Archive of Our Own ^beta

Oliver Queen is maybe the most attractive man that Felicity has ever been in the same room as. It is not just that his jawline is flawless, or that he pulls off scruff better than anybody else or that his eyes are a mesmerising, piercing blue. It is not even the slim but toned figure that he cuts, standing there in jeans and a bicep-hugging jumper, though all of that is certainly impressive. No, it is something in his eyes. A cold intelligence. A danger. Rugged bad boy come to life to look expectantly down on her where she sits in her tiny, chaotic cubicle in the otherwise empty IT office.

“Felicity Smoak?” he had asked, disturbing her from her admittedly menial work. “Hi, I’m Oliver Queen.” As if he needed any introduction. Felicity proved as much by babbling about his father’s death (of all things) the second that she removed the red pen from between her lips. But the most shocking thing that was said during that first encounter was not her babbling, it was, in fact, when he thought that he could convince her that his laptop was damaged because of a spilt latte and that the bullet holes were the result of a coffee shop in a poor neighbourhood.

She is not an idiot. He should know that, her skills are impressive enough to have caught the attention of the CEO of the company even though she is technically just a lowly IT girl. That is not something that many people with a less than genius IQ could do. And Felicity Smoak is a few dozen points beyond genius.

And now he stands there, a cajoling smile on his face as he asks her to salvage his destroyed computer. She has half a mind to kick him out of the IT department entirely, to introduce him to the concept of rejection. After all, she is rather busy, he is clearly lying to her, this is likely illegal and he should learn not to ever put tech in danger. In the end, she lets the fact that his name is on the building that they are in win out and simply nods with pursed lips and a disbelieving hum as she begins to analyse the damage, tearing her eyes from him.

*************************

When he pulls up one of her colleague’s chairs to sit close at her shoulder, she is forced to wonder for a minute whether or not she is dreaming. She had expected him to leave her alone, sure that he must have something far more interesting to do than watch an IT girl perform her special brand of magic. Apparently not.

He is actually not a bad guest. All that he does is sit there and watch, he does not try to correct her or question what she is doing. He is not misogynistic and stays quiet whilst she works. That is not the problem. The problem is that there is a devastatingly handsome man breathing over her neck, whose eyes she can feel watching and analysing her every move. It is extremely distracting.

Still, she manages to deftly pull apart the hardware, locating the hard drive with ease. Luckily for Oliver, the bullets have missed the computer’s storage and she is able to hook everything up to her own system to begin a transfer for him. She would be lying if she ever said that his impressed eyebrow quirk did not make a large part of her preen.

In response to her offering him the salvaged data, he asks her to access it with him there so that he can check it straight away. Yet another thing for her to consider strange. Nonetheless, she gets on with it, suspicions rising even more when the data turns out to be encrypted and Oliver most definitely does not know the password. He claims to have forgotten it and asks her if she can bypass the security. She can, of course, but she does so with a sigh. He must realise that she does not believe him in the slightest.

Under his guidance, she opens up a file containing blueprints to the Exchange Building. It is painfully obvious that this is not his computer. She says as much, his only response is “Yes.” Is that ‘yes’, it is his laptop or ‘yes’, he told her it is his laptop? Either way, it is obviously not. He has no idea what is on it or what the data means.

Mind flying, she manages to put together the facts. Oliver is currently in possession of a bullet-ridden computer with blueprints of a building where a major business auction is about to go down. Meanwhile, he has just returned home from a presumably traumatic five years, which began with his father’s death, only to find his mother remarried to the man who now runs his family’s company. Recalling that dangerous glint in his eyes, she cannot help herself but to imagine some nefarious goings on. She tries to recuse herself, fearful about what she may be getting in to. After the business with Cooper, she never wants to get involved in anything even remotely dramatic ever again.

Of course, Oliver has no clue what she means. How could he have gone his whole life without encountering Shakespeare? It should not matter that he never did it at college, surely every high school in the country – every high school in every English speaking country and beyond, even – teaches Shakespeare at some point? Felicity comes to the conclusion that Oliver must have skipped his English classes a lot. Or simply not listened in the first place.

He is most certainly listening now.

If there had been any doubt left in Felicity’s mind that this laptop did not come to be in Oliver’s possession in a savoury manner, it would have been wiped away when he told her that he believed it belonged to a guy named Floyd Lawton and not Warren Patel. Felicity does not think that Floyd Lawton is Warren Patel’s employee. She thinks that Oliver is tangling himself up in some sort of scheme that he is ill equipped to deal with.

Oliver stares at the blueprint on her screen, his jaw clenched and his finger rubbing against his thumb. Itching to move, to do something. His mind is clearly no longer on her, it is on whatever brought him to her. And whatever that was seems to be infuriating him.

Remembering where he is, he politely asks her to give him the data on a portable device. As she has already done so, it is easy to comply. Once he has it in his hand, he dashes from the room without another word. Felicity almost thinks about how typical that is, a member of the one percent just expecting one of their underlings to do them a favour without receiving anything in return. But then she thinks about his circumstances, and his expression when he had considered the information that she had provided and she decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. Just as she makes this decision, a head suddenly pops around her door and she is once again face to face with the crystal blue eyes of Oliver Queen.

“Felicity,” he pants, as if he has run back here. Which is not possible, why would Oliver Queen run back to talk to her? “Thank you so much. I owe you one.” And then he is gone again.

Well, she thinks, that’s the last time I ever speak to Oliver Queen.

*************************

He proves her wrong.

It is completely unexpected, but three days later – three days during which, Felicity did not fail to note, some assassin called Deadshot had (appropriately, given his name) shot up the Exchange Building before being stopped by that Vigilante there have been rumours about in the Glades – Oliver shows back up at her office. She does not quite know how to react. He has managed to choose a time in which she is the only one actually in the room once again, she has no idea how he does it, but he has and now they are back in the same position they were in when he brought her a destroyed laptop.

This time, the smile spreads across his face long before she starts babbling. In fact, it arrives the very second that he turns to face her. “Hi, Felicity.” He says.

“Oliver! Hi! I… I wasn’t expecting you today. Or… ever, actually.” She winces, realising that the last part was said aloud.

Oliver frowns, “Well, to be fair, you weren’t expecting me last time either.” Oh, so he is a funny guy now, is he?

Flustered, she stammers, “Uh… I… no… not…”

“So, did you have a good week?” he leans his hip on her desk.

“Uh… sure.” What does he want? Suddenly remembering her manners, she asks “Did you?”

“Yes, thank you.” His smile turns into a bit of a smirk, “Saw my friends, went to an auction, met a really smart girl.” Is he… “She babbles a lot, it’s really cute.” Is he flirting with her?

“Sounds… nice?” it comes out as a question.

“It was. I was sort of wondering if she’d like to go out for lunch with me today.” Felicity blinks, is he… asking her out? “She did a pretty big favour for me, and I was hoping to buy her something to say thank you.”

Oh… oh, okay. Not a date. They are not going out, out. It is just his way of saying thank you, of showing his gratitude for her helping him out. Or to buy her silence. Either or. Regardless, Felicity is not one to reject an offer of free food, if Oliver actually wants to be kind and thank the IT girl who hacked into his stolen computer, then said IT girl is more than happy to let him.

“Okay, sure.”

“Yeah? You’ll go out with me?” he seems like an excited little puppy. Maybe this is the first time he has had a chance to take somebody out for a thank you meal since his return.

“Yeah. I will.” she smiles back at him. He is even more handsome when he smiles, and she would never say it to his face, but he is adorable when he is excited.

“Great! When’s your break?”

“I can take it now.” She offers, “If that’s good for you?”

“Perfect!” he beams.

He waits for her to grab her stuff and put on a jacket – it is nearly November and she prefers to avoid hypothermia – and then he holds the door for her like the gentleman that he must have been raised to be. “Where do you want to go? Do you want to go to a coffee shop?” he asks as they wait for the lift.

“Your coffee shop?” she teases. For a moment, he looks confused, clearly not remembering the lie that he gave her. Then it dawns on him and a cute blush colours his cheeks, “That could be dangerous.”

“Where is your favourite place?” he retorts.

“I’ll show you.”

                                                             *************************            

They walk together in relatively comfortable silence to Felicity’s favourite coffee place. It is only a short walk for the two of them, luckily they are in the business district, where all of the good coffee awaits the many desperate employees of companies like QC and Merlyn Global. For the entire walk, Oliver struggles to give her his full attention as he becomes so distracted by the world around them. It seems like he is trying to take in every little detail of their surroundings, not wanting to be surprised by anything.

Oliver appears to approve of the place, there is a semi private booth right in the corner that looks over the rest of the café which he makes an immediate beeline for. She understands that, he is not exactly inconspicuous at the minute, what with just about everyone in the city speculating about his last five years, so it makes sense that he would prefer to be tucked away in a corner where less people can spot and subsequently harass him.

He positions himself in the very corner of the booth, his eyes darting around the shop and taking in every other person there before he is able to refocus on her and regain some of his relaxed attitude from her office. That, Felicity finds interesting. His alertness, his difficulty relaxing in a public space, it speaks of some trauma that he has been through. She knows that both of those things can be signs of PTSD, and does her best to make him more comfortable.

“Are you okay here?” she asks, wanting to give him the chance to move to somewhere he will be more comfortable without increasing his discomfort by mentioning something that might upset him.

“Yeah. This is a good spot.” Something tells her that he is not just referring to the coffee place, he is talking about the actual spot he is sat in. That is important to him.

When they place their orders, Felicity asks for her usual non-fat latte to go with her food. Oliver asks for the same, telling her that he trusts her judgement on what is good. In return, she jokes that she will keep her phone far away from him if he is having another latte. It makes him laugh, that makes her happy. Even if the joke is based on a lie.

She tries her best to keep the conversation light and fun as they eat. It is not like she and Oliver Queen are ever going to do lunch together again, so she intends to make the best of it. On his part, Oliver seems to enjoy himself. He asks her questions about her life and her job and her family. The latter of which she dodges by turning them back on him. His love for his sister is beautiful, she is so obviously his favourite person in the world and it is incredibly sweet. He tells her of his plans to open a club and offers to put her on the guest list, if that is something that she wants. She smiles, but inwardly thinks that he will never remember to do that. He has far too many more important people to consider her.

They talk for far too long and Felicity realises that she should already be back at work, shocked at how quickly time has passed in Oliver’s presence. Oliver insists on both paying and walking her back and Felicity does not have the time to properly protest. He did say that this was a thank you so she decides to let it go for the time being.

Oliver goes all the way back to her office with her. It has refilled in her time away, her colleagues all having come back from lunch whilst she was gone. Their eyes bug out when she walks in with the son of the owner of the company in tow and she knows that she is about to be bombarded with questions. She should have made him leave the minute that they got back to the building.

He looks uncomfortable with the idea of talking to her in front of the others, so she lets him know that it is okay for him to go by covering for him, “I’m glad I could help you, Mister Queen. If you need any more tech assistance, you know where to find me.”

She cannot tell whether or not he is relieved, “Thank you.” He says. Felicity is unsure as to whether he is thanking her for the help or the lunch or her cover story. “I’ll be sure to do that.” And then he is gone and Felicity is left with the inquisitive gazes of her office mates.

She thinks that she successfully convinces them that her interaction with Oliver had been purely business. The whispers around the office for the following week prove otherwise.

*************************

In the weeks following Oliver Queen’s first visit to her office, Felicity’s life explodes into a mess of mysteries and Queen family drama. It is only a few days after her… outing with Oliver that Walter Steele calls her to his office and she makes a fool of herself by assuming that she is about to be fired. She is not, and then he asks her to investigate something done by his wife. Who is also Oliver’s mother. Which is… all kinds of morally dodgy and does not speak well of their marriage, but he is her boss so she does it anyway.

That, of course, leads her to discover that the money has vanished not into an investment but to an offshore LLC completely separate of QC. And that company had then bought a warehouse in the Glades. It is all very fishy, and she cannot resist the intrigue of the entire situation so she ends up dedicating a good portion of her free time to looking into it.

She is so busy with her new self-assigned project that she almost fails to notice that, exactly as she had expected, Oliver has not been back to see her for almost three weeks since their lunch. The upside to which is that her co-workers now seem to believe that Oliver had only been visiting for tech help and not anything else.

It has been a very busy three weeks for him, what with his arrest for being the Vigilante. She hay have only met him twice, but that particular accusation makes perfect sense to her. By no means does she want him to go to prison, and she actually thinks that the Vigilante is doing some good for the city, even if his methods are often extreme, but there is no denying that his strange request and baffling behaviour would be completely explained by him being the Vigilante.

