Title: When One Door Closes...
Summary:
Felicity is at Verdant on a night out with her best friend who decides it's about time that Oliver heard about a secret that Felicity's been keeping from him.
"Well, aren't you a little, self-righteous hypocrite, Mr. Queen," Lindsey spat out, venom practically seeping from her words.
"How does it feel to have destroyed a career?"
A/N: I rewatched a few (read: all) Olicity scenes from the past two seasons in impatient anticipation of the 3rd Season. Is it October yet? Anyways, I was and still am a little annoyed by how the whole Felicity becomes Oliver's EA thing was played out. Yes, she gave him a piece of her mind in Ep 2, but that was basically it right? The topic wasn't really broached again, which is why I'm doing it here. Giving Oliver a much needed reality check and maybe some stuff to consider. This was supposed to be a completely different story but it turned into this. Hope you like it ;)
Oh and btw, I started writing the original idea before the S2 finale so I didn't include the Thea storyline with her being away and all that. She stayed in Starling and is still with Roy in this story.
Disclaimer: Idea and the OC belong to me, the rest belongs to DC and The CW. No Copyright infringement intended.
Felicity Smoak leaned back in her lounge chair, enjoying the alcohol swirling over her tongue, surrounded by a relaxed atmosphere in the recently opened lounge section of Verdant called 'Serena'.
After Slade had left a path of destruction running through the entire city, Thea had once again taken charge in rebuilding Verdant but not without extending the night club by a new section. Under Oliver's watchful eyes, the club had added a new room that could either be completely closed off from the rest of the club to preserve the relaxed ambiance, or used as an extension of the club by adding another dance floor if need be.
Felicity had helped Thea with the planning of the renovations, as well as helping her with finding an additional club manager to give her a breather from time to time. Between that and getting not only Team Arrow but also Oliver as the CEO of Queen Consolidated back on track, she barely managed to get more than five hours of sleep every night.
Tonight, though, she finally had a night off. Sunday nights were QC, club business and, most importantly, Arrow free nights. A fact she'd fought for with the rest of Team Arrow. She'd finally won them over (read: annoyed them long enough) by showing them a lengthy PowerPoint presentation that showcased crime statistics for Starling City for the past twenty years, depicting a clear trend that on Sunday nights crime rates were lower than on all other nights of the week.
Diggle was quick to support her in her endeavor and finally Oliver had budged and agreed to give them all a day off but not without the condition to monitor crime stats to react properly if they started to rise again and being "on-call" if an imminent threat came along.
"So, Lissy, on a scale from 1 to 10, how good is Oliver Queen really in bed?"
Felicity choked on the sip of Martini she'd just taken. Her eyes wide, she looked up at her friend through her glasses.
"Wh… What?" she choked out, unable to hide the blush that was creeping up her cheeks.
Taking in her reaction, her friend Lindsey leaned back with a self-satisfied grin. "Well, you're dating him, aren't you?" She raised an inquisitive eye brow.
"Uh, I… err…" For once in her life, Felicity Smoak actually didn't know what to say.
Lindsey narrowed her eyes. "It's all over the gossip sites." She pulled out her phone, swiping over the screen a few times, before showing it to her blonde friend.
Felicity took the phone and almost dropped it. The brightly lit screen showed the familiar suit clad back of Oliver Queen turned away from the camera, but not enough to hide his face. An also very familiar pair of bare legs wrapped around his waist, high heel clad feet locked at the ankles. Her eyes drifted up over the broad set of shoulders, hidden under his designer suit jacket.
The fingertips of his right hand are lightly pressed into the woman's blonde locks between her ear and temple. The rest of his hand cupping her cheek just next to where his mouth is apparently devouring the blonde's lips.
But Felicity knows better, because it's not just some random blonde, it's her. It's her wrapped tightly around his taut, muscled body. Her heels digging into his ass. Her back pressed into the cold stone wall.
Shit.
"Holy crap, it is you." Lindsey gaped at her.
"I… wait. I thought you knew it was me?" It was Felicity's turn to raise her eye brows inquisitively.
Her best friend had the decency to look slightly contrite. "Well, I was like 60 percent sure. But you're reaction just added the missing 40. Wanna tell me how this came to be?" She motioned to her phone in Felicity's hand, who in turn looked at the compromising photo again, memories from the previous night taking over her brain.
Oliver had attended a fundraiser for the Glades Foundation that was hosted by Richard Pierce, a business man from Central City who happened to be on The List. Since the fundraiser was being held at the mansion Pierce owned in Starling City, Felicity had quickly pulled up blue prints and security footage from around the area to come up with a plan to infiltrate his network.
Oliver and Felicity had gone to the fundraiser together, with Diggle joining them in his role as their black driver/body guard. Roy had stayed in the foundry with Laurel and Sara to be their eyes and ears.
The plan had worked smoothly for a while. Felicity and Oliver had slipped away from the rest of the party into the roped off area of the house and quickly found the computer that Felicity had to work her magic on.
Just when they left the office, Roy had warned them of two heat signatures coming their way. Without thinking, Oliver had grabbed her just under her ass, lifted her up, all while he was whirling around to press her back against the wall. Instinctively, Felicity had wrapped her legs around him, causing her dress to hike up at her thighs.
