She had worked through the night and looked like it. Dark circles ringed under her eyes and she was slow and groggy. Oliver, Diggle and Laurel were set to patrol in half an hour though so she finished the last transfer and hurried to the lair.
"Where have you been? We were trying to leave early so we could grab an early dinner!" Laurel's grating voice greeted her before she was even fully in the room.
Felicity rolled her eyes and just made her way to her desk. Her computers were already fired up and Felicity didn't have to ask who was brave enough to touch her babies. Diggle, Roy and Oliver certainly weren't.
"I didn't do it Felicity, I promise." Roy spoke up and she laughed at his scared expression.
"I know Roy, it was Laurel. She is the only one that doesn't respect my stuff, and my requests not to touch them."
"Excuse me?!" Laurel screeched. Ugh, that was getting annoying.
"You heard me Laurel, everyone else knows not to touch my computers and I have asked you repeatedly not to. But at least every other day, I am fixing something or re-running a search because you logged on and interrupted it or an update, to check Facebook or TMZ for pictures of you and Oliver. Don't think I can't tell what you surfed the web for."
"I think you forget just whose computers they really are Miss Smoak. Your employer supplied you with those which means I can touch them if I want."
"Actually, Miss Lance since we are being formal, after Slade tore apart the other ones and since Oliver was broke, I replaced these out of my own pocket. I also replaced everything else you see around here. Including the rest of the outfit you are wearing. Sara only left you the jacket, how do you think you got the rest of it?"
Felicity hadn't realized she had gotten up and in Laurel's face. She was tired though, so that would probably explain it.
Felicity turned around and took Diggle and Roy's shocked faces in stride on her way to her desk.
"You really bought all of this?" Roy was studying his feet awfully hard. "Even my stuff?"
Roy had to have an outfit too, she couldn't let him feel left out so she told him.
"I didn't want you to feel second best, or left out. So I bought you one too. Diggle, before you ask, yes I replaced all of your precious weapons that were stolen in the raids."
She was engulfed in a Diggle and Roy sandwich. "Don't ever spend money on us again, girl!" Diggle was honored to call her a friend but she didn't have to spend her hard earned money on them.
"Are we going?" Laurel was at the door ready to go and they all looked to Oliver for guidance. He was studying Felicity with a sad expression and just nodded his head. She noticed he was really looking around the lair though. Taking in exactly how much she had drained her savings for the first time.
Just then her computers chirped with an alert.
"Hold up guys, might have a mission for you after all." She swiveled around in her chair and pulled up the details of the latest crime alert. When she saw what it was though she could have smacked herself. She had forgotten to modify the searches to exclude her new solo activities. Since she didn't though, her system had caught her. Looks like she would have to come clean a lot sooner than she thought.
Damn it.
"What is it Felicity?" Diggle grabbed a chair and got comfortable.
"Okay, so I have been coming across some dormant accounts, like 6 months exact dormant. These accounts have balances and if they are inactive for a year the bank will close them and absorb the balance as profit. I guessed who they belonged to and was finally able to trace most of them back to Slade or Isabel, or both."
"So, you found all their money! That's great, you can hack it and put it in Oliver's accounts so he can have the capital to get QC back! Ollie, that's great!" Laurel sounded so excited and it only burned Felicity a little bit to fill her in on the last bit of it.
"I can't do that, and wouldn't even if Oliver wanted me to. Which I am pretty sure he wouldn't. I did drain the accounts I just transferred it somewhere more deserving."
"More deserving? More deserving than the hero that saved Starling City from a mad man!?" Laurel was mad, madder than Felicity had ever seen her. Oliver stepped forward and tried to calm Laurel down.
"No Ollie! Don't you dare stick up for her! She probably used that money to buy all this stuff so she would look better than me in your eyes!"
Okay, Laurel was officially crazy.
"Umm, actually no. I depleted my savings to buy all this stuff, so that Oliver could continue saving the city. And it was not just Oliver that saved the city or continues to by the way, we all worked together to save it." She gestured to Diggle and Roy knowing they would have taken offense to her omission of them too.
"Then what did you do with the money Felicity? And how much exactly was it?"
"Well…when I stumbled across those accounts I only realized the inconsistencies because they were set up as local charities. Poverty, child neglect and abuse, domestic abuse, charities like that. I had been looking into the most desolated charities to find one to donate the rest of my savings to or to volunteer at. All of them were in the negative. Not one stood out as the worst because they were all about to shut their doors. That's when I noticed the high balances of the other accounts, in the millions in each one. That just didn't add up, then add in that they have been dormant since the day Slade was taken down and I put two and two together."
"You are the White Orchid, aren't you?!" Roy shouted it and scared the crap out of everyone at the same time.
"The what?" Oliver was confused.
"Didn't you watch the news this morning?" Roy rolled his eyes when everyone said no.
