Prodigal Son

Chapter 5

"Thea!" Felicity called and continued knocking rapidly on her bedroom door. Thea had left the conservatory and bounded up the back stairs like an antelope fleeing a predator, but Felicity was no cheetah even with her high heels clutched in her hand. Still, a door slam and a lock click confirmed she'd run her quarry to ground. Thea had been ignoring her ever since. Too bad lock picking had not been on Diggle's lesson plans.

"Thea! I know you're in there." Silence. Felicity rested her forehead on the thick, paneled door. "Thea, please. It wasn't the way things looked. None of this is." Inside the room, she heard the garbled blare of a television being cranked. Felicity dug her fingernails into the palm of her hands but resisted the urge to hit something.

"Is everything alright, dear?"

Felicity jumped.

"Moira!" She said, her hand fluttering up to her chest. "You startled me."

"So I see." Moira's serene gaze moved to Thea's firmly shut door and back again. "Is something the matter?"

"What? No. Well, yes. It's nothing. A small misunderstanding."

"One it seems my daughter isn't currently interested in clearing up."

"No," Felicity glanced concerned at Theas locked door, "she's not."

"Give her time. Tonight was difficult for Thea. I fear I allowed her to build up unrealistic expectations." A small reflective smile appeared. "Allowed some of them for myself as well."

Moira surprised her. At dinner, the Queen matriarch seemed wholly unaffected, nearly oblivious to the undercurrents around the table. Felicity felt a little foolish for not paying closer attention. She'd known how badly Moira wanted her son back in Starling City, but she'd been blindsided by Oliver's conditions and the changes he'd wrought to her life.

Dinner barely had begun when Moira announced Felicity would now work for Oliver with Thea directly reporting to Felicity "as discussed", whatever that was supposed to mean. Moira then calmly called for the table to move on from the appetizer to the soup course before Felicity could do much more than choke on her toast point. After that, she'd been preoccupied by her own emotions.

She read the strain on Moira now. A familiar sadness that often crept into her eyes when she spoke of past regrets. The hopeful longing she couldn't quite keep hidden. How could this woman possibly be the monster circumstantial evidence painted her as? Felicity echoed Moira's words back to her.

"Give him time."

Moira smiled a little, though it too was strained around the edges. "Yes, well, advice is easier given than received. Make no mistake, I am grateful for this chance and I know I have you to thank for it." She frowned, her eyes a million miles away. "I fear though, after all this time, my son's true motives for returning remain uncertain."

Felicity went very still. She chose her words carefully. "His return to Starling seems straightforward. His father's legacy is very important to him."

"And putting the initiative in Robert's name was your suggestion." Suddenly, Moira was very much present. An assessing eye studied her. "Perhaps, it is only I that is uncertain. You seem to know what my son is looking for. Or at least he seems to think so."

"I didn't ask to work on the Foundation's project."

Moira's heavy gaze weighed her words for a moment longer and then lightened to the point where Felicity questioned if she'd been imagining her earlier judgement.