A/N- A Special thanks to Highlander348 for helping me with this chapter, this was the first scene I wrote for this fic, back when I was close to completing Starling City's Finest.
Laurel had arrived in The Bunker before everyone else got back in, and she ignored the glare from Felicity as she quickly started throwing jabs at the double-end bag in the gym area. After about ten minutes, Felicity and Digg approached her.
They hadn't wanted her to go back out in the field. Not until they realized that she was the only hope to keep the city safe in spite of the fact that these two claimed a numerous amount of excuses from; Her not being in the field for over a year, and that she had only gone out into the field when Oliver took her to Central City.
The next reason they cited was that she hadn't worked alongside their team, and thus would ruin the group cohesion and dynamic. And the one reason that really pissed her off the most was that they claimed that her fighting alongside them is something that Oliver would hate because she would be risking making Oliver's son an orphan.
His son. Not hers, or theirs. Connor was only Oliver's child in their eyes.
She released an audible breath, reading herself for their onslaught. They didn't seem to grasp the fact that she had lost virtually everyone in her life since she became Black Canary; Jo, Tommy, Moira, her Father, Sara and now Roy and Oliver. All she had left was Connie and Speedy.
She was brought out of her thoughts as Felicity stood a few feet from her, with Diggle standing behind her with his arms folded.
A United Front.
She would laugh at the scene of a hacker with no combat experience and a trained soldier against a trained enhanced individual. If she was a betting woman, she would take those odds. Fight John and keep an eye out for Felicity and prevent her from getting a weapon. A weapon could make anyone dangerous. There is a reason why people call them equalizers.
"Have you completely lost your mind!?" Felicity asked, with a large judgmental scowl painted across her face.
Laurel shrugged. She had heard whispers of Daniel Brickwell being released. She had to ascertain if her baby was safe. Speedy could take care of herself, she had been trained by Ted, Herself, and Oliver.
But, Connor, her Connie was still a baby. Her baby. Her son couldn't fend for himself, and if Brick were to find out who Black Canary was behind her mask, her baby boy would be Brick's first target. She employed stronger, more forceful measures than what she had used when she first met Diggle and Felicity before she trained Thea.
She wrapped a pair of bolas around a thug's neck and choked him until he gave her the answers she needed on Brickwell. She didn't enjoy it, that didn't change the fact that what she did was a necessary evil.
She was starting to get the impression that John and Felicity didn't seem to grasp that while The League was a threat, they were not the most pressing issue and Brickwell would eat the city from within. He would flank the city while everyone was looking at The League.
Thea stepped in between her sister and Felicity in an attempt to play the mediator. "We have all been under stress especially after Ollie…" Thea couldn't finish her sentence. It hurt too much that her brother was willing to offer himself up as a scapegoat instead of her, all because Malcolm had drugged her and had her kill Sara.
Thea knew that while she felt guilty, and was hurting, Laurel definitely felt worse. In the span of three years, she had lost too many people close to her; first Jo, Tommy, Quentin, then Sara, Roy and now Ollie. She had lost her husband and the father to her child. And now to find out that one of the most ruthless and implacable enemies that have tried to make a stake for the city.
She felt it was her obligation to defend Laurel, her sister in all but name, a woman that was to be her sister-in-law in a few months. She knew better than anyone bar Laurel that Brick was a threat, but it was the least she could do after killing Sara, and indirectly sending Oliver to his death.
"This isn't about how much she has endured, we have all been mourning for Sara and Oliver. This is about how Laurel conducted herself in the field."
"Back off!" She growled, which caused both Felicity and Diggle to take a step back. "Laurel has been under a lot of stress…"
Laurel patted her sister on the shoulder and shook her head, silencing her argument in her throat. "I'm fine, Speedy." She said dismissing the defense her sister was preparing. The curl of her lip was inching up, to someone that didn't know Laurel, it looked as if it were a snide smirk, instead, it was Laurel putting up a front of indifference, and strength. Laurel was trying to look more callous than she truly was, and only someone that truly knew Laurel would see it.
