Reverie

Chapter 1: Dusk

Dig raised his arm to block her strike, and Felicity shifted her momentum to attack his other side, which was met with yet another block. She retreated a few steps, preparing for his counterattack. He approached her slowly, deliberately. But then the attack came, swift and sudden, and before she knew what was happening, his large body was looming over hers as she lay on the mats once again.

"You know, I get how all of this training is important, but I really wish we could fast forward through all of the scenes of me getting my ass kicked. I could just pop up one day in the lair and be all badass, I'm going on patrol, where's my super suit? You guys can sit it out for once and watch me work my magic on the city thugs."

Dig extended an arm to help her up. "As much as I would love to see the look on Oliver's face if you were to dress up in some ridiculous leather costume, you and I both know that you're better off in command central."

Felicity reached for her water bottle that was perched on the gurney several feet away from her precious monitors. She did a quick survey to make sure that her searches hadn't come up with any pressing results as she rested. There were a few minor burglaries, but nothing that required urgent attention.

"You can do more with a few taps of your fingers than Oliver and I could ever do with our fists. We're just the muscle, you're the brains." Dig smiled widely at her.

"And as flattering and sweet as that is, you are vastly downgrading your own importance to this crusade. You're way more than just muscle, even if you probably could go into professional wrestling, or weightlifting, or whatever floats your boat, if you get sick of the whole bodyguard/vigilante routine."

Felicity moved back over to the mats to stretch. "If I'm the brains, then you're the soul of this operation. You keep Oliver on the straight path, prevent him from going all tall dark and menacing. And you do it on top of managing a relationship and expecting a baby. That's a lot of responsibility."

"Yeah, well," Dig wiped some of the sweat off of his forehead with a fresh towel from the stack that they kept by the training area, "it helps that my ex-wife knows all of my secrets. At least I don't have to keep anything from her."

"So, about that…" Felicity crossed her right arm over her chest and held it there to stretch her shoulder muscles, "Isn't that a bit awkward when you introduce her to people. 'Hello everybody, this is Lyla, my girlfriend/ex-wife/the expectant mother of my child.' I don't want to push you into anything you're not ready for, but wouldn't it just be a lot easier to have your divorce nullified, or voided, or whatever?"

Dig had paused with his arm lifted to wipe the sweat off his neck. "It might be simpler. The thing is, though, that Lyla and I were never all too good at the serious part of our relationship. That will probably have to change now with the baby, but that doesn't mean that having a marriage certificate will make it any easier."

"Right, of course. And it's 100% none of my business. How is Lyla dealing with the pregnancy? She's six months now, right? That's gotta be tough for her, considering how active she normally is. I mean, not that you can't be active when you're pregnant, but just, it might not be the best idea to be up to her usual grenade launcher, machine gun-wielding antics. That's more appropriate for the first two semesters, right? "

"Well, A.R.G.U.S. refuses to let her go out in the field anymore, and I think that's the hardest part for her, sitting at a desk, watching others take over the jobs she used to do. Waller hasn't been very sympathetic, either. I get the sense from Lyla that she thinks it shows a lack commitment to the job to get yourself pregnant. It's not as though we did it on purpose."

"Which probably makes it look even worse to Amanda Waller. I don't think she does anything without planning out every step. I sort of wish I were that way. It would certainly make my conversations with authority figures go over more smoothly. If Lyla ever needs another woman to talk to, my social calendar is scary empty. I'd love to get to know her a bit better, anyway. I've got a few John Diggle stories that she would probably find amusing, at least."

"Um, thanks, I think. I might take you up on that. Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll get a shower before I have to get back to babysitting Kord."

"Might make you a more effective bodyguard, though. No one will dare approach him if you're there creating a b.o. barrier."

"I'd like to think I'm more crouching tiger, less stinky guard dog."

"Alright, then. I guess, shower it is."

Dig smiled at her and headed into the side room with an attached bathroom that they had installed in the new lair. Felicity finished her stretches and sat down on her chair to filter through the search results. She had just begun to trace the history of a suspiciously large shipment of chemicals that had caught her attention when Roy stormed down the stairs.

"Rough day?"

"You could say that. Where's Dig, or Oliver? I could really use a good workout."

