A/N: Thank you SO much for all the kind words on the last chapter. Glad to know my fears were overblown, as most fears usually are. Spoiler warnings. this is part one of my episode 21 redux. Part two will be out either tomorrow or the next day. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: CW and DC have all the money.

As exciting and liberating as finally being open about their feelings was, life was not going to let Felicity and Oliver sit back and enjoy the moment. There was work to do, a list to follow and a city to save. Being down a team member meant that things were not progressing as quickly as Oliver would like. It had taken them a week and a half to track down Harold Backman and gather enough information on his security systems to facilitate a visit from the Hood. When the expert embezzler did not give Oliver the satisfaction of a confession, or at the very least show some fear, it made for one very cranky vigilante. Felicity knew better than to push him when he was like this. He had given her an assignment. Logically she knew she should just start hacking and wait for his personality to return. But Felicity's logic centre and her verbal centre had an almost permanent failure to communicate.

"At the risk of ending up with an arrow in my eye, can I ask, when do you plan on making peace with Diggle?"

"He's the one who left Felicity, I did everything I could to stop him." Oliver found it difficult to look her in the eye whenever they had this discussion. His pride was putting the mission in danger. This wasn't the first time they had debated this and it always came down to the same points. Oliver had made a choice, Felicity believed there was room to admit he was wrong. He decided he was going to cut it off before they entered another round. He put his hands on her arms the way he did whenever he wanted her to really listen.

"Oliver," She started, He pulled her in and kissed her on the forehead.

"I need to get back to the club. Let me know when you break in." He wandered off to change from his hood wear but not before he heard her loudly mutter about wanting someone to send her to the Caymans. As much Oliver didn't want to be on another island any time soon, the image of Felicity in a bathing suit was definitely appealing. He started daydreaming of places they could go, maybe, once all this was over.

Hours later, Felicity didn't even remember falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was sitting at the computers starting the program to sort all of Backman's deposits. Now she was lying on a crash mat, with a throw pillow from upstairs under her head and one of Diggle's forgotten sweaters across her as a blanket. She found her glasses and cell phone just far enough away that she wouldn't have accidentally rolled over on them. Next to them was a thermos and a note.

You were drooling on the keyboard. Was worried you would get electrocuted.
Here's coffee to get you started, I'm upstairs doing the bar order if you need me.

Felicity smiled and put herself back together again. She redid her ponytail, put on her glasses and took her phone and coffee back to the computers. She took a sip and cringed. It was the horrible bar coffee. If pulling all nighters in the lair was going to stay a habit Oliver was going to have to get her a better caffeine supply than tar flavored coffee and the mini cans of red bull they stocked for mixing drinks. The deposit lists had finished while she was asleep. Felicity hit print and went back to working on the encryption algorithm. After an hour of straight typing her fingers needed a break. She grabbed the papers from the printer and skimmed them quickly. Her heart stopped as she reached the bottom of the first page. Two million dollars on December 12th. She ran up the stairs with a million what ifs flying through her mind.

Oliver had spent a good chunk of the morning teaching the latest candidate for Tommy's old job how order the week's worth of supplies. He had been through a manager a week so far but he had a good feeling about this one. For one thing, this one didn't list all the places he had partied as experience on his resume. They were going over the calendar for the rest of the month when a younger waitress knocked on the office door

"Um, Oliver? Tommy's girlfriend is sitting at the bar. I think she wants to talk to you." Oliver stiffened slightly in surprise.

"Ok, thanks Julie. Get her something to drink and I'll be out in a couple of minutes." After taking a moment to think, he was pretty sure he knew what this was about. If the hypothesis was correct, then he had one very hurt friend out there, and one very stupid one somewhere else.

He was right. Tommy had broken up with Laurel and now she was turning to Oliver for answers. He didn't want to even acknowledge Tommy's theory that he and laurel still loved each other. It was wrong and pointless. So he offered the best advice he could think of. "If you still want to be with Tommy, do what we should have done. Talk to each other and be honest." Even now Oliver had a hard time being honest with Laurel. He always felt he had to fit into the mold she assigned him to. In fact, one of the only people who he didn't feel like he had to act in front of was Felicity.

"Oliver I need to show you what-" Felicity popped out of the basement and saw Oliver talking to a striking brunette at the bar. "I totally just walked in on a thing didn't I?" She was pretty sure this was the infamous Laurel.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" the brunette asked almost protectively. Felicity was certain now, and her nervous level skyrocketed.

"Nobody. I mean not nobody, I'm someone, obviously and so are you. You're Laurel right?" she looked at Oliver for confirmation and "That Laurel, gorgeous Laurel."

"This is Felicity. She's-" Oliver stretched the last syllable out. They still hadn't decided what they were yet and he was worried he would say the wrong thing.

"I'm his go-to IT girl." She said rescuing him the same way he had a moment prior.

"She's setting up the internet-"

"-router. And I need to show Oliver something very important related to it." The way they were finishing each others' sentences made Laurel suspicious, but all Oliver would give her was the tight, unreadable smile he had perfected since his return. Deciding this was a battle for another day Laurel said her goodbyes, to Oliver, and left the pair to their work. Running down the stairs he had a thought,

"Why did you call yourself my IT girl?"

"Because I am." Felicity punched the code in the lair door.

"I would have thought you would have gone with something more, Personal?"

"Well A) we haven't really had that talk. B) I don't know what you two were talking about but she was obviously upset and I don't have the heart to kick pretty lawyer puppies when they are down." He still looked slightly confused So she continued. "There is a time and a place for this and once I show you what I found you, will totally get why now is not it."