He had been so caught up in the plan he had been hired to orchestrate, as he saw fit, to put the pieces together initially. His genius had always allowed him to put pieces together, even if a puzzle was incomplete, he could craft the missing sections in his head and see the whole.

That Roy Harper knew Oliver Queen was a known fact. That Oliver Queen had skills picked up during his years away had been purported. Hell, he had examined what little footage there was of the Arrow that had not been corrupted or deleted himself and concluded that multiple men had donned the Arrow's hood.

Noah knew now that he had allowed himself to be distracted. He had seen her name in the Star City papers – making a splash returning to Palmer Tech, as the girlfriend to the beleaguered city's mayoral candidate, and the tragic romantic figure of a newly engaged woman horribly injured on her happy night – Felicity Smoak. His daughter.

He had witnessed her potential but little girls had been a mystery to him. Raising a child was not a simple, elegant theorem he could follow so when he had left the world he'd been hiding in, he left her. Noah hadn't forgotten about her exactly, he always knew she was out there, but he had not watched her from afar with paternal pride.

Knowing what he did now he realized what a mistake that had been on his part. Upon seeing his plan literally blow up, all the pieces fell into their reordered and proper place. Oliver Queen was the Green Arrow, and had been the Arrow, the Hood, and the Vigilante before that. And his daughter, his brilliant, talented daughter was the technological genius behind all he and his team managed to accomplish.

Roy Harper had been the original red hooded sidekick. Followed by Thea Queen in his absence. John Diggle was the so called Spartan, who had worn a glorified burglar mask for so long. The Lance sisters had traded off on the Canary persona. And with his daughter at the center of it all Noah felt comfortable labeling Ray Palmer as the ATOM.

He had a few notions on who the Flash could be, but at the moment his identity was not a priority. Teaching his daughter a lesson after she so thoroughly humiliated him is what preoccupied Noah's mind.

Not that there hadn't been a sense of pride. He had a hand in creating her after all. That brilliant mind. But his ego, his need to be the smartest person in the equation, won out over any long forgotten paternal instinct.

And really for as smart as his daughter was she should have seen the truth staring her in the face. Perhaps if she wasn't so blinded by love she would have, and really he was doing her favor, she was capable of greatness and her emotional tie to a clearly unworthy man was hindering her. Once she was free of the unnecessary distractions of life she could do so much.

They, he thought giddily, could do so much.

Not that she had been willing to believe him when he told her the real reason her fiancée had been travelling back and forth to Central City. Felicity had refused to look at the evidence he brought and told him that he should just go back to what he was good at, staying out of her life.

Hearing those words had hurt. The cut of them something he hadn't prepared himself for because for so long he had gotten by without wanting his daughter. Now that he had seen her, knew of her capabilities, he wanted her. Wanted her to want him.

So Noah pushed the issue. Gave the truth to Queen's rival to use against him. A well timed weapon, thrown at him at a place and time that would do the most damage - during his mayoral debate.

What he had not been able to factor, because he had no concept of it – not until the crushed look washed over her face, stealing the brightness that usually shone out from her – Oliver Queen's secret son was more than just a weapon against him.

The man's guilt and pain, so clearly evident on his face, echoed through Noah. Not because he cared about it or him, but the devastation on Felicity's face. That mattered, more than he could fathom.

He, her father, was responsible for that look and it occurred to him that she'd worn that world shattering ache on her beautiful face one before, when he left her. He was just as responsible for his daughter's broken heart then as he was now.

Noah had failed at little in his life, it was not a sensation he cared for, but failing at being a father, it twisted something inside him. Seeing her pain, knowing he brought it on ... a lesson, all fathers were meant to teach them to their children, but he had gotten it horribly wrong.

He had miscalculated in worst way imaginable.

It was too late to take it back. Somehow with her it always was and Noah didn't know who he was angrier at: himself, Queen for providing the ammunition, or his daughter for making such things matter to him.