Ch 7 – Spring Break

An: I do not own Arrow. I'm very sorry for the extremely long delay with this chapter. My dad passed away in May and even though he lived apart from me, I couldn't write anything for two weeks. To make up for it, this chapter is a bit long. I hope you enjoy it.

S1

Felicity watched with horror as the plane took off into the sky. The twinkling stars behind it seemed to mock her and remind her that the sun was setting fast and they needed to find shelter.

"I am so going to kill Ollie!" Thea reiterated as she kicked a pebble on the small beach into the water.

"Get in line Thea!" Tommy told her.

Felicity turned to look at them, "Plotting to kill Oliver now is not going to help us survive this. We have food and water in our packs and according to Mr. Wilson lectures on the plane, the next priority should be shelter," she recited to them.

Thea was staring into the tree line "It looks kind of dark in there and it's getting kind of chilly. How do we start a fire?" she asked.

Felicity turned to stare at her. "Didn't you pay attention to the brief Slade gave us on the plane?"

"Uh I may have dozed off," the brunette reluctantly admitted.

Felicity glanced at Tommy and he looked away sheepishly as well.

"In our defence, I didn't think we were just going to be dropped on an island and told to survive. I thought, you know, they would have eased us into it or something like that," Thea said.

Felicity sighed loudly as it suddenly became crystal clear why Oliver so desperately wanted her to participate as well. He knew his sister and best friend weren't going to take it seriously until they were forced to. Thank god she had found the information interesting and asked Slade many questions. It was going to be a very long week!

S2

It was Saturday night and Oliver decided to make an appearance at Verdant. He was watching the movements of the various women in the club and how they were trying to seduce men. A big part of the plan this week hinged on Olivia being able to flirt properly. He had tried to recall his play boy days and the many women he had been with but the only picture his mind would supply him with was Felicity. He was amazed at how thoughts of her had started dominating his mind in such a short period of time. He hadn't even known her two months yet.

He spotted an angry Laurel Lance headed towards him and he was instantly reminded of the event that lead to their permanent breakup. Laurel had returned to her father's house much earlier from a class than he had expected and caught him and Sara doing it doggy style on Laurel's bed and she had been very angry. In hindsight, it could have been worse, it could have been the detective discovering them on his bed but they had gotten away with that the day before.

"Why is my boyfriend away on some survival trip?" she demanded angrily.

"Laurel, hi, nice to see you too," He said crossing his hands in front of his chest.

"I'm still waiting for an answer," She said tapping her foot impatiently.

"I'm sorry," he said seriously looking into her eyes.

"You're sorry you sent my boyfriend away?" Laurel asked for clarification moving her hands to her hips.

"No, I'm sorry for hurting you. What I did to you and Sara. It was awful, I was awful," Oliver said sincerely,

Laurel scoffed at his apology throwing her hands up in the air. "You expect me to believe that. Next thing you'll be telling me that you regret it and it was the biggest mistake of your life."

"Actually, I don't regret it. If it didn't happen we would not have broken up permanently. We might still be stuck in that toxic relationship we were in. I am the man I am today because of the experiences I've been through. Look at Sara," he said nodding to the other end of the bar where Sara was happily pouring drinks for a few customers.

"Sara has grown tremendously and I've heard you now have a better friendship than you did back then. It's time to let go of the past. Focus on Tommy and what you have with him now. He really likes you."

"He obviously doesn't like me enough to say no to your request," she pointed out bitterly.

"His decision was based on more than a simple request from me. He had always been curious about what it was I went through and my friendship with Slade. This is his opportunity to understand that better and be there for Thea at the same time. There are multiple reasons he wanted to do this. It's not a black or white decision. I know for a fact he didn't really want to leave you but if you're relationship is solid, one week away should not be an issue, Laurel," Oliver tried to explain her.

Laurel huffed and walked away from him to talk to her sister. She was not ready to deal with Oliver Queen's apology.

S3

Felicity had successfully got a fire going behind a log on the beach and the three of them were huddled around it. It had taken about ten attempts before she got this one going. The wind on the beach was strong and she had had to find a way to shelter the fire from the strong gusts. They were closer to the tree line than she wanted to be. Her original plan was to move the log to the middle of the beach so that they had a clear view of anything approaching but they were too weak to lift the log.

