At sixteen floors up, Felicity Smoak had a pretty good view of Starling City; People below walking to their destinations in a hurry, running into each other as they look at their phones. She wondered where they were going, work? Home? To meet someone?
She chewed on her pen while watching them, wondering if the ink would ever explode and make it look like she was a vampire who just had lunch. That couldn't happen though, she thought, vampires were not up during the day, this was not one of those kinds of stories. Having someone watch you sleep was creepier than anything.
Sighing, Felicity turned around to her desk waking up her monitor. As Head of Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated, Felicity had meetings upon meetings with the CEO and CFO to talk about what was going on in the Applied Sciences department.
Which was why she had a big presentation today with the new CEO, Oliver Queen, along with her, Isabel Rochev who was not her favorite person but couldn't avoid and saw her almost on a daily basis now that she was the CFO after what had happened a few months ago?
A few months ago. Felicity closed her eyes at the thought, thinking of the 503 people who had lost their lives in what is now known as the Undertaking. She cried the night the Undertaking happened while watching the news. There she was, safe in her apartment away from The Glades, away from the destruction as people were running for their lives.
She even tried to help them, tried to find the bomb that was going to go off, hack her way into the bomb's system and dismantle it. She found the bomb with two seconds left on the timer. She couldn't do anything, couldn't tell the man in the green hood where it was so he could do his arrowy thing and save the city. No, she couldn't. So she sat there, in her apartment feeling the vibration from the earthquake that was miles away. Her bookshelf rattled, the glass of wine on her coffee table fell, splattering her carpet in red. She didn't care, didn't move as she cried for those lost, cried for the families, even cried the Arrow.
Blinking back tears, Felicity stood up, "Get it together Smoak." She whispered to herself while smoothing out her dress.
Grabbing her tablet she walked out of her office, she walked passes her assistant, Andi's desk. A shorter women about the same age of Felicity with straight long brown hair and a very bubbly personality that makes anyone smile when they come in. When Felicity went through the hiring process for an assistant when she came to Queen Consolidated, she had no idea what to look for in potential candidates. As soon as Andi came in, she knew she was hired; a smile so big it made her smile, references up the wazoo and she knew Excel, so Felicity was happy she wouldn't have to explain that.
"Wish me luck." Felicity said with a wave.
"Good luck!" called Andi looking up from her computer.
"If I am not back in two hours, come get me with an emergency!" Felicity called back, pushing the elevator button to go up.
"It'll be fine! You got this!" Andi said, reaching for the ringing phone. "applied Sciences, Felicity Smoak's office."
Felicity stepped onto the elevator, sighing for the umpteenth time today. She was not looking forward to this meeting.
Felicity thought again of the Arrow; he hasn't shown his face in five months, or hood for lack of better word, Felicity thought, huffing to herself, but she knew why, she always knew. She just hoped he was OK.
After all, she knew a thing or two about these night time vigilantes.
Felicity Smoak was born and raised in Los Vegas, living in a small apartment with her parents Donna Smoak and Noah Kuttler. She can remember them fighting all the time; she thinks she can even remember hearing them while in the womb. They always fought, seeming to put her in the middle of it, always forcing her to pick sides. Their fighting always being about money; Noah gambling it away every weekend and Donna spending money on flashy dresses and shoes.
"I need these dresses for work!" Donna yelled one night in the bedroom, Felicity sitting at the table eating dinner alone. "I need to look good in order to get tips because you lose all our money on the slots!"
"The only reason I do that is to try to make money for your damn dresses!" Noah yelled back.
Felicity rolled her eyes and continued eating her cereal, looking at the bunny on the box.
Even though her family did not have a lot of money, Donna always made sure that Felicity had what she needed. Felicity never complained about the fact that her clothes were from the Goodwill, she didn't want to be the reason her parents had another fight. She never complained that she didn't have the newest toy or didn't have the light up shoes that also had sparkles all over them.
She turned to books to escape the constant fighting from her parents, her mother bring her to the library when she had an afternoon off. She would come home with stacks of books she would finish in just a few days.
Her favorite book was Matilda, hoping one day she would wake up and find out her had powers like Matilda. One day she tried to close the ugly living room curtains with her mind when Noah threw open the bedroom door.
"Magic does not exist." Noah said harshly to a five year old Felicity after having a very loud fight with Donna about money. "Get your head out of the clouds." He said storming towards the front door and ripping it open then disappearing though it.
Donna worked at a casino as a cocktail waitress and was gone most of the time and Noah, well who knows where he was all the time. So when Felicity's parents were gone, she would spend time with the older couple down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Brown.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown were a sweet old, African American couple in their late sixties. They had three kids and they had a few kids of their own but they were not able to seem their grandchild that often as the family has spread over the country, but the treated Felicity as she were a grandchild of theirs and she loved them.
When Felicity had to go over to Mr. and Mrs. Brown's place, she would run over there excited to tell them about a new book she was reading. They would always listen to her with rapt attention and ask her questions about the book and the characters. Mrs. Brown would let her borrow books and play out sense in her favorite book that week.
Felicity would help Mrs. Brown bake cookies for the holidays and attempt to crack the eggs into the batter, always failing to not get the shells in, but Mrs. Brown would only smile and pick them out, "There is always next time." She would say calmly to Felicity when there were tears in her eyes. She would let Felicity frost some cookies into Christmas trees and Santa hats, and even though Felicity was Jewish, she never minded, she understood these cookies were for other people and would even get to frost some cookies to look like the Star of Davis for her own pleasure.
