Chapter Text
When Felicity walked into the Foundry at five in the morning, she truly hadn’t expected anyone to be there. Digg had gone home hours ago, to sleep off the effects of the Vertigo and Oliver had said he was going home to celebrate his mother’s acquittal. So when Felicity couldn’t sleep a wink in her apartment and decided she just needed to leave, she figured the Foundry would be a safe place to go. She would be alone but she would be safe . Turns out she was wrong, at least on the alone front.
As she walked down the stairs, she could hear arrows flying through the air and saw Oliver - in all his shirtless glory - shooting arrows through tennis balls, the way she knew he did when he needed to think. Before Felicity could retreat up the steps Oliver turned to look at her, freezing her midstep. “I was going - I was just going to, go,” the blonde said, gesturing up the stairs.
His gaze, which seemed vaguely concerned and maybe even a little surprised, softened into one of fondness. “Felicity, you don’t have to leave. This is your space, too.”
Not that Felicity had any reason to be surprised, but it was still surprising to hear the archer say that. Sure, out of all of Team Arrow Felicity was the one who spent the most amount of time down there, but that was because of her position on the team, the team lead by Oliver. In Felicity’s head the Foundry had always been something so distinctly Oliver’s, not Team Arrow’s. Then again, there had to be something that told her she could be here though, considering Felicity chose to go to their little lair rather than literally anywhere else
However… “I really should go - though. You’re doing your, thing . I should- I should just-” Felicity stuttered out in true Felicity Smoak fashion, full of hand gestures and sentence fragments.
“Felicity,” Oliver interrupted her.
“Yes?” she responded, looking like a deer caught in headlights.
“Stay. Please,” his expression getting even softer, even fonder, if that were even possible.
As Felicity continued her descent down the steps, Oliver went back to his arrow therapy, as Felicity liked to refer to it in her head.
After what seemed like hours, but truly was only fifteen minutes of comfortable-ish silence, Oliver came to sit next to Felicity as she tapped away on her keyboard, trying to do something , find something , to occupy her mind and let her just forget about the horrific night she’d had.
“Felicity, what’s wrong?” Oliver asked, his voice soft, in the way he reserved only for her and Thea.
Felicity stole a quick glance at the man, before focusing her gaze back on her screen. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing,” she spoke softly.
“Hey… hey, look at me, please,” Oliver asked while removing her hands from her keyboard and swiveling her chair so she was facing him. “Felicity, you look exhausted, like you haven’t slept all night, despite what the pink bunny pajamas say, and then you come here at five in the morning looking so lost . Whatever’s wrong isn’t nothing. Is this about what happened last night?” Oliver asked, both eyes focused completely on her.
Felicity took what felt like an eternity to answer. “I feel like I can’t even breathe in my skin right now, Oliver. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. While we were waiting for you, he always had a hand on me, either in my hair or on my shoulder, or somewhere . Like he was trying to prove to me that I wasn’t getting away, like tying me to the chair didn’t already make sure I was staying put. I took five showers when I got home, five! And I still feel so, so grimy.
“And to make matters worse, I feel so guilty. I feel so guilty because I made you break your promise, your vow not to kill. And I know you said that there was no choice for you to make, that he was going to hurt me so not killing him, not keeping me safe, wasn’t an option for you, but you wouldn’t even have been put in that position if I had just waited for you to get back. If I had just been patient instead of trying to be something I am so obviously not, you never would have been put in that position where you had to come save me. It was my fault, Oliver.
“So, I guess long story short, I needed to get out of my apartment. It was stifling there, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I still feel like I can’t breathe.”
Felicity stared into Oliver’s eyes, her own welling a sea of tears, her chest feeling tighter and her breathing becoming short and shallow.
“Felicity, just breathe with me okay, just in and out,” Oliver coached, holding her hand to his chest to give her something to feel, a physical rhythm to match her breathing to. “That’s good, Felicity, just like that.”
They sat like that for minutes, Felicity’s hand on Oliver’s chest, matching his breathing, calming down. Eventually, Felicity leaned her head down on Oliver’s shoulder, while the vigilante pulled her closer to him, practically pulling her into his lap and his arms wrapped across her back.
“You have nothing to feel guilty about,” he said softly into her ear. “Absolutely nothing. I don’t feel guilty. He had you and he was going to hurt you, he already had hurt you. The only way I could see to protect you was to kill him. And please believe me when I say I will always protect you, always. And, for what it’s worth if you had been patient, there was the risk that he could have poisoned more people with Vertigo. I wouldn’t have put it past him to go around randomly stabbing people with his tainted flu shot. You were trying to save people, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.” After Oliver said his piece, he slowly stood, pulling up Felicity with him.
“Now, c’mon. Let’s get you some sleep,” he said, guiding Felicity over to the cot.
"Oliver, I really don't think I can sleep right now. I have too much going on up here," Felicity said, halting their movements and knocking gently on her head.
"Just try, for me, please," Oliver pleaded, pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear and cupping her neck, staring deeply into her eyes.
"Fine, but only because you asked nicely and not in your 'grrr, I'm the Green Arrow, fear me' voice."
As Oliver led her to the single cot in the Foundry it hit her just how exhausted she was. She had been up for nearly 24 hours, and sure she'd done it before (the Undertaking comes to mind) but this was different. It just was . It was like all the adrenaline of the past day and worn off all at once and she was dead on her feet.
"Stay," Felicity said softly, after Oliver tucked her in.
The Archer looked back at her, tucking that same strand of hair behind her ear again. "Stay," she repeated more firmly, grabbing his wrist and holding it as tightly as she could.
"Felicity, I don't thi-"
"Stay. Please . I know I'm so tired that I should fall asleep quickly, but I don't want to be alone. Please, don't leave me alone," the blonde implored.
Oliver visibly gulped but nodded. Offering no words, Oliver quickly divested himself of everything but his boxers and climbed in behind her. The cot was barely big enough to fit one person, never mind two, but they made it work. Oliver held Felicity close to his chest, and when he thought she had fallen asleep (she hadn't) he placed a gentle kiss on the back of her head and breathed in her scent before settling himself into his own slumber.