Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mountains to Climb

A little boy scribbling on paper was the last thing Felicity expected when she walked into the Mayor’s office. She stopped short and glanced around just to make sure she was definitely in the right place before she turned back to the boy who was now looking up at her from Oliver’s oversized chair.  

“Hello,” she says with a smile as she slowly approaches the boy. There’s something familiar about the inquisitive eyes and his kind smile.

“Hi,” he answers, putting down his pencil.

“I’m looking for Oliver. Is he here?” Okay, she feels slightly ridiculous asking an unknown little boy sitting in his office, but it’s not like he would let just anyone sit in his chair, right?

“He’s talking to my mom,” he announces turning back to his papers. “And they told me to do my math homework.”

“Your mom?” Then realizes where she knows him from. It’s William.

“Yeah, Mom’s been sad. We drove for a long time to get here, but she said she had to talk to Oliver.”

Felicity nods slowly, dropping her bag and coat on the chair facing the desk as she moves cautiously closer. It hasn’t even been six months since Oliver sent William and Samantha away without so much as a word to her. She hadn’t thought they’d see him again.

“And they left you in here?” With the secret entrance to the Arrow Cave? Probably not the smartest thing to do.

“I’m supposed to be doing my homework,” William explains, looking up from his worksheet. “Mom says I have to keep memorizing my times tables. She won’t let me use a calculator like Luka does.”

“Oh,” Felicity says as she moves around the table to look at the worksheet from the other side. She tilts her head at the paper and squats down so she’s more at his level. “Well, your mom’s right: you should learn this without a calculator.”

“It’s just boring,” William groans. “I don’t like math.”

Felicity grins. Yup, definitely Oliver’s kid. “What do you like?”

“Soccer!” He turns to her with a grin.

She laughs. “What else?”

“Superheroes! My favorite is the Green Arrow because he saved me, but the Flash is really cool too!” He’s all over the place, hands flying as he explains to her the differences between The Green Arrow and the Flash and why The Arrow is so much cooler.

Felicity glances around and leans closer as if sharing a secret. “You know what? The Green Arrow’s my favorite too.”

His eyes grow wide. “Really? I thought grown ups didn’t like superheroes!”

She grins. “Well, that’s why it’s a secret.”

William smiles back at her. “I won’t tell! Promise!” He holds out a pinky for a pinky swear and Felicity obliges.

“Hey,” she says, leaning back. “I think that if you agree to work on your homework you can have some of these delicious French fries.” His face lights up at the prospect, “but you have to really work on your homework.”

He nods. “Okay. I’m William,” he sticks his hand out formally.

Felicity shakes his hand very seriously. “Felicity.” She hands over a French fry and pulls a chair over so she can sit beside him as he works.

“So how do you know Oliver?” He asks, looking up from his work a couple problems later.

She can’t talk around her mouthful of burger and she swallows a little too quickly. She takes a large gulp of chocolate milkshake before can answer him. “Oh, Oliver and I...he’s...we’re...”

Yeah, there’s no easy answer to that. They’re the only ones of their team left behind in Star City. They’re partners, but not to the extent that they once were. She doesn’t go into the Arrow Cave every night to help him with his crusade, but she offers help when he needs it.

They eat lunch together on a regular basis, but they’re not officially together anymore.

They’re not even dating contrary to the gossip magazines. Oliver’s too busy between being Mayor and his night job, and Felicity’s the CEO of a major corporation. Neither of their feelings have changed, either about each other or about the reason they broke up.

Sure, Oliver’s trying: he’s talking to her, telling her things, but she still won’t let her heart trust him when he still keeps the big things secret. He doesn’t come to her with the things that weigh on his mind, the things he has trouble admitting out loud.

She wants them to be able to talk about the tough things, the personal things.

She wants more from him, and she’s just waiting for him to give it. Despite the break up being her decision, she never really intended to move on. Sure, there are other men she could see herself happy with, but she doesn’t want them. She wants Oliver, but it’s not fair that she keeps expecting him to change.

They work as friends. Against all the odds, they were always the best at being friends.

Maybe they were just never meant to be more.

“We’re friends,” she finally decides.

William nods sagely. “Like Mom’s friend Pete that she likes to kiss on the lips.”

Felicity can’t figure out how to respond to that so she just hands him a French fry and tells him to work on his homework so his Mom doesn’t get angry.

William ends up eating all Oliver’s food by the end of Felicity’s scheduled lunch break. Oliver’s secretary checks in on them a couple times. After the third time in twenty minutes, Felicity tells the frazzled older woman that she can handle it.