A low growling noise caused them all to jump.

"Do you think there are bears here?" Thea asked panicked.

Before anyone could answer a shape burst forth from behind a tree sending the three of them scampering in different directions. As soon as they were far enough away, the figure pulled off the head of the 'bear' to reveal a beautiful Asian woman. She touched her hand to her ear and engaged her coms.

"Slade, the boy is coming your way, Ivo the blonde is heading for you and Fryers you got the other girl."

She looked down at the makeshift fire and she couldn't help the laughter that erupted out of her as she remembered the faces of her targets as they ran off. At least one of them had the sense to run with their back pack. This was going to be a very interesting week.

S4

It had been 48 hours since they left and he missed them terribly. He didn't think he would feel this empty with them gone. Did his world really only consist of his little sister, his best friend and now Felicity? He had tried to keep busy so he wouldn't notice their absence and as a result he had spent a significant amount of time with his sister's bodyguard, John Diggle and her sort of boyfriend, Roy Harper planning the execution of the plan that week.

He knew they would have arrived at the island by now and he checked his e-mail every ten minutes hoping for an update from Slade. They would have figured out that 1) they were being left there and 2) they weren't alone. He knew Thea and Tommy for sure were planning his death and he hoped they hadn't roped Felicity in. He wondered how they would have handled the first test on the beach. He's pretty sure Tommy ran away screaming like a girl.

Oliver checked his e-mail and found an update from Slade. He quickly opened.

Hey Kid,

Dropped them off. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Slade

That was all? He already figured out that much on his own. He immediately hit reply and asked Slade for some more details and gently remind him that he wanted his family back in one piece and not scarred for life.

S-5

Thea hadn't stopped running yet. She had no idea where she was but she could swear the bear followed her. This was so not how she planned to spend her spring break. Why did she listen to her idiot brother? She could barely see where she was going and had managed to avoid a few tree trunks at the last moment but that still did not deter her from running.

Tommy was cold, alone and lost and he had no clue where he was. He had stopped next to some large rocks and was leaning heavily against them. He really needed to get in better shape. The forest canopy was thick and he couldn't even see the stars to navigate, not that he knew how to do that anyway. He listened carefully for any noises and when he heard none he relaxed a little more. He tried to remember what Felicity said about what their priorities should be. They were separated now but he knew trying to find each other in the dark on an island they knew nothing about would not work. He thought that it was best if he stayed by his rocks. They would shelter him from the wind and keep him warm. He could climb up on some and be off the ground and safe. Tomorrow morning he would start looking for Thea and Felicity.

Felicity settled behind a rather large tree and let her breathing calm down. She couldn't believe the panic that had flooded her system as the bear came at them. She didn't have much experience with wild animals but she was fairly sure the bear should have run after at least one of them.

She listened to see if she heard anything and then reached into her backpack to pull out her tablet. She had brought it in case she did get separated from Tommy and Thea. Technically, it was cheating but she wanted to make sure she was prepared for this trip. Didn't the boy scouts always say be prepared?

Before they left, Felicity had discreetly placed trackers on both Tommy and Thea. She had promised herself that she would only use the tablet for emergencies and this qualified as an emergency. Oliver would be so disappointed in her if she let something happen to Thea and Tommy. Besides Slade did tell her that you had to use your wits and all your resources available to you to survive, it's not her fault she packed more resources than she was supposed to have. He should really have checked their packs.

She turned on her tablet and connected it to the satellite phone she brought with her thinking that there would be no wifi hotspot nearby but she was surprised to see that her tablet was registering a wifi network.

"That's strange, maybe this island isn't as deserted as I thought it was." Felicity mumbled.

She opened the network and found it unsecured. She was outraged that anybody would have an unsecured network but then again, who's going to want to use wifi on a deserted island. She accessed her tracking programme and quickly pulled up the dots for Tommy and Thea. Thea was far away but she was sure she could get to Tommy quickly. She put her tablet in sleep mode to conserve power and headed off in Tommy's direction.

