Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, but the story is. I make no claims on the CW or DC's Arrow intellectual property.

Behind The Darkness and The Light

Your absence has gone through me

Like thread through a needle

Everything I do is stitched with its color.

-W.S. Merwin, "Separation"

Felicity spun around in her high backed office chair, staring at the ceiling as she tried to figure out what her next steps should be in the program she had been working on for QC. Despite the strange turn of events with Oliver Queen, she hadn't been bothered by it while working at his company.

He had taken Walter's place as CEO as everyone suspected, but directives rarely came from him to her directly - instead they went through her boss. It appeared as if he was keeping his promise to stay away from her - leaving her confused. It had been what she asked for, but she had expected more push back; Oliver Queen was much more damaged than she had ever thought. He had spoken about it many times, but the fact that he felt so strongly that whatever darkness was in his soul was irreparable made his distance understandable.

Every time she got in the elevator or went down to the parking garage, she thought about him. She watched his interviews about Queen Consolidated, how he spoke with passion about applied sciences and helping Starling City - the place he called home. He shone with a light that belied the words of darkness he spoke to her.

Caitlin blissfully hadn't pestered her since her blow up with Barry - he constantly accosted her about Oliver, Caitlin constantly harangued her about the vigilante.

Felicity stopped spinning and smiled into the air - the vigilante had apparently made it known that he preferred The Arrow moniker as the press and even police had begun to use it when referring to him.

The Arrow had also been absent from her life, making her realize how boring it was without either man. Starling City was great, she was in a job that fit into her future plans, and she had good friends, but without The Arrow or Oliver Queen pestering her at random intervals, she felt lost - and bored.

Finally she gave up on the task at hand and stood up, grabbing her thermos and heading into the break room on her floor to refill on java.

"Hey Fel, you going to the party tomorrow?" Barry was there lounging on a couch as she walked in.

She groaned, remembering it was July 4th tomorrow, "I'm not sure, I have this huge project I need to finish and all my inspiration is dried up today."

Barry rolled his eyes and she just glared at him as she filled up her thermos. "You can't keep hiding away at QC, Felicity, you're coming with us and that's that."

Felicity sighed, knowing he was just concerned about the fact that she was putting so much of her time into her work and barely any in her personal life. But it was here that she felt closest to herself, and it absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that Oliver Queen was barely three floors up and that the Arrow's presence surrounded her when she left for work every night in the parking garage. Both men flanked her as she went about her daily life, the light of Oliver Queen and the darkness of the vigilante.

Though to be fair, the vigilante had been a bit gentler than before - that is, he didn't kill everyone. She was sure he killed some people still, but she tried not to track him obsessively so she couldn't confirm it.

"Fine, but only for the food - I have to leave before the fireworks."

"But that's the best part!" Barry exclaimed, then went quiet as she levelled him with a look.

He shook his head as she left the room, heading back upstairs. She pressed the up button and after a few long seconds one of the elevators stopped and opened, revealing Oliver Queen in his three piece suit.

They stared at each other until the doors began to close, but he threw out his hand to stop them - jolting Felicity out and she shook her head and stepped beside him. She couldn't find her voice to speak, but Oliver quietly pressed the button for her floor.

Once it started moving up, Oliver spoke, "Do you plan on coming to our Fourth of July celebration?"

Felicity quirked her head at the question; it certainly wasn't one she had anticipated from him, but she just nodded, "Barry's making me go."

He nodded, "I see. So that's still...you're still with him?"

Felicity sighed and looked at him, "Oliver, that's really none of your business now. You didn't want me."

The elevator dinged and the doors began to open; Felicity quietly blessed the speediness of Queen Consolidated's transit as she stepped on to the floor without looking back.

"I just can't have you," he spoke to her back as she left, quietly - but loud enough that it made her stumble when she heard it, right before the doors closed.

Felicity sat back down at her desk, her project completely forgotten. Something about Oliver had triggered a memory of the Arrow - she kept noticing that he would move his fingers a lot, especially when he was nervous. It was something she had seen the Arrow do briefly, but it was always around his bow.

She pulled up some reports about the Arrow's dealings in the city, trying to scour them for clues of his identity - but found nothing.

By the time Caitlin showed up to drag her from the office, Felicity was no closer to figuring out the identity of the man in the mask that consumed half of her thoughts.

It was her first day off in nearly a month and Felicity's body clearly took advantage of it, waking up at nearly half past noon. There was a picnic in the QC park a little more than two hours away, and she had some research to take care of beforehand.

Felicity fired up her tablet as she started breakfast, working through the connections she had made last night. She wasn't convinced, but she knew something tied Oliver Queen and the Arrow together. It was the only way she could rationalize having similar feelings when she was in the presence of both of them; the dark vigilante and the lighter Oliver Queen. Both wore masks though, and she wasn't sure which one held the truth.

