Nothing but my money
The past few days were tense. After S.H.I.E.L.D.’s had fallen there was limited correct and updated information about enhanced people, agents and secret operations in the net. Felicity’s current relationship with the Avengers didn’t provide her the information she needed about their wellbeing.The media and news couldn’t rank as a reliable information. Everything they reported was gossip. She couldn’t care less where Tony Stark currently lived, what was the status on his relationship with Pepper Pots, whether Thor or Captain America was the strongest avenger or if Natasha had a love interest. She didn’t care, because she knew all the answers, and frankly, it wasn’t important.
What was important, however, was where they were on a mission and what they were trying to actually accomplish. Why were they showing all around the world, and most importantly, why were now currently in Sokovia?
After their job for the night was done Felicity relaxed on her chair, sinking in thoughts. Digg had promised her Chinese food, so the little she could do while wait was to think.
She couldn’t actually call her father, no. She had promised him that she would stay out of his avenger-work and all the shit that came with it. They would talk about once or twice a month, catching up (which was mostly Felicity lying about how perfectly boring her life has been and her dad refusing to talk about his job.)
So the only thing she could actually think of was to hack in the tower. She could make Jarvis lie for her, right? She had to think of a way to break in the firewalls and reach Jarvis, then maybe ask him about everything, hoping that the AI was actually telling the truth ten years ago when he confirmed that he liked her more than her father.
Still, that was a giant if.
Felicity rubbed her eyes, sat more comfortably in her chair and started working. She had to break every defense system that her father had created and remain undetected, but luckily, she was her father’s daughter. After all she helped creating the damn system.
After what felt like 15 seconds, (but actually she had spent almost 40 minutes glued to her screen) Oliver, Roy and Diggle walked in the layer. Yes, Oliver Queen, her CEO’s son. Yes, the man that returned from the dead, the man who had become the Arrow. Yes, she wasn’t living the most ordinary life. But her story wasn’t what mattered right now. When Felicity heard her teammates she immediately locked her screens, turned and smiled at them, making grabby hands for the food.
“Oh my God, I am starving! Gimme, gimme!” she said as she stole one bag from Digg’s arms and opened the food box like a child would open their Christmas present. Her actions were rewarded with a soft laugh from Diggle, a quiet chuckle from Roy and a pretty smile from Oliver.
She smiled at them and quickly found her chopsticks, took her box and rushed to sit in her favorite (the only one in the room) chair.
“Felicity, what’s our plan for tomorrow?” Oliver asked with a soft voice.
“Well” she said and made a pause, taking her time to chew the food in her mouth “I’ve found the drug dealer who was messing around in the Glades, also, this guy” she unlocked her screen and quickly tried to hide what she was working on, clicking on the file with the information “Vincent, ugh, Stillgrave is planning on moving up his plan for two days from now.”
Oliver only nodded and they all continued to eat in silence. They were all tired. Felicity and Oliver were constantly working on the company, or more accurately how to win it back, Roy was helping Thea day and most of the night reopening Verdant and Digg... Well, Lyla was pregnant and this was enough.
Her phone rang and startled everyone. It was 1 am. Who would possibly call her at 1 am? She looked at her teammates who were starting to panic and quickly reached for her phone. On the screen was a picture of one Tony Stark, eating pizza while Dum-E and Daisy was in the background. She hung up immediately.
“It was my father” she said awkwardly after a minute of silence had passed and worried looks were thrown in her direction.
Thankfully, no one commented. Felicity had worked with her team for almost three years. She knew about their lives, in fact, she knew more than she wanted (for example every girl Oliver slept or went on a date with) but they didn’t know a thing about hers. She would have told them, well, not all of it, but she would have told them if they ever asked. No one did.
And she wasn’t upset with that. If she was being honest she would prefer not having to lie to her friends, but at the same time she was, kind of sad, there was this feeling in her chest, that they didn’t care about her enough. She knew that this was not the truth, but still, she couldn’t help but think that way.
“Felicity, you never talk about your family” Oliver said not long after.
“Well, you never asked” she answered more harshly that intended, but who could blame her.
Like on command the monitors unlocked and a Stark industries logo showed up. Felicity rolled her eyes but she didn’t miss how her teammates straitened and came closer to her. She knew. She knew her father so damn well that she was sure he had bugs and was listening their conversation. He always waited for the perfect moment to show up and spit out some ridiculous line.
“Good evening Ms. Felicity, your father wishes to speak with you!” Jarvis said with his cold computer voice and Oliver came closer. Felicity turned to the screen and she saw an image of her father’s reactor that had been on his chest, keeping him alive since Afghanistan. Then a video chat popped out.
“You’ve bugged my layer!” Felicity said without thinking. ‘my’? It wasn’t hers, no, but right now anger was bubbling up and she was, simply said, furious.
