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It’s actually Thea’s idea for Felicity to get a roommate after they defeat Damien Darhk. Now Oliver’s moved out of the Loft since their break-up - he insisted, and has since moved into the Arrow bunker’s small living area as it makes his commutes easier - Felicity is living alone again, and it’s disconcerting for a number of reasons.
The first is that although there are no rental payments to make for the Loft, it’s still pretty expensive to pay the bills; although Felicity has a decent amount of money in the bank because of her Palmer Tech stock and severance package, she no longer has a job and the bills are eating through that fund faster than she anticipated. The second is that she’s become a notable figure within Star City society and with that fame comes some downsides - the biggest ones being reporters and paparazzi harassing her and the occasional stalker trying to break in and sleep in her bed.
While the security in the Loft is excellent, sometimes somebody is able to slip through and end up at her front door. So living alone can actually be quite scary. Felicity honestly didn’t realize how much of a sense of security living with Oliver gave her; now they’ve broken up and he’s moved out, she feels vulnerable in her own home.
Despite her and Oliver having broken up, they remain close friends and they often get take-out before his Green Arrow patrols. It’s strange, as with Diggle overseas on a special forces tour, it’s just the two of them battling against Star City’s criminal underworld. Thea joins them in the bunker a couple of times a week just for the free food, as she’s retired. Much to Felicity’s embarrassment, Thea brings up the topic of Felicity potentially getting a roommate in front of Oliver one evening.
And then, to her surprise, Oliver nods in agreement. “It’s a good idea,” he says, with a small (and a little sad) smile, that makes her stomach swoop. “It might be even better if you find someone who’s a live-in part-time bodyguard of sorts.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Felicity immediately protests, sliding her chair away from her monitors and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
“Er, weren’t you just telling me yesterday that a guy tried to grope you in a coffee shop last week and kept insisting that he could be a better boyfriend to you than Oliver, and it was great you were single again because he had a shot?” Thea raises an eyebrow.
Felicity bristles, feeling mortified as Oliver turns to her with a horrified and furious expression, his stupidly beautiful blue eyes piercing. “Okay, fine, so I might need a bodyguard,” she mutters.
They spend the rest of the evening curating a list of people to possibly contact, working out that they’ll offer the person free room and board in exchange for being a part-time bodyguard; the person will split the bills with Felicity, which should make them reasonably cheap. Oliver gets very into it, even texting John to ask if he knows any veterans in the city who might be interested. Felicity is somewhat surprised by his determination; she would have thought that Oliver would be upset by the idea of some stranger living in the Loft together - what used to be their Loft - but he seems to be more focused on the idea of making sure her safety is covered, which is actually very sweet.
Three days later, Felicity is sitting in a booth of a coffee shop with Oliver and Thea seated across the room from her, interviewing the candidates. She has Thea’s laptop set in front of her with the CVs on screen. She cycles through them one by one as each candidate comes and goes every hour; most of them are women who have recently left the army or Marines and are working part-time in the security sector, and while Felicity does like a lot of them, and can see herself getting along with them… none of them click.
After five hours of interviewing and her brain jumbled up, she’s about to close the laptop and rise to go and discuss her top picks with Oliver and Thea when the laptop pings. Frowning, she sinks back down into her seat again. And then Felicity startles in confusion, opening the file that’s just suddenly appeared in the downloads folder.
It’s another CV. One she hasn’t seen before. One Thea and Oliver definitely did not load onto this laptop.
DAISY MAY SMITH
Cybersecurity Specialist, Security Consultant and Personal Bodyguard
She flicks down the CV, her intrigue piqued. Whoever this woman is, she’s got one hell of a vague section on previous employment. Over a decade working as a computer sciences technician and cybersecurity expert not allotted to any specific company or organization (which Felicity reads through and figures ‘hacker’) and then three years working as a cybersecurity consultant, pattern analyst, and field operative in an ‘American extra-governmental military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency’. Does that mean CIA, NSA, or something else?
What draws her attention the most is the section at the bottom, under her references. Felicity can’t help but laugh in disbelief and delight.
The fact that you have this CV in the first place should be proof enough of my skills - I did hack your laptop after all. Sorry?
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a hand appear from nowhere and slide what looks like a caramel latte towards her. Glancing up, Felicity takes in the woman who’s approached her with both apprehension and curiosity. She’s of medium height and lithe but muscular build, with dark brown, almost black shoulder-length wavy hair. Dressed in black skinny jeans and a maroon sweater that hands off her right shoulder, exposing a black strappy top, she’s not exactly the picture of professionalism; despite this, her stance is confident and strong, and she exudes an aura of ‘don’t fuck with me, because you’ll regret it’. When she slips into the booth opposite Felicity, her hands wrapped around her own mug of black coffee, she flashes a quick smile. It’s tired and weary, but still warm and friendly.
When Felicity sees both Thea and Oliver jumping to their feet in alarm at the suddenly appearing woman, she flicks her hand quickly in a gesture to tell them to stand down. They both return to their seats, Thea looking baffled and Oliver’s brow furrowed with concern. When the archer mouths You okay? at her, Felicity flashes him a reassuring smile and a short nod, before turning her attention back to the woman.
