'And Gold Again'

Month one

Oliver didn't call back, and Felicity didn't care.

It was gone now, the weight of the words. The thoughts that lingered months on, the 'what if' way she had looked back on Starling – those times were over. She loved him. It was out there. And with that release Felicity Smoak breathed easier, laughed instead of sighing, and put her chin up towards the waiting world.

Beetle made her laugh, mostly. There was the hero-stuff too, but for the first month of their renewed working relationship, they spent a lot of time talking and laughing, thick as thieves. In between clearing out the drug trade in the clubs and bars, an operation which gained Beetle a lot of popularity with the press and the people, they started to expand their operation slowly. Felicity built up a series of checkpoints throughout the city with her work change, tiny safehouses scattered around where she could leave gadgets for Beetle to collect and where he could stay if he needed to keep an eye on a certain area.

After about a month, he brought Booster Gold to her like a puppy he'd found on the side of the road.

"Can he stay?" Beetle asked hopefully, looking towards his on board camera with big eyes and a pleading expression. Kerberos' icon – a three headed dog, playing into the origins of the name – gave nothing away in response, but her voice did.

"He's a hero?" Felicity asked, frowning at her computer screen. She could see Beetle and his new friend: a blonde in a bright yellow suit and tiny robot hovering beside his head which apparently answered to 'Skeets'. "Then why have I never heard of him? There are no records of him, well, anywhere."

Booster Gold pouted slightly. "That's not my fault! I tried working out in Coast before some shiny green guy kicked me out, and I've been bumming around in the timestream since then. I just need a good break, like you and Beetle have got here."

"C'mon, K. He's an old friend, I trust him. When we uh . . . fell out?" Beetle grimaced at the memory and choice of words. "Booster came here, without a second's hesitation. In those weeks I wasn't actually alone; he was my backup but let me take the credit to build up my popularity here. But all of us together – it would be so cool. We could do so much more."

Felicity bit her lip, unsure. She was risking a lot with just Beetle – but, new life. New team. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

She sighed a little and Beetle lit up like Christmas, knowing what that meant. Felicity shook her head, talking to Booster with a hint of the smile. "What can you do then, golden boy?"

Booster grinned.

Month two

"Take your next left," Felicity said. Her fingers scrabbled around, chair twisting from side to side as she worked three computers simultaneously, eyes darting between the them and processing the information they yielded in seconds. Sometimes, the job wasn't easy. "You'll reach a door – code to unlock it: 3792."

"Got it!" Beetle yelled back, skidding around the corner. In his hand he clasped his now infamous gun – which shot a blast of compressed air at an enemy, causing damage in a similar way to Sara's canary cries did.

But he was no safer on that side of the door, as Felicity discovered a second later. Beetle was at an intersection of the concrete building, armed forces approaching from all sides.

"Crap."

"Crap?!" he whispered back jokingly, "That's not too comforting, K. Tell me that's a 'crap, I left the oven on' and not a 'crap, the most handsome member of our team is about to be riddled with bullets!'"

"In your dreams," Booster snorted, listening in to the conversation. He was panting slightly, heading towards his friend at top speed, as he'd been instructed by 'Kerberos' to do. Trusting the order of 'head towards the gunmen' without hesitation, he struggled to get there in time. "And riddled with bullets? Just because you talk like we're in a western doesn't mean it's true. Never happening, buddy."

Beetle was starting to get jumpy, hearing boots approaching. "Let me live my dreams before I die, you asshole."

"Guys! Problem at hand, please?" Felicity snapped in frustration and desperation, and they both winced.

Ducking their heads shamefully, the boys muttered in unison. "Sorry, K."

"You're being approached on all sides, Beetle. Gunmen, armed to the teeth with this new bio-weapon from Gotham." Felicity supplied, still tapping away. "I can't get you out, but-"

"Thank God there's a but-"

There was an uncertain edge to her voice, "Booster's on his way?"

"That's your big plan?" Beetle laughed, raking a hand through his hair. He looked around, but the heavy metal doors left no indication of how close the forces were or if there was another way out behind any of them. This is why they needed Kerberos – she saw what they couldn't, lead them to where they needed to be. She was usually better at the job than this. "Great. My life's in the hands of a moron."

