Chapter 3.
Tuesday after lunch Addison walked out of school to find Diggle waiting with the car to take her to QC for her internship. She smiled as she made her way over to where he was leaning against the car.
"Driving yet another Queen to work, what did I do to deserve this." He teased as she opened the door for her.
"You're just a lucky man Digg." She smiled.
"Oliver said there's one more young lady I'm supposed to pick up today." Diggle pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. "Jayce Venson is going to be interning too.
"Ava?" Addison looked up at him. "Laurel's daughter, why would he do that? She hates me!"
"They came by a couple days ago and asked if he had another opening." Digg shrugged. "He said it would seem unfair if he let you intern and not her." Addison let out a huff of breath before leaning back in the seat. Moments later Ava in all her perfectly dressed, high heel wearing, hair flipping glory was making her way toward the car. Diggle opened the door for her and she slid in.
"Oh Addison, mom said you'd be going to QC to." She said a fake smile plastered on her face. "What part of the company will you be working in?"
"I'll be working with my dad as well as learning in the IT department." Addison smiles. "Dad wants me to be well rounded and trained like my mother, so I'll be able to multiple things and won't have to rely as much on others."
"I'm working down in the legal department." Ava smirked. "Mom said it'll be best for me to get some experience working under some of the best lawyers in Sterling and QC has them." Addison let the other girl drone as the ride continued to her father building. Felicity was waiting for them at the entrance to the lobby.
"Glad to see Mr. Diggle was able to get you both her on time." She smiled as the girls neared her. "Mr. Queen has asked me to bring the two of you up to his office and you'll be assigned your first jobs from there." The younger girls nodded and followed Felicity to the elevator. She noticed the looks her daughter was giving her. Addison and Ava hadn't gotten along since they freshman year when Ava and JD were dating, and she cheated on him the captain of the football team. Ava had told Addison about it hoping she would keep her secret, but Addie couldn't keep something like that from him. When they made it upstairs she led the two girls to Oliver's office.
"Oliver, Addison and Ava are here." She said as they entered.
"Oh good." He smiled. "Come on in and have a seat, would you join Felicity? If you're not too busy that is."
"I've got about half hour before I need to run downstairs." She nodded and took a seat on the couch.
"Alright, you two young ladies are the only student's we've allowed to come an intern here at Queen Consolidated. You will be expected to put your best foot forward as you will be see as part of this company while you are here." Oliver said. "Mr. Diggle will be picking the two of you up from school on the days you come here so being on time shouldn't be an issue, however I want you both to be sure that you stay the entire time you're to be here. Do you both understand?" The two girls nodded. "Okay then, Ava I'll be taking you down to our legal department as your mother requested. From now on you'll go straight there when you arrive. Felicity I'm going to turn Addison over to you since she'll be needed most helping with the IT department." Oliver stood from his seat. "Come on Ava I'll show you where to go." Addison watched as the girl followed her father out of the office, while she and her mother made their way to Felicity's desk.
"I really don't like her." Addison mumbled as her mother took a seat behind her computer.
"Get use to sweetheart, working is all about dealing with people you don't like." Felicity smiled. "Now you got here on a good day, so far no one's crashed anything and your dad's got a relaxed schedule so we've got a bit a break."
"So I have nothing to do then?" Addison asked a bit hopeful.
"Not even close." Felicity laughed and pushed a laptop towards her daughter. "I know you like to hack into things about as much as I do. I need you to test the company's newest firewall we put up."
"You want me to purposely hack into the company's system." Addison asked as she began typing away on the laptop, which she realized was her's from home.
"Yes, I know I can trust you not to do anything with whatever you find. That's why I brought your laptop, an outside computers the best test."
"Okay then, hack I will." Addison smiles before going to work on the laptop. A few moments later she hears her father enter the joint offices stopping as he glanced at the desk.
"Do I even want to know what you have her doing?" he teases.
"She's doing a little security check for me, nothing that's going to get her in trouble." Felicity smiles, Oliver chuckles.
"Well I'll be in my office if either of you need me." He kissed the top of Addison head before entering his section of the office. Felicity watched her daughter as she concentrated on what she was doing. Addison had a tendency to chew on her bottom lip when she was focused on something, a habit they had tried to break when she was child and often times would chew her lip till it bled. It didn't matter what she was doing, working on computer coding or focusing on a target, the bottom left corner of her lip was being chewed.
