Time, Truth, Tragedy

Illusion of Innocence

Chapter 11

Illusion of Innocence

"A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing."

-Elizabeth I

Oliver was slightly out of breath when he made it back to his office. The budget meeting he attended ran long, and he tried not to show his impatience. He stepped into his office, only grabbing the remote to the television when a knock interrupted him. He let out a sigh before turning as the door opened to see Quentin.

"Please tell me I'm not supposed to be in another meeting right now, because I'm going to miss it." Oliver said before turning back to the television and flicking it on.

"No, I figured your little mad dash from that budget meeting was so you wouldn't miss the interview and I thought I would watch it with you." Quentin grabbed a chair and moved it to view the television. Oliver flicked through the channels, to find it was on a commercial. "How do you think she's doing?"

Before Oliver could answer, his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, a smile coming to his face before glancing over to Quentin and showing him the caller ID.

"I guess I'm about to find out." Oliver brought the phone to his ear. "Twinkie—"

"I'm going to vomit."

"We've already gone over this, you're going to do great." Oliver walked over to stand by the window. "You always get like this before you have to speak to a lot of people and you always do great. Better than great."

"I don't even understand why they want to interview me and not you. You're the mayor."

"And you're the lead on one of the biggest projects in the city right now. Plus people would rather see you than me, anyway."

"I doubt that very much, Mayor Handsome."

"You can't use that against me anymore since you've now acquired your own embarrassing nickname, Dr. Hotness." he chuckled. "You're going to do great. You can do this."

"I can do this." she repeated. "I can do-" there was a pause. "Ok, they're calling me now, I have to go. Remember you promised not to watch it."

"I promised no such thing. Good luck, no swearing and I love you."

"If you loved me, you would've talked me out of doing this." she replied before hanging up the phone.

Oliver just laughed before walking back over to the television.

"She's freaking out?" Quentin asked and Oliver just nods.

"Completely." he replied as he folded his arms over his chest when the news came back on. "But she's got this."

"Welcome back," the female anchor said with a bright smile. "Our next guest, really needs no introduction."

"I mean if you don't know who this smart, philanthropist, and gorgeous woman sitting with us today is, then you've been living under a rock." Added the male co-anchor. "Everyone, please welcome Dr. Katherine Queen."

The video panned to Katie who wore a big smile as she lightly laughed and Oliver couldn't help the smile of his own.

"Thank you, thank you and I'm so glad to be here." Katie replied. "I have to say I'm a bit nervous. I'm so used to watching this show at home, it's kind of weird to be an actual guest."

"Well after the work that you've been doing with the Second Chance Project, we just had to get you down here." the female anchor. "A lot of us were fans of your work years ago when you partnered with Ray Palmer and Palmer Tech to create the New Beginnings Initiative. And here you are with yet another groundbreaking project that will help so many in this city."