CHAPTER 37
It's the morning of December 31st. It's her wedding day and in the distance she can hear faint voices downstairs and the moving of furniture as the Queen Manor is being transformed into the wedding venue they have spent the last few weeks planning this big event around.
The day starts off with spoiling, first with breakfast in bed served by Raisa, followed by a long relaxing bath in one of the guest suites she's gotten comfortable in, reserved specifically for her bridal preparations.
Sitting at the vanity in her fluffy robe, she takes in the image staring back at her through the mirror. The dark black circles under her eyes are almost completely gone. The redness of her cheeks is back and the long blonde hair cascading over her shoulders is an image she hasn't seen in months.
It's strange seeing the long blonde hair again, especially since she's grown used to her bald head and short curly hair of the wig for quite some time now. She's sure Oliver will be surprised as well, she just hopes he'll like it, seeing that she hasn't seen him in two days.
Not seeing each other isn't something they exactly planned, but with all the last minute preparations for the wedding and her moving into his apartment, which Oliver and Dig decided they would handle on her behalf, they became so busy and before they knew it, they were in two different buildings; Oliver in their apartment and her under the watchful eye of Colonel Thea Queen.
Their apartment – it still seems strange thinking about things as theirs now and although it's been challenging not waking up next to him these last two days, by the end of the night they will never willingly be separated again. They will be husband and wife!
The excitement of this realisation brings her attention to the butterflies in her stomach as she plays with the blonde locks between her fingers.
She wanted to do something different with her hair for their wedding. It's not that she didn't like the wig she was wearing, she just needed something special for her special day. She made an appointment with Gina to discuss if this could be made possible, maybe an updo wig, anything that was different from what she normally wears.
Of course when Felicity arrived at the appointment Gina completely freaked out at the news of Felicity getting better and almost did a back flip when she saw how Felicity's hair was already growing out and blonde for that matter. Gina assured her that she had the perfect solution for her wedding hair and it wasn't long after that, Felicity was scheduled for an appointment at Fab Hair Studio with world renowned hair stylist Linda Fernandez.
Linda was so excited to meet Felicity, especially after speaking to Gina on the phone. What Felicity thought was the styling of a new wig, turned out to be no wig at all. Linda created a new product that is going to revolutionise hair extensions as we know it and Felicity didn't mind one bit having to be the guinea pig for this product. If she didn't have to wear a wig again, she would be as happy as a pig in mud.
So here she is. You can barely see where the extensions were attached to her own hair. She loves her new look because she looks, in the words of Linda, fabulous baby!
She smiles at herself, recollecting the events of the last few days and it makes the excitement even more palpable.
"Aunty 'listity!" she hears the three year old calling, evidently very confused about the amount of doors in one hallway.
"I'm here Sara, follow my voice honey!" Felicity calls back, when the door to her room opens with quite a bit of force and the cutie pie comes running straight for her, her little arms stretched out for a hug.
After the hug, Felicity's attention immediately moves to Sara's hair and the dusty pink bows carefully styled between her natural curls.
"Look at your hair! You look so pretty!" Felicity fusses, putting Sara right into princess fairy mode, twirling in the middle of the floor so Felicity can have a full three sixty degree angle of her hair.
She's extremely adorable and Felicity makes a mental note to ask the photographer to take some pictures of Sara twirling in her flower girl dress.
Once Sara is done twirling the little drama queen does a small curtsy and walks back to Felicity, who playfully picks her up and places her on the vanity so they are eye level.
"So, what have you been doing today?" she asks the toddler who is gently tangling her chubby little fingers through the new blonde locks.
"We had bweakfast with uncle 'liver." the tone of her little voice slightly increases as she gets to the end of the sentence. Something new Felicity notices is that Sara is suddenly substituting her 'r's' for 'w's'. It's not on every word though. Must be something she must have acquired from her friends at the new kindergarten she's been attending twice a week.
"Oooh, uncle Oliver's breakfasts are the best." Felicity agrees. "What did he make you?"
