Chapter Text
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Artwork by Lademonessa
Tommy couldn’t help but smile when he walked into the R&D space at Applied Science. Felicity referred to it as Curtis’ lab, but she spent almost as much time in it as her friend did. She was seated at a table wearing a pair of magnifying glasses as she examined something she held with a tweezer. Her bright blue eyes looked to be the size of saucers as she continued to study the tiny object.
He was standing less than three feet from her before she realized she wasn’t alone. He moved quickly to prevent her from toppling from her perch as she shrieked in surprise, “Damn it, Tommy. You scared the frack out of me.”
“I’m sorry,” Tommy laughed, “but I wasn’t exactly being stealthy in my approach.”
Her exaggerated eyes blinked at him from behind the powerful lenses, “I guess I was a bit engrossed.”
He couldn’t take her seriously while she was looking at him with cartoon kitten eyes. “May I?” he asked as he reached for the glasses. He waited for her approval before he lifted them from her face. “There’s my girl.”
Felicity smoothed the loose strands from her ponytail behind her ear, “You’re here early. I thought you were coming in before heading into Verdant.”
“Babe, it’s four o’clock. How long have you been sitting here?” he asked with concern.
“What time did we talk?” she asked as she stretched her arms over her head.
“Around nine,” he placed his hand on the small of her back and began to rub.
“I guess, since nine.” She moaned as Tommy moved behind her and began to massage her shoulders, “That feels good.”
“What have you been staring at all day?” Tommy’s fingers began to work on a knot in Felicity’s shoulder blade.
“God, do I love your hands,” she said with a contented sigh. Tommy grunted his acknowledgment as he continued to work on the knots in her muscles. Felicity picked up a very small square with her tweezers, “This is Palmer Tech’s latest processing chip. I’ve been trying to figure out how to solve for our battery’s nasty propensity for overheating. I think I need to miniaturize, but I can’t figure out how to do it. I thought if I looked at what Ray had done it would help jump start my brain, but all it’s succeeded in doing is making me feel inadequate. I’m just as smart as Ray, hell, technically my IQ is two points higher, but I can’t figure this out.”
Tommy would normally disagree when she began to disparage her own abilities, but he knew she’d called him for a reason and she needed to get it all out before he could determine the best way to support her. His fingers began to knead her neck, “I doubt you invited me over for my opinion on miniaturization.”
“No, I invited you here for this,” Felicity spun on her stool until she was facing him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and dropped her forehead to his chest, “I really needed a hug.”
Tommy wrapped his arms around her, “I’m always happy to oblige.”
Felicity hummed happily as she relaxed against him, “What if this was a huge mistake?”
“If what was a huge mistake?” Tommy continued to rub her back.
“Convincing Oliver to abandon the military contracts for green technology.” Felicity’s fingers flexed against his sides, “He put all of his faith in me and I’m failing him.”
“Hey,” Tommy said as he took a step back, “you could never fail Oliver.”
“What if I can’t get this battery to work?” She groaned, “We once worried Isabel Rochev was going to destroy this company and steal it out from under him. What if we were worried about the wrong woman? What if it’s me that brings down QC?”
He cupped her face between his hands, “You’re going to figure this out.”
“We’ve been working on this for two years and I still haven’t solved half of the issues I need to in order to make the idea viable.” Felicity eyes fluttered, “I’m the wrong person for the job and if Oliver wasn’t sleeping with me he’d already have fired me.”
“That’s it,” Tommy said sternly, “stand up.”
“What?” she asked in confusion as she followed his instructions.
“I’m taking you home. I’m feeding you something that isn’t entirely made out of sugar and red dye number five. Then, you’re going to take a hot bath before I tuck you in for the night.” Tommy knelt down to grab her shoes from under her work table. He tapped the back of her calf and helped her step back into her heels. “Where’s your purse?”
“In my office,” she said as she held onto his shoulders for balance. “Tommy, I can’t leave. I have too much to do.”
