Felicity held on to her third cup of coffee as if it were her life force. Truth be told, it might have been the only thing keeping her on her feet. Her eyes quickly darted to her tablet. It was only 11am and she was exhausted.
Felicity hadn't been sure of what to expect when she returned to Starling City this morning, but she knew for certain that it wasn't this. She kept turning over the facts in her mind, trying to extract clues or motives that could have been hiding in plain sight, but she came up empty. Taking a sip of her coffee, she checked on her searches again; however, the only person that seemed to have any answers was Barry Allen.
Felicity turned ever so slightly in her chair towards Oliver's office. He was in a meeting with Isabel Rochev. She watched anger flash across Oliver's face repeatedly. For a second, a microsecond really, she felt like rescuing him from her path of destruction, but quickly thought better of it. Felicity may have to involve herself in their professional relationship, but she would not involve herself in their private relationship, certainly not after Russia. That was Oliver's mess and his decision; their conversation a few weeks ago had made that crystal clear.
Felicity didn't know where Isabel and Oliver stood now and, for now, she preferred it that way. A girl could only take so much pseudo-rejection.
In the weeks to come, Felicity Smoak would continue wonder what possessed her to do what she did next; it may have been the jealousy that she adamantly claimed didn't exist, it may have been a the need to take control of what seemed to be a life spiraling rapidly out of her control, or it may simply have been Barry Allen's baby blue eyes and infectious smile. She didn't know, but she grabbed her phone anyway, pulled out the Central City CSI business card she had gotten earlier that morning, and dialed the number.
"Mr. Allen?"
…
"Hi. My name is Felicity Smoak. I'm Mr. Qu…"
…
"Right. Of course. Barry."
…
"No! Please, call me Felicity."
…
"I, um, I just wanted to inform you that Mr. Queen has decided to handle the Queen Consolidated robbery internally and he would really appreciate an expert in the field to aid the ongoing investigation. Your expenses would be looked after of course."
…
"That's great! I could really use the help. I said Mr. Queen right? Mr. Queen would really appreciate the help."
…
"Wonderful. I'll email you directions on how to get here. Let them know who you are at the front lobby. I'll see to it that they are expecting you."
…
"See you in a half hour."
Felicity hung up the phone with a smile on her face. She hadn't spent much time with Barry at all; it was forty-five minutes at best, but that didn't stop the tugging at her heart. His voice alone seemed to pull her in. He was intelligent, which was a given, but there was this underlying gentleness about him that made him a much needed breath of fresh air. She suddenly found herself anxiously awaiting 11:30.
A large pile of papers being dropped on her desk broke her reverie. Isabel Rochev stared at Felicity with a poorly masked look of displeasure. "See to it that Oliver signs these before he leaves for the day and then send them to the Moscow subsidiaries. I want a copy on my desk by 2."
Felicity gathered the stack of papers in her arms and offered Isabel a tight smile. With a roll of her eyes, Isabel click-clacked all the way back to the depths of the fiery hell she had risen from. Felicity shut her eyes tightly at the sound, which was music to her ears.
She opened her eyes and peaked into Oliver's office once again. He was pacing back and forth and tugging at his tie. In that moment Felicity knew that this wouldn't be the best time to tell him about Barry. Oliver didn't seem to take to him the way Felicity had.
With a sigh, she walked over to the staff room, quickly made a cup of coffee, and walked back to Oliver's office with the stack of papers still cradled under her arm.
She strode past a pacing Oliver and placed the coffee on his desk. Dropping the stack of papers on his desk she turned around to face him.
He stared at her, one brow raised.
"First thing's first. That," Felicity said pointing to the cup of coffee, "never happened. And second, I need you to sign those stack of papers so I can get Isabel Rochev off my back and yours as soon as possible."
Felicity paused as she watched Oliver stride back to the desk, but he surprised her when he stopped just in front of her. Oliver grabbed the pen Felicity had tucked behind her ear, his fingers grazing the outer shell of her ear before he walked back to the desk. It seemed strangely intimate and that was all it took for Felicity to feel off balanced.
"Well, I can get her off my back. Yours is wholly another matter."
Oliver's hand paused for the slightest moment of time before continuing its fluid strokes.
