Chapter 3
Felicity
When Felicity comes to, she's in her own bed, under the blankets and she could almost believe that what happened in her office was a dream, except for the dull throbbing headache. That and it's far too early for her to have fallen asleep naturally. The sun is just barely setting through the window.
There's no one else in her darkening room as she pats around on her night table for her phone or her tablet, which are never far from her grasp, even when she sleeps. Coming up empty, she frowns.
That's unusual. Not more unusual than the whole being-drugged thing, but it proves further that it's not a dream.
Cautiously, she slips from under the covers, bare feet hitting the carpet as her eyes continue to scan the room to see if anything else is out of place. But she doesn't see anything bizarre. It's all right where it's supposed to be: Her glasses are resting on the night table and her shoes are back in their place in closet.
She tiptoes to the door, feeling slightly foolish sneaking around her own house. She thinks about shoving her feet into her slippers so she doesn't ruin another pair of stockings by putting runs in the feet. Then she shakes her head:
She's being ridiculous. There might be someone in her house, someone who kidnapped her, and she's thinking about putting on shoes to avoid runs.
Slowly, she eases her door open, listening for life signs down the hallway. No sounds emanate down the hallway, but Felicity still casts around for something to use as a weapon. Why doesn't she keep a bat in her bedroom? She should have a bat in her bedroom. As a single woman, living alone, she should really have a bat to protect herself.
She moves down the hallway slowly. Seriously. Maybe an umbrella in the hallway could work. No. That's stupid. Who would keep umbrellas in the hallway to the bedroom and not next to the door?
Edging around the corner, she curls her hands into fists, prepared to unleash her albeit limited martial fury on the woman who knocked her out. Her fists hover in front of her face, only to slowly lower as she realizes the room is empty.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Felicity."
"Ahhhhhh!" She shrieks, jumping about a foot in the air. Spinning, she faces the same woman as before. She casts around for a weapon and ends up brandishing a drink cozy in her direction. "Who are you? What are you doing in my apartment? Why did you knock me out?"
Lyla takes a step forward and Felicity stumbles back a couple steps until she knocks into the side table.
"Felicity. I'm sorry for knocking you out."
"You're sorry?! You drugged me and brought me home! That's nowhere near the realm of sorry! That's the realm of axe murders and serial killers!"
"Oliver sent me!" Lyla shouts, cutting Felicity off before she can continue freaking out. She takes a deep breath as the woman freezes at the next moment in shock at the statement.
"Oliver Queen, the man who's been missing for four years, sent you to kidnap me?" She asks slowly, putting emphasis on every word.
Lyla nods slowly, taking the opening she sees. "You were right. He was in Russia. He's been working with A.R.G.U.S. to help take out the Russian mob. Once you started looking for him again, his cover with the Russians was blown."
Felicity releases a strained laugh, heading towards sounding hysterical. "Russia? I was right?" She shakes her head. That's not the point right now. "But...if he's undercover for A.R.G.U.S., why would the world think he's dead? And you should know, I have no money, so you're not going to get a ransom or anything like that."
"I'm not holding you for ransom. I'm here to keep you safe-"
"BY KIDNAPPING ME?!" She cries, her voice rising an octave.
"By protecting you from the Bratva. At least until John and Oliver get back from Russia."
Felicity sputters, beyond capacity of speech. Finally a "what" eeks out.
Lyla moves forward slowly, gently easing the cozy from her hand and returning it to the table. "How about we just sit down and talk?"
"Talk?! You kidnapped me!"
Lyla sighs. "Kidnapping might not have been the best idea."
"You think?!" She shrieks.
Lyla moves forward, hands outstretched in a calming gesture. "I had hoped you wouldn't wake up until John got back. He can explain everything."
"So what? You're just going to hold me hostage until he gets here? What is it you want?" Felicity demands, wondering what is going on with the woman. She can't wrap her head around the whole situation. "Who the hell is John?"
"My partner: John Diggle. Moira Queen's head of security."
