Flashpoint

Summary: Laurel wants to talk to Oliver following her breakup with Tommy, but Oliver's reaction is not what she expected. He really does suck at lying.

Disclaimer: not mine. The words are mine, the characters are not.

Spoiled through 1x20 (1x21 to be safe). For this story, Laurel never went to talk to Oliver about Tommy breaking up with her, but she did go see Tommy at Merlyn Global, therefore Laurel and Felicity have never met.

Chapter 1

"Oliver," a familiar voice called out, stopping him in his tracks. Standing in the middle of Queen Consolidated's lobby, Oliver turned slowly, his back ramrod straight, a slight smile, completely fake on his face as he turned to face Laurel.

He stood still, waiting for her to approach him, his senses registering everything and everyone around him. Employees streamed in an out, it was lunchtime after all. Two security guards manned a desk next to two receptionists, with another two guards patrolling the ground level at all times. Ever since the Hood had gotten into QC, security had been beefed up. Oliver had come to find Felicity, needing to have her unencrypt a USB drive he'd taken off a fellow Russian Bratva Avtorityet (captain) at a meeting that morning. She hadn't been at her desk so he'd been on his way to find her at her favorite lunch spot, a nearby deli with outdoor seating.

"Laurel," he said with false happiness that didn't reach his eyes. "What brings you here?"

Her face fell. "Oh, didn't you know? Your family's foundation is making a rather large contribution to CNRI. I came to finalize the details on the announcement."

"Oh, that's good. CNRI does good work. But I'm not involved with the family foundation."

"Are you working here now?" Laurel asked, her large eyes shining up at him, making him remember years past. Years when he'd loved her. Years when he'd betrayed her love and trust over and over again. She'd always forgiven him, always taken him back after he'd made some small bit of effort.

"No," he scoffed. "Not me. Walter is back at the helm, and that's as it should be."

"Oh, I heard. That was great news. For your family. I know Thea adores him."

"Yes," Oliver smiled, his face softening. His sister's affection for their stepfather had been unexpected, but once Oliver had adjusted his mind to his mother marrying his father's friend, he'd seen that Walter loved Thea back every bit as much as the girl loved him. And from him, Thea received a warmth and affection that she didn't seem to get from their mother.

"I guess you're busy with the club now that..." she trailed off, both their thoughts going to Tommy.

"Yes. Yes, I've had to pick up the slack since Tommy left. How is he?"

"I haven't really seen him," she said then hesitated. "Is there a place we can talk?"

Oliver was reluctant, but he had made a promise to himself to be a better person, had been trying to be friends with Laurel.

"I'm actually meeting someone here..." he denied, but as her face fell he tightened his jaw. "I have a minute. We can talk outside." Gesturing with his hand for her to precede him, Oliver pushed open the doors for her, walking outside into the bright spring sunshine.

Taking a few steps until they were standing next to a large fountain that dominated the plaza that filled the city block between the QC building and the waterfront, Oliver stopped, his head swiveling slowly to map the area and its current inhabitants. He didn't like being out in the open, exposed from all sides, but he knew that he had to set aside his discomfort. There was no good position to take in the plaza, so he'd just try to end his conversation with Laurel as soon as possible, find Felicity, then get back to the foundry.

Oliver was more comfortable with concrete walls and shadows than city parks and sunshine. He waited quietly, but not patiently for Laurel to say whatever it was she wanted to say.

"Oliver, I haven't talked to Tommy because we broke up."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that. I'm sure you two can work it out," he said automatically, Tommy's words ringing in his head. 'You still love her, don't you… I don't know how to be with Laurel, knowing the entire time that if she ever found out who you really are, she would choose you.' Oliver had tried to convince Tommy that under no circumstance would he pursue Laurel or in any way resume their relationship, but Tommy hadn't been willing to listen.

"Are you? Are you really? Because I'm not. At first I was angry, really angry. Tommy left, saying that he wasn't ready for the kind of commitment that I wanted, but I went to him, I told him that I wanted the truth, that if our relationship was going to end, that I wanted it to end with honesty." Oliver tensed; waiting for what Tommy had said to the girl they'd both loved. "He said that..." Laurel drew herself up straight, looking him in the eye, looking for the truth in his gaze. "He said that I belonged with you. That you still loved me."

"Laurel," Oliver said, regret thick in his tone.

"And I realized that I had wanted Tommy to be honest, to be sure that we could work, but I wasn't. I was lying to myself the whole time. Because I never really tried to make it work. We were only together because Tommy pushed it. I always held something back, and I never really knew why."

"Laurel, don't..." Oliver cautioned, but she rushed ahead.

