Oliver looked through an endless selection of potential surrogates.

Surrogates.

He couldn't believe he was considering using a surrogate, but he wanted to have a child.

He was 32 years old and his wild days were behind him. He had his own business that was thriving. His family life was good. He had friends. He was happy, mostly.

However, something was missing from his life and he knew exactly what it was.

Two months ago, his bodyguard and best friend's wife had a little girl. When he walked into the delivery room and saw his goddaughter for the first time, he felt an intense longing unlike anything he ever felt before.

It was at that moment he knew what was missing in his life.

He wanted to be a father.

After a long consideration if this was something he could do that he could handle, he decided he was going to have a child. He wasn't in any sort of relationship and decided the best route for him to get what he wanted was through surrogacy.

He stopped as a familiar face was staring back at him from one of the many photos of surrogacy candidates

Felicity Smoak's blue eyes stared up at him.

Felicity Smoak was his EA. He had met her when he first started shadowing his father. At the time, she had been working in the IT Department.

He had gone to her with a laptop. It kept crashing. One epic ramble from her had him smiling freely, and the rest was history. She became his closest confidant.

When he became CEO, he made her his EA to help him. The position was meant to be temporarily. Yet four years later, she was still his EA and saving his ass every single day and getting none of the credit.

Of course, she made sure he never heard the end of it. It was one of his favorite things about her.

She knew her worth and wasn't afraid to stand up for herself. Including calling him out on his bullshit and putting him in his place when he needed it.

It surprised him she never told him about volunteering to be a surrogate. He didn't think it was something she would ever do.

Why didn't she tell him?

Oliver immediately shook his head. He was one to talk. He never told her that he wanted to be a father and was seeking out ways to make it happen.

He shook his head looking except now he couldn't focus. He kept coming back to Felicity's photo.

He picked up her picture again with her file and studied it.

And he knew his decision was made for him. He could think of no one better to be the surrogate mother to his child than Felicity.

The question was, would she agree to it?

"You're late." Felicity accused when he walked into the office Monday Morning.

Oliver had spent the entire weekend thinking about how he would ask Felicity to be a surrogate for him and decided it would be best if he were as straightforward as he could be.

"I'm always late." he smiled his most charming grin at her.

"You think it's endearing. It's not." Felicity held a folder out to him. "You need to familiarize yourself with these proposals that I approved last week."

Oliver accepted the folder and walked into his office, rounding his desk.

"If you already approved them, why do I need to bother with it? I trust your judgment." Oliver settled down in his chair, fixing his suit, slapping the folder down in front of him.

"I appreciate that you trust me to know what I'm doing," Felicity followed him into his office. "But you need to know all of this for your meeting with PR and the R&D department. The last thing we need is for you to go in there and have no clue about any of the proposals."

"Right." Oliver said.

His eyes slowly traveled over her and for the life of him, he couldn't understand why she was on the surrogate list.

There was no way she didn't have someone special in her life.

While they had known each other for years, there wasn't a lot Felicity would mention about her personal life.

It used to drive Oliver crazy, but he came to accept over the years that she was a private person and he respected her enough not to pry where she didn't want him.

"Oliver, are you paying attention to a single word I say or is it going in one ear and out the other?" Felicity waved her arm impatiently.

"I'm just a little distracted." Oliver stood and walked around his desk, moving closer.

"Distracted?" Felicity repeated. "By what?"

Oliver picked up a folder on his desk and motioned for her to take a seat on the couch.

Felicity feeling a sudden wave of nervous slowly took a seat, watching as Oliver joined her, putting the appropriate amount of space between them.

"Felicity, I have something personal I wish to discuss with you." Oliver figured it was best just to get everything out in the open. There was no point in beating around the bush.

"Personal how?" Felicity asked, warily.

Oliver held the folder out to her without another word.

Felicity opened the folder slowly. She saw her picture for the surrogacy. Her eyes shot to Oliver. "How did you get this?!"

Oliver saw the anger in her eyes and hurried to explain. "I want to have a child."

Felicity's mouth parted in surprise.

"I'm not in a relationship but being a father…It's something I've thought about and I don't want to wait for the right person to start a family to come along. I'm not sure that day will ever come. What I do know is I want to have a son or a daughter. I started looking into surrogacy."

His words stunned felicity. "You have this because you're looking for someone who can help you with this?"

Oliver nodded, watching as she processed what he was saying

Felicity looked up at him with wide eyes. "Are you asking me to be your surrogate?"

"That is exactly what I am asking you." Oliver confirmed.

