Chapter Text
June 2007
“Felicity!”
Felicity jumps then quickly turned, “oh my god, what’s wrong?!”
“Mr. Queen called for a techie and specifically asked for the best…” a flurry of red hair and freckles named Grace rushed into Felicity’s personal space as if to announce a fire, heavily panting from her sprint from down the hall into the server room.
“Okay, but why are you freaking out? I thought something more serious happened.” Felicity turns back around to look at her tablet and section she is working on.
“Because! He. Asked. For. You!” Grace grips Felicity and spins her around. “Do you understand?” Grace leans in close.
“He asked for me?” Felicity says in wonder, eyes growing wide.
Around here being called in by Robert Queen always meant big things. It meant being recognized; even if it meant fixing a bug or two on his desktop or laptop computers, even his phone. Just about everyone who ever had the good fortune to be picked by Robert Queen have all gone on to bigger and brighter futures.
This is the big break Felicity has been waiting for since she took on this internship. She will be graduating in a year and half and she is ready for the next step, and he is the ticket to getting hired at Queen Consolidated’s subsidiary company Helix.
“Why are you standing there? Hurry up and go!” Grace pushes gently at Felicity to get her feet moving.
Smiling back over her shoulder at Grace she runs to her desk to grab her computer tool kit and laptop, shoving anything she may need into her work bag. Quickly making her way to the Executive level, she steps off the elevator and approaches Mr. Queen’s Executive Assistant's desk.
“Hi,” she said shyly pushing her glasses further up with one finger at the outer corner.
“Yes?” his assistant asked without looking up.
“I’m Felicity Smoak from IT. I was told Mr. Queen requested my services.” Felicity cringed when she saw the woman’s head snap up to look at her with one eyebrow raised.
“Uhm, I meant to say that I was called into fix his computer.” Felicity corrects with a calm look, but she died a little inside at her initial reply.
“Yes!” Once she realized who Felicity is, “Miss Smoak, Mr. Queen had to meet right quick with Mr. Steele but he asked me to show you in and explain.” She began making her way into the office.
Felicity followed and found herself looking in awe at the expanse of floor to ceiling windows taking up the entire left side of the office. There was a large painting of a large sailboat, not a yacht like the wealthy like, but an actual sailboat that is quite stunning.
His assistant saw Felicity’s eyes looking passed her and smiles, “next to his family, that is his pride and joy. He is a very skilled sailor and that boat was restored after he bought it from a man claiming Hemingway once sailed on it.”
“Really, Hemingway sailed on it once?” Felicity asked as she set her bag down on the floor behind the desk.
“Well Mrs. Queen might argue that little fact, but she lets her husband keep his legend and he stays a happy man.” She laughs.
Felicity smiles and then her eyes fall to the collection of family photos that sit atop a large credenza all along the back with drawers that are most likely filing cabinets. His office was modern, but had a bit of a classic touch to it.
“Okay, so apparently he was in the middle of writing up a report and it went on the fritz.” She holds her hand out a la Vanna White towards the desktop.
“Hmm okay, well if it’s okay I’ll go ahead and run some diagnostics, then try to see if I can peg the problem.” Felicity smiles.
“Of course, Mr. Queen knows you’ll be here so he may extend his visit so he’s not all in your hair.” She begins to walk away.
“Thank you…” Felicity looks back looks back to say thank you but instead says, “I’m sorry, I never got your name.”
“Just call me Lana.” The smile she gave Felicity felt motherly. Felicity knew that Lana has been Mr. Queen’s assistant for an extremely long time and is nicknamed his guard dog. To get to him you had to get through her. Felicity is glad she seems to like her.
Felicity turns back to the desktop and begins pulling out her tablet and tools needed. Hooking her tablet to the computer, she powered it on. Waiting to hear a motor, but nothing.
“Hmmm, what’s happened to you sweet girl?” Right before she was about to kneel down, thankful to the Universe I wore trousers today, Lana stuck her head in.
