A/N: So, this chapter has been done for a while, but it just felt too short; like it was missing something. So after a lot of procrastinating, I went back over it and buffed it up a little. I hope y'all like it!
Also, I updated The In-Between Moments, so go check out the new chapter there, it's about Thea and how she dealt with losing Oliver.
I also added a scene midway through chapter 6, so you may want to read that before I post chapter 8!
Chapter 7:
"Martin Somers, the CEO of Starling Port, was arrested last night for the murder of Victor Nocenti. He is also being accused of accepting cash, including over $10 million in bribes." The news anchor was saying as images of Somers being dragged off by the police were shown on TV.
"It's about time someone brought down that lowlife."
Felicity looked up from her tablet to see two of her coworkers, Janice and Dan, leaning against the counter in the breakroom. They'd been standing there, quietly gossiping for a while, but Felicity usually just ignored them. But the news report had claimed her attention and so had Janice's comment.
"I heard it was that vigilante who really took him down. Basically delivered him to the police on a silver platter, confession and all," Dan replied.
The brunette woman frowned. "No way that guy's real, he's just an urban legend. No one's actually seen him. And even if he is real, he's gotta be some kind of nutcase. Who goes around shooting arrows at people anyway?" Janice scoffed. "Who does he think he is? Some kind of murderous Robin Hood?"
But Dan wasn't deterred. "Oliver Queen saw him." At this, Felicity sat up straighter. "My brother works at the SCPD, and he showed me the sketch Queen made. Apparently, the Hood saved his life, and that Merlyn kid's."
Janice rolled her eyes, and turned to Felicity. "Hey, Felicity, didn't you go to school with Queen?" she asked.
Dan turned around, looking interested now. He'd only been with the company a little over a year, and so probably hadn't heard all the gossip yet. And the fact that Felicity went to school with the former CEO's son was definitely gossip that got around. "You went to school with Oliver Queen?" he asked incredulously.
"Uhm… yeah, I did. Only for a year though, in high school," Felicity replied reluctantly.
"What was it like?" Dan asked curiously.
Felicity shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage. "We didn't really run in the same circles," she said. It wasn't technically a lie. And Felicity Smoak was a sucker for technicalities. Kind of like Spock, she mused privately.
"So, what do you think?" Janice asked eagerly, drawing Felicity back to the present. The other woman was leaning forward slightly, an almost predatory look on her face.
"About what?"
"The Hood guy!" the brunette replied with a roll of her eyes. "Do you think he's real, or did Queen just make him up for the attention?"
Janice was a notorious gossip, so Felicity thought about what to say for a moment. "I don't know, Oliver and I aren't exactly close. But I doubt the police would be wasting their time on a figment of someone's imagination," she said diplomatically.
"Even if that someone's a billionaire like Queen?" Dan asked with a raised eyebrow.
Felicity shrugged. "With how many times he's been arrested, I doubt there's a lot of love lost between him and the SCPD. Especially considering detective Lance is…" Felicity gestured in the air vaguely. "You know."
Dan and Janice looked a little skeptical at that answer, but didn't comment and turned back to their own conversation. Felicity kept her eyes on the TV, where the reporter was speculating the involvement of 'The Hood', as the vigilante was known. Honestly, she had no doubt that he was real, but she wasn't sure what to think of him yet. Maybe a little dark web searching was in order…
/*/
Unfortunately, a crash of some of the servers at work meant that Felicity had to work late for the next two days and didn't have time for illegal web searches on homicidal vigilantes.
And considering how freaking great her week was already going, of course something else had to happen.
Out of habit, Felicity kept a continuous search going for news articles about the Queen siblings, just in case. It was just to make sure they were okay, she wasn't a crazy stalker or anything! Anyway, most of the time, it was just stupid rumors, or a rehashing of an old story, so when the alarm woke her in the early hours of the morning, she expected it to be something stupid. But, just on the off chance it wasn't, Felicity groggily felt around for her glasses and grabbed her tablet.
'Thea Queen arrested for breaking and entering' was not the headline she was expecting.
Throwing a quick glance at the clock - her alarm was going to go off in an hour anyway - she got up and got ready for the day. She'd stop by the Queen mansion before work to check on Thea.
Half an hour later, she was being let in by Raisa. She bid the maid a good morning and went straight to Thea's room. Having known the teenager for 3 years, she let herself into her bedroom without knocking. Thea was laying on her bed reading a magazine, not even close to being ready for school.
"Oh, hey, Felicity, what's up?" Thea asked, a tired grin on her face.
Felicity had planned on acting like the cool older sister who disapproved but didn't take too much of a stance. But seeing the teen look so carefree snapped something inside her. "You know, I always look past the drinking, because usually you know when to stop," she said quietly.
Thea's grin melted off her face and she sat up.
"But breaking and entering? Thea, that's not who you are," Felicity went on.
The brunette teenager squirmed, but pretended to look like she wasn't bothered. "It was nothing, it's not like we stole anything."
Felicity felt her eyebrows shoot up. "Nothing? That's a criminal offence, Thea, you could go to jail!"
Scoffing, the teen walked over to her vanity and started brushing her hair. "Oh please, like mom would ever let something like that besmirch the family name."
