sit on my cold floor, but honestly, I think your apartment would be better anyway," He laughed a little. He held her until it was over and she calmed down. She paid for the book on the government credit card and put her wallet back in her bag.
Sara came up to them and smiled, "Laurel, surprised to see you. I thought you'd be at home." She said, nervously.
"I invited her to dinner with us. Slight change of venue. Laurel's place, instead of the empty Queen Mansion." He told her.
Sara nodded. She knew exactly what Oliver was doing. She got her books paid for and smiled to the crew. "Well, we should get home before delivery hours aren't a thing," she wisecracked.
When they got to Laurel's apartment, the food order was placed and Oliver looked between Sara and Laurel, several times, deciding on what to do.
Before he could figure it out though, Sara slapped her hands down on her knees and looked to Laurel, "I'm sorry, you know. About letting you down."
Laurel scoffed at it, "You didn't have control over that, Sara. It's nothing." She said and looked down at her coffee table, a wooden table with a glass top.
"Doesn't mean that you should have dealt with that. Look, I'm aware, that me leaving, it brought on a chain of events that made you wear yourself thin. If I had known back then, I never would have gotten on that boat. You had every right to be angry with me. And I'm sorry that I didn't say that earlier," Sara said. This was the time to confess sins. Laurel had confessed hers. She'd done the asking for forgiveness part. Now, it was everyone else's turn.
Laurel's lips quirked up a little. "Thank you." She said quietly and reached for one of Sara's hands. "I forgive you," She said.
Oliver smiled at the exchange and sighed. "I'm sorry too. I'm sorry about what an asshole I was to you in that hall. I'm sorry I didn't say no to Sara when she asked me to come over. That wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry I brought up, Tommy. I know you blamed yourself for him. But it wasn't your fault." He said and looked at her.
Her smile grew bigger. She hugged him. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. "I forgive you. always. I'm always gonna need you." She told him as she held his hands in hers, with this big stupid grin on her face. "And you know, I think you can make it up to me, by paying for the thai food?" She asked him.
He nodded.
"Apology accepted," She smiled to him.
The doorbell rang and he took out his wallet and just gave the guy a hundred told him to keep whatever else was left. He probably paid as much for the meal as he did in tip.
He put the bag on the coffee table and started sorting out the containers of food that each of them was designated. He put Sara's on the long end of the table, put his on a short end and put Laurel's on the other long end.
Once everything was distributed properly, he looked up and smiled, "Forks anyone?" He asked
They ate their meal and laughed about the old times, the good times, and the new times. This what they should have been for so long. This is what he wanted. "Your recovery, Laurel, it's amazing." Sara said.
She shrugged. "I have two great people to thank for that," She said and reached over and squeezed both of their hands. Sara and Oliver blushed. "And forgiveness is good for the soul." She said with a little bit of a laugh. Not because what she said was a joke, but because it felt good.
"You've always had an amazing soul." Oliver said as he popped a bite of his food in his mouth. "Seriously, I mean people don't go through what you go through and just come out the other side, and you did. And you are always recovering. but you're always you. And it's amazing, really." He blushed harder at how sappy the words came out.
Laurel laughed at how flustered he was. "I guess we all need someone to sing our praises," She said as she fiddled with a piece of a string that was left haphazardly on her table.
"And the two of you, it's always gonna be each other," Sara said with a little bit of a demure smile. She knew it wasn't going to work out with Oliver. She didn't love him the way she thought she did all those years ago. She'd idealized him. Made him out to be the perfect man. The perfect man who would be perfect for her and they would have no problems. But that wasn't true. Not in the slightest. But with Laurel, yeah, maybe he had problems, but he always worked to right them. And it wasn't just when they were dating. Oliver wanted to be better for her, regardless of their relationship.
Oliver looked over to her. "I'm with you," He said as he put his hand on her knee.
Sara nodded "We both know that what you and Laurel have, it goes beyond who you're with at the time," She said quietly to him.
"I should give you two a moment," Laurel said as she stood up and went to take her dishes to the kitchen. She liked that they were together, but she didn't necessarily want to watch it. She didn't want to see them gush about each other.
Sara shook her head. "You should stay right there. I have to go to a fabric shop anyway." She said as she went and put her dishes in the sink and then left the apartment. Before she left, she smiled to them. "I'm proud of you, sis." She said and then closed the door.
"That was weird." Laurel chuckled a little as she looked to Oliver.
He shrugged. "I think she's just not used to things being that sappy still." Oliver smiled and put down his fork. "She just needs time to try and readjust."
Laurel sighed. It was hard seeing her sister still be so unfamiliar with the world as it was. "Do you think she's ever going to get used to it?" She asked him.
"Yeah, I think she will, it's just gonna take some time. I mean it took me awhile to get a grip on reality too." He said to her with a big grin.
They sat there in silence over the food for a couple of minutes before either of them talked again. They didn't know what exactly to say. They didn't have a clear cut sign of what they should be doing. He definitely did not want to go back to the empty Queen Mansion though.
He looked over to her and she blushed and he smiled. "How long has it been since someone played with your hair?" He asked.
"A while," She laughed, "Why?"
He waved his hand "Come sit over here," He asked as he went to her bathroom and got a brush and sat back on the couch, "Put something on for us to watch, why don't you?" He smiled.
She put on the news. Most of it wasn't good. There was a lot about how the city was going to shit, but she didn't focus on anything about the news because he was brushing her hair.
And if there was one thing she loved more than justice and the law, it was having her hair played with. Her eyes practically rolled back into her skull. "Feeling good?" He asked with a chuckle.
She vaguely nodded and he knew that was a good sign. He took her hair and divided it into sections and started braiding it. "I can't believe you still like to do this," She said dreamily. "It's been so long since you've done this."
Oliver shrugged. "Just because it's been awhile doesn't mean that I ever forgot. And braiding, believe it or not, was actually quite a useful skill on the island, so this was good practice." He said, quietly.
"You never talk about it. The island." Laurel said as her eyes popped open as soon as she heard the world island.
He didn't know what to say. "I guess I'm still in recovery too." He said as he looked away from her. She was right. He didn't talk about the island. Because he was broken from it. And it wasn't all island. There were a lot of things he didn't tell them. For their own safety. Or so he had rationalized in himself for so long. But really, who was he helping by letting all of that fester inside of him? He'd already seen his enemies take advantage of his silence.
It was her turn to cradle his jaw in her hands and she smiled. "You'll get there, I know you will. I believe in you." She said and he knew she meant it. She didn't push for answers, but she pushed for him to get better.
"I'm thinking about some therapy," He told her quietly.
Her lips quirked up. "I think that could be good for you." She told him. He held her hand and just breathed for a second. She had seen so much. She had gone through so much. And she still knew how to live. Maybe, that could be him too.
"You know you're an inspiration right?" He asked.
She shrugged. "I kind of figured."