Chapter summary: Thea's in trouble and gets help from an unlikely place. Also, pancakes are involved.
(Because Arrow could always do with more Thea and Felicity.)
Note: There are several more parts of the story written; it has an idea where it's going and a destination. A big thank you to everyone who keeps reading and reviewing.
IV.
Driving home from a late evening at work, Felicity's gaze wandered out to the sidewalk.
One of Starling City's most popular night clubs, Azure, was located around the corner. The line started further down the street and went around the building; young people stood in the long uneven line, impatient to get in and have a good time…
But it looked like someone already had hers.
Felicity squinted. One girl in the crowd, more familiar than others... was that Thea Queen? Short dress, high heels, stumbling along the sidewalk like a broken deity on a lost track.
Definitely Thea Queen.
Her group of friends shuffled her between them; Thea could barely stand on her feet. She smiled, laughed, but Felicity knew that wherever they were taking her was a place she didn't need to be.
She veered her Mini over to the curb, ignoring the angry honking cars behind her and quickly got out.
"Hey!" Felicity marched up to Thea and the others. "Where do you think you're taking her?"
She reached out after Thea, steadying her. Thankfully the young woman held on.
"What's it to you?" A young guy in skinny jeans cocked his chin at Felicity. "You her mother or something?"
Felicity hesitated, then said confidently, "I'm a friend of Oliver Queen. Who would not be happy to see his baby sister like this."
Another guy snickered. "Yeah, we all know Oliver Queen's got lots of friends..."
"Look," the first guy smiled, a smile that was more a sneer and made something beneath Felicity's skin crackle. "We're just taking her away. Know what I'm saying? To where the real fun takes place."
Felicity ground down on her back teeth. "If you so much as think of taking her somewhere..."
"Hey!"
A new voice rang out from behind them, deep and sure.
"How about you retards actually listen to Blondie."
Felicity watched the approaching guy, firm jawline and eyes clearly stating you don't want to mess with this. He stopped behind the group, pushing his hands down into the pocket of his red hood.
"All of you," he said warningly. "Scatter. Queen's going home without you."
The group of friends—two young guys and girls looking like they jumped straight out of a Cosmo magazine—exchanged wary looks. After a silent debate they cocked their heads and laughed, telling Felicity she was more than welcome to try and handle the billionaire princess. A moment later they ran around the corner, while Felicity swallowed an acrid feeling rising from her stomach to her throat.
So much for friends…
Thea swayed out of Felicity's grip - the red-hooded guy was there in a second, steadying her.
"Thanks," Felicity breathed. "My car's right over there," she indicated.
He got the message and jogged over, opening the passenger door. They both got the nearly unconscious Thea into the seat, who lulled back, something very far away in her look; counting stars in an imagined sky.
Felicity closed the door. "I'll take it from here. I'll call her brother, make sure she gets home safe."
She just wasn't certain where to take her. Rolling up outside Queen Mansion with a nearly decked-out Thea Queen in her car hardly seemed like her best option.
No. She would take her home, her home, call Oliver and have him pick her up from there.
Next to her, the red-hooded guy moved weight between his feet. The city lights blinked in red and gold and white around them.
"You really a friend of Oliver Queen's?" he asked.
"Yeah," Felicity nodded. "But not that sort of friend. You know."
His eyes glinted with amusement, but he didn't say anything.
"Hey." Felicity looked between Thea and the young man. "What's your name?"
"I'm nobody, but... Roy. I'm Roy."
"Thanks for your help Nobody But Roy."
Roy smiled and a kindness Felicity liked appeared in him.
His voice was a little softer than before. "I don't like seeing girls getting in trouble... even if they are snooty brats."
Felicity sensed there was more to the story, more she didn't know. Especially considering the way Roy kept looking into the car, keeping his eyes on Thea. He finally looked back at Felicity, his voice lower than before.
"Please make sure she gets home safe."
Said and done.