“It’s cute how you think you have a choice,” Tommy rose to his feet. “You’re exhausted. You won’t have any brilliant ideas as long as you’re sleep deprived. Take the night off, for me.”
“What about Verdant?” she asked as she allowed him to lead her out of the lab. “Oliver and Dig are expecting me tonight.”
“I’m going to have Roy cover for me,” Tommy waved to Jerry as they walked by her assistant’s desk, “and I’m going to tell our boyfriend that crime fighting will need to wait a night.”
Felicity picked up her purse, “I don’t think any amount of sleep or a home cooked meal is going to solve my problems so that I can tell the board we’re making progress.”
Tommy laced his fingers through hers, “You’re being ridiculously hard on yourself. You’re trying to do something that has never been done and you’ve made some lucrative advancements that you’ve been able to capitalize on with other products. Be patient with yourself or you’ll have to answer to me.”
“Can I have pancakes for dinner?”
“You can have anything you want,” Tommy grinned, “as long as you eat protein and some veggies too.”
“Did you forget to set the alarm again?” Felicity asked Tommy as she stood looking at the blinking green light on their control panel.
“I wasn’t the last person to leave this morning, Ollie was,” Tommy’s hand flashed out as he pushed Felicity behind him. “Out,” he said quietly.
She knew he was right, Oliver never left the house without arming the alarm. “Hildy?”
Tommy shook his head as he backed them towards the door.
The kitchen light flipped on and a familiar silhouette was framed in the doorway, “If she’s supposed to be a guard dog, she’s terrible. I didn’t even have to bribe her with a treat.”
“Damn it, Lawton,” Felicity said as she stepped around Tommy, “what the hell are you doing breaking into my home?”
“Lawton?” Tommy asked. “As in Deadshot?”
“I needed to see you and the big guy,” Lawton retreated into the kitchen.
“I’m calling Ollie,” Tommy pulled his cell from his pocket.
“Tell him to bring John,” Lawton instructed.
Felicity looked around her kitchen in dismay. Containers of leftovers were all over her countertops. “Help yourself,” her voice dripped with sarcasm.
“This chicken is good, really good.” Lawton took a forkful from a dish on the counter and then fed a piece of chicken to Hildy, “Did you make it?”
She shook her head as she surveyed the devastation in her kitchen, “Oliver.” There were bloody towels all over her counter. She eyed Lawton looking for injuries, “That better be your blood, because if you killed someone in my home you’re going to wish I was Amanda Waller.” She furrowed her brow, “Wait, shouldn’t you be with the dragon lady?”
“Got paroled for good behavior. You’re looking at a former member of the Suicide Squad,” Lawton smirked.
“And the blood?” Tommy put himself between Lawton and Felicity.
Lawton lifted his shirt and revealed a bandage on his abdomen, “Ran into a little trouble at a bar.”
Felicity sighed, “Do you need stitches?”
“I’m all set darling, but I will take a piece of that pie I saw in your fridge,” Lawton took another bite from his plate.
“You can get your own damn pie,” Felicity snapped. “You just committed B&E, you’re not a guest in my home.”
Lawton laughed, “I always liked you. I could never see what you saw in Queen. He’s such a bore, but then I read a little article about the three of you at your birthday party. Your home paints a very interesting story too. It just goes to show that you never know anyone. You, I wasn’t surprised by, but Queen, I never would’ve pegged him as anything but vanilla in the sack.”
“What do you want, Floyd?” Felicity asked in an attempt to change the conversation. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her relationship or sex life with Deadshot.
“We need to wait for Oliver and John,” all of the humor had left Lawton’s voice. “Anyone want coffee? I was about to make a pot when you two showed up.”
“I wish Waller would notify us when she lets one of you guys go,” Felicity said as she grabbed coffee beans from the freezer. She handed the bag to Lawton, “First Cutter, now you.”
He laughed, “Did crazy Carrie come after you? You should be grateful I didn’t tell her who the Arrow really is.”
Lawton was just pouring Felicity a cup of coffee when Oliver and John arrived with their guns drawn. Floyd put his hands in the air, “Easy guys, I’m only here to help.”
