I want to thank you guys for bearing with me, this last month has been crazy. But here we are, two chapters in two weeks, it's a record. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter and Please leave me some feedback, I LOVE to hear what you have to say!
"Alright little dude, let's go through this one more time. Take the snakes" she says holding up the laces on his left foot, while he takes the right.
"Then what?"
"Um" he says with his eyes squinted and a wrinkle on his forehead. "Over"
"Yeah"
"Un…."
"Under, right. Then what? The snakes are squirming, what do we do?"
"PULL & SMASH"
"That's right. Wow Oliver's right, I am getting violent" she mutters.
"Mama, now what? I forgot."
"Then we make a loop like this" she says demonstrating and he mimics.
"Like this mama?"
"Yes, just like that. Ok now we're in the final stretch, take me home buddy."
Holding the loop in his hand he thinks for a second and then takes the straight lace over the loop and then stops. Felicity watches encouragingly as she senses his hesitation.
"You know it, keep going" she whispers.
He struggles at first but when he pulls and the loops turns into a bow, he yells, "I did it!"
"Yes, you did" she says proudly. "You are totally going to kill this whole preschool thing. Not kill, more like rock. Yeah rock, you're going to rock preschool."
"Mama, I'm not in Preschool yet." he says laughing.
"Ok, ok I'm sorry. Now back to business. Flash Backpack."
"Here"
"Shoes"
He wiggles his feet for her to see. "Mama, I'm ready."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"Coat?"
He looks down and sees his Star Labs t-shirt.
"Gottcha" she says tickling him.
"Did someone order a coat?" Barry says walking in carrying the item in his hand.
"Thank you, I owe you big time" Felicity says looking up at her new visitor with a relieved smile. "Bruce will have my head if I don't get something done."
"It's no problem, I miss hanging out with him" he says walking towards them.
"Any leads?"
"No. You?"
"Nada. But I'll keep looking."
"Same. Are you ready Tommy?" He asks kneeling down to the little boy's level.
"Yes!"
"Alright then let's go. The science museum is waiting" he says standing up and grabbing the boys hand.
"Have fun!" Felicity says as Tommy drags Barry out of the room.
When she hears the door close, she shakes her head with a smile. Sighing she slowly gets up and makes her way to her home office.
After working for a solid 30 minutes, a small knock is heard. Looking up, she sees a face that is becoming quite familiar around the house.
"Robert, hi. Do you need something?"
"Oh, no I just saw Tommy leave a little while ago, thought I would just check in."
"Oh, well come in, please. I'm sorry for the mess."
"Nonsense, it's all part of the process."
"Oh, don't I know" she says under her breath.
Smiling, he takes a few steps into the room, "He's quite a darling boy."
"Yeah, he is, but he can be a handful sometimes. But in his defense, he does have Queen AND Smoak blood in him so he was bound to be Stubborn."
"Well it helps that he has a mother who loves him."
"I do, very much."
He looks around the room as he steps closer to her desk.
"This is quite an office you have."
"Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was a gift from Oliver. I told him that I needed a place to escape when I was easily outnumbered 2 to 1" she says looking around the office.
"May I?" he asks gesturing to the chair across from her.
"Yeah, yes, sure." She says nervously.
As he sits down he eventually meets her gaze.
Getting down to the point he says, "You have done an incredible job with this company."
"Thank you" she says sincerely, and then her slight blush turns into confusion, "Wait, how did you know?"
He looks down to his hands in his lap, "I may have looked you up and Oliver has told me how exceptional you are."
"Well, Oliver, exaggerates."
"He told me you would say that. He also mentioned how you graduated from MIT, very impressive."
"Well if you think that's impressive then I can't imagine what you'd say about double majoring in Computer Science by 19."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"I saw some of the deals you made for the company, they were risky but smart."
"Well I never do a deal before I know absolutely everything about it."
"Smart girl. You know Computer Science is not Business."
"Oh, you have no idea how well I know that."
"So why go into something you didn't major in let alone go to school for?"
