Chapter 1: The Smithsonian
Chapter Text
Felicity was feeling happier and was actually smiling as she gazed lovingly at the exhibit of an old IBM system from the 1960s. This was definitely one of my better ideas, she thought to herself as she slowly strolled through the computer exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
She paused at an old server system that for some reason, reminded her of the IT department at Queen Consolidated. Not that they would have such an outdated server, she mused, even if Oliver was kind of outdated. The thought of Oliver immediately wiped the smile from her face and she tried to clamp down on her thoughts of him. She had to stop thinking about him and reminded herself that there was a reason she was in Washington D.C. on vacation. Ever since Oliver had started to date Sara again, it had become too painful for her to around them, especially when they were together in the Arrow Cave.
She had felt underappreciated and unnoticed, or perhaps avoided would have been a better description. She was sure that Oliver knew how she felt about him, or at least he knew that she had a crush on him. That he was pretending to be oblivious to her feelings hurt her deeply and she had needed to get away from the tension that had seeped into their relationship recently. She still considered him one of her best friends but at the same time, she needed to find some peace with the situation. So when Digg had suggested that she join him during his trip to see a close buddy of his from his time in Afghanistan, she had jumped at the opportunity to take a much needed vacation. After all, Oliver and Sara had made it quite clear they could handle things without her and they hadn't been too upset that Digg would be gone either. They probably felt like they had more private personal time together doing whatever they did.
Felicity was about to move on to the next exhibit when she heard a soft sigh. Turning her head, she looked at the man standing next to her whose gaze was fixed on the exhibit in front of them. He was shaking his head and rubbed at his temple as if he had a headache. "It's not that bad. They're built a lot smaller now. So small that you can actually lift them with one hand, or maybe just one finger. Yup, one finger will be enough for you since you have such big, strong muscles. But even if the servers were bigger, you probably wouldn't have a problem moving them either, and what on earth am I saying? I'm just going to stop in 3…2…1." Felicity pressed her mouth shut and closed her eyes as she felt her face heating up in embarrassment. She heard an amused chuckle and slowly opened her eyes to find herself looking at a pair of beautiful blue eyes and a very handsome face. Way to go Felicity, you always make such a great first impression, she mentally berated herself as she dipped her head, blushing from her usual verbal diarrhoea.
"So how small are you talking about?" he asked with a smile. She glanced at him to see if he was making fun of her and when she saw he was genuinely curious, she told him that it would depend on what the server was being used for. She then launched into an explanation of servers used by government organizations to portable servers as small as books. She suddenly paused mid-explanation, realizing that such verbosity was never considered sexy, especially by someone as gorgeous as the man standing in front of her. "I'm so sorry," she apologized glancing up at him, "I tend to get carried away when it comes to anything to do with computers. I'm sure I'm boring you to death with all of this information."
"Please don't apologize. I don't know much about computers, which is why I'm here to try to figure out a little about their history. And your explanation was fascinating, although I'm a little lost still," he said, smiling at her. Felicity was not sure if she believed him. He looked like he was only a little older than her so how could he not know much about computers. Perhaps he was just being polite. After all, he looked decent enough, and why was his gorgeous smile making her heart pound just that little bit faster. Stop it, she scolded herself thinking that someone like him could never be interested in her.
She looked quickly at her watch and realized how late it was. She had promised to meet Digg somewhere nearby as they supposed to head over to his friend's home for dinner that night. She was curious about this friend that Digg had never mentioned him before, but then Digg had always avoided talking much about his time in the Special Forces. Felicity smiled up at the man standing next to her and said, "I'm sorry, I have to run. But it was nice chatting with you. Enjoy the rest of the exhibit." She waved goodbye to him before quickly walking off.
Steve Rogers gazed after her retreating figure with huge smile on his face. She was incredibly beautiful and fascinating and he regretted not asking for her name. But he would probably never see her again, so what would be the point? He had come to the museum searching for some peace and quiet. After all, he had just recently been released from hospital and SHIELD was in shambles. Natasha had left to try to figure things out and he felt like he needed to do the same, but he would stay in Washington D.C. for a while more. He checked the time and decided to head over to Sam's place. He was expected for dinner as Sam wanted him to meet some friends of his from out of town. He wasn't really feeling very social, but he knew Sam wanted to try to get him out of the rut he was in, especially how he was feeling about Bucky being missing. He shook his head to clear it and headed out, telling himself that meeting people was never a bad thing, especially a friend that Sam had such high admiration for.
