A/N: Chapter 38 is up, we're going to see what's going to happen to Cisco's father, Felicity and Slade are going on their first date, a secret Felicity has been hiding from everyone, including Oliver, and a little surprise gift for Slade.

Also, this is going to be the last time Felicity and Slade will screw since they have other important things to do like trying to stop Colton. Enjoy.

3...2...1

"Do you know where Cisco's house is?" Felicity asked anxiously as Caitlin drove down the streets as fast as she could, trying to catch up to Slade and Cisco before anything bad happened. So far, she and Caitlin lost track of them. Felicity had stripped down from her Black Canary uniform in the car and put on her civilian clothes before throwing her uniform in the backseat. She also took off her mask and tossed it back as well before slipping on her glasses.

"Sort of."

"Sort of? Why sort of?"

"I only went to Cisco's house once and that was two years ago," Caitlin stated, "And I got lost twice. Don't worry. We'll find them."

"Oh please God don't let Slade don't anything stupid," Felicity prayed pleadingly.

Slade continues driving Cisco's van, forcefully asking Cisco to which direction to take. Cisco is sitting in the passenger's seat with his head hung in shame.

"You better not be misdirecting me, kid, or there will be trouble," Slade growled.

'No, I'm sure, it's left turn," Cisco said. "Slade, this is a bad idea. Just turn the van around and let's get back to S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Do you really think I'm simply going to return to the Labs and pretend this never happened?" Slade asked rhetorically. Cisco didn't answer that question. He remained silent until they finally made it to the house.

It was any other normal house in the neighbourhood: clean and friendly-looking. Mrs. Ramon probably did a good job keeping up the appearance and making it look like a family-friendly house but even Slade knew that houses like those kept secrets. He knew because he used to live in one. Slade stopped the van next to the sidewalk and got out of the van before slamming the door shut.

"Slade, please don't kill my dad," Cisco begged. Slade stared at him sternly, "He's an asshole but he's still my dad and I rather if you don't kill him."

Slade remained glaring at Cisco before he proceeded to walk around the van headed towards the house. Cisco got out of the van and ran after him. Slade was already at the porch and rang the doorbell before Cisco could even try to stop him. Cisco backed down the steps behind Slade like a frightened kid as he heard footsteps approaching the door.

The door opened and a woman stood in the entryway. She looked a bit like Cisco but more feminine and more frail. She wore a blue floral dress. She was wiping her hands with a towel when she answered the door. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Are you Mrs. Ramon?" Slade asked as politely as possible while trying to maintain his composure. He made note that it wasn't the woman who attacked Cisco. It was the father.

"Yes, it's Sonya Ramon. Is there something you need?" The woman frowned at him strangely as if wondering what a man like him would be doing standing at the house. Of course, her face paled when she saw Cisco standing behind Slade.

"Hey, mom," Cisco said.

"I would like to speak with your husband," Slade explained, "Is he home?"

"N-no," Mrs. Ramon stuttered. "He left for work early. He's an accountant —."

"Sonya!" A man's voice could be heard from inside the house. Slade already knew Cisco's mother was lying by the look on her face. "Who's at the door!?"

Slade watched Sonya's eyes widen and her face grow even paler. She looked at Slade pleadingly and quietly begged him to leave. "There's no one at the door!" she called over her shoulder.

Of course, Slade didn't listen to Mrs. Ramon. He wasn't leaving until he had a word with her husband. "Mr. Ramon!" Slade called out. "My name is Slade Wilson and I would like to have a word with you!"

There was a minute of silence and then footsteps approaching. A man stood behind Mrs. Ramon. He was almost as tall as Slade but scrawnier than Oliver and was wearing a cheap suit that made him look like a professional but Slade could tell that he was just another amateur in a suit. He didn't look like Cisco's father. No. He looked like an asshole.

"Can I help you?" the man asked.

"Mr. Ramon, my name is Slade Wilson," Slade introduced himself like a gentleman with an outstretched hand. Mr. Ramon took it and gave it a firm shake. Cisco was afraid Slade would rip his father's arm off.

"It's Luis Ramon," the man said, "And who are you?"

"Mr. Ramon, my name is Slade Wilson," Slade repeated, "I'm a friend of your son's."

"What did my son do this time?" Mr. Ramon asked almost in a growling tone.

Slade arched his brow at the man. "Interesting. I was going to ask you the same thing. What did Cisco do? What did he do to make so angry?"

Mr. Ramon nearly gulped before looking at Cisco who was still standing three feet behind Slade and trying to hide his bruised arm behind his back. Mr. Ramon looked back at Slade and snapped at him. "Look, whatever Cisco told you, he's lying."

"All evidence to the contrary," Slade said, his tone getting dark. "You see, when I saw Cisco like this, I was very upset. And yet he still tried to hide it from me, assuring me that everything was all right. And I have to say, nothing is all right."

"Slade, please, just leave it," Cisco insisted like he did before so many times, "Let's just go."

"We're just getting things cleared up, Cisco," Slade said, "Nothing more."

"Cisco," Mr. Ramon grumbled, "Get in the house."

Cisco went pale and took a few steps back. "No."

"Cisco, I said get in the house," Mr. Ramon insisted more threateningly.

"Cisco, please, do as your father tells you," his mother pleaded fearfully.

"I said no!" Cisco snapped.

That's when Mr. Ramon marched down the stairs, brushing past Slade, and grabbed Cisco tightly by the arm. "I said get in the house you —."

Mr. Ramon was grabbed by the arm and was slammed against the porch railing by Slade. Mrs. Ramon screamed in horror while Mr. Ramon cried out in pain. "What the fuck is wrong with —!?" Slade proceeded to grab Mr. Ramon by the neck and give it a tight squeeze, choking the words out of him.