"I never really let go of you. At first I was so angry, and when you came back, I didn't know what to think, but now... There is something between us, Oliver. There always has been, and maybe we owe it to ourselves to try again."

Expression tight with pain, Oliver reached out a hand as if to touch her shoulder, but he withdrew it. "No, Laurel. You don't owe me anything, and if I owe you, it should be to stay away from you."

"I know it didn't work before. I put too much pressure on you, and you weren't ready and we both made mistakes," she said persuasively, emotion raising her voice. But I forgive you, and we can move on."

"Laurel, that's not..." he began, but a bright head of blonde hair, glowing in the sun caught his attention. Felicity had just entered the park, walking with three other QC employees.

"We should be together Oliver, it's always been us," Laurel pleaded, and his chest tightened, his lips narrowing.

"No, I'm sorry..." His eyes tracked Felicity as she approached his location. He frowned at her seemingly complete obliviousness of her surroundings, smiling and laughing, not even seeing him. "Laurel, I was here today to see someone. Let me introduce you."

Laurel frowned as Oliver took a few quick strides away from her, admiring his tightly muscled form. Oliver had always worked out, but more for vanity's sake than any real wish to be fit or healthy. Since his return from the island he'd obviously been putting in the effort needed to maintain the muscle he'd developed while stranded there.

Her frown deepened as she watched him approach a woman walking with three men. The woman, a bespectacled blonde, wearing a navy blue skirt and fuchsia cardigan with lipstick to match, smiled up at him, her face glowing with simple pleasure at seeing him.

Oliver circled her elbow with his hand pulling her closer and pressing a firm but brief kiss to her mouth ignoring her surprised expression. Towing her the few steps back to Laurel, Oliver rested his hand at the small of her back, facing his ex-girlfriend with bland detachment.

"Laurel... have you met Felicity? She works in the IT department, and... She's my girlfriend."

Laurel stared at Oliver's face in hurt disbelief, therefore missing the way Felicity's mouth fell open in shock.

"Oliver..." Felicity began, but Oliver cut her off with another kiss, longer this time, his firm lips pressing against her softer ones, giving her time to gather her thoughts and hopefully shut down her mouth. Felicity's words were unpredictable at best, and having her reveal his lie would be catastrophic at this point. Her hands fluttered against his chest, fingers pressing against firm muscles as if her instinct was to push him away, then her fingers curled into his shirt. She withdrew abruptly as he stepped back, his eyes boring into hers, intense blue pleading with confused eyes a lighter shade of blue.

Laurel gawked at the couple in shock as Oliver gently slid his hand down the blonde's arm, squeezing it lightly. Backing away, Oliver turned to face Laurel, hardening his heart to her look of dismay.

Felicity looked from the taller brunette girl to Oliver, knowing only a bit of the history between them, but enough to know to play along with whatever ridiculous lie Oliver was attempting to weave. "I... nice to meet you, Laurel. Oliver always speaks highly of you." Felicity managed to say coherently with no tangential lines of thought included.

Laurel floundered, but managed to shake Felicity's hand politely. "Nice to meet you, too. How long have you and Oliver been together?"

"Oh," Felicity said with a flare of panic. "Not long. Not together really. I mean, yes, we're together, but not together-together. What I mean is-"

"We're dating," Oliver cut in smoothly. "We've been dating for about a month now."

Felicity smiled brightly, her face too guileless to be doubted. "Five weeks," she chipped in, glancing at Oliver. "If you count coffee as our first date."

"Oliver hates coffee," Laurel said lightly.

"But Felicity loves the stuff. And it's fun to watch her order," Oliver teased.

Felicity felt a wave of relief sweep through her as he brought a bit of reality to their current drama. "Don't start."

Oliver and Diggle both teased her about her coffee order, each acting as if her indecision and overly complicated orders were the height of comedy, bantering and bartering over which one had to get her a coffee on any given night.

Oliver smiled, a real smile, and Laurel felt herself deflate. She had been so sure, after what Tommy said, that Oliver still loved her. But here he was standing with someone else, someone he obviously knew well, not a one night stand, not a fling, but someone he got coffee with. Someone he came to visit during the day.

"You work here?" Laurel asked, already knowing the answer, Felicity's employee badge hanging around her neck, but needing to fill the suddenly oppressive silence as Oliver gazed at Felicity affectionately.

"Yeah, I have since I graduated. With my masters, not my bachelors, I was only 17 then and I applied, but they turned me down. Too young. As if my age has anything to do with my expertise. But it turned out to be a good thing. I went back to school and earned a double masters at Gotham MIT and had some amazing internships during those two years. And then there was-"

"You graduated from college at 17?" Laurel asked incredulously.

