Felicity stirred in her bed shifting to her right side until reality dawned upon her. Flopping herself onto her back she stared at the ceiling of her bedroom in disbelief, she felt refreshed. She had managed to sleep through an entire night! Her acute sense of victory dissipated, replaced by momentary confusion of last nights events until she remembered – Oliver. Ignoring the way her heart beat sped up at the mere thought of him, she jumped out of bed walking barefoot across the room. Slipping out she headed for the kitchen before soft sound of snoring carried from the living room sparking her curiosity. Biting her bottom lip nervously she tiptoed forwards, following the sound; stopping in her tracks she was greeted by the sight of sleeping Oliver. His elongated body was outstretched on her black couch making it look highly cramped, his arm was lazily draped across his bare chest his mouth slightly ajar. Tilting her head slightly she observed him noting the way his entire demeanour changed when he slept making him look more vulnerable than usual as the barriers he enclosed his emotions with were left unprotected.
"Felicity. You're staring," Oliver suddenly mumbled but his eyes remained closed, startling Felicity who let out a short squeal in surprise which in turn made him smirk so briefly she was almost certain that she had imagined it.
Pulling herself away from the doorframe she had been leaning on she crossed her arms across her chest defensively feeling as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"I wasn't staring – that just sounds creepy," she protested. "I was admiring."
Now Oliver's eyes flew open as he raised an eyebrow at her quizzically the corners of his mouth quirking upwards humorously.
"That just sounded much worse. Oh gosh," she babbled closing her eyes firmly shut momentarily as a surge of blood rushed to her cheeks making her look flushed. "I didn't mean admiring as in checking you out– I meant that I was merely thinking about that it's not every day that a girl wakes up to a half-naked Oliver Queen in her house…" stopping herself abruptly Felicity raised her right hand into a "stop" sign.
"Can we just pretend as if the past few minutes didn't take place?" she asked re-closing her eyes and clenching both of her hands into fists before turning to re-trace her steps out of the room.
"I'd love to," he called out after her but the humour in his voice was painfully obvious.
Great, he was laughing at her.
"Although thinking back to your track record perhaps a lot of girls have woken up to a half-naked Oliver Queen," she murmured bitterly as she reached the kitchen more so to herself than to him directly.
"Excuse me?"
Jumping for the second time in the past ten minutes, she whirled around to find Oliver standing on the doorway of the kitchen with only a pair of dark denim jeans that hung dangerously low on his hips. It's then the realisation comes that she has never seen Oliver in jeans. He always tended to stick to professional attire.
"Will you quit sneaking up on me?" she snapped grabbing a spatula and a frying pan to make them breakfast, desperately trying to drag her gaze from his exposed his chest. "And will you please just put a t-shirt on?" she added waving the spatula around dangerously.
Holding both of his hands up in a sign of peace and harmlessness he pulls on a black shirt in one swift movement before stalking across towards her and attempting to pull the spatula out of her hands. Noticing his movement, she chose that precise moment to thwat him on the hands resulting in him yelping out in surprise.
Examining her choice of weaponry she smiled exceptionally pleased with herself. "A brilliant item of defence, wouldn't you agree?" she queried innocently referring to his snarky comment from the night before.
He narrowed his eyes at her momentarily but the corners of his lips quirked upwards into a smirk which in turn spiked her pulse.
"I'll let that pass just this once," he commented opening the fridge and pulling out eggs and bacon. They spent the next few moments cooking the breakfast whilst getting absorbed in a deep conversation about a bunch of nothings, and the occasional heated discussion. Felicity could not help but notice the fact that not once did the conversation steer back to the business side of things. They were not Green Arrow and his IT girl sidekick, he was not the CEO and she was not his secretary. They were merely Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen, two friends who were making breakfast and hanging out and although it may not seem like it – there was a distinctive difference. She was meeting "home" Oliver for the first time and she was pleased to be exposed to this side of him, the side that did not seem so driven and focused.
…
Felicity walked into Verdant for the first time in a very long time and felt mildly excited to be returning here. It had been a long while since she had been in the Arrow cave and she had begun to miss it. She had become used to her life of catching villains, well, helping Oliver to catch them. The club was packed with teenagers and adults drinking and dirty dancing on the dance floor, a scene she had become accustomed to by now. Ignoring the commotion, she snuck past Thea undetected and made her way to the basement. It was only after she had unlocked the door and stepped in that she realised that she was not alone. Hurrying down the stairs her gaze landed on Sara who stood panting with sweat gleaming from her forehead.
