A/N: For FF#10 "Stroke of Luck" – for some reason this made me think of a clock striking, which made me think of a certain fairy tale…and that leads us here.

Ella Cendre

"Just remember," Sara Lance told Felicity as she handed her a pair of diamond earrings, "you need to be out of there by eleven. Because…"

Felicity rolled her eyes and interrupted. "I set up the security hack remember? I'm the one who's making the facial recognition malfunction for two hours."

Sara seemed to take her irritation in stride and with a sympathetic look she asked, "Nervous?"

"Nervous? I'm not nervous." But Felicity's hands shook slightly as she slid the heavy diamonds into her ears. There was a tiny ear piece and tracker built into one of them. Thank goodness Oliver still had some toys left. Though she was trying really hard not to wonder why he had something like this lying around.

"Good," Sara said, though the laughing tone in her voice told Felicity she hadn't believed her. She handed Felicity a small gold bag and Felicity's eyes when wide as she saw the tiny handgun inside. "League of Assassins special issue. Don't lose it or I'll have some explaining to do."

Felicity nodded and climbed to her feet looking at herself in the full length mirror on the bedroom door. Her hair had been temporarily dyed a dark auburn color and she wore a filmy tulle-skirted, sleeveless gown in a pale ice blue. To go with the earrings she wore a large jeweled necklace, this one a very good fake, and she had to resist the urge to pinch herself at how unfamiliar she looked.

Sara came to stand in front of her. "Tell me your name," she said her voice all business.

Felicity gave her a firm nod, "I'm Ella Cendre."

"And how much are you worth?" Sara asked.

"Nine billion dollars, once my grandmother dies," Felicity said, and forced herself not to fidget or roll her eyes as the unfamiliar name came out of her mouth.

"And what's the plan?" Sara asked. Felicity gave her a look, but Sara's serious face didn't change. "The plan," she repeated.

"I go in, I seem aloof, and if necessary dance with a few guys until Lord Kalesque comes to dance with me – which he'll do because he's a gold-digging psychopath," Felicity said.

"And you're sure the device will work?" Sara asked.

Felicity nodded. "As long as I stay within two feet of him for at least three minutes, it will pull every scrap of information off of his phone."

Finally Sara grinned. "Ollie's right, you're remarkable." Then the smile disappeared. "Exit strategy?"

Honestly this was the most unnerving part of the plan. "I say yes when Oliver asks me to dance," she said simply. "And hopefully we walk out onto the back terrace and away into the night."

Oliver Queen tugged at the cuffs of his shirt and tried not to squirm. He was amazed that anything could still make him nervous, but Felicity running point on an op was apparently what it took.

She was also exactly seven minutes late. So he had his eyes glued to the double-doors leading into the ballroom and caught every moment of her entrance into the room. He swallowed hard and tried not to focus on exactly how well the dress fit her, or how exactly right one of his last family heirlooms looked sparkling against the odd auburn of her hair. She was so damned beautiful, and he had to grit his teeth when he realized just how many other men had noticed the same thing.

He watched her like a hawk, though he put his best lascivious playboy grin on his face as he did so, hoping the interest he showed in her would come off as simple attraction to anyone paying attention. Then realizing he'd once again let his mind wander he glanced down at his watch and swore. Kalesque was also late.

It was twenty more minutes before the man arrived, and it was pushing 10:40 before he finally figured out who Felicity was supposed to be and asked Ella Cendre to dance. They still had enough time, but barely.

Unfortunately as the song came to an end, Kalesque seemed decidedly unwilling to let go of the prize in his arms, and though Oliver couldn't blame him, he made his way slowly toward them. In one moment Felicity's gaze caught his and he saw nervousness bordering on fear there – Kalesque was known for his ruthlessness and if he had any idea of exactly who he was dancing with…

Oliver picked up his pace, nearly stepping on a couple who failed to move out of his way in time. Finally, he reached them and tapped hard on Kalesque's shoulder. The man turned with a murderous look but Oliver just smiled easily. "Sorry, but she promised this one to me, and I'm not willing to pass up the opportunity."

Kalesque gave Oliver a hard cold smile. "We're obviously looking for the same thing in a woman, aren't we?"

Clearly, Kalesque assumed that, sans-fortune, Oliver Queen was a gold-digger these days himself. Oliver didn't care what the man thought as long as he let go of Felicity. "I suppose so. And we all deserve a fighting chance." He came down hard on the word "fighting" allowing the smile to slip away to a hard glare.

Kalesque shrugged. "Very well." He turned to Felicity, took her hand and kissed it slowly. Subconsciously, Oliver was counting down the minutes. If they were lucky they had three of them left. Finally, the man stepped away and Oliver moved forward taking Felicity in his arms with a little more force than was entirely necessary.

He quickly maneuvered them toward the doors, and looked down at her, trying not to notice how amazing she smelled and the way she stepped closer, the front of her dress bushing against his tuxedo jacket. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded quickly. "He's just extremely unpleasant."

They were almost at the doors when Felicity flinched hard, putting a hand to her ear.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Huge feedback squeal," she said her eyes going wide. "I think the security's back up."

"Take it off and drop it," Oliver ordered.

She shook her head. "But it's…."

"Don't argue with me," he said. "The guards outside might be able to sweep for them now and you'll never make it." They were on the terrace steps now, and not waiting for her, he reached up himself and pulled the diamonds from her ear, dropping the earring to the ground. "Now run."

"What about you?" she said, her voice a little panicked.

"I'll make sure you can get away," he told her calmly. "After all, nobody's going to be surprised if Oliver Queen crashed this kind of party."

She nodded and he watched as she flew down the stairs, disappearing into the darkness of the Starling City night.

By all accounts the mission had been a success, but Felicity still felt a huge sense of disappointment that she couldn't put her finger on. Then finally as she sank into her chair in front of the computers she realized what the problem was. In her mind, as she had put on this crazy dress and all of the sparkling jewelry she had pictured herself very clearly – not taking down the bad guy –but dancing with Oliver.

She heard someone come into the room and looked up, surprised to see him there, tuxedo jacket over his arm and wearing a tired smile. "Well, you did it," he said, coming to stand next to her.

With a grin, she echoed back his own words of a few months earlier. "I had help."

He nodded. "There's just one thing that went wrong."

She frowned, "What's that?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the diamond earring. She could see that the small tracker and communicator had been removed. Reaching out, he handed it to her, and not even thinking about it she took it. "I'm so glad you were able to get it back," she said

"So am I," he replied.

The tone in his voice made her look up at him and the warm, intense look he gave her was exactly the look he'd had in her mind for that imaginary dance. He gave her a goofy smile, "You see, the girl wearing that earring was supposed to dance with me."

Felicity swallowed hard, and pushed to her feet, glad she hadn't taken off her heels. She slid the earring back on and said. "It's not too late."

He nodded, set his jacket down, and held out his arms.

She stepped into them, and for almost an hour – with only the music in their imaginations - Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak danced.