Chapter 7

The Clock King

Here it is, the chapter everyone have been waiting for: Felicity vs The Clock King

When Felicity arrived home the first thing she saw was the box. She kept it always at arm's length, afraid of losing it. She heard the man, she made her research, and she couldn't stop the thoughts about her father. Could he be that good man that Arthur talked about? Was he so tired, so unhappy with her mother that he had to escape? She believed that, she really did. She just hoped she was not being naive just because someone told her her father loved her.

"I'm pathetic." she sighed. "So much going on and here I am, allowing in self-pity." she scoffed at herself. And rising up she vowed to herself that she would find who that person was, she would make sure that he or she paid. No one messed with Felicity Smoak's computers.

"Maybe I should talk more with Mr. Williamson after this is taken care of." she said to herself, while taking care of her bonsai.

Yes, she would do that. She wanted to know more about her father, what he was like, about his job, if he talked about her... She needed that to fill this hole she just realized she had.

Smiling with her new found objective, she walked towards her bedroom to a well-deserved rest.

The next days were a true survival test to Felicity. While keeping her facade as EA, she used all her free time to upgrade her system, surviving with two hours of sleep during the night and running every program she knew and others she created to keep her computers from being entered ever again. She would show who the best was!

"Felicity, you should sleep. You are really pale!" Oliver said a week after the system failure incident. Another robbery happened, but once again they were too late. Oliver was in a bad mood and when, Felicity said her next words he rolled his eyes at her.

"You should go. You don't want to be late for the Lances."

Felicity noticed his demeanor, but, loyal to her own vow of keeping herself from that situation she didn't say everything that was wrong with Oliver going to dinner with Sara, Laurel and their parents. He said it was moral support in case Laurel had some kind of break, but Felicity wasn't so sure if the thing broken by the end of the night wouldn't be his face by Laurel's fist. And she knew Dig tried to talk him out of going, but apparently, self-protection was really not one of Oliver's traits. She just hoped Quentin would be able to stop something from happening. She didn't know Mrs. Lance so she couldn't be sure if she would be able of breaking a sisters fight, but maybe that's what they needed, to lose all the steam.

"Well, I will be going now. If you find anything tell us, okay?" Oliver said and Felicity nodded, closing her eyes when she felt his hands squeezing her shoulders. He stayed there for a moment longer than normal and then, sighing, he left.

"Yes! I'm the Queen! I mean, not a Queen like Oliver, no, just a queen of hacking!" Felicity said, to herself, looking around to make sure no one was there. Not that she needed it, Roy was upstairs working, Diggle was patrolling and Oliver and Sara were probably in the main course.

As soon as she was able of working she started digging everything that could connect the two banks, but it was too vague. One thing she knew, the person was incredibly intelligent. So, probably had a specialization in this field. She started putting every student of Starling from the last 40 years in grades hierarchy. Then, she tried to connect any of them to the banks. Through accounts, friends, family. Anything worked. And then, when she was almost giving up, she found it. There was a connection. There was one individual that had shares in both banks. He was a doctor as well and one of the primary shareholders of the banks. But the important part was that he had as patient one of the most brilliant students. She was mesmerized by his accomplishments, they were very similar to her owns.

"Oh!" she gasped. She just found an email between the doctor and the patient where the latter was asking for explanations. Apparently he was diagnosed with a terminal disease by mistake. And the doctor didn't want to be responsible for the man's fate after the news.

Felicity found the man's address and grabbed her phone to call Oliver. But she stopped. What if this man was innocent? He just had a shock of finding he was dying to, sometime later, find out it was all a mistake. Maybe she could talk with him, find something without involving Oliver. She could do it, it was a simple investigation, and she didn't need a knight to save her.

When she arrived at William Tockman's house she found herself in front of a big house, much bigger than she thought it would be. She walked around it, trying to peek through the windows.

The house was dark and looked empty.

When she entered the back yard, Felicity found herself face to face with a desolated place. The grass was yellow, the trash accumulated around the place and she could swear she saw a rat running through the thrown away objects.

She walked towards the back door. It was closed. And she couldn't know if the house had a security system. In fact, she wanted to keep her system away from this man, he couldn't attack anymore, but he could sense the danger and run, which explained her lack of information, which she hated.

And then a cold feeling took care of her. She just thought about security inside the house, if there was any. What if he had it outside? Could this trash just be for a play? She didn't know, but when she heard the metal clicking of a gun, she had her answer.

"Once upon a time, there was a blonde girl who entered a bears' house. She ate their food. She slept in their bed. And when the bears arrived, they ate her. Because she entered their house. Now, this leaves us with a problem. What should I do with this blonde girl over here?" a cold voice said from behind her and Felicity berated herself.

"I'm just lost. My car broke and since your house is a bit isolated I couldn't find anywhere else to go." Felicity said quickly, trying to keep her voice leveled.

"Sure, goldy locks, that's why you entered the back yard instead of ringing the bell." the man said sarcastically. "Now move!" he said, pointing to the now open door.