"You listen to me, you son of bitch!" Slade roared ferociously at Mr. Ramon, "Don't you ever touch him again!"

"Slade, stop!" Cisco shouted.

"Slade!" Slade heard Felicity yell. He looked over his shoulder to see her jumping out of a moving car with Dr. Caitlin Snow in the driver's seat. She nearly fell to the ground when jumping out of the car but regained her balance immediately. "Slade, stop! Don't kill him!"

Caitlin quickly parked her car on the sidewalk and bolted out of it to join them. "Felicity, are you crazy!? You can't just jump out of a moving car like that!"

"Dr. Snow, take Felicity and Cisco back to S.T.A.R. Labs now," Slade commanded. He wanted to deal with Luis Ramon himself but didn't want either Felicity or Cisco to see it.

"Slade, stop!" Felicity ordered sharply, "Don't do anything you'll regret later."

"This is none of your business, Felicity," Slade growled while returning his attention to that man that hurt Cisco, "Go back to the Labs with Cisco and Dr. Snow."

"Slade," Felicity carefully step forward, knowing that Slade would subdue her if she tried to stop him from hurting Cisco's father. "Please, don't hurt him. I know why you're doing this," she tried reasoning with him, "You suffered child abuse from your father and you don't want Cisco to go through the same thing but that doesn't mean that you have to kill Mr. Ramon or beat him to a coma for it. Caitlin called the police and told Detective Joe West. She explained everything and the police are one their way over to arrest Mr. Ramon. You don't have to do this."

"It's not enough," Slade hissed, "He needs to be punished."

Felicity shook her head. "Not like this. Let him go and let the police take care of him."

"Why should I?" Slade growled once more.

"…Because you're scaring Cisco."

Slade turned his attention to Cisco. The boy's face was drained from colour and his eyes were teary. Slade's anger slowly began to cool down. He knew that Felicity was right. His fury towards the man was frightening Cisco. He knew that it wasn't worth beating the living crap out of Mr. Ramon if it meant losing Cisco's trust and confidence he already had with him.

Slade let go and Mr. Ramon gasped for air. Slade pointed a finger at the man and growled. "You're lucky your son is here, Mr. Ramon or you wouldn't be alive right now. The police will arrest you which is less bad to what I can do you right now. But get this straight, if you ever lay a hand on him again, if I see a mark on him, I will find you and kill you myself. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the man responded in a squeaky voice.

"Good," Slade smirked and walked away from the man before he could even think about doing anything else to him. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Ramon and I suggest you and your wife get a divorce. You're not a man of husbandry or fit to raising kids."

The police arrived and they arrested Luis Ramon. He would be facing charges of child abuse and domestic violence as he also beat Cisco's mom as well, something Slade didn't know until the arrest. Detective Joe West and Detective Eddie Thawne took pictures of the bruises on Cisco's arm and the ones on his upper back for evidence. Cisco was lucky there were no interrogations. It was a simple arrest since Joe West already knew Cisco and the family problems he was having. It was only a matter of time until someone made the report.

Slade went back to the van and Cisco followed. Felicity and Caitlin went back to their car and they all drove back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

Slade was now training in the salmon ladder. The salmon ladder proved to be a real stress reliever for him. He had used it more than a thousand times during his time on Lian Yu since didn't have anything else to do. There were no TVs in Lian Yu and there was nothing on the radio besides static. Of course, static gave him more entertainment than silence.

He heard a loud flirtatious whistle and looked down to see Felicity standing below. She was wearing a beautiful long-skirted red V-neck peplum dress with her blond curls cascading down her shoulders, no glasses and her lips in the colour that matched her dress. She looked beautiful as always. "How's it going there handsome?" she asked while looking at a shirtless Slade. "You've been there for a while."

"Cisco hasn't spoken to me since we returned to the Labs," Slade said as he jumped down from the salmon ladder and landed on his feet, "He's been working on your collar for an hour or two. I think I made him angry."

Felicity placed her hand on his arm. "You did the right thing, Slade," she said reassuringly, "Not the part of almost killing him. I meant the part of not killing him. Caitlin just informed me that Luis Ramon is going to be facing charges for child abuse and domestic violent. 10 years without parole or trial. Plus there was a restraining order placed so he can't be anywhere 40 feet near Cisco or his family. I think we made a good deal out of it."

"He's still angry with me," he said glumly.

"He's not mad at you, Slade," she said with the shake of her head, "He's just in shock. He'll come around soon. Don't worry."

"You should have studied psychology," Slade complimented with a chuckle. "What you did back there, using my past against me. It was a great tactic."

"It wasn't a tactic, Slade," Felicity said, "It was the truth."

"Well, it worked," Slade smiled.

"You know I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't necessary," she said. Slade walked over to her and kissed her head.

"I know," he said, "What are you dressed for?"

"Well, you did just ask me out on a date before the whole helluva with Cisco started," she said.

Slade grumbled a few curses. He completely forgot about the whole date. "Sorry."

"You were pretty mad today so I don't blame you," she said. "You seem to care a lot about Cisco. I'm guessing it's because you can already relate to what he's going through."

Slade took a towel and began to dry himself off. "He's a good kid. He shouldn't go through something like that. 10 years, you say? I would have been more satisfied with at least 40 but I'm guessing that would have to do."

Felicity scrutinized her eyes at him. "40 seems excessive."

"My dear, death row is excessive. 40 is an act of mercy," Slade said as he slipped on his shirt. "I think we should cancel."

Felicity's eyes widened when he said that. "Are you kidding me? But you just said...So I got dressed up for nothing."

Slade chuckled in amusement. Oh how he loved making her angry. "It was a joke, love."

