Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

AN: I have not done much writing since mid-February. My father suddenly become ill and we lost him the first week of March. My heart has gone with him. Someday, God willing, I will write and publish a book dedicated to him as well. Until then, I dedicate this chapter with all my love to the best man I've ever known, my father. I love you, Dad, and God willing, I will indeed write a book about you someday like you asked me to.

Besides that, I do thank all of you for returning to this story. Like most of my stories, it has taken a few twists and turns from my original thoughts. All good stories do, I suppose. (At least for us writers who write without an outline, ha!) Anyway, this chapter continues to have more fluff than action I suppose. Hope you enjoy.

Previously:

Felicity looked at Oliver, who was shuffling his feet. "Well, normally of course I would argue with you. However, being kidnapped by the dude for the second time in as many weeks has gotten me more than a little spooked. And tired of being afraid. So, yeah, I agree. Let's go now, if you don't mind, for I am so tired. I might just fall asleep on my feet."

Everyone laughed, and they picked up their belongings to leave. Oliver took a look around the lair, and told himself there was always tomorrow to think up a better plan to get Slade.

The night before, as she got ready for bed and climbed into a borrowed pajama set of Thea's, Felicity could hardly stand without falling over. She did look at her body, seeing several bruises from the fight with Slade. She shook her head, figuring she will probably be sore tomorrow. Even with the mirakuru. Mirakuru. Talk about strange. How did her life get to resembling one of her sci-fi shows after all?

Climbing in between the 1000 thread sheets, Felicity let out a contented sigh as her head hit the goose-feather pillow on the queen-sized bed in the guest room Thea had shown her. She wanted to reflect on everything that had occurred that day, but her body and mind had other ideas. The next thing Felicity knew, she felt the morning sun on her face.

Stretching out between the luxurious sheets Felicity let the comfort sink into her bones. Then yesterday's events rushed into her mind. All of them. And she groaned. Reluctantly, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She rubbed her eyes, and looked for her glasses. Luckily, even though she was so tired she didn't know what she was doing, she did put her glasses on the side table next to the bed. Putting them on, she allowed her eyes to roam lazily around the room. It was a very nice room indeed, simply but tastefully furnished with a dark oak dresser and bookshelves to match the frame and head board of the bed.

Instead of being able to continue to ruminate in her thoughts, a knock on the door interrupted her. Upon her assent, the door opened to reveal Dig. "Hey, how you doing? Did you sleep good?"

"Like a water-soaked log. What time is it?"

"Nine o'clock. Everyone else is downstairs already. Well, except for Oliver. He's out jogging."

"Of course." Felicity's lip curled. "Well, let me grab…oh, but I don't have a robe."

"I'll let you change, and meet you downstairs."

Felicity nodded absentmindedly as she wondered what she was going to wear. Noticing something in the closet through the half-opened door, she walked over to it and opened the door wider. Inside were hanging a cute top and a pair of skinny jeans. Felicity shook her head. Thea must have snuck them in while she was sleeping. She grabbed the clothes, walked over to the bed, and proceeded to get dressed.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

By the time he had returned and showered, everyone else was in the dining room eating breakfast. Since it was Sunday, Oliver told everyone else to stay at the mansion and rest. He, however, was heading to the Lair for some exercise. Diggle objected at first, thinking he needed someone to watch his back. However, Oliver pulled him over and asked him to stay to keep an eye on his family and Felicity. "I'll be all right, but I worry about them. You understand, don't you, Dig?"

Diggle watched as the younger man left. He simply shook his head at the gall of Oliver, leaving him here to deal with his family and his team alone. However, Digg knew the events yesterday had indeed taken a toll on Oliver. Telling himself Oliver would be better able to handle everything once he had a decent work-out, swallowing his irritation, Dig turned to face the others in the dining room once again.

"Oliver didn't give us a chance to ask him anything, did he?" Sara asked.

Dig shrugged. "You know him. He needs a work-out to clear his mind. He'll be in better spirits when he returns."

"Better than what?" Roy asked. "He's always grumpy."

Felicity hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Double-dare you say that in his presence."

"Ha," Roy said, making a face at her. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Oh, I beg to differ, Junior." Digg winked at Felicity.

