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Chapter 22: A shift in the play
I made a mental note that once this entire horrid story was over I'd make running my new favorite pastime. My mind flashed back to the sounds I heard through the com's the sounds of death and desperation left me rattled and unhinged as my body moved steadily toward the glass doors. I kept replaying the moments in my head the moment that his breathes came out rough and ragged, the way Oliver had sounded as he questioned him as he made his point with each well time slam to the stomach. Oliver had been right I heard more than I'd ever wanted or needed to but, he was also wrong tonight had finally confirmed what I'd known for weeks to be true. I was completely and utterly in love with him and, nothing including this crazy messed up plan was going to change that rather large and looming fact. I had my frozen hand on the handle ready to push and bolt when I heard her ice cold voice echoing throughout the glass lined halls. I froze in place as her voice drifted closer and closer to my location each step bringing with it pangs of fear and hatred for all she'd done to both Oliver and I.
"I don't care the plans haven't changed we still need him to bring in Damian otherwise all my planning and plotting in regards to the girl have all been in vain." I realized upon hearing her last statement that Amanda wasn't aware that I'd left my station much less that I was positioned right beneath her feel with my trembling hand bracing the handle.
"Amanda she's not an idiot sooner or later she's going to hack past that damn firewall and then she'll have everything she needs to bring us down. You're playing with fire not to mention Oliver who's very much in love with your potential victim. You saw how he reacted when they were apart imagine what he'll do if you kill her? Imagine what they'll both do…" The other voice was younger but still I suspected slightly older than me, her voice both smooth and calm in contrast to Amanda's sharper far angrier tone. I heard the loud clicks and clacks as the heels of the shoes beat against the glass lined passage way each woman taking care to move with both grace and efficiency as they headed toward the other end of the expansive hallway.
"You think I want to do this? You think I like the fact that I'm about to kill one of the brightest minds I've had the pleasure of working around in the past few years? You think this is easy for me? I don't like being this monster however HIVE hasn't really given me much choice. If there was another way don't you think I would have found it by now?" Pausing my movements further I released the cold steel handle as I moved slowly into the dark shadows of the dimly lit lower room. I waited until either woman spoke hiding my movements by using the echoes of their private conversation.
"Amanda she's the key to bringing him down once and for all why not just tell her what this is really all about? Oliver would help you if it meant keeping her safe from any and all harm. So just tell her what this is all for and let her decide after all anything is better than this." Her breath hitched as Amanda turned fully facing her with what I could only assume was an ice cold stare.
"How would you like me to do that? What should I walk into her little apartment take a seat on some worn down piece of furniture and what spill my guts for the little foe blonde to see?" The woman in front of her dressed in all black with her thin brown hair falling down to her middle back attempted to move backward but was stopped when Amanda grabbed her arm and forcefully pulled her forward her mouth set in a thin firm line as she spoke.
"Felicity can never know the real reason we grabbed her nor can my newest complication if either one figures out the truth than all my months of planning will go up in smoke. I've come too far and I've worked too hard to let it end like this. Do you understand Agent Simmon's?" The younger fair skinned agent nodded but sadly also decided to voice her last and sadly her final opinion.
"This is wrong and you know it otherwise you Amanda would have found a better way. Damian is going to find a way to tell her the truth and once he does then that little blonde annoyance will become a rather large blonde heiress. Darkh will give her the sun and the moon if she demands it hell he'll most likely accept Oliver with open arms as long as it means that he gets her back. Let's not forget it was ARGUS that took him away from her in the first place he'll stop at nothing to earn her love and loyalty back. Damian will find a way to save his only daughter the true and rightful heir to his vast criminal empire." She move d closer until her own shallow breathes mixed forcefully with Amanda's as she spoke once more uttering what would become her final words.
