A/N: I made just a few changes to the Prologue-Chapter before this, so you all might want to go back and re-read it before continuing on with this one. This chapter follows the events after 2x13 as well as my own version of events for 2x14. Things will not be following the TV show from here on out, just so you all know. I also want to let you all know that I am NOT sure who Felicity will end up with at the end of this story (I have a small idea of whom but I'm not 100% certain) and therefore am open to your suggestions. However, I cannot guarantee that it will end the way you all may expect it to. Thank you for reading, please review!

Chapter One: Hello?

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

-Mary Anne Radmacher

Felicity was in a state of shock in that moment just as she had been for the last week; things in her life had spiraled out of control and she wasn't sure she could handle everything that was being thrown her way. The day that she had discovered Sara and Oliver's sexual indiscretions it had been the morning after. She had come down the Foundry steps with Digg right at her heels, but their light footsteps had stopped quite suddenly when they had come upon Sara and Oliver's naked sleeping forms on the practice mats. Felicity's loud gasp of shock must have been loud enough for them to awaken, because there was Oliver jumping up in all of his naked glory, Sara following in his motions as she too tried to find something to cover herself.

Oliver wanted to spout his apologies, make his excuses, but the look of horrified and sad resignation on Felicity's face made him stop. It froze his blood and made his heart stop. She had meant so much to him, been faithful, honest, pure, and loyal to him and he had repaid those acts of love and friendship with the ultimate act of betrayal. No one could hate him more in that moment then he hated himself.

In that brief moment of honest clarity of who Oliver Queen truly was, Felicity's mind took her back the night that she had confronted Moira Queen about the truth behind her relationship with Malcom Merlyn. She had stood so headstrong and certain of her actions in the living room of the Queen family home, facing down the beautiful Moira Queen right in the middle of her so called castle.

"What do you intend to do with this information, Felicity, my dear?" Moira's voice was sickeningly sweet as she gave Felicity a harsh bitter smile that contorted her features into something truly ugly.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I didn't plan beyond anything short of just confronting you with the truth and…" Felicity paused as she considered what she would say next.

"And?" Moira prompted from her for more information, her eyes upon Felicity becoming more and more cold.

"And ask you to tell Oliver the truth. A secret like this won't stay secret for long; the mere fact that I was able to find out about it proves that. I think that Oliver would understand the situation and understand why you have kept the truth from him for so long if that truth came from you. It would just make things worse if he found out through someone else." It took everything she had to keep her voice even.

"Is that a threat, Ms. Smoak?"

"No, it's just an honest observation."

"Well, if that is what you think, you'll be disappointed to know that I will not nor will I ever tell my son the truth about my relationship with Malcom Merlyn or the fact that he is indeed Thea's father, and neither will you." Moira sounded confident, but she was in for a rude awakening.

"If you think that I will ever keep something like this from Oliver, you are mistaken." Felicity fought to keep her cool as Moira began to slowly approach her.

"I see the way you look at my son. You are already half in love with him. If you value your own relationship with him then you will help me ensure that he will never learn the truth. If he were to discover the truth, it would rip his picture perfect world apart. If that truth were to come from you, he would learn to hate you. Oh, he'll hate me, for certain…but he'll hate you just as much because that truth will have been associated with you. So, unless you want my son to turn his back on you, you…Will. Keep. My. Secret." Moira's voice had grown into a hiss, like a snake circling her prey.

Moira had been right, thought Felicity as she sat in the now destroyed Foundry Lair. Six days had passed since those fateful events and now Felicity knew what Moira had said had come true to her horror. She had not felt this kind of depressing, crushing sadness since her father had left her and her mother. Felicity had adored her father, despite the short amount of time she had been with him before his departure; he was the strong silent type – something that Oliver reminded her of and one of the many things that made her respect her friend so much. Her friend…not anymore.

Six Days Earlier…

Later that morning after she had been revealed to the truth of Oliver and Sara, after she had unceremoniously run away to cope with her heartbreak on her lonesome, she had come back to Queen Consolidated. That was where Oliver had found her, typing away furiously on her computer – a small cardboard box by her side filled with some of her desk things. When she had looked up to see him present in front of her his face held all the regret she knew he was feeling, but it wasn't enough. She had practically sold her life and heart away to him and now he repaid her back with disloyalty. She shouldn't have been surprised – it wasn't the first time he had lied to her; he had lied to her the moment they met, but she had thought that now after all they had been through together that he would trust her…that he wouldn't abandon her a second time (the first had been when he'd run off back to his precious island after the Undertaking).

