A/N: First, I want to thank each and everyone of you for having reading my fic, left your reviews, favorites, and/or followed it. You're amazing! You definitely have made my days.

Second, I'm want to apologize for taking so long to publish this chapter... Life and stuff. I'm taking the risk to publish it without my beta's editing, because I know you've waited long enough... so, if you read something that's unpleasant to your eyes (grammatical and syntactic wise) please remember that English is my second language.

Oops! I think Felicity's babbling is contagious *LOL* I'll shut up now, and let you read. ENJOY!

Previously on Greek Escapade…

… "Can't go, Felicity. I got a job to do. The city needs-"

"The city will be fine. It wouldn't be the first time Starling is without its favorite hero, and it's still standing strong, right? Besides, I talked to the guys and they're on board. They can take care of it while you're gone." …

… "I'll go, if you go with me. What do you say?"

Oliver's hasty words petrified Felicity. "What?!"

"You heard me. I won't leave town alone," his inflexion left no room for further discussion, "but I might be more accommodating about traveling, if it means I'll have the pleasure of your company. You need vacations too." He invaded her personal space and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She put her hands over his chest. At first impression, he thought she was going to push him away. Instead, Felicity played with the buttons of his shirt, offering no real resistance for him to pull her closer. "I'd love to go with you, Oliver, but—"

"But, what?"

"My job—"

"If Starling City can survive a few days without me, I'm sure Palmer… Technologies," he added quickly, hoping she'd believe he was really talking about the company, and not about its CEO, "can do the same without you."

"And Team Arrow—"

An inevitable groan left his throat. He hated the day that name came to life. "They can take care of it," he shot back her own words. With that he gained a peeved glare from her. "Think about it… us, alone. We could talk about some things that we've been postponing," there were many things that needed to be resolved before they went forward in their relationship.

Felicity's eyebrows went north. "Are you seriously telling me that you want to talk about your emotions? That has to be the first… 'cause let's be honest, your history doing that isn't exactly the best. And FYI, you can talk about how you feel anywhere. You don't need to drag me along on your personal vacations to do that."

"Haven't you noticed that it's a bit crowded around here? Every time we start talking somebody walks in, or our phones start ringing."

"That's not true—"

People coming down the stairs made them both look in that direction. It was Roy, with John right behind him. At the same time, her phone buzzed. While Felicity reached for it, Oliver leaned and whispered in her ear, "I rest my case."

Oliver let her go and made his best effort to ignore her phone conversation, not an easy thing to do once he realized that was Ray calling. Instead of trying to figure what they were talking about, he shortened the distance between him and the newcomers. "How did it go at A.R.G.U.S.?" Oliver asked Diggle. "What did you find out about Hopkins?"

"Quite a character, Andre Hopkins," John replied, talking about the current criminal they were after. "Well known mercenary. He's suspect in uncounted cases of murder, kidnapping, and terrorism, in several countries, but never been charged. He's in Interpol's and A.R.G.U.S' most wanted list. Here's his file."

He handed a USB drive to Oliver, but before he grabbed it, Felicity snatched away. Oliver didn't noticed the moment she ended the call with Ray. "I'll take that," she said.

Her tone seemed a bit tense. "Everything okay with Palmer?" Oliver cringed inwardly at the supposedly indifferent tone of his voice. Even to his ears, it sounded totally fake.

"Yeah, fine," was the only answer he got. Oliver's interest peaked; there was something going on between Felicity and Ray, but apparently, she wasn't sharing. Pretty much ignoring him, Felicity immediately went to work her magic on the computers. Fine, he wouldn't push her at the moment. Later would be. "Can you track him?" he asked out of habit, getting back to the task at hand. It was a stupid question, honestly. Oliver knew Felicity could find anything and everyone… anywhere in the globe. The proof was that, less than 2 minutes later, she had Hopkins' location.

"He's at a warehouse at the docks."

"Roy, suit up."

"On it." Half way to grab his red suit, Roy paused and turned. "And Laurel?"

"She's out in a date with Ted," Felicity pointed out. "Do I call her?"

"No. We can handle this," Oliver stated.

And just like that, they fell into the well-oiled machine routine fighting crime on the streets of Starling. It wasn't until much later, when the streets were free from a dangerous criminal, and the Arrow called it a night, that Oliver pressed Felicity for an answer. John had already gone home, and Roy was on his way out.

"Night, guys," he said, leaving them alone in the foundry.

"Good night, Roy" she replied, while Oliver just nodded. He was putting his suit back on the dummy while Felicity leaned against the panel of the glass case. "So?" he said looking at her.

"So… what?"

"You know what. Are we going on vacations or staying in the city?" in the hours that had passed, since they first talked, the idea of getting away from everything and spend good quality time with her had grew on him. Now, Oliver was excited for it.

"Oliver… I don't know. I—"

He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. He almost gave up on urging her into deciding that night but she looked exhausted and he could wait until the next day. It had been a long day and an even longer night. When she moaned softly and leaned into the contact, wordlessly asking for more. However, he found the argument to continue to convince her.

