Thanks to everyone who was patient and supportive while I was stuck with my writer's block. Sorry it took so long, but here it is!

–Magnetic–

It took a little bit of time, quite a bit of money, and a lot of work, but on the night of Verdant's grand reopening, Thea thought that every bit of it was worth it. She, Roy, Oliver, and Sara had been at the club since early that morning, mostly because they had to stop an armed robbery in progress at four am, (seriously, who decides to rob a casino at four in the morning?). After Thea had finished washing the red paint from around her eyes (she was starting to reconsider the mask thing, even if wearing one would ruin her peripheral vision even more than the hood already did), they had spent the better part of six hours getting everything ready and set up ("No, Ollie, Roy, not there! There!"). By noon, everything looked just as it had before they had been shut down and Thea was feeling pretty good about this evening's events.

They had decided to leave everything as it was and reconvene back at Verdant at five o'clock sharp. Roy had thrown his arm over Thea's shoulders and she had leaned into his body as they left the club, with every intention of collecting Sin from the clocktower and going back to Roy's place to sleep for the next four hours.

"So I haven't asked you yet," Thea said as they got into Roy's car, "what do you really think of sharing your one-time bachelor pad with two girls?"

As Roy was backing out of the lot, he replied, "I feel like there's no good way to answer that. Am I being tested?"

"Do you think you're being tested?" she questioned mischievously.

"Yes, actually, I do," Roy said as he wove through the crowded streets of The Glades. "But, to answer your question honestly, I really don't mind it. I mean, between Verdant and Team Arrow, we barely spend any time there, but when we do, it's cool not having to be alone all the time."

"Good," Thea answered simply. "I didn't want you to feel all . . . suffocated."

Roy glanced over to Thea in the passenger's seat. "I never feel suffocated by you. I just feel like I'm finally not alone anymore," he told her genuinely. "I love you, Thea Queen."

Thea rested her head against Roy's arm as they continued driving home, content with the fact that she was with Roy and she was loved. All the money in the world had never made her happier than this.

Laurel was eyeballs deep in depositions when she heard the knock on her door and she distractedly responded with a, "Come in."

When the door opened, Laurel looked up to see her secretary, Lisa, poking her head into the office. "DA Lance, there's a Mr. Queen here to see you," Lisa informed her promptly. "He says that it's urgent."

Shaking the haze of legal jargon that hadn't overwhelmed her this much since she passed her bar exams, Laurel nodded and forced a weak smile. "It's okay, Lisa. Please send him in," she answered politely.

Lisa nodded and ducked out of the room. A moment later, Oliver walked in with a brown bag in one hand and an arrangement of flowers in the other. His trademark charming smile was on his face, but there was a lightness to his posture and a patency in his eyes that Laurel couldn't ever remember seeing before. This man standing in her office looking so genuine and at ease, now completely devoid of the weight of all his secrets and lies, was not the footloose and careless boy who was lost on the Queen's Gambit, nor was he the distant, aloof, and emotionally unavailable man who had returned home five years later. Laurel realized that this man smiling back at her was the true man under the hood, free of the masks of The Arrow and playboy billionaire Oliver Queen. In a moment of absolute clarity, Laurel realized that Oliver was now the person she had only ever seen glimpses of before, in full.

"Hello, Laurel. These are for you." He handed her the flowers, which she set on her desk. "I hope I'm not disrupting you," Oliver began, "but your father mentioned you hadn't been eating much lately." He set the brown bag down on Laurel's desk and began taking dishes out. "So I got your favorites: avocado salad and chicken risotto from DiNozzo's, and a calzone supreme from Mario's."

Laurel had to laugh. "Oliver, this is enough food to last me the entire week."

As he was lifting the lid from the salad container and offering Laurel a fork, he replied, "Exactly. This way, even if you say no to my offer, I will know that you aren't starving yourself."

"Shouldn't you let me hear the offer before you give me the continental buffet?" Laurel quipped.

Oliver tilted his head in acquiescence. "Well, tonight is the reopening of Verdant, and I know that maybe inviting a newly recovered alcoholic to a bar opening might not be appropriate, but it would mean a lot to me and Thea if you came," he told her. "I won't be drinking, Thea and Sin aren't even legal to drink, Sara's going to be working most of the night so she's not going to drink and neither is Roy, Lyla is a pregnant alcohol-free zone for the next six to seven months . . . You'll be hanging out with all the cool sober kids."

