Chapter 8
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It takes about half an hour for Laurel to stop crying and once she does Laurel rolls onto her back and Sara, Laurel and Thea sit together on Laurel's bed while the others sit around the room and once Laurel has stopped crying everyone does their best to try and distract her, something which they attempt to do for the rest of the night.
At ten thirty the next morning, after spending most of the night and morning at the hospital with Laurel, Lance heads to the train station to pick up Dinah and he arrives five minutes before her train is due to get in and so he arrives at the platform just as Dinah is disembarking.
"Quentin." Dinah greats once she has walked over to him.
"Dinah." Lance greats.
"I'm glad to see you." Dinah responds.
"So am I." Lance responds.
"Where are the girls? I thought that they would be here." Dinah responds and as soon as she says the words she sees the looks that is on Lance's face, "Quentin, what is it? I knew something was wrong, I knew it. Where are our girls? Are they okay?" she asks, looking upset.
"No." Lance answers and Dinah gasps, "Sara and I only found out last Friday, before then only two people knew, and Laurel didn't want to tell you over the phone."
"Quentin, just tell me, whatever it is." Dinah requests, looking upset.
"Laurel has cancer; she was diagnosed four months ago. It's advanced and spread, it's bad, Dinah." Lance says, hating that he has to tell his ex-wife this.
"No, no, no." Dinah says, looking horrified as she begins to cry, seeing that Lance pulls her into a hug, knowing that it won't help, because nothing helps him, but wanting to try anyway.
While Lance is picking Dinah up from the train station, Laurel is lying in her hospital bed with Thea and Sara sitting with her, Felicity is at Palmer Tec doing some work that she can't avoid any longer, and Oliver is at the Arrow Cave almost breaking the work out equipment.
"Is that helping?" Diggle asks as he walks in.
"You should have called me as soon as you found out." Oliver says angrily as he once more hits the equipment, and honestly Diggle isn't surprised by this conversation as he's been expecting it for days.
"Laurel asked me not to say anything. I had to respect that, especially considering everything." Diggle explains.
"It's Laurel, you know better than almost anyone what that means, you should have called me." Oliver tells Diggle, not believing that he didn't.
"I couldn't break Laurel's confidence. She's my friend and after everything that happened when you and Felicity were gone I owed it to her not to say anything." Diggle explains, "Do you know what was different about yesterday?"
"We found out that Laurel had even less time than we thought?" Oliver asks, wondering where Diggle is going with this.
"No, Laurel showed how scared she is, how upset." Diggle answers, "Laurel's cried since she found out, she's been scared, but not like she was last night." Diggle explains, to tell the truth it shocked him to see Laurel how she was the night before, "For months Laurel has been protecting everyone around her. She didn't call you and Felicity because she wanted you to be happy. She's been pretending that everything is normal around me and Thea because she doesn't want us to worry, which is why she didn't tell her family." Diggle tell Oliver, needing him to understand, "Did you know that when Laurel and Thea first went to Nanda Parbat Malcom refused to bring Sara back?"
"No." Oliver answers, though that doesn't surprise him.
"After he refused Laurel could have asked him to use the pit to heal her, it would have saved her, but she didn't." Diggle explains, walking over to Oliver, "She didn't because she was going to try again to get Malcolm to bring Sara back and she knew that if he saved her then he wouldn't save Sara too. She chose to save her sister's life over her own because that's who she is." Diggle explains, knowing that because he has talked to Laurel, "She's dying and she's more worried about all of us."
"The other night she told me that she doesn't want me to lose my soul trying to save her." Oliver reveals, "But it's Laurel, I don't know if there is anything I wouldn't do to try and save her." Oliver admits as he sits down on one of the steps.
"I know that, and so does Laurel." Diggle says as he walks over and sits next to Oliver, "Do you know what is one thing I've learnt about Laurel in the last year?" he asks curious.
"No." Oliver answers.
