VI.
Oliver
He had waited too long.
For months he had stared at the text from Thea. He knew she was right. Somehow, without needing to know exactly what was going on, she had known exactly what he needed to do. Thea had already told him many times before that he needed to let someone in, but it was easier said than done.
And then Felicity had come into his life and changed everything.
It had happened slow at first, so slow in fact that he hadn't even realized it. Looking back he knew he should have. The way touching her came so easily, his hand at her elbow, pressed against her lower back, or wrapped around hers at important events. How simple it was to be around her, to trust her when no one else could be trusted.
There was reason behind the saying "hindsight is twenty twenty," and Oliver was discovering once again why it always seemed to ring true in his life.
He wanted desperately to hate William Welch. Not because the man wasn't good enough for Felicity (and until recently he had doubted anyone ever would), but because Oliver feared that he could be.
It wasn't like she hadn't dated before. Even when he himself didn't know exactly why, he had always kept tabs on the men in her life. Diggle was his unknowing accomplice, mostly because the other man always seemed to let it slip that Felicity was dating someone. He knew Diggle and Felicity were close, so much so that Oliver was sure he had missed most of how it had happened, and apparently were close enough that Felicity told Diggle all the details of her life that she failed to mention to Oliver. Again, looking back Oliver realized that the protectiveness he had felt - running background and credit checks on anyone who so much as breathed in her direction - had been due to some form of jealousy.
And then, a little over a month after they had tracked him down on Lian Yu, there was no one to speak of. He told himself the relief he felt was for their secret, because anyone who got close to Felicity got close their team by default. He was a good liar, and could even lie to himself.
These thoughts plagued him as he did his usual rounds through the Glades. Occasionally he would patrol the rest of the city, but even at the rate at which the Glades were improving they still demanded most of his attention.
He reached for the comm link, meaning to click it and ask Felicity if anything had popped up on the police scanners. But when Diggle's voice answered him he felt confused for just the slightest of moments. So used to always hearing her soft trill was he that the sound Diggle's deep rumble nearly startled him. Oliver knew he should have expected something like this to happen. Felicity rarely spoke to him these days, only doing so when work was involved. She always beat him to the foundry - he was pretty certain she worked straight through her lunch hour every day so she could leave early - and had everything set up by the time he managed to get there. And then she would leave, promising Diggle that the system was set up and ready for him to take over.
"It doesn't look like anything's going to happen tonight Oliver. Why don't you come back and call it a quits."
He knew Diggle was right. The streets were calm tonight, as they had been every night the past three weeks. As a result he felt useless, the lack of action only adding to the uneasiness he felt. Felicity still hadn't managed to find anything on the coin he had given her all those months ago, which was unusual to say the least, but in light of everything that had happened recently he spared very little thought to it.
Oliver grunted his response and turned off the comm link as Diggle stated that he would be headed home. Oliver would probably spend the night at the foundry. It felt strange to go back to Queen Manor, the large estate desolate without Thea or his mother there. Even though it was comparable to a cave, the foundry seemed like a much better option in comparison.
Verdant was still in full swing as he got back, the booming bass of whatever over-played pop song everyone inside was currently dancing to causing the air to vibrate. It was easy for him to slip inside through the back door. No one ever went back there. It was after all still the Glades, and no one in their right mind would willingly go to the back ally of a club.
Then again Oliver seemed to question on a daily basis whether or not he really was in his right mind. Most would argue that no, he was in fact not.
He had expected the foundry to be empty when he got there, so it was no surprise when instantly his hand reached for an arrow and nocked it the moment the sound of soft grunts and huffs reached his ears. But just as quickly as he sensed danger he dismissed it. The sharp clang of metal striking metal was obviously the sound of someone using the salmon ladder. No one who was a danger to him would use something so loud if they were hoping to surprise him.
"Sara?"
The sight of the blond woman hanging from the bar as he walked in was one that he hadn't thought he'd see for a while. She grinned brightly at him, letting the metal rod in her hands go as she fell and landed gracefully on her feet.
"Well don't look so surprised Ollie, I haven't been gone that long."
