Felicity once had a Raggedy Ann doll when she was little. She used to call her Annie like the musical movie. She used to hug her every night when she was too afraid of the dark to sleep. But mostly when she was afraid of her father. Her mother and father used to fight a lot. She always hid under the bed so none of them would find her. On this occasion Felicity accidently left the door to her bedroom open and could see her parents fighting in the hallway. They kept yelling at each other. She stayed quiet under the bed.
"You're nothing but a sick fuck, Colton, and that's all you'll ever be!" She heard her mother yell.
"Ah, fuck you, Evelyn! You're so fucking useless! Now where's Felicity!?" She heard her father shout back. This made her flinch at the mention of her name.
"You're not going near our daughter, you bastard! You leave her alone! Do you hear me!? You leave her the fuck alone!"
They always fought. A few minutes later she got out from under the bed. Her father had gone. He was probably in one of those bars, drinking vodka and looking at other girls dancing. When Felicity went to the living room, she saw her mother sleeping on the couch with the television on. The thing was that one of her eyes was a dark purple hue.
"Mommy? Are you okay?" Unfortunately, she was too deep asleep to respond. And Felicity placed her Raggedy Ann doll next to her.
"Did you enjoy your lunch, Miss Smoak?" Felicity jumped at the sound of Slade voice again. Damn. Why am I so easy to scare? She did just encounter her father today so it justified the reason why she was jumpy. She didn't hear Slade either. He and his future investors probably returned from their lunch, one which she refused to join after that little stunt in the conference room. Also, she had enough hearing from the creepy kid that was with Bruce Wayne.
"Yes. I did. And you?" She lied. She could barely eat down her lunch after encountering her father and her stomach kept twisting into knots. She was afraid she would throw up for forcing the food down her throat.
"Very good. Mr. Queen did not join us though."
She knew this would happen.
"He stepped out. He said he had very important things to do," she smiled.
He stayed silent for a moment and Felicity frowned.
"Do not take me a fool, Miss Smoak," he said, "You and I both know where he is...You are no longer wearing the dress."
After eating her lunch, Felicity went to the bathroom to change from the blue dress and got back to her white floral blouse and pink pencil skirt but kept her hair down. Also, she took off her heels. Her feet were killing her. She thought her soles even blistering.
"Why, yes, since the meeting is over, I thought it would be best if I changed back into my old clothing."
His brow furrowed and she noticed the Adam's apple on his throat going down before going back up again. He just gulped. And his fingers kept tapping at her desk. Was he nervous? If he is, why? He has never looked nervous before. He was always stoic.
"...I came here to ask if you could copy some files for the next board meeting," he says, placing a thin yellow folder on her desk. I guess I have some work to do. "I need twenty copies."
"I'll get them ready for you in a few minutes then."
"Good." He looked up and down at Felicity again. She didn't like it when he's looking at her like that. She just got back from the creepiest encounter of her life. The last thing that she needed was for some psycho like Slade Wilson staring at her.
Felicity stood up from her rolling chair and walked around the desk to step in front of him in her bare feet. He was probably 6 feet tall, a lot taller than Felicity and taller than Oliver. She wondered if he also has muscle like Oliver does underneath that suit...Not that I want to see his muscles. Well, not that she thought he wouldn't look hot under his suit. I mean, I don't think he's hot. Well, I would think he's hot if he wasn't a murderer/mercenary. I just think Oliver's better. I mean...what the fuck, Felicity Smoak? She could just slap herself right now if she spoke that out loud. Thank God she didn't.
"Why?"
"Why what?" he asked, his eyebrow rising and his posture becoming straighter.
"Why torment Oliver so much?" Felicity asked. She knew everything about Lian Yu. Oliver told her. But she wanted to hear Slade's side of the story. "I mean, I know that you suffered on that island more than him but, don't you think he's had enough already?"
Slade shook his head. "Not enough," he said, "I won't stop until Oliver loses everything and suffers the same way I suffered."
