A/N: So so sorry to have been gone for so long. No excuse other than " Life." A short chapter tonight with promise of a longer one tomorrow/ the day after.

Disclaimer: I don't own or profit from this. If I did the chapter would come a lot quicker. it all belongs to CW/DC

Oliver was bummed. He knew Felicity would understand, since it was work related, but he knew she would be disappointed. Especially since it meant canceling their weekend to go meet her mother. He came prepared. He had her afternoon latte, in the afternoon she only got double shot instead of a quad, and the biggest cookie he could find. Dig had suggested flowers if Oliver really needed to suck up but he shot him down. Felicity didn't like flowers at work, she worried about pollen in the computer fan.

Felicity returned from the photocopier to find Oliver in her chair giving her the nothing is wrong face. After almost a year of knowing each other and four months of dating she didn't understand why he still tried to lie to her.

"So when do you leave?" She asked. Oliver was taken aback.

"How do you know I'm going somewhere."

"I have my ways, sources, hacking." She paused arching an eyebrow. "In this case Walter's assistant submitted an IT ticket to prep you two for international travel." Oliver smirked and nodded. "But I'll still take whatever it is you brought to suck up with." Oliver abandoned her chair and pointed to the treats on her desk.

"She's efficient. We only decided about an hour ago. Walter thinks that I should visit some of the other offices to let them ask questions and explain what's going on. So Coast City, Gotham, London, Melbourne, Beijing."
"Wow first time leaving since getting back and you're going around the world in 80 days." She took a sip of the latte "You're not actually going to be gone 80 days are you?"

"No. It's going to take about 6 weeks."

"That's not much better." Oliver hesitated before dropping the big bombshell .

"We leave the day after tomorrow." Felicity had taken a big bite of cookie and had to settle for staring at him wide eyed while she finished chewing. "I know."

" So you're making me go alone?" Felicity said her mouth still half full.

"We'll reschedule as soon as I get back." Oliver promised his glaring girlfriend "Maybe we should go out to dinner tonight?" She was still glaring. "Japanese food?" She relented.

"Ok, you have a deal." She took a sip of her drink and turned back to her computer. "Besides, this means I can volunteer for some overtime this weekend."

"You're backed up?" Oliver walked behind her to see what she was working on.

" Well, not me because I'm awesome. But the department is. There has been an increase in server attacks since we re-opened. Every day there is a group trying to take us down as payback for The Undertaking. They even have a logo." Felicity hit a few keys and a familiar image populated the screen. The hacker group was using the police sketch of the Vigilante.

"That's interesting , and annoying." Oliver remarked.

"The last time you found something interesting and annoying you started dating her." Felicity smirked. Oliver leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"I never found you annoying." She turned and faced him.

" Good answer Queen." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Now go pack or do something business-y"

" Fine." He started walked away. "I'm going to go have a chat with security. Because while I'm away, if you work past business hours one of them will be walking you to your car."

"What happened to the agreement of no special treatment at the office?" Felicity was determined not to appear to be using her personal position for advancement in the company. Oliver smirked at her.

"I Lied. I'm getting better at it."

As much as she was going to miss him, Felicity had to admit that this business trip would work in her favor. Oliver wasn't sleeping well. He either didn't sleep at all or when he did he was woken up by nightmares. He didn't tell her what they were about and She didn't ask. Sometimes he called out for her, or Tommy, she gathered those dreams were about him not getting to them in time on that horrible day. Other times he said names she didn't know, or spoke languages she didn't understand. Those nights she suspected that he dreamed of the island.

The city itself seemed just as broken as its potential savior. Crime was on the rise, as was unemployment. There were a lot of businesses based in the Glades that couldn't afford to rebuild. Even the ones that could had to close in the mean time which meant layoffs. Felicity may have complained when Oliver insisted on security walking her to her car in his absence, but the truth was she could be a target. Starling City was not safe.

There was a small part of her that wondered if she was doing the right thing. She had won Oliver's heart by not testing him, by letting him open up in his own time. If she pushed too hard she might push him away. There was one person she needed to convince other than Oliver that it was time for the vigilante to return.

So three days after Oliver and Walter left on the first leg of their tour, Felicity asked Tommy Merlyn to dinner.