AN: So sorry for the delay but my brother's wedding went very well and was beautiful. I really appreciate all the support you all are giving me. It truly means a lot!

Mic RiddyBanon, thank you for your support and assistance with this chapter. Rennie75, thank your for your awesome beta skills with this chapter! I truly appreciate the assistance from both of you my friends!

Disclaimer: Since the CW's Arrow is on hiatus I have decided to play in their sandbox. However, it still all belongs to the CW!


"Oliver!" Felicity called as she quickly rose from her chair and walked over to him. "Be safe! Come back to me!" She said quietly, allowing the emotion to be heard in her voice. There was still so much she hadn't said to him yet and she wanted to be sure she would get the chance.

Oliver smiled as he gently caressed Felicity's face before turning to run out the door.

The Team moved so quickly up the stairs and out the door that they missed Felicity's quiet words, words meant for her hero.

"I love you Oliver!"


Chapter 12 – Clues

As Lance started to come to he began to remember the events that led up to him passing out. He remembered the sound of the smoke grenade coming though Laurel's living room window, rushing her to her bedroom, and then Slade crashing through the front door. Please let Laurel be okay. He thought as he replayed the last events in his mind. He knew that there was a good possibility that his daughter had been taken as well, but did not know for sure yet.

Lance slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times as he began to adjust to the lighting in the room. He was lying on the cold cement floor of a small cell. There was one heavy metal door at the front of the cell with a small window near the top and a small light hanging in the middle of the room. This looked more like a dungeon cell than the prison cell that he had last woken up in. At least I could see out of that cell. He thought grimly to himself. He was getting tired of waking up in a cell as this was the second time this month that had happened.

Lance moved to the back of the cell and waited, not so patiently, to see where he was and why Slade had brought him here.


Oliver, Sara, and Diggle rushed over to Laurel's apartment. Oliver knew that Sara was right and that it probably was Slade who had taken the Detective. He hadn't had much time to talk with Sara before they left so he was still unsure as to what state Laurel would be in when they got to her place. Please let her be uninjured. He thought as he sped through town on his bike.

"Guys, are you all there?" Felicity asked through the comms as she pulled up the GPS trackers for each of them. She wanted to make sure the Team was online.

"Here." Diggle said from his place in the car.

"Here." Sara stated curtly from her bike.

"I'm here Felicity." Oliver stated a bit calmer than Sara. "Have you gotten any leads yet?" He asked. Oliver knew that she would have instantly started running searches through security camera feeds and traffic cameras to see if she could find anything that they could use to find Lance.

"Nothing yet. It looks like all the cameras have been tampered with." Felicity replied irritably as she typed quickly on her keyboard. "I can pull up current feeds but all video from the last twelve hours has been erased. I'm trying track who cleared those files, but they did a good job of hiding their tracks."

Oliver knew that that was not a good sign. He was really hoping that they would at least get a lead on the car that took Lance so they could track at least that. Without the camera feeds though, their chances of finding him were quickly dwindling.

"We're pulling up to Laurel's apartment building now." Oliver said for Felicity's benefit. He knew he didn't have to keep her informed about where they were because she would be keeping track of them via their GPS's. However, he wanted to make sure she was kept in the loop at all times so that she wouldn't worry about them.

As the Team made their way up to Laurel's apartment they kept a close eye out for any signs that Slade, or any of his men, were still in the area. Diggle made his way through the front door and kept an eye out for any signs of the man through the main entrance and stairway. Sara went through the back entrance also looking for any clues. Oliver simply made his way up the fire escape to Laurel's window to check out any damage from the outside as well as get an idea of where Slade could have been when the smoke grenade was launched through Laurel's window. After a moment of looking around he climbed through the window at the same time that Diggle came through the front door, closely followed by Sara.

"Laurel." Sara called as she quickly crossed the room to her sister who was crying on the couch. "Hey, I'm here now..."

