Chapter 7: What It Takes to Take That Step

A/N: I'm sorry this took some time to post. I've had a very busy couple of weeks at work and then helping my kid with his exams. But now it's up! And I know I said this was going to be the final chapter, but I decided not to end the story with a chapter that is twice as long as every other chapter in this fic, so I split up the finale into two chapters, each within the word limit that I've originally set. So, there's going to be another one after this. Enjoy!

Summary: It takes Felicity some time to process things, and Oliver waits in anticipation, until the day of Tommy and Laurel's wedding arrives.

"Dad?"

William looks up at his father but does not get an answer, so the four-year-old boy tugs at his father's sleeve near where the cuff link sparkles against his charcoal grey tux.

Oliver is oblivious to his surroundings. He has been for the last ten minutes or so. While the minister gives a mini sermon on marriage, Oliver's attention has been captured by the maid-of-honor that stands on the other side of the altar, holding the bride's beautiful bouquet. In a bright red, halter-type gown with a low-back lace bodice and a flowing, floor-length chiffon skirt that flared down from her waist, the woman he loves looks stunningly breath-taking. Her hair is held up in an up-do by hair pins ornately embellished with Swarovski crystals, with some of her golden curls falling loosely down her nape. Oliver can't even begin to imagine what it would be like if she were wearing the same dress in white and standing beside him as his bride, just as Tommy and Laurel are standing side by side today.

It is time for the bride and groom to exchange vows, and the rings are needed. William is well aware of his cue and doesn't need anyone's prompting, but his father is quite another story.

"Dad, the rings," the boy tells his father.

Oliver is startled by his son's prodding. "Huh?" He looks down at his son, unsure of what is happening.

"Rings, Dad!" William says it again, holding out to him the silk-and-lace-covered pillow on which a pair of silver wedding bands rested.

"Oh, yes. Thank you, William."

Those who care enough to notice smile and chuckle, John Diggle included, as Oliver's nervous fingers untie the ribbons to retrieve the rings. It takes him a while, but when he finally succeeds, he brings them over to the minister. Everyone is relieved.

When Oliver returns to his spot on Tommy's side of the altar, he gives his full attention to the vows recited by the minister and repeated by Tommy and Laurel. It isn't the first wedding he's attended, but it is the first time he seriously and soberly listens to the promises exchanged between the bride and groom. He thinks the words are beautiful, and he wonders if he'll ever get to say them to the woman standing a few feet away from him. She deserves 100% sincerity in every word, and he intends to spend every day of the rest of his life trying to fulfill his vows… if only she'll give him a chance and trust him with her heart.

Oliver and Felicity have seen each other every day at the office and every weekend at the mansion in the last three weeks after Tommy and Laurel's wedding announcement. They've talked a few times, mainly about QC business and the wedding preps. They survived the wedding rehearsal and the dinner that followed. All the while they've been cordial and courteous, but they haven't really talked about the elephant in the room.

"I'm not saying never, Oliver… about the talk. I'm just… not quite there yet," Felicity had said to Oliver that one time when he tried to bring up the subject. She had stayed up with him and William watching a Star Wars marathon, and had helped him tuck the boy to bed after having fallen asleep on her lap on the couch. Oliver had caught her gently by the wrist just as she was closing the door of William's room and asked her when she thought would be a good time to discuss things between them.

"Take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere," Oliver had said to her. Felicity had simply smiled, thanked him for understanding, said 'good night' and left.

Truth be told, Felicity already knows what she needs to tell him. What she's unsure of is if she really wants to. She knows that what they feel for each other is real, and that their love for each other is just as real. But what she's afraid of is that it might not last. Her mother's true love stories have both been cut short – the first, by her biological father leaving them without so much as a warning or farewell, and the second, by her stepfather's very early passing.

