Author's note: Thank you all so much for the reviews and sweet words... i loved them
so my muse has jump started so updating tonight... loved tonight's episode btw... but if I start having issues with my muse, may have to get some of those miracuru soldiers to whoop her into place so I can get some work done on the story.
Please review and let me know what you think... much love to my amazing beta warehouseluver13
Disclosure: I own nothing of Arrow or I would now who is in the box... if you know what I mean
"Wow! Nice digs. Place looks amazing." Iris mused as she spun around to take in the new layout of Oliver's office. "Barry did say you had an impressive view of the city from here. And he wasn't lying."
"Yeah Felicity did a great job fixing it up for us." Oliver boasted proudly. He smiled at his wife as she moved passed him to his desk.
"Including this." Felicity grinned as she pressed the button to activate the security glass. Suddenly a clicking sound indicated that the door was now locked as the glass around the room fogged up to obscure any view of them. "Okay it's safe now."
"Won't someone hear us?" Iris asked as she watched the glass finish filling up with a smoke like glaze.
"No. I had this glass specially formulated to block all light and sound from passing through it. Trust me. We're safe to talk." Felicity grinned as she moved to the sitting area in Oliver's office and sat down on one couch. Oliver sat down next to her, his arm instantly falling around her shoulder. Thea and Iris took a seat on the chairs on opposite sides of the small coffee table in front of the couple.
"Okay. Well I have lots of news. Barry wanted to deliver it all but he is handling a situation of our own in Central City."
"Situation?" Oliver asked, concerned for his friend and fellow crime fighting hero.
"We had a couple unexpected visitors in town after we closed down the Singularity event. Including another Flash. Turns out it was a portal from another world. Another Earth. So Barry is trying to combat metahumans from this world and that one as well as tracking down a new bad guy who calls himself Zoom and means business. But we have it under control for now. If we need help, we may be calling on your team."
"And we will help in any way we can." Oliver added, wanting to show his full support of the other team that had recently helped them so much.
"Now back to my news. First bit is about Ray."
"Is he back to normal size? Does he want the company back?"
"No nothing like that. He is still small. We are having a bit of difficulty adjusting the effects of his suit since it is still on him. Hard to get parts to fix it when he is that small. But we are still working on it. Seems we may have some help with that now too. On top of our visitor from what Cisco is calling Earth 2, we had another recent visitor. He calls himself Rip Hunter and he says he is from the future. Turns out when Barry time traveled, he actually set in motion the steps to establish time travel in the future. Rip says that Barry was a huge help in advancing the science behind time traveling and because of his findings, they were able to create a group of time traveling crime fighters. But a man name Vincent Savage got to the technology and started traveling through time to change the future and make himself more powerful."
"So why is he here?"
"Seems Savage wants to take out the only heroes that could beat him. You and Barry. He said that together, and with help from a few other heroes, you will help create the strongest team of heroes our world has ever seen and that this team work together to keep our entire world safe. Rip is here to build a team of talented individuals that can help him stop Savage."
"What does that have to do with us? We already have our teams and are really busy with our own bad guys. We really don't have time for a time traveling super villain." Felicity groaned.
"No he doesn't want Oliver or Barry. He wants several others including Ray. He said he ca. help Martin and Cisco figure out how to make him big again. He also wants Cold and Heatwave."
"Wait aren't those guys bad guys?"
"Yeah but seems in the future they aren't." Iris shrugged. "We aren't really trusting him yet so we made him agree to not begin assembling his team until Ray was restored to his normal size and self again. So he is focused on that right now."
"Well just keep an eye on him. We can't really check out his story and that worries me." Oliver advised.
"Barry feels the same way. He is having a few trust issues recently. Since Wells turned out being the one person Barry had hunted his entire life, Barry feels like he doesn't know who to truly trust."
"I can talk to him. I know something about that." Oliver offered.
