Chapter 3: Making Connections
*****A Few Days Later*****
Felicity had been having a great time with her cousin. They'd done the spa thing one day. It was like a little slice of heaven. Felicity couldn't remember the last time she'd been so relaxed. Her job working for Oliver was high stress. She needed to make time to do things like this when she got back to Starling City. Of course, Tony was already starting his campaign of convincing her to never go back. Some of his offers were a bit outlandish. He'd even offered to make her president of Tony's personal lab, which would make her basically his tech assistant. Even though Tony's work in his lab was eons better than the work Oliver had done at QC, she had no desire to ever be anyone's assistant, no matter the title, no matter the job.
It was so great seeing Pepper so happy with Tony. The two of them were so different yet so perfect together. She couldn't help watching them with more than a pang or two of yearning. That's what she'd imagined things would be like with her and Oliver if he'd ever let himself love her. She knew they could be that good together. She knew that she would make him happier than he'd ever been. Coming to the realization that Oliver didn't really want to be happy was hard. Felicity would've been able to handle just loving him in silence and waiting by his side. What she couldn't handle anymore was watching him with another Lance sister—it was just too much. She knew she deserved more than his occasional pats of affection. Felicity wasn't sure when she'd learn to settle for so little. Oliver Queen had come into her world and changed it forever. Somehow, her entire life had become all about him and his missions and his feelings. She'd kept pushing herself and her needs further and further back; Felicity couldn't remember the last time she'd been truly happy. Watching Pepper and Tony's obvious happiness had hit that home in a painful way. It was a revelation.
No more. Felicity wasn't going to live her life in limbo waiting for a man who may never be capable of loving her the way she desired and deserved. She wasn't going to wait around for him to finally see her. She was done just being his Girl Friday. Life was short, and she deserved to have much more. So when Pepper suggested going out to dinner with her, Tony, and a few of his Avenger friends, she'd agreed eagerly. The party of six took up two tables. She sat across from Pepper, who had Tony next to her. Natasha was next to Tony. Pepper had made sure Steve sat next to Felicity while Dr. Banner sat on Steve's other side. Pepper had rightly guessed that meeting Steve in a larger group would make it easier on her. As she watched Tony tease Felicity, easily drawing her out of her shell, she relaxed. Steve seemed to be captivated by her. She glanced over at Natasha, who had supported her plans to fix the two up. Natasha had been trying to get Steve to date since she'd met him. So far, though, he'd been resistant to her efforts.
"So how long will you be visiting?" Natasha asked Felicity once their main course had been served.
"Oh, well, I'm not sure. I kind of told my boss that I'd come back when I was ready," she admitted.
"Really? You can do that?" Dr. Banner asked.
"Well, I've worked almost 24/7 since I started working for him, and he knew I needed a break," Felicity shared.
"Who's your boss?" Steve inquired.
"Oh, I work for Oliver Queen," she said. She went to push up her glasses in a nervous habit, then recalled she was wearing contacts. She'd wore an attractive black dress that hugged her slight figure and stopped a few inches above the knees. Its spaghetti straps were perfect for a hot summer night on the town.
"Really?" Natasha asked with interest. Her contacts with ARGUS had brought up his name before. She never did figure out exactly why. Amanda was very elusive when she wanted to be. It was one of the things Natasha admired the most about her. "He's got to have the worst luck on the planet. I can understand why you needed a break."
Steve frowned in confusion. He couldn't keep up very well with all the changes in the world, so he didn't try anymore. The news was something he mostly avoided. If there was anything important that he needed to know, he trusted that his friends or former SHIELD contacts would let him know. "I'm sorry. I don't keep up much with events in other cities. What's happened with your boss?" he asked Felicity. He found Pepper's cousin to be a delight. She was beautiful but not the kind of beautiful that left him feeling foolish and awkward. Unlike Natasha, he could tell she didn't use her looks as a weapon. Instead, she seemed a bit shy until Tony started asking her questions and sharing stories about her. She'd blushed at the attention but had soon become animated. It was obvious she had a natural sweetness and self-deprecating humor he found very appealing. For the first time in a very long time, he felt a stirring of interest for another woman who wasn't Peggy.
"Well, about seven years ago, Oliver went on his father's yacht with his dad and a girlfriend. The ship had problems and went down. He ended up the sole survivor and spent five years alone on a deserted island. A year after he got back to Starling City, he found out his best friend's father and his mother were involved in a plot to level the Glades. Malcolm Merlyn had been his dad's best friend, and they concocted some sick plan to get rid of the criminal element of the city by creating an earthquake device. I managed to talk a detective through the deactivation of one of them. We didn't know there were two, so half the Glades was leveled. Hundreds of people died. Oliver's mom was tried for mass murder. She got off, but then was recently murdered by an old enemy Slade Wilson, who tried to take over the city. It was crazy. Oliver's sister has disappeared, and his company was stolen out from under him," Felicity recited.
"Didn't he foolishly give it away to his partner?" Tony asked with a smirk. He could've told Oliver that Isabel Rochev was not to be trusted.
