Chapter Text
Chapter One
Felicity wiped the fog off of the bathroom mirror, her image reflected through the few remaining streaks. "Son of a bitch." She groaned quietly when she tried to raise her right arm. She hoped it wasn't dislocated. She hated going to the hospital, they asked too many questions. How many times would they believe her that she just fell or tripped?
Running a brush through her wet hair with her left hand, which was awkward seeing as she was right handed, she caught a glimpse of the bruise that was forming on her right cheek bone fading up the side of her face. Panic ran throughout her body, he had never left bruises on her face before. Marks on her arms or legs yes, but never the face. She wasn't sure if it comforted her or scared her that he'd been deliberate enough during his rages to not leave visible signs for other people to see. It would be harder to hide the marks on her face.
She turned toward the bathroom door when she heard a faint knocking. "Felicity...Felicity are you almost ready?" The young boy’s voice called out. "I'll be out in just a second okay buddy." "Yes ma’am, I'm gonna grab a pop tart, do you want one?" Felicity smiled....he was the sole reason why she was still where she was today. She'd never leave him alone with his dad, the thought scared her to death.
Opening the door just a crack she peeked through to look at her step-son. "That sounds great, just be careful with the toaster. And before you say 'But Fel..I'm ten.' I know you are but it still scares me when you use appliances." Her step-son laughed. "Felicity a toaster is not an appliance. And you’re only scared because you caught our last one on fire." "Seven stitches." She thought. "That was when I got seven stitches. " Her husband had thrown the toaster at her, furious that she'd burnt the toast so badly that she set it on fire.
Forcing a smile she replied, "Touche. I'll be out in a second okay. Oh, guess what. Today after school I'm taking you to your father's house. He just flew in last night so you get to spend the weekend with him. I know your dad or your mom usually takes you but they couldn't get off work so I'm going to drive you." She had never met William's real father, her husband had always insisted on either him or Samantha being the one to drop William off whenever he would go there.
William wasn't Adrian's biological son, but he had raised William as his own child along with his ex-wife Samantha. They had only filled her in on parts of the past. Apparently when Adrian and Samantha were still married she had a drunken one night stand with her friend Oliver Queen, resulting in William. The whole thing had caused Adrian and Samantha's marriage to fall apart. But they had continued to share custody.
William's biological father, Oliver, was in a line of work that was dangerous. She had heard rumors around town but all Adrian would tell her was Oliver loved William and wanted to protect him so he tried to keep as much distance as possible so he could live a normal life without guards constantly at his side. "And what could be more safe than living your life with a police detective?" She thought sadly.
Felicity and Adrian Chase had been married for six months before he first hit her. He had worked late one night and when he came in she made an innocent comment, no meaning behind it at all. She had simply said, "Wish you would have called to let me know you would be late, I would have keep your dinner warm for you." He picked up the dish of food and threw it at her. When it hit the wall it shattered. He threw her to the floor telling her to clean it up and when she didn't do it fast enough, he kicked her. Felicity was going to leave, in the middle of the night she packed a bag but she couldn't make it completely down the hall. The door with the blue wooden letters that spelled out her step son's name stopped her in her tracks. How on earth could she leave that little boy all alone in this house. And who would believe that a decorated police officer would be so violent. So had she turned around and stayed.
Felicity threw on a pair of jeans and a fitted burgundy long sleeve top, then ran a brush through her hair again. She had covered the bruise with concealer and blush and left her hair hanging down around her shoulders hoping no one would notice the faint bruising. Placing her black rimmed glasses on her face, slightly wincing as they made contact with a portion of the covered bruise, Felicity put on a fake smile.
Grabbing her keys and slipping on her favorite pair of flats, adorned with prints of cartoonish panda faces, they hurried out of the house as Felicity told William to run to the car. "Frack, we are so going to be so late."
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Felicity sat outside of her step-son's school waiting for the final bell to ring. There were a few other moms sitting on benches and gathered in small groupings on the sidewalk as well as several others in cars waiting to pick up their children. Some were standing together talking and looking her way every now and then. She could hear a word or sentence here and there. "Wonder why he isn't here.....He's so hot....Those eyes....I'd fuck him." The last comment had made her turn and look their direction. She hadn't met Mr. Queen but she had seen the pictures of him in William's room and of course in the newspaper, he wouldn't have given the two women the time of day. "Well if he has any taste." She thought with a laugh.
Obviously they knew that William's real father was home and were disappointed that he hadn't made an appearance to pick up the boy. Why she didn't understand, he never picked him up from school or in public for that matter. It would pose too much of a danger. It was harder to control a situation in the open.
