Felicity honestly couldn't figure out whether she wanted to go to the Netherfield dinner party or whether she was dreading it.

She figured it ultimately was a mix of the two.

The mood of each individual Smoak-Lance sister was best summed up in their outfits. Laurel was dressed in a bright yellow sundress Felicity had only seen her wear twice, while Sara — unimpressed by going to a dinner party held by two men who had grievously insulted her sisters — donned a pair of jeans and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt.

After much agony, Felicity finally decided to split the difference between them: she wore a high-waisted fuschia skirt that flared out in an A-line cut, paired with a sleeveless white blouse with a black peter pan collar. She finished off the ensemble with a pair of spotless white Keds.

They showed up to the Netherfield Beach House five minutes after Tommy told them the party started. They brought two bottles of wine, both tucked into each of Laurel's elbows. The collective house gift had been the source of almost as much consternation as the outfits.

"I still don't see why we're bringing these dickbags anything," Sara muttered under her breath, her arms crossed as she followed Laurel up to the front door.

"Because it's polite," Laurel answered, not bothering to turn around and look at her sister. "You're not supposed to show up to a party empty-handed."

"Well I'm still having issues over the fact that we're showing up at all," she answered. Felicity had to bite down on her lip to keep herself from smiling at her sister's incorrigible attitude.

Once they were all on the front step, Felicity reached forward to ring the bell, but before her finger even made contact, the front door swung open, revealing a very surprised Oliver Queen.

She felt her heart stop in her chest when she saw him.

"Felicity," he said immediately. "Hi."

"Hi," she breathed back. It felt like her muscles were frozen, and all she could do was stare at him. Her inability to look away wasn't doing her heartbeat and her blood pressure any favors.

An uncomfortable pause stretched out before them as they stared at each other, until Sara got impatient.

"So are we going to stand out here all day, or are you going to let us in?" she demanded.

That broke the spell his gaze seemed to have on her body. Hastily Felicity looked down and Oliver stepped away from the doorway to let them through.

"Laurel, it's nice to see you again," he said politely as the oldest sister followed Felicity.

"It's nice to see you, too," she answered with a smile.

"And I don't believe I've had the pleasure," Oliver said as he turned to a still surly Sara. "I'm Oliver Queen. You must be Sara."

The girl in question managed not to scowl as she shook his hand, but just barely. Felicity felt a wave of panic and shame when she realized that Sara was treating Oliver so coldly when she had no idea just how much she owed him.

The three girls followed Oliver into the house, and he led them to the living room where Tommy was sitting with a few other people from around the town. Tommy's face lit up when he saw Laurel, and he immediately waved her over. Laurel blushed and went to him, Oliver by her side and Sara on her other.

Felicity spotted Iris sitting on a loveseat by herself, furiously typing something into her phone. She immediately made a beeline for her best friend and took the empty seat next to her.

"Sexting with Barry?" Felicity asked with a smirk, trying to look over Iris' shoulder at the phone screen.

"No," Iris answered, her eyes still on her phone. "Trying to finish a story on deadline. Sorry, hold on." She bit her lip and started typing even faster.

Felicity shook her head. She'd never understand Iris' job.

After a few minutes, Iris finished typing and let out a breath. "OK, now that that's finally over," she declared, turning to Felicity, "hey, lady! Fancy seeing you here."

Felicity smiled. "I know, I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. You've been in Central City for the past two weekends and I've missed you."

"I know, but Barry's been super needy lately," Iris laughed. "He's working a case that's got him and the whole department stumped. He said he needs someone to bounce ideas off of, someone with an inquisitive mind, and who better to do that with than his reporter girlfriend?"

"Yeah, and the stress relief is probably pretty helpful too," Felicity winked.

Iris rolled her eyes, but the blush that spread across her cheeks hadn't escaped Felicity's attention.

"I'm actually surprised to see you here at this shindig," Iris said, not-so-deftly changing the subject.