Cracking a huge smile, Laurel nodded. "Okay, you've talked me into it!" she conceded. "Anyway, I could use a night out to blow off some steam. Being the stand-in DA is not fun, actually it's making me hate being a lawyer, and I love being a lawyer!"

Oliver laughed. "Okay. Great, then I'll see you at seven?"

Laurel nodded. "Seven o'clock," she agreed readily.

"Sara." In her drowsy state of oblivion, Sara could hear a light voice calling to her and someone gently shaking her shoulder. "Sara," the someone called to her again. Sara felt soft fingers tucking hair behind her ear as she soft drifted into consciousness. "Come on, sweetie. Time to wake up." She recognized the voice as Felicity's warm and slightly gravelly tone.

Sara opened her eyes to find herself laying on Felicity's couch having passed out hours ago. Felicity was sitting on the edge of the sofa beside her, looking down at her tenderly and with sympathy in her eyes. "I'm sorry to have to wake you," Felicity told her, "but it's almost four o'clock and I know Thea needed you back there by five."

"No, it's okay," Sara told her, sitting up. "I'm glad you did." She caught sight of the garment bag slung over the back of the armchair and a pair of killer high heels in Felicity's hand. "Are you going somewhere else?" she asked.

Felicity looked confused for a moment, until she followed Sara's line of sight to the garment bag and back to Sara's face. "Oh no," she answered. "There's just a few diagnostics I have to run on the foundry's computer systems. I'll just get ready there."

"So I'll see you at the club?" Sara asked.

Smiling, Felicity boldly leaned into Sara and kissed the corner of her mouth lightly. When she pulled back and looked Sara in the eyes, she answered, "I'll see you there."

Sara swore that when Felicity left out the door, she took a little piece of the Canary's heart with her.

If there was one thing Felicity hated doing, it was lying to her friends. Unfortunately, Digg knew exactly how to play on this weakness.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't at least tell Oliver," Digg tried to reason with her.

"Yes, there is," she argued. "That reason being that we both know very well that Oliver will react impulsively and throw himself headlong into harm's way and wind up nearly getting himself killed and I just managed to scrub out the bloodstains from the last time he nearly got himself killed and almost bled out in here!" She gestured around the Arrowcave wildly. "Ergo, we are not telling anyone anything until we know for sure that Dark Archer II is even a real threat and not just some overenthusiastic fan of The Arrow or until we have more on Checkmate's inner workings."

"Felicity, if you keep going after these people the way you have been, you're the one who's going to get yourself killed," Digg told her, stepping to the opposite side of the desk and closing Felicity's laptop screen on her. She was about to protest indignantly when she caught the look on John's face. "Have you told Sara about this?"

Felicity tried not to react to the question too obviously and gave Digg a look. "I just told you we're not telling anyone anything about this. Why would you think Sara would be any different?" she asked.

"Because Sara is always different to you," John replied smoothly. "Because you hate lying to Sara even more than you hate lying to the rest of them, because you love her."

"What?!" Felicity squeaked. "That is ridiculous! I'm not in love with Sara!"

Dig crossed his arms and smiled a satisfied smirk. "I never said anything about you being in love with her," he pointed out.

"Well . . . good, because I'm not–"

"Felicity . . ." Digg told her in a warning voice.

"Okay, fine!" Felicity erupted, standing out of her seat. "Maybe I am! That doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to tell her anything about this until I have concrete facts and leads and-and maybe even a plan as to how to take these stupid idiots down!" The tech dropped back down into her seat and rubbed her temples. "I hate lying to them, Digg, and I know that they are going to be furious with me when they find out that I've been keeping all of this from them . . . but I'm scared of what they'll do once they know. Checkmate had a mad genius put a rubber chess piece bullet in Sara and letting anyone even possibly emulating Malcolm Merlyn come to Oliver's attention is a recipe to turn him back into a killer, neither of which I am particularly keen to see happen again. It kills me to lie to them, but if it keeps them alive, then so be it."

Digg tipped his head back and yelled toward the ceiling in frustration. "Fine, fine. You win this one," he relented, "but the whole reason I came down here was to make sure Oliver wouldn't come down to check to make sure you hadn't fallen into a computer coma and that you were still going to make an appearance upstairs, and catch you in the middle of all of this."