He passes a lie detector but even that cannot convince Felicity otherwise. The science of lie detectors is shaky at best, there is a reason why they are inadmissible in court. However, when he is under house arrest and having a party at the same time as the Vigilante is sighted on the other side of town, her belief is shaken. She comes up with about a dozen theories as to how that might be possible and concludes that Oliver is probably still the Vigilante but that he is working with a partner. Though there is always a chance that he might not be.

*************************

After his exoneration, Oliver makes a habit of proving her wrong. Out of the blue, she finds him blocking the door to her office once again, smiling at her in that special way of his. It makes her jump up with surprise, which makes him laugh. He starts to show up several times a week and usually gives her some menial task, almost always internet research using the… less accessible sections of the internet and he always offers up a pathetic excuse. Sometimes he comes alone, but on his second visit and a couple of his subsequent ones, he brings his bodyguard. She rarely interacts with Mister Diggle directly, but can always see him with a bemused smirk on his face where he hovers in the background.

Whenever Oliver comes alone, he makes sure to show up just before lunch. He asks her to do whatever obscure thing it is that he wants her to do (and with each one she becomes more convinced that he is, in fact, the Vigilante) and then she does it. The very second that she finishes, he offers to take her out for lunch and she accepts.

As much as she loves her visits from Oliver and the exciting change of pace that they bring to her weeks, she does not love what they do to her reputation at work. Within a few hours of Oliver’s second visit, the rumour mill has sparked to life once again and Felicity finds herself receiving the side eye from everyone in an eight floor radius. Which only grows as time goes on and people realise that, not only does Oliver Queen regularly pay Felicity Smoak visits in her cubicle, but he also takes her out for coffee when he visits too. She handles it. It is not like she had many – or any – work friends anyway, just a lot of people who owe her favours.

They always go to the same café as they did the first time. With each visit, Oliver becomes more visibly comfortable and is able to enjoy himself to a greater extent. He asks her about everything, for some reason wanting to know all of the little details of her life. Obligingly, she gives him every answer that she feels comfortable enough to give him. It is very sweet, how considerate he is. Even when Diggle comes along with him, he finds the time to thank her with lunch and his attention a day or so after.

It becomes their thing. Oliver asks for a favour, Felicity grants it and then Oliver insists on buying her lunch and coffee to say thank you. And he always insists, those gentlemanly instincts that Felicity is sure his mother must have forced into him never letting her pay for her own food or coffee. Felicity lets it go, it is his way of paying her back so she allows it.

Every time, he walks her back to her cubicle and tells her what a nice time he has had and how he cannot wait to do it again. For the first few times, Felicity does not believe him, convinced that their acquaintance will shortly end but after a while she realises that he genuinely intends to keep his word. Maybe he does actually enjoy her company. She always makes sure not to ask invasive questions, not wanting to seem ungrateful for his generosity, and he seems to find her frequent babbling more amusing than anything else. Perhaps he views her as a brief break from what she is sure is his very stressful and public life.

*************************

One time, not long after they first begin their association, Oliver and Diggle catch her on the executive floor and convince her to sit in the cushy chairs up there with them. She only agrees to it so that they can have somewhere to sit, rather than the two of them cramming their unfairly large shoulders into IT. She makes a quip about being Oliver’s personal internet researcher and the smile that he rewards her with makes it more than worth the embarrassment.

She looks up a ‘friend’ who he has clearly never met or had any sort of interaction with and smugly points out that fact when he demonstrates his lack of knowledge on the man. It has become something of a game to her, catching Oliver in one of his many lies. She plays it well.

He leaves quicker than usual, her information on Reston having riled him and Diggle up and she barely even gets a goodbye before they are gone. With a sigh, she makes her way back down the eighteen floors between the executive one and her own, getting back to her actual work. Predictably, Oliver shows up two days later with a grin, an apology for his abrupt departure and an offer of lunch, which she happily takes up.

The cycle continues.

*************************

Walter’s return from Australia – shudder, kangaroos – finally gives Felicity the chance to do something with her findings on Moira Queen. Or, the LLC that Moira signed off on, at least. She is pretty proud of what she has managed to dig up, and perhaps overly excited about her diligent uncovering of the mystery and the other hacker and the symbol because she fails to think about the fact that she is (illegally) looking into her boss’ private business. Never mind whether that business is illegal or at least shady itself or not.

He threatens suspension and she decides to conduct any further investigation on the down low. If she finds something substantial, she will take it to wherever will be most appropriate rather than her boss. She would prefer to keep her job. But she cannot just let this go.

Sometimes she feels guilty for spending so much time with Oliver without telling him that she is investigating his mother, but then she remembers just how much he has been through. She will not be the one to add to his burdens, not until it is absolutely necessary.

Her fears over being fired are alleviated in short order when it becomes apparent that Walter is almost as bugged by mysteries as she is. Weird though it may be, her excitement only increases when he offers her the book (yet another thrilling layer) and tells her about the potential peril that may await her. It makes her shiver more in anticipation than fear. Which is probably not a good thing. In any case, she is sort of friends with the guy who is probably the city’s very own vigilante, she should be fine.

The book is fascinating. It is almost completely blank except for one page which bears the same mark as the one she connected to Tempest. She looks into every detail. The binding, the cover, the glue, the paper itself. She finds out where they were made, what they were made from and where they might be sold. Her conclusion is that it is one expensive little notebook that was custom made as a part of a small order of five. The person who placed and paid for the order, however, she is unable to find.

She then uses one of the many favours that the employees of the company owes her to steal into the lab and conduct a thorough examination. The plot thickens in the most delicious way when ultraviolet light reveals an extensive list of names, many of which she recognises as high profile one percenters in the city. And some of which she identifies as the Hood’s previous targets.

Strange that a list owned by Oliver’s mother, filled with the names of their family’s peers, would match up to many of those taken out by the Hood he was accused of being. Or not. It would not be strange at all if her suspicions are correct.

Nicking the glasses, she runs up to Walter to show him her findings. He is as amazed as she had been, and immediately sets her the task of looking into the list. Exactly as she had hoped.

*************************

Things with Oliver continue to progress as before, the only difference being in the level of guilt that Felicity feels for not telling him about her other, other clandestine job. Not only is she still looking into his mother, but she is looking deeper than ever before and her search has extended to him. Or, his hooded alter ego. To add to that, she feels like they might actually be becoming sort of friends. Work friends, at least. Their lunches are more relaxed than ever and Oliver seems even more eager to know about her life since he got over whatever slump he was in about a week ago, when he broke up with his girlfriend, Helena.

So when he comes knocking at her brand new office – provided along with a promotion that she is pretty sure she got because she is an excellent employee and not because she is doing things with her boss in secret (not naughty things, espionage things) – whilst she is looking at her digital copy of the list, she just about jumps out of her skin. As she so often does, she makes him laugh. That little huffing laugh that comes with a grin that he has patented.

When he has the nerve to actually mention archery in the same room as her, as if he has never even laid eyes on a bow and arrow, she cannot help herself but to insult the sport, just to see his reaction. The pained look on his face as he forces out a hum of agreement makes it worth annoying him. Somebody does not like the idea of his new friend thinking that archery is ridiculous. She can barely contain the smirk when he actually gets out an arrow and hands it to her. Literally last night she sat and watched the news as they condemned the Hood for murdering one of his old targets. Felicity had not been able to wrap her head around it, why would Ol- the Hood attack somebody they had already taken down? It makes no sense, so there must be someone else masquerading as the Hood who was behind the attack. Clearly, Oliver is just as curious to find out who and why as she is.

Utilising her newfound expertise in all things archery related, she quickly identifies the arrow and is able to pinpoint the shipment to a location. He gives her a lovely smile as he whips the note from her hand and calls her remarkable. Naturally, she responds in the most humiliating way possible. It is a good thing that he seems to enjoy her more embarrassing moments. He gets up to leave and seems to remember something at the very last second, turning back to her, “Felicity.” She looks up, cheeks still burning, “I’m throwing a Christmas party. It’s kind of a Queen tradition and I was wondering, if you’re free, if you’d like to come?” before she can protest, he continues, “I could add a menorah or two for decoration and call it a holiday party so that you’d be more comfortable.”

She gapes at him. He remembers? She had mentioned her Jewish heritage to him as a passing comment weeks ago. She cannot believe that he remembers. He grabs another sheet from her notepad, quickly jotting something on to it. “Here, this is my number. Text me and I’ll send you all the details and you can let me know if you’re free.” All she can do is nod. She would never have expected this. She is still distracted by the numbers on the paper as he leaves, calling a jovial “Happy Hanukkah!” as he goes. It is nice to hear those words in person during Hanukkah. She usually only gets them over the phone from her mother. Or from people who have very little clue about the holiday who yell it out on their last day at work before taking time off for Christmas. That is usually after Hanukkah has long since finished, but she appreciates the sentiment nonetheless.

She manages to wait until she gets home from work that night before texting him, impressing herself with her level of self-control. He is swift in his response. The party is on the sixteenth, which is the last night of Hanukkah but as she has nothing better planned, she decides to try out Oliver’s holiday party. She has one or two dresses that could work.

*************************

Oliver is kind enough to send Mister Diggle to pick her up for the party. He comments that she looks lovely in her dress, making her cheeks flush and then he holds the door open for her. He even tells her that Oliver had wanted to come and pick her up himself, but had been held up by some last minute planning. She gets the feeling that he is not being entirely truthful but, as she always does, she lets it go. When they arrive, Oliver is nowhere to be seen but the party is in full swing. She notices that there are several Jewish symbols dotted amongst the Christmas décor and it makes her heart skip. He was telling the truth. He actually made the effort to include her faith in the party.

Diggle leads her on a short hunt around Oliver’s family home which allows her to get thoroughly lost in the maze of rooms and staircases. Eventually, they find him in his sister’s room where they seem to be having some sort of disagreement. Felicity does not want to interrupt, but Diggle does so before she can tell him otherwise.

“Oliver. Miss Smoak is here.” She hears him say from where she is hiding around the corner. The next thing she knows, he is right in front of her and the miserable expression marring his face melts into a smile.

“Hi.” He says, “You look… beautiful.”

“So do you!” she blurts out. She is not wrong, he does look beautiful and he really works that tux, but who responds to a complement like that? Felicity is beginning to think that she is bad at receiving praise.

With a grin, he offers her his arm, “Come on. Let’s go someplace quieter.” That feels familiar. Oliver is always more comfortable is quieter, emptier spaces. So is Felicity. But probably for very different reasons.

He leads her to a giant sitting room, but she gets the impression that it is not the main sitting room in the house as she is pretty sure that she spotted some of the party taking place in that. Which is insane. This room is bigger than her entire home. Oliver asks Diggle to grab them some food and then to guard the door. Obliging, Diggle returns with some fried items and Oliver tells her that he made sure to include some fried food in honour of it being last night of Hanukkah. It touches her that he knows that. The food is delicious, not that she would have expected anything less from the Queens, and Oliver is a delight as always. He seems a little distracted by something, but makes sure to be as attentive as he can be.

He asks her about Hanukkah and how she usually celebrates, wanting her favourite childhood memories of the days. She is more than happy to share, Hanukkah and the other celebrations being some of the few things in her childhood that managed to escape unscathed. No matter what, Donna Smoak always made sure to make their religion special. They may not be a traditionally Jewish family, but they are still proud of their heritage and Felicity’s grandparents did not endure what they endured just so that their daughter and granddaughter could cast aside what they fought so hard for.

Felicity asks Oliver about his Christmases over the years, and the tradition of the Queen Christmas Party. She had not been living in Starling back before Oliver and Robert’s disappearance, she had been on the opposite side of the country, so she had never really heard of it before. His favourite memories seem to be of him and Thea, not the party though. He paints pictures of the two of them running around in snow, of helping Thea to build a snowman twice her size and of Raisa’s famous hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies by a warm fire. It sounds wonderful. She can see how much he longs for those times again. It makes her wonder why he organised a big party instead of just doing that.

All good things must come to an end, and their evening does when Diggle runs into the room and, with a pointed look at Oliver, turns on the television. The news is running footage of a terrified woman sat in front of a group of frightened people as she reads a ransom note. Somebody is planning to kill captives unless the Hood goes to save them.

Knowing that Oliver will struggle to form an excuse after seeing that, Felicity tells him that he should be with his family and that she should be leaving. He tells her to let Diggle drive her back, which she argues with, sure that Oliver needs Diggle more than she does right now, but the fear in his eyes makes her give in. If having Diggle drive her back will make him more confident in her safety, then that is what will happen. He will fight better if he focuses all of his worrying on himself and the hostages, undistracted by anything else.

