A/N: I was given this prompt and wrote three different responses. Because I can! Mwahahaha. My intentions were to reach for different emotions. This one's fluffier. Well, I think so, anyway.

A/N 2: You'll probably notice I use some of the same questions and similar backstories in these three. I feel like the dangers of Felicity being arrested are clear, and it's just a question of how they're handled once it happens. Let me know what you think.

Prompt: Felicity gets arrested, and this time there's no convenient crisis (and no Lance).

She's been here before. Detective Lance had marched her into this room and teased her with the evidence they'd found on her computer.

It had been on the day the Glades died.

She hasn't seen much of Diggle and Oliver since that day. They'd gotten her home through the madness with instructions to lay low and stay safe. Since that night, as far as she can tell, Oliver has done the barest minimum as the Hood. Just a few outings to stay visible, with most of his time spent at home with his sister or helping Laurel plan a funeral. Dig is recovering from a stab wound. Mrs. Queen has been arrested and Walter never returned to Queen Consolidated.

Now she sits across from someone else. This cop, a Lieutenant whose name she'd missed when he'd pounded on the door to her apartment, has hard eyes and a slick suit. She'd much rather deal with Lance's slouch and snark and sense of honor.

"Please state your name for the record."

"Felicity Megan Smoak." She'd meant to talk to Oliver about her visit with SCPD, to plan for the next time. But then the world had fallen apart, and a short interview with a Detective who had the vigilante on speed dial hadn't mattered anymore.

"Are you aware of your rights?"

"Yes." Does she know any attorneys? The only one she can think of is Laurel Lance. Somehow that is one too many levels of weird – she'd almost prefer jail to explaining her many late night calls to Oliver.

"You were previously interviewed by Detective Quentin Lance?"

"Yes," she hesitates but can't hold herself back from adding, "and released."

The Lieutenant just watches her. The silence stretches until she breaks it again.

"I'm actually surprised he's not here." Lance would help her, if only he were here.

"Detective Lance is suspended until he is cleared of aiding and abetting the criminal known as the vigilante."

His voice is cold, and she feels the temperature in the room drop a few degrees. Lance had been all righteous fury and passionate indignation when he talked about the Hood. This man is icy indifference and she is very afraid. He doesn't care if Oliver has become a hero. He won't count the thousands of people whose lives they'd saved.

"You work at Queen Consolidated?"

"Yes."

"What is the nature of your work there?"

"I, uh, I am an information technology associate."

Again, he waits. The answer doesn't seem satisfactory, and Felicity itches to explain herself, to go on at length about the ins and outs of her work. But she knows that every extra sentence runs the risk of exposing Oliver.

"It means I work with computers." Normally, she'd mean that as a joke. But Felicity would never joke with this man.

"And where in your job description does it include hacking into other companies' security systems?"

She is silent.

"No answer? How about doing research on weaponry used by criminals in Starling City?"

Her nails bite into her damp palms, but she stays quiet.

"Nothing to say? Here's an interesting one. You cracked FBI cybersecurity on the night that a dozen agents were killed in a safe house guarding Frank Bertinelli. That's a federal crime and carries a heavy sentence all on its own."

There is a ringing in her ears. "I… I was under duress. I did not do that willingly."

"Under duress from who?" he glares at her, letting her file slap against the table.

"Helena Bertinelli. She held a crossbow to my neck."

"There's no record of a 911 call. No report of any kind. And we know the vigilante was out that night. How did she know to threaten you?"

Felicity swallows. She knows where this is going and she can only see one way out.

"Mm, again no answer. Let's change subjects. Care to explain why nearly a third of your calls were to Oliver Queen's personal cell phone or to his bodyguard's phone?"

She closes her eyes, wishing fervently that when she opens them she'll be lying in her bed or passed out on the couch in the lair. If this is all just a terrible dream…

"Stay awake, Ms. Smoak."

This is no dream.

"I work for his company."

"One in which he has no stake, no role."