His answering smile came naturally, much like it did whenever he was around Felicity, but for different reasons. Sara understood him because she had been in his shoes. Felicity understood him simply because of who she was.
"I'm just glad to see you." He said, clicking the small button on his bow that caused it to retract in on itself until it was no bigger than a decent sized wallet. Sara walked over and reached up to pull his hood down, resting her hands on his shoulders in that familiar way of hers. It felt nice, and he reached up to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear.
She stiffened as he did so, the wary look in her eyes one he had no trouble understanding right away. He shook his head, just the smallest turn of his neck, and saw the wariness disappear. It was understood between the two of them that whatever it was they had together was over. They were simply too much alike, too jaded between the two of them for it to ever work.
Sara took a step back and pulled her hair up into a messy bun, producing a simple black hair tie from somewhere - he never really understood where she always got them from - and appraised him for long minute.
"Something's different about you." She finally decided, and he had to fight the quirk of his lips that threatened him.
"How so?" he asked, moving past her to begin taking off his leathers. Nowadays he couldn't stand to be in them longer than absolutely necessary.
"I don't know, I was hoping you might be able to tell me."
Oliver stiffened for a second, pausing as he put the hood back in its case and his bow in the silver metal box Felicity had bought for him to keep it in. He wanted to tell her why, and a part of him knew that she could probably offer him some sort of advice or insight that he wouldn't be able to come up with on his own. But another part of him wanted him to say nothing. If Oliver was being honest, the bitter sting of Felicity's rejection still ached, and it wasn't something he was eager to dredge up to analyze right this moment.
In the end practicality won out.
He waved a hand at the metal table they usually used for medical emergencies, motioning for her to sit on it. Sara nodded and moved towards it. He sat in Felicity's chair, the setting too low for him to sit comfortably, but experience had taught both him - and one very unfortunate Roy - not to mess with it.
Sara pursed her lips, but he could tell it was an attempt to hide the smile she was fighting. There was something about Oliver sitting by those computers, his long legs stretched out in front of him in a too-low seat, that she found comical. But her amusement vanished as soon as he looked her dead in the eye.
He knew she understood instantly. Sometimes he wondered at his own luck, because it really was a strange thing. He was by no means lucky when it came to the hand he had been dealt with, but it was something that he simply decided not to question. There was no use in trying to understand why everything that had happened did, trying to do so would only drive him crazy. As difficult as his luck had been to accept at first, it had been even harder to accept the little breaks he caught in between all the darkness.
Diggle had been the first, because he finally had a comrade.
Sara, because she had come back twice, on the island and then again as Black Canary.
Laurel, who had taken to learning his secret with a grace and acceptance that he had not expected.
And Felicity, whose simple goodness and beauty still managed to stun him, even when he managed to pretend otherwise. Sometimes he wasn't sure if he fell for her sooner than even he was aware of, because it was one thing to not know exactly what you were feeling and entirely something else to know what you felt and fight desperately against it. Only recently had he decided to finally stop fighting, and what the results been? "Because I don't want to do this with you. Because I can't do this with you." The words had hurt like no bullet, arrow, or knife ever could.
"It's Felicity isn't it?" Without realizing it he had lowered his gaze from Sara to stare at his hands where they were fisted on his lap. Now though, he looked up, his eyes widening with surprise.
"How-"
"I thought I saw something between you two before I left, but it was actually you who told me." His puzzled expression had her giggling in that girlish way of hers, the one that reminded him of the fun and carefree Sara, the one who was so drastically different from the Sara in front of him now. How they both had changed. "You can't just tell someone you love them the way you did, and expect me to not see through your little deception. I was curious when Felicity told me how you had 'out-foxed the fox' to put it in her words."
"So you got a hold of the video footage that Slade had?" He made sure to keep his expression carefully blank, but his nails scratched the leather of his right pants leg.
"Of course," she deadpanned, as if it were the only thing to be expected. He chuckled, grinning slightly before schooling his features.
"I told her that to fool Slade."
Her pitying look was so earnest he had to fight the urge to scowl at her. "I think you were fooling yourself Ollie."
"Is that so?" He ran his hand through his hair, the sudden urge to stop talking suddenly overtaking him. It was too late though, he knew there was no way Sara would simply let him stop now.