Laurel turned into her sister's shoulder and the tears came faster. She felt like it was her fault that her Dad was gone this time. He was protecting me after all. She thought as her sister rubbed her back and let her just cry. After several minutes she looked up to see Oliver and Diggle looking carefully around her apartment.

"Shouldn't you be out looking for Slade instead of nosing around my apartment Oliver?" Laurel asked accusingly. "He could be torturing my Dad right now and all you are doing is wasting time. You need to get out there andfind him!"

While she was talking Laurel had risen from her place on the couch and walked up to Oliver to get into his face. She was clearly fuming mad and Oliver knew that she had every right to be. He believed that it was his fault that Lance was missing, again. He expected Laurel to be angry with him. However, he did not expect what happened next. One second Laurel was yelling in his face, telling him that it was his fault her Dad was gone and that he should do something about it and the next she swung and punched Oliver in the jaw. He saw it coming and could have avoided it, but he chose not to, knowing that she had to let off at least some of the frustration from this evening.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Sara said as she ran over to her sister, pulling her into her arms. "Calm down Laurel." Sara couldn't believe that she had just watched Oliver let Laurel punch him. She knew that her sister wasn't capable of hurting Oliver, however, she was a bit concerned over the fact that he had allowed Laurel to make contact. "Oliver, are you okay?"

"Oliver?" Felicity asked over the comms. She had heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh before Sara's question to Oliver asking if he was okay and needed to know that Oliver was not hurt. "Oliver! What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Felicity." Oliver replied quietly as he noticed the look of shock on Laurel's face. It appeared that she didn't realize what she had done until it was too late.

"Oliver, have you found anything yet?" Diggle asked, knowing that the younger man had and he wanted to make sure that Laurel knew that they hadn't been wasting their time.

"This flash drive was on the kitchen counter." Oliver stated as he gave Diggle a look of appreciation. Oliver knew that Diggle had seen him pick up the flash drive when they first searched the apartment while Sara comforted her sister. He turned to Laurel before continuing. "Does this belong to you Laurel?" Oliver asked, wanting to be sure that it did not belong to her before they went back to the Foundry with it.

"No, I've never seen it." Laurel responded. She was clearly still upset with herself for losing control like she had.

"Felicity." Oliver said into the comms as he put the flash drive into his pocket. "We are bringing you something. I'll be there in a few minutes." Oliver told their teammate as he turned to the window. Just before he jumped off the fire escape he turned back to the room. "Meet me there when you're done."

Laurel watched as Oliver jumped off the fire escape to the ground below. It was just moments later when she heard him start up his Ducati and speed away from her apartment building.

"You know he was just looking for some clues." Diggle said reproachfully as he continued to look around. "He was looking for something, anything, that would help bring your Dad back. Oliver would never intentionally leave a comrade to be hurt at the hands of another. Especially at the hands of Slade." He wanted to make sure that Laurel knew that Oliver wasn't just wasting time, he was trying to find a way to rescue the Detective. Especially as Oliver knew what Slade was really capable of.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking." Laurel said with tears in her eyes. She really hadn't meant to punch Oliver. It just kind of happened. "I didn't hurt him did I?" She asked with wide eyes as what she had done suddenly hit her full force

Diggle and Sara could not help but laugh at Laurel's question. The idea that she could hurt Oliver with just that one small punch was thoroughly entertaining to them.

"No Laurel." Sara said once she had gained a bit of composure. "You most certainly did not hurt Oliver. He is much tougher than you would think."

"Don't worry about Oliver. Felicity on the other hand..." Diggle stated with a laugh remembering Roy's Lessons. "Well, she won't be too hard to deal with once she remembers what you've been through the last few hours. Don't worry, we won't let her hurt you again." Diggle said as they started to leave the apartment to head to the lair.

