Notes:
Welcome to the latest installment of the Jen is Pissed Collection. Recently on Tumblr a bunch of Laurivers went into attack mode about how stupid *Tommy* was to have gotten killed while trying to save Laurel.
Okay, I know; just read their comments and you'll see what I mean:
cryofthecanaries (because, guess what bitches; we name names here because we don't gives a fuck in JenSan land):
But even if with that scene (which was kinda eh) Laurel was easily still a better girlfriend and probably a better love interest for Tommy than lets say a certain hacker who broke up with a certain vigilante for selfish reasons. I mean cause it's not like Oliver had to think about his son or anything right? lol. Oh fefe, your plot holes make me laugh. Oh and in case you haven't noticed Tommy went into the building himself little one. If anyone got himself killed it was him.
He made his own decisions which got him killed.
Unless there's a scene where Laurel told tommy to run into a burning building.
No? Yeah didn't think so.
abberryyang (who I actually had to report to Tumblr once for telling people that I enjoyed seeing girls in short shorts being raped in Walmart, whatever the hell that means):
Tommy was also insecure about Oliver being The Hood, because he knew Laurel would choose him in a heart beat because of that. Tommy's 'heroic actions' can actually be interpreted as jealousy and insecurity, that he didn't want Oliver to save her, but himself. Tommy didn't even start caring for people until Thea suggested him to do it to make Laurel like him - and it worked.
piratequeennina:
So then we move into the undertaking and Laurel goes to get files and Tommy comes busting in because he wants to be the hero. He wants to save the day. We know that Tommy knows about Oliver being the hood and we know Tommy knows about Laurel's relationship with the hood. And so it becomes very clear that this is his chance to be the hero, get the girl.
Except he didn't do it out of heroism. He did it out of spite. He loved Laurel and he wanted to be the person who got her out of there.
Tommy's death is fundamentally about toxic masculinity. It was never about Laurel. And while Laurel might think that she betrayed him and certainly she couldn't go back to Oliver so soon after Tommy died because of the memories attached, sleeping with Oliver given everything we know about the situation, that wasn't her most selfish moment, not by a long shot and to build that up as the crux of your argument, well I'm sorry it's just wrong.
wordswehavesaidworld:
There's a reason some of Tommy's last words were "I am my father." and it had nothing to do with him dying of hero. I love Tommy's character and I know a lot of the fandom misses him, but we all tend to romanticize his character because of his death and instead place blame where it shouldn't be.
Laurel blames herself for Tommy's death out of survivor's guilt and genuine love for one of her best friends and exes (despite him treating her pretty shitty up until right before his death). Fandom blames Laurel because they're looking for reasons to hate her.
…yeah, so according to the Laurel fans who 'love' Tommy even though he wasn't the saint us 'Olicity' people try to make him out to be, in a blatant and thoroughly toxic effort to further diminish Laurel and steal her storylines, Tommy didn't try saving Laurel because he was a hero or because he loved her, it was because he was an evil selfish prick with a hard-on, who hated women, and was basically a pre-Darth Vader Anakin.
And with that in mind, for abberryyang and cryofthecanaries, and all the rest of their friends in Laurel La La Land including that obviously confused kid with the glasses who stuck his head on the body of a mostly naked John Cena. I'm also dedicating this to a writer I've heard a lot about called Stand_with_Ward_and_Salvatore. I'm not familiar with her work but several of my readers are and suggested she might enjoy this. Welcome to the neighborhood! And to my friends juliesioux and petitsourire19 who battled hordes of rampaging Lauriver trolls to defend both Felicity and Tommy's honor and who introduced me to the word gems 'infantile fuckwits' and 'weasel-headed fucknuggets' respectively. You will see those mentioned at some point so get ready to enter them into your word banks. Also to my friends at oldbatsandyoungbitches who double dog dared me to do this because, like me, those bitches just don't give a good fuck.
I love my peeps so much. We is the Taylor Swift Posse of Snark.
Enjoy!
-Jen
I NEED A HERO! (but not you, the other guy)
By JA Ingram
LaDemonessa on AO3
Chapter 1: Do I Look Like A Firefighter To You?
Tommy stumbled through the rubble as the aftershocks shook the pavement under his feet only to be saved from a nasty fall by a teenager in a dirty red hoodie.
