I started to write this story after s04e08 but before s04e15 happened and I didn't feel like rewriting as I really like this idea (just hope I'm not the only one ;o) ).
It was suppose to be one-shot but it's already longer than I expected and it's not even finished yet...so... =o)
Also all mistakes are mine.
„Oliver, why didn't you tell me you have a son?" Felicity asked him directly because beating around the bush wouldn't do them any good.
She watched him taking a breath and opening his mouth to say something but at the end he didn't. He just had that pleading look in his eyes. She knew what he wanted to tell her by it and she ignored it because it wasn't only about him anymore; there was too much in stake.
„Where you ever going to tell me about him if I hadn't find out?"
And it was some way to find out about her fiancée's son. She came home early that day and just in time to pick up the ringing phone. Oh, how she wished she wouldn't do that!
It was call from the hospital in Central City. The woman on the other side of line said that there had been an accident and she was calling because Mr. Queen has been one of William Clayton's emergency contacts. Felicity had been confused at first but then she asked some questions and everything started to get clearer.
Samantha Clayton and her son had been in a car crash and Oliver was William's emergency contact. And just like that Felicity knew what was going on with Oliver since their visit in Central City. She didn't have to be a genius to put one and one together.
"Would you tell me?" she asked again.
"I-," struggled Oliver. "I don't know," he admitted. "I made a promise."
She opened her eyes wide. "You made a promise? Seriously? Oliver, we're about to get married soon! You shouldn't hide the truth from me! Honesty is a huge part of a relationship! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"I wanted to protect him," he breathed out. "And I promised Samantha I won't tell you."
Felicity nodded. "Yeah, I heard that." She swallowed and pulled down the engagement ring. "I'm really sorry, Oliver, but I can't marry somebody who can't be honest with me." She put the ring on the counter between them. "If you'll ever be able to be honest with me then you can give the ring back to me." She shook her head. "But until then-," she shrugged. "This is a goodbye."
And she left him without as much as another look. She was heartbroken but she had to do it. There wasn't any other option. Felicity understood his reasons but they weren't enough. He should tell her instead of keeping it a secret; he had plenty of opportunities to do so.
Felicity frowned at the wedding invitation and sighed. She had thought that she made herself clear last week when she called Laurel and declined the invitation; Laurel had been sending her invitations at least once a week for the past month. Felicity just couldn't come to the wedding. She had plenty of excuses but the truth was that she couldn't face Oliver, not yet anyway. Three years hadn't been enough; not in the slightest. And there was a secret between them, the one Felicity kept after telling Oliver that honesty is a huge part of successful relationship.
With another sigh Felicity walked over to the small living room where she found Emily, the babysitter, reading a book. "Hi Emily." Felicity smiled. "How was she today?" She asked while taking off her jacket.
The nineteen year old got up from the sofa and gave Felicity smile. "She was amazing." She looked at her watch. "She fell asleep twenty minutes ago." Emily made her way to the door before turning back to her. "Oh! And the teacher in nursery said she was a bit handful around the lunchtime but nothing they couldn't handle."
Felicity frowned. Handful? Her little angel? Her Liv who was the most easygoing child she had ever met? "Thank you, Emily. I'll talk to the teacher tomorrow morning." She handed her an envelope from the table next to the door. "I'll see you on Wednesday, ok? Have a nice weekend and good luck with your exam on Tuesday."
"Thank you! See you."
Felicity closed the door and went to Liv's bedroom. She watched the sleeping girl for couple of minutes. She couldn't help herself and wonder what her life would look like if she didn't break up with Oliver or if she told him about the pregnancy when she found out or if she didn't get pregnant at all. Felicity shivered. She couldn't even imagine her life without her daughter and although it was pretty hard to be working single mother, she managed and she would never change it for anything.
Felicity heard the doorbell and with a small frown went to answer it. She didn't expect anybody to stop by but maybe Emily forgot something. The girl had her own key from Felicity's apartment but she didn't usually use it when Felicity had been home.
Once she opened the door she froze. "Laurel? What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit mum." Laurel shrugged. "And I couldn't go back home without seeing my niece and my favourite stepsister."
