Island Child

Chapter 2

Moira had never been more nervous than she was at this very moment. Out of all the scenarios that she had come up with in her head about crazy situations she may ever be in, this one takes the cake. She never thought that one day she would be standing outside of Detective Lance's apartment to tell him that, though his daughter is dead, they now share a four-year-old granddaughter. She almost turned back a few times. She had come up with a million reasons why this was a bad idea, but she knew that it had to be done, and she wasn't going to make her son, who just spent five horrible years on an island, tell him.

So, she took a deep breath, raised her hand, and gently knocked on his door while secretly praying he wasn't home. She waited a few minutes, and when no one came to the door she knocked again. There was no response so Moira breathed a sigh of relief and turned around. Unluckily for her, when she turned, she ran right into Lance, knocking his groceries out of his arms in the process.

"Moira?" Lance asked, confused as to what she was doing at his apartment when they had been avoiding each other for the past five years.

She leaned over and picked up the bottle of whiskey that had rolled out of one of the bags and handed it to him as she said, "Oh I am so sorry, here."

When they had finally got everything back in the bags Lance muttered a quick, "Thanks," and then reached for his keys. "Look, I got a lot of stuff to do, so if you back another time that would be great." He opened his door and walked in, but Moira grabbed his arm before he closed it.

"I know seeing me is hard, and it brings up feelings because of what happened five years ago, and you know that I never defended Oliver's decision to take Sara out, especially while he was dating Laurel, but this is very important, and I am afraid that you need to let me in so we can talk."

Lance glanced down at his shoes like he was contemplating what to do, then he sighed and rubbed his hand against his face. "Alright, come on in, but I don't have long, I'm in the middle of a big case at work."

Moira smiled a gentle smile which was quite unusual for her ever since she lost her son and husband and frankly, she felt uncomfortable doing so, but she knew that she had one piece of her heart back, plus an addition that would make it grow, so it wasn't as hard. She made her way past him into his apartment which she had never been in before.

She had only been to his previous house once, and that was to tell him the horrible news of the shipwreck, and after that, they never spoke unless absolutely necessary. She was surprised by the dark tone of the place, his other house had been so bright, but she guessed the decorating was a good representation of his mood.

"I love your place, it's quite...homey," Moira said, surprising both her and Lance with using such a word as homey.

"Yeah, thanks. Now, what is it you're doing here? Sorry to be blunt, but I'm not really up for small talk."

Moira took another deep breath and then said, "Alright, I'll be frank with you. I found out something important this morning...Oliver is," Moira saw Lance's facial expression darken at his name, but she continued, "Oliver is alive."

That was all it took. It was like a dam broke as Lance's face turned redder than a beet and his eyes filled with tears.

"Are you serious?" he asked as he used every ounce of strength he had not to scream. Moira nodded in response, and Lance immediately walked up to her and pushed her out the door. Before Moira could say anything else, Lance had already shut the door in her face.

She banged on the door, not caring how she looked as she said loudly, "I know you don't want to hear that, and you know that if I could do anything to have Sara come back with him I would, but there is something else that you need to know. Oliver called me on a ship, apparently, he was stranded on an island and Sara was there too. They were there by themselves. Then...well, Sara ended up becoming pregnant. They had a child, and they raised her together until Sara died of some disease. Gosh, I wish that I didn't have to tell you all that, but you needed to know. I am so sorry, but there is a chance to have a piece of Sara with you again, and she is coming here after living on an island her entire life, so I am going to do anything in my power to make up for the four years I have lost with her. I'm not going to be upset with you if you don't ever want to contact her, but I do think that it would help you. Here," she said while pulling a piece of paper out of her purse and writing on it, "I'm going to write down my new number if you want to text me at any time."

Moira slid the paper underneath the door, waited a few moments to see if he would say anything, and then turned and walked back to her limo. Inside the apartment, Lance sat on the floor leaning against his door as he held a picture of his daughter when she was eight years old.

He didn't want anything to Queen, but if he was the only way he was going to get Sara back, even if it wasn't in the way he hoped, then he was going to put on the bravest face he could and damn he was going to be the best grandfather the world had ever seen.