Title: Quarter After One
Words: 2248
Pairing: Laurel/Oliver
Genre: Comfort/Romance
Song: Need You Now
Status: Done
Summary: Oliver calls Laurel in the middle of the night because he's drunk and alone and needs someone's help to get home, but when Laurel finds him he's a little bit more passionate about staying.
Laurel worked at getting all of the paperwork and evidence together for her latest case. Kate never let her off easy after blackmailing her, twice. Honestly, Kate should have been better at her job, Laurel thought, but Kate was the boss and allowed to make those kind of decisions.
"Where are you, scientific analysis?" She asked as she looked around for her files.
At this point in the night, she never expected any noise in her apartment. She couldn't go to sleep until this was done, but that was the good thing about working well into the night is that no one would bother her. Thea had come over for dinner and had stayed for terrible tv, but she went to a hotel. Sara was with dad and they probably both slept at this point.
Just a castaway / An island lost at sea / Another lonely day / With no one here but me. Her phone chimed and she went over to pick up. That could only be one person.
"Ollie," She said and put the phone between her shoulder and ear as she looked for the files still. "You should be asleep and shouldn't be calling me,"
"Laurel," He said, deliriously happy, "I need someone to pick me up,"
She knew that tone. That was Ollie drunk. She looked to her case and couldn't find the evidence she needed. That was the one piece she needed. It was going to clench the case and Oliver called. "Don't you have a driver?"
"He's got the night off," Laurel could hear the stupid grin on his face. "And all the cab services aren't open. Come on, Laur, I need you." He pleaded to her in that whiny five year old voice that he loved when he was drunk. She didn't miss dealing with this. It was like pre-island Oliver all over again.
She sighed and got out of her chair. "Where are you?" She asked him as she went and picked up her jacket from the coat hook. Truth to be told, without him, she was always a little alone. She put pictures of him up in her apartment, but it was never quite the same.
"I'm at the place by the pier." He smiled to her.
She stopped in her tracks. She saw her piece of evidence and put it with the pile of stuff she needed for court.
The place by the pier. Oh, there were a lot of memories there. No wonder he was getting drunk and having fun. But that didn't make sense as to why he needed a ride away from there. "Where are you trying to go?" She asked him in a quiet voice.
"I want to be with you," He said and stumbled, "Ow, I swear that chair moved,"
Laurel groaned. Great. He wasn't going to do anything but have this singular view. "Stay put. And sit down. I'm coming to get you. You're gonna come home with me, but you are staying in the guest bed." She told him, "You understand?"
"You're so pretty," He said and she blushed.
She put her coat on and took the elevator down. "Do you understand me, Ollie?" She asked him.
She didn't want any temptation from him and he was temptation incarnate. She drove down to the place by the pier and smiled. It'd been awhile since she'd been to this place. She came briefly after Tommy's will had been found and she was told that it was hers and Ollie's.
She opened the building door and jogged up the stairs and went down a hallway and found him by the door, but not in the apartment. "What are you doing out here? I thought I told you to stay where you were," She asked him.
"I thought I heard a noise and then I locked myself out," He shrugged and nearly fell over again.
She rolled her eyes, of course he did. She unlocked the apartment and opened the door and tried to find his keys, "Where'd you put the keys? You should be able to get in here again." She told him.
He beamed to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, "I think I put them in a bowl somewhere," He singsonged to her and kissed her neck.
She stiffened. "We really shouldn't do that," She told him. She wanted to, but he drank too much and it would feel like they were doing something hasty. They just got on a good level and this wasn't like that.
"Do you ever think of me, Laur?" He whispered into her ear. "Because I think of you. Everyday. Everynight. I mean look at this place, Laur. It's practically a filled to the brim with memories,"
She struggled to get out of his arms and looked at him, "You know, we're supposed to be looking for your keys, so we can go home." She told him, but she felt her willpower wilting.
He let her go and went to the kitchen and she ached with loss. She didn't know what he was doing, but she followed him, surely as the moon followed the sun. "One for you, as well?" He asked as he got a bottle of aged whiskey out of a cabinet and looked at her with those loving eyes that said, I want to take you. I want to be yours.
"AA remember?" She asked him as she showed him her chip as she held up her green chip. "You shouldn't be drinking anymore either."
"One more," He told her.
She nodded and took her place by his side. "Only one more," She didn't want to have to carry him down the stairs. This place was nice, but in their brilliance, they had not considered an elevator a key sticking point when they bought the place when they were teenagers. Actually, Tommy bought it. They went with it.
He looked at her hands which fiddled with the AA chips, she'd already gotten. "How long has it been?" He asked her as he brushed her temple with the backs of his fingers and looked into her eyes.
She smiled down at them, "100 days clean," She said and looked into his eyes. "100 days since that fight," A tear slipped from her and she tried to stay strong but he saw through it. That fight killed her on the inside. He was the killing blow and he never apologized for that.
