A/N: What can I say except I agree with the comments and reviews I received after I posted the last chapter. I will make Felicity's character stronger and make Oliver really work to regain her unconditional love. I also love Taylor but in the end it should be Felicity's choice.

I do not own Arrow or the characters but I reserve the right to tweak my story in favor of the character I love the most.

Happy Reading…..

FELICITY'S CHOICE

Chapter 5

Oliver had never been more excited about a day in a very long time and it really has been a very long time, and never was it over a girl. He always had it easy pre-island days, even with Laurel it was just an easy relationship that he didn't have to work on, in fact it might have been the reason why he had constantly cheated and taken Laurel for granted. He had made many mistakes in his life, too many to count, but dropping the ball with Felicity was the greatest one yet.

And so he didn't really get to sleep the whole night, not that he normally could. But, he was just so highly strung after he left Felicity's apartment that he decided to go back to the Foundry for a work out until the wee hours of the morning and finally ended up in his room in the apartment physically exhausted but still very much mentally alert. Felicity's last words resonated with him, "I want you to fight for me, I expect your campaign to win back my love to start tomorrow" and win her back he would, he vowed to himself once again.

He knew they had a full day ahead of them with the signing and the press briefing, so he started the day early placing calls and planning day 1 of is 'Felicity campaign' as he called it. He texted Digg to pick him up earlier than usual as he had his girl, hey in his mind she was his girl, to woo, deciding to cook a breakfast in her apartment kitchen. As Digg picked him up, he noted the bags carried by Oliver with raised eyebrows as Oliver directed Digg to proceed to Felicity's place.

It wasn't even seven in the morning when Felicity could hear a knock on her door, she was tempted to ignore it for a minute but knew it had to be important if someone was to be knocking on her door this early in the morning. As she rolled from her bed to stand up, she noted her bed hair through barely opened eyes, the better to scare away whoever was knocking on her door. When she finally reached her front door she peeked through the small peephole and was surprised to see Oliver Queen carrying two full bags of something and a suit luggage.

Felicity opened the front door hesitantly, "Oliver?"

Oliver for his part smiled brightly at her obvious surprise, "day 1 of woo Felicity," as he entered the doorway pausing the kiss her cheek, "good morning to you," noting her sleep attire and her dazed look. "Why don't you go back to bed and leave me here, I will make you breakfast and wake you when it's done.

As Felicity slowly closed her front door she turned to Oliver baffled, "you cook?"

Oliver shrugged as he put down his suit luggage on the couch before proceeding to the kitchen with his two brown bags, "I admit my expertise in the kitchen is limited, but I make a mean pancake. Now, go back to bed and I will wake you as soon as I'm done."

Felicity eyed Oliver for a few seconds before she turned around and headed back to her bedroom shouting, "they better be the best pancakes I have tasted!"

Oliver could only stare at her retreating back before he quickly took out the ingredient he had stolen from the kitchen of the Mansion, of course with the help of Raisa, his trusted housekeeper. In the end, it took him thirty minutes 'til he was satisfied with the result. It had never been this challenging to cook a simple pancake, hell he could usually do it with his eyes closed. But this was for Felicity, it had to be perfect.

As Oliver sauntered to Felicity's bedroom he carefully knocked, "Felicity, breakfast is ready." Not hearing a response he quietly opened the door and found her sleeping peacefully. He went closer and bended on his knees as he decided to wake her up by shaking her shoulder, "Felicity, hey wake up."

Felicity's nose scrunched and she pressed herself deeper into her bed, she looked so cute with that action Oliver noted. In fact, in that moment he wanted to know exactly the many wake up mannerisms of Felicity promising himself that one day very soon, he would wake up beside her as they shared a bed and when that day happened, he was never going to let any other day follow without her beside him, waking up next to him. But for now, he needed to wake her up as he tried to shake her again this time with a little more force, "Felicity, wake up…."

Felicity had the sensation of being suspended in a dream-like state, imagining Oliver beside her and he waking her up slowly. It had been sometime that she had a dream like that, but today that dream had come to haunt her once again. But this version of the dream was different, it almost seemed real, like Oliver was really beside her and shaking her awake, his hand warm on her shoulder. She ventured to open one eye slowly just to check and Oliver was really there, she blink twice just in case but he was still there, she realized he was very near her as he was leaning close, she hastily went into a sitting position throwing Oliver off guard and on his butt, "oh, Oliver you are really here. Sorry, why, what, oh…." as her mind caught up with her mouth and she saw Oliver recovering to sit down on the bed beside her.