"Dig's in the shower. We just finished a training session. Oliver's at another meeting with the family lawyers to try to retain some of his assets from the legal mess that now is Queen Consolidated. I could always spar with you if you want." Felicity gave Roy a friendly smile.

"Erm." Roy quirked his left eyebrow at her. "No offense blondie, but I really need to get a lot of aggression out of my system. Somehow, I don't think that Oliver and Dig would approve of me taking it out on you."

Felicity frowned up at him. "And what makes you think that I wouldn't be able to handle my own. I've been practicing with Dig a lot recently, you know." He raised both eyebrows at Felicity and gave her a pointed look before he conceded and moved onto the mat.

Felicity got up warily from her chair, not actually having expected Roy to agree to fight her. "What got you so worked up, anyway?"

"I'm a gym trainer, so it kind of goes with the territory to get hit on, but there was this one woman who got a bit too aggressive with her propositioning. I feel all gross and creeped out now."

"Ugh. Sexual harassment. I got my fair share of it at QC, especially going from IT girl to Oliver Queen's Executive Assistant, but you never do get used to it."

"And it's not like I can say I have a super hot girlfriend waiting at home for me so that they'll back off."

Roy was scuffing at the mat with his sneaker and glaring at it.

"So, it's not just the sexual harassment b.s. that's bothering you. Well, here I am. Just pretend that I'm a suburban housewife objectifying your body, or whatever. Feel the urban disempowerment, concentrate your rage, and then let it all out on me."

They had begun to circle around each other, and Roy let out a chuckle.

"You know, if this whole kung fu thing doesn't work out for you, you could always try exasperating your attacker into submission."

"Nah, tried that with Isabel Rochev. Didn't work out too well. Ended up enraging her even more."

"Yeah, well, at least it's a bit distracting."

"Well, you have the whole model good-looking thing going for you. That could definitely distract your opponent, especially if they're female, or, you know, gay. All you have to do is flash those baby blues, and they'll be putty in your hands."

"I thought we were trying to distract me from my recent bout with sexual harassment, not reproduce it."

"I'm role-playing."

"Just…hit me already. I don't want to be the one to attack, just in case Dig or Oliver come in at the wrong moment."

"Fine, you asked for it."

When Diggle came out into the main room dressed in his bodyguard suit, he was surprised to find Roy lying on the mats and giggling wildly as Felicity tickled him.

"Now what exactly is going on here?" He folded his arms over his chest in mock disapproval. Roy looked somewhat embarrassed, but Felicity took advantage of his bashfulness to launch another attack.

"We were just getting to the root of Roy's psychological issues via role-play therapy. Roy was the objectified male, and I was the sexually powerful female. You want to join in?" Roy's eyes had widened considerably, and he began to inch away from Felicity.

"Maybe some other time. I just got a call from Oliver. He's on his way back here, so you guys might want to, you know…" He made a gesture with his hand, and both Felicity and Roy quickly stood up from the mats and separated.

"Right, well, I'll just get a shower and change then." Felicity ducked into the bathroom.

When Felicity emerged from the side room dressed in jeans and a purple sweater, Dig was gone, Roy was beating up one of the dummies, and Oliver was sitting in her chair in front of the monitors. He was still wearing his black business suit, and he was hunched over the desk as he scrolled through the results on the middle screen.

"So, I guess the meeting didn't go too well."

Oliver grunted.

"And now you're looking for a distraction so that you can unleash a bit of your frustration with Oliver Queen's life on Arrow's enemies."

He looked over at her then. "I just found out that the courts have decided that Isabel's criminal actions mandate a complete inspection of all of QC's records and financial transactions for the past year. Not only will my family's personal assets be tied up in limbo for the foreseeable future, but my father's company, his legacy, will be as well."

Oliver leaned back in the chair and rubbed his hand over his eyes.

"And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. The lawyers don't want me anywhere near the company. They're assigning a new CEO from Stellmore. I don't have any say in what will happen now."

Felicity moved over to lean against the desk.

"Well, at least you gave me and Dig all that money when you went AWOL last year. I spent some of it on the restoration of the old lair, and on this one, but we still have a fair chunk of change left. We should be in the black for Arrow business at least for the next year or so, maybe longer if we cut back on the special ops."

