September

An: I do not own Arrow. To the guest, Krissie, thank you for your review. Some persons may want to have a tissue handy for this chapter.

Oliver was very grateful that it was finally cooling down a little. He was discovering that he was actually kind of happy with the life he had now. He didn't miss the partying, he certainly didn't miss the hangover the next day or the awkward morning after with his one night stands. He did miss sex, what guy didn't.

To take Felicity's mind off of her mother Oliver decided to take her shopping for Labour Day. With not having to pay rent, he had a little disposable income and he didn't have a better person to spend it on than Felicity. His sister always referenced it was good therapy for the soul. Donna had approved of the idea and ushered Felicity out of the house, leaving Donna with Alice and Fred keeping her company.

He drove her to the nearest mall.

"Are you sure you want to go shopping?" she asked him again.

"Yes," he said.

She gave him the same look she had when he first suggested it. He noticed her hand twitch. She probably wanted to double check he didn't have a fever again. She swore he was delirious.

"So what's your favourite store?"

"Usually tech stores but I'll spare you the boredom of watching me gush over the latest electronic processors. I need a few dresses and there's a cheap store here that carries some great stuff."

"Dresses it is then. Lead the way," Oliver said happily. She watched him wearily again before she walked off in the direction of the store.

Felicity selected a few dresses to try on and Oliver added a few he thought would look good on her. He immensely enjoyed the fashion show Felicity gave him, more than a friend should have. For the hour they were in that story, all worry about her mother was erased and she was just a girl looking for a new dress. After a mini fight at the cash register over who would pay, Oliver walked away with five dresses for her. It felt good to buy her a gift from the money he was working hard for. He realised he liked treating her and this would probably not be the last time he bought something for her. His mind briefly wondered to his father's words about hard work and the value of money. He shoved them to the back of his mind.

Sep-2

Donna was hospitalised shortly after the trip to the mall. Oliver had the mini now, since Felicity spent all of her time at the hospital. She had gotten her mother a private room that would allow Felicity to stay past visiting hours. Her mother had protested, apparently the room was eating up a lot of the funds Felicity had saved from selling her software to the casinos. Oliver would pop in, in the mornings to say hello and bring them breakfast and a packed lunch. Someone else from the bar would bring dinner. Every day he could see Donna slowly slipping away and his heart ached. He didn't know how Felicity had the strength to do it every day. They had set up a schedule at the bar so that everyone visited every day at different times.

Sep-3

Oliver sat with Donna one morning while Felicity was talking with the doctor. There had been something bothering him.

"Why didn't you ever let me pay rent?" Oliver asked her.

"I worked hard to raise Felicity. I paid all the bills myself. I grew accustomed to making do without a man's help. And as I understood it, you were just staying until you found another place to stay. I used to give everything to Felicity's father, my love, my trust, my twenties. When he left I didn't know where he was, even if I did, he probably wouldn't have paid a dime in child support anyway. I was left with a daughter to raise. I had to make things work. I grew accustomed to doing everything myself. But forget about all that it's in the past now. I need to thank you.

"Thank me?" Oliver asked incredulously. He was fairly sure he was the one that should be thanking her.

"Yes, it was nice having you around. The friendship you've built with Felicity is amazing. The two of you work so well together. It's given me great comfort to know that when I leave here Felicity will be fine. Promise me you'll stay until she is ready to be on her own again. She doesn't realise it but she does need someone in her life."

"I promise," Oliver said.

"Good, and just for the record, if your current friendship were to turn into a relationship which turned into an engagement and marriage, I'm totally fine with that. I couldn't ask for a better son-in-law," Donna said with a small smile before turning her head to the side to look out the window. Her eyes slipped shut as she fell back to sleep. The Doctors had her on strong pain medicine now to ease the pain. She would slip in and out of consciousness.

Oliver was fairly sure from the heat he felt on his face he was blushing hard. Donna didn't need to ask him to stay. He wanted to stay. He knew Felicity was going to need him. He kissed Donna on her temple before leaving when Felicity returned to the room.

