Chapter 10 – Barry Allen

An: I do not own Arrow. I know this chapter is very late and I'm very sorry but the good news is I got a beta! missmeagan666 at Ao3. Thank you for fixing my errors Meagan.


Felicity looked at the video at least twenty times before she heard Oliver and Diggle enter the lair. She turned in her chair to face them immediately.

"We need to speak to Roy urgently," she stated gravely.

Neither man seemed to pay much attention to her tone as they both casually walked up to her. Diggle stopped in his usual place, about three feet to the right and a little behind while Oliver came right up next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Laurel got a bail hearing in the morning. She'll move to petition the court to dismiss the charges," Oliver informed her confidently.

Felicity shook her head, "It won't be so easy. We have a serious problem." She turned back to the screen and pressed play. At the part where Roy picked up the gun and fired she heard Oliver inhale sharply next to her.

"I think I'll have to swing by the mansion to get some cash for bail," Oliver admitted grimly.

"With Roy's record we would be lucky if he gets bail!" Felicity said throwing her hands up in frustration. "Play the video again," Diggle asked taking a step closer to her.

"Sure, it's kind of addictive. I keep watching it over and over again," she confessed as she pressed play. Both men leaned forward to look closely at the screen.

"Could the video be altered?" Digg asked.

"I'm writing a few programmes to carefully examine the video pixel by pixel. I'm hoping it will find some sort of irregularity but it will take some time. If we could talk to Roy and get his side of the story it will certainly help things along," Felicity explained.

"Is there anymore to the video after Roy fires the gun?" Oliver asked.

"No there isn't. I thought that strange as well. If Adams was killed there, how did Roy, who has no car or form of transport, get a body from there to the bay? You would think they would have that on video as well, but I'm not finding it anywhere on the police servers," Felicity explained.

Oliver moved his hand to the keyboard and ran the video again. "I would bet their at the park on 52nd street. That's where Adam's is known for dealing drugs. The city installed cameras to keep an eye on drug dealing. You can start with that system and see if you pull up anything. I'm going to head home and get Thea a change of clothes. She's insisting on staying at the police station until we get Roy out."

Felicity nodded in understanding. Staying at the police station all night was a very Thea thing to do.

"Oliver, I think I'll stay here and study the video a bit more," Diggle said.

Felicity copied the video to another station for Diggle to work on while she ran her programmes. It was going to be a very long night.


As soon as she arrived home, after working all night on the video and coming up with nothing, Detective Hilton called asking her to come down to the police station to answer some routine questions. Her first thought was to say no. Being in an interrogation room twice in a short space of time was one time too many for her liking but she knew if she said no it would make them look at Roy even harder. She needed to go and answer their questions and do her best to dissuade them from the notion that Roy was their only suspect.

On the way in she saw Thea, Oliver and a black brief case next to Oliver on the bench in front. Roy had the first appointment before the judge and they would know his fate in an hour. A young police officer approached her and she was escorted to interrogation room 2 where Detective Hilton was already seated with a folder in front of him.

"Ms. Smoak, please have a seat," Detective Hilton said pointing to the chair opposite him.

She followed his instructions and sat on the chair. She folded her hands neatly in front of her and stared at the Detective waiting for him to start the conversation.

"Ms. Smoak where were you between the hours of 1:00am and 3:00am on the 22nd?" he said getting straight to the point.

"I'll have to check my files," she answered. She was determined not to give them any information. She wasn't supposed to know anything about their case.

"You don't remember where you were last week Tuesday?" the Detective asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I keep meticulous files of the hours I work on each case so I don't have to remember where I was. When you work through the nights frequently, the days kind of blend together. Just last month I thought it was Tuesday when it was actually Friday," Felicity answered.

She glanced at the two-way mirror on the wall and she wondered who was behind it.

"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius?" he asked. "You're supposed to remember."

She looked back at the Detective with a wry smile, "A genius yes but I don't have a photographic memory. I cannot tell you what I was doing precisely at this time yesterday much less a week ago,"

"Ms. Smoak if you are purposefully withholding information…" Detective Hilton started to threaten her.

"What information? No one has bothered to tell us anything. How on Earth could I be withholding information if I don't know what I should be withholding? Not that I have intentions of withholding information. It's just to withhold you have to already know what you want and since I clearly don't know what you want, I can't withhold." Felicity babbled.

"I want to know where you were between the hours of 1:00am and 3:00am on the 22nd?" Hilton repeated sternly.

"And I as I previously indicated, I need to check my files." Felicity replied obstinately. "I could have been on a case or I could have been sleeping. I'm not sure and I don't want to give you an incorrect answer because that could lead to so much more trouble."

