Chapter Text
Oliver Queen woke up happy. Part of him thought he should be used to the sensation by now, but it still happened every morning, and every morning he took a moment to revel in it.
His wife was tucked up against him, his little spoon, blonde hair covering half of her face, a bit of it tickling his cheek. He could tell by her breathing she was awake too, so he propped his head on his hand to gaze down at her.
“Good morning,” he murmured.
Felicity made a happy, sleepy, grumbly noise and wriggled around until she was on her back. She shoved a foot between his knees, laced her fingers together under her breasts, and finally opened one eyelid a crack.
“Mmmff,” she said. Oliver leaned forward enough to leave a light kiss on her brow.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” He used his sexy voice.
Both eyes opened and she turned her head to see him better. “That the invention of the air conditioner essentially killed the paperweight industry?”
“Umm...what?”
“Okay, hear me out.” Her hands emerged from under the covers so she could scratch her elbow. “Once everyone went to air conditioning they stopped opening their windows. No open windows, no drafts. No drafts, no need for paperweights.”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking at all, believe it or not.” He slipped a hand under the covers to trace a pattern lightly on her stomach. No need to tell Overwatch to take a hike; Felicity had reprogrammed all the bedroom cameras so they would only record if a window was broken or if there was an intruder detected in another part of the house. “Is that the ONLY thing you were thinking?”
She peered up at him from under her lashes and pulled her lower lip between her teeth. Oliver growled.
“I have to pack for my trip.”
“Your flight isn’t until 5:30, Felicity.”
“I know. But I have to go over my presentation again and—“
“Felicity.”
She sighed but waited for him to go on.
“Can we talk about this please? We’ve danced around it for months.”
“Oliver, I just think we’re on different pages about this.” She wiggled back to lean against the headboard and he straightened his arm and sat up.
“Okay, well it would be helpful if you’d tell me what page you’re on. You said yourself that you can take a bit of a break after this trip, so this seems like the logical time. Honey, William is going to be fifteen this year. I’d like to have both our kids in the same house with us for a couple of years, at least.”
“But you just became a State Senator.”
“So? I’ll be in session three months of the year. The rest of it I’ll be a stay-at-home dad. It’s not like we can’t afford it.”
“And those three months?”
“We’ll get a nanny. We’ll get—“ he waved a hand around—“Super Nanny.” She huffed a laugh and he took her hand in his, sensing a victory. “We can do this, Felicity. I want us to do this.” He leaned in to kiss her softly. “I want to make a baby with you.”
He stayed where he was, so close they were both almost cross-eyed.
“I have to take a shower,” she said softly.
She didn’t invite him to join her.
——————————————————-
“Your last budget to sign off on, boss.”
“Thanks, Liz.” Oliver glanced up from his report. “How’s the job search going?”
“Lousy. You?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I just landed a decent gig. Fewer hours, but the pay sucks. Come work for me.”
“At the State House? The Old Boys Club? No thanks.”
“C’mon, Liz. Be the change you want to see.”
She pointed a finger at him. “None of your campaign mumbo jumbo, Mr Mayor.”
He grinned.
“Hey Oliver. Felicity’s on the phone.”
He opened his mouth to reply but Liz beat him to it.
“It’s Mr Mayor at work, Overwatch.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Put her through, Overwatch. And then order the usual from the deli. Noon delivery.”
“You got it, Liz.”
Oliver shook his head in wonder as she left his office and closed the door. Everybody got along with his security system better than he did.
“Hey. This a good time?”
“For you? Always.”
“I thought I’d stop by a minute on my way to the airport. Are you free around 2:30?”
He smiled into the air. A simple inquiry to Overwatch would’ve given her the answer.
“I’m free. Stop on by.”
“Okay, great. We still need to decide on a gift, for the shower. For John and Lyla’s...for the...thing.”
“The baby. You can say the word, Felicity. I promise not to freak out.”
He was going for funny, but it was met with only silence. He sighed. “I’ll see you around 2:30 and we’ll take care of it.”
“Okay. See you.”
“Bye.”
His eyes dropped to his desk and the object sitting next to a photo of his wife and son. ARGUS had returned his chunk of the Berlin Wall, more or less, but in two pieces instead of one. He and Felicity had given one of them to John and Lyla for a wedding gift and the other rested on his desk as a conversation starter and a paperweight.
Oliver tried not to think of it as obsolete.
——————————————————-
She blew into his office like a spring breeze, gorgeous in a hot pink dress and heels. He stood and came around his desk so he could lean against it as he gathered her into his arms.
“I’m gonna miss you,” he whispered into her hair. Felicity hugged him fiercely for a second and then leaned back with her arms around his neck. She scratched the back of his head affectionately.
“As busy as you’ll be with your transition to the new administration? You won’t even notice I’m gone,” she teased. “But, if you do get lonely, Bruce will be in Starling later this week—“
“Pass.”
“You don’t have to date the guy, just grab a beer—“
“Pass.” Oliver lifted one eyebrow to emphasize his decision. She rolled her eyes.
“He’s a nice guy, Oliver. I promise.”
“He monopolizes way too many of my wife’s evening hours. Even if it’s important.”
She poked him once in the chest. “It IS important. And NO, I cannot talk about it.”
“Hey, maybe if I get him drunk enough HE’LL talk about it.”
“Ha ha.”
“So, the shower gift,” he prompted.
Felicity’s hands slid down over his chest. She ran his tie through her fingers and gave it a tiny tug.
“There’s something I need from you first.”
Oliver gulped. “Here? Now?”
