Author's note: Hi and welcome to this series of drabbles. I'm writing these as I'm a big fan of Arrow and Felicity Smoak; Emily Bett Rickards does a great job with the character, plus the writers seem to have her down pat.
I had a rather harder time with Laurel Lance, despite Katie Cassidy's best efforts the character came across as seriously unlikable, mostly due to poor treatment by the show's writers.
Now Laurel knows about Team Arrow, I decided to write this to explore how those characters could learn to get along, and then become friends in Season 3. Besides, given how much I don't like Laurel Lance, it's a bit of a writing exercise to break through my own prejudice and make her likable.
I hope you enjoy these, I envisage doing about a dozen to a dozen and a half before I wrap up and get back to Intersecting Lines Book 2, which I will start posting right after this finishes.
Felicity and Laurel 01
It was late and Felicity was deep in the guts of someone else's' I.T. systems, sifting through Kord Industries files looking to see why they were buying up properties in the Glades for a song; given Kord's less than stellar reputation they wanted to have a head start on anything that might lead to trouble.
A clang of metal on metal startled her out of her hunt, a slow smile breaking out. She'd been a good girl, hunting through the nooks and crannies of Kord's systems for hours, given some of the computers she was cracking into were running Windows 2000 for God's sake (I mean who does that?) she deserved a break.
Spinning in her seat she took in the rippling muscles that made up Oliver Queen's torso with a delicious thrill of pleasure. When they'd helped get the backup lair set up, Felicity had quietly mourned that they couldn't get the salmon ladder set up, the ceilings were too low.
Now that they'd managed to get on top of Isabel's mess at Queen Consolidated, making sure that Oliver got his family company back, one of Felicity's top priorities had been refurbishing the old lair, making it even better than it had been before Slade's goons had rampaged through it.
Everything was even better than before, right down to the state-of-the-art 3D and touch screen displays, the encrypted satellite uplinks to avoid being traced back to the lair (not that Felicity bore William Tockman a grudge but, well, yes she did) and the lair's dedicated back-up generator. I mean, they needed that, what with the occasional power outages, that mint-chip Ben and Jerry's in the team freezer wasn't going to keep itself in a state of frozen goodness all by itself.
In amongst the upgrades, she'd made sure that a few good things from the previous lair had been reinstalled, most notably the salmon ladder, after all she needed her diversions too.
Oliver was on his second trip up the ladder when Felicity noticed Laurel was watching as well.
She'd joined the team after Sara had left, bringing her legal training and contacts to bear at Team Arrow's targets, Felicity hadn't been too sure how well that was going to work out, after all this was Laurel, gorgeous Laurel, Oliver's Kryptonite. They'd been polite, nothing too frosty, just not all that close, Laurel wasn't Sara, she and Felicity had got on really well, Laurel was more reserved, more uncertain of her place Felicity supposed, it was just that the older Lance sister and herself didn't have a lot in common, not much to connect over.
Laurel was sitting at another desk across the lair, working through some financials on another of their targets, looking for anything a little hinky there that might explain why they'd been hearing rumors he was involved in organ legging, word was circulating that people were dropping off the radar in the worst part of the Glades, some suggesting that they were ending up as unwilling organ donors. It might be nothing but gossip and rumor, but they'd learnt enough to check out anything interesting, something Laurel had taken to with gusto.
Right now though she was looking up from the financial reports Felicity had pilfered from Stephen Amaris' computer and was unashamedly admiring Oliver's efforts as he made his way up the ladder. Felicity was about to turn away, unsure exactly what she thought about sharing the view, this was supposed to be her guilty pleasure, after all Laurel had actually tasted that particular forbidden fruit, even if Oliver had made it clear they were nothing more than friends going forward, still…
With a start she realised that Laurel had noticed her there watching, Felicity felt her cheeks starting to warm when Laurel's lips curved into a slow smile. It was all Felicity could do to stop her jaw dropping at the other woman's audacity.
Unfazed though, Laurel tilted her head as she glanced back up at Oliver, now almost at the top of the ladder, then back to Felicity.
Before Felicity could react Laurel flashed a wicked grin and a deliciously slow wink across the room, before turning back to watch Oliver begin his descent.
Felicity felt a smile break out as she watched Oliver make his way down again.
Maybe Laurel here isn't going to be such a bad thing after all.