Her own love story had been a fairy tale. Cooper Seldon had been a mere distraction, someone to keep her mind and heart occupied during her free time, when she wasn't slaving away for hours on end to finish her bachelor's degree at MIT at the top of her class. More than she would care to admit, she knows – at the back of her mind – that she was only in the relationship so that she wouldn't have time to sulk in self-pity that Oliver has, time and again, chosen to be with Laurel Lance. She'd figured it out years ago, but she hadn't had the heart to tell him that "he and Laurel" was like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. She certainly hadn't had the courage to tell him how much she loved him, because even back then she couldn't admit it to herself.

Unknown to Felicity, the only reason that Oliver had tried to get back together with Laurel for the nth time – even when he had already realized that he had feelings for Felicity – was that he had found out about Felicity and Cooper. On her junior year when she came home from Boston for the holidays, she had brought Cooper along and introduced her boyfriend to her family. Oliver had been devastated, more than he would care to admit or realize. It had been the first time he had felt jealous of any guy because of Felicity, but he had justified his very emotional reaction as just a "very serious concern for his step-sister's well-being." He hadn't even felt jealous of any guy because of Laurel.

It was too bad Felicity hadn't known Oliver's true feelings for her then; it was worse that Oliver hadn't completely understood how he truly felt about her. John Diggle had, perhaps even Donna and Robert, but they didn't dare get in the way. These three persons closest to them had not discussed what was obvious, but they each had hoped that one day, Oliver and Felicity would come to their senses and find their way to each other. Robert Queen's dying wish for Felicity to come home and help run QC had been his last-ditch effort to bridge the gap between his son and his step-daughter. Too bad he had not lived long enough to see that he would have succeeded.

Felicity's relationship with Cooper had been just as problematic as Oliver's had been with Laurel. They'd gone on and off until her final year in her master's program. She had broken up with Cooper permanently when he had tried to force her to use her hacking skills for illegal hacktivism, and he had taken it hard. She was supposed to call Oliver to vent her pent-up emotions about the break up, but then Laurel had called her first and had broken down in angry tears over the phone about how Oliver had cheated on her with her own sister.

It had been easy to replace Cooper with another distraction, especially since she had also been dealing with the hurt that Oliver had caused. Billy Malone, a detective with the Boston police department, had been really nice at first. The man wasn't half as intelligent as Cooper, but he was caring and thoughtful like Oliver had become – exactly what she had needed at the time. Soon, however, Billy had started to get on her nerves. He'd begun to be clingy and overprotective, and that had turned her off. When she had turned him down and told him that they should stop dating, Billy had asked her to give him another chance, saying that the cop side of him was simply making him unreasonably clingy and overprotective of her. Felicity, of course, knew better and declined. She had known Quentin Lance for years, and she had never seen him treat either of his daughters the way Billy had been treating her in the past couple of months she'd known him. Billy had been only one step away from behaving like the lacrosse player that had stalked her in college.

Ray Palmer had been another story. Her boss at Palmer Tech was nice, brilliant, and generous, but they were way too much alike for them to work. They'd been like two repelling poles of magnets. She really liked her job in his company, and she would always thank her for giving her that first major break in her career, but that was it. She had let him down easy, and they had become really good friends afterwards. It hadn't been hard for her to resign, telling him that she wanted to take the position that Walter Steele had been offering her at Queen Consolidated at her late step-father's request. Ray had been supportive of her decision and had let her go with his blessing.

Felicity is too brilliant not to realize after all these years that the only person she could truly be happy with was, is, and will always be Oliver Queen. She's just not brave enough to act on it. It's quite understandable for someone who has had to deal with parent abandonment issues for almost her entire life, and who has had to heal from a heart broken by the first boyfriend she had dared put her trust in.

When Oliver asked her that night outside William's bedroom if they could discuss her response to his revelations over dinner a couple of weeks ago, she was still not ready to face the music. She appreciated that he didn't push her, but she knew she would have to, and soon.

