authors note: I needed to re-post this chapter, upon re-reading it I noticed a huge story related mistake that I made. It was crucial to the future of this story and I have fixed it. I'm sorry. If you guys find any mistakes yourself please let me know, criticism is very helpful. Thank you!
Chapter one
Oliver was in a critical condition, he had been hurt again and the odds of him surviving weren't great. Felicity was hating, in that moment, that she ever agreed to work with him so long ago. This amount of stress was not healthy and she needed to get away from it. For a while at least. But here she was, sitting by his bedside while he barely clung to life. It had been several hours, days maybe? She wasn't counting. She didn't know if he was ever going to wake up. She sighed, watching over his still unconscious body.
Felicity was happy that she and Oliver were finally engaged, she loved him so much. Watching him get hurt like this was really hard on her and put a strain on their relationship. If he kept getting hurt like this, what would that mean for their future? Would there ever be a day that she didn't worry about him? Felicity just wanted to be happy.
"You should go get some rest." Diggle suggested, effectively startling Felicity who hadn't heard him come in. I am tired she thought, but more than going home and resting tired. She needed time away from Oliver and his constantly putting his life in danger. She had no idea what he had been through on the island, but she was sure he had survived worse than this.
"Yeah." She finally replied. However, she was planning more than going home and resting. She was really going to leave and take a break. Push pause on her life for a minute. She had a friend in National City she could go see; Winn, a tech savvy person like her. He worked for Cat Grant, the Queen of Media. Maybe he could give her a tour of Catco and introduce her to the famous Cat Grant. But first she needed a nap.
Felicity knew if she went to tell Oliver in person he would convince her to stay and that was just not what she needed right now. So she texted him, calling him could be just as bad as seeing him in person. She texted him and told him she was going to National City to visit a friend from college. She left out the part where she really wanted time away from him, she didn't want him to feel bad or guilty or try to make her stay so she kept it simple. She packed her bags, bought a plane ticket to National City and was on her way.
The plane ride didn't seem long and before she knew it, she was walking toward a geeky looking guy holding a sign with her name written on it. His smile was so huge and it finally dawned on her that she actually missed him.
"Hi Winn!" she greeted, almost too excitedly. He smiled in return and pulled her in for a hug. "Hi Felicity" he whispered in return, the warm breath brushing her face gave her goosebumps. "You look great" she offered when they finally pulled apart, maybe that was too long of a hug to be platonic felicity started thinking. She started questioning her statement and thought he might be offended, "not that you didn't look great before, but I haven't seen you in a while and it's a polite thing to say to people you haven't seen in a while…" she started rambling, Winn had gotten used to it in college and learned to just let it go, but this was different this was about him "I get it, Felicity" he interrupted, needing her to stop rambling about him. It came as a bit of a shock to her and she just replied with a simple, but stunned, "oh".
Winn was already having trouble dealing with his feelings for Kara, he couldn't add Felicity on top of that. He hadn't really meant to snap at her like that, but he was aware of her relationship status with Oliver. He wondered if he would ever get the girl one day; losing Felicity to Oliver and Kara currently pining over James. Maybe he just needed to change his taste in women, maybe lower his standards. I'll just die alone he thought.
Winn agreed to take Felicity to Catco with him, with Ms. Grants' approval. Things that didn't directly affect Cat she didn't care too much about. She told Winn that as long as Felicity didn't interfere with his work it was okay. He and Felicity were sitting at his desk running through his usual IT stuff he was hired to do. She was mildly interested in the different atmosphere from working with Oliver.
"Hey Winn, who's your friend?" Kara inquired from behind them, startling both of them. Winn quickly jumped out of the seat he had been occupying, suddenly feeling entirely too close to Felicity. Winn stared dumbfounded, no words coming to his mouth, so Felicity introduced herself. "I'm Felicity," she stated offering Kara her hand to shake, She noted how strong Kara's hand felt in hers. "Winn and I went to college together. I live in Star City now but I decided to come see Winn and the famous National City." Kara noted how pretty Felicity was and wondered why Winn had never mentioned her before. "Nice to meet you, Felicity, I'm Kara." Before she could go any further, felicity was talking again, "oh yeah, Winn has told me so much about you," she gestured to Winn who was still somewhat in shock, his feelings for both girls (who he can't have) becoming too overwhelming. Felicity took note of Winn's sudden loss for words to ask him about later. "Not that I've heard anything bad about you, Winn speaks very highly of you," after her usual rambling, she paused. "You're very pretty," she blurted out. She tried to convince herself it was to lighten the mood from her rambling but deep down she felt like there's something more as to why she just blurted something like that out. Kara just stared, wide eyed at her for a moment. Kara was kind of at a loss for words and Felicity was starting to panic. "I need to get back to work" Kara explained and then was out of sight.
""you're very pretty"?" Winn started to question Felicity. She was still shocked herself that she had said it but really had no excuses so she just gave him a tentative "I don't know why I said that" and they went back to doing Winn's work.
