The QC Boys Club

Ch 1 – The First Meeting

Oliver Queen sat in the board room of Queen Consolidated listening to yet another department head talk about the company's performance in the last quarter. They had been at this since 9:00am and it was already 2:00pm with five more division heads to go. It didn't help that every time his attention drifted, Walter Steele, CEO of QC kept pulling his attention back to the presentation being given. The current presenter was the head of applied sciences. Oliver felt like he needed a translator to understand what the man was saying and judging by the look on some of the other department heads, he wasn't the only one in that category for a change. There was one presentation to come that he was looking forward to, Ms. Isabel Rochev's, Vice President of QC and Head of Foreign Operations. She was always entertaining. Of course that might also have to do with the fact that he had a few clandestine rendezvous with her and some of the supposedly innocent things she would say during her presentations were codes for things she had done with Oliver.

It was past 9:00pm when the meeting had finally finished and Oliver needed a nice relaxing night but it was a Friday and he had to work on keeping his public playboy image intact. A few of the Department Heads, Derrick from Marketing, Liam from IT, Ben from Accounts and Jake from the Audit department were asking for VIP passes to Verdant, the hottest night club in Starling City which he just happened to co-own with his best friend Tommy Merlyn.

Oliver gave the men one his signature Oliver Queen smiles "Not a problem gentlemen, I'll have your names added to the list for tonight."

A round a raucous laughter erupted from the men and they headed to the elevators talking about who would get laid that night, never mind that Oliver was sure that half of them were married. He glanced over at Walter and let him know he would be heading off as well and he joined the men in front of the elevators. He half heartedly listened to their conversation while wondering if the applied science unit couldn't come up with a super speed elevator.

"Derrick, perhaps maybe tonight you could avoid getting pepper sprayed!" Ben teased.

Derrick's face soured. "That was one time and it was that blonde nerdy chick in Liam's department. Have you fired her yet?"

"Still looking for an excuse that would stand up with HR and court in case she sues." Liam responded.

"That prude would definitely sue." Jake chimed in.

The ding of the elevator sounded and the men stepped into the elevator. Oliver decided he would let them go and take the next one. He hadn't cared much for their conversation and despite the playboy image that he actively portrayed to the world, womanising was something he had actually given up. His thoughts turned to Verdant. It was an experiment and it was proving that he could be a good businessman. It had been Walter's idea for him to try a business outside of QC to practice the application of the business principles he was learning in college. Walter certainly didn't want him experimenting on QC, even though Oliver was slowly being included in the operational aspects of the company. Oliver had dropped out of four colleges and was now in his fifth, Starling City University Business School, thanks to Walter. This college experience though was proving very different to his previous attempts at getting a degree. For one thing, he had managed to stick with it. He had three years completed and was on his last and final year. He was looking forward to the submission of his final project, which he already knew he was going to do on Verdant.

Monday morning found Oliver and Thea at the University coffee shop for their ritual cup of coffee to start off a new week. Thea was in her first year studying strategic marketing but she was currently groaning about the Spanish class she had chosen to take as an elective in her first year. She had thought learning Spanish would make it easy to pick up some hot latin guys but the actual learning of the subject was proving to be more difficult than she imagined.

The barista came over to shamelessly flirt with Oliver, like she did every Monday and Thea did her sisterly duty and shooed her away.

"So how was the club this weekend?" Thea asked casually,

"You're not allowed to come to the club." Oliver answered automatically.

"Why? Maybe I could find a hot Latin guy to tutor me in Spanish?" She countered.

"You're not finding a hot anything to tutor you." Oliver stated firmly.

"That's not fair!" Thea exclaimed.

"Life isn't fair." Oliver responded.

"Fine," Thea said angrily standing up sending her chair flying backwards into the chair of a guy dressed in a red hoodie. He had just lifted his espresso to his mouth, when the sudden jerk sent him forward spilling the drink across his laptop. A few loud curses sprung from his mouth before he turned to glare at the cause of the problem.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." Thea exclaimed using the most innocent expression she could make.

All of the anger seemed to deflate out of the man as he watched her. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"It's ok as long as the laptop is fine," He said.

"I can buy you a new one?" Thea offered. Money wasn't a problem for her and the way the boy was dressed, he looked like he could use a break.

