Hey Guys! I apologize for not updating sooner, my mum became very ill and looking after her became my top priority. I had a very hard time balancing school and looking after my mum for the last 5 months and writing fanfiction was just too hard to do on top of all that, I do hope you can forgive me, but my mum needed to come first so I hope you understand.
This chapter is not beta-ed as I don't have one, any mistakes are mine and mine only.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Arrow or Avengers (no matter how hard I day dream otherwise).
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Tony hated meetings. It was a well-known fact. Which was why he was surprised when Pepper told him he needed to go to one and that it "wasn't up for debate". She knew how much he hated meetings. How often he skipped them. Especially when she was his assistant. No matter how many threats she made he rarely went to meetings. It was a well-known fact. And in all honesty, he was planning on going down to his workshop and 'accidentally' missing the plane.
That was until he learned where it was being held and who with.
Tony had thought back to a few days before. The avengers had been scattered around the lounge talking when Clint's phone had rung. He had smiled when he had first answered it but after a few minutes that smile turned to a frown, no one, not even Natasha, who had known him the longest, could fathom a guess as to why he looked so unhappy so suddenly. After he had hung up he had stormed off into the elevator and pressed it so hard that Tony was glad that he made it extra strong in case Steve was ever to hit it too hard accidentally. It was only later when he had returned from shooting range they found out that the call was from Felicity.
Apparently Felicity wasn't doing too good in Starling City, not that she had said it outright to him, but Clint knew her well enough to tell when something was wrong. He had said the way she was talking about Oliver Queen and his co-worker Isabel Rochev told him that she was less than happy at them.
He didn't say it out loud but they all knew that Clint wanted to go see Felicity, but nobody said anything because they knew that he couldn't in case there was a last-minute mission. The only way for him to see her would be if she visited. And anyone with half a mind could tell that that was what he wanted. His big-brother instincts had kicked in and there was nothing they could do that could turn them off until he saw his little sister.
Over the last few days everyone had noticed the small change in Clint, he was tapping his foot constantly or spinning something in his hands which was normally a drumstick. He also kept checking his phone, probably to see if Felicity had texted or called him.
So it was with a smirk on his face Tony had started putting his plan together, after the meeting with Oliver Queen he would go to her office in the IT department and he would convince Felicity to take a break from all the work she was doing and have a vacation in New York. That way Clint and his brotherly instincts might calm down and Felicity would hopefully cheer up.
At dinner that night Tony looked at Clint, Clint was playing with his food and he wasn't his usual happy and jokey self. Tony seriously hoped that seeing Felicity would cheer him up again.
After dinner, he had grabbed Clint and dragged him to his workshop where he showed Clint the meeting plan in the calendar, including where the meeting was to be held. At first, Clint was beyond confused, but when Tony told him that Queen Consolidated was in Starling City Clints eyes filled with understanding when he realised what Tony was implying.
So when Tony boarded the plane the next day, on time he might add, he knew he had a mission, a mission for a friend, a mission that he would not fail.
#
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Tony had been standing with his back against the glass while on his phone when two people came walking in. "I apologise for being late we had a small problem that needed to be taken care of, I hope you weren't waiting long" he heard a female voice say, looking up from his phone he recognised her to be Isabel Rochev from the files he had read earlier when being briefed by Pepper on the plane, he also noticed that Oliver Queen had entered behind her with a tall black guy in a suit standing at the entrance behind him.
"No worries, was everything fixed?" he heard Pepper asked, Tony, tuned out of the conversation as Queen started talking, how did Felicity deal with him? He sounded so snotty He went back to the schematics of Natashas Widow bites, she had requested them to be upgraded yesterday as the backlash of the bracelet was too strong. Tony heard another person enter and Queen began introducing everyone, Tony learned that the guy who was standing at the door was called John Diggle but only when Oliver got to his EAs name did Tony get interested "and this is my EA Felicity Smoak,".