Felicity's heart slows down a couple beats because that makes sense. John Diggle...he's the man Moira sent to Russia after she had that weird vision thing. He's looking for Oliver is Russia. She narrows her eyes at the woman. "You expect me to believe John Diggle is a government agent?"
"Yes. We're partners. Here," she pulls out her wallet and hands Felicity of picture of her and John Diggle, dressed in Army fatigues with sand dunes rising up behind them.
Her mind is still telling her a thousand and one different scenarios where the picture could have come from, but she believes the woman in front of her enough to calm down a little more, tension leaving her shoulders.
Lyla nods. "Good. Now, let's sit down."
Felicity lowers herself slowly to the couch, maintaining eye contact with the other woman as if a single blink could be the difference between life and death. Her phone's ringtone blares from the kitchen, finally ripping her gaze away from Lyla's caramel eyes. She glances back.
"I'm guessing I can't answer that," she mutters.
Lyla sighs, walking into the kitchen. She brings the ringing phone and a laptop back into the room. Felicity realizes belatedly that would have been the perfect opportunity to run to the door. She could have gotten out of here.
She blinks in surprise when Lyla hands her the laptop instead of her still-ringing phone. She frowns, recognizing the tech as military grade as she runs her hands over the surface.
"I can't risk giving you your phone. So this is my laptop. I've heard a little about what you can do with computers. I'm giving you free reign. It has all the files on the operation in Russia with Oliver."
Her eyes skim over the laptop. This model has satellite connection, which is better than WiFi for outreach purposes.
"That has everything on every operation ever. There's a file on Oliver specifically. All I ask is that you wait until Johnny gets here to call anyone."
Felicity frowns at the laptop, considering her options. It shouldn't be a choice, but she's always hated mysteries. She wants to know what this is about. She has to know.
She glances back up at the woman across the couch from her. "This isn't one of those things where if I read it, you have to kill me, right?"
Lyla smiles, shaking her head. "While normally I would be required to answer yes. That isn't the case here. You were drawn into this because you're Oliver's soulmate, so we're reading you in."
She stares at Lyla for a moment. "So when is Oliver going to come home?" That seems to be the first thing she needs to know.
Lyla grimaces. "He's going back to the island he was originally stranded on so he can be found my fishermen. It could be a couple days, it could be a couple weeks."
"And the," Felicity falters as she searches for the right words, "the vision I had, of Oliver getting hurt...was that..." She swallows thickly, unable to finish the thought.
"Real?" Lyla finishes for her. "Yes."
Felicity whimpers, reflexively curling her leg back into her body as if she can protect it. "And you're sending him back to the island...is that a good idea?"
"It was his choice. Now, I'm going to get dinner while you look at that laptop. I found a Chinese menu on your fridge. Sound good?"
She blinks at the change of topics, but nods. Now that she's thinking about it, her stomach is voicing its displeasure at the lack of food.
"I'm assuming the circled items are your favorites," Lyla calls from the kitchen.
Felicity nods absentmindedly. This is definitely a weird situation. She's sitting on her couch preparing to eat dinner with her kidnapper. She should probably be running to the door or trying to call for help. It wouldn't be that hard to send an email with the computer in her hands, but she doesn't feel like she's in danger.
If Lyla really has kidnapped her, she's really good at making her believe she's safe.
...
Lyla's married to John Diggle.
Felicity nearly chokes on the piece of sweet and sour chicken as she reads that file, glancing over at the woman eating lo mein from the box like she's used chopsticks all her life. She purses her lips and leans forward over the laptop.
"Can I see your mark?"
Lyla raises an eyebrow, but slides off her jacket to show off the inky eagle on her upper arm.
Felicity nods. She thought it was a tattoo when she first saw it on Digg as he was teaching her, Thea, and Roy basic self-defense. He had set the record straight when they talked later, telling her about his amazing soulmate.
It makes her feel better about this decision. If she's bound to John, there has to be something trustworthy about her.
Then again, maybe John is secretly evil.
She sighs, wondering if this is what John worried about when he told her she was too trusting.