Ten minutes before Felicity was set to run downstairs and check with the people she had in charge of the IT deferment, she called Addison off her attack on the company's firewall.
"Any luck?" she asked calling the girls attention from the screen.
"I got past the first set of coding but I can't make it any further than that." Addison sighed. "Not to say that someone with more skill than me couldn't."
"Thanks for testing it for me baby girl." Felicity smiled. "Go see if you dad has any work for you before I take you downstairs with me." Addison nodded and walked into her father's office, knocking on the doorframe before entering.
"Mom wanted me to see if you have any work for me before I go downstairs with her." She said when he looks up at her.
"Actually, I was going to see if you minded running these papers to your grandmother's office." Oliver smiled at her holding a folder out to her. "It shouldn't take too long, and then you can go straight down and meet your mother." Addison walked over and took the folder.
"Okay, I'll get them to her." Addison smiled and Oliver thanked her as she walked back to where her mother was waiting for her. "I have to take this to Grandma and then I'll be right down."
"Alright, I'll see you down there then." Felicity smiled and headed toward the elevator while Addison headed down the stairs to her grandmother's office. Moria Queen-Steele's secretary insisted that her Addison wait for her to check before she entered her grandmother's office, but of course Addie was allowed back as soon as she called.
"Addie," Moria smiled when she walked in, "your father said you'd be joining us today."
"Hello grandma," Addie walked over to her. "Daddy wanted me to bring these too you." Moria took the folder form her.
"Thank you sweetheart. Are you enjoying your first day?" the older woman asked.
"Yeah, although I haven't really done too much yet." Addie shrugged. "I helped mom with some security check stuff but that's about it. I've got to go downstairs and meet her after I'm done here."
"Well then don't let me keep." Moria smiles. "Go on downstairs to your mother, enjoy the rest of your day."
"Thanks grandma, tell Walter I said hello." Addie hugged her grandmother before heading down to meet Felicity.
If there is one thing Addison knew for certain is that her mother was amongst her people when she was down in the IT department. Felicity did a great job blending in to the socialite world the becoming part of the Queen's life forced her into, but this was where she belong. She was so comfortable amongst the people working on the computer's, doing scans, and taking calls from the many other departments in the building from those who weren't quite as technology savvy as they were. Addison didn't blame her at all, she'd much rather be down here then upstairs trying to impress everyone coming through the office doors.
"So what do you do down here?" she asked causing her mother to jump slightly as she turned to face her.
"Well since is technically a side job, I just check in on things make sure it's all running smoothly. If there's a big problem with one of the servers or they have an extreme amount of calls my job is a bit more demanding." She smiles as a woman comes up to stand beside her.
"Here's the reports for today Ms. Smoak." she said drawing her attention to him.
"Thank." She took the paper from her. "Addison this Ms. Thompson, Mary this is my daughter Addison. She's taken part in an internship her a QC working under her father and I."
"It's very nice to meet you Ms. Queen." Ms. Thompson smiles.
"Nice to meet you too." Addison returned her smile. Felicity cheeked over the paper she'd been given.
"Everything looks good today." She sighed. "If you need anything call me, and either Addison or I will be right down." Mary nodded and Felicity led her daughter out of the department.
Thursday Diggle picked them up again and drove both girls to QC, this time he followed them onto the elevator. There was silence as Ava studied her fingernails and Addie rolled her eyes. She was thrilled when the other girl got off a few floors later.
"So I can see things aren't any better between the two of you." Diggle chuckled. "As well as you parents get along and the fact that your godmother is her aunt, sure isn't motivating you guys to get along."
"I'm not sure it's possible to get along with Ava." Addison sighed. "Why are you coming up today?"
"Your dad has a meeting at one of the new company's in the Glades." Diggle said as the doors opened to their floor. "Your grandmother think's it'll be good for him to get involved."
"Well good luck with that." She smiled. "I guess that means I'm working with my lovely mother today." She said as the entered the office.
"It's never good when she says things like that." Felicity sighs.
"Diggle was just telling me dad was going to be out of the office today, so I assumed that meant I would be with you." She smiles sweetly.
"Nope." Oliver comes out of his office. "You'll be tagging along with me. This something you'll need to know because eventually you'll either be making decision when to partner with a startup company or helping your brother make these decisions."
