Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
by Ray_Writes is an AU version of Arrow starting early in the second season when Oliver returns to Starling City and learns that Laurel has been missing since shortly after he left himself. Now alternating between his own efforts to save the city and find Laurel, Oliver’s concerns for Laurel significantly impacts his actions even before he learns the reason for her disappearance…
The story is complete, but the author has confirmed plans for a sequel at some future date.
Baby Won't You Please Come Home contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Word of God suggests that this will apply (at least to a degree) to Eddie Thawne; after he was present when Laurel was giving birth, the author has stated that he will go on to become a contact between Starling and Central's vigilante teams as Laurel learns more about the consequences of her exposure to the accelerator.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Played with; Oliver acknowledges that having a child will make it harder for him to be the Arrow, but it swiftly improves his relationship with Laurel.
- Big Brother Worship: Thea’s relationship with Oliver drastically improves back to this once she learns that he’s the Arrow and is actively looking for Laurel.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Thea’s criticism of Oliver’s apparent lack of interest in finding Laurel hurt him, but when she tried to contact the Arrow to ask him to interrogate Oliver for information about Laurel’s disappearance, Oliver acknowledged that he had to tell his sister the truth.
- Character Development: Ironically, being on their own helped to ensure that the Lances didn't fall as far as they did in canon, with Laurel avoiding her near-alcoholic state to avoid harming the baby and Quentin resisting the temptation because he doesn't have anyone to get him back home if he goes too far.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Isabel Rochev is this as in canon, but has trouble getting as close to Oliver as her plan requires due to his attempts to find Laurel distracting him from her more subtle advances and causing him to outright reject her more blatant attempt.
- Demoted to Extra: Arguably applies to Roy, as so far he is unaware of Oliver's identity and has shown no sign that he will be injected with Mirakuru.
- Didn't Think This Through: Basically explains how Laurel ended up staying with her mother despite their strained relationship, as she ran through most of her savings after leaving Starling City and didn't have anywhere else to go.
- Express Delivery: Laurel gives birth two months early, as an apparent side-effect of the particle accelerator explosion.
- How We Got Here: Chapter 8 ended with Laurel being caught in the particle accelerator explosion while pregnant, and Chapter 9 explores how she learned about the pregnancy and ended up in Central City without anyone finding her before now.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: Laurel goes into early labor after being caught in the particle accelerator explosion and has to be taken to hospital by Eddie Thawne.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Sebastian Blood is not only ignorant of Slade’s long-term agenda, but he hasn’t even been told that Oliver is the Arrow.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Played with; Oliver and Quentin each initially assume that Tommy was the father of Laurel’s baby before Dinah tells Oliver that the baby is two months premature and Oliver explains the situation to Quentin.
- Meaningful Echo: When Thea explains to the Arrow, not knowing he's Oliver, that she suspects her brother knows something about Laurel's disappearance, she lists all the reasons why she thinks so: he was one of the last people seen at Laurel's apartment, Laurel asked Thea how she could contact Oliver before she disappeared, and when Oliver came back, he was initially dead set on finding Laurel before later seemingly giving up. Oliver repeats these reasons to Thea before revealing to her that he is the Arrow.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Laurel becomes pregnant when she and Oliver only spent one night together before the Undertaking, Tommy’s death, and Oliver leaving the city.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: Thea's lowering opinion of Oliver rapidly picks up once she learns that he's the Arrow, justifying his previously inexplicable absences.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Moira has taken on this role, as she is to date the only person aware that Malcolm Merlyn is alive and that he is Thea's father. She is also secretly aware of Oliver's identity as the Arrow and that he has taken Thea into his confidence.
- Sequel Hook: This has been explicitly identified as the first in a series, the first fic ending with Laurel having given birth after being exposed to the particle accelerator explosion, Oliver expressing a desire to marry her in the future, and Slade adjusting his plans for Oliver to accommodate Oliver’s daughter.
- Shipping Torpedo: Not only does Oliver reject Isabel’s advances, but his relationship with Felicity loses its existing potential to become deeper, with Oliver ignoring Felicity’s objections to the idea of telling Thea the truth about his activities and clearly interested in at least exploring the potential for something with Laurel once again even before he learns that she's pregnant with his daughter.
- Sins of the Father: Sins of the Grandmother in this case: a major reason that Laurel fled Starling City is that she was afraid people would target her and her unborn child, as retribution for Moira's involvement with the Undertaking.
- Slade is already planning on using Oliver's daughter as a part of his revenge.
- This Explains So Much: When Thea learns that Oliver is the Arrow, she remarks that "Everything just makes sense now!"
- Took a Level in Badass: It hasn’t become obvious yet, but when Laurel was caught in the particle accelerator explosion and screamed herself hoarse while giving birth, it is inevitable that she will gain her "Canary Cry".
- Would Hurt a Child: Slade’s words strongly suggest that he sees Olivia as just another way to hurt Oliver, despite the fact that she's literally just been born.