The teenager looked at him in concern, "You okay, man?"
"Yeah, thanks." Tommy looked at the guy, "Wait, you're Roy, right? You're a friend of Thea's, you work at my club. Well, my former club," he added with a grimace.
"As a busboy, yeah. Did the club get destroyed, too?" Roy asked in trepidation.
"I don't know, I don't think so," Tommy said grimly. "Who the hell knows, but last I heard it was still okay."
"Thank God," Roy sighed. "I really need that job, you know. Of course, even if the club is okay that won't mean much if the rest of the Glades goes up in smoke," he said wryly before looking towards Tommy again, "What are you doing out here anyway? I figured you'd be all the way on the other side of town with the rest of the richies where it's safe?"
"I'm checking on someone, and I'm not rich anymore. Malcolm cut me off months ago and my apartment is just around the corner on Adams and Papp," he said as he looked at the people running around in various states of panic.
"You live in the Glades?" Roy asked in surprise.
"It was the only thing I could afford after my-Malcolm-" he bit out unable to refer to that son of a bitch as his father after seeing the destruction all around them, "cut me off then kicked me out of his place. Plus, it was close to the club, but then I lost, or rather quit that, too, so, yeah; you're not the only one who's going to be hunting for a new job. That is if we survive all this," he said looking around at the chaos surrounding them. The air was thick with smoke and the smell of burning insulation and wood. Meanwhile he had to practically shout to be heard over the clamor of screams and sirens even though the other man was only a couple of feet away. "I don't even want to think about what it's going to be like looking for a job after all this. I'm pretty sure any potential employers are going to take one look at my name and…" he shook his head, suddenly feeling a wave of guilt for even thinking about looking for a job given the fact that people were dying because his father decided to basically burn down the city.
That was a concern for another time, he reminded himself. While being able to feed himself and afford a decent place to live were important, he'd figure it out somehow. Right now though, he had to find Laurel.
"But weren't you supposed to be living with your rich girlfriend or something?" Roy asked as though reading his mind.
"She wasn't rich, and no," he said with a hint of bitterness. "I would stay over there a lot but then we broke up a few weeks ago and I needed someplace to live so I took what I could get."
And what he could get was a one bedroom apartment in a rundown but still decent apartment complex just outside the Glades Industrial Park in Wriggleyville. How much longer he'd be able to afford his rent though was another matter altogether.
Again, unemployed and the son of a domestic terrorist; even if he could manage to make the rent and his building was still standing after all this, he was pretty sure that was reasonable cause to have someone evicted.
Hey!" he called out to one of the interns he recognized, "Uh, Dave! Hey, over here!" he shouted before turning to Roy again, "Is everybody out of the building?" Tommy asked. "I don't see Laurel anywhere?"
"You're here looking for Laurel?" the hoodie guy—Roy, asked curiously.
"Yeah, is she okay?" he asked anxiously.
"I don't know, I just got here," the kid shrugged. "I was actually coming here to meet her because she's my lawyer and I have court next week." He paused, "That is if the court house is still there. If it isn't then maybe they'll toss my case?" he mused hopefully.
"Well, there's a silver lining for you. My old man tries to kill thousands of people but at least all the purse snatchers, gangbangers, and low level scumbags will get a free pass," Tommy mumbled under his breath.
"Huh?" Roy squinted at him. "I can't hear you," he said in a slightly louder voice as he gestured at the chaos all around them.
"I asked if this was about the purse snatching thing" Tommy said neutrally as he looked over the crowds of people that surrounded them once more. "I thought Thea dropped that?"
"She did but this is for…other stuff," Roy flushed with embarrassment. "Anyway," he said after clearing his throat, "I'm sure she's fine. I mean, her dad is a cop, right? He probably made sure she got out first thing."
"Yeah, you obviously don't know Laurel," Tommy grumbled. "She does what she wants to do which, nine times out of ten, is pretty much the exact opposite of whatever her old man or anyone else tells her to do. Dave!" he shouted again as he waved his arms to get the intern's attention.
"It's Melvin, actually," the skinny guy said as he approached, brushing off his dusty khakis as he adjusted his thickly framed glasses nervously.
