A/N For the record, this was my favorite chapter to put together. I loved thinking about what this Oliver would feel and say. I hope you like it!

"Roy can take the guys headed to the roof, and Digg, do you have the one than ran out the front entrance?" Felicity's voice rang through Oliver's ear.

"On it," he heard Diggle answer her. It was still strange running around in leather that fit like a second skin and listening to Felicity talk like she was inside of his head. Roy had made sure that he knew how to work the comm system before they'd left the car. It was reassuring that they were all in contact.

"The last guy is heading out the back; it looks like he's aiming for the alley." Felicity's voice sounded almost hesitant with that last bit of information, and he knew why.

"I'm headed that way," he answered her. To be honest, he was scared of what was about to go down, but if this was really his life he had to at least try. Oliver darted through the back of the store and burst through the exit door. The guy was right in front of him, just starting to race down the fire escape. They were only a level off of the ground, and Oliver had no hesitation to drop the few feet off the railing, skipping the unnecessary time on the stairs.

He already had an arrow nocked in his bow, and he lifted it to aim as his feet landed squarely on the ground. The man didn't stop running, and all Oliver could see was a giant target on his back. As the distance between them grew, Oliver realized that he couldn't loose the arrow. He imagined the sound of sinking into the man's flesh, tearing through him, and he just froze up. The moment went on, and a sense of panic began to set in. He knew it was his job to catch this guy and the thief was right in front of him. So what was stopping him?

There was a whooshing sound right next to him, and an arrow went winging past his head from behind, landing directly in the shoulder of the man running away.

"You all right?" Roy moved past him to go grab the man on the ground, and Oliver didn't know how to answer.

"Oliver?" He heard Felicity in his head. "What's going on? Are you okay? Would somebody tell me what's happening?" The concern in her voice was too much. It might all be too much. Oliver reached up and pulled the earpiece out of his ear and shoved it in a pocket before pressing the button on his chest to turn it off entirely.

Hearing the sirens in the distance, he turned and walked off in the opposite direction of Diggle and the waiting car. He may not have been sure where he was going, but he needed some space.

…

Oliver hadn't been sitting on the steps to her place for half an hour when Felicity got home. He was still in his Arrow gear and probably looked incredibly sketchy just planted outside her door like some green leather shrubbery, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"How did you find my place?" Felicity asked, not seeming at all surprised to see him.

"Believe it or not, I am able to do a bit of detective work of my own." She just tilted her head and gave him a disbelieving look, and he felt his lips quirk up. "Your address is saved in my phone. Do I not come here much?"

"Pretty much never," she answered, stepping past him to unlock the door. She moved inside, then left the door open behind her. She was carrying a small duffle bag, and she dropped it in the entryway. "I thought you might want to de-Arrow. That's your bag, so I'm pretty sure it has some clothes in it if you want to change."

He realized she'd known he was here. She turned to look at him as she gestured for him to come inside. "We all have GPS tracking on our phones. Sometimes people need directions, and sometimes…" she paused, as if choosing her words. "Sometimes people go missing and need to be found. It's not as stalkery as it sounds." How did she always know what he was going to ask? He didn't think she was stalking him; he was the one hovering on her doorstep, after all. What it did was remind him yet again how dangerous it was to spend their nights this way.

Oliver moved into the room behind her, already unzipping the leather jacket. He tossed it on the floor before kneeling down to open up the duffle bag and start rifling through it. It had a clean pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt. As he grabbed them, he looked up and realized he could see Felicity's reflection in the window across the room. She was blatantly admiring the view his back presented. He broke into a full-fledged smile and stood up, turning to face her.

"Like what you see?" It was a cliché question, but he couldn't help it. Her face lit a bright red as she realized he had caught her looking.

"What, no! I mean, yes, I mean, I wasn't… I'm not even trying to finish this one." She turned away and started to move into the kitchen.

"Hey," Oliver said, his brow furrowing. He moved towards her quickly and took a light hold of her elbow, turning her to look at him. "You can look, or not, all you want. And if you can see past all these scars and tattoos I don't even understand, maybe I'll eventually forget they're there, too." He glanced down at the tattoo on his chest, and for a moment he honestly didn't even recognize his body as his own. Looking past his chest, he noticed that she was still in the yellow dress she'd been wearing at the bar. Her legs rose up out of her high heeled shoes and seemed to go on for miles before disappearing under the soft folds of her dress. "And, if it's okay with you, I'll admit I like what I'm seeing, too. We'll be even."

She smiled, and the moment was a peaceful one. For a few seconds, there was no confusing undercurrent anyone was trying to decipher. Oliver forced himself to let go of her elbow and step back before he started something that he couldn't stop.

"You want to sit down and tell me what went on tonight? Or, I guess you could say this morning." Her question reminded him of why he'd ended up at her place. He looked to the window and saw that the sun was just beginning to come up.

Oliver turned away from her to sit on her couch. He pulled the t-shirt on over his head as he moved. Relaxing into the cushions, he glanced around and realized that the place looked like her. It was filled with brightness and color. When his gaze returned to her, Oliver couldn't help but notice that her shine had dimmed just a bit. She had a tired edge, and he was forced to acknowledge that they'd both been out for hours.

"I do want to talk about tonight."

"Really?" She seemed surprised.

"Not something I say a lot?" He couldn't help but assume he didn't tend to be very sharing, since the idea of him wanting to discuss what had gone down after the robbery had surprised her more than his knifing the office walls or him haunting her front door. Felicity shrugged, confirming his thoughts. "But you look like you could take a break from the Oliver Queen rollercoaster. Maybe I should go."

"No!" She answered him quickly. "You look like you need a break, too. Just rest here for a while." She paused, and he wondered what she was thinking. "You ended up here for a reason. Just stay." He looked her over, trying to decide what was best.

"Okay, I'll stay." A look of relief came over her face, and he wished he knew why. "Go, get cleaned up and take a break. A nap, whatever. I'll be out here."

"Will you still be here when I come back?"

"That's a pretty hypocritical question, Felicity Smoak. Let's not forget that last time we said good night. I left you in my bed and ended up following you out of my house in the middle of the night." She had the grace to look a bit ashamed.

"But still…" she looked at him, waiting for his reassurance.

"I'm not going anywhere."

She only looked at him for a moment longer before turning and walking down the hallway. As she disappeared he rested his head on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. He didn't think that he would be able to really relax, not after the night he'd just had. It was kind of a full night, from watching Felicity beat him at pool to wearing a costume and fighting criminals. That pool game seemed so long ago.

Oliver thought about her, about how she'd looked at him with her guard up when he was flirting with her in the office. The judging disappointment she'd leveled at him when he was ready to leave Verdant with some stranger was burned into his head. He pictured her exasperated face as he blackmailed her to go to out with him, and he smiled as he remembered her expression when he cheated so she wouldn't win that game of pool.

It was so different from the calm strength he'd drawn on when he was panicking in his office over a broken vase, or the complete trust she'd given him after they'd been attacked. He could hear her concern for him radiating through the communication device the team had given him and see the look of complete understanding when she came home to find him on her doorstep. He remembered the tears she was trying not to shed when he first laid eyes on her at the hospital.

This woman, even though he could only remember a short time with her, had come to be the center of his existence. Every important moment since he'd woken up had been defined by her. He heard a door open in the back, and he sat up to see Felicity walk back into the living room wearing shorts and his t-shirt. Oliver wasn't sure he was comfortable with letting someone have that much importance to him, but that didn't mean he could change it. So what was he going to do about it?