"Hey Speedy! I welcome the reprieve of talking to you instead of continuing to talk to Sara about my love life or the lack thereof." Felicity said without even looking at the screen, but once she looked down she knew that something was wrong. Thea's eyes were red rimmed like she had been crying and it looked like she was in the waiting room of a hospital, both of the girls had an extremely bad feeling in the pit of their stomachs that something was seriously wrong.
"Thea? What's wrong?" Felicity asked scared of the words that the young girl was going to say next.
"It's dad. We went out to lunch today like we have started doing ever since I moved out and then suddenly he started grabbing at his chest and then he collapsed. He had a heart attack."
"Oh my goodness, is he okay? Did you call your mom and Oliver yet?" Felicity asked, Thea was crying by the end of the explanation and Felicity and Sara were already up and making their way towards Felicity's bedroom, Felicity started grabbing clothes without even thinking about anything else except needing to get to Starling. She needed to go home, if only to see how Thea and Moira were doing, she wasn't about to let her history with Oliver stop her.
"Yeah I called them when it happened, I called you right after because you deserve to know too." Thea sniffled and let out a shaky breath which made Felicity's heart break for the woman, since she had left Starling her and Thea had become really close while FaceTiming every week and Thea even coming and visiting Felicity during her senior year of high school for spring break.
"There's a flight out of LAX in four hours going to Starling." Sara said from Felicity's bed with her laptop looking up flights while Felicity was in her closet gathering a mound of clothes to take with her.
"You don't need to come out, I know that you haven't seen Ollie since…" Thea stopped before even finishing her thought and Felicity thought that this day couldn't get much worse unless someone else mentioned her unresolved feelings about Oliver one more time. She had barely thought about him for the past five years and suddenly all in one day she is bombarded with thoughts about him.
"Nonsense Thea, of course I'm coming and when worse comes to worse I will avoid your brother like he is carrying the bubonic plague." Felicity came out of her closet with an armload of clothes and a duffle bag as she handed her phone over to Sara.
"Alright I have you on the flight I just need your credit card to put it on." Sara said as she looked up at Felicity to see her hurriedly rushing to fold all of the clothes that she was bringing.
"Wait you aren't coming?" Felicity stopped packing with a panicked look on her face, she just assumed that Sara was going to come with her.
"What happened to 'when worse comes to worse I will avoid Oliver like he is carrying the bubonic plague'?" Sara asked laughing at her best friend and how desperate she was for her to come with her to be a buffer.
"Well that was when I thought I was going to have back up, it's easier to avoid him on the pretense of having you there with me." Felicity was practically begging at this point but Sara wasn't going to let up there was no way that she was going to succumb and go on this trip home with Felicity. She loved the Queen's and grew up with them as well but she wasn't close enough to the point that she found it necessary.
"You have a more forgiving job then I do, I can't just pack a bag and leave town. You are doing this, Moria and Robert have basically become surrogate parents for you since the accident and you are going and supporting them end of discussion." Sara said as she got up to get Felicity's credit card and handed the phone to Felicity to continue talking to Thea.
"Sara is right Lissy, they have become your surrogate parents even after everything that happened with you and Ollie they still treat you like a daughter. Don't let him stop you from coming and seeing dad." Thea took a steadying breath and Felicity did the same and nodded knowing that they were both right.
"How bad is it? Is he doing okay?" Felicity asked feeling ashamed that she hadn't even asked.
"The doctors said that it was pretty serious, I'm not sure I couldn't understand all of the medical mumbo-jumbo when the doctor told me. He is in critical condition though so get here quickly before, god forbid, something terrible happens." Thea was in tears again which made Felicity take pause and sit down realizing the gravity of the situation. She didn't want to think about losing yet another parent before she was ready to say goodbye to them.
"I'll get there as quickly as I can. Don't worry about picking me up or anything I'll get a rental car." Felicity went back to her bed and started packing as she propped Thea up on pillow so that she could still see her as she packed.
