Chapter 2 - The Stalker
An: I do not own Arrow.
One week had passed. Felicity found herself settling into a routine. She was at work by 8:00am everyday and left most days by 6:00pm. After work she would stop for some take out, either Chinese or Big Belly Burger before retiring for the night in front of the TV or chatting away on skype to her friends in Central City. She hadn't seen The Jerk in her building again which she was grateful for. She had to sit through many meetings at QC with him already. The Dick was always around though. She even thought she saw him jumping a wall on the way home one day.
She had been hoping to run into Cooper again but she hadn't. She didn't know which apartment he lived in either and she was reluctant to ask anyone. She didn't want people thinking she had just moved in and was looking for a booty call already.
She had not met anyone else in the apartment building. She wondered if maybe her neighbours kept odd hours because she thought hers were fairly normal.
S-2
Felicity awoke to the sound of a leak in her apartment. It was still dark forcing her to flip on her bedside light. She followed the sound to the bathroom where she found water on the floor. When she turned on the light over the sink, she discovered the water was dripping from the ceiling. The apartment above her must be the source of the leak. After making sure that all of her items were safe from possible water damage, she pulled a coat over her pajamas and went upstairs, knocking on the door directly above hers. Before the door opened she heard a female voice on the other side yelling.
"If it's the both of you again, I swear I'm going to kill you Ollie and Tommy," the person that opened the door said. The person was a blond woman in sweat pants and a tank top.
"Uh hi," Felicity said sheepishly.
The woman frowned, "Who are you?"
"Felicity Smoak I'm..."
"the new girl in 2B. Yeah, heard all about you already. You tried to slam a door in Ollie's face. Though in all honesty he probably deserved it," she said.
"You know about that?" Felicity asked horrified.
"The whole building knows about it. Digg told Thea, who told everyone else," the blonde said.
"Who's Digg?" Felicity asked.
"Ollie's bodyguard/driver. You know the tall black guy with arms the size of dumbbells," the woman said
"Oh him," Felicity said as she remembered the man she occasionally saw The Jerk with.
"Did you want something?" the woman asked.
"Oh right. I think you have a leak," Felicity said.
"A leak," the woman looked confused.
"Yeah, in the bathroom. It's coming straight through to me below,"
"Nyssa," she shouted down to the bedroom, "Do we have a leak in the bathroom?"
While they waited for the response the girl introduced herself, "I'm Sara Lance by the way. My girlfriend is Nyssa Raatko."
"Nice to meet you," Felicity said shaking Sara's hand.
An exotic woman in a lace negligee appeared, "there appears to be water on the floor beloved,"
"Shit! Lawton's going to throw a hissy fit. We just fixed that hole in the wall we caused,"
"You caused a hole in the wall," Felicity made the mistake of asking.
Nyssa smirked "Sara can be very passionate in our love making,"
Felicity was sure her eyes must have been the size of saucers. That was really something she did not need to hear so early in the morning.
"Should we at least find a shut off valve while you call him," Felicity suggested. The water could be damaging her apartment as well.
"No," they both said simultaneously.
"It's best to let Lawton do his job," Sara said. "You can come in while we wait,"
Five minutes later, a very grumpy Lawton appeared at the door with a pile of tools.
"Don't tell me you two were sparring in the bathroom?" he said sardonically.
"We have no idea how that happened," Nyssa said.
He glanced over at Felicity, "Roped the new girl into your little lesbian love nest?"
"Don't mind him Felicity. He's still pissed we told him he couldn't join us," Sara said throwing a filthy look at Lawton.
"Can you just turn off the water quickly its coming through to my apartment below," Felicity asked him.
Lawton dropped a few curse words before rushing into the bathroom. He soon emerged to declare: "Leak is in the wall. Got to turn off the water to the whole building and call a plumber. The Princess on the top floor ain't going to like that."
"After all that talk you gave us about plumbing you finally admit you ain't a plumber," Sara teased him.
"You both know I was talking about a different type of plumbing," he replied cockily purposely adjusting himself in his jeans.
"I can't have a bath before work," Felicity groaned.
"You work at QC don't you? What are you worried about?" Sara asked her.
"That I might smell up my entire floor and lose the respect of my department?" Felicity answered quickly. "This is a disaster," she further added burying her head in her hands.
"You're cute," Sara said, "Just use the shower in the gym."
"There is a gym in QC?" Felicity asked peeking out from behind her hands.
"On the 12th floor,"
"Oh,"
"Yeah you could go... say now and have a bath that way you'll be finished before anyone sees you. You probably also have time to do a quick workout."
