div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Sometimes begin a soldier was a blessing. His training in the military had taught him how to shut his emotions off to deal with at a later date when they lost a comrade. Tonight was no different. Except for the fact that Felicity had become more the little sister he never had compared to a comrade. A few tears managed to escape his tough guy exterior before he pulled himself together. It was more for Oliver's sake than his own. Losing Felicity had always been the younger mans biggest fear. Now, it was being played out right in front of him. Right in his arms./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Captain Lance even showed up with a heavy heart and tears in his eyes. When the officer started helping Team Arrow it was abundantly clear that Felicity was really the only one he trusted. As time ticked on he warmed up to the rest of them but John didn't miss the unlikely bond the two shared. Often times he wondered if Lance saw her as the third daughter he never had. Felicity just had a way of wiggling into hearts like that./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Throughout the interviews and the drive back to the foundry John said nothing. What could he say? Oliver wasn't the only one who lost someone that night. As much as the archer was hurting, the soldier was hurting just as much. Protecting Felicity was a vow that they both agreed upon a long time ago. In fact, Oliver insisting that they could keep her safe was the only reason Diggle ever agreed to let her join the mission. The bitterness that was starting to settle in his chest was being directed at Oliver, despite knowing it shouldn't be./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"After getting Oliver inside safely and leaving him to his own devices, Diggle headed out under the pretense of going home. Lyla would be there and be comforting as ever but that wasn't what he needed. His soldier instinct had kicked into overdrive. The only way to handle his emotions now was to dive into work. At the moment, that work was to figure out how the Count found Felicity, as her text implied. His first stop was her house because something told him that Felicity had gotten herself into trouble rather than it having found her./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"As suspected there was no signs of forced entry. Or entry at all for that matter. The small town house was in perfect order, right down to the tablet set perfectly atop her mountain of magazines on her coffee table. A tap of a button and the screen came to life, rolling notifications telling him just how many searches she had been running. The most recent ones were what caught his eye though. It appeared that since getting news of the new Count she had set up any form of search and notification for him. He knew the last one and her history, so he understood her wanting to keep an eye on the situation. But, he also knew Felicity Smoak well enough to know she hated mysteries./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Once he got the device unlocked it all clicked into place. Trouble hadn't found her because she was the one who found the trouble. Displayed on the screen was a picture and location of the man. West Homer Street traffic camera picked him up, and of course Felicity would go on her own. Irrational anger pulsed through John's veins as he roughly put the tablet back on the stack of magazines. A flicker of regret sparked in his stomach when he wasn't immediately ostracized for his neglecting ways with her precious baby. That flicker was gone as quickly as it came though./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"How dare she! All he ever heard her say was how she couldn't lose someone so important to her again after her father left. All he ever promised her was that he would make sure him and Oliver always made it back at night. Now here he was, the one in pain of losing someone so incredibly important to him. This was like Andy all over again, just worse in someways. Sure anger had been a huge part of his grief with Andy but he always directed that at Deadshot. This… this was different. Yes the new Count was to blame for killing her but Felicity was to blame for seeking trouble. /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"At some point the large man had risen from her purple couch and had begun to pace her small space. The anger coursing through his veins refused to allow him to be immobile. That was how he spotted it. Stopping dead in his tracks his eyes focused on the small framed photo, placed strategically close to the Robin Hood poster. It was him, and her, laughing hysterically in Big Belly Burger. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Oliver had said something stupid, didn't get a pop culture reference over milkshakes. He couldn't remember what it was but he remembered how good it felt to laugh. It was one of the early days./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Without second thought he grabbed the picture, shut off all her lights, took one last look around and pulled the door shut behind him. The lock latched immediately and with a faint peace of mind he headed home to cry on his ex-wife's shoulder. Lyla was as comforting as he knew she would be as he clutched the photo in his hands, eyes never lifting from the free-spirited blondes face. There was never going to be a "Team Arrow" after tonight. Not without her./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Captain Lance even showed up with a heavy heart and tears in his eyes. When the officer started helping Team Arrow it was abundantly clear that Felicity was really the only one he trusted. As time ticked on he warmed up to the rest of them but John didn't miss the unlikely bond the two shared. Often times he wondered if Lance saw her as the third daughter he never had. Felicity just had a way of wiggling into hearts like that./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Throughout the interviews and the drive back to the foundry John said nothing. What could he say? Oliver wasn't the only one who lost someone that night. As much as the archer was hurting, the soldier was hurting just as much. Protecting Felicity was a vow that they both agreed upon a long time ago. In fact, Oliver insisting that they could keep her safe was the only reason Diggle ever agreed to let her join the mission. The bitterness that was starting to settle in his chest was being directed at Oliver, despite knowing it shouldn't be./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"After getting Oliver inside safely and leaving him to his own devices, Diggle headed out under the pretense of going home. Lyla would be there and be comforting as ever but that wasn't what he needed. His soldier instinct had kicked into overdrive. The only way to handle his emotions now was to dive into work. At the moment, that work was to figure out how the Count found Felicity, as her text implied. His first stop was her house because something told him that Felicity had gotten herself into trouble rather than it having found her./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"As suspected there was no signs of forced entry. Or entry at all for that matter. The small town house was in perfect order, right down to the tablet set perfectly atop her mountain of magazines on her coffee table. A tap of a button and the screen came to life, rolling notifications telling him just how many searches she had been running. The most recent ones were what caught his eye though. It appeared that since getting news of the new Count she had set up any form of search and notification for him. He knew the last one and her history, so he understood her wanting to keep an eye on the situation. But, he also knew Felicity Smoak well enough to know she hated mysteries./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Once he got the device unlocked it all clicked into place. Trouble hadn't found her because she was the one who found the trouble. Displayed on the screen was a picture and location of the man. West Homer Street traffic camera picked him up, and of course Felicity would go on her own. Irrational anger pulsed through John's veins as he roughly put the tablet back on the stack of magazines. A flicker of regret sparked in his stomach when he wasn't immediately ostracized for his neglecting ways with her precious baby. That flicker was gone as quickly as it came though./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"How dare she! All he ever heard her say was how she couldn't lose someone so important to her again after her father left. All he ever promised her was that he would make sure him and Oliver always made it back at night. Now here he was, the one in pain of losing someone so incredibly important to him. This was like Andy all over again, just worse in someways. Sure anger had been a huge part of his grief with Andy but he always directed that at Deadshot. This… this was different. Yes the new Count was to blame for killing her but Felicity was to blame for seeking trouble. /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"At some point the large man had risen from her purple couch and had begun to pace her small space. The anger coursing through his veins refused to allow him to be immobile. That was how he spotted it. Stopping dead in his tracks his eyes focused on the small framed photo, placed strategically close to the Robin Hood poster. It was him, and her, laughing hysterically in Big Belly Burger. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Oliver had said something stupid, didn't get a pop culture reference over milkshakes. He couldn't remember what it was but he remembered how good it felt to laugh. It was one of the early days./div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Without second thought he grabbed the picture, shut off all her lights, took one last look around and pulled the door shut behind him. The lock latched immediately and with a faint peace of mind he headed home to cry on his ex-wife's shoulder. Lyla was as comforting as he knew she would be as he clutched the photo in his hands, eyes never lifting from the free-spirited blondes face. There was never going to be a "Team Arrow" after tonight. Not without her./div
