Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time lately. But I will do my best to update sooner for you. I also want to thank to everyone who had read, reviewed, followed and favorited my story. It really means a lot to me, thank you! So, here it is...the next chapter, hope you like it. Let me know what you think.
.
A Special Thank You goes out to "BunnyGoBoom", for being such a lovely amazing beta and for taking the time to beta my piece of work, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
.
.
Chapter 5: A NEW TEAM MEMBER
.
"Do you know anything about your husband's disappearance?" the vigilante asked.
"What?"
"Is Walter Steele still alive?"
"I don't know where my husband is." Moira Queen swore.
"Do you know anything about the Undertaking?"
"I-I'm a mother." The woman stuttered. "I have a son—Oliver. A daughter, her name is Thea. She's just a teenager. Please don't take me from my children. They lost their father. They can't lose me, too. Please, whoever you are, please."
Oliver looked at his mother holding a picture of him and Thea and begging for her life. I-I can't do this. There has to be another way. He laid down his bow and said, "Okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
Moira took that moment to her advantage and pointed the gun at the vigilante and fired.
Stunned and overwhelmed by the action of his mother, Oliver, bleeding, had managed to escape and make it to the underground parking. What now? Looking around and thinking of his next move, he saw a red Mini Cooper—the red Mini Cooper. Felicity. Without thinking any further, he broke into the IT girl's car without setting off the alarm and hid in the backseat.
The parking was quiet and empty as Felicity walked toward her car. She couldn't wait to get home after having such an exhausting day. After seeing all the flowers, chocolates, anonymous love letters... She groaned at the memory. Felicity hated St. Valentine's Day. Every year it was the same. Staying at home, watching TV and eating all the chocolates that she would always pick up after work. The young woman remembered the first years in the Queen Consolidated. How she waited and hoped that somewhere someone would think of her and send her something too, but that never happened. Truthfully, she didn't care anymore. She was used to that now. But she also had to admit that there was a tiny part of her that was still hoping that would change. To hell with all that. The young woman pressed the key, opened the door, and put her bag down on the passenger seat while setting in and closed the door. Then she started the engine and shifted into reverse. When she turned around to look through the last window, she jumped as she saw a hooded figure lying across her backseat.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Felicity."
"How do you know my name?" she asked, panicked.
The intruder took off his green hood and said, "Because you know my name."
It was Oliver Queen. The famous billionaire playboy Oliver Queen… is the vigilante. Felicity was speechless. "Oliver, oh…wow."
Then she realized that all the excuses he came up with when asking for her help were all lies. Not that she had really believed them, but now she did have a confirmation and it also made more sense.
"Everything about you just became so unbelievably clear." Felicity said and noticed the blood on Oliver's shoulder, "You're bleeding."
He shook his head, "I don't need to be told that."
"You need a hospital."
"M-my father's old factory in the Glades."
"No, y-you need a doctor, not a steelworker." she contradicted.
"Felicity, you have to promise me that you are going to take me to my father's factory and nowhere else." he implored.
"Yeah, promise," she turned around in her seat and pulled her car out of the parking lot, "Something tells me blood stains are not covered under my lease."
.
Diggle was watching the news on the computer. It was reporting Mrs. Queen being attacked by the Starling City Vigilante in her office earlier that night, when he heard a female voice.
"Excuse me?"
He spun around with a gun aimed directly at the intruder. He was shocked. He knew this person. It was the IT girl, Felicity Smoak.
"Felicity? What-?"
"Can you help me? He's really heavy."
Without even thinking, Diggle sprung from the chair and followed Felicity to Oliver. They managed to get him downstairs and placed him on a long, rectangular table. He cut off Oliver's shirt, put a cloth on the wound and told the young woman to press there while he rushed over to gather what he needed.
Felicity thought it was better to take Oliver to a hospital, but the bodyguard disagreed and said that the police would ask questions they couldn't answer. It was too risky.
"So, if we can't bring him to the hospital..."
"We bring the hospital to him." Diggle finished and removed the cloth, "I had some medical training in the army. I just hope it's enough."
Felicity turned away from the gory scene and took a deep breath.
"Hey, Felicity, listen" Diggle grabbed her forearm. "Trust me. He'll be fine. He has been through a lot worse than this."
And so they started to work together to save Oliver's life.
.
Felicity, holding surgical clips in each hand, watched the ex-soldier stitch Oliver's wound.
"Good job. I think." she said as she placed the clips back on the side table.
"His heart rate's elevated, but at least the bleeding stopped. Thanks for your help. You kept your head on." Diggle said.
"Well, I always wondered how I'd react if I found my boss shot and bleeding inside my car. Not that I helped because he's my boss. I'd help anyone who was shot and bleeding in my car." Felicity babbled.
"I was thinking all of this would be more of a shock," the bodyguard said and watched the IT girl inspect Oliver's arrows. She just smiled at him and he added, "What, are you saying you called this all along?"
"I'm not saying anything. Except Oliver brought me a laptop riddled with bullet holes, had me trace a black arrow and research a company involved in armored car heists. I may be blonde, but I'm not that blonde."
Diggle nodded, "Yeah, Oliver's not too great with the cover stories."
