Author's note: I am not going to have an author's note (AN) at the beginning of every chapter, because I will generally keep those at the end of chapters. However, given that the Oliver/Isabel pairing (which I have just decided to call Olibel for the safe of brevity from now on) for this show is…unpopular to say the least on this site (for obvious reasons), I decided I would spend a little time here explaining why I chose to risk inspiring the ire of countless Arrow and Olicity fans by writing a story based off of that pairing. To put it simply, I'm writing it because I thought Isabel was an interesting character with an intriguing backstory that was underutilized on the show (in half of the episodes in season 2 it seems like her existence wasn't even acknowledged). Also, I am a big Summer Glau fan, and that definitely had something to do with my motivation for writing this story. However, the primary reason I wrote a story with this peculiar pairing is simple. To my knowledge, no one else, on the entire internet, has done so. Like many fans of Arrow, I actually like the idea of Olicity more, but so many stories have been done with that pairing already on this site, and many of those stories are far better than anything I could ever write. So instead I decided to write my first Arrow fanfic with a pairing that is a little more…twisted. Although I hope by the end of this story, I hope you will all find it delightfully so. I hope you enjoy this story, but honest reviews help me to stay on my toes, so constructive criticism is appreciated. Flames however, will be ignored. Also, I have not seen any of season 3 yet, so this fanfic will not spoil for that season, or acknowledge any of the events that take place then. Now that all that is over, I hope you enjoy "The Sins of the Father, The Deeds of the Son" (TSFTDS)!
Isabel Rochev smirked as she watched Oliver Queen, heir to Queen Consolidated (at least for the next 24 hours or so) talk with some blonde girl with glasses that the Vice President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor International guessed was probably his secretary. From the nervous look on the blonde woman's face (who Isabel guessed, based upon Oliver's reputation, the man was probably screwing), Oliver and whatever friends he still had didn't have any way of combating the hostile takeover of Queen Consolidated by Stellmoor International, the front company that Slade Wilson had set up and, with her help, built on the backs of a dozen broken companies over the past five years just to achieve this moment. And that thought almost made Isabel smile. Finally, that rich little brat, who, along with his sister, who had cost her the love of her life, would begin to pay for everything he had taken from her, and whatever he had done to her business partner, Slade Wilson. Mr. Wilson had warned her not to underestimate Oliver Queen, but from what Ms. Rochev had heard of the man so far, he wouldn't be all that hard to dethrone from his spot as the head of his father's company. So Queen Consolidated would soon be hers, as it should have been ever since Robert Queen died.
When Oliver Queen first entered the room, he did little to dispel Isabel's low expectations of the man, although she found some of the blonde haired man's gestures, the way he looked around the room when he entered it, and the way he shook her hand, to be…unnervingly familiar. And the man spoke with a quiet intensity that Isabel had only seen exhibited by one other man. But the woman was able to quickly put those thoughts aside after reminding herself that the man in front of her was nothing like his father, despite having a few similar mannerisms as that man. After all, if Oliver Queen were half the man his father was, he wouldn't have allowed his company to be put into such dire straits by taking such a long absence from Queen Consolidated. Not allowing any of those thought processes to be betrayed by her face, which bore the "ice queen" facade that she had perfected over the years, Isabel smirked as she explained to Oliver Queen just how and why his company was going to fall into her hands, and that there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it.
But then, two things happened which forced to reevaluate her opinion of the playboy college dropout in front of her. First, for a brief moment, Oliver Queen's eyes met her own, and those eyes were filled with an intensity that frightened her as they almost seemed to stare right through her, into her very soul. For almost a second, Isabel irrationally worried that Oliver Queen might be able to guess what she was planning, just by looking at her. And before Isabel could shrug off that uncomfortable thought, the second major thing happened, as several men with guns entered the board room, and all hell broke loose as the armed men proclaimed they would make Oliver Queen pay for their crimes against this city. Isabel didn't stick around long after that happened, but before she was able to flee to safety, Oliver acted in a manner that Isabel would never have expected a spoiled rich boy to act, as the man shielded her, his business rival, and the woman who was threatening to take over his company, with his own body and got her to safety, before turning around to save his secretary. As Ms. Rochev ran, she couldn't help but think that Oliver Queen was not quite what she had expected to be. When faced with death, the man had not thought of himself and his own survival first, as most men born with silver spoons in their mouths would. Instead, he had saved her, and attempted to save his secretary. Two acts which, Isabel had to admit, had been quite brave, perhaps even "heroic", but Isabel also mentally added the word "stupid" to that list Still, it seemed to her that, if Mr. Queen actually survived his encounter with the gunmen (and Isabel certainly hoped he would, so that the man could live long enough to suffer when everything he loved was ripped away from him), he might prove to be a more formidable opponent than she had anticipated. And that thought made Isabel smile as she tried to shake off the memory of the unnerving look that Oliver had given her, and how it left her feeling completely exposed in a way that had been almost terrifying and yet, somehow, not altogether unpleasant. After all, she did enjoy a challenge.
….
Less than 48 hours later, Isabel found herself silently ruminated over the old saying, "be careful what you wish for." It seemed appropriate here. After all, she had secretly wanted taking down Oliver Queen to be a challenge. And it seemed that Mr. Queen had been more than happy to conform to her wishes in that regard, as the man had effectively blocked her takeover of Queen consolidated… for the time being.
