Laurel and the Phoenix
Chapter 7: To Know You More
The drive to STAR Labs was an uneventful one. While their drive to Central City the day before had been tense and slightly awkward, todays drive had more of somber mood to it. Mick was concerned that Laurel might have been effected by the Particle Accelerator explosion a couple years ago, and that her powers might just now be manifesting, but at the same time, no two Metas had the same power. Well... at least not that Mick knew of. But his concerns aside, he just wanted to know that Laurel was okay, physically. Overall, Mick hoped that it was his mention of the alternate time line that had caused Laurel's nightmare, and nothing else.
Laurel, on the other hand, was thinking about what Mick had told her. If he seriously thought that telling her about his past, and how he was responsible for his family's deaths, that she would want nothing to do with him, then there was a lot that they didn't really know about each other. Honestly, Laurel just hoped that she could make a positive impact in his overall negatively lived life. She wanted Mick to be happy, whether that eventually ended up being with her, or with someone else, as long as he was happy, Laurel would be happy. Selfishly thinking though, Laurel knew she would definitely be happier if Mick was happy with her.
Once they got to Central City, and finally pulled into the parking lot of STAR Labs, Laurel glanced over at Mick. He wasn't moving. He was gripping the steering wheel and staring at the building in front of them. Laurel knew, through word of mouth, that Mick wasn't in the best place with Team Flash, having tried a couple times to kill Barry... and having help Leonard abduct Caitlin to get to Barry... and having a small part in Cisco and his brother being abducted as well, but she didn't know if he had ever actually been inside STAR Labs itself, or if that had only ever been Leonard. Reaching over the center console, Laurel placed a hand on top of Mick's and silently urged him to loosen his grip.
"Maybe you should go in yourself. The last time I had any contact with these people, I think it was probably when Lisa, Len and I took Ramon and his brother." Mick said.
"Mick- Michael- look at me." Laurel said softly and just by her voice alone, never mind what she had actually said, Mick glanced over. "I want you in there with me. I told you last night that I need you, and that hasn't changed. I will play referee if they try anything against you." She continued. "And I told you earlier that I trust you, now I need to know if you trust me." She finished.
"More than I knew I could." Mick replied after a couple moments of silently staring into her eyes.
"Then it's settled. You're coming inside with me. But first... you need to release your death grip on the steering wheel Michael." Laurel said with a small smirk.
"I like the sound of that." Mick commented.
"You like the sound of what?" Laurel asked.
"You saying my name; my full name." Mick replied before quickly adding, "Dinah."
"I'm going to be honest with you, I never liked people calling me 'Dinah' because I didn't like sharing a name with my mom, but there's just something about you that makes me feel comfortable enough to let you, and you alone, call me that. My own parents don't even call me by my first name." Laurel said before leaning over and placing a small kiss on Mick's cheek. "Let's get this over with so that we can spend the rest of our Saturday doing whatever we want." She added before pulling away and opening the door.
Taking the key out of the ignition, and grabbing his phone, Mick followed suit and got out of the car. His hands were sweaty, and he was a huge ball of nerves. He had a pretty good idea as to how Team Flash was going to react to his being there, but he really did trust Laurel enough to be the buffer if they tried to get physical with him. With that thought in mind, Mick slowly wrapped an arm around Laurel's waist and pulled her closer. He was falling hard and fast, and Laurel had quickly become his anchor in a time when he desperately needed one, and that scared him. He had opened up to Laurel after only being able to stand being around her for less than a day, and now he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
LOT – LATP – LOT
The lab was a disaster area. At least it had become one when Barry had run out, nearly knocking both Cisco and Joe over in the process. Of course, he wouldn't have run out if the security alarms were going off like crazy. For some reason, a reason that neither Cisco nor Harry could explain, the camera that faced the main entrance, had gone out, and there was no sign of tampering or an electricity surge that could have shorted it. One second the feed was there, the next it wasn't. So Barry had gone to investigate. The only problem was that he had been helping Caitlin with some serum when the alarms had sounded, and in his rush to go see what was going on, he had dropped the vial that Caitlin had just handed him, and a set of vials had been knocked over.
It wasn't even two seconds later it seemed that Barry was walking back into the room, followed by Laurel Lance and none other than Mick Rory. Seeing who was there, Joe had his gun out and trained on Mick, but after a sharp and quick look from Laurel, he lowered the weapon some. Whatever she had come here for, Mick was there with her, and not the other way around where the pyro had forced her to come here against her will.
