"He's going to shoot arrows at us."
"Yeah."
"For training."
"Right."
"Arrows. Actual arrows. Really, really sharp arrows."
"Yup."
"How well do you know this man again?"
Laura and Barry stood side-by-side in the middle of a field, right next to the warehouse they had met with Oliver's team the night before. It was still fairly cold and damp, and while Laura was perfectly fine with the temperature, her abilities did not account for the rain that continued to fall over the city. Both men were waiting for her when she got there, but Barry looked less than pleased to be there than he had been the other night. Apparently, Oliver had decided that they both in great need of training, given their less than stellar approach to the metahuman the night before. Which was perfectly fine with Laura, even if his training regimen did include the arrows that he was famous for putting into the criminal scum of Starling City.
Okay, maybe she wasn't entirely okay with that.
At the moment, however, Laura was more concerned about how confident about the whole situation Barry seemed to be. He was pretty much vibrating with anticipation beside her, almost as if he were eager, or worse, excited, to train with Oliver, but Laura had little time to question him about it as Oliver strode towards them, a full quiver on his back and bow in hand. Laura didn't know what it was exactly, but there was something about the whole ensemble that told her Oliver Queen was not to be trifled with. She wondered how many had seen that same side of him and lived to tell the tale, and mentally decided that was a question she did not need answered.
"I think it goes without saying that both of you need to be better prepared in the field. You went after that metahuman the other night without any idea of what he was capable of, and you nearly got yourselves killed."
"Oliver," Laura winced at the arrogance in Barry's voice, "I can literally move at the speed of light. You told me yourself that I could be a hero. That's what I'm doing."
"Living this life takes more than a mask, Barry. It takes discipline, and it takes precision; it takes caution. Now," Laura's heart leapt up into her throat as Oliver notched an arrow, and levelled it at Barry's chest, "you're going to run over there, you're going to come at me, and you're going to get shot."
"No, I'm not." At that, Barry burst into a fit of slightly hysterical laughter, a far cry from how Laura was feeling at the moment. The only difference was, she could see that Oliver was completely serious.
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Barry-"
"Alright, fine, I'll humour you."
Laura stepped out of the way Oliver as Barry raced a few hundred yards away, turning to face them atop a small slope both a few seconds later.
"Ready?"
She just barely heard Oliver repeat the sentiment before he released the arrow. It barely travelled a few feet before it was consumed by lightning, and then Barry was standing in front of them, holding the arrow in his hand and looking more confident in himself than she had ever seen him.
"Nice tr-GOD!" The scream of pain that erupted from Barry made Laura jump a few feet into the air in shock. When she recovered, she could just make out the shafts of two arrows embedded in Barry's back, shot from what appeared to be an automatic launcher hidden behind him in the tall grass. He shouted in pain as Oliver calmly made his way around and ripped the arrows out, which elicited a louder cry and a string of curse words that Laura had never expected to hear from her partner. As Oliver went to go check on his weapons of terror, Laura rushed to Barry's side, manhandling him until she could see his back properly. The wounds had stopped bleeding, which meant that he was already healing, although he would probably need a new jacket after this. And a new shirt.
"You shot me?"
And maybe therapy.
"I heard you heal fast. Laura, you're up next."
"Okay, but as a warning, I don't heal as fast. So, please, be gentle." Even though she was being completely serious, considering what she'd just seen Barry go through, Oliver cracked a small smile – at least she hoped it was a smile – before turning to face her, unarmed but most certainly a threat, if the way his body shifted into a fighting stance was anything to go by.
"I know. That's why you're going to try and take me down."
"What?"
"I'm going to attack you, and you're going to try to take me down."
"Wait, what?"
"Starting now."
Before Laura could react, Oliver was moving at her with such speed and precision that she knew he had to have been trained professionally. Or at least by ninjas. She barely avoided his first punch, but he came after her again, and Laura threw up an arm as his leg came around. However, in the blink of an eye, Laura found herself on the ground, pinned down underneath Oliver and utterly vulnerable. Cold gathered in her palms against her will, itching to be let out as it pushed at her fingertips, but something told her that all Oliver had to do was press a little harder on her throat and that would be it. And he hadn't even broken a sweat.
