Author's Note: So I've been wanting to write an Oliver/Felicity piece for a while because I love the idea of them as a couple. An idea for their story finally came to me, and I'm excited to finally be writing a fic for them. A lot of plot line from this story is based on info I've read about the new season, so I've kept things as closely tied to the show universe as possible. Of course, I'm not a computer whiz like Felicity, so a suspension of disbelief will be necessary if I manage to screw up some tech talk. (Just bear with my limited knowledge on that topic, but I'll do the best I can:) Enough of my rambling though, read on and enjoy!
There are some girls that inspire epic love stories. Those delicate yet whip-smart heroines with an unearthly beauty which rivals even the most revered of ancient Greek goddesses. The type of girl whom you know, even after reading just one page of said romantic tale, will get the guy. Because how could she not? She's just that wonderful, that urbane, that earth-shatteringly perfect. She's just that right.
I, Felicity Smoak, was not that girl. I was the girl whose idea of a hoppin' good time was camping out in front of her top of the line, high tech work station to de-crypt programs that had been deemed too difficult to solve by others lacking the sufficient skills to crack them. I was the girl who wore panda shoes and dark-rimmed glasses and considered such accessories to be cutting edge fashion. I was the girl who'd been described as "quirky" by those wanting to spare my feelings and "weird" by those who couldn't have cared less. I was the girl that guys had always claimed to like but never the one they had claimed to love. With such qualities in mind, I'd never suffered under the delusion that I was the type to ride off into the sunset with the knight on his white horse.
Though I'd faced that cold, hard truth about myself years ago, sometimes I couldn't quite keep that unattainable fantasy from popping up in the back of my mind on occasion. Except in my fantasy the knight wasn't a knight at all. He was a broody, flawed human being with a penchant for dressing in green leather. A bit of an odd costume choice for a hero in a fantasy if not for the fact that my fictional knight was in fact flesh and blood. And twice as moody in real life.
As I sat in my usual place behind the myriad of computer screens networked together for the convenience of my research, my eyes constantly strayed from the scrolling data to the pair of sparring men a few feet away. Those fantasies I'd kept locked firmly in the back of my head wouldn't have been half so difficult to keep away if the star of those daydreams would bother to put on a shirt once in a while. I mean, seriously, was the man trying to bankrupt all the t-shirt retailers in Starling City or something? Couldn't he bother to cover those chiseled muscles once in a while, if not for the business of hardworking clothing entrepreneurs, than just for the sake of my sanity? I might appear to be nothing more than the nerdy tech girl most comfortable behind a computer screen, but I was still human after all. A girl could only take so much.
With a deep sigh of resignation, I tried to discipline my wandering gaze away from my employer's glistening torso and back to the task at hand. Oliver Queen had asked me to look into the company that had recently begun experiencing a rather expansive amount growth over a relatively short period of time. It was rare, though not uncommon, for a company to create such progressive movement, but at such a stagnant time for the city's economy it did appear more than a bit suspicious.
I had just managed to focus my attention back where it needed to be when my intentions were abruptly stymied by Oliver's voice. "Something the matter, Felicity?"
That sigh must have been louder than I thought. Time to come up with a convincing lie. "No," I assured him quickly with a tight smile. "I just breathe really loudly some times." Yeah, that sounded really convincing.
"All right," Oliver answered with that indulgent smile he gave sometimes when the words coming out of my mouth would been better left parked in my brain. "Did you find anything on Stellmoor International?"
Relieved at his change in topic, I gave a couple clicks of the mouse to bring up the information I had already uncovered about the business that had begun to challenge the company built by the Queen family. "Stellmoor International has recently experienced a huge boost in their stocks by a computer program they've been marketing out to international buyers," I explained my findings. "Nobody seems to know what it is exactly, but the word of mouth has had pretty much a positive impact in their business. And that's not the only thing I've found."
His interest peaked by my discovery, Oliver nodded at Diggle to halt their sparring and, much to my consternation, didn't bother to cover his half naked figure before coming over to glance at my research. "They've been trying to buy stocks in Queen Consolidated," he murmured, his eyes darting around the screen at the various articles I'd pulled about the company's recent attempts at acquisitioning a fairly substantial amount of Queen stock.
"Not just 'they'," I made sure to point out, blowing up a picture of the woman whose name was dotted all over the articles regarding the attempted stock purchases. "Isabel Rochev, Vice President of Acquisitions. She seems to be the one headlining the attempts to take over your father's company."
