Sometimes, yeah, sometimes, there's good in goodbye

Notes:

just something that wouldn't let me go after listening to a song, so I had to write it down. I hope you guys enjoy it.


Chapter 1: I heard you laughing I caught a glimpse that stopped me in my tracks Time's been sweet to you

Laurel and Joanna were standing at the entrance to the restaurant they had agreed to meet Tommy for lunch at, waiting for him. They were talking about their latest case at CNRI when they heard someone laughing. It was low, hearty, and sounded so genuine and familiar. She turned towards the sound and her heart skipped a beat and ended up stuck in her throat when she saw the source of the sound walking down the street towards them, well towards the restaurant. She hadn't seen him in a good five years, not since he joined his father on his trip to China and then decided to travel the world instead of coming back home with Robert and going back to college. Moira had not been happy about this. Neither had she nor Robert, for that matter.

As far as Laurel knew, this was the first time Oliver had been back in Starling since then. She hadn't even known he was back. Did his parents know? Did Tommy? She'd have to ask him when he arrived. Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop when she noticed another very important detail to his appearance, which was a small blonde girl comfortably sitting on his shoulders. Just as quickly as her thoughts had come to a screeching halt, they took off again at a million miles a minute, as the presence of the child registered. A part of her tried to rationalize that this didn't have to mean what she thought it did, except, they were coming closer and the little girl was bending over his head and she saw those crystal eyes of blue she had known and loved for years reflected in the little freckle covered face.

Laurel forced her eyes away from the child on his shoulders and moved them back to Oliver, from his face down his chest to his feet and back up again. He looked good, different than she remembered. His hair was a lot shorter, and he looked beefier. The clothes he was wearing were casual, a far cry from the designer he used to wear, not cheap but not as expensive as they used to be, which made sense. His parents had cut him off when he had refused to return home after several months of being gone. They had been sure that would be enough for him to change his mind, to come back home. And she had agreed with them. Oliver had always enjoyed all the comforts that had come with being the son of Robert and Moira Queen, but to everyone's surprise, he'd never faltered, never changed his mind, never came back.

He had just accepted their choice.

Tommy had been flabbergasted. He hadn't understood the world anymore. She knew he had tried to talk and reason with his best friend, but to no avail. They hadn't understood, his actions hadn't made any sense and it just hadn't been like Oliver at all. Her eyes strayed back to the little girl on his shoulders, if she'd have to guess, she'd say she was around four years old. Was she the reason he had stayed away? Why he hadn't returned home even after he had been cut off? Had the woman he had knocked up played a part in it? Was he taking care of the child all by himself? There wasn't anyone around. It was just Oliver and what she assumed was his daughter walking towards them.

She heard him laugh again, and her eyes focused on him once more. He looked happy, brawnier than he used to be. The sweater he was wearing was rather tight around his biceps when he bent his arm to reach up to the little girl and his jeans were hugging him nicely. Oliver looked good, really good.

"I don't know princess. We'll have to ask mama, she knows more about this than I do." His words made unmistakably clear that no, he wasn't raising his daughter by himself. That her mother was at least in the picture. She was still trying to grasp everything that was just happening when her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a stunned voice.

"Laurel." She looked up at his face again and realized he was only a couple of feet away from her.

"Oliver, hi." It was a bit awkward at first, until she introduced Joanna and Oliver to each other and the conversation flowed a bit easier. They'd been talking for a while when the little girl on his shoulder made her presence known by asking Oliver who she was.

"Laurel is an old friend of daddy's. Can you say 'hi', baby?" Oliver looked over his shoulders and up at his daughter at the last part. The little girl muttered a shy 'hi' before trying to hide behind her father's head.

"Hi sweetheart, what's your name?" She looked up at her and spoke softly, trying to not scare the little girl. She peeked out from behind Oliver's head and studied her quietly for a while before whispering her name. It was hard for her to catch it, so her father repeated it for her.

"Hi Eloise, it is nice to meet you." And it actually was. The little girl was adorable. She seemed shy, but there was just something about her behavior and the mischievous twinkle in her eyes that told her she probably wasn't as shy as she appeared at first glance and might actually be a handful, not surprising, given the fact she was Oliver's child and he had been more than just a handful growing up.