"Sorry, you just look like a Dave to me," Tommy apologized.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. You're Tommy Merlyn, right?" Dave—Melvin-whatever his name was, asked.
"Uh yeah, but I didn't have anything to do with this shit," he said in a combination of shame and disgust. "This is all on that son of a bitch, Malcolm; not on me."
"I get it," Roy said with a sympathetic look. "My old man was a piece of shit, too. Only…he didn't try to level the Glades, he just used to get drunk off his ass then took off with some girl he knocked up but not before stealing my mom's car," he said reluctantly.
"Yeah, well, Malcolm is definitely a special kind of asshole, that's for sure. Anyway, uh, Dave—"
"It's Melvin," the guy corrected him again.
"Sorry," Tommy apologized, "Did Laurel get out of the building with everyone else?"
The guy gave him an uncomfortable look before answering, "You're looking for Laurel?"
"Yeah," he said slowly, "Where is she?"
Melvin eyed him uncertainly, "Why are you looking for Laurel?"
"There's a fucking earthquake tearing the Glades apart and I want to make sure she's okay! Why the hell else would I be here?" Tommy burst out.
"Well, yeah, but I just figured what with the thing on YouTube…" Melvin said uneasily.
Tommy looked at him in consternation, "What thing on YouTube?"
"Never mind," the other man said quickly.
Roy grinned broadly and pointed at the other man as he bobbed his chin knowingly, "Oh yeah; I saw that! It was hot."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Tommy demanded looking between the two men.
"Oh, it was this video some dude took of Laurel and Thea's brother fu-" Roy stopped suddenly and gulped as Tommy shot him a deadly glare. "Dave's right; never mind."
"It's Melvin," the other man corrected them once more.
"Look, did Laurel get out of the building or what?" Tommy demanded with a scowl.
"Yes, she did," Melvin told him, nodding his head, "She definitely got out of the building with everyone else."
Tommy breathed a sigh of relief at that, "Good. Oh thank God."
"A couple of times, in fact, but then she…um, ran back in again," Melvin added quickly.
"What?" both Roy and Tommy burst out.
"What do you mean? Are you saying she ran into the building more than once?" Tommy asked incredulously.
"Three times actually."
Tommy's eyebrows shot up in disbelief, "Three times?"
"Yeah, or maybe it was four times?" Melvin said slowly. "I don't know; it was a bunch and there was a lot of shouting and cursing going on. She kept trying to go inside and the fire chief kept having them drag her back out," he shrugged. "Then, after they left the last time, she went back in. That was about five minutes ago."
"Why would she do something that stupid?" Roy asked, "The fucking building is on fire and the roof is collapsing!"
"My thoughts exactly," Tommy said stripping off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves as he prepared to go inside. "Was someone else trapped in there? Her dad?" He looked around for one of the firemen and waved to get his attention, "Hey!" As the firefighter approached, he pointed towards the building, "There's still people in there!"
"No there isn't, we cleared that building first thing," the fireman told him.
"According to Dave here—"
"Melvin," Roy reminded him.
"Thank you," Melvin muttered.
"Melvin," Tommy corrected himself, "Laurel Lance is still in there along with a few other people."
"Actually no," Melvin interrupted him, "The only person in the building is Ms. Lance."
"No, I cleared that building myself," the fireman insisted. "The last time Ms. Lance insisted on going back in the building, I warned her we might have to take that building down to serve as a firebreak and that the foundation and roof were badly compromised and could collapse at any minute."
"Well, she went in anyway," Melvin shrugged. "I tried stopping her! I told her what you said about having her arrested if she tried going back in, but-!"
Tommy scowled, worry and anger causing his tone to sharpen, "Why would she go inside the building if she knew these guys were planning on tearing it down?"
"She, um, wanted to get some files," Melvin said weakly.
"Files?"
This time three voices rang out simultaneously; Tommy's, Roy's, and that of the firefighter.
"More files actually." Melvin pointed to the stacks of file boxes sitting in the parking lot. "She'd already gotten a bunch of them but she wanted to make sure she had her personal notes and stuff, too."
"Are you telling me that crazy lawyer chick ran into a burning building, risking not only her life but the lives of my men who I'm going to have to send in after her—again-over *files*?" the firefighter growled.
