It has, admittedly, been quite a while. I wasn't even sure that there was going to be a continuation of this. But here is one. Quality or not. It's a bit of a mix of some little gems from my days of nannying.
Also, this story has gotten quite a few favourites and follows in the past couple of weeks. Is it something that you guys just stumbled on? Let me know!
"Tommy and Pippa!" Felicity exclaimed, "What on earth are you doing?"
"Daddy said we could!" Thomas replied straight away.
"Did he just?" Felicity put her hands on her hips and tapped an impatient foot.
"Honest!" Pippa squeaked.
The curly haired, sandy blonde twins nodded vehemently and Felicity watched Pippa push glasses up her nose, mimicking an action she knew was her own.
The twins were standing in nothing but their underwear, ankle deep in what was, earlier, a splash pool. Only now, it was full of dirt and a few of Felicity's beloved daffodils. The early evening sun made it difficult to distinguish what was what.
"Daddy said you could turn the paddle pool in to a mud pit?"
"Yeah!" Tommy nodded enthusiastically, "yesterday!"
Felicity cocked an eyebrow at her offspring.
Pippa wiped her muddy hands on her bare belly as Tommy looked down at his feet. He bent over and then stood straight back up, brandishing a wilted and mud-covered flower.
"We pickded you flowers!" he exclaimed, a grin on his face.
"Inside kiddos, downstairs bathroom, shower time," she ordered.
Tommy, slightly disgruntled at the interruption of his fun, trudged inside blowing raspberries. Pippa, on the other hand, danced around Felicity, excited giggles escaping her mouth. Just as Felicity was about to kindly usher her inside, Pippa threw her arms around her mother's leg.
"I luff you, mommy!" she shrieked, pulling away and running inside.
Felicity glanced down at her white skirt, now covered in tiny human hand prints. She sighed, blowing some stray curls off her face.
"I love you too."
Twenty minutes later, the three year olds were squeaky clean and raging around the house stark naked.
"Iron maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Tommy screamed, jumping from the top of the stairs that separated the split level living area.
"Black widooooooooooow!" Pippa followed, landing with a 'thud', followed by a split second of silence and then hysterical screaming.
"Guys," Felicity lamented, coming out of the bathroom where she'd just finished mopping the floor.
"Mommy," Pippa face was already tear-streaked and blotchy, her nose snotty.
"Come here, baby," Felicity scooped up her mini-me and walked over to the lounge.
Felicity kissed the wood burnt graze that was on Pippa's right knee, whispering lovingly into her ear as Tommy watched on, looking a little guilty. He patted Pippa's shoulder.
"Tommy, can you do me a favor and get pajamas for the two of you, they are on the island in the kitchen," Felicity whispered over the top of Pippa's wails, sobs and hiccups.
"Yep," he nodded and scampered away.
"You okay, Pip?" Felicity asked after she'd managed to calm the distraught toddler down.
"Yeah," she sniffed, curled up in Felicity's lap.
"Good, because Daddy will be home soon, and you can't have snot all over your face."
"No snot," she repeated, shaking her head but allowing Felicity to gently wipe her face with a wet wipe.
"Exactly," Felicity nodded.
After wrestling the two into their onesies (Felicity swore it would have been easier to stuff an octopus in a shopping bag) they settled down for half an hour of cartoons before bed time.
They were half way through an episode of Peg and Cat when Oliver called. Felicity snuck away, the kids still glued to the TV screen.
"You get held up at work?" she asked, leaning against a door frame.
"You could say that," Oliver breathed heavily.
"What? What happened? Are you okay?"
"Just, um, at the bank, there was a bit of incident, I'm fine, the Arrow wasn't needed, it was settled reasonably quickly," Oliver continued to explain the situation to her while she manically opened her tablet, shocked that nothing had appeared on her news feed, no warning messages were sent to her phone.
"I didn't get any notifications," she interrupted.
"It's okay, Felicity, it's fine," he assured, "I just need you to come and get me, my car is, well, it's blocked in by forensics and the like, so, I need, Felicity, I just want to come home."
"No worries, Oliver, I'll-I'll drag the kids away from Peg and Cat and be there in, what, twenty minutes?"
"Thank you."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Kiddos, we have to go pick Daddy up from near work, his car isn't working, can you find your slippers and get ready to go please?" she called after she had hung up the phone.
