The Starling City Police Department to any normal person, would have appeared to be in a state of chaos. On the contrary, the department was in full swing on the search for the vigilante known as the Arrow after the attack on Star City's mayor, and no one was pulling punches.
People were being taken in and out of interrogation nearly every half hour. Phones were ringing off the hook from the tipline that had been set up. There wasn't a single person in the station who was not working.
Mike Brand, an IT investigator was working on his computer, trying to pull up whatever he could for Detective Hastings, a detective who was all too eager to capture the vigilante. Hastings was well known around the department to be a bit of a bully. So Brand was working non-stop.
He saw Hastings approaching out the corner of his eye as he typed away on his computer. The detective was well built, standing at a height over 6 feet tall. He had dark brown eyes and hair, with the beginnings of a beard growing. He wore dark brown slacks and a white dress shirt with a brown and green tie. Brand couldn't help but think Hastings was rather attractive… it was a shame his attitude didn't match his exterior.
Just a few hours ago, Hastings had "asked" Brand to go through some files that related to vigilantism (he really ordered him to, but Hastings would deny this).
Brand could feel his heart rate picking up as Hastings got closer, before the detective was stopped by a patrol officer asking a question. Brand, turning his all of his attention back to his computer screen, continued combing through a file that was nearly 2 years old, when an email came through his inbox. This was particularly interesting, the sender was anonymous and the subject line read F. SMOAK. He opened the email a cryptic message written in code. The code was fairly complicated, but after just a few minutes he was able to uncover something very significant. In fact, this could just be what Hastings was looking for. He motioned for the detective to come over.
"What have you got?" Hastings asked coming up behind Brand.
Brand cleared his throat before speaking, "A few years ago, a then Detective Lance brought in Felicity Smoak, it looks like he found some evidence that tied her back to the vigilante "the Hood." Smoak was working in the IT department at Queen Consolidated—way over qualified for the job by the way." He said looking up at Hastings, who didn't seem amused at all. Brand continued, "The point is she has the tech skills you would need to purposefully get cops off of their trail or just hide whatever it is she was doing on the net. And here's the thing; her data wipes are consistent with some of the data wipes that were associated with the Hood and how he was able to cover his tracks."
Hastings rubbed the fuzz on his chin, thinking. "You think she was aiding the Arrow back when he was calling himself the Hood...?"
Brand nodded enthusiastically, "And I think I can tie her to his most recent activities as well."
"How so?" asked Hastings arching up his left eyebrow, leaning down onto the chair where Brand was sitting.
Brand tried to ignore the small beads of sweat that broke out onto his forehead. He pulled up the email he had received, and showed it's contents to Hastings.
Hastings clapped the IT worker on the shoulder, "I'm going to bring her in." and he stood up and started for the door.
Brand found himself yelling out to Hastings before he could give it a second thought.
"Shouldn't we speak to Captain Lance first?"
Hasting's barely looked back over his shoulder as he responded heading back to his own desk. "Better to take action now, get apologies later." He said. "Besides, anything to get us closer to the Arrow guy, right?" He pressed a few numbers on his phone and waited while the phone rang "I'd like to speak to Judge Penn please." He grabbed his suit jacket off of the back of his chair and pulled it on.
Brand swallowed, his mouth had gone dry. Even though he did as he was asked to do, he couldn't help but feel as though Hastings were jumping the gun a bit too quickly. But there was no way he was going to say anything. He continued to look through the previously encrypted email.
Felicity Smoak was working diligently in her office at Palmer Technologies, going over some reports on her computer. As she continued to type away at her keyboard, Ray Palmer knocked softly on her open door and walked inside.
"Hey there!" He said going up to her desk, wearing a very charming smile.
Felicity's fingers moved swiftly across her keyboard, she had looked up when he had knocked, the reflection of her computer screen reflecting in her glasses. "Hey!" She said smiling briefing. She finished typing something then gave her full attention to him. "What's up?" She asked placing her arms on her desk and leaning forward slightly.
Ray grinned sheepishly, and looked down rubbing a hand through his hair, "Well… I figured maybe we could have lunch." He looked up at her placing both of his hands into his pant's pockets. "You could tell me more about your evening activities." He made air quotes with his fingers as he emphasized the last two words.
Felicity couldn't help the smile that spread across her face, rolling her eyes she said "Seriously Ray… if I'm going to go on lunch break I really don't want to talk work." Ray opened his mouth to say something, but Felicity knowing what he was about to say cut him off before he had the chance. "Whether it's my day job or night job." She stood up behind her desk.
Ray held up his hands in mock surrender, "Okay, okay. Fine. No work talk, I promise." He gestured towards the door, "But you will have lunch with me?"
Felicity took her purse up off of her desk and crossed to stand next to Ray. "I'm honestly so hungry, I wouldn't even dare saying no."
They grinned at each other and walked out of her office and a little ways down the hallway to the elevator.
"Alright!" Ray said enthusiastically "Lunch is on me." He pressed the button for the elevator and turned to look at Felicity "Besides, I would love to talk to you about some new features for the ATOM suit."
Felicity let out a gasp of exasperation but smiled nonetheless. "What did we just agree on?"
Ray leaned down and pressed a light kiss to Felicity's lips, which she gladly returned. Pulling away as the elevator doors opened, he gestured for her to go inside first. When the were both on the elevator and he had pressed the button to go down to the lobby he said,
"Technically that's not your night or day job." He winked at her, and Felicity bit her lip and smiled shaking her head.
