Discovery Devotion Destiny

by kayemen22

In the blink of an eye, everything changed. Oliver now had to figure out how to balance being the Mayor of Star City with being the Green Arrow. He had to do it all while being the parent to a crawling baby and a mischevous teen. New enemies would threaten all of it. He's going to need his wife...except she doesn't even remember he's her husband. Or that she has freaky powers.

25. From Our Family to Yours

Chapter 25

From Our Family to Yours

"My family is my strength and my weakness."

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

---

Oliver Queen had a reputation for being late. He is the first to admit that, yeah, sometimes, time got away from him and something else distracted him from what he was supposed to be doing. But other times—most of the time—it's not his fault.

At this very moment, Oliver was dressed and ready to go to the Christmas party Thea managed to pull off in a short amount of time. The problem, his wife and teenager were not even close to being ready. Oliver let out a sigh before once again stepping into their bedroom where he walked over to the bathroom to see Katie wrapping a towel around her body as she steps from the shower. She looks up to Oliver with a pointed finger.

"Don't you dare say it." she said brushing past him.

"Twinkie, we're going to be late." Oliver said it anyway. He looked down to his watch with a shake of his head before looking over to Katie who walked inside of their closet. "I still don't understand how you're still not ready, you've been home all day." all movement from inside of the closet stopped. After a moment, Katie stepped back into the room and looked over to Oliver.

"You're right." she said with a smile that scared him as she walked toward him. "I should've been ready. I mean I was just, stalking an MIA Michael to see what's going on with my family's company that's nearing an impending end, pick up your suit from the dry cleaners, find Ari some new gym sneakers, come home, chase our walking daughter around the house and hope she doesn't disappear when I turn my back. Pack her an overnight bag for her stay with JJ. Making sure she had lunch and a snack before she leaves." she poked his chest. "But you're right, I should've fit in getting ready for this party with all of that." she turned and stalked back to the closet. "You literally walked into the house an hour ago, got dressed without a care in the world, but have the nerve to complain about me being late."

Oliver dropped his head and let out a sigh. He should've kept his mouth shut. He walked over to the closet to see her grab a garment bag. "I'm sorry." she glanced over to him with a shake of her head.

"I'm getting ready as quick as I can. Just give me a few more minutes." she said moving past him and lying the bag on the bed. They heard the doorbell ring, and Katie turned to Oliver who looked over to her with a quirked brow. "That's Jamie." a frown came to Oliver's face. "I told you he was coming, so go let him in and be nice."

"When am I not nice?" Oliver asked as he walked to the door.

"I'm serious Liver!" she called after him. Oliver headed down the hall, stopping when Ari's door opened and the girl appeared wearing a robe as she looked over to him.

"That's Jamie. " Ari said and Oliver just gave a nod. "Don't do anything weird, I will be right down." she shut the door and Oliver just let out a huff before heading downstairs. He paused in front of the door, his hand on the doorknob before he finally pulled it open. A nervous smile came to Jamie's face as he looked over to Oliver his hands gripping two bouquets of flowers.

"Mayor Queen, it's uh-" Jamie cleared his throat. "Good to see you again." Oliver didn't say anything as he looked at the teen who stood in navy blue suit, his tie slightly crooked, and his curly hair tucked behind his ears. After a moment, Oliver took a step to the side, and Jamie took that as a sign that he should walk in. With another nervous smile, he walked inside of the house, glancing around, suddenly more nervous that there was no one else around. He turned back to Oliver who closed the door and looked over to him.

"Katie and Ari are still getting ready." was all Oliver said before stalking off to the kitchen. Jamie stood there, once again looking around unsure what he should be doing and deciding on throwing caution to the wind and heading into the kitchen as well. Oliver turned and let out a sigh.

"So..." Jamie didn't know what to say. All conversations with Oliver completely terrified him, especially when he got that dark look in his eyes like he wanted to tear his head off. "How's...being the mayor?" that was a stupid question, Jamie thought immediately after asking it.

"It's fine." Oliver replied glancing down to his watch before looking back up to see the teen still looking at him. He figured he should probably try to be nice. "How's uh...school?"

"School's school." Jamie chuckled. "I mostly look forward to debate. Did Ari tell you we won the junior championship?" Oliver just shook his head and Jamie sighed. "Well yeah, we won, got a trophy and everything. It's in the trophy case at school. I've been trying to get Ari to join, but she's not going for it. She says she's likely to punch someone if they yell at her." Jamie once again laughed and Oliver just gave a nod. "I told her she should try to join something. Colleges like extracurriculars and she has none."

Oliver gave another nod. That wasn't completely true. Ari did have an extracurricular activity, just not something she could put on a college application. He turned away in thought. Maybe they should encourage her to be a part of something other than crime fighting. They both turned at the sound of high heeled footsteps, very different expressions coming to their faces at the sight of Ari.

The teen stood before them, and slid a hand across her hair that was pulled back into a chignon bun. Jamie's eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open as he looked down to the off white lace long sleeve crop top covering an off white blouse, paired with a green floral skirt that stopped just above her knees.

"Ari, wow-you look-" Jamie was still staring and Ari smiled as the boy finally looked up meeting her eyes, letting out a deep breath and smiling. "You look-"

"You're not wearing that." Oliver suddenly said and Ari and Jamie turned to him. "Go upstairs and change." Ari looked over to the man with a furrowed brow. "Now."

"Are you serious?" she asked. They heard the sound of high heeled feet come down the steps and they all turned to see Katie who appeared in a red, pleated strapless dress. The skirt stopped at her feet, but his eyes zeroed in on the slit that seemed to travel all the way up mid thigh.

"Mrs. Queen," Jamie said, that deer in the headlights look on his face once again. "You look...wow."

"Uh, thanks Jamie." Katie says brushing her fingers through her curls that fell over her right shoulder. She glanced over to Oliver who didn't look happy. "What's wrong?"

"You know when you said you and Ari went shopping with Thea and got nice dresses for the party, I assumed there would be more material." Oliver said and Katie looked over to him in confusion before he looked over to Ari. "You need to change." Ari glared over to Oliver before turning to Katie.

"Katie approved this dress and I'm wearing it." she said before turning to Oliver. "There's nothing wrong with this dress."

"Except the skirt being entirely too short, and I can see your stomach." Oliver said and Ari just shook her head before turning to Jamie.

"I think we should take my car." She said and Jamie looked between her and Oliver nervously. "Let's go." she moved passed him out of the kitchen.

"Ari!" Oliver called after her. Jamie stood there nervously about to follow after Ari, but stopped and turned and walked over to Katie.

"These are for you Mrs. Queen." Jamie said handing her one of the bouquet of flowers.

"Thanks Jamie." Katie says with a smile before taking the flowers. She nudged her head. "You should go catch up to Ari." Jamie gave a nod before turning and hurrying out of the kitchen.

"I can't believe you let her buy that dress!" Oliver snapped turning back to Katie who just looked at the bouquet of daffodils in her hand. "Twinkie-"

"She's a sixteen year old girl." Katie says calmly turning to Oliver. "Her outfit is fine. So you see her stomach and her skirt is a little short-" she shook her head. "She's not walking out of here half naked Oliver. I along with countless other teenage girls have worn similar dresses." she walked over and pulled open a cabinet to grab a vase. She filled it with water and placed the flowers inside before turning back to Oliver. "And I'm no longer in the Christmas spirit, you should go ahead to the party."

"Twinkie," Oliver walked over her and let out a sigh. He took a moment, and in that moment he realized his reaction was probably not the best. "Ok, so maybe I could've handled that better."

"Maybe?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

"Ok, fine, I could've handled it better, I'm just not-" He closed his eyes and slid a hand over his face. "She looked so...grown up, like-"

"A young woman?" Katie asked and Oliver met her eyes and once again sighed. "Well she is. A very beautiful young woman who is becoming the person she's going to be in life and instead of telling her she looks nice—hell instead of telling your own wife she looks nice, you complain about what we're wearing." Katie shook her head before moving around him, but he turned catching her hand.

"Twinkie, wait, I'm sorry." Katie turned to the man. "You're right. I will apologize to Ari." he brought his arms around her waist. "And you look absolutely beautiful." he said and Katie smiled. "Even though I'm pretty sure I'm never leaving your side with that slit in your dress." she just chuckled before lifting her leg and folding it around his thigh. Oliver reached drown as he slid a hand from her leg up her thigh.

"I kind of thought that would be your favorite part." she said placing her hands on his chest before looking up to meet his eyes biting the corner of her lip and he couldn't help himself as he leaned in to capture her lips, only to be stopped by the ringing of his phone. Oliver let out a groan. "And that would be Thea wondering where you are."

"I know." he said placing a hand on her cheek and tilting her chin as he leaned into her.

"Weren't you just complaining about us being late?" she laughed as she reached inside of his pocket and grabbed his phone before turning away, only for him to bring his arm around her waist, pulling her back to his chest before bringing his lips to her neck.

"You're wearing the perfume." his voice was muffled against her neck as his lips continued moving over her skin.

"You're not playing fair." she brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Twinkie? Where are you guys?"

"We're on our-" Oliver's lips found that spot right behind her ear, while his hand had slipped through the slit of her dress, over the material of her panties, and she had to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle the moan in the back of her throat. "We're on our way Thea." she said quickly before hanging up the phone and turning to Oliver with a pointed finger. "I was on the phone with your sister." she swat his chest. "So not cool."

"Twinkie, I can't be the Mayor while you're wearing this dress." Oliver said and Katie laughed. "I'm serious."

"Ok, if I change, we're going to be even more late. So you decide. You can suck it up or call your sister and tell her you're going to need another hour."

"An hour?"

"Well I would have to find another dress, shoes to match and that all takes time." she said and Oliver let out a sigh as he looked over to the smile on her face. "C'mon, let's go." she said turning and heading out of the kitchen and Oliver was right beside her. "I think we should make the rule now." she looked over to him. "I think you should keep your hands to yourself."

Oliver laughed as he grabbed her coat and helped her slip it on before placing a kiss to her neck. "I don't think that is humanly possible Mrs. Queen."

As promised, Oliver remained at Katie's side since they arrived at the party. That meant she had to smile and nod during some very boring conversations the people at the party had with their Mayor. She did have to admit that it was pretty cool to see Oliver like this. The way the people smiled at him and spoke to him with such regard and respect. She knew they could see it. They saw his heart and how much he cared for this city.

At the moment, they were talking to a man, Katie didn't remember his name, but he worked in the Mayor's office. He and Oliver were currently talking about a prior meeting, and there was mentions about budgets and city ordinances and even though there was a smile on her face, Katie just wished she was out of this entire conversation. Oliver seemed to be engaged though, and Katie took that as maybe this was her chance to slip away. She subtly took a slight step away, only for Oliver's hand on her waist to grasp her tighter and pull her back to his side.

"But enough about that Jerry." Oliver suddenly said. "This is a party. We will talk about it on Monday. Go, have fun." the man gave a smile before turning and heading off. Oliver turned to Katie who met his eyes. "I'm sorry about the number of conversations I'm getting pulled into."

"Don't be. You're the mayor and people want your ear. I just don't see why they also get my ear." she said once again tugging, but she didn't get very far. "You know I thought you were kidding when you said you weren't letting me out of your sight." Oliver's other hand came around her waist and Katie shook her head at the look in his eyes. "Keep that look to yourself and I'm not dropping this." she moved in closer to him, straightening his tie before looking up to meet his eyes. "Go, be the mayor, talk about council meetings and algebra or whatever." she nudged her head. "I think I'm going to grab a drink."

"Should I be worried?"

"Absolutely not. I think after the last time I let drunk Twinkie out of her cage, I've learned my lesson." Katie said with a shake of her head before looking up to Oliver with a half smile. "I mean she did manage to unleash drunk Liver as well, but at a cost."

"Yeah, waking up naked on a beach with no memory of how I got there is not fun." Oliver sighed.

"You still don't remember? I've been getting bits and pieces." Katie said with a furrowed brow. "I remember a donkey named Paco." she met Oliver's eyes. "He wore a tiny hat." Oliver laughed.

"I still don't understand how a couple of days to celebrate our anniversary turned into an unsolved mystery." Oliver said. "I mean, we have matching tattoos and I have no idea when it happened."

"Why would we choose a little boat?" Katie asked and Oliver just chuckled before glancing over and spotting Ari and Jamie. Katie followed his eyes. "I guess it's that time." Oliver turned back to her. "Keep it simple. Apologize, tell her she looks nice and admit that you can be an idiot sometimes." Katie pulled from his grasp that he reluctantly loosened. "I'll grab a drink, maybe talk to Thea, then you could meet me upstairs in your office." she bit the corner of her lip and his eyes couldn't help but to look to them. "Cross another place off the list." his arms came back around her waist.

"Ten minutes." he said and she laughed.

"You still have a toast to give." she replied. "So no disappearing mayor. After your toast, I'll meet you in your office." she placed a kiss to the corner of his lips. "Don't make me wait, Mr. Mayor." she tugged out of his grasp and he turned, following her with his eyes as she made her way over to Thea.