Probably.
...
Lian Yu was just like he remembered it: cold and unforgiving.
And dark.
Because of his injury, he decides to camp close to the shore, dragging his chest from there it landed using the parachute. Sighing, he settles down for the night, giving himself a break. He has a few days to dispose of the parachutes and the modern bandaging on his wounds.
He flops down on the sand, staring up at the starry sky as his mind travels thousands of miles to what must be going on in Starling City.
A soulmate. His soulmate.
After all he's been through, the different live he's lived for the past four years, heading back home to a normal life surrounded by money and materialism seems like another world. He's cut himself off, purposefully, from everything that made him Oliver Queen: his family, their money, his soulmate.
Choosing to go home isn't something he thought possible. He's changed too much.
He thought he'd changed too much when Waller sent him back. When he saw his father's video, he learned he hadn't changed enough. Ollie Queen – Playboy billionaire – wasn't enough to effect real change on his city. What was the point in going home if he would only fail?
Then John and Lyla gave him the perfect opportunity to bring down the Bratva. He thought this could be the key to saving his city, but after a year in Russia, he knows they're not the whole problem. What he's learned from the Bratva, he can use those skills, those connections to take down the people destroying Starling from the inside.
That wasn't something he planned on doing from the Queen Mansion with a soulmate to worry about. But it's another obstacle thrown his way.
His mind travels back to a conversation with Slade when he said soulmates rarely come into your life when you want them, but they come up when you need them. It doesn't feel like he needs her right now, but it's not like outside sources were taking his opinion into consideration. Between his mother and the Russian mob, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Now he just has to survive so he can get home.
...
Knock knock knock.
Felicity fights a yawn as she drags her eyes from the laptop files to the door. She looks at the clock blinking at the sun peeking through the blinds as she realizes its morning.
She turns to Lyla who she last remembers sitting at the other end of the sofa. The woman's snuggled up under a light blue blanket, nearly passed out and not even stirring as the pounding on her door continues.
Some bodyguard Lyla makes. Felicity shakes her head. Lyla's not the most diligent kidnapper, but Felicity's got a sneaking suspicion that the woman's fatigue comes from something else based on her avoidance of coffee and a couple particularly strong smells that came with the Chinese food.
She sets the laptop down gently on the table, even though it's not likely to Lyla up, and she rises on tiptoes to gaze through the peep hole, relaxing as she recognizes the brown mop of hair. Glancing back at Lyla's peaceful form, Felicity slips out the door, closing it gently behind her.
"Hey, Thea. What are you doing here so early? It's like 6am." She rubs her eyes and stretches against her closed door.
Thea smiles nervously. "So, I need you to tell my mom I was here last night."
Felicity frowns. "Thea...where-"
"I was at Roy's, but Mom doesn't like to hear that, so will you cover for me?" She clasps her hands, puffing out her bottom lip as she pleads. "Please!"
Felicity sighs, nodding. "Fine. We...watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix and you slept over." She smiles, pretty proud of her own imagination.
"Great! Can I come in? I could really use some coffee." She reaches for the doorknob and Felicity hastily steps in her way.
"Um..."
"What? Do you have someone in there?"
She flinches at Thea's accusatory tone, grimacing at the anger that reared at the implication that she would be sleeping with someone other than her soulmate. "No. No. It's...I had a friend stay over and she's asleep on the couch, so you just have to be really quiet. Okay?"
Inch by inch, Felicity eases the door open until she can see Lyla burrowing further into the couch. The breath she didn't even realize she was holding escapes her in a rush and Felicity gestures Thea into the room.
Thea glances at the woman on the couch, but continues directly into the kitchen, walking lightly on tip toes. Noticing the open laptop, Felicity reaches over and closes the screen quickly on a picture of Russian Mob boss Anatoli Knyazev before joining Thea in the kitchen as she attempts to work Felicity's coffee pot.
She leans over Thea to press the start button and immediately the pot bubbles to life.
"So, who's that?" Thea asks, peeking out into the living room.
