A/N: So this is my reaction to 2x13. This started off differently, as I started it before 2x13 aired. It's marked as in progress because I am trying to get a resolution together, but reviews and prompts would be welcome.

Disclaimer: not mine, not beta'd, review at most, enjoy at the least.

Something was off with his team. He couldn't put his finger on it, exactly, but something was off. Oliver surreptitiously observed members of said team while doing his workout to figure it out.

Diggle was recovering from his wound nicely, but it still pained Oliver to see it. It was another wound that rested squarely on his shoulders, and he felt the weight of his decisions more than ever.

Diggle was talking with the other, far more distracting team member, Felicity. He still gets chills when he thinks about how easily it could have been her that had been shot. Oliver knew it was only part of why he'd apologized when the mission was over.

I think you've never had a problem with Felicity's performance until Barry Allen.

Digg's words had had the same effect as a blow to his solar plexus; it was just never an effect he'd admit to anyone else. Hell, he had a hard enough time admitting it to himself, because dammit he'd rarely wanted to kiss Felicity more than when she'd gone toe to toe with him when he'd been so unfair to her. Oliver knew he was being unfair at the time, but he couldn't explain that he'd felt abandoned when she actually listened to him and went to visit Barry; couldn't explain that he felt inexplicably threatened by the same young man he'd called friend to Detective Lance. He knew he had no right to claim Felicity, she wasn't broken and damaged like him. He wouldn't be the one to change that. That hadn't stopped the more primitive part of Oliver from reacting. He managed to stop himself from acting on anything however, when that blinding smile and hope had entered her eyes after he called Felicity partner. He'd even managed not to snort his derision at the thought that Barry Allen was the only man interested in her. Like hell he was.

Things with Diggle were mostly fine, the way he'd treated Felicity aside. He supposed that was partially because he'd finally admitted to having a blind spot when it came to Laurel. Diggle had never been fond of her, and Oliver was actually still a little stunned at how far she'd fallen. Part of him wanted to take the blame for her condition, but Felicity had pointed out that the Undertaking would have been much worse without him, and Laurel would have most likely made the same decision, with the same result. His shoulders were heavy enough, so why was he taking on more than he needed to, why continue talking himself out of a victory? Needing that piece of hope, he let her convince him, and was finally starting to understand that Laurel had her faults. Addiction at the moment just seemed to be one of them.

Speaking of Felicity...he took a long look at her. She seemed...distracted, withdrawn. Worried. He knew better than to push her, she's one of very few people who could outsilence him if she wanted. He just hoped she'd remember that she had him to talk to if she needed.

Oliver dropped down from the salmon ladder when he heard Roy come in. Felicity had unsurprisingly taken to Roy quickly, and that bothered him more than it should. The hushed conversations he'd interrupted a few times didn't help that sense of possessiveness either. He headed over to stand behind Felicity to get updates on their latest search, and was taken aback that not only was she not surprised to have him behind her but she'd quickly minimized at least two windows to prevent him from seeing. He didn't have time to dwell on it as Felicity launched into an explanation of what she did find, subtly moving out from the hand he'd as usual placed on her shoulder. It was another observation that bothered Oliver, but any thought he could have given to it was interrupted by the training he knew he had to do with Roy.

Oliver figured the issue resolved when she came clean about Walter's request and the truth about his mother. He was sure his mother had attempted to manipulate Felicity into not telling him if the glares between the two were anything to judge by, but he knew it didn't work. Clearly, as he knew now. He knew Felicity didn't want to tell him, she knew it would hurt, but he was grateful for her honesty. And her loyalty.

Oliver was currently alone in the Foundry, trying to work through the wealth of emotions being with Sara was doing nothing to alleviate. He was angry, hurt, betrayed, worried. He knew there was a darkness in him, and once again he had given in to his weakness with another woman he wouldn't taint as he would Felicity. Sara understood the darkness, she had her own and needed the same mindless comfort he had.