"Oh no, me and workouts don't mix. I think I'm actually allergic," Felicity said shaking her head. The last time she tried to lift a weight she dropped it on her foot. Then there was that time she fell off the elliptical machine.
"You probably just need some guidance. Nyssa and I both teach classes there. We warm up with some yoga exercises in the morning before the first class. You can join us. It's not like we're going to get much sleep if we go back to bed now."
"I suppose you're right about the sleep part but I don't want to bother you," Felicity said.
"No bother, we've been meaning to get there a little bit earlier than usual to review the equipment. We have to submit a budget for next year and we need to figure out what needs replacing. Lawton has keys to every apartment. He'll handle the plumbers."
"Ok," Felicity agreed.
S-3
Felicity entered the gym to sounds of metal clashing on metal. She figured someone was already there. Sara seemed to be staring at her gauging her reaction. She hoped Nyssa wasn't mad. She was sure the woman could break her in half with one hand. As she moved further into the gym she discovered the source of the sound. A shirtless Oliver Queen was on some sort of metal contraption. Sweat was glistening off his bare chest. Felicity's heart started beating faster and she hadn't even started warming up yet.
"Hey Ollie," Sara yelled drawing attention to them, "wanna do some yoga with us?"
The Jerk looked at her but his gaze went passed Sara and locked on to her. Felicity looked away to Nyssa striking up a conversation about the yoga mats with her. She tried to ignore the conversation between Sara and Oliver but she heard every word of it. He was curious why they were there with her.
Five minutes later they started the yoga routine minus The Jerk. He preferred to exercise by himself on the weight machines. Felicity could swear she felt his eyes on her particularly when she bent over. Her traitorous eyes would sometime drift over to him and watch the way his muscles contracted as he lifted a weight. She found his biceps very appealing. When they reached the poses, he decided to join them. The three of them started up a competition about who could hold the poses longer and Felicity chose that opportunity to sneak away to the showers. She must have spent quite a while day dreaming in the shower because when she returned The Jerk had already showered and changed. He was in a crisp light grey suit with a blue tie that brought out his eyes.
"Someone had a nice long shower," Sara commented
"The hot water was good," Felicity said.
"I'm sure it was," Sara responded with a smirk on her face.
Felicity ignored her. It was time to get to work. The gym was beginning to fill up with other QC employees. She headed for the door, realising the Jerk was right behind her she held the door open until the last possible moment letting it slam into The Jerk. When he groaned she couldn't help but turn around and stick her tongue out like a little child before running away to her office. She had no clue why she did that but it felt good.
S-4
Two hours later, Felicity was in a project meeting with The Stalker, The Jerk and other members of the team. So far The Jerk had not withdrawn his attention from his cell phone for more than 3 seconds. Near the end of the meeting The Jerk finally contributed something to the meeting.
"Mr. Palmer," he started only for Felicity to cut him off.
"Dr." she corrected him. The Stalker had 3 PhDs that he had earned. The Jerk had a degree she was fairly sure his father paid for.
The Jerk's eyes cut to her before he continued on with what he was saying, "Dr. Palmer, can you guarantee we will be ready to launch the new product in six months?"
"If I had the TARDIS I could probably zip forward and give you the exact date," Ray joked.
Felicity snorted, whereas The Jerk stared blankly at Palmer.
The Stalker beamed at Felicity, "finally someone who understands my Dr. Who jokes. Anna is always telling me that I'm the only person that gets it,"
"Palmer," The Jerk said irritated, "back to the project please. We don't need another long monologue about you and your wife,"
That comment drew Felicity's attention. The Stalker had a wife. How had she not known this? He didn't wear a wedding ring. Did he take the ring off to stalk other women? Were they like those serial killer couples?
"Of course, I'm 95% sure it can be delivered in 6 months,"
"QC is investing a log of money in this," The Jerk reminded him.
"So is Palmer Tech. You won't be disappointed. On to other matters, Anna has asked me to invite the team and your families to dinner tonight. I've booked Table Salt for the night. I expect to see each and every one of you there tonight. We have an open bar," The Stalker said looking directly at Felicity.
Felicity shifted uncomfortably. She totally would have skipped the dinner but it would have looked very bad if the Head of Applied Sciences didn't attend an event that a very important partner had invited them too. The Jerk accepted the invitation on everyone's behalf. The look he sent his employees strongly implied that he expected every single one of them to be there. At least it was an open bar. She could drown herself in wine.
S-5
That afternoon when Felicity entered the apartment building she met The Dick by the mailboxes.
"Hey Blondie, hope you don't need help opening the door your mailbox," he commented rudely.