Ninjas it was.
When he finally released her, Laura briefly hesitated before accepting the hand offered to her, trying to ignore the sharp ache in her back where she'd hit the ground. As she stood, Laura felt a bit of her cold seep into Oliver's hand, and she felt a bit bad as he let go rather quickly, though his expression didn't betray any pain. Off to the side, however, Barry looked just a smidge more irritated than he'd been before, probably because she hadn't been shot with arrows, though Laura was certainly not complaining.
"Let me get this straight. I get shot in the back and she gets a bit roughed up? How is that fair?"
"It's not, because you're as stubborn as hell and she's actually fairly reasonable. Also, you heal faster than she does." Laura hurried to hide a smile at the indignation that bloomed on Barry's face, though it quickly faded when he turned on his heel to disappear in a familiar blur and a gust of wind. Which, once again, left her with Oliver, alone, in the middle of nowhere. With his weapons.
They were going to need to have a serious talk when this whole thing was over.
"You're holding back."
"I'm sorry?"
"You're holding back," Oliver explained, "because you're afraid. Whatever's keeping you from using your powers to their full extent, someone will find a way to use it against you."
Afraid? Laura had been afraid many times in her life - far too many times - and she supposed she knew what fear felt like, after all this time. Looking back on her brief training session with Oliver, however, Laura couldn't pinpoint any single moment where she had actually been afraid. Hesitant? Of course. Apprehensive? Undoubtedly.
But afraid?
"I'll keep that in mind - listen, I'm sorry Barry ran off like that. I'm not sure why he's so angry."
"It's...I understand; I was like him once. What's been given to you will only get you so far, and when you realize that, denial is the easiest option. He needs to learn that you have to be prepared in this line of work, no matter how fast you can run." Laura nodded thoughtfully as Oliver began to pack up his equipment, and did her best to ease the ache in her back as she joined him. However, something continued to bother her, gnawing away incessantly at the back of her mind, and Laura sighed when she realized that she couldn't keep it inside forever.
"Oliver?"
"Yes?"
"I - I know it's not place my place to say, but a person doesn't go missing for five years and come back without going through a lot of crap." Oliver's face clouded over as she spoke, and Laura fought past the brief flicker of anxiety to get her words. "Barry's young; he has his own way of dealing with the world, even if it's not the best. But he's seen hardship, no matter how much he likes to pretend he hasn't; we both have. So, please, don't give up on him yet. He needs you."
"Really."
"I know, I know, it's ridiculous, I just met you last night. But from what I've seen, Barry…Barry respects you. He trusts you, despite what some people in his life may think about you. You're the hero he aspires to be, Oliver."
"Your point being?"
"Don't give up on him, no matter how many times he runs away. Just…just stick with him, as long as you can. He needs somebody like you."
"And you?"
"…I'll manage."
The silence that fell between them was far past the line of comfortable, and Laura briefly wondered with a flash of fear if she'd crossed a line. However, after a few moments of staring at her with an inscrutable expression, Oliver let out a sigh and nodded his agreement, and Laura allowed herself to smile at him, albeit shakily. The Arrow may have been a killer once, but Oliver Queen was a decent man, as far as she could tell. He had gone through things she couldn't even begin to imagine, and despite his faults, he had managed to hold on to whatever small piece of humanity had survived. The thought comforted her, somehow.
As he packed away his things, however, Laura realized that while Felicity and Diggle were off doing whatever Team Arrow did to find their targets, Oliver was on his own, just as much as she was due to Barry's stubbornness. With a shaky sigh, she turned around and met Oliver's eyes, hoping that she wasn't about to make a big mistake. Besides, it wasn't as if she had anything better to do.
"You want to grab some coffee?"
"People are staring at us."
"Oliver Queen in Central City with a random young woman is a bit unusual. All you have to do is ignore them and not make anyone fear for their lives, okay?"