Next, she calls Jerry and has him cancel her afternoon meetings, which he happily agrees to. That makes her a tad suspicious. But he probably thinks she and Oliver are rekindling their romance despite her numerous assertions to the contrary. He just looks meaningfully at their picture on her desk and walks away without a comment.

It’s infuriating.

“Done!” William announces, paper held over his head in victory.

Felicity holds her hand, “Let me take a look.”

He hands them over with no small amount of pride at the accomplishment. A quick glance over the sheet looks good, but since there’s still been no sign of Oliver or Samantha, she decides to draw this out a little longer.

“Alright. Pop Quiz: What’s 2 times 2?”

He huffs. “4.”

“3 times 2?”

“6.”

“2 times 4?”

William rolls his eyes. “I know more than my 2 times tables.” She gives him a pointed look and he groans: “8.”

“4 times 6?”

“24. Which is also 3 times 8.”

Felicity blinks and nods in agreement.

“And 2 times 12.”

“I thought you didn’t like math.”

“I said I didn’t like it, not that I wasn’t good at it.” William smirks at her, obviously very proud of himself for pulling one over on her.

Felicity huffs. “Fine. 3 times 13?”

That takes him a moment, but then he announces happily: “39!”

“7 times 7?”

“49.” William reaches over to grab the last French fry to pop into his mouth with a satisfied grin.

Felicity narrows her eyes. “Okay then. 27 divided by 3?” Is it bad that she wants to stump an eight year old in math that he probably just learned? That sounds wrong.

“9. What else you got?”

“72 divided by 9?”

“8. Come on! Something harder!”

So, he’s competitive. Felicity probably should have guessed that. “207 divided by 18?”

William frowns, mouthing numbers as he mentally picks apart the equation. She can hear him muttering under his breath as he tries to figure it out. “11 and a half?”

“Well, that solves it,” Felicity announces as she flops back. “You’re a math wiz. You must get that from your mother.”

“My mom?”

“Right. Nevermind,” she mutters, glancing around. “Where is your mother?”

“She and Oliver went to talk in one of the conference rooms. They told me to stay here.”

Now that the math questions are done, William looks bored as he leans back in the large seat. If he’s anything like his father, Felicity has a feeling the inactivity will slowly tear him apart until he lashes out. She was never much of a babysitter, but she’s sure she can find something for them to do while they wait for whatever mysterious thing Oliver and Samantha have to talk about.

“I’ll be right back.” Felicity taps a couple things on her tablet. “But until I get back, try this.”

“Risk?” He’s understandably skeptical as he stares at the screen.

She nods, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “It’s all about strategy. Let’s see how you do.”

He focuses back in on the game, a furrow between his brows that definitely comes from his father. Felicity backs out of the room shaking her head. Her heart is in her throat, thinking about how this could have been her future: a little boy the perfect combination of her and Oliver...

But no. He’s still not telling her things apparently.

“Beth?” She asks Oliver secretary quietly. The woman jerks up, bug-eyed through her thick glasses.

“Yes?”

“Where can I find Mayor Queen?” She asks politely.

“Oh, in conference room B, Miss Smoak, but he asked not to be disturbed!” Her last words are lost to Felicity’s retreating back.

Felicity likes to think she knows Oliver, that she’s not risking walking in on him and Samantha getting hot and heavy, that they’re beyond that, but she still knocks extra loudly on the door before pushing it open.

Oliver sits at one end of the large table, his head in his hands, looking beaten down and weary while Samantha is watching him from a couple seats away, stoic despite the twin tears racing down her face.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Felicity immediately wants to back track. “William was just...”

Oliver’s head jerks up to face her and Samantha quickly wipes the tears from her face.

“Is he okay?” She asks, standing. “I didn’t mean to leave him so long.”

“He’s fine,” Felicity quickly assures them. “He finished his math homework and now he’s on my tablet. And he ate lunch.” She winces. Maybe Big Belly Burger wasn’t the best choice for a growing boy.

Samantha blinks. “Oh. Thank you. I didn’t even realize what time it was.”

“It was no problem. I was supposed to have lunch with Oliver anyway.” She suddenly feels the need to leave the room. There’s too much tension in here, too much emotion that she can feel in the air like a physical weight. “I’ll just...get out of your hair.”

“Wait!” Samantha protests. “You should probably hear this.”

