Jacob shifted in the bed, pulling on the fresh stitches and finding out more places that were sore. He peered around the room, noticing the camera in the upper corner. Can't really blame them, he thought. He tried to move his arm, tugging the IV tube and restricting his movement. The heart monitor behind the IV stand beeped steadily. He looked to his left and saw Thea still sleeping in the chair. Everything about her appearance was exactly the same as his Thea, down to the mole below her right eye.

"You're staring," she breathed, not even opening her eyes.

"Sorry," he whispered turning away. "How long have you been listening?"

"From the start," she admitted opening her eyes and brushing the hair out of her face. "I know other realities have versions of all of us and all but this is just….."

"Unnerving?" he finished, raising his eyebrow and wincing as it pulled at the stitches on his forehead.

"Yea kind of," she agreed, standing up and stretching.

"Imagine how i feel," he muttered. "One minute i'm watching the slaughter of my family, the next i'm looking up at my fathers and wifes dopplegangers."

"I'm sorry, i didn't think…"

"It's fine," he shrugged, smiling at her. "I have a question for you though."

"Ask away," she replied, smiling.

"My ring," he asked pointing at it in her hand. "Why did you hold onto it?"

"I…" she started and stopped, almost realising she still held it. "I don't know….i guess out of shock."

"Do you have the pictures from my wallet as well?" he asked gently.

She smiled and picked both pictures up off a small end table near the chair she was sleeping in.

"I thought i would keep them together and safe…" she admitted, looking down at the pictures and the ring before offering them both.

Jacob took the pictures, but folded her fingers back around the ring.

"Keep it safe for me a little while longer," he mused before holding up a bandaged left hand. "Don't think it would fit right now anyway."

Thea paused for a moment, then giggled in agreement.

"Your probably right," she admitted, slipping it onto one of her necklace chains; the ring slid down her chest and she tucked it into her shirt. She nodded to the picture of her doppleganger. "Tell me about her sometime?"

"Sometime," he agreed before leaning back and closing his eyes. Thea smiled, picked up her bag and stepped into the elevator

"Sweet dreams, blackbird…." she whispered as the doors shut.

Bloody images flashed in Jacobs mind as he slept. Pain wracked his whole body as he tossed and turned in the bed. The heart monitor was going wild, beeps filled the room with erratic patterns. He woke with a start, sweat drenching his body. Shaking his head, he looked around in confusion. With a sigh, he pulled the IV needle from his hand, popped all the leads to the heart monitor free from his chest and tried to stand up, a borrowed pair of grey sweatpants shaking around his legs. With a little wobbling and a hesitant step, he managed to shakily make his way towards the elevator; the overhead lights flickering on as he moved. He hit a button marked 1F and the doors slid shut with a breeze. The elevator hummed along.

As the doors slid open, the ceiling and floor lights in the center room flickered on. Covers slid back from the center of the rack where a row of suits stood. Off to the right stood a single glass case, the lights flickering on as he slowly approached. A combination of leather, Kevlar and buckles adorned the suit, with a glowing necklace draped around the collar. A small plack about midway down the front pane of glass

In loving memory, it read, of Laurel Lance, The Black Canary.

No way, he thought, it looks completely different, but it kinda suits her.

He opened the case, lightly touching the leather. It was warm to the touch. He lifted the jacket off of the mannequin it sat on and held it to his face, breathing deep. The smell of her perfume was the exactly the same, mixing well with the leather and bringing back happier memories. With a shake of his head, he sat it back and closed the case, turning away.

In the next case over, a mechanical compound bow hung, with some standard broadhead arrows and even a few arrows that looked extremely complex. Something's never change, he thought, looking at the bow with a grin. He grabbed few of the standard arrows and the bow, looking over to the empty corner by what looked like a conference table. Off to each of the sides sat a medium cylinder looking bucket that was tilted at an angle towards the far wall. He sat the bow and arrows down on the table. Kneeling down beside the machine gingerly, he felt around for a switch and examined the opening in the front. He grinned, flipping the switch and waited. A tennis ball shot out, flew through the air and rebounded off the floor. Just like I remember, he thought standing up and picking up the bow. He laid moved the arrows to the opposite side of the table, closest to the machine. With sluggish movement, he knocked an arrow into the string. He closed his eyes, Oliver's voice echoing in his head.

