/
"Now, Thomas," began Malcolm as soon as his son appeared before him. "Let's cut the crap…" He paused. "What the hell are you trying to prove here?"
That caught Tommy's full attention as he glared at his father.
"Playing house with a dead man's girlfriend and child?" elaborated Malcolm.
"You don't know anything," hissed Tommy, his fists clenching by his sides.
"Like I said," continued Malcolm curtly. "Cut the crap. You're not fooling anyone with the whole 'I'm going to be a noble man' act. That isn't you. I know it as well as the next person. So, just tell me the truth."
"What truth?" Tommy struggled to keep his voice low.
"That Amelia Queen is actually a Merlyn?"
Tommy's jaw dropped. "Amelia is Oliver's daughter!" he burst out, his face contorted in rage. "I would never ever mess with his girlfriend. How dare you insinuate that?! I wouldn't do-"
"Nothing ever stopped you in the past" It hadn't exactly been a secret how Oliver and Tommy has similar taste in women and how they'd more than often chased the same tail. "Now tell me the truth. Is Amelia your child?"
"Oliver loves Felicity and I-"
"He loved Felicity," corrected Malcolm. "Or he thought he did. Son, you and I both know that Oliver was never going to settle down with that girl, or anyone else, for that matter. Neither will you…"
"You don't know anything," Tommy shook his head, disgust evident as he and his father stared down. "Amelia isn't my daughter." He folded his arms across his chest. "But she might as well be because I love her."
/
"What's your favourite colour, Daddy?" inquired Amelia, sitting by Oliver's side, as a cartoon played on the TV screen in front of them.
Oliver shrugged. "Blue?" he suggested.
Amelia grabbed a dark blue crayon and began scrawling on a sheet of paper. "I think you'll look nice in a blue suit," she commented.
"Really?" Oliver sounded pleased.
"Yep," came the little girl's response. "Mama said that blue looks good on me 'cause it matches my eyes. Your eyes are the same too so I think it'll look good on you too."
"I think it's safe to say you and I would look good in anything, you know, with our good looks," he winked at her.
Amelia smiled at that, before she added that her favourite colour was pink and so was her Aunt Thea's.
"Pink, huh?"
"Uh huh. Mama likes purple." She tapped her head thoughtfully. "I'll make her a purple dress." She asked Oliver to pass her the box of crayons and resumed colour as silence washed over them.
/
"I cancelled on Barry," announced Laurel unhappily, turning to Thea with a frown plastered on her face.
"Why's that?" questioned Thea, looking up from her phone as Laurel took a seat next to her in the restaurant they'd picked for lunch. "I thought things were going well with him."
"They were until-"
Thea gasped. "No!" she exclaimed, jabbing a well-manicured finger in Laurel's direction. "No!"
"Wha-?"
"Don't tell me that that teeny tiny little crush that you had on my brother ages ago- a millennium ago, in fact- has resurfaced again because if you do say that, I will end you, Laurel Lance. And Roy is going to help me dispose your body," she added for good measure.
Laurel flinched. "I never had a crush on him," she said, her lips almost curling in disgust. "He's like a brother to me. Well, I've thought of him that way for the longest time. What made you think that I had a 'teeny tiny little crush' on him, as you so eloquently put?!"
"I've read your diary," said Thea nonchalantly, taking a sip of her latte. "I can also recall that you did date him for a few months in junior year.
"WHAT?" Laurel froze.
"Yeah."
"That's an invasion of my privacy and we dated ages ago! That's ancient news."
"I know…but I just had to make sure."
"Yet you did it?" By 'it', Laurel was referring to the diary that Thea had somehow found and read through.
"Yes," came Thea's reply. "I don't have a moral compass, Laur. You know that as well as anyone else. Now, fess up. I know about your teenage feelings for Ollie."
"I never had serious feelings for Oliver, Thea," said Laurel, folding her arms across her chest. "What we had together was nothing but a fling."
