CHAPTER 21 "Stop! Genius At Work!"

"Did you get it!?" Felicity yelled as she ran through the door to Lance's apartment, Oliver at her heels. She was sporting a new brace on her arm and an ugly hospital blue sling, the color of which she was not too happy about. But once she went through the door she was like a kid at Christmas time. Felicity made a beeline straight to Diggle who barely had time to answer her before she grabbed the box in his hands.

They had sent Diggle to pick up the package from STAR Labs, while Oliver took a much more complacent Felicity to her newly scheduled emergency neurologist specialist's appointment. Though he knew she was still a little pissed when she made him wait in the waiting room instead of coming in with her. She had come clean about her numbness and pain, but was still trying to regain some semblance of control over her life. Oliver understood, and waited patiently for the longer than usual appointment. When she came out she had the new immobilizing contraption on her arm and hand. She didn't look incredibly surprised though. She knew it was only a matter of time before the doctor would more effective measures to get her to listen. But, he'd noticed she also looked surprisingly easy going, compared to how she'd reacted to this idea before.

"Perfect! I'm going to take this to the lab and work on making more, just in case. OH MY GOD!" Felicity exclaimed unexpectedly as she looked at a piece of paper on the package.

"What!?" Oliver said crossing over closer to her.

"You can read that!? All I saw were letters and numbers!" Diggle said annoyed.

"They put a note on the package for me, it's in code. They synthesized the mirakuru as well. They made…they just handed us MY cure along with Slade's!" she let out a small laugh of disbelief. When she had woken up the previous day everything was so disparaging, and now all of the sudden, in 24 hours, they had gotten their cure, and her cure, plus if she was correct, the extra supplies she had requested of STAR Labs for her super secret side project. She had gotten the go ahead from her doctor today, as well as the extra supplies she needed from him.

Nobody said anything for a few seconds, letting it sink in. One of their major concerns out the window, and another on the way to being taken care of.

"HA!" Felicity suddenly beamed a smile up at Oliver, who returned it, scooping her up in his arms and spinning her around once.

"Oh my god I can't believe it!" She said again, I still hadn't sunk in completely. "Did something just actually go right?!" She laughed again.

"I think so! I feel like that hasn't happened in weeks!" Oliver sounded excited about something. She had DEFINITELY not heard that is weeks. Since before Slade came to town. Diggle cleared his throat to break her and Oliver out of their dreamy daze they had fallen into. She whipped her head around and saw him smiling at her. Unlocking herself from Oliver's arms, she ran over and hugged Diggle and then Quentin. It was then they Felicity noticed they were the only ones there.

"Where are everyone else?" Felicity asked Lance.

"Well I think Sara and Roy are that the club with Thea doing boring club stuff, and Laurel is at work. Did you want to head over to the foundry to get started? I'll come with since the Captain still has me cooling my heels on this case…huh…if he only knew." Lance smirked at that. It was hurtful that his department had turned their back on him during the whole Undertaking debacle, but he was consoled by the fact that he had the inside track and they were floundering without him. Plus, after what had happened with Felicity's mother's remains, he could barely even stomach to set foot into that farce of a police station.

"Yeah sure, let's go, Oliver, John…coming with?" Felicity asked, still buzzing from the news of her impending cure. It was definitely a weight off her mind. She wasn't sure they'd be able to procure the mirakuru from Slade's possession.

"We'll be along in a bit. Gonna stop by QC and make a few mandatory appearances. Especially with Isobel out of the picture."

"Ew…don't say her name around me. Why would you do that. BLECH!" Felicity retorted. "For the record, I hated her from the beginning."

"I'm pretty sure SHE hated herself from the beginning." Oliver agreed.

"Terrible human being." Diggle confirmed.

"So glad she's in prison." Felicity smiled sentimentally at the thought, looking off into space, as if imagining the horrors Isobal Rochev has to face everyday.

"Ok, now that that is over, let's go please." Lance finally interjected.

"Yes! PLEASE!" Felicity hopped excitedly over to the door as Lance took the package out of her remaining free hand.

"Don't want you to drop this Blondie."