“Hi. Sorry about hacking your friend’s laptop,” the woman greets her cheerfully. “It was really the only way I could get my CV to you.” She follows Felicity’s flickering eyeline over to Oliver and Thea and raises her chin in realization. “I’m not gonna hurt you, so the Queen sibs don’t have to worry. Yeah, I can see them glaring at me over there - I’ve been trained to people-watch as soon as I enter a room and they’re not very subtle.”
Felicity can’t stop the grin from spreading over her face. “Daisy May Smith, I presume?”
“Yup, that’s me,” she confirms with a smile. “Daisy, please. Nice to meet you, Miss Smoak. I just got into town and heard on the grapevine that you’re looking for a bodyguard slash roommate. Thought I might throw my name into the ring.”
Risking a sip from the caramel latte under the assumption that Daisy is unlikely to try and poison her if she wants the job, she replies, “Call me Felicity. From your CV, it appears as if you’re definitely qualified enough for the position, Daisy. Why are you interested?”
Daisy quirks an eyebrow, leans in and whispers, “It’s not every day you get to apply to be the bodyguard of Ghost Fox Goddess. I’m a fan. And kinda a colleague.” When Felicity’s eyes widen, she offers her hand across the table for her to shake. “This is a little embarrassing, but you might know me better as Skyenet.”
“Holy shit,” Felicity blurts out. Skyenet was one of the most famous (or was that infamous?) hackers in the US, who used to work for the Rising Tide and was well known to have hacked into god knows how many government systems, including the FBI, the Pentagon, and SHIELD, before the organization crumbled. “Everybody online thought you’d been killed! You just vanished from the hacktivist scene without any warning back in 2013.”
“Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” Daisy responds with a snicker. “As you can see on my CV, I ended up being recruited by one of the alphabet agencies and went underground. I’m on… vacation, right now, traveling around the country, and decided it might be a good idea to find somewhere to call a home base. Star City is out of the way and therefore ideal.”
Glancing over again at the CV on-screen, Felicity asks puzzledly, “How did you progress from hacking to becoming a field agent?”
“Honestly? Necessity,” Daisy shrugs. “My team worked primarily out in the field and I needed to learn how to defend myself because I was in the line of fire a lot. From there, I trained in the wider aspects of fieldwork, found out I was suited to it, and became a field agent.” Flickering her dark eyes over Felicity’s expression, she offers, “I was doing a whole range of stuff, but I’m not allowed to talk about it. I will be able to protect you when needed though, and I’m specialized in non-lethal incapacitation and de-escalation. I’m also great at blending into crowds, so it won’t be outwardly obvious I’m your bodyguard. I have a CCW permit and my own weapons.”
Felicity has already made her decision, but questions, “Would you be willing to be interviewed by my friends?”
“Of course,” Daisy responds without hesitation.
“Are you still doing cybersecurity consultancy?”
Daisy tilts her head. “Er, yeah? Why?”
Felicity closes the laptop, no longer needing Daisy’s CV to know that she’s an absolutely excellent candidate. “My friend Curtis and I are planning a tech start-up, and we’re always looking for new blood and talent to recruit. We’re thinking of diving into smart home security systems, and somebody with your experience and knowledge would be amazing to have on call.”
“I’d do that sort of consultancy stuff for free,” Daisy tells her, sipping at her coffee. “I’d consider that a favor for a friend, rather than a job.”
Felicity is about to ask a question about if Daisy has any bad habits she would need to know about if they were living together, but then a random guy, tall and buff and leering at them, steps up to their table.
“Mind if I join you ladies?” he smirks, looming over them both. The way he’s running his eyes over her body makes Felicity shiver and she tries to subtly slide further into the booth and away from him.
“Yes, we do mind,” Daisy replies loudly, not looking at him. “Move on, dude.”
“Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that, sweetheart -”
Felicity feels his hand land on her shoulder for a split second before it’s gone. And it’s gone because in the space of a heartbeat, Daisy has sprung from her seat, yanked him away, and flipped him over her back in a complex move so that the man lands sprawled on his back on the floor, stunned. Now Felicity isn’t the only one gaping at her; everybody else in the coffee shop is staring in astonishment, and Oliver and Thea… well, they both look completely dumbfounded and incredibly impressed.
“You don’t touch somebody without their consent,” Daisy says to him in a faux sweet tone, flashing a dangerous smile. “Now move on, buddy, or you’re gonna end up with broken bones on top of a bruised ass.”
The guy flees, utterly humiliated. It takes a minute or two for the patrons to turn away and things to go back to normal. Oliver and Thea continue staring, mouths open. Daisy just tugs her sweater sleeves casually back into place and slides back into her seat. Felicity just can’t stop smiling at her. That was so cool.
“You’re hired,” Felicity says. “Wanna come see the Loft?”
Daisy’s face splits into a pleased grin. “Awesome. Give me a pen and I’ll sign whatever. When do I start?”
“Do you not think it’s a little weird that she’s got barely any belongings?” Thea says dubiously the next day, as Daisy is starting to move into the Loft.