"He still visits."

"Does he visit you?"

She considers her options. Silence will likely mean jail for her with Oliver and Diggle dragged in for questioning. Saying the wrong thing could accidentally reveal Oliver.

"He's not very tech savvy."

"Answer the question, Ms. Smoak."

Option three: take a leap and pray that Oliver follows.

"We've been… seeing each other," she whispers. "He doesn't want publicity."

"Oliver Queen is dating an IT girl?" His raised eyebrows and the disbelieving tone of voice make it clear that he is far from convinced. "How did you meet?"

She casts her memory back to that day, chewing on her pen in her new pink shirt, when he'd walked into her life.

Felicity Smoak? Hi, I'm Oliver Queen.

"Well, he spilt coffee on his laptop," she says, sticking as closely as possible to his original story. "And he needed me to salvage what I could off of it."

The lieutenant spars with her, poking and prodding her memory, trying to scare her into some grand confession. Eventually, he circles back around to the most dangerous of his questions.

"Why does your computer match up with the Hood's activities if you aren't working with him?"

Felicity is tired, sick to her stomach, and feeling very, very alone.

So she's beyond shocked when the door swings open, framing a very angry, very dapper Oliver Queen. Felicity has no idea how Oliver had known where she was. It isn't like she's carrying a tracker in her boot.

"This interview is over, Lieutenant Pike." Oliver strides in and pulls Felicity up into his arms. She feels his lips brush her ear and just catches his whispered question. "We dating?"

She turns her face into his expensive suit and nods once, relieved that he has come to the same conclusion she did about an alibi. His hold tightens and he immediately ducks his head to drop a kiss onto her lips. It's light and quick, but she feels it down to her toes. Since she assumes that after seven months she wouldn't be blushing after a kiss, she resorts to burying her face in his lapels.

"You cannot interrupt an ongoing police interrogation!" Pike is livid.

"Did I mention that I have Commissioner Brady on speakerphone?" Oliver's smile is lethal as he places his phone on the table. "She's an old family friend."

"Commissioner, this woman has been served with an arrest warrant and must be processed according to the standards of the law," Pike sputters. "She's an accomplice to the vigilante."

Even through the tinny amplification of the cell phone, the authority in the commissioner's voice is unmistakable.

"Mr. Queen has quite satisfactorily explained that he asked her to do some small investigations, initially out of idle curiosity, and later hoping to perform a public service and help capture the Hood. Misguided, perhaps, but not illegal."

"She revealed an FBI safehouse!" Pike roars.

"Only when forced. Mr. Queen found her in her office, but it was too late to stop what Ms. Bertinelli had planned."

Oliver runs his hands up and down her arms reassuringly. She knows he can feel her heart pounding, and that he probably assumes she is scared. He is half right.

"Lieutenant, your precinct has been hard hit by recent events." The commissioner's tone is conciliatory. She is offering him a way out. "I know you're operating short one detective pending an investigation into his ties to this vigilante. May I suggest that you allow that investigation to proceed before moving ahead with any arrests?"

Pike's jaw clenches, and his hard eyes move to Oliver and Felicity. From the safety of Oliver's arms, he is less frightening, but she's still relieved when he turns away.

"Commissioner," Oliver says smoothly. "It's been a long day, and the evidence is purely circumstantial and misinterpreted, as I've explained. Do I have your permission to take Felicity home?"

"You do, Oliver. Give my best to Thea, would you?"

"Commissioner," Pike begins.

"That's enough, Pike. I expect to hear from you in five minutes from your Captain's office. She is free to go."

Slipping his phone back into his pocket, Oliver leads Felicity out of the station. He keeps an arm around her waist, and when he opens the car door for her, he leans in for another kiss. When he pulls away, they are both breathing a little harder.

"Are they still watching?" he whispers. Felicity looks over his shoulder and sees Lieutenant Pike standing in the doorway to the precinct.

"Yes."

"Good." His smile is fierce as he closes the door.