Office Gossip
An: I do not own Arrow.
Summary: Felicity Smoak is dealing with a troublesome computer when she stumbles upon a message board that staff have been using to gossip about the Queens at work. She definitely does not like what she reads. Part 4 of Meet the Queens Series.
There was a steady throbbing in Felicity's head and she wondered how it was still possible to be hungover on Monday when Tommy's and Laurel's wedding was on Saturday. Tommy did indeed deliver on his promise that his wedding would be the party of the year. She can't remember anything after the formal dinner had ended but she was told that they got home at noon on Sunday and then slept until this morning. She prayed that somehow they managed to avoid having embarrassing pictures taken of them. Her phone hadn't blown up with any alerts yet so she was taking that as a good sign. Tommy had paid a ridiculous amount of money to keep the media and any type of recording devices that didn't belong to family, away from his wedding.
With a throbbing head, she reviewed her schedule for the day thankful that she had the foresight not to agree to any meetings that day. She pulled up the list of trouble calls that had been logged thus far for the morning and started assigning staff to the problems. The HR Manager, Mrs. Scott, had reported another problem with her system again. This was the fourth time in a week. Felicity decided to handle it herself. She ensured everyone in her department was working on a task before she headed upstairs, dark sunglasses on her face because Mrs. Scott never had the blinds drawn in her office and sunlight was Felicity's enemy at the moment.
She was informed by the HR secretary that Mrs. Scott was at a training session with the new interns but she had given the go ahead for an IT person to fix the computer. She wondered what the woman's reaction would be when she returned to discover that Felicity had personally attended to the problem. Felicity wasn't supposed to know this but when it was suggested that she be promoted to the head of her department, Mrs. Scott had strongly objected. At manager's meetings she always looked down her nose at her and didn't take anything she said seriously. Oliver had noticed the behaviour and wanted to talk to Mrs. Scott about her attitude but Felicity told him to leave it alone. Her work spoke for itself or else Mrs. Scott would have found a way to successfully block her appointment.
The troublesome computer had a series of spyware software and one nasty virus that had all installed themselves between Thursday afternoon, when the last tech was there, and Friday afternoon. This computer wasn't the only one that had this particular virus. Her staff reported cleaning that virus off of ten others on Friday. Felicity pulled up the list of infected computers on her tablet and wondered what the mechanism of transfer between the computers was? The servers were clean. It could be spread through e-mail. Maybe the HR Manager's computer was the cause of the spread? It wasn't entirely unreasonable to assume that the employees had all been in contact with Mrs. Scott. In the past two weeks there had been a dramatic increase in spyware issues throughout the company.
When she was finished cleaning and optimising the computer's performance, she closed her programmes and stared at the cluttered desktop. She shook her head, it was time to remind staff that there was a file server to store files. She was about to turn off the monitor and leave the computer on standby when a strange icon caught her eye, QGM. Felicity wasn't familiar with QGM. She knew the special programmes HR used and this wasn't one of them. She knew all of the approved software that QC had licenses to use and this was definitely not on the list.
It was against the IT policy to have personal work or games saved on the company computer. In the interest of being thorough, she clicked on the icon and a programme opened to connect to the shadow net. Felicity was horrified to discover that an employee was using the shadow net where illegal activity was rampant. She was more appalled when she discovered what QGM stood for: Queen Gossip Mill. It was a message board with multiple threads about the Queen family. Her engagement to Oliver was the top thread at the moment with over 10,000 comments. Felicity looked through several of the thread titles. There was one dedicated to discussing if Felicity was fit to be a Queen. There was another suspecting that she was having an affair with Curtis Holt, an employee in the applied sciences division that she worked closely with and who everyone knew was gay. The threads were nasty and Felicity knew if Oliver read some of them he would have to punch something.
She needed to bring this to Robert's attention but she knew he was in an investor meeting with Walter, Oliver and representatives of the Chinese company they wanted to buy. She called Lisa, Robert's Executive Assistant, and begged her to schedule her in for an urgent meeting with him after he returned from lunch. Lisa managed to clear her a ten minute window and in return Felicity promised to take her to lunch on Friday wherever Lisa desired.