"I knocked on your door but I got no response so I tried to shake you awake, sorry I scared you," as he gave her a small grin. "Breakfast is ready so whenever you are, I will see you in the kitchen."

Felicity could only nod as Oliver stood up and retreated back to the kitchen. She heavily fell down her pillow again dreading the days to come. Oliver was really serious when he said he would woo and fight for her, it would be a very tortured few days, weeks, months, depending on how long he was willing to keep this up.

They arrived in the office together and Felicity was surprised to see a bouquet of red roses on top of her table. She turned to Oliver who was handing her bag back to her and gave him a pointed look. "I thought you could start your day in the office with fresh flowers," and trotting backward to his office with a smirk.

The day quickly caught up with her as she had to finish the joint venture documents as well as prepare for the press briefing. She was thankful Oliver had asked the other department heads to loan her some staff, one from legal to help out with the contract preparations and a couple from the PR department for the press kits and briefing prep. The mini-conference room had been buzzing with activity all morning that when lunch came, Felicity was surprised to see that Oliver had taken it upon himself to instruct Emily the executive floor receptionist to order lunch for all of them.

Oliver himself had been busy with meetings that he had cancelled the previous day however he had cleared his schedule for the entire afternoon. He was now casually leaning over the mini-conference door, "how's everything going?" Felicity looked up, as did the three other staffers who were doing their own thing but while Felicity smiled, the other three were noticeably in awe of Oliver.

"We are actually almost done with everything, I just need you to review the contract before I email it to KC, Taylor and his team will come in by two in the afternoon for a final briefing before we have the official contract signing by four," Felicity rattled proudly.

"Well then why don't we all break for lunch," pointing at the brown bags Emily brought in. Bringing his attention back to Felicity, "Felicity, my office," gesturing to his office.

Felicity gave the other three a faint smile before she followed Oliver to his office bringing with her a copy of the contract for his review. As she reached his office she heard Digg inform Oliver that security for the press briefing was already in place and that they were having the briefing in front of the building. Oliver's response was muffled but as she entered Oliver's office he rose and gestured for her to sitdown beside him with Digg on the opposite side of the small conference table.

"Working lunch for you," Felicity smirked handing Oliver the document for his review while Digg passed around lunch which turned out to be Chinese take-outs. Oliver for his part shook his head and placed the documents for review on the side of the table, "getting bossy are we, lunch first then I will go through the documents."

Felicity smiled, "just practicing my bossy voice."

Digg laughed, "you don't need to practice, we hear it every single time when we do our rounds, in our comms. It's a close second to your loud voice. Come to think of it, Felicity Smoak, you have a lot of different voices for all occasions."

Felicity snorted, "now I know you are messing with me Digg. Oh, and it's been awhile since we had a quiet break like this."

Digg pointed at Felicity, "well enjoy it, according to the bossman over there, you are up for promotion." Looking at Oliver, "how are we to proceed with that happening, you will need a new EA and Felicity will be busy with other things."

Oliver looked at Felicity as he knew she was also thinking the same thing, "we will find a way, we've been able to balanced QC and the Arrow business so far, it will be a little complicated but we should be able to pull it off. I will just need a new EA."

Felicity felt suddenly guilty, "but Oliver…"

Oliver quickly shook his head and placed his hand on top of Felicity's, "no Felicity, we will find a way. You deserve this promotion. Now eat, we have a lot of things to do."

It was almost time for the contract signing and all the Board of Directors and Corporate Executives where mixing around in the QC Board Room. It was a merry moment for both companies as even normally stiff executives loosened up as handshakes and backslaps went around. Of course the center of attention was the two corporate CEO's Oliver Queen and Taylor King, CEO's of Queen Consolidated and King Consolidated respectively, also present was Hannah King-Mays, Taylor's sister who was very much pregnant.

Taylor had introduced Hannah to Felicity earlier and they had gotten along instantly sharing common interests among them the latest in computers. So she was the reason Taylor was so adept with the latest technology. Felicity could also see the siblings got along well. It was in one of those conversations that Oliver finally approached Felicity, touching her elbow before whispering, "we should start with the signing," smiling apologetically to Taylor's sister. "Hey Hannah," Oliver continued.