Almost an hour after the training session and Barry's departure, Oliver and Laura were comfortably situated in a booth in the back of Jitters. It was far enough away from the street that nobody would notice them, but the occasional customer or serve would cast them a sideways glance ever so often. Luckily, Iris wasn't working a shift; she'd heard from Barry firsthand just how excited she'd been that her best friend knew the Oliver Queen, and Laura wasn't exactly ready to be bombarded with questions, especially with the man sitting right across from her.
"So, your team has to have some sort of base in Starling, right?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Right. But you know where we work, don't you?" Laura smirked at the exasperated expression on Oliver's face, and watched with a relative sense of triumph while his attention was diverted by another customer daring to get close enough to snap a picture of him. His eyes remained fixed on the person's back as they walked away, and only when they disappeared from his line of sight did his attention shift back to her.
"Laura, I know you mean well, but the less you and your team know about my work, the better. It's how it has to be."
"I get that. By the way, thanks, again, for helping us with that meta last night. You probably don't get this much weirdness in Starling."
The corners of Oliver's mouth lifted slightly as he raised his cup to take another sip, and Laura allowed herself to relax and smile in return. It appeared that whatever assumptions Dr. Wells and Joe held towards him, at least most of them were unfounded. She took a long drag of her hot chocolate, savouring the warmth that spread through her, right to the tips of her fingers. However, as she set her cup down, Laura was a bit startled to see Oliver gazing at her with intensity she hoped was only reserved for criminals. The longer he stared, unfortunately, the more Laura felt as if he were looking straight through her.
When Oliver finally opened his mouth to speak, Laura's phone buzzed loudly, interrupting whatever he had been about to say. She shook off the uneasy feeling that always came with being stared, and broke eye contact with Oliver to dig her phone out of her jacket. The second she opened up her messages, however, Laura was on her feet, tugging her jacket on with one hand. Almost instantly, Oliver was standing as well, and as she turned to face him, she could see that he was concerned.
"What is it?"
"Barry found our metahuman."
"And?"
"He went after him alone."
"Is he okay?"
"I'm fine, and I'm right here."
As Barry spoke up from the stool where Caitlin was monitoring every vital sign she could think of, Laura felt like as if she were about to suffocate from worry. Since she'd arrived, all she'd done was fight the urge to make sure her partner was okay herself, knowing that Caitlin was probably the best qualified to do so. She'd left Oliver with a quick apology before racing for Cisco's car, and fighting her way through traffic to get to S.T.A.R. Labs as quickly as possible. Apparently, Barry had lost to the metahuman – whom she could now refer to as Roy Bivolo – during their little skirmish, and Laura was starting to think that her partner was going to need more than just one training session with Oliver. His self-preservation still needed a lot of work as well.
"There doesn't seem to be anything physically wrong with him, but I won't be able to tell if Bivolo's powers affected him unless I run some tests."
"I told you guys, I'm fine. Why are you being so weird about this?" As the tight pressure around her ribcage lifted and breathing became easier, Laura found herself a bit disturbed by how casual Barry sounded about such a serious situation. The last time he'd even gotten close to Bivolo, which was barely a day ago, everyone Bivolo had affected had been trying to kill each other out of rage, and he'd nearly turned a bank heist into a homicide. She wondered, suddenly, if he had if Bivolo could have gotten away without using his abilities; it seemed unlikely, but the prospect of Barry being affected in the way that those at the bank had been was frankly terrifying. Either way, it was probably best if they didn't take any chances.
"So, no desire to go MMA on any of us?" Felicity spoke up from the side of the room, where she had been chewing nervously at her nails the entire time, never once taking her eyes off of Barry. She'd already been there for a while when Laura had peeled into the room, looking like a nervous wreck, but neither they nor Caitlin had found enough courage to speak out loud until Barry returned and they were able to collectively wrangle him on to the stool. It was obvious that she was worried about him, and Laura found herself wondering just how close the two were, given that it was likely they'd met through the Arrow.
"No. I told you, something weird happened with his eyes for a second, and then he got away."
