Chapter Text
She’s walking out of the back room munching on a muffin and pointedly trying not to think about Oliver’s empty bed and wondering where he could be at 11pm at night.
She came back to the bunker for a reason and it was definitely not to check on her ex, even if he was on her mind.
He’s always on her mind lately, especially the mind games Adrian Chase has been playing on him. It’s no longer her place to worry, logically she knows that but she also knows there is no way she won’t worry about him.
She’s so deep in thought, running her searches for Adrian Chase she doesn’t notice the bright light coming from one of the side room until a little voice startles her.
“Whoopsie.”
Felicity frowns immediately turning around to face the sound of the noise, when she hears struggles and then a clatter followed by “oh frack!”
Her eyes widen in surprise at the tiny voice, a child’s voice. She checks her monitors briefly, but as she suspected there is no sign that anyone entered. She knows she jokes that anyone seems to waltz into the bunker but she knows her security protocols are at least can stop a kid . Which begs the question how did a child get in here?
She rises to her feet tentatively, she can still here little panic grumbles coming from the corner.
“Oh no. Oh no.” The little voice says in distress, and when Felicity finally turns the corner, she doesn’t see a crying child worried about her surroundings but instead there is a little blonde girl sitting comfortably in one of the arm chairs, a broken watch in her hands. “ Gonna be so mads.”
The little girl is so focused on her broken watch she doesn’t even hear Felicity approach, seems unbothered by the various weapons surrounding her. There is a large sword sitting on the table next to her and she hasn’t even glanced at it, Felicity makes a mental note to remind Rene to put away the weapons when he trains with them.
“Hello?” Felicity calls put tentatively, wincing at the way her voice booms more loudly than she anticipated.
The little girl on seeing her doesn’t scurry away but instead her strangely familiar blue eyes fill with tears as she runs up to Felicity holding out her broken watch, “I brokes it! I didn means too. Honest! I sorry!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay...I’ll try and uh fix it.” Felicity says taking the broken watch and frowning when she sees far more buttons than she anticipated and definitely not a watch.
“Otay,” the little girl says with delight and then spins around makes her back to Felicity’s station much to Felicity’s horror.
“Hey! Wait, where are you going?” Felicity asks in alarm, clutching the not-watch in he hand and quickly following the little girl who looks far too comfortable in the bunker, “who are you?”
But the last part the little girl does not hear her instead she’s climbing onto Felicity’s chair spinning in circles, little legs kicking eagerly, “are we going for big bellies? I won’t tell, Daddy.”
“Daddy?” Felicity asks in alarm, her mind whirling, she looks back at the little girl that clearly knows her , and stops short when her round face smiles back at her, deep dimples in each cheek.
“How did you get here?” Felicity asks suddenly, her voice panicked. She winces at her tone hoping she doesn’t scare the small child, a small child she assumes might be three at most, which is terrifying in itself. She does not know how to deal with kids.
The little girl seems to take her tone with stride, and rolls her eyes, “I tolds you, the thingy I broke the thingy and it tooks me to you.”
“To me ?” Felicity can’t help but ask in surprise, the little girl stills seems unphased by Felicity’s tone.
“Yes, you always tells me always think of you and dis will get me back to you,” the little girls says seriously, tugging on a delicate chain around her neck and Felicity can see the tiniest little arrow with a small M engraved in it.
Felicity is at a lost for words, this small child doesn’t just know her she knows her. She’s just so very confused.
“Yes, Cause that’s what you tolds me, Momma. Don’t you remembers?” The little girl asks Felicity with concern.
Momma
Felicity stumbles back into another chair, suddenly feeling light headed. The little girl springs up immediately and runs up to her, blue eyes filled with concern, “Momma, are you okay?”
“I.. What?” Felicity stutters, her eyes landing on little blue eyes her blue eyes.
“Oh! I have something for you.” The little girl says thoughtfully she pulls on her pendant and uses both hands to grip it till she presses the silver arrow with her fingers, to Felicity’s amazement the little pendent beeps and part of it slides down revealing a tiny little micro SD card. “You said to gives you this and it would all make sense. Oh! I’m Mia.”
“Hi Mia,” Felicity says slightly breathless still so confused as to why this little girl keeps on insisting that Felicity told her all these things,
Logically time travel comes to her mind immediately, only a few months ago she herself had travelled through time, but that was in a spaceship there was no way this little girl came on the waverider. There is no way she is her... no .
Despite all her feelings about this though, Felicity reaches out and delicately pulls the micro SD card from the tiny slot in Mia’s pendent.
She looks at it as though it’s going to explode in her hand, but Mia takes her free hand and tugs her towards the monitors, pulling Felicity’s little USB hub station complete with SD card slots towards her.