Felicity closed out of her pages, cleared her history, and turned off her monitors. "And I appreciate that, Digg. Now, I'm going to go get myself ready and make that appearance upstairs, and you should go make sure your wife and unborn child are alright."

As Felicity traipsed off toward the lair showers and Digg turned toward the stairs, he muttered to himself, "There is no way that this ends well."

"My God," Thea called over the loud sounds of blasting music and happy club-goers. "This is crazy!"

Sara threw a happy smile over her shoulder as she mixed a couple martinis for a flock of women sitting at one of the tables. "I know," she remarked back as Thea stepped to her side of the bar and she set the tray of drinks on the table for Roy to deliver. "If we squeeze any more people in this place somebody's going to have to call the fire marshal!"

The resident youngest hero threw her a devilish smirk. "And while that is also fantastic," Thea began bodingly, giving Sara a thorough once over, "I was referring to how completely hot and obvious you look right now."

"I don't know what you mean."

Turning to look at herself in the reflective chrome behind the bar, Sara tried not to let Thea's words get to her. So what if she had taken a full twenty minutes before she finally decided to wear her most flattering pair of skinny blue jeans and a shimmery black top that showed just the right amount of cleavage? Or if she had applied her make-up in such a way that made the green in her eyes pop and her eyelashes look darker and fuller? And if she had spent a little extra time making sure every individual hair on her head was just right? Maybe she just wanted to look good for Verdant's grand re-opening.

"Please," Thea scoffed. "I maybe be younger than you, but I wasn't born yesterday." She laughed, "You have got it so bad for Felicity!"

Sara whipped her head around wildly. "Jeez, Thea! Tell the whole damn world why don't you?!" she snapped.

Thea's pale blue eyes lit up in triumph. "Ha! I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! You looove her, You wanna maarrry her, And have cute crime-fighting computer genius babies with her ," Thea sang loudly and obnoxiously. " Sara and Felicity sitting in a tree K-I-S-S- –"

Sara picked up a dish towel sitting on the bar nearby. "Oh, knock it off! What are you?! Ten?!" she demanded, snapping the towel at Thea, who shrieked and jumped away from her.

Thea cackled, as if this whole ordeal was the most hilarious thing ever, but (thankfully for Sara) she didn't go back to singing like an elementary school girl on the play ground. "Why don't you just ask her out? Anybody with eyes can see that you two are crazy about each other," Thea remarked readily. "You look at each other with little hearts in your eyes," she added a little more mockingly.

"It's more complicated than that," Sara explained, refilling a drink for a requesting customer. "And Felicity doesn't feel that way about me."

"WOW," Thea responded loudly. "You know, I find it really interesting that the only two people who haven't realized you and Felicity are in love with each other are you and Felicity. I mean, even Oliver sees it, and that's really saying something considering it took him, like, four months to realize I was dating Roy."

Sara's forehead crinkled in confusion. "How could he possibly have missed that?" she asked incredulously.

The knowing and slightly smug look that Thea gave Sara in response was answer enough. "Probably the same way that you've missed Felicity looking at you like you're the eighth world wonder– Oh! Hey, Felicity," Thea said loudly, her eyes widening with a flair of theatricality.

Sara crossed her arms over her chest. "Nice try, but that's so not going to work, Speedy," Sara told her.

"Hey, Thea," Felicity replied from behind Sara just before the bartender felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

Thea was very obviously trying not to outright laugh at Sara, as the older woman tried to school her face back into composure, especially when Felicity asked, "What's not going to work?"

"It's nothing," Sara hastened to say, "just . . .". Sara trailed off as Felicity stepped into her line of sight. Va va voom, she thought, though she had the good sense not to say it aloud. "Wow," she breathed instead. "Felicity, you look–"

"HOT!" Thea cut in bluntly.

Sara was inclined to vehemently agree with the younger hero as she tried to stop her eyes from raking up the length of Felicity's figure. The tech was wearing a sinfully short, scarlet red dress that hugged her body in all the right places, and a pair of high heels that made Felicity's already long legs seem to go on forever. Thick, blonde tresses spilled down from Felicity's updo and the younger woman's baby blue eyes were framed by long, dark, smoky eyelashes, and crystal clear without the barrier of glasses. When Felicity blushed at Thea's exclamation, Sara was pretty sure she couldn't breathe. Clearly someone had turned the thermostat way up in the club.

