A/N: This is a tremendous Olicity chapter and I had so much fun writing it. A lot of things come to fruition in this one so it ended up being a bit longer than I expected. I hope that won't affect the pace too much. I'm also experimenting with pairing music while I write certain scenes. So for those of you who want some sound while reading to get in the mood, here's my proposed mini soundtrack for this chapter (I've tried to stay as spoiler free as possible): 8tracks fadingtales/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this-act-i-part-vi-playlist

* Oliver and Felicity on the beach - The Loved Ones by Sanders Bohlke

* Felicity and Oliver before heading home - I Know You Care by Ellie Goulding

* Sara and Felicity - Crown On the Ground by Sleigh Bells

* Laurel and Oliver - Would You Please by Rachael Yamagata

* Oliver runs after Felicity - Can't Pretend by Tom Odell

* Felicity hacks into Jervis Tetch's email - Glory And Gore (Yuthnasia Remix) by Lorde

+ 2 Bonus Tracks

I hope you guys enjoy. All reviews, comments, likes, etc... are appreciated!

PART VI

OLIVER

After freaking out for a solid five minutes, Felicity quickly gathered herself together and started trying to take her cellphone apart so that she could reconfigure it to get a signal.

"I'm sure somebody will be back tomorrow morning," Oliver told her. "They probably just went home for the night."

Oliver had managed to rustle up some wood for a fire. Felicity looked up from where she was tinkering with her cellphone, sighed and nodded.

"The international rates would be crazy expensive anyways," she said, tucking her phone away into her pocket.

Oliver finished tending to the fire and sat down next to her.

"How does a billionaire playboy learn how to build a fire from scratch?" Felicity teased as she rubbed her hands over the flames.

"Boy scouts," Oliver supplied easily.

"Somehow I don't believe that," Felicity drawled.

Oliver merely smiled enigmatically in return.

"You know… people always talk about what happens if you hypothetically get stranded on an island. I never expected it to actually happen… or that it would be with my boss."

Oliver laughed and it felt like it's been a long time since he had.

He noticed Felicity rubbing her bare arms and promptly shrugged out of his suit jacket. She rebuffed his attempt to draw it over her shoulders.

"No, no. I'm fine. You keep it."

"You're freezing, Felicity. Take the jacket. Besides, I have more body fat to keep me warm."

Felicity snorted and raised her brow at him, "I doubt that very much. Not that I've noticed or anything…"

Oliver grinned. "Take the jacket," he insisted.

Felicity opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it and he draped his jacket over her shoulders. Her fingers brushed his when she reached up to pull the lapels closer together. He fought against the hitch in his throat. The fire had warmed her cheeks, turning them a subtle pink. Her hair was slightly disheveled in an adorable way and he liked the way his jacket enveloped her, a little too large so she was cocooned in it.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Anything for you," he said softly in return.

The reply felt natural and he meant it. He had made himself an ultimatum before he stepped foot on the island. It seemed pretty clear now more than ever that whatever is going on… he was most definitively not the Arrow. He looked at Felicity again, watching her as she pulled up her knees to chest, as she blew on her hands before holding them towards the fire, and he thought maybe… maybe that's okay. Maybe it's time he can just be Oliver Queen, just the man not the vigilante. Maybe this is his moment to finally allow himself to be with the people he cared about. Because he's realizing it more and more every day that the person he cares most for is the girl sitting right next to him.

He tended the fire for a while, occasionally poking at it and adding some more wood to keep it burning. He'd watch Felicity from the corner of his eyes, listening to the lap of waves and tides beat against the shore.

"It's so quiet out here," Felicity said, her voice a little breathless. "I'm so used to the bustle of the city, it's kind of nice being away from everything."

Oliver smiled, "What? You're not jonesing for some wifi?"

Felicity laughed. "I probably will in a few more minutes, but for now… this is nice." She looked at him and smiled, the kind of smile that reaches her eyes.

He could get lost in that brilliance of her eyes when she smiled that way.

She turned away for a second, drawing in the sand with her finger.

"So are you going to tell me why we flew all the way to China? Or why you freaked out earlier this morning?"