“Felicity, I’m heading to the ladies room and then the break room.”
“Okay, no problem.” Felicity gave her a thumbs up.
Lana walks away and Felicity kneels down. She looks at the collection of cables seeing a twisted mess. “Seriously? Who did they have install this mess?” Felicity grumbles and crawls under the desk.
The elevator opens and Oliver steps out flipping his overgrown bangs to the side with a snap of his head as he makes his way to his dad’s office. He saw Lana wasn’t at her desk, and peeks in not seeing his dad either. He shrugs and makes his way into his dad’s office.
At first he doesn’t notice the bag and tools sitting out. He tosses his own bag on the sofa in the office. He is just about to toss himself on it when he hears grumbling. He looks over at his dad’s desk. Then he looks back to see if maybe it was Lana coming back, but he doesn’t see her and wonders if she was under the desk. He nearly laughed at the idea of the prim Lana kneeling down there.
“Are you kidding me? Why would you do that?” He hears the soft, albeit annoyed, voice come from under the desk. He slowly walks around his dad’s desk not saying anything.
That’s when he sees it, a perfect and firm heart-shaped ass in black pants, little feet in black flats buried under that butt. Grinning he leans back against the credenza watching it wiggle.
Oliver is at a stage in his twenty-second year of life where the sight of tits and ass has him instantly rearing to go. He couldn’t help the zing he felt low in his gut that shot straight to his dick. Who is this little thing under his dad’s desk. He wonders if she’s pretty. Then he shrugs not caring because what does it matter if he can sit in his dad’s soft as butter leather chair and get a bj from the girl with an ass made by the Gods?
“Aha! That’s what’s the problem, you sneaky bastard.” Felicity slowly shimmies her way back out from under the desk. She freezes suddenly sensing a presence, expecting Lana. Yet when she turns to look over her shoulder and sees out of her peripheral vision that there is in fact a man standing there, she lets out a small yelp and jumps up almost falling over.
The guy reaches out for her, “careful there.” He offered a hand and Felicity backs away.
“Who are you and why were you just standing there like a creeper not saying anything?!”
“Uhm, because I was admiring your uh... technique?” He grins, raising one cocky eyebrow.
“Excuse me!” Felicity snaps.
“Who are you?” He asks, still holding his grin.
“Felicity Smoak, from IT.” She stood taller, holding her chin up.
“Felicity Smoak; hi, I’m Oliver Queen.” He holds his hand out.
Felicity goes stiff. The Oliver Queen, tabloid Prince, heartbreaker, and now creeper. This is just great. She takes his hand and gives a quick pump and lets go.
“Do you normally stand there and stare at unsuspecting women while they work?” She asks moving away from him, looking back, as she makes her way around the desk.
Oliver watches her try to hide from him, but it’s too late because he saw all that goodness in those tight pants.
“Normally women aren’t too upset when it’s me.” He winks and she rolls her eyes making him laugh.
He walks up to the desk, closer to her, but still separated by the desk. He examines her closely. The way her cheeks have flushed in her annoyance with him, the way her bow-shaped lips have gotten a darker pink as she rolls them between her teeth obviously trying to keep her retorts to herself. She looks young, but it’s probably just because of her soft features and petite stature, well compared to his six-foot-one height.
“Well I am not a normal woman.” She says so confidently that Oliver has to hold back his laugh when she realizes what she just said.
Closing her eyes a second as she sighs, she corrects herself, “what I meant to say was I’m not one of those women who enjoys being looked at like… like…” Felicity can’t seem to get out the last few words.
“Like what? A piece of meat?” He asks and gives a tip of his chin along with a grin she can’t help but notice is actually really cute, even if he is wearing that ridiculous Zac Efron hairstyle.
“Well,” she pauses deciding how to further go about this, “yes actually.”
“So what you’re saying is you don’t like men checking you out?” He teases further with that smile that usually has women falling at his feet.
Felicity groans, “you’re ridiculous you know that?”