"Of course." She smiled. "Daddy daughter work day it is."
"Behave yourself." Felicity warned.
"When don't I?" Addison laughed. "When are we leaving?"
"Right now, I was waiting on you to get here." Oliver smiled and the three left the office. The arrived at one of the newer business building in the Glades a half hour later. It was nowhere near as grand as QC but was still a lot nicer than most of the buildings in the Glades. A man in a dark suite was waiting for them when they arrived in the lobby.
"Mr. Queen, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." He said, his voice holding a slight welsh accent. "I'm Rhys Jones, CEO of Nerth Cooperation."
"It's nice to meet you." Oliver and the man shook hands. "This is my daughter Addison, she's an intern at my company and I thought it'd be good for her to tag along today." Addison stepped forward.
"Of course," Mr. Jones nodded. "It's always good to get a head start when going into the family business. If the two of you will follow me we can go to office and discuss the business plans." He turned away from the pair and they followed him up to his office.
After an hour and half of discussing things, an conversation which involved a lot of business terms and boring talk, Addison knew why her father dreaded meeting so much. She feel back against the seats when they finally made it to the car.
"That's it Tommy can have the company." She huffed when her father climbed in the other side. Oliver chuckled and glanced over at his daughter.
"Welcome to the world of business." He smiled at her. "You'll be spending the majority of you time with QC in meetings like those."
"Not looking forward to that at all.' Addison frowned.
The next day at school walked into her calculus class, the only class she had with JD since he was a year ahead of her, and sat next to him. Unlike her, he was allowed to go out with Team Arrow during the week, and last night must have been a late one.
"You look like crap," she teased, laughing when he turned to glare at her.
"I didn't get home till like two this morning." he sighed he head resting on the wall behind him.
"I though you guys had slow night during the week since mom wasn't there to do all the hacking stuff?" Addie asked turning sideways at her desk so she was facing him.
"Yeah well everyone decided last night was the night to cause problems in the Glades." He glanced at her. "We were stopping break-ins and assaults just about all night." Just then Ava walked in with her group of walking talking Barbie's laugh obnoxiously loud about something. "Oh joy." JD mumbled and Addison gave him a small smile as Ava started talking.
"I mean she only got the spot because it's her daddy's company." She shook her head. "Honestly, she's even working right with her parents, isn't that right Addie? You just sit up there in Mommy and Daddy's office?" she turned to the back of the room while her friends giggled.
"Yes, I work under my parents so they groom me to be a CEO, or head of the tech department one day." She gave them a sickly sweet smile as she got up and walked towards them. "Did you tell them the part where your mommy got your internship?" Addison asked and watched as Ava's face turned to a glare. "Probably because my dad still feels bad about dumping her." Ava stood up, face to face with Addison.
"Yeah your dad the playboy dumped my mom." Ava said. "That's probably why your parents spilt isn't it? Because your dad couldn't keep it in his pants."
"You bitch!" The bitterness in Addison's voice drew JD's attention to her, right as her fist connected with Ava's face. Just like that a fight had broken out between the two; Ava had to fistfuls of Addison's hair and Addison was swinging at her attempt to shake the girl off her. JD jumped and ran over as the teacher came in the room, and tried to pull Addison away from the other girl as the teacher grabbed hold of JD.
"Let me go JD!" Addie yelled struggling against him.
"No way, you're in enough trouble as it is."
"Mr. Diggle would you mind helping me escort Ms. Queen and Ms. Venson to the principal's office?" The teacher asked, JD nodded and walked with Addison down the hall.
Felicity was sitting at her desk answering emails when her phone rang. Not her office phone, her cellphone. No one ever called her cellphone while she was working unless something was wrong, and this was her daughter's school calling. She answered and listened as the man on the other told her that she and Mr. Queen needed to come to the school immediately as their daughter had been in a fight.
"Oliver!" Felicity called as the call ended. He rushed out of his office coming to a stop right in front of her desk. "We have to go to Addie's school, now."
"Why? What's happened?" Oliver asked his voice full of concern.
"Your daughter got in a fight." Felicity sighed as she grabbed her bag and stood from her seat. "They want both of us at the school."