Felicity stepped aside and let Laurel into the hallway. "Well, come in but Liv's sleeping."
"Can I wait until she wakes up? That will give us a chance to talk."
And that was the problem, if Laurel wanted to talk then Felicity knew exactly what about. "Would you like something to drink? Coffee? Tea? Anything?"
"Just glass of water, please."
"Sure," muttered Felicity and made her way to the kitchen. When she came back, Laurel sat on the sofa so Felicity put two glasses on the coffee table and sat across her stepsister. "How's your mum? I saw her the other day. She looked really happy."
"She is happy," she assured her and then pointed finger at her. "But you know I'm not here to talk about my mum."
Felicity rolled her eyes. Of course she knew it. "Laurel, I told you, I'm not coming. It's not that I don't want to be at your wedding, it's just that I...," she let out a breath and shook her head. "I just can't, ok?"
Laurel sighed. "Felicity, please! I need you there! Even Sara's coming. You will have to face Oliver one day anyway!"
"Laurel." Felicity sounded defeated.
"Look, Felicity, I get it. You don't want Oliver to know about Liv and we all support you." Laurel paused. "Ok, your mum probably doesn't but the rest of us do. Even Thea's on your side and believe me, that's not something what happens every day. She loves Ollie and she understands why Ollie didn't tell you about William. But I think you understand his reasons too. Or am I wrong?"
Felicity shook her head. Laurel was right. Felicity did understand why Oliver kept William secret. She didn't approve but she understood. "I'm not worried about Oliver's reaction to Liv. I want him to know his daughter."
"Then why? What's the problem?"
"I still love him," she whispered. "After all these years I'm still in love with him. I don't think I'll be able to walk away again. It would break my heart."
Laurel smiled. "Then don't. Would it be so bad to stay in Star City? You've got your family there. Your mum would be really happy to have you so close."
"I live here now. I can't just drop everything and go back like nothing happened." Felicity sighed. "Besides Liv have friends here in Central City."
Laurel seemed to soften when Felicity mentioned the little girl. "Okay, fine; stay in Central City. But, please, come to the wedding. I really need you there."
Felicity was ready to give up when redemptive thought occurred to her. "What if Barry will need my help while I'm at the wedding and he will need me to be in Star Labs?"
Laurel smiled a smile that made Felicity twitch; her step-sister already thought about that. "He won't," said Laurel triumphantly.
"How do you know?" Felicity was pretty sure that she didn't need Laurel to say it.
Laurel smile turned lenient. "Barry and the others are invited too and they all are coming. And by the way, Barry promised to get you there if you didn't come willingly."
With a deep sigh Felicity gave up and promised hers and Liv's presence at the wedding because there wasn't anything else she could do.
Felicity arrived to Star City two days before the wedding. She wanted to give her mum time to spend with Liv as well as help Laurel with the preparations. The latter didn't turn out to be the best of her ideas.
At the moment Felicity showed up at Laurel and Tommy's apartment her step-sister rushed her into the bedroom. Once the door where closed behind them she handed her a hanger with purple dress on and sent her to the bathroom to change.
Felicity's only reaction was surprised why which Laurel left without an answer. Felicity decided to do as she was told because there was always enough time to talk afterwards. She striped her clothes – dark blue jeans and pale pink shirt – off and pulled the dress on. The chiffon dress fitted her like second skin. When she came out of the bathroom she's been met with Laurel's wide smile.
"Wow! You look fantastic!"
Felicity frowned. "What's going on?" she demanded.
The blonde woman shrugged. "What? I've got you a dress for the wedding."
"I brought a dress. I spent an hour in the shop with Caitlin and Iris to find it."
"Well, you went shopping for dress to attend the wedding as a guest but this dress," Laurel waved her hand by Felicity's direction, "is for my maid of honour."
"What?" gasped Felicity, shocked.
Laurel heaved a sigh. "I want you to be my maid of honour. And for your information I planned it the whole time."
"But...I thought...Sara's your sister. I thought she's going to be your maid of honour. She should be!"
"I don't want her to be. I love my sister and she's going to be my bridesmaid but you're the person I want to be my maid of honour."