"Well, not just her files," Melvin corrected himself. "She also needed to go back inside for her purse and her dry cleaning." He scowled, "She got really abusive with me over that, too. I mean, she said, 'Grab the boxes'. She didn't say, 'Go into my office and grab my dry cleaning, too'." He grimaced, "Anyway, she told me to go back inside and get them but, after the Chief threatened to arrest us, I told her it was a bad idea and she called me a-" his mouth tightened in annoyance, "An 'infantile fuckwit with no balls and less brains' then told me to stay out here and guard the boxes while she did it herself which is why I'm still here standing in the middle of ground zero during an earthquake instead of in a shelter or something where it's safe. Well, relatively safe," he added glancing around at the pandemonium that surrounded them.
"Unbelievable!" Tommy growled running his fingers through his hair in aggravation. "Fuck!"
"In her defense though, they are pretty important files," Melvin admitted reluctantly. "All of her pending cases and the discovery files from the DA's office. She probably could've lived without her dry cleaning though."
"Not that I'm saying all that…'stuff' isn't important, but don't you guys have like thumb drives, or disks, or the Cloud, or something?" Roy asked uncertainly. "I mean, I'm not a tech guy and I don't know how that stuff works, but if I can save my playlist to the Cloud can't you guys save all that lawyer shit to it, too?"
"They have the Cloud," Tommy said irritably. "They also have back up servers off-site. I made sure of that when I donated the computers. I even hired them the same IT person who set all that up for the club! All the files are automatically uploaded to the secure servers at Wethersby & Stone which is all the way across town where it's safe! Why the hell would she go back in there when she knew those files were just a click away?"
"I told her that but not all of the files had been uploaded yet, and she said she had her notes and, um…other stuff," Melvin broke off sheepishly. "Also, like I said, she also went back in for the discovery files which aren't on our servers; those are hard copies only."
Roy raised an eyebrow at that, "Couldn't the DA just email them or run off some more copies or something?"
"Well, yeah…" the other man admitted reluctantly. "But it would take a while though because the ADA's are kind of jerks when it comes to resending files and she didn't want to have to go through all that when they were right there; her words, not mine."
"Why didn't you try to stop her?" Tommy demanded angrily.
"I did try to stop her!" Melvin said defensively, "but then, in addition to calling me a—what she called me," he said clearing his throat, "she called me an 'idiot' and threatened to kick me in the…" he glanced down at the front of his khakis and cleared his throat.
"You have to go in there after her," Tommy insisted, turning to the fireman.
"Goddamn it," the other man sighed before calling over one of the other firemen, "Hey Chief!"
"Johnson, what the hell are you doing over here shootin' the shit when you're supposed to be puttin' out fires and workin' search and rescue?" the older man demanded gruffly as he approached.
"You remember that lawyer chick who wanted to go back in the building?" Johnson asked with a tense expression.
"That asshole, Lance's kid? Yeah," the Chief said with a scowl. "Last time I warned her I'd put my foot up her bony ass if she tried going back in that building again, she tried telling me she'd file a lawsuit if I didn't get out of her way. I told her that if she took so much as a step in that direction, not only would she be sitting funny for a month, but I'd have her handcuffed to the goddamn truck!"
"That's when Ms. Lance started saying she'd have her dad arrest him for threatening her with bodily harm as well as sexual harassment because he talked about putting things up her, um…backside," Melvin said with an uncomfortable expression.
"And I told her I don't give a shit who her daddy is; I've known Quentin Lance since he first came out of the academy and he was an asshole then, and he's an asshole now! And, in this situation, his badge doesn't mean shit!" he said forcefully. "Quentin Lance can keep his drunken ass across the bridge where he belongs and worry about directin' traffic, or issuing jaywalkin' tickets, or whatever the hell he and the rest of his uni's are doing over in Orchid Bay 'cause they sure as hell ain't here with us puttin' out fires and diggin' people out of the rubble! I may 'just' be a leather lung, and Lance might be some kind of super cop accordin' to that daughter of his, but I'm still the Emergency Operations Officer for this zone, meaning I'm in charge, and the only person with the authority to countermand me during a citywide crisis is the goddamn governor!" he snarled, his cheeks ruddy with anger. "As far as I'm concerned they can both kiss my ever lovin' ass with that sexual harassment shit! If she doesn't want me talkin' about her bony ass and how it's gonna feel when I stuff my size thirteen boot up it, then she better keep it and herself out of my way! Why?" he asked, turning a baleful eye towards his colleague, "She still bitchin' and moanin' about not bein' allowed back in? I don't have time for this shit! I got a whole city in crisis here! Did you tell her that people are dyin', that we got lives to save that are more important than a couple of files and some dry cleaning?"