She only has two duffel bags worth of stuff, and is needing to go to Walmart later to grab a load of things. The downstairs bedroom she’s moving into is already furnished, though, so it’s not that much of a problem. They’ve left Daisy to unpack her bags while Felicity, Oliver, and Thea hang in the kitchen, talking quietly.
Daisy signed the contract after reading through it a couple of times and asking clarifying questions about a few of the terms. Oliver and Thea weren’t exactly ecstatic about Felicity offering her the job before they interviewed her, but Thea has already begrudgingly admitted that Daisy was by far the best candidate out of all of them, and that she seems like an awesome person. Oliver is still hesitant, but he acquiesced after Daisy gave satisfactory answers to all of his questions, and didn’t even seem to care that some of them were blatant attempts to pry into her personal life.
“She did say she’s on vacation and has been traveling around,” Felicity explains. “It makes sense that she travels light.” Seeing the way Oliver is scowling down at the floor, she tells him firmly, “Oliver, if it makes you feel better, I did a background check on her before offering the contract. She’s clean.”
“She would be, if she’s using a fake name,” Oliver grumbles. “And you said she used to be a hacker so she could have wiped her own records.”
Felicity sighs. Oliver can be an overprotective idiot sometimes, but he’s her overprotective idiot, even though they’re not together romantically anymore. She appreciates that his heightened protective instincts stem from love and that he is genuinely worried about her. “Fine. What do you want to do?”
“I can call Lyla,” he offers. “Ask her to poke around in ARGUS’ systems and see if they can work out which alphabet agency she’s been working for. Meanwhile, I think Thea should stay with you.”
“Thanks for volunteering me, Ollie,” Thea says sarcastically, but then to Felicity, admits, “It’s probably a good idea. It’s not that I don’t trust Daisy, I just think that until you’ve gotten to know her a little better, it might be safer. All of this has happened pretty fast.”
Felicity reluctantly agrees, if only because she knows that Oliver will end up spying on them from the balcony if she doesn’t, and she doesn’t want Daisy to think her friends are creepy weirdos. Oliver and Thea have to leave and go back to work after that, so she and Daisy go on a Walmart trip alone. The hacker thinks her now cold, battered Mini Cooper is charming and doesn’t seem to care about the peeling seats or the half-disintegrated fries decorating the footwell of the passenger seat. It reveals a lot about her character.
Felicity learns that Daisy is the opposite of materialistic, only buying items she 100% needs and requires, holding back from indulging herself. She admits to Felicity that she lived in a van for a good couple of years when she was a hacktivist, so has learned not to waste money on frivolous things. It’s a little bit sad, actually, but Felicity can understand that it takes a while to break from what sort of mindset, and that being on the move constantly makes it difficult to amass possessions for the sake of possessions.
They grab bubble tea and Indian take-out on the way back to the Loft. It’s as they’re driving that Daisy says casually, “ARGUS won’t be able to find anything on me, by the way.”
Felicity resists the urge to slam on the breaks. She flushes in embarrassment. Daisy must have overheard their conversation. “They won’t?”
“Nah, of course not,” Daisy laughs. “Oliver is right. I’m a hacker, so obviously I’ve destroyed information about myself from every inch of the internet, even the dark web. And the alphabet agency I worked for has the best cybersecurity in the world - I would know, because I designed it. The only person who would probably be able to crack it is you.” She slurps the last remains of her tea up the paper straw. “If you’re really that bothered about it, I can tell you that I used to work for SHIELD before the collapse.”
SHIELD. Felicity wracks her brain for information about the agency. Captain America and Black Widow revealed the agency was compromised by being secretly infiltrated by the Nazi terrorist organization HYDRA; SHIELD was dissolved after three of their helicarriers fell out of the sky into the Potomac, with one of them even destroying their HQ, the Triskelion in Washington D.C.. She thinks she remembers reading about the Avengers Initiative being a SHIELD program before Tony Stark and Stark Industries took over their management to provide funding, legal security, equipment, and a base of operations. SHIELD never really had a presence in Star City, and they thankfully were never interested in the Arrow or any of their vigilantes.
“I’m Jewish, so I very much hope you’re not admitting to being a secret Nazi,” she says, and then winces, because what? Did she seriously just ask that?
Daisy snorts. “I’m about as far from a HYDRA agent as you can possibly get. Pretty sure I was high up on their hit-list after the shit I pulled to help expose their members and then take them down. After SHIELD fell, I was recruited to an anti-terrorism agency that was trying to destroy HYDRA cells and dismantle their remaining operations. That’s… about as much as I’m permitted to tell you. Feel free to tell Oliver and Thea. It’s kind of sweet how protective they are over you. Albeit a bit unusual considering that he’s your ex and she’s his sister.”
“Oliver and I have been friends way longer than we were together,” Felicity explains. “And we’re still friends now. He’s just looking out for me. And Thea and I got really close while Oliver and I were dating, so she’s like my little sister now. I’m an only child so it’s pretty nice to have her around. Hey, do you have any siblings?”
Daisy visibly deflates. She plasters an impressive expression on her face, but Felicity can see the wistful glint in her eyes. “Uh, no. No biological ones. I had a couple of friends I considered siblings, but we… grew apart recently. I haven’t spoken to them in a few months.” She casts a sideways glance over at Felicity, confessing, “I was raised in the foster system. My parental situation is… complicated. I would… rather not talk about it.”
