Jumping to Conclusions

An: I do not own Arrow

Summary: Oliver lectures his sister about jumping to conclusions. Set after 4x04. Based on Thea's almost reveal of the ring to Felicity.

Thea had avoided him that day but his sister could not hide forever. He was definitely going to give her a piece of his mind. Not only did she ask why Felicity wasn't wearing it she was also pointed to her ring finger. Thankfully that little detail was missed by his girlfriend. He kept a careful eye on her the rest of the day to see if she had figured it out. He was relieved when she showed no signs of figuring it out and seemed to have brushed the comment aside. She did have other things to think about like running Palmer Tech and the Arrow team.

That evening when he got home, he checked the bowl to find that the ring was still there. He decided to hide it somewhere else. He had originally been thinking of his quiver or some weapon related place that Felicity doesn't use but he ruled that out. She did fire a machine gun the other day. He ended up hiding the ring in the slow cooker in the kitchen. There was zero possibility that Felicity would ever use the cooker. Her current culinary pallet consisted of whatever he chose to cook and Big Belly Burger. He needed to cut her off from the burgers though. It was becoming a bad habit.

He knew Digg was suspicious. He had been on the receiving end of the knowing looks. He dare not bring it up though, he and Digg were slowly getting back to what they had before and he was not going to risk ruining it. If Digg brought it up, he would tell him the truth.

It took him two days to get Thea alone in his campaign office.

"Thea," he said once the door had closed behind them, "please don't jump to conclusions before you confirm the facts first."

"Ok I know I almost screwed up Ollie" she started before he cut her off.

"Almost screwed up?" Oliver asked giving her an incredulous look. What she did definitely qualified as screwing up.

Thea continued on in her defence, "When Digg said that you were smiling and you had a surprise announcement to make, I thought it was because you had finally proposed. I mean you told me about mom's ring ages ago and it's still not on her finger. It was a reasonable conclusion that you had finally manned up."

"You could have spoiled the entire surprise and for the record the night you and Laurel barged in on our dinner, I was ten seconds away from proposing. So it is your fault, I have not proposed yet," He told her. "For all we know, Felicity figured it out from your comment but is keeping silent!"

"Laurel asked Felicity what it was she thought I was asking about and Felicity genuinely didn't have a clue. Laurel also cornered me that evening in our apartment."

"Please tell me you didn't tell my ex-girlfriend who I had severe commitment issues with that I have intentions of proposing to my current girlfriend?" Oliver asked while Thea fidgeted in front of him.

"It may have slipped out," the brunette admitted.

"Slipped out! Thea things like that don't slip out," Oliver said running his hands down his face in frustration.

"I tried to lie, but Laurel saw straight through it," Thea admitted. "I guess after living with someone for six months they get a good idea of all your tells."

Oliver thought things couldn't get any worse. He could only imagine the fit Laurel went into. "How did she take it?" he asked. The last thing he needed was Laurel giving him shade or being passive aggressive with Felicity. It would raise red flags and his girlfriend would demand to know what was going on.

"Better than one would think. She's completely over you Ollie," his sister revealed.

"Did you discover that at your spa trip?" he asked.

Thea shifted her weight from one foot to the other, one of her tells when she was going to lie to him or at least give a half truth. He narrowed his eyes.

"We had other things to do at the spa," she said vaguely. Before he could try to pin her down she continued on "but Ollie when do you plan on proposing?"

He did not need to tell Thea about the little thread of doubt that had been plaguing his mind since he came back to Star City. He had wanted the life in Ivy Town but it appeared Felicity didn't. A piece of him was not sure if they wanted the same thing anymore.

"I was hoping that things with the ghosts would have wrapped up quickly. Now with the Mayoral campaign and Green Arrow stuff, I don't have any time to plan it properly."

"I could help you?" his sister offered. "It's not like I'm doing anything during the day."

"Let me think about it a moment, NO!" Oliver said firmly.

"But Ollie?" Thea whined.

"I said no. I am doing this on my own. Felicity deserves the effort that I put into it."

Thea smirked mischievously, "Ok, I'll give you a month. If there is no ring on Felicity's finger by then, I'll start planning. Who knows, I might plan a public engagement where I make you get down on your knee in front of all of your campaign supporters,"

Oliver ignored his sister. Despite that doubt, Oliver was determined to propose to his girlfriend on his terms. He did not want his sister interfering. He knew he would not do the soufflé idea again. They had a new balance here. He wanted an idea that better reflected the type of life they had there.

"Thea this time, when I call you together to make the announcement, don't jump the gun with the congratulations, at least wait for us to make the announcement. It is Felicity's moment," he pointed out.

Thea snorted, "we both know you're not pulling this off in a month. I'm going to end up helping." She then sauntered out of his office leaving him determined to prove his sister wrong.

An: Thank you for reading.