VIII

The lights of her apartment were already turned on as she walked in. Felicity frowned her confusion, positive that she had turned them off before she left earlier. Grateful that William had repaired the door handle for her all those months ago and that as a result she had been extra quiet as she made her way in. She slipped off her heels and barefoot made her way through her tiny hallway, as quiet as she could possibly be, and into her small living room. A figure stood by the window, back turned to her as they looked out at her not too impressive view of the street outside.

"Hi, Felicity." The figure turned around, and Felicity's jaw dropped. Standing there was a woman so lovely that Felicity instantly found herself wishing that she had taken more care of her appearance earlier in the day. It wasn't the kind of thing that she was accustomed to doing, but given her present company she felt that no one could blame her for being just a little self-conscious. She was only human after all.

"H-hi," she managed to stammer out after a moment that seemed entirely too long.

"You can relax darling I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to talk," the woman said, raising both of her hands in a gesture of peace. Her clothes were simple but stylish, a dark pea-coat covered most of her white blouse and black jeans hugged her impossibly long and well shaped legs. Once again Felicity couldn't help the slightly begrudging admiration that she felt. Here was a woman who could give Gorgeous Laurel a run for her money.

"Then why are you here?"

"I couldn't very well talk to you in front of your friends now could I? Oliver Queen might just try to impale me with an arrow… again. Quite a temper that one has actually." The woman's finger rose to her chin, tapping it thoughtfully. Apparently she decided to let the matter go, because she smiled affectionately at Felicity. The woman's strange behavior was starting to give Felicity a feeling akin to some sort of emotional whiplash.

"I think it'd be a lot easier for me to trust you if you hadn't just broken into my apartment, and stated that my boss tried to impale you with an arrow. In fact, nothing you're saying is making me relax at all."

"'Broken in' is such an ugly phrase, besides I don't think it really counts as breaking in if you left the door unlocked." Felicity gasped, her hand flying to her forehead and giving herself a thorough smack. "Probably should double check those kinds of things." The woman continued, walking over to her small couch and sitting down, obviously making herself comfortable. She gestured to the seat opposite her, and if Felicity wasn't still so embarrassed at her mistake she might have felt annoyed at being invited to sit on her couch in her own apartment.

"Why don't we start with simple things, my name is Gwen," she said, gesturing to herself and inkling her head forward. "And yours is Felicity Smoak, graduate from MIT in the class of 2009 and technological expert of the Starling City vigilante known as the Arrow. Do I have that right?"

"Something like that," she mumbled moving towards the couch and taking the seat that had previously been indicated. There was a part of her - the more rational and probably only sane part of her in this moment probably - that was screaming for her to get out of there as fast as she could. Nothing Gwen had said should inspire any sort of reaction from her other than one that would get her out of her apartment.

The only thing that was stopping her, apart from unshakable feeling that this woman could wipe the floor with her on Felicity's finest day, was that something about her was intriguing her.

"I think I have it exactly right Felicity, and if I'm being honest it's actually because of the work you've done for him that I'm here." Felicity blinked, her mind going uncharacteristically blank.

Felicity's mind was always working. Thoughts chased each other around in her head so quickly that it would disorient most people, but not her. It was all normal to her, something would come up - anything really - and she analyzed it, memorized it, worked her way around it, and then moved on to the next one. Maybe it was because of the untamable amount of information and thoughts that she constantly had racing around inside her head that her brain to mouth filter didn't always work. How was she supposed to control what came out of her when she was busy processing two or three different things at the same time?

She could count the amount of times that her mind had gone blank on one hand. Or well, make that two now, because this would be the sixth.

"How?"

"How did we find you? I'd like to say it was simple, but it really wasn't. We have tech experts as well Felicity, and as good as you are they were able to find you eventually. We've been watching the Arrow for a while now, mostly because it was obvious that he wasn't working alone. The bodyguard is good, but he's not the technological type, and some of things that they were pulling off required a third eye, someone who could direct them and grant them access to information, servers, and mainframes that not your average run-of-the-mill hacker could get their hands on."

"They needed someone like me."

"They needed exactly you Felicity." Gwen fixed Felicity with a no nonsense look. "You are the best of the best, and trust me we've looked long enough to tell you this with absolute certainty."

"So what do you want with me?"

"For someone with a genius level IQ you are a little dense sometimes aren't you?" Gwen asked, pressing her lips together to keep herself from giggling.

"Excuse me?" said Felicity, looking more than a little insulted.

