Miss Understood (Chapter 4)

Setting: Hours after the encounter with the Lances.

The basement was pitch black when Felicity arrived. As she expected, the basement was deserted. Mr. Diggle was spending time with Carly and his nephew while Oliver was probably with Laurel Lance tonight. The club upstairs was empty too because renovations were to start next week. It was the perfect time for her to tidy up.

She switched the power on and nearly died of a heart attack.

Oliver Queen sat on the floor of the basement. He looked that way he did when he found out about his mother's involvement in Walter's kidnapping. Only this time, he was wearing slacks and a dress shirt instead of his vigilante costume. But what scared her? As the lights turned on, he turned to her slowly and smiled.

"Hi, Felicity," Oliver said jovially. "Come join me." He patted the floor beside him.

"Hey, Oliver," she approached him cautiously. "Why are you sitting alone in the dark?"

"I'm celebrating!" Oliver said cheerfully. "Come on, sit beside me."

Felicity put her bags down and looked around the basement.

"It doesn't look like the chairs have been damaged," she observed. "I guess you just prefer the floor, then."

Oliver gestured insistently for her to join him. She relented and sat on the floor beside him. They were shoulder to shoulder with their backs to the wall.

"You're celebrating?" she asked as she arranged her skirt around her.

He leaned against her shoulder slightly. "Yes, I am," he said happily.

"What are you celebrating?"

"I'm back," he announced.

"I didn't realize you'd left," Felicity said in confusion.

"Felicity, you say the cutest things," Oliver chuckled. "I meant that I am back in the vigilante business."

She didn't say anything but her expression asked him for an explanation.

"Remember how I said I was going to stop being the vigilante after I stop Malcolm Merlyn and the Undertaking?" Oliver asked her. "I said I was going to quit and have a normal life. With Laurel."

Felicity remained silent. He wasn't really asking for a response. She realized he needed to talk.

"Well, it didn't really work out that way," he continued. "Bad guys are still out there corrupting my city even without Malcolm Merlyn. Malcolm Merlyn wasn't the root of the problem as I thought he was. He was just one of the roots. And Laurel, Laurel doesn't want to be with me because she says she knows about my secret life here in the basement."

Felicity looked at him in surprise. "She knows you're the vigilante?"

"That's what I thought, too, but what she said after didn't make any sense," he said with his brows furrowed. "It was only after I left her apartment that I realized what she meant." He paused and sighed. "She thinks that I am having an affair. And that I'm keeping it a secret here in the club's basement."

"You're having an affair with whom? Diggle?" Felicity suggested incredulously.

Oliver chuckled. "Only you would think that. No, she thinks I'm having an affair with you."

Felicity was shocked. "Whatever gave her that idea?!"

"Tommy," Oliver said simply. "The way I figure it, Tommy must have told her about seeing you around here. Before he found out about me, I remember him asking about you a few days after you joined us. I told him you were from Queen Consolidated and that I asked you to set up my internet here at –"

"Router. You set up an internet router," she interrupted.

"Right, and that is also exactly what I told Laurel about you when you two met upstairs a few weeks ago. Remember that time? I thought she looked at you strangely," he said. "I mean, how long does it take to set up an internet router? It probably does not take months to do it. And why would I have it in the basement? There is an office upstairs."

"No, it would take me a few minutes to set it up and it would probably work better if it wasn't underground," she said quietly. "So she thinks we're together because we keep hanging around here in the basement, and are probably doing everything else except setting up the internet router, for the past few months? If it weren't me and you, I suppose I'd also be suspicious of a man and a woman spending an inordinate amount of time together in a dimly lit room."

Oliver nodded.

"Maybe you can tell her we broke up," she suggested. "Oh, you can tell her I broke up with you and that you're devastated and heartbroken so she'll want to comfort you."

He smiled but shook his head. "Not that easy. I already told her I would give it all up in a heartbeat but she still said 'no'."

"You'd give me up in a heartbeat?" Felicity sounded a little hurt.

"No, not you, the basement," he rushed to say. "I thought Laurel and I were talking about that when I said I would. Then she asked me if I could really give it up completely. I knew I couldn't and she figured that out when I couldn't answer her directly."

"But she thought it was me and our sordid affair you couldn't give up, maybe if you went back there and told her about the vigilante and how everything is just a big misunderstanding, you can still –"

Oliver was already shaking his head. "I can't give you up, Felicity."