Felicity turns back to the room and shakes her head with a good-natured smile. “It’s fine. It seems like a private matter.” Her heart breaks a little more at the next words. “And Oliver and I aren’t together anymore, so I’ll just let you two talk.”

“Felicity.” Even Oliver’s quiet whisper stops her in her tracks, one foot out the door.

She thinks this is it. He’s going to tell her a secret, he’s going to share what’s going on, going to make it personal, going to bring her in on whatever he’s thinking.

“Thank you for looking after William...he and Samantha are going to be staying with me for a little bit.”

Her dreams die with those words. It’s stupid: they’re not in a relationship anymore so it shouldn’t bug her that he made a decision – a momentous one – without consulting her first. It’s irrational.

And she’s actually glad this means he gets to have a relationship with his son. She’s only ever wanted him to be happy...

But it also hardens her heart, reminding her of all the reasons it wasn’t working out between them. All the relationship they’ve done since everything came to a head with Darhk...it was all for nothing. There’s still a huge wall between them.

She nods jerkily. “Okay. I just wanted to let you know. I’ll leave my spare tablet with him. Good seeing you again, Samantha.”

Her escape is quick almost to the point of rudeness. She barely says two words to both Beth and William before racing back out to the street. She doesn’t have to be back at work so instead of heading toward Palmer Tech, she heads to her car and starts to drive.

She needs some space. It’s not fair to keep putting her heart through this.

Oliver and Samantha...they’re not together. She gets that, she could see that within a couple moments, but they still have something special, something intimate. It goes beyond their son – although the boy himself is amazing. No, they talk, and she’s willing to bet they came to that decision together. They talked and decided that William and Samantha would stay with him for whatever reason.

She’s being bitter and a petty – and she wishes to the great Google gods that that wasn’t the case – but she can’t stop the feelings welling up. She had wanted a life with that man. She still did, yet being around him just kept breaking her heart.

She thought it had healed when she stepped down from the team, and when Laurel died and she came back...she thought they had the teamwork thing down. They seemed to be the only people not going completely off the rails.

Digg left, Thea left.

They soldiered on.

Now she just realizes she was deluding herself.

She had just lulled herself into a false sense of happiness, of a future that could be. She had found herself in him and then lost it. As much as it tears her heart to shreds, she needs to try to move on from him.

At least that’s what she tells herself as she presses the number of the cute guy she met at a tech convention a week ago. Stephen kept asking if she wanted to get coffee. This was just the kick she needed to say yes.

...

“I’ll admit, I didn’t think you’d say yes.”

Felicity laughs at his confession as she stares down at the foam art on her latte. It was fancier than what she usually went for and she was a little hesitant to take a sip. “I wasn’t planning on saying yes honestly. Not that you’re not nice or anything. You’re quite beautiful actually.” She takes a deep breath. “I just got out of a long term relationship, so this is a first in a long time.”

She finally meets his warm blue eyes and tries (unsuccessfully) not to compare them to Oliver’s.

He nods. “I get it. Consider this a get-to-know-you meeting. No pressure.”

“Thanks.” The words are nice, but they do little to combat how this feels like betrayal. But Oliver pushed her away for almost a year after he realized his feelings. He kept pushing her away and she vowed that she wouldn’t ever let Oliver’s rejection stop her from loving.

Yes, she’s the one who walked away this time, but it wasn’t like she could live her life with someone who made decisions on his own without even talking to her. She gets it: he likes to have control over his life. She just wants to be a part of his decision-making process: a true partner.

“So, what so you do?”

“Oh, I’m an actor!” He grins at her. “I’m here filming a post-apocalypse movie. It’s really cool! It’s about a group of survivors who stumble on a sanctuary and discover it’s not as great as they think. I’d tell you more, but I’d spoil it.”

Felicity smiles good naturedly. “Sounds cool.”

“It’s great! We’re using some wreckage on the outskirts of the city and I really think this could turn into a cult classic!”

“So what were you doing at the tech show?” She had a feeling he wasn’t that into the tech when he didn’t recognize her.

He runs a hand through his hair sheepishly. “Actually, I got turned around. My co-star told me all the security was there for a swimsuit model competition. I never did managed to find them before they left. But I found you so it’s not a complete loss.”

Felicity raises her eyebrows. “Swim suit models?”

“Yeah. Instead I found a bunch of nerds. You definitely did not fit in with that crowd. I figured the same thing happened to you.” He winks at her and Felicity grits her teeth to stop her scowl.

He’s not the smartest tool in the shed, apparently. And she really doesn’t appreciate the insinuation that nerds are ugly as a group.