"Well for several reasons, one of them being, when I realized that your son wouldn't cut it as a CEO. But if I'm being honest, I did it because I want to make the world a better place. I don't know if Oliver told you this, but a couple years ago, I was paralyzed."
"What happened? If you don't mind me asking."
"It's fine, um, some gunmen shot up our limo right after Oliver proposed to me. He came out of it unscathed, and I almost lost my life that night. When they told me that I would never walk again, it destroyed me. Not because I couldn't do it, but because it changed everything."
"Well, you don't look paralyzed to me."
"Oh, well that's because I have an amazing friend that didn't stop until he built me a chip that would make me walk again."
"And it works?"
"Haven't been in a wheelchair since. Well that's a lie, I mean the chip does have its flaws, for instance if an EMP were to ever go off then it wouldn't work… hypothetically speaking of course."
He chuckles at her ramble. "Well I am blown away, I'm just glad that the company is still in the family.
"Yeah." She studies him for a minute, looking at his soft tired eyes and the wrinkles that line his face. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Absolutely."
"How did you do it? I mean not how like physically, well maybe a little bit. But… how did you balance being a businessman and have a family?"
"Honestly… I didn't. I'm not proud of the father I was… am because I wasn't there. And even when I was, I was never 100%. You see, my father created this company, and it was his pride and joy, and he had hopes for me. He had dreams of me taking over the company and keeping it in the family."
At the confession, Felicity looks down in shame because she knows that that promise was not always kept.
"But with all proud accomplishments comes give and take. And unfortunately, his take was more than his giving."
"He wasn't there for you."
It wasn't question, but merely a statement that she knew was true.
"No, he was always everywhere but where I needed him to be. I didn't understand it, until I had my own kids. In his defense he was building a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate from scratch. And let me tell you, that's not easy."
"Don't I know" she mutters under her breath.
"Felicity, you're doing a great job, in fact you're doing 100% better than any business person I have ever met, men and women."
"Thank you, that really means a lot. You know I never wanted kids, well until I met Oliver and fell madly in love, but now I can't imagine a life without them."
"Well my advice to you, is be there, be involved. Because if you're not, 10 days turn into 10 years, and you miss out on every single important moment. I don't think you'll have a problem though, because from what I've seen, you are an amazing mother to Tommy, and an incredible wife to Oliver. And I have to thank you for that, because my son does not deserve anything less, and you truly helped him grow into the man that I always knew he could be."
She brushes the comment off with a swipe of her hand. "I can't take all the credit, I just love him."
After spending two full hours of walking the halls in pure wonder, Barry and Tommy end up at the food court.
"Your dad's going to kill me" he says laying the slice of pizza in front of the three-year-old. Tommy claps his hands excitedly and says "Thanks Uncle Barry."
"Your welcome" he says with a smile.
As he bites into his first of five slices, his phone rings. Pulling it out he answers it.
"Hello?"
"Hey, we have something" Cisco says on the other side of the phone.
As Barry listens he grows more serious. "Yeah, I'll let him know. Thanks for calling, I'll see you later.'
Once he hangs up, he scarfs down the remaining pizza and looks at Tommy. "Alright little guy, you want to go see your dad?"
"Yeah" he says happily with greasy fingers.
Grabbing a napkin and wiping off the little boy's hands, he gathers the rest of their trash and makes his way to the exit.
When they arrive at City Hall, he's stopped by a short brunette no older than her 40's with a grey pencil skirt, working on a stack of papers.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, we're to see Mayor Queen?"
"Do you have an appointment?" She asks not looking up from her computer.
"Well no, but…"
"No appointment. No access. The Mayor is a very busy man."
"I understand that but…"
"And he does not want or need to be interrupted by someone who did not take the time to make an appointment." She says sternly, looking Barry in the eyes.
"But, I'm a friend of his, and th- this is his son. Right Tommy?"
"I wanna see daddy." He says pouting at the fact he has to wait.
When the secretary sees the blonde little boy, her eyes widen.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Tommy I didn't see you there. You can go in" she says sweetly to the Mayor's son.
