A/N: Sorry for the delay, Life plus once again I was having trouble fighting through my own expectations. Had to split the chapter again because it was getting too long. Should have the last piece for episode 22 up tomorrow or friday.
Disclaimer: CW and DC own it all.
After running to Felicity's for a quick shower and change on her part, Oliver couldn't bring himself to care what he was wearing, they drove to Queen manor. Felicity had seen the grand estate in photos, Moira had been quite the hit in the style magazines before the Queen's Gambit went down, but in person it was something completely different. Oliver parked the car and unbuckled his seatbelt before noticing that she wasn't moving. "I'm pretty sure the only thing that will make my mother dislike you is if you refuse to get out of the car." She turned from the window to look at him. "You'll be fine." He got out, walked around, opened her door and offered his hand. She sighed defeated and took it. They walked to the house hand in hand. "Anyone home?" Oliver called as they entered the foyer.
"Just me so far." Thea emerged from the living room. She made no effort to hide the fact that she was sizing up Felicity.
"I know you guys have sort of met before, but it's time for official introductions. Felicity this is my younger sister Thea. Thea, this is my girlfriend, Felicity Smoak." The two women smiled awkwardly at each other.
"Hi" Thea offered her hand.
"Hi, great to actually be allowed to talk to you. Not that anything was stopping me at the club, I guess, but it just felt weird without you really knowing who I was." She turned to Oliver "I'm starting already. We're doomed."
"Doomed?" Thea asked confused.
"She's convinced Mom is going to hate her. " Oliver offered.
"Oh. Well don't worry, Mom doesn't hate anyone." Thea's phone went off as she wandered back to the room she had vacated earlier "At least not to their face." She called over her shoulder.
"Not helping Speedy!" He called after her. He put an arm around Felicity. "Let's get you a coffee." Oliver guided his slightly paralyzed companion towards the kitchen. The fridge door was open as the housekeeper pulled out a tray of fruit and placed it on the counter. "Morning!"
"Good Morning Mr Oliver, and friend?" Raisa looked at the sweet, nervous girl under her boy's arm.
"This is Felicity, Felicity this is Raisa. She's looked after us since, well I don't remember her ever not being here." Oliver switched to Russian. "Is there coffee?" She brought over a tray with a carafe, cream and sugar. She then added three cups to the tray.
"Miss Thea will want one too." She directed in English. Oliver nodded and headed to the sitting room, Felicity mumbled a thank you before following him out. They found Thea channel surfing, the teenager eventually settling on an entertainment gossip program.
"I don't know how you can watch those when you know how badly things can get twisted." Oliver placed the tray in the middle of the coffee table and poured everyone a cup.
"Unlike you, I'd rather know what everyone is saying about me when I'm not around." Thea put down the remote and grabbed a mug. "I'm surprised I haven't seen you two on here yet. Don't you take her anywhere?"
"We get busy, with work!" Felicity quickly added. Oliver raised an eyebrow and gave a little half smile at his now blushing girlfriend.
"Until I can get a manager to last longer than two weeks, I don't see us going out very often. Besides, I am very good at staying off the radar." He commented. Before further questioning could begin they heard voices out in the foyer. The three of them found Moira desperately trying to act like everything was fine, and Walter looking anything but.
"How are you feeling Walter?" Oliver asked as Thea zoomed by him to attack her stepfather in a hug.
"I'm on the mend, thank you Oliver." They now shared the bond of being taken away from their family and returned home. It was an uneasy, unwelcome fraternity.
"I'm so glad your home!" Thea's voice was muffled by the hug but her enthusiasm definitely wasn't.
"That makes two of us" Walter looked down sweetly.
"All of us." Moira added putting a hand on her husband's shoulder. Felicity wasn't sure if she imagined it or not but she thought she saw Walter flinch slightly at the touch. "We've prepared a delicious brunch for you, all of your favorites."
"Yum, English food." Thea smirked. Walter tried to smile back at what appeared to be a running joke, but he didn't have the energy.
"Actually I'm more tired from the drive than I expected so I think I'd like to lie down for a bit." He explained.
"Yes of course" Moira leaned up for a kiss but was not so subtly directed towards his cheek instead of her original destination of the lips. The three younger members of the group exchanged a look.
"Felicity, I do apologize." Walter added.
"No need, It's understandable." He nodded before heading up the stairs. Moira headed for the kitchen to check on the meal.
"Walter doesn't really seem like himself" Thea observed quietly.
"He's gone through a lot, it's just going to take a little time." Oliver wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure his sister or himself.
"I'm really sick of us all having to go through a lot you know?" Thea's phone buzzed and she texted while she walked into the dining room. Felicity attempted to follow but Oliver took her wrist so she wouldn`t move.
"Did you see it too?" Oliver said softly. She nodded.
"I wasn't sure at first, I didn't know how they were before he left. But now he definitely wants as little to do with her as possible."
"Well depending on how things go today with my mother we may need to ask him a few questions. If-" He heard heels clack in the hallway and abruptly stopped talking.
"Ah there you two are." Moira interrupted. "Breakfast is ready." Felicity could now see where Oliver had learned his fake smile from. Mrs Queen was now wearing a look she knew all too well.
"We're right behind you Mom." Once her back was turned he placed a reassuring kiss on Felicity's forehead before walking with her into the dining room.