“I mean, you’re gorgeous. As soon as I saw you, I knew I would be a fool not to get your number. So what are you in town for?”

Felicity pushes her latte slightly away, deciding she didn’t in fact need to drink it. “I actually live here.”

“Really?” He blinks in surprise and then leans forward, “even with all the crime?”

She shrugs. “I think the people who live here are proud to have survived everything.”

He snorts in disbelief. “In the past four years hasn’t the city been nearly destroyed four times? You couldn’t pay me to live here.”

Felicity crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. What did she see in this guy again? Oh, right: he wasn’t Oliver.

And apparently, he has no appreciation for people from her home or nerds. So there was no chance of this working out.

“It’s home.”

“Whoa, babe, you must not know what the world has to offer. After I’m done filming, you should come check out my crib in Los Angeles. You’ll never wanna leave.” He winks.

Felicity grabs her purse, officially done with this idiot. “Firstly, you don’t call me ‘babe’. Second, never gonna happen. Third, I am a proud resident of Star City and Overlord of all Nerds. So thanks for the coffee, but this” she gestures between them,  “is never going to happen. Ever.”

“What?”

Felicity doesn’t stick around to listen to the rest of the question. That was a sad attempt at dating.

“That’s because you don’t need a man to move on,” she reminds herself. “You just need to focus on you and helping people. The Beacon of Hope program – that’s what you need to focus on. Let Oliver work on his family skills and I’ll work on making an impact outside of his crusade.”

She turns and heads back to her apartment. “God, I need to get my head in the game.”

...

“Miss Smoak?”

Her head jerks up from the schematics on her desk to look at Jerry, wondering how many times he had called her name already. She tended to get absorbed in her projects much to the detriment of her EA.

“Um, there’s a boy here saying he wants to return your tablet. Do you want me to call security?”

She looks past the nervous man to see William staring in awe out the floor-to-ceiling windows. “No, that’s okay, Jerry. He’s... a friend.”

Felicity moves around the desk and follows Jerry back to the waiting area outside her office. She hadn’t expected her EA to be nervous around children.

“William, what are you doing here?” She asks. Then she frowns, “How did you get here?”

“I looked up the address on the tablet,” he says, holding up the tablet she lent him to play Risk on. It’s been two weeks since she handed over. She’s seen him a handful of times since then, but he was always so immersed in the game that she told him to keep it as long as he wanted.

He shifts nervously under her scrutiny and she gets the feeling that he’s here without permission from his mom, or Oliver. “Why don’t you come into my office?”

“Is this really your office?” he asks as he enters the space and turns in a couple circles.

“Yup.”

“So you’re the CEO?”

Felicity grins and pulls him over to the chairs in front of the windows. “Yup. I’m the big man in charge. Well, woman in charge.”

“That’s so cool!” His enthusiasm is plainly written on his face, but Felicity sees his nerves in the way his hands clench around the tablet in his hands.

She lets the silence drag on for a couple minutes before she asks: “What’s going on William?”

His shoulders slump. “Mom’s sick. She and Oliver aren’t telling me, but she’s getting sicker. And she’s talking about leaving me with Oliver, but I don’t understand...”

“Oh, honey,” she whispers, reaching out for squeeze his arm. He turns into her touch and ends up hugging her, rendering Felicity speechless as she holds the sobbing boy.

“They had to take her to the hospital today and I heard them talking this morning. Either I stay here with Oliver or I move in with Grandpa Sal. I don’t want to live with Grandpa.”

Felicity’s heart breaks for the poor boy in her arms. So that’s what’s been going on. She had a feeling it was something dramatic to bring Samantha back. They wanted William to be with his father.

She still doesn’t know why he chose to come here, to her. Of all the places he could go...

Her phone blares from over by her computer, Oliver’s ringtone instantly recognizable. “I need to get that, Will. It’s Oliver.”

He releases her, and turns dejectedly toward the windows.

“Hi,” she whispers into the phone.

“Felicity! William’s missing! I can’t find him anywhere. Samantha’s in the hospital-“

She rubs her temple in a futile attempt to alleviate her headache as Oliver panics on the other end of the phone.

“Oliver-“

“He was right here in the waiting room. And now he’s vanished-“

“Oliver-“

“God, Felicity, I don’t know what to do. I’m not cut out for this father thing-“

“OLIVER!” William jumps at her shout and turns to stare at her with wide eyes, but it achieves what she wanted and Oliver falls silent. “William’s with me.”