As they start to walk, she turns her attention back to Barry and glares at him until he closes the door of the office.
"Daddy!"
Looking up from the document he's reading, he smiles at the pleasant surprise.
"Tommy, hi. This is a surprise" he says standing up and walking around his desk to give his son a hug.
"Your secretary's feisty and scary." Barry says looking from the door to Oliver who is now holding Tommy.
"Oh, Carol? Ignore her, she doesn't get out much, and she's very protective of my use of time."
"Well that explains a lot" Barry says walking toward him.
"So, what's going on? I thought you guys were going to the Science Museum?"
"Oh, we did, didn't we Tommy?"
"Yeah. So fun, we saw spaceships, and dinosaurs, and water."
"Water?"
"Yeah, water" he says with his shining excitement.
"Well I'm glad you had fun." He says kissing the crown of his son's head. "So, what are you doing here?"
"I just got a call from Cisco, he said he found some more information on both our villains, and said this may be more personal than you thought."
"How?"
"Apparently, your father wasn't the only one to cause harm to them. When the Undertaking happened, Albert Watts lost his home and his wife."
"And the other one?"
"His daughter."
Sighing, Oliver puts Tommy down and leans on his desk. "Their sins will never atone, will they?" he mutters.
"Look, we're going to find them and stop them, I promise."
"We better, because if we don't, they're going to kill them."
Later that night, after everyone has gone to bed, Felicity's in the living room working on final touches of her proposal. The fire and glow of her laptop are the only sources of light. 45 minutes of pure concentration and silence, are interrupted, by Moira sauntering into the room, with a smirk.
"Felicity Megan Smoak. The daughter of a cocktail waitress. Now what is a woman from a single mother and Sin City doing with my son?"
"Excuse me" she says defensively as she closes the top of her laptop.
"You heard me."
She slowly stands up for equal ground. "How do you know my past?"
"You're not the only one who can use a laptop, Felicity."
Felicity takes deep breaths to calm down and prevent herself from doing something she will soon regret.
"My son may not be the brightest person under the sun, but I do know that he would never stoop as low as you."
Gritting her teeth, she closes her eyes and counts back from 10. '10…9…'
"So, what did you do? Get pregnant, lock him into a marriage, blackmail him?"
"STOP! DID YOU EVER THINK FOR A SECOND THAT IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE HE LOVES ME?" She explodes.
"That's not how the world works sweetheart."
"Well that's how MY world works. You may have come from money and a place where all you have to do is snap your prissy little fingers and everything's done for you. Therefore, love doesn't matter to you. It's just another means to an end. I mean money can buy love, right? You proved that with Malcom."
Her voice turns dangerously low. "How did you know about that?"
"Oh, you're not the only one that can type a few words in Google, Moira." She snaps back. "You think that love equals power and that's it. That there doesn't have to be a connection."
"That's because Love IS power."
"NO! Love is so much more than that, and if you took one second to even let yourself acknowledge what love was, you might have been a good mother."
At the accusation, Moira slaps Felicity, and the sound echoes throughout the room with the crackle of the fire.
"You, pathetic woman. Don't you EVER talk to me like that again." She spits out.
Feeling the sting in her left cheek, she looks the woman, she despise, in the eye. "What? Tell you the truth Moira? Is that not what you want to here? You never change" she mutters the last part. "Money and power, that's all that matters to you. OPEN YOUR EYES Moira, if you took a second to really look at Oliver you would see that he's happy. Truly happy. And that's not because of Laurel, that's because of me." She walks up closely to the woman in front of her. "You can threaten me, call me names, wish that I was never in the picture, I can take it. But don't you DARE question for a second Oliver's happiness, because it has taken him to DAMN long to get it."
And without another word, she walks out with her head held high. Leaving Moira left in the dust with a look she's never encountered before. A look of defeat. She had just been conquered by the woman claiming to be Oliver's wife.
I hope you enjoyed it. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. And be prepared next chapter is bringing the punches ( Laurel VS Felicity [maybe]) Stay tuned!