"You know, I said some things back then that I regret." He told her. "I was confused. I wanted you. I wanted all of you. And you were just slipping away. And it felt like I was never going to have you again. And my life was falling apart. And you were the one person I needed more than anything and you were dying. And I couldn't take it anymore. I needed you then. And I need you now," He told her as the alcohol coursed through his system telling him this was a good idea.
"Do you mean it?" She said as she took the glass out of his hand and looked dead straight into his eyes.
He nodded and looked away from her for a second, but there she was all fight and all strength and he released a breathe. "There is no one I need more," He told her.
Laurel took Oliver's face in her hands and pulled him down to kiss her. This was probably a bad idea. There was history behind them. They hadn't talked out the details. He hadn't apologized. He dated her sister. But it was a quarter after one and she needed to taste the bright woody taste of that expensive single cask whiskey on his breath.
Oliver was into it as he circled her waist with her arms and brought her closer. He put her keys, with the AA chips attached, on the counter and kissed down her neck, "I thought you wanted to go home," He said, words in between kisses.
"Don't let me think about it," She managed to get out and she took his head in her hands once more and looked at him and smiled, "Just for one night, let's forget about the whole complicated thing and be you and me. Together. We'll deal with the rest of it in the morning,"
He nodded to that. He wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed her collarbone and the hollow of her neck and the tried to push her jacket out of the way while she worked at getting his shirt over his head.
Her insistent hands stopped him from his pursuit of her fantastic body and he took the shirt off and she grasped at his neck. They were losing control and fast and he needed to get to the bed before they really got in trouble.
He carried her into the bedroom and threw the coat away. He looked at her for a minute. She was in some short shorts and a sheer top, "Are you trying to kill me, Laur?" He asked, out of breath, god she was beautiful.
"No talking," She told him as she kissed him. "And sure, I'm trying to kill you. Like I could." She said before he put her on the bed and climbed in right on top of her.
She hiked her leg up around him and didn't stop kissing him. They had the night and they planned on using it.
Her cell phone beeped in the other room and she opened up her eyes and saw Oliver. She saw Oliver in bed with her. She saw that she wasn't in her own apartment and then it all came back to her. They were out by the ocean. He called, drunk, and needing a ride. And she came over and then things happened.
She pushed herself away and held her head in her hands and shook it. How could she? She was supposed to be the one with resolve, but she melted quickly when he told her she mattered to him.
She heard him moving to lay on his side. "Please don't tell me you regret this," He murmured to her.
She looked back to him and he was really taking this hard. She wanted him, the display last night showed that neither of them was ready to give this up. "I don't regret it. But for now, this is a one time thing."
"As I recall, Tommy was supposed to be a one time thing too. Didn't exactly turn out the way you planned," He told her with a grin.
She leaned back over and kissed him sweetly on the mouth. "It never really does, but you needed me then. And right now, I need to go home, and get ready for work. You know, some of us still have jobs." She told him with a grin.
He jokingly put a hand over his heart and acted like he was hurt by the thought. "You know, I could take you to work?"
"Are you gonna give me any choice?" She asked him.
He shook his head. "I'd probably still follow you if you didn't let me." He told her.
She sighed and looked to him and really looked him in the eyes, "Tell me one thing,"
"Anything," He promised her.
"Why'd you come here to get drunk? You own a bar. And your driver didn't really have the night off, did he?" She asked him.
He sighed. That was the question wasn't it? "The truth?" He asked her.
She nodded to him because even if it was weird or sentimental or something stupid, she wanted to know why it was here that he picked to call her and show her that side of him again.
"For the record, Diggle definitely had the night off. But I came here because I wanted to be close to you. I wanted to be close to the memory of you in my arms in a way that I couldn't ask of you anywhere else. And I wanted to think back to when it wasn't complicated. Back to when it was me and you and tommy and all we needed was each other. I needed your memory because you wouldn't be pissed at me for the things I've done even though I've been so very wrong in my life. And that girl would have."
She hushed him for a second. "I have been so very pissed at you. I was pissed at you for five years. So don't punish yourself for me. But I need you too." She told him. "I need you now. And I'm always gonna need you. We need each other. We always have." She told him as she ran her fingernails through the little bits of hair that stuck on the sides of his head.
"So a one time thing?" He asked.
She nodded. "A one time thing. But we should go out sometime, just me and you."
"I think that can be arranged," He said as he picked up some clothes and put them on. "Come on, we need to make sure you're not late. Unless, you want to be. And in that case, we can take a shower here."
"No," She laughed out loud, "I'm taking a shower at my apartment. Alone. With the door locked. Because I know you, you sneaky bastard." She wagged her finger at him and smiled.
He shrugged, "Worth a shot."