He scoffs, “hardly.”
Before she can respond they both perk up at the voices of Robert Queen and Lana coming from the elevator.
“Yes sir, she came by and was eager to fix the issue.” Lana finishes saying as they walk into the office.
“Oliver?” Robert asks looking rather confused, “I’m sorry son, but were we supposed to meet for lunch?” Robert looks to Lana who is shaking her head at the question knowing there was no such lunch scheduled.
Oliver seizing the moment, “actually I came by because something seems to be wrong with my laptop. Thought maybe you could have IT take a look, and low and behold Miss Smoak was right here.” Oliver gives his father his dutiful son smile.
Lana, knowing Oliver since he was young, shakes her head and looks over apologetically at Felicity.
“Oh good, because Felicity here is a rising star in our IT department, she can help.” Robert walks in clearly blind to his son’s rakish behavior, or just living in denial she thinks to herself.
Felicity begins to panic because the Robert Queen is in front of her and talking to his son about her.
With a nervous voice, “Mr. Queen, I figured out the problem with the desktop.” Carefully choosing her words so as not to imply he was the reason for the failure, although she’s sure it was his thousand dollar wingtips he’s currently wearing that were the problem. He must’ve kicked the cables loose, possibly over a few days or weeks until it came loose altogether.
“Excellent! What happened?” He sits down and looks right at her.
“A cable came loose, sir.” She points below his desk, “from under the desk. I managed to rearrange the cables and set them right so as not to come loose again should you…” She trails off and then corrects herself, “should you have a need to reposition your desktop.”
Robert turns to look at his computer. Oliver leans in still with a grin, the closer he gets she notices how bloodshot his eyes were. She recalls hearing about drug use, but thought it was more of the party boy style, not the daily lifestyle.
“Nice save, Miss Smoak.” He whispers before his father’s attention is back on them.
“Well Miss Smoak, if you don’t mind having a look at Oliver’s laptop I would appreciate it.” Robert says, then powers on his computer.
Felicity jumps realizing she never ran the diagnostics. “If you’ll allow me, I need to let my tablet run some other diagnostics, but you’re able to work while it’s being done.”
Before Robert can answer, Lana chimes in, “Mr. Queen your one o’clock will be here soon.”
“Okay, when they arrive show them to the conference room. Let Felicity finish here and work on Oliver’s laptop.” Turning in his chair, he stands and walks up to Felicity. “Miss Smoak, I have heard so much about you. I hear you have made some really great changes with our security, as well as with the head of the R&D department.”
“Thank you sir,” Felicity has a bit of a confused look. Who had told him about her?
As if reading her mind he says, “John Diggle, head of our security has had some really great things to say about you.”
A soft smile forms on her face and Oliver knew, like everyone, she was fond of the veteran. Oliver continues to watch the exchange between his dad and Felicity with boredom. He wants his dad to leave so he can have her attention on him. He stands up and they both look at him. “Heading to the head.” He left to use his dad’s private bathroom.
Turning back to Felicity, Robert continues, “It’s my understanding you are graduating soon.”
“Yes sir, well May 2009.” Felicity nods her head.
“Have you considered where you would like to go after?” He leans back against his desk with his hands folded in front of him.
Felicity had never felt so nervous and excited at the same time since she was admitted into MIT. “I have already spoken with headhunters from some of the major hotels out of Vegas, where I am from, in hopes of me creating new security technology to better equip their hotels.”
Robert studies her face, reading more into what she said, “but it’s not what you want?”
“No sir.” She shuffles her feet.
“If you could have your pick of anywhere you would like to go, where would it be?”
Oh my god, this is it Felicity. Don’t chicken out now. Seize the day! “I would love to go to Helix, Mr. Queen.” She held her breath.
“Really? We just acquired them not too long ago. What is your interest in them?”
“Sir, they are most definitely going to be a leader in creating some of the most advanced security technology that would benefit our country in fighting terrorism, domestic and foreign. I know they are just a budding company now, but I have seen what they can do, and the fact they are being led by Cayden James only means that they will be the best within the next five years. I truly believe in the work they are doing.”
