I am a writing MACHINE this week. I may have rushed this chapter a little bit so I apologize for weirdness.
Alot of you don't enjoy Ray...haha. I don't hate him. I don't ship them though. I'd ship them as tech-y friends!
You guys always loved the idea of jealous!Oliver and let's be real...jealous boy trope is my ULTIMATE fanfic guilty pleasure. Also romance guilty pleasure. So I tried to work more of that in.
Enjoy :)
Felicity squirmed in her seat next to Oliver, who looked equally as nervous. The meeting was as much about convincing Ray Palmer to work with Queen Consolidated as it was about convincing the other executives that this change in focus was worth their time and energy.
Many of them had bulked when Oliver announced that he was cutting ties with Unidac. Felicity had her suspicions that politics played a large part in their distaste for change. She still didn't understand why Robert Queen had chosen to waste so many resources on a company that was yielding so few results. He was a successful man and obviously smart. She couldn't see a reason for such a huge oversight.
Ray, for his part, was charming and warm as he introduced himself to each member of the board, but it was hard not to notice the black eye.
Felicity couldn't believe she hadn't recognized him. Now she knew what it was like to be Lois Lane, who never recognized Clark Kent as Superman after all those years. To be fair, Ray's transformation had been a little more involved than simply removing a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
She didn't realize that she had been nervously tapping her pen on the table until Oliver reached up and stilled the movement. Felicity's eyes shot to the point of contact and then to Oliver's face. The corners of his eyes were lined with apprehension, but he managed a smile.
"Don't worry so much," he assured her.
"I'm trying not to," Felicity whispered.
Ray's appearance as Adam Cray all made sense now. The man had been spying. The reason, though, she had yet to figure out. It wasn't as if he knew Oliver was going to be around. Publically, it was assumed that Oliver didn't frequent the club scene anymore. He'd become a veritable angel compared to the playboy millionaire he had been before. Felicity had helped his PR team with his new image personally.
Had Ray planned on getting punched? Was it a set up?
No, that was crazy. It was just an accident. It would take a criminal mastermind to plan something like that. Ray had nothing to gain by setting Oliver up.
Her thoughts were pulled back into the room as Oliver discreetly removed his hand from hers and the execs took their seats. Oliver stood, calling everyone's attention, and the meeting began.
"Thank you all for coming," Oliver began. "I know it's Saturday. I used to enjoy Saturdays in a much different way. I've recently learned in the past few weeks that Saturday's actually begin before noon." There was a knowing chuckle. Felicity smiled, glad that things weren't too tense. "Over the past few weeks, Queen Consolidated has undergone changes. And change isn't always a bad thing. It is how we stay ahead of the game. It is how we lead Starling. It is how we make this city and this world a better place for those who live in it.
"Change is difficult, though. I realize that. Change is a risk. Change sometimes fails. But the good news is, it only fails, when we stop trying."
Felicity looked up and met Oliver's gaze. She gave him an encouraging nod, letting him know he was doing great. Oliver always did his best when he spoke from the heart. Sure, he was good at telling people the things that wanted to hear, but when he really believed in the things he was saying, that's when he really sold himself.
"My father created a legacy that you all have been a part of from the beginning," Oliver continued. "I've looked to your guidance and wisdom to know how to best step up and be the leader that this company and city deserves. I've learned that that is nothing something I can do alone. It requires partnership." His gaze slid to Felicity again and she felt herself blush. That line about partnership hadn't been a part of his original speech.
"So today, I hope we can begin a new partnership with Palmer Technologies. I've recently become aware of the many accomplishments of Mr. Palmer, and the innovations of his small company. I think together, we can help each other become truly great. Mr. Palmer…"
Ray stood, buttoning his jacket. He gave Oliver a wide grin, marred only by his purple eye. Without the flick of his wrist the lights dimmed and his presentation begun.
Felicity started. There had been no time for set-up. No briefing of any tech or slides he needed to upload, but the projection screen slid down and he began to spin his vision into reality for the members at the table. Somehow he had hacked his way into their systems to set up his presentation. Felicity was glad it was dark enough to hide the daggers she was glaring in his direction.
Sara was right. She hated to be bested.
Between the visuals on the screen, the virtual reality lasers, and the statistical facts, the board was sold. They all walked out of the boardroom, eagerly shaking Ray Palmer's hand and truly excited to the innovations he might bring along.
