Girls' Night Out
The whole thing started out perfectly innocently.
Which, as Sara later pointed out, is usually how guilty people start telling stories.
A few days after Felicity had been shot in the shoulder taking down Tockman (or "Tick-Tock Man," as she kept trying to get the others to call him), she found herself locked up in her apartment, trying to enjoy a little "Felicity time," per Oliver's orders. Granted, he had actually used the phrase "mandatory bedrest" and had threatened additional bodily harm if she argued, but he meant well. These were the first sick days Felicity had ever had to take from Queen Consolidated and she was more than a little peeved that she had to pretend she was out with a bad cold when the truth was so much cooler.
The first two days were fine since Diggle kept her stocked up on his special "aspirin" (which she enjoyed far too much to ask too many questions about) and she had a pile of movies she had missed seeing since she was so frequently busy playing I.T. girl to Starling's resident vigilante. A girl needs a break every now and again, she told herself has she popped in another DVD and carefully settled onto her couch, wrapped up in her favorite pajamas and an old blanket. Maybe next time she would avoid getting shot in order to get one, but a break from work and crime fighting might just do her some good.
But after forty-eight hours of chick flicks and chicken broth, the novelty of sick days had worn off and she was itching for something to do. Speaking of itching, her bandages itched like crazy and she needed something more compelling than a soppy, love-stricken monologue or even Ryan Gosling's impeccable abs to keep her mind off of her discomfort. Diggle and Oliver had promised not to call her so she wouldn't be disturbed and had threatened her not to call them unless there was an emergency. Felicity knew, tyrants of rest and recovery that they were, that neither of them would consider mind-numbing boredom or a desire for solid food an emergency. And no matter how bored or isolated she felt, she still had her pride, which dictated that she never utter the words "I'm lonely" within a hundred miles of Oliver Queen, or any other attractive male for that matter.
Unfortunately, there really wasn't anyone else she could call, since she had to keep the details of her convalescence a secret and she had lost touch with most of her friends since her only social outings these days involved hunting down criminals and attending board meetings with Oliver, neither of which were activities that introduced her to the kinds of people she might want to spend her personal time with. Felicity wanted a burger and fries and someone to talk to. At this point, she would even have settled for some mindless chit-chat with a delivery person if Big Belly Burger actually delivered.
Which, incidentally, they don't. They never have. Felicity had considered this to be a major flaw in their plan to infiltrate Merlyn Enterprises some months before, but Oliver had assured her that no one asks questions of a cute blonde holding cheeseburgers. He had been correct, obviously, but she wasn't sure if the unintentional compliment his declaration had implied had been directed towards herself or the universal appeal of cheeseburgers- or how he had come to know this as fact in the first place.
Felicity was on the verge of breaking down and ordering some crappy Thai food from the shady restaurant across the street when a dark figure suddenly appeared on the fire escape directly outside the window across the room from her couch. At one point in her life, such a sight might have elicited a surprised gasp and curiosity. Now, after more than a year of closely observing the seedy underbelly of Starling City and assisting Oliver in pissing off the local super-criminal element, the sight of a shadowy form appearing outside of her apartment when she was alone and at her most vulnerable, she immediately leapt to the worst possible conclusion. She grabbed for the nearest potential weapon and threw it with a loud shriek as she fought to extract herself from her comfortable spot on the couch in favor of a more defensible position. The TV remote, her unfortunate weapon of choice, flew from her hand half a second before the logical part of her brain identified the person outside her window as Sara Lance, and not the vengeful and crazed rapist/murderer she had imagined.
"You've got a good arm," Sara complimented her through the closed window with a small smile as she glanced down at the remnants of the shattered remote and the tiny dent in the wall where it had impacted. Felicity winced as she saw how close she had come to taking out her favorite lamp. "And we can work on your aim."
Felicity threw off the blanket she had been cowering under and hurried over to the window, feeling her cheeks flame with embarrassment. "I see you share Oliver's near pathological aversion to using doors?" She struggled briefly with only one arm to shove the window open wide enough for Sara to squeeze through.
