Chapter 8 – Quentin Lance
An: I do not own Arrow.
Oliver had been right. As soon as she returned she had a string of clients knocking on her door. Interestingly, one had even been a referral from Moira, another wealthy socialite that wanted evidence of her husband's cheating. The new socialite was willing to pay even more than Moira and she found with that income she was able to work pro bono for some of her clients who were desperately in need of her services but had no spare funds to pay her.
Diggle had taken a few days off from his duties both as Oliver's bodyguard and his role in the Arrow Base to help Lyla recover from her injuries. Roy was, well, quite frankly Roy was lucky to be alive since Oliver had blown a gasket when he discovered that Arsenal had been in the field. It was further compounded when he discovered that Thea had been running comms for Roy. The young boy had taken to hiding out in her small office until Hurricane Oliver dissipated.
Felicity estimated that Oliver would be welcoming Roy back into the fold very soon. Thea had somehow managed to negotiate with Oliver to allow her to stay in the base and learn how to work the comm system properly. His sister was also working on getting Roy back in Oliver's good graces. It was funny how Oliver thought he could resist the charm of his baby sister. He really couldn't. Thea had him wrapped around her pinky finger and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. The one down side to Thea being in the base with them meant Oliver's shirt stayed on when she was around.
It was nice to pass on her knowledge to someone else but it was clear how much of a sheltered life Thea had lived. She had been in shock as to how the underprivileged in the city survived. Thea found it hard to believe that people could really live out of a cardboard box. Felicity wondered how much Roy was keeping from Thea. She knew he lived in a very bad part of town and had seen some horrible things growing up.
Being a private detective meant Felicity saw the worst of human nature 95% of the time and hardly anything shocked her anymore. A good example was the report she was staring at on her computer screen. A pregnant wife had come to her with concerns that her husband, a high school literature teacher, was cheating on her with another teacher. She was right about the cheating but not about the fellow teacher. He was having an affair with not one, not two but three of his students from different grades. The youngest was 14. It was time to pass the case on to The Arrow and Captain Lance. The man was breaking the law and needed to be stopped.
There was a loud bang at her door, "Bitch you in there," a gruff voice said as the handle on her door rotated.
When the door didn't open Felicity realised it was actually locked. Roy must have locked it when she kicked him out of her office that morning after his moping had begun to annoy her. The handle started to vibrate more as the person on the other side of the door tried to get it open. Suddenly the door flew open with a loud bang, the door frame splintering from the force. She recognised an angry Mr. Kumar standing in front of her. She had been hired by his mother-in-law to capture video of him abusing her daughter. The woman suspected that the bruises her daughter regularly sported were not caused by accidents and falls but by her son-in-law and she wanted evidence to go to the police because it appeared her daughter wasn't going to do anything about the situation. The video feed went directly to her client and Felicity hadn't been called to do anything else for the case.
She probably should have followed up. The man standing in front of her had bloodshot eyes, flaring nostrils and a baseball bat. He looked capable of murder, her murder. Felicity tried not to panic. She had a taser in the bottom draw of her desk
"You're going to regret what you did," he screamed at her slamming the baseball bat down on her laptop and desk.
There was a sickening crack as her old desk split in half and collapsed in the middle. Felicity barely moved her chair back in time to avoid getting her legs caught under the desk. Her poor laptop was badly damaged. He swung the bat at her and she ducked to the side and landed on the floor. The swing connected with the back of the chair, breaking it away from the seat and sending it flying into the drywall on side of the office.
She reached for the draw and tried to get it open but because that side of the desk was lying at an odd angle it wasn't opening properly. She used her feet to level that bit of the table and open the draw but she had taken too much time to do that and the bat was swinging her way again. She had no choice but to lift her left arm to try and block the attack and keep it away from the vital areas of her body. Pain exploded through her left arm at the same time her right hand encircled the taser. Once she felt the taser securely in her hand, she pulled it out of the draw and dropped her body flat to the floor to avoid the follow through on his swing.
