Photographs From The Heart
Author: acheaptrickandacheesyoneline
Summary: What do you get the vigilante who has everything, and nothing? A dinner in the bunker with everyone there, a movie, and maybe just a gift that will mean everything.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Arrow. No copyright infringement intended.
Author’s Note: I hope you have an absolutely wonderful holiday, @stellahellaviola, and that you enjoy this bit of fluff set in a slightly alternate Season 5 where Evelyn isn’t working for Prometheus.
I’m also extending a thank you to someone who wanted me to take credit for the name, when I only changed one word of their suggestion. You know who you are. Thank you.
Saying that Christmas was the most wonderful time of the year wasn’t really the first thing that came to mind when Oliver thought of the holidays. In his college days, it had been a viable excuse to slack off and do nothing after finals–if he had made it that far. Back in grade school, it had meant putting on the uncomfortable shoes that he had to keep clean no matter what, and a suit so itchy he couldn’t wait to get out of it. The Queen Family had to look their best during the holidays, after all.
After coming home, the holidays had become a bit more…dicey. His first Christmas back among the living had been Thea’s thoughtful, but ill-fated attempt at holiday normality. After that had been two years of forgetting about the holiday season, and one almost death, had it not been for the wonders of Penicillin Tea.
Last year had felt like things were finally coming together and his bad luck around Christmas was going to turn around. He ended up spending the next month attacking Ghosts with his bare hands in an attempt to deal with some of the guilt he had about not being able to keep Felicity safe.
Thea had come far in her party organizing in the past years though. The Official Star City Holiday Party was in full swing and it seemed everyone was enjoying themselves. He walked between groupings of people, accepting toasts and offering greetings to anyone who approached him. Oliver had fought Thea on the need for a party this year, but had eventually caved to her wisdom of erasing the past events by making brighter memories.
Still, he was thankful when the two hours of face time as Mayor he promised Thea were done. His sister really was the better of the two of them when it came to dealing with people and public relations. There was no doubt that she was Moira Queen’s daughter when he watched her charm a room.
The party would continue on without him there and no one the wiser. It was a quick hop, skip and a jump from City Hall to his old election office and the bunker beneath it.
If Thea could have made it there before him, he could have said that everyone he cared for was in sight when he stepped off the elevator. Diggle was on the ground, playing with the Digg-let, while Lyla was supervising the transfer of roasted turkey from SUV to the large table that had been set up in the middle of the training area.
Evelyn had gifted handmade stockings to the entire team, which were hung around the computers with care. Even Roy had snuck back into Star City without anyone finding out, showing up the day before out of the blue with a box full of homemade cookies.
He felt Felicity approach him more than he heard her. The noise levels in the Bunker had risen to a point where he couldn’t hear the clack of her heels on the floor. He had yet to ever not recognize when she was around him. “Is the headline tomorrow going to be ‘Mayor Queen ditches his own party?’”
“I don’t think anyone is going to notice,” he responded with a smile. “People were starting to leave before I did.”
“I’m glad you were able to make it in time to help with dinner preparation. Lyla shooed me away after I accidently boiled the potatoes dry. The second time.” She gave a sigh and shook her head. “I can do potato pancakes with the best of them. Ask me to do anything else?”
For a moment, Oliver had the urge to pull her in close and kiss the top of her head. Instead he shoved his hand deep into his suit jacket’s pocket and clenched his fist until he could feel his nails biting into his palm. It was something else to focus on while he reigned in his thoughts.
He managed a deep breath, then slid his jacket off, tossing it over the railing. “Then I suppose I better get in there to help or we aren’t having Christmakkuh dinner tonight,” he told her, rolling up his sleeves.
Later, when they were stuffed so full of food none of them could move, the movie choice of the night, It’s a Wonderful Life was started up. Somehow, Felicity had managed to sync up all of the various computer screens down here, and no matter where someone sat, everyone would be able to watch the movie at the same time.
If they were even still there. Thea and Roy, for example, had disappeared after dinner and the brother in Oliver did not want to know where they had gone.
To the side of the main training area, Felicity and Rory had lit the shamash and were quietly saying blessings together in a low voice. Oliver had a flash of memory from the year before, hearing Felicity sing Hebrew and the calm he had felt in that moment. He closed his eyes and focused on her voice, relaxing further into the chair he had claimed as his.
Felicity had mentioned earlier that night she had already lit her menorah at home before coming over, but she had wanted to kindle the lights in the bunker too. To hopefully bring some light into the darkness that they all fought against on a nightly basis.
He must have dozed a bit after there. It seemed he trusted the newbies to let his guard down enough to reach that twilight sleep state. The last he remembered was George giving up on going to school in order to keep the Building and Loan going, and now there were bells ringing and angels getting wings. A flutter of a thought about obligations, and understanding why George did what he had to for family, flew through his mind. No bells to accompany those wings though.
“Oh, you’re awake,” Felicity said, jolting upright in her seat next to him. “I was just about to head out now that the movie’s done.” She stood up and walked a few steps towards the pile of coats before turning around to walk past him in the other direction. “But now that you’re awake, I’ll actually just give this to you instead of leaving it for you to find like some sort of weird reverse burglary.”
