Felicity

Six months later...

"Hey, Nessa."

"About time you have a moment to answer my calls. Is your boss working you like a pack mule?"

"No, I've been trying to keep him on track. Who would think that Tony Stark is the most unfocused person ever. He woke me up at two in the morning to talk to me about algorithms."

"You know you could always come back to M.A.D.D. Tech."

"Yeah I know. But I have to say, there's never a dull moment with my boss." I look in my closet and pull out a multi-color grey dress.

"Are the parties killer? I hear that those shindigs last until the next day."

"I've been keeping his party time to a five hour minimum." I hold the multi grey dress to myself and nod in approval.

"Is he more handsome in person, though?"

"Nessa, he's my boss."

"So? You're just looking not touching."

"Fine, then if I'm honest--hold on I got another call." I click over then.

"Hello?"

"Miss Smoak, how small are your hands?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry. Meet me at my place in say, ten minutes?"

"I-" He hangs up and I sigh then click back over to Nessa.

"Duty calls."

"You chose to work for him."

"I'll call you when I go get lunch." We hang up and I go get dressed...

Soon after I park my car in front of Tony's place and use my key card to get inside.

"Good Morning, Miss Smoak." I jump a little as I hear Jarvis greet me.

I'm still not used to that.

"Good Morning, Jarvis. Um where is Tony?"

"Mr. Stark is in his lab." I nod and walk towards the lab.

When I walk down, through the glass doors I see Tony laying on a table with wires hooked up to him.

"What the hell..."

I walk inside and he looks over at me.

"Hey, Felicity. Let's see them, show me your hands." I place my tablet under my arm and show him my hands.

"Oh wow, they're really are small, very petite, indeed. Perfect. I just need your help for a second."

I walk on over and the first thing I see is his bare chest..

And then I see the strange reactor in his chest.

"Is that the thing keeping you alive?" I want to touch it but I keep my hands to myself. "It was, and now it's getting an upgrade." He reveals a more modern version in his hand and I'm starting to feel a bit nervous of what he may ask.

"This upgrade will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I just ran into a little speed bump."

"Tony, please don't tell me-"

"It's nothing, really. It's a tiny favor. It's barely a favor really if you think about it. There's just an exposed wire under this device, and my hands are too big to reach. As you can imagine the contact from the wire to the wall keeps causing a bit of a short." He plucks the device out of his chest and hands it to me.

Oh it's warm.

I place my tablet down on the table and he motions me closer.

"Now, I just want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?" I ask, as I stand on my tippy toes to peek. "Yeah, it should be fine. It's like operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it will go beep."

"What happens if it goes beep?"

"I can die, but hey, no pressure."

"What?" I take a step back but he gives me a stern look.

"Felicity, you're going to do just fine. Just lift the wire. Okay? Great."

I move back closer to him and place the old device down. "Do you have a step stool? I really can't see anything."

"Just climb up. I won't bite. Here, I'll help you."

Before I can protest he leans over and hikes me up by my hips.

"Y...you know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this." I stammer as I look into the open hole.

"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy persons I've come to know. You're gonna do great."

He holds my hips so that I don't tip over.

Whoa, he has some pretty strong hands.

Felicity focus!

"Okay..." I reach in and it feels warm and pus like.

"Oh god, there's pus!"

"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."

"Oh..it smells...oh god." I try to hold my breath then.

"Yeah, it does. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?" I look down and see my finger tips are on the copper wire. I nod and get a hold of it.

"I got it, I got it."

"Okay, you got it? Now, don't let it touch the sides where you're coming out!" I had accidentally let it touch the side and jump when he shakes under me.

"I got you. You won't fall. Look you're doing great." He says as I lift the copper wire up. "I'm sorry, Tony. I am so sorry."

"You're doing fine. Now make sure that when you're pulling the wire out, you don't..."

I pull and I see a clunk of metal at the end.

"...there's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out."

"Oh god, oh god. What's happening? Why is the machine beeping? Should I put this back?"

"No, don't do that. I'm just going into cardiac arrest. That's all." My eyes widen. "Oh god! I just killed my boss!"

"Felicity! I'm not dead. But I will be if you don't follow these instructions carefully. Now take this, take this. You gotta switch it out really quick. Okay?"

He hands me the new device and I nod.

"I just want to let you know, that if this all goes wrong, I take full responsibility of this."

"Felicity?"

"Yes?"

"I'm dying here."

"Oh!"

"Now you're going to attach that piece to the base plate. Make sure you..."

I plug it in and Tony yells making me fall more in top of him.

He stops yelling and for a moment I just look into his eyes.

"You're eyes look like chocolate swirls..."

He has really pretty lashes...

Then I remember the position we're in and the reputation he has and I move back off of him falling on my butt in the process.

"See, that wasn't so hard? That was fun, right?"

"No, that was, oh gross. My hand smells." Tony helps me up and I move back away from him quickly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. You okay?" He asks as he laughs at the faces I make.

"Please, if you need to do that again...get a doctor."

"I think with more practice, you'll get the hang of this." I feel the bile build up in my throat.

"I think I need to go before I make a mess on your floor." I sprint off upstairs so I can wash my hands and not hurl all over my bosses floor.

When I come back down, I feel my face flush.

Tony was pretty hot for his age, and not only that, he has that sarcastic bad boy charm that I'm kind of weak for.

"Tony, what would you like for me to do with this?" I ask holding up the device.

"Burn it, toss it, throw it to the bottom of the ocean. Miss Smoak, I have been called many thing. Nostalgic isn't one of them."

He walks over to his computer and I look at it.

I can't just throw something like this away...

Hours later I find Tony working on something while talking to Jarvis.

"Tony, you do know you have an awards ceremony in a few hours?"