"How do I know that you won't change your files the minute you leave here? What's to stop you from doing that?" the Detective asked.

"That would be tampering with a police investigation and I can assure you that I am a law abiding citizen," Felicity replied smartly.

"And what do you call hacking?" the Detective asked.

"A hobby," Felicity responded automatically before realising she needed to add a caveat to that, "A hobby that I cannot participate in because I would be in violation of my FBI deal."

"Tell me about that?" Hilton asked. Felicity smiled, "I'm not allowed to speak about that but I can refer you to Frank." "Who's Frank, your lawyer?"

"No, he's my FBI ball and chain. He'll be more than happy to talk to you. I can give you his cell phone number. You can call him right now." Felicity insisted.

"I have never seen someone so eager to give us the cell phone number to their monitor." Detective Hilton quipped.

"As I said, I'm a law abiding citizen," she said with a wide smile. She really wanted them to call Frank now. The man liked to sleep in on mornings and it would be a great change of pace for someone to be interrupting his day.

"Let's talk about the cash that was found in your safe," Detective Hilton said moving the conversation away from her whereabouts. Felicity sat up straighter, "Yes let's talk about it. When will I be getting it back? I have bills to pay!" Felicity said earnestly.

"What bills? The building is owned by your boyfriend and our sources tell us he pays for everything." "What boyfriend? I do not have a boyfriend," Felicity replied. "Are we back to people laughing at me because I don't have a boyfriend?"

"Oliver Queen is not your boyfriend?" Hilton asked.

Felicity sighed, "Oliver Queen is a very close friend, one could even call him my best friend but he is not my boyfriend. There is nothing romantic going on between Oliver and I," Felicity said tonelessly to the Detective. She was beginning to feel like a broken record with the amount of people that kept trying to imply that something was going on between her and Oliver.

If Oliver wanted to make a move he would have made a move already. "It certainly doesn't seem that way. He lets you operate your business in his building rent free," Detective Hilton said flipping open the folder in front of him. "I am not there rent free," Felicity protested.

"Really? Because according to the rent control board Oliver Queen listed the rent you pay as $0 dollars," Hilton said picking up the first piece of paper on top the folder and sliding it across the table to her.

Felicity picked it up and scanned the document quickly before setting it back on the table and pushing it across to the Detective. "I don't see how this is relevant to Roy's case?"

"The cash we found…" the Detective started but Felicity chose to cut him off because she really didn't want to hear what terrible assumptions they had made about the cash.

"Isn't relevant to the case. I have a few wealthy clients. They like to pay in cash. Their generous payments allow me to work pro-bono for some clients who would not be able to afford my services," Felicity said fiercely.

"There's something called a bank to deposit the money in," the Detective pointed out. "Most people usually use it unless they are money laundering."

"I use the bank but I don't like travelling with that amount of cash on me. I usually wait until Mr. Diggle has some spare time to go to the bank with me. I can give you the name of my accountant. He does all the paperwork, balances my books and pays my taxes. Everything is above board. There is no money laundering going on!"

"So you say but there are plenty of creative accountants in Starling City," the Detective countered her. Felicity felt like hitting the desk in frustration. He wasn't listening to her. He was so dead set that she and Roy were criminals that he was looking for anything to prove his case.

"So you're saying I can't get my cash back?"

"As soon as the investigation is concluded, provided the funds were not used in criminal activity, they will be returned to you," the Detective said tonelessly. She was fairly sure this isn't the first time he's had to tell suspects that.

"Is there anything else I can help you with Detective?" she asked angrily.

"That will be all. An officer will accompany back to your office when you review your files," he said.

Felicity resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Ok."

She stood and left the room heading straight to her car. When she arrived at her office there were two officers waiting for her. She opened the door and they followed her all the way to her office where she booted up her computer. The officers watched as she pulled up her files for September 22nd.

"You can tell Detective Hilton that we were not working on any active case and that I must have been home sleeping," Felicity responded.

As the officers left her phone beeped with a text from Thea. Roy was granted bail at $1,000000 and Oliver was in the process of posting it. They expected to arrive at Verdant within the hour.

Felicity locked up her office and went to the lair.


Felicity heard the door to the lair open followed by the sound of several footsteps on the stairs. She swivelled her chair around to face her boys coming down the staircase.

"Roy you have some explaining to do," Felicity said crossing her arms over her chest. She noted that Roy was still in the same clothes from the day before and his eyes were tinged red from lack of sleep.

"I didn't do it," Roy replied immediately his hands up in the air, palms facing her.