Oliver smiled, appearing proud, but his mind was churning over the facts that Felicity had unintentionally revealed. He knew she'd started working for Queen Consolidated right after leaving school, but he hadn't realized that she'd earned two masters degrees as well as her bachelors all before turning 21.

Felicity flushed, realizing that her words might have sounded like bragging. "Yes, but you have a law degree. The only thing I know about the law is which ones I might be breaking when I'm doing some, ah, oh, well, extra research online, and even then it's only after the fact that I –"

"Felicity is the star of the QC IT department," Oliver interceded before she incriminated herself, when she paused to take a breath. "Walter introduced us not long after I came home."

Laurel nodded, her features pinched. "Well, I should get going. I have a lot of work to do. It was lovely to meet you, Felicity."

"You too. I-" Felicity started, but Oliver squeezed her waist tightly, his arm suddenly surrounding her. "Nice to meet you," she squeaked.

"I'm glad my family's contribution is going to a worthy cause," Oliver said, highlighting the distance between himself and Laurel.

Laurel smiled brightly while Felicity looked blankly between the former lovers. Felicity held her tongue only until Laurel was out of sight, spinning out of Oliver's hold, her eyes narrowing.

"What on earth was that Oliver?"

~~ARROW~~

When Diggle entered the Foundry later than night it was to find Felicity working on her computers, her fingers striking the keys with overzealous precision, while Oliver sat on the floor quietly in the workout area farthest from the blonde technological whiz. "OK, so where are we with-" Diggle stopped abruptly as Felicity's head turned suddenly, her expression angry, blonde ponytail whipping behind her.

"Nah," she said sharply, her index finger pointing at him. "No talking."

Diggle's eyes cut from the incensed IT girl to the normally larger than life billionaire vigilante. "Did I do something?" he asked cautiously.

"You, no. Your pal over there is still working off his last 10 minute timeout."

Diggle's eyebrows shot up as he studied Oliver. Oliver, the Hood, a seasoned killer, with paramilitary training and connections to the Russian Bratva, was sulking. Sitting on the floor, on a workout mat, his gaze on his feet, emanating frustration. Diggle suddenly grinned. "You gave him a timeout?"

"Not-" Oliver bit out before being cut off.

Felicity spun on her feet, arms akimbo on her hips, her slight form as imposing as it could be as she glared at Oliver. "You. Not another word. Unless you want to start the clock again."

Oliver's eyes blazed into hers, but he held his tongue, a muscle in his jaw twitching.

"But I can talk?" Diggle asked with hesitance and simmering amusement. Felicity appeared indecisive, then she nodded, visibly calming. Oliver stood up and marched towards the chest he'd brought back from the island, opening it carefully and starting to riffle through it. "Is he allowed out of the corner, because..."

"He can move around, I'm not a monster, but he can't talk, or make any sounds. No sticks, no metal, no grunting."

"Gotcha," Diggle nodded, eyes gleaming. "Did he touch your computers again, because, he might need to do that occasionally when you're not here..." Diggle's smile turned conciliatory as Felicity stared at him, her mouth drawn in a tight, straight line, her usually bright lipstick worn off. "Not that I'm excusing whatever he did," Dig said quickly.

"No, but now that you mention it, it might be worth reminding you that I gave you each your own computers," she said patronizingly, waving her hand towards two state of the art computers that she'd supped up the next level. "Those are for you and him. These," she motioned towards her own triple screen set up that was connected to a dedicated server, "are mine. Just mine. Mine-mine. Totally mine. As in I will rig them to explode if you so much as attempt to enter a password to unlock them, mine."

"Yours. Got it. Then... what did he do?"

There was a small sound, like the ting of an old fashioned kitchen timer, and suddenly Oliver was standing next to them. "I made a judgment call."

"I said, from the very beginning, like the verriest beginning, no Shakespearian drama," Felicity said passionately.

"I did what I had to do, to ensure the least amount of fallout-"

"But that was your drama," Felicity said pointing at him, "and you made it my drama, and I don't have drama. I mean I do now, but it's still your drama, and I don't want any part of it."

"Felicity," Oliver said loudly, but calmly. "I did the best that I could in the moment."

"The best you could do was lie? That lie? You put arrows in people, you jump into danger without a second thought, you get shot by your own mother then go home that night as if nothing happened, but you can't just tell a girl that you don't want to date her? Even I can do that. I mean a guy, OK well there was this one girl, but we were just friends. She wanted to be more, and you know I know they say college is the time to experiment, but I-"

"A girl? Laurel?" Diggle questioned, trying to clarify the confused story.