"No, I'll come and get you from the airport, truthfully I need something to take my mind off of everything that has happened in the past few days. It's been crazy, with the engagement and everything." Thea's eyes went wide once she realized what she had just said, Felicity stopped packing for a few moments to digest the words that had just come out of Thea's mouth. She shook her head trying to clear it of thoughts of Oliver engaged to another woman as she continued packing trying to pretend that she didn't hear what she had just said.
"Alright I'll text you all of my flight info once I get it from Sara." Felicity finished folding the clothes and picked up her phone to get all of her makeup and toiletries from the bathroom still trying to pretend that she didn't hear that Oliver and McKenna had got engaged.
"Felicity you aren't even going to acknowledge what I just said?" Thea asked and Felicity propped her phone up on the sink and sighed pausing for a minute trying to actually digest the information that Oliver really had moved on just like she wished he would. Why was it hurting this much then if this is what she wanted him to do?
"I heard you Thea I just don't think that I can think about it right now. I want him to be happy, I honestly do, I want nothing more than to know that he is happy." eliicty said on baited breath forgetting that she needed to breath for a few seconds.
"You just wish that it was with you...It's okay to want that Felicity, none of us would blame you. We all thought that the only wedding Oliver was going to have was with you."
Felicity took a slow and deep breath trying to not get too emotional from what Thea had just admitted, she knew that Thea didn't mean anything by it and didn't want to hurt her. However thinking about the fact that even all of them thought the same thing made her heart ache to go back in time and change things for herself and Oliver. It felt like she was being stabbed in the chest with the severity of her emotions. She can't go back in time though, things are the way that they are and there was no changing that, she also loved the woman that she had become and she had Oliver to thank for that in a way. If he wouldn't have broken her heart she wouldn't have went through what she did and become the woman that she had.
"If it makes you feel better, none of us really like McKenna, I mean she is nice enough for Oliver but she is so preppy and always trying to impress us and it bugs the crap out of me and mom. We were actually talking the other day about how much she is getting on our nerves, and now with this whole thing with dad she won't stop texting me about getting me things from the apartment and making sure that I am okay. It's a nice gesture but she barely knows my dad and she is acting like its her dad is in the hospital." Felicity could tell that Thea was really annoyed with McKenna but it was not Felicity's place to say anything about her ex boyfriend's fiancee.
"That sounds really rough but I will be there in a few hours though so just avoid her and try not to sock her in the face." Felicity snickered knowing that if the poor woman kept bothering Thea no one would be able to top her if she decides to go off on the woman, she had witnessed the same thing happen plenty of times.
"Don't worry if I am going to sock her in the face I will wait until you get here so that you can witness it." Thea said making Felicity laugh even harder as she finished packing up all of her toiletries and walking back into her room with the bags and her phone in tow.
No matter what happened she always could count on Thea to make her laugh, even if it was at the expense of the poor girl that Oliver was going to marry. Don't get her wrong she was happy for Oliver and she would keep saying that until she was blue in the face or until someone actually believed her when she said those words. Okay yes, she was still completely and irrevocably in love with Oliver, it was hard not to be in love with him after everything that had happened. She had to move on though and maybe this little impromptu trip of hers to Starling would help her to get the closure that she needs.
"Well I am glad that you are showing so much restraint on the subject, don't go around punching people and bruise those pretty hands of yours." Felicity laughed as Sara walked back into the room with Felicity's laptop and wallet in her hands.
"Alright flight is book, I only booked a one way ticket not sure how long you were going to be there. Also I figured you would be staying with Thea so I didn't book you a hotel either, but we should get going because traffic is going to be a bitch." Sara handed Felicity her laptop which Felicity stuffed into her duffle bag along with her chargers and her wallet that Sara promptly handed back to her.
"Alright Thea I am going to let you go, I will see you in a few hours." Felicity smiled down at the screen as she ran to her closet and took off her heels from the photoshoot and but on a beat up pair of converse. Normally she would make fun of the women that got onto flights all done up with a cute outfit, hair and makeup fully done, but today she was one of those girls considering she hadn't even had the opportunity to take off her makeup from the photoshoot.