She was lying on her back looking up at her attacker on the other side of her broken desk. She ignored the excruciating pain in her arm, and focused all of her concentration on aiming the taser at Mr. Kumar. She needed to slow him down. She lifted the taser and aimed for his chest. She squeezed the trigger as he was lifting the bat to swing at her again.
The prongs buried themselves into his chest and his body went still as the current neutralised all of his actions. The bat dropped from his hand onto the ground with a clamour that drew Felicity's eyes to offensive object. The first five second burst ended and the man started to regain control of his body. He leaned over to retrieve his bat off the floor but the second burst of charge incapacitated him again. He lost his balance, fell sidewards and hit his head on the one sturdy item in her office, the chair she bought for her clients to sit on. That seemed to knock him out.
She forced herself up on to her knees and crawled into the corner of her office and stared at the man lying unconscious in front of her. She knew she was in shock and she knew some part of her arm was broken but she just needed a moment to gather herself together. She knew that the man might wake up at any moment but she couldn't bring herself to move yet. Her body felt like it weighed a tonne and her mind was beginning to float away from the pain. The edges of her vision started to see stars and her eyelids were getting heavy.
She barely registered movement in the room before Oliver appeared kneeling in front of her. She could see his mouth moving but she couldn't hear what he was saying. He took her face in both his hands and his thumb stroked both of her cheeks tenderly as his lips continued to move. When his gaze dropped down to her left arm, his expression darkened. She imagined that was what he looked like as the Arrow when he confronted muggers. He turned around to look at the man on the ground and Felicity noticed Diggle standing over the man with a gun pointed at him. She briefly wondered when he came back to work.
Suddenly sound flooded back in and she heard all sorts of sounds like a car honking in the street, the skateboard of the kid next door and Oliver's lovely voice. It felt like a lifeline she needed.
"Felicity we need to get you to the hospital," his tone was urgent and his eyes encouraged her to listen to him and not resist.
That seemed to snap her out of the trance and with her return to reality the pain came flooding back in.
"No," she groaned. "We need to call the police. I need to put him in jail or he'll continue to beat his wife. If she won't press charges, I will. Call the police."
"You need medical attention," Oliver insisted.
"I think I'll survive," she said. "He only got my arm with the bat." She hadn't looked down at her arm yet. A part of her was afraid to look. With one swing of his bat he broke her desk, with the other her chair. She didn't want to know what his third swing did to her arm. She knew it had to be broken but she didn't want to know how badly broken.
The anger she saw course through Oliver's face when she mentioned her arm sent a dark thrill through her. He seemed to realise she wasn't going anywhere and he pulled out his phone to make a call. Felicity tried to get off the floor but the moment she moved her hand, a cry of pain erupted from her. Oliver was at her side in a second.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "I just need to figure out how to get up."
With those words Oliver was lifting her bridal style off the floor. He took extra care not to jar her arm and he placed her on the client's chair. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the throbbing pain from her arm. Diggle still had his gun trained on the unconscious man while Oliver continued to focus on her. He started asking her questions about the pain and if she could handle it. That was when she finally built up the courage to look at her arm. Her ulna and radius were indeed broken if the little bit of bone that was jutting out of her skin was any indication. She was on the verge of telling him to leave her alone when a new voice drew her attention.
"Kid, what trouble did you get yourself into this time?" the voice said.
She turned her head to see Captain Lance standing in her office surveying the scene and two patrol officers behind him inspecting the remnants of her door. Captain Lance seemed most interested in the unconscious man on the ground. She turned back to Oliver.
"You called Captain Lance?" she said looking at Oliver astonished.
"You said to call the police," he replied with a shrug.
"So you called the police captain. A normal officer would have sufficed," she admonished.
"Is Queen or his bodyguard responsible for the unconscious guy on the ground?" Captain Lance asked.
"That would actually be me?" she admitted.
