Chemistry

A/N: Instead of my brain working to get my WIPs updated, it gives me ideas for another new Olicity fic. It's frustrating, but I still went with it. I hope that you will like this one, too.

This story is inspired by two other of my favorite shows set in the past in the western frontiers - "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman" (1993-1998) starring Jane Seymour and Joe Lando, and "When Calls the Heart" (2014-2018) starring Erin Krakow and Daniel Lissing. If you are fans of either or both of these amazing shows, you will recognize similarities, references, and parallels in this fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow, Dr. Quinn, When Calls the Heart, and their characters.

Chapter One

"Why didn't you tell me, Dig?" Felicity asked her manager, not really caring if the volume of her voice bordered on the impolite towards someone that she knew had only tried to help. She knew that he couldn't see how flushed red her face was, or how she had one hand planted on her hip in sheer frustration, but she couldn't help it. She was quite angry at the moment, and she was going to yell at him over the phone in order to make sure he understood how angry she was at him.

Diggle replied, "Didn't tell you what? That you got that tiny part in an episode of When Home Calls the Heart, or that your ex-boyfriend is the lead actor on the new show?"

"Both! You should have told me!"

"If I had told you, you wouldn't have taken the part, would you?"

"Of course not!"

"That's what I thought," Diggle replied, shaking his head. "Felicity, you needed help, so I did what I thought was best for you at this time. When you called me, you said you needed work. You practically begged me for a job, and I do recall you using the word desperately more than once."

"I do need a job right now," she said. "Like I said, Mom's sick again."

Diggle added, "You also said you'd take any part I could offer. Any."

"Well, yeah, I did say that," she admitted, the intensity of her voice fading fast. "But I didn't-"

"I thought you'd appreciate that I got you a part so quickly. No auditions required."

Felicity swallowed, not just the barely there saliva in her mouth, but also the pride that had her so worked up since she stepped out of the studio after they shot the scene where she was appearing as a guest star for an episode of the upcoming show. She tried to justify her outburst, saying, "Yes, but I-"

Her manager and good friend wouldn't have it. "Honestly," Diggle interrupted, "it was Lyla's idea. She's directing the episode, and when she got wind that the casting director needed a new face for a very minor, one-time role, she immediately called me. When you told me you were interested, Lyla had no qualms about asking Tommy Merlyn to give you a chance. I thought you'd be more grateful."

He paused, giving Felicity the chance to respond, but all he got from the other end of the line was silence. So he pushed on and confronted her quite frankly, "Felicity, we've been friends for a long time. I don't exactly get why you're so upset about this. I remember you telling me years ago that you and Oliver had broken up amicably. After all these years and everything you've been through, I really thought you would take this more maturely, especially since I think the role is perfect for you. Guess I was wrong. Perhaps I do owe you an apology for not telling you the details of the job."

Felicity was quiet for a beat, and then she took a deep, steadying breath and answered, "No, Dig. It's me who owes you an apology. I'm sorry for overreacting. You're right. I am being ungrateful. You don't deserve to be yelled at, especially since I was the one who came to you for help. And yes, I guess I should be reacting to this in a more mature way. Thanks for calling me out about this. And thank you for getting me the part. Please, tell Lyla that I appreciate it too."

"Apology accepted," said Diggle.

"I know it's a one-time thing, Dig, but the money will go a long way. Mom is up for several rounds of chemo, so I need all the help I can get. I've already exhausted freelancing deals with most of my usual clients in Vegas."

Diggle grinned widely as he held the phone closer to his ear. (It was now safe to listen to her speak without having his eardrums busted by her loud voice.) "Actually," he said, "I have good news. I was going to call you, but you beat me to it."

"Good news?" Felicity asked, curiosity lacing her voice.

"The producers of When Home Calls the Heart saw the raw footage of the scene you shot this morning. They liked it. They liked you. They'd like for you to come back and shoot a few more scenes for upcoming episodes in the first half of the season."

"Really?" she asked, incredulous about this new development.

"Yeah!" Diggle confirmed.

"Wow…"

When Felicity had walked in to the set this morning, she hadn't expected to see Oliver rehearsing his lines. She'd seen how equally shocked he'd been to see her there. Neither of them had been really paying much attention to the instructions that Lyla had been giving them prior to the shoot. It was a miracle that the shoot had gone so well, as Diggle was telling her now, because she had never been so nervous in all her life. From the moment the director had said, "Action!" up to the time she had yelled, "Cut!" everything had been a blur to Felicity. She had been relieved that Lyla had clapped her back and told her afterwards that she was a natural. Lyla had also expressed how impressive her performance had been, having managed a perfect scene with Oliver Queen in just one take. She couldn't believe it at first; she had thought that Lyla was merely being kind to her, knowing about her history, thanks to Dig.

Diggle gently snapped her out of her musing. "Felicity, I think this is a very good opportunity to jumpstart your career. That is, if you are still up for it?"