John and Oliver both put their guns in the waist band of their jeans. “What are you doing here?” Dig asked gruffly. “Breaking into my friends’ home and helping yourself to their fridge isn’t smart if you’re trying to evade ARGUS.”
“I served my time, Waller let me go. I was planning on going legit, but I was approached by a new player and I couldn’t resist,” Lawton took a sip of his coffee.
“The money?” Oliver asked sarcastically.
“No, the target.” At Dig’s raised eyebrow, Lawton slid a large manila envelope down the counter. “I think you’ll find the target interesting too.”
John opened the envelope and pulled out a file, “Son of a bi-“
Oliver took the file and the blood drained from his face. Concerned, Felicity pulled the file from Oliver’s hands. There were two pictures in the file, “Me and Curtis Holt.? Am I supposed to believe that someone really wants us dead?”
“They want you more than dead, sweetheart. They want you executed in public and they want your R&D facility burned to the ground.” Lawton smiled brightly, “Personally, I find you to be a little ray of sunshine, but you did something to piss off some powerful people and for once, I don’t think it’s because of the man in green.”
“Do you know who hired you?” Dig asked.
Lawton shook his head, “I do not, but I tried to find out and got a knife to the side for my trouble.”
“If they’re after you and Curtis and they want Applied Sciences destroyed – it has to be about your green tech, right?” Tommy’s fingers traced over the picture of Felicity in Lawton’s file. “Who loses when your projects are introduced to the market?”
“The fossil fuel industry, OPEC, non-OPEC countries, our competitor’s, Congress.” Felicity sighed. “The list is endless.”
“Do we really think the Koch brothers would hire someone to kill Felicity and Curtis?” Tommy asked Oliver and Dig.
“They are one of the few who could afford me,” Lawton said with all seriousness.
Oliver arched a brow at him, “You took money for this?”
“Listen, if I didn’t take the contract they’d have given it to someone else and you wouldn’t know about the threat to your girl and when I don’t kill her, I’ll be having some real problems of my own.”
“How long do I have?” Felicity asked.
“I’m hoping at least another fifty years, sweetheart,” Lawton grinned.
Dig ran his hand back and forth over his forehead, “When are you supposed to take them out?”
“You and the pretty boy are attending a gala this week?” Lawton asked Felicity as he smirked at Tommy.
“That’s in two days,” Tommy said with alarm.
Felicity pulled the file closer, “Is this everything you have? Did they communicate with you through email, burner, carrier pigeon?”
Lawton eyed Dig and Oliver nervously, “I maintain a voicemail account. They left me a message with a time and location to meet them.”
“I’m going to need the details on that account,” Felicity said. “Did they give you a way to get in touch with them?”
“No, once the job is done, they’ll wire me the money. There is also no callback on this order. I’m to keep going until you’re both dead.” Lawton wrote down a series of numbers on the back of the manila envelope, “My voicemail account and the location of the meeting.”
“I’ll also need your bank account number. I might be able to follow the money.” At his reluctance she said, “Listen, you can just give me the number now or I’ll waste time identifying it, but make no mistake I will find your bank account, I’ll just be really grumpy about it and might accidentally make a transfer.”
Lawton rolled his eyes and wrote down another series of numbers, “I can see why everyone is most afraid of you.”
Felicity stood up, holding the envelope and file to her chest and looked at Oliver and Dig, “I guess I better get looking for a target for you two to take out.” She made it as far as the doorway when she turned back, “Out of curiosity, how much does taking me out pay?”
Lawton smiled sadly, “Not nearly enough, sweetheart.”
Dig waited for Felicity to leave the room, “How much?”
Lawton looked at where his hands were folded on the table, “Five up front. Five when it’s done.”
Dig and Oliver both sank back in their chairs as they pushed the air from their lungs.
“What?” Tommy asked with concern.
“Ten million is a lot for a hit on a private citizen,” Lawton explained. When Tommy furrowed his brow Lawton added, “Someone really wants her dead.”