Title: Our Last Summer (Memories that Remain)
Words: 2983
Pairings: Laurel/Oliver, Felicity/Sara, Lance Family brotp
Status: Done
Genre: Romance/Family

Summary:
Quentin needs his sewing machine to fix Sara's suit and asks his girls to find in an overflowing closet of memories. They are surprised by a huge box of photographs and talk about the good times.

"Hey girls can you help me find the sewing machine, it's supposed to be in the closet, but your mother she always threw everything in there and well, I can't find anything in there?" He pleaded with them because that closet was a mess, chock full of everything, good, bad, ugly, beautiful, and then of course there was the trash and the random files that she kept forever that she didn't take with her, but refused to let him throw out.

Laurel smiled, "Yeah, sure dad," She said opening his master closet and it really was like the wardrobe to Narnia, no end in sight, and everything in their way.

Sara looked to her sister and sighed. This was not her idea of a fun Tuesday night. "Let's just get this over with," Sara said as she saw the mess and started combing through things.

Quentin hadn't heard anything in a while and he knew that usually meant some terrible things between Sara and Laurel, so he went to check on them and found them reminiscing with papers in their hands. Probably art projects that Dinah thought were too adorable to throw away, but not quite adorable enough to keep, but not quite adorable enough to put on the walls. "Remember, I need the sewing machine. Or someone's not getting their superhero suit fixed," He winked and left them alone.

"You asked dad to sew up your superhero suit?" Laurel asked in shock. That was hilarious. Sara Lance, defender of Starling City with Oliver Queen couldn't repair her own damn superhero suit.

Sara knocked her sister with shoulder, "Well, it's not like I can do it. And he created all of our costumes for theater classes, remember?" She said, trying to make this seem cooler than it was, but it was true, she was a dork when it came to this kind of stuff. She couldn't sew up her own superhero suit.

"He did," Laurel said, smacking a piece of gum and thought about the happy family they were back then. Her father at the sewing machine while mom took over the other half of the dining room table with her papers. Sara and Laurel stood at the kitchen counter and ate food while they talked. "Everyone loved our costumes, because they were historically accurate, but they were also adorable."

"What's that box up there?" Sara asked. It was a big box. It could have possibly been the sewing machine.

Laurel looked. It looked about the right size to be the sewing machine. "Let me try to get it down," She said, putting a stool in the way and climbing up with a flashlight. She investigated it further. No, not the sewing machine, but it looked like the machine might be behind it. "I think I found it," Laurel said as she climbed on her tiptoes and tried to push the box out of her way.

"Just be careful," Sara said as she saw her sister wobble on the stool a little bit.

"Stop being such a worrier," Laurel insisted, "I'm fine,"

Sara rolled her eyes. Of course. Just like Laurel to say that she was fine and that she had it before she inevitably crashed down and broke her arm, "Right,"

Laurel gave the box one final push and it got out of her way, fortunately.

Unfortunately, the box went crashing to the floor and fell on Sara as it splayed out and showed the millions of photographs that were in it, "Jesus, Laurel," Sara yelled.

Laurel had found the sewing machine and picked it up, before looking back and horrified of what she did. "Oh, shit, Sara, I'm so sorry," She said putting the sewing machine down on the floor as she picked up the pictures and shoved the box off Sara, "I didn't mean too. I'm so sorry," She apologized profusely as she helped Sara up.

"Was that all photographs?" Sara asked as she stood up, and Laurel opened the box and looked through it, grabbing a handful of them out of the box.

"Looks like it," She said, assessing the photographs. There was some of Sara and Laurel as little kids in their princess costumes and on bikes. Them at Disney world with goofy.

Sara picked up the box of pictures, a little taken aback at how heavy it was. Dear god, they had a lot of moments that they had taken pictures of and kept. "Well, let's take the sewing machine to dad so he can continue to mock me at my lack of sewing skill."

"You didn't have to ask him to sew it. You could have literally had anyone else do it. I think you like the gentle mocking. Keeps you real. He doesn't care that you're a superhero." Laurel smiled at her sister. This was the thing that you never got to see in the superhero movies.

Sara face pulled into a smile. Her family didn't treat her like a wilting flower that she was before the boat went down, but they also didn't treat her like she was some monster. "You don't care that I'm a superhero either. You'll still give me shit for not coming to dinner on time."

"You think I'm the only one?" Laurel said, eyebrow perking up into her hairline, "I distinctly remember Felicity saying there'd be no sex for you if you didn't get to dinner on time last time. Trust me, having people who don't care that you're a superhero is good for you. Makes sure that big head of yours doesn't get too big," Laurel grinned.