"That she's so much stronger than we all thought, she can handle more than we knew, but what she wouldn't be able to handle is something bad happening to one of us because we're trying to save her." Diggle tells Oliver.
"I know." Oliver responds, hating that.
"I don't want her to die either, Man. That's the last thing I want." Diggle says, telling the truth as he's started to see Laurel as a sister, "But I know that if we go down a dark path to save her then that will hurt more than her cancer or dying ever could, and I don't know if I could do that to her." Diggle admits, feeling torn as he wants to save Laurel, but he doesn't want to hurt her to do it.
"I could." Oliver admits, surprising Diggle "If it meant saving her I could." He says and before Diggle can respond there is flash of lightning and Barry Allen is standing in front of them.
"Has Caitlin found something?" Oliver asks as soon as he sees Barry, hoping that the answer is yes.
"Not yet. She's still looking." Barry explains, "Caitlin said that Laurel's medical records have been altered, that Laurel's sicker." He says, looking confused.
"Yeah, she is." Oliver confirms, "What are you doing here, Barry?" Oliver asks curious.
"Cisco finished this." Barry says showing what looks like a radiation detector that Doctor's wear, "I guess Laurel won't need it for a while, but it's got all of Laurel's normal vitals programed in, can be remotely monitored and is designed to be attached to the underside of the tank top Laurel wears. It will monitor all Laurel's vitals in the field, let you know if she's not okay."
"Thanks, Barry." Oliver says, gratefully, "If Laurel has her way she'll be back behind a mask soon." He comments.
"How's she doing?" Barry asks, clearly concerned.
"Okay, considering." Diggle answers, "I was just about to convince Oliver to come back to the hospital. Do you want to join us?" he asks curious.
"Sure." Barry responds.
"So, Mom should be here soon." Sara says to her sister a while after their Dad left to pick up their Mom. Laurel, Thea and Sara are the only ones in the hospital room, all three of them sharing Laurel small hospital bed.
"Yeah, she should." Laurel responds.
"You're worried about how she's going to handle the news." Thea realises.
"Yeah, I am." Laurel confirms, and Sara gives her a questioning look, "When you and Dad, and everyone else found out you knew that there were other possibilities that might work, Mom doesn't." Laurel explains, looking at her sister.
"Yeah, that's going to make things hard." Sara realises, "There's still hope, that's all we've got to tell her." Sara informs her sister, not having no idea about what else to tell their mother.
"Yeah, guess so." Laurel responds, not sure what else to say and the three of them drift into silence.
For a few minutes Laurel, Thea and Sara are quit until the door opens and Dinah hurries in, closely followed by Lance.
"Mom." Laurel says and Dinah hurries over to her daughter and hugs her tightly.
"Laurel, oh, Laurel." Dinah says as she hugs her daughter tightly.
"It's okay, Mom." Laurel says as she returns the hug and her mother starts to cry.
"No you're not." Dinah says sadly, "I'm sorry, Laurel. This isn't fair."
"No, it's not." Laurel tells her mother.
"Let's give them some time alone." Lance says to Thea and Sara.
"Yeah, we should." Sara says and she and Thea get up and the two of them, along with Lance, leave the room.
"You should have called." Dinah informs Laurel, "Why didn't you call?" she asks and once more Laurel finds herself explaining her reasons for what feels like the hundredth time.
It has been a little while since Lance, Thea and Sara left Laurel's hotel room and ever since they did they have been standing outside Laurel's hospital room, waiting for some kind of sign that things are okay enough for them to enter again, when Oliver, Diggle and Barry arrive.
"Barry." Thea says, surprised to see him.
"Yeah, hi." Barry responds.
"So, you're Barry, good to know." Sara says with a smirk as she has heard a lot.
"Barry Allen, Sara Lance, Sara, Barry." Oliver introduces, "And you remember Captain Lance."
"Yes, it's nice to finally meet you." Barry says to Sara, "I'm glad you're alive, again. Sorry, you might now want to think about that, sorry." He says rather quickly and Diggle clears his throat, "Captain, it's nice to see you again." He says, looking away from Sara to look at Lance.