"Sounds good to me, text me your flight info and I will come and pick you up. Love you Lissy."
"Love you too Speedy." Felicity smiled and sent the other girl a wink making her smile before they hung up on each other.
"Are you sure you can't hop on a plane to Starling with me and at least sit in the hospital waiting room with me? I really don't want to see Oliver or his new fiancee." Felicity scrunched up her face as Sara grabbed her bag and started moving out of her room as Felicity quickly grabbed her keys and following Sara out of the house and down the driveway. She knew that Sarah couldn't leave at the drop of a hat, she did have an actual job that she couldn't just leave. Felicity just didn't think she could face this problem alone.
"I am sure, I would love to be able to go home and visit with everyone but honestly Felicity you need to face the man eventually." Sara said as she threw Felicity's bag into the back seat as both girls got into the car seeing that they had three hours before her flight left.
"See that's the thing, I was never supposed to go back to Starling so I would never have to see him but now suddenly I am going back and I am pretty sure that Thea isn't going to tell any of them just for the shock factor and to get a rise out of Oliver because she doesn't like McKenna and I am going to stop babbling now before I say something dumb." Felicity stopped and took a gulping breath as Sara pulled onto the freeway towards LAX.
"Too late for that. Did you even take a breath once during that sentence?" Sara asked amused by her best friends avoidance of a certain Queen sibling.
"That's not the point, I now am flying into Starling to see my ex boyfriend's dad who is in the hospital and I have to face his new...whatever and I am terrified." Felicity had a deer in the headlights look on her face and it took everything in Sara not to start laughing at her. She wasn't even able to say the word fianceé without visibly cringing.
"Look babe, I get that you are nervous and scared but don't think of this as a trip were you have to see Oliver for the first time. Think of it as a trip where yes, you have to see him but you are really there to see Robert. Stick with Thea and avoid Oliver, this way when you need to shit talk McKenna you have Thea who will probably agree with everything you are saying." Sara smirked as she could hear the gears in Felicity's brain turning and working out everything that could go wrong in this situation.
"I just feel really vulnerable at even the mere thought of seeing him again, he always knew how to read me like an open book, I loved it back when we were together but now...I don't know. I know that it's obvious that I still love him and I am scared that I am going to show up to the hospital and it's going to be like a giant neon sign flashing above my head saying 'I'm in love with Oliver Queen.'" Felicity sighed and let her head hit the head rest as she tried to will away the headache that was starting to form.
"You need to take a deep breath, you are Felicity damn Smoak! You have conquered the music industry and on a daily basis live in the public eye and still seem to have a private life, you can manage to hide your feelings from Oliver for at most two weeks." Sara was looking at the road as she sped down the highway but Felicity could hear the conviction in her voice and knew that she was right. If she could post on social media to 10 million people and go on talk shows and openly talk about her personal life and all of that stuff then she certainly could hide this bit of information from Oliver. Couldn't she? Well she was about to find out in a few hours whether or not she could.
"You know what? You are right, I can totally keep my cool for a week or so and then come home and move on with my life. Finish my album and focus of everything besides the fact that the love of my life is marrying another woman."
"Alright if you are going to convince anyone then you have to stop saying things like that."
"Yeah I'll work on that." The rest of the ride was silent besides the radio which Felicity promptly turned off the minute she heard one of her songs, not being able to listen to her own music at the moment.
Sara pulled up to the airport and both girls hopped out of the car Felicity still having two hours until her plane left. Felicity stepped into Sara's open arms finally starting to feel the severity of the whole situation, Robert was in the hospital… A man who had treated her like a daughter even when he didn't need too. A man who constantly supported her no matter how crazy her dreams had been, he would never replace her biological dad but over the past five years he has become an important part of her life.