Well she seems to know her way around Felicity’s computers. Felicity slowly slides the SD Microchip in. To her surprise, Mia clambers onto her lap taking Felicity’s arms wrapping them around her little body.
Felicity freezes unsure what to do, but the sound of a video starting grabs her attention more, to her surprise she is greeted with her own face, minus the glasses looking worn, messy blonde hair that Felicity’s knows from experience hasn’t been brushed in a day.
“ Hello Felicity,” Felicity startles at her own voice, Mia only giggles waving at the screen,returning the greeting in kind. Felicity wishes she had this kid’s resilience to just accept anything that comes her way.
“ Oh I feel like I’m about to have a ‘ Luke I am your father” moment. Except I’m introducing me to my daughter..our daughter?”
Her video counter comments with a soft laughs, she leans back into her seat and Felicity can’t help but gasp when she sees a baby tucked into her arms clearly nursing. The other Felicity gets distracted by the baby and looks down cooing softly her fingertips gently running along the baby’s cheek
“ Oh.” She squeaks out in surprise, had Mia not been in her lap holding onto her she may have reached out for the screen.
“That’s me!” Mia says in delight, leaning forward to peer at the screen closely, it’s clear to Felicity she’s seen this video before.
“Sorry about that, still getting use to my newest accessory,” video Felicity says with delight, she frowns when the baby starts to fuss and she quickly removes her hand from the baby’s cheek, “Oh, Mommy is sorry I won’t disturb your meal...your third for the morning don’t think I didn’t notice missy.”
If Felicity thought she was easily distracted before it’s nothing on this version of herself, a new mother and cute newborn literally attached to her.
“ Sorry, again. Where was I? Oh yes this is Mia, if you’re watching this video then that means she gave it you. She also gave you the means to get her home, you should be able to fix it without much hassle...ouch! Mia don’t bite! You don’t even have teeth, what the hell kid? So much like your father.”
“ I didn do nuffin!” The Mia on Felicity’s lap insists, Felicity tears her gaze away from the image of herself looking down adoringly at a round faced baby, to equally round cheeks and bottom lip trembling.
“Oh no she was talking about the baby not you,” Felicity soothes rubbing Mia’s back tentatively.
She looks up at the screen again just as the other Felicity looks up as well, her cheeks are pink her tired eyes bright.
“ I kinda just want to eat her up.”
“I’m not a snack, Momma.” Mia says in exasperation collapsing against Felicity tiny little elbow poking Felicity in the chest.
“ Anyway please, if you cannot fix Cisco’s device don’t call him, call Sara. Sara will know what to do and make sure she wipes your memories...actually you decide, I’m only making this video while this one is barely a month old ‘cause I wanted you…me...I could never figure out time travel tenses...to be prepared. Just please get her home safely and…”
“Felicity ? What are you doing? ” A very familiar voice calls out and Felicity looks at the camera in alarm.
“Whoops gotta go, daddy thinks we’re both sleeping and definitely not making a potential time ripple effect video.”
The screen goes blank, and Felicity leans back her chair her mind on overdrive, naturally when she learned that this little girl...this little girl was hers she knew there was a father in the picture. She didn’t need the voice confirmation, she knew in her heart of hearts there was only one person it could be.
The cute little dimples, were also a dead give away.
Despite all this it’s just all too much, just too much information at once and now she has a pair of matching eyes, her eyes staring at her expectantly.
“Big belly?” The little girl whispers mischievously and Felicity can’t help but laugh, which in turn makes Mia giggle.
She has since turned around so her little hands rest on Felicity’s shoulder as she peersup at her expectantly. Her blonde hair is high up on a messy ponytail, she’s wearing the cutest little jeans overalls and purple sweater.
Felicity only ever entertained the thought of kids over a year ago, when her nosy mother came to visit and with the insinuation that Felicity should only marry Oliver because he could cook, was hot and would make amazing babies.
Felicity had rolled her eyes at the time, not encouraging her mother in the slightest, but it was the very first time she thought about it, kids with Oliver. But then she found out about William and everything she thought she knew went up into flames.
Now though, she is looking at the very reality sitting in right in her lap and she is awestruck.
“ Momma,” Mia calls out in exasperation taking Felicity’s face in her tiny hands and squishing her cheeks, “stop starings at me. Less go eats!”
Felicity heart melts all over again, she’s never been that girl, the girl who thought about her wedding day much less the girl who thought about what her kids would look like.
When she found out about William last year, after the initial anger had passed she thought about Oliver’s son and what it would mean to raise a child with Oliver.