"That wasn't funny," she pouted.

Slade chuckled again. "I'm going to take a shower first. I shall return."

Cisco remained working on the collar he was making for Felicity, connecting wiring and fixing a few bugs here and there. He had to use a magnifying glass to get a closer look since the wiring in the device were tiny and had to use a tweezer to connect the wires. The collar would help Felicity control the volume and frequency of her canary cry. It was like making a remote control for a radio.

Cisco had his arm bandaged to keep people from staring at the bruises. He found it annoying. He looked at the case where the sword he made for Slade still laid. Cisco still couldn't believe Slade had the nerve to confront his dad that way, even threatening to kill him if he laid a hand on Cisco again. When returning to S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco remained locked up in his laboratory where he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment, not even with Slade. Many would say that Cisco was angry with Slade for nearly killing his dad but Cisco was actually confused, not angry. Why would he do that? Why would Slade care about his problems with his family? He understood that he probably came a dysfunctional family such as his own but Cisco didn't expect for Slade to do something like that. He didn't think Slade would care that much.

Once he got the wires twisted together, he needed to make sure they stick. He turned to his left to reach for a jar of putty, only to squeal like a frightened girl at the sight of Rachel standing right next to him. How the hell did she get in here? "Holy Mother of God," he gasped while placing his hand on his chest; his heart felt like it was about to burst.

Rachel was in his lab which surprised him because he made sure the door was locked. "How did you get in here? How. Did. You. Get. In. Here?"

"I just, got in," she said meekly. Cisco noticed her holding a half-finished drawing in one hand and a box of crayons in the other. "Sorry I scared you."

Cisco took a deep breath to calm himself down. Rachel was just a kid. He knew better than to be scared of a little kid. Of course, there was that Robin kid who looked like he could be the next Hannibal Lecter so technically he should be afraid. But he didn't feel like he should be scared of Rachel. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm bored," she said, "Felicity and Slade are going out, and everyone is too busy to play with me."

"Well, I'm a bit busy too. I'm making the collar for your mom," he told her, "What about the Oompa Loompa kid?" He was referring to the Robin kid Dick brought to S.T.A.R. Labs. "Why not play with him?"

"He's busy too. And he's mean," she said.

Cisco nodded in agreement. The kid was meaner than a jar of horse piss. He never understood that phrase. "Maybe I could use the break. I'm starting to see double." Rachel smiled and nearly hopped in contentment. "So, what do you got there?" Cisco asked, pointing at the drawing in Rachel's hand.

Rachel gave him the drawing. Cisco turned on the lights to get a better look at the drawing. There were a lot of people he recognized in the drawing even if they were all stick figures. There was Felicity in her ponytail and glasses. Then was Slade who looked a bit like a skinny pirate. Oliver in his green hood but with a yellow mustache instead of the goatee he had. Barry in his red Flash suit. He looks really gay in this pic and not the good kind of gay, Cisco thought. Caitlin in her lab coat and scribbles on her head which Cisco imagined to be her brown curly hair. Then there was Dick in the Nightwing suit. Dr. Wells in the wheelchair, which looked a bit distorted. Then John Diggle which Cisco immediately recognized because of the brown crayon. Okay, that sounded racist. Then there was another stick figure that Cisco didn't recognize. A girl with short black hair and a brown jacket.

"Who's this one?" Cisco asked while pointing at the figure.

Rachel simply giggled. "That's you."

His eyes widened. "That's me?" Rachel nodded. "Are you sure that's me? I look like a girl."

"You do look like a girl. You screamed like a girl too," she giggled.

Cisco chuckled. "Is it the hair?" He flipped his hair around. "Because if it's the hair then you're jealous because my hair is fabulous. I think even Barry is jealous of it...Let me show you something." Cisco got up from the rolling chair and went over to archive where he kept opening and slamming shut cabinet doors and rummaging through things until he finally found what he was looking for.

He took out a orange machine from the archives and returned to his seat. "This is called a Speak & Spell. Have you heard of it?"

Rachel frowned and shook her head.

"Of course you never heard of it. You weren't even born at that time," he said and showed her the device. "This was one of the first computers that existed in the 1980's. Well, that and the Wang processors in the 1970's. Want to see how it works?"

Rachel nodded. Cisco began to show how the Speak & Spell machine worked. It instructed you to spell a word it gave you or use it however you wanted. "Let me spell your name." Cisco pressed the keyboards. It made a few beeps and a robotic voice spoke through the device. R...A...C...H...E...L...RACHEL.

Rachel laughed excitedly at how fun the device looked. Cisco gave her the device to play with. "You can have it if you want," Cisco smiled, "I don't use it anymore."

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, I just don't need it anymore," he said with a shrug of his shoulder. "It helped me talk but since I can talk, I don't see why I need it anymore."

"..Didn't you talk when you were little?" Rachel asked meekly, staring at Cisco curiously.

There was a moment of silence until Cisco let out a loud sigh and shook his head. "No, I didn't. In fact, I didn't start talking until I was at least eight years old."

"Why?" she asked again.

"Well, Rachel, until some other kids, I was born different. I grew up different," he explained as much as possible without using big words to confuse her, "I have these habits, these things I do. I was very picky with whom I interacted. I was very repetitive and organized with things. I still am but a little less than I used to. And I was always obsessed with a certain topic for example, I'm obsessed with making the toys for the superheroes and giving them the cool names. I didn't make much eye contact with other people which made me look like a weirdo and it didn't help me make friends back then. I'm still struggling to get a girlfriend."

Rachel frowned at him in confusion.

"The thing is," he continued explained, "I have this thing called autism. Is it a disease? No. Is it a condition? Some people say that but I don't think it's a condition or a syndrome. I'm simply born with it and I still don't know how it works either."