"Have a safe flight okay? Call me when you land and text me regular updates about...well everything about this trip because let's be real this is about to get reeeeeeal interesting." Sara laughed as she pulled away and smiled at Felicity and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I promise I will keep you updated on all fronts." Felicity smiled and let Sara go as she saw that some paparazzi had spotted her and were making their way towards her. She rolled her eyes and threw on her jean jacket and sunglasses before backing away waving to Sara as she walked away and into the airport.
Felicity quickly made her way through security so that she could get to her gate to kill time before her flight left. Once she got to her gate she pulled out her laptop and started to immediately check her email knowing that her manager and publicist were going to kill her once they got her email saying that she wasn't going to make it to any of the press events to promote her new single. The flight attendants finally called for her to board the plane and she took a deep breath, she was grateful that no one had even noticed her and had come up to her asking for an autograph or a picture. She was not in any kind of mood or headspace to be dealing with her fans, she was stressed about seeing Oliver and worried about Robert and she was on the verge of crying.
She made it through the flight with no problems sleeping through the quick three hour flight before getting out and walking straight out the doors to see Thea leaning against a car obviously waiting for her to walk through the doors.
"Lis!" Thea practically ran towards Felicity but it didn't make a difference because Felicity was doing the same thing, it had been a year since the two women had seen each other and they were just relieved to be seeing each barring the current circumstances.
"Hey Speedy." Felicity welcomed the embrace as she wrapped her arms around the girl dropping her bag to the ground instantly relaxing.
"How was your flight?" Thea asked as she pulled away and Felicity picked up her bag off of the ground as they both started to make their way towards the car.
"It was good, uneventful but good. I am honestly exhausted, I had just gotten home from a photoshoot when I got your call. I am ready to sleep for at least 10 hours and change into a comfy pair of sweats." Felicity laughed as she put her bag in the back seat and smiled at Thea as she saw her staring at her.
"The outfit makes sense then, I was going to make fun of you for getting all dressed up for Ollie." Thea winked and ran around to the drivers side of the car as Felicity got into the passenger side.
"Haha, you're hilarious. Trust me I hate those girls who show up on a flight dressed to the nines but today I was one of those girls and trust me flying in a leather crop top and leather skirt is not the ideal situation. It was tight and uncomfortable in all of the wrong places." Felicity laughed as Thea pulled out of the airport and smiled over at Felicity happy to finally have her back in Starling.
"I have missed having you here, I mean don't get me wrong I love our regular skype dates but it's nice to actually be able to see you." Thea said and Felicity smiled back at Thea and playfully punched her in the arm laughing lightly.
"I missed you too weirdo, I have missed Starling too I just haven't been able to come back since everything happened. I'm glad that I came back though actually, I have been meaning to come back and clean up my parents house and sell it. I might use this trip out here as an excuse to get that started." Felicity said knowing that she needed to do it eventually and now is a better time than any.
"You never sold your parents house? It's been five years, I thought that your aunt would have taken care of all of that stuff when your parents first passed away." Thea said
"No, my parents left everything in my name and my aunt figured that I would maybe want to rent it out for some extra money or even maybe come back home and move back into it. I don't think I would ever be able to move back in there, I haven't even been inside since before the accident. I just continue to pay the mortgage on it and keep telling myself I will come back and take care of things but I never have." Felicity took a deep breath and let out a long sigh even just thinking about it, that house was like a museum for her parents and her old life from before the accident. She was positive that if she walked into her old room she would probably still find all of her old photos of her and Oliver from high school.
Felicity had grieved her parents and had finally gotten to a place that it doesn't feel like her heart is still breaking whenever she thinks of them, but it was still extremely hard knowing that she was finally going to take that final step. She was going to go back to her childhood home and relive all of those memories and hopefully put it all behind her.
"You should use it as a vacation home! Then you would actually come back to Starling instead of always making us come out to LA to you." Thea jokes making Felicity let out a big belly laugh, Thea was always talking about how she wished she could move out of Starling and move in with Felicity and Sara in LA.