"We…you took her away once he along with Oliver will stop at nothing to keep her safe you're playing with more than a man on a mission you're dealing with two men one who's loved her since the day she was born and the other who's appearing to fall more in love with her as each day passes. Face it Amanda you're done for." As she finished I saw a flash of silver coming forward from Amanda's free palm the knife plunging deeply within her stomach wall her once bright skin fading quickly to grey. I shook with a mixture of shock and grief as I watched her body spit and spasm as Amanda drew back the small knife the blood coating the silver shaft as well as her darkened skin.
"Don't worry Margaret I've already made a back up plan for that possible outcome. I do thank you however for your oh so valuable input." She'd leaned downwards to lightly whisper against the shell of her ear the words dripping with vile hatred as she leaned back her body going slack against the wall. "Medical to level 2, Medical to level 2 we need a clean- up crew in the main lobby there was an incident with Agent Margaret Simmons." With that she leaned backwards once again pressing the phone to her ear. "Yes move on to phase four Oliver and Felicity are proving to be far more trouble than they're worth." As she hung up she sighed her breathes going from frantic to even and calm her eyes closing to the horrors of the actions that she'd just committed. I on the other hand began to feel sick as the weight of their words finally hit me with their full unyielding force. The man we were hunting was my father which meant not only could I destroy ARGUS but I could also destroy HIVE as well. I now had the largest ace I'd ever had to play and for once I had someone in my life who'd do anything to make sure that this small window of opportunity didn't pass as by.
I waited beneath the overhand as she stood her form lithe and fit against the dark black of her clothing. My lungs expanded painfully against my chest until I saw her small shoes of impressive expense drift toward the open elevator doors her face pained but reassured at the same time. Once I heard the soft thumb of the doors closing I moved once again towards the doors running straight for the one person in my world would might be able to help me change my future for the better.
I drove fast and furious through the darkened city streets pushing my small compact car to the max as I milled through my thoughts each one crashing faster and harder against the other until I felt my heart beginning to expand then explode in my chest. She'd held the key to my past this entire time and she never once even hinted that she'd known who I was…who I really was. My father the man who'd for most of my life been just a constant reminder that the one's I loved would forever be leaving me was actually a bigger monster than even Amanda was. I'd done my homework before Oliver and I had approached Rose, hell I'd done my homework before I'd first laid eyes on my current fiancé. HIVE had a history and it wasn't one filled with sunshine and roses it was filled with darkness and despair each passing year making them more and more deadly. Damian Darkh was the modern day equalivent of the anti-christ. He was literally hell on Earth and he was my father. That evil son of a bitch was my blood he'd helped give me life, he'd read me bedtime stories, hell he'd given me the very intelligence that landed me here in this precise moment. He'd also killed hordes of innocent people including John's brother Andy. I felt sicker and sicker the closer I came to the site knowing that the only person who might truly be able to understand my predicament was standing there amongst the broken and decaying walls.
I pulled up beside the adjourning vehicle struggling against the varied emotions that were still beating loudly against my soul each moment bringing me closer and closer to the truth. I stepped through the pot-holed pavement until I reached the outer doors that thanks to the ARGUS cleaning crews had been blown to bits far earlier in the day. Stepping through the hollowed out entry I moved slowly towards my own intended target.
"Did you know this entire time or did you find out recently? Is that why you all the sudden went from being so cold and distant to showing concern for my safety?" Rose turned towards me her face shrouded by the shadows created by the ill lit warehouse.
"I've know that Damian was your father since the day we met…I intended to follow through with my orders. Once you had Oliver then I was going to dispose of you just as Amanda had ordered me to do." Her once strong and stable voice echoed through my mind and heart as she continued her speech each word shattering the confines of my soul.
"This was to be my last assignment…this job was going to be it and then I'd finally be free but then I met you…and then I saw the way that damn boy looked at you and I faltered." She looked up now fully facing my horror struck expression as her composure finally broke. "I hadn't seen someone look at me that way in such a long time that when he followed you home after you're argument I knew…I knew that I was done for." She stepped closer as I slid back not ready to have her any closer to my body than her present distance.