Felicity then went about the task of tracing the users and administrators of the message board. She needed to know exactly how many people were involved and who in her department set this up because they definitely had to have an IT person set this up to get past the restrictions set up for internet use. Based on the date on the initial welcome post for the board, Felicity realised that it had been in operation for two weeks. She also made the discovery that not everyone on the message board worked at QC which was even more alarming to her.
The elevator pinged open and Felicity walked confidently out towards Lisa, a thick folder filled with her supporting documentation clutched to her chest. The blinds in Robert's office were drawn so she didn't know if he was in or not. Usually, he had them open all day but he probably wanted privacy that morning when he was dealing with the investors.
"Hi Lisa, is he back?" Felicity asked with a wide smile. Lisa was not one of the users of the message board and she was happy that at least someone was loyal to the company.
"Yes, you can head on in," Lisa told her with a smile.
Felicity gave her a wide smile and headed over to the door to Robert's office. She was quite surprised when she opened the door to find Oliver, Moira and Walter seated on the sofa set that Robert kept in his office for informal meetings.
"Felicity," Robert said with a fond smile, "Lisa said you had an urgent matter to discuss with me."
"Yes," she answered her eyes flicking to Oliver. She had wanted to tell him separately. "I want to fire 273 employees. I also invited our lawyers to give us some advice on this matter. They should be here soon," Felicity said standing perfectly still waiting for his reaction to her bold demand but he wasn't the first one to question her.
"On what grounds dear?" Moira asked her tone was calm but after a few months living at the Manor, Felicity knew it was the tone that suggested that you better have an excellent reason for making the statement you just made or she would tear your logic apart.
"Breach of QC priority information, breach of HR and IT policies and I'm sure the lawyers can find more reasons," Felicity replied with her head held high. She was no longer meek around the Queen matriarch.
"What exactly have they done?" Oliver asked standing up and going to his fiancée. He placed one hand on her shoulder.
"When Mr. Donner arrives I will explain in detail," she said looking up at him.
Robert sighed, "I should cancel my afternoon meetings then?"
Felicity gave him a tight smile, "That might be best."
Robert summoned Lisa into his office and asked her to go about the difficult task of rescheduling his afternoon meetings. The slight glare his assistant gave him made it known to all of them that it wouldn't be an easy task. He knew his future daughter-in-law well. He trusted her judgement. If she was recommending the termination of these employees then they had definitely done something to deserve that since Felicity was too kind-hearted to fire someone on a whim.
A few minutes later, Mr. Donner and three other lawyers from his prestigious firm arrived. Robert ushered them into his private conference room at the side of his office. They were all seated while Felicity remained standing. She gave a general overview of how she came across QGM and what it was. She then started to build her case on how the policies of QC where breached. She presented them with a few of the comments from the thread about Curtis Holt and herself. She was working with him on a long lasting battery and they were bashing his work in detail, saying he was only getting support because he was Felicity's outside man. Robert had been wondering how their competitors had picked up on the work they were doing when one announced last week that they were launching a new battery in a month's time. The day of the announcement he had called an emergency meeting with the project staff to discuss the future of the project and the possibility of launching QC's battery before their competitors. There were other projects that Felicity was involved in that was discussed on the message board as well.
Not all staff discussed current projects but Felicity wanted everyone associated with the board fired. She presented a preliminary analysis of how much time users spent on the board during the day and some employees racked up quite a time log.
Oliver looked her square in the eye, "What else is on the board?"
Felicity knew that look. There was no other option but the truth. "There may have been a few posts about our engagement, Thea dating Roy, Robert maybe banging Lisa and even one about Moira flirting with Walter," Felicity admitted softly.