But the time the crisis was over she came to the harsh reality raising a child with Oliver was not the problem. It was that Oliver did not trust her.
Felicity’s heart aches for a whole other reason at that thought.
Mia seems to have gotten bored with Felicity’s lack of acknowledgment and she slips off Felicity’s lap moving around her work station with familiar ease.
When Felicity finally comes to her senses she sees Mia hanging upside down from one of the bars little legs wrapped around the top most bar.
“Mia no!” Felicity says in alarm, if that little breaks her neck her mother would have her head... Felicity would be pissed at herself.
Time travel is weird.
“Oh look what I can do!” Mia says cheerily not even bothered by Felicity’s panicky tone.
She slips off the bars with ease and to Felicity’s amazement she does a full cartwheel little legs slightly bent before she move into a handstand all for a second before she toppled to the ground.
“Of course you can do a handstand.” Felicity mutters to herself, when Mia looks across at Felicity eagerly, Felicity grins and claps, “that’s awesome.”
“I can’t wait to show daddy! I tolds him imma do it myself,” Mia says in delight, “where is he?”
Oh no. Felicity is so wrapped up in just Mia’s very existence she completely forgot about how Oliver will handle this.
Felicity does not have time to come up with an answer because as with most things in Felicity’s life lately, The subject of herconcerns comes stalking into the bunker.
“Felicity,” he growls angrily, he’s got one foot on the first step to her station, when he stops short when he spots Mia, “ Felicity ”
Completely different tone now but the warning is evident, she doesn’t even have time to contemplate how she is going to approach this especially since it seems Oliver is in one of his grumpy moods.
Mia though is none the wiser and skips across to Oliver tugging on his hand, “looks at what I learned!”
Oliver demonour changes, at least he’s smart enough not to yell at the toddler, but the moment he looks at her, Mia grins waving her little fingers at him before she cartwheels again. She stands straight but her smile falters when Oliver doesn’t smile back at her.
Mia though seems unfazed and raises her hands, “Daddy catch me!”
That startles Oliver to the point that he almost slips back on the stairs. Mia though does run to him, she goes tumbling forward so that her feet go flying first, her hands firmly on the floor.
“Oliver!” Felicity calls out in alarm, and Oliver is brought back to reality his hands shooting out to catch Mia’s into legs.
“See? I dids a handstand! All by myself,” Mia’s voice is muffled when her sweater slips over her face, but she continues to chatter on not even bothered, “told you I could do it, Daddy!”
“I... what?” To Felicity’s surprise though he looks at her in earnest, “I honestly have no clue who she is.”
His voice is soft, probably not to alert Mia, who is still chattering on about, cookies and money in the money jar. Neither of which Felicity gets, but it’s Oliver’s expression that gives her pause. He does not want her to think that he’s springing yet another child on her, and one that seems to know him far too well.
She doesn’t know where to begin with that and frowns when she sees Mia’s little face is red, “okay Mia no more handstands. You’re gonna get sick.”
Oliver seems surprise by her familiarity with the toddler and he pulls raises Mia off the floor by her ankles, at Felicity’s horrified look, he seems to catch himself and quickly fixes his hold on Mia till she’s upright.
“Do that again! Shake me by my ankles!” Mia cheers little hand slapping Oliver’s chest lightly.
“No!” Felicity calls out immediately, pointedly ignoring Mia’s pout, “you aren’t a…”
“A rag doll, I know Momma,” Mia says in far too much exasperation for a small child.
Oliver’s eyes widen in surprise, and it’s only then does Felicity catch on to what Mia called her . She pointedly looks away moving back to her computer, to show Oliver the video she just watched.
“When she has wine time, you holds me up by my ankles again right?” Mia whispers to Oliver questioningly, except she has no concept of tone and her voice travels loudly enough that Felicity hears.
Oliver thought snorts, and seems far too tickled by the toddler, shifting her so she’s more comfortable in his arms. His ability to adapt to things changing around him reminds her too much of the toddler in his arms. The image they make, has Felicity’s heart aching for something she thought was completely out of her reach.
“What’s wine time?” Oliver asks Mia curiously, clearly fascinated.
“You know, when she drinks her pretty drink in the bubbles and I cants join her in the bubbles,” Mia seems too put out that Felicity refused to let her join her on the bubbles .
Oliver is completely tickled though, and shakes his head, “well that’s not very nice of her.”
“I know ,” Mia agrees eagerly shaking her head from side to side, her blonde ponytail hitting Oliver in the face, and the smiles that blossoms on Oliver’s face tugs at her heart a little bit more. “She let you play with her and her bubbles, I wanna play too!”