"I could just let them make swiss cheese outta you, you know!" Booster shouted back at the insult. But it was exactly what he needed: riled up, as Beetle was smart enough to know he would be, Booster flew faster towards the skylight he needed to gain access to the building. He went on, "Me and K would be fine without you. Yeah, 'boo hoo, Beetle was a good hero he'll be missed yadda yadda blah' – but we'd just hook up and go on without him, wouldn't we babe?"

He was talking to Kerberos now; Felicity realised what they were doing and played along. Joking in mad times. This was so unlike how it was with the Arrow, she felt insane laughter well up anyway but contained it. "Sure thing, sugar."

"Wow," Beetle grumbled. "With friends like you guys, who needs enemies? Me, apparently, because I'm about to be shot to shit either way."

The light beside a door to his left turned green, and he knew he was screwed. Still, Beetle turned towards it with determination in his stance, feet planted apart and gun in hand. Features grim, he let off a shot as the squadron entered, charging towards them as half fell from the blast, and vaulting over a falling man and into the middle of the rest.

Beetle fought, and for a moment, was winning. Then the other three doors opened with more soldiers piling in, and he knew he was done for but shot anyway, compressor gun worth it's weight in gold in his opinion for the seconds it bought him.

"Fellas!" he shouted when those seconds were spent, standing in the middle of the room with a dozen guns aimed at him. Beetle threw his hands up carelessly and tried to buy more time. "Do you really want to do this? Take a second and think about it."

The nearest squadron leader looked blankly at him and nodded. "Da."

It had brought him a whole of two seconds, and Beetle rolled his eyes at the reply. "Well. Okay then, I guess. I get that."

The Blue Beetle closed his eyes and waited for the shots to come. But they didn't.

There was a mighty crash overhead and Booster Gold flew through the roof, smashing the glass skylight with his gauntlet blasters before swooping in, landing beside his best friend with a satisfied smirk. Eyebrows jumping up at how well that had gone, he disguised his surprise with smirk and asked the gunman, "You really weren't planning on having this dance without me, were you?"

Gunfire sounded, but neither men flinched an inch. Booster had surrounded them with a forcefield the minute they landed, so he and Beetle simply waved from the other side at the invisible barrier as the bullets bounced off, much to the confusion of their enemies.

"Oh I'm sorry, this isn't a problem is it?" Beetle asked, pointing at the force field.

"Right," Booster agreed, nodding like the thought had just appeared to him. "They wanted to fight."

Tapping his goggles to turn on the infra-red as Booster did the same, Beetle held out his arms expectantly and shouted, "Kerberos, if you please."

Felicity groaned because at this rate the pair of them wouldn't last the week, but a second later the lights to the entire building went out. Booster dropped the force field, and Blue and Gold attacked in situ. When the lights came on precisely three minutes later, they stood in the middle of dropped gunmen and high-fived; Felicity thought that it felt like something epic.

Month three

Felicity was waiting at one of the safe houses. As she sat awkwardly on the edge of the simple blue couch, perched with a flighty look, half considering just running away, her hands shook a little. Knowing it was dumb to be so nervous, she clasped them together to stop their trembling and stood, beginning to pace the room. She wasn't going to change her mind again, no way. This was it. Beetle and Booster would be there any minute, and she was just going to say hi and introduce her real self like it was no big deal.

But it was.

Identities were the biggest thing to people like them. It kept you safe and uninvolved, protected from caring too much or losing too much – and it kept the people you loved safe. They pissed people off for a living and it was hardly legal, even if the people of the city loved their new heroes, so anonymity was kind of everything.

"They're your team," Felicity said to herself sternly. "They're your friends. This is simple, you tell them. You tell them."

Resolved, her heart still jumped half a mile when there was a key in the door and it was opening, time seeming to become sluggish as it was pushed open, as if wading through mud, painfully slow to her as she felt the whole world change again. This was it. You tell them. Booster walked in first, talking obnoxiously loudly about something, Ted's signature laugh following him a second later.