"Roy Harper," he said holding out his hand and eyeing her carefully. She was young, probably a freshman like him, but she didn't have the look of a person struggling to pay tuition and holding down two jobs. No her fancy manicure on her hands said she hadn't worked a day in her life and he certainly could do with a new laptop. This one was old, very slow and stolen. He had no problems getting a new laptop legally from someone who could more than afford it.

"Thea Queen," she responded easily. "Here's my number. I'll have that new laptop for you by the end of the week."

Roy took the card and watched the young girl march out of the coffee shop. He glanced at the guy she was sitting with and recognised him as Oliver Queen and he was on the receiving end of what looked like a quite deadly glare from the Queen heir. He shrugged it off. Where he was from he had seen much worse, the girl was probably Queen's flavour of the week and his only interest in her, was a brand new laptop. He pocketed the number, collected the old laptop that he was hoping he could sell for parts now and headed to his next class.

Oliver's office was a small space that had been squeezed in between the VP's offices. It had belonged to a secretary before but she was moved to give him a workspace. It was Thursday and he only had one class early in the morning, which he would usually attend before coming into QC. Because he was still taking classes, his work load at QC was light. He mainly reviewed work that was already approved by Walter for him to gain an insight into how the company worked and what the role of the CEO was. Nothing had been brought to him today so he was working on a paper for his business ethics class. That was his most boring class and he didn't understand why he had to take it when the business world was not exactly the most ethical world. He was interrupted from his paper when the door to his office opened and Isabel waltzed in.

"Hello lover," She all but purred at him. She was in one of those moods, the mood where their relationship would become on again.

Oliver sighed and put on his fake smile. "Hello Isabel, as nice as it is to see you, I have a paper to finish that I need to hand in tomorrow by 5:00pm," he told her and returned his attention to the laptop.

She pushed the screen of the laptop down and Oliver barely moved his hands in time before the cover came slamming down.

"I'm sure you can spare me a few minutes, well maybe an hour." She clarified leaning forward for him to get a good view down the front of her business suit. A good enough view for him to realise she wasn't wearing a bra. He swallowed.

"I really need to get this done." Oliver answered as he pulled at the tie around his neck. It had suddenly become kind of hot in there.

"I'm sure you can finish this off later." She said leaning further forward.

Oliver leaned back in his chair to put more distance between them. He was so close to graduating, to completing his degree, he had promised Walter he would not screw it up this time. "I need to finish it before I get home." He insisted.

A flash of anger went through her eyes. He knew she could be very spiteful when she didn't get her way. He had seen her make grown men cry.

"My secretary has some files in a box that need filing in the storage room in the basement. Why don't you go help her with it now." Isabel ordered.

Oliver glared. She was using their secret hook-ups over him to get him to do what she wanted. He was no woman's pawn but he did not want to disappoint Walter after everything the man had taught him.

"Fine," He stood abruptly, his jaw clenching in anger. "Just remember, that one day I will be CEO, and we'll see who will be pulling the strings then."

His threat had no effect on her and as soon as he left the office, her attention turned to his laptop and a wicked smile formed on her face.

Oliver returned half an hour later to find his laptop missing and he immediately knew Isabel had taken it. He marched right past her secretary and into her office demanding she return his laptop.

"I like it when you're angry." She purred.

"Where is my laptop Isabel." He said in a dangerous tone.

"Fine if you want it, that's it in the corner." Isabel said pointing to a laptop that now resembled a pile of parts semi encased in metal with the QC logo on it.

Oliver stared in shock at the remains of his laptop, his fists clenching automatically. He glanced angrily at her, "Don't ever expect us to be on again." He grabbed his laptop, if he could even call it that now and exited her office.

Oliver headed straight to the IT department and went immediately to Liam's office. There had to be some expert there that could help him.

"Oliver, how nice to see you, what brings you down here?" Liam asked with a smile that was clearly as fake as his greeting.

"I have a little issue with my QC laptop" he said but did not show the man the state in which the laptop was. "I need someone to get the data off of it for me. It crashed and the files on it are very important to me." Oliver stressed.

The IT head thought for a moment before a light bulb seemed to go off in his head and he a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"I know just the person that can fix it for you. The cubicle in the back over there" Liam said pointing to the back of the room, as far away from his office as you could get. "Felicity Smoak"

"Ok thanks." Oliver said though he wondered what Liam was setting him up for. He hated been toyed with.

