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“Dude! Wait up.”
George glances up from where he’s walking down the corridor, reading his patient chart on his way back to one of Star City General’s maternity wards. It’s mid-morning and he’s already helped deliver six babies; he’s on his way to go and deliver another one. Saying that he’s exhausted would be an understatement. His life as a nurse is never boring. It’s one of his co-workers addressing him, jogging towards him down the corridor.
“Hey, Matt. You on break?”
“Not anymore,” Matt answers. He’s slightly breathless. “I’m covering your patient - you need to get down to the private corridor. Dr Schwartz just issued a Code Green and requested you personally, man.”
George blinks at him. “Seriously?”
“Dude, do I look like I’m kidding? Do you think you can get his autograph for me? Providing he isn’t, you know, bleeding out or dying or whatever.”
George shoves his patient clipboard into the other nurse’s hands. Wheeling around, he shouts back a word of thanks before heading towards the Team Arrow recovery room, his heart pounding in his chest and the rapid thudding echoing in his ears. It’s been barely eight weeks since the last Code Green, when the Green Arrow rushed his heavily pregnant wife who was in labor to the hospital. When a nurse was needed from maternity, George practically sprinted through the wards to assist Dr Schwartz. The thrill and exhilaration of aiding Beth in delivering the Green Arrow and Overwatch’s daughter, Adalynn, still hasn’t worn off. He’s been thinking about that night ever since.
He’s not ashamed to admit he’s a bit of a fanboy when it comes to the emerald archer and his team… and he’s a candid admirer of how the vigilantes are perfect examples of flawless human form. Yes, he has a little, tiny crush on the Green Arrow. Who doesn’t? Oliver Queen is incredibly handsome, smart and kind… and he’s a superhero. But the archer’s married and George is pretty sure that Queen’s straight, so he’s happy enough to just work with him medically.
“I’m here,” George says calmly, stepping into the private room and closing the door quietly behind him. “What’s the emergenc -”
He cuts himself off, falling quiet. A grin immediately spreads across his face. Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are sitting in chairs next to each other, dressed in simple, casual civilian clothing, and the archer is cradling his daughter lovingly in his arms. Baby Addie is dressed in an adorable green dress, the exact same shade as her father’s Arrow suit. It’s not exactly the Code Green he anticipated, but he’s excited to be here all the same.
“Ah, great. Hi, George,” Beth greets him. She’s sorting out a tray of syringes she’s placed on the bed, checking tiny medication bottles. “Sorry, I know you were expecting some major kind of Code Green. Lydia thought it would be funny if she issued one even though this is a planned appointment. I just need your help giving Addie a health check and her vaccines. Oliver and Felicity are unsurprisingly a little anxious about the idea of their daughter around needles and strange nurses; since you helped deliver Addie, I thought you might be able to keep the baby and both of them calm so we can get through this quickly.”
“We’re calm,” Felicity says quickly. “We’re totally calm.”
Observing the two parents with a raised eyebrow, George tries to hide his amused smile but fails. Felicity keeps shifting nervously in her seat, craning her neck in an attempt to glance over at the syringes. Oliver is rocking the baby gently but his shoulders are tensed and the look of sheer concentration on his face suggests he’s fighting an urge to take his daughter and run out of here.
“Sure you are,” Beth rolls her eyes. “And that’s why you look as if you might pass out any moment.”
Felicity shoots her a half-hearted glare. “I don’t like needles. You know this. You’re about a stick a load of them into my daughter.”
“Addie needs her vaccines, Felicity,” Oliver sighs. “And… I’m not happy about this either, but it needs to be done.”
Beths nods. “Oliver’s right. And they’ll be over before she even knows what’s going on. I doubt she’ll even cry. George, can you wheel this bed next to Felicity, please? I need to wash my hands quickly.”
George jumps into action instantly. “Sure. You’re giving her the full round, right?”
“Yep. The 6-in-1, PCV, rotavirus and Men B,” Beth confirms. “I think it would be better if you held Addie as well.”
“What?” Felicity exclaims in anger, at the same time Oliver protests furiously, “No, absolutely not.”
Beth levels them both with hard looks. “No offence to either of you, but if you hold her, Felicity, then you’ll end up throwing up onto all of us, and I don’t particularly want to get punched in the face by you, Oliver, when Addie makes the smallest sound when I give her the injection and you react.”
