Laurel and Felicity shared a look; they never discussed a cover story for what they were doing. Felicity figured Laurel would take the lead with Lance and she'd just follow along.
"Okay, well now that you've made yourself comfortable," Laurel said taking a seat on the couch. "Why don't you tell me why you're following me around?"
"I'd love to Laurel, but first I'd like to know what you two were getting into today." He said crossing his arms.
"No," Laurel sighed, balling her fist. "I am not a child, you don't get to come to my house and question me."
"You may not be a child but you're still my daughter," he said, exasperated with her. "I am looking out for you Laurel, you've got enough shit going on. What were you doing at that apartment building today?" He asked, before turning his attention to Felicity.
"And you," pointing at Felicity, "Since when are you and Laurel friends, huh? Have you two even met before?"
Felicity didn't want to get caught in the middle of a family argument, but Lance's presence was preventing them from their purpose. And she was ready for him to leave.
"I've met Laurel a few times… at event mostly, Oliver introduced us." She told him hoping he'd drop it.
"Your turn," Laurel cut in before her father could interrogate them. "Why were you following me?"
"Well, I came by yesterday to make sure you were ok. I was down the hall when I heard people speaking in whispers." Cutting his eyes at both of them, "When I got to your hallway and took a peek to see who it was, I was surprised to see Felicity. At first, I figured she was doing something for Oliver, but when you invited her in and she didn't leave for hours, I knew something was up."
"So your first inclination is to follow me like a criminal?" Laurel asked, raising her voice.
Felicity was extremely uncomfortable, she felt like she shouldn't be included in this conversation.
"Maybe I should come by later, so you two can talk." She suggested, getting up from the couch.
"Sit down, ." Lance demanded, his tone compelled Felicity to do as he said. "Neither of you are going anywhere until I get some answers." He told her standing up.
"Now," he began, "what are you trouble makers up to?"
"Trouble makers?" Felicity repeated, "umm… I think you have the wrong idea." She said sweetly giving him a small smile.
"Oh, that's not going to work, sweetheart. I raised two girls, I know when they're playing me. Especially you, is a hobby I don't partake in."
"Hey, it's not like I could've told you the truth," she said. "You wanted to have me arrested."
"It was never about arresting you. I just wanted to catch the vigilante." He told her frustrated that the conversation had changed direction.
"Well, and now you work with him… so you should be thankful I lied."
Lance ran his hands over his face, "I feel for your father, you must have been a handful."
"He didn't have it too bad, he left when I was six." She muttered.
"Ok, enough," Laurel interrupted. "Dad I don't have time for this. Felicity is helping me find a new job."
Lance felt bad for his little outburst, he hoped he didn't hurt Felicity's feelings.
"Laurel, if all you guys are doing is job hunting then why were you at the building Donner lives, after having coffee with him?" He asked, "yeah, that's right, I ran a search on the address." He said at her confusion.
Felicity nudged Laurel to get her attention, "can we talk for a moment, privately."
Laurel nodded her head and told Felicity to follow her, "We'll be right back ."
Once in the room Felicity closed the door behind her. "I think we should tell him," she told Laurel.
"What? Why would we tell him, he didn't believe me the first time." She argued.
"Yeah, but this time we have proof. Let's face it, he's not going to stop following us or asking questions. If we tell him now and swear him to secrecy, maybe we can prevent him from telling you know who."
"But then he's going to want to be involved," she explained. "Haven't you noticed he treats me like a child."
"I don't think we have a choice," she reasoned. "We don't have enough to go back to the Arrow, but we have enough to get your dad on our side."
Letting out a frustrated breath, Laurel agreed. "Fine, let's go tell him."
Lance wasn't amused at being left in the living room while the two women probably concocted a lie. He was going to figure out what was going on if it killed him, his daughter was in no place to be getting into more trouble.
He looked at the two women expectedly when they walked back into the room. Laurel took a seat on the sofa again, while Felicity set up a laptop on the table.
"So, we've decided to tell you the truth," Felicity explained.
"Well, don't I feel special," he scoffed. "Let's hear it then."
Looking back at Laurel, "maybe you should start," Felicity suggested.
"I think he should hear it from you, since you're the one that came to me. Besides, he probably wouldn't believe me anyway." Laurel challenged.
Felicity didn't enjoy being put on the spot but if the way Lance was clenching his jaw was any indication, he was about to lose his patience.
