"Jonas!"
Oliver's spine tingled as the name ricocheted off the walls of Helix's underground bunker. It was a tight space made exclusively of concrete and metal, so the sound traveled louder and further than it would have in, say, a normal room. Not to mention she was using her loud voice again.
He turned, placing the weapon he'd been cleaning back on the table, and saw her walking toward him at a fast clip, her tablet held in one hand, ponytail swinging.
"I thought I said no guns? And yet—" She came to a stop a few feet away, one eyebrow raised. "I have this requisition form for guns."
She leaned to the right, looking at the table behind him where Rene and Diggle were helping him get everything ready.
"Yeah, well, we need guns for this one." He shrugged, then turned back to finish putting his weapon back together.
He could feel her angry glare burning a hole in the back of his head, but he ignored it. He couldn't let her distract him tonight. That seemed to piss her off even more.
"You're standing in, literally, the most technologically advanced base in probably the world and you need guns to get things done?"
"What would you like me to do, Felicity?" he growled, clicking the magazine into place. "Throw a computer at them?"
She exhaled loudly. "I don't know why you have to engage anyone at all. I can get you in—"
"Not this time."
He turned just in time to see her jaw clench. She didn't like that answer.
Stepping closer, she lowered her voice. "You're going up against guards who are just doing their jobs. Not to mention they could shoot back. You could—"
She snapped her mouth shut, but he could see the concern in her eyes.
Felicity Smoak had a good heart. He honestly had no idea how she'd ended up working for a terrorist group like Helix. He was sure Caden James had tricked her somehow. Just another reason to take that bastard down.
Tonight.
Caden James—Helix—was going down tonight.
A wave of fresh nerves skated through him as he looked down at Felicity. She'd go down with them.
He'd been fighting the urge to clue her in ever since Lyla had okayed his plan, but even if he did, even if she ran, ARGUS already knew who she was. She'd be a fugitive. No, he had to let things play out. Once everyone was safely in custody, then he could talk to Lyla about getting her a deal. If, that was, she would even speak to him after tonight.
As he looked at her, the tiny crease between her forehead deepened and she reached out, placing a hand on his forearm. "Jonas? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he said, giving her hand a quick squeeze before stepping back. "Just need tonight to go well, is all."
"It will," she said without hesitation. "I believe in you. And if you say you need guns… Just be careful."
It took every bit of self discipline he had not to pull her into a private room and confess everything. To not tell her he was an undercover plant, an ARGUS agent tasked with taking down James and his whole operation.
To not tell her he was already half in love with her.
He hadn't meant to fall for her. He hadn't even considered anything like that in a long time. But there was just something about her. She'd blindsided him and, for the first time in years, he felt like maybe there was more to life than just the next mission. Which was… unfortunate, considering she was one of Helix's top hackers. A brilliant, beautiful woman who didn't belong down here in this bunker, overseeing missions to steal data and computer parts and whatever else Caden James demanded of her.
He really hoped she wasn't aware of what James was after tonight. He suspected she wasn't, considering how concerned she was for the innocent guards they would be accosting.
Except they wouldn't be, of course. ARGUS agents had already taken over the guard detail at the facility they were headed to tonight. Oliver and his small team of inside men had done their part, switching out the ammo in Helix's small armory for blanks. By the time James knew he'd been double crossed it would be too late.
Two of his men, Rene and Curtis, were staying back at the Helix bunker to help round up James' team of hackers and cyber criminals. Rene, like Oliver, was just a hired gun in Helix's eyes, but Curtis was a computer engineer. It was his job to make sure Lyla's team of agents could get past security when the time came. He had no doubt his men could handle it, but his nerves still fluttered worriedly.
"I'll be careful," he said lowly, meeting Felicity's blue gaze. "We need to get going, though. Mr. James is waiting."
She looked like she wanted to say something, but she bit her lip, nodding instead.
God, he really hoped she wouldn't hate him after tonight.
###
Rushing out of the van, gun in hand, men at his back, Oliver felt that familiar surge of adrenaline pumping through his veins.
