Palmer Technologies

Elevator 2

12:07 a.m.

The force at which the elevator slammed to a stop threw Felicity and Oliver to the floor, slinging her body on top of his.

Voice tinged with panic, Oliver asked, "Are you okay?"

Felicity nodded before remembering that Oliver couldn't see her in the inky darkness. "I'm fine," she said quietly. "Are you okay?"

After breathing a silent sigh of relief, Oliver replied tersely, "I'm fine, but your knee is digging into my groin."

With a start, Felicity realized that she'd wedged her right knee between Oliver's legs in order to break her fall. She currently hovered over him in a strange variation of a push-up. She quickly rolled over and dropped to the ground next to him.

"I'm sorry," she said, embarrassment evident in her voice.

"It's fine," he said stiffly, fishing his keys out of his pocket. He activated a tiny LED flashlight attached to his key ring, flooding the small space with blueish light.

He shined the beam on the wall behind him and reached for the panel covering the emergency phone. When he pulled the metal door open and lifted the receiver to his ear, static crackled on the other end.

"Great," he muttered, slamming it down.

Felicity raised an eyebrow and pulled her phone pointedly out of her clutch. She pressed a few buttons and lifted her phone to her ear.

"Hey," she said. After listening for a moment, she replied, "Yeah, we're both fine. How long until you can get us out of here?"

Felicity paused, listening. Then she groaned. "Seriously? What about the generators?"

She furrowed her brow. "No, I understand. We'll be fine." Biting her lip, she paused.

After a few seconds, her lips crept upward. Laughing, she said, "Okay, just keep me updated. Thanks." Lowering her phone to her lap, she ended the call and looked at Oliver.

Though he had molded his face into a mask of cold indifference, he was clenching his jaw. "Was that Palmer?" he asked too casually.

Felicity nodded, choosing to ignore the vitriol behind his question. "Apparently a transformer blew a few blocks away, and the power surge triggered some sort of shutdown protocol in the elevators."

"Shouldn't the generators-" Oliver began, but Felicity cut him off.

"The elevators can draw power from the generators, but they won't start running again until someone from a repair service can manually reset the system and deactivate the fail-safe," she replied tartly. "Ray is working on it."

With thinly veiled impatience, Oliver sighed. "How long are we stuck here?" he asked.

Felicity felt something shatter in her chest. Oliver couldn't even stand to be around her. For a moment, she wished she hadn't kissed Ray back. Suddenly, though, white-hot anger usurped her regret. "It'll be at least four hours until someone can get here," she said through clenched teeth.

Oliver scoffed but said nothing.

"What, Oliver?" Felicity asked acidly.

"Just that the repair techs would be bending over backward to fix these elevators if Palmer were more assertive. If he acted more like a magnate and less like a boy scout, we wouldn't be stuck here for the next four hours," Oliver sneered. He knew he was being petty, but he couldn't help it.

Felicity scowled. "For your information, the hotel across the street is housing a marching band that's participating in a competition at the convention center. The kids had all just gotten back from semifinals and piled into the elevators when the power went out."

Oliver stared at Felicity.

Noting Oliver's contrite expression with satisfaction, Felicity continued, "There are about fifty kids and chaperones stuck in six different elevators, and one of the kids is in desperate need of his insulin." She paused. "So, yeah, Ray could have made demands and thrown money at the problem, but the dispatcher from the only elevator repair service within city limits told him about those kids. He told her to prioritize the hotel."

Oliver scrubbed his face with his palm. "That was the right call," he said begrudgingly.

"How gracious of you," Felicity spat.

"What is your problem?" Oliver asked.

Felicity scoffed. "My problem?" She stared at him incredulously. "You've been making snide comments about Ray all week, and then you show up here tonight and make a scene?" She paused. "We had our chance, Oliver," she said spitefully. "So you don't get to be mad at me for moving on. Youpushed me away."

Oliver gazed at her, his expression wooden. "Did you feel anything when you kissed him?"

Avoiding Oliver's eyes, Felicity checked her phone. Three hours and fifty-one minutes to go.

"Felicity," he intoned in a dangerous voice.

"I'm not talking about this with you, Oliver," she snapped. "If you're going to be juvenile, then so will I. Let's play truth-or-dare." Felicity had no idea where that idea had come from, but it was definitely one of her worst.

Oliver gaped at her. "Are you seriously that desperate to avoid answering the question?"

Felicity glared at him. "We need to pass the time somehow. If you so much as say Ray's name again, I will ignore you for the next three hours and fifty minutes."

Oliver heaved an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Truth or dare?"

12:30 a.m.

Felicity chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I'll go with truth this time."

Oliver nodded. "I guess we don't have much room for dares." He paused, studying a torn cuticle on his thumb. "What was your favorite book when you were a kid?"

Laughing, Felicity turned to face Oliver. "We've been playing this game for 20 minutes, and you still haven't asked me anything lewd," she teased.

A slow smile spread over Oliver's face. "I just want to learn more about what made you into the person you are now." His smile morphed into a wicked grin. "But if you want to tell me about your sex life, I am more than happy to listen."

Felicity groaned. "Why did I even say anything?" But she was smiling. "I loved Harry Potter. Hermione showed me that it was okay to be smart-that I didn't have to hide who I was."

Oliver fiddled with his shoelace. "I always admired Hermione. I never really identified with any specific character, but I loved the books."

Felicity squinted at him, her lips curving upward playfully. "You never identified with one character?" She scoffed. "You're clearly a Harry."

With a snort, Oliver stared at her incredulously. "Harry is a hero, Felicity."

She stared at him expectantly.

"I'm not a hero," he said simply.

Felicity scowled. "Yes, you are."

Oliver ignored her. "Is it my turn now? I pick truth, too."