"Alright, let me tell mom we have to step out and then we'll head over there." Felicity nodded and after a quick stop at Moria's office they we're headed to the school. When they arrived they could hear Addison and Ava bickering from down the hall, every now and then JD's voice would sound attempting to silence the two. Felicity gave Oliver a look when they walked into the lobby.
"Addison Shado Queen that is enough." Oliver's voice sounded though the office, causing the three to look at him. "JD why don't you head on back to class now, I'll make sure Addison behaves."
"Yes sir." JD said glancing back at Addison before walking out into the hallway.
"Daddy-" Addison started but Oliver shot her a look.
"Not now." He warned. The principle called them back not long after, explaining that a verbal argument had started in the classroom and Addison had started the actual fight.
"We are giving her a week and a half suspension." He said looking between the parents in front of him. "We cannot take something like this lightly."
"We understand." Oliver nodded. "And we will be speaking about this at home." He looked at Addison.
"Thank you for coming in Mr. Queen, Ms. Smoak." The principle stood and the three on the other side of the desk followed suite.
"Thank you for calling us." Felicity gave him a small smile. "I can assure you we won't be meeting like this again." With that she ushered her daughter out of the office. "Go get your things, Diggle is waiting for us."
"Mom listen-" Felicity held a hand up.
"We will speak about this at home Addison." She sighed and watched as her daughter huffed before walking away.
Oliver went to the house with Felicity and Addison, the younger girl sitting on the couch as her parents stared down at her.
"You want to tell us what happened?" Oliver asked his arms crossing over his chest.
"I was in class talking to JD when Ava and her friends came in giggling and laughing about something. She started making remarks about how I got the internship and what I do there, and then I said something about you dumping her mom." Addison paused and looked up at her parents who looked none too pleased. "Then she started talking about you and mom and why you split up, she said that dad was cheating on you mom." Addison met Felicity's gaze. "I was so angry and I know I shouldn't have lost my temper, but I did and I'm not sorry about it." With that Addison stood and ran up to her room. Felicity started after her but Oliver grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"Let her cool off." He said when she turned to face him.
"Oliver, she's going to think the worse of you the longer she has to think about what Ava said." Felicity frowned. "Oliver you can't let her think that of you."
"Felicity, when the time comes I will explain everything to hear about why we spilt, but now is not the time." Oliver sighed. "If we go in there now and tell her a different story she's going to see it as us trying to cover up what really happened. She needs to come to terms with what she heard today and come to us when she's ready to talk about it." He gave her a small smile. "I'm going to head back to the office, you can have the rest of the day off if you want."
"Thanks, I'll probably go ahead and get Tommy from school." Felicity sighed. "I'm sure if anyone got video of the fight the paparazzi will be swarming soon enough."
"I'll have Diggle on call if you need him." Oliver smiled.
"Thank you Oliver," she kissed his cheek, "I'll see you at the lair tonight." Oliver nodded and turned towards the door.
Seven years earlier
Addison woke up to the sound of a door slamming downstairs. She knew her mother didn't like when she got out of bed after she had been tucked in but she wanted to know what was going on. She snuck downstairs following the sound of her parents raised voices, they were in her father's office. She could see their shadows as they walked around the room.
"Oliver, I can't deal with all the lies!" Felicity yelled. "We're married that means we're in this together, no secrets."
"It's not that simple Felicity." Oliver sighed. "Anything I'm keeping from you I'm doing it to keep from hurting you."
"I don't need you to protect me!" Felicity turned to him. "I need you to trust me enough to tell me the truth!"
"You don't want to know the truth Felicity!" Oliver yelled as he turned and headed toward the door, causing Addison to fall backwards. "Addie you should be in bed." He said looking down at his daughter.
"I…I had a bad dream." She lied looking up at her father. "Come on, let's get you back to bed."
A knock at the door drew Addison back to the present. She sat up on her bed and looked toward the door as her mother entered.
"I'm going to pick your brother up do you want to ride with me?" she asked, Addison shook her head. "Okay, we'll I'll be back in a few minutes." After Felicity left Addison got off her bed and pulled a hoodie on before heading downstairs. She needed to go for a walk and clear her mind, she knew what Ava said couldn't be true, that she was just over thinking it, but the more she thought about it the more it made since. What if her dad had cheated on her mom? Addison knew he didn't have the cleanest record when it came to women.