Oliver pushed away from the desk so that he could turn the chair to face her.

"The mission is what matters the most. As long as I have all of this to focus on, I can take whatever I have to face as Oliver Queen. Still, though, I need the basics. The mansion just sold, and I need somewhere to stay. I can't sleep down here on a regular basis."

"Then we'll find you an apartment, something close by. If you really need to, you're welcome to stay at my house. I have a guest room and everything."

Oliver balked at that, his head shaking quickly. "No way. I mean, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not opening you up to that. The press would be all over it. I can just see the headlines now: 'bankrupt Queen shacks up with assistant.' No, you're right. I need a place around here where I can sleep, something really minimalist."

Felicity's eyes had widened at Oliver's immediate and enthusiastic rejection, but she nodded at his reasoning. "Alright then, I'll do some apartment hunting in my free time, then."

"Thank you. I mean it. What with my mother's death, Sara having to go back to the League of Assassins, and now Thea disappearing…" Oliver had lowered his voice and shifted his eyes to look over at Roy. Fortunately, Roy was still concentrating on beating up the dummy, and he was wearing his headphones, so he probably wasn't aware of the direction of their conversation. "I feel like everyone I care about is being taken from me. I just need a bit of stability in my life. And…a new apartment might help me with that."

Oliver looked so forlorn that Felicity couldn't prevent her left hand from slipping along the sleeve of his suit, brushing against the shoulder. He seemed to take comfort from the touch, though, so she gave him a gentle squeeze.

"Why don't I find something to take your mind off of all of this, then. You, go change. We can sift through some of the apartment ads online once you get back from beating up a couple of thugs."

Oliver gave her a tight smile and stood from her chair. Her hand fell from his shoulder as he did so, and he caught it, momentarily putting pressure around her wrist before he moved away to don his green leather suit.

Thea braced her hands against the wall of the cabin as she stretched her calf muscles. She was at the mid-point of her eight-mile evening run. Fortunately, there was a convenient spot by an abandoned cabin that overlooked the shoreline. She only had a couple minutes to rest and stretch, but at least she could listen to the crashing of the waves while she did so.

The whole cross-country thing would have been improved a lot if she had been allowed to bring her iPod with her, set her badass training routine to a bit of hardcore rap to get her in the mood. Malcolm was insistent, though, that being a badass required full sensory awareness, and apparently that was inconsistent with JZ and m & m, or any other candy letter combinations she could have jammed out to.

Thea took one last look out at the waves breaking distantly against the reef. It would have been nice to be able to take a dip into the warm water, but the tide was far too low for that at this point, and bad daddy would not have approved. He was timing her this time, and she was supposed to be trying to break an hour.

Thea had been surprised to find that running actually came pretty easily to her. Her mother had insisted that she do some sports, and she had excelled at archery when she was younger, but she had never been very interested in the whole team spirit competition thing.

Her body type was well suited for running, though, and even Malcolm had been impressed when she showed him what she could do with a bow. Even if she wasn't proving to be a complete natural with the martial arts he was showing her, at least she had the archery to fall back on. He already had her working on combining elaborate obstacle courses with archery targets.

Despite all of the exercise she was getting now, though, Thea couldn't help feel that she wasn't changing as much, or as fast, as she wanted. Even though she had insisted that she would never return to Roy, a large part of her wanted to be able to return to Starling City and shove it in his face that she was a big girl now, that he didn't have to hide things from her. Plus, she really did love him, and Oliver, and Walter. She couldn't turn her back on them forever.

Thea just needed some time and space to grieve for her mother and for the identity that had been torn from her. She needed to become her own person now, not just some appendage to the Queen dynasty. It helped that Malcolm had a strict isolation policy. No newspapers, no Internet, no phone. When she did return, it would be in an entirely new three-dimensional incarnation to achieve maximum shock value, not something half-formed via inferior means of communication.

The light of the day was beginning to fade as she turned away from the shore and headed toward the training area where Malcolm was waiting for her. Thea enjoyed running at dusk, allowing the faint light of the sun and the rising moon to guide her along the rough dirt path.