Felicity frowned. She regarded Thea as the little sister she never had, but right now, she was so disappointed in her… "So you think it's right that just because you come from a wealthy family, you should get away with something like that?"
"Uhm, yeah, kind of," Thea said, trying to sound confident. But the teen wasn't looking Felicity in the eye, and that was a sure sign that she was lying.
"So if I did something stupid like that, I'd deserve to go to jail?" Felicity asked, crossing her arms.
Finally looking up - and looking a little shocked - Thea turned around on her chair. "No!"
"But that's what you're saying. Apparently you believe that because you have money, you're above me." She paused to let that sink in. "And I never would have thought you capable of such narrow thinking," she said softly.
Thea looked appropriately guilty. "I don't think I'm better than you," she muttered. "And it wasn't even my idea, my friend Lisa-"
"Lisa Cudrow?" Felicity interrupted. "You know she'd been arrested for drug possession, right?"
"She wasn't convicted," Thea protested, but it sounded half-hearted at best.
Felicity sighed. "Yes, because her father got her out of it." Thea looked so tiny, sitting on that chair, looking at her feet. Sometimes, Felicity forgot how young Thea still was. "Come here," she said quietly, stepping forward and opening her arms.
The younger girl shot up from the chair and into Felicity's embrace. "You are so much better than this, Thea. You're an intelligent, capable young woman, who doesn't let idiots like Lisa Cudrow pressure her into making stupid mistakes like that," she whispered into Thea's hair.
For a moment, the teen didn't respond. "You're right," she whispered back. "Next time, I won't get caught."
Felicity heard the joke in Thea's voice and stepped back to see the brunette giving her a wobbly smile. "Next time you'll do something more original than break into a dress store," Felicity joked. "I mean, come on, I once set off an anti-aircraft defence system and caused a school-wide evacuation."
Thea's eyes grew wide. "Seriously? When did that happen?"
"At FCA," the blonde replied. "But I'll have to tell you about that some other time, I do have to get to work and you need to go to school, you'll miss first period."
Thea looked guilty again, and Felicity glared. "When I get home from work today, I'm going to bring you some take-out from that place you like so much and you had better be prepared to give me a full account of all the boring stuff that happened at school."
Thea groaned, but turned to her closet. "Why take-out?" she asked.
"I assume you're grounded until you're thirty," Felicity replied.
The younger Queen snorted. "Mom never grounds me, I'd just sneak out again."
"Thea! Your mom is already getting you out of jail time, don't you think you owe it to her to stay away from the party scene for at least a week?"
Thea glared. "I'm not staying home. You're not my mother, you can't make me!"
God, did Felicity ever have mood swings like that? "You're right, I'm not, and I can't make you. But I do care about you, and I'm going to trust that you'll do the right thing." And with that, Felicity turned around and left the room.
Okay, so maybe emotional blackmail wasn't the most decent thing to do, but if it kept Thea inside for just a week, she'd take it as a victory. Now she just had to figure out a way to keep track of the younger brunette's whereabouts so that she didn't-
Felicity's mental train of thought was derailed as Oliver stepped around the corner and into her field of vision.
"Felicity," he said, sounding surprised. Felicity mentally smacked herself; of course he was surprised, she was in his house without him knowing.
The blonde blushed. "Oliver. Sorry, I was just… on my way to work," she managed to say, she even avoided babbling.
Oliver's lips twitched in amusement as he raised an eyebrow. "Your commute leads you through my house?"
"It's not a house, it's a castle," Felicity automatically corrected. Then she blushed. Again. "Uhm. What I meant was that I heard about Thea's… little adventure and wanted to come check on her."
Oliver just looked at her inquisitively. Felicity squirmed.
"I don't know if you remember this, but I'm an only child."
Oliver nodded. "Your dad left your mom to raise you on her own," he said softly.
Felicity started; she hadn't expected him to remember something like that. "Right… Uhm… Anyway, I sort of… adopted Thea as a little sister. I care about her, a lot, and if I can emotionally manipulate her into behaving better, you bet I'm going to do it."
As if on cue, the door to Thea's room opened and the teen stood there, wearing her school uniform. "Oh, hey, Ollie. Can you drop me off at school on your way to… wherever it is you go all day."
Felicity smiled at the teen. Maybe getting her to stick to the rules wouldn't be that hard, after all.
"I thought you were skipping school today?" Oliver asked suspiciously, though Felicity thought she could detect a hint of pride in there, too.
"I changed my mind, now are you taking me or not?" the younger Queen said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.
Oliver held up his hands, a smile tugging at his lips. "Hey no comment here, I'll take you to school right away." Thea grinned, and then turned to Felicity and shot her a shy little smile. It was adorable, and Felicity knew that there were no hard feelings between them. Thank God.
"And I'm running late for work, so I really have to go," Felicity said, and dashed past Oliver down the hall. She collected her coat from the closet in the hallway before Raisa could drop what she was doing and help her.
It wasn't until she was halfway to QC that she realized she never asked Oliver about the Hood.
A/N: We're finally getting to the interesting part of the story! Next up; Oliver needs some help with a certain bullet-riddled laptop...
Also, for the people who missed it; I added a scene about halfway through chapter 6, so you may want to reread that before I post the next chapter!
Review!