Chapter 12 – Tick tock goes the clock
Felicity's mood hadn't improved by the following morning. She marched purposefully down into the foundry, hoping that some work would take her mind off of the less than desirable end to her evening.
She had replayed that short exchange in her mind repeatedly as she lay in bed, wondering if perhaps she had misinterpreted, or been too harsh. Every time, she came to the same conclusion. She wasn't comfortable with the way Cas manipulated the people in his life, nor the way he kept information from them 'for their own good'. Looking back, even the seemingly nice things he had done for her, or for Oliver, had always been without consent or forewarning. Buying Queen Consolidated for example, or even his little coffee trick. His entire personality seemed to be based on manipulation of others.
She reached the bottom of the stairs, lost in thought, and was momentarily taken by surprise when Oliver stormed past her up and out of the foundry.
"Where are you going?" She asked, regaining her composure.
"To have a talk with my mother." Oliver replied curtly, not even slowing down.
Felicity stood in mute shock for a moment, 'That can't be a coincidence.' She thought absently.
She made her way to her desk and saw the top of a head sat in her chair. As she got closer, the figure turned to face her, and of course, it was the last person she wanted to see right now.
She opened her mouth to upbraid him, tell him to get out of her seat and that she was not in the mood for any more games, when she saw the look on his face. It was slightly defeated, and the most open she had ever seen him look. She swallowed her snide comments, and within a moment he spoke.
"I must beg your forgiveness Felicity. You were absolutely right last night, keeping that information from Oliver was wrong. It is not my place to decide how he or anyone else lives in this life…" He paused, as if he was about to say one thing, then thought better of it and instead said, "I have attempted to make amends. After the meeting with Nyssa, which went surprisingly well by the way, I told Oliver the truth. I considered simply telling him I had just found out, but I thought again on your words, and so I told him the whole truth. How I have known for weeks, and your finding out was what prompted me to reveal his mother's duplicity to him. He wasn't happy, but he accepted the truth of it."
"Oh," was all she could manage. She hadn't expected him to relent so quickly; he had been calmly adamant that he was right the previous evening. She wondered what had changed.
"Nothing changed as such." He responded, without waiting for her to articulate her thoughts aloud. "I simply could not stand the idea that you held a negative opinion of me."
"Ok, I guess I can understand that. Not that I'm saying that I'm fine with it, because after some thinking, I kinda realised that this behaviour is pretty ingrained into you." She halted her minor word vomit and tried to fill the gap by asking the first thing that came to her mind. "Did you wait down here just to tell me you're sorry?"
"Not entirely." He replied slowly, seeming to weigh up whether to speak. "In the interest of full disclosure, I was just erasing a piece of the foundry's security footage from last night."
"What?!" Felicity was mortified, he claimed to be sorry about lying to and manipulating Oliver, and then he uses her computer's without permission, to tamper with security footage, again without permission. "You had better have a good explanation mister." She raised a finger up to his eye level, and he seemed to struggle with a grin. 'Don't even think about giving me that look right now.' she thought angrily.
His face dropped again and he raised his hands in supplication. "It seemed a good reason my dear. After the meeting with Nyssa, Sara and Oliver came back here together. Between my revelation to Oliver about his mother and all of the tension that had been present between Sara and Nyssa, I knew something had subtly shifted between them. When I got here first, i thought I'd check the footage before you arrived just to be sure."
She raised an eyebrow, confused at first, then realisation dawned and her eyes widened.
"Oh my god, so you're saying that they...that Oliver and Sara...right here, in the foundry? Seriously?"
He nodded and said, "Right there in fact" pointing to the training mat.
After a pause to let the information sink in, he continued. "I feel I must once again apologise if I have made a false assumption, but despite your assurance that you no longer have feelings for Oliver, I felt that walking in this morning for a routine check and seeing something quite so...graphic, would have been an unpleasant shock for you."
Felicity let out a sigh, the culmination of her disjointed thoughts the night before finally coming together.
"I forgive you for last night." She began, trying to organise the mini epiphany she had just had. "After you left, I started to think about all the different ways you had lied, withheld information, or acted manipulatively since we met, and I realised that the reason I got so angry wasn't because you always act this way, that seems to be a part of who you are, and I can accept that, it was that this time your intentions weren't noble, or good. Every time you have acted this way until now has been motivated by good intentions. Buying QC was to help Oliver, your tricks at the office have always been to brighten up my day, or make me laugh. But this time, you did something that could really hurt your friend, and you didn't see the difference. That was what upset me."
