Laurel Lance

[laurelance]

.:Name of Character:. Dinah Laurel Lance

.:Nick Name:. Laurel

.:Alias:. n/a

.:Age:. 29

.:Physical Appearance:. Laurel’s hair isn’t as blonde as her sister’s, in fact, she takes after her father more. It’s a warm chestnut color and fairly long, about to the middle of her shoulder blades with a few long layers and typically, that’s how she wears it. On a number of occasions, she’s been known to pull it into a ponytail and when a situation calls for it, can dress it up. She prefers to leave it be though. She just doesn’t want to try too hard to make it work. Even her make-up, though like she needs it, has always been natural and sleek.



Her face as a natural sort of beauty and it’s a fact that she knows, but never holds with too much of an air of arrogance. Her eyes are lined with long lashes, making her hazel eyes pop. She has a petite nose and full lips that are usually only colored with lip gloss, if that much. Her face is elegant, if slightly exotic.



Laurel has spent much of her career in high end business casual clothing. She’s had to put her best foot forward, but she isn’t a fussy dresser. She like to keep her clothing sleek with an air of tomboy in them. In no way is she a lace and frills type of girl. She’s no-nonsense and her clothing screams that. Even her casual wear has a tomboy, relaxed quality to it, in vast contrast to the tailored looks she wears in the day time.

.:Height:. 5ft 8 inches

.:Portrayed by:. Katie Cassidy

.:Personality:. Laurel has one of the biggest hearts around. She feels deeply for people, particularly those in need. She wouldn’t have began her legal career in legal aid if she didn’t. It was a trait instilled in her by her parents, her father most of all. She was raised to appreciate and respect life, in all its levels and obey the law. Does that mean she doesn’t get angry and she doesn’t loose her temper, far from it. Laurel simply can’t hurt people in any way, which she feels doesn’t deserve to be hurt. Try as she might, the guilt after plagues her (sometimes more than she’d ever let on). Her parents raised her better than that. She has a great capacity to love and to feel for the individual, a trait she‘d contribute to her father who has the biggest, most stubborn heart in Starling City. She’ll help whoever needs her help, if she’s able, she will. If someone takes the time and courage to ask for her assistance, how can she turn that person down? Especially when she knows how hard it is to ask for help in the first place. She’s far too much of a giver than she could ever be someone to take something for herself. A part of that reason has gotten her into trouble as of late. She gave too much and didn’t take the time to actually ask to take, be taken care of, and get help and it pulled her down. Who wouldn’t after everything? But that part of her that places the guilt on herself has consumed her. It has left her vulnerable and her big heart wounded.



Surprisingly, she wasn’t always the most confident woman in the crowd. She learned, over time, to step out of her mother’s shadow and blossom into her own woman. With that revelation, Laurel turned a corner, becoming the firey, strong woman most people see. She has her extreme moments of doubt, however, despite all the confidence Laurel is a human being after all. When she hits those lows, Laurel, like everything else in her life, goes all out with those lows. As high as the highs go, that’s as low as the lows can go. She has the ability to bounce back, but it has to be on her own terms, no one else’s. Laurel isn’t afraid of help or people being there to help her, but they have to understand that it is her way or no way when it comes to dealing with things. Of course, she has to recognize that she needs help in the first place. For much of her recent past, Laurel has seen herself fall into the victim role and too many people have gotten hurt because of it. So while, deep down, she’s still the confident, drive lawyer who could win cases with a snap of her fingers because of the Lance stubbornness, that Laurel is drowning in self doubt. She’s hit a low and maybe it’s time to ask for help, if she can bring herself to do it.



Determined and driven as ever, Laurel would never had been the strong woman she is today without a willful, stubborn spirit. She drives herself hard, probably harder than anyone else around her and holds herself to higher standards that was seems necessary. But that‘s just to achieve her goals. Idealistic, Laurel strives to achieve the world she dreams of and the peace that accompanies it with a somewhat single-minded resolve. No one is going to budge her from her path. Not the police, her father, even her mother couldn‘t dissuade her. Laurel simply did it anyway. No one was going to hold her back and that self propelled will is something that sets the blonde apart from some of the others. Laurel struggles with the high standards she sets for herself and with that typical Lance stubbornness that often leads to dealing with issues in a destructive way. That weakness haunts her constantly, which is why, for the most part, she hides that part of herself away, even from those close to her. Her willful spirit also makes her very career and goal oriented and has little patience for those who are just flitting about without reasonable goals. She understands spontaneity, she adores the concept herself, but there has to be something to drive someone. ’Aimless’ living does not suit the blonde.

.:Strengths:. Driven, intelligent (especially in law), compassionate, forgiving (sometimes it takes her a while, but she’ll get around to it), research (she has a law degree, research is the name of the game), arguing, putting others before herself, the courtroom (anyone see her work in there? She’s not someone to mess with).