"We believe you," Felicity assured him, "But we need to hear your side of the story."

Roy, Oliver and Diggle came to a stop just in front of her.

"It happened the night that we took off," Roy started.

Felicity nodded remembering the night. Digg had a date with Lyla. Oliver had been nice about giving them the night off right up until he asked her for a favour.

"Thea and I had a fight about a guy in her class that she's been having study sessions with," Roy said starting to pace the floor.

"Wait, what guy?" Oliver asked with a crease between his eyebrows. Felicity turned to look at the tall vigilante, "Not relevant to this particular conversation Oliver," before she turned back to Roy and encouraged him to continue relaying his version of events.

"Thea left and I just needed to get out and do something so I grabbed my hoodie and walked around a few blocks," Roy explained.

"That something being beating up drug dealers?" Felicity queried.

"No, I didn't go out with the intention of beating Adams up," Roy defended.

The three of them gave him a look, "Ok maybe I wanted a fight but I didn't target him specifically."

"You just ended up in a park that he's known to sell drugs in?" Digg asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, you sound like you think I'm guilty," Roy said offended. "Adam wasn't my first fight of the night and none of the other guys are dead."

"What do you mean wasn't your first fight of the night?" Oliver asked.

"I didn't train you to go around beating up people." Roy gave Oliver a sheepish look, "I think I may have gotten into four fights before that one." Oliver looked like he was ready to kill Roy so Felicity decided to keep the conversation moving, "Did you tell Detective Hilton that?"

"No, I told him I was using the park as a shortcut and Adams jumped me. He started saying all these rude things about Thea and I got angry. We fought and I can't remember much just the anger," Roy said stopping to face Felicity.

"Do you remember shooting him?" she asked.

"No, I didn't shoot him," Roy responded confidently.

"You sure?" Diggle asked.

"Of course I'm sure. If I shot someone I would think that I would remember that," Roy replied snidely.

"Did you see the video?" Felicity asked.

"What video?" Roy asked confused. Felicity turned to her computer screens and put the video to play. A string of curse words left Roy's mouth.

"Leave something out?" Felicity asked.

"I don't remember picking up that gun," Roy said panicked. "All I really remember is the shit he was saying about Thea. Oh crap! I told the Detective that I never touched a gun!"

"The video could be fake," Diggle pointed out. Roy stopped and stared at the video. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "I don't know. I was so angry. Maybe I did pick up a gun. I don't know but I am positive he was alive when I left."

"Roy we need to know exactly what happened. The more details the easier it will be to clear you," Felicity stressed.

"I can't remember ok," he screamed. Oliver placed his hand gently on his shoulder, "Roy," his voice was calm because he needed Roy to remain calm, "I know a meditation technique that might help you remember what happened that night. It helped me sort through a lot of emotions after the incident."

"Meditation?" Roy said it as if it was some foreign human sacrifice ritual Oliver wanted him to perform.

"I am 100% positive that it will help you remember that night as well as help you work through some of these anger issues you seem to be having," Oliver stated calmly.

"I'm not the meditation type," Roy said with a frown.

"Roy," Digg started in his wise Yoda voice. "If there is a chance it could help you, you need to try it."

"I agree. Its' better than 20+ years in prison," Felicity said chiming in with her opinion.


Felicity left Roy and Oliver trying to meditate and returned to her office. She found Detective Hilton, two officers and Barry waiting for her. Didn't she just talk to the Detective two hours ago?

"Detective, I think this is bordering on harassment now?" Felicity said as she walked up to her door.

"We should charge you with obstructing justice," he said angrily as he slapped two search warrants into her hands.

"When did I obstruct justice?" Felicity asked opening up the warrant to read the first one.

"Our CSI's asked to search two closed doors and you refused, one of them we understand is the abode of Roy Harper, the suspect in our investigation," Hilton explained angrily.

"Your CSI's asked to search areas not covered by your search warrant. I am not the landlord of the building. I cannot let you into areas that are not under my purview," Felicity countered.

The first search warrant was for the entire building and the second was to impound and search her car. She realised they thought she used her car to help Roy move the body from the park to the bay area. They were going to have to revise that particular hypothesis when her car came up clean.

"One minute please Detective, I'll need to call my landlord because I still can't let you into those areas as I don't have access," she said with a sickly sweet smile.

She turned around, pulled out her phone and called Oliver.

"Hey," he answered, "What's wrong?"

"Detective Hilton is here with a search warrant for the entire building," she explained.

"Ok, I'm coming across now." She ended the call and invited them to wait in her reception area.