"Okay… So I've been keep track of Sebastien Blood, you know, just in case. Well, I discovered and exchange of money that seemed suspicious, so I came to Laurel because you know who, wouldn't listen to me."
"Jesus Christ," Lance muttered, "not this again."
Laurel scoffed at her father's reaction, "figures." Looking over to Felicity, "I told you he wouldn't be interested, he already made up his mind."
"Well, excuse me for not wanting my daughter to go down the same path twice; we've already been through this. Laurel, Blood has already been cleared of your suspicions."
"Detective Lance, if I may just cut in for a moment." Felicity interrupted, "We've worked together, and you've trusted me in the past. Isn't that enough to at least warrant that you hear me out?" She asked.
Lance sighed and plopped himself down in the chair. "Fine. But the moment this gets ridiculous I'm putting an end to it."
Felicity went through everything she found, including what they had on Donner. She assumed that Laurel would butt in at times, but the woman remained quiet. She didn't feel comfortable with the amount of tension in the room but leaving wasn't an option. They needed to at least get Lance to agree to keep things to himself until they had something more concrete.
She knew the older man was concerned for his daughter and she could see where he was coming from. But he seemed to share a common trait with Oliver: stubbornness. Both men were so content with the knowledge that Officer Daly was the man behind the mask that they never stopped to consider the possibility that he was a part of something much larger. Something that Laurel began to uncover, only to be shut down and told she was wrong.
Felicity wondered what it would be like to have a father that cared for you, even if he was overbearing. She knew that both Laurel and Lance had been through their fair share of tragedy, but they were lucky to have each other.
In the end, it didn't take long to walk him through all of the data they had compiled against Blood, Donner, and Wintergreen.
"So how are we going to find out who the person behind Wintergreen is?" Lance asked, not fully on board but unable to ignore what they had discovered.
Laurel was surprised at her father's question. She really believed he wouldn't be interested of supportive of what they were doing. She was a little annoyed that it took teaming up with Felicity for him to take her seriously.
"We," Laurel asked her father, not sure she wanted him that involved.
"Yes, we. I'm going to assume that out mutual friend isn't involved for a reason." He said, pointedly at Felicity. "Also, I don't want to know why. The less I know the better, however, if you two think you're going to do this alone, without any kind of back up then you're both nuts. This is dangerous, Blood and Donner are figure heads in Starling, and I'm sure whoever is financing them is a much larger threat."
"So because we're women we need your protection," Laurel scoffed. "Please, I can take care of myself."
"It's not because you're women. It's because whoever this guy is, he had a way of making super soldiers; or did you forget one of them put me in the hospital and killed my partner?"
"So…" Felicity started, "does that mean you're going to help?"
"It means that I want you to explain to me what your plan is. What were you going to do with the information once you have it all?"
"Well, we considered sending it to the cops anonymously but there's always a chance of there being another mole. The other option was to take it back to him once I had enough evidence to make my case."
"So what's the next step?" He asked, wondering how much they actually planned out.
Laurel and Felicity looked at each other knowing the next step would be the worst.
"We wait," Laurel began, "we bugged his burner phone. Now we just have to wait for him to use it." She explained.
It was later in the evening when both Felicity and Lance left. They spent the rest of the afternoon going through everything they had with a fine tooth comb. Wintergreen had managed to cover its tracks well, giving them very little to work with. Felicity said she was running searches through international channels, hoping that they'd come across any crumb that would help them.
Her father for the most part had more questions than he was helpful. He agreed to keep their search to himself, for the time being, so long as nothing escaladed to dangerous territory. Having him at her house for hours was stressful, she felt like he was scrutinizing every move she made.
That's how she found herself at the store at 9 p.m. It was just to take the edge off, she told herself repeatedly. No one would be the wiser; it would be the last time. But that single bottle of wine didn't have the desired effect, she was still angry, still hurt by her father's disregard. So she took a walk to the bar down the street, she was clear enough not to drive, and she was old enough to hold her liqueur.
She only need a few more drinks, just enough to help her sleep. When she flushed the pills, she flushed all of them, and without them she found herself lying awake at night staring at the ceiling. She couldn't handle the thoughts anymore, she just wanted to put her mind at ease.
The bartender cut her off after four drinks – she was angry. It was fine, she'd call herself a cab and go somewhere else, somewhere they'd serve her. But when she stood up from the bar stool, her center of gravity shifted and she found herself on the floor.