"Lyla Michaels. She...surprised me yesterday and ended up crashing here." Felicity shrugs. That's the truth, after all.
"On the couch? Have you even slept at all?"
"I had a nap," she fills in with a guilty smile, sorry for lying at all. Technically it was a nap...just a drug induced one.
Thea nods, pulling mugs from the cabinet.
"So how's Roy?"
Thea shrugs. "We had fun."
Felicity raises an eyebrow her lack-luster tone, but doesn't say anything. Thea has a right to her secrets. She just needs to be here when Thea's ready to talk.
"You're making more coffee?" Lyla asks, yawning loudly as she shuffles into the kitchen with a blanket draped over her shoulders.
"Yup. You want some?" Thea asks, causing the other woman to blink in surprise as she stares at the newcomer.
"No. I'm good." Lyla's nose scrunches in distaste as she looks at the pot.
"I think I've got some tea around here somewhere," Felicity offers, moving towards the cabinet above her stove where she thinks she has some teabags stashed in the very back.
"Hi! I'm Thea." The girl holds out her hand to the woman.
Lyla pulls her hand from the confines of her blanket. "Lyla Michaels."
"How do you know Felicity?"
"We have mutual friends," Felicity fills in, jumping down from the counter with a small box of Lipton tea. "And I found tea!" She plops it triumphantly on the counter with a bright smile.
"Mutual friends?" Thea doesn't look like she's buying it.
"Tea?" Lyla asks, frowning at the box.
"Tea helps settle your stomach, right?" Felicity asks as there's another knock on her door.
She leaves them both with unanswered questions to reach the door. There's never been this many people in her apartment before seven in the morning. She's usually asleep right now.
This time she comes face to face with the man she expected earlier.
John Diggle has arrived.
She steps back to let him in and Digg raises an eyebrow as he spots Lyla and Thea looking out of the kitchen.
"Mr. Diggle? What are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Ollie?" Thea frowns.
He glances at Lyla and then Felicity. "Well, we couldn't find your brother in Russia, but the search is expanding. We'll find Oliver."
Thea nods, looking disappointed as she turns to pour herself a cup of coffee. She pauses with the her mug half full. "Wait. So why are you here?"
"I had a red-eye flight, and I knew Lyla was here, so this was my first stop."
"Lyla?" Thea turns to the woman still wrapped in her blue blanket.
Lyla smiles and walks over to Diggle, finally discarding the blanket before wrapping him in a hug and pulling him down so she can press a kiss to his lips.
"Oh," Thea mutters at the open affection. "That..."
Felicity smiles at how they cling to each other, touching even though the embrace ended like they can't get enough of each other.
"Thea Queen, this is my wife, Lyla Michaels." Diggle grins down at her, pulling her closer to his side.
Felicity smiles at the soulmates, amazed by the love shared between the stoic partners. She wonders if she'll have that one day. With all she read about what happened in Russia, she's more nervous than ever about meeting Oliver. She hasn't experienced a fraction of what he has. How is she ever supposed to relate to him?
She desperately wants to talk to John and Lyla, demanding answers that the files didn't provide, but with Thea present, she's can't. So they're left jumping from topic to topic until Thea decides it's finally time for her to head home.
...
Felicity watches Thea until the elevator doors close before slamming the door and rounding on the two ex-military A.R.G.U.S. agents.
"How is he?"
It's not the question she intended to ask first or even second, but it's the one that comes spurting out of her mouth as soon as she sees them waiting on her couch.
"A little beaten up, but he'll be fine," John answers vaguely, glancing back at Lyla. "So you're taking it well?"
"At this point, I'm just glad he's not being beat up in some dark basement by a Russian guy named Ivan." She huffs and drops into the chair opposite the couch, gaze focusing on the laptop.
"It was actually probably Nikolai," Lyla offers and then grimaces. "But that wasn't the point."
Felicity shakes her head. "So why was kidnapping me necessary?"
"Lyla and I were worried about your safety," John announces, his hand still clasped in Lyla's. "There was a chance the Bratva would come after you."
