Short, sweet, and the last chapter - although I am hoping to get an epilogue together. This one doesn't quite excite me like I'd hoped it would. I think this stems from some negative vibes about whether or not there could be a potential Felicity pregnancy on the show this season. Sounds like a couple of the folks with the show aren't in favor of it - and that's fine...just kind of bummed me a bit in the middle of the writing process.

So okay...there's my downfall...sorry about that!

Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter. I appreciate you reading and reviewing! Thanks for your input and support. :) ((BTW, if you want to send me some positive Olicity vibes to help me truly wrap up this story, they would be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH appreciated! ;) Pretty please?!))

KTOLF!
-adcg

Chapter 7 – Being Queen

"You know, there are a couple of things we haven't talked about in this chaos," Felicity pulled her suitcase through the door of their apartment and stopped to toss her sweater onto the couch.

"What's that?" Oliver wondered.

They had grabbed a cab from the airport, happy that they had taken the 6AM flight from Vegas in order to get themselves home mid-afternoon…with a little time before William got home from school. With a call to Raisa she had time to clear out, leaving them with the comforts of home, minus an additional warm body.

"What happens if we can't get pregnant, Oliver?" Felicity turned to look at her husband as he, too, tossed his jacket on the couch and stood next to his small suitcase.

"I mean, we just assume that this is going to happen, but what if it doesn't?" Oliver looked at her as Felicity began a babbling rampage of sorts. Normally he would listen to her with half an ear, trying to pick up key words that would clue him in to her entire speech. This time he got the feeling he better listen much more closely as she continued to ramble.

"Sure, you and Samantha obviously had no problem conceiving, but that was before you spent five years in hell and another half dozen years getting beat up by wackos here at home and drugged up with Vertigo." Oliver took those words to heart and honestly, they hurt.

"Who's to say you can do your part in this baby venture?" the final words tumbled out of Felicity's mouth almost as quickly as the thoughts hit her.

She was left standing there staring at her husband who was a little dumbfounded, now hearing over and over again the words she had just said.

Oliver tapped a hand against his suitcase handle and looked away from her. She made valid points and he didn't have an answer. All of a sudden, his heart hurt.

"I don't know," he offered a bit solemnly. She wasn't necessarily looking for an answer to her rhetorical rhetoric, but that was all he had to offer at the moment. Oliver grabbed his suitcase and headed toward their bedroom to unpack the few pieces of clothing he had taken on the trip.

"Oliver, wait," Felicity watched him walk away from her. It was obvious, now, that her stream of words had affected him. She decided to think through her current thoughts before chasing after him.

Just a minute or so later she slowly walked into their room to see him rummaging through his suitcase. Her next words came out softly, hoping they might have an apologetic effect. "That came out all wrong, I'm sorry," she tried to offer without approaching him completely.

Oliver shook his head and made eye contact with her for just a split second. "No, you're right. All valid points." He looked into his suitcase not really paying attention to what he was doing now that she was in the room. "The bio-stimulator may not cause any problems at all. Especially if I'm sterile. It would make sense. As much as you and I have been together in the past couple of years and there's not even been a pregnancy 'scare'…" he turned his back on her, heading to their bathroom to put away his toiletry bag.

"Oliver," Felicity started again. "I've had birth control…since college, you know that. You know…" she stepped toward the bathroom only to practically run into him as he was coming out, "Oliver, don't do this…"

She grasped onto his arm to make him turn around and face her. "I'm babbling. I'm not going to make excuses, but you know I didn't mean…"

She cut her thought off as she did recall a 'scare' that she didn't share with Oliver. There had been a couple, actually that resulted in her buying and taking pregnancy tests. Both had been negative, much to Felicity's relief at that time. She debated sharing that news with him now. But seeing the distant look on his face kept her from contributing another word.

Oliver looked down at her with dark, sad eyes, "But what you said is true, Felicity. And obviously it's things that you've thought about. Otherwise they wouldn't just be dropping out of your mouth like that. I'm sorry this was 'easy' for me and Samantha. If it doesn't happen for us," he looked over top of her head and took a deep, shaky breath, "then I guess it just doesn't happen. I hope you won't hold that against William."

He pulled his arm out of her grasp most of the way and waited.

"You know I won't do that. Oliver, I love William, I love you!" Felicity let her hand slide off his arm to allow him to walk away from her. Damn her babbling…damn it, damn it, damn it!

