A/N: I know guys, I know. I suck at updating. I have been having a few personal problems that has prevented me from writing lately. But they seem to be resolving slowly. So I'm here with a brand new chapter for you, I really hope you enjoy because I loved writing this one. After this, there will be two more chapters and then that will be the end of the story. Thank you for your continuing support, I can't express fully what it really means to me. I love you all :D

Chapter Ten

Sitting in front of his computers in the Foundry, Oliver cursed and slammed his fist down on the desk. How hard could it be to find one person? He'd been trying for over an hour and he couldn't find any record of her at the airport, no flights booked… nothing.

Trying to reign in his temper, he stood and stretched out his back. But the tightness in his chest only grew worse. Where was she? A fleeting thought occurred to him that maybe Cooper had given him false information in order to protect Felicity. But he quickly dismissed that. Cooper seemed like a genuine guy. Sure, he had a crush on Felicity, but he seemed to want what was best for her.

With a low growl, he sat back down, this time to try a different approach. The more time he wasted, the more time she had to get further away from him. He couldn't let that happen.

Footsteps coming down the stairs alerted him to Diggle's arrival. Oliver kept working, not even glancing up as he reached the last step and began walking towards him.

"Hey, man. What are you doing here so early? Did you spend the night here again?"

Oliver flicked a quick glance at the box of donuts that he placed next to him on the desk but he made no move to take one.

Diggle sighed heavily. "Oliver, when is this going to stop? It's been weeks, man. You can't keep throwing yourself into work to avoid your problems."

"I'm not," he replied distractedly.

"You're so full of crap."

That got his attention. He glared up at his bodyguard, who was also one of his closest friends. "Excuse me?"

"Felicity! When are you going to forgive her?"

"Digg, listen-"

"No, I don't want to hear your self-pity crap, Oliver. That girl doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Deep down, you know that. None of this is her fault; she didn't want to deceive anybody. She wanted to tell the truth but she didn't know how."

Oliver's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How do you know that?"

For the first time since starting his tirade, Diggle faltered. "She's… well she's too nice. She doesn't deserve you freezing her out like this. She was only trying to spare your family the pain of the truth."

Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. "You knew, didn't you?"

"What?"

"You knew that she wasn't really Tommy's fiancée."

Diggle scoffed, but his eyes told Oliver all he needed to know. "That's ridiculous, man."

Oliver didn't even give him a chance to deny it. "How long did you know?"

Diggle dropped his gaze to the ground, and Oliver knew that he knew he wasn't going to win this. "Since the first night. She came back to the hospital early in the morning and she didn't realise I was there. She talked to Tommy, told him that she was sorry."

"Oh my God." Oliver threw his hands up in the air and turned his back, unsure how to feel about this new development. He could feel the familiar anger starting to gnaw at him.

"She was panicking, Oliver. The poor girl had no idea what to do."

Oliver whirled around and pointed a finger at him. "And what did you do? Did you tell anyone else? No. Why not?"

He could see the anger starting to swirl in his friend's eyes, but he refused to back down. This could have all been avoided if he'd spoken up that night.

"You want the truth?" he asked, stepping forward into Oliver's space. "Fine. You weren't there that night, when your mother and sister were so devastated. We thought Moira was going to have another heart attack because she was so distraught. When she found out who Felicity was, she was so happy that Tommy had found someone. She didn't even question it."

"She should have," Oliver grumbled, remembering the way his mother's eyes lit up when she first spoke about Felicity.

"Maybe, but that's not the point I'm making. Felicity gave Moira something she hasn't had for a long time. Hope. Your mother felt like she finally had her son back. In the face of all that, Felicity didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. And neither did I."

Oliver shook his head. "So… what? You just let her carry on lying to everyone?"

"It wasn't like that. I went to her apartment, and I told her that I knew. If you'd seen her face, Oliver, you would've done the same thing I did. She apologised and told me that she was going to tell the truth the next day."

