Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or names, only the ones I made up and somewhat developed.
Through the Wall
Chapter 2
Faye had forgot that it was Friday and had called Felicity to let her know that she was leaving early so she can finish her laptop on Monday instead. She also told Walter about the situation so she wouldn't be taking her work home–which the CEO was fine with. She lost herself with the flower arrangements that she was working on by herself, liking the quiet in the back room. It was an order for a wedding to be delivered the next morning by Mario, the part time driver. Due to having low deliveries Mario only helps when a wedding happens once in a blue moon–and only when it comes to the middle class as the rich go for the more expensive and exotic flowers, not normal flowers from the Glades.
The florist shop, Floral Garden, was in the west side of the Glades. From what locals have told her the Glades were once in a very poor state with crime at every corner. Apparently at one point a billionaire by the name of Malcolm Merlyn was going to destroy all of the people living in the Glades by using a device made by a company that would have created an earthquake-like, leveling all of the Glades. Apparently he was in league with Moria Queen, her late husband, Robert, and several others. Damage was done in the east side, a cop with the help of the green-hooded vigilante having been able to disable one of the machines.
Lori than came into the back room just as Faye finished the last arrangement, bringing her out of thoughts.
"You do realize that it's half past three, right?"
"What? Shit!" Faye quickly begun to clean up her mess, shaking her head and muttering to herself.
Lori chuckled and stopped the younger woman, shaking her own head. Lori was in her late thirties and every bit like a woman in her twenties, but tough as nails on her children. She was taller than Faye with blonde hair cut into a bob, her skin tanned despite her heritage coming from a line of fair ancestors. She was just as motherly to Faye while a grandmother to Arabella, Faye ever grateful for the family-like Lori gave to her and her daughter.
"Don't worry about the mess, just go." Lori chuckled, pushing a box of flower arrangements into the other woman's arms.
Giving a smile of thanks Faye grabbed her purse and rushed out the back door to her car, where all the workers and people living above the store had to park. She would pick up Arabella at her piano lesson for two days out of the week and two hours on weekends. Tiffany Sinclair, a middle age woman had happily picked up her daughter at two from her school for an hour so long as Faye brought a couple of flower arrangements every week. Right away Faye noticed the talent her four year old daughter had. Arabella had gotten away from her when she did a wedding delivery when it was just her and Lori, her daughter playing on a baby grand alongside the mother of the bride, Tiffany.
She knew that Faye didn't have any money to pay for such lessons so that was when Tiffany had made the agreement with the flower arrangements. Lori didn't mind, seeing as it was for Arabella, and didn't want the child not to lose what God had obviously gave her. Of course the three women had agreed to continue her lessons only if Arabella wanted to. None of them wanted her to be forced into something the child didn't want to do and become resentment like some of the other talented children being forced into something they didn't want to do anymore.
At the gates of the mansion Faye shook her head and pressed the call button, immediately greeting AJ, one of the security guards as he opened the gates for her. She drove down the long gravel driveway which circled around a simple fountain with bright flowers circling it. Coming to a stop behind a sleek red Ferrari 458 Italia, Faye almost moaning at the sight of it. Granted she loved her Dodge Avenger but her love for fast cars was something she knew she can never have a luxury to buy–or afford payments. Faye bounded up the small steps to the glass doors and rang the doorbell, smiling to Maria whom opened the door right away.
"This way, Senorita Faye. She is doing well, played as lovely as an Angel singing from Heaven."
Faye smiled, holding the box of flowers still. "You tell me that every time, Maria."
Chuckling the younger woman looks into the living room where she can hear her daughter playing Beethoven Moonlight. She stopped in the middle of the living room, her attention solely on her daughter sitting alongside a woman no older than twenty, the soft, slow melody going through her as the woman started to sing along with the melody. She recognized the words from a song called My Beloved by Patrizia, a group she heard a while back. Maria takes the box of flowers with a smile, knowing Faye was in awe of her daughter and the other woman, quickly leaving to place the flower arrangements around the house that they need to go.
As soon as the music ended Arabella quickly turned in her seat, a large smile on her face. "Mommy! I played two Beethoven music today!"
Faye smiled even wider as her daughter ran towards her, picking her up in her arms for a hug. "Really? What happened to just one?"
Arabella giggled, pulling back to look at her mother, "Mrs. Sinclair had another appointment at the same time as mine and forgot, so I played Fur Elise first, then Moonlight. This is Thea Queen, I like her voice."
Faye smiled softly to the younger woman, "I do too, and she has a lovely voice." she nodded to her, "Miss Queen."
"Thea, please." she insisted with a smile.
