Her hair was falling all around their faces, like a curtain, hiding them from the world. Her moans were giving him goose bumps on his back and kissing her didn't make it stop. Not that he wanted it to stop. She being on top meant that he had to just touch and take pleasure so he enjoyed every bit of it.

She started then to move slowly and he shortly laughed under his breath on her teasing. Breaking the kiss, she raised her head and with one hand brought her hair on the back, still looking at him and not stopping her movements.

It was almost noon outside and the light that came through the window made her skin lilac and her eyes dark. God, she was beautiful.

"I love you" she said and landed back to kiss him.

He growled and suddenly stood up with her on his lap, making her moan hard in his chest. Placing his hands on her waist, he began to move her. She raised her head and looking at him she followed his hands, making him place them on her back.

"I love you too" he responded while leaning to kiss her neck. "I... love... you" he said and with every word, he placed a kiss and a mark on her neck and collar bone, making her say his name over and over again.

...

Opening his eyes widely, he woke up from the dream. He could barely breathe, moving being a lost cause to him. It took Oliver 3 minutes to calm himself down and sit up. With his legs over the bed's edge, he let his head rest in his hands, elbows finding support on his knees.

It was not the first dream he had of her since he'd woken up from the coma, but they have been nothing but short scenes of her smiling or looking at him in a loving way, every time both of them being in a place he couldn't recognize: a beach, or a forest, a tropical town or the top of a small mountain. But it has never been like that. It startled him to see her in that way, feeling her skin so close to his and the way she said his name only made his head more cluttered than it was supposed to be.

He brushed his face with his hands and decided to take a cold shower, to clean his mind off of it. There was no point in overthinking the dream, not when he had no idea if it was only a trick his hidden desires played on his mind or worse, things that actually happened in the past, things he forgot after the accident, alongside with many others.

While the cold water hit his back he whispered swears under his breath. He hated it. He wished all the things he was dreaming of to be true, but then why was she acting so distant, so cold, when he was around her.

The moment they shared in his old man's office came back to his mind and after it the one when Barry got them out of the warehouse. How she clanged so hard to him and cried on his chest. The only time she hadn't been so far away from him and afraid, but the opposite.

...

After Barry made some jokes and tried desperately to act like everything was alright, Diggle showed up. His face lit up at the sight of her well and unharmed but then it quickly changed back on the "you are still hiding something from me, so I am still mad at you" one. Felicity remembered her dreams and realized that she had to tell him and that there was no real point in keeping it away from him anymore. She had to tell him everything.

"Barry, Thea" she started interrupting Barry in the middle of one of his jokes. "Could you give John and I the room please?"

She smiled at them and even if Barry looked slightly confused by her asking, Thea nodded and enthusiastically took Barry by his arm and dragged him out of the room, closing the door on her way.

"It was about damn time" Diggle said coming closer to her bed and letting himself fall into a chair.

"I know. I just... it felt wrong to talk about it" she started looking down at her hands. She was now resting with her back on a bunch of pillows, and they were becoming more and more uncomfortable, but she ignored the feeling.

John didn't say anything. He just looked at her and waited for explanations that were surely going to leave her in tears.

"Everything was perfect for a while. More perfect that I ever imagined it could be. But then I got sick. Well, not sick sick. More like the flu sick. But it wasn't truly the flu. It only had its symptoms. A few of them mostly" she started talking faster than she wanted.

"Felicity, breathe" he said, stopping her babbling. She drew in a long breath and blinking the tears away, she gathered enough courage to speak it out.

"I'm pregnant, John. Almost two months. Thea and Lyla are the only ones that know. And now you." She said it all in a single breath.

For a few moments he didn't say anything and when Felicity looked to him, his face was in complete astonishment. She then took a sharp breath in and let the tears fall down her cheeks.

"Felicity..." he started but she held her hands up.

"Don't be mad at them for not telling you, I'm the one at fault here. I decided and asked both of them to not say a thing about it because I felt like it was wrong to speak about it. And it was. For so many reasons." She just couldn't stop now. Not the words, or the tears.

