TV Series: Arrow

Olicity fic

Genre: Romance/Drama

How she realized that he needed more than she could be

How he came to realize how much she meant to him

Part I: Their reactions to him having slept with Isabel, and the subsequent discussions regarding it

Part II: Saving her from Count Vertigo, and after

Part III: Barry Allen (Parts 1 & 2)

I own NOTHING, except for this take on their relationship, which I'm pretty sure no one else would want anyway. Hope you're not left too disappointed, and have something positive to take away from reading this

Part II:

Oliver's perspective:

Oliver sneaks into the Queen Consolidated building, alert and watching for anyone who might be there past working hours. He uses the quickest route to the floor of his office where he knows the Count will be with Felicity, if simply because a) it is a floor to which only a select few dozen had access, b) it is a means of violating one part of Oliver's public persona and both of the above while c) also coincidentally holding both parts hostage using an individual who the Count probably deems as being the only bridge between the two. The Count, with his flair for theatrics, probably appreciates the symbolism of killing Oliver while he's wearing one suit, in the place where he wears the other.

Walking into the conference room, he can't think of how he could have been prepared for what he is seeing: an obviously terrified, visibly-shivering, red-eyed, striving-to-put-on-a-brave-face Felicity, who has her eyes shut tight as the Count toys with her ponytail and then slides his palms onto her shoulders on either side of her neck. She seems to be trying to either stay strong and keep it together or not cause more pangs to his already guilty conscience, in spite of her own current circumstances. It makes him feel even worse, if that's possible.

"Oliver, don't! Not for me"

Hearing her say those words strikes home for him that what he thought was her trying not to make him feel worse, is actually her trying to ensure that he is not left with no option but to kill. If only she knew that once the Count knew not only of the Hood's identity, but also her connection to that side of him, the maniac's fate was already sealed.

Despite having walked into that office knowing what he would have to do, the weight of having taken yet another life, an action that stamps him even more thoroughly as the murderer his best friend died believing him to be, makes him feel numb with shock, with despair, and yet, he also realizes that sometimes there's no other option. There was nothing else that could have been done, but there doesn't seem to be any possible way that it'll hurt less. But there's a fruit borne of that act that he is more than grateful for, and he turns his attention to the woman whose safety is all he needs to remind him that it was a very necessary evil indeed.

The warmth of her skin on her neck, and the pulse beneath it that he feels through his gloves makes him even more thankful than he could have comprehended being. She is safe, if thoroughly traumatized. He was just wants her to feel better. He wants her to know that it is over.

"Hey, hey, shhh, it's alright. You're safe."

"Oh, you were shot"

As is typical, Felicity's logical and selfless mind processes his flesh-wound as more important and worth worrying about than her trauma, not taking into consideration that while it's nothing he isn't used, she has just been put through a hell that, if he could've, he would've done anything to spare her.

"Hey. It's nothing"

The trust shines in her eyes, a beacon of hope that she will not ever see his methods as unsavory, and him as an extension of them, as she once did and is willing to put her safety in his keep.

With the circus of his mother's trial finally over, yet with the end of the process providing more confusion and uncertainty than the beginning or the middle of it, all he wants to do is retreat to where there is no need for the mask of "Oliver Queen: relieved and overjoyed son", if only for a few moments of respite, and make sure that those who work with him, protect both sides of him and know the real him, are safe and well again.

"And you"

Seeing her, still visibly shaken, but having donned a cape of "matter-of-fact" behavior, coupled with a mask of a brave-face, and yet safe, is all he needs to remind him that there is no way he will ever regret his actions from earlier tonight.

Seeing how exhausted they both are, and knowing that there is much to be addressed at home, he decides that his retreat from the outside world will have to be at a later time. Right now, they both need to go home and recover from the consequences of not only living in a city which's destruction and devastation his family have had a hand in, but also living lives, spent fighting by the side of a man whose struggle to right that situation, which inevitably endanger them as well. Looking at her drawn face makes it sink in even deeper that the worse the criminals get that confront them, the more her life is at risk. But fighting without her and Diggle isn't a possibility any more, not just because he needs them, but because it's their choice to make whether or not to stay, and they make it every day with the same level of dedication with which he puts on the hood every night. He's glad it isn't a choice he has to make for them, because if he had to, he'd never be able to force them to stay, and yet he'd be lost if they walked away.

"Oliver? I, uh, I just wanted to say thank you… and, I'm sorry. I got myself into trouble again, and you, killed him. You killed again, and I'm sorry that I was the one that put you in a position where you had to make that kind of choice."

She is so wrong. Not only would she not have been in danger if she hadn't gone there to follow a lead to save Diggle, which he wasn't there to do because he had to be by his mother and Thea, but also because there is also no scenario in which he wouldn't have done the same. She is his friend, and a good, decent, brave person who deserves to be safe and alive, and he will defend that with everything he has in him. And most of all, the sharp knife of fear in his stomach at the prospect of losing yet another person that he cares about, or even just being forced to see them endure harm, was more than he could bear when the Count had her in his clutches.

"Felicity, he had you, and he was going to hurt you. There was no choice to make."

