Words: 3025
Pairings: Sara/Oliver, Laurel/Oliver
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Status: Done

Sara knew that he was never hers. Even now. He was perfectly loving and everything when he was awake, but his subconscious was a lot more willing to be honest. The few blessed times that she'd gotten him to sleep, she laid there and watched him sleep.

He finally seemed at peace with himself, now that he wasn't having nightmares of Shado's death. Slade. He worked to break them apart and in that way, he succeeded, not that he exactly knew.

Because she breathed a sigh of relief, something in Slade had forgiven Oliver. But now that Oliver was no longer forcing flashbacks of Shado down, he smiled in his sleep. Which shouldn't have been a problem. She should be happy that he was smiling. He was finally smiling again. But it also came with sweet murmurs of Laurel's name.

Everything in the world had tried to keep him from Laurel. She had gotten in the way. The Island took five years. Tommy had dated her. But there it was. Her name. On his lips. Like God's prayer in the universe. She was what was going to make him really happy. Sara combed her fingers through his hair and sighed. Tomorrow she was going to do the right thing, she promised herself as she drug her shoes over and put them on. She kissed him on the temple, "Goodbye Oliver," She sighed.

She bought coffee and watched the sun rise as she thought about the conversation that she was about to have. He deserved to be happy. She promised herself that she was doing the right thing, because if she didn't, she'd never tell him the truth.

She took her coffee and went back to the Cave where she saw Oliver sitting up, "Hey," He said, his groggy voice. Her heart fluttered for a minute, before she remembered what she was about to do. "I'm not used to waking up without you, usually it's the other way around," He smiled, putting his arms around her waist.

Her chest tightened. Do it now. Don't chicken out. "Look, Ollie, I don't think we should see each other anymore," And it broke her more than she thought it would.

"What?" He asked, laughing, almost as if she was joking.

Sara stepped out of his grasp. "I'm not the one you want. I never was. I was just easy."

"What brought this on?" He asked, staring at her with blank eyes.

She shook her head, trying not to look at him. "You. Laurel's name. You've been saying it in your sleep since Slade forgave you. And I can tell you dream about her."

"I'm with you," He attempted to make it better. He put his hand on her face and looked into her eyes. "When I'm with you, I'm with you." He told her with a look of absolute certainty in his eyes that was false. As much as she wanted to believe it, she couldn't. She'd heard the evidence on her own.

"Ollie," She said with the saddest smile on her face. "It was always Oliver and Laurel. Always has been. I was just a placeholder. You can't tell me that when you look into the future, that Laurel's not there. Besides, we only work when Laurel's in the middle, telling us how to deal with the other."

He hugged her and she felt the tear on her shirt. At least he'd given into the breakup. "You deserve to be happy too, Sara." He babbled in a low whisper. "But I think we just tried too hard. We tried to make the crime fighting couple work and it just got in the way of everything."

She sniffled away a few of her own tears. "Yeah, well, if you hurt her, we'll make crime fighting couple work on a whole 'nother level and I promise you, you won't be happy with the results," She laughed a little. God, Oliver really felt like family. She'd always protect him, but she'd give him shit too.

"I don't think she wants to be with me. She's with that Tripp McLildash guy now." He took himself away from her and ran his arm over the top of his face. A way to mask that there were in fact tears.

Sara shook her head. "I didn't just break up with you for you to be lonely. And I promise you that Tripp McLildash is just a stepping stone," She boasted. He smiled despite himself. The thought of being together with Laurel and holding her hand in public and making up for lost time and finally doing it right, that, Sara was right about. It'd be Laurel always. It'd always be Laurel in his domestic fantasies.

"You're not gonna kill him are you?" He asked, eyebrow quirked. It wouldn't be the craziest thing he'd ever heard. He'd trained the Huntress, a women so hellbent on revenge that she knocked people over anyway she could.

She shook her head and blushed, "Nice to know you have so much faith in me, Ol. But seriously, let me deal with it." She told him as she left.

The first person she called was Felicity. "So, I broke up with him," She said into the speaker.

"Oh my god, are you guys okay? What happened? I mean I thought you guys were doing great. I mean obviously, you weren't, but how did this even happen, you guys seemed so happy." Felicity ran her mouth at an epic speed and it amused Sara.

Sara shook her head on the phone, "Don't worry about me and Ollie. We're okay. But he's in love with Laurel."

"Dammit, Sara," Felicity cursed into her ear.

Sara was a little surprised by Felicity's frankness. "You have a problem with Laurel? Because I swear I told Felicity there'd be no violence in this plan but I can easily go back on that," She said, there was the protective streak coming, a tiger with her cubs.