It was as Diggle and Felicity came in that he realized there was a bigger shift in dynamic than he thought. They were laughing together, laughter he no longer heard in the Foundry. Felicity was all business recently, and now that he thought about it, Oliver hadn't heard her ramble in weeks. She also was never alone with him anymore at QC or the Foundry , and he honestly couldn't recall a time recently when he was allowed to enjoy the easy intimacy of the small touches with her. Diggle was usually succinct with him, but he'd been shorter than ever with him. Lines had been drawn, and Oliver honestly wasn't quite sure how or why.

That wasn't to say the team didn't function as they always had, efficiently and seamlessly, because they were. But Oliver knew something was different. He came back from patrol that night to find Felicity already gone, which was another recent development. Roy was playing dutiful boyfriend to Thea, Sara had been in and out for weeks now, which left Digg, who was currently doing his own training.

"Where's Felicity?" Oliver asked, and was surprised to see anger flash in the other man's eyes. Diggle ignored the question, and continued his routine. Oliver changed out of his gear, and decided it was time. He moved to offer himself as a sparring partner. He met Digg's gaze, and saw the warning there, but he knew that it was past time for him to find out what had changed. It was a matter of time actually, before this shift became detrimental.

He and Digg sparred for several minutes, each well acquainted with the others style, strength and weakness. Finally Oliver asked again where Felicity was, and was unprepared for the absolute fury that question unleashed. Quickly Oliver found himself on his back as Digg executed a move he'd never seen.

"I drove her home after she passed out from exhaustion at her computers again." Oliver jumped up quickly, stunned to hear the word 'again.'

"Again?" thud. On his back again.

"Ever since that little crack about not being fast enough, she's been pushing herself to make sure she doesn't get outhacked again. She also knows how freaked out you are by the Mirakuru, so between Laurel's and Roy's suspicions, she has been spending every spare minute researching that."

"Roy's suspicion?" Slam, and down again.

"Blood drives combined with psych evals during which a very specific profile went missing, only to turn up dead of an overdose that causes blood to run from the eyes. Oh yeah, the blood drives were organized by your buddy Sebastian."

"Why didn't she tell me?" Oliver grunted as Digg took him down yet again. He barely had a second to roll away as he saw a massive fist head his way.

"She already feels guilty, and like you resent her, for telling you about whatever it is your mother kept from you. She's not about to tell you someone else you believe in could be part of the problem without proof." Oliver rolled again as Diggle kept up his assault. He still hadn't gotten to the root of the Digg's anger and team dynamic change, but now he wasn't sure he was going to like the cause.

"She knows I wouldn't blame her for that, and I don't blame her for telling me about my mother." Oliver grunted again as Digg landed a solid hit. Jesus, what was happening? He was distracted, and he'd only seen this single minded purposeness from Diggle twice before- Deadshot and Lyla.

"Does she?"

"Of course she does!" At that Diggle scoffed and walked away. Taking a swig from his water bottle, he asked,

"And how would she? Because you've told her? Because you've shown her how valued she is? Because you've paid enough attention to the makeup covering the circles under her eyes? Because that's just how it is? Don't think so man. Actually, I know better, because you're too much of an idiot to see what you have." At that, Oliver's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said," Diggle shrugged, unimpressed with Oliver's anger. "You have no idea how lucky you are, you're either too stupid or too much of a coward. I don't want to hear your island bullshit either. You are so focused on what you've lost and what is wrong that you are actually incapable of seeing what you do and could have. I'm just tired of you hurting Felicity as collateral damage." At that, Oliver stopped short.

"What?" Was all he could manage.

"Man, you really are an idiot," Digg scoffed again. "That girl is head over heels for you, and you are intent on ignoring it. She knows you, trusts you, believes in you, loves you. And that's after you abandoned her after the Undertaking, and after you've thrown your other women in her face. She still wants nothing but happiness for you. I don't care what secret she told you, but I know it weighed on her, still does. She is positive you resent her. I also know that she walked in on you and Sara. You are not the only one who has sacrificed or is hurting, buddy. You're just too blind to see it," Digg said with disgust.