He heads home, and after dealing with his (visibly relieved and yet confused) mother and sister is more than he thinks he can take. Thea's elated, but his mother has gone into "secret-keeping" mode. There has to be something more. Something she hasn't told him, some secret that is making her more pensive in the quiet moments, yet incredibly alert while they're all around. His mother, a woman who has apparently spent decades to his mere years of keeping secrets, is becoming easier to read, if simply because after her secrets come out, he realizes the root of her actions while she was keeping them.

Oliver lies in bed and stares out the window, and he wonders, will there ever come a day when he will truly know anyone? It seems as though everyone he knows, excluding maybe the innocents such as Felicity and Thea, is keeping secrets, and has been for years. His interaction with Laurel earlier at court confirmed for him that she's obviously not in a good place. He needs for her to be ok, if simply because it's what Tommy would've wanted. As much as he used to love her, and as much as he still does, his feelings for her, as for those for all around him, keep evolving more and more every day, as he begins to realize that it wasn't just the outside world that he was oblivious to prior to the island. He was oblivious to the minds, natures and even wants of those he held near and dear to him. They are all so much more complex, and conflicted than he ever realized. Or maybe that's a consequence of the Undertaking and the toll it took on all of them before, during and after it happened. Laurel seems to have dug herself into a hole of constantly blaming herself for everything. She seems to be incapable of seeing the good, or hope or light in anything. She seems to be carrying around this burden that he can't help but think is self-inflicted, regularly-fed and extremely emotionally-expensive. It's troubling to watch, to say the least. It's yet another shade in the spectrum of personalities that he has to deal with. Diggle for example, is in a better place than he has been for a while, recent Vertigo-High considered, and yet, despite his obvious love for Lyla, is just as capable of hiding parts from his life from her as he was from Carly, even though it is obviously unnecessary. A behavior-pattern consequent, no doubt, of the life he has led. Thea is the simplest of all his loved ones, in that she's simply trying to figure out who she is, how to be happy with it and how to be that self, once she discovers it, in a world which seems to be quivering at the seams. Roy seems to be good for her, but Oliver can't help but wish that the boy wasn't so obsessed with his alter ego. Despite that, he has to admit, he is beginning to develop a highly-grudging respect for the kid's tenacity, perseverance and resourcefulness. Felicity is probably the only person he knows who isn't keeping secrets, but she's also one of the most inspiring, everything taken into account. She's not a survivor of the horrors of the island, like Sara and himself, so it makes sense for her to be as vulnerable as she is. Despite that, the way she's kept up with the rolling-punches has been nothing but a constant source of wonder. She's someone who has probably been most comfortable being behind the computer screen her entire life, and yet, she's somehow adjusted to their escapades, mentally at least, to the point that it seems to be a recurring theme for her to swoop in when Diggle and he are at their wits' end with trying to be in two places at one, and volunteer to do fieldwork. She needs to be trained more if she's going to keep doing that, which makes part of him wish she could just stay at Verdant and lead them from there, but then again, she wouldn't be likely to appreciate him treating her that way.

Fighting their mutual physical attraction to one another has been an uphill-struggle thus far, mostly because despite respecting, trusting and valuing her immensely as a friend, he can't seem to stop his temperature rising at her very common, inadvertent, very inappropriate and very… visual-thought-provoking innuendoes. Which can be very distracting in a very inconvenient way, especially when their out in the field. Memories of her words while in the underground casino keep popping up in his mind at the most perplexing times, and with very perplexing results, because a woman who looks that good in that tight a sheathe of a dress should not be capable of uttering the words "It feels so good to have you inside me" in certain situations, or rather, outside of certain situations, especially with certain people.

Being her boss and having these thoughts is bad enough, but being her friend, and being around her all the time while he has to work out, and having her ogle him, and "innuendo" him, and yet, help him and advise him while obviously being physically attracted to him and never acting on it, is beginning to mess with his head just a little too often, with a slightly annoyingly increasing frequency. Him acting on it would just be beyond inexcusable, especially taking into consideration the effects it might have on their team, but the more he tries to put it out of his head, the deeper her words keep drilling it, over and over again. Not just her innuendoes either, but also her words concerning Isabel. The more he looks back on them, and most likely consequent of his lust-addled, the more her words are skewed into something he's not sure she meant to imply. Did she mean herself? It's Felicity, obviously she didn't. Her immense modesty about everything except for her tech-skills, as well her obvious lack of awareness regarding how gorgeous she is, negates any possibility of that. But he knows, even if she did, said-modesty is a reminder that she probably has no idea how little he deserves her. But she would figure it out if they got involved, and he can't risk that either. Disappointing her, or even worse, driving her away, would be equivalent to literally snuffing out the light in a room that is the only thing keeping all of one's nightmares from coming true. While Diggle and he have figured out how to keep up the witty banter to lighten up the mood when they're at Verdant, Felicity is this sort-of… ray of sunshine that, while sweeping through, decided to make itself at home. Her hope, quirkiness and wit make it so much easier to step in there, in a way he didn't think was possible after Tommy passed. And if anything, that's an indication of how dumb it would be to mess it up by acting on his attraction to her.