Growing up in Las Vegas had always been a struggle for Felicity. She wasn't bright lights and sequins, she was sundresses and 4 am study sessions. She had always felt suffocated living there, it was always too crowded and too loud. So shortly after she had gotten her drivers permit she had started to sneak out of the house at odd hours of the night. She would drive for hours through the desert, the windows down and her hair flying. She had always felt so free and she felt like she belonged.

Her car was her space, and the middle of the night was her time.

That behavior hadn't really changed when she had left Vegas. Whenever something in her life wasn't going her way, or when she just stopped feeling like she fit she would jump out of bed, plug her iPod into the speaker system and drive all night. She learned all of the secrets of Boston during her freshman year at MIT and it had only taken her a month to learn all of Starling City.

Oliver had once asked her how she knew all the side roads in and out of town so well and she had just smiled.

"Maybe I'll show you one day." was all that she had said and he just nodded.

She had spent many nights on the roads of Starling when she had first moved here. She had felt so out of place and so overwhelmed by her life. So she would drive out of town a few nights a week and had only considered never turning around once or twice.

Once she had found her footing at QC and had made a couple of friends and had established a routine she hadn't really felt the need to continue her late night trips. But then she had found a bleeding vigilante in her backseat and she once again began to rack up gas points on her credit card.

This was her favorite time of year.

It was that special time when the air had started to warm during the day and the last of the snow had melted. The air was chilled at night but not enough for a heavy coat. She could ride around in the middle of the night with her car windows down, and the heat pumping through the vents kept the goosebumps at bay.

She always knew whether a relationship would last after their first middle of the night road trip. If the guy talked too much, or turned the volume of her play list down, or if he laughed at her perfect combo of manufactured heat and chilled air.

This was the first time she was taking Oliver with her and he had seemed confused at first.

They had been 'together' for almost two months, and still hadn't officially had 'the talk' yet, but they were happy.

So tonight, after a slow Arrow week she was having a hard time falling asleep and she had started to feel the familiar ache in her veins to escape. So she had rolled over in bed and shook Oliver awake. She didn't tell him where they were going, just asked him to follow her and like usual, he did without question.

They drove for hours without talking. The music pumping through the speakers and the hot air blowing over their melded hands.

They crawled back into bed as the sun rose and Oliver kissed her on the forehead as she snuggled into the crook of his shoulder.

"Thank you for showing me." He whispered as her breathing evened out.