An Arrow Through the Heart

Just a dream

Oliver walks into the Foundry through the alley entrance. He tightens his grip around his bow in an attempt to help dull his pounding headache from his night on the street as the arrow. He tries to drown out the loud music and noises that come from the club.
Although it may be late, most people being in bed by now, the club scene is just waking up from a long day's rest.
Oliver enters his center of operation expecting to find the lights off, but instead finds them on. He told Dig and Felicity to go home, once he finished his "mission" for the night and was on his way back. They must have forgotten to turn off the lights, again.
As Oliver walks through the foundry and approaches the desks and medical station he discovers that his assumption was wrong. The lights weren't forgotten about, one his team member never left.
The vigilante observes the small blonde curled in her chair, sound asleep, and a smile forms on his face.
Felicity stayed back and waited for him to get back. This isn't the first time she has, Oliver just thought that she wasn't going to anymore after he told her how important her sleep and free time was.
He watches his sleeping friend, her blonde hair is escaping her ponytail from the long day. Her glasses sit on her desk and her shoes lay at the foot of her chair. Her chest rises and falls at a slow but steady pace and she has a small smile set on her face. She's beautiful, but that's nothing new.
Oliver starts towards his partner to wake her up, surprised that the loud music or his footsteps concrete floor haven't already. He's about to gently wake her when he changes his mind.
It's to late for Felicity to be driving in the glades alone, especially after she has just woken up. So, Oliver plans to shower and change, then wake the IT girl and drive her home.
Oliver notices the small goose bumps on Felicity's pale arms and grabs one of his sweatshirts that is near by laid over a chair. Oliver places the sweatshirt on Felicity, his hands gently grazing her arms, in attempt to provide her some extra warmth.
The billionaire then proceeds to go change out of his green leather suit that sticks to his skin and makes noises with each movement.
Oliver is putting on a grey t-shirt to go along with his blue jeans when he hears a faint cry from the other room.
Felicity.
The cry grows louder and not a second later Oliver is running into the other room to Felicity.
He finds Felicity still sleeping in the chair, but his sweatshirt has been thrown on the floor and Felicity moves around in the chair uncomfortably.
Oliver kneels by her chair noticing the tears that fall down her flushed, flawless skin.
She's having a nightmare.
Oliver places one of his hands gently on Felicity's shoulders gently squeezing it, in an attempt to wake her up from her nightmare.
"Felicity," Oliver calls out trying to snap his friend out of whatever situation her mind has created.
Felicity doesn't wake up but instead begins crying out more.
"Fe-lic-ity, wake up. It's just a dream you're okay," Oliver says a little louder running his hand from her shoulder down her arm a little.
Felicity's eye open wide, her big blue eyes immediately meeting Oliver's. She looks around the Foundry obviously a little confused about what going on. She reaches out and touches Oliver's shoulder.
"Hey, hey hey. You're safe. You're safe, I'm here. It was just a nightmare," Oliver says trying to calm Felicity down, his hand still resting on her arm.
"Oliver!" Felicity says breathing heavily. Her eyes are wide filled with fear and tears still run down her cheek.
"Yeah, you're re okay. What can I do for you?" The dirty blonde questions his friend, concerned about her.
Felicity, then without any warning throws her arms around Oliver, embracing him in a hug.
Oliver is taken by surprise,
and doesn't immediately hug her back. Once her realizes that she is crying into his shoulder he wraps her is arms around her small frame. One of his hand rest on the back of her head and the other is on her back, moving in small reassuring circles.
"Shhh. It's ok, the dream is over. What ever you dreamt about didn't really happen. You're okay," Oliver whispers reassuringly, just as he used to do when Thea was younger and had a bad dream.
      "You're Alive," Felicity whispers so quietly that Oliver barley hears it. Oliver swallows hard realizing what the IT girl said.
"Of course I am," Oliver's says not knowing what to say in response to his friend's words. Oliver pulls away from the hug and places his hand on either side of Felicity's face.
      "But you died?"
      "Felicity, it was just a dream. I'm ok, you're ok."
      "It seemed so real. I thought I lost you," Felicity says hurt by what she thought happened. Hurting Oliver in return because he hates to see his friend like this.
"I'm not sure what your dream was about exactly, and you don't have to share, but if you do I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere Felicity, I promise." Oliver says staring into Felicity scared blue eyes, even when she cries she's beautiful.