Diggle sucked in a breath, as if preparing himself. "I told her not to say a thing. So if you want to blame someone, blame me. She doesn't deserve it."

Oliver's patience snapped. He surged forward, getting right up in Diggle's face. "What the hell were you thinking? Where was your loyalty?"

"I was trying to repair what you broke when Tommy found out about your secret!" he yelled back.

Oliver stumbled back a step. "What?"

Diggle sighed and sat down on the corner of the desk. "Felicity wasn't a bad person, Oliver. She wasn't out for your family's money or fame. She just got caught up in something that she couldn't control. I wanted to help her, and I wanted to help your family. When Tommy woke up and couldn't remember her, I thought that was the perfect way out."

Oliver felt his anger start to deflate a little as he sat down in the chair and listened.

"I thought that if Tommy couldn't remember her, he could just break up with her and that would be it. They could go their separate ways and nobody had to get hurt."

As much as he didn't want to, Oliver did see the logic in that. But that wasn't what happened. "So how did he end up proposing to her instead? And why the hell did she accept?"

Diggle stiffened, his eyes focusing on something beyond Oliver's shoulder. "I might've talked him into it."

Oliver shook his head, sure that he wasn't hearing correctly. "I'm sorry… might've?"

The older man shrugged. "Like I said, I wanted to help them both. I thought that she could be really good for him. And if he took the time to get to know her, he'd soon fall for her. It's impossible not to."

Didn't he know it? How many times had he berated himself for falling for what he'd thought was his brother's girl? How many times had he tried to tell himself that it was nothing but curiosity? But there was no denying the fact that he had fallen for her… hard. There was just something about her.

"Look, man, for what it's worth, I'm sorry. But you didn't see the pain in her eyes when I went to her apartment. She looked so… alone. I couldn't bear to see her like that."

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut tight. He didn't want to let Diggle off the hook so easily. What he did was wrong, perhaps worse than what Felicity had done. He tried to hold onto his anger, but it slipped through his grasp, leaving a mild irritation in its place.

"I never expected the two of you to click. It never occurred to me. But I'm not sorry that it happened, because you two could be happy together."

"And how could you possibly know that?" Oliver countered.

"You're the only one who's taken it this hard, man. Yes, I understand that everyone was angry with her, but I talked to your Mom yesterday and she doesn't hold any resentment towards Felicity. Thea either. But you, you felt betrayed, didn't you?"

Raising his gaze to the ceiling, Oliver shook his head. "What else was I supposed to feel? I spent the past two weeks telling myself that these feelings… whatever they were, weren't real. That I was betraying Tommy somehow. Then I find out that I could've taken that chance all along."

"But if this hadn't happened… you'd never have met her."

Oliver was well aware of that, and the thought of not knowing Felicity left a sour taste in his mouth. It was crazy, she'd only been in their lives a short time, but he couldn't imagine her not being there. She'd told him she loved him, in front of his entire family. That had to have been terrifying for her, but she'd done it. She'd admitted to everyone what he didn't even have the nerve to admit to himself.

Diggle, obviously mistaking his silence for something else, carried on. "You have every right to be mad at me, and I'll take it, but don't keep blaming her."

"I don't."

"Excuse me?"

Lifting his head, he met Diggle's surprised gaze. "I don't blame her. At least, not anymore. Yes, I was angry with her, I don't think I've ever felt anything like it. And yes, I felt betrayed. But I don't feel that way anymore."

He leaned forward in his chair. "Look, I'm not happy about what you did, but I can understand… at least a little… why you did it."

Diggle smiled. "I'll take it. And again, I'm sorry. But you know, if you two got together, if something good came out of this whole mess, I'd call that a win."

Oliver returned his attention to the computer screen, not quite ready to laugh about it just yet. "Well, that would mean I would have to find her first."

Diggle frowned. "What do you mean?"

"She quit QC. Tommy came by to tell me and to give me his blessing, weirdly enough. She's leaving the city, Digg."