"Not that… I wasn't implying the Russia thing or anything or that there was trouble in paradise. Not that, oh god, I don't mean to imply you two have a paradise to have trouble in. I just… I'm going to stop talking now."
"It's fine Felicity," Oliver said returning the papers to her, but she didn't miss the way his voice sounded a little harder than usual.
She knew she hit a sore spot. A part of her sought to reach out and smooth the furrowed brow, but she stopped herself. For what seemed like the millionth time today, she reminded herself of the conversation that they had had when the returned from Russia. Even though she knew they were one and the same, Felicity's place was by the Arrow's side, not Oliver Queen.
She set her jaw and turned to leave the office, but she was stopped by Oliver's hand on her elbow.
"We didn't get much of a chance to talk this morning."
"I'm okay," Felicity responded to the unspoken question.
"You know my offer still stands. If you ever need to tell someone about your day, you can tell me."
Felicity closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, painfully aware of Oliver's hand still her elbow. She nodded in response her eyes still shut.
"Thank you. It means a lot. And, thank you for coming to the funeral. I know you had a lot on your plate, but my dad and I really appreciated you being there."
"How is Gerry doing?" Oliver asked, perching on the edge of his desk. In that moment, he reminded Felicity very much of the Arrow perching on the skyscrapers looking out over Starling City.
Felicity took the seat that Isabel Rochev had previously occupied. She expected it to be warm, but the seat was as cold and as frigid as Rochev herself.
"He's as good as anyone can expect him to be. Actually I was meaning to tell you, my dad is coming down this Saturday night, just to get out of the house more than anything, so I won't be at Verdant. Think you and Diggle can manage one night without me?"
"You make it sound as though we're incapable of saving the city without you," Oliver responded smiling broadly, the kind of smile that made Felicity's heart drop low in her chest.
"As I recall you got very little done without me," Felicity teased.
"The girl has a point Oliver," John's voice called from somewhere behind her.
Felicity hadn't seen John since the funeral; she rose out of her seat and walked into Diggle's waiting embrace. He was the only other place, other than when she was with Oliver or her parents, which felt strangely like home.
"How are you holding up?" he whispered into her ear. She didn't know why, but she wanted to cry all over again in that moment.
"Okay," Felicity managed to go out. She thought he would let her go just then, but he held her for a moment longer.
"I saw that you called in back-up. He's waiting downstairs," Diggle commented, a whisper so quiet that even Oliver's sharpened senses couldn't pick up.
Felicity pulled away, her hands still gripping on to John's arms; her wide eyes silently pleading for John to keep her secret. A coy smile was his response.
Grateful for the sound of pinging in the distance she returned to her tablet to check on the searches. She didn't look at Oliver before leaving, worried that he would read her like the open book she is.
She could hear Oliver asking what Diggle found and Diggle handing Oliver the inventory list from the Applied Sciences division as she called up the CCTV videos she had been searching for.
Felicity watched them trying to sort through the information when she saw it. She glanced briefly up at Oliver and Diggle knowing what they would undoubtedly have to deal with and the fear of losing them, losing someone else she loved, overwhelmed her. Her arms and legs felt as if they were being slowly filled with lead and her heart began to beat frantically out of control.
Unsurprisingly, it was Oliver's voice she heard in her head reminding her to breathe, reminding her that the moment would pass. She purposefully took deep breaths and loosened her tightened grip on her tablet. They needed to know, the sooner the better.
A message letting her know that Barry was on his way up finally spurred her into action as she took long quick strides towards Oliver. She wasn't alone in this. She had some help this time. She wouldn't let anyone else she loved get hurt.
AN: I know, holy updates batman! I'm on a roll with this and although it originally started as a one-shot, clearly this is turning into quite the multi-chapter (no real title yet though). So thank you, for your really kind responses. To all those people that reviewed, you are the reason this thing is turning into a multi.
You'll be happy to know I've finally got a direction for this thing! I really want to kind of connect a lot of the things we've been seeing on the show with my idea of what kind of happens in between. So, I'll be sticking fairly close to canon.
So, to get an understanding of my plans for this story, after reading this chapter I highly suggest you re-watch the scene when Barry makes his way into Oliver's office. :)
Until next time folks! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Can't wait to hear what you think.