"Sorry," Sara replied with a shrug and her crooked smile. As she easily swung down into the cozy light of Felicity's apartment and out of the shadows that concealed the fire escape, Felicity could make out the finer points of Sara's appearance. She was dressed in completely normal clothes- jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt advertising a band Felicity had never heard of- which told Felicity that Sara, in her own strange way, had intended this visit as a social one rather than official vigilante business. "Old habits and all. Anyway, it's faster than the elevator."
She wasn't wrong about the elevator in the building being glacially slow, but Felicity didn't like to even imagine the number of hours she'd have to spend on the salmon ladder in order for climbing the fire escape to be the fastest way to get into her apartment.
"I didn't have your phone number," Sara continued, "and I don't actually have a phone of my own yet, so it wouldn't have done me much good if I had. But I've been hurt before and I know exactly how much fun it can be to be cooped up alone, so I thought I'd drop by and see how you're doing."
The gesture was unexpected- and under different circumstances Felicity might have felt awkward around Sara outside of the lair- but she was so desperate for company and distraction from her boredom that she had to stop herself from jumping up and down in excitement.
"I've been better," Felicity admitted after a moment, suddenly realizing that she was standing in front of a former member of the League of Assassins in a pink bathrobe and sweatpants with little hearts all over them. "So… does Oliver know you're here?"
"Nope." Sara rolled her eyes and stuck her hands in her pockets. "He means well, but he has a tendency to get a little protective-alpha-male over the people he works with. Not that he ever takes his own advice about taking it easy when he's hurt."
"I've noticed that," Felicity muttered, inviting Sara to sit with a wave of her good arm. "I was starting to feel like I'd been banished to convalesce in isolation."
Sara laughed at that. "I didn't figure you for the solitary brooding type. Anyway, I figured I could hang out with you for a little while, if you want the company," she offered as she settled onto the couch. "We could have a girls'-night-in or whatever."
"Make it a girls'-night-out and you've got a deal," Felicity bargained, shoving her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Sara's unexpected appearance had shaken her up enough to give her the confidence to defy Oliver's orders and leave her apartment- and, of course, if he did find out later, she could always point out that she had been under the protection of the most dangerous woman in Starling City, and was therefore in absolutely no danger of further harm. She caught sight of herself in the mirror that hung beside her door and she made a face. "Just maybe not in this outfit."
"Tired of staring at your walls, huh? I get that," Sara called after her as Felicity dove into her room and threw open her closet doors with reckless enthusiasm. "So what are we going out for? Entertainment? Food? Boys?"
"The only guy I'm interested in is the one bringing me my burger and refilling my drink," Felicity yelled back as she struggled into a pair of comfortable jeans and a button-up shirt that reasonable camouflaged her bandaged shoulder.
"Burgers it is," Sara agreed, standing as Felicity reentered the room, fully dressed, or at least close enough to go out in public. "Is there a burger place close to here?"
"Distance is irrelevant where quality is concerned," Felicity informed her sagely as she hastily dragged a brush through her hair. "When it comes to burgers, it's Big Belly Burger or bust."
"That place is still around?" Sara asked with a laugh. "God, I haven't thought about that place in years."
"Then we're definitely hitting up the triple-B tonight," Felicity told her, grabbing her car keys and wallet off the little table beside her front door, "and we're springing for milkshakes, too."
"Sounds good to me," Sara agreed cheerfully. "But I'll drive," she said, plucking the keys from Felicity's hand. "And the milkshakes are on me."
Felicity rolled her eyes. "Is this going to be a thing now? I took a bullet in a non-vital-organ-holding part of my body and now you're going to follow me around offering me free food and entertainment for the rest of my life? You already said thanks and sewed up the hole in my shoulder. What else does your weird ninja code require?"
"Thanks, basic first aid, and milkshakes," Sara told her solemnly as she closed the door to Felicity's apartment behind them and started toward the elevator. "I don't make the rules about paying off a life debt, Felicity. I just follow them."
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting in a booth at Big Belly Burger surrounded by twin mountains of fries and two milkshakes apiece while they waited on their server, an awkward kid with an even more awkward, half-hearted moustache, to bring out their cheeseburgers.
"How come we don't spend more time together, Felicity?" Sara asked as she watched Felicity attack her fries with enthusiasm she rarely displayed toward anything that didn't have a motherboard.
Felicity swallowed hastily and took a sip of water to cover her surprise at the question as she considered her answer.
