AN: This story was inspired by KristinaOrtutova's fanmade video with the same title ('Blank Space' - Official Fanmade Trailer [HD] (Olicity) - you can find it on youtube; i advise you do, it's beautiful)

I give her full credit for the inspiration and also for the general storyline. Obviously I'm going to write it a bit differently, but still, i would have never thought of this story if it hadn't been for her amazing video.

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"I... I know you must have questions."
He waits for so long, he thinks she's not going to ask him anything.
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
Oliver feels his chest constrict. Was he?
"I don't know. I… I didn't want to."
Her eyes close with the weight of that statement and the thought that he's hurt her makes him want crawl in the nearest hole and stay there.
"You don't trust me with your secret."
"I trust you with my life!" And he says it with such heavy conviction, so without hesitation, that Felicity's eyes pop open, confusion swirling in them like mist."I just…" But this is where Oliver hesitates, because he doesn't know how to say this. He has never practiced saying this to her – he had never wanted to. It would have been like admitting he was giving in. "This thing I do, it creates enemies. I wanted to keep you safe and my family safe from that so I thought... I thought it would be a lot more difficult to link me to the vigilante, if the Hood was operational months before i came back from the dead. "

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Despite the loneliness that alienates me from everyone, you have not grown strange to me; this thought gives me a pleasure hard to describe. It comes to me like a gift and also like something on which I have waited and on which I have believed. Whenever your name has occurred to me it has always made me fell stouter-hearted and more confident.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Felicity's eyes open about 5 minutes before the alarm of her phone started beeping. She smiles when she sees her door is just a tiny bit open – just enough for the scent of the freshly made coffee and pancakes to waft in. She can a soft hum in the background that Felicity only catches it because she knows it's there. It's the news, and she bets Quentin Lance is sitting on the kitchen isle right now, sipping at coffee as he listens to it a whisper above mute, so that he doesn't disturb his girls on Sunday morning. A smile creeps up her face. This is familiar, the closest to peaceful Felicity knows; this right now, is one of her happy thoughts.

And since she's feeling so content, she lounges in bed, stretching under the covers like a cat, before she finally makes herself get out from underneath them. Yawning, she heads to the bathroom and what she finds there makes her smile with mischief: Laurel is staring at her own image critically, trying to tame her I-totally-just-had-sex hair into something more manageable… but now quite willing to give them up just yet.

"Braid or bun Laurel. Those are your only options." Felicity says as she grabs her toothbrush. And its funny because they are grown ass women with successful careers and busy lives, but whenever they come over to their parents house, they still feel a little bit like kids again. Honestly, Felicity can't even blame Laurel and Tommy for behaving like ones.

It was still fun to tease Laurel though.

"How did you know?"

Felicity cocks one eyebrow knowingly. "You giggle in your sleep often?" …and watches Laurel blush. Huh, interesting. Usually there was some snappy comment involved: Laurel must still be riding her Tommy-high of she was this glow-y.

And eww brain, why would you ever go there?!

"Ugh, you're practically vomiting rainbows. Contain yourself." Felicity snips, scrunching up her nose.

"Gotta admit, you and Tommy have some serious nerve, doing the nasty under the same roof as Quentin Lance, Donna Smoak and a loaded gun." Felicity barely manages to keep her laugh out of her voice. "Is it about the thrill of getting caught? Cause I honestly don't buy that you can't be apart even one night."

"Why not?" Laurel dares and it makes Felicity shake her head, because Laurel has always been too practical to be such a flake, but the fact that Tommy makes her want to be, is something wonderful that Laurel honestly deserves. "I'd have thought you of all people would have called that romantic."

Felicity snorts. "Clearly, that's your selective memory at work: I'd call it co-dependent."

That makes Laurel laugh and she flicks a few droplets of water at Felicity's face.

"He just got back from Central City, give me a break."

