Notes:

Okay, so this chapter is different and I'm not sure I like the structure of it but I've been trying to figure out how to do it otherwise and this is the best my brain is currently able to come up with, sorry about that. I really hope you guys like it. As always let me know what you think.


Chapter 7: All he could think about was I'm too young for this got my whole life ahead, yeah her Daddy's gonna kill me and that's a fact

He was just about to answer Thea's question about what he thought was going on with her friend Margo when he heard his daughter call out for him at the top of her little lungs.

"Daddy! Daddy! Get me down! I'm stuck on the castle roof and I gotta go pee, really, really, bad!" the first thing after her voice that registered was daddy, stuck, roof, pee really, really bad. Not just bad, not just really bad but a really, really bad, which meant she was practically already peeing her pants. Jesus fucking Christ! He really wished she would stop waiting to the very last second to let them know she had to go use the bathroom while they were out and about. It would make their life so much easier and less stressful.

He jumped off the bench, running towards the playground before his thoughts were fully formed, knowing full well Sara was in no position to climb up and get her down right now. And there was no way in hell he was just going to let his daughter pee her pants if he could help it.

"Hurry daddy!" He ran past Sara and Benjamin and climbed up the tower. Of course, she had to be on the roof of the highest one. There was a part of him that was immensely proud of her for being able to climb up there on her own but there was also the other part, that was going 'are you fucking shitting me?', while climbing back down with her and running towards the restroom only to change course towards the nearest tree when she tightened her little legs around him and told him that 'the pee-pee is coming'.

It was while he lifted her up to make sure she would not pee herself when he registered his wife's laughter in the background. Of course, Sara would find this was hilarious. And he had to admit, it kinda was, or would be, if the situation would've been slightly different and he hadn't just left Thea alone with no explanation. And that this meant his baby sister was going to be another person his kids were just sprung on, which had been the last thing he had wanted to happen. It had been important to him to tell her, to explain to her why he had never mentioned Sara or their kids in any of his letters, to make sure there wouldn't be any misunderstandings and assumptions.

But then again, this shouldn't surprise him. Eloise had been very good at ensuring that things did not go according to plan in the last five years. Pretty much from the moment of her existence. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, his life was the better for it. Mostly. He could still vividly remember confirming her existence and the weeks leading up to that life-changing moment.


Yanmenguan (Great Wall of China) November, 7th 2007

Oliver was woken up by Sara stumbling out of the bed and rushing towards the bathroom, only to hear her throw up again. This was like the seventh day in a row. She'd usually feel better as the day progressed, for the most part. She'd sometimes end up throwing up during the day too, but less so than in the mornings. He felt his stomach twist in trepidation again, as it had for the past three mornings. It was probably just the different climate and food. Maybe the altitude or the fact that they've been walking for hours every day ever since they've reached Yanmenguan and with that, the Great Wall of China. They've done different treks and sure Sara was used to nature or trekking or anything like that, but still, the climate was different than she was used to as was the food. It was probably a bug. Nothing else.

It had nothing to do with the fact that they had run out of condoms towards the end of their trip on the Gambit, and Sara frequently forgetting to take the pill.

The same was probably the reason for her being late. Stress and different environment could play a part in that, right? What they had planned was very stressful for both of them. It was a lot. Knowing what could happen if Sara's family found out, if his dad told them once he was back home.

He rubbed his hand over his face, taking a deep breath and trying to push the feeling and thoughts away again, before getting out of the bed to go check up on Sara, taking the bottle of water from the nightstand with him. They'd be heading to Zhenbeitai today and spend a couple of days there before heading to Hongkong. Maybe the change in location would help and she'd feel better there.



Hongkong, November 18th, 2007

"I'm going to be sick." Sara pulled at his hand, trying to rush them out of the throngs of people they were in, a feat that was almost impossible for the small blonde, so he took a step forward, so he'd be the one forging a trail for them. It was as soon as they were out of the food market, Sara had wanted to go to, that she bent over and threw up next to a garbage can in a side alley that didn't look like somewhere they wanted to walk through, he let go of her hand so he could hold her hair back, the different smells from the market still wafting towards them. He was seriously starting to get worried about her now.

"C'mon, Birdy, let's head back to the hotel." he handed her his bottle of water and softly pulled her into his side once she was done, kissing her temple before steering them in the direction of their hotel. They could hang out there, and she could lie down for a little while until she hopefully felt better.