Oliver let out a strangled sigh, glancing down to his watch. He was definitely making that toast sooner than scheduled. He turned around, spotting Ari and Jamie, laughing and decided to go over and get this over with. When he walked over, the teens stopped laughing and a glare came to Ari's face.

"Hey, uh, can we talk?" Oliver asked. Ari rolled her eyes before turning to Jamie who just gave a nod.

"It's cool." he said before turning to Oliver. "Cool party, Mayor Queen."

"Thanks Jamie." he said before the boy turned and went over to the food table. Oliver turned back to Ari who avoided his gaze. "Ari, I'm sorry about earlier. I overreacted." she still refused to meet his gaze. "I mean, I don't think a longer skirt would've hurt." she turned to him and scoffed before walking away. He let out a sigh. He should've just followed Katie's advice he thought as he went to follow her.

Katie spotted Thea looking up to the Christmas tree. She headed over when someone else caught her eye. "Mike?" she diverted from her path to Thea and headed over to the man who was standing at the bar just as the bartender placed a drink in front of him. "Well if it isn't the man and myth, Michael Carroll." she said appearing at his side. He turned to her with a quirked brow. "Where the hell have you been and why haven't you returned any of my calls." he didn't say anything, but he did let his eyes roam over her. "Mike, what the hell?"

"Your husband let you out of the house dressed like that?" he said with a laugh as he reached for her skirt near the slit, but she quickly grabbed his hand before looking out to make sure no one was watching, especially Oliver.

"Are you drunk?" she asked turning back to him as he turned away to take a sip from his drink. "You don't get drunk at parties. What's wrong?" he laughed again.

"What isn't wrong?" he muttered glanced over to her. "You should've just married me." Katie looked over to him in confusion. "We were perfect together, you should've married me and we would be happy. Probably still in New York, in some ridiculously expensive brownstone raising our adorable kids." he turned away and looked down to his drink.

"Mike, tell me what's going on?"

"She has the pictures." Michael said. "Brought them to a board meeting with some story that someone anonymously sent them to her with the threat that if I wasn't released from my position then they would be released to every news outlet in Star City." he shook his head with a chuckle. "It was unanimous." he turned to her. "The day after tomorrow, they are going to be announcing that I'm stepping down from my position as COO and that some asshat named Mark Rochester will be replacing me." Katie looked at him for a moment before turning away.

"She knew you were looking into her." Katie said and Michael just gave a snort.

"No shit Sherlock." he said before taking another sip of from his glass.

"Yeah, well obviously you were getting close to something." she said and he turned to her. "What did you find?"

"What does it matter at this point?" he downed the rest of his drink before turning and stalking away. Katie followed after him.

"Mike, wait, don't-" the man stopped, but not because she was calling him, but because his path was suddenly blocked. Katie walked over stopping beside him, her eyes going to the woman dressed in a similar red dress. "Annabelle."

"Mrs. Queen, it's good to see you again." Anna said, her eyes turning to Michael. "Did Mr. Carroll inform you about our internal structural changes happening over at the company?" the man shook his head.

"He did, but I think you should know it won't work." Katie said and Annabelle turned an amused look over to the woman.

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked.

"You targeted my family's company with the sole intent to destroy it." Katie accused and Annabelle simply chuckled. "Michael was getting close to something. Too close which is why you had to get rid of him."

"What the imagination you have, Mrs. Queen." Annabelle replied. "I would be careful though. Actions can somehow have a way of causing irreparable consequences." she looked over to Michael. "Mr. Carroll knows that better than anyone, right Michael?" Mike took a step forward, but Katie moved to stand in front of him to stop him and Annabelle just laughed. "Careful, we wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea about your relationship, especially at a Christmas party thrown by your husband." the blonde glanced around the party. "Where is our Mayor Handsome this fine evening. I've been meaning to wish him a very Merry Christmas." she turned back to Katie with a smile.

"Oh, you're trying to get under my skin?" Katie asked. "Get a rash reaction at this nice holiday party from a Mayor's wife." Katie smiled as she took a step toward the woman. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's not going to happen."

"Pity." Annabelle said before turning and disappearing into the crowd. Katie rolled her eyes before turning to Michael who grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter.

"You need to slow down." she reached for the glass in his hand, but he pushed her hand away.

"Will you just stop? It's over. She's won and there's nothing either of us can do to stop her." he said before drinking the glass of champagne in one gulp before moving around the woman.

"Do you remember what you told me after I turned you down when you first asked me out." he stopped and turned back to her. "You told me that you're a determined guy, that you never give up." Katie took a step toward him. "Do you want to know why I called you to come step in for me with the company? After everything that happened between us, why I would call you of all people?" she took another step. "It was because I always remember that despite everything, you were a determined guy who didn't give up and that's who I needed to run my family's company and when I called you were there, without hesitation. Annabelle has not won, and her pushing you out is just sign at how close you were getting to the truth. She was getting scared by something you were doing."

Michael turned away, sliding a hand over his face. "I hired a private investigator to look into her." he turned back to Katie.

"What did he find?"

"I don't know, he stopped taking my calls a couple of days ago. I went to his office, and it's cleaned out. It's like he just disappeared."

"What's his name?"

"Timothy Grant." Michael said and Katie gave a nod. "Look he's in the wind and whatever he found is with him. Last call I got from him, he said he found out something big, but he didn't want to tell me over the phone. We were supposed to meet, but he never showed."

"Ok, we will start there. I have a friend who is good at finding people. I'll see if we can find out where this Timothy Grant disappeared to and I'll let you know what we find." he just gave a nod and she gave him a smile. "This isn't over Mike, just remember that."

"You know you're wrong." Mike said looking down to her. "Sometimes I do give up, I mean, I let you go without a fight." he glanced over spotting Oliver who seemed to be meeting his gaze. Katie followed his eyes and sighed. "You know I'm not that drunk. If I was, I'd kiss you and not even care about the beating I'd get from your husband." he laughed before turning back to her. "Just be careful Sweets. Whatever Annabelle is into, whoever she's involved with, it's dangerous and I don't want you to disappear in the wind like Grant." Oliver soon walked over, appearing at Katie's side, his hand possessively going around her waist, pulling her to his side. "Mr. Mayor."

"Michael." Oliver greeted. "Is everything alright?" he glanced over to Katie who was still looking at Michael.

"Everything is fantastic." Michael said before turning to Katie. "You have a Merry Christmas, Sweets." he turned to Oliver. "And I'd keep a closer eye on her if I were you, because her in that dress-" the man let out a whistle as he glanced over to her. Oliver took a step, but Katie quickly moved forward to block him. "I should be heading home. You two have a goodnight." he turned and walked away.

"You better call a cab!" Katie called after him and he just glanced back with a wave before disappearing in the crowd. She let out a sigh before turning around to look up to the dark glare in Oliver's eyes.

"You shouldn't have stopped me." he said looking down to meet her eyes.

"He was drunk and he likes baiting you and you make it so easy." Katie says placing her hands on his chest. "The board has voted him out as COO and bringing in someone else. She used the pictures to sway the board."

"So she does have them?" Oliver asked and Katie gave a nod as she turned away. "What are you thinking?"

"There's something about this woman. I wasn't paying attention before, but I am now." she looked up to meet Oliver's eyes. "Her being here, becoming the CEO of RI wasn't by chance, it was part of a plan."

"A plan to what?"

"I don't know." Katie said. They turned when Thea walked over to them.

"There you two are." Thea said looking between the pair. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Katie said pulling a smile to her face. "Everything is great. You did an awesome job with this party."

"I still can't believe you pulled all of this off after what happened."

"Yeah well, I am Moira Queen's daughter and that mean's throwing a killer Christmas party is in my blood."

"Mom and dad would be very proud of you Thea." Oliver said and a smile came to Thea's face.

She shook her head. "Me? C'mon. You're the mayor. They wouldn't know what to do with themselves."

"Are you alright?" Katie asked and Thea looked over to her. "Because what the Dominators showed us, it was like losing them all over again."

"I think it reminded me of how lucky I am to be apart of this family and to have you as my sister," she turned to Oliver. "And you as my brother no matter what stupid things you say." she shook her head. "I talked to Ari."

"Hey, I apologized." Oliver said with a slight nod. "Sort of."

"What does that mean?" Katie asked and he turned to her. "You said something else stupid didn't you? I told you to keep it simple and just apologize."

"I know, I'll try again later." he said letting out a sigh before glancing around the party. "Did Felicity and Bruce show?" Thea and Katie glanced around.

"I haven't seen them." Thea said before turning to Katie. "Have you talked to Felicity since you guys have been back?"

"Yeah, but she hasn't said much. I was thinking of going by to check on them. I'm starting to think something has happened." Katie said.

"Like what?" Thea asked.

"No idea, but I'm going to find out." Katie said.

Felicity's eyes were on the dancing flames of the fireplace. She'd been laying on the couch, her blanket covering her for most of the day as she just watched the flames. She heard Bruce's heavy footsteps as they entered the room. He didn't say anything, much like the other times he's came to check in on her. This time he finally came into view, taking a seat in the chair beside her, but she never turned away from the flames.

"I need you to talk to me." Bruce said keeping his voice soft. He'd actually been dreading a conversation with her, afraid of what she'd do...afraid that she'd leave. "I know this situation is...complicated."

Felicity let out a snort. "Complicated? Really, that's the adjective you want to use. It's beyond complicated Bruce. You have a son. A son with Talia Al Ghul. Like your son is the grandson of the demon." Felicity shook her head before standing to her feet and heading into the kitchen. Bruce let out a heavy breath before standing to his feet to follow after her. When he found her, she was pulling a large bag of potato chips from the cabinet that she began eating.

"Felicity, I know this isn't easy and I know this wasn't in the plan, but-"

"The plan." she laughed as she hopped up on the countered. "The plan has gone straight out the window at this point." she looked over to the man. "You have a son." she doesn't know why she has to keep saying it. It's real, she knows it's real. She knew the moment the boy appeared at their door looking the spitting image of Bruce.

Bruce stood there, unsure of what he should do in this moment. He didn't want to push, he wanted to give her space to figure out how she felt about all of this, but also didn't want to give too much space. There was a beep, and Felicity slipped her hand into the pocket of her pajamas to grab her phone.

"It's John again. Wondering if we're having dinner with them or going to the Christmas party." Felicity said with a shake of her head before looking over to Bruce. "This is our first Christmas as husband and wife and I—" she shook her head. "I don't want to look at you right now." she hopped off of the counter and made to head upstairs.

"Felicity, please just-" Bruce took a step forward and Felicity turned to him. "I'm sorry. I know this is a lot and if I could change it, I would, but I can't. What I do know is that I don't think I can do any of this without you. No, I know I can't do this without you."

Felicity just looked at him, as the words once again played in her head. "You have a son." she said, this time realizing why she kept saying it. It was the fact that it was his son, not hers, or theirs. He had a child and it wasn't with her and she just didn't know how to get past that fact. Maybe it was her ego that was taking this hard, maybe it was just her trying to claw herself into finally accepting that a life with Bruce meant a life with a son and that boy's mother. "I just need to figure out how I fit in all of this."

"With me." Bruce said walking over to her. "Always, forever, that hasn't changed."

"Well it feels like is has. Talia and Damian are now in your life and you haven't even acknowledged it." Felicity took a step back. "You have a son with this woman and I don't even know how I can compete with that."

"Felicity-"

"I just need to figure this out." she said again. "I'm going to head over to the bunker with the others." with that Felicity turned and hurried upstairs.

Bruce's fists clenched at his side before he turned and stalked for the door. This wasn't some random, spur of the moment thing. Talia always had a trick up her sleeve and he had no doubt that this was one of them. She'd came to destroy his life and he'd be damned if he let her. He grabbed his jacket and headed out of the door.

Arianna took another sip from her soda before glancing back to see Jamie still on his cell phone. He hung up and headed back over to her, and he didn't look happy at all.

"What's wrong?" Ari asked and Jamie just brought his arms around her. "Was that your mom?"

"Yeah, she wants me to come home." Jamie sighed with a shake of his head.

"What? Why? I thought she said you could come?" Ari asked and Jamie turned away. "She didn't, did she? Did you even ask her?"

"No, but only because she heard about the Christmas party a couple of days ago and made it known that she didn't want me here tonight." Jamie huffed. "I thought I could sneak out and make it back without her even noticing, but I guess I showed up in some of the pictures they're taking tonight and one of her friends sent them to her."

"It's because of what happened last year, isn't it?" Ari asked and Jamie just nods. "Ok, then let's go, we could go to a movie or something."

Jamie shook his head. "I got to go home. I'm like grounded forever and if I don't go straight home she's going to show up to this party and cause a scene." he let out a sigh. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I guess we should go then."

"No, she's sending my older brother to pick me up and-" his phone buzzed. He looked down and sighed. "And he's outside." he looked back up to Ari before leaning in and placing a kiss to her lips. "I'm sorry about this. I'll call you when I get a chance."

"Ok." she said placing a hand on his cheek before he pulled away and headed for the door.

