LAUREL
This was like history repeating itself. It was as if she were watching her life with Mick being played by actors in a movie, except the actors weren't actors. They were her sister and Leonard, and it wasn't a movie.
Sara had no idea about Laurel's romance with her boyfriend's best friend. She had been too young to know what had been going on. Well that, and no one had known about Laurel and Mick's relationship.
Laurel could have had any guy in the school. In fact, she had them all but beating down her door for dates. Of course, she had a boyfriend. Tommy Merlyn. They were the traditional high school couple, the quarterback and the head cheerleader, she couldn't have been happier, or at least that was what she thought. It was half way through her junior year when everything changed, and it totally turned her world upside down.
She had been Sara's age when she first met Michael Rory, and it was far from love at first sight. Laurel pretty much could have killed him at that first meeting. And not just him, but also their science teacher. How dare he pair her with the class delinquent!
It had taken a little over a week for Laurel to realize that Mick wasn't as bad as she first thought. He grew on her, and by the end of their first month as lab partners, she would have been lying if she said she wasn't attracted to him. When she started putting off dates with Tommy to spend time with Mick, that's when she knew she was really in trouble.
By the time Tommy broke up with her, Laurel felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Now, spending time with Mick was no longer something that she had to feel guilty about.
Laurel remembered everything about their whirlwind relationship. He hadn't cared about school football at all, but at the end of one of the games, she had packed up her things and turned to see him leaning against the bleachers. He had been there for her, to support her. He was waiting for her, and to Laurel that meant the world.
That was the first night she kissed him. Still in her cheer uniform, in the cab of his truck, as he dropped her off at home. She had been fighting the idea the entire trip, but as he pulled up in front of her house, she leaned across and kissed him. It was the kiss, he told her later, that kept him wanting more.
For the most part, their relationship had been a secret. It wasn't that she was ashamed of him or anything, but he was living with the Snarts, and her father was a cop.
Mick had been completely different with her. Laurel didn't think that she could have been more in love with someone if she tried. Things with Tommy had been all about how things looked, how they looked as a couple in public. With Mick she wanted to be with him. She chose to be with him and he chose her, above everyone else.
Things started to change as senior prom rolled around. Laurel was nominated for prom queen and couldn't have been happier, but attending prom with Mick was out of the question. He didn't want to go, and she, although she loved him, didn't want to have to explain to her father why she was going with a criminal. When Tommy asked her to prom, Laurel accepted happily. This, of course, caused problems between her and Mick.
"So you're going to prom with him?" Mick asked as Laurel walked around the corner to their usual meeting spot.
"As friends," she said with a shrug.
"I don't think he sees it that way," Mick said.
"What do you want me to do? Go Alone?" Laurel asked, shaking her head. "I won't do it! I'm going to be prom queen, I can't go by myself, and you won't come with me. I don't have another option."
"Fine, do what you want, Laurel," he told her before walking off, leaving her staring after him.
"Where are you going?" she called out after him.
"Home," he replied.
"I thought that we were going to do something together."
"We were, but I'd hate for someone to see us together and ruin your dreams of prom queen," Mick called back to her sarcastically.
Laurel watched him get into his truck and drive off, tears flooding her eyes as she did.
A tear rolled down her cheek at the memory. After that, their relationship had only gone downhill further. She remembered their official break up as if it were yesterday. Mick told her that he didn't deserve someone like her, and that they were fooling themselves to think that it could ever work between them.
She just knew that in time, Leonard was going to do the same thing to Sara. Blood was thicker than water, and in the end, the Snarts always chose family above anyone else.
"Where is she? Where is my sister!" Laurel demanded, storming into the emergency room and hitting the desk in front of the triage nurse.
"Who?" the nurse asked.
"Sara Lance!" she exclaimed, hitting the desk again.
"Laurel?" a voice behind her said.
She would know that voice anywhere. Turning around, she came face to face with Mick and shook her head. He had his arm in a sling, and she couldn't say that surprised her.
"I should have known that she would end up in hospital because of you!" Laurel all but yelled at the man in front of her.
"Because of me?"
Mick tried to grab her arm with his free hand and lead her to the waiting area, but she shook him off her. "Don't touch me, Michael," she said with a murderous look on her face.
"Look, Laurel, I don't know where you got your information from, but you're wrong."
"You would say that! It's you, and your brother, and your family. Blood related or not, you're all as bad as each other," she said with absolute hatred in her voice. "I don't want Sara anywhere near Leonard or your family again!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" a new voice yelled, causing both Laurel and Mick to turn in the direction it came from.
"Yes ma'am," Mick said.
