A.N.: Grammar gave me a bit of a headache on this one, and there's a wrap-up of the totally-could-be-SG1 mention :D

Chile 9 – Together

In the end their unfortunate adventure ended with rather little fuss – there was breakfast in the morning and a little time after that they gave their statements to a stern-faced officer with kind eyes, signed the documents, provided contact data, and that was it.

On their way out from the breakfast room that had doubled as interview room, the doctor, who had looked them over the previous day, gave out final directions - to hydrate more, take some rest to heal up all the bruises and specifically reminded Laurel to change bandages on her hands, which were raw from the rope burns. It seemed the doctor was convinced Laurel was a patient that needed repeated instructions.

Daniel caught them later, just as they were about to leave their room for the car that had pulled up in front of the bed and breakfast, presumably for them.

"Hey, I'm glad I caught you," he said after knocking shortly on the open door.

Thea smiled, looking up from the borrowed phone. She had been playing a pre-installed game building farmland and collecting carrots.

Laurel shrugged, "It's okay," she stopped leaning on the window. "We didn't want to be in the way downstairs, it's pretty busy there." Soldiers had been moving in and out of the guesthouse carrying boxes all morning.

"Yeah… It's been a busy morning," and there was an air of certainty about Daniel – he wasn't going to say more on that topic. "I'm sorry you were delayed, but we have the car ready for you, as you noticed, I think... And if you need anything…"

"What will happen with those people?" Thea asked, getting up from the bed. While Laurel had been haunting the windowsill, she had been chilling in the bed. It was too hot to be restless.

"We will try to reunite them with their families," Daniel said earnestly as he found himself pinned by Laurel's gaze.

She stared, trying to judge his words – trying to get a sense whether he was truthful or not. So much about him was so much more than he had shared – either before they started their hike or after, but while their guide was a mystery, she didn't sense maliciousness from him. It was different from what she had sensed from Sebastian Blood.

"I promise you; we will do our best by them," Daniel felt the need to add.

"I believe you," Laurel finally said. "I do," she smiled and exhaled, tension easing out. "It's been all so weird, but I believe you."

Daniel also exhaled, "I know," he said with heaviness in his words that belied more than he was actually saying. "Look, if you ever need anything…," he shook his head as if trying to imagine what could possibly make their paths cross again in this world.

"Same," Laurel said. "If you're ever in Starling City…" same as Daniel said his offer, she said hers, feeling like despite all their best intentions, they would never meet again.

Both smiled, regardless. "It's a deal."

IKYWT

Sara had spent more than ten hours on a train to reach Central City. It felt like forever. It had been entirely too much time, in entirely too small a space with entirely too many thoughts. And most of them centered on her sister.

But she had suffered pain for far longer than ten hours in the past few years. She could self-flagellate for the length of a train ride and have plenty of guilt left over for later. She loved her sister. She did. She had come back to Starling, just to make sure Laurel was okay. That their mom and dad were okay. Even with the League of Assassins hot on her heels. She could never cut away that part of her that was her family.

And yet somehow, she had cut her sister out. Because of envy. Because Laurel is supposed to be perfect. Neither was an easy realization. She realized that this must have been what Felicity knew. Why she apologized. Sara didn't feel worthy of the consideration.

She took a deep breath as she exited the train. It was early March, and it was already sunny in Central City. It felt like a mockery. The way to her mother's house was saved in her phone. She went there straight away.

"Mom, we've got to talk," were her first words. She was still standing in the hallway before her mother's open door as she said them.

Her mother stared back at her, surprised at the unexpected visit. For a second it was a stalemate of confusion, before Dinah broke out in a smile. "What about, sweetie?" she pulled herself together, a questioning tilt to her brows, as she stepped aside to let Sara in her apartment.

Sara dithered on the threshold. Not unsure, but… hesitant. As a person might be before taking a leap. "It's about Laurel."

Confusion bloomed in every feature on her mother's face as Dinah tried to wave Sara inside. "Well, what about Laurel?" confusion was also in her tone. There was no interest, just… question marks, as if it had never occurred to Professor Dinah Lance that there was something worth discussing about her eldest daughter.

