Notes:

Got inspired again, lol. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

I'm hopin' things look up, but there ain't no job openings My daughter's feet ain't got no shoes or socks on 'em

He was slightly nervous and not sure if this had been a good idea, but it was too late to change it now. Before they had parted ways after their lunch, he'd suggested they should hang out again, when they all had more time. Somehow, they had decided Saturday would work for everyone. He'd then taken it a step further, suggesting the sisters should get some time to spend together, just the girls, so he and Ollie could go hang out somewhere, just the boys, like they used to. To his surprise, no one had had any objections to that idea. He wasn't so sure about it anymore right now.

Tommy was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had happened in the past three days since Laurel had unexpectedly run into Oliver while waiting for him. He'd had three days to think about everything he'd learnt about his two former best friends, and he still wasn't sure how to feel about any of it.

Well, they had left out a lot during their little recount and explanation, which, honestly, was something he could at least understand. They had been inside a public restaurant. It had been the first time in five fucking years they had all been together and their little girl had been sitting right next to Oliver the entire time. Sure, their little boy had been there too, doing a little switcheroo from the high chair the restaurant had provided, to Oliver to Sara, back into the chair, back to Sara and so on and so forth. But it wasn't like the baby would've understood what they were talking about, at least not the way their older daughter would've. Jesus fucking Christ. Oliver and Sara had a four-year-old daughter. He still couldn't wrap his head around that. Not that there was any way to deny that the little girl was Sara and Oliver's. She looked just like them, and character wise, she was very similar to them too. And she was definitely very cute and pretty funny, but he just wouldn't know what to do with a kid right now. That would be like the last thing he'd need at this point in his life and to think that Oliver had become a dad at barely twenty-three, he couldn't even imagine. He'd been hitting clubs and various gorgeous girls at that age. And Sara, Sara had only been twenty-years old, she hadn't even been legally allowed to drink yet. Not that it had stopped her, but… still… Jesus, Sara had a kid before the law had allowed her to drink. How messed up was that?

What he hadn't expected was both Oliver and Sara taking his statement this literal.

Tommy had looked at his friend confused for a moment, when he had kissed Sara and little Eloise goodbye, but kept his son in the big scarf thing that was wrapped around his chest and the baby was chilling in and the diaper bag over his shoulder when they left Laurel's. Oliver had just raised an eyebrow at him and grinned in a way that was so familiar to him while saying "just the boys, right?". He couldn't very well disagree with that, it was what he had said, and Benjamin was theoretically one of the boys, he had just automatically expected Oliver would leave the baby with his mother, it would've made more sense to him, with Sara still breast feeding him and everything. That and Oliver had asked for them to pick a place relatively close by, just in case "Benji" got fussy and ended up wanting Sara, had pretty much been the only exchange they've had so far, while looking for a place to have brunch at. Hence the second guessing of his decision, maybe having the women around would've been better. But he felt it was too late to backtrack now and he suddenly had an idea where they could go. They continued their trip mostly in silence and it wasn't until they were sitting in the bistro just a block from Laurel's, that conversation had slowly started to flow between them. While Oliver had unwrapped his son.

He looked at his former best friend sitting in the booth across from him, with his son in his lap. The baby was pulling himself up, holding on to Oliver's shirt and wobbling around on his little legs, before falling back down just to repeat the action again, almost as if he were in a loop. Tommy was getting exhausted just watching the little man. The task looked arduous and challenging, as if simply standing up were the most difficult thing in the world to do. Watching the baby persistently getting up again and just how much strain it took for him to get back on his feet and little legs was fascinating. The thing that was strangest about this entire situation was how Oliver wasn't even really reacting to the baby climbing around in his lap, just automatically supporting him with one hand every time he pulled himself in a standing position again, while continuing eating his meal with the other, all the while never interrupting their conversation, as if this was completely normal, which on second thought it probably was to Ollie, just like taking the little guy to go change his diaper, he'd done a while ago, as if it were nothing. Oliver was changing diapers. How the hell had they ended up here?