Quentin raised his eyebrow, distinctly coming into the conversation at the wrong time. He didn't want to know about his daughter's sex life. "Do I even want to know what you're talking about? Or is this something a father shouldn't know about?" He asked them seriously as Laurel put the sewing machine on the table.

Sara shook her head, "Nah, it's fine. Laurel and I were just talking about how it's good for me to have people who think of themselves and their needs first and don't put the fact that I'm a 'superhero' on a pedestal. That never is a very good description for what I do anyway," Sara said as she looked to Laurel, "Where should I put this one?" She asked.

Quentin eyed the box, "What's in that thing? The sewing machine is right there, I didn't ask for anything more than the sewing machine." He joked to them.

"Just put it on the other side of the table," Laurel said as she set up the sewing machine for her father. "We can go through them while he fixes your super suit." Laurel said as she unbent and smiled, "All yours daddy," She kissed him on the cheek and went to go greedily open the box and take some of the pictures out and put them delicately on the table to see what all was going on in them.

Sara had a slightly different approach.

She turned the box on the side and let the photographs cover their half of the table. "Hey!" Laurel protested. "We'll never get through them this way."

"We're never gonna get through 'em period. Not for awhile, but I gave us some more variety," Sara shrugged as she pulled up another chair and started to push through some of the photos.

Quentin was glad to see his daughters working together to look through the old box of photos, truthfully, he didn't remember putting that box in there, but it was worth it for them. Especially when he saw the genuine smiles on his daughter's faces. It was almost like seeing the happy moments in the photographs sparked something in them.

There were plenty of photographs with where Sara had smashed some cake in Laurel's face and Laurel look horrified, never liked to get too dirty. A little bit was okay, but cake in the face, was so much. Of course, Laurel gave as good as she got, Quentin remembered this well, but in those pictures Sara looked like she had achievement unlocked on her favorite game.

He went to back to sewing Sara's superhero suit. She wasn't the most morally black and white person there was, but she cared for people and that was important.

"Oh, do you remember this? When we went to Las Vegas and danced with the showgirls? Mom was so proud of us for just being goofy, she must have taken stills of the whole thing," Sara said, showing the picture and there they were, sequined dresses dancing and laughing with their heads thrown back. It was probably the happiest moment they had from the last few months Sara was home before the boat happened. There was a lot of tension back then.

Laurel picked up a photograph of Sara's high school graduation, there was Sara in the middle with Laurel and Mom on one side and then Quentin on the other. "We were so proud of you. Getting into Central City Fashion institute," She said, showing the picture to Sara. "We were such a happy family back then," She sighed. They were a happy family back then and they were figuring out what they were now. Dinah had come back and stayed at a hotel the last few times, but the most recent time, she actually stayed at Quentin's.

"Hey, isn't mom supposed to be here soon?" Sara asked as she continued to shuffle through the pictures.

Quentin sighed. "She was supposed to. She got caught up in some work and then her boyfriend got sick and so she had to stay there to take care of him. So Mom is not coming tonight. Besides, we don't exactly want to have the family conversation that you and the family ex-boyfriend are vigilantes trying to protect the city," He said to her through the sewing machine.

Sara nodded to him. "Alright. So we don't want mom knowing that I'm a vigilante? I mean we've already seen that secrets are dangerous, but if you want to keep this from her, I guess we'll keep it from her," She said, throwing up her hands.

"Sara," Quentin said, with a little of a smile on his face, "It's not that I don't want your mom to know. It's that she's gonna freak out. And I want this to be a little bit just about you and your sister and I for awhile, okay? She can't exactly do anything from Central where she spends her nights."

She nodded. It was true. She couldn't have her mom worrying from Central. She'd probably come in every week and want to smother Sara and she just couldn't have that. Laurel and Quentin didn't really care either way but they demanded respect for their time too.

She looked over at the pictures and smiled at one. It was Oliver and Laurel. She remembered taking it. It was Oliver giving Laurel a piggy back at a theme park. She originally took it because Oliver's smile was so huge, but she didn't realize that they were looking at each other and Laurel's smile was just as big. That was such an ungaureded Laurel. She couldn't remember the last time she saw Laurel smile like that. It probably was in this picture, taken only a few weeks before Oliver and her got on that boat. How could she have ever taken that away from them? Because she was honest with herself, he only ever smiled like that when he was with Laurel.

"You okay?" Laurel asked Sara as she looked up from the photographs.