"We had pancakes with fwuit and sywup. I like the sywup ones but mommy says Sara can only have one."
"That must have sucked. I also like the syrup ones."
Sara nods her head in agreement, "but daddy says I must listen to mommy because the baby makes mommy grwumpy."
Baby? Is Lyla pregnant?!
"Baby?" Felicity asks innocently.
"Yes, the baby in mommy's tummy silly!" Sara jokes, still stroking Felicity's hair.
John and Lyla probably decided not to announce it yet with everything going on, so she decides not to press further. They will announce it when they are ready.
"So cutie, does uncle Oliver like your hair?"
"Yes, but daddy says he has hearts in his eyes."
"Hea…"
"Sara Diggle!" a stern voice interrupts Felicity before she can ask the next question.
The little girl immediately drops Felicity's hair sitting up straight where Felicity has placed her on the vanity and her little eyes become as big as saucers. She obviously knows that voice. The familiar voice of her mother clearly spelling out 'you are in big trouble young lady'.
"What have I told you about running off like that?" Lyla asks, coming into the room.
Sara holds out her arms so Felicity can put her down on the ground. She immediately moves over to her mother.
"I'm sowwy mommy. I wanted to show aunty 'listity my hair." Sara looks down at the ground, pouting her lips.
This little girl is very crafty. She knows exactly how to play her parents and Felicity has to hold her laugh otherwise it might complicate this situation.
"It's okay honey." Lyla says sighing at the sight of her three year old and bends down to Sara's level. "There's a lot of strangers in this house today okay, so please don't do that again. If I lose you, where am I going to find another Sara?"
"From the internet?" she asks innocently.
"The internet?" Lyla asks confused, probably thinking that they will have to have the 'where do babies come from' conversation earlier than expected if her daughter thinks you can order babies off the internet.
"Yes! Uncle 'liver says aunty 'listity can find anything on the internet."
This little statement makes them both laugh as Lyla hugs her little girl, telling her she's not angry anymore.
"I'm sorry about that Felicity. I hope she didn't bother you."
"She's no bother at all. She's my favourite." Felicity answers winking at Sara as the toddler attempts to do the same ending with both her eyes closing at the same time.
"Speaking of hair. Yours looks stunning! Is it a wig?"
"Actually no, it is a wedding gift from the company that made my original wig. It's human hair extensions and now I don't have to wear wigs anymore. I got it done yesterday."
"So I gather Oliver hasn't seen it yet?"
"No he hasn't. I just hope he likes it."
"Felicity, you could wear a garbage bag and that man will still look at you as if you hung the moon."
Felicity can feel the blush on her cheeks thinking about how intense their gazes can get at times.
"And by the looks of it, you're sporting heart eyes too."
'hearts in his eyes'
"Oh heart eyes!" Felicity exclaims, putting two and two together now.
"I have known Oliver Queen for a while now and he's changed quite a bit, but one thing is for sure…he will never be able to change the way he looks at you."
Felicity's far off gaze is quickly interrupted when the Colonel and the hair-and makeup team start to bundle in the room.
"Come on Sara, let's leave aunty Felicity alone, while she gets ready." Lyla instructs the toddler, who is mesmerised by the equipment being packed out in the room.
She runs over to Felicity and kisses her cheek. "See ya later!" she yells as the runs to catch up with her mom already halfway out the door.
XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX
"Knock knock." Felicity looks over at the bedroom door seeing her mom peeking through.
"Come in mom. Thea's just zipping me up." Felicity says with a smile as she takes in her appearance in the floor length mirror in the guest suite.
"Oh honey!" Donna exclaims, "you look absolutely beautiful!"
Felicity spins around meeting her mother's outstretched arms, "I can't believe my baby is getting married!" squeezing her daughter tighter.
"Yeah, it's kind of surreal for me too." Felicity softly says still embracing her mom.