A lot of what was said by their employees was hurtful. While she knew Robert was not exactly a faithful husband, Lisa was completely committed to her boyfriend. There was no banging going on between the CEO and his Executive Assistant, Felicity was sure of that. If they had said the CEO and an executive from Stellmore International, that would have been a lot more accurate. She wondered who picked up on the thing between Moira and Walter though. Those two were very discreet and it had taken Felicity weeks to figure that relationship out. Moira and Robert had a very complicated relationship that allowed both of them to find passion in other persons. They were both very dedicated to keeping their encounters with third parties private to maintain the façade of a happy Queen family so the posts about their possible affairs would be upsetting to them.
"I want to read them," Oliver demanded.
"Oliver," Felicity warned. She knew exactly what would happen when Oliver read them.
"Now," he stressed his face leaving no room for disagreement.
"Felicity, I believe we would all like to see these posts," Moira said with a bite to her tone.
Felicity returned to Robert's office and disengaged his QC issued laptop from the docking station. She brought it back to the conference room and hooked it up to the projector. The blinds were drawn to ensure they had privacy and Felicity pulled up the QGM board. She clicked on the thread at the top of the board and she watched Oliver clench his fist as he started reading. They spent two hours reading the first thread alone.
"I'm sure you can get these employees to agree to quit instead of a lawsuit from us for libel," Mr. Donner advised.
Felicity chewed on her bottom lip, "Oliver are you ok," he nodded tersely.
"Nothing a few hours with a punching bag won't cure," he added roughly.
"Can we fire them immediately?" Robert asked with a twitch of his eyebrow.
"No. I would like to get an independent analysis before they accuse Ms. Smoak of setting them up. There is a consulting firm that I have worked with before that could do it. Providing they are not working on anything at the moment, they can be here tomorrow. By next week you should be able to issue the termination letters and the union would not be able to object and no court of law would overturn the decision."
"I think you're being a bit rash Robert. How will the company run missing over 200 employees?" Moira asked reasonably.
"You can't expect me to retain employees that are spilling our trade secrets all over the internet?" Robert retorted.
"Perhaps we can do a staggered retrenchment. The employees that discuss our work on non-secure channels can be let go first and the ones that only racked up significant time on the board, can go at a later date," Walter said intervening between the two Queens.
"Very well," Robert said pushing away from the table and heading back to his office.
Felicity watched the sweat drip down Oliver's back as he climbed the salmon ladder. This was definitely her favourite part of his exercise regime to watch. She had given him the first two hours in their private gym to work through his anger. From the broken escrima stick tossed in the corner he certainly hadn't held back. Even though it was an inanimate object she couldn't help the sympathetic looks she threw towards the wing chun dummy. Today it probably saw more use than it had in the past three months.
Once he was at the top of the ladder he jumped down to the bottom to start again. Usually, Felicity would not interrupt him, normally choosing to enjoy the view, but today she didn't want him to overexert himself. If she didn't step in he might be in the gym all night.
"Oliver," she called out with a soft smile.
He turned to look at her, his face flush from the physical exertion he had been putting his body through.
"Let's go upstairs, I've drawn us a nice bath in the tub to relax your muscles," she said peeking his interest immediately. They usually had a lot of fun in that tub.
He walked over to his exercise bench and pulled his grey T-shirt over his body. His mother strongly disapproved of him walking through the house shirtless.
"Lead the way my lady," he said throwing her a cheeky grin.
He followed her upstairs to their bathroom where Felicity had lit several scented candles. The soft glow of the candles added that extra romantic flare to the bath. She removed her clothes quickly and entered the tub, Oliver following quickly. He groaned as the hot water started to immediately relieve the tension in his muscles. Once he positioned himself at his end of the tub, he motioned for her to come to his end.
"Better?" Felicity asked settling into his arms.
"Much better," he said in that husky voice that sent shivers down her spine. "I have the best fiancée in the world regardless of what the world thinks and you'll be the best Queen Matriarch ever."
"Oh you read that thread too?" Felicity questioned.
"Yes," he replied his body tensing again.