"What happened?" he asked his eyes zeroing in on her arm. His face winced with sympathy for her. "A quick summation you need to go to the hospital and get your arm taken care of now."
"He broke through my door," Felicity started her explanation.
"I told you that lock needed to change," Oliver interjected here and she shot him a furious glare. He did not back down.
She looked back at Captain Lance and continued, "He attacked me with that baseball bat. He broke my desk, my chair and my arm, in that order before I was able to use my taser on him. He hit his head on this chair on the way down and he's been unconscious since then."
"Anyone call an ambulance for him," Captain Lance asked.
"No," came the gruff answer from both Oliver and Diggle.
"Ok, Queen take her to the hospital. This office is officially a crime scene and we'll handle the matter from here," Captain Lance ordered.
Felicity slowly returned to consciousness. The lights were very bright and she tried to move her hands to cover her face. Her right hand complied easily but her left hand caused a surge of pain. It was then that she remembered that she was in the hospital because of the attack the previous day. The doctors had taken X-rays of her arm to examine the breaks. They confirmed that she needed surgery to reset her bones. Oliver insisted that it had to be done immediately and he had the best orthopedic surgeon in the city do it.
The doctor told her that he would put her under for the surgery and that she was would wake up the next day with her arm in a cast. She glanced down at her arm and did find it wrapped in a white cast.
"You're awake," a soft female voice said.
Felicity turned to find a nurse stationed at the end of her bed.
"Yes," she said her throat dry.
The nurse moved quickly to the side of the bed and offered her a glass of water. Felicity gratefully accepted it.
"The doctor will be here soon to check on you," the nurse said heading back to her station.
If she remembered correctly Oliver had insisted that she be given a private room and he even hired a private nurse to keep watch over her all night since the hospital refused to budge on the policy that only allowed family members to stay in private rooms overnight. Her arm started to throb and she realised that the pain medication was wearing off.
The nurse helped her to the bathroom where Felicity cleaned up. She found a fresh set of clothes waiting for her and she wondered where they had come from. They were definitely from her closet. She couldn't quite remember everything that happened when she reached the hospital but she was sure that she had sent a text to her mom telling her she wouldn't be home that night because of a case. It wouldn't be the first time that a case had kept her out all night. However, it was the first time that she was injured on the job.
She heard the door to her room open and the nurse informed her that the doctor was there to see her. He gave her some medication for the pain while he conducted a general examine. He was satisfied with the results and agreed to release her from the hospital.
As soon as the doctor left Oliver popped his head into the room, "Ready to go?" he asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
Oliver walked into the room and collected her bag that was at the foot of the bed.
"Oliver, how did I get these clothes?" she asked him as she followed him out of the room.
He stopped to look at her, "Your mom."
"You met my mother?" she asked horrified. She never, ever wanted Oliver to meet her mother!
"Diggle met your mother. I stayed here with you," he replied. He resumed walking and Felicity followed behind him.
"Did he tell her what happened?" Felicity asked. She knew she was going to be in major trouble with her mother but the longer she could put it off the better.
"Since you didn't mention it to her, he didn't think it was his place to tell her," Oliver explained.
Felicity breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother could be a handful. They stopped in front of the elevator and Oliver pressed the button.
"So what did he tell her?" Felicity asked.
"I don't know," Oliver replied.
Felicity cocked her head to the side. How on Earth had he convinced her mother to give him her clothes?
Oliver's car pulled up in front of her house and he rushed around to her side of the car to help her out. She was perfectly capable of getting out of the car by herself, even with the broken arm but she let him do it. The pain medication was beginning to make her feel a little sleepy. He collected her bag from the back seat and then he guided her to her front door. She knew her mother wasn't home. She would have gone to work.
"Oliver can I get a lift to my office later to get my car and phone?" she asked him.
Oliver rubbed the back of his head, "Actually your phone and car keys are at the police station. The forensics team collected everything. Lance will have to release them to you and that won't be today. I can drive you wherever you need to go," Oliver offered. "It's probably for the best. You need rest."
