smallville-ish au } { a nosy lawyer walks into an obscenly large company ...

[prosecutorial]

Felicity and Oliver break up. Felicity leaves the team.

Felicity gives Ray back his company and leaves Star City for Metropolis.

For some people, it would be a fairly straight forward line of events. Girl breaks up with boy, girl disassociates herself from boy, and if you happen to be really desperate, girl leaves town to get a fresh start without said boy. Laurel can’t say there aren’t a number of times she would have contemplated the same route for herself after the Queen’s Gambit went down, even if she never managed to take it for herself. It’s the next step of the story that has her the teensiest bit confused.

Girl takes job for rumored megalomaniac Lex Luthor.

To be fair, Laurel does her research before she arrives in Metropolis. Cisco and Caitlin all have great things to say about LuthorCorp’s tech advances, even though Cisco is quick to amend about how it would all be great “if her boss wasn’t super shady.” He even revealed that LuthorCorp was one of the companies scouting him before he decided to go work for STAR Labs and well. That worked out better than could be expected, but she didn’t think that Felicity would be the type to be swayed by a large benefits package just because she was trying to outrun Oliver.

Still, Felicity is her friend, and she’ll respect her choices, for the most part. That doesn’t mean she won’t check in on her as a worried friend should, which is what brings her to the lobby of the LutherCorp building when she’s visiting Metropolis for a case. She doesn’t mean to get nosy – it’s not like she can get past the security anyway – but while playing the part of a dedicated officer of the law completely attached to her phone, she’s glancing around to try and see what she can see, and if there’s any information she can take back to Oliver later.

She’s well aware that Metropolis is Superman’s territory, but if she can ease Oliver’s worries about Felicity, maybe it will help him move on. Or maybe it will make things worse.

With Oliver, you really never know.

Comments

[villainous]

The aide at the desk seemed to be expecting her, smiling at Laurel's name and quickly marking something off in her computer system. She got to her feet and moved to press a button, but did not step out from behind the circulation desk in order to guide her up. Instead, the glass confinement wall that separated the elevator bay from the lobby opened of its own accord, a green light flashing through the pane in response to her cue. She smiled and waved Laurel onward.

The elevator had only one destination, for Lex didn't use the same bay that the rest of his employees did—this one shot straight up to the top level of the towering headquarters in the center of LuthorCorp Plaza. When the shining metal doors slid open, they revealed Lex in front of the seamless wall of windows with his back to her, a phone in his hand.

"That doesn't make a difference to me. I trust you to run your own business. When you have it figured out, you can give me a call. Until then, I'm not sure we have anything to say to one another." A pause. "I wish circumstances were different, but you need to understand—"

The elevator dinged as the doors slid shut and he turned to glance towards her. The pace with which he ended the call picked up.

"Excuse me. I've got another call. Reach out to my secretary once you have a firmer idea of where your company is heading." And he hung up.