There’s a strangled breath from the other side of the line and William scowls at being outed.

“He...what? How did he get out of the hospital?”

Felicity pinches the bridge of her nose as her headache grows. “I don’t know, Oliver, but he’s here and I’ll look after him. Just, get what you need to get done done.”

“Felicity,” he growls.

“The words you’re looking for are ‘Thank you’.” Felicity glances at the boy still watching her carefully. “And really, Oliver, you can trust me with him. He came to me. Just let me know when to drop him off or whatever, okay?”

She goes to hang up, but before she can press the button she hears a strangled: “She was poisoned, Felicity.”

“What?”

“Samantha was poisoned,” Oliver repeats through gritted teeth. “And whoever did this made it look like she has cancer. They’ve been poisoning her with chemo treatments. Someone wanted her to come back to Star City.”

“You can’t know that. It could be completely unrelated. Not everything is about you.”

“This is,” Oliver insists. “Digg’s on his way to you now. I need you to stay put until he gets there.”

“Digg?” As far as he knew, he and Lyla were neck deep in A.R.G.U.S. business.

“The man who treated Samantha, was missing an eye, Felicity. Digg confirmed it: Slade escaped.”

She can’t breathe. There are bands on her chest as she thinks about the man who once held a sword to her throat, the man who she stabbed in the neck with a syringe so Oliver would defeat him, the man who probably wanted her dead.

“Slade?”

“If he orchestrated this...” He trails off, voiced choked up even through the phone. “I can’t lose you, Felicity, either of you.”

“I’ll wait for Digg,” she agrees quietly, starting to chew on her thumbnail.

“Thank you,” he whispers back through the phone. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, but until I know more...”

“We’ll stay safe, but Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“You need to keep me in the loop in this.”

“I know,” he answers. “The doctor’s back. I gotta go.”

The line clicks and Felicity lowers the phone and takes a deep breath. It calms her heart rate, but does nothing to dampen the killer headache pulsing in the cavity where her brain is supposed to go.

“Looks like you’ll be staying with me for a little while, bud,” she announces as she drops back onto the couch with a smile, pushing aside her own fear to support the boy in front of her.

“Who’s Digg?”

“He’s my friend. He’s really tall and big, but he’s basically a cuddly teddy bear on the inside.” She grins at him.

“And Slade?”

Okay, so he’s not so easy to distract then. Felicity grimaces. “He’s not a good man. But don’t worry. We’ll be safe here.”

William doesn’t seem quite so reassured as he glances away at the rest of the room. If Felicity had any lying ability she would probably try that now, but she learned a long time ago that that was one ability she did not possess.

“What’s this?”

Felicity follows William’s gaze to the colorful brochures spread all over the small table and she smiles.

“That is my Beacon of Hope Foundation brochure.” Her chest fills with pride as she looks at the pictures and colors that promise to change the world slowly but surely. It’s the direction Ray wanted to take the company in, and she couldn’t be happier to carry that on. “It’s a Foundation we’re launching to make life-changing surgeries possible for the injured and disabled, plus to fund new and innovative research in those fields.”

“So, like fake limbs? Like the guy from Star Wars?”

“Prosthetics? Yeah,” she says with a slow smile. “And other things, like chips that help paralyzed people walk again.”

William frowns. “Chips? Like potato chips?”

“Like computer chips,” she corrects. “But it’s really like a bio-implant...” She trails off as she realizes William’s not going to follow that train of thought.

“Why aren’t you and Oliver together?” He asks, wandering over to her desk and their portrait now.

Were kids always this straight-forward with questions?

“Well, we were, but then we had a disagreement.”

He turns to stare at her. “You don’t love him any more?”

“I didn’t say that.” She takes a deep breath and tries to think of the simplest way to say this. “When you’re in a serious relationship with someone, you have to talk to him about everything. And he didn’t trust me with a secret, which I could forgive him for, but then he decided to deal with it his way and I couldn’t live with that.”

William tilts his head. “Why not?”

Felicity walks over to take the picture from the desk. “Because I was worried about what it meant for me. He was able to make that choice without talking to me, and I wondered what would happen if I were in a similar situation and if he would make the same choice for me. We’re supposed to be partners, but I was on the outside. And I couldn’t spend my life like that.”

The truth of her words hits her like a fist to the stomach. It was never about the decision to send William away. It was better for him and his mother from Oliver’s and Samantha’s point of view, although apparently not the best idea. It was about the fact that she was only clued in at the end.