How could he do this? When did he do this? It wasn’t possible. He never visited her in Starling City. Her thoughts ran as fast as they could in her mind. He never said anything about her job, never mentioned one thing about the Arrow, he never even implied that he knew.
“You tried to hack my building!” her father responded quickly. That brought her back to reality. He wasn’t looking directly at the camera and he had bruises on his face. So she was right and they were on a mission.
“We built the building together! It’s mine too” Felicity said, anger pouring from her voice
“Sweetie, I’m still alive! I know that you want nothing but my money but at least try to act like you love your old man!” Tony said and she knew he was joking. She closed her eyes and tried not to smile. Yes, she was angry, but she never could stay serious when she was arguing with her father.
“Yes, I could never hide that I stuck with you my whole life because of your money, your power and the mansion- oh wait, that got blown up three years ago!” Felicity said now with a smile on her face. She could feel Oliver moving behind her back. He didn’t say anything, though.
“And you very conveniently ran to Starling City after that!” he said and then focused on the thing he was doing apart from talking to his daughter.
“Lies!” Felicity interrupted her father. “Also, please, don’t fly and talk!” At this point she had forgotten that there were still other people in the room, listening.
“I’m so sorry for interrupting, but what the hell is going on?” Roy asked, and oh boy, she now had no other choice but to tell them everything.
These past few months were calm. It was like that every summer, like the criminals had taken vacation or something like that. But Oliver knew better. It was the calm before storm. He had fallen in one simple, and very peaceful routine. Every night he put on the hood, caught a criminal or two, then he ate with his friends and in the morning he would meet Felicity to try and work out something for the company. Sweet, pure Felicity. He liked her. He liked her a lot, and yes, he may sound like a teenager, but he didn’t care. He cared about her and he couldn’t understand how this ball of sunshine had torn down his walls and managed to give him hope every day.
This evening, however, he found out he knew nothing about her. Yes, she was right to be angry at him for no asking, maybe even thinking he didn’t care. She was wrong. He did care, a lot, and since he had managed to ruin everything beautiful and bright in his life he was scared. He was scared getting to know her more, because he already loved the part of her he knew. And Oliver could easily admit, that yes, he was selfish but he didn’t want to corrupt her.
This evening, however, he understood that he was dead wrong. He stood in the layer, trying to understand what was happening. The person on the screen was no other than Tony Stark, who apparently was Felicity’s dad.
Oliver tried hard. He tried really hard to understand how the fuck did he missed that piece of information. He had researched Felicity before he went asking her for help. He knew Tony Stark’s story, he read about him when he came from the island. He was certain he didn’t have a daughter, at least not known to the world. And if the media hadn’t found about her, yet, then how was he supposed to find out?
He chuckled to himself, trying not to attract any attention from the daughter and father who were currently arguing about hacking and bugging. He was shocked, but he couldn’t help himself being amused as well. He couldn’t imagine what else they could argue about except hacking, knowing both their reputations.
“I’m so sorry for interrupting, but what the hell is going on?” Roy asked out of the blue and all of them turned to look at him.
“You didn’t tell them?” Tony asked and looked at the camera.
“Hey, they didn’t ask!” Felicity defended herself “Anyway, look at your sky” Felicity said a little concerned as if something could hit them as he flew, supposing Stark was on a plane. Oliver heard the man giving an order to someone named Jarvis to ‘take the wheel’ and gave his full attention to them.
“Anyway, what was the reason behind this terrorist attack of yours on my system? Were you trying to spy Cap?” Stark said teasingly and Oliver couldn’t keep the frown spreading on his face. What was the billionaire talking about?
“Dad, please, shut up and please, don’t ever mention that!” Felicity raised her voice a little, and Oliver could see the blush on her face. Excuse me, what? “I was just concerned about the recent news I read. What were you doing in Sokovia?” Felicity asked, clearly ignoring Roy’s question from a minute ago.
“Well, we retrieved something stolen. Also, by the way, thank you for asking, I am fine! So is Brucie, although we had a code green. Nat and Thor say hi, and Barton is sleeping because, well, he is only human!” Tony exclaimed while pointing at, what Oliver could imagine the rest of the Avengers on the plane. A woman could be hardly heard saying ‘is that Felicity?’, and he supposed it was the famous Black Widow.
“What was stolen?” Felicity asked, ignoring her father.
“If you are so keen on finding out come and see. Everyone will be in the tower for one week, then Thor is leaving for Asgard and Clint is going on vacation, did you know he had a wife and children? Everyone will be happy to see you.” Stark said and Oliver could recognize hope in his voice.
That made Oliver think when was the last time Felicity saw her father. She was constantly in Starling, also if Tony had come everyone would have been talking about it. So she had not seen her father for at least two years. Oliver’s mood immediately darkened.