Their drive back is silent, both of them clearly worried about Oliver and what might be happening to him. As soon as they get to her door, she jumps out of the car, telling Diggle to get back to his proper job protecting Oliver. She is unsure as to whether he knows the full extent of what she means or whether he just thinks that she is a concerned friend – they are friends now, right? But either way, he promises to do so solemnly.

The night ends with the hostages being freed, but Oliver is in hospital. His adversary escaped. Not knowing exactly what to do, she sends a text to Oliver to wish him well without disturbing him and then calls Walter. She has some more information to give him anyway, and did not get a chance to do so at the party, so she can use that as a ruse to get an update on Oliver’s situation. Walter graciously accepts her well wishes, kind as ever as they talk.

Unfortunately, before she gets a chance to tell him anything else, he gets in a lift and then never calls her back. The next morning, she walks into the office to hear that he has been abducted.

*************************

After Christmas, everything changes. There had been a short gap between the party and New Year in which her only contact with Oliver had been via text. He was in hospital for the first week, and then had returned home for Christmas and stayed there until he was given the all clear. But after that, as soon as January had arrived, he popped up in Felicity’s office once again.

This time, he arrives with no thinly veiled requests, no poor excuses and no sharp weaponry. Just himself. He asks her out to lunch, nothing more, nothing less. They have done it dozens of times in the past, it should not be anything new. But it is. It very much is. Because now he is not asking her to lunch as a way to thank her for a job well done, but as a way to spend time with her. And he does it pretty much every other day.

And, at their triweekly lunches, he always makes sure to make plans for the next day. The biggest change yet, because they start to meet up outside of work, outside of their coffee shop, outside of their routine lives. He takes her to cute little bistros in the evening, or comes around to her place for takeout and an education in all the best things that popular culture has to offer, like the burgeoning Marvel franchise and her favourite show Doctor Who. He even visits on Saturdays.

The only day that they do not see one another is on Sundays, which she remembers from one of their many conversations as being his family day. When he tries to take advantage of Thea being off school to do something together. He is really trying to improve his relationship with his sister. Especially since Walter’s disappearance, the young woman has been taking that particularly hard. Felicity struggles to imagine what it must feel like for Thea. To lose both her father and brother when she was just twelve, and then to get her brother back five years later only for her step-father to go missing just months after his return. Thea has been through far too much for somebody not even eighteen years old yet.

The sudden frequency of her meetings with Oliver and the lack of excuses makes her able believe that he actually sees her as a friend. Somebody he might one day be able to trust. It baffles her that he would want to be friends with her, but when she puts some consideration into it, she supposes that it makes some sense. She is somebody who never knew him before the island, somebody completely separate from his life both then and now. She makes sure to never expect anything from him, to only push him when she knows he needs it and never when he is not ready and she has never slept with any of his exes, which probably helps too.

She thinks that she is something of an anomaly for him, and not just because of her mortifying babbling, but because she is somebody that he can just be himself – the person that he has become – with. Even when he lies to her about black arrows and destroyed laptops, he knows that she is not falling for it. He knows that his lies are just a thing that they do, not him pretending to be someone he is not with her.

And since his ex and his best friend are now dating, and his family is falling apart, and his club is experiencing delays in its opening, it is probably good for him to have that escape at hand. So he is throwing himself into their friendship. Obviously, this makes her even more confused as to whether to come clean about the notebook and her work with Walter or not. He trusts her, she should be honest with him.

*************************

He does have a limp, she notices early on and asks if he would prefer that they drive to the places that they visit, but he informs her that the doctor has told him to keep moving as much as possible. It also does not escape her attention that, ever since the Hood went after the Dark Archer, and Oliver ended up in a hospital bed and then stopped bringing her his usual requests, the Hood also seems to have dropped off the map. Many are speculating that he died. Felicity knows better.

What she does not know is why Oliver keeps looking at her funnily. She considers herself a pretty good Oliver Queen interpreter. She can always tell when he is lying, she usually has a good gauge on his mood. But there is this one look that he gives her, at times when they are sat on her sofa together or in their favourite booth or walking back from a nice meal and she cannot fathom what it means. If she did not know any better, she would call it longing, wanting, caring, happiness, all rolled up into one with a few other things thrown in for good measure. But she does know better, she knows that there is nothing that she could offer him that he might want, nothing that she has that he might long for, so her only explanation is that he has an odd way of showing her that he cares.

A caring Oliver is also a very tactile Oliver. She finds his hands constantly resting on her shoulders, cupping her cheeks, hovering over the small of her back and nestling between her shoulder blades. In their booth at the coffee shop, he drapes an arm over her. When they watch television, he pulls her into his side and encourages her to rest her head on his shoulder or his chest. He even gives her foot massages, which feel fantastic after a day in heels, though are still pretty good even when she wears her panda flats. He just seems to like positive touch, and is considerably better at expressing his emotions physically than he is verbally.

Maybe it has been so long since he has been able to truly relax and be happy that he struggles to know how to feel those things anymore. That has to be it. What else could it be?

*************************

She is doing her best to look into Walter’s disappearance when the Hood shows up again. This time, he has taken down a firefighter, who was left in a fire in order to minimise loss and had decided to take out his anger about that on his former squad. A lot of good men had died at his hands, all in the name of revenge. It is admirable that the Hood would choose to save those left.

Shortly after, Oliver walks back into her office, “Hey.” He says, a fond smile on his face.

“Oliver, hi! You’re a bit early for lunch.” He is, it has only been an hour since she started work.

“Yeah,” he looks regretful, “I’m sorry, I’m not going to be able to do lunch today, but I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’m actually here because of this.” He shows her a black USB.

“Ah. And here I was beginning to think that my days of being Oliver Queen’s personal computer geek were coming to an end.” She teases, clearing her desk so that she can focus on the task at hand.

“Is that your way of saying you missed me giving you challenges?”

“No.” she lies, “But if it works for you, go with it.”

Laughing as always, he spins a tale about a scavenger hunt and some very expensive red wine and hands her the stick. She then finds herself faced with a military grade encryption set up by a security firm. Only Oliver could hand her something that only a handful of people in the world could break in to and think that it could ever possibly be used in a scavenger hunt. Even one for the idle rich, a comment that makes her eyebrow raise. “Listen.” He leans over her, seemingly having forgotten the concept of personal space, “You get through it and maybe, when I come around on Saturday, I’ll bring one of those bottles with me for you.” Whether he is lying about the scavenger hunt or not, that offer is too good to pass up on. She loves red wine, a fact that Oliver knows very well and is using to his advantage.

The offer is too good to be true, as it turns out. As expected, breaking the encryption does not lead her to any sort of clue involving a scavenger hunt of any kind. What is unexpected, is that it leads her to something that does not merely suggest the Hood’s involvement or a link to criminal activity, it leads her to something that is explicitly dangerous. The details of a plan for a series of very violent armoured car heists. Several of which have already been making headlines.

Unsure of quite what to do, she sits frozen in front of her monitor. This is something that should definitely be handed to law enforcement. The things that Oliver has said and done in the past, she could easily get away with feigning ignorance over but this is something else. This is something that could lead to a lot of people dying, including the Hood. Still, she decides to put her faith in her friend in the same way that he puts his faith in her and calls him up, wanting to see what his response will be.

She uses the story that he gave her and offers up her findings, advising him to take the information to the police. It would kill her if anybody got hurt because she decided to let Oliver do his thing instead of sending the information to those actually trained to deal with this sort of thing. Unsurprisingly, he convinces her to send the information to him instead. After he hangs up the phone without another word, she grumbles to herself “So… no wine then.” A silly response. It is not like she expected to find herself being led to a case of wine bottles worth several thousand dollars each anyway. It is still disappointing.

Oliver does not come by for the next day, or the one after. It gets her a little worried. The last time they spoke, she was giving him a directory that would lead straight to a gang of dangerous, armed ex-military personnel. The news lets her know that the Hood managed to stop them and the police have been cleaning up the mess but that is the only information that she has access to. She is sure that anything happening to Oliver would have also made the news, but there is still a shred of doubt in her mind.

*************************

On Saturday, she spends the entire day fighting with herself to not hack into her friend’s phone. It would be a gross breach of privacy, not to mention extremely rude, but she just wants to know that he is safe. She manages to hold out until the evening, but makes the mistake of trying to mask her worries with red wine which leads to her in front of her computer, on the brink of hacking Oliver’s phone. In the very second before she launches the code, a knock raps at her door. It startles her, making her actually think about what she is doing and reminding her of all of the reasons why it is a bad idea. She quickly shuts down the computer, and moves away from it. Warily, she goes to open the door, wondering who it could possibly be.

It is Oliver.

Safe, healthy, and happy too by the looks of things.

“Oliver! What are you doing here?” it comes out a bit ruder than she intends but, in her defence, she is a bit tipsy so her filter is even more non-existent than usual.

“It’s Saturday.” Of course, he did say that he would visit on Saturday. She must have forgotten in the mayhem of the week, “Should I have called?” he frowns.

“No! No. Sorry. I forgot. Hi. Come in.” she moves back so that she is no longer blocking the door. Not that she blocks much of it, or even that she provides much of a blockade. Oliver could probably pick her up with one arm and move her right out of the way. Don’t think about Oliver picking you up she thinks.

As he walks in, she notices something in his hand. He sees her looking and brandishes the bottle, holding it so that she can see the label. It is Lafite Rothschild 1982. He actually brought her some. Not some that he won in a scavenger hunt, but he still did.

“I told you I’d bring you some if you broke the encryption.” He answers her unasked question.

“You didn’t have to.” She insists. “The scavenger hunt was a bust, I wasn’t expecting anything.”

“It was just getting dusty in our cellar anyway. I’d rather let someone who could really appreciate it have it.” She takes it like it is a new born baby, cradling it to her chest.

“Want some?” she offers.

“Thanks.”

They get through the entire bottle together. A part of Felicity is reluctant to do so, it is a very expensive wine and she sort of wants to hold on to it for a really special occasion. But Oliver is in her home and he is so wonderful and the wine tastes really good, so it is gone before she even fully notices. She then cracks open one of her own, cheap by comparison, bottles and they proceed to get very, very tipsy.

It is well past midnight and she remembers a lot of giggling and cuddling, and the sweet press of Oliver’s lips in her hair, on her forehead and her cheeks. She feels like it might be one of her favourite nights of her life. Even if she does not fully remember how it ends.

*************************

The next morning, she awakens to find herself lying on the sofa in her living room, her head cushioned by a very firm, very warm and very much moving mass. She looks up, squinting in the bright light of the sun, and meets the eyes of Oliver Queen. Who she is lying on. Like… fully on top of. Her legs are straddling one of his, her body draped over his like a blanket and her head resting on one of his pecs. He is awake, just reclining on her pillows, gazing down at her as he strokes through her hair with one hand, the other still wrapped tightly around her waist to prevent her from falling.

“Hi.” She squeaks, still not fully comprehending her new situation.

“Hi.” He replies, “How do you feel? You had a fair bit to drink last night.”

“I had the same as you.”

“I’m twice your size.” He is. He very much is. She had not realised just how… large Oliver really is. Nor how cut his stomach is under those jumpers. She realises now, she can feel the solid bumps of his abs pressing against her own, much softer stomach.

“Want some breakfast?” he asks.

“I have coffee. Maybe some cereal.”

“You don’t have any proper food?”

“You know I can’t cook.” She moans, “Why would I keep food that I’d just burn in my house?”

“Not even bacon?”

“No.”

“Pancake mix?”

“No.”

“Fruit?”

“Blegh.” He chuckles.

“You know that you should eat fruit several times a day, right?” he sounds genuinely concerned.

“Do chocolate strawberries count?”

He gives in, chest deflating with a sigh that brings her head several inches lower, “I’ll go grab us something.”

Whilst Oliver runs to her nearest café, she freshens herself up, cringing over the probability that she inundated Oliver with hangover morning breath without thinking about it. He returns with enough food to feed the both of them for three days, clearly intending to leave her with something to keep her going for the next week. She helps him to unpack the bags, watching as he lays out a spread for the two of them beautifully. He has a talent.

The food is delicious. Oliver seems to be in excellent spirits during their meal, constantly offering her more food, coffee, everything. Their night together – not together, together, just in the same place, together – seems to have given Oliver whatever permission that he needed to let go of what little restraint remained. His smiles seem wider, his laughter more free and he cannot stop holding her. Every time he gets up, he drops a kiss onto her head, every time he sits back on the sofa next to her, he wraps her up tightly in his arms, his face burrowing into her neck.

Eventually, he sighs, looking disappointed as he tells her that he has to go. Felicity remembers that it is Sunday, Thea’s day and lets him leave. He is a good friend.