"What happened to wanting to move out to LA with us, miss I love the beach and the sun?" Felicity asked looking over at Thea as she tried not to smile back at her.
"That was before me and Ollie opened the club and I got my own apartment here, we both know that you miss it here." Thea was just baiting her now and Felicity was completely aware of what she was doing and she wasn't going to fall for it.
"I may miss it here but my life is in LA, I have my career there and all of my friends. It wouldn't make sense for me to move back here, even if I do miss seeing all of you guys on a daily basis." Felicity smiled and winked over at Thea making her roll her eyes and shake her head.
"Alright alright, looks like I'm not going to convince you of anything but I had to at least give it a shot. However you are going to have to convince mom of all of this again once we get to the hospital, I heard her saying the other day how she wished that you were still in Starling. I wouldn't put it past the woman to fund the building of a recording studio here in Starling just so you would move back." Thea chuckled as Felicity shook her head knowing that Moira wold do exactly that if that's what it would take in order for her to move back home.
"You know, I wouldn't put it past her to do that either, but she knows as well as you one of the real reasons I will never move back here." Felicity sighed as she looked over at Thea then started to nervously pick at her nails. Oliver, the real reason she wouldn't move back, she may have wanted him to be happy but she didn't want to see it unless it was with her. Everywhere in the city reminded her of either Oliver and her parents and it was a lot to take in.
"Well you won't have to see him very much if you don't want to, I can stick by your side the whole time and kick him to the curb if you ever want me to." Thea offered making Felicity smile softly, she was thankful for Thea and having her as a friend.
"Thanks, but I think that I can handle myself with your brother, I will do the pleasantries with him and be polite because I am not a complete barbarian, but besides that I will avoid him." Felicity giggled as Thea pulled off of the highway and towards Starling general.
"Sounds like a good game plan to me, honestly Ollie is probably going to be more awkward than you." Thea commented.
"Speaking of...he doesn't know I'm coming does he?" Felicity accused raising an eyebrow and turning towards Thea as the other woman pretended that she didn't hear Felicity's question.
"Thea…" Felicity warned even though she knew before even getting on her flight that Thea wasn't going to be telling anyone that she was coming. She had already come to terms with this bit of information but it didn't mean that she was okay with it. She had hoped that maybe she had just jumped to conclusions but deep down she knew Thea too well.
"It was so last minute that I didn't see a reason to tell any of them, it will be a nice surprise." Thea tried to argue but even she knew that it wasn't a strong argument.
"A nice surprise?! Thea come on! We both know that nice is not the right word to use, your mom and dad might think so, but Oliver is not going to be as happy that I am making a surprise visit back home. Especially considering how we left things." Felicity sighed as Thea pulled into the hospital parking lot, she instantly became nervous.
Her palms started sweating and her heart instantly started pounding, she had never been here and had a happy memory here. Last time she was here she had OD'd on Vertigo and had died, she hadn't thought about that in a long time but being back here it was bringing everything back up. Now adding seeing Oliver to all of that it wasn't making things any easier, Felicity had never told Thea what happened the night that Oliver broke up with her so she never knew how bad things had gotten towards the end. Thea was too young back then and Felicity never wanted to burden the young woman with what had happened between her and her brother. She was craving a drink to calm her nerves but she knew that even that thinking wasn't good, she closed her eyes and took a steadying breath hoping to calm down.
"Look Lis, I'm sorry that I didn't tell them that you were coming, but Oliver knows that you are still close with our parents. I am sure that he may have an inkling that you might come in to come and see him just in case something were to happen. He understands your relationship with them and isn't angry or jealous about it so I don't think that it's going to cause any problems." Thea countered and Felicity nodded looking down at her hands looking at her hands blowing out a nervous breath.
"Alright, let's get this surprise visit over with then, the sooner the better." Felicity looked up and smiled at Thea feeling like she was ready to walk into that hospital and see Oliver for the first time in five years.
They both got out of the car and made their way into the hospital Felicity following Thea all the way up to the surgical waiting room, just as they were about to walk in Felicity grabbed Thea's hand effectively stopping them both from going inside.