The other firefighter flinched, "No, but, um…well…"
"Spit it out, Johnson!" the Chief ordered. "I got gas mains fixin' to go off like a bunch of oh shit boxes at a drunken backyard barbecue!"
"What's an 'oh shit box'?" Roy asked with a frown.
"LPG cylinders; in other words, gas tanks," Melvin translated then shrugged. "I've been standing out here for a while so I was able to pick up some of the lingo."
"Speak!" the older man barked.
"She's inside the building, sir," Johnson said reluctantly.
"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" he burst out angrily.
"You've got to send some guys in there to save her," Tommy insisted once more. "Or, at least, give me an oxygen tank and one guy and I'll go in there myself."
"I'll go, too," Roy offered.
"Not me, I'll stay here," Melvin said. As the other men looked at him he shrugged sheepishly, "What? I'm a lawyer, not a fireman! Besides, it's all smoky and dusty in there and I have asthma."
"I could go in, Chief," Johnson offered. "These guys are civilians with no training; we can't let them go in there alone."
"No, I need you out here; we're shorthanded as it is." The Chief took a deep breath before blowing it out angrily, "Fuck it! She went in there so it's on her if she dies."
"Seriously?" Roy goggled at the older man.
"I got kids trapped under fallen buildings, gas mains about to blow, fires breakin' out all over the fuckin' place, and a goddamn earthquake machine sending out aftershocks every couple o' minutes!" the older man snapped. "I already got six guys in the hospital, dead bodies pilin' up all over the place, so I don't have time to save some idiot who ran into a burning building after I warned her repeatedly not to!" He turned to the other firefighter, "Johnson! Let's go! And you people stay here!" he ordered turning to the rest of them. "Do *not* go into that building or try to cross that line or I'll have both your asses tossed in jail faster than you can spit—that is if you even live that long!" He pointed to a streak of orange florescent paint someone hastily sprayed across the parking lot, "That building can go at any minute and across that line is the collapse zone. When it goes-and it's goin' sooner or later, unless you want to wind up buried under a ton of burnin' rubble, you'll stay here! Or, if you really want to be a hero, you can go over to one of the Red Cross tents and donate blood so you can save people who've lost more than their favorite drycleanin' today! Now move it, Johnson!" he yelled out before jogging towards where another group of firefighters and EMTs were waving him over.
The other firefighter joined him and as the two men jogged off towards where another group of firefighters were trying to lift a large slab of concrete, Tommy called after them, "You're just going to let her die?"
"Her life, her choice!" the Chief yelled back before barking orders to his other men.
"I hate to say it but he's kind of right," Roy said reluctantly. As Tommy turned to glare at him he pointed towards where a young girl holding a mangled doll was being carefully lifted onto a backboard. "I mean, hey; she's my lawyer and I really don't want to get stuck with some court-appointed loser and go to jail if she dies, but she chose to go in the building knowing how dangerous it was. If she was going in to save people that would be one thing, but she went in after some files," he said carefully. "I'm not saying I want her to get hurt or that she deserves to die, I'm just saying that it doesn't seem right for other people to die just because she did something reckless after pretty much everybody told her not to."
"He's got a point," Melvin offered. "Both Detective Lance and Mr. Queen called her and told her to evacuate the building. In fact, they told her to get everyone out even before the tremors started."
"Oliver called her?" Tommy asked with a frown.
Melvin nodded, "Yeah, and she did what they told her to and got everyone out. She even waited for everyone to clear the parking lot before going back in and told me to tell Mr. Queen if he showed up that she was inside."
Roy frowned at the other man in confusion, "Why'd you stay then?"
