'Anything You Say Can Be Held Against You (So Only Say My Name)'
Chapter Two
June 1st
9am
Tommy Merlyn stood on the back porch of his family's beach house and breathed in the ocean air, a smile on his face. He had been standing on the porch, his hands in his pockets and his mind racing for almost an hour now. He had flown in on his Dad's private plane this morning from New York and had landed at the airport just after 7 and had taken his sweet time getting to the house. He was very eager to see Laurel, it had been over two weeks since he had gotten to hold her, but he was also worried about the fall out as well.
He was so tired. He was 26 years old and he was so fucking tired. He had it better than most, he knew but that didn't mean that he had it easy. He had been privileged enough to be born into the Merlyn family, one of the wealthiest families on the west coast and everything that came with it. The first 8 years of his life was perfect. He had great parents, an amazing best friend and everything an 8 year old could dream of. But then his Mother had been killed one night when someone had decided that her purse was worth her life. Then his Father had lost his faith in humanity and in his son. Tommy had always favored his Mother, he had her eyes and her nose. So every time Malcolm had looked at Tommy, he saw the love of his life. Tommy never saw his Father much after the funeral and spent the next decade or so doing whatever he could to get attention.
Despite not knowing what it felt to grown up loved, Tommy had counted himself pretty lucky. That was, until he lost his best friend when he was 20 years old. It had happened in a flash, and he didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, because he had been away at college.
He had really hit rock bottom for a while then, he had come very close to flunking out of college.
But suddenly it occurred to him that his life would be nothing but eternal suck unless he did something about it. So he had finished his Bachelors and applied to NYU for his MBA. It was at NYU that he had run into Laurel again for the first time since before Oliver left. He had always been in love with her, but out of respect for his best friend he had never pursued anything. But know Oliver was gone, and she was a free agent. At first he just expected it to be a one time thing. But once he held her he was addicted. So over the span of a few months he used every tool in his arsenal to get her to agree to be with him. While their relationship wasn't perfect, it was better than being without her.
For a while there Tommy was doing great and had finally started to form a plan for his future. He had always been expected to take over the family business, but he wanted to be as far away from his Father as possible. So he decided to do what he knew, clubs. He already had his business plan worked out, he would open and chain of nightclubs along the east coast, and he would use his trust fund to build it. He just needed his MBA in order to be taken seriously.
He had kept the plan under wraps for over a year. But then, once he started shopping the idea around word got back to her Father and Malcolm had cut him off. He would continue to pay for school, and Tommy would still have access to the family homes and planes if needed, but his trust fund and bank accounts were frozen.
It had been a really rough year for Tommy, adjusting to life without unlimited funds, but he had managed just fine. Especially once he found a paid internship. His plans were still in motion, just delayed, but he refused to cave to his Father's demands. New York was his home and his future was his own.
He had his girl and he had his plan, and nothing could ruin that.
When Laurel had first told him that she had decided to take the internship in New York he had been over the moon. But then she has started talking about getting a place, her own place and he had felt like she had punched him in the gut. He had let himself believe for a split second that she was choosing not just New York, but him. He had thought this was the push they needed to finally take the next step. But obviously she didn't feel the same, so instead he had devised the beach house plan. He had known when she pushed for Sara to come that she was doing it so that she would have a person on her team. So he had thrown in Felicity as his backup, knowing that she was on his side. And of course Laurel Lance was never one to back down from a fight.
So here he was, joining in on what had up to this point been a girls getaway and he was nervous as hell. Nervous because he would have unlimited time with Laurel and also, because for the first time in five years he would bring her face to face with the man that they had both grown up with, the man that neither of them had seen since the day he left. He had neglected to mention to Laurel, or anyone for that matter, that Oliver Queen was finally returning to Starling City after being away for five years. He didn't think anyone but him and the Queen family even knew and he was hedging his bets that it would be kept quiet until next week, when the prodigal son finally returned.
He knew the Queen family had their own reasons for keeping Oliver's return out of the papers, but Tommy had found that it suited his needs as well. Laurel was extremely smart, it was one of the things he loved about her. She was also extremely suspicious, especially when it came to Oliver, so he had chosen to keep her in the dark about Oliver's return, but he knew that starting today he couldn't hide it anymore.
Laurel woke with a start, her hand flying to her face and she gasped. She had just had the strangest dream.
Oliver.
