Chapter 10

Felicity squinted against the early morning sunlight slanting through her window and glanced at the clock. It was only 7:30. Something had woken her – a movement or a sound, maybe. She turned her head to see Tyler still sleeping, curled on his side facing away from her. For such a big guy, he had managed to stick to his side of the bed all night, something she appreciated. No need for things to be any more awkward after their failed make out session the night before.

Then she heard it again. Someone was knocking on her door. She pushed the covers back, slipped out of the bed quietly, and looked down at her sleepwear of shorts and a tank top. She was still wearing her bra, so she was decent, but she grabbed her short robe and threw it on anyway. Then she tiptoed out of the room and closed the door behind her before walking into the living room. At the door, she stretched up to get a look at who was knocking.

"Felicity?"

Startled, she bumped her forehead against the door. "Ow." Rubbing her head, she disarmed the alarm and unlocked the door. "Oliver?"

"Hi. Can I come in?"

She stepped aside, allowing him to enter. Oliver closed the door behind him and reset the alarm before turning towards her. His expression held a strange intensity, the kind she usually saw on his face before a mission.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No. Are you hungry?"

He walked past her and into the kitchen, where he flipped the switch on her coffeemaker, knowing she always set it up at night before she went to bed. Felicity followed, confused.

"Am I… Oliver. You did not drive all the way over here at the crack of dawn to make me breakfast. What's going on?"

He pulled two coffee cups from her cabinet and walked over to her refrigerator to get the cream he knew she liked - a cinnamon vanilla flavor. It struck her that he knew things about her now. He knew she disliked waking up before seven on weekends, which was probably why he hadn't arrived earlier, and he knew that she liked cream in her coffee but didn't add sugar.

The coffee was still brewing, and with everything ready, he finally turned and leaned back against the counter beside the coffee machine. "I thought it was time we talked."

Before she could decide how to respond to that, she heard the sound of the bathroom door closing. Apparently Tyler was awake now. She saw the moment that the sound registered with Oliver, too – the sudden shuttering of his expression and the tension in his shoulders.

"Tyler's here." It wasn't a question.

Felicity bit her lip and played with the tie on her robe. "Yes, but it's not what you think. We didn't… uh you know. Nothing happened." Okay, not the whole truth, but it was close enough. Nothing important had happened, and there would be no future repeats.

"But he stayed here. In your bed." His tone was even – too even, really. He sounded the same way he did when he was upset about something but was unwilling to discuss it, and she realized he wasn't the only one who knew things now. She knew things, too. When had that happened?

She heard Tyler coming down the hall now, and a moment later he stuck his head into the kitchen. "Is that coffee I… uh, Oliver. Hey." He was still wearing the boxers and undershirt he'd slept in, and he rubbed a hand down his face before glancing at Felicity. "I'll just get dressed."

She sighed and brushed past Oliver to grab the cups and pour the coffee. Awkward, she thought wryly. Actually, awkward didn't even begin to cover it. She'd always thought love triangles seemed exciting and interesting; not that this was a love triangle, but it was the closest she'd ever come to one. What the movies never told you was how weird and uncomfortable it felt.

Which brought her back to what Oliver wanted to talk to her about. The big two came to mind first – the kiss and his behavior last night. Meanwhile, the tension in the room had ratcheted up about a thousand degrees since Tyler's departure. She turned and handed Oliver his cup.

"Do you want to sit down?" She gestured towards the living room.

Oliver put his cup down. "You have company, so this obviously isn't the right time."

Seriously? He'd dragged her out of bed, made coffee, and now he was leaving? "But…"

He was already halfway across the living room, and she followed quickly. "Oliver, wait."

At the door, he turned back to her. "I'll see you at the club tonight."

And then he was gone. She closed the door and reset the alarm, grumbling under her breath. Walking back into the kitchen, she grabbed her cup and took a long sip. It suddenly felt like it was going to be a very long day before their scheduled outing at Verdant later that night. And at Verdant, Oliver wouldn't be the Oliver she knew. He'd be partying, club owner Oliver – not exactly the same as he'd been before the island but close enough to give the gossip columnists something to print. Either way, he wouldn't be accessible.

Tyler ventured back into the kitchen, this time fully dressed. "Sorry I interrupted you guys. Is everything okay?"

Felicity shrugged. "I don't know. He was… weird."

"He was jealous, Felicity," Tyler said frankly. "Did you see the way he looked at me? He looked kind of dangerous for about five seconds. He's definitely not all fun and games like the press reports."