"Was?" She asks tentatively.
"There still is," Digg admits. "We're going to start giving you your own security. At least until Oliver gets back."
"Is this really a big deal?" Felicity asks, glancing between the two.
They both nod somberly and she falls back, closing her eyes. "Does that mean there's going to be someone following me around twenty-four/seven?"
"Not necessarily. Although, Lyla will probably be hanging around more." John glances at his wife and she nods.
"Are you sure that's the best idea?" When they just frown at her, she points to Lyla. She ran to the bathroom three times in the two hours Thea was in her apartment. Felicity's not pretty certain Lyla's pregnant.
Lyla grimaces, leaning back. "It'll be fine. It's not like we're expecting trouble. It's more precautionary."
"But if something happens..." Felicity bites her lip, aware of the fact that apparently Lyla hasn't told John she's pregnant.
"There's nothing to worry about," Lyla insists.
John frowns, glancing down at her. "Am I missing something?"
She reaches out and squeezes his forearm. "I'll tell you later, Johnny."
He scowls, nodding in agreement and turning back to Felicity. "So, do you have any other questions about Oliver?"
Felicity huffs, pulling a pillow up to her chest and wrapping her arms around it for something to hug. "Yeah. How about why I somehow know everything about my soulmate without ever meeting him? Everyone seems to be telling me stuff and that's nice and all, and of course I'm worried about the guy I saw being tortured, but he's a complete stranger otherwise. And I sort of feel like a stranger invading his privacy. I mean, we've never met but I know everything about him. It's not like he had any choice in the matter. And there's no way in hell I'm prepared for any of this."
She takes a deep gasping breath and barrels on before Lyla or John can get a single word in. "I'm just a regular girl. I'm not used to Russian mobs and assassins and torture. And how the hell is this supposed to be my life? I'm so out of my depth here that it isn't funny. Why can't I just have been normal and ran into him on the street or something?"
Tirade over, Felicity takes a couple moments catching her breath and pretending Lyla and Digg aren't staring at her like an alien took over her body.
"Let me get you some tea," Lyla offers, slipping into the kitchen.
John sighs, sliding forward on the seat and speaking in a slow, calm voice. "We know this is a lot to handle, but it's better that you know."
"Better? How is it better knowing my soulmate has done these things? How is it better that I have all this information and he has none? Does he even know my name?" Somehow Digg's deep calm voice is only infuriating her more.
Or maybe it's that he has his perfect match right here and she's never had a chance to talk to hers, never heard his voice except when he was being tortured in a Russian dungeon.
Diggle sighs. "No. He didn't want to know."
"See?!" She announces triumphantly. "Even he knows we shouldn't know about each other until we actually meet in person. This is crazy!" She slumps back against the pillow, groaning.
"He wanted us to read you in, but if he knew who you were when he got back, it would raise questions we don't want asked." Diggle supplies, smiling kindly at the cowering blonde. "He wants you to know this. You're going to be a part of his life – that's unavoidable. You need all the facts."
"What if I don't want all the facts?" Because she's terrified she'll do something wrong when they finally do meet. She knows so much about him. She's read all the terrible things from the files that make her stomach churn, and yet, somehow she can still see something in his eyes that reminds her of the stories Thea shares and the kind man he was while they were growing up. There aren't many pictures in the file, but what she sees in his eyes in those few pictures is enough to tell her that he still has a good heart.
"Felicity, everything he's doing is to make Starling City a better place. That's his goal. I'm working for the Queens to keep them safe for Oliver. He knew he would have to come back eventually. And he's ready for that, but he's also not going to make you do anything you don't want to. Regardless of the marks, you have your own choice."
She nods slowly, unclenching from the pillow to take the cup of tea Lyla hands her. "The file said..." she grimaces at the thought of the harrowing words she read. "It said his mark was...said it wasn't there."
John glances at Lyla to answer that one.