What if, at some point down the line, she was the pregnant one and he just sent her away, without talking to her about it? The idea terrified her. She refused to let that happen to her or her child, if that were ever a possibility. She wouldn’t let him make choices for her. She needed him to open up.

That’s all she ever needed from him.

And apparently it was something she was still waiting for him to give.

...

“Thank you for watching William.”

Felicity nods stiffly as Samantha shakes her hand. Now that she knows a little of what’s been happening, she can see the dark circles under Samantha’s eyes, the pallor to her skin, the pain in her eyes.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Felicity finds herself asking.

“They’re hopeful, but there’s no chance of a full recovery...” Samantha draws a sharp breath. “Basically they don’t know. And Oliver’s been so great, letting us stay here indefinitely. He’s a good father.”

As if the conversation itself wasn’t awkward enough before now. Felicity already knows all of this. She’s aware of how wonderful Oliver is. But he’s known about Slade for weeks and he only told her now.

“I’ll get out of your hair now, then.” Felicity turns, pressing a kiss to John’s cheek. “It’s good to see you, John. I hope everything works out.”

“Felicity.”

She knows that exasperated sigh as well as she knows her own voice. She hadn’t even realized Oliver had entered the room. Slowly she turns back to him.

“Digg’s going with you,” he says simply.

“You mean because you don’t have a guest bedroom to house him in?” She asks, because there’s no way he gets away with keeping her under guard after not telling her this for weeks.

His brow wrinkles in frustration, but she’s going to make him say it. And she’s not going to agree. If he was worried, he could have had her protected before now, so why didn’t he? He could have talked to her at any time. But he didn’t.

And she’s not about to make it easy for him.

“Felicity, Slade will go after you. You’re the one who injected him with the cure. He knows that you’re...the woman I love. So please, let Digg stay with you.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “If he wanted to come after me, he could have any time after he escaped. Instead, he went after Samantha. And he hasn’t struck since, not in the weeks it’s been since she and William got here. I think I’ll be fine. But if John wants to stay with me rather than sleep on your couch, I will gladly let my friend crash in my guest bedroom.”

Oliver looks torn between arguing and just letting it go at face value: she accepted his terms after all. John will stay with her, which is what he wanted.

She’s doing it because John is one of her best friends. Foolhardy as it may be, she’s not actually scared of Slade Wilson. Sure, she’s slightly nervous – which may evolve into fear in the dead of the night – but she has no doubt that if Slade really wants to kill her, he won’t wait around for Oliver this time around.

Death doesn’t really frighten her.

Okay, maybe a little. But not in the way needles, and kangaroos freak her out. It’s bizarre. It makes no sense, but that’s how her brain works.

Death is inevitable; needles and freaky animals are more manageable.

“I see you two are doing better,” John comments as the elevator starts to move.

Felicity huffs and collapses against the metal wall of the box. “How bad is it, Digg?”

He shrugs. “A.R.G.U.S. has been trying to get a location, but he’s staying off their radar.”

“And how long have you known? How long has Oliver known?” She can see the guilt in his eyes when he hesitates. She’s not going to like the answer. “How long?”

“It happened around the same time as the flood.” He admits it quickly, but stands his ground as she absorbs the blow.

“Two months? Is that why Oliver’s stayed close?” All the progress she thought they made...it suddenly feels like a brick in her stomach. She feels sick. Here she thought they’d been making progress. She was such a fool.

“Felicity...” John warns.

“No. Tell me the truth: Did Oliver know the whole time?”

She stares into his sympathetic brown eyes, but she’s not breaking this time. She’s not scared or hurt: she’s furious. He kept this from her on purpose, and now he has the gumption to demand she has a guard!

Oh, she is definitely hacking his phone tonight. And tanking his credit score.

“Not that he doesn’t deserve it, Felicity, but are you sure-“

“Don’t you dare defend him right now, John!” Felicity stalks from the elevator, livid. “He’s just lucky I don’t go back up to the loft and put him in his place in front of his son!”

He trails her to her car, shaking his head, but at least he lets her have her moment of righteous indignation as they make their way back to her apartment in silence.

...

Beep Beep.

Felicity looks up from her work desk for the tenth time in as many minutes to frown at Digg sitting on the couch in her office. She didn’t need to hack his phone two days ago to figure out who kept trying to contact him. The wistful look on his face was more than enough to answer that question.

“It’s been two weeks, John. Maybe it’s time for you to go home. Lyla and Sara have to be missing you.”

