A/N: So, it's been two months... honestly, in my head, it felt a lot longer than that. I feel like I haven't even looked at this fic in so long, and I feel awful. I do love writing this, but sometimes a scene just doesn't want to work for me, and I get stuck. I know that all I need to do is just sit down and actually start writing, and I'll get through it, but I'm a procrastinator at heart.

With that in mind, some of these scenes are definitely not my best work, but I hope it was still worth the wait.
Enjoy!

Chapter 11:

'Got a new bodyguard'

Felicity had to smile at the text. Only Oliver could make a simple, short text message like that sound petulant.

'What happened to Mr. Diggle?'

'Artistic differences. New guy's a college football player'

Felicity laughed. 'And that's a problem, how?'

'He irks me'

'Why? Because he's an actual professional? :p '

Felicity put her phone down for a moment and tried to concentrate on her work. Tried being the operative word. She kept glancing at her phone, but refused to pick it up to see if he'd responded yet. Katie was right, she was so in love with him. But Felicity was resolved to be his friend. She could do that, right? And friends answered each other's texts right away, right?

'Dig's a pro, never had a problem w him'

'That's bc you like Diggle. Have u tried saying ur sorry?'

Oliver didn't reply right away. Felicity managed to get a little bit of work done before he replied. 'It's okay, managed to ditch him'

Rolling her eyes, Felicity typed out her reply. 'You know he's there to protect u, right?'

It took another little while for him to send a text back, but the little ellipses made it clear he had a hard time coming up with a proper response. 'Nothing he can protect me from' is what he eventually sent. It was a pretty morbid message, and Felicity was definitely not smiling anymore. Oliver usually acted like he was okay, like he was still that carefree rich boy he'd been before the island, but sometimes something like this would slip through.

No, she supposed there was nothing his new bodyguard could protect him from that was worse than what Oliver had already been through.

It took another day for him to contact her again, though this time he called.

"Hey, is this a good time?"

Having a crush really was the worst, because Felicity just couldn't keep the grin off her face. "No, it's fine, I'm just finishing up at work. What's up?" she asked cheerfully. She was still at her desk, running through the coding on their firewall, looking for weak spots. Not exactly the most exciting part of her job, so she was glad for the distraction. Especially since that distraction was Oliver Queen.

"I took your advice, went to talk to Dig. I even took Rob with me."

"Rob's the new bodyguard?" Oliver hummed in affirmation. "That's good, what did Mr. Diggle say?" she asked.

"He shot me down, but I think I managed to clear up my side of the story. Guess I'll just have to wait and see if he contacts me again."

"I'm sure he will. You can be surprisingly convincing when you want to be." Oh god, she hadn't actually said that out loud, had she? That sounded way too flirty!

But Oliver either hadn't noticed or elected to ignore it. "Speaking of conviction-"

"That's not what I said," Felicity interrupted.

"Have you heard of that guy who was convicted of killing his wife?" Oliver continued as if she hadn't said anything.

"Peter Declan? Who hasn't? He killed her in their daughter's room, it's awful."

"Could you look into that for me?"

Felicity frowned. "Look into a murder case? Why?"

"I'm curious. He doesn't strike me as a guy who would kill his wife in cold blood," he replied thoughtfully.

"Okay, weird hobby, but I guess I could. Shouldn't be too hard, the SCPD doesn't exactly have the most secure servers, and they always keep a copy of the police rapports on there," she said. Something was niggling at the back of her mind, something she should remember, but it just… wouldn't come to her. Oh well, she'd try to chase that thought later.

Just then, an office aide Felicity didn't know stuck his head in. "Ms. Smoak? Mr. Steele would like to see you."

Felicity froze. Why would Oliver's step-father want to see her? She mentally ran over every bit of coding and every program she'd been working on this past week, but couldn't remember anything amiss. Why would he want to see her? Oh god, she wasn't being fired, was she?

