Title: The In Between
Author: Floss Aus
Rating: K
Summary: A series of short episode reaction drabbles, 'missing' scenes and more. Very much bent to Olicity end game but I like angst and my Felicity standing up to Oliver when it calls for it. With guest spots from other characters when their muse strikes me.
Spoilers: Follows Season 3's ep air dates.
Disclaimer: CW and DC are Arrow peeps. The excellent cast inhabit the characters

**Before Oliver heads to Corto Maltese, he makes a quick call. **

Her phone vibrated angrily in her hand just as she reached the foyer of Queen Consolidated. If she didn't know his very average technical skills, she swear he'd put in a tracker in her phone to time his calls at the most inconvenient moments.

"Oh, so you're talking to me now?" She sassed without any preliminary greeting.

"Felicity," he dragged out her name into separate words, a very easy tell that he was annoyed with her. She knew his tells pretty well by now and this was classic, vintage edition irritated Oliver Queen,

"I've got five minutes before I'm late for the job we don't talk about, so what can I do for you?" She replied, a false friendly tone hopefully making it clear how unimpressed she was with him.

"I need to get a better read on where exactly Thea is on Corto Maltese."

"Aren't you good at tracking down people on Islands?" She bit back a little harder than she intended. Damn it, Felicity cursed to herself. She was a positive person, generally pretty upbeat and this conversation had her feeling completely out of sorts. She promised herself that whatever his reaction was to her decision to step back, she wouldn't turn into that person.

"Do we need to talk about this?" She could almost hear him grimacing, she would bet money he was clenching his fist in frustration. "If you don't want to be part of this anymore-"

"I never said that, you know I never said. I said a lot of things, but you can't put that on me. I'm trying Oliver to do this, be mature about everything and spending time away from you is probably the smartest thing a girl from MIT can do right now. Maybe it will help."

"I thought you didn't like the word maybe."

"Did you just make a joke?" She was almost incredulous, and not because she was offended, she was sort of impressed. Oliver Queen wasn't particularly known for his sparkling wit.

"I'm sorry."

"For making a joke about our pathetic attempt at a love life or for being an ass to me this morning in the Foundry?"

"Both. Neither. Pathetic?"

"Oliver…" she sighed, maybe realising this attempt at normalcy wasn't going to work.

"Felicity, it will be …okay."

"That's not really filling me with confidence ..."

"If you can send me a better lock on Thea's location, I would very much appreciate it." He softened.

"I'll see what I can do. Oliver, be careful. Thea's gone to a certain level of trouble to hide her location. There are reasons people hide from those they love."

"Thank you. And Felicity, I am sorry."