Oliver stood on a roof in the storage facility, fully suited up and armed. He crouched down, looking in between the storage garages for any signs of life. There were dark alleyways in between the small buildings, and he prayed like hell that Felicity was hiding somewhere and that he could find her before anyone else did.

"Roy, are you in here?" Oliver listened for an answer to come through the comm. system, his eyes not slowing down his search.

"Yeah, I've made a clean sweep around the outside with no signs of anything. Find her?" Roy's worried tone reflected Oliver's inner turmoil, but he couldn't afford to let his emotions get the better of him.

"No. Start with the Northeast corner and work your way through the rows. Don't skip anything and call me immediately if you see anyone at all." He was glad that he had kept his voice calm. He could feel his heart rate increasing as he leapt down from the roof and started creeping up the row.

Oliver spotted the main office of the storage facility up ahead, and he aimed straight for it. A glance in the windows showed no lights, but he still planned to take a look inside. He was hopeful that the phone Felicity had called from was in the office. No one else on the team had her ability to trace phone calls in a hurry, so he couldn't be sure, but he figured that was the most likely place to look for a phone given the chance.

He slowly turned the knob, not wanting to alert anyone that he was there. The door inched forward, and Oliver moved to slip into the darkness. As he stepped further into the room, he heard a noise behind him. He swung to meet his attacker and barely had time to divert his fist before slamming into her.

Felicity had been behind the door, and she had raised a laptop above her head, preparing to take out anyone who came inside. The computer crashed into Oliver's gloved fist at the same time as his other arm came around her and pulled her to him. She didn't fight back, realizing immediately who it was, and instead buried her face into the leather of his jacket.

Oliver wrapped his other arm around her and pressed his cheek to the top of her head. He was sure his grip was tight enough to be crushing her, but he couldn't bring himself to loosen his hold.

"The power went out while I was on the phone and I didn't know—" He cut her off, shushing her as he cupped the side of her face. She started to shiver, and his number one priority became to get her out of there.

"You're fine. I'm here and it's fine." She nodded against him, and he let himself take his first deep breath since she'd been missing.

"There are three men." Felicity didn't pull back an inch as she starting talking. "I didn't recognize any of them, and I have no idea what they want or how they knew where the lair was. They dragged me here and left me in a garage, but there was an interior panel I was able to rewire and open up." She paused and took a ragged breath, and Oliver didn't interrupt her. "I heard them walking around so I made it in here, where I called. I guess you know the rest." Her voice trailed away and he pulled back enough to see her face. He ran his gloved hand across her lower lip, and he couldn't ignore the way it trembled.

"Roy, Dig, you get that?" After both men confirmed, Oliver's shifted his focus to eliminating the threat. "Felicity, I want you to stay here until Roy and I take care of these guys." He felt her hands tighten their grip on his jacket, and for a minute he thought she might not let him go.

She took a ragged breath, and pushed away to create some space between them. "Okay. Stay safe." She stretched up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. The zing of electricity blended with the adrenaline that was already pumping through him, and as she moved away he resisted the urge to drag her back to him. At the same instant, he felt like he had enough power in him to take on the world. "I'm just going to stay right here behind the door. If you come… when you come back here, yell so I know it's you." She took up her post behind the door as though she were guarding it instead of hiding behind it, and Oliver felt an emotion fill him that he didn't want to name right then. Regardless, he knew he had to have faith that she would be okay.

"You stay safe, and I'll be right back." He stepped out of the door, knowing he had a lot of motivation to take care of this quickly.

…

The three men proved to be no trouble at all. Once they'd been spotted, he and Roy had been able to take them down in seconds. The issue was in the fact that they seemed to be paid lackeys. They didn't have any idea who he was, and they didn't seem to care. Unfortunately, they also felt the same about their employer. Oliver knew he wasn't going to get any information that night, and he left the men in Roy's care as he went to retrieve Felicity from the safety of the office.

She'd run into his arms, and he wasn't letting her go. She didn't ask any questions as he led her out of the storage facility, and he didn't volunteer to start any conversation either. Oliver drove them both back to her place, and it seemed to be understood that he was coming inside. He wasn't leaving her alone for a second with some unknown threat looming over them.

Neither of them reached for the light switch, as they both wanted the safety net of the darkness. Felicity went immediately to sit on the couch, and Oliver couldn't bring himself to sit down next to her. He wanted to touch every inch of her to make sure she was okay, and if he got anywhere close to her he didn't think he could find the self control to keep any kind of distance. He took up a spot across from her with the window behind him. His heart had barely stopped racing since she'd gone missing, and it wasn't slowing down now. The words he needed to say were jumbling inside of him, and he was afraid that if he couldn't string them together in the right order that he was going to ruin something amazing.

"Felicity, I have a confession to make."

"Of course you do. We wouldn't be Oliver and Felicity if we didn't have a night of agonizing terror followed by a heartfelt confessional." She was trying to break the tension, but he couldn't find much humor at the moment.

