A/N - The aftermath of 3x15 regarding Felicity. And Oliver finding out. Spoilers. Angst.
It must have been 7am when Felicity woke up that morning, the sun was beginning to rise over Starling City flooding the room with light. It took Felicity several moments to remember what had happened the previous night. She pulled the cover up over her chest, a blush forming on her cheeks as she remembered exactly what had happened between Ray and her the night before. Sitting up her eyes flitted across the room, her hand rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as her brain began to consider everything. Did she regret what had happened last night? No, she didn't think that she did. Last night she had wanted to forget about Oliver going to Nanda Parbat. To forget about the danger he was in. To make sure that Ray was okay and to talk some sense into him. Even before what had happened last night she had always found him attractive, in a different way from Oliver. Last night she definitely felt something between them. A connection, unlike the one she had with Oliver but one which was there one the less.
Confusion filled her head, what had they done? They had definitely crossed the boundary from colleagues, even friends to what? She didn't know what. And she didn't know what she wanted. Ever since her date with Oliver, their endless disagreements, she had been a mess. Then adding Ray into the equation had just made her life even more confusing. At first she hated him but now she didn't know how she felt. She definitely did not hate him, she did like him, but was there anything else there? Ray, well he was someone who listened to her, who admired her even. But was that enough? Her thoughts flickered back to Oliver. Oliver was well Oliver, stubborn, irritating but no matter what he did she would always care for him. Her life was mess filled. What was she going to do?
By the time she had found and put on her panties and dress she realised that Ray was definitely no longer in the apartment. Was that what it was called? She wandered into his office. Where was he? Finding her glasses putting them on walk. She began to walk back and forth across the room eyes furrowed in thought whilst she bit her thumb nail nervously. Even if she wasn't sure how she felt about Ray all she knew was that it was definitely not good to wake up and find him here.
"Are you going somewhere?" asked Ray, entering the room from behind her, zipping up his hoodie. Felicity jumped in shock, she had not heard him enter too distracted by her thoughts and biting her thumb.
"Eh... Ah, yes I need to," Felicity replied flustered pushing her glasses further up her nose. "Can't have anyone seeing me here wearing the same dress I had on yesterday!" She laughed nervously, wiping her palm on her dress.
"Felicity about last ni-"
"I really need to go right now," she replied her eyes looking everywhere but meeting his. "We can have this talk later, I just have some stuff I need to check on and sort out first."
"Okay, but are you all right Felicity?" He caught her arm as she began to move past him, she stopped in front of him her eyes finally meeting his.
"I'm fine, honest everything is fine," she smiled briefly, her hand squeezing his arm lightly. "I just have a few things to do today that I can't put off."
"Well maybe we can have breakfast next time..?" he called after her, chuckling to himself.
Before Felicity knew what time it was it was evening and she found herself down in the foundry absorbed in her thoughts. Oliver and Dig had appeared back in the foundry only an hour previously and were currently discussing Ras's al Ghul. To distracted by what had happened the night before Felicity sat in her chair, playing with her earring not listening to a word that they were saying.
"What is that?" asked Oliver pointing to Felicity's neck. To busy think Felicity did not even realise that Oliver had turned to look or even talk to her.
"Felicity?" asked Oliver again, finally she looked up acknowledging him. "What is that?"
"What is what Oliver?" she replied rolling her eyes, her hand dropping from her earring.
"On your neck...?" he asked hoarsely his eyes widened in shock.
"On my neck? Oliver what an earth are you talking about?" her eyes flitting up to meet his.
"Felicity I think you know perfectly well what I am talking about!" He growled taking a step towards her. Not looking at him, Felicity rummaged in her bag withdrawing a small compact mirror. She opened it and examined her neck, her eyes bulged out in shock, her hand softly poking a rather large hickey which had formed at the junction of her neck and shoulder.
"Ray bloody Palmer!" Felicity hissed, clamping both her mouth and the mirror shut after realising what she had said. Oliver raised his eyes alarmed at her.
"Palmer? You and Palmer?" Oliver hissed confused. He didn't understand. Yes he had seen Palmer kissing Felicity in her office all those months ago, but there was never any indication that their relationship had come to fruition. He shouldn't have been so stupid or naive. Felicity wasn't going to wait for him, he didn't deserve her to wait for him. His expression turned from confused to disappointed to annoyed in less than a minute.
