Chapter Text
“No, Curtis.” Felicity groaned into her phone as she tried for the fifth time to start her old pick-up truck that Wednesday morning. It was warm. It had been unusually warm all summer long and still was on one of the last days in August on the Oregon coast (as she had been told by several locals). It weren’t so much the hot days that bothered her. But the nights had proven to be just as warm, with temperatures not falling under 68°F. She didn’t do too well with those temperatures and, as it just was her damn luck, the ceiling fan in her bedroom had shuffled off this mortal coil three nights ago, leaving her stewing in her own sweat all night.
No wonder her patience was already wearing thin that morning especially after the struggles she’s already faced until both her little girls had finally left for daycare.
It hadn’t been three months since they had moved to that hicktown on the Oregon coast called Elk Cove. Them being she and her seven year old twins, Emma and Leigh.
To say that her two little girls hadn’t responded very well to that change was an understatement. Even the most normal things were a struggle at this point... Granted - it had been a last minute decision that didn’t give her a lot of time to ease them in on the idea of moving, but it started to weigh on her at this point. Knowing she most likely would be getting a call from the daycare at some point of the day telling her to get them because they didn’t know how to deal with them.
They were a force of nature, two whirlwinds when they got bored. Something that happened more and more since she had to take them out of their private school after her company back in Boston had gone out of business and she couldn’t afford the tuition fee anymore. She had tried her best to keep the business up and running for years after what had happened with Coop, but it seemed like nothing was enough to regain her customers and their trust in her.
They just needed a fresh start and when Curtis Holt, a former classmate of her - and certified genius like herself - had called her up and told her he had a new idea for the software program they had been juggling with during their senior year at MIT, Felicity didn’t hesitate for one second.
There was a real chance that this could really result in something great if they approached it the right way and she wasn’t going to pass on an opportunity to finally build something for her little family. Even if it meant to move across the country to a small town her friend had moved to when he fell in love with a Coast Guardsman.
“What do you mean, why?” Felicity almost broke off the key in the ignition as her irritation started to grow when she listened to her partner on the phone. No way would she be dealing with Mr. Masterson two days in one week. “It’s your turn to listen to his endless rambles about reverse sexism and why the internet and feminism are bad for the economy.”
“Besides,” She threw her fist in the air when the engine finally had mercy with her and Polly (yes, her car had a name - courtesy of her daughters) finally started to purr. “I have an emergency job to do down at the harbor. We’ll talk later!” She cut the call short and threw her phone into her bag on the passenger’s seat before Curtis could guilt her into trading jobs, feeling only a little guilty.
Especially after he had left her alone with that sleazy tourist the other day who had apparently spilled a latte over his laptop and had spent the whole time leering at her (when he wasn’t making gross suggestive comments) while she tried to recover the data from his hard drive to the point she’d actually considered infecting his laptop with a virus that would turn every push of a button into porcupine farting noises.
She deserved something more challenging every once in a while and upgrading a boat’s wifi system just sounded like exactly what she needed to make her fingertips tingle again.
It had been way too long since Felicity felt a certain anticipation about her job, ever since she had moved to town from the east coast after… well, everything. But at least they had some kind of perspective here. She and Curtis were on a good path with their main project and if putting up with asshole customers was what it took to achieve their goal, she would do it without even batting an eyelash no matter how hard it was.
But at least she would get a very much needed change from her normal today, Felicity hoped.
And boy was she right…
**********************
Twenty minutes later, Felicity parked her car at the waterfront and grabbed her toolkit and tablet from the passenger side. She took a deep breath, inhaling the warm, salty fresh sea air as she walked down to the pier.
It wasn’t a big challenge to find the right boat. In between all the small fishing boats, cutters and the small sailboats, the ‘Gambit’ stood out like a sore thumb. A very large and luxurious sore thumb for that matter, Felicity thought when she walked towards it, wondering what kind of people would own a ship like this… the thought alone was ludicrous to her. Maintaining a ship like this was ridiculously expensive.
“Hello?” Felicity shouted out from the wooden ramp that led to the yacht’s deck and not a single person was to be seen aboard. “Anyone ordered a..”
“Ahhh! You must be my tantra massage appointment!” a good looking dark-haired man, he must have been around his thirties, cheered and reached out a hand to help her with the last few steps.
“What? No.” Felicity pulled back her hand as quickly as she could and almost lost her balance on the shaky planks in the process. “I’m the IT technician you called.”
“Ahhh!” the man exclaimed, flashing her a wide smile. “Yeah. That’s not me… See, I am here for the more exciting things in life.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you are,” Felicity muttered as she stumbled on deck and re-adjusted her glasses. “So, who do I need to talk to if that isn’t you?”
“Stop playing with the help, Tommy.” an unpleasant high pitched female voice followed by a low chuckle made Felicity turn around on the spot, watching as a couple approached them.
