#the multiverse is facilitating yet terrifying.

[cinnamon-badger]

I don’t know what’s going on with the multiverse I get to observe but I’m off working and taking care of a trainlet for 24 hours and it feels like missing 3 seasons of exposition in those tv dramas Flat top watches.

I don’t even know if I want context.

On a completely unrelated note Elvis face planted trying to flirt with Electron on in the training grounds yesterday and I think I have insomnia.

[raywritesthings]

Fate

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Kent Nelson, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: A different sorcerer intervenes on the night of Black Canary's untimely death, putting the multiverse back on track. *Also posted to AO3*

Oliver felt overcome. After all this time and assuming what he’d felt had to be true — that Laurel, though still his oldest friend, could never hold the same love for him she once did — he was learning just how wrong he’d been. And it was breaking his heart.

Laurel smiled up at him from her bed, still trying to be brave and kind for him even after confessing what had to be one of her deepest-held secrets. Her smile was tinged with sadness, and the truth was it had been for a while. What he wouldn’t give to take that sadness away.

Life wasn’t fair. She knew that far better than him.

“I need you to promise me something,” she said in a voice soft with both exhaustion and emotion. Oliver could only bring himself to nod.

Before Laurel could draw another breath, however, a brilliant golden light suddenly flared to life behind them. Oliver whirled around, one arm shielding his eyes and the other flung out to cover Laurel’s bed. He squinted and could make out a vaguely recognizable symbol before a person floated through it.

The stranger wore blue and gold, with a cape and helmet covering their entire face. A voice emanated from it, deep and powerful.

“Oliver Queen. Dinah Laurel Lance. Do not be alarmed.”

But in the next moment, the door to Laurel’s hospital room slammed shut, and the curtain was pulled over the window. Oliver glimpsed Thea and John both running towards the door, yet though the handle started to turn, it made no sound.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” He wasted no time in demanding. It was obvious the man was a sorcerer of some sort, and they’d had far too much of magic for one night.

“I am called Dr. Fate, and I have been watching this world for some time.”

“This world,” Laurel echoed. She was doing her best to sit up, but the movement was taxing her. “You mean you’re from Earth 2?”

“Not quite. But my origin is of little concern. I am here because the stability of this world, and therefore every other world in the multiverse, is at risk.” The golden symbol behind him had disappeared, and this Dr. Fate touched down onto the floor and took a step closer. Oliver moved to block him.

“I understand your wariness, Green Arrow, but we do not have much time.”

“What do you mean?”

“In minutes, this Earth’s Dinah Laurel Lance will suffer a fatal embolism.”

Oliver froze and looked back at Laurel. Her eyes were wide and afraid.

“I’m dying?”

“Yes,” said Fate, with not a hint of emotion. “This was never meant to happen, but too much meddling with the timeline has caused terribly disruptive changes. Changes that will lead to a Crisis across every Earth.” With the slightest tilt of his helmet, the sorcerer looked from her to Oliver. “Without Black Canary and your descendants, your mission to save Star City will fail, Green Arrow. Only with my intervention can we hope to prevent this.”

“How?” The man was a stranger, he had trapped them in this room, and there was absolutely no reason to trust him. But Oliver couldn’t take the chance that he was right, not when it meant Laurel’s death. The idea alone was enough to make him feel faint.

“With my power, I can heal her. It will take a small transference of energy, and your previous connection facilitated by John Constantine provides the most reliable source.”

His energy. Some of his life.

“No,” said Laurel, her voice stronger than it had been. She was forcing herself.

“It is the only way.”

“Not if it hurts him.” She looked from Dr. Fate to Oliver. “Ollie, I could never ask you to do that.”

“Laurel, if we don’t—”

“You’ll be fine. I know you will, because that’s what you do. You have Thea and John and Felicity to help you protect the city.” She winced, one hand going to the wound in her side. “If the timeline’s changed, then it’s changed. It’s changed so you don’t need me.”

Fate stood there silently, neither confirming nor denying. But Oliver didn’t need him to.

“It can’t have changed that much, Laurel. Because I’m always going to need you. And you never have to ask.” He looked back to the sorcerer. “What do we need to do?”

“You must join hands. I will handle the rest.”

Laurel clasped her own hands together, stubborn as always. “Oliver.”

