A/N: This was written after 5X14 - the episode in which Thea and Felicity band together to discredit Oliver's journalist girlfriend, Susan Williams. I had mixed feelings about Oliver's response to Thea in that episode and some of that comes out in this chapter, including some points I wish Felicity or Thea had made to him.

Overall, I'm a little disappointed with how S5 seems to want to pretend that the Oliver/Felicity relationship never happened. For two people who were on the brink of marriage, they're awfully casual with each other now. You'll see a little of that in this chapter, too.

And finally, what does Felicity do with herself all day? Does she really spend every waking minute in the lair?

Happy reading, and thanks to the folks who continue to add any one of my stories to their fav's or follows. It's a kick every time I see the number go up.

Oliver Queen didn't have a lot of practice being friends with his exes. The depressing truth was that most of his former girlfriends had either died (Shado, Laurel), moved far away (McKenna, Samantha), or had died, come back to life, and then moved far away (Sara). There was Helena, of course, but she was in prison which was pretty similar to being far away. There wasn't much chance he was going to bump into her when he picked up his Americano at the coffee shop.

Which left Felicity.

Felicity…the woman he'd been closer to than any of them. The woman he'd lived with, proposed to, and damn-near married. The woman he'd been absurdly intimate with, both physically and emotionally; the woman who knew every fucking inch of his skin – every scar, every bit of ink, and that ticklish spot on the back of his thigh just below his butt cheek.

The woman he saw nearly every day.

Felicity - the ex-iest ex of them all. Once a lover and fiancée, now reclassified as what? A colleague? A pal? Or as he'd told her years ago when he was in denial about his feelings – a partner? What exactly were the rules of engagement for working with someone he'd once been that close to, especially when he was in the early stages of what might turn out to be a real relationship with Susan Williams? Was he allowed to make references to their past experiences, their past life together? Was it okay to compliment her when he liked her outfit and thought she looked particularly pretty (which was nearly always)? Could he still touch her - hold her hand – the way he used to even before they became a couple? It was all very confusing. Oliver was in a quandary and Felicity wasn't exactly providing him with a lot of clues.

So he did what any mature, self-respecting male would do in the situation.

He acted as if their relationship had never existed.

He acted as if she were just another member of Team Arrow; Overwatch - the same way that Rene was Wild Dog or Curtis was Mr. Terrific. Well…almost the same. He didn't bark out orders at her like he did at Rene, Curtis or even Dinah. He was pretty sure that if he did, she'd take his head off. But in every other respect, she performed her job in the lair like everyone else and he treated her like everyone else. And by some unspoken agreement, she made no reference to their prior life together either. It was all pretty...professional.

And professional was good, he reminded himself. Professional avoided a lot of awkwardness, not only between him and Felicity, but with the whole team. Professional kept operations running like a well-oiled machine; it was efficient, focused and accurate. It held inconvenient emotions at bay. Professional was…well, professional.

Every once in a while, however, professional would slip just a little. The two of them would be alone in the lair and she would mention that she thought he was a good man. His heart would flutter for a minute or two before settling back down. Or she would give him the tiniest of touches – a finger on his hand, a tap on the chest – and he'd feel a spark of warmth in his body. He tried not to acknowledge these feelings because it was better if they stayed buried, but that wasn't always easy to do. He'd actually expected professional to fall by the wayside when he killed Billy Malone, but Felicity had been remarkably contained. She'd told him she knew Prometheus was responsible and rarely brought up Billy again. Any grieving that she'd done had been conducted in private and Oliver had been spared seeing her pain.

The biggest lapse in professional was eventually instigated not by him or Felicity, but by Thea. Concerned that Susan suspected he was the Green Arrow, Thea planted evidence that discredited Susan and led to her losing her job as a reporter. Oliver was upset, to put it mildly. Yes, there was a risk that Susan would out him as the Green Arrow, but he was handling it. Getting Susan fired for plagiarism was an unethical act anld he told Thea so; forcefully and multiple times.