He'd done a dozen of these missions in his time at ARGUS. He was no stranger to standing between a bad man and his really bad idea. In Caden James' case, that bad idea involved corrupting the safety systems at the nuclear power plant outside of Starling City.
He'd been briefed on James, a computer genius who'd fallen to the dark side after his son had been murdered. Personally, he didn't care about the guy's sob story, just about making sure he didn't take down any innocent bystanders in his quest for revenge.
His mind flickered to Felicity, imagining how she'd react in just a few minutes when ARGUS stormed the bunker. He tried to shake it off, refocus on the mission as James led them up the gates of the facility.
His comm crackled a split second before her voice filled his ear.
"Jonas?"
He slowed his pace, just enough to not be heard by the others. "Felicity? What is it?"
"I know you guys have Alena with you and she's good, she knows what she's doing, but after you left I couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong, you know? So I did a scan of the power plant, just to see—"
"Felicity!"
"Right," she said, reeling herself in from her babble and getting to the point. "There's a lot of heat signatures coming from inside the building, Jonas. Like, a lot. The plant's schedule says there should only be about five guards on duty, but there's almost triple that."
Of course there were, because Lyla and a whole team full of agents were inside, waiting on Oliver's signal.
"I'll take care of it," he said into his comm as John Diggle, one of Oliver's men and ARGUS Director Lyla Michaels' husband, quietly took out the guard at the gate.
It was just for show. The guard was an ARGUS agent, but John made it look good and Caden James and his men didn't question it. Once the gate was clear, they began moving towards the facility, right for the side door James had pointed out when they'd planned the infiltration. The same side door Oliver had informed Lyla they'd be coming through.
"Jonas!"
This time her voice was more urgent.
"Talk to me."
He said it, but he really wished she'd stop talking to him. He didn't need her on the comms when this all went down. Didn't want to hear how she reacted when—
"The heat signatures are moving towards your location. I don't see any tripped alarms and Alena already looped the security cameras so I don't know how they know you're there, but they do."
"I'll handle it, Felicity. Keep the comms clear."
She didn't say anything for a long moment and he hoped she'd listened to him, but then, just as James went to work on the electronic locks, his comm crackled again.
"Let me help. Please."
It was all she said, but he didn't need to hear anymore. He could hear enough in her tone, the concern that washed over him in ways he wanted to ignore, but couldn't. Because he was just as concerned for what was about to happen to her.
As James finished with the lock, popping the doors open, Oliver knew with a terrifying clarity that, whatever happened tonight, he had very likely ruined any chance he ever had with Felicity Smoak.
"I'm sorry."
It was all he could give her.
With a signal, Oliver ordered John through the doors, right to where Lyla and her team were waiting for them. James and his men went next, with Oliver taking up the rear. As soon as they'd made it into the hallway, ARGUS agents flooded in from around a corner, guns drawn.
"Jonas!"
The fear in her voice gutted him, but he pushed through, raising his own gun along with James' men.
"Caden James," Lyla said, stepping forward confidently like the unflappable agent Oliver knew her to be. "You're under arrest. If you lower your weapons and surrender this will go a lot easier for you."
"And who are you with? FBI? CIA? It doesn't matter, I suppose." James smiled calmly, gesturing to Oliver and the other men. "I don't think my men are the surrendering type."
With that, James took a step back towards the doors, and all but Oliver and John began to fire on ARGUS. Or, they would have if Oliver's team hadn't switched out their ammo. The men stared at the guns, the first signs of panic setting in. Alena, James' right hand woman, plastered herself to the wall, looking like she wanted to vomit.
"What are you idiots doing?" James demanded, taking another step back, right towards Oliver. "Shoot them!"
"They can't," Lyla informed him, a smug smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "For a genius, you're kind of slow on the uptake, aren't you?"
James took another step back, right into the barrel of Oliver's gun. One of two that had actual bullets in it.
"Wha—?"
"Hands above your head," Oliver ordered, pressing the barrel deeper into his spine until the man had no choice but to comply.
James bit back a reply, instead doing as he was told and avoiding the show of force Oliver was itching to let loose on someone, because Felicity? Well, Felicity was a lot faster at putting two and two together than her boss was.
