Archive of Our Own ^beta

Dinah, Rene, and Curtis were in their lair, still trying to set up all the systems. After Helix had left, the place had been trashed. Absolutely trashed. Full of dust and broken wires and old, chipped tables. The furniture part had been taken care of, but the computers part? Nada.

Curtis was the only one with enough tech knowledge to try and set the systems up, except he’d never set a whole damn vigilante system set up. So he was struggling. At that particular moment, a wire short-circuited and would’ve burnt Curtis’s face right off, if he hadn’t ducked. He cursed and threw the wire away in disgust.

“This is pointless. It’s not going to work. We might have a system, but it’ll be nothing like the one at the Arrowcave. I don’t really like them, but you’ve got to admit that they’ve got one hell of a tech setup.” Curtis grumbled.

The other two rolled their eyes. Team Arrow was a whole bunch of lying, spying people who were straight-up annoying, whether they had a good tech setup or not. The three of them had always felt out among the ‘OTA’ as they called themselves, but once they had left, they had started to feel a lighter sensation in them.

Speaking of the devils, one of the computers that had been set up beeped and a familiar, definitely not welcomed face appeared on the screen - Felicity Smoak.

“Right. Hi. So this works. I have to say that I am not spying on you guys. This was just like video calling you guys without you accepting the call. Anyway, this call is important so please, please don’t hang up.” Felicity said, sensing what Rene was about to do.

“What do you want Blondie?” Rene asked roughly.

“I was about to get into that. See Oliver’s come up with this plan to help get Diaz once and for all and he needs all the help he can get. So just this once you guys could come over here, listen to this plan, act on it and then get back to wherever you guys are.” Felicity said, a bit nervously, “With seemingly poor tech it looks like.” She added with an afterthought.

“Why should we help you after what you did to us?” Dinah asked, an eyebrow raised.

“I’m not saying we should be friends, but you guys want to take down Diaz, and so do we. We have a common goal. If we work together it’ll be easier and you won’t have to hear from us again.” Felicity said shrugging.

“When.” Rene ground out through gritted teeth.

“Oliver’s getting the others. So maybe...say 2 hours?” She said uncertainly, looking at her watch.

“Ok, whatever. But after this, never again.” Dinah snapped and pulled out the computer plug and disconnected the ‘call’.

“Dinah! That took hours to set up!” Curtis cried.

*******************
They went down the familiar elevator of the Arrowcave and arrived at Thea Queen was sitting in what was definitely an uncomfortable position on one of the computer chairs and eating some chips. By the looks of it, she was watching something on one of Felicity’s computers.

Rene raised his eyebrows as Thea caught sight of them and tipped her head back and yelled, “Felicity!” and then paused whatever she was watching and turned toward them.

“Hi,” she said, somewhat coldly. So must have heard of their falling out. She then pulled out a potato chip and put the whole thing in her mouth, just as Felicity Smoak bustled in in one of her classic dresses, looked at Thea and gave a gasp of horror.

“Thea Queen! What are you doing?” She exclaimed, not taking notice of the three newcomers.

“Eating chips and watching Mean Girls?” Thea said while taking a bite of another chip.

“And where, may I ask, are you eating your chips?” Felicity scolded her like a mother scolding her child.

Thea paused, looking around her, and then at Felicity. Her mouth then made an ‘O’ shape, “In front of your precious babies. Sorry ‘Lissy.” She said, springing up at once.

Felicity nodded, her eyebrows raised, “You know not to eat your crumbly, powdery fried potatoes near my babies.” She said mournfully, going near the computer to check if there were chip crumbs on it.

“Did...did you just call potato chips ‘crumbly, powdery fried potatoes’?” Thea asked.

“Yes. So?” Felicity mumbled, not looking up from her inspection.

“I refuse to call them anything but Crumbly, Powdery Fried Potatoes from now on!” Thea declared, shoving another chip into her mouth.

Felicity finally looked up and shook her head, “You are a menace Thea Queen. An absolute menace.” She muttered.
“But you love me!” Thea said in a sing-song voice.

