One Last Moment

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here, this is a prompt from Dante 101 and takes place during Season 1's Sacrifice in the ruined CNRI building. May need tissues.

Summary: Laurel manages to get back inside CNRI only to have one last conversation with Tommy.

As the building known as CNRI made its collapse, Quentin Lance tried to grab his daughter Laurel before she could get in there and possibly get hurt in the process. But unfortunately for him he was too late and she was well on her way inside to try and possibly rescue Tommy from the inside. She hurriedly made her way inside, not caring to be careful as she needed to get to Tommy before something worse happened to him while inside of the building. She thankfully managed to find him before long buried partially under some rubble. "L-Laurel!? What, what are you doing here!?" She should be outside of this place for crying out loud!

"I'm NOT leaving you in here to die Tommy!" She replied with a look of determination that told him not to argue with her.

Laurel tried to remove the rubble on top of him but it was too heavy for her alone until a third's presence suddenly helped out greatly, much to her confusion. But she didn't have time to think about that as she stared in horror at the sight of the rebar sticking out of Tommy's chest. "Looks like I'm in deep this time..."

The Lawyer was in denial at that and damn near close to tears over the sight of him. "You're gonna be just fine buddy." Came the voice of someone she had known for years.

Turning to her right, the sight of Oliver 'Ollie' Queen in the outfit of the Hood only served to add on to the level of shock she was experiencing on this horrible night. Tommy telling him that it was something they were going to have to disagree on broke her from her stunned trance as she looked back down at him before kneeling next to him and it wasn't long before Oliver did as well on the other side of him. "Together again one last time huh guys?" Joked Tommy with a slight cough.

"Don't say that! We're going to get you out of here!"

Oliver nodded at Laurel's words as he considered what he could do to help get the rebar out of his friend and then get him out of here entirely without causing further harm. "You guys… I'm so sorry..."

"I did stupid stuff just cause I was angry and wouldn't give you a chance to explain."

Laurel knew in her heart that he was referring to both of them in various ways but for her, his actions weren't even an issue anymore now that she knew Ollie is the Hood of all things. Not when there was more important things going on. "Buddy, don't even worry about it okay? We get you out of this and then we can move on, maybe you and Laurel can make me an uncle." The archer joked, earning smiles from both Tommy and Laurel.

"I'm not… I'm not sure the world's ready for another one of me yet."

Laurel was about to disagree with him on that when Tommy suddenly asked Ollie about his father. And she watched as Ollie looked Tommy right in the eye and told him no. But she had to wonder if he was lying about it and if so, if Tommy knew that as well but didn't care right then and there. Tommy smiled at him before looking at her for a moment before looking at Ollie again. "Thank you." And with one final breath, he was gone.

"Tommy!? No! Please no!" Cried out Laurel in tears as she shook him a little while Oliver stared on at the scene with tears of his own.

"It should've been me..." He muttered as he watched his ex cry over Tommy's lifeless body.

He was shaken from his dark thoughts when the building rumbled again and it got him into action. "Laurel, we have to go!" She ignored him however as she continued to cry over Tommy's body.

Standing up, he reached down to pull her away but she resisted his efforts by telling him to leave her there. But he wasn't about to listen so he grabbed her and hauled her over his shoulder and began to make his way out as quickly as he can. Unfortunately for him, the shoulder he placed her on was on the side where he had pierced himself in the chest to stop Malcolm Merlyn but he ignored any pain that was causing as he got himself and Laurel out.

Quentin Lance and Joanna watched on helplessly as chaos reigned all around them and the man hoped to whatever God was listening that his last remaining daughter managed to make it out of that place alive. And hopefully with the Merlyn kid too as he didn't deserve to wind up dead cause of his father's crazy actions. However, he wound up sooner hearing the screams of Laurel and it made him wonder what was going on and he hoped something real bad hadn't just happened. But the sight of Oliver Queen of all things carrying his daughter out of the building was not something he was expecting. The look on the kid's face didn't bode well in the man's view and the screams and movements of his daughter certainly was a factor in things not boding particularly well.

He watched as Queen put Laurel down and then, alongside Joanna was privy to seeing his little girl go off on Queen in a way he had expected to see happen a whole Hell of a lot sooner than now and boy is the scene in front of him not pretty! The father watched as she beat on his chest and screamed at him about how they shouldn't have left Tommy in there and that it probably should have been him instead of Tommy and Queen just let her do it with a sad, if broken look on his face. Lance finally pulled her away from the kid. "I'm so sorry sweety, I'm so sorry." He murmured into her hair as he held her in his arms.

Lance watched as the kid turned around to face the destroyed CNRI building that housed the body of his best friend. A clattering could be then heard and Lance saw that it was the bow he'd been holding and soon afterwards Queen dropped a bit hard to his knees and gave out one of the loudest agonizing screams that sounded so much like the one Dinah did when he told her the news about their daughter Sara five years ago. He wasn't sure what would happen now but he hoped for everybody's sake that they would all get through it without things getting worse.

Author's Notes: And here we are folks. Apologies on the lack of updates like I was privy to doing. I will try to get back into the swing of that, its just I've been dealing with the aggravation of back end issues Weebly's been experiencing lately. And if any of you use Weebly for your websites you may likely know exactly what I'm talking about. Special thanks to Naitch03 as his Past is Prologue story is a huge help with these stories. So how about that Flash last night? I had three gripes about it myself but overall it was pretty good.