In the shadow of the tree he stood where no one could really see him, as he watched the family be just that. He watched them each check all the house multiple times and then check in on their child as he stood, his hood up and his senses on alert. He watched through their kitchen window as they finally seemed to spend some time alone together. And then they were embracing and he lifted his head, questioning and feeling a jealous ember start to burn in his chest. He watched her walk away from him and back to their daughter, pausing to glance out of the window and his breath halted as her eyes seemed to meet his despite the impossibility and distance.

He only released the breath when she smiled and moved away, he bowed his head slightly for a moment in the regret of what could have been.

"Adding stalker to your list of talents, Mr CEO-Vigilante-Playboy?"

"I haven't been a playboy in quite some years, not even as part of a façade." Glancing at Sara he noticed her smile, but he kept his face stony. "And I'm not stalking. I'm guarding."

"You could guard from inside you know?"

"With their little family?" He shook his head. "No. They're better off without me."

"Well, that's a load of crap and you know it." He glanced at her and then resumed watching Felicity move about inside of her home. "He was cheating on her, for what? A year? And she was never in love with him." He sighed at her words, still watching Felicity. "From what I saw and heard today, their marriage wasn't a bed of roses, if it was even still a thing."

"So?"

"So, if their marriage was as good as over, if they were just going through the motions…"

He interrupted her. "Then what? She can come running back to me? Sara, she never had me. We've never been a thing, why should we be now?"

"Because one of these days you have to stop being stubborn, and alone, and unhappy. And, don't," she stopped him as he opened his mouth to speak. "Don't tell me you don't deserve happiness, that you deserve to be alone because it isn't true and it's too late now. That little girl," she pointed up at the darkened window. "She is your daughter and whether you want to admit you're in love with Felicity, you know damn well that you have to and want to be there for your daughter."

"She has a father."

"And now she'll have two. Anyway," Sara shrugged her shoulders. "Your Mom isn't going to let this slide by."

"How do you know?" he asked quietly. "How do you know she was never in love with him?"

"Because she was always in love with you." Oliver turned around, but Sara had already gone.

ARROW-HOOD-QUEEN

It had been two very long days and two long nights since Oliver had discovered he had a daughter and he had not spoken to Felicity since. He had visited her home both nights and simply watched from under the nearby tree, watching them attempt to live a family life. He told himself, and his team when they asked, that it was to protect Jessica, but it was not solely for that reason. He wanted that family life, even down to the fact that Matthew had apparently moved into the spare bedroom because it was not about wanting Felicity, it was the family and the daughter. But he had no right to make any demands or even say anything. That four year old little girl who looked so remarkably like Thea in photos and from a distance, but who he had still yet to meet, had a mom and a dad who loved her; she was innocent in all of this.

Oliver had picked up his cell the day before, just before leaving for his night job, after his secretary had said goodnight, and had considered phoning Felicity. Something had stopped him, but he knew that he would do it. At some point, soon, he would call her. They needed to talk about Jessica, about what role Oliver was going to have and what the future held. Any of the anger he had felt at being lied to had already dissipated and he felt he understood Felicity a little better now with a few days of hindsight. How was she supposed to have come and told him the truth? She was happily married, safe and secure without any knowledge of how Oliver would have reacted. He knew that he would have taken her in straight away, he would have been a father from that very moment, but would he have been able to love Felicity in the way that she wanted? Even he was not sure of that now.

Looking up and staring around the outer offices, Oliver realised how dark it was and that it was probably far past going home time. Picking up his cell he realised it was gone seven and he moved to push his chair backwards to leave, but he paused and opened his contacts, scrolling down to Felicity. His thumb hesitated over the call button and then cancelled out of every screen, pocketing his cell and standing up.

"Working late?" She was standing in the doorway, just as she had that night many years ago and the sight still took his breath away. "There was no one at the desk." She waved behind her at the desk that had once been hers and smiled at him.

