A/N: This chapter starts immediately from where the previous chapter left off: Oliver is cupping Felicity's face in his hands. At least one of you lovely readers noted something Felicity left out of her story. You weren't the only one…
Oliver used his thumbs to tip her chin up. "Why didn't you want to tell Diggle how your knee got skinned?"
Felicity blinked and tried to jerk her head from his grasp. Failing to physical evade his question, she tried verbal evasion. "I told you, nothing bad happened."
"I beg to differ." A full minute of silence passed as he waited and she looked everywhere but at his face. "Are you afraid of what I'll do?"
"Yes!" She half sobbed the exclamation. "Not afraid for them, because right now I'm so blood thirsty I want you to put a dozen arrows in each of them." Her hands came up to grip his forearms, although her splinted right hand merely rested on his shirtsleeve. "But you can't go after these guys as the Hood. Don't you see? Detective Lance already knows I work with the Hood. If he sees us together too often he's going to ask more questions. And Oliver, I don't know if you've noticed, but I suck at lying. Add that with the fact that Oliver Queen's little sister got attacked and then those same guys end up with arrows in their chests? Come on, no one is that oblivious."
"Simple. The Hood—and we really need to revisit the conversation where I find a new name—is retaliating for the assault on you. You said it yourself, you're a known associate, at least to Lance."
"Psh. The story won't be about me. I'm a nobo—"
He was very gentle, but the pressure of his fingers on her neck and the slightest of shakes interrupted her statement. The blue fire leaping from his eyes helped silence her as well. "I never want to hear you say that again. You are somebody to Thea, to Walter, to Diggle and to me." He saw the tears slip down her cheeks. The pads of his thumbs were too rough to be stroking her soft skin, but he did it anyway to brush away her tears. "Tell me the rest, Felicity."
She hiccupped a sob and lurched forward to bury her face against his chest. "I'm so sorry. I should have been paying more attention! It's my fault, all of it."
It took Oliver a moment to absorb the shock of her body pressed against his. He slowly wrapped his arms around her back.
"I got Thea to the car and got her in, but when I turned around to go to the driver's side, the blonde guy was right there. I tried to run, but I'd lost my shoe and the lot was graveled and I just tripped! Guess that's when my other shoe came off. Then he was grabbing me and turning me over and shouting what he was going to do to me. He ripped at my blouse and I just froze. I couldn't think of what to do and you know, Diggle's training didn't handle what I was supposed to do when an enraged Eric Northman clone had me pinned to the ground."
"Who?" He asked against her hair, since she still hadn't moved.
A laughing hiccup escaped her. "True Blood. One of these days we have to have a "Pop Culture of the past 5 years" marathon."
"We really don't." He let the humorous moment hang in the air before returning to the painful subject. "You told us that you weren't sexually assaulted."
"I wasn't."
"Felicity, a man pinning you to the ground and tearing your blouse open counts as sexual assault."
"Fine," she huffed. "But I got away before anything…worse… happened. My spare key fob was still in my hand and I must have accidentally I hit the alarm button. I guess he was afraid someone would come running. He jumped up and ran away. I crawled to the car door, which…ow… and got in. Drove home, called Diggle on the way. That's it. Promise."
She stepped back, swiped at her damp cheeks with the back of her hand. "See, I'm not so very heroic after all."
His chin dipped and his right eyebrow crooked upward. It was an expression of contemptuous disagreement that Felicity knew all too well. She swiveled her head to watch him as he stepped neatly around to the side of the bed. With a grand sweep of his arm he pulled the covers back. She slipped out of the leather jacket. Handing it to him, she paused beside the bed.
"You tucking me into bed is becoming a habit."
Oliver's brows lowered. He tipped his chin down and leaned his upper body toward her. "One I'm rather enjoying." He traced her cheekbone with the backs of his fingers. "Get some sleep."
"Well?"
Oliver was bent forward, braced with one arm against the wall outside Thea's room. Without looking up, he asked "You knew she was holding back?"
Diggle snorted. "I picked enough gravel out of her knee to pave a bonsai garden. The blouse?"
"I'd rather not tell you."
Diggle folded his arms and glared. "Why?"
"Because if you knew you'd be as mad as I am right now. I'm not sure the furniture or walls can take the combined assault."
"Fair enough." He pulled out his phone, checked the messages and the app showing the security deployment around the mansion. "Think you can sleep?"
"No." Oliver straightened. "I'll take first watch. Get some sleep; I'll wake you up in a few hours. Digg?"
"Yeah?"
"I want these guys."
"We'll get them."
"I don't plan on being merciful."
John Diggle's dark eyes zeroed in on Oliver Queen. "Neither do I."