*************************

Life continues.

Oliver still visits just as often as he had been, but he once again brings her things to research and hacking to do. It is almost a relief, getting back to their old routine in that way and it engages her mind once again. She continues to work on Walter’s case, but finds herself beginning to meet a dead end. There is not much left that she can do on her own with the evidence that she has. She needs feet on the ground, she needs somebody who can collect more evidence for her to use. She needs the Hood.

But she is not quite ready to go there just yet. Things in her life have been going so well, and she does not want to approach anybody with only half the evidence. Let alone anybody that she might care for. So she waits.

She waits when Oliver comes to her to ask her for somebody’s location so that he can send them a singing telegram. A singing telegram. His stories get worse and worse as time progresses. He wants to surprise some girl, a fact that she picks up on only to be startled by the vehemence of Oliver’s reassurance that they are just friends. “Just a friend. I promise, Felicity. She’s just my friend. I would never… I’m not like that anymore. She’s just my friend, nothing more.” She wonders if he is trying to tell her something, if he is worried that his more affectionate attitude of late has given her some sort of misguided idea about the nature of their relationship and has therefore made his latest story up as a coded message to her.

Of course, she knows how attractive Oliver is. She would have to be blind not to have noticed that. And maybe she has a teeny, tiny crush on him. And, yeah, her heart skips a few beats every time he smiles and she kind of wants to kiss him whenever he touches her, or even just gets close to her. But she is under no illusions about their relationship. Just friends. Nothing more. Because there is no universe in which Oliver Queen would want to date somebody like Felicity Smoak. Not a one. Being his friend is more than enough.

He gives her no time to express her understanding though, merely giving her an imploring look before swiftly moving on to setting Felicity on the trail of the AK Desmond Group. A group that Oliver most definitely has exactly zero friends working for. He has to pull her from a ramble about magic and her fingers with his unique little “Felicity” that tells her to remember where she is, what she is doing and to stop digging the hole deeper. As she passes him the address, she sends her favourite red pen flying, the one from their first meeting, to his feet, making her embarrassment rocket up to a whole new level and kicking off yet another babble. Telling him that she meant to put it there, what is she saying? He ignores her and kneels, picking it up and offering it back in a position that looks for all the world like he is proposing to her with her pen and then he tells her that he believes in magic.

When he visits the next night, she sits him down to watch the Philosopher’s Stone with her. How can anybody have read the Harry Potter novels but not seen any of the movies?

*************************

His next excuse is his best ever. He turns up looking like he has only just woke up from a night simultaneously taking drugs and then getting banged over the head with a bat, having run through the company looking for her and then proceeds to profess that he has a hangover which he intends to cure with an energy drink. In a syringe. Because he ran out of sports bottles. When he tells her that, Diggle just walks away, a priceless look gracing his face as he gives up on his boss’ ability to lie.

She does the job for him anyway, more concerned about his clear illness than annoyed at him and then gets back to her Walter job. She has a new lead on Tempest that she is pursuing that she hopes might go somewhere. She has decided to come clean to Oliver. If this thing pans out, then she should have enough evidence to take the next steps. If it does not, then she is really out of options and needs to be honest with him anyway. Even if he is not always honest to her. The difference in her mind though is that both of them know that he is lying when he does it, but he does not know that she is keeping something big from him, and she needs to change that. Before it goes on too long and she risks losing him forever.

That is not something that she ever wants to risk.

*************************

She does not see him for a few days, but she assumes that the reason has something to do with his complete disorientation during their last meeting, when she had told him about the cat that got into the building. Her lead does not go anywhere. It is a blow, a significant one. She had hoped it would lead her to Walter, she had hoped to find him, to save him. It would help to take so much stress from Oliver’s life and it would make explaining her secrecy to him so much easier. But she made a decision and she stands by it.

Oliver texts her, asking if she wants to meet up at Big Belly Burger for some dinner before she gets a chance to text him. She replies, telling him that she has something that she needs to talk to him about. He seems worried, but she has no way to reassure him beyond empty words so she does not.

He is sat in the window, right in the open. It would be unusual, but there is nobody else about, so she supposes that he feels secure enough to not need to put his back against a wall. He gives her a dorky wave as she walks by, something that makes her giggle before she remembers why she is here. What she is about to tell him.

“Hi.” He greets, immediately picking up on her nervous energy, “What’s wrong?”

“I have something to tell you. But… I’m really nervous.”

He seems to think that she is joking, “Okay.” He laughs.

“The truth is, I’ve been feeling guilty for weeks about not telling you. About keeping it a secret, but I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure, and then so much time had passed and…” he gives her a look, one that tells her to stop babbling and get to the point, “I want to trust you. I do trust you but I don’t know if I should. Can I trust you?” his head shakes a bit, upset at her need to ask, “You should know by now, Oliver, I’m not an idiot. I’m actually very clever and you’ve dropped some fairly ridiculous lies on me and yet, I still trust you. You make me want to trust you.”

He still does not seem to be taking her seriously, “I have one of those faces.” He jokes, but at her disappointed look, he sobers up, “Sorry.” He seems to realise just how serious she is, how nervous she is feeling, “Yes. You know you can trust me. You can trust me with anything. I.. I-” he cuts himself off before he can say anything more and sighs, a pained look on his face. He gives up on the sentence and simply looks at her, waiting for her to talk.

And then she gives him the list. She tells him about Walter, about his mother, she tells him about what she was asked to do and what she has continued to do. When he first sees the list, recognition flashes across his eyes but he denies having ever seen it before. His anger belies the truth though, he knows something about this list, he knows how dangerous it can be and he knows how bad it is that his mother owned a copy. He looks hurt, upset. Devastated, even.

It is an emotion that she becomes intimately familiar with when he dismisses her, sending her away and telling her that she needs to ‘keep safe’. He clearly does not want to be around her any longer. She has ruined everything. She knows she has. She should have told him earlier. She should never have told him. Now, all she has done is brought pain and deceit and drama back into his life. Her, the one person who he liked because she did not bring him any of those specific things.

She feels like a failure.

She feels alone.

*************************

A week passes with no word from Oliver. It is the longest that they have not seen each other since his hospitalisation after the Christmas party. The longest that they have not spoken since they met. She knows that she has lost him. She knows it. She destroyed everything between them, she broke their friendship and now he will never want to speak to her again.

She finds herself grieving, like she is the one who has lost something. Who is she to grieve? Oliver is the one whose whole life has just been flipped upside down, Oliver is the one who was betrayed. The guilt increases.

Until, one night, after staying at work ridiculously late, she gets in her car to find a certain vigilante, half passed out and bleeding in the backseat. She panics. He tells her that he will not hurt her, and she lets the shock get to her, “How do you know my name?”

“Because you know my name.” Yep. Yes she does.

“Mister- Oliver.” She has known it for a while, she just was not completely, one hundred percent certain of it. Well, she is now. This moment has cleared up all of her thoughts and doubts from the last three and a half months. “Oh… wow. Everything about you just became unbelievably clear.” He pants in response, snapping her out of the stasis that had overcome her in the face of Oliver, not only talking to her, but telling her his secret, “You’re bleeding!” she announces.

“I don’t need to be told that.”

He directs her to a steel factory. Not a hospital, an abandoned factory. Lucky for him, she is so relieved that he is not only speaking to her again, but also has trusted her with the biggest secret in his life that she will do just about anything to keep that trust. Even if it means not taking him to a hospital. He has trusted her with his identity, so she is going to trust that the factory in the Glades is the best place for him right now. She trusts him to survive.

*************************

He passes out on the journey. It is one of the most terrifying moments of her life to this point, but something tells her that the night will only continue to get more terrifying. Arriving at the steel factory is both completely relieving and frightening. There is nobody here. There is nobody here, it is completely empty. How is she supposed to save Oliver’s life like this? She cannot even carry him from her car and away from the ever growing bloodstain that he is making in it.

Her only option is to scope out the building alone in the desperate hope that she can find something, someone to help her. Oliver may have been bleeding when she found him but he was still coherent, he knew what he was asking for when he told her to bring him here. She locates an office, Oliver’s office for his still unopened club, she realises and gives it a thorough sweep. If there is anything to be found, she is sure that it will be in this room. In the back corner, there is a door with a keypad. It is terribly unsecure, she hacks through it in three seconds flat and finds herself at the top of some metal stairs, looking down on Oliver’s vigilante lair. And Diggle. Diggle is here, watching the news.

She has never been happier.

With Diggle’s help – or, actually, by getting him to do all of the work – she is able to get Oliver down into the Foundry and onto a medical table, barely even noticing when he points a gun at her head. According to Diggle, the bullet barely missed his carotid artery. That means that he was millimetres shy of a painful certain death. The fear is suffocating.

The crucial minutes between getting him to Diggle and getting him stable pass in a blur of terror and nausea. She vaguely remembers talking to Diggle and following his orders, but all that she can really see is Oliver’s blood staining her hands, drying underneath her fingernails.

Her chest hurts.

Diggle tells her that she kept her head on. She is not sure about that, but is pleased that she came across that way. Better than falling apart and risking Oliver’s life. The steady beeps of the electrocardiogram calm her enough to finally take in her surroundings. Oliver’s lair is impressive. Dingy, and filled with pointy, dangerous objects, but impressive.

As she pulls off her gloves and starts to look around, Diggle comments that he thought she would be more surprised. It makes her scoff. Even he knew how bad Oliver’s lies to her were, how could he possibly think that she was clueless enough to believe them? In fact, if Oliver lies as poorly to everyone as he does to her, how does anybody believe him? But then, he did pass a lie detector test with no problems, so he must have the ability to lie sometimes.

But Felicity is rather pleased with herself for suspecting Oliver of being the Hood right from their first meeting. She may not have called it all along, but she did suspect and has been fairly confident in her suspicions for a long time. When Diggle tries to put the blame on Oliver’s lying ability, she feels compelled to remind him of his involvement with the energy drink lie. He did not tell it, but he was complicit. A fact that he seems less than pleased with.

Finding out that she helped to bring down Count Vertigo makes everything worth it. The lies, the extra work, everything. If she had even a small hand in stopping people like that, she can be proud of herself.

*************************

The second time that her heart nearly stops that night is when Oliver’s does. He is literally lying there, dead on the table and the defibrillator is not working. It is not bringing him back. She surprises herself by keeping calm, remembering her years surrounded by a mess of wires and managing to fix the machine. The regular beats of Oliver’s heart returns and she almost collapses.

There is a third moment of terror – since the first two clearly were not enough to kill her – and the panic that it causes manages to annoy her more than anything once she discovers the loose wire. Diggle seems to feel similarly.

In the hours down in the Foundry, she has come to like Diggle. It has been their first proper chance to actually talk to one another and she finds that he makes her feel comfortable. There is something very reassuring about his presence, a friendliness that calms her and that allows her bring up the thing that has been bothering her ever since she met Oliver. His kill count.

It has never stopped her from helping, or from being his friend, but every time he has come to her with a strange request, there has been a part of her brain that would wonder if she was making herself an accessory to murder. That is not something that she can quite wrap her head around. It is not something that she can get on board with. But Diggle has a good point, when he makes one about Oliver being at war. It is the best analogy that she has come across for his crusade, for his personality and behaviour. Whilst Oliver was away, he got caught up in a war and coming home has only thrown him into another warzone. One far more complex than the first.

*************************

Oliver is very distracting. He is not doing anything but he is distracting nonetheless. There is just… so much muscle. Big, firm, lean muscles. Covered with tattooed, scarred skin. She is very curious about it all. What do his tattoos mean? Where did he get his scars? What has he survived? Just how many muscles does he have? How would they feel if she touched them?

Uh. Maybe not that last part.

The point is, it is very difficult to focus on the much needed updates that his system needs when he is right there being all… muscly. It is a good thing that he is not awake.

As if he can hear her thinking and wants to prove her wrong, he starts to life. Both she and Dig rush over to him just in time for him to say one of the most frustrating things that has ever left his mouth, “I guess I didn’t die. Again. Cool.” She almost wants to poke his wound, just to give him a taste of the pain that he has put them through the last few hours. She refrains, but only just.

He locks eyes with her and smiles tentatively, “Hey you.” He reaches out to cradle her wrist in his hand, “You brought me to the Foundry.”

“You asked me to.”

“You’re not mad?”

“What at?”

He pushes himself upright, “Me. For lying to you. Even when you gave me the book.”

Steading him as he moves, she responds “Oliver, it’s not like your lies were ever very convincing.”

“You knew?” he gasps. She just looks at him. Loveable idiot. Wait, no. Not loveable, likeable. She does not love Oliver. She likes him plenty, but not… love.

