Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow. Obviously.
A/N: So, I ended up reading a back and forth on the Arrow subreddit between a half-wit who was saying they killed the right person in 4x18 and got just a little ticked off and decided to write something to cheer up me and any Lauriver fans who need a pick me up.
Arrow:
The Wrong Target
By
ArlyssTolero
Green Arrow and his team were fighting off Damien Darhk's hired goons inside of Iron Heights prison, acutely aware of the supervillain bending over two men that his loyal agent, Andrew Diggle, had shot at a gesture from him. Even as Team Arrow began to overwhelm their opponents, Darhk was making his way to the idol, which increased their desperation. Green Arrow, Spartan, Speedy, and Black Canary finished fighting their opponents, leaving only Darhk, Merlyn, and Andy standing, but even as they rushed to confront the three, Darhk turned to them with bloody hands, laughing as his magic seized them once more. "Ooh! Oh, I feel so much better!" Darhk exclaimed. He turned his attention to the men who had been fighting the team of heroes. "Hey, I am sorry about your buddies, omelettes and eggs and all that. But I know how to make it up to you, though. Who wants to go for a walk outside?" Darhk chuckled as the prisoners filed from the room, leaving him and his henchmen with the captive Team Arrow.
Darhk stepped up to Andy's side, putting a hand on the ex-soldier's shoulder. "Andy here, might've mentioned that his brother John worked for the Green Arrow, or should I say Oliver Queen?" Merlyn, who had been making sure the prisoners left them be, jogged back to stand behind Darhk and Andy. "Oh, oh, oh, see, I know what you're all thinking, but no, he didn't tell me. It was really just a hop, skip and a jump from the whole Diggle connection to you to your little sister to your ex-girlfriend. But when you came to rescue that boy, William, that look on your face, that was a father's look. I should've recognized it there and then." Green Arrow, being unable to speak, could only work on finding a way around Darhk's magic. He had a sense of foreboding, as though something awful was going to happen.
Merlyn said, "Damien, we need to get out of here, now."
But Darhk's murderous intent was already clear in his eyes as he said, "Patience," and his clawed hands made a swiping gesture to the side, throwing Spartan and Speedy against the wall and scrambling their senses with the impact, leaving only Green Arrow and Black Canary standing. Green Arrow's sense of foreboding grew more intense, because he had seen enough of Darhk to know the way the man's mind worked. He remembered vividly what Quentin had told him Darhk threatened him with, and his gaze went to the woman frozen not five feet from him. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," Damien said before turning to face Black Canary. "Miss Lance." Green Arrow saw Black Canary turn her head to face Darhk, saw the emotion in her eyes. Pure and unadulterated fear. "Nine months ago, I made your daddy a promise. I told him what I would do if he betrayed me." The pressure on Green Arrow had lessened and he was down on one knee, but at these words he stood and nocked an arrow, firing it. Darhk caught it as well as recapturing Green Arrow. "Impressive. Now, where was I?"
Green Arrow looked again to Black Canary and memories flashed before his eyes. A little girl with honey-blonde hair on her first day of school, supremely unimpressed with the fact that he was the son of one of the two billionaires who essentially ruled Starling City; a teenage girl who chose to dye her hair brown so she would be taken seriously thanks to her far blonder and flirtatious sister's antics; a young woman with stars in her eyes as she talked about their life together and his discomfort over what he had seen as being caged; the same young woman, jaded after five years but expressing compassion for the horrors he must've gone through as her hands roamed over his scarred chest; a night of passion between he and the same woman as he felt he would be finishing the mission he set for himself; the same woman being held by a Mirakuru super-soldier as Slade Wilson gave the order to 'kill her!'; the realization that his enemies would always seek to hurt him through those he loved and the decision that he had come to in order to protect her.
But most of all came the realization that the woman he had loved for half of his life, the woman he still loved, the love of his life was moments away from either her life being sucked out of her by Darhk's magic or being stabbed by Green Arrow's own signature weapon. As this realization and the feelings Green Arrow had long-buried in an effort to protect Black Canary from this very fate surged through him, he felt himself being released from Darhk's magic.