Felicity began to lightly massage his forearms. "Forget about that. It doesn't matter. For the record, I wasn't upset about what they said. I don't care what outsiders think, I only care about us."
"Then why did you seem so angry?" he asked.
"I was upset because they had seriously compromised the IT systems of QC. I worked hard on making the system as secure as it is and a person in my department that I trusted used her administrator's privileges to set up a gossip blog on the shadow net. IT is my department and this was going on right under my nose," Felicity admitted bowing her head to look at the bubbles in the water.
"Hey," Oliver said lifting her chin so that she was looking at him. "I know as Manager it means you're in charge of everything but the reality is that there is no way we can know everything that goes on in the department. A skilful liar can remain undetected. You eventually discovered the deception and you took immediate action to rectify it. You didn't hire the person, HR did. You had to make do with the resources the company provided you with."
Felicity closed her eyes and snuggled into him, "I love you."
"I love you too but let's get a little naughty," he said splashing her with a little water to rile her up.
"Ms. Smoak, the consultant is here to see you?" Felicity's assistant said over the intercom in her office. Her assistant was one of the main gossipers on the board. She looked through the open window that allowed her to look from her office out into the open plan office that housed the rest of her IT staff. She saw a man of average height with shoulder length black hair, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt chatting up her assistant.
"What consultant?" Felicity asked. When she had reviewed her schedule this morning there was no consultant on it.
"The one Mr. Queen scheduled for you at 1:00pm today?" her assistant informed her.
"And you are now telling me this?" Felicity asked as she frantically tried to pull up her schedule to see the change.
"I assumed he informed you personally?" her assistant responded.
They had had this conversation before. Work was work, home life was home life. The two never mixed. The last thing she needed was to go home to discuss work. She and Oliver had agreed that unless they were seeking advice about a work issue from the other, work was not to be discussed. QC would not define their relationship.
"I have told you before not to make such assumptions. You are my assistant. You are supposed to make sure I am aware of all of my meetings. The CEO is a very busy man and might forget to directly mention to me about a meeting. That is why assistants are needed. It is often too much work for one person to handle. Send him in," Felicity said looking through the rest of her afternoon schedule. This meeting was going to set her back. She was going to have to work late today to finish the goals she had set herself for the day.
She watched her assistant escort the man towards her office. She didn't miss the way he surveyed the equipment as he passed by each station.
"Ms. Smoak," her assistant said, "This is Mr. Ramon he is here to discuss," she said leaving it hanging for the Mr. Ramon to fill it in. She was probably fishing for information to put on the message board.
"Thank you Rebecca, I have it from here," Felicity said dismissing her assistant.
Her assistant gave her a tight smile and exited the office. Felicity didn't miss the way Brie Larvan, the member of her staff who had created the message board, looked at Rebecca. This was definitely going to be a hot topic on the board later.
"I'm Cisco," the man said holding out his hand, "It's really great to meet you. I've read a lot about your work."
"Felicity," she said shaking his hand and inviting him to take a seat.
"I'm afraid Robert forgot to tell me you were coming, are you the consultant the lawyers hired?" she asked.
"Yeap, that's us, BCC consulting, I'm the first C," he said pulling out his card and handing it to her.
"BCC?" she asked noting that the firm was based in Central City.
"Barry, Cisco and Caitlyn. We're friends from school and we decided to start our own business. Barry is a forensic specialist, Caitlyn is a medical doctor and I'm an engineer. We didn't know what we could all do together and it was quite by accident we discovered that we could do legal consulting when Iris, that's Barry's adopted sister, was doing an expose on the criminal justice system and discovered that experts were really needed to explain to jurors what the evidence meant," Cisco explained.
Felicity nodded, "When do you want to start?"
"I already started. I went through the board last night and corroborated everything you gave Mr. Donner. What I want to do now is take screen shots of the icon on all of the machines as proof that I physically verified that all of the staff members involved are involved," he said.
