Cry on My Shoulder
This is what happens when your next-door neighbor's infant cries early in the morning, when you're trying to have a nice, quiet breakfast on a weekend. That was my prompt, and this was what I came up with. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow or its characters.
Chapter 1: ELLIE CRIES
Oliver woke up with a start and looked at the digital clock on his bedside table. It was half-past 1 a.m.
It wasn't a bad dream that woke him. He'd been sleeping like a log since he came home to his studio-type condo unit. He hadn't even bothered to have dinner because he was just so, so tired and sleepy after arriving from the airport in the early afternoon and heading straight to Queen Consolidated for a Board meeting that his father obliged him to attend so that he could present to them how the external audit of QC's Russian subsidiary had gone during his three weeks stay in Moscow. He had thought about taking a bath and soaking in a tub of nice, warm water with relaxing bath salts, but no. After stripping down to his boxers, he had just flopped down onto his queen-sized bed and dozed off.
What had so rudely interrupted his much-needed sleep was the incessant, annoying crying of a child. It was more like an intermittent screaming or shrieking, actually, and it sounded like it was coming from an infant – a very disturbed infant. Since when had there been an infant living on his floor? The Mastersons had already moved out a month ago, and their only child hadn't been younger than seven.
That's when it clicked. He remembered that when John Diggle, his good friend and head of the building's security, had greeted him at the lobby and welcomed him back, John had told him that a new neighbor had moved in to the unit beside his that the Mastersons had vacated. John did say that the new neighbor at 1108 was a young woman with a little girl that couldn't be older than two.
Oliver tried to go back to sleep. He even tried to cover his head with a pillow. But the baby girl next door wouldn't stop screaming, and the wall separating them just wasn't thick enough. He could hear her mother trying to shush her and soothe her with words he couldn't really make out, because anything she said was just drowned out by the baby's ear-piercing cries.
"Oh please, for crying out loud," Oliver muttered with gritted teeth, tossing and turning on his bed for the nth time.
When the struggle kept on for more than thirty minutes, he decided it was useless to fight a losing battle. He groaned, got up from bed, and washed his face in the bathroom. He put on a pair of navy sweat pants and a plain white undershirt. He was going to knock on the door of his new neighbor and give her a piece of his mind. Politely. That was plan A – to ask nicely that she do something about her daughter's crying as neighbors were trying to get some sleep. Plan B was to demand it, if she would prove to be unreasonable or indifferent, or else he was going to call security. Plan C, which was for if the new neighbor looked like she was some crazy psycho who was mistreating her daughter, was to play it cool and then go back to his unit to call the police.
He hadn't realized he was already coming up with Plan D while waiting for the neighbor to open her door until it actually cracked open. Through the small opening, just above the chain, he could barely see a woman's face. He could clearly see that she wore glasses, though.
"Yes?" the woman asked, wondering who was calling on her at this time.
"Uh, hi. My name is Oliver, and I'm from next door. 1110. I… uhm… I don't know if you realize what time it is, but I… I was wondering if there was something you could do to keep the baby's crying down?" He was trying to be as polite as possible. He and his new neighbor hadn't been properly introduced before this, and he didn't want them starting off on the wrong footing. But he just had to get some sleep. After all, Moscow was 10 hours ahead, so he was dealing with a really bad case of jetlag. That was all he was asking for.
"Oh, believe me, if there was something more I could do, I'd do it," the blonde woman answered. "I've tried everything to get her to stop, but I guess it's just one of those days. Or nights. I really can't tell right now. It's still dark, though, but last time I checked it was already past midnight. She really gets cranky when she's not feeling well. Wouldn't you be? I mean, I would be. I've done everything I know to do to calm her down, but I guess-"
Oliver found her rambling rather amusing (and he usually lacked patience for people that used way too much words to express what they had in mind), but he still needed to get some sleep, so he felt like a minor intrusion wouldn't come across as being rude. He wasn't sure how long she could keep going if he didn't stop her. And the poor, sick little girl was still crying in the background.
"Uh, Miss…?"
"Oh! Forgive me," she said, realizing that she'd been babbling again. She slid the chain and unlocked it completely, opening the door wide enough for her to see who had called at this unholy hour.