She had faced worse than this – her entire childhood was riddled with pain and horror and death; but she refused to remember any of it, blocking it out – but she couldn't get over it…she couldn't forgive Oliver this mistake. So, there she was sitting at her desk as Oliver Queen's Executive Assistant typing up her resignation letter. Oliver continued to stand in front of her; it was obvious he was struggling with the words he so longed to say to her. She finished up the letter and sent a copy of it to Isabel Rochev – the Dragon Lady would no doubt take great pleasure in her leaving Queen Consolidated. Felicity printed out another copy and handed it off to Oliver. He was a bit confused at first but the look of confusion quickly grew into one of shock as he quickly read over her letter. She got up from her desk and started moving things around, gathering miscellaneous papers here and there; her administrations were stopped when Oliver grabbed her arms firmly and pulled her to stand in front of him. Oliver placed his rough hand under her chin and jaw and tilted her head back so that she could look him in the eye.

"Felicity…What? What does this mean?" His voice was a whisper of emotions.

"It's pretty self-explanatory. It's a resignation letter," said Felicity. She didn't mean to sound so cold but she was hanging by a thin thread of sanity and she wasn't sure how much longer she could look at him without caving into the tears of emotions that were already threatening to spill over.

"Felicity…you don't…please, I – I can be better! Please, just…don't go!" His voice was so filled with emotion that he could barely speak with it.

"I have to. I can't keep coming in second place, Oliver. I need you to want me as much as I want you."

"I do!" Oliver said with fierce certainty as he raised his other hand to cup her face completely. "I can't do this without you. Not just the Arrow, but me. You make me better…"

"No," said Felicity as she stepped away from his embrace. "Don't. Don't give me false hope or promises you know you can't keep. You keep doing that and it's not fair to put me in that position. I can't keep running hot and cold for you Oliver. This is it. I'll help with the bigger Arrow stuff, but I will do it from my home from now on, but other than that…I am done hoping."

Oliver froze as he took in her words and the situation completely. The resignation letter was not just for her day job with Queen Consolidated, but for their nighttime activities, as well. Sure, she offered to help out every now and then, but it wouldn't be the same – he would never again here her voice lilting in his head as he went out on patrol.

"Why?" his emotions clogged his throat so thickly that he just barely got that single word out, and when he did his voice sounded rough and unused.

"You know why."

Six Days Later…

The Arrow Team had lasted five days without her before everything went to hell. Some crazy hacker genius that went by Clock King had hacked the servers in the Foundry and had blown the place to hell. Felicity remembered the urgent call she'd gotten from Digg early that morning begging her to help him put everything back in order. She had hesitated at first, but had agreed in the end when she'd learned of the severity of the situation.

It was hard walking back into the Foundry – she no longer called it the Lair – flashes of Oliver and Sara's naked bodies haunting her in the back of her mind. She kept her eyes firmly in front of her and as far away from the practice mats as possible. Digg noticed anyway.

"I know this must be hard for you, coming here after…" when he paused to look at her he saw the painful strike of emotions flash across her face like a match. He left his sentenced unfinished and gave her a small smile of sympathy and understanding as they got to work putting the Foundry back to rights.

Oliver and Sara did not show until later that night after the sun had set, both surprised by the cleaned up Foundry and the replaced computers. Felicity had been there and that had made them both happy and ashamed. Happy because perhaps Felicity would stay after all and ashamed because they remembered that they were the reason she was leaving to begin with.

For the last few days it had become more and more clear that Felicity meant more to their team then they had every realized; they couldn't even do half the things they usually did without her. When Tockman had attacked the sanctuary that Felicity had made for them, everything came crashing down and all came to the realization that they needed their IT Girl – she was the heart, soul, brains, and light of their team and without her they were doomed.

Sara and Oliver had very quickly agreed that what had happened was a mistake on both their parts – Oliver was in love with Felicity and Sara was still in love with Nyssa – and had decided that it would be a one-time thing. However, a few days later when Sara was practically being forced to attend a family dinner she couldn't help but beg Oliver to accompany her. Boy had that been a bad idea. It didn't take long for Laurel to go off on both of them, until finally Oliver dragged her out of Detective Lance's apartment and into the hallway to get her to calm down.

Their fight only lasted a couple of minutes, but it needed to happen. Things needed to be said. Laurel would never forgive him for running off on the Gambit with Sara all those years ago, and he could never truly love her the same way after seeing just how far she had fallen. All the while he had images of Felicity bursting through his mind – she was the only one who knew him, the only one who knew the problems he was having with his family, the only one who saw him as a hero and not a murderer – and the realization came that there was a very strong possibility that he had lost her forever. All because he kept making the same mistakes.

So, he turned to Laurel one last time and said his goodbye…

"I've been in love with you for half my life, but I am done…I am done chasing after you." He didn't go back inside the Lance's apartment, he went back to the only place that seemed to feel like home nowadays, back to Verdant and below to the Foundry.