"Never-mind." she said innocently, clasping her hands together and placing them on her lap, though she still looked like she was holding back laughter. "I'm just going to come out and say it I guess. Felicity I'm here under Project Watchtower, a mission completely dedicated to finding and recruiting women with a special sets of skills. You however, are our top priority, you are Watchtower."

Felicity instantly stood up and paced to the corner of the room that was furthest from Gwen. Her hands came up and pushed through her hair, a part of Felicity's mind immediately wondered when she had taken it out of her working-ponytail, before she made herself focus.

"This doesn't make any sense!" She finally declared. Turning to glare at Gwen, who was still sitting on her couch, the picture of ease. "It's one thing to suspect that the Arrow has a computer expert helping them, but how do you go from suspecting to ending up inside my apartment?"

"You actually helped us Felicity." Gwen stood up and smiled, turning her body slightly as she reached behind her and dug around inside a small purse. "Like I said we suspected that there was someone helping the Arrow, all we needed to do was make that person tip their hand."

She turned around again and grinned at Felicity, displaying her perfect white teeth, and held up a small coin. "Does this look familiar?"

Felicity walked forward slowly, her legs feeling more and more like lead with every passing second. Gwen held out the coin to her and she took it, holding it between two fingers. It was exactly like the one Oliver had given her all those months ago with the exception that this one was entirely new, the owl prominent and the writing clearly legible.

"Daughters of Wisdom," she whispered. "My researching this led you to me didn't it?"

Gwen nodded. "It was a bit of a long shot, but we knew the Arrow would have you gather information from this. When you inevitably found something it would raise an alert that would lead us right to you. All that really needed to be done was orchestrate a fake robbery and arranged for the coin to be left behind for him to find."

"That's quite an elaborate setup, so many things that could go wrong and too many variables that are unaccounted for." Felicity stated, her gaze flicking from the coin to Gwen quickly. It was after all still so very hard to believe. And considering the kind of life she had been leading for the past seven years, that was really saying something.

"We had different means as well, but this way seemed like the one that resulted in the least amount of conflict."

"And the warehouse?"

"I needed to draw you both out, he plays it safe when it comes to you and I needed him distracted. It was a really big long shot, but I actually did kind of hope that he would bring you with him." Felicity fixed her with a blank stare and Gwen sighed. "Felicity," Gwen reached out and grabbed both of her hands, holding them together between the two of them. "I get that this is a lot to take in, but please-"

"I don't even know who you are!" Felicity shouted, finally having lost what little patience and restraint she had been holding on to.

Gwen frowned at her, letting her hands go and taking a step back. "Maybe I'm not going about presenting this to you properly. I don't even think I explained who it is I work for. Felicity… there is so much untapped potential inside of you. Don't settle for working behind a man." Gwen bit her lip, looking as if she were thinking deeply about something before she reached inside her purse and drew out a pen and a small notebook. "Here" she said, scribbling something onto the small pad before she ripped the page out. "I'll give you all the answers you're looking for just… call this number when you're ready."

Felicity took the paper, clutching it much more tightly than necessary. "What makes you so sure I won't take my friends with me when I do?"

Gwen gave her a sad smile, thinking just how naive Felicity still was. "You've had information about the coin and known the name of who we are for a long time Felicity, and you haven't said a word to either of your partners. Somehow, I don't think that you want Oliver to know what you've found out."

She reached out and grabbed Felicity's shoulder, giving it a squeeze as she walked past her and towards the door.

"I'll hear from you soon Watchtower."

I decided to cut off the chapter there, and the date will most likely happen in the next chapter. Thanks for the views to those of you who took the time, they are greatly appreciated and loved.

That being said I would really like to receive at least 10 reviews before the next chapter goes up. On another note, I have noticed the incredible amount of people that are following this fic, and I have to say that considering that there are almost 160 of you that are actively following this one, is greatly humbling and I'm trying to write the best version of this that I possibly can. Please let me know if it seems to unreal, too OOC, or if there is a way that I can make this better for you guys to read and to enjoy. I do this for me, but I also do this for you (lets be real it's most for you guys).

A shoutout to my amazing and darling beta Lililovingreading, thank you for taking the time to correct my mistakes and for being an all around awesome person.

And let's not forget the ever incredible foxxandbeanz, if you haven't already please check out her fic titled "I've Got These Little Things". She is truly talented and I am loving her amazing portrayal of the characters and the direction she's taking.

Until next time you incredible readers and Olicity shippers.