Felicity hated to admit it, but she knew it was more to do with Ray's impressive show than Oliver's heartfelt worlds that had won them over.
Oliver was speaking with a few of the board members, when Ray appeared at Felicity's elbow.
"You can apologize, you know. For verbally berating me."
Felicity turned, narrowing her gaze at him. "Me apologize? What about you? Hacking past club security and what was with the light show? I thought I was at a Pink Floyd laser show. Not that I've ever been to a Pink Floyd laser show. That was more my mom's scene in the 80s."
Ray chuckled. "I can't apologize for hacking my way in. I had to do something to impress you."
"Impress me? I—"
"Mr. Palmer," Oliver interrupted. "I just wanted to apologize. Last night—"
"Was my fault entirely," Ray finished. "I was in the wrong place in the wrong time. And, as I learned, I shouldn't have been trying to play hero when I clearly wasn't needed."
Felicity pursed her mouth when Ray's lips twitched at the reference to her chastisement of him outside of Verdant.
"I know it was dishonest, but I was hoping to get an inside look at some of the hype surrounding you. Oliver Queen is a larger than life person. I wanted to know what I was walking into this morning."
"I understand, but I still feel responsible for…" he gestured to his eye. "How about a dinner tonight? All of us? We can talk man-to-man, instead of business-to-business? Felicity?"
"I'm sure I can set something up for you both," she said. Finding a reservation for Oliver was never a problem.
"I meant for the three of us," Oliver turned to Ray once again. "Felicity will be your partner here within Queen Consolidated. Her eyes and hands will be on everything Palmer Technologies and QC intended to create together."
"Well, then," Ray smile. "I guess we have a lot to talk about. But why wait for dinner…unless you both had plans today?"
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Ray hit the ground running. So did Felicity. Most of the following week, she spent with her new partner, going over ideas, logistics, goals. It was a whirlwind of responsibility and potential and Felicity found that she loved every second of it.
Of course, it took a day or two for her to cool down when it came to Ray. She was still angry with him for hacking through her technical defenses, and still curious about his motives. But he'd eventually worn her down and by Thursday they were working through lunch on a prototype for a smart watch that Ray was currently developing. He was having a bit of difficulty fine tuning some of the specs and Felicity was able to input a tweak or two.
Oliver barely saw her that week, too wrapped up in meetings of his own, and inducting a new assistant into his daily routine. Not to mention, after spending one afternoon with the two of them, Oliver became painfully aware how inadequate he was when it came to research and development. When talking tech, it was like Ray and Felicity were speaking a whole other language. Oliver grew annoyed and eventually just left them to it.
Other than a few emails to check in on her, she had been nothing except a flash of blonde ponytail, or a quick, fuchsia lipped smile as they crossed paths in the QC lobby.
On Friday afternoon he had some free time for lunch. He decided to head down to Felicity's new office and see if she wanted to head out. Tommy called him on his cell and he answered.
"Hey buddy, how's your week going?"
"Busy," Oliver replied, dipping into the elevator. Next to him stood a pretty executive assistant. He flashed her a polite smile, but ignored her lingering stare. "How about yours?"
"Oh you know…"Tommy said. "We've been packed every night, so there's that."
"I guess the way to bring in business is to punch people."
Tommy chuckled, mentioned the last time a fight had gone down at Verdant. It had been when Oliver punched a paparazzi photographer to prevent the asshole from snapping pictures of wasted Felicity. Tommy's laugh tapered off as he cleared his throat. Oliver was stepping out of the elevator and he rounded the corner toward Felicity's office. "Uh, so have you talked to Sara since Friday?"
"Why would I have talked to Sara?"
"We're friends with her…"
Oliver was going to mention that he and Sara didn't really share that kind of friendship. However, he stopped short when he saw Felicity through the window of her office. He was disappointed to discover that she was already eating lunch, and she wasn't alone. Ray was there, sitting next to her, perched on the edge of her desk. They were talking and laughing.
Felicity's nose scrunched up when he said something particularly funny and she smacked his leg. Ray reached down and stole a French fry off of her plate, popping it into his mouth. The scene looked sweet. Too sweet. Something about it twisted Oliver's stomach.
"Oliver, you there?"
Caught up in watching Ray and Felicity, Oliver had forgotten that he was still on the phone with Tommy.
Oliver opened his mouth to respond when the hallways began to shake. There were a few gasps and yells as the tremors spread across the floor. Oliver gripped the wall for support, as the building trembled. It was an earthquake.
