Felicity Smoak ignored the burning of her muscles, pushing herself harder as early morning sun began to bathe the living room in its pinkish-yellow glow. The mechanical sounds of the elliptical created a harsh juxtaposition to the sunrise outside the floor to ceiling windows of her apartment. She hated cardio, but it was a moment of peace at the start of what would no doubt be a very busy day. A moment to herself.

Felicity wasn't the type of woman who got many moments to herself. She took what she could get, but, honestly, she liked it that way. She was career-oriented and rarely had time for anything—or anyone—outside of work.

Her mother had never understood.

"That's all you do is work," she'd argue. "Work, work, work, work, work, work, work."

But that's just who Felicity was. It's who she'd always been. Since college, since... Cooper. She'd turned to work to keep her busy and, well it made her happy, she enjoyed it. Why wouldn't she? Work was a constant, it was always there for her, unlike many of the people in her life. And Felicity was good at it. Her recent promotion to Vice President of Palmer Tech had won her a spot on a 30 under 30 list. She was a well respected genius in her field who was currently dominating a very testosterone rich environment and she was happy.

Felicity quickly finished up on the elliptical and headed for the shower. She had plenty of time before work, but she wanted to get there early. Today was an important day, and she was, after all, a busy woman.

###

She'd no sooner stepped off the elevator onto the executive floor, than her assistant was handing her a cup of coffee. It was a to-go cup from her favorite coffee shop and she took a long sip before reaching for the files he was holding.

"Are these the reports from R&D?" she asked, heels rapping on the tile as she moved quickly towards her office.

Oliver pulled the door open for her, following her inside. "Yes. And the latest Gideon update—the one you asked for—is on top."

Felicity nodded, dropping the folders onto her desk and taking another sip of coffee. She placed it on the desk, followed by her bag. The folders from last night's paperwork joined today's folders on her desk, then she pulled out her tablet and sat down to get to work. That's when she noticed a loopy, flowing script on the side of her coffee cup. She picked it up, looking at the message.

"Who is Carrie Cutter and why does she want me to call her?" she asked, glancing up at her assistant.

Oliver actually blushed. "Sorry," he said ducking his head. "She must have thought that one was mine."

"Would you like me to save it for you?" she asked, with a teasing smile.

"No. Thank you," he laughed with a roll of his eyes.

He always did that when women hit on him. And they hit on him a lot. Whether they were out to lunch or in the middle of a meeting, women—some single, some not so single—always found an opportunity to flirt with her assistant. Felicity had gotten used to it by now. The man was gorgeous. She couldn't exactly blame them.

"Did you call Kord's assistant? Whatshername? The one with the... you know, the ugly hands?" Felicity asked, sorting the paperwork she'd gotten done last night into a pile for Oliver to take.

"Taiana," Oliver said. "Yes, I called her. Kord is coming in at 1:30pm and I've got lunch from the food truck you like being delivered. Also your immigration lawyer called, he said he really needs you to—"

"I'll get back to him," Felicity dismissed, already pulling up her notes for the Kord meeting on her tablet. "I added a few points I'd like included in the presentation. I sent them to you last night, so please make sure they're in there. We need this meeting to go well."

"I know and it will. And when it does..." Oliver drawled, circling her desk to pick up the stack of folders that now needed filing, "will you look into Curtis Holt's powercell project again?"

"Oliver," she sighed. He was a good assistant and she considered him her friend, but his obsession with Curtis's side project, a battery that could theoretically store enough energy to power an entire city block for five years, was testing her patience. It wasn't that she didn't like the idea—she thought it was incredible—but it was a high risk project that the company just didn't have the money to fund at the moment. "You know I can't just okay a project like that. It's expensive and time consuming. Curtis is working on other things..."

"Ms. Smoak, the benefits of something like that... Have you even read his proposal, really read it?" He turned to a small filing cabinet behind her desk and began to open it.