Oliver looked out towards the sea, tuned his breath to the hiss of the waves for a few seconds before answering.

"I… You would think I'm crazy if I told you."

"Try me," she said.

Oliver wanted to, he ached with the need, but every time he poised himself to do it, he just couldn't. It felt insane even to him.

"I just… I just wanted to find out who the Hood was."

Felicity wrinkled her brow. "Why the fascination? I mean, I kind of get it. He's enigmatic, is crazy fit, and takes out criminals for living… a sort of superhero, I guess."

"So you think he's a hero."

Felicity pursed her lips and looked upwards. "I think… I think that when the city was in a really bad place… he was the person to start it back on the right path again. That's something admirable, don't you think?"

Oliver nodded. "I guess… I guess that's the reason why I'm interested in him. He's… the person I wanted to be."

Felicity's lips curled into a smile at that. "You want to be a masked crusader?"

Oliver laughed, "It sounds silly when you put it that way." He twiddled with the stick he was using to tend to the fire and then said, "I was jealous of him. The Hood, I mean. I… I wished I could be a part of something bigger than myself. I guess… chasing after him, coming here… I just wanted to understand who he was."

Felicity regarded him with a tender expression on her face. "You are a good man, Oliver Queen. And you don't need a mask or green leather tights to do good. You've already started."

A good man. He can almost believe it when it is coming from her.

They sat in silence for a little while. Just letting the surf put them in a trance. He didn't find the exact answers he was looking for, but being here right now, on the shores of the island with Felicity breathing softly beside him… it felt right. He didn't feel quite so lost anymore.

"You know, it's been ages since I've last gone camping," Felicity said, resting her chin on top of her knees. He turned to look at her, just as the fire caught her eyes.

"My mom… back in Vegas, when she got a nice tip or managed to not spend all of our money on booze that week… she'd sometimes get into these moods where she wants to get away from the city. She'd wake me up early Saturday morning and bundle me up into our beat up old crown vic and drive into the desert."

Oliver just stared at her, listening and watching the firelight dance across her face.

"Let me tell you something, a crown vic is so not made for the desert," Felicity said with a sardonic little laugh. She tossed a splinter of wood into the fire and watched it crackle as the flames ate it up. "But it was nice anyway."

Felicity leaned back and looked up at the sky, her eyes squinted behind her glasses.

"The stars out there… they were amazing," she said this with a grin. "I always felt so small when I stared up at them."

Oliver couldn't keep his eyes off her. She was magnetic, a black hole in his vision and he was caught in her gravity.

"Some people might think it's a lonely feeling considering what tiny specks us humans are in the scheme of things… but I just… I could lose myself in those stars. It's like what you said. It was nice to know that I was a part of something bigger than myself." She turned to smile shyly at him for a brief moment before glancing back up skyward. "These stars out here… they make me feel that way again."

She lifted her arm above her head, her fingers splayed as if she was going to run her fingers through the constellations. She grinned and turned to look at him. Her smile turned sheepish.

"Sorry. Look at me, I'm being all batty because we're stranded on a foreign island," she laughed and her voice was like bells, reverberating in his bones, vibrating in his soul. He memorialized the sound in his head so he could replay them later.

Oliver shook his head. "No, you're not batty at all."

He reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. He felt breathless at the sight of her.

"You're amazing, Felicity Smoak."

He traced his thumbs over her cheeks and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth, a gasp of breath between her teeth. That was what that did him in. Before he could doubt himself, before he could overthink it, before he even knew what he was doing, he leaned forward and he kissed her.

Soft and slow and fully loaded with everything he felt for this magnetic, remarkable girl.

She's stiff at first, startled by what he's done, the absurdity of it. Except it wasn't absurd at all. Anything but. And then her lips softened, her mouth opened to his, and he lost all feeling except for that of her lips on his. He deepened this kiss, poured his entire being into it. He tangled his hand into her hair, pulling her into him.

He wondered if she could taste his longing on his tongue. If she felt the shivers that were crawling up and down his spine, as if a ghost were counting the notches. If she felt the same fire smoldering in his belly, burning stronger with every touch of her.