"I think you know that you care about her, and more than just as friends." He nodded at her. There was no way he couldn't admit to that, he was sure that even if he wasn't as good a liar as he was, the truth would still be written all over his face. "I just don't think you realized at the time how true your words actually were."
That on the other hand, did surprise him. He looked taken aback as Sara stood up from the table. She walked over to salmon ladder again and picked up a towel. "I also know that she's dating someone." She ran the towel over her face, soaking up the sweat that she had worked up during her workout. "I'm not even gone a full half a year and you've managed to let someone else take her right from under you." She shook her head disapprovingly at him, dirty-blonde strands falling free from her loose bun. "And here I thought you might finally be getting competent in such things."
That time he did scowl at her, not appreciating the reminder that Felicity had a new man in her life. One that was more than just "a friendly friend".
"I tried." He said, turning his back to her and staring at her bank computers.
"But how long did you wait before you did Ollie. Felicity's my friend, so I know when I tell you that someone like her isn't going to stay alone forever. I think she would have waited for you, given you more time, because I saw just how much she cared about you."
"So what made her stop?" He hated the sting in his eyes and the way his voice wavered. It showed weakness when he couldn't afford to be weak.
"I just think the right person came along, the one that made her realize that even though she wanted to wait for you, she couldn't." Her hand came down on his shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly, but he refused to look up at her.
"So what do I do now?"
She laughed softly at him and ran her knuckles soothingly over the whiskers on right cheek.
"The Oliver Queen I know wouldn't just give up. Do what any man would do when the woman he loves is slipping away?"
There was that word. Love. He couldn't even deny it at this point. There was no point, because if he did, it would only be a lie.
"And what is that?"
"You fight for her Oliver."
He listened to the sound of her retreating footsteps with his eyes closed. Could he really fight for her like that? She had said she wanted normal, and normal was something he could never be, so how fair was it of him to deny her that? It was selfish, and stupid, and he knew that he would always wonder if he was doing the right thing.
Almost as if she had sensed where his thoughts would take him Sara spoke one more time before she left.
"She needs you too Ollie, just like you need her. We're not our masks and we need people in our lives who don't wear one."
Felicity
Five days, that's how long it took her to notice that something was up.
At first, after she had denied him in the restaurant, he had respected what she wanted. It seemed that "distance" was the word to describe her relationship with Oliver. She didn't speak to him more than was absolutely required. She even had a letter of resignation as his executive assistant typed up and folded in an envelope in her desk, just waiting for her to muster the courage she needed to slam it down in front of him and declare that she was quitting.
Her resolve was weakening. She had felt her carefully built wall begin to crack just a little the first time they saw each other after that disastrous dinner. She had seen the hurt flash in his eyes, all the much clearer because of how expressive they could be whenever he let them be. It was silly of course, but at the same time she felt like she had betrayed him by sleeping with William. Felicity knew it shouldn't be, but the nagging and dirty feeling was there, and she couldn't help but be slightly angry with Oliver for making it so hard to move on. Or maybe she should have been angry at herself, and more specifically her heart which couldn't seem to understand that she wanted to move past Oliver.
Something had changed though, and it had taken her an uncharacteristic amount of time to catch on. Wasn't she supposed to be the genius or something?
Before that fateful night, she had felt Oliver slipping away as he slowly retreated in on himself. She knew that she had kept him at bay, too. But the wall had been his creation originally, she had only added to it by refusing him entrance when he wouldn't grant her the same.
The first sign that something was wrong (or was it just different?) came when he smiled at her when she walked in to their offices at QC. Her feet skidded to a stop and she gave him a look of such surprise that his smile grew even wider.
"I have something for you to do Felicity, I was hoping you could get it done by lunch." He handed her the small folder in his hands. She took it warily, all the while keeping an eye on him as if waiting for him to pounce. He laughed that soft breathy laugh of his, the one that usually had her heart swooning.
She mentally kicked herself as she realized that it still did. The folder's workload was a light one, and considering she made it early to the office, having it done by lunch would be easy. "Sure." He nodded at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a long second, and then got up from his leaning position on her desk. Felicity got to work, but couldn't help but throw him confused glances every now and then. She could have sworn that first time he caught her, his eyes sparkled mischievously. That was definitely new.
