AN Oliver is referencing Parks and Rec.
iv. anger
"Unbelievable. Unbelievable!" Laurel snapped, slamming her folder onto her desk. Oliver exchanged a look with Tommy, unsure what his place was here. Laurel ran her hand through her hair, glaring into space. She suddenly snapped her hand out, grabbed her stapler, and flung it across the room.
"Whoa, okay, okay, how about we not throw things," Tommy said. His hands were half up, as if he expected Laurel to start attacking him next, and he looked sufficiently alarmed. He and Oliver had planned on surprising her with a good old fashioned, totally not awkward and completely relaxed dinner. Laurel was just checking on a few things in the empty office when she got the call about her released scumbag.
"Laurel, okay, I know you're upset—"
"Upset is when coffee spills on your shirt before an interview. Upset is when your dog craps all over your carpet! I'm absolutely pissed. That—that—do you know what he does?" she demanded, wheeling around to face the two of them. Angry tears were in her eyes, and they fell in great, heavy drops to the floor.
"No," Tommy said. His hands were still up, and he seemed afraid to blink, like Laurel might fling herself at him if he showed weakness. "You pointedly refused to tell me what this guy did."
"He trafficked children. He brought them in out of East Asia and he—he—he sold them everywhere. The things he did—the things he does, now, since that idiot over in California let him go—they are absolutely evil. And now he's back, now he's out on the streets, his finances unfrozen, his assets back in the clear."
"Well, maybe we could recruit the Hood to do something about it," Tommy joked, then cast a desperate look toward Oliver that said 'please pick up the slack here I need help she's crying and she's stopped throwing things but I'm still scared'.
"Come on, Laurel, I'm sure it's not as bad—"
"It is, Oliver! It is exactly as bad as it seems! This monster is out there, shuffling more and more children off to labs and whore houses, and—and—"
"I'm sure he's not going to get back into the business right away," Oliver said, shrugging. He was using his calm voice, nonchalant in the face of catastrophe. Even though it was a few notches shy of the 'what's your damage I have money to throw at the problem' voice Laurel knew and hated, it seemed to help calm her down. "I mean, he's been black listed. The police had him, he was actually doing time for a few years, and he got out on a technical—"
"Bribe, more like."
"—he got out on a fluke. No one's going to want to get into bed with someone like that, not with the public eye all over him."
"I know," she huffed, running another hand through her hair. Her anger had burned away, and now she seemed so horribly disappointed. The tears probably didn't help. "I know, but…he can do something, and I don't want…I don't want any more kids hurt."
"I know," Tommy said. He risked walking around her desk and pulled her into a hug, now that he didn't seem to be in danger of a coffee mug to the head. Oliver glanced away until he saw them break apart out of the corner of his eye.
"I know it sucks, I know it really, really does. You helped convict him, right? And now he's out. But Laurel, there's really nothing you can do. Not much anyone can do, until…like I said, not much," Tommy said, wisely clamping down on the 'until he starts selling children again and the police eventually catch him' part of his sentence.
"Alright, we need to get out of here," Oliver said, making his voice breezy. Laurel sent him a slightly wounded look, but Tommy leaped on the idea.
"No, great idea! Let's get out of the office, go get ice cream, or something."
"It's January, Tommy."
"Yeah, and we're in Washington, not Maine. It's going to snow and then it's going to rain and it'll be above 35 until December. We can get away with ice cream."
"C'mon, Laurel. Treat yo' self."
Laurel cast him a look, halfway between what the— and when did you ever?
"Thea's been catching me up," he explained. "That is probably the only spa I can ever see myself going to."
"You guys are idiots," she sighed, but she let herself be dragged out of the CNRI to the closest ice cream parlor they could find.
AN I found out that Starling is set in Washington, and I just about cartwheeled into the sun because TAKE THAT, EAST COAST, and I love love love the Pacific Northwest, so it's nice seeing it get some very rainy love :)