*************************

He is far too blasé about his new injury for Felicity’s liking so she finds it more amusing than usual when Diggle suggests that he explain it away with allusions to badly done kinky sex. It would be fun to be a fly in the room as he told his mother about that. She hides her amusement by telling them that she has had the blood sample destroyed. She hears his feet behind her and turns, surrounded by the updating computers covered in lines of code to see him frowning at her. She worries that she overstepped the bounds by messing with his system, so falls into a babble about the eighties until he asks her if she is planning to join his team.

A part of her wants to. She is never more alive than when she is hacking for him and she is never happier than when they are spending time together, but she cannot abide by his killing. He has a literal list of people to attack, and it is just too difficult for her to deal with. She wants Walter back though. He has always been so kind to her, and if she had not pushed him into pursuing the investigation then he never would have been kidnapped. He would be safe, at home with his family. Oliver’s family. So she agrees to work with Oliver, but only for as long as it takes for them to find his step-father.

He seems a little let down, but acquiesces. “Okay.” He nods, and then a boyish grin breaks out on his face, “At least we’ll get to be partners in vigilantism and in life for a little while.”

“Huh?” what is he talking about?

“You know, like a crime fighting couple.” His words are not making sense, “Lunch dates in the day, vigilantism at night. It’s gonna be great.”

“Dates?” she practically yells, her voice about three octaves higher than usual.

“Yeah. Dates. Like, when the two of us go out together and get food and coffee and spend time together?” he is looking at her like she is some kind of idiot.

She sputters, “You mean like friend dates?”

“No. I mean romantic dates, like when I take you out to dinner.” Her jaw drops, Oliver Queen thinks that they are dating? Did he get brain damage from the lack of oxygen when his heart stopped? “You didn’t think we were going on romantic dates?” his eyes widen, panic setting across his features.

From the corner of her eye, she can see Diggle in the background, leaning back like he is watching a comedy show, thoroughly enjoying himself. That is the least of her worries right now, “You did?” she shrieks.

“Uh…” this must be a first for him.

“Oliver, did you or did you not think we have been dating romantically?”

“I did.” He whispers, forlorn, unable to meet her eyes.

“Frack.” A minute of stunned silence passes, “Since when?”

“The holiday party.” He admits, “We’ve been seeing each other all the time since then, we go on dates all the time.”

“You never asked me out!”

“I did. I asked you if you wanted to go to the party with me.”

“I thought you meant as friends!”

“But then I asked you out to lunch and to dinner and stuff.”

“You asked me that all the time before the party!”

“But always after you helped me out! In January I asked without any pretence.” He looks completely dejected.

“Oliver.” She sighs, “How was I supposed to know that it was a proper date when you never said so, very little actually changed and you’ve never treated me any different?”

“I do. We hug and kiss all the time.”

“On the forehead! Like friends.”

“Oh.” Something seems to dawn on him. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to scare you off, and then I felt really guilty about dating you whilst keeping this big secret between us so I didn’t want to take it any further without coming clean first.”

“Oliver.” She cannot tell if that is sweet or stupid.

He finally looks up at her, pain in his eyes, “So… you didn’t want to date me?”

“I never said that.” She squeaks.

Hope reappears, “You do want to date me?”

“I thought that you wouldn’t want to date me.”

“Felicity Smoak, I very much want to be your boyfriend. Will you be my girlfriend and go on a proper date with me?”

“Yeah.” She nods, still not fully comprehending the turn that the night – day, now – has taken. Oliver has made his way closer to her, the blanket dangling from his shoulders brushes across her cheek as he leans down to-

A sarcastic clap sounds from behind Oliver.

They both turn to the source and realise that Diggle is still there, and heard everything. He guffaws, “I can’t believe she didn’t realise you were dating. Smooth, man, smooth.” It puts the scowl back on Oliver’s face, so she grabs his hand in a gesture of solidarity. The moment is gone already, so Felicity asks for the location of the toilet because the situation in her bladder is becoming unbearable. It shuts Diggle up, at least.

As she leaves, Oliver seems to remember himself, reaching out to shake her hand and thank her. He uses the leverage to pull her into him, pressing a peck right to the corner of the lips and whispering, just for her in her ear, that he intends to kiss her properly after their next date. She believes him.

As she leaves, she can hear Diggle laughing at Oliver behind her.

She drives herself home, knowing that Oliver – her boyfriend, Oliver – is in safe hands and that the both of them are staying in the Foundry for the day to keep an eye on his condition.

He keeps his promise. As soon as Diggle clears him to move freely, he is taking her out to dinner. It is much the same as their most recent dinners, except this time she knows that she is allowed to touch him back. She is allowed to give in to the desires that she has been supressing for months. Because maybe that teeny tiny crush had been more major than she had been willing to admit. Knowing that it is a date makes it even better than ever before. For the first time, she notices how attentive and… loving he is with her, how differently he behaves with her than with the rest of the world. She has been turning a blind eye to these things in an attempt to protect herself and her heart.

It is in his every interaction. With her, he is patient and calm. He waits out her babbles with a smile and relaxes into her touch, always wanting a point of connection between the two of them. With everybody else, the opposite is true. A waiter interrupts one of her babbles and the scowl that he directs at the man redefines the phrase ‘if looks could kill’. The hostess touches his arm to get his attention as she leads them to their table and it causes for him to violently flinch back, all but yanking his arm away as he retreats into Felicity. It is both flattering and heart breaking to see.

At the end of their date, he takes her home and kisses her sweetly on her doorstep. Their first kiss. Perfect. Her arms around his neck, his hands resting in dip of her waist. She is on her tiptoes even though she is wearing heels, and he still has to lean down to meet her lips. He pulls back, softly smiling down at her before moving back in for a second kiss.

It does not take long for Felicity to notice the imperfections in their second kiss. Beneath her hands, she can feel the tension in Oliver’s neck and shoulders. His hands flex over her hips, as if he is fighting against himself to stop himself from grabbing her. The gap between their bodies is too big. Their only points of connection are their lips and where their hands are resting. Imperfect. Restraint. Oliver is restraining himself. He is trying to be sweet.

Felicity decides that she is done with sweet. Sweet was good for their first kiss, it was nice when they were getting to know one another. But she has been dating Oliver Queen for almost two months without even realising it, and she is tired of playing around. If he had been a bit less sweet during those months, she would have known about the dating part of their relationship far sooner.

Using the leverage of her arms around his neck, she lifts her body into his, pressing every inch of herself against him. It elicits a groan that she feels in her very soul. Deep, passionate. His grip tightens on her, fixing her body to his as he invades her mouth, restraint fading. Much to his delight, she drags him into her home, slamming the door shut behind them. He lets out a small sound of shock but does not remove his lips from their place against her neck, nose nuzzling in, arms fully encircling her waist. It is fantastic. He moans her name against her pulse point, a question and a plea and a prayer all in one. She does not respond. Instead, she surprises him by making a beeline for her bedroom. He is not expecting it but, after checking that she is sure this is what she wants, he lets her lead him in.

That night, he decimates any remaining notions of their relationship being just platonic.

*************************

Unsurprisingly, it does not take long for their first argument. They are both very strong, independent people. Of course they clash. Especially now that their secrets are out in the open, and they have removed the barriers between them. It is over a guy called Ken Williams. Oliver has spent the evening shirtless and preening in front of her desk, showing off his fighting prowess in an attempt to turn her on that she wishes she could say did not work, but cannot. And then he decides to go after Williams. A widower single father who has done some bad things but whose son does not deserve to lose both of his parents before reaching his teens. Oliver seems to disagree, and tries to intimidate her with his firm… largeness, which results in her yelling at him that she should never have agreed to work with him. She storms out, regretting her words immediately and fretting that he will think that she meant signing on as his partner and as his girlfriend, not just as his partner.

She only wants him to use his skills more for good, not just for his vendetta. Maybe then he will realise what potential he has, maybe then he will realise that he is not a monster. The next day, she walks in to find both of her gigantic vigilantes taking up her office space. Oliver makes a good apology, letting her know that Williams is still alive and even agreeing to go after a target not on his list. Before he leaves, he lets Diggle out and then turns to her to ask “You didn’t mean that you regretted being my girlfriend too, did you?” vulnerability showing.

She smiles, “Of course not.” He floods with relief, and then tells her to come to Big Belly Burger for lunch so that they can hash out a game plan, leaving her with a kiss.

She feels weird, sitting there with the two of them openly discussing the Dodger case. Especially when Diggle’s hot-for-him sister-in-law comes over to serve them. Oliver remarks that Diggle should ask her out, and in return Diggle tells him “I’ll ask Carly out just as soon as you manage to date a girl who actually knows that you’re dating her.” He is getting far too much pleasure out of their previous situation.

“Hey. I’m in a steady relationship now. It’s your turn.” Is Oliver’s retort, which makes Felicity smirk from her place tucked under her boyfriend’s arm.

Diggle admits defeat by going to ask Carly out, leaving Oliver and Felicity to talk about the Dodger case. “I have an idea.” She looks up at him, “You’re friends with the detective on the Dodger case, right?” he nods, “So I’ll work up a little tech, you distract her with a little flirty-flirt, slip said tech on her phone, it’ll turn into a micro transmitter and…” she shrugs, “Boom, We’ll learn everything she knows.”

“You want me to flirt with her?” he asks, bewildered.

“It’s a good tactic. Besides, I trust you.” You would think that he had never heard those words before, looking at his face. He seems helpless but to kiss her.

Leaning back, he thinks for a moment, “It’s… not how I typically get my information.”

“How do you typically do it?”

“I find the person and then I put the fear of God into them until they talk.” She shivers at his tone. In a disturbingly good way. Sometimes when he goes all dangerous-vigilante guy mode, it does things to her.

“Well.” She grins, reserving her thoughts for later, “Now you have a genius girlfriend so you won’t have to do that anymore.”

“That I do.” He smiles back, “Okay. We can try it your way.”

Oliver successfully plants the bug on McKenna’s phone and Felicity is able to use it to help Oliver go after the Dodger, albeit unsuccessfully. Almost as unsuccessful as Diggle’s date with Carly. Almost, but not quite. They do manage to identify the Dodger’s preferred type of jewel, and set up a trap for him using Oliver’s family jewels. She does not think that she will ever be able to understand the scale of Oliver’s family’s wealth. It is insane.

A gold dress arrives on her doorstep, an invitation to the gala alongside it. Oliver is inviting her along as his date. And that dress is far too beautiful to pass up on. The look on Oliver’s face when he sees her in it is brilliant. He looks gobsmacked, in awe of her. It makes her feel powerful. It is amazing, much like the plans for the rest of their night that he murmurs into her ear. The problem is that Felicity manages to ruin those plans – all of her future plans, actually – by jumping the gun and confronting the Dodger alone, getting a bomb around her neck for her efforts.

Oliver is petrified. He stares motionless at the bomb before leaping into action, taking her to a private room and holding her even as she attempts to squirm away from him, until she is calm enough to think straight. She and Diggle send him after the Dodger, relying on Diggle’s military experience to save her. Diggle is amazing. Not once does he loose his cool, calmly telling her that she will be fine, that he will get the collar safely deactivated and Oliver will catch the Dodger. It lets her keep enough presence of mind to focus on guiding Oliver. If she is going to die, she wants to go out whilst helping to stop the man who killed her.

In the end, it is Oliver who saves her. It is Oliver who takes her home. It is Oliver who holds her until the frightened shakes they are both experiencing subside. It is Oliver’s tears that wet her hair. It is Oliver’s voice whispering that she is safe and he thought he was going to lose her and that he should have protected her better and that he will keep her safe. It is Oliver’s strong arms around her that keep her warm. It is Oliver who stays with her to help her sleep. To keep the nightmares at bay. For both of them.

It is Oliver who is there the next morning to slowly make love to her, adoration pouring from him as he holds himself over her and kisses her softly.

*************************

The first time that she sees Oliver on the salmon ladder ends with the two of them in a tangled, sweaty heap on the training mats. They have the same problem all of the few times that Oliver tries to train her himself, so he passes the task to Diggle in the hopes that she might actually learn something from the older man.

Oliver’s best friend, Tommy invites him to his birthday party, making it clear that Oliver is welcome to bring a guest. He asks Felicity if she wants to go with him, to meet his best friend. Felicity feels compelled to remind him that maybe the best place for her to meet Tommy is not at a birthday party where Tommy will have Oliver’s most significant ex by his side. And when said party is being hosted at the home of said ex. Oliver grumbles about it being awkward when it is just the three of them, and about how he does not really want to spend the evening playing third wheel, but acquiesces and miserably leaves the Foundry, sending a pout in her direction on the night of the party.

