Hey guys, quick update on this one. This is the first chapter not from Diggle's POV, but not the last. Enjoy and maybe leave some feedback if you do.
"So, what's going on between you and Diggle?" Sara asks Felicity one night while they're alone in the lair.
"What?" Felicity replies, completely caught off guard.
"Come on," she pleads, moving around the desk to stand next to her. "Don't deny it. You two have been acting...different lately. So what's going on?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Felicity says, staring at her in wide-eyed confusion.
"Oh, really?" Sara says drily. "So the fact that he's basically living with you doesn't mean anything?"
"That's for my protection," she argues, crossing her arms and swiveling in her chair to better look at her.
"I thought you were strictly against having a bodyguard," she counters, crossing her arms right back.
"Well, I still am, but John kept showing up. So I let him stay."
"Is that the only reason?"
"Well, yeah," Felicity replies. "I mean, sure, it's nice having him around, but it's just a...friendly thing."
"Mmhmm," Sara replies, skeptical. "And the fact that you two have basically started finishing each other's sentences is just a friendly thing too?"
"What are you talking about?" Felicity replies, tilting her head and looking unsure for the first time.
"You two are practically on the same wavelength," Sara says and sits down on the edge of Felicity's desk. "Look at the way you decided on what food to order tonight. It's like this cute guessing game between you two."
"We eat a lot of meals together," she says defensively, "it keeps it interesting."
"OK, well, you seem to agree about everything else too lately. You've both been pushing Oliver to focus on more than just Slade. And you both told me to ignore him and go after Laurel when Helena had her. And what was that conversation you two had after we first figured out she was back in town? Looked pretty important."
"Eavesdrop much?" Felicity half-jokes.
"Whatever," Sara says with a dismissive wave. "What were you guys talking about?"
"He just wanted to make sure I was alright," Felicity says with a shrug. "Helena took me hostage too the last time she was here. But he was just being a friend, Sara," she argues, a little exasperated. "He's always been attentive, to everyone, not just me."
"And you don't find that attractive?" she suggests, cocking an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but this is Diggle we're talking about. We're just partners."
"Are you sure? Maybe you're becoming something else," Sara suggests. Felicity opens her mouth to argue, but the door to the lair opens and Oliver and Diggle walk in with dinner and Roy appears from the showers in the back. Felicity blushes at the sight of Diggle and the conversation ends there.
Still, Sara notices Felicity occasionally staring at him the rest of the night, forehead crinkled as it always is when she's thinking through a problem. She doesn't get to press the issue because all other considerations are put on the back burner when they find out Slade took Thea. Still, she knows the conversation had an effect by how upset Felicity gets when Roy throws Diggle onto a table, arm twisted behind his back. She stares at him, with a sort of desperate, terrified look on her face until he finally releases him. She goes to him as soon as Roy leaves and when she looks up at Sara a moment later, a little dazed but clearly grateful, Sara only nods in acknowledgement.
She catches Oliver staring at them as they talk–Felicity asking for reassurance that Diggle is alright and him giving it–and wonders if Oliver actually listened to her and spoke to him as well. She doesn't have the chance to ask until much later, after Thea returns and after she tells Oliver she doesn't trust him anymore. Sara asks him in an attempt to make him feel better, get his mind off everything by talking about something lighter. But it seems to have the opposite effect.
"It didn't go so well," he says, scratching the back of his head and looking away from her.
"What do you mean?" Sara asks. "Did he think it was a ridiculous idea too?"
"Not exactly," he replies with a grimace.
Oliver and Diggle's conversation had taken place at exactly the same moment as Sara and Felicity's. They had left the lair to pick up dinner before Oliver had to go to his mother's debate with Sebastian Blood and he had decided it was as good a time as any to bring it up.
"So how is Felicity's protection going?" he started, hoping easing into the discussion might make him feel less strange about having it in the first place.
"She's finally stopped trying to convince me to stop coming," he said, glancing at Oliver through the rear view mirror to where he sat in the back seat of the car. "I had to start staying in the house at night. Her neighbors were getting a little antsy with me sitting out there every night. But so far I've refused the guest room because that would defeat the purpose. Though I'm starting to rethink that since her living room couch isn't that comfortable."
"And you don't mind not being able to stay in your apartment?"
"I miss it every once in awhile, sure, but we agreed. She needs the protection and I'm the best person for the job."
"And that's the only reason?" Oliver ventured, cringing slightly at the tactlessness.
"Of course" Digg said, raising an eyebrow at him in the mirror.
"I just thought maybe there might be another reason," he said, trying to sound casual.
"What the hell are you talking about, man?" Digg asked.
"Well, you have to admit you two have been getting pretty close," he replied.
"Felicity and I are friends. Where is this coming from, Oliver?"
"It's hard not to notice something's changed between you," he replied, crossing his arms.
"Yeah right," he said sarcastically. "So you're saying you noticed something and not maybe, Sara?"
"Don't change the subject," he fired back, hating how sharp Digg is sometimes. "Is something going on between you?"
"No, Oliver," he said, voice flinty. "But if there were, I don't see how it would be any of your business."
"We're a team, I want to make sure neither of you gets hurt."
"You sure it's not something else?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Oliver asked, taken aback.
"Would you like a reminder about the way you acted when Barry Allen was in town?" Diggle asked, narrowing his eyes at Oliver in the mirror. "Maybe you should ask yourself why you always get so protective of her."
"I'm with Sara," Oliver said firmly, anger coloring his tone.
"Yeah, I know," Diggle snapped. "It's hard to forget when I have to see the look on Felicity's face every time you two are together. Though I doubt you've noticed considering you had to be told she was feeling left out a few weeks ago. So forgive me for not trusting your skills of observation on this one." Oliver flinched at that.
The discussion ends there and they spent the rest of the ride quietly stewing.
"You know he's wrong, right?" Oliver says to Sara now. "I don't feel that way about Felicity. I care about you."
"I know," she replies and wraps her arms around his neck to pull him toward her. But that isn't entirely true. Sara has often wondered at the connection between them. She's known Oliver a long time and she's never seen him act with anyone else the way he does with Felicity—his protectiveness, his attention, the way he listens to her. She remembers the twinge of something akin to jealousy she felt earlier when Felicity's opinion was the only one that mattered to him in deciding to listen to Isabel Rochev's information on Thea's location.
Sara doesn't bring any of that up now, though. The day has been hard enough without adding this discussion to it.