Meet the Future Queen Matriarch
An: I do not own Arrow. This is written for thekiller00 at . It's not exactly what you wanted but its close.
Summary: Starling City's biggest gossip magazine writes an article on the future of the Queen Dynasty which doesn't go over very well with Oliver, especially considering every detail of his upcoming proposal has been glossed for the entire world to see. 3rd story following Meet the Queens.
The elevator doors opened and Felicity Smoak stepped out onto the executive floor of Queen Consolidated. The first thing that assaulted her senses was her boyfriend's voice. Oliver was shouting at the top of his lungs. She understood why his Executive Assistant, Rose, had called her up urgently. Someone needed to calm him down. He had obviously read the same article she had that day. It was probably brought to his attention as soon as he finished his morning meeting with the subsidiary in Russia.
Her phone had started pinging as soon as she got to work this morning. She had set up alerts to inform her every time she was mentioned in an article. She hadn't ever expected to be the star of an entire article though. Gloria Ross, a gossip reporter, had written an expose on her, calling her the future Queen Matriarch. Felicity was well aware that the moment she moved into the Queen Mansion the rumours would start to fly but she had never expected such a thorough and accurate work about her life. It made her wonder if all of the details she wrote about Oliver were true, particularly one part.
She smiled at Rose who signalled to her to quickly go into Oliver's office. Her boyfriend definitely had angry face on. She didn't know who he was on the phone with but she felt sorry for the person on the other end. He acknowledged her presence and signalled for her to sit on the sofa. There on the coffee table in front of the sofa, lay the magazine with the offending article.
Meet the Future Matriarch of the Queen Family
Breaking news ladies, The Most Eligible Bachelor in Starling City, Oliver Queen, is no longer available. That's right, he's been claimed by Felicity Meghan Smoak. What? You never heard of her? Well neither had I! So I did some digging. Turns out she works in the IT department of Queen Consolidated. She's the daughter of a cocktail waitress, Donna Smoak, and a con-artist, Carl Smoak, the latter of whom is serving time in a jail in Gotham City.
It's a miracle that Moira Queen allowed this relationship to start. We all know she's a stickler for breeding, she herself coming from a long line of Deardens, a family known to move in only the upper class circles. When Oliver was dating Laurel Lance we were all on ring alert. Laurel was going to be the District Attorney one day. We were all expecting that perfect power couple. Instead the relationship fell to the wayside and not to be dissuaded from her happy ending, the ambitious Laurel picked up with another billionaire bachelor, Tommy Merlyn while Oliver fell off the dating radar.
So what is it that is so special about Felicity Smoak?
She was born in Las Vegas and went to the local high school there where she graduated early, miraculously getting a full ride to MIT where she supposedly finished her first degree at 19. She was part of an underground hactivist movement in Boston. Several interviews with persons that went to school with her described her as a typical Goth with long black hair, heavy dark make-up and piercings. Her boyfriend was sent to jail for hacking. She herself is a hacker so who knows if her file is accurate. The change of hair colour occurred after her boyfriend was arrested. Perhaps she's hiding something.
At QC, her co-workers say she's known for wearing short tight skirts. If I had known that was all it took to attract and keep the attention of a billionaire I would have applied for a job at QC years ago. They kept their relationship hidden to prevent any backlash against her at work. I mean when you've suddenly gone from normal IT gremlin to head of the department after dating the boss why would there be backlash? Co-workers have reported that her dress is getting tighter around her stomach area. Perhaps she's started baking?
Everybody should remember a few nights ago the exclusive restaurant Table Salt closed to the public so that they could serve dinner to fifty homeless persons. Apparently, they had made a slight against Ms. Smoak and The Queens forced the restaurant to make penance. But who could blame the restaurant, a reliable source, said she showed up dressed highly inappropriately in a super short dress with a plunging neckline and they thought she was another gold digger.
Close friends of Oliver describe him as smitten. They claim he can't go five minutes without thinking about her. He's in constant contact with her. 2 weeks ago, under the cover of darkness, he moved her into Queen Mansion. He's planning an elaborate proposal at their favourite Italian restaurant on the anniversary of the day that they met. He's importing this ridiculously expensive bottle of red wine for the night. The engagement ring that used to be spotted on his mother's hand has been replaced by a new modern ring. Insiders say he's using the heirloom to propose to Felicity. He's spending a great deal of time making sure every detail is in place for his proposal. He's afraid she'll say no. Who the hell is going to say no to marrying a billionaire Adonis?
I'm sure we'll be looking out for a ring now assuming he still wants to propose considering the truth about her background has been revealed. His younger sister is dating a known criminal from the Glades, Roy Harper. Perhaps the Queens like their significant others a little naughty. One also wonders if he is trying to keep up with Tommy Merlyn who is tying the knot with Laurel in a month's time.
I'll be keeping a close eye on this couple, so keep reading for the latest news.