“Hey,” he said in a softer voice. Oliver sat on the edge of her bed. “Laurel, you are always going to be someone important to me. Necessary to me. Someone I love.”

“But—”

He cupped her face with one hand, and Laurel fell silent.

“I don’t know how I deserve to be the man you fell in love with, and it wouldn’t be fair of me to make that same promise to you now.” There were so many emotions and thoughts going through his head right now; he couldn’t begin to parse out the nature of his true feelings. Not when he’d only to recently been set to pledge his life and heart to someone else. Laurel deserved more than some rushed declaration.

He took hold of the photograph Laurel had dropped onto the bed sheet when Fate appeared. “But I made a promise the day I washed up on that island. A promise to come home and to make things right between you and me. After so many years, Laurel, let me fulfill that promise now.”

She opened her mouth and seemed to struggle to find her voice for a moment. “Ollie, I...I’m not worth it.”

His eyes stung with a sudden sharpness as it felt like someone had punched him in the gut. He wanted to scream, to rip through every person who had made her feel that way; everyone who had ever tried to convince him she was too much trouble or too much of a distraction; and no one more than himself.

Oliver pulled her close. “Oh, Laurel. I’m sorry. But you’re worth more than you know.” His lips pressed to the top of her head. “More than I could ever hope to be.”

“I need an answer,” Fate stated.

“Just trust me. One last time,” Oliver murmured to her. He pulled back, and Laurel gave a single slow nod. Placing his hands in hers, he looked back to Dr. Fate. “Yes.”

“And not a moment too soon.” His eyes glowed even brighter as his arms raised toward them. Laurel gave a cough and seized up, but Oliver held fast to her hands. Together, they were shining with that same golden glow.

It passed from him to her, and as Laurel gave a gasp of air he felt a wave of exhaustion overtake him. The glow receded, and Oliver slumped forward.

Two arms came around him. “Ollie!”

His eyes fell shut, and he slipped off to dreams.

—-

Laurel was invigorated and terrified. She held Oliver where he had fallen into her lap and tried to wake him. “Oliver, please!”

“He will be fine, but he must rest a while,” the sorcerer called Dr. Fate proclaimed.

She looked up with a glare. “Why did you tell him to do that? It’s his life. He shouldn’t have given it to me.”

“The choice to share it with you was his. And that choice has hopefully saved the multiverse.”

Laurel shook her head. She had only just started to accept the existence of one additional earth, and it was hard to contemplate an unlimited number of them. Harder still to imagine her continued existence would have much of any affect on them.

“I sense your doubt, but that does not change your destiny as one of this Earth’s fiercest protectors. Green Arrow will be one of your first challenges. You have seen the good in him, and you must help him to see that as well. Should he fall, it will mean the beginning of the end for your city.”

Her one arm was draped over Oliver’s back, and she curled her fingers into the fabric of his sweater. “How do you know all this?”

“That is a question far too complicated to answer for the time we have. Rest and recover, Black Canary. I would suggest a trip to Central City in the coming weeks.”

Laurel’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

But the sorcerer only turned and rose into the air as that same strange golden symbol appeared in front of him. He floated through, and the whole thing vanished.

An instant later, the door to her hospital room was kicked in by John, and he, Thea, and her father all rushed through.

“Laurel!”

“It’s okay! We’re okay!” She held up both hands, and the three of them relaxed. For a moment.

“What’s happened to Ollie?” Thea moved to her brother’s side, and John stuck his head out of the door to call for a nurse.

“He, um, fainted. It’s hard to explain.”

Her father came up to the opposite side of the bed and kissed her forehead. “You sure you’re alright? I got here, and they said there was this golden light and the door locked itself.”

“Well, there was a sorcerer — a good one, I guess.” He seemed to at least care about maintaining some kind of peace and order in the world, anyway. “He, um, he saved my life with Ollie’s help.”

She looked back down at him, sleeping in her lap like he used to all those years ago. With his face relaxed and stress-free, she could almost imagine the time hadn’t passed.

“Excuse me,” a nurse said as she squeezed through the door. Her way had been impeded slightly by Felicity, who was standing there and silently watching. Laurel guiltily moved her hands away from Oliver once more.

The nurse called for a bed for Oliver, then moved to check Laurel’s monitors. She frowned. “Miss Lance, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, really.”