Felicity shook her head once again and finally turned toward them.

“Oh hi. Thea, why didn’t you tell me they were here?” She said, turning toward her sister-in-law.

Thea gave her a completely incredulous look and was about to say something when the elevator doors opened and Oliver Queen strode in.
***************
He took one look at the three of them (quite emotionlessly) and then at Thea and Felicity (with more emotion) and said, “Good. Most of you are here. We can start discussing the plan to take Diaz down.”

“Wait. That’s why I’m here?” Thea asked, looking miffed.

“Why did you think you were here?” Oliver asked, sighing.

“I thought you were going to announce something big! Like a Smoak-Queen baby!” Thea exclaimed, wiggling her eyebrows at Felicity and Oliver.

The elevator doors opened again and John Diggle walked in. “Did I hear ‘Smoak-Queen baby’? Are you guys having a baby?” He asked, turning toward the couple.

“First of all, no. Second of all, Thea what?” Felicity half shrieked, waving her hands incredulously.

“I have said this before and I will say it again - you two would make some very cute babies. And besides, I really want a baby” Thea whined.

“Then have your own! Stop pestering me to reproduce!” Felicity exclaimed.

“Uh no thank you. I would rather not push one out of me.” Thea wrinkled her nose in disgust as she said that.

“Then why -” Felicity was cut off by her husband.

“Okay. Thea, for the hundredth time, stop with the baby thing. I don’t even think Felicity wants to have more kids and that is not why we are here by the way. So back to topic!” Oliver declared.

“Wait. You thought I don’t want other kids?” Felicity asked him, her voice softening.

“You do?” Oliver asked, eyes lighting up.

“Yes! And for the record, I think our kids will be very good looking.” Felicity said beaming.

They smiled at each other- the soft, sweet smile filled with love that they only used on each other.

John cleared his throat. “Okay. Since we are most definitely off the point, let’s get back.”

Oliver looked away from his wife and said, “Sorry. We’re here to discuss a plan to take down Diaz. We could do it on our own, but it would be easier if you three helped us.” He said, directing the last part to Dinah, Rene, and Curtis.

Rene, who had lost almost all the patience that he had, said, “Well Hoss, you clearly don’t seem to take things seriously around here. You left us out when we were a team and you still left us out now, in this ‘second chance’ or whatever.”

“What you said doesn’t really make sense. Besides, this is how we usually work. Lightening things up before everything goes to hell. And this happens because we are a family. We tease each other but we work efficiently. We might do it a bit slow and take things lightly but when the time is serious, we know to be serious too.” Oliver said, starting to get angry.

“Then how come when we were a part of your team you didn’t ‘lighten things up’ like this?” Curtis asked.

“Because of all of your continued jealousy, disobedience, stubbornness. We were never a family. If for one second you had tried to be a part of our family instead of being jealous of it, you might’ve had those ‘lightening it up’ moments.” Oliver replied curtly.

“We don’t want to be a part of your family Oliver.” Dinah snapped.

“Well, then there’s the problem.” He said, shrugging.

Dinah glared at Oliver for a moment before snapping to Rene and Curtis, “We’re leaving. Clearly, you don’t need us. And we definitely do not need you.” and stormed to the elevator, the other two beside her.

As the elevator rose up, Thea looked to the others and asked, “Is anyone going to say it or should I?”

“Say what?” John asked.

“Good. Frickin. Riddance.”

Felicity snorted, “I knew you were my favourite Queen!” She said happily as she walked to her computers.

“Hey! I’m your husband. I’m your favourite Queen.”Oliver said reproachfully.

“Sorry honey,” Felicity said, winking. John laughed.

“I knew I loved the old team.” He said, grinning.

Because the old team was a family. They would never pick silly fights just because they were bitter about somebody. They would always trust each other and trust Oliver, no matter what. As they suited up to head out, Felicity smiled. They really were an unbreakable unit. No one could be replaced or added. Well, except for maybe a certain Smoak-Queen baby.

Felicity bit her lip and smiled wider. She couldn't wait.