He started eating lunch with her. Oliver must have thought everything out, including the possibility that she would simply refuse to go if he suggested they go somewhere, so instead he ordered food from her favorite Thai place and had it brought in. He reached over and turned off the monitor to her computer - raising his hands protectively in front of him and giving her a pleading look that was so uncharacteristic that she felt her anger slip away quickly. Taking a seat he began to unwrap their food, handing her a plate of her favorite delicacies. He didn't say anything, just tucked away all her papers into a neat pile and began to eat. Felicity took a couple tentative bites, before finally letting herself dig in. After all, the food was too good to resist. She used the foods deliciousness as an excuse not to feel guilty, and did so the next day when he repeated the gesture… and the next.
The strictly hands-off approach he had been taking with her recently seemed to fly out the window as well. In fact, he seemed to take each and every opportunity he could to initiate physical contact. His hands were constantly on her, either placed gently over her elbow as they walked together or pressed firmly against her lower back. At first the touch startled her, mostly because as familiar it was it was still unexpected. He didn't look down at her questioning gaze, but he didn't remove his hand either. Sometimes, when they were riding the elevator down on their way to the conference room or to some other work related destination, she could have sworn he stood closer than he usually did. Once, he even reached up tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She couldn't deny that she leaned into his touch just a little.
Stupid, traitorous heart. Again, wasn't she supposed to be the smart one?
"What did you say to him?"
Sara didn't even bat an eyelash as Felicity stormed into the foundry, arms swinging back and forth wildly as she stalked over to the other blonde.
"Hello to you, too Felicity." Felicity glared at her and a part of her realized how ridiculous she must have looked doing so. Felicity taking Sara on probably seemed like a small kitten attempting to take on a tall and powerful lioness.
"Don't try to distract me, because trust me I've had enough of distractions lately. I know you had something to do with this. Oliver's never so… touchy touchy. Not to say that you make him like that, because you're both strong and serious. I mean, I know you're capable of having fun, or at least you are. I don't think Oliver actually does fun anymore. Unless it's the kind that involves a bedroom. Oh frack I'm doing it again…"
Sara giggled and reached out, settling her hand on top of Felicity's and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "What are you talking about?" Sara asked her calmly, and for a second Felicity felt slightly guilty for accusing her, before she quickly remembered that she had very plausible reasons for assuming that Sara had something to do Oliver's new behavior.
"Oliver's been… strangely close lately. I know it's not normally something that I would complain about, and maybe a few months ago I wouldn't. But right now it's just confusing, and I feel guilty because I like having him this close, and I shouldn't because I'm with Will, and I… I just don't know."
She stared into Sara's eyes for a second, surprised by how open they were. As jaded as Sara could be, Felicity still felt that she let herself care more, get involved more. Whereas Oliver had pushed people away for the longest time, it seemed to Felicity that Sara (for whatever reason) had decide to take a different approach.
"I can't say anything to you, because it's not my place."
Felicity opened her mouth to argue, but Sara raised a hand to quiet her, fixing her with a hard stare that had Felicity backpedaling into silence. "All I can say is that people make mistakes," and then she grinned. "Even us deadly assassin vigilantes. We get scared for the people we care about, and we don't always make the right decisions. Sometimes it takes a while, but then we realize that maybe we didn't do the right thing. I think maybe Oliver might be coming to the same conclusion."
"Because of the life I lead, I just think it's best that I not be with somebody… I could really care about."
"Oliver can only get as close as you let him Felicity. If he's really getting as close as you say he is, maybe there's a reason for it."
Felicity blanched, her jaw falling open as the color drained from her face.
"But-"
"Hey, I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong, I'm just saying that there's a reason behind everything, and there's a reason for why we do the things we do, even if they're not always clear to us. Think about it. I know you think he's hurt you, and you're right he has. But maybe you should think about how he's hurting himself, too."
Felicity shook her head, as if by simply denying what Sara was saying she could make it less true. But Felicity was no idiot, and even as she desperately wanted to tell Sara that she was wrong, she knew that she couldn't.
