Chapter Text
“Will you please slow down?” Heather whines as Oliver takes the turn onto the *Swartberg Manor road.
“You’re the one who took your time and now we’re late, so stop whining.” he bites back finally parking the Landie right next to Diggle tapping his foot against the ground and looking annoyed when he checks his watch for the umpteenth time.
“You guys are late!” he admonishes when they get out of the car.
“Not my fault!” Oliver throws his hands in the air, “Women!” he laments taking out a bag with spare cables just in case.
“Well maybe you should have washed that Jeep thing of yours before you let me get in, that way I didn’t have to ruin my clothes for the evening on the dirt and had to change into something else.”
“You’re just jealous because my Landie is more of a lady than you Heather, so maybe you should keep your mouth shut huh?”
“What? You’re a real jerk you know that Oliver?”
“You know what the best thing is about my Landie Heather? She doesn’t talk back!” he yells following Diggle who then suddenly stops to sternly look at the two of them.
“When the two of you decide to behave like adults, maybe we can get on with our job?”
Neither of them answers, only Heather that crosses her arm and huffs her disapproval. Despite the discord they are all ears as Diggle gives them each their assignments for the night, they decide on a time to meet for their big interview for the documentary and they break.
“Heather,” Oliver calls after her before she can reach the steps of the porch, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk.” he apologises.
“Look Oliver I get it okay. Laurel messed you up and I’m sure that you’re definitely not very fond of our species right now, but I think it will do you well to realise that we’re not all like her.”
He nods in acknowledgement, “understood.”
She turns towards the steps again. “Hey Heather?” she turns to face him again, “do me a favour okay? Don’t let Brian near any alcohol tonight….or loud noises….or….in fact you know what, don’t let Brian in the interview room at all.”
“Gotcha boss.” she smiles and heads in to join the party.
He’s just about to head up the steps when Brian comes running past with another bag. Like some kind of ninja Oliver reaches out and stops the man before he can think of taking his next step.
“Brain,” he warns, “you my friend need to take deep calculated breaths, we are not doing a documentary on marathons okay?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Brian chants and once Oliver is happy that the man has calmed down he releases him into the gala.
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The gala is in full swing. It’s a beautiful sight of Chinese lanterns and fairy lights all over the manor. Add a glass of red wine to the mix and you have yourself the most romantic setting.
“Welcome, welcome.” Caitlin gracefully greets her sister and Ray when they arrive. She tries to stay her bold charming self, which is until Ray has the audacity to kiss her on the cheek. It’s not just any kiss, he goes out of his way to embed his lips almost through her cheek into her gums and it irritates her so much she wants to punch his smug smile from his face when he excuses himself to go mingle.
One look from her sister and she decides to behave. This is definitely going onto the looooong list of ‘why I hate Ray Palmer’.
Felicity chuckles when she spots Julian prancing around with disinfectant in a can between the guests.
“Felicity honey! I’m so happy you’re here.” Donna greets her daughter. “Why are you laughing?”
Felicity only points in Julian’s direction and Donna nearly has a heart attack. She quickly picks up one of the platters of food that haven’t been placed on the main table and takes it to Julian to at least get him to do something else instead of spraying their guests with disinfectant.
“Don’t laugh. He’s making me old before my time.” she laments. “Speaking of youth….I can’t wait to see you in your dress. You’re going to be a knockout tonight hon.”
“Thanks mom.” Felicity blushes barely hearing Julian mumble, “But not as beautiful as your sister.” on his way to take more platters to the main table.
“Mom, is there a room available that I can get dressed in?” Felicity asks, shaking her head about Julian’s comment.
“Yes honey, the first room on the left is unoccupied.”
Felicity gives her mom a quick kiss on the cheek and heads toward the room. She has to make a good impression tonight. The children are depending on her.
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“Heather, I thought I told you to keep an eye on Brian.” Oliver scream whispers when he sees Brian down the one glass of wine after the other.
“I am!”
“Okay, so if you are, why the heck does he have a glass of wine is his hands?”