She nodded slowly. “Here and now.”
———————————————————
“I really didn’t expect it to take this long,” Felicity huffed. “I didn’t know you had this problem.”
“I don’t! Well, not often. It doesn’t help that you’re watching. It’s embarrassing enough as it is.”
“Should I get Liz? Maybe she can help.”
“No! She’ll just laugh.” He huffed a sigh and frowned. “It happens to everyone eventually, you know.”
Felicity gave him a look that said it had never happened to HER. “Well, I could—“
“You are not going to hack into my email account, Felicity. We’ve talked about this. I’ll just admit to Google that I can’t remember the password and reset it.” It was quiet for a moment as he worked. “How did you manage to delete your email with the shower invite anyway?” he asked, furiously tapping the keyboard. She fidgeted at his shoulder and started to mumble an excuse, but before he could question her further his email account finally granted him access.
“Bingo. I’m in.”
It was quiet for a minute as he navigated to the link with the baby registry.
“What looks good?” he asked as he scrolled through the long list of crib sheets, diaper bags, and onesies. Felicity flipped a hand at the screen.
“I don’t know. You’re the expert. What do babies need?” She leaned over his shoulder and squinted at a nasal aspirator bulb. “What kind of torture device is that?”
Oliver chuckled. “It’s not a torture device. You use it to suck snot out of their noses.” She made a gagging noise so he scrolled on quickly. “On second thought, it kind of IS a torture device.”
“Anything on the list that doesn’t involve—*gak*—mucus?”
“There’s a pretty swanky stroller in here.”
“Great. Perfect. Get that.” Felicity leaned around his arm to plant a kiss on him. “I gotta go.”
“Hey.” He grabbed after her hand and pulled her back for another peck. “Safe travels. Love you.”
“Love you too. I’ll be home Friday in time for the shower. Get the store to gift wrap that for you,” she added over her shoulder as she hustled out of the room.
Oliver added the stroller to their cart and then scrolled through the list one more time. A front-facing baby carrier similar to the one he’d used with William caught his eye and he gave it a wistful smile.
He added that to the cart too and clicked the Check Out button.
——————————————————
John Diggle opened the door with a wide smile.
“Good afternoon, Senator.”
“I’m not sworn in yet, John.”
“Technicalities. Thanks for coming to help me build the bassinet from hell.”
Oliver shrugged, his hands in his pockets. “Felicity’s traveling all week and William’s at cross country practice, so my time is my own.”
“I can pay you in beer.”
“Even better.”
John led the way down the hall to the nursery and the pile of parts that was meant to be a piece of furniture.
“Just got it painted last weekend,” he explained as Oliver took in the room filled with light shades of gray and yellow.
“Wow. I didn’t know they made baby blankets in camouflage.”
John laughed. “They make EVERYTHING in camouflage.” He paused in the middle of the room to watch Oliver in the doorway.
“Somebody has baby fever,” he guessed softly as he squatted down for the instruction sheet.
Oliver huffed a laughed. “Is it that obvious?”
“It’s the look I’ve seen in the mirror for seven and a half months now.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m contagious,” Oliver sighed, letting his head tip to rest against the door frame. John nodded a couple of times.
“You know, Lyla wasn’t much interested in talking about starting a family either, and then one day...“ He snapped his fingers. “Full speed ahead. Give her time. She’ll come around.”
Oliver stared out over the project in front of him for another moment as John hunted around for the Allen wrench, then shrugged out of his suit coat and knelt down to join his friend on the floor.
————————————————
Every light in the house was on, which meant William was home. Oliver sighed as he crossed the street; the illuminated rooms displayed against the darkness highlighted every project that still needed to be completed.
In order to represent the District that included the Glades at the state level he needed to live there, so six months ago they’d bought a row house around the corner from Diggle’s gym and begun renovations. As soon as the major upgrades were done—and Overwatch had been installed—they’d moved in, but there were tons of smaller projects that still needed to be finished. Just thinking about it made him tired.
“Hey Oliver,” the disembodied voice of Barry Allen chirped as he walked in.
“Hi Barry.”
“Did you eat? I can call in something.”
“I’m good.”
William’s door was closed. Oliver leaned against the door jam, suddenly weary from his long day, and knocked lightly. There was a muffled sound that might or might not be a grunt of acknowledgement, and after a long moment the door opened. Father and son could look each other in the eye now, which never failed to make Oliver warm with pride.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“Have a good day?”
William shrugged. “Fine.”
“Felicity’s gone til the end of the week...”
His son nodded.
“...so, could you do the thing?”
William sighed. “I guess.” He shouldered past his father and headed for the access panel for Overwatch. “You know this is creepy, right?”
Oliver didn’t really have a good answer for that, so he kept his mouth shut. William punched a few keys and flipped the panel door closed.
“Hello, Oliver.”
“Hey, Overwatch.” Just hearing her voice made him feel better.
“Can I get you anything?”
“Could you check on Felicity for me? Make sure her flight got in okay?”
“Sure.”
Oliver used the wait to thank William and wish him a good night, then went room to room switching off lights before heading upstairs to the half-finished master suite as his security system reported back her findings in his wife’s voice.
———————————————————
Halfway across the city, someone was talking about him.
“She’s out of town. This is the week to get him.”
“Are we breaking in?”
“With that security system? Not a chance.”
The man at the end of the table smiled. “Every security system has a weakness. I can take this one out right under their noses.”
“So we kill it and take Queen.”
“Yes. And then we use him to flush Felicity Smoak—or should I say Oracle—into the light of day.”