I'm back! Thanks to ARTEMISDK for giving me the push I needed to get my ass in gear and write this chapter. Here is a nice LOOOOng chapter for you all. Also Thanks to everyone else who has stuck by me through this story. Your support means everything. As always if you guys have anything you want me to try, let me know and I'd be happy to try!

Let me know what you think :)

Oliver casually twirled his bow around himself, needing to release some of the pent up energy that festered inside him as he made his way towards the back entrance of Verdant. Tonight was the same as every other night he'd patrolled this week; he looked for the Russian named 'Romanov' who The Kings were seething to find and The Bratva seemed to know nothing about but couldn't find anything other than bloodthirsty thugs. Starling city was starting a mob war over a ghost.

No matter how hard he fought to he couldn't seem to keep the bodies from being left on the streets, beaten to a pulp or the creeping fear in civilians who couldn't understand the recent violence in their neighbourhood.

This was his city. The city where his family were once royalty. The city he was born in. He had grown up in this city and it had helped shape him into the obnoxious pick he once was. This was also the city that he was deprived of for 5 years. The city his father admitted to corrupting and begged Oliver to fix, right before he shot himself in the head in front of his only son. Oliver had struggled to return to this city and had spent the last few years trying to save it.

He would he damned if he'd let a bunch of idiots with guns stop him from honouring his fathers final wish.

He punched in the key code to the foundry a little too hard and jerked the door open once it granted him access. Trying to take a deep breath to exhale some of his frustration, Oliver started walking down the stairs. He sensed something using what he knew Felicity would call his "spidey-senses" and ran his eyes over the room when they landed on familiar curly brown hair spilling over the side of the medical bay. Emaline lay on the metal slab with an arrow protruding from her chest.

Everything happened within two seconds.

His heart stopped and then started beating a million times an second. A ragged "NO" was torn from his throat as he leaped over the railing of the stairs to get to the little girl. Emotion flooded his body more than it should have for someone he had only known existed for a few months. But this wasn't anyone. This was Emaline. Felicity's Emaline. He would never be able to bare the heartbreak she would feel if she lost her spunky sister. This couldn't happen to her. He had just reached her when…

She started laughing. Hysterically.

Her eyes popped open, full of laughter, and looked up at him. He stared at her, his mouth ajar and heart still pounding trying to process what was happening. Emaline just rolled around laughing and the arrow fell from where it was wedged between her arm and her side. Her lively laughter filling the room and echoing from the walls contrasted so much from the place that only ever dealt with death and destruction. Oliver gripped the med bay with both hands and let his head fall to his chest finally letting his breathing steady, his heart slow and his head catch up to the current situation. When he looked up, Emaline was sitting up, leaning back on her hands on the table, still laughing.

"That wasn't funny." He said breathily, still trying to get control over the shock of this girl 'dead' on the med bay.

"It was a lil' bit funny." She cocked her head to the side and looked up at him with those warm chocolaty eyes, still chuckling a bit.

He looked at how much life swam in her dark eyes and it helped to settle his panicked heart. Never had he seen her face lit up so brightly. Usually it was a smug smile and a chuckle but now her whole self lit up the grey steel basement. She had a glaze of innocent childish mischief in her expression that he remembered having when he was young and liked to play pranks. He let her laugh and be light knowing how rare these moments are for someone had just emerged from darkness. Oliver knew enough to know that Emaline had grown up surrounded by drugs and guns. He saw how it affected her from how she jumped at any touch and any loud noise. So, for now, he would give her this moment where she could be at ease.

"What are you doing here?" He said a little more shrill than he would have liked to sound. Emaline shrugged with her arms and looked at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

"I got bored!" She said like it was the most obvious thing ever.

Grabbing both her legs, Oliver swung them over so they were dangling off the side of the table and sat next to her, needing to sit down for a minute.

"Never do that again." He said firmly.

Emaline just smiled to herself and pulled the plastic wrapper of a lollipop she had pulled from her sweater pocket.