Sep-4

It was September 14th at 4:12pm, when he got the call from Felicity that the Doctors said the time was near, Oliver asked Bob to let him go to the hospital. Bob closed the bar and he, Oliver, Alice and Diggle were there with Felicity when Donna passed.

It was the hardest thing Oliver had ever done. If saying goodbye had been hard for him he could only imagine what Felicity was going through. He couldn't control the tears that leaked through his eyes as the Doctors turned off all the monitors. Bob was holding Felicity as she cried.

When they reached home, Felicity didn't eat. He sat on the couch and held her while she cried.

Sep-5

Oliver never realised they were Jewish until Felicity said they needed to bury Donna right away as it was custom that the burial should happen as soon as possible. There was no family or friends to fly in so Felicity was going to bury her the next day. Felicity elected to hold the service at the gravesite. Oliver hadn't realised it but Donna had given Felicity instructions on where she wanted to be buried and how she wanted to be buried. Felicity had already made the initial preparations; all that was left was for her to set the date and time.

Donna had selected a red outfit that had red sheer lace on top. It was one of her classier outfits. Donna wanted to look good, even though it was a closed casket funeral. Felicity had given the funeral home Donna's make-up to dress her up.

Oliver was surprised by how expensive a funeral was. Even though Felicity's customs dictated that the casket be simple, it was still expensive. There were no flowers allowed at the funeral and no head stone allowed yet at the burial site. She told him the head stone could be added after the morning period was over but she wanted to wait for the Yahrzeit, the one year anniversary of her mother's death, to add the grave marker.

The funeral would be held in the late afternoon. Felicity had asked Oliver to be one of the pall bearers for her mother. Some psalms and scripture readings were read and Felicity gave a short eulogy that she had written the night before. The casket was slowly lowered into the grave. When the casket was at the bottom Felicity picked up the dirt at the side and threw it into the hole.

"It's a custom," she explained to Oliver.

Everyone followed after her. Once the grave was filled in, Felicity recited the Kaddish. Oliver thought Felicity was remarkably strong during the whole process. Had it been his mother, he would have been a wreck. He probably wouldn't have even been able to attend the funeral.

Sep-6

After the burial, Felicity and Oliver returned home. It was the first day of Shiva for her. He had learned that Shiva was the first seven days of mourning starting on the day of burial. Felicity would say home all day and recite the Kaddish prayer in the morning, afternoon and evening. He missed her at the bar that week but he knew he needed to respect her customs. Before he came to work each day, he left dinner for her. He had been watching her appetite closely and he was satisfied after it picked back up after two days. Persons were allowed to visit mourners and he knew Bob was visiting her when Oliver and Diggle were at the bar.

After Shiva, was the Sholshim, a 30 day period of morning that included the seven days of Shiva. Felicity was allowed to leave the house and restart all of her normal activities but during this period she was to avoid music, gaiety and other forms of celebrations. She chose to stay away from the bar unless she had the mini and needed to pick Oliver up.

Sep-7

The bar wasn't the same without Donna. There was a certain bubbliness that was missing. Oliver found he missed hearing the juke box. Nobody had touched it since Donna was hospitalised, not even the regulars. Alice was now the senior waitress and she divided the tips evenly. Carol didn't like that. She thought since she brought in the most tips she deserved the biggest cut. She didn't see why they had to share with Diggle or Carl.

Her attitude was beginning to grate on his nerves. He felt embarrassed that she was exactly the type of girl his younger self would have been interested in, flirtatious and carefree. The Ollie of the past would have bed her on the first night she started working there. Now he tried to have as little interaction with her as possible which was extremely hard because he was the bartender and she a waitress that carried drinks to the tables.

The one thing good thing that came from Donna's illness was that Fred had taken a long look at his life and what he wanted to do with the rest of it. He proposed to Alice in Bob's office, the place where they met when she brought him a coke from the bar. He said he wanted to start a family with Alice. Donna was aware that he was going to propose and had helped him plan the surprise for Alice on that particular date. She didn't want her illness to keep anyone's happiness in the bar back. Life had to go on. Bob offered the bar for the reception and they were already thinking of a January wedding when sales in the bar were slow.