"Were you scared?" she asked. Rachel was six years old. She wouldn't understand what autism is until she was at least twelve and probably still wouldn't understand.

"Not really," he said, "A lot people tried to help, thinking there was a cure. They always thought it was a disease. But it's not. And there's no cure for autism. I just learned to embrace who I am. I learned to simply be myself, do what I love most and not care what anyone says about me. Simple as that."

Rachel looked down at the device in her hands and let out a deep sigh. She had a glum look on her face as if she had something to say but didn't want to say anything, Cisco could tell by the look on her face.

"You okay?" he asked.

Rachel closed her eyes and removed her hands from the Speak & Spell device, letting it rest on her lap. Moments later, the Speak & Spell device turned on by itself and began to spell on its own. C...I...S...C...O...CISCO.

Cisco's eyes widened when he saw the device spell his name without him or Rachel touching the keyboards. Cisco looked at her in shock. Rachel opened her eyes and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"H-How? How did you do that?" he stuttered out the question. Rachel answered by shrugging her shoulders.

"I was born with it," she answered.

"You were born with it? Are you sure you didn't get affected by the particle accelerator?" he asked. She frowned at him. Of course she doesn't know what a particle accelerator. "You know what? Scratch that. Forget I said. So you were born with them? What else can you do?"

The Speak & Spell then began to slowly float from her lap. "I can make things move without touching them. And I can read minds."

"You're not reading my mind right now, right?" he asked. Rachel shook her head and Cisco sighed of relief. "Good. You don't want to know what's in there." The device slowly floated back down but into Cisco's hands. "This is incredible. It's just...awesome." Rachel smiled at him and he smiled back. "Is there anything else you want to show or is this it for Show n' Tell?"

Rachel shook her head and took his hand in hers. She tugged at his hand, urging him to follow her. Cisco got up and followed Rachel towards the door where they phased through it like ghosts. Cisco paled a little bit but was still amazed by Rachel's ability.

"You don't mind if I run a few tests, right?" He asked.

"Will it hurt?" She asked in return.

"Nah, don't worry about that," he said, taking her by the hand and they both headed for the training room.

Felicity and Slade were having dinner at an Italian restaurant Caitlin said that had the best service in Central City. It was nice for them so far. The waiters were nice and they got a table near a balcony with the best view of the city and yellow Christmas lights above them. It wasn't even December. Felicity giggled when she saw the lights. It must have been part of the decoration. Caitlin hit the nail on the head when she said that it was one of the best restaurants in the city. A waitress with the name on her tag Holly Robinson attended them both and they ordered fettuccine pasta with chicken and alfredo sauce with a side of Caesar salad. So far the food was good.

"It's been awhile since I've had Italian pasta," Felicity said as she twirled the fork in the pasta, getting them tangled on the fork before scooping it up from her plate and eating it. She hummed.

Slade smiled and placed his hand on hers. "I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Felicity swallowed before speaking. "Aren't you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," he said, "You look beautiful, more than you ever were. And I like to see you happy."

"Being with you makes me happy," she smiled. "I didn't think we would ever get an opportunity like this and yet, here we are. Together. Eating pasta in a nice restaurant."

"And drinking wine," he said with a chuckle. There was a bottle of red wine next to them and the glasses were full. Slade cupped her cheek softly. "You are an extraordinary woman, Felicity. I didn't think I'd ever be happy again."

"Aww, don't make me cry, Slade," she sniffled as she tried to hold back tears, and laughed. "You're going to make me ruin my mascara."

For once in their life, they didn't talk about their troubled past. They didn't talk about Colton, Cisco, Oliver, Shado, Lian Yu, Mirakuru or Rachel or anything else. They simply talked about themselves for the entire dinner, telling each other what they like and what they didn't like. Felicity told Slade how she used to sneak chocolate milk into her Kellogg's cereal because she didn't like how the cereal tasted. "The entire cereal tasted like cardboard. I swear, I think it was out of date." And Slade went on telling her how he once got attacked by pelican when he was fourteen. "I kept running and the bloody thing just kept chasing after me," he said and Felicity laughed.

"How did you get out of that?" she asked.

"I didn't. I threw rocks at it and got arrested by the police for it," he said.

"Why would they arrest you if you were the one getting attacked?" she asked.

"They said I was disturbing the wildlife," he chuckled.

"That's crap," she said.

"Believe me, love, I said the same thing," he continued, "They got me in the car and they drove back to the police station. Do you know the most maddening part of all? The bloody bird was chasing the police car I was in." Felicity cracked laughing. She already had the mental image of a fourteen-year-old Slade getting chased by a pelican. "The police then asked me what I did to make the pelican angry and I simply shrugged and said I don't know. That bird finally stopped chasing when it realized it was already far from the beach and flew back to where it belonged. I think that bird held a personal grudge against me. God help me if that damn thing is still alive."

The spent most of the two hours talking after eating their dinner. They waitress returned to pick up the empty plates and Slade asked if they could have another bottle of wine to go and they declined when the waitress asked if they wanted dessert. "No thank you," they said and the waitress returned to the kitchen.

Felicity held Slade's hand and smiled softly at him. "I have something for you." Slade's eye narrowed when she said that. "I wasn't so sure of giving it to you tonight because I didn't to ruin our date tonight but I thought that it was important," she said, her smile slowly disappearing.

Slade remained silent and stared attentively at her she reached into her purse and pulled out a small yellow envelope. She placed the envelope on the tabled and slid it towards him. Frowning in suspicion, Slade took the envelope in his hands and practically tore the seal open. Inside the envelope, there were three plane tickets with each of them having the same destination. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

He looked back at Felicity with a frown. "What's this?"