"She's not okay, mom," Sara dragged out, finally entering the apartment. The words oddly echoed inside her. It sounds like I'm blaming her for that. Shit. She shook her head.

"Nonsense, she's on vacation." Dinah rolled her eyes and shut the door after Sara. Then she paused. "Or has something happened? An accident?" concern finally filled her tone, alarm rose in her as she stepped forward to be closer to Sara, to draw comfort from her presence.

"No, no, no accident," Sara was quick to lay down that worry. She took a few steps back, steeling herself. "But something has happened and.." she paused, unsure how to even say the words. Laurel… And as she looked in her mother's eyes, saw the same lack of comprehension that had to have been in hers when Felicity spoke to her. We have the same eyes, after all.

And Sara suddenly knew what to say to get through to her mother. "You abandoned her, mom," she softly said the truth that had finally gotten through to her in her own head.

Dinah flinched as if slapped. "That is an awful thing to say," she moved away towards the sitting room as if distance would make her daughter's words sting less.

"No, I mean, yes, it's just – you said you never gave up on me, but what about Laurel?" Sara followed her, trying to decipher her own feelings along with her mother's. "And it's not like… I mean I love you and you defend me and that's great, it… It's just I think that Laurel might see that like she doesn't matter," Sara was not good with words, but these ones hurt even as she said them. She had always cherished being her mother's favorite daughter. It did not come easy for her to challenge this position.

Dinah whirled around to snap something back at her youngest, but before she could, Sara continued. "Because I have been awful to her," Sara admitted, quietly. Shamefully. "I was gone for such a long time, and now I'm back, but that doesn't really erase what and how that what happened," and that was a bitter truth pill to swallow.

"Oliver Queen..." Dinah said, wind in her raising sails.

"Oliver did not force me to go on that boat, mom," Sara finally admitted it out loud and heard herself true. "I chose it. I chose it – all the while knowing that it would hurt Laurel, if she ever found out," she took a breath and admitted an even darker secret. "I hoped she would find out," tears of remorse sprang to her eyes. "Just so that she'd know that I beat her for once, at least once, you know," her voice grew quieter with every ugly word whispered.

It had been one of the worst things she had ever experienced – when she had looked into that dirty train bathroom mirror and said all the things that had always been true, but she had desperately wished to be false. There had been little love and a whole lot of human failing in the things she had done.

She had envied Laurel, she had wanted to upstage her, she had fancied Oliver and his riches, and she had been angered how Laurel was their father's favorite daughter, she had felt… substandard. And had desperately wished to be better. To be like Laurel. Because Laurel was perfect, and Sara wasn't. In fact, she had never even felt like she was good enough. And it was all Sara had ever wanted. To be enough.

Except she's my sister, not some perfect icon, and I hurt her, and it could've killed her, and that has nothing to do with… What did Oliver say? We were worthless even before... She repeated each word to herself, resolutely, as punishment and atonement all at once.

Sara realized that the affection she felt for her sister - now that Laurel's pedestal had shattered was greater than any love, she'd felt for her since they were children. Because it no longer felt like there was a competition between them in which Sara was constantly losing. Their relationship felt real. Frighteningly real, considering the wake-up call that had been necessary.

"Sara… You were young then, almost… just past being teenager," Dinah tried to wave away her daughter's concerns.

"So was Laurel," Sara said, defeat all over her being. She was done excusing her past actions, done trying to find a better light for them. She collapsed in the nearest armchair.

Dinah followed her daughter's example, fight leaving her body as she sat on the couch, "She's the one that never needed me," she finally said some moments later. Her voice quiet, a sense of rejection in her gaze as if she'd expected this conversation for years. "Always took care of everything on her own," a hint of pride in her voice.

"Maybe she just felt like she had to," Sara replied, more timidly than she'd like to. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. Maybe this was why she hadn't come home all these years. These feelings were awful. She did not want to feel this. But I deserve it.

"No," Dinah disagreed. A practiced habit of defending her youngest in her expression. Her gaze sought out Sara's eyes. "It's just who you are – you always needed me more and..." I loved you for it.

