My Mom & My Dad

Emily & Stephen: an Introduction

A/N: This Arrow/Olicity AU fanfiction is told from the POV of  Emily Smoak and Stephen Queen.  Emily's narratives and dialogues are italicized, while Stephen's are not.

******************************

Hi! My name is Emily Smoak.  And this is the story of my mom, Felicity...

...and my dad, Oliver.  Oliver Queen.  I'm Stephen.  I'm eleven years old now, but the story we want to tell began three years ago when I was eight and Emily was three.

But first things first. I want you to imagine a beautiful lady with bright blue eyes and a winsome smile. She has nice, long, wavy blonde hair that curled at the bottom. Every day her hair is up in a ponytail, and it's kind of cute watching it bounce when she walks around or turns. Wanna know what's another cute thing about her? Her fingernails! Every week it's a different color, but always cool and flashy. (When she's not looking, I paint my nails just like she does.) She doesn't have to wear lots of make-up, because she's already pretty, especially in pink. Pink lipstick, pink blushers, pink blouse, pink skirt... and pink underw--. Oh, never mind!

What's important for you to know is that she's my mother. And she's the kindest, sweetest, bestest mother in the whole wide world! She hardly gets mad at me, even if she's tired and stressed out all the time. I think there's nothing on earth she wouldn't do just to make sure I'm safe... and happy. I love my mommy very much!

And don't forget, Emily! She's really smart, too.

Oh, she's not smart... She's a genius! Mom knows her way around computers like it's the back of her hand. When she was in college, hacking into federal sites was a hobby. But now she knows better. She wouldn't do anything like that. (She's practically an angel with an invisible halo!) The best thing about this thing with my mom and technology is that I get to play and tinker with different kinds of gadgets all the time. I don't worry about breaking them or accidentally having them blow up in my face, coz mom can fix them in a jiffy!

You must be very proud of her, Ems.

Yes, I am! Why wouldn't I be? Felicity Smoak graduated from MIT at the top the class of 2009. (Don't even know where that is, let alone what it stands for. All I know is that a lot of the techie geeks who make lots of money came from there. Hmm... I wonder why we're not rich?)

Well, enough about your mom. My dad may not be a genius like her, but he sure is tall, charming, and handsome. He has dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and he has stubble on his face now. He's strong and brawny and could lift me with his legs a hundred times each morning, no sweat! (When I grow up, I'm going to have nicely toned six-pack abs just like him.) Girls flock around him all the time, even after finding out that he had Mom and has me.

Had Mom. Now that's the twist. Dad used to be a lot of fun when Mom was still around. I'm not saying that he'd become 100% broody, but he smiled and laughed more back then. Somehow he'd lost the sparkle in his eyes, like I had. It all started when Mom got sick and he had to be with her in the hospital all the time. After Mom passed...uhm... things were different, I mean... difficult. When he wasn't spending time with me playing ball or watching some TV at home, he was always at the office... working (or at the gym, working out.) He's a CEO, you know. Queen Consolidated. A lot of people work for him, and he has a lot of responsibilities, a lot of important decisions to make, so he tells me. That keeps him busy, too busy feel sad and lonely.

That's too bad. I can't quite picture your dad all sad and lonely. He's always chuckling now and even cracks corny jokes all the time! Does he still think about your mother?

Of course. He still remembers her every now and then, but he doesn't get all depressed about it anymore like he used to. He said he'll never ever forget her. He says that in many ways, I remind him of her. I miss my mom, too, sometimes. But hey, Emily, how come you never talked much about your father?

My father? Hmm... I didn't know much about him then, so there was really nothing to talk about. Mom had hardly ever talked about him, and I had never really asked. We were happy, just the two of us. And she had said she doesn't miss him at all, not a tiny bit. The only things she did tell me about him were, one, that he never married her; two, that he lives far away from here and never bothers to even call; and three, that he's filthy rich!

So... is there anything else we should say about your mom and my dad before we start the story?

Let's just get on with it. Readers can figure out the rest of the details as the story unfolds. Ready?

Ready.