She hadn't let herself even think about him in years, much less dream about him. She felt a huge pit form in her stomach as she stared at the ceiling, she was overcome with dread and she felt bile rise in her throat.
She was extremely proud of herself for making it to the bathroom before last night's dinner made a reappearance.
Laurel knew that Tommy had arrived. She felt him the second he had stepped into the house, but after the night she had and the way she had woken up this morning she dreaded seeing him. He could always read her and she didn't want to start their summer together with a fight and the subject of Oliver always started a fight.
So she took her time getting ready for the day, she took a long bath and then showered to remove all of the oils and soap. She took the time to style her hair and did her makeup, knowing that after half an hour on the beach would ruin it. She spent almost and hour sorting through her clothes to find something to wear and finally, when she knew that waiting any longer would be obvious she made her way downstairs.
Tommy looked up from his skillet full of bacon as Laurel sauntered into the room. His face broke out into a huge smile and he didn't try to fight it. He never could when he saw her.
She looked amazing, her makeup done, her hair falling in waves over her shoulder and she was wearing a long flowing sundress. He stepped away from the stove to move towards her, his arms open. He had almost made it over to her when he stopped.
Her eyes met his and he saw the storm.
Everything in him froze and he wanted to scream. They couldn't even have fucking breakfast. He sighed and let his arms fall to his sides and he simply leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. She looked at him, her eyes fluttered and her lips pursed. They both turned to the women sitting at the bar, plates full of pancakes and waiting on bacon. They both seemed to be distracted by their own conversation, but Tommy knew Felicity well enough to know that she had picked up on the signals coming from him and Laurel.
Laurel looked into his eyes for a split second and he knew that whatever it was they needed to say would have to wait, so he returned to his cooking and let her walk away to join to other two ladies.
"Sooo, pumpkin, Felicity and your sis tell me that the three of you have gotten the lay of the land this past week? Know all the hotspots and all? How's about tonight me and you head out to one of these hot spots and the singles find a mixer of some sort?" Tommy asked, his voice upbeat as he switched the bacon from the skillet to the plate.
He turned around to pass the plate over to the ladies and caught the look between the three of them as Laurel swallowed heavily.
"Uh, yeah sure Tommy. I'm sure that would be fine." She said, looking at him through her lashes.
Felicity, always wanting to fill up an awkward silence hummed around her third slice of bacon and nodded. "Yeah, me and Sara have been wanting to stop by this dive bar we keep passing called The League. It looks pretty sketchy and I really wanna see Sara kick someones ass."
Tommy shot her a grateful smile and laughed. "Sounds perfect, whats say we all hit the water after breakfast? Have some fun?" He asked the group, but his eyes were on Laurel. She let out a sigh that she tried to hide with a forkful of pancake and nodded.
"Sounds great."
The four of them spent hours on the beach that afternoon.
Laurel tried to find a way out of her funk, knowing how unreasonable she was being. It was just a dream. Just a dream about a boy that didn't exist in her world anymore and she had an amazing boy in front of her that was trying to make her happy. But even with that to comfort her, she could shake herself out of it.
So she spent her day walking along the each of the water, watching her sister and Felicity chase Tommy around.
Just as the sun was starting to set the group made their way back to the house and disappeared to their respective rooms. Laurel felt the knot in her stomach expand as she and Tommy moved around the room together.
He had come up just after breakfast and unpacked his things, having their clothes and personal effects in the same drawers made her heart skip. It seemed so domestic, them getting ready for a night out side by side. His clothes hanging next to hers, his toothbrush in the same holder.
Sara stopped by when Tommy was in the shower to let her know they were headed out and to wish Laurel good luck. Laurel hated that the vacation had started this way. Tommy had come here to spend time with her and she had let her stupid dream ruin everything.
She sighed and sat in front of the vanity in the corner of the room, starting her make up ritual.
Felicity had been right about The League. It was just the kind of dive bar that Sara would get into a fight in. But as luck would have it, a Monday night in early June was not exactly a happening time for the bar. So Felicity just smiled at Sara from across the pool table and the blonde racked up the balls for another round.
They had been here for an hour so far, and they were two out of maybe fifteen people total, including the super hot bartender that kept shooting them looks. Both girls avoided the elephant in the room, they knew that something was going on with Laurel. Something that hadn't been an issue the night before, or any of the nights that they had had since leaving Boston. Something had upset her, and it most likely had something to do with Tommy, but neither one of them wanted to get involved.
