Warnings: crack, death-fic, the canon is not treated seriously, neither is anything which happens in this story. More info in the author's note at the end.

As usual a million thanks to Perosha for beta-reading this.

Must Be May

Oliver stood alone on the cemetery, looking down at a fresh grave, his face grief-stricken and his heart filled with emptiness and sorrow. Early morning light was seeping through the branches of the trees behind his back, bright sunrays falling softly on the tomb.

He fixed his eyes on the name engraved on the cold stone. He had already read it a thousand times, and he still couldn't believe that she was gone. Forever.

Laurel Lance

Black Canary

1985-2016

Lost but not forgotten

He sighed deeply, overcome with deep sadness, and a single tear ran down his cheek. They had known each other for so long that he felt as if Laurel had always been in his life. There was time when he had thought that they were meant to be together. They were drawn to each other like two uneasy elements. What elements they were exactly, Oliver was not sure, but there was definitely some special connection between him and Laurel. That connection, however, was somehow disturbed when he cheated on her with her own sister and half of the women in Starling City, Samantha included. But nevertheless, Laurel had a special place in his heart. Now she was gone, and it seemed that with her a piece of Oliver died too.

He kept asking himself how it could happen. And why? What mysterious, cruel force caused another person who was important to him to be gone in such sudden and unpredictable way? And why had it happened again in May?

He'd come back from Lian Yu with only one goal—to save his city, and right his father's wrongs (well, maybe technically those were two goals after all). But it seemed that he generally sucked when it came to one very crucial thing: protecting people who were closest to him from harm.

Shit.

He hung his head. Now Laurel had joined Tommy, his own parents, Detective Hilton, and some other people he was not able to save. And also those he hadn't exactly wanted to save, but still felt a bit uneasy about the fact that they are gone. Like Amanda Waller. She was a cold, manipulative, and twisted person, but it just didn't feel right that she wasn't a part of the world which surrounded him. Someone had to fill the part of someone who was sometimes an ally and sometimes an opponent. And she was not around any more to do that.

What was worse, Laurel's grave was not the only one new on the cemetery. The whole quarter was full of them.

Quentin Lance joined his daughter shortly after her death. He was not able to cope with the loss of another of his children and his heart gave up, eventually killing him. Oliver sighed deeply. He had often been at odds with Lance over the years, and their road to forging a stable trust between a cop and a vigilante was a very rocky one, but eventually he had became not only his trusted ally, but a kind of a father figure as well. Now he was no longer around to give him the support he so desperately needed in those dark times. Or to provide those cynical one-liners in order to tease him...

Two other graves in proximity belonged to Ray and Sara. Although they were empty, both of them might be counted as dead as well, as they had never returned from their escapade with Rip Hunter.

Thea...his beloved sister Thea...Oliver choked back his sob. She was now resting next to her mother. Some damn paparazzi outed her as Merlyn's biological daughter and it turned out that a lot of people had still held a grudge against him. Since Merlyn was not available, Thea found herself on the receiving end of all that. And Oliver was not able to save her.

It was not the end of the long chain of tragedies which struck him lately. His (former) foster father Walter died in a plane crash when he was flying from London to attend the funeral of his (former) foster daughter. Despite all his efforts to keep Samantha and William out of harm's way and sending them to a safe hideout (or at least that was what he had thought—and was wrong again), they were found and killed by Darhk's men. Donna shared a similar fate. Unfortunately Darhk also made a connection between Roy and Oliver. He figured out the whole trick pulled with SCPD when Roy posed as the Arrow to save Oliver from prison, and got the boy killed. As if all this misery weren't enough, barely a week ago A.R.G.U.S. headquarters blew up (due to unknown circumstances), killing in the process newly appointed Director Lyla Diggle as well as John, who came to pay his wife a visit in that fatal day. Not to mention the organization's numerous workers who were present in the building. The rumor said that a terrorist going by a very peculiar codename WB/DC-52 wanted in fact to level the remains of Suicide Squad. Apparently he wanted to kill them all (not many of them were left alive up to this point), but it was unclear what exactly were his motives .