An assassin shows up in town, targeting Tommy’s father, Malcolm Merlyn. Oliver manages to save him with the help of his team, but the cost is high. Tommy learns Oliver’s identity and they discover that the man who killed Diggle’s brother is still alive.

She does her best to comfort him in the wake of the reveal to Tommy. It goes far less smoothly than it had with her. Tommy is furious and cannot see the good in what Oliver is doing. He just sees the lie. He sees the vigilante, not the hero. The murderer, not the lives Oliver has saved. She can tell that Oliver feels like his world is breaking apart before him. His best friend cannot even look at him, his brother in arms is overcome by the need to avenge his brother’s death and his family is only becoming more fractured, the longer that Walter is gone. He holds her tightly to him that night, like he is trying to keep them together with sheer strength, like he is holding on to the only piece he feels he still has left.

*************************

As if there was not enough drama in their lives, Oliver’s psycho ex-girlfriend (Dig’s words) then decides to pay Starling a visit. Felicity finds out when she walks into the Foundry to find Oliver and Dig glaring at the woman. Oliver is frantic when he yells at her to leave and it hurts to hear him trying to exclude her from a ‘private thing’ even though Diggle is allowed to stay, especially as it involves his most recent ex. She quickly realises that he is doing it for her safety, managing to hear him threaten Helena before the door shuts behind her. “If you go anywhere near her, the deal is off. I don’t care who knows that I’m the Hood, I won’t help you if you hurt her.”

He later comes to her office to apologise and make many extremely tempting offers as to how he can make it up to her.

Her decision to announce her presence by boasting about her FBI hacking skills comes back to bite her in the ass when Helena shows up at her office. She is on the phone to Oliver at the time, telling him that she thinks that the woman in question is still in town. The irony is not lost on her and the crossbow to her head is a pretty convincing incentive to make her hack the FBI. She feels like a failure. She should have remembered Diggle’s training. She should have been stronger.

Oliver finds her, his fear nearly matching that when the bomb had been around her neck and he kisses her all over in his relief, needlessly apologising for Helena’s actions between each kiss. His breath is ragged and his arms are tight around her, making her think that his reassurances are working more for him than for her. To remind himself that she is okay, and that he can keep her safe. He massages the sore skin from the zip ties and tells her that he had been worried that Helena had hurt her, or worse. He is so on edge that he nearly kills Diggle when he arrives at the door.

But, as with everything else, they deal with Helena. Oliver’s friend McKenna gets hurt though, and his guilt over that will take some getting over. Just another thing for Felicity to work on with him.

*************************

Their next big milestone comes up when Joseph Falk goes on a killing spree far more twisted and vindictive than Oliver’s could ever be against those he perceives to be a blight on the Glades. The victims include Roy Harper, Thea Queen’s boyfriend who Oliver insists is just her friend. Felicity is already struggling with the fact that she has failed to track Falk down and it has resulted in the death of the DA. She has yelled at Diggle and despite Oliver’s insistence that she is not to blame, she knows that she should have done better.

He brings her mint chip to try and cheer her up but even that does not work.

They find him in the subway just in time to save Roy. It makes Felicity feel better to know that, whilst she had not managed to save the DA, she had been on the right tracks, so to speak. She had found them, just at the wrong elevation. Her skills had not failed them.

When Oliver returns, he manages to change her world once again, “By the way, if you ever need to tell someone about your day,” he says, referencing when she had told him earlier that she felt unable to talk about what had happened, “You can tell me. I’m here for you.” His hand rests on her shoulder, “I love you.”

He loves her.

He loves her.

Oliver Queen loves her, Felicity Smoak.

“I love you too.” She breathes back, because she does. As he rises back up after kissing her, he sees the monitor behind her head. And they discover that Oliver’s mission, the list, everything that they have been discovering over the last few months, it is all connected to the Glades.

*************************

They successfully deal with the new vertigo problem together. With the use of far more tea than Felicity ever could have predicted. Oliver is given hope for his relationship with Tommy, only to be hurt when Tommy quits.

They talk about that, Oliver’s proclivity for blaming himself for everything, late at night. Or early in the morning, after their vigilante-ing is done for the night and they are settled in her bed. Oliver is practically living with her by now. Since Thea is spending most of her time with Roy anyway, there is little reason for him to return home. They are in love and they get so little free time that they want to spend as much of it together as possible. It is incredible. He cooks for her and everything.

*************************

Then Deadshot comes back to the city. They make a plan of attack, with the help of Diggle’s government friend, Lyla, but Oliver makes the mistake of letting his need to get back into Tommy’s good graces win out and decides to prioritise him over Diggle. It is hard for Felicity to decide who was right. On the one hand, Oliver made a promise to Diggle and he should have seen it through, on the other, Diggle’s mission was to kill a man, Tommy’s was to save the life of a young boy who had just seen his parents murdered.

If it were purely about which cause was the nobler one, she would agree with Oliver’s decision. But she cannot deny that there is merit to Diggle’s claim that Oliver’s choice was less about saving the child and more about pleasing Tommy.

In the end, arguing over who was right becomes irrelevant. Diggle leaves the team and her worry for Oliver’s safety jumps up. He tries to reassure her over their dinners and whenever a nightmare about hearing him die as she sits helpless in the Foundry wakes her, but she knows that the only thing that will alleviate her fears is getting his backup back.

*************************

They get a lead on Walter. The first new one in five months, Felicity’s searches allow her to locate the man who they believe was contracted to kidnap Walter. Oliver is up in the bar, resetting it ahead of the staff coming in. Verdant’s opening had come with less fanfare than the firefighter fundraiser. Oliver had invited her, keeping yet another promise in the process, but she had spent most of the evening in the basement, running comms so had not attended.

She rushes upstairs to let him know, excitement flooding her veins in a way that she has not felt since Oliver was laying on the medical table and she saved his life. Bursting through the door, she comes face to face with… Laurel Lance. Oh. Unexpected. Her brain to mouth filter completely fails, every thought rushing from her head to her lips. Oliver quirks his eyebrow at her, amused. When she calls Laurel ‘Gorgeous Laurel’, he interrupts, “This is Felicity.” He says, and she can hear the laugh that he is holding back in his throat, “She’s my-”

“Friend!” Felicity squeaks. Was he about to tell his ex that she is his new girlfriend? She is so not ready for that, “I’m his friend. I’m setting up his router. And I need to show Oliver something very important related to it.”

Laurel does not talk to Felicity, “I’ll let you go then.” She directs at Oliver. “Thank you for the coffee. And the advice.” Oliver turns, guiding Felicity from the room with a hand on the small of her back and a quizzical look on his face.

“Laurel and Tommy broke up.” He tells her, “She wanted some advice. Why didn’t you let me tell her you’re my girlfriend?”

“Because it’s awkward, Oliver. And we so don’t have time to get into all of… that with her. Not with what I just found.”

“You got in?”

“Better.” He makes the same connection that she does, and they are on Walter’s trail.

“You’re brilliant.” He kisses her before letting her get on with the very mission that made her join his team.

The guy responsible, Alonso, is protected by a veritable army but Oliver still refuses to apologise to Diggle, even though they badly need his help. Which means that his only other option is to let Felicity go undercover in an underground casino. He becomes almost overbearingly obsessive, controlling even. She lets him. It is all coming from a place of love, of fear, and he does know the field best so she knows that she will be safest if she listens to him. It is a one off, she will not let him get away with behaving this way when they are at home.

He speaks to her through a comm for the entire time. As she always does when she is nervous, she babbles, “It feels really good having you inside me.” She realises, with horror, what she just said, “And by you I mean your voice. And by me I mean my ear. Although… it does feel-”

“Felicity.” Comes her boyfriend’s strained voice. She wonders what he must be imagining. Maybe last night… “Last night was really goo-”

“Felicity!” he chokes, making her realise that she had been talking out loud.

“I’m gonna stop talking. Right now.”

“That would be my preference.” He pauses, “We’ll come back to this conversation later.” It is a promise. She intends to make him keep it.

Counting cards is fun. She has not had a chance to do it in ages, and she forgot how much she enjoys it. And this time, since she is actually trying to get caught, she does not have to hold back. She can win every game, throw none of them and she does so love winning. When she gets caught, she never for a moment fears for herself. She trusts in Oliver’s ability to keep her safe. She is right to, he saves her and they get the information.

*************************

Walter is dead. He has been for months, ever since the night he was taken. All of their hopes and their efforts have been for nothing. They sit in the dark of the Foundry, arms around one another and Felicity’s body tucked into Oliver’s for a long time. And then Oliver learns that Walter is not dead, that Malcolm Merlyn was the mastermind behind his abduction. And they find Oliver’s step-father. And they save him.

They have no time to celebrate, Oliver only giving her a passionate kiss of triumph, thanking her for helping him before rushing off to see his family. She decides to pay Walter a visit, to give him some flowers and let him know that she never gave up on him. She goes far too early.

*************************

Visiting Walter is a mistake. It immediately becomes apparent that Oliver’s family have only just reunited themselves, and she retreats into her awkward self. Whilst Walter recognises her, the Queen women do not and all three members of Oliver’s family seem very confused at the sight of her. Understandable, considering that Walter’s rescue has not even made it to the news yet.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?” Moira Queen asks.

Oliver jumps in before Felicity can make a fool of herself, “This is Felicity. She works for the company.”

“She’s my friend.” Walter says, earning himself a smile.

Oliver clears his throat, his hand firm on her shoulder as he pulls her into the shelter of his arm, “Felicity is… um… she’s actually my girlfriend.” She looks up at him. Well, that was unexpected.

“Girlfriend?” Thea asks.

He shifts her so that she is standing just in front of him, his hand sliding to her waist, “We’ve been dating for a few months but wanted to keep it quiet because… well, she works for QC and the tabloids can be vicious.” He informs them.

Moira’s stare morphs from confusion to suspicion.

“I didn’t know the two of you were dating.” Walter says.

“We became friends after you recommended her to me to fix my computer. And after the holiday party, we started dating.” Felicity only just manages to conceal her rolling eyes. That is when he started dating her. For her, it was another two months before she knew what was going on.

“You’ve had a girlfriend for months and you didn’t tell me!” Thea exclaims. Oliver winces, but is spared getting yelled at when his sister jumps her attention over to Felicity, “Hi, I’m Thea, Oliver’s much cooler younger sister.” The small girl throws her arms around Felicity. She must be overjoyed, she just got her father figure back and now her brother has introduced her to his girlfriend. Felicity knows from Oliver’s stories what a spitfire his sister is, he was not overstating anything.

“Hi. I’m Felicity.” She stammers.

“I know.” Right, Oliver just introduced her.

Moira interrupts their meeting, “Miss…”

“Smoak. But Felicity is fine. It’s good, even. I-”

“Miss Smoak,” Moira ignores her last comment, “You will have to come to family dinner this weekend. You must be quite special to have caught the attentions of both my son and my husband.” It sounds more like a threat than a dinner invitation, but Felicity still finds herself nodding in agreement. Moira Queen is a hard woman to say no to.

She excuses herself, promising to set up a lunch with Thea before she leaves the family to it.

As she goes, she hears Thea’s voice saying “So that’s where you’ve been spending all of your nights.”

“Thea!”

That night, Oliver texts her to let her know that he is staying with his family, but the next night that he spends in her bed, he tells her that Thea gave him the third degree the second that she left. She apologises, feeling bad for having interrupted the family moment.

“Felicity.” He smiles, relaxing into her, “You have nothing to feel bad for, You are family.”

“Oh.” He just pulls her closer into his body.

He tenses up a short while later, rolling them so that they are facing one another, with a serious expression, “Felicity…” he hesitates, “Now that we’ve found Walter… are you going to stop being the Hood’s technical support?”

She pecks his lips to try and turn his frown into a grin, “I will if you keep referring to yourself in the third person.” He grunts, still worried, “No. You and Walter managed to get me hooked on this mystery with the book and the symbol of the subway. There’s no way I could step away now. Besides, there’s something else in the Foundry that I’m pretty attached to anyway.” Oliver looks at her, both relieved and smug all at once, “My babies.” She teases, “I can’t leave my babies, you’ll hurt them again.”

“Why you…” he pins her to the bed, kissing her breathless.

*************************

Sunday dinner is Felicity’s worst nightmare. What does one wear to have dinner with their vigilante boyfriend’s ridiculously rich family who also happen to be her employers? Fortunately, said boyfriend is there to help and has a decent eye for fashion. He does try to steer her into a far skimpier direction, taking an interest in one of the dresses sent to her by her mother, but she manages to reel him in.