"You want access to all the machines?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"All the ones at QC. I can't do anything about the external ones," he replied. "Well I could hack …"
Felicity stopped him immediately, "We don't use that word here. It's such an ugly word," she said shaking her head.
Cisco smiled broadly at her, "I could do some external searching," he suggested.
"It would be useless. The damage is already done. What concerns us is the internal usage of the board. I suppose I could say you're here to do an IT audit of the systems but if I do that you'll have to do all the machines at QC not just the employees that use the message board," Felicity informed him.
"I know. I was prepared to do that anyway because I'm fairly sure they would have noticed if only members of the board had their machines audited," Cisco responded.
"I'll draft an office wide memo and then you can start. Where would you like to start first?" Felicity asked him her head cocked slightly to the side.
"I think I should start with the executive floor and make my way down. That would look good plus I really want to see what wild theory the board comes up with for my presence here. Some of those threads are ..." at Felicity's disapproving look he corrected himself, "Are horrible things that have no right being said."
The newspapers were having a field day with the mass of employees that had either suddenly quit or been fired from QC in the last three months. QGM was officially shut down and the lawyers managed to get all of the employees involved to keep quiet or else face a lawsuit from the Queens. This made it difficult for the reporters to find information about the mass exodus so rumours were flying around. Most papers thought the company was on brink of failure and chose to downsize to prevent a financial disaster while a few oddballs thought maybe the company was going to merge with Merlyn Global since the Queens and the Merlyns were very close.
However, that morning, one keen observer at The Star City Gazette commented that QC had also hired the same amount of people as they fired and that observation sent all the financial experts and gossip mongers abuzz. It was because of that, they were in a meeting with the lawyers and the PR people to discuss their next move.
"BCC Consulting did such a great job. It's a pity I can't hire them to deal with this as well," Felicity said to Mr. Donner.
"BCC was there name?" Oliver asked.
"It stands for Barry, Caitlyn and Cisco," Mr Donner explained. "The three consultants that run the business."
"I thought Cisco was the first C," Felicity asked confused.
Donner shook his head in amusement, "It's in alphabetical order. Cisco just likes to tell clients he's the first C."
Felicity nodded, "That does sound like Cisco."
Oliver arched his eyebrow at Felicity, "Do I need to be worried about anything?"
Felicity rolled her eyes, "I only have eyes for you. No one can compare to you, ever."
"Good," Oliver said reaching out and linking his hand with hers.
The meeting passed quickly and the PR department suggested the QC hold a few high profile charity events that would take the spotlight away from the staffing issue. When Felicity left the meeting she thought that she had wasted three hours of her life.
"Excuse me, Ms. Smoak," a deep voice said behind her.
Felicity turned to stare at the tall man. He had become a new fixture in her life. Brie had not taken her firing well and tried to attack Felicity. That led to Oliver hiring her a personal bodyguard, a guard by the name of John Diggle. At first she had been opposed to a babysitter but the man had grown on Felicity.
"John," Felicity said with a broad smile.
"I'll be bringing the car around at 6:15 for you and Mr. Queen," he said.
Felicity smiled brightly at him, "Thank you John. We'll be ready on time today. I promise."
He gave her a doubtful look that made Felicity laugh. For the past month, she hadn't left the office before 7:00pm. John's offer of 6:15 was his way of telling her she was working too hard. She realised that in the last six months her life had drastically changed. She went from driving her mini-cooper home at all odd hours of the night to having her personal bodyguard subtly reprimand her for her late hours even though he would be the one doing the driving and be there to protect her if anything went wrong.
At 6:10pm, Felicity forced herself to stop working and started packing up for the evening. She texted Oliver that she was ready and in two minutes he was in her office. They walked hand in hand to the elevator that carried them down to the private basement where John was waiting with the Bentley.
"I'm on time today," she said happily.
"That you are," John said in a neutral tone.
"Maybe now Mother can stop bothering us about if we'll be on time for our wedding!" Oliver quipped.
Their bodyguard just smiled and shook his head doubtfully as he closed the back door for them.