Chapter 5 – John Diggle
An: I do not own Arrow.
Shortly after the Thea Queen kidnapping, Felicity was inundated with cases. Usually she liked the upswing in cases but now that she had somewhere she really wanted to be at night, she was hating it. With the money Mrs. Queen had paid her, she could have afforded to have a few slow months. She really wanted to spend her time creating a beautiful IT system in The Arrow's base but somewhere out there in the Universe there was some force that liked to torture her.
She spent most of her nights in her car outside a cheap motel waiting to get the money shots. She would then sleep the next morning away and only have time to write the report and then get back in her car to take more dirty pictures. She was lucky if she was able to squeeze in an hour at the base. Once or twice Oliver had asked her to work comms when he needed Diggle in the field and she refused to tell him no, prioritising the Arrow's requests over her own cases. The result was a couple sleepless nights.
The base was slowly beginning to look completely different to the room she had first walked into over a month ago. One of the first things she made Oliver do was change the lighting in the base. The previous standing lights he used were terrible. She got him to install overhead fluorescent lights that really illuminated the various work areas. She then changed out all the monitors and added several large touch screen TVs for briefings before missions. Roy kept grumbling about women messing up their system but Felicity ignored him.
The new comm system she sourced was fantastic. The static had cleared right up and Digg liked how the GPS was connected to it and he could keep track of where they were in the field much better than before. Oliver was a greet dot, Roy a red and Digg a black one when they were all out there. When they entered buildings, she also created a program to overlay the GPS position onto the building schematics.
Felicity was pleased that the team was happy with her work but what she was really proud of were the server racks that she had put in the back of the liar. The base had more processing power than all of Starling City combined. She created several algorithms to track the police radios and 911 calls. She even hacked into a few of the private security companies so that they would know when private alarms were triggered before the police.
Thea and Roy were still together but he was in the doghouse for lying to her. She had heard from him that Thea had tried to drop by a few times but Oliver refused to let her in. The code on the door inside Verdant had been changed and only Oliver and Digg knew the code. Oliver suspected his sister was going to try to use Tommy or Roy to get in and thus he refused to share the new code with them. Thea did not know about the side entrance and no one was allowed to tell her about it.
Her cases slowly started to die down as she started heading into another slow period and she got to spend more time in the base. She discovered that she preferred to work during the day when no one was around. She got a lot more done. When the boys were out in the field she spent most of her time on comms guiding them instead of working on her upgrades. After that, the next biggest distraction was Oliver's workout routine. On nights with no action, Oliver would return to their base and exercise. His favourite exercise was something called the salmon ladder and he liked to do that shirtless. Chunks of Felicity's time disappeared when he was on it. The salmon ladder routine even invaded her dreams. She would be dreaming about the latest code she was working on, or her and Dr. Who on some adventure and then she would hear the distinctive sound of the metal bar being moved up one rung. She would look around her dream world and there in a little corner of the world she would spot Oliver naked on the salmon ladder. In her dream Oliver was always naked on the salmon ladder.
After Oliver started taking up more and more dream time, Felicity was forced to admit that she was completely smitten with him. She tried to tell herself that it was just biology. She was a single female of reproductive age and he was a strong handsome male in excellent condition. It made sense that she would feel attracted to him. That was how nature worked. She just needed to rise above her primal instincts and be a working professional. She wasn't there because of Oliver. She was there because she believed in his cause. Staring at a shirtless Oliver was just a bonus benefit she got for being there. In fact he was the only benefit of her second job.
She realised working with Oliver was becoming problematic. She was beginning to get very jealous of his girlfriends. She didn't know why she knew his daily itinerary but she always did. For instance, today he had dinner with the current flame, Hannah, at Jade Dragon before coming straight to the base. She didn't know what Diggle did all day or what Roy did but she always knew what Oliver did during his time away from the base and it wasn't like she researched the information. He had a habit of letting her know what he was up to. He either told her directly or stood next to her while she was working and spoke on speaker phone to his flames.