Oliver had placed his right hand on the side of her head, his fingers digging lightly into her hair, the tips massaging the nervous tension away with the slightest of movements. He had lowered his head down to hers and she could feel his hot breath mingling with hers. Both were breathing a bit harder than usually, spurred on by the intimacy of the situation. His lips were brushing against the skin just next to the corner of her mouth, sending little shots of electricity through her entire body.
After a few seconds, Roy had given them the all clear, effectively breaking the spell. With wide eyes Oliver had pushed away from the wall, setting her down gently, stoically avoiding to meet her gaze. Safe to say the rest of the evening had been slightly more awkward than usually.
A glass breaking somewhere in the distance pulled her out of her memory. Taking a deep breath to buy her some more time, she finally answered, "It's…"
"I swear if you say complicated, I'll consider slapping you," Lindsey interjected.
"… a long story," Felicity finished cautiously.
Her friend groaned. "Great, because that's any better. I want details, sister," she pressed on. "The juicy kind. Is he or is he not the sex god he's made out to be?"
Felicity couldn't help the blush spreading over her cheeks.
"Oh please, Lis, don't get all shy on me now. We've always been open with each other about every aspect of our lives. I mean, remember when you told me about that one time when you were a TA you had sex with your professor in one of the university broom closets? Or how Josh tried to go down on you but was so horrible at it that you ended up faking an orgasm just to make him stop?"
Felicity groaned. "Yes, I remember, but thanks for bringing it up anyway. God, I swear he ruined that experience for me. I don't think I've let any guy's tongue go there since then," she quickly added in hopes of sidetracking her friend enough to not bring up Oliver again.
"Well, I hear Mr. Queen has quite the golden tongue, so maybe he can eradicate your fear of being poorly eaten out." Lindsey winked at her. "Anyways, is his dick as impressive as the rest of his body? I mean you always had a knack for big boys, so I'll assume that he also falls into that category"
Aaaaand there goes that plan. Why did that stupid photographer have to be there last night, taking that stupid photo.
Felicity burrowed her head in her hands. "Oh my God, Linds, I don't know okay?!"
"So you haven't fucked him yet?"
"No!"
"Why the hell not?"
Felicity looked up at her friend. "Because our… relationship isn't like that."
"But you are in fact in a relationship with him?" Lindsey questioned with spiked interest.
"Yes. No. In a sense… I don't know," she finished, letting out an exasperated sigh. "We're… friends. I'm his right hand."
That earned her a pointed glance. "His right hand, huh? Is that part of your official job description? We're getting a little too stereotypical with the whole secretary lending more than a hand to her boss thing, aren't we?"
"That's not what I meant, Linds," Felicity countered, a growing annoyance evident in her voice.
Just then the familiar form of their waiter neared their table and Felicity waved him over, grateful for the distraction.
"Mr. Harper," she said with a smirk.
"Ms. Smoak," Roy gave her a lopsided grin. "Can I get you and your friend another round?"
"That would be very kind of you. Nice bow tie by the way." She winked at him.
Roy clenched his teeth, suppressing a snide remark. "I'll be right back with your order."
"Exactly how often are you here? You already managed to get us in without waiting outside thanks to your bouncer friend and now you have a direct line to the bar?"
"Well, I recently spent quite a lot of time here to do some IT stuff. The servers were badly damaged during the attacks last summer. And Thea asked me to take a look at and update the homepage, especially now that all the renovations are done," she let out in a rush, silently hoping that her explanation was plausible enough that her friend would let her off the hook.
Lindsey narrowed her eyes suspiciously but to Felicity's relief didn't press her for more details.
"So, you were telling me about your yes-no-maybe so-relationship with your boss," she started and added more seriously, "Lis, I've heard the rumors about how you got that… promotion. And I swear that I never bought into any of that crap and defended you like crazy but this photo…"
Felicity's face grew stony again but before she could counter the not so subtle accusation, she felt a hand finding its usual place resting on top of her shoulder.
The instant spread of warmth and a feeling of safety radiating from the point of contact throughout her entire body, filling every last pore with a sense of serenity, paired with her friend's stunned gasp, made it unnecessary for her to turn around. She already knew who those long fingers lightly massaging her tense muscles belonged to.
She let herself close her eyes for a second, sighing softly and relishing in that brief moment of calm.
From behind, she heard his voice dangerously low and controlled, and by the way his fingers flexed lightly on her shoulder, she could tell that he had a hard time controlling his response.
"Ms. Smoak got that promotion by showing continued and tireless dedication and loyalty to Queen Consolidated and me personally," he stated through gritted teeth, never dropping the fake CEO smile he reserved for unpleasant meetings. "A behavior that you might be able to learn a thing or two from, Ms. Jennings. If you feel like you have enough time to engage in water cooler chitchat, maybe I should have a talk with your supervisor to make sure that you're tasked with a more demanding assignment."
"Oliver," Felicity sighed and leaned her head back so she could look up at Oliver who was standing behind her lounge chair, right hand still firmly placed on her shoulder, his stance mirroring that of his hood-donning alter ego. "Just drop it."