An opportunity presented itself at the wedding rehearsal dinner when Tommy and Laurel asked Oliver and Felicity to stay behind and preview the wedding video montage that would be shown at the actual wedding reception, because the bride and groom had wanted it to be a surprise. Oliver and Felicity obliged, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to humor their friends, but seeing the pictures and videos of their friends sent them on a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Felicity teared up halfway through the video, especially when she saw shots of herself and Oliver with their friends.

One picture in particular caused her first tears to fall. It was the one where Laurel, Sara, Tommy, Oliver, and her had gone down to Los Angeles for the weekend some years ago and spent a day at Disneyland and another at Universal Studios. They had gone on the Jurassic Park ride, which hadn't been as scary as Tommy made out to be, until the 40-foot drop at the end that sent their car splashing into the water at the bottom. The picture was the taken by the ride's camera midway down the drop, and Tommy had bought it as a souvenir. In the picture, Oliver is seated between Laurel and Felicity. It hadn't dawned on her before that just as their car dropped, Oliver had clung to his best friend for dear life instead of to his girlfriend. Felicity, in turn, had her arms wrapped around his, and her head had been buried in his chest, with her mouth wide open for a scream. The candid shot was an eye opener.

Oliver was watching her reaction to the video montage, and when her first tears rolled down her cheek, he pulled out his handkerchief and offered it to her.

"Thanks," Felicity said to him as she removed her glasses to wipe her tears away. "Those were the good old days. I guess, I just miss them."

"Me, too," Oliver responded, taking the white handkerchief that she handed back to him.

"We sure had good memories," she remarked with a shy smile.

"Yeah, we did," he replied. "You know… we can still make some more, you and I."

They gazed at each other for a minute in complete silence, and this time, it was Oliver whose eyes pooled with tears. Oliver thought this was a good time to ask Felicity if she was ready to talk. The same thought crossed her mind, but when he made a move to touch her hand that was resting on her knee, she flinched and pulled away.

"Oliver…"

"What's wrong?" he asked. Expectant. Confused. Disappointed.

"Not tonight. But soon," she promised, in a whisper that he still heard loud and clear.

Oliver has held on to that promise. The problem is, Felicity hasn't made good on it, even as they sat beside each other at the table for the wedding entourage in the ballroom of the Merlyn mansion. It has been awkward for both of them all day, especially now in the wedding reception.

Earlier when Oliver saw Felicity coming down the staircase at Merlyn mansion in her stunning red gown, he couldn't breathe. He was absolutely enthralled by her, just as much as she was captivated by him that she tripped one step away from the bottom of the stairs and lost her balance. He caught her, of course, and steadied her back on her feet. Their bodies were too close for their sanity, their lips just mere inches away.

"Are you okay?" Oliver asked with concern.

Felicity took in the intoxicating scent of his cologne and was unable to answer him immediately. All she could feel was the gentle, warm touch of his hand on her arm and his other hand supporting the small of her back. All she could think of was how irresistibly attractive he was.

"I… I think so," she finally answered. She managed a small smile and joked, "I blame these heels that Laurel picked out for me." They both chuckled.

Oliver guided her out to the garden where the ceremony was taking place. Fortunately, there were no more mishaps throughout the processional, but the awkwardness between them remained.

Felicity does not know if she could last the entire evening with Oliver staring at her like that. Like he adored everything about her. Like he is ready to give her the moon and the stars if she asks for them. Like he isn't going to give up until she tells him exactly how she feels about how he feels about her.

She knows that after everything that's happened between them, he deserves an explanation, an answer at the very least.

Felicity listens to Oliver deliver his best man's speech, awed by how much her best friend has indeed changed and become the admirable and honorable man that he is. By the time he offers the first toast to the newlyweds, she's decided what her answer is going to be. It's about time she takes that step.

And it's the maid-of-honor's turn to speak after all.

A/N: I hope the suspense isn't killing you, and that you're still willing to wait another week or two for the HEA that's coming up. ;-)

Thank you, all of you wonderful people who have taken time to read this, especially those who have clicked Kudos and leave comments. Keep 'em coming! I appreciate you!