"And what, he just couldn't wait to see you?" Felicity asks with disbelief, but instead of biting off some smartass retort, a small smile lit Laurel up from the inside. They look at each other in complete understanding, and for a moment, Felicity feels a familiar twinge somewhere over her third rib, but she pushed it aside. Moments like these were too precious, even her memories showed some respect for this kind of peace. And if there is one thing Felicity most certainly does not want, is to make Laurel feel guilty for sharing this kind of happiness with her. That's not happening, so Felicity grins wide and true, and keeps teasing on until they are both giggling the way they never have when they were teenagers.

When they get to the kitchen, Quentin is already sitting by the counter, just as Felicity knew he would be, reading his morning paper. Laurel kisses his cheek as she passes by him – and steals his coffee cup with a little wink (they both know she will pour him a fresh one as soon as she gets to the counter – which she does). Felicity is just about to crack one of her jokes into the mix, but then her eyes glance at the TV… and she stills.

'…within the company confirm that over the past 15 years, Mr. Redman has withdrawn more than 30 million dollars from the plan's account. Mr. Redman claims that refunding the housing pension plan has always been his intent, but sources say he was coerced by the vigilante…'

"Holy shit…" she hears Laurel whisper beside her. Felicity agrees with the sentiment completely. Laurel grabs her phone and starts making phone calls, her voice becoming ever fainter as she retreats to her room.

As she takes in the details of the story, Felicity can't help but think back to the last time she saw William Redman. For the last three weeks, Redman and Adam Hunt had been negotiating the possibility of a substantial investment in Palmer Technologies and between work dinners and board meetings and presentations, Felicity feels she has had way too much exposure to them both. As CEO and Chief Financial Officer of Palmer-Tech respectively, Ray and Anna had everything covered, but since Felicity is the Head of Applied Sciences and it was her department Redman and Hunt wanted to invest in, she had had to attend every meeting throughout the negotiations. Financially speaking their proposal had been a good one; as investors they were prominent, with good resources and the ability to pull even more capital in through their connections. Personal feelings aside, Felicity could admit that (even though a couple of times she had been sorely tempted to stab either of them through with a fork; Ray had had the forethought of having the waiter take away the steak knives from Anna and Felicity both, just to be sure).

Still, it hadn't been exactly easy for Felicity to sit in front of Redman and Hunt in polite company and pretend she had no idea what kind of back-door business they were involved in. Having a cop like Quentin Lance for a father and a crusader like Laurel for a stepsister tended to keep you informed on all kinds of things that, most of the times, didn't make it to the light of day. She may have also enlightened Anna on those things, once or twice… but that was not the point. Not anymore, anyway.

"Weren't you negotiating a deal with him and Hunt?" Quentin points out, no doubt knowing exactly where her mind had gone as she listened to the news.

"It fell through. Anna sniffed out some irregularities in their books that peeved her."

There was a beat of silence.

"So Palmer dropped a multimillion dollar investment just because there were irregularities in accounting?"

Felicity can hear the incredulity – and an unwilling twinge of res pect – in his tone. Quentin Lance hadn't much liked Ray at first, but that was starting to change slowly, while he realized what kind of businessman Ray was. What kind of person.

"Palmer Tech is very careful about who gets involved with their technology." Felicity says absentmindedly, eyes still on the screen. "So, you know, when even your official books can't cover up the stench of money laundering, it's gotta be bad; and Anna doesn't take gracefully to people wasting her time."

And wasn't that an understatement! It had not been anything they could actually prove, obviously. Anna had only had a hunch, but that woman's instinct was better trusted than ignored, because she was a high-finance genius and loved what she did the way sharks love blood. Still, all this passes through Felicity's head only tangentially, because she is too intent on studying the grainy photo of the vigilante they are now showing on the news (the tag under it declaring, in unforgiving red letters, his body-count so far: 8 people dead, 12 gravely injured). Its low resolution, but still the only one the media had managed to get its hands on so far, even though the Hood been active for more than three months.

