CARRY ME OUT

-x-

It's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment Felicity Smoak and Molly Hooper became friends exactly. It happened somewhere in between the two years Sherlock was dead and a small extraction mission with Oliver in the areas surrounding London where they first met. It wasn't like they knew much about each other, well Felicity hadn't exactly know who Molly was but Molly had known but hadn't said a word.

Felicity had just sprung up a conversation with her at this café that was opened quite late for most coffee places. "It's been a crazy night and I'm still up. Coffee helps." At the time Felicity had a few scratches on her face from having to jump through a window that had not been previously been broken already but she felt fine.

Molly had just smiled at her. "I can't sleep. Looks like you've had quite a day, I know this is strange but perhaps you'd like to just sit and relax for a few minutes before going back into whatever it is you were doing to get those scratches. I have bandages if you want to clean up the one above your eye." That one had looked particularly bad.

Felicity hadn't even looked in a mirror so she really had no idea what she looked like but she had just left Oliver where he was having a very intense conversation with Diggle and escaped for a little walk. They had her phone number and the café wasn't that far away from the hotel they were staying so she could walk back in a few minutes.

It was a strange situation but Felicity had been pretty good at reading people. When she looked at the petite auburn haired woman she had seen nothing but good in her. It had been enough for them to find a little corner and sit in and start talking while sipping their coffees.

Now, again a few years later in a different coffee shop in the US. Molly had been visiting a friend for the weekend and had heard about the trouble in Starling City. She had sent her a text entailing where she would be if she found a little time when things settled down again.

During that first sit down the two of them had found a few tidbits about each other out. Molly worked in the morgue, knew a man Sherlock Holmes before he jumped off a roof – Molly did not tell her the latter. Felicity had done a little digging afterwards just to be safe. Felicity had worked in the IT department for Queen Consolidated but was reasonably close with the then CEO of it; Oliver Queen. Time had changed and now there seemed to be a mess of things in and out of Felicity's life.

Molly too was facing an old friend coming back into her life but it was not a priority right now. She put Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty on a shelf and left them there as she sat on a bench in a few cities over past Starling City. It was the closest she could get without the blocked roads and the smell of ash. She had sat inside the coffee shop for a little while and looked at the news that was telling the devastating story of what was going on inside Starling City.

Somehow she had known with a little help from Sherlock Holmes who had been texting to her before the news came on inside her friend's house telling her that she should probably check on her friend Felicity. He knew about Felicity because he broke into her phone once and there was that tail on her for a little while before he came back into the light (when she was in the coffee shop with Felicity). She had never spoken of that but she knew that it had to be him or someone else which regardless of which Molly had a gun and her spare dissecting kit in her bag, just in case.

She had just got another text from him which was surprising. He never texted her this often unless he needed help with something. She was a sea away from him. What could he want now?

Ms. Smoak should be on her way soon. – SH

Molly just looked at the message for a few minutes before deciding to call him. She needed to hear his voice in order to tell if what he told in response to what she wanted to ask was even close to the truth. He knew something. She just didn't know what, how, or why?

"Yes?" He answered after three rings.

"Are you tracking her?"

"No."

"How do you know she's that close to me?"

"She's a friend of a friend of a friend of Mycroft's."

Molly bit her tongue for a moment as she worked that out. Some sort of security asset, she supposed. "Which friend?"

She heard him sigh before the background noise of him shuffling through papers was all she heard for a few minutes. "Amanda something or other. She works with A.R.G.U.S."

She had heard that name before. A.R.G.U.S.

"Why are they tracking her? Or is it Oliver?"

"Both. He is a part of the trouble that's going on in Starling City. It's more or less over now. They have the man in custody and your Felicity is fine."

Molly hated when he used terms like "yours", it made it sound so wrong as if friendships were possessive in that way. This was Sherlock Holmes, however. He was strange about his own friendships and at times he didn't exactly know how they worked. "Thank you for the information. Is everyone okay there?"

"Yes, everyone is fine. Mary is ready to have the baby as you know. John is as nervous as he always is and yes, everything is good."

Molly smiled knowing that he was trying not to start talking about himself at the end there. She did feel better knowing he was actually around his friends even though they were preoccupied with their own growing family. He was a part of that family too. "I will see you at the airport in another day or two then. Stop texting me so much, this was supposed to be my break from your madness."

He laughed. "You never said that. What you said was I'm going to visit a friend who happens to be an entire continent away."

"It was implied, goodbye Sherlock." Then she hung up on him before he could say anything about it. There had been some other choice words she had said to him but obviously he had deleted it. That man. He was always so him.

She let out a sigh as she looked back at her phone to see a text from Felicity.

Thank god.

Ten minutes away. I feel like I need a drink or ice cream.

Molly frowned as she got up and slipped back inside to see what she could get that could satisfy at least one of her friend's needs right now. She would try to get her to spill about what happened. Before she got there Molly received another text from Sherlock.

Molly tried not to grumble about it but was too shaken by what he had sent her to try to be annoyed with him.

There was a photograph of Felicity running out of a building with two other women. One with reddish brown hair and the other with a blonde wig and a black mask on her face carrying some sort of metallic pole. She focused on her friend who had blood in her hair and some dripping down her nose. She looked determined but rattled.