"He burned it off. It's unrecognizable due to scar tissue. If it wasn't A.R.G.U.S. would have come looking for you two years ago." Lyla settles back onto the couch. "For people like Waller, your soulmates are your weakness. Oliver cares too much about the people close to him. Waller would have used you against him."
Felicity bobs her head slowly. She stares in her mug, watching the steam rise off the water. "So all we do now is wait for him to be found?"
John nods. "We wait and we keep you safe."
"Then I'll leave you two to talk." She stands, heading to her room. She needs a shower and a change of clothes. And she doesn't need to be the third wheel when Lyla tells John she's pregnant.
...
It's a travesty of modern medicine, but Oliver had to ditch the brace for his knee in favor of a makeshift splint of sticks and the torn bottom of his shirt. After a week without rescue he wishes he had waited a little longer. It's already going to take months to heal and now he's forced to hobble around the island using a branch as a crutch.
He can't move far from the beach in any case, which is severely limiting his options when it comes to survival. He spends most of his time wading in the water, trying to catch fish.
He's starting to wish he took Diggle up on the offer to find him in Russia.
Before Oliver can resort to climbing the mountainous island to the extra satellite phone stashed for emergencies, he sees a small boat on the horizon. It's a small fisherman's vessel, designed for no more than three or four people, and they had to have been guided in this direction, away from their normal fishing waters.
He only wastes a single breath before lighting the signal fire, hobbling closer to the beach to wave his arms wildly and shout for their attention, like any man who was stranded for four years would.
It's a relief when they pull him into the boat and he nearly collapses from pain in his leg.
Random shouts of Chinese fly around him, but he feigns obliviousness, accepting their hospitality without question: the blanket, the tea, the seat. He's going to be on a plane home soon enough.
For the first time since China, he actually wants to go home. A week with his own thoughts and he has a plan: a plan to save his city, to get rid of the gang and mob influence in the Glades, to clean up the streets.
It might not all work, but he's got a plan, and this time it accounts for soulmates crawling out of the woodwork.
The question is: is he ready to see his family again?
...
Felicity rolls over, glaring at her phone on the nightstand where it starts ringing for the third time in five minutes. It was her day off and she was taking advantage of it by sleeping in, so she really didn't appreciate the shrill ringing ruining her beauty sleep.
"What?" she groans into the phone, not bothering to hide her sleepiness or displeasure. It's too early for that kind of effort.
"They found him!" Thea's cheerful voice screeches.
Felicity winces, pulling the phone from her ear and holding it at arm's length. She forces the sleep from her eyes, stretching, but unwilling to pull herself from the warm covers. Technically she knows this already. John came over last night and told her.
Ever so slowly, she shoves her feet into her colorful fuzzy slippers and lifts the phone back to her ear. Thea continues to prattle excitedly in her ear and Felicity heads down the hall, attempting to tame her bed head with one hand.
She scowls at the time on the microwave (5:30am) before turning the coffee maker on and turning on the stove burner under the kettle. She pulls two mugs from the cabinet, slipping a tea bag into one mug.
"I'm so happy for you, Thea," she says when the other end of the line lapses into silence.
"Me? What about you?" She demands. "Your soulmate is coming back, Lissy. Your soulmate."
Felicity sighs, switching the phone to her other ear. "Thea, I still haven't met you brother."
"And now you can! We only found him because of you!"
"You don't want to overwhelm him, Thea. Who knows what he's gone through the last four years." She pulls the honey from the cabinet, setting it beside the tea mug.
"You have to come with us to the hospital."
Felicity sighs, knowing fighting Thea isn't really going to get her anywhere even if this whole situation is completely insane. "He doesn't know me, Thea. I can't intrude on your family moment."
"You're practically family. I mean, you're going to be family, so you're going to come. He's going straight from the airport to Starling General Hospital, so I'll pick you up and we'll meet him there."
"Thea-"
"I'll be there in an hour. Wear a pretty dress."
The line clicks before Felicity can summon a response. She shakes her head, clearing the cobwebs off her mind. She tosses the phone on the counter, pouring herself a cup of coffee and dropping onto a kitchen chair. Thea's probably already planning their wedding.
