bakerstreet | The way a bomb loves a crowd

The way a bomb loves a crowd

Love at Wrong Sight

Don't be so cynical: love at first sight definitely exists. What also exists is love at wrong sight. Both of you feel a spark, hearts a-flutter, magnetism in full force, all the tell-tale signs of an instant pull, so what's the problem?

Well, there are some big problems. One of you could be taken, you could be on opposites sides of a battle or movement, you have a duty that conflicts with romance, this could be the wrong place at the absolute wrong time, the attraction could be forbidden, or any litany of pitfalls you can imagine could exist. Oh why oh why are you having this sudden swooning now? Here? It's no use denying you're in a pickle.

The quandary is...will you avoid this flight of fancy or will affairs of the heart hit you square in the chest?

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"You can't be in love with me, because you're in love with Oliver."

It was funny really. So funny that once she was alone again, in a car headed towards Ray's jet, Felicity actually laughed as tears streamed down her face.

Everyone, even her own mother, could tell that she was in love with someone else, and yes, for a very long time, it was Oliver. But somehow, through her own twisted fate, she'd managed to fall in love with someone even less attainable than the terminally unavailable Oliver Queen. She'd fallen in love with a man who could never be with her, who couldn't stay in this city — who couldn't even stay in this time period — because his duty was to the entire world itself. To its future and its past.

But as much as she hurt, this wasn't the time or place to show it. They were boarding the jet to Nanda Parbat, an in a few hours, they'd be facing Ra's and trying to revive Thea from death's door. So as she sat on that plane, and Oliver was telling her some story about killing Thea's drug dealer five years ago, she could barely pay attention. Instead, she kept glancing away at Jack, with a new type of sorrow in her eyes that had never been there before.

Jack was equally troubled on the flight over. He'd gotten Oliver killed and almost revealed his immortality to Ra's when Thea had sold him out to the League. But that wasn't the worst thing, some time during Oliver's hiatus he'd been assisting Team Arrow on the side he'd looked over and realized he'd fallen in love with Felicity Smoak. He'd done everything he could to push her away, to deny how much his heart had healed.

He looks over and his heart aches to see her so unhappy. He had to try one more time to sever ties before he got in much deeper. Making sure Oliver and Diggle were wrapped up in their conversation he walked over and sat next to her lowering his voice. "Penny for your thoughts," he said softly.

Normally she'd had to yell at him in front of John or Oliver for it to be believable. But right now, the two of them had a lot more to worry about.

When Jack sat down next to her, she takes off her glasses and rubs her face with her hands. When she re-emerges, looks over to him, her expression was uncharacteristically blank.

"Ray broke up with me. Earlier today, when I asked to borrow the jet."

Jack had quietly been hoping that she and Ray would last longer then history said they did. Palmer was so much better for her then Oliver but the experience of loving Oliver Queen would give her the strength to face villains much worse then Ra's Al Ghul. "I'm sorry Felicity...you know how I felt about you both. Did he give you a reason?"

She just stares at him for a bit, wondering how much of that he means. If Jack wanted her to be with Ray, then this was all even more hopeless than she thought.

Before she answers his question, Felicity glances over her shoulder at Oliver. She didn't want him to be within earshot.

"He um-" Felicity just wanted to crawl into a hole right now, honestly. "-he said that I couldn't love him, because I was in love with Oliver." She chuckled and shook her head. "It's really too bad that isn't true. It'd make this all a lot easier."

Jack had been about to encourage her to share her heart with Oliver when her actual words sunk in. "What," he says his accent slipping slightly into his natural one. He is rarely surprised. "What do you mean? If it isn't Oliver who is it?"

She heard it. The slip into that accent she's only heard once before.

As strong as Felicity was, love was something that had the capacity to make her delicate and fragile. And if Jack didn't know already — if he was so surprised — then not only was she a fool, she was an unrequited, loving one.

"Jack. If you don't know the answer to that question. Then we- We don't need to have this conversation." She looked away, not even wanting to see how he'd react. "I'm not okay right now, but. I'll get over it. Eventually."

Jack can't think for a second, the words to respond won't come. "Felicity....I....," he takes a breath, "I told you I'm not the person you should be loving. And it's not just what I've done...it's what I am. You never asked me how I survived Oliver's first attack......Felicity I'm immortal. I can't die. Even if we could be together.......you will age and die and I won't....ever."