The scent of her has him dizzy, swirling, there was no ground beneath them. He doesn't know how it is possible for someone to smell like sunshine, but Felicity does. And she tastes like hope, like possibility. She tasted like salvation and Oliver was ready for it, he wanted to be saved.

xxx

He woke up to the smell of smoke from the extinguished fire with a crick in his neck and empty arms. He felt hollow in the space where Felicity had previously occupied before. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. There was already a ferry in the horizon, getting ready to dock. He looked around for Felicity frantically, but only finds his jacket, folded neatly in the spot where she had sat the previous night. The place where he had kissed her. The place where she had kissed him back.

He licked his lips and he could still almost taste her sunshine. He looked back towards the ship.

She must have just gone on ahead of him, he rationalized, fighting against the drop in the pit of his stomach that told him otherwise.

He got up, brushed the sand off himself as much as he possibly could, and made his way to towards the direction of the ferry.

They were in the middle of unloading several construction workers. Oliver maneuvered himself against the tide of Chinese men heading to work and reached the ship's captain.

"Have you seen a blonde girl? With glasses?" he asked.

The Chinese man elbowed his companion and spoke to him in Chinese. The companion turned to Oliver and said, in broken English, "Yes. She left on early ferry."

"She left?" Oliver asked, his unease growing more difficult to ignore.

The man nodded.

Oliver stared at nothing for a whole minute. He was rooted to the spot, like the weight of his feet was pulling him under, into the surf, under it, squeezing the breath out of him.

"Are you coming? We are leaving for the mainland now."

The fisherman's voice startled Oliver out of his stupor. He blinked for a few seconds before nodding. The fishermen dropped a plank for him to get on board and he spent the entire trip back to land feeling sick to his stomach, though he doubted it had much to do with seasickness.

The waves kept on coming, even after he reached shore. It didn't abate until he got to his plane hangar and saw her. She was sitting on a stack of crates, her legs crossed at the ankles. She spotted him and stood up, pocketing her phone and brushing dust from her clothes. He let out a relieved breath of air at the sight of her. She was still here. That was a good sign.

"I thought you were gone."

She adjusted her glasses and smiled warily. "I got off the island, but I couldn't very well fly back to the states without my passport. If you recall, you bribed my way into this country."

"Couldn't hack your way into the system?" he said, trying to keep his tone light despite everything he was feeling.

Felicity smirked at that. "It was an option, but I didn't want to risk the international security. Besides…" Her smile faltered then. "I… I think I owe you an explanation, for why I ran off."

"We can talk when we get back-" Oliver tried to smile for the both of them and he reached out for her hand, but she pulled away before his fingers could reach hers. He felt the rejection distinctly.

"No. I think it's better if we talked now," she insisted.

The roiling in his stomach had returned.

"I've been thinking…" she began.

He was usually a fan of Felicity's thinking, but something told him he wouldn't like what she was about to say next.

"What happens on the island should stay on the island," she finishes with a big sigh, as if it took everything in her to push those words out. "I don't know what I was thinking, that kiss-" she interrupted herself with a nervous laugh. "I don't know what I was thinking. It must have been just… shock from being stranded halfway around the world and then there you were. And there was the starlight and the fire, and the waves in the distance… it all just kind of muddled up my head. I wasn't thinking straight."

"I was," he countered.

This was not the response she had been expecting and it showed on her face. For a moment he thought she'd let him take her hand this time, but she looked down, away from him.

"I… I-I like you," she said it quickly, as if she rushed it out then it would disappear just as quickly. "I mean… what girl wouldn't? You're kind of the stuff romance novels are made of: charming, rich, handsome… And you care." She smiled a little at that last one. "I know what the tabloids say about you, but… I…I believe you when you tell me you want to make the city a better place. I believe you when you say you want to be a good person. Because I know that you are."

Her words, for all their flattery, are slowly ripping up his insides. He's just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"But I can't do this, Oliver."

And there it was. The other shoe. He felt like the floor gave out underneath him.

He stepped forward, tried to reach for her hand again, but she shook her head and he let it drop, catching empty air. It was amazing how a shake of her head could bring his entire world crumbling down, more than a million bullet wounds, more than watching his father take his last breath, more than waking up and finding out that he's not the Arrow, more than anything .