Felicity narrowed her eyes. "Are you doing this because of Oliver? He's going to be Tommy's best man, isn't he? Do you think that this," she waved her hand, "game of yours is going to force me to talk to him about everything that happened between us? To tell him the truth about Liv?"
"No," Laurel paused. "Well, maybe! I just can't watch the pair of you any longer. You're both hurt and I just want you to talk to each other. I'm not saying that you have to get back together but it would be great if we could mention you without worrying about Oliver's reaction. Two weeks ago Thea mentioned you and Oliver almost shot her!"
The last sentence was meant to be a joke but Felicity frowned. "Ha, ha, funny."
"I'm serious, Felicity! He is unpredictable. And he got worse since Tommy told him you're coming." Laurel hesitated. "You should know that I've been showing Thea Liv's pictures when I came back from Central City and he almost caught us."
Felicity's eyes grew wide. "What?"
"Almost! But it's getting harder to keep her a secret from him. He's suspicious. He came to see dad at the station when Donna have been there and...well, let's just say that she had quite hard time not to tell him. You need to understand that she's been ecstatic about your coming home."
It took a few moments before Felicity could talk. "Why no one told me anything earlier?"
Laurel sighed. "Because we knew you wouldn't come if you knew."
Felicity shook her head. "Or maybe I would come sooner."
Laurel's eyebrows shot up. "Would you?"
"I don't know!"
Oliver watched Felicity who was talking to the little girl in pink dress with a frown. He already knew that she was her daughter and he couldn't help to wonder who had been her father. That little girl with blonde curls didn't seem to be older than two years which meant that Felicity got over their relationship pretty quickly and it bothered him, a lot!
"What's wrong?" asked Tommy who joined Oliver near the altar.
Oliver shook his head and looked at his best friend. "Why didn't you tell me that Felicity had a baby?"
Tommy sighed. "She didn't want you to know."
"Why not?"
"I think that this is something you should talk to her about." He shrugged with apologetic smile.
Oliver narrowed his eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"
"Look, you need to talk to Felicity about it. I'm not telling you anything. I promised!"
"Is Felicity's boyfriend coming?" asked Oliver instead of pressing the subject.
Tommy looked taken aback. "Felicity's boyfriend? She doesn't have a boyfriend."
"Does she have a husband then?" The thought of Felicity being married to someone else than him was painful but if she was then there was nothing he could do.
"What? No!" Tommy laughed.
"Ok. So what's the deal with that guy who got her pregnant?"
Tommy gave him an odd look. "They're not together. He doesn't even know that Liv exists."
"Probably some jerk who doesn't know what he is missing."
Tommy made a face. "Yeah, you could say that."
Later, at the reception, Oliver decided that he needed to talk to Felicity and made his way to her. He hoped to persuade her into going to his loft where he had everything prepared for the best apology possible.
"Felicity," he said with a smile as he approached her from behind.
She turned to him, her eyes wide. "Um, Oliver, hi." She placed her hand on the little girls shoulder as if she wanted to protect her.
Oliver frowned for a second. Was she afraid he could hurt her? He gave his head a shake. It was ridiculous! "Care to dance?" he asked, a smile on his lips again.
"Um, well...I thought you don't dance."
He shrugged. "Well, I'm a best man and you are a maid of honour so I think everybody expect us to dance."
She chewed on her lip and looked nervously at her daughter. "Mom, could you look after Liv, please?"
"Of course, hon," her mother answered, her eyes sparkling.
Felicity squatted down. "Liv, sweetie, stay with nana, ok? Mummy will be back in a bit."
The little girl nodded enthusiastically.
Felicity stood up and turned to Oliver. "One dance."
Oliver held out his hand, she took it and let him lead the way to the middle of the ballroom where other couples danced. He placed his hand around her waist. "You look great."
She smiled and that smile went straight to his heart. "Thank you. You look great yourself."
He took a deep breath. "Felicity, I think we should talk."
She chewed on her lip again. "Yeah, you're right." She shook her head and looked around. "But not here."
Oliver nodded. "Of course not. Why don't you stop by the loft later?"
She was quite for a few seconds. "Ok."