"It's Smoak. Felicity Smoak," she answered while combing through her disheveled hair with her fingers. She looked like she was embarrassed, but she put on a brave face, hoping that she wouldn't come across as the stressed-out single parent that she was, because the man that stood in front of her was not just an ordinary man. He was a really gorgeous guy. He looked quite familiar though, she thought, but she couldn't figure out why.
Oliver, on the other hand, wasn't prepared at all for what emerged from behind the partly opened door. Make-up or no make-up, and in spite of the tousled hair, his new next-door neighbor was a beautiful woman. She looked like an angel, really – an angel wearing matching Star Wars pajamas and had plum-painted fingernails and toe nails.
"Felicity." He nodded once and extended his hand. "It's nice to finally meet you. Mr. Diggle from building security told me that someone had already moved in while I was away."
She shook hands with him briefly. "It's nice to meet you, too, although we could have introduced ourselves under better circumstances than this. I'm truly sorry about my daughter. Did we wake you up or something?" She bit her lower lip as she waited for his answer.
"Honestly, yeah. I'm kind of jet-lagged and was hoping to get some sleep." Oliver rubbed the back of his neck, finding the whole telling-the-truth thing a bit awkward. He didn't want her to feel guiltier than she already was for failing to get her daughter's crying under control for the last few hours.
"Sorry about that," she responded. She felt bad that her daughter's crying had disturbed the handsome neighbor's sleep. She began to think of how she can make it up to him one of these days. She couldn't make him something healthy and delicious to eat because she was terrible in the kitchen. She could buy him a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and find out if he liked it just as much as she did, but seeing how well-sculpted his pectorals and abs were underneath the thin cotton shirt he wore, she thought it wasn't such a good idea. She could offer to fix his computer if it ever needed fixing, or to set up better Internet or even CCTVs in his unit. That she could do.
Oliver speaking to her broke her out of her internal ramblings. "What is wrong with your daughter anyway? If you don't mind my asking. Maybe I could… help?" He had to ask. He could still hear the baby sobbing and sniffling somewhere inside. He had a younger sister named Thea, and when she was little, he used to be the only one who could calm her down when she was upset about anything, including those times when she was sick. He was confident that he knew a thing or two about caring for infants and toddlers.
Felicity felt a mild blush creeping upwards from her neck to her cheeks. His thoughtfulness made him twice as attractive. "So he's more than just a pretty face," she thought to herself, glad that she hadn't said that out loud, judging from his facial expression.
She replied, "She has a nasty cold virus. Can't breathe. I've tried aspirating. I've tried the cold rub. I've tried improvised steam inhalation. Nothing seems to be working. She keeps complaining about her ears but I can't figure out what she wants. She just won't stop crying."
"Well, have you tried-"
Oliver was about to give a simple advice that worked well with Thea when she was a toddler, but a loud thud from inside followed by an equally loud scream interrupted them.
"Ellie?!" Felicity hollered, as she rushed into the room frantically.
Oliver contemplated for a second if he should just stand there, leave her be to attend to her own problems, or go after her to help. He knew he was a total stranger to her, still. But the little girl was crying and screaming even more loudly now. He couldn't just stand there and do nothing. He took a deep breath and went after Felicity. Like any good neighbor would.
As he rounded the corner from the small living room to the little girl's room that was adjacent to his studio-type unit, the sight he saw before him made his heart ache and his mind panic. The little girl must have tried to climb out of her playpen, and it had toppled over. Ellie was screaming at the top of her lungs as Felicity picked her up from the floor. The little blonde baby had a bleeding cut near her temple that was beginning to swell and bruise. Ellie must have hit her head on the corner of the nearby table when she fell over.
"Oh, Ellie!" Felicity cried, kissing the crown of her little girl's head while caressing her back to calm her down. "Mommy's here. It's gonna be okay." Felicity gently swayed to soothe the child, but it wasn't working.
Oliver was about to ask, "Is she gonna be okay?" but thought better of it. The red streaks from Ellie's injury were already starting to drip on Felicity's shoulder. So instead he decided to do something helpful. "I'm gonna go get some ice. Do you have a first aid kit or something?"
"Yeah," Felicity replied. There's ice in the fridge, and the kit is in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Thanks!"
Oliver moved quickly. After grabbing some ice cubes from the kitchen, he dashed into the bathroom to get a fresh, clean towel and wrapping the ice in it. He then looked for the first aid kit and found it in the medicine cabinet like Felicity had said. He was back in the child's nursery in no time.