“You’ve recovered far quicker than would be expected.”

“So she really is fine?” Her father asked. Laurel rolled her eyes. Trust him not to take her word for it. Her annoyance was tempered knowing how worried he had to be, though.

“She seems to be in perfect health. We’ll need her to stay overnight for observation. Now, while I’m here, I’ll check the dressing on your injury, Miss Lance.”

The others all left the room as the nurse set to work. She and Laurel both received a shock, however, when the bandages were pulled away to reveal her wound healed over. The faintest outline of an arrowhead rested over the spot where it had once been, like a tattoo.

“But that- you—” The nurse stammered.

“Um, probably best you don’t ask,” Laurel recommended. She didn’t have even the first idea of where to begin a cover story for this.

Her nurse left soon after, and her father entered the room with Felicity.

“She looked worried,” her dad pointed out.

“More disturbed,” Laurel said. “The sorcerer healed my wound completely, which would be enough to throw anybody.”

“Why did he show up?” Felicity asked. “I mean, who was he?”

“He called himself Dr. Fate, and he said I wasn’t supposed to die tonight. That bad things would happen if I did,” Laurel answered.

“So a guy called Fate told you and Oliver that you needed to stay alive and he needed Oliver’s help to make that happen,” her friend summed up.

“Yeah. He shouldn’t have done it,” Laurel said, her eyes on the covers.

“Well, that’s never stopped him. Oliver would do just about anything to keep you safe Laurel. He’s been that way ever since I’ve known him.” When she looked up, Felicity was watching her with a knowing look. It wasn’t accusing; just aware. She laid a hand on Laurel’s arm. “Let me know when you’re discharged tomorrow, and we’ll get breakfast or brunch or whatever mealtime it is. We can order it in, even. I think I should head home.”

“Okay,” Laurel agreed softly. She didn’t know what else to say, and Felicity was already on her way out the door.

“Think she might know something?” Her father asked.

Laurel let out a pitiful groan. “It’s worse than that. I told Oliver.”

“Oh, baby.” He sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.

“I must have subconsciously known I was dying,” she decided, resting her head on his shoulder. Why else would she have done something so monumentally stupid? “It’s not like I knew literal Fate was going to get in the way.”

“Well, I for one am glad that it did. We can handle the rest. You know, Oliver, he’s become a much better man.”

“I know.” Whatever his feelings, she was sure Oliver would be kind about it. She just wasn’t sure she was ready for that conversation to happen.

Thea and John both came back in.

“Ollie’s gonna be fine,” Thea told them, relief evident in her tone.

“Yeah, just looks like he might have a new tattoo,” John added. “Some kind of bird?”

Laurel’s eyebrows shot up her forehead, and she could feel her cheeks heating up. Her friends both crossed their arms, and her father was looking down at her.

“I don’t know how that happened.”

“I guess it was Fate,” Thea joked with quirked lips.

Laurel grabbed at the sheet and started to pull it up in an effort to hide.

“Alright, enough talking,” her father said. “Even if you’re healed, you should still get some sleep.” He hugged her tightly for a moment, then stood up and joined the others as they left.

Laurel settled back against her pillows, trying to organize the different thoughts and feelings cluttering her mind. She had been spared death at the hands of Darhk, and with it had come a cryptic warning about the future of their city and their world. Could they trust the sorcerer’s word? Even if he had healed her, what if it had simply been for his own purposes?

Maybe Constantine would know who this Dr. Fate was. Oliver could always ask him. Of course, thinking of Oliver only returned her to the more immediate problem she was facing.

Could they really work together as a team the way they needed to now that he knew the truth? Why couldn’t they have been interrupted before she’d made that stupid, sentimental claim? She’d been so relieved to say it in the moment, but the more she thought of the fallout the worse her insides seemed to squirm.

Laurel resolutely closed her eyes and focused on her breathing the way Nyssa had once trained her to do. Staying up the whole night chasing her head in circles would do no one good. She needed to be ready for the next time they faced Darhk, and for whatever was coming for them in the future.

One of those things would apparently be waiting for her in Central City, if this Dr. Fate was to be believed. She wasn’t sure whether to look forward to it or dread it.