"...I..." she stuttered and sighed as she tried to find her words. "I was thinking that since...your ex-wife and son are, you know...I was thinking that after all the whole thing with Colton blows over, maybe you, me and Rachel could go to Australia and visit their graves. So you can see them." Her voice fell meek when she noticed that Slade was still frowning at her. "I know. I ruined the mood tonight. I'm sorry I even brought it up."

"Why would you do something like this for me, Felicity?" he asked while putting the envelope down on the table. Felicity took the envelope back and put it back in the purse.

"Because you need it. And because I love you," she said meekly.

His frown softened when she said it. She said she loved him.

Slade stood up from the chair, walked around the table and pulled Felicity up from her chair before pressing his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. "I love you," he whispered in return and continued kissing her.

After paying for dinner, they went to the nearest hotel room. There they rented a room for the night where stripped off their clothing and made love, with Slade holding her down on the bed and thrusting into her. Felicity pressed her head back against the mattress and let out small gasps and moans. They were desperate in being in bed with each other, especially after the interruption at the Clock Tower when Diggle walked in on them. Now they could have sex as much as they wanted for the night and they weren't ashamed if anyone could hear them next-door.

"What's this?" Rachel asked as she kept poking at helmet with wires on her head. She was standing in the middle of the training room on the combat floor. Cisco stood behind the controls and told her not to poke the helmet.

"That helmet," he explained, "has sensors in it that detects activity from body and mind. To put it simple, it's going to tell me how much energy you use when activating your powers."

"Will it hurt?" she asked nervously.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt," he assured her. "Think of it as X-rays when going to the doctors. I already tested it on Barry and it works great."

"Okay," she nodded in agreement.

Cisco pressed a few buttons on the control panel until the helmet on Rachel's head began to glow a light blue hue. Cisco thought she looked like Professor X using Cerebro from the X-Men comics.

"Okay, Rachel, let a rip."

Rachel nodded and slowly raising her hands up in the air and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes, they were black as marble and the lights around them flickered on and off rapid and repeatedly, making loud buzzing sounds.

Cisco nearly jumped at the sudden noise. Nevertheless, he continued watching the meter as the little needle rose up from the green bar to the yellow bar. "Holy shit," he laughed while watching this in amazement. Some of the equipment in the training room were now hovering in the air and spin. "This is so cool."

He saw the needle rose a little higher and he frowned at the meter. "Okay, Rachel, you can stop now."

He looked at Rachel and noticed that she was shaking but she wasn't stopping. The lights flickered frantically, the equipment slammed into the walls, creating cracks and holes, and the windows were breaking. Cisco quickly ran to her, crouched in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. Dark veins sprouted outside of her black eyes and blood trickled down her nostrils to her lips.

"Rachel? Rachel, stop!" Cisco took off the helmet from her head and shook her, trying to her to snap out of it. The control panel exploded, the 10-inch windows shattered into pieces and the lights above sparked.

Rachel coughed up blood before collapsing on the floor. Cisco panicked. "Rachel!" he shouted. He picked her in his arms and shook in a failed attempt to wake her up. She didn't look like she was breathing. Cisco called for help. "Caitlin! Dick! Dr. Wells! Help! Please!"

When his hands made contact with her cold cheek, Cisco instantly saw dead birds around them. Dead ravens. There was also fire. Screaming. Blood. Darkness. Four glowing eyes. Horns. Cloak. Deformed creatures. It was a horrible scene to watch. It looked like something out of a horror film and Cisco wanted to get out of there. Luckily, Caitlin and Dick entered as quickly as possible and took Rachel from his arms and the visions immediately disappeared. What was that?

Felicity and Slade laid intertwined on the bed after making love. Slade had his arm around her shoulders and Felicity was resting her head against his chest with a smile displayed on her face.

She sighed. "We might not do this every night, especially if I'm a mother now."

Slade chuckled at her words. "We'll get our chances every now and then."

"Like right now?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Indeed. We still have a few hours left before we return to S.T.A.R Labs," he said with a mischievous smirk, "We should make most of the time."

Felicity smirked back. It was surprising. Slade never saw her smirk before and it made her look a bit evil.

She climbed on top of Slade, his member burying itself inside her and he groaned in satisfaction. Felicity cradled her lower regions back and forth on him, moaning and hissing in pleasure. Slade's hand slowly crept up her stomach to cup her breast softly.

Felicity coughed.

Slade frowned at her in concern. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she panted but continued to cough and cough and cough. Blood began to spew out of her mouth as she continued to cough.

"Felicity?"

Felicity dropped on the bed limp and lifeless, her blue eyes staring up at the ceiling. Slade bellowed out in horror and tried to wake Felicity up without success. She was dead. There was a dagger jammed into her stomach and he looked at his hands to see blood on them.

"You killed her." Slade looked up to see Shado standing in front of him, her face grey and bony and blood pouring out of her eyes. "You killed her. Just like you killed your son." Next to Shado, there was a little boy with brown hair and skin covered in blood and a slit on his throat and looked a lot like Slade at a younger age. Joey.

"No!" Slade yelled, sitting up from his bed and no longer seeing Shado or Joey. Nor could he see Felicity.

He heard a moaning sound and saw Felicity getting up from the floor, still alive and no blood or dagger to be seen. She looked unharm. It was just a nightmare.

"Slade, please give a warning next time you're going to scream bloody murder so I won't have to fall on my face from the bed," she said as she returned to the bed and frowned at him. He looked like he saw a ghost. She held his arm. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly. "Bad dream?"

Slade shook his head. "Nightmare."

"It's the same thing yet you say it as if it were something different in your head," she said. She then realized something. "We forgot the Hypnocil. Colton must have been trying to scare you away from me."