Laurel's face softened as she looked towards Thea. Meanwhile, Laurel could barely keep her head afloat. She would do everything in her power to prevent losing someone else to it. She would protect Thea and Connie from Brickwell.
Diggle shook his head. "You tortured a guy, Laurel! On the night you were supposed to make a grand return as The Black Canary, a symbol of hope, now that Oliver is gone, a way to restore trust in Speedy in vigilantes. Reconstitute The Birds of Prey. The League is a more insidious enemy than some washed-out criminal kingpin. You shamed us, Laurel! Do you have any notion of how that paints us as vigilantes? Especially after Ra's had framed your husband?"
His unspoken words were clear in her mind. That she was a hypocrite and that Oliver would be disappointed in her. He might very well be, but perhaps Oliver was right when he came back from Lian Yu the first time. That, sometimes, there are people in this world who deal only in extremes. It was naive to think that anything less than extreme measures would stop them.
Brickwell was one of those that dealt with absolutes. She would do whatever it took to bring him down. She would do everything in her power to stop Brick from harming her baby boy, and the rest of her family, and nothing and no one would stand in her way.
She could prevent him from harming her family. She doubted that this was what Ted had in mind, but it made sense to her.
"I gave an evil man justice, got valuable intel and verified a threat that right now is more pressing than The League. The League, the blood debt was settled if Ra's or Oliver… Ra's has honor, even Malcolm has attested to that." Even if she knew that she could only take Malcolm's words with a grain of salt. "Daniel Brickwell will corrupt everything and anyone that will benefit him. He is the man we should set our sights for!"
Felicity shook her head. Laurel realized it was because they were ignorant of the threat he possessed. They had only dealt with small-time drug dealers, thugs, and maniacs like Merlyn, Slade and now Ra's. They had never faced someone like Brick.
That she hadn't truly earned her stripes when she defeated him and dismantled his cabal almost four years ago. Or perhaps they simply thought she was losing her mind due to grief?
"Laurel," Felicity said harshly, squaring her shoulders. "The League is the main threat; one that requires all hands on deck. It's a chance to get Oliver back to us. He's not dead, I can feel it. He must be hiding, imprisoned or had been brainwashed by Ra's or something, Ra's faked his death and holding him to ransom." She then shook her head when Laurel refused to back down to see reason. "If you can't see that Ra's and his death cult are the more of a dangerous threat than some mobster, Oliver would be disappointed in your lack of faith in him, and his mission."
The mission she started. Not Oliver. She had been fighting and bleeding for Starling long before Oliver returned from Russia. Before Felicity and John ever dreamed of joining the fight to save their city.
Laurel clenched her fist, she had started protecting this city before anyone else when the police couldn't due to their corruption, by the very man that was going to start the cycle again.
Daniel Brickwell.
"The bastard deserved what he got; do you disagree?" Only Thea gave a small gesture of agreement.
"Laurel," Thea said softly, rubbing Laurel's forearm gently. "He may have deserved it, but you crossed the line, especially considering the climate that we are finding ourselves in, thanks to Ra's. We needed you to show everyone that we are more than criminals. That their Guardian Angel had returned to them in their hour of need."
Laurel had to grant her that, she may have been too enthusiastic at the wrong time. "Perhaps, but it was the only way to get intel. Computers, hacking and phone tapping, none of that works. Brick is too smart for that. And I know him better than anyone."
Diggle frowned as he looked at the woman that had married his best friend, his brother in arms. The woman that bore his brother's child. He couldn't help but feel pity for her. She had lost her family and friends and now it was just her and Connor.
And now Laurel was jumping at shadows, seeing threats where there weren't any, all in an attempt at protecting her child, not unlike a mother bear or lioness protecting her cub. He couldn't say that he wouldn't feel the same if Lyla was killed by an ancient assassin's guild. But unlike the woman in front of him, and Oliver, he knew how to avoid having a blindspot for people.