"You were working against us this whole time?" Her voice wavered as he wrenched James' hands behind his back, securing them with zip ties. "How could yo—Ahh!"
Loud shouting came over Felicity's comm and then it went dead, leaving Oliver to wonder—worry—about what was happening back at the bunker. As he led James out to the ARGUS transport vans outside, he wondered if someone was doing the same to Felicity. If she was okay. If anyone hurt her he'd…
He wasn't sure what he'd do, but he was pretty sure he'd get suspended for it.
###
It took three hours to get all of Helix transported back to ARGUS headquarters and into detainment.
Three hours of absolute hell.
All Oliver could hear was Felicity's betrayed voice in his head. Her strangled scream as ARGUS agents stormed the Helix bunker to arrest her. He could barely even concentrate as he and his team were debriefed by Lyla. He'd asked Rene and Curtis about her as soon as they'd made it back. Their matching smirks normally would have embarrassed him—or pissed him off—but at the time he hadn't cared. He just needed to know she was alright.
"We took care of her, hoss, don't worry. Let her ride in the back of our car instead of with the others. She wasn't very happy with any of us, but she's fine."
He hadn't been able to do much more than shoot them a grateful nod before Lyla had called them into be debriefed. But now, as he stood just outside the interrogation room door, he knew that those three hours weren't hell. This was. Watching her through the glass as she sat so stiffly, her wrists chained to the table. Her eyes were closed, but even from the hallway he could make out the mascara streaked across her cheeks.
She'd been crying.
And now he had to go speak to her. To tell her everything she believed in was a lie. That the man she'd trusted had been playing her the whole time. He had to look her in the eyes and see the betrayal on her face.
He could get Diggle to do it. In all honesty, he should get Diggle to do it. John Diggle was a good man and Oliver trusted him with Felicity, but he knew that any chance he had of her forgiveness, it began and ended in this interrogation room.
He opened the door.
Her eyes snapped open and, as they met his, the startled fear morphed into disdain in an instant.
His gut rolled.
"You must have questions."
She tilted her head. "Shouldn't you be the one with questions? This is supposed to be an interrogation, right?"
She lifted her hands, rattling the chain that bound them. It felt like an accusation and he supposed it was.
"Felicity…"
She shook her head, refusing his pleading tone as he murmured her name. "You were ARGUS this whole time. I trusted you! I—" She sucked in a breath, leaving her unfinished sentence to float between them, haunting him. "I don't even know your real name."
"It's Oliver. Jonas is my middle name."
"Oliver." She closed her eyes briefly. "I know we weren't doing the most legal things at Helix, but we were trying to help people."
"Caden James planned to break into and hack a nuclear power plant."
"Yes," Felicity argued. "But only to show them how easily their security could be compromised. He was never going to—"
"Felicity…"
She took one look at his face and paled. "No. No, you're wrong."
"He contacted the mayor of Starling City two days ago, demanding the release of a prisoner named Ricardo Diaz. Diaz supposedly has some insight into the man who killed James' son earlier this year."
"No," she said again, pressing her lips tightly together and staring at her bound hands.
"He planned to hack the facility and use it as leverage to secure Diaz's release. Helix was only ever a means to an end, a way to secure knowledge and power. Not to mention money. But after his son was killed, James got sloppy."
"And that's where you came in?"
Her tone was sharp, eyes bright and filled with tears. If he'd ever even considered the possibility that she'd known what James was up to, that single look would have proved him wrong.
"That's where I came in," he agreed. He'd joined Helix as a mercenary-for-hire soon after and he'd been gathering evidence against James ever since. "Caden James used you, Felicity."
"Oh, and you didn't?" She scoffed and shot him a glare.
"He recruited brilliant minds who could easily disappear into his organization," he went on, ignoring her. "Told you you were doing good deeds, fighting corruption. He used your convictions and morality against you—"
"You used me!"
Her shout echoed around the small room, bouncing off the two way mirror behind him.
