The gymnasium across the street was dark. A sign on the front announced it was closed for repairs. The windows were clear, the doors neither boarded nor barred. Just another building in the city that needed a little love and attention. Perched on the school roof, Oliver activated his mic.

"I'm in position, Tower. This is seriously the last place I would have checked. It's just so… normal."

"That's probably the point, Arrow. I'm working on the school security system, both buildings are connected. Stay put."

"Take your time."

He pictured her still comfortably curled on the loveseat on the terrace. So pretty is her jeans and bronze blouse it'd taken a serious effort on his part earlier not to drag her onto his lap and nibble at the soft column of her neck. Especially when she looked at him with those hooded, dreamy eyes… "Talked to me, Tower."

"The cameras of the gymnasium are deactivated."

"Good. I'm going in."

"Wait!" Oliver lowered his crossbow at once. "Some of the cameras inside the school are looped. Someone rerouted the video feed."

"Why would they do that?"

"They wouldn't. Unless they have something to hide."

"Can you overwrite them?"

She snorted, clearly insulted by the question. "Be careful, Arrow. Whoever did this might have put its own bugs in place."

"I'm always careful."

Oliver heard the roll of the eyes in her short puff of air. He lifted his bow again and shot the grapple in the concrete edge. When he reached the ground, the voice in his ear was shaking with laughter. "You do realize you could just have used the stairs, right?"

"And what would be the fun in that?" Forcing the lock on the door took him less than twenty seconds. "I'm in. Which way?"

"The room directly to your right should be room 1A."

"Spot on. Anything particular I should be looking for?"

Chloe hesitated. "I am not sure. I have never seen a drug lab before."

"Somehow, that's reassuring."

"Patronizing is not an endearing quality, Arrow."

"Duly noted. But I was thinking about signs the cameras have been tampered off or secret doors…"

He glanced inside the next classroom. Instead of standard school desks, that one housed a series of tiled counters and stool. Vivarium and aquarium were piled on the shelves along the back wall. The sketch on the black board still bore marks of an eagle-spread frog sketch. The next room was the same. "I think I found the biology labs."

"Arrow, a security guard is heading your way."

"Rodger that."

"Three minutes, Arrow. You don't have time to get out without being made. Take cover!"

Oliver tried one knob which resisted. The next door was equally locked. The third thankfully turned under his glove. He slipped into the dark room and pulled the door behind him. Another biology lab, except that one had so many windows on one side his silhouette was perfectly cut if anyone peered inside.

"Two minutes. He's turning the corner."

Oliver dove to the ground. The young man swore under his breath when he realized he should have locked the door behind him. He wasn't really looking toward shooting a tranquilizing arrow into a man who was just doing his job. He notched one into his bow anyhow, squeezed under the counter.

One minute passed. Chloe was silent, too, no doubt measuring the man's progress on her screens. "He's coming into the looped area, I won't be able to follow him unless I put it back on."

"Don't." The sensitive mic picked up strange noises, as if she was panting. He murmured, "I'll be fine, Chloe."

Another shudder echoed through the comms. His ear strained to listen to the world outside their little bubble, too. A squishing sound tipped him the guard was approaching. The rattle of a door nearby. More squeaking on the linoleum. Oliver forced himself to breathe normally. Maybe he'd get lucky, and the guy was not testing every single door on his way. If he did, and found one unlocked, he would probably open the door, peer inside from the doorway then used a skeleton key to rectify the situation.

"Arrow?"

He made the tiniest clucking noise he dared with his tongue to reassure her, not daring making a more recognizable sound. His muscle heated from the strain of keeping the arrow in place. He'd need to increase his resistance training if he was getting tired after merely a minute.

The knob turned. Oliver counted heartbeats in his head, looking for the quiet between them, while he squinted at the shadow peeking between counters to his left. He lost all sense of time or space. All he could hear was his own breathing, so loud in his ears it covered the crackles from the security guard's two-way.

The shadow to his left became more defined. It grew, threatening. Oliver pulled on the string of his bow. The calf would do. They were so close he risked to seriously injure the man if he aimed anywhere close to an artery.

The siren blast jarred him so bad he almost released the arrow.

"Cono. Camillo que pasa!"

The guard ran out of the classroom, shooting insults in Spanish. Oliver slumped against the dark.

"Get out Arrow, they won't be long to realize it's a false alarm!" Chloe had saved his sorry ass, one more time. "I've got both men on visual now. You're good to go."

"On my way."

Oliver scrambled to his feet and rushed down the corridor toward the closest emergency exit. The alarm was already blaring, the time for stealth was over. He ran along the building, head low to stick to the shadows as much as possible until he reached the alley where he'd left his bike.

He leaned on a wall for a minute, catching his breath.

"Arrow?"

"Safe and sound, Tower. Thanks to you."

"I didn't know what else to do… I should have noticed—"

"Well, my solution was worse, so don't worry about it."

Chloe's quick thinking had pulled him out of a very nasty situation. This near-fiasco taught him two things. One, no rushing head-cocked without planning. They should have checked out the school before he got there, not after he'd hit the ground running. And two, guards patrolling an empty school in a relatively secured neighborhood on Thanksgiving meant they'd found the right place.

"I'm heading back. Arrow out."

Oliver stepped inside the living room to find Chloe at the now cleaned dining table, still poring over her laptop with a strange look on her face. She looked a little pale too, more than usual.

"You're going to curl the cream in your coffee if you keep scowling like that, Sidekick."

"Oliver!"

She flung herself at him so hard he had to step back to steady them both.

"Well, hello to you too."

"Sorry." Chloe shied away just as fast as she'd hugged him.

"It's okay to miss me. I've been gone for a full two hours after all," he teased.

"Not funny. You were nearly trapped in there."

"It's a little funny. Too bad you couldn't burn that place to the ground for real. What they do to frogs, it's scary…"

He wrapped one arm around her shoulder to guide her back to the table. "That's my new BFF?"

The photo of a male Caucasian with a buzzed head and a long straight nose filled half the screen. Chloe nodded. "This is Derek Fox."

Her tone suggested he should… recognize him? "Okay?"

"He won three State Championships with the Crows under Coach Arnold's tutelage."

Oliver recognized that name, at least. "The same coach you said used to give his players an energy boost."

"Yes. Derek got a scholarship with SCU. An accident blew his chances to turn pro." Oliver nodded, still unsure where she was going with the information. "A few years later, he was involved in a gang of bank robbers. My friend Whitney almost got killed because of them. Derek was arrested but he was released under parole last year. He's part of a reinsertion program sponsored by the city."

"I've heard about it. QI is looking into opening some positions for some young adults."

The fond look she shot him made wish they had it in place already. He couldn't remember the last time someone had stared at him like that, if ever. Oliver cleared his throat. "Right. So. Anyway. I'm surprised a school is part of it, especially for a security detail."

Chloe bit her lower lip. He counted in his head to quieten the sudden urge to smooth the tortured flesh with his tongue. She moved the mouse to the task bar to call the mentorship certificate on screen. Oliver gripped the back of her chair with both hands, all thoughts of kisses forgotten.

"Gordon Byers sponsored him."