Comfort

Spoilers:Through The Undertaking

Disclaimer:I don't own them, just amusing myself.

Summary:Mid-episode interlude for The Undertaking because somebody should take care of Felicity after what happens at the casino.

After she heard that Walter was dead, Felicity's world narrowed. Her vision clouded with tears, her heart pounded, and although she never considered herself a fainting type of woman, her knees wobbled. When Oliver turned to her, the anguish in his eyes was the only thing she could focus on and was probably what kept her upright at the time. He stared back and for once she didn't wonder what he was seeing.

The sounds of the destruction Oliver had wrought in the casino had faded into the background, but came back full force with the sound of approaching sirens, spurring him to action. She silently watched as he scanned the office and then picked up her purse. Handing it to her, they locked eyes once again. "Felicity," He said gently.

She was sluggish to respond, a part of her wondering if she would burst into tears if she even tried to talk, so Oliver had to repeat her name, this time placing a hand on her shoulder. "Felicity, the surveillance footage from tonight needs to be erased. We can't have the police connecting you to the Hood."

Maybe it was being asked to do something that required concentration and skill, but it was enough to pull her out of the haze. Giving him a nod to show that she understood, Felicity walked over to the desk, dimly aware of Oliver's hand on her back to steady her passage. A minute later the evening's footage had been erased and the cameras were deactivated to facilitate their escape. Oliver grabbed the USB from the back of the computer, using his other hand to take hers. Wordlessly, they exited the office and then the club through a back door.

During the drive back to the lair some of the emotional numbness wore off and she was assaulted by a steady rotation of sorrow, failure, and guilt. She was aware that tears were steadily slipping down her cheeks and that part of her from before was now wondering why she wasn't doubled over sobbing. When the car stopped at the back of the club, it jolted her out of misery. She wiped at her face, hoping to erase the evidence of crying and was reaching for the handle, when the door opened. Oliver offered a hand and upon taking it, she was easily propelled out of the car. Hand in hand again they made their way into the lair.

Oliver led her over to the metal table that he had sat on too many times. "You have some scratches on your shoulder, probably from the explosion. I need to take a look at them." With that he left to gather the necessary supplies.

Kicking off her shoes, Felicity tried to hoist herself onto the table, but her dress kept getting in the way. Oliver saved her on the third attempt by returning and without warning wrapping both hands around her waist to easily lift her onto the table.

They were almost at eye level now, so she was able to see a similar wash of emotions in Oliver with the addition of concern. He drew in a breath, "Felicity you are really worrying me right now. You haven't said anything. Anything. And this is you. I know with the news about Walter, but….Did you hit your head or did they hit you?"

"No." Her voice was raspy from disuse and crying. "I just….Walter….and its…" Unable to finish, she completely broke down.

Oliver stepped forward and gathered her to him. Automatically her arms wrapped around him, fingers clutching the leather of his jacket to hold him as tightly as he was holding her. She sobbed into his chest, head tucked into that place just below his chin while he gently stroked her hair. Eventually she felt him relax against her and tears dampen her shoulder. Finally she calmed, and they stayed tangled in each other for a minute before Oliver pulled away. The crying had eased something inside of her, and feeling more normal she looked at him to find a similarly tear stained face.

"I'm sorry." The words tumbled out without thought. "This is my fault. Walter asked me to look into this stuff, and I could see that it wasn't going in a good direction, but I kept pushing because I wanted to figure it out. It was a challenging puzzle and I apparently can't walk away from those even when I probably should. If I had just convinced him, then maybe…." As she trailed off Felicity realized that the last part of what she said could be applied to present circumstances and filed that away to think about later.

Oliver reached out and tucked a curl behind her ear, thumb brushing her cheekbone as he drew the hand back. "This is not your fault and you know that. You didn't push him down any path he didn't want to go. I understand that you feel guilty, I feel guilty, but this is not your fault."