"Don't deny it. I read it in your diary- even though you didn't exactly mention his name. You just went on and on about how he was unattainable-"
"That wasn't about your brother."
"Key words: friend, unattainable, playboy billionaire, string of meaningless relationships, heartbreak... Who else fits the description?" asked Thea as she thought the whole thing over.
Then it suddenly hit her.
Tommy.
/
Oliver walked down the halls of Queen Consolidated for the first time since his return. Pausing at his father's old office, he tried to ignore the weight that had latched onto his shoulders as he passed by the name-plate that used to read 'R. Queen, QC- CEO.'
He really needed to get a start on his mission. It couldn't wait too long. It had to be done. The city needed change, regardless of how it came. His father's parting words echoed through his head, constantly reminding him that they had a debt that was yet to be paid and that they owed their city.
Which meant one thing and one thing only- Oliver needed to save it in order to rid himself of the weight that suffocated him as he tried to sleep. It was getting difficult to breathe and he knew it'd be impossible to live in peace until he made amends for his family's sins.
He, Oliver Queen, couldn't fail his city. Nor could he fail his family or anyone else for that matter, he thought grimly as a vision of his father and Sara Lance in a tight embrace, appeared before his eyes.
He wondered if the Lances (or his own mother) had any idea of what kind of relationship Robert had with the youngest Lance girl. He felt sick at the mere thought of ever looking Laurel or her father in the eye as they would eventually ask questions about Sara.
He didn't think it'd bother his mother as much it would bother other women, considering how his father hadn't ever been faithful to her, and she seemed happy enough with her new husband that Oliver vowed never to tell her why young and pretty Sara Lance had been on the Gambit. He'd let them all go on to believe that she'd been interning as his father's assistance.
Rapping his knuckles on outside Felicity's door, he entered with a small smile on his face as she called out his name. "Felicity?" he said, stopping short when he saw a man perched on the desk as Felicity tapped away on her keyboard, occupied with work.
"Hi Oliver," she called out, her brows furrowed together in concentration while she shot a glare at her computer.
"Mr. Queen!" exclaimed the man, rising to his feet, rushing over to shake hands with Oliver.
Oliver accepted the hand with a firm shake.
"This is Barry. Barry Allen from the Applied Sciences division," introduced Felicity.
"You must be Laurel's boyfriend?" Oliver turned to look at Barry, recalling something Felicity had mentioned earlier.
"Something like that," came the younger man's tight lipped reply. Looking towards Felicity, he bid her goodbye. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Mr. Queen." Grabbing a file off the desk, he left within seconds, voicing a small 'thank you' to Felicity as he shut the door behind him.
"So..." said Oliver, as he looked around, taking in Felicity's office. "That's the guy Laurel is dating."
"Uh-huh. You sound like you don't approve."
"I don't."
"You don't know him!" this caught Felicity's attention.
"So is Tommy."
"Laurel doesn't think of Tommy in that way."At least, not as far as Felicity knew.
Oliver shook his head, not wanting to elaborate. Maybe Laurel's feelings for Tommy had dissipated over the years, maybe she's gotten over him, he thought, although he could remember just how upset a teenage Laurel had been when she'd found Tommy fucking some cheerleader below the benchers. He could precisely remember how devastated she'd been as she cried against his chest and asked him to pour her a drink from his father's wine collection.
That'd been the night where they'd gotten insanely drunk, when one drink became two and two became three and they'd been so inebriated that Laurel had ended up between his sheets for the first time.
/
"Felicity?" said Oliver, glancing down at the woman sprawled across his chest, tightening his grip on her waistline, only to pull his bed covers over them both. It was a cold night. "You awake?"
"Hmm," mumbled Felicity sleepily. "Yeah."
"What're your plans after college?"
Felicity's eyes flashed open and she sat up, suddenly alert. "Why are you asking me that?" she was unable to keep suspicion out of her tone.