He took her hand in his and kissed it. Felicity almost felt sorry for him in a way. Whatever happened at the island, aside from the Mirakuru and Shado, must have really damaged him, to a point where most of his humanity was completely gone.
"Mr. Wilson." They turned to see Isabel standing a few feet away from them and she was staring sternly at Felicity. "We have to discuss our evening plans for tonight, if you don't mind."
"Of course." He released Felicity's hand and walked into his office which used to be Oliver's office.
"By the way," Isabel walked over to Felicity and she took a step back, afraid that she might hit her or something for being near Slade, "I just checked in with maintenance manager, the coffee maker is just fine."
"Hmmm. My mistake then," Felicity smiled softly at her. Bitch.
"Don't let it happen again, Miss Smoak." Then, she entered Mr. Wilson's office, flipping her brown hair back.
Hmm. I wonder how long they have been fucking each other in bed, not that I think they've had sex before. Have they? Why the heck am I thinking of that? What the heck is wrong with me?
Felicity headed over to the room where the copy machines were. She didn't even want to know what was on these files. She was not even gonna read them. She was just going to copy the files, hand them over to Slade and get the hell back to her usual work as the EA girl, fetching layouts, making appointments and serving coffee. That was her usual habit these days. She wished she could go back to hacking now. She was so desperate to leave the building tonight and get back to her other job as the Arrow's hacker. She felt more like herself when she was there. After she copied the files, she headed over to Mr. Wilson's and placed the copies and the original document on his desk before heading back to her own without making any conversation or eye contact with him.
She continued doing her daily work. Well, honestly, she was multitasking. While doing work on Queens Consolidated, she had been also doing some investigation on William Tockman who escaped jail in Central City and was trying to hack every bank security system, including the bank account for the Wayne's. She hoped he wouldn't mess up her computer system again like last time. She had to get a new computer system and install a new and very effective firewall to keep him (or any other hacker) from breaking into the system again.
She looked up from her work and gasped when she saw Bruce Wayne's ward standing right in front of her across her desk.
"Oh my God, please don't do that!" she yelped, "You can't just sneak up on people like that. You're going to give someone a heart attack one day."
"Did I startle you, Miss Smoak?" He asked bluntly while staring at her plainly. This is the last time I'm watching The Omen in the middle of the night.
"Um, yes," Felicity said awkwardly, "But I'm good. Is there something I can help you with? Damian, is it?"
"Yes," he nodded, "I was hoping you can tell me where my father is. Alfred and I have been waiting in the car for more than 20 minutes and hasn't showed up yet."
"Well, I think he's in Mr. Wilson's office, talking a few things," Felicity said.
"Oh," he said, almost sorrowfully, "I'm guessing he still needs a word with Miss Rochev."
"...Would you like for me to call him?" Felicity asked while grabbing the phone and offering it to him. The boy shook his head.
"No, thank you," he said, "I'll just sit over here and wait."
He sat in the waiting room and continued reading his Charles Dickens' book. Felicity felt bad for the boy. She was aware of Bruce Wayne's reputation of dating and sleeping with a lot of women and felt that wouldn't be a good influence around children. Especially the creepy Damian kid. But Felicity knew it was not her place to give Bruce Wayne fatherly advice, unless she wanted to get fired. Her only job was to keep her mouth shut and work as an IT/EA. So, she continued her work, still feeling bad for Damian.
Felicity dozed off every once in a while. She was so exhausted. Arrow was hard work. She really needed some rest. She would nod off every now and then. Felicity sometimes drank a mug full of coffee or slap herself in the face to keep awake. But eyes were heavy. She closed her eyes for a moment. If I could just close my eyes for one moment...Nope. Work first. Sleep later.
She opened her eyes.
She was no longer in Queens Consolidated.
She was at her old home...in Nevada. The same old house where her mother died. How did I get here?
The house did not seem to change at all since she left it. She was in the living room. There's the same old red paisley couch and the wooden coffee table with stacks of magazines and news-papers on it. The TV was on. They were showing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dorothy was singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Felicity used to watch that movie a lot when she was little. Her favourite character was always the Cowardly Lion. Why am I here?