S-6

Olivia sat in her boss's office taking notes. Oliver had worn a skirt that was two inches shorter than his usual skirts and made sure to cross his legs as he sat. He was pleased that his boss's gaze kept dropping down to his legs as they discussed the meetings for that week.

There was a knock on the door that was followed by Mrs. Queen and Walter's secretary entering the office.

"Mrs. Queen to what do we owe this honor?" Liam asked standing up to address her.

She smiled that fake smile of hers. "I've decided to re-familiarise myself with the company. My son will be taking over soon and if I am going to be able to support him in his new role then I need to get my bearings at QC again. It's been a few years since I had any involvement in the company and Walter's Assistant volunteered to re-introduce me to the managers."

"Oh," Liam said clearly at a loss for words.

Moira looked down at her son, "It's a good thing I decided to come back, the dress code for QC seems to have slipped a bit. I remember the days when skirts were always below the knee." She commented primly.

Oliver opened his mouth to respond but his mother cut him off, "It's ok dear. I know times change and shorter skirts are supposed to be more acceptable now."

"I can assure you Mrs. Queen that all the staff at QC are professionally dressed at all times." Liam said.

Moira turned to watch him with a calculated gaze, "I'm sure they are."

As soon as she left, Liam became a bit paranoid and dismissed Oliver telling him they were done with their meeting. As Oliver closed the door behind him, he placed his ear to the door and heard Liam talking to someone about an emergency meeting the next day.

S -7

"Tommy," Felicity whispered. "Tommy?" she called again looking down at her tablet. She should be right on top of him.

"Up here?" Tommy called out to her.

Felicity turned towards some rocks but her eyes couldn't make out his shape.

"I hear you but I can't see you." Felicity responded.

Tommy started waving his hands at her.

"Ok, I think I see you now. That looks like a good spot. Stay there, I'm going to get Thea and bring her back here. It looks like she's run herself in a giant circle. She's close by. I'll be back in 15 minutes."

"You sure that's safe?" Tommy asked.

"I need you to stay here. I don't have a map of this place, my only way back to you is the dot on this screen. Don't worry, I found you didn't I?"

"Ok,"

15 minutes later Felicity returned with Thea in tow. Tommy helped both of them up to a little outcropping he had found and they huddled together for the rest of the night.

S-8

"I'm impressed with the kid's girl. It looks like someone actually listened to my lecture," Slade said to his colleagues.

"I'm impressed she thought far enough ahead to put trackers on her friends. Usually the women walk with tons of makeup and clothes in their packs, never anything actually useful." Shado responded.

"She seems quite smart and brave. Oliver has chosen his mate well," Yao Fei said.

"This only means it's time to step up our game a little earlier than usual," Slade said with a wide smile.

S-9

That night, Oliver confronted his mother about her appearance at QC.

"Did you think I was just going to sit back and let you and Walter handle this?" Moira said sternly to her son.

"Mother it is safer for you." Oliver argued.

"If there are problems at QC, I need to be there. I will not allow my children to inherit a company with problems caused by Robert and I. We created this mess and on behalf of Robert, I am going to fix it. Like it or not Oliver, I will be working at the company in Isabelle's office. Good night." She said as she walked away from her son.

Oliver clenched his fists. He had sent his sister away so she would be safe for the week and now he had his mother painting a bright red target on her back. Why could he never get a break? He entered the home gym and spent half an hour on the salmon ladder. The burn in his muscles felt good and the break from reality relaxed him. When he finally jumped down and went to his phone to check his messages he found that Slade had finally replied. It's always the moment when you stop waiting for the message that it comes.

Hey kid,

Your friends survived the first night but damn can your sister run! Also your girl's a lot smarter than we originally thought. We're bumping up the plans.

Slade

Bumping up the plans? No no, no, no. They were supposed to spend the first three days on the island bumbling around before they introduced the idea of sharing the island with mercenaries. What the heck did Felicity do in one day to make Slade want to start terrorising them earlier?