"Money laundering? Care to expand a little on that?" Laurel pounces immediately and it startles Felicity a bit because she hadn't realized she was back yet.

Felicity gives her a firm look. "I'm not at liberty to do that – as you well know, Miss Graduated-With-Honors-in-Law."

Laurel's eyes take a rare pleading note. "Come on Felicity. I've been building a civil suit against Adam Hunt for almost a year. If there's anything…"

"If there was anything - like investments through flimsy off-shore companies, cases of avoidable margin-losses and complicated transfers made for no reason, and money resting on multiple accounts for too short a time before moving… then I seriously couldn't tell you about it, because it would be 50 kinds of 'breach of contract' – to start with! - so it wouldn't be evidence I could back in court. Or that would help you any with a civil suit, for that matter." Felicity finally looked away from the TV when the story on the Hood ended, and pinned her eyes on Laurel. "So stop asking."

Laurel sighs. And for a moment the layer, the detective and the tech-wiz are silent, each contemplating their own thoughts.

"I'm gonna have to pull and Al Capone on Hunt's ass, aren't I?" Laurel contemplates.

Quentin snorts. "Yeah, right. Good luck finding a judge that will give you that kind of warrant on circumstantial evidence. And after that, good luck keeping him. Or her."

"And keeping Hunt's Legal Department from tearing you to pieces. Or burying you in paperwork." Felicity adds, and Laurel's glare transfers from Lance to her. Felicity raises a placatory hand. "Hey, look at the positive – at least the Vigilante took care of the biggest part of the problem for you."

Laurel looks away but Quentin does not.

"How do you figure?" he asks… and Felicity sighs. It 's not the first time that they have this conversation, but they keep having different variant of it because, for some reason, Quentin Lance thinks he will be able to change Felicity's mind through repetition.

Neither he nor Laurel can accept a solution that lives completely outside of the system, no matter how frustrated they are by it. 'You don't have to go outside the law to get justice'; it is a favourite saying of theirs. Felicity acknowledges that, but she vehemently defends the sheer practicality of having a vigilante bypass layers of corruption and bureaucracy to recover people's money, because the truth is that by the time the system gets around to that, Hunt will have melted his assets, or declared himself broke, or transferred all his money to untraceable accounts… When people like Redman and Hunt (and countless others) were concerned, public administration response simply did not cut it. This is a line of thought that baffles her family (though Laurel always pleads the fifth on that one), but Felicity is a hacker, and though she done any serious hacking in more than 4 years, she still thinks like one. To her, if the system doesn't work, or it works against the purpose it has been created to protect, you don't waste time bitching about it; you simply rewrite the rules. Find the loopholes, hack the directory and expose its weakness to the masses, so they can crash it to the ground and build a new one.

In Felicity's mind, the vigilante is clearly the hack on the system – and he is good at it… when he isn't sticking sharp things in soft, lethal places, that is. Felicity admits to a certain moral flexibility, but murder is not something she can overlook, and the Hood tended to drop bodies with a certain alarming efficiency. And yet... sometimes someone truly evil turns up with an arrow through the heart, and Felicity can't say she is sorry for it and be honest at the same time.

But that is a can of worms that she does not want to open, not today. This discussion goes so far back into the past, that Felicity knows even before she has it, that it's going to spoil their morning. So when she meets Quentin's eyes, her look lacks the usual challenge.

"We both know how we feel about this, pops... but it's too beautiful a day to argue, so let's not." She says calmly. She is not pleading and neither is she deflecting. She's just tired of the argument.

Quentin sighs. "Well, if you're asking so nicely."

"I am." She says with a small smile.

"Fine, fine. No more vigilante talk." Quentin takes a deep breath and then smiles. "So… how are my girls this morning? Any special plans today?"

"We're fine thank you. And as for plans, apparently I have about 46 people whose paperwork I need to sort through, thanks to Redman's arrow-induced generosity." Laurel says as she sits back down, putting the phone away.

