Felicity sat in the corner of the training room, running her hands over her face and bringing her knees to her chest.

Mathis was off somewhere else in the house and she wasn't sure if he'd come downstairs if he heard her crying. Especially since, the drug was supposed to render her emotionless with the exception of anger.

What had she done? Why would she tell Oliver she dreamed of him? Why? Why? Why?!

Why did she ever let him close to begin with? Why did she ever choose to work with him? Why did she fall in love with Oliver Queen?

There was nothing she could do now. The damage was done all because she gave in to her feelings. During Mathis' testing of the drug, she promised herself she wouldn't go back. She wouldn't find Oliver.

But she had no choice. It was either help Mathis capture The Hood or die. She wanted to bang her head against the wall for choosing to seek out The Hood instead of dying. Dying would have been easier. She'd be cold and lifeless, not slumped against a wall and crying.

And Diggle. What he must have thought of her…

What he must have felt when Oliver told him. How could she be so stupid?

Diggle was a friend that she valued so much. He taught her how to defend herself. He had listened to her rambles about Oliver and kept it between them.

"Felicity!" Barton sang, running down the steps of the basement. "Felicity?"

"I'm here." She breathed from the shadows.

Barton was startled, but quickly regained composure. "What are you doing in the dark?"

"What did you need?"

"Oh." He smiled like a kid in a candy store. "Acosta wants to meet with you to discuss strategy."

"Strategy?"

"How to go about catching The Hood. He has some very interesting ideas. With his money and new equipment, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Me as in Felicity or me as in the Queen of Hearts?"

"The Queen of Hearts. He's seen you one too many times at Queen Consolidated not to recognize you."

"And some silly little mask is really going to make a difference?" She growled. "Some stupid, red, flimsy object is going to hide everything?"

"It hides enough." He snapped back at her. "The meeting is tomorrow. Be ready."

Hearing the door slam shut, Felicity dropped her head to rest on her knees while her body shook from holding back her cries.


Oliver lay in his bed, replaying the events on the roof earlier that night; Felicity told him she had dreamed of him on the nights she actually slept. He knew how that felt. He understood the pain and wanted so badly to hold her, to make her feel safe again. But she ran from him. She ran away for the second time and he berated himself for not going after her. He didn't care about the consequences, he just needed her back.

When she said she wished she was dead, he wanted to tell her that if she truly had been, he didn't know where he'd be. It was bad enough he lost Tommy, what could have happened if he had given up hope of ever finding Felicity again?

He had felt guilty the night he left her to save Laurel. He didn't think she'd be a target, but the years he spent on Lian Yu should have taught him to know better than that. Felicity was always target, whether she was with him or with Diggle. She was his biggest weakness and the criminals were starting to catch on to that. It's why he began to keep his distance, why he refrained from having to speak with her for too long.

And then the ultimate betrayal; Sara. He knew how it must have looked when she saw him that day, cozying up to Sara Lance, smiling, talking, laughing. He knew she thought he'd given up on her and it played a big part in her not wanting to come back.

But Sara had been there for him. They did well together, didn't they? They were happy and Sara was supportive. But why did he feel so wretched when Felicity asked who she was? It's not like he and Felicity were in some sort of relationship.

Yes, Oliver knew she had feelings for him, and he had feelings for her, but neither of them acted on it. Maybe that's why she's choosing to stay away instead of coming home.

"Ollie?" Thea knocked. "Are you awake?"

Oliver got out of bed and opened his door. "What's up, Speedy?"

"Tonight, you lied about Sara having plans with her family and then you disappeared…"

"You knew it was a lie, Thea, you called me on it."

"Yeah, but I didn't think you'd disappear in the middle of the charity event, Oliver." She put her hands on her hips. "What's going on? Are you…are you cheating on Sara?"

"What?" He asked with surprise. "Who…who could I possibly cheat on Sara with?"

"I don't know! I just had to ask!"