When they looked up to find the room occupied, both heroes stopped dead in their tracks. It was the longest Felicity had seen either of them be quiet, staring at her with open mouths until she was starting to feel like a fish out of water, smoothing down her skirt in a nervous gesture.

She decided to make the most of the opportunity, "So, before either of you says anything-"

Beetle interrupted, finding his voice in time to take another step towards her, disbelieving. "Felicity?"

She blinked, "How did you-"

"Oh my god, Felicity!" Beetle shouted, "It's you! This can't be – no, no way. All this time, it was you," he was running his hands around his hair, looking to Booster to check he wasn't the only one seeing this. "Is this happening?"

Booster raised his eyebrows, nodding. "It's happening."

Beetle laughed loudly then, doubling over as it bubbled up inside him hysterically. He turned back to Felicity, taking two large steps towards her and collecting himself when she stepped away, still looking confused. "It was you all along. Of course it was."

"Will you please tell me what's going on?" Felicity finally demanded, not liking the reaction. She had never seen either of them this closely before, but something was already nagging at the back of her mind. There was something so familiar about both of them, it burned to be found out but she wasn't thinking straight enough to put the pieces together. She snapped, "Beetle!"

In answer, the blue-clad man stood straight again and looked right at her. The Blue Beetle took of his glasses and pushed his suit away from his face, and suddenly the universe made sense again.

"Ted?" Felicity spluttered out, eyes bulging out of her head as she stared at him. Shaking her head a little, she took a step forward and punched him on the arm. It was solid under her knuckles, definitely real and not a dream and she nearly fell over in shock.

"Ow!"

Felicity looked even more surprised than he did at the confirmation he was real, this was happening, Ted was the Blue Beetle.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she exploded.

Ted countered, "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because I moved in with you to get away from superheroes and then I never wanted the lines to blur between this and me when I started working with the Beetle!" she shouted back, being loud mostly out of shock and not real anger. "I just – I-" Felicity blinked hard, shaking her head and focusing on Booster. Her eyes narrowed, "Mikey?"

"Yeah?" Booster looked up, grinning. Following Ted's suit, he took of his goggles and revealed his true identity, looking at his feet in shame. "To be fair, Ted's been lying to you way longer than I have, so . . ."

"Traitor," the brown haired man replied, scowling at his giggling friend. But then he turned to Felicity quickly, eyes narrowing. "Hold up, right now. You know the Canary and that other guy – when you went all distant before and talked about not getting attached . . . what the hell happened to you, Felicity?"

She winced, looking up at him with scrunched up eyes and a hopeful smile. "I, uh. Well, the thing is-" Felicity decided to just spit it out, finishing quickly, "Back in Starling I worked with the Arrow."

"What?" Ted and Michael asked in unison, eyebrows hitting the ceiling. Mikey recovered first, gushing on. "That guy is like an urban legend! Are you serious right now?!"

"For nearly three years," she confirmed, elaborating generally but wary of revealing Oliver's identity to them; that wasn't her secret to tell. "I was his IT girl, like I am with you guys. We were . . . partners? Allies? I thought we were friends but then, well, stuff happened. I moved here to get away from him."

"Wait," Ted shook his head incredulously, holding up a finger. He caught Felicity's eye and held it, knowing he'd be able to see a lie there if she tried to tell one. "Queen is the Arrow?"

Felicity said nothing, and that confirmed his suspicious. Ted turned and paced angrily, muttering to himself about how he knew he should have punched that guy and how he definitely was going to next time he had a meeting in Starling.

But after a few seconds, Ted stopped grumbling, lines on his face erased by a sound behind him. Inexplicably, Felicity was laughing. He turned to see her face split into a grin, hand on her head as she out loud, uncaring, laughed. Glancing over, Ted could see Booster grinning too, and when all three shared a glance, they burst into hysterics.

"I'm sorry," Felicity said after a few minutes, waving a hand and red in the face. "It's just – think about how crazy this is. We've been living together for months, hiding the same thing."