Their teasing was interrupted by a new voice. "Perhaps someone would kindly tell me where my son went off to?"

Everyone at the table startled upon hearing the frosty tones of the matriarch of the Queen family and turned to watch Moira approach them. Entering the room while maintaining her impeccable posture, she sternly looked at each one of them while waiting for an answer. Roy looked down at his plate, Sara calmly took a bite of a piece of bacon, while Felicity nervously placed her hands in her lap. This left Dig to be the one to speak up.

"Mrs. Queen, your son decided he needed to get some fresh air, so he went to a new gym he recently joined. He will return within a few hours. Is there something I can do for you?"

Moira's lips drew into a thin line as she considered the man in front of her. She then looked at the others with an unreadable look on her face as she considered each of them in turn.

"How could he leave when he has company? I apologize for his rudeness."

Sara smiled at her, calling upon their familiarity to soothe Moira's anger. "Oh, you know Oliver, Mrs. Queen. We also know him as well. It's okay, we understand. He's been under much stress lately."

Moira's lips puckered slightly, then relaxed in a tight smile. "I was hoping he would tell me more about that stress today. He had hinted at it last night, but didn't give me much details." Dividing her look equally amongst her guests, she waited for someone to answer her unspoken request for information. A small sniff preceded her next statement. "I will wait for him to return, then. I hope you all will enjoy the breakfast, and make yourself at home until Oliver returns."

Roy at least had the smarts to wait until she had left the room before he remarked, "Boy, is Oliver in trouble once he gets back."

Dig cuffed him on the back of the head. "Boy, sometimes you don't have the brains of a gnat, do you?"

"I waited until she couldn't hear me. And quit doing that."

They proceeded to finish breakfast. Thea arrived after having met a friend for breakfast and was brought up to date regarding her brother's absence and her mother's actions. After everyone was finished with breakfast, Thea brought them into the smaller salon, or TV room as Thea liked to call it. When her mother wasn't around, that is. With encouragement from Dig, Roy asked Thea to go on a walk outside, to provide the rest of the team space for a private talk. Roy could easily be updated later. Thea readily agreed to the walk, having missed her boyfriend during the time she was gone. The two young people left the room hand in hand, Thea excitedly telling Roy about her breakfast.

"Felicity, how are you doing? Do you need to visit the center today, you think?" Sara asked.

"I was considering it, but…part of me is too scared to go. Not knowing what Slade is going to do next, and that he's still out there makes me just want to stay where it's safe."

"Understandable. Maybe, tomorrow."

Felicity nodded. "Yeah, I hope so. The therapy certainly has been helping." In a softer voice she added, "Thanks for caring, Sara. I appreciate it."

"You know, if you ever need to talk, you can talk to me, you know."

Felicity smiled and nodded. "I appreciate it. But, I think today, we should see if we can brainstorm ways in which we can track Slade down and take him down once and for all."

Dig joined the women on the two couches facing each other. "That's a good idea, Felicity," Dig said. "Especially since it appeared to both you and Oliver that what he had planned yesterday was to have been the final 'showdown', so to speak."

"Yeah, that man actually thought I'd kill Oliver. I don't think I ever could…well, I guess I almost did, but then I realized what I was doing…on second thought, perhaps I could kill Oliver after all. Boy, that's scary. Thank God I came to my senses before I could hurt Oliver anymore. But…yeah, me killing Oliver…was to have happened."

"You didn't hear anything about their other plans at all, did you? Even if you were half-conscious, or anything?" Dig asked Felicity.

"No, well, I didn't see Isabel at all, so there goes that idea about them discussing things in front of me. Slade didn't brag about anything to me. But I was mostly unconscious most of the time between Slade injecting me and Oliver showing up."

"Hopefully, this really screws up Slade's plans, whatever they are. But we should try to figure them out. I'm so tired of always being on the defensive. We need to get him once and for all." Sara punched her fist into her other hand to make her point. Looking at Dig, she asked, "Why did you let Oliver go to the Lair alone? We should all be here planning."