Diggle shot up off the desk. "Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go get her!"

"I tried. I went to her apartment and Cooper told me she'd already left. He said she was catching a flight but he didn't know where to. I've been trying to pin down a location ever since," he said, pointing to the screen that still held no useful information.

Diggle nudged his shoulder. "Move, I'll find her. I swear, how did you manage to get stuff done before I joined your crusade?"

This time, Oliver did smile. "I just did it the old fashioned way. Fear and intimidation."

Diggle quickly got to work, bringing up a new search program that Oliver had never seen before. "Well, your girl left us the best way of finding her."

Hope flared in his chest as he watched Diggle's fingers fly across the keyboard. "That's Felicity's program?"

"Sure is."

He felt a surge of pride as he finally came to realise just how much Felicity had done for him. She'd changed everything. And not just with his computers. With his heart too.

"There she is!" Diggle said, pointing at the screen. Oliver leaned over his shoulder to get a closer look at the security footage. Right there, in the middle of the airport lounge, sat Felicity. His heart sank as he took in her posture. She looked so defeated, so small, and sad. That was his fault. She was leaving her job, her home, everything she'd come to love, because of him. He had to make it right.

"Where is she going?" he asked, his fingers rubbing furiously against his thumb.

"Says here…" Diggle squinted at the screen, "…she just purchased two one-way tickets, two different destinations."

"She has no idea where to go." Oliver's heart sank a little more. "She's not leaving, she's running away."

Diggle abruptly spun the chair around. "Go get her, Oliver."

Prying his eyes away from the screen, Oliver nodded and turned to head for the stairs.

"And don't screw this up, man. If you hurt her again, you won't have to worry about the criminals in this city. I'll take you down myself."

Ignoring the idle threat, Oliver grabbed his motorcycle helmet and raced up the stairs. He had no idea where she would decide to go, so that meant he didn't know how much time he had to get there.

Kicking his bike into action, he sped off, praying that he would catch her in time.

Felicity hated waiting around. Hated it with every fibre of her being. So sitting in the waiting lounge of the airport was not something she cared to do. But right now, it was where she needed to be. She had to get out of this city. There were too many painful reminders everywhere she looked. She had no one to blame but herself, she'd lost everything because of her own actions, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

She couldn't really blame Oliver for ignoring her. As tough as he liked to appear to be, she was willing to bet that deep down he was hurt. Angry mostly, but hurt too. She just wished that he would've let her explain, apologise… whatever. It didn't matter anymore. He'd obviously decided that he wanted nothing to do with her, so what was really keeping her here?

As she sat tapping her foot against the floor, she stared down at her tickets. One on each knee, two different places, and she had no idea which one to pick. It didn't really matter, she guessed, she had no one at either end to meet her. She could go wherever she wanted. She had toyed with the idea of going back to Las Vegas to see her mother, but decided that would be just as painful. Especially if her mother didn't want to see her.

So she'd chosen two destinations at random and hoped that she could find some way to live her life again.

Someone nudged the back of her chair, and she turned around to see a little boy, no older than five or so, lying on the row of seats behind her. He was clearly bored, wiggling his legs around, and hating waiting as much as Felicity did. She could sympathise with him on that.

A young woman, evidently the boy's mother, spotted what he was doing and gave her an apologetic glance before reprimanding him. Felicity shook her head and smiled, watching as the woman grabbed his hand and walked away. They stopped in front of a man who was holding a baby, and Felicity felt her heart squeeze painfully as he lowered his head to capture the woman's lips in a gentle kiss.

With a sigh, she turned back around, wishing, just once, that she could have her own family like that. They just looked so happy. She prided herself on being a strong, independent woman, and for the most part, she was. But late at night, when the thoughts started to creep in, she wondered what it was about her that made her so hard to love.

