Chapter 4
Wow! I appreciate all of the positive feedback and followers/favorites. It has been a long time since I have written anything, so nice to see that others are enjoying, and you feel I am capturing the personalities of the characters relatively well.
I was a little disappointed at this week's episode with Barry Allen and the lack of Olicity in the show, but am trusting that the writers are keeping the Olicity fan base in mind for future episodes, and building the relationship into the long-term plan.
This next chapter will show how Oliver has been handling being separated from Felicity, as well as a major event that may have dire consequences for one or both of them.
Oliver reviewed the email again, letting his vision linger on her name whenever it was mentioned. He wasn't surprised that the upgrades she was putting into place in London were going better than anyone expected. The VP of Operations, Nigel Thorton, couldn't say enough good things about Felicity. She seemed to have embedded herself deeply into the IT department across the pond and was loved by the entire team. She had that way of endearing herself to those around her with her honesty and genuine kindness.
He had hoped that after five weeks of her being gone he would have stopped thinking about her almost every waking moment. However, he found that his entire week was built up around the weekly one hour conference call with the London Operations team, Felicity now included; the anticipation leading up to the call was like a natural high for him, while the immediate hours following the call always found him making his way to Verdant and abusing the workout dummies until his body couldn't take it anymore. The following days would see him moping around and acting surly, which raised some unanswered questions from his sister and mother.
He checked the clock, feeling almost nervous at the prospect of hearing her voice within the next 10 minutes. He knew during the calls some of his questions were simple and made him out to almost be incompetent, but he loved to hear Felicity go off on one of her unfiltered rants that usually left the group getting a good chuckle at her expense, and warming Oliver's heart at the same time.
He went back to his inbox, selecting the personal email folder labeled "FS" where he was keeping all of her emails, no matter how mundane. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that Felicity's emails were almost as entertaining as her verbal babblings, especially if she was sending them at the end of her day when she was obviously tired and her guard was down. He started going through them again, starting with the oldest, which was brief and to the point.
To: Oliver Queen
From: Felicity Smoak
Subject: Arrived Safely
Per your request earlier today, letting you know I arrived safely at Heathrow Airport. On my way to the hotel and will be reporting to the London QC Operations Centre tomorrow midday local time to meet the team. I will provide periodic updates to you as appropriate on progress.
Felicity Smoak
IT Networking Consultant
Queen Consolidated
He had been slightly shaken at the formality of that first email, but quickly shoved aside his personal feelings knowing that Felicity hadn't been happy about the new work assignment and was letting him off easy by not questioning his real reason for sending her to London. Felicity wasn't dumb. Oliver knew he probably deserved to have her rant and rave at him, but in true Felicity fashion, she trusted in his judgment and did as was expected. The guilt at how easily she acquiesced to his decisions nagged at him periodically, but he kept telling himself this was for her own good, whether she realized it or not.
The tone of her emails had slowly warmed up over time, moving from painfully formal to playful but still professional. The latest few had been related to the project she was working on, but with quick blurbs about some sight-seeing she was planning on doing that weekend. The only part that didn't sit well with him was her always making reference to "we took the tram to..." or "we laughed so hard…". She never mentioned any names, and he had no idea how many people she was incorporating into the term "we" but it was enough to cause a bit of jealousy to rear up in him.
Noticing the time, he jumped onto the conference call, waiting for London to join. It was still early in Starling City, but would be early afternoon in London with the time difference. Oliver sat on the line, watching as the minutes ticked by, growing slightly annoyed as no one joined after 5 minutes past the hour. Nigel and his team had been prompt and professional, always getting the call started on time in the past, whether the entire team was there or not, with some personnel joining late from other calls, but never had he waited this long.
Just then Eleanor, the replacement Executive Assistant he was "borrowing" from the Vice President of Human Resources, knocked on his door. He could see her stricken expression through the glass and quickly waved her in, leaving his call on speaker phone, the instrumental hold music playing softly in the background.
