Home
Summary: Home. That's what Sin calls an abandoned, nearly completely destroyed clock tower. Laurel isn't happy when she finds out.
This is not the first part of the „Part of a team, part of a family" series. You may want to read from the beginning.
Alone ~ About Parents and Midnight-Coffee
Tiredly, Sin fell face first down onto her mattress, which laid on the floor in the old clock tower. Working with team Arrow could be exhausting. And believe her, today had been. Since Laurel was known active as the Black Canary, they were really busy training her. Even if Laurel just decided to handle things on her own, which was driving Oliver crazy (Sin secretly enjoyed that). Sin was nearby still trying to make out a spy inside the Starling City Police. To that, she also wasn't sleeping really well lately.
A blow of wind came through the broken glass of the window. "I really need to repair that." Sin shivered as she took her wool blanket. It wasn't much to keep her warm, but better than nothing. Sin sighed and closed her eyes. Hopefully, she could sleep for a few hours.
She couldn't. Diggle had called her. Grumbling, the girl took her phone and picked up. "This better be good! Some people are trying to sleep!" "Laurel is in trouble. Tidy up" Now Sin was fully awake. "What happened?" "She tried to take out a drug dealer, but she got spotted. Since then we've heard nothing from her." "Where is she?" "Harbour. Dock 20A." "I'm on my way."
A few weeks ago, Sin would've asked Dig why he was calling especially her. It would make way more sense to call Oliver or Roy, wouldn't it? But there were a few things Oliver didn't need to know about. Tidy up was a code, Diggle and Sin had come up with. Team(mate) in danger you're up. They usually only needed it with Laurel. Oliver would freak out if he would know in how much trouble Laurel would have gotten without them. They operated secretly and hadn't told Roy or Felicity anything. Roy hasn't been himself lately and Felicity... talked a lot. Laurel also didn't know they were ripping their asses for her nearly every night. Mostly Sin. She could do things quieter than Dig. But now she needed to go.
It didn't take her long to reach the harbor. During her years, living on the street, Sin had picked up a bunch of short cuts, even Oliver didn't know about.
But when Sin got to dock 20A, she gasped in horror. Laurel was kneeling on the floor. Her hair was messy, one eye black and there was a pretty nasty bruise on her left cheek. Over her stood a man, who pointed a gun at her head. Sin also spotted two other men, who were holding Laurel down.
Sin knew that man. She was gathering information for him at the moment. His name was Luke and he wasn't like the other drug dealers or scum in the Glades. He was actually a nice guy. Except for the fact, that he was dealing. Luke paid Sin more than he had to, he let her pass his territory and his men had the command to help her if she was in trouble. But Sin had worked hard for that. To earn someone's trust in the Glades you had to. Sin had never failed, bringing Luke the information he had asked for and in the meantime, they were somehow friends. Now she could only hope for Laurel, that Luke saw it that way too.
"Luke wait!" She called him out and sprinted to them. Luke lowered the gun and looked perplexed in her direction. "Sin!" The two greeted each other with a handshake to hug and Luke put the gun away. He ruffled her hair. "What are you doing here? How have you been?" She laughed and put some streaks of hair back in place. "I'm fine. I got something for you." The girl held up a USB. His eyes widened. "Is that?" "The perfect place for another plantation? Yup!" Luke wanted to take the stick, but Sin drew her hand back. "You know, my friend over there doesn't look so good." Cindy pointed at Laurel. Luke winced. "In my defense, I didn't know she was your friend." "I get her back and you pay double. Then you get the USB." Luke laughed. "Looks like I taught you too much. Let her go boys!" The two did as they were told. Laurel stumbled into Sin's arms. The later gratefully took two hundred dollars from Luke. "Till we see each other again."
The women walked out of the harbor out in the busy streets of Starling City. Laurel opened her mouth, but Sin said something before she could. "Later. I'm taking you to mine. Oliver doesn't have to know about this." The elder nodded as they kept walking.
It didn't take them long to reach the tower. The Canary needed some help to get to the top but they made it. Laurel sat down on Sin's mattress and touched her cheek. She winced and drew her hand back immediately. "Ouch." The younger girl handed her a water bottle. "That's your own fault." Laurel thanked her and took a long sip. "I would give you some ice, but thanks to ARGUS, I don't have power anymore."
Laurel spit the water right into Sin's face. "Is that what I get as a 'Thank you'? How grateful you're" She said sarcastically. "YOU LIVE HERE!" Sin sighed. "Yes." "This isn't a situation to live! How long?" Sin didn't answer and looked everywhere but Laurel. "Sin." "About 2 years." She whispered. "And Oliver hasn't done anything?!" "He tried. Emphasis on tried."
The elder woman stood up. "You're not staying here. You are coming with me, to my apartment." "No" Laurel looked at her perplexed. "No?" Sin stood up and walked over to the destroyed window. It had started to rain. "If I wouldn't like to live here, I would've already left." Laurel put a hand on her shoulder. "This was Sara's hideout, ya know. Before she let me stay here, I had slept under bridges, in allies, on roofs, behind dumpsters, in dumpsters..." She made a pause. "After my dad... disappeared, I first thought he had left me. We had had a huge fight and he had wanted to make his head free. He never came back, so I thought he had enough of me and just left." "That must have been horrible." "Oh yeah. It hadn't exactly been a day at the beach. After a few weeks, the police turned up, because no one had paid the bills. They then took me with them. At the police station, they called the orphanage. I didn't want to go there, so I left the police station. The first night was the worst, but it got better over time. I stole what I needed and then I just stumbled into the 'Information-Selling-Business'. After Sara had saved me, she offered me a safe place to live."
"I understand that you don't want to leave, but-" "This is the first place I had ever been able to call home again. You should leave now. And try to keep yourself out of trouble. This was the last time I saved your sorry little ass because you think you could step into Sara's footprints, as she had never been here!" Sin shook Laurel's hand off and left, leaving her standing in front of the broken window. The last sentence had hurt. She had never wanted to put dirt over Sara's memorial.
Laurel sighed and made her way to the bottom of the tower. She couldn't force Sin to leave her 'home', but she had to talk to Oliver about the girl helping a drug dealer.