It was still very, very strange to him.

This wasn't at all turning out the way he had expected. At least the conversation flowed easily enough, and Oliver seemed more willing to share than he had been on Wednesday during lunch. So far, they'd mostly talked about the places he and Sara had seen and some of what had been going on here in the last five years. Nothing too deep or too personal, but not just pointless small talk either.

"Sar always wanted to see the world. Remember how bummed she was the summer you and Malcolm went to Australia and my folks took Speedy and me to Europe, while she was stuck at summer camp? I mean, she loved it, but she'd just really wanted to travel too. So, I'd promised her I'd take her, I'd show her the world once she graduated High School. I mean, we were still just kids back then, but it was a promise I had always intended to keep. But she was pretty excited to attend college out of town and be on her own for the first time in her life when she graduated. It didn't really come up. Not until later… I'm not sure how or when we actually decided to just do it, that she'd take a semester off from college and we'd travel for a bit, instead of just talking about it." Tommy felt there were still some pretty significant parts Oliver was leaving out while explaining how he and Sara had ended up in China together and her eventually pregnant with his first child. But it did shed some light on it, and he wasn't comfortable prying. Ollie had taken their conversation a level deeper all on his own and he didn't want to push it and possibly fuck whatever progress they were making up. He had missed this too much to risk it all again. And he was sure Oliver would share more about it, eventually.

Which led to the other thing he still had trouble wrapping his head around, less so than Oliver being a fucking dad though but still, a bit of a mind-fuck.

Oliver and Sara.

Sara and Oliver.

Married.

With two kids and a third one in the oven, close enough to being baked, that Laurel would probably burn it if it were food, even with the timer set.

How the hell had that happened? When had that happened, and where had he been? Why hadn't they told him? Why hadn't they… They had completely shut him out when they chose to leave five years ago. Ollie was only supposed to be gone for six weeks, maybe two months, depending on the weather and ocean. They had all been surprised when Robert had come back, and Oliver hadn't been on the Gambit with him. When Robert had explained that Oliver had decided he'd rather spend another three weeks in China than on the boat again and fly back, it had made perfect sense to him. Being stuck on a boat for another three weeks sounded a lot less fun than partying in China. So that had been plausible.

Only Oliver hadn't come back home on a flight. To both his parents' dismay and his and Laurel's confusion. Oliver had been consistent with his answer to everyone, insisting that he wasn't ready to come home yet, and he felt like traveling a little longer and seeing more of the world, that he'd come back once he felt he'd seen everything he wanted to. Tommy hadn't been sure what to think of that. But Ollie would be Ollie and do whatever he wanted. He always had. He hadn't dropped out of four colleges for no reason. When he set his mind on something, he would see it through, no matter what. And if he had specific locations in mind he wanted to see, his stubbornness wouldn't let him come back home before he'd seen them.

Robert and Moira had not accepted his answer or plans. Even going so far as threatening him with disownment. He, just like everyone else, had been sure this would bring his best friend back home. How wrong they had all been. The biggest shock, though, had been when Robert and Moira actually went through with their threat, freezing all of his bank accounts and essentially denying him access to any of the family's wealth and with that any way to get money to pay for his expenses. Tommy never would've expected them to go through with it, and it had made him wonder if Ollie had. They weren't known to carry out their threats or actually punish their children. Unlike both the Lances and his dad.

So, this had been a shocker. And he had been convinced it would work. The last thing he had expected to this maneuver from his parents was Oliver's reaction. He'd called Laurel and broken up with her only like a week or so after he had been cut off. It had made no sense to him. So, he had called Ollie and tried to get some answers and to reason with him, to ask him to come back home or offer to go get him or help him or whatever. Again, to no avail. Oliver hadn't given him any explanation. He hadn't given him any actual reasons for his actions, at least none that he couldn't call bullshit right away. Laurel had been a mess. Thea hadn't understood what was going on and why Ollie wasn't coming home or why everyone was angry at him. At one point, it had been all too much, and they had ended up having one hell of an argument on the phone. They both had said things they shouldn't have, and they had ended the call in anger on both sides.