"Oliver Queen," Hannah rattled off, "it's been a long time," turning to Felicity, "Tay and Ollie used to be the biggest brats, along with Tommy. Glad to see you turned out well."

Oliver smirked, "well, who would have thought. Your first?" gesturing to the bump.

Hannah shook her head, "second, I was telling Tay he should get started soon, making babies I mean. You should too, it's a wonderful feeling."

Oliver panned, "I'll take your word for it, I need to borrow Felicity now, official business and all," glancing one last time to Hannah, "nice to see you again."

A few minutes after the Boards of both companies were in place and Oliver and Taylor started to sign the official contracts. When they finished, they were escorted to the ground floor for the press briefing. After a brief introduction by the PR head of QC, Taylor took to the podium first and proceeded with his speech. Oliver then followed with his speech saying that this was a landmark venture for both companies to usher in a new era of ventures and undertakings. Delving a bit into the history of Taylor and himself as second generation executives and paying tribute to their fathers as the men who paved the way for this milestone. Soon enough Oliver talked about the future of the venture and the creation of a new department to spearhead this and ended with calling out her name. She had certainly been paying attention but had zoomed out as she heard him call her name. She soon found herself being egged on by the other executives forward. As Oliver caught the deer in headlight look she was giving he took the few steps the gently and clasped her elbow with one hand and the small of her back with the other and proceeded back on the podium as he repeated her name for the benefit of the press who promptly took photo after photo. It was a fitting irony that the photo that everyone wanted to capture the most was of Oliver and Taylor with her in the middle, as she remembered the headline of the gossip paper from several mornings ago.

Thankful that she wasn't going to speak publicly, she just flashed her smile until the face started to hurt noting once again that this was so not the life she had led a week ago. Finally, everything was all done, the press people were all appeased even if most still shouted questions that were in no way related to the venture at all and more to do with the gossip surrounding the three.

As everyone made their way back to the board room it was almost six o'clock, Oliver announced that an impromptu celebration of the venture would be held in a restaurant as prepped by the QC PR team. The board and executives welcomed this, still high from the significance of the signing. Felicity gave Oliver a look knowing that he had knowingly hijacked the 'date' between Taylor and her and obligated both of them to be at the party. Oliver was proud of what he had achieved both for QC and for the 'non-date' between Taylor and Felicity that he couldn't help but smile a little wider. The smile however faltered when Felicity told him she would be riding with Taylor to the restaurant since it was only fair to Taylor given the circumstances.

Felicity was escorted by Taylor to his town car from the QC office. As she was comfortably seated beside Taylor she couldn't contain her excitement and it made her a little lightheaded. Taylor glanced at her smiling, "Congratulations, Oliver did well, you do deserve to spearhead the venture for QC."

Felicity smiled, "I'm so scared, I know I shouldn't be after what I did. I should be more confident. But, I'm still scared. I don't know what people will say."

Taylor looked at Felicity incredulously, "Felicity, are you for real. This is all you, your are responsible for convincing your board that this is worth it, it would have taken off without the passion you put into it. Oliver was right to put you in charge of this venture."

Felicity gave him a dazzling smile, "really, you truly believe that?"

Taylor, "yes I do, and you should too. Stop having doubts."

As they approached the restaurant, the town car slowed down. Felicity looked at him once again, "I'm sorry, this was supposed to be our date. Now, we are have to be here."

Taylor stepped out of the town car and held out his hand to her, as she alighted he responded, "no worries, you are still with me so it's just like a date except everyone else we work with is invited too. Anyway, we could always have a do-over, another date?"

Felicity was now eye level with Taylor's chin, "we could. But right now, we have to get through tonight first."

The impromptu celebration was a success. The executives where unusually boisterous and Felicity had been fielding congratulatory messages from both sides of the venture companies. Everyone was supportive of her new position and status, that in itself gave her the boost she needed as she looked forward to the gradual transition to her new job within the next two months. Granted leaving the security of her EA position and more importantly her proximity to Oliver still gave her some distress but at this moment the overwhelming support she got overshadowed some of her remaining doubts.

She even spotted Oliver less broody albeit a little detached in the corner of the room. She knew he had his game face on with his CEO smile that he usually had on. She also knew him well enough to know it was just a façade for him, a role he had to play as CEO. That Oliver Queen would rather be somewhere else patrolling and shooting arrows. As she approached him, he gave her a rare genuine smile, because yes she could tell a fake one from a genuine one.