"I'm a simple person, Oliver. I… I can't, I won't get involved with someone who's already with somebody else." She shook her head again. "I'm sorry for kissing you back. That was stupid of me. You and me… us… it's just too complicated. I just don't think it's a good idea."

Oliver opened his mouth, but Felicity held her hand up.

"Don't… don't say anything," she whispered. "I feel like if you do, somehow you'll convince me otherwise. Don't… don't make me into that kind of person, Oliver," she said softly.

There was an ache building, from the tips of his fingers, working its way up through his body to his throat. He clenched his jaw and looked away from her.

"Can we just go home?" she said softly.

How could he deny her anything? So he simply nodded and they both boarded the plane without saying another word to one another.

FELICITY

Thanks to Sara and Diggle's latest discovery of the unnerving Dream Machine blueprints in the basement of the sleep center, Felicity also gained access into Allied Snows' classified files, as no right mind company would leave any sensitive information on a computer connected to the internet.

She'd been spending all her time now cooped up in the Foundry, leaving Diggle to handle Thea. To say the youngest Queen was peeved would be an understatement. But Felicity needed to do this. They were running out of time and finding Oliver now was the only chance they had. It wasn't just the company at stake now. If the Dream Machine, a terrifying contraption that seemed to be made for the sole purpose of altering people's subconscious, was any indication of what Allied Snows was capable of, it was just the tip of the iceberg. It would seem then that Slade has much more insidious plans than just revenge on Oliver Queen.

"Argh!" Felicity released an anguished growl.

Almost everything on the Allied Snows database was encrypted and she was having a hellish time getting past each security level to get to the juicy stuff.

Sara stopped in the middle of her routine on the salmon ladder and hopped effortlessly to the floor. She made her way to the techy blonde, towel over her shoulder. Sara stopped beside Felicity in time to witness her slam her hands down on her keyboard.

"You alright?"

"I'm sorry… just… frustrated is all."

Felicity stared at her computer screen and suddenly felt the pinpricks of tears behind her eyes. She quickly wiped them away before Sara could see, but it was too late.

"I just…," she let out a breathy sob. "I feel like I've failed him. I've failed Oliver."

Without a word, Sara grabbed Felicity by the hand and dragged her up out of her seat.

"Wh-what are you-"

"You need to take a breath and step away from the computer screen," Sara said. "Come with me."

Without waiting for Felicity's answer, Sara pulled her along. She let go when they reached the exercise mat. After rummaging through her bag, Sara tossed Felicity a change of clothes. Felicity caught the items awkwardly.

"What are these?"

Sara placed her fists on her hips, a sly smile tugging on her lips. "Well, you can't very well learn how to fight in a pencil skirt."

Felicity blinked at her for a few seconds before shaking her head. "What? No, I don't have time for this. I still need to-"

"Break into Allied Snows' encrypted database, find Oliver, save the world from Slade Wilson? Yes, I know," Sara interrupted. "Both you and Ollie are real overachieving do-gooders, you know that? You two deserve each other."

Felicity spluttered, not quite sure how to respond to that. Sara only continued to smile at her.

"You're cute when you're flustered."

Sara's sly smile and comment did not help things. And then Sara's face turned serious for a moment.

"You haven't failed, Ollie," she said. "If anything you're the one fighting the hardest to bring him home."

Felicity bit her lip and stared down at the bundle of clothes Sara had thrown her.

"Come on," Sara urged, her tone light once more. "Let's get your heart pumping a little. Vent out some of that frustration physically."

Felicity exhaled a sigh, having realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere arguing with the other blonde. She grudgingly pulled on Sara's borrowed workout clothes, feeling a little self-conscious about her flabby arms and her general lack of muscles whatsoever. It didn't help that Sara kept staring at her.

"What?" Felicity asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Nothing," Sara replied. "I always knew you were cute, but you're also pretty hot."

Felicity's face burned with embarrassment, though she was flattered someone as tough and amazing as Sara was capable of thinking such a thing about her.

"Thank you for the compliment," Felicity replied. The two girls grinned at one another.