Dinah took a deep breath, trying to sweep away doubts and guilt raised by Sara's questioning. A memory came to her, the corners of her mouth settled into a gentle smile. Don't you see? "Remember when you were little," she said, the scene vivid in her mind, as if it had been just the week before not nearly two decades ago. "We were shopping for the start of the school year, I think you were in the elementary school still, and you got lost in the mall, and I looked, and I looked for you, and then we had the entire mall looking for you? And then we found you in…"

"The children's section. Where the school backpacks were," Sara's bottom lip trembled. So, this is how she remembers it. Sara knew the day in question very well.

"Yes!" Dinah agreed, her smile growing wider. "We found you, sitting in one spot, exactly like I told you to do if you ever get lost. You were such a smart girl." And you needed me to find you.

"No, mom," Sara shook her head, cold tremors shaking her insides. "That's not what happened." Was that where it all went wrong?

"What do you mean?" Dinah moved to the other end of the couch, closer to Sara. "That's exactly what happened," she took Sara's hands in her own. It pained her to see the distress on Sara's face.

Sara felt her heart breaking, just like nearly a day ago on that bridge. "That's not all of it," she said. Not even close. "Do you remember… We were looking for dresses for me, for school, and… I kept asking where Laurel is, and you said she's just around, but… but she wasn't."

Dinah frowned, that part of her memory fuzzy.

"So, I thought I'd go look for Laurel," Sara swallowed hard, past the lump in her throat and continued. "I didn't get far when I heard through the store speakers that you were looking for me. But I was determined to find her, because someone had to look for her, and… She found me. And she told me to stay in the children's section and not move until you or her or a store employee came, while she looked for you. And that's where you found me, and she found us," her breathing was erratic by the end of it. She clutched back at her mother's hands willing to impart the understanding that had settled on her heart, but she found hard to express in words.

"She should have just…"

"Mom, don't you get it? We never looked for her. She found us, because nobody was looking for her, but you were looking for me, so she found me,and it's wrong, we should have been looking for her," her eyes wet, her nose red. "We should have been looking for her too," she reiterated stronger. "Because I stopped looking for her too." Just like you showed me. Sara tore one of her hands away from her mothers and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "At one point we just left her on her own, because… she just seemed so capable, didn't she? We just stopped looking for her, don't you see?" Sara felt herself repeating as the words just tumbled out.

Dinah sniffled, trying to blink away feeling like failure of a mother. Then she rolled her shoulders and asked, "I see." She patted Sara's hand and let her go, leaning back into the couch as if to prepare herself. "But what brings this about?"

Because there was nothing to be done for it now. Sara was being emotional and bringing up things that were not to be changed anymore - Dinah had just stopped feeling the weight of the guilt of Sara's death. She didn't feel she had the capacity to be dragged over hot coals over transgressions that were decades old and with little consequence. "Did you come all this way…"

"Mom, Laurel's not okay," Sara said resolutely, hoping she would not have to disclose details. She did not think her mother was ready to hear those. "And things will have to change when she comes back," she said it as if it was an order. Her wet eyes held her will of steel. "We have to start looking after her. And I need you to help me."

Dinah had always been a practical person. The efficiency with which she had left behind her life in Starling when it became unbearable was an example of her ability to cut things into manageable chunks. She wasn't entirely sure what had brought on this breakdown in her youngest, or if Laurel truly needed her… She never did in the past. But it was Sara who was doing the asking. "Very well. What do you have in mind?"

Sara exhaled in relief, a weight dropping from her shoulders. Her mother's agreement came easier than she had thought. "Do you have any spare vacation time?"

IKYWT

"Felicity, you can't keep avoiding this," Diggle said patiently, sitting on the edge of the table that marked the boundaries of her three-monitor kingdom. One of the lights flickered above – the lightbulb needed changing.

"Yes, I can," she countered, a touch too enthusiastically. "I think I'm doing exceptionally well."

"Why?" he kept asking, pushing. A lot of things had been going wrong for weeks and what Felicity had accidentally revealed about Laurel was just a part of it. He was certain.

"Why – what?" she shot back and continued to write code for a magic 8 ball application, because she honestly couldn't concentrate on something more useful. To tell or not to tell, that is the question. Switch (randomizer), case 1: yes, case 2: maybe, case 3: hell no…

"Why didn't you say anything? Why are you doing this?" Diggle piled on the questions. "Oliver left to find Laurel and Sara went somewhere off days ago – why… Why are you still trying to keep me in the dark?"