He finally looked down at her. "Why should I? It's not fair how she talks about you… about us," he growled.
Before she could react, her friend chimed in and judging by her expression and rigid composure, Oliver was in for quite a ride.
Lindsey narrowed her eyes. "Well, aren't you a little self-righteous hypocrite, Mr. Queen," she spat out, venom practically seeping from her words. "You've got some nerves talking about 'fair'."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he ground out at the same time as Felicity shot a warning glare at her friend. "Linds, don't."
The brunette ignored her friend stoically and continued to stare Oliver down. "How does it feel to have destroyed a career, Mr. Queen?"
Felicity closed her eyes briefly before risking a glance back at Oliver. He still glared at Lindsey but she could see the glint of confusion in his eyes. Suddenly, his gaze flickered down to meet hers. His intense look softened immediately but didn't lose that sliver of uncertainty.
It took him a second to regain his composure before he looked at Lindsey again. "What do you mean?"
Lindsey shot Felicity an incredulous glare. "You haven't told him?"
"Haven't told me what?" Oliver growled.
"She hasn't told you about the job offers that have been piling up on her desk basically since the start of freshman year at MIT. And before you came into her life, she actually used to consider them. Do you have any idea how crazy smart this woman is? Other companies have been sending headhunters after her since before she graduated from college. She's been offered head of department positions, hell, she's been offered to have the development of her own company fully funded, even after you yanked her out of the IT department last year to make her fetch your coffee."
By this point she had talked herself into a rage, voice loud enough for neighboring tables to turn their heads. "And yet, what does she do? She rejects them. Every last one of them. Instead of getting one step closer to ruling the fucking world, she chooses to keep playing your glorified secretary. Why is that, Mr. Queen? What do you have on her that makes her go through hell and back every day at the office, taking shit from everybody around her?"
With every accusation, Felicity felt Oliver's body cringe ever so slightly behind her and his hand loosened on her shoulder gradually until only his fingertips were brushing lightly against her shoulder blade.
She knew this was hitting him hard and it would only feed his ever present guilt for everything that was happening around him. But for once, Felicity didn't have the strength to interrupt her friend, because, essentially, what she was saying was true.
She had had plenty of job offers from the biggest IT firms around the world, basically rolling out a red carpet for her if only she agreed to their very tempting conditions.
But she didn't. By now, she didn't even read the proposals anymore, instead, she just buried them in a drawer, which Lindsey had quite appropriately titled The Drawer of Hopes and Dreams.
Her friend's voice jerked her backed into the present. "I've heard the stories about your… skills in the sack, but you can't possibly be this good, to basically make someone give up their whole fucking career."
Lindsey's words shot through the thick club air like Oliver's arrows, one by one hitting him.
Felicity finally chanced another glance back at him. He looked… shocked. Uncertainty and confusion edged into the hard features of his handsome face. She could basically see the wheels turning in his head, trying to process the information and not so subtle accusations Lindsey was throwing at him.
"That's enough," Felicity said, voice somewhere between determination and resignation. "Linds, how about we call it a night?"
After a long moment and shooting a piercing look at her friend, Lindsey sighed and nodded. "Fine, I'll go pay."
She moved to get up but Oliver's quiet voice interrupted her. "It's on the house."
The brunette mustered him for a second. "Well then, let's go Lis," she said and shot Felicity an expectant glance.
Felicity got up, grabbing her jacket and purse in the process. "Good night, Oliver," she all but whispered when she passed him, not daring to meet his eyes. What had just happened?
Did she just destroy her partnership with him by not cutting off her friend sooner? By letting her speak the hard truth that she had successfully kept from him for almost 2 years now? But then again, maybe this was something that needed to be out in the open.
Did she want to hurt him with this? Obviously not.
Did she sometimes feel underappreciated when he barked his orders at her? On occasion, yes.
Did she feel like he took her presence in all aspects of his life for granted at times? Again yes, she thought, flashing back to one year ago when he'd made her his EA without even talking to her first.
Did she think he needed to know that she'd passed up a lot of possibly life altering opportunities to remain by his side? Yes.
Not like this though. He didn't deserve to be told by a stranger. She should've had the courage to tell him. She should've had enough trust in him and their partnership to talk to him openly about this.
She should've… but she didn't.
Out of fear. Thinking she would lose him one way or another. Assuming that he'd push her away; push her out of his life so she could go follow her dreams without feeling guilty. Taking another decision about her life out of her hands.
She arrived at the door and she couldn't help but feel like that by leaving the club she'd also leave a part of her life. She'd be at work bright and early tomorrow morning not bringing Oliver his coffee, there was no question about that. But she knew it'd be different after tonight. Their already complicated relationship had taken a massive hit tonight. Nothing would be the same.
With one last fleeting thought about Oliver's pained expression she heard the door close shut behind her with a loud thunk.
A/N2: Since I'm chronically bored at my new job, I'm thinking about writing a sequel from Oliver's POV that will begin after the last scene of this story. Trying to fix things or actually pushing Felicity away or something, even though I'm a sucker for happy endings. Let me know what you think!