"Thanks, Thea," Felicity mumbled sheepishly. She sat down on one of the barstools with grace and licked her lips a little self-consciously. Her eyes met Sara's solemnly as she said, "I think I could use a drink."

Nodding adamantly, Sara felt happy to have something to focus on aside from how completely turned on she suddenly felt. "Wine?" she asked Felicity, expecting an easy 'yes'.

"Whiskey sour tonight, actually," Felicity said instead. At Sara's widening eyes, Felicity elaborated, "It's been kind of a long day and I'm feeling a little adventurous."

As Sara began mixing Felicity's drink, she tried desperately not to think about what other types of 'adventurous' Felicity could be.

. . .

Verdant's grand reopening night was proving to be quite profitable by the time ten-thirty rolled around. Sara wasn't sure the club had even seen a night like this before it had been shut down, but it definitely felt good to be back in business. For the past half-hour, Sara had been goofing off, throwing liquor bottles up behind her back and catching them over her shoulder, spinning shakers, and mixing drinks with much more flair than was strictly necessary. She had even been showing Thea the ropes of bartending and Felicity had sat right at the bar with them all evening. Finally, Sara's curiosity won out when she placed Felicity's third drink in front of her (she wasn't sure if Felicity had caught on yet, but she had been mixing less and less alcohol into the other girl's drinks each time).

"So, not that I'm not insanely grateful for your company tonight," Sara began, casting a coy look Felicity's way, "but why aren't you out there with the others?" She nodded her head to where Lyla, Laurel, and Digg were out on the dance floor. "I mean, you're the reason why Verdant is back in business."

Felicity shrugged her shoulders as she stirred her drink idly. "I'm not really what you would call a 'party' person," she answered simply. "I never really have been. I'm not all that great a dancer, and even in college, I was more into hard drives than hard drinks. Letting my hair down is not something that comes easily to me."

Sara smirked. "Is that so?" she questioned deviously. She turned her head to where she could see Thea lingering with Roy on the outside of the crowd. "Hey, Thea!" The girl turned her head in Sara's direction and the blonde asked, "You think you're ready for a trial run?" She gestured to the bar.

Thea glanced briefly between Sara and Felicity and grinned. "Hell yeah! Bring it on!" she said, striding confidently over to take Sara's place behind the bar.

"Great," Sara said. "We'll me right over there somewhere if you need me!" Sara grabbed Felicity by the hand, leaving Thea at the bar, and pulled the IT-girl onto the dance floor.

The steady beat gave Sara an artificial confidence as she pulled Felicity right into the thick of things, spun around, and placed one hand on the younger woman's hip. "Felicity Smoak," Sara began to declare, "I'm going to show you" – she reached up behind Felicity's head and swiftly pulled out the clip that had been holding Felicity's hair back, allowing the thick tresses to spill down the girl's shoulders beautifully – "how to let your hair down."

As laser beam blue eyes stared into hers, Sara grabbed Felicity by the hips and pulled her into her own body as she began rocking to the beat of the loud club music. At first, Felicity seemed awkward and unsure, until Sara ran her hands up Felicity's back and met her eyes. "It's okay," she assured her friend. "Don't think about it, just let go, follow me, and feel the beat. That's all there is to it, like when we first started training together."

A shiver ran down Felicity's spine at the gentle way Sara was caressing her back and the soft silkiness of her voice. She nodded a little disjointedly, raised her arms to wrap them around Sara's neck, and closed her eyes. She heard the music, pounding loud in her hearts and all around her. She felt Sara's warm body pressed impossibly close to hers, so close that if they had been any closer, they would have disproved the laws of physics. She smelled Sara's scent – green tea, orange citrus shower gel, rose petal perfume, and a little bit of tequila – as it wisped its way around her, encompassing Felicity as completely as Sara's arms had, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Sara's green gaze staring straight into hers. That is, until she could have sworn Sara's eyes had dropped down to her lips, just for the briefest of moments. She found herself wondering if all of this were a dream or a figment of her (admittedly, wild as of late) imagination.

"Sara–" she was about to say, right before Sara leaned in, and suddenly there was Thea's voice in the background.