They rode back to Verdant in silence, Laurel and Diggle in the car and Sara on her bike. Laurel was trying to dry her tears and prepare herself for Felicity's anger when they arrived. Diggle trying not to laugh as he drove back to Verdant. He was curious as to how Felicity was going to react to seeing Laurel again. Sara was following closely behind on her bike. She knew that Laurel had not meant to punch Oliver like she had but yet it had been amusing. Sara was also quite worried about her Dad and what he was suffering at the hands of Slade.

Oliver quickly made his way from Laurel's apartment back to the lair. He knew that Felicity was worried about him and he wanted to reassure her that he was indeed okay. He also wanted to see what kind of leads they could get from the flash drive that Slade had left for them. He knew that there was a reason behind it and he needed to know what that was. He quickly parked his bike before making his way down the stairs into the Lair.

Felicity heard the moment Oliver arrived back at the lair. She had been trying not to worry about him since she heard him get punched, but it was not easy. She didn't know what had caused Laurel to punch him and she was definitely in the mood to give the brunette a piece of her mind, again. As Oliver reached the bottom of the stairs she ran to him, looking him over, to see where and how bad he was hurt. The only thing she could see was a small bruise beginning to form on his jaw. She gently reached up and placed a hand on his cheek as he smiled at her.

"Does it hurt?" Felicity asked as she looked at the forming bruise with concern.

"No." Oliver replied with a small smile.

"Why did she punch you?" Felicity continued to prod for details. She knew it had been Laurel, she just didn't know why since she could only hear the Team through the comms, not everything.

"She didn't think we were doing anything to find the Detective." Oliver said quietly, the concern for both Laurel and Lance evident in his voice. "She had just been through so much lately that her emotions got the best of her. I could have dodged her fist, but that would have only made her more upset. It was best to just let it happen. I knew she couldn't hurt me anyway." He explained. He wanted his girl to know that he could have avoided getting hurt at all but he chose to allow Laurel to have an outlet for all her pent up emotions.

"Speaking of Lance. You said you had something for me?" Felicity asked as she slowly took a step back from Oliver. The last thing she wanted to do was take a step back but she knew that she now had some work to do that would be productive.

Oliver produced the flash drive from his pocket and handed it to Felicity. He knew that she was ready to get to work and watched as she turned to her computers. I am the luckiest man alive to have such a beautiful, smart woman in my life. He thought as he slowly walked towards her computer, turning only to put his bow and quiver back in the display case.

Felicity worked quickly to access the data on the flash drive. She was just pulling up the information when Diggle, Sara, and Laurel walked into the lair. After a brief glance at Laurel the blonde decided not to say anything about the punch to Oliver because it was obvious that Laurel was having a hard time with everything that was going on. She didn't miss the brief smile from Oliver as she turned back to her computer.

"Got it." Felicity said with a fist pump. I can't believe I actually do that. She thought with a laugh.

"What do we have Felicity?" Oliver asked as he placed one hand on the back of her chair and the other on her desk leaning over to see what was there. The rest of the group walked over and gathered around the computers.

Felicity clicked on the single file that was on the flash drive. Someone had encoded the file, but it only took her a couple of minutes to work through it. As she clicked on the link that was provided a video feed pulled up unfortunately with no sound. They could see a small cell with no windows. Sitting in the back of the cell they could see Detective Lance leaning against the back wall. He looked to be doing okay from what could be seen but the Team knew that it wasn't possible to know what injures he could have that may not be visible.

"Dad!" Laurel cried as she saw Lance on the computer screen.

Just as Sara reached out to her sister the door of Lance's cell swung open and Slade walked in. It looked as though the two men had a brief conversation before two more men entered the cell and dragged the Detective out.

As Slade turned to walk out the door to follow Lance and the other two men he turned and smiled widely at the camera.

It was evident that the Team was upset at what they had seen so far as evidenced by the string of curses, in English, Russian and Mandarin, that could be heard followed by the sound of another arm breaking off a training dummy.


AN: Thank you for being patient with me. Please leave me a review to let me know what you think of this chapter. Thanks!