He seemed to visibly relax at this, the tension in his shoulders dissipating. "You are wise beyond your years Felicity. As a child I was told repeatedly that the gods cast a distinction between intention and deed. It is self evident that the greatest harm can often result from the best intentions. An insidious concept to be sure, but one that must be kept in mind. I will endeavour to increase my vigilance in this matter. May I ask a boon? Could we continue from here as if this unfortunate incident never occurred?"
She couldn't help but laugh a little bit, and when he raised an eyebrow inquisitively, as seemed to be his thing, she laughed more. Her laughter died down as he started to look worried and tried to look reassuring as she said. "Of course, as long as it doesn't happen again, I can let this one slide. I'm laughing because you always seem to find the longest possible way to say stuff. Seriously, can't you occasionally talk like a regular person?"
He joined her in her mirth. "Why use one word my dear when you can use twenty." He added a wink for effect.
Just at that moment, Felicity's monitors beeped. She motioned Cas aside and sat down, tapping away at her keyboard. After a minute, she looked up at him and said, "Arrow business, someone broke into a company called Kord Industries and stole a piece of pretty advanced tech. I should probably call Oliver."
She stepped away and dialled her phone. Cas sat in the spare chair at her desk and watched her walk away and start to pace while speaking animatedly on the phone. He enjoyed the way she talked so vibrantly, how she couldn't seem to help being so expressive, both physically and verbally. He was once again struck by how fascinating she was, and his worry from the previous night, that he had stepped over a line from which he could not return, flooded back into him. He suppressed the feeling, reminding himself that logically she had given him a chance, and as long as he used it wisely, he had no need to worry.
As Felicity came back over, he saw her hang up the phone.
"We're going to work on the mysterious thief problem this afternoon, and Oliver wanted to remind us both that it's Sara's big welcome home party tonight, and not to be late."
"Sounds wonderful," Cas replied evenly, sensing her reticence in the matter. "Perhaps we should be getting to the office, if you're leaving early to work on this Arrow business, and we have a party to go to."
He stood smoothly as he spoke and gestured for her to go ahead of him, then followed her up the stairs to Verdant.
Sara was terrified. She had no problem admitting it. Taking on the lowlifes in the Glades was child's play compared to what she was being subjected to tonight. Her welcome home party. She shuddered. People crowding round her, smiling and telling her what a miracle it was she had come home safely. As if she hadn't clawed her way back with every ounce of strength she had. As if she wasn't still lost, adrift in the darkness that threatened to consume her. She sighed, knowing that this line of thinking wouldn't get her anywhere.
She rang the doorbell of the Queen Mansion, her mother and father standing silently behind her. As the door opened, she was greeted by the sight of a smiling Oliver, with his mother at his side. After pleasantries were exchanged, Sara stepped away to join the rest of the party.
She entered the main room and saw almost nobody she immediately recognised. Her first reaction was to look back to Oliver for support, but she saw him heading into another room with her father. 'Uh oh' she thought immediately, 'I wonder what that's about.'
She turned back and realised people had started noticing her walk in. A few at a time, they came up and offered all of the pointless platitudes she had expected. She plastered a smile on her face and went through the motions, silently wishing for the whole affair to be over. She knew Oliver meant well, and his wanting to celebrate her return was very sweet, but this was all a bit much.
Just as she was reaching her limit, a soft accented voice at her shoulder said, "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm afraid I must steal away the lady of the evening for just a moment. If you will excuse us." She looked up just in time to see Cas flashing the group in front of her an apologetic smile. They all seemed instantly charmed by him, and didn't complain as he whisked Sara away into an adjoining room that was much quieter. He sat her down and went over to a drinks cart, pouring them both a healthy glass of scotch.
"You looked like you needed rescuing," he said by way of explanation, making his way back to her and sitting down. "You know rumour has it you were once the life and soul of these kinds of events. Getting old?" The last was said with a half smile and a wink. She covered her mouthful of whiskey as she giggled.
"Says you old man," she retorted, laughing harder. "I bet your party days are long gone."
He looked past her for a moment, a wistful look in his eye. "Yes you may be right about that," he replied with mock seriousness, "but I can still party with you younguns when the mood strikes, don't you forget it."
"So, I must say, I'm glad you and Oliver finally stopped tiptoeing around one another and acted on your feelings."
