Technical Assistance

Chapter 31: Circuit Rewiring

Felicity finds herself praying for some sort of criminal enterprise to attack, if only to relieve her from the party and its boredom. Barry was cruel enough to write her in as his plus-one to the humanitarian dinner thing—for the third year in a row—and so she's stuck trying to pretend to enjoy conversation between pretentious billionaires. Barry works the room with poise and charm (except when he laughs—dear God, they really need to work on that), but Felicity is content to wrap her arm through his and try not to drink the champagne so quickly that she gets drunk. Then again, maybe that would be an improvement in her life.

Then she remembers that the last time she was drunk, when she and Barry ended up dancing on the Merlyn Bridge and a really sloppy, awkward make-out session that ended in her stopping to heave her guts out over the side of the railing. Then they made the transition to singing Madonna songs together, which was interesting because Barry didn't know half the words, and he can't sing on key to save his life. It was so awkward the day after that they both made the mutual decision never get drunk—or to speak of the Incident—again. But still, something tells her that her very awesome rendition of "Like a Virgin" would be lost on this crowd. And "Vogue" isn't any fun unless you have the synthetic beats in the background while you do the photo-frame hand thing.

Sighing, she catches Tommy’s eye across the way. He waves and she returns it, and he winks at her with that same expression from earlier, the one he wore when he told her, “You know Ollie is going to be pissed when he learns you were here in that dress on another guy’s arm, right?” She’s not worried as much about Oliver as the Arrow; it was a last-minute thing (Barry was supposed to ask Iris, but he chickened out), and she didn't have a chance to tell him.

Still, Tommy’s right about the dress—it wasn’t a bad find on such short notice. It’s black lace over a flesh tone color, with gold, sequined paisley following the flow of her curves on the left. The halter style of the top opens up into an open back, with two straps making an inverted V, starting at the halter and ending at opposite sides of the open space. More gold paisley print stretches across the back, this time on the right. With her hair piled on her head and a soft lipstick, she actually looks like she fits in with the one-percenters running around.

As if to answer her prayers, her cell phone starts ringing, and she pulls away from Barry and the droll conversation with a soft, “Excuse me,” to answer it. She fishes it out of her black purse with some effort, trying to find which one is ringing. Because she changed both of her phones vibrate before she entered the Humanitarian Awards Banquet, she’s surprised to find that it’s her Arrow phone going off, and that’s all she needs to know who’s calling. “What’s going on?” she asks immediately. “I thought you weren’t doing anything tonight so I’m not home—I don’t have good computer access right now. So unless you need something Googled on my data plan, well, I’m a computer tech, not a miracle worker.”

“I need you on the fifth floor now,” he answers shortly, then thinks to add a, “please.” It makes a chill go down her spine that he knows where she is, but she figures he probably has a GPS tracker in her phone or something. And then she realizes that it makes sense he has a handle on his people at all times—especially after the Dodger thing. “I found the hitman’s target, but I might be too late. I need your help—bring your date.” The last word is said with bite, and she’s surprised because he almost sounds jealous or something. Then the long pause afterward cements it for her.

She waves Barry over, and he walks toward her immediately. “And you’re being a jealous idiot,” she surmises. “I can’t do this with you right now. Give me five minutes to round up Barry—who is like my brother, I might add—and then I’m headed your way.” She hangs up just as Barry meets her, only saying to him quietly, “The Arrow is upstairs, and I think he needs us.” Then it strikes her that the Arrow could be hurt, too, and she nearly calls him back, then decides that he wouldn’t let her worry if he was.