So they stayed at the bar for hours. They bounced between shooting pool, dancing in the corner by the jukebox and playing drinking games with the hot bartender.
Felicity learned after an hour or so of playing 'I Never' with the brunette beauty that her name was Nyssa, she was 27 years old and that she had inherited the bar from her Father, Ra's. She had a very interesting accent that Felicity couldn't place and while she was always very polite to Felicity's questions, she couldn't stop her eyes from following Sara around.
Interesting
The hotspots that Laurel had remembered from her week of exploring with the girls weren't exactly fitting for the kind of talk that Tommy had in mind. So after a very loud dinner at a burger joint and a very boring movie at the local theater, Tommy and Laurel headed back to the house. They were both still on edge, for very different reasons and as Laurel started to climb the stairs of the home Tommy grabbed her hand.
"Hey, do you mind if we go for a walk on the beach. I think we need to talk about some things." He asked her, his eyes not quiet meeting hers. Laurel heaved a heavy sigh and interlaced her fingers with his and nodded.
A few minutes later found then walking along the beach. Tommy chewed on his bottom lip and Laurel wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the chill. The waves were too loud and the moon gave them almost no light to see one another but Tommy couldn't wait to find a better place to have this talk so he went for it. He held out his arm to stop Laurel from moving forward and stepped in front of her to look her in the eye.
"You know, don't you?" He asked, just jumping to the point.
Laurel squinted at him "Know? Know what?" She asked, the question lingering in the salt air.
"About Oliver?" Tommy questioned and watched as Laurel caved in front of him.
Laurel felt like someone had sucked the air from her lungs and she struggled to breathe. No one had dared say that name in front of her in years. At first she had resented the coddling, but now she was grateful for it. That name made her feel sick to her stomach.
"Excuse me?" She asked, her words forced out of a dry throat.
Tommy started to feel doubt, but he knew that he didn't have the time to dance around the subject.
"You know that Oliver is coming back? That he's moving back to Starling City at the end of the Summer." Tommy's statement was full of hesitation and a questioning tone.
Laurel didn't think this day could get worse.
And then it did.
She tried to breathe. She tried to think, but it was all she could do to keep standing. And then suddenly that was too much.
Tommy rushed to her side as she plopped down on the sand, her feet still in the waves.
"Laurel, I thought you knew. You were acting so off all day. I thought you knew already. I'm sorry." He said, his hand on her cheek.
Laurel stared out into the water and centered her thoughts.
"I'm okay. It's fine. I just wasn't expecting that. I was off today because I had a dream that I ran into him. That's why I was so out of it. And I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to fight. I know he's a sore subject. I was beginning to think he wouldn't ever come back. I actually let myself believe he was dead even. That's sick, right?" She asked him, her eyes finally landing on his.
They had spent two years avoiding this subject whenever they could. But they couldn't avoid it anymore.
Laurel smiled a little at him, to let him know she was okay.
"I'm fine, Tommy. A little shocked that he would show his face after all this time. But it's okay. I mean, I'll be in New York by then, even less chance of seeing him. So it's fine. I'm just glad you told me." She said, the tension that had been in her body all day finally releasing. She leaned to rest her head on his shoulder, where he had come to sit beside her and she felt the change in him instantly.
"Actually,"He started, and she felt his voice vibrate her cheek. "Actually, he is moving back to Starling at the end of the Summer, but he will be back in the States sooner." He said, his tense shoulders belying his causal tone.
Laurel lifted her head and turned to look at his moonlit profile and she knew her eyes were the size of saucers.
"How soon?" She asked, this time her tone wasn't of a broken woman. This time her tone was that of a pissed off one.
"Next week." Tommy said simply.
Laurel swallowed heavily.
"And where will he be until the end of the Summer, Tommy?" She asked and her heartbeat picked up as his eyes closed.
"In the room next to Felicity."
Sara and Felicity giggled as they practically fell through the front door of the house.
It was well after midnight and they had stayed out as long as possible, wanting to give Tommy and Laurel the house for awhile. But after they started seeing two of Nyssa they had decided to call it a night and called a cab back to the house.
As they stumbled through the entry way and started to make their way towards the stairs they froze.
Those were not the happy shouting noises they expected to find upon their arrival.
"You know what I went through with him?" They heard Laurel scream and Sara gasped.
Felicity looked at her friend, confused in her drunken state and started to question her when Sara threw her hand up, a signal to stay quiet.
"Dammit, Tommy you weren't there to see the mess he left! You were away at college, you didn't get to see the wreckage my family was in!"