"Wait!" Felicity followed him out of their bedroom and back to the living room where Oliver was picking up his jacket. "Don't you dare walk out of here!" Her eyes focused on his hand on his coat. She found herself practically jumping to grab the garment from him to make sure he didn't put it on and walk out the door.

"I was just going to put it in the closet," Oliver's boyish whine told her he was still trying to digest the last few minutes.

Felicity took the jacket from him and tossed it back to the couch. She quickly put both her hands on his biceps and gripped tightly. Dear Lord, she loved holding onto his arms. She followed that with tiptoeing and stretching her face to reach his lips.

She knew at this moment he wouldn't allow himself to react to her kiss but she was still determined to give him this moment.

Oliver closed his eyes as she pressed her lips to his. In his current state of mind he was a little too hurt to give into her advances but he couldn't bring himself to pull away.

Felicity lowered her heels to the floor, kept hold of his arms and continued looking at his face of discontent. "What was it you told me, just a couple of days ago, when I couldn't think straight? When I was worried about not giving you a baby – which is still a possibility, Oliver – do you remember what you told me?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, his thoughts lost in this moment and not the past couple of days.

"You said you didn't fall in love with me to have a baby. You didn't marry me to have a baby."

Oliver nodded at her, remembering, but still without any semblance of a smile on his face.

"I'm going to stand here and tell you the same thing," Felicity looked into his eyes with all the love and caring she possibly could. "I fell in love with you, Oliver Queen, because of your passion to help others. I fell in love with you because you made such a difference in my life that I just can't even imagine my life now without you. I married you because you've shown me love like I have never known it before. You've loved me, in spite of who I am, in spite of what I say, in spite of me babbling completely stupid or hurtful thoughts because I don't think before I speak in those situations," she paused simply to catch a breath and noticed that he did have the slightest of smiles now on his lips.

"And, it's because of those reasons and many, many, MANY more that I do want to have a baby with you. But –" Felicity put her hands on Oliver's cheeks and made sure he was looking into her eyes, "if for whatever reason we can't have a baby, we still have each other. That is where we started our lives together and that is what truly matters right here, right now. Okay?"

Oliver didn't move. He continued holding her gaze with his eyes, the look on his face not giving away his feelings. Felicity understood that look. It was one she had seen many times during her years with him. It was Oliver lost in thought; Oliver contemplating the deepest thoughts in his heart and soul.

She gave him another few seconds before moving her hands to the sides of his head with her thumbs trailing over his short beard, lightly skimming his lips. "Okay?" she asked again.

Oliver looked at her lips, beginning to come out of his thoughts about her words and waking up to her touch. "Okay," he whispered.

Oliver couldn't say that the idea of him being sterile didn't weigh on his mind, but after his wife's follow-up speech and her assurances that it was the two of them, and William, against the world, his mood lightened.

They went back to unpacking and tossing laundry into the hampers at the foot of their bed.

"Oops," Felicity mentioned when she reached the bottom of her suitcase. She held up a satiny piece of something that took her several seconds to decipher. "Ummmmm," she paused, finally finding shoulder straps – she assumed.

"What's that?" Oliver glanced over her shoulder not really paying close attention to what she was holding.

Felicity stared for another minute at the rather miniscule article of clothing. She did notice the small piece of paper clipped to the pin that was apparently holding together the nightie and matching panties.

"Oh Dear God," she whispered, of course gaining more of Oliver's attention.

"What?" he asked again, now a little more than curious.

Oliver stepped behind Felicity and finally got a good look at the outfit in her grasp. "Wellll," he couldn't help the grin that began to tug at his lips. "Where'd you get that?"

"Hush," Felicity sucked in a breath as she crumpled the material in her hand just enough to get to the note. "My mother apparently thinks she's helping our cause…"

"I bet Hubby Dearest will enjoy this…"

"Oh – My – God," Felicity froze in place as she heard Oliver chuckle right next to her ear in his sexy, soft voice. She jerked the nightie away from him before Oliver could get a hold on it but knew she would lose if he was determined to get it.

And, wrapping a single arm around her waist, he reached for the soft, slick material and easily forced it out of her grip.

"I am not wearing that," Felicity protested as he began running it through his fingers.

"I really do like your mom. Have I mentioned that?" Oliver's eyebrows raised as he glanced from the sexy clothing toward his wife.