As far as she was concerned, none of the six she had heard him interact with knew the real him. They all fell for his façade. Felicity had learnt the difference between his public persona and the real him. His smiles were different, the tone of his voice was different, hell even the way he moved was different. He was stiff in public. She could tell that everything he did was calculated. However, when no one was watching, he was more relaxed, more loose and fluid.
His phone that he left on her workstation every time he went in the field rang. A picture of Hannah's smiling face came up. This one was a redhead and it reminded her of the first case she did for Mrs. Queen that set off this whole chain of events. That was the third time in five minutes that the woman had called and it was seriously pissing her off.
She opened a comm line, "Arrow, you need to return to base. The other you is needed."
"What's wrong," came his concerned tone.
"Don't know but your phone is ringing," she said curtly. The green dot on the screen indicated he was only three blocks away. He could get there quickly and take care of whatever it was that the redhead needed. Her thoughts started to guess what those needs might be and she had to bring them to an abrupt halt when they started spiralling into things of a physical nature.
"Can you patch it through Overwatch?" he asked.
"Of course I could but we have codenames for a reason. You started early tonight. Come in," she ordered.
"Affirmative," he responded.
She watched with a satisfied grin as the green and red dots started to make their way back to base.
Twenty minutes and fifteen calls later, Oliver's green leather self appeared next to her. Roy went off to change and give them some privacy.
"What is it?" he asked concerned. He was standing less than a foot away from her and she had to crane her neck to look up at him. Gosh he was tall.
"Your girlfriend," was their bitterness in her tone, she didn't think there was bitterness in her tone, "Is calling repeatedly."
As if Hannah knew they were talking about her, the phone started to ring again. She really hated that ring tone. He used the same one for all of his play things.
"Before you answer that you should know that there are no police reports or fire reports for anything near her building. Her building security is fine and I even hacked the camera on her phone and she's physically fine," Felicity informed him brusquely. She left out the part about Hannah pacing madly about her room and crying her eyes out.
Oliver nodded and answered the phone ending the annoying noise that was coming from it. Thankfully he did not put it on speaker but he didn't leave her zone either so she was subjected to his conversation with Hannah.
"Ok, calm down," Oliver said and Felicity winced. Those weren't words you really wanted to say to a hysterical woman. He discovered that the hard way when he pulled the phone away from his ear. She could hear a female voice was screeching at him. When they could no longer hear the voice coming through the phone Oliver returned it to his ear.
"I can't understand what you're saying," he said to her. "Please slow down."
"I was in the bathroom. I left my phone in the kitchen. I didn't know it was ringing." She must have asked him why he didn't answer any of her previous zillion phone calls.
"What do you mean you hit someone?" he asked confused.
Felicity sat straighter in her seat. Did Hannah get into a cat fight?
"You had a fender bender?" he asked carefully. His hand came to rest on the back of her chair and he supported some of his weight on it.
Ok not a person but a car. She hit a car. Felicity started pulling up accident reports.
"You didn't hit a car? Then what did you hit?" He sounded even more confused than before.
Felicity refined her search to cars hitting property until she heard Oliver's next words.
"You hit a person," his tone was incredulous.
Felicity then started looking for hit and runs because Hannah didn't strike her as the type of person to stick around and one report came up. At 8:15pm, which would have been roughly after Hannah's date with Oliver at Jade Dragon had finished, a homeless man was run over by a black Mercedes. The driver didn't stick around and none of the witnesses got the plate number. It occurred at an intersection that didn't have a camera. She put the report on the large touch screen for Oliver to read.
"No I can't make that go away," Oliver said in an angry tone as he walked over to the screen and started reading the report.
"What do you mean I'm being selfish?" Oliver asked irritated.
Felicity flinched. Hannah had no idea what was about to happen.