"What's all this about?" Cisco asked, motioning with his hands at how close Laurel and Mick were standing to each other.
"I need yours and Caitlin's help." Laurel said, ignoring Cisco's questioning look in Mick's direction.
"That's great and all, but what is Heat Wave doing here?" Cisco asked.
"Listen kid, Laurel needs yours and the good lady doctor's help. I am only here to have a few words with Speedy Gonzalez over there, and because Laurel asked me to come with her. So stop worrying about me, and help her." Mick said and Laurel couldn't help but smile a little at how protective Mick was being, and not knowing if Mick himself knew that he was doing it.
"I resent being called 'kid' but if the Black Canary needs our help, I will help. By the way, how has the Canary Cry been working out for you? I keep meaning to ask whenever we see you, but I keep forgetting." Cisco questioned.
"It works great Cisco, thank you." Laurel said before turning to Caitlin. "I need you to run some tests and see if I might have been effected by the Particle Accelerator explosion." She explained, causing a handful of gasps from the Flash team.
"That happened 2 years ago Laurel, what makes you think that you were effected?" Caitlin asked.
"Well, that's where Cisco's help comes in." Laurel admitted.
"Why don't we go over here to start running those tests." Caitlin said giving Barry and Mick a cautious glance.
As Laurel turned to walk away, Mick had the overwhelming urge to kiss her, as a way of letting her know that he was here for her. Lightly grabbing her hand in his, Mick spun Laurel back towards him and place a small kiss on her cheek. That action alone had Team Flash sputtering as they tried to process just what they were looking at. Mick smirked as Laurel blushed deeply.
"No matter what comes of this, I'm here for you Dinah." Mick whispered.
"Thank you Michael." Laurel whispered back, returning his kiss with one of her own to his cheek before turning and following Caitlin out of the room while Cisco trailed behind, looking between her and Mick.
Mick watched Laurel leave the room, even though she was in the adjoining room, and there was no door, and he could feel Barry's sharp gaze on him, just waiting for Mick to make a wrong move that showed his intentions with Laurel were anything but real. Finally tearing his gaze away from his Canary, Mick met Barry's gaze and folded his arms across his chest.
"You heard that Snart is getting married, right?" Mick asked.
"It came up when I saw him last, yes." Barry said.
"And that his bride-to-be is Laurel's sister, Sara?" Mick questioned.
"He didn't tell me her name, and I didn't pry. But that does explain why you and Laurel are hanging around each other. Am I right to assume, that if Leonard is marrying Sara, that you and Laurel are best man and maid of honor?" Barry asked.
"Yes." Mick replied.
"So what is so wrong with that that you wanted to talk to me?" Barry asked, mimicking Mick's stance and folding his arms.
"Did he invite you to the wedding or not Allen?" Mick asked, quickly getting agitated.
"He might have." Barry replied.
"Look... I'm not here looking for a fight. I'm here for Laurel. She told me that she needs me, and I'm trying to do what I can to be there for her. That might end up meaning that I have to back out of being Snart's best man. Did he invite you to the wedding?" Mick asked again.
"Yes, he invited me. He invited all of us." Barry said with a sigh.
"If between now and then you hear from anyone, specifically me or Laurel, that it's gotten to a point, would you take over the best man spot?" Mick asked.
"That's not really something that you can ask me to do. That's something that Leonard needs to be okay with me doing, and he needs to be the one asking." Barry said.
"Please Barry... I've gotten to the point where if I have to choose between protecting Laurel or losing my oldest friend, I'm going to choose to protect Laurel." Mick said after taking a deep breath.
"What is it with you Rogues and falling for the Lance sisters?" Joe asked with a smirk causing Mick to glance over at him in surprise. Honestly Mick had forgotten that the detective was there.
"Don't know, and I can't speak for Snart." Mick replied with a shrug.
"As I said, Leonard needs to be the one asking me to be his best man if you have to step away. But I will keep an eye out for things seemingly heading south between you and him." Barry agreed.
"Thank you." Mick said with a nod before heading over to see how things were going with Laurel.