"Oh, no, not you you. I had money in a pool with Diggle and Roy. It's a complicated story." She shook her head. "So what do you need?"

"I need you to help me hold up Tripp McLildash. There's a big event that's perfect for Laurel and Oliver to see each other at and her to realize that she's still googly eyes for him." Sara said with a smile. "Laurel could never resist Oliver when he wore the fuck out of a tux, not that I blame her."

"Right," Felicity said, "Let me look into Tripp for a few minutes and I'll call you back. Also you should get her to put on a green dress. He gets stupid for that color."

She clicked off her phone and looked up at Laurel's window. Laurel sat there with her coffee and smiling. That was one of the things she never got tired seeing from Laurel, because from the moment she'd stepped back into her sister's life, she seemed so sad, but this girl wasn't even like that girl.

She opened the door and greet ms. Kirpatrick who lived on the sixth floor and was the nosiest kind of person as she went up the stairs. most people took the elevator and it was just easier to take the stairs most of the time.

Tripp jogged down the stairs and bumped into her, "Nice seeing you this morning," He said, steadying her.

"Hi, Tripp," She said as she jogged up the stairs, "Have a good day,"

"Oh, I plan to. A day that is the prelude to an evening with my beautiful Laurel is only one of the best." He said.

God, he was so fake. He was perfectly nice. He had a good job. He was from the right families. They went to the same high school. They'd met in AA. He was clean. And he knew the struggles, but dammit, he was beige. And Laurel needed the rainbow.

She knocked on Laurel's door and Laurel got out of her chair and opened the door, "What'd you forget, Tripp?" She asked, without looking up from her coffee.

Only when she did look up from her coffee, she noticed that it wasn't Tripp, but Sara. "Hi Laurel," She waved.

"Hi Sara," She said, not really sure what had brought her sister over to her apartment so early in the morning. "You're up early," She noted. "Coffee?" She asked.

Sara waved it off, "Nah, had some already."

"So what do you want, Sara?" She asked as she sat back down in her chair, looking onto the balcony.

She grinned at her sister, "What makes you think that I want something?" She asked. "I could just want to see my big sister. Would that be so unconventional?"

Laurel just looked at her and Sara giggled. "Okay, fine. I thought that maybe you would want to go shopping for tonight's event. I thought we could get ready together?"

Laurel grinned. "I'd love to. We can get something that will knock the socks off of Tripp and Oliver," She said, confidently. "Now, if you give me just one second, I need to change, and I should be ready to go,"

Laurel came out in a beautiful pale pink dress and maroon brown booties and it absolutely worked, she looked adorable. Oliver would love seeing her like this. "Damn, you clean up nice sis," Sara exclaimed, "Let me take a picture,"

Laurel posed and it was a little family moment all over again. Of course, once she finished taking pictures, she sent them to Oliver, because yeah, he deserved to see what he was missing while they'd been stupid. He gave no reply, but she knew that he'd be drooling over this girl.

They got out of the house and to Laurel's favorite place to buy these kind of formal dresses. "So what are you looking for today, dearies?" The old woman at the counter asked them as they entered.

Laurel blushed, "Just look, Jo."

She didn't think it would be that hard to find a dress and to get it on Laurel, but she had pushed out every dress she'd handed her. Nothing was good enough. "Sara why don't you focus on you? I'm doing okay." Laurel said, getting a little frustrated.

Sara rolled her eyes. God, she was trying to do the right thing here and Laurel wasn't making it easy. "Because I finished picking out my fashion a half hour ago. We could have been halfway back to the Queen House if it was only me we were shopping for." She said, putting the dress back on the rack and trying again.

She looked through all of the racks and found a dress that didn't seem like Laurel's taste at all. Granted, she'd been showing Laurel dresses that were in her comfort zone all day long and she'd found something to bitch about with all of them. So she decided might be worth trying. "How about this one?' She asked.

Laurel looked it up and down and didn't automatically trash anything about it. Good sign. "That one has potential," She said, sticking her lip out.

"Well, then try it on," Sara said, pushing her into the dressing room with the dress as she texted Oliver about how well this was going. She texted Felicity too, making sure that that her part of the plan was still working out.

"Sara," Laurel's voice. She looked up from her phone and there she was a vision in emerald green that sparkled with little diamonds in the fabric, a small pool at her feet, but that was deliberate. The plunging neckline. The straps that perfectly showed off her arms. And then the back. Possibly better than the front, because it was backless. And it went down to her butt and came in at a beautiful peak. "What do you think?"

Sara looked stunned. And Laurel smiled. "If you don't get this dress, you're crazy," She told Laurel. "Tripp won't be able to keep his hands off of you."