He sighs, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Not until I know you’re safe, Felicity.”

“Even without superserum, no offense, John, but I can’t see you stopping Slade Wilson. He’s a man on a mission and sometimes the best way to do that is to draw him out.”

She turns away before she can feel the full force of John’s glare at her insinuation.

“I sincerely hope you didn’t just suggest we use you as bait.”

Felicity shrugs as she turns back to him. “Really? As if we haven’t done that plenty of times before now?”

“This is different.” John insists as he moves to stand in front of her. “Slade won’t just be targeting you because of Oliver this time. He’ll want revenge against you, too. You’re the reason he failed last time. He wants you dead.”

“Except he knows I’m protected, so he went after Samantha and William. And we know who Oliver will choose then.” Her expression sours. She hadn’t meant to bring those emotions into this. Yes, Oliver would choose his son first. Hell, she would choose William over herself.

But that wasn’t the point of this.

She shakes her head. “Digg, Lyla’s been calling me, asking when you’re coming home. So why don’t you go back to your wife and your little girl.”

“Not with you in danger.”

“Lyla will assign some agents to cover me so they can get Slade back into custody.” They talked about this last night, but both women had wanted Digg to come to the decision on his own. Felicity understands: he’s one of her closest friends, practically her brother. Of course, he’s worried about her safety, but that doesn’t mean he has to be here, watching her personally every day.

“And you think Oliver’s going to be okay with that?”

“It’s not really any of his business.”

“You do realize he’s been checking in on you, right? He’s not going to trust your security to anyone else.”

“Oliver lost the right to make those decisions when he started keeping secrets from me. I walked around for months after he found out about Slade without security. I think I can continue to handle it.” She moves files over to hand Digg an envelope. “That’s for Lyla.”

He sighs, looking down at the white envelope. “Felicity.”

She sits down. That’s his truth-telling voice. He’s about to lay it on her.

“Oliver’s been keeping an eye on you since he found out.”

“I know,” she grits out, “which is what pissed me off about the whole situation, if you remember.”

“He was trying to give you space while still keeping himself there to protect you. He didn’t know how Slade would strike.”

“And then Samantha got sick and he still didn’t tell me! He didn’t tell me until he knew he couldn’t get away with it anymore, and then he brought you in to protect me!”

Digg rubs his forehead, pinching his nose. “The two of you...he loves you, Felicity. He’s trying to respect your wishes while keeping you safe.”

“It’s not his job to keep me safe.” Her life has never been safe, even when he thought it was. Even in Vegas, she and her mom never lived in the nicest parts of town. She slept with a bat beside her bed from when she was 9, a habit she didn’t break when she moved to Boston. And don’t get her started on the whole hacktivism and Star City eras of her life.

She might not be the best fighter physically, but she is in spirit.

“If something happens to you, he’s never going to forgive himself.”

Felicity smiles softly. “Digg, after all that’s happened, I think he’s moved past the every-death-is-my-fault time in his life. This is my choice. And you need to get home to Lyla.” She hands him his coat.

“If anything happens –“

“You and Oliver are still on speed dial. And I won’t go looking for trouble. I’m a big girl, John.”

He sighs. “Fine.”

But he doesn’t like it. He’s resisting. Felicity can see that as clear as day. Yet the call of home and his family pulls him away from her. She also knows how difficult staying in Star City is for him right now. It wasn’t fair to ask him to stay any longer.

She rises onto the tips of her toes, yanking him down by the lapel of his jacket to press a kiss to his cheek. “You are amazing, John, but Lyla and Sara need you more.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s take the sprout back to his parents and get out of here.”

Felicity grins as she practically skips into the conference room. “Ready to go, Will?”

He looks up from his very own Palmer Tech tablet and the latest game of Risk. She’d gotten him his own when he started hanging with her regularly. He was even interested in learning how to code, which she considered a personal win. She was very proud of her part in his good adjustment to the move to Star City.

“Now?” He pouts.

“Come on, your mom’s waiting for you.”

He groans, but grabs his backpack and slides the tablet inside. “Can we stop for milkshakes on the way?”

Felicity laughs and pushes him ahead of her to the elevator. “How about no? Your mom’s going to hate me if all I do is bribe you with ice cream. How about tomorrow if you get all your work done before we leave?”

“Deal!” He grins, racing to the elevator and skidding to a stop as Digg presses the button.

She laughs as she gets into the elevator with them and William starts going on excitedly about a new gadget Curtis showed him, which morphs into the Green Arrow’s latest crusade. Digg raises his eyebrows in her direction and they share an amused smile over the boy’s head.

