What if Robert Queen wasn't a corrupt business man? What if he was a devoted father, and a good role model for his children? What if there was no Queen's Gambit, and Oliver Queen went to college?
Authors Note: Basically this is an AU story that's been buzzing around in my head for awhile. I've left somethings unexplained in this chapter, but I'll make them clearer later on. A few things just for now: Moira and Robert have been divorced for a while (I might bring her back later on), Malcolm Merlyn has been gone for a while (haven't decided if he's dead/in jail/missing yet) and Tommy has been raised by Robert. Felicity's general backstory remains the same: Raised by a single mother in Vegas, went to MIT, only main difference is in this story she and Oliver are the same age! (I may add in more of her backstory after this week's episode!) Oh, and Tommy is very much alive! (No Laurel yet, not sure what to do with her, all suggestions welcome.)
Who Is The New Mrs. Queen?
Oliver Queen had been talked about in every weekly and monthly tabloid from the time he was sixteen until he vanished at age 24. Rumours circulated for months about what had happened to Starling City's favourite troublesome son. Every theory from a doomsday cult in Idaho to alien abduction to Robert Queen banishing his son to a Queen Consolidated office in Japan, had been thoroughly debated in every blog, newspaper and glossy magazine in the city. So when he mysteriously reappeared six years later, somewhat tanner, more muscular, with a significantly better hairstyle and a designer Italian suit, the press went into meltdown. And THAT wedding ring! Everyone in Starling City wanted to know, where the hell had Oliver Queen been all this time? And who was the new Mrs Queen?
Felicity Smoak arrived twenty minutes early for her first day as a junior IT tech at Queen Consolidated. Lucky she did, because security was expecting all graduate hires to arrive at the same time and getting her ID took long enough without having to wait in line. Her new supervisor gave her a brief tour of the department, before shoving her in a cubicle and telling her to sort out whatever issues people called her about. Apparently, Michael Johnston didn't care if his new IT tech was personally hired by Robert Queen, or that she had graduated top of her class from MIT.
By lunchtime, Felicity had helped half a dozen people who couldn't open their email/find a document they SWEAR they had saved/turn their computer on at all, and she'd upgraded the seriously defective computer in her own cubicle.
"Hi, Felicity?" A young girl asked.
"Hi" Felicity smiled, "Do I know you? Sorry, that was rude. What I meant to say was, have we been introduced? I met a lot of people this morning…"
"That's okay, I'm Anna" The girl cut in, "We didn't meet, but it's the first time in two years IT has had another woman, I'm Michael's EA."
"Oh, hi" Felicity replied.
"I thought maybe you might want to get some lunch" Anna asked, "Us girls have to stick together down here."
It turns out that even old business men read the tabloids, Oliver discovers after his third meeting of the day ends having spent more time avoiding questions about his personal life than talking business.
"Need a break?" Thea asks, waltzing into his office judging a tray of drinks and an over-sized take-away bag.
"Shouldn't you be in school" Oliver replies, leaning back in his oversized, yet extremely comfortable, desk chair.
"Lunch break" She replies, setting the drinks and burgers on his coffee table, "So how surprised are the snotty old men that you went and got a business degree?"
"More interested in the fact I got married" He replies, "I missed these burgers."
"Well maybe you should have come home for holidays" She replies, with a mouth full of her own burger, "Or you could have taken me with you to Europe!"
"One time Speedy, I didn't take you with me one time!"
"Yeah, and you proposed, and I missed it!" She pouted, "And you told Tommy before me!"
"Tommy guessed, technically I told you first."
"Well, I see I'm late to the festivities" Robert Queen announced, walking into his son's office after overhearing his children arguing in the hallway. "I wouldn't feel too bad about missing the proposal Thea, I found out he was engaged from the House Manager."
"I apologised!" Oliver exclaimed, "It's not my fault Tommy has a big mouth and Raisa can't keep a secret!"
"How was your meeting with Applied Sciences?" Robert asked, unwrapping his own burger, "Give you any trouble?"
"Too busy gossiping" Oliver replied, "I'm still going over reports, I want to run some changes by you."
"You need to hire an EA." Robert told him.
"I'll find one." Thea offered, "There's a few women who've applied for the program that finished the admin course."
"Done, have someone start by the end of the week" Robert answered, "Where is your mother?"
"South of France, probably sunning herself with another toy-boy half her age." Thea replied, "Do I really have to spend Thanksgiving with her this year, I'm basically 18, I should be able to decide for myself!"
"One more Thanksgiving" Oliver cajoled, "She'll probably forget about it anyway, like Christmas and Easter, every year since you were ten."
Anna, it turns out, was a single-mother from the Glades who had been hired as part of a program Thea Queen had championed to give disadvantaged people a chance to find employment. She was also a lot like Felicity, raised by a family that didn't have much, trying to make a better life for herself. Lunch went surprisingly well, Felicity thought, she managed to contain her rambling, and may have found a friend in the department.
When they returned, Felicity was called to a meeting with her supervisor on the executive floor. Robert Queen was waiting for them and he didn't look happy, in fact in didn't even wait from them to sit down before he began.
"Mr Johnston, you are aware that Ms Smoak wrote her thesis on computer terrorism and corporate espionage?" Robert Queen asked, glaring at his Head of IT. "And that I hired Ms Smoak personally, in order to programme Queen Consolidated's IT security according to that thesis?"
"Yes Sir" Mr Johnston replied. "But, Landon Young is fair more experience, he has been working on a new program for six months."
"That Ms Smoak decrypted and broke through in under thirty minutes" Robert replied angrily, "Mr Young will return to his role as an IT assistant, immediately. And Ms Smoak will begin programming. Disobey my orders again Mr Johnston and you can pack your desk."
"Sir, with all due respect" Mr Johnston began,
"Pack your desk" Robert Queen cut him off, "Security will escort you."
Two guards appear from the far corner of the room within seconds and escorted the now former Head of IT to pack his office.
"Take the rest of the day Felicity" Robert Queen told the startled woman, "You start as my head programmer first thing tomorrow"
"Yes sir" Felicity replied.
"There's no one else here Felicity." Robert smiled, "It's Dad, remember. Or has your husband told you to call me Old Man?"