"I'm curious."
"Oliver Queen's curious about what I want to do after getting my degree? I thought this was supposed to be nothing but casual sex. Hook-ups... What are you doing, asking me about my plans for the future, just as I was about to fall into deep slumber after what has been a wild night."
"Nothing about us is casual," pointed out Oliver. "You know what you mean to me."
"What do I mean to you?!"
"You're special."
"Really?" Felicity reached towards her glasses on the nightstand, only to be pulled back by Oliver.
"Don't go," he whispered into her ear.
She stiffened in his arms. "I can't do this, I just don't get you. When we started this... this thing... it was no strings attached. It was just two consenting adults having fun and now... you're going all serious on me, like... I'm your girlfriend or something."
"Maybe I am serious. Maybe I do want a girlfriend."
"I'll be more than happy to find you one," said Felicity, struggling to escape his embrace.
"I want you. To be my girlfriend."
"Oliver..."
"I'm asking you out."
Felicity punched his shoulder. "Don't do this," she pleaded. "Don't go there. Don't ruin what we have."
"You're different and when I'm with you, I'm different too."
"You expect me to fall for that?" How stupid did he think she was? She'd heard enough and seen enough to know Oliver didn't do relationships. She didn't hold it against him or anything…It was a part of who he was.
"No," he answered, his lips slowly moving up her neck.
"Ol-" She let out a small moan.
He cut her in between. "Just hear me out, okay?"
Her eyes met his and she nodded reluctantly.
"I want you to be mine." 'I think I'm falling in love with you' was left unsaid.
"I want to be with you," she confessed. "But I won't let you break my heart. I won't allow it." After what her ex boyfriend, Cooper had put her through, she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy while trusting another man who had enough charm to seduce any woman; another man who had a way with words…
"I can see us together in the long run." Oliver couldn't believe what he was saying. "I'm going to run QC one day and-"
"You're entering the family business?" she interrupted
"I want to," he said, crushing her under his weight,"And I want you to be a part of my future too." He kissed the top of her collarbone and tightened his hold around her waist. "I want us to have a future."
/
"What brings you here anyway?" asked Felicity, switching her computer off as she got up to leave, with Oliver in tow. "Not that I should be asking that since it is your company. Your family's company. By extension, it is your company and ugh, why would you even need a reason to visit. You could be stopping by to meet your mother. Or Walter... and there's even me."
"Felicity."
"I need you to do a background search for me," requested Oliver, eyeing a framed picture of Amelia that was displayed on the left side of Felicity's table. "Once you're done with that, we are going out to lunch. I've arranged for Raisa to bring Amelia here in twenty minutes."
"Sure," came her reply, as she started up her computer once again. "Who're we looking up and why?"
"Roy Harper," muttered Oliver, throwing himself onto a chair in front of Felicity's desk.
The blonde looked up. "Really?" she shook her head, slightly amused. "You want to do a background search on your sister's boyfriend."
"I don't like him."
"So?"
"I want to know more about him," he replied.
"Ollie!" she reprimanded. "Thea isn't going to like this."
"Who said she's going to find out?" he replied, shooting her a mischievous grin.
Felicity restrained herself from rolling her eyes. "Ugh, you don't need me running through databases for this one, mister," she said. "He's older than her. Loves her. Used to be in foster care. Got in to a lot of trouble with the system over the years." She tapped her pen thoughtfully. "Now he's a law upstanding citizen."
Oliver chose to remain silent. "Five years ago, Thea was a kid, Felicity," he said remorsefully. "I missed out so much in her life. Amelia's life. Your life. It's just-"
"Complicated," finished Felicity, "and I get it. You want to get your life back."
"Among a few other things," said Oliver, leaning back into his chair.
Yes, it was complicated and it was going to get more complicated, but thing was, Oliver wasn't going to get his life back. Not his old life, at least.
This was the start of something completely different.