Oliver slammed the door on his way out, leaving his wife in tears, all alone to reflect on her thoughts, until her son came into the room moments later.
"Mom," he called out.
Laurel hastily wiped away her tears and beckoned him to join in her bed. "What's wrong, love?" She wondered if he'd seen his father storming out of the house.
She sighed.
"I had a bad dream," he mumbled, jumping onto the king sized bed, and into the covers with Laurel, who instantly wrapped her arms around him.
/
Laurel Lance met Oliver Queen when they were both twenty years old. "You're drop dead gorgeous," he said in awe.
She rolled her eyes and told him to fuck off.
They started dating two years after that. The Lance family had just moved to Starling City because Detective Lance had been promoted to Captain Lance, and that was that. On an ordinary Wednesday morning, Quentin was shot outside of Queen Consolidated.
Oliver had been visiting his dad when all of this had gone down and he was terrified. Laurel's dad was a good man, and he cared about the Lance family, so he followed the ambulance to the hospital and stood outside the OR, asking nurses for information. Laurel cried in his arms when she arrived onto the scene at twenty minutes later.
"I can't lose him," she had screamed against his chest.
Oliver held her hand, and sat there for the twelve hours Quentin was in surgery. Maybe that was the moment when Laurel realized that Oliver Queen wasn't as big of a jerk as she thought he was. He was a good man.
Two days later, the good Captain thanked the young man for standing by his daughter in her hour of need. Oliver had Quentin's hand and grinned at Laurel's dad, and thrown a wink in her direction, saying that she could thank him appropriately later.
Laurel had laughed at that while Quentin rolled his eyes- all in good humor.
/
Seven years ago Oliver was involved with a woman named Samantha Clayton too, who he kept on seeing during the same time as he was sleeping with Laurel. He hadn't made things official with either woman, and they didn't know of each other's existence until Laurel and Oliver spontaneously moved in together after a few weeks, making their relationship as official at it could get. All seemed well until Samantha showed up at their door, huge baby bump in tow, leaving the couple shell shocked.
Laurel had nodded at the pregnant woman, shoving her own emotions in the back of her head, only to ask Samantha to come in, so that she and Oliver could talk.
Samantha didn't let an unplanned pregnancy get in the way of her plans. She wanted to go to Med school and as a woman with high aspirations herself, Laurel respected Samantha, despite the overwhelming urge to hate her. There was something about her that prevented anyone from hating her. Moira Queen was a hundred percent sure that Laurel was going to leave Oliver. What kind of woman would stay with a man who was having a baby with someone else?
But, Laurel stayed.
She stood by Oliver, and when William Clayton Queen was born approximately six years ago, Laurel was the first person to meet him after his parents. He was pink and chubby and definitely the most beautiful bundle of joy she had ever seen in her life. She remembered asking Samantha for permission to hold him, and she'd nodded at Oliver, to hand their baby to this woman was going to be a big part of his life.
"He's beautiful," she'd said, with a teary smile, peering at the blue bundle of blankets in her arms and Oliver grinned right back at her.
"He likes you," commented Samantha, her eyes locked on Laurel Lance, and Little William.
Five years ago, soon after his baby son's first birthday party, Oliver got down on one knee and asked Laurel to marry him. He lifted her into his arms and spun her around the garden and she sobbed her eyes out as she shouted an affirmative yes. She'd been wearing a yellow sundress, and Oliver had told her that she was his queen, as cheesy as that sounded. She'd swat his chest with her handbag for him saying that.
He'd only laughed at her.
She couldn't have been happier to have the love of her life by her side, and his son in her arms, every weekend. He mostly stayed with his mother during the week, which made Oliver frustrated, because he wanted his son to be around all the time but it was the best possible arrangement during that time.
Laurel instantly loved William as her own and couldn't wait to have more children. She often wondered if William wanted a brother or sister.
Alas, Laurel learnt that motherhood wasn't meant to be, and she went on a downward spiral. It stung unlike anything before. It was unbelievable. After two miscarriages, her heart ached and her womb felt empty and her husband felt distant so instead she packed her bags and booked a ticket out of Starling City. She spent the next four months avoiding calls from Oliver and their respective families as she drowned her sorrows in booze.
She quit practicing law for that time, and cut everyone out of her life. She drank and cried and spent her days sleeping and her nights drinking. For the first time in her life, Laurel wasn't sure what she was going to do.
One night, when she was drunk out of her mind, and hot tears poured down her cheeks, her phone lit up with a Starling City area code number and she decided to pick up. She wondered what her husband had to say to her. But instead, it was her mother in law calling to say that Samantha had been in an accident and she hadn't survived.
Laurel instantly mourned the other woman. Samantha was young and full of live and this wasn't fucking fair. But such is life. She took a deep breath, and wanted to ask about her step-son.
"William was in the car too," added Moira and suddenly Laurel couldn't breathe. No. This couldn't be real.
"Oh my god," she choked out, her mind jumping to the worst possible conclusion. She squeezed her eyes shut and wondered why fate had dealt them such a terrible deck of cards. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, envisioning her precious little stepson smiling at her in the Ninja Turtle pjs she had bought him. They were his favorites.
"Laurel, sweetheart, William is okay." That was all that she needed to hear.
Laurel Queen was back home in Starling City three hours later. She entered the Queen Mansion and was met with a tearful little boy crying for his mommy.
Oliver's mother and sister, Moira and Thea, cried as they watched William run down the stairs and into his stepmother's awaiting arms, while Oliver quietly and guiltily wondered if his wife loved his son more than him.
Three days later, William stood between his father and stepmother, holding each of their hands with a deathly tight grip, as they said goodbye to Samantha for the last time.
A few years William broke his leg while at school and his teacher, who also happened to be his aunt's secret boyfriend, Mr. Harper, made a very important call to the Queen residence. "Mrs Queen," he said,"Your son was hurt on the playground and we're taking him to the hospital to get things checked out."
Laurel hadn't realized that she'd stopped breathing momentarily. "Can I please talk to him?" She asked, as she got up from her desk and reached for her car keys.
"Of course."
"MOM!" whimpered William, as Roy handed the phone to him. "Oh Mom. It hurts so much-"
Laurel clapped a hand to her lips as she choked back a sob. That was the first time William Clayton Queen called her Mom and it definitely wouldn't be the last either.
"Mom, when are you coming? I need you..."
"I'll be there in 15 minutes, Will," she promised and even though it was a thirty minute drive, Laurel reached the hospital in fourteen minutes.
/
I don't know where I'm going with this story. But lemme know if you're in for a ride.
Please review.