A/N: Hey guys, I'm so sorry for the delay. I know I said a week and that it has been more than that, but sometimes RL is just crazy... I was supposed to finish my thesis by the first week of July, and I did, but then my tutor thought I could do even better, so I have been working on it since then. I had my thesis defense on September 2, so as you can imagine, I didn't have any spare time these past weeks. But it was well worth since now I can say that I just got my degree in "Arquitectura Técnica". I'm not sure about the translation, but the Internet says that it might be something like "Architectural technology". I don't know… It's similar to "Architecture", but the career lasts three years (instead of the five of Architecture) and probably, the main difference between the two of them is that buildings' structure is beyond my legal competences, at least here in Spain.

To cut a long story short, I have been busy finishing my thesis, but now that I have my degree and as I don't think I will find a job immediately, I guess I will have more time to write (and translate, lol). I really hope so. ;-)

That all said, I want to thank you all for your reviews, favorites and followers. I'm afraid I will never be able to thank you enough, but that doesn't mean I will stop trying. And of course, thank also to my beta, luvtheheaven, for her help, patience and amazing suggestions.

This has certainly been the chapter that has taken me the most time to write so far. I'm not lying when I say I'd been stuck on it for two whole weeks. Two! When usually, I don't need more than a couple of hours.

When you read it, maybe you wouldn't understand why it was so hard to write. The reason is that Thea is a very complex character, and she's difficult for me to write. Plus, in the TV show, she has barely interacted with Diggle so far, so I basically had to imagine how their interactions would be. I wrote, and erased, and wrote again so many times that I lost count. And then, I had to add Roy and Felicity to the mix. So, after a lot of changes, finally I decided that the chapter was good enough to post, and here you have it. I hope I did an acceptable job not only with Diggle and Thea, but also with Felicity and Roy.

Enjoy reading, and don't forget, when you're bored, take some paper and your favorite pen and enjoy writing!

Chapter 21. Finding New Friendships

Thea had been at Verdant for couple of hours. She was checking inventory when strong arms hugged her from behind.

"Roy," she said, fondly.

He didn't answer. Instead, he began giving small kisses on her shoulder, slowly rising to her neck. She hummed in approval, and Roy responded by making her twist in his arms, so they would be facing each other. Thea's arms wrapped around Roy's neck as their lips met over and over again.

That's when Thea's phone started ringing.

"Ignore it," Roy asked between kisses.

"It could be import—" Thea's sentence was cut off when Roy kissed her again, this time running his tongue over her lips asking permission, to which Thea gladly agreed.

They deepened the kiss, immersed in their own little world, and the phone stopped ringing. When they parted, both were panting.

"You see? It wasn't important," Roy said as he moved his mouth to her neck.

When the phone rang again, Roy growled in frustration, but he continued leaving kisses on Thea's neck, going down slowly, trying to persuade her to once again ignore the call.

But if Thea was known for something, it was her stubbornness, comparable only to her brother's stubbornness, so she pulled her phone out of her pocket to see who was calling. Her body tensed when she read the name that was on the screen. Roy noticed her discomfort and moved away to look into her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

But instead of replying, Thea answered the call.

"Miss Queen? It's Mr. Diggle. I'm calling about your brother." Diggle's tone of voice was gravely serious.

"What happened?" she asked with frantic voice.

Roy looked at her, frowning, trying to figure out what was happening.

"There was a robbery at the bank and your brother was injured. We are in the hospital."

"But ... But is he okay?"

"Right now he's in surgery. I don't know anything more, I'm afraid." The bodyguard sounded like he genuinely wished he knew more. "Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No, no need. Wait there and call me if you know something new."

"Of course."

When Thea hung up the phone she was very pale. Roy didn't hear the whole conversation, but he could imagine that something bad had happened concerning someone she cared about.

"Thea," he said, softly. "What happened?"

"Ollie ... He's in the hospital. There's been a robbery and... I don't know anything more."

Roy knew she was making a great effort to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Roy, I can't lose him. Not again."

"Hey, you won't lose him," he answered, confident.

Roy didn't know what had happened, or how Oliver was doing but he needed to try to calm her down.

"Come on, I'll take you to the hospital."

"N-no."

"What do you mean 'no'? Is somebody going to pick you up?"

"No, I'll take a cab."

"What? No, no way. I'll take you there."

"No."

"Thea, if you think I'm going to let you go on your own to the hospital, you're very wrong."