Tony looked up from his phone, eyeing the blonde Executive Assistant, there in front of him stood Felicity Smoak, the reason he was here. She hadn't noticed him yet as she was too busy staring at a wide-eyed Pepper, who hadn't expected to see her here.
Tony looked at her, she looked so different from the last time he had seen her. Her eyes were sunken with dark circles under her eyes, her skin was pale as if it hadn't seen the sun weeks, her blonde hair that was normally down was in a ponytail looking greasy. But the worst part of it was that Felicity wasn't smiling like she normally did, she held her head high with a straight face her usual bubbly personality gone, nowhere to be seen, it made Tony sad to see her like this, and if he guessed right, the same could be said for Pepper who was looking at Felicity with a look of sadness. The happy girl that talked and talked and found the best in people was gone and neither of them liked the person replacing her.
"Felicity?"
Felicity turned to him, eyes widening, and Tony knew that she was probably swearing in her mind, "Tony?" her eyebrows were raised but apart from that her face was blank, showing no emotion. She had an invisible mask on so that she wouldn't have to show her emotions, it made Tony want to strangle somebody, that kind of mask takes a while to build she would have had to go through hardships every single day, what had happened to her since he last saw her?
"What are you doing here?"
"I here for a meeting between Stark Industries and Queen Consolidated, why are you here?" Tony looked at her "and did her majesty over there just call you his EA?", Tony for the life of him couldn't figure out why she would go from being an IT girl to being an Executive Assistant.
Felicity smirked when she heard his choice of a nickname for Oliver, "Yep,"
"And since when are you an Executive Assistant?" he asked her trying to figure out why she would take a job that she didn't like judging from what had Clint said.
Just as Felicity was about to answer him another voice joined the conversation, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but, do… but how do you know Miss Smoak, Mr Stark?" The Rochev girl had interrupted them,
"I know Felicity because she's Cli-" He stopped and saw that Felicity shaking her head discreetly, and Tony vaguely recalled a memory from about a year ago when someone had asked why she and Clint pretended not to be brother and sister, the answer they gave made sense, Felicity shouldn't be known because it would've put her and her friends in danger all those years ago. And now, if the press got a hold of the fact that Clint had a sister they would go ballistic, they wouldn't leave her alone, she would have reporters knocking down her door, and let Tony tell you, it's not pleasant.
So he quickly changed his story "She was asked to join Stark Industries when she got out MIT but turned it down, it's not often very often that someone turns us down, so I went to see her in case it was a matter that could be fixed"
"Why?" Tony turned his head so that he was facing Oliver,
"Why?" He repeated "She graduated top of her class in MIT and did many great things while there, she tried to do what she thought was right and when things didn't go the way she wanted them to go she evolved, not many people can do that like she did. When she graduated many companies wanted to hire her and when she turned down Stark Industries? Well I had to go and see her myself, didn't I!" he said incisively,
Tony wasn't lying when he said that Felicity was offered a job at Stark industries and many other places, she had been, and she turned them all down. The only thing he lied about was that he had gone to meet her, that part was purely made up.
The guy that was standing by the door looked on in confusion "If I may interrupt?" he paused and looked at Queen as if asking permission, who nodded in return, "Why did she turn down your offer?"
Tony noted that Rochev also seemed very interested in his answer, "Because..." he paused not actually knowing the answer to that question "Why did you turn down our offer?" he said looking at Felicity.
"Because I had just graduated from University and I didn't want to move all the way to New York just after I had finished years at college, besides I was just starting out, I wanted to try and get a grip of things before I made any important decisions," Felicity told him
He noticed that Queen and Diggle were both staring at Felicity, Diggle with a look of curiosity but Queen had a weird look on his face and Tony decided that he didn't like the look one single bit.
For the rest of that meeting, Tony observed that anytime Queen looked at Felicity his eyebrows scrunched together, as if annoyed. Pepper had also caught on to the looks he was giving Felicity and became increasingly worried about it.