"So I'm guessing you won't make it to out shopping date with Thea today?" Felicity asked, though she could imagine the answer.

Laurel's face fell. "No, I don't think so. I'll probably work through lunch and maybe even dinner. Tomorrow is gonna be busy."

Felicity shrugged in her 'what can you do' way. Thea would be disappointed , but she'd deal. She'd probably insist for skipping dinner with her family and having a take-out picnic in Laurel's office. It wasn't a bad plan.

But enough about that. This morning needs some cheer... and Felicity knows just the way to do it.

"Still, I don't think 'fine' is the word I would use." she says flippantly. Her eye meets Laurel's briefly and Felicity fights to hide her amusement. "We're great. Fantastic. Resplendent really."

Because come on, why not!

She hears Laurel choke on her sip of coffee and bites her lip hard to keep the straight face. She has the cheek to even hand Laurel a napkin as she sits down between her and Quentin. Laurel gives her the mother of all worldly glares.

"Huh. There's a word you don't hear every day." Quentin comments, looking from one to the other, trying to get it.

"I thought it was appropriate." Felicity smiles innocently around the words. "Don't you Laurel?"

"Sure." Comes the flat response. It makes Felicity want to giggle.

"I mean, it's a beautiful word, one should use it more often. And if you're going to use it, then today would be the perfect day for it: the sun is shining. The birds are chirping…"

Quentin's brows arch up, forming a triangle over his eyes that should not be as adorable as it is, but it still makes amuses Felicity to no end: Quentin Lance, one of the most feared and relentless cops of SCPD, has a puppy face.

"Did you swallow a Disney princess last night or something?" Laurel deadpans… and it takes a moment for both girls to realize just what exactly came out of Laurel's mouth, before they turn to each other at the exact same moment: Felicity tilting her head, folding her lips inward to literally bite back the 'Well, I didn't swallow anything!' that comes so close to flying out of her mouth, it's not even funny; while Laurel's eyes widen in horror and trepidation.

And if there is a bit of the triumphant 'HA! Now you know how that feels like!' in Felicity's expression, then who can blame her?

The whole exchange lasts maybe half a second.

"Nope." Felicity grinned, popping the word out. 'No swallowing involved. There was no swallowing done last night by me. Not. at. all.' She would have said that out loud once, but she has gotten better throughout the years, at controlling her own enthusiasm. "Today is just… a good day."

And Felicity means it to be a tease, she really does, but it comes out softer than she intended, sincere. Laurel eases back, eyes softening, and gives her one of her slow, 'I-could-concur-cities-with-it' smiles that is bright with happiness and affection. Felicity hides her own beam behind the rim of her cup.

"Oook. Don't mind me, please continue the secret conversation." Quentin grunts out, making Felicity laugh.

"Oh don't be a grump, baby." Donna says as she comes in, hair still wet from her shower. She kisses Quentin lightly on the lips, and he breaks character immediately, smiling at her. "Women will keep their secrets and do as they please; while men should just get used to it." Donna adds, making both Laurel and Felicity smile widely, before getting up to help set the table.

"Ok then, how about we declare this family breakfast open. Pancakes!" Donna announces as she puts the huge place in the middle of the table. "Help yourselves everyone."

Felicity feels no shame in admitting that she digs in like a baby dinosaur and that, when Laurel points this out, she does the same thing she did when she was 17: she opens her mouth to give Laurel a perfect view of her half-chewed food.

Laurel's laugh cracks loudly, along with her: 'Oh my god Felicity!' at the same time as her mother snaps at her about manners.

"It's Sunday. We have a standing decree that we hold back manners on Sunday mornings."

"We have no such thing." Donna says firmly, but Quentin is pointedly looking at his plate, trying and failing to hide his chuckle.

ooo

Felicity had not been that surprised when Thea yelled at her from the top of the staircase that she would be right there - usually meaning she would be at least 15 more minutes.

