**Warning, scenes of non-consensual sexual activity**

**Author's note at the end to avoid spoilers**

Oliver's body was tense, and his muscles were as taught as a bowstring, holding potential energy by a fingertip. She pushed him away and knocked his hands from her arms.

"This night has been stranger than most, Oliver, so please don't make it any more complicated." She was irritable and more than a little on edge. She hung up her jacket, removed her shoes, and walked back to the bedroom, tugging at the clip in her hair. She knew he'd followed her and heard the bedroom door close.

"You think I'm complicated?" He had a guarded look on his face and spoke quietly.

"Oliver Queen, complicated? No way," she replied, removing her jewelry and running a brush through her blonde hair.

"Do you think I'm complicating your life?"

"Oliver I've rarely regretted my decision to accept your request for my help because of the good things we accomplish." She unzipped the back of her dress and picked up her pajamas from the end of her bed; then she faced him and put her hands on her hips. "In spite of our differences of opinion from time to time, I think we make a good team. I cannot, however, accept your continued alliance with a man who murdered my friend, turned your sister into a killer and then a target in order to get you to fight his battles for him." She shook her head. "I just can't accept that, no matter how much you say you need him. So yes, you complicate my life exponentially, Oliver."

"Ray Palmer doesn't."

"What?" Felicity looked genuinely confused. "Are you jealous of my boss?"

"You mean the boss who took my company, takes your time and with whom I see you making out on the street?" He stepped forward, face flushed, "That boss?"

"Were you following me?"

"Don't turn this around, Felicity. I know what I saw." He was inches away from her now, looking down at her upturned face. He breathed in her scent; it was more than perfume, it was something primitive and earthy and tickled his senses when he was close to her. He stared at her mouth, overwhelmed by the ache in his belly. He burned for her now, and it was getting worse each day. Each time he took her, he wanted her more. He placed his hands on the sides of her face and kissed her before stepping back. "That's what I saw." His hands moved down to her shoulders.

"Did you come straight to my apartment?" Felicity had a look of concern on her face. "Did you go after Ray?"

"Worried about him?" Oliver rubbed a hand over his face, damp with perspiration. He fisted his hands at his sides. "Are you sleeping with him?"

"Oliver, what's wrong with you?" She stared at him in disbelief.

"You let him kiss you in public, what do you let him do at the office?" He moved forward and trailed a finger down her shoulder, edging her dress down her arm. She brushed his hand away and tried to push past him. He put out an arm to stop her and she paused, fighting for patience.

"I'm not having this discussion with you right now."

"Do you let him touch you?" he brushed his hand up her bare back. "Do you let him see you?" he drew the dress down her arms. She clenched her jaw and folded her arms across her breasts, keeping the dress from dropping lower.

"We're not going to do this, Oliver." Felicity used her quiet, serious voice. Something had gone haywire with the men in her life. Her lover was acting like a caveman, but even at his angriest, he wasn't a bully. "You're being an ass," she said, heading for the door. To her surprise he grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her back to him. She stumbled and caught her balance. She stared at him in shock; he didn't manhandle her like this. She got angry and shoved at his chest. "Stop it!" Her push was ineffective and he pulled her in for another kiss. She turned her face away and his lips landed on her neck. They struggled awkwardly, tangling legs and arms.

"Do you let him kiss you?" he hissed. She slapped him as hard as she could. He grabbed her arms and pushed her against the wall. He pressed his hips against hers and pushed his knee between her legs. He ran a hand up her thigh and under the bottom of her dress. "Do you let him come inside you?" he whispered. He kissed her again, landing directly on her lips. She bit him this time, and he released her leg, touching his lip with his fingers. He was still too close; she could feel the dampness of his shirt and the hard ridge of his erection through his pants.

"Let me go, Oliver." She trembled with fear. This man was a stranger; an animal. He wasn't her Oliver. She kept her voice calm and just above a whisper. "You need to let me go, now." He looked hurt and confused; sweat poured down his face and soaked his t-shirt. Blood dripped onto her collarbone, pooling in the small indent before sliding down the front of her chest.

Oliver saw blood on Felicity's pale skin. His head pounded and his blood pumped through his veins, too hot, too fast. His hands were on her and she was saying something. He fought away the images of Ray Palmer and looked at Felicity. His Felicity. Her eyes were wide, her lipstick was smudged, and the front of her pretty dress was askew. His hands. His hands were gripping her arms. He was holding on too tight.

"Felicity," he let her go and stepped back. She closed her eyes as blood spattered from his lip onto her face. She pulled her dress back up with shaking hands. "I'm sorry-" he began.

"We're pretty far past sorry." She didn't look at him and he saw a tear slip out of the corner of her eye. There were red marks on her arms where his hands had been. "Just go, Oliver."

"I would never hurt you, Felicity."

"Please," she said again, and her face crumpled as she turned away from him. "Please, go."

Wiping the blood from his mouth and staring at his hand, Oliver backed away from her. He fought against his instincts. With every heartbeat he denied the commands of his body. Take. Hold. Keep. One step at a time, he backed away from her. Eventually he stumbled from her room and out of her apartment. He ran to his bike and rode off, heading for the foundry.