"It almost worked." Slade brought Felicity in a tight embrace. "I thought I killed you."

"In the dream, or throwing me off the bed when you woke up screaming," she chuckled. Slade looked at her seriously. Her amusement faded. "Slade, if you really wanted to hurt me, you would have done it right now or before then. And yet here we are. You would never hurt me."

"You don't know that, love."

"Yes, I do," she said more determined.

She gently pushed Slade down and straddled him, gasping as his member penetrated her once more. Slade simply looked at her, remembering how exactly the nightmare started with Felicity riding him and then coughing up blood. He didn't want it to happen again. He attempted to get her off him but as she began to ride him slowly like she did before, he couldn't help but let out a moan. His hands grasped her hips tightly to bring her down into his thrusts more harshly. Felicity gasped and cried out, her hands holding on to his shoulders for dear life as Slade continued to control her pace.

Felicity brushed her hair back from her face as leaned down to brush her lips against his, teasing him. Growling, Slade sat up, pressing her body closer to him and practically devouring her mouth with deep kisses as he continued to bring down into his thrusts more forcefully. She wrapped her legs around his waist and cried out. Departing from her kiss, he buried his face into her chest to kiss her breast again as he climaxed, listening to her gasp as she already reached her peak. It only took a few more minutes before he finally came with a growl, his face still pressed against her chest.

Felicity panted in exhaustion and laid her head on his shoulder, her legs feeling numb around his waist and her hands sliding to his back. Never did she felt this intense in her life. And neither did Slade. He kissed her breast once more before resting his head on her shoulder and nuzzled his face into her neck.

"Feeling better now?" she asked tiredly.

"Much better," he chuckled. "We don't get to do this every night."

"No, but maybe during the holidays like Valentine's Day, Christmas, New Years, Chinese New Year, Halloween, and every Saturday night," she said with a smile. He chuckled and kissed her head.

The cellphone rang. It depended on who's cellphone it was though. "I think that's mine."

Slade frowned. "Actually, I think it's both of our phones, love."

Both of them got out of bed immediately. Felicity's phone was in her purse on the nightstand while Slade's phone was in his coat on the floor. When Felicity answered the phone first, Slade's phone stopped ringing.

"Hello?" she asked, "Caitlin?...Caitlin, I can't understand...Slow down..." Slade saw her eyes go wide. "She what?...Oh my God. We'll be right there."

They returned to S.T.A.R. Labs 20 minutes later after receiving the call from Caitlin Snow of Rachel having a collapse in the training room. She was in the infirmary, resting and connected to a respiratory system. Felicity was relieved to see Rachel's breath fogging the plastic mask on her face which meant that she was still alive despite her being pale as death. Oliver and Diggle had gone to find medicine for Rachel at the pharmacy and Barry was looking for Dr. Wells since he couldn't find him anywhere when Rachel collapsed. Caitlin informed them that Rachel nearly went into cardiac arrest and they were able to stabilize her. Slade went to find Cisco after Dick informed him that he sent him out of the infirmary since he was getting too emotional unstable to be near her.

Damian was listening to Rachel's heartbeat with a stethoscope and Felicity watched carefully.

"You know how to use that thing, Damian?" Felicity asked meekly as she sat down next to the medical bed and held Rachel's hand. She stared at him, surprised at his doctor skills.

"I've been attending stabbed assassins since I was 3," the boy said arrogantly, "I think I know what I'm doing."

"Wow... so you're both doctor and assassin? That's very useful," she said.

"You're uncomfortable around me, Miss Smoak? Is it because I'm an assassin or because I'm attending your daughter, per say," he said. He already knew that Rachel wasn't Felicity's actual daughter. It wasn't that difficult to figure out. There was no resemblance between her and Felicity.

"I'm just worried about her," she said while looking down an unconscious Rachel, "And yes, I'm a bit uncomfortable. You're only, what, ten years old and you already know how to fight, kill and heal people -?"

"Precisely in that order," he said.

"What about school? Your family? Friends? Birthdays? Christmas? Don't you get presents on Christmas or on your birthday?" she asked. Damian gave Felicity a wrinkled look. She didn't know whether he was confused or disgusted by the questions.

"Batman doesn't have much time for birthdays or Christmas. And according to your personal files, you're Jewish so you don't celebrate Christmas, you celebrate Hanukkah which strikes me odd that you would ask me if I receive presents on Christmas," he said as he removed the stethoscope from his ears. "I almost never leave the Batcave, not without Batman or Nightwing, of course. Being here is a breath of fresh air for me."

"I think I rather call him Bruce or Mr. Wayne because I'm still getting used to knowing that your warder and the owner of Wayne Enterprises is Batman," she suggested. Damian gave her the tiniest of smiles.

"Bruce Wayne is not my warder," he said, "He's my father." Felicity's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets when he said that. So Mr. Wayne lied about Damian being his ward? Holy shit. "I'm the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul. I trust you won't mention any of this to the press. It will be all over the media in a few hours."

"What were we talking about? Who's your father?" Damian frowned but realized she was joking when she smiled at him. "Why doesn't your father say anything about you being his son?"

"Father doesn't like to talk about it. Too scandalous for the press. It might even ruin his reputation if anyone finds out I am the son of the billionaire playboy and of an assassin. Do you know what that would do?" he asked rhetorically.

Felicity shrugged her shoulders as a response. "I don't know much about it. I've never been confronted by the press except on the night my mother died which was a very long tie ago. I can't even remember if there was a press outside my house. But there was my boyfriend Cooper who shot himself in front of me. Walking outside, reporters kept flashing their cameras at me and asking questions like what I said to him that made him shoot himself and blah blah blah."