And so against her better judgement, all the while feeling like a traitor of the greatest proportions, she didn't push Oliver away. After all, she didn't think that she could do it again. The first time had been hard enough.
She got away with it for two more months before reality hit her.
"Felicity, do you want to take a break?"
Felicity looked up from her tablet where she was working on setting up a program from the foundry remotely.
It had been another lazy day in her apartment. The kind of lazy that she liked, filled only with her and William and soft pajamas and pancakes and The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad on Netflix.
Felicity's brows furrowed in confusion. "From the show? But it's just getting to the good part." She tried to catch his eye, but he was refusing to look at her. He was perched on the other side of the couch, sitting cross legged with her feet on his lap. Will had been massaging each of her feet gently since he knew how much the heels she had worn to the important charity event last night bugged her. She had asked him if he wanted to come, but the look of uncertainty that had crossed his face had confused her more than his no and vague explanation. He'd never given her a vague reason.
"I meant from us." His voice was barely above a whisper, but he might as well have shouted them at her. They left Felicity feeling strangely disoriented.
"Why would you think that?" Her throat suddenly felt dry, and she unconsciously licked her lips. She set the tablet down on her coffee table and pulled her feet towards her, unsure if letting him still massage them was a good idea given their current discussion.
She watched the muscles of his neck move as he swallowed thickly, before looking up at her. His eyes were as expressive as ever, and she could clearly see how much he didn't want to continue. But because he was Will, the good one, the unselfish one, she knew what he said next was because he felt that had to. What she appreciated most - perhaps more than he would ever know - was that he gave her a choice.
"I've seen the way you and Oliver are with each other. I haven't known you that long Felicity, but even I can see that there's something there." He pauses for a moment, gauging her reaction before continuing. That time his voice was a little husky, and the tone made her heart ache and her eyes sting with unshed tears. "I think I'm falling in love with you Felicity, but I need to know that you're one hundred percent sure that we can do this together."
Her breath came in short shallow gasps, her nails digging painfully into the skin of her wrist. It wasn't the same as saying "I love you", but it was more than she had ever gotten from Oliver - because that time with Slade definitely did not count - and she knew she was being stupid. Unsafe, stupid, and she would probably regret letting Will go. Even if they ever did get back together (because a part of her thought she loved him, too) she could never blame him for thinking that she could leave him for Oliver. After all, wasn't she about to do something so much like that? While she didn't know where her road with Oliver would take her, she could feel it coming. Another change. Something was about to happen that would change her life again.
She was a coward and she knew it, but she simply nodded. Sara's words rang loudly in her head, as if the other woman was screaming them through a megaphone next to her ear. "Oliver can only get as close as you let him Felicity. If he's really getting as close as you say he is, maybe there's a reason for it."Maybe she hadn't done anything physically, but if she couldn't put her all into William, wasn't she cheating on him in some way? For once, she thought maybe he deserved better than her.
He answered her with a nod of his own and reached across the couch, cupping her cheek with his hand. She leant into it, the warmth already feeling familiar and safe and right. "I wish I didn't have to do this." He whispered.
She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the moment, because she truly did not know if she would ever be able to have this again.
"Just one more day." One more day, before she went against everything she had decided on in the last couple months. Her only hope was that Sara was right. Maybe Oliver was finally making the right decision. Not changing exactly - because she never wanted him to change - but perhaps learning that there were other choices, much like he had learned that killing wasn't the only way to be the Arrow.
"One more day," William responded, and leaned in to kiss her.
She spent the day wrapped in his arms, feeling stupid for letting him go, but a hopeful feeling that she hadn't let herself feel in the longest time began to bloom in her chest.
Oliver
Oliver had never been one for religion, or even spirituality for that matter. Before the island he had worshipped a gorgeous woman's body every Sunday - most days as a matter of fact - and the clubs were his church. After the island just the idea of religion seemed laughable to him.