"I lied to you," he admitted, his heart in his throat. "But I never used you. I never manipulated you the way he did." Oliver lowered his voice, even though he knew no one was listening in. That would come later. For now, it was just the two of them. "And I never, ever thought you were like him."
She didn't say anything, but her eyes were still welling and her lips trembled just slightly. Her jaw was tense, as if she were desperately trying to hold another outburst inside.
"Tell me you didn't know."
"I didn't know," she said, looking down into her lap as her tears spilled down her cheeks. "I didn't know that both of you were liars."
His heart cracked in half at that, but he tried to take it in stride. He nodded, then stepped closer. "Someone will be down in a few minutes to ask you some questions."
Her eyes snapped to his, looking more nervous than angry for the first time since he entered the room.
"It'll be okay," he promised. "Just tell the truth."
She glanced back down at her hands. "That's ironic."
He wanted to reach for her, to comfort her in some small way, but he knew it wasn't wanted. It certainly wasn't appropriate. He really shouldn't have even been down here if he wasn't going to question her, but he just… couldn't. She wouldn't cooperate with him and he knew he couldn't be as disciplined an agent as he needed to be with her. If ARGUS was going to cut her a deal like he was hoping they would, they'd need someone unbiased leading the investigation into her role with Helix. And that wasn't him.
As hard as it was, he turned to leave, hoping that Lyla would see in her what he did. A brilliant young woman who put her trust in the wrong man and got burnt.
###
Nearly a week after he left Felicity in that interrogation room, Lyla called Oliver into her office.
His stomach had tied in knots when he'd received the message. He hadn't been able to get much information out of her, but he knew it was Helix related.
After the bust, things had died down quickly. Caden James was high profile and ARGUS brass wanted things kept quiet until they figured out what to do with him. He'd struggled to even get information on Felicity the past few days. All he knew was she had been questioned multiple times by multiple agents, just like the rest of Helix.
He pushed into Lyla's office, hoping this meeting was about her plans for the prisoners, specifically Felicity.
"Oliver," Lyla greeted, sitting behind her desk. Diggle was leaning against a bookshelf behind her and he threw Oliver a nod.
"Lyla. John." He stood in front of Lyla's desk, hands folded behind his back. "You wanted to see me?"
She leaned forward, spinning her monitor so Oliver could see the screen. A dossier on Felicity was open, displaying a photo taken while they'd been gathering information on Helix. It was just a normal surveillance photo, an image of Felicity on her way to get lunch or coffee. It made his heart ache all the same.
"I wanted to get your opinion on Felicity Smoak. John says you two were… close during your time with Helix."
Oliver shot a look at Diggle, but the man only shrugged.
"We were friendly." Which wasn't a lie. Nothing inappropriate had happened between them. "I think she joined Helix with good intentions and, given the chance, she'd be a valuable asset."
Lyla's brows lifted at that. "You think I should recruit her?"
"I think she was manipulated by James and doesn't deserve to be sent to prison when all she wanted to do was help people."
Lyla watched him silently, then turned to share a quick look with Diggle. She flipped her monitor back around and sat back in her chair.
"That's exactly the conclusion I came to after speaking to her."
Oliver felt the air rush out of him in a relieved sigh, but other than that he tried not to react as Lyla went on.
"I think she'll be open to a probationary position with ARGUS. It's better than the few years in Iron Heights she'd get with all the evidence we have against her. Johnny" —she glanced back at her husband with a small smile— "thought you might want to be the one to tell her."
Oliver's we'll practiced mask finally cracked and he blinked at Lyla, then stuttered, "M-Me? No. I don't think that's a good idea."
"Alright," Lyla said, shooting him a strange look. "I thought you might have an easier time convincing her given that you were close, but I'll talk to her."
Oliver nodded, ridgedly.
Diggle stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'll walk you out."
Once they were in the hallway, Diggle turned to him, but Oliver beat him to it.
"She hates me, Dig. You send me in and she'll choose prison."
Diggle snorted. "Felicity is one of the smartest people I've ever met. She wouldn't choose prison, no matter how angry she is with you."
He conceded the point. Felicity was too smart for that. But still… "I don't know how to face her."