The grin doesn't last long because soon Sara had Felicity doing reps on the stairs, crunches, push-ups, pull ups, the whole gamut of exercises. And that was all before they even started any actual hand to hand combat.

By the time Sara busted out the kickboxing gloves, Felicity was sore in places she didn't even know existed. Despite all the sweat and tears, Felicity had to admit… sometimes it helped to just punch something.

"Faster," Sara demanded, dancing around her.

Felicity jabbed, her fist hitting the pads Sara held up with a satisfying smack.

"Watch your footwork," Sara called out. "And keep those arms up!"

Felicity did as she was told, sweat dripping into her eyes.

"That's good," Sara encouraged. "Put your weight into it."

And Felicity did.

"Come on! Hit like you mean it!"

Felicity punched once.

"Another!"

She punched twice.

Every single time she threw a punch, she imagined Slade Wilson and Allied Snows on the other end. So she kept on punching. Kept on doing it until she was completely and utterly spent and she collapsed on the floor mat. Sara grinned at her and tossed her a bottle. She smiled back, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Ready for round two?"

"W-what?" Felicity said breathlessly.

Sara laughed, the sound echoing through their hideout. "I'm just kidding." Sara offered Felicity her hand and Felicity grasped it.

"Thank god."

But Felicity smiled when she said it. There was a fire burning inside her now, maybe it was just her newly minted muscles, but she felt better, her head clearer. And now that her head was clear Slade better start watching his back. Because she was coming after him with all she's got.

OLIVER

Oliver couldn't put it off any longer. Not after what had happened with Felicity. He had to talk to Laurel.

For too long now, unfairly so, he had held onto Laurel, to the idea of her, to the memory of what they used to be. He's realized now that they weren't the same people anymore. At least he wasn't… and it wasn't fair to keep acting like they were.

He had tried to call her, but they all went straight to voicemail. Her assistant was tight lipped as well. This left only their mutual friends to go to. Oliver wasn't quite sure what relationship Sara and Laurel had anymore, so he crossed Sara off his list. That meant Tommy.

"Oliver!" Tommy said slightly surprised by his visit. "I wasn't expecting you, what's up?"

"Hey, I'm looking for Laurel and I was wondering if you knew where she was..." Oliver trailed off.

He didn't need to continue because the next moment Laurel walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a large shirt and shorts, toweling her hair.

"Is that the pizza guy? I swear to god, Tommy, you've better ordered me my wings this tim-" Laurel stopped short when she realized it was Oliver at the door.

She had sounded so lighthearted, so different from how she'd spoken to him lately. Before leaving she was always on eggshells with him and after it was just ice. He had almost forgotten that she could sound happy. He realized then that it was probably his fault.

"I didn't know Laurel was staying with you," Oliver said measuredly.

Tommy's eyes widened at that. "W-wait, it's not what you think, man," he glanced back at Laurel, giving her a dirty look before he turned back to Oliver. "I thought you knew. I thought she told you that she was crashing with-"

"You don't need to explain anything to him," Laurel interjected.

Her face had turned steely and she tossed her towel aside. She stepped in front of Tommy.

"It's not your fault, Tommy. I'm sorry for getting you involved." Her eyes were still boring into Oliver's, but her tone was soft. "Let's go talk," she said to Oliver.

She walked past him, not waiting for him to follow her, though he did.

They walked for a while until they reached the park nearby Tommy's penthouse. Laurel walked over to the swing set, mindlessly running her fingers over the chains.

"It took you long enough," she muttered to Oliver.

Oliver swallowed, feeling the guilt dig its claws into his chest.

"I have to admit… the reason why I stayed with Tommy was because I was hoping you'd get jealous."

Oliver just stared at her, his brow creased. She wasn't looking at him, still fiddling with the chains on the swings.

"That was really shitty of me to use him like that," she took in a gasp of breath, "Tommy is the only one that actually cared, you know."

"Laurel," her name was a whisper on his lips.

She looked at him then, her eyes brimming with salty tears. Her nose had already turned a rose pink. The look she gave him broke his heart.

"I waited for you," she confessed. "I counted the days, thinking you'd be banging on the door any second. But you never came."

"I'm sorry, Laurel." It came out raspy and hoarse. He ached to say more, but he couldn't fathom the words that would make things right.