Sara was stunned for a moment. She and Ollie had agreed that they would keep it between them for a while, for her family's sake, and although Felicity and Diggle had been told that afternoon, she wasn't sure how he knew.
"If you want to keep a secret from someone who has access to the foundry, you might want to reconsider where you have your spontaneous nights of passion. Or at least turn the security feeds off...although I suppose that defeats the point of spontaneity." He explained matter of factly as she cringed.
"You saw that? Oh god I'm mortified!" She covered her face in her hands.
"Luckily nothing I haven't seen before, with either of you actually." She looked up at this and he absentmindedly waved away her look. "Long story...as I was saying, luckily I saw it before one of the other two had an embarrassing morning."
Sara sighed, "I guess you're right, thanks."
"Anytime. So, back to you and Oliver," he wiggled his eyebrows in an uncharacteristically silly fashion, "whats the gossip?"
She wasn't sure whether to laugh or not, his behaviour was so out of character from the aloof, serious guy she knew.
"Um, we're kinda not sure yet. It's nice with him, familiar, and there's always been a connection there, even before the island, and its only grown stronger, despite all that time apart. I'm kinda scared that I'll do something to screw it up." She looked down sadly, "I'm still so full of darkness from my time in Nanda Parbat, and I don't know if it'll ever go away."
Cas reached out and placed a hand reassuringly against her cheek. She leaned into it and sighed as he spoke.
"Speaking from extensive experience." He put a finger under her chin until she was looking at him again, "And not to belittle all that has happened to you, but trust my centuries of experience when I say that darkness only takes hold if you let it. You have the power to let it all go, just as Oliver did. He had friends around him that brought him back from the dark place he was in after Lianyu. They helped him get to where he is now, and we can do the same for you."
"I don't know..." She began, but he cut across her.
"Whether or not you yet believe it, just do not ever think you are alone. If at any time you find yourself starting on a dark thought process, talk to one of us. Okay?"
"I'll try Cas, thanks." He lifted his hand in a fist, then extended the little finger towards her and said "Promise?
Her eyebrows felt like the were climbing up into her skull she was so surprised.
"Are you expecting me to pinky swear?" He nodded, "How do you even know what that is?" She laughed as he looked confused for a moment.
"Popular culture suggests this is something girls your age would do." He said, as if that explained everything.
Her laughter died down and she said, "Thanks, that comment reminded me how much of an old man you are again. I was worried for a second."
And with that, she grabbed his pinky with hers and shook it
"I pinky swear I won't try to go through life alone anymore, I will let you and Oliver, and maybe the rest of Team Arrow, in. Okay?"
"Wonderful," he responded, smiling warmly. "Shall we rejoin the party?"
As they crossed the foyer, Sara looked downcast again. When she saw Cas's look of confusion she simply said, "Laurel didn't come."
As Cas was about to offer her some comfort, Oliver walked up and informed Sara that they were both needed at a bank robbery that was being undertaken by the Clock King. The older man wished them all the best, and then left the party. As he got into his car, a thought popped into his head, and he felt his meddlesome side coming to the fore. He remembered Felicity's reaction to his actions with Oliver, and it sobered him for a moment, but then he recalled her distinction between noble and deceitful intentions, and he picked up his phone.
He dialled the number he wanted, and waited. She picked up after a few rings, and he heard a mild slur to her voice.
"Good evening Laurel." He began smoothly, waiting for her to respon in hopes of gauging her mood.
"Well well well, if it isn't my knight in shining armour. To what do I owe the pleasure."
'Oh good,' he thought 'Perhaps this won't be so difficult after all.'
"As a matter of fact, I was calling to see if you would be much averse to the idea of accompanying me to lunch tomorrow. There is a lovely bistro that has opened downtown and I imagine one with tastes as refined as your own would be more than equipped to sample it with me."
"Well I can't resist such an eloquent offer, pick me up at 1 and we'll see if this place is all that."
"Fabulous, I will see you then."
He ended the call and immediately redialled, calling Felicity. He had told her he intended full disclosure, and he planned to stick to that, so he felt he had better explain why he was taking Laurel out before the event, so as to assuage any small possibility of jealousy.
It feels to me like not a lot happened this chapter, especially with the title, but I usually post a new chapter at around 3000 words, so I'll put this one out there now. I'll do a part 2 in the next few days with any luck, finishing the clock king arc and maybe even a bit of the following episode as well...
As always, let me know what you think! Reviews keep me going :)