Laurel was lost and grieving, and it was obvious that she needed a break to look after herself and Connor.
"It might be better for you, Laurel, to hang up the mask, indefinitely, Laurel. Take a vacation with Connor. Go to Tahiti, Crete, Cape Verde or another tropical island paradise to recuperate and regroup. Once things have settled down, and we bring Oliver home..." He then placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And we will." He assured her, before Laurel shirked off his hand, causing her friend's frown to set in. "We can discuss your continued involvement in Oliver's crusade."
Felicity nodded in agreement. "We should distance our operations from the Black Canary. With Captain Pike seeing you as your father had initially seen The Hood as due to the stunt you pulled tonight and Ra's throwing your husband's good works into the mud."
Laurel had drawn the line in the sand, and so had they, with neither side willing to concede. She knew that she could never convince them of the threat that Brick posed. They closed ranks, kicking her to the curb.
She was useful until she wasn't.
Laurel blew out a breath that she didn't know she was holding before she gave a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. It was back to how it had been back on day one when she returned home after being away from training under Ted and studying to become a lawyer.
Laurel would take down Brick herself. She would protect her family from any more loss. She couldn't lose Connor or Thea. She wouldn't.
Laurel walked past a shocked Thea and walked up the stairs. As she did so, she felt someone grab her arm gently. She didn't need to turn her head to know who it was. Thea. Her baby sister, who had red teary eyes.
"Laurel, don't do anything rash, we can still work things out. Together we can convince them that Brick is a threat. Ignore them, they don't know him or saw what he had been responsible for. Think of Connor. Please." Thea practically begged Laurel couldn't even remember the last time her baby sister had even begged.
Connor.
This wasn't how it was meant to be. She never wanted to leave her baby. The guilt rose from the pit of her stomach, she had to go after Brick to keep him safe. And to do that, she would not be able to apologize to him, to say goodbye, in case this was the end.
She felt tears travel down her cheek. Oliver had once claimed that he himself was cursed because everyone around him died or was hurt. The sad truth was that she, not him, was cursed. And she would die before she let her baby get hurt or worse. And the only way she could protect her son was to not be a part of his life, at least until Brick was dealt with.
Laurel gulped before speaking to her sister, "I doubt that." She said, as she gently wiped the tear from her sister's cheek. The poor girl was still overcoming the guilt over killing Sara, and now Laurel was to thrust the most important thing she has ever done, to her. Nothing she did was right, if she had killed Malcolm, killed Brick when she had the chance none of this would have come to pass.
Thea persisted, ignoring her sister's dejected tone and rejection, "I will come by your place tonight or Ted's gym? We can work this out as a family," Thea hiccuped before she spoke again, "As The Birds of Prey and if the worst comes to worst... We can even bring in Ted?"
Laurel opened the heavy door in front of her and gave her sister a rueful smile. "You're sweet, Speedy. But I'm already gone." She had to protect Connor, and the only way to do that was to separate herself from her family. Out of sight, out of mind. If she were to go on the offensive, Brick would be having his sights on The Canary and not Laurel Lance and her family.
This was her fight.
Laurel swallowed hard. "I would rather die as The Canary than live as Laurel Lance." Laurel Lance was going to disappear into obscurity, all that would be left was the Black Canary faceless woman attracting all of Brick's ire on her instead of on Connor. Laurel then cupped Thea's cheek, praying that her sister in all but name would understand that she had to do this to take down Brick without putting Connor in Brick's cross-hairs. That as much as she would loathe the idea of leaving her son an orphan, it was more preferable to the alternative. Burying her child. "Look after Connie, for me. And tell him that his Mommy and Daddy love him very much, the sitter has already been paid." Laurel then wrapped her arms around Thea. "You are my baby sister and I love you."
"I love you too, Laurel." Thea managed to croak out as she returned the hug.