Jessica Snart looked like she was about to blow a fuse, and Laurel let out a breath before mumbling an apology at the woman.
"Mick, go sit in the waiting area. I'll find you when I'm done," she said in a stern voice before turning to face Laurel. "I can take you to your sister, but first, you need to follow me."
Laurel was led down a hall to a conference room, and Jessica closed the door behind them.
"What am I doing here?" Laurel asked.
"We're here because you have issues, girl. First, you don't go yelling at my hospital staff or at my son, and before you say Mick isn't my son, you better think long and hard about whether you want to go down that road with me today. Second, Sara is fine, and she is really lucky that all she has is a sprained wrist. Which takes me to my third point: your sister is lucky, and alive right now because of the man you just yelled at in the emergency room. Mick pushed her out of the way of a drive-by attack today. That sling on his arm, that's because he got shot protecting your sister."
"I didn't know…" Laurel whispered.
"Because you came in yelling and assuming things. I know that there's history between the two of you, and I know you don't like Sara dating Leonard. What I can't work out is whether you're annoyed at Mick or at your sister. Mostly, I think that you think you're annoyed at Sara, and maybe in a way you are. But the person that you're really annoyed at is yourself. You're annoyed that you weren't willing to take the chance with Mick that Sara is talking with Len. The chance to have a happy life."
"I never said I wasn't happy," Laurel said.
"But you're not," Jessica responded.
Tears ran down Laurel's face at the comment Jessica made, because it was true. She wasn't happy. She hadn't been happy since she broke it off with Mick, and that was her own fault. She had been too worried about what people would say if it got out that she was dating Mick.
Why couldn't she be more carefree like Sara?
Once Laurel calmed down, she looked over at Jessica and sighed. She wondered how much the woman knew about her and Mick.
"Can I see my sister now?" she asked the older woman.
"I had Leonard take her home, before you got here," Jessica admitted.
Laurel sighed and got up from the chair. She grabbed her purse and headed for the door. She was about to pull it open when she paused and turned back to look at Jessica.
"I did love him," Laurel whispered, as if that would make everything better.
"Problem is, he still loves you," Jessica replied, before getting up and leaving through the door on the other side of the room.
Laurel pushed any thoughts she was having about Mick out of her head as she walked through the front door.
"Sara?" she called, knowing her sister was home, since Leonard's truck was parked on the street.
"In the lounge," Sara answered as Laurel made her way through the house.
Laurel found Sara curled up on the couch with Leonard, watching some old sitcom.
"I went to the hospital. You could have texted me to say you were coming home," Laurel said, trying to hide her annoyed tone.
"Sorry," Sara mumbled. "I mean, I was still reeling from the almost getting shot situation."
Laurel sighed and sat down on the couch across from Leonard and Sara.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"As well as can be expected for being shot at," Sara said with a shrug as Laurel watched Leonard kiss the top of her sister's head.
"I think it's time that Leonard left," Laurel said, standing up again.
"What? Why?" Sara asked, annoyed.
"Is a hospital visit not enough for you to realize that his family is dangerous?"
"This had nothing to do with Leonard!" Sara exclaimed.
"That's crap and you know it, Sara! If you weren't involved with him, you wouldn't be in this situation."
"I should leave," Leonard said awkwardly.
"No, you shouldn't," Sara said, shaking her head.
"Listen to him, Sara. He knows that it was his fault, and if he knows what's good for him, he'll leave you alone."
"LAUREL! I thought we raised you better than that!" Her mother yelled as she stepped into the room.
"You can't tell me that you don't think that his family is at fault!"
"Actually, I can. I just spoke with your father, and Sara was the target of the drive-by shooting. It was a gang that was trying to get back at your father for someone he put away. They have since been apprehended."
Laurel felt her heart sink in her chest. She had been awful, not only to Leonard now, but to Mick in the hospital. She could hear her mother telling Leonard that maybe it was a good idea for him to go home and check on Mick, and thanking him for saving her daughter.
She watched as Sara led Leonard toward the door and twisted her ring around her finger.
"Wait," Laurel called out. "I'm sorry, Leonard. I shouldn't have said those things. I was wrong."
Leonard nodded at her, and Laurel gave him a small smile, knowing that he had forgiven her, before heading through the house and up to her room.
"How could you do that?" Sara exclaimed over an hour later as she burst through Laurel's bedroom door.
Laurel sighed and shook her head. "Waiting for Mom to leave before yelling at me, real mature, Sara."
"Gee, think I might get my maturity from my sister? Yell first, ask questions never!"
