Hello Readers!

I apologise for not updating sooner. The reality is that unlike full-time writers, I have a day job and family commitments that make it hard to always post regularly. I do want to finish this story and I'm committing to doing so by mid-September.

A few things you need to know:

a) This story will have an Olicity ending. However,

b) It will also have an Alicity ending. This means that after the next chapter (chapter 24) the story will split. I will amend the story tags to reflect an alternate ending and will clearly mark chapters as either OLICITY or ALICITY from chapter 25 onward. Those who prefer either couple, can read the chapters that appeal to them.

c) In total, I don't envision this story having more than 5 chapters from now until the end.

Thank you for all the continued support!

LadyG

Felicity had realized the second she'd reached the hotel that she'd grossly overreacted to seeing Oliver's blast from the past throwing herself at him. She'd kissed him, not the other way around. Sitting at her computer terminal at the foundry, her thoughts strayed to how she'd struggled to detangle what had actually happened from whatever scenario she'd conjured up in her mind. In all honesty, she'd had no right to be upset about it. It was Oliver's life and who he chose to spend his personal time with shouldn't concern her. Only, it did. And that was the part she'd battled coming to terms with. She hated that it affected her, that the sight of the beautiful woman throwing herself into his arms had brought to mind flashbacks of all the other times she'd watched him getting close to practically every female in sight, except her. Being party to the trail of broken hearts he'd left in his wake had hurt a lot.

But then she'd met Adam and things had started to change. She'd blossomed under his care and attention. She enjoyed his company and how comfortable she felt around him, even right from the start, he'd never given her cause to doubt him or his intentions. She liked that he made her feel like his equal - someone he could consult with, share ideas with, use as a sounding board – instead of just running roughshod over her. Add to that the fact that she was wildly attracted to him and he was practically the man of her dreams.

Yet, despite her clear feelings for Adam, and they were absolutely real, this new Oliver kept trying to burrow back into her heart. She'd thought that she'd shut him out for good after he and Sara had gotten together because that had finally felt like one step too far. After all the subtle changes she'd started noticing in him, seeing him with Kim had brought back the not-so-pleasant thought that maybe he hadn't changed at all. Maybe she'd been imagining the shift in him because she'd wanted to see it for so long.

But what did it really matter? How Oliver lived his life had no bearing on her at all. Even if he became a better man, it still wouldn't make him the right man for her. She had a shot at real happiness and she was allowing old insecurities to get in the way. It was time that it ended. She needed to stop pretending to be over Oliver and actually be over him; take that final leap that pushed her outside of the hole she'd been buried in since she'd met him. Holding onto unrealistic dreams meant missing out on all the wonderful opportunities that could pass her by unnoticed because she was so focused on trying to turn a fantasy into a reality.

All that said, her relationship with Adam was not without its challenges. Finally she meets someone who she could actually see herself with long term and she was scared to death that it wouldn't last. How long could she continue to lie to him? At what point would she have to let him go? Or, and this was the hardest of all to contemplate, should she be the one to walk away from this life in order to make a new one with him? The thought was more than a little sobering.

They'd been back from New York for a couple of days and after the incident with Kim and her subsequent reflection, she'd pretended that nothing was amiss when Oliver had returned from his meeting. Thankfully, despite trying to raise the issue a few times without any encouragement from her, he'd let it go. The rest of the trip had passed without a hitch. That didn't mean that there wasn't an undercurrent between them. Ever since that almost kiss something felt different. Like they were both aware that there was a shift in their relationship - a boundary had moved, but neither one was willing to acknowledge it. It was that exact same something that brought on all her feelings of guilt. She shouldn't be carrying a torch for her employer when she had a wonderful man in her life, a man who didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of her emotional crisis. She knew how she'd feel if the shoe was on the other foot. Adam trusted her and right now, she wasn't exactly worthy of it.

"Earth to Felicity."

She snapped out of her musings to see Diggle walking around her chair to face her. "Sorry," she smiled apologetically. "I was just thinking."

"Looks pretty heavy," he stated, folding his arms across his broad chest.

She sighed. "Dig, do you think it's possible for me to have a long term relationship with Adam without telling him the truth?"

He took a moment before answering and she guessed it was because he hadn't been expecting the direct question. Relaxing against the table on which her computer terminals stood, he crossed one ankle over the other. "Honestly? I guess it depends on the individuals involved."

She frowned. "Meaning?"

"There are thousands of men and women the world over who live secret lives and manage to hide who they are and what they do from those closest to them quite successfully. I'm not saying that it's easy for them, just that they're doing what they have to do. It is what it is." It wasn't hard to read between the lines.

"But they aren't me," she stated flatly.

