AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS TAKES PLACE AFTER ARROW 3X12 AND AFTER SEASON FOUR OF TVD. I'M IGNORING MOST EVERYTHING AFTER THE SEASON FINALE, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE UP TO DATE WITH THE VAMPIRE DIARIES AND THE ORIGINALS TO FOLLOW THE STORY. THIS IS GOING TO BE OLICITY AND KLAROLINE. ENJOY AND PLEASE REVIEW.

Prologue:

"I don't want to be… a woman you love."

And then she walked away, and the next day things went back to normal. Well, their version of normal. At least, the normal they had grasped onto after the failed date from hell and his half-ass confession of love and before Oliver challenged Ra's Ah Ghul to a duel and she believed him to be gone for almost a month. Ok, not normal. Awkward and hesitant and filled with Malcolm Merlyn and his crazy ass attempt at training Oliver to beat the Heir of the Demon.

It wasn't going well.

Everyone could see it. Roy. Diggle. Laurel.

Especially Felicity.

But she was trying to bite her tongue. For once. No rambling diatribes. No more lectures. Just doing her job and trying to be there for Oliver and the team as best she could.

Sinking down into her couch, barely glancing at the neon glow of the clock announcing that she would have to be up for work in less than three hours, she pursed her lips before taking a long draw of the emergency Merlot she kept for dire situations and season finales. Oliver and Merlyn weren't making any progress. They were too evenly matched for Oliver to really be getting anything out of these preposterous lessons. They could all see it, but no one said anything. Not even Oliver, and as delusional as he could be sometimes she knew that he had to know that too.

They weren't getting anywhere, and it was only a matter of time before the League learned of Oliver's return and came for him and Thea. Felicity wanted to help, but to do so would be doing the same thing she accused Oliver of doing with Merlyn: getting into bed with a murderer.

She poured another glass of wine. The bottle painstakingly low at this point, reminding Felicity of just how many dire situations she has had recently.

While Oliver had decided that the means justified the ends, she didn't know if she was there yet.

That wasn't true. She wasn't sure that she wanted to see the look on his face when he realized that once again she wasn't exactly who he thought she was. She was someone different. Like when Cooper came to town. He had looked so hurt when he asked her how come she hadn't told him about any of it. She didn't want to see that look on his face again. Especially after the emotion-filled conversation they had after defeating Brick the night of his return.

"I don't want to be…a woman you love."

It all boiled back down to that. She may not want to be a woman he loved; she sure as hell didn't want him to look at her like he didn't. Not after the months of him covertly staring at her with love and longing and desire in his eyes. She didn't know if she could take it if all of that was gone. She couldn't take it if he hated her.

But she couldn't take it if he died either whether he continued to love her or not. Because she loved him. She really, really loved him in that Meredith Grey monologue way of loving someone: in a really, really big pretend to like his taste in music, let him eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over her head outside his window, unfortunate way that makes her hate him, loved him.

But in loving him, she knew she had to let go of her fear and her morals, and she had to give him his best chance at winning, and in deciding this, she did find her peace. Peace, in accepting that she would have to make the sacrifice this time, washed over her.

Her sacrifice would not only be Oliver's love and friendship, she feared. Klaus never gave anything away for free, and she was too rare a commodity to go on untethered to a faction for very long. The only way she had stayed hidden so long from the Original Hybrid was because of his love and devotion for Caroline Forbes.

And in asking for Klaus' help, she knew the only guaranteed way to get it would be to go through Caroline. For as long as Felicity had known Caroline, Klaus had loved her; and for as long as she had known Klaus, Caroline had never given into what she so obviously felt and been with him.

She was afraid that his goodwill toward Caroline might not include her in this round, and she hesitated before hitting send on the message she had been typing to Caroline. Chills ran up her back as she remembered what Klaus had told her four years ago in Boston before he allowed her to go: 'to control the supernatural, one must control magic. To control humans, one must control technology.'

She was how he wanted to control technology, but for Caroline's sake, he had allowed her to leave, and in return, she saved Caroline's life not a month later. Caroline owed her, and no matter what price either of them would end up paying the Original, to save Oliver, she had every intention of collecting.