As a result, there were a couple of tense days where he and Thea didn't speak, and it wasn't much of an exaggeration to say that a black cloud hung over City Hall. Ultimately, though, he explained to his sister that his reaction was motivated more by concern for her than by anger, or even support for Susan. He wanted to see his sister be the honorable person he knew she was, not follow their mother down that slippery slope of the ends justifying the means. Oliver felt confident that Thea understood and that things were back on track between the two of them. Oliver also believed that Felicity was unaware of his blow-up with Thea.

Oliver was naive.

That became clear a few evenings later when he walked into the lair to find Thea and Felicity huddled in close conference on the computer platform. Both women stared at him as he stepped off the elevator, and he felt that shiver of fear that men experience when the females in their lives conspire against them. Felicity was regarding him with an odd expression on her face – perplexed and not exactly angry, but certainly not welcoming either. It was a look that sometimes preceded her Loud Voice.

Thea was the first to speak. "Well, thanks for listening, Felicity. I appreciate the time. I'm going to head home now. It's been a long day and I need to be at work early in the morning. Ollie, I'll see you tomorrow at City Hall." And without further explanation, she got in the elevator, leaving Oliver and Felicity alone.

Oliver rolled a chair next to Felicity and sat down. "Are you going to tell me what that was about?"

She raised one eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Based on the looks I received when I walked in here, I have the feeling the two of you were discussing me. And not in a good way."

She sighed and turned her chair to face him more directly. "We were discussing you," she confirmed quietly. "Thea was telling me about your response to Susan getting fired. It sounds like you came down pretty hard on your sister."

He snorted irritably. "I was honest with her, Felicity, not hard. I didn't like what she did and I told her so. Not only did Susan lose her job because of Thea, but with allegations of plagiarism she's not likely to find another one as a journalist. Planting evidence was an unethical thing to do and Thea should be better than that."

Felicity stared at him for a few seconds. Oliver got the sense that there were things she wanted to say but was considering carefully before she said them. Finally, she replied, "Thea did what she did because she loves you. She was afraid Susan was going to tell the world that you're the Green Arrow. And we both know that wouldn't be good." When he didn't respond, she added in a voice that wasn't quite so calm, "Susan isn't exactly a paragon of virtue, you know. I hacked her computer, Oliver. She's got hundreds of photos and files on you. She's clearly been investigating you for months and she started before the two of you ever began dating. It's hardly ethical for a journalist to sleep with the subject of her investigation."

He frowned, refusing to argue the relative merits of Thea's and Susan's conduct. "That still doesn't justify Thea's actions," he said tersely, "or yours either, for that matter. Thea couldn't have done what she did without your help."

Her eyes grew wide behind her glasses and her cheeks flushed. "You're mad that I hacked Susan's computer? You haven't had a problem with my hacking in the past. Is it because I found some inconvenient truths about your girlfriend that you're so upset now?"

Her tone on the word girlfriend surprised him. Thea had been consistently vocal about her dislike of Susan but Felicity had been relatively circumspect. He wondered if she were more upset about his new relationship than she'd let on. He shook his head. "This is about Thea doing what's right, not about me defending my girlfriend. I don't want Thea to become like our mother, where she'll do anything to protect the people she loves, no matter how terrible. It would have been one thing to delete the files Susan had on me, or to come talk to me about what the two of you had found. But for Thea to get her fired-"

"Oliver, I've lost three jobs because of my Arrow work. You pulled me out of my IT position at QC to be your EA – without my consent, I might add - and then that job disappeared when you gave away the company. The Palmer Tech board fired me as CEO because they questioned my commitment. I was spending too much time out of the office working Arrow duties. You never seemed particularly upset about me losing my jobs."