"Hey, Lance, I'm not paying you to dance with your hot IT girl!" the youngest Queen yelled.

Sara held Felicity's eyes and body for another prolonged moment, before she was suddenly gone altogether. Felicity found herself alone on the dance floor, wondering what had just happened, and she now felt cold without Sara's warmth wrapped around her. All that was left of this perfectly confusing moment was the lingering scent of rose and oranges.

. . .

After the shock wore off, Felicity meandered her way over to where Laurel was sitting, watching Sara entertaining Thea and Sin at the bar with an animatedly told story. Felicity moved her head into Laurel's line of vision.

"What're you looking at?" Felicity asked, talking the seat next to Laurel.

Laurel looked like a woman who had just won the lottery, and she took a deep breath and sighed contentedly. "She's happy," Laurel commented, nodding toward Sara behind the bar. "I haven't seen her smile like that since she's been back. It's been like . . . like, she's not really alive, you know? Like my Sara really was lost at sea, but looking at her right now . . . it's like something's brought her back to life again." She turned her head to look at Felicity. "It still amazes me, that after everything she's been through, she's survived and endured and become this beautiful and brave, heroic woman. She's incredible."

Felicity cast her gaze back toward the bar and she felt her heart melt at the sight of Sara with her head tipped back in laughter at something that Sin had said. "Yes she is," Felicity agreed emphatically, trying to keep her swooning to an unnoticeable minimum. She wondered idly how she had never realized how completely breathtaking it was when Sara's eyes crinkled at the corners and her cheeks dimpled when she smiled genuinely.

Laurel watched Felicity watch Sara with a lovesick expression. "So . . .," Laurel began preemptively.

Felicity's attention snapped back to the older Lance sister. " . . So . . ?" she questioned hesitantly, not quite sure what Laurel was expecting her to catch onto.

"What's going on between you and my sister?" Laurel asked point-blank.

It was a good thing Felicity had not decided to take a sip of her drink at that moment, because if she had, she undoubtedly would have choked on it. "Um . . What do you mean?" Felicity stammered.

The attorney rolled her eyes. "Please," Laurel stated. "She calls you cute every chance she gets, you worry about her incessantly, she spends the majority of her nights at your apartment, and I don't tell me I'm imagining things! I've seen the looks exchanged across rooms and the hand-holding and the way the two of you always have to be in some form of contact with each other." Laurel gave Felicity an earnest kind of look. "I've seen the way she looks at you, Felicity."

Laughing uncannily, Felicity tried her very hardest not to look like a guilty party or pathetically pining loser. "Laurel, as great as all of that sounds," Felicity began slowly. "Sara is . . ." – she looked back to the bar at the girl she was falling hopelessly in love with – "Sara," she finished with reverence. "And I'm . . . just . . . me." Laurel gave her a dubious look, but Felicity simply continued on. "We're friends – close friends – and that's it. Sara's going to want someone more . . . well, more." Felicity stared Laurel straight in the eyes, and she watched as the lightbulb turned on in Laurel's mind.

Laurel's eyes widened and she leaned in conspiratorially. "Oh my God. You're in love with her!" Laurel whisper-yelled.

Felicity didn't see the use in trying to deny it to anyone anymore. "Yes," she answered. Felicity looked across the room at Sara again. "But you can't tell her that, Laurel. I like the way things are now, with how close we are, how comfortable we are with each other. I love having her in my life more than anything, and I can't let that change because she thinks I'm getting too close to her, too personal, too attached, too . . . whatever." Felicity stopped and looked at Laurel. "As much as it hurts being with Sara and knowing that I'll never be with Sara, not being with her hurts even more."

Laurel was quiet for a long time, and Felicity had gone back to looking at Sara when Sara wasn't looking in their direction, when Laurel finally spoke. "Felicity?"

Turning her attention back to Laurel with a sheepish blush on her face, Felicity replied, "Yes?"

Looking more serious than Felicity could ever remember seeing her, Laurel continued with what she was going to say. "When you both finally wake up and realize that the two of you are obviously crazy about each other . . ." – she trailed off and bit her lower lip – ". . . I know that I don't have to tell you this, but just . . . don't hurt my sister, okay?" she requested.

Felicity looked surprised by Laurel's words, but she nodded adamantly. "Sara means the world to me, Laurel," Felicity told her, staring her straight in the eyes. "I would never, in million years, do anything to intentionally hurt her."

