Felicity came rushing down the steps of the Foundry.
"Oliver, thank God! You're still here"
Oliver dropped off the salmon ladder, grabbed a towel and walked over to her.
"What's going on?"
"Oliver, I need you to promise me you won't go near the ATOM."
Oliver draped his towel over his shoulder and frowned at her, confused. "The…?"
"The um," she mimed the robot, "you know, robotic suit guy".
"Why? I can take him."
"That…is what I am worried about."
Oliver dropped the towel on the table and pulled his shirt on before turning back to Felicity.
"Felicity, what are you not telling me?" He says, very slowly and kind of growly.
"The ATOM, it's Ray."
"Palmer is the guy in the robot suit?"
"You say that like it's unbelievable or something." She said, somewhat defensively.
"Oh no, it makes perfect sense." He muttered.
"It does?" Felicity asked, confused.
"What doesn't make sense, is why you didn't tell me sooner."
"I thought it would be better if you two didn't know the others' identity when you were, you know all hyped up on testosterone and fighting bad guys. Wouldn't want you to accidently let your personal feelings make you all confrontational."
"Felicity, I'm fine with Palmer. And why are you telling me this now then?"
"Because he isn't fine with you! And he found out tonight that you're the Arrow! And I'm worried he's going to come after you. So maybe just - keep your distance until I can talk him down?"
"Palmer has a problem with me Oliver Queen or me the Arrow?"
"Okay, yeah, Diggle was right: it's weird when you refer to yourself in the third person."
"Felicity, focus please. Why does Palmer want to come after me in his robo-suit?"
"Ok when you phrase it like that it just sounds silly-"
"Felicity please."
"Right, sorry. He hates the Arrow because he thinks he's a reckless murderer and I'm sure his feelings about Oliver Queen didn't help."
Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
"He thinks I have feelings for you. Which I do. So I think he's jealous, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings for him too! Oh God when did my life become a soap opera?!" She took a deep breath and willed herself not to cry, not in front of Oliver. But his look of puzzled concern was bringing back memories of all the times he'd said or done something surprisingly sweet and she couldn't look at him right now because there were just too many feelings involved where Oliver was concerned.
"Felicity - hey, look at me." He tilted her chin up and could see that she was close to tears. "It will be fine. Ray being jealous just means he cares about you, a lot. So all you have to do is assure him you feel the same and then he'll listen to you when you ask him not to kill me."
"Ok. I will. I just think he may need a day or two to cool off so maybe just avoid him until I can talk to him?"
Oliver grabbed a water bottle and took a long sip from it. "Yeah. Fine. But I make no promises if he gets in my way."
"Oliver!"
"He's going to get himself killed! Or worse, he's going to kill innocent civilians! I won't let that happen." "So if he makes a mistake you're just going to - what? Take him out?"
"What I do - what we do? We have tactical planning, we have background research and we have experience. Ray is just a big kid playing with his new toy and he's a danger to everyone. So yes, Felicity. I will 'take him out' if I have to. But I won't kill him. As much as you or Ray or Captain Lance or Starling city may find it hard to believe, I'm not that guy anymore." Oliver stuffed his towel into his bag and slung it over his shoulder as he started to walk toward the stairs.
"Oliver you know I don't think you would -"
"Then why did you ask me?"
And with that he walked up the stairs and into Verdant, leaving Felicity feeling like she may owe Oliver an apology, for once.