"Be Patient Oliver" By akaHAZZAP
A/N - So I couldn't resist this! This end of season run of episodes keeps getting better and better! Hope you enjoy this little one!shot continuation of the scene where Team Arrow visits Oliver in custody! Contains some angst, dare I say fluff? And some pretty big, spoilers for 3x18 Public Enemy so don't say I didn't warn you!
Disclaimer : As you can see I have lifted some of the dialogue straight out of the episode and that is all down to the lovely Arrow writers!
It hit her, right in her chest, causing a mixture of anger, angst and temper to rise, and take over every single emotion she had been feeling before she walked into that room. To see him sitting there like that, across the table. Handcuffed. This time, it was the anger that won out.
"What were you thinking? Were you thinking?" asked Felicity, beginning to use her loud voice. She approached the table which separated her from Oliver.
"I was thinking clearly. I asked Laurel to make a deal- I turn myself in and all of you will receive full immunity -"
"No Oliver," Dig said shaking his head. "You are out of your mind if you think we are just going to stand here and let you take the fall for all of us!"
"I started all of this." Oliver punctuated each word. "It's my fall to take and this is the best way to save lives, including yours."
Felicity couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. This couldn't be the only way forward. How would Oliver - her Oliver - even consider this? After all the good he had been doing in recent years, his past mistakes were long written out. The city needed him, even if at that moment in time the city didn't realise they needed him.
"Stop worrying," he continued, noticing the anxiety and the despair written all over Felicity's face. "I have been through far worse than prison."
"This is insane!" Felicity remarked
"How could we live with ourselves if we let you do this?"
"Roy I'm just going to need you to!" Oliver replied exasperated. "The only move that Ra's has left me is telling the truth. You have no idea how powerful the truth can be."
"Oliver, this is the wrong move!" voiced Dig as Felicity clenched the back of the chair in front of her. Why was this all going wrong? This was not meant to happen? She was not meant to lose Oliver again. Once was enough.
"John!... You followed me this far... All of you have followed me, this far. But I need you to follow me just a little further... Until it's over..."
She couldn't accept this. There was no way on earth this was going to happen. That she couldn't let Oliver take the fall.
"Dig, Roy? Can you give us a moment... Please?" asked Felicity, her eyes not leaving Oliver's for even a moment.
Nodding, Dig squeezed Felicity's shoulder as he passed. Felicity allowed herself to take a shakily breath in, grasping his hand allowing his touch to ground her slightly. She was not going to let this happen. She sank into the chair across from Oliver, gripping the table edge. The door clicked shut before she finally spoke, her eyes still resting on Oliver.
"Oliver... Oliver I can't do. We can't let you take the fall for us. I can't let you take the fall! I... I refuse to accept this. I can't come... I can't come and visit you like this-" she gestured towards his hands, still clasped in those repulsive looking handcuffs. Unable to help herself, she reached across the table separating them, grasping both his hands in hers "-there is no way you are going to jail for this. For something you didn't do!"
"Felicity," her name rolled off his tongue in the only way he could do so. "There was no choice to make... There is no choice to make. I won't let any of you take the fall for me. Especially not you, Felicity. You can still do much good without me. I... I just need you to be safe..."
"I... I don't want to be safe Oliver. I just want to be with you. How many times do I have to say that Oliver before it rings true with you? Before you will actually believe me and hear what I am saying?" she asked exasperated by his lack of knowledge, belief, that all she really truly wanted was him. Ray was a blip in her life; something that Oliver had caused. However, after today -after the revelation with her Mum- she couldn't let him go to jail, not even thinking, not even knowing about her true feelings. Shuddering at her thoughts, she looked up at the ceiling wishing the tears which were beginning to form wouldn't fall.
"Hey, hey don't cry," he whispered his hand reaching over and cupping her face, catching the tear which had begun to fall down her cheek. She leant into his touch, the same way she has down the year before after she had been shot. That day seemed like an eternity ago. "I can manage this, and so can you. Felicity, this is the only way. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you, if you ended up in jail. You wouldn't be able to survive that."
"I would. If it was for you I'd manage to survive," she replied shakily, not caring now that her tears were free falling down her face.
"Felicity-"
The door opened behind her, drawing both their eyes to see who was interrupting them.
"Felicity, Oliver... I'm sorry, but you need to go Felicity. You stay any longer..." spoke Laurel, glancing between the pair of them, resting on Oliver's hands which were still reaching up to cup Felicity's face.
"Just one moment Laurel."
"Be quick," she replied nodding, taking a step just outside the door but leaving it a jar.
"Don't worry, Oliver. We'll think of something. I'll think of something," whispered Felicity, standing up and walking around the table towards him.
"Felicity, it's too late for that," he replied, clenching his hands tightly around hers. "Don't do anything stupid, don't do anything that could get you in danger."
"Oliver ever since I met you I have been putting myself in danger. Before I met you I went to work every day, marathoned Doctor Who at the weekends and maybe hacked every once in a while. I never dreamed I could actually make a difference in this world, especially after everything that had gone wrong with Cooper. Just because you are in here doesn't mean that I am going to stop helping others, that I am going to be in any less danger!" She took that final step towards him, her arms engulfing him in a hug. " I don't know... Oliver I just don't know..."
"Felicity..." He warned her, not convincing however.
"No, just be patient-"
"I'm sorry Felicity, but you really need to leave now." called Laurel, poking her head back through the door.
"Just be patient Oliver," Felicity repeated, reaching up to press a soft kiss to his cheek. She turned quickly on her heels, hers eyes brimming with tears again. Felicity only looked over her shoulder just before she left the room. She met his gaze, giving him a shaky smile as Laurel wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"It's going to be okay, he will be okay." whispered Laurel, steering her over to where Dig and Roy were waiting
"I know." as all that Felicity could reply.
She didn't know the next time she would see him. But the one think she hoped, the one thing she knew, was that he wouldn't be in this precinct the next time she saw him. He wouldn't be in any prison. She would do anything in her power to save him.
A/N - So my dissertation is due tomorrow and I have written this so my next chapter of "Tales of Coffee and Emergencies" won't be published until Monday at the earliest! Sorry in advanced guys!