"My memories—" he stopped. She wasn't angry with him now, and he was so afraid that she wouldn't forgive him for not telling her he regained his memories the minute that they woke up. If he was going to be honest, he was also a little afraid that she preferred the other version of himself, the one without the trauma and the baggage. Currently he came with a pretty messed up history.

"I know," she spoke into the poignant silence. His head, which had been looking at the ground at her feet, jerked up to look at her face.

"I've known since the minute we kissed." Even in the shadows he could tell that she was looking away and thinking. Her fingertips lightly touched her lower lip, as though she was remembering. He knew that every kiss that they had shared was burned into his memory. She spoke slowly and clearly, without a hint of careless rambling. "The man I was with the last few days and this morning, he was wonderful. He was great, and we were great. But it wasn't reality. He wasn't the man I knew before, the man I loved." Oliver's heart seemed to stop when he heard her say she loved him, but she kept talking, and he struggled to focus and hang onto every word.

Felicity shook her head. "Don't get me wrong; I could have fallen in love with him. He was mostly the same, of course. But this man, the one standing in front of me now, the one who kissed me in the afternoon sun, he's the one I've loved since I met him." She brought her eyes to his, and there was no way that he couldn't see the love shining through. "He's sacrificed everything just to rescue people who don't even know who he is. He's saved my life over and over again. He's triumphed and overcome through a torturous past that I can't even imagine. His strength to overcome his past, your strength, Oliver, is what makes you a hero."

"I love you," the words seemed to rip through him before he could even think about what he should say. It was as though the words couldn't stay inside him a moment longer. In her speech, he'd found exactly what he'd been looking for. Oliver hated his past, and not remembering it had lightened his load so much, but without it he wouldn't exist. He wouldn't be any kind of hero, and he wouldn't be able to really love her like she deserved. He was grateful for his past because it led him to her. At the same time, he was so grateful for the memory loss because otherwise he might never have let himself have her.

He slid to the floor at her feet, and she opened her knees to let him get closer. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her lap. "I can't remember not loving you." His voice was muffled against the fabric of her jacket, and all of a sudden he couldn't handle the separation. Oliver ripped off his gloves and his jacket and shoved them behind him into the floor.

Felicity was already moving to help him get her jacket off, and she slid to the floor in front of him. He nearly tore the fabric of her dress trying to get the zipper down in the back. He felt like he was drowning and he wasn't going to be able to breathe if he couldn't touch her. Within seconds she was out of her jacket and he was pulling her dress off of her shoulders. As his fingertips made contact with her skin, all of his anxiety seemed to fade away. He pressed his face into her shoulder, trying to breathe her in.

She pulled her arms out of her dress and wrapped them around him tightly as though she was afraid he would try and pull back.

"Oliver, I need you to promise me something." He moved his lips over her collar bone, his tongue slipping out just to taste her, and at the warm contact her breath hitched. He repeated the motion, wanting to hear the sound again.

"Anything," her murmured against her. She straightened away from him, and laced her fingers through his hair. She pulled on his scalp hard enough for him to get the point, and he pulled away just enough to make eye contact. "Anything," he repeated.

"This is real. You don't get to freak out." He started to shake his head, but she pressed a finger to his lips. "You were stressed by my disappearance tonight, and I need to know that once you've calmed down, you aren't going to change your mind. I don't want you going to some dark place and worry that you're too far gone to be with me. And I don't want you deciding tomorrow that you'd rather be with someone you don't care about just because it's easier. It's nonsense, but you've done it before."

Oliver slowly shook his head, hoping she understood that he was completely hers now, and that was never going to changed. He may have had those thoughts before, but now he knew better. He knew what it was to hold her and to love her. There was no turning back. He could sooner give up oxygen. He opened his lips and softly bit the finger she was holding there. As her hand dropped away he leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. "I can ruin you, you know," she told him, running her finger along his lower lip. "I can drain any bank account you have and put your name on every no fly list that exists. I'm dangerous." Her eyes glimmered in the darkness.

"Felicity Smoak," Oliver heard his voice, low and serious, "You are incredibly dangerous. All you'd have to do to ruin me is walk away. I'd never recover." He prayed that she'd know how true that was.

A smile emerged on her face, and it was like the sun came out. She brought her lips to his, and the heat and light surged through him. They had so much to work out, and he was aware that they were a mess. They were wrapped around each other, half dressed in the floor, with some unknown bad guy after them, and the city asleep all around them. He prayed this was how he would spend every night for the rest of his life.

A/N This is the final chapter to my first multi-chapter fanfic. Thank you so much to everyone who has read through it with me! I know not everything was perfect, and there are things I could work on and tweak forever, but I've had more fun writing this than I could have imagined. I'd love to hear what you think of the story as a whole or just the ending, so please leave a review and let me know!

I'm aware I left the bad guy situation unresolved, but that decision was important to me. I liked the idea that the story isn't over, or that all of their stories overlap, but this story concludes when the important things are settled.

Every single favorite, follow, and review made such a difference to me. I'm hoping to find inspiration to start my next fic really soon. I have a few ideas I'll be adding to my one-shot collection in the meantime. Thanks again for all the positive feedback and support! Feel free to send prompt suggestions via PM or review!