Hello, all! This little short is a prompt fill for Okoriwadsworth, a good friend and an excellent beta for a number of my fics. For the purposes of this fic, I moved the Olicity breakup forward a few episodes (well, technically one episode up from the original timeline that Barry changed), so this story takes place sometime between "Lost Souls" and "Legends of Today". I hope you all enjoy, and thanks so much for reading!
-RayWritesThings
Should Have Been Her
This job was going to be the death of him, Alex thought to himself. "What do you mean Felicity won't do it?"
"We had a fight about, uh, an old boyfriend of hers… and also about her mom, I guess, last week," Oliver said, looking undeniably worn out. He had to wonder how many nights the man had been sleeping on the couch.
"It's not going to look great if you show up to a lunch with prospective endorsers without your own plus one."
"I'll just take Thea with me."
"Thea's booked for an interview with Williams in the same hour block, can't do it," Alex reminded him. He held his hand out for his boss' phone. "Look, I'll call Felicity if you want."
"She's really not going to want that."
Oh, so this was a serious possible break-up type situation. Just great. He hadn't exactly been impressed with the candidate's girlfriend; her inability to show up for meetings and the casualness with which she seemed to throw the campaign money had always struck him as flighty and poorly managed. But people liked a pretty, smiling face, and not having one on his arm might make people sour on Oliver. At least they weren't engaged; that would make things easier to spin.
Alex's thoughts were so preoccupied with the work he was going to have to do that he nearly missed Oliver's next suggestion.
"Laurel might be free."
"Laurel?" Alex wasn't quite able to keep the strain out of his voice.
Oliver fixed him with a look. "She's a part of the team, and she honestly knows the ins and outs of this kind of stuff better than I do. I'll give her a call."
Despite Alex hoping and praying that the DA's office be incredibly swamped with work that afternoon, Laurel was able to give them her lunch hour. So she was coming to meet with the union bosses.
Although, if he'd given more than a thought to her family background, he might have realized that could prove a boon.
"Laurel, how are you?" Boomed Larry Carmine, the President of Star City's Police Guild. He went in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which Laurel accepted with a smile. "Quentin says things are running pretty nicely between the offices."
"We try to keep communication channels open. Best way to keep the system running. How's Abby?"
"She's just fine. Finished pre-med last semester." Carmine turned to Oliver and shook his hand next. "Oliver Queen. Full of surprises, aren't you?"
"I suppose I am." The group all sat down, Oliver pulling out Laurel's chair for her. She smiled up at him, and he returned it before taking his own seat.
Alex motioned to the waiter hovering at the edge of their private room to bring out the pre-ordered food. These were busy people after all, so they hadn't wanted to keep them waiting.
"I have to say, I should have expected you two to get involved in politics," President Raynes of the Local 27 said after they'd all made significant progress on their meals. The former fire chief had only retired from active duty last spring and made the transition to union work. "You made a pretty good team figuring all that out with Garfield. Still a shame what happened to him, but I wouldn't be here without you. Makes me pretty inclined to listen, Mr. Queen."
Oliver nodded all the while Alex made a mental note to ask just when in the hell his boss had been planning to tell him he'd saved the firefighter union chief's life. "I'm hoping you like what you hear. My campaign is committed to supporting those who need it most, and that includes our first responders, our firefighters, all those out on the front lines. Alex here has some of the numbers we've been talking about."
"These are preliminary plans we're hoping to have your input on," Alex said, taking his cue to pass out the portfolios he had compiled. Laurel looked off of the one Oliver had laid out in front of them, their heads bent closer together than Alex really thought they needed to be.
Raynes was nodding along as he read, but Alex was more interested in Carmine, who leaned to his right to ask Laurel, "So you really believe in this one, huh?"
"I do."
"But I still remember your old man cursing his name!" Carmine and his Vice President burst into laughter.
Alex winced and held his breath, but Laurel only laughed lightly herself and said, "And he would be the first to tell you just what a changed man Oliver is. Believe me, I used to think we'd never see the day either."
"Laurel and her family have been good enough to give me a second chance," Oliver added right off her statement. It was almost startling. In these previous sessions with endorsers they'd been attempting to woo, Oliver had seemed content to allow Felicity to ramble on about this or that and wait for her signal to speak. But now he seemed to know instinctively when to come in.
"I'm hoping that the citizens of Star can be willing to take a second chance as well. Not just on me, but on our home," Oliver continued. The others had all gone quiet as they listened, none more closely than Laurel, who seemed to be hanging on his every word. "I know that we've struggled a lot the last few years and that a lot of people are giving up or asking why we bother? But I think with patience and with determination in equal measure, we can help turn this city into the best it can be. The same way Laurel's always seen the best I can be and stood by me."
"Well, thank you for proving me a good judge of character after all," Laurel said, and they shared a smirk that was so fond it was infuriating. Alex coughed, and they both blinked and looked away from the other.
"I consider myself a good judge, too," Carmine said, "and I can tell you right now, Mr. Queen, so long as you have this lovely lady's support that goes a long way in my book."
Oliver looked at Laurel rather than Carmine as he answered, "I'll keep it under advisement."
Laurel headed back to City Hall on her own while Alex and Oliver rode to the campaign office. Once alone with him, his boss seemed to retreat back into his thoughts, frowning out the window. Alex wondered what was on his mind.
"This may be the one time you hear this, but I might have been wrong," Alex finally admitted, if only to try and draw the other man back into the present. "About Laurel."
Oliver's eyes drifted in his direction, a half-smile crossing his face. "Only might?"
Alex grimaced. He wasn't really good at the whole admitting fault thing. "She's good with those guys from the Locals. Probably grew up surrounded by them, didn't she?" Oliver nodded in confirmation, and he supposed it made sense that the other man would know. "And I have to say even I was surprised at how well she made you look when they asked about your history. I actually believed her."
"That's because she believes it, too."
"Yeah. Makes you wonder…"
"What?" Oliver shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter.
Alex paused. It wasn't really his place, nor was he really hoping to get that deeply involved in the candidate's personal life. So he shrugged. "Nothing. Chief Raynes was right, though, you two make a good team."
"Yeah," Oliver agreed after a moment. He went back to staring out the window, though this time his expression was far more wistful.
The more Alex thought about it, the more maddening it became. They were too good, made only more obvious when Laurel stopped by the campaign office to pick up Thea for dinner.
"You could join us," Thea told her brother.
"Only if you're not needed here," Laurel added quickly with a slightly guilty glance in Alex's direction. She refocused on Oliver while tucking her hair back behind one ear.
Oliver held her gaze for a moment before dropping it to the desk. "I should probably put in another hour. You two go ahead."
"We'll see you later," Laurel promised, and Alex watched Oliver watch them leave with a smile. Like he was watching his family. Which he basically was.
Except that wasn't his girlfriend. At least, not the most recent one. Not the one Alex had spent the last few weeks building the campaign around; their little office romance or whatever it had been. It all sounded so shallow in his head in retrospect.
Whatever it was Oliver and Laurel had was strong, strong enough to survive time and scandal and the metaphorical equivalent of a gasoline fire. They were still working together and for a common good. It was a political power couple the likes of which someone like him could only hope to witness.
And yet, they couldn't really be together. Not without it causing a stir in the campaign. And they both seemed to know it.
He knew it was deeply ironic to be disappointed now when before he'd been begging Oliver to put some distance between himself and Laurel. But that had been before he'd realized: it should have been her.