"Oh, don't even…" Felicity tried to argue.

"You know," Oliver continued hugging her waist with one hand and held up the nightie in front of her with the other. "Wearing this might make up for that hurtful, inadvertent babbling a little earlier…" he bent his lips to the piercing at the top of Felicity's right ear and kissed it ever so gently.

"Stooop," Felicity's attempt to boss him around was far from effective.

"You put this on…" Oliver whispered, she shivered in his hold and he felt her shallow breathing, "then I get to take it off of you…"

"I'm … not…" Felicity's whisper fell on deaf ears.

"Dad?" William's voice caused them both to jump.

Oliver quickly dropped the night clothes onto the bed and gave Felicity a quick but revealing squeeze.

"Door – Lock" Felicity whispered through gritted teeth.

"Will! Hey, Buddy, you're home!" Oliver turned around to face his son with a smile on his face and red cheeks that he hoped their son wouldn't notice.

Felicity took a second to take a deep breath.

"Mom, are you okay?" William stepped into the room and waited for her to turn around.

With one glance toward Oliver, completely blaming him for this bit of embarrassment, she turned around and opened her arms to the dark haired boy who was already as tall as her.

William walked to her happily, letting her wrap her arms around him and hug him as she normally did.

That made him feel much better about the past few days.

"Hellooo?" Oliver looked at the two of them and opened his arms up as well. Felicity snarled at him before releasing William and letting her two guys share a hug.

"How's the research project?" Felicity wondered, attempting to get back to the normal back-to-school mode. "Raisa left snacks in the fridge for you."

William rolled his eyes slightly. "I just need to get my information into the PowerPoint. And I think I need to put it on a flash drive so I can just plug and play it at school on Friday. Will you proof it for me once I've got it together?"

Felicity nodded and smiled. "Absolutely!"

William turned to Oliver trying not to leave him out. "You can take a look at this one too, Dad. It's not math."

Oliver grabbed his son by one shoulder and playfully pushed him toward the door of the bedroom. "You're as funny as your mom. Get outta here!"

William and Felicity both laughed. Picking on Oliver for his lack of math skills would never get old.

Once William was out of the room Oliver turned back to the bed and placed his hands on the silky piece that Donna had gifted to Felicity.

"Just once?" He turned on the boyish charm that Felicity was quite sure he had used about a million times in his life on girls he was trying to entice.

"No," she responded with a nearly mothering tone.

Oliver looked down at his fingers that were still running aimlessly over the material. He looked back at his wife, obviously imagining her in the sexy piece. He swallowed and tried once more.

"Please, Felicity?" He picked it up, stepped toward her and held the nightie up to her shoulders, watching how it might fit her body perfectly. "I'll beg if you want me to."

Felicity rolled her eyes and let a deep sigh escape her lungs. He was irresistible and he knew it. She knew she couldn't say no, no matter how hard she tried.

"Maybe," she placed the tip of her index finger on his chest, pushing with slight force. It gave him a little hope in the form of the possibility and a softer voice. "But only if you promise to lock the door. The last thing I need right now is our pre-teen son walking in on us baby-making."

Oliver grinned a smug smile, very proud of his accomplishment. Not only was she agreeing to wear a sexy outfit for him – which she did more often than Felicity actually realized – but she was referring to their future family.

Her willingness to 'work' with him, to compromise, to simply be his made Oliver's uncertainty from the past hour drift away. He tossed the nightie set back to the bed and took the chance to wrap his arms around Felicity's waist and lift her off her feet.

She smiled at him, her hair flowing down to her shoulders, out of the ponytail that she had worn for their flight home. The finger she had used to poke his chest now traced his lips as they smiled at each other.

There it was again, Felicity nibbled her bottom lip as she realized she was hopelessly in love with this man and completely lost in him.

She didn't hesitate to lower her lips to his and shared one of the most tender kisses she had ever experienced.

Baby or no baby they would be happy. William could wander in their room anytime he wanted – provided the door wasn't locked – and their family would be complete.

"Do you know how much I love you?" Oliver asked as he sat her back on her feet.

"Because I'm willing to wear a sexy nightgown for you?" Felicity teased.

"Nah," Oliver shook his head and placed his hand on her cheek. "Just because you're mine," he smiled as she closed her eyes at his touch.

She would always be his girl, his wife, his Queen.

Chapter Seven – Being Queen