“That’s okay, we don’t need to,” Felicity assures her quietly, understanding that it must be too painful for her to discuss. “I do have to ask though…” She pokes Daisy in the arm teasingly. “Who do you think would win in a hack-off? You or me?”
Daisy bursts out laughing and dares, “Wanna find out tonight?”
By the time Thea arrives back from work, they’ve already finished most of the Chinese and are halfway through their hacking challenge; to avoid doing anything illegal, both of them made files containing a code word and then had an hour to encrypt and protect them in any manner they wanted. Now they’re having a race to see who can break through whose security the fastest. Felicity has to admit, Daisy’s ten-minute botch-job firewalls are… actually pretty great. She’s coded in a loop trap that Felicity gets stuck in for a good twenty minutes, struggling to dismantle them with her own code as it gets erased every time the loop resets.
“You two are crazy,” Thea mutters in disbelief when Daisy punches the air in triumph at her own success of breaking through one of Felicity’s security measures. “I can’t believe this is what you do for fun.”
“It’s been a while since I was challenged like this,” Daisy says breathlessly, her fingers flying over her laptop keyboard. “All my free time over the past few years has been dedicated to training, like hand-to-hand combat, firearms practice, and strategic planning exercises. I only ever got to hack when we had emergency situations out in the field.”
Thea perks up hearing that. “Oh, hey, you need a sparring partner?”
“That would be great,” Daisy nods, smiling at her over the top of her screen. Her grin turns into a slight smirk as she adds, “Gotta get some practice in if I’m gonna meet your and Oliver’s standards to be Felicity’s protective detail, after all.”
“Do not let Oliver hear you say that!” Felicity calls out. “Or the next thing you’ll know, he’ll be sparring with you every week.”
“Eh, I think I could take him,” Daisy shrugs.
Felicity and Thea exchange a look, both of them biting their lips to hold in their laughter. Daisy might be good, but to beat Oliver she would also have to be a vigilante, maybe even a meta, to try and weigh up against the Green Arrow’s experience and mastery of archery. And there’s no way that’s a thing.
(They end the hacking competition on a tie, only because Felicity’s last line of defense coding completely wipes out Daisy’s laptop but also feeds back into her own because of Daisy’s failsafe measure. It overheats the battery to the point where it almost melts.)
A week later, Daisy has proven herself to be a fantastic roommate and a great bodyguard, not just to Felicity, but to Oliver, Thea, and the rest of Star City as well.
She’s ridiculously easy to live with; she’s a little bit introverted and therefore sticks to herself, doesn’t care about Felicity’s coming and goings beyond whether or not she can pick up Big Belly or coffee on the way home, and is always up for discussing cybersecurity and ideas for the start-up.
While Daisy does wake at unsociable hours to practice some kind of meditative yoga martial art (“It’s called tai chi,” Thea informs her, after Felicity describes it. “I’m surprised she practices, but then again, she’s a surprising person.”) she doesn’t ever disturb Felicity’s sleep; in fact, she often has freshly brewed coffee and pastries from the bakery around the block on the kitchen table by the time she wakes. This, of course, turns her into one of Thea’s favorite people relatively quickly - especially when Daisy takes to buying an extra cinnamon sugar bear claw for her every day.
They spar a few times, nothing serious or too strenuous. They choose to stay in the Loft’s spacious living room rather than head to a gym - and that’s mostly to avoid attracting attention. Thea is thrilled to have a female friend she can work on new offensive and defensive techniques with. Daisy never throws her weight around too much, but it’s clear she is very experienced and highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat; the strangest part is that she always seems to be able to anticipate Thea’s moves before she makes them, as if she’s able to read her intentions somehow. Satisfied that Daisy is fully capable of protecting Felicity and that she’s also a decent and pretty nice human being, Thea stops staying over and moves back to her apartment; it’s a bit of a relief, as despite the Loft being spacious, it was starting to feel a little crowded.
Daisy’s method of impressing Oliver is… a bit more unorthodox.
Meaning that Felicity finds him sitting on the floor and handcuffed to the downstairs radiator one morning. He looks insanely annoyed. Daisy, meanwhile, is in her pajamas and guzzling coffee with her feet kicked up on the table, watching him from across the room with a shrewd look. She looks exhausted and sleep-deprived, and very slightly pissed off.
“Your ex decided to break in last night,” Daisy mutters, jerking her head in a short gesture towards him. “I fell asleep on the couch and he somehow got in via the balcony. Is this something we’re gonna have to worry about often? Because I’m kinda paranoid about security and this really isn’t gonna help that.”
“Holy shit,” is all Felicity can think to say, staring in disbelief at Oliver.
The archer huffs incredibly unhappily. He rattles the handcuffs, knocking his clenched fist against the radiator bars as the chain clangs. “She knocked me out, handcuffed me, and has been watching me all night.” It’s almost as if he can’t believe this happened to him either.