The Queens… Queen-Steeles… Oliver’s family is an interesting bunch. Where Thea is bright, bubbly and welcoming, Moira is cold, aloof and wary. Felicity can believe that the older woman is involved in some sort of evil plot with Malcolm Merlyn just from the way that Moira looks at her. The two could not be much more different if they tried. Walter is his usual, polite self over pre-dinner drinks. He asks her about her work, and whether or not she has considered applying for a position in the Applies Sciences division. He even talks her up to Moira and Thea, listing her many accolades and making her blush.

Thea does not stop asking her questions, one after another designed to glean as much information about her private life and relationship with Oliver from her as possible. Felicity lets herself be flattered by the attention, finding it sweet that Thea is so invested in her brother’s life. Moira, however, is extremely quiet, preferring to spend the evening with her piercing eyes x-raying Felicity. Felicity is sure that she must catalogue every imperfection, everything that Moira finds inappropriate. It is scarier than the Dodger had been.

And Felicity gets to meet the legendary Raisa. The woman who, if she is interpreting Oliver’s childhood stories correctly, had more to do with raising him than his own mother did. The woman who taught him how to be a good man, and who Felicity has to thank for helping to develop the man that she loves.

When go into the dining room, Oliver notices that there are two extra places set at the table and asks his mother about them, his voice clear of emotion as it has been every time he addresses his mother. He is struggling to come to terms with their discoveries about the Undertaking. As if he knew what was being talked about, Tommy Merlyn arrives in the room, Laurel Lance in tow.

“Tommy.” Oliver says, stunned.

“Oliver.” There is a coldness to Tommy’s tone, Felicity notices something deflate in Oliver. She places a hand on his back, feeling him melt a little bit at the touch. It does not escape her attention that Tommy called Oliver by his full name. Not Ollie, like most of those who were close to Oliver before the island tend to do.

“And Laurel.” Oliver shakes himself off, greeting Laurel.

She smiles, “I took your advice.” Felicity sees that Laurel’s hand is in Tommy’s. It is nice that they are trying to work things out.

“Your mom invited us. Said something about a new girlfriend?” Tommy says. Translation: Moira invited both Tommy and Laurel, she mentioned Felicity, Laurel made Tommy go for whatever reason and he was unable to say no because she still does not know about their falling out. Felicity realises that Oliver’s massive body is obscuring her own from their vision, and steps out from behind him. The shock on Laurel’s face is palpable.

“Tommy, Laurel, this is Felicity. My girlfriend. Laurel, you met Felicity the other day, when she was setting up the internet at Verdant.”

“Felicity.” Laurel’s eyes widen, “Felicity is your… girlfriend??”

“Yes.” Oliver boasts, dropping a kiss to her hair.

“Tommy, have you met Felicity before?” Thea interrupts.

“No. No, I haven’t.” Tommy adopts his playboy smirk, one that Felicity can tell is just as fake as Oliver’s, “Hi, I’m Tommy Merlyn.”

“I know.” Felicity says, “I mean… Oliver talks about you a lot, so I know who you are.”

The mention of Oliver wipes the smirk from Tommy’s face. “Right.”

Moira suggests that they all sit, taking her place at the head of the table. Walter sits next to her, but his chair is scooted away from hers and towards the one on the other end of the table that Thea takes. Not knowing where to sit, Felicity freezes but Oliver guides her to the chair opposite Thea’s and indicates for her to sit in it before pushing it in and closer to the one on the end, which he sits in. It makes him able to reach over and grab her hand comfortably so she does not complain about their proximity. Tommy then takes the spot next to her, with Laurel between him and Moira.

“So, Felicity, what do you do for a living?” Tommy asks.

“I work at QC. In the IT department.”

“We met one another in her cubicle.” Oliver adds, “Since then, she’s been… helping me with all of my tech and our relationship just developed from there.” The way that he says ‘helping’ is intended to alert Tommy to the fact that Felicity helps him with more than just the internet at Verdant.

Laurel pipes in, “I met her the other day whilst she was in Verdant.” Felicity nods, unable to form an appropriate response as she monitors Tommy’s reaction, Laurel’s words seem to have made something click for him, and recognition flashes through his eyes before they harden. He looks at her properly for the first time, taking her in as he recognises that, not only does she know Oliver’s secret, but she is also involved with his nightly activities.

Felicity tries not to be nervous as Tommy addresses her, “You’ve been helping Oliver out at Verdant?”

“Yep.” She squeaks. “Yep. Setting up the router, upgrading the system. That sort of thing.” Tommy’s opinion of her has changed, Felicity can tell. Exactly how it has changed, she cannot decipher.

“And how long have the two of you been together?” Tommy inquires.

“Three months.” Felicity says.

Oliver speaks at the same time, “Five months.” Everybody at the table gives them quizzical looks.

“We met in October and became friends and then Oliver asked me to the Holiday party in December and then he thought we were dating because he kept taking me out on dates but I didn’t know that was what he was doing so I didn’t realise we were dating, I just thought we were friends, and then when I started helping out around Verdant in February, Oliver actually said we were dating and then I realised and we’ve been properly, actually dating ever since.” Felicity takes in a deep breath, lungs burning from the babble.

Thea snorts, “You didn’t realise you were dating?”

Felicity’s face is burning and she hears Oliver mumble, “Great, I’ll never hear the end of this one.”

“Not exactly, no.” Felicity tries to backtrack, “I mean, I kind of knew that something had changed because they had but I didn’t want to assume anything, I just thought that Oliver liked me. Not liked me, liked me. Just liked me. As a friend. But it turns out that he did like me, like me and now we’re-”

“Felicity, Honey.” Oliver interrupts, a hand covering her thigh comfortingly.

“Right. Sorry.” Is her face actually on fire?

Thea seems to be unsuccessfully trying not to fully cackle at her. She is not the only one, Walter seems to be amused too and Tommy looks surprised but surprised that he wants to laugh, rather than being furious. Moira, on the other hand, looks rather affronted. Like Felicity’s babbling has somehow offended her. Felicity thinks that Moira does not approve of her as a partner for Oliver. And Laurel… Laurel does not seem to know how to react. She is looking at Felicity like she is a difficult riddle that she is trying to solve, like she cannot quite understand what Felicity is doing there. What Oliver sees in her.

Thea does not pick up on any of this, “I love you, Felicity.” she manages between her guffaws.

“Well, that makes two Queen siblings.” Felicity mumbles, still embarrassed. Laurel’s eyes dart to Oliver, checking his reaction to Felicity’s implication of him loving her. Out of the corner of her eye, Felicity can see that Oliver has not torn his gaze from her, looking lovingly at his girlfriend and her antics. Her hand covers his over her thigh, giving a squeeze.

Still laughing, Thea says, “No, really. I think you’re my favourite girlfriend of Ollie’s ever.”

The entire table stills.

“Uh… not that I don’t like you, Laurel.” Thea covers, “I like you a lot. You’re great. I just meant that you and Ollie never really worked out and so, whilst I like you individually, I don’t like you as much as I like Felicity as Ollie’s girlfriend. Which you must also agree with… what with you dating Tommy now and everything.” Maybe babbling is contagious.

“Sure.” Laurel says, voice sour. Not sounding sure at all. It does nothing to relieve the tension, and when the food arrives, only moments after, they all eat in silence.

*************************

Throughout dinner, Oliver constantly touches Felicity. Giving her reassuring little touches and kissing her hairline as he is wont to do. It is a level of sweetness that Felicity has come to be used to from him, he is very affectionate with her, but the rest of Oliver’s family does not seem to expect it. Thea openly gapes at them the first time that he kisses Felicity, like she has never seen her brother kiss anyone ever before. The look that Tommy gives them makes Felicity think that he might believe that Oliver has been possessed or replaced by a clone with a completely different personality or something. But that might be all of the sci-fi that she watches talking. Laurel still seems like she is trying to solve a difficult maths problem, with each move that Oliver makes adding another complex variable to the equation and Moira… Moira looks cold. Calculating, but in a very different way to Laurel. Looking at Moira is making Felicity shiver in a bad way. She tries not to.

Walter, being Walter, attempts to break the silence by talking to Felicity about her work. He tries to steer the conversation in a direction that will showcase Felicity’s strengths as much as possible, side-eying his wife to see if she is impressed. But Moira’s stony glare quickly stems his discussion.

When they have finally finished eating, five hundred years after starting, Oliver announces that he and Felicity had better be going back to her apartment. Thea protests, wanting them to stay at the mansion but Oliver manages to save the day by putting an end to that. As much as Felicity likes Thea and would enjoy getting to know her better, she does not want to sleep in the same house as Oliver’s mother, not until the older woman is able to look at her with something other than thinly veiled hostility.

Laurel and Tommy also excuse themselves and Oliver and Tommy go together to grab their coats. It leaves Felicity alone in a room with Moira and Laurel. Thea having run to get her phone so that she can add Felicity’s number and Walter having left to take a phone call. Her skin itches. She finds herself fidgeting with the hem of her dress.

“So… Felicity.” Moira addresses her directly for the first time since Oliver first introduced them, “What is it that you want from Oliver?” Moira’s words sharpen Laurel’s attention, fixing it on their conversation.

“Wh- what?” Felicity splutters.

“What do you want from my son?”

“Uh…” Felicity draws a blank, “A boyfriend?”

Moira rolls her eyes, “Please. I know your type. Why would a woman like you date a man like Oliver? An IT tech and a billionaire’s son? It’s obvious what you’re doing.” Laurel is angles so that it is clear that she is supporting Moira, facing off against Felicity.

“What I’m doing?”

“Yes. Befriending my son. Tricking him into thinking he loves you. Worming your way into his life. I have to admit, you’re doing it well, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before so I suggest you give up this little… innocent, nervous act that you have going on and you stay away from my son. He’s been through enough without people like you manipulating him.”

“Mother.” Oliver’s voice is hard, cold. He sounds more like the Hood than like Oliver in that moment. Did she just refer to the Hood and Oliver as separate entities? Oliver must be rubbing off on her. Not… rubbing off, rubbing off. Just influencing. Though…

“Oliver!” Moira exclaims, “I was just saying goodbye to Felicity.” Moira must have no clue how good her son’s hearing is, if she thinks that he will believe that.

“Yes.” Oliver spits, “I heard exactly how you were talking to the woman I love.” It is the first time that Oliver has outright said the L-word in front of the others. It does not seem to help Felicity’s case.

A squeal comes from the doorway revealing a delighted Thea, “You said you love her!” Thea launches herself at Felicity. If this is her reaction, then she must only have caught the final few words of that conversation.

“Yes, Thea.” Oliver grinds out, fury still radiating towards his mother, but his voice softening slightly for his sister, “It’s not the first time.”

“You two are adorable! Do you ever…” Thea finally takes stock of the room, “What’s going on in here?” she frowns.

“Nothing, Thea.” Moira says.

“Just Mom treating my girlfriend like she’s some gold-digging liar.” Oliver growls, not looking at Thea as his eyes are riveted on Moira. Felicity lets out a little squeak of surprise. Oliver is so overprotective of his sister, she would never have expected him to drag her into an argument with their mother. He must be really angry. Furious.

“Mom!” Thea yells, also taking Felicity by surprise with the vehemence of her anger, “Felicity is one of the nicest, sweetest and most genuine people I’ve ever met. And those sorts of people are rare in our lives. If Oliver has managed to find one who he loves, you should do everything you possible can to keep her in our lives. Not the other way around.”

“Thea, I was just looking out for your brother.”

“No. You made a judgement about Felicity just because – I don’t even know why – and you haven’t even given her a chance. You’ve been awful to her all night for no reason.” Thea scowls, “You don’t even care. I can’t believe you.”

Thea turns to Felicity, grabbing the other woman by her arm and dragging her out. Felicity worriedly looks back at Oliver, but he nods at her, signalling that she should go with Thea. Felicity complies and as she leaves, she hears Moira start to talk, “Oliver.”

“Don’t Mom. What else is there to say? Thea said it all.” Is the last thing that she hears before she and Thea are out of earshot.

On their way out they bump in to Tommy, who is looking at Felicity with something new in his eye. Respect? Intrigue? Impossible to tell. She barely has the time to analyse it, as he keeps going in search of Laurel. They make it to the foyer before Thea bursts, “I’m so sorry, Felicity! I don’t know why she’s like this. She’s just so difficult.”

“It’s not your fault, Thea. And you shouldn’t blame your mother. Like she said, she’s just looking out for Oliver. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would use Oliver in the way she thinks I am. I’m just not one of them.”

“It doesn’t excuse anything.” Thea mopes.