She shook her head. "You know what happened though? After a while I stopped waiting."

She smiled, even as the tears ran down her face. She brushed them away impatiently.

"And I was okay." She looked him in the eyes and there was a sudden clarity in them that he'd never seen before. "I was okay without you."

Laurel stopped crying then. She vowed to herself that she would not waste another single tear on Oliver Queen again.

Oliver regarded her carefully, nodded, and willed all of his sincerity into his voice. "It's good that you're okay without me. You deserve so much better, Laurel. And I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt you."

Laurel laughed, but it wasn't bitter. "You're right. I do deserve better and you should be sorry." She doesn't bother with sugarcoating anything.

He didn't have any excuses, didn't want to make any. He was done with them. So he simply nodded.

"I'm an asshole."

"A major one."

"Yeah," he agreed.

They fell into a quiet then, but unlike their previous interactions, this one felt much less loaded.

Laurel breathed out a sigh and rubbed her arms. "I guess this is it. We're over?"

"Yeah, I think it has to be," Oliver said.

Laurel just nodded. Her eyes were still red rimmed and she sniffed once, but she looked lighter to him suddenly. Relieved almost. Maybe they both were. They had been stuck in one place, together, for so long. Thinking it was what they both needed, doing what was expected of them, if only out of habit, because they'd been together for so long now. Even when it didn't make sense anymore.

"You've really changed," Laurel said, breaking the moment. "I've started to notice it… ever since… ever since you met her."

Oliver looked her, his brows creased, but there was no malice in Laurel's voice. It was simply matter of fact.

"You look… different," she said, softly. "I wonder if I look different too."

Oliver nodded and this time he smiled. "You do."

Laurel nodded back once. "I feel different," she said. "It feels good."

They stood out there for a few more minutes, just taking everything in, adjusting to the shift in their relationship. Finally, Laurel said she'd better go, she needed to apologize to Tommy.

"Tommy's a good guy," he said.

"Yeah," Laurel agreed, her tone wistful.

"You two look good together." The words tumbled out of his mouth before he even realized it. It had been a simple observation.

Laurel smirked at him. "We've only just broke up like 60 seconds ago. Don't start playing matchmaker with me just yet, Oliver Queen."

Oliver laughed at that. Laurel grinned as well. And Oliver felt the tension that was wound up so tight inside him, like a coil, release. They were going to be alright.

They were going to be alright.

xxx

Oliver goes to find Felicity the first opportunity he gets. He practically runs to her office. He's never felt as light as he does before. His feet feel like they barely touch the ground. The only thing that could complete his feeling of utter happiness would be to see her face. To see those sparkling blue eyes, see the quirk of her pink lips, see her adjust her glasses from the crooked position balanced on her nose. He wanted to be the one to fix them for her. Wanted to be the one to press a kiss to those lips, wanted to be the one that brought the sparkle into her eyes.

He felt heady with the feeling. There was a buzzing, all throughout his body. He felt invincible in that moment, in that cathartic realization that he, Oliver Queen, was in love with Felicity Smoak. He couldn't stop smiling as he played it all out in his head.

He ignored the side looks QC employees gave him as he almost giddily press the elevator button for the IT department.

Everything stopped the moment he took a step onto the 18th floor.

The place where Felicity sat was empty. It was cleared of her usual scatter of paperwork, of all her post-it notes. Even her signature red pen was gone and the computer sat eerily quiet without the sound of her incessant typing and clicking to fill the void. Her chair felt distinctly hollow without her in it. It was a chasm that matched the feeling in Oliver's stomach.

Seeing another IT employee walk by, Oliver grabbed the man's elbow. The ID badge on his chest stated that he was the department manager.

"Excuse me, do you know where Felicity Smoak is?"

"Oh, didn't you hear? She quit yesterday."

"What?"

"Yeah, it was out of the blue. Didn't even give her two weeks' notice. It's going to be a bitch trying to replace her," the IT manager lamented. As if he suddenly realized who he was talking to his eyes widened and he stood up straighter. "Apologies for my language, Mr. Queen."

Oliver ignored him. "Do you know where she went?"