"Felicity, you're young and smart and beautiful. It's natural that you'll eventually want more than hiding out down here and hacking into secret databases. You'll want a home to go to, perhaps a husband, kids. Do you think you could make that kind of commitment to someone without sharing all of who you are?"

Could she? He looked at her thoughtfully and she bit her lip, pondering his words despite knowing deep within her gut that she already knew the answer. "No, I don't think I could." Somehow saying it out loud felt like another betrayal. This time to Oliver and Diggle. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head at her. "Don't even think it. There is no rule anywhere that says you have to sacrifice everything good in your life in order to continue fighting this fight."

"I like fighting this fight," she defended.

"Trust me when I say that it can be very lonely at times."

Curiosity prompted her to ask, "Why have you stayed?"

He looked across the room but didn't seem to be staring at anything in particular. "The army took everything out of me. When I came back home, I didn't know what normal was anymore. I tried to fit in again, to do the things I enjoyed before I enlisted but it wasn't easy. I felt out of place, like everything I'd been through meant that I could no longer relate to any of my former friends, like my life didn't have any meaning. Meeting Oliver and working alongside him, it's given me a new purpose. At the end of the day, I couldn't deal with having to lie to Carly. That's not my idea of how a relationship is supposed to be. Believe me, I thought about telling her, but I knew it would be the selfish thing to do. I couldn't put her life or A.J's at risk because I wanted to feel better about living a double life."

"So," she said softly, "you chose Oliver."

"No," he denied. "I chose me." She looked at him in surprise. "I need this, Felicity. Right now, where my life's at, I need to feel useful. What I needed and what I knew Carly wanted didn't gel. It's not to say that there won't come a time when I feel differently, it's just that right now, I'm where I belong."

She belonged here too, right? "I'm needed here. I have a responsibility to this team, to Oliver, to you. This is the most important thing I've ever been a part of, Dig. I love what I do. Maybe that does mean making certain sacrif-."

Dig leaned forward and placed a large hand on her shoulder. "Felicity, you don't owe us your life. I can't tell you what to do. Only you know what the right choice will be if and when that time comes. Look, it may not even happen for a long time yet. I just want you to remember that signing up to be a part of this team didn't mean that you had to give up on every other dream you've ever had."

It hadn't seemed like she was giving anything up when she'd joined Oliver and his crusade. In fact, it had felt like she'd gained so much by being in a position to contribute to something good in a way she hadn't been able to before. Granted, at that time, she hadn't been involved with someone as wonderful as Adam. "There is a part of me that wishes that I could just tell Adam the truth. I know that makes me selfish too, right?"

Diggle stood, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You can't compare Carly to Adam. Two very different people in two completely different circumstances. Besides, I don't think you're actually contemplating telling him, are you?"

She shook her head vehemently. "No. I would never do that without Oliver's permission. It's his secret to tell. Besides, it's not like Adam and I are that serious."

"Maybe you're not, but I've seen the way he looks at you. It's serious to him." On that note, he squeezed her shoulder gently before heading toward the stairs.

Her stomach seized with butterflies, she wondered if the time for making a very difficult decision would be arriving a lot sooner than she'd initially thought.

Just before lunchtime Felicity popped into Adam's office to grab the spare key to his house that she knew he kept in his desk drawer. He was due back from Chicago that evening and she wanted to surprise him with a nice meal and a little bit of romance. Alice, still a formidable woman, was significantly less frosty toward her since she and Adam had become a couple.

Having called ahead, the older woman didn't bother to cancel the call she was on when Felicity waved at her en-route to Adam's office. With a half smile the older woman returned her wave with significantly less enthusiasm while continuing to chatter into the receiver. Not in the least offended, Felicity reached Adam's office door and let herself in. His desk was in slight disarray, a clear sign that he'd rushed off to the airport the week before. Smiling to herself, she made her way around the large piece of furniture and spotted a grey and white winter scarf draped haphazardly over the back of his chair. Drawn to it, she picked it up, loving the soft woolen texture against the skin of her palms. Without thinking, she lifted it to her nose and inhaled deeply. It smelled like him – warm and woodsy – and she was surprised by the rush of longing that flooded through her. Despite everything that was happening with Oliver, she'd missed him these past few days, and she was glad that he would be home soon.

Turning her face slightly, she let the soft wool caress her cheek.

"Missing me that much, are you?" came a familiar, teasing voice from the direction of the doorway.

Embarrassed, she whirled around and found herself staring into the face of the man she'd just been thinking about. Leaning casually against the doorjamb, he gave her a crooked smile. "Adam!" Letting out a squeal of delight, she hurried around the desk and toward him. Caught up in his arms, her nose pressed against his neck, that same deliciously manly aroma assaulted her senses. Pulling back slightly, he cupped her face, his eyes searching hers before his lips descended and meshed with hers in a kiss that left her slightly dizzy and more than a little breathless.

