The next morning, Laurel woke up to the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen and she smiled as she remembered that today was her birthday. Before she could get up however, Oliver entered their room, a breakfast tray in his arms.
"Happy birthday Laurel." Oliver said as he placed the tray on her lap.
"Oh, so I get breakfast in bed?" Laurel asked.
"Of course. I mean, we have to make up for last year when we didn't celebrate at all." Oliver said as he kissed her cheek.
"Well, you had a good excuse, but thank you anyways." Laurel said.
"We're having a party tonight. Nothing big, just the team, your parents, Dinah, Curtis, maybe Rene." Oliver said.
"Is Sara coming?" Laurel asked.
"Not that I know of, I mean she's bound to busy and last I heard, she was working with Constantine on something, but who knows." Oliver said.
"What about Thea?" Laurel asked.
"I'm not even sure what continent Thea's on right now. But anyways, eat up. I need to get to city hall, but I will see tonight." Oliver said.
"Wait, where's William?" Laurel asked.
"Raisa's taking him to school." Oliver assured her as he left.
When Laurel entered the precinct later that day, she found Dinah waiting for her.
"Hey, happy birthday Detective Lance." Dinah said to Laurel.
"Thanks, Oliver said you were coming over later?" Laurel asked and Dinah nodded.
"Yep, I look forward to it, especially since things between both teams are finally starting to get better." Dinah said.
"Yeah, I just wish I'd managed to escape capture before the team split in two, since I think we've would have made a great team." Laurel said and Dinah nodded.
"Yeah, maybe we would have, but what's done is done." Dinah said and for the first time she actually sounded like she regretted the split between the teams.
"Anyways, let's get to work." Laurel said, changing the subject to something more pleasant.
After Oliver picked William up from school, he decided it was time to see what his son wanted to talk to him about.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Oliver asked William.
"I want to join your team." William said.
"Absolutely not. I promised your mother that I'd protect you and letting you become a vigilante does not fit that criteria." Oliver said.
"I don't mean in the field. I want to make sure you're safe and you want to keep me safe. I want to help Alena at her job, have her train me to do what she and Felicity did." William said and Oliver actually considered that.
"I'll think about it. Now come on, we need to get home to get everything set up for Laurel's party tonight." Oliver said.
"And have you figured out how you're going to ask her that little question tonight?" William asked.
"I have." Oliver said.
"So how are you going to do it? Is it going to be a big spectacle with fireworks like on TV?" William asked and Oliver chuckled.
"No, Laurel would hate that. She prefers things to be simple, so that's why it's just going to be simple tonight at the party." Oliver said and William nodded in understanding as they arrived back home.
That night, the loft was decorated with black streamers and a banner hung from the stairway that read happy 33rd birthday Laurel on it. The people currently in the loft were Oliver, Laurel, William, Quentin, Dinah, both Laurel's mother and her captain in the SCPD, John, Lyla, JJ, Alena, Curtis, Rene and Zoe.
"Nice party." John said to Oliver.
"I thought we should keep things low key, since we need to be ready to go at a moment's notice to deal with Diaz." Oliver said Laurel joined them.
"Hey." Laurel said as she hugged John.
"Hey, happy birthday." John said.
"Thank you." Laurel said as Oliver pulled something out of his suit jacket and handed a small box to Laurel.
"What's this?" Laurel asked.
"It's a birthday gift from Thea, Roy and Nyssa, who express their apologies that they couldn't make it here in person, but hunting down Lazarus pits is tiring work." Oliver said.
"How's that going by the way?" John asked, since Oliver was still in touch with Thea.
"Hell if I know. Thea never says the status on their mission and considering they've still got the Guild on their tails, it's understandable, but it sounds like she's sort of become the leader of their team." Oliver said.
"Team Speedy. I have to admit, it has a nice ring to it." Laurel said and Oliver just shook his head in amusement as he reached into his other pocket and felt the gift he was planning on giving Laurel later after dinner.
