Arrow: Fracture Part 3

The Cover of Daylight

The rustling of the desk drawer as Diggle locked it shut as well as his quickened pace raised Oliver's eyebrow as he stopped before his friend's desk. It was unlike Diggle to take a lunch break so early, slightly concerning Oliver that something was wrong.

"Hey, I got your message what's up?" Oliver asked, watching as Diggle collected his loose belongings on the desk.

"Riley called, said he needed my help with something that didn't require masks." Diggle explained, his hesitation toward assisting the ARGUS operative showing in his body language. Oliver wondered to himself what Riley had in stored for such a request, but decided against digging too deep into the situation and adding further doubt toward Riley.

"Did he say what it was?" Oliver asked, hoping Riley had at least shed some light on the subject.

"Just collecting intel. He specifically said it would be recon only, which is why he wanted a less known face." Diggle explained as he smirked and motioned to Oliver's well known appearance.

"Right, sure you don't need backup?" Oliver asked, still not comfortable with leaving a team member alone with Riley during an operation.

"Nah I'll be good, but speaking of backup. I couldn't help but notice a vacancy on Felicity's finger...specifically her ring finger." Diggle began as he lowered his voice and checked to make sure no one else could hear them. Oliver's smile quickly changed as the conflict on his face took over while he struggled for an explanation.

"I thought you said you were gonna propose the morning of Sara's birthday?" Diggle added, hoping to add some comfort to his friends hesitation.

"It's just...with Riley showing up and HIVE and now mention of the League. It just doesn't seem like the right time." Oliver explained, his frustration to the horrible timing of the recent events obvious on his face.

"Word of advice. The first time I proposed was when a field medic was digging shrapnel out of my leg, and the second was in a hospital after Lyla had been injured by a boomerang." Diggle began, smirking as he thought back on how crazy his life truly was.

"The point is, you don't wait for the right time...cause when you ask that makes it the right time." Diggle ended as he smiled to his friend and patted him on the shoulder while walking off to the elevator. Oliver smiled and thought to himself for a moment as he glanced over to Felicity's office and thought back to when he had taken his mother's wedding ring from storage. The same chill passed through him as he played out the scenario in his head as he had hundreds of times before until the cold realization of what was happening around him set in and cut his hope short. Proposing now would only add more chaos to the team and with HIVE operating in the city Oliver couldn't risk anyone dropping their guard, especially the love of his life. The clicking of the keyboard shuttered as thoughts of Riley's explanation to the team circled in Felicity's head, keeping her from focusing on the latest batch of QT reports. The slow open of her door and Oliver's tentative grin brought a much needed distraction as she looked up from her desk.

"Hey you." She happily stated, smiling as Oliver moved beside her and leaned down to share a kiss.

"Hey. How's it going up here?" Oliver asked as he glanced to the mostly untouched workload on the desk. Felicity sighed as she scrunched her face and shrugged her shoulders while looking to her monitor.

"Good, it's goin' pretty good." She replied, moving to organize some of the loose files.

"Is that why you decided not to send over those reprimanded files from Finances?" Oliver asked as he glanced down at Felicity's surprised reaction.

"Yup, that would be why." She replied, sighing in frustration as she buried her face in her palms.

"I will get those sent to you before lunch, I just need to find them first." Felicity stated, moving aside groups of files and folders on her desk as she searched for the proper documents.