Now, after the fact, Isabel sat down in her new private office and thought over the events of her first two meetings with Oliver Queen. That meeting had seemed to start so well, as she had once again explained to the young heir that his company was doomed, adding that she already owned 50% of the company, and was about to buy the 5% she still needed to take over Queen Consolidated completely. But then, once again, Oliver Queen had done something unexpected, and notified Isabel that he had asked for financial help from Mr. Walter Steele, the former CEO of Queen Consolidated, who revealed himself to be the new CEO of Starling National Bank. And it seemed that, with a loan from Walter's bank, Oliver Queen had been able to buy the remaining 5% of Queen Consolidated.
So, it seemed to Isabel that, as she had told Oliver herself a few hours ago, "You are not at all what people say about you." And that thought, as well as the fact that she was now Oliver Queen's de facto business partner, gave her pause. For the man was not only nothing like the brainless billionaire playboy she had read about in the papers, he was also nothing like she had expected him to be. Oh, she had prepared herself to find out that Oliver had some of the same physical characteristics and somewhat charming mannerisms like those present in his father, and he did, in spades. And the female Co-CEO of Queen Consolidated had also expected the man to be inferior to his father in a number of ways. Oliver Queen hadn't disappointed her in that regard either. Given the man's initial lack of understanding concerning just how bad his company's position was in, and the fact that the man had taken a "sabbatical" who knows where while Queen Consolidated was going down in flames, the man was clearly less educated and more impulsive than Robert Queen had ever been. Neither of these things had surprised her. What had surprised Isabel, however, had been the revelation that, like his father, and despite his sub-par education, Oliver Queen was actually intelligent, as evidenced by the fact that he had actually thought of a way to counter her hostile takeover of the company for the time being.
But what had shocked Ms. Rochev the most, and what she was still trying to wrap her head around, was the fact that there were some characteristics of Oliver Queen had exhibited in her presence that distinguished him from his father that actually seemed to work to his advantage. The fact that Oliver had been humble enough to ask for help from his ex-stepfather, for example, had demonstrated that the man was not quite as proud as his father had been, as Isabel remembered that, to her knowledge, the man had never let anyone "give him a handout", as he had described, or help him with any of his own work related projects. Even her, his beloved intern, who had secretly been much more to the man, had never been allowed to help Robert Queen with any of his pet projects. And while that mindset had served Robert Queen well enough, it had would have been disastrous for Oliver if he had acted according to the same mindset over the last couple of days. But Oliver had not acted as his father would have, and he had actually asked for help. As a result, to Isabel's chagrin, the man was still Co-CEO of Queen Consolidated. Furthermore, the young man's heroics in the board room the other day demonstrated that Oliver Queen was impulsive, but they also indicated that he was far more courageous than Isabel had expected, a truth that was not lost on the ones who wrote the headlines of Starling City's local papers, who were now portraying the son of a mass murderer as a selfless hero for saving the life of not only his secretary, but also his business rival, from the hooded vigilantes that had attacked them. Frustratingly, those same papers placed surprisingly little emphasis on the fact that Oliver Queen had been the gunmen's target, and that the billionaire playboy's presence was the only reason anybody had been any danger that day to begin with. But what was even worse for Isabel was the fact that Oliver Queen had, potentially, saved her life. True, she still told herself that she hated the man, and she had rationalized that it was only because of the billionaire's proximity to her person at the time that she had been in any danger. But the fact remained that Oliver Queen, her nemesis who she had vowed to destroy after she had made him suffer as she had suffered after losing Robert, had saved her life. And that fact not only hurt Isabel's pride, it had also planted a small seed of doubt in her head, making her wonder if Robert would ever have done the same thing for her if she had ever been in danger during the far too brief amount of time she had known the man. Isabel had tried to shake that thought of and told herself that of course Robert would have risked himself to save her life if that had ever happened. After all, he had loved her like she had loved him, hadn't he? It wasn't the deceased man's fault that such a situation had never occurred. Yet that doubt still persisted, as Isabel couldn't help but wonder if the man who had been afraid to leave his loveless marriage to his cheating wife and make his relationship with his intern public would really have risked his life for her. What was worse, despite all of the reasons she had for hating Oliver Queen, she couldn't hate him for the particular action that had planted that doubt in her mind, since it had personally benefited her.
Yes, Isabel Rochev privately admitted to herself as she burned the midnight oil going over the large stack of invoices on her desk while her business partner, who had disappeared shortly after announcing his new "partnership" with her, was nowhere to be found, Oliver Queen was certainly an enigma, one that she hoped she would be able to unravel before she destroyed him. After all, like Slade had taught her, you could only truly defeat an enemy once you knew them as well as you knew yourself. So why was there a small voice in the back of her head telling her that it may be dangerous for her to get to know Oliver Queen too well? And why hadn't she been able to get the memory of the man she hated staring at her with that seemingly soul-piercing gray gaze out of her head? For the hundredth time that night, Isabel tried to shake those thoughts off and started going over invoices again. After all, if her absent business partner wasn't going to be around to get some work done around here, she knew she would have to do it all herself. Isabel Rochev smirked as she dived right back into her paperwork and thought to herself that, even though it wasn't 100% hers… yet, she now had a company to run.
AN: Well, that's the end of chapter 1. Please keep in mind that I am planning for the early chapters of my story to mostly stay within canon (or something close to it), with some minor differences and some different perspectives on canon events, but there will be a major tipping point later, after which the story will go in direction completely different from the plot of the show. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my story! Remember, your reviews keep my writing skills sharp, so please help keep me on my toes and review! If nothing else, I would like to know if there are people who actually care enough to read this story.