"If it were me Hannah, I would have stopped and helped the man I hit. He probably would have survived if he got help right away. I would have talked to the police and given my statement. You've made things ten times worse by leaving the scene."
Oliver pulled the phone away from his ear again and Felicity could hear Hannah's voice yelling at him from where she was seated. She sounded even angrier than before. Oliver walked back over and put the phone down on her workstation, Hannah's angry voice still coming through it.
He leaned down next to Felicity, "Send an anonymous tip to Lance with Hannah's license plate number. He can find the car from there."
His scent invaded her senses and her heart rate ticked up a bit at his proximity. She was barely able to keep track of what he said because her mind went straight to the gutter.
He went back to the phone and cut Hannah off, "The most I can do is get Captain Lance to interview you. It's either that or nothing." He paused for a few seconds, "Then it's nothing Hannah. Goodbye."
Oliver ran his hand through his hair frustrated. It was a little longer than usual but Felicity liked it like that. He handed her the phone, "Please block her number for me."
She arched her eyebrow, "You don't think she at least deserves to be dumped in person?"
"In a few days after the dust settles," he paused to look around the base, "Where's Diggle?"
"He got a call earlier and had to leave," she relayed. She was working on pulling up Captain Lance's e-mail so she could drop a note directly into his e-mail box with Hannah's license plate number. She knew it was highly doubtful that he would see it that night. He struck her as the type of man that grudgingly checked his e-mail once a day. She purposely did it that way to give Hannah some time to come clean. It would be much easier on her if she did it herself rather than the police finding her.
"Was it something to do with Carly or AJ?" he asked concerned.
"I don't know," Felicity replied honestly. From the little she had learnt about John Diggle, he had a sister-in-law named Carly that worked at Big Belly Burger. She had been married to his deceased brother Andy and they had a son together named AJ. Diggle did his best to help her raise AJ in Andy's absence.
"He'll call if he need us," Oliver said confidently. He headed to the back to change and passed Roy as he was returning to their area.
"So how much of that did you hear Roy?" Felicity asked while she went back to work.
"I don't eavesdrop Blondie," he responded.
"Right, and I'm the Queen of England," she said sarcastically.
"Soon to be Queen of Starling," he corrected heading to the alley exit.
Felicity shook her head. She was just about to get back into the zone when a shirtless Oliver Queen appeared and headed straight to the salmon ladder.
Clink
Clink
Clink
There went the rest of the night.
Since Oliver kept interfering with the amount of work that she was successfully able to achieve at night, she decided to come in early. Her contact number was on her door if anyone needed her they could call. She was working on revamping the firewalls when Oliver arrived just after five. That was extremely early for him to be in the base and she knew immediately something was wrong.
"You're here early," they both said at the same time.
They stopped and stared at each other and Felicity just couldn't let the silence be and started babbling.
"It's been slow at the day job. I finished up the last report for my client but I have no new cases so I thought since I had time available I could actually get some proper work done around here without staring at you on the salmon ladder," her eyes widened. She couldn't believe she had just admitted out loud to him that she watched him do the ladder. "And you did not need to know that last part."
He smiled widely at her. She could see the dimples in his cheeks and a sparkle in his eyes and she knew he was amused with her but like always, he eased her up on her embarrassment by changing the topic of conversation.
"I actually came down here looking for John. I haven't seen him all day." His face changed to a slight frown and she knew he was worried.
"Haven't seen him either," she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. John didn't seem like the type to just disappear without letting anyone know. She pulled up the GPS tracker on his phone. "According to his phone he's in his apartment and according to his phone history he's been using it all day so I think he's safe."
"Ok," Oliver nodded. She caught sight of a mischievous look in his eyes before he strolled over to the salmon ladder, pulled his t-shirt off and jumped up to the bar. She really needed to find that force in the universe that hated her. How was she supposed to stay professional?