"Well, he did survive on a deserted island for five years," Felicity pointed out. "No one stays the same after something like that." And Tyler didn't know the half of it – actually, she didn't know, either. She had a feeling that whatever she'd imagined didn't even scrape the surface of the hell Oliver had been through in those five years.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"Yeah, no. I don't think that would be a very good idea." Felicity yawned. "I'm heading to the shower. I have eggs, ham and bacon, toast, frozen waffles, bagels, fruit, yogurt – feel free to help yourself to breakfast."

He was already pulling things out of the refrigerator, causing her to laugh. "And feel free to make enough for two," she added with a smile.

"You got it," he said as she walked past him.

Oliver stripped his t-shirt off in the foundry and stalked to the salmon ladder. But ten minutes later he got down. What he really wanted was to hit something.

When Diggle arrived he was still at it, pounding the dummies into submission. It should have relieved some of his aggression. But every time he cleared his mind, an image of Felicity and Tyler in bed together snuck up on him, and his temper spiked all over again.

Diggle raised his brows as he watched Oliver. After a few minutes, he asked, "Are we going to pretend you're not mad as hell about something or do you want to talk about it? Preferably before you break the training equipment again."

Oliver pulled back and grabbed a towel. "I went to talk to Felicity this morning and she had company."

"Okay. And?"

"And this guy just blew into town yesterday," Oliver ground out. He picked up his water bottle and took a long drink. "Next week he'll be gone. What the hell is she thinking?"

"I don't know, but I do know that's her business and not ours. She's a grown woman." Diggle walked around Oliver and pulled off his jacket. "Now you want to tell me what's really bothering you?"

Oliver capped the bottle and tossed it onto the desk, ignoring the clattering noise it made as it glanced off the edge of the keyboard.

"Hey, watch it," Diggle warned. "You break her computers and your arrows won't be able to save you."

Maybe anger would be better, he thought. At least it would be an emotional reaction. Lately, he felt like all Felicity did was close doors between them. She was pulling back, and he didn't like it.

"Oliver, man – I don't know what's going on between you and Felicity lately. But whatever it is, I think you need to take a step back and think it through."

Oliver ignored Diggle, dropping to the mat to do pushups.

"I think she makes you feel something, and that's good," Diggle finally continued. "I think you feel safe with her because she's not tangled up in your past and she doesn't see the old Oliver when she looks at you. You were disconnected for a long time, and she makes you want to connect with someone again. I'm a soldier, and I can understand that."

Oliver stood up and looked at Diggle for the first time. "Go on – I can hear the 'but' coming. You seem to have it all figured out."

"Hey, I'm not against you," his friend said sharply. "But Felicity cares about you, and if you're thinking about following that path you need to think it all the way through. Not just today and tomorrow, Oliver – all the way. She's too good a friend and too damn important to the team to risk losing her because you're not thinking straight."

"You don't think I'm good for her."

"I don't know," Diggle replied. "I've known from the beginning that she has a lot to offer you. But if you don't think about what you're prepared to offer her, it's going to blow up in your face."

Diggle left and Oliver continued training. Thirty minutes later he stopped and sat against the wall, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. He thought about Diggle's words, and then he thought about Felicity and the way she'd looked this morning, all warm and tousled just out of bed. The bed she'd slept in with Tyler.

She said nothing happened. Maybe it was true, but he didn't think it was the whole truth. Felicity had looked embarrassed enough to tell him something happened. Regardless, he had no right to feel angry about it – he knew that. It just didn't make a difference because he was angry, and he'd wanted nothing more than to toss Tyler out on his ass. That was an impulse he'd have to get under control by the time he saw them again.

He also knew Digg had a point. If he made a move, it would change things between them. Hell, he'd already changed things with that kiss. At some point a switch had flipped, causing him to acknowledge his attraction to Felicity. He had no idea how to turn that off; he wasn't even sure he wanted to.

They were friends and partners first. He needed that from her a lot more than he felt comfortable expressing aloud. Diggle knew how much her support meant to him, both as the Hood and as himself, so he wasn't even hiding it that well. He doubted Felicity realized it, though. She knew he needed her technology skills. Those skills had brought them together, but they weren't what had kept him coming back to her. That had been all about the girl herself.

Somewhere along the way, he suspected he'd wanted her to find out who he was. She'd become a bright spot in many of his bleak days with her babbling and her quirks. He'd always known how flimsy his cover stories were, and she hadn't bothered hiding the fact that she knew he was full of crap. It had been a game of sorts, one where they were each waiting to see who caved first. And thanks to a bullet, it had been him. He'd never regretted his decision to read her in.

He was trying to be a better friend to her. He was making much more of an effort than he had for anyone else since he'd returned. He paid attention now, and he was learning more about her every day.

Diggle was right about something else, too. Felicity had a lot to offer him, probably more than he deserved. She supported him and offered her friendship even when she stood up to him and told him he needed to find another way. They were both stubborn and opinionated, but it somehow worked between them.