So, to put shortly, Oliver was not in the best mood right now. He read Laurel's name engraved on the tomb again, but nothing had changed. She was still dead, and with her gone Oliver also partially felt dead inside.

After some time, someone approached him and stopped silently by his side. He didn't even need to look up to know who it was. Felicity's arms wrapped around his right forearm to provide him silent and much needed support. Oliver felt a flicker of warm feeling in his chest. After all, she was the light of his life.

"Are you okay?" asked Felicity with compassion. She was plunged in deep sorrow herself. It was hard to find any strength to get up from a bed in the morning and carry on with living. After all, she had also lost a lot of people close to her, Laurel included. Some thought that they were rivals, probably because Laurel and Oliver used to date, but in fact there was never any hostility between them.

"No, I'm not okay," answered Oliver sourly. "In fact I'm as far from being okay as I could be."

Felicity stroked his arm gently and for a while they just stood silently, looking down at Laurel's grave, because it was the closest one.

"I wish I listened to what Amanda Waller said about letting in darkness or something," said Oliver grimly.

"And what did she say?" asked Felicity curiously.

Oliver only looked at her blankly and shrugged.

"I don't know. I said I hadn't listened to her. And maybe it would help to save people closest to us."

"But how?"

"I don't know. Maybe I should have just killed Darhk when I had the chance. And Merlyn."

"Oliver! You swore to not kill again!"

"And look where it brought me."

"You mean the cemetery?" asked Felicity, not sure if she followed him.

"Yes, the cemetery full of the graves of people without whom my life has no meaning!" blurted out Oliver desperately, glancing restlessly around the quarter filled with fresh graves and looking at the names engraved on the tombs.

Laurel Lance. Quentin Lance. John Diggle. Lyla Diggle. Sara Lance. Thea Queen. Moira Queen. Thomas Merlyn. Ray Palmer. Roy Harper. Samantha Clayton. William Clayton. Amanda Waller. Lucas Hilton. Frank Pike. Ted Grant. Cindy Lee. Tatsu Yamashiro. Raisa Danilova. Some poor random woman, who was killed by him on accident when his arrow flew off the target due tragic circumstances...

A long, never-ending line of people he had failed.

Again silence hung over the cemetery. The clouds which massed over the horizon began to clear away. The sun climbed a bit higher in the sky and shone more strongly. Its rays reflected in the sparkling droplets of dew gathered on blades of neatly cut grass.

"At least we have each other," said Felicity, trying to comfort him. "We don't need anyone else."

"Felicity, there is no one else left," sighed Oliver deeply.

"Well, at least we are going to have more screen time." She snuggled her face in his arm. "And now we can be together. For eternity."

She had no idea how gravely she was mistaken...

After all May hadn't come to an end yet.

In the distance, a red-headed woman wearing a short brown coat emerged from behind a line of trees. She had a quiver full of arrows with red-and-black fletching hanging on her back and was holding a recurved composite bow in her left hand.

When she heard Felicity's words, she narrowed her eyes in anger and muttered:

"Hey, that was my line..."

Since Carrie Cutter aka Cupid was not stupid and had a lot of free time, she made a thorough analysis and found out what no one else was able to — that the Arrow, Green Arrow and Oliver Queen were in fact the very same person. Apparently Star City was full of morons, SCPD included, who were not able to put two and two together. But that was not her problem.

Carrie cried for days, filled with sorrow, after she had heard that the Arrow was killed in prison shortly after being arrested. She succumbed to depression and was barely able to function from day to day. But then Green Arrow appeared, and with him a new hope that maybe... maybe it was him again, miraculously returned to her. Now her heart was filled with joy that her lover was alive after all. And that they finally could be together. For eternity.

Yes, that was her line to say. Like hell it was.

