Title: Hero
Author: Forsaken2003
Pairing: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters Belong to DC Comics
Comments: Always welcomed!
Summary: The Hood follows Felicity home the night after she gives Oliver the book just to make sure she gets there safe. Lucky for Felicity when she finds trouble.
Warnings/Spoilers: Post 'Vertigo' but before 'The Odyssey'
Beta'd by: Unbeta'd

It had been a hell of a day. The night before Felicity had talked with Oliver for a while after she gave him the notebook. They didn't actually talk about the notebook though Oliver's eyes kept going to it as they spoke though. She knew he was lying about never seeing it before. When she finally got home she couldn't sleep because all she could do was think about why Oliver's mother had a notebook full of not very nice people's names. When she finally managed to fall asleep Felicity ended up sleeping through her alarm and ended up two hours late for work.

When she got to work her supervisor let her have it. Bob told her that just because she hung out with Oliver Queen and did him personal favors did not mean she could slack on her work. Felicity was then ordered to stay two hours late to make up for the time she lost.

By the time she left Queen Consolidated the sun was down. Felicity hated being out after dark. It wasn't just because she was afraid of the dark but because there had been five thefts in the area in the last two weeks. All of them the victims had been cooperative but they had all still been beaten up. When Felicity was leaving Steve the security guard wasn't around for her to ask him to walk to her car.

Felicity had to walk two blocks to get to her car only to find that the left front tire of her mini was flat. She knelt beside it and with her cell she used the light to see that it looked like her tire had been slashed. That was just great. Frustrated Felicity kicked the flat tire. It didn't help that it was her spare.

"Car trouble?" A male voice asked from behind Felicity.

"Yeah, some asshole slashed my tire," Felicity replied. She turned around to see the guy his hoodie up blocking her view of his face. This was great. "And I'm going to take a wild guess that you are that asshole."

The guy pulled out a knife. Probably the one that killed her tire. "Give me your purse, jewelry and laptop and I won't hurt you."

Felicity put her purse on the ground before removing her laptop bag from over her shoulder. As she began to remove her jewelry which was mostly fake she said. "I think we both know that's a lie. One of the guys you mugged last week ended up being in the hospital for three days."

"You're right. You'd think that a multi-billion dollar company would spend more money on security. At least offer an escort out for the pretty girls like yourself," the man said as he took a step closer to Felicity. "I guess the Queen family doesn't care about their employees."

Felicity didn't respond. There was no point in saying anything. All she could think was that she wished she were her contacts today. Eddies' glasses had been broken and pieces of the glass ended up in his eye.

Minutes went by and the mugger didn't do anything. He just stood there staring at her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Really?" Felicity asked. She sighed in relief.

"In fact…" the mugger came into Felicity's personal bubble pushing her against the car. "I'm going to make you feel really good."

Before Felicity could comprehend what was just said the mugger took the knife and cut the top two buttons off of her pink blouse. On instinct Felicity smacked him and screamed out for help.

The mugger swore and back handed Felicity throwing her glasses off her face. "You little bitch!" He grabbed her blouse and ripped it open.

This time Felicity just screamed hoping someone could hear her. She flinched as he was getting ready to hit her again and squinted her eyes shut but he was yanked away. Felicity fell to her knees. She had no idea what happened until she heard grunts of pain. Muscling all the courage she had Felicity looked up but without her glasses there were just blurs. But she was sure she saw a big blur of… green?

The grunts stopped and suddenly her glasses were placed back on her face. They had managed not to break. Felicity blinked several times and looked up. She did see a blur of green. It was the Hood. "Thank you." He accepted the hand in front of her and was helped to her feet.

"Are you all right?" The hood asked in his rough voice.

Felicity was about to answer when she realized her blouse was still open. She grabbed it and held it closed. "Yeah, I think so." Felicity knew she was going to have a shiner tomorrow. "I was stupid. I mean I'm not stupid. I'm actually very smart. Not that I'm bragging about being smart. What I mean is that it was stupid for me to be out by myself."

"You should be able to walk to your car at night alone, Felicity," The Hood answered.

"How… how do you know my name?" Felicity asked.

The Hood smirked even though Felicity couldn't see it. "I don't keep track of just the scum on Starling." There was a groan behind him and the Hood went to pull out an arrow to finish the would be rapist but he felt Felicity's hand on his arm.

"Don't," Felicity said quietly. "Please."

The Hood dropped his hand from his quiver. "Why?"

"I don't want someone to die because of me," Felicity said. "I don't think I could deal with that. Jail is what he deserves."

He kicked the mugger in the face knocking him out cold. "Phone the police. Ask for Detective Lance. He'll help you out," The Hood replied. He turned to leave.

Felicity grabbed his hand stopping him. "Thank you. Not just for saving me but for all the good you've done for our city. You've helped so many people. And I know there is a lot of talk about you but I want you to know that a lot of people including me think you are a hero."

"I don't do this to be a hero," The Hood answered.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like you were. I just meant that you give hope to Starling City. I don't think we've had that in a really long time." Felicity let go of his hand and knelt down to pick up her purse.

The Hood watched Felicity pull out her cell. Before she dialed 911 he said, "Thank you." Out of nowhere he had his bow in hand and a grabbling hook arrow soared the air and he was gone. Not gone but out of sight.

Fifteen minutes later Detective Lance showed up with two squad cars. The Hood could hear Lance giving out orders and the mugger was handcuffed and tossed into the back of one of the cars.

After Felicity finished telling Lance what happened he asked. "And the Hood just left the guy alive because you asked nicely?"

"I guess so. I told him I couldn't live with the guilt. And I can't. This guy has hurt a lot of my friends but that's not a decision either of us should be making," Felicity said.

"So you agree that what he isn't helping," Lance replied.

Felicity shook her head. "I'm not agreeing with you at all. While I don't agree with the killing can you honestly tell me that he has not made Starling City safer?"

Lance didn't answer. "Well I think we've got everything. I would like you to come down to the station tomorrow to get your former statement. Do you need us to take you to the hospital?"

"No, thank you. I just want to get home. I'm glad I had my MIT sweater in my car," Felicity replied while she pulled her keys out.

"All right, I'll see you in the morning then." Lance turned around and made a motion for the other cops to head out.

Once she was alone Felicity looked up. "Thank you." She was then in her car and heading home.

The next week Felicity found the Hood in the backseat of her car bleeding.

The End