I May Be Blonde, But I'm Not That Blonde

|8| Chapter 8

Hearing Aids

Thea cursed as the little piece of machinery she was working on shocked her.

"What are you doing?" asked Felicity looking over at her from the computers.

"I'm trying to disarm this thing," Thea said holding the device up. "It is meant to power the lights in the Verdant but it has been acting up for a few days."

"Do you need some help?" Felicity asked, coming closer.

"No it's ok," said Thea, going back to fiddling. "I think I have it."

Felicity looked down at the machine. Thea connected two wires together and Felicity gasped. "Thea, no!"

But it was too late.

The machine sparked and suddenly all of the computer screens went black and Felicity yelped as her hand went up to her ears. She pulled two small machines out from behind her ears and dropped them, smoking, onto the table.

Felicity cursed as she looked down at them.

"Felicity?" said Thea. "I might need that hand. It's still not working."

Felicity didn't answer so Thea looked up. The older woman was fiddling with a small device at the table and didn't appear to have heard her.

"Felicity?" said Thea again. Felicity still didn't answer. "Felicity?!"

Still Felicity did not answer, so Thea stood up and tapped her on the shoulder.

Felicity started then looked around at her.

"Can you help me?" asked Thea again. "It's still not working."

Felicity watched Thea lips and nodded a minute later. "Yeah I'll help you," she said, slightly louder than usual. "And it's not working because you made and EMP."

"And EMP?" said Thea, confused. "How do you know?"

Felicity gestures to the blank computers and then held up one of the devices on the table. It was a hearing aid.

"Is that a hearing aid?" asked Thea, looking at the machine. "Why do you have that?"

Felicity pointed at her ears. "You're going to have to say that again. I couldn't read your lips."

"Your deaf?" said Thea in surprise, making sure to look straight at her friend.

Felicity nodded. "I'm have 60% hearing loss. I was born this way."

Thea nodded. "Can you fix your hearing aids?"

Felicity looked down at the two machines. "We will need to fix your battery thing. If it stops acting as and EMP, then they should start working again.

Thea nodded and they both moved over to the table Thea had been working at.

About half and hour later they were no closer to stopping the EMP effect and the rest of Team Arrow were coming down the stairs. Oliver, Diggle, Laurel, Sara and Roy.

"Hey guys," said Diggle. "What are you doing?"

Thea looked up and then nudged Felicity who hadn't acknowledged them. "Hey," She said. "We're just trying to fix this. I did something wrong so it is creating an EMP effect."

"What is it?" asked Laurel, coming closer.

"It's a battery thing," said Thea. "It powers the lights in the Verdant. But it's been acting up for the past few days."

Felicity had gone back to fiddling with the machine. "Are you ok Felicity?" asked Diggle. "You're quiet."

She didn't answer. Thea put a hand on her shoulder and then pointed at Diggle. Felicity looked at the tall man.

"Sorry, Dig could you say that again?"

"Are you ok?" Diggle asked again.

"Mm-hmm," Felicity nodded. "Do you know how to fix this?" She held the device up. "The EMP affect is messing up everything."

Roy took the machine from her and began to fiddle with it again. "I can fix this," he said, looking down at it.

"Great," Thea sighed. "Can you do that quickly?" She then looked at Felicity who was watching them cluelessly. "Roy can fix it."

Felicity nodded. "Fantastic, I hate this."

"Hate what?" said Oliver, picking up and arrow and looking at it.

Thea tapped Felicity on the shoulder and pointed at Oliver.

Felicity sighed. "If your going to talk to me," she said, getting everyone to look straight at her. "I need you to look at me, and I need to be looking at you."

"Why?" said Sara, looking at the smaller blonde woman.

Felicity picked up her hearing aids and showed them to her friends. "I was born with 60% hearing loss in both ears. The EMP short circuited my hearing aids so I can't hear anyone. I can read lips though."

"Why didn't we know this?" asked Laurel.

"I've never had to worry about it before," Felicity said. "But I guess I was wrong."

"I've got it!" said Roy suddenly. He connected two wires and replaced the back. Then he flicked a switch and the computers powered up.

Felicity looked down at her hearing aids and then put them back behind her ears. She sighed in relief as they turned on. "That's better."

"You should have told us," said Oliver.

"Yes," Felicity sighed. "But something like that doesn't come up in normal conversation does it?"

"Well, we know now," said Thea. "You'll have to teach us sign language so that we can talk to you easily when you don't have them."

Felicity nodded then looked at Roy and signed something.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"Thank you for fixing the EMP," Felicity said, signing again, slowly. "If you want to understand me when I sign your going to have to learn simple things like 'thank you' and 'hello' and computer terms."

Roy smiled. "Probably."

"Are the computers fixed yet?" Sara asked.

Felicity typed at the keyboards and nodded. "Yeah. There doesn't seem to be anything happening at the moment, so you could train for a few hours."

They nodded and all of them went to train. Oliver put a hand on Felicity's shoulder as he passed, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Tell us if anything happens," he said quietly. "And we can go home later."

Felicity nodded. "Go train," she said. "Don't want to get rusty do you?"

Oliver smiled and walked off and Felicity went back to her keyboards.