"My staff is severely undertrained. But," he added with a smile. "Carol does bring me coffee."

"No?" she smiled in return, stepping one step further into his office. "I thought we maybe needed to talk."

"How did you get past security? And how did you even know I was still here?"

"Your security hasn't been updated since I left, you never finish work early and Diggle helped me out a little." They both smiled again as he found himself fidgeting with some papers on his desk.

"I was going to call."

"Me too. I just didn't know what to say."

"Same." An awkward silence fell over them, until Oliver moved around his desk. "Did you want to talk here? Or we could grab something to eat?"

"I've had dinner."

"With Jess."

"Spaghetti and meatballs, her favourite."

"Where is she now?"

"At home with Matthew." Of course she was, Oliver thought, a pain shooting through him. "I, uh, I wanted to say thank you."

"What for?"

"A whole heap of things," she waved her arms around, her bag swinging wildly. "Mainly at the moment, giving us time. And, presumably, keeping your mother away."

"Yes, that you can thank me for." They smiled again. He liked it when she smiled. "You can sit, if you want."

She crossed the short distance and sat down on his couch, he moved to sit at the opposite end of it partly out of respect and partly because the last time they had sat closer it had apparently led to them having a child. He knew that pretty much everything in their life had changed, but somehow everything felt as it had all of those years ago.

"Why did you encourage me to leave with him?" she whispered. "I mean, all those years ago. He was just a blind date I went on and then you were all encouragey. You could have stopped me."

Nodding he said, "I could have. But I wanted you to have that life, the life you now have."

"In my thirties with a failed marriage behind me, nice life you sent me off to."

"It's one I couldn't give you." She turned and looked at him, their eyes meeting and sharing something until he looked away, back at his shoes. "Or at least I didn't think I could. Marriage, love, children, they were never on the cards."

"So Sara?"

"They weren't on her cards either."

"What about now? I mean, you're older. Mid-thirties, it means you're on the way to the big four-oh." He smiled and shook his head at her jovial tone.

"I…" he started, but then he stopped. He had missed Felicity, more than he had ever thought, more than he had realised and for far more reasons than he had ever considered, but nothing was really that different five years later. He was still trying to run Queen Consolidated, although it was no longer in any financial difficulties and he owned fifty percent with Thea owning the other fifty. He was still the Vigilante, the Hood, the Arrow, the guy who fought criminals each night, risking his life to save others' and to keep the city safe. He was no longer a murderer, not in many years, but he was still a former murderer. How could he be anything more to anyone? It did not matter that he had a daughter, or that he wanted to be a father to her. It did not matter that he could want to be with Felicity, if he allowed himself to. He was still who he was, who the island and everything after that had turned him into.

"Matthew and I are divorcing," she blurted out as he tried to find his words. "Bypassing separation and straight to divorce. There's no point in anything else really." He nodded. "We're going to split custody, half of the week with each of us. I'm going to see if I can change my office hours to be the days I don't have Jessica so I can be a full time Mom when I have her and a full time IT girl when I don't. We'll share the weekends, or maybe alternate them sometimes. It's all pretty amicable really. He's not going to walk out on her like my dad did to me."

"Good," he nodded. "That's good."

"We both talked though. About you." He turned to her with his eyebrows raised. "What would you like to do?" He knew what he wanted, but he also knew what he should do. He knew he had to walk away, when all he wanted to do was kiss the woman sitting so far and yet so close to him.

ARROW-HOOD-QUEEN

"Because it is up to you," she continued without looking up. It had taken her all of this time to summon the courage to see him and discuss the things that needed so badly to be discussed. "I'll tell you right now though, mister, if you want to be in her life, our lives, then it's for good. Unless, you know, like you die or sink on a boat. It's been known to happen," she commented to his questioning glance. "But you don't get to choose to leave. You don't get to abandon us if you think it's too tough or whatever makes fathers leave their children. You'll be stuck with us. I probably wouldn't try and explain to her that you're her father, because, well, she's four. It wouldn't go down too well and would just be confusing. She has enough to deal with right now, the divorce, a new home. But we would tell her at some point."

