Chapter 6

Thanks again for the great reviews. I apologize if any of my introductions were misleading. I realized after I posted the last chapter that I had alluded to sharing information about what caused the explosions. I didn't get to that part of the story in chapter 5, but will start to uncover the mystery in this chapter.

I also apologize for the delay in getting this chapter published. I am hoping to have the next one out by early next week.

Wow! I don't know about you guys, but I was blown away by Wednesday night's episode this week. It has given me a ton of ideas for where to take this story, so I hope you enjoy. And remember, patience is a virtue…

Felicity made her way through the beautiful home in search of Oliver. She must have passed out in the car, and had been placed in a spacious master bedroom that had a dressing room bigger than her bedroom back home in Starling City. All of her belongings from the hotel had been placed in the corner of the room, and she had made quick work of showering and dressing in her most comfortable outfit before venturing into the rest of the house to find her boss.

She still couldn't believe he had been there when she got pulled out of the bunker. The events of the past day seemed so surreal in her mind, yet the evidence that it had really happened showed in the scrapes along her arms as a result of the group's rush to find cover from the explosions in the warehouse they were in the process of touring.

Downstairs in the large home, Oliver and Diggle had been sitting at the kitchen table with an array of food in front of them for the last hour, waiting for Felicity to make her way down to them. Oliver had left a note earlier that morning for her to join them when she woke up, and had just been pacing, again, when Diggle had insisted he try to relax while they waited for her. He had already had a conference call with QC's US headquarters, and followed up personally with each of the employees who had been rescued the night before. Everyone was doing surprisingly well given the circumstances, and had all appreciated receiving the rest of the week off to recover from their ordeal, with the option to take more paid time off as needed. Diggle had also been in contact with the local authorities to see if anything more had been discovered about the explosions, but so far nothing had come up. It was truly amazing that given all of the destruction there hadn't been a single fatality or even serious injury from the multiple explosions. Something about it didn't sit right with Oliver, and he could tell Diggle had the same suspicions.

Both Oliver and Diggle stood up as Felicity now entered the kitchen, their faces breaking out in huge smiles. She responded in kind, and ended up coming around to hug them both, first Diggle, then Oliver. Diggle watched as Oliver wrapped his arms around her, the look of relief washing over him as he held her, eyes closed and nose buried in her hair. Diggle hoped that they would finally get past all this hesitation and that the events of the day before would get them to open up about their feelings for each other. It was so evident to everyone else, yet they still fought it, each for their own reasons, which he could not even guess.

Oliver reluctantly stepped back from Felicity. "How did you sleep?" he asked, steering her toward one of the chairs with an empty plate in front of it.

"Like a rock, actually," Felicity responded, settling into her seat and starting to pick at the selection of fruits and pastries in front of her. She looked around the room, noticing the outdoor patio just off the kitchen that was in an enclosed atrium. "This is a beautiful home," she stated, tossing a strawberry into her mouth, looking at Oliver expectantly for an explanation of how they had ended up there.

"It belongs to a friend of the family," he stated, not feeling the need to go into detail about the Duke of Kensington. He smiled, tempted to elaborate knowing that he would get a candid and flamboyant reaction from her, but having other things on his mind to discuss with her. "If you want, we can take your breakfast out to the atrium," he gestured toward the double French doors, hoping for some privacy.

"It's freezing out there," she stated, frowning at his suggestion.

Again, he smiled at her, realizing how much he had missed her candor and openness in the weeks she had been gone. Right now he was exactly where he wanted to be, and he felt more relaxed and at ease than he had in a long time, despite what they had all gone through the last 24 hours. "Come on, you'll see it's not so bad," he finished, getting up and grabbing her plate and glass of orange juice from in front of her.

Diggle watched as they went, not making any move to get out of his chair.

"Aren't you coming?" Felicity asked, giving him a slight hip-check into the shoulder as she made her way toward Oliver.

"I'm fine right here, next to the food, thank you," he replied lightheartedly. "Besides, I'm waiting for a call from the investigation team any minute." He watched as she shrugged, wondering if Oliver felt the completeness of their trio as much as he did now that the three of them were back together again.

Oliver and Felicity settled into the oversized patio seats sitting around the large square coffee table in the middle of the seating arrangement, the temperature actually slightly warmer in the atrium than what it was in the house. "I didn't realize it was totally enclosed," she stated, turning her attention back to her plate that Oliver had just put in front of her.