Laurel smiled softly. "I know that. That's why I said I knew I didn't need to tell you."

At that point in time, Oliver chose to sidle up to their table and rest his hand on the back of Laurel's chair. He sent them his most charming smile. "Ladies," Oliver greeted them. "Are you enjoying yourselves?"

They both looked at each other with suspicious looks before answering Oliver's question.

"Definitely," said Felicity.

"This is great," agreed Laurel, smiling up at their friend. "Thanks for dragging me out tonight."

"Anytime," Oliver confirmed with emphasis. After a moment, he continued, "I don't want to crash your conversation, girls, but, I'd like to ask Laurel to dance with me."

Laurel looked back to Felicity. "Oh, well, Felicity and I were–"

"Just concluding our conversation," Felicity finished. She smiled at Laurel and tipped her head toward Oliver. "Go," she told her friend. "Have fun. I" – she stood up from her seat – "think I need another drink after having our talk– and I just realized how that must have sounded to a steadfast recovered-alcoholic." She sent Laurel an apologetic look. "I'm sorry."

Laurel just laughed. "Really, you guys, it's fine. I'm fine," she assured both Felicity and Oliver. "I'm having a great time, I'm carefree, I'm not stressed out, and I don't feel like drinking. But you know what I do feel like doing?" She turned to look at Oliver and finished, "Dancing."

Felicity laughed as Oliver gallantly offered out his hand and began pulling Laurel onto the dance floor. She could see Digg and Lyla working it out on the floor with all their goofy dance moves and not a care in the world as to who was watching. Even Sin had gotten out there and begun dancing with a perfect stranger who Felicity was definitely keeping a close eye on, despite knowing that there were six well-trained heroes doing the exact same thing. She tried to feel the same level of excitement as all of her friends, but her conversation with Laurel was weighing heavily on her mind and her heart.

"Why so glum, chum?" asked Sara as Felicity retook her previously vacated seat at the bar.

Plastering on the most genuine smile possible, Felicity answered, "No glum. Just . . . pensive, I guess."

Sara gave her an unconvinced look. "Uh-huh," she muttered. She set down the glass and the dishtowel in her hands and rested her elbows on the counter so she could lean across it. "You wanna try answering that again?"

"Not really," replied Felicity.

Sara frowned with concern. "Did Laurel say something to you? Because sometimes she can be kind of–"

"No. No," Felicity assured her friend, reaching her hand to rest on Sara's folded elbows without thinking about it. "Laurel's great. She's awesome." Felicity hadn't noticed the way she was absently stroking her thumb across Sara's forearm, but Sara definitely had, and she had to admit that she liked the attention and the contact. "My mind is just kind of busy right now," Felicity concluded, "which is exactly why I need another drink. Hit me, bartender!"

Clearly nonplussed, Sara laughed anyway. "What can I do you for, m'lady?" she asked with lighthearted humor.

"I'll take a shot of every liquor from vodka to tequila," Felicity told her.

Sara paused. "Whoa," she remarked. "Felicity, are you sure?" Sara's concern touched Felicity but she nodded.

Felicity pulled her keys out of her purse and set them on the bar confidently. "The beautiful blonde bartender that everyone in this club has been talking about all night? She's a close friend of mine. As long as she's around, I know I'll be okay." Felicity gave Sara a warm, reassured smile.

Sara returned Felicity's smile before taking out four shot glasses and setting them in front of her younger friend. The bartender picked up a couple liquor bottles and spun them around before pouring them into the glasses. "Vodka, bourbon, whiskey, and tequila, as requested," Sara announced, picking Felicity's keys up off the bar. "But, just so you know, I think that this is a horrible idea."

"Noted," Felicity returned as she knocked back the first of many shots that night.

As Sara stumbled through the hallway of Felicity's apartment half-carrying a blissfully drunk and deadweight Felicity on one side and the keys to the apartment in her other, she was beginning to regret her decision to allow Felicity to get herself sloshed like it was St. Patrick's Day in June. It wasn't that Felicity was a mean or angry or emotional or even an obnoxious drunk, although the alcohol had certainly made her a little sillier than usual. It was just that Felicity was kind of a touchy–feely drunk, and not that Felicity's advances were at all unwanted by Sara, but it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult for Sara to restrain herself and to not take advantage of Felicity and show her just how wanted her advances really were.

