She is a Queen
An: I do not own Arrow. This is the last story in one-shot week. Thank you to everyone that read the stories. This story is Oliver's PoV to the events that happened in Office Gossip. I haven't repeated anything from that story so if you're lost you might need to read that one.
Summary: Part 5 of The Queens series. Oliver PoV to the events of Office Gossip plus the introduction of Diggle to Felicity.
Oliver spent the entire lunch schmoozing with the representatives of the Chinese company they were trying to buy just to please his father. He still had the remnants of the headache he woke up with curtesy Tommy Merlyn and the wild celebrations after his wedding. It made trying to concentrate on what they were saying extremely difficult. He should have told his father to schedule this meeting on another day. He shouldn't have assumed that by Monday he would have recovered enough from the wedding.
The purchase of the Chinese firm was important to the future Queen Consolidated so his mother and Walter Steele were also present. They reserved a private room at Table Salt and ordered some of the more expensive items off the menu to persuade them to wasn't the only bidder. There were at least ten other firms circling. They spent the entire morning giving the representatives a detailed presentation of what QC was offering and why QC was the best deal for them.
Oliver was thankful to have the afternoon free from them. They had arranged for a professional tour company to take them around Star City and entertain them. He wouldn't have to see them again until the next day. As soon as they returned from lunch, Lisa indicated that Felicity had asked for an emergency meeting with his father and she would be up in a few minutes. That peaked all of their interests. Robert told her to send Felicity straight in when she arrived.
They all settled on to the couch discussing what they thought their chances were when Felicity entered through the door with a thick folder tucked against her chest. From the moment he saw her he knew something was wrong. Whatever it was, he was determined to fix it.
Oliver threw this clothes off and changed into his gym clothes. He had never been so furious in his entire life. The comments on the board, the insults against his family and most importantly the hatred directed at his fiancé were really pissing him off. Who were they to determine the type of woman he was destined to be with? He determined that. He decided who he wanted to build a family with. Felicity was so bright and sunny, how could anyone hate her?
He went straight to the punching bag and started pounding it. He poured all of his anger into each punch. He wished with each punch he could erase the comments he read but that wasn't possible. When he grew tired of the punching bag he picked up the escrima sticks and started practicing on the Wing Chu dummy. After three minutes, one stick broke and he tossed in on the other side of the room. He was getting physically exhausted but his mental and emotional turmoil was still there. He decided to turn to the one piece of equipment that never failed him, the Salmon Ladder, aka as his fiancée favourite exercise to watch.
Soon Felicity appeared; an understanding look on her face. His frustrations lessened immediately. How could anyone believe she wasn't what he needed?He dutifully followed her upstairs to the tub. The warm water sooth his aching muscles but it was Felicity's cuddling that soothed his soul. His fiancée deserved everything she wanted, not those caustic comments from individuals that were bitter and jealous. He wished he could rewind time and prevent the whole creation of the QGM board.
Oliver had finished meeting with the Chinese representatives and was busy in his office reading their counteroffer.
"Knock, Knock," Tommy said from the doorway.
"Tommy, what are you doing here?" Oliver asked surprised. If he remembered correctly Tommy was supposed to be on his honeymoon.
"A key witness in one of Laurel's cases was threatening to back out. She was needed to put out that fire so we delayed the honeymoon," Tommy said with a shrug. "I heard you needed your best friend though," he stated falling into the chair opposite him.
Oliver smiled, "In other words, Felicity sent you."
"Yes are you sure you want to marry her. She's kind of scary when she uses her loud voice," Tommy teased.
Oliver glared at him, "Just joking," Tommy said holding up his hands in defense. "There is no one more perfect for you than her," he said sincerely.
"I just wish everyone else would see that," Oliver grumbled.
Tommy frowned, "I thought your family loved Felicity. Thea already calls her 'sister'."
"Not them. This week Felicity found a gossip forum started by staff of QC on the dark net. The things they said about her made me want to kill the authors that wrote it," Oliver admitted. "I've never been so angry in my entire life."
Tommy exhaled, "Ollie most people think they know us because we're on the tabloids all the time. But in reality they don't know us. They think they know who's perfect for us, who will make us happy but they don't. Oliver, you know you found your girl. You have never been able to look at a girl and see more than a few weeks of fun. With Felicity you see forever. I remember when you were contemplating proposing to her. Do you remember the questions you asked yourself?"
"Yes," Oliver said. He remembered his internal debate well.
"Has anything changed?" Tommy asked.
"No but I don't see what that has to do with this," Oliver said confused.
"My point is, if nothing has changed, then forget about what people think. She is your Queen Ollie. You picked her for yourself and you're going to marry her. If the outside world doesn't like it, tough. They don't live with you. They don't know that when you're in a mood like this, you need a conversation with your best friend, aka,me. That alone makes Felicity worth her weight in gold or whatever is the most expensive resource we have now."