The irony of Oliver being the rational one should have caused Felicity to laugh, but instead she just answered softly. "I know that or my brain knows that in some way, but it doesn't change how I feel right now. I thought I was prepared for this, I knew it was possible that he….but…"

"Hey, nothing could have prepared you for this, and I think that's actually a good thing."

"I want to find the people that did this."

"Oh we will." A dark look passed over his face. "But first I need to check you out. Do remember hitting your head? Anything happen in that room before I got there?"

"Just threatening." She shivered. "And the gun to my head."

"Okay, let's take a look then." Oliver squeezed her other shoulder and moved around the table to check the one that had been the closest to the blast.

"It doesn't look too bad," He said after giving her shoulder and back a quick once over. "The disinfectant will probably sting."

They lapsed into silence again. Felicity zoned out, yet was still aware of Oliver's progress as his fingers brushed her skin while cleaning and applying band-aids to the abrasions.

The feeling of the strap of her dress being eased down startled her out of non-thoughts, and she must have stiffened because Oliver said, "Sorry, the dress should have covered you, but there are two cuts here that go under the strap and back. I think."

"Okay." She replied, her body starting to warm to the idea of being undressed even a little bit by Oliver. It was so inappropriate given the circumstances and only got worse a moment later when he drew the zipper of her dress down enough to expose part of her back. She really hoped he didn't notice her heart beating faster as he tended to the final wound, the touch of his fingers causing tingles to dance across her skin in a way that had nothing to do with disinfectant.

"All done." He said, carefully slipping the strap up over the bandages to sit on her shoulder.

Felicity drew in a hopefully calming breath and heard Oliver move to put the medical supplies away. The emotions of the evening combined with Oliver's care and concern were making it hard to deal with her attraction to him. She had just collected herself when he came back to stand in front of her, this time looking regretful.

"I need to go home. I have to tell my Mom and Thea what we know." He gave her a long look. "I don't think you should be alone, but I can't exactly take you with me. So, who do you want me to take you to?"

"Diggle." At Oliver's surprised expression, she added. "He didn't break up with me, and he knows we were close to finding information on…. With anyone else I would have to pretend this is about something else, but not with him."

"Okay. I'll drive you to his place, but you should call to make sure he's there. I'm going to take a quick shower and change. You have clothes here to change into, right?"

Felicity nodded. They were workout clothes, but it was better than spending the evening at Diggle's formally dressed.

"Just be careful not to catch the bandages, especially the one on your back, it's kind of deep."

With her answering nod, Oliver stepped closer to help her off the table, one hand going to her waist and the other grasping her uninjured shoulder. This had the unfortunate effect of bringing Oliver's face dangerously close to hers and without thought Felicity closed the distance and kissed him. It was gentle, merely the pressing her lips to his. She was about to pull away when the hand that had rested on her shoulder moved to cup and tilt her chin, allowing Oliver to slant his mouth over hers more completely, deepening the kiss as his lips opened over hers. It was over too soon, and her heart was pounding as Oliver took a step back with an unreadable expression on his face. "I'm going to go change. I'll be right back."

What the hell was that.

That was the only thought going through her mind as she removed the red dress and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt. Well, she knew what it was, but why had she acted on it. And just how badly was this going to screw up her friendship with Oliver? It was one thing to be attracted to the man, but quite another to throw her lips at him. Sighing, Felicity pulled out her phone to call Diggle.

"Smoak, this had better be good. The game just went into overtime." Diggle answered, sounding amused rather than angry, despite his words.

"Hey Diggle, I…umm…" Her voice cracked.

"Felicity is everything okay?"

"No…we found-"

"Is Oliver okay?" Diggle interrupted, panic edging into his voice.

"Walter is dead." She took in a breath and let it out slowly. The fact that she hadn't said it before now was causing everything to come rushing back.

"Oh Felicity, I'm sorry."

She swallowed her emotions to explain, "We just found out, the mission I told you about. Oliver has to tell his family and I don't want to be alone right now, so-"

"Come over here."