"Don't promise that.
You don't know for sure, Oliver, anything could happen at any second," Felicity says in fragments, stumbling over her words.
"You right, I don't know for sure, but we don't know anything for sure. So let's not focus on the "what if's", let's focus on what happening now right now. I learned a lot on the island but most importantly I learned to live
In the moment and value what you have. We may not be able to change what happened yesterday or know what will happen tomorrow but we do know what is happening right now in this moment. And right in this moment I'm here and I'm not planning on going anywhere. I'm here for you Felicity," Oliver says, pushing some of the hairs that managed to free themselves from Felicity's ponytail back to place and wipes the tears away from her eyes.
"Thanks," Felicity says hugging Oliver once again, his
protective embrace and pine smelling aroma instantly relaxing her.
"Anytime. Do you want to talk about you dream?" Oliver asks knowing from personal experience that sharing your dream helps. Felicity nods her head than hesitantly begins telling Oliver about her nightmare.
"One moment you were out being the vigilante, saving others lives, being a hero. The next moment you were shot and Diggle rushed to go get you bringing you back here while I waited anxiously in the comms. We put you on the medical table and started trying to stabilize you but it was so hard. There was so much blood. And you're face-," Felicity pauses taking a deep breath trying to compose herself, she closes her eyes and counts down from three.
Oliver notices how she shivers and picks up his discarded sweatshirt giving in to her to put it on. She puts it on, her small body swimming in it. Felicity smells the collar of the sweatshirts, oblivious to her actions causing a small smile to form on Oliver's face. A smile he only ever had when he's by Felicity.
"And you face, it was just so colorless. I watched as the life drain out of you. Diggle and I did as much as we could. I tried cleaning your blood of my hands but it just wouldn't come off, it was stained on. I stood by your side tears streaming down my face. Diggle standing by me with his arm thrown over my shoulder. He was talking to you telling you to pull through for Thea, for Starling City, for him, for me.
"We thought the situation couldn't get any worse, but we were wrong. The police department can pounding down the staircase, their guns drawn and pointed at us. Thea followed them, her expression, it broke my heart, she was full of so many emotions. The police made me and Diggle move away from you with our hands in the air. They put handcuffs on us and guarded us by our sides like we were some serial killer. I may have hacked police data bases,multiple times. I am constantly helping you be a hero, breaking laws on the side. Oh and there was the time
we wore those black mask and bombed QC's science division, but those are all minor details.
I've never Killed anyone," Felicity starts babbling getting of subjects.
      "Anyways, You started going into cardiac arrest on the table and I tried to go help you, put the police didn't allow it. Finally Thea stepped in threatening the police and using everything against them, to let me tend to you, to save your life. They hesitantly agreed and I got to work. While I worked and did everything I could do, Thea stood by my side. I could see her hands shaking as she bit her nails and cried, out of the corners of my eye.
       "After everything that I did in the end though, Thea and I took your hand and hugged each other and cried. We watched it happen. We watched your eyes slip shut. We watched your chest rise and fall one last time. We watched you face become colorless, your body still, your hands cold. We watched you die," Felicity says stopping there not wanting Oliver to know about the conversation she had with Thea talking about how Felicity has been working with him for nearly two years as starling city's vigilante or how Thea understood finally where Oliver hearts lie (which Felicity doesn't believe, although she wish was true.)
       Oliver sits in silence with Felicity. His heart beats fast and it feels as if someone is squeezing it, trying to crush it. His eyes are watering and his throat is dry. Oliver pulls Felicity into a hug this time, holding her tight and close to himself. The smell of her jasmine perfume, the sight of her hair that looks like sun rays, the feeling of her head resting on his chest, it all overwhelms his senses, leaving him speechless.
       "I don't want to ever lose you. I don't think I'd be able
To live without you. I mean you are my boss and provide me with my source of income. So, I don't have to live in a box under a bridge and have food to eat so I don't starve to death. But your also my best friend and have changed my life then you can even imagine. I've felt loss
before and I don't like it. Eventually you forget how the person made you feel or what they did with you and just focus of how it felt when they left," Felicity confesses holding onto Oliver tight.
        "You won't lose me Felicity.
You can't get rid of me that easily," Oliver jokes trying to lighten the mood, pulling away from the hug.