—-

His sleep, at first peaceful, turned fitful as he came closer to waking up. Oliver kept reliving those moments where he’d been frozen at the prison, helpless to do anything but watch as Darhk stabbed Laurel with his own arrow. Her face, so sad but trying to put a smile on for him as she’d confessed her love. The certainty with which she’d claimed he didn’t feel the same.

“Your mission to save Star City will fail, Green Arrow,” the disembodied voice of the sorcerer spoke. “Without Black Canary…”

He sat up, breathing hard.

“Hey, hey, you’re fine,” Thea said. She leaned forward in the visitor’s chair at his bedside and took one of his hands.

“Speedy?”

“Yeah, Ollie. How are you feeling?”

“Okay.” He swallowed. His throat felt a little dry, and his brain was still a little sluggish, but he felt well enough that he had to wonder what he was doing in a hospital. “What happened?”

“Well, from what I’ve been told, you let a sorcerer transfer some of your energy or something to Laurel so she wouldn’t die. Then you passed out for most of a day.”

Oliver blinked. On some level, he’d thought that maybe everything to do with Dr. Fate had been a dream of his. Some way to cope.

“So Laurel’s okay?”

Thea nodded. “Has been since last night. A little nervous, but.” She shrugged and sat back. “Ollie, What all happened when that sorcerer showed up? Laurel only mentioned that he needed you to help save her life.”

Oliver closed his eyes, casting his mind back. “He told us he’d been watching things on this Earth, and that things had been going wrong because of all the changes to the timeline.” He didn’t know if that had been referring to the fight between speedsters that had gone on in Central City last year or Sara and Ray’s escapades through time along with the others. That would be something to worry about later.

“Because of the changes, Laurel was stabbed by Darhk and was gonna die before she was meant to.” Even the memory of that was enough to make his heart start to beat faster with worry. “According to him, if she did die, Star City wasn’t gonna make it in the end. And neither would this Earth.”

Thea’s eyes were wide as could be. “Really?”

Oliver gave a grim nod. “He told me directly: without the Black Canary and—”

But Oliver’s mouth ran completely dry as he remembered exactly what Fate had said.

Your descendants.

He’d said it to Oliver but linked it to Laurel. There wouldn’t be much reason to do that unless…

“Ollie?”

He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. So he offered to heal her with my help, and I agreed.” He wasn’t going to get into the struggle that had been getting Laurel to agree. Her insistence that she wasn’t worth him sacrificing even some small part of himself was too raw in his memory. “I’m sorry if you and the others were worried.”

Thea shook her head. “I’m just glad you’re both okay. You and Laurel are practically the only family I have left.”

“Yeah.” Oliver looked down. If there was anyone he trusted to talk to about this, it was his sister. “Before Fate showed up, Laurel and I were talking, and she told me she still has feelings for me.”

Thea was silent.

“I take it you already knew.”

“I could guess.” She shifted to one side in her chair and added, “It wasn’t really my place to ask. I mean, we all thought you and Felicity were a done deal.”

“So did I.” And that was the problem. He’d thought he and Laurel were finished, and he’d grown to see Felicity as the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. Now Felicity wasn’t interested in that kind of life with him, but did that mean he was only treating Laurel as a consolation? Or had Felicity been the consolation when he’d thought there was no chance for him and Laurel? Was kind of person did that make him that he couldn’t make up his mind?

Thea sighed. “Look, I’m with you whatever happens. I want you to be happy. And in more than the temporary sense.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean once the honeymoon’s over, once the novelty’s worn off. We lead tough lives, Ollie, and you make tough choices all the time,” she reminded him. “A partner, a spouse, they have to be able to deal with that. To believe in you, and stick with you even through the rough patches.”

“You’ve thought a lot about the kind of person I should be with.”

“That’s the kind of person we all should be with,” she replied. “Look at John and Lyla. They don’t always agree about what the other’s doing, but they talk it out. They don’t just walk away.” She leaned forward. “I’m trying to spare you what mom went through with Walter.”

Oliver let out a breath, his eyes falling closed. Thea didn’t have to say another word; he knew exactly what that meant.

Their mother had found happiness with Walter, but it had been built on a false and temporary foundation — the same as the slice of life he’d tried to carve out for himself and Felicity in Ivy Town. But just as his mother hadn’t really been the blameless woman Walter had married, Oliver wasn’t that perfect guy Felicity had run away with. Their demons ran deep, and neither Walter nor Felicity knew how to survive that. So they’d left.