"Wow, everything's true." Sara says amused
"Yep." Thea confirms, also looking amused.
"Don't you work for CCPD? What are you doing here?" Lance asks confused and it's in that moment that everyone else in the hallway realises that Lance has no idea about Barry being The Flash.
"Laurel and Barry are friends, Barry had some person business to attend to in town so he thought he would come visit." Oliver says, it being the first lie that he can think of and because of how good of a liar he is it's believable.
"Oh, that's nice of you." Lance says, suspecting that there is more going on that he knows so he decides to ask later, and everyone drifts into silence.
For a little while Lance, Sara, Thea, Oliver, Diggle and Barry stand outside Laurel's room until the door once more opens.
"You can come back inside." Dinah says as she opens the door, looking upset, something which doesn't surprise anyone, and everyone heads into Laurel's hospital room.
"Barry." Laurel says, surprised to see him.
"Hey, Laurel." Barry says, walking over, "How are you feeling?"
"Not bad. It's good to see you." Laurel responds, feeling touched that he decided to come see her, "Oh, Mom this is my friend Barry Allen, I would like you to meet my mother Dinah Drake." Laurel introduces.
"It's nice to meet you." Barry says with a polite smile.
"It's nice to meet you too." Dinah responds.
"So, how long are you going to be in her for?" Barry asks Laurel curious as Thea and Sara sneak out of the room.
"My Doctor said that as long as I don't have any complications then I'll be realised tomorrow night." Laurel says, saying what everyone except for her mother and Barry already know.
"Good, that's good." Barry responds, looking glad about that, "So, um I've got to get back to Central City, but if you need anything just call." He says looking at Laurel.
"That's okay, thank you for coming Barry." Laurel tells her friend.
"You don't have to thank me." Barry says walking over to Laurel, and giving her a hug, "Caitlin might have something in a few days and Oliver has a gift for you from Cisco. We're all working on this." He explains in a whispered voice as he hugs Laurel.
"Thank you, and thank them for me too." Laurel requests, her voice also a whisper.
"Will do. See you later." Barry says before heading over to Oliver and Diggle.
"Were are Sara and Thea?" Barry asks them in a whisper.
"Organizing a surprise." Diggle explains.
"Ah, okay. I'll see you later." Barry tells them.
"See you later." Oliver responds and Barry leaves.
After sneaking out of Laurel's hospital room Thea and Sara head to Palmer Tech to see Felicity. As soon as ty get their they are both allowed straight in to see Felicity.
"How's Laurel?" Felicity asks as soon as she sees them, "How'd your Mom react to everything?" She asks Sara.
"Laurel's doing okay, considering." Thea answers.
"And I'm not exactly sure how Mom took everything." Sara admits.
"So, Laurel's still on track to be discharged tomorrow night?" Felicity asks curious.
"Yep. I talked to Doctor Wilson and he said that Laurel's likely to be released between six and six thirty tomorrow which means we have to have everything ready by no later than seven." Sara explains as she and Thea sit down across from Felicity.
"Okay, well what do we have to get done?" Felicity asks, looking between Sara and Thea.
"Decorations would be a good place to start. Laurel and I haven't been big fans of Christmas for a while, so we have none." Thea explains and hearing that Sara automatically looks down at the ground in guilt as she realises exactly why that would be.
"Okay, decorations. What else?" Felicity asks curious.
"Food. We kind of need that for a surprise dinner." Sara comments.
"Oliver said he'll handle that. He said he'll cook the whole thing." Felicity explains to Sara and Thea.
"Is that a good idea? Can Oliver even cook?" Sara ask with a frown in her experience the answer to both of those questions is no.
"He learnt while we were taking a break. He got really good." Felicity explains.
"Good to know." Sara responds, "Okay, what else do we need to do?" she asks, looking between Thea and Felicity.