       "I guess I just have to keep putting up with you and the salmon ladder, I swear I productivity drops by fifty percent whenever you do it," Felicity says her eyes getting wide once she says it, "I can't believe I really said that out loud, I'm sorry,"
       "Don't be, it's cute," Oliver points out, with a smile.
       "You may think that, but you aren't the one constantly embarrassing yourself. Waiting until the moment Your mouth finally gets you into a situation you won't be able to escape," Felicity explains and Oliver chuckles.
"Get you're stuff together and then I'll drive you home."
      "It's ok, I have my car. It's not the soul I first had when you know, bled out all over it. I had to get a new one, it weirded me out," Felicity says using her hands in the air to motion where the blood was. "Plus I thought it might smell after a while."
"Felicity, get your stuff together, I'm driving you home.
I'll pick you up tomorrow and take you to get your car," Oliver says firmly, Felicity nods her head and packs up her laptop.
Felicity and Oliver ride in the car to Felicity's place in silence.
When they get to her house Oliver come around to the passenger side and open the door for Felicity.
"Thanks," Felicity says blushing and Oliver nods in acknowledgement.
Felicity leads Oliver through the yard into the small yard, her heels clicking when they hid the stone path.
The blonde IT girl takes her keys out and works on unlocking the door. The door doesn't budge and Felicity throws herself against it, in attempt to open it. Felicity does it a few times with no success and Oliver clears his voice.
       Felicity turns to find other standing patiently behind her, his lips are pressed together trying to hide his smile, his hands folded, sitting in front of him.
       "Sorry, it just gets stuck sometimes," Felicity says kicking the door. "Just give me a minute."
       "Why don't I try?" Oliver offers walking towards the door.
       "You can try, I guessed. You need to push it a certain way to get it open though," Felicity says stepping away from the door. Even before Felicity is done talking Oliver turn the handle and pushes the door open, as if it's the easiest thing.
       "I guess I know the that "certain way" to open the door then," Oliver says satisfied, walking into Felicity's house, not looking back.
       Felicity itches the back of her head dumbfounded. "Yeah I guess so," she says following her boss into her house.
       Oliver turns of the lights and looks around Felicity's house curiously. The house is very Felicity like, it has a large amount of color and designs. The majority is clean except for a few parts that Felicity refers to as a 'organized mess'. Oliver turns back to face Felicity with a small smile on his face from the the Robin Hood poster that caught his eye.
       Felicity stands in the door way using a nearby chair, that she threw her purse on, to balance and take off her shoes. Some of her hair covers her face, blocking it from Oliver's view.
      "I like your house."
       Felicity stands up with her shoes of and straightens her dress out. "Oh thanks. It nothing close to yours but it works well for me, plus it means I don't have to give long tours of the place. I'm sure the tour of your place requires a lunch break. This is the living room," Felicity says motioning around her. "That's the kitchen and through there is a door to the backyard," she says point straight ahead. "Down the hall over there is the bathroom, bedroom and my office," she says point to the right.   "See look nice and short."
      "It's nice and cozy. I'm not a big fan of my families huge house. We're all to far apart," Oliver says.
       "I'm going to go change. Uh of your hungry there's some food in the fridge, not sure if it's the type of food you eat."
        "The type of food I eat?" Oliver questions raising an eyebrow.
        "Healthy, protein filled stuff or alcoholic beverages."
Oliver open his mouth and points at Felicity to say something but moves his hand to his side and closes it to think for a minute. "Protein is good for muscles and a beer is nice every once in a while, but a salad and fruit is nice to."
"Great I have a fruit salad in the fridge that you can help yourself to." Felicity smiles while leaving to change, knowing that Oliver is not going to eat the fruit.
It takes Felicity a few minutes to take her hair out of her ponytail and brush it out, take off her makeup, put her glasses away and change into her pjs.
      Felicity joins Oliver in the living room to find him sitting on the couch with the fruit salad on the coffee table with two forks in it. When Oliver sees Felicity he leans forward and grabs a fork, eating a piece of honey dew.
      "Nice pj's," Oliver comments looking at her pants that have pastel colored owls and her purse tank top.
      "Uh thanks," Felicity says joining Oliver on the couch and pulling on one of her sweatshirts, now self consciousness of her appearance.
