Part 2 Of Oliver and Felicity's First Christmas (four parts)

          The next morning Felicity sat at the table with coffee making her final shopping list.   Everything had been so chaotic in her life with the team breaking up, Oliver on trial as a vigilante, and added to that having her mother home for Christmas she had no time for Helix Tech let alone shopping for Christmas.  She struggled over what to give William.  She  knew she  couldn’t replace  his  mother, and she didn’t want to,  but she loved him just the same  as a mother.   Oliver had entered the room,  said hello, and she  didn’t respond.   “Felicity!”  She nearly jumped out of her skin spilling  coffee all over her list. 

“Oliver, don’t creep up on me like that.”

He smiled and bent down to kiss her on the neck, and he spied the list and went to reach for it, but she stopped him.

“No, you don’t No peeking!” 

“I’m surprised you are not all done with shopping.  You’re always so on top of everything,” he said, teasing.

“I have had a few distractions like battling crazy Nazis, trying to find a criminal mastermind, and …” She had almost said, losing the team when out of the corner of eye she saw William enter the kitchen. “a slightly unplanned wedding.”

“What’s going on in here?”  William asked, smiling a rare smile. 

“Felicity has not finished her Christmas shopping, and I happen to hold the list in my hands.” 

“Let me see it, Oliver.”  Oliver slowly reached the list out to William, who reached for it, but Felicity quickly grabbed it.

“You’re as bad as your father,” Felicity said smiling.  “Anyone caught snooping won’t get their present.”

“Is that going to hold true for you too, Felicity, because I think I remember you trying to find where Oliver might of hidden your gift.”  William smiled this huge smile, and both Oliver and Felicity noticed that this was the happiest he had seemed in a long while.

Felicity played along,  “William!”  Then Oliver chimed in, “Felicity, were you snooping around the closet that I told you not to look into?”

Her eyes looked big and she shrugged her shoulders, and then Donna came in.  “It’s okay, Oliver, Son… I love saying that, anyway, I know my daughter well. I would have to take the gift I bought for her and give it to a neighbor,  so she wouldn’t find out what I had gotten her.”

“Mom!  Did you really take them to Mrs. Peterson’s?”

“I did.  I knew you were terrified of her and would never go into her place.”

William started laughing.  Donna continued, “So, Son, I took the gifts out of the closet, and a word of  advice, don’t ever tell Felicity not look  somewhere, it’s the first place  she’ll go.”

“Mom, don’t you have any plans for the day?”

“In fact I do.” Before she could answer the doorbell rang.  Quentin Lance stood there, and Donna grabbed her coat and purse and left with him.  Both Oliver and Felicity stood there staring.  William broke the silence with, “They look nice together.”   They both turned back and stared at William.

Felicity and Oliver both went to the mayoral office together.  In the car ride there, Oliver told her what Lance had to say about Vincent Sobel.  Rene saw, or at least he thought he saw Anatoly with Vincent, but when he followed them into the Statesman’s Club, they disappeared.    Oliver told Felicity that Anatoly couldn’t possibly be in Star City, but Felicity had her doubts, but Oliver reassured her that he would make some contacts to see if he could find out where Anatoly had been. 

   They spent some time at the office together and then Felicity went back to her old apartment to work on her Helix project.  She wondered how it would be working with Curtis again, and knew it would be awkward, but Curtis wasn’t there, at least not yet.

Later in the day Felicity went back to Oliver’s office to work with him.  William had said he would come there after school, and they would all go home together.   She was surprised to see Rene there.   She then wondered why Curtis had not gone to Helix.  William looked  so happy.  He had gotten an A on his semester final in Algebra, and couldn’t wait to tell both Oliver and Felicity.  Then he said, “Da..uh Oliver..” Felicity grabbed Oliver’s arm and she could feel the deep breath that he took, William almost called him Dad. 

“Oliver, you said we could have a party and I could invite anyone I want, I just want us and Thea, Mr. Diggle, and Rene, Curtis, and Dinah. I mean they are like family, right?” 

Rene spoke first, “Gee, thanks, William, but I have my daughter Zoe now and…”

“She can come too, can’t she?”

Felicity reached for  Oliver’s arm, and  held it and said, “Sure, right, Oliver, I mean we did say, well, you said it, but.. ,

 “ Oliver said, “Yeah, that’s what we said.”

“Thanks, Hoss, but I don’t know.”

“Please, and could you tell the others its tomorrow night?” William replied.

“Yes, that’s fine, tell the others that William would be disappointed,” said Oliver.

“Sure, Hoss, see you tomorrow night.” 

Donna and Lance entered and Lance said they had an emergency that needed Felicity’s help, so Donna and William went back home.

The Green Arrow and Spartan entered the lair looking a little more than frustrated.  Felicity spoke first, “You two nearly got yourselves killed out there. “

“My arm is better, but it’s not where it should  be.  Curtis said he had some work he needed to do.”

“Yeah, if you can get him to show up for work, let me know.”

“Felicity, I am sure we were up against Anatoly’s people, didn’t you have eyes on that opening.”

“I did, but it was if someone else did too. I almost thought someone else had control along with me, but I’ve checked the system, and that can’t be.  Oliver, we need the whole team back.”

“We did just fine without them before, and we can do it again.”

“Oliver, that’s before my arm got injured, and before we had the whole Russian mob against us.  We need more eyes, and you understand why Rene did what he did.”

“John, what I  need are people I can trust. I can’t be fighting alongside with people who will go off and do their own thing without making me aware of it.”

Oliver looked at Felicity and said, “Do you agree with John?” 

“I understand where John’s coming from, Oliver, but I always will stand with you.”  She looked up into his eyes with love.  She understood where John  came  from, and  she agreed with him to a point, but she also understood Oliver, and  she knew how important trust was.  She would always stand with Oliver. Always.

Oliver invited John to come back with them, but he wanted to go home to Lila and little John, adding, that his whole family would be with them tomorrow night.

Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and they would have their first Christmas party in their own place.  They both had gone in to see William before he went to sleep, and he seemed happier than he had in a long time.  Donna had gone out with Lance, and Oliver and Felicity sat on the sofa. Felicity wrapped in her green afghan , and Oliver just staring at her. “You’re beautiful, you know that don’t you?”   She laughed, and reached out to take his hand.  “You’re not bad yourself, Mr. Queen.”  He pulled her close, and then she suddenly jumped up,  “Not here.  Not now.  William might come in.”

“Felicity, what’s wrong?”

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong.  What makes you think something’s wrong, let’s just, continue this in here, “ she said, as she pulled him to the bedroom while kissing him.  Once in the bedroom, she began looking  all around the room, and Oliver stood confused.  She mouthed “bug” to him and pointed to the living room.   They both checked the bedroom, then went back into the living room and  destroyed the bug  in there.  “That’s a very high tech bug,” Felicity said, “How did it get in here, and who did it?”

“It’s got to be Cayden  James, but how  did he get it in here?“  They went to see Raisa,waking her up, and she said the only person she let in when no one else was home was Laurel Lance.  They both looked at each other. She told them that Laurel said she needed to find something Mr. Lance left in the living room. She told me I could back to cooking and she would let herself out and not to worry.  After a little while, she heard the door close. 

In Cayden James’ lair he turned to Anatoly, and said, “Well, they finally found it.  I thought Ms. Smoak-Queen, would have found long before this.” 

Laurel entered and said, “Now, what will we do?”

“I have plans, Ms. Lance, and this just fits right into them.  My next move will deal a blow that will hurt Oliver very much, and may possibly destroy Felicity.”