Laurel watched from her bed as Sara paced the floor. Her sister was mad, that much was clear, but as Laurel watched Sara, she noticed something else: she was scared. Sara, her carefree, fearless, younger sister, was scared, and that was enough to worry Laurel.
She got off the bed, moved to where Sara was pacing, and pulled her sister into a hug.
"You're okay," Laurel said as Sara started to cry.
"I was so scared."
"I know, it's okay. You're okay."
"No, you don't know," Sara said, pushing Laurel away. "You weren't there, in the car. I thought Mick was going to die, and that would have been my fault."
The thought of Mick dying affected Laurel far more than she was willing to admit, but her body betrayed her, and her eyes filled with tears. Her heart beat faster, and she realized that Jessica's words had affected her, too. It wasn't just Mick who was still in love; she was, too, and Laurel knew that there was nothing she could do about it.
She felt Sara pull her into a hug, and she wrapped her arms around her sister, knowing that they both needed the support.
"I'm so sorry, Sara," Laurel mumbled into her sister's hair.
As they calmed down, Laurel moved across the room to sit on the window seat and then looked back at Sara, patting the spot next to her. When Sara finally sat beside her, Laurel let out a breath and then took Sara's hand in her own.
"Are you okay?" Sara asked, squeezing Laurel's hand.
"Yeah, I will be," she said with a small smile, "but there's something I need to tell you."
"Okay," Sara said, "what's going on?"
"I've said some things about you and Leonard, hurtful, awful things, and I'm sorry. I said them because I was jealous."
"Jealous? Of me?"
"Of your relationship with Leonard," Laurel said.
"That's crazy. You dated Tommy, and you always hated the idea of Len's family, and me being involved with them."
"Because I never had the guts to be like you, to follow my heart."
"What do you mean?"
Laurel took a breath, looked down at her lap, and then looked back at Sara, ready to tell her everything.
"Here goes," she said, closing her eyes and then opening them again. "When Tommy and I broke up the first time, it was mostly because I'd become distant. I'd started spending time with Mick, and we started dating."
The look on Sara's face was exactly what Laurel had expected: complete shock.
"You dated Mick?" Sara asked.
"I did."
"But all that stuff about me and Len, why?"
"Because I was trying to protect you, but I was wrong. You and Len aren't Mick and I."
"I'm sorry, I'm still trying to picture you dating Mick," Sara said, shaking her head.
"We didn't just date. We were in love," Laurel confessed, and Sara's jaw dropped.
"Are you still in love with him?" she asked.
Laurel nodded and then sighed. "I made a mistake letting him go, but I was scared. I was too worried about what people would think, and I was concerned about what Dad would do. I guess seeing you with Leonard and how our parents have reacted to your relationship, it makes me realize that I judged them too harshly, and maybe Mick and I could have worked out after all."
"Maybe you still could," Sara said with a shrug. "I know he hasn't dated anyone in ages. Leonard said that he got his heart broken years ago and never got over it. I just didn't realize that my sister was the one who broke his heart."
"I didn't mean to do that. I honestly didn't think he felt that strongly about us. I guess I was wrong."
"He saved my life today. Maybe it's time that you gave him a second chance," Sara said.
"I'm so glad he did. I have no idea what I'd do without you," Laurel replied, pulling Sara into a hug.
"I don't know what I'd do without you, either."
"I'll find some time to contact Mick and talk to him, and at the very least thank him for today and apologise for yelling at him at the hospital."
"You yelled at him?" Sara asked as she pulled away from the hug, somewhat shocked.
"Yeah, then Jessica yelled at me. She is a total badass, and super scary when she's mad."
Laurel laughed and then smiled at her sister.
"We are going to be okay right?"
"Always."
"And maybe you and Len could start hanging out here more, not just at his place."
"We can do that," Sara said, with a smile. "But you have to talk to Mick."
"Deal," Laurel agreed.
Laurel felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It seemed right telling Sara about her and Mick now, as if she were now old enough to understand.
"So, changing the subject, I have to go shopping for a graduation dress this weekend. Did you maybe want to come with me?" Sara asked.
"I'd love to," Laurel said with a grin. "We haven't been shopping together in such a long time. How about we make it a sisters' day out?"
"That sounds perfect."
As Laurel lay in bed that night, she couldn't help but think back, not only on the day, but on her relationship with Mick. There was something about it, about him, that still pushed her buttons. Sara was right. She should talk to him about them, and about everything, but she just wasn't sure how to do it. She had gotten used to them being apart. She was used to not talking to him. What if after the hospital, he didn't want anything to do with her? Surely, if Jessica was right and he did still love her, that wouldn't have changed in a day.