"Thanks." The tears pricking her eyes now were due to gratitude.

"How's he doing?"

"Okay-ish, I think. It's hard to tell, you know." She realized that she could no longer hear the shower running. "I think we'll be leaving pretty soon, so-"

"I'll be waiting for you downstairs. Text me when you are close."

"Thanks Diggle."

"I'll see you when you get here."

"Okay, bye."

She hung up the phone, gathered the rest of her things, and was looking for a sweater when Oliver's voice startled her. "What are you looking for?"

She froze and then turned to face him. It was little unfair how he could be so sneaky. "A sweater or something. I don't have my coat, and I usually have more than one sweater here because it's always cold, but I just did laundry so I must have taken them all home because I can't find anything anywhere. What?" She asked in response to the edges of Oliver's lips twitching, the closest to a smile either of them would be tonight.

"You're rambling about laundry, so you must be feeling a little better." Not waiting for a reply, he went over to one of the work tables and pulled something off the chair. "Here, it'll be big on you, but it'll be warm."

"Thanks." She slipped the hooded sweatshirt on, noting that it smelled like him which was rather comforting. Oliver was still standing there watching her so she decided that now was as good a time as any to address what had happened before. "Oliver, about before with the-"

"Felicity." He gently cut her off. "Sometimes you need a reminder that you're alive in order to deal with death. Believe me, I understand."

She stared into his eyes, not able to read much beyond the sadness. "Okay." If he was going to make it easy for her she wasn't going to complain, having no clue as to what she would have said anyway.

"Ready to head out?"

"I called and Diggle is waiting for me."

The car ride was less emotionally charged than before, but they still didn't speak, both lost in their own thoughts. When they reached the building, Felicity turned to Oliver, placing her hand over his where it rested on the gear shift. "I'm….good luck with your family. Call me if you need anything, even just someone to talk to, okay?" He had spent the night taking care of her and now Felicity was feeling like she had neglected him in some way.

"I'll give you a call tomorrow and let you know how things are going." He said, flipping his hand to hold hers and squeezing it gently. "Take care of yourself."

Felicity nodded, "Good night." With that she left the car and walked into the building.

As Oliver drove home the image of Felicity's tear stained face drifted into his thoughts with an accompanying a blow of guilt. He knew Felicity was smart and capable and had chosen to work with him, even if he had initially forced her hand by turning up in her backseat. Ultimately he realized that he should follow own his advice about choices and guilt, yet he couldn't help but feel responsible for the continual loss of her purer outlook on life which came from working with him. And he absolutely hated to see her hurting.

His thoughts then settled on a more pleasant and problematic memory from the evening- that kiss. Oliver knew Felicity was attracted to him. The signs were there, but she treated him as nothing more than a friend, the occasional poorly worded comment aside. So after working side by side with her for this long he hadn't expected her to act that attraction. To be fair, he didn't think she had, really believing what he had told her afterward, that it was instinct for both of them to seek comfort after finding out about Walter. What he had not expected was his reaction to the kiss. There had always been something about Felicity that intrigued him, but he never guessed that delved into attraction. He had been utterly wrong.

However, he wasn't going to change things between them. For one thing he loved Laurel. It was the one part of himself that he had been able to hold onto from before the island. The thought of seeing her again and making things right between them had fueled him during the darkest times in that place. He couldn't be with Laurel now, but that didn't mean he should start something with Felicity. To begin with she deserved someone better than him with the way he was now. And she was wound so deeply into his life, knowing and accepting the real him, that if they started something and it didn't work out, he didn't know how he could recover from it.

He absolutely needed her in his life, so a friend is what she would stay.

Author's note: This is a one shot for right now, but I have a couple of ideas for how to continue and possible use this as a jumping off point to deal with the Oliver/Laurel and Felicity thing this show is doing (okay, I really mean fix it). This of course depends on the season finale and what people think.