Keep your left arm up straight, came the voice as he raised the bow. Remember, inhale when you pull back, He pulled back the string till the mechanism held it and waited. The machine spat out a tennis ball, bouncing off the floor and up into the air. Wait for that moment right between your heartbeat, release and exhale. The string vibrated as it rocketed the arrow forward, spearing the tennis ball out of midair and nailing it into the wall. That's my boy...the voice congratulated, before fading away. He smiled as the machine spat out another ball, picking up another arrow and spearing the ball to the wall. Another ball flew into the air, only end up with its mates on the wall.

"I've only ever seen Oliver do that..." came Felicity's voice as the last arrow embedded itself in the wall. Jacob spun around to face her, wincing at the sudden movement in his torso. She stood on the raised platform in front of the computer monitors, paper coffee cup in one hand, other hand holding onto a pastry.

"Who taught you how to shoot like that?" she asked setting down her coffee cup and walking down to him. "With Oliver's bow too? That's impressive."

"My father," he answered smiling sadly, and handing her the bow.

She took the bow, walked back over to the case and placed it back on its hanger.

"I was going to come down earlier and talk to you myself," she jabbered away, turning back around to face him. "Oliver said you needed some rest. How are you feeling?"

"Like I've just been pushed through an interdimensional portal after being used as a pincushion…." he grumbled sarcastically.

"Of course, sorry" she stammered, gazing at his abdomen. "You look good though...I mean you look solid….I mean Caitlin patched you up pretty well...well except for that."

She pointed at a small line of blood trickling down from none of the patches on his side.

"Crap," Jacob groaned looking down at it

"No it's ok," she sputtered. "I can fix it...well not really fix, more like cover it...not that it needs covered...I'm going to shut up now."

She walked over to one of the cabinets by the coolers, fished around for a moment and retrieved a roll of gauze and some surgical tape. He followed her over and sat down on a stool beside her, chuckling quietly.

"It looks like it needs changed anyway…" she mentioned, pulling back the darkened bandage and causing a little more blood to drip down. Jacob winced and groaned as the bandage pulled free.

"I'm sorry. Are you alright?" she babbled.

"I'm fine" he groaned, taking the gauze and laying it against the wound. She pulled a few lengths from the tape and lightly stuck them to his skin, holding it in place. Her hands bushed down his abdomen slightly before she jerked back, reached inside a cabinet and handed him a folded grey hoodie.

"You look cold," she offered, standing up and walking back to the computers.

Jacob chuckled to himself, maneuvered his arms gingerly though the sleeves and zipped the front.

"Oliver told me you knew all of us in your world," she said, fingers tapping away at the keyboard. "Where was i? Who was i? Was I married? Was I a hero too?"

Jacob laughed and sat down beside her.

"You were around, but not for as long as Ollie or Cisco. I didn't know you as well as the rest either, but you were an important part of the family."

"The Family?" she laughed. "Is that what you guys called yourselves? Were you guys like the mob?"

"No no," he chuckled. "They had a name for themselves, but to me and the rest of the young generation, it was just a family."

"Weird. But go on."

"Yes you were married, to a brilliant inventor and physicist named Ray Palmer. As for being a hero, you didn't wear a mask or did much field work but you were pretty heroic the times I saw you in action. Aren't you married here as well?" he asked pointing to the ring on her finger.

She stopped typing away.

"I married Ray?" she asked in disbelief. "Was he still the Atom? Did I hyphenate as well?"

"Yes, yes and no I think you took his last name," he answered, laughing. "Take it easy with the questions, geez."

"Sorry," she apologized, typing away again. "It's not every day you meet someone from another earth...I mean we've met a few people, had to kick a few evil doppelganger asses. But never usually anyone good…"

"Well I have a few questions for you," he admitted, leaning back in his chair. "Who'd you marry here?"

"Engaged," she said holding up her hand so he could look at the ring. "Sort of a long engagement that's been on and off, sometimes me, sometimes him."

He raised his eyebrows waiting for a name.

"Oh right," she backtracked. "Who. Oliver."

He stared at her in disbelief for a minute. Because laurels gone here.

"I see," he replied. "Well where's Ray?"

"Off galavanting in time on The Waverider," she scoffed. "Wish I could go bouncing around in time."

"The Waverider?" he asked perking up a bit. "Is Sara..?"

"Alive and well," she assured. "She's the Captain. Last we heard the Legends got an updated roster. Stein, Jax, Nate, Rory, Ray, Amaya and of course Sara."

"It's good to hear something's don't change." he sighed in content. "One last question: How did she die?"

She frowned in confusion, looking at him. He nodded to Laurels glass case.

