Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

"Oliver please you need to be serious about this." Felicity said to Oliver. They had been going out for 2 years and had finally decided to buy a house together, the mansion was too big and the main thing being that Oliver's mother and step-father lived there as well as his sister which made it slightly awkward. Felicity's apartment was too small for the two of them, so that only left one option left. Buy a place together.
"I know but I can't imagine us living in a place like this. Mainly because I can barely walk through most of the door frames without hitting my head." Felicity had to admit that the place they were at now did have very small door frames, but other than that it was perfect. There were 3 bedrooms, one that could be turned into an office for them both and there was a decent size kitchen lounge area. "I know you like it but can we please just look at the next one?" Oliver asked taking felicity's face in his hand as he cracked that boyish smile of his, which he knew felicity could not deny. She smiled and nodded, he then lent down and kissed her on the lips.

"Felicity this place is perfect!" Oliver gleamed as they were walking through the penthouse they were looking around there was a giant living room, a en suite bathroom which had a big enough bath for two. The bedroom was giant with a view of the whole city from the balcony. He loved it and he knew felicity did as well. "What do you think?" he asked her with a massive smile on his face.
"Honestly Oliver, I love it even more than the last one. Can we get it?" she asked giving him puppy dog eyes.
"Anything for you." He took her hand and then walked back into the main room to the estate agent and told them that they would like to buy the apartment and move in as soon as possible.

"Oliver! Can you help me with this box?" felicity called from the hallway. She was struggling to carry one of the boxes and she had no idea what was in it. Dig and Oliver were in the smaller spare room putting together the new desk felicity had picked out. They had already put together all of the furniture in the bedroom and they both agreed that was the most useful of all the things that needed to be assembled. "Oliver!" she shouted again only to be greeted by a women who looked to be in her mid 30s, "Sorry I didn't mean to disturb you." Felicity said while moving the box around in her arms to get a better grip on it.
"let me help you with that." The lady took the box out of felicity's arms, "I'm Sophie, what's your name?" she asked while flipping her long brown hair out of her face.
"I'm Felicity, nice to meet you." She just spotted Oliver coming out of their apartment and smiled at him, "and this man right here is my boyfriend Oliver." She said with a smile spreading across her face, Oliver came and put his hand in the small of her back and she leant into his side. "Oliver this is Sophie, she lives in the building."
"Nice to meet you. Let me just take that box from you." He took the box out of Sophie's hands, "why don't you come in for a coffee? We were just going to have a break."
"That would be lovely" they all followed into the apartment to find Dig unpacking one of the boxes in the main room.

"Sophie this is our friend John Diggle, he's just helping us set up some furniture." Oliver said while grabbing 4 mugs and flipping the kettle on.
"So by the looks of it, this is your first apartment?" Sophie asked with a smile tweaking at the corners of her mouth. Both felicity and Oliver nodded, "so how long have you been going out?"
"2 years" Oliver answered almost instantly, "I was still staying with my mother and felicity had her own place but we both wanted something bigger." He stated as he grabbed felicity's hand and then ran small circles over the back with his thumb.
"Well you got a bargain here" she said with a smile as Oliver handed her her coffee, "what do you three do for a living." Sophie asked, addressing everyone including Dig this time.
"Oh, I work in the IT department of queen Consolidated." Felicity answered
"And I sort of run Queen Consolidated but I also own a night club." Oliver answered smiling at felicity with his boyish grin on his face.
"I'm his bodyguard." Dig piped up for the first time since Sophie entered the apartment.
"How about you 2 come over for dinner tonight? my husband and I would love to have you round." She said as she placed her now empty coffee cut on the worktop,
"we would hate to intrude." Felicity answered with looking over to Oliver who had a smile on his face,
"Please it would be no problem, and we would love to get to know you two a bit better." She said in a rushed tone, Oliver and felicity both smiled at each other, "perfect come round at about 8, apartment 7B just down the hall" she then left the apartment with a spring in her step and they all got back to putting together the furniture.

"Oliver what is in this box anyway?" felicity asked gesturing to the box that she was trying to carry up the stairs but was failing epically. She saw a massive smile spread across his face as he walked over to the box.
"This is a little present from me and dig to you." He said as he opened the box and handed her something wrapped in wrapping paper. "I had some help picking it out." Felicity now had a huge smile spread across her face, she tore open the wrapping paper and inside was a state of the art laptop, it looked nice (not that she was worried about that), and it had a killer operating system. The fact that Oliver had gone into the trouble of finding her the best gift possible when she knew that computers was not his strong suit. She put the box down on the table and then lent up and kissed him with lots of passion, she then walked over to Digg and gave him a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.