"Come on, baby," Sara said as she fit the key in the lock, pushed the door open into the apartment, and began pulling Felicity into the livingroom. "Let's sit you down on the couch, okay? And I'll get you some aspirins and a glass of water and your PJs." As Sara was about to go do as she had said, Felicity latched onto her arm and Sara looked back.

"Don't leave me," Felicity begged in a heartbreakingly adorable plea.

Sara sat back down beside Felicity and pushed some hair out of her face. "I'm not leaving your, Fliss," she laughed softly, "but I want to take care of you. I'll be right back, I promise."

The fact that Felicity groaned and held onto Sara's hand for as long as possible until she fell to one side of the couch let Sara know just how far gone Felicity really was. The trouble was that Sara found it all inexplicably endearing. She had taken care of her fair share of drunk friends in high school and in college, and never before had she thought any of it was cute. Everything was different with Felicity and, best of all, it seemed so normal and natural. Taking care of Felicity wasn't something she had to think about, it came to her like second-nature.

She grabbed a couple aspirin (actual aspirin this time), a glass of water, and Felicity's pajamas, and made her way back to the livingroom, only to find Felicity missing. "Fliss?" she called out. She heard a heaving sound coming from the bathroom and she knew all too well what it signified.

She held Felicity's hair away from her face while Felicity emptied her stomach of all the alcohol she had ingested that night. She knew from the stifled sobs and the unsteady shaking that Felicity was crying, but she waited until the bouts of nausea had passed and she had gotten a cold cloth to wipe the sheen of clammy sweat from Felicity's face before she asked about the tears. For several seconds, Felicity couldn't catch her breath long enough to form words, and Sara continued wiping the tears and moisture from Felicity's still-beautiful face while she waited patiently for an answer.

"I feel horrible and-and completely unattractive," Felicity cried when she could finally manage words.

"Oh, honey," Sara sighed both with sympathy and amusement. "It's okay, okay? I've been where you are, and I can say with certainty that I did not look half as pretty as you do now when it happened to me. I also didn't have an awesome friend to hold my hair back and tell me everything was going to be okay either, but you do." Sara held the back of Felicity's head as she kissed her forehead, before leaning back to look into Felicity's eyes. "You have got me, Felicity Smoak, and I'm not going anywhere. Now, if you're not feeling like you're going to throw up again, then let's get you up and get you into bed." Sara grabbed Felicity's arm and helped her to her feet. "And, for the record, I don't think there's any way in the world that you could look unattractive. You're beautiful, Felicity."

"Thank you," Felicity mumbled as she leaned heavily into Sara's side as the pair made their way into Felicity's bedroom. "Thanks," Felicity rasped tiredly again as Sara sat her down on her bed.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Sara's lips. "Anytime. Try putting your jammies on, okay? I think Laurel left the rest of the 7-Up we were using to make Shirley Temples the other day in our– uh, your fridge. I'll be right back."

As soon as Sara was out of the room, she smacked herself. It was a Freudian slip, implying that anything in Felicity's apartment was shared between them. As she pushed aside a few items in the refrigerator to get to the soda, she hoped that Felicity wouldn't remember much of this night in the morning. If it had been anyone else, Sara would have felt reassured that the entire night would be a black hole in Felicity's memory, but this was Felicity Smoak and the girl's mind was like a steel trap. Nothing got past her. She poured a glass of 7-Up and took a breath before going back into Felicity's bedroom to find her friend struggling to pull her loose-fitted MIT shirt over her head.

"Here," Sara told her, halting Felicity's frantically flailing arms and taking the collar of the fabric to bring it down around Felicity's head. When Felicity's head popped up through the hole, Sara smoothed back the girl's crazy messy, blonde hair. "There," she concluded as Felicity easily slid her arms through the sleeves.

"Sara, you're an angel," Felicity gushed, throwing her arms around Sara's neck and leaning into the older girl. "I know you don't think you are, but you are."

Felicity began swaying unsteadily on her feet as she looked at Sara, before she finally began falling to the side. Since the tech's arms had been around Sara's neck, the hero was being pulled down with her, until Sara managed to right them by planting her feet and catching one arm around Felicity's waist. There was a moment between them as Felicity regained her bearings and Sara realized the position she found herself in, that their faces were inches from one another's and they were sharing the same breath and the same look. Felicity lifted her fingers to caress Sara's cheek.

