A/N: Hi guys! First of all, I want to apologize for the fact that I have been away for so long. There are two reasons for that: #1. It was end of term at my school and the teachers were piling on the tests, projects, and assignments so I barely had time to complete those let alone write this story. And #2. It was Spring Break for the last two weeks and my family went on a road trip from Las Vegas to Scottsdale so we had terrible wifi but got home last night so I decided to write a chapter and upload it today.

Second of all, I would like to thank those of you who like/follow/review this story. I really means a lot! SO THANK YOU!

Also, this story is rated M for a reason.

Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow or any of the characters, only this plot.

The Fire Inside: Chapter 4

While Oliver waited for her to emerge from the bathroom, he busied himself with organization. He washed and dried the few plates that were sitting in the sink as well as a wine glass that held her signature pink lipstick stained on the brim. Being in her home, it became abundantly clear to Oliver that while Felicity's brain always went a mile a minute, and sometimes got pretty jumbled, her home was the exact opposite. Everything had it's place, save for a few things that he guessed she had been using prior to this whole situation, and while there were some things that were scattered about, he knew that that was because of her lack of time to return them to their rightful place.

Being in her home felt so domestic and so unfamiliar, yet so right. He imagined being in the same situation, only under different circumstances. Him still doing the dinner dishes, but only because it was her turn to cook dinner that night, and they always rotate turns. He imagined them curled up on the couch, him on his side with her tucked into him, all wrapped up in a blanket. Some TV show that she loved would be playing and she would be trying to get him to love it while he humoured her, but honestly had no clue what was going on because while he tried, he couldn't keep his attention focused on anything but her. In the end, the show would be abandoned in favour of kissing and cuddling.

When he ran out of things to organize, he sat back down into the couch and leaned back into the white, purple and silver pillows that matched the walls. Sighing, he put his head in his hands. This drug needed to be ended, now. The only problem was that they still didn't have much to go on. A nickname for the drug and a guess that it was being supplied at most clubs didn't really give them much to go on. They could stake out clubs, but there were a lot of clubs in Starling and chances are, the deliverers were just that — deliverers. Anyways, it would take far too long and Oliver wanted the person who put Felicity in this position loaded with his arrows as soon as possible. He would kill the man who drugged Felicity, but what he really wanted was to make sure the supplier was dead in a ditch. It may have been inadvertently his fault, but fault was still fault and guilty was still guilty. He needed to call Diggle and ask him to set up a tracker.

Oliver pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped his humber into the pad. He waited through three rings before it occurred to him that it was almost one in the morning. He was about to hang up when Diggle picked up.

"Oliver? Man, what's going on? It's one a.m." His voice was deep and gravelly from sleep.

"John! It's Felicity, she's been drugged. She called me about 45 minutes ago and I picked her up. We're at her apartment now." Oliver replied.

"Oliver, it's not…Fire is it?"

"Yeah, it is." He sighed and heard Diggle let out quite the colourful string of curse words on the other end. "Yeah, I know. That was pretty much my reaction."

"Is she okay? I mean, aside from the obvious?" Diggle asked.

"Honestly, John, I don't know. She's strong, you know that. Probably stronger than both of us, but we both know that she'll come out of this mortified and she'll want to act like it never happened. And that's not good for anyone. I would know."

"You know that you might have to…"

"Yeah, I know."

"Oliver, you know that she—" Diggle was cut off.

"Look John, I don't want a lecture. I don't think I can take it right now."

"I was going to say, that I'm glad that Felicity has you in her life. Take care of her and call me if you need anything."

"Okay. Will you go to the foundry tomorrow morning and do what you can to find and track the guy who drugged her?"

"Yeah, okay. Now go take care of our girl, Oliver." Oliver nodded as the line went dead.

As Oliver sat there, trying to figure how to track this son of a bitch down, it occurred to him that the shower was still running. He had completely expected her to have a long shower, but it had been forty minutes. The water must have run cold by now. When Oliver heard soft cries rather than the moans he had been pretending not to hear since he arrived, he was up and off of the sofa and in a matter of seconds, crossing the room and letting himself into her bedroom. Her ensuite bathroom was to his right upon entering and he didn't waste time in letting his presence be known. When he banged on the door, called her name and received no reply, he tried the door handle. Oliver was relieved to find it unlocked because he really wasn't looking forward to having to break the door down. He slowly opened the door just a crack, enough that he wasn't invading her privacy but he could still talk to her without yelling.

"Felicity? Are you alright?" Oliver questioned, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. It would only serve to scare her more. When he was met only with crying after his third attempt at trying to catch her attention, he opened the door further. He now had a full view of her bathroom, and the bright blue walls did not surprise him in the slightest. What upset him though, was the outline against the foggy glass that he knew to be her. The bathroom was filled with steam and Oliver felt the temperature difference the moment he opened the door. When he turned his gaze upon the glass shower, it's walls enthralled by steam, he could only make out Felicity's figure by its dark silhouette against the contrasting light of the bathroom. She was on the floor of her shower, rather than standing, and she was curled in on herself, crying softly.

Oliver didn't even think before grabbing the fluffiest white towel on the rack, yanking open the shower door and stepping inside, careful to avoid the, as he suspected, cold water. Hanging the towel over the side of the glass, he bent down and picked up her naked form, before freeing one hand and grabbing the towel. He careful maneuvered her so he could wrap the towel around her shivering body. He carried her easily, and with his more accessible hand, he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Oliver was upset that she was put in this position, he was upset that he was in this position, and now, more than ever, he wanted to catch this son of a bitch. This was so far from how he'd wanted to first see her naked. Instead, he would have taken her out on a date, not their first date because he wanted to take it slow, to not screw it up. They wouldn't have gone somewhere super fancy, but it wouldn't be like Big Belly Burger. Maybe some hole in the wall place that nobody really knew about but was absolutely amazing. He drive her home and walk her up to her apartment and she'd invite him in. One thing would lead to another, and he'd be worshipping her body, making her writhe in ecstasy. He'd drive her wild with desire, before going her a mind blowing orgasm. It wouldn't be like this, he wouldn't be forced upon her and she wouldn't be doing it as a last resort in order to save her body.

Instead, because the world was cruel, she'd been drugged and he was forced to watch as she struggled to end her discomfort.

A/N: Thanks for reading guys! Reviews/follows/ favs are super appreciated! I hope you have/had an awesome day :)

— EC