The elevator arrived in the lobby and the doors slid open. Felicity walked out followed by Ray.
"You just can't help yourself can you?" She said to him, looking up at him as they continued walking.
Ray shrugged innocently "I'm sure I don't know what it is you're talking about."
Felicity let out a huff of laughter "Oh yes… sure you don't." She said suggestively. "You boys and your playthings." She stopped dead in her tracks and closed her eyes wishing she hadn't said that. Her face was turning a light shade of pink, and Ray was barely holding back his laughter. "And by that—I mean, by "playthings" I meant, um not anything inappropriate because we're obviously," she gestured around the lobby "in the work place and there is no way I would be talking about anything else in your place of business." She nodded as if to give herself affirmation.
"You, be unprofessional?" Ray asked smiling. "That's never happened before."
She playfully glared at him as he enjoyed her discomfort in making a fool out of herself.
The continued walking towards the front when they got up to security and were stopped by the afternoon guard on duty Paul.
"Sir?" Paul asked stepping in front of Ray and Felicity.
"Speak fast Paul," Ray said but very lighthearted "Miss Smoak's insides are about to devour themselves." He put his hand up as if whispering, but said it loud enough for her to hear "She get's cranky when she's hungry." Ray smiled, Felicity hiding her head in her hands. Paul was not smiling.
"Actually, this is about Miss Smoak." Paul said. Felicity looked up, intrigued. The smile had dropped from Ray's face. "Just a moment ago, a Detective Hastings asked to see her… he says he has a warrant."
Felicity looked genuinely confused, "A warrant for what?" she asked.
Paul shrugged, "I don't know ma'am. He didn't say.
He's just past the security desk."
Felicity and Ray looked at each other, and before he could stop her she walked to the security desk. Detective Hastings wore his badge on his belt, and was flanked by two patrol officers. Hastings looked up when he heard Felicity's heels approaching. He gave a sick sort of smile.
"Miss Smoak." He said, "Just the person we're looking for." He gestured to the two officers who took their cue and moved forward as Felicity stepped past the desk.
"Is there something-?" she began to say but stopped talking as one of the officers took a firm hold of her wrist and placed it behind her back. She then felt the unmistakable cold metal of handcuffs being closed around her wrist and then the other as it was also drawn behind her back. She seemed to have the lost the ability to speak, which was very unusual for her.
"You're under arrest." Hastings said, his hands on his hips looking quite triumphant. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law-"
"Hold on," Ray exclaimed, stepping forward "This must be some sort of mistake. What does your warrant specify that you're taking her straight into custody?"
Hastings withdrew a yellow envelope from his pocket and handed it to Ray who took it looking dumbfounded.
"That's just a copy," the detective said "You can keep it." He jerked his head towards the front doors of the office that lead out onto the busy streets of Star City. The officer holding Felicity's now handcuffed arms started to lead her out of the building.
It was as if some sort of sense had just snapped into her. She stopped going forward with the officer and planted her feet on the ground. "I don't understand, I don't-" She looked around frantically, as if hoping for someone to help come to her defense. "This doesn't make any sense!"
Ray had opened the yellow envelope and read the warrant. He looked up and made eye contact with her, something close to fear was reflected in his eyes and Felicity felt her heart sink to the pit of her stomach. She mouthed wordlessly, Ray gave a small shake of his head.
"You have the right to an attorney…" Hastings continued as he walked out of the building with the two officers and Felicity in tow. Ray didn't move, looking on as she was led out and put into the back of a patrol car, before it pulled away from the curb.
Paul had gone back to his desk, not knowing what else he was supposed to do. Ray stood where he was, in some state of shock. Other Palmer Tech employees were staring. Finally he made a u-turn and a beeline for the elevator where he frantically pressed the button to go back upstairs. He had to look up a phone number and make a call.
Laurel Lance was finishing up her work for the day, and had gathered her things together ready to head home. Just as she was putting away some files into her folding cabinet her office phone that laid on her desk started ringing. Puzzled, she walked over and picked it up. "ADA Laurel Lance speaking."
"Hi," the person sounded a bit desperate and quite out of breath. Laurel, growing only more curious furrowed her eyebrows together as he continued. "Miss Lance, yes hi. Um, my name is Ray Palmer. I'm the CEO of Palmer Technologies…" Laurel didn't say anything, listening. Ray waited, thinking perhaps she had no clue who he was said "I took over the former Queen Company, I-"
"I know who you are Mr. Palmer." Laurel said, the arm that wasn't holding the phone to her ear crossing over her chest.
"Right okay," he continued "Something just happened, and I didn't know who else to call." He stopped himself, "Okay I know who else I could've called but I figured the best option would be to call you instead, because you're the ADA."
"What happened?" asked Laurel, nervousness creeping into her vains.
"Felicity Smoak… she's just been arrested by this detective. They're taking her into custody. They had a warrant and everything." He paused, waiting for her to put two and two together. When she didn't say anything he continued "The reasoning on the warrant involves aiding and abetting a vigilante. Now you know why I called you."
Laurel took a moment to think, "Okay here's what we're going to do. You're going to stay at the office-"
"Are you kidding?!" he exclaimed cutting her off "I have to help! I have to-"
"You can help by staying out of the way and acting like everything is normal." Laurel said interrupting him. "I'm going to go to the station right now. I'll give you a call with an update."
Resigned, Ray agreed and hung up the phone. Laurel placed the receiver back down on the desk. She took about 30 seconds before cursing quietly and grabbing her things before running out of the office.