When he eventually lifted his head, she smiled at him. "You're early!"

He laughed, his arms moving down her back to circle around her waist. "I caught an earlier flight and thought I'd surprise you."

"Mission accomplished," she said, her hands running over the front of his crisp white shirt. It was so good to see him.

He tucked a wisp of hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear. "Not that I don't love the sight of you cosying up to my clothing," he teased, as she felt her cheeks explode with colour, "but I was not expecting to find you in my office."

Feeling a tad foolish, she explained. "I was err…coming to collect your spare key." At his raised eyebrow, she continued, "I wanted to cook for you as a welcome home type gesture. I know you mentioned keeping a key here. I'm sorry if you think that was out of line, I mean, you didn't exactly tell me I could use it…"

"Felicit-"

"I just assumed that you wouldn't mind. If you do-"

Her stream of words was cut off abruptly when he kissed her again. "Stop," he said, punctuating the word with a kiss, "speaking."

"Oh-kay."

"I'm sorry to have ruined your surprise. I would have loved to come home to find you there waiting for me."

Felicity swallowed. His words, their meaning crystal clear and their meaning hard to ignore, conjured a pretty domesticated scene in her mind. As though sensing her embarrassment, he went on, "I was actually planning on surprising you at your office, hence the fact that I didn't call ahead to let you know I'd be back sooner. I was just going to drop that," he nodded in the direction of a file that he must have dropped when they'd embraced, "off."

Felicity wasn't quite sure if it was a good idea for Adam to visit her at Queen Consolidated. Luckily it wasn't something she needed to deal with at that moment. "Then it seems that I saved you a trip."

He grinned. "Now that's what I call fate."

She laughed, rolling her eyes playfully. "Speaking of trips, how was yours?" Adam picked up his navy blue blazer and threw it across his desk.

"Very productive actually. The Preliminary Hearing for the Perez case has been scheduled for next week. We're finally going to nail this bastard."

Adam seemed confident and she knew he had reason to be. His case was solid. "I can see you're rearing to go."

He bent down and collected the file from the floor. "It's been three years of hard work. Not just my own, but this entire department put everything they had into trying to catch this guy. Finally, we have him. So yeah, I'm ready to go."

"How does this hearing work?" she asked, genuinely curious, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"Well, in my opinion, it's purely procedural. We present only enough evidence to the Judge to indicate probability of guilt since we don't want to reveal our trial strategy to the defense team and he or she makes a decision on whether or not there is sufficient grounds to go to trial."

She cocked her head to the side, intrigued. "So technically, the judge could still rule in favour of the accused?"

Adam nodded. "Yes, but it won't happen in this case. The evidence is too compelling."

Suddenly Felicity felt nervous. A large part of Adam's arsenal was the information she dug up on Perez before Oliver caught him and left him for the Police. If she'd made one misstep, he could lose the case and if that happened, he'd be devastated. Guilt assaulted her again. If only she could just tell him the truth.

"Hey," Adam said, kneeling down beside her chair so their eyes were level. "It's open and shut. There's no way this guy is walking. Not with everything we have on him."

Trying to lighten the mood, she pushed her worries to the back of her mind and beamed at him. "You're amazing, you know that? And I missed you. A lot."

His eyes darkened and Felicity felt a shiver of anticipation dance down her spine. "I missed you, too" he whispered softly. His lips were about to touch hers when the jangle of his landline stopped him. Grinning at one another, he stood. "She's saved by the phone," he teased, sighing dramatically.

Half listening as he issued some instructions to the person on the other end, she sat back and watched him. Dressed down in beige chinos and a white shirt, his neck exposed to reveal the masculine column of his throat due to his lack of a tie, he looked relaxed and happy. What had Diggle said? You don't owe us your life. Would a potential lifetime with this strong, honorable man be such a bad choice? Was it one she could actually follow through with? Or did her job at Oliver's side mean more to her than Adam, or any man, ever could? When she was with him, it wasn't so hard to imagine being happy away from the adrenaline surging work she did on a near daily basis. Then when she was in the midst of helping the team catch a criminal, she couldn't envision ever wanting to do anything else.

Her gaze falling on the file Adam had under his hand, she felt another rush of worry. Perhaps she should go over the Perez intel again, just to be sure. Having one more look, just to allay her residual anxiety wouldn't be a waste. Perez was going to jail and Adam would be the man that put him there. The only thing left to do was to double check that she'd given him everything he needed to guarantee it.

Ending the call, he picked up his keys. "You haven't told me about New York. Do you have time for a quick lunch?"

Disappointed, she shook her head. "Unfortunately not. But I'm free for dinner?"

"I was hoping you'd say that," he said, planting a soft kiss on her lips before ushering them both out of his office.