"Oh." Felicity muttered. They must be arguing about the boy.
"Laurel, it's been five years. He is my best friend. He is practically my brother. You know what he meant to me." Tommy begged, his voice wasn't as loud, but it was closer.
They heard a door swing open and then Laurel was even louder.
"Don't remind me, Tommy. I know exactly how close the two of you were. You want to know why I can't commit to you? Because I know what kind of man you are. What kind of man you both are. And you have just proven it to me. Congratulations."
The door slammed closed again and Felicity winced. She turned to Sara just in time to see her put her head down and walk slowly up the stairs.
The house was buzzing with tension for days.
Felicity hardly saw any of the other residents. She got up every morning, made coffee for herself and a bowl of fruit and then went down to the water with a book.
She debated leaving, but didn't have the money for a plane ticket and the rental wasn't in her name, so she decided to wait it out.
One thing Sara had learned after the incident with Ollie was when to make herself scarce.
She made sure to be up and out of the house as soon as the sun rose and stayed in town until The League opened every evening. She felt awful leaving Felicity in the dark, and in the house, but she couldn't bring herself to explain the whole sordid story.
It was day 3 in the hostile take over that was her summer vacation and Sara had found herself in her favorite dive bar once again. She was peeling the label off of her third beer of the night when Nyssa leaned across the bar and tilted her head at her.
"Where's the other little blonde one?" She asked, her lips curled into a small smile.
"Avoiding the hell that is my house, same as me." Sara said, rolling the sticky paper between her fingers.
"Hmm. Sounds mature." Nyssa said with a chuckle.
Sara watched her as she walked away, wiping the bar down.
It took four days.
Four days of sleeping in another room.
Four days of tiptoeing around each other.
Four days of Felicity and Sara never being in the house.
On Friday morning Tommy rolled over in his bed, his four day stubble making him look kinda hoboish, to see Laurel sitting on the edge of the bed.
He is man enough to admit he jumped a little.
She smirked.
That made him even more afraid.
"Hey, there pumpkin. You got a knife in that robe somewhere?" He asked, looking her over with a keen eye.
She laughed and he didn't find that even slightly comforting.
Laurel watched Tommy as he stood in front of the shared bathroom mirror, shaving off his scruff and smiled.
She was still angry. Actually, angry didn't even cover it. But after days of seething, she had finally come to understand why Tommy had done this.
He had always believed that their relationship was stalled because of her past with Oliver. He thought that she was holding back from him because of the love and the hate she felt for his estranged best friend. So he thought that forcing them back together would convince her to face her issues and finally accept his feelings for her.
It was cute really.
In a sick and sadistic kind of way.
It was Friday morning and Felicity had told herself that if things weren't better by Sunday that she would either find a ride out of town, or at least another place to stay. She was laying on her stomach, facing the ocean and reading when her page was covered by a shadow.
She glanced up, her eyes squinting in the sun and smiled when she saw Sara standing above her.
"Hey, stranger." Felicity said, but there was no venom in her tone.
Sara smile in relief and lowered herself to sit beside the other girl.
"Sorry about the past few days." She started, and then looked out over the water. "Me, and Laurel have a lot of baggage when it comes to Oliver Queen." She said and Felicity pushed herself into a sitting position and faced the ocean with her.
As Sara filled her in, Felicity lowered her head onto her shoulder. There position eerily similar to the one that Tommy and Laurel had found themselves in a few nights before.
They sat there for hours, Sara talking until her voice had taken on a husky quality. Finally it was almost dinner time and they decided to head inside, despite the tension they were sure to find.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Felicity asked quietly to her best friend as they stood at the doorway to the kitchen.
"Don't spook them." Sara said even quieter. "They are like deer. One wrong move and they'll run out in front of a car." She said as she moved extra slowly into the kitchen, her hands raised in front of her.
Laurel rolled her eyes as she looked at her little sister, and then turned back to the oven, pulling out their dinner. Tommy gave an exaggerated laugh that was clearly fake as he poured four glasses of red wine around the table.
Sara and Felicity shared a shrug and took their places at the table.
They could play nice too.
Sunday night arrived, and even though the weekend had ended a lot better than the week has started, no one in the house could seem to sleep.
They all lay in their beds, staring at the ceiling, knowing that in the morning another storm was on it's way to shake up their time together.
Notes: Oliver will make an appearance and we will finally learn where he has been.