She heard small footsteps and immediately turned around to see a little girl standing right behind me. She gasped and jumped back.
The girl was very small and seems about four years old. She was very pale like a sheet of paper, almost as pale as Rachel. Her eyes were a shade of green-blue like Felicity's and her hair was black as coal. Felicity recognized her face. Is that...me?
"Hello...?"
"She's dead," she said. The younger Felicity seemed calm when she said that as if she was not afraid. She was not afraid when her mother died. It was just sad. Felicity did not even scream that day. Felicity had black hair back then...like her father's.
She walked away from the living room and headed for the kitchen. Felicity followed her.
When they entered the kitchen, Felicity saw her. Her mother. Evelyn Smoak. She almost forgot what she looked like until now. She simply lay there on the floor. Her green-blue eyes were open and lifeless, and her blonde wavy hair tousled around. Her wrists were slit open and smeared in blood just like Felicity remembered. She tried not to cry at the sight. Why Mom? Why did you kill yourself? I thought you loved me. You said you would take care of me. You said you would protect me and not let anyone hurt me.
But she noticed something...Is that?...Is that a slash on her throat?
"He's coming." She heard her younger version gasp in fear and they both hear footsteps approaching the kitchen. At the door that leads to the back porch. Who's coming? "We need to hide. We can't let him find us."
Before Felicity could see who was coming, she ran upstairs to the second floor and followed her. Felicity don't remember running upstairs after her mother died nor did she remember hearing someone in the house besides her. She was home alone that day. Just her and her mother. There was no one else here.
Felicity followed her younger self to her old room. It was just as she remembered. Pink walls with a white bed, porcelain dolls and plush toys. Felicity had a ballet music box on her old dresser. Felicity used to dance to the music. She never took it with her when she was brought to Aunt Donna. She thought it would bring her bad memories if she took her old stuff with her.
"Psst."
Felicity saw the little girl crouched inside her old closet behind her old dresses and coats.
"In here," she said.
Felicity entered the closet, crouching down next to her and shut the closet door, dim light penetrating through the open slits. She looked through the slits as if watching for someone to coming. Who's coming? Who or what are we hiding from?
"Felicity," she and the child looked at her. "Who's here? Who are we hiding from?"
"...He killed Mommy," she said and Felicity's eyes widened.
The closet door suddenly burst open and hands dragged a screaming the child out of the closet. Felicity screamed as well and tried to grab her but the door shut at her face before she could reach for her. She slammed her fists against the door, screaming "No!" The screams died out and it was dead silent. What the hell was that? And what she was talking about? Who killed my mother? No one could have killed her mother. She did it to herself. They were alone. They were alone. She killed herself.
The door burst open again and hands grabbed Felicity by the hair. Felicity screamed as she pulled out from the closet and was being slammed against the walls, her face crashing against the pink painted walls. She heard the bridge of her nose crack and blood smeared the walls. Felicity screamed and screamed and screamed. She tried to see her attacker's face but every time she tried to do so, she was being slammed against the walls repeatedly. Felicity was now slammed to the window, the glass cracking as my face crashed against it.
She was soon thrown to the floor and kicked in the stomach. She coughed at the kick. Her attacker straddles her and he took a hold of her throat. No. No, I don't want to die. I don't want to die especially here.
Her attacker brought out a knife. Felicity screamed, covering her face with her forearm as the blade cut skin.
"Felicity!" And she was slapped across the face.
Felicity opened her eyes and there was Oliver staring down at her.
She was no longer back at home in Nevada where she was being attacked. Felicity was in Queens Consolidated in Starling City and she was sitting on the floor with her back reclined against the wall. Everyone working in QC, including Oliver, Slade and Isabel, Mr. Wayne and his ward were staring at me in shock. It was all a nightmare. It wasn't real. And yet, she was still shaking from the shock. Felicity noticed her glasses were lying shattered on the white tiled floor. She touched the bridge of her nose and looked at her hand. It was smeared with blood. Her nose is broken like in the nightmare. Her blouse was covered in blood as well. Felicity also noticed the windows behind her desk were cracked and smeared in blood as well. And a potted plant was knocked over as well with dark earth scattered. What the hell happened? How the heck did I end up lying here on the floor away from my desk? And who the fuck slapped me?