“I wouldn’t punch you,” the archer cuts in, looking offended at the notion.
“Did you bring your bow with you today?”
Oliver looks a little sheepish.
The nurse runs his eyes up and down him, asking himself quietly, “Where the hell are you even storing that…” He freezes when a not particularly nice thought crosses his mind.
It must show on his face, because Felicity leans in and whispers to him, “Don’t worry, it’s collapsible. It’s not up his -”
“I don’t trust you not to get angry at us and react badly if Addie cries. Sorry, Oliver,” Beth says. “I do trust George. He will look after your daughter. He’s one of the best nurses in this hospital, probably in the whole of Star City. Addie will be fine with him.”
George doesn’t really know how to respond to that. He’s speechless; he had no idea somebody could hold that high an opinion of him. Beth’s word seems to be enough for the Green Arrow and Overwatch, apparently, because twenty seconds later, the nurse is sitting in Oliver’s chair with baby Addie bouncing on his lap. The archer stands a couple of meters away with his arm wrapped around his wife’s waist, observing George carefully.
“Aren’t you a little cutie?” George coos to the baby, distracting her with his lanyard. Addie makes a contented sound, her blue eyes gleaming with excitement. She tries to put her tiny fingers into her mouth but the nurse uses one hand to halt her, making funny faces to entertain her. “Yes, you are! You are! You’re such a happy baby, aren’t you? I bet you don’t give your parents any trouble at all.”
“We got barely half an hour of sleep last night because she wouldn’t stop crying,” Oliver deadpans.
“She was so hungry that I had to breastfeed her in the bunker while hacking into a drug dealer’s supply records,” Felicity adds.
“Okay, so a little trouble,” George corrects, letting the baby kick her feet into his hands.
“A lot of trouble.”
He continues to distract Addie as Beth starts to administer the shots into her chubby little thigh. Addie frowns and squirms a little, but thankfully doesn’t cry. Shifting nervously as George sees Oliver tense, hands balling into fists as he sees his baby fussing, the nurse tickles Addie’s tummy through her dress. He laughs when she smiles brilliantly at him. The Green Arrow relaxes, thank god.
“But I don’t know what your parents expected, considering they’re vigilantes who save the city every night,” the nurse says to the baby, varying his tone and pitch to keep her interested in him and not the vaccinations. “Yes, yes, they are. Mommy and Daddy are heroes, aren’t they, you adorable nugget? So let’s make sure you stay calm and don’t cry, because if you do, Mommy will drain my bank account and Daddy will break my arms!”
In sync, the two vigilantes object, “We wouldn’t do that.”
Beth snorts as she fetches the next syringe, glancing over at them in amusement. “You two are terrible liars. You both looked ready to murder me earlier when she didn’t like the weighing scales.”
“Nobody likes weighing scales,” Felicity mutters.
“Except cooks and bakers,” Oliver says. “And maybe personal trainers.” He winces under his wife’s irritated glance. “Sorry. But you’re right, Felicity. She did hate them.”
“She frowned,” Beth replies. “And I’m pretty sure that was because she burped, not because of the scales.”
“You don’t know that for certain, though, do you?” Felicity raises an eyebrow.
“How’s William?” Beth asks, changing the subject. “The media aren’t giving him any more issues, are they?”
George remembers the couple of weeks after it was revealed to the world that Oliver Queen was the Arrow, when videos and pictures of Felicity and William made every news channel, reporters even going as far as trying to stalk the teenager at school to make money off photos of him. It was undoubtedly an incredibly stressful time for the Smoak-Queen family. They were on the news for a few days when Addie was born but everything has quietened down since.
“Lance threatened to have any reporter taking pictures of any of us without our consent arrested and charged with harassment, so Will’s not bothered by the media very much anymore,” Felicity answers. “Perk of having the mayor as family.”
“He’s been sick lately, so he’s mostly been staying at home,” Oliver added. “Lyla’s watching over him right now, until we get back. He’s not just been sitting around, though; he’s been working on his new science project. It’s biology-based, focusing on epigenetics. I have no idea what it’s about but Felicity and his biology teacher say that it’s really advanced, so I could not be prouder.”
Pausing before she gives Addie her last shot, the doctor questions, “Did you say he’s been sick?”
The archer nods. “For the last two weeks, on and off. Poor kid. It doesn’t seem to be contagious because we haven’t got it, and we’ve been careful to keep Addie away until we knew it was safe for her. We think it’s some mild form of flu. I thought he’d be more bummed out, to be honest, he usually hates missing school, but he’s been distracted by the fact he gets to play with Addie more.”