Oliver straighten up his pale blue shirt that he was wearing matched with a pair of dark jeans, and lifted up his hand and knocked on the door. It only took a matter of seconds for the door to open and for them to be greeted with a smiling Sophie on the other side.
"Hey, come in. Ben is just getting Milo ready for bed." Oliver gave her a quizzical look, "Milo is our son, he is 4." Oliver nodded his head,
"Felicity will be coming shortly, she couldn't decide on what to wear, but she didn't want to keep you waiting so she sent me." Oliver said with his hands in his pockets, he was never that comfortable around people he didn't know after the island. He had learnt never to trust someone if you don't know their story. He handed over a bottle of wine that he had brought over it was a bottle of 1978 Henri Jayer Richebourg, Sophie looked at it and she knew it must have cost him a small fortune in her eyes, but what must have just been pocket change for him. They were interrupted by a little boy running into the room shouting for his mum.

"Milo, this is Oliver say hello." Sophie said as she lifted him up into her arms.
"Hi. Do you want to play?" Milo asked with a smile on his face, he had bright green eyes and dark brown hair. Oliver looked to Sophie in seek of an approval and he got one as she nodded her head slightly.
"Sure buddy." Milo squirmed out of his mother's arms and then grabbed Oliver's hand and pulled him towards what was the living room and opened a box of cars.

As felicity walked into the apartment she was greeted by a man with dark hair, who was Sophie's husband, Ben. He told her to be quiet and she looked at him oddly but followed him into the kitchen were they had a clear view of the living room. Felicity couldn't help but smile and let out a small gasp at the sight before her. Oliver was sitting cross legged on the floor with Milo sitting in front of him and he was showing him is race track, and he and Oliver were driving cars around and making sound effects to go with them.
"it's cute isn't it?" Sophie asked her as she came up behind felicity with a cup of coffee.
"Yeah it is." She replied looking back between Ben and Sophie, "he looks like you." She followed Ben to the table that still had a nice view of Oliver and Milo playing. Sophie nodded her head at Felicity's comment.

"Have you two talked about children?" felicity let out a sigh, they had but the conversation hadn't ended well and they agreed never to speak of it again.
"Yeah, we have but Oliver can't have children so…" she trailed off at the end of her sentence. Oliver could actually have children but he didn't want to because he never had much of a father figure and because of his time on the island he didn't believe he should be trusted with the responsibly of someone else's life in his hands, especially an infant. Sophie settled her hand on Felicity forearm and gave her an apologetic look. "What can you do?" she said trying to lighten the mood. She felt a pair of arms slide there way over her shoulder and she grabbed one of the arms with her hand. She looked up to see Oliver smiling down at her, she tiled her head and then placed a soft kiss on his lips. He came and sat next to her and Milo jumped up onto his lap.

"Hey dad guess what!" Milo nearly shouted and he didn't even give Ben a chance to open his mouth before he continued his sentence, "Ollie said he can take us to a proper race track with real cars and we can meet the drivers. Isn't that cool?!" ben chuckled at his sons enthusiasm and could help but look and Oliver she he just have a small nod. Felicity had been struck, knowing that he only lets some people call him Ollie, and even then he isn't too pleased about it.
"Yeah that is cool." Ben replied, the door bell rung and ben got up to answer it and came back in with their food. Sophie had come by their apartment a little while after she left, she had come to ask her preferences on food, Felicity not wanted her to fuss to much just suggested that they order from Big Belly Burger and that they do the best burgers in Starling City.

As they all took a bite into their burgers Oliver could see all of their faces change, as if they had just eaten the best food that they could ever taste.
"This is so good!" Sophie exclaimed after finishing her first bite, Oliver and felicity both smiled and nodded. Within a matter of seconds Milo's burger was gone and he was just munching on his chips and occasionally sneaking a few of Oliver's plate, which caused Oliver to laugh and he obviously though he was being discreet, which in fact he wasn't. Once all of the food was gone they settled down in the living room, Milo and shortly fallen asleep and Ben had carried him to his bedroom, leaving just the adults alone.

"So what do you two do for a living?" Oliver asked,
"Well I used to be a doctor at Glades Memorial, but after the quake people were stealing all of the supplies which meant some of us were out of jobs, including me. But I am looking for a job at Starling City General." Felicity could tell that Oliver was slightly uncomfortable and he placed her hand on his knee and gave it a slight squeeze, "Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it awkward. None of this is your fault Oliver…" Ben was quick to apologize but Oliver stopped him,
"I know it wasn't my fault personally, but it was my families. I tried to save Glades Memorial by throwing a fundraiser, which I didn't turn up to because my sister was in trouble and because of that the hospital started to run out of money. If it wasn't for my mother," felicity could hear his voice go cold as he mentioned his mother, it was a 2 years later and he still hadn't forgiven her. "none of the doctors and thousands of others would be out of jobs, and those 503 people that died would be with their families right now. And I will always feel horrible for what happened to those people and it will always be partially my fault."