Sara had lied down for a while after they'd gotten back and even slept for about an hour. She'd insisted on taking a shower after she woke up to wash the smell of the streets of Hongkong off of her, he wasn't sure how he had ended up joining her but they'd ended up on the bed again eventually, where Sara had fallen back asleep. She'd been feeling exhausted a lot lately.

He knew he should bring it up with her, knew her thoughts were probably going in the same direction as his. Knew he should be the adult here, but he just wasn't ready to give voice to his suspicion and in the process probably make them come true. No, not with everything else that was going on with his parents. He just couldn't deal with the possibility of Sara being... no, not yet. And maybe he was wrong. He could still be wrong. It could be a flux. Maybe he was just imagining things because his mind kept circling back to the answer to her symptoms that was terrifying him beyond belief. It could simply be the stress of their current situation, the fear of his dad telling her parents about her being with him, about France being a lie, about their involvement. His dad had been back home for several days now.

A part of him was surprised that he hadn't yet, or his mom for that matter, who had learnt that Sara was with him two days ago. Sara had looked as if she was going to have a heart attack the last time Quentin had called, understandably so, but for no reason, Quentin had still assumed she was in France. Neither of them was sure why his parents hadn't told the truth to hers, but they'd take it for as long as they could. Only having to deal with one set of angry, disappointed parents was making things a little less difficult. Except they were both feeling on edge, waiting for Sara's family to learn the truth through his and with that, the backlash and severe consequences for their actions to set in.

He was too young, too immature for this, so was Sara. No, he was just freaking out over nothing, his eyes strayed over her sleeping form next to him and stopped at her bare breasts, and not for the usual reasons... he loved her breasts, he was very familiar with them, and he knew the changes they were going through would've even been noticeable to him, had he not been. Fuck. He forced his eyes away from her and closed before shifting around a little and eventually drawing the woman next to him into his arms, burying his face in the back of her neck, trying to force the troubling thoughts from his mind unsuccessfully. They only left when sleep finally took over.


Ho Chi Minh City, November, 28th 2007

Sara was still lounging in their bed, currently flipping through the pages of the room service menu. He was pacing in the living area of their hotel room while arguing with his parents, yet again. It had been the same song and dance for days, ever since he hadn't returned home as promised two weeks ago. They've called him every single day, they had argued for hours every single day.

Oliver wasn't sure how else he could tell them he wasn't coming home yet. He'd used a wide variety of words and pretty much the entirety of his vocabulary to get it across to them. He'd come home eventually, of course he would. But not yet. He had promised Sara years ago that he was going to show her the world and he was at least going to keep that promise, knowing full well that it would probably be the only one he would get to keep.

He had fully resigned himself to his fate, being very aware of the fact that no matter what he did, he wouldn't get around it. Wouldn't be able to make his parents understand that what they wanted for him, what they had planned for him, was not what he wanted at all. Not a life he could see himself live. He had tried to make them see, make them understand. In so many different ways, but they just refused to hear him, and he was tired. He was just so fucking tired of fighting and never once winning a battle, let alone the war. So, he gave up. He resigned himself to his fate and going to whatever Ivy League college his parents decided to buy him into next, to go to all the classes they decided he needed to take, to get the grades they decided he needed to get, to graduate and then to work at QC, like they decided he would, he'd get married to Laurel, like they expected him to and give them a grandchild or two, just as they wanted him to. After…

After he'd showed Sara the world, like he had promised her, he would.

This would be his last stand. He might have lost the war, but he wasn't going to lose this battle. He couldn't lose this battle. If this was the only taste of freedom he was ever going to get, he was going to hold on to it for as long as he could. If this was all he was ever going to get with Sara, he wasn't ready to give it up yet. He wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to give her up, but maybe it would be easier, knowing he had at least made one of her dreams come true.

Oliver watched Sara suddenly stumble and nearly fall out of the bed before rushing to the bathroom and he could hear her throw up again within seconds after she reached it, he was just about to just hang up on his parents and go after Sara when his mother's next words stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Come home now or we're going to cut you off." His eyes strayed to the entrance of the bathroom. It was an empty threat, just like they always were coming from his mother. He took several steps towards the door when his father followed up.

"You have until the end of the week, Oliver. Or we're going to disown you, son." They were bluffing, right? He was pretty sure, except there was something in the tone of his father's voice that made him hesitate. He sounded like the firm businessman he was, not like the easygoing dad he'd hang out with.

