A/N: I know this took way to long... One maybe two more chapters to go!
The air in the hospital room was still, the sounds that the machines attached to John Smoak were making were loud. Felicity wasn't sure if it they were truly loud or if it was just something easy to focus on. The fact that no one said anything when they entered the room was also not helping.
"How are you feeling?" Felicity asked, she had had taken three steps into the room and was still at least three feet away from the end of her fathers hospital bed. Oliver had stopped right next to her and had tried to get her a step further by putting their hands forward. However this felt close enough for Felicity.
"The doctors say I'm going to be alright." John Smoak answered.
The answer irked Felicity. Mostly because it wasn't an answer, she realized it was probably a way of saying, I don't feel fine right now, but I will. "I asked how you were feeling." Felicity said her anger lacing through her words. Oliver squeezed her hand and when she looked at him she could see that he was trying to convey that anger wasn't going to help.
"I'm feeling sad, Lizzy I'm so sorry."
The anger dissipated, tears pushed their way up. Felicity was suddenly unable to say anything. She had been so forceful to everyone in her life to never ever call her Lizzy. It was how her father had always called her, it was his name for her and no-one was allowed to use it, but him. Now actually hearing him say it, it sounded exactly the way she had woken up so often expecting to hear it again, how she wished to be called again. Now it just hurt. "Why?" She asked not recognizing her own voice. The silence stretched on and just as John Smoak was about to speak, Felicity added. "The truth."
"Twenty years ago I was fired from my job, we already had trouble making ends meet, which is why your mom got that job at the cocktail bar of the Bellagio. In an attempt of giving myself some time to find a job, I made a fake email account that was almost the exact same as my boss's and sent an email to the finance department saying that I would still receive payment till the end of the year. Against my expectations it worked. That was the first con I pulled. The job hunt was difficult I had three four interviews a week sometimes but I was either over qualified or under. At the end of the year I decided to pull another email con, this time at another company, another email to the finance department appearing to be from the boss. It worked again and again and again. Eighteen years ago, your mom found out I wasn't working as a computer engineer anymore, but had switched to conning companies and even people. Your mom begged me to stop, she said that we couldn't raise you on other peoples money, on lies."
Felicity felt Oliver squeeze her hand as a single tear fell from her eyes.
"But by then I was addicted to the game so I left." John Smoak finished.
"That's not true. You scored big, that's why you left." Felicity said harsh. She tried to keep the tears at bay, but she had it with the lies, she wanted the truth.
"I came back home after that big score. You're mom had packed up my stuff and forced me to make a decision. Either I would find a normal job, start paying back all the money I took or leave." John continued. "I tried to explain how much money I had just gotten, that we could afford to sent you to private school, that we could make a better future for you." John said and Felicity suddenly remembered waking up in the middle of the night hearing her parent's voices. They weren't shouting, but they were talking loudly, she had heard her mothers voice wavering, she had pulled her pillow over her head wishing for the morning to come. Where her mom would make her breakfast and her dad and her would be working on that new computer he had bought.
"Your mom said she didn't care how much money I had. She wanted me to stop, give the money back. Raise you together with her on the right morals and values. If I couldn't do that I could grab my bags and leave."
"So you just left?" Felicity said tears falling from her eyes, she squeezed Oliver's hand as hard as she could, wanting nothing more then to turn around and bury herself in his arms.
John let his head fall in shame. However Oliver had trouble believing it was true. "What happened two days ago?" He asked, the sound of his voice a mixture of threatening and protectiveness.
"I made a mistake, I conned the wrong person. He hired these to man to find me and get his money and the promised interest from one way, or another. I convinced them I could pull another con. That I would get the money together. They threatened to kill me if I didn't show results in twenty fours hours. I had to work fast, which is why I came but Queen Consolidated."
"Thinking Oliver would have been an easy mark and when that didn't work? You decided to kidnap me and ask for a ransom." Felicity asked shaking her head, as more tears fell. Hating that this man cost her tears.
"They would kill me, when I saw the two of you in the parkinglot, holding hands, just like you are now." John said pointing at their clasped hands, before looking Oliver straight in the eye. "I assumed you would pay without a second thought. I didn't think anyone would get hurt."
"You didn't think anyone would get hurt? So the experience of getting kidnapped didn't count as getting hurt? Do you really not care about me at all?" Felicity asked. "I spent days waiting for you to come back, I spent months wondering where you were, years coming up with reasons of why you could leave and till last week I was hoping you would come back." Felicity spoke her voice full off disappointment.
"Lizzy please…"
"Don't call me that. You lost that right when you walked out on me and mom." Felicity spoke as she turned to Oliver. "Let's go." Silently, Oliver asked if she was sure, she nodded.
"Felicity please, If I go to jail they kill me." John spoke as Oliver and her exited the room. Felicity stopped and turned around.
"You don't think I know that?" With that she let the door close behind her. The sound of the door closing, Oliver pulling her close were all the things she noticed for the next few minutes as she cried. None of the other people walking past registered.
When Oliver spotted Lance coming down the hallway he pulled back, whispering that Lance was coming their way. Felicity quickly wiped her eyes and turned around.
"Sweetheart you ready to answer some questions?" Lance asked.
A war was raging in Felicity's mind. She wanted her father to pay, however he didn't deserve to die. The fact that the Arrow intervened to save his daughter would make him a target for not only Hardy's men but everyone the Arrow put away. He deserved to pay, just not to die.
"I was kidnapped by two men on my way to lunch with my dad, when he tried to help me, they took him to. He escaped from his bounds and jumped in front of a bullet to save me. He had no part in any of it."
An understanding but disapproving look appeared on Lance face, "Miss Smoak…" He tried to start, to explain that lying could mean the other men also had the chance to go free. That it would muck up the trial, Felicity interrupted him.
"We both know what would happen if he would go to prison. This is how it must be."
A/N: What do you guys think about Felicity's decision?