"I appreciate it, but I think I would feel strange wearing a million dollar necklace."
"Oh, don't worry," Ray said cheerfully. "It's not worth a million dollars."
The token protest had taken what willpower Felicity had. She turned and held her hair up as Ray slipped the necklace around her neck, cool and smooth.
"...I think it was actually appraised for ten million dollars. So." His pleased smile widened as Felicity caught her breath and tried not to choke.
"There you go. That's better." He stepped back, a little anxious, hoping for a good reaction.
The platinum warmed to her skin, the diamonds sparkling like a chain of stars. Like magic, like dreams fallen to earth to become reality. She brushed her fingertips against the edges of the facets, mesmerized for a second as the mirrored image of the tuxedoed man behind her blurred...
*"I feel strange wearing a million dollar necklace," she confided.
Oliver's hands closed around her upper arms, as he leaned in, lips tracing the curve of her ear next to the industrial piercing. He gave a wicked little grin when she shivered. "Good. Because I think it's worth ten."
"Te - ten?" She gulped. "Oliver, your mother's going to - "
"Not Mom's place to say anything about it." He nudged one blue strap aside with the tip of his finger and kissed the top of her shoulder where it had been, beard a soft brush against her bare skin. "This belonged to my grandmother. She left it to me for my wife. All the Queen wives wear it. And you..." his mouth moved in a line along her shoulder to the nape of her neck, igniting points of slow spreading warmth, "...are definitely a Queen."*
A tiny platinum prong pricked her fingertip like a thorn. The blur resolved back into Ray, pleased and hopeful.
"Do you like it?" he asked.
Ray. So close to what she'd hoped for; everything she should want. Or at least, everything she could have, which wasn't quite the same. The other vision was like the necklace she was wearing, sparkling, beautiful and borrowed. Another quiet dream she would keep to herself.
"It's beautiful," she said. "Thank you."
A/N: I know I haven't done an Olicity fic in a while, and this isn't exactly uplifting - sorry. But the person I felt sorry for in this ep? Not Oliver. Felicity. Not that I didn't feel a little bad for him, but everything he has lost, right down to QC, has been due to his choices. Felicity's been the one who's had to pick up and go on. I'd been feeling a little badly for her ever since her confession to Barry at the end of 'Going Rogue', when she talked to him about the 'quiet dreams you keep to yourself' when it came to someone you loved who didn't love you back. And then, fic kind of happened after I watched Felicity put on the necklace. [For anyone following Felicity & the First Avenger, I'm still working on that - but this happened in a two-sprint cycle.]
And little as it is, it's for srmiller because Sam's been patiently doing sprint after sprint with me for NaNo, beta'ing and suggesting and generally, being a great help. :)