Felicity felt a little thrill at his words. She stopped and looked at him closely. "Are we still talking about the basement?"

Oliver smiled. "Laurel won't be able to accept my life in the basement. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm not the person she wants anymore. She wants the Oliver that she lost five years ago not the Oliver who returned from death. I am not that guy anymore."

"This is who I am now, Felicity," he said. "And I am going to celebrate being who I am. I am the hooded vigilante."

He raised a bottle of vodka in a toast and took a long swig. He noticed Felicity watching him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized. "That was rude of me. Want a drink? I didn't get any shot glasses, though."

"How much have you had to drink?" she asked him.

"Not much," he said defensively. "Just this much." He stretched his thumb and forefinger to indicate a space of one inch. Then changed his mind and increased the space to two inches. "No, this much."

Felicity took the bottle from him. There was only a quarter of it left. No wonder he was so chatty, she thought.

"This was full when you started, wasn't it?" she asked him pointedly. At his sheepish nod, she shook her head. "It looks like you've had enough."

"Wait, the Russians say that it's bad luck to throw away vodka with that much still left in it," he protested. "Let me finish it."

"No Russian has ever said such thing. Except maybe the drunk ones," she said. Oliver attempted to get the bottle back. "Fine," she said. She placed the bottle's opening on her lips and drank the rest of the vodka in one gulp. The liquid burned her throat as it went down. She shook her head at the sudden wave of dizziness. "There. It's all gone."

Oliver stared at her in wonder. "I could have gotten you a glass, you know. You didn't have to drink it out of the bottle like I did."

"It's fine. I don't mind exchanging bodily fluids with you," she said without thinking. She grimaced when she realized what she said. "You know what I mean."

"Bodily fluids," Oliver chuckled. "Have I ever told you that you say the cutest things?"

"Yes, you have," she said.

"But I know I've never told you that I think you also have the cutest lips," Oliver whispered as he raised a hand to gently touch her face. "I like it when you talk because I have an excuse to watch your lips without making you uncomfortable. I like it when you babble and say all those cute things. It makes me smile."

His voice became wistful, "You know what, in those first weeks after I got back from the island, I don't think I ever smiled. I thought I had forgotten how to. And then, I needed a laptop looked into and so I met you. That was the first time I smiled since I got back. I never smiled until I met you."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "And you know what? I think that is the vodka talking. It's time for you to sleep the vodka off," she said as she struggled to pull him up to a standing position.

Oliver smiled stupidly as she draped his arm over her shoulder. She felt his weight lean on her. She grunted softly as she nudged him to move. She remembered seeing a couch in the club manager's office. Thankfully it was close to the basement's entrance to the club. She was now half carrying, dragging and pushing him up the steps.

As they struggled to leave the basement, Oliver's arm slipped and he almost fell.

"Oliver, hold on to me tight," she instructed him as she tightened her grip on his waist.

"Platonic circumstances!" he laughed aloud. "This was what you meant. Except with the roles reversed."

"What are you talking about?" she mumbled as she pushed the office's door open with her foot. After several minutes of struggle, they were finally there.

"You told me that you imagined me saying that to you under platonic circumstances," he reminded her of their time in the elevator shaft of the Merlyn Global Group building. "These are platonic circumstances, right?"

Felicity pushed him towards the couch. "Definitely platonic!" she muttered under her breath.

She tripped over his long legs and ended up falling with him. She landed on top of him with a grunt. She would have dropped on the floor if Oliver hadn't instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist.

They stared at each other. Felicity felt Oliver's arms tighten around her.

"It doesn't have to be," he told her softly.

"Doesn't have to be what?" she asked breathlessly.

"It doesn't have to be platonic," Oliver said. Before she could respond, his hand snaked up to the back of her neck and pulled her head down for a kiss.

Felicity's mind went blank. This was followed by a wave of a thousand feelings all at once. She felt her skin tingle at every spot their bodies touched. She felt the warmth of his body burning her. And most importantly, she felt his exquisite lips on hers. He tasted like … vodka.

She struggled against him and the feelings that were consuming her. Finally, she was able to push herself away from him.

"No," she said with determination, more to herself than to him.

"No?" he smiled slightly. "I'm Oliver Queen. I'm worth a mill— a bill – a gazillion dollars. Most women can't say 'no' to me."

"I'm not 'most women'" Felicity said as she got off him and arranged her clothes.

Oliver raised himself by the elbows and smirked at her. "I'm also a bow-wielding, hooded vigilante, who you once called a hero."