"Yeah, for a second there I thought you might croak." She snorted.

Oliver snapped his head to look at her and whipped the sucker out of her hand, putting it in his mouth before she had a second to protest. She scowled at him.

"Mine now, Emmy-girl" he said with a sly smile of his own.

Emaline looked a bit shocked for a moment and then pulled another lollipop out of her sweater pocket, opened it and popped it in her mouth.

"That's what Felicity used to call me." She said eyes roaming around the unusual room. It surprised him how comfortable she seemed in a room full of weapons and dark secrets but he supposed it shouldn't. She had basically grown up in the background of the casino where Donna worked and sold drugs. That was were she had learned to pickpocket and whatever other illegal hobbies he really didn't want to know about.

"Oh yeah? What did you call her?" Oliver asked casually, focusing on the purple lollipop in his hand. He couldn't remember the last time he had one of these generic sugar lollipops but he really like it.

"I don't remember. I have this weird memory of Donna telling me I had to call Felicity by her real name and I didn't get why but neither of them would tell me what I used to call her. I think it's my first memory." Emaline just shrugged.

"You call Donna by her first name?" Oliver thought that was strange but Emaline again just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. She picked up the forgotten arrow that lay between them and started spinning it around her fingers. Oliver snatched it out of her hands and put it out on the other side of him where she couldn't reach before she accidentally stabbed herself. Or him.

"I have another question for you. Think you can keep a secret from Felicity?"

"I keep lots of secrets from Felicity." Emaline answered easily, then she stiffened as if realizing what she'd just said. "I mean… yes?"

Oliver couldn't help but smile at the 'word vomit' that reminded him so much of Felicity. He continued on by pointing at the dark mass of curls on her head.

"Is that Felicity's natural hair colour?"

A big grin spread across Emalines face.

"Yeah, but DON'T tell her I told you or she'll kill us both." She said turning to him and looking at him seriously.

"You got it, Emmy-girl. I promise I won't." Oliver smiled, ruffled her hair and she grimaced. He got off the table and threw his lollipop stick in the bin. He walked over to the glass display case where his arrow suit was kept and picked it up to go get changed.

When he had returned, Emaline was still sitting on the med bay with an orange lollipop sticking out her mouth but next to her was Diggle. He gave the man a nod in greeting. When Emaline saw him she looked confused.

"Hey Ollie? How come you get to ride around on a kick-ass Ducati and Dig has to drive the pedo' van?"

The question stopped Oliver in his tracks and had him gaping at Emaline, who looked as innocent as ever. Diggle turned around looking at Oliver like he definitely wanted to hear the answer to that question. He had never realized that team arrows van looked like a stereotypical pedophile van but of course Emaline would be the one to point it out.

"It's… Functional." He weakly defended. Emaline snorted.

"For what? Kidnapping children?"

Oliver scowled at her and went to pick up his bow. He made eye contact with Diggle and nodded towards the door letting him know they would leave in a minute so the other man started collecting his things. Oliver made his way back over to Emaline. She was fiddling with a scalpel that she'd taken from the tray of tools next to the med bay. He whipped it out of her hands and put it back. She rolled her eyes. Seriously, what was it with this kid and sharp objects? Honestly, he wished he could wrap her in bubble wrap sometimes. He gripped the med bay on either side of her legs and stared at her seriously on eye level. The feisty thing mocked his serious stare by scrunching up her nose and eyebrows while her lollipop stick still stuck out of her mouth.

"Is there any point of telling you you're not allowed to be here and that you have to go home?"

"Nope."

Oliver huffed a sign. Seriously? The man had survived 5 years in Hell and a teenager was testing him.

"NO touching with the weapons."

"No, sir."

"NO touching the medical supplies OR equipment." He pointed at the damn scalpel.

"No, sir."

"NO going near any of Felicitys computers."

"Pffft… as if."

"…Don't do anything…dangerous. Okay?"

Oliver side glanced Dig, who stood a few feet away, to see if the one of them who actually had a kid had anything to add. The man just smirked and didn't say anything.