"Hey Ari-" Ari turned to see Curtis and his husband Paul. "Was that Jamie?"

"Uh, yeah, he had to go." Ari said before turning to Paul. "Hey Paul."

"Hey, long time no see, you're really growing up into a beautiful young woman." Paul said and Ari gave a smile.

"Tell that to Oliver. Apparently, my skirt is too short and the fact that you can see my stomach is some kind of crime." Ari sighed. "I'm going to probably get going too. It was nice seeing you two again."

"I thought you were working with Curtis and Felicity with their startup." Paul said and Ari looked at him for a moment before glancing over to Curtis. "The one that he's been putting all the late nights in on.

"Right, yeah, of course." Ari said with a smile. "I am working with them, but I don't uh-" she glanced over to Curtis. "With school, I don't even see him all that often. Oliver and Katie are strict about how much work I can do with them." she turned back to Paul with a smile. "But when I do see him, it's doesn't even feel like work because it's so fun."

"Right, so fun." Curtis says with a nervous laugh.

"So much fun." Ari said looking over to him. The air between them suddenly got awkward and Ari nudged her head. "I should go tell Oliver and Katie I'm leaving, but it was good to see you Paul and I'll see you later Curtis." the teen turned and hurried away.

Ari appeared beside Katie and Thea who turned to her when she walked over.

"Hey, I think I'm going to head home." Ari said and Katie frowned.

"Where's Jamie?" Katie asked.

"He had to go home. I guess his mom along with the rest of the city knows how crazy the Mayor's Christmas parties can be and didn't want him here. She made him go home." Ari said and Katie looked at her for a moment. "What?"

"I'm trying to determine if you're telling me the truth or if Jamie is waiting in your car so you two can go back to our empty house." Katie said and Ari just gave an unamused look. Katie placed a hand on Ari's cheek. "I'm sorry he had to leave."

"Yeah, whatever. It's fine, I'll talk to him later I guess if his mother doesn't like force him to break up with me." Ari shook her head.

Katie could tell that the teen was trying to act as if she wasn't upset, but she could see through it.

"You sure you want to leave?" Thea said suddenly. Oliver still hadn't told them that Prometheus could possibly know that the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen were one in the same. They were still in danger, even if they didn't know it. "I mean Ollie is about to give his toast."

"I've heard his toast. He made me listen to it when he practiced it and it's not groundbreaking." Ari said with a shrug.

"I just think with everything that's going on, maybe you shouldn't be off on your own." Thea said. Katie and Ari turned to her with furrowed brows.

"She's right." Katie said turning to Ari who rolled her eyes. "Stay, and we will head home together." Ari just shook her head before turning and disappearing into the crowd. Katie let out a sigh before turning to Thea.

"What?" Thea asked.

"What was that about?" Katie asked.

"What?" Thea asked before glancing over to see Oliver. "Oh, I think he's about to start, I should-" Thea didn't hesitate before hurrying away. Oliver met Katie's eyes before she walked over to him.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I don't know yet." Katie replied when a passing waiter came over and Oliver grabbed two flutes of champagne and handed her one. "Wait, you're about to give your toast now?" Oliver looked over to her and nodded. "And you want me to stand up here, with you?"

"You know as my wife, I was hoping you would." he said with a smile. Katie shook her head. "I'll owe you one."

"Oh you owe me so much more than one, Liver." she said with a smile and he placed a kiss to her cheek before turning to the crowd who all seemed to move in closer. Once all attention was on them, Oliver pulled away, facing the crowd as he held up his glass.

"Happy Holidays." he said with a smile as he let his eyes look over the crowd. "You know my favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard." that got him a few laughs from the crowd and he even heard a snort from his wife behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see her shake her head at him and he couldn't help but to smile as he turned back to the crowd. "It's true, ask my wife." the crowd turned to Katie who just gave a nod which made them laugh even more.

"My second favorite Christmas move is "It's a Wonderful Life," an uh I was very luck to rewatch it again last week." Katie shook her head. None of them knew that their version of that movie contained aliens that kidnapped them and forced them into a twisted illusion. "It reminded me of how much work I still have to do, how much work all of us still have to do and it inspired me to recommit myself to making our city, our home, a better, and safer place." he brought his arm back around Katie's waist and pulled her to his side before turning to the crowd and lifting his glass. "Cheers." they all took a sip from their glasses.

"Great speech Mr. Queen." she said over to him and he turned to her with a smile. "I especially liked the part about that movie you watched last week." Oliver laughed as he leaned down to bring his lips to hers. "You know I think I left that thing upstairs in your office. You mind if I see if it's still up there?"

"Not at all. I'll come with you to help you find it." he said before taking her hand. He glance around before slipping out of the room unnoticed.

Ari stepped into the lobby just in time to see Oliver and Katie kissing as they stumbled into the elevator. She just rolled her eyes before going to grab her coat.

It didn't take long for Ari to grab her coat before she headed outside. She stalked down the steps of City Hall and began walking down the sidewalk toward her car. She hadn't gotten very far when she heard some commotion happening from behind her. She turned and couldn't see what was happening, but it looked like someone was fighting.

"No!" someone yelled. "Help! Help us, please!" Ari ran back, her eyes going wide at the sight of Paul kneeling about an unconscious Curtis.

"Paul!" Ari said running over. "Curtis!" she knelt down beside him, placing her hand on his neck. He was still breathing. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Some guy, I think it was the Throwing Star Killer." Paul said hysterically as he held Curtis' hand. Ari's eyes went wide as she began glancing around. Why would Prometheus attack Curtis unless...did he know Curtis is Mr. Terrific? "He just attacked us. I have to call 911."

Ari nodded. "I'll call Katie." Ari stood to her feet and pulled out her phone.

Oliver and Katie clumsily stumbled into Oliver's office, not even bothering to turn the lights on. Their lips never separated as Oliver closed the door behind them and they navigated their way over to his desk. Oliver didn't hesitate to lift the woman, and sit her on the desk.

Katie laughed as she pulled back to catch her breath. "Right to the desk, huh?"

"To start." he replied as his lips went to her neck, as his hands slid up her leg up to her thigh. Katie reached up, pushing off his jacket, and he let it fall to the floor before his hands went back to her legs. Her hand then reached for his belt, effortlessly undoing it before unbuttoning his pants and slipping her hand inside, only for her phone to ring ruining the moment. Oliver let out a groan as he pulled back. Katie pulled her hand out of his pants, and turned searching the dark room for her purse. She followed the sound, finally spotting it on the floor near the door. She quickly picked it up, reaching inside, relieved that it wasn't Lyla.

"It's Ari. She wanted to go home, she's probably wondering where we are." Katie said before answering the phone. "Ari, hey, we're-" Katie turned to Oliver when Ari told her about the attack. "I want you to get back in the building. We're on our way down." Ari said that she wanted to wait with Paul and Curtis. "Ari, will you-" Ari ended the call and Katie growled.

"What happened?" Oliver came over to her.

"Prometheus just attacked Curtis and Paul outside of City Hall." Katie said. "Curtis is unconscious right now outside of the building. Paul called 911, but I need to get out there." Oliver and Katie hurried from the office to check on Curtis.

It all happened so quickly, Katie thought. Curtis was brought to the hospital and was in stable condition. Katie stood staring at herself in the mirror in the hospital bathroom. She glanced down to the pale blue scrubs she now wore. Her dress was stained with Curtis' blood. Her eyes went back to her face, her make up was slightly smeared. She scoffed before turning on the faucet and grabbing some paper towels to just wipe it all away. She can't believe she allowed herself to forget about Prometheus—to believe that they could just have a nice, carefree night of fun. She shook her head as she dried her bare skinned face before pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

Taking a few more moments, she stood there before taking a deep breath and walking out of the bathroom. Katie came to a stop when she noticed Dr. Christian James standing against the wall across from her. He pushed himself from the wall and walked over, handing her a tablet.

"Blood tests came back." Christian said and Katie glanced over to him with a quirked brow. "This one I took to the lab myself and watched them test it." she just sighed before looking back down to the results.

"Dycloseral?" Katie spoke as she scrolled through the results before glancing over to Christian.

"It's a drug that was created a couple of years ago. It was supposed to cure a weaponized tuberculosis, but production of the drug was stopped years ago. It's not lethal so he should be fine." Katie turned back to the tablet and let out a sigh. "Why would this Throwing Star guy inject this into your friend?"

"I have no idea." Katie said handing the tablet back to the man. "Have you talked to him yet?"

"Yeah, I spoke with him and his husband." Christian replied as they began walking down the hall. "So do we have to worry about this guy drugging people now? When is someone going to stop this maniac."

"Hopefully soon." Katie said as they turned the hall. She spotted Ari standing in the hall alone. Katie was about to head over, when Christian stopped her.

"Hey," the doctor spoke and Katie turned back to him. "I haven't seen you down for any appointments for us to redo your blood work."

"We went to GMH." Katie says and Christian just gave a nod. "Oliver didn't feel comfortable coming back here and I just wanted to get it done with no fuss."

"And?"

"They found nothing." she said with a shrug. "I'm guessing whatever was in my blood, has worked it's way out of my system at this point."

Christian sighed, "I guess that's good news."

"It is. But it doesn't stop me from wondering why, or even what it was?" she shook her head. "How did they even get in here to steal the samples."

"We went over surveillance from the lab, and there is a missing hour from the feed. So whoever this was, they weren't amateurs. The hospital is upping the security and upgrading the surveillance throughout the hospital." Christian said and Katie just gave a nod.

"I'm going to talk with Ari and then I'll check in with Curtis. Let me know if anything changes." Katie says and the man gives a nod before she turns.

"You know that job offer is still on the table." he called after her and she chuckled before glancing back to him. "Those scrubs look good on you doctor." she just shook her head before turning and heading over to Ari.

Ari's eyes were on her phone when Katie walked over. The teen lifted her eyes to Katie before slipping the phone into her pocket.

"I'm pretty sure Jamie's mom is never going to allow him to any parties held at city hall." Ari sighed before leaning against the wall. "I hear he's going to be fine."

"He is." Katie says folding her arms over her chest. "Not sure about you though."

Ari's brows rose," What did I do?"

"What were you doing outside?" Katie asked and Ari dropped her eyes. "Paul said you didn't come from inside City Hall, you ran from the other end of the sidewalk, meaning you were outside before them."

"Ok fine, I was going home." Ari said looking back up to Katie. "That party was getting lame and-"

"And me telling you not to leave alone was what—did you think it was a suggestion?" Katie asked.

"Look you told me to wait for you and Oliver, but I saw you and Oliver get onto that elevator and I knew we weren't leaving anytime soon." she shook her head. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"You don't?" Katie asked before she lifted her eyes to Curtis' room to see the man lying in bed talking to Oliver. Ari followed her eyes and looked over to Curtis. "We can't keep doing this Ari." Ari turned back to the woman. "I get it. You think you know what's best and you think you can make your own decisions." Katie shook her head. "But for right now, that is me and Oliver's job. So unless you really want some strict parenting that includes, no car, me and Oliver driving you to and from school, no phone, and a strict curfew, I suggest you find it in yourself to learn how to listen when we tell you do something." Katie shook her head. "Because if I walked out of that door and saw you lying on the ground—" Ari dropped her head and Katie just reached down and took her hand. Ari lifted her eyes and just gave the woman a nod. Katie placed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm going to check on Curtis and then talk to Oliver to see what happens next."

Katie crossed the hall, and walked into Curtis' room catching the tail end of their conversation.

"Yeah which probably means..." Curtis says.

"He knows that I'm the Green Arrow." Oliver replies.

"Wait, what?" Katie says and Oliver and Curtis turn to her. Oliver sighs before walking over to her. "How could he possibly know that?" she shook her head before glancing over to Curtis and letting out a shaky breath.

"Hey," Oliver brought an arm around her. "It's going to be fine. We're going to be fine." Katie turned to him with a slight frown, before she pulled out of his grasp. "Twinkie-"

"We need to talk." she said before turning and walking out of the room. She glanced over to Ari. "Go inside and wait with Curtis, I have to talk to Oliver." Ari looked confused but gave a nod before walking inside. Katie walked over to the empty waiting area, her eyes looking out the large window that overlook the city. She heard Oliver's footsteps as he walked over.

"Twinkie, look I know this is-"

"You weren't surprised." Katie says turning to the man. "If that moment was the first time the idea that Prometheus could possibly know the the truth about you, you should be surprised. Confused maybe, a little freaked out, but here you are calm and collected." Oliver let out a sigh and Katie released a heavy breath. "How long have you known?" Oliver didn't say anything as he looked over to her. He knew she was going to be upset with him. He really planned on telling her, but then there were aliens and after that they finally had time to themselves to forget everything for a little while and he didn't want to ruin that.

"Robyn's birthday." Oliver finally said and Katie's eyes widen. "The reason Thea called me. Quentin had been drinking and having blackouts, and he found throwing stars in his apartment. He thought he was the person killing people. Thea was able to convince that it wasn't him and got him into rehab."