Darhk had just begun to speak again, saying, "Oh, yeah, I want you to-" before Green Arrow ploughed into him, driving him away from Black Canary and sending the arrow scattering across the ground. Damien's head impacted the cement floor of the prison and dazed him for a few precious moments during which Green Arrow fired two explosive arrows at Merlyn and Andy. Merlyn managed to dodge the attack, but Andy was so stunned by Green Arrow's sudden attack that the arrow embedded itself in the small space between his throat and the beginning of his vest. He fell back, hands shakily scrabbling for the arrowhead before it went off, and his body went still.
Green Arrow didn't hesitate, snatching a bolt from the flechette on his arm and striking swiftly, shoving the bolt into Damien Darhk's throat and wrenching it sideways, opening the man's throat. Darhk's final expression as he looked at Oliver was confusion and surprise before his head lolled to the side. Green Arrow stood, looking around and finding himself unsurprised that Merlyn had escaped in the few moments he took to end the threat Darhk posed to Star City and to the woman he loved. He's like a damn cockroach, he thought regarding Merlyn. He'll turn up again and this time I won't be showing him mercy.
"Ollie," Black Canary whispered as she walked slowly to stand beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. Green Arrow just stood, taking his hand in hers. Black Canary's breath caught in her throat at the raw emotion in Green Arrow's eyes. Then he pulled away.
"We should go," he said quietly, moving to help Speedy to her feet.
*DC*
Oliver placed his bow up on its stand, back in civvies. He had remained silent the entire drive back to the Bunker. He could feel the looks of his team, though whether those were judging or simply concerned was a matter of debate. Oliver, though, was struggling with issues of his own regarding the membership of his team. "John, Thea," he said softly, though they heard every word, "it's probably for the best neither of you is anywhere near me." The fact he didn't include Laurel in his signature pushing people away was telling enough for those present, but Diggle still felt the need to speak up.
"Oliver, man, I'm so sorry," Diggle said.
"For what, exactly?" Oliver said quietly. "Allowing Andy to follow you without knowing? Not believing me when I suspected he was working for H.I.V.E.? Or not being willing to do what is necessary because it doesn't fit your personal moral code?" Oliver turned to face the three remaining members of his team, which was about to get smaller. "The fact that you didn't bother to instigate countermeasures to keep from following you when you hid the piece of the idol that I trusted you with is damning in and of itself. The fact that you don't trust my instincts despite the fact that they have proven to be right at every turn is insulting. And the fact that none of us were willing to do what was needed when we had Darhk powerless after he kidnapped William is as much my fault as yours." Oliver turned to face the row of uniforms. "But that doesn't change the first two issues, John. That this is merely a continuation of the issues you have had with what I do since Day One makes this easier than I thought it would be. Get out."
"Oliver?" Laurel asked in concern.
"I won't have anyone on my team that I don't trust," Oliver replied, "or who can't trust me. John has proven that the latter is the case for him, same as Felicity. I wanted to make this work, but tonight I realized what trying to be someone that I'm not could have cost me. I won't be making that mistake ever again. John is lucky that I'm giving him the opportunity to walk away with his dignity intact." Oliver ignored Diggle's increasingly stormy position as he locked eyes with his sister. "As for you, Thea, it's time you make a choice. The next time Merlyn shows up, I can't feel like you're suffering from divided loyalties. It's me or Merlyn from this point forward, Speedy. I'll give you time to decide what you want to do." Thea nodded tentatively, catching the hidden meaning in her brother's words. He was no longer going to hold back when it came to her biological father.
Diggle stormed over to the elevator, Thea following at a more sedate pace, and the doors closed behind them. Oliver began operating the computers with an efficiency that surprised Laurel. "Here I thought Felicity was the only one who really knew how to do all that," she said quietly.