"Can you hand me that wrench?"

"No, come on let's go--is that a robotic arm?" Tony quickly stands up and moves me back.

"How about you take this and treat yourself?" He hands me a black card but I try to give it back.

"Tony you have a responsibility to uph-"

"I'm very busy. Not only that I've won this award about several times-"

"You can't keep doing this. To-"

"I can do whatever I want, Felicity. Now go out and buy-"

"No, stop being a child. I'm not your babysitter. I'm you're assistant."

"I am not a child. I am a philanthropist, intelligent an-"

"I'm not arguing with you. When I come back you will have that robotic arm put away and you will be all dressed as well as ready to go. Do I make myself clear?"

Tony raises a brow and I see a ghost of a smile on his face.

"Fine, I'll be ready in a little." I nod and glance at the robotic arm.

Why does that arm look so familiar?

Three hours later, Tony and I were in the car.

I get an alert on the tablet telling me about some updates on the Avengers.

"Oh!" I turn the tablet over just as Tony takes a peek.

"Was that an Avengers app?"

"No." I answer quickly. "Miss Smoak, are you lying to me? Isn't that a little childish?"

I give him a side eye glare and sigh. "Okay, it was."

"Who's your favorite?"

"I don't ha-"

"Everyone does. Come on, I won't tease you. I trust you, now trust me."

Another sigh escapes my lips.

"I think, Captain America is cu-"

"You have terrible taste in men."

I gasp and turn to him. "I happen to have lovely taste in men, thank you very much."

"Sure you do." I see him roll his eyes and I turn to him. "What? Captain America is a good guy, very attractive and-"

"He's a good little soldier. Sure-"

"You know if I didn't know better, I think you sound jealous." He scoffs. "Me jealous? Psh, what do I have to be jealous about? I'm rich, I'm successful and good looking."

That you are Tony Stark.

"I still say, Cap is my favorite."

"So what do you think about the other Avengers? Say for example, Iron Man?"

"He's pretty cool, cocky sometimes."

"Cocky? I think he's humble." I snorkel. "Did you see what he did last Christmas? He basically showed off his new suit."

"He was not showing off."

"Tony, you act like you know him personally."

"I just understand him on a higher level. That's all." He gives a somber look and I roll my eyes.

"Sounds like to me, you're his number one fan."

"I'm hungry, you want a burger?"

"No, no detours. Happy, do not stop for burgers."

"Oh, come on. Would a little burger really hurt you?"

"Yes, many many in a row, Tony."

"Who says we're going to eat that many. Come on, I'm starving here. I'm practically famished." He flutters his eyes and I sigh.

"Fine..."

I was swallowing the last bit of my Pepsi as we walk out of the car.

"Mm, now Tony. Remember you are up-"

"You have a little sauce. And there you go." He wipes it off with a napkin and tosses it in a near by trash.

"I'll meet you inside." He tells me. I try I to follow but a crowd forms around him.

I just go inside and hope that Tony is ready for the ceremony...

The whispers as they announce his name makes me scoot further and further down in my seat.

All because he isn't in the room.

"...Tony?"

I put my big girl dress on and get up. As I walk the stage, I feel nervous.

The speaker looks at me with a strange smile and I take the award from him.

"I apologize, Tony is feeling under the weather, so on his behalf I will accept this award. Thank you." I quickly get off the stage and dial Tony's number.

He answers on the fifth ring.

"Hello?"

"Tony, where are you?"

"I'm-oh, you look very lovely." I hear a woman giggling in the background which makes me annoyed.

"Where. Are. You. Now." I sneak out the door and prop the trophy under my arm.

"In the main-oh! Put twenty K on red." I hang up because I know where he is.

Unbelievable, he's gambling. Instead of accepting his award, he skips out and goes to gamble.

I march all the way to the high roller tables and see Tony with some little pixie frost haired girl, who was draped on his arm.

The crowd cheers for him and I manage to squeeze through some people then stand beside him.

I get a dirty look from the girl but ignore her.

"You ditch the ceremony for this?"

"Felicity! Hey, what's your lucky number?"

"I'm not answering that."

"Come on it's a simple question." This man is going to give me a headache with his care free attitude.

"Five."

"Color, wait between red and black which is better?"

"Red-

"One million, on five red please."

"What?! To-" He raises his hand and in a matter of seconds the crowd cheers again.

"You are a lucky lady. You just made me more money. Let's play again, pick another nu-"

"No, Anthony." I say in a stern voice. "You're angry. I can tell because you called me by my full name. My mother was the only other person who ever did that. What's wrong?" I pull him away from the table and shove the award into his arms.

"Oh." He says as he looks down at it.

"Oh? That's all you have to say about skipping out on your ceremony? Tony, you can't just drop things last minute and go do something else."

"I have a lot of these. I'm sure no one missed me." I shake my head. "That's not the point." I walk away from him and head over to the car outside.

"Happy?"

"Yes, Miss Smoak?"

"I keep telling you to call me, Felicity." I say with a sad smile. "Sorry, yes Felicity?"

"Can you just take me to the closest book store? You don't have to wait for me, I can just get a cab back."

"Is everything all right?" He asks as he looks back at me. I just look out the window and see a large plop of rain hit the glass.

"Everything is everything when it comes to Tony." I look back over at him. "Where is Tony?"

"Probably gambling his trophy away." I say in a half joking manner, and half serious one.

"Want me to go get him?" I shrug and hear Happy leave the car.

While he leaves, I get out and hail down a taxi.

"Closest book store please."

"Sure thing miss." The taxi driver begins to drive off and I feel my tablet buzz.

I look down and see another Avengers alert.

"Hmph, I bet Iron Man wouldn't treat his responsibilities like they were nothing..."