The woman looked only a few years older than Felicity, although the high cut bikini she wore as well as her tipsy attitude suggested she was somewhere in her late teens as she clung to the man beside her.
The man considered Felicity with a boyish grin she knew wasn’t really directed at her but was more in response to the woman’s remark. It didn’t reach his eyes though.
It looked more like something he used to do but didn’t fit him anymore. Like a grotesque and out of place mask. In fact, he looked bored. Something the woman beside him didn’t seem to mind the slightest.
Despite the fact that he was very handsome, Felicity thought and he was - well - very well built… And if it weren’t for his condescending rich boy attitude Felicity might have even enjoyed the view he was presenting in only a white shirt and gray khakis.
Reminding herself that this was just a job, and one she desperately needed for that matter, Felicity decided to let it go. So she pushed up her glasses and put on the politest smile she could muster.
“Hi. I’m Felicity Smoak. Your designated IT expert…” she extended her hand to greet him “and you must be…”
Oliver only considered her hand for a moment without returning the gesture and when he looked back at her the boyish grin was replaced with a stern expression “you’re late.”
The sudden change in his demeanor made Felicity’s eyebrows furrow “We… we did not agree on a time. I told you I’d be here as soon as I could. Which was an hour ago.” Felicity frowned at him, but before she could think of anything else to add in response to his obnoxious snobbishness she reminded herself about the good money that job would make and bit her tongue. She really needed every penny at the moment if she ever wanted to turn her life back around again.
“Anyway.” Oliver brushed over her remark and turned away without another word, leaving the rest of the company standing outside, but motioning for Felicity to follow him inside.
The sheer opulence that greeted Felicity made her jaw go slack. The ship looked even bigger inside and she was sure just the living area alone was bigger than the whole ground floor of her house.
“Ok.” Oliver turned around as they finally arrived at the bridge of the ship. “Here are the rules: 1. Don’t touch anything unless it is necessary to do your job; 2. Don’t even think about stealing anything - I will notice; 3. Just pretend that I and my friends aren’t even here. We will do the same; 4. Here is a detailed inventory list as well as the configurations of the network components; 5. You have 2 days to complete the job; 6. Any additional work besides what we have already discussed needs to be coordinated with me…”
Felicity raised her hand at that moment, earning a pair of rolling eyes from Oliver “Yes?” he asked brusquely.
“How am I supposed to coordinate anything with you if I am to pretend you’re not even here?” she asked in a fake sweet tone that threatened to escape her any moment now, remembering the ONE thing she didn’t miss after her move from the big city to a little town; overbearing metropolitans.
“And finally rule number 7: Don’t be a smartass and we will get along just fine.” he practically thrust the papers into her hands once he had opened the door to the server room and left without saying another word.
Felicity took a deep breath, reminding herself once more that she was there to make cash. Nothing more, nothing less... But trading the Masterson job to this was beginning to look like the biggest mistake she had made ever since moving to Elk Cove.
**********************
“I’m bored, Ollie!”
“Hmmmm…”
“You know we could have some of those couple massages… We haven’t done those in a long time!”
“I’m not here for your constant entertainment, Laurel.”
“You’re no fun, Oliver Queen.”
“Well - maybe Tommy is up to something fun… Why don’t you go bother him a little instead.”
Felicity rolled her eyes. It had only been a few hours into the second day on the job aboard the ‘Gambit’ and she’d already lost count the number of times she had heard a similar dialogue between the couple.
No, she wasn’t one to eavesdrop, but as it turned out the walls on a boat weren’t exactly soundproof and as the other people on board weren’t really trying to be all too quiet, leaving Felicity with no choice but to overhear every bit of their mind-numbing conversation while she literally crawled the floors and rewired the whole ship into the 21st century.
How could people with so much money be so boring? Literally! All the good someone could do with all of that money and their time, but instead those people had decided to invest that on fancy yachts only to spend their days bored with one another… Not to mention the booze, tantra massages and mani-pedis the woman, Laurel(?) just had the second within only 2 days.
Felicity shook her head in disbelief. It had been the same with them since she had started her work… Which was him - Oliver - staring into the screen of his laptop, working, while the woman - Felicity by now knew her name was Laurel - complained about him working all the time…
And then there was Tommy Merlyn. Felicity didn’t know what to make of him, really. Based on the interactions she had overheard so far she guessed he was Oliver’s best friend (again - not eavesdropping), especially when the two men were alone.
But then there were also the moments between Tommy and Laurel (ok - maybe she was eavesdropping a little there! Mysteries bothered her. OK?!) when Oliver wasn’t around that made her wonder. And to be honest, if it were any of her business she’d guess those two had…
“Eeeep!” Felicity shot up from where she was currently laying out the new ethernet cables and covered her eyes with both hands as Oliver emerged from the bathroom in all his naked glory. How could she not have noticed him walking in there??
“You know,” she grumbled under her breath as she pressed her hands firmly against her face “there is a difference between pretending someone isn’t there and just blatantly IGNORING someone is present!”
