Oliver parked his motorcycle across the road from Big Belly Burger and switched off the engine. Sara had asked him if they could meet for lunch since there was something she wanted to discuss with him. Upon further probing she'd declined to say much over the phone and had instead exacted his promise to meet with her.

Glancing at his watch, he noted that he was about ten minutes early. Loosening the clip beneath his chin, he removed his helmet and absently ran a hand over his head as he gazed around disinterestedly. There were people milling around going about their daily lives, paying him no attention. Most were striding past purposefully, eager to get to their destinations, while others were talking on their cell phones or strolling by in the company of friends.

Placing his helmet in front of him, he looked across the street toward the entrance to the diner. The lunch crowd would have dispersed already, which he preferred. He hated dining in crowded or confined quarters. The one thing Lian Yu had made him used to was space, and lots of it.

About to hop off his bike, he spotted a familiar purple coat on the opposite side of the road. Felicity. He felt a wave of awareness wash over him at the sight of her. She was talking on her mobile, smiling at whomever was on the other end of the line. Seeing her made him pause. Under ordinary circumstances he would have strode up to her and asked what she was doing there. However, since their last encounter, he felt it best to practice more caution around her.

Dig's words to him had stung. He hated his best friend thinking that he was out to hurt Felicity's feelings; he wasn't. Well, he didn't know what it is that he wanted. For some reason, out of nowhere, the idea of Felicity actually seriously dating someone bothered him. Since the moment he'd recognized the beginnings of jealously clawing its way through him, he'd felt a desperate need to escape from it, to act as though it wasn't real. Except he hadn't been doing a very good job of that. If anything, he'd drawn more attention to it. So much so, that his family and friends were starting to ask questions that he couldn't answer. So was Sara.

Felicity wasn't just an employee, she was also a friend. Like Diggle, she was one of the only true friendships he had left. All the others were steeped in lies and secrets or a past that he could never quite escape. He trusted her completely and that dynamic added strength to their relationship. She called him on his hypocrisy, she kept him honest and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind – in her own rambling, yet courageous sort of way. Felicity may be shy and awkward at times, but she also possessed an inner strength and daring that he admired. She'd always been his quirky IT techie. The girl, who looked like a girl and acted like a girl, but who was more like one of the guys.

He smiled faintly, not sure that even made sense to him.

But things weren't that black and white to him anymore. There was a sensitivity he felt around her that had never been there before. Perhaps it was because his mind had never allowed him to think of her as anything other than a member of his team. If he'd noticed that she seemed to have a bit of a crush on him, he'd swept it aside and pretended it didn't exist. No harm done. He didn't need feelings and emotions getting in the way of his primary focus – fighting crime and saving lives.

But acting on any feelings he may have recently discovered was not an option. Not that he was really sure about what exactly he was feeling.

He shifted uncomfortably on his bike, admiring the way Felicity's blonde hair gleamed in the afternoon sunshine.

Or perhaps he just wasn't ready to put a label to them. Not when he'd fought so hard to keep his personal and his professional lives separate. Whoever he cared about was ultimately destined to end up hurt. Every relationship he'd ever had, he'd ruined to the point where it was barely salvageable at the end. The stakes had always been high - all or nothing. In the end, they'd walked away because he hadn't been able to give them what they'd needed. I couldn't save them.

Felicity…she was different. She wasn't Helena or McKenna or Laurel or even Sara. She wasn't damaged and in need of repair. She didn't need saving. The truth was that he didn't know how to be with anyone who didn't need him more than he needed them. So while he intellectually knew that he had no right to interfere in her personal life, that almost any other man would be ten times better for her than he was, the part of him that he didn't want to acknowledge because he was afraid of the repercussions, rebelled against having to share her. He knew it made him selfish, even irrational, but he couldn't help it.

Watching, he noticed that she stopped outside Big Belly and looked around, as though she was searching for someone. For a moment he wondered if perhaps she'd seen him, but when her eyes moved past without any hint of recognition, he sank back into his seat, irrationally disappointed. He wasn't used to feeling unsure of himself around Felicity.

Staying alive for five years on the island had meant doing whatever it took to get back home. Some of his actions still haunted his dreams and would most likely follow him to his grave. With Sara, it was easy. They understood each other, they'd been through similar experiences and neither of them viewed their relationship through rose-tinted glasses. He cared about her, deeply. But he wasn't a fool. He knew that neither of them expected what they had to last forever. There was passion, yes, and the comfort of having someone around who didn't ask any difficult questions. But there was no danger of unreasonable demands, of falling in love, of losing control. What they had suited them both and it would last for as long as they wanted it to. Should the day come that they parted ways, it would be as friends. There'd be no hatred, no ugly words, no recriminations and most importantly, no complications.

He was yanked back from his musings when Felicity turned suddenly as a sleek black sedan stopped beside the curb. When he saw who it was, he tensed immediately. Adam Donner stepped out of the driver's seat and was greeted by a beaming Felicity. That smile, aimed at the DA, made him slightly nauseas. Unused to the feeling of coveting what belonged to someone else, he hated himself for his weakness.