Once they were seated and everyone had filled their plates it didn't take long for the questioning to start.
"So Felicity, are you from Starling City originally?" Moira asked.
"Um, no. I came here for College." She began "And then I got into Queen Consolidated's internship program which lead to a full time position."
"And that's where you met Ollie right?" Thea asked. Felicity nodded through a bite of eggs. Oliver went through the usual story of the laptop repair leading to helping out at the club.
"How long have you two been dating then?" Moira followed up.
"Um, about a month? Oliver was my date to a friend's wedding and it just kind of grew from there." Felicity smiled at him.
"Oh," Mrs Queen paused "The Campbell's had asked me about the blond girl you brought to the jewelry auction in the winter. I thought that might have been Felicity."
"Oh it was me, but Oliver was dating Mckenna Hall at the time. Not that he was doing anything with me. We just went as friends. From work." Oliver put a hand on Felicity's knee in an attempt to calm her. It unfortunately startled her causing her to jolt and spill her coffee on the table. Felicity apologized profusely while attempting to clean up the small mess before Raisa did.
"How is Mckenna these days Oliver?" Moira appeared to be ignoring the interruption. "She was always such a nice young lady, so polished." The comment wasn't lost on the table. Thea was shocked at her direct rudeness. The comment fed directly into Felicity's insecurities leaving her quiet. Oliver, who currently had very little patience for his mother, had reached the end of his rope.
"Mom, can I talk to you in the living room for a second?" She stood leading the way to the other room with Oliver not far behind. "Mom, I get that we've been having issues lately, but there is no need to drag Felicity into it." When she didn't answer he looked up to find her staring at the television. The gossip program had ended and the local news was now playing. The top story: Murder at Unidac Industries. "Mom?" Moira grabbed her handbag and quickly moved towards the door.
"Later Oliver, We'll talk Later." Before he could even grasp what had just transpired she was gone. He turned back towards the dining room to see Felicity in the hallway. "Am I that bad?" She asked looking towards the front door. Oliver shook his head.
"Something on the news scared her before I could even get a word out." Oliver grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. The reporter went on to explain the attack on the science company.
"Unidac's owned by Queen Consolidating isn't it?" Felicity asked. Oliver nodded before turning off the TV. He picked up his cell phone and began to text. "Diggle?" He nodded again before glancing around. "If you're looking for Thea, Roy called and she ran upstairs." Now that he knew the coast was clear Oliver explained.
"We had a back up plan in case my mother-son chat didn't go so well. Looks like we're going to have to put it into play. But first, I'm taking you home."
"Why? I want to help."
"The best way for you to help is to get some rest so that when I do have the information You can be in top hacker mode."
"I am not a hacker." Felicity took mock offense to the term. "I'm a researcher." Oliver smirked.
"Fine. Top researcher mode. So you are to go home, relax, sleep, and meet us at the foundry tonight. Deal?"
"Deal."
Felicity did exactly as she was instructed and arrived at the lair around seven pm. Neither of the men were back yet so she sat at the computer and started researching the Unidac massacre from earlier in the day. Eventually she heard the door and glanced up just long enough to notice a hood and a bow.
"Now there's a gorgeous site for sore eyes. How did it go with your mother?" She turned around to see Diggle pull the hood down and look at her amused. " Oh God! You, you are not who I thought was under there. I'm pretty sure you knew that already. Wait, why are you wearing the gear? Where's Oliver."
"Oliver is taking his mother home and then he'll be here to work on what we got from her." Diggle grabbed his clothes and changed. After, he explained the scenario to Felicity. Drugging the two of them, taking them to one of the other abandoned warehouses in the Glades, roughing up Oliver to make it all seem real. "I pulled my punches. Hit him only hard enough to make Moira believe it." The door opened again and Felicity gasped at the sight of her battered boyfriend.
"Oh my god! You said you pulled your punches!" She ran over to get a closer look as Dig called out reassurances that he had. She caressed Oliver's cheek "I'm going to get you an ice pack for, everything" He took her hand away and squeezed it before attempting to move past her.
"I'm fine, I need you to dig up everything you can about Unidac industries." Felicity knew the best way to get Oliver to look after himself would be to get the work done quickly so he would rest.
"Well we know Queen Consolidated acquired them seven months ago." She looked up at him "That's when we met." She commented as she slid back into her computer chair. Oliver let a small smile cross his face before heading back into business mode.
"I need to know what I don't know." She walked him through what she had been reading about the company specializing in seismic research and the potential connection to the Copycat Archer. Oliver filled her in on the information Moira had provided before he and Diggle began to brainstorm the quickest way to find the device. The downside being any threat to either Meryln or the Archer could spook the other into setting off the device early.
"Maybe there is another way to get Merlyn to talk." Felicity stated quietly and she moved from one computer program to another.
"What do you have in mind?" Dig asked.
"As I keep proving, People keep secrets, computers don't." Oliver walked over to see exactly what she was getting up to. Once he was on her wavelength he couldn't help but tease her.
"Felicity, are you hacking into the Merlyn Global mainframe?"
"Hacking is such an ugly word, I'm" She rolled her eyes realizing she had lost the argument from that morning. "Yep, I'm totally hacking into the Merlyn Global mainframe."
"That's my girl."