John grabbed her hands and pushed them down on her legs.

"Does Oliver know?" he asked barely heard.

"No. Yes. This Oliver doesn't. My Oliver fell down to one knee and gave me this when I told him" she said taking out her necklace and showing John the ring hanging lightly from it. "It was right before he got hit. Saving me for God's sake. Again." It was too much already. All the pain and suffering she thought she let out when they came back to Starling was now back into her heart. She started crying, sobbing hard and not carrying that now she was not alone. She had John with her. Her friend, her brother.

It was not to her surprise when John stood up and came to hug her tightly.

"I am so sorry" she said between sobs.

"Shh" he said stroking her hair while she cried on his shoulder.

After minutes of uninterrupted sobbing, Felicity finally calmed down and apologized for wetting John's t-shirt.

Shortly after she placed her ring back under her shirt, Thea entered the room shyly and smiled when she realized what had just happened. Felicity guessed that maybe now her heart was a little lighter knowing that she was no longer the only one knowing of the pregnancy.

"I was about to go home and check on Oliver. Is everything okay?" Thea asked entering the room and closing the door behind her.

"I think for now it is" John said standing up from the side of Felicity's bed.

"We have to tell him" Felicity said couldn't being able to deny the feeling of déjà vu. "He already knows too much and leaving him with just that will not only bring him pain, but will also tear him away from us."

Her voice was steady and determined even if her hands were shaking in her lap. She wanted to seem strong, not the fragile pregnant woman who just had her heart torn apart from her chest, but sadly, Thea and John's silence after her statement didn't make her justice.

"And how do you plan on telling him everything?" John asked little more skeptically than Felicity expected.

"Maybe we should just all meet at the same place and talk" Thea suggested.

"Seems like the best idea so far" Felicity said.

"And the only one…" Thea whispered more to herself.

"I'll call Laurel and Roy. And Barry. We'll need them too for this one" John said taking his phone from his pocket.

"So we are just going to gather everybody and tell him straight up all that happened in the last eight years?" Thea asked. "Hell, I don't even know half of it. Never mind the 5 years he spent on that damn island which nobody has any idea what was all about."

"We might need to tell him some things in private" Felicity said in a small voice.

"So we just tell him the essential and then everyone will talk to him separately" Thea concluded and after John and Felicity's approval they decided to meet at the old foundry under Verdant after 12.

John started to call everybody and Thea left to check on Oliver. In the end, Felicity remained in her room with only her thoughts to wander. She began thinking of a way to tell Oliver all they've been through without causing more damage to either of them, but she knew it was futile. No way of telling him everything would ever spare the pain.

...

Oliver finished the shower and got dressed just in time to catch Thea entering the loft silently, like a cat. She saw him after closing the door and for a moment she even looked surprised.

"I thought you were sleeping" she said looking around the room.

"I woke up an hour ago" he responded raising an eyebrow to her gesture. "Why are you here? Is everything alright?"

"Felicity woke up. Barry and Diggle are with her right now" she answered while taking off her shoes. Leaving her purse on the counter, she opened the fridge and took a long look inside of it. "How come we only have wine and ketchup?"

"Don't ask me. You're the one who lives here. And don't change the subject. How is she?"

He took a sit near the table and waited for his sister to reply.

"She's alright. At least the doctors say so. And they also talk about leaving her to go home today, so that might as well mean the same thing" she said closing the fridge's door with a sigh. "I'm so hungry."

"I'll order something. Pizza?" he asked while looking around in the room for the phone.

"Definitely pizza."

"It goes perfect with a glass of wine and one of truth, doesn't it?"

"Ooh" she said laughing. "I see what you are doing but that isn't going to happen."

"And why is that?" he asked looking straight into her eyes with emotionless expression.

"That's because after I take a shower and we eat something, we are going to see the team" she said and she was already going up the stairs.

"The team? Thea, what do you mean?" He asked confused.

"I still don't hear you ordering pizza!" she shouted from the bathroom right before closing the door.