They weren't that uncommon in Starling. After all, they did live near a fault line.
He looked up in time to see Felicity stumble into Ray's arms as the man caught her. The quake lasted no longer than a few seconds, but Oliver felt shaken to the core. His gaze lingered on Felicity in the arms of another man. He noticed the way Ray held her, as if he was dipping her down for a passionate kiss.
"Everything okay over there?"
He'd forgotten about Tommy again, his phone was still at his ear.
"Those quakes keep happening more and more often."
Oliver wasn't thinking about the quake, though. It had been nothing but a tremor. Instead he was focused on Felicity distance herself from Ray, straightening her pencil skirt and pushing at her glasses. Ray's body language seemed apologetic, but Felicity was waving off whatever he said with a smile. Then her hand landed on his arm, giving him a gentle squeeze.
Oliver had the urge to rush into her office and drag her out, claiming to need her for some mundane reason, then pulling her into the nearest dark space and-
"Oliver!"
"Yeah, sorry," he snapped, turning from the two-some and rounding the corner.
He was seeing things that weren't there. Ray and Felicity weren't flirting. There was nothing intimate about the two of them together. They were partners and becoming friends. That was a good thing.
Around him the office was reassembling from the quake. Oliver grasped the not on his tie, adjusting it and trying to assemble his own shaky thoughts. Employees were brushing off the scare and picking up the things around them that had fallen to the floor during the quake. Oliver knew he should make sure everyone was alright. "Listen, Tommy, I need to go."
"So you're cool to man the club tonight then?"
"What?"
"I need a night off," Tommy repeated. "Can you be at Verdant tonight?"
"Yeah, sure," Oliver replied, still distracted. He peeked around the corner again. Ray was hovered over Felicity's chair; they were both staring at her tablet. One of his hands touched Felicity's arm and Oliver saw red.
"Oliver!"
"Sorry! Yes, Verdant tonight…I'll be there."
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Thursdays tended to be steady at Verdant. It was always the weekend partiers that wanted to get their weekends started early. Back in his party days, Oliver knew that Thursdays were the perfect days for hanging out with friends. It wasn't about hookups or hangovers. It was about starting the weekend with an early drink and scoping out what trouble he could get into over the following three days.
Oliver was hidden in his office below the bumping floor of Verdant. When he'd gotten there, there was some cleaning to be done. Things had been toppled over from the quake that afternoon and they'd lost a few crates of alcohol. Glass and booze covered the area. It still reeked of rum.
Instead of calling Diggle or one of the busboys down to clean up, he'd changed into jeans and a t-shirt and done the work himself. Once that was finished, he didn't feel much like socializing. Instead he went over some accounts for the thousandth time, before he realized he was sketching in the margins.
Every now and again, his eyes drifted to the security cameras. Diggle was at the velvet rope, letting guests in and out. Roy, the new busboy, was in the back unloading some stock. The dance floor was flooded. Sara was behind her usual bar. She shown up that night, even though it was her night off, saying she wanted the extra tip money.
Oliver did a double take, when he noticed a familiar blonde sidle up to the bar. Once again, she wasn't alone.
Before he knew what he was doing, Oliver was flying up the stairs toward the VIP floor. He didn't even realize how under dressed he was for his own club. It didn't matter to him right at that moment.
Sara was handing Ray a beer and Felicity her favorite cocktail when Oliver reached them.
"Hey," he said, smiling so hard he thought his teeth might break.
"Hi," Felicity returned. "I didn't know you were here tonight?"
Did that mean she was hoping to spend time with Ray without him around? Oliver shook his head. He was jumping to conclusions. It was something Thea would have said and she was a teenager. Oliver was a grown man. "He needed a night off, so I'm watching over things."
One of Felicity's brows arched over her frames. "You need a night off, too. Tommy's not the CEO of his own company."
"Well, Tommy does what Tommy wants."
Oliver and Felicity passed Sara the same odd look at the salty comment. Before either of them could say anything, she flipped her blonde waves and headed toward the other end of the bar.
"What was that about?" Felicity leaned in and asked Oliver.
He shrugged, appreciating how close she was to him now. The proximity didn't last and she moved back, toward Ray.
"Since you are here, maybe you two can get to know one another? I'm going to go bother Sara."