S-10

The rays of sun that broke through the thick forest canopy warmed them and gave them a better view of where they were. The treeline was about six feet away from their rocks. The trees were tall and green with plenty of space between them.

Felicity sat with her back against the rock face and her tablet and a solar charger from Palmer Technologies sitting in the sun. The charger worked ok but the rate at which it charged her tablet was much slower than her actual use so far. At present rate, her tablet would be drained in three hours.

"So have you figured out why there is wifi here yet?"

"I hacked their servers and found a map of the island as well as what they had planned for us for the week. The name of the company running this trip is Shadow Survival Services (SSS). Slade Wilson is one of the Directors of the company along with his wife, Shado and father-in-law Yao Fei.

"So if we know what they are planning we can stay ahead of them?" Thea asked.

"Sort of, the reports indicated that they are stepping up their plans but I can't keep this tablet on too long. I want to preserve the charge and give it time to recharge."

"Do you know where they are based on the island?" Tommy asked.

"No, why?"

"Wifi, means servers, which means power. Where ever there base is you can plug in and hopefully we can hide under their noses." Tommy said

"That's brilliant!" Felicity and Thea chorused.

"I'll hack an NSA satellite and use it to scan for power sources."

"You can do that?" Thea asked in wonder.

"I can do a lot of things but pretend you didn't hear that. I don't want to get off this island only to head straight to jail." Felicity responded. "Ok their base is in the south of the island by one of the bays."

"Let's go then," Tommy said as his stomach rumbled loudly.

"There's granola's in our packs, you should have one." Felicity said while shutting down her tablet to put it away safely. She had taken a general bearing of where South was.

"Uhh, I kind of left the pack at the fire last night." Tommy admitted sheepishly.

"Me too," Thea said.

Felicity sighed and reached into her pack and pulled out a granola bar for each of them. Thank god she walked with a little more than what had been recommended. Felicity moved to the edge of the rock to climb down and promptly sat back against the rock face.

"One problem though guys. I just discovered that I'm afraid of heights so if any of you can figure out how to get me down to the ground that would be great." Felicity said.

S-11

Before Felicity had left, she had arranged for Oliver to access the feeds from the security cameras in QC from his computer at work. Liam had just left to go upstairs to a meeting that was not on the original schedule and Oliver followed him via the cameras to the large conference room in the HR office. So far he had seen four other men enter after Liam and he realised since he didn't know how to rewind the feeds to see who would have entered before Liam, he needed to wait till the end of the meeting to see who left. As a result Oliver, didn't leave his desk for the entire period.

An hour and a half later, 10 men exited the room, all of them were top level management, if only he could have been a fly on the wall in that meeting. At lunch, Oliver decided to mention the meeting casually to Melanie. She worked as the Secretary of the HR department. She would have organised the meeting.

"Yeah the meeting was such a pain in the ass, the connection to Russia kept getting blocked and your manager kept calling me to tell the guys in the server room to fix the firewalls to allow the call. Apparently, with Felicity on vacation, nobody knows what to do to make it work properly.

"Russia?"

"Yeah Isabelle was conference calling with them or at least attempting to. I think they gave up after an hour."

Cold dread filled Oliver. Isabelle was involved in whatever was going on. He needed to talk to his mother and Walter right away. He hated to admit it but his mother's move to return to the company had certainly worked far better than any of his plans to draw out their opponents. Isabelle must be throwing a tantrum that Moira Queen was sitting in her office.

S-12

That night, Oliver met with his mother and Walter in the drawing room. He sat in an armchair while Moira and Walter sat on the sofas facing each other across the coffee table. Oliver couldn't help but think that the coffee table was now the physical manifestation of the distance that had grown between his mother and step father. Oliver explained about the meeting, the persons he was able to see on the security cameras and intel he discovered from Melanie.

"That bitch!" Moira exclaimed surprising Oliver with her language.

"Mom, I'm sensing a little history here," He commented.

Moira took a moment to compose herself.

"Your father was having an affair. Well, he had many affairs but the one with Isabelle stood out."

"So contrary to what Thea and I thought, you two had an open marriage then," Oliver said sticking in a comment.