"No, I just met Laurel today," Felicity said. "Oh you mean Oliver's girl. The girl he lied to. Today. Well, not the only one, he also lied to me, and then his sister, so who knows how many girls he lied to just today, it would probably be easier to count the people he told the truth to today. Oh, wait, can you count to zero? Because zero is a whole number but-"

Oliver looked down as Felicity rambled on and Diggle nodded again in understanding. Laurel was Oliver's Achilles heel. He felt more guilt towards her than anyone else, and while he should feel bad, his guilt and regret was like a chain that he couldn't break.

"I apologized for that Felicity," Oliver said his tone soothing, but she was anything but soothed.

"Yeah, but your apology evaporated when you repeated your little lie to your sister and agreed to bring me home for dinner. With your mother. And my boss. And your sister. Why don't you invite Laurel while we're at it. Dig, are you free this Friday, because apparently the Queen's are having a dinner party."

"Maybe you should start at the beginning," Diggle asked, rubbing his temple as he felt a headache begin to form.

~~ARROW~~

Oliver tried to explain the day's events, with Felicity interrupting him constantly, to the amusement of his bodyguard/partner.

"I get you lying to Laurel, man, I do, but how did Thea get involved?" Diggle questioned, earning himself a killing glare from Felicity, who stomped over to her computer's and sat down, her fingers resuming their staccato rhythm on the keyboard.

"Laurel told Thea, and Thea called me, crowing about how she knew Felicity wasn't just my friend, and demanding that I bring her for dinner. Before I could say no, she'd hung up and before I could calm Felicity down and call her back, I received a text message from our chef asking if my guest had any preferences or allergies that he should know about before dinner on Friday," Oliver said stiffly.

"So you managed to tell a successful lie, for once, by enlisting the unwilling support of the second worst liar I've ever met, then got outflanked by a 17 year old girl," Diggle deadpanned, stalwart under Oliver's withering glare. "I was planning on taking Carly out on Friday if we didn't have a mission, but no way am I missing that train wreck."

From the computer desk behind them, Felicity burst back into speech. "There will be no train wreck, because I am not going. End of story. Finito. No way Jose. Hit the road Jack. Sayonara. No way, no how, no. Just no."

"You have to Felicity," Oliver said regretfully.

"I have to?" she repeated with loud disagreement, standing up suddenly and leaving her chair spinning as she gathered up her purse, obviously intent on leaving as soon as possible. "I don't have to do anything. I don't take orders from you. I signed up for this voluntarily," she paused her face scrunching up. "I signed up for this voluntarily? I must be crazy. I'm going home. A bowl of soup, some chips and salsa, a marathon of Dr. Who, and it will be like this day never happened."

"Please. Felicity. Think about it. My mother has probably already been told about the dinner. Canceling now would only raise more questions. And if she knows, Walter knows. And-"

"And he's my boss, and I respect him. I like him. And now he's going to think...? And you kissed me in front of my co-workers. My co-workers Oliver! They saw you kiss me. Twice. Not once, twice. Two times."

"That is the meaning of twice, yes," he said irritably.

"This is all just a big nothing for you isn't it, another girl you date and discard, big whopeety do. But this is my life. My job. My boss. The people I work with," her voice trembled with panic.

"I'm sorry, I can fix this. We can fix this, but I need you to help me Felicity." She looked panicked and he cupped his hands around both her shoulders, lowering his head to look her straight in the eyes. "We can fix this, and I promise you, you will not come out looking like the fool." Her breathing started to slow down, the flush fading from her cheeks.

"Come on," he lightened his tone, teasing her softly. "Is it really so bad to date me?" Felicity blinked at him, her mind obviously going a thousand miles an hour still. "I told Laurel you were my girlfriend, but you insisted that we were only dating. We can work with that. I fell for you, but you didn't trust my reputation. We went out a few times. Things didn't work out, I still liked you, but you didn't want to date the boss's son, we stay friends." He squeezed her shoulders lightly, then released her. "See? We can make this work for us. Laurel goes back to Tommy, you come out as smart and desirable, and we have a reason to be seen together."

"If you're this good at coming up with lies, then how come you're so bad at telling them?" Felicity asked with her head cocked to one side, honestly curious.

Diggle laughed, breaking the tension. "So when does she get to dump your ass?"

~~ARROW~~

AN-

First Arrow story, and first time writing someone who rambles like Felicity. Also my first time writing for a fandom when the show hasn't already been canceled. This could be a oneshot or could be continued. Not sure. What I am sure of is that I'm crazy to start a new story when I have three WIPs in two other fandoms, with three pairings.