Sara followed after him shortly, arriving through the side door of the back entrance of the Foundry while Oliver came down the clanking metal stairs that lead back up to the club. So, there they stood together…alone…in silence trapped on an island that they had forged of their own mistakes. They hated it.

Meanwhile, Digg had gone back to Felicity's apartment to check up on her. He had seen just how screwed up she had become with everything Oliver had put her through. It hurt knowing that no matter what he said to her, it wouldn't fix what Oliver had done, but he had to try.

He was sitting with her on her pale pink couch drinking a glass of bourbon when he decided to make his move (wait, make his move? – good Lord, now he was thinking in inappropriate terms just like Felicity). "Are you certain you won't come back? As today proved, we could really use you back on the team."

Felicity glanced at him from the side of her eyes; a small sad smirk graced her lips. "Maybe, one day things will be like they used too…" No, they will never go back to the way things used to be, thought Digg. "But for now I need time and space away from…everything."

"Ok. J-Just remember that you have friends. You still have Roy and me if you need someone to ramble to." Said Digg as he got up to escort himself out. Felicity didn't follow him and he didn't expect her to. Just as he was about to leave, he heard her faint voice as she spoke.

"I was just starting to get used to it, too." Felicity's voice trembled as slow silent tears gently ran down her face.

"What? Being part of a team?" That was odd, thought Digg. He always thought of her as a natural team player. She was so selfless that he couldn't imagine her not joining some cause or another to help others.

"No. Being part of a family. I never had that before, and if I did…I no longer remember it. I've always been on my own."

Digg's heart broke as he heard her words. He had no response to her, so he simply left her in silence. He knew she didn't have anyone – no family or friends outside of the Arrow Team – and yet he never considered just how alone she might be without them.

He should have stayed.

It was just over an hour later that Felicity received the proper information concerning Tockman – the Clock King's – location. She was afraid, but still she faced him. She had to, because that is what true bravery was. Oliver feared losing those he loved, but he did not fear anything else, he did not fear death. Sara did not fear death; she had lost her family once and survived, so she figured she could survive the loss a second time – she did not fear anything. That was the problem. Felicity feared many things and therefore she knew what true bravery was – because she still acted in spite of her fears.

Sara was the first to come to her aid ironically enough, but she was unprepared for Tockman, and it was Felicity who in turn saved her. She took a bullet for Sara in her right shoulder; contrary to popular belief it was not her first scar, for she had faced much worse in the pit long ago – flashes of her childhood haunting her in that fateful moment.

Oliver had been furious, but had reigned in his anger due to Felicity's state of narcotic-high thanks to the pain killers that Digg had given her.

Sara remembered the words she had spoken to Felicity when they'd first met, "You're cute." She regretted them. There was a silent fierceness to Felicity Smoak that Sara had never seen in a person, not even Nyssa. So, it was a surprise when Sara helped Felicity get patched up when a few other scars became known in Felicity's stat of undress – scars that told of an unknown darkness.

There were three scars other than Felicity's newly acquired bullet wound. One went from one side of the back of her left shoulder blade all the way the right shoulder blade – it was a thin raised line that could easily be concealed with a few well-placed dress straps or a shirt – long and brutal. The second scar Sara noticed was on placed just above Felicity's hip bone – if Sara were to hazard a guess she'd say it was an old knife wound. The last scar was the most mysterious, it resembled that of a burn mark – or a brand put into the other woman's skin – in the shape of a moon that was hidden very well in Felicity's hairline at the nape of her neck. The wounds were obviously years old, something that had happened long ago and not recently with the dangers that came with working for Oliver Queen or the Arrow. So, how did she get them? Felicity always presented an air of chirpy child-like happiness. It made no sense for her to have something so dark marking her perfect skin.

There was more to Felicity Smoak then met the eye.

And on the Seventh Day…

Felicity sat at her desk in Queen Consolidate. Ever since she had given Oliver her resignation letter six days prior, she had been working late every night going over the possible applicants to who would be his new Executive Assistant. It was just after 9:00PM, the sun had set an hour or so ago, when she heard a faint sound coming just down the hall. A faint "click-clack" like stilettoes against the marble floors.

"Hello?" Felicity called out in the dark shadows of the CEO floor that surrounded her. The hair on her neck stood on end, and her skin prickled in anticipation.

A/N: So, I know it was horrid of me to leave this chapter here, but I have a thing for cliff hangers. They are my bread and butter. But, that's not to say that I am cruel (evil smirk), I simply know the plot (evil laugh). Now, just so you all know I will be giving both Oliver and Bruce Wayne a very equal chance with Felicity before she makes her final decision at the end of this story – so please keep that in mind while reading. I am willing to listen to your suggestions as to who you may want her to end up with, however you must tell me "why." Please, read and review – I love both positive and negative reviews simply because either way they help me better my writing. I am always trying to improve on my gift.