And just like that the mood completely shifts and they are both back to their reality, Felicity’s cheeks redden and Oliver looks away uncomfortably.
“Pretty drinks aren’t for kids,” Felicity stutters out to Mia who is looking back and forth between the two curiously, and Felicity does not think it’s wise for them to make the toddler think there are anything but who she thinks they are.
“Theys for gwon ups,” Mia prattles off in that dry sarcastic tone Felicity is certain will give her nightmares when their daughter is a teenager.
Their daughter .
Felicity shakes her head and types something on her keyboard. Gesturing to Oliver to look at the video, instead of looking at the video again, she looks at his face. The way his features softens when he sees her come up on screen, his little gasp when Felicity on screen sits back.
“Oh,” he moves closer to the screen his eyes moving from the newborn in her arms to her face, so many emotions crossing his face.
He snorts when Felicity grumbles about the baby biting her, but then his ears pink up when she complains about him doing the same thing.
The sound of his own voice off the camera is what seems to really resonate with him, and when the screen goes blank, he looks down and the toddler in his arms full of awe, “ Mia.”
“Dats me!” Mia cheers happily at him.
She’s just so cheery, no care in the world, and it’s everything Felicity ever could think she would want for her child. When Mia pats Oliver’s face, surprising Oliver to say the least she giggles, “you looks fluffy, Daddy.”
“You don’t like it?” Oliver asks her with mock seriousness, bringing a smile to Felicity’s face.
He’s already so good with her, clearly unsure, but it’s obvious by their daughter ’s bright eyes she absolutely adores him.
That is what she wants for her kids, she wants her kids to have a father who is there for them, no matter what and it’s clear Oliver will be that one day.
Felicity looks away, biting her lip to keep her tears at bay. Lately she has been feeling so lost and confused at the thought of Oliver moving on, angry that they missed their chance. Angry at herself for realizing to late that he was it for her. Heartbroken that he just couldn't seem to just trust her, yet standing in front of Mia right now is clear proof that is not the case.
“Eh, I wanna see your face, you too pretty,” Mia declares, she then uses both hands to scrunch up Oliver’s beard and the way Oliver freezes his eyes drifting to her, Felicity knows they were thinking the same thing. It’s exactly what Felicity has done countless of times.
“I’ll remember to shave then,” Oliver tells her nodding at her in mock seriousness. Felicity is a total goner for this man, she was only fooling herself these past few months.
“Nots all doh,” Mia says quickly serious, “Momma likes the fluff a lot .”
Felicity holds back a groan, biting her lip in embarrassment, Oliver though only grins and leans forward so that his forehead touches Mia, “wanna know a secret?”
“Yay!” Mia nods her head eagerly and Felicity winces when it collided with Oliver’s chin.
He takes it with stride and, lowers his voice dramatically, “I know, she told me that all the time,”
Mia giggles, resting her head in Oliver’s chest. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath his arms tightening around her. She’s gotten to him, much like she got to Felicity and it’s so very overwhelming.
“I gots to go potty,” Mia suddenly exclaims as she pushes at Oliver to let her down.
Both Felicity and Oliver look at each other in alarm, and Felicity knows she’s gotta take reign on this one, “do you need help?”
“Mommy, I can go all by myself,” Mia insists, “Imma big girl now ‘member?”
She then takes off towards the direction of the bathroom, much to both their surprise, instead of taking the stairs though, she grabs onto one of the bars and slips through landing on the floor with a thud before she takes off.
“Oh god she’s going to be parkouring off of tables in no time,” Felicity bemoans, watching as Mia disappears into the hallway leading to the washrooms.
“ Felicity,” Oliver calls out with urgency, bringing her back to their very real present, “I don’t understand, what is going on?”
“ This brought her here, but she broke it thoroughly,” Felicity says with a frown looking at the watch that she now notices as a deep crack down the centre, “I have no clue how old she is, what year she’s from. I know nothing about time travel other than I don’t enjoy it. Why was I so calm in that video? Did the kid just suck all my brain cells too? This isn’t an easy fix! Sara can take weeks maybe even months to return a distress signal.”
“Felicity, breathe,” Oliver says slowly his hands resting on her shoulders, he realizes his misstep almost immediately and he releases his hold from her taking a step back.
“I don’t think I can fix it,” Felicity confesses, “this tech is literally beyond my years. What if I can’t fix it?”
“Are you Felicity Smoak?” Oliver asks her expectantly,
“Well yea…”
“Then you got this,” Oliver says with so much conviction and promise she almost believes it herself. Till she looks down at the broken tech and frowns, this is not going to be an easy fix.