"So you do know how it feels then? It's annoying. It's tedious. It's idiotic and it's none of their business," Damian hissed, "All those people do is scrutinize at you, watching your every move and for anything that you do wrong so they can criticize it through a TV screen and printed papers. You're either hated or pitied on. And there's nothing worse than person who takes pity on someone who doesn't need it or deserve it."

Felicity stared at Damian in shock. She never saw a kid like him use big words like or talk with such snarky and arrogant attitude. He looked like he carried a lot of weight on his shoulders over the past years and was getting sick of it. Felicity truly felt sorry for Damian. It was clear that he didn't have a childhood for being Robin. But as Damian said, he didn't want anyone to be sorry for him. For some reason, he found it stupid and unnecessary which was a sad thing for him to say.

Damian got up from his seat and was walking out of the infirmary. "You already know my sob story, Miss Smoak. Just try not turn it into one of those pity parties."

After he was gone, Dick entered the infirmary. He told Felicity that Slade went to check on Cisco who was still a bit hysterical about what happened to Rachel in the training room. "You should see how the training room looks. It's like a twister hit the place."

"And she did all that before collapsing?" she asked. She already knew that Rachel had powers. She didn't know at first but after what she saw when they were kidnapped by Ravager and Gul, she finally believed that Rachel was some of metahuman.

"I didn't really see anything but Cisco told me and judging by the damage done to the training room, I believe him," he said and leaned back against the doorway with arms crossed. "You know, I've been listening to you and Damian talking and I'm surprised that he actually had a conversation with someone."

"It felt more like a confrontation than an actual conversation," she said.

"Trust me. That's the first time I've ever seen him talking to someone without threatening to chop their head off," he chuckled. "A five minute of proper conversation. Last time I first spoke with him, it only lasted one minute with him saying that he wanted to stab me."

Oh lord, Felicity thought. So not only Damian is an assassin but he's also a stabber. That's new to me. Should I even be surprise?

"Does he always threaten to stab people?" she asked.

"Yes," he blurted, "Lots of times. My friend Jason. My friend Tim. Another friend named Stephanie. He's always saying that he wants to stab her so that's not surprising if he says it to her frequently. Between you and me, I think he might have a crush on her."

"Well, at least he gets crushes, so I think that's a start," Felicity said with the shrug of her shoulders. God help Mr. Wayne when Damian hits puberty. She then noticed Dick eyeing at Rachel every now and then. He had been eyeing Rachel a lot recently, as if he had seen her before. "Why do I have the feeling you already met Rachel before I did? You keep looking at her," she said quietly, "Unless you're a perv or something?"

Dick scratched his nose. "Yeah, well, I was the one who found her. The Bats and I actually. We found her, next to her mother's body. And we took her to the orphanage near Starling City. She wasn't supposed to be put in adoption until her mother's death was investigated which surprises me how you ended up with her in the first place. You were the substitute mother, right? And then suddenly got full custody and you're now her foster mom? How did that work?"

"Rachel bit a boy and the headmistress was going to kick her out of the orphanage," Felicity confessed, "And since she couldn't do it legally, she made me sign papers that would give me the full custody. And here we are."

"You do realize I'm going to have to tell Bats about this, right?" he stated.

Upon hearing this, Felicity quickly stood up and walked over to Dick. "Please don't tell him," she begged. "He'll take her away."

"If this happens again, I don't have a choice," Dick said, "What happened there was dangerous. She could have gotten herself killed. Or worse, she could have killed Cisco and destroyed S.T.A.R. Labs with everyone in it. If Rachel can do all that dangerous, there's no telling what else she is capable of?"

"She needs me -."

"Not as much as you need her," he said firmly. Felicity went silent. He better not insult me or say anything mean. "Why did you take the job to be a substitute mother? Was it really to earn the extra cash or was it because you got tired of being lonely?"

Felicity brought her hand up in attempt to hit him across the face but held back, curling her hand into a fist and bringing it back down to her side. "Weeks before I decided to take the job, I went to my gynecologist where the doctor told me that my uterus has a few issues and those issues keep me from having kids. There's only 30% chance that I can get pregnant and that chance is very low."

Dick gave her a pitiful expression. He didn't know. He didn't read anything in her medical records about her being potentially infertile. "Does Slade know?" he asked.

"No. And I don't know how he'll take it if I tell him, but I know I'll have to tell him before it's too late," she said, "It's the only thing I've kept in secret from everyone, including Sara Lance and Oliver. I didn't want to die without knowing what being a mother is like and I don't regret my decision. Being a mother to Rachel Roth was the best thing that ever happened to me. And if my father kills me, I'll be happy to die knowing that I did my best in being the mother I wanted to be and one that she needed."

"Despite all the things you've seen that she can do, you still have the balls -."

"Yes. Despite everything I've seen," she nodded, "She's my kid and I love her. Please, Nightwing, don't tell Mr. Wayne about this."

Dick knew that he wasn't as cold as Batman to take away the kid from Felicity. He tried. He tried very hard to be as cold as Batman during his years as Robin but he couldn't. Batman's coldness was sometimes too cruel and he didn't want to be the way Batman was. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I won't call him. But, he'll always find out. So I can't guarantee you that he won't know."

Felicity bit her lower lip and nodded in agreement.

"Mama?"

Felicity turned around to see Rachel waking up and taking off the respiratory mask. She smiled and ran to the bed to embrace her. "I'm so glad you're okay. Don't scare me like that."

"I love you too, Mama," she said.

"You heard?"

Rachel smiled sweetly. "Every word." She even smiled at Dick. "Thank you for finding me."

"You're going to make me cry, kid," Dick said while wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He noticed Damian behind the turn of the hallway and immediately disappeared running.