Oliver remained alone in the kitchen with his mouth slightly open and a head full of questions. Reaching for the phone and dialing for pizza, he realized his day was about to become more twisted than it already was.

...

"This was way more than I could have normally eaten" Thea said after she finished her last piece of pizza.

Oliver, whose appetite seemed to be forever lost, looked at his sister with disbelief.

"You can have mine too if you want" he said pushing his left half of pizza towards her.

"No, thank you" she said smiling and standing up from the table. She then took her phone and looked straight at the screen for a few moments.

"Is anything wrong?" Oliver asked feeling her silence hard on his shoulders.

"No. Nothing. Diggle told me the doctors just cleared Felicity out. They're heading to the foundry right now."

"Where?"

"You'll see. Come on, we got to go" she said taking her keys and heading to the door.

Oliver stood up from the counter and followed her.

"Wait" he said stopping on his tracks.

Thea turned looking at him like she was expecting him to say something at some point. "How am I supposed to believe anything you tell me now?"

"Oliver..."

"No, let me finish. I trust you, with my life, with anything" he started to which Thea's eyes softened. "You are my sister. I love you and I know you love me too. And that's why you choose to lie and hide the truth from me when I woke up. You and the other two people I barely know but have so many feelings for, feelings I don't even begin to understand." He stopped and took a deep breath to slow his heart's rhythm that's been going crazy since he realized what was about to happen. "But I'm not going to break, Thea. I don't remember how, but I've changed. I'm not the same spoiled and selfish teen I was 8 years ago, I can feel it. That's why, when all of you will tell me what has been going on, I beg you, let it all be the truth, because it can't be worse than what I've imagined for the past few days already."

"I can't promise you that. Not even when I don't know the whole story" she said smiling but with her voice small and her eyes teary.

For a moment there Oliver saw Thea the way he truly remembered her, so little and fragile. But the moment was gone when she blinked her tears away.

"But about the other things, that I can promise" she said walking towards him and hugging him.

Oliver embraced his sister tightly and when he closed his eyes, he saw her running down the stairs of their old house, with her hair tangling in the air and a smile wide on her face. "I knew it. I knew you were alive" she said and jumped into his arms.

Opening his eyes, he broke the hug and looked at his sister stunned.

"What?" she asked worried.

"Nothing, I just... nothing" he said turning his head away and going to the door.

"Okay. Then we should go" Thea responded after a moment of doubt.

And with that they both left the apartment to meet what Oliver hoped in his heart to be his true life.

...

Being down there again brought both happiness and sadness into Felicity's heart. But not in equal measures.

While she walked down the stairs, hearing the sound of her heels clicking on the steel, she felt like home. All those moments when they saved the city from a merely theft or from a crazy psychopath came back to her mind and she smiled. It was in that times that she began to fell useful and needed for the first time in her life. And more than that, she came to understand the true meaning of friendship, family and love. Events that occurred learned her how to properly cherish her life and the one's of the people she cared about. Felicity felt the fire burst into her soul again and the eagerness of doing something for the city tingling her fingers.

But then Diggle, who was in front of her, turned up the lights and her smile faded and the fire died out in a second. Everything that was broken or shattered was gone, cleaned maybe by Dig or Thea, but it didn't make anything better.

Their foundry was abandoned. Only half of the light bulbs worked, her computers gone and his chair the only one near the empty tables where they used to place their chemical and biological samples and where he made his arrows. The salmon ladder was there, unharmed, but the steel bar was gone, maybe took by the police for investigation, like they did with most of their things when they broke in with a search warrant.

It took only a glance over the whole place for her heart to sink. For a moment she lost her breath, feeling the hole in her heart spreading all over her chest and she realized that now the only things she could do for her city were to run the company and occasionally help the others with information only she could find. Her life as a heroine hacker ended on the day she began to share her body with another human being, one that needed protection and safety. She won't let her child into the hands of the danger ever again.