The bartender rushed over to her and helped her back into her seat. She didn't protest when he opened up her clutch and removed her cellphone.
"Who can I call to come get you, sweetheart?" He asked, hoping she was clear enough to understand.
"Everyone… but – but not my dad," she slurred, putting her head down on her arms.
Pulling up her most recent contacts, he decided on the first person on the list.
Felicity made her way through the pub, that was mostly empty aside a few people at the bar. She could see Laurel at the far end of it slumped over, she seemed to be sleeping. Nudging her gently, she got no reaction. She shoved a little harder and Laurel's head sprung up.
"What're you doing here?"
"I got a call from your phone to come pick you up. Do you remember how much you drank?" She asked the smell of alcohol heavy on Laurel's breath.
"Only a couple, I'm good, going home now."
Felicity waved over the bartender, "does she have a tab? Also, can you please tell me how much she had to drink, I need to decide whether or not she's going to need a hospital." She asked him.
"She's all paid up and I only served her four drinks. Though, I doubt this was her first stop, she seemed real happy when she got here." He told her jokingly.
"Is this funny to you? If she seemed drunk you shouldn't have served her, or you should have at least cut her off earlier. You do realize that's part of your job description don't you?"
"Look lady, I serve drinks, listen to people's problems and go home. That's my job, being a babysitter ain't."
Felicity shook her head as he walked away. Luckily, she was parked right out front so it wouldn't be a long walk for them.
Laurel had placed her head back down onto her arms.
"Laurel, can you walk? Come on, we need to get you home." She told her, grabbing the clutch off the bar and tucking it into her handbag. She helped Laurel straighten herself out, wrapping one of her arms around the taller woman's waist and pulling her arm over her shoulders. It took them a while to get to her mini, and getting Laurel into the car was a challenge.
Once they were both inside, Felicity had to ask, "how much have you had to drink tonight?"
"Just a little bit," Laurel answered.
"Laurel, I need you to tell me the truth or I'm going to assume you drank enough to warrant a trip to the ER."
"No! No hospital."
Felicity wasn't sure what to do, she didn't think four drinks deserved a stop at the ER, but she had no idea how much Laurel had to drink beforehand.
She decided that she'd take Laurel home and see if she could make her drink some fluids and maybe coffee, if she didn't sober up then she'd force her to go to the hospital.
Right as she was parking outside Laurel's building her hears Laurel murmur. "I don't feel too good."
She was lucky to have made out of her car and to the passenger's side fast enough for Laurel to be sick on the pavement and not her leather. Felicity never had a strong stomach for sickness, it was one of the reasons she never dreamed of studying medicine.
Once Laurel was finished being sick, she helped her wobble her way back into her apartment. It was there she saw an empty bottle of wine and decided that instead of taking Laurel to the hospital, she'd stick around and make sure she was ok. Getting the woman out of her heels and jacket was an ordeal, one she was not going to attempt with her clothing. The pants and shirt looked comfortable enough to sleep in. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and made Laurel drink it, she set the wastebasket from the bathroom next to her bed and turn her onto her side.
This was not the relaxing evening she had originally envisioned. This was not something she thought she'd ever be doing for Laurel, who broke her promise to stay clean while they worked together. Maybe this was her fault, maybe Laurel wasn't ready for this. She obviously had demons she needed to deal with and Felicity shouldn't have added more to her plate.
"Felicity," Laurel whispered almost incoherently, reaching out for her.
Felicity sat on the edge of the bed and hesitantly placed a hand on her arm. "I'm here, do you need anything?"
"I'm tired," she said, her voice breaking up. "So so tired…"
"So rest," she told her.
"No... Tired - tired of being alone, everybody leaves me behind." She said, her eyes closing.
"You're not alone," Felicity said, though she knew Laurel was already asleep. She covered her with the throw on at the end of her bed and grabbed a pillow, to make herself comfortable on the couch.
So… just because the show is going to have Laurel get over her addiction like it never happened, I plan on taking a more realistic approach. Laurel will take steps to her recovery; however, it will be because she's ready. I don't like how they made her recovery about Oliver, or because of Oliver. If anything I feel like his speech would have done more harm than good, but what do I know. So one thing I guarantee, is that her road to bettering herself and conquering her problem will be her own, and not due to someone else. I know some of you really want more action, and we will get there but certain things need to happen first. Thank you guys for all of your lovely reviews and I'm glad you're enjoying this. For those of your reading COH, I should have the next part up this week.