Who could have taken that picture? From what she had seen on the television people had been trying to hide from those men in orange and black masks.

She scrolled down to see the message Sherlock had sent along with the picture.

This was uploaded about twenty minutes ago onto a forum page. It'll be taken down shortly.

She smiles.

Molly had nearly forgotten about the cool drink she had for Felicity but as she placed her phone back in her pocket she paid for it and turned around hoping to find some sort of sign of the blonde.

This time there wasn't much more waiting as she came through the door. There was little show of the blood on her face except in her hair. She quickly rushed over to her and hugged her. "Sorry for making you wait. Oliver has a lot of issues from his time on the island."

Molly gave her a smile as she handed over the mocha frappe that she got her and they headed outside to sit on the bench that was a little past the coffee shop.

"He's the Arrow." Sherlock didn't have to tell her that. It was the photo of the girls who had been captured in that photo with Felicity.

Felicity was quiet but she did sigh which in turn gave her enough confirmation about what she said to be the truth. "It's okay that you didn't tell me, you know. I've had to keep plenty secrets from people – friends because of Sherlock Holmes."

"With Sherlock it's a little bit different for you. He doesn't have a secret past of killing people or knowing a madman who he didn't kill on an island seven years ago. He definitely doesn't wear leather pants that hug his butt or constantly put his friends in bad situations because it's the easy solution."

Molly shakes her head.

"You're right about half of that. Sherlock wears his favorite suit and coat, and runs around into danger alone if he can help it but sometimes he brings friends, my friends, his friends into situations that he has no control over and I know you were scared that you were going to die but this is where you and I are the same, Felicity. You put yourself at risk for him because you still believe in him when he's given you every reason to hate him. You believe in the part of him that he doesn't think exists anymore. You give him the hope that was left on that island he was stuck on for so many years, you remind him that even in the fact of his mistakes there is still a reason to fight. You love Oliver Queen. I still love Sherlock Holmes, even if he leaves me hopeless sometimes. He like Oliver shows his affection in strange ways. I don't know what he did tonight but I know that there was a reason behind it. When it comes to finding a way out, you and I are their salvation, they're way out of the most impossible situations. I know you know that Sherlock was supposed to die two years ago on that rooftop and I know that you could have lost Oliver several times over but he keeps coming home because you've given him a reason. Maybe he's not ready yet, maybe it's not time for you to be the one he comes home to but he knows that you're the one who will always be there by his side."

Molly stops to drink a little more and waits to see if Felicity wants to ask anything else before she continues on with what she has to tell her. Before this variable of Oliver being the masked man in Starling City came about Molly had seen the similarities between them. She knew that there would come a day when she needed to have this conversation with her. She had hoped it hadn't come to her nearly dying – she hadn't shared that information yet but a girl doesn't look as bad as Felicity does without that happening. Unless it concerns heartbreak. It was a little bit of both, she could tell.

"He told me he loved me, while handing me a vial of something that I latter stabbed into Slade Wilson's leg as he had a katana in his hands ready to kill me because he saw Oliver's declaration of love for me. It was his final play into turning the tables on Slade and I suppose I should be happy that I was able to help but he almost had me fooled."

Molly knew what she said next wouldn't have helped but she wanted to make Felicity laugh. The girl was this close to falling apart on the bench outside. "If Sherlock took me on a case and used that against me I would have cut his jugular or kicked him the groin. Whichever I felt would help me more."

Felicity did laugh, because it was something that she could see Molly Hooper doing. While she appeared quiet, she was strong. Stronger than she ever has been when it comes to Oliver. Molly is older, and has been in this longer but somehow she feels for her too. Knowing that there is someone who if in the same situation wouldn't have taken that.

"Tell him you're taking a leave for a little while. He won't accept it but you need a little break from Starling City. The city has to rebuild itself after all of this, anyhow. Come to London. It's a nice change of scenery. I have some people you should meet."

Felicity didn't know why Molly decided to offer a way out at least for a little while. She knew that she was right about a lot of it. There would be some time of rebuilding in many parts of the city. There wasn't telling how all of this was going to play out but perhaps a small vacation away from the city was what she needed.

She heard London was nice too, and she did know someone there.

So without much else thought about how trying it was going to be to let him know that she was going to be away for some time, she nodded. "Okay, when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow night. I can get you a flight, if you want?"

"Yeah. It'll be nice. You can tell me all about who I'll be meeting on the way."

Molly beamed at her then.

"Well, for starters Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be picking me up from the airport. Mostly because he's bored and probably ready to hand over Toby."

"Your cat? He's had Toby."

Molly laughs and tells her all about how Sherlock had become Toby's surrogate parent during his days in her flat as they finished coffee and planned to meet at the airport check-in the next night.

PART TWO COMING SOON!

I had plans to just make this a one-shot but somehow I got to the point where I thought Molly asking Felicity to get away from Starling City was a thing that should happen, so…that happened. I think it'll only be the two chapters though.

I've been waiting to find a reason to put these two fabulous ladies together. Now I have – courteous of the Arrow Season Finale which I finally got around to watching along with the past couple episodes which I haven't been able to watch. Lots of feels.

Anyways, let me know what you think and if you would like to see more Molly and Felicity? Because I kind of really want to do more :D

Much love,

Day