Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has already favorited/followed this story. It really means a lot to me :)

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Chapter 3: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

"Mr. Queen!"

"Mr. Queen, over here!"

"What's it like being back home?"

"Oliver, look this way!"

"Is it true you wear a prosthetic leg?"

"What was it like going from pampered billionaire to suffering military man?"

"Are you priming to take over your family's company?"

"Mr. Queen!"

Oliver has been back for over a week and the paparazzi are still on his tail. Currently, he is one his way to meet up with Tommy for dinner. This is definitely something that he did not miss during his enlistment; the constant flashing of cameras in his face and public scrutiny always bothered him. It was an invasion of his privacy, what little he had. Luckily, Oliver makes his way to Table Salt without major incident and is quickly shown to the table Tommy is already sitting at.

"Sorry I'm late, damn paps are still on my tail. I've been home for a week. You would think the attention would have died down by now."

"Don't sweat it. I'm kind of amazed actually. They haven't realized how serious and boring you've gotten."

The waitress arrives at the table then, interrupting to take their drink orders. Tommy asks her to bring them each a scotch on the rocks and put it on his tab. Oliver raises a questioning eyebrow at his best friend.

"What's the occasion?"

"My best friend just came back from five years of fighting in the war. Isn't that occasion enough?"

Tommy seems slightly on edge but after years of being his best friend, Oliver knows not to push it. Tommy will tell him what's going on his own time, when he's ready.

"Sure…"

The waitress arrives with their drinks and takes their orders. Once she leaves, the two fall into comfortable conversation. Tommy tries to catch him up on pop culture that he's missed out on and attempts yet again to drag war stories out of Oliver. They've exchanged a few over the years but nothing overtly specific. He couldn't risk giving away his location or his unit's operation.

"Come on. You don't have any intense stories of war? Any valiant act of bravery to share that might just be your trump card with the ladies?"

….

"We've got to do something!"

"We can't, kid. If we do we're both as good as dead. There's no saving her if we're not around to do it."

More gunshots go off and they press tighter to the wall behind them. He can hear her screaming in the distance.

"Fall back, fall back." The sound of their commanding officer orders through the coms.

"No! They still have her."

"There's nothing else we can do right now. Fall back." Oliver contemplates ignoring him. "That's an order, Queen."

….

No, any acts of bravery he committed have been washed away by his ultimate act of cowardice.

"Hey, Ollie, where'd you go man?"

"Hmm? Sorry, I just zoned out a little. Coming back here has been… overwhelming to say the least." That would be the understatement of the year.

"Don't worry about it. I understand. I've been kind of distracted lately myself." The nervousness from earlier returns to Tommy's posture. "Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

"What's going on? Is everything okay? Is it Laurel?"

"Yeah, yeah everything is okay. More than okay actually. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I uh…" He pauses to steady himself before continuing. "I'm going to ask Laurel to marry me. At the CNRI fundraiser next week."

"Congratulations, man, that's awesome." A grin makes it's away across Oliver's face and he can see the tension leave Tommy as he exhales in relief.

"You mean it?"

"Of course. You two are my best friends. I'm glad you guys are happy together."

"Thanks. I haven't talked to anyone about it. Oliver, I have never been this nervous in my life. What if she says no? I don't know what I would do if she turned me down. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

"Tommy, Laurel is not going to turn you down. She's going to say yes and you are going to have a small, no nonsense wedding at Laurel's insistence. You will settle down together, she'll become a hot-shot lawyer and the bread winner of the family, and you'll stay home with the kids during the day while managing the club at night."

"Yeah, yeah you're right." Tommy gets this dreamy look on his face and Oliver rolls his eyes at his crazy-in-love friend.

His best friend is getting married to the woman of his dreams and Oliver is sitting around having inappropriate thoughts about blonde seventeen-year-old girls in short skirts. Well, one blonde seventeen-year-old girl. And her skirts aren't that short. He groans internally at his mind's justification. It's still creepy.

"To you and Laurel." He salutes Tommy with his glass.

"To me and Laurel." Their glasses clink and the amber liquid tumbles down the back of their throats.