"Look, Speedy…I'm not going to lie to you." He sighed. "Sara and I are having a bit of trouble right now. I don't know what's going to happen."

"But you're happy, aren't you?" Thea looked up at her older brother. "She made you smile after Felicity died, no one could do that. But Sara could."

Oliver smiled softly when it dawned on him just what this conversation was really about. He pulled her into a hug. "I'm not going to lose myself, Speedy. I know I was a train wreck when Felicity died, but I promise you I'll be okay."

"We just lost Tommy." She mumbled into his shirt. "I liked Felicity and suddenly she's gone too? I remember the look on your face when Officer Lance told us. You were so…not you, Ollie. You looked like you were numb and your movements were so stiff, almost like a robot. I don't want to see you hurt again."

"It's okay, Thea." He kissed the top of her head. "I know how much you and Felicity bonded. I'm sorry."

"It's not like you could have known." She laughed softly, pulling away from the hug. "I'm sure if you could have done something, you would have. Goodnight Ollie."


Blood. That's what was everywhere at the moment.

Felicity had been coughing up blood for almost an hour and it scared her.

Mathis was at the computer, seeming genuinely concerned as he pulled up the analysis of the drug in her system.

Cough. More blood. Groaning.

Barton was panicking; something had gone wrong. Felicity's body was starting to reject the serum and he didn't know how to stop it. He was going over everything and noticed he calculated it all right. It was something in her that was wrong.

He spun around to face her when she became silent. She was hunched over a pool of her own blood and trembling. It had subsided for now, long enough for him to scoop her up and carry her upstairs to put her in bed.

Her face was pale and her breathing was shallow, leaving him no choice but hook her up to an I.V. and pump fluids into her while he tried to figure out what went wrong.

In the basement, he paced back and forth in front of the computers; what the hell was he supposed to do? He didn't know how to fix it. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a phone, dialing a number he swore he'd only use for emergencies.

"What do you want, Mathis?" A deep, gravelly voice answered.

"It's my test subject." He answered shakily. "The drug, it-it's done something to her."

"What did it do?"

"I don't know!" He hissed. "She started coughing up blood. I think her body can't withstand it anymore."

"I know how my drug works, Mathis." The man on the other end growled. "Really the only thing that could have done it was an emotional imbalance."

"She has no emotions, except anger. But she knows how to control it."

"I'll be there soon. Don't do anything."

Barton heard the line go dead before he had the chance to respond. His body started shaking as he moved around to get things ready. If he screwed up, he'd be killed before he ever got the chance to catch The Hood.

The next morning, he stood over her, chewing on the nail of his thumb. Felicity hadn't gotten any better; the bleeding had stopped, but her breathing was still shallow.

"Leering over her will not help."

Mathis jumped and turned to the voice. "Then what will?"

The man slid over to Felicity's bedside and ran a hand through her hair gently, waking her up.

Felicity did her best to keep her eyes open, turning her head into the warmth of his hand. "Slade."

"Shh, shh, shh, shh." Slade Wilson bent down to her eye level. "It's okay, Felicity. I'm going to make it all go away soon, okay?" He stood, grabbing Mathis by the arm and dragging him out.

"What happened?"

"The nanobots in her system had trouble adjusting to whatever kind of breakdown she had." Slade straightened his suit jacket.

"She didn't have a breakdown." Mathis denied. "There's no way."

"Perhaps it was her reaction to The Hood. You are still yet to find out who he is, aren't you?" Slade smirked.

"It would help if you told me." Mathis snapped at him. "You're withholding vital information. You even had me stoop so low as to kidnap one of Queen Consolidated's best IT employees. You understand that Oliver Queen and his family did all they could to help the police find her."

Slade remained silent; that's what he wanted. He wanted Oliver to squirm and he had. "Double her dosage."

"Double?!" Mathis sputtered. "That could kill her!"

