What's wrong with us when happy hurts

I need you to know, I would never be this strong without you

Notes:

I am so very sorry that I haven't updated in forever. Things have been very weird lately and I needed to figure some stuff out.

Also I was sorta stuck. I know where I'm going and I have some future stuff written but I wasn't sure how to proceed to get to where I want to go from where I am right now.

Also I sort of started to reread the whole story and edit some stuff and inconsistencies I noticed, given that I'm sort of posting as I'm writing and things change because the way I was going to go didn't work anymore with some of the choices I made so far. So I tried to figure out how to solve those issues and to proceed. Like I've said before I have never written such a long story before and am figuring things out as I go.

I hope I can manage to get back to my update schedule from before but I'm not making any promises. Thank you for your understanding.

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Chapter 30

I need you to know, I would never be this strong without you You've seen how I've grown, you took all my doubts, 'cause you were home

Felicity

"Ollie!"

There were exactly three women she knew that called him that, two of which were at home in Star City. Or at least they were supposed to be as far as she knew, and she was talking to the third one. Felicity and everyone she'd been talking to turned around as one by the sound of Oliver's childhood nickname, to see what was going on.

The scene that played out in front of her eyes surprised her on more than one level. She watched Sara rush to Oliver's side, jumping into his arms. Oliver, who was still wearing the Green Arrow's suit, caught her effortlessly and almost habitually, holding on to her tightly once she had wrapped herself around the tall man. The whole scene had looked almost rehearsed. Almost as if they've done this a million times before... and maybe they had. Maybe this was something that Sara used to do before... before they got shipwrecked.

Felicity had spent a lot of time thinking about Oliver's words. More specifically, the part when he mentioned Sara was someone he had known for over twenty years. She had of course known that they've known each other for a long time, but she hadn't been aware of just how long.

They grew up together.

Oliver and Sara and Laurel grew up together. Which meant there was a lot of backstory she was missing. It probably also meant that Oliver's affair with Sara might have been more complex than she had thought. That things weren't what they seemed. Maybe. She didn't actually know that. She didn't really know anything about Oliver's affair with Sara or how it came to be. Just like she didn't really know anything about Oliver's relationship with Laurel. She knew that he had loved her. And yet he had cheated on her with her sister. Sure. But she didn't know any specifics. And she suddenly realized that no one actually did. Because Oliver never shared any information about his relationships with Laurel and Sara before Lian Yu. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She and Dig had never actually asked him about his connection with the Lance sisters, beyond the obvious. They never actually questioned him as to why they were so important to him and he was willing to risk everything for either of them.

He had known them for over twenty years.

Oliver had known Laurel and Sara for longer than Thea was alive.

It had taken Oliver getting angry at her for her to realize that.

The scene playing out in front of her ripped her back into reality.