Blinking fast to dispel the tears she could feel coming, Felicity glanced down at her tickets. "Eenie, meenie, miny, mo…"

"I guess that's where I'm going then," she said to herself as her finger landed on the Chicago ticket. She didn't know what she would do in Chicago, having never been there before, but it seemed as good a place as any to start over. After checking the departure gate and time, Felicity stood, grabbed her suitcase, and stepped out into the main atrium.

The departure lounge was almost full by the time she got there, so she took the only remaining seat by the doorway and tucked her case in between her legs. She let out a deep sigh as she leaned her head back against the wall behind her and closed her eyes. Was she doing the right thing? Uprooting her entire life to go to a place she'd never even visited before?

Starting fresh seemed like a good idea, but could she really do it alone? Sure, she'd been alone when she'd first arrived in Starling too, but as time had gone on, she'd created a few wonderful friends at Queen Consolidated. Starling was a big city, what were the chances of her running into Oliver?

She scoffed at herself; of course the chances were high. The Queen family was one of the most talked about in the entire city, nothing about them went unnoticed. If she stayed, the press would soon find her, even if the Queens didn't. No, she couldn't stay here, and not only because she no longer had a job. But going to a new city? That was scary.

As the nagging thoughts continued to assault her, Felicity wondered if maybe Vegas wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Where is she, Digg?" Oliver asked breathlessly as he ran through the airport. It had taken much longer to get here than he'd thought and his stomach twisted at the realisation that he might not make it in time.

"I don't know, man. Give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute." Oliver heard the clacking of keys through his comm link as he raced through the main atrium. "Diggle!"

"I got her! She just checked in… oh."

Oliver came to a dead stop as Diggle went silent. "What?"

"She's going to Chicago, Oliver. You need to move, that flight is boarding as we speak."

Pinching his nose in frustration, Oliver growled. "Which gate?"

"Three B. Hurry!"

Glancing at the signs around him, Oliver looked for the right one and quickly took off in that direction. He had to be on time, he had to be. There was no other option.

By the time he reached the departure lounge, it was empty, and the clerk was just closing the door that led down to the plane.

Deflated, he stopped in the middle of the room and braced his hands on his knees. "She's gone, Digg."

"You missed her? Dammit, Oliver!"

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut tight, his hammering heart now racing for a different reason. Felicity was gone. Turning towards the window, he watched as the airplane began reversing away from the terminal. Everything he'd never knew he needed was on that plane. Touching his forehead to the cool glass, he closed his eyes and thought about his next move. He couldn't just let her fly out of his life. He had to find her. That meant following her to Chicago. But how on earth would he find her once he was there?

He stayed where he was for a few more minutes, watching as the plane began its descent down the runway, taking his heart along with it.

"Excuse me? Has somebody, by any chance, handed a purse in? It's silver with a panda bear on the front of it."

Oliver froze; too afraid to turn around for fear that his mind was playing tricks on him. But his breath hitched as he caught her reflection in the window. Felicity. She was still here.

The clerk smiled and reached under her desk. "I wondered if you'd come back, I was just about to look through it and see if there was a contact number. You're lucky I saw it. Here you go."

Oliver watched her reflection as she hugged the purse to her chest, smiling at how adorable the action was.

"Oh, thank you so much! You are a lifesaver! I was just about to buy another ticket, which I am going to have to line up for again now… ugh! Never mind, thank you again."

She was buying another ticket? Where to? No. He was not going to let that happen.

He turned around at the same time she did, and waited for her to notice him. The second her eyes landed on him, her entire body froze as if she'd just walked into an invisible wall. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

Oliver stepped towards her slowly, one hand reaching out to… what? Hold her? Hug her? He wanted to do both, but he didn't know how she was going to react. "Felicity…"

Still holding her purse to her chest, Felicity blinked a few times, and he could see the effort she was making to get her thoughts under control. "Oliver, what are you doing here?"

He paused right in front of her, scared to move closer, afraid that she might turn away. Because although some might understand his actions and see them as justified, he couldn't deny that ignoring her for the past few weeks without allowing her a chance to explain was a little cowardly. He frowned down at her, unsure where to start. "You're… you're leaving?"