#
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After the meeting, Tony sent Felicity a text asking her when her lunch break was and saying that they should grab some food and catch up. It didn't take her long to respond with a cafe's name and a time to meet at.
Two hours later Tony stepped out of his car and into a little cafe called Java Barista where he looked around for the blonde women. Catching her eye he made his way over and ordered his coffee.
They sat in silence while they waited for their order to arrive and when it did the only words that came out of Felicity's mouth was a 'thank you'. Tony stared at her, wondering what had happened, by now the Felicity he knew would have started talking about some random thing and have rambled on about it, but this Felicity hadn't done that, she had kept her mouth shut and Tony was lost at why she was being so quiet.
Deciding he had had enough of the silence Tony said "So, Felicity, When were you going to tell us you were working with the Arrow guy? What's his name again? Merida? No, that can't be it, Robin?" Tony watched as Felicity became as white as a sheet "What about…" He scrunched his eyebrows together as if he was in deep thought "The Hood!"
If Felicity had been drinking her coffee at that moment Tony was sure that it would be all over him right now. As he took a sip of his own coffee he pondered why she was working with him, was it because she knew him personally outside the mask? Or that she wanted to help people again? Or maybe she missed the adrenaline one felt when catching a villain, but if that was the case why didn't she join the avengers? She would be great and work well with the team should she join.
"Wha… how? How did you?"
Tony watched her as she stumbled over her words, "How did I know you were working with the Hood?"
She nodded her head; confused. "Well it was hard, you had covered up all your tracks when hacking but you missed one little detail."
Felicity slowly leaned forwards, and Tony knew that if he hadn't caught her attention by talking about the hood that he had definitely caught her attention now. Neither of them liked to be bested and if they make a mistake they would like to know about it as soon as it's made.
"You didn't clear your search history" pin-drop silence was what followed, Tony inwardly laughed, it was funny that the only reason she had been caught was because she had always searched up the person before she relayed the message to the hood, but Tony was also glad that she did, it showed that she didn't just blindly trust the man as one might expect, no, she was cautious of him and his mission, whatever it may be.
Another thing that Tony couldn't help but notice was the fact that not everybody who she looked up was met by the hood, in fact, some of those people didn't have any crimes on their profile and if they did they had already paid the price or had done it for a good reason. Did that mean she didn't tell him everything? That she had kept things from him? And if she did, does that mean she doesn't trust him? And if that was the case why was she working for him? Tony's head was buzzing with questions but he knew that he wasn't going to get an answer, not right now anyway.
The sound of Felicity groaning shook away his thoughts as he focussed on her, she had her face in her hands rubbing hey eyes. When she looked back up at him she asked: "does Clint know?"
"No, he was pissed enough as it was after hearing about Queen that I thought telling him that you were working with another archer would only make him hop on a plane and drag you back to New York." He looked at her when she made a sound "He's worried because he cares about you, Felicity, you know that right?."
Felicity smiled softly it was nice to know that despite their differences, he will always be the protective older brother that she loved, "Yeah".
#
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The two of them stayed in the cafe for an hour catching up, until Felicity's phone buzzed signalling that her lunch break was over. After saying goodbye to Tony with a promise of calling him later, she set out for Queen Consolidated.
Walking back she tried to get her thoughts together, Tony had suggested to her that she should take a vacation, more specifically a vacation in New York. And she wanted to, she really wanted to, she missed her older brother, but was it selfish to leave Oliver right when he needed her?
A voice in her head told her that he didn't need her, that they were getting nowhere with finding Slade, and that she deserved a break. And the voice had a point, they were getting nowhere with Slade. She shook her head and tried to get rid of those thoughts as she entered the building, it wouldn't be good to start having doubts about the team, not now.
The security guard looked up from his newspaper and smiled up at her kindly. After signing in at the reception she and another office worker made small talk as they went up in the lift.