Laurel had no delusions about what she may have to do, or that what she had to do was more than likely a suicide mission. She almost died when she faced Brick last time, but she had to do whatever it took to protect Connor and Thea. To protect her city.
Before Laurel could open the door, Diggle grabbed her arm. He snuck up on her while she was busy saying goodbye to Thea. "Where are you going, Laurel?" His grip tightened on her forearm.
"I'm going to do what is necessary without you."
Diggle tried to pull her away from the door, only for Laurel to send out her leg, kicking Diggle in the stomach, and pulled her arm from his grip, "I told you who the real threat is, you didn't believe me. This is just how it has to be, stay out of my way." Having spoken her part, she left the Bunker.
:-: :-: :-: :-:
After Laurel had left, Thea watched Laurel leave through teary eyes before she raced back down the stairs towards her two teammates who had ganged up on her sister. "What the hell was that? She is going through at least ten different kinds of hell and you kick her while she's down?"
She was so pissed off. Had they forgotten about the damage that the monster had caused? He had directly caused The Turf Wars, which led to many lives being lost or injured, and his corruption that infested the judicial system and the government, including at least one senator.
Daniel Brickwell had previously aligned himself with Tempest and, by extension, helped Malcolm who leveled a portion of The Glades.
"She's unhinged, and needs to be reminded of the realities of what is happening! You saw what she did to John! She attacked him!" Felicity answered. "She could have killed that man earlier. She was strangling him!"
Thea glared at the blonde woman, "Laurel isn't insane or deluded by grief, She's trying to protect her family! Her baby boy, who will be in Brick's sight if he finds out that Laurel is The Black Canary"
Diggle cleared his throat, his hand still resting above his tender abdomen. "She's not gonna give this up, is she?"
Thea shook her head and blinked away her tears. "She's given up on everything. Her life. She said that she would rather die as The Black Canary than live as Laurel Lance."
Diggle paled. He never expected Laurel to abandon her life, especially now that she was a mother, potentially a single mother at that. He could never envision himself abandoning baby Sara if Lyla was taken from him. He always thought that Oliver and Laurel were on the same page as him, and Lyla.
Her bullheadedness that Oliver seemed to admire in the woman was going to get her and her family killed. Maybe he should have warned Oliver about having a relationship with someone in the same dangerous field? If he did, Oliver's child may not be in the predicament that the infant now found himself in.
Felicity ran to the command center and pulled up the surveillance footage to see Laurel purposely walk in front of a slow-moving car and hit by the vehicle. The force sent the grief-stricken woman to the ground. Laurel then haphazardly rose to her feet waving off the driver and limped off into the darkness. "She left sight of the camera before it was possible to track her, with her limp and different haircut."
"Why?"
"Technology isn't a one-stop solution to everything, try as I might, I'm still limited by hardware and software. It's not like I can whip up a program that tracks someone's DNA, I'm good but not that good."
A few minutes later, Thea heard an alert on her phone, she picked it up to see that someone had sent her an encrypted email from an anonymous sender. She opened the email and played the video attachment.
:-: :-: :-: :-:
Flashback, a few weeks after Moira Queen's funeral.
Laurel and Oliver sat on the sofa in the mansion, it wouldn't be long until they would have to put the mansion up for sale, as without control of Queen Consolidated, they couldn't afford to pay the staff, utilities and any other things that would cost an extraordinary amount of money. Another reason why neither of the Queen siblings nor Laurel wanted to live in the mansion that they grew up in, was because living in a castle above the rest of the city, was not the image they wanted to project.
They were the same as them and wanted to help the city, and they couldn't do that from the mansion. It also distanced themselves from their mother's actions with The Undertaking and provided them with a way to let the ghosts of their parents rest.
Thea and Roy had opted to babysit Connor for the evening, while she and Oliver were supposed to be packing. Instead, they had planned on making a video message for Connor in case something happened to them. In their line of work, it was an inevitability rather than an issuance policy.