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she nodded but kept her eyes fixed on a point behind his head. "It's what I need to do right now, Oliver."

He didn't accept that, but decided to keep his mouth shut. "But Chicago?"

She grimaced, and Oliver tried not to notice how cute her expression was when her nose wrinkled up like that. "I changed my mind. I'm going… somewhere else."

"Where?"

This time, she met his eyes as she frowned. "What are you doing here, Oliver? Did you come to make sure that I'm really going? Because you don't have to worry, I won't ever bother your family again."

"No! That's not what I meant." He sighed in frustration because his words just weren't coming out right. "I came here to talk."

She looked sceptical, and he couldn't exactly blame her. He had shown up unexpectedly after weeks of silence. "What is there to talk about? You made your feelings perfectly clear the last time I saw you."

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets to stop himself reaching out for her.

"What for? You had every right to be angry, Oliver. I don't blame you. I'm just so confused, because you showing up here was the last thing I ever expected to happen. How did you even know where I was anyway?"

"Tommy. He came to see me. He told me you were leaving and I… I couldn't let that happen. So I went to your apartment and Cooper told me where you were."

Felicity's eyes widened slightly. "You couldn't let that happen? What changed?"

"I did," he answered honestly. "When Tommy told me that you'd quit your job and were leaving the city, I didn't know how to feel. But I knew that I didn't want you to go."

Wanting her to see how serious he was, Oliver reached out and pried one of her hands off her purse, squeezing it tightly in his. "I was angry, Felicity. I can't deny that-"

"Like I said, you had every right to be."

"Please, let me finish," he said softly, and she nodded for him to continue. "I was angry with you; I couldn't understand why a person would do what you did. I got lost in that anger; I allowed it to control me. I spent the past few weeks living in the Foundry, going out every night to find crime. That was all I could focus on. I hardly went home, and when I did, it was only to shower and change my clothes. I distanced myself from Thea, my mom, even Tommy."

Felicity looked at him with a pained expression. "I'm so sorry, Oliver."

"When Tommy told me you were leaving, I realised something. All that anger, it wasn't because you lied. Because deep down, I knew that you weren't a bad person. It was because I…"

"Because you what?" she asked when he fell silent.

He stared into her eyes, and the vulnerability he saw there floored him. "Because I wasn't sure if anything we had was real or if it had all been in my imagination."

His heart sank when she pulled her hand out of his and stood back. But then she placed her purse into her suitcase and took his hand back between both of hers. "Oliver, I meant what I said that day at your house. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never planned it and I never imagined that you could return those feelings. I always knew that once the truth came out, I would never be able to fix it."

He opened his mouth to speak but she held a hand up to stop him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I did what I did. I never meant for it to go that far, but your family became important to me. You became important to me. I just didn't want to let go of that. It was so nice to finally be a part of a real family."

"I know that it was selfish and I hurt a lot of people, but I need you to know that I never planned to become Tommy's fiancée. It just all happened so quickly and I got scared. The deeper I got, the harder it was to tell the truth."

"Felicity," he whispered, placing his other hand on her shoulder. "I understand."

"You do? Because honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you hated me right now."

"I don't think I could ever hate you." Tilting his head, he smiled down at her. "But I understand what it's like to be alone. Look, I know that you didn't plan this, and I know that you never wanted anyone to get hurt. But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You were hurting, Felicity. I could see it in your eyes. I always assumed it was because you were worried about Tommy but I found myself wanting to do anything to erase that look. To see you smile."

Felicity swallowed hard, her eyes focusing on their joined hands pressed against his chest. "I've been alone for a long time, Oliver. I'm used to that. What you saw was guilt. I hated what I was doing, but what made me feel worse was the way I felt about you."

He frowned at her words. "What do you mean?"

