FROM THE OUTSIDE

"PERSPECTIVE IS THE WAY WE SEE THINGS WHEN WE LOOK AT THEM FROM A CERTAIN DISTANCE AND IT ALLOWS US TO APPRECIATE THEIR TRUE VALUE" –RAFAEL E. PINO--

OR

The five times someone realized how much Felicity meant to Oliver and the one time Oliver realized it himself.

...

John Diggle

"THE BEST WAY TO FIND OUT IF YOU CAN TRUST SOMEBODY, IS TO TRUST THEM" –ERNEST HEMINGWAY-

"Felicity, are you sure your ok?" I ask for the millionth time that night.

"Yes, Mr. Diggle. I'm perfectly fine. Why won't I be?" The blond assures me, but I'm not convinced.

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you had a bomb collar strapped onto your neck not even an hour ago because of a failed attempt to catch a jewel thief and were this close to a gory decapitation?" I respond sarcastically.

Years and years in the military allowed me the ability to read people efficiently. This is how I notice the occasional tremble and the cracking resolve that is accompanied by panic and some sort of relief on the woman in front of me. I also notice her unwillingness to share it with me, which makes absolute sense since we barely know each other. However, if I'm Is being honest, saving a man's life together holds more acquainting than necessary.

I walk away from her for two reasons; one, to fetch her some cool water and two, to let her compose herself on her own.

"Here, drink this. Personal experience lets me know that a nice cool glass of water always snaps us back to reality." I hand her the glass and listen as she attempts to speak in between gulps.

"Thanks," Gulp. "For the water," Gulp. "And for taking care of me today," Gulp. "And for doing whatever you did with the bomb collar back there." She places the now empty glass on her desk.

"That wasn't me, it was Oliver."

"Ya. But you were the one fiddling with the bomb like a pro even though you didn't know a thing about it and was aware of the fact that you didn't know a thing about it but only fiddled with the bomb like a pro to make me feel more relaxed and at ease so that I can do my job and stop the man who put bomb collars on innocent people."

Of course! She's a genius. She must have figured out long before. A newfound sense of respect and admiration grows for Felicity Smoak.

I hear the clanking of heavy footsteps and although I know its Oliver, my hand instinctively go to my holster, only letting go when he finally reaches the last step and to our line of sight. The action is not lost on Oliver, nothing really is lost on Oliver, but I don't care.

He barely even spares a glance my way as he charges towards Felicity and frantically checks her over.

"Mr Queen...Oliver, I'm fine. Nothing happened to me thanks to you and Mr. Diggle. Actually, it was my fault in the first place. I should have never confronted him like that. I just wasn't thinking. Never mind, I was thinking but I thought that he would put a bomb collar on me in the middle of a function crowded by people. So..." she trails off, unsure what to say.

"No, Felicity. It was my job to protect you and I failed. I'm sorry."

I roll my eyes inwardly. He's been playing guilty so much, that by now, it's almost expected of him to take the blame by now. Felicity though, has not been with the real Oliver Queen for long and therefore, doesn't know the guidelines to the man.

"Oliver. If you failed, then I would be a dead, not-so-hot mess right now. The fact that I'm here and safe and alive are perfect reasons as to why you didn't fail."

Oliver may be a reckless and stupid when it comes to common sense vigilante, but even he knows not to find with the genius mind called Felicity Smoak. So he doesn't say anything. So the room is blanketed in an extremely gauche silence. It's Felicity that (unknowingly) breaks the tension by shivering slightly, but, by being trained (me in the military, and him by God knows who,) to notice even the slightest of movements, both Oliver and I notice the subtle gesture.

"Here, take my coat. You're cold." Oliver removes the jacket of his tuxedo and wraps it around her, probably knowing the she would refuse otherwise.

"No...Um...I...Thank you. It's warm and it smells like you. Not that I smell you or anything. It's just that everyone has a specific smell usually defined by the products used or their daily perfume. Or it could be something they ate and so I was just remarking on how your jacket has the same scent as...I'm going to go there...and run some searches for...stuff."

A soldier's weakness in the battlefield is any sign of tenderness, a sign of compassion. A babbling, IT geek can bring out the rare smile from me and my partner (employer, fellow trainee), whose smiles are rarer than mine are.

I allow said partner a few seconds to adoringly gaze at Felicity before clearing my throat. He snaps out of his gaze and stares at me, his mask unfortunately in place.

"Let's go few rounds, shall we?"

I hear Felicity snort from where she is seated and we both once again turn towards her.