"Ugh, five years without alcohol and I'm starting to question how we consumed more of it than water on the weekends and still lived."

"Lightweight."

God, he had missed Tommy. Tommy was his best friend, his brother in every important sense of the word. There wasn't a time Oliver had been in trouble that Tommy wasn't right there with him, either getting him out of it or taking just as much of the blame. They had been thrown together at a young age, both their parents owning sizeable and prominent businesses in Starling City. Oliver and Tommy were there for each other through everything. They were each other's entertainment during boring galas or fundraisers their parents had forced them to go to. When either of their parents had to leave town for business, the other's stepped forward and offered a place to stay. Oliver had been there for Tommy when his mother had died and Tommy had been there for Oliver when his parents had cut him off. Sitting across from him now, Oliver realized just how much he had missed his easygoing, enthusiastic best friend.

"So, what's going on with you? Rumor has it you've been seen around QC lately. Anything I should know about?"

"I'm not planning on taking over the company if that's what you mean. I know what it takes to run a successful business and I don't have it."

"Then what's with the gossip mags?"

"I may not be planning on becoming CEO, but my parents offered me a position in QC's Applied Sciences division. The company is looking to create less lethal weaponry and partner with DefenseTech, which deals with military personnel. They asked me to head the project."

"Are you going to? It sounds like you would be the perfect fit."

"There's someone I need to talk to about it, one of my friends and a brother in arms. He was the one who showed me the Army was an option I had if I was serious about shaping up and getting my life together. He also ended up being my commanding officer."

"The guy you met at the police station that night I bailed you out? The same one who stopped you from destroying that douchebag in the bar that was hitting on Laurel?"

"Yeah. He's dealt with DefenseTech before and I think he would have the most insight, give me the most detail about it."

"Have you considered that maybe this is your parents trying to work you back into being heir to the company?"

"I told them I wouldn't do it if that was their agenda. I'll work on this project and some security details but that's it. When I was talking about it with Felicity she suggested I make it extremely clear where I stand."

"Speaking of, have you noticed how hot Felicity's gotten?" A flash of something, Oliver decides to call it annoyance, shoots through him and it must show on his face because Tommy quickly backtracks. "Because I have not."

At least Oliver's not the only one to notice her physical appearance. It makes him feel a little less like a pervert. Although he doubts that Tommy's thoughts are anywhere near as inappropriate as his.

"She's definitely grown up since I saw her last."

"Did she tell you about the tattoo?"

"What?"

His whole body stiffens slightly. Felicity has a tattoo. Before he can stop it, his mind flashes to the different places it could be. The ink must be somewhere easy to conceal because he hasn't noticed it. Images play through his head of the bare skin of her back in the dress she wore at his welcome home party. He doesn't recall seeing a tattoo that night; if he had he would have remembered.

"Yeah, her and Thea begged me to take them since they're not old enough to go alone."

"Thea has a tattoo?" His reaction to that information is entirely different from the one he had to the realization about Felicity.

"No, I think she got something pierced, belly button or something. Not exactly sure seeing as my hand was being held in Felicity's death grip. My fingers were blue by the end of it, which thankfully didn't take that long. It was a pretty small piece."

"What was it?" It's completely out of innocent curiosity that he asks the question.

"An arrow, right above her hipbone. She didn't say why, just that she had been thinking about it for a while now. I didn't question her on it. It's Felicity; she doesn't make stupid, rash decisions so I wasn't too worried."

"Oh, cool." He really can't think of anything else to say because his mind is in overdrive thinking about that mark on her body. Then another thought occurs to him. "You let my baby sister get her belly button pierced?"

"Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

Tommy has to make a quick getaway when he and Oliver are finished with dinner. Laurel called him right after they asked for the check. He didn't explain to Oliver what was going on, just that everything was fine and she just wanted him home to spend time with her. Still, Oliver can swear he hears Tommy grumble something about chocolate and heating pads and Ryan Gosling as he leaves.

….

Oliver is just pulling on his shirt upstairs in his bedroom when Thea walks in.

"How did you get those?" Shit. He had forgotten to close the door and didn't hear her arrival soon enough. Oliver tries in vain to tug the shirt closed but it's too late.