“What?” Oliver chuckled not even trying to pretend he didn’t know she was there as he ever so slowly put on some boxers, letting Felicity have a nice view of his behind and what looked like a weirdly shaped birthmark on his right cheek as she carefully opened one of her eyes again (not that she was deliberately starting at it) “Too busy overhearing our conversations to notice me coming in?”
“You know,” she shot back, the condescending and obnoxious tone in his voice sobering her in an instant “if I were you I’d worry less about what ‘the help’ is up to on this yacht with everything else going on.”
Felicity went back to work without even considering his reaction and doubled her efforts to finish her work. It was time to put an end to that job and get the hell off this ship and away from Oliver Queen.
**********************
“Excuse me??” Felicity hissed at Oliver “What do you mean you’re not paying? I...”
“Simple” Oliver leaned against the doorframe practically caging her in the server room where Felicity had just finished to cleaning up after her work was done “Not only didn’t I order, all of the additional hours for the” Oliver looked down at the detailed description of the work she’d done in the last two days “replacement and rewiring of - 670 ft worth of ethernet cabling?” he raised a dramatic eyebrow at her “I also can’t remember telling you to lay hands on my security systems. A simple rule of business, Miss Smoak. No order, no pay. You might want to learn a little about that.”
“But I literally just did what you told me to do! Just because you don’t know how things work doesn’t mean they weren’t necessary,” Felicity was practically done at that stage “And believe me. They were. Your whole systems were still stuck in the 90ies!” she started to pack her things while she kept talking “and not the good kind of the 90ies like Nirvana, the Nintendo 64 or DVDs! No, I am talking Tamagotchis or Justin Timberlake’s hair!”
All she wanted was to get her pay and leave that miserable place with all its false pretenses and built up facades behind and get back to her own life. One that maybe wasn’t blessed with a whole lot of money (or any for that matter) but at least she knew the people that surrounded her really cared for her as much as she cared for them.
“The rules were simple, Miss Smoak. I won’t let anyone take advantage just because they think they’re smarter than me... I will happily pay for the hours you’ve spent on the software updates, but everything else is on you.”
“Well, you should probably take one of those couple massages again.” Felicity growled, “maybe they’ll also help to unknot your obnoxious attitude.”
“So you were listening!” Oliver yelled at her in response “That’s it. You’re fired!”
“Oh YEAH??!”
“YEAH!”
“Well, guess what! You still owe me over three thousand dollars!“ Felicity grabbed her bag and toolkit in a rush and pushed past him. There was no way she would back down to him. Not after he had made advance payments to her suppliers to get the job done in that short amount of time. “Do you even have a single clue how technology works nowadays?”
The fracking job HE HAD HIRED her to do!
“You told me to upgrade the ship’s network!” Felicity stumped on deck and turned around, furious “Well your ship’s new wiring just said hi to the 21st century! But I will find a way to make you pay if you don’t!”
“Captain Carl, start the engines!” Oliver yelled up to the bridge as he followed her outside and turned back around to her.
“Yeah? How’s that? You wanna hire a lawyer?” Oliver stepped closer to her, making her back away more and more towards the rail with a predatory like look in his eyes “Take me to court? Please… I will make a field day of it...”
“Ok. Enough!” Felicity pressed her back against the railing and tried to get as much distance between her and him as possible until… Well, until there was no way to go anymore as she had very successfully maneuvered herself into a corner at the far back of the ship. She raised her hand in warning, but it didn’t seem to bother Oliver the slightest “BACK OFF! Or I...”
“Or what?” He came even closer, making her bend away from him even more. It would only need a little...
“BOO!” Oliver pointed his index finger at her nose.
Felicity jerked at Oliver’s sudden movement and before she knew it she lost her balance. She screamed as she fell over the railing, head first into the chilly cold water of the harbor with a loud splash.
She fought to get back to the surface and when she finally did she was even madder than she had been the moment Oliver Queen had told her he wouldn’t be paying for her work… and all she wanted to do in that second was jump on him and scratch out his ridiculously blue eyes as she heard the yacht’s engines starting.
“HEY asshole!!” she yelled back and spluttered, paddling wildly to keep herself afloat while her clothes suddenly felt like lead weights on her body, “I think you still owe me some money!!”
“HEY!” Oliver, who had obviously watched her, yelled back as the yacht gathered speed “and here I was thinking you couldn’t get wet after all!! Guess we were both mistaken! And now I owe my friend 200 bucks!”
Felicity could only watch him picking up the tool bag from where she’d lost it on the floor of the ship “HERE! I’m not a thief after all!” and threw it in her direction together with her new and really expensive tablet.
HER BABY!!
Felicity swum as fast as she could towards her slowly drowning stuff in the water, cursing loudly when she could finally grab it. Now all she had to do was to somehow get to the shore…
And END Oliver Queen for what he just did.