This was not how he'd expected to reveal this to her, but it was his last ditch effort to guard himself and keep history on track. His wants didn't matter, they couldn't.

Right after "You never asked me how I survived..." Felicity turns back to look at him, confusion in her eyes. It was right in time for Jack's next line: "Felicity, I'm immortal." As he talks, a certain cocktail of emotions go through her. It wasn't so long ago that she was processing the fact that a person could be revived from the dead.

"What?"

Now she was processing the fact that someone could live forever. But despite it all, her first reaction was the most clarifying feeling in the world.

"I don't care."

Don't her wrong. She's still shocked, you can see it on her face. But when it came to Jack and whether she loved him — him being immortal made no difference.

"Ja-" She nearly bites her tongue to prevent saying his name out loud. Oliver and John were still on the plane after all. So she starts over. "I'd still feel this way, even if you told me that you were going to die tomorrow. How I feel about you has nothing to do with how long you live for."

Jack stares at her for a long moment taking it all in. He realized finally that this woman was everything his mother always told him about and more. If he didn't make a move now he was going to end up hurting her worse. Whatever was in store they could face it together. He takes a breath then reaches for her hand. "Felicity," he whispers, "after I lost my last...lover I swore I was done. People tried to help me move on, but....when I don't want to do something I don't."

He chuckled softly. "Fate however had other plans...because your feelings aren't as one sided as you think," he adds, "I've been in love with you for years."

"What?" But this time, when she asked the question, her voice was soft and her tone was full of hope. For years?

Her hand moves to meet his, for lack of better judgement. All it would take is for Oliver to walk over and they'd have to really explain themselves out of this one.

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She couldn't possibly be in love with two men. Sure, some might say she was confused because they looked identical.

She knew they weren't.

For one thing their scents were different. Their personalities definitely didn't match, and there were subtle physical differences, too. No, both men were their own person in Mercy' s mind.

And she was very afraid that she was falling in love with them both. Which could never work. Even if for some crazy reason they returned the feeling, which she wasn't certain they did. In that respect they were very similar - both closed off and hesitant to risk again. Jack showed it by flirting with everyone, Malcolm by flirting with no one.

So for now, she was going to lose herself in the underbelly of the car she was working on and hope something came up that let her know what to do next.

Jack was equally troubled, not with the whole threesome idea, shared families were normally when he came from. He was a product of one after all. It was Merlyn, he was very straight laced and already so broken that Jack wasn't sure that one heart could reach him much less two. "Mercy," he says walking into the garage, "are you hiding in here somewhere, we need to talk."

"Hiding?" Mercy said, rolling out from under the car. "I resent that remark. I may also resemble that remark, but hey."

She stood up and cleaned her hands off with the rag she kept in her pocket for that purpose. Delaying tactic? Maybe. She was just so nervous.

He was going to tell her he was leaving. Or didn't want to be involved. Or something else equally heart-breaking.

"So... what's up?" Her attempt at being calm and confident was probably ridiculously and transparently obvious.

He laughs softly. "I think you know what's up....or isn't in this case. It's Malcolm," he says, "he's broken and we both know it. The problem is I have an idea on how to help him, but I'm not sure how you or he would react to it. 21st century morals and all that."

Mercy took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Okay... I admit, yes, I'm a little old-fashioned."

Still, she would never have imagined that she would be sleeping with two different men at the same time. It was totally unlike her, but... somehow it felt right - if terrifying.

"But if it will help Malcolm..."

What was he going to ask? That she choose between them? That she let them become lovers and step back?

Jack considers how to phrase his next sentence, because he didn't want to scare either of his lovers off and go back to his lonely wanderings. He was tried of wandering and he had a deep desire to settle for a while and see if he could find a little bit of normal. "What would you say if....you and I tried to heal Malcolm together." He took a deep breath. "if you wanted to that is. It's all up to you."

"I'm all in favor of healing him," Mercy said. "You know that. I just, other than being patient with him, I don't know what to do."

She stopped and took a good luck at him. "But you seem like you have something in mind that you're nervous about."

"When I say heal...I mean....the three of us together," he says and groans, "gods I'm terrible at this. I want to love you both at the same time. No more of this custody business."

"You want to..." Her hand went to the lamb necklace she always wore around her neck. "Are you talking about the three of us having sex together? Because... well, I'm not completely opposed, but do you think Malcolm..." And do you think sex is the way to really heal him?"