"We're going to need a bigger table, or another one at least." Thea says, "our current one fits six and there is, what, ten of us?"
"The three of us, Laurel, Oliver, Diggle, Lyla, Mom, Your Mom, Your Dad. Yeah, that's ten." Felicity confirms, "Plus baby Sara." She adds.
"Hang on, Felicity's Mom just went on a date with your Dad and now your Mom's here too and we're all having dinner. Is that a good idea?" Thea asks, not being able to help but think that it would be a very, very bad idea.
"Mom talked about the person she was dating during the last family dinner we have; she'll be fine with it." Sara answers, being sure that her mom won't make a big deal out of things.
"I'll talk to Mom beforehand, explain everything." Felicity assures the Thea and Sara, "Now the big question is how are we going to get everything done without Laurel realising that we are up to something?" Felicity asks curious.
"We'll just have to be smart about this." Sara says, "Everyone said that they'll help so all we have to do is come up with lies about why we have to go, but make sure that at least a couple of us are with Laurel." Sara explains, "Plus I doubt Mom will leave her."
"True, okay, we can do this." Felicity realises.
"For Laurel." Sara says.
"For Laurel." Thea and Felicity repeat, the three of them exchanging smiles.
It has been about an hour since Barry left the hospital and in that time Dinah has been talking to everyone and Laurel, Diggle, Oliver and Quinten have been doing their best to answer Dinah's questions without outright lying or saying something that will give away a secret that they are keeping.
"That looks appetising." Laurel says sarcastically, looking at her lunch which has arrived.
"No, that's no good." Dinah comments, "Are you allowed outside food?" She asks her daughter curious.
"Yeah, I am." Laurel confirms.
"Good, I'll go get you something, I'll be right back." Dinah tells her daughter, hugging her before she leaves.
"What's going on?" Laurel asks as soon as her mother leaves.
"What do you mean?" Lance asks, pretending to be confused.
"Thea and Sara, they snuck out when Barry was here, what's going on?" Laurel asks, being able to tell that something is being kept form her and honestly she doesn't like it one bit.
"Nothing you have to worry about." Oliver informs Laurel.
"Oliver." Laurel says in a waring tone of voice, "Just because I'm in this bed doesn't mean you have to protect me from whatever is going on." She tells him, "I'm not fragile."
"It's nothing bad." Diggle assures her, "They just went to see Felicity."
"About?" Laurel asks.
"No idea, they just said they wanted to talk to Felicity about something." Oliver comments.
"A huh." Laurel comments, it being clear that she doesn't believe him as she knows that there is something that isn't being said. She knows that she is being lied to, which she really doesn't like.
Hours later Laurel has convinced her family and friends to go home, or in Dinah's case to her hotel, and she is alone in her hospital room. Due to the fact that she has memorised the staff night shift schedule at about one am Laurel is able to sneak out and onto the hospital grounds for some fresh air, taking the gun with her, without being caught.
Laurel has been outside for a few minutes when she hears footsteps so she quickly draws the gun and turns to face where the footsteps came from.
"It's okay, Laurel. It's just me." Diggle says, raising his hands in surrender.
"John, what are you doing here?" Laurel asks confused as she puts the safety back on the gun and puts it in her pants.
"We're taking turns watching the hospital in case Darhk or anyone else decides to pay you a visit." Diggle explains, "I saw you sneaking out." He explains.
"So you're babysitting me." Laurel says as she sits down on a bench, "Without telling me." She says annoyed.
"We didn't want you to worry." Diggle admits.
"So, who do I have to thank for this? Oliver, or one of our sisters?" Laurel asks curious, knowing that it would have been one of them.
"All three actually." Diggle answers.
"Of course." Laurel responds.
"They were worried." Diggle says, "We all were." He explains, "But we should have told you."
"Yeah, you should have." Laurel says and the two of them drift into silence.
"How you doing, Laurel?" Diggle asks curious, breaking the silence after a couple of minutes.