"Well, I'm … I'm Felicity Smoak," she stood before him with her back straight. She looked like she wanted to say more but decided not to. She turned her back and left him there.

~ ~ ~ o ~ ~ ~ o ~ ~ ~ o ~ ~ ~

A few days later…

Oliver Queen hesitated at the door. This was the third time he reached this point. The first two times, he turned abruptly and walked back towards the elevator. Both times, he couldn't bring himself to leave the floor but he couldn't push himself to enter that door either. People started to stare and whisper. The employees in their cubicles were subtly looking at him behind their fake paperwork trying to figure out what he was doing.

He cleared his throat and fiddled with his tie. He berated himself silently for being a coward. For the umpteenth time, he wished Diggle was around to help. He shook his head. Oliver knew this was something he had to do on his own.

He straightened his back and gave himself a mental pep talk. He was Oliver Queen. He survived a treacherous island for 5 years. He can hit any target with an arrow. He has been known to take down entire armies single-handed. He was Oliver Queen. He owned the very building he was standing in. He can do this.

He took a fortifying breath and entered the IT department. His gaze immediately fell on the reason for his anxiety. Felicity Smoak sat on her desk. Her face was an image of deep concentration. Her hands were flying over the keyboard. It was glorious to watch her in her element.

Oliver approached her slowly. He cleared his throat to get her attention. "Hello," he said uncertainly.

She looked up, smiled slightly then her eyes immediately returned to the computer monitor.

"Just give me five seconds," she said. Exactly four and a half seconds later, she gave her mouse a final click and folded her hands on the table. "What can I do for you, Mr Queen?"

Oliver winced slightly at her formal reception. "As I've told you before, 'Mr Queen' was my father."

"Ah, but that was before you became the acting CEO of this company and officially became my employer," Felicity argued.

"It's a temporary position," he insisted.

"OK then. What can I do for you, Temporary Mr Queen?" she asked cheekily.

He smiled slightly. But he went directly to his point of concern. "You haven't returned my calls."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that," she said. "I meant to call you back. It's just that we lost a lot of data because of the earthquake and the entire department has been working overtime to retrieve them."

"You haven't been by the club either," he said.

"Yeah, like I said, busy with my legitimate job," she explained. "I'll be by as soon as we get the department sorted out. These guys are lost without me."

"OK then. Great," Oliver said. It felt like there was something she wasn't saying but he didn't call her out on it. "I guess I'll see you soon." He turned to leave.

"Yeah, see you," she said absently, her eyes already on the computer monitor.

Oliver stopped at her door. He shook his head and, with determined steps, he walked around her desk until he stood behind her chair. He turned her chair around to face him. She looked up at him in surprise. Oliver crouched down to put them at eye level.

"Felicity, I'm very sorry about the other night," Oliver started. "I had too much to drink and I know I may have said and done something to offend you."

"Oh, I get it, you're apologizing because you think you may have done something to offend me that made me stop going to the basement," she said. "Well, you're right. I don't want to be around you right now."

"I'm really sorry," he said again. "I don't exactly remember everything I said or did that night."

"You don't remember?"

"I know I made a pass at you," he said uncomfortably. "I kissed you."

"Yes, you did," she told him. "But that's not what I am upset about."

"You're not upset about me kissing you?" he smiled slightly.

"Yes. I mean, no. Wait, I …" she stopped. "That's not the point!"

She pushed her chair back and stood up. Oliver rose with her. Felicity now had to look up to maintain eye contact.

"The point is that I am not some drunken one-night-stand," she crossed her arms over chest.

"I never thought you were," Oliver said pacifyingly.

"More importantly," her voice went up one octave. "I am not anyone's rebound girl."

Oliver stared at her in silence.

"I realize that you have these complicated feelings for Laurel and that because of everything that happened, your relationship sort of ended even before it could really begin again," she said with sympathy. "I know I am not as pretty or as sexy as the other women you date. Heck, you had to be drunk to kiss me. But I am not going to be the girl that tides you over until someone better comes along."

For a while neither of them spoke.

"Felicity," Oliver's voice was soft and sincere. "In my life, there is no woman I can be truly honest to. Except you..."

"You met me as Oliver Queen, son of the company's CEO, who brought you irrational personal requests that had nothing to do with your job in the IT department," he continued. "Then you met me as the vigilante bleeding in the backseat of your car. Both sides of me made your life more than a little bit complicated and yet you took it all and stayed by my side.