Felicity smiled at Ray. Once she was behind him, she made a waving motion to Oliver and mouthed "go" before turning and leaving them alone.
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Felicity pushed between two guys at the bar and leaned on her elbows. "What's going on?"
Sara spared her a glance as she set out two low ball glasses and began sloshing liquid into them. "What do you mean?"
"That comment about Tommy?"
"What comment about Tommy? That'll be $20." Sara smiled and slid the drinks in the direction of her customers, taking cash from them and spinning to drop in the drawer. "Why are you hear with tall, dark, and handsome? I thought you were pissed at him for busting through your security?"
"I was. I am," Felicity said. "But he's not so bad."
"He's into you."
"You say that about every guy lately."
"Because it's true, everything is coming up Felicity," Sara winked and set up a line of shots.
Felicity glanced over at Ray and Oliver. They weren't speaking to one another. Oliver looked downright annoyed and uncomfortable. She didn't understand why she wanted them to be friends. It didn't make sense, really. Oliver was the CEO and their boss. Ray had said as much on their way over to Verdant that night.
"We're business partners, not friends," he had said.
"Oliver and I are friends. And I was his assistant," Felicity pointed out.
"Friends?" Ray had been intrigued and Felicity realized. "How did you two meet?"
Felicity tried to explain their history, saying they met at QC, keeping it PG and skipping over Oliver's failure as an intern. Ray didn't seem quiet convinced. His questions were skeptical and it seemed like he was trying to find out if it had been a case of assistant sleeping with her boss.
Felicity wanted to be indignant with him for the implication, but it was hard to be indignant when it was sort of the truth.
"We're friends, really good friends," Felicity had urged. Ray had somehow seemed disappointed by the answer.
She wasn't sure what she was doing with Ray, either. He was a mistake in the making. Felicity was well aware he was into her, she didn't need Sara to tell her that. There was a time not to long ago that he would have been her dream man: A hot, tech genius with a heart of gold. Her dreams had changed, though. Somewhere, weeks ago, she had started dreaming of someone else and couldn't stop.
Ray had been respectful. He flirted, but remained professional. He'd asked her to dinner and she gave him an honest answer. She didn't want to get into anything with anyone she worked with. Not without knowing for sure where it might lead. However, she wasn't opposed to getting to know him better and developing a friendship.
Felicity bit her lip, glancing at the two men once again, different in every single way. Oliver caught her gaze and she flinched. Even from across the room, she was nervous that he could read her thoughts.
There were so many questions on her mind and soon she would need answers. She was just afraid of the shift that would occur when she discovered what they were.
.
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Ray let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head. He took a sip of his beer. "Why do I get the feeling that Felicity is trying to hook us up?"
"My thought exactly," Oliver replied. He was going to need a drink for this, but Sara was busy and Felicity was about to pull her attention anyway.
It wasn't that he didn't like Ray. He didn't know the man. But over the past day he decided he didn't want to know him. A selfish part of him regretted ever knowing his name in the first place.
"She seems to think we'll get along," he continued. "She talks about you a lot. In between everything else we talk about. She admires you."
The comment warmed him. Oliver didn't realize that Felicity admired him. It was true, he had been trying to change the man he was, to live up to the expectations his circumstances had laid upon him. A part of him realized that without Felicity, he would have lost interest in being a better man. Without her guiding him and encouraging him…he would have lost out a long time ago.
"She's an amazing woman," Oliver admitted, feeling choked up. "I'm lucky to have her. Will you excuse me?"
He didn't wait for Ray's response before he broke away and headed back to his office. He needed to be away from the loud music and the flashing lights and the site of Ray's smile as he said Felicity's name. Something was happening inside him. Oliver's brain was beginning to catch up to his heart and he suddenly didn't know up from down. The pieces were falling together, dropping like dominoes, and he felt like he couldn't breathe.
He shut the door behind him and flew down the stairs and reaching straight for the secret bottle of whiskey buried in the back of a desk drawer. Without worrying about a glass, he twisted the cap, and pressed the opening to his lips. The liquid was bitter and burned, but it took away some of the tension he was feeling.
A moment later, he heard the door to the office open and shut, following by the clack of heels on the stairs. He didn't need to turn to know who was behind him.
"What are you doing? Is everything okay?"
"I needed a minute," he answered not turning to face Felicity. He couldn't look at her, not just yet. He was still catching up with himself. "Did you figure out what's the matter with Sara?"