A few minutes after the bell rang William came running down the front steps of the school. "Felicity...are we going to my dad's now?" She gave him a squeeze as he tucked into her left side. After kissing the top of his head she said, "Yes, but I thought on the way we could get some ice cream. What do you think about that?" William smiled widely at her, "Yes...umm....where's the car?" "At home, I thought we could walk. It's a such a pretty day and your father's place isn't that far from here. Plus walking means we can get that ice cream and not worry about making a mess in the car." Plus driving that morning had proved to be a problem, it had hurt like hell to just hold the steering wheel much less doing the actual steering. So she decided walking was a better option.
After a short walk and several minutes inside the ice cream shop trying to decide between Superhero Swirl or Moose Tracks, Felicity and William were on their way in the direction of his father's penthouse. William was devouring his Moose Tracks double scoop ice cream cone while Felicity struggled with just trying to hold onto her Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream cone and carrying the container of his father's scoop of vanilla ice cream. She was going to get his father the same thing she had gotten when William started laughing. Apparently he was more of a vanilla man.
"Hey...William buddy...you want to do me a favor?" He smiled up at Felicity, his face covered in chocolate ice cream. "Sure...anything for you Fel." Leaning over she gave him a peek on the cheek. "First thank you, that was sweet and second can you carry this for me? You're so much stronger than me." She nudged him with her hip. "Sure thing." He replied taking the container from her.
"Well looks like we're here." Felicity said as the entrance for Starling City Towers, the building that Oliver Queen lived in, came into view. "Your coming in right Felicity? I want my dad to meet you." She would have rather not, she had so much stuff to get done before Adrian got home and her arm was really hurting. She needed to stop by the drugstore to pick up some ibuprofen on the way home too. But the look on her step-son's face, she could never tell him no when he looked at her like that. She always blamed it on the eyes. Those blue eyes could talk her into just about anything, if he'd ask her to knock over a bank, she'd probably do it. "Okay, but just for a minute." William jumped up and down. "Yay!!!" “Yup, Panda mask and all I'd willingly march straight into Starling First National demanding it was a stick up. Why do they call it a stick up? Who’s holding sticks up while being robbed? Seems like a good way to get shot by the robbers if you're just free willy nilly waving around sticks.” She silently rambled.
William ran the last few feet to the building entrance and was greeted by a large hulk of a man. He looked intimidating and rather like he had no sense of humor until he caught sight of the little boy. "Hey Willinator." He held up his hand for William to give him a high five but it was just out of the boy's reach. That however didn't stop William from jumping up and trying to make contact. "Your getting closer buddy. How much have you grown since the last time I saw you? Like three feet or something?" The man said with a laugh lifting William up into a big hug. "I don't know....maybe. I can reach the top shelf on the fridge now." William replied with a smile. Turning to look over at Felicity, William tugged on the large man's collar. "Uncle Dig...this is my step-mom, Felicity. Felicity this is like the most awesomest of awesome guards. His name is John Diggle, but you can call him Diggle or Dig. He has a double black belt in karate. Isn't that cool?"
Felicity smiled reaching forward to shake the man's outstretched hand. "The coolest. Don't think I've ever met a double black belt before. It's really nice to meet you Mr. Diggle. I don't know if they said anything but I'm dropping...." Diggle interrupted her before she could finish. "First of all, call me Dig and second Oliver informed us that William's step-mom would be dropping him off today. You've been cleared. You two can go on up, here you go buddy." The man added as he let William down to the ground. "Your dad is waiting for you." Diggle opened the door for Felicity and William to pass through. “Nice to meet you Ms. Chase.” He smiled back at Felicity. With a slight shake of her head and a smile of her own she likewise corrected Dig. “Felicity, call me Felicity.” “Will do.”
The whole elevator ride up William rambled about his dad. He rode a motorcycle but William had to wear a helmet when he rode with him and judging from the look on her step-son's face, he'd rather not wear one. He played pool and no one was better at it than him. He lifted weights on a regular basis, climbed amazingly high on something called a salmon ladder, and in fact William could hang from one of his arms and his dad could lift him way in the air. "All the way to the ceiling." He bragged. She hid her smile behind her hand. She kinda thought that might be an exaggeration.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open revealing an empty hallway. Stepping off Felicity realized that there were only two apartments on the floor. Each situated on either side of the elevator. William ran out the open doors toward the penthouse on the left and began ringing the door bell over and over again. "William...don't do that. That's rude honey. People don't like you to do that." William looked at her with a funny look on his face. She didn't know his dad. It was their game.
From the other side of the closed door Felicity heard a deep voice call out. "Whose there?" William giggled. "Me." The man's voice who she assumed was William's dad replied. "Me who?" William laughed even more. "Me dad." She could hear the man working to control his laughter. "Me dad who?" William doubled over in laughter. "Daaaad." Just as the door swung open. "Dad!!!" William squealed as he launched himself into the man's arms.