"I know she gave up a job she enjoyed..."

"All of that, and that's what you pick," Diggle muttered. "Even you aren't so stupid to think it's just that," Diggle stated louder, remembering his conversation with Felicity not that long ago.

He'd walked into the Foundry to see Felicity eating mint chocolate chip ice cream straight out of the carton.

"Rough night?" He'd asked, remembering her comment about using ice cream to process.

"Trying to process the images of Sara and Oliver going at it all over the Foundry, along with everything else recently."

"Seriously? Here?!"

"Yeap," she said, drawing out the p.

"Dammit Oliver,"

"That's the least of what I said," Felicity agreed.

"Oh?"

"I mean, he deserves to be happy. I hope it works out, because it's messy and complicated as hell for them. They have history, there are feelings there and obviously chemistry. Clearly his little line about not being able to be with someone he cares about only applied to this blonde," she continued, pointing to herself. "And you know what? That's ok. Part of me knows guys like that don't go for girls like me. Makes his mother's warning about how he'll resent me a little truer than I expected; I don't think he realizes that yet. I'm just going to have to get over this, because he obviously meant partner in the most platonic of ways, no matter how much I'd hoped otherwise. Maybe I'll take Barry up on his offer, at least his was genuine and he's sweet enough. Unlike the idiots at QC who have bought into the 'she's Oliver Queen's gold digging whore' idea. And why wouldn't they think that? He does nothing to change it, even when that bitch Isabel says it."

By now in her ramble Felicity's eyes had filled with tears, and Digg could see she was trying very hard to get that under control. He gathered her into his arms for a hug, rather than giving in to his current urge to beat Oliver senseless. Felicity was like the little sister he never had, and for someone to hurt her the way Oliver carelessly kept hurting her was straining his patience. Not to mention his temper.

"You deserve better too, you know." At that Felicity sniffed and laughed, pulling back and moving back to her computers.

"Better than one of the city's heroes who has a history of bad decisions with women and a guilt complex the size and shape of the island chain he was trapped on?" Digg laughed.

"One of?"

"Yeah, you do a lot too. Oliver can't do this without us, you know that," Felicity smiled, and Digg knew then that for as bad as she was feeling, she'd be ok. She'd proven over and over her silent strength; recovering from being trapped after the Undertaking (they never spoke about the nightmares he'd helped her through), jumping out of a plane despite her fear of heights, silently putting up with everyone assuming the worst of her, making sure they had what they needed. She'd heal her broken heart. He just wished Oliver wasn't such a damn selfish jerk who strung her along with mixed messages, because that would only make it a longer journey.

"So what are you working on?" And with that, Felicity explained the concerns about Blood, being outhacked, and excess technology where it shouldn't be. After talking with her, he agreed it made sense to look into but wanted to tell Oliver so he could look into it also. She adamantly refused, stating it was just suspicion and currently she had no proof of anything, and not much in the way of leads. He, in the end, submitted to her expertise as he had the night Barry had saved Oliver. She was, after all, the brains of their operation.

They had resumed sparring, but the next time Digg took Oliver down, he stayed that way. He didn't quite know what to do with the information that had just been dumped in his lap. Part of him screamed at him that this was proof he'd been right all along and Felicity should be off limits; he in no way deserved her.

"That's true, the way I'm feeling about you right now, but that's not your call or even mine to make. It's hers." Damn, he'd pulled a Felicity and spoken out loud. "Figure this out Oliver, and stick with it. Otherwise, you will cause your own fears to come true. And you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

With that, Diggle walked up and out of the Foundry, leaving Oliver to wonder just what the hell he was going to do about this mess he'd once again created.