Even with all of that in mind, he felt like he could go pray for hours and shout hallelujah when he found out that Felicity and Will had decided to take a break. If he was being honest he hadn't been playing fair. He had used every resource possible to demand as much of Felicity's time and attention as possible, and it had worked. It had been obvious that she had been confused at first, especially the first time he had brought her lunch. His sudden decision to allow himself to get closer to her must have been disorienting to her, but to him it had been like finally being allowed to run freely after being chained down for so long.
He knew that in part he had Sara to thank for that. He knew he cared deeply for Felicity, but it was so much more than that now. She had let him hope for something he had thought he was no longer allowed to have.
Diggle's expression was carefully blank as he told Oliver (as smoothly and nonchalantly as possible of course), but there was a knowing sparkle in his eye that had Oliver rolling his eyes internally. Sometimes he got the feeling Diggle did or said things just make fun of Oliver and to see his reaction. He would pay for it later during their sparring sessions.
"What's with the smile?" Roy's voice interrupted his thoughts. Oliver looked up from his desk where he was carefully maintaining his arrows and bow. Roy arched an eye at him, his expression expectant as he waited for Oliver to say something.
He decided to play dumb.
"Do I have to have a reason? I'm having a good day."
Roy looked a bit taken aback at his response, his brow furrowing as he gave Oliver a look of such distrust that it had the other man laughing.
Felicity walked in at that moment, frowning as she took in the atmosphere between Oliver and Roy. "What's going on here?" She asked, walking past them to set her purse down by the computers.
"Oliver's happy," Roy volunteered.
"Oh I'm sure you're just misinterpreting," Felicity assured him, pursing her lips to suppress a smile as she began to rummage through her purse in search of a hair band.
"Ouch, that's a little harsh guys," Oliver feigned offense, but his smile got a little wider.
"Sorry," Felicity apologized, giving Oliver a look that clearly stated just how not sorry she actually was.
"Any news on the coin?" Felicity visibly tensed at his question, and he could have sworn he saw her hand twitch towards her purse.
"No," she said, and her voice wavered just a little. Oliver frowned as he regarded Felicity. Her behavior was strange, but he figured it must have been her frustration at not being able to find anything. Felicity didn't take it particularly well whenever her computers failed to find her information.
"Hey, it's okay." His hand came up without him really needing to think about it. It felt natural to place his hand on her shoulder, and after months of having to hold back, it felt right.
She turned her head towards him, fixing him with an expression that was so close to pouting that he found it hard not grin at her. "Thanks," she said, placing her hand over his and squeezing his fingers. It was the first time she had returned his small acts of contact. The heavy feeling in his chest was the good kind.
She returned her attention to her computers and sat down, her face scrunching up in concentration as her fingers began to fly across the keyboards, jumping from one to the other as if were the simplest thing.
"Something the matter?" Roy pipped up from behind them, and Oliver was glad for the interruption. His fingers were still tingling from where she had touched him.
"Yeah, I'm not quite sure what it is yet though."
"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, bending over to look at the screens. When he had first started being the vigilante he had been a little proud of the system he had managed to set up, it was good enough that he could do most of the things he needed to in order to complete his mission. Now however he was hopelessly lost as he tried to understand what was happening on the screens in front of him. He was fairly certain that only Felicity (or some other equally genius tech expert) would ever fully understand everything that she had done to and with them.
"I'm finding traces of activity that I don't remember making," She was biting her lip now, and Oliver felt the strange desire to reach over and tuck it away. He clenched his hands into tight fists to keep them from doing anything that would most certainly get him in trouble.
"Does that mean someone hacked our system?"
"If they did they're extremely good, I upped the security since the Clock King, they'd need something that's the equivalent to the cyber skeleton key he was using." They were leaning into each other, their faces only inches a part.
"Is it possible someone got their hands on it?" Roy intervened, and both Oliver and Felicity turned to look at him, almost having forgotten he was there. Oliver could have sworn he saw Felicity's cheeks redden a little.
"Not necessarily the same one, but it's possible someone managed to replicate the technology that was used in it to make a new one, I'm running scans to see exactly how and when it was used. If if I can find it than I can probably find them."
"What makes you so sure?"
At this Felicity raised an eyebrow at him, the look she gave him one of such disbelief and offense that Oliver wasn't sure whether Roy would live to hear the answer or not.