Slowly, she raised her eyes to his. "Your family took me in; they showed me what it was like to be loved. They talked about Tommy constantly, supporting me through his coma because they believed we were together. They were amazing, and the entire time I felt awful, because I was falling in love with Tommy's brother."

She squeezed his hand in both of hers. "I never expected that to happen, Oliver. It came out of the blue, but I will never regret it. Even if you never felt the same, the way I felt about you was the best part of my life."

Oliver's heart lurched in his chest. He'd heard the words before, but he'd been too shocked and angry at the time to really take them in. And in the weeks since then, he'd allowed his fear to take root and grow. Fear that what had happened between them had been in his imagination. That maybe he'd read too much into the situation.

Hearing her say that she loved him again, it felt amazing. For her to think that he might not feel the same was abhorrent to him.

Letting go of her hand, Oliver traced his palms up her arms, over her shoulders and up to cup her face. "I love you, Felicity."

Eyes widening, Felicity sucked in a sharp breath. "Really? Because we haven't known each other very long, and I know that we spent a lot of time together, but-"

He chuckled as he smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks, cutting off what was sure to be the start of another ramble. "I love you. I don't know when exactly it happened. Maybe it was when I drove you home that night, or when we fell over on the ice and you laughed so freely. Maybe it was a hundred little things that you did, I don't know. But I do know two things. I know that you are remarkable; you saved my life that night in the Foundry. You helped me instead of just turning me in to the cops."

He watched, transfixed as her cheeks flushed. "And uh… the second thing?"

"The second thing I know, without a doubt, is that I'm in love with you, Felicity Smoak."

A tiny little eep sound erupted from her as he lowered his head, his mouth capturing hers with an intensity that surprised him. Her hands grasped onto the sleeves of his jacket, wrapping around his wrists. Oliver had never in his life, felt anything like this. Her lips so soft and warm against his, the way she tilted her head just slightly, so that their mouths fit perfectly together.

Deepening the kiss, Oliver sucked her lower lip between his, revelling in the warmth of her tongue as it swept across his upper lip. As her grip on his wrists tightened, all the pain and anger of the past few weeks melted away. Everything that had happened, how she had come to be in his life, none of that mattered anymore. Because he finally had her in his arms, right where she belonged. He knew that as surely as he knew his own name.

When Oliver reluctantly pulled away, he catalogued each emotion as it crossed her expression. Pressing his forehead against hers, he tried to get his breathing under control.

"I love you," she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear.

He let go of her face and wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her flush up against his chest. "I love you, too."

But as he stared down at her, he could see the worry still lingering in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "What is your family going to think? I know that Tommy and Diggle are okay with me, but your Mom… and Thea. Oh God, Thea."

"Hey," he said softly, tightening his hold on her, "I really don't think you need to worry about that, Felicity."

"Are you sure?"

He took a deep breath and then placed a light kiss on her forehead. "I'm sure."

The worried look didn't totally disappear, but it did lessen, and Oliver knew that she would only feel better after she'd talked to his family.

"So uh… what now?" she asked.

"Now…" he said, letting go of her so that he could reach down to pick up her suitcase. "Now, we go home."

When she smiled at him, he felt like the luckiest man in the world. "I like the sound of that. You might have to help me look for a new apartment though; I gave my notice a week ago. I don't know if my landlord found a new tenant yet or not."

He chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist as they began walking towards the exit. "Considering how much of a crush Cooper has on you, I don't think that will be a problem."

"Cooper does not…" she sighed as he raised his eyebrows at her. "Fine, I guess he does. But hey, he said we were intimate once, right? So it should be fine."

Oliver rolled his eyes, feeling his cheeks heat in embarrassment at his own stupidity. "Are you ever going to let that go?"

With a laugh that felt like a balm to his battered soul, Felicity laced her fingers through his. "Maybe… in a few years or so."

Oliver pressed another kiss to her temple as they walked, unable to stop himself from doing so now that he could.

"I like the sound of that."

To Be Continued...