Felicity took Thea with her home. Once she rolled up outside her house, she eased her Mini into park slowly. Thea's eyes were closed in the passenger seat, so Felicity got out, unlocked her door before helping the stumbling young woman into her house. Thea rested against the arm rest in the living room couch as Felicity scrambled around arranging the guest bedroom, putting out one of her old t-shirts—hardly something a sober billionaire would approve of, but maybe something a mostly-out-of-it billionaire wouldn't have energy to argue against—and a glass of water next to the bed. When she was done Felicity helped Thea up the stairs, making sure she drank some of the water before she got into bed.
Felicity stood outside the door when she scrolled through her contact list after Oliver's number.
He didn't answer, but she left him a message on voice mail.
Oliver knocked on Felicity's door a little before seven in the morning.
Felicity answered, wrapped in a ruffled purple patterned pajamas and a sleepdrunk haze. If Oliver hadn't been so worried about Thea, he would have thought she looked a lot like the young girl he'd once known, possibly the cutest thing he'd seen since coming back from the island.
But right now he was more worried about another young girl...
"I got your voicemail," he said urgently. "Is she alright?"
Felicity nodded. "She's sleeping. Come on in."
Oliver walked into Felicity's house, hands balled into tight fists at his sides. He'd been out all night as The Vigilante, trying to keep the city safe. Little had he known it was his sister who needed saving last night. The guilt and shame felt like a weight on his back; he wanted to sit down and tell Felicity right then and there why he hadn't heard her voice mail until now, why he hadn't been there for Thea sooner… maybe she could help him understand why he kept trying to save the wrong people.
Instead Oliver followed Felicity into the kitchen as she put on a pot of coffee. He tried leaning against the wall but couldn't keep still; his fingers kept rolling invisible arrows.
"I checked on her before I got down here," Felicity told him, pulling out fresh orange juice from the fridge. "She's sleeping pretty peacefully. Thought it'd be better for her to sleep it out instead of waking her."
Oliver nodded, but his index finger kept rolling against his thumb. "What happened?"
"Well. Seems like she had a little too much fun last night… and I don't mean in a dirty way, but more in a oops I drank half the bar way. I was driving home from work and saw her and some friends outside Azure. They were trying to pull her with them somewhere, God knows where... and I couldn't just stand by, you know? So I got out. I got help getting her into my car, was too scared to go to your house so I brought her home. I called you as soon as her head hit the pillow."
She saw the muscle in Oliver's jaw tick. His eyes were stern and he held himself like all of him was in pain.
"Hey," she said softly, putting her hand on his arm. "She's alright. Really, she is. I mean, other than she'll probably be hungover like crazy when she wakes up."
Oliver's eyelids sank. They were a little lighter when he lifted them, looking at her.
"She'll be alright... because of you."
Felicity smiled, one-sided. "Girls got to look out for each other. Right?"
Oliver nodded, but had a hard time shaking a bitter feeling on the back of his tongue. He'd been on the flipside, years ago. The kind of guy women should be looked out for, kept from.
"Thank you, Felicity."
She smiled softly, pressing her hand against his arm before walking back over to the fridge. "Does Thea like pancakes?"
Oliver's eyes filled with a little light. "Yeah. She does."
"Great. How about… she's in the guestroom, second door to the right, upstairs. See if she's awake and I'll get started on pancakes."
On his way up the stairs, Oliver looked around, briefly, noticing how most of the walls in Felicity's house were only decorated with artwork. Walls that, typically in a house like hers, should have been decorated with photographs of happy family memories... they just weren't. He'd seen some photo frames in her living room, but here, nothing.
He supposed it helped to have a family you felt warmly about in the first place. A family that wasn't perpetually wounded, a little less than complete, always.
Maybe one day they'd be able to understand their parents' choices, but until then they had to make the best of their own.
"I can't remember the last time I had pancakes," Thea said between bites of freshly made pancake off the stove. Oliver sat on her right, watching her with light in his eyes, while Felicity poured fresh batter into the pan.
