Technical Assistance

Chapter 59: Synchronization of Data Storage

Tommy has to admit that he's a little tired of these rushed texts about "serious business" that he keeps receiving. While he's certainly glad to be a part of Team Arrow and to be involved with whatever the hell conspiracy is going on, sometimes his life seems more fantasy than reality. Never in his life did he expect his best friend to become the Starling City Vigilante, nor did he expect all of the repercussions of that. While their friendship could have easily fallen apart because of the secrets and lies, it feels stronger now despite that fact.

Still, he knows as well as anyone that short, quick texts from Felicity are very rare, meaning that whatever conversation follows her abrupt text isn't good: My place ASAP. Oliver needs to talk to the team. The message alone is worrisome, but added to Felicity's grave text, he knows that this meeting isn't going to end with smiles. No doubt that the news to follow isn't going to be good at all, and Tommy already has enough trouble as it is with the club and his strained relationship with his father.

Maybe he shouldn't be so upset about being cut off, about his father trying to teach him a lesson. Reluctantly, Tommy admits that it probably wouldn't have bothered him so much if Malcolm hadn't also been trying to sell the free clinic his mother started in the Glades at the same time. In a way, the clinic is the only thing Tommy has left of his mother; some days, he can't even remember her face or her voice, and the pictures of her feel like pictures of a stranger. The idea of selling it—or worse, closing the doors on the cause his mother believed in so strongly—makes him feel like he's going to lose the last piece of her that he has.

But he forces all of those thoughts aside, focusing instead on the issue at hand. All of those thoughts can wait, but whatever Oliver has to share is clearly more important right now. To Tommy's knowledge, his best friend has never called a team meeting before, which makes him think that this is going to affect all of them somehow.

Instead of worrying about it, though, Tommy simply drives down the block, parking in one of the spots reserved for her apartment. Her spot has a red Mini Cooper parked in it, with a sleek, black Ducati parked across the back of the space to save room, indicating that Oliver and Felicity are already there. After he gets out of his car and starts up the steps, he also notices Diggle's sedan parked in one of the visitor spots. Tommy hadn't realized the ex-military man had made it back from... whichever place of dubious intent he'd been for the past few days.

Pushing the thought aside, he starts up the stairs to Felicity's apartment for only the second time ever. He can't help but think again that she needs to find a better place to live—one that doesn't involve bars on some of the windows or rusted fire escapes. Not to mention some of her neighbors. Honestly, he isn't sure why Oliver hasn't carted her out (probably kicking and screaming) to somewhere nicer. Then he remembers that Felicity grew up in the Glades and Oliver spent the last five years on an island, so both of them are probably out of touch with how normal people live.

Hey, maybe Tommy is, too—he did grow up in a mansion, after all—but he's spent enough time with Laurel to know what a normal apartment should feel like.

When he finally manages the flights of stairs (no way is he taking the elevator here), he knocks on the door to her apartment. Diggle is the one who answers it, motioning Tommy in. "Oliver and Felicity are in the back," the older man answers the question before it can be asked. Then a hint of amusement lights his expression. "I think he's finally fixing the lock on the fire escape."

Tommy follows him back to the living area, to where the older man sits down on the couch, nursing a bottle of beer. While he seems content to wait, the Merlyn heir is not, following the faint sound of Felicity's voie to a narrow hallway and a bedroom with an open door that he sees as an invitation to enter.