He honestly didn't know if he could offer her enough to really make her happy – not now and maybe not ever. He had a mission that he couldn't abandon. He'd made a promise to his father, one he intended to keep at all costs. He'd been broken when he met Helena and a little less so with McKenna. And though Felicity was responsible for helping him pick up a lot of the missing pieces, he still wasn't whole. He knew it and he was sure she knew it, too. It was probably why she was hesitant with him now.

Oliver stood up and went upstairs to the bathroom. He needed a shower, and then he needed to think.

Felicity followed Lindsay into Verdant, still feeling the nervous tension in her stomach that had settled like a weight after Oliver left her apartment. What with him kissing her out of nowhere and his behavior the night before, not to mention randomly showing up at her apartment that morning, she really didn't know what to think or how to feel. Everything was changing, and she didn't know the rules.

Then again, it was Oliver. Maybe there were no rules. For all she knew, he was no more certain about what was going on than she was. Frankly, that made her even more nervous.

Tyler's entire team had gathered in the VIP lounge. It was separated from the main club area by a velvet rope and guarded by a formidable looking bouncer named Lou. Felicity noticed Tyler standing a few feet away and was pleased to see he was talking to Gina. When she raised a brow at him, he grinned and sent her a discreet thumbs up.

At least one of us is getting things straightened out, she thought. Tommy was there, and he lifted the rope for them. Oliver, however, was nowhere to be seen.

As if he'd read her mind, Tommy said, "Oliver should be here soon. He said he had something he needed to do first."

Felicity glanced at her phone, hoping he hadn't decided to hit the streets without her. He did that on occasion, not understanding why it upset her. While Lindsay was talking to Tommy, she sent a message to Digg.

Please tell me he's not out there alone.

Digg's reply was prompt. We both took the night off. He's probably in his office.

Felicity bit her lip and glanced up at the second floor landing that led to the club manager's office. The door was closed.

"He's up there," Tommy told her, following her gaze to the closed door. "Sometimes the noise seems to get to him. I think he needed a minute."

"I'm just going to check on him," she said.

It took her a couple of minutes to cross to the stairs. Saturday night was always one of the biggest nights at Verdant, and the presence of the entire Lakers team, complete with entourage and ball groupies, had inflated the numbers even more. At the top of the stairs, she paused and smoothed her hands down the forest green, strapless bandage dress she wore. The material hugged every curve, and the black, stiletto sandals she wore did a lot of favors for her legs.

She couldn't deny she'd worn it for Oliver. She wanted to see that look in his eyes, the one she'd seen when he kissed her. For a moment, at least, he'd wanted her, too. She just wasn't sure if giving in to the want was smart. She wanted him to want her, but the intensity scared her. It was a catch-22 if ever there was one.

Before her thoughts could descend down that circular path, the door opened. Oliver stopped when he saw her. "Hi."

"Hi."

He was looking at her, taking her in from head to toe, and a warm feeling replaced the ball of nerves she'd been for the last couple of days. This was want, pure and simple. And it would be so, so easy to just feel rather than think.

Oliver pulled the door closed and offered her his arm. She took it, allowing him to lead her back downstairs. He stopped to talk to people along the way, but he didn't relinquish his hold on Felicity. At the bar he ordered a scotch and then raised a brow at her.

"White wine," she told him in answer to the unspoken question.

"The one you had with dinner last week?"

She nodded, surprised he remembered. They waited, and the warmth of Oliver's arm against hers made her stomach flip and squirm with excitement.

He handed over the glass of wine. "Where's Tyler?"

"Talking to Gina," she answered, sipping the cool, semi-sweet liquid slowly.

"Gina?"

"His ex-girlfriend. And before you get all growly on my behalf, it was my idea. They have some things they need to work out. Either way, Tyler and I are just friends." And that was the total truth.

"Friends." Oliver was looking at her curiously. But he didn't ask questions, instead taking her hand and leading her back to the VIP lounge.

The evening passed quickly. Oliver donned the charming club owner persona, greeting guests and talking basketball with the team. The ball groupies swarmed, phones out and cameras at the ready. When Felicity tried to step away from him, he stopped her with a hand against the small of her back.

She'd never really stuck around to observe him in this role before. So it came as a surprise when she saw how much it seemed to bother him. Was she the only person who could see how empty his smiles were, how detached from the whole scene he really was? But then, they didn't really know him.

Tommy intervened a few times, giving Oliver short breaks. So Tommy wasn't blind to the strain it put Oliver under, either. Despite his anger towards his oldest friend, he still sought to alleviate Oliver's stress. Felicity thought there might be hope for their friendship after all.