"Overnight all the locally run charities received a huge anonymous electronic deposit, in the millions, and are now able to really help those who need it most. None of them know where the money came from but each computer in each charity had a picture of a white orchid as the screensaver when they arrived this morning. So the media is calling the hacker 'White Orchid,' it's you isn't it?" Roy turned to look at her but she kept quite.
"Felicity?" Digggle had gotten out of his chair and stood next to Felicity.
"Okay, yes. I did it. I didn't think the news would pick up on what I named myself that quick though! I just was going to check back periodically to make sure they were spending that money on what it was given to them for and wanted them to know when I check up on them. So I created an electronic, untraceable calling card."
"You do know that is illegal right?! I will have to report you, I am still a lawyer."
"You are also Starling City's newest vigilante too. And what she did is not any different than what you had just asked her to do for me. It was fine when it was going into my bank accounts Laurel? You will not be turning Felicity in for anything."
Oliver had a growl to his voice that none of them had heard in a long time.
"Ollie?!"
"It's Oliver, Laurel. Have you not picked up on the fact that nobody calls me that anymore?"
"Why are you being like this all of a sudden?" She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
"Laurel, I have stood by and watched you belittle Felicity time and time again. I let it go hoping you just needed time after Detective Lance died and would realize one day how much she does for all of us but this is the final straw. Felicity is this team. We would be nothing without her. You have tried to prove your worth over her for the last 6 months and I can't take it anymore. I can't watch what it does to her anymore. You have asked repeatedly why we aren't together, and I have told you why."
"If you care for her so much then why aren't you with her!" Laurel screamed it and Felicity watched in stunned silence.
"Because I am terrified I will hurt her!" Oliver turned to look at Felicity. "I don't want to cause you anymore pain but I have never been in a relationship where I care about my partner as much as I care about you. I pushed you away so roughly because I was terrified. I am so sorry. I saw what it did to you but the wounds were too fresh. The image of you in his arms with his sword at your neck was playing on a replay in my mind every single time I closed my eyes. I meant every word I spoke to you in the mansion, Felicity. Every. Word."
She didn't know what to say. Didn't even know where to start.
"What about me Oliver? You said you loved me and I thought she was just a distraction for Slade."
"I do love you Laurel, a part of me always will, but I am not in love with you. Or Sara, even though I love her too. I am only in love with Felicity." He met her eyes for the last part and Felicity felt the intensity.
Now that the time was here, she didn't know what to do. She had waited for this, had hoped and wished for this but now that they were here she was speechless. Her, speechless.
"Then I quit. After Dad died, I didn't want to stay here anyways but I did in hopes we could be together. I was offered a job a few days ago in Gotham, I think I may take it. You should be able to go forward with the plan to get QC back, you are just waiting on the board to vote anyways." With that Laurel turned and disappeared out of the alley door and only turned back once to see if Oliver was watching her go. He had not once turned from Felicity though.
"I need time Oliver. I don't really believe you love me like you say you do. You stood there and let her talk to me anyway she wanted and never once stood up for me as a friend let alone you woman you claim to love."
Oliver started to take a step but she held a hand up to stop him.
"I am not saying no Oliver but look at where I am coming from. You can't be as hot and cold as you have been to me and expect me to run into your arms. You broke my heart numerous times and I don't know if I am ready to risk it happening again."
"I will wait, Felicity. However long it takes. I am not going anywhere with anyone but you."
She smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
"Well I guess I owe you this." They looked over to see Roy give Diggle a $20.
"What did you bet on?" Felicity had a good idea but she was curious as to the details.
"I bet that it would take less than 6 months for you two to get together."
"But we aren't together." Felicity felt the need to point out.
"Yet." Oliver's softly spoken words were sent with a heated look that made long dormant regions of her body start to thaw.
"Oh now that look is just cheating!" She slapped a hand over her mouth too late to stop the words from escaping. She was mortified and Oliver looked smug. She had a feeling he was going to fight dirty to get her to come around faster.
That jerk.
"So let's see what the White Orchid has been up to shall we?" Oliver pulled chairs over for him and Roy and they all settled down to listen to Felicity show them what she had done.
He was beyond proud of her and the fact that she found her own way to save the city. He guessed that is what he needed. He knew she needed to actively help save the city for her to feel like a part of the team. He was just terrified of the many things that could happen to her in the field. Her finding her own way while still in the safety of the lair. It was the best of both worlds and Oliver finally felt secure enough to pursue a relationship with the one woman, he knows now, he has ever truly loved.
He just had a lot of stupid decisions to make up for, and he could think of many ways to make them up to her too. He could finally act the way he wanted to with her. He could touch her if he wanted to and not worry about what anyone else would think about it. He wanted everyone to know how he felt about her. Now that he got over the hard part of admitting it to her, he felt relived and light for the first time since before the island.
They would work it out and they would be the perfect match for each other in every way. She would guide him as Oliver Queen, CEO and as The Green Arrow. He wouldn't have it any other way.
The Green Arrow and The White Orchid were going to be a force to be reckoned with.