When Felicity obtained a copy of the article, the first thing that struck her were the pictures that accompanied the article. They had gone out of the way to catch them in intimate moments where they were either kissing or staring into each other's eyes. Felicity had thought they were being discrete with the PDA but apparently they weren't. Each section of the article also had a relating picture. There was a picture of her when she was young with two brunette pigtails and her front teeth missing. She had no idea how the reporter had sourced that picture. There was a picture for her Goth days, one of her walking through the QC lobby and from the angle it was taken, it did in fact look like she might have a bun in the oven! There was even a picture of Thea and Roy.
Felicity's heart had momentarily stopped beating when she read the part about the proposal. She had since read the entire article about twenty times. There were things in there that Oliver did not know about. She had no idea where she stood with Oliver now.
When he got off the phone, she spoke to him.
"Hi," she said softly.
"Hi," he replied his face and voice softening. He walked over to the couch, sitting beside her. He took her hand in his immediately.
"I suppose we need to talk about that," Felicity said using her free hand to point to the magazine on the table.
Oliver threw a nasty glare at the article while his thumb started to rub circles on the back of her hand.
"It's all accurate but if the police ask, I know nothing about a Hactivist group," Felicity blurted out. Oliver knew about her father but she had never told him about MIT. It wasn't exactly something that just comes up in conversation but now that it was out in the open, she wasn't going to lie to him.
"I know about it already," Oliver admitted hesitantly. At her confused look he expanded. "Early on in our relationship, Diggle did a full background check on you and he raised some concerns with me. We all have things in our past Felicity, it makes us the person we are today. This you," he said using his free hand to gesture to her, "is the person I want to marry,"
"So you still want to marry me?" she asked hopefully.
"This was not how I wanted to ask you," Oliver said, dropping down on to one knee in front her. He had yet to let go of her hand. "I know I should have the ring but its home in the safe. Will you marry me Felicity?"
"Yes," Felicity replied immediately dropping down on to her knees too and kissing him.
The sound of Rose clearing her throat interrupted them. Mrs. Carter, the PR manager that Oliver had summoned had arrived to start working on the press release. Felicity's cheek's flamed bright red as Oliver pulled her up. Mrs. Carter's eyes immediately dropped to Felicity's stomach area, triggering another wave of Oliver's anger.
"She's not pregnant!" Oliver stated angrily, "her cycle finished yesterday."
"Gee Oliver thanks for telling everyone such a personal detail about me," Felicity commented dryly.
Oliver had the decency to look ashamed. He dropped a kiss on her temple in apology.
"Let get this rebuttal out," Oliver said focusing his mind on the task at hand.
Mrs. Carter pretended to ignore the mention of the ring and sat calmly on the other sofa facing the couple.
"Mr. Queen," she said addressing Oliver, "your mother, Mr. Merlyn and Ms. Lance have already all issued statements condemning the article."
"My mother said something already?" Oliver asked.
"Yes she didn't want to wait for the official Queen statement. She said she needed to defend the Dearden name. She took quite the offence to the breeding comment, pointing out that her great-grandmother had been born in the Glades."
"I suppose you already have a release drafted?" Felicity asked. This was the first time she was sitting down to do this.
"I have several responses that I would like the two of you to look at," Mrs. Carter said.
Felicity bit her lip, "you know what Oliver, I'm not going to let this cat and mouse game with the paparazzi define my life. Ignore them. They want an official response so they can continue this circus. The only response they are going to get is us living a happy life together. The company can issue an official response dealing with my professional qualifications for the post and the accomplishments the department has made during my tenure as head but we are not responding as a couple."
Mrs. Carter tried to appeal to Oliver that they should make a statement but he ultimately sided with his fiancé. After she left Felicity started dissecting the article to figure out how they sourced their information.
"The only people that knew what I was planning to do were my parents, Thea, Tommy and the restaurant manager. Considering that my family and best friend have sworn that they hadn't said a word to anyone, it had to be the restaurant. I was on the phone with the owner when you walked in. He's offered us the entire restaurant free of charge to host an engagement party,"
"Ohhh, can I do it with homeless people again?" Felicity asked.
"You can do whatever you want," Oliver said drawing her in for a kiss. After he was satisfied that he had kissed her thoroughly he sent her back to her office. He had an elaborate proposal to plan in four hours. Thea was already decorating the Mansion for a quiet dinner for two in their ballroom. His mother was arranging for her personal masseuse, hair dresser, makeup artist and stylist to pamper Felicity when she got home. His father would be calling her in half an hour to send her home early. Oliver was going to call Felicity's favourite chef to personally cook their meal at the Mansion. His surprise may have been spoiled but he still had every intention of making the day he asked her to marry him, a very memorable day in their lives.
One week later, all the magazines reported that the Italian restaurant where Oliver Queen was supposed to propose hosted a Christmas dinner for the underprivileged children of the Glades and the owner sponsored all of the gifts that Oliver Queen, dressed as Santa, gave out. Not one magazine failed to report that the Queen Heirloom Ring was seen on the hand of Felicity Smoak, who was dressed as Mrs. Claus.