"Well I wasn't about to let Laurel go by herself," Felicity answered. She lowered her voice so only Iris could hear her. "I can't let her fall for him again."

Iris sighed. "Come on, Lissy — are you even sure she ever got out of that hole to begin with?"

The two of them glanced over to where Tommy and Laurel were sitting. Even surrounded by a group of people, it was clear for everyone that they only had eyes for one another. At one point, Tommy leaned forward to murmur something in her ear and Laurel brought her head closer, a lovely pink blush spreading over her cheeks. Then she threw her head back and laughed, a beautiful sound that rang through the room.

It was heartwarming to hear her sister's laugh again, considering she had been deprived of that sweet sound for so long, but she felt a little chagrinned over the fact that Tommy Merlyn of all people was the one making her laugh.

"Over him my ass," Felicity muttered to herself.

Eventually, her gaze wandered away from her sister to the tall billionaire standing off to the side. He was holding a glass of wine and holding a conversation with a woman she didn't recognize. Felicity felt an almost painful stab of jealousy when something she said made his face lift in a smile. He even chuckled! He chuckled.

When was the last time he ever smiled or chuckled at anything she said?

She shook her head hard when she realized just how insane she sounded in her head. Don't be ridiculous, she scolded herself. It wasn't like he owed her anything. He wasn't her boyfriend, after all. She held no claim to him.

That didn't stop her from wishing she did.

Half an hour later, the party moved from the living room to the dining room. Felicity took a seat between her sisters, close to the end of the table. Oliver and Tommy both ducked into the kitchen while everyone waited.

"They're not going to serve anything weird, are they?" Sara asked.

Felicity rolled her eyes.

A few minutes later, the two hosts emerged from the kitchen, holding huge platters of food on each arm.

"All right, everybody," Tommy announced with a huge smile, as he set the food down in the middle of the table. "Dig in!"

No one needed to be told twice. The minute Oliver and Tommy were seated, everyone immediately made grabs for the plates of roast chicken, grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes.

For the first few minutes, conversation had completely stopped. Everyone at the table was too busy stuffing their faces with the delicious food.

"This is really great, Tommy," Laurel said. She ate with much more poise than either of her sisters. "Did you cook it?"

He laughed. "Are you kidding? If I cooked it, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look this good and I'd have to pay to have all your stomachs pumped afterward. No, this was all Ollie."

Felicity wasn't the only one at the table who was surprised by that.

"Really?" Sara demanded. "You cooked this?"

If he was insulted by her incredulity, he didn't let on. His face was perfectly smooth as he nodded. "Yeah. Believe it or not, billionaires know how to cook, too."

The table chuckled at his joke, but Felicity was dying to know more.

"How did you learn?" she asked. "Did you teach yourself? Did someone teach you? Did Moira?"

His gaze turned to her, but his expression was still implacable. She searched his face for any hint that he might have felt something as he looked at her, but she found nothing.

"My housekeeper taught me," he answered. "Raisa. She was like a second mother to Thea and me."

The mention of his little sister brought the young woman's face to mind and Felicity couldn't help but smile. "Speaking of Thea, how is she?"

"She's well," he answered. "I'll tell her you said hello. She'll be pleased."

It was like he was closing a door on their conversation. Not slamming it, just politely closing it, so he wouldn't invite any further inquiry.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't hurt by it.

She turned her red face back to the dinner in front of her, wondering why he shut her down so quickly. Did he think she'd bring up his sister's unsavory past? Did he think she'd start rambling on about drugs and stuff? How could he possibly think that? After everything she's been through, did he really think she'd be that insensitive?

No, her more rational side chided. No, he's shutting down the conversation because he doesn't want to talk to you. He doesn't care about you anymore. You're not worth his time.

Of course it would be like this, she thought bitterly to herself. Of course she'd be the one to ruin any chance at happiness with a guy who really was perfect for her.

This was all her fault. She had no one to blame for this but herself.

She could feel tears start to prick in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She would not cry here. She would not fall to pieces while her sister still needed her.