Oliver blinked in frustration. "This is different, Felicity," he said impatiently. "You had a choice and you're not discredited. You can still have a career in a technology company if you want. The situations aren't the same at all." He heard the anger in his voice and tried to temper it. In a few short sentences they had moved away from the topic of Thea and Susan into more personal Oliver-Felicity territory. Professional had apparently taken a coffee break and stepped out of the room. "You know, Felicity," he said more evenly, "I've never said I expect you to spend every waking hour down here and not have another job. I appreciate everything you're doing to find Prometheus, and believe me, I realize it's important, but I think it might actually be good for you to do something else to create balance in your life. You've been spending a lot of time hacking lately. Maybe you're losing touch with the real world."

She frowned at him incredulously and opened her mouth, but before she could respond the elevator door opened and Rene and Diggle walked into the lair.

"What's on the agenda for tonight?" Rene asked cheerfully, oblivious to the tension. "Any new leads on Prometheus?"

And in the blink of an eye, Felicity snapped back into professional. She rolled her chair away from Oliver's and turned to face Rene and John. "No new leads on Prometheus," she replied matter-of-factly, "but I've been seeing some unusual activity in a warehouse down on the waterfront. It belongs to a company that went bankrupt a year ago so you'd think it would be deserted, but there's a steady stream of large crates being offloaded into it. Makes me wonder if it's weaponry of some kind…or something illegal." Oliver had to hand it to her. Aside from a slightly higher pitch to her voice, you would never know the two of them had just been having a heated exchange.

But of course, Diggle wouldn't miss it. John glanced between the two of them curiously and then shrugged. "We could have a look at the warehouse, unless there's something else we should be investigating?" He made it a question.

Oliver shook his head. "I don't have anything else for tonight. Dinah's on duty, so the three of us should check it out." He looked cautiously at Felicity but she appeared to have transitioned fully into Overwatch. She had the warehouse specs up on the computer and was studying them intently. He felt vaguely relieved that their discussion about her Arrow/life balance was over.

"For a company that went bankrupt, there's some expensive security on this place," she said. "All the entrances have electronic locks and motion sensors. I'll talk you through them when you get there."

"Sounds good," Oliver replied, giving her a small nod. She continued staring thoughtfully at her computer screens and he silently gave thanks for professional. It was good that they could put their personal issues aside and focus on the mission.

Oliver had to rethink professional thirty minutes later, however, when they arrived at the warehouse and split up to cover difference entrances. It quickly became clear that tonight wasn't going to be business as usual, at least not for him. Rene and John received Felicity's typical friendly banter over the comms. He received cool, polite communications.

"Spartan, the code to your door is one-nine-eight-seven. Hey, that's the year Nirvana was formed. I love that song, Come as You Are. Sit tight and I'll have your motion sensor disabled in a jiffy. There's also a security guard coming toward you on your right. He's armed, but I can't tell you with what. You should really teach me about this stuff some time. I think I could be a lot more effective if I knew more about weapons."

"Wild Dog, it looks like the floor near your entrance is wet. I can't tell exactly what the liquid is but be careful. I don't want you to slip and ruin that awesome jersey. Can you make me one, by the way? I'd feel really badass if I could wear a shirt like that."

"Green Arrow, your door code is four-four-six-two. Motion sensor disabled."

And so it went.

It turned out that the crates did not contain weaponry but something much more benign, although still illegal. They were filled with stolen furniture and appliances destined for Fred's Discount Store in the Glades. The warehouse held equipment to remove the old serial numbers and replace them with new ones, and Oliver figured the whole operation explained how Fred was able to sell at such a deep discount. He also suspected that revealing Fred as a seller of stolen goods was not going to be one of The Arrow's more popular activities. People loved shopping at Fred's. He was pretty sure Dinah had just furnished her new apartment entirely with stuff from the store.

In the end, they decided it was up to the police to determine Fred's fate. They alerted SCPD to the activity and headed back to the lair.

Felicity was shutting her computers down when they got there. Rene raised his eyebrows in surprise. "It's early, Blondie. You going home already?"

She nodded. "It's been suggested that I spend a lot of time here and need to have more balance in my life. I thought I'd start with tonight."

