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Laurel Lance was ready to let go. She'd known it was the end the moment that Darhk pierced her skin with that arrow. Oh, she'd fought like hell to stick around. She had people that she loved, people that she needed to protect. People that she wasn't ready to let go.
In the end, that stubborn will wasn't enough. In the end, she had just enough time to say her goodbyes. To tell Oliver that she loved him and to wish him happiness. Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn had always been the two loves of her lives. She'd loved them in very different ways, and had very different relationships with them. Oliver had been her romantic past and Tommy should have been her future. Should have been. All the should haves and would haves in the world didn't matter anymore as she closed her eyes for what she thought was the final time.
She wasn't expecting to be bathed in a bright white light. Or maybe this was what she should have expected. But when she opened her eyes to a guy with a gold helmet, that was a surprise. She grimaced in confusion, but he merely touched her hand and then they were on a beach somewhere. She wasn't sure where, though the waves were rough and grey.
"Who are you?"
"I go by a few names. You can call me Dr. Fate."
She blinked and stared for a moment. "Come again?"
The man with the mask shook his head briefly at her.
"Who I am doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Let's just say that I occasionally meddle when I see fit."
He pointed to a small cabin just a few yards up the beach. The door opened and Laurel couldn't say why she was holding her breath as it did, but something about this felt important.
"Meddle? What do you mean? I'm dead, aren't I?"
"On your world, certainly. But... consider this a second chance. This may not be your Thomas Merlyn, and you are not his Dinah Laurel Lance, but there are possibilities. He's lost his Dinah just as you've lost your Tommy. Perhaps..." he gestured towards a figure that had just stepped outside of the door.
Again, Laurel drew in a breath and felt like she'd forgotten how to breathe. It couldn't be... could it?
"Perhaps this Earth has need of you," Dr. Fate finished. "Consider this a second chance."
That last sentence was directed as much at the man who'd emerged from the cabin as it was at Laurel. Dr. Fate nodded to both and then blinked out of existence.
It was then that Laurel truly looked at the man who'd approached them. At Tommy. There he was, just as handsome as she remembered him. Blue eyes were blinking back tears and he ran a hand through dark and somewhat rumpled hair.
"Tommy?" she breathed, finally finding her voice.
"Laur?" he asked. "Is it really you?"
"Sort of," Laurel replied, trying to figure out how to explain what Dr. Fate had told her.
"I heard. Different earth, second chance. So..." Tears slid down his cheeks and she couldn't help but reach out to wipe one away. That seemed to break the dam. He pulled her into his arms with a tight squeeze.
"I've missed you, pretty bird," he whispered.
Laurel buried her face in his shoulder and thought to herself that maybe she was home after all.