"Felicity will be here soon so just stay out of trouble until then, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Emaline was no longer looking at him.

He whipped the lollipop out of her mouth and held it just out of reach.

"HEY!"

"Promise me."

"Okay, geez, I promise."

Oliver put the sucker back in her mouth. He started walking towards the door and put his hood up and mask on.

"That area is padded. Stay over there." He said over his shoulder pointing towards the training area with mats. He took the steps two at a time and heard a snort just as he was exiting the door into the dark night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Felicity prided herself on many things in her life. Her ability to keep a secret, to rock the hell out of her panda bear flats, and to find anything that has ever been posted on the internet were just a few of the things she was always confident about. So as Felicity sat down in her chair, in the grey, dank basement of a nightclub she let her all-too-well-known stubbornness rear its ugly head. That's right, she was going to let that demon out if it helped her find her mother.

She had been trying to find her mother for a week now. She would run programs on the side during her office hours and sometimes when she was down here when Oliver was out but with no results. Felicity liked to think of herself as a patient person… Okay, well that was a lie; she hated waiting for things especially answers to question involving her loved ones. It had been months since Emaline had shown up in her office with a backpack and a police escort, and it was time to figure out what had happened in Vegas, and where the hell her mother was. Tonight, she was going to get answers. Tonight, she would talk to her mother.

So she pulled her chair into her desk, took a deep breath and went to work. This was no longer a program she was running on the side, she threw her entire focus into it. Everything else would have to wait, she knew Oliver was patrolling and had Dig for back up and her work from Queen Consolidated wasn't important right now. Focusing on the areas her programs hadn't searched like the police records and other government areas, Felicity hacked up a storm. Her fingers raced across the keyboards and her eyes darted across the screens.

That's when she found it.

A barely there paper trail connecting a portion of the government to a small rehabilitation centre in Ohio. The woman who was listed as "Rebecca Green" was her mothers age and was admitted only a few days after Emaline showed up. She huffed a sigh and slowed her furious pace. Opening up the website for the centre Felicity scrolled down to find a contact number. Numbly pulling out one of the secure phones in the lair, she dialled the number and let it ring. This was the moment of truth. A receptionist answered and Felicity asked to speak with a 'Becca Green'. Anticipation and nerves sat heavy on Felicitys shoulders as the receptionist transferred the call. She felt the start of a headache coming on. Head in one hand and the other pressing her phone to her ear, she waited for what seemed like hours.

Then the line clicked and she heard movement on the other end.

"Mom?"

"Oh baby it's so good to hear your voice!"

Relief doused some of the raw irritation of all the unanswered questions that surrounded Felicity. She might be mad at her mother for falling back into drugs and for forcing Emaline to grow up the same way she had; absentee mother, basically living at the casino, being forced to watch Donna fall deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole but it helped her breath easy hearing that her mother was alright.

"Yeah, it's good to hear you too..." Felicity rubbed her throbbing temple battling to keep all the things inside she'd been dying to scream at her mother ever since Emaline came to Starling. "Mom, are you alright?''

"Yeah, hun, I'm doing fine over here. The place is really nice and I'm doing good…" She heard her mother take a deep breath and Felicity was trying not to snap, knowing what was coming next. "Now, baby I know you're probably upset-"

"Upset? I am way past upset, mom." Her anger felt like an elastic band and it was pulled to the max. "How could you do this? How could you risk everything? You put her life at risk…"

"I know, baby, I know but…" Her elastic anger snapped.

"…All so you could hang out with your old dope buddies and get a bit of extra cash. You know, you know, what could have happened! What will happen to her if anyone finds out!"

"Baby… they already know." Donnas whispered words dripped with sadness.

The world shifted. Both Felicitys' and her little girls' world, who didn't know any better. Everything was going to change.

Felicity fell back in her chair as her entire body went numb. If she were able to think properly, she would have been surprised she didn't drop the phone but the haunting red images and scenarios of what was now bound to happen flooded she conscious thought. She felt her heart stop beating. The air in her lungs froze.