Iris shook her head. "That's okay Oliver but we just need to give him time. He will realize he has a team of friends behind him that would follow him and do anything he asks. He is still new at all this hero stuff. He just needs to learn a bit more. Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth 2, is helping out a bit as well. Now why I really came here." Iris pulled out a file from her bag and handed it to Felicity and Oliver.
"What's this?" Felicity asked as she opened the folder and scanned over its contents.
"Sara had reached out to us for information on your new bad guy. Damien Darhk. As well as anything we could tell you about a group called HIVE. This is all we could find. Seems he has been recruiting guys all over the world including in Central City. We spent several weeks pouring over leads and running down any information we could. Barry even made a few trips to Nanda Parbat and its surrounding area. There are a lot of legends and stories about this dude but no real evidence. Cisco hacked into every database and system he could to try and find information as well. We did find some information in one database. Every file was highly redacted but we did get that they were involved with HIVE at one time."
"Who?" Oliver growled, ready to end this group and their leader.
"A.R.G.U.S. Seems a woman named Amanda Waller had recruited several highly questionable individuals, who didn't have the highest standards in terms of morals, for this project."
"Waller! I knew it. That woman is evil if you have ever met it. Why did I not think she had a connection to this." Oliver snapped as he jumped up and began pacing his office, trying to control his anger.
"Wait didn't she create the squad that went to Kasnia with Diggle and Lyla last year?" Thea asked.
"Among other things." Felicity mumbled, getting curious glances from each of the other women and a glare of unspoken anger from her brooding husband. "Long story."
"You two say that a lot." Thea snickered.
"Yes it was her. Seems like I owe her a conversation. One she will not enjoy if she tries to lie to me." Oliver growled again.
"Well I have everything we got from A.R.G.U.S. in there. There wasn't much on Damien from them but Barry has a couple more people he is talking to about him near Nanda Parbat. He thinks he may have found where he came from originally and why he joined the League. But he needs a little more time to track down those leads."
"Just keep us in the loop." Felicity smiled softly to her friend.
"Will do." Iris watched as Felicity fought to stand up.
"Well we have a luncheon to get to and I know two very active mouths that are making their mom very ravenous. Thea, how about you head out and show Iris out. We'll meet you there." Felicity grinned at her sister-in-law and friend as she eyed her husband.
Thea picked up on the silent tell and nodded. "Sure thing, Lis. I'll get a plate together for you."
"Thanks and don't forget the..."
"Pickles and chocolate. I know. It reminds me I never want to get pregnant every time I see you eat it. So gross." Thea shuddered as she moved towards the door, Iris right behind her. Oliver pressed the button and the door unlock just as the fog in the glass began to disappear.
Felicity stood and moved to stand beside him. She waited for the others to leave then hit the button and locked them into his office. "Oliver, we will get him but I need you to stay calm and believe in our team. Trust that we can beat him. Together."
Felicity's hand fell onto his bicep and her touch began to calm him instantly. A tender smile greeted him as he looked at her. He matched it. "I know. I just hate having all these threats in our life."
"We knew what we were getting into when we came back. We both signed up for a life like this years ago. We just have to be careful and smart about it because we have more people relying on us now." Her hands skated softly over her growing belly. As if they knew she was talking about them, the twins began to move at that moment, causing Felicity's heart to flutter.
Oliver knew that look well. He knew his children were responding to her touch. He reached out to feel it himself. His lips twisted into a pleasantly content grin as he felt the two babies move inside his wife's womb. "Thank you." Oliver whispered quietly as if he was sighing it.
"For what?" Felicity looked up at him and saw the tears begin to grow in his eyes.
"For being you. For believing in a crazy hooded guy that lied to you a lot and hurt you even more. For loving and supporting me. For choosing me."