Felicity glared at him, "I hope that hoodie falls in front of your face and you walk into a door or something,"
"Fat chance Blondie," he said retrieving his girlfriend's mail.
When he was gone, Felicity walked over to Lucas, "how can someone like Thea Queen-Merlyn date a boy like that,"
"He grows on you," Lucas said.
"Like a bad song?" Felicity asked.
Lucas laughed.
S-6
Felicity picked out a simple red dress that was appropriate for a work function. It was knee length with a small slit on one side. Her shoulders were exposed but not her cleavage, not that she had that much to display anyway. She kept her make-up light and flat ironed her hair to fall straight. In the elevator she ran into The Dick again with who she assumed was his girlfriend.
"Blondie, looking hot," he said looking her up and down. Felicity knew he was doing it just to annoy her.
His girlfriend slapped him on his arm, "stop complimenting other women. I'm the one you're supposed to be looking at,"
Felicity laughed. At least someone put The Dick in his place. The young girl looked at her curiously.
"You must be the new girl, Felicity, in apartment 2B right?"
"Yes," Felicity responded politely but she was kind of fed up of being called the new girl.
"I'm Thea!" she said excitedly.
"Hi Thea, I'm Felicity but you already knew that," Felicity said as the elevator doors opened to reveal the foyer.
"I'm going to be psychic here and say you're going to a work function tonight at Table Salt," Thea said as the exited the elevator into the foyer.
"Thea you're not a psychic. Your brother told you ten minutes ago that was where he was going," The Dick said.
"Hush!" she said slapping him on the arm again.
The Dick winced. Felicity was really starting to like Thea.
S-7
After googling the directions to Table Salt and investigating parking options on their website, she didn't like handing a valet the key to her car, Felicity arrived just in time to find The Jerk in all his stunning glory, handing the keys to a green Lamborghini to the valet. The Jerk could really rock a suit. It was a pity he had the personality of a trash compactor. She ignored him and headed to the door that had been opened by an employee for her. As she tried to walk through the door a very muscular body knocked into her pushing her into the frame of the door. She glared at the broad back of The Jerk as he walked ahead of her.
"Jerk," she said angrily, loud enough for him to hear.
He turned around to look at her, "oh was that you Ms. Smoak. I thought you were another gaping fangirl!" he said winking at her. He walked off leaving her stunned.
Felicity had never wanted to shoot someone in her life but Oliver Queen was tempting her too.
S-8
Felicity wasn't sure if she should have been relieved that she didn't have to sit at a table with The Jerk or worried that she was seated with The Stalker and his wife. The Stalker hadn't made any open moves at her but that could be because his wife was seated at the table. The Stalker dominated the conversation with talk about the project. Eventually his wife Anna, bless her soul, told him to shut up. There were a bunch of relieved sighs around the table.
Anna apologised for her husband explaining that Ray was devoted to his work and sometimes didn't understand boundaries. When he had an idea he couldn't wait to hear what others thought. Anna started recounting stories of all the times he had overstepped his boundaries. She was particularly fond of the one where she called the police for him at 1:00am in the morning thinking he was a stalker. Felicity had choked on her wine at that point.
Felicity noticed that besides her wedding bands on her left hand, Anna also wore a wedding band on her right hand. When she asked about it, Anna launched into a detailed recount of how Ray lost his first four wedding bands in his research lab, one of them completely obliterated by an experiment Ray had been working on. Anna had now decided to hold on to the ring for her husband. This was his fifth ring in a little over one year of marriage. Anna was a remarkable woman. Felicity would have probably killed her husband after the second ring disappeared.
Time flew as Felicity found herself actually enjoying her dinner with the couple. Anna put all her concerns about Palmer to rest. She advised Felicity to give him restrictions or she could be woken up at 3am to discuss co-generation. Eventually the conversation turned to Dr. Who and Felicity found herself trying to explain the complicated history between The Doctor and River Song to Anna.
Occasionally Felicity heard laughter from the Jerk's table. When she looked over she could see he was just humouring the people at his table with a fake smile. Whatever was being said he didn't find funny at all. He never failed to catch her looking at his table. She would look away when caught but the heat on her face told her she was blushing. Just before desert was served, he made his way over to their table to thank Palmer for a lovely night. He then excused himself on the pretence that he had some other business to attend to for the night.
S-9
She arrived at the apartment complex a little after 10pm. Ray sending a message to make sure she got home safely. After her night she realised he wasn't a creepy stalker, he was just a bit too enthusiastic about his projects. She walked into the foyer and found Cooper checking his mailbox.
"Wow, you look stunning," he said when he caught sight of her.
She smiled, "thank you very much."
"Hot date?" he teased.