When the doors opened the first thing she heard was shouting, a male and female. She recognised the first one as being Oliver, having heard him shout multiple times in the last few days. The second one, however, was a bit harder to place. Walking up the corridor she noticed that everyone she passed was hurrying; in the opposite direction, looking scared.
Rounding the corner so that Oliver's office was in view, Felicity saw Isabel and Oliver a few feet apart yelling and screaming at each other. Which explained why everyone was scurrying away like mice. Turning her head slightly she saw Dig leaning against her desk, eyes closed and a pained expression on show.
Feeling her stare he opened his eyes, his eyes flickered to the bickering co-CEOs. Felicity raised her eyebrows silently asking what was going on to which Dig just shook his head. She started walking forwards to join Dig at her desk When the door opened wide and Felicity caught a few words coming from Isabel's mouth "-FIGURE IT OUT! AND GET YOURSELF TO WORK ON TIME!" She stormed out of the office, her heels like bullets on the floor "You!" She said pointing to Felicity "Come with me."
Shocked, Felicity stood there for a few seconds before her brain processed the request and made her turn on her heel to follow Isabel who was walking at such a fast pace that Felicity nearly had to run to keep up with her.
Following Isabel into her office, Felicity looked around, unlike Olivers it had a more personal touch to the place. Isabel walked around her desk reaching out for a pile of files that were sitting innocently on top of her keyboard but Felicity knew they were anything but innocent, she had learned a long time ago that files meant extra work and longer hours.
Isabel picked them up and looked at her "I need you to look at these projects and make notes so that we can decide which to invest in, okay?" Felicity nodded and took the files from her, biting her tongue because she knew that Isabel would be less tolerant of a remark than Oliver she said "Will that be all, Miss Rochev?" a saying that she had learned from Pepper back when she had been Tony's assistant. Isabel's eyebrows rose up at the comment "No, that will be all." Felicity nodded once again and turned and walked towards the door.
As she opened it Isabel called out "Wait," Felicity turned her head, "Why does Oliver act like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like he's a lazy idiot, we both know he's not. So why does he put on an act?"
Felicity thought for a minute not sure what to say, it was a good question, the fact was that Felicity wasn't entirely sure it was acting, maybe in the beginning he was, but right now?
She wasn't so sure, Oliver barely did the minimum at work and even then it was hard just to get him to do that. He was always late and always second-guessing his colleagues including her.
She knew that if Oliver put his mind to it, he could make his company great once again, and she hoped that it would be but he just couldn't seem to be bothered to do the required work to see that happen.
She could tell that Isabel had also figured out that he was holding back, which was probably why they were fighting, and as the first tactic hadn't worked Isabel had now come to her for answers.
"I… I don't know, I guess you will just have to ask him. " She told Isabel,
"I already did, he managed to change the subject and every time I try to bring it up..." Isabel trailed off "...well you saw what happened"
"More liked heard," Felicity said before she could stop herself and then she winced realising that she could really get into trouble for saying something like that to her boss. However, to her surprise Isabel's lips twitched upwards, "Mhmm, how many people do you think heard us arguing?"
"A lot," Felicity paused wondering if she would be allowed to continue, it wasn't like she and Isabe were friends, after all, she could still get in trouble if she allows her mouth to run off. However, when Isabel let out a small snort she carried on "And those who didn't hear will probably know by the end of the day, this is Queen Consolidated's rumour mill that we are talking about."
Isabel nodded dejectedly "Speaking of rumours, what's going on between you and Mr Queen?"
"Nothing," Felicity answered honestly
"So why did Oliver make you his EA? If you're not… you know…" Isabel trailed off
"Again, that's something you will have to ask Oliver,"
Isabel's eyebrows scrunched together "but surely he would have told you?" At Felicity's shake of head her eyes widened "you mean, you went from being an IT girl to being his Executive Assistant overnight, and you don't even know why?" Isabel asked Incredulously.