"It's ok, Walter and I have something to talk about anyway." Felicity gives Walter a rather bland smile (she is still bad at the whole poker-face thing, despite being involved in the corporate world for more than 4 years now).

"Isn't it weird how you guys are competition, but you're also kinda friends?" Thea asks, cocking her head to the side.

Walter chuckles. "We're actual friends, Thea. And we don't bring our work at home."

But Thea rolls her eyes. "Please. You totally do." But she is smiling and runs to her room while Felicity follows Walter down the hall.

"Moira is out?" She asks trying to sound casual.

"Yes. Starling City Museum is holding a fundraiser for the new Glades Hospital and Moira volunteered to organize the event." Walter explains pleasantly. Felicity nods, feeling an uncomfortably big relief knowing that the older woman wasn't home. It's not dislike exactly, the feeling between them… just more silence than Felicity would like.

"Just so you know, I am keeping my lips firmly shut about the whole Unidac thingy so don't even try to butter me up." She says with a bit of a forced lightness, trying to find her usual comfort zone by aiming for a somewhat safe topic: business... even though as far as topics go, it's not safe at all, 'cause the stakes running on Unidac's auction are pretty freaking high. Ray is determined to buy that company – listening to him go on and Doctor Markov is exhausting really. Anna's reasons on the other hand, are much more pragmatic: she wants to buy Unidac because she wants to rob QC of their last chance of developing their own Advanced Technology branch. Taken Unidac off the table, QC would have no choice but to push forward with the joint venture, since the Applied Sciences and tech Division of QC was almost nonexistent.

"I would never have presumed." Walter responds and it makes Felicity chuckle and relax because, he totally would! He has, actually, on multiple occasions. They both know that she'd never give an inch, but the push and pull was amusing to them both. Less so to Moira, who sternly holds Felicity's quitting Queen Consolidated years ago still against her. Amusement was not what Moira Queen felt when it came to anything related to Felicity Smoak... and how telling was it that even the thought of that particular can of worms makes her less anxious than dwelling on the conversations she was about to have with Walter.

When Walter Steele had asked Felicity for a favor, she had been uneasy. Not because she hadn't wanted to help out, but because whatever put a man like Walter in any kind of distress was a thing to take seriously. At the same time, Felicity had not been surprised at all that he'd turned to her for help. Competition or not, they had a long standing friendship that was built on respect and admiration for each others talents. Walter had been kind of her at a time when Felicity had felt like the whole world had turned its back on her, and she wasn't likely to forget that. Once he'd trusted her enough to ask, Felicity couldn't not help!

Walter closes the heavy oak door behind him and Felicity releases a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She looks around, but not aimlessly: her eyes are immediately drawn to the set of pictures on the fireplace. Family pictures, of Thea and Moira and Walter… and older ones, of a smiling Oliver holding his sister up in his arms, of them on the beach, of Oliver in a tux and a 10 year old Thea in a cute pink dress. He is everywhere and for a tiny breath, Felicity feels overwhelmed. She wishes she'd been able to grow some kind of resistance to the thought of him over the years, but she hasn't. In a corner of her heart, there is still a piece missing, shaped after him, and Felicity has surrendered herself to the reality that it will always hurt - and that she will always miss him. That is the one thing that will never change: the pain of it does not render Felicity breathless anymore, but the missing of him… that persists with the same endless ache whenever she thinks of him. And he has been relentlessly in her head these last few days.

It has been a shock having him there. Most days the thought of him isn't so intrusive. Usually Felicity can hold him back, there were even days when she doesn't think about him at all. But right now, Oliver's ghost is right there in the room with her and god, she'd thought she was prepared for this, for the fresh wave barbed longing, but clearly she isn't.

She is right back at the starting point. Felicity had sworn to herself years ago that she wouldn't do this, but now she has no choice.