"Nope," she popped her "p" and hopped up onto the tall counter at the other end of the room. It was a waist high work table that Oliver had been using to lay out plans with the contractors when they'd first opened the club. Now it was empty and had been for weeks, but it had remained in their workspace. "She won't talk and she won't look me in the eye, which means something really big is going on."
Oliver closed his eyes. Something big was going on with him, too. It was about to bubble out of him in the worst way possible at the worst time.
"Oliver, seriously. Are you sure you're okay?"
He turned his body to face her and saw concern filling her beautiful, shining eyes. Everything about Felicity was gorgeous. He felt like he was seeing her for the first time. She sat on that table top, glasses, pony tail, and short skit…a subtle and intoxicating combination of every guy's dream girl. Of his dream girl.
Oliver took another swig of the whiskey, which had Felicity jumping off the table and in his direction. She reached for the bottle and took it from him.
"Whoa, whoa," she cautioned. "What's going on? What happened to make you turn to Jack Daniels of all things?"
"Is there something going on with Ray?"
Felicity's brows pinched together. "What? No? Why would you think—"
"Do you like him?"
"He's okay. Not at first because he was kind of…creepy, to be honest. But he's grown on me."
"Do you ever think about that night?"
"What night? Oliver, you aren't making sense—"
"The night we met. The night we danced together. The night you went home with me—to Tommy's penthouse—the night we…" he broke off but the damage was done. The floodgates were open and there was no stopping the deluge of words tumbling from his mouth. He wanted to clamp his lips shut. At the meeting, when they had introduced Ray, he had talked about the risk there was in change. Everything was about to change between him and Felicity.
"It kills me, that I can barely remember it," he continued. "I can't remember what it was like to kiss you. I can't remember what it was like to be next to you in bed. That shouldn't matter. You were a one night stand. Only—"
Felicity was looking up at him, her eyes guarded. She didn't understand what he was saying. Truth be told, Oliver didn't fully understand what he was saying either. The only things he knew was that he hated seeing Felicity in Ray's arms that afternoon, he hated the idea that some guy might come along and replace him in her life, and he knew that he needed her. Probably a hell of a lot more than she needed him.
Felicity was smart and strong. She'd been through so much in her life and it had made her the kind, thoughtful, caring woman that he counted as his best friend. He wanted more than to be just her friend and Oliver Queen was so damn used to getting what he wanted, he was terrified of the prospect that he might not get it.
"I'm not saying any of this right," Oliver sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just—I just wanted to know. If you ever think about that night? Because I think about it. All the time."
She just stood there, looking up at him, blinking. It was the worst reaction he'd ever seen. He opened his heart—sort of—and she had nothing to say. Felicity always had something to say.
Now he had done it. He had crossed the line. He didn't deserve her, he knew that, but he had still hoped. He hoped that maybe there was a part of her that felt the same things that he did when they were in a room together. He had hoped that there was a part of her that wanted to reach out to him whenever he was near, wanted to relive those parts of that night that they both should have remembered.
If he could go back in time and smack the boy he had been that first night. He would tell himself how important she would become, how much he should cherish that night, commit it to memory, because she was the most brilliant woman that he would ever know and he would never be able to get over how perfect she truly was.
Oliver's shoulders slumped as her silence stretched on. He couldn't stand there any longer. His mouth might open again and he might dig the hole even deeper. Now all he could hope was that he hadn't made things too awkward. Hopefully he wouldn't lose her friendship because he was a jealous idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Sara was good enough to keep things running for the night. He'd let her know he was heading out and then he would find Tommy to drown his sorrows. His feet dragged as he made his way to the office stairs.
"I think about it too."
Oliver stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned back to face her. His chest tightened. She was looking back at him across the small distance. This time, instead of seeing concern or utter confusion, he saw something else. Her answer had been just above a whisper, he wasn't even sure he'd heard her correctly.
"You do?"
She nodded, her ponytail shaking in the dim light of the office. "I do. I thought it was obvious. I tried really hard not to. I thought we were both on that friends-only page but I—I couldn't help it and I just—"
Oliver didn't let her finish. In two steps he sliced the distance between them. His hands reached out and slid behind her head, bringing her face to his, and Oliver swallowed her nervous babbles in a needy, desperate, over-due kiss.
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I know you guys probably hate me for that cliffy. But just wait...it's all about that next chapter ;) That's all I'm saying!
in the mean time...
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