They went back to their conversation after both she and Joanna had greeted the little girl. She learnt Oliver was married to Eloise's mother, and they had only recently come back to Starling, and lived in Georgia for about a year before deciding to head back home. They had spent the years before that travelling the world. With little Eloise, something she imagined must have been very stressful, but Oliver looked fond while sharing that information with her, so maybe it hadn't been but she couldn't for the life of her picture herself travelling with a baby or toddler.

Laurel watched Oliver's entire face light up almost at the same time that little Eloise called out: "Mommy!". She turned around to find out who the woman was, who had managed to get Oliver Queen to not only settle down but become a family man, something she had tried so hard to do but hadn't succeeded in, only months after he had broken up with her, via a phone call, while he had been thousands of miles away.

She had to admit that she was still a little bitter about that. It had been a shitty way for him to end their relationship. Well, it was better than a text, she guessed, but still. They had been together for four years. And all she got was a short phone call that explained almost nothing. He'd implied that it wouldn't be fair to her to stay together while he didn't know when he'd be back home. In a way, it had made enough sense for her to not argue too much, but at the same time, it had sounded like some lame excuse he had come up with so he could break up with her. She wondered now if she had been right and the reason had been Eloise's mother. Or at least him getting her pregnant.

She felt like time had stopped and someone had emptied a bucket of ice water over her when she recognized the woman walking towards them. Not sure if she was seeing right, or if maybe she was dreaming or it was a trick of light. The young blonde woman was wearing a pair of black leggings, a long blue sweater which brought out the color of her eyes and reached her mid-thighs and a pair of black combat style ankle boots, there was a small child placed on her hip, and a colorful bag with what looked like different birds on it thrown over her shoulder, she assumed it was a diaper bag, given the baby she was carrying. Laurel looked back towards Oliver, who was watching the woman approaching them too. There was an affectionate smile gracing and a look of complete love and devotion on his face. She felt a stab in her heart at a look she had never before seen on his face. Not once in the four years they've been in a relationship. She turned back towards his approaching wife to not have to look at it any longer, swallowing harshly to get rid of the lump that had formed in her throat. To no avail.

Laurel watched her younger sister move closer. It was only when she was just a couple of feet away that she noticed the obvious baby bump under her loose shirt and the little leg of the toddler on her hip. She looked up to the familiar and beloved face she hadn't seen in years; the freckles covering most of its surface and couldn't help but see the happy gleam in her sparkling sky-blue eyes and the exact same look she'd witnessed on Oliver's face reflected on her baby sister's.

All the conversations she's had with Oliver concerning children during their four-year relationship passed through her mind, one or two children. That had always been his answer. One, maybe two, but not more. And not for a long time. Not before they were thirty. He had ended up with a child less than a year after they've had the last conversation about moving in together, and marriage and children. A conversation during which he had insisted they were moving too fast, that he wasn't ready to think about moving in together yet, even less about children. That it wasn't something they'd have to think about for years to come.

It was five years later; they were twenty-seven; he was married and had two children, and a third one on the way.

And not just that. He had them with her younger sister. Who had almost reached them by now, Oliver had taken several steps away from her and Joanna and towards Sara. He bent down and captured her lips in a short, sweet kiss once she reached them, taking the squirming little boy from her hip as soon as he reached his chubby little arms out to him, placing his other hand on her pregnant stomach for a moment, rubbing softly before looking up towards his oldest child, still placed on his shoulders, who was addressing her mother now.

Laurel watched Sara and Oliver talk quietly for a moment before they both walked towards her. She took note of the anxious look on her sister's face, and the hand she had placed on Oliver's upper arm, on the side he was carrying their son. She wasn't sure how to react, what to say or do. All she knew was that she had missed her sister dearly. And had wanted nothing more than to see her in person again for years. Ever since Sara had decided to take advantage of an exchange program her college had offered and decided to spend a semester in Europe, only to then decide to stay there for good. The last time she had seen her sister in person had been the day their parents had driven her to the airport, almost five years ago.