"Sorry, my brain has the worst way of picturing things."

I look at Oliver and shake my head with amusement before he goes into the spare room to change into sparring clothes, which practically consists of no shirt (he does that more often to get Felicity riled up) and khaki pants.

Minutes Later...

We're both standing on the mats, legs apart and tensed, ready to make a move if the other did, but knowing that no one is going to do anything due to extreme tiredness. So, we just circle around each other. I don't miss the way Oliver's eyes go to Felicity's figure and stare at her, until on some sort of instinct, she turns around a gives him a reassuring smile. He's been doing this quite often now, almost every two minutes. It's as if he's assuring himself that she's still here, that's she's safe and alive.

"She's fine Oliver. You saved her." I quietly tell him the words he needs to hear. However, I know that the mere words itself aren't going to absolve him of the guilt. Since it was his idea to bring her into the team.

"Barely, Diggle. She was this close to being dead. I made a pact to keep her safe the moment I met her and I almost failed today. I almost failed her today." He responds, his eyes never leaving our blond companion.

"Don't beat yourself up over it Oliver. No one could have ever known that the Dodger was going to put a bomb collar on her. It wasn't your fault." I reassure him, even though I know that no amount of reassuring is ever going to dampen the guilt he carries.

"She's not going into the field ever again." He seems to be telling himself that more than to me, but I nod anyway. Probably because I agree with that statement. She shouldn't be in the field, because she has no training whatsoever (not that I can particularly image her trying to hurt someone) and would be vulnerable to herself and Oliver if shit hits the fan. It's then, in that moment that something Oliver previously said comes rushing back.

"You made a pact to keep her safe the moment you met her? What is that supposed to mean?" It doesn't make sense. Felicity didn't know Oliver's secret then. I hide a smile and mentally pat myself on the back as Oliver winces after realizing that he unintentionally gave something away before a wry smile takes over his face.

"I told her that I spilled latte on my bullet ridden laptop and asked her to salvage it. She didn't believe it, she knew that it was bullets, but she helped me anyway. I knew that I was going to need tech assistance soon and I was planning to comfort her as the hood every time I needed help. I wasn't planning on revealing my real identity and bringing her here though."

"You do realize that she would have figured it out somehow. And that's assuming you didn't tell her yourself." I tell him, putting forth the inevitable.

He shrugs, gives Ms. Smoak one (long) last look and walks away.

As I'm putting away the sparring sticks to the corner of the room, it hits me (all of a sudden) that Oliver trusts Felicity. It may seem like a trivial matter to the customary eye, but as someone who's been with Oliver Queen and the Hood almost all day and night for the past few weeks; it is such a significant matter. Because Oliver (the man that came back from a clearly brutal island that ate up everything that he was) trusting someone is a rarity. And I berate myself for not seeing the visible indications of the silent faith between them. Because it was always there, since day one.

See, Oliver went to Felicity for help long before he even remotely started to consider me as a potential ally. The blond IT genius had a place in his life as the Hood without either of them realizing it. However, I know now that it was intentionally done on Oliver's part, which makes sense since the man precisely calculates every move in relation to the Hood. But he didn't calculate the immediate dependence he would have on Felicity. Not just the computer skills, although they are phenomenal, but Felicity herself. He's attracted to her light, her babbles, and her positive view on life. He's dark and he needs light. And light is Felicity. And now I'm starting to sound like a fucking poet.

It's an enormous risk to give someone hard evidence of what he was doing every night. Especially to a genius like Felicity. If he had brought in one more clue, she might have been able to piece things together. But Oliver trusted Felicity without even completely knowing her. That instance was very clear the day he was infused with Vertigo. I'd always wondered, 'why go to a computer specialist, when you can go to the Applied Science Center?' I didn't ask Oliver that, but the question was probably written all over my face because as the blond was walking towards us nervously, the man whispered to me under his breath,

"Don't worry. She's a genius. She'll figure it out."

A few minutes later (after a babble on syringes, and 'I said not, right?'), I could see why he was so enamoured with her. So, it wasn't really a surprise when she came rushing down the stairs a few nights later, because Oliver knew that he could bleed in the backseat of her car and trust that she would take him here.

It all comes down to the trust the two of them have built in such a short period.

"WHEN YOU FULLY TRUST SOMEONE WITHOUT ANY DOUBT, YOU FINALLY GET ONE OF TWO RESULTS; A PERSON FOR LIFE
OR
A LESSON FOR LIFE"

John Diggle knows that Oliver Queen found the former in Felicity Smoak.