Rene laughed. "I personally think balance is overrated, but I won't say no to an early night. Plus I want to check the serial numbers on my refrigerator and microwave. I think they might be from Fred's." He motioned for Felicity to join him. "C'mon, I'll walk you out." Then he raised his hand briefly to Oliver and Diggle. "And I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Diggle watched the elevator doors close in front of Rene and Felicity and then turned to Oliver.

"So, you gonna tell me what's going on?"

Oliver was pretty sure he knew what Diggle was talking about, but didn't want to assume too much. "What do you mean, John?"

Diggle smiled wryly and shook his head. "Fine, if that's the way you want to play it, Oliver. I sensed a little friction between you and Felicity tonight. I'm guessing you're the one who suggested she needs more balance in her life?"

Oliver sighed. "I did, although I'm not quite sure how we got there. One minute we were talking about Thea and Susan and the next I'm telling Felicity that she spends too much time down here." He gave John a summary of the conversation, curious to hear his friend's reaction.

When he was finished, Diggle raised his eyebrows and said, "Wow."

"Is that 'Wow - I'm with you, Oliver' or 'Wow - you really screwed up, Oliver'?"

Diggle laughed. "A little of both, I think. I understand your concerns for Thea and it makes sense that you want her to act honorably. On the other hand, I also get where Felicity is coming from when she talks about Susan not behaving ethically. You have a history of blindly defending girlfriends, Oliver, even when evidence of their wrongdoing is right in front of your eyes. Look at your psycho-ex-girlfriend, Helena."

Oliver frowned. "You're comparing Susan to Helena?"

"I don't think she's a psycho like Helena, but -yeah - I question her motives. She was investigating you before she started dating you. So, did she get involved with you because she likes you or because you're a good story?"

Oliver shrugged. "I'm not sure it matters at this point. Whatever made her first go out with me, I can tell now that she really cares." He sat down in Felicity's chair and gave Diggle a rueful look. "Or at least she did, until Thea got her fired. Right now she's not answering my calls."

"Sorry to hear it."

"Really?"

Diggle laughed again and wheeled a chair over near Oliver's. "Maybe…I'm not sure. I want to see you happy, but I'll admit I'm not a huge Susan fan. Dating a reporter when you're trying to maintain a secret identity just seems like a bad idea."

Oliver exhaled heavily but didn't respond, and they sat in companionable silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Oliver had to ask, "And what about Felicity? Was I wrong to tell her she needs to spend more time away from the lair?"

Diggle thought about that one. "Once again, Oliver, I think the answer is yes and no," he said slowly. "In principle, I agree that Felicity deserves a life outside of Team Arrow. She's an amazing woman and I think she can make her mark on the world in many ways, not just down here."

"But?"

"But I question your timing. If we're going to have a chance of finding and stopping Prometheus, we need her dedicated to the job. You know we can't do it without her."

Oliver sighed. "I know. And I'm sorry I created friction between us. It can't help the mission."

Diggle shook his head. "I'm going to disagree with you on that one. A little friction between you and Felicity is normal. For as long as the three of us have worked together, I've seen you guys find reasons to butt heads." He broke out into a smile. "Typically; the two of you disagree, Felicity does something amazing and proves you wrong, you make up, and peace once again rules in the lair. That dynamic's been missing the last few months and, frankly, I was a little worried about it. But – hey - you fixed it tonight, Oliver. She sounded pretty pissed off when she spoke to you over the comms."

"Funny, John, very funny."

Diggle's grin faded. "Seriously, Oliver," he said more soberly, "Are you really prepared for Felicity to spend less time down here? My guess is you've gotten used to her being here anytime you drop by. You know she's going to take you at your word about finding balance."

Oliver shrugged. "For a little while. Then she'll be back in here, full steam ahead."

Diggle looked doubtful. "We'll see."

