Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. Well, technically I do own part of it, just not the Characters. The idea and the work to put the words together, however, are mine.

A/N: Fictional couples are frustrating.

"Wow," she said, slowly walking backwards, taking it all in. "Look at that, now we have a prison too. What comes next, a torture chamber with isolated walls so no one can hear the screams?"

"Felicity-"

"No, it's okay. I get it. Sometimes they don't want to talk, so why not lock them up at our secret base? Totally understandable." She let her fingers trail over the massive metal slabs that separated part of the room. They were ugly and unaesthetic and she wanted to crush them. Then again it wasn't the bars that made her angry, more what they stood for.

"Felicity please-"

"It's fine really. Just make sure they don't yell profanities at me."

Oliver sighed and turned to view his newest toy. She grabbed the door, inspecting the lock. Without thinking she pulled it back and -click.

"Please tell me you didn't just shut the door," Oliver asked.

"No," she muttered. "I didn't shut the door. Everythings fine."

The door was, in fact, closed and wouldn't budge an inch as she tried to push it open again.

"Okay," she sighed. "I might have accidentally closed the door. But it's not a big deal, right? I'm small enough, I can squeeze my hand through here. You just have to tell me the code."

He was squinting at her from across the cell. "Diggle has the code. We'd have to call him."

"Well, what are you waiting for? My phone is in my purse, use yours."

"Mine is on the table over by the computer."

She gestured exasperatedly. "What is the use of pockets if you don't have your phone in them?"

"I don't know. It's not like you have yours in here, is it?," he retorted.

"I don't have pockets!"

He groaned and let himself slide to the ground.

"What are you doing?," she asked.

"I'm trying to get comfortable. With everyone gone and no way to contact anyone we'll be spending the night in here."

"Maybe not," she answered, hopefully scanning the room. "Maybe someone forgot something and comes back."

Of course no one did and her feet slowly started to hurt from standing around. Oliver had dozed off on his side of the cell. Squinting angrily at him she sat down.

"What was that for?," he asked, apparently not quite as unaware as she had thought.

"This is your fault, you know," she informed him.

"I'm not the one who closed the door."

"You're the one who put it there in the first place!"

"It was a necessary security measure."

She glared at him and then resolved to give him the silent treatment. Felicity could conjure up a thousand different ways to spend the night, none of them including Oliver and prisons, all of them more pleasant.

"Felicity-," he began after minutes of not so awkward silence.

"I don't want to talk to you right now, okay? Just leave me be and we'll be fine after we get out of here."

"What exactly is your problem? Ever since I got back you've been acting up and-"

"Acting up? You come back from the dead, tell me you'll work with the man who almost got you killed in the first place, install a prison cell into the Arrowcave and then tell me I have no right to be angry? What exactly is your problem, Oliver?" She felt her voice rise with every word.

"That's how you see it? I almost die and then try to do what has to be done and all you do is telling me that it's the wrong thing," he answered.

"That's because it is the wrong thing," she said, feeling tears well up in her eyes. Why couldn't she just hate him? Things would be so much easier if she could just hate him, turn her back on him and leave him be. But, no, here she was, trapped inside a prison cell with him, and all she wanted to do was make him understand her frustration. She also wanted to kiss him, possibly the most irrational reaction her body could have come up with.

"I'm trying to protect the people I love, Felicity!"

"You're doing this for Thea, you're doing this for me, blah blah blah, yeah, I get it. But, if you hadn't showed your head up your ass so far you might actually see for what it really is: Ra's al Ghul defeated you and you can't stand that."

Oliver looked at her with an expression that told her she had hit a nerve.

"You're right," he said calmly. "It's not all about Thea. But, I don't know how to describe it. Yes, it is about Ra's defeating me. It's….knowing that someone out there is capable of…..of killing me….it's...it making me feel…." He was clenching and unclenching his hands, trying to find the words.

"Inferior. It scratches your ego," she said. Then she leaned her head back, mentally chiding herself. That had been mean.

Felicity tried to see it from his perspective. Going up that mountain, knowing that he could die and doing it anyways to protect his sister and his home. Getting stabbed, almost dying and then coming back to see his home had changed. Coming back knowing that the threat wasn't over and deciding for a new course. Getting told by everyone that the way he tried to deal with it was the worst thing he could do.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"No, it's okay. It's...okay."

"No it's not. That was mean and unnecessary." She got up and walked the three steps to where he sat, squatting down.

"You're right, I've been mad at you a lot since you came back and I'm still mad about you throwing in with Merlyn. It's wrong and he is a disgusting human being and I can't wait for him to be gone again. But, I also understand - try to understand - why you are doing it. And, it's not because your ego is hurt. It' because you realized that you are vulnerable and that someday there will come a situation which you will not walk away from." She sighed. "Knowing that doesn't change how I view the things that you're doing to get out of this mess, but it enables me to think that one day I'll be able to forgive you."

He looked up, his expression filled with too many emotions to keep them from each other.

"Working with Malcolm Merlyn... I know it isn't the perfect situation, for gods sake, I don't want to work with him either. It is, however, what I have to do. I took this path for Thea's sake and now…"

"It's too late to turn back," she finished for him. He nodded. "Maybe…..maybe if we work together we can do some damage control."

Oliver smiled at the suggestion, tears glittering in his eyes, and she smiled back. The part of her that could never be angry at him for very long wanted to reach out, get closer somehow. The more rational part told her to get back to her corner, curl up and wait to get out of here before she did anything else. She was still weighing the options when Oliver spoke up again.

His voice was low, reluctant. "Felicity, can I hug you?"

Placing her arms carefully around him she pulled him closer. He put his arms on her back with the same reluctance that she had heard in his voice. It felt good so she pulled him into her arms tighter, resting her head on his shoulder. Oliver buried his face in her neck. She shifted her legs, partially straddling him, and it was the most comfortable she had gotten all evening.

Under her she could feel him starting to shake. Felicity ran her hands through his hair, trying to calm him down. His hands wandered to her waist, pulling her even closer. By now they were practically crushing each other, but it didn't matter.

For the first time in the last weeks something felt right.

"Hey," she said soothingly, pushing him a little away so she could look at him. "We can fix this."

He nodded, then rested his forehead against hers.

As unfortunate as it had sounded spending the night in a prison cell with Oliver might have been exactly what she needed. So had just holding him close, just knowing that he wasn't going anywhere, that there was maybe a sliver of a chance for both of them to get out of this all right. And, for tonight that was enough.