"Calm down, Felicity. You're not in the lion's den." Walter says gently – confusing the reason behind Felicity's anxiousness… though, let's face it, that's exactly where she is.

"Yeah, just because the lioness is out." Felicity muttered, but Walter heard her anyway. He raises one questioning eyebrow and Felicity tries to look sorry, but she doubt's Walter believes it. He knows she and Moira are not exactly BFF's.

"Let's get right to it, shall we." Felicity says squaring her shoulders as they both sit down. She is unwilling to prolong this more than absolutely necessary. "I looked into the numbers you asked me to. The company Moira claimed to have invested those 2.6 million dollars in doesn't exist."

She says it bluntly, because there's no way to sugarcoat this. Walter deals with his surprise in his usual matter-of-fact way, a lot better than Felicity had dealt with hers.

When he speaks his tone is both confused and clipped. "I don't understand."

Yes, you do.

"There was no investment. The money was used to set up and off-shore LLC called Tempest."

Felicity watches his brow furrow and she can practically hear him going over all the QC subsidiary companies, searching for that one name. He won't find it.

"I don't recall that name being under the QC banner."

"That's because it isn't." Felicity confirms, and the last traces of doubt vanish from Walter's face. There is only acquiescence there, so she lays it all down for him now that he is properly braced for it. "There's nothing registered with the Secretary of State. No federal tax records, no applications filed - but in 2009 Tempest purchased a warehouse, in Staring City."

She hands him the folder with all the information and proof he'd need. Walter looks at it for a long moment, considering the situation, but doesn't open it. His eyes come back to meet hers, they are a bit amused.

"Tell me, Felicity, do you remember all the names of the subsidiary companies to QC by heart?"

Felicity tenses, she can admit that. Her chuckle is more awkward than lighthearted.

"Well, technically, I do have really good memory, so it's possible…"

He raises one eyebrow at her.

Felicity sighs. "Yeah, ok. So I might have tinkered with the QC mainframe a little bit while I was alone in your office on Friday. It doesn't count as hacking if I'm rearranging my own systems - I set up those protocols."

"Are they so easy to bypass that you were able to do it in 15 minutes?" and he sounds honestly astounded now, and a little concerned. Felicity is quick to reassure him.

"No! Of course not. I just know my way around my own system – and by the way, you need to seriously upgrade your IT department cause those guys are not as good as they think they are. Also, I… kinda had your password."

Walter huffs a laugh that is somewhere between irritated and amazed. When he looks at her, it's with affection and admiration, and Felicity finds herself relaxing.

"I am very glad that your integrity has survived the corporate world, Miss Smoak, otherwise we'd all be doomed." Walter says warmly, and she preens a little, because every time Walter calls her 'Miss Smoak' these days, he does so with that kind of mentor-pride that she absolutely loves.

"There's more, isn't there?" Walter asks wearily, picking up on her hesitation soon enough.

"Yes." There was a whole lot more actually. And this was the ugly part. "There was something about the money transfer that felt hinky to me, so I dwelled a little on it. The money that Moira drew from the company – I wasn't the only one who tracked it. There was someone else shadowing her and whoever it was, they're good. Like, NSA good." Felicity pauses, draws a deep breath. "But, as you know, I'm good too. So even though they left almost no trace in the QC system, I did manage to find this."

She hands him the image of the crisscrossing lines that vaguely resembles a star. It is a picture that means absolutely nothing to her, but that she recognized anyway. The moment she'd seen it, her stomach had fallen to the floor and a wave of fear had gripped her out of nowhere. It had been like a ghost coming to haunt her from the dead…

Walter looks at the picture with absolute befuddlement.

"Does that image mean anything to you?" Felicity asks, carefully assessing his reaction.

Walter frowns. "No." he says simply, but can't stop looking at it.

When he looks at her, he is taken aback by the set expression on her face.

"It doesn't mean anything to me either." Felicity explains. "But I have seen it before."