“Yeah dad, I knew… Anyway, I doubt that everyone ‘would be happy to see me’, but I will think about it!” She said.
“Also that invitation is extended for the rest of your team!” and before Tony could say anything she just told him a simple ‘bye dad’ and cut the line.
There was a minute or so of silence. Oliver knew Felicity needed time, he could see Digg was thinking the same but Roy stood there, not knowing what exactly was happening, but the boy didn’t talk, he waited, obviously understanding the importance of giving Felicity time.
Another minute had passed with Felicity staring at the monitor, calculating something and then she turned to them. “My mother died when I was 8 years old.” She said not making eye contact with any of them.
“I was living with her in Las Vegas. I knew who my father was, I knew I was not planned and I knew that my parents had nothing but a one-night stand. When my mother found out that she was pregnant she contacted him” Oliver could see her tears wanting to escape her eyes and could feel the pain in her voice. He clenched his teeth, regretting that he never asked her about her past, assuming it was all flowers and sun.
“I have no idea how” she managed a quiet chuckle “but she found him and told him about me, demanding that she would not make an abortion, that she didn’t want his money, she just wanted him to know that he would soon had a child. My grandparents weren’t so convinced she was telling the truth, but after dozens of test they let my mother be.”
“Anyway, they decided that I should live with my mom in Las Vegas. My name is Smoak, just like hers, dad never wanted the press to find out about me, only wanting to protect me.” She then stopped and took a deep breath. “I was 8 when he showed up and told me about mom’s bus crashed on her way home. Um, he then took me to live with him in Malibu.”
“How did you manage to keep it out of the press?” Digg asked.
“I honestly have no idea. Maybe it was just luck, I don’t know. So I started living with him, went to MIT and graduated at 16. The funny thing was that they had contacted him to give me my diploma at the ceremony because I was the second student to graduate at this age, him being the first, of course.” she laughed slightly at that. Oliver couldn’t help the smile. She then met his gaze. They looked at each other, Oliver obviously proud of her just gave her the most reassuring smile he could make.
“I started working at Stark Industries but didn’t want to make weapons so my job was just to update and take care of all the systems and satellites.” Felicity said as if that was the easiest thing on the planet “But then dad disappeared.”
“Felicity, you don’t need to tell us” Oliver said as he saw how hard was for the woman to talk about this
“No, no, I will, just…” she took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes “Ugh, they took him and for three months I had no idea if he was alive or not. I ugh, was a wreck. Pepper was there for me all of the time even though my father and her weren’t together. When he came back, however, he came with an arc reactor in his chest to keep him alive and with that idea that he no longer wanted to manufacture weapons. I suppose you know that. Anyway I was glad, I was happier that any words can describe but then he locked himself in his workshop, barely left the house. He then became Iron Man, stopped that son of a bitch Obadiah and I think you know the rest.”
She made a pause, Oliver assuming she was waiting for questions. When all she got was silence she continued.
“Everything was kind of okay, except when he was about to die from the arc reactor, but that is another story, until New York. Three years ago when Loki came, that’s when shit got real. The aliens, the giant wormhole, the Avengers… I was done when dad told me to stay in the helicarrier and left me while he was out there, carrying a nuke in a giant worm whole. I was okay him being the Iron Man, until then. I had enough of it so I just packed my bags and went somewhere, where I thought it was peaceful.”
“And still, you are working with us” Oliver said with a small smile on his face.
“Yeah, I think helping people, saving lives, it’s just in my blood” she smiled then and they all laughed quietly.
“So are we going to New York, or what? I haven’t been there for ages.” Digg asked.
“Was that Felicity?” Natasha asked when they landed in New York. Of course she noticed, after all she was one hell of a spy.
“Yes. She tried to hack into the building, because she was worried about the news throughout the net”
“So,” the agent began “She is coming?” Tony only nodded, trying to avoid eye contact with the devil “You sure that’s the right choice?”
“Well, excuse me” Tony said irritated. “She’s my daughter and this is my building. And we’ll be all here for one week, so I invited her to the party.” He could honestly not believe Natasha right now. Who was she to question his actions concerning his own daughter.
“Is she coming alone?”
“I’m not sure if she would come at all, I just invited her. But if she decides to, she won’t be alone.” And with that Tony decided to end the conversation.
They were going in New York. It was decided. Felicity knew her father was hiding something from her and she didn’t like the feeling. So she was going ‘on vacation’ (or rather investigation) with Oliver and Digg. Roy refused to come, making excuse after excuse but Felicity could see that the boy was scared of meeting with her family but he refused to show it. So after a phone call with her dad Tony assured her he would send a plane and four hours later, they were on a flight.
Felicity was sitting in her spot near the table in the center of the jet on a sofa, going through the info her father had sent her before they took off. After a long conversation with her father she managed to make him send her at least the mission report.