Ted shook his head, "So every time I asked you what you were doing on the computer before I rushed out . . ."

"I was too busy trying to keep 'the Beetle' out of trouble to notice you always left five minutes before he showed up," she laughed again. "That's . . ."

"Brilliant," Ted finished. He looked at her, and she at him. "I said you'd save the world."

For a brief moment, it was perfect; then Felicity's smile faltered, slipping from her face in seconds. Putting a steadying hand on her arm, Ted worriedly tried to comfort her as she stepped away quickly, putting space between them and extending her arm as a barrier.

"Ted, this . . . this isn't good," Felicity said quietly, eyes softening from joy to fear. "Y-You can't keep doing this now, I-" A few tears leaked from her eyes, trailing down her face as she tried to hide it, half turning away. Putting a hand to her lips, Felicity calmed herself before turning back to sets of matching concerned faces. "This life is dangerous. You're not a soldier or trained for this! You could die, Teddy. And I can't, I can't let you do that. We have to stop."

He reached out to touch her arm and she let him. "Felicity, I get it. This is scary now, because it's us, doing this together. But I feel better knowing it's you watching over me, my best friend – you'd never let me down."

"I have seen this life ruin people lives; I've seen it kill people. People I knew. I thought . . . with the Beetle, things could be different. It wouldn't like with Oliver when sometimes I was so scared of losing him that I couldn't breathe, because I didn't know you, and I could be . . . disconnected." She let out a shaky breath, still crying, but slower. "But now I do know, how could I send you out there when I know you could get hurt? Who would that make me?"

"Felicity freaking Smoak," Ted said strongly. He leaned closer and kept a hand on her shoulder, comforting but at the same time, not letting her gaze leave his own. "You are going to save the world. As you; as Kerberos – it's all the same. That's who you are, and I have a promise to keep, so it's who I am, too."

Booster tried to lighten the mood, joking. "I just do it because I'm a glory hound."

Felicity allowed a watery laugh at that, Ted's worried eyes never leaving her. It took her only a moment to get upset again however, visions of Ted hurt and dying facing someone like Deathstroke conjured in her mind vividly. She couldn't lose him. Not like she lost Oliver.

"I can't," she shook her head, pleading with him to understand with her eyes as she tried to step back but was kept close by the hand on her shoulder. "I couldn't lose you, okay? It would kill me."

Seeing her distress, Ted put his other hand on her cheek, cupping it and bringing their foreheads together. Telling her softly to breathe, he waited until she was calmer before he looked her in the eyes, so close now.

"Felicity, listen to me. What are we? Huh? What are we?"

She replied tearfully, broken up face shining back at his, "Family."

"Yeah, we are," Ted nodded in confirmation, forehead rocking against her own. He was crying a little bit too, not that he'd admit it when Booster teased him later. "If either of us does this, I am glad we can do it together. There's no one I'd want watching my back more. That is what family does. It protects you so much it hurts, and loves you enough that you always come back around. "

"It's too dangerous-"

Ted shook his head, but was smiling madly again. "Life's dangerous. You – you were doing this on your own without me, and that thought is terrifying. But I know I will do anything to keep you safe. And you'll do the same."

Felicity threw her arms around him then, burying her face in the blue fabric of his uniform and asking herself why she was still crying. Feeling his hands come around her in a heartbeat, catching in her hair and cradling it, she knew why. Ted was her comfort; a safety net she'd had for so long the thought of jumping without it was . . . unthinkable.

He had to be safe, she had to keep him safe: but he was right – he was safer with her watching his back. Alone, he wouldn't have got half as far.

Felicity lifted her head from Ted's shoulder to see Michael standing in the corner with his head down, awkwardly trying to blend into the furniture. He had become so much of a normality in her life too, it was hard to imagine it without him too. Catching his eye, Felicity held out a hand.

Uncertainly, he took it, pulled into the hug a second later. There was laughing again, and it took Felicity a second to recognise it as her own. Mixed between the two men and faint smell of sweat and dust, the tears on her face like a mask, but drying, the air around cool where the water had stained her cheeks; Felicity smiled. Pulling them tighter, Felicity bunched her hands in the back of Ted and Mikey's uniforms, dreading the moment she would have to let go.

