Destiny Rewritten

Chapter 144

Since the city seemed calm right now and Roy and Thea were on their honeymoon for the next week, Oliver had decided to give the rest of the team the week off, which was fine with them.

John was actually also out of the country helping Lyla with some overseas mission for Argus, something to do with the Ninth Circle and Emiko was helping, serving as a consultant, though Oliver suspected this was also a Task Force X mission, since he'd been keeping tabs on Argus and he knew that while Alex had shut down the program, Lyla had reinstated it to deal with the Ninth Circle threat and he understood why.

Winn was currently working on getting funding to start up his own tech company, Schott Technologies, since while Queen Consolidated was backing him, talking about making the company one of its subsidiaries until it gets on its feet, he still needed funding to work on his products.

And while they were all doing their own things, Oliver and Laurel had finished unpacking and now Oliver was turning one of the spare bedrooms of their new house into a nursery for their incoming baby girl.

"Damn it." Oliver said as Laurel entered the nursery.

"You still can't get it together?" Laurel asked with a smile.

"I've stopped mad men, super soldiers and magic, I can figure out how to put a crib together." Oliver said and Laurel laughed.

"Ollie, are you sure you don't want to call in a professional?" Laurel asked as she looked around the yet to be completed nursery.

"No, I can handle it." Oliver said.

"Ollie, this nursery will not be done in time for our little girl at the current rate. You haven't even started painting the walls yet." Laurel said.

"You already called people didn't you?" Oliver asked, knowing the look on Laurel's face all too well.

"Yeah, pretty much." Laurel said, not even denying it.

"When will they be here?" Oliver asked.

"Tomorrow." Laurel said.

"Okay well you should not be on your feet, but I've given up trying to get you to do anything." Oliver said, since Laurel was technically on bed rest.

"Smart man, but you are right, my back and my feet are killing me." Laurel said as she returned to their room and Oliver just shook his head fondly after her as he moved to go downstairs as he heard someone buzz the gate.

"Who's here?" Oliver asked, since they weren't expecting anyone, so he decided to go check it out himself.

He was very surprised when he saw who it was at the gate.

"Samantha. What are you doing here?" Oliver asked, surprised at seeing the mother of his son here.

"Can we talk?" Samantha asked.

"Hold on a second." Oliver said as he opened the gate for Samantha to pull up to the house.

"This place is nice." Samantha said as she took a look at the house.

"Thank you. Is everything alright, is William okay?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, William's fine, don't worry. I'm actually here because my job got me transferred to Star City." Samantha said, much to Oliver's surprise.

"I'm surprised you didn't argue. I thought you wanted William nowhere near me." Oliver said.

"Well, I've been rethinking that decision in light of recent events to my knowledge. I mean you married Laurel, you're the CEO of your family's company and now you two are expecting a child. Maybe I was too harsh." Samantha said.

"Samantha, William is better off without me in his life." Oliver said.

"I disagree." Laurel said as she made her way downstairs.

"You should be in bed." Oliver said.

"Technically I just have to be sitting, never said I have to specifically be in a bed. Now move over." Laurel said as she sat down on the couch and propped her feet up.

"Laurel, congratulations." Samantha said and Laurel smiled.

"Thank you. I am very excited. But anyways, I think I should be weighing in on this conversation." Laurel said.

"What do you mean William is better off without you in his life. You're his father and you're going to be one again soon." Samantha said.

"She's right Ollie. I know you have your reasons for not wanting to be a part of William's life, but since he and Samantha are going to be living in Star City from now on, maybe you should. Besides, he's going to find out eventually." Laurel said.

"Maybe." Oliver said.

"Oliver, I know there's a reason you've been keeping your distance besides me. What is it?" Samantha asked and Oliver looked at Laurel, who nodded and the look in her eyes clearly read tell her.

"I'm the Green Arrow." Oliver said.

"Okay, that is not what I was expecting." Samantha said.

"Yeah, I remember how I found out." Laurel said with a smile.

"Please, this is much calmer than how you found out." Oliver said.

"I don't even want to know, but now it makes sense why you don't want to be a part of William's life." Samantha said.

"Actually I do, more than anything, but at the same time, I don't want you and William to get pulled into my world, I feel bad enough that so many people have already." Oliver said.

"Ollie, everyone who's joined that world chose to. No one is in it who doesn't want to be." Laurel said.

"I agree with you that William should not be brought into that world, but at the same time, I'm not looking to share custody with you right now, just visitation. Surely you can take off those days from being Green Arrow on days you have William, since I assume you'll have to cut back a bit for a little while after your child is born." Samantha said.

"We'll talk about it, but we also need to make sure it's okay with William, I'm not going to force my way into his life, he needs to want me in it." Oliver said.

"I'll talk to him, though I'm sure he'll be excited to meet his father." Samantha said.

"Samantha, one more thing before you go." Oliver said as he got up to show Samantha out.

"What?" Samantha asked.

"William can never know that I'm the Green Arrow. It puts him in too much danger." Oliver said.

"On that we agree." Samantha said as she walked out of the house and Oliver actually smiled, since despite his reservations, it looked like he might get another chance to be a real father to William, since that had always been one of his biggest regrets, that he couldn't be there for William like he'd wanted to be.