"I heard she got a job working for Walter Steele's campaign as their tech guru. She went down to HR to finish up the paperwork a little while ago. Maybe she's still there if y-"

Oliver didn't wait for him to finish. He was already running. People jumped out of his way as he dashed towards the elevator. He pounded his fist on the elevator button, but it was taking too damn long so he took to the stairs even though HR is on the 3rd floor and he's on the 18th.

He stumbled down the steps, nearly taking out people on his way down. He finally made it to the right floor, bursting through the doors of the Human Resources office, panting and leaving a trail of scattered papers and files in his wake from the people he shoved past.

Everyone stared at him like he was some crazed lunatic. He probably looked the part, but it didn't matter. He looked around, searching for that telltale flaxen head of hair. He walked briskly through the hallways, glancing over the cubicles and ignoring several of his employees inquiring what it was he's looking for.

"Felicity Smoak," he said finally, breathless. "Was she just down here?"

"Y-yes. She just got her last paycheck from Berta. She should be done by now."

"Where?" he demanded.

The poor petrified employee lifted his arm and pointed towards the office across the hall by the elevators. It was then that he spotted her, tucking an envelope into her bag and making her way towards the exit.

She hadn't seen him and every second he spent staring the further she was getting away. His feet pounded on the ground, mimicking the pounding beneath his rib cage.

Felicity looked up just as the elevator door dinged open and took a step inside. It was just as she turned around as the elevator door was closing that she saw him through the gap.

She gasped audibly as he shoved his arm between the sliding doors before they could slam shut. Their eyes met through the crack. Her eyes were full of surprise and his breath was coming to him shallowly. The moment seemed to last an eternity, their gazes locked.

He pushed at doors forcefully. Felicity stared at him wide-eyed, clutching her bag to her chest as he shoved the doors apart and took a step inside the elevator, panting and out of breath. The sight of him, sweaty and determined, seemed to have sucked out all the air in the room.

He stared at her for a long moment, trying to slow the adrenaline rushing through his veins. Then he took a breath as the elevator doors closed behind him. He took the spot beside her without speaking and pressed the button for the ground floor.

They didn't say a word to each other. She was still staring at the door, at the spot he recently vacated, and he was watching the lights on each of the floors they passed blink.

The door dinged open and he snatched her hand before she could move, before she could protest or say anything.

For her part, she doesn't protest. She doesn't say a single thing as he led them through the lobby, past his father and mother, past Diggle, past the hundreds of staring eyes that followed them out of the building.

They hit the open air and he kept walking until they've put at least several blocks between themselves and Queen Consolidated. Even then he doesn't let go of her hand.

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" he asked without preface.

Felicity inhaled deeply, her mouth slightly agape. She looked away quickly and then back to him.

"I thought it was the right thing to do. After… after the island. I didn't think that I… that we should work together anymore," she shrugged.

"You should've told me."

"Oliver," Felicity began, not looking him in the eye.

"No. Let me speak first," Oliver interjected. "Please."

Felicity stared at him, the corners of her mouth tight, but she nodded.

"I don't want this. I didn't mean for that kiss to happen that way," he said.

He saw a flicker of hurt cross her face and somehow that gave him hope.

"I mean, I meant it," he emphasized. "But I shouldn't have done it then. Not when I still had unfinished business." He took a breath. "I broke up with, Laurel."

Felicity looked genuinely surprised. "Oliver, you shouldn't ha-"

"I wasn't in love with her. Not the way I was supposed to be. Not the way she deserved to be. And I think she knew it too. We were both just doing what was expected of us rather than what either of thought was right."

He took a deep breath and stepped toward her. "But I don't want to keep up pretenses anymore. I'm done with that. I'm done with keeping secrets and lies. And right now, at this moment, I need to tell you the truth…"

Oliver didn't take his eyes off of Felicity. His head was pounding, he felt dizzy in her presence, but he had to keep it together.

Because of the life he lived, as the Arrow, he couldn't be with the people he could really care about. But that didn't apply anymore. Neither did his reasons for not being with the person he cared about most.

Felicity pulled away. "This… This is just an infatuation."