"Now, now ladies, no smudging our make up today okay?" Thea instructs, but she can hear the strictness of her voice has some sort of crack in it. They are all feeling a little emotional today, with good cause. There's so much promise in today. Not just is she marrying the love of her life, she's also on the verge of being in remission after she thought she would never have a future. She tries to take a deep breath, pushing back the forming tears in her eyes and focuses on Moira also joining them in the room.
"Oh my, Felicity! You look simply radiant!" Moira compliments squeezing her hand and giving Donna a side hug.
Her two mothers have become relatively close and she's thankful for it. They are two very different women but the thing she admires from them the most is that they both are strong and she's learned so much from both of them.
"I think you all look absolutely beautiful too." Felicity compliments the three ladies now standing in a semi-circle around her.
"Since everyone is here now, I think we can start with the gifts?" Thea proposes looking over to Moira and Donna who nod in response.
"Okay, I'll start." Donna says as she takes the gift bag from Thea. "Honey, my gift to you for today is 'something old'. Before your grandma Amelia died, she gave me the garter that she wore on her wedding day in the hopes that I would do the same on my wedding day. I didn't exactly have a traditional wedding, since it was a spur of the moment thing at a Vegas chapel, but I kept this safe, hoping that one day I could pass it on to you on your wedding day." Donna hands Felicity the gift bag and Felicity retrieves the garter. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the wedding colours as well and the little detail on the garter resembles her earrings.
"Mom!" is all Felicity manages to say embracing her mother, trying very hard to fight the tears forming again. "This is so special. Thank you."
"It's my pleasure baby girl. And who knows, maybe one day you'll be able to pass it on to your daughter too." her mom's eyes are swimming in tears and she can no longer keep the tears from spilling.
"I hope so too mom." she embraces her again.
Thea sees that it's inevitable - neither one of them is leaving this room without smudged makeup and starts handing out tissues.
Donna helps Felicity sit down on the bed while she slides on the garter up to her thigh and Thea hands Moira the jewellery box containing the rose gold and diamond belt.
Once the belt is removed from the box, Felicity straightens her dress and turns so Moira can fit the belt around her waist and fasten in, making sure the ribbon falls perfectly with the back of Felicity's dress.
"Okay, so we have 'something old' and 'something new' covered. You took care of the 'something blue' and I got you 'something borrowed'." Thea says and hands Felicity a small jewellery box containing two hair pins.
"Oh Thea!" Felicity gasps as she gently takes them out of the box, inspecting the detail on them much closer.
"It's not real stones or anything like the rest of the gifts, but there's a lot of sentimental value to those pins." Thea explains, earning a sympathetic smile from everyone standing in the room. "My dad had a rule that he would never be away from home at long periods of time but there was one time when he couldn't help it. QC was in the middle of huge negotiations on a project and it caused it him to be away from home almost the whole month, only seeing us for a day or two in between trips." Felicity sees Moira fiddling with her fingers thinking of her late husband and without a second thought she links her arm with Moira's as a sign of comfort.
"I hated that he was away for so long, but when he came back from his last trip to San Francisco he handed me these little pins." Thea smiles at the memory. "Apparently he was on his way to a meeting when next to the side of the road he saw a street vendor selling costume jewellery. He said the pins immediately drew his attention, making him think of me. It was beautiful yet bold and he couldn't help but stop and buy it for me."
"He was late for his meeting that day but he said that he didn't care because we would always be his first priority, he always thought of us when he wasn't with us. It was the least expensive gift he's ever bought me but this gift to me held the most value, because I knew, no matter where he was he would always think of me, think of our family."
If Donna's story didn't bring them to tears, Thea's sure did.
"I wanted you to wear it today because I know he would have loved you Felicity, just as much as we do….and in some way you wearing these, I know he's here with us today, sharing in the joy."
Felicity gently leaves Moira's arm and embraces her sister. No need for legal titles or papers, this is what Thea Queen has become to her….a sister.
Felicity sits down behind the vanity again as Thea inserts the pins carefully into Felicity's hair.
A quick touch up of everyone's makeup and Felicity takes a last glance in the mirror.
"I'm ready." she says with a broad smile on her face.
"Okay then sis, let's get you hitched!"