What's wrong with us when happy hurts

Can we work it out? Can we be a family?

Notes:

Thank you so much for all of you guys support. It brings me so much joy to know you guys enjoy my story.

This chapter took an unexpected turn, lol with a long overdue conversation.

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Can we work it out? Can we be a family? In our family portrait, we look pretty happy

Sara

She put the papers she'd been going through aside once the doorbell rang and got up to answer it, checking the monitor of the security camera first, not willing to risk anything right now, who knew what their enemies were aware of, and their next step was. Once she was sure it was her father as expected, she turned off the alarm of the security system and opened the door to let him in.

"Hi, dad." Sara smiled at the older man, stepping aside to let him enter and taking a hold of his hand, squeezing it for a moment, still feeling stupid and sad about the fact that as much as she wanted to just run into his arms, hug him and feel soothed by his familiar and comforting embrace, the smell that was uniquely her dad and reminded her of her childhood and simpler times, she just couldn't. There was a part of her that still shied away at the physical contact, and it pained her so much. The issues she had with physical contact never bothered her more than it did in the presence of her dad. His embrace had been her safe haven for as long as she could remember, long before Ollie had ever taken on that role in her life, something she had longed for on the Freighter, Lian Yu and during her time in the League and she missed it, she missed being able to just fall into her father's loving embrace and this small act just magically making everything better.

Those irrational feelings she had towards her father ripped her apart on the inside and brought so much anguish with them. If only her body and instincts would listen to the rational part of her mind, telling them she had nothing to fear from the first man she had ever loved and trusted and who had raised her with so much love and affection. She hoped a day would come that she no longer feared his embrace.

She had known as soon as Ollie had shared his plan that she needed to do something to distract herself, to not drive herself crazy while the Green Arrow was entering Chase's home. She still wasn't sure what to think of his strategy. And what he hoped to accomplish with it. The chances of it backfiring were bigger than those of him actually gaining anything from it, but she understood why he went to Adrian's home. They were all out of options and no closer to locating Joanna's whereabouts than they were at the beginning.

This was why she had called her dad and asked him to keep her company once Felicity had left. She did have an ulterior motive and hoped it would give them a chance to talk uninterrupted and her a chance to address the underlying tension between him and Ollie. Whatever issue there was between the two of them, it needed to be addressed and, hopefully, fixed, if possible. Preferably before Mila was born.

"Sara, baby, your mom told me you changed your mind and decided you're going to stay once the baby is born and can I just say how happy that makes me!" He squeezed her hand in return and softly placed his other hand on her upper arm and the sheer joy on her dad's face made her happy and she was glad he felt that way and it warmed her heart and reaffirm that this was the right choice. Probably. Hopefully. It didn't matter anymore. She made it and she made a promise to herself, Ollie, and their daughter, so no matter what happened, she was going to stick it out and stop running.

"Yeah, Ollie and I had a long conversation about it, and he had a couple of convincing arguments." Her reply hardly managed to scratch the surface, but this wasn't what she wanted to talk about right now. But felt it was important to make sure he knew; her staying was Ollie's doing. Well, mostly, sort of. It was complicated. But he played an enormous part in it. And her dad needed to know that. Maybe that knowledge would help later on once she addressed what she really wanted to talk about. She let go of his hand and turned around, putting the alarm back on once her dad was inside and the door locked, leading him towards the kitchen to get them something to drink and eat. This was probably going to be a long conversation, and the process of preparing their nourishment would give her a little more time to gather her thoughts and figure out how to bring the issue up.