"Yeah, well, his taste in women has never been his strong point," she said with a grimace.
"That sounds awful!" Steve said sympathetically. "The poor guy. I'm sure he was glad to have you there helping him."
Felicity blushed and Pepper gave her a fond look. "There's not much Felicity can't do with a computer, so she's been helping him get back his company," Pepper shared.
"Me and computers don't mix well," Steve admitted. "In fact, my little flip phone got destroyed in the line of duty recently, and when I went to replace it, they insisted I upgrade to something called an I-phone. They went over all that it did, but they ignored my request for a basic phone. They said Captain America had to have top of the line. It was pretty embarrassing."
Felicity smiled, finding his aw-shucks behavior really endearing. "Oh, I can totally help you with that!" she offered eagerly. "Do you have it with you?"
Pepper knew her cousin too well. "Why don't you save the tutoring for another time? I know how you get. We'll never get anything else out of you once a gadget is brought out. You're almost as bad as Tony!" she said fondly.
"No one's as bad as Tony," Natasha said knowingly. Everyone laughed.
Felicity gave a sheepish smile. "How about you come by Pepper's tomorrow some time and I'll give you a lesson?" she suggested. She loved opening someone's eyes up to the wonders of technology. Steve was literally like a techno-virgin. It was going to be so much fun!
"That'd be great," Steve said happily. "Would eleven be too early? I'll take you to lunch for your efforts."
"Perfect," Felicity said, smiling warmly at him. She had a lunch date with a real superhero! Glancing at her cousin, she saw her give a thumbs-up.
"So did you say you helped deactivate the earthquake device Merlyn was using?" Dr. Banner asked.
Felicity felt embarrassed at the sudden focus of everyone's curious eyes. Before she could answer, Tony replied, "Yep, Felicity here is a bono-fide hero!"
"She's in good company," Pepper agreed.
"Oh, I'm no hero! I just work at my computer. Other people do the heroic things!" she admitted.
"Well, talking someone through a disarmament is pretty impressive," Steve said in admiration. Felicity blushed.
"She works with Starling City's vigilante, too," Tony added.
"Tony!" Felicity admonished. She couldn't believe he'd revealed that to his friends, who she didn't know. Oliver would be so angry with her and betrayed.
"Tony," Pepper added in disapproval. "That wasn't your secret to share!"
"Keeping secrets is never good. My dad kept one too many. So did my uncle. When I refused, SHIELD and the government tried to punish me, but it didn't work. Then we find out SHIELD was so full of so many secrets that the enemy had easily infiltrated their ranks," Tony said with a curl of his lips. He was still pissed about the plan to kill Steve and the one that did kill Nick Fury—at least that's what people believed. Tony had his suspicions. He glanced around the table. "I trust these people with my life. Your secrets are safe here."
"Yes, but it's not my secret!" Felicity said, upset. Things were getting out of control. Unfortunately, that often happened when dealing with Tony—he was a force of nature.
"So you work for the Arrow? Clint's going to be so mad he's not here!" Natasha said, grinning. "I keep teasing him that he's not the best arrow guy in America anymore. It makes him so mad!"
Steve couldn't help but laugh at that even as he wasn't sure how he felt about Felicity's side job. A vigilante sounded too much like a guy who took the law into his own hands. Steve wasn't sure how that could be a good thing. However, he liked the idea of someone causing the Hawkeye's feathers to be ruffled. Clint was very serious most of the time. Not much seemed to get to him. "How do you help him?" Steve inquired. She didn't strike him as overly physical like Natasha.
"Well, he calls me up when he needs me to track down some criminal," she said. "I actually did get to go into the field once or twice."
"Oh, yeah? What did you do?" Natasha asked with interest. She would bet money that Felicity knew exactly who the masked hero/criminal was. However, she didn't want to upset the girl by asking.
"Once, I helped stopped a guy who robbed people by placing bombs in fancy necklaces. Fortunately, Dig was able to disarm the one that sort of got placed around my neck," she admitted.
"What?" Pepper demanded incredulously. "Why am I just now hearing about this?"
Felicity grimaced. Why couldn't she keep her mouth shut? "It happened like forever ago. Over a year. It wasn't that big of deal," she said with a shrug. "Slade Wilson was much scarier!"
"Slade Wilson? The guy who terrorized your city and your boss?" Steve asked. This woman was fascinating. She seemed shy. The last person Steve would ever have picked to put herself in danger. He wasn't sure helping a vigilante was a good idea, but it was clear that she thought she was helping people. Steve couldn't help but admire her dedication.
"Yeah. He sort of kidnapped me and another woman close to Oliver," she admitted.
"Felicity is the one who managed to get close enough to him and inject him with a serum to counter that mirakuru drug he and his soldiers were on that made him super strong," Tony said proudly.
"Was that a form of the super-serum I was injected with?" Steve wondered.
"I think it was definitely a copy of the same research," Felicity said. "But the results were much more like Red Skull and not you at all." She shuddered at the memory.
"Did all the soldiers get rounded up?" Natasha asked, wishing she'd been there. It sounded like such a party.