Sara smiled a little sadly, "Yeah," Sara said, putting it to the side. But there were more of them just like it and she knew, she knew she had to do something about it. Because they were both perfectly happy right now single and being friends, but she knew that they'd be happier together. They'd be happier and a little bit more free with their emotions if they had each other like that. "I just need to go call someone," She said as she went into the other room and took her phone out.

Laurel looked at the pictures and saw so many of them as a happy family. "We need to start taking pictures again. We haven't in so long," She told Quentin, smiling.

Quentiin nodded. "You know, that is a perfect idea," He said as finished up Sara's suit. He looked over at the pictures on the side of the table. There was a picture of him and Dinah nose kissing with stupid grins on their face. "We used to be a lot happier back then," He smiled a little behind Laurel.

"Nothing says that happiness can't come back," Laurel said, squeezing his hand and smiling at the pictures. "I mean just look at all the good things we went through. We've been through some pretty great things now," She told him.

Sara came back and smiled at her dad and Laurel looking at the photographs. "I think we should try to find the picture where everyone's smile is the biggest," She said to both of them.

They both agreed to the challenge. Laurel's biggest smile she had in her hand. They would never win against Sara. Quentin won Dinah's biggest smile when she got a Christmas present that was a literally antiquity from Ancient Greece. She'd been so happy to have it. Laurel knew that she still had it proudly on display in her new apartment in Central City. Laurel won Sara's biggest smile, when she was on a rollercoaster and going down. It was one of those stupid photographs that they charged you a fortune to get, but it was so worth it. Quentin's of course, Sara won, and it was a family picture where he was hugging all of his girls.

"Last one," Sara said, "Laurel's biggest smile," She said. Both Quentin and Laurel searched far and wide in the pile. She was the hard one because she had tiny smiles usually.

They came up with some pretty good ones, though, Sara was impressed. Still didn't have something as good as she did though. Quentin presented a candid from backstage at a fashion show where you could tell she was rocking out to something fantastic. Laurel picked out her college graduation picture where the smile was fabulous and full toothed.

"you got one?" Quentin asked. "Or did you give up?"

"Maybe she doesn't know me as well as we know everyone else?" Laurel asked with a little giggle and an eyebrow raised.

Sara shook her head, "Oh, I'm ready to throw down, but I know I'm gonna win," She said with a grin.

"Well, then put it out there," Quentin told her.

Just as she put the picture on the table, the doorbell rang. Quentin and Laurel were both shocked by it. There was Laurel looking the happiest that either of them remembered her. And ti was with Oliver. The guy that Quentin didn't think was ever good for his little girl. And it was in those months leading up to the boat. Quentin looked at Sara as she came back to the table. "Who was at the door?" Laurel asked as she smiled stupidly at the picture. Didn't even bother to look up.

"Just me," Oliver said in a happy voice, seeing Laurel smiling was literally the highlight of his day. Laurel turned around and smiled at him and hugged him. "Hey, I thought you might want to go out, like to dinner? I mean I heard you could get hungry," He said and blushed a little.

She shook her head. "That is the stupidest pick up line I have ever heard, Oliver Jonas Queen," She told him with a serious face and then it fell and the ungaurded smile from the picture came back, "And I would love to."

He looked like he won the lottery and Laurel went to go get her shoes and purse. Sara took him to the side, "I want you back together. It's why I called you. Because you both make each other incredibly happy. That picture is proof of it. But if you do anything to hurt her this time, I am not afraid of killing. And I'm an assassin, Ollie. Just keep that in mind." She said with a killing grin and Oliver nodded.

Laurel came out and Quentin grinned. "Don't get too crazy, baby," He said as he hugged Laurel.

They left and Quentin looked at his daughter. "You had that card the whole game."

"I did," She said.

He simply chuckled. "The game was just a way to bide time so that she wouldn't see him coming over."

"Yep," Sara said. "They're in love with each other. I mean the idiots practically shed years when they smile at each other. That's love." She told him.

"I don't disagree. I was shocked to see that photo. But the smiles were just as genuine out of it." He said as he slung an arm over his daughter's shoulders. "You did good work, kid. You want dinner? We can have pizza or I can make something," He said

"I'd love too, but I have to get back to Felicity. She wants to try and indoctrinate me to Doctor Who." She said with a smile.

He nodded. "Thank you for the box of photographs."

"Thank Laurel," She said on her way out of the door, "She dropped it on me,"

"I will," He laughed. His girls were crazy, but he loved them that way. And he loved that they were in happy relationships that they could smile so fantastically with their partners. If that wasn't love, he didn't know what was. He had it with Dinah. Maybe that love wasn't forever, but as long as the smiles were there, you could figure it out.