"Congratulations again Felicity, everyone is raving about you," Oliver told her genuinely.

Felicity rolled her eyes, she knew it was immature but she just couldn't get used to Oliver giving her compliments just yet, "again, this is partly your fault for putting me on point."

"And as usual, I was right. You are really great Felicity, one of a kind great," Oliver told her.

Felicity fell into a comfortable silence with him for a few minutes before she ventured, "so you will be needing a new executive assistant."

"I would," Oliver nodded.

"How do we work around everything," Felicity couldn't help but ask.

Oliver shook his head, "there will be time enough to discuss all that, maybe on Monday. Right now, I want you to enjoy yourself. Your 'date' is looking this way, why don't you go back to him."

Felicity looked at Oliver suspiciously, seeing her look Oliver just shrugged, "he's your date tonight. You said to play fair, so I'm giving him this night."

Felicity laughed, "really, after you practically usurped my date night!"

Oliver placed a hand on her shoulder, "you didn't really expect me to play fair. I assume you won't be able to make it to the Foundry tonight? Digg and I will be heading out in a few minutes to the Foundry. See you tomorrow," giving her shoulder a final squeeze before walking away.

Felicity strolled back to Taylor who was once again with his sister Hannah, "hey Hannah."

Hannah smiled at Felicity, "hey you. My brother had a lot of nice things to say about you."

Felicity looked at Taylor blushing, "well I should hope so."

Hannah laughed, "I like this one," looking at her brother knowingly.

Taylor looked back at his sister "I like this one too," as he wrapped an arm around Felicity.

Felicity bit her lip to stop herself from blurting out, "I like you too, who wouldn't, rich, handsome and a body to die for,"

Hannah was smiling and Taylor as looking at her deeply and she suddenly realized, "oh my god, I said that allowed didn't I," as Felicity started to blush once again.

Hannah just tapped her brothers' chest, "I really like this one," she staged whispered as she left them alone.

Taylor was now looking at Felicity with a grin, "so you think I'm handsome and have a body to die for?"

Felicity tried to find humor in her predicament, "and rich, you left that out."

Taylor shook his head, "well, I will admit it wasn't the night I planned for when I asked you out on a date, I'll take it." Scanning the room, "I don't see Oliver around anymore."

Felicity also scanned the room, "nope, he left earlier, had somewhere to be, you know billionaire bachelors, always have some place to be."

Taylor looked at Felicity for a moment, "we should take our leave too, time for coffee before I take you back to your place?"

Felicity smiled up at him, "yeh, that would be nice. A quick coffee run, I know a place near my building."

Taylor placed his hand on her lower back, "then lead the way Ms. Smoak."

An hour later, Felicity was deposited back into her apartment by Taylor King after a circumspect kiss on the cheek. Over-all she hadn't had a more enjoyable day in a long time. Taylor was really nice, more than nice. And he was definitely interested in her, that she was sure of. But the guy was playing it safe by being cautious. Several times during coffee she knew he wanted to say something, or more like ask about her relationship with Oliver. He went as far as to say he was a little confused by the more than usual closeness Oliver and she seemed to have together. But he didn't go further than that. She couldn't find it in her to tell him about Oliver's intention to also woo her. Since she was after all single, she was technically free to date anyone. Dating 101 rules after all allowed for non-exclusive casual dating, that is until her heart can decide what choice she would make next.

Despite the fact of the newness of her acquaintance with Taylor, she would say that Oliver and Taylor were dead even. Taylor had introduced her to his sister, so meeting the family, at least one member was a plus. If she took the sisters' taunts seriously, she had his sisters vote of confidence. Oliver on the other hand was known to her, granted her had fallen several notches from his pedestal after the Foundry debacle, he was trying.

So they were dead even as of Day 1, because yes she would start taking notes. That of course was until she reached her bedroom and saw what was left on top of her bed, an elongated velvet box. As she sat down on her bed to open the box her breath hitched, for inside was a delicate necklace with a gold-plated Arrow.

In the moment she adjusted her imaginary score board, Team Oliver - 1 point.

Hey guys, Team Oliver or Team Taylor….it's just the beginning so nothing heavy, at least not yet. That will come later.

Reviews please.