They had talked on the phone more or less regularly at the beginning; Sara had promised to come visit as soon as she had enough money, or she was done with exams or she could get some time off of work… they had offered to come visit her but again, there had always been a reason or excuse on her side why it wasn't a good time for that. Their parents had come close to just get on a plane and surprise her several times. She wasn't sure to this day why they hadn't, what Sara had said each time to convince them not to come. But looking at her now, she wondered if it all had been a lie. If she'd ever actually been to Europe, even. Well, she had sent them pictures. So, yes to Europe, but probably no to college. Given the fact that she was a mother of two. It suddenly made her wonder what they were doing for a living. How Oliver was providing for his family. What occupation he had decided to pursue once his parents had cut him off. It must have been so difficult. If Sara hadn't already been pregnant at the time, she would've been shortly after. She couldn't even imagine how they must have felt, what they must have gone through. It took her a moment to remember that Oliver had told her and Joanna that they had been travelling the world until about a year ago, Laurel looked at the little boy on Oliver's arm again, he looked to be less than a year old, had they decided to stop travelling because of him? How had they managed to afford to travel with a small child to begin with?

Before she could voice her thoughts, Tommy's arrival interrupted them. There was some serious tension between Tommy and Oliver, but that was to be expected given everything that had transpired between them and the way their friendship had ended. Just like she knew there was some serious tension between Sara and her. And yet, despite all that, the five of them agreed to head into the restaurant together and share a table. Once they were seated and the food ordered, they tentatively began to talk about mundane things that had happened in the last couple of years and by the time the food arrived, the conversation flowed easily. Oliver and Sara explained their decision in a very summarized way and it took Laurel a moment to realize they weren't comfortable going into detail with their daughter sitting next to them, something she could understand. There was time for that conversation later. Right now, she was just happy to have them back home.

The initial tension started to fade away as they shared more about their lives and what had transpired in the past five years. She looked at them again, at the family they had created, at how happy and at peace they looked. It was a look she wasn't used to with either of them. They were great parents, and watching them interact with their children brought her a lot of joy. And it gave her a warm feeling, realizing that they had found what they had been looking for, that they had settled down and created the life they wanted. That her sister got the family she had always dreamed of. That Oliver had managed to sort of distance himself from the Queen name and everything that went along with it, raising his children away from the insane expectations he was brought up with.

Laurel took hold of Tommy's hand and laced their fingers together, looking and smiling at him. Yes, it was strange seeing her sister and ex-boyfriend together, married with kids, but the original pain that came with the shock was waning to something less intense. The view was bittersweet. She didn't regret her time with Oliver, but she could easily see now that they hadn't been right for each other, that their relationship had been less than perfect and that they both ended up where they belonged. He with Sara, the one person who had always understood him in a way no one else had managed to and she with Tommy, the man who had always been there for her, had picked up the pieces every time Ollie had shattered her heart, comforted her and built her back up. He'd been there for her when Oliver had dumped her over the phone and just sort of disappeared from their lives.

She understood now. It still hurt, knowing that he chose to just leave instead of telling them, letting them know about Sara's pregnancy. The thought that both of them had felt like they couldn't come to them, couldn't tell anyone, not even their families, and the best course was to just run away hurt. She wished she could've been there for them. Helped them. Wished they would've let her.

Laurel was happy to learn that they had purchased a little house in the suburbs, and an old factory that they planned to turn into a nightclub, proof that they were going to stick around.

Tommy offered Oliver to help him get some investors for the club, to help him with the construction and whatever else he needed help with. Seeing the boys finally be together again was so very satisfying she knew how much Tommy had missed his best friend. She looked at her sister and saw the same look on her face she was sure was on hers; it looked like Oliver had felt the same way about Tommy. Joanna offered them help with the legal side and contracts and her sister joined in on their conversation, about the plans they had for the club and Laurel was so thrilled to know that they would have a chance to reconnect and rebuild their broken relationships and friendships. That they would once again be a permanent part of her life, something she had longed for for years. She was also looking forward to getting to know her niece and nephew better and be there when the newest addition to the Queen family would arrive.

She was suddenly very grateful that she didn't get what she had thought she had deserved in her late teens and early twenties, grateful for all the pain he had put her through and that things hadn't turned out the way she had planned. That life had taken a different turn and Oliver had chosen a different road. She could clearly see the reasons they hadn't worked out. Watching Oliver and Sara and their children together proved to her that sometimes there was good in goodbye, especially while holding on to Tommy's hand tightly. Yes, if Oliver hadn't run from her, from them, she'd never found Tommy, she'd never known what genuine happiness felt like.

For the first time in five years, she felt at peace because her family was finally together again.