"Don't you knock?" It comes out harsher than he intends to but Thea is not deterred. She reaches up to push the sides of his shirt away, revealing his scarred physique.

"No, wait, you said you had some close calls but…" He stands there in resignation as she surveys the damage that has been done to his body. "Oliver, what happened to you over there?"

….

"She's a prisoner of war now. We have to abide by the protocol."

"They are torturing her! We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"We're not doing nothing. We're strategizing. We are figuring out the safest way we can to get her out of there."

"And while we sit here and strategize she's out there being violated and tormented."

"She's important to all of us. We are all a part of the same unit. It would do you well to get a grip and remember your place before you question my authority, Private."

There's a tense moment between them and Oliver knows he's lost this one.

"Yes, Sir." Turning on his heel he makes to leave the tent when his commanding officer calls out, in a less harsh tone.

"Oliver, we'll bring her back." He walks out.

….

"I don't want to talk about it." Thea let's go and Oliver quickly does up the buttons of his shirt.

"Of course you don't. Now that you're back you don't want to talk to me about anything. Unless it's to be a completely hypocritical asshole about what I do in my free time." She stares him down for a moment, daring him to say something. When he doesn't respond she spins around to leave.

"Wait… I'm sorry, Thea." Turning back, Thea gives him a blank look.

"For which part? The not talking or being a hypocritical asshole?"

"Both. I know I need to get better about talking about what happened. But I don't think I'm ready just yet."

"You know after you left, things were hard. I could hear mom and dad fighting and I know that's not new but it got worse because they were fighting about you. It was dad's idea to cut you off, you know. She blamed him for your decision to join the Army, to leave us and go somewhere that could easily get you killed. Then they just stopped talking altogether and avoided each other unless there was some fundraiser or QC event. The house got so quiet and there was no one for me to talk to." Her breath hitches slightly before she continues.

"So I started writing to you but I never told you about mom and dad. I didn't want you to blame yourself because it wasn't your fault. I wrote stupid stuff, like what I was doing that day or what boy I had a crush on and it helped. But it wasn't enough. Then Felicity moved in here. When she told me about her mom taking the job in Central City, I was devastated. You had just been gone a year and now I was going to lose my best friend, too. I went to mom and dad, told them what was happening, and they offered for Felicity to stay with us, here in Starling. She moved in and I had someone to talk to. I told her about the fighting and how much I missed you and she understood what I was feeling because she had gone through the same thing when her dad left for his second tour. Only sometimes that scared me because he didn't come back. But you did and you're here now but the truth is I've never felt further away from you than I do right now."

"Thea, I – "

"No, look I understand that what you went through was hard. But it was hard here, too." Thea takes a step closer. "You have to let me in, Ollie. You have to let someone in."

But he can't. He can't tell anyone about what happened. Thea can see it in his eyes that he's not going to say anything, so she walks away.

Oliver isn't sure how he got here or why but minutes later he finds himself standing at the foot of the tree that holds his old tree house. He climbs the ladder to the entrance but freezes when he sees someone inside.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think anyone would be up here."

"No! No, it's okay. You can come in, if you want. I mean obviously you don't need my permission since it's your tree house. But uh yeah come in. There might not be a lot of room though. Not that we would be doing anything that requires a lot of room."

Felicity stutters through the end of her reply and quickly distracts herself with putting away the book she had out in front of her.

"It's fine. I was just thinking and ended up here."

"I do that a lot. Come here to think that is, not ending up in random places."

"Yeah, I understood what you meant." He smiles softly at her and the blush that's made its way across her cheeks.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what were you thinking about?"

"Thea and I had a bit of a… heated discussion."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He thinks about the conversation he just had with his sister. She was right. He needs to talk to somebody, to let somebody in. But he was right too. He's not ready to share his story, to talk about how he was responsible for the death of not one but two people who became such an important part of his life and his growth.

"Yeah, actually. Is mint chip still your favorite ice cream?"

Apparently part of him wants to open up to her anyway.

Twenty minutes later, after making the trek from the tree house to the kitchen and up to his room, Oliver and Felicity are seated on his couch. A carton of min chip sits between them and they each have a spoon in their hands. They forewent the bowls, choosing to pass the carton back and fourth between them instead.

