"We have a problem." Oliver growled as he trudged down the Foundry steps. He threw a heart shaped arrow onto the med table and placed his bow in the glass case. Felicity stood up from her computer bay and walked to the med table; Diggle came to stand next to her. Roy leapt down the stairs a moment later, placing his bow in the glass case and started unzipping his jacket.
"I'm guessing this," Felicity picked up the oddly shaped arrowhead. "has to do with our newest problem. Who would use this? I mean I'm no arrow expert, but wouldn't this be extremely the antithesis of aerodynamic."
"Cupid used this." Oliver replied.
"Cupid, as in the cherub on Valentine's Day cards? Come on Oliver." Diggle looked a little worried but was still able to get in a good sarcastic comment.
"No. Cupid as in the new psychotic serial killer of Starling City." Oliver fought the childish urge to roll his eyes. He stripped off his hood and grabbed the med kit to mend the shoulder wound that arrowhead had come from.
"Another serial killer in Starling…why do I still live here? Also, you know you don't have to add psychotic in front of serial killer; it's already assumed." Felicity began dusting the arrowhead for finger prints and mumbled about finding a new city to live in.
"Oh this one's different." Oliver winced as Diggle stuck the needle through the skin on his lateral deltoid. "She happens to be in love with me."
"She should join the club." Roy mumbled and his eyes went straight to Felicity. She glared then went back to examining the arrowhead for any clues.
"She?" Diggle stopped and looked at him. Oliver avoided eye contact. "Wow, your record is getting more and more interesting, Oliver." Oliver did not suppress his eye roll; Diggle was having too much fun at his misery. As if by habit they all turned to Felicity, anticipating her reaction.
"Well unfortunately for her the Arrow doesn't do women at the moment. Not that you're gay or anything! Not that there's anything wrong with being gay or you being gay for that matter. I just don't think you play for the other team. Actually, I don't know if you swing to the other side or not seeing as there is still a 2 year gap that I don't know about your life. But I understand you know, deserted island… after Shado, and Sara…and Slade…and Hong Kong; it wouldn't be unnatural for you to develop an attraction to something with the opposite parts or anything for that matter. And Sara! Sara went to the curvier side. It happens in the military right, Dig? And I am going to stop talking, permanently, in 3, 2, 1. I'm done now." Oliver looked as if he was having trouble processing her unfiltered spew and Diggle looked as if he was going crack up laughing at any moment. It took him a few times to stop his shoulders and hands from shaking so he could finish stitching Oliver's wound. Little did Felicity know swinging to the other side or playing for the other team was very common in situations of extreme stress and hardship.
"Felicity…" Oliver started slowly. "We need to find out who Cupid is and we need to stop her before she drops anymore bodies."
"Right, well, this shape of arrowhead, a heart, fitting for someone going by the name Cupid, shouldn't be too hard to track down." Felicity grabbed a magnifying glass to see if she could find a serial number to run a search through arrow manufactures. An odd smell came off of the arrow and Felicity sniffed it, which probably wasn't the best idea. She recognized two of the mixing scents as jasmine and ginger so she looked for any connection they might have to love. Felicity gasped and all three men turned to him. Felicity's eyes dialed in to Oliver's shirtless chest as if she'd never seen it before.
"She hit you with an aphrodisiac."
"Anything dangerous?" Diggle finished patching Oliver up and went to wash his hands. Oliver stretched his arm, careful not to rip any stitches.
"I don't think so. But if she hit you with an aphrodisiac—"
"That means she was planning to have a little fun with you and something didn't go as planned." Roy finished for her. Felicity nodded crossed between feeling sorry for Oliver and laughing at the odd circumstances he found himself in.
"That is…disturbing." Oliver was genuinely disturbed. Of all his failed relations with women he'd never had to deal with a woman crazy enough to start dropping bodies to meet him…and bed him.
"So…are you interested?" Roy smirked and Oliver resisted the urge to put an arrow in his other knee.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."
"I never understood why people say that, because that in itself is a response." Felicity's comment caused Diggle to lose it and he could no longer hold in his laughter. Oliver grumbled at their lack of concern for the dropped bodies, even if they were some of the biggest criminals in Starling, and their amusement at a psychotic lover coming after him. He'd barely made it through Helena and Isabel without casualties; how was he going to deal with Cupid?
"Wait…" The way Felicity's voice waivered caused aura in the Foundry to shift. "If she's obsessed with you…and she's willing to drop a few criminals' bodies to meet you…what is she willing to do to keep you, or even to keep someone else from having you?" They all stopped and thought for a moment.
"What are you thinking Felicity?" Diggle crossed his arms a little lost at the connection she had found, or was trying to make.
