Blank Space

~ Chapter 26 ~

Felicity giggled at her friends, and shook her head. They were a nice distraction from everything that was going on with Oliver. She wished that she could tell them about Oliver, the real story. But, she couldn't. All they knew was that Oliver was alive.

And, they were probably going to ask her question after question regarding why she wasn't with him. And, it was going to kill her to lie to them.

She shook her head, ridding of her mind of negative thoughts, and smiled at the fact that in a literal minute, she would be able to hug all of her friends, and she would especially be able to hug Barry again.

God, it had been too long.

She gathered her things, and quickly got off of the train. She frantically searched for her friends, and when she saw Cisco's head bobbing, she took off sprinting towards them. When she saw Barry standing there, awake, tears started pooling in her eyes once again. She threw her suitcases and purse on the ground as she jumped into Barry's arms.

Before she knew it, she was crying happy tears.

"Oh, Felicity. Don't cry." Barry whispered into her ear as he tightened his arms around her waist.

"It's just so good to see you." Felicity cried, nuzzling her head further into the crook of his shoulder.

Felicity pulled back, looking at his face. She couldn't get the stupid smile off her face. Barry reached for her face, and wiped a tear away.

"It's really good to see you too." He smiled, putting his hand back on her waist, now holding her once more.

"Where's our hugs?" Cisco asked, acting offended.

Felicity laughed, pulling out of Barry's arms to hug Cisco and Caitlin.

"It's really good to see all of you." Felicity sighed, after she had hugged everyone and they were heading to Caitlin's car.

"So this thing with Oliver? How are you?" Caitlin asked, now that they were walking alone to the car with the guys talking in front of them.

"It's been really difficult to accept, especially when he really doesn't want much to do with me right now." Felicity laughed humorlessly, looking down at the pavement as they walked.

"Why do you think that? I'm sure he's thrilled to see you... It's just been hard for him, ya know? Coming back to a life when you've been alone for so long. He's not the same person mentally or physically or even emotionally. Being stranded for three years, it changes a person. Just give it time." Caitlin smiled, rubbing Felicity's back.

Felicity nodded, knowing that Caitlin was right. But, how much time did Oliver really need? He said that he still loved her, but his actions showed otherwise. He loved the city more right now, or at least enough to make Felicity leave it.

She instantly sighed, wishing that things were different.

"You ready to see the new and improved STAR Labs?" Cisco asked, interrupting Felicity from her own thoughts as he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Felicity just smiled and nodded, "The technology up to date?"

"Oh, the technology we have isn't even available to the public." Cisco laughed.

Felicity lifted her eyebrows at that and laughed.

"Then, yeah I am."

~•~•~•~•~•~

"I still can't believe it's Merlyn."

Oliver nodded at Diggle's words.

They had been trying hopelessly to track him down since Felicity left. But, so far they hadn't found anything remotely useful. It was almost as if Merlyn was a ghost.