"I don't know." Laurel admits, "I think finally having no choice but to tell everyone was a good thing, but now that's all they see." She admits.
"What do you mean?" Diggle asks curious.
"Mom, Dad, Sara, Ollie, Felicity, they're just seeing me as someone who is dying, not me, right now, or at least that's how it seems." Laurel explains, "And I hate that."
"They just need time, Laurel. It's only been a few days. When I found out it took me a while to accept, and they're the people who love you the most, it's going to take them longer." Diggle reminds Laurel.
"Yeah, I know." Laurel says with a sigh, "I just want things to go back to normal."
"They, won't. They can't, not now. You know that, right?" Diggle asks, not being able to help but worry about Laurel's constant desire for things to be normal, though he honestly gets it to a degree.
"Yeah, I do." Laurel responds, knowing that she wishes that it wasn't true, "I should get back. The nurses will be checking on me in five minutes. Night John." She says, telling the truth.
"Night, Laurel." John responds and Laurel heads inside and back to her room, Diggle watching her go as she does, watching for signs of danger.
After talking to John Laurel is able to make her way back to her room and back into her bed without getting caught. Once she Is back in her bed Laurel attempts to fall asleep but she finds that a lot more difficult than sneaking out, so difficult that she doesn't get to sleep until over an hour after she returned to her room. Laurel not getting to sleep until so late results in her sleeping in something which everyone else is glad about as makes it easier to hide that they are up to something.
As it is Laurel spends most of the day giving her friends and family suspicious looks when they spend most of the day coming and going, not really giving good explanations for where they are going or why.
"Everything looks good, Laurel. I see no reason why you can't go home." Doctor Wilson informs Laurel at six fifteen pm Christmas eve.
"Great, I'm not the biggest fan of hospitals." Laurel comments.
"I know. Take things easy for the next couple of days, then after that I see no reason for you not to go back to your regular lifestyle." Doctor Wilson informs Laurel.
"Okay."
"Good, I'll see you a week from Monday for your regular appointment." Doctor Wilson tells Laurel.
"Of course, thank you Doctor Wilson." Laurel responds.
"No need to thank me Laurel, it's my job." Doctor Wilson responds, "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas." Laurel says and Doctor Wilson leaves the room, leaving Laurel, her parents and Sara.
"Let's get you home." Sara says picking up her sister bag.
"Let's." Laurel says as she jumps down from her bed, "So, now that I'm officially discharged can one of you tell me what's been going on all day?" Laurel asks curious as she walks over to her family.
"Nothing's been going on, Sweetie." Dinah tells her daughter as the Lance family walks out of the hospital room.
"Ah huh." Laurel says it being clear that she doesn't believe her mother.
"It's nothing bad, I promise you that." Lance assures his daughter.
"If you say so." Laurel says, though she can't help but look between her father, mother and sister, suspiciously, wondering what they are up to.
Fifteen minutes later Laurel, Sara, Lance and Dinah arrive at Laurel's apartment building and the entire time that they walk towards her apartment Laurel is sure that her mother and father desperately want to say something, she also suspects that Sara wants to too, but she is doing a better job of hiding it than their parents.
"Am I going to find out what the hell is going on soon?" Laurel asks her sister curious as they walk towards the apartment door.
"Yep." Sara says with a smirk and she walks faster.
"Okay, this is getting annoying." Laurel mutters to herself as they reach her apartment door and her father pulls out his spare key and walks in followed by Sara, then her mother and finally Laurel walks in, thinking that it would be good to be home rather than a hospital.
As soon as she walks into her apartment Laurel is shocked as the entire apartment is covered in Christmas decorations and there is food covering two tables.
"What…." Laurel starts to say, looking shocked by before she can say more she is cut off.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, LAUREL." Oliver, Thea, Felicity, Donna Smoke, Lyla, Diggle, Sara, Lance and Dinah all say, cutting Laurel off and causing her to look around in complete amazement.