"Chocolate chip, too," Oliver said, emptying his coffee cup. What he lacked in sleep he made up for in amount of coffee.
Felicity turned off the heat to the stove. "Sorry I ran out of syrup. I'll make sure to stock up next time I…"
Her phone went off, a shrill tone that startled and nearly made her fling the pancakes to the floor. Oliver leaned over to the raised bar and handed Felicity her phone.
She walked into the living room, and from the words they caught it was clear it was work-related. Some IT disaster, some malfunctioning system that no amount of reboots could fix. Felicity sighed and put her phone down.
"I have to go in," she said tiredly. "Right now."
"What's the matter?" Oliver asked, refilling his coffee cup to half.
"Apparently, my so-called supervisor thought it would be a neat idea to join twenty servers in a joint share point group—which is do-able, by the way, it's not that—but he didn't bother to set restrictions so now the network's stuck in an endless transfer loop, and…" She paused, locating her jacket and car keys on the living room table. "It's bad news. If I don't go in and fix it, the entire building can kiss their backups goodbye." She strode over to Oliver, handing him a set of keys. "These are my spares. You two can lock up, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "We'll lock up."
Thea turned on her chair before Felicity walked away. "Felicity. Thank you for—"
Felicity's phone went off again. Pursing her lips, Felicity counted to three before saying, "I'm so sorry, but I really have to go. We'll talk later!" She dashed out the door, car keys in one hand and her phone in the other.
Oliver glanced at Thea before swallowing his last bite of pancake. "Looks like you'll have to thank her later."
"I will," Thea agreed. She stabbed her fork into a chunk of pancake, looking curiously up at her brother who looked around the house. "So… the two of you. You and Felicity. Are you in some kind of relationship you've conveniently forgotten to tell your sister about?"
"No," he chuckled. "We're not. Just a… friendship relationship." Oliver shifted on the chair at Thea's raised eyebrow. "We went to the same school. Then Felicity moved away, and now… she's back."
"Mhmm."
"What?"
"You got that look on your face," she said warmly. "One I haven't seen, since… well, I can't remember, but certainly not since you got back." She nudged her elbow into his arm. "Ollie. Is there something going on your sister really definitely should know about?"
"No," he answered too quickly. "Well…" He looked at his watch, standing from the table. "If we don't leave, we're going to be late for the lunch we promised Mom we'd be home for."
"Ugh." Thea frowned, putting her fork down. "Don't remind me."
"Come on, Speedy. Time to put your feet where your nickname is."
Oliver ducked before a piece of pancake barely missed his head.
That afternoon Thea came to see Felicity at work.
She found her in her corner office, pink pen in mouth and working intently between stacks of papers and interconnected computers.
"Felicity?"
Felicity jumped; Thea jumped, gravity caught them both.
"Sorry," Thea said slower. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Thea, Miss Queen. Hi! No, that's fine… I only need to..." Felicity looked at her hopeless amount of paperwork, the running systems on her computer. She'd managed to salvage the situation half an hour after arriving to work, but now there were heaps of collateral damage to deal with. She looked from her screen up at Thea, eyes bright. "You know what? I could actually use a break."
Thea reached inside her purse as Felicity moved a heap of paper left. She held out a set of keys.
"My brother wanted to return these, but I convinced him to let me do it." Thea smiled softly, and for a moment, her age crept through. "I wanted to thank you, Felicity. Not everyone would do what you did for me last night."
"They should." Felicity winced. "I mean, not load random girls into their cars with the help of handsome red-hooded men, but, you know. Help each other... out. What I'm trying to say is, you're welcome."
Thea narrowed her eyes. "'Handsome red-hooded men'…?"
"Oh, right. A Roy helped me get rid of your... friends."
The name seemed to register with her. Thea looked thoughtful a moment, a line that came and went past her brow, before she saddled the thought away. She reached into her bag again.
