AN: Hello all! I am so so so sorry it has taken me so long to update this final chapter. It has always been the plan, and I imagine most of you thought perhaps I was done since its been so long since I updated. This story has taken far longer than I thought—in part due to real life and in part due to the weird turns the season took that killed my muse from time to time. I hope this was worth the wait!

Chapter 16 – Correction

It ended up being a very, very long day. Oliver spent the morning with his mother, Thea and Roy. After being up for 24 hours straight, maintaining the charade was harder than it should have been to put on the mask and pretend. Thea looked exhausted, and Oliver was grateful when his mother finally left for the office. Roy pulled Thea up and led her to her room without a word, Oliver stood in the silence of the foyer and watched them so up the stairs. He hoped that Roy's presence would be enough to keep the nightmares away. They hadn't talked about what she had been through in the hours it had taken them to get to her. He wasn't sure he could handle knowing those details. The thought of her scared and alone with Slade was almost more than he could take, even now when she was upstairs with Roy keeping watch.

He exhaled and considered what to do next. Sleep would be the obvious choice, but he didn't think it would come. Not without Felicity there. He was still a little baffled by her refusal to come with them. He took out his phone and saw she had copied him on an email to the board at QC, stating that he would be taking a personal day to deal with the damage to the fire at Verdant. He saw an appointment on his calendar at noon with the insurance adjuster. He and Thea would need to walk the site and discuss their claim. As usual, she thought of everything.

Damn it, but it felt wrong to be in his own home without her there. He could count on one hand the number of times he had been in the house without her in the past month. He thought of her alone at her place, and it was all he could do to keep himself from walking out the door and going to her. Because it was clear she wanted space. The reasons completely escaped him, but she had sent him home without her very deliberately. As much as he wanted to go to her, the fact remained he needed to be here for Thea right now. The fact that he didn't need to explain that to her was one of the things that he loved most about her.

He went into the living room and sat on the couch, deciding rest might be the best recourse after all. But when he closed his eyes, he was transported to those horrible minutes on his motorcycle, speeding across the city with his heart in his throat. Those moments when he thought he might lose her. And the moments when he was bone jarringly certain he had. It became glaringly apparent he wouldn't be sleeping without her in his arms, so he gave up.

It was then that his phone rang. Hoping it was Felicity, he picked it up to look at the caller ID. It was Laurel.

"Oliver," he said when he answered. "I was hoping we could talk. We need to talk."

xxx

Felicity sat on her couch, sipping hot tea and watching the news. They had just covered the devastation at Verdant, including a live feed of the Queen siblings walking through the rubble with an older gentleman that must have been the insurance adjuster. It was just past noon, but she had no interest in lunch. Much to her dismay, sleep had eluded her. When she had tried to climb in her bed after sending Oliver on his way, she hadn't been able to sit still. She couldn't help thinking of all that had happened, about how many people were now in on Oliver's secret . . . and the fact that Laurel was now in on his secret.

She had known, right from the moment she had first kissed Oliver, that whatever they had couldn't last forever. She knew that Laurel was his forever—that eventually he would find his way back to her. But she also knew that the weight of Oliver's secret would keep anything lasting from developing between the two of them, until he could finally let his guard down enough to let Laurel in. She just hadn't expected Laurel to be in on his secret so soon. Laurel Lance possessing that little factoid about Oliver's identity changed everything. Felicity knew that it was only a matter of time until Oliver ended this thing that had started between them. Because now gorgeous Laurel, who had known him—loved him—for half his life knew his secret. It made more sense for her to begin the separation now and save Oliver from the guilt. Because he would feel guilty. That was, after all, what Oliver Queen seemed to do best—carry around the guilt of the entire world. She wouldn't let him feel guilty about her too.