She made an auto play of all news reports about the Arrow, nee vigilante, and listened to them as she made her omelet. Nothing she heard was new, or particularly interesting - and all the shots of him were dark and told her nothing new. The most she had was that he was a strong, tall, white guy which described probably 20% of the city.

Fingering the Arrow phone, she made the decision to use her computers at work to trace the phone's serial number to find out the purchaser. They say that burner phones are untraceable, but as far as she was concerned no one was better than her at electronic forensics; not even the Arrow.

It was a good thing she had made it known she wasn't staying at the picnic the whole time. Everyone - mostly - knew she was leaving early to finish the applied sciences project that she had tried and failed to finish the other day. No one knew what the project was, of course, but that was strictly need-to-know. Oliver Queen had requested it himself; at the time it didn't feel too strange of a request, but looking back it should have raised alarm bells.

She didn't know what to trust anymore.

Felicity arrived with Caitlin and Barry in tow, wearing a summery coral dress that floated above her knees and strappy sandals. Caitlin had made her wear her hair down out of her trademark ponytail and despite the heat; she had to agree that it was the right decision. She looked absolutely flawless - Barry had barely spoken a single word that wasn't fumbling mumbles since he saw her.

It was late afternoon and the smells of American barbeque surrounded them, with a local band enjoying the crowd, playing their assortment of popular covers.

"I'm starving," Caitlin said as she set off for the tables of food, with the two of them trailing behind her.

"Felicity?" She heard her name called and looked up to see her coworker.

"Hey, Mr. Tockman, good to see you!"

The man ducked his head awkwardly as if uncomfortable; he had only worked with her for a few months before he left to take care of his ailing wife. Felicity felt sadness wash over her as she imagined being parted from someone she loved so much.

"How's that special project coming along?" He asked, making Felicity's skin crawl unexpectedly.

She pushed her hair back behind her ear, "Oh, um, I really can't talk about it - I'm sorry Dr. Tockman."

"I see, well I understand. I'll see you later, pretty girl."

Felicity watched him scurry away and turned to go find her friends, only briefly noticing Oliver watching her pensively.

She spent the next few hours lounging in the sun with Caitlin and Barry, laughing and eating copious amounts of barbeque and coleslaw as music flowed around them. They pretty much ignored most of their coworkers, which was fine because it was all families with kids running around besides them. When Felicity finally looked at her phone, it was 7pm - an hour before the fireworks show was set to begin.

She sighed and Caitlin whined, "Felicityyyyyyyyy, don't go - it's only a few more hours. The project will still be there when you get back tomorrow."

Felicity rolled her eyes and looked at Barry for support, "Yes, which means it'll still be unfinished tomorrow."

"Please, I'm pretty sure Queen hottie will let this one slide," Caitlin waved her hand in the air and Barry sat back in silence, watching them.

She stood up and brushed the grass off of her, "I don't like taking advantage of my personal relationship with Mr. Queen, Caitlin."

Grinning, "So you admit there's a relationship there."

Felicity just shook her head and waved goodbye; there wasn't a relationship, they hadn't even spoken really in several months since she told him to stay away. But she supposed there was a…something.

She swiped her keycard in the side entrance of the building and headed towards the elevators. The security guards were sparse because of the holiday and the silence made her slightly uneasy. She was eager to get to her safe bubble of an office, surrounded by alarms and computers.

As Felicity collapsed into her chair, she closed her eyes, attempting to center herself before working on her project. It was called the skeleton key and it was by far the most questionable thing she had ever worked on since her freshman year of college. Her boss had assured her that Mr. Queen's request was due to defense contracts and it would not be put to illegal use. She was skeptical, but trusted him - and she loved a challenge almost as much as she hated mysteries.

An hour and a half later and her office echoed with the sound of the fireworks going off. The show was set to last another half hour; Felicity was debating on slipping on her noise cancelling headphones when the lights on her floor flickered.

Normally she wouldn't worry about it, but this particular floor was set on a different power grid and it was built to ensure no disruption of power. But as she heard the sounds of the computers in her office restarting, she gripped her cellphone and dropped instinctively to the ground, hearing the sound of the elevator doors opening.

"Come on, we have to get to the server room." A voice echoed with three others assenting and Felicity's body trembled.

She heard them walk by her office and after half a minute she scrambled back to grab her tablet, logging into her QC account. She didn't know what they were there for, but if there was even a chance they wanted the skeleton key she had to remove it immediately. She swiftly transferred it to her jump drive and erased all traces of the program on her network when a voice echoed through the intercom system in the ceiling.

"Ms. Smoak, I do wish you hadn't done that."

Felicity trembled and gripped the jump drive harder as the voice continued talking, "All you had to do was sit there quietly, and now I have to have my boys collect you to ensure I get what I want."