Felicity was convinced Mr. Brown was a hoarder. There were trinkets everywhere and a room filled with technical equipment that fascinated Felicity. When she asked him about it one evening, he said he grew up in a poorer time and possessions were valuable to him. She still didn't understand completely but went along with it anyway.
Felicity spent her seventh birthday with the Browns, but she didn't mind. Mrs. Brown had made her favorite dinner, mac and cheese, and chocolate cake to go with some mint chocolate ice cream.
They gave her her own brand new copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book she constantly kept renting from the public library. She jumped with joy and into their arms to give them a huge hug, wanting to start reading as soon as possible.
When Felicity's father left, she wasn't surprised and she didn't cry, instead she sat by her mother's side, rubbing her back while her mother cried into her hands, shaking. "We'll be fine." Felicity whispered, "we'll be fine." Not sure if she was trying to convince her mom or herself.
A few months after he father left, Felicity was at the Browns, her mother picked up yet another shift for the weekend, she did that a lot now that her father was gone, that just meant she spend a lot more time with the Browns, which was perfectly fine in Felicity's book.
When Felicity walked into the spare room where Mr. Brown was, she saw he was building something. It turned out to be a computer, which Mr. Brown had Felicity help him build. She found out she loved it and it can surprisingly easy to her and with Mr. Browns help, they finished building an entire computer in just a few weeks, all from parts.
Felicity found she hated mysteries. She avoided the section ok book in the library and never wanted to play Clue when Mrs. Brown offered. She never could figure out the reason her father left and hated that mystery, but she found out computers where not mysterious.
Computers seemed to talk to Felicity on another level. She knew exactly what was going on with them and knew how to work and fix them. To Felicity, they were not mysterious, thus began her technology journey.
When Felicity was 14, she began high school, she always knew she was smart in middle school, but in high school, she excelled. Math and science came very easy to her and she enjoyed it very much. She supposed it was because she could figure out the mysterious equations with ease. Her freshman year, she was in senior and level classes and for math, the high school offered a college level class, and again, she got straight A's.
She joined the math league because she was good at it and so she wouldn't have to be home all the time. She mom said she didn't need to take a job while in school; Donna wanted Felicity to get good grades and get a scholarship to a good college.
Junior year of high school, Mr. Brown passed away. Felicity was devastated. She tried to spend time with Mrs. Brown, but she was busy planning the funeral and having her children and grandchildren around to help her move. Mrs. Brown was going to move in with one of her children, in Florida, Felicity held her tight and cried, she was sadder that Mrs. Brown was leaving than her own father.
After the Funeral, Felicity found Mrs. Brown sitting in the spare room surrounded by the trinkets and gadgets that were Mr. Brown are now all packed away to move and give away. Felicity sat on a box next to Mrs. Brown, saying nothing. Mrs. Brown sniffed and tuned to Felicity, "He would have wanted you to have this." She said touching the computer that Felicity and Mr. Brown had built together.
"I couldn't." Felicity replied, eyes red.
Mrs. Brown had moved away to Florida, but not without long hugs and more tears from Felicity, when Mrs. Brown had said, "You be good."
The rest of Felicity's high school career went by in a blur. She graduated with a 4.0 grade average, at the top of her class and valedictorian. She gave the cliché 'our stories are just beginning' speech with shaking hands and a flush creeping up her neck. Donna was in a sparkly gold dress and high heels, cheering her on, taking her picture on a disposable camera.
After that summer, Felicity moved to Massachusetts to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a full scholarship where she got her masters in computer science and cyber security.
She loved it there. It away from Los Vegas, away from her mom, away from her old life. She got along with her roommate, Emily, well and they would stay up late studying, and go to parties. Emily was there to back Felicity up when she kicked a lacrosse player in the balls after giving her a bit too much attention.
Freshman year of college, Felicity was ranked second in the National Information Technology competition, which she was only a tiny bit disappointed about the fact she didn't get first place.
Towards the end of her freshman year, Felicity met someone named Copper Sheldon, a tall skinny boy in the same year as her. He had brown hair and a smile Felicity fell for the moment they were pared up for a group project in one of her classes.
They had dated until near the end of their senior year and in that time had created a group with Cooper's roommate Myron Forest, where they called themselves the 'Hacktivist's' and referred to themselves and the modern day technology Robin Hood's. A few months before graduations, Cooper was arrested for a super virus when he attempted to delete all student loans for everyone.
After graduating summa cum laude, Felicity had gotten a job at Wayne Enterprises in Gotham City working in the Wayne Technology – Applied Sciences division under Lucius Fox. She had really enjoyed working there, learning many new things from Mr. Fox. She had also met many new, interesting people there, such as Richard and him.
After a few years and a need for new scenery, Felicity decided to move to Starling City. He wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but he understood her need for space and her need to get out of Gotham. So she got a job as head of Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated thanks to Mr. Fox and Bruce Wayne himself when they so kindly wrote letters of recommendation to a man named Walter Steel, CEO of QC.
So after a year and a half of living in Starling City and the green hooded vigilantly arrived, she wasn't too surprised, and she was used to one dressed in all black. She also wasn't surprised to when she figured out who the one dressed in green really was.
The elevator dinged and the door opened up and Felicity stepped out.
After all, Felicity hated mysteries and she always knew.