Back in my one-shot collection, "What If Felicity…" I had started a small series of rants within the chapters. I will probably continue those rants here. With that said, we will be picking up with…

Rant V: Heroes Fall…

So, as I mentioned in the revised Disclaimer TB&TB, I have stopped watching the Arrow TV show. Why? Because, I don't deem it prudent or wise to waste and hour of my life once a week to watch a show where the hero is not a hero at all; in fact he is a down right jerk! The writers of the show have built up this beautiful relationship with Olicity and now we are seeing it get torn down because of Oliver selfishness.

Now, recently I have heard a lot of rumors (which I have double checked by verifying them with certain interviews with the cast and writers of the Arrow show) about how we fans simply need to wait and be patient because apparently there is some big epic story behind Oliver and Sara's newly formed couple status. As some of you may know – if you pay attention to Arrow interviews and news from the media – the episodes "Blind Spot" "Tremors" "Heir To the Demon" & "Time of Death" were all designed by the writers of the show to re-establish the Laurel character with the fans. Some of you may recall in my last rant that I mentioned that 80% of the fans of the show despise the Laurel character as well as the actress that plays her and have been begging the show to drop her. The plan was for these four episodes to get the fans to like Laurel again (although, I don't know about the 'again' part considering I never ever liked her, not even in the beginning before they brought Felicity onto the show). Suffice it to say that the writers did not succeed considering the Laurel character is still hated and now Sara's character is strongly disliked because of how she jumped back into Oliver's pants the moment she got home.

So, the writer are telling us to wait for this big epic background story between Sara and Oliver, and all I can think is, "You told us the same thing about Laurel's character and you failed to live up to your promise of bringing the character back to life, so to speak, with the fans." I doubt they be able to succeed with Sara's character either. After all, Sara was willing to sleep with her sister's boyfriend even before the island/league crap happened to her, and now she's back at it with Oliver. And we are supposed to like this girl?! She is essentially 'The Other Woman!' Not to mention, I found it very hard to believe that the moment Sara joins Team Arrow that she just stops killing people. I mean it took a five-month-long-self-imposed-exile and Tommy's death to convince Oliver that he could do things another way!

Plus, the fact that Oliver is sleeping with Sara makes me question his original intentions when it comes to Shado's death. Like many fans I simply thought that he had just 'reacted' when he save Sara and Shado was killed instead, but now I'm not so sure. I'm starting to question everything that Oliver does.

Also, am I the only one who kinda feels bad for Slade? I mean, I think the situation between Slade and Oliver greatly parallels the situation Oliver has with Moira. Moira lied about Thea being Malcolm Merlyn's daughter – and it was the lie that Oliver hated the most about that situation. If Moira had done what Felicity suggested and just told Oliver the truth (instead of threatening Felicity) then I sort of think things would have gone more smoothly and Oliver would have at least understood why Moira kept it a secret for as long as she did. It's the same with Slade. Sara talked Oliver into trying to keep it a secret from Slade about how Shado really died and yet if he had told Slade the truth (sure, he would have still been really angry) maybe he wouldn't have gone insane and promised to kill everyone Oliver loves! Let me know what you guys think.

I read in an interview with Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen) that when it comes to what he told Felicity – about not being able to be with anyone he could truly care about because of the life he leads – and why he's with Sara is because, in spite of what Oliver feels for Felicity he knows that he doesn't have to worry about Sara getting hurt because of being too close to him…she can take care of herself. Let me just say that this problem could easily be solved if, oh I don't know, Oliver took the time to teach Felicity to protect herself! Seriously, a very simple solution instead sleeping with a string of random women right under Felicity's nose! The writers of the show really need to get their priorities straight.

On that note, did you all know that Arrow show ratings have dropped 22% for a 3.6million of average viewers?! That's almost ¼ of the viewers (exactly 792,000 viewers) have stopped watching. Yup, and it all started after episode 2x13 "Heir to the Demon." It has maintained that 22% drop ever since. You'd think the writers would take a hint and stop trying to force these Oliver/Lance Sisters relationships on us and just give us more OLICITY!

My roommate, when she found out about the Sara/Oliver relationship (and was just as upset as I was) asked the much voiced question, "Why?" She suggested that maybe the writers were running out of ideas and they wanted to add more drama. My answer was, "TV shows like Once Upon A Time, Hannibal, Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, BBC's Robin Hood, Leverage, and a whole lot more don't have their characters sleeping around with random people. In fact most of these shows (like Once Upon A Time) have sets of couples and they haven't run out of ideas. If other shows can pull it off, why can't Arrow. I feel like I'm watching an overrated Soup Opera, but with masked crime fighters.

With that said, I have officially started boycotting the show in the hopes that it will help the writers figure out that we want Olicity and only Olicity when it comes to Oliver's love life. Feel free to join me.