Dig cocked an eyebrow at the petite blond. "Let? I hardly ever let that boy do anything. I choose my battles carefully. Today, I thought perhaps he needed some time on his own to process his feelings about yesterday. Despite the years since, he's still the man who supposedly spent all that time on the island. Alone."

Sara curled her lip. "I think by now, we both have spilled enough for you to know we were surrounded by people more than we were alone, Dig."

The man sighed. "Yeah, I know." He combed both of his hands through his hair. "But he still needs alone time to process his deeper feelings. I don't think he will ever break that habit."

Everyone in the room nodded their agreement. A silence fell upon them while they were lost in their own thoughts. After a moment, Dig decided to begin the discussion of what to do about Slade.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

"Well, if you will stop playing games with Queen, we could progress with our plans for Blood. The sooner we do that, the sooner you can get rid of Blood."

Slade once again sat down on the couch. He leaned back, crossed his legs and stroked his chin. After a moment, he said, "I suppose you are correct. Even though I would love to continue torturing Oliver, the sooner we complete this next phase, the quicker we are rid of that Blood." Indicating the place next to him, he said to Isabel, "Should we begin discussing the next phase then, Isabel?"

Isabel couldn't help her huge smile as she sat down next to her partner.

Isabel confirmed that another thirty soldiers had been given the Mirakuru over the past week through the equipment available at the Queen Applied Sciences building. "That stupid Queen and Smoak never thought one reason for me obtaining the company was to transform soldiers."

"As I keep reminding you, Isabel, Oliver may not always be the smartest man you know, but he does have his moments. Do not become lax about keeping him fooled."

"You do have to admit, Slade, he hasn't shown much offensive maneuvering throughout all of this. I thought he'd be a more worthy opponent, from your description of him."

"Like I say, Isabel, don't let his behavior fool you. He does have his moments, especially in crisis moments. So, for our own protection, we need to make sure we don't allow any such thing to occur. That's when the Kid comes through the best, in coming up with ideas at the last moment to 'save the day'. Not to mention his own blind luck at times." Slade sighed. "I've never known someone to have so much blind luck as the Kid has had throughout the time I've known him."

"I don't understand why we have to wait until after the election to bring down Starling City?"

"Because I promised Blood he can be mayor."

"That's another thing. Why does he want to be mayor of a broken city?"

"He believes he could then remake the city in his own image."

"What is wrong with this city that everyone wants to destroy it and remake it? Didn't Malcolm Merlyn want to do that last year?"

"Yes, and the Kid stopped him. But he wouldn't be able to stop us. Not with over 30 soldiers with Mirakuru in their systems creating havoc in his beloved city. And when he feels utmost despair, that's when I'll take his eye."

Isabel didn't respond to Slade's statement. He turned to find her looking into the distance, her eyes unfocused. "What are you thinking, Isabel? I've become well acquainted with that look. What have you come up with now?"

"You know, Slade, if you are so worried about Queen, maybe we should arrange the election to happen sooner."

"How?"

"By taking out Blood's opponent, he would automatically become mayor."

"But that means…."

"We kill Moira Queen. Thus another layer of your revenge upon poor, poor Oliver."

Slade rubbed his chin slowly while considering her suggestion. "Yes, I would love to do that to that supercilious woman. She was such a cold fish. How she ever managed to thaw out enough to conceive two children is beyond me."

Isabel laughed. "Oh, Slade, you can be so droll at times! Yes, Robert did mention that part of his attraction for me was how different I was from her..."

Slade sniffed. "You? You occasionally remind me of Mrs. Queen in your behavior." His smile widened as he watched Isabel's face redden. As she struggled with a reply, he laughed. "Careful now, Isabel. Remember the last time you crossed me. And I am still in charge of this operation."

Isabel let out a heavy sigh. She then straightened out her shoulders and looked her partner directly in the eye. "So, when will we place this new idea into motion?"

Slade shook his head. "Let me think more on it, my dear. Changing the plan too hastily could result in chaos."

AN: Another filler chapter, I suppose. But I kinda like Moira's frosty appearance, and further discussion of Slade and Isabel. The plot thickens…and how close will I take this story to canon, after all? Will Moira die, or will I allow her to live? Stay tuned….and thanks for reading!