Felicity remained quiet for the rest of dinner. She tried to keep her emotions in check as she watched Tommy and her sister talk the whole evening, but it was hard. It was hard to watch them fall for each other once again while the man she had feelings for was right across the table from her. And he might have been just three feet in front of her, but he'd never felt farther away.

After dinner was more talking. Tommy and Laurel retreated to a corner of the living room to talk by themselves while Felicity sat in a group with Sara and Iris, not contributing to the conversation. Instead, she tried — and failed — to keep herself from watching Oliver the whole night long. He played the dutiful host, flitting from group to group, making small talk and offering any wine he could.

He didn't look her way once, and Felicity could feel her heart breaking inside her chest with each passing moment.

When the party was over, the Smoak-Lance sisters went home together. Sara and Laurel kept up a steady conversation in the car the entire way home, but Felicity spent the ride staring out the window and trying hard to keep her tears at bay.

Really, what had she been expecting? she scolded herself. He confessed his feelings. She threw them back in his face like they were nothing but garbage. Why would he give her a second chance? She certainly didn't deserve one.

She'd never felt more miserable in her entire life.

Once they reached home, Felicity swiftly got out of the car and ran to her bedroom where she could fall to pieces in private. She hadn't even reached her bed by the time the tears overtook her, and before she could stop herself, she was lying facedown in her pillow, sobbing harder than she'd ever sobbed before.

She didn't know how long she had spent crying into her pillow — all she could really discern was the fact that her father was snoring down the hall when she heard a knock at her door.

"Lissy?" Laurel asked softly on the other side of the door. "Lissy, are you asleep?"

A wave of guilt washed through her. Of course Laurel was going through her own kind of agony. She'd just spent an entire evening with an ex-boyfriend she was still madly in love with, and here Felicity was, crying over a guy who was never hers to begin with. How selfish was she?

Felicity quickly tried to pull herself together. She wiped her tears and sniffed hard to make sure nothing was hanging from her nose. "No. Come in."

The door opened and Laurel entered the room. "So I — "

She stopped short the minute her eyes landed on her younger sister. Concern immediately overtook her expression and she was sitting on the bed next to her in a heartbeat. "Lissy? What happened?"

Felicity bit down hard on her wobbling lip. "Nothing," she said, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her.

Laurel say through the lie. "What's wrong? Please, tell me."

The tenuous hold she had on her composure broke and Felicity's face crumpled as she was once again swept up in her grief. "Laurel, I...I…" she sobbed, "I made the biggest mistake, and I don't know how to fix it!"

The older woman sat patiently as Felicity spilled the whole sordid story, right from the beginning. How she thought she hated Oliver after what he said about her. How she ran into him and his mother in Central City. How he confessed his feelings for her at the end of the trip and how she threw his feelings back in his face.

Laurel actually gasped when she got to that part.

"I'm not finished," Felicity sniffed grimly.

She continued the tale by recounting the letter he wrote, the same one she kept folded in her journal. Then she got to the part at the end, where she found herself falling for the real Oliver in Star City: the generous employer, the loyal friend, the doting and loving brother. And, of course, the piece de resistance — how he paid his old friend McKenna to take on Sara's case.

"That was him?" Laurel demanded, her eyes wide.

Felicity nodded. She closed her eyes and more tears streamed down her face. "Yeah. It was him. It was all him." Regret stung at her again and she brought her knees to her chest, as if it could keep her heaving lungs together just for a moment. "I could have had it all, Laurel. I could have had him, but I was so stupid! I was so close-minded and judgmental!"

It was the irony of it all that turned the situation from sad to tragic — Oliver believed she was an idiot when they first met, and a year later, she had proven him right.

"I've ruined everything," she whispered.

"Oh, Lissy," Laurel murmured. She scooted closer to her sister to wrap her arms around her shoulders and pull her closer. "It's OK. You're going to be OK."

Laurel kept whispering it over and over until Felicity started believe her.