"Because she told me if I didn't stay to watch the boxes she'd revoke my internship," Melvin grumbled then looked up at Roy wearily, "You may not have picked up on this yet, but Ms. Lance can get pretty intense sometimes, especially when it comes to doing her job…and everyone else's."
Tommy rocked back on his heels at that, "So wait; you're telling me that she evacuated the building then *waited* until they shut down the street to go back in and told you to tell Oliver where she was?"
"Yeah," Melvin told him.
"Maybe it's a good thing she isn't going to be my lawyer after all because that sounds pretty stupid if you ask me," Roy huffed. "It's almost like she was trying to get hurt or something."
"Not hurt; rescued," Tommy said flatly, "Specifically by Ollie. And not for the first time either," he added looked at both men. "Back when we were in high school, whenever they'd break up or have a fight and she wanted to get Ollie's attention, she'd get 'lost' in a bad neighborhood or call to say some scary guys were hassling her at a bar so he'd come get her, and then they'd screw like bunnies to celebrate his act of 'heroism'."
"But I thought she was supposed to be your girlfriend?" Melvin asked with a frown.
"Not if he saw that video on YouTube," Roy muttered then winced, "Now that had to hurt."
Tommy shot the other man a filthy look, "Actually, no, we broke up; a few weeks ago actually."
Melvin blinked at that, "But you're still going in there after her, right?"
Tommy turned to do just that then paused, "You know what?" He bent down to grab his jacket and shrugged it on while shaking his head slowly, "On second thought; no, no I don't think I will."
"But—but you heard them; the building's on fire and it could collapse at any second!" the intern goggled.
"And do I look like a firefighter to you?" Tommy asked, repeating his own words back to him. "If you heard that part then you also heard the part where he told us not to cross the line. Well…" he said throwing his arms out in frustration, "here I am not crossing the line!"
The other man gave him a look of stern disapproval, "That's pretty coldblooded. I mean, I know she's your ex, but still."
"Okay, then if you're so worried about it then why can't you go in after her?" Tommy challenged. "After all, she's your boss."
"Yeah, but, um…" Melvin began.
"But what?" Roy prompted.
"She's not exactly…well liked around the office, if you know what I mean," Melvin said at last. "Plus, she always makes me buy her coffee from this place downtown even though there are like a dozen places that are closer, and then she never pays me back, not even for gas. I tried putting in a request with petty cash but they said they don't have an expense account for that, just office supplies."
"So because she didn't pay you back for a cup of coffee or chip in a couple of bucks for gas, you're going to let her die?" Roy asked incredulously.
"Hey, do you know how much money we're talking about here? The coffee alone is like eight bucks a pop, two or three times a day, five days a week! That's $120 dollars a week just on coffee—coffee I'm not even drinking, and that doesn't even include the muffin tops she always has me get her. And, before you judge me; I'm just an intern," he said insistently. "I don't actually get paid to work here much less take all this abuse, you know?"
Roy frowned at that, "Wait, so you work here but they don't pay you? Is that even legal because that sounds wrong?"
"I'm in law school and this counts towards my course credits, plus it looks good on my résumé," the other man said with no little amount of resentment. "Still, even with student loans and grants I can barely make my rent much less afford to buy Ms. Lance coffee every day and, not only that, but I don't have any health insurance either," he pointed out. "If I get hurt going back in there, CNRI won't compensate me for my injuries or pay my hospital bills. I know because I had to sign a waiver about that stuff when I was hired."
"A waiver?" Roy repeated.
"It's a rough neighborhood," Melvin shrugged. "They might be a pro-bono firm but they're still lawyers and don't want anyone suing them in case somebody comes in to shoot up the place. Anyway, even though it probably makes me a bad person, I'm not going in there; I can't afford it. Besides, Ms. Lance already said-multiple times, that if I tried to stop her that she'd have my internship rescinded and I'd be lucky to practice law out of a mall kiosk by the time she was done with me."