"Well, you'll have to figure it out if she's gonna be working with us." Diggle reached out, patting Oliver's shoulder. "Look, man. She's feeling betrayed and lied to right now. Give her a little time, she'll come around."
Oliver wasn't so sure, but he nodded anyway.
###
It took him a few days to build up the courage to go see her.
Felicity had, understandably, jumped at Lyla's offer of a probationary position within ARGUS. From what he'd heard from Diggle and Curtis, her first couple days had gone smoothly. He'd wanted to go see her, even found himself on her floor a few times, but so far had never been brave enough to stop by her desk.
On the fourth day Oliver decided he was done avoiding her. After stopping off at the cafe down the block, he took the elevator up to her floor, coffees in hand. He knew she shared an office with a few other techs, so he was surprised when he stepped inside to find her alone. But not so surprised to find her wholly fixated by the string of code on her computer screen, a red pen dangling from between her lips. It was a sight he'd become used to during his time at Helix.
He cleared his throat.
Startled, the pen fell to her desk and she spun to see him standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Jo— Oliver! Hi."
"Hi."
He took a step closer and she scrambled from her seat, meeting him halfway.
"Did you need something? Because everyone's at lunch and, technically, I'm on probation so I'm not really supposed to be doing anything without supervision which is just—" She shook her head, then glanced down at his hands, seeming to notice the coffee he was carrying. "Is that for me?"
She seemed excited at the idea that he'd brought her coffee, so he quickly held it out. "Yeah. I know you're usually always looking for coffee by lunch so…"
She met his gaze, eyes wide and shining in a way that took his breath away. "My hero," she teased, taking the cup from him.
"How are you?" he choked out as she took a long sip.
"Good. You know, as good as one can be after finding out the secret organization they worked for was actually the bad guys, then joining another secret organization that's supposedly the good guys, but how am I supposed to really know, you know?" She ran her free hand over her head, smoothing back her ponytail. "God, I feel like Sydney Bristow. Except I don't know if I could pull off those awesome wigs she always wore. Do spies actually wear wigs?"
Oliver smiled, glad to know she was still herself after everything, babbles and all.
"Not in my experience."
"That's too bad," she said, taking another sip of coffee, then leaning back against one of her coworker's desks. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment, before meeting his eyes. "I want to apologize. For what I said to you—"
Oliver waved her off. "Don't worry about it."
"No, I've been thinking about it ever since and… I was hurt. And confused." She ducked her head. "And pretty scared, honestly."
He stepped closer, tentatively reaching for her hand. When she didn't pull away, he wrapped his fingers around hers, giving them a squeeze. "I wanted to tell you. I should have told you."
"I understand why you couldn't," she said with a shake of her head. "I was working with, well, basically terrorists. You had no way of knowing I wasn't one of them."
"I knew." He hoped she could hear the conviction in his voice, see it in his eyes. "And I should have told you."
Her mouth rounded into a small, surprised circle, as she stared up at him. He squeezed her hand again, shooting her a small smile that she quickly returned.
"You know," she drawled, biting her lip and stepping closer, their hands still clasped together tightly. "One of the reasons I was so angry with you was because I thought… I thought you were using the way I felt about you against me."
"The way you felt?" He could barely breathe.
"Mmhm."
She stepped closer, right up against him.
"Felicity…"
Her eyes slipped shut. "And then you say my name like that and I think I don't know anything at all."
She opened her eyes, gazing up at him, and he couldn't help himself. He reached for her, hands skimming along her waist, leaning down just as she pressed up on her toes—
The elevator dinged and the boisterous sound of her coworkers returning from lunch echoed through the halls.
They pulled apart, Felicity looking adorably embarrassed as the other techs piled back into the room, discussing some tv show or something. Oliver glared at them, frustrated at the interruption, and they all gave him a wide berth as they went back to their desks.
Oliver gestured towards the empty hallway and she shot him a smile, following his lead.
"Have you had lunch?" he asked, watching as she picked at the cardboard sleeve circling her coffee cup.
"No." She spun, walking backwards in front of him, towards the elevator, a blinding smile lighting her face. "But I could eat."