Oliver made his way through the maze of cubicles to the one in the back of the room. He saw a girl in a pink shirt, and black pencil skirt, chewing away at the end of a red pen. She seemed very engrossed in the work she was doing.

"Felicity Smoak," He said drawing her attention towards him. "Hi, I'm Oliver Queen." He finished off with his most charming smile.

"Of course, I know who you are, you are Mr. Queen," She said flustered with her pen waiving in the air.

"No," Oliver said with a slight shake of his head. "Mr. Queen was my father."

"Yes but he's dead. He was shot, in front of you, you were both shot, but you survived, so you can obviously come down to the IT department to hear me babble, I'm stopping in 3, 2, 1." She dropped her gaze to her desk and then looked back up at him ready to hear why he was in her cubicle. He couldn't help but give her a small smile.

"I spilled a latte on my laptop and they said you could fix it for me." Oliver said as he placed the damaged laptop on her desk for her inspection.

"Really," she said as her head tilted to the side while she surveyed the laptop. She looked innocently up at him, "because this looks like an 18 wheeler ran over it, stopped and then backed up over it again."

"If there is anything you can salvage from it, I would really appreciate it." He said with what he hoped with his most charming smile. He really needed that paper.

She glanced at the laptop barely recognising it as one of the laptops issued to top level management. "It would probably be easier just for me to issue you a new QC laptop." She suggested.

"But I have several important QC documents and e-mails that I need on here." He responded.

"If they are important, there will be copies on the server, and your e-mails are backed up on the mail server so you won't lose any of those." She explained to him.

"But I have personal files on here too." Oliver further pressed.

"Well I guess since you are Oliver Queen, I shouldn't really point out that the IT policy states that company laptops should be used for company business only but I guess that doesn't apply to you." Oliver frowned. He felt like he was being scolded like a little school boy. "Leave the laptop with me and I'll try to see what I can get from it. No pornography or pictures of naked women though. If you want those, you've lost those for good." She added.

He laughed, "I can assure you that I didn't use the QC laptop for that type of personal business." Suddenly feeling the need to reinforce his playboy image he added with a smirk, "I have real supermodels to entertain those needs."

"Then please try to keep the supermodels away from the laptop next time." She commented dryly as she moved the laptop to the other side of her workstation and resumed whatever her previous task was. Oliver wondered how she knew a woman was responsible for the state of the poor device but he took her return to her work as his cue to leave. On his way out he saw Liam hovering just outside the cubicle pretending to be dropping files on another person's desk.

The man followed Oliver out into the corridor outside.

"I'm sorry if she was rude to you. I can have her written up for it?" He offered.

Oliver's mind suddenly flashed to the conversation at the elevator and the firing of a blonde in the IT department.

"Wait is that the girl with the pepper spray incident?" he asked

"Yes, she has quite the bad attitude." Liam responded. He had seen a chance to get rid of Felicity. He knew she disliked it when persons abused the company's computers and he was fairly sure that Oliver Queen would have abused his laptop and once Felicity got started about the proper use for a computer, her endless babble wouldn't stop.

Oliver nodded, having just been on the receiving end of one of Isabel's manipulations, he now understood what the man was trying to do to Felicity, "Make one attempt to fire her and I'll get Walter to sign your pink slip instead."

Later that evening when Walter arrived home, he delivered a brand new laptop to Oliver who was sitting in the study pouring over the hand written outline of the paper he had written during one of his classes.

"Felicity Smoak sent this for you. She's the best and brightest person in that department, so whatever problem you were having I'm sure she fixed it." Walter said kindly to him.

Oliver nodded and watched the shiny laptop. Had she really been able to help him? He opened the laptop and inside was a sticky note and scrawly handwriting that he would not have associated with a girl.

Username: Quiver

Password: Oleen

Get it? I switched the first two letters of your first and last names.

He chuckled at her note as he booted it up hoping that she worked a miracle and that all of his files were there. The username and password prompts came up and he entered the information provided. The computer loaded with the same desktop background that he had previously, a picture of a remote island in the North China Sea, Lian Yu, where he had done some survival training about a year after he got out of the hospital. He thought this was a good sign, he pressed the start button and then a video seemed to automatically load. Felicity appeared before him with a frown on her face.