"Here," she said, handing Felicity a thin white envelope. "That's a stocked gift card at Jimmy Choo. I'm pretty sure you could fill up more than half a wardrobe using that."
"I love shoes. But..." Felicity looked at the envelope, holding it hesitantly between her hands. She looked up. "This wasn't why I helped you, Thea."
"Oh, come on." Thea moved restlessly. "You know my last name, right? Everyone who helps our family wants to get something out of it."
Felicity didn't respond; she looked hurt. Her eyelids seemed heavier; her eyes fluttered down to the envelope. She pressed her lips together, before looking up at Thea, eyes clear and strong.
"Did Oliver tell you I lived in Las Vegas?"
"It never came up," Thea said flippantly.
"Well, I did." Felicity blinked quickly a few times, speeding through her mental memory roll. "I waited tables for a while because I needed the money. When you spend that much time in casinos, after a while you learn to see who comes in to have fun, who comes in because they think they can win something, and those who go too far."
She had Thea's attention. The younger woman's expression was slightly strained, like a person who doesn't like hearing a story but listens because they know they need to hear it.
"The casinos usually throw those people out. Get rid of them. Find a way to not make it their problem anymore. Once they're thrown out, the rest is up to them."
Thea scoffed. "So you're saying I shouldn't get thrown out of bars?"
"No, I'm saying maybe you should understand why you get drunk before you do."
Thea looked struck, passive a moment before her eyes brimmed with emotion. She held her own body, one foot forward, raising her chin a little.
"People don't talk to me like that." Despite her words, there was surprisingly little venom in her voice. "Can't you just say you don't like Jimmy Choos?"
Felicity went on. "Some times people help other people out because it's the right thing to do. There's so much bad in this world, Thea… the reward becomes knowing you helped contribute to the good."
Felicity handed back the envelope. Thea took it, looking at the thin envelope that would never again remind her of shoes. She waited a long moment before she turned.
"Actually," Felicity said, before Thea walked away. "If I could have something?"
Thea let out a breath. Great. Here came the part she'd been waiting for, where Felicity asked for something, after all, figuring she did have Thea Queen in her office. Why not take advantage of the situation?
She sighed. "Sure."
"I'd like a promise."
Thea stared.
"Promise me you won't go out tonight. You could… you can come by my place? I do have an excellent storage of nail polish. And Netflix. And I also happen to have a small but excellent stock of ice cream that needs to be eaten, like, yesterday."
At first, Thea stood very still. Then, slowly, her cheeks warmed into a smile. There was something so disarming about this woman, something Thea felt she liked, could relate to…
"You know what?" she said positively. "Sure. Why not."
"Excellent," Felicity smiled, sweeping the pen in her hand through the air.
"How does seven sound?" Thea offered. "I'll be the teenage delinquent knocking on your door with a bottle of vodka."
Felicity's turn to stare.
"Kidding."
"Right," Felicity nodded, laughing on delay.
"I'll see you tonight, Felicity."
"Will do."
Felicity smiled, watching Thea walk out of the office.
Maybe she couldn't right wrongs like The Vigilante was trying to do, but what Felicity could and would do was be a friend to someone who needed one as much as herself.
Oliver brought it up next week during lunch. Sitting in Felicity's office, the two of them shared lunch Oliver brought with him. She was engrossed in hers, so she missed the way Oliver kept looking at her, waiting for her to look up.
"What have you done to my sister?" he asked sharply.
Felicity looked up from her salad bowl. "I – I don't really know what…"
"She's started reading again. Last night when I came home she was reading, in the study. I haven't seen Thea sit down with a book since kindergarten."
Felicity's eyes filled with mirth. "I might have loaned her a book or two."
"Really?"
"Mhmm."
"Wow." Oliver paused, his eyes softening. "Felicity, you really are remarkable."
Felicity looked up, baby spinach sticking out between her lips. "Thank you for remarking on it."
Oliver smiled and in that moment it felt like summer came into the room.