“Well next time, maybe don’t break into somebody’s apartment at 3am, crawl around in the dark like a creeper planning to murder the homeowners, and sneak up on someone who is fully prepared to kick your ass,” Daisy scowls. She takes a long draw out of her coffee mug, feet falling off the table with loud thunks against the floorboards. “Somehow I don’t think the good people of Star City knew that was one of your hobbies when they elected you!”
Felicity makes a grabby hand, silently requesting the key. Daisy tosses it across the room towards her, and of course, Felicity misses the catch; the key skitters across the floor and stops next to Oliver’s thigh. Heaving a sigh, the archer swipes it up and quickly unlocks the handcuffs, freeing himself. He stands and stretches with a pained groan; Felicity winces in sympathy as she realizes that he’s been forced to sit on the cold, hard floor for five hours.
“At least I know Daisy will adequately protect you if you ever have a home invasion,” Oliver grumbles, shooting her a half-hearted glare. It’s clear to see, though, that he has been suitably impressed by the hacker’s actions. “Why didn’t you call the police straight away?”
“Because I knew it was you,” she replies easily. “Why’d you think I knocked you out and handcuffed you to the radiator instead of just shooting you to incapacitate you?”
Oliver raises an eyebrow. “It was pitch black. You couldn’t have known it was me, unless you can somehow see in the dark.”
Daisy shrugs. “I recognized your footsteps. A bullet in your shoulder would have put you down and taught you a lesson, sure, but blood is a motherfucker to clean up, especially from wooden floorboards.” Jumping up from her seat like a lithe feline, she snatches up her keys and wallet from the nearby counter. “I’m gonna grab breakfast and coffees for us. I’ll get your usual, Felicity - any special requests, Oliver?”
“You don’t care about why he was breaking in?” Felicity questions, arms folded across her chest.
“Nah, not particularly.” Daisy throws on a black sweater to cover up the fact she’s wearing a pajama t-shirt, but that does nothing to hide the ridiculous and frankly hilarious pajama pants she’s wearing that are decorated with comical cartoon cats. She doesn’t seem to care about going out in public in PJs though, as she stuffs her feet into flats. “But I am absolutely gonna interrogate him about how he got in from the balcony. If that’s a weak point in our security, I’m fixing it.”
Oliver requests a two-shot espresso and a ham and egg croissant, and Daisy gives them both a tired but smug one-fingered salute before she leaves. As soon as the door is closed and locked behind her, Felicity wheels around to face Oliver… who is now staring at her rather sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I had a nightmare,” he tells her, going for immediate honesty rather than trying to weasel his way out of it. “Of you being attacked in your sleep by Darhk. I just needed to see you to make sure you were okay. I really didn’t expect Daisy to catch me.”
“I wish I’d taken a photo of you sitting down there like a sulky toddler,” Felicity snickers, poking him teasingly in the shoulder. “It was hilarious.” (Later, she asks Daisy if she has any pictures, and the hacker is all to happy to spam their new group chat with Thea with images of Oliver looking outraged and then resigned to his fate of being handcuffed to a radiator.)
“She handcuffed me so tightly that I couldn’t even dislocate my thumb to get out,” he huffs, clearly embarrassed. “Recognised me by my footsteps…” Oliver shakes his head, incredulous. “It’s a shame Lyla can’t access her SHIELD service records.”
Felicity rolls her eyes. “If that is your not-so-subtle way of asking me to snoop around the dark web for Daisy’s files again, I’m going to have to disappoint you. I’m not doing that anymore - it feels like I’m violating her trust.”
“... the only reason you won’t try again is because you couldn’t find a single thing the first time, isn’t it.”
It is, but Felicity refuses to admit that Daisy’s supreme hacking skills defeated her. She was amazingly talented at wiping all traces of herself from the internet. “It’s called respecting her privacy, Oliver,” she scolds him lightly. “We better hope she affords us the same courtesy - there’s no telling how she would react if she found out about our night jobs. You’re incredibly lucky that you weren’t dressed in green leather last night when she caught you breaking in.”
“I know,” Oliver mutters, and then with begrudging respect, admits, “I didn’t realize she was that well-trained. She was a good choice for a bodyguard. We’ll just have to see how she manages to protect you in a public space now.”
The next day, Daisy beats the shit out of a man who tries to mug them with a knife after ambushing them from the bushes lining the Costco parking lot.
How does she achieve this? Well, instead of whipping out her gun, she simply employs her ninja secret agent skills to wrestle the blade from the guy’s hand in a split second, and then bops him on the head using a huge bottle of apple juice. Felicity just stands there, frozen and blinking, clutching a giant bag of Cheetos to her chest.
The commotion has attracted a good dozen or so people; they all look shocked, and a couple of them are even filming or taking photos on their phones. No doubt it will end up on social media in the next few minutes, and Felicity will have to spend all evening getting it taken down.
“You seriously picked the wrong people to try and mug, dude,” Daisy sighs, nudging the unconscious man’s limp arm with the toe of her shoe. Peering at the crowd, she cups her hands to her mouth and calls out, “Nothing to see here, people. Just some guy making some shady life choices. Feel free to go on with your days.” The crowd slowly begins to disperse. “You can wait in the car, Felicity, I’ll just go and hand this guy to one of the store security guards so they can call the cops.”