As he often did, Diggle read Felicity better than Oliver. Several weeks went by and she resolutely stuck to her plan to spend more time outside of the lair. She was there for all the critical missions and continued her tireless search for information on Prometheus, but Oliver could no longer assume he'd find her in front of her computers any time of the day or night.

And as Diggle had predicted, he didn't like it. He told himself that he didn't want her to lose focus, but the reality was that he liked knowing where she was at all times – knowing he could find her when he needed her. And with Prometheus on the loose, he told himself, the lair was also a safer place for her to be. Now, he had to worry about where she was and what she was up to.

On the brighter side, Felicity was able to help him repair his relationship with Susan. A little creative hacking and Susan's bosses were convinced that the plagiarism evidence had indeed been planted. Susan received an apology and her job back, and Oliver received some very good make-up sex. It brought a grin to his face every time he thought about it and he felt a little more of that balance that he had encouraged Felicity to find in her life.

"You wanna tell me what's got you so happy these days?" Diggle asked him one night when they were alone in the lair, sparring with bo staffs.

Oliver smiled sheepishly and evaded John's low strike. "Susan and I worked things out. We're back together."

"Well, good for you. How'd you manage that?" John blocked his cross strike easily.

Oliver shrugged as he made a low sweep. "I asked Felicity to fix the plagiarism data – to make it clear to Susan's bosses that it was planted."

Diggle frowned at him and stepped back quickly, dropping his staff to the floor. Oliver was barely able to avoid smacking him on the side of the head. "I'm sorry – can you repeat that? You did what?" John asked in surprise.

Oliver let his staff fall loosely to his side. "I asked Felicity to clear up the plagiarism data," he repeated. "Once she did, Susan got her job back and realized that I wasn't responsible for her losing it in the first place. We're good now."

Diggle retrieved a towel and wiped his forehead. "Let me get this straight," he said to Oliver incredulously. "You asked your ex-fiancee to help you get back together with your current girlfriend."

Oliver nodded. "Yeah."

"And it actually worked?"

"Yeah."

"You're crazy. And you're one lucky son of a bitch. Most women would have told you to take a long walk off a short pier. I can't believe Felicity agreed to do it."

Oliver thought about that. The absurdity of asking Felicity to help him patch things up with Susan really hadn't struck him until now. "Yeah…I guess I am lucky," he replied.

Diggle shook his head. "Man, you just used up about five years of favors. I hope you don't need one from Felicity soon."

Oliver frowned pensively. "So, it sounds like Felicity didn't say anything about it? I figured she might have talked to you."

Diggle tossed his towel aside and picked up the bo staff once more. "No, Oliver, she didn't tell me about it. But then she's pretty busy these days. I don't see her as much as I used to."

"Do you know what she's up to?"

Diggle assumed a fighting stance with the staff. "Sorry, Oliver, no I don't. But she seems okay. Maybe getting a little balance in her life was a good suggestion after all."

"Maybe," Oliver agreed, although he wasn't at all convinced. He tapped his staff against John's and they resumed sparring.

The physical changes in Felicity were subtle; so subtle that for a week or so Oliver figured he was imagining them. She'd always been trim, and over the last couple of years had taken to working out so that she maintained respectable muscle tone in her shoulders, arms and legs. It had been 397 days since they'd last slept together (but who was counting?), so he was ready to admit that his memories of her body might be a little inaccurate. For a while he couldn't be sure if the additional muscle he was noticing was real or not.

His uncertainty was erased one night when they returned from a mission and he watched her at the computers, typing rapidly and moving between keyboards. It was an exceptionally warm spring evening and Felicity was wearing a soft sundress with thin straps for shoulders. Her deltoids flexed as she reached forward and he observed that her biceps and triceps were more pronounced as well. When she got up and headed for home, she looked leaner. It was clear she was using some of her time away from the lair to intensify her workout routine. Oliver wondered why. None of the reasons he could come up with were particularly good.

He turned to Diggle and Rene, still cleaning up after their mission. "Are one of you training Felicity?" he asked suspiciously.