The next day, Felicity woke up to red, and swollen eyes. She sighed as she tried to rub the residual tears out of them. That was the problem with crying yourself to sleep, she thought.

Reaching around for her glasses, she slid them onto her face and found her sister curled up on the other side of the bed with her, sleeping soundly.

She smiled at Laurel's prone figure. She must have stayed after Felicity fell asleep, but the thought brought on a wave of guilt. Laurel had wanted to talk about something, but instead she spent the whole time blubbering about how she'd ruined things with Oliver.

Felicity gently nudged her sister's shoulder. "Hey, Laurel," she murmured.

She stirred, then blinked a few times as she tried to reorient herself.

"Hey," she smiled sleepily when she saw Felicity. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she said. "You didn't have to stay with me, you know."

"Don't be ridiculous," Laurel mumbled as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "You're my sister and you needed me. Of course I was going to stay with you."

Felicity smiled. "Anyway, I'm sorry about unloading all of that on you."

That made Laurel roll her eyes. "Lissy, considering how much you were holding in and for how long, I was surprised you didn't burst earlier. And that reminds me — why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Her tone was only playfully accusing, but it still made Felicity feel a little guilty.

She sighed. "I guess because you were still hurting so much over Tommy, I didn't want to bring up his name or bring up anything that would have reminded you of him. You had enough on your plate. And then when it came to the whole McKenna thing...I guess, since he was keeping a secret I thought he wanted it that way."

Laurel nodded. "I can understand that last part, but the first part is crazy. Just because I was sad about Tommy doesn't mean that you can't tell me things. I want to be there for you and for Sara."

"I know." And Felicity did know — as she looked back on all the reasons she felt justified for keeping all of it secret, she couldn't help but feel a little silly.

"So," Laurel said, as she propped herself up on her elbow. "Now what?"

Felicity raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"What happens next? What are you going to do? Are you going to talk to Oliver? Are you going to tell him you like him?"

"No!" Felicity said immediately. "Are you kidding? That sounds like the worst plan in the world!"

"Why not?" Laurel demanded. "You're clearly head over heels for the guy! He should know that!"

"Laurel, I rejected him about as bad as any man has ever been rejected before! He probably hates me by now! In fact, I'm pretty sure he does hate me!"

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed. "He doesn't hate you at all. If he did, he wouldn't have been so nice to you in Star City, and he wouldn't have hired that lawyer for Sara. And he definitely wouldn't have let Tommy invite you to the dinner party last night."

"He's just being nice," Felicity muttered stubbornly, pressing her knees to her chest. "That's who he is. He's a nice guy disguised as a pretentious dillweed."

That made Laurel laugh. "Regardless, I think you're wrong. I think he still very clearly has feelings for you and you should let him know that you feel the same way."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Not all of us are like you, Laurel. We can't just forgive people on a whim. Even if he didn't hate my guts, he probably doesn't feel the same way about me anymore. And not that I could blame him — I was horrible to him. He knows now that he should stay away."

Laurel shook her head. "Lissy, I think you're making a mistake."

"No I'm not," Felicity insisted. "For once in this whole miserable situation, I'm doing the right thing."

Laurel's mouth tightened into a thin line, but she didn't press further. She knew her sister well enough to know that she wasn't going to budge from her position. When Felicity realized, with relief, that Laurel wasn't going to try and push it, she heaved herself out of her bed and held out her hand. "Come on, let's go wake Sara and scrounge up some breakfast."

Felicity felt a little bit lighter after she had unloaded her problems to her oldest sister, but the feeling of sadness didn't go away completely. She doubted it ever would — just like Walter would think back on his summer fling with Moira and always think "what if," Felicity knew she'd feel the same way.

Laurel didn't bring it up again after that night, but Felicity knew her oldest sister was keeping an eye out for her in any way she could. In a way, their roles and reversed — instead of Felicity trying to protect Laurel from all mentions of Tommy, it was Laurel protecting Felicity from all mentions of Oliver.