Sep-8

Oliver stood in the living room, shirtless with two buckets of waters doing some bicep curls. He had purposely positioned himself so that Felicity would have a great view of him as she came out of her bedroom. She hadn't smiled in days and he wanted her to smile. Sure enough Felicity came out of her bedroom and ran straight into the sofa again.

Oliver watched amused as she spluttered with embarrassment going as far as to kick the sofa for jumping into her path. The red tinge on her cheeks told him that Felicity was going to be fine. Oliver didn't go for a run, instead choosing to get down on the floor to do some push-ups. In the reflection of the fridge he could see Felicity was watching him intently over the top of her coffee mug. He could swear the corners of her mouth were curving upwards. With his mission sort of achieved, he hit the shower.

Sep-9

It was a slow afternoon; Alice had put one of the TVs on the entertainment channel. After about ten minutes the breaking news graphic appeared. Oliver wondered what celebrity was caught with their pants down this time. He was floored when the screen showed pictures of Tommy Merlyn making out with Laurel Lance at a club. Oliver blinked at the screen and pinched himself. He was definitely awake. He didn't remember having anything to drink so this wasn't a drunk hallucination.

He didn't like to use his phone at work, but it was slow and he signalled to Digg to just keep an eye on things for him while he went to the bathroom. Instead of turning into the bathroom he continued down the corridor and exited through the back door onto the street in the back. He pulled out his phone, pressing the speed dial.

"I can explain," were the first words his best friend said to him.

"Is she the mystery girl?" Oliver asked cutting straight to the point.

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Oliver knew he rather Laurel be the mystery girl than some one night stand Tommy was making of her. She deserved better than that. Oliver had already caused her a lifetime of heartache.

"Look, Tommy, its fine. I have no issues with you seeing Laurel. If Laurel is the girl that makes you happy, go for it man," Oliver said sincerely.

"I didn't want you to find out this way," Tommy said. "I swear I was going to tell you at Thanksgiving when you came home,"

"Who said I was coming home at Thanksgiving?" Oliver asked. Oliver hadn't given much thought what he wanted to do for the holiday. He wasn't sure if the bar was open. He knew he would have to work if the bar did open. He would have to ask Alice what the standing arrangement was.

"I just thought that you would," Tommy said. "Or is back-packing through Europe too good to come home for one day to see your family and friends?"

"I'll think about it Tommy," Oliver told his best friend.

"Great I'll see you then," Tommy said hanging up.

Oliver headed back inside quickly before Diggle got fed up of fending off Carl from the bar and decided to take some drastic action against the young boy. He knew Diggle was itching to straighten out the boy, they all were.

Sep-10

Felicity needed the car to visit a client that night whose security server had crashed and needed her personal touch. He and Bob had just finished putting out the trash when he heard screaming in the front of the bar. He wasn't sure who was involved but he could distinctly make out Felicity's voice. He ran forward. He found Carol and Felicity shouting at each other. Carol was accusing Felicity of keeping Oliver on a tight leash preventing him from having any fun and Felicity was countering that Oliver was his own person free to do whatever he wanted and if he wanted nothing to do with her it meant he had standards. Bob walked in right as Carol said that Donna was nothing more than a dumb blonde bimbo who couldn't even stay alive.

"That is enough!" Bob shouted. No one had ever heard him raise his voice. "I will not have you openly disrespecting Donna and her daughter who are both very important parts of this family. Donna may be gone but her memory still lives on in each of us. I do not want to see you here tomorrow. Collect all of your things and go."

Oliver ignored the tears that sprang to Carol's eyes or her attempts at apology. He made a beeline to Felicity, whose eyes were shiny with unshed tears and hugged her. He took her out of the bar signalling to Diggle to lock up. Tonight felt like a mint chocolate chip ice cream night. Fortunately, he had been keeping the freezer well stocked.

Five months of the challenge had successfully been completed. He was almost half way through but it seemed so trivial compared to everything that had happened that month.