I am really trying to finish this up, not only for you guys but for myself. I've been re-watching arrow for inspiration and I just want to know how they got those photos for the phone caller ID's, like obviously that is not something they would have as the pic. oh well.
"Mommy!" Hope yelled running down the steps of the mansion.
Felicity dropped to her knees ready to embrace the child. "Hello, my sweet girl." She said once the child was in her arms.
"I thought you were gone forever like other mommy and daddy." It was as if a knife had been plunged into felicity's chest. This little girl had been through so much in her short four years of age, and she had just added to the trauma.
Felicity leaned back from the hug and held Hope at arm's length so she could look her in the eye. "I promise you, I will never leave you again." Her promise meant more than what hope could understand in that moment. She had to fight temporary custody; she needed her daughter back permanently.
Hope smiled remembering something "I drew you a picture, c'mon!" She pulled felicity by the hand into the other room.
Off to the side of the foyer Thea was questioning Oliver. "So you made me leave Roy's and come all the way here to babysit for the girl who set up the Wi-Fi at the club? How is that an emergency Ollie?"
"She was in trouble. Big trouble." He glanced at Felicity and then back to Thea "But she's safe now, that's what matters."
"Oh. Well you're just lucky that we're loaded, because Thea Queen does not babysit for cheap." She headed to the door, but stopped and turned around. "You know she has some kind of weird complex for the hood? Might want to tell her mom to turn off the news." And with her last comment she was out the door.
Oliver was confused by her statement. He said good night to Diggle and followed the sound of giggling into the sitting room. He watched Felicity and Hope interact; they were looking at what seemed to be over 20 drawing scattered across the floor. For a moment, all he felt was joy.
Felicity looked back at him "Oliver come look at this" She said with a smile. Holding up a picture of what was supposed to be a man in green with an arrow in his hand and a tiny person next to him with bright yellow hair.
"It's me and you" Hope interjected. He smiled at the girl, but all joy was gone. Only fear instead. Fear for her life, fear for his secret and the fear of losing felicity forever when he tells her she can't be on the team anymore.
"Hey" She said walking in the dark kitchen; Oliver sat at a small table next to a window. Moonlight filled the dark room.
"Hey"
"Thanks for letting us stay the night, again. Just thinking about having to go home and face the entry way into my apartment" She shuttered "I'm just not ready for it" She sat across from him.
Silence filled the room. Both parties had so much they needed to say and yet couldn't find the words.
"I think we need to-" "Oliver, there's something I-" They spoke at the same time, then gestured for the other to continue.
"Felicity, when you started helping me, I promised I would protect you. And I-" He sighed running his hand over his face.
"Oliver stop. I know whatever you're going to say is just an attempt to push me away. I know you're worried about Hope and your secret, but I also know that you need me. I mean not you need me, though there was an amazing kiss the other night which make me question that… 3..2..1.." She squeezed her eyes shut at her own rambling. "but the team needs me."
"I don't disagree, but what we- what I do, isn't something a child should look up to" He pulled the picture Hope had drawn out of his pocket and laid it out on the table.
"You already said you want to do things differently, you stopped arrowing people, turning them into the police instead."
"That doesn't make what we do any less dangerous" He spoke softly. He didn't want her to leave any more than she didn't want to go, but he didn't know what else to do.
"I know… before you cut me and Hope out of your life for good, because I know that's what you're thinking… there's something you need to know"
"Felicity, I-" he started to say.
"Just listen, please" He gestured to let her continue. "Five and a half years ago, I started an internship with Queen Consolidated." His expression was puzzled. "The day before you left on the gambit, you came by your fathers office to ask him if you could come… We bumped into each other. I had gotten lost on my way back from a coffee run, you were.. Well I don't know what you were doing on the 19th floor. We ended up with coffee all over us and…" she felt lost for words.
"and in the janitors closet" he finished for her. He sat back in his chair in shock. He vaguely remembered the day. "But she had dark hair, she dressed in dark colors, she couldn't be…" the Women he had fallen in love with, the women he had kissed for the first time just days ago, he had been with before and had barely remembered it?
"She couldn't be me? You're not the only one who has changed in the last 5 years." She watched his face intently as every emotion flickered across it, silently waiting for him to come to a realization.
"You said five and a half years ago?" his brows furrowed not knowing how to ask the question that he desperately needed the answer to.
Felicity looked down at the table mustering the courage to tell him the truth. She looked back up at him. She has always been honest with him, she can't stop now "Oliver, Hope is yours."