"I guess I assumed you'd be too busy with your… you know, stuff… to spend time with me. Or anyone." From the look of understanding that crossed her face, Felicity didn't feel that she needed to elaborate on stuff for Sara to understand that she was referring to Oliver, Laurel, Mr. Lance, Cin, her vigilante duties, and everything else that her return to Starling City had brought her.
"I've been busy," Sara conceded between fries, "but I didn't go to all the trouble of coming back from the dead to be too busy for my friends." She held up her half-full glass and extended it towards Felicity for a toast. "Or milkshakes."
Felicity smiled as she clinked her glass against Sara's and nodded. "To having time for milkshakes."
And from then on, without ever really planning to, they did. Every Thursday night, which Felicity had come to think of as her night of since Starling's criminal population never seemed to be up to much on Thursdays, she and Sara met up at Big Belly Burger for cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes. For the first few weeks it was only the two of them, but it didn't take Diggle long to get suspicious about where the two of them disappeared off to every week and he followed Felicity from her apartment. She probably would have been angry with him for invading her privacy if he hadn't bought her a piece of pie as an apology. After that, it was only a matter of time before Sara invited Cin along because she thought Felicity and Digg would have a good influence on her. Even Roy made a few appearances over the months, but he preferred to spend his evenings with Thea; Felicity secretly thought that, even with Diggle there, the estrogen was just too strong for Roy's delicate masculine sensibilities.
Just like any standing dinner date with friends, their menu selections never vary much more than the company. Felicity has a cheeseburger with a chocolate-mint milkshake and a double order of fries drowned in ranch dressing. Sara has a triple-decker burger with bacon, a chocolate milkshake, and mimes gagging if anyone so much as offers her ketchup for her fries. Diggle has coffee and a slice of pie. Felicity thinks he must always go in with the idea that he'll just have a piece of pie and leave early, even though he usually stays longer than the rest of them to have a last cup of coffee in peace. Cin, the tiniest of them all, puts away the most food: two burgers, chili-cheese fries, and a strawberry milkshake. Sara always pays for her food; Felicity suspects Cin doesn't get a lot of regular meals, which is why she goes overboard when someone offers her dinner. Roy ordered a salad once. Even the waiter looked scandalized.
And just like their orders, the topic of conversation is always the same: Oliver. They might start out talking about something else, like the latest gossip from Verdant or Cin's newest piercing, but somehow the discussion always finds its way back to the Arrow. It's never shop talk. Cin is as close to being on Team Arrow as anyone, but Sara is always insistent that she never know the specifics of their operation or current investigations. Generally they take turns complaining about Oliver's level of brooding and swapping funny stories about the ridiculous lies they tell to hide their less-than-legal activities. Diggle in particular likes to reminisce about "the good old days" when he thought Oliver was just another spoiled client determined to shake his bodyguard and the first few jobs Felicity "helped" them on. It's silly and fun and everyone ends up with a stomachache from the combination of too much greasy food and too much laughter.
As far as Felicity knows, Oliver is still completely oblivious to their weekly dinners at Big Belly Burger. She finds it hard to believe that someone as observant (okay, paranoid) as Oliver hasn't noticed that all of his accomplices disappear for a few hours on the same night every week, but she doesn't have any real evidence to the contrary. In fact, recently he has had some CEO-thing at Queen Consolidated or a family event to attend on Thursday nights that doesn't require the attendance of any of the other members of Team Arrow. Sara tells her not to worry about it so much, but Felicity always worries about Oliver.
Sometimes, during a lull in the conversation as they eat, one of them will bring up what they would do if Oliver showed up unannounced to one of their dinners. Cin usually bursts out laughing and pantomimes the Arrow trying to drink a milkshake while keeping his hood over his face to protect his identity. Diggle says they would make him pay for dinner since he could write it off as a business expense. Sara smiles and says that they'd find some way to make room for him, which is probably closest to the truth, but Felicity knows better. Even if Oliver found out about their secret dinners, he would never come. Part of it is because she knows he feels awkward being in public with friends, and part of it is because of his philosophy that he shouldn't get to enjoy his life. But mostly she knows he would never show up because, even though he never takes one for himself, he knows that everyone needs a night out.