"Prometheus planted the throwing stars in Quentin's apartment." Katie said and Oliver gave a nod. She looked at him for a moment before turning to look back out the window.

"Twinkie-"

"I have to call Lyla to get Robyn." Katie says no longer listening. "We're going to have to pack our things and stay in the bunker." she slid a hand over her face. "It's like Tobias all over again."

"Twinkie-" Oliver placed a hand on her shoulder but she pulled away and walked around him.

"I'm going grab Ari, and then pick up Robyn and go to the house to pack up." Katie didn't look back and Oliver just let out another sigh before he followed after her.

The elevator ride down to the bunker was painfully quiet. Oliver looked over to Katie who kept her eyes down to their sleeping daughter while Ari stood in front of the doors. Once they opened, Ari stepped out first and Katie moved to follow, but Oliver took a step forward grabbing the handles of Robyn's stroller to stop it.

Katie clenched her jaw, but didn't turn to him. "You're going to have to talk to me at some point." she turned to him.

"Sure, how about you call Sara and ask to borrow her time ship to take you back to Robyn's birthday so we could talk then." she jerked the stroller out of his grasp and stalked toward the back room.

Katie closed the door once inside, and let out a heavy sigh. She looked down to Robyn who was still sleeping and blissfully unaware of the craziness happening around her.

"You're so lucky." Katie whispered as she reached down to carefully lift the girl into her arms. She tugged off Robyn's coat as she walked over to the crib before lying her down. Katie placed a hand on her head before grabbing the baby monitor and slipping out of the room.

"Case and point." Katie heard Felicity's voice and walked over to see the rest of the team including Felicity in front of the computer. "The old Claybourne manufacturing plant reports heavy usage of water and power over the last few months."

"Doesn't mean it's Claybourne." Rory says.

"It's worth checking out." Oliver says turning to the rest of them. "Suit up.

"Wait." Katie says stepping forward and they all turn to her. "Claybourne? He's the guy who created the Dycloseral?"

"Yeah, I came into contact with him when I was the Hood." Oliver said. "I thought I took care of him, but maybe I didn't. His company that's supposed that's supposed to be closed down has been using power."

"And now you're going to check it out?" Katie asked and Oliver gave a nod. She shook her head. "It doesn't seem right."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn asked and and Katie glanced over to her.

"Curtis is attacked outside of City Hall where he's taken to a hospital that identifies the drug Dycloseral in his system." Katie turns to Oliver. "A drug that's connected to someone you came in contact with in a previous life." she glances over to Felicity. "Felicity does a search, and surprise surprise, the company that made the drug is using power and now you want to go check it out."

"I thought that's how clues worked." Evelyn once again said and Katie looked over to her and shook her head.

"These clues are too easy." Katie replies turning to Oliver. "Placed in front of you. This feels less like you're following clues and more like you're being lead by them. This entire thing screams trap."

"And what if you're wrong?" Oliver asked. "What if we can finally corner this guy and stop him? We could get back to our lives and no longer worry about looking over our shoulder. We're checking this out." Oliver glanced over to the others. "Suit up." they all stood there for a moment before glancing over to Katie. It was an unexpected moment they all found themselves in the middle of they thought. It was like their metaphorical parents were having an argument and they weren't sure which side they should take.

"What if she's right?" Rene spoke up not having that problem. Oliver let out a frustrated sigh through his nose as he turned to the man. "What if this really was orchestrated to get us to this company?"

"I'm checking this out." Oliver said before turning to Katie. "I have to at least try to fix this." she didn't say anything and he just let out sigh before turning to get changed. The others still didn't move as they turned to Katie who gave a slight smile.

"If he's going, so are all of you." she nudged her head. "Go, suit up." with that they all dispersed leaving Katie standing there for a moment before turning to Felicity. "Hey there stranger."

Felicity lightly chuckled before spinning around to her computer. Katie quirked a brow before walking over to take a seat beside her.

"If I said I didn't want to talk about it right now, would that be ok?" Felicity asked still looking at the monitor.

Katie looked at her for a moment before speaking. "Absolutely." Felicity looked over to her. "Whenever...if ever you're ready to talk, I'm here." Katie glanced over to see Oliver walk back over now changed into his gear. He walked over to her and she stood to her feet and walked in the opposite direction.

"She could be right, you know?" Felicity said and Oliver just stood there, his eyes on Katie as she walks over to other side of the bunker.

"More than likely she is right." Oliver said. "But whether this is a trap or not, I have to see it through." he looks over to Felicity. "I don't want to be left wondering if tonight is the night I could've stopped this bastard. Until I do, my family's lives will be in danger." Felicity just gave a nod and the man glanced over to see Katie stepping in the blackout walls of the glass meeting room.

Soon Felicity found herself standing there watching as they all filed out into the elevator of the bunker. She turned at the sound of a door opening to see Katie heading over and glancing around.

"They just leave?" she asked and Felicity looked over to her in confusion.

"yeah, why-" Katie headed off toward the glass cases that held their suits. "What are you doing?"

"Suiting up." Katie says appearing in front of the display case that held the Guardian's Suit. She looked at it for a moment before taking a deep breath. Felicity walked over to stand beside.

"You sure about this?" Felicity asked.

"Absolutely not." Katie replies before glancing over to the woman. "But if Prometheus is there, I think it's finally time I met him." she turned back to the suit. "And if it's a trap...an extra line of defense wouldn't be a bad thing."

Katie arrived outside of Claybourne Technologies just a few minutes after the rest of the team. She slid off her bike and glanced up to the building before looking around.

"Yep." she muttered. "This is definitely a trap." she began walking toward the building. "What's happening Overwatch?"

"The team has breached the building and are now looking around." Felicity spoke. "And can I say once again I don't like not telling Oliver or the rest of the team that you're here."

"You can say it, doesn't mean it will change anything. Whoever lured them here won't expect me."

"You're not planning to have a light show tonight are you?" Felicity asked. "Because I just assumed until you learned how to use your abilities, and not pass out that maybe you would hold off."

Katie didn't respond as she entered through the back of the building. Her footsteps echoed with every step she took. She scanned the halls, a sinking feeling in her gut with every step.

"Guardian! You need to get upstairs, Green Arrow needs help!" Felicity suddenly said.

The moment the words came out of Felicity's mouth, Katie went running. "How far up do I need to go?!" She headed down a hall, finally spotting a flight of stairs. Felicity didn't respond. "Overwatch, what's-"

Katie came to a halt when her path was suddenly blocked by a man dressed in dark clothing, his face covered, and there standing beside him is Evelyn, with a bow and arrow aimed right at her.

"Don't move!" Evelyn ordered and Katie glanced over to her. "You're not supposed to be here!" her eyes turned away from the girl back to the man, and she felt the drumming of her heart in her chest, but she didn't show it.

"Guardian!" came Felicity's frantic voice, but Katie didn't respond.

"So you're Prometheus?" Katie asked as she let her eyes scan over him. "I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but it's really not."

"And I must say Mrs. Queen," came a modulated voice from the man. "I've been dying to see you."

"Ah careful with your word choice." she says taking a careful step forward. "If you're not careful it just might come true."

"I said don't move." Evelyn tugged on the bow string, and Prometheus quickly threw out his hand to halt her. The girl glanced over to him in confusion before turning back to Katie.

"I would love to spend this time with you, but we must go." Prometheus said before turning his head toward Evelyn. "Go." the teen looked unsure, but glanced over to the window beside them and turned her arrow to shoot out the glass before climbing up to the sill.

"Evelyn!" Katie called and the girl looked over to her. "Here's your final lesson. When you stab someone in the back, make sure you drive it deep enough, because if you're not careful, they'll just reach back and stab you with the same knife." Evelyn didn't say anything. "I'll be seeing you Evie." Evelyn just turned and shot out a zip line before shooting away.

"I'm surprised." Prometheus said and Katie turned to him. "Your husband at least tried to stop me from leaving. I would expect you to put up a fight as well." Katie forced her hands behind her back and Prometheus took notice. "I wouldn't do that." Katie felt the heat in her chest as she tilted her head.

"You know what's funny Promy—can I call you Promy?" she just chuckled. "What's funny is you think you've got it all planned out. That you know everything that's going to happen before it does." she shook her head. "You think you know what kind fight this is going to be, but you have no idea."

"Is that right?"

She was tempted. Utter a word to make him stop, maybe see if she could freeze time so they could finally apprehend him. But if it didn't work, then she'd played a hand she can't get back. An element of surprise she could only use once, and that moment wasn't now. She looked at him for a moment, before taking a step, and in the next second he shot a throwing star. Katie flipped back, able to grab the throwing star mid air and shoot it back at him, only to see the star puncture the wall and the man gone. Katie ran to the window, but they were nowhere in sight.

"Guardian!" came Oliver's voice as he ran down the short flight of steps and spotted her. Katie didn't move, her eyes still glancing around for even a glimpse. Oliver's eyes went to the woman before down to her hand. He noticed the slight glow on her finger tips, but he also noticed blood dripping from her hand. "You're bleeding." Katie looked down to her hand to see that it was indeed bleeding. She looked over to Oliver for a moment before turning and stalking away.

It was ridiculously late, maybe even extremely early when Katie returned to the bunker. Felicity was standing there waiting.

"Are you alright? Felicity asked before glancing down and seeing the blood dripping from her clenched fist.

"I didn't stop him." Katie said. Those words were playing over and over again in her head on the drive back to the bunker.

"You were alone and he-"

"No, that's not it. I wasn't scared. Not of him, definitely not of Evelyn." Katie turned away, those words were still playing over and over again. "I just didn't stop him." she shook her head before walking off to get changed.

With the knowledge that Evelyn was working with Prometheus, Oliver knew they were too exposed. He needed to get Thea and bring her to the bunker. John called Lyla and they were headed to an ARGUS safe house. Right now they didn't know what Evelyn could've told Prometheus. When Oliver and Thea entered the bunker, Oliver's eyes looked over to the rest of the team, but continued searching for Katie.

"She's over in the first aid area." Felicity called over to him. Oliver glanced over to her for just a second before turning and hurrying off.

When he found her, she seemed to be wrapping a bandage around her hand. She glanced over to him before turning back to her hand.

"Are you ok?" he asked walking over to her. She didn't say anything before she turned to walk away from him. "Twinkie, will you just—I'm sorry, I should've told you the moment I suspected that Prometheus knew I was the Green Arrow. It just— it was Robyn's birthday and I didn't—"

"Stop talking Liver." Katie says turning back to him. "You just apologized, and then you were about to follow it up with an excuse to justify your actions and I don't want your excuses no matter how noble you think they are." she let out a deep breath. "Look right now what you told me or didn't tell me doesn't matter. He knows and now we have to find a way to stop him." she turned to leave.

"I just wanted to hold on to it for a little longer." Oliver said and Katie turned to him. "I knew it was coming. I knew I would have to tell you the truth, but I wanted to hold on to-"

"The lie." she said and he let out a sigh. "Because that's what it was. Whether you told me or not, that bastard had your face, he had that target now pointing at Oliver Queen. And a target pointed at you doesn't necessarily have to be pointed at you. It's pointed at our daughter, Ari, me." She shook her head before turning back to him. She took a step toward him clenching her jaw. "No matter how much I want to yell, scream and hit you right now, I'm not going to." she let out a deep breath before taking a step back. "We need to find this guy. The team found ashes at the plant and Felicity's running them now. Maybe it will be a lead to something." she walked off, stopping when her phone suddenly rang. She slipped it from her pocket, quirking a brow before answering. "If you're drunk dialing me, I'm going to find you and beat the crap out of you."

"Chill, I'm not drunk." Came the voice of a now sober Michael. "After a lot of coffee and seeing the news of that attack, I sobered up quick. I'm calling you because I just found an email."

Katie slid a hand over her face. "Why do I care about an email?"

"Because it's from my private investigator, Timothy." he said. "With all that crap going on at the office, I hadn't been checking my private inbox and it was just sitting here."

"Well what does it say?"

"It's an address to meet. It isn't his office, but he says that's where he wants to meet to show me what he's found. The thing is, this email is like a week old so I doubt I find him waiting, but I might find out what happened to him."

"That doesn't sound dangerous at all." Katie said sarcastically. "Look, just wait before you go. I'm dealing with some stuff right now, but give me a couple of days and I will help you figure this out."

"If this is the proof I need to get rid of Annabelle then I don't want to sit on this. I'm going to go and I'll let you know what I find."

"Mike, don't be an idiot-"

"I'm not. This is it, I can feel it."

Katie stood there with the phone pressed to her ear. She didn't say anything as she let out a sigh. "You have to be careful."

"That almost sounds like you care, Sweets." he chuckled. "Don't worry. I got this. Call you soon."

When he ended the call, Katie pulled the phone from her ear and looked down to it. She felt that pit in her gut once again and she just couldn't shake it.

Thea was getting bored of waiting around the bunker with nothing to do but looking at a screen waiting for any sign of Claybourne. She glanced over when she heard something. She frowned as she stood to her feet, walking around to find the sound. It wasn't until she spotted Ari, punching the sparring dummy did she find the source.