She wasn't entirely sure where she was going as she walked, until she stopped in front of Verdant. She walked around to the side door, she took the key that hung around her neck and went to unlock the door only for it swing open. Slowly Addison walked into the club scanning the open space.
"Aunt Thea?" she called. "Aunt Thea are you here?" she walked around the club for a moment without answer. When she found no one she headed downstairs.
"Stop right there." A voice sounded from downstairs, she watched as a figure came into view.
"Aunt Sara?" she asked taking a step forward.
"Addison." Sara relaxed. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" she asked as Addison walked down the rest of the stairs and over to her mother's desk.
"Well I was kind of suspended for fighting with your lovely niece." She sighed as she feel back in Felicity chair. "I thought you were in Paris."
"Just got in town this morning, now about you and Ava?" Sara pressed.
"I've already talked with mom and dad about and I'd rather not go over it again." She sighed. "Did Nyssa come with you?"
"Not this time." Sara shook her head. "She had some things to finish up in Paris, I needed to come here and discuss things with your dad."
"He won't be off for a few more hours." Addison shrugged.
"So what are you doing here?" Sara leaned against the wall. "You've got a nice big house with plenty do, so why come all the way out here?"
"I wanted to come blow off some steam, target practice maybe." Sara nodded and stepped towards her.
"You tried that thing yet?" she asked glancing towards the salmon ladder, Addison shook her head. "Go change and we'll see how far up you can get." While the younger girl went back to change into her workout clothes Sara pulled a mat under the Salmon ladder and waited for her niece to return. When Addison came back Sara took her place at the bottom of the ladder.
"You're going to do this like you would a pull up, but you have to swing the bar out when you go up." Addison watched her aunt's demonstration. "The key is to find a steady rhythm, you don't want to take it too fast." Sara contained up the ladder and then worked her way back down. "Okay, now you try." Sara stepped back and Addison took her spot. "Try a couple pull up's first, get use to the overall movement. Addison nodded and followed her aunt's instructions.
"Alright." Sara said after a moment. "Now, swing the bar out and try and hook it on the next rung." Addison took a deep breath breath and then made her first attempt at moving up the ladder, only to miss the rung and fall flat on her back. "Try again and put more power behind it." They contained working on it for the next hour, even after Sara said she should probably stop, until Addison was able to make it halfway up the ladder. When she finally stopped she was sure her back was covered in one big bruise; she sat on the mat as Sara threw her a water.
"That's your father's biggest stress reliever, mine too." Sara told her, "Great way to work out aggression so you don't end up in a fight with Ava."
"And we've gone full circle back to this." Addison feel back on the mat wincing a bit as her back hit the mat.
"What happened Addie?" Sara asked sitting down beside the younger girl. "I know you and Ava have your problems but it's never been anything like this before."
"She said something's about mom and dad and about why they split up." Addison looked down, her hands picking at the mat. "She basically said that dad was cheating on mom, that he was a playboy who couldn't keep it in his pants. And I remember them fighting because dad was keeping things from her, lying to her…and I thought maybe…"
"Addie…" Sara sighed. "Your dad would never do that to your mom, he loves her too much even now to hurt her like that." Addison looked up at the older woman beside her. "Your parents had their reason for splitting, and they had their reason for keeping it from you. This is something you need to talk to your parents about, but only if you're ready to listen to them." Addison sighed and let her aunts words sink.
A few hours later voice sounded as Oliver, Roy, and Diggle headed down into the Lair. Each pausing when they saw Sara, before going over to hug her.
"Where's mom?" Addison asked as she glanced over at her father.
"She was taking Tommy to Grandma's for the night, she'll be here soon." He gave his daughter a small smile.
"Why is the mat under the salmon ladder?" Roy asked causing the others to look towards where he was standing.
"I was helping Addie learn how to do it like a pro." Sara smiled at her niece.
"How banged up are you?" Diggle asked.
"Enough that mom will probably flip out just a tiny bit." She laughed. When Felicity arrived moments later the group began to get ready for the night, until Sara drew their attention to her.
"Guys, Nyssa and I have a problem and we need your help." She said as all the faces in the room became dead serious.
"What do you need?" Oliver asked.
A/N: Sorry this one took a bit longer, but I started observations for one of my college classes and I had a freaking SKILLET concert to attend this past week. Keep the reviews coming?