"Mom and dad cut me off, it was like two, maybe three days after I guess that we found out that Sara was pregnant, well when we knew for sure, we'd thought she might be for a while before that, it was just…" Oliver softly placed his hand on his son's back when he was trying to climb over his shoulder, making sure he wouldn't succeed and fall over the backrest and onto the booth behind him, where a couple of women around their age were now awing and cooing at the baby. Tommy had to grin at that for a moment and looked back at Oliver to share it, only then noticing that his friend hadn't taken note of the reaction his son was emitting from the women, and not just that he didn't even seem to realize they were there. Interesting. Oliver just took a sip from his glass before continuing his story.

"I guess part of us tried to deny it for as long as we could. Ignorance is bliss, right? Anyway. It was a lot. We weren't sure what to do, how to… it took us a while to sort of figure it out. Come up with a plan." Tommy was watching the man across from him closely while he was sharing part of his past more in depths than he had before, and it was easy for him to detect the remnants of the pain he must have felt at his parents' actions and the bitterness that came with it. Learning about the struggle his friends had faced, just how fucked up the timing for it all had been, hurt. He couldn't even imagine being in that type of situation. Not having access to money, even less while learning you were going to be a dad and with that, responsible for another human being, while being stranded in a foreign country. Jesus.

He wasn't sure why he'd never called back to apologize for the things he had said. Maybe if he had, Ollie would've told him. Had he known what Ollie was dealing with at the time… he'd helped him. He would've. Just like he had originally offered him to.

"How'd you get the money to travel?" A part of him wanted to ask why he hadn't told him, why they had kept it from him. Why he hadn't asked him for help but he didn't know how to without sounding accusatory, so he decided to ask a less risky question.

"Well, there are bars and clubs in almost every town all around the world, and it's usually good money, with the tips. If they weren't willing to hire a foreigner, hotels and resorts usually were. Or I'd just do whatever. I mean, there were places I helped out in construction, or one time we stayed at a farm, we got room and board in exchange for helping out. So, getting a job was usually not that difficult. I mean, there were several times when things were rough or we felt our luck has changed, but you'd be surprised how many people are willing to help out a family in need. Plus, we usually had a car, so we always had the option to sleep in there, which is what we normally did when the pay wasn't good, that way we'd have enough for food and to make sure Eloise had clothes and shoes that fit." Tommy tried to picture Ollie helping out on a farm with animals, and he just couldn't. Same for working in construction, but he guessed in the end you'd just do whatever you had to, to make sure you could provide for your family. His friend made it sound so clean, almost easy, but there was something in his voice, and the look in his eyes and the way he was holding Benjamin close to his chest, that told him he wasn't being honest.

Plus, there were a couple of statements that seemed to tell an entirely different story, too.

"… things were rough… we felt our luck has changed… family in need… sleep in the car… enough food… make sure Eloise had clothes and shoes…" He looked at Benjamin now sitting on his father's lap again, chewing on one of Ollie's fingers, then back up to Oliver who had a faraway look on his face and he swallowed hard. He felt like crying or throwing up at the thought that the happy little girl of Ollie and Sara had to live in a car and might not have had clothes or shoes at times in her life. That Oliver and Sara had been in a position where they hadn't been able to provide something so mundane, something that he was taking for granted for their little girl. And what hurt him the most was the knowledge that they had felt they couldn't come to him. They couldn't come and ask him for help. He was supposed to be their best friend. Ollie was pretty much his brother. He wanted to say something, he just wasn't sure what.

"So, how long have you and Laurel been together?" The question took him by surprise, but he was also slightly relieved by it. He hadn't known how to… he wasn't sure he could've handled learning even more about the struggles his friends had faced in the five years they'd been away. So the change of subject was a welcoming one.