"Where's Cisco?" Rachel asked tiredly, "Can I see Cisco?"

Slade walked into the training room. It was a complete mess. The windows shattered. The control panel destroyed. And a few lights still flickering. Slade heard angry grunts and he spotted Cisco hitting a punching bag. He smirked. So the kid can hit?

"No matter how much you try, kid, the punching bag is not going to fight back or scream," he said.

Cisco turned to face Slade. He was red in the face. Slade didn't know whether Cisco was angry or was crying. He ignored him and continued punching the bag with more force now. Slade continued watching him. Cisco wasn't wearing gloves which could damage his knuckles and his punching positions was wrong. His punches were weak. Slade knew that if he continued punching that way in the future, he wasn't going anywhere. Of course, Cisco wasn't doing it for training, he was doing it to get his anger out or whatever emotion he was feeling at the moment.

Slade walked closer and crossed his arms. "Mr. Grayson told me what happened with Rachel -."

Cisco let out a yell as he threw another punch at the bag, only for him to curse and rub his wrist while trying to not to cry out in pain. That must have hurt.

"Let me have a look at that," Slade said as he tried to hold Cisco's wrist but Cisco pushed him back harshly.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Doubt it," Slade said gruffly, "Another punch like that and you might break your wrist. Your punching technique is all wrong and your position is incorrect."

"Why don't you teach me how to punch properly, huh!?" Cisco snapped angrily, "You're already good at it!"

"Is this about me almost beating your father for what he did to you?" he asked.

"No, it's not. Maybe. I didn't want your help or anyone's. I was fine."

"Indeed," Slade said sarcastically, "You were fine covered in bruises and your father about to beat you again when he saw that I found out. He didn't even care that he was going to hit you right in front of me, kid."

"Shut up about my dad, okay!?" Cisco yelled angrily, his voice bouncing off the walls. Slade fell silent, staring at Cisco in shock. "I...I could have killed her."

Slade knew that he was talking about Rachel. "You didn't do anything wrong, Cisco."

"Yes I did! If I had known that something like that can happen to her, I wouldn't have encouraged her to do a test run. If I had just left it alone..." Cisco gave the punching bag a kick but fell on the floor.

"It's called a punching bag, not a kicking bag," Slade grunted as he pulled Cisco back on his feet.

Tears began to run down Cisco's cheeks and he tried to hide them from Slade by wiping them away. But as more streamed down he knew he couldn't hide them. He dropped on his knees and quietly sobbed.

"It's my fault," he cried. Slade crouched down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I nearly killed her with the test run. I shouldn't have done that to her."

"You didn't know what could happen, Cisco," Slade said, "The machines didn't hurt her. She simply lost control of herself. You recently found out she's a metahuman. So do we. We don't know how far she can go and I don't think she knows either. So it's not your fault."

"Yeah right. It's like not blaming me for causing the particle accelerator to explode," Cisco said, "I was the one who helped build it. I should have seen the errors. People wouldn't be dead and the rest wouldn't be metas."

"Cisco, you are also a meta so you're not the only one who's been affected," Slade reminded him. Of course, Felicity didn't turn into a metahuman by the particle accelerator and as for Rachel, Slade didn't know where she came from anyways so he wouldn't know where her powers came from.

"Dad always thought I was going to be a disaster in the future, maybe he's right and I deserve every beating he gave me," he said.

"I'm guessing the chaos caused by the particle accelerator wasn't the only time he beat you, was it?" Slade asked. Cisco shook his head.

"Dad didn't like the idea of me being autistic," he said, "He always thought I would shame him and the rest of our family so he thought the best cure was to beat it out of me. He would hit me every time I had a meltdown or did something that was weird to him. He also use to hit Dante too. He got Dante to like music by force. I was the only one who had the fucking balls to get out of the house and do my own thing without getting beaten for it, you know?"

"I know." Slade did something he thought he would never do. He hugged Cisco, putting his arm around the boy's shoulder and letting Cisco put his arms around his waist. "None of this is your fault, Cisco. You're a good kid. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Hugging Cisco felt like was like hugging his youngest son Joey. It wasn't an awkward brotherly hug he used to have with Oliver on Lian Yu. He was hugging Cisco because he liked him, he could relate to what he was going through and because he was already beginning to see Cisco as a son.

"Stop kicking yourself in the ass for something you no control of," Slade said as he released him.

"Do you think you can teach me how to punch?" Cisco asked shyly, immediately changing the subject. Slade chuckled.

"I can teach you more than that if you promise to do everything I saw and not break every bone in your body," Slade agreed.

"Wouldn't you already be doing that?" He asked. Slade let out a deep laugh. Cisco gave him a small smile and wiped away the rest of his tears.

"Cisco." Felicity entered the training room and gasped when she saw the destruction inflicted upon. "Holy crap, Dick wasn't kidding when he said a twister hit the place."

"A twister?" Slade frowned.

"Long story," she said before redirecting her attention to Cisco. "Rachel wants to see you."

Cisco gulped nervously and looked at Slade warily. Slade nodded at him to go and Cisco followed Felicity to the infirmary where Rachel was waiting. When Rachel saw Cisco, she hugged him. "I'm fine, Cisco," she said and he hugged her in return.

Slade simply stood there, watching his new family grow. And smiled at Felicity, the one who gave the family.

So, how do you guys like this chapter? What do you think of the love scene between Felicity and Slade and Slade 's fatherly relationship with Cisco? Also, what do you think of the interaction between Cisco and Raven, and the interaction between Felicity and Damian and Nightwing? Or the revealing that she probably can't have her own children?

Let me know in the comments below.

The next chapter is coming up soon and it will stick to trying to find and stop Colton.

Thank you so much.