"Well, I'd go in but they might bust me for it," Roy said biting his lip as he turned to Tommy. "I mean, usually I wouldn't give a crap about getting busted but if they'd arrest her for going in there then they'd definitely throw the book at me and I already have a couple of charges pending. Even if I could get away with going in there…" He shot them a hesitant look, "Look, if I knew for sure she was in trouble then I'd go in; I would. I wouldn't even care about going to jail, but you heard what that guy said; she went in there on purpose because she specifically wants that Ollie guy to save her, not us. I don't want to risk pissing either of them off, you know? Thea's brother already can't stand me and she told Thea that she could probably get my case thrown out of court but if I piss her off then she could tell her old man. Lance already hates my guts; it wouldn't take much to give him an excuse to make it hard for me in front of the judge and then I'd be screwed. "
"He's right," Melvin said reluctantly. "Some people get off on the whole sex and danger thing. From what you just told us, and from seeing what was on that YouTube video—"
"What YouTube video?" Tommy asked in exasperation.
"I'll show you later," Roy promised.
"Anyway, like you said, this could be something they're into and, frankly, I really don't want to see that." he looked at Roy and shrugged, "Ms. Lance is attractive, don't get me wrong. Well, when she isn't screaming at the top of her lungs, that is, but I'm more into dudes."
"That's cool," Roy nodded.
Tommy looked at the building again and debated, "If I go in there, Laurel is just going to take one look at me and ask what I'm doing there. She'll launch into this whole spiel about how I don't respect her decisions, and how she can take care of herself; then she'll probably yell at me then tell me to leave so that Ollie can save her instead. That or the 'Hood'," he added sarcastically.
"The Hood?" Roy said, his eyes flashing with excitement. "You think he'll come here?"
"Pretty sure, yeah. He has a real soft spot for Laurel. Or hard spot rather," Tommy grumbled under his breath. He took another second to fume over that before sighing, "Okay, well, screw it. As much as I really don't want to have to deal with her shit right now, I have to go in there. I can't risk having Ollie pull a no-show and—"
At that moment a large aftershock had the three men stumbling around as a section of the building's roof collapsed, making it impossible to enter through the front door.
The three men stared at the ruins in shock.
"Oh, well that's not good," Melvin said quietly.
"Oh fuck," Tommy hissed.
"She could still be okay," Roy pointed out helpfully. "After all, it's just the front door; the rest of the building looks fine."
"Other than the fact that it's on fire," Melvin added.
"Other than that, yeah," Roy said weakly.
Tommy's phone buzzed and he checked his messages then blinked, "It's from Dig." He read the message, "She's trapped in the foundry? What the hell is she still doing down there? It's practically ground zero!"
"What's a foundry?" Roy asked. "Is that like a basement?"
"I didn't think CNRI had a basement," Melvin said with a frown.
"A foundry is the part of the iron works where they melt the—never mind, it's basically the basement of my club," Tommy told them irritably then corrected himself, "My ex-club, I mean."
"She's at Verdant?" Roy asked him. "How'd she get from CNRI to there without us seeing her?"
"Not Laurel, this other girl," Tommy told them. "The IT girl who helps set up stuff for the club. I have to go," he said turning to leave.
Melvin's jaw dropped at that, "So you're going to go help someone at your club but you aren't going to save Ms. Lance?"
Tommy's mouth tightened in annoyance, "Dig, the guy who texted me said that Ollie's on his way here to help Laurel. Besides, the entrance is blocked so I couldn't get in there even if I wanted to and all the EMTs and firefighters are here. Despite what they said, I'm sure that Johnson guy and his crew will be back here any minute now to start digging her out. Meanwhile, no one is at the club to help this other girl and I still have my keys and know all the entry codes. It has to be me; there is no one else." He began to jog away down the street, "Tell him—uh, Ollie or the Hood, whichever one shows up, where she is when he gets here—that is if the firemen don't get her out first!"
"Can you believe that guy?" Roy asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and hitching his chin towards Tommy's retreating figure.
"Kind of," Melvin said before offering Roy a wry grimace, "You've never met Ms. Lance, have you?"
"No, not really," he admitted. "My girlfriend knows her though and from what she's said about her…" Roy paused, "Yeah, I see what you mean."
At that moment the fire roared over the top of the roofline and both men hissed in sympathy.
Roy shook his head, "All I know is this Ollie guy better hurry up or I'm going to need to find a new lawyer."
Melvin shot the other man a curious look, "You know, technically, I'm a lawyer."
"Yeah?" Roy asked. "I thought you said you were an intern?"