"What do you mean he followed me? We didn't have contact for two months he…"
"He followed you home everynight Felicity. He watched you enter you apartment from the opposite roof then he'd stay there for almost three hours until he was certain that you weren't going to leave your home. I'd followed as well but I followed to catch him when his defenses were down sadly however it was my armor that fell." She stopped pausing as she took in my face hoping that she hadn't pushed me entirely too far. I looked at her with a mixture of confusion and fear finally taking a few steps towards her as I spoke my voice trembling with unexpressed gratitude and fear.
"He watched me for two months?" I couldn't help the tears that began to fall.
"Oliver watched you because he loved you…I believe that he's been falling in love with you since the day you met and that I think scares him even more than death." I stilled my slow forward motions as my voice vocalized one of many rampant thoughts.
"Why would loving me scare him? I returned his feelings because they matched my own, why would he ever be afraid of being in love with me?" She just smiled as she spoke her voice soft and kind like a mother telling her daughter what's been right before her the entire time.
"He's a broken and scarred man who lost everything only to have it returned in a odd and somewhat horrid fashion. He's been lost, tortured, beaten, almost killed, and then rebuilt into a cold blooded killer with one goal or mission in life and that was to right his father's wrongs by saving the very city that his family may still one day destroy. Then he met you this blonde, bright eyed computer geek who made his entire focus shift if only for a moment. You changed the game for him you re-wrote the plan and then you made the biggest mistake to date…you fell in love with him. He's afraid that one day you'll see your blunder and run leaving him even more broken than he already is because sadly Felicity he made the bigger mistake he loved you back." Her face that was once so perfect in my eyes for once reflected her advancing years .She'd moved closer to me during her speech so that instead of standing feet apart we were now mere inches as her hands wrapped around her lithe frame.
"Why did you agree to help me if it meant that you'd never be free? Why did you change your mind and don't lie me you owe me the truth Rose not some story you've invented to win me over." I had watched her carefully as she spoke looking for any weakness in the armor that she'd no doubt spent a lifetime constructing. My own body was shuddering from a mixture of nerves and cold as the darkness that surrounded us seem to grow and expand as our secrets continued to rush rapidly to the surface of the endless wells we both seemed to carry.
Looking at me for once fully her once bright brown eyes were now dull and reddened her walls now falling one by one as they shattered and crashed before my feet. "I told you I saw the way he looked at you it was a reminder…it was a memory of my life before my own father took everything I held dear away the difference was that…he never…I…"
"Your love moved on after you vanished while Oliver didn't; Oliver not only didn't move on but he…"
"He made sure you'd be safe. Felicity you didn't see how he looked when he watched over you…you didn't see the pain that reflected in his eyes when he finally had to leave for the night. I just couldn't bring myself to cause him the same pain that I myself had been caused. I had to watch as the man I loved moved on without me and I had to deal with the crushing guilt when I too did the same." By this point I'd had enough of the waiting and the minced words I had come here for a reason and as of thus far I hadn't made a single movement in the right direction. Looking at her carefully I placed my arms around my upper chest creating a sort of cocoon of warmth as I finally asked the real question.
"Why did you help me? You've been dancing around the subject with Oliver hoping that my very clear feelings for him would distract me from my true goal so please just answer the question so I can decide how best to proceed with my new found information." I knew that I'd sounded harsh but frankly at this point I was running low on the very gifts that my mother had so painstakingly installed within me. Patience gone I stared her down until I saw her mouth move the voice coming forth was both weak and defeated knowing that this time the truth was the only card she had left to play.