Moira glared at her son and continued on with her story, "he was going to leave us for her but when he developed his heart problems he realised that his family was too important to leave. He broke things off with her but she refused to accept that and threatened to go public with the affair. We were able to negotiate a deal with her that promoted her to VP of the company in return for her silence."

"Why bother with a deal? If she went public, the press would have only paid attention for a week, possibly comment that the fruit didn't fall far from the tree and then move on to the next scandal. It would have blown over."

"She has videos, she ... showed me a clip of one as proof," Moira said.

"Oh," Oliver replied. He shouldn't be surprised though. She had tricked him into being caught on camera as well. It seemed to be her modus operandi.

"Moira, you never thought to mention this to me once?" Walter asked finally breaking his silence.

"I didn't want to go back to that issue. What I had with you was different and I didn't want issues from my previous marriage affecting this one. Whatever Isabelle was, she appeared to be a competent business woman and things seemed fine with the company. Perhaps if you had told me of your suspicions earlier, I might have been able to point you and Ms. Smoak in the right direction."

"Touché," Walter replied.

"You purposely chose Isabelle's office to set up shop in, didn't you?" Oliver accused.

"Yes I figured if something corrupt was going on, she would be involved somehow. I thought the best way to rattle the nest was to ruffle her feathers." Moira explained.

"We need to be prepared then. If they were meeting, then they are coming up with a strategy to handle your interference and protect themselves from exposure." Walter said thinking.

"When Felicity gets back, I can ask her to start looking for where Isabelle would have those videos stored and I'll have Diggle and Roy gather more information on all of the men involved. If Isabelle keeps blackmail material, she's bound to have something on everyone involved and if we can figure out what that is, then we could perhaps use it to get her co-conspirators to flip on her. I also have a friend in Russia, Anatoly, that could check out what Isabelle has been up to there."

"That sounds like an excellent beginning, I'm going to talk to a few of my legal friends and see if there is a way we can keep a lid on what's happening." Walter said.

Oliver nodded and exited the room to leave his mother and Walter to sort out their issues. He checked his phone to see if there was another update from Slade but there was none. He supposed he had to settle for the video that they had uploaded for him of Tommy and Thea trying to coax a terrified Felicity off of a rock that was only six feet off the ground, at most.

S- 13

Over the course of the next day, they ran from Slade's men, a wild boar and some strange territorial bird that kept swooping down at their heads. Felicity was running out of food fast and she decided it was time to outsmart Slade and his team and take over their base.

During one of her forays through Shadow Survival Services' servers she had found the video of herself with the rock, the 'bear' attack and one of them dodging that crazy bird. That reinforced to her that they were being watched. She decided to use her satellite phone to hack into the communication system and listen in on their plans while she sent Thea and Tommy off to supposedly gather firewood and draw the attention away from her. She realised they were going to have to play along with what Slade had planned for them while they slowly made their way to the south of island. Perhaps, even make them feel that they were the ones causing them to run south.

They were now exactly where she wanted them to be. She sent a false communication to the teams that were following them to regroup because the personnel at the base camp would keep an eye on them. When those teams moved far enough away, Felicity used her tablet to disrupt their communications grid and hack into their base and set off their emergency fire alarm to empty the base camp. She watched in the distance as the base personnel left through a port hole in the ground and went to gather at a muster point a mile away. They took this opportunity to enter the base and lock the door behind them quickly.

Felicity took control of the remaining systems that she couldn't access from her tablet and locked all the entrances into the base. She brought all the security systems online and set up programmes to monitor where Slade and his men were at all time. She figured it would take them half an hour to realise they were duped. She left the control room and went in search of Tommy and Thea. She found them relaxing in the living area with mac and cheese and alcohol. Tommy had kicked his feet up on the sofa and was sipping what looked like a nice glass of scotch. Thea was shovelling the Mac and Cheese into her mouth with a glass of red wine nearby.

"Now this is the life," Tommy said reaching for the remote to turn on the television only to be disappointed when it showed a security feed of the airplanes floating in the bay.

"You didn't expect cable did you?" Felicity mocked.