Oliver snorted. "I have the skills, I just haven't had to use them because tech is definitely Felicity's strength. But even with Darhk dead, H.I.V.E.'s plans are still active and they have control of City Hall. Ruve won't take her husband's death lying down. I don't want you trying to infiltrate her inner circle as D.A., Laurel." Oliver turned from where he had been accessing their feed into City Hall to face Laurel. "Maybe before I killed Darhk, it would have been worth the effort to try. But now Ruve is going to be out for blood, and I doubt she's going to care who's. Besides, Merlyn will have told her about what happened at the prison."
"What exactly did happen at the prison, Ollie?" Laurel asked, stepping up to him. She barely came to his shoulder, her head tilted up with a considering expression and concern shining in her green eyes.
Oliver rolled up his shirt and brushed his fingers over the Chinese lettering on his torso. Laurel reached out and brushed her fingers over them as well before tilting her head back up at him, eyes shining with curiosity. "John Constantine gave me this protection against the magic in the idol five years ago on Lian Yu. I'd almost forgotten what it was that powered it back then. I didn't have a lot of hope, and what little hope I did have came from a picture that you gave me on the dock by the Queen's Gambit." Oliver rolled his shirt back down. He cupped Laurel's chin with his right hand, his thumb brushing the side of her jaw in a fashion that could only be described as tender. "When Darhk was holding you, I knew what was going to happen. I could see you knew it too. And suddenly, my mind was filled with memories of you, from the day we met until the day that I came to realize that there was only one way I could keep you safe from my enemies, to keep the one person I needed to protect the most safe."
"Ollie, what are you saying?" Laurel whispered.
"There's a reason I refused to train you after Sara died, a reason I fought so hard against you becoming the Black Canary, a reason that I shut you out of my life," Oliver said quietly, his blue eyes shimmering with tears as he finally let the emotions that had been building up inside of him all night since his revelation show themselves. "You are the other half of my soul. You are the one who sees the good in me, even when I don't see it myself. You are the one that I wanted to protect the most, and with every turn I felt I was failing." Oliver brushed a lock of her honey-blonde hair back behind her ear. "Dinah Laurel Lance, I love you. I always have, I always will."
"I love you, too, Ollie," Laurel whispered, taking his left hand in her right and intermingling their fingers. "But what about you and Felicity?"
"I think the fact that I was able to stay away from her after Darhk's Ghosts shot up the limo at Christmas is more than enough evidence that she was never truly the woman that I love," Oliver said quietly. "If there's one thing I've learned, its that humans have a remarkable capacity for self-deception, and I managed to deceive even myself into thinking that I loved her. But I know that if Darhk had stabbed you tonight, I would have been at your side until you were healed." Oliver brought their entwined hands up, and he brushed a kiss over her knuckles. "But I understand I was also fooling myself into thinking that pretending I didn't care would keep those who want to hurt me away from you. I saw it in Darhk's eyes tonight. He was going to make you suffer, and it wasn't because of your father. He was going to make you suffer so that I would suffer and blame myself for it."
Laurel pulled her hand away from his, but a moment later it was wrapping around the back of his head, pulling him downwards. She tilted her head to meet his lips, and the two shared a soft kiss that grew in passion as they remained lip-locked. Oliver's hand swept through her hair as her other hand gripped his shoulder to keep herself steady. The years of distance between them melted away in an instant, and both of them once more felt as if something had slid into place within them.
A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the one-shot. Now, time for a bit of a rant. Feel free to ignore it.
There are so many ways that Earth-1 could have been saved at Iron Heights or brought back: Barry hearing his friends are in trouble at Iron Heights and racing there in time to pull them all away from danger, Flashpoint, multiple ways via the Waverider, and of course, the latest in a LONG line of disappointments, the Crisis on Infinite Earths that saw a whole new universe spawn but the snarky bitchy Olicity being given a second chance. As if Oliver wouldn't want HIS LAUREL to come back at the expense of his own life, especially when he was saving Tommy, Moira, and Emiko in the process.