And without a single ounce of effort, Daisy lifts the knocked-out mugger onto her shoulders in a fireman’s carry and strides back to the front of the store, where Costco staff who must have been informed of the altercation are already waiting. Dazed as she struggles to process what just happened, Felicity packs their groceries into the trunk and backseats of the Mini before settling into the driver’s seat. She drums her fingers on the wheel and then fishes out her phone.
To: Thea Queen: some dude just tried to mug dais and i outside costco and she knocked him out using a gallon juice bottle???? just threw him over her shoulder and is taking him to get arrested wtf
From: Thea Queen: LOLLLLLL NO WAY. PLS TELL ME THERE’S CCTV FOOTAGE, I NEED TO SEE THIS.
To: Thea Queen: i think somebody filmed it so it will probs end up on twitter or insta soon. and im fine, thanks for asking
From: Thea Queen: um, girl, the most badass newcomer to star city is your bodyguard, of course you’re ok
A few hours later, when Felicity goes searching online for videos of what happened, she finds them all mysteriously wiped from all social media. It appears as if Daisy erased them before she got the chance to.
And isn’t that strange? Felicity doesn’t want the videos spreading because she already gets enough attention from the tabloids and public. Why doesn’t Daisy want those videos online? Whose attention is she trying to avoid?
One evening, Felicity arrives home from an exhausting day of scoping out potential offices to rent for their start-up’s HQ to find Daisy curled up on the couch, watching TV. She told the hacker that she didn’t need her to guard her body today; she and Curtis were just driving around attending real estate appointments, so she wasn’t really out in public. As such, Daisy has taken the day off and is wearing sweats and a vest top, her short dark hair messy. She’s munching on Takis and drinking bourbon from the bottle.
The program she’s watching is BBC America’s recent Panorama episode examining the UN’s Sokovia Accords and the revisions that have been made in the last couple of months. Given that the Accords are about superheroes and super-powered individuals, it’s… intriguing that Daisy is paying so much attention to the show, as if she wants to interrogate it.
“Didn’t know you were interested in this kind of politics,” Felicity says carefully, aiming for a casual tone.
Daisy shrugs, popping another Taki into her mouth. “Used to work with a couple of inhumans,” she responds nonchalantly, “Some of them were good friends. So I like to keep up with the Accords stuff.”
Joining her on the couch and reaching over to snag the bag of chips, Felicity questions, “You agree with it?”
Daisy shrugs once again. “Sort of?” She looks a little uncertain. “Some parts of it I do. I think the legislations concerning international public superheroes like the Avengers are good. They need a chain of command and policies of accountability, so that shit like Sokovia and Lagos don’t happen again. I mean, it really doesn’t look great to have a supersoldier dressed head-to-toe in the American flag crossing countries’ borders illegally and wreaking havoc to their infrastructure while interfering with that country’s security operations, just because that dude thinks he knows better. I know the Avengers try and save lives and all that, but they do end up placing civilians in danger when they don’t coordinate with countries’ police and intelligence forces. The Accords were a long time coming.”
“You think so?” Felicity hasn’t spent that much time reading into the Accords herself, but it seems Daisy knows what she’s talking about.
“Oh, yeah. They’ve been in the works ever since New York, and then after Sokovia they started actually drafting them and taking it more seriously. Everything with the inhuman population explosion and Lagos just accelerated the schedule by creating a pretty strong atmosphere of fear around people with powers running around the world without any sort of management. 117 countries supported the Accords, and even more support them now after the revisions - if you’re truly a superhero fighting for the people, you can’t just ignore that.”
Felicity eyes her cautiously. “Doesn’t sound as if you like the Avengers that much.”
“I do like them,” Daisy shakes her head. “I’m just not starstruck by them enough to ignore their flaws. The Avengers originated from SHIELD’s Avengers Initiative Program, which was built to recruit people to fight the battles that SHIELD, other intelligence agencies, and conventional military forces wouldn’t be able to handle. Like alien invasions. But after New York, they started to pick and choose their battles - like trying to take down rogue HYDRA agents, which is really a job for counter-terrorism organizations. They actually got in our way a couple of times.”
Nodding in understanding, Felicity replies, “Right, so they were starting to infringe on other organizations. But they didn’t have any oversight or have to report to anybody, especially after SHIELD collapsed.”
“The Avengers barely ever took responsibility for the property damage and civilian casualties they caused either. Tony Stark paid for a majority of the destruction after New York, and he set up the Maria Stark Foundation to help support the Sokovian people after the Ultron disaster after taking full responsibility for it, even going to trial and stepping down from the Avengers. He makes mistakes, but he tries to own up to them. And then, after SHIELD fell, he also saved a load of undercover agents who were exposed by the file dump. Captain America and Black Widow didn’t seem to care about all those good SHIELD agents they put in danger, they just wanted to expose HYDRA. Stark employed a huge number of our burned agents at SI, or got them and their families into Witsec. None of the other Avengers publicly did anything like that. They were essentially just international vigilantes.” She quickly turns to Felicity and adds, “Not that I’m totally anti-vigilante. I actually think some vigilantism is necessary, given how poorly equipped and corrupt some police departments are. I don’t think small-scale vigilantes and local superhero groups should have to sign the Accords. I’m of the opinion that only those interested in working on an international scale should be asked to sign.”