With a huff, Felicity nodded. "Fine. Let me see..." she glanced around the elevator car, as if searching for inspiration. A moment later, she said, "Got it!" She smiled smugly. "Tell me about one of your unfulfilled sexual fantasies."

Oliver's jaw dropped. "No," he said stiffly.

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Seriously?" She paused. "Is it because you don't have any unfulfilled fantasies? Oh, my God, of course. I mean, the number of women you've been with...and, really, who could say no to you? Unless it was some seriously kinky-"

"Felicity!" Oliver barked.

"Did your ancestors come over on the Mayflower, by any chance? That's the only explanation I have for your Puritanical reaction to-"

Cutting her off mid-sentence, Oliver said sharply, "I will tell you-only so you'll stop speculating so much. That's worse somehow."

Felicity swallowed a giggle.

Though he shot her an exasperated look, Oliver couldn't hide the amusement creeping into his eyes. "But only if you tell me one of yours first."

Indignantly, Felicity said, "That's not how this works, Oliver."

Oliver laughed. "Those are my terms. If you can't meet them, pick another question or give me a dare."

Felicity was uncharacteristically silent for a moment. Then, with a sigh, she conceded. "I will tell you only if you promise to forget about it the moment we get out of this elevator."

"Depending on what it is, that might be kind of difficult," he teased. Seeing her glare, he quickly added, "But I promise to do my best."

"Fine." Felicity shifted her gaze to her lap. "You obviously know that I'm...attracted to you, so having sex with you is an unfulfilled fantasy," she said softly.

Not trusting himself to speak, Oliver simply nodded.

"But there's another aspect to it." She looked mortified.

Oliver looked at her expectantly.

Stalling, she asked, "Haven't I sufficiently embarrassed myself already?"

Furrowing his brow, Oliver reached for Felicity's hands. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. If it helps, having sex with you is one of my unfulfilled fantasies, too. It's not the one I was going to tell you, but..." he shrugged.

Felicity lifted her head and met Oliver's eyes, shock flitting across her face.

"Sometimes I think about having sex with you when you're dressed as the Arrow," she blurted out.

As Oliver struggled to process this information, all of his blood rushed to his groin. His arms and legs felt numb. In a strangled voice, he said, "I guess I don't have to tell you about my other fantasy, then."

Felicity's eyebrows shot upward. "Are you saying that..." she couldn't bring herself to ask the question.

"That I've thought about fucking you when I'm dressed as the Arrow? Yes." Oliver exhaled shakily.

Suddenly, decisively, Felicity rose to her knees in front of Oliver. "Then I think I know what we have to do."

Oliver sat up straight, wondering if he'd misheard her. "What do we have to-" Felicity's lips absorbed the rest of his question.

Wrapping her arms around Oliver's shoulders, Felicity kissed him deliberately. She shuddered when she felt Oliver's arms snake around her waist and pull her closer. Deepening the kiss, she flicked her tongue against his lips, and he parted them, eagerly meeting her tongue with his own.

Without breaking their kiss, Felicity dropped her hands to Oliver's belt, hastily unfastening it. She deftly unbuttoned his pants and tugged the zipper down before dipping her fingers into his boxers. Palms grazing his hip bones, she pushed his pants and underwear down. Heat surged in her core when his bare cock sprang from his boxers.

Oliver hissed when Felicity wrapped her hand around his impressive length. "Jesus," he whispered as she began pumping him slowly.

Felicity grinned. "It looks like we'll be able to fulfill one of our shared fantasies tonight," she breathed.

With a groan, Oliver vowed, "I will fulfill the other one as soon as humanly possible."

"Good," Felicity said, pausing her assault on Oliver's cock just long enough for him to seize her shoulders and lift her to her feet. Once she was standing, he spun her around and placed a kiss at the base of her neck.

"You seem to be wearing a lot more clothing than I am," he observed, his breath warming her skin.

Unable to speak, Felicity just nodded.

"Let me fix that for you," Oliver whispered, as he seized the zipper of her dress between his fingers and began pulling it downward.

Felicity shivered, feeling goose-flesh rising as Oliver's fingers grazed her almost-bare back.

Just then, Felicity's phone rang, making them both jump. Oliver recovered first, brushing his lips against her spine. "Let it go to voicemail."

Despite wanting to acquiesce, Felicity took a step away from Oliver and reached for her phone. After glancing at the screen, she said in a small voice, "It's Ray."

Oliver emitted a low, guttural noise before saying, "Ignore him."

Felicity shook her head. "It could be about the elevator." Shooting Oliver an apologetic glance, she answered her phone. "Hey."

Seething, Oliver tugged his underwear and pants back around his hips and turned his back to Felicity. He remembered how angry he'd been at her earlier...and how angry she'd been at him. What had he been thinking? That they'd have hot elevator sex and magically solve all of their problems? She'd been kissing another guy when he'd arrived to beg for another chance. He shook his head and looked at Felicity, who was ending her call.

"And what did the great Ray Palmer have to say?" Oliver asked sarcastically. "Has he cured cancer yet? Facilitated world peace?" He knew he was lashing out, but he was jealous and angry.

Eyes flashing, Felicity retorted, "Give him a few months. He uses his money to help other people."

The insult gutted Oliver. He knew he had been selfish when he'd still owned QC and all his assets, but Felicity's jab stung. Instead of admitting that she was right, though, he struck back. "This was a mistake," he said, gesturing between his still-unbuttoned pants and her half-unzipped dress.

"Obviously," she spat. "Thinking that we could be together was a mistake, too," she added, tugging at the zipper on her dress. She walked to the corner that was farthest from Oliver, sliding to the ground gingerly.

Ignoring the flash of pain caused by Felicity's words, Oliver rolled his eyes and retreated to his own corner. Part of him wished he had never left the bunker.