"Felicity?" Oliver said.

"Uhm… I'll be right up, thanks," Felicity said to the aide, who promptly left. "Oliver, I need to call you back."

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly, sounding worried.

"I don't know… Mr. Steele just asked me to his office. What if he wants to fire me?"

"He can't fire you, you're the best IT person QC has, and that's including your supervisor."

"I know, but… what if he is?"

"If he is - which is unlikely - I'll talk to him, okay. He can't fire you."

"Right… I should go," she said, but stayed rooted to her chair.

A moment of silence followed. "Felicity, just get up, and go out the door. You're not being fired. And even if you are, you could get a new job in a heartbeat. You'll be fine," he said softly.

She sighed. "Okay, fine. Bye, Oliver."

"Talk to you later, Felicity. And thanks."

/*/

Okay, so she wasn't fired, but Mr. Steele did want her to look into a business investment his wife had made… which was weird, to say the least. Seriously, what was it with people asking her to look into shady stuff today?

'Not fired! :) ' she sent to Oliver as soon as she exited Mr. Steele's office.

'Hate to say I told you so, but… I told you so ;)' was the reply she received a moment later.

She grinned as she gathered her things and headed to her car. 'Yeah, yeah. How's Rob doing?'

'Who? :)'

'Still hasn't caught up? Btw, about to drive home, so wont reply. Looking at Declan case when I get home.'

As soon as she got home, Felicity settled on her couch with her laptop, tablet and phone, finding everything she could on the Declan case, as well as possible connections with Oliver. She was curious why he'd asked her to look into it, but so far, there didn't seem to be anything connecting them. What she did find, though, was interesting. She quickly grabbed her phone and called Oliver.

"Hey, I found something interesting," she said, diving right into it.

"Hi," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "What is it?"

"The police report said something about a Matt Istook. Apparently, Declan claimed that his wife had given him a report detailing evidence she'd gathered against Jason Brodeur. He's the CEO of Brodeur Chemical, where Camille Declan worked. Istook claimed he didn't know anything about that," she explained.

"Huh," was all Oliver had to say.

"Okay, confession time," Felicity said. "I've been trying to find a connection, a reason why you'd be interested in this case, but there's nothing. And when I can't find something, it usually means it doesn't exist," she said, talking fast. "So why the interest? What is it about this case?"

Oliver didn't reply right away, and Felicity sat as quietly as she could, straining to hear anything.

"I saw him on the news, and… he just didn't strike me as someone who could kill his wife. And he never confessed, never admitted to anything. I guess I just wanted to know the truth," he said. There was something in his voice, something she couldn't quite identify.

"Well… If this Istook guy lied, Brodeur would definitely have a motive to get rid of Mrs. Declan… And from what I could find on the guy online, he's not exactly a gentle puppy. Not that it helps us to know this, since the police already knew."

Oliver sighed. "Well, thanks anyway, Felicity. I know it was a weird request."

She blushed and thanked any possible gods out there that he could see her, whilst simultaneously mentally smacking herself for being so silly. "Uhm, yeah, it was no problem. Like I said, the SCPD servers aren't exactly a challenge, so it was no big deal."

"I'll talk to you later, okay?"

And now she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that he didn't want to talk about anything else. "Right, okay. Night, Oliver."

"Goodnight, Felicity."

/*/

"What is wrong with your face?"

Oliver stood in the entrance hall of the manor, having just hung up the phone after Felicity called. He looked up at his sister, tensing. He hadn't done much in the way of vigilante business today, so it couldn't be that. "What do you mean?"

"There's something really weird on it, like this thing with your mouth…" And then Oliver figured out she was teasing him and allowed himself to smile again. "It looks like it's in the shape of a smile," Thea finished, now grinning herself.

"That's cute," he said.

"So why are you grinning, who was on the phone?" she asked.