Taking a deep breath, she let herself fall into his chair. She brought her knees to her chest and looked at Diggle, how he was pacing around impatiently, rubbing his hands and looking straight to the floor. Felicity then realized that even if Oliver lost his memories, Diggle didn't and the disappointment and anger he held for so long were still inside of him, trying to burst out. She saw how hard he was trying to chase them away and she was prepared to tell him something encouraging when the door opened with a loud click and both their gazes flew to the stairs' end.

"Barry and Cisco are on their way right now" Laurel said literally running down the stairs. "Thea called too and told me they are heading here and will arrive in 5."

Felicity couldn't deny the feeling of relief that eased her shoulders seeing the other woman entering instead of him. She was not ready for all of this to begin. It felt like an upcoming disaster and she hated it.

John didn't say a thing but he nodded and continued to walk around.

"Please stop. You're making me dizzy" Felicity told him and bringing a hand to her forehead.

"Sorry. I forgot" he said stopping and coming next to her.

Laurel looked like she wanted to ask what was the thing that John forgot but then the door opened again and Barry appeared near them moments before the door closed back.

"Sorry for being late, I had to drop Cisco at the train station" he said checking his watch. "Well, I'm not late at all. That's new."

"Cisco left?" Laurel asked him and Felicity could literally feel the disappointment in her voice. It was a strange thing to hear and she made a promise to herself to ask Laurel what was it about her and the mechanical engineer.

"Yeah. He got a call from Caitlin saying something about an emergency. I didn't hear the talk but he assured me that it was nothing serious so I decided to remain for the time being."

"Hopefully, it won't take long and soon enough you can go home, Barry. You are needed there" John said without looking at the boy.

"Not more than I am needed here now, that's for sure" he said looking straight at Felicity.

Felicity knew what kind of emergency Caitlin called about. Or at least she thought she knew. Cisco told her that the chances of him and Caitlin being meta-humans were small but existent and it was enough for anyone to freak out.

"Thank you" she said pressing her hand on Barry's arm. He smiled and nodded and it was enough.

The third time the door opened, Felicity kept her head in place, not daring to look up, already knowing whose steps were walking down the stairs.

"Hey guys" Thea's voice was heard. "Are we going to do this or not?" she asked and Felicity felt as if the question was referred to her alone so she raised her head and looked straight into the girl's eyes. She was waiting for an approval and Felicity had to force herself to nod properly before looking at him. She didn't expect to find his eyes already on her. Oliver was not looking at the strange cave he built three years ago and didn't remember now, he didn't stare at the strange gathering of people he alone brought together with his own vendetta of saving the city, a mission he no longer recalled. No. He was looking at her. At the small and powerless human being he encountered when he first stepped into her office holding in hand a laptop filled with bullet holes.

The intense stare he gave her made her skin tickle. She tried to look away from his blue gaze but failed miserably. Finally, he took his eyes away and looked at the others that were already carefully watching him. She was grateful, letting out a breath she wasn't aware of holding.

"Where is Roy?" Thea asked and looked at everyone in turn, expecting an answer.

"Here" a voice was heart from the back entrance and Roy appeared with a bag in his hand. "I brought these" he said placing the bag on the table near Felicity.

"What's that?" John asked but before Roy could answer Felicity was already opening it and taking out Oliver's made on order bow.

"Someone needed to take it back soon anyway and I figured it would help" he said a little shyly, like he didn't want to make a fuss about it. Felicity kept on staring at the bow unable to say anything or leave it down.

"Was- was that mine?" Oliver asked chocking on his own words.

For a moment there nobody said anything, all of them too shocked by his question to even respond to it. Diggle was the first to make a move. He walked near the table and took the bow from Felicity's hands to later place it in Oliver's. The other man looked surprised by the gesture but took a strong hold on the weapon he held so many times in the past.

"Yes, it was. Like many other things you don't remember" Diggle said calmly.

Oliver looked at the bow, then for the first time at the room he was in and then back at the people around him, eyeing every single one of them.

"I want to know everything" he said and his steel voice and determination made Felicity hope that maybe the Oliver she fell in love with was not completely gone.