Oliver nodded, watching her, realizing he was staring, and then clearing his throat to speak. He had been rehearsing his speech for the last two hours and was glad to finally be able to get his feelings off of his chest.

Before he could say anything, Felicity's cell started ringing. She grabbed it out of her pants pocket and smiled when she saw the name on the display. "One second," she whispered to Oliver as she answered the call.

"Hey Barry," she said into the phone, her voice softening a bit. Oliver frowned, tilting his head at her obvious warm response to the caller. "No, I've been awake for a while, just was sitting down to get some breakfast," she stated, reaching for her juice and continuing her meal. "I did get your message, thank you, and I'm sorry I didn't call last night. I was going to wait until I got back to the hotel to call but I ended up literally passing out on the ride back." There was another short pause, with Felicity chuckling. "No, I'm actually not at the hotel anymore. Oli-I mean Mr. Queen is letting me crash at a friend's house for now," she stated, looking at Oliver for the first time during the conversation. He was staring intently at her, a deep frown on his face. Felicity realized how rude she was being, and quickly cut off whatever was being said on the line. "You know what, Barry, Mr. Queen and I were just getting ready to meet regarding the firewall project, so I better go. Can I call you later?" she asked, giving Oliver an apologetic shrug of her shoulders. "Okay, thanks, Barry, I can't wait to see you, too," she finished, hanging up the phone.

Oliver sat in stunned silence, reeling at the conversation he had just witnessed, or at least the part he had been able to hear. "Who's Barry?" he asked without thinking.

"Oh, that's Barry Allen, a graduate student from Central City College that's here doing an internship with Scotland Yard. What a small world, huh?" she stated, continuing to finish her breakfast.

Oliver felt his stomach do somersaults, terrified to ask anymore, but unable to stop himself. "Is that who you've been touring the castle ruins with lately?" he asked.

Felicity looked at him quizzically, and then recalled mentioning the tours in her latest emails to Oliver. Nodding her head as she took another sip of juice, she confirmed it for him. "Yes," she finally said out loud, "Barry and I met at a museum, realizing we were the only two in the building without an English accent, and ended up going for coffee that afternoon, which turned into dinner, and then we just started hanging out," she finished.

"Oh," was all Oliver could get out, his lungs seeming to forget how to pull air into his body, the planned words he was going to share with her going up in flames in his mind as he came to the disturbing realization that his greatest fear was coming true. Felicity had met someone else. He now questioned if she had ever had any feelings for him, or if he had just imagined all those times when he had caught her staring at him while working out; or perhaps it had just been a fleeting infatuation, and she realized while away from him that he truly was too broken to waste her time on him, so now she had found someone that was better suited for her.

She noticed his hesitation, and abrupt change in mood from when they had first entered the atrium, and couldn't for the life of her figure out what had just happened. "Oliver, are you okay?" she asked, genuine concern etched all over her face.

Oliver shook his head, trying to jolt his defenses back up, putting his "Oliver Queen – billionaire/playboy" face back into place. He smiled at her, though this smile did not come close to reaching his eyes. "I'm fine, just really tired; it's been a long 24 hours," he stated simply.

He pushed his emotions back once again, chatting casually with Felicity about Barry, hearing about some of the adventures they had been on, feeling his heart break apart one small piece at a time with each story she shared. He couldn't tell from her stories how far the relationship had advanced, but could hear the affection she had for this man. The kicker for him was when she mentioned that Barry was a big fan of the Vigilante of Starling City. Oliver couldn't help but laugh hollowly at that, thinking to himself that he would gladly trade places with Barry Allen at the drop of a hat to be the center of Felicity's attention.

Once he felt he had been punished enough, he steered the conversation to the events of the day before, asking Felicity to describe what had happened leading up to the explosions and the group literally barely saving themselves by taking refuge in the bunker.

He listened intently, relieved to no longer be hearing about her new "friend", but not finding anything terribly odd about the events that ultimately led up to the group being rescued. "So how did you find the bunker?" he asked, not understanding how the group could just stumble upon an 80 year old bunker that seemed to be in working condition.

Felicity collected her thoughts for a moment, Oliver watching as she was presumably replaying the events leading up to finding the bunker. Suddenly he caught the change in her expression, noting the look of determination that she always got when she had overcome some complex issue or problem.