"Neither are you. The two of you with that whole energy drink hangover cure? Please." Still wandering around the cave and looking through the equipment, she asked, "What was really in that vial, anyway?"
"Vertigo."
"I knew it. I mean, I didn't know it was Vertigo for sure, but I definitely knew it wasn't something that could cure a hangover."
"Yeah, we needed it analyzed so we could take down the Count."
She turned around to look at the ex-soldier. "That was you and Oliver?"
"And you, Felicity" he said. "Without you, we never would have found him."
She looked over at Oliver. "But why? Why come to me?"
"Hard as it probably is for him to admit, even Oliver needs help sometimes."
Wandering again, she saw Oliver's bow on a table. She picked it up and started playing with it.
"This bow has put arrows in quite a few people." she commented, aiming at an imaginary target.
"Yeah, bad people."
She carefully placed the bow back down while she asked his motivation for joining Oliver. He told her about his time in Afghanistan. He and his unit were tasked to protect the local warlord, called Gholem Qadir, who sold opium and children. To protect that man, he killed a kid.
"I killed this kid to protect this human piece of garbage," he said. "And I thought, am I still good? Am I still a good man?" His gaze went to the sleeping vigilante. "Doing this with Oliver…Doing what we do, I feel good again for the first time in a long time."
Felicity followed his gaze to Oliver and wondered if she really could work with the vigilante. Now that she knew the identity of the Hood, she not only realized she would keep his secret, but she'd to continue to help him as well.
.
Oliver's movements had brought both Felicity and Diggle to his side. He turned to look at them and said in a calm voice, "I guess I didn't die. Again. Cool."
Diggle shook his head and helped Oliver to sit up. Felicity smiled and hacked into the police system to see if they had anything that could link to Oliver to the crime scene. She assumed the police had a sample of his blood from Mrs. Queen's office.
"The police collected a sample of your blood at Queen Consolidated." She told the men behind her as she typed. "I just hacked the crime lab and ordered the sample destroyed. Oops."
The IT girl spun around in her chair to find Oliver walking toward her with a confused look.
Standing up, she started, "I hope it's alright—"
"Does that mean you're in?"
"You mean in as in I'm going to join your crusade?" she said, gesturing to both men.
"Well, you're practically an honorary member of the team already."
"Hmm. So Mr. Diggle said," Felicity looked at the bodyguard and then back to Oliver, thinking about the reasons she should or shouldn't join them. Can you do this? Because joining them, it will change everything. What am I saying? Knowing Oliver's secret has already changed everything. The question is what I am going to do now. She couldn't imagine that she could just go back to her boring life and pretend nothing ever happened. Are you ready for this? She didn't know. It's not something that she can jump into without thinking it through. But maybe… She remembered what Diggle said about the notebook. Maybe if I help, we could rescue Walter.
"I want to find Walter."
Oliver blinked. "My stepfather."
"He was nice to me. And Mr. Diggle told me that the notebook you use to fight crime is the same notebook that got Walter abducted." The young girl saw Oliver give the ex-soldier a pointed look and continued, "I'll help you rescue him, but that's it. Then I want to go back to my boring life of being an IT girl. That's my offer."
The vigilante nodded, "Okay."
She let go of a breath she didn't realize she was holding, "So I've been meaning to ask…is there a bathroom? Cause I've had to pee since I got here."
Oliver chuckled and told her it was upstairs. But before she could leave, he called her back, offering his hand. She looked at him awkwardly, but put her hand in his.
"Thank you," he said with sincerity.
Felicity smiled and left for the bathroom.
.
When they were alone, Dig voiced his concerns. He was worried about whether they could protect Felicity, as well as if Oliver's mother was involved in Walter's disappearance.
The billionaire disagreed. They could protect her. As for his mother, she was off-limits until they had proof.
.
Back at the Queen's mansion, Oliver found his family with Detective Lance in the living room. Lance informed him that his mother was attacked by the vigilante and that she shot him point blank with a gun hidden in her office.
Automatically, his mind flashed back to the night before. He remembered how his mother had pointed the gun at him and fired.
"That should help with your investigation." he said, keeping his emotions under control. "Did you get any evidence, like a blood sample, or..."
"There was a screw-up at the lab," the detective said.
"That's too bad." he replied, inwardly thanking Felicity again for destroying the blood sample.
Lance hmmed and said before leaving, "We'll be in touch."
Moira embraced her son. "Oh, sweetheart, I was so scared. I thought he was going to kill me."
"I'm just glad you're okay." Oliver replied and took a step back. Emotions masked, he looked in her eyes. "I promise you, he's never going to bother you again."
.
Felicity sauntered out of her bedroom, fresh from the shower and wearing her favorite pajamas, a pair of black-and-white polka-dot boyshorts and an eyelet-trim cami from Victoria's Secret. It was actually her only one from that brand and she admittedly loved it. Her mother had insisted and bought it for her when they went shopping not too long ago.
She turned on the TV and flipped through the channels when she heard a knock on her door. Opening the door, she gawked at the hottest available bachelor—who was also the vigilante of Starling City—standing there.
"Oliver? What are you doing here?"
"Well, keeping my promises of course." he smiled, showing her a bottle. A Lafite Rothschild 1982 bottle, to be more precise. "You don't really think I would forget about that, now do you?"