"Yes me and Palmer! Oh and don't you even start Oliver!" she called seeing as he tensed up ready for a confrontation.
Felicity's phone started to ring, all three pairs of eyes in the room glancing down to see who was calling her. Ray Palmer. She swiftly picked up the phone answering the call immediately avoiding Oliver's eyes.
"Hi, Ray! Yes I'm fine, did you not get my text?" She nodded as he replied, running her finger over the edge of her desk. She swung lightly away from Oliver and Dig in her chair, attempting to get just a little bit more privacy. "I'll be round to yours later, uh huh, no I don't regret last night, Ray I'll see you soon. Yes I know, I'll text when I am heading round."
"You slept with him?" asked Oliver once she had put her phone down on her desk. "Last night? After everything that was happening?"
"Well in case you weren't aware Oliver there was nothing I COULD DO here. You and John were gone and I couldn't do anything. So I went somewhere I could help someone!" She replied grasping the desk and standing up to face him.
"And you oh so conveniently fell into bed with Palmer to help him did you?" he snarled back.
"Oh Oliver, you are the last person to be judging me! Need I remind you about all the inappropriate times you have slept with someone? Laurel? Sara? Helena? Or have you conveniently erased all your relationships-" she raised her hands making a sarcastic gesture when she said relationships, "-from your memory? Oh and also not forgetting what happened between you and Isobel!" she scoffed at it.
"I thought what happened in Russia stayed in Russia?" Oliver growled back crossing his arms firmly across his chest, squaring up to her.
"Well that would be the case if you did not bring MY sex life up in the first place," Felicity hissed back, eyes narrowing, emphasising each word by poking a finger towards his chest. "I don't want to have this conversation with you right now Oliver. Not with you like this. Hell maybe I won't ever want to have this conversation with you!"
"Right I think you both need to calm down before either of you do something you will regret," said Dig attempting to be the voice of reason. He stood up between them, trying to separate Oliver from Felicity. He had no idea where this confrontation was going to go and really did not want to find out.
"Don't you tell me to calm John!" shouted Felicity. His comment had infuriated her even further. "Tell Oliver to get his head out of his own ass. He needs to realise I have a life outside of this crusade. Oliver, I told you months ago I would not wait around for you! I don't want to die down here. I want to have more to my life than this. I want to be happy. To have a family. The past few months I have been nothing but miserable with Sara dying, you dying. I can't continue to live my life like this if all I am going to feel is misery. Whenever I see you Oliver you are so caught up in what is happening, so miserable. You don't let anyone in. We just want to help you Oliver because if you continue on this path we will lose you and I am not prepared to wait around to see someone else I love go down that path alone. Now I'm not going to apologise to you about what happened between Ray and I as frankly it is none of you business. He listens to me, allows me to help him. So when you are finally ready to let me help you I will be there as a friend for you."
By the end of her speech tears were clouding her eyes and slowly escaping down her cheeks. Taking a deep breath in she wiped her cheeks with her palm, closing her eyes. Oliver was silent for a moment, his eyes searching her face having no clue what to say. Everything that had happened in the week was far too much for him to comprehend. Ra's al Ghuls offer. Thea. Diggle. Felicity. Palmer.
"Felicity..." He said slowly, pronouncing each syllable. He relaxed his arms back down to his side, rubbing his index finger and thumb together. "I'm sorry..."
"I don't want you to say you're sorry Oliver. I care too much about you and I can't let you destroy your life like this." her breathing was being to calm down again her heart rate returning to normal.
"I know you care Felicity and that means the world to me, but since I left the last time I have changed. Almost dying has changed me. I just need some more time to adjust," he replied taking a step forward his arm stretching out to land on her shoulder, attempting to comfort her.
"And you can have that time, but don't take your anger out on me, Dig, Roy or even Palmer," she trailer her sentence off looking down out her feet.
"Look if Palmer is what you want, then I am happy for you," Felicity locked her eyes on his for a moment than brought her arms around his neck pulling him into a tight hug. "I trust your judgement."
A/N - So this is a little one!shot I wrote after last nights episode. This is meant to fit in with what I think is going to happen in the next few episodes *SPOILERS* Felicity taking Ray as her date to Digs wedding, then eventually Olicity!