This jet was bigger than their family’s plane but let’s not forget Felicity’s dad was Tony freaking Stark, Iron fucking Man, one of the richest people alive, one of the smartest too. Oliver still couldn’t believe that this was true. He had never asked Felicity about her family, that was for sure, but he didn’t want to push her to tell him her whole life. He though that when she wanted to talk about it she would.
He knew his Felicity was special. His? She was simply helping him with his job, not wanting anything more than friendship between them. He was not blind, he spotted that she blushed when he touches her and that she started stuttering every time he smiled at her but it was not like that. Or at least he thought so.
He said that he loved her not long ago, when they fought with Slade and he then ment it with all of his heart but she thought it was all about winning and beating Deathstroke. Then she brought him a plant, a bed and everything that he needed to live in the foundry. They spent almost all of the day together, she would come right after she had woke up, bringing him coffee and talking about the firm, the team, missions and targets. It was great, but why the fuck she didn’t tell him about her parents and the whole situation that she was living in.
He went to the sofa, sit next to her and offered a small smile. She smiled him back. He could see her worried eyes, he wasn’t exactly sure why she was worried in the first place, but tried to calm her a little.
“Felicity, can I ask you a question?” Oliver said with his softest voice, trying to reassure her in any way. When her eyes met his, the corner of her lips twitched up and she nodded slightly. “When was the last time you saw your father?”
“Um. I think it was after the Undertaking. When you disappeared me and Digg tried to find you. I went in New York for a month or so, my father was having an operation to remove his arc reactor and I went to see him, I guess.”
“So you haven’t seen him in a year?” Oliver asked.
“Well, you can see we are not in a typical father-daughter relationship. We had a pretty big fight after the battle of New York and after I left I kinda stopped talking with him, or anyone else, actually. But then the Mandarin blow our house in Malibu and I started working with you. That got me thinking that maybe it was not fair to blame him for what happened.”
She had said that last sentence and then he realized. She was hurt, and maybe, the battle wasn’t the reason. He debated whether he should ask her or not. But what had restraining brought him into. He found out that he knew nothing about the blonde girl and after last night, after she told them her story, he decided he would not hold anything more.
“Felicity, what happened after Loki?” He finally asked, breaking the silence.
“Ah, figured you’d ask. Nothing good, that’s for sure.”
And what was that supposed to mean?
“Hey, guys, I need to tell you something” Tony went to the hall. They were all there, eating Chinese food. It was Thor’s favorite and since he was leaving soon he was demanding to order Chinese at least once a day.
“What’s up, Tony?” said Barton with full mouth of food. Just being his ordinary Barton self.
“I called Felicity and she is coming. I told her that Thor was leaving and that we found Loki’s scepter and that we are all together just for a week and she’s coming. Tony explained as he searched the rice.
“Is she coming alone?” Natasha asked. Oh, she was a snake. Tony knew what the agent was doing, so he decided he would go full force on her.
“Why wouldn’t she coming alone?” Cap asked. Oh, poor thing, thought Tony. He knew nothing, and even Natasha didn’t tell him.
“She’s bringing Oliver Queen and John Diggle. Before you could ask who are they, you may know them as the Arrow and that guy who is helping him but still doesn’t have a code name.” He explained. He would do anything to capture Steve’s face. That was actually an idea, and he made a note in the back of his mind to put a camera on his next sunglasses.
“The Arrow? As that Arrow that is doing “some good” for his city and believes that he’s making some change?” Barton asked “Where did she found him? And most importantly why is she working with him?”
“Didn’t she leave to get a normal life? Why she teamed up with this guy?” Steve asked worried.
“I don’t know guys. Actually, I lied, I know, but let’s just say that you can ask her when she comes.” As Tony was defending his daughter Jarvis spoke
“Miss Stark has landed on the top floor.”
“Jarvis please tell her to come here, along with mister Queen and mister Diggle.” Tony said.
A minute later from the elevator walked out Felicity and two other men.
"Hi dad!" she ran to him and hugged him.
"Hey sweetie, I'm so glad to see you finally." he said and looked at Oliver with his stoned look. He had done that with all the boys Felicity introduced to him ever. "You must be John Diggle, it's a pleasure" they shaked hands
"It's a huge honor, Mister Stark" he smiled
"And this must be Oliver Queen, the man that returned from the dead." he felt all stares at both of them now. He also noticed that Clint and Natasha were ready for a fight, Thor and Steve were ready to stand up immediately and Felicity was looking at him angry. “I am really happy to finally meet you. I have heard a lot of great things from your father about you and your sister, um, Thea? Yes, Thea! I am really sorry about him tho, and for your mother too, Moira was so pleasant to do business with her. I am looking forward to making business with you too, Oliver!” he smiled.