Angel Face - Oliver Queen 🌷

11 || Making Amends 👫

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Three days. That's how long it had been since I had heard from Oliver Queen. After we got shot at, after he disappeared, after he refused to let me in. I was packing up my things into my purse before heading out for work that afternoon when suddenly the lights cut out - leaving my room dully lit up by the afternoon sun shining through my thick curtains.

"Hello Harley." A familiar, deep voice filled my ears and I whirled around with a startled gasp. Here he was again. The Vigilante.

"It's you," I cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure. "Again. Hi." I gave a timid wave and I could've sworn I saw the corner of his mouth quirk up at that, but it was gone faster than I could process it.

"I need your help Lieutenant." I relaxed slightly, something about him didn't seem threatening, he seemed familiar. I couldn't explain it. "Peter Declan is gonna be executed in 48 hours. I think he's innocent. Declan's wife was gonna blow the whistle on Jason Brodeur. Brodeur had her murdered."

"I know, I was on the case a couple months back." I told him, watching him carefully. "But, you knew that didn't you. That's why you came here." I stated more than asked, why else would he come to me about this.

He took a slight step forward, but not enough to where I could get look at the face under the hood. "You won't be able to do it alone."

I straightened up, my chin held high, "you want me to work with you?" Even I could hear the incredulity in my own voice.

"If you want to help save an innocent man, you're gonna need a good lawyer." Was the last thing he said before ducking out through my open balcony door and jumping over the ledge. I watched the white curtain flutter long after he was gone.

Shaking my head, I grabbed my purse and my phone - dialing a number I hadn't in a while as I headed downstairs to my car. "Laurel," I greet when the call connected. "Can you meet me at the station?"

As soon as I got to the station I headed to my desk, dropping into the office chair and digging through the drawer for the file. Peter Declan. He was facing execution in 24 hours and something inside of me always found something odd about this case, but I could never put my finger on what it was.

A knock at my office door caught my attention and I called out an okay for them to come in, but I didn't look up from the file. "Uh-oh, someones got their pouty face on." Was the way Laurel chose to greet me.

I glanced up at her and let out a short huff of a laugh, "it's not a pouty face, I'm concentrating."

The look on Laurel's face clearly said she didn't believe me, "have you heard from Oliver?" That caught my attention, and I glanced up at her fully with a curious frown. "Tommy told me you two were fighting."

I shook my head, setting the file down on my desk with a sigh, "uh, no. Not since we got shot at and he dipped like it didn't matter that no one knew if he made it out of that building.

"Haven't you called him?" Laurel asked, as I got up to lean up against my desk in front of her.

"Nope. Not going to either." I wasn't the type of girl to go crawling back to a guy, especially when I did nothing wrong.

"And you're okay with everything?"

I liked my lips hesitantly, "No, I'm not okay with any of it. But I'm not gonna cry about it, either. I mean, you know Oliver just as well as I do, once he makes up his mind about something that's it. And I love him Laurel, he's my best friend, but I'm not gonna force someone to be in my life who doesn't want me to be in there's"

Laurel cocked her head to the side with a short, incredulous laugh, "come on, you really think Oliver doesn't want you in his life." I only shrugged, what else was I supposed to think after he kept shutting me out like this. "Look, my own issues with Oliver aside, I can tell you with absolute certainty that he'd pretty much lose his mind if he ever lost you."

I stopped at that, glancing up at the girl silently. I hated how much we fell apart after Oliver died - it was just like, her and her Dad were so determined to hate him after what happened to Sara and all I wanted to do was defend him; preserve his memory. And somewhere along the way it went from defending Oliver to just fighting with Laurel.

"I'm sorry," I finally said and Laurel frowned at me. "For being such a bitch to you recently. We all went through a lot over those 5 years and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"Thank you," Laurel smiled slightly and I gave her a small one in return. "So, why'd you call me?"

"Oh, right." I cleared my throat, reaching back to grab the file and hand it to her. "Peter Declan is facing execution in 24 hours and... I think he's innocent." I explained as she flipped through the file. "I was wondering if you could help me get a stay of execution - see if there's any evidence we missed."

Laurel blew out a short breath, "I mean, I can look, but I don't know Harley. You've got fingerprints, you've got blood, motive, everything."

"I know, but Brodeur is definitely the type of guy with the resources needed to frame someone, don't you think."

Laurel sighed, not being able to deny the truth. "Okay, I'll look into it." She turned on her toes to leave, and I watched her go until the door closed slowly.

Only for it to pop back open a second later and my eyes widened for a second at who came walking into my office. Oliver Queen, looking rather nervous, "hey."

I quickly regained my composure, sliding my hands into my coat pockets to keep from fidgeting. "Hey, what're you doing here?" I asked coolly.

"I needed to see you," he admitted and I nodded silently. "I'm sorry, I haven't called."

"No worries. I'll live." I brushed off his apologies as I crossed my arms.

"I had to deal with a couple of things, but that shouldn't have stopped me from reaching out to you."

I scoffed, him keeping secrets was exactly why we were fighting and here he was, doing it again. For three days?"

"You have every right to be upset with me. But can I explain it all to you?" He promised placing his hands gently on my upper arms. "Please."

I stared up into his blue eyes with a conceding shake of my head, "fine." I gave in with a sigh at myself. I didn't like fighting with him, not talking to him or seeing him, but I also didn't like all the lying. We were supposed to be best friends, and best friends are supposed to tell each other everything. "When?"

"I gotta handle somethings first but, Big Belly around four o'clock?"

"Okay."

"See you then, Angel Face." He smiled gently at her.