"Hey," she nodded at her with a small smile discarding her bag and coat on her desk as she switched on her monitors. "Sorry, I totally just interrupted your training."
"Hi, no it's fine don't worry I was almost done anyway," Sara responded pushing her hair back. "I didn't realise that you'd be back so soon though. How are you feeling?"
Squirming slightly she forced a quick smile. "I'm fine. If I sit and stay at home one more night though I will go insane!"
"I know the feeling, trust me." Sara laughed. Felicity noticed the way her eyes kept darting quick glances at the door as if she was waiting or hoping for Oliver to waltz in at any moment. "Is it just you?" she added after a moment making it painfully obvious that she was indeed waiting for Oliver.
She felt an acute sense of jealously which she dismissed immediately irritably, she could not and wouldn't keep doing this.
"Oliver isn't coming here if that's what you're asking. He has a family thing going on and Diggle is out of town," she responded honestly with a tilt of a head. "I'm just here because I'm desperately in need of something to do. What's your excuse?"
"Laurel kicked me out," Sara explained picking up a small white towel and wiping her face dry.
"Oh. That must suck. Although I suppose I do see her point, you did kind of pretend to be dead for six years–" she began blurting out until she stopped herself abruptly. "That was tactless, I'm sorry."
To her astonishment Sara merely smiled at her brightly, chucking the towel on the mat she stalked towards her taking a seat across from her.
"Don't be sorry, you're very honest and so painfully pure and innocent, it's endearing. I can see why Oliver likes you so much," she said with a far-away gaze, the latter comment making Felicity blink away in surprise.
The sound of a phone blaring in the distance caused them both to jump in surprise. Sara pulled out her phone and began speaking quickly looking distressed. Snapping the phone shut she sits for a moment before bolting upwards and darting towards where Oliver kept his stash of weapons.
"W – What's happening?"
Sara began pacing the floors clutching her phone desperately and dialling a number before holding the phone to her ear. Felicity watched silently attempting to comprehend the scene unravelling in front of her.
"God damn it Oliver!" Sara swore flinging the phone onto the desk and tugging at her hair.
"What is happening?!" she asked once more her voice concerned but very firm.
"It was my father. Nyssa has Laurel."
That was the only response she received as Sara began pulling out guns and metal chains out of the big walnut chest. It takes a several moments for the impact of the words to be delivered.
"Nyssa as in the woman who freed you from the League of Assassins? What does she want?" she spluttered swivelling in her chair to face the computer and beginning to type away on the keyboards.
"I don't know. I suspect that her father wasn't pleased and sent her to lure me back. I – I just don't know! I'm going to try Oliver again."
Pulling out the tracking device Felicity began doing a database search for Laurel's phone. She had the ability to potentially find out her location if she used a tracking device installed on all phones pre-sale. She held her breath as the computer began scanning the parameters of Starling City and when the search failed indicating that the mobile phone was off, she activated the backup tracker which gave her a direct coordinate.
"Got it!" she called out triumphantly attracting the attention of Sara who was beside her within a heartbeat. "Well, I know the location of her mobile phone which is hopefully within her vicinity. I just don't want –"
"Felicity, just give me the location!"
"It's an empty warehouse right at the east border of the city. I know it's not much but it's a start."
Sara grabs the piece of paper she had just scribbled the location on and squints at it thoughtfully before her steely gaze landing on her again.
"I'm sorry to spring this on you but how do you feel about going out on the field with me?"
The question is so unexpected it stills her into complete and utter silence. It was not the fact that she had never been in that position because she had; it was the fact that putting herself in danger did not seem so appealing anymore. Previously she had always done it with the knowledge that Oliver and Diggle would be watching her every move ready to protect her if she required it. She trusted them, but did she trust this girl she had barely met?
"Please. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate. My family are in danger. I will protect you."
Closing her eyes shut, Felicity got the distinct impression that she would regret this decision very badly.
"What do you need me to do?"
Author's note: I have been away with the fairies (aka university work aka purgatory) therefore I haven't updated in a while (i think). I have the next part of this chapter that I'm still working on but I couldn't post it as otherwise it would we way too long (4+k words) so I've decided that this was a nice place to stop. Obviously you're going to see Felicity out on the field in the next chapter and I'm still debating on how to tackle it.
As usual, thank you very much for your reviews it's absolutely overwhelming. I also thought that it was time we had a bit of normal Oliver/Felicity scene where it wasn't completely about villains and saving the city. I may add more of it, we shall see it. Please continue to leave your thoughts and reviews. I appreciate it.
Until next time!