Carrie thought that the Arrow (or right now Green Arrow) was more sexy in his original very tight leather outfit, but she was sure that over time she could convince him to wear a full-length sleeved jacket at least. Maybe she was crazy, but not enough to not be aware of some basics when it came to archery. Proper protection for the arms was very important. Her lover must have not been himself lately, if he didn't pay attention to this. Poor thing. But she would take care of him from now on and soon enough he will be his true badass vigilante self again. As it should be.

In fact, one costume or another didn't make that much difference to her, since from the very beginning her aim was to see the Arrow (or right now Green Arrow) without any clothes on. They could add some tweaks to his costume later (put the old hood back for example, because it looked so nice) after they spend that night together that she had promised him. After one ride with her, he will be a changed man and will fall for her for sure. He might think otherwise, but she knew how to stoke some fire in him. She really, really... Really knew. Then they would marry—their special day would be the most glorious one—and afterwards they would make beautiful babies. She was strong and healthy, could bear him many children if he only wanted to. But first Carrie had to remove a small obstacle which came between her and her happiness. She observed her target for a while, gazing at blonde woman in knee-length white floral dress and ridiculously high high-heeled boots (given the fact they were on a cemetery) standing by the side of her prey... Well, lover.

Carrie slowly reached to the quiver and took out an arrow. She nocked it on the bowstring and, raising the bow, drew the feather to the corner of her mouth, taking aim. A stray ray of sunlight reflected from the pink arrowhead shaped like a heart and made her red hair look as if it had been set aflame.

"He is mine, bitch," said Carrie, with a sinister smile dangling on her lips and a sparkle of madness shining in her bright blue eyes.

The next moment the bowstring rang and the arrow sped through air.

Straight at its intended target.

The End

A/N: So, to put it shortly what pushed me to write this fic are very disturbing spoilers which strongly suggest that Laurel might be killed off in 4x18 and be the person in the mysterious grave. I thought it's going to be Quentin, but unfortunately too much things add up pointing at Laurel (not like I want to see Quentin gone — I don't want any of Lances to die...)

While at the beginning Laurel was a character which was relatively indifferent to me, over the course of the show she is the one which grew on me the most. Her transformation to Black Canary, although rushed and not executed in the best way in season 3 was for me one of the more interesting subplots, saving bits of an overall crappy season (epic team up of Black Canary and Arsenal for example). Over time I really got to like her. And the mere thought that she might be sacrificed to secure Olicity as the endgame ticks me off. There is so many interesting stories/possible plots for her, and all of this might get wasted because of damn paring stuff...

I just can't imagine a version of Green Arrow's story where Black Canary is no longer present. No, tv show is not the same as the comics, but the adaptation which cuts from its roots completely is not a good one. Presenting a story in a different manner doesn't mean that one takes a road roller and levels everything which was originally present in the souce. Scenes with Laurel, although she was constantly pushed into background in season 4, were among those few I liked.

I don't hate Felicity as the character, but I completely despise how she is written right now, how much of screen time is contributed to Olicity, and that all drama is forced down on me in the show which used to be about a guy in a hood with a bow, fighting for little guys/saving his city/righting his father's wrongs. Now all of this is lost, Felicity is Mary Sue, and lost all of the qualities she once had – as a character which was kind, and good, and the most normal among the people with issues.

What's more, I'm completely disgruntled by the fact that "Arrow's" writers overuse the tv trope Stuffed into the Fridge or in other words Death Serves as a Motivation. So I brought in to a new level of absurd.

And if you ask what my ship of choice is right now it would be neither Laurivel or Canarrow, but in fact Carriver. Yes, Carrie Cutter/Oliver Queen, because why not ship the most crazy paring possible? They can share the equal level of craziness. I has been writing a one-shot story about Carrie lately, and plan to introduce the pairing (of sorts) in the sequel for "A Professional Observation". So stay tuned if you follow that one.