Bruce woke to the sound of Felicity softly talking on her phone. She was standing off to the side. There was a cold spot next to him on the bed where she'd slept the night before.

"I'm fine, Digg." she murmured. "Bruce found me. Tell Oliver he can call off the search." She glanced over her shoulder at Bruce. He feigned sleep, interested in how this conversation would progress. "I'm..." she sighed. "I'm in Gotham. Bruce was injured when he saved me." She chuckled. "No, not grievously...tell Oliver to stop celebrating. Bruce'll back on his feet in a few days." She tilted her head. "You do realize I don't need you playing big brother, right? He's being a perfect gentlemen. And he's not in any shape for whatever you're thinking."

Bruce arched an eyebrow, amused by her friend's obvious protectiveness.

"I'm really okay, Digg." She ran a hand through her hair. "I should be home soon."

The assertion made Bruce's jaw clench. No way in hell was she going back to Starling. Especially not with Slade Wilson still on the loose and him being less than capable of protecting her. She must have sensed that he was awake because she turned and looked back at him. She winced. "Listen, I gotta go. Bruce just woke up." She hung up. "Hey." She gave him a smile.

"You are not going back to Starling." He growled. Her expression fell and she sighed, shaking her head.

"Don't you think that's my choice?" She asked. Bruce snorted.

"Not when you seem unable to make good ones." He muttered, turning and putting his legs on the ground. He was about to stand when Felicity blocked his path, her arms crossed and irritation in her eyes. He sighed. "Felicity-"

"You are not getting up from this bed." She rolled her eyes. "And you think I'm the one who makes terrible choices."

"I need to work on the antidote." He protested. "The lab equipment in the Batcave-"

"Will still be there once you heal." She wasn't moving. "Alfred called Lucius Fox and he's going to work on the blood sample with him. You are staying in bed."

Bruce gnashed his teeth. As much as he wanted to argue, the throbbing in his side was making it hard to focus and he'd be no good to the investigation if he dropped of exhaustion. And Felicity was stubborn enough to outlast him. "I want regular updates." He finally conceded, lying back down on the bed. "You're still not going back to Starling."

Felicity pulled his blankets up and tucked them around him, a triumphant smirk on her face. "We'll discuss that later." She sat next to him. "How are you feeling?"

He grunted, frowning at his fingers. "You put me as your emergency contact."

"Huh?" She blinked at him in surprise, clearly she'd been expecting a different answer.

"Officer Lance from the SCPD called me and said you were kidnapped." He tilted his head, enjoying the way she flushed red. "I know I didn't hack into your records to change it, although I considered it. So it means..." He waited. She fidgeted before finally letting out a sigh.

"It was after I got shot." She mumbled. "And let the record show I was high on painkillers when I did it."

"In Aspirin Veritas." Bruce smirked.

"That was not aspirin." Felicity huffed, turning her back to him. Bruce itched to take her into his arms again, but he knew she wouldn't be as open to his touch as she'd been the night before. She'd been worried about him and therefore had inadvertently revealed her deeper feelings. Now that she knew he was doing better, she was trying to reestablish distance between them. She cleared her throat, getting up. "I need to change your bandages." She mumbled, motioning to a bunch of medical equipment.

Bruce reached for the hem of his shirt, "You okay to do this?"

She nodded. "I've done it before for..." she trailed off. Queen. He pulled the shirt over his head. She meant Queen. The thought of her putting her hands on Queen, even in a medical context made his blood boil. It took her a few minutes to clean the wound and rebind it. She was so gentle with him, trying to minimize the pain. A rush of affection ran through him. She had to know she didn't have to be overly cautious with him...but she wanted to be. Her fingers skated over his abdomen one last time as she secured the bandages. Her hands hoovered over his chest.

"Are you hungry?" She asked.

He smirked. "Yes."

"Good.' She moved back. "I'll go get breakfast." She fled the room before he could protest.

Felicity went straight to the Batcave after dropping a tray off in Bruce's room. She needed to get her head on straight and it was easier to do it far away from his injured brooding abs. Alfred and Lucius were in the cave, talking with a woman Felicity didn't recognize. "Hello?" Felicity said. Alfred looked up and beamed at her.

"Ah, Felicity." He motioned her over. "May I present Lucius Fox and Dr. Lee Thompkins."

"Hi..." Felicity said slowly, looking at the two of them. Dr. Thompkins was a smiling older woman and she seemed to sense Felicity's next question before she asked it.

"I'm an old friend of Bruce's." She explained. "I've known him since he was a child."

"And I built most of the equipment in here." Lucius said, shaking her hand. "Alfred tells me you're quite adept with cyber technology." He smiled. "It might be fun to pick your brain." He looked at her curiously. "Why did Bruce let you in on his secret?"

"I..." She looked over at Alfred. He hadn't told them who she was to him. "I work with the Arrow and...Bruce and I met a couple years back." She didn't know how to explain the marriage.

Lucius let out an amused chuckle. "The Arrow, huh?" He shook his head. "Bet Bruce had a good rant about that one." He and Dr. Thompkins shared a look before turning back to the table. They had a full lab set up with burners, test tubes and were creating some type of green liquid. Felicity glanced over at Alfred.

"The antidote?"

He nodded. "At least, we believe it will work...we just need a way to test it."

"Unfortunately." Dr. Thompkins said. "We don't have enough of the original blood sample Bruce collected from Deathstroke."

Felicity gulped. There was a way...Roy. But she couldn't tell them about him without his permission. She nodded. "Excuse me for a second." She walked out of the cave, waiting until the clock closed before she pulled out her cellphone. Roy answered within two rings.

"Blondie? You okay?"

"Don't call me that." She shook her head in amusement.

"Sorry." Roy grunted. "Oliver won't tell me anything more than you're not kidnapped and Digg said you were in Gotham."

"It's..." She glanced around Bruce's living room. "A long story. But I know someone here who might have created an antidote to your little problem. We just need to test it." She winced. "Okay, that sounds like we're going to stick you in a bubble and prod you with needles. We aren't; we'll need a blood sample and then if it works, you can take it, but only if you want to-"

"Felicity." Roy cut her off. "You had me at antidote. Just tell me what I have to do."

She hung up a few minutes later after agreeing to pay for a plane ticket for Roy and to pick him up at the Gotham airport. She drummed her fingers on her phone. That was the easy part...now she had to tell Bruce. She glanced at the ceiling. This was going to be fun.