Felicity cupped his cheek with one head and turned to face him fully. He was still staring down at her stomach but she moved her face into his field of vision. "Someone once told me, there was no choice to make. And I know what he meant in that moment because I feel it everyday now. Oliver, I love you and loving you wasn't a choice. I couldn't stop loving you even when we both tried to make me. You pushed me away for an entire year and I tried to move own and act like there would never be anything for us and I was okay with that. But when I sat in that hospital room and Ray told me he loved me, all I could think was I never wanted to hear those words from any other man but you. The first time you said those words to me may have been to trick a bad guy but in that moment I knew. I knew you were it. I would never want any other man but you. And when we stood on that beach and you didn't take the very clear out I was giving you, I hoped I was all you wanted."
"You are. You always have been. I was just too stubborn and stupid to see it. I have loved you for years Felicity. Maybe my entire life. I was always looking for something else when I was with women. I couldn't explain it but they were never right."
"I know Baby. I was the same way. I finally gave up and thought I would just be alone but then you walked into my office and changed my life. I knew I loved you the moment you saved me from the Count. The first one. But I was scared to say anything. Too many men had hurt me. Then you told me and I was scared that you did it just to trick Slade. After the beach and last summer, I knew. I knew you meant it. You were different towards me. But then our date happened and you got scared and pulled away. At first I was hurt but somewhere around when Ra's gave you that offer, I realized you were pushing me away and trying to give me an out yourself. You wanted me to walk away and find the life you thought I want. I deserved. But what you didn't get was that all I have wanted since that very first day, when I babbled forever about your dead dad and family drama, was you. You have been the man I have loved and always will." Felicity sniffled as she fought back tears and sobs. Her heart felt as if it would burst out of her chest. She had never been so forward about her thoughts and feelings with Oliver. And she had never seen him accept them like he was right now.
Oliver pressed his forehead to hers, his chest aching with the emotional pressure from his heart. His eyes were pressed closed as tears slipped from beneath his lashes and down his cheeks. A warmth like he had never felt filled him. He had finally found where he belonged, where he was fully accepted and loved for who he was despite his past actions. Felicity had looked past his playboy ways, his assassin days, and his vigilante pride and found the man inside him he hoped he could be. And now she was drawing him to the surface and helping him stay there everyday. "Felicity Queen, you are an angel. I love you so much. Thank you for sticking with my very stupid, very stubborn self. You didn't have to but you did. I promise I will make it worth all the tears and pain you went through. I will never push you away again. You mean everything to me."
"I know Oliver and I love you too." Felicity smiled then leaned up and kissed him, all the passion and emotion of her words slipping into their new connection, drawing Oliver deeper into the kiss. Soon she found herself breathless, Oliver's arms twisted around her while hers were wound around his neck. Oliver was panting along with her, inches away and not wanting to move out of their bubble for anything in the world.
"This was not exactly how I saw us using the glass for the first time but I like where it's heading." Oliver snickered, his tone husky and heady. His intentions were clear as he moved his hands to pull Felicity's body closer to his, his touch setting her skin on fire.
Felicity blushed at the mention of the other possible positions they could wind up in with the glass fogged up and doors locked. "Well that will just have to wait, Mr. Queen. We have an entire room of employees waiting to greet us and two growing babies inside one very hungry mom. Wow! That still sounds weird to say. Sounds like I ate our children. Sounds like something out of one of those c level horror movies Thea has been watching with me at 2 in the morning when I can't sleep."
"Well then let's get down there and get you some food. Plus I need to have a conversation with my sister about her taste in late night television. It may be part of the reason you can't seem to sleep some nights." Oliver crossed the room and pressed the button to release the locks on the doors as well as the visibility of the glass.
"It's not her fault that all you can find on TV at 2 in the morning are horror films. Trust me, better that than the other titles they show. Don't think your sister could sit through watching others have sex while sitting with her pregnant sister-in-law on the same couch." Felicity laughed as they moved out of the room and to the elevator, knowing that a lot of bad things were on the horizon but they could defeat it all as long as they stayed together in the fight.