Felicity cut off so quickly as if she ran out of breath, which she almost did, and stands wide eyed and hopeful. Robert clearly thinking, his eyes studying her. Then suddenly he stands up from his desk and holds his hand out.
“Miss Smoak, consider it done.”
“What?!” She gasps and shakily took his hand.
At that moment, Oliver walked out of the bathroom, wiping his hand under his nose.
“Miss Smoak, I always keep an eye on those with a bright future; so when I was flagged about your hiring, I made it priority to watch your work and get updates. You are a literal genius and you’re interning at my company. You better believe I am going to pay attention. I would love to have you here at QC, but I agree with you about Helix and I think you would make a perfect addition to the company. I will be speaking to Cayden James. Maybe next Summer he can have you intern with him in Portland.”
Oliver listens carefully, she’s a genius? Like a real genius?
“Mr. Queen, thank you so much! I truly appreciate the opportunity!” She shook his hand quickly with both hands for a lot longer than she should. He laughs when she lets go suddenly and apologizes.
“Oliver, hope to see you tonight for dinner.” He looked at his son.
“Sure dad.” Oliver fell onto the sofa, slouching into it.
“Miss Smoak, I look forward to working with you more and congratulations on your upcoming graduation.”
“Thank you!” Felicity stands there with an open mouth in awe as Robert heads out to his meeting. She couldn’t believe what had just happened.
He gave Oliver one last goodbye and makes his way out the door.
Felicity looks at Oliver then turns back to her tablet shaking her head, he looks different since he came out of the bathroom. What did he do in there ?
“He’s like a tornado huh?” Oliver asks walking over to her. Standing so close she can smell a faint scent of pine. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t entirely too pleasing.
Oliver is watching her but she ignores him and finishes working on her tablet. Oliver put down his laptop on the desk and sat down in his dad’s chair, feet on the desk and hands behind his head.
She inwardly sighs and then puts down her tablet to let it finish running the diagnostics to Mr. Queen’s desktop.
“What’s wrong with it?” Felicity pushes at the corner causing to spin around facing her, then opens it up. Immediately she made a face, the smell of old beer irritates her nostrils.
“I spilled something on it.” He shrugs.
“What, a keg?” Felicity smarts. Then she looks closer, “and a glitter bomb?”
Oliver chuckled, “yeah, it’s amazing how much strippers enjoy glitter.”
“Oh god,” Felicity rolls her eyes.
Oliver is surprised her eyes didn’t stay stuck as high as they went.
“What? I was at my frat house, I was trying to study and suddenly a party happened. The stripper knocked the cup of beer over and all over the laptop.” He laughs.
“Well your laptop is fried. I can pull it apart and take a look to see if I can recover your work.” Felicity made the choice to ignore his story.
“That would be fantastic.” He sits up, leans onto the desk, “it can be done today right?”
“Uhmmm,” she looks at the clock.
He looks over to the clock on the wall and saw it might be her lunch time. “I’ll order us lunch! That way you can work.”
About two hours later, Felicity had gotten use to Oliver’s banter. She couldn’t help but be charmed by him and his smile. It was a tiny bit crooked and she found that kind of sexy. It also didn’t help that he insisted on sitting near her and his leg would brush up against her. She wasn’t void of feelings , and he was attractive.
Not completely naive to flirting, being almost 18, she was shocked that he was. Considering the last tabloid spread of him he had a very particular kind of woman on his arm. Some model looking mafia princess, Helena I think is her name , and they were caught coming out of some club. Even then she still welcomes the flirtation, something to save into her memory bank for those nights cuddled up with a book and ice cream, alone wishing she had a someone.
“Well, looks like everything in your storage is safe.” Pushing a thumb drive into her computer and transferring his work into it, she turns to smile but he is leaning so close she pulls back.