Felicity tripped and stepped into the house. He made her walk down some stairs until she was in front of another open door. When she saw what was inside she gasped. The man had under surveillance a radius of one mile around his house. She could see people doing their normal things while she observed them under the barrel of a gun.

"It's never too late to be prepared." Tockman said and Felicity felt him moving behind her.

"You don't have to do this! I know they made a mistake, but shouldn't you be happy for being alive? Are you ready to say goodbye to everything you have?" Felicity tried to make him see the light, but apparently it was the wrong thing to do. She saw his face change in range. His muscles tremble with barely suppressed anger.

"They took everything from me! My family didn't want to see me die, so they left! I had no money, only this house that no one wanted to buy! I was alone for four years, allowing in self-pity, hating the world, hating myself! And you think I'm happy? My wife forgot about me, my son doesn't know me! I have to make him pay! I will take everything that is dear to him, first the money then his reputation. And then his family. When it happens he won't even know what hit him!"

Felicity realized the he was the doctor and couldn't stop the pity she felt towards the two men.

"But you didn't steal only from him." Felicity said and the man laugh.

"When I see an opportunity I seize it. Timing is everything..." he said and with a quick move he tried to stick a syringe in her neck. But she was quicker, she jumped back, hitting one of the monitors and gasped with the pain. He tried to come at her again, but Felicity ran. She grabbed one of the monitors and tried to smack it to his head. And then all hell broke lose. They started trying to fight each other, kicking and punching whatever they could find, wrestling to see who would win the syringe, she could feel adrenaline running inside her veins and Dig's voice whispering advices inside her ear.

And then the bang echoed through the basement.

Felicity walked back a few steps eyeing the red mark unfocused, she had forgot about the gun.

She could feel the acrid smell.

And then the pain.

She watched while her white blouse turned redder with each second. And in front of her the man fell with the needle stabbed into his neck.

She felt her body starting to lose strength and fell towards the floor. Stretching her arm to grab her fallen bag, she fished her phone out. She wanted to call Oliver, she wanted to hear him say everything would be alright, even if she was still a bit disappointed at him, she needed to hear him. But then, she remembered Malcolm Merlyn.

She was so tired... even moving the fingers over the screen made her breathless...

And the dark was winning over her vision...

But she had to make that call...

Oliver was sitting in front of Laurel and Sara, so tense he was sure he would be sore in the morning. He should have heard Diggle. Coming here definitely wasn't a good idea. He could see Dinah by his right, and Quentin by his left, with the two sisters side by side ignoring each other. Not for the first time he wondered what Felicity might be doing. He liked imagining her in front of the TV watching Game of Thrones and eating mint and chocolate ice cream and he had to suppress the desire of wanting to be with her. The silence was oppressive, the only noise the sound of the silverware and chewing mouths. It was driving him crazy.

Suddenly, Quentin's phone started ringing. The man took it from his pocket ready to let it go to voicemail when he saw the name. Jumping from the table he ran to the hallway. He was expecting a call like that for the last days. Dinah watched him with a frown over her forehead.

"Detective…" he heard a gasp as soon as he answered the phone and his heart started hammering inside his chest. "Found… Clock King… Woodland Lane 53… I...shot… ambulance… he syringe… please…" and then silence.

"Miss Smoak! Miss Smoak!" he called, but no one answered.

Instantly he called his colleagues, making sure an ambulance was sent as well. He felt his blood run cold imagining the woman hurt in any way.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go… A friend had an accident…" Quentin said, reentering the kitchen with one of his arms inside the jacket and the other searching for his keys. And before anyone could say anything he ran out, leaving behind four people with different expressions of confusion.

"Wow, not even dad could wait for this to end…" Laurel said in a cold voice and Dinah's expression froze.

"We are going to end the meal in peace!" she said in such a commanding voice no one was brave or stupid enough to say something.

However, Oliver's eyes followed the man's retreating figure and checked his phone subtly. There was no call or message from Felicity.

"I need to know where Felicity Smoak is. She was brought here with a gunshot wound. Blonde. Mid-twenties…" Lance said, as soon as he reached the service desk.

"Quentin!" someone called from behind and turning around he found one of his former colleagues. "You are here because of that blonde girl?"

Lance nodded and the other man's expression fell.

"She is in a bad state. She is in surgery now… to take out the bullet and control the damages. I heard something about broken ribs and other injuries… That girl was damn lucky for knowing you… Fifteen minutes later and we would find a corpse… But still… she isn't out of danger yet…" the man said and Quentin felt like someone just punched him in the gut.

What the hell was that girl thinking about? Trying to take down a lunaticby herself ? Where was the Arrow? Yes, because he was sure this had something to do with him. He just didn't understand how the man could let her go by herself. Was she trying to prove something?

Lance sighed and noticing the nurse following their conversation he asked one last thing.

"Could you give me Miss Smoak's emergency contact, please?"

Sorry for the cliffhanger... But I really liked ending it here...

Next chapter: how Oliver reacts to the news...

Did you like how I portrayed them?

I was a bit more physical than they will be in the show, probably, and with that picture of Sara and Felicity that was released, I wanted Felicity to take him down by herself, without anyone protecting her.

What do you think? Please, tell me in a review! ;)