Work Text:
Felicity was sitting in the waiting area at the Starling City Airport and she was bored. Ray had just texted her that his plane was delayed for another two hours after she had already been waiting for three hours. “Great,” she sighed. She looked around and noticed that the room was almost empty, well what would you expect at two am. She pulled out her tablet and started typing, looking for some distraction.
“Down, Duke.”
She looked up and saw a man sitting down across from her, with him a beautiful German Shepherd. She immediately noticed that he was a work dog, because he was wearing a vest that said, PTSD service dog.
The man was good looking, muscled, young, short blond hair, scruffy look and the most amazing blue eyes she had ever seen. Because he was wearing shorts she saw that his left leg ended a few inches above his ankle, his prosthetic was high tech. She giggled when she read the text on his short sleeved T-shirt, ‘I left my leg in my other pants’.
He looked up and frowned.
“I love the T-shirt,” she explained. “He is beautiful,” she pointed at the dog.
“Thanks.” He stood and stretched out his hand, “I’m Oliver.”
“Felicity,” she shook his hand.
“Waiting for someone?” he asked her, sitting back down.
She nodded. “Yes, my husband, his flight is delayed for a second time.”
“From Dallas?”
“Yes, how do you know?”
He checked his watch. “I’m waiting for my partner, who will be on the four am flight from Dallas. I presume your husband will be on that flight too.”
“Well, I hope so. I’ve been waiting for five hours now.”
He whistled, “That long?”
“Yeah, some storm somewhere. Not that anyone can do anything about that, you know, it’s nature, but five hours is long, very long, so getting a little bored. I love people watching, but not many people right now at two thirty am, and I’m rambling, which will now stop in three, two, one."
Oliver laughed, “No problem.”
“When I’m nervous I start to ramble.”
All of the sudden a dozen men and women in uniform entered the area and sat down. Some of them nodded at Oliver, but kept their distance from him and his dog. Felicity admired them, because she knew that a PTSD patient will get anxious when surrounded by too many people. And who would understand better what Oliver had been through then a fellow soldier.
She looked at the dog and his vest and saw the tags, US Navy, disabled veteran, service dog do not pet, ask to pet. “Can I?’ She asked pointing at Duke.
Oliver nodded.
She crouched down in front of the dog and moved her hand over his smooth fur. “You are beautiful.”
“He knows,” Oliver grinned.
She stood and smiled at him, “I’ll bet.”
“So Felicity, what do you do accept people watching?”
“I work at Queen Consolidated in the IT department.”
“Small world,” he stated. “You work for my father.”
Felicity gulped, “You are that Oliver Queen? The war hero!”
Oliver flinched at that. “I’m no hero, I just did my duty.”
“Look mommy, that man has only one leg.” A young boy pointed at Oliver.
“Don’t do that,” his mom hissed.
Oliver rolled his eyes and smirked.
“I’ll bet you get that a lot?” Felicity asked.
“Yeah. And the phrase, ‘Is that a work dog? Uhm, duh!”
Felicity laughed. It was obvious that Oliver had adjusted to his physical disability just fine, mentally was a different story. She had read a lot about PTSD and knew some patients had a very hard time handling it. She was shocked that some had committed suicide.
“Does he help?” She asked, nodding at Duke.
“Yeah, a lot. He is always there for me, knows my moods, feels any change in me.”
They talked about a lot of things and they hadn’t noticed how quick the time flew by until a woman announced over the intercom that the flight out of Dallas had landed.
“Finally,” Felicity sighed. “It was very nice talking to you.”
“Same here. Maybe we will see each other again.”
“I hope so.”
They both walked towards the arrival gateway, waiting for their partners. Felicity spotted Ray and waved at him, jumping up and down. “Babe!” she yelled.
Falling into his arms a few minutes later, she started to ramble again about her meeting Oliver and so on.
Oliver, who stood at a pilar away from the crowd, spotted his partner and waited patiently. The tall dark haired man in a navy uniform walked up to him. “Hello there.” He wrapped his arms around him and kissed him hard and passionately. “Missed me?” he asked between kisses.
Oliver answered the kiss, moaning into it. They both panted and rested their foreheads against each other.
“Let’s go home,” Oliver whispered.