Ted took the decision away from her, detangling himself from the embrace to sling an arm around her shoulder instead, sighing contently at his own good fortune. He wasn't alone, as he feared he would be. He had the two greatest people in the world at his sides.

"We are gonna do so much," he said aloud, something burning of hope and change in his eyes. "This team, this city – guys, we can do anything."

"Well, probably not everything," Michael countered, pulling a face. He winked at Felicity. "I don't think there's a force on earth that can make you not be a dork."

Ted slapped him on the back of the head and laughed, shoving Booster towards the couch. They squabbled until the blonde fell all the way, face planting into the cushions. Shaking his head, Ted turned back to Felicity, gesturing with his head that they should all go and sit down. They had a lot to talk about.

But her face was still astonied, face pale and eyes staring at nothing, away from the present. When he reached out and took her hand, lacing their fingers together and hoping the steady pressure would be reassuring enough for now, Ted broke her from the spell. Felicity looked up, blinking hard, and desperately squeezed back.

"Hey, hey, you know what family means?" Ted asked, trying to reassure her a final time. "It means I'm never going to leave you."

Month four

When Team Arrow arrived in Chicago, the first place they went to was Felicity's front door. No one answered when they rang the bell, awkwardly standing in full leather costume in the lavish hallway leading to Felicity and Ted's apartment – which encompassed the entire top floor of one of the most expensive developments in the city. It was intimidating, and Roy was just starting to worry about what would happen if one of the neighbours stumbled upon them when Oliver kicked down the door.

"Was that necessary?" the red-uniformed man asked, following the Arrow into the dark apartment.

He went to the light switch, which he remembered the location of from when he'd visited and instantly the room was filled with light, revealing a living room which didn't look, well, lived in. The apartment appeared empty and had been for days, he deducted from the sickly smell of vaguely rotting fruit from the kitchen and the scrunch of paper underneath his feet as he crossed the threshold.

"You've got mail," Diggle remarked dryly as Roy kneeled to collect the letters beneath his feet – bills, business contracts, a pizza leaflet – the usual stuff. He showed the other man, keeping one eye on Oliver, who was searching the other rooms. Diggle shouted loud enough for them all to hear, "She's not here! From the build up of mail, I'd say that nobody's been here in a few days."

"Then where is she?" Oliver asked, walking back into the room with heavy steps.

"Work, probably," Sara provided, "Her computer station is there. When we were here last, she was pretty glued to the place."

The Arrow's eyebrows jumped up angrily, and Sara realised her mistake when he spoke, tone acid. "When you were here last? And who is 'we', exactly?"

Roy winced, screwing his eyes up tightly. Shoulders raised, he tried not to look Oliver in the eye, but his mentor rounded on him instantly when Sara didn't answer, cocking his head with the expression of a disappointed parent. "So you and Sara knew Felicity was working with the Beetle for how long, Speedy?"

Feeling the familiar kick of irritation at the name that wasn't his, Roy bristled and spoke calmly. "Felicity asked for our help, as her friends, and we gave it to her. It was to keep her safe-"

"You lied to me."

"You left that as our only option!" Roy shouted back, stepping towards and not away from the older man. The pace of his words and the diction left in no doubt his irritation, spat out quickly and precisely; something said before in his head, rehearsed. "What you did to her was cold, man. I don't blame her for not calling you for help, but she called and asked us to lend a hand, so we did. Did you really think she'd just sit on the sidelines after leaving Starling? There was no chance. None of us could just . . . give this up. So yeah, me and Canary helped Felicity and the Beetle on a case and yeah, we knew she was doing this again – but you can't be mad at us for that."

"He's right," Sara agreed frankly. "You're our friend, she's our friend. We'd never deny either one of you help if you asked. Now, if we could all please re-focus and get to Kord Industries, or do you want to continue your dumb display of male ego?"

Oliver huffed, but stomped out of the apartment all the same. In the van, they made it to K.I in record time, ignoring traffic lights and in fact rules of the road – but it was late, and the streets were blissfully quiet. They made it to the glass building to find not a single light on.