"Mmmm… This is better than I remember."

"No ice cream for the brave soldiers, huh? What a shame. You're doing us a service, the least they could do is reward you with ice cream."

"Do you think you're cute?"

Because Oliver does. He thinks she's so unbelievably cute and he can't help but smile at her.

"Maybe just a little." Felicity holds her fingers up to mime the word and she squints slightly behind her glasses. He finds his smile widening to an all out grin. "Whoa there! Be careful with those things. You might blind someone with their pearly whiteness." He laughs, full out laughs at her teasing and she smiles to herself in satisfaction. "Not to say that I'm not enjoying this, because it's mint chip who wouldn't, but this isn't exactly talking."

"Words are being exchanged. I'm pretty sure that's what talking is."

"Oliver. Tell me what's going on?"

She grabs his spoon and hers and sticks them into the ice cream before setting the carton on the small table behind the couch. Turning back she gives him a look that says he has her undivided attention.

"My sister pointed out to me that I might have been a little distant lately." She gives him a nod because, yeah. he's been pretty much avoiding her since he visited her office/cubicle/Intern Corner last week. "She said that it might be good if I let someone in. The problem is, I don't think I'm ready to do that. I'm not ready to talk about some of the things that happened over there."

"So don't talk about that, yet. Talk about something else. I know other things happened over there that made you stronger, made you the person you are now. You talked about some of it in your letters. Not everything over there was all pain all the time. But if that's hitting too close to home then talk about, I don't know, your family or QC. Have you decided what you're going to do officially about your parents' offer?"

"After five years, I have plans. One of my friends is starting up a private security service. It's based here, in Starling. I can't do that if I'm at board meetings and stuck behind a desk."

"You're parents aren't asking you to become CEO. If they do try that, just say no. Ultimately you need to do what makes you happy. A position as CEO may pay well and look good on paper, but I put happiness over money any day."

She's always been smart. Actually, smart is an understatement. She's down right brilliant and Oliver is pretty sure he remembers her mentioning multiple intelligence agencies contacting her at some point in one of her rambling letters. Hers were always the longest because she wrote like she spoke, genuine and a mile a minute without restraint.

"What else is bothering you?"

"Thea. I didn't know things were so hard for her here with my parents and me leaving. She never mentioned any of that before."

"You had to know it was going to be hard on her. Thea practically worshipped you when I first met her. I'm pretty sure she mentioned you within the first ten minutes of our introduction. You call her Speedy for a reason."

"I know. I knew it was going to be tough but I figured she would get over it. She had you and Tommy and mom and dad. She was so excited to start middle school at that new academy. I thought she would get over me leaving when the school year began."

"Oliver, she never got over you leaving and then when you extended your tour, she was so furious. I listened to her for hours until she finally just cried. I was there for her in the best way that I could be even though what she really needed were her parents."

"But instead they were fighting because I left."

"Actually at that point I'm pretty sure they had started avoiding each other."

"If I had known, I would've – "

"You would have what Oliver? Ditched out on your unit and come home? Packed your bags and said 'see you later alligator' and walked away? No. There's nothing you could have done and there's nothing you needed to do because this wasn't your fault. You made your choices and your parents made theirs. How they chose to deal with it, or not deal with it, is on them. You can't take responsibility for every little thing that goes wrong with the people around you."

Felicity sits back with an air of finality and snatches the mostly melted ice cream from the table.

"You know, for a seventeen-year-old, you're pretty smart."

"For the record, I turn eighteen in less than two months. Also, smart is kind of insulting to my IQ."

"Yeah, smartass is more like it."

Her spoons dips into the carton and brings what is left of the ice cream to her mouth. Oliver reaches for his spoon but she pulls the ice cream out of his reach.

"I don't give ice cream to people who aren't nice to me."

"Fine. I'll just take it from you."

She laughs as he reaches for it again but she holds it over her head. He doesn't realize the huge mistake he's about to make until it's too late. As Oliver leans over to her side of the couch, Felicity stretches back and away from him, keeping the ice cream just out of reach. He pushes forward to reach for the carton and that's when he realizes that his body is now fully laying on top of hers. One of his arms braces himself on the armrest she is leaning against while the other keeps hold of her wrist, where it landed in his attempt to grab the ice cream.