Heather rolls her eyes and attempts to walk over to Brian, but Oliver beats her to it.
“Brian, how many of these have you had buddy?”
“Ohhhhhhh……I’d saaaaaaay about ten I think.” he laughs, swaying around barely staying upright holding on to one of the pillars on the porch.
“I think you’ve had enough okay.” Oliver takes the glass of wine out of his hands and hands it to one of the passing waiters.
“Heather, please get Brian here a cup of co……”
“Shhhhhhhhhh!” Brian whispers placing his whole hand over Oliver’s mouth.
Great! A drunk crew member. Exactly what he needs tonight!
Why does he keep on paying these people when he still needs to do all the work?
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Felicity gets out of the shower. She feels refreshed and ready for what she needs to do tonight. She dries herself off and starts applying body lotion when she hears her bedroom door open.
She stops everything she’s doing immediately and listens for more sounds. After about a minute she doesn’t hear anything else and ignores it, thinking it only to be the room next door.
She continues applying the body lotion and when she’s done with her whole body she wraps the towel around her and heads out of the en-suite into the bedroom to get dressed.
She opens the door but in the process knocks someone behind the door over the chair against the wall, who is now lying on the floor.
Instantly she goes into survival mode against this pervert in her room and she grabs the nearest object, which turns out to be a huge umbrella. She starts hitting him while he tries to scoot away on his butt on the carpet. He doesn’t get very far because his jeans are like Velcro on the carpet and he’s stuck trying to fend off the umbrella.
It brings back nasty flash backs of the first day Oliver met Felicity and she hit him like that on the side of the road after jumping in front of her car trying to get help for his broken Landie.
After shouting that she should stop, Felicity realises that the intruder is Oliver, but she’s not happy at all.
“Why are you in my room?!”
“Are you following me?!”
After each question she gets ready to hit him again and his body is ready to duck and fend off his arch nemesis….the umbrella.
“I should have known!!” she shouts, earning a frown from him on the floor. “An attractive American in South Africa is looking for trouble and then of course he turns out to be a sick pervert!” she resumes at hitting him with every word.
He finally gets loose from the carpet and attempts to get away from the umbrella and jump up, but she pins him to the floor with the tip of the umbrella.
“Make one more move jerkwad and I’ll make a kebab out of you!” she warns.
Oliver lifts his hands in surrender. “Look Felicity, I just want to get up okay. I’m going to do it slowly so there’s no need for anyone to get hurt.” he tries to negotiate and she takes a small step back giving room to move but she still has the tip of the umbrella fixed on him in case he tries anything.
“Listen carefully Felicity, this isn’t what you think okay,” he tries to explain with his hands still in the air as a form of surrender, “I am part of the filming crew here tonight and this is the room where we put all our equipment to set up for the interview later for our documentary.”
He moves slightly to the left of the room towards a huge black bag, “See? Sound equipment.”
She looks a bit more at ease but she still points the umbrella to him.
“I’m not following you okay.”
“Okay.” she says slowly, not taking her eyes off him for a second. “You better go before Ray catches you in this room with me.”
“Oh yes Ray.” he acknowledges. “Now who can forget Ray? Isn’t he the guy who’s standing outside like a rooster trying to look intimidating?” he teases and she rolls her eyes.
“Whatever Oliver, it’s time to go. Goodbye.” she says giving him room to open the door, still holding the umbrella to shield herself in case he decides to go for round two.
He’s about half way out the door when he turns back and looks her straight in the eyes, “you think I’m attractive?”
She’s caught completely off guard, the heat of his stare making her gulp, “what?!”
“You just said I was….” he starts explaining when she pushes him out the door.
“Goodbye Oliver.” she yells and immediately locks the door. She leans her back against the door trying to catch her breath, the umbrella limply hanging from her hands. Her cheeks are flushed and she has a huge smile on her face.
“Idiot!” she mumbles moving away from the door to finish getting ready.
*Swartberg directly translated from Afrikaans to English - Black Mountain