EMMA
Chapter 1: The Revelation
A/N: This is what happens when I am home alone and sick and watching a Hallmark movie in YouTube that I do not know the title of. I hope it's any good. The story is basically based on the plot of that Hallmark movie, but I tweaked it several ways to suit an angsty fic with an Olicity endgame. It is in no way connected to Austen's classic "Emma." If you don't mind reading extended angst that might make you cry, then this is worth a try. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow or its characters. I only wish I did.
It had been a really long day, and yet Oliver considered that an understatement. Getting ready for Emma's seventh birthday party had started long before the sun had risen; in fact, his preparations went way back to a month before. He had wanted it to be her best birthday yet, and he had gone all out to make sure of it - from her favorite kind of cake that he baked, to the dress that she had worn, the guests she had wanted to invite, the outdoor games she had insisted on playing with her friends, to the decorations of Disney princesses that he knew she adored. For Oliver, his little girl deserved no less.
They had come a long way - he and Emma. She wasn't his daughter, but he had learned to love her just like any real father usually loved his own flesh and blood. Five years. He never thought they'd make it that far.
Truth be told, he had been the most skeptical of Moira's critics. When he had found out seven years ago that his mother had adopted a newborn baby girl, he had thought that she was going crazy. He had thought that caring for an infant that had been put up for adoption was her way of coping with grief, rejection, and loneliness after a complicated divorce due to his father's womanizing ways. Thea had been more understanding, willing to give their mother a chance to give love even if she had been deprived of it for the majority of her married life with Robert Queen.
He had been overseas at the time - having volunteered with the Peace Corps in eastern Africa in a desperate attempt to run away from his own heartbreak - and he had regretted not having seen for himself how deliriously happy his mother had been for two whole years because of little Emma, as Thea had often kept him posted.
He had never thought the day would come when his heart would be won over by this adorable little child that he had been given the legal right to take care of. He never thought the day would come when he would come to accept her as a Queen in every sense of the name. But the day had come, and though Oliver couldn't exactly pinpoint which day it was that he had realized how much he already loved and cherished Emma, he knew without the shadow of a doubt that Emma had become the apple of his eye, of course, other than his younger sister Thea - that is, other than Thea and the love of his life.
Felicity Smoak. He'd never spoken her name in seven years. Only in his dreams. He had always preferred it that way. Painful memories of the last time he'd seen her lingered in his mind like a shard of glass permanently embedded in his hopelessly broken, bleeding heart.
She had come home from Boston in the Fall of what was supposed to be her junior year at MIT, and he had been excited to see his girlfriend again after she had opted not to come home for the summer for some strange reason that she wouldn't elaborate about. His excitement had quickly dissipated the moment he'd laid eyes on her - her and her small but already visible baby bump. He could not believe that she had cheated on him. He had given her one confused glare of disbelief and distrust before bolting out of the house and getting impossibly drunk for the next two days. By the time he had sobered up and mustered the courage to hear her out, she had left Starling Ranch never to return. Felicity had disappeared, and she had taken his heart with her to who-knows-where. Perhaps it was why he hadn't been able to love another like he had loved her.
Except Emma. Oliver had not expected how a little girl could teach him to love again. Unconditionally. Selflessly. Sacrificially. He did not have to take care of her. He did not have to take the responsibility to look after her welfare. When Moira had become seriously ill, she had asked him if he could be little Emma's legal guardian when the time came. Thea had been too young for that kind of responsibility and was set to leave for college at the time, so Moira was desperate to find someone she trusted to be Emma's legal guardian. Still, Oliver could have refused, and his mother had made it clear that he was under no obligation to do so. He could have turned down the opportunity, but he didn't. He had been volunteering to help strangers in a foreign land. Why would he not at least try to help a little child, who was technically his own half-sister now, and grant his mother's dying request?
Now, five years later, Oliver did not regret taking responsibility for the little girl. If he were placed in the same predicament again, he wouldn't hesitate to do it all again in a heartbeat. Emma. There was just something special about her. Something that reminded him of Felicity. Emma wasn't blonde like her, but Emma's eyes were as blue as he remembered Felicity's, and Emma's laughter was just as cheerful and contagious as hers. Emma even had the same tendency to babble away when nervous or stressed. There have been a few times (more than Oliver was willing to admit) that he had chased away such thoughts because they reminded him of the pain of loss and separation.
The very next day, however, he could no longer deny the possibility. Jean Loring, Moira Queen's lawyer and good friend, came to Starling Ranch to see him and Thea. Ms. Loring handed Oliver a manila folder full of files on Emma. Apparently, his mother had specifically instructed her lawyer to hand it to them on Emma's 7th birthday. In the folder was a letter penned by Moira Queen herself, addressed to Oliver.
In the letter, Moira confessed to Oliver that she had always known who Emma's biological mother was. She further identified said mother as none other than Felicity Smoak. She also wrote that she had one final request to ask of him - one that she knew would be the hardest thing she had ever asked him to do ever - and that was for him to give Emma the choice whether or not she wanted to get to know her mother. The letter ended with information about where Felicity had been spotted last since she disappeared, which was Central City.
Dumbfounded, Oliver did not know how to react or respond to the shocking revelation. The girl he'd loved all these years (and the one that shattered his heart) was the mother of his little girl.
Jean Loring left after assuring the Queen siblings that she was willing to help them track down Felicity Smoak; they just needed to let her know.
That night, Oliver went upstairs to check on Emma one last time before retiring for the night. He kissed her forehead tenderly and whispered, "Whatever you decide, I love you, Ems."
A/N: Anyone interested in the rest of this fic? What do you think?