Oliver glanced down at his hand, where he still held his phone. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to ask Felicity for help - he did not want her entangled in this, like he'd done with the Deadshot case. But he enjoyed spending time with her, and this gave him an excuse to call her. He recalled her 'confession', and had to smile again. It was such a Felicity thing to do. "Felicity," he told Thea.

But in any case, he wouldn't need Felicity's help on this case anymore. He'd get the file from Istook and give it to Laurel.

His little sister raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought you two were 'just friends'," she said, complete with air quotes. "As you have both repeatedly told me."

"Can't I enjoy spending time with her without there being an ulterior motive?" he asked, perhaps a smidge defensive. This thing with Felicity - whatever it was - was new and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. He was so used to playing things close to the vest, it was odd trying to open up to his sister. But maybe this was exactly what he needed to reconnect with her.

"Well, sure," Thea said. "But I know you enjoy my company as well, most of the time, and I don't see you grinning like a loon every time I say something witty," she countered.

He rolled his eyes. "I… I'm not sure what it is, but for now we're friends, okay?" he said, hoping his sister would see that he needed time and leave it alone.

"Alright, I'll stop prodding," she relented, turning around to head up the stairs. "But for what it's worth, I'm pretty sure she likes you too."

This time, Oliver really didn't care that he was grinning like an idiot.

/*/

The next time Felicity heard something about the Declan case was right after she'd handed over the evidence she'd collected on Mr. Steele's missing money. She'd just gotten back into her office to collect her things when she received an alert on her phone. She'd set it up so that if anything to do with Peter Declan or Jason Brodeur popped up, she'd be notified.

The broadcast she saw didn't have any direct correlation to Peter Declan's case, but it was obvious why it came up. Laurel Lance was apparently Declan's attorney now, and she'd been in a meeting with her client when a bunch of inmates got loose and wreaked havoc.

What were the chances of Oliver asking her to look into Declan's case a day or so before Laurel apparently decided to become the lawyer of a man on death row?

Felicity sat down at her desk and decided to cast a deeper search. And that's when she found that only about two hours after she'd told Oliver about Matt Istook, the guy filed a police report against 'The Hood'.

The first thing Felicity registered was hurt. If Oliver was working with the Hood, why didn't he tell her?

But, then again, she'd helped the Hood as well, and she hadn't told anyone about that either. Or maybe Laurel was working with him and she'd asked Oliver to get Felicity on the case. But if that were true, then why hadn't the Hood just come to her again?

Groaning, Felicity sat back in her chair. Okay, eliminate the impossible, and whatever was left had to be true right? Right, because using a Sherlock Holmes quote was really appropriate in this situation. But the point remained that it just didn't make any sense for either of them to be working with the Hood. Or, at least, not in relation to Felicity's involvement in the case.

God, this was making her head hurt.

At least the report said Laurel was okay and that the riot was quickly contained. A new notification popped up on her phone, this time from her bug in the police servers. Brodeur's bodyguard had been found at the prison and had agreed to flip his boss in exchange for a lesser punishment. This made Felicity doubly suspicious.

It was all just so strange, and Felicity felt like she was missing a single puzzle piece. Once she had that, she was sure she'd be able to make sense of it all, but for now, it just didn't fit.

On instinct, she called Oliver, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a message saying she'd seen the news and to call her back.

Something wasn't right, and Felicity swore she was going to get to the bottom of this.

The next morning, she got the puzzle piece she'd been looking for, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying as she'd hoped it would be.

Thea's name flashed on Felicity's phone, so she picked up quickly.

"Felicity," the girl said, her voice thick with tears and hysteria not far behind. "Oliver's been arrested. They think he's the vigilante."

A/N: Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun! And now we can finally get started on the real stuff. Felicity is piecing things together, and team Arrow can finally assemble! I'll try not to keep you guys waiting so long this time, but messages and reviews definitely help in that regard *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

Let me know what you think! (on any subject, though this chapter would be the preferred topic)