"Roy, please. I need to be alone for a few minutes, okay? My brother is in the hospital, again! And I... I just need some time to absorb it."

"Okay, but you're not gonna take a cab."

"I'm not asking permission, Roy!" she yelled, the situation starting to overwhelm her.

"Listen, I'm going to take you there. Once we get there, if you want me to leave I will, but I don't want you going alone. Okay?" he said in a quiet but firm voice.

Thea looked into his eyes, and she didn't see anything but pure love and also some concern. She then realized it might actually be comforting to have Roy with her on the way to the hospital.

"Okay," she finally said, accepting his offer.

"Good," he replied. "Come on. We're wasting time here."

He walked her to his car, but when he tried to help her into it, she angrily yelled at him, "I can open my own damn door, Roy!" While he drove, he tried to distract her by recounting some of the times he had been in trouble before he had met her, but Thea's mind was far away. She was too worried about her brother to pay attention to Roy.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Thea barely waited until they were parked before getting out of the car and went rushing into the building followed by Roy. As soon as they entered, they had to ignore the reporters that had been waiting there just to hound her for information about her brother. . Thea and Roy approached the reception counter, but they were intercepted by a female doctor.

"Excuse me, Miss Queen?" the woman asked, politely.

"Yes. How is my brother?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know. But I know where the people who came with him are. You should follow me, please."

People? Which people? Thea wondered. Mr. Diggle didn't tell me he was with anyone. Although he didn't tell me he was alone, either. Roy and Thea followed the doctor, holding hands as they approached the lounge where Diggle and Felicity had been led.

The doctor knocked on the door and entered, followed by the young couple. Felicity was still in the bathroom, so only Diggle was in sight. As soon as Thea saw him, she asked, "What happened? How's Ollie? Is he still in surgery?"

"Miss Queen, please sit down."

"Call me Thea, please," she asked.

At these moments, she didn't feel like a powerful Queen. At these moments she was just a young girl who was extremely worried about her brother. Also, the "Miss Queen" reminded her of the reporters that had assaulted her upon her arrival. If her instinct was correct, she was going to be spending a significant portion of this day in the company of this bodyguard, and him calling her anything other than "Thea" would be very impersonal, which would make her feel uncomfortable. Besides, she knew that his relationship with Oliver was much closer than that of employer and employee. Diggle's voice during the phone call was obvious proof of it, plus lately, from a distance, she had begun to witness them acting somewhat like friends. Her brother wasn't a person who could trust people easily, at least not after the island, so if he trusted Diggle, she knew she could too.

"Okay, then Thea. Sit down, please."

She sat on the couch next to Diggle. Roy stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders, reminding her that he was there for her, that she wasn't going through this alone.

"Tell me what happened, please," she said, quietly.

"As I said before, there was a robbery at the bank. The robbers got nervous and your brother was shot. They... They didn't let the paramedics enter immediately—"

"What? Why not?" Thea interrupted angrily.

"They were nervous, scared... I don't know for sure. Oliver lost a lot of blood due to that delay, but Felicity, his assistant who was with him in the bank at the time, did a great job stopping the bleeding. She saved his life, Thea."

Diggle knew that Felicity would want to be with Oliver every minute he would have to spend at the hospital. But he also knew that since she wasn't family or his emergency contact, she wouldn't be allowed to be there if Thea didn't want her to be. The young girl didn't know how close the friendship between Felicity and her brother was, so Diggle felt it was important that Thea know what Felicity had done. He thought that maybe, that way, Thea would let the blonde stay there.

"Once the paramedics were able to attend to your brother, they stabilized him and brought him here immediately."

Diggle thought it wasn't necessary to make her worry even more by telling her that his heart had stopped twice before reaching the hospital.

He concluded, "He's still in surgery."

"Why?" Thea asked with a broken voice.

Both Roy and Diggle looked at her in confusion. They didn't know what she meant.

"Why him? Why him of all the people who were in the bank? Hasn't he suffered enough already? Haven't we all?" she asked to no one in particular, bursting into tears.

Diggle got up to make space for Roy, who walked around the couch and then sat next to Thea, hugging her, trying to give her his support.

The bodyguard looked at the young couple with a heavy heart. It was true that Oliver had been through a lot, but he realized his sister had too. She had lost her father and brother and gone through such intense grief when she was just a child, only to discover five years later that Oliver was still alive. Then she had almost lost him again around Christmas. She had been in a car accident after she had taken Vertigo, and she had been about to go to jail for it. Her mother had been an accomplice in the earthquake that had killed many people in the Glades and was now in prison awaiting trial, and quite likely the death penalty. Her brother had been missing in "Europe" for five months, and now that he was back, he was fighting for his life after being shot in a robbery. It seemed that the misfortune of the Queen family would never end.