"Oh seriously!? You too!?" Felicity jokingly admonished the nickname that Roy, Sara, and Lance had now called her. "NOT into it guys! I'm not even…nevermind, let's go."

They just laughed, a little more at ease now that they were in possession of a secret weapon against Slade.

ARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROWARROW

Lance just sat and watched Sara and Roy spar from the couch. He'd kicked his feet up enjoying the show all afternoon. Felicity was hard at work in the lab, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what she was doing. At first she CAREFULLY took the vials out of the box, which seemed way too big for just a couple of vials, but what did he know. After she started mixing and boiling things he started giggling because she looked like a 15 year old Chemistry student. That's when she banned him from her lab, labeling him as a distraction. She had actually been waiting for an excuse. With Quentin looking over her shoulder, she couldn't do what she'd actually wanted.

First, as soon as he walked away, she pricked her finger and drew a few drops of blood onto a slide…which was difficult one handed but she worked it out. She then took an old vial of Roy's mirakuru infused blood and put that on a slide. She put one drop of the mirakuru cure and placed it on Roy's blood, and one drop of the regular mirakuru and placed it on her slide, studying the effects on each blood sample. The effects were eerily similar. It seemed that Sara was right, that whatever was wrong with her and her mother, was reversed in her blood sample, the changes mirroring those changes that Roy's blood had with the mirakuru cure. Effectively making both blood samples "normal". That was good enough for her. Though, of course, she wouldn't let Roy try it until she had tested her concoction first. She figured if STAR Labs got one right (or wrong) she didn't want to be responsible for something happening to Roy. She would, of course, wait until Diggle got here to test it though. She wasn't entirely crazy.

Second order of business. One that excited her almost as much as the cure…but not quite. Felicity went back over to the box that STAR Labs had sent. Thank god Diggle hadn't looked inside, she had a whole package inside that was just for her eyes only. She pulled it out carefully with her good hand and set it on the lab table. Then walked over to her package from her neurologist and brought that over as well. Walking over to a privacy curtain they had set up for med procedures. Just to not look suspicious, she called over to Sara and Roy to tell them that theyw ere being distracting and that she was closing the curtain on them. Neither seemed phased and Lance nodded knowingly, as he had already been kicked out of her workspace. She didn't have a lot of time to tinker with her new toys in private before Oliver and Diggle came barging in on her work space. They would be all questioning and demanding.

Felicity pulled out the 15 or so small metal and plastic discs from the box, and the equal amount of sensors that would eventually attach to them. She also procured alcohol and some other general wires and solder supplies that she would need for her little project. She scoffed at herself. 'Little project' she thought.

"Yeah no big deal, just, you know, curing neuropathy and permanent partial nerve damage. You know." She whispered to herself as she concentrated on the task at hand. She had been building computers and robotics since she was a little kid, this should be no problem right? Just a little electricity-based-nerve-stimulation-enhancer here, and a little Bluetooth technology interface sensor there. Yeah, no problem.

Felicity glanced up at the light board at the images of her injured arm that the doctor had given her. He had spoken to her at length about her condition and that at this point, there was probably nothing they could do besides some risky surgery that could either help restore partial feeling permanently or there was a 25% chance she could lose ALL feeling permanently. Nothing was guaranteed. She impressed him with the big words she had learned in all of her various cybernetics and neurogenesis classes in college while she was working on her masters degree, and stunned him with her plans for trying to help her situation. He agreed that it was risky for her to be messing with this technology without a doctor present to help, but also agreed that at this point, the only harm she could possibly do is further damaging her already damaged nerves. Which was a possibility with surgery anyway. So, reluctantly, but also not giving his full permission, he agreed to let her do it with his advice. He also made a stipulation that his name was not to be written on any information regarding her project and that he would deny that he even spoke with her about it if asked by the FCC. What she was doing was illegal, but he was glad she asked for his advice instead of doing it herself. He also thought she was completely out of her mind.

Felicity tinkered away with her toys for over 4 hours and had officially decided it was time to start programming the little buggers and testing them out. She took a deep breath and removed her arm from the sling and took off the brace. She had to wait for a time when her nerves were actually working for this step.

