Hi everyone! Geez, y'all are amazing :) the response I got from this project simply blew my mind.
Here's for everyone who read, reviewed, followed… I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
This one is my take of 2x01, "City of heroes." Some fluff and angst ahead, hope you like it.
This is a nonprofit, for-fun-only piece of literature. Arrow, Green Arrow, all its characters and everything related to that are property of DC Comics and The CW. I own only the words put together.
This story is published under a Creative Commons (cc) license.
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Pregnant Felicity
II
My Baby's Father
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Oliver stopped when he saw the car waiting for them outside the airport. The young man in a suit was, most definitely, not what he was expecting to find in his return to Starling City after five months.
He played with the backpack strap on his shoulder and looked up to Diggle, who was already taking the car keys from the other guy.
"You can go now, Andrew. I'll drive Mr. Queen home."
Oliver wondered how would Andrew "go", if they were taking the car, but as Diggle entered by the driver door and started the engine, he forgot about the confused young man.
"So, huh…" Oliver said, after ten minutes of an awkward, silent trip "Where's Felicity? Is she ok?" He looked to the rearview mirror, but Diggle's eyes avoided his.
"Yeah, yeah, she's fine, man."
"I thought she would be at the airport to greet us?"
"She's… she's probably working today." Sighing, Diggle finally met his eyes in the mirror. "Look, Oliver… a lot happened since you left to your island. To her. I mean… Felicity, she doesn't want this sidekick life anymore. She… she quit."
"Why… what happened to her?"
"That's something you gonna have to ask her, dude."
…
Oliver knocked lightly on her door. Then he smiled to himself. She always complained that he was incapable of knocking.
"Come in"
His smile only widened when he stepped in. She looked exactly the way he remembered her, ponytail and everything. "Hey, you busy?"
She looked up, surprised.
"Oliver!" She smiled and Oliver's heart warmed. "Is good to see you."
He frowned a little at her reaction, but opened his arms.
"Don't I deserve a hug?"
Felicity bit her lip and looked down. She smiled a little, bottom lip still between her teeth.
"Of course you do."
She placed her palms flat on her desk, pulling herself up. And then Oliver saw it, a round belly under her blouse.
When she hugged him, he felt the baby lump, firm and warm.
"How long?"
"Six months next week" she said against his shirt.
He grabbed her hands, discretely looking for a ring or a band. There was none.
"Diggle?" He asked her.
"I wish! No. We would be married by now if it was John's." She took one hand off of Oliver's hold and placed it over her stomach. "You know him…"
"Then who?" Felicity didn't face him. Oliver sighed. "Sorry, it's none of my business. I shouldn't have-"
"Tommy" She cut in.
Oliver bit his lower lip to keep a loud cursing from coming out of his mouth. He was expecting for someone he could punch in the face, not his dead best friend. It took him a few minutes to reply.
"I didn't know you were…"
"We weren't. It was just this one time." She smirked "We were kinda drunk, he had broken up with Laurel... It was stupid."
"I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have go through this by yourself. I should've been here."
She smiled, crinkling her nose. "It's fine, actually. I mean, it was horrible when I found out, but Digg and Carly have been really supportive. Just..." She squeezed his hand. "I need you to keep this between us, ok? About Tommy."
He raised a brow.
"No one knows you're having Tommy's child?"
"Diggle does, now you do too. No one else. I just..." She sighed and let herself stand by her desk. "I don't want people to think he was a jerk. I don't want Laurel thinking that he cheated on her. Which would make me a whore, by the way. Not cool." She took a deep breath and focused once again in the subject. "Tommy was a really nice guy, and I know that he loved her. I just don't want his memory ruined, not because of me and certainly not because of my son."
He walked to her and stopped by her side, his back pressed against her desk.
"A boy?" She nodded, he smiled. "Hey, I understand how you feel about that. But, Felicity… This little guy is a Merlyn. He has - no, both of you have - certain rights. You should consider-"
"No." she shook her head, not looking at him. "My child, my choice, Oliver. And anyways, if my son have to inherit anything from his father, I'd pick the good looks over the fortune any day of the week." She gave him a poke with her elbow and Oliver snorted.
"Tommy sure was a good looking bastard." He said. She laughed a little and Oliver couldn't help but stare at her slightly rosy cheeks, thick lashes, bright eyes. "A freaking lucky one."
She raised her eyes to meet his, and for a second she held her breath. Oliver was scrutinizing her.
"Oliver, I… I wanted to tell you, about me and Tommy. The night before you left, when you came to say goodbye-"
"The night I said that I love you." He corrected her.
Felicity tried her best to swallow the lump on her throat.
"Y-Yes." She continued "I wanted to tell you… But he had just died. You were miserable and you were leaving. I wasn't even sure I'd ever see you again. If I knew I was expecting… I should have told you, I just-"
"Hey" He stood in front of her, both his hands soothing her shoulders. "You didn't owe me no explanation, okay? Not then and not now. I never wanted to oblige you on loving me back" She avoided his eyes, so he decided to change subjects. "I just don't get one thing… Aren't people asking questions? About the father, I mean. Isn't, I don't know, your family curious?"
Her lips twisted and she bit the inside of her cheek before looking up at him.
"You're so not gonna like it" she sighed "Nobody asks nothing because people kinda assume it's yours" He blinked, and she took a deep breath "We were always seen together. People were already gossiping about us before…"
"And then you get pregnant and I disappear." Oliver finished for her. "I'm the jerk." He laughed suddenly, granting a weird look from Felicity. "That actually makes a lot of sense" His hands traveled down her arms, and stopped at her stomach. "And is highly appropriated."
She blinked at him, the whispered "What?" barely leaving her lips.
"If people already think this is my kid, then let them." He lowered his head until his eyes were leveled with hers. "Let me be his father."
"Oliver you're not thinking straight" She tried to get away from him, but Oliver took her gently by the elbow and didn't let her go.
"Yes I am. I can take care of you, of both of you. I told you I love you, Felicity. That hasn't changed."
She caressed his face, a sad smile showing on her face.
"And I have feelings for you too" She said, very conscious to not let the L-word slip out. "But this is just your guilt talking" He tried to protest but she didn't let him "You think that, because you slept with Laurel, Tommy tried to get back at you by sleeping with me" He widened his eyes, and that gave her the opportunity to put some distance between them. Then she added "He told me, in the morning." She smiled a little "Tommy wasn't trying to hurt you, Oliver. He was just feeling lonely, and so was I. It was not your fault. It was nobody's fault, actually. We were both adults, we knew what we were doing. You don't have to take a responsibility that isn't yours."
"I want to." He pointed. "Felicity, I'm not feeling guilty. I knew I wanted you way before I knew you were pregnant. This baby is the child of both my best friend and the woman I love. Why is so difficult for you to see that I love him already?"
She closed her eyes and shook her head, not sure of what to say, or if she should say anything at all. He exhaled and went to sit on the couch across the room.
"Hey, there's still three months left, right?" She nodded. "Then you have three months to think about it. I'm not asking for us to suddenly become a happy family or anything. We can figure things out later, about us... But I'd be honored if, when this little guy is born, you let his last name be Queen. And, while you think about it, just let me be here for you, okay?"
She looked up at him, sitting there in her office. And then it hit her, and she let the tears fall down. Oliver was actually there. He came back, he was real. And he loved her. Suddenly, she let go of the fear she didn't even know she was holding - and if not all of it, at least a big part. Suddenly, she wasn't freaking out anymore about what might happen to her and to her child. Not because things were all figured out, but because Oliver was there, and she knew that everything was going to be just fine. Safe haven.
"Okay" she whispered back at him.