Sara was dry heaving now. Not surprisingly, they hadn't had anything to eat yet. He disconnected the call, grabbed a glass from the counter and filled it with water from the bottle next to it before stepping into the bathroom to check up on her.

She had felt under the weather for a while now. But last night had been terrible, which was why they had decided to just stay in today and not go anywhere. She'd told him some of the smells in the streets made her sick to her stomach and led to her throwing up.

He was shying away from the implications, just as he knew Sara was. They weren't ready to face the possibility yet. Not yet. Maybe… He pushed the thought from his mind again, crouching down next to her, softly rubbing her back with one hand while holding the glass out to her with the other. Sara looked up from the toilet to give him a small, watery, but grateful smile while taking the glass from him and carefully taking some small sips. He let himself drop down to the floor, sitting next to her and softly guiding her into his lap, so she wouldn't sit on the cold bathroom floor anymore, all she was wearing was one of his shirts, this way she'd be sitting on his legs. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her sideways into his chest, kissing her temple while she was leaning into him, still slowly sipping the water he had brought her.

They stayed like that for long moments and it was only when Sara leaned forward to throw the water back up into the toilet, her weight pressing against his hand, that he realized just where he had placed it. He felt her stomach move under it while her body was rejecting the water she had just drank. He lifted his other hand and moved her hair from her face, holding it back. Part of him wanted to move his hand from her stomach, but he couldn't. It was almost as if it was stuck in place. His mind once again strayed in the direction it did more frequently, with Sara's symptoms not disappearing. With the additional complaints she was having, like constantly feeling exhausted, or her constant need to go to the bathroom, or the fact that her breasts were growing bigger and changing in other ways, too.


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Singapore, December 7th, 2007

She slowly looked at the last one of the sticks, already expecting the sight that greeted her. Another plus sign. She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. Okay, she had suspected this for a while. This wasn't a surprise, not really. It also wasn't the end of the world. It was just… this would change everything. She just wasn't sure what that meant. For her. For them. They'd had a plan, sort of, and this was seriously messing it up.

"Sar?" Ollie was knocking on the bathroom door and calling through it when she didn't answer. Ollie… how was he going to react? What was he going to do? He'd said they'd be in this together no matter what, but what if… what if he changed his mind now that they knew for sure? What if it was too much for him to handle? No, he wouldn't… Ollie wouldn't let her hang, wouldn't turn his back on her and their baby. Their baby. They were having a baby.

She slowly walked towards the door and switched the lock to let him in. She turned around and slowly slid down the wall opposite to the door, where she had sat and waited after every test she had taken.

"So…" he was standing just barely inside, the door closed and locked behind him again, his hands in his pockets. He looked like a little boy who was in trouble and dreading the punishment.

"I'm pregnant." There was no sugarcoating this, so the best way was to just come out and say it. It was only once she had uttered the words that the reality of the matter set in. And all of her thoughts came to a screeching halt. This little sentence being the only thing that reverberated in her mind. She forced her mind to focus on Ollie and the words he spoke.

"Are you sure, Sar?" he felt his chest tighten, breathing becoming more of an issue while a familiar feeling was rushing through his entire being. He could feel another set of chains wrap around him and being pulled tighter. He had only just broken free from the ones that had held him his entire life, he had felt as if his story was finally beginning but that feeling took a complete one-eighty now and was replaced by the feeling of his story ending before it had even really had a chance to begin.

"Yeah, pretty much." Oliver forced himself out of his own mind and to focus on the voice of the woman at his feet.

"I mean really sure. You could be wrong, there's the possibility that the test is wrong. It happens all the time." He wasn't ready to give his freedom up again, wasn't ready to close the book on what was supposed to be the beginning of his story, his chance at freedom, a life without responsibilities, at least for the foreseeable future. He wasn't much more than a kid himself. He was left alone to fend for himself for the first time in his life. He didn't have anything to offer... he wasn't even sure how he was going to take care of himself, or Sara, even less a... he wasn't much more than a kid himself. How was he supposed to raise one?