"Here goes nothin'" she whispered to herself. Making dots on her forearm, wrist and various places on her hand, Felicity matched up where she needed them to be with her scans from the doctor. Placing the first disc on her forearm, so that the small, thin wire rested just beneath her skin, she exhaled a deep breath. She was nervous but extremely excited as to whether this was going to work, but she also needed to focus. Felicity pressed a button and a faint, blue light flickered, and then remained on the disc. It was about the size of a one of the tiny watch batteries, but thinner. She had placed a mild adhesive akin to medical tape on the bottom to secure it to her skin. The adhesive was removable, but clean and replaceable on the type of metal used. She pressed a button on her tablet labeled "Program 1". As she saw the blue light begin blinking, she held out her arm and touched her index finger to her thumb. Then she tapped the button on her tablet again and the light went off for a few seconds, only to pop back on with a steady blue light again. Her tablet read "Program 1 Successful".

"Wow. Ok. So…this might work. Don't get too excited Felicity." She mumbled to herself. She was totally excited.

She repeated the process with all of her fingers and her wrist moving her hand and arm in all different directions. She was teaching that first disc on her arm what she wanted it to do for the other discs she would be synching up to it later. Once that was complete, she started applying the other discs to the base of each finger, to four different points on her hand where key nerves lived, and a few other points on her wrist and forearm. Using the same device, she hit the same power button and they all popped on, the faint, blue lights look like a beautiful piece of art to her. She beamed a wide smile. This was the last part. If this worked, she was in the clear…

"Hey! What's going on Beautiful?!" Oliver said suddenly from a few feet behind her, as he peeled back her curtain of solitude.

"OH!" Felicity jumped a foot into the air, hiding her arm behind her back "Damn it Oliver you scared me! Get out of here! I told them no distractions while I'm working on the stuff!"

"Ah ha! I see you've taken off your brace already!" Oliver said in a playfully stern tone trying to reach around her to grab it. He was just messing with her, he knew the brace wouldn't last long out of his sight. Especially with how easy she was being about it all day.

"Oliver OUT!" She yelled in her loud voice, not realizing how angry she sounded. She just didn't want him to see what she was actually doing. When he put his hands up in surrender and gave her a hurt and confused look, she instantly felt bad.

"Wow, ok, I'm sorry I scared you. Um, just…try not to hurt yourself too bad. I'll be over there to give you a hand massage when you're done." Oliver said quietly, sadness evident in his face. He had been happy to see her after a long day at the office without her, and she snapped at him first thing. He was over being angry at her outburst, but she had been so happy earlier In the day, he was hoping it had turned around.

As he turned away, she stopped him with her good hand on his shoulder.

"Oliver stop, I'm sorry. I didn't mean…I'm sorry, you scared me. Hello, I love you. It's good to see you. I'll be over in a few minutes if that's ok? I just need to finish this up." She kissed him lightly, but lovingly on the lips, her good hand touching his cheek and conveying her sincere apology.

"Hmmm…Ok, I guess I'll forgive you this time." Oliver said with a smirk as she smacked his shoulder and kissed him again.

"Thank you. Now go!" She said as she pointed to the now vacant couch in the corner.

"Hey where is everybody else?" She asked as he walked toward the couch, taking his jacket off as he went.

He glanced back at her with a glint in his eye. "I sent them home." Oliver called, turning his back to her again.

"….Oh." She gulped, thinking about the implications. In her dumbfounded state, she had almost let her bad arm fall from behind her back, but caught herself. She turned back to her work bench, and now hoped this project is finished all that much sooner.

She heard Oliver chuckle at himself, proud of the reaction he'd gotten and that prompted another smile of her own. This day was turning out perfect so far. Now she had only one last thing to do.

At this point in the night, she had zero feeling left in her hand, probably from the activity she had been doing with it for the initial programming. Thank god she had gotten through it before she lost sensation. She touched one button on her tablet that said "Auxiliary 1", the disc at her index finger started to blink. She then touched "Program 1" on another part of her tablet. The disc stopped blinking, and then the blue light came back on to stay. She tried to move her pinky, nothing. She tried to move her thumb, nothing. She took a deep breath, and moved her index finger. It worked. Her finger moved in the same movement that she programmed it to earlier! As she did with that finger, she programmed every other disc until she could freely move her fingers, make a weak, but usable fist, and had complete range of motion with her wrist.