Wanting to turn away, but unable to, he couldn't miss the way Donner's hand lingered at her waist as he bent down and kissed her lips softly. The sight of it burnt a hole in the pit of his stomach, his hands clenching his helmet so tightly his knuckles started aching. A gust of wind passed by, swishing the ends of her red dress around her knees and causing a lock of hair to fall across her forehead. It took every ounce of his strength not to march across the road and shove his fist into the DA's face when he gently pushed the strands back behind her ear. The gesture was small, but so intimate that he felt as though he was intruding on something private. Despite the distance between them, he could see Felicity's blush, the crimson perfection of it nearly pushing him over the edge.

Tearing his gaze away from the couple, he stared straight ahead, unseeing. No matter how confusing his feelings or how much he detested the thought of her with someone else, the reality was that Adam Donner was probably twice the man he was. That alone, was reason enough for him to put an end to his ridiculous behaviour.

Angry at himself for the absurdity of his inconvenient desires, he knew that he'd never survive an entire meal in their presence. It would end badly. Grabbing his phone, he sent Sara a text and told her to meet him at the mansion instead. Placing his helmet back on, he started his bike, and sped off into the distance, denial hot on his heels.

Chomping on some fries, Felicity listened intently as Adam told her about the horrible morning he'd had. His voice, rich and melodic, was more than just passably pleasant. She liked that he never whinged or complained, merely reiterated the highlights of whatever he was dissatisfied with and moved on. He was proactive in nature, incapable of sitting back and letting others do his work for him. He was also tough and thorough, but not unfair.

Looking at him, strikingly handsome in a black pinstriped suit, she wasn't sorry that they'd met.

"Anyway," he said, taking a bite of his burger, "that's my morning. What have you been up to?"

Uncomfortable with having to lie to him, she decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. "Just fixing some network issues at QC." Which wasn't exactly a lie, she told herself.

He smiled, the blue of his tie perfectly complimenting his eyes. "Somehow I don't think it was quite as simple as you make it seem."

She rested her chin on her hands. "Oh?"

"For you it was probably child's play. For someone else, perhaps not so much."

Felicity appreciated that he respected her abilities and acknowledged that she was good at it. A lot of men were intimidated by smart females and she was glad that Adam wasn't one of them. "You're right of course," she said, thinking about how hard she'd worked to get everything at the foundry back up and running. "My talents were put to use in the most effective ways possible."

Suddenly, their attention was grabbed by a news broadcast booming throughout the diner. "The Starling City vigilante once again aided the SCPD in capturing notorious drug lord, Santiago Perez. Having evaded authorities for years and nearly tripling the amount of drugs sold in the Glades, the Colombian was finally caught red-handed smuggling a shipment of cocaine worth millions of Dollars into the city…."

Felicity knew about the arrest since Oliver had been the one to bring him to justice. Adam was watching the TV screen keenly. "You're going to have to prosecute Perez, aren't you?"

He nodded, wiping his ketchup stained fingers on a napkin. "The department has spent the past three years building a case against that guy, but we could never pin anything on him."

"Looks like the vigilante brought him to you," she said, trying to keep the pride out of her voice. Despite all their current drama, Oliver was saving their city, one criminal at a time.

"That he did."

"You don't sound very enthused," she said, noting the furrow between his brows.

Adam turned back to face her. "I take it you're one of his supporters?"

If only you knew. She hedged. "I think he's done a lot of good work."

"I don't disagree with you. I just don't like the idea of some masked avenger taking the law into his own hands." He kept his tone neutral, even though she could sense that he felt passionately about it.

Felicity tried not to take offense on Oliver's behalf and tried to see things from his point of view. "Well," she replied, staying upbeat. "I can see why you'd feel that way. But don't you think the benefits outweigh the downside?"

He pushed his plate away from him, thinking. "If I thought that way, it would make me an advocate of any random person thinking they knew what was best for this city and acting on it. Granted, the Hood has done some good, particularly in the Glades, but at the same time, if we cut him some slack for being a hero, what's to stop the next guy? People could get hurt."

He had a valid point. "But the Hood isn't untrained. I mean, he clearly knows how to defend himself and keep others safe. You're an example of that."

He shrugged, resting his arms on the table. "The law is my job, Felicity. And while I'd like to think that I'm one of the few people doing my job that sees the grey areas, I need to draw the line somewhere. Am I saying that I disapprove of him? Not entirely. Am I saying that I'm in support of him? Not entirely either. To be fair, the guy saved my life once and I'm supremely grateful. So for his sake, I hope that he doesn't get caught because then it would be my responsibility to put him away."

That was at least better than she'd expected. But it still placed her in an awkward position. How did you go about having a relationship with someone when you couldn't be completely honest with them? She would have asked Oliver, since he had the most experience in that arena, but that was clearly not an option at the moment.

"Listen, I wanted to ask you something," Adam said, breaking her train of thought.

"I'm all ears."

He reached over and traced the outer shell of her lobe gently. She felt the caress down to her toes. "Such pretty ears too." He smiled at her blush. "Every year the department hosts a commemorative event for the families of any law enforcement officials who lost their lives in the line of duty. The gala is on Friday night. Would you like to be my plus one?"

Felicity smiled. She couldn't think of anything she'd like better. "I'd love to."

He reached for her hand and automatically their fingers entwined. "I was hoping you'd say that."