Felicity rolled her eyes, of course Oliver would think her being stuck home was for the best. "What happened to Kumar?" Felicity asked.
"He was arrested but he lawyered up. A judge gave him bail and his mother posted it this morning. Diggle informs me he's home with his wife," Oliver said darkly.
"Oliver, please don't do anything. Let the police handle it. I've pressed charges," Felicity said.
Oliver didn't respond instead he looked at the closed door. "Do you have a key?"
Felicity groaned, "It was on my car keys. Why didn't I remember that earlier? This medication has my head all fuzzy," she said leaning her head against him. His arm encircled her and he ran his hand comfortingly through her hair.
"Perhaps, I should open the door then," Oliver suggested. He let go of her briefly and pulled a lock pick set from his jacket. Felicity was momentarily taken back that he would carry something like that with him during the day. She thought he would only need it for his night job. In less seconds he had her front door opened. From the frown on his face she knew what was coming next.
"You need a better lock," he stated.
"Do you have some sort of lock fetish or something?" she asked.
Oliver smiled and Felicity exhaled dreamily. He was so handsome when he smiled.
His hand came up to caress her face, "Do you need me to get you anything?" Oliver asked.
Felicity leaned into his hand, "No I'm great. The Big Belly Burger we picked up on the way here is good," she reassured him.
"I almost lost you." His thumb started to stroke her cheek again.
She could see the fear in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He really was afraid that he could have lost her.
She scoffed at the idea. "Please it takes more than a man and a baseball bat to take me down."
Oliver's thumb stopped his ministrations and he growled softly. "No one is ever hurting you again."
"Oliver you can't make that promise. What I do is dangerous," she pointed out. She stepped away from him and lay down on the couch.
"As long as I'm in your life Felicity, this isn't going to happen again," Oliver insisted stubbornly.
Felicity closed her eyes for a moment, she was back in her office with Kumar busting in through the door. She jumped awake and discovered her mother kneeling next to her with concern showing in her eyes.
"Felicity are you ok? You were having a nightmare?"
She realised she must have fallen asleep. There was a blanket covering her, and her big belly burger was on the coffee table waiting for her. She pulled the blanket off her with her right hand and sat up.
"Felicity is that a cast on your arm!" her mother gasped. "And who is Oliver?"
Felicity looked down at the cast and was surprised when she saw red writing on it.
Get well soon – Oliver
The next day Felicity took a cab to her office but it was still a crime scene. There was an officer posted at the door collecting evidence and he took her official statement. Her laptop was evidence that she wouldn't be getting back any time soon so she went to the nearest Tech Village and bought herself a new one. All of the money Moira had paid her was going to be used up paying her hospital bill and paying for the damage to her office. It was funny how one moment things could be fine and the next an utter mess.
She decided to focus on finishing off the reports for the cases she had been working on. It was a very frustrating experience. With her arm in a sling, she was forced to type with one hand and it was infuriatingly slow. On top of that, her mother decided to take a few days off to stay home with her and Frank had sent her an e-mail asking for a report on the incident. She heard her mother's phone ring and shortly later her mother appeared.
"Felicity honey, Captain Lance is asking if you can come down to the station?" her mother said.
Felicity leaped at the chance to do something other than the reports, "Yes." She hoped they were ready to release her phone and car keys. She really needed them. After assuring her mother that she could get to the police station by herself, Felicity was able to leave the apartment.
An hour later Felicity found herself seated in an interrogation room. She was able to get her phone and car keys but Captain Lance had some follow up questions for her. He had kept her waiting in the room for ten minutes before he finally showed up.
"I thought usually suspects were interviewed in these rooms," she said when Captain Lance entered the room. He look unapologetic and he sat down on the seat opposite her with a folder in his hand. His face didn't look very friendly at all. She glanced at the two-way mirror and wondered if anyone was behind it.
"It's just a few routine questions. Nothing to be worried about unless you have something to hide," the Captain said with a serious look.