"Technically, yeah, but the judge can make an exception since I practically have my law degree already and I'm taking the bar in less than a month. In fact, now that my internship is pretty much up in smoke, handling a case on my own would probably look really great on my résumé."
"What about Ms. Lance?" Roy asked him.
"Between you and me, you don't want her," the other man said confidentially. "Technically, they don't even handle criminal cases here. We're not legal aid; they're in the building across the bridge near the courthouse."
"But what about that guy who was going to be executed for killing his wife?" Roy asked him. "She got that guy off, right?"
"Yeah, but the truth is, until that case most of the stuff we've handled for the criminal court has been for petty stuff like public intoxication or shop lifting and only when a judge ordered us to, otherwise the legal aid office downtown or the bigger non-profits like the Innocence Project handles that stuff."
"Then why would she take that case much less offer to help me?" Roy asked in confusion.
The other man shrugged, "Honestly? If I had to guess I'd say it has more to do with your girlfriend's brother than anything else. Ever since her ex came back into town Ms. Lance has been all over the place, acting erratically, and taking on all of these high profile cases that are way beyond the scope of what we're set up to handle. When Mr. Wethersby set up the trust to fund the City Necessary Resources Initiative, it was specifically created to help the people here in the Glades with stuff like bankruptcies, disability claims, and housing disputes. Ms. Lance has been taking on more and more criminal cases though and it's been, well," he paused, "Ms. Lance isn't even a criminal attorney; she practices corporate law like Ms. de la Vega. Then, all of the sudden, right around the time your girlfriend started doing her community service here, Ms. Lance started taking on more and more criminal cases—big cases that can get pretty expensive, not to mention dangerous, even though we've always referred that stuff to legal aid in the past. While taking on stuff like with the innocent guy who was about to be executed for killing his wife is admirable, most of the people who work here are either interns or volunteers. They don't get paid; the only ones who get paid to work here are Ms. Lance and a couple of the paralegals. Even Ms. de la Vega, our other attorney, is a volunteer. She just comes in a few hours a week to help out and the rest of the time she works at Wethersby & Stone. However," he said pausing slightly, "now that I no longer have an internship to get to, I can spend all my time helping you with your case. It might even earn me some points with Ms. de la Vega since I was planning on applying there after taking the bar next month," he said mostly to himself.
"Would I have to pay you?" Roy asked uncertainly, "Because, if I had any money, then I wouldn't have had to borrow that car or break into that store to steal those groceries in the first place."
The other man stared at him in confusion, "You stole a car to steal groceries?"
Roy's mouth tightened and his cheeks lit up in embarrassment, "Not exactly. Well, I stole the groceries, and I did break and enter the building, but I was planning on paying for them when I could afford it and I didn't really 'steal' the car; I just borrowed it from the landlord then returned it afterwards. The guy I borrowed it from didn't even know I did it until the cops busted me for the B&E and the groceries. See, our slumlord also owns the convenience store I broke into and he keeps gouging us for rent. Every month it's the same thing: He barges into our apartment without even knocking then, even though the rent isn't due yet, he says we're late and demands we pay him another fifty bucks or he'll kick us out-and he still hasn't fixed the heat or the pipes even though they've been busted for months!" He took a deep breath and blew it out harshly, "So I finally had enough and I figured he owed us. It was just some milk and bread, along with some frozen pizzas and stuff. It was less than fifty bucks worth of groceries since that's how much he made us pay him in addition to the rent. I just took enough to get us through the rest of the week until I could get paid. Still, I wouldn't have taken any of it, but my mom's sick and she hasn't been doing well lately so…"
"Don't worry about paying me," Melvin cut him off. "We'll file papers with the court to transfer your case to me and the state will cover it. In the meantime…" he glanced over to where the Red Cross was setting up a soup line, "Do you want to go grab a cup of coffee and talk over your case with me? I want to hear more about this landlord of yours, too, and I think they have sandwiches and stuff."
"I could eat," Roy admitted. "But aren't we supposed to wait for Oliver to show up?"
"She'll be fine," he said confidently. "The firefighters and Mr. Merlyn wouldn't have left if they thought Ms. Lance was in any real danger. Besides, like he said, we're not firemen. I'm sure that as soon as they can they'll be back over here to help her."
Roy shrugged, "Okay."