"Hmm," Oliver thoughtful hum vibrated pleasantly in my ear, and I instantly jerked away from him in discomfort. Best to get away from the appealingly half-naked playboy before my mouth ran away with me again. I grimaced inwardly just remembering some of the things I'd said to him in the past. Granted I didn't think I could say anything worse than admitting I'd thought about having him inside me, but it was probably best not to put that theory to the test.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Oliver asked after I'd narrowly avoided bumping his hovering chin in my haste to get away from him. "You seem a bit off."
"Yeah," I assured him, trying to keep the breathless tone from my voice that sometimes managed to betray my fascination with him. "Totally fine. Peachy as a matter of fact. It's just a new cardio I'm trying. Moving around a lot. You know, sitting still too long is bad for the circulation or something."
There was that indulgent smile again. "Whatever you say," he murmured quietly before turning his attention back to the glowing screen with Isabel Rochev's face smiling benignly in the enlarged photo. "See what else you can dig up on Miss Rochev. I want to know why the sudden interest in Queen Consolidated."
"Right," I agreed with a business-like nod before resuming my seat again. As my fingers flew over the keyboard in my quest for more information about the mysterious woman in question, I saw Oliver move away to resume the session with Diggle, but not before he sent me a parting smirk. "Good luck with that cardio, Felicity."
Whoever said Oliver Queen had lost his sense of humor since coming home after seven years on that mysterious island obviously didn't know the man very well.
Once Oliver walked away to rejoin Diggle I was finally able to force my errant brain into concentrating on the task at hand. In fact, I became so lost in my task that I nearly jumped a hundred feet high when a solid hand clamped onto my shoulder to halt my furious typing at the keyboard. Oliver's chin wasn't lucky enough that time to escape my jerking head.
"It's kind of a hazardous workout," I explained lamely as he rubbed his smarting chin with a sweaty hand.
"Yeah, I can see that. What else were you able to dig up between lunges?" I gave a little smile at Oliver's sarcastic quip. He really was getting better at doling those out.
Sending him one more apologetic look, I directed his and Diggle's attention to an article on the far right screen. "Apparently this software program that's provided most of the growth for their company in the past few months is due to Miss Rochev. Whatever the program is, though, she's managed to keep it pretty firmly under wraps. I've been trying but not even a whiff has turned up on what the program's for. Whatever she's working on, it must be something big for that level of security to be tied to it."
"And you can't find anything on it?" Oliver questioned with a skeptical look.
"I can't find anything because there's nothing to find," I explained with a shrug of surrender. "If there was any information floating around about that program I would have found it by now. The only way to know for sure what they're marketing is to find it from within the company. Whatever information we're looking for is most likely on some kind of secure hard drive that I would need direct access to in order to find the information you want."
Oliver thought about that for a moment before Diggle beat him to voicing the thought on all our minds. "One of us would have to be a Stellmoor employee to get that kind of access."
"I could do it," I quickly offered, and was rewarded for the statement with a blank look by both men.
Oliver studied me for a few moments of silence that tempted me to start squirming in discomfort at the keen look that made me feel like he could see every single one of my flaws. "I thought you said after that stint in the elevator shaft that you were done going in the field?" he finally questioned.
My stomach turned nervously at his reminder of staring down into that empty elevator shaft from a terrifying height, but I tried my best to hide my reaction as quickly as possible. "Whoever goes into the company will most likely need access in their IT department," I informed him without bothering to address his reminder about my last encounter with undercover work. "And, no offense," I continued giving both him and Diggle a patronizing glance, "but you guys couldn't even figure out how to set the margins on a Microsoft Word document. How long do you think you could fake it as an IT employee?"
Both men looked more amused than offended at my astute observation. "She's got a good point," Diggle conceded, giving Oliver a resigned look.
"Get your things, Felicity," Oliver ordered then, completely throwing me off balance with the abrupt shift in subject. "It's late, so I'll take you home."
"But what about– " I began to question him, but he cut me off with a swipe of his hand through the air to silence the question.
"Just get your things," he said patiently. "We'll talk about the rest later."
Giving up with a bemused shake of my head, I minimized the articles I'd been researching for the better part of an hour before turning off the system and doing as Oliver had asked. As I walked away I could hear both men talking in low tones, but I wasn't close enough to make out the words. When I came back Oliver had thankfully decided to fully clothe himself and Diggle was already gone, leaving us alone in the high tech work space.