"Oliver," she snapped. She didn't have time for this. Not today. "Benefits or not, the answer is no. Maybe in the future, but not right now."

It was like he deflated, his shoulders slumping, and he shook his head. "Fine. Do you need anything else, Ms. Smoak?"

With a shake of her head, she looked away as Oliver turned to leave. She felt awful about always turning down his ideas. Since he'd started working for her she'd realized that Oliver wasn't just an assistant. She honestly didn't know how he'd even gotten that job.

Oliver Dearden seemed to be better suited for the board room than his small office in the cubicle outside of her's. He was charismatic and charming, a hard worker who loved big ideas. He was always pulling projects he thought would benefit not only the company, but the world. Unfortunately, most of Oliver's projects—like Curtis' powercell—required money and attention the company just couldn't spare right now.

Maybe if they got this joint venture with Kord locked down...

Felicity shook her head. She couldn't make promises to Oliver, even in her own head. She was the Vice President of a struggling company. She had to be realistic, and with their budget… They were just lucky they weren't at the point where layoffs were necessary.

After an hour and a half of reading over project proposals, most of which would never see the light of day, she decided to head down to Barry's lab to see where he, Caitlin and Cisco were at on their Gideon interface. It was a huge aspect of this Kord project, and the more she knew about its status the better.

Just as she was getting up Oliver's voice rang through her intercom.

"Ms. Smoak, Mr. Palmer would like to see you in the conference room in ten minutes."

"Of course," she said, taking a moment to gather all of her notes for the Kord meeting. She assumed Ray wanted to meet to go over all of the last minute details. This meeting was only the first of many, but it was important it all go according to plan.

When she stepped out of her office Oliver was on the phone, so she gave him a brief smile before turning to leave.

"I'll try, Thea," he sighed. "It's the best I can do. Fine. Bye." She heard him stand up and start to follow her. "Ms. Smoak?"

"Yes, Oliver?" she said, turning to see him matching her pace as they headed for the conference room.

"It's my sister's birthday this weekend."

"This weekend?" she asked, coming to a stop. "No! Not this weekend."

"Well," Oliver deadpanned, "I can't exactly stop her birthday from being this weekend."

"Oliver, no. This meeting with Kord is preliminary. We're going to be working all weekend to have everything sorted out for the meeting with the board next week. You know that."

"I do," Oliver said, "but it's also my sister's twentieth birthday. Let me take Friday afternoon and Saturday and I'll be back Sunday to—"

"No!" Felicity said again, starting to panic. "Oliver, I need you on this. You know I don't trust anyone else."

Oliver closed his eyes for a moment and when he glanced back at her it was with annoyance. "Why can't Palmer help you? It's his company."

Felicity scowled. "Ray is helping. He'll be here all weekend, too."

"Oh, so what? I'm just here to fetch you two things while you awkwardly flirt with one another?" Oliver grumbled.

"That is so not what is happening," Felicity said. "Ray and I do not—"

"Don't finish that sentence if it's going to be a lie," Oliver said, raising one hand in front of him. "And it's fine. I'll just disappoint my sister on her birthday. No big deal." He shrugged. "At least it gets me out of seeing my parents."

"There you go. There's always a silver lining. Besides you can make it up to her after this deal is done." Felicity smiled thinly, ignoring his tone and trying not to feel too bad about forcing him to work.

She needed him, it was for the good of the company. With his help, this joint venture might go smoothly, and if it did it could mean saving a lot of jobs in the long run. Oliver missing one birthday wasn't that big a sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

They stopped in front of the conference room doors. Felicity did a mental check of the rest of her afternoon and said, "I don't know how long this will take, but let me know if it's getting close to 1:00pm or if anything major happens or—"

"Felicity," Oliver said, a small smile tugging at his lips. He almost never called her by her first name, and Felicity found herself wishing that he would. "We've got this. Go study up with Palmer and then you two can wow Kord this afternoon."

Felicity gave him a quick smile, which he returned with a wink, before she pushed through the conference room doors.