And we're almost at the end of the road. Just one more chapter/episode to this journey's end.
I'm really proud and excited about this chapter, since it's one I begun writing a long time ago, from everything they needed to say and the place they've been growing to come since the beginning.
I really hope you enjoy the path paved.

MAKE IT LAST

I used up

A lot of chances

But you give them back

But if again

It comes crawling

Im gonna make it last..

It took Oliver one more day. To swallow his pride and turn to Dig, to plead for forgiveness in the only way he could, to ask for support in what would become his greatest battle yet.

His mother.

Anger and confusion reigned him, body and mind, at facing his mother's evilness again. Thankfully Diggle understood, as always, in that calm stoic way of his that somehow made Oliver feel like no more words were needed.

Like he wasn't alone anymore.

Once before he had let his emotions cloud his judgement where Moira was concerned. Not again.

"You sure about this?," Felicity asked as Diggle worked on putting the hood on one more time.

"Yes. It's the only way," Oliver asserted, lightly touching her shoulder, in a silent promise that that wouldn't go sour like last time.

If only he would have known how wrong he was. For not a bullet to the heart he received this time, but a blow to his emotions.

His mother wasn't a heartless mass murderer -that was a role reserved for his best friend's father-, but had been strong-armed into collaborating all along, for Walter, his and Thea's sake. That truth revealed lifted the weight on his chest momentarily, quenching the burning anger and depression over his mother's ways.

But, as usual, light and peace weren't in his destiny; the lifted weight falling ten times heavier onto him at the reveal that the boating accident that ended Laurel's and his father's life, and deviated his into the path of purgatory, had been no accident at all.

He was seething, seeing red and cursing Malcolm's name with everything in him.

Oliver thought he knew hatred. Towards his father for imposing his own burden on him; towards his various kidnappers and torturers over the years after the shipwreck; towards himself for every wrong turn he'd ever taken in his life; even towards Malcolm Merlyn himself for his poor treatment and overall neglect of Tommy throughout their growing years.

But nothing compared to the fiery loathing coursing his veins right then and there.

For Malcolm had not only ruined his and his loved once's life once, but was intent on ruining half the city's population's as well by mass murder.

His mother's crying did little to slow him down; neither did Felicity's tender touch on his cheek upon returning to the foundry, her evident worry over his new set of bruises falling to death ears.

Steel-focus barely reined his anger in as they worked towards preventing this one fall out.

Malcolm had ruined enough lives already. Oliver would not let his city down this time.

Getting into Merlyn's mainframe had been a needed success, that eased the leash strangling Oliver's rage a notch.

A full day of hacking later and Felicity had discovered the machine's location. A final ping of her computer that somehow made them all breathe a little lighter.

There was hope, a solution and, for Oliver, the end of a road.

Diggle silently took the job of retrieving the death machine and put an end to this -neither of the three daring to speak out loud how it couldn't simply be over so easily-. Felicity took her leave as well, a needed break from the screens and darkness around them, insisting Oliver did the same.

It was almost over. They could have a night.

He shrugged it off with a grateful smile her way, arguing he just needed a moment.

Part of him didn't want to go home, to his mother cowering in shame, or to his sister who had unknowingly begun a quest with her boyfriend to find him.

Instead he paced the place that had become his preferred home since being back. Oliver let himself take in the myriad of screens and gadgets Felicity had set around, as well as Dig's training tools and ones of his own.

At last he reached for his chest, the one material thing he'd brought from his time away. Inside were bits and pieces of the man he'd had to become, the one whose sole priority had been survival, first of himself then of others he loved.

He gravitated towards his father's journal; the faded brown leather rough against his touch, like mirroring the edges it had carved on him. Crossed and free names faced him within, of the wrongs he'd long thought his father was talking about.

Yet that day, with Malcolm's ruthful plan laid bare, Oliver fell to the realization that those were not it.

"The Undertaking," he whispered into the darkness.

The vile that was poisoning his city. The wrong that had finally pushed his father onto the edge and begging for redemption. The one Oliver had come back to right.

Shock soon gave way to a needed unburdening. For his journey's end was finally on view, just one wrong away. And then he'd be free. Of the hold of his father's promise, of the weight of his mission, of the hood and everything that came with it.

Oliver Queen would finally -after an eternity of forced hands, fighting and surrendering- have a choice on his life.

And without a doubt he knew what that choice was.

Felicity.

The hope for tomorrow being so close he could taste it, Oliver couldn't wait much longer. Five years had been long enough.

Without further thought he left the darkness behind for one last time and jumped on his bike, roaring his way through the Glades to her place, to the ghost of yesterday that had morphed into the most beautiful today and an even more promising tomorrow.

Felicity opened the door at his third insistent knock.