Felicity hit the 'compile' button. She preferred to click, rather than use a keyboard shortcut. It was a thing. And she was stalling. She sighed and finally turned in her chair to face Diggle, "Why do you think this is about you, John?" she purposefully called him by his name, hoping it would unsettle him, and let her avoid the topic for a while longer.

"Because you're avoiding the topic with me," he was not unsettled, in fact, he grew more concerned.

"I've been avoiding it with everyone," she shrugged and looked sideways, absent mindedly picking on her manicure.

"But why?" he felt like a parrot, but the question had to be pushed. Again.

"Why not?" her calm finally broke, and the keyboard jumped when she slammed her hand on the table and accidentally hit a part of it. "It's none of our business. Well, none of your business. You've all done enough. And I won't participate in helping you guys dissect her and break her down even more, because…"

"Wow," John held up a hand. "Take a breath," he coached her - showing her a sharp inhale and a long exhale as he saw her starting to hyperventilate. "Nobody is doing that. Nobody is dissecting anything. Felicity..." he sighed. "We can't do better if we don't know what's wrong. We won't know what's wrong, until you share what you know, and why, why is this hurting you so much? Because I'm not even asking about Laurel here anymore." As Diggle saw it – Laurel had enough people to worry about her without him being added to the list. Besides he didn't even know her all that well, but Felicity… Felicity was his team. And he'd been watching her spiral for weeks.

In fact, Felicity had been keeping it in for years. In part – Laurel's story was her story. She followed John's breathing example and as his calm attitude broke through her justifications and anger - she sobbed. As surprised as Diggle was at that reaction, he moved to hug her. It took some time for her to calm down and when she did… For the first time since Cooper died, she told someone how it had happened. She told him her story – of how her mistakes had caused the death of someone she loved. How she saw history repeating itself within this team. And how that was the reason she had wanted to keep Oliver as far away from Laurel as possible.

IKYWT

It was a heady, tropical afternoon when the military jeep rolled into the circular driveway that led to the large two-part door that was entrance to the Paz de Bosque hotel. Laurel shuffled out of the car, feeling like she was stepping into a different world, a different life. It had been just a few days since she, Thea and Daniel set out from this very same place, but so much seemed to have changed. Her old life felt like it has been washed away.

She heard laughter from the car as Thea finished saying her goodbyes to the soldier who had driven them all the way up here. The jeep's door creaked as it opened and shut. Laurel stood, feeling frozen as she stared at the stained-glass hotel door. Her hiking shirt still had some blood stains even though she'd tried to scrub them out in the bathroom the night before. It felt constricting in the heat, like a bandage even though it was a size too large. She had pulled it on above the t-shirt loaned by a supply officer back at the bed-and-breakfast to avoid sunburn, but now it felt like an old skin that she had to shed.

"You okay?" Thea asked, walking up next to her.

The jeep rolled away in the background. The tires scrunching against the gravel of the driveway.

"Ye-ah… Yeah," it took a moment to find the right words. "It just feels weird," Laurel tried to explain a moment later, but words felt woefully inadequate as she continued to stare at the entrance, but not walk through it.

It was just… They had left days ago. Just days. And then Laurel had been carrying a bag and so much baggage and pain, she'd just been grateful for the moments when it was easier to breathe. But now… It was gone. How could it all be gone?

Her hands were empty. She stared at them as if she couldn't believe the truth of it. Whatever she had carried, her things – all were lost in the jungle and the remaining shirt on her back felt like the last thing she had to burn to free herself. She had lost everything she had carried into that jungle. How could it be possible?

"I know what you mean," Thea sighed. For her life had changed in a different way. Like the day she had chased Roy for her bag and found love. She wasn't sure what she had found by saving those people, but she also felt different from the girl who had went on a hike just to help a friend.

Laurel found Thea's hand and squeezed it. "Let's go in." Let's face it together. Whatever it was that had changed in their lives.

Thea smiled, squeezing Laurel's hand back. "Let's do this," and then she rushed forward, pulling Laurel along. Whatever came next – the two of them were in it together.