Chapter Text
~~
“I know, Mom. It’s not Starling City. I know you wanted me to be close to home,” Felicity Smoak listened as her mother cried about “her baby being so far from home”. “Mom, it’s better pay with less hours. My position is higher than I would have been at Queen Consolidated… I know Gotham’s on the other side of the country, but I want to be here… I will, Mom. I’ll call every week and let you know how I am… I can’t promise every day; I don’t know how long until I get settled… Sunday, I’ll call every Sunday… Yes I’ll call after church rush. I have the time difference programmed into my phone so don’t worry about that… Okay. Love you, mom… Bye.” The blonde sighed and flopped onto her dorm bed. The phone bounced next to her hand.
“So, how’d it go?” Felicity’s roommate Theresa called from the bathroom. “She gonna have a melt down?”
“I hope not,” Felicity huffed. Theresa stood in the doorway to the bathroom. “Let us pray that my mother can handle me being away from home for the rest of my life.”
“Let us pray,” Theresa sighed and bowed her head. Felicity tossed a pillow at her roommate and friend. “Hey! I wasn't done praying! This is serious business, praying.”
The two girls held straight faces for a few seconds before bursting into giggles. After calming down from their laughter, Felicity started moving about the room packing several of her things. Theresa watched from the doorway, having already packed the bulk of her possessions.
“I’m jealous,” Theresa stated after several minutes of silence.
“Of what?” Felicity asked over her shoulder.
“You.”
Felicity put the dresses in her hands on the bed and turned to face her best friend. “Why? You’re prettier, have much better fashion sense than me, can actually hold a normal conversation. I just ramble about anything and everything under the sun. Nothing really special about me. I’m just… me.”
Theresa smiled at her friend. “Fashion can only do so much. You got head hunted. By two of the best companies in the country. And now you’re going to be working for one of them. Wayne Enterprises… It’s always been my dream to work there.”
Felicity looked at her friend carefully. “You never told me that.”
Theresa shrugged. “Never seemed to come up. Just promise me that you’ll put in a good word when I send in my resume in a few years, yeah?”
“Always.”
~~
“And this is your office,” the Head of the IT department for Wayne Enterprises said showing his newest employee to her office. “It’s a little small, but there’s plenty of room to work with. Used to have this office myself when I was younger.”
“Thank you so much Mr. Fox,” Felicity smiled up at her new boss. He was an older man around late forties with just a hint of gray hair around the temples.
“You have today to get settled into your new office. Not going to make you learn the ropes in one day. Barbara will help you learn everything tomorrow. She’ll probably be stopping by in an hour or so.” Lucius Fox smiled down at the young blonde they had hired. His light gray suit seemed to offset her bright pink blouse easily. “If you have any questions just ask. Everyone starts somewhere so don’t be afraid of the big bad corporate world. We look out for each other here.”
Felicity beamed at her new boss. “Thank you, sir. I will if I have any.”
“Good. Have a good day, Ms. Smoak. I except to see you smiling for your duration here at Wayne Enterprises,” the older gentleman winked before heading to his own office.
Felicity opened the door to her office and walked it. It was a simple four walled room. Three of the walls were painted in a warm terracotta color while the last wall, opposite the door, was full of windows. A black L-shaped desk sat so she could face the door while working. A small metal filing cabinet sat on wall to the left of the door with a chair to the right of the door in front of the desk.
“We can paint,” someone spoke up.
Felicity squealed and spun to see who had sneaked up on her. In front of her was an alluring red haired woman. Her blue eyes were hidden by a pair of glasses. She was wearing a black blouse that had a small green design around the collar paired with dark green slacks.
“Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you. I’m Barbara Gordon. I’ll be training you, for the most part. Lucius might step in a few times but mostly you’ll be trained by me,” the red head smiled.
“Oh,” Felicity gasped, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Felicity Smoak. Um, you said something about painting?”
Barbara laughed. “Yeah, Bruce knows how bad the terracotta is down here. He gave the go ahead for anyone with an office to paint what they want. Most of it gets done on the weekends so we don’t have to worry about fumes.”
“Bruce? You mean Bruce Wayne? The guy we all work for? How did you manage to talk to him about paint? I mean it just seems so simple I wouldn't think he’d care,” Felicity rambled. “Not that I think he doesn't care about his employees. I really wouldn't know since I just started working here. But I wouldn't think he’d care enough to talk to someone just so we can paint and I really need to stop talking. Three… Two… One.”
“Easy, Killer,” Barbara grinned helping Felicity to the office chair. Barbara took the one in front of the desk. “So, in what I think is the right order: Yes Bruce Wayne. I happened to be mentioning how much the color was getting to some of us while getting some coffee and he overheard me. We talked about it for a bit and next day we get the okay to paint our offices. Had to be on our own time though.”
“He just, made it happen?” Felicity gasped.
“Yeah. He’s a nice guy once you get to know him. Lucius knows him better than me though. Uh, yeah Bruce actually cares about his employees. He tries to make the office someplace we want to be. I’m sure Lucius showed you the food court.” At Felicity’s nod, Barbara continued. “Yeah, that’s something pretty new. Not a whole lot of time to get a good and nutritious meal in the forty-five minute break everyone gets. I think that was one of the boys up in Finances. Tim, I think.”
“Wow. I never thought a company would, you know, actually care,” Felicity sat.
“Oh, the board doesn’t care. But Bruce owns the company so his word is final. If he says his employees get to eat for free then we get to eat for free.”
“Free? I thought-“
“Nope, free. It’s technically taken out of the board members’ pay check. Since they fought against it, he took it out on them. Bruce gets about as much as a Department head. And I think that’s only double what I make.”
“I don’t think I even know what I’m making. They gave me a number but I forgot,” Felicity admitted. Only thing she knew was that it was a bigger number than her other offers.
“Oh, wanna find out? Might make it a training thing,” Barbara teased. “We’ll do that tomorrow though. Want any help getting settled? Or am I a bother?”
“No, no bother. I mean you didn't get upset when I rambled and that’s a nice thing. Most of the time people get annoyed and try to shut me up. But I don’t even know how to half the time, though my college roommate had several ways of stopping it-“
“Breathe, Killer,” Barbara spoke up. “Don’t cut off air entirely; you need that. The rambling doesn't bother me. I do it from time to time while working. I forget not everyone knows what a raspberry pi is.”
The two women laughed before Barbara stood up to help Felicity get the few things she brought set up. They made good conversation and any time Felicity rambled, Barbara would let her until either Felicity stopped herself or Barbara thought she needed air. Barbara kept the nickname “Killer” for the blonde. However Felicity went through several nicknames for her new friend before settling on one that fit.
“So how about we head to lunch? It’s getting that time and we don’t really want to set anything up if you plan on painting,” Barbara pointed out.
“That’s true. So how good is this food court, Shades?” Felicity asked.
“If I could, I’d live here.”