Yeah, she said Tripp, but she couldn't risk Laurel realizing that she was setting her up with Oliver. Laurel and Tripp weren't even dating officially. But she'd blow a gasket, because Oliver was something else. And he challenged her. Tripp never did.

They paid for the clothes and then Sara took her sister's hand and practically threw her in the car. They had to get to the party before Laurel realized that Tripp wasn't going to make it. "Come on," She said.

"You're awfully excited to put on the monkey suit dress as you put it," Laurel mused.

Sara wanted to tell her, but the surprise would make an even better gift. "It'll be your first big appearance since you got better, are you excited?" Sara asked as she drove to Laurel's.

"Do you just want to change here?" Laurel asked.

Sara nodded, "If that's okay with you. Oliver doesn't really have much room to change at his place,"

"His place?" Laurel asked. "I thought he was staying at the Queen Mansion."

Sara grinned, "Yeah, he and Moira still aren't on the best of terms, so he doesn't exactly go over there very often."

"He's never told me he was fighting with Moira." Laurel pouted a little. And if that wasn't the biggest tip off to Sara that the two were meant for each other, she didn't know what was. Laurel was genuinely upset for not knowing about what was going on.

Sara shrugged. "You'll just have to ask him about it, he's gonna be at the party." She told her sister. Laurel's eyes brightened a bunch and the color just flew naturally into her cheeks. Yeah. Love. That's what it was. "But finished getting ready," She said as she got out her phone again.

She called Felicity. "I just dropped the bomb on him. Don't worry, he's not getting out of work anytime soon. Now, you just need to get her there. Good luck," Felicity said and then dropped the call. They were going to have to go over the manners of theatrics like that.

Laurel's phone chimed and she saw that it was Tripp, fuck. Go away. Sara picked it up and hung up, that way she wouldn't have to deal with it. Tripp would find another perfectly boring woman. "Ready, Laurel?" Sara called from behind the door.

"Almost, give me two minutes. And Tripp is supposed to pick me up," Laurel said, with happiness.

"Tripp just called, he got caught up at work," She said. "But he said not to worry and he'd be there soon."

Laurel looked at her sister. "You should go."

"Come on, he'll be there soon. You won't even miss him."

"I don't know," Laurel said, thinking about her relationship with the the man before what Sara said. "Maybe I should wait. I mean he's my date, he should pick me up."

"And you are a modern woman who don't need no man to pick you up. Come on. There will be plenty of guys to talk to." Sara pleaded.

Laurel sighed. "There is going to be no winning with you is there?"

"Nope," Sara said, smugly, "Now come on, we should go."

The ballroom was packed with people milling about around the corner of the dancefloor and they saw everyone from the ledge above. "Are you sure about this? I mean it's not a big deal," She told Sara.

"Oh yes, it is. You're going down there and you're going to get a first dance from someone. Because this is your first big night out." She told her sister as she pushed her toward the stairs.

Laurel gently descended the stairs, till she was at the very last one and looked up to see where she was going only to see Oliver. "May I have this dance?" He asked, offering her his hand.

She was so shocked that he would even come to this. Sara had told him some bullshit thing about him not feeling up to it or having some kind of family emergency, but he was here. And in a tux. "You may," She gasped as he gave him her hand.

He pulled her in close and they waltzed around the room. "You look stunning," He said, not being able to take his eyes off her.

"You do, too," She blushed. God, she hadn't felt like this since before he left when she knew what love was and what it meant and how easy it could be.

They talked and talked and she hardly even remembered why she hadn't wanted to come even after she found this beautiful dress. They even laughed together and Sara could tell that she'd done her job right. They weren't fully back together yet, but that. It was only a matter of time.

"You know I love you, right, Laurel?" Oliver said, combing a free hand through her hair.

She nodded. "I do, Oliver."

"You know I'm in love with you?" He asked. This was the time. Sara had been convincing him all day that she was ready for this, that Laurel was ready for him. Ready for them, really.

"Oliver," Her voice fluttered. This was it. This make or break time. And she thought about all of the things. And then she got a text and she looked at him and back to her phone, giving him the one second gesture. She read it.

From: Sara
To: Laurel

He's yours. And by that I mean he's free to be yours. We broke up. I want the both of you to be happy and I know that means keeping you together. I know you're in love with him too. Don't deny it. But go get some of that happy.

She looked to Sara and nodded and then looked back to Oliver and grinned. "I'm in love with you too," She said as she kissed him with a passion that she hadn't felt in years about almost anything. "God, I'm glad that I've got a great sister."

"I agree. She's a hell of a girl."

"And she can still kick your ass."

"That," Oliver smiled. "She can."