"I told you I was given no choice in the matter and look what happened my life was stolen and I was forced to serve ARGUS to protect the family I'd finally formed. Amanda can't destroy Damian without destroying you the one person she suspects that he actually still might care for. I'm helping you because you have someone who's willing to fight just to keep you beside him and that is why I'm helping you. Is that answer good enough or do you still doubt my very clear intentions in your regard?" Now she was staring me down her icy composure back in all its glory as I gulped my fear beginning to once again rise as the situation before me took its full shape.
"I had to be sure after what I just heard and saw I needed to be sure that you wouldn't put a knife in my chest the moment you had an opening." She smiled slightly as she nodded in understanding. So I told her everything that I heard and seen in regards to Amanda and Agent Simmons I told her how she sounded and what she said as she stood her body rigid as my story flowed freely from my lips. "So what the hell am I supposed to do know? Oliver would die for me but if she's right my father won't kill him he'll…"
"He'll use him the same way Amanda is using him now. Yes I suspect that's the idea here. Either way we approach this mess it all appears to end the same way minus one change. Amanda's way has you dead while Damian's leaves you alive but Oliver will most likely be dead. So we have very little time and I'd suppose very few cards left to play. What does Oliver think?" I winced upon hearing her last statement which elicited her rather interesting response. "Felicity he deserves to know what you've just learned and sweetheart after what he just had to go through I'm guessing your lack of arrival at the other site has left him rather shall we say unhinged. He's already terrified of losing you to his past so this delay I'm sure has intensified that particular fear." She was right of course and I felt awful as my eyes widened realizing that I hadn't even texted him to inform him of my change in plans. Without speaking I grabbed my phone and dialed his number hoping that he'd be on the other end ready to forgive my utter lapse in judgment and sanity in his regard.
The phone rang twice before his harsh and slightly breathless voice could be heard against my ear. "Felicity where the hell are you?
Wincing again I spoke hoping that he'd be in a more forgiving mood once he had me in his arms. "I got held up I'm with Rose at the original site…baby I'm so sorry I didn't let you know but I can be to you in minutes." I waited as I held my breath in anticipation of his response.
"No baby just go home there's nothing that you can do here I'll be there shortly…Felicity?" I smiled at the sound of his voice as he whispered my name.
"Yes Oliver?" His tone was questioning so I returned my tone questioning as well waiting for his reply.
"What happened with Amanda?" I really did hate that he knew me quite this well.
"I'll tell you when you come home alright?" I felt my chest rising and falling faster now as I waited for his hopefully positive reply.
"I'll be home soon I love you…" I smiled once again his voice slightly rising in what I supposed was fear as he said I love you.
"I love you please don't keep me waiting for too long alright?" My free hand raked through my tresses as he spoke his voiced serving to calm the tension unraveling within.
"I won't baby I promise I won't. With that the call ended. I glanced once again towards Rose her expression once again soft given how she'd just taken in the short call I supposed she was once again reminded of the connection that Oliver and I clearly shared. "Rose he'll be irate when he figures out that you knew and didn't tell him. He'll most likely never trust another word from your mouth again are you ready for that?"
She nodded as she moved but instead of moving towards me she started for the door causing me to follow behind her a mass of utter confusion. "Tell him and once he's done being angry and vengeful let me know. Amanda will most likely have another mission for you two in the coming days so use this downtime wisely." With that she disappeared leaving me alone in the dark empty warehouse with nothing but the sound of the harsh cold wind beating against my calloused skin.
Back and forth back and forth I paced as I waited for him to show. How was I going to tell him? How was he going to react? How was I going to react? Those were the questions that kept running through my head as I moved back and forth in front of the door moving from the kitchen to the foyer in rapid quick steps. I was about to give up and just flop into my bed when I heard the key inserted into the lock the click of the metal against the locking mechanism spurned me forward as my hand eagerly reached for the knob. The door was barely open halfway before I pulled him forward hitting his arms and my own as I sunk into his leather coated arms his confusion evident in the hesitant way he held me. Burying my face firmly in the soft brown leather I inhaled deeply closing my eyes as I tightened my arms around his waist his muscles hard but comforting as he finally relaxed bringing me closer as he walked through the door. "Baby letting me in the door fully might make it easier for you to continue your rather enthusiastic greeting." I smiled sheepishly into his chest as I moved backward taking him with me as his foot reared backward kicking the door firmly closed.