"But why can't they see how wonderful Felicity is? Why must they be so mean to her?" Oliver asked. He had been struggling with how they could be so cruel to someone so beautiful.
"Ollie quite frankly, you should be thankful that they don't know what a gem she is because if they did, then they might all want her for themselves and you'll probably need a shotgun to keep them away from her," Tommy advised.
Oliver nodded his head. That did make a lot of sense.
"On to much more important things, Bali for the bachelor party?" Tommy said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Oliver groaned. Five minutes later he was saved from Tommy's outrageous planning by the appearance of his fiancée.
"Feeling better," Felicity asked from the doorway.
"Much better, just the talk I needed," he admitted giving her a smile that showed his dimples.
Tommy slapped his hands together, "Great glad I could help. Now I was promised lunch."
Cisco had gathered enough evidence to satisfy the lawyers so they were given the ok to go ahead and start firing employees starting with the creator of the board. His mother had hired Jessica Danforth, a close friend and prominent HR consultant to help supervise the process since the HR Manager was on the list to fire. They called Bree Larvin up to a meeting with them as soon as they arrived. Jessica advised that they have two security guards in the room with them just in case things didn't go smoothly. She had seen a wide range of reactions from people that were fired and it was always best to be on the safe side.
Bree arrived in the room 8:30am and Jessica Jessica took the lead inviting her to sit. She presented Bree with a log file of her work at QC which included her work QGM.
"Ms. Larvan you have done some exceptional work in the past but your current standard has dropped. It has also been discovered that you have facilitated corporate espionage against QC. Based on all of this information we will be letting you go effective immediately. Security will escort you to your desk,"
"What!" Brie said angrily, "You can't fire me."
"Please pack your desk immediately and security will escort you off the premises," Jessica said in a professional tone.
Brie looked straight at Felicity, "This is all your doing. You stole my promotion by sleeping with him," she spat pointing at Oliver. "I'm going to ruin you. I'm going to take everything away from you. I'm going to make you wish you were dead before I finally kill you."
"Enough," Oliver roared slamming his hands down on the table. "Get out. If I ever see you again, you will be the one that,"
"Oliver!" Jessica said cutting him off before he threatened Ms. Larvan.
"Ms. Larvan, security will escort you to your desk. Your passwords have all been changed. Please collect your personal items and leave immediately."
Bree stood glaring at the three of them, "This isn't over," she said before turning for the door. She was just about to open the door when she turned around and charged straight at them, reaching over the table to try and grab Felicity around her neck. Oliver stopped her immediately and the security guards held onto her and pulled her out of the room.
"That went well," Felicity said worriedly when Bree had been removed from the room.
Oliver bent down at her side taking both of her hands in his, "Felicity I promise you I won't let anyone hurt you."
Felicity smiled softly at him, one hand coming up to cup his face, "I know Oliver."
Oliver took Bree's threats seriously. He ordered security to bar her entry into any QC building and he had their lawyers take out a restraining order against her. When he started spotting her at events that he and Felicity attended, he asked the head of QC security to recommend a few personal bodyguards. There were times when Felicity went to events without him and he didn't want his fiancée unprotected. She was probably going to fight him on this but he was not going to back down. Her safety was very important to him.
He set aside a whole day to interview the bodyguards recommended. He wasn't trusting his fiancé with just anyone. He developed a list of questions to test what the bodyguards would do in different scenarios.
1) Felicity walks out of her office to go for coffee alone, what do you do?
2) Felicity goes to the ladies room, what do you do?
3) Gun toting terrorists enter the room, what do you do?
4) One of their clients gets a bit too forward with Felicity, what do you?
5) Felicity tells you to get lost with her loud voice, what do you do?
The first candidate on the list was a Ted Gaynor. The man was highly regarded but he didn't get a good feel about seemed too stiff and uptight. Felicity's upbeat personality might drive him mad. The next candidate failed to answer any of his questions satisfactorily so Oliver crossed his name off the list. After him was the famous Constantine Drakon who ran his own successful security firm. He had been very impressed with him but as he was leaving the office, Thea was entering and the way his sister checked Drakon out made him reconsider immediately.
The last candidate before lunch was a John Diggle, former Special Forces and brother to Andy Diggle who he would be interviewing after lunch. He had served three tours in the army. He was tall, even taller than him, and very well built but it was the way that he carried himself that Oliver approved of most. He was serious but not too serious. He seemed to have the type of personality that would mix well with Oliver's and Felicity's. He was the only one to conclude that he was hiring a bodyguard for his fiancée without talking to said fiancée first and he also recommended that she should learn some self-defense moves since it was impossible to protect someone 24/7. By the end of the interview, he hired Mr. Diggle. He still interviewed all of the others on the list but no one came close to Mr. Diggle.