“You’re remarkable.” Oliver’s eyes looked pinned. She is starting to suspect his continued use of the bathroom has more to do with something else than him needing to urinate that often.
“Uhm,” pushing her glasses up into place, “thank you for remarking on it?” She isn’t sure why she replies with a question, but she is pretty sure it is a compliment.
“I would like to thank you.” He says as he lays a hand on her knee, his thumb and forefinger lightly rubbing.
Felicity isn’t sure what is happening, but she starts to pull away. He sits up straighter, moving a little away from her.
“Meet me for drinks tonight. Around nine?” He commanded the former, but the latter is definitely a question.
Without really thinking on it like she should have, she quickly replies, “okay.” What? Idiot! Don’t agree!
“Excellent! Meet me at Lloyd’s. Know the place?” Oliver leans back on the sofa with a kind of relaxation that would come from a man after a good meal.
“I do. But are you sure your girlfriend won’t mind?”
“What girlfriend?”
“Helena.” Felicity is confused, she swore they called her his new girlfriend.
“Helena? Helena?” He thought for a minute, “oh! Her? Nah, she’s just another one of those hang-arounds.”
Hang-arounds? “Oh, okay then.”
“Awesome! It’ll be fun. You can party right?”
“Yeah, totally.” She shakes her head yes, but inside is nodding no. She totally couldn’t party like these rich kids. It isn’t her style. She experimented her first year at MIT with the fake ID her mother gave her, but she isn’t quite wanting to make it her life’s goal. She still has the fake ID and so it’s going to come in useful, she doesn’t really want to admit to him how old she actually is. Felicity, what are you doing? This is crazy!
“Uhh, you don’t have a boyfriend who’s going to come with, do you?” He asks suddenly as if he is disgusted by the idea.
“No, Cooper and I are not exclusive so it’s okay if I …”
“Sweet, I didn’t wanna have to compete.” He winks at her and Felicity blushes. She isn’t sure what just happened. Felt like she’s been playing Jenga and hoping it doesn’t tumble down around her.
After work, Felicity made a quick stop at a boutique she’d see on her walks to get coffee from work. She decided she’d splurge on a new outfit for meeting with Oliver. Oh. My. God. I’m going to hang out with Oliver Queen!
She found the perfect cream colored dressed that the sales girl suggested really looked amazing on her. Halter style, with a tie back and short A-line skirt. She was so excited and had the perfect shoes. It was flirty and summery, perfect for a night out.
Opting for natural makeup, and hair down in waves she pushes through the door of the supposed hole in the wall pub. It was big and filled with lots of uber preppy bodies. She is glad to see she didn’t overdress for the place, so she confidently makes her way through the throng of people.
She spots Oliver at the bar with some people. He is laughing and raises his glass. His friends slam their drinks together and beer sloshes everywhere. Felicity smiles and walks up to him. She finds him with his legs open wide and there she is, Helena, pressed up against him between his legs and her hand on his thighs. In the other hand is a glass of something dyed a cherry red color, she drunkenly laughs out loud before her eyes land on Felicity.
“Uh, do we know her?” Helena points her finger at Felicity.
Oliver turns and Felicity’s smile falls, then feels her chest constrict when she hears him say, “never seen her before.”
And before she could turn and walk away embarrassed, Helena’s hand flies up and she accidentally tosses her remaining drink right onto Felicity’s brand new dress.
Everyone starts laughing in his stupid group of friends, but his eyes are so heavy from the alcohol she is surprised he is sitting on his own. Without a word Felicity turns and walks right out the door.
“Oliver Queen, you’re an absolute pig!” She huffs out to herself and quickly walks a block down before hailing a cab. “Never again will I be charmed by sweet smiles and sweet eyes.”
Getting into the cab, she gives her address, then stares out the window. She felt so stupid, never ever expecting to be treated like the grown up version of a Glee choir kid. All she could do was forget, she only had a few more weeks left of her internship. She’d be long gone, back to Boston, and never have to worry about his stupid face again.