He walked behind her and massaged both of her shoulders. "When was the last time you take time off," he was genuinely curious. Giving it a thought, he couldn't remember if she ever had since they met.

She took her time to answer. She seemed to be enjoying Oliver's ministrations. With her head falling forward, she meowed in pleasure or discomfort while his hands worked on her knotted muscles.

"When I went with Ray to Gotham city couple of months ago for that expo," she finally answered.

Oliver fought against his inner jealousy monster, which was quite volatile lately, and put it back into submission. He didn't want to remember those 10 days she spent away and the angst of not knowing what they were doing. He urged Felicity to face him, instead. He lifted her chin with a finger until their gazes met. "I'm not talking about that," he explained. "I mean real vacations. Not for work, just for fun."

"It's been a while," she admitted.

"So you need this much as I do. Come with me, please."

# # # # # # # # # #

Felicity wasn't sure how Oliver had convinced her to do this. She couldn't believe she was at the airport, barely minutes away from getting on a plane. Much less that Oliver had turned things around, and now he was the one paying for the trip.

The discussion about it had taken place a week before, the very next morning when both decided to go on vacation.

"You can't afford it. You're in bankruptcy," she protested.

"I'm not a billionaire anymore, true, but I made some good investment with the money I managed to keep. I got enough to buy the tickets and pay our stay."

"You don't understand the concept of someone giving you a gift, right?"

"Of course I do. And you're giving me the best of all."

"Which is…?"

"You," he said simply, "spending these days with me. I can't ask for anything better."

Felicity melted inside. How could she not to? For as much she wanted to deny and fight against it, Oliver knew how to romance her just with words. She had noticed in the latest months that he made a great effort in always saying the right words to her. However, his expression betrayed him sometimes. His lying skills hadn't improved that much.

She always knew when Oliver was trying to hijack her attention away from Ray which was totally stupid. Ray was a friend… a good-looking, funny, billionaire, brave, and charming one, but just a good friend.

What Oliver didn't seem to understand was that she had different kinds of love for the people in her life. She loved her friends, deeply. They became a sort of family to her, and she was willing to do anything for them. But the only person she was in love with was Oliver Queen. True that her love for him had been tested in the last year… and perhaps, it had faulted at some point, but thanks to the obstacles she found down the road, her feelings for him got stronger.

They had issues they needed to work on, individually and together. In her case, she needed to overcome her long-dated abandonment issues. At a conscious level, she knew Oliver had pushed her away to protect her —and him, even if Oliver wouldn't admit it— from the pain that could come from what he did every night.

He never wanted to abandon her when he went to fight Ra's Al Ghul, or ignored her when he teamed up with Merlyn to defeat the League's leader, but it hurt all the same. Specially the latter. It seemed that his love for her didn't transcended his words. Had it been too much to ask him to prove his love by choosing her, at least once, over everything else? It took very long time for her to walk beyond that hurt and allow herself to think again about get romantically involved with him.

His life was complicated, and hers wasn't too much behind. She knew a relationship between them wasn't going to be easy. But she was willing to try.

Conflicted emotions were always with her. She couldn't be more proud of how he takes care of the city, but the fear of losing him was constantly present. She stops breathing every time he's out on the street… and yet, she'd never ask him to stop being the hero Starling city needs him to be. Somehow, knowing that Roy, Dig, and Laurel get out there with him, and with her supervising from the foundry, it made her feel a bit better. They take care of each other's backs.

"Felicity…? Felicity!"

"What?!" Oliver was standing in front of her, with his brows drawn together. She realized she had snapped at him. Great!, she thought. She could feel her face getting warmer. Her cheeks probably were redder than a tomato. "Sorry."

"You okay?" he asked, touching her cheek with the back of his fingers. "Where did you go?"

Shaking her head, she muttered, "nowhere. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Uh... yeah, just babbling in my head."

Oliver smirked, understanding. It was no secret how often she fell under such spells. Didn't matter if they were vocal or mental.

"They're calling us to board, c'mon," he reached out and helped her to stand. She took his rough, warm hand, much bigger and stronger than hers. The contact sent a jolt of excitement through Felicity. She really was doing it. For the longest time, she thought they would never be together. And now they were going on vacation. "Ready?"

No… Maybe… "Yes."

Minutes later, both were sitting in their respective places, on their way to Greece. That's all she knew. Oliver told he got the perfect place to spend 2 weeks of vacations, but didn't specify any more than that. I want to surprise you, he had said.

"Where are we going?" she insisted one more time.

Oliver smiled, and said, "you'll see. You're going to love it."

"Fine, don't tell me now. But do you realize you're confined here with me for the next so many hours, right?" 14 long hours, to be exact. "Before the plane lands, I'll know where you're taking me," she promised.

"I say you won't," Oliver widened his smile and shrugged, accepting the challenge.

Of that battle of wills, who do you think will win... Oliver or Felicity?