The computer pinged alerting her to the fact that someone had entered the lair. She thought it might be Diggle but a familiar red hoody appeared.
"Why are you both here?" Roy asked upset. "This is my practice time. Why must I be subjected to this weird mating dance you two got going on?"
"What are you talking about?" Felicity asked.
"Seriously?" Roy said. "He hasn't been exercising shirtless every night and your skirts haven't gotten shorter since you started coming down here?"
Felicity looked at her skirt and shifted in her seat trying to pull it down her legs, "This is my standard length. I don't know what you're talking about."
Roy rolled his eyes at her, "I'll be in the back practicing my aim."
"It better be on target Roy because if you hit my server rack again, I can guarantee you my server's won't be the only thing requiring surgery to fix," her tone made it clear that Roy would regret it. She had spent three days fixing her babies after the first time he did that.
Roy rolled his eyes and walked away from her and her gaze automatically landed on Oliver who was halfway up the ladder. At least she didn't need to add a TV to the base for entertainment.
It wasn't until an hour later that Diggle finally arrived in the base. He came through the side entrance and walked straight over to her station.
"Everything ok?" Oliver asked. He had moved on from the salmon ladder to practicing some type of kata with a sword right in front of her computer station. His shirt was still MIA too.
"Lyla went missing on a mission in Russia," he said gravely. His whole posture was tense and he didn't look like he had slept at all last night. "ARGUS is refusing to retrieve her. They aren't officially supposed to be there so Waller's refusing to send reinforcements. I've been trying to find out what mission Lyla was on but..."
"Let me guess," Oliver said stopping his kata and standing up straight to face Digg. "Waller's refusing to provide any information."
Diggle gave a reluctant nod. "I'm hoping if I fly out there, her partner could brief me on what happened. The earliest flight I could get is two days from now."
"I'll book the jet," Oliver said immediately walking around her computers to his cell phone that was next to her keyboard.
"Oliver you don't have to do that," Diggle insisted.
"I do. Lyla's important to you so she's important to me as well," Oliver insisted. He raised the phone to his ear and spoke to someone about getting the plane ready as soon as possible for a flight to Moscow for him and Diggle. Oliver listened to the response and then thanked the person before hanging up.
"Go home and pack. I'll see you tomorrow at the airstrip at 8:00am," Oliver ordered.
Both men maintained eye contact and Felicity found herself turning her head from side to side between both men. It was a silent battle of wills. Diggle wanted to do whatever it was he was doing on his own, and Oliver was being insistent on Diggle accepting help. Felicity wanted to say something but she knew she was missing a lot of information. For starters she didn't know who this Lyla was or the nature of her relationship to John. She didn't who or what R Gus was or if it was even R Gus that he said. There was also mention of a Waller. She knew if she asked for clarification she wasn't going to get an answer which meant that whatever work she had planned for that night was going to be put on the back burner again. Her fingers had some research to conduct.
Diggle eventually backed down. "Ok," he said. "I'll be there at 8:00am sharp." Diggle nodded at Felicity before he left the way he came.
"Roy," Oliver called to at the back of the room.
"I got no passport man," Roy replied immediately.
"And you don't eavesdrop," Felicity said turning to face him.
He had the gall to stick his tongue out at her.
"You got the next few days off. Both of you." Oliver said. "Keep out of trouble."
Roy nodded his head and went back to practicing his aim while Oliver started gathering equipment in the base into a series of black bags. Felicity mentally catalogued everything he packed. She saw a bunch of medical supplies, a pair of escrima sticks, flashlights, comm gear, and some other items Felicity wasn't familiar with placed into the bags. When he was finished he picked up the bags and left without saying goodbye to either to them.
As soon as she heard the door lock behind him, Felicity jumped from her seat and went over to Mini-Hood. She was sure he would know something.
"Who is Lyla?" she asked. He had an arrow knocked and had drawn the bow back as he focused on his target.