The music changed, the beat slowing, and Oliver didn't ask – he just pulled her over to the dance floor and drew her into his arms. The heat he generated with his hands was unbelievable. Two hands, one holding hers and the other at her hip, creating two points of contact, and yet it could have been a hundred hands for all the fire coursing through her veins. Her neural pathways lit up one by one, like dominoes falling. If dominoes were played with blazing candles, that is.

She took a deep breath in an attempt to rein in her runaway pulse and instantly regretted it because he smelled really good. He was her Gehenna. Her purgatory. If she believed in a never ending purgatory, this would be hers - dancing with Oliver for eternity. A cleverly disguised hell, really. They were close, and that closeness drew her in and made her want more. But there was distance as well, and she knew how this night was going to end.

When he offered to drive her home, she accepted. They made the trip in silence, and when they arrived, she invited him inside. She walked over to the window and looked out, not surprised when he followed and stood behind her.

"I'm done denying this attraction, Felicity, but…"

"But we're hitting the reset button, aren't we?" She wasn't sure how she knew that, but she was certain she was right. And a part of her even felt relieved.

He didn't say anything, just reached out and cupped her shoulders, allowing his hands to run down her arms. He pulled her back, and she went willingly until she felt the fine material of his dress shirt against her skin.

"What does your dating philosophy say about us?" he finally asked.

The question surprised her, but she'd given it a lot of thought. "That it would be fireworks. But then it would be over because you're not ready."

"I don't want to make a mistake with you because I need you in my life, Felicity."

It was that simple, really. He needed her, and she needed him, but they weren't really ready to take it to another level. If they did, and it failed, they would fail. She was certain of that as well.

"But before we hit the reset button…" Oliver turned her around to face him, his hands on her hips pulling her closer.

Like she'd predicted, kissing Oliver was fireworks and literally the best thing she'd ever felt in her life. She put her arms around his neck, moaning when she felt one arm wrap around her waist like a steel band while the other moved up, allowing his fingers to tangle in her hair.

Then it was over. They both stepped back, their breathing unsteady as they looked at each other.

Oliver reached out and cupped her cheek before pulling away. "I should go."

He was at the door when she called out to him. "Wait."

He turned, his expression once more contained. She swallowed hard. "I need a few days if that's okay."

"Only a few days?"

She nodded. "I'll come to the foundry after work on Friday. If you need me before then, I'll come, but I just – I need a little time to make sure the reset sticks."

"Okay. Maybe that's a good idea for both of us. I'll see you on Friday, then." He smiled and left, and she walked to the door to lock it and reset the alarm. If only resetting her life was that easy. Kicking off her heels, she pulled the throw from the end of the sofa and curled up against the cushions.

It took a weekend of internal pep talks, as well as a whole lot of ice cream and TV therapy, but by Monday she felt better about their decision. Knowing it was the right decision made it easier, but only just. Oliver had come a long way in the months they'd been working together, but he was still grappling with a lot in his life. Walter was still missing, and he wasn't over Laurel. It hurt to acknowledge that, but she'd be damned if she started lying to herself about something she'd seen first-hand.

He was struggling at home and at work, and he was still coming to terms with his father's death and the promises he'd made to right the wrongs done by the Queen family. Worrying about hurting her would be yet another burden, and she didn't want to add to the weight he carried. Perhaps more selfishly, she didn't want to get her heart broken.

Taking a week away from him turned out to be a good thing, and it gave her time to put her feelings back in the box he'd yanked the lid off of so easily. This time she wrapped it in paper and put it on the back shelf, keeping their partnership front and center in her mind.

It seemed Oliver had done the same. There was some awkwardness in the beginning, and Felicity could see he was as careful about avoiding her personal space as she was about avoiding his, but gradually the tension faded to a level much better dealt with by both of them.

Things were going well until the Oliver/Laurel/Tommy love triangle blew up. In response to Oliver's distance, Felicity buried her feelings deeper, refusing to engage where Laurel was concerned. And then the Glades fell, changing all of their lives forever.

A/N – This completes 'Dating Philosophy 101.' I hope you're not too disappointed that they didn't get together here, but I just didn't feel like they were ready. The story continues in 'Recreational Dating for Dummies' and picks up essentially a couple of episodes into Season 2. I plan to start posting that one in the next week or so. I was waiting to see the direction the new season took. There will be some adjustments to canon in the sequel, though. Also, that story will be rated M, so get ready for some explosive Olicity ;-)

Thanks for reading and reviewing and supporting the story! You guys have been awesome, and I'm sorry that my updates tend to be spaced out. I have strange teaching hours (8:30-12:30 and then 3:30-7:30) and so I don't have a lot of time to write and edit during the week. I'm basically home long enough to eat and sleep most days. If you've sent me a message and I haven't responded, I'm getting on that this week. Hope you enjoyed my first Olicity fic! :D