.:Weaknesses:. Substances (alcohol, prescription pills), puts a lot of it on her own shoulders, gets ‘personal’ with her cases, her family (especially her father), doesn’t always trust her own heart, headstrong, stubborn, doesn’t ask for help

.:Special Skills:. Law degree, some self defense training (she’s capable of disarming a man, throwing a good punch or knee to the groin).

.:Birthplace:. Starling City

.:Family:. Dinah Lance (Mother), Quentin Lance (Father), Sara Lance (Sister)

.:Occupation:. Unemployed, former Assistant D.A., former attorney at CNRI

.:Current Location of Residence:. Starling City

.:History:. Live was smooth, or as smooth as a budding law student’s life could be when everything turned upside down. She had a man she loved, and she thought loved her in return, school was going in the right direction and she couldn’t have been happier. But then a boat sank and not just any boat; the boat that her boyfriend and sister were on. The fact that they were there together didn’t escape Laurel’s notice. Her sister and her boyfriend on a private yacht? She put two and two together and found herself in an angry pit that threatened to pull her down instead of letting her grieve properly. Her parents, however, had other plans, and her sister’s death tore them apart and Laurel dug deep and forced herself on a straight and sometimes rocky path. She dove into her studies, her father to his work and to a bottle and her mother? Well, her mother went her own way and Laurel struggled to accept it.



Using her studies to keep her moving forward, Laurel earned her JD with high marks. She could have gone anywhere, to any law firm, but she stayed in Starling City, working for CNRI. The work she did with CNRI, helping those who saw the short end of the stick, it filled and covered that anger that she felt over her sister’s betrayal, her boyfriend’s betrayal and the death of both. She never quite forgave and forgot, but she was attempting to move on.



Over the course of five years, before Oliver Queen waltzed back into her life, Laurel had made a life for herself. She was a successful attorney, her father was sober again and she was even happily attached to Tommy Merlin, an old friend. It seemed as if, to the world and in part, to herself, that she had been able to grieve, remember and move on. The joke was on everyone else because after five years, when the object of much of her anger reappeared, back from the dead, Laurel was thrown for a loop and her happy life spun around once more.



It would be an understatement to say she was angry with Oliver. She placed so much of the blame on him but seeing him walking around Starling City? Hanging on to that anger and pain wasn’t going to do her any good and at the very least, she could make an effort to accept what happened and that one day, she really would forgive him for what he did. Tommy went a long way in helping her believe she could do just that, despite how angry Oliver could make her. He had gone through an ordeal and she had to keep reminding herself of that; and if she was honest, she still cared for him.



Life certainly didn’t get any easier after Oliver made his re-appearance. It was a rollercoaster filled up ups and downs and some of the strangest, most challenging cases of her career. Many of those cases had some sort of connection or run in with who the media called: ‘The Hood.’ She was skeptical on the Hood from the beginning. With every break in, new attack on her own life, Laurel found herself dragged into deeper and dangerous waters and yes, it was helping people who needed it, but at what cost? How much violence was acceptable? Very little in her mind, at least in the way at this vigilante was using it. Nothing good could come of it.



It wasn’t just her case load that yo-yoed about; her own personal life followed right along like a little caboose. She was lost between her feelings for Oliver and her growing feelings for Tommy but in the end, whatever wall Oliver had built around him, she couldn’t get beyond it. She might have been able to convince herself to forgive him, and even make a case for him against her father, but that wall would always push her away and she had already given years to it. But Tommy was different; he had changed and with every new challenge, she saw a new layer to him. He was trying and shaping himself into a better man and Laurel couldn’t help but find herself falling for him. It was almost as if she could settle herself into a routine, albeit, a very complicated and often dangerous routine, but one nonetheless. It was foolish to even contemplate such a thing for a Lance.



Laurel had always had a complex relationship with her mother. Where it had been strained growing up, it broke apart when she left Laurel’s father to continue her obsessive hunt for her little sister. Laurel could never understand dredging up those painful memories, so when she turned up on her doorstep claiming to have evidence that Sara was alive? It was almost too much to take. Her father bought into it and it broke Laurel’s heart to see that hope. She wanted to fight it, to ignore the very idea but Sara was her baby sister and in the end, her mother broke her too. Her evidence was infectious and promising but Laurel dug deeper, using her contacts to find the true identity of the woman in the photo her mother had used as her strongest piece of evidence. It wasn’t Sara and it wasn’t Laurel who broke this time. This time, it was her mother. The truth of her obsession was finally out and just hearing it tore at Laurel. She couldn’t keep on holding it against her mother, but it wasn’t easy for Laurel. The hope and the disappointment left her vulnerable and the man she needed to turn to was suddenly distancing himself, very much like another handsome man in her life. One minute she was on top and the next, she was scrambling for pieces.