Oliver shook his head, but found himself unable to explain. For how could he? How could he tell her? How could he tell her that they've both lived another life? That he had started to care for her long before this one? That of all the people he knew, he trusted her the most. Has trusted his very life to her and she had saved him, more than once. That he knew her so intimately, in so many ways, except for the way he wants most of all right at this moment.

"I'm… I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to be that girl, Oliver. I'm not going to be the girl that makes you leave your girlfriend. The girl who gets involved with her boss. I can't take that kind of risk for someone… someone who barely even knows me."

"I know you."

"No, you don't-"

"I do. I know that you're an incredible, intelligent, talented woman. I know that you worked your ass off at MIT because you were always afraid of ending up a cocktail waitress like your mother, but you don't realize just how brilliant you really are. How brave and wonderful you really are. I know that you like your coffee with two sugars and two creams. That you bite on your red pen when you're nervous. And you're afraid of commitment because your father walked out on you and your mother, but that doesn't stop you from believing in love anyways. I know this because you've let a messed up billionaire ex-playboy with one too many secrets into your life and you trusted him."

"How… how did you know all that?" Her words are almost a whisper.

"Would you believe me if I said you told me in another life?" Oliver said, smiling.

Felicity's expression is bemused and Oliver closed the gap between them. He cupped her face with his hands, brushed her cheeks with his thumbs. She breathed a gasp and he could feel her body tighten, but she doesn't move away.

"I've fallen for you, Felicity Smoak."

He willed every single ounce of his being into his words so she can feel the weight of them in the vibrations.

"I'm in love with you."

His body trembled with the syllables, he meant them so much. She closed her eyes briefly and in that moment he never felt anything as powerful as the urge to kiss her. He restrained himself by pressing his forehead against hers with a sigh. He needed to say it first. Needed to say it in so many words so she'd understand.

"I love you," he said. "I love you."

It's as if once he's started, he couldn't stop. He savored the way the words strung together. The way her mouth parted upon hearing them.

"I think I have for a long time now and I'm not going to waste another minute by denying it or fighting it."

She stared up at him, her eyes shining like glass, her lips quivering, but there was an upwards tilt to their corners.

And then he did kiss her, putting all the feelings he couldn't convey adequately in words into the act. One of his hands slipped to her waist and he splayed his fingers against the curves of her hips, pulling her closer to him.

When she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, he knew it was for keeps.

FELICITY

Felicity came out of the shower to the sight of a red alert flashing on her computer screen. She threw her towel casually over her shoulders, rubbed her sore arms, and sat down at her desk. The alert came from one of her programs set to hack Jervis Tetch's personal email. It had just finished downloading his entire inbox, outbox, spam, etc. You'd be surprised the incriminating things people think they've deleted from their emails. They always remember to clear the recycle bin, but they don't always remember the sent folder.

Felicity set up a search for a few key words and waited for the program to do its magic while she took a sip from her water bottle. The results nearly made her spit out her drink.

Work orders for some rather high tech medical equipment amongst other things spanned throughout the last few months prior to the QC bombing. The orders were sporadic enough that had she not been looking for some common factor between them they wouldn't seem suspicious at all. Especially for a biotech company planning to expand their business. But the thing that made her choke on her water was the address.

All items were delivered to one address… it was on the outskirts of the city. Felicity's heart threatened to burst out her chest at the rate they were pounding beneath her ribs. She did some quick cross-referencing, her fingers trembling.

Yes, it was the same. The warehouse where it all began, where Oliver first disappeared. And then she saw it. The blood work order. Oliver's blood type, his height, his weight. All things she knew because of the many times she had to play doctor and stitch him up. All of it was listed under the pseudonym of John Doe.

The thought flitted across Felicity's mind like an insect skittering across a sunbeam. And then it multiplied, like a swarm, casting a long shadow over everything. The incredulousness of it, the irony, made Felicity go still.

Sara had just came out of the shower herself and she could immediately tell something was happening by the expression on Felicity's face.

"What's wrong?" Concern laced Sara's tone.

Felicity shook her head, breathed, "I… I think I found him." She looked up and met Sara's eyes. "I think I know where they've been keeping Oliver."

He'd been there all along. He'd never left where they lost him in the first place.