She scrambled to the door, knowing the first location they would look was her office. She opened it and ran as fast as she could towards the stairwell, thankful for the flats she had worn instead of heels.

Felicity stopped after a few levels, not sure why she had run upstairs instead of down - counter intuitive, but perhaps that was why - the person after her might not be tracking her.

But as she stepped onto the new floor she knew why she had chosen it - this was the executive floor. Oliver Queen's office.

Suddenly she knew what to do and she tucked herself underneath his desk and pulled out her phone, dialing Oliver's number immediately.

Felicity held her breath as she waited for it to go through, but it finally ended in voicemail. She panicked and redialed, holding in her noises as best she could; she couldn't hear anything on this floor yet, but apparently the person who was after her knew enough about QC to know how to get into the system. It would only be a matter of time before she was found.

The ringing finally ended and his voice hit her ear, "Hello? Felicity?"

All she could do was sob in relief, which immediately set him on edge, "What's wrong? Where are you?"

Felicity's hands were trembling as she tried to speak; there was a sound of a motorcycle revving up as Oliver's voice attempted to soothe her, "Felicity, I'm here. I need you to tell me where you are so that I can help you."

"I'm...in your office. Hiding. There are men here, Oliver…please help."

The call died and Felicity looked at her phone, holding back a hysterical laugh. The cell tower had been shut off in the building; she cursed the day she had recommended that Queen Consolidated set up their own cell tower.

She gripped her shoulders tightly, pulling her arms across her body as she tucked in under his desk, knowing she couldn't do anything but wait.

"I thought you knew better, Ms. Smoak, using your cellphone? You must be desperate. But don't worry, no one will be able to get in the building to save you. All I need is what's inside your pretty little brain and then we can go our separate ways, that doesn't sound too bad, does it?"

The voice surrounded her again, coming from the phone on Oliver's desk. She tried not to panic, knowing he was probably accessing all the phones and intercoms in the building to taunt her.

"We'll find you, Ms. Smoak."

And it shut off, leaving her in terrified silence.

Half an hour later, she felt an explosion outside and saw a bright light coming from a van in front of the entrance. She stood up to see what was going on when she heard a voice from the door.

"So you're the bitch we've spent the last hour tracking."

Spinning around, she saw three men standing there and grit her teeth, "Not the best at hide and seek were you? But I forget…it actually takes brains. Where's the smart one in the group?"

"He's gone, someone took him out just now. More profit for us, though. Now if you just hand over the program we can all go home happy."

Felicity shook her head and dropped the jump drive to the floor, smashing it with her heel as the leader yelled and gestured to the men. They grabbed her and lifted her up by her arms, but she kicked wildly and connected her foot with the leader's face, hearing a satisfying grunt.

A loud thud hit the wall, turning their heads to it just in time for an explosion of sound that knocked them all to the ground.

Felicity saw the Arrow rushing towards her as the men lay incapacitated momentarily. He put his hand behind her head and looked at her, silently asking if she was okay. She nodded and he went to tie up the other men; she saw his lips moving, but couldn't hear anything but the high pitched noise that still rung in her ears.

She was exhausted and lay down on the ground; after a few minutes, she felt herself being lifted up, her body being cradled against a hard body.

Felicity opened her eyes and stared at him as he looked at her; close up, she was in awe that it had taken her so long to realize. She placed her hand against his cheek and he quietly pressed against it, his eyes closing.

"Oliver," she whispered in awe. She didn't know why it surprised her - in her moment of panic the only person she knew in her bones who could help had been him, but it still…was shocking.

Her thumbs went up to the paint around his eyes, smearing a little underneath it, revealing more of Oliver Queen. It was no wonder she had felt so conflicted about the two men in her life - they were the same person. Oliver's light and the Arrow's darkness; she smiled at him and saw one echoed back, tentatively - as if he hadn't been sure how she would respond.

She tugged his head down, pulling him in for a kiss; Felicity was surprised he let her, but once his lips met hers she understood. This was a homecoming for him; the relief he felt poured into the kiss and Felicity met it eagerly. She no longer needed an explanation for his grief and self-deprecation; the darkness inside of him clouded his entire life.

"Are you two done yet? I can hear the tongue from here," a voice floated from his earpiece.

Oliver broke off, "We'll be down soon, there are three up here we'll need to notify Lance about."

The voice echoed understanding and Oliver smiled at her, carrying her to the elevator, pressing for the lobby. He wasn't even breaking a sweat or breathing heavily, she thought in awe.

Felicity tucked her head into his chest and whispered, "I knew you would come for me."

Oliver kept silent, but squeezed her tighter to him. They had many things to talk about, but whether or not they wanted each other was never going to be one of them.

"I always will," he said finally, as she drifted to sleep in his arms.

Author's Note: The end! If you enjoyed it, please leave a small comment or PM/ask/reblog/rec/etc. Thank you so much for the support! 3