LOT – LATP – LOT
Laurel was anxiously waiting for the results of Caitlin's tests while Cisco rambled on about his powers. Honestly Laurel wasn't listening to him right now. She was too nervous and anxious to listen to him. As Caitlin's computer beeped with the results, Mick walked over to the bed Laurel was sitting on and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Okay, your blood work came back normal, you are not a Metahuman. Now, do you want to tell us why you thought you might be one?" Caitlin asked and Laurel glanced at Mick before sighing.
"I had a nightmare last night that was of my death from an alternate timeline. One that Mick had told me about yesterday afternoon. He hadn't given me any details, just what the alternate timeline's headline said, but my nightmare was very vivid and too detailed to be anything other than what happened. When I told Mick about it, he said that the only other person he knew who had seen their death from an alternate timeline was Cisco." Laurel explained.
"There aren't many Metas in Star City, so we came to Metahuman Central, figuring that you guys would know if there have been two Metas with the same power." Mick continued.
"You're not from Star City." Cisco piped up and Mick shot him a glare.
"Not the point." Mick snarled.
"Well, other than Speedsters from other Earths, it seems like no two Metahumans have the same power." Caitlin cut in before Cisco could say anything else that might lead to Mick hitting him.
"So what do you think caused the nightmare?" Laurel asked.
"Was your death averted?" Caitlin asked looking between Laurel and Mick who just shook his head.
"We saw the article after the fact, but when we saw it, Gideon said that it was from an alternate timeline." Mick explained.
"Wait... Gideon? Female AI?" Barry asked coming into the room.
"Yeah, why?" Mick asked.
"Well... at least we know that Eobard Thawne isn't the only person from the future who has access to my AI program." Barry said with a light chuckle.
"Anyway... what probably happened was that your subconscious, after hearing about the headline, supplied you with pieces that would make the most sense, and it just so happened that those pieces ended up being pretty accurate." Caitlin said as she placed a hand on Laurel's shoulder reassuringly.
"Thank you Caitlin." Laurel said with a smile and a sigh of relief before standing up and giving the other woman a hug.
"Any time... just, can you give us some kind of heads up next time if Mr. Rory is going to be with you?" Caitlin asked.
"I'm sitting right here, and its Mick." Mick growled lowly.
"Yeah, I'm not going to call you Mick. You and Snart did abduct me in an attempt to get to Barry. And you abducted Cisco and Dante, so I'm sticking with Mr. Rory." Caitlin bit out.
"Right... about that... if I apologized, would you reconsider?" Mick asked.
"Would it be a genuine apology?" Barry asked.
"Maybe..." Mick trailed off.
"Pass." Caitlin replied.
"Then we will be off." Mick said as he took Laurel's hand in his and started walking out.
"Thank you. Hopefully we'll see you at the wedding." Laurel called over her shoulder as she followed Mick.
As they walked out of STAR Labs, and back to Mick's car, Laurel couldn't help but feel happy and relieved. She wasn't a Metahuman, she just had an overactive imagination. She didn't have to worry about possibly hurting Mick with some unknown powers. Stepping in front of Mick, Laurel threw her arms around Mick's neck in elation. Mick was caught off guard by the action, but quickly recovered and wrapped his arms securely around Laurel's waist. With that task out of the way, their whole day was already feeling lighter than it had started.
They stood there, in the middle of the STAR Labs parking lot, wrapped in each other's arms for a good few minutes before pulling away from each other. Laurel was breathing heavily, the exertion that she had put into giving Mick a hug had her breathless. Mick on the other hand was looking between Laurel's eyes and her lips. As Laurel looked into Mick's eyes and took in the movement they kept making, her heart started to beat just a little bit faster. Mick wanted to kiss her lips. But did she want Mick to kiss her on her lips? They were still getting to know each other, and sure, they had shared small kisses on the cheek and he had kissed her forehead at breakfast that morning, but an actual kiss would bring their relationship up a level.
"Can I kiss you Dinah?" Mick whispered.
"Yes." Laurel breathed out as Mick closed the distance between them.
The kiss wasn't deep and passionate, but light and loving. The entire time their lips were moving against each other, Mick's hold on her body was gentle. It was probably one of the best kisses that Laurel had ever had. She would have given anything for it to continue. But that wasn't the case because it was both Laurel and Mick's phones going off that caused them to pull apart reluctantly.
We're having lunch together today in Central City. Meet at Jitters.
Laurel groaned and rested her head on Mick's chest as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Well, so much for their plan of doing nothing for the rest of the day.