She shoved a slim box into his hands, wrapped in shiny white and blue wrapping paper, small dreidels spinning their way across. Oliver moved to cover her hands with his and looked up to meet her eyes. “Thank you. But you didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I didn’t really get you anything per se,” she admitted. Her hands were warm under his, he noticed. Still soft like he remembered. “That sort of implies you asking for something.”
“So it’s not something I asked Jewish Santa for?” He raised his eyebrow at her before giving in and smiling. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“You haven’t even opened it yet. I mean, I could have been totally off base with this idea and made it into a really creepy stalker thing but Thea really liked hers and I thought you would too but now I’m sort of regretting doing it without your permi–”
“Felicity,” he said. Her name still rolled off his tongue like it had thousands of other times, on coms and phones and face to face. So much meaning shoved into such a small sound. He grabbed both of her hands in one of his and held them, squeezing tight for a moment. “I’m sure that I’ll love it just as much as Thea did.”
After a beat longer than they probably should have, they pulled away from one another. Felicity stood with her hands at her sides, looking like she was itching to do anything else with them. Taking pity on her, he turned his attention to the gift and sought out the best place to begin opening it.
And, because he could, he carefully took his time to open it, breaking tape lines and gently peeling back paper so as not to rip it. Knowing that it would drive her crazy. “You are the worst unwrapper ever,” he heard her mutter as he pulled back the last bit of tape and paper.
He bit back a grin and focused his attention to what lay under the paper: a beautiful leather book with what looked like green stitching against the brown leather. On the first page was a photo he had long since thought he had lost: all of them, his family, the Christmas before he had gotten on the boat.
Paging through it, he saw other photos. Some clearly prints from websites such as TMZ showing Thea as a pre-teen, in what was supposed to be a fashion article he was sure .It might have been about how Thea was in a ratty old t-shirt and jeans that had seen better days. All Oliver saw though was when his sister had gone through the phase of wearing her big brothers clothes in an effort to be cool like him. A black and white newspaper photo of his parents marriage, then a color one of his mother and Walter’s marriage.
“I figured that you probably weren’t able to really get many photos after your mom died. And then the mansion burned down so you lost what were there.” From the corner of his eye he could see her shifting from foot to foot in her heels. The bulk of his attention was on the photos, in the scrapbook she had made, as she talked.
“So I figured, this isn’t like the 1800s, when if you lost a photo it was gone forever sort of thing. If it’s online, I can find it.” The hem of her dress lifted for a moment as she shrugged. “So I culled through a whole bunch of photos, and thank you for keeping your pants on for the vast majority of public photos, and picked out the ones I thought you would want to have.”
Oliver rose, the book left on the chair behind him, and put a hand on her shoulder. He gave it a brief squeeze, wanting to do more, but not sure if he could. Or should. “Thank you,” he told her, squeezing her shoulder again when her fingers covered the back of his hand. “It means a lot that you…Thank you.”
Last year he would have kissed her. The words didn’t seem enough to him, but they were all he had now. No matter the fact that he spoke three languages. None of them had the right combination of words to thank her for a gift like this. That she had made one for Thea as wellmade it even better for him. Of all people, Thea deserved to still have a mom and dad. If he hadn’t come back, she would probably still have their mom and Walter.
They were both startled out of their reverie when a sudden bright flash of light got him square in the eye. “Sorry, my bad,” Curtis said, holding up his phone. “Thought I had turned the flash off. But you two looked really cute and it kinda needed to be saved forever.”
Attempting to blink the camera flash from his eyes, Oliver leg go of Felicity’s shoulder, hand dropping to his side. He rubbed his thumb against his fingers, nerves working their way up in him as he realized how long they must have been standing there together.
He was saved from his anxious thoughts when a phone rang from the pile of coats, a ringing bell sort of noise that made Felicity go scramble towards the pile. “That’s me, I’m sorry!”
Oliver thumbed through the book again, turning away from where Felicity was putting on her coat, getting ready to leave. The last page in it was a photo of the three of them–Felicity, John and himself–from right after the Dodger case, when they had gone out for drinks. Felicity had her phone out, trying to get a selfie with the three of them in it. Her arms weren’t long enough to get them all in the photo, and Oliver had laughed at her complaints. He had snapped the photo of them instead, empty margarita glasses filling the foreground.
“I’ll be over around two tomorrow to help watch the Digg-let while you make cookies,” Felicity called to Lyla as the elevator opened for her.
“You’re an angel,” Lyla yelled back, just as the doors closed, catching the smallest moment of Felicity waving to the team before it brought her back to ground level.
When Oliver left the bunker that night, he carefully carried Felicity’s gift under his arm. His thoughts swirled around, much like the snow around him, lingering on the idea of family, both blood and found. There were some pages Felicity had left blank at the end of the book. And while he wasn’t sure if they were intentionally empty or not, Oliver was at least certain that he was going to add in photographs of his now expanded family.
Thanks to Curtis, he already knew the first picture that would add.