With sleepy eyes and in her comfort clothes, but fully awake and smiling at the sight of him. No words voiced, she took a step aside, his welcome being handed in the form of a warm cup of coffee and another bright smile as they settled once more on her couch.

Their easy silence settled in place, warmth and comfort filling them for the first time in weeks. Trepidation and constant danger had stood in their way for far too long; but soon it'd be over, Oliver reminded himself as he looked over at Felicity besides him.

"Where's your head at?," she whispered as their eyes met.

"Us," he shared in a heartbeat, a smile finding its way to his lips. He wasn't unaware how more often that happened in her calming presence.

"We...," he begins cautiously, picking up his train of thought at her slight nod in reassurance, "we never did have that talk."

The talk.

The long awaited one after one charged archery lesson and more than their fair share of loaded moments.

"Yeah, we had far more than enough on our plates I'd say," she argued in their defense.

He was nervous. Not a common occurrence for him, but then again hardly anything had ever mattered this much to Oliver in his whole life.

"You said you needed time," he whispered after a short pause.

"I did. I've had," she shared after a beat, lowering her cup next to Oliver's discarded one on the table and fully turning to face him then.

"Felicity..."

It was just a whisper; just her name. Yet it enclosed everything he was failing to voice.

Their eyes locked, her silently beginning to cross the space between them.

"I gave up fighting this long ago," she admitted at last, much to his delight, as she brought them closer. "I don't forget, and I may have my reservations because of... my past and our past."

One inch closer, followed by another of his, until it was them in the middle.

"But I'm done fighting the inevitable."

Then a breath, a pause, a kiss.

A first brush of her lips to his that prompted a sigh from his parted ones, then quickly ignited quite a different fire within him. One that burned brighter and more urgently than any other he'd felt before.

For it wasn't just lust fueling it's brazing amber, but a terrifying, all-encompassing love as Oliver had never felt before.

Words had never been his friends, so he poured every ounce of emotion she'd provoked in him during these five years into the kiss.

Pressing with just enough pressure to show his intent, then licking a path over her lips and into her mouth to begin a most satisfying dance that had them both moaning in content within seconds.

Then with a pressing touch to her shoulder, which he was insanely fond of, and down her arm, to caress her skin as if it were the very first time. Smiling against her lips at her nearing him further in return, a hand of her own cradling his face and increasing the pace to match the one of their drumming hearts.

A single touch soon proved not to be enough, as gentle holding turned into tugging and urging for more. And thus brushing evolved into kissing fervently, proving him once and again how unprepared but oh so delighted he was for Felicity Smoak's draw.

"Oliver," she breathed against his skin as they parted at last.

A question and an answer all in one, quite alike the one raging in his gaze right then.

And, as always, Felicity needed no words to both get and resolve it.

Her hand slid down his face and to the hand lightly holding her waist. With a purposeful tug and meaningful look, that shredded any doubt and apprehension he thought she could have about them, she led the way up and away.

The next two hours were the heaven to the hell they'd lived to get there.

For they were more than they'd ever been before. Skin and bone, so acutely trained to get along it'd had scared him if he didn't want it so badly, and saw it reflected as well in her deep blues every time their eyes met.

With her touch, her lips and whispered nothings that meant everything, Oliver let himself love and be loved for the first time in the right way.

Under a darkening sky, with Felicity's warmth and kindness searing a path over his skin he never wished to erase, Oliver felt happiness as he'd rarely had before. In the remaining darkness, as they climbed their way to their joined pleasure, he finally let loose those three words that had lived on his tongue for so long.

Her widening smile and breathy response filled the last piece missing in himself.

As the last traces of gentleness faded away to give place to the unbridled passion that had driven then forward so long, they let go once and for all. From their fears and distractions, from whatever was holding them back, to dive instead head first into the wonderfully unknown of tomorrow.

There was a stillness around them. Within him too, for once. Other than his slowing heartbeat, there was no battling inside of him but a welcomed quiet and peace with the knowledge that there was no more running to do.

Not from his father's words, for that journey was coming to an end. And certainly not from the woman he loved, as he enveloped Felicity in his arms and held her close, wondering at the way she nestled herself closer to him.

"Thank you," he found himself whispering into the dark, brushing a tender kiss to her forehead.

"Oh, you're more than welcome for all that. I'm just as thankful."

Wonder warmed him again at the easy way their laugher filled the quiet around them. It died down soon afterwards, giving place to their other kind of quietness; the one in which they could easily speak their truths in so few words.

He felt her shifting against him as she settled in what to voice next.

"Why?," was strangely her chosen thought. At his silence she clarified, "why did you kiss me that day, at your club? Why did you take that step?"