“So that’s the part of the Accords you disagree with,” Felicity comments.
“And the Super Human Registration Act. Forcing inhumans, mutants, metahumans, and people with powers to be put on a registry is just fundamentally unethical on so many levels. Especially when most of those people just want to live their normal lives; their privacy will be completely violated. The SHRA will lead to a fuckton of discrimination and put a lot of people’s lives in danger if the registry passes into the wrong hands.” Daisy raises her hand holding the bourbon bottle, gesturing at the TV screen. “They’re working on phasing the SHRA out of the Accords though, which is great.”
Felicity hums quietly, watching the footage being shown of the UN Assembly’s Accords Council presenting the newly ratified document. “Well, I hope it gets sorted out. For your friends’ sakes.”
“Yeah, me too,” Daisy mumbles. She takes another long swig of whiskey, then toasts the bottle to the TV. “Thea’s coming over in an hour, by the way. We’re marathoning the new series of Doctor Who. I think she’s also determined to get me drunk enough to spill my ‘super secret agent secrets’.” She makes the sarcastic quote marks with her fingers, smirking.
“You seem to be open to helping her,” Felicity nods towards the whiskey. “Getting started before she’s even arrived.”
Daisy shrugs one shoulder and finally switches the channel over to something else, probably a rerun of Friends. “Eh, I’ve got a fast metabolism. And high alcohol tolerance. It takes a lot to get me drunk these days. Gotta make it fair and actually give her a chance.”
She gives Thea too good of a chance, it turns out, because three hours later, Daisy is incredibly drunk. Felicity has mostly stuck to drinking red wine, while Thea has been solely drinking vodka with different mixers; Daisy, however, doesn’t seem to care what she drinks.
After downing half a bottle of whiskey, she throws back shots of vodka and tequila, and then nurses beers and wine for the rest of the evening, growing progressively tipsier and tipsier. She’s hilarious when drunk; not giggly, as Felicity would have expected, but definitely a lot more open and humorous. Despite this, she still manages to keep her mouth shut about the more confidential parts of her past alphabet agency jobs, which is probably what makes her a fantastic secret agent.
“What does SHIELD even stand for anyway?” Thea sniggers into Daisy’s neck, from where she’s slumped into the hacker’s side.
“Strategic, Homeland…” Daisy slurs, counting the words on her fingers. “Inter - Intersection - Log-Logic, Division. Wait, no, I forgot the ‘E’. There’s also an ‘E’.” She brightens and adds, “Like at the end of my name.”
“You spell Daisy with an ‘E’ at the end?” Thea snorts.
“No, no, no, no,” Daisy bursts out laughing, falling back into the cushions. “My - my other name. Skye. That’s got an ‘E’ at the end.”
Pleasantly buzzed but nowhere near the other two’s levels of drunk, Felicity immediately picks up on that. Daisy’s hacker handle used to be Skyenet - is Daisy admitting that it’s actually a play off another name she goes by? “You have another identity?”
“More like a previous one,” Daisy sighs. “Didn’t find out my birth name until like, a year ago.” Then she suddenly sits up, frowning adorably as she points at Felicity and accuses, “Hey, you can’t start trying to press me for information too. That’s - that’s not fair. Two against one. No more SHIELD or work talk. I’m not giving you nothing.”
Thea collapses, laughing as she curls up half in Daisy’s lap. “That doesn’t make sense! That means you’ll tell us everything and we barely know anything about your work,” she whines. “But fine, no more secret agent talk. Now you’ve already indicated family is off-limits, so the only possible gossip topic left for us to discuss is your love life. C’monnnnnn girl, spill!”
But Daisy seems to have been instantly sobered by the mere mention of love. A chill run downs Felicity’s spine at the tormented expression that passes over the hacker’s face. What could have happened to her in her past to trigger that look? Something terrible, for sure.
“Maybe we shouldn’t -” Felicity begins, but Daisy cuts her off.
“His name was Lincoln,” she murmurs, her voice thick with emotion and cracking. “He was the best. I loved him, and I could have spent the rest of my live loving him, but by the time I realized that, it was too late.”
“... You’re not talking about a break-up, are you?” Thea asks quietly.
This has very rapidly turned depressing. With their conversation now turned serious, the playful and relaxed atmosphere from before has faded, leaving sorrow in its wake. Felicity hastily pours herself another glass of wine and swallows it down, hoping it will prevent the gaping, empty hole in her chest from expanding and overwhelming her with its numbness. She doesn’t know precisely when that hollow was formed, but she knows that it’s been threatening to consume her with anguish ever since her and Oliver’s break-up.
Unfortunately, Felicity has her own ghosts, and all this talk of losing partners is reminding her of the time she thought Oliver was killed on the mountain by Ra’s Al Ghul; perhaps that was when the hole in her heart was created. It appears as if Daisy has a similar abyss trying to swallow her up too - and she’s been struggling with it silently for a while.