"Oliver, I work for you." Felicity reminded him.

"I'm aware of that." Oliver replied.

"And you don't think that won't complicate matters?" Felicity questioned, sending him a look.

"Why should it complicate things?"

"Oliver, I know most people think you're an idiot, but I know you're not. You're a smart man. What are people going to think if I have your child? Everyone already thinks I'm sleeping with you."

Oliver's eyes narrowed. "And those idiots should treat you with the respect you deserve. I don't care what people gossip about, but I know you do and we can talk about it more if you say yes."

"That's not the only thing we have to consider." Felicity insisted.

Oliver's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We see each other almost every day. You'll be around for the pregnancy. How involved would you want to be and what about when the baby is born? Being your EA, I'll be around the baby all the time. Haven't you considered how confusing that might all be?"

Oliver paused, shifting in his seat. In all honesty, no, he hadn't thought about any of that. When he thought of Felicity, being the surrogate mother of his child, he thought about how beautiful and smart and kind his child would be like their mother. Like Felicity.

He thought of a little boy whip-smart and stubborn and blue eyes.

He thought of a little girl with blonde hair and beautiful, kind eyes and a smile to open any heart.

His heart plummeted, disappointment filling him. "You're saying no."

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying we need to look at this from all angles. If we don't, this situation could get complicated real fast and ugly. We work well together. I don't want to jeopardize that."

"Neither do I." Oliver didn't want to do something that would make Felicity find work elsewhere. He was pretty sure he would go crazy with stress without her.

Worst-case scenario, he'll bring the company down to its knees with her not there to help advise him.

"You are going to take the next couple of days to really think about this. Pros and cons, what you expect from this arrangement and what you don't and I'll do the same."

"Then what?" Oliver was not questioning her suggestion, but he needed to know what they were going to do after.

"Then we'll meet for dinner, talk it over, our concerns and conditions and if it's worth the risk with all the complications that could arise. Moving forward, we'll take it from there." Felicity said.

It was a sound plan. "Sounds good. We'll do that."

"And we should go somewhere private." Felicity added.

Oliver was in complete agreement. He in no way wanted the press getting a hold of this without him being able to control the situation and just what information is out there.

For now, he wanted to keep everything quiet and out of the media.

If they went through with this, he would hold a press conference at discussing everything over with his PR team, Felicity and his family…

His family. He hadn't told them about any of this. In fact, the only person who knew was his bodyguard and driver, and now Felicity. Even Tommy, his childhood best friend, knew nothing about this.

"We'll meet at my place in three days. We will have dinner. Go over everything there. Is 6 o'clock good for you?"

"Yes." Felicity agreed, "until then I think it's best we don't talk about this at work or anywhere, public."

"Agreed." Oliver settled into his chair and picked up the folder off his desk. "I will go over these proposals and get back to you on my thoughts on them before we attend the meeting."

"Good." Felicity said. "You have a few other meetings I need to prepare you for."

Oliver nodded, watching as she walked out of his office. A smile pulled at his lips.

He had a good feeling about this. Hope filled him, making him feel lighter than he had in a while.

Felicity spent the next few days thinking about Oliver's offer.

Being his surrogate would put her in the media's eye more than she already was. The gossip mill at the company was another thing to consider.

Then there was his family to consider. How much would they be involved in all this? Would Oliver even tell them?

How would this work with Oliver? How involved would he be with the pregnancy? Would he want to be there for every doctor appointment, or did he want to limit his involvement until the child is born?

Then there was the fact if she could keep from getting emotionally attached to this baby?

Felicity never really saw herself having kids. She didn't have anyone in her life and she did not want to live the life her mother did as a single parent.

There was nothing wrong with being a single mother. They were tough as nails.

No, it was more, she knew it what it was like growing up without a father. Always wondering why she wasn't enough.

So no, she didn't want to put a child through that.

And now, she wasn't entirely sure she could do what Oliver was asking.

She didn't want them wondering the same thing she did about her father, about her.

Not for the first time, she cursed the cancer destroying her mother's body. It was slowly taking away the only family she had, and now she had to consider things she otherwise wouldn't.

She did not know what she was going to do.

All she knew was that she needed money to pay for her mother's treatment and she did want to help Oliver, but was her resolve strong enough to do what needed to be done.

She didn't know if it was and that was what she was uncertain of most, and she hated it.

It was only after speaking to her mother that she finally made her decision.

She didn't care what she had to do at the end of day as long as her mother got the care she needed.

She would not lose her mother if there was something she could do about it.

She could only hope that Oliver knew what he was asking of her.