Hello! Thank you for reading the third chapter of 'Queens and Servants'! It is in Jade's, Felicity's, and then Oliver's POV.
Let me know what you think :)
Friday arrived rather quickly. Which is strange, because I've noticed when you're really looking forward to something, time tends to go by fairly slow.
I think this week passed by so quickly is because of how much I am enjoying my new job at Queen Consolidated. Time flies when you're having fun, right? I'm actually quite good at it, which means that I've stayed on Felicity's good side.
Since I've started, Felicity and I have actually become kind of close friends. It's crazy, considering it has only been a week, but it just so happens that we have a lot in common. We both love hacking (her more so than me) and we both love everything that is software. Okay, so, our mutual interests consists of computers, but that's because we have never been able to really talk outside of work. Thankfully, we get to tonight.
Something I have noticed during my short time at QC, is the close friendship between Felicity and Juliana. They are practically always together, constantly giggling and smiling. I always feel like a third wheel when I am with the both of them, considering they pretty much finish each other's sentences. Although I may get envious at certain times, I like them both too much to become resentful.
And when Felicity's not with her, she's with Oliver. I've finally decided and agreed with Juliana that they're together together. They're always 'secretly' meeting in Felicity's office and going to lunch together. I'm not entirely sure why the think they have to keep they're relationship a secret, but there must be a reason.
As I arrived at my office that Friday morning, I was greeted by an excited Juliana.
"Morning, Jade," she beamed, "excited for tonight? What are you going to wear? I think I'm going to wear this new mini-skirt I just bought."
I laughed at her babble,"Uh, actually, I have this purple dress that looks okay on me."
"First of all, nothing looks just 'okay" on you." she scoffed, as if it was obvious. "And yes, purple is definitely your color."
Before I could thank her for her expert fashion advice, my office phone rang.
I lifted the phone to my ear. "Jade."
"Hey, Jade, it's Felicity," Felicity answered, sounding very distressed. "Can you come to my office please?"
"Yeah, sure, of course," I started to get nervous. "Be there ASAP."
I placed the phone down and looked up at Juliana, "Is everything okay with Felicity?"
Juliana's faced dropped, and her eyes were suddenly filled with panic, "what? Why do you say that? What did she say?"
"She wants to see me in her office. She sounded upset. I hope everything is okay."
I hope I'm not in trouble. I thought, but refrained from saying it out loud to keep from sounding selfish.
After I got off the phone with Jade, I looked across my desk at Oliver. "Okay, Oliver, explain to me what happened again," I asked for the third time.
"I was writing up a report of a deal we are about to close in a few days, but right when I went to save it, my laptop shut off. When I turned it back on it was totally wiped out." he frantically presented his laptop to me. "See? Everything is gone. What am I going to do, Felicity?"
I reached over the table a grabbed Oliver's hand. "Hey, calm down, Jade will be here soon and she's an expert in databases and the retrieval of data. If anyone can fix this, she can. Well, I can, of course, but I'm sure she can, too." I gave his hand an encouraging squeeze.
Right as I finished my sentence, Jade entered my office. She glanced down at our intertwined hands and she stammered,"Oh, I'm so- uh, you asked me to come by."
I slid my hand out of Oliver's and clasped my hands together and placed them on my desk. "Yes, we need your help. It seems that all of Oliver's information on his laptop has been deleted or removed somehow. I was wondering If you'd be able to recover his documents. I would but I just don't have time right now"
I could see the gears moving in Jade's head. She directed her speech towards Oliver. "What DBMS was on your laptop?" she asked him.
Oliver's eyes widened and he glanced in my direction, "I honestly have no idea."
Jade also glimpsed at me, "Microsoft SQL?"
I replied, "Probably."
She nodded quickly, "I definitely should be able to." She held out her hand in indication that she wanted Oliver's laptop.
"Are you serious? That would be unbelievable." Oliver said, handing her the electronic device.
"Mh-hmm." Jade murmured, observing the laptop, obviously focused on the task at hand. "Okay, I am going to go work on this. Once I do recover your data, do you mind if I configure and upgrade the security?" Still talking to Oliver but still engrossed in the laptop.
"Yeah, sure, that's fine. When do you think you'll have it done?"
Jade shrugged, "Probably by the end of the work day."