“What’s his symptoms?”
“A high temperature and a coughing. It’s weird, whenever he has a fever, it’s in the mornings and he’s back to normal in a couple of hours. But the high temperature comes back the next morning.”
Blinking, Beth glances over at George with an ‘are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ expression. The nurse nods, grinning back at her. Both of the medical professionals snicker quietly to themselves as they give Addie the final injection, cleaning her thigh with an antiseptic wipe and pulling her tiny dress back down into place.
“You’re laughing,” Felicity observes, her eyes narrowed. “Why are you laughing?”
Sniggers escape Beth’s throat and she seems to be chuckling to herself too much to respond, so George says for her: “I’m pretty sure William’s been faking his illness. He probably was actually sick the first time you let him off school, but he learned that he got to stay home and play with Addie all day, and must have decided that was better and more interesting and fun than school. It would not surprise me at all if, in the mornings, he puts his head against the radiator or a hot cloth on his forehead to give himself a temporary high temperature - and just fully fakes the coughing.”
A strange feeling of triumph mixed with amusement washes over George at the matching looks of sheer astonishment and realization on Oliver and Felicity’s faces. Beth just laughs harder at them. Addie, not understanding what’s happening at all, squeals joyously on hearing the laughter and claps her hands together. George claps with her, bouncing her on his knees securely.
“Kids don’t actually do that,” Felicity says in disbelief. “That’s only something kids on TV shows would do.”
“Where do you think William learned it from?”
Oliver looks traumatized. “Our William wouldn’t do that… would he?”
“Would he?” Felicity repeats. “He’s not the kind of kid who would fake being sick… or are we really that dense?”
“No. No. We would have noticed.”
“I graduated MIT summa cum laude with a Master’s in Cyber Security and Computer Sciences… you trained with ARGUS and the Bratva. If he was faking, lying - we would have known. I mean - I… I think we would’ve? We... should’ve? Oh my god. We’re such idiots. Our thirteen year old has been faking being ill for two weeks and we had no idea.”
“You two completely crack me up,” Beth breathes, wiping tears from her eyes. Stripping her gloves off and pushing the bed away with the sharps disposal box sitting on it, she lifts the baby from George’s lap, setting her against her shoulder. Normally they’d give Addie back to her parents at this point, but she’s not upset at all and doesn’t need comforting, so they can resume her check-up. “Clearly your lie-detecting vigilante skills need improvement. When you confront William about it, don’t be too hard on him; all he wants to do was spend more time with this adorable little munchkin, isn’t that right, Addie? Your big brother loves playing with you so much that he decided to stay with you rather than go to school.”
“That’s kind of sweet really, when you think about it,” George says. He brushed himself down as he stands. “Dr Schwartz, you said Addie needs a health check? I’m guessing that includes the normal two months old physical.”
“Yep. I’ll give her the physical, I’ll need you to ask the usual questions to Oliver and Felicity.”
“Sure. Mr Queen, Mrs Smoak-Queen, you can sit back down now. Dr Schwartz is going to take Addie over to the other side of the room and give her a quick check over, and I’m just going to ask you a bit about Addie’s development, if that’s alright.”
The two vigilantes take their seats. “Of course, whatever you need,” Felicity nods.
“Alright.” George pulls the wheely chair from the corner over so he can sit in front of them, grabbing the clipboard with the questions on it from where Beth set it out next to the shots tray earlier. “How’s Addie sleeping? How many hours do you think at night and does she take naps in the day?”
“Usually about five hours at night without waking up,” Oliver answers. He laces his fingers together nervously. “At night in total, about ten hours. She usually takes two naps about two hours long each during the day.”
“That’s good,” George smiles at him. “Perfectly normal. Felicity, you’re still breastfeeding her?”
“Yeah, she still drinks a lot. We were a little bit worried about how much she seems to be getting hungry, actually. She needs feeding at least six times a day.”
“That’s actually normal too,” the nurse says, pointing his pen at her. “I’m guessing you’re feeding her about four to five fluid ounces of milk at a time? We usually say about twenty-six fluid ounces a day is normal for a baby of her age. It may seem like you’re feeding her a lot but that’s just because of the frequency you’re feeding her. Honestly, it’s fine. Addie’s gaining weight well. Have her bowel movements been alright?”