"About a year, officially. We sort of had this thing where we'd hook up from time to time, whenever Laur had a couple of drinks, for about two years, I think, before that." He shared the sort of progression of his and Laurel's relationship, leaving out a lot, too. At least for now. Things were still weird between them, and talking to Oliver about his relationship with Laurel was very strange. A part of him felt he had broken the bro code and should be punished for it, expecting Oliver to get angry at him because of it. Even now, that he had learnt that Sara had gotten pregnant before Oliver had broken up with Laurel. His friend chuckled at that and he just looked at him questioningly.

"Sounds familiar. Guess it's a Lance thing." He wasn't elaborating more, but he didn't have to. It was enough to remind him of the times Ollie and Sara had left parties together, both of them drunk. So, it had been going on even before the trip to China.

"Are you happy, Tommy?" What was it with Oliver and changing the subject out of the blue? He wondered why he asked.

"Yeah, I mean, things are a bit… Laurel is the best part of my life. Being with her makes me happier than I ever thought I could be. How about you? Mr. Dad!" Tommy decided to be honest, without going into detail about the other aspects of his life and the issues he had with his dad right now. Tommy couldn't help but tease Ollie a little, but c'mon, the guy was fucking entertaining a baby while never breaking stride or missing a beat or where they had been in their conversation while addressing and talking or baby talking to the little boy and changing diapers, or single handedly managing to fucking wrap his kid up in an enormous scarf around him without having him fall out of it and shit.

"Ha! Yeah, I am. Sara and the kids are everything to me. I love them more than I ever thought I could love anyone. They are my life and there is nothing I wouldn't do for them. They bring me so much joy and happiness." The smile that graced his best friend's face at the term he had used to address him was blinding. And the truth of his words was written all over his face.

They talked a little longer until Benjamin started to get a little fussy and Oliver asked for the check, which he insisted he pay. To Oliver's initial dismay, he did eventually drop the argument and thank him when his son began to cry. They left the table shortly thereafter, to pay at the counter instead of waiting for the waiter to return, Ollie bouncing the little guy and humming, the women at the table behind them once again awing over it, you'd think they'd never seen a dad comfort his kid, Tommy rolled his eyes at them and followed his friend, pointing the women out to him. Ollie turned his head towards them and threw them a charming smile, which one of the women took as an invitation to get up and walk over to them, while they were waiting at the counter to pay their bill.

"Aw, he's so cute. Poor little guy crying like that." She stretched her hand out almost as if she were going to touch the child, but Ollie took a step back and slightly turned so her hand only grabbed at air.

"Please don't touch him. He's crying already. Having a stranger hold on to him won't help him feel better. He'll be alright once we're back home and mommy can feed him." Oliver's voice was as smooth as honey, as it always was when talking to women, but his words were the opposite and the woman looked taken aback by them. Tommy wasn't sure why. He wouldn't want a stranger just grabbing at him while he was crying, so why should a baby be okay with that? The woman stumbled over an apology before hurrying back to her table, flustered.

"Man, what's wrong with people?" Oliver looked up from his son, whose head he was softly stroking, to him.

"Beats me. But Sara and I are both done with it. No clue why strangers feel they have the right to just touch or pet our kids. Sara actually decked a woman at Target once while she was pregnant with Benji. She'd just come up to her and touched her belly. No warning, no hello, no nothing. It was pretty funny. The woman complained to the manager. They gave Sara right." Tommy took his credit card back, shaking his head at the way people behaved. That story made him laugh out loud. It wasn't too difficult for him to picture that scene. Yeah, don't mess with Sara, she had a mean right hook.

Both men were chuckling while walking out of the restaurant and towards Laurel's apartment. This had turned out better than he had expected. Maybe he could get his best friend back, even if a slightly different version of him. Which was fine. He was a different version than he was five years ago, too.

Notes:

I was very nervous about this one, I think this is the first time ever I actually wrote an interaction between Oliver and Tommy that isn't all angsty... so let me know how I did.

Chapter title is from the song "Rockbottom" by Eminem.