"What was that about?" Lyla asks, looking awake and put together.
"Thea was calling to let me know Oliver's coming back. She wants me to go to the hospital with them." Felicity lifts her feet to rest on the chair, curling into herself. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea."
Lyla pulls a carton of eggs from the fridge and a frying pan from the cabinet. She glances over her shoulder at Felicity. "It'll be fine."
"Yeah, you're not the one meeting your soulmate for the first time." Felicity runs her hand around the rim of her mug. She reaches for any kind of reason beyond anxiety and nerves. There has to be an argument to use on Thea that will work.
"You have nothing to worry about, Felicity." Lyla starts cracking eggs into a glass bowl.
"What about the Russian Mob?" Felicity asks, grabbing on to the only potential problem she can see.
Lyla sighs. "They're going to find out anyway. They already know you exist and that's why the search for Oliver started up again. It's really not that much of an issue." Felicity's anxiety must be written all over her face because Lyla immediately softens her voice. "But if you don't want to go, I'm sure we could come up with some excuse."
Felicity takes a slow sip of her coffee, mind racing.
Thinking about it, she knows she wants to meet him in person. She wants to see the man fate seems to think she belongs with, the man Thea looks up to as an older brother, the man she's heard and read so much about. She wants to know how he measures up to what she's heard. Strangely, she also wants to be there to help be a buffer between him and the intense women in his family.
But would he want her there?
She's a complete stranger.
"I don't think he'd turn you away," Lyla says. "And there's got to be something you have in common. You wouldn't be soulmates otherwise."
Felicity chews on her bottom lip. "You think?"
Lyla smiles, pouring the eggs into the heated pan. "When is Thea picking you up?"
"Forty-five minutes." Felicity sighs. "I should probably get dressed."
God. She can't believe she's going to the hospital to meet her soulmate.
...
"Oliver?"
His mother's soft voice cuts through the constant buzz of electricity and Oliver fights the instinctual uptick of his lips. Slowly he turns around to face her, slowly because his knee is in a fresh new cast and he has to deal with crutches.
"My baby boy!"
He ducks his head and is immediately enveloped by the floral scent of her perfume as she embraces him, the combination just highlights how much she hasn't changed in the past few years. He hasn't had a hug in so long and his mother doesn't appear to be anywhere close to letting go so he sways gently in her arms, feeling her tears soaking through his shirt.
"I didn't think we'd ever get you back."
Oliver closes his eyes at her whispered confession, squeezing her closer for a second.
The door clicks open with another soft, "Oliver?"
He grins at the brunette and hobbles away from his mother to embrace her. "Speedy." She's taller than he remembers, but not by much. When she throws her arms around him, he barely catches himself from falling and hurting himself worse.
Thea squeezes him harder to keep him there, like her arms could save him from getting lost again.
His eyes lift back to the door where he meets the eyes of a teenage boy in a red hoodie. Thea, sensing his distraction, pulls away with a large smile. "Oh, Ollie, this is Roy, my soulmate. Roy, this is Oliver."
The boy nervously shuffles forward, holding out his hand. "Hi."
Gripping the kid's hand a little tighter than necessary, Oliver levels him with a stern gaze. The kid might be his sister's soulmate, but that doesn't mean Oliver can't play the protective older brother. For his part, Roy quickly pulls his hand back, stuffing it into the worn pocket of her hoodie and taking a step back, warning clearly received.
His mom and Thea exchange looks before Moira takes control of the situation again.
"So how are you, Oliver?" She runs her hand up his arm, soothing so as to not ruffle any feathers, like she could send him spiraling if she said something wrong.
"I need to sit down," He says with a polite smile, hopping backwards to get off his knee.
Immediately Moira and Thea start fussing, helping him into the hospital bed. He lets them, knowing that it's comforting them more than him. They just need to make sure he's here and alright.
He's not even sure what they're doing anymore because it's just a flurry of movement in his periphery.