Walter's frown deepens and Felicity takes a deep breath. She has been steeling herself for this moment for about 5 days.

Here goes nothing.

"The first time I saw it was seven years ago, by accident." She'd been such a stupid kid back then. They all had been, but now that she thinks back to it, Felicity can't help but be ashamed of the choices she'd made. Even with Tommy's and Oliver's egos in the room, her 18 year old self had been the most arrogant one around; not in any overt loud way like those two, but still… Felicity has paid the price for that, though. And it changed her, irrevocably. "Tommy Merlyn had crashed his father's personal computer and I helped him clear the virus, set the system back up. When I was uploading Mr. Merlyn's files back into his drive afterwards, I noticed that image kept coming up. It was the front of heavily encrypted files – and I'm talking about Pentagon-scale encryption. I didn't look into them obviously; it didn't mean anything to me."

But then Tommy had disappeared. Felicity hadn't made the connection, back then. Even now it sounds like she's grasping at straws: it had been months between Tommy crashing his father's computer and him disappearing.

"And then I saw it again, two years later. I…" and this is the hard part. The part nobody else knows. Felicity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She has never told anyone about this for a reason: her searches had led her exactly nowhere. After the Gambit had gone down, (with Oliver in it because Felicity had put him there!), she had almost lost touch with reality trying to give everything a meaning, a reason. She'd hit dead end after dead end for almost year before she was able to admit that all the evidence pointed towards nothing more than a tragedy at sea (admit that, or risk losing herself). So Felicity had surrendered to the idea for the sake of her own sanity, admitting that she could no more blame the Gambit going down on anyone, than she could blame the iceberg for sinking the Titanic. There had been nothing to find… until now.

She takes a deep breath, controlling her breathing the way Digg had taught her.

"When Tommy Merlyn disappeared, Oliver was… he was devastated." She is so proud that her voice held steady, because yeah, devastated is a pretty accurate word for what Oliver had gone through. "When no ransom requests were made everyone assumed Tommy was dead, but Oliver… he wasn't the kind to give up on anything really, so he kept looking."

She stops, takes a controlled breath, and then another. Walter fills the silence for her.

"And you helped Oliver look."

If his voice hadn't been as compassionate as it was, as gentle, Felicity would not have been able to stand it. she was surprised at how raw the wound of it was. Maybe because she'd never spoken about this to anybody.

"I did, yeah."

Walter leans forward a bit, his eyes kind.

"Did it never occur to you that it could be dangerous. That whoever was good enough to kidnap the son of one of the richest men in the country and leave no trace at all, could come for you too?"

It's not exactly a question. Walter knew her, so he probably knew that the thought had occurred to her.

"It did occur to me… and it didn't matter. Not really. Tommy was my friend, I loved him. I wasn't going to let him go without a fight."

She doesn't say that, besides that very valid reason, there had been others that had been just as compelling, but Felicity suspects, from the understanding look Walter eyes her with, that he already knows.

"We didn't find much anyway… didn't find anything really. But – and he's where I'm going to have to need you to be patient with me: I hacked into Robert Queen's personal server at QC… and I found that same image." The words rush out, as if she's afraid he'll interrupt her. "We didn't go in looking for it or anything, but I remembered."

Felicity doesn't know what Walter is thinking in that moment. He has his CEO face on and she can't see past it into his thoughts.

"And why did you hack into Robert's computer?"

Felicity smiles at the way he asks that, as if the reason behind such an action is unfathomable. The truth though is so simple, it's almost heartbreaking. It's who she had been back then: no respect for anyone or anything, only daring and boldness and a reckless will to test her own limits… and a person who was just as undisciplined to urge her on. It sounds complicated, but it's really not, so Felicity gives Walter the reason with the simplicity it deserves.

"Because I could… and Oliver asked me to."

It stuns Walter into blinking rapidly and for a moment he looks away from her, as if whatever the look on her face, is one she can't stand for too long.