She laughed, "No nothing like that. It was just a work function. There is no boyfriend if you were wondering."
"You just moved here and already you are rolling with the big boys. I'm impressed!" Cooper said with an expression that was a mix of awe and intrigue.
"It was nothing like that," Felicity replied blushing.
"Oi lovebirds, take it inside," The Dick said coming out of the elevator by himself.
"Harper," Cooper said in a neutral tone.
"Seldon," The Dick responded in a similar tone before looking at Felicity, "you can do so much better than him."
Cooper was stepping forward to tackle The Dick but Felicity stopped him. The Dick didn't even look threatened by Cooper. He just walked off as if he owned the place.
"That boy thinks just because his girlfriend is Thea Queen-Merlyn, he can do whatever he wants," Cooper said shaking his head. "Let me walk you to your door," he offered again.
"Sure thanks," Felicity said entering the elevator with him. Her stomach was beginning to get butterflies in it. Cooper was such a prince charming.
"Maybe we can get some coffee sometime. There is a great place about a block from here," Cooper said.
"That sounds great. I know the place you're referring to. I get coffee there every morning on my way to work," Felicity replied.
"Saturday at 10am?" Cooper asked hopefully.
"Sure it's a date," Felicity said before back tracking, "I mean it's a meeting that is not necessarily a date,"
Cooper laughed, "It's most definitely a date,"
Felicity smiled wide. The elevator doors opened and he escorted her to her door. He kissed her hand good night before departing. Felicity was suddenly very excited for Saturday. The first thing she did when she entered her apartment was call the girls in Central City. She needed advice for her coffee date.
S-10
When Felicity started at Queen Consolidated she did a thorough review of the work her predecessors had completed. There were certain decisions that made no sense to her. She thought about calling them to inquire why they made those decisions but Jerry informed her that the terms on which they departed weren't very nice. She decided to do something that was morally grey but as the current head of the Applied Sciences division she would be allowed to do. She went through her predecessors e-mails. From what she could gather, Isabel had bullied them into making the wrong decisions. Felicity didn't understand why she would risk undermining the company like that by setting the division back years.
Personally, Felicity found Isabel the most frightening woman she had ever met. She disliked the women immensely and it was the only time she ever felt sympathetic towards the Jerk. Having a step-mom like that must have made his life hell. Isabel was also exceedingly paranoid when it came to women working with Robert. She was well aware that before here there were many other mistresses. As a result, Isabel firmly intended on being the last woman Robert was ever with. Robert's Executive Assistant was a man. The rumour mill suggested that he was a former strip that had married one of Isabel's powerful friends. Isabel hired the man so that he had a reputable job. It was a win-win situation for her. She helped her friend out while at the same time ensuring that Robert wasn't screwing his EA.
At the most recent meeting of the executive management, Isabel proposed acquiring UNIDAC Industries. Oliver opposed right away. Walter supported him. Felicity could see that Robert did not want to side against his wife so he asked for her opinion since Isabel's grounds for acquiring UNIDAC was that they were doing research that would be instrumental in getting the Applied Sciences Division off the ground. Felicity's internal alarm went off. She had never heard much about the company before. She told the CEO she couldn't comment properly on the recommendation until she conducted some research. Robert gave her one week to conduct her research and submit a recommendation.
S-11
Isabel followed up with Felicity during the week, strongly implying that she should side with her but Felicity didn't like the data she was finding. When Felicity arrived at the follow up meeting she was surprised to find The Jerk there. He was usually at least ten minutes late. He had taken the seat right next to hers. Normally he had to take which ever seat was open.
"You're early," she commented sitting down next to him. She was not letting him chase her from her seat. This was not high school.
"Ms. Smoak," he nodded.
The room soon filled up and they started on their agenda items, the last item was UNIDAC. Incidentally, The Jerk's hulking frame was blocking Isabel from view since she was seated further down the table on the same side as them.
"Ms. Smoak, do you have your recommendation?" Robert Queen asked her when they reached the last item.
"Yes. I recommend that QC should not acquire UNIDAC," Felicity said confidently.
"On what grounds!" Isabel demanded leaning forward trying to glare around The Jerk at her.
"The type of research UNIDAC conducts is not what the Applied Sciences Division is interested in. We are moving in a different direction," Felicity explained.
"UNIDAC has many lucrative government contracts. We could stand to gain billions," Isabel said pushing for the approval to acquire the company.
"We could also stand to lose billions since the FBI is currently investigating the company for terrorist activities. We cannot have QC's name involved with that. It could ruin us," Felicity revealed. She was hoping she didn't' have to reveal the FBI investigation. She had acquired that particular bit of information via means that weren't exactly legal.