He was tall and broad. And Felicity could tell William was right, he lifted weights on a daily basis. She was pretty sure if she took the time she could count each and every muscle that covered his body. As her eyes moved upwards she saw a set of familiar eyes looking at her step-son. He definitely had his father's eyes. His face was….well she couldn’t think of a better way to describe Mr. Queen than an Adonis God. “Strong jawline, light scruff, chiseled cheekbones and I'm getting carried away…focus woman, focus.” She mentally admonished herself. The pictures in the papers didn't do him justice, he was very handsome. His light brown hair was short and stood in a disarray of short spikes.
"Hey buddy...it's good to see you. Well what I can see of you underneath all of that chocolate." Felicity held her breath, right now would be when there was lots of yelling because she had allowed William to become such a mess. But instead William's father laughed. "Did you actually get any in your stomach or did you just smear it all over your face?" William laughed. "No dad, I ate it..it was sooo good. Felicity let me pick it all by myself. We got you some too. Don't worry it’s vanilla." William said reassuringly. Oliver actually looked relieved. "Okay, thanks buddy." His father took the container and sat it down on the table beside his couch.
The man turned to look at her, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I'm Oliver...Oliver Queen. You must be Adrian's wife, Felicity. It's nice to finally meet you." He said as he reached out his right arm to shake her hand. Involuntarily, Felicity raised her own right arm to shake and winced when she remembered her hurt arm. Lowering her arm she awkwardly extended her left and shook. An electric shock ran threw her hand and up her arm at their contact. Looking at their connected hands for a moment Felicity slowly slid her hand from his. "Mr. Queen." He shook his head. "It's Oliver. Call me Oliver." He was distracted for a moment, when they had touched he had felt a shock run through his body. That had never happened to him before.
Felicity smiled and corrected her greeting. "Oliver...it's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you. William talks about you all the time." Oliver smiled back as he lowered William to the ground. "He talks about you all the time too. I think I probably know more about you than you know about yourself." He was confused by the look of....fear...that flashed across her face. Felicity darted her eyes around the room. "Well...ummm...it was really nice to meet you but...umm..William honey, I really need to get going." William ran into her side causing her to flinch at the contact with her right arm. She let out a sharp breath and suddenly felt really sick at her stomach.
Felicity closed her eyes, concentrating on breathing in through her nose and out of her mouth, trying to steady her now queasy stomach. She pushed her hair off of her face As tiny beads of perspiration began to slide down her face. As she pushed back her hair Oliver noticed a faint purplish bruise on her cheek running upwards underneath her rimmed glasses. Most people wouldn't have noticed it but he'd had enough bruises in his life. But the most noticeable thing was the look of agony that was on her face. When William had ran into her she had flinched as if it hurt really bad.
"Hey...William buddy. Why don't you run upstairs and put your stuff in your room? Don't worry, Felicity isn't going anywhere yet." William gave her one more squeeze as Oliver watched her flinch once again, she was obviously in pain. William quickly ran upstairs to his room.
Oliver waited until he was out of hearing range to turn to look at Felicity. "Hey..hey...you okay?" He asked moving quickly to her side when he noticed her face was pale and she looked like she might pass out. "I'm...I'm fine." She tried to smile but it didn't exactly look sincere. Oliver reached his hands out to support her and she instinctively pulled back. The only time anyone got that close to her was to hurt her. Oliver whispered, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to look at your arm."
There was something in his eyes, a look on his face. It was sincerity and for some reason she trusted him. Oliver rubbed his hands together several times fast, the motion fascinated Felicity for some odd reason. He then gently placed his hand on her neck then slowly ran it down toward her arm. She winced in pain as he touched the top of her shoulder. He slid his hand under her arm and nudged it just a little bit. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder with her left arm to brace herself. "Felicity, I think you dislocated your arm. I need to take you to the hospital." Felicity shook her head quickly. "No...no hospitals. I....I hate hospitals. It will be okay, I'll be okay. I just need to rest. Put some ice on it or is it heat. Do you know if it’s ice or heat for a bruised shoulder? Not that it would be specific to a shoulder, the ice or heat thing. But I just can never remember if you should use ice or…" Suddenly aware of her rambling, Felicity stopped midsentence, Adrian hated her rambles. Oliver simply listened, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Almost mirroring William’s own crooked smile.
"Felicity...dislocated shoulders don't just get better. They have to be popped back into place. Felicity how did you do this?" That same look of fear that had crossed her face a few moments ago flashed in her eyes again but she quickly pushed it away and said. "I…I was moping and slipped on the floor. William doesn't know cause he'd worry about me, but really it’s not a big deal." Oliver wasn't sure if he completely believed her story. Sure it could happen, people slip and fall all the time but there was this look in Felicity's eyes. Something just felt off to Oliver. She was so afraid of something, accidentally falling wouldn't make you afraid.