"Ready?" Oliver asked and I nodded before he let me precede him up the stairs. Once the system had been fully shut down for the night, Oliver followed me up the stairs and ushered me towards his waiting car. He went around to open the door on the passenger side for me, and I slid in, marveling at the feel of the expensive leather under me. This was the first time I'd ever been in Oliver's car and my first thought was that this thing probably cost more money than I'd ever see in my whole lifetime. Yet another reminder at the vast gulf between us. He was the rich prince of Starling City. I was just Felicity from the IT department. Two completely different worlds.
"Buckle in." I was jerked from my self-deprecating train of thought by Oliver's reminder as he slid into the driver's seat.
Obediently clicking the safety belt in its latch, I was immediately thrown against the seat as the engine roared to life and Oliver took off at a nearly neck-braking pace. I briefly wondered if he would get a ticket for such a blatant disregard of the traffic laws but then conceded that for someone of his vast wealth and resources, a traffic ticket probably didn't rank too high on his list of worries.
"What are you thinking about?" Oliver asked over the purr of the engine. I glanced over to find him concentrating solely on the road in front of us and wondered how he could sense my brain working silently at a feverish pace.
"I was wondering why you offered to drive me home tonight," I admitted before quickly expounding on that thought. "I also decided that riding the city bus is probably much better for my blood pressure than riding along with you."
Oliver still kept his eyes trained on the road but gave an amused smirk at my thinly veiled critique of his driving skills. "I told you it's late for you to be going home by yourself, especially with your car still in the shop. It's the least I can do for a faithful employee."
I was glad his eyes never strayed from the road towards me, because he couldn't have missed the flash of hurt at his reference to our relationship. A faithful employee. Was that all I was too him? An employee?
"You're thinking again."
Deciding not to reveal the thoughts currently floating around in my head, I turned the topic of discussion back to him. "Didn't you have plans of some kind tonight with Laurel Lance?" I asked referencing the woman he had been involved with since the death of their mutual friend Tommy Merlyn. A woman who was my complete opposite in every way.
I thought I could see Oliver's grip tighten just a fraction on the steering wheel at my mention of Miss Lance. "Laurel and I aren't seeing each other anymore."
"Oh." It was the only response I could come up with on short notice. Part of me sympathized with him for the loss of their relationship, but another part (a significantly larger part) secretly felt the tiniest bit relieved at the unexpected news. Instead of prodding him for a reason as to the break up, I just gave a comforting nod he most likely couldn't even see in the dark interior of the car. "I'm sorry."
"Are you sure you want to go undercover to spy on this company?" he asked me then, almost giving me a case of verbal whiplash with yet another hasty change in topic. "You'd be putting yourself in a pretty risky situation."
Allowing him the shift in discussion, I answered with a careless wave of my hand. "I doubt it could be any worse than wearing an exploding collar around my neck," I referenced the first time I'd gone undercover for Oliver Queen. Needless to say, the experience hadn't proved a fond memory.
Oliver didn't respond for a while, and I even thought he meant to drop the whole thing until he pulled to a stop in front of my apartment building on the more affordable part of town. Putting the car in park, he turned to prop his hand on the back of my seat and stare at me with an intense gaze that forced me to shrink further into the expensive leather of my seat.
"If you do this I want to you be prepared for it," he said, reaching out to grab onto my arm and force me closer to his searching gaze.
"I have a bad feeling this preparation involves some type of jujitsu training," I spoke the thought aloud before I could think better of it.
Oliver gave a soft laugh in response that filled me with a strangely comforting sense of warmth as the sound washed over my senses. "Let's just say you need to know the basics in defending yourself," he finally said when his laughter died away. "I'll see you in the morning, Felicity."
Being summarily dismissed I said good night and exited the warm interior of his pricey ride. Once I was safely onto the sidewalk, Oliver nodded at me through the tinted glass before taking off with a screech of tires on the well-worn asphalt. As I watched him drive away, a vision of the knight in shining armor danced around in my brain again before the image was slowly replaced by a green-leather clad vigilante whisking his woman off into the sunset in a ridiculously expensive sports car. Shaking my head to clear the vision from my mind, I tore my eyes from the sight of Oliver's departure and turned to head inside. There was no white knight waiting to carry me off into the sunset, much less a billionaire playboy who saw me as nothing more than a "valued employee", and the sooner I got that reality through my head, the better off I would be.
If you like what you've read so far, feel free to let me know, and judging by the response, I'll continue to post new chapters as soon as I can! All comments are always appreciated. Thanks so much for reading!