"Have you even slept?" Thea asked walking over to her.

"I'm not tired." Ari panted as she threw another punch-kick combo. Thea moved a bit closer, impressed at the girl's moves.

"Is this about Evelyn?"

"You mean the crazy psycho bitch that I told everyone she was a crazy psycho bitch, but no one believed me?" Ari asked glancing over to Thea before turning and punching the dummy again. "At least now when I see her and beat the shit out of her, no one will try to stop me."

"Whoa. You know I thought you were the more enlightened member of the team." Thea said and Ari stopped and turned to her. "The one who believes everyone can be saved. I didn't know that was contingent on whether you liked them or not."

"Well that's just it. She was saved. Oliver found her, gave her the opportunity to do some good and she decided to double cross him and work with the monster that's been killing innocent people in this city." Ari let out a sigh. "I believe people can be saved and we should try to save them if we can, but we can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. She made her choice and now she's got to live with the outcome." Ari turned and spun a kick into the dummy and Thea just let out a low whistle. She almost felt sorry for Evelyn. She shook her head before turning and heading back over to the computers.

She stopped when she glanced over to Felicity who stood in front of the machine that was analyzing the ashes, her eyes on her phone.

"Bruce?" Thea asked and Felicity glanced over to her with a shake of her head before she put the phone down. Thea furrowed a brow, and couldn't help but notice that since she's been here, that Felicity seemed to be acting very un-Felicity-like. She walked over to the blonde. "Is everything ok? You're not acting like yourself." Felicity turned away, looking back down to the device. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." Felicity said before turning to the woman. "I'm fine. Have you seen Twinkie?"

Thea took the topic change to mean she really didn't want to talk. She shook her head. "Uh yeah, I think she went to get Robyn. Now that she's walking it's increased the chances of her disappearing down here if no one's watching her." Thea smiled. "I still can't believe she's walking. Kids grow up so fast, one minute they're in diapers the next-"

"They're showing up at your door." Felicity muttered. Thea looked over to her with a quirked brow, but the sequencer beeped and Felicity turned back to it. She typed a few keys on the tablet and let out a sigh. Rory and Rene walked over and she glanced over to him.

"What does it say? Whose ashes was Claybourne keeping?" Thea asked.

"Claybourne." Felicity replied and they all looked over to her. "The ashes are his."

"So if Claybourne isn't Prometheus, then who is?" Rory asked and it was the question that no one could answer.

Katie sat on the combat mats, with Robyn in front of her sitting on her blanket as she played with her toys. She looked down to her phone to a message from Oliver that he was on his way back with food. She'd typed so many responses, only to delete them after. She hated that he was gone even though she was upset with him. Not seeing him just made her anxious. She just responded with a thumbs up emoji and put the phone down before looking back over to Robyn.

"I'm sorry." Katie suddenly said, but Robyn just continued to play with her toys. "You shouldn't have to spend your days trapped in some stuffy hero bunker." Robyn stood to her feet and took wobbly steps toward the bin of toys and Katie just smiled. Her phone beeped and she picked it up, expecting another message from Oliver, but instead it was from Michael. It was a picture of a baby and Katie just looked at it in confusion, before her phone rang and she saw it was him. "Don't tell me. A girl you hooked up with showed up at your door?"

"Katie?" came Michael's voice. He rarely called her Katie, and the fact that there was static on the line and he sounded like he was out of breath.

"Mike? What's going on?"

"I...it's...her..."

"Mike, the line's breaking up, I can't understand a word you're saying." she stood to her feet and took a step thinking maybe the reception was just bad down here. "Did you find out anything from the investigator?"

"...working with...I..all along."

"Mike, I seriously can't understand anything-" there was rustling from the end of the line before the call just ended. She looked down to her phone with a furrowed brow about to call him back when she glanced over to the blanket and didn't see Roybn. "Oh no-" Katie started looking around. "Robyn!"

Oliver rode down the elevator down to the bunker, pizzas in his hand as he looked at the doors.

"She's going to forgive you, man." John said from beside him.

"I'm not so sure." Oliver sighed. "She has every right to be upset. I should've told her, I just-"

"Didn't want that dark cloud that is Prometheus hovering above your family." John said and Oliver looked over to him with a nod. "I get it. I think she gets it too. I think our wives like to make us suffer for a while when we do something stupid for the right reasons before they forgive us." Oliver just chuckled before the doors of the elevator opened. He didn't expect to see his daughter run past them. Oliver and John quickly stepped off of the elevator, and glanced in the direction they'd seen her run and yet she wasn't there.

"I should-" Oliver said handing the pizza off to John before hurrying off.

John laughed as he watched Oliver. "Baby flash." he muttered.

Oliver came around the corner of the bunker. "Hey sweetie, I got pizza, your favorite." he looked down, trying to see if he could spot her. There were way too many tiny spaces she could hide. There were also weapons he didn't want her to be near. Felicity jokes about baby proofing the bunker, he now thinks that maybe he should. He came around another corner, this time spotting Katie on the floor on her hands and knees. She stopped and looked over to him.

"Uh, hey." she said.

"Why are you on the floor?" Oliver asked and Katie just shook her head before looking around.

"I lost uh, lost my...scrunchie." she muttered and Oliver chuckled.

"And by scrunchie, you mean our child." he said and Katie turned back to him. "She ran past us when we were coming off of the elevator."

"I took my eyes off of her for like a minute and when I turned around she was gone." Katie says crawling around looking for the girl who liked to hide. "I knew we should've bought her a bell."

"I got her!" they heard Thea call. Katie let out a huff before standing to her feet. Oliver reached forward to help her but she swat away his hand.

"I'm fine." she said standing to her feet and brushing off her clothes. She pulled out her cell phone and tried to call Michael, but it went straight to voice mail. "Damn it."

"What?" Oliver says and Katie turns to him.

"Michael." she says looking back down to her phone. "He hired this investigator to look into Annabelle. The investigator called him, told him he found something, then went off the grid. Mike found an email from the guy asking him to meet. I told him to hold off, but he's too damn stubborn." she looked back over to Oliver. "Another trait you two share." she glanced back to her phone. "He called me when I was watching Robyn."

"So you were on the phone talking to your ex-boyfriend when you were supposed to be watching our daughter?" Oliver asked and Katie lifted her eyes to him. He knew he shouldn't have said that, but hearing that the two of them were talking just wasn't something he wanted to hear. "I'm sorry, I just—I don't understand how this guy is still in your life." Maybe he also didn't like that while he and Katie were having problems, there was an ex-boyfriend who was also an ex fiance in her ear.

"You can say that after Laurel Lance became like a full fledged member of the team a few years ago? Or your friend Sara who we got to hang out with a couple of weeks ago."

"That's different and you know it. Laura and Sara are friends with both of us. Michael likes to annoy me by flirting with my wife in front of me. I guess I'm just not comfortable with you being friends with him." Katie looked at him for a moment. "And it has nothing to do with me being afraid that something would ever happen with you two, it's just-I mean look at how he acted last night."

"He was drunk and upset. He was fired from a company he worked really hard for." she shook her head before looking down to her phone. "And he just went to location unknown and now he's not answering my calls. I think he's in trouble." she looked back over to Oliver who could tell that she really was just concerned.

Oliver let out a sigh. "Did he tell you where he was going?"

"No, and like an idiot, I didn't even ask." she said.

"You're not an idiot. There's a lot happening right now." Oliver said. "You said he got an email with the location?" Katie gave a nod. "Maybe Felicity could get into his inbox."

"That's actually a good idea." Katie said and he slightly frowned.

"Don't sound so surprised." he said and Katie just smiled before turning and heading off toward Felicity.

Katie was pacing back and forth behind Felicity as the woman work on hacking into Michael's email.

"Do we really have time to hack into old boyfriends emails right now?" Rene asked. "I mean we just found out that Claybourne isn't Prometheus, so we have bigger problems like how we just ended up back at square one."

"Don't worry, I can hack into someone's email in my sleep." Felicity said and with a final click. "And I'm in." Katie hurried over and looked at the screen to see the man's inbox.

"There." pointing to the email from T. Grant. Felicity clicked open the email and they read the address.

"Wait," Felicity said before looking over to Katie. She turned to look over her shoulder to Oliver.

"What is it?" he said walking over as Katie turned to him.

"The address the investigator wanted to meet him, it's Claybourne Manufacturing plant." Katie replied and Oliver frowned as he looked over to screen. Katie turned back to the monitor and she closed her eyes. "What if the investigator didn't send this email?" she turned to Oliver.

"You think Prometheus lured him there? Why?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." she said before turning and heading over toward her Guardian's suit.

"Hey, wait-" Oliver grabbed her arm, but she tugged away. "I know you're worried about him, but going there without knowing what's going on is too dangerous."

"Like you just did last night?" she asked and Oliver sighed. "If this is Prometheus then Michael went there because of us. I can't just sit here knowing he could be in trouble."

"Just give us some time to figure out what's going on." Oliver said. "When he called did anything he say make sense?"

"No, it was all distorted by static. Wait-" she pulled out her phone and opened the message he sent her. "He sent me this picture." Katie turned her phone to show Oliver the picture of the baby. Oliver took the phone and handed it to Felicity who looked at it as well.

"Felicity you think you could do a facial recon on this?" Oliver asked.

"Facial recon isn't really baby friendly." Felicity said glancing up to him.

Oliver shrugged. "Try it anyway. Michael took this picture for a reason, and maybe it's our connection to Prometheus." Oliver felt his phone vibrate and he pulled it out to see an urgent request to meet with him from Adrian Chase. He turned and walked over to Katie. "Let's see where Felicity gets with the picture." Katie let out a sigh but gave a nod. "I just got a message from City Hall, I have to go in."

"The hell you do." Katie said and Oliver sighed before bringing an arm around her and pulling her off to the side away from the others. She pulled out of his grasp and turned to him. "No, this is not happening. You're not leaving."

"There will be extra security, but if I don't show up there will be questions. I can't just disappear."

"You can when someone is trying to kill you." she replied meeting his eyes.

"I'm not even sure that's what he's trying to do. He seems to want to make me suffer. Throw my past in my face, hurt the people around me." Oliver shook his head.

"If that's true why did he stop Evelyn from shooting me?" she asked and Oliver looked at her for a moment with a shrug. She let out a sigh before taking a step forward and grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer to her. "I'm not very happy with you at the moment."

"I know." he said placing his hand on her waist, but she pushed it away with her other hand and he let out a sigh.

"Go to City Hall, figure out what is so urgent and then come back, got it?" Oliver smiled at her and she just rolled her eyes. "Do you got it?"

"I love you." he replied before placing a kiss to her lips. "I got it. Go to City Hall and come back." he leaned in to kiss her again but she pulled away and he chuckled. "It was worth a shot."

The facial recon was taking some time, so Felicity decided to continue poking around Michael's email. She tried to ignore the pacing woman behind her who hadn't stopped since Oliver left. Felicity's fingers stopped when she glanced over to her ringing phone to see Bruce's name appear. She let out a sigh before grabbing her phone and standing to her feet. Katie stopped pacing and turned to her.

"I have to take this. The search is still going and hopefully we'll have some results soon." Felicity said. Katie just nods before Felicity goes off to the other side of the bunker.

Katie couldn't stay still, so she just turned off and continued pacing.

"Ok, that's it." Rene said jumping to his feet and moving to block the woman. "I'm sorry Doc, but the pacing is getting annoying. Just sit down." she let out a huff before going over to sit down. "Thank you." Rene went back to his seat, just across from the woman. "So what's the deal with you and this guy?" Katie didn't say anything as she avoided his gaze. Thea glanced over from Rene to Katie.

"Twinkie, we're going to find him." Thea said hoping to reassure the woman. "But you have to get out of your head." Katie looked over to her. "Whatever you're thinking right now, whatever way you think you have to fix this, it isn't the way." Katie shook her head before turning away. "You going out there alone looking for this guy-"

"I let him go." Katie said suddenly turning back to Thea. "I was standing right in front of Prometheus and Evelyn, and I didn't do a damn thing to stop them. I didn't even attempt and I have no idea why." Thea looked back at the woman.

"Yes you do." Thea said and Katie met her gaze. "You know why you let him go." Katie turned away. "You knew what a fight with him and Evelyn would lead to. You knew what you would end up doing if you let yourself fight them. The man who has murdered countless innocent people and the girl who we thought we could trust was actually helping him."

Katie didn't say anything because she knows it's true. Those words bouncing around in her head since she encountered Prometheus. She let him go. She pretended as if she didn't know why, but deep down she knew the truth. She knew that if she fought him, if she fought Evelyn, then she wouldn't stop until they were both dead. Realizing that fact scared her. It made her think of that dark thing that used to live in her body. That thing that could kill and not think twice about it. She hadn't taken a life since Damien and she couldn't help but to go back to that moment of standing there forced to watch as her hand went through his chest and grabbed his heart with her bare hand. She felt that glimmer of darkness as she stood in front of Prometheus and Evelyn. That tug, that little whisper in her ear to just end this once and for all. The sound of Robyn's cries tore her from her thoughts and without another word she stands up to go check on her daughter.