"Don't know. They've mentioned her a few times when they needed help in the past," Roy explained letting the arrow fly. He skimmed the edge of his target.
"And what about R Gus?" she prodded further.
Roy dropped his bow to his side and looked at her, "Some sort of secret government agency. Why exactly are you asking?"
Felicity shrugged, "I like to know what I'm dealing with. For instance that was a terrible shot. I gave you the benefit of the doubt before but I think you should start practicing on the other side of the base where there are no computers for you to hit."
"Hey, I was here first!" he protested.
"Seniority here isn't based on time served. Besides didn't Oliver tell you that if you hit another one of my computers he'll put you back to slapping water?" she asked. She heard Roy grumble several times about the dish of water he had to slap when he first started training.
"Look blondie, I told you that was an accident and it won't happen again," Roy said irritated.
She smiled wickedly, "Unless I imply it did to Oliver. Now move."
Roy scowled at her. He walked over to his target, picked it up and moved to the other side of the base. The entire time he was grumbling about bossy women upsetting the apple cart.
Felicity arrived at the air strip the next morning a little before 8:00am. It was a private airport outside of Starling City where the one percenters kept their private jets. She knew the Queen jet was parked in one of the hangers and it had been fueled over an hour ago. The necessary flight plans had been filed and they had clearance to leave. She walked into the main building which consisted of the office that ran the airstrip and a team that catered to the needs of the one percenters.
The entrance spoke of wealth. Marble floors, expensive potted plants, plush sofas for travelers to relax on, a bar that served only premium liquor and waitresses that walked around with skirts shorter than her own. She spotted Oliver seated by the bar. A waitress was trying to chat with him but he didn't look interested. Before she could even head in his direction, he spotted her. He jumped off his chair and in three long strides was at her side.
"Fe li ci ty," he said, his left hand wrapping around her right arm and pulling her to the side behind a large palm plant where they could have some privacy. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help," she rolled her eyes. It was obvious that was why she was there.
"We are going to a foreign country. Russia is very different to America," he stressed.
"Oliver I know that. I studied Geography. I know how far away Russia is. I can help you. I'm all packed," she looked down at the rollie next to her to emphasize her point. She had a large suitcase which had all of her clothes, toiletries and accessories. Her laptop and tablet were on a bag on her shoulder along with her purse. "Remember no cases. This will be the perfect vacation for me."
"This will hardly be a vacation," Oliver replied. He looked around to see if anyone was listening to them. When he was satisfied that they weren't attracting any attention he returned his gaze to her.
"Ah but it's my type of vacation. I don't do normal vacations. I get bored to tears. I always need to be doing something meaningful," Felicity stressed.
Diggle appeared out of nowhere next to her and she jumped slightly. Oliver's hand on her arm steadied her so she didn't lose balance and fall over.
"Where did you come from?" she asked. How did she miss a man as gargantuan as Diggle approaching her?
Diggle ignored her and focused on Oliver, "I thought it was just us."
"It was," Oliver insisted. "Felicity thinks she can help."
Diggle turned to Felicity, "The flight manifest…"
"Has already been altered to include my name," Felicity smiled. She had anticipated every roadblock they would throw in her way to go with them and she had an answer for everything.
Both men sighed heavily and shared a glance.
"Ok but you stick with us at all times and you follow our orders without question," Oliver caved quickly surprising Felicity.
"Ok except if you tell me to jump off a bridge. There will be questions then," Felicity agreed.
Oliver and Diggle chuckled.
"You're remarkable Felicity," he said a smile tugging at his lips.
Before she could respond a man called for the Queen party to board their plane. Oliver's hand slipped over the hand she had on her suitcase and he took it from her.
"Our bags are on the plane already," he said by way of explanation for stealing her bag. She was perfectly capable of walking with her own bag.
She followed behind Oliver, Diggle walking in step next to her, towards the other side of the building where there were some large double doors that opened up to the runway. Their plane was right there waiting for them. Oliver handed her suitcase off to someone at the side and they took it to the cargo hold of the plane.