Felicity thought back to the conversation that she and Oliver had had when she had first found out about the 'promotion' that she had got. Sadly she couldn't tell Isabel that the main reason for her promotion was because Oliver 'couldn't travel down to the IT department every time he wanted to discuss how he and she spent their nights together as it would only make the rumours sound true to Isabel.
So instead she said "It might be because at the time when he was looking for an Assistant, many people were still mad at him for what his mother did and were willing to go to any lengths to get revenge so… maybe he wanted someone he could trust? Someone he knew wouldn't try and hurt him because of his mother's actions?" Felicity knew that what she had just said was complete and utter bullshit but she was hoping that Isabel would fall for it.
Thankfully Isabel fell for it and nodded "I suppose that makes sense," she slid into her seat and sat there for a few minutes her face full of contemplation. Just as Felicity was starting to wonder if she should leave as she felt awkward just standing there did Isabel finally open her mouth again.
"I'm sorry"
"Excuse me?" Felicity asked wondering if she had heard wrong
"I'm sorry" nope, it sounded the same to Felicity, but that couldn't be right, Isabel practically hated her, why would she be saying sorry?'
Something must have given away Felicity's surprise because Isabel clarified "For being hard on you all these months, I've been shouting at you for Olivers mistakes, like when he missed that staff meeting yesterday? I shouldn't have shouted at you like that, you didn't deserve it." She paused and then continued, "and I'm sorry for assuming that you were using Oliver to get into a higher position, you didn't even ask for the job."
Felicity looked at Isabel, her eyes held regret and Felicity knew from years of training that she sincerely meant it.
"Apology accepted" she said kindly "but next time don't just assume, okay? Get your facts right instead of just listening to the office gossip and then act on what you learn." She then turned and opened the door and walked out holding the files close to her chest, leaving a confused Isabel Roschv behind.
#
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The rest of the day moved slowly for Felicity and she couldn't wait to get home and kick back on her bed. However, when she finally did leave Queen Consolidated it was because she was heading to the lair instead of her much-beloved bed, much to her dismay.
Arriving at the lair was just like any other day, Sara and Oliver were sparring on the mats, Diggle was watching at the sides and Roy was leaning against her desk waiting for her while keeping an eye on both Sara and Oliver in hopes of learning some new tricks.
Upon hearing her enter both Roy and Dig looked up and smiled at her to which she returned, Dig returned to watching the couple spar while Roy turned around as she slid into her chair so that he was facing her.
"Hey, Blondie, nice day at work?"
"It was certainly interesting that's for sure." she answered, thinking about the conversation she had with Isabel earlier "How was yours?"
"It was okay, I-" he was interrupted by Oliver flipping Sara onto the ground to which she countered with sweeping her right legs across causing Oliver to roll giving Sara time to stand back up and bring him down with a flying head scissors throw.
Felicity smiled, it was nice to see Oliver getting his ass kicked for once, it helps take his ego down a peg. Roy was smiling too but she wasn't sure if it were for the same reasons as her or because the flying head scissors throw was a new move that he had never seen before.
Oliver had just stood up and joined Sara in a fighting position when Dig called out "Oliver," making him look away from Sara and to Diggle.
"Yeah?"
"It's 7.45ish, shouldn't we start suiting up?" Oliver sighed, most likely wanting to carry on sparing with Sara, he hesitated before saying "Yeah, alright suit up guys,".
Roy pushed off of the desk and started walking towards his quiver when Oliver shouted out "Not you Roy, I want you to stay here, with Felicity" Roy looked at him puzzled, he had gone out with Oliver and Sara yesterday, had he upset Oliver? Done something wrong?
Roy turned so that he was facing Felicity again and raised his eyebrows, silently questioning if she knew what was going on the response he got was a shrug of the shoulders and an expression of pitying.