"Okay then" John said sighing. "It all started when you went on the Queen's Gambit with your father and Sara Lance eight years ago."

...

It lasted more than Felicity would have liked it to and by the time John was finished she felt drained of her strength. He told him all that he knew about the life Oliver had on the island and in Hong Kong. When he reached to the time he returned, Felicity was asked to help and tell what happened during the Undertaking, the Siege and the Bio Weapon attack from last year. Laurel and Thea were of great help when needed because they were people that Oliver already knew, but Barry and Roy didn't prove less efficient, both of them having had Oliver as a model when they started their life as masked heroes. The hardest thing was to explain him why the people he loved so much died. It was never an easy thing to do.

But what everyone omitted intentionally was his love life. Nobody said a word about the relationships with women he had during the island or since he returned, and for God's sake, Felicity knew they were many. She guessed that they were all expecting her to have that conversation with him in private, but she had no intention of doing that anytime soon.

And like that the whole story was told and, surprisingly, Oliver listened carefully without interrupting once. He held the bow in his hand the whole time. Felicity believed it was unintentionally or that maybe he felt safer that way, believing he had control over the whole situation, especially when things got more complicated than he could handle.

"After you killed Ra's and the rest of us took down the virus, you gave up the hood and left the city. And that's when the accident happened" Thea said finishing the story. She looked at her brother with concern in her eyes. Oliver looked straight at the floor for a moment and then raised his head and looked at the ceiling.

"So tell me if I'm right" he began bringing his glance back at his sister. "We've had a machine that makes earthquakes, sorry, two machines, a drug, called Mirakuru, that turns normal people into soldiers with super strength, a guy strucked by a lighting that got super speed, a magical fountain that brings people back to life and a virus that if released in air, can kill thousands of people. My dad killed himself so that I could live, I spent five years on an island where I became a criminal and made some friends that turned into enemies and after that, I retuned and I decided to take down a list of people my father left me, people that have wronged the city. Then I met you two" he said pointing towards Diggle and Felicity. "You" he continued looking at Roy, "were Thea's boyfriend and because you were injected with the Mirakuru drug, I saved you and brought you into the team."

"Kind of" Roy said nodding.

"My mother died by the hand of my ex best friend from the island so that me and my sister could live. Sara, who was supposed to be dead when the boat went down, turned out to be alive on the island during the second year, but died again so she could surprise us one more time two years ago. That didn't take long though, because she was killed again. And then you decided to take on her legacy and become a vigilante on your own" he said looking at Laurel." But then, Sara wasn't just killed. She was killed by Thea, drugged to do so by Malcolm Merlyn, who is also her father and the mass criminal that produced the earthquake machine which killed Tommy, and who is now Ra's. Speaking of Ra's, he was Sara's girlfriend's father and the one that tried to kill me in combat, thing that he almost succeeded. And because of that almost, then he wanted me to become his heir but because I refused he almost killed Thea and turned me into a public threat. The police tried to catch me and that's when Roy took the blame for me and died in prison. Gladly, you look very much alive, which I find calming. Yet, to bring Thea back to live, I had to accept the offer and become evil. I did some wrong things, lost your trust" he said looking at John, "but then it turned out it has been all just a plan to kill Ra's, which I did and then left town."

"Yeah, you got everything right. More or less" Thea said looking uncomfortable.

"But I still don't get what's the deal with you in this mess" Oliver said looking at Barry.

"Well, to begin with, I'm not from around here, so clearly my participation into everything that's been going on has been smaller than anyone's" Barry told him scratching his head.

"So?"

"Barry first came to Starling city two years ago, helping us with a case about a Mirakuru soldier" Felicity said stepping forward and taking everybody by surprise. "Because of some complications, you almost got yourself killed so we, me and Dig, had to reveal your secret identity to him and ask his help. Eventually, he saved your life. Then he returned to Central City and we kept in touch."

"Yeah, we remained very good friends" Barry said and looked grateful at Felicity. "But as soon as I returned home I got hit by a lightning and stayed into a coma for nine months" Barry continued. "When I woke up I found out a I had super speed and became a hero, with your help of course."