  "I wasn't saying that to be rude or anything. I like seeing you like this, relaxed in comfy clothes. I like doing this, just being friends," Oliver says trying relax Felicity after the last comment.
      Felicity nods her head in agreement. "It is nice to just talk as friends. Not worrying about you getting shot or caught while we have a conversation over the comms. I actually totally forgot you've never been inside my house," Felicity says picking up the fruit salad and beginning to eat it.
      "Me too. So how are you?" Oliver asks sincerely.
      "I'm good."
      "No, Felicity don't give me that answer that you give to a stranger or a coworker or the invasive aunt the pinches your cheeks. I want to know how you really are. I care about you and want to make sure you're ok," Oliver says taking Felicity's hand.
       Felicity looks down at the fruit bowl that's resting in her lap. His words echoing in her head. I care about you. Felicity knows he means just as friends but she wishes it was more than friends.
       "Fe-lic-ity?" Oliver asks squeezing her hand a little to get her attention.
       "Sorry, just something that you said made me question for a minute, just the meaning of it. Clearly I was just over thinking, you know how my brain is," Felicity babbles.
       "Ok," Oliver whispers with a smile. "So how are you?"
       "I'm goo-. I'm alright, I guess. There's a lot of things going on right now and I'm trying to work it all out."
       "Like what?"
       "Well my other friends that I used to talk to a lot before us. I mean before we were friends and the whole arrow thing. My relationship with them isn't that good anymore. They are mad at me for not talking to them as much and not telling them what's going on. But I can't tell them what's going on because it a secret, so I push them away.
      "Then there is my mother who is constantly calling at me and talking to me about my lack of a boyfriend and blaming it at the fact that I don't show enough cleavage. Which you didn't really need to know.
       "And at work there's all the rumors that are horrible and not in the slightest bit true. Although I can see where they get them because of how me and you are always talking and you're reputation."
       "What rumors?" Oliver asked confused.
       "Really you haven't heard any of them?" Felicity asks and Oliver shakes his head. Felicity set her sight on their hands, one of Oliver's callused hands gently wrapped around one of her hands with navy blue nail polish. "A bunch of people talk and think that me and you are sleeping with each other. They don't say anything when I'm around you but when I'm alone they say things. It stupid we aren't in high school anymore everyone just needs to grow up. Anyways I just ignore it," Felicity says running her hands through her hair, acting like it barely bothers her.
"I'll address it in an email first thing tomorrow morning. Why didn't you say anything to me about it?"
"I thought you knew about it and just didn't care about it so I thought I would do the same."
"Wow, I'm a really shitty friend."
"No you're a really shitty CEO, you're a sub par friend," Felicity says with a smile.
"Ouch."
"You know I'm joking, kinda," Felicity says and they both laugh together. "Now be a better friend and eat some fruit so I don't eat it all," Felicity orders handing Oliver the Fork.
The duo talks for a while
Longer, joking around and taking about the problems they face.
        Finally Oliver looks at his watch and realizes it's nearly three thirty in the morning. He laughs at the time and at the fact he thought they hadn't been talking no where near that long.
They now sit in the couch. Facing each other with there legs crossed, so close that their knees touch.
       "It's getting late," Oliver says.
       "Or you could say it's getting early," Felicity says looking at it a different way. Oliver doesn't respond but instead looks into Felicity's glassy blue eyes.
        When Oliver got back from the island he didn't feel like he used to. He didn't care if her lived or died. He didn't care what other people thought about him.
      Until Felicity.
      It was like as soon as she entered his life he cared.
Felicity flipped everything around for Oliver and made him look at it a different way.
      "I'm sorry, I stayed to long.
You're probably exhausted. I'll get going and you can get some sleep," Oliver says.
      "No it's ok, I was actually going to get some work done once you leave," Felicity says then Yawns. "I'm not even tired."
      Oliver raises an eyebrow, examining the dark circles forming under her eyes. "Felicity your exhausted. Come on your going to bed," He says standing up and taking one of Felicity's hand trying to pull her off of the couch.
      "Oliver, I'm serious. I'm not even tired," she says yawning again.
      "Felicity Meghan Smoak, you need to go to bed," Oliver says firmly.
       "Oliver Jonas Queen, you are not my mother."
       "You're right, but I am your boss, partner, and best friend. That had to mean something. Now come on. I'm not leaving until your in bed," Oliver says taking Felicity's other hand trying to pull her of the couch.