He pondered it for just a beat, rewinding to the fateful night he had taken that leap towards their present. At last, with nothing but honesty and care tainting his words, he said:

"Because the one thing that was holding me back stopped making sense."

She took his words in carefully, knowing her reaction was what halted them then, but something besides the fear of rejection had been holding him back beforehand.

"Putting you in danger," he finally elaborated, "being connected to me, as the vigilante or as Oliver, would put you in harm's way. That's what I feared the most. Yet..."

"I was already in danger," she filled for him.

It made sense. If there was something Oliver had in spades, besides guilt and regrets, was the self-appointed duty to look after everyone he cared about, to the point of resigning his own health and happiness for it.

"Yes. After the Dodger case, and then the casino, it was pretty clear that excuse was just to fool myself."

She was stunned into silence by his honesty, for she had grown to expect it form him since he'd come back, but not to the point that he had stopped fighting himself like that.

It was true. One is always one's worst enemy.

Knowing it was time to face her own truth and bare it all, Felicity turned to face him, the gentle smile gracing his usually-somber features supporting her choice.

"Oliver...when we met, I wasn't the best version of myself either."

"Felicity, you don't have to-"

"I do, I want to," she's fast to retort to his thoughtful out. Taking a deep breath and half-sitting to face him better, she spoke her truth, just as he had shared his some time ago, in the dim light against a wide window overlooking his garden. "I was just out of college and heartbroken. I was engaged to...a boy I thought I loved, only to find out he didn't love me back as much anymore. It's okay really, now at least. In hindsight that was just a disaster waiting to happen. Cooper was...he was something good after a whole lot of suck. My life had been a mess for so long, filled with goodbyes and nothing to hold on to. He was the first stable thing I had, so I grabbed onto it for dear life. It made sense at the time... though a part of me knew it wasn't right..."

She took a deep steadying breath. He remained still, placing just a gentle touch to her back in silent support. Soon her lips morphed into a humorless smile.

"He cheated then, and I once again faced a goodbye and the uncertainty of being just an I. And then I ran again, as soon as I could. My ex-roommate Carrie took me in her place here when I had just a diploma in progress and a whole lot of tears. Turns out her remedy for that was vodka, lots of it."

A pause, as her features lightened up to give place to a half-smile, the realest he'd seen on her since she'd begun talking.

"And that's when I met you. You were...different; a lot at once yet exactly what I needed back then. And for once in my life I found myself not running, or thinking, or wanting to say goodbye..."

"And then the real me came to light," he supplied at her meaningful silence.

Yet instead of residual anger or further anguish, she actually chuckled in reply.

"No. Yes, the lie was uncovered, and I felt like shit again. But that...the one on the news wasn't the real you to me. The you that lighted up when he talked about Thea; the one that laughed yet blushed at his games with Tommy. That was the Oliver I fell for back then; the one I mourned then tried to remember when he was gone. I hated him at times, for what he'd made me feel, how he'd left me feeling in his wake."

"Felicity, I'm sorry," he whispered at last, voice breaking at the moisture clear in her crystal eyes, fighting its way down her cheeks even though she was still faintly smiling. Turning his way, their eyes locked once more, the weight of his own wrongdoings to Felicity lightening up slightly with her next words.

"I know. And I forgive you, Oliver. Because I know now without a doubt you're not that boy as I'm not that girl anymore."

Overwhelmed, he simply reached out to cup her face in his hand, lightly closing the gap between them once more to brush his lips against hers in a silent thank you, trusting his touch to do the job his words always failed to do.

"And now...," she whispered leaning back, "you're forgiving yourself. Because you can, Oliver; and you should. You deserve happiness," Felicity added, softly carding her hand through his hair, his smile widening in return, warming something deep within her almost as much as his next words did.

"You do. You've always been, even...in the island; the thought of you never left me."

Her own lips mirrored his, curving upwards, basking in the calm within the storm.

"Good. I'm glad to hear I haunted you even from half a world away."

Melodious laugher painted the silence around them once more, making Oliver feel more whole with each passing second with her. And that night he was just beginning to realize she in turn was filling her own missing pieces up with their happiness.

"Felicity...I want to do this right this time," he breathed into their shared space at once.

No secrets, no lies, no hiding behind shadows and masks but giving himself completely and fully to her like he'd always wanted to. The longest minute of his life stretched between them as she met his gaze with hers, battling thoughts within her before a decision had been reached.

"Yes," she simply answered before etching their smiles together and falling into his arms again, letting careful touches and breathy mumbling do the talking for the rest of the night.

Thanks for reading!

Pretty please let me know what you think! :)

Next chapter is a big one. With the Undertaking resolution taking place, the calm within the storm will be rattled...

xo, Lucy