"What if Cupid saw you with someone, a woman, and perceived her as a threat; a threat that had to be eliminated?" Realization dawned on Oliver.
"You think she may have killed Sara?" Oliver asked, afraid of the answer but trying to connect the dots. Diggle and Roy looked at each other instantly trying to draw the same path Felicity and Oliver were drawing.
"Or worse. We've connected the Isaac Stanzler murder to Cupid. What if she's seen you with Laurel and now Laurel's a threat turned target too?" Panic immediately passed over Oliver's face. If Laurel was in danger, he needed to protect her, but would he be putting her in more danger? Going to her as Arrow was out of the question, but if he went as Oliver and Cupid happened to figure out that Oliver Queen and the Arrow were the same person, he would be putting Felicity and possibly even Thea in danger as well. He needed to catch Cupid, and he needed to end her reign of blood immediately.
"Diggle, can you alert Laurel? Tell her not to worry, but I need her to know to be on her guard. If Cupid would kill criminals to lure me out, she'll kill Laurel in an instant."
"Will do." Diggle grabbed his jacket and headed out of the Foundry, dialing Laurel's number as he flew up the stairs.
"Roy can you check on Thea? Don't let her know anything's up, just look out for her." Roy nodded and followed out of the Foundry. He was slightly touched that Oliver trusted him enough to leave his little sister's wellbeing to him. That left Felicity and Oliver in the Foundry alone. Felicity turned to continue typing on her computer.
"I don't want you walking to your car or around the Glades alone. If she figures out who I am, I need you to be safe." She didn't want to turn around. She didn't want to see that haunted look in his eyes that made her want to wrap her arms around him and protect him from the pain and horror he experienced. In the pregnant silence surrounding them she knew he was reliving Slade. She knew a scenario like this was exactly the shield he would use as a prime example of why they couldn't be together. But she had taken that decision out of his hands; she had decided that they wouldn't be together. She had decided that she could no longer sit around waiting with baited breath for Oliver to realize that they could be happy together; it would kill her to wait for him, and her mother's perseverance after her father left had taught her better than that. She jumped when Oliver grabbed her by the crook of her elbow and turned her to face him. She saw the exact look she knew would be there; the quivering of his lips, the tick of his jaw when his muscles tensed, the sorrowful, almost condescending watering of his eyes, were all signs she had come to associate with Oliver.
"I need you to be safe." And Felicity was transported 6 months earlier to what seemed like a completely other lifetime, to a place that was as grim and dark as the thing that was hunting them. Felicity knew how this conversation was going to end, but her heart held out a small sliver of hope that the ending to this scene would change.
"I don't want to be safe. I want to be with the others, unsafe." She played her part, but she improvised too. She wouldn't say she wanted to be with him, but she wouldn't let him sequester her on account of fear and what if's.
"Felicity, if anything were to happen to you, I'd never forgive myself." Apparently he could improvise too. They were silent for a heartbeat, and Felicity waited with baited breath for what she knew was coming next. When Oliver didn't play his part, she improvised again.
"Nothing is going to happen to me. For all we know we're jumping to conclusions. Cupid may not have killed Sara, and she may not know about Laurel, or your identity, or Thea, and I highly doubt she knows about me."
"I can't take that chance." He shook his head and grabbed her shoulders. He bent down and looked her in the eye. "I won't gamble with your life."
"It's my life, my choice." She might as well get that motto tattooed on her forehead for all Oliver was concerned. Another heartbeat, another fallen silence, but this time Felicity saw what she'd never seen before where she was concerned. Tears raced silent tracks down his cheek but he made no move to wipe them away. She'd never seen Oliver cry for her. She'd never even dreamed Oliver would ever cry for her.
"I love you." He professed strong and loud. His voice was clear and reverberated off the metal of the Foundry. "I love you." He said again, with even more determination than before. Felicity's hands shook and she could feel tears welling in her eyes. She waited for the 'but they could never be together' but that moment hadn't come…yet.
"I cannot lose you." He squeezed her shoulders tighter. "I will not lose you. And if I have to put her down to protect you, well, there's never a choice to make when it comes to your safety." Oliver leaned forward and kissed her so sweetly, it would make angels cry. He traced his fingers down her cheek and tipped her chin up so he could straighten a little bit. Salty tears mixed with their kiss but neither cared. The only thing they could feel was each other. Oliver pressed his lips a little firmer and squeezed her tighter before finally letting go. He looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time, memorizing every inch of her face. He stepped back to allow her to leave. Felicity grabbed her purse and walked up the stairs, Oliver trailing behind her to make sure she made it to her car alright. As Oliver watched her drive off, he thought of everything he could have with Felicity and everything this new threat with Cupid, and the threat of Slade, and the threat of the bombing at the restaurant told him he would never have with Felicity.