Felicity tried to put Ellie down so that they could attend to her injury, but the little girl would not have it. She screamed and kicked until her mother gave up. "Okay, okay, sweetcakes. Mommy's got you." Ellie was still crying, but the screaming and kicking stopped. She maneuvered her little girl's head such that her uninjured temple rested gently on her mother's shoulder.
"Can you manage?" Felicity asked Oliver. By now she sensed he was only there to help, which was exactly what she needed at the moment.
"Sure, no problem," he answered with a smile.
Oliver went to work, carefully cleaning Ellie's cut with cotton and an antiseptic. Soon, he was covering her cut with gauze and some band aids. "I think that should do for now until we can get her to a hospital," he said as he began to clean up.
"Hospital? Do we really need to? I mean, you've done a pretty good job patching her up," Felicity said.
"The cut is pretty deep, I think she'll need a couple of stitches. Let's just hope the band aids and gauze will hold until we can get to the E.R."
Oliver paused. He could see on Felicity's face that she was hesitant to act on his suggestion to take her daughter to the hospital. "I don't want to sound alarming or to cause even more worry," he added, "but I think a doctor should take a look at her injury. They should run some tests, too. You know, just to make sure she doesn't have a concussion or something."
Felicity's forehead crinkled as she considered his suggestion, which really made sense. After a few seconds, she answered, "I guess it won't hurt to take her. Better safe than sorry, right?"
Oliver smiled and nodded. "Yeah," he agreed.
"So… uh… I'm just gonna go change into something more appropriate for going to a hospital. Can you take her? I won't take long," she requested.
"Sure," he replied. "That is if you're sure she won't mind." Oliver wanted to make sure that Ellie won't cry even more if she left her with him.
"Well, I can't guarantee that. Ellie doesn't warm up to strangers that easily, especially since we're new in town and haven't really met new friends since we moved here. But we don't have a choice, do we? She will definitely cry harder if I put her down."
"Guess you're right," he said, moving to take the little girl from her mother's arms.
Surprisingly, Ellie let him take her even if she was still sobbing and sniffling. Felicity thought it strange how her little girl warmed up so easily to their next-door neighbor. Come to think of it, she had warmed up so easily to him, too, from their very first conversation at the door. Oliver wasn't too difficult to like. He seemed kind, gentle, and friendly – qualities that she noticed despite his jetlag, and beyond his really good looks.
By the time Felicity came back to the nursery, Ellie had stopped crying and had fallen asleep in Oliver's arms. Her baby girl's head laid on his shoulder, her curly blonde hair partly covering her face. Oliver had his back turned against the door, so he hadn't noticed her standing there. He was busy rubbing circles on Ellie's back, swaying from side to side.
Before Felicity took another step towards them, she stopped short. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was it possible, or were her ears playing tricks on her? In the stillness of the night, she could hear Oliver's soft voice singing to Ellie as he rocked her daughter to sleep.
"Hush, little baby, don't say a word, your mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird won't sing, Ol'ver's gonna buy you a diamond ring…"
Felicity's heart melted. Who was this man that had walked into her and her daughter's life? She was so glad that Ellie had the strong arms of a seemingly wonderful man carrying her then, and that her little girl had a shoulder to cry on, even just for a while. Ellie was growing up without her daddy; she hadn't even met him.
As she remembered their loss, a lone tear fell from the corner of her eye, and she instantly wiped it away with her finger. For a moment there, she wondered how it must feel like to cry on her neighbor's shoulder. He did have pretty broad and sturdy shoulders, she thought.
Felicity somehow snapped out of her sad thoughts. She cleared her throat and spoke, "Ready?"
Oliver turned around and nodded. "Here, take her. Let me go get my car keys. I'll drive you to the hospital."
"Thanks," she said, as she carefully and slowly took Ellie from his arms. "I'm just gonna grab the baby bag, and I'll meet you at the elevator. Okay?"
"Okay."
Oliver left mother and daughter and headed back to his unit. "There goes my hard-earned sleep," he thought to himself. Yet deep down inside, something told him that foregoing sleep in favor of being with two lovely little ladies was going to be worth it. The last half hour has certainly been. He locked the door of his condo unit, unaware that he was glowing, with a grin that he couldn't wipe off his face even if he tried.
A/N: So what did you think. Let me know.