anon submission

Alas, I have no advice on pain, but I may be able to provide a brief distraction?:

News of the Queen Gambit’s sinking has just reached Laurel. All in all, a pretty shitty day, to put it lightly. Things continue to be shitty. As pissed as she wants to be she’s conflicted because she’s upset 2 very important people have gone but they lied to her but there’s the whole “don’t speak ill of the dead” thing but maybe they deserve it this time but she loves them and they’re gone, but, but-
Things suck, honestly. However, rather than just leaving Dinah Lance decides to give Laurel something she used to wear quite a long time ago, before she got married, and so the Black Canary (Point 2) is born
(Trainee) lawyer by day, superhero by night, Laurel Lance protects the streets of Starling City. At first it’s just a little. A distraction from life. And then she finds corruption, plots to destory the Glades, people being hurt and so much wrong with this city and no one’s doing anything, and she’s the only one willing to step up
The police kind of hate her. She figured.
Malcolm Merlyn’s involved. That part’s not hard to figure out. It’s harder to figure out why, and how far this goes. And there’s only one person she can think of who might be able to help
Tommy Merlyn decided to try and become a doctor after he lost his best friend. He did not expect his other best friend- who’s been acting weird, sure, but he thought that was just because she lost her boyfriend and sister who apparently were sleeping together at the time- to be a vigilante. Or to show up with blood on telling him his dad might be plotting to destroy half the city. Like, what the fuck, Laurel
Still, he gives it some thought and maybe helping Laurel might help her find the actual person responsible. Or maybe they can figure out that yeah, his dad might be a supervillain, definately keeps shooting at his still alive best friend, might be the one who killed his dead best friend and still alive best friend’s sister, and had an affair with his dead best friend’s mother so his sister is actually half also Tommy’s sister, what the actual fuck, Laurel
They do stop Malcolm, save most of the Glades, and that all gets sorted. This would probably mean though that Moira would also get arrested. Maybe Walter’s already there and he looks after Thea, it might be a little much for Tommy to be doing a degree and looking after a child? Maybe Moira’s less involved so stays out of prison
Laurel’s still not exactly in S.C.P.D.’s good books- mostly because she did their job for them- but the Glades adore her already. This is when Iris West and Barry Allen, journalists, drop by. Okay, sort of journalists. Okay, so maybe they’re eighteen and Iris hasn’t actually started her journlism degree yet and Barry’s planning on going into forensic science and they just have a blog, but Barry knows so much about weird stuff and Iris is really good at this journalism thing, honest, and yes, they’ll have to tell their Joe they met the Black Canary, Iris isn’t eager to lie to her dad and Barry’s frankly a terrible liar and Joe always knows, but they won’t tell him who she is, he wouldn’t even recognise her name, but there’s stuff going on at home, Iris’ mother isn’t exactly as dead as they thought and apparently she has an eleven-year-old brother now, so they’re in Starling City for a whole week anyway so they might as well help since they’re there, right? Please?
This may or may not lead to Laurel giving them some advice re being in love with each other and neither of them mentioning it.
So far everything’s great. Laurel has Tommy, Thea visits a lot (Laurel has had a lot of practise being a big sister, and maybe it won’t end so badly this time), she’s a superhero, it’s all super great
And then (a little while later) there’s some lady dressed all in black after Thea, something about the League of Assassins- probably something to do with Malcom- and Laurel stops that before Thea even finds out but now she’s pissed of the League of Assassins and incredibly hot lady may come back. Hopefully. No wait
Nyssa al Ghul does come back. A lot. And is open to flirting. It may take them awhile, but there’s probably a couple of years worth of enemies to friends slow burn in here.
And then Oliver’s back. Malcolm is also back. Laurel quickly works out Oliver’s the Hood and brings him into her Canary Squad- along with John and Felicity- and Nyssa shows up to help take down Malcolm yet again.
And then they’ve won, Oliver’s back, and then there’s another assassin from the League in Starling and Laurel would be able to deal with it better if she hadn’t just found out it’s her sister and both Nyssa and Oliver have been lying to her
She’s not even sure how she ends up on the train to Central. But her mother’s there, and someone should tell her, and Iris and Barry are there (Barry even dropped by Starling a few weeks ago to give Laurel a hand with some weird stuff that’s almost certainly Oliver’s fault, and he spent a lot of it talking about this accelerator) and they’re more than happy for Laurel to tag along to the launch. It’s not like it was a date, Wally was coming too. Laurel can keep Iris company while Barry and Wally go on about what scientific discoveries could be found from this acclerator
It explodes
Literally nothing in Laurel’s life can go right right now, she still hasn’t actually told her dad she’s the Canary and after that whole Hood thing the police went back to their “arrest her” policy and maybe she’s not over Oliver cheating on her with her sister then dying then coming back and that Sara’s not dead and how conflicted she feels because this is her baby sister but she also slept with Laurel’s boyfriend, and Nyssa’s been lying to her too and she thought Nyssa was different, and she’s had a sore throat for day, and Barry and Wally are both still unconscious, and she still needs to tell her mother about Sara and all she really wants to do is just scream-
Huh
It’s Iris who persuades her to go back to Starling. She has unfinished business, and the city needs her. Besides, it was meant to be a Christmas present, but Barry made her a new mask, and he made one for her friend the Arrow too. And if she still needs time after Starling’s saved, she knows where they are.
She can do this. She can save Starling from Deathstroke, she’s the Black Canary, this is what she does. And she’ll get Sara back, figure out how she feels, and maybe she should talk to Nyssa too. Besides, she’s got a superpower now, this just means she has to show up Oliver now he’s still classed as a vigilante but she’s a superhero (at least according to Iris’ new friend Cisco), if anyone can figure all this out, it’s Laurel Lance
(And if Barry shows up, awake, a few months later, with powers of his own- and Wally’s- for some advice about becoming a superhero, well, Joe might just have an anerysm)