Daisy sounds both devastated and exhausted as she croaks, “He died. He was my partner - not just my boyfriend, my partner in the field too. Everything went to shit. I was captured by the enemy and brainwashed into doing awful things, and after they rescued me, Lincoln sacrificed himself to save the world.” She turns her face into Thea’s shoulder as she begins to sob in earnest. “It was all my fault. I should have been the person to give their life to fix everything. It should have been me. I deserved to die in his place.”
“Oh, Dais, come here,” Felicity whispers, scooting up close to her and pulling her in for a hug. “Don’t say that. You didn’t deserve to die, and clearly Lincoln loved you and thought the same.”
“And you can’t blame yourself for things you were forced to do while under duress and brainwashed,” Thea adds, rubbing Daisy’s back soothingly.
Daisy doesn’t talk much more after that, simply sitting curled up and looking tired and miserable. The least drunk of the three of them, Felicity helps the stumbling hacker into her bedroom and dumps her into bed, tucking her in. Daisy won’t care about sleeping in her clothes. With Thea, she grabs a spare pillow and comforter so she can sleep on the couch; given the fact that Thea has fallen asleep on the uncomfortable couches in the Foundry before without a problem, she’ll be fine on the Loft’s couch, which is considerably more plush. Making sure both her friends have glasses of water and Tylenol ready for when they wake up in the morning with hangovers.
When Felicity clambers into bed herself that night, changed into cotton shorts and a tank top, she’s out like a light, thanks to the wine. If it weren’t for the alcoholic buzz, she probably would never be able to get to sleep, haunted by Daisy’s tragic loss of her partner and those grief-stricken tears in her eyes.
She jerks awake at a practically unthinkable time early in the morning, groggy and confused. It doesn’t take her long to figure out why; her bed is shaking. Not just her bed - the whole room. An earthquake? Stumbling out from under the covers, Felicity jams her feet into half-laced up sneakers and grabs a jacket, heading straight out from the bedroom. Now she can see and feel that it must be an earthquake, because the apartment is shuddering. Everything is rattling loudly, with glasses on the kitchen counter wobbling off the edge and smashing on the floor. Thea is already awake and standing, glancing around wildly. She’s just as bewildered by what’s happening as Felicity.
“There’s not construction or something going on, is there?” Thea asks.
Felicity checks the time on her phone. “At three in the morning?” She yelps and jumps back in alarm when the lamp on the coffee table next to her tumbles off and the lightbulb shatters. “Okay, this building is not earthquake-proofed so we need to get out ASAP. Is Daisy still in her room?”
“Yeah, she hasn’t come out,” Thea confirms.
The two of them race over to the hacker’s bedroom, knocking twice before entering when they don’t hear a response. Daisy is still curled up in bed, dead to the world.
Thea stares at her in disbelief. “She must be a super deep sleeper.”
Crossing the room in a couple of strides, Felicity rolls Daisy onto her back, extending a hand to gently shake her awake. It’s then that she realizes that something is wrong. The hacker’s body is coiled up tight, all of her muscles tensed. She’s trembling all over as she clenches her jaw and squeezes her eyes shut, as if in pain. A nightmare? A pretty bad one, judging by the way Daisy is sweating and hyperventilating. The room continues quaking, with the lamp swinging uncontrollably above them and threatening to fall on their heads.
“Daisy.” Felicity pokes her shoulder cautiously, immediately taking a step back. She knows precisely how dangerous it is to wake Oliver up from a nightmare, and reckons that Daisy is likely to lash out too. When Daisy stirs slowly, she risks another careful poke. “Dais, wake up. Something’s happening - some sort of earthquake. It’s not safe, we need to evac the building.”
The hacker finally jolts awake, going completely still for a moment as she takes in her surroundings before she turns to Felicity and Thea, blinking blearily. “Wha…” And then she notices the shaking. She pales, her eyes widening.
Felicity tugs her out of bed, grabbing a discarded sweater from the floor and passing it to her. Thea has already picked up Daisy’s slippers and got them ready for her. But by the time they’re heading for the front door… the earthquake is dying down. The full-blown shaking fades into tremors and then eventually just faint shivering. Within less than a minute, everything is motionless and quiet again. They wait nervously on the couch in case there are any aftershocks, but after fifteen minutes of nothing, it seems that the earthquake has stopped.
“Everybody okay?” Thea checks.
All three of them nod shakily.
“That was weird,” Felicity muses aloud, utterly baffled. “Earthquakes rarely occur this far north up the coast, and never that strong.”
White as a sheet beside her and breathing heavily, Daisy remains silent.
That morning, there’s nothing whatsoever in the news about an earthquake hitting Star City a few hours ago. While an ashen-faced Daisy heads out to fetch them coffee and breakfast pastries (despite the excitement, they all still have hangovers), Felicity checks all of the earthquake reporter websites. There’s been no seismic activity recorded. But she does get several concerned neighbors coming to knock on the door and check on them, confirming that the earthquake did happen.
Oliver is mystified when she calls to ask him if he experienced any earthquakes, and that perplexity rapidly transforms to worry when Thea asserts over loudspeaker that Felicity was not dreaming and they were not the only people in the building who felt it. The archer informs them seriously that he’ll start looking into it, as both the mayor and the Green Arrow.
Was the earthquake confined only to their building?
How is that even possible?
Daisy doesn’t come home.