"Well they seemed to have everything else?" Tommy said lifting his glass of scotch and gesturing around the room they were seated in. It was quite luxurious compared to the terrain outside. There were three servers, a 55" tv, and a coffee table in the centre.

"If you want, I can set it up so we can stream Netflix. I'm sure we can marathon Dr. Who," Felicity informed him.

"Dr. What?" Tommy and Thea asked confused.

"Who," Felicity replied.

"Who what?" Tommy asked.

"What?" Felicity asked confused.

"Nevermind," Tommy said.

"I just want a hot shower now," Thea said as she stared at her empty plate of Mac and Cheese. "This has been the worst spring break ever!"

"Isn't this your first spring break?" Tommy asked innocently.

"So?" Thea asked.

"I don't see how it can be the worst spring break ever if you have no other spring breaks to compare it to." Tommy pointed out.

"Shut up!" Thea barked.

The Walkie talkie Felicity had picked up from the control centre sprang to life, "Felicity Smoak?"

"Hi Slade," Felicity responded back recognising his voice instantly.

"So you think you're in control of the base?"

"I know I'm in control of the base," she replied confidentially as she pushed Tommy's feat off of the sofa and took a seat.

"I can wait you out. You don't have food in there to last forever," Slade replied

"No but we have enough to last till Saturday and that's when you have to fly us out because you have a new client coming in. It's in your interest to leave us alone till then. I'll be kind and restore all of your communication systems and e-mails. I'll also leave all of your bank accounts alone and I won't cancel with any of your clients. Do we have a deal?"

"You know I can use my team and storm the base?" Slade pointed out.

"You could, but you built this base to survive a nuclear holocaust. The generator and all essential systems are underground inside of the base. All of your weapons are in here. None of your team thought to take anything with them when they left the base. Afterall, fire drills teach you to leave everything and exit as quickly as possible. Plus I'm sure you don't want to cause any structural damange to this facility that you worked so hard to build. Oh nice job on the plans for the extension. I'm sure it will all work out but if you do decide to attack, I can't guarantee that those plans will stay intact either."

"Grr, it's a deal," Slade grudgingly agreed.

"Great, see you on Saturday at the designated time," Felicity said. There was no further communication from Slade.

"So that's where Oliver got his growl from," Tommy exclaimed.

Thea and Felicity shook their heads at him.

"Should we e-mail Oliver?" Felicity asked.

"Nah, he doesn't need to know how this turned out until we see him," Tommy responded.

"Ok," Felicity replied as she headed into the kitchen to look for a packet of Mac and Cheese for herself.

S-14

Thursday morning Oliver received a text from Slade.

Hey kid,

This is the last time we ever do a favour for you. Your friends have locked us out of the base and now we have to survive on the island.

Slade

Oliver couldn't believe it. How the hell did his sister, best friend and girlfriend outsmart a group of highly skilled mercenaries? Maybe they were better at surviving than he thought.

Things at QC had been very strange lately. The Managers were meeting everyday and a memo had recently been circulated that Isabelle was scheduled to return from Russia next week. How she had managed to worm her way back, Oliver wasn't sure, but he knew it had something to do with the board. He would hear the story from Walter and his mother when he got home. They had been outfoxed so far and Oliver didn't like feeling so far behind in the game. On the bright side, Roy had been fantastic at gathering information, some of it not legally obtained but Oliver was willing to over look that because now they had a good idea how to flip a few of the managers to their side.

S-15

Slade held up his end of the agreement and Felicity, Thea and Tommy had enjoyed the last few days on the island lounging around in relative comfort. She had managed to get Thea and Tommy hooked on Dr. Who too. The plane left on time and Slade decided to accompany them all the way back to Starling.

"So have we finally settled on what the revenge is going to be?" Tommy asked from his seat on the private jet, a can of caviar open in front of him. He had sure learned to appreciate some of the finer points in life and he couldn't wait to get back to his bed.

"Yes," both Thea and Felicity agreed.

Slade chuckled, "The poor kid is in for a hell of a time."