I noticed that so Jade acted so passively towards Oliver. She doesn't really seem like the kind of girl to be enamored by Oliver, so I'm not surprised. Honestly, it's sort of relieving to see Jade act this way around him. I wouldn't want another brilliant girl to get her heart broken by a man that just can't commit. That's why I was so hesitant to even ask Jade to aid him, but it seems that she isn't interested. Go Jade.
Oliver let out a relived sigh. "Wow. Thank you so much."
Jade smiled in return. "Do you mind following me to my office so we can talk about exactly what happened? Just so I get a better understanding."
"Uh yeah, sure. After you," He waved her to the door.
"Bye Felicity, I'll see you tonight." Jade grinned at me and walked out the door.
Oliver held back before he followed Jade. "Does this count as breaking our promise?"
I laughed and shook my head, "No, Oliver, it doesn't. You can forget about that deal by the way, I don't think I have to worry about her falling head over heals for you."
"I think you're right." he chuckled and followed Jade out the door.
When we arrived to Jade's office, I took a quick glimpse around. I noticed a poster hanging up on the walls behind her desk, it was a roster/ calendar for all of the Columbia Lions Women's Soccer Team players and games. I remembered Felicity mentioning that she went there, and was again impressed by it.
Jade pulled up a chair next to the one behind her desk. "Right here, please." she pointed to the chair, designating my seat.
I briskly walked over and rested on the chair. As a sat down next to her, I examined the some picture frames positioned on her desk, filled with photos of Jade and other people I didn't recognize. There was one picture of Jade and a women I assumed is her mother. I also assumed it was taken on her graduation day from Columbia, as she was wearing a cap and gown, holding up a diploma with arm around the women. The women had watery eyes and an extremely proud smile on her face. I couldn't help but smile at the women's expression. Jade on the other hand, was wearing a rather relieved smile.
"Is that your mother?" I asked, pointing at the picture.
"Yeah it is," she chuckled, "she was a mess that day."
"She looks very proud of you."
She shrugged, "She deserves it."
Somehow, I knew exactly what that meant. My eyes traveled to another picture, one of Jade and a man. My eyes fell over the man first, he had brown hair, was fairly tall and handsome, and had with arm snaked around her waist. But when my eyes made it over to Jade, I couldn't look away. Her long, blonde hair was down, cascading loosely around her shoulders. She was wearing a tight dress, quite different then what I see her in every day at work. She looked incredible.
"Boyfriend?" I asked.
Jade looked over again from my laptop and at the picture. She laughed out loud and shook her head, "Oh no, that's my brother."
"Oh," I paused, "I see."
She diverted her view from the picture and returned it to the laptop. A part of me wanted to let her do her job and fix my laptop, but another part of me wanted to keep making conversation.
"Where are you from?" I inquired.
"Well," she started, not looking up from her work, "I was born in a very small town in Indiana, but I moved to Ohio when I was young."
"Why did you move?" Knowing that sounded impolite, I apologized, "You don't have to answer that, It's just you interest me."
"I'm not that interesting," Jade replied, looking up from the laptop and directly at me. It was the first time since we've met that I've really been able to look at her. Her face was heart-shaped, and her green eyes were almond-shaped and perfectly framed with long, black eye lashes. She had fine, sweet features, full, pink lips and a straight nose. Her smile displayed perfectly straight white teeth, and I noticed when she smiled a dimple on her left cheek appeared. Her skin looked smooth and fair, with a few freckles scattered out above her nose and under her eyes. A faint scar resided above her left eye and below her eyebrow, and I could not help but wonder what it was from.
"Oliver?" Jade waved a hand over my face. "Did you hear me?"
"Hear what?" I asked.
"We moved because my dad passed away, and we wanted to be closer to my mom's parents in Ohio."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"No, don't worry about it, I was young."
I nodded, still feeling sympathetic towards Jade's loss. I knew what It was like to lose a parent.
"Okay," I started, "One more question."
"Shoot," Jade returned.
"Where are you seeing Felicity tonight?" Even though I knew the answer. Felicity, my partner John Diggle, and I have been investigating an infamous drug dealer of the name Beauregard Barclay Roberts, who goes by "The Doll". Our research shows that The Doll is making a stop at Verdant tonight to sell his drug "Impala" to clubbers. "Impala" is a drug unlike any other, creating hallucinations that makes one overly aggressive and paranoid. Seven teens have already died from the effects of the drug. Felicity will be scoping the club to watch for Roberts, while Diggle and I are close by. Sounds like a perfect Friday night for a vigilante.