      "Oliver it's ok," Felicity pleads and pulls her hands out of Oliver's.
      Suddenly Oliver understands why she is hesitant to go to bed.
She's scared.
      Oliver kneels down in front of the couch. He puts his hand under Felicity's chin and raises it so that there eyes meet.
     "Hey, don't be scared. They are just dreams. I know they seem real and can be paralyzingly sometimes. Trust me, I know, but they aren't real," Oliver whispers.
     "What do you do to get them to go away?" Felicity asks.
     "Nothing, you can't do anything. You let time do its do its job and eventually they will begin to fade. A way to make the manageable is to have a friend to talk to, to be with." Oliver says gently.
      "Who was yours?"
      Oliver places his hands on either side of Felicity's face, his callused thumbs gently resting in her cheeks, he pulls her forward and places a gentle kiss on her forehead. "You," he whispers. "You may not have known but you did. You've done so much without even knowing. So let me help you know."
Felicity stares into Oliver's green eyes, her heart is pounding. "Ok," she whispers and nods, agreeing to Oliver's help.
     "Go get in bed. I'll put away the fruit and forks and close up then come say good night to you."
     Felicity gets up and leaves for her bedroom.
     Oliver cleans up then goes
to Felicity's room, where she sits in bed setting an alarm on her phone.
     Oliver walks over and takes the phone out of her slender hands, placing it in the bed stand.
     "Hey!" She calls out.
     "You need sleep."
     "I was setting my alarm."        
      "I know but your going into work late tomorrow. Your going to sleep in then call your other friends and get lunch with them and I'm going to fix your front door."
      "Oliver."
      "You agreed to let me help you, so this is me helping," Oliver says pulling Felicity blanket over her shoulder.
       Felicity turns to her side and pulls her covers close to her face.
       "Thank you," she whispers. "You have helped me so much already without even knowing."
       "I guess that's what we do. Help each other. Goodnight Felicity."
       "Goodnight Oliver," Felicity says smiling at Oliver as he smiles back at her.
       Oliver turns out Felicity's lamp and walks out her room. He decides to sleep on her couch. Not wanting to leave Felicity alone.
As he falls asleep he remembers a conversation he had with Dig when Felicity first joined the team.
     "Oliver, I know you don't want to hurt this girl. And you didn't have a choice in telling her who you were, but we're asking her to get involved in some pretty dangerous stuff," Diggle says standing across from Oliver in the foundry.
      "We can protect her," Oliver promised.
      And that's exactly what he plans on doing.
      Felicity and Oliver have always protected each other and helped each other without being asked. They both always have dome it because they feel like they have to.
      Oliver drifts of to sleep thinking about Felicity's babbles, rectangular framed glasses, sun kissed hair and sweet smile.
      Late during the night Oliver is woken up by Felicity, calling out in her sleep.
      Oliver runs to Felicity room, turning on the lamp and takes her into his arms.
      "Felicity. It's ok, I'm here. Just like I promised," He says after waking her up.
      "Oliver, you didn't leave?"
      "How could I leave my girl?"
      Just as he did earlier he wipes her tears and whispers sweet reminders to her.
      Once Felicity is calmed down he gets up to return to the couch.
      Felicity doesn't let go of Oliver's hand. "Stay," she say barely audible.
     "I'm just going to the living room," Oliver says gently.
     Felicity shakes her head, "No, stay here."
    Oliver nods his head and walks back over to the bed.
    Felicity scoots over and Oliver crawls into bed next to her. He wraps his arm around the blonde, pulling her close to him, feeling the warmth of her body.
     Felicity rests her head and hand on Oliver's chest, drifting of to sleep hearing the rhythm of his heart beating and feeling the rise and fall of his chest.
     It never stops.
     It never slows.
     It never goes anywhere.
     Oliver watches Felicity's angelic features as she falls asleep. He pulls her close and plays with the ends of her hair.
     Once he is sure she's asleep he kisses her forehead again. "I care about you so much, Felicity Smoak, more than you could ever know," he whispers before drifting off to sleep to.
      Neither of them have nightmares for the rest of the night.

»-----»

Hi Angels!
I hope you enjoyed the first oneshot in this book! Comment your thoughts and opinions and don't forget to vote. I'd love to hear what you think.Have a fantastic day/night
-Bea, xx