Note: The Arrow characters and universe do not belong to me.
It had been three weeks since they had dropped Slade off at A.R.G.U.S.' Supermax on Lian Yu. Felicity had been concerned that Oliver's unexpected confession would come between them so she'd tried to give him a graceful out on the island, but he didn't take it. He didn't say he loved her again but he didn't agree that a relationship between them would be unthinkable. To be honest, she was grateful he hadn't said it again. She knew the words spoken at the mansion were true, Oliver was a terrible liar, but if they rushed things now, it could end badly and neither of them wanted to lose the other. She needn't have worried that things would be awkward when they returned home, there hadn't been time. Roy had been waiting for Oliver to share his grief over Thea's departure. She was gone, disappeared without a trace, into that awful night. So now, Felicity had added searching for Thea to her ever growing task list.
Oliver, John and she had decided that the foundry was no longer fit to be their secret lair. Too many people knew of its location and now that Queen Consolidated was no longer Oliver's, there was too much risk of being discovered. They decided to move their temporary base of operations to the secret location Oliver had kept hidden from them. None of them were thrilled with Waller knowing where they were, but until Oliver was able to recover his family business and his fortune, they were out of options.
While Oliver and Digg salvaged what they could from the foundry, Felicity had done her best to make the most of their new home. It wasn't as big as their old space, but they would make do. A section had been set aside to be Oliver's new living space and she tried to give him as much of an illusion of privacy as she could. She insisted he have a real bed and not an old army cot. Oliver and Digg's new workout and sparring area took up most of the space. The salmon ladder took prime location and was in Felicity's workstation's sight line. Felicity had been grief stricken when she realized that most of her equipment had been damaged beyond repair when Slade and his army had destroyed the foundry. She was down to two working monitors and she was still trying to assess the damage to her servers. Her ability to accomplish everything Oliver needed from her was going to be seriously hampered by her loss of processing power.
Felicity was sitting on the floor in front of one of her servers, examining each circuit board and discarding those that had been fried. She sighed as she tossed yet another damaged board into the trash. Without Oliver's unlimited funds, she was going to need to get used to doing without. Her attention was drawn from the carnage of her server to the beeping coming from her workstation. Another sigh passed her lips as she read that her latest WebCrawler program had failed to find any trace of Thea. There had been zero activity on any of Thea's credit cards or bank accounts and no mention of her in any of the tabloid press. Felicity had hacked all of Thea's email and social media accounts, but there had been nothing new since the night she disappeared. Her cell phone had also remained turned off. Felicity knew that Oliver was worried, but he was trying to put on a brave face by insisting Thea would turn up once she had a chance to grieve and she ran out of money. After examining Verdant's books, it was clear Thea had been stockpiling cash.
Felicity checked in on her other Oliver projects. When she was still his Executive Assistant, she had created several back doors in the QC systems. She was monitoring the activities of all senior executives and board members in an attempt to find a way back in for Oliver. In addition to wrecking his finances, Isabel Rochev had done quite a number on Oliver's reputation, not that he hadn't made it easy for her. Felicity was working to find a way to connect Isabel to Slade so when Oliver was able to regain controlling interest in the company he could make his case to the board. Isabel had been missing since the night Nyssa had snapped her neck. Officially, she was listed as missing and presumed dead, her body never recovered. Oliver assured her that Isabel had been hit with the cure before her neck was broken, but Felicity had learned to take nothing for granted. So, running facial recognition software on Isabel had become another task her limited processing power had to deal with. Deciding that retaking a Fortune 500 was even beyond her skill set, Felicity had sought out Walter Steele to help her help Oliver retake Queen Consolidated. Walter had agreed to assist, she just needed to make Oliver think it was his idea and get him to seek out Walter.
The sound of the outer door opening and closing above her made her jump. Ever since she'd been grabbed by Slade's goons she had been extra jumpy when left on her own. Everyone had assumed that Slade holding a blade to her neck had been the worst part of her ordeal, but it didn't even come close to waiting for him to come for her. When Oliver left her alone in the darkness of the Queen mansion she had almost gone out of her mind just waiting to be abducted. Now, every creak and groan of their new lair had her heart racing and gulping for air. Felicity changed the view on a monitor to the lair's cameras and watched Oliver descend the stairs above her. His hands were full, so she buzzed him through the door that led to the lower level and moved to meet him at the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey." Oliver said as he gave her a smile and moved to set the box down in their new medical bay. "I thought you were heading home."
