"Where are you going?" Oliver asked as he barged in the door that was wide open. She didn't even care anymore. How could she not care?
She shook his head. "I'm leaving. I'm taking Thea with me. We're leaving tonight," She told him, without looking at him, just throwing more clothes in a bag.
He snorted. "You can't be serious, right? You can't just leave. This city needs you and you're going to not show up?" He growled as he tried to take the bag away from her.
She let him have it, just for a moment. She pulled her arm back and slapped him across the face. "Just like you showed up when I called you. When Thea called you. Just like you showed up for us? Where were you? You were off trying to patch things up with your ex, who doesn't even really see you, but I'm just supposed to show up for the mission? No, Oliver," She said and grinned a little as she took the bag back. "I'm done."
She turned around and started throwing more clothes in the bag and then stopped. "Without my father here, Thea's the only family I have left who even gives a damn anymore. And we don't want to be here anymore. You nearly let both of us get killed because you couldn't be bothered. It's not like you didn't know what we were doing." She told him and threw things in a pile.
Oliver sat down on the bed and looked at her. "I know there is nothing I will ever be able to do to make it right with you. But are you sure about this? You don't have to go. This is your home."
She smiled as she looked out the window and shook her head. Nothing here anymore. Nothing worth saving. "It's time for me to find a new home. I thought about it before. Going off and being somewhere else. He kept me here. Now, I have nothing here." She choked a little sob back. She opened her nightstand drawer and threw the contents of it in her bag.
He nodded. How could he say anything else? She was well within her rights to move out of this city. This place marked so much pain for her. It was so hard for him to rack his brain around how much pain she endured. She took it all like a soldier. She never let the facade falter.
Maybe it was easier for him. Because at least his pain hadn't been at home. At least he didn't have to come back to it everyday. At least the memories were just memories. And not very physical real locations he had to walk by everyday. Maybe that was why it was easier to handle. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Maybe he was just weaker than she was.
He looked up to her. "Where are you going?" He asked in a quiet voice.
"Are you going to try and stop me?" She asked him. "Show up on my doorstep one day and convince me to come back home? That my city needs saving?"
He shook his head as he stood up and took her cheek in his hand. "I just want to know where to send your birthday present." He told her with a little bit of a smile.
"New York City," She told him as she held the wrist of his hand that palmed her cheek and leaned into it.
Don't question the reaction, she told herself. Just feel the contact. Feel the connection. Feel that you got across to him and that in some way he understands this.
Don't back out of it. There is nothing for you here, you know that. Don't be lured in by the softness. It is an illusion. There is just more pain behind those eyes. They hide a lifetime of pain.
Maybe you could have been happy. Maybe you could have figured it out and kept your sanity. Maybe you would you have ended up eventually with your names tied together like the marriage vows you always dreamed of taking. Maybe, if things had been different, if he had come, your father wouldn't have died. Maybe you would still want to take on that mantle even if the death wasn't changed. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Laurel, you can't live your life in maybes. That's her father's voice. She knows he's right.
He swallowed and brought her close to him, giving her all the contact she deserved. He pushed her away and smiled, a little sadly. "I have no idea what this city looks like without you." He told her. "How am I supposed to do this without you?"
She almost broke. How could she let him fall like that? But she had to stand too. She couldn't be the beams for him anymore. He had to learn how to build his own.
She gave him a soft kiss and smiled. "You're never without me," She promised as she put her hand over his heart. "I'm right here. And I'll call whenever Diggle tells me you need a good ass chewing, okay?" She told him.
"I love you," He said, weak, like everything hurt saying those words.
She nodded. "I love you too, Ollie. But it's not enough. This life isn't enough for me anymore. I want to be a part of something that really matters. Get back to my roots. The reason I became a hero in the first place. Make dad proud again." She told him.
He nodded and closed his eyes, let a couple of tears fall, before he remembered, he needed to be strong. He opened his eyes and she was gone. Out of reach, silent in the night.
In that moment, he was sure, she'd taken his heart in that bag of hers. He was sure he wanted her to keep it.
"Are you sure about this?" Thea asked as they pulled up to the airport in the cab. "We can go back, no questions asked." She said.
Laurel smiled. "You heard your brother and I." She told Thea, not asked her.
Thea shrugged. "It was pretty hard not to. You guys were always passionate. That never changed." She said with a smile, the memories of old times flooding back.