"Weird? Weird, how?" In their line of work, 'weird' could turn out to be either less normal than usual or completely disastrous.
"His eyes went red for a second, but that was about it."
Well, weren't they in trouble now. Laura remembered hearing the statements from the victims at the bank, how they had seen a red glint in Bivolo's eyes before they lost control. One woman had even tried to shoot one of the men in the bank, her brain so addled by rage that she wouldn't be able to explain to the police how she'd gotten it in the first place. Barry had definitely been affected, no matter what he told them. And judging by the look Caitlin and Felicity were sharing across the room, they had reached the same conclusion. However, before either of them could say another word, Barry was up on his feet and striding out of the room, and Laura had to break into a jog to follow him, the other women right on her heels.
"Look, guys, just leave it, okay?. All I need to do is find Bivolo and we can forget this ever happened."
"Barry, can you just hold on for a second?"
"Caitlin, stop-" He was starting to sound angry, and as much as she wanted to tell her friend to hold back, Laura didn't react quickly enough.
"What you did was reckless and stupid. You went after Bivolo alone. You take far too many risks, and as fast as you can run, that's going to catch up with you someday."
"Caitlin-"
What came next caught Laura completely off guard, but in hindsight, she should have seen it coming. Barry whirled around, and Laura would swear to her dying day that she saw a flash of red in his eyes before he spoke, his voice hard and angry, pushing up into Caitlin's space.
"You know what, Caitlin? I'm not Ronnie - I don't need to be saved or protected. I don't need any of you to look after me. I'm not a child, so why don't you back off and stop treating me like a child."
"Barry." Laura barked out as she stepped forward, until she was standing in between the two of them, one arm outstretched to keep him at bay. Even though she had no intention of hurting him, Laura forced herself to focus enough cold in her hands to at least slow Barry down, if the situation called for it. It went without saying that speed and rage were a dangerous combination, which put them all at a serious disadvantage if he started on a rampage. However, Laura was not ready to hear Caitlin's voice next, as quiet as it was.
"You're...you're right, Barry. You're not Ronnie. You never will be."
Jesus.
That was just too much, and the worst thing was, Barry didn't even seem to realize what he'd done, how much damage he'd caused. Something was obviously wrong with him, and Laura shot him a quick glare before she took off after Caitlin, who had disappeared into the hallway. As she walked, Laura knew that while she had spent years strengthening herself against spiteful words and hateful stares, Caitlin had no such defenses, and that it was best if she had someone to support her in moments like these. When she finally found Caitlin, her friend was leaning heavily against the wall, her head cradled in her hands and her back facing Laura. She approached Caitlin slowly, but before she could get too close, Caitlin looked up, her eyes red and wet with unshed tears.
Before she could say a word, Caitlin flung herself into Laura's arms, latching on like a limpet. If she heard Caitlin crying, she didn't mention it and simply held her tongue, rubbing soothing circles into Caitlin's trembling back. When Caitlin finally pulled back, Laura felt something in her tug painfully at the sight of her friend looking so weary, her eyes swimming with unshed tears, and kept a hand on her arm even when she pulled away.
"Caitlin, I…"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just...it's hard."
"Barry's been affected. You know he wouldn't say that if he wasn't."
"…it just hurts. I miss him so much."
"I - I know."
"...Laura?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"Anytime."
It took a while for Caitlin to calm down, and with assurances that she was fine to go clean up on her own, Laura made her way back to the control room alone. Caitlin was stronger than most people realized; but like all armour, hers had weaknesses to it. She only hoped that someday, her friend would heal from her loss, as recent and as large as it was. However, when she stepped inside, Laura felt a twinge of panic when she realized that Barry was nowhere to be seen. Felicity looked a little worse for wear, her hands flitting about like the wings of a hummingbird as she approached them, and her mouth was pressed into a tight, white line. Something was wrong.
"Felicity? What's going on? Where's Barry?"
"That was the Arrow. He wants another session with Barry."
Oh, fuck.
Hello all! I hope you've all had a great holiday season, and that you're ready for some more adventures with Laura and the Flash gang.
Happy reading!