Which left Laurel. Always there, always waiting for him to wise up, to realize when he’d made a mistake, to care for him even when she was absolutely screaming furious at him. She knew him better than just about anyone, without him having to explain a thing, and loved him anyway. It was humbling, the depth of her devotion. He did not deserve it. He was almost scared of it, the sheer intensity, he always had been.

But it was time to stop being a coward. After everything he had put her through, after almost losing her last night, he needed to at least try to be the man she saw in him. Save some of the light for himself, just as she had told him.

There was a knock on the door, and he and Thea both looked up as Laurel came through. She was dressed to leave in one of those big sweaters she loved wearing on her days off, and she bit at her bottom lip for a moment when their eyes met.

“You’re awake. Good.”

“Yeah.”

“Oliver, I really am sorry.”

He gave a single shake of the head. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Thea stood up. “Think I’ll go see about getting your discharge papers. You guys should compare your matching tattoos.” She threw him a wink over her shoulder as she reached the door, then left.

“Tattoos?” He had to ask.

“Um, yeah. We’re pretty sure they’re a souvenir from Dr. Fate,” Laurel explained. “Check your right side.”

She brought one hand to hover over where her wound had been. Oliver lifted the sleep shirt he’d been put in to find a new tattoo just below the one Constantine had given him. “A canary?”

“Mine’s an arrowhead,” Laurel replied, her eyes anywhere but on him.

If not for her discomfort, he might have found himself a little pleased at the information. As it was, he got up from the bed. “Laurel, about what you told me—”

“Oliver, it really doesn’t have to matter.”

He blinked. “Of course it matters. I care about how you’re feeling, Laurel.”

She waved a hand. “I mean that it doesn’t have to matter in regards to — you know, you and Felicity.”

He looked down. “There is no more me and Felicity. That’s gonna take me some time to get over, but there’s no point in denying it’s true. She’s not interested in anything with me romantically, and that’s my own fault.”

Barry had even warned him back when he’d first learned about William, but Oliver had made the decision to keep his son a secret anyway. He’d deemed William and Samantha’s privacy and boundaries more important and hoped that Felicity would understand and forgive him his choice. That she hadn’t was not a fault on her part; he had been well aware she had little tolerance for secrets. He’d only been fooling himself thinking that their opposite viewpoints could coexist long term.

It wasn’t Felicity’s responsibility to forgive him his errors any more than it was Laurel’s, but he could recognize which of the two had demonstrated a willingness to do so time and again. It was the woman standing before him now and watching him with a compassionate look.

“You don’t have to give up right away, Ollie. Relationships take work and compromise, and they can survive things like this.”

“Can they survive being walked out on twice?”

Laurel looked away, which was an answer even if not in words. “I just don’t want you changing your mind because of something I said.”

“I can’t pretend you didn’t say it. I’m sorry, but it does change things,” he told her honestly. “Because instead of hanging onto something that is already over, I’m realizing what I already have. And that is one of my best friends who has always done her best to be there for me no matter what.”

Laurel glanced up at him from the corners of her eyes.

“No matter what,” Oliver repeated, “you’re a partner in my life. And I know I haven’t always been the best partner to you. I ask too much, I take for granted that you will be there. So much so that I had no idea what to do last night when we almost lost you.”

“But you did,” she said softly. “You got me to the hospital, Ollie. You were there when Dr. Fate showed up.”

“Because I couldn’t let go. God, Laurel, the nurse had to practically force me to let go of your hand,” he admitted. He could feel his eyes stinging again. “I’m far from the person who deserves to share their life with you, and I don’t want to rush this. I want to change and make myself better first. And I hate having to ask you to wait for that.”

She moved and in the space of one breath had him in her arms. He buried his head in her shoulder and simply relished the feel of her, so warm and alive. If he could stand here holding her forever, it would be the closest to heaven he could ever hope to reach.

“You can take whatever time you need. I’m always going to be here, Oliver.” Her hands rubbed his back once, and in a tone flavored with her wry humor she added, “Apparently I have to be for the sake of the multiverse.”

He choked on a laugh. “That’s one thing I can believe in.”

It was all a little too much, too soon, too fast. They always were. But if he was being given this last chance, he was going to make it right.