"Helena knew who I was and I thought I could share everything with her. But she only wanted me as the vigilante, not as Oliver, for her personal vendetta. McKenna liked me as Oliver but she would have shot me on sight if she knew I was the vigilante. Laurel was the woman I dreamt about while trying to survive on that island, but I think I was more in love with the thought of coming home and having a loving woman waiting for me than the woman herself."

"I'm not saying that you're the only woman left by default. I am saying that I think you are a truly remarkable woman and there is no one else like you in my life," Oliver stepped a little closer to her. "Before you joined us, I would have heartlessly massacred my way through my father's list and Diggle would have soldiered on with me until we got ourselves arrested or killed. But you, you showed me that there were better ways, smarter and simpler ways, to get things done without putting anyone innocent in danger. You gave me back my conscience and my heart. You saved more than my life when you dragged my bleeding body out of your backseat… You saved my soul."

Felicity was frozen where she stood. Words failed her.

"Felicity, you are not a rebound girl and you are definitely not someone to tide me over until someone better comes along. There is no one better than you. There is no one I want more than you," Oliver paused and gave a self-deprecating smile. "I've survived on a deserted island for five years and have spent the better part of this year putting my life in every possible danger and yet coming here to tell you how I feel, is by far the scariest thing I've ever done."

Felicity's throat was clogged with unshed tears but she giggled at his last sentence. "That's why you were pacing in the corridor outside my door? You were afraid to come in?"

"You saw me out there?" he looked around her office. There were no windows facing the corridor.

"No," she smiled and shook her head. "My supervisor called me twice to warn me that the acting CEO was thoroughly inspecting the corridor outside my area and that I should try to look busy."

He smiled and gently took her hand. "Felicity, I want to be with you. And I came here to ask you to be mine."

Felicity blushed with pleasure. She was about to respond when her eyes narrowed on him suspiciously. She snatched back her hand.

"What is it?" Oliver asked startled and a little worried at her expression.

"Before I respond to that, I need you to do something," she said as she opened her desk drawer and rummaged through its contents. She pulled out a small plastic object. "Blow into this."

"Is that a breath analyser?" he asked incredulously.

"Standard issue for traffic cops," she said as she extended it to him.

"How did you even get a hold of –" he stopped and shook his head. Oliver looked at Felicity closely. Her expression was deadly serious. "OK. I'll take the test."

He stepped close to her until only inches separated them. Instead of taking the breath analyser from her, his warm hand encircled the wrist of her hand that held the plastic object and raised it to bring the breath analyser his lips. He looked straight into her eyes as he blew on the tube.

Damn it, Felicity swore inwardly, only Oliver Queen could make taking a breath test incredibly sexy. She was getting the full dose of Oliver Queen's smouldering looks. His thumb caressed her wrist as he held it.

When he was done, Felicity swallowed with difficulty. She read the results.

"Undetectable," she murmured.

"So I'm not drunk," he said triumphantly.

"No alcohol detected in your breath," she agreed. "Time for the blood test." She rummaged through her drawers again and pulled out a syringe and a tourniquet.

"Whoa, what else do you have in there?" he said curiously as he peeked inside.

"Hey, you can't look inside my drawers until I let you," she protested, closing her desk drawers with a snap.

"You're going to let me look inside your drawers?" he smirked.

Felicity scowled. "I meant my desk drawers, not my – Oh, you know what I mean," she was exasperated.

Oliver chuckled. "Have I ever told you that you say the cutest things?"

Felicity frowned at him.

"I said that when I was drunk, didn't I?" he grimaced. "Listen, Felicity, we both know that I'm sober and that soberly declaring my feelings for you. I am not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. I am just under your spell."

He took the syringe and tourniquet from her hands and placed them on the table.

"And if it has crossed your mind, I'm not saying this to get you to come back and work with me as the vigilante's partner. I just want you to know that you are the best and purest thing that ever happened to me since that island and –"

Felicity couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed his jacket's lapels and pulled him down for a kiss. Oliver's arms encircled her automatically to draw her even closer to him. They indulged themselves in a long kiss.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Oliver whispered when they finally came up for breath.

"You had me at 'hello'," she said with a bright smile. "Actually, you had me when my supervisor first called to tell me that you were outside my door. I wanted to run out there and grab you."

Oliver laughed quietly and dropped another kiss on her lips. "So, do you think he'd mind if I stole you away right now? I mean, the IT department is swamped with that data retrieval thing, right?"