"And what do you think that means? What did it mean to you then?" he asks after a few moments, more composed.

Felicity shrugs helplessly.

"Nothing in itself, obviously. But it was hidden behind layers upon layers of encryption. There were military-grade security protocols surrounding the whole directory, and I was only able to get past the first few layers, which is how I found that image. People don't use that kind of protection unless they've something to hide – something big. In my experience as a hacker, it's ether something bad, or something they're seriously ashamed of."

"It could have been confidential information pertaining QC." Walter suggests.

Felicity nods. "It could have been. Except it was hosted in a whole different platform, separate from the QC system completely." And using a completely different form of protection that had been eerily similar to the protocols Malcolm Merlyn had had on his computer. She explains that to Walter as well, watches as his expression turns thoughtful.

"Oliver was going to ask his dad about it. There was no other way of knowing what it was." Her voice is soft, almost unwilling. "…Two weeks later the Gambit went down."

The silence that fills the room carries such weight that Felicity feels she can't move under the pressure of it. She doesn't speak to end it though, because she knows better than anyone that certain things take time to absorb.

"It is all very strange, I admit, but… this symbol could easily be code for a business deal that Malcolm and Robert might have been planning together."

Felicity opens her mouth, closes it again. She contemplates the possibility, its plausibility, as Walter explains.

"Just a few months before Gambit went down, they were meeting more often and though there was never anything official, I was sure they were going to try some kind of business venue together. That kind of action needs to be very carefully protected, as you well know, especially if its corporations like QC and Merlyn Global engaging in it."

Felicity sighed deeply. Was it possible? Sure. Could she believe it? Easily. Was she still afraid? Most definitely yes.

"Honestly Walter, I have no idea what that thing is. What I know is that every time I've seen this thing, something horrible has happened. Not necessarily because of it – Oliver knew about his father's trip to China before we found that design, but now that I have found it again, I feel like…" Like what? Felicity had no words to describe what she felt, that inexplicable pit that dread had eaten in her belly. In her subconscious, she had associated this stupid design with her fear of loss and she couldn't see beyond that with any degree of clarity.

"It's senseless." And it was! She knew it. "Tommy has been back for two years and he won't tell anyone where he was or what happened to him, but he has no idea what this thing is either. And God knows I can't blame anyone for a storm sinking a ship, but…"

Felicity shakes her head, feeling awkward and inadequate. This is all beyond the point anyway.

"You trusted me to dig this up for you, and now I am showing you the same measure of trust, by telling you everything I know about it. Which is nothing at all, except that it's existed for years. You need to know what you're dealing with, on the off chance that this…" could kill you too. But she doesn't say that. "…whatever this is, might be dangerous."

Walter opens his mouth but Felicity never hears what he meant to say because precisely in that moment that Thea bursts into the room.

"I am so sorry. I had this one outfit picked up and then changed my mind, and then found this dress I had been looking for since forever…"

Felicity and Walter share a smile and then turn to Thea, who is still going a hundred miles an hour. Felicity gets up and Walter follows (he so very naturally picks up the photo of the mysterious star-like design on his desk and folds it, putting it in his pocket. Felicity wants to tell him to burn it…). He walks around the desk and kisses Thea's cheek, before extending his hand to Felicity, takes her smaller one in both of his.

"Thank you Felicity."

There is such weight to his words, such intent in his eyes that it's very much possible Thea picks up on it, though she can't know what they're talking about. Felicity doesn't say you're welcome, because it wasn't exactly a pleasure to go down on memory lane, but she does nod and give him a small smile.

"Have fun, both of you." Walter says smiling at them, ushering them out.

"We will! Come on." Thea takes Felicity's hand and almost drags her out. "Ok. So I was thinking: shopping first, then lunch, after that we get our hair done, catch a movie and the pick up takeout and then crash at CNRI with Laurel. Sound good?"

Felicity beamed. "Sounds great!"