MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
"Make a left turn at Adams road, he should be in front of you now Oliver." Felicity instructed from out of the van.
"I'll come in from the opposite side, are you ready for me Oliver?" Barry said, not even sounding a little out of breath.
"Yeah, get ready to intercept in 3, 2, 1." Oliver replied.
"Dammit!" Barry exclaimed. "How the hell did he do that? He's heading your way Cisco."
"Plan B is ready - I've got "the boot" fired up and ready for action." Cisco announced and opened up the van door waiting for the new meta-human they were chasing in Central City.
"Okay Cisco, ready? You should see him…..NOW!" Felicity screamed.
"It's stuck!" Cisco yelled and the next moment "the boot" went flying in the air as Plastic Man rushed passed the van.
Oliver and Barry came to a complete stop when suddenly out of nowhere Felicity appeared on the van's roof with the boot. She jumped for the railing of the building structure behind them and swung herself from streetlight to streetlight like she was doing some sort of adult version of 'monkey bars'. The boot was wrapped securely around her waist as she swung from pole to pole and pulled her up on one of the building balconies so she could have a clear shot of the man running in her direction, clearly not aware of what was going on above him.
She finally took her shot, but "the boot" had no effect on the man whatsoever. Felicity did a summersault from the balcony and landed on her feet like she was a cat with a full nine lives in tact.
"I can't believe I missed him." She said apologetically and then realised she was now the center of attention. Barry, Cisco and Oliver were all staring at her like they've just seen someone come back to life.
She knew what was coming. She's seen Oliver look at her like that before and that was his "I'm going to give you a major lecture" look and there would be yelling. A small piece of material in the middle of the road ripped her out of thoughts.
"At least I got a piece of him or his suit for that matter." She smiled shyly and picked up the piece of material. "Hey! We've got some blood on here too!" she exclaimed with joy. "Now we can analyse the DNA and find another way to catch this guy."
"Great, let's get back to the lab." Barry broke the silence first and everyone made their way back to the van.
The silence was deafening as they entered Star Labs. At least they were greeted by a smiling Caitlin, whose smile immediately disappeared when she saw the stoic facial expressions of the men walking in.
"Can you give us the room for a minute?" Oliver asked before Caitlin could even utter a single word.
"Yes, sure." Barry answered. "We'll start with the tests in the meantime." He gestured to Caitlin and Cisco to follow.
You could cut the atmosphere with a knife as Felicity was nearly chewing off her bottom lip awaiting the lecture from the man with the piercing blue eyes.
"Look, I know I shouldn't have gone after him, but there was no other alternative. I couldn't let him get away. We've spent so much time on finding him and I couldn't just stand by and see all the time and effort going to waste."
"Felicity, how? Where did you learn how to do that?"
"Talk so much? I think you've noticed that I do talk a lot, especially when I get nervous…well actually it started when I was in the seventh grade. Lucy Williams accused me of some…"
"Felicity, that hasn't escaped my attention, but no not the talking. The jumping and summersaulting….it was like it wasn't even you out there?"
"I think you've also noticed that I don't talk about my family?"
"I have noticed that yes."
"Well, I was about 6 years old when my dad left. I got home one day and he was gone. He abandoned my mother and me and all of a sudden my mom had to become both parents. Over and above that she had to start working double shifts to make sure there was enough money to pay all the bills and even a little left to pay for the education she wanted me to have. She worked as a cocktail waitress in Caesar's Palace. I would go there every day after school and do my homework while I waited for her to finish her first shift. She would take me home, make dinner, tuck me into bed and then go back to work for her second shift."
"I'm so sorry about your dad Felicity, but it still doesn't explain the…."
"Just be patient, it's kind of a long story."
Oliver couldn't help but smile and gestured for her to continue.
"As I got into my teens, normal school work became no challenge and I was finished with my homework even before I really began. I started to explore the casino and was drawn to one of the new headline shows. It was a circus act, but it wasn't like the normal types of circuses you see on TV or whatever, this was beyond brilliant. They had such a huge variety you could never get bored looking at them. I started going to their warm up sessions everyday while I waited for my mom. One specific day, Aliana saw me sitting watching them and she invited me to come and watch on stage. I loved it. Aliana was one of the acrobats, the main feature and she was just so beautiful and graceful. I wanted to be just like her."
Felicity paused and smiled softly when Oliver took a seat knowing that the story might be longer than anything he's ever heard. He knew he had to let her talk and he was willing to listen.
"She grew rather fond of me and even taught me some tumbles and stuff, but nothing major. Over the weekends I was allowed to go with my mom for her second shift and I would be backstage helping out with costumes and makeup for the performers. After every show it was tradition that the team would go to the restaurant my mom worked at and celebrate with a night cap. One evening while everyone from the team was waiting for their drinks a group of men entered with guns. They wanted money from the casino's vault. When the management didn't want to give in to their demands, they randomly started shooting people to prove their point."
Oliver's frown deepened with every sentence that Felicity spoke, almost anticipating the outcome of this story.
"Aliana and I were sitting very close to the entrance when the men stormed the restaurant. They pointed the gun to Aliana and me. My mom saw this and just as the man shot my mom jumped in the way of the bullet to protect me and Aliana. She was killed instantly."
Felicity tried hard to push away the tears but to no success. The tears fell across her face and Oliver couldn't help swallow thickly as the terrible tale unfolded. How was it that after two years of working to closely with this woman that he never knew this about her?
"Georgio, the manager and creator of the act and also Aliana's dad, took me in when my mom died. The little money my mom had saved helped Georgio and Aliana to homeschool me. We were like gypsies, travelling from one city to the next to perform. She started teaching me everything she knew. Soon the two of us were the best part of the act. About three years later Georgio and Aliana were in a car accident while buying supplies. When the will was read I found out that Georgio had started a fund where he saved money for me to go to college. It was enough for me to go to MIT and then I got the job at Queen Consolidated, where we met. So now you know my sad life's story and how I could do what I did."
"Wow!" Oliver shook his head in disbelief. "That's incredible, but why didn't you ever tell me this before?"
"You never asked." She joked. "I don't know Oliver, maybe it's because it hurts too much."
Oliver smiled gently, knowing exactly how she must be feeling, because he felt the same way about his five years away, still felt that way to be honest.
"Now that I know, don't think for a moment I'm ever letting you do anything remotely close to what you did today. It was impressive though, but Felicity it's too dangerous! Okay?"
"Yeah, about that…..I can't promise you I won't ever do it again. You guys are my family now and I would do anything to help and protect you."
Knowing he won't be winning this argument he decided to go and find Barry to get an update on the sample Felicity go from Plastic Man.
As he walked out the door he paused and turned around, "So if you could do all that stuff you did today, I'm sure you're probably good at other stuff too."
Felicity blushed, "Well, wouldn't you like to know."
"I wasn't talking about that, I'm talking about a salmon ladder contest." He winked and left her standing in the middle of the lab not knowing if he was kidding or not.