A/N: Well, that took a lot longer than I anticipated. I am soooo sorry! That said, thank you all so much for your support and lovely reviews, you guys are the best!
Chapter 9:
It was a good thing no one came to bother her at work the next day, because Felicity was fairly certain she would have either bit their nose off or started hyperventilating.
She'd already hacked into the Exchange Building's security and built in a back door, so she could keep an eye on it. Other than that, there was nothing she could do. According to police chatter - yes, she'd also hacked into SCPD - they were already aware that something was going to go down, so she couldn't even tip them off.
That left her sitting at her desk, feeling frustrated all day long.
Eventually, she got desperate, and hacked the guest list and put herself onto it. You know, just in case she needed to get in. Not that she was planning on actually going there and putting herself in danger or anything. What would she do anyway? She was a computer nerd, not a… not a vigilante.
Felicity groaned. Not for the first time, she wished she had a way of contacting the vigilante and ask him what the hell was going on. But she couldn't. Hence the inner monologue and frustration.
"Okay, that's it," she muttered to herself as she got up from her desk. Felicity quickly gathered up her stuff and shut down her computers. There was no way she'd get any work done today.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Felicity turned around to face Dave, her supervisor. "I'm sick. Cough, cough," she said, knowing she wasn't convincing anyone.
He raised an eyebrow. "You get off at 5, Smoak, not a minute earlier."
Narrowing her eyes, Felicity took a step closer. "Oh, really? Since I'm still on the clock, maybe we should talk about when you left work a whole 2 hours early 3 weeks ago? Or maybe we should talk about the time that you couldn't figure out what was wrong with the firewall protocols and I did your work for you? And might I remind you that it took me 2 full days and 8 hours of overwork that I never got paid for, because it was - and I quote - 'off the books'," Felicity said, putting her hands on her hips and doing her best to look menacing.
Dave paled a little. "Fine," he said, looking like he wanted to argue. "I'll cover for you. But don't think this means that you can make a habit of this!"
Felicity grinned. "After today, I'll still have another 6 hours of that unpaid overtime left, Dave, don't you worry," she said, and then dashed off.
She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she needed to do something.
/*/
Bad idea. Bad idea, very, very bad idea!
It was a mantra she'd been repeating to herself all evening, even as she tried to keep her head down. She'd put herself on the guestlist as one of Mr. Steele's personal assistants, dressed up in her most professional getup, and was now thoroughly regretting it.
As she spotted the Queen's, she actually ducked behind a waiter. Under no circumstance could she let her boss see her. Luckily, someone was going around announcing that the auction would begin, so Felicity didn't stand out so much. Just as she was about to follow, she looked up and saw Oliver standing on the landing. He looked serious and… calculating? It was a look she'd never seen on his face again, though it tugged on her memory in a weird way.
He came down the stairs, still looking incredibly purposeful, and Felicity made her way over to the base of the stairway.
"Felicity?" he said when he saw her. He actually looked concerned. "I thought you told me not to come, why are you here?" he asked urgently.
"Well, I knew you'd ignore me, so I figured I should be here to keep you from doing anything dumb."
He gave her a flat look. "I came to protect my family, Felicity. You shouldn't be here."
She glared at him. "Thea is my friend! And, weird though you've been acting, so are you! I wasn't going to let anything happen to you!"
Oliver's eyes softened. "I know. Thank you, Felicity," he said softly. "But I need you to be safe, too, I-"
"Well, don't you scrub up nice?" Laurel's dad interrupted.
Immediately, a mask appeared on Oliver's face. He was hiding behind the 'Oliver Queen, jackass' façade again. "Just here to support my family," he said. Felicity could almost see the tension radiating off him.
"Yeah, me too, God help me," detective Lance replied.
"Thank you," Oliver said sincerely. For a moment, Felicity was confused. Had he told Detective Lance that something was going to happen?
Luckily, the detective just huffed and strode off, his eyes scanning the crowd for threats. It was odd, but something he had in common with Oliver.
Once again, something tugged at her memory, but she couldn't quite catch what it was.
Oliver sighed, before turning to her. "Could you try to find my sister? I'm going to speak with my bodyguard."
"Mr. Diggle's here?" she said, relieved. He'd keep the Queen's safe, at least.
"He is, and I've told him to keep his eyes open," he said, that soft look in his eyes again.
She nodded, and turned around to make her way through the crowd, when Oliver grabbed her wrist lightly. She turned to look at him again. "You look nice," he said, and then he was gone.
Felicity kept standing there for a moment, stunned, before shaking her head. She couldn't deal with this right now, she had to find Thea.
Unfortunately, Thea was standing with her mother.
Not that Felicity particularly disliked Moira Queen, it was just that… well, she was intimidated. The woman radiated a ruthlessness should anyone mess with her and that kind of scared Felicity. "Mrs. Queen, how nice to see you again," Felicity said timidly. Thea raised an eyebrow.
"Ms. Smoak, I wasn't aware that you would be here," Mrs. Queen said, a tad frostily.