Diggle's thoughts were interrupted when the bathroom's door opened. Felicity, wearing the scrubs the nurse had brought her, came out and froze when she saw a terribly distraught Thea. Felicity's eyes met Diggle's, and he could see the absolute terror she felt.

"Felicity no, it's not that! Oliver is alive, he's still in surgery. He's alive, Felicity," he hastened to explain when he realized that seeing Thea crying inconsolably made Felicity think that Oliver had died.

When Diggle's words registered in her mind, Felicity sighed and relaxed. For a moment, she had thought the worst.

Thea also heard Diggle's words, and when he said Felicity's name, Thea couldn't help but look at her. Her hair was wet and pulled back into a ponytail, she was wearing scrubs and her eyes were puffy and red. There was no doubt that she had been crying. Thea had a feeling that she had seen her before, but she couldn't remember where. She just knew that if her bad look was due to Oliver's situation meant that the blonde really cared for him.

Thea parted from Roy's hug and got up. She approached Felicity and hugged her tightly. At first, Felicity froze in surprise, but then she wrapped her arms over the small frame of the young Queen.

"Thank you, thank you very much, Felicity," Thea whispered vehemently between sobs.

"What for?" Felicity asked, confused.

Thea moved away a little so she could look at Felicity, and trying to control her sobs, she spoke.

"Mr. Diggle told me what you did. If it weren't for you... My brother... He would be... Thank you Felicity!" Thea said again, before returning to hugging the blonde.

"Anyone would have done the same."

Before Thea could respond to that sentiment, someone knocked at the door. Diggle went to answer it. When the nurse who had led Diggle and Felicity there entered the lounge, the four looked at her anxiously.

"Excuse me. I came to ask if you had already called..." The nurse trailed off. "Oh, yeah, I see you already called the family."

"How is my brother?" Thea asked, releasing Felicity.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. He's still in surgery."

"And do you know how much longer it will last?" Felicity then asked.

"It depends on the complications that can arise, but I think it might be a couple of hours." A little less, maybe, the nurse thought to herself. But she preferred not to give them false hope.

"Oh, okay." Felicity answered, dejected, and then she dropped onto the couch. Even though the shower had helped her to relax, it didn't help with her fatigue. She felt exhausted.

"I'll be back as soon as I know anything," the nurse promised before leaving once again.

A few minutes passed in silence, none of them knowing what to say. Then Thea sat next to Felicity and said to her.

"No one introduced us. I'm Thea."

"I know. If you aren't aware, you are quite famous. Besides, you're Oliver's sister, so it would be weird if I didn't know who you are... Hmm... I'm Felicity, Felicity Smoak. But you already know that, because before you called me by my name, and it is not a common name that you could say by accident, so that means you know my name; but truth be told, I don't know how, because we never talked, did we? No, definitely not, because I would remember it, and you wouldn't have had to introduce yourself, and—"

"Felicity," Diggle stopped her babbling.

"Oh, yes. I'm sorry," she said blushing intensely.

"I think someone has rambling issues," Roy said in a teasing way.

"Just a little bit," Diggle added, knowing that a few seconds of jokes were very welcomed in such a situation as this.

"I'm Roy, by the way, and since we are confessing our faults... I guess mine is my tendency to get into trouble," he said with a shrug, as if it was a defect in his genes instead of the result of his decisions. The three people who were with him looked at him in confusion when they heard him, so he added, "What? The four of us have plenty of time to kill here. I don't know what you guys want to do, but I'd rather talk to make the wait seem shorter... So Thea, it's your turn." Putting on the most serious face he could, but without abandoning his joking tone, he said to her, "Confess. What's your worst fault?"

A/N 2: Thank you for reading and once again, sorry for the delay! And remember that I'll be very grateful if you leave me reviews, because I would like to know what you think. Thanks!

Dear guests, thank you for your reviews!

Nellysh: Yeah, they're suffering a little bit much, but don't worry, things will start to get better soon.

Ferapaul: You're welcome. And thanks for mentioning the fast update. Know that it's appreciated. ;-)

Guest: Thank you very much! Felicity is a lovely person, isn't she? I cannot tell you what will happen in the future chapters, but I really hope that both you and your mom like it.