"For the future CEO of QC, you sure need to upgrade your computer skills! And change all the passwords to your accounts, they are way too easy to hack, not that I'm saying that I hacked them, they were saved on your computer which you asked me to recover the files on, and I'm babbling again 3,2,1 " she said

Oliver frowned. Again she was chastising him.

"This is a simple tutorial to show you how to use the power of your laptop to the fullest and not store everything on your desktop! This by the way, can compromise the performance of your laptop."

He watched as the first order of business was for him to change the password on the laptop. She spent at least five minutes explaining the proper length of a password and the use of capital letters, numbers and secret characters in passwords. She then admonished that bikinibabe, while being longer than four letters unlike his hotmail password, was still a poor password. She even commented that it was a good thing he had had the sense not to use his real name for any of his online accounts or he would have been hacked ages ago.

Her next wave of criticism concerned the files on his computer. Nothing was stored in any order or labelled properly. He had remembered creating files for his school work but he had just been saving his documents wherever the last file he had opened was. She went through explaining where she moved all of his files to and that yes she had worked a miracle and recovered everything for him. She had set up six desktop shortcuts. One each for QC files, Verdant files, SCU files, music, pictures and misc. Finally she ended with:

"If you need further IT help, like updating your passwords on your phone to the new passwords for your e-mail accounts, another subtle hint to change your passwords in case you missed it before, you know where my cubicle is!"

As the video closed, he saw the six icons on his desktop as well as another icon marked tutorial. He really didn't think he needed to go through that tutorial again. He went straight to the SCU files and was relieved to find all of his papers there, especially the one which was due the next day. Then he went to Verdant files, music, pictures and then QC. She hadn't missed a file. He decided he would send her flowers as a thank you for a job well done but first he needed to pull an all-nighter to finish off his paper. It was a good thing Verdant was only open on a Friday and Saturday.

Early Friday morning, Felicity Smoak stormed into his office. He had been sitting at his desk and Thea had been sitting on a chair behind the open door researching laptops. They both had to go to SCU today for group projects so she decided to spend some time with her brother at QC first.

"Flowers!" Felicity exclaimed angrily.

"It's usually what someone gives as a thank you." Oliver replied confused as he rose from his chair and came around his desk to stand in front of her.

"Not if you want the entire building thinking I'm sleeping with you, which by the way, they all think I'm doing now, especially after what you personally wrote on the card, cause apparently the secretaries here know your handwriting really well and were able to confirm it was your handwriting." She said as she poked a finger into his chest. A chest she noted was really hard but she filed that thought away to the back of her brain for later inspection. She also noticed how tall he was compared to her and how broad his shoulders were. There was definitely a reason women flocked to him.

"All I wrote was thanks for a job well done." He added.

"Yeah, job, which could be a code word for sex, not that I wouldn't have sex with you, I'm mean you are really hot, and my boyfriends have never complained about by bedroom performance, gosh someone stop me now!" the flustered blonde begged as she was sure that her face wasn't red from anger anymore.

"Felicity, breathe." Oliver said putting a hand on her shoulder and looking into her blue eyes which Felicity thought would not help her blush but she did need to breathe.

He was pleased when she followed his instructions.

"It's just flowers. It's no big deal." Oliver tried to tell her as his thumb absently started to rub circles on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down.

"Oliver, you may not value your reputation, but I value mine. I do not want to be known as another notch on your bedpost. I'm going to have the QC Boys Club hitting on me again, thinking I'm easy and I worked so hard to get them to leave me alone the last time. If you were a woman, you would understand what it's like with this ridiculous double standard!" the blonde furiously explained to him.

Felicity turned around to leave and spotted Thea for the first time. A wave of embarrassment washed over but then she held her head up, looked directly at Thea, "Good day Ms. Queen, I'll just be leaving now. I need to go find where my dignity ran off to." Felicity snapped her mouth shut before she embarrassed herself further and quickly disappeared through the door.

He sighed and glanced at his sister who had the most mischievous smile on her face. He knew that smile well but Thea's words would scare him even more.

"I like her Ollie, she has a point about the reputation thing. This could be a good final project for that business ethics class you spoke about. You could explore ethics as it applies to man vs a woman. I think it's time for you to become a girl Ollie!"