"No, it won't." Slade reassured, heading for the front door. "It'll heal her body faster and she'll become stronger."

"Just what I need." Mathis grumbled. "You're the one who trained her. You should be the one to handle her."

"I can't." He shook his head. "I'm far too busy to keep an eye on her. You're doing just fine."

"Yeah, okay." Barton said with sarcasm, closing the door behind Slade as he left. He glared in the direction of Felicity's room ans stalked back over, needle in hand.


Oliver was staring at the computer in the foundry, searching the news for anything recent on the Queen of Hearts but found nothing; it had been almost two dsays since he heard anything from Felicity.

"Do I need to drag you out of here?" Diggle asked, walking into the foundry. "Sara's been looking for you."

"I know." He sighed, picking up his phone and waving it. "It's been two days, Diggle, and nothing."

"We don't know what their plan is." Diggle sat next to him. "They could just be laying low for a while. Your best bet is to pry some information out of Acosta."

"Well then I should just have Isabel ask. She's as good at prying as anyone else is."

"You know you can't do that." Diggle shook his head. "You need to hood up for this one."

Oliver sighed. "Later. Right now, I have to find some way to get to Felicity."

"Oliver, have you considered what this is doing to us?" Diggle asked seriously. "You're on edge all the time now, Sara's feeling neglected, Roy's lagging in his training, and you've got me stuck here with them every time you run off to see Felicity. I miss her just as much as you do, but we can't forget what we're doing here."

"What we're doing here is getting Felicity." He slammed his hand on the desk. "I understand how everyone's feeling, Diggle, I really do. And I get that we have other matters to attend to, but Felicity right now is a top priority. I will not stop until I have her here. No one feels worse about this than I do. I've taken a friend from Thea, a daughter from parents, and a partner from us. I need her, Digg."

"You love her, Oliver." Diggle put a hand on his shoulder. "Why can't you just say it? Because of Sara? Open your eyes, Oliver. Sara would understand. You can't keep stringing her along like this. She knows how you feel about Felicity, she's just waiting for you to say it. If you don't, it's going to end very, very badly."

"Hey." Roy greeted, throwing his stuff on the ground next to the training mat. "Hear anything?"

"No." Oliver sighed. "You, Mr. Street smarts?"

"Nothing." Roy looked at the ground; he had spent the last hour with Thea, listening about how she hopes Oliver and Sara don't break up, and about how she misses Felicity, her brother's friend. After Walter had been kidnapped, Thea needed someone to talk to and her mother was in trouble, so one day she stumbled into Oliver's office and found Felicity Smoak.

"She was like a sister." Thea had said. "And so is Sara. It already hurt losing Felicity, I can't lose Sara too."

How badly he wanted to tell her that Felicity was alive, but he couldn't because not only was it not his place, he didn't know what The Dollmaker had done to Felicity. He didn't want to get her hopes up only for Felicity to crush them by being…not her.

"Sara." Oliver greeted her as she walked in. "Can we talk?"

"Of course." She said, looking at Diggle and Roy and waiting for them to leave, which they did…reluctantly.

"I am sorry for how I've been acting." Oliver said.

"I know." Sara nodded. "It's okay. I know how much of an impact Felicity's made on you and I know how happy you were to find her alive. I just need you to talk to me about these things."

"I know." He took her hand and sighed heavily. "But I can't…do this anymore."

"I'm sorry?" She withdrew her hand; she knew this would be coming, she just wasn't prepared for how she'd feel.

"Sara…"

"I mean, it's okay." Sara shook her head and laughed, putting a hand on his chest. "Well, not okay, but…I'll get over it. You mean so much to me, Oliver, but I can't compare to Felicity."

"I don't want you to think you have to."

"No, I know. I'm saying it as a good thing. I will do everything I can to help you get her back." Sara moved in to hug him. "You're an amazing person, Ollie. Even if you don't think so, Felicity sure does. It's what kept her going all this time."


*Gasp* A twist!