Both gave him blank looks and neither said anything.

"You must have noticed that she's gotten very fit recently," he continued impatiently. "I was wondering if she's preparing to go out in the field and asked one of you to train her."

Rene grinned. "You checkin' out Blondie's body, Hoss? I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you were - she's pretty hot - but I thought you were still hooked up with that reporter."

Oliver glared at him. "This is about Felicity's safety, not her body. Every once in a while she decides she wants to get out from behind the computers. It's not a good idea. So I want to know if she talked one of you into preparing her for the field."

Rene and John looked at each other and then both shook their heads. "No," they replied in unison, and John added, "I haven't noticed her training any harder than usual, Oliver."

"What about Dinah? Maybe this is some kind of girl-bonding thing?"

John frowned. "When would Dinah have time? Working for the SCPD keeps her fully occupied when she's not down here."

Oliver nodded reluctantly. "That's true. So neither of you have any idea what Felicity's up to?"

They shook their heads again. Rene shrugged. "Maybe she's taking one of those Zumba classes or something," he offered. "She's looks great and she seems happy. Why worry about it?" He slung his jacket over his shoulder and started for the elevator. When he got there he turned back to Oliver with a teasing grin. "Hey, Hoss, since the two of you aren't a couple any more, do you think there's a chance she'll go out with me? Maybe you can put in a good word? She really is hot."

He ducked when Oliver threw his phone at him.

Oliver didn't think there was any way Zumba could account for Felicity's new muscle-tone and he continued to worry about her latest clandestine, non-Arrow activity. He even considered asking her what she was up to, but they were back to professional these days and commenting on her body changes really didn't fit with professional. What was he supposed to say: Hey Felicity, I was checking you out when you were on the computers last night and your triceps look awesome?

So he stewed about it for several days. And finally, he came up with a game plan. A very simple game plan.

He followed her.

He knew that following her didn't exactly fit with professional either, but he was fresh out of ideas and he needed to know what she was doing. He kept note of the times she came and left the lair and discovered that she arrived consistently late on Thursday evenings. So the next Thursday he told his City Hall aide to cancel his meetings. He then clapped a baseball cap on his head, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, and staked out Felicity's loft, starting early in the morning. It was a bit of a creepy thing to do - he knew that - but he told himself that he was doing it out of concern for her welfare. He also knew that it was going to be a long, slow day and thought briefly about asking John to join him, but decided the pleasure of company wouldn't be worth the grief and the lecture he'd receive for stalking Felicity. In fact, he determined it was best not to tell anyone about this.

Felicity wasn't exactly an early riser and he observed little activity at the loft until 9:00 in the morning. Then she sat with coffee and her tablet on the balcony for a good hour – still in pajamas – before eventually emerging from the building with her hair in its usual ponytail, wearing a blue, sleeveless dress. She ran a series of errands - drugstore, computer store, oil change for her car - and eventually wound up at the lair in the early afternoon. He was pleased to see that finding Prometheus was evidently still high on her list of priorities. But then she left the lair sometime around 4:00 and headed back to the loft, coming out a short while later in workout clothes and getting into her car. Aha…now we're getting somewhere, he thought.

Oliver followed her car to a large warehouse on the edge of the Glades, careful to keep the bike at a respectful distance. There were a number of cars already parked in a lot in front of the building and she left hers among them and headed inside. She looked eager, almost running to the door. Oliver felt a prickle of worry. The warehouse hardly looked reputable.

He gave it a minute and then went through the door quietly, his senses on high alert. He hoped to observe her without being seen, but was ready to grab her and run if necessary. The warehouse really was in a pretty seedy area.

And then he stopped.

It was a climbing gym. The disreputable-looking warehouse on the edge of the Glades had been converted into a five-story climbing gym, with hand-holds built into the walls and hooks for carabiners. It was brightly lit, filled with normal, non-criminal looking people, and there was a general sense of positive energy. A quick glance around revealed men and women clinging to just about every vertical surface, looking like Spiderman in workout clothes. Small groups were clustered together on the floor and Oliver guessed that they were climbing classes. He positioned himself behind one of the tall, metal beams and watched.