"What is it, Felicity?" he said, involuntarily pulling his chair slightly closer to hers.

"Oliver," she said, looking him straight in the eye now," I think someone was trying to intentionally get us to find the bunker and take cover there."

Oliver looked at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying. "What happened that makes you think that?" he finally asked when she didn't offer any further details.

"Wait," Felicity stated, getting up from the chair and pacing the area around the cushioned seats. He knew that look as well, when she was organizing her thoughts before speaking. It used to frustrate him like hell, but he now knew it was better to be patient. Within a minute she was back in front of him, her hands flying around as she gestured while speaking. "Oliver, we were trying to get away from the warehouses altogether after the first explosion went off, and it was like the second one went off right as we were heading that direction. It was as if…"

"…someone was trying to control your movements," Oliver finished, catching on to the direction of her thoughts as he stood up from his chair.

"Yes," she exclaimed, involuntarily grabbing onto his upper arms in her excitement that he understood what she was saying.

Oliver stopped dead in his tracks, his entire upper body tensing at the contact, an electric current making its way throughout the rest of his body at her touch. Agonizingly he reached up and gently pushed her back from him, breaking the physical contact between them. Previously he would have just stood there and enjoyed the intimacy of the moment, but given what she had told him about Barry, he didn't feel he had the right to enjoy any kind of physical contact with her.

"Let's fill in Diggle on this," he stated gently at the glimpse of confusion on her face over his reaction to her touching him. "We should also contact QC Security and the authorities to have them search out for more explosives in the surrounding buildings," he continued, walking back into the kitchen.

Diggle was on the phone, a look of deep concern on his face. "Uh-huh," he was saying, acknowledging whatever was being said to him. "Thank you, Captain, I'll fill in Mr. Queen now and we'll be in touch," he finished, ending the call.

Oliver and Felicity looked at him expectantly.

"It seems they found other explosive devices that never detonated in some of the other buildings," he said, confirming their suspicions.

"Then that is what happened," Oliver stated, looking at Felicity.

Diggle looked at them both with confusion. "What do you mean?" he finally asked when they didn't immediately elaborate.

"Felicity thought it was as if someone was trying to steer them to that building for them to purposely find the bunker and take cover," he informed Diggle.

"I guess your thought was right," Diggle stated, giving Felicity's shoulder a gentle squeeze of support.

Oliver got on the phone with his mother, informing her of the new revelation, both of them unable to come up with any reason someone would try to do something like that. Just then his mother was interrupted by Thea. Oliver could hear her voice, but didn't understand what she was saying.

"Mom, what is it?" Oliver asked, the concern for his sister evident in his tone.

"Oliver, I think you better come home," she stated flatly. "There's been an incident at Queen Consolidated in the Applied Sciences building," she added.

"What kind of incident?" he inquired, his mind reeling from the new events playing out so far from where he was at the moment.

Oliver could hear his sister ask for the phone from his mother, the edge to her voice sharp as a knife.

"Ollie, they're trying to figure out what was taken, but two security officers were killed," she stated shakily, obviously her emotions affected by the news.

Oliver quickly relayed the information to Diggle and Felicity to give Thea a moment to collect herself. Turning back to the phone he heard his mother get on the line again. "Mom, do the police have any leads on who did this?"

"No," his mother stated, clearly overcome by her own emotions. "The only lead they have right now is some random message that was spray painted several times throughout the building. It was the same message over and over. 'When the cat's away the mice will play.' I mean, what kind of monster would kill those men then do that?" she finished, her voice breaking at the enormity of the situation.

Oliver felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. "Mom, do you know what color the message was in?"

"What?" she cried breathlessly, not understanding the reasoning for his question.

"Mom," he exclaimed loudly, more sternly than he intended, "do you have any idea what color the message was spray painted in?" He waited as he heard her relay the question to Thea. He heard Thea's response before his mother was able to say anything. "Mom, Diggle and I are headed back on the corporate jet within the hour. I'll call you for an update when we're in the air," he finished, cutting off the call.

Diggle and Felicity looked at him oddly, confused at his question and reaction to whatever the answer was. Diggle was the first to speak up. "What message are you talking about, and what does the color have to do with it?"

Oliver started making his way up the staircase to the next level where all of the bedrooms were, Diggle and Felicity close on his heels. He shared the message that had been left at QC, prompting Diggle to finally grab his arm to turn him around and face them as he was trying to get to the guest room where he had all of his personal items for the trip.