S-16

Oliver was waiting anxiously at the air strip for them to arrive. He hadn't received an update from Slade since they successfully took over his base of operations. The feeling of pride he had when he heard what they had done had soon be replaced with trepidation because he knew Slade would not take what they had done lying down and would have gone full out to regain control of his base. He hoped they manage to survive that onslaught. He was soon distracted from his thoughts when Laurel's car pulled up alongside his car.

"Hi, I didn't think you were coming to pick him up?" Oliver said to her as she got out of her car and joined him in front of his.

"It's been a week and I miss him. Of course I'm going to pick him up!" Laurel responded.

Oliver smiled at her. He was happy that Laurel and his best friend seemed to be hitting it off so well.

"I want to apologise for the way I acted at the club Ollie," she said to him.

"It's ok. You don't need to apologise. I understand what you feel about Tommy leaving for a week." He said to her.

"You do," she asked sceptically, an eyebrow rising, "You miss Tommy that much. Is there something going on between the two of you that I don't know about?"

Oliver looked stunned. Laurel of all people was implying that he was gay!

"Oh relax," she laughed. "Tommy asked me to drop a gay innuendo to you and watch your face. He said it would be priceless and it was."

Oliver smiled at her, "So you two talk about me."

"You are a big part of our lives. You were my first love and you're Tommy's best friend. Tommy realised that if he and I were to work, that you and I needed to be on better terms with each other. He assured me that like him, you too have changed and that it was worth giving you another chance. So for him, I made the effort. He also told me that after seeing that face, that all my anger would fade away."

"Well did it work?" He asked hopefully.

"Maybe a little but this friendship" Laurel said pointing between herself and Oliver, "is a work in progress."

The sound of a plane approaching both reached their ears at the same time and they both anxiously looked into the sky.

"I think I see it," Laurel said pointing to the end of the runway.

"Yeap it's them. They should be on the ground in three minutes."

They watched as the plane landed and t taxied to the hangar. Thea was the first one off the plane followed by her half brother. Tommy's entire face lit up at the sight of Laurel.

"Hey Baby!" Laurel said running up to him and giving him a kiss at the base of the stairs.

Thea beamed at the couple as her brother walked over.

"Welcome back," he said to them.

"You're not in our good books at the moment," his sister said to him crossing her arms over her chest.

"Where's Felicity?"

"Right here," Slade answered. He was carrying a blushing Felicity in his arms.

Oliver frowned.

"Would you believe that Felicity fell madly in love with Slade and they eloped?" Thea asked.

"Slade is married to Shado," Oliver responded automatically watching the man carry Felicity down the stairs.

"Shucks," Thea said. "I was hoping to scare the hell out of you, like you did to us when we saw that plane take off. But don't worry I'll get you when you least expect it!"

Oliver ignored his sister. His entire attention was on Felicity.

"I was kind of clumsy getting off the plane in Hong Kong and I twisted my ankle. Can you believe that? I survive the island without a scratch but I twist my ankle getting off that rackety old plane!" Felicity confessed.

Oliver chuckled, God, had he missed her.

Slade handed Felicity gently over to Oliver. "This one's a keeper kid,"

"I know," Oliver said with a goofy little grin on his face.

"Good because you should know I gave her my personal contact number in case she ever needed me to kick your arse for her. So be a good little boy." Slade informed him.

"Now, its been lovely meeting you all. As you know we have another paid group on the island so I need to get back to help Shado."

"Bye it was great meeting you," Felicity said on behalf of everyone.

Tommy and Thea went to Laurel's car and Oliver took Felicity to his own.

"Slade seemed to like you," Oliver said happily as he slide behind the steering wheel.

"You think so, he's kind of scary," Felicity admitted.

"Oh I know so. Any other girl and he would have thrown you from plane to me."

"He wouldn't have done that." Felicity replied

"I've seen him do it at least 8 times. I can have Shado send me the video if you don't believe me."

"That's ok, I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed," Felicity said before she looked slyly at Oliver. "I won't be opposed to company either but its sleeping only mister, no funny business, yet."

"I would be honoured to join you my lady and I promise I will keep it PG for now." Oliver said turning to her and wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Felicity laughed. The melodic sound eased all of his anxieties and somehow he knew next week was going to be a better week.