"Nah, I finished that an hour after I came in this morning," she grinned. "You're talking to an IT genius here."

"Then what were you so busy with when I came in?" he asked.

"Online game. I was finishing off a couple of zombies," she shrugged. She played with the buttons on his shirt. "Besides, it's not my supervisor we should be talking to about leaving early. I have this new boss. He's a bit of a meanie. He likes to make your life miserable if you happen to belong to a certain list. And he doesn't like it when I argue with him even if I happen to be absolutely right."

"I suppose this guy also happens to be the acting CEO?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How did you know?" she asked with her eyes filled with laughter.

Oliver gently caressed her face. "Felicity, don't ever change."

"Hey, Felicity –" a familiar voice called out.

Oliver and Felicity were slowly pulling apart when Diggle walked in.

"Oh, hey, Oliver," Diggle said in surprise. He looked at one face to another. "Let me guess, Felicity tripped and fell straight into your arms at the exact same moment I walked in."

"No," Oliver smiled as he hugged Felicity from behind. "I was actually kissing her a few minutes before you walked in. Diggle, Felicity and I are in a relationship."

"Well, finally!" Diggle exclaimed as he leaned against the doorjamb. "I thought I was going to have to do something drastic to get you two together."

Oliver and Felicity looked at each other. "What are you talking about?" Oliver asked.

"Come on, Oliver," Diggle raised an eyebrow. "You were taking so long to realize that you wanted Felicity to be more than just your friend and partner in crime. I saw it the first time I saw the two of you together. What was that that you had her do? Internet research? We could have done that on our own. We're not that inept at computers. And there's that thing with Vertigo in a syringe. Why did we bring that to Felicity instead of a research laboratory? Did you ever consider that you had her doing all that stuff for you because you just liked having her around?"

"It just got worse when she found out about your secret," Diggle continued. "You were spending so much time with her and were practically doing everything she wanted. Sure, you would argue a little but you always did what she asked in the end. And Felicity, you can't take your eyes off of him whenever he was around. It was so frustrating watching the two of you run around each other in circles instead of towards each other. I knew I had to do something."

Felicity gasped as she realized something.

"You're the one who started the gossip about me and Oliver," she accused him. "Moira called me into her office because of it."

"I simply let it slip to Moira's chauffer that her son had a vested interest in a certain IT specialist who works in Queen Consolidated," Diggle shrugged. "It happened to be the truth, not gossip. Now, to whom the chauffer shared the truthful information was his business."

"You told Thea I was going to be in the club when you knew only Felicity would be there," Oliver said.

"I knew you would be there eventually and I was hoping that Thea would catch you and Felicity in the club after hours and be mighty curious about her," Diggle said. "Felicity's wardrobe malfunction and your showing up shirtless were just very happy coincidences."

"And Laurel? Did you have a hand at convincing her that Felicity and I have a deeper relationship?" Oliver asked softly.

Diggle sobered quickly. "No, Oliver, she came to that conclusion on her own."

"How about Detective Lance?" Felicity asked. "He thinks I'm dating the vigilante. He was really angry about that, by the way. He even suggested that I should date Oliver instead. Actually, he sort of asked me out too."

Oliver and DIggle looked at her.

"Detective Lance asked you out? On a date?" Oliver asked stiffly.

"I had nothing to do with that," Diggle said at the same time. "He really asked you out?"

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Felicity said a little irritated.

"You said 'no', of course," Oliver said.

"I didn't say no, exactly," Felicity said truthfully.

"Felicity," Oliver's tone held a hint of warning.

"I didn't give him an answer. I told him he was old enough to be my father," she said thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, he looks really good for an older man. He has a good credit score. He's a police detective so we know that he's brave and has integrity. I think he likes me too. And –"

Felicity stopped when Oliver pulled her into his arms and leaned close.

"I'm a multibillionaire and a bow-wielding vigilante in the side of good. I'm in love with you. And more importantly," Oliver recited his credentials. "I am age-appropriate."

Felicity laughed aloud. "That's more important? Not the one that you said before that?"

He smiled and kissed her deeply.

"By the way," Felicity said breathlessly. "Which side of you is in love with me? The multibillionaire who happens to be my boss or the vigilante, my partner in illegal activities?"

"All of me," Oliver declared as he kissed her again.

John Diggle watched the scene from the door.

"My work here is done," he said. He closed the door behind him as he walked out.

The End