"The flowers are lovely as ever, Faye." Faye turned her smile to Tiffany only to have it falter at the sight of her eldest son, Lawrence, who gave her the creeps, and Thea's older brother. "I still don't understand how that shop of yours isn't striving as much as it should."
"Yes Faye, maybe you need to branch out more towards the…prosperous community?" Lawrence said with a grin.
Faye's smile was strained as she looked away from Lawrence only to meet with Oliver's intense blue/grey eyes. She couldn't help but feel like he knew what he was seeing, how uncomfortable she was around Lawrence. Every chance he got he would flirt with Faye and the woman didn't care for him, especially the way he tends to ignore her daughter. If she really wanted to start dating, the guy would have to include Arabella as she is her whole life. Mentally shaking her head Faye looked away from Oliver and back over to Tiffany, oblivious to Lawrence slight scowl.
"Don't be silly Lawrence, there are plenty of expensive florist that think they know what they're doing. Faye doesn't need to go that route," Tiffany said with a wave of her hand.
"Thank you, Mrs. Sinclair. I will see you tomorrow," Faye smiles to the woman, taking Arabella's backpack from Maria. "Thank you, Maria."
"I will walk you out," Oliver suddenly says, smiling towards his sister. "I'll be back in an hour to pick you up."
"Don't bother, Roy's picking me up." Thea said with a mischievous grin before wiggling her fingers at Arabella. "Bye Bella,"
Arabella giggles, "Bye Miss Queen."
Faye bid goodbye to Tiffany once more before walking away, Oliver to her right. He quickly opened the front door, Faye thanking him as she walked quickly to her car. She smiled at her daughter talking about her day at school as Faye strapped her into her car seat. She pulled back and was surprise to bump into what felt like a brick wall, Faye turning around quickly. Oliver smiled and looked into the back seat to her daughter.
"Since I lost the bet about you able to play Moonlight, how about I send Thea with your choice of ice cream on your next lesson? Hmm?"
Raising an eyebrow, Faye looked towards her daughter, who giggled guiltily. "I like cookie dough."
Oliver chuckles, nodding. "Cookie dough it is. Bye Bella."
"Bye Mr. Queen," Arabella waves.
Faye closes the door and turns to Oliver. "You didn't have to do that, you know."
"A bet is a bet, mommy!" Arabella's voice was heard through the open window of the passenger side.
Oliver smiled, opening his hands at his side. "A bet is a bet,"
Faye shook her head as they walked around the cars. "Have a good day Mr. Queen."
"Oliver, please."
"Mr. Queen," Faye insisted, opening the driver side door.
'Oh, this was going to be an awkward setting if he ever went to see Walter.' was all Faye thought as she drove behind Oliver. 'Of course a guy like him would have a nice sports car like that.'
Shaking her head Faye paid attention to the road, watching as Oliver turned right before she went left. Faye asked her daughter about her lesson and listened carefully for each detail, smiling and saying all the right questions when needed. She smiled when Arabella told her how Oliver spoke to her, as did Thea, like they were old friends. Despite being well off the two Queen's have come a long way from their spoiled selves and appreciate what they had, regardless of what the gossip magazine says about them.
And she was all the more grateful that they didn't talk down or ignore her daughter like Lawrence did.
Oliver walked down to the basement after his nightly appearance of his night club, hearing before even seeing Felicity at her computer hard at work. Her fingers, as usual, flew across the keyboard a minute per second, multitasking between the three monitors. Oliver had always admired the IT hacker (though Felicity hated the word) with her computer skills and wished he knew half of what she did.
"Have you found anything?" Oliver asked once he hit the ground floor.
"Dyrell Charge is a well-known thief around the world. He's basically contacted through an email given to those who are on the DL on a business card." Felicity tells him, swinging away from her computers. "There is no way to trace the accounts by simple mortals,"
"But you have," Oliver finishes for her, leaning a hip against the desk.
Felicity grins and turns back to her computers, her fingers going a mile a minute across them. "He was paid handsomely by someone who does know how to cover their tracks, unfortunately." she shook her head, "I know I can break through the walls this guy has up, but it's going to take time, I fear."
Oliver sighs, walking towards his work-out area. "You know I'm not a patient man, Felicity."
"Yeah, I know." Felicity muttered with a roll of her eyes. "But you're going to have to with this one. Any little mistake and I can trigger an alarm for them. Whoever did this software is amazing! Too bad they haven't encountered me just yet."
Taking off his shirt Oliver shakes his head at the woman at the computers, holding a metal bar in his hands. He looked up at the salmon ladder, his mind getting ready to be at peace while he thought of all the connections between the thief and the mysterious woman. Placing the bar on the first notch, Oliver stared up at the ceiling, his breathing even.
