TW: Mentions of suicide attempt.

Felicity Smoak was late. That had never been her M.O. Dorky, awkward, nerd with a pair of glasses, sure, but late? And for a job at Queen Enterprises at that? That was simply unfathomable. She wasn't sure what had gotten into her. She had been having the best dream and then, through the act of her alarm clock, she woke up, startled, and realized she was half an hour behind schedule. Moving as fast as she could, Felicity hopped to it and got her shit done, whatever she needed to get done that morning. She applied the final layer of foundation over her wrists, hiding the self-inflicted scar on both sides and then pulling down her purple blouse and adding a watch on her left wrist and a chunky bracelet on her right for good measure. No one needed to know about the past she was leaving behind in Vegas.

No one deserved to know.

And, after all, if anyone understood hidden ideas, it was her new boss, Oliver Queen. Man who had been capsized and then lost at sea, only to be found five years later. He had apparently not died – she wasn't quite sure how that had happened but she wasn't going to question it, either. A top graduate of her MIT class and one of the best hackers to date, she was simply grateful for a job. Felicity took one last look in the mirror and then hurried on out of her apartment, shutting and locking the door behind her as she made a mental note to call Mama Smoak that night.

She jumped in her car, breaking about six traffic laws as she drove to the heart of Starling City and parked in front of Queen Consolidated. She stared up at the imposing building for a solid minute, practicing her box-breathing her therapist had instructed her to learn. Will was a good guy, the best therapist she could have found.

After taking one more moment to collect herself, she got out of her car and made her way up the stairs to her first day at Queen Consolidated, wondering what was in store for her.

XXX

Felicity Smoak didn't do stress. It wasn't in her vocabulary. But here she was, stressed as could be because Walter, a man she could see herself growing quite fond of, needed her to fix twenty things right off the bat, including a security breach in their system. It wasn't what Felicity was expecting when applying for the position – she thought she'd just be doing regular, run-of-the-mill IT services like any other tech job. How wrong she had been. Running around from one place to the other like a chicken with its head cut off, Felicity tried to do as much damage control with the security breach as she could. She wasn't paying attention to where her pink stilettos were carrying her and it wasn't until she smacked straight into someone did she look up. "Oh, I'm so – holy frack."

She came to a complete standstill as she stared at the one and very much alive Oliver Queen. Was he Adonis?

"No, I'm Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated," the man replied, laughter laying his tone.

Frack, she had said that out loud.

"Said that out loud, too," he chuckled amusedly and Felicity had never wanted the ground to swallow her whole more than she did in that moment. Squeezing her eyes shut, she opened them and offered him a sheepish smile.

"Sorry Mr. Queen, my mouth sometimes runs away with me," she offered up as an explanation, half-shrugging as she sent him a smile. Oliver stared at her for a moment, long enough to make her wonder if she had lettuce stuck in her teeth from her boxed iceberg salad she had for lunch, before the taller man gave a shake of his head and offered her a pearly-white smile in return. Holy frack, did he bleach his teeth?

"Can't say that I do, but I may look into it," he replied casually, and Felicity felt herself turn red. She rubbed at her nose, offering an embarrassed grin. "What's your name?"

"My name?" Felicity asked, certain she had misunderstood his question.

He looked at her in confusion and he was probably wondering if she was suited for her job. "Yes. I hear everyone has one."

She blushed furiously once more before bobbing her head. "Felicity Smoak. At your service." Why the hell did she add that on? "Sorry, Mr. Queen, again I'm inept with having a normal conversation, it seems."

Oliver took it in his stride, however. "Please, Mr. Queen was my father – call me Oliver."

She nodded her head, wondering if her eyes resembled saucers. "O-Okay, Oliver."

"Now, Walter sent me down to check on how the security breach was coming along?" Oliver asked. Yes. Technical work. Felicity could hold a conversation about this.

"The infected malware the hackers sent isn't a match for my firewall I implemented in as a safety measurement," she assured him. Oliver looked at her as if she spoke Latin.

"In English, please?" Oliver asked with a laugh.

"We're protected," she said simply. "I did the job Walter wanted me to do."

"Excellent," Oliver grinned, clapping his hands together once. "My step-father said you were the best applicant."

Felicity didn't know what to say to that so she just smiled hesitantly, wondering if it was in the playboy's nature to give compliments.

"Only to those who deserve them," he commented mildly, and she felt horrified.

"Frack. I said that out loud again, didn't I?" Felicity whispered, and Oliver laughed once more.

"You did but not to worry, Felicity Smoak. It's been wonderful meeting you and I'll be down later this week to talk about the security wall you put in place," he replied, and all Felicity could do was nod her head in sheer mortification, wondering how many times she was going to embarrass herself in front of her boss. He sent her one more charming – stop that, Felicity! – smile and then he was on his way, with promises about seeing her later that week.

What the hell had she signed up for?

Author's note: This first chapter is lighthearted but second chapter we start delving into Felicity's background. Would love comments on what you think so far! Xxx