Once she's gone, Rory, Rene and Ari sit there in silence before curiosity gets the best of Rory who turns to Thea.

"Are we missing something?" Rory asked and Thea turned to him. "With Katie, did something happen that we don't know about." Thea didn't say anything as she turns back to the monitor. Rory sighs before glancing over to Ari. "You know I thought we were all in agreement that secrets on this team don't invoke a lot of trust. I know something happened to her. Something that made her...different." Ari turned to him.

"A bad man hurt her and she got lost. Oliver found her but it was too late and she ended up in a coma." Ari said with a shrug. "That's all that I can tell you. Anything more, you have to wait until she is ready to talk about it." Ari turned when her phone suddenly rang and she let out a sigh when she saw the number.

"What's wrong?" Thea asked and Ari looked over to her.

"It's my mom's lawyer?" Ari said with a shake her head before turning and sending the call to voice mail. "It's probably nothing." It wasn't nothing, but Ari wasn't ready to bring that topic up. He'd left a voice mail a couple of times and in one of them, he revealed that he'd finally got her mother a parole hearing and that he wanted her there to speak on her behalf. Ari had yet to return his call, still hesitant to go through with it. "I'm going to go check on her." with that the girl stood to her feet and headed off.

Felicity looked down to Bruce's name for another moment before she answered and brought the phone to her ear.

"What's up?" she answered, her tone revealing more than she would've liked. She was hoping with time and space that she could finally get over this anger and sadness that was currently living in her chest, but it's still there.

"Hey, I was just-" Bruce's tone was light, trying not to reveal too much of what he was really feeling right now. "I wanted to check in. It's been a while since I seen you and I just-" he cleared his throat. "Wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine." she kept her answer short hoping to finally end the call. She was afraid that any longer on this call and that tight little bow she had wrapped around her feelings was just going to tear open at any moment. "Look there's a lot going on here so I don't really-"

"I want to say this to your face, but you don't seem to want to be in a room with me right now."

"Bruce-"

"I wish things happened differently. I wish that my stupid mistake wasn't now back and messing up our lives."

"Bruce, please just-"

"I wish my first child was with you." he said and Felicity felt the emotion rise up in her throat. "It should've been with you." he paused for a moment, clearing the emotion from his throat. "But I can't change it, no matter how much I wish I could. He's here and-" Bruce once again paused. "Yesterday after you left, I went to track down Talia. To get answers. I needed to know why she waited this long, why she chose now to tell me."

Felicity felt the emotion in her throat, and didn't even attempt to respond. She knew her voice wouldn't be as strong as she wanted it to be.

"When I got to her hotel, Damian opened the door. When I asked where is mother was, he told me that she just dropped him off, booked him a room and told him to wait for me." Bruce once again paused, hoping she would say something, but all he heard was her breathing. "I waited for a while, but she never showed up. I ended up bringing him back home with me and he's currently upstairs in the guest room." Bruce let out a sigh. "I couldn't leave him there alone, so I thought this was what was best." Bruce stopped talking once again, giving the information enough time to settle, enough time for her to let him know what she was thinking. That's all he wanted right now. He wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. She was pulling away from him and he didn't know what he could do to pull her back. "Please say something."

Felicity held the phone to her ear and she could hear the desperation in the request. Right now he wanted something she doesn't know she's ready to reveal. Right now, her thoughts and feelings were secured inside that box within herself and she wasn't ready to face them. She was actually afraid to face them. Afraid of the decisions she'd make with all those emotions driving her. She turned at the sound of footsteps, realizing it was John who slowed his pace as he got closer.

John came over to tell Felicity that the facial recon was finished, but the moment he walked over and saw the frown on her face as she gripped the phone to her ear.

"Felicity?" John walked over to her. "What's wrong?" she looked at him for a moment before holding up a finger and turning her back to him.

"I'm not ready for this conversation. When I am, I will find you, until then you should just-" she wanted to cry, and she didn't know why. She felt like something was stolen from her, something she can never get back...something she never had. "Just take care of your son." she ended the call and turned back to John who still held a look of concern. "Did the facial recon find something?"

John knew her avoiding the subject was her way of trying to get out of his questions, but he couldn't let this go. "Felicity-"

"I don't want to talk about it John and I really wish you all could understand that." she snapped before moving around him to head back to her computer, but she stopped and let out a deep breath. She turned back to him. "I'm sorry, that wasn't about you."

"I know. Look whatever is going on with you and Bruce, just know I'm here for you. Whatever you need. If you need an ear I can listen, and if you need me to beat him up, I can do that too." the woman gave a small smile.

"Thanks John." she said before nudging her head. "I'm going to see what we got."

Oliver stepped off the elevator of City Hall, and spotted Adrian down the hall, but the man wasn't alone. Oliver slowed his pace as he got closer and two sets of eyes turned to him.

"Hey I got your 911." Oliver said looking from Adrian to the woman standing beside him. "Ms. Grey."

"Mr. Mayor. I really appreciate you coming." Annabelle said before glancing over to Adrian. Oliver slightly frowned before turning to the man as well.

"Yeah, I think 911 may have been understating things a bit." Adrian said turning to Annabelle and nudging his head. "Ms. Grey received an email." Annabelle pulled out her phone and swiped the screen before passing it to Oliver. Oliver let out a sigh. They were pictures of Micheal tied to a chair covered in blood.

"Is he alive?" Oliver asked looking up to the pair.

"There's a video. Just swipe." Annabelle said and Oliver looked down to the phone before swiping left and playing the video. The image of Michael, his head to his chest before someone grabs him by the back of his hair and pulls his head back causing the man to let out a pained scream before the image pans out to show Prometheus standing behind him. The video ends and Oliver frowns before looking up to Adrian and Annabelle.

"That's it? Was there a message?" he looked over to Annabelle who shook her head.

"No, that was sent to me and I brought it directly to Mr. Chase." she said before turning to Adrian. "I mean if this gets out—it could be a death sentence for the company." Adrian looked at her with a furrowed brow.

"I don't give a damn about your company. There's a man's life on the line right now." Adrian turned back to Oliver. "I have people trying to figure out the source of the video. Right now the SCPD needs instructions."

Oliver frowned. "Well we've had a BOLO out for weeks."

"I'm not talking about a be on the look out." Adrian said. "I'm talking about a shoot to kill."

Oliver looked at him for a moment, thinking of how such an order would look. "I don't think that would sit well with the public."

"I do. They'll love it. You know why?" Adrian asked. "Because they are sick and tired as I am of watching this psycho murder Star City's finest and get away with it. Our cops need to know that they can fight back. They don't have to take it easy on this guy anymore." Oliver turned away for a moment before giving a nod.

"Ok. Do it, pull in every cop you can find." Oliver said turning back to Adrian. "You tell them holiday hours are revoked." Adrian gave a nod before rushing off. Oliver turned back to Annabelle, handing her back her phone. He looked at her for a moment before turning, only stopping when she caught his arm.

"Mayor Queen-" she said. Oliver turned to her, tugging his arm from her grasp and she let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I just-" she shook her head. "I wanted to apologize for my past behavior. After really thinking about it, I do see how it could've been construed as inappropriate."

"Construed?" Oliver said. "Look, right now all I care about is making sure Michael is ok." he once again turned.

"For his safety or because you're afraid your wife will be upset if you didn't do everything you could to find him." the woman said and Oliver turned to her with a quirked brow. "Look, we were sent some pictures. Pictures that show your wife and Mr. Carroll looking a little more friendlier than friends." Oliver looked at her for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I'm just saying, there's a lot of scandal surrounding Michael Carroll and your wife and-"

"Ms. Grey, I appreciate you bringing Michael's disappearance to the attention of the DA and we're going to do everything we can to find him. For now, I think you should go." Oliver said and the woman just gave a nod before turning, but stopping.

"You know, I like to think that we were friends." she said looking over to the man. "When I first started at RI, you were one of the few people who actually made me feel welcome. You said I would always have your support. Then Katherine came back and-"

"You should stop talking now." Oliver said, the tone in his voice gave Annabelle a very clear understanding that she should follow his request. "The truth, Ms. Grey is that with time I have seen a very different side of you. One that I no longer want to be associated with, so I'm going to say again and for the final time before I call security, you need to leave." She stood there for a moment longer before turning and walking away.

When Oliver returned to the bunker, he stepped from the elevator, walking out only to see Felicity and John. He glanced around, suddenly nervous that he didn't see his wife.

"She's here." John said, answering the question that he's sure Oliver was thinking. "She went to check on Robyn a while ago and hasn't come back out. Ari went to check on her, but she hasn't come back yet either."

"We weren't sure we should wake her up to tell her what we found." Felicity said and Oliver looked over to her with a quirked brow. "Facial recognition did kick back something on the baby photo."

"Court records to Claybourne's divorce." John said.

"The baby is Claybourne's son." Felicity added.

"You told me Claybourne didn't have any kids." Oliver said

"Not of the legitimate variety, but the divorce petition Claybourne's ex-wife filed says otherwise." Felicity said. "There's no record of the kid's name in the files, but due to the filing date, he'd be about 30 today."

Oliver let out s sigh as he turned away. "Oh."

"Just old enough to put on a hood and a mask." John said and Oliver turned to him.

"Old enough to want revenge on the man who murdered his father." Oliver sighed.

"Oliver, this isn't on you, man."

"Yes, it is. Yes, it is. You warned me, John. You warned me that there would be unintended consequences, and I didn't listen." Oliver shook his head as he remembered something. "Prometheus surprised me at the plant with a move, a very specific, unique move. It was taught to me by a woman that I met in Russia."

"You think you and Prometheus had the same teacher?" Felicity asked.

"I think what he's saying is Prometheus had over 4 years to learn everything he does." John said and Oliver nodded before glancing over to the other side of the bunker. "What?"

Oliver turned back to them. "Prometheus sent photos and video of Michael." Oliver shook his head. "He's injured, but alive." he let out a heavy sigh. "And now I need to tell my wife." he looked over to John. "Let's get Rory and Rene. We're going to hit the streets." he turned to Felicity. "You learn anything new, tell me." he turned to John. "Do not engage this enemy under any circumstances." they gave him a nod before he turned and headed off toward the far end of the bunker to the backroom. Oliver carefully pushed open the door, to find the room slightly dim with only the light from a lamp near the bed. He walked over with a smile to see Katie, and Ari asleep, with Robyn sprawled between them. Oliver quietly walked over and took a seat on the edge of the bed beside Katie, reaching over to push her hair from her face before placing a soft kiss to the corner of her lips. She stirred, turning and squinting her eyes to see Oliver sitting beside her.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked and Oliver gave a nod before she began sitting up. She glanced over to see Robyn and Ari before turning to Oliver and sliding a hand over her face. "I must've fallen asleep while trying to get Robyn back to sleep." she turned back to Oliver and could see from his expression that something was wrong. "What's up?" he nudged his head to the door and she nods before standing to her feet and following him out, closing the door behind her. "What's going on?"

"Prometheus has Michael. Some pictures and a video were sent to Annabelle of him. He's been beat up but he's alive." Oliver said and Katie just held his gaze for a moment before turning away.

"Prometheus sent pictures and video of Michael being beat up to Annabelle Grey." Katie said and Oliver nods.

"Look Twinkie, we're going to find him and get him out of the middle of this mess." Oliver said hoping to reassure her, but she didn't reply. She just stood there with a look on her face that he came to recognize. "What are you thinking?"

"Why Annabelle Grey?" Katie asked. "Did he make some sort of ransom demand?"

"No, she says there was no message." Oliver replied and Katie turned away from him. "Twinkie-"

"Anything from the video give a clue to where he is?" she asked turning back to Oliver who just shook his head.

"No, but Felicity was able to get a hit from the baby picture Michael sent you. Apparently it's Claybourne's son." Oliver said and Katie turned to him. "I did this. I decided to kill Claybourne and now his son is back for revenge." he placed his hands on her waist. "I'm going to fix this. I'm going to find him and finally stop this bastard." Oliver turned to walk away.

"Wait, Liver, just-" she let out a sigh as Oliver turned to her. "This isn't on you. You didn't start this. This is all just a series of decisions made by a very sick man. Prometheus is choosing to do this. He's choosing to hurt and kill people. You didn't make those choices for him. If this is his reaction to his grief then it's all on him." she reached over and took Oliver's hand. "Just remember that. Get him and the guilt out of your head because you can't beat him with it." the door to the room pulled open and they turned to see Ari who was rubbing the sleep from her eyes before she looked over to Katie and Oliver.

"You find him?" Ari asked.

"No, but we were going to hit the streets to see if we could pick up any leads." Oliver said and the girl gave a nod before walking past them. "Ari, you were just sleeping if you-"

"And now I'm awake, and going with you." she said glancing back to him. "After what he did to Curtis, he needs to be stopped." Oliver just gave a nod before the girl turned and went to suit up.