She groaned, turning off the television. She needed to distract herself. Hell, she needed to stop thinking about Oliver Queen. She needed to sleep. None of those things seemed to be happening just now though. Outside, thunder rumbled. She pulled aside the curtain to reveal a greying sky, dark clouds moving quickly over the city that looked heavy with rain. Book weather, she thought to herself. She poured herself more tea, and skimmed the bookshelf along the wall for something to distract her. Making her selection, she flopped down on the sofa and opened the book. Soon, she was lost in the story, finally able to focus on something beside the drama of her own very strange life.

A knock at the door pulled her out of the story. She glanced at the clock, surprised to see it was almost five. She could hear the rain falling steadily outside. Another knock sounded, and she was pretty sure she knew who it belonged to. Oliver certainly wasn't known for his patience.

She pulled the door open, and whatever she was going to say died on her lips as she took him in. He was soaking wet, standing with one hand braced on either side of her doorway. It was his eyes, though, that really made her forget . . . everything. Maybe even forget her own name. His eyes were blue and intense and they locked on to hers the second she opened the door. She simply stepped aside and gestured for him to come in. His shoes squeaked as he entered. She closed the door and turned to face him, not entirely sure what was going on. He was there, less than a foot away, with those intense blue eyes still boring in to her. She wanted to reach for him, to ask him what was wrong. Distance, she reminded herself. Distance was better. Distance would be easier. Because he loved Laurel, and Laurel knew his secret now. She stepped back, but the door prematurely halted her retreat. She leaned against it, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to steal herself for whatever was about to come.

"I didn't understand what you meant earlier," he said, stepping even more into her space. "About if I needed you."

Oh, she thought, opening her eyes and searching his face for some idea as to where this was going.

"I didn't understand, but then Laurel called." Oh, she thought again. So this is it. She prepared herself for what was about to come. "We talked, and she thought that just because she knew who I was, that things had changed."

Felicity took a deep breath and stepped around him. She went to the bathroom, got him a towel, and held it out to him. "You're dripping on my floor."

He took the towel, but did nothing with it, never taking his eyes off her. "She said that knowing I was the Arrow . . . that it made her love me even more."

Felicity closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow. And that's what I want . . . I'm sorry, Felicity.

"Felicity . . ." She opened her eyes and looked at him. Those unreadable blue eyes, filled with emotion, yet it was so unclear to her what the emotion was she saw there. Regret, maybe? That, she could at least help with.

"It's okay, Oliver. I knew this wasn't going to be a long term thing." She wanted to ease his pain, make this easier for him.

He was in her space, his hands on her shoulders before she even registered he was moving. "That isn't what I'm saying."

She could feel his heat, his nearness, and for the first time she dared to hope. His damp shirt pressed against her, and she could feel the water dripping on her feet, but she could care less. "It . . . it isn't?"

"I thought I made a mistake, when I kissed you on New Years," he said slowly, and she felt that hope drain out just as quickly as it had come. She started to step back but he held her firm. "Would you just listen," he said, sounding exasperated.

She closed her eyes again, sighing. "Go on," she said, finally meeting his gaze again.

"I thought it was a mistake, because it set everything with Isabel and Malcolm into motion. But dammit Felicity, it wasn't a mistake. It was too long in happening." His hands came up to her face, cupping her cheeks. He ghosted his thumbs along her face. "When Laurel told me she loved me more, knowing who I really was, I realized that I already knew what I wanted. And I realized you think I want her. You're mistaken Felicity. And as soon as I left Laurel, I knew that I needed to correct that misconception. So let me be clear. I want you. Only you. Because you have always seen me for me, not just CEO Oliver, or playboy Oliver, or the Arrow. You see me."

She realized her eyes were tearing up, and she swallowed back the emotion, nodding. "I see you . . . and I love you."

"And I love you," he ground out. And then he was kissing her. Their world had been upended, the foundary was destroyed and so many things would need to be sorted out. But they would handle it, together. Because that's what they did.

Thanks again for sticking out this story with me. I took some inspiration for Laurel's part in this final chapter from Cassidy's interview in Calgary. I hope you enjoyed, and thank you so much for your reviews and for sticking with this story!