"Verdant. I guess we are going out to celebrate me surviving my full week here."
"Oh, I see."
"Mh-hmm. Are you going as well to meet up with Felicity tonight?" Jade asked.
"Uh, yeah." I lied, "I will most likely show up for a little bit. But not necessarily to see Felicity."
Actually, I may end up going if there's a chance Jade will be in a dress like she was in that picture on her desk. I shook off that thought quickly. I really didn't need to be thinking about her that way.
"Oh, is everything okay?" She looked concerned.
I was confused, "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"
"Oh, okay, I just didn't know your relationship was that… casual. You seem pretty… close. Oh, you're probably trying not to make it public, right?"
"Make what public?"
"Oliver, stop, it's okay, I won't tell anyone," she assured.
My eyes widened when I finally understood what she was implying,"Oh, no, Jade. Felicity and I are not together. Just friends."
Jade pressed her hands against her forehead, "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I just assumed that you were. Juliana told me right away that-"
I interrupted her, "What did Juliana say?"
She started blinking rapidly, "Oh nothing."
I chuckled at her allegiance to Juliana, "It's okay, just tell me. I'm curious," which was the truth. I then understood why Juliana lied and told jJade that Felicity and I were together, to remove all suspicion that they could actually be a couple. I cursed myself for not going along with it.
She knitted her eye brows and ran her thumb along her bottom lip. "Promise not to get mad?"
"I promise."
"She said you were, you know…" She blushed violently and diverted my stare.
I smiled and acted ignorant, "We were what? Going bowling? Playing Parcheesi?" Acting as vigilantes in hopes of saving this city?
She laughed lightly and shook her head. "Well, she said Monopoly, but you get the idea." She glanced back up at me and I was lost in her stare. She's stunning.
"Well, we aren't together in any way. Just good friends. I mean we've been 'together' before, but…" I said, putting 'together' in air quotes, so she understood my point.
Jade smiled, "Why do I have the feeling you've been 'together' with a lot of women before?" She mimicked my hand gestures.
"I think it's because of my rugged good looks and alluring personality. I just give off that vibe, you know?
She scoffed and said, "Oh, yeah, definitely," sarcastically.
"What about you?"
"Hmm? What about me?"
"Have you been 'together' with a lot of men?"
She immediately looked down, I'm assuming to hide her blush. She gently tucked her hair behind her ear before looking back up. "You don't need to know about that."
Her embarrassed behavior and dismal can only mean one thing.
"Jade! No!" I exclaimed, and then loudly whispered, "Are you a virgin?"
She blushed again and pressed her hand on her forehead again, "Okay, the non- existence nature of my sex life should really not be common knowledge to you, we really don't need to talk about this."
I was utterly amazed, "You actually are? How?"
"Why is that so hard to believe? I went to Columbia and played a sport. I didn't have that much free time. Plus, I just turned 23 last month."
I thought about all of my hook-ups that happened before my 23rd birthday. "Okay, but sex really doesn't take that long," I challenged.
"Sure, sure, but I didn't want to have that kind of sex. I don't know, I just never found anyone that I wanted to give that part of myself to. Wow, that sounds cheesy. It's really not that big of a deal." She brushed her thumb across her bottom lip again, "I'm so embarrassed right now."
"Don't be. It's just you're a very… attractive woman. It's just amazing to me."
She blushed at my compliment, "It's not that unbelievable."
"To me it is." We locked eyes for what seemed like hours, and I felt a deep feeling growing at the pit of my stomach. I blinked hard, trying to divert my attention from what I was feeling to the matter at hand, which at the moment, I did not really remember. I could feel that Jade was also trying to find a way to change the current conversation. She cleared her throat and looked over at my laptop.
"Okay," she started, "can you tell me exactly what it was you did before the computer powered down?"
I studied her innocent face and I realized that I cared for Jade, and that I didn't want her hurt. And I knew the only way to keep her safe was to stay away from her. I promised myself I would try to.
It was a little longer than chapter 2, and I wanted to throw in a scene where Oliver and Jade got to know each other a little better.
I hope you all like Jade, I'm trying to keep her from being annoying! :)
Thanks again for reading and stayed tuned for the next chapter. Jade may or may not meet a certain vigilante that wears green leather...
As always, let me know what you think! Criticism is welcome!