Felicity shifted in her seat. She felt like she was being accused of something. "What is this about?"
"Do you know the Vigilante that's been running around the Glades?" he asked.
"You mean the Robin Hood guy?" she asked. Her senses went into high alert. She was going to have to be very careful with what she said to Captain Lance.
"Yeah that would be the one," Lance commented dryly.
"No at least I don't think that I know him. Doesn't he have some mask or something?" It wasn't really a lie. Yes she knew the vigilante's identity but she would like to think that after only a couple of months working with Oliver she still had a lot more to learn about him so she didn't really know him. Granted she knew him much better than everyone else in his life but that wasn't the question. "Why?"
"I'll ask the questions Ms. Smoak. Mr. Kumar was assaulted by the vigilante last night and taken to the hospital yesterday," Lance explained. "The interesting thing is the vigilante made sure to break his left arm with a baseball bat. In fact every injury Kumar sustained matched the list of suspected injuries that he had given to his wife. We found that information in the case file you had in your office."
Felicity fought hard to keep her features schooled. Oliver did not tell her he was going to do that. In fact she specifically asked him not to do anything stupid!
"Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?" she asked trying to deflect away from any possible connection that could be made between her and the vigilante.
"It's kind of interesting for the vigilante to suddenly be interested in Kumar don't you think?" Lance asked suspiciously.
Felicity shrugged, "It seems to me that the vigilante is a hero Captain. Maybe you should cut him some slack. He seems to deliver the justice the police can't."
"That is not justice," Lance said showing her pictures of Kumar. Felicity didn't even bother to look at them. She knew what Oliver was capable of. Instead, she decided to debate the concept of justice with Lance.
"It isn't justice?" Felicity questioned. "You're going to tell me he didn't deserve to have the shit beaten out of him. You should treat people how you wish to be treated. He thought it was ok to beat up his wife so it must be ok for the vigilante to beat him up."
"You're as bad as him," Captain Lance spat at her.
"I've seen the bad in this city and it needs someone strong like him to stand up and defend it. He should be applauded for putting his life on the line every night to help people he doesn't even know!" Felicity stressed. "Now is this interview over?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Just one other thing you should know. Kumar said The Hood warned him to stay away from his wife and you or he would be back to finish off the job."
"My hero," Felicity said a bit breathlessly. "I might actually be able to sleep tonight without seeing Kumar coming at me with a bat again."
She stood up and walked out of the interrogation room without looking back at Captain Lance. She wanted to call Oliver so bad and talk to him but she knew that was probably what Lance was hoping for. She decided she would return home and wait until Oliver sought her out.
Felicity had been working from home for three days when she heard the doorbell ring and then high pitched squealing from her mother. That could only mean one thing, Oliver had finally come to check on her.
"Felicity!" her mother screeched before her bedroom door flung open and her mother, dressed in a bright yellow tightly fitted dress appeared in her room.
"You didn't tell me that Oliver was Oliver Queen!" her mother said excitedly.
Really there was no reason her mother should be that excited. It was just Oliver. She could only imagine how her mother would react if she ever saw him on the salmon ladder.
"I didn't think it was important," Felicity lied. She knew full well how important Oliver's last name was.
Her mom went over to her mirror. "I need to change my clothes! I'm not dressed properly and oh heavens! I've barely got any make up on."
Her mother scuttled out of her room towards her own bedroom and Felicity sprang from the bed. She needed to get Oliver out of the house fast before her mother embarrassed her further.
"Oliver! What are you doing here?" she asked angrily.
"Hi," he said nervously. Oh he had a right to be nervous. The little stunt he pulled with Kumar has put her in Captain Lance's crosshairs.
"Do you need something?" she asked. "Or are you here to get me in trouble with Captain Lance again."
He frowned, "Captain Lance is troubling you?"
He was obviously unaware of her interrogation and she decided to drop the topic for now. Her apartment was not the place to have this specific conversation. "Never mind, what do you need?"
