Disclaimer: The characters of Oliver, Felicity, Diggle and others belong to CW and DC Comics.
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Chapter 18 – From Past The Present
Felicity sat down on the edge of Oliver's bed and pulled him to sit down beside her. "Oliver, you do realise that this plan of yours is not going to go down at all well with certain parties who shall remain un-named at this moment in time."
Placing his tie down on the bed beside him, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap so that she could rest her head on his shoulder while he rested his cheek on her head. "Is this why you don't want to come into the office with me this morning?"
"Well..." She drew out the word, "One of them."
"Felicity."
"Oliver..." She buried her face in his neck in an attempt not to answer him but he actually resorted to digging his fingers into her side in one of her most ticklish spots before she answered him. "Your mother doesn't like me."
"She doesn't know you."
"She doesn't want to know me, I'm not the gorgeous other un-named person."
"For which I thank whichever one of your numerous relatives is responsible for every day." He replied as he lifted her chin so that he could see into the blue eyes that kept him same in more ways than one before kissing her. "Felicity, I have to go through this so that..."
"Oliver, what are you playing at?" Felicity narrowed her eyes at him before they widened in slight shock. "This is your way of showing her that she will have to pay for what she did..." She hit him in the shoulder, "By subjecting her to that... Oliver!"
She hit him again. "As much as I may, and I mean, may have issues with your mother, subjecting her to that... woman is cruel and unusual punishment... especially when I think there is history we don't know of between them."
He merely shrugged. "I haven't been completely redeemed, sweetheart."
Felicity rolled her eyes but then wrapped her arms around his neck. "You, agape mou, are truly quite dastardly." She kissed him hard before reaching over to grab his tie and placing it around his neck, tied it then rose to her feet. "And I have to go so that I can make sure everything is in place for this morning's meeting."
She stopped for a second. "I also have to make sure that we have spare glass walls in stock as well just in case."
"Felicity!" She left the mansion with his laughter ringing in her ears and a smile that almost outshone the sun gracing her face.
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Oliver Queen had not expected to come out of what he had always known was going to be an explosive meeting (It was that he completely ignored what Isabel Rochev had to say, it just wasn't important to him nor that unexpected, thanks to his more intelligent and beautiful other half) to be greeted by Diggle saying, "Oliver, there's been a break-in."
He had also not expected to find that the break in had occurred at the one place that was considered impregnable. ("Titantic!" Felicity had coughed behind her hand, making him hide a smile even in his concern.)
"This door was made of reinforced expanded titanium," Diggle said after expecting the bent door. "What was used to do this?"
Lance walked behind him as Felicity moved to stand next to Oliver, who was still crouched down examining the door and rested her hand on his back. "Detective..." She said softly, raising concerned blue baby doe eyes to the police officer to encourage him to reply.
"We're not sure yet, there's no sign of any explosive, maybe a crane or a forklift." He replied almost immediately, unable to not respond to that look. "We're guessing there was maybe three, or at least four."
Behind him, all three members of Team Arrow moved to stand together, Felicity being unconsciously being moved into the middle of them, her hand moving into Oliver's in silent reassurance.
"All we are certain of is that they are fast." Lance continued as he moved so that he could have a view of the warehouse. "Any idea what these guys were so hot to break in here for? Didn't happen to leave a spare earthquake machine lying around, did you?"
"Detective Lance!" Felicity growled, hitting him in the shoulder even as Oliver silently glared at him.
"Sorry!" It was not the first time that he had felt that glare from that particular young man but it was the first time that he actually genuinely felt he had been out of order with his own attitude (and he most definitely did not like being on the wrong side of Felicity!)
And what happened with the entrance of the CSI boy from Central City was something he most definitely did not miss. Especially as it seemed that the moment Barry Allen caught sight of Felicity and her attention, he stopped speaking for a very brief moment in time and Oliver caught hold of Felicity's hand, drawing her into his side.
Felicity and Diggle however were the only people that caught the strange look that crossed Oliver's face as the young CSI explained that the man that had committed the crime was unusually stronger than normal - especially as in the back of Felicity's vast memory banks, she knew and feared the reason why almost as much as Oliver and she tightened her own fingers around his to reassure him and herself that they were momentarily safe.
She most definitely did not miss the uneasy look that crossed Oliver's face at the mention of torque and breaking someone's neck - something, that contrary to popular opinion, all three of them knew, not that she would ever admit out loud – and she wrapped both arms around Oliver's for a moment.
As the conversation became slightly technical – and all three Starling City men were not ashamed to admit they didn't understand single word the young technician had said and were all extremely proud that Felicity did – even as both Diggle and Lance did not miss the way Oliver almost bristled at the openly admiring way Barry gazed at her.
To a point that Lance felt that it would be safer to draw her away for a moment to speak to her. "You might want to fill in our mutual friend in on this."
"Don't worry." Felicity was only too aware that Oliver was actually listening to them (for one thing, she knew her partner and for another, she just couldn't understand why people didn't realise that being in isolation on the island would have changed him to such an extent.) and she smiled slightly (a smile he knew was meant for him and not Lance) as she continued. "I'm sure he's already on it."
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Oliver turned from watching the rain fall down the windows of his office and found his memories of the past dismissed where they belonged as he caught Felicity literally rolling from screen to screen then her tablet as she sought to find him more information.
His concentration was only broken as Diggle entered the room. "Oliver, that CSI kid was right; the centrifuge is the only thing missing from the warehouse."
"A-ha!" With a slight spring to her step, Felicity followed closely behind him and neither Oliver nor Diggle were slow to miss the worried look in her eyes. "You have to see this. I called up the traffic cams in the area and found this from across the street from Applied Sciences. This is three minutes after the alarm went off." With that she showed them the camera footage of the man carrying the centrifuge out of the building.
The entrance of Barry Allen into the room changed the atmosphere once again and Oliver drew Felicity to one side, indicating for Diggle to take him out of the room. "Felicity, what are you doing?"
"Oliver, are you... jealous?" Felicity was actually amused, irritated and highly complimented all in one shot but chose to go with amused. "Oliver, he appears to know more about this case than we do, it makes sense. Besides forensic science, it's not exactly my forte so..." She looked back over her shoulder at the young man looking around Oliver's office with an almost child-like fascination. "I think we need him." She continued as she looked up into Oliver's darkening eyes and she rested her hand on his chest over his heart. "Oliver, look at him, he's a lost puppy and for some strange reason, I have this need to mother/big sister him."
Oliver gritted his teeth for a moment and then nodded, covering her hand with his own. He caught her gaze and a silent conversation sprang up between them before he nodded. "Watch him carefully, Felicity, use his knowledge..."
"But don't trust him completely." She replied in the same soft tone as she reached up to caress his cheek before turning to walk towards the younger man. "Come with me and I'll show you around, Mr Allen."
"Why do I get the feeling you know more about this than our new young friend, Oliver?" Diggle asked once he was sure he was out of earshot. "And that Felicity suspects it as well."
"Pray I'm wrong John." Oliver replied as he turned back to the rain-covered window.
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Well, this was supposed to be one chapter but as it got longer, I decided to split it so that you get two chapter again this weekend.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my regular reviewers, Lililovereading, annependragon, Sci-fi Christian and Husky2014 who have reviewed every chapter so far and invite all those who have favourited, liked, followed etc to join the club. Any new reviews tonight and I will mention you in tomorrow's chapter!
Don't forget to review Wizard's View as well ;op