A/N. I was inspired by Charlene Soraia's version of "Wherever You Will Go" and Missy Higgins's "Where I Stood". This will become more obvious as the story continues. Every time I hear them I think Olicity.
Let me know what you think!
The rain bounced off the hood of the van as Felicity sat in silence. Digg shifted uncomfortably in the driver's seat next to her; no doubt pissed off to have been put on the sidelines for another mission. Parked in a narrow alley one block from the warehouse in which Oliver and Roy had just disappeared, Felicity and Digg sat in the dark waiting for their cue to act.
The job was simple. A small time gang of former Iron Heights residents, with an express ticket paid for by the arrow, had robbed a convenience store a few blocks away and grabbed a hostage for good measure in order to assure their escape. With Felicity's traffic cam magic, it hadn't taken "Team Arrow" (as Felicity fondly referred to them; much to Oliver's disapproval, although no one else would get away with it and live to escape without a good lecture about taking themselves seriously and all that) more than ten minutes to track the gang to this warehouse by the docks.
Felicity would normally have been relegated to coms duty, and left alone in the foundry. It seemed like forever since she had actually been out in the field, and she was ready for a change of scenery, no matter how temporary. Since she and Oliver had gotten together, he treated her like a China doll: to be kept somewhere safe, unbroken and pristine. After wasting an additional ten minutes with puppy dog eyes and reminding Oliver how routine this mission was, she was finally allowed to come. Roy and Digg just rolled their eyes and laughed. Of course she had persuaded him. She was the only one who ever could.
Oliver's only condition had been that she sit in the van with her behemoth laptop at the ready beside Digg with his Beretta strapped to his hip and the keys in the ignition.
She sighed overdramatically and Digg smirked. "You knew exactly what you were getting yourself in to."
"I forgot how boring the van is. Couldn't we have at least stopped at Big Belly Burger on the way?" she slouched into the foam seat.
The coms clicked on, and Oliver's voice rang through, "We got the hostage, but there is no one else here. He's unconscious, but doesn't seem to be hurt. They must have cleared out while we were on our way here."
"It's not my fault you haven't installed a hotspot in the van", Felicity retorted. Digg snickered beside her, and she could hear Roy laugh through Oliver's com, no doubt earning him one of the all famous Oliver death stares.
"Felicity. Focus. There's a computer in here. Come and see what you can get out of it. It might lead us to where they are. Digg, if you could run this guy to the hospital, we are going to sweep a one block radius just in case we missed something."
Digg pulled up to the warehouse and opened the back. Felicity hopped out, laptop and tech bag in hand, as Oliver laid an unconscious middle aged man, no doubt an unlucky shopper, on the floor of the van. Roy stood at the entrance as she clicked her way to his side across the concrete.
"It's in the North-West corner" he said, pointing toward a small room on the other side of the open room. She gave a curt smile and continued on her way, heels clicking. She was half way across the vast room when Oliver caught up to her.
"We are just going to do a quick sweep. This whole area is secure, but just to be safe," Oliver slid a small blade out from behind his back and placed it in her hand. "You hear a sound, and you lock this door and get under the desk. Keep your com in your ear and if anything happens, if anything feels wrong, you let me know as soon as possible." He stepped closer and placed his hand on her shoulder. She smiled up at him. He was so cute when he cared about her. She almost laughed.
"What?" he said, looking concerned.
"Nothing. Just you. It just funny that I'm the only one that knows." She replied. He raised an eyebrow as if to repeat his question, sensing the mockery. "You're such a softie." She winked and laughed. This earned her a slight smile. She still wasn't use to her ability to do that: to make Oliver actually happy. He moved his hand to the side of her face.
"And you better not tell anyone." He returned her wink from below his large hood. He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss. "See you in a few minutes" he said gently, and moved to return to where Roy was still standing; now kicking at the ground to avoid the PDA happening in the warehouse.
Felicity pushed open the door and coughed. There was a thick layer of dust on everything except the computer. She sat down in the cracked and worn leather chair that smelled of must, clunked the awkwardly weighted knife beside the keyboard, and began her work. She swept the whole hard drive and couldn't find anything. It seemed that the most interesting thing that had happened on this computer in the past ten years was a rousing game of solitaire (that the player had inevitably lost). She coughed again and gave up on the computer. Such a waste, she thought to herself. How could someone treat a computer so terribly? It's like adopting a puppy only to move into a tiny apartment and never bring it for walks. Just unthinkable. She turned it off to put it out of its misery and turned towards the exit. She shut the door behind her without looking back, neglecting to notice the small blinking red light behind the air vent, pointing directly at the computer.
They piled through the back door of the foundry, conveniently bypassing any Verdant party-goers. The boys had found nothing on their large sweep, and decided to call the mission a success: they had rescued the hostage, albeit under strange circumstances, and all they had gotten was two hundred bucks from the store. The would strike again, but next time they wouldn't get away with it.
It was only about 10 o'clock when they got back to the foundry, so the boys decided to go out for a routine patrol. Digg was chomping at the bit to get back out there after being cooped up in a van and then sent as a chauffeur for some unconscious guy. The grin on his face as he double checked all of his magazines made Felicity smile.
Oliver walked over to where she sat at her computers watching them. "You might as well head home, we are going to be a while, and nothing interesting is going to happen. It's just a patrol."
Felicity yawned in response, not even considering disagreeing with him. She stood and curled into Oliver's chest as he opened his arms. "Be safe," she whispered. "I love you."
"And I love you." He whispered back, kissing the top of her head. "Don't wait up for me." She looked up into his ocean blue eyes and blinked. How did she ever get so lucky? She stood on her top toes and gave him a quick kiss. She began to pull away when his arm hooked behind her lower back and pulled her close. She didn't resist, running her fingers through his hair and down his back. She was lost in his kisses. When they both came up for air he said, "You were amazing tonight, but that never stops me from worry about you."
"Well, that is something we need to work on," she brushed off. She picked up her bag and coat and walked to the stairs. She turned as she reached the bottom step. "And I know. I really am." She said with mock cockiness.
The rain hadn't let up by the time she pulled up to her apartment and parked the car. It had even gotten worse since they had finished their mission. All of the cars in front of her apartment even seemed to warp and blur into the same black SUV. She ran for the door, covering her head in a discarded grocery flyer from a year ago that always seemed to reappear in her front passenger seat. By the time she got inside, the broccoli on the front had bled into the steaks on page 6. She tossed it in the trash and made for the elevator.
"Out of order. Seriously? Ugh." She grunted and walked into the stairwell. She never liked taking the stairs. Not only did she hate them because of her affinity for fashionable footwear, but after what happened with her mom and Cooper the management decided that the dingy old elevators needed cameras; the stairwell apparently did not.
She made it to the first floor landing when she smelled sweet tobacco. One of the angst ridden teenagers on the first floor must have been too good to stand out in the rain. She laughed. She probably would have done the exact same thing.
As she rounded the corner to begin her trek upwards, she heard the creek of a door. Before she could turn around to look behind her, she felt her head collide with the cement wall beside her, and everything went black.