She had to do it. Before she could talk herself out of it, she pressed the button and downed the remaining wine in her glass. Felicity's breath came out in pants and she wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry, but she knew she didn't have that option. Caroline would be calling soon.

The phone pulsed in her hand with an incoming call, and Felicity winced. There was no going back now. She just hoped Oliver was right: that the ends justified the means.

And that he wouldn't throw her out over her ties to the supernatural, for knowing about it and never saying anything to the team, to him. He wanted her on his side with Merlyn, to understand that he didn't have a choice, and that sometimes the ends justified the means.

That's why she hadn't played the "vampires owe me favors" card before; she didn't think that they were there yet. But after choosing to work with a terrorist monster like Malcolm Merlyn, Klaus Mikealson should be no problem for Oliver Queen.

"Hey, Caroline. I'm sorry to call so late." She answered with a long exhale, her free hand massaging her temple. She could already feel the headache beginning to pound behind her eyelids.

"It's not late on the east coast. It's early." Caroline laughed, sounding carefree and beautiful like the college girl she was supposed to be. She was 24 and seeking her masters' at NYU. She had her entire future in front of her, but Felicity knew the limitations on that future. Yes, she was ageless and gorgeous and remarkably fast and strong, but she was also forever 17 and had said goodbye to a normal existence after waking up dead one day after being smothered to death with a hospital pillow.

"Well, I'm glad then. How are you? New boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

"Ha! Like I could get away with that while being stalked from afar by my Original hybrid lover."

"So you guys still aren't…"

"Abso-fucking-lutely not. We hooked up for summer, but by August I was beyond ready to come back to New York. The Big Easy isn't so easy, you know."

"Hmm. I was wondering…You see I'm in trouble. Well, not trouble and not me. My boss is in trouble. Well, not my boss anymore. He lost the company, but I still help him out sometimes…um, on the side. Not that I am his side piece or any other version of…"

"Felicity! You aren't sleeping with Oliver Queen, and he's the Arrow who I know you have been helping for a while now, and apparently he's in some kind of trouble that you believe I can help you with."

"Not you."

Thousands of miles away, Caroline's eyebrows crinkled in curiosity. "Then who?" She paused. "Oh, hell no, Felicity. What do you want with him?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I thought I had another option." Felicity's voice was low now, laden with unshed tears that she could feel digging to be released from behind her sad, blue eyes.

"Another option would be better. Anything." Caroline paused, and then she sighed deeply. "You know he's going to want something in return. He always wants something in return."

"I know, and I'm prepared for that. I just-I wanted you to ask him for me, and for you to come out here and…I don't know…keep him in check."

"I don't keep him in check. Klaus does what Klaus wants."

"With the exception of you. He loves you, and I need you here to help keep him honest at least. Please. You owe me, Caroline."

"Felicity…"

"Please. Oliver's going to die without Klaus' intervention. I know he trained Ra's Ah Ghul. Elijah told me once, and please…I'll do anything, Caroline. Anything." Felicity begged and she waited for Caroline to respond, to say anything that would allow Felicity to think that this could work out.

"I don't want anything from you. I just wanted you to be safe. To not be treated and traded like your life doesn't matter by vampires and witches. Since that isn't going to happen because you've decided you need Klaus' help, I suppose I will see you around 10 your time tonight…with Klaus."

"Thank you, Caroline. I know what I asked for isn't easy." Felicity said finally. Her breath coming out in shallow pants again like she couldn't believe this crazy plan was actually going to work.

"Don't thank me. You don't know what he is going to want in return, but I'll make sure he honors the debt from saving my life. He holds my life most precious. He wouldn't allow that debt to go unpaid."

"Just be at Verdant at 10 with Klaus. I'll see you then." Felicity hung up the phone, eyes practically crossing from her headache, the wine, and pure exhaustion. She suffered a look at the clock. She had to be at Palmer Technologies in two hours. There wouldn't be any rest tonight for her. With a regretful sigh, she began working on her tablet. Didn't matter anyway, she supposed. She had to tell Oliver about the one part of her past she wanted to leave absolutely hidden and pray he wouldn't hold it against her.

All before 10 o'clock tomorrow night. There really was no rest for the wicked.