He knew she was withholding information from him but he decided to answer her question, "I need help setting up an internet connection?"
Felicity frowned. "Where?" She knew he had internet at Verdant and his mansion. Where else did he need internet?
"Grab your coat lets go," he told her.
Felicity was more than happy to follow his instructions and get out of the house before her mother returned. Whenever she was finished with Oliver she was going to have to prepare for an inquisition at home. Her mother would probably want to know, why she never mentioned that she knew Oliver Queen. From there it would go to, how long she had known Oliver Queen and eventually it would probably end with her mother wanting to know if she was getting a piece of him.
Twenty five minutes later they were pulling into Verdant's parking lot. Felicity exited the vehicle at the same time as Oliver and expected to follow him into Verdant but she instead found Oliver walking to the building across the street. A confused Felicity followed quietly behind him. He walked up to a door that seemed to be made of steel with three locks on it. He looked up to the corner where there was a camera looking down at the entrance. There was a buzzing sound and the door opened.
Felicity followed him into a short narrow corridor that had another door at the end. There was another camera watching them. She felt like she was in a holding pen. The door behind them closed and then the second door opened. Felicity followed Oliver into a large open room where Diggle, Roy, Thea and Mrs. Queen were waiting.
"Surprise!" Thea yelled loudly. She was standing in the middle of the room facing them. Diggle was leaning against the wall looking out the window at the view of Verdant. Roy was next to him and Mrs. Queen was standing just a few feet away from her.
"What?" Felicity asked dumbly. She was very confused. What was the surprise?
Moira seemed to understand her confusion and explained the situation to her, "This is your new office dear. Oliver heard that your landlord was kicking you out since he deemed your business too dangerous and he decided to find you a more secure location. I know it doesn't look like much now but Thea has a lot of plans. I have quite a few works of art that will complement these walls nicely."
Felicity was stunned. She had not been expecting this.
"Yes I have plenty of ideas. I was thinking Roy's desk could be here," Thea said pointing to the ground below where she was standing, "And…"
"Wait hold up!" Felicity said raising her palm in the air, "My new office? Roy's desk?"
Diggle chuckled lowly and she could tell from the smile on his face, he was enjoying the show.
"Yes, Oliver bought the building," Thea started to explain and Felicity turned to face Oliver.
"Oliver," she growled under her breath.
"You needed a new place and I needed a tenant I can trust in this building. I'm planning on using the basement for training for the team. We'll train here and run missions from Verdant. I can't just put anybody in this space," Oliver said to her.
"Really," Felicity said with narrowed eyes. For some reason she doubted him. "And what's the rent like?"
Oliver crossed his hands behind his back, "Since you're doing me a favour, rent is free."
"Oliver!" she said flailing her one good arm in the air. "I can't accept that!"
Oliver quickly uncrossed his hands from behind his back and caught her hand in his.
"Felicity," he said in that soft tone that was very effective in calming her rage. His thumbs also started rubbing circles into his skin. She knew he had a nervous habit of rubbing his thumb and index finger together but he seemed to have substituted that with rubbing his thumbs on her skin. It was becoming a thing with them. "It's a win-win situation for both of us. Logically it makes sense. Why should I have someone else in this space when you need a place for your business?"
"I still think I need to pay rent," Felicity sulked.
"You do, when you work with me at nights," Oliver assured her. "Think of this as an exchange for services rendered."
"But Oliver I help you because I believe in what you do. I don't need anything in return," she clarified.
"Please?" Oliver asked his blue eyes pleading with her to give in.
She already felt herself relaxing and ideas for what her new office could look like started to assault her brain. There was nothing she could do but accept Oliver's offer. He would probably keep hounding her until she did anyway. With a large exhale Felicity agreed.
"Ok but what was that comment about Roy's desk?" she asked.
Oliver gave her a cocky smirk, "He's your new secretary/bodyguard."
An: Thanks for reading.