Laurel nodded. "I want a life that chooses us everyday. I want a life where the people we know aren't going to not show up." She said to Thea. "And Oliver needs to figure out what life in Star is without you or I. He needs to figure out what his life is there."
Thea understood. This whole life wasn't for everyone all the time. Hell, she was running from it too. Oliver fucked up. He deserved to take that in stride. Thea had never even considered leaving Star until Laurel sat with her laptop in the middle of the living room, booking tickets out.
And then it seemed like the most natural thing to do. Learn what life was like when you didn't have to worry about league fathers or ghosts or assassins or psychos you wanted to shoot in the eye. She could have a chance to be normal again.
How long had it been since she had normal?
Thea figured if she had to ask that question, too damn long.
"So why New York?" Thea asked.
Laurel smiled. "My friend from college, Barbara, she lives there. Said that I could crash at her place for a couple of days. That, of course, is also extended to you. And I don't know, seemed like a good place. And it's a place where the people still need help. I can go back to my CNRI days. Make a difference, one life at a time."
Thea pushed the door open and got out. She offered her hand to Laurel, who gracefully took and pulled herself and her bag out of the cab, before tossing the guy his money and tip.
As they boarded the plane, they held hands and sat together and didn't talk about the enormous jump they just took. They didn't talk about how they were leaving home in search of something. They just did it.
The plane landed in New York safely, and after trying to pop their ears a few hundred times, they came out of the arrivals gates and there sat a woman in a wheelchair, with the name "Laurel Lance and Thea Queen" written on a dry erase board that she held up. The infamous Barbara Gordon.
Thea remembered Laurel being heartbroken when she got the news Barbara was paralyzed by some sick monster in a twisted act of revenge, but to see it with her own eyes was staggering. Especially when that woman looked ready to take on the world, or at least take out the shins of a couple of awkward gawkers, like they had never seen a woman in a wheelchair before.
"Girls," She said as she hugged them both, "Welcome to New York City," She said. She looked Thea up and down and smiled, "God, you're even more beautiful than Laurel told me," She said.
"You told her about me?" Thea asked Laurel, a little shocked.
Barbara chuckled. "Honey, I couldn't get er to stop talking about you. She's proud of you. Couldn't be more proud if you were blood to her. And trust me, she's pretty proud of those chuckleheads she's related to," She said as she wheeled in front of them.
Thea nodded and blushed, "Yeah, I know," She said.
"To New York," Thea said as she held up to glasses of sparkling cider and Laurel smiled as she took one and clinked their glasses together.
"To New York," She agreed and put the glass to her lips and looked out the window. God, this was a view.
Thea stood next to her and looked out the huge window. That kind of view you definitely couldn't get in Star City, she'd admit that much. "So what are you going to do first?" She asked.
Laurel shook her head. "I don't really know," She chuckled. "I should probably start looking for work. Do what I came here to do. Make a difference," She said with a smile.
Thea nodded. "Then I'll look at apartments," She told Laurel, who looked over to her companion, brow furrowed a little. Thea rolled her eyes. "We're not moving immediately, but this apartment is not big enough for the three of us. Not with one bathroom." She told Laurel.
Laurel nodded and kissed Thea's forehead. "I trust you anyway. You know our needs." She told Thea. "Be back by ten, unless something looks promising? Then call?" She asked.
Thea nodded. "It's a deal," She said as they both picked up a handbag and got ready to go out.
"Laurel?" Barbara called.
Thea stopped for a second and Laurel pushed her out the door, "I won't be long," She told Thea, who went on without her.
She turned into the kitchen and looked at Barbara who was intently reading something off of her computer and scribbling things down on a notepad too. Looked like she was in the middle of a thought and Laurel didn't want to break it.
She was almost ready to leave again when Barbara looked up and gave her a small piece of paper with an address and two names written on it. "Check 'em out. Might be the kind of cause you're looking for," She told Laurel.
Laurel looked at the piece of paper again, "Nelson and Murdock." She had to admit, she was a little bit intrigued.
She went to go thank Barbara, but by the time she had, Barbara had gotten into the full swing of things again. Best not to disturb her, Laurel thought as she quietly left the kitchen and out of the apartment.
Time to look for a new job. But first, one of those famous New York cups of coffee that she had spent her whole life admiring through the lens of tv and movies.