Oliver turned back to Katie who placed a hand on his cheek before turning. "You're not going?" he asked and she stopped and looked back to him.

"Hitting the streets isn't really my thing. I'm going to go over what you have about Claybourne, see if maybe there's something that can zero in on where ever he's hiding." Katie says before once again turning.

"Twinkie, if you find something, I need you to tell me." Oliver said and she glanced back to him. "You can't go after him alone. He's dangerous."

"I'm dangerous." she countered. "But fine, if I find something, I'll let you know."

When the team left, Katie found herself sitting behind one of the computers, trying to make sense of Claybourne's past. Thea rolled over in her chair beside her and Katie glanced over to her before turning back to the screen.

"You know I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that you're choosing to stay behind and research instead of being out there and hitting people for answers." Thea said and Katie let out a snort.

"Hitting people for answers they don't have is pointless and a waste of time." she said before turning to see Felicity and Thea looking over to her. "Not to say that Oliver and team are wasting their time."

"That's kind of what you just said." Felicity said.

"Well it's only my opinion, and we all know what my opinions mean to Oliver." Katie said turning back to the screen. "I mean, I told him that going to Claybourne Technologies sounded like a trap and as it turns out it was, but he needed to go despite how I felt."

"Well that's not entirely true." Felicity said and Katie looked over to her with a quirked brow. "I mean, fine he went, but you were the bug in his ear the entire time. You made him cautious, you made the team cautious."

"How cautious was he when he went into that room after you told him not to?" Katie asked turning back to the screen. "He's stubborn and sometimes he just doesn't listen to reason when he thinks he's right."

"Sounds like someone else I know." Thea said and Katie just glared over to her before turning back to the screen. "What are you even looking for?"

"I don't really know." Katie sighed sitting back and closing her eyes with a deep sigh before opening her eyes to the ceiling. "You know I met Michael at a party. It was spring break I think. I was a senior in high school, he was a freshman in college interning at RI but I didn't know that when I met him." she chuckled. "I ended up at this beach party, totally sulking because I thought I would be spending break with Oliver-" she glanced over to Thea. "And you and your parents in Sydney. I was so excited, until he stopped by my house the day before you guys were leaving to tell me-"

"He was spending spring break with Laurel and Tommy in Cancun." Thea said and Katie nodded. "I didn't know he invited you to go with us though. You should've still came. That trip was so lame."

"Yeah, that's what he told me. That I should still go anyway and have a good time." she shook her head before looking back up to the ceiling. "I don't know why, but I'd been looking forward to that trip for some reason, as if I expected-" she shrugged. "I don't know what I expected. I ended up lying to him and telling him that I was just about to call him and tell him that I couldn't go anyway because my dad wanted me to come with him for spring break."

"I think I remember that Spring Break. Your dad was in Montreal." Thea said and Katie gave a nod.

"Right, so I ended up in Montreal, my dad busy with business meetings. One night, RI was throwing a party to celebrate a merger they'd just made with a company there. It was a beach party and my dad was there, and I knew absolutely no one. I spent most of the party sitting by the edge of the water just watching the water wash over my feet. That's when Michael came over to me." she laughed. "Oh, he said the most cheesiest pick up line, I can't even remember it, but I remember laughing right in his face. He asked me out and I politely declined, and his arrogant ass asked me if I was sure." Katie laughed as she glanced over to Thea who laughed. "He said he didn't think I was and since he was a determined guy, that didn't give up that easily he wasn't going to give up just yet and just walked away."

"So you're saying he's always been an ass?" Thea asked and Katie chuckled.

"Yeah, but he was other things too. He had his good parts and his bad parts and I think I got blinded by his good parts for so long that I ended up engaged to him." she said sliding a hand over her face. "You know I was actually excited to marry him until one day-" she glances over to Felicity. "I see Oliver on the news, another story about him punching out some paparazzi." she turned away. "When they showed his face, I just-" she let out a snort. "Just his picture on a television screen ignited feelings I thought were gone and dead."

"That's why you broke off the engagement." Thea said and Katie looked over to her and nods.

"One of the reasons. Before I could tell him that I didn't want to get married, he told me he slept with another woman and I think it was just fate at that point. We weren't meant to be together, but he's always been someone I could depend on." Katie turned back to the screen. "And now he's in the middle of a fight that has nothing to do with him and I'm just sitting here-" Katie stood to her feet. "I can't just sit here."

"So you're going to join Oliver and the others?" Thea asked and Katie looked over to her.

"No."

Thea and Felicity stood nervously beside Katie as they all stood above a map of the city that sat on the table.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Felicity said.

"You've said that already." Katie replied looking down to the map. "I've done this once before. When Ari was missing, I was able to find her." Katie looked over to Felicity and Thea. "Look, back on that spaceship, I saw my mother, at least I think I did." Katie turned back to the map. "She told me that these powers, they weren't going anywhere and that I needed to embrace them and right now I need to do this." Katie turned back to the map, and pressed her palms against it and closed her eyes. "Alright, I'm not sure what I'm doing, but hopefully this works. Where are you Mike?"

In the past, when she used her powers, Katie found that concentration was the key. That she needed to see in her mind what she wanted to happen. She felt that familiar heat at the tips of her fingers, but this time she also felt a pulsating pain from her head. She tried to hold on. She's tolerated pain before, and if this was going to help her find Micheal, she didn't want to give in too soon.

"Twinkie, you need to stop." Thea suddenly said and Katie shook her head.

"No, I think it's working." Katie groaned through the pain. "I'm fine, I can take it I just-" she opened her eyes to see the tips her fingers illuminated with a bright white light, and soon that light seemed to travel to the map. "Show me where Michael is." small orbs of light moved across the map before finally settling in one spot. "There-" she pointed before turning to Felicity. "What's there?" Felicity wasn't looking at the map, just staring at Katie with a concerned expression. "Smoaks, I think this is it, can you tell me what's here?" Katie turned back to the map, when suddenly her eyes looked down to something drip on the map. Katie's eyes looked down to see the first red drop, followed by another before realizing it was coming from her. She lifted her hand to her nose, feeling the blood instantly before looking back over to Thea and Felicity and realizing why they were looking at her the way they were. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine." Thea said before grabbing a chair and rolling it over. "You need to sit."

"Speedy-"

"No, just sit down, ok?" Thea said and Katie sighed before sitting.

"Happy?" she said before turning to Felicity. "Now, can you tell me what is there?" Felicity stood there for a moment before glancing over to the map and with a sigh she turned and headed over to her computer. She typed a few keys.

"That's weird." Felicity said and Katie looked over to her. "I'm not finding anything in any geo searches." Katie stood to her feet.

"Katie, you need-"

"Thea I'm fine." Katie said before walking over to Felicity. "There's something there. Is there somewhere else you can look?" Felicity turned back to the computer before trying a different search hoping to find something on the dark web.

"That's interesting." Felicity said.

"What?"

"It's the AK Desmond Group." Felicity said turning to Katie. "Back when I didn't know Oliver was the hood, he'd come down to my office in QC with these weird stories I secretly knew were lies. I think back when he was going after Claybourne, he asked me about the AK Desmond Group. Some story about sending his friend a singing telegram. Apparently this was where she worked and he needed the address." Felicity typed a few keys. "There. 1852 West Maple. 30th Floor." Katie looked at the address for just a second before turning and heading toward the Guardian's suit, but Thea rushed over to block her.

"Thea-"

"No-" Thea said before looking over to Felicity. "Felicity, call Oliver and tell him about the address." she turned back to Katie. "You're not going."

"Thea Queen, move out of my way."

"I will fight you if I have to, and I'm pretty sure with how you're feeling right now, I might just beat you."

"You wanna bet?" Katie asked and Thea just shook her head.

"No, I don't. What I do know is whatever you just did, caused you pain. Right now, you're not in any shape to face this guy especially alone." Thea said and Katie just stared without a word. She knew Thea was right. Her mind and body were both completely drained and the pain, though not as strong, was still there. She'd been taught that she couldn't let pain dictate her choices. She had to push through the pain. Katie moved around Thea, only reaching the display case when she felt the ground shift beneath her feet causing her to stumble. She didn't fall, but she did hunch over grabbing her knees. "Twinkie—"

"I'm fine. I just-" she lifted her head to Thea. "Maybe you're right." Katie let Thea grab her arm and pull her over to sit.

Oliver felt like an idiot for not remembering AK Desmond Group. It made sense that Prometheus would be there. The place where his father was killed. Walking through the building just seemed to stir up all those memories from all those years ago. He remembers walking through the building, killing guards until he finally cornered Claybourne on the roof.

When Oliver walked onto that roof, he found Prometheus standing in the exact same spot as Claybourne. It was like he was trying to recreate that moment.

"Did you hesitate at all when you killed him?" Prometheus asked. "Or was he just another name on your list?"

"If you want revenge, I'm right here." Oliver snarled as he gripped the bow in his hand.

"This is about so much more than revenge." In the next moment, Prometheus shot a throwing star toward Oliver who quickly dodged it before grabbing an arrow and firing on the man who made a run for the edge of the roof. Oliver ran after him, grabbing him as Prometheus tossed out a line that sent them both over the edge of the roof. Prometheus crashed through the window while Oliver caught the edge, and pulled himself inside to see the man run off.

Oliver walked inside to see the room set up with some sort of maze of mirrors.

"I've studied you, Oliver Queen." Prometheus said and Oliver ground his teeth as he moved in search of the man who was hiding. "I know everything, who you trust, who you hurt, who you love—your children, wife." his deep chuckle grated against Oliver's skin." But do you know how easy it was to turn Evelyn against you, how easy it will be to turn them all against you." Oliver spun around trying to figure out where the man was. "You're no hero. You're a killer." Oliver turned finally spotting him. "And I'm going to show them that. I'm going to show them that everything you touch dies." Oliver tried not to get distracted by the words. He tried to remember what Katie said. To not let him get inside his head, but those words were tugging at every fear and insecurity he had and when the man came into view, Oliver didn't hesitate. He grabbed an arrow from his quiver and notched it against his bow and fired, before grabbing another and another until he sees Prometheus go down. Oliver cautiously moved closer, his eyes going to the sword that he now noticed was taped to his hand. Oliver's eyes widen and he felt his blood run cold as his bow slipped from his hand and he dropped to his knees. "Four years I've waited to make you answer for your sins." Oliver's eyes went to the speaker attached to his chest. His hand trembled as he reached up and pulled off the man's mask and he gasped when he saw who was lying in front of him.

"Michael." the man's mouth was taped, but his eyes were open. Oliver firing arrows at him was the last thing he saw before he died.

"I told you Oliver—Everything you touch dies." taunted Prometheus' voice from that speaker.

Returning to the bunker wasn't easy. Actually, in this moment it felt like the hardest thing Oliver had to do. When he slid off of his bike, Oliver stood there and just looked at the back of the building. He kept seeing Michael's lifeless eyes staring back at him. Now he had to walk in there and tell his wife, that Michael was dead and that he killed him. That's why his feet remained planted in this spot. His mind soon went to her possible reactions. One seemed to be the one he most feared. The truth was that no matter how afraid he was to tell her the truth, he knew he had to, and so life finally found his feet and he stepped inside.

The ride in the elevator was completely nerve wrecking. It felt as if he were headed down to be executed. When the doors opened, he hesitated to step off, but with a deep breath he walked out. He turned to see the team, but his eyes searched for her.

"What happened out there, man?" John asked to Oliver, but Oliver didn't say anything. He still just needed to see Katie. Even though he was completely terrified of telling her what happened, he needed to see her, because just the sight of her could calm the raging emotions stirring inside of him.

"Did you kill Prometheus?" Thea asked.

Oliver didn't answer that question. He couldn't answer any of their questions. He needed to see Katie. He needed to talk to her first before everyone else.

"Where's Twinkie?" he asked, his voice thick with emotion that he's sure they heard, but he didn't care.

As if on cue, he heard her footsteps behind him and when he turned there she was. His heart was still racing because this was the moment he'd been dreading. Katie felt dread the moment she saw Oliver in front of her and the look on his face seemed to make it even worse.

She took in a deep breath, that came out shaky. "Michael is dead." she said and he didn't say anything, but she didn't need him to.

"Prometheus staged..." Oliver dropped his eyes and swallowed the emotion threatening to steal his words. "Michael..." he looked back up to Katie, her eyes on him, but she wasn't showing any emotion toward his words. "He duct-taped his mouth and he put a weapon in his hand and he put him in his suit." Katie closed her eyes imagining the scenario. "Prometheus knew that I was there to kill him." Katie opened her eyes to see his eyes still on her. "He calculated every moment."

Katie didn't say a word as she looked at him and just nodded. The words were still playing in her head, intermingled with images of Michael with that damn smile on his face.