Unfortunately, there was only so much she could do in a town where everyone ran into everyone else at least once a week.

It started off innocently enough: while the girls were having their weekly powwows at the Mud House, Oliver and Tommy would wander in for a cup of joe. When the boys spotted the girls, obviously they had to saunter over to make polite, but short conversation.

A couple of days later, Laurel and Sara would be hanging out at the bookstore while Felicity worked, and Tommy (searching for what he claimed was a "beach-worthy book") would stumble in and have a long conversation with Laurel.

Every time something like this happened, Felicity couldn't help but feel a little on guard, and every time she brought it up, Laurel insisted that she was fine.

By the third week into the summer season, Felicity was starting to believe her sister's repeated mantra. Laurel had multiple run-ins with Tommy and she managed to smile through every single one of them. She even looked happier, which was something Felicity desperately missed.

One Thursday afternoon, Felicity had to take a break from IT maintenance at city hall. She decided to pay her mother a visit at The Place. With her hands in her pocket, she made the quiet, solitary trek down to the boardwalk, passing the Mud House as she went.

It was just a cursory glance. She didn't expect to see much more than a bunch of coffee lovers sitting in worn-in leather chairs, reading books and talking.

What she saw instead was not at all what she expected.

What she saw instead was Laurel. And Tommy. Leaning forward, smiling at each other like they were the only people in the world.

And they were holding hands over the table.

Felicity's eyes widened, as she doubled back to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. She even blinked several times, like her eyelids were windshield wipers trying to push away any debris that was getting in the way of this confusing tableau.

But sure enough, the scene of Tommy and Laurel sitting together, holding hands remained.

Eventually Felicity started walking again, but this time, her thoughts were utterly confused. When did this happen? How did this happen? Had Laurel learned nothing the first time around? Was Tommy just jerking her around again? What the hell had he said to get her sister to take him back?

She spent the rest of the afternoon mulling over these various questions, that by the time she got home, she was completely indignant. After all Tommy had done to her, Laurel was just going to take him back like that?

She decided her sister needed an intervention. And who better to help her stage one than Sara?

After Felicity got home, she immediately ran down to the basement to tell her younger sister what happened. Sara sat there on the couch, listening carefully to everything Felicity said, her silence growing stonier with each passing moment. When Felicity had finished her explanation and asked her if she was in, Sara nodded without hesitation.

"Of course," she growled. "Laurel's not thinking clearly. Together we can get through to her."

The older sister had texted ahead, saying she already had dinner plans, so they shouldn't wait for her. That only made her younger sisters even more wary — obviously she was eating dinner with Tommy, to celebrate their newly reformed relationship.

But her absence at dinner didn't deter them. If anything, it solidified their resolve.

They both decided to wait in Felicity's room for Laurel to come home, but they didn't hear the front door open until almost midnight, when their parents were already asleep. Subconsciously, the two younger sisters leaned forward, listening to their older sister's light footsteps on the stairway. The telltale creak of her bedroom door told them that she was in for the night, and that's when they sprang into action.

Quietly, they crept across the hallway and knocked on her door. "Laurel?" Felicity whispered.

"Come in," was her muffled answer.

She pushed the door open and they walked in to find Laurel still in her work clothes, sitting on her bed. She looked happier than Felicity had seen her in months.

"Hey, guys," she beamed at them. "What are you doing still up?"

Sara quirked an eyebrow at her sister. "We could ask you the same thing."

Laurel shrugged. "I was out with some friends."

"Friends?" Felicity demanded, her arms crossed over her chest. "Or boyfriend?"

Laurel's peaceful expression dissolved into one of slight alarm before turning into resignation. "How did you find out?"

"Certainly not from you," Felicity answered bitterly. "I saw the two of you acting all cozy at the Mud House this afternoon. At first, I thought, 'That can't be Laurel. That can't possibly be my sister. She's not stupid enough to go back to the guy who dumped her before without giving a reason or even a heads up.'"