“One day I’m going to learn to shoot a bow and arrow,” he declares as they exit the elevator.

Felicity laughs. “I’m sure you will. And you’ll be even more amazing than the Green Arrow.”

“Except the kid’s not gonna live long enough to best his father.”

The blood chills in Felicity’s veins at the thick Australian accent that sometimes haunts her nightmares. No. This can’t be happening.

Not here. Not now.

Bang.

At her side, Digg collapses to the ground and dimly Felicity hears screams and frantic shouts as people run around the lobby. Yet Felicity’s eyes are locked firmly on the eye-path-wearing warrior pointing a smoking gun directly at them.

Unthinking, Felicity blocks William from his sight, standing as straight as possible. “Slade.”

Thank Google her voice doesn’t shake.

“Felicity Smoak,” he enunciates every syllable, “the love of Oliver Queen’s life, but you...” he chuckles darkly, “but you saw him for what he was, didn’t you? You saw through his act. You called it off. You realized he’s just using you, which is why I didn’t go after you. SO hand over the boy and I’ll be out of your hair.”

She snorts. “You’ll have to kill me first.” Her phone is already calling Oliver. He’ll be here any minute. She just needs to hold out until he gets here.

Slade lowers his gun slowly. “You’re like her, you know? Shado. Did he tell you about her?”

That’s it. She has to keep him talking. “You were on the Island with her. She was an archer. She taught him.” She’s careful to keep Oliver’s name out of it as she moves, inching around so she can back towards the door.

“Uh-uh,” Slade says, lifting the gun and stilling Felicity’s movements. “I don’t want to shoot you, Felicity, but I will if I need to.”

William whimpers behind her, his fists curling into her blouse.

“Alright, let’s just calm down.”

Slade smirks. “We’re all calm here. We’re just...waiting for Oliver to show up. That call you made has to have gone through by now.”

Felicity lifts her phone from behind her back and glances at Digg as she tosses the phone to the floor (Google forgive her). The puddle of dark red blood leaking from his body worries her, but his chest still moves up and down which eases her discomfort.

“He’s just a kid, Slade.” She takes a step closer, struggling to remember everything she knows about Slade Wilson. “He’s the same age your son was. Joe.”

“Don’t you say his name,” he growls, his voice low and cold. His gun shakes in front of his face, and Felicity stalls. “Maybe I should just kill you both. Maybe I’ll drag it out, while he watches. It would break him.”

Slade adjusts his grip again and Felicity finds herself praying that Oliver gets here soon. Now would be preferable.

Bang.

Felicity winces, waiting for the pain, but there’s nothing.

“Run, Felicity!”

Digg’s broken voice shakes her from her stupor and she takes off without a backward glance, ushering William before her towards the glass doors and freedom.

Bang!

Felicity spins back to see Digg stagger. She’s ten feet closer to them when Slade turns his gun on her. He pauses and she prepares herself for death, but he smiles that crazy smile and continues to slide the gun over.

Her heart freezes when she follows the trajectory to the blonde-haired boy.

The decision is made before her brain catches up with her body. She won’t let anything happen to William and so there’s no choice to make as she throws herself between him and Slade.

Bang Bang BANG!

She’s feels the shock of the bullets, but then nothing...just paralyzing numbness. It’s funny. She remembers getting shot hurting more. With vivid clarity, she remembers the shooting pain – no pun intended. It was piercing. And it hurt like hell.

Now, she just feels empty.

She can’t feel her toes, her fingers, even her face.

Is she still standing?

It’s bad.

Felicity’s eyes flutter open, sound piercing her ears, the screams and sirens...and then her name, repeated over and over by John Diggle as he presses his hands to the wound she knows she should feel. She should be in excruciating pain right now. But she’s not.

“William?” Her voice is a croak, a whisper, but it feels like the greatest challenge just to squeak them out.

Tears drip from John’s eyes as he nods. She can see the bulletproof vest that he’s wearing now, knows that’s why he’s not dead. “He’s fine, Felicity. You did it. You saved him.”

Relief floods her system as she fights to stay conscious for this. “Good. Tell Oliver...tell...him...” she has to get this out. “I...love...him...”

The light fades and she’s engulfed in darkness. She can still hear them, desperately calling for her to stay awake, to open her eyes, but it’s too much.

She can’t.

The last thing she hears is Oliver’s voice, her name a strangled cry of desperation ripped from his throat.