Felicity froze, she hadn't thought of an excuse for her presence. "Oliver invited her," Thea said quickly. "He wanted to come, but he didn't want to be bored out of his mind like I'm probably going to be."
Mrs. Queen raised an eyebrow at her daughter, but Thea just looked back innocently. "You and my son seem to be getting along very well, Ms. Smoak," Mrs. Queen said, turning back to the blonde.
Felicity could feel herself getting ready to babble when a hand landed on her lower back and Oliver appeared at her side. "We're friends, mother," Oliver said, smiling indulgently. Then he waved his bodyguard over. "I'm having Mr. Diggle escort you out, I heard that there was-"
But before he could finish, gunshots interrupted him. Instinctually, Felicity ducked and grabbed hold of Oliver. He and Diggle pushed Felicity and the Queen women out to the lobby. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Oliver asked, his eyes flashing between Felicity and Thea.
"We're fine!" Thea said, though she sounded terrified. Just about how Felicity was feeling.
"Where's Walter?" Mrs. Queen asked, sounding somewhat shaky herself.
Straightening so he could see over the heads of the fleeing people, Oliver searched for his stepfather. "Walter's fine," he assured his mother. "Diggle, get them out of here!"
"Sir, I need to-" Diggle protested, but Oliver was having none of it.
"Them, Diggle!" he shouted, and then he was off.
The crowd was pulling them along, and Diggle did his best to shield all three of them with his body until he got them outside, and into the waiting arms of the cops. "Stay here, I'll go look for him!" he yelled, and dashed back into the building, despite the shouted warnings from the cops.
Felicity desperately wanted to follow him in there, but she knew that she'd be useless out there.
"Moira! Thea!" Mr. Steele shouted and ran over to them, even as they were ushered behind a perimeter.
Felicity turned around and pulled her tablet out of her purse. Normally, it would be impossible to hack the building's security remotely like this, but because of the back door she'd installed, she was in with just a few taps of her fingers. The shots had come from outside, at an angle, so the shooter was most likely in an adjacent building. She pulled up the external and rooftop cameras and searched for movement. That provided her with a glimpse of the Hood shooting an arrow at one of the other buildings and using the tether it held as a means of getting over there.
For a moment, Felicity wasn't sure if she'd seen that right, so she looked up at that building, and sure enough, the shots were now no longer directed at the Exchange Building, but at something inside, way up on what had to have been the fifteenth or sixteenth floor.
It seemed that the Hood would keep his promise after all.
/*/
Mr. Diggle and Oliver hadn't made it back by the time the cops urged us to go home. Mr. Steele tried to assure Mrs. Queen that Oliver was with his bodyguard and that they'd be fine. They eventually tracked down Detective Lance's partner, who told them that Oliver nor Mr. Diggle had been found in the building.
Somehow, Felicity made it home with the rest of the Queen family, without anyone actually commenting on her presence. Thea found that pretty funny, but she didn't want to risk her mother sending the blonde away, so she kept her mouth shut.
And then Laurel came by, which was nice, but a little awkward, though mom seemed overjoyed. It occurred to Thea that perhaps mom didn't know that Laurel and Tommy were in a pretty committed relationship, but she was so not risking her neck by informing her. She did exchange an amused look with Felicity, though.
Eventually, Walter went to bed because he had to be at QC early in the morning, which meant mom was going with him. Thea assured her that she'd stay up to wait for her wayward brother, and that she'd wake her if she heard any bad news. Which left Felicity and Thea in the living room, watching Disney movies to pass the time. Though, of course the IT nerd fell asleep halfway through Cinderella.
Not that Cinderella was such a great movie, anyway, with its dated, kind of sexist message, but Thea still loved the ballroom scene. Her inner little girl couldn't help but get excited about the dress and glass slippers.
The sound of the front door opening shook Thea from her internal monologue. She turned off the TV and went out to the hallway. "Hey stranger," she said softly. Felicity hadn't woken up from any sounds of the movie, but Thea wasn't entirely sure the blonde wouldn't be roused by human speech, so she stuck to a murmur.
Oliver looked up. He looked exhausted. "Hey Speedy, you still up?"
Shrugging, Thea leaned against the wall. "Someone had to make sure you hadn't gotten yourself killed… You look terrible, by the way."
Oliver shot her a wry look. "Yeah, well, a friend of mine's taken me to the woodshed. Tends to tire you out," he said evasively.
"Well, you have one friend here who's just been worried about you," she said, fighting a smile. Oliver frowned, clearly confused. Thea rolled her eyes. Seriously, Oliver's list of friends – real friends – was pretty short, who else would still be here in the middle of the night? Aside from Tommy anyway.
She just gestured to the living room. "I'm going to bed. Glad you're still alive, brother."
"Night," he said distractedly, already stepping towards the living room.
"Good night, Ollie." Thea actually did smile now, as she ascended the stairs. Those two had it so bad for one another, and neither of them even realized. Luckily for them, Thea was pretty adept at matchmaking. This was going to be so much fun!
A/N: So, what do you guys think? Let me know in the reviews!
Next chapter will be some fluff, and some realizations on Oliver's part.