"Yes. ARGUS helped with the cleanup," Felicity said. "Of course, they'd planned on leveling the city, so the soldiers couldn't escape until the Arrow and his allies managed to stop them."
"ARGUS has gotten out of hand now that SHIELD has been dismantled," Natasha said in annoyance. Amanda had tried to recruit her, but Natasha had resisted. Now she was glad that she had.
"You're not kidding! But I'd give my right kidney to have some of the systems they have," Felicity said dreamily.
"You've been to their headquarters?" Natasha asked in surprise.
"Yea, Oliver's security guard was married and is having a baby with one of their operatives," Felicity said, deciding to downplay Oliver's involvement with ARGUS.
The server came up to the table and took away their dishes.
"Anyone want dessert?" Tony asked.
"Their chocolate mousse is really good," Pepper told Felicity.
"I'll have some of yours," Felicity said, smiling.
"I want my own!" Natasha said.
"Apple pie and coffee for me," Steve said.
"Don't forget the ice-cream on it!" Tony encouraged.
"Oh, yeah!" Steve said, grinning.
"I want peach pie and ice cream," Tony said.
"Me, too," Dr. Banner said.
The server soon brought them their desserts. Pepper put the chocolate mousse in between her and Felicity.
"Yum!" Felicity said after she took her first bite. Everyone dug into their desserts.
"It's good," Steve agreed, taking another bite of his pie a la mode.
"You should try this," Felicity suggested without thinking. She offered him a taste from her spoon. It wasn't until he leaned over and wrapped his lips around her spoon that she realized how intimate her gesture was. Flushing red, she moved the spoon away as soon as it was polite to do so.
"Yes, it is good," Steve said, giving her a warm smile.
Tony smirked at the two of them and opened his mouth to tease them when Pepper elbowed him hard. "Not a word, Tony, or I swear you'll regret it!" she whispered fiercely.
He glanced at her to gauge how serious she was and sighed dramatically when he saw she meant it. "Fine. You never let me have any fun!" he complained.
She rolled her eyes but smiled. "That's not what you said last night," she reminded him.
He grinned and leaned over to kiss her.
The server came back and dropped off the check. Pepper pulled out her card and put it inside.
"How much do we owe you?" Felicity asked Pepper.
"Oh, she's sweet," Natasha said with a grin.
"Don't worry about it. I got it," Tony said dismissively.
Felicity looked confused because Pepper had put her own card on the bill to pay.
"As CEO of Stark Industry, I have my own expense card. The company pays the bills," Pepper explained.
"But this isn't a business meeting," Felicity said.
"Yes, but I started the tradition decades ago that all my dinners are business expenses," Tony said with a smirk.
Felicity grinned, not surprised. He and Oliver may both be billionaire heroes, but they were very different.
After a little more small talk, the party got up to leave. They all walked out of the restaurant still chatting.
"It was nice to meet you, Felicity," Dr. Banner said.
"You, too, Dr. Banner," she said, smiling.
"Please, call me Bruce," he said cordially.
"Okay," Felicity said, pleased.
"If you want a tour of the non-tourist side of New York City, let me know," Natasha said with a saucy grin and a wink before waving goodbye and saying goodnight.
"It was great meeting you, Felicity. I'll see you tomorrow," Steve said smiling warmly at her. He held at his hand.
Felicity let his much larger hand envelope hers and felt a rush of electricity go through her at his touch. He must have felt something similar because his grip tightened slightly, and he looked at her in bemusement before releasing her hand.
"Thanks for dinner, Tony," he said, slapping Tony on the shoulder. He kissed Pepper on the cheek before getting into Natasha's waiting car.
Felicity waved goodbye. The valet had Tony's limo ready for them, so they got into it. She sat on the opposite seat from Tony and Pepper.
"Your little cousin works fast, babe. Less than a week in town and she's already scored a date with Captain America," Tony teased.
Felicity blushed. "It's not a date!" she protested.
"It sounded like one to me," Tony said, grinning. He turned to Pepper. "What do you think, Pepper?"
Pepper smiled at Felicity. "It sounded like you two hit it off. I thought you might," she said, pleased. "I can't think of a better man for you than Steve."
"What about Happy? He's great!" Tony suggested with a wink.
"Isn't he a bit old for me?" Felicity said, giggling. "Not to mention, I knew him when I still wore braces. It'd be kind of gross."
Tony laughed. "Good point!" he said.
Felicity looked out the window at the passing buildings, thinking of Steve. Thoughts of him filled her mind as they got back to their home. Even as they stayed up late chatting, his image wasn't far from her mind. It wasn't until she was getting ready for bed that something occurred to her.
She hadn't thought about Oliver much at all since she'd left Starling City. Talking about him tonight when she was sharing about her job had been the most she'd thought about him since she arrived. At first, she felt guilty for so enjoying her time away from her friends and their mission. Then she pushed aside her guilt.
It was time she got a life outside of Oliver. It was time she created some memories that had nothing to do with him.
******Chapter End******