"Felicity...are you okay?" Oliver asked her with a worried and scared look on his face. He was the one who slapped her.
Trembling, she sat up from the floor. "What happened?"
"We were just going to ask the same thing," he said. "What happened?"
"I ― I can't remember. I ― I don't know," she stammered. She was so scared. "Oliver, what happened?" I asked, not caring if I was only allowed to refer him as Mr. Queen when at work.
"I was on my way here...Isabel called me...She said she saw you sleeping on your desk when you suddenly began to scream...You were pulling at your hair...You were hitting your face against the windows. I came here as fast as I could and had to put you down ―."
"Oliver, I don't know what happened. I swear. I don't ―." Felicity suddenly began to cough and gasp.
"Someone get some water and call a damn ambulance!" Oliver shouted out. Diggle was here as well. He began to dial 9-1-1 and left to find water.
"The rest of you..." She heard Slade shout out, "Get back to work! None of this is your bloody business!"
They all scrambled away in panic. They're probably just afraid of being fired from their jobs. Even Bruce Wayne also walked away with Damian. Damian nearly stopped to approach Felicity but Bruce placed a hand on his shoulder and told him it was time to go. They left.
"Mr. Queen...I suggest you take Miss Smoak home," Slade said sternly but he kept staring her with concern though his expression still looked stone cold.
"I'm so sorry," Felicity apologized, more to Oliver. "I ― I don't know what happened."
"Listen, Felicity. You're okay," he assured her.
"Oliver," Diggle came back with a bottle of water in his hand, "I called the ambulance. They'll be here in a few minutes. You okay, Felicity?"
"I'm fine," she nodded. Diggle gave her the bottle of water. She opened up the cap and drank a big gulp. It felt refreshing going down her throat. She didn't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine. She simply broke her nose hitting her face against the windows. She could feel the pain now. Her head was throbbing.
"She needs to go home, Mr. Queen," Slade kept insisting. Oliver simply glared at him. Please don't punch each other in the face, she begged in her head, Please don't punch each other in the face.
"She needs to go to a hospital," Oliver said.
Are they really going to fight over a decision whether I should go home or to a hospital? If she wanted to go home, she would go home. If she wanted to go to the hospital, she'd go to the hospital. Truthfully, she wanted to go home and lie down.
"Her amount of physical damage is not grave enough for her to be taken to a hospital but traumatic state is enough to send her home and rest. I suggest you do so," Slade argued sternly.
"I don't take orders from you, Slade." Oliver stood up and straightened his jacket before stalking over to Slade. Oh God no. Come on, Oliver, please don't do this here.
Felicity quickly stood up on her feet and got between them to keep them from fighting each other, placing both of her hands against their chests which was quite embarrassing for her.
"Okay...um...guys. Stop," Felicity told them both. "This is not the time or the place to be going all vigilante everywhere right now. Right now, you are Oliver Queen, the former rich boy that just lost his house, his mother and his company. And this guy is Slade Wilson, the guy who took your company and is planning on selling...which is not really helping in this conversation, I don't know why I said that out loud while he's still standing right here next to me and why am I still talking, I don't know why...Listen, I really don't need to go to the hospital. I'm practically fine. I only have a broken nose."
"Actually, it's dislocated, not broken," Slade corrected Felicity and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. She quickly took her hands from them both.
"Anyways, I actually would like to go home," she said to him, "Can I go home? I'd like to go home."
"I'm not stopping you, love," Slade said. Felicity really would prefer if he stopped calling her that. I'm not his love. I'm nobody's love.
Oliver sighed. "I'll have Diggle cancel out the paramedics and he'll take you home."
"I can drive home by myself," Felicity said stubbornly, "I don't need anyone to drive me home. I have a car you know."
"For once, I agree with Mr. Queen," Slade said, "You are in no conditions to be driving, especially after what happened."
