Notes: Here be spoilers.

In light of the preview for 3x07, I think there are a lot of Olicity fans wondering how or why Felicity agrees to a date with Ray.

The Arrow characters and universe do not belong to me.

Felicity sat alone in the foundry with the rattling of steam pipes and the hum of her servers providing soothing white noise as she worked. Now that Oliver was living with Thea, Felicity could come to the basement and work on her searches without fearing awkward encounters with her partner. The sound of the alley entrance door closing gave her a small flutter of anxiety. She quickly checked her team's trackers and sighed with relief when she realized her visitor was only Roy. She turned to greet him, but the smile fell from her face when she saw the tension in his shoulders and the angry clench of his jaw. "Oliver isn't here yet. Everything okay?"

Roy stalked towards her, his every step hitting heavily upon the concrete floor. "I'm not here to see Oliver. I want to talk to you." He stopped two feet from her chair and glared down at her.

Felicity felt uncomfortable with their current power dynamic and rose from her chair and stepped around him. She walked towards the large touch screen monitor and brought up one of her searches. "Sure, what's up?"

Roy moved to her side at the monitor. "When I asked you last spring if I'd been out the whole time, you said yes. Why did you lie to me?"

The pain on Roy's face was raw. Felicity placed a gentle hand on his arm. He flinched but didn't shake her touch off. "You had just woken up. We were under attack. It wasn't the right time."

"I don't believe you. I thought this team was about trust and the first thing you tell me when I wake up is a lie. Why?" His eyes were glistening but no tears fell.

"I didn't want to hurt you. I thought you needed time to readjust after getting the cure." Felicity had been trying to protect Roy when she didn't tell him about his homicidal Mirakuru-fueled rampage. He'd looked so vulnerable when he asked her that question as they filled injection arrows with the cure. However, like so much in her life, her reasons for not telling him that night were more complicated than his well-being. The pleading look on Roy's face had her telling him everything. "He needed you and I couldn't afford you having a guilt trip."

"So you lied for him?" Roy pulled away from her. "Did he ask you to?"

"Oliver has never asked me to lie for him." Roy raised an incredulous eyebrow at her statement. "Well, aside from all this," her arms sweeping across the foundry, "he's never asked me to lie." She took a step towards him and reached for his hand. He angrily pulled it out of reach. "Roy, he didn't ask me to lie to you about it."

Roy's temper exploded and he began to shout. "It? It's not an it, Felicity. I killed someone. You had no right to keep that from me."

"What's going on here?" Oliver asked coolly as he stepped off the last stair. "Felicity?" Oliver moved to put himself between the arguing pair, but addressed her. "Is everything okay?"

"Typical." Roy huffed.

Felicity stepped around Oliver. Her own temper flaring at Roy's hurtful accusations. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Roy rolled his eyes at her. "You're the one that says we're a team and that we trust one another, but you're always going to choose him over me."

Roy's statement was a slap in the face. She always put the team first and sometimes that meant prioritizing their individual needs in certain situations. "You're being ridiculous. I didn't tell you to protect you."

"No, you didn't tell me to protect him." Roy spat out as he pointed to Oliver.

Oliver moved to block Roy's view of Felicity, using his back as a protective wall. "Hold on, Roy. It was my decision not to tell you about what happened. This isn't Felicity's fault. If you're going to blame someone, blame me."

Roy's voice came out in almost a whisper. "I didn't ask you what happened, but I did ask her and she lied."

"She was trying to help you." Oliver's voice was gentle as he tried to soothe his apprentice.

Roy snorted in derision. "It's always going to be the two of you, ahead of everyone else. Even when you're all awkward and screwed up, you still defend one another, the rest of us be damned." Roy headed towards the alley entrance.

"Roy, wait. We need to talk this out." Oliver called after Roy.

Roy spun around angrily and shouted. "You two deserve each other."

The sound of the heavy alley door slamming behind Roy caused Felicity to flinch. She sank into her chair, resting her head against her desk. "I screwed up."

Oliver rested his hands on the back of her chair and spoke softly. "You didn't screw up. You made the best decision you could that night. It was the right decision. I made the same decision when I chose not tell him."

"Roy was right." Oliver moved to sit on the edge of her desk, his head tilting in a silent question. "You didn't tell him to protect him from learning he is a murderer. You wanted to spare him pain."

Oliver narrowed his eyes in concern. "So did you."

The need to put distance between herself and Oliver and the truth had her rising from her chair. "No. I didn't tell him because I wanted one more person out in the field fighting for you. I was being selfish because my decision was less about protecting him and more about trying to keep you alive. I did choose you over him." As the words left her mouth she was able to see the truth she'd been blinding herself to. "You're never going to choose me, are you?"

Oliver pushed off the desk and moved towards her, tears in his eyes. "Felicity, I"

Felicity raised her hand to stop his forward movement. "I can't. I'm sorry." She walked quickly towards the stairs, fighting back tears. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I just need some air." Once she stepped out of the club, she let go of the sob she'd been holding in. Her situation with Oliver wasn't getting easier with time, if anything, it was getting harder. She needed to find another way to move past her grief or she would have to walk away entirely.