"Oh...Laurel," she choked. "Dahmien Dark...he got the upper hand on the team in Iron Heights…"

"Did Oliver…"

"Kill him?" she asked looking away. "Yea, he did. By only as a last resort."

He stood up and turned away, a tear rolling down his cheek and landing on the hoodie he was wearing. It would have been nice...he thought before shaking it away.

"I'm sorry," Felicity called to him. "Oliver said you were close to Laurel on your earth?"

"She was my mother…" he replied weakly.

She spun around in her chair and stared at him wide eyed.

"Shut the front door….and your Oliver was your father? That explains so much…especially the attra…." she muttered to herself. "Is that why you have the same blood type?"

"Coincidence," he replied. "Laurel adopted me before her and Oliver married. It's a long story."

"Huh. I don't believe in coincidences." she scoffed, returning to her constant clack of keys. "Her dad is still alive here, not just Sara."

"Quentin?" he asked, returning to his seat.

"Yep," she replied bring a picture of him up, along with his police jacket and flicking it to the monitor in front of him. "Used to be the ranking lieutenant, Oliver ended up hiring him as the deputy mayor after he was forced out from the whole Dahmien darhk\hive thing."

"It says here he has a heart condition…" He read out loud, peering through his municipal service record.

"Yea," she admitted. "Though you wouldn't know it from being around him. He actually used to be a field agent for the team, now he's mostly intelligence and information. He's pretty lively otherwise, long as he stays sober."

"So he has an alcohol problem," Jacob groaned. "Do you think…?"

"He'd want to meet his grandson?" she asked grinning at him. "Or rather pseudo grandson, or adopted grandson? I don't know, all this metaphysical stuff isn't really easy on him. You should have seen the look on his face when he found out Barry was a speedster. Almost as bad as Johns reaction whenever Barry has to speed him around or out of danger. Not to mention how he handled Sara coming back from the dead not once, but twice."

"Probably best till all of this," he replied, waving at his chest and face. "Is all healed up."

"Well if you're anything like Oliver or the Laurel we knew, that wont take long." She laughed. "Sara would probably be the better first choice, that way she can try to smooth things over."

"I would like to see her," he agreed.

"Youd definitely be a welcome addition in her family," she noted. "Sara hasnt really been the same since Laurel died either."

"The suits," he said changing the subject. "There's a few i can guess whos they are, but whos is the third one to the right?"

"Thea's," she replied looking over fondly. "She hasn't put it on in a while though."

"Thea became a vigilante here?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yep. Went by the callsign 'Speedy' there for a while." Felicity laughed. "It used to annoy her. That was right around the time Oliver and I took a break from all this."

The elevator dinged, startling Felicity. Caitlin walked in, bright eyed and waved happily till she saw Jacob sitting beside Felicity.

"I thought i told you to get some rest," she grumbled at him sternly.

"I got restless," he shrugged, looking around.

"Well back to bed," she said tugging him back towards the secondary elevator. "Doctors orders."

Felicity grabbed his hand on the way by, giving it a gentle squeeze and smiled at him.

"I'll see what i can do," She assured him.

He smiled and waved back, letting Caitlin tug him to the elevator and escort him back down to the infirmary.

The elevator dinged again, this time Oliver walked out dressed in a business suit and tie.

"Hows our guest?" He asked stepping up to the raised platform and giving Felicity a kiss on the cheek.

"He's full of surprises," she replied smiling and waving a hand over to the wall where the arrows still stuck into the wall.

"Did he…?" He asked surprised.

"Yup, with your bow," she laughed. "He reminds me a lot of you."

"Do you believe all this?" he asked, sitting down in the chair beside her.

"Sort of yea," she replied, laying her head on his shoulder. "It's by far not the worst thing we've had to deal with. I feel like we can trust him."

"I trusted Evelyn Sharp and look how that turned out…" he grumbled back at her.

"Hey!" she jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "Completely different situation. Evelyn was a criminal already. This guy hasn't done anything suspicious."

"Yet," he corrected. "He hasn't done anything yet."

"I think your just jealous your not the only one around here with fancy shooting skills," she teased kissing his cheek and turning back to the computers.

He stood up, walked over to the wall and examined the arrows. With a grunt, he pulled one free and smiled. It wouldn't hurt to have the extra backup…

(A lot of setting up in the last few chapters. Theres going to be a bit of a sensitive scene coming up, definitely earning the M Rating, so be prepared.)