"They know something is wrong and they're on to Romanov." Felicity heard the terror in her mothers' hurried words. She imagined her mother with tear filled eyes trying to be strong in a world that made her so afraid. Felicity gulped down air trying to force oxygen into her lungs again but all she could manage were shallow breaths. Staring blankly at nothing ahead, mouth agape, she sat stock still in her chair.

"How?" The word was barely a whisper but it was all she could manage.

"The hit on King… King is dead, baby, he's gone," Felicity knew this. She remember that night she sat here in the foundry staring into the cold dark eyes on the computer screen as she read the article that vaguely described how the man who had run the Vegas underground had been killed in some sort of raid.

"but Elias, h-he knows it was an inside job and he started looking into everyone, everyone. I tried, baby, I really did but… I-I did something stupid… I bought a few things using the money from Romanov, baby I'm so sorry… He followed the trail of money and it led to Starling City. Everyone knows how big the Russian mob is there so they think it was the Russians that they ordered the hit on King and that I was their mole."

There were sobs in her mothers' voice, breaks in her speech because she couldn't contain her guilt and sadness, which anyone else would have heard. But for Felicity, all she heard was that there was an army of the worst kind of men marching on her city to use it as a battlefield where so many of her loved ones sat waiting to inevitably caught in the crosshairs.

Felicity jumped from her seat and slammed her hand down on the table.

"I ASKED YOU, I BEGGED YOU TO KEEP. HER. SAFE. I TRUSTED YOU!" Her body contracted as she screamed, using the hand on the cold desk to steady her. Tears splattered on the smooth metal alerted Felicity she had streams running down her face. Felicity put a hand over her mouth, trying to stop the cries that she couldn't control.

"I know, baby, I'm so sorry…" Felicity heard the tears on the other end.

"She needed you!" Felicity said, brokenly. Her heart felt ripped and bloody and raw. All she ever wanted was for Emaline to be safe. After everything she had endured in order to made that happen, this little girl, this piece of Felicity, was still in danger. There was silence on both ends for a minute.

"Honey… She screams at night. She still cries out for 'mom'."

The torment and guilt was audible from the phone. Felicity never knew she could feel emotional pain so physically. She didn't know how much more her body could take; her knees were shaking, her heart threw itself rapidly against her chest, breaking in the process, she was hyperventilating at this point and she could barely see through her blurred eyes.

"See?! She needed you! She needs you!"

Felicity was about to collapse to the floor when a hand gripped her shoulder. Startled, she spun around, nocking the hand away and gripped the material of the person's chest, still gasping for breath. She stared at the death grip her pale hand had on the solid dark green-leathered chest that belonged to The Arrow, not knowing if she should push or pull. She felt the accelerated heart rate and the rigid muscles beneath the forest green. She wished that she could be saved from this by the hero with a bow and arrow but knew the Arrow couldn't protect her this time.

"Oh, baby… I was never the mom she needed. We both know I was never the mom she was screaming for…"

Felicity collapsed screaming out the pain of the shattered illusion she had foolishly made herself believe; the illusion that she had a sister, not a daughter, which she had left, but not abandoned. The clatter of a bow hitting the ground echoed in the open space as did her cries and more leather enveloped her as she fell. Curled into a ball, rocking against the warm wall of chest, which she now gripped with both hands, Felicity let herself break in the arms of Oliver Queen; the man who she knew would be by her side through this.

The forgotten phone lay a foot away, still emitting the cries of The Eldest Smoak who sat hundreds of miles away from Felicity as they both mourned over the daughters they had let down.

okay WOW. I promise to you all that Im not really a depressing person. Honestly I wrote this second part of this first and it was so sad (I was going for heartbreakingly beautiful, but lets call a spade a spade am I right?) that I wrote the first scene to lighten the mood a bit.

Im working on the next chapter so you guys wont be left long on this depressing note we have left off on.

PLEASE review and let me know what you think!