Tommy drove her away, no matter how hard she tried to be there, how many times she tried to be understanding, another wall sprung up between her and a man she cared about. She even approached Oliver, hoping that by going to him, he would convince his friend that there was nothing between then, only that never happened. Instead there was a kiss, a night and a next day that would send her down a destructive path: the day of the earthquake in the Glades; the day Tommy died. For her.



She had been foolish, ignoring Oliver and her father and rushing to CNRI to try and save what might mean the world to people with less than herself. Laurel went to be selfless but she wasn’t quick enough. The earthquake hit and trapped her in rubble. The vigilante might have saved her in the past, but this time, it was Tommy who was there to pull her to safety and it was Tommy who paid for it. She never got a chance to make things right.



Tommy’s death hit her hard and to cover it up, she buried herself once more into her work. CNRI went down with the earthquake and Laurel went up, to the D.A.’s office as the assistant district attorney of Starling City. She was happy for the promotion and used it to help bring about justice like she had at CNRI but underneath, she was angry and in pain. The Hood could have saved Tommy and she could have been more faithful to him. But he was dead now and nothing could change that, though a little revenge on The Hood might seem more justified.



She went after The Hood with the same zeal she went after the crooks on the streets. He had crimes to answer for and no matter how much her recently demoted father seemed to believe in him, Laurel had other plans. With her contacts, she set up a trap that would have and should have brought him to justice, but the newly minted Arrow was harder to catch than she had predicted. For her sake, it was a good thing. Shortly after, her father’s attempt to bring in a serial killer ended up with her being held captive by the Dollmaker, a man who should have stayed in jail. She was moments from death, her father watching, when her life was spared by the Arrow. But the damage was done. Laurel had been helpless, terrified and powerless to save herself.



Laurel spiraled downward after her kidnapping. Suddenly she no longer blamed The Arrow for Tommy’s death but herself; he had been there saving her after all. The guilt fell on her shoulders, not only for Tommy, but for putting her father through that ordeal. If she had been stronger, smarter, anything, perhaps it wouldn’t have happened. All of that lead to the empty bottles carefully hid and thrown out and the pill bottles stashed in her drawers, in her purse, stolen from her father when she ran out. She felt alone, walled off and despite the outward appearance that she was doing fine, great in fact, Laurel was anything but that; she was in pain.



Moira’s case broke the camel’s back. Her pill-popping got worse and while she seemed to be on the right track when it came to her suspicions about Sebastian Blood, she was erratic and frantic. Despite her research and evidence being rather clever and sound, there was little she could prove when public opinion was stacked against her. It didn’t help that in the process, the police searched her apartment and discovered her drug problem, instantly discrediting her findings in the eyes of her father and anyone else she had confided in. She had been so adamant that she hadn’t had a problem, that her addiction had spiraled out of control. The findings ruined her: she was let go from her job, discredited, and alone. No amount of trying to convince people seemed to do the trick. Her weakness had destroyed her and now it is up to her to dig herself back up to the top.

Laurel stood there, in the disheveled mess of her apartment where pizza and take out boxes littered her dining table, coffee table and probably a few of the kitchen counters. She should throw them away, shove them into a garbage bag and just erase the last week from her home. All the papers, the scribbled notes between bits of Chinese noodles and sips of wine that all led to them emptiness she now felt. And yet, behind it all, she felt like she was still perfectly justified in her findings. The pills and the drinking didn’t change the fact that the papers littered about her where true and if put together, led to something dangerous and horrible. No one believed her enough to follow that line. They thought she was a junkie riddled with paranoia and who could blame them.



In a sudden jerk of activity, Laurel yanked out the garbage bag she had been contemplating and stuffed every bit of cardboard and styrofoam into it, marched out to the dumpster and slammed the evidence of late nights away from view. The cold pulled at the lapels of her coat, helping to clear her head, but that was the last thing Laurel wanted, but the very thing she needed. She desperately wanted to disappear into the numbness of the pills, clouding the pain and guilt and hiding it from even herself. But the pills were gone and all she had was a bottle of red wine, half finished in her apartment upstairs. She turned watery eyes upward to it and made a u-turn away. She threw herself into her car and headed toward the first place she could think of that would drown out the voices screaming in her head.



She didn’t even look at the doors when she walked through them. How many times had she gone through them looking for Tommy? Waiting for him to finish his work with the club? Or searching out Oliver? Thea? Everyone. How fitting it was that she was now back, searching for a way to end the unseen pain of her life. Why shouldn’t she anyway? Drinking was perfectly legal and it would dull away the horrors of losing her career, her boyfriend, her sanity, her sister, everything.



Laurel marched up to the bar and ordered the first: a whiskey on the rocks, double just to start off. She didn’t need a drinking buddy and she didn’t need to sip it. It went down in two swigs and she promptly ordered another. Let the thumping music, the writhing bodies and the burning of the liquor take everything else and shove it in some unseen trash bin, just like the pizza boxes and the take out containers. To hell with what her father and Oliver Queen thought. They were the ones who had shown her how.

[Arrow]