"My help?" raising an eyebrow.

"With some very good advices" Barry said nodding rapidly.

"Okay. That was not as weird as I expected."

Oliver took his eyes from the people around him and continued to analyze the lair. Diggle changed a look with Felicity, telling her telepathically that she has to deal with the rest as soon as she felt like it, but before Felicity could respond back with a very denying and refusing look, he turned his back on her and started walking towards the stairs.

"I am going to hit the streets now. Anyone caring to join? He said starting to climb up the stairs. Laurel looked after him for a second and then followed him, without saying any word.

"If I remember well, and I usually do, I think I have some business to take care of too" Thea said and began to walk backwards.

"Not so soon Mrs. Queen" Felicity told her and the girl stopped on her tracks. Felicity walked towards her. "Why is everyone leaving? What is going on?" she asked barely a whisper so Oliver wouldn't hear her anxiety of being alone with him.

"Not everybody is leaving. Roy isn't" Thea answered in defense.

"Actually I was planning to came after you" Roy said looking half guilty and half embarrassed.

Thea gave him a look that clearly said "not helping". "Barry is still here. And Ollie."

Felicity changed her weight from one foot to another and looked not at all pleased at the young Queen. She knew what was the plan. To leave her there with Oliver in hope of talking through to him. Barry could always run away in mere seconds and leave her there alone with a stupid excuse, but she couldn't. And neither did Oliver. Thea smiled apologetically and then left, with Roy behind her.

"Thank you" Barry said, now standing right beside her.

"For what?"

"Earlier I was caught off guard and you got me out of it" he said scratching his head again. Felicity knew he was not feeling comfortable with any of it, like everyone else, but Barry was known for making everything obvious about him. It was his thing.

"Oh, you're welcome" she told him smiling.

Barry looked at her for a second before smiling back, a smile that barely reached his eyes.

"Barry... Cisco told me about Eddie. I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. Nobody should go through losing a friend" he said looking away from her. "But you know that already" he continued looking at Oliver.

He was with his back turned at them, but from the position they figured he was looking at the salmon ladder.

"How are you handling it?"

"Well, taking into account everything, I'm pretty proud of myself. I cry like twice a day, and that in the good days" she started talking.

"Felicity..."

"I'm kidding. I'm not okay at all" she said and her voice was trembling. "I just got out of the hospital after being kidnapped and threatened with a gun by a man desperate to kill us. And I wasn't good before all of this either."

She stopped and took a deep breath to calm down. She needed to stop if she wanted to be able to talk to Oliver. Tears were already in her eyes and she scolded herself for being so weak.

"I'll be fine. I always am" she told Barry and looked at him smiling again. This time he didn't smile back at all, instead he hugged her and she was so grateful for that.

"If you need anything, anytime, just let me know" he said breaking the hug.

"I will."

"Well, I have to go back to Central City and figure out my life. Good luck with yours" he said looking again at Oliver, which was now with his face turned to them, watching everything that was happening from the other side of the foundry.

"Thanks... I'll need it" she told him with her eyes on Oliver.

Barry touched her shoulder and finally smiled. It was small and sad, but at least it was there.

"Goodbye Felicity."

"Goodbye Barry" she said looking back to him but he was already gone and now she was all alone with the man she loved but who didn't remember her.

"Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy." - Oliver Queen

And when I quote this I'm not referring to the waiting you guys endured, but to my inspiration. It might come slow as a snail but when it does come, it brings passion and beautiful moments. and tears in my eyes, that's for sure. I'm so sorry it took me so long to post this chapter, I'm afraid to even count the days… It's been a long time. This was an easy chapter, a lot of truth and feelings though from everybody, it kind of cleared out the mess they created in the first chapter. Kind of. Felicity still has a lot to tell Oliver and I bet it'll be very emotional to write their dialogue. I'm wondering what happened to Slade though… well then, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and please leave your opinion in the comments :D thank you! Take care guys!