Arrow: Reckoning Part 2

Someone to Be Proud Of

The smell of coffee and pastries hung heavily in the air as the busy coffee shop happily supported its morning patrons. Felicity eagerly sat beside the main window, her fingers firmly gripping the coffee cup in her hands. The fresh caffeine was doing little to help calm her nerves but she welcomed it regardless, knowing that she would most likely need the energy. Her phone call to Sandra Hawke had almost certainly stirred up worry and concern for the woman, especially when she mentioned that the meeting pertained to Moira Queen. Felicity was all but convinced that the woman knew the topic of the conversation, but to what end was still a question. Sandra didn't know Felicity and therefore could have assumed the worst, that perhaps Felicity intended on blackmailing her somehow or using her and her son as leverage against Oliver and his company. Felicity had wanted to explain more but knew that the conversation the two ladies would have was better done in person. Oliver had posted himself across the street in their rental car, keeping watch over Felicity incase anything happened. She felt a sense of added freedom knowing that Oliver was protecting her, something she had longed for ever since she joined the team. The danger that had come with the position was extremely obvious to her and she fully accepted it but that didn't mean it didn't frighten her, in fact it always had. Now that she and Oliver were together however, the fear seemed to lift away with his added presence in her life. Felicity turned toward the front door as Sandra entered and tentatively searched for her. The woman gripped her purse strap with both hands as she looked in every direction for someone resembling the person she had spoken to on the phone a few hours before. Felicity waved toward her, not sure if her smile would come off as fake to the woman who was most likely completely unsure about the entire situation. Sandra nodded as she moved over toward her host and timidly stopped beside the table.

"Miss Smoak?" She asked, refraining from sitting in the vacant seat at first.

"Yes, but you can call me Felicity. It's nice to meet you." Felicity replied as she stood and gestured to the seat across from her, noting Sandra's hesitation.

"Thank you for meeting. I'm sure you have a ton of questions...well probably just one or two, but I imagine that they are big ones." Felicity nervously began, using her hands to speak as well as her mouth. Sandra lowered her guard slightly at the sight of Felicity's nervous rambling, realizing that she wasn't dealing with some sort of evil person hoping to profit off her son's existence.

"Yes, just one or two." Sandra said as she kept her grip on her purse sitting on the table in front of her.

"Well I'll get straight to the point. I work at Queen Technologies and we've been going over alot of finances lately and given the...less than honest nature of a previous CEO, the accountants have been very thorough. And during their research they discovered several notable money transfers from Moira Queen to you...a few months before your son was born." Felicity carefully explained as she did her best to appear non hostile about the information she had. Sandra's body language quickly became very closed off as she gripped her purse closer to her chest while she glanced around the room nervously.

"And to make a long story short, which I know is too late...I know that your son, Connor...is Oliver's son." Felicity ended, doing her best to keep to the facts and appear unbiased on the matter. Sandra's expression was as if someone had ripped the air from her lungs and replaced it with sand. Tears formed in her eyes as she was quick to wipe them away and appear calm and collected in front of her host, whom she was still uncertain about. Felicity hated the feeling of bringing so much pain and worry to another person, doing her best to hold off the twisting feeling in her gut.

"I was wondering when this day would come." Sandra muttered as another tear was covered up by her trembling hand.

"What do you want?" Sandra asked, her voice weak and cracking beneath the weight of what horrible future her son could be subjected to due to this turn of events.