“Just try and see it from her perspective. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for causing friction in your family.” It is a significant concern. If dating her makes Oliver’s family life more complicated, she will never forgive herself.

Before Thea gets the chance to reply, Oliver appears, Felicity’s coat still on his arm. “Come on, Felicity. We’re going.” He wraps her up in the coat, a gentleman as always. Except in bed. Thea and Felicity exchange numbers, promising to meet up soon and Thea mentions telling Felicity about the exploits of a young Oliver, making the storm on his face break so that he can playfully moan in protest.

As they leave the Mansion, Tommy and Laurel follow, Tommy still looking at Felicity in that same strange way. When they say their goodbyes, Tommy actually looks at Oliver. Distaste is in the look, but also interest. Respect. It is progress.

When they get home, Oliver makes it his mission to apologise for his mother’s behaviour in every way he can possibly think of. It works. Felicity completely forgets that the mother of the man who spent most of his night between her thighs hates her.

*************************

After Diggle comes back to the team, they fully set themselves to the task of unravelling the List and whatever it is that Malcolm and Moira are up to. Walter also leaves Moira, telling the Queen siblings that they will remain his family no matter what, but still shaking up Thea’s entire life all over again. It makes it especially difficult for Oliver. He wants to be there for his sister no matter what, but the knowledge that his mother is involved in something terrible makes even looking at her a struggle. Fortunately, Thea believes that he is avoiding their family home because of the way that Moira treated Felicity and she throws herself into her relationship with Roy and her growing friendship with Felicity to take her mind off everything else.

Oliver and Diggle come up with a hare-brained plot to get Moira to talk which involves Diggle punching Oliver in the face a few times. It is probably quite cathartic for Diggle, after the whole Deadshot incident, but also leaves Oliver bruised all over and Felicity makes him let her play doctor with him before letting him continue on. He protests a lot, but seems to enjoy having her hands all over him.

What they find is so much worse than anything Felicity ever could have predicted. An earthquake device. And artificial earthquake device. Designed to destroy the entire Glades. It is diabolical.

And if Felicity had thought that the Diggle-punches-Oliver plan had been hare-brained, she discovers entire new meanings of the word when they plan to break into Merlyn Global Group just so that she can hack their mainframe. She shakes with nerves the entire time, the uncomfortable polo shirt collar feeling too tight around her neck as she speaks to a security guard. But it works. She gets in, and hops on the lift with Oliver. Who brings out his jealous side when some guy starts flirting with her. She rolls her eyes.

But it is kind of hot. And she feels herself getting excessively warm when Oliver lifts her with just one arm clear out of the lift and asks her to hold on to him tight. She wishes that she could enjoy that more, but the heat has taken on a whole new meaning in the wake of her discovery that she has significant acrophobia.

“You usually say that to me under different circumstances.” She says before thinking.

Oliver lasts, giving her a smouldering look before replying, “Later, Honey.”

“Guys.” Diggle sniffs, “The mission. Please keep the details of your relationship to yourself when you’re on comms.” Diggle says. Whoops. She forgot about Diggle.

The paralysing fear from their Tarzan swing does not dissipate after they get back on solid ground and Oliver becomes concerned, “Do you need me to stay with you?” he asks.

“No.” she insists, “You need to keep the cover. Go see Tommy.” He pauses, her face between his hands as he checks her over and then lets her go with a kiss.

“Happy hacking.” It makes her smile.

His panicked breathing when she is caught by a guard does not help matters. It almost makes her blow the bimbo cover as her own heart pounds in time with his panting. But they make it, and her knight in shining armour proudly ferries her out, letting her know that she did amazing. She loves Diggle. He is the best. They have become good friends in all of their sparring sessions and she should have known that he would be there for her no matter what. Through the comms, Felicity can hear Oliver trying to get to her, only to bump into about four people from their regular lives. That is the problem with doing a mission in the building owned by his best friend’s family.

As he talks to Thea, Felicity does her best to slip out unnoticed but fails.

“Wait… is that? Felicity” Thea calls, running from her brother and boyfriend so that she can greet her friend. Oliver’s jaw is ticking. “What… are you doing here? And what are you wearing.”

Felicity panics, her eyes darting between Oliver and Thea as her usually busy mind offers her absolutely nothing except, “Roleplay!” she blurts out, immediately cringing but deciding to go with it, “It’s for roleplay.”

“Oh! Ew! That’s so gross. Ollie!” Thea’s face scrunches up with disgust, “Keep your sex life away from me, please. Ew. I’m not going to be able to get that image out of my head for years.” She glares at Oliver, “You’re paying for the therapy.”

“Right.” His voice is tight, uncomfortable, “Okay, well, we’re…” he takes Felicity’s hand, making to leave.

“Yeah. Okay. Let’s give it a few days so I can bleach my mind.”

*************************

Felicity works through the data she got from Merlyn Global and Oliver has an epiphany. He realises that stopping the Undertaking will complete his father’s mission. Felicity keeps working as Diggle goes out to check on Carly and AJ, to get them out of the Glades. As soon as Diggle is gone, Oliver sits at her feet, body resting on her legs and his head leaning into her lap.

“Felicity.” He says.

“Mmhmm.” She replies, distracted.

“I love you.”

“Love you too.” She is still focused on the monitors in front of her.

“If we do this, my mission is over.” He says, and Felicity starts, looking down at him in shock. She never expected him to just… stop fighting. “I can live my life.” He looks up at her, the very definition of heart eyes, “I want to do that with you.” Her breath catches in her throat, “Move in with me.”

“Move… what?”

“I want to live with you. Permanently. I love you. I want to start a life with you. You can come to the mansion or I could move into your place or we could find somewhere just for us together. I don’t care. All I care about is you, and I want to live with you.” She gapes at him, not saying anything, “Unless… that’s not what you want?” he backtracks, “If you don’t want to, there’s no pressure. We have plenty of time. It was just an idea.”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes. I want to live with you too!”

“Yeah?” he surges up, covering her lips with his own but before their kissing can develop into more, her computers ding, bringing them back to the world.

She gets back to it, but not before clarifying, “But not in the mansion. No way.”

And then the Undertaking begins.

*************************

Felicity gets arrested. It just about sends Oliver to the brink of sanity with fear, but she gets herself out of it. Or, Oliver does by calling as the Hood. When she arrives back at Verdant, there is another surprise waiting for her. Tommy.

“Tommy!” she says.

“Felicity. Hi. Do you have a minute? I need to talk.” She does not. She has exactly zero minutes and zero seconds, but this is Tommy and this might be her only chance.

“Sure.”

“How do you do it?” Tommy asks.

“How do I do what?”

“How do you support him? When you know who he is, what he is doing and what he has done, how do you stand by that? How do you reconcile it?”

Felicity does not need so much as a second to think about her answer, “Because he’s a hero.” Tommy is taken aback, “He has some extreme methods, and he can be rough and brutal and barbaric at times, but he is doing it for all of the right reasons. He’s helping people. I don’t think you can comprehend the number of lives he’s saved. They never report that. The good that he’s done. Just the violence. It is difficult sometimes, to look at him and remember that he is a killer, but then I remember why he kills and I can understand where he is coming from. I can support him. I can more than support him, I can help him to get the bad guys.”

“What? You help him?”

“Want to see?”

She brings Tommy down into the Foundry with her, much to the incredulity of her team, and gives him a tour. She focuses on Oliver’s training equipment and her own set up more than anything else. Oliver takes her aside, wanting to know what it is that she is doing and she convinces him to come clean to Tommy. To tell him about the Undertaking and Malcolm’s plan. He takes it well, all things considered. That speaks badly of his relationship with Malcolm. But it also makes him agree to stay with Felicity. He wants to help, so they let him.

Oliver tries to convince the both of them to leave, begging Felicity to keep herself safe and even playing the “If I’m worried about your safety, I won’t be able to focus on my own.” card. It does not work. In this case, any negatives to Oliver worrying are outweighed by the positives of Felicity running comms and disabling the device via Lance. Tommy stays with her, fortifying the Foundry.

*************************

But everything still falls apart. Literally. They disable the device. Oliver defeats Merlyn. They do it. They win. But Merlyn is one step ahead and he has a second device. One that they have no time to deal with before it goes off.

Too late.

Lance rushes to Laurel, who stubbornly stayed in the Glades in spite of everyone else’s warnings and Oliver rushes back to Felicity. He is terrified over comms. He is having a panic attack, calling out to her in his fear. In no time at all, he is at the Foundry, desperately trying to get to her but only making it worse as the tremors continue. It forces him to stop and she can hear him dissolving from his position above ground. She keeps talking to him, hoping that her voice will help.

“Felicity. Felicity. Felicity.” He repeats.

After the ground stills, Oliver manages to work them free. He wraps his arms around Felicity, pulling her up and off the ground as he sobs into her shoulder and sinks to the floor. He looks up at Tommy, “I’m so sorry.” He whispers, “I failed.”

“No, Oliver. No. Imagine how much worse this could have been if both devices went off. Not just double the damage, more. We saved so many lives today. You did. You won. You did your part. It was the information that failed us.”

“I love you.” He clutches at her, “I love you, Felicity.” He looks back at Tommy, “I’m so sorry. I killed him. I had to. There was no other way. I’m so sorry.” He keeps saying it.

“Oliver.” Tommy starts, “I… I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with your killing… but I understand. I forgive you. I was listening, it was your life or his and he… he has done heinous things. My father was a bad man. He had to die because you had to live. I just… I just need some time.”

“I’ll never kill again.” Oliver vows, “I’m done. I’m hanging up the Hood. I can’t do this any more. I just want to be happy, with Felicity. I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again.”

*************************

Once everything is done, once they know that Thea is safe with Roy and Moira is as safe as she can be in custody and Tommy calls to tell them that he is with Laurel, they lie in bed, simply holding on to one another. Reminding one another that they are alive, they are not alone. Oliver confesses that he wants to leave. He wants to run away from it all and never set foot in the city again. He wants to punish himself. Felicity holds him tighter.

They do leave the city. They go to Lian Yu. The journey there is one of the worst of Felicity’s life, even with Oliver’s steady piloting. They do not stay for long, just enough time for Oliver to show Felicity where he spent three of his years away. For him to teach her about the island and for her to step on a landmine that he has to do another Tarzan-swing to save her from. It is enough time for Oliver to get his head back on straight. There will always be a part of him that blames himself for the second device going off, but he comes to the conclusion that he did all that he could. He lets Felicity help him and he helps her in return.

They travel some more, calling Thea to check in with her along the way. Oliver shows Felicity the sights of the world, introducing her to the lands beyond the States. She has never left the country before and she loves it. But she also misses Starling. She misses hacking and guiding Oliver over the comms and everything about their secret lives. She misses helping people

They go home together, moving into a beautiful loft with brick walls and an open plan and huge windows. Oliver throws himself into being a house boyfriend and she has never seen him happier than when he is picking out the décor for their new home. Who cares about whether their flatware is dimpled or scalloped? Oliver. He cares. A lot. It is almost as intense as choosing a new piece of tech is for Felicity. Almost, but not quite.

Not long after their return, Tommy shows up at their doorstep. He and Laurel have ended. He refuses to tell them why, but Felicity gets the impression that it is strongly to do with Laurel’s reaction to seeing Felicity and Oliver together at the dinner from hell and that maybe Laurel was never all in with Tommy. Maybe she is still hung up on the boy who drowned on a boat six years ago.

They do not go back to their vigilante work. Oliver refuses, it is the one thing that Felicity cannot change his mind on. He just wants to live his life. To watch proudly as his girlfriend basically runs the IT department of his family’s company, as his sister takes over his club and makes it a far greater success than he ever could, as his best friend steps up as CEO of Merlyn Global and does his best to keep the company afloat in the wake of Malcolm’s actions.

Felicity and Diggle bond. He becomes like the brother she never had and they spend their time together restoring and revamping the Foundry. Intent on resuming their work one day. The Undertaking may be over, but the city still needs them, so they are determined to have everything ready for the day that Oliver realises the same thing.

For a while, Oliver’s only worry is over his mother. It is something that he is torn about. The son in him wants his mother free, he wants her back. But the vigilante in him wants her put to justice. Locked up for her crimes, no matter what the motivations were that causes her to commit them.

It is when other companies start sniffing around at QC’s stock that Oliver decides a life of peace will no longer work for him. He makes Felicity his VP. Thea gets kidnapped and Oliver puts his hood on again, determined to be better. To be the Arrow. He looks at the list again and tells Felicity that the people on it have done horrible things as well as their involvement in the Undertaking. They will not get away with it. He asks her to join him and she gladly says yes, taking his hand and leading him back to the Foundry.

A new mission begins.