The woman had been part of Queen Consolidated for over twenty years, and the most professional of all of the administrative assistants working for executive leadership. She was much more formal than he was used to, but she was good at her job and had actually helped him improve some things around the office that had been sliding under Felicity's watch, given Felicity was still new to the role.
Oliver felt a chill run down his spine as he noted the EA wringing her hands, her eyes glassed over, clearly affected by whatever she was about to tell him. Whatever she was about to share with him could not be good given her demeanor.
"What is it, Eleanor," he asked harshly, swiftly berating himself for his tone at the woman's obvious distress. She jumped slightly, her lower lip quivering slightly.
"I just got off of the phone with the head of security at the London office, Mr. Queen," she got out, her face looking like it was ready to crumble.
Oliver wanted to scream at the woman for keeping him in suspense, wanting to know what was going on. Just then Isabel burst into his office.
"Oliver, turn your TV on to BBC," Isabel directed, giving Eleanor only a sideway glance as she went to stand in front of the large flat-screen mounted on the side wall in the sitting area of his office, her arms crossed tightly, the tension obvious on her face.
Eleanor, regaining some of her usual composure, stepped over to the credenza where the remote was sitting. She turned toward Oliver as she turned the television on while giving him the information she had, hoping it would help put him at ease.
"It was an explosion, Mr. Queen, in one of outlying buildings of our London headquarters," she stated. Oliver stepped around his desk to stand next to Isabel as Eleanor found the BBC channel right away. The volume was turned down all the way and the only thing they saw were emergency vehicles racing toward a plume of smoke a short distance behind the recognizable QC London main building.
"Turn it up, please," Oliver stated through clenched teeth, his hands fisted by his sides, his entire body rigid at the sight of the chaos on the screen. Eleanor pressed the volume button, the room now filled with the sound of sirens and the British accent of the reporter giving an update on the situation.
"…two separate explosions, both relatively large enough to blow out the windows in the adjacent office buildings here behind me," the young woman stated, gesturing behind her. "Again, for those just joining, about fifteen minutes ago the London offices of Queen Consolidated…"
Just then another loud explosion rocked the screen, the sound deafening, causing all three of them to instinctively jump back from the flat-screen. Eleanor, yelping at the sound, fell back into one of the arm chairs. Oliver had shoved Isabel behind him without thinking, with her falling into the black leather couch. She looked at him, first angry at his action, then slightly confused that protecting her would be his initial reaction. Before she could say anything about it Oliver had turned around, a look of determination on his face.
He pulled Isabel up, albeit causing her to stumble a bit, but she quickly righted herself. "Isabel, try to get through to Nigel Thorton to see what the hell is going on there. If you can't get him, start working your way down the hierarchy until you find someone that knows something, then conference them into my cell number." He turned then to Eleanor as Isabel exited his office, helping the older woman up, trying to be gentler with her after practically toppling Isabel. The woman was staring at the television, clearly shocked by the events happening, the screen shaky from the camera operator trying to reposition himself as people were rushing towards the news crew amidst the chaos. "Eleanor," he stated softly, trying to bring her attention back to him, knowing he needed everyone poised and focused. She slowly turned her gaze to him. "Eleanor, I need you to get that head of security from London back on the phone as soon as possible, do you understand?"
Eleanor stared at Oliver for a moment, regaining her composure, his request finally sinking in. "Yes, Mr. Queen," she stated softly, "I'll get right on that."
Giving her an encouraging nod he quickly made his way back to his desk, grabbing his cell phone and pulling up his contacts, cursing at the fact that Felicity's last name was so far down in the alphabet. He hit the call button, putting the phone up to his ear, waiting impatiently for the call to go through. All he got was an annoying beeping sound, and then a recorded message stating the network was down in the area he was trying to reach, and to call back again. He pulled up Diggle's number then, hitting the call button only to hear Diggle's phone start to ring as his friend came running into his office, the look on his face evident that he had heard what was going on in London.
Without clarifying who he was referring to, the first question out of Diggle's mouth was "did you get a hold of her yet?" Oliver gave a tight shake of his head, the tension clear in the lines around his eyes. He was starting to feel the panic creep up, trying to not think about the possibilities of where or how Felicity was at that moment.