Felicity was reading through some documents in her office when he walked through the door with Mr. Diggle. He had spent the day before trying to determine the best way to talk to her about it. He was supposed to tell her last night but he kept chickening out. He was crossing his fingers that this would go well.
"Felicity, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Diggle, he will be your new bodyguard," Oliver said in a serious tone. At this point the only thing he could do was just spit it out and keep those fingers crossed.
"My what?" Felicity asked with a frown.
"Based on the threats you received I thought it best that we take some precautions," he explained.
"Oh so you made this decision unilaterally and expect me to just fall line," she said her voice rising. She got up from her desk and marched right up to Oliver. He was a foot taller than her but she was never intimated by their height difference.
"I promised you that I would protect you and this is part of me protecting you," Oliver replied in an even tone. He would not get sucked into an argument. He tried to place a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off.
"Really because this feels like you making a decision for me," she fired back poking him in the chest with her index finger.
"Felicity," he said his frustration level rising. She could be so difficult at times.
"Don't Felicity me," she said pointing her index finger at him, "You know you should have talked to me first and you didn't because you were afraid that I might talk you out of the idea. So instead you hired the bodyguard and presented him here for me so that I couldn't say no because that would mean I would be firing him and with a man with arms that large, I would have a death wish to tell him he's fired," Felicity alleged angrily.
"I would never hurt you Ms. Smoak. That would defeat the purpose of my job," Diggle added to the conversation. He usually would not interrupt such a conversation but she needed to be comfortable with him and if she thought he would hurt her he needed to disabuse her of that thought immediately.
Her eyes snapped to him and Oliver saw the mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "You're my bodyguard correct?"
"Yes mam, I am," Diggle confirmed.
"So if this man in front of me is bothering me," she said pointing at Oliver, "You can throw him out of the office for me right?" she asked.
Diggle's lips ticked up at the corners, "Yes mam."
"Well then get to work," she said walking back to her desk.
Oliver looked incredulously at Digg.
"I'm sorry sir but Ms. Smoak would like you to leave her office," Digg said in a very firm tone.
"But I hired you," Oliver spoke in shock.
"You hired me to protect her. And I will do my job, even if it means I have to protect her from you," Digg said in an even tone.
"I like him already! You and I are going to get along just great Mr. Diggle," she said from her desk, a large smirk on her face.
"Call me Digg," he said to her.
"Then call me Felicity," she answered back to him.
Oliver looked between Digg and Felicity, this was so not how he envisioned their first meeting. Digg cleared his throat and crossed his hands in front of his large chest. He glanced at him and then the door, the message loud and clear.
"Ok man, I'm going," Oliver said walking to the door.
"You better be prepared to grovel tonight," Felicity called out to him as he reached the door.
Oliver suddenly found himself having to plan an apology to his fiancée.
Oliver was sitting in bed writing in his planner when Felicity finally entered their bedroom. He had all day to think about how he was going to grovel and he thought the best way would be to talk it out with his fiancée. He was not going to apologise for seeking out her best interest. He will always put her interests first and Felicity needed to understand that.
She came to bed in her long PJs and an old MIT t-shirt that had been given to her by an ex-boyfriend. She was doing it just to annoy the shit out of him and it was working. He hated that shirt. He much preferred when she wore his shirts. She pulled the covers over herself then turned on her side so her back was facing him. Oliver sighed deeply and placed his planner on the bedside table besides him.
"Felicity," he said looking at her back.
There was no response.
"Felicity, I would like to talk about this," Oliver tried. He wanted to reach out and touch her but he knew when she was angry, she liked her space and he would respect that.
She turned around to face him, "Oh so now you want to talk about it. Not last night, not when you were hiring the bodyguard and not when you first thought about the need for a bodyguard."
"Felicity," he said looking her straight in the eye, "I am so madly in love with you. The thought of anyone trying to take you away from me hurts me deeply. I have to make sure that never happens."
"Oliver, I'm not angry that you want to protect me, I'm angry you didn't talk to me about it. For us to last, we need to be able to communicate with each other. I want you to talk to me when something's bothering you. I am your partner. I can't be the best possible partner to you if I don't know what is wrong," Felicity said taking his hand in hers and kissing the back of his knuckles.
"We're talking now," he pointed out.
"Yes I suppose but you're still 12 hours late," she responded.
He gave her his best puppy look, "Can I promise to improve?" he asked.
Felicity giggled, "Yes."
"Good," he said pulling her flush against him and kissing her senseless.
An: Anybody think Constantine Drakon could be Prometheus?
That was my last Arrow story for the year. I will start up again in the New Year with Chapter 5 of Lessons Learnt, followed by The Wedding Challenge on January 9th. I hope to post a new chapter in that story every day until Arrow starts.