"Felicity — "

"But then I kept staring at the two of you, locking eyes on one another like you were the only two people left in the world and I realized, 'No, I think she is being that stupid. She's actually falling for the guy. Again.'"

Laurel looked briefly annoyed. "I'm not being stupid. If you'd just let me talk, I can explain it to you."

"The fact that you have to explain it at all is really troubling for us," Sara said dryly.

"Just shut up for the a second, OK?" Laurel demanded. Then she let out a sigh and straightened out. "I know you guys are worried for me, and if I were in your position, I'd probably be worried, too. But I swear, this time it's different."

Felicity and Sara exchanged wary looks, but they both stepped forward to take a seat on Laurel's bed. It was a silent agreement that they would listen to what she had to say.

"Tommy texted me two days ago and he said that he'd really like the chance to talk. At first I didn't want to, but I figured that at least I'd get some closure, you know? So I agreed. We met up for drinks yesterday and we talked."

"And what did he say?" Felicity asked.

"Well he apologized, for one. He said he was completely in the wrong for leaving me last summer, and if he could take it all back, he would."

"But he can't," Sara said flatly.

"That's what I said," Laurel nodded. "Then he told me that he was kind of stupid about it. He said that his friends managed to convince him that it wasn't going to last, and coupled with his own low self-esteem, he thought that the best thing for everyone was to just walk away."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Felicity demanded.

"He said he always thought that I was too good for him," she said. Laurel's cheeks were bright red at this point. "He said because I'm smart and beautiful and a lawyer, and he was just a rich kid punk who lived off his father's fortune and a trust fund that he wasn't worthy of me. Or some silly thing like that."

Felicity couldn't help the grudging amount of respect she started to feel creep up inside her when Laurel said that. In her mind, Tommy's first instinct was correct: her sister was too good for him.

Sara, however, didn't think much of this explanation.

"He's so full of it," the younger girl scoffed. "He's just saying that to blow smoke up your ass."

Laurel shrugged. "Maybe. But then he told me he loved me and that he hasn't stopped loving me or thinking about me since he left. And he asked if there was even a tiny part of me that felt the same way."

"What did you say?" Felicity asked.

Laurel sighed. "I couldn't lie to him about that," she said quietly. "I told him of course I still felt the same way. But it didn't erase the fact that he left the first time and I didn't know if I could trust him not to leave me again a second time."

"And what did he say to that?" Sara prodded.

"He said that he understood, and I was being more than fair. And he said that he would use the summer to prove to me that he wasn't going to leave again, and by the end of the summer we'd decide where to go from there. And I agreed."

Sara made a big show of rolling her eyes while Felicity just shook her head.

"How can you trust him?" Felicity demanded. "How can you believe he'll just keep his word like that?"

"Not only that, but how can you fall for someone who's so clearly a pushover that he can't make a decision on his own?" Sara added. "First he says that his friends convinced him that it wasn't going to last. Then he said his friends convinced him to come back. Is he even capable of deciding things by himself?"

Laurel sighed. "I know you guys don't trust him. I'm not even sure if I trust him. There's still a lot of ground to make up after everything that happened last summer."

Felicity felt her guard go up almost immediately. She could feel the word "but" coming from a mile away.

"But I really love him. Lissy, you saw how I was after he left. I was a wreck, and as much as I tried to pretend that I was OK, I really wasn't."

"No," Felicity drawled out sarcastically. "You don't say."

Laurel grimaced at her sister before continuing. "My point is, he makes me happy. Being with him makes me happy. Is it so wrong for me to seek that out?"

Felicity and Sara exchanged a look. This was the problem with Laurel being a lawyer — most of the time, her arguments were pretty airtight.

"Fine," Felicity muttered irritably. "We won't say anything about it anymore, as long as you're still happy."

"But the moment he fucks up, I swear to God he'll wish he never set foot in Hertfordshire," Sara warned. "He will pay dearly for hurting you."

Laurel beamed as she threw her arms around her sisters. "You guys are the absolute best sisters a girl could ever ask for."