"They may have gotten into the system but they left it mostly untouched, if they hacked me I can hack them back."
"Cool," Roy grinned at her. Oliver was pretty sure that younger man had saved his skin with that one word.
Felicity turned back around and continued to work, effectively tuning him and Roy out as she lost herself to the cyber world again. "Roy suit up, we're going on patrol." At this Roy nodded, looking just as eager as he always did whenever he got to wear his new suit.
"Oliver! I've got a location!" Felicity's voice alerted him and he pulled to a stop.
"Where?" he asked, revving the engine of the motorcycle as he prepared to take off again.
"565 West Victoria Avenue."
"Got it!" The street was familiar to Oliver, though it was on the quieter more abandoned side of the Glades, one he rarely visited simply because there was nothing there for people to do. He heard her give the same directions to Roy, who was several miles away.
The streets raced by Oliver in a blur of lights and shadows. Knowing that Felicity's system had been hacked had him anxious to get the situation over with.
A warehouse came into view - one he knew to be the one he was looking for - but he passed by it, choosing to park the bike a block away. He observed it for a couple minutes, his mind instantly looking for every exit he could find. Even after all this time, he felt the same tenseness in his muscles that he got on the island. Only they meant something else now. Before it had meant fear, the reaction of a scared rich kid who was way in over his head. Now it was the tensing of muscles in a trained and precise killer. He heard the sound of Roy's motorcycle long before it actually came into view. He parked near Oliver, obviously having spotted it and scaled the side of a nearby building.
Oliver caught his eye once he reached the top.
"Stay outside and cover the building. If someone that's not me tries to escape take them down." Roy raised his hand and gave his signal of understanding. Oliver watched as his partner removed and arrow from his quiver and prepared it against his bow, he had grown to trust Roy and his skills.
Oliver used darkness to help conceal him as he approached the side entrance to the warehouse. The door - if it could even be called that - was heavily rusted. Holes littered its surface, including the spot where the door handle must have once been. Oliver pushed it aside gently, gritting his teeth at the inevitable screech that filled the darkened space. He ducked in quickly, readying an arrow as he did so and waited for his eyes to adjust to the light.
He knew Felicity was holding her breath on the other end of their link, waiting anxiously but refusing to make any sound. It was silly, since the comm links wouldn't make a sound that anyone but Oliver and Roy could hear, but he thought it rather endearing that she did so anyway. His eyes soon adjusted to the much lower setting and he managed to spot a figure standing in the center of the room, leaning against a support beam that looked like it had seen much better days.
"I know you're there." A female voice announced, and he pulled back slightly on the arrow.
"Who are you?" His demand came loud and clear, without the distortion of his voice disguiser. He doubted whoever she was, she would know who he was from his voice.
She ignored his question and kicked off from the beam, taking a couple steps towards him as if he weren't holding an arrow aimed at her chest. The woman didn't wear a mask, and for a second he was stunned by how much she resemble Helena Bertinelli. So much so that for a second he dared to think that she was, before he remembered that Helena was till locked away in Iron Heights, and that if she had escaped Felicity would have known immediately. This woman had kinder eyes, but he knew that it could all be an act. Those who appeared kind were sometimes even deadlier than those who looked dangerous from the start. Her hair was shorter and lighter, too; a livelier light brown that framed her face in a bob cut.
Her mouth set into a tight line, disappointment lighting her features as she quickly looked around.
"She didn't come with you." She seemed almost like she was pouting. "I knew it was a long shot, but still I really did hope that you would make my job so much easier."
"Who are you looking for?" He deadpanned, his steady voice managing to hide the anger he felt.
"The woman who helps you." She stated, as if it were completely obvious.
Could she mean Sara? What could she want with her?
"The Black Canary?"
The woman's face lit up with amusement. "You mean the League of Assassin's member? No, fortunately for you she's not the one I'm looking for. If I was, these would be entirely different circumstances."
Terror gripped his heart as his thoughts instantly flew to Felicity. Not her, he pleaded internally.
"Then who?" His voice was no longer calm, and he drew the arrow back fully, aiming it at her heart this time.
"We have a name for her. We call her… Watchtower."