"But I'm fine ―."
"No buts, Felicity. We're leaving now." Oliver grabbed her by the wrist and was dragging her away like a little kid after being caught eating sand from the playground, not that she had done it.
"Miss Smoak."
Both Felicity and Oliver stopped in their tracks when they heard Slade call them back. The turn to face him. What does he want now?
"One more thing," he trailed off. Before Felicity could react, his fingers grabbed the bridge of her nose and she felt a crack that made me yelp in pain. She touched the bridge of her nose where it had been broken only to find it straightened again. "You might want to bandage it when you get home."
Still glaring at him cautiously, Oliver dragged her away.
"That hurt," she muttered.
Diggle took Felicity home in his car. She didn't mind Diggle driving her home. She just didn't want to be treated like she was made of glass. She only broke her nose. She wasn't invalide. Once Felicity got home, she was greeted by her neighbour, Mrs. Fernandez that lived right nextdoor. She asked what happened to her nose. Felicity lied to her, saying that she accidently fell and hit the pavement on the way home. She didn't see Diggle bring her here. Then, she asked for her cat Rusty. He ran off again. Felicity told her she didn't see him but she would keep an eye open if he showed up again. Rusty was always running from the apartment. Perhaps he's getting tired of being suffocated by his owner's smooches and over-feeding. That would definitely give Felicity a reason to run away. But he'll turn up soon. He always turned up.
Once entering her apartment, Felicity took a shower. Hot showers always made her feel better after having nightmares of being thrown around like a ragdoll in her old home when in real life...she was being thrown like a ragdoll in QC. That was awful. Now everyone's going to be staring me like I'm crazy. Crazy Felicity Megan Smoak, beating herself in her sleep.
To her, it felt too real to be a dream though. She took off her clothes that were stained in her blood and threw them all in a hamper for her to wash later. She relaxed under the water that spurted out from the showerhead. It calmed her down a bit, driving bad thoughts of her past away in a soothing hot rain. She still felt a bit sore. Whatever happened must have hurt her pretty badly. She cleaned the blood from her face. Slade was right. She needed to bandage it. It really hurt when he forced it back into place. It hurt like hell.
After finishing showering, Felicity took a large towel to wrap it around her body and another one to dry her hair. She opened up the cabinet door and rummaged through for bandages, cotton balls and rubbing alcohol to clean up the infection. She shut the cabinet door and looked at herself in the mirror. God. I look awful. She looked like she was jumped by thugs in an alleyway and got a good beating.
Her right cheek was bruised purple, her left eyebrow was cut, the bridge of her nose was grotesquely cut and darkened after the blood dried and her lower lip was cut and a bit puffy. God. I can't believe I walked out of QC like this. The worst part was that everyone saw. Also, her glasses were broken. Luckily, she had spares. She hissed when cleaning up the cuts, especially the one on the arm, with rubbing alcohol and patched up the bridge of her nose and the cut on her eyebrow. Now I look like a dork. Well, I always looked like a dork wearing my glasses but now I feel more like a dork wearing both glasses and a bandage on my nose. Nerds in high school have never looked better right now.
But Felicity quickly noticed something around her neck. Bruises. She remembered the dream where the attacker grabbed her by the neck. But no one grabbed her by the neck in real life, right? She took a closer look at the bruise. A handprint. But this print looked too large to be made by her hands and it was also too big to be Oliver's hands. Could it have been Slade? No. Slade was in his office with Isabel when this happened. He didn't even come near her except for when he straightened her nose. Besides, this handprint seemed a few inches much smaller than Slade's hands. Then, who's handprints are these?
I know that it's weird adding Damian Wayne to the story and that most people hate Damian Wayne but I feel like writing his character will add something interesting in the story, if you guys trust me, because I know some readers will have some doubt about me adding Damian Wayne to the story. But trust me, guys, I know what I'm doing. Just be a bit patient.
Anyways, thanks for reading Black Smoak and its rewrite. I still have a few chapters to correct and another chapter of Black Smoak to add so...I'm getting there.