His eyes are trained on the two figures still waiting outside the room. There's a blonde on the other side of the door talking to Lyla, a blonde he doesn't recognize, but who keeps glancing through the window.
Her bright blue eyes meet his through the window and her mouth parts in surprise before she blushes and turns away.
"That's Felicity," Thea says, bringing Oliver's attention crashing back to her. She's grinning like the cat that caught the canary. "She's the reason we found you."
His eyes drift back to the blonde, contemplating her. She's beautiful, but not his usual type. He usually goes for brunettes, not nerdy blondes, but here's something about the black glasses and painted pink lips that he finds intriguing.
"Do you want to meet her?" Thea asks, the hope evident in her voice.
He glances at Thea bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet. The excitement pulsing off her reminds him just how invested his sister always was in the concept of soulmates. He doesn't need someone to say, 'she's your soulmate,' but he doesn't know what to expect of this interaction. At least in his sister's eyes, there's a lot riding on this meeting. Then again there's a lot of pressure when it comes to soulmates and expectations.
Lyla smiling and laughing with her strikes him as odd. He's never seen her so loose and carefree. She was always so serious and concerned about missions around him. Of course, he's seen Digg and Lyla interact, but they're still generally a very serious couple most of the time.
"I'll go get her," Thea announces, practically skipping to the door. "Felicity, come on in!"
Thea rips Felicity away from Lyla, dragging her into the room with a huge smile stretching across her face as she presents the blonde to Oliver with a flourish.
"Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak. Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen!" She has a dreamy look in her eyes and Oliver guesses she's envisioning telling this story at their wedding.
He moves to swing his feet out of bed.
"Oliver! Don't stand up! You need to rest!" His mother scolds. "Your kneecap is broken."
He ignores her to slide to the edge of the bed, eyes locked into her blue eyes. He's hiding everything from his family, but he reminds himself that she knows everything he's been through. She knows what's been happening in Russia because she's now in danger because of the mark on her skin.
His mark.
Suddenly he wants to see it, the arrow inked on her skin and it takes all his control to bring himself back to his moment, this incredibly big moment when he meets her for the first time.
"How's your leg?" She asks. Her eyes scan him, pausing on each injury she spots in her perusal: the cut on his forehead, the bruising on his arms, the obvious cast on his leg and the hidden stab wound.
That's all he needs to see to know whatever that poison they gave him actually did work. Damn it. He'd never meant to hurt an innocent girl.
...
All he's doing is staring at her, which is more than a little awkward to say the least. Oliver's all in one piece so she's happy for that. That's really the extent of their relationship.
She's checking him over, looking everywhere she knows he's injured for sure and then moving back to his face only to cover the same route again.
After she's sure the injuries are being cared for, she gets distracted by the play of muscles that his thin white shirt does nothing to hide. The pictures really don't do him justice. She just wants to reach out and touch him because all that muscle can't be real. It's too perfect.
A deep chuckle and a thumb rubbing small circles over the back of her hand draw her gaze back to his face. Felicity realizes she doesn't remember when he grabbed her hand.
"It's nice to meet you, too, Felicity," Oliver says, plastering a playboy smirk on his face.
Her whole face heats and she covers her face with one hand. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"
He chuckles again, and she tries to pull her hand back, but Oliver keeps rubbing those unnerving circles into her skin. "You did."
Felicity grimaces and glances around the room, surprised to find it empty. She turns around, looking for Moira, Thea, and Roy – the unfortunate witnesses to all her blunders. But they're nowhere to be seen.
"They left at the start of that ramble," Oliver says with a grin. She needs a moment to catch her breath after that because this one is so much more genuine than his previous one.
She nods slowly. "Yes. Your sister is meddlesome like that."
They lapse back into silence, Felicity forcing herself to look anywhere but the muscles that inspired her babble. She finally has her hand back to herself, which she clutches to her chest, attempting to rid herself of the phantom fingers still rubbing circles on her skin.
Finally, Felicity can't stew in her own thoughts any more. She has to ask the question that's been on her mind since she found out who her soulmate was:
"So...what happens now?"