"Twinkie, I'm sorry, I—I killed Michael." when he finally said the words out loud he expected her to react—to hit him or to scream. Katie just stood there looking at him. He knew she was still processing, that she probably had questions she didn't know how to ask, so he kept talking. "I didn't know it was Michael, I promise, I couldn't have known it was him." Oliver shook his head. "I couldn't—I couldn't have known-" he didn't expect her to step forward and bring her arms around him, dropping her head to his chest. It surprised him, and it took him a second to actually react. After that second, he finally brought his arms around her. "Twinkie-"

"It was Prometheus." Katie said, her eyes open as she pressed her head against his chest. Michael was dead. Those words kept playing in her head now. Prometheus dressed him up and placed him in front of Oliver's arrows. It was the move of someone she could only describe as sick and demented. "This was all Prometheus."

Oliver stood there, actually surprised by this reaction. She was taking it easy on him and sure he was glad for the sympathy, but he didn't want her to take it easy on him. He didn't deserve it. He pulled back and Katie looked up to meet his eyes.

"He's trying to prove to me that everyone I—I come into contact with—everyone close to me dies." Oliver swallowed the lump in his throat as he finally accepted what that meant and what he needed to do. "He's right."

"Liver-" Katie placed a hand on his cheek and he just shook his head taking a step away from her.

"You said it yourself. A target on my back means a target on Robyn, or Ari or even you, but it doesn't stop there." he glanced over his shoulder to his friends and let out a sigh before turning back to Katie. "I can't risk anything happening to any of you. I don't think I could survive it." he nods. "Uh I think you—I think you should-" he glanced over to the others. "I think you all should get as far away from me as possible."

"I don't think that's humanly possible, Mr. Queen." Katie said and he turned meeting her eyes. "I think we're all exactly where we need to be." Oliver let out trembling breath before bringing his arms around her.

It was late as Felicity sat alone behind her computer when John took the seat beside her.

"It's late." he said and Felicity let out a tired sigh as she turned to him.

"I know, but I'm sort of dreading going back home." Felicity said. She turned to see Oliver walking over, now changed back into his suit. He looked between Felicity and John.

"Is everything alright?" he asked and John just turned to Felicity who opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by her ringing phone. She spun her chair around, letting out a sigh at the sight of Bruce's name. "Felicity-"

"I think it is time for me to go home." she said picking up her phone and standing to her feet. She turned to Oliver and John who both looked at her in concern.

"Remember what I said." John said and Felicity looked over to him and gave a nod before walking off to grab her jacket and bag and stepping into the elevator.

"Any idea what this is about?" Oliver asked looking over to John who just shook his head. Oliver just let out a sigh as he slid a hand across the back of his head before glancing around the bunker.

"How are you doing?" John asked and Oliver looked over to him with a subtle shake of his head. "She doesn't blame you. No one blames you." Oliver turned away.

"Michael was an obnoxious asshole, but he didn't-" Oliver clenched his jaw. "You know when I saw him, when I pulled back that mask and saw his face, sure I was horrified that I-"

"Oliver-"

"But that wasn't my first thought." Oliver said turning to John. "My first thought was how am I going to explain this to Katie." he shook his head. "As much as I didn't like it, he was important to her and he was killed because of this mess that I created."

"His death isn't on you." Oliver slid a hand over his face, once again glancing around the bunker.

"When I walked in here, I imagined that this would be it. The last straw." Oliver felt the emotion once again in his chest. "There were a variety of reactions I expected, and the one that I was scared to death of was that she'd hate me so much that she'd leave me."

"After everything the two of you have been through together, I honestly believe it will take a lot to break you two." John said and Oliver looked over to him. "That wasn't the breaking point man." Oliver let out a sigh but gave a nod before once again looking around the bunker. "She's with Thea, over in the first aid area." Oliver looked over to him with a quirked brow. "Did anyone tell you how they found that address?"

Katie sat with her eyes closed as she pressed the cold towel against her nose.

"You need to go to the hospital." Thea said from her spot where she stood hovering at Katie's side.

"I'm not going to the hospital." Katie said opening her eyes and standing to her feet. She walked over to the sink, glancing up to the mirror removing the towel to get a look at her nose. She heard the heavy footsteps, and saw Oliver in the mirror behind her. She let out a sigh before turning and once again examining her nose.

Thea looked over to Oliver before turning to Katie. "I guess I should give you guys a minute." Thea started to leave when Oliver stopped her.

"Actually-" Oliver said and Thea turned to him. "Could you find Ari and get everything packed up to leave?" Thea looked over to him in confusion. "I'll explain everything later." She looked at him for a moment but gave a nod before turning and leaving.

"We're leaving?" Katie asked as she turned on the faucet and leaned forward to splash water on her face. She grabbed a towel and dried her face before turning to Oliver who was looking back to her. "I thought it was too risky to go back home." she said as Oliver walked over to her. He didn't say anything as he reached over and placed a hand on her chin, and nudged her head gently to look at her nose. "It was just a nose bleed."

"Was it?" he asked dropping his eyes back to hers. "Or is that the only thing they saw?" Katie turned away. "Twinkie, these powers-"

"They hurt me." she said turning back to him. "I know. But it's not going away. It's inside of me and I can't pretend that it isn't."

"And I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to just be careful. To figure out how to do this, use these abilities without hurting yourself." Oliver said and Katie just gave a nod. She placed her hands on his chest and slid them down to examine him.

"Anything broken?" she asked, and he grimaced when her hands slid over his sore ribs. She frowned as she looked up to meet his eyes.

"Nothing broken, just hurts like hell." Oliver said reaching down and taking her hands in his. He held her gaze and after a moment he slid his hands around her waist and pulled her to him. "I need you to promise me something. What Prometheus said to me-"

"Liver-"

"No, I just—there was some truth to it. I can try to pretend that there isn't but he was right, people close to me, people around me, they get hurt and that can't happen to you or Ari or Robyn. So I need you to promise me that if this goes too far—if he gets too close, promise me that you will take Ari and Robyn, and you will get as far away as possible."

Katie placed her hands on the sides of Oliver's face and a soft smile came to her face. "No." she leaned forward and placed a kiss to his lips before pulling out of grasp.

"Twinkie, this is serious, and the only thing that matters to me is making sure when the dust finally settles and this is over, my family is safe." Oliver watched as she grabbed her jacket and slipped it on. "Please just promise me." she turned to see him looking over to her.

"Oliver, I promise that if it's gets too far or if he gets too close, I will make sure Ari and Robyn are nowhere near him." Katie said before walking over to him. "Me on the other hand, I'm your Guardian. Til death do us part. You're never in this fight alone Liver. I'm sort of your forever partner and you're not getting rid of me." she let out sigh. "Now where are we going?"

Oliver opened the door and took a step to the side to let them all inside. He watched Thea's face, then Katie and lastly turned to Ari as they looked around the Queen Mansion.

"Look I know this place doesn't hold the best memories for some of us." Oliver said as he walked in, closing the door behind him. Three sets of eyes turned to him and he let out a sigh. "This place is safe. Hank has added some more members to his team and they will be posted all around the outside of the house." they didn't say anything as they continued looking around. "This is only temporary and a step up from the bunker."

"Ok," Katie said turning to him with a nod. She turned to Thea who gave a nod as well and they all turned to Ari who was still looking around. "Ari?" the teen turned to her. "What do you think?" Ari turned away, her thoughts venturing back to the first time she'd stepped foot inside of this house. Seeing Katie, with that thing inside of her. It gave her nightmares some times. She didn't want a house to have that much power over her, so she'd suck it up. She turned back to Oliver and just gave a nod.

"Sure," Ari said. "I mean I might get lost, but it should be cool."

Thea laughed. "How about I give you a tour." she walked over to Ari, and brought her arm around the girl before the pair went walking off.

Katie continued to look around. She'd been assaulted by the memories as well. Those moments in time when she was forced to watch as the dark entity in her body did terrible things.

"You were probably surprised when you found out I bought this place." Katie said turning to Oliver who walked over. He glanced down to a sleeping Robyn before reaching down and bringing her up into his arms.

"I was and I wasn't at the same time." he said placing a kiss to Robyn's head before heading over to the stairs and Katie followed. "At first, I was surprised, but then I thought about it." he glanced over to Katie who walked along side of him. "Buying this place after we lost it because of Rochev...it was such a you thing to do. I just couldn't figure out why you never told me or Thea."

"Well that's simple." she said as they walked down the hall. "There were a few hoops I had to jump through to even get this place and by the time I did-"

"We were broken up." Oliver said and Katie gave a nod.

"Yeah, and I didn't want it to seem like I bought this place just to get you to take me back." she shrugged. "And then time went by and it was easier to not say anything." Oliver pushed open a door and Katie followed him inside of a room, a smile coming to her face at the beautifully decorated nursery. He walked over to the crib and gently laid Robyn inside. "How long did it take you to pick that out?"

Oliver chuckled as he reached down to pull off Robyn's coat and shoes. He turned to Katie who met his gaze. "I'm going to get us back home."

"We're going to get us back home." Katie said walking over to him, and placing her hands on his chest. Oliver brought his arms around her, dropping his head to hers and closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry about Michael." Oliver whispered and Katie just closed her eyes.

"Me too."

Later that evening, Ari stepped out her bathroom, stopping as she looked around the room. She shook her head, still not believing how big it was. She walked over and hopped up on her bed, grabbing her phone hoping to see a message from Jamie. There was none, which means his mom has taken his phone. Her eyes looked down to the notifications letting her know that she had a voice message. She bit her lip before pressing the button and bringing it to her ear.

"Sweetheart, it's me, mom. Oscar tells me he's been trying to reach you about the parole hearing, but you're not answering. I get it, you're busy with school, but this is really important. I need your help. Your mother needs your help Ari. Please don't let me down." the line went silent. "Because I'm afraid of what could happen if you do." the line ended and Ari pulled the phone from her ear.

When Felicity walked through the door, she got nervous. She'd only taken a couple steps before she heard heavy footsteps. Soon Bruce appeared, stopping and looking over to the woman before letting out a sigh.

"You're back." he said. "Uh, John called, told me about Michael."

"Yeah, Prometheus is really upping his whole asshole factor." Felicity pulled off her coat and turned to hang it on the hook. "So John called. I'm sure he told you about more than just Michael." she turned to him. "I haven't told them yet. I figure we should probably talk more before we tell the whole team."

Bruce gave a nod. "According to John, I'm supposed to apologize until you forgive me." Felicity let out a chuckle as she headed into the living room. She kicked off her heels and curled up on the couch, grabbing the blanket that rested on the back. Bruce followed her, taking a seat in the chair beside her.

"It's just I don't think I'm upset with you." Felicity said looking over to Bruce. "You didn't know you had a son, so you couldn't really give me a heads up." she shook her head. "It just still feels like something was taken. This moment, that we were supposed to share together and now we never will." she felt the tear run down her cheek and she wiped it away with her hand. Bruce came over to the couch beside her, bringing his hand to cup the side of her face.

"We will have it. It will just be something else. Something no one could ever take away from us. " Bruce said before leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers. After a moment, Felicity pulled back and laid her head on his chest.

"Still no word from Talia?"

"No, it's like she disappeared." Bruce said before glancing up to the ceiling.

"You think she planned this all along?" Felicity pulled back to look up to him. "Find you, and then disappear to leave him with you."

"No idea." Bruce sighed sliding a hand over his eyes as he dropped his head back against the couch.

"Is he upstairs?"

"Yep." Bruce looked over to her. "I got him set up in one of the guest rooms. He hasn't said much, but I can't help but think-" Bruce shook his head.

"What?"

"He doesn't really act like a ten year old kid." Bruce sighed as he turned away to look at the ceiling. "Talia left Nanda Parbat before me and she took a few members of the league with her. I can only imagine the type of life that kid has had to live."

"It was a life of structure and discipline." Bruce and Felicity turned to see the child they hadn't even heard enter the room. "My mother taught me many lessons. You shouldn't feel sorry for me father. " Damian glanced around the room with a slight look of disgust before turning to Bruce. "Is this really where you live?"

---

Author's Note: There you have it!

Review Replies:

Adela: Yes, Felicity dealt with a lot this chapter while trying to keep a brave face while dealing with their Prometheus problem. Thank You!

hunter41963801: Yes, this Talia is the one from the arrowverse. Whether she's good or evil well that I don't know, what I do know is that she has bones to pick with people she feels wronged her. I did see Bizarro in Superman and Lois and I so wasn't expecting him in that suit. It's was kind of awesome. I can't wait to see how the rest of the season plays out. I actually haven't seen that episode of the cartoon, but I found a clip on YouTube and it's pretty cool. I think if I use another world Batman it may be from one of the many movies, but I'm still thinking about it. I feel like AV Talia and DK Talia probably wouldn't fight. Their motivations are similar so I think they'd work together if they ever crossed paths. Thanks for the review!

Thanks everyone for sticking this out with me! I really appreciate the support!

Sneak Peek

"Look Katie, I know-" Ari turned, and the next few moments happened in slow motion. Her eyes saw the bright lights of the car speeding toward them. She saw as Katie turned to see the car before she turned meeting Ari's eyes. Katie let go of the steering wheel and quickly lifted her hands. The next thing Ari remembers is a bright light that seemed to swallow up the world and then she hears the sudden sound of crashing metal and shattering glass.