Felicity made her way over to one of the groups and waved in greeting. There were four men, one of whom Oliver figured must be the instructor. He was on the small side, maybe 3 or 4 inches taller than Felicity, but he looked like he was in peak condition, with well-defined muscles and little body fat. His hair was blonde, his eyes a vivid blue, and he smiled delightedly as she joined the group. Oliver couldn't help noticing that the man looked younger than he was, closer to Felicity's age. She smiled warmly back at him and Oliver felt an instant dislike for the guy.

His dislike intensified as he watched Felicity's class put on their climbing harnesses. The instructor glanced at the three men to make sure they'd donned theirs correctly, but evidently felt compelled to check Felicity's harness more carefully. His hands went to her waist and then her shoulders to verify the snugness, before wandering around to rest on her lower back. By the look on her face, she didn't mind all that much.

After damn near fondling Felicity for what seemed to Oliver to be far too long, the instructor finally led the class to a section of the wall and pointed to it, talking all the while. After a few minutes, one of the men started climbing. He was obviously a beginner, taking lengthy, nervous pauses before moving his hands and feet cautiously along the wall. His body was rigid with tension. Still, he made it nearly two thirds of the way up before slipping and being caught by his harness as he fell. The other two men in Felicity's class took turns going next. Neither did as well as the first man.

Then it was Felicity's turn. Oliver found himself grinning slightly. Felicity had many gifts, but he'd never consider athleticism to be one of them. He wondered how far she'd make it, if she made it up at all. She stepped close to the wall and reached up with her hands to start climbing. And Oliver's jaw dropped.

Felicity was a natural.

After securing her first two handholds, she climbed fluidly and rapidly, as if she'd been doing it for years. Her moves were graceful and limber, and it was almost like watching a dancer; her ponytail even swung back and forth in an easy rhythm as she climbed. She made it to the top of the wall in minutes, the muscles Oliver had noticed in the lair flexing visibly under her tank top. Then she repelled down effortlessly, only to be caught by the instructor at the bottom. Oliver gritted his teeth as the man gripped her waist and lowered her the last few inches to the floor.

So, Oliver thought, mystery of the muscles solved. And it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd imagined. He'd assumed Felicity was getting in shape to go out on missions when in reality she was learning to rock climb for fun...with a good-looking instructor who seemed to enjoy touching her often and far too intimately. Okay...he supposed it was sort of good news.

Entranced by seeing Felicity's graceful moves on the wall, he continued to watch her until he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. The call was from Susan, and it dawned on him that he'd forgotten his plans for an early dinner with her. He didn't take the call; just texted an apology and told her that he'd gotten delayed on an errand. Reluctantly, he left the climbing gym and headed to the lair. Felicity arrived 45 minutes later, looking flushed and happy.

The team didn't go out that night. There was no new information on Prometheus and no serious crime that required their attention. Oliver watched Felicity working on the computers and thought about how amazing she'd looked on the climbing wall earlier that evening. He wanted to tell her so, but it hardly fit with professional and would no doubt lead to friction when he confessed to following her. It was a shame they'd reached such a state, he thought, where the only choices seemed to be professional or friction.

He recalled John's words from a few weeks ago – that friction between him and Felicity wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

What the hell, he thought.

He walked over and stood behind her chair on the computer platform, then leaned down to place a light kiss on the top of her head. "I saw you on the climbing wall earlier this evening," he said. "You were amazing."

She turned around to look at him, her brow wrinkled in confusion. He wasn't sure whether it was because of the words or the kiss. "You were there?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yup, I followed you."

Her face flushed and he could see the argument forming in her head. She took a deep breath. Bring it on, he thought. Let's get back to the way things used to be.

Professional could go fuck itself.