"Oliver, I still don't understand why you asked what color the message was in," he said.

"It was in green, wasn't it," Felicity finally said. Of course she would put the puzzle pieces together without all of the information. Oliver nodded to confirm her suspicion. "And you think whoever set off the explosions here in London was trying to draw you away from Starling City so they could get their hands on whatever it is they got," she added.

Oliver reached out and squeezed her hand, a genuine smile on his face. "Did I tell you how much I missed you?" he said softly.

Felicity squeezed back, grinning at him. "I missed you, too, Oliver," she responded.

Diggle was already on the phone with the corporate pilot, informing him of their immediate departure. He covered the mouthpiece of his phone. "Felicity, will it be two or three of us going back?"

"Three," she responded quickly. Then, looking at Oliver, she backpedaled a bit. "I mean, if that's okay with you. I'd like to help figure out what's going on there, and they don't need me here anymore for the firewall stuff. That is, unless you don't want me to come back." She held her breath, unsure of what Oliver would say.

He had really missed her, and despite the fact that he felt a huge throb in his chest at being unable to share his feelings with her, he decided in that moment that he was willing to take Felicity however he could have her, even if it was just as friends or partners in crime. "Why do you think I came, Felicity," he replied gently. "It's time for you to come home."

Felicity felt her heart constrict tightly at his comment, emotion welling up. She gave Diggle a quick nod, and then turned around to head to her room to gather her luggage.

She sighed as she retreated from the two men, Diggle finishing his conversation with the pilot being the last thing she heard. Once she got to the room she had slept in, she closed the door, leaning back against it and letting out a deep sigh. Five weeks had apparently done nothing to dampen her feelings toward Oliver. And she absolutely had to stop reading into every little comment he made.

It's time for you to come home.

She knew he wouldn't have come to London if it wasn't for the events of the day before, and she also figured he would have turned around and left her there to finish out the firewall project had it not been for the break in, but she really wished that he wasn't so damn nice about everything. It was just him, she thought to herself, as he was just inherently good, whether he saw it or not. However, it made it really hard to keep her feelings in check when he was so sweet to her.

And then there was Barry. Oh no, she thought to herself. How was she going to explain to Barry that she was just up and leaving? She felt awful for ditching him, but knew he would be back in Central City soon anyway as he had already extended his student visa the maximum number of times, so would have to leave shortly regardless. But what would he think about her jetting off with Oliver Queen, especially after some of their conversations about him. Not that she had meant to talk about Oliver, she amended in her head. It just was a fact that a big part of her life revolved around him, so when Barry would ask her things about herself, the conversation always seemed to turn to Oliver, and sometimes Diggle as well. It wasn't until the fourth or fifth time they had dinner together that Barry asked her how long she had been in love with Oliver. She had been totally blind-sided by the question, and a bit upset at his insinuation that she was playing games with him. Barry had actually been very sweet about the whole thing, sharing his observations about her interactions with Oliver, and wondering aloud based on how Felicity had described him if he might have feelings for her as well. However, it became apparent as the weeks stretched out and she barely heard from Oliver that he was not missing her nearly as much as she was missing him.

She smiled to herself as she started packing up her things, thinking back to how her heart had skipped a beat at the sight of Oliver at the warehouse when she had made her way up from the bunker, talking intently with Nigel Thorton, obviously concerned about the events that occurred that day. She was no fool. She knew Oliver wasn't just there to make sure she was okay. But it had still warmed her from the inside out that he had stayed with her after being brought up to the surface, obviously because all of the other employees had their families on site to comfort and support them.

But enough about Oliver! She had to concentrate on the events that were happening around them, and figure out who was behind these things. Someone had obviously gone through a lot of trouble to get Oliver out of the country. She was excited to get back to her computers and monitors to help figure out what was going on, the three of them a team again.

She zipped up her last bag, then grabbed everything, exiting the room, leaving London behind and heading to where she was needed; home.

Well, there you have it. Our favorite couple is still clueless as to the other's true feelings. And for those of you who loved Barry Allen as much as I did, we will be seeing him in Starling City soon. I am contemplating keeping him around a bit longer than the show writers had him with the group. Just keep in mind that this is an Olicity fan fic, so all things I use are meant to help our pair find their way to each other. Until next time…