"I have not heard anything about that," Isabel replied. Felicity distinctly got the feeling that Isabel was lying to her.
"My research also revealed something of a similar nature," the Jerk piped up sliding a file down to his father. Felicity wondered where Oliver got his information. He turned to look at her and she could tell he was wondering the same thing about her.
Isabel's face turned red. Felicity was sure she wanted to kill the both of them.
"We cannot afford to risk the company for a few contracts Isabel," Robert said after reviewing the file his son had given him.
Isabel was not handling her loss very well, "then we need to get our Applied Sciences Division contributing to our profits a lot sooner," she challenged.
"We'll have something in six months," The Jerk replied.
"Make that three months Oliver or we'll have to cut our losses on that division. QC can no longer afford Walter's experiment," Isabel declared.
Felicity wondered who the CEO really was because Robert just nodded to agree with Isabel.
"We'll have something in three months," The Jerk said causing Felicity to sit up straighter in alarm.
Was he out of his freaking mind! The prototype with Palmer Technologies wouldn't be ready for six months. As soon as the meeting was finished Felicity cornered The Jerk in his office.
"What the hell was that?" Felicity asked angrily.
"Isabel outmaneuvering us," he replied leaning against the desk and crossing his hands in front of his chest. Felicity tried not to be distracted by how good he looked.
"Us? There is no us!" Felicity replied angrily her arms flailing all over the place. She always talked with her hands.
"The minute you were hired you were either on our side or hers. Today you proved you were on our side," he told her calmly.
Felicity looked accusingly at him, "you knew since last week about the investigation but you didn't share the information with me."
"I didn't know if I could trust you," he replied honestly.
"Walter hired me not Isabel," she pointed out.
"Walter also hired the last two but they both followed Isabel's orders. You're the first one with a backbone to stand up to her,"
"I don't want to get involved in some Shakespearean family drama," Felicity said.
"What," he asked confused.
Felicity was going to explain her comment but then thought better of it. "Look I was hired to do a job and I just want to do my job,"
"That is exactly why Walter hired you; to do your job. We want this Division off the ground. Isabel doesn't. Just focus on what you need to do and don't worry about the rest of it," Oliver told her.
"Kind of hard when you have Isabel glaring at you," Felicity replied.
"I'll keep her off your back," The Jerk said.
"What is her problem anyway? I mean I understand why she would hate you."
Oliver arched his eyebrow at the comment.
"Oh please, you are a jerk," she said, "But why try to sabotage a division that would be good for the company."
"It's not about the Division. It's about Walter. She's trying to kick him out. If she can prove that he no longer has what it takes to be a Vice-President of QC she can get him fired. The failure of the Applied Sciences Division would be ample proof,"
"Walter is the nicest person here. He really knows his work," Felicity said.
"He's also connected to my mother, a person, as you can imagine, Isabel detests,"
"How is Walter connected to your mother?
"They're together," he said with a slight grimace.
"Together as in together together?" Felicity inquired.
"Yes," he said uncomfortably.
"Oh," Felicity said, she could not imagine that at all, "this is worse than Hamlet,"
"If you want Walter to stay, we need to make sure we pull this off," he said to her.
S-12
Felicity scheduled an emergency meeting with Ray and dragged The Jerk with her to the meeting. It was his fault they were in this position now.
"Felicity, Oliver, I was not expecting to see you so soon," Ray said as they walked into his office.
"We kind of have a little problem," Felicity said.
"What kind of problem?" Ray asked hesitantly. He had seen that stern look on Oliver Queen's face before. It did not mean good news.
"We need to launch in three months," the Jerk said cutting straight to the point as always.
"Three months!" Ray repeated, "That's not possible."
"Why not? I thought the prototype was finished?" the Jerk asked.
"The design for the prototype was finished. We're actually working on building it now. I've been trying to connect the virtual TCP to the open source sensor,"
"Can I take a look at it?" Felicity asked.
"Sure," he replied leading them through a door to his private research lab. The Jerk looked around at all of the equipment while Felicity settled herself at the computer.
"I've been working on it for over two weeks," Ray explained as Felicity typed away. Her concentration solely focused on the chip.
"What would you say if I told you it's done?" she said looking away from the computer at them.
"No way," Ray said racing over to confirm that Felicity had in fact done it. "This is unbelievable."
The Jerk cleared his throat to get their attention, "We launch in three months. Felicity will handle the technical aspects and I'll handle the logistics for the launch."
An: to those of you wondering, Sara definitely knew that Oliver was going to be at the gym. Next chapter will be The Dick. See ya next week.