"I've never traveled on a private jet before. This should be fun!"
The inside of the jet was spacious. On each side of the plane was one large seat. Some seats faced the front, some seats faced the back so that you could sit facing each other. There was a door after the fourth row of seats that lead to the rest of the plane. The front of the plane had the door to the cockpit, the bathroom and an area to prepare meals and food.
Oliver and Diggle sat facing each other on one side and Felicity took a seat on the other side of the plane. Oliver pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Hello, Mom. I'm on the jet. I'm going to Russia for a few days. I'll see you when I get back."
Her eyes snapped to Diggle. "Does he always inform her so late?"
"Pretty much," Diggle confirmed for her.
Felicity relaxed back in the chair and listened as the Captain informed them about the trip and the estimated flight time. It was going to be a very long flight but Felicity had come prepared. As soon as they were in the air she pulled out two manila file folders and handed a folder each to Oliver and Diggle.
"What's this?" Diggle asked curiously.
"This is the mission Lyla was assigned along with her progress updates she submitted to ARGUS every week." She watched pleased as both of them stared at her stunned. She lifted her head in the air proudly. She told them she was there to help. She certainly intended to pull her weight.
"How did you get this?" Oliver asked shaking the file in his hand slightly.
"I hacked ARGUS," she admitted happily. It had been the most fun she had had in years. It felt great to actually have a challenge. Of course she had to figure out that it was ARGUS and not R Gus but after she got that bit sorted out by doing some research on the dark web it was like she was dancing with an old friend she hadn't seen in years.
"Felicity!" Oliver said through gritted teeth. His posture stiffened and he didn't look pleased at all.
"What?" she shrugged innocently. "I told you I break the FBI deal every day. It took me all night but I got in. They aren't as secure as they think are," a yawn broke her boast. "Once I was in I was able to pull up all the information we required. I think they even have a satellite that could be useful from time to time."
Another yawn punctuated her sentence. "Sorry, I went straight home from the base. I had just enough time to pack and get here."
Oliver's eyes softened. "Take a nap while we read this then."
"I would love to," Felicity said stretching out in her seat. She pressed the button to recline and then adjusted her position until she found one comfortable enough to sleep in. Usually that position was her leaning her head against the frame of the plane while she was stuck upright in her seat but this was an airplane seat that reclined right back. It was such a pleasant alternative to what she was accustomed to.
"Felicity," Oliver's voice said as she was trying to immerse herself in her dream world. A world she was sure she would see him in.
"Hmm," she mumbled. "Trying to sleep."
"There's a bed in the back," he said calmly.
"Did you say bed or did I imagine you saying that?" she asked popping one eye open to look at him.
"Through that door is a bedroom," he chucked his thumb in the direction of the door at the back of the plane. "You can sleep on a bed. Diggle and I need to read these files and get up to speed with what you know. Go ahead and get some rest. You've never been to Russia before so I need you to be alert when we get there."
Felicity nodded and stood. She was halfway to the door when Diggle called out to her.
"Felicity if we said no, when were you planning on giving us these files?"
She turned to look at him, "I thought you would have held out longer and I planned on using the information as a carrot to come on board."
Diggle chuckled and then looked at her sincerely, "Thank you."
"Your welcome. We'll get your ex-wife back although considering the lengths you're willing to go to get her back, ex probably isn't the right word."
Diggle didn't respond to her comment and she continued on her short walk to the bedroom. She opened the door and collapsed on the bed. Damn the Queens. The bed on their private jet was more comfortable than the bed in her apartment! Soon she was watching her naked Oliver on the salmon ladder.
An: Thanks for reading. Originally Russia was a part of this chapter but it was getting into the 10k word territory so I made Russia its own chapter. Anyone want to take a guess at what Lyla's doing in Russia?