Looking at her face, Oliver sees that Felicity has come to the same realization. This is it. This is the moment when she realizes just how perverted he is and runs for the hills. She will push him off of her and yell about how gross and inappropriate he is and she won't ever talk to him again.

Only she doesn't do any of that. Her breathing picks up and her pupils dilate. The hand she had on his chest in an effort to push him away now tightens in his shirt. Looking away from her eyes his gaze bounces around the room and then back down at her in a matter of seconds. Then he catches sight of something dark by her hip where her shirt has risen to expose the skin. Felicity's tattoo. As if it has a mind of its own, the hand still holding her wrist relinquishes its hold and reaches down to trace the ink on her smooth skin. Felicity gasps at the contact and it's like ice water being thrown onto them.

"Oh shit."

She shoots up from her position, her body pushing his back and away from her. Franticly, Felicity drops the ice cream on the table and runs a hand over her hair before pulling down her shirt. She doesn't look at Oliver once; instead doing everything she possibly can to avoid eye contact.

"I, uh, I just remembered I have a thing I have to go to. Thanks for the ice cream. Bye." The words are rushed and thrown behind her back as she escapes the room.

That was what Oliver had been waiting for. The fact that things went as far as they did without her running surprises him. Now she will probably avoid him at all costs while sitting around thoroughly disgusted by him. And she should be. She's not even of legal age yet. He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.

After taking a few minutes to process everything that just occurred and calm down, Oliver picks up his phone and dials a number that once changed his life. His inability to stay away from Felicity physically is not all that he took from that conversation. There are other matters, such as the QC offer, that he needs to sort out. If it happens to distract him from a certain blonde that's just an added bonus.

The phone rings once, twice before the man on the other end picks up.

"Queen, did you think about the offer I gave you? We could really use a man with your skillset in the field."

"Yeah, I did, and I want to take you up on it. But I can't right now."

"Why? What's going on?"

"My parents asked me to take a temporary position at Queen Consolidated. You know the company DefenseTech?"

"They're a main supplier of weaponry for the military. I used to deal with some of their guys back on base."

"Well, the company's Applied Sciences division is looking to partner with them. My parents want me to oversee the project and their designs."

"DefenseTech is committed to a new, less aggressive philosophy. They're going to want defensive mechanisms that will minimize casualties."

"So I have been told. Do you think it's a good position for someone with my experience? It won't be permanent but my parents' genuinely sounded like they needed me and not just because of our family relations."

"I think you're exactly the man for the job. Number one marksman in the unit, probably the whole base. Well except for…" Her name goes unsaid but it rings loud and clear in the silence.

"Yeah, okay. It won't be a conflict of interest or shady marketing? You think the guys at DefenseTech will find it respectable?"

"If they know what's good for them they'll appreciate working with someone who knows what he's doing. I know there were some allegations in the past about whom a couple of people in their employ were dealing for but I haven't heard of any corruption in the company's operations for years now. People will most likely question you about it, though."

"They're clean now though?"

"As far as I know. They got everyone involved in that scandal out of there and tightened their security checks for employees."

"Thanks, I appreciate the insight. It will definitely help my final decision."

"Anything else you called about?"

"No, that's it. I just wanted to get your opinion before I chose whether or not the accept the position since you have personal experience with them."

"Alright, man. Lyla and I will be back in Starling soon and I've already got a start up with the local task force. Looks like we'll be staying put for a while. Let me know if you change your mind about the job or if anything else comes up."

"Yes, sir."

"We're not in the war anymore, Oliver. You can lose the formal title."

"Thanks, Digg. I appreciate it."

"That's better.

The line goes dead and Oliver's decision is made. In the morning, he'll notify his parents of his decision to take of the position at QC.

….

Author's Note: Yay, Digg! He is going to become a lit more involved now that I've introduced him all to you. Get excited because things are starting to heat up!

Thank you everyone for reading and please feel free to share any thoughts you have with me. Questions/comments/concerns are always welcome :)

- B