"You see – empty!" the Arrow growled as they arrived to an empty office. Not turning the light on, he walked over to the chair and hit the keyboard, waking the machines from sleep to a blue Kord Industries logo, nothing suspicious or remotely useful. "She's not here. The Beetle is missing – what if Felicity is, too?"

"Have you tried calling her?" Diggle asked. When Oliver froze, he got his answer and grumpily fished his cell from his jacket pocket. "Damn, why do you have to make everything a struggle? She'll be fine."

He paused, holding up a finger to silence Oliver when he tried to speak and waited for an answer, feeling relief flood him when the line clicked – repleaced by dread when a male voice answered.

"Uh, Felicity's phone? She's a little busy right now."

"Who is this?"

"A friend," the voice answered, hesitating a little. "Can I take a message?"

Diggle was getting impatient. "Is Felicity with you right now? Tell her John Diggle is calling and is currently in her empty office with our former employer and our other friends."

The information was muffled, but relayed, and a moment later a new voice was on the phone. It was barely there, thick with emotion but definitely Felicity. "Digg? Now really isn't a good time for you to be here or for Oliver to shout at me, so-"

"We're here to help, I promise. No one's mad," Diggle replied calmly, glaring at Oliver as he said so. It was a 'don't you dare even think about reading Felicity the vigilante riot act right now' look. He had it down. "But right now we're standing in your office and can't do anything – we know the Beetle is missing, and that you're working with him. Let us in."

"Come to Ted's office, I'll meet you there. It's the top floor."

Murmuring words of acknowledgement, Diggle ended the call and lead his team to the nearest elevator. Any other time, three costumed vigilantes and him in an employee elevator at once would be a cause to laugh, but there wasn't a cheerful face among them as they rose, the walk to Mr. Kord's office a funeral march.

Felicity was waiting there, eyes red rimmed and leaning against the desk like she might fall without it's support. Faded, her lips almost smiled at the sight of them as they walked in. But it was nothing like her usual glow, face grey as they approached.

Sara hit her like a cannonball, hugging the smaller woman immediately; Felicity returned the hug, grateful someone was there for her. Closing her eyes for a second, she appreciated the comfort before straightening, Diggle coming forward to touch her arm affectionately while Oliver hung back in the doorway, not wanting to overstep. He knew he had things to make up to her, but right now finding Beetle was the priority – their relationship could be salvaged later, right now Felicity needed the Arrow, not Oliver Queen.

"Tell us what happened," he asked, voice the gruff tone of his alter ego.

It was what she needed: snapping to attention immediately, Felicity walked to the wall behind Ted's desk. It held a shelf with several photographs and knick-knacks; glancing back at them once, she reached behind a photo of herself and Ted in their college years, sitting on the lawn outside of MIT with matching grins, she hit a button and the whole wall retracted, revealing another elevator.

"What the hell?" Roy asked, walking over to it with wide eyes. "What is this?"

"Access to our base of operations," Felicity confirmed, gesturing for them all to get in. It was a tight fit, but they managed it; she got in last and the doors closed. An electronic voice asked for an access code, and she replied, "Vocal verification: Kerberos."

The elevator moved swiftly and silently, more high-tech and tube like than the employee one that the rest of Team Arrow had just left. It made no sound and moved quickly, reaching it's destination beneath the foundations of the buildings in under a minute – it was designed for speedy call to action.

The doors opened again silently, and Team Arrow walked out to a spacious concrete room: it was filled with computers and work benches, a landing pad with a machine shaped like an enormous bug in one corner, and a yellow man waiting at the console. With open mouths of shock and slight jealousy: it was so much bigger than the Foundry, and more equipped, they slowly walked to the nearest railing and looked down on the main area.

Turning to them, Felicity shrugged. "Welcome to the Beetle Cave."

A/N: yeah yeah, more going over the same things. This is what Felicity & Co have been up to while Oliver was avoiding listening to the whole message. So it's the Blue and the Gold (and Gold again).