"Oh my god!" She laughed at herself. "How many times am I gonna say that today? But…wow…" She said to herself, forgetting Oliver's presence on the other side of the room momentarily. She was pretty sure when just had designed a prototype for a ridiculously huge medical breakthrough and was reveling in it.

"Felicity, you alright?" Oliver yelled from the other side of the room curiously.

"Oh yeah. Absolutely. I'll be there in a minute. I need to show you something pretty cool."

"Just making sure, you were talking to yourself again." Oliver.

"…Yeah…" Felicity said absently as she moved around her wrist and hand in all different directions. Then she hit the button to turn off all the sensors. Her hand dropped, and went completely limp at the wrist. She couldn't do much of anything without extreme effort and some pain. She hit the button again and everything lit up once more, her hand springing back to life with zero effort. She beamed. She HAD to show this to her doctor, but first…

Felicity hit the button again turning off her sensors and walked around the curtain towards Oliver. He noticed that she had finally finished and the fervor in which she was heading to him. He stood up as he saw her face, a mixture between raw nerves, weariness and complete elation. He knew it had been all day since they'd seen each other, but he didn't expect this reaction from her. She flew into him and kissed him more passionately than he remembered her ever expressing. Finally they paused, in desperate need to catch their breath.

"Felicity…not that I'm complaining, but…what am I missing?" Oliver stuttered out between pants. Her smile was radiant and intoxicating. He just kissed her again, not caring right now what brought this on.

They finally broke apart again, and Felicity pulled back a little.

"I can't feel my hand." She said simply, but still smiling. This confused him greatly, and worried him a little.

"Babe that's not a good thing you know." He said brow furrowed. "Are you ok? Does it hurt?" He turned to grab it but she wiggled away from him, hiding it behind her back again. But still smiling.

"What's going on, you're being very confusing and it's freaking me out." Oliver said evenly, putting just barely a half a step of space between them to talk.

"No, it's not a good thing. No, it doesn't hurt at all right now, as long as I don't try to use it, it's pretty much numb from the forearm down. BUT!" She paused for dramatic effect.

"BUT!" Oliver said trying to will her to get to the point.

"I did something today. And it was behind your back and I'm sorry, but I promise I cleared it with the doctor and everything is fine and nothing bad happened." Felicity rambled, suddenly nervous that Oliver would get angry at her for keeping a secret.

"AND!" Oliver stated, absolutely angry that she kept a secret, but keeping a lid on it until he got an explanation.

"AND! I might have just accidentally on purpose improved the quality of life for hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people." At that she took her hand from behind her back covered in the weird metal discs. She flicked her hand and wiggled it at him to make a point that she couldn't use it.

"Felicity, what…" Oliver started, but she put her other finger up to his lips to shut him up.

"Watch." She stated simply. Pulling out her trusty button from her pocket, she hit the button, activating her "Magic Hand", as she'd been thinking of it as. The blue lights lit up and she proceeded to wiggle her fingers around and open and close her fist. Even doing a "tada" motion and the adorable smirk to match.

"You…" Oliver started, amazed at her abilities.

"Yes?" Felicity waited for the approval she so desperately wanted from him.

"You…are…remarkable. And I love you." Was all he could get out before grabbing her and pulling her back to his lips. He loved her more than he's ever loved anyone. He wanted to make sure he showed her that tonight. They were alone. Blissfully alone, and happy…for the first time in weeks. No Slade right now, no Thea, no Diggle, or Lance family hovering. Her back is all but healed. Her hand is numb right now so it doesn't matter. No one is crying. He thought about all of that and just kissed her harder, before moving her over to the couch and half falling on top of her. At that point, it was very clear to her what was about to happen from feeling his body against hers. She just closed her eyes again and moaned, grabbing him by the lapels and pulling him even closer to her. They wound up doing the walk of shame into Detective Lance's apartment the next morning, getting conspicuously awkward looks from him as they walked in. They didn't even notice as they slipped right by him into the bedroom they'd been using and got changed for the new day. Things were definitely looking up.