"Daddy!" Pippa squealed, jumping into action.
Five minutes later, and in record time, Felicity had the kids buckled in to their car seats and was pulling out of the driveway, her heart beating hard and fast.
The twins were singing along to the soundtrack of their new favorite movie while Felicity chewed on her thumbnail. They were sat in bumper to bumper traffic, presumably because of the road closures due to the hold up at the bank.
Felicity couldn't shake the thought of losing Oliver. He always put himself in sometimes worrying situations as the Arrow, but it was when he was Oliver Queen and he was vulnerable that had her panicked. To most, he was just another business man going about his daily work, and Felicity felt it was too easy and too likely that he was going to get himself into trouble by simply being himself.
The traffic inched forward and Felicity maneuvered the car into a parking space that, while not being all that close to the bank, was available.
"Where's Daddy?" Tommy peered out the tinted window of their SUV.
"He's, ah, he's just a little bit up the road, we'll go for a walk and meet him," Felicity gathered her handbag and got out of the car, unloading Tommy first. She put him on the sidewalk and instructed him to keep one hand on the car until she got Pippa out. Once that was done, they headed up the street, the sun long set by now.
There were flashing lights, a SWAT van, K-9 units and more, which had the kids in awe.
With Tommy now on her back and Pippa clinging to her front, Felicity scanned the crowd for any familiar faces. She spotted Quentin Lance chatting with a K-9 officer by a car and she made a beeline for him.
He spotted her coming and excused himself from the conversation.
"Miss Smoak," he smiled, always referring to her by her maiden name.
"Detective Lance, have you seen Oliver," she tried to contain her squirming children.
"He was speaking to an officer about five minutes ago," he plucked Tommy off his mother's back and put him on the ground. "I'll get on the radio and see if I can locate him."
Not more than thirty seconds later, the dog in the back of the van was barking incessantly and Felicity looked around for the cause.
Her son.
Of course, she thought, throwing her head back.
The K-9 officer came over and hissed a "quiet" into the cage.
"Is that a dog in there?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, his name is Caleb."
"What did he do?"
"Alright, Tommy," Oliver suddenly materialised out of nowhere and scooped his son up, "That's enough pestering the officer, he has a very important job to do."
He kissed Tommy's cheek and then turned to face his wife, who held a sleepy Pippa in her arms, with a huge smile on his face.
"Hi," he grinned.
"Hey," she sighed, feeling on the verge of tears.
Oliver stepped closer and kissed the top of Pippa's head and then his wife's lips, lingering, touching his forehead to hers.
"I was worried about you," she whispered.
"I know," he breathed.
"You ready to go home?"
"More than," he replied, turning in the direction he assumed his family had come from.
His family, he smiled.
Oliver put one arm around his wife's shoulders as they ambled up the street, away from the lights, away from the madness. Tommy had settled his head against Oliver's neck and, in true three year old fashion, was asleep.
Pippa wasn't quite asleep and she lazily played with the necklace that Felicity had around her neck. Oliver caught her eye and winked, eliciting a smile and a small giggle.
"Daddy," her face changed to a serious one in an instant.
"Yes, Pippa?"
"You look tired," she said.
"So do you, my littlest one," he replied, not missing Felicity's worried glance at him.
"Yes," she nodded.
"Yes?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
As they reached the car, Felicity and Oliver juggled children, bags and briefcases to open the car doors. They placed the twins in their car seats, careful not to jostle them awake, and eventually pulled out in to the traffic.
Felicity was mindful enough to have turned the CD player off earlier and the car was silent, save for the muffled sounds of Starling City occurring outside.
Oliver sighed heavily, leaning right back into the passenger seat, his head tipped against the headrest, eyes closed.
Felicity drove in silence with a hand on Oliver's thigh, one of his big hands a warm reminder on top.
She felt the adrenaline of the last hour wearing off and was starting to realize that they were not under attack, nor would they be.
At least not tonight.
It wasn't until they were pulling into their driveway that Felicity could relax completely. There was the promise of a nice glass of wine and an evening of mindless television tucked against Oliver's side. Pippa and Tommy were out for the count and would be for the rest of the night.
Felicity relished the thought of a quiet night.
That was until Tommy spoke up from the back seat.
"But weally, Mommy, what did the dog do?"