"Contact the QC hangar and have them ready the jet to take me to London, or the closest airport that's taking incoming traffic, as soon as possible," he instructed his friend, dialing his mother quickly to give her an update. Again, it seemed everyone wanted to know initially if he had heard from Felicity, and every time he had to say no it tore a bigger hole in his heart. She assured him she could handle whatever came up with Isabel there in Starling City from a public relations perspective, and he needed to get to London and figure out what happened. He thanked his mom, and then told her he loved her, which took her by surprise.
"Oliver," she said softly, bringing him up short from hanging up his phone. "I'm sure she's fine. Don't assume the worst. And call me when you know more, all right?"
He felt a tightening in his chest at his mother's words of reassurance. "Thanks, mom," he finished, then ended the call, striding out of the office to check with Isabel before he made his way to Verdant to grab some "essentials". If the situation was related to him as the Hood he figured he better have all the tools he needed to address it properly. Unfortunately, Felicity was one of his most important tools, getting him the information he always needed to manage these types of situations, or so he justified, his need to get to her as quickly as possible growing exponentially every second.
Eleanor was still on the phone, giving him a shake of her head to show her lack of progress on getting the security people back on the phone. However, Diggle ended his call, giving Oliver the good news that the jet would be ready to take off in 90 minutes. It wasn't as soon as Oliver would have liked, but that should give him the time he needed to get everything in order before take-off.
They made their way to Isabel's office. Oliver found himself practically colliding with Isabel as she was making her way to him. He grabbed her upper arms, steadying her before demanding to know what progress she had made.
Isabel read off of the note pad in her hand, obviously wanting to make sure she had the information correct before passing it on. She had never seen Oliver so focused, and the intensity and rigidness of his body made her almost recoil from him. The woman had exchanged words with Oliver before and had felt on even ground with him, but this version of him was not one she wanted to cross. "Hannah Pierce, who is a direct report to Nigel, is still trying to locate him. So far they're unsure what caused the explosions as the warehouses where they originated were supposed to have been empty or for long-term storage. Local authorities haven't ruled out terrorism yet, but they think it's highly unlikely since the explosions occurred in the warehouses versus the office buildings." Isabel hesitated, looking sympathetically at Oliver. His heart started racing, but he held very still, willing himself to remember his mother's recent words.
Don't assume the worst…
Isabel read the remaining portion from her note pad verbatim, without making eye contact with Oliver. "No confirmed casualties at this time; there was a group of approximately a dozen employees who were touring the entire campus when the explosions started, and no one knows where they were when everything started happening. Because of the excessive amount of smoke and concern about chemical vapors the rescue crews are still trying to make their way into the immediate area of the warehouses." Now she looked up at Oliver, her expression unreadable to him.
"The missing group was led by Nigel Thorton, and these are the names of those who were with him," she finished, flipping her note pad to the next page and handing it to Oliver, unable to read the names to him for fear of her emotions slipping. This was a corporate crisis and keeping a level head was critical at the moment. Given how she expected Oliver to react, she knew she may be the only one who could stay grounded through the ordeal.
He took the note pad from her, Diggle leaning over his shoulder to see the list as well. He appreciated neither Diggle nor Isabel commenting on the slight tremor in his hands.
He started down the list, reading each name individually from top to bottom, the employee's title and country included, going slowly, and deliberately trying to hold off the inevitable. At Diggle letting out a groan, as though he had just been punched in the gut, Oliver moved his eyes down to the bottom, as the list was alphabetical. There, just above Nigel's name, was the one name he would have given all of his wealth, even his own life, to not see on the list; it was his worst nightmare, and had him wishing for the first time since returning home that he had never been rescued from the island. The neatly printed words took his breath away…
FELICITY M SMOAK, IT OPERATIONS, US
I know these chapters are moving relatively slow, with lots of angst and emotion, so if you feel I should speed up the events, feel free to comment. As I said before, I have a relatively loose outline of the overall story and the ultimate ending, but would love your feedback.