"I have a lot to tell you but first and don't judge me for this but if I don't do it now I might not get the chance so just…oh fuck it." I surged forward as I clamped my mouth down upon his own my arms winding tightly around him as I kissed him senseless savoring every moment that his lips were against my own. I felt him responding as he bent his knees before snaking his arms beneath me lifting my body up and forward as our chests collided our lips never once parting. I giggled against him as he grabbed the soft tissue of my ass his tongue lightly toying with my own as he moved. I knew where this was going and for once I knew I had to stop it before I was once again overwhelmed by our mutual desires. "Baby we have to talk…before we well you know go at for about the millionth time since our first time ok?" I was barely able to get the words out as his lips kept roughly pressing against my own.
"Hey you kissed me I was just responding in kind I'm not the one who started this but I fully intend to finish it…" He kissed me again but this time I pulled back fully facing him with my hands now bracing his face forcing him to fully look at me as I used my eyes to express the urgency of my request. "Baby please you may not feel the same after what I have to tell you so please just let me get this out and then I'll finish what I so selfishly started." He nodded as he leaned forward his forehead resting against my own my body now fully resting upon him as he brought us slowly down to the couch.
"Talk to me Felicity tell me what was so important that you felt it warranted interrupting us having sex." His tone was light and his mood was surprisingly good considering that nothing had gone as planned today. Using my fingers to gently trace along the contours of his face I spoke telling him to hold all his questions and comments until I was ready for his input; he nodded in response so I started hoping that he'd understand once I was done.
"After the mission I…well I found a name that might provide us some inside ARGUS information so I was coming to you…I was coming to be closer to you but I got derailed when I heard Amanda's voice. My hand was on the door handle Oliver and I was almost out of the door but what I heard made me pause. She was talking to another Agent about HIVE and the plans that they have in regards to me and my rather untimely death." He stiffened against me his once carefree face became hard and defined as his anger started to spread.
"She won't lay a hand on you…." I kissed him softly to silence the coming words. "Oliver Damian's my father that's why she wanted me that's why she wanted to kill me this was all designed to bring you into the fold so Damian could be destroyed…"
"Leaving HIVE to her; and what do you mean he's your father?" I knew that would grab his attention so I leaned forward once again as he came the rest of the way kissing me with just as much as passion as he had mere minutes before. I told him the story and how she'd killed the other agent just for having the nerve to speak out against her. I told him how I'd gone to see Rose taking great care to reveal all the moments that had held the most significance to my heart.
"Why didn't you tell me that you watched over me while we were apart? I was still sitting against him with my knees pressed firmly against the edges of his strong muscular thighs. My hands were slowly rubbing through his close cropped hair as his eyes danced with the memory of days gone by.
"I didn't know what do without you so I just watched you until I felt that you'd be safe. I don't know why I didn't tell you…maybe I thought that you'd find it odd or even perhaps a bit stalker esque so I just let it drop the moment I had my lips pressed to your own." His admission was honest thus my response was as well.
"Kiss me." He looked at me strangely before speaking the questions evident in his voice.
"Felicity we have a lot to discuss and correct me if I'm wrong but you were the one that ended my last attempt at sex were you not?" I nodded slyly before adjusting against his lap bringing my hands down to his neck pulling him closer to my waiting lips. "I changed my mind kiss me before I change it again." Smiling he leaned forward gently taking my lips with his own each brush sending bolts of fire coursing through my veins. I smiled once as his lips began to descend down the base of neck nipping and biting along the way. I knew that our conversation was coming but for now in this moment I was choosing to focus on the present and the fact that Oliver had never once given up on us even when I thought I had.