She paused and took a breath.

"By we, I mean you and I would tell her when she's a bit older. Obviously, with the whole shared custody thing, Matthew is going to remain involved. He's not like my father. I guess that's what caused this whole mess."

"Is Jessica okay?" Oliver asked changing the subject.

"Yeah," she nodded in confusion. "Yep, not even a nightmare."

He was nodding. "I didn't think so, good, that's good."

"You didn't…?" She chuckled and shook her head. "You've been watching us? When did you add stalker to your resume?" Playfully she pushed him, and when he rocked back to centre, Oliver somehow moved an inch closer.

"I was checking that you were all safe."

"All of us?"

"Mainly her."

Felicity nodded and saw a look on his face as it hardened and the moment of emotion she had seen left him. "You don't think you're good enough, do you?" There was no reply. "You think you're dangerous and not the homely-type. I can't promise you the marriage and love stuff, but I can give the children part of your future." She meant it sincerely, but then realised what she had said and where they were sitting so started to babble. "I mean, I already have and you can have her in your life, not let's get down to it and I'll give you another right here, right now. Not that it's completely off the cards. Just maybe not right now, right here. One kid conceived on a couch and not in a loving relationship is enough, right? Okay, I'm counting." Three, two…

His lips were suddenly on hers and she thought for a moment that she had forgotten how to breathe. Her eyes closed and she tangled a hand up into his hair as one of his hands cupped her face, the other her waist. When he pulled away, his hand still on her cheek, she finally breathed out.

"She was," he whispered almost into her mouth.

"Huh?"

"Jessica, she was conceived in a loving relationship. I was just too scared of it." He took a long blink. "I still am."

"Hey," she said putting a hand over his on her cheek. "I'm not saying no, because, Sara explained it as ghosts and you've certainly been mine, even before Jess. But, no matter what I feel for you, I can't jump from a marriage into something with you. We don't know that we can work and if we didn't then where does Jess stand?"

"So, slow?"

Nodding, she smiled at him, his thumb caressing her cheek. "Like, maybe you could ask me on a date? And not one involving a play park and ice-cream. But we can do that one, too."

"I've always loved slides."

"Jess, too." They both smiled and then Felicity moved away, out of his reach, but she remained facing him on the couch. "I also have a favour and a suggestion. It could greatly help the potential dating thing." He said nothing so she continued. "Turns out, those change in hours that I wanted, my boss won't allow, so I…"

He cut her off. "It's yours. IT department, not my EA and whatever hours you want." She smiled at him. "And the suggestion?"

"On my off days, when Matthew has Jess, maybe when we're not on a date, I could help out at the lair. Your current IT help is shockingly bad and your systems, they haven't been upgraded in years. Plus, you know, I built them."

He smiled at her, kissing her again. "Deal, but there is a catch with being my girlfriend. Potential girlfriend," he corrected with a smile.

"If it's that pesky Mother of yours, then, the deal might be off," she joked.

"You never, and I mean never, go undercover."

She nodded. "I can do that. When do I start?"

"Monday. Now, when's this family date to the play park?"

The End

A/N: Okay, so at some point I worried that Felicity was a bit not in character, but then I realised that she's changed in those 5+ years. The others are still in the same lives as they were, but she isn't and it isn't just because she's a mother, it's because she's no longer the Girl Friday. So, her character would have changed and be out of character to the show and, at the end, she starts to babble again, but her request to re-join QC and the Arrow Team is not just her rewinding time to erase the years, it's her finding herself again. Hopefully I've done them, and her, justice. I also hope that none of the central characters were hated at any point in reading this, that their motivations are clear and that even Matthew was sympathetic. I quickly realised that I had written myself into a problem because I wanted an Olicity ending, but Matthew was an innocent party so I think I tried to channel Nashville. Hopefully, I did them all justice!