“Yeah, she’s fine in that regard.”
“And how’s her crying?”
“She stills cries a bit at night,” Oliver responds. “She calms down as soon as she sees Felicity or me though. We have noticed she gets fussy when we’re not all in the same room together. Other than that, she’s definitely calmed down a lot. Felicity thinks she has some sort of sense of when I’m out patrolling, because that’s when she usually gets the most upset, and she immediately settles down when I come back.”
George halts in his writing of hits, a pang of curiosity hitting him. “I have to ask… does Addie recognize you in the Green Arrow suit?”
The archer actually looks embarrassed. “Yeah, she does.”
“It sounds ridiculous, but we’re slightly glad that Oliver outed himself as the Green Arrow before Addie was born,” Felicity says, smiling. “Because I think she would have revealed his secret anyway. She gets so excited whenever Oliver enters the room in his Green Arrow gear.”
George laughs softly to himself as he remembers the ceremony last week, in which the Green Arrow and his team were recognized as heroes by City Hall by being awarded the Keys to the City. Felicity had been standing with William and Addie in her arms next to Spartan and the baby girl had immediately reached out for her daddy when he’d been announced onto stage, despite Oliver being decked out in full Arrow gear with his mask and hood on. George originally thought Felicity must have whispered into Addie’s ear that it was her father, but now he knows that the baby recognized her dad even in the suit, everybody else’s shocked reactions make a lot more sense.
The nurse asks the couple a final few questions about Addie’s development, satisfied with their responses as he fills out the form. They’re just finishing up as Beth carries Addie back over. The baby instantly turns her head away from the doctor’s shoulder towards her parents when she hears their voices. She waves her little fists excitedly, causing all the adults to chuckle, and she kicks until Beth hands her over to Felicity. The baby clasps her hands in her mother’s blonde hair and sighs contently.
“Mommy’s always going to be the favorite,” Beth smirks. “Ah, she’s drooling on you a bit there, Felicity.”
“I don’t mind,” she assured her, threading her fingers through Addie’s little tufts of strawberry blonde hair.
Oliver stares at Beth worriedly. He crosses his arms over his chest next to Felicity and questions, “Her physical?”
“She’s as healthy as we could ever hope her to be,” Beth says. “She’s very strong physically and is growing well. Her mental development is already nearing off the charts intelligent; gets that from her mom.”
“Her dad too,” Felicity adds, glancing over at her husband warmly. “Annnnnd you’re pulling a lil’ too hard on my hair, there, sweetheart.” She tries to extract her hair from Addie’s firm grip with one hand and only manages it with George helping her. “How about Daddy holds you, okay, baby?”
The Green Arrow melts into a puddle of goo the moment he has his daughter in his arms, a radiant grin on his face as he beams down at her. Addie claps her hands over her father’s stubble, smiling at him. She tucks her head beneath his chin and her fingers yank at his t-shirt. Seeing such a fearsome vigilante soften immediately due to his two-month-old baby makes George feel a little bit weak because goddammit, that’s attractive as hell. Felicity agrees, if her intense gaze is anything to go by. It’s what triggers George to realize it’s time for him to leave.
“I should probably get back to maternity,” he says. “It was nice to see you again, Mr Queen, Mrs Smoak-Queen… and you, cutiepie.” He tickles Addie’s leg and laughs when she wiggles and makes noises similar to giggles, but not exactly. He nods his head at Beth as he heads for the doors. “Dr Schwartz.”
“Thank you, George,” she responds gratefully. “I appreciate your help.”
“Yes, thank you,” Felicity agrees.
“Beth was right,” Oliver nods. “You’re a trustworthy nurse and one of the best in the city. Thank you.” Addie makes a faint sound in her father’s arms, waving a little fist at the nurse. “Addie says thank you too.”
George blushes before he can stop himself. “Thank you. I’ll see you all again, no doubt. Enjoy the rest of your day and keep safe.”
He makes an exit before he gets even more flustered.
Because the Smoak-Queen family? The sheer power of their presences is enough to bring anybody to their knees.
(That doesn’t mean that George doesn’t want to see them again.)
(In fact, he can’t wait for the next Code Green to be announced.)
(Not that he wants the Smoak-Queen family or Team Arrow to end up in the hospital. Because that would be bad.)
((They're all insanely hot though so he wouldn't mind.))