"God, you're beautiful," she whispered to Sara breathlessly, causing Sara's own breath to hitch.

It became physically painful for Sara to not be kissing this girl. She had never before felt so completely enraptured and entranced by someone, and had to execute such restraint and self-discipline. Even with someone as intriguing and mysterious as Nyssa, who had an entire league of international assassins ready to kill Sara if she so much as looked at the daughter of Ra's al Ghul wrong, Sara hadn't held back. She had done as she always had and jumped in head-first and, luckily for her, Nyssa had dove in with her. With Felicity it was different. With Felicity everything was different. Reality came back to Sara's senses in the nick of time, and she pulled Felicity back upright, before turning the girl and sitting her down on the edge of the bed once more.

"You should take these," Sara said, handing the Felicity the aspirin, which the younger woman gratefully put in her mouth. Sara handed her the 7-Up afterward and Felicity took a sip and swallowed the pills back, before handing the glass back to Sara. "Now all that's left is to sleep it off."

The older blonde lifted up the covers of Felicity's bed and delicately helped Felicity to get under them. As she stared down at Felicity's head resting on the pillow, Sara wanted to say more. She wanted to tell Felicity that she was amazing and funny and not at all what Sara had expected of her the first time they met. She wanted to ask Felicity if she could kiss her. She wanted to tell Felicity that she loved her, that she was in love with her, and that, if it not for Sara's dark past, she thought Felicity might have been the missing half of her. It would have been crazy and impulsive and unscripted, but it was what Sara wanted desperately deep down in the very core of who she was. She had found something unexpected with Felicity: fate. Unfortunately, fate seemed to have brought Felicity to her seven years too late.

"Tell me what you're thinking," Felicity requested softly, lifting her fingers to Sara's forehead. "You always scowl and this little crinkle forms right between your eyes when something's upsetting you."

Sara's heart melted a little at how well Felicity knew her. She set her hand on the other side of Felicity's body and leaned her weight on it. "I'm worried about you," Sara answered, deciding that it was the most honest and safest answer.

"I'm okay now," Felicity assured her. "Thanks to you. You've been wonderful tonight. Of course, you're wonderful every night, it's just that tonight you went above and beyond and, wow, I think I'm sobering up because I can speak fluent rant again."

Sara chuckled under her breath and leaned down to kiss Felicity's cheek. "You're cute," Sara whispered warmly. Felicity yawned at that moment and Sara laughed a little more. "And tired," she added. "I should let you sleep."

Felicity stopped her just as she was about to get up. "I can still sleep if you're in here. You don't have to go," she said. "In fact, I'd like it if you stayed."

It was dangerous territory, and Sara knew that, but as much as Sara didn't want to take advantage of Felicity's vulnerability, she also wanted to make Felicity feel safe while she was vulnerable. It was a conflicting cycle; two sides of the same coin. So she decided that if she wanted to protect Felicity's vulnerability then she needed to do what would make Felicity feel comfortable, and if that meant sleeping next to Felicity for one night, then that was what she was going to do.

"Let me go put on my Rockets PJs and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Oh my God, I feel like death warmed over," Felicity groaned the next morning as she awoke to the sensation of fingers stroking through her hair soothingly. "Why did you let me drink so much?"

Sara's soft, warm, rumbling laugh felt good to Felicity's over-sensitive ears, much better than the neighbors upstairs or the sounds of traffic on the nearby streets just outside her neighborhood. "You wanted to let loose, so I let you," Sara reasoned in a respectfully low voice. The fingers continued scratching Felicity's scalp even as she reached for her phone. "I've already called Oliver and told him that you're not to be bothered for the rest of the day, I have coffee – two creams, extra sugar – and Sin played delivery girl this morning and brought us some of those croissants from the bakery on Bay Street that you like so much."

Slowly, Felicity sat up and looked at Sara. "Words cannot describe how thankful I am to have you in my life, Sara Lance," she said with complete sincerity. Felicity leaned in and pressed her lips to Sara's cheek for a long, lingering moment before pulling away and looking into her eyes. "I can't imagine being without you now."

Sara felt that incessant desire pulling her toward Felicity again. "Where else would be?" she asked cheekily.

Felicity beamed.

.