"I don't think I can do this." Felicity said staring at the door not even knowing whether or not he was in there but the more she thought about it the more she thought that she wouldn't be able to keep her feelings at bay and to herself.
"Felicity...you are a multi-platinum recording artist, you are kind, generous, and extremely confident woman. Where's that girl? That girl would be able to walk right into that waiting room and not let anything worry her except dad." Thea tried building her up, but Felicity wasn't exactly buying it.
"She was left behind in LA and was replaced with my self conscience 16 year old self who wasn't sure about herself at all." Felicity started wringing her hands and Thea had enough of this and turned Felicity so that she was facing the door and Thea instantly started pushing her into the room. Felicity tried to resist but deep down she just wanted to get this done and over with just as much as Thea wanted to see the look on her brother's face.
Once the door opened the only person that she recognized in the room was Moira and Felicity's heart-rate instantly settled down knowing that for right now the only person she would have to deal with was Moira.
"Felicity? Oh my goodness! It's so good to see you darling, I wish it was under different circumstances, but it's so nice that you're here." Moira jumped up and gave Felicity a bone crushing hug making her smile, she hadn't realized how much she had missed them until she was in her arms feeling like all of her broken pieces were put back together.
"Me too, I am so sorry to hear about Robert, Thea said he had a heart attack?" Felicity asked as she pulled out of the hug and the three women took a seat on one of the big couches in the waiting room.
"Yes, the doctor's called it Stress Cardiomyopathy. He has been under a lot of stress between the company and training Oliver and there was recently an attack on us, so much has been going on and he never took a day off to just relax." Moira was worried ,that much was plain as day on her face and Felicity was in turn worried about her. She looked about ready to collapse, Felicity rubbed Moira's back comfortingly and smiled over at her.
"Don't worry, if I can make it through a heart attack like that and come out the other side completely healthy then so can he. He is going to make it out of this, he has to." Felicity tried to reason with them, wanting to make them feel better about everything, but even she was a bit nervous.
"Lissy is right mom, he can make it through this." Thea ran her hand up and down her mother's back right below Felicity's in a comforting gesture making Moria smile at both of the girls.
"It's so good to see both of you girls in the same place, it has been too long since we all have sat down as a family. Why don't we have a family dinner at the house? Once Robert is out of the woods and ready to come home." Moria spoke smiling at Felicity with a knowing glint in her eye.
"Hey now, don't give me that look like you have a secret plan up your sleeve." Felicity smiled and gave Moira a gentle shove to her shoulder and shaking her head knowing what the older woman was up to.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I just want all of my children under one roof and together again." Moira said but Felicity wasn't buying anything that she was telling her, she knew her all too well and knew that Moira already somehow had a plan.
"Mhmm, yeah alright Ms. Matchmaker, I've got my eye on you." Felicity said with a smile on her face and shaking her head, these two women did not know how to keep to themselves and in their own love lives. Felicity was about to make another comment about how they needed to keep their evil plans to themselves when the waiting room doors swung open.
Oliver walked in first and didn't see Felicity at first and was just focused on his mom and Thea, that was until he saw the head of blonde hair and stopped in his tracks causing McKenna to crash into his back wondering what was happening in front of him to make him stop in his tracks.
Felicity looked up and her stomach instantly dropped as she looked up at Oliver, he had definitely changed in the past five years and not in a bad way at all. He no longer had the long hair and he had lost weight but gained it all back in muscle, Felicity didn't know how to react without making it obvious that she was lusting after him.
"Felicity?" Oliver asked feeling like this all had to be some sort of weird dream where his ex came back to haunt him.
"Hi." Felicity smiled not being able to look away from his beautiful blue eyes, she instantly knew that she was in for a world of trouble the minute he looked back at her. The way he looked at her still made her stomach drop, only this time he was looking at her with hurt and anger in his eyes.
This was going to be a lot worse than she had originally imagined.