“Before you do though, we have...we should talk?” He says it so tentatively unsure, she wonders if he’s unsure if they should discuss it or if he just does not want to.
“About the fact that we will one day have that chatty parkour kid? Maybe after we get her home?” Felicity suggests not quite ready to address the elephant in the room, when Oliver nods in agreement and sighs with relief it shouldn’t hurt as much as it does.
“Does she know that we’re not...we’re not them ?” He asks her with confusion.
“I honestly don’t know, I don’t think she does. She’s seen the video before obviously, but she took the travelling with stride, which in itself makes me nervous about what she’s seen. But I think she is just far too young to really tell the difference.”
Before Oliver can continue the object of their discussion comes skipping back towards them, her sweater slightly wet but she seems pleased with herself.
“Can we get foods now?” She asks them expectantly, she puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to the side eyes trained on Oliver.
“Well damn,” Oliver mutters to himself, shaking his head and biting back a smile, Felicity is unsure of what is so funny.
What she does know is in the last fifteen minutes Felicity has seen Oliver smile more than she’s seen him smile in the past year .
Mia places her finger on her chin and contemplates his question, this time Felicity is the one to break out into a smile. It should be illegal for one kid to be this adorable.
“Mac ‘n cheese! wit lobster!” Mia declares, her eyes still trained on Oliver, her inability to properly pronounce her words is going to be the death of her, Felicity is certain.
She looks across a Oliver and she can see he is not faring any better. Felicity licks her lips at the thought of of Oliver’s famous lobster Mac ‘n Cheese she hasn’t had that in months , “fancy taste.”
“Wonder where she got that from?” Oliver counters back highly amused.
They share knowing smiles before they catch themselves and they quickly look away. Felicity catches Mia’s eyes though as she looks away and the toddler is now looking back and forth between both of them slightly put out by something .
Not good, figures her child would be too observant for her own good.
Deciding to take matters into her own hands and not alert the toddler more, Felicity scoops up Mia in her arms, “Here’s what we’re gonna do. I will go to the store to get all the ingredients for this Mac ‘n cheese, while you and uh….Daddy head home,”
Felicity tries her best not to stumble over that word, pointedly focusing on the toddler in her hands and not Oliver who she knows is staring back at her. They haven’t had a home together in over a year, Oliver has been staying in the bunker this past year for crying out loud.
“You gotta get a real lobster,” Mia insists.
Felicity rolls her eyes, that specificity with food is all Oliver.
“She’s not wrong,” Oliver chimes in basically proving her point.
Felicity deposits Mia into Oliver’s surprise arms, “then you go diving for lobsters.”
She realizes belatedly her attitude is not conducive to convincing the toddler is okay, and Mia might not exactly get her sarcasm.
“I think she’s mad,” Mia whisper to Oliver, “she’s got Daddy grumpy face on,”
This time it’s Felicity who snorts, how does she ever remain upset with this kid around? It’s like Oliver planned the perfect way to ensure she never stays fully mad at him.
Okay, that part is her being dramatic, Mia is clearly her daughter as much as she is Oliver’s.
“Why don’t we order something instead?” Oliver bounces Mia in his arms.
Mia looks at him with wide eyes, and Felicity wonders if eating out is a rare occurrence for the toddler, entirely Oliver’s doing Felicity is certain.
“Actually it’s after midnight, we will have to settle for big belly burger,” Felicity suddenly remembers and she laughs when Mia tries to wink at her but ends up only blinking hard at Felicity and using her hand to hold up her cheek. At least that’s what Felicity thinks she’s doing, “you were looking for me earlier?”
Oliver stops short, clearly forgetting his reason for barging into the bunker, not to mention Felicity herself forgot about the very real threat of Chase.
“It doesn’t matter,” Oliver replies his eyes trained on Mia his fingers playing with the tips of her ponytail, “it’s not important.”
She’s doubtful that is the truth, Oliver may go into things guns blazing, but when it comes to her he usually has reason for being so pissy.
She nods not bothering to push it, “I need to get somethings in the back to work on this device then we can take my car.”
Oliver shifts Mia to his other arm and silently nods in agreement, Mia seems content with playing with his tie, tugging it and twirling it around her hand, grinning at him impishly when their eyes meet.
Felicity looks away just as her computers beep, startling her. Oliver is immediately on high alert, and his hold on Mia tightens enough that Mia protests patting him on the forearm.
“Nothing yet, the search is still going. I’ll get a notification on my phone if anything changes,” Felicity reassures him, she takes a step towards him and brushes Mia’s hair lightly, “ Oliver .”
“I know. You’ll get her home,” Oliver says confidently, at least one of them thinks this won’t blow up in their faces.