In the same vein, Laurel drafted both hers and Ollie's wills to ensure that Connor was safe if the worst should happen. Thea, Connor's closest living relative, and godmother would be given guardianship. If she was not able, then the guardianship of Connor was to go to either her father, Roy or Ted.
Oliver put the laptop on the coffee table and sat next to his fiancée on the couch. They awkwardly looked at each other before Oliver said, "You ready?"
She exhaled. "No, but it needs to be done." She pressed the space-bar to start recording. She waved at the camera. "Hi, Connie, It's Mom and Dad." Her voice cracked, and she soon felt Oliver's hand wrapped around her waist. She calmed at the feel of his warm embrace.
Oliver gave a sad smile, "I hope you are well, safe and feel loved by your Aunt Thea." He felt Laurel, leaning her head in the nape of his neck, trying valiantly not to cry. "There is something that you need to know, something that we wanted to tell you."
Laurel wiped her eyes and sat up a little to look at the camera. "We love you, Connie. Even if neither of us or only one of us, get to witness you grow up into a strong, intelligent young man. A person that either would be proud of."
"We are your parents, and if you are watching this video, then we have failed in our duty to you. Parents are supposed to be there for their child, every day, no matter what. To ensure that they are loved, and are safe. And a child should be able to rely on their mother and father, and go to them for reassurance and guidance… And now…" He croaked; he felt his beloved gently entangle her fingers with his on his lap.
"We will tell you now why we have failed in our obligations to you." She exhaled audibly. "I'm the Black Canary, and your Dad is The Green Arrow. Vigilantes that protect the people of our city and assist the police in handing out justice."
"Our lives are very dangerous, which is why we," Oliver and Laurel each gave a small nod of agreement and a rueful smile, knowing this could be one of the only things left of them for their son to remember them with.
"Which is why we agreed to make this video, to explain to you why we couldn't be there to witness your milestones; birthdays, your first day at school, your first crush, your graduation, and anything and everything you have decided to achieve in your life."
"It's because of our decision to put our lives on the line to protect the people of our city, that you don't have us anymore. This is why we have asked your Aunt Thea and Roy to not give you this until your eighteenth birthday if we are no longer around."
Both of them simultaneously wished their son a happy birthday, and Laurel blew him a kiss, "We love you, Connie." They both spoke before Oliver turned off the recording.
:-: :-: :-: :-:
Present-day
Laurel was standing in front of a barrel that had flames licking at the rim, she had bought clothes from a thrift store. Black ripped and distressed denim jeans, a dark blue tank top, a black leather jacket, and a black hoody. She then had also bought a dark blue scarf to cover her lower face.
She figured it looked different enough from the look she had as Black Canary. She had then cut her hair just above her neck and dyed it a lighter blonde. Between her new haircut and her throbbing leg, she will be able to avoid facial recognition and whatever other identity recognition software either Brickwell or Felicity may have in their arsenal.
She tossed her old clothes into the barrel, watching the flames lick and burn the clothes that Dinah Laurel Lance had once worn; before she had lost almost everything; and had to give up the rest of her life to ensure that her sister and baby were safe.
It was her job as a parent to minimize the risk of her son being hurt, or worse. And even if it pained her, that it broke her heart to abandon the most important person in her life she had to do it. Her Dad had given her a piece of advice a few days after the birth of his first and only grandchild. That everything she does now should be in the service of ensuring that her baby is safe, happy, and healthy. Everything came second to him.
She pulled out her wallet and took out a photograph of the family she had lost. Her holding Connor, with Ollie standing, his arm wrapping his arm around her waist. Sara and her father standing next to her and Moira. Thea and Roy on the other side of Oliver, with Roy kissing Thea's temple.
A happy family with no idea that within the next few months, everything would go to hell.
Laurel was going to stop Brickwell from crippling Starling and harming her family or die trying. She wasn't going to bury the last two members of her family, so she had to do this alone, and keep Brick's eyes on her and not Connor or Thea.