Oliver thought for a moment. "Okay look...I can't just let you leave like this and you don't want to go to the hospital. I've got another option but I'm not sure you’re going to like it." Felicity looked up at him, she'd probably regret it but she really had no other option cause if she didn't at least see what he was offering he was probably going to throw her over his shoulder and force her into the hospital. He looked like he'd do something like that. "It will hurt but I can pop it back into place. I know how, I've had mine dislocated several times and had to fix mine myself a couple of times." Felicity was suddenly sick at her stomach for an entirely different reason. At least at the hospital they'd give you drugs first, nice mind loopy pain numbing drugs but she didn't have another option that wouldn't involve an inquest.
With her eyes closed she reluctantly agreed. "Okay. Umm how bad does it hurt exactly?" He wouldn't lie to her. "It hurts like hell but not as bad as it does now. Well maybe for a second it hurts a lot worst but then its over." Felicity laughed slightly. "You know you're a horrible salesman. You could at least spin it for me a little bit. Make it sound like unicorns and glitter are going to appear for some reason or some nonsense." Oliver looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Why? That would be a lie. It's going to hurt so I told you it's going to hurt." It wasn’t a rude reply, simply an honest reply on his part. Felicity saw a mixture of sincerity, concern, and sympathy in his eyes.
Oliver involuntarily let out a soft laugh, he let his arm fall back to his side as he moved toward the stairs in his penthouse. As he walked away she heard him mumble something about unicorns and glitter as he shook his head. "William buddy?" He called upstairs. Felicity leaned her body against the desk that was just across from the front door and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her shirt sleeve. William came running down the stairs at a full tilt run. "Yeah dad." Oliver smiled at his son. "Hey buddy. Can you do me a favor? I need you to run next door to Uncle Matteo's for just a minute. You can take your DS with you and play with Morgan for a little bit. He's spending the weekend with his dad. I'll call Uncle Matteo when I'm done okay?" William nodded in agreement as he ran and grabbed his game system from one of the small series of wooden cubes under the television.
William was almost out the door when he turned back and looked at Felicity. "Your not leaving yet are you?" Felicity smiled as best as she could. "Nope, wouldn't dream of leaving without telling my favorite guy in the whole wide world bye. Pinky swear.” She replied wiggling her left pinky in the air, quickly adding. “You go have fun with Morgan, I'll be here when you get back." William smiled then ran out the door closing it behind him.
Oliver turned to look at his son's step-mother. "You okay?" Felicity smiled. "I could say I'm just peachy but since we're being honest and telling the whole truth and all. Frack no...it hurts like a son of a bitch." Oliver couldn't help laughing. "I might have something that can help that a little bit." And he turned walking over to a cabinet setting up against the wall next to the stairs. He took a bottle of what looked like whiskey to her and poured half of a glass then brought it over to her. "Drink this...it will take the edge off. And then...I need you to take your shirt off." Felicity had just taken a sip of the drink he had handed her, she nearly choked on it when he asked her to take her shirt off. Oliver had a smile on his face. "I didn't mean it to come out that way. I just need you to take your shirt off so I can see the joint in your shoulder so I can make sure I pop it the correct way. I have to be able to feel skin on skin to tell its going the correct way."
Felicity thought about it for a moment and it made sense, at least she hoped it did. Setting down her drink she started to pull up the hem of her shirt when she realized it was impossible. "I think...I think I need some help." Oliver suddenly felt unsure of what he was about to do. He'd just met this woman all of ten minutes ago and now he was asking her to strip down in front of him. But still he reached out and slowly pulled her shirt off of her body.
Suddenly feeling very vulnerable, Felicity couldn't help nervously cracking a joke. "Damn this has to be some sort of a record." Oliver looked at her in confusion. "I mean seriously, I met you what ten minutes ago and you've already managed to get liquor in me and sand now you're stripping me out of my clothes. I mean, I’m sure women love having you strip them out of their clothes. You probably have a ton of volunteers cause well you’re sort of gorgeous. Like male model gorgeous. Like Adonis gorgeous." Aware of her embarrassingly nervous ramble Felicity paused to collect her thoughts. “3….2….1, sorry sometimes I ramble random errant thoughts when I’m nervous or about to hack from impending excruciating pain apparently.” Oliver simply smiled. “It’s okay.”
He then stepped directly in front of Felicity and positioned his hands on her shoulder and body. "I promise to be as easy as I can. And Felicity?" He asked as he moved his hands a bit more. "What?" she asked looking into his eyes as he stared intently into hers. "I'm sorry." Oliver said, his voice laced full off apology as he pulled her arm causing Felicity to scream out in pain.