Felicity began to help him unload the contents of the box. "Is this all there was?" She asked with concern. It was bad enough that their medical equipment and Oliver and Digg's blood supply had been destroyed, but now it looked like they were really low on pain killers and antibiotics. If either of her guys were to be seriously wounded, she would be unable to treat them. She tried not to think about the night she learned Oliver's secret identity. He'd been shot by his mother and his heart had stopped. If they hadn't had a defibrillator, he would be dead and Felicity couldn't imagine her life without him in it. The life she led before Oliver was completely unrecognizable to her now.
"Felicity," Oliver said as he waved a hand in front of her face. "It's late, what are you still doing here?"
"I had some work to finish up," she said as she stacked the medical supplies onto a shelf. It was true, she did have lots of work to do, but she had stuck around because she needed to speak to him, alone. "And, I need to talk to you."
Oliver stopped what he was doing and moved towards her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently turning her to face him. "So, talk."
"We need to talk about getting a job." Seeing the look of frustration on his face, she went on. "Um, not you getting a job, I mean, you need to get a job, but I wouldn't tell you to get one. It's just that, I got a job."
Oliver smiled warily at her. "That's great, Felicity. So, which lucky company gets to steal away my best employee?"
"A.R.G.U.S." Felicity mumbled under her breath as she returned to stocking their shelves waiting for the reaction she knew was inevitable.
"No. Absolutely not." Oliver said tightly as he stormed over to his weapons station.
"I wasn't asking you." She said following after him. She could feel her own temper rising.
"We aren't going to discuss this. You aren't working for them and that's that." Oliver said without looking at her.
"Circumstances are not what we want. We need the money." Felicity said keeping the anger from her voice. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that without an income coming in they would be unable to continue. Diggle had returned to work in private security and his income was needed to prepare for impending fatherhood, not keeping Oliver supplied in arrows.
Oliver sighed. "Felicity, you will find another job. You can't work for A.R.G.U.S. Once Waller gets her fingers in you, she'll never let you go. You'll never be free. You will always be in danger."
"Danger and I are currently on intimate terms." Felicity snapped.
"But you can walk away. If you said enough, I'd let you go." Oliver reasoned.
"Oliver, look around you. We are running on fumes here. Our medical supplies are practically nonexistent. I'm running blind with the computers I have. I'm useless to you."
"You've never been useless to me. Computers or not, job or not." Oliver said gripping her arms. "I would rather you leave Starling City to work for STAR Labs than for you to stay here and work for Waller."
"Oliver." Felicity sighed his name. There were times when she didn't have the strength to fight him, especially when he said stuff like this.
"Felicity, please. Give it a little longer. You will find something else." Oliver pleaded.
Felicity couldn't stop herself from snapping. "I've been looking. I've called every connection I have everywhere in Starling City. I've applied to every company with an IT department but none of them will hire me."
"Felicity, please." Oliver said with despair.
"Come, look." She said as she walked back to her computer and opened a file. Newspaper articles began to tile across her screen. "This is why no one will hire me."
Oliver groaned as she began to read. Every article was a tabloid account of his fall from grace, the murder of his mother, the disappearance of his sister and the dismissal of his cute perky blond assistant. Felicity's former colleagues hadn't wasted any time contacting the press with rumors and speculations about what skills landed her the job as his assistant. Shortly after returning from the island, Oliver and Felicity had been caught by the paparazzi leaving a coffee shop together. The newspapers exploded with speculation about their alleged affair. "Felicity, I'm so sorry."
"It isn't your fault, Oliver, but we have to face facts. My MIT degree is worthless when everyone thinks I got my last job on my back. I wish I had." Felicity gasped as she realized what she said and threw her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, I don't mean I wish I had gotten in on my back, I mean I wish it were true because it would be easier to live this now." Felicity groaned. "That didn't sound any better. I'm going to stop talking now."
Oliver smiled. "That would be my preference."
Felicity laughed remembering the last time Oliver had said those words to her. "Oliver, we need the money." She said gently.
"We don't, not this way. I'm not telling you, I'm asking you. Please, for me." Oliver fixed her with his wide blue eyes and she could feel her conviction waiver.
"Okay, I'll keep looking. I'll tell her no in the morning."
Oliver picked Felicity's phone off of her desk and handed it to her. "Why put off to tomorrow what you can do right now?"
"You are an impossible man, Oliver Queen." She said taking the phone from him.
"I know." He said sympathetically.