"Just do what you can Felicity, I have faith in you."
Not wanting to hear her respond, or even see her reaction, Oliver begins to climb up the ladder, breathing harshly out after each climb. From the computers Felicity was still hard at work, though a small smile and slight blush on her cheeks would told others that his simple comment affected her. Working for Oliver for the last two years have been interesting and opened her eyes at just how much her life has been nothing but dullness. Sure she was a genius, computer whiz, and living a great life in a great company, but Felicity didn't realize just how boring she really was until Oliver came to her for the first day he came into her office with a bull shit story with a computer riddled with bullet holes.
Of course there was no helping in the crush she's had on her boss–not even a blind woman would be able to help it! Felicity mentally snorted at the thought. It didn't help much, either, that Oliver loved to train without a shirt on ninety-eight percent of the time. Really it was only training with Digg, and now Roy, did he ever leave the shirt on, probably because Digg and Roy always wanted to know about the scars and tattoos on his body. The island was still a sore spot for Oliver, wanting to keep that part of his life a secret from everyone. Well at least he doesn't mind her constant babbling. Others always get put off by it, but not Oliver, nor Digg, nor Roy; they actually find it all hilarious when it happens.
An alert on her computer had her fingers freeze and stare at the screen before her. "O-O-Oliver?"
She distinctly heard the clanging of the metal pole against the notches as he climbed back down quickly. Felicity, not for the last time, wondered how he never fell in that stupid salmon ladder like those from the show American Ninja Warrior. Then again the man was a superman of sorts, able to jump from rooftop to rooftop, weirdly obstacles around the buildings, and of course his ability to fight hand to hand combat like a ninja.
"What did you find?"
Oliver's voice behind her startled her, Felicity looking back to see him give her an odd smile–one that she hasn't been able to decipher or put into a category just yet–before they both looked towards the screen once again. Felicity hit a few buttons to bring up a picture and a profiler of a man in his late forties, a scrawny man that was bold except for the side of his head that had brown hair, and glasses that were thick enough to make his blue eyes bug-looking. The photo next to him had a wooden puppet wearing an old-style gangster clothes from the 1940s in the color of purple and yellow. He had a gun that was real in his left hand and on his right side of his face scar moved from the top of his eye to nearly the bottom of his check.
"The one to pay off Dyrell Charge is one Arnold Wesker, also known as The Ventriloquist, with his possessed puppet, Scarface." she looked back at Oliver worriedly, "He worked with Malcolm Merlyn a couple of years ago until The Ventriloquist and Scarface went off the grid when the Batman was closing their operation down. No one has heard of him in a long time."
Oliver's face darken at the mere mention of Tommy's father. And, although Tommy hasn't been working long at his father's company, maybe he's heard of the name or encountered it within the files. Taking a deep breath he strode towards the stairs, grabbing his shirt on the way. He needed to speak with his best friend and pray that whatever information he knows will shed some light to who the hell the woman was. Coming out of the short hallway Oliver saw his friend counting the amount of alcohol bottles they have and what they might need to order and re-stock.
He was grateful for Tommy being understanding with what happened with his father. Tommy understood that what his father was doing–had done–was just not right. He also understood if Oliver didn't do what he had done his father would have killed Oliver on that rooftop. It also took some talking and understanding about what happened with Laurel and how he was feeling, now the three of them were friends. Though Tommy hated keeping secrets from Laurel, he also knew that it wasn't his secret to tell.
"Tommy,"
The equally man turns at the sound of his name and grins only to have falter at the look on his best friend's face. Tommy has come to learn the moods his best friend has come to have since he's found out about Oliver's secret. And the look on his face suggested that this was a Hood thing, rather than his best friend.
"What's wrong?" Tommy immediately questions quietly, looking around for any eavesdroppers.
"In going through your father's files has the name Arnold Wesker ever come up?"
Tommy frowns, tilting his head just the slightest. "Not that I'm aware of, but then again there's been plenty of names that my father was associated with." he begun to worry at the hard look in his best friend's eyes. "What's going on Ollie?"
"I don't know, but there's a mysterious woman that disappeared into thin air and we can't seem to figure out who the hell she is or who she's working for. But she's dangerous, she was able to move and fight like me."
"You think she's an enemy?"
Oliver shook his head. "I don't know, but if she is she's going to wish she never set foot in my city!"
A/N: Forgot to say I don't agree what the creators did with Tommy, so there will be a bit of background on how he lived, just FYI, just not in this chapter but maybe the next. The song Thea sings is called My Beloved by Patrizia ( youtu. be / BhbxqAIfBbA). Please review and let me know what you guys think! :)