"Uhm… Yeah, sure! Of course, I'm still interested. I told you, I've got to keep working."

"And Oliver Queen won't be a problem for you?" Diggle had to ask, to make sure she was committing to the job with eyes wide open.

"Uhm… No, that won't be a problem," she answered, mustering every bit of courage in her heart. "What happened in Starling, stayed in Starling. Oliver Queen is past tense, Dig. And even if my acting skills have been dormant for the past three years, I am still a professional. I can do this."

She tried her best to appear confident about her answer, but Diggle knew her well enough. He could sense the trepidation in her voice, but he believed that it was about time his dear friend got over her fears and her issues and moved on with her life.

"Good," he said simply. "I expect no less from a very promising talent like you. You and Oliver were…" Diggle caught himself and stopped to rephrase the next thing he wanted to say. "You were getting a few good breaks after graduating from film school, Felicity. Truth be told, I was disappointed when you decided not to pursue your acting career, but I respected your decision to go home to Vegas and take care of your mom."

"Thanks, Dig. I appreciated that. I knew you were disappointed, but what can I say? Family first. You know my mom is all I've got," Felicity responded. There was silence between them for a moment, and then she spoke again. "Come to think of it, she's exactly why I should stop this stupid, childish whining and seize the opportunity of a lifetime. It may not happen again."

"That's our girl," Dig said proudly. "I'll call you. Paramount is finalizing your new contract. Mr. Merlyn said you should be ready to be back on set next week."

"Oh, okay. Thanks! Talk to you soon, Dig."

Felicity hung up and took a really deep breath. "What have I just gotten myself into?" she asked herself.

Felicity had spent the last three years working very hard to earn enough in order to keep her and her mother afloat. Donna Smoak had gotten ill and had spent every last penny of her meager savings for cancer treatments. Felicity had somehow managed to find freelance work in her home city so that she could take care of her sick mother – thanks to her innate genius with computers and all things tech-related, as well as to the first two years she'd spent in community college majoring in IT before she had moved to Starling City, where the most reputable film school was (in her opinion), to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an actress and filmmaker. Without a college degree in IT, though, she couldn't really get a better paying, more permanent job in Vegas. So when Donna's cancer had recurred a few months ago, and the referrals to new clients were no longer enough to sustain them – what with the cancer treatments leaving them out to bleed financially – Felicity decided that she had to explore solutions in her other field of expertise. That was when she had gotten in touch with John Diggle again, not as a friend, but as her former talent manager.

That wasn't all she'd been doing for the past three years.

Felicity had also been trying her hardest to forget Oliver Queen. It was an impossible feat, considering how his name and his photographs (looking handsome as ever with his new Hollywood look consisting of a stubbly jaw and neatly cropped sandy blonde hair) had become increasingly prominent on the front covers of magazines and tabloids, on a few television talk-shows, and on the billboards of every major city on the West Coast (and perhaps the entire country). How could she move on from a regrettably past relationship when the first guy whom she ever truly loved and cared about was fast becoming a major motion picture heart-throb that everybody everywhere talked about on an increasingly regular basis?

She had tried seeing other guys in Vegas, but nothing worked out. Not like it had with Oliver. Sure, their personalities were poles apart, but she and Oliver had clicked – in a surprisingly and amazingly terrific kind of way. It was too bad that they'd broken up and gone their separate ways back then.

She had tried talking about it with mom. Donna had been very patient with her daughter's inability to move on from her first serious relationship, not counting her long-standing high school crush on another geeky boy named Cooper. But the more Felicity got sound advice from her mom on love and matters of the heart – with special emphasis on how much Donna had learned from her own failed relationship with Felicity's father – the more she came to regret how she'd let a wonderful guy like Oliver go.

That was when the terrible news of Donna's cancer coming back with a vengeance a few months back had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Busying herself with taking care of her mother had made Felicity's overworked mind and lovesick heart dwell on something other than the what-ifs that she could have had with Oliver Queen. After all, his acting career had taken off (unlike hers), and the man of her dreams was now very much way out of her league.

Nevertheless, now she'd have to see him on a weekly basis because of this job that she so desperately needed. "You can do this, Smoak," Felicity murmured, psyching herself up for the challenge. "An old flame shouldn't keep you from shining like the star that you know you can be."

Perhaps she was right. Perhaps what she needed in order to move on was to confront her issues head on. Perhaps, perhaps not.

Felicity picked up her phone and dialed Donna's number to tell her mom the good news – about the job, of course. What she needed at the moment was a distraction from the thoughts and feelings swirling wildly inside her. She was going to deal with those later, hopefully and preferably before she had to shoot another scene with said 'old flame' next week.

A/N: The events in next chapter will pick up after a time jump of a few months and will be told from Oliver's POV. There will be no regular updating schedule for this fic. I hope there is enough interest in this story? Comments and constructive feedback will help to get me to finish this one too before Arrow's series finale airs. ;-)