"Sure, it's possible that one could be wrong. I peed on six fucking sticks, O.J. and they are all saying the same thing. Every single one of them. So, yes, I'm sure. Unless they switched the meaning of the plus sign and neither of us was informed about it." She tried to keep her shit together and give him time to wrap his head around it, at least a little she's had more time to do that than he, since she had refused to let him stay inside with her while she peed on those tests. She had needed that time without him hovering over her, breathing down her neck. But she couldn't help the sarcasm dripping from her voice towards the end. She was a fucking nervous wreck and only barely keeping it together because she knew he was going to freak and they couldn't very well both freak out at the same time.

"You think so?" He realized how stupid he sounded pretty much while the question left his mouth and before the incredulous look and exaggerated eye roll he received as answer from the blonde, sitting on the floor next to the public toilet they'd been occupying for at least half an hour by now, registered.

"Ollie." She loved him, she really did, had for a long time, but sometimes he could be so infuriatingly dense and such a fucking idiot.

He rationally knew that she was probably right. They had been suspecting that she might be pregnant for a while, but this made it real. So real. Too real for his liking. Especially because they had found out only a couple of days ago that his parents had been serious about their threat and cut him off. None of his credit or debit cards worked anymore. Oliver had called his bank and tried to open a new bank account and transfer some of the money from his trust fund into it, after his parents had threatened to freeze all of his assets and deny him access to the money if he didn't return home immediately, but that took time, and his parents hadn't given him enough for that. He still had some cash. They had made sure they'd have a little cushion just in case, but that would only last them for so long… So the timing for them to be in this situation was really, really sucky. He almost wished they'd decided to find out when they had first suspected it. Maybe he could've somehow changed his parents' mind, or he could've gone back or…

He took a deep breath, trying not to freak out. Unsuccessfully, he looked at Sara again, sitting on the floor, back to the wall, one of the pregnancy tests still in her hand. The rest was strewn all around her. He studied her carefully, saw her eyes stray to the test again, the way she chewed on her lower lip and noticed the way her eyes were slightly larger than usual. It was in that moment that he realized she was freaking out just as much as he was. That they were both in this together. That she wasn't taking it as easily as she wanted to make him believe, probably because she knew he was struggling with the news. Fuck! He loved her. So fucking much.

"Sar, babe, it's okay. We're going to be okay. We'll figure it out." He crouched down in front of her, softly grasping her chin to force her to look at him. And he realized the moment their eyes met, and the words left his mouth that he really believed so. They'd be alright, he and Sara and their baby. Fuck. They were going to have a baby.

"You're pregnant."

"Yeah."

"We're having a baby."

"Yeah."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

"We'll figure this out together, alright?"

"Alright, together."

It wasn't until hours later that either of them realized what they had said, the promise they'd made to each other, while lying in the bed in their dingy hotel room, as sleep was slowly taking them over.


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Yes, their baby girl had been a surprise that had seriously messed up their plans. But the best surprise ever and she'd improved their original plan at least a thousandfold. Oliver smiled while remembering the very first time he had told Sara he loved her, not even realizing he had until hours later, and the promise he had made and kept up to this day. Yes, Eloise had changed the course of his life dramatically, and he was so very grateful for it. He couldn't picture what his life would look like without Sara and their kids in it.

He set her back down and helped her get properly dressed again, only just barely managing to pull her dress back down over her leggings when she was speeding off again shouting a "thank you, daddy" at him over her shoulder. He shook his head, grinning at his little nut-bag. At least it looked like they might get an early night. If she kept that level of energy up, she'd probably tire herself out. It would be kind of nice. They hadn't had one since at least their move several weeks ago.

Oliver followed the path his daughter had sped off to at a slower pace.


Notes:

So here's some of the backstory, lol. I hope you guys liked it and Oliver's line of thought made sense, let me know what you think.

Okay so, no disrespect to Sara here, and I don't mean to drag her, I just figured she probably forgot to take the pill from time to time, given the way her character was presented in Arrow and Legends at that age. Plus I had several friends growing up who frequently forgot to take the pill every single day at the exact same time. She was nineteen, shit happens.

Also, I'm not sure if their travel route would've been possible in the timespan I chose, given they probably would've needed visa and not sure if there are or were any restrictions or issues for US citizens to visit Vietnam in 2007. It's fiction and given the fact that Arrow frequently used the term North China Sea, which doesn't actually exist, lol, they probably meant the Yellow Sea, I think I'm allowed to potentially mess the visa stuff up…

They were dumb idiots in denial but they were not stupid.

Chapter title is from the songs "There goes my life" by Kenny Chesney and "Two Pink Lines" by Eric Church.