#
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After the vigilantes had finished changing Oliver turned to Felicity and asked her where she was with finding Slade.
Looking up from her typing she said "Nowhere, It's like he's just disappeared, I've got every camera looking out for him, so I guess the only thing we can do is wait."
"I don't wait Felicity, So hurry it up"
"But-"
He interrupted her, "Find a way and do it. Fast". He then turned to Roy,
Felicity saw Roy's face fill up with hope as he said "Yeah?", he was probably hoping that Oliver had reconsidered taking him,
"I want you to practice shooting the targets. Until you hit bullseyes whenever you shoot you won't be going back out." He turned and left leaving a wide-eyed Roy behind. Roy gave Felicity a look of pure sadness that Felicity felt like her heart was being broken in two.
#
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Roy was getting annoyed, she could see it with the way he clenched and unclenched his fists. It had been around about an hour since the others had left and what Oliver had said had left Roy irritated and upon the repeated missed shots he was starting to lose it. Felicity had tried to just let him be in hopes he would cool down, but it seemed it was doing the opposite, with every minute he was getting more and more worked up and Felicity knew she needed to do something before it blew up in her face.
Checking that there were no crimes going on she turned on mute on her commlink and swivelled her chair so that she could see Roy. He had his back to her facing the targets, bow in hand and arrows sitting on the table, he picked up one of the offending arrows and loaded it into the bow, Felicity watched as he lined up, making small mental notes on how and where he could improve, after a few minutes of him trying to line the arrow up to what Oliver would call 'perfect' he released it only for it to hit the white of the target, he breathed in slowly and let it out again, trying to keep calm.
Felicity remembered when she first was learning how to shoot an arrow. Unlike her brother she wasn't a natural and she often got angry when she missed continuously, so she knew exactly where Roy was coming from.
She got up and walked towards Roy but kept her distance when he released another arrow, it, like the last one, missed.
"Don't lock your knees, keep them straight but don't lock them as it will throw you off balance making it harder to keep the bow in one position."
Roy looked at her with a hint of confusion and surprise but did as she said, Felicity took that as a sign that he was willing to try it her way and so she began instructing him, giving him tricks she and her brother learned over the years. "Lean forwards more, you want everything to be straight, sort of like making a T with your body" when he leaned forwards she told him to "Rotate your arm out so that when you are firing the arrow the string had less of a chance of hitting his arm," she moved forwards correcting his arm position and once she had done that she looked up at Roy who was looking at her with a look of curiosity on his face.
After giving him a few more tricks she told him the most important thing she had learned from her brother which was that "archery isn't about calculating where the arrow is going to land, it's about estimating where it's going to end up, and for that to happen you need to stop aiming and let you mind and body take over." If she had been paying attention she would know that when she said that, Roy had looked at her with a mixture of surprise and confusion as he wandered where the IT girl who was supposed to know nothing about archery went. This Felicity knew what she was talking about, and she knew from experience.
Felicity had never shown any interest in what Oliver was telling him, so where had the tips come from? As far as he knew she had never shot an arrow before, but that can't be right, from the way she was talking it sounded like she was a pro. She was giving him tips that even Oliver had never said to him.
"Felicity… where did you learn all these tips?"
Before she could answer the opening of the door upstairs and footsteps coming down made Felicity mumbled a quick "I'll tell you later" and with that she scurried back to her computers, acting as if she had been there the whole time.
So… Felicity has met Tony and has used her knowledge of Archery to help Roy. The whole conversation with Isabel was not planned, it just happened, I personally like to think that there is good in everyone and if Isabel stopped being mean to Felicity then she and her could work well together. What do you think? I know that Isabel is most definitely out of character but… this is fanfiction.
I do hope to update soon. It won't be as long as the wait for this chapter (again, I do apologize).
Please review as I love hearing people's thoughts and if you have any ideas or things you want to share plz do and I will try my best to incorporate it into my story.
Until next time…
Raven White Fox xxx