Felicity closed her eyes and breathed. She took air into her lungs and let it out; tears fell but she focused on her breathing for a full minute. The sticky blood on her chest pushed against denial that threatened to sooth and protect her by pretending it hadn't happened. She'd allowed denial to take over her mind when Oliver had disappeared but not again. She needed to push herself into function. Standing on shaky legs she went to her front door and engaged the chain. Locking her doors was like whistling in the dark when the man you feared was Oliver Queen and she was very afraid of him.

The cool air on bare skin reminded Felicity her dress was still unzipped. She wasn't sure, at first, whether to zip it up or take it off. She stood, frozen with indecision until her brain snapped back on. She picked up her phone and gathered her thoughts before typing out a text message. After she'd sent it she went to her computer and went to work. Eventually her phone buzzed and she looked at the message.

Knock Knock

Felicity opened her window and felt the familiar breeze that announced her friend's arrival. Barry Allen had never been such a welcome sight. He was casually dressed in jeans and a sweater, and carried a backpack with him.

"Hi." His expression was one of concern and worry. He looked her over and took in her bare feet, smudged and tear-stained makeup, but his eyed stayed at her neck and chest where blood had dried.

"I didn't touch anything," she said, rubbing her arm. "I just zipped my dress."

"Okay," he said, gently. "Let's start with the basics." He had his kit opened on her floor and stood in front of her with some swabs and collection tubes. He collected some blood from her chest and swabbed the side of her neck for saliva and inside her mouth for an elimination sample. She let him look over her carefully until he found a single hair that looked like Oliver's. He refrained from touching her when he asked his next question. "Are there any other samples you need me to take?" She shook her head and he paused, "Felicity do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'm fine." Barry put away the various samples in his kit and packed it away. "Your shoes didn't catch fire this time," she said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I came most of the way in my suit, I changed when I sent the text." He sat on the edge of her bed. "Felicity can you tell me what happened?"

"I wish I had a real answer." She went to the bathroom to change into her pajamas and clean off Oliver's blood. Barry joined her in the living room and sat on the couch while she curled up in a chair. She told him about her relationship going in a physical direction with Oliver. She went on to mention the strange behavior exhibited by Ray, Merlyn, and Oliver's eventual breakdown. "He wasn't himself." She rubbed her arms. "I thought about calling you because both he and Ray seemed to get light-headed and shaky, and they both started sweating a lot before acting jealous and coming on to me."

"They were sweating?"

"I've never seen Ray sweat except when exercising, but he was flushed and his face was sweaty. Oliver's t-shirt was soaked and his face was really red too."

"And they both came on to you?"

"I think Malcolm Merlyn did as well." She shuddered and told Barry about Merlyn's kiss and their other two encounters including the shoulder massage. Barry went back to her bedroom and came back with another kit.

"Can I take some of your blood?" he asked. "If three men who don't usually hang out together exhibit strange symptoms around you, then we should accept the possibility that you might be the one who's been drugged."

"I've felt okay," she said but agreed to let him take blood and a pillow case from her bed. He applied a tourniquet to her arm and had her squeeze her hand into a fist. He touched her shoulder gently and she breathed out the breath she'd been holding.

"Okay, just relax." Barry drew a few vials of blood and packed up the kit again.

"Are you going to run it at the police station?"

"I'll ask Caitlin to help me at STAR Labs." He placed a hand on her lower back and paused. He leaned forward and inhaled, slowly. "Um, did you change your perfume?" he asked.

"You're not the only one to ask me that," she said, looking at his face. "Are you feeling okay, Barry?" She pressed her hand against his forehead. He tended to be a bit warm, but he seemed to be sweating too.

"I really, really like the way you smell." He stared at her curiously.

"You do?"

"A little more than I should, at the moment." He was across the room in a blink. "I think you should come back to the lab with me so…someone else can run tests." He paused and rubbed a hand over his face. "Someone female."

"What are you feeling right now?" Felicity was on her feet. "Do you feel angry?"

"At Oliver, yes. But I don't feel aggressive towards you." He pressed his lips together for a moment. "Have strangers been harassing you?"

"No, a guy I met recently started to get friendly over the course of a few hours, but he didn't try anything."

"I wonder if Oliver and your boss already had feelings for you and something is making that reaction a little more…intense."

"What about you?"

"We've already established the fact that I find you very appealing," he said, frankly. "I'm not tempted to go caveman on you but I was distracted for a second or two." Felicity stood up, nervously.

"I'll wait until your tests have been run before I go anywhere," she said with a brittle smile. "Besides, three out of the four people I hang out with over there are men." Her lips trembled and she held back tears. Barry's arms went around her and he held her.

"I'm so sorry, Felicity." He rubbed her back, gently. "Do you need me to take you someplace safe?"

"No, I'll stay in tomorrow in case I'm the source of the problem."

"Please don't consider yourself at fault for this until we have some kind of results." She agreed and Barry left after getting her to promise to call him if people reacted strangely to her.

**In the previous story I'd published with the same name, it was less clear what was happening to Oliver and got some strong reactions about him behaving out-of-character.**