On the way inside, Barry apologised for Hilton's attitude and they struck up a conversation about the best places to get coffee in the city. Once Oliver arrived he took them up to Roy's loft and the training area below which Diggle had given a facelift to look like a private gym for Oliver since they knew at some point the police was going to return.

On the 12 o'clock news it was reported that the boyfriend of Thea Queen, Roy Harper, was arrested for murder. Her work phone started ringing immediately with past clients calling to find out if Roy was ok and if there was anything they could do to help. On top of these calls Felicity had two crying clients that had yet to communicate what they wanted.

When a frustrated Roy, who was fed up of trying to meditate, appeared in the office begging for work, she pointed straight to the crying ladies. Ten minutes later, she discovered one had lost a pet and the other's daughter had run away with her drug dealer boyfriend. How could the police think that a man who could show such compassion for a crying woman was capable of murder was beyond her?


Felicity slammed her hands down in front of the keyboard in frustration.

Every programme she ran to determine if the video was fake had produced the unwanted result of verifying the authenticity of the video. Each time the programmes found no sign of alteration Felicity came closer and closer to accepting that the video was accurate.

When she had pulled up the park security system and found that no other camera had captured what had happened she automatically assumed that the video the police had was fake.

It was time to throw out that assumption and form a new plan.

If the video was real, then she should use the video to prove Roy's innocence. Adams is off screen when the gun is fired in his general direction but he could be close enough that if there was any blood splatter from the wounds, it might be caught on camera. She wrote several programmes to enhance that side of the video to search for any blood splatter.

After a day of searching, she came up empty.

Her car had been returned at this point and all of the Queen's cars had been impounded. From what she heard from Oliver, his father was not very happy that the police thought his children were involved in a murder. He was threatening to sue the department.

Having no luck with the video, Felicity decided to read the coroner's report on the body.

Roy had done a great job beating up Adams. He had two broken ribs, a broken radius, a broken tibia and bruises littered across his body. The part of the report that set off Felicity's alarm bells was that the coroner pulled six bullets out of Adams. Felicity turned back to the video quickly and counted the muzzle flashes on the gun. She came up with five! She then wrote a programme to slow down the video as much as possible to confirm that only five bullets left the gun.

The quality of the video was very poor and she wasn't have much luck with that.

She decided that she didn't want to talk to Detective Hilton or Captain Lance directly and decided to call Gorgeous Laurel and relay the information to her. As his attorney she should be able to use the information to Roy's benefit. Laurel thanked her for the information and Felicity swear she heard Oliver mumbling in the background.

She glanced at the clock and it was 8:00pm at night. Were they on a date or something?


The next day, she heard from Diggle that the police were saying that Roy could have fired the sixth bullet at a later time not caught on video. The gun had not be recovered and according to the video Roy had thrown it in the direction of Adams and walked away.

Conveniently, two days later, an anonymous source delivered the gun to the police station. Of course Roy's prints were all over it and the ballistic results matched the bullets from Adam's body to the gun. That confirmed for Felicity that Roy was being set up by someone, probably Church.

Roy's meditation was beginning to work and he was able to recall more and more details from the night. Felicity asked him to focus on how many times he fired the gun and he was able to confirm he only fired it five times. He also remembered that he was not aiming at Adams.

He aimed at a large tree that was just over Adam's shoulder to the right.

Felicity asked Oliver and Digg to locate the tree.

They located the tree but Felicity stopped them from relaying the information to Laurel.

She wanted more proof since she was sure Detective Hilton would say that maybe Adam's had fired his gun at the tree for target practice. Roy was positive he walked away and didn't return so Felicity turned her search to finding where Adam's was killed and how he reached from the murder location to the bay area. Once she developed a suitable counter-theory to the police she had to come up with a way to get the police to listen.

"I'll have to talk to Barry," Felicity mused out loud.

"Barry? Who's Barry?" Oliver asked. He had been hanging around the back attacking the one wing chun dummy that remained in the lair.

"Oh he's a Central City CSI on a six month training course here. He's really nice and I think he will listen to what I have to say," Felicity explained.

"Barry," Oliver repeated with utter disdain. "I'll come with you."


Felicity walked into the newly opened Starling City Jitters coffee house with Oliver.

The strong smell of coffee assaulted her nose and she inhaled deeply. Barry might have been right about the Jitters brand but she would reserve her opinion until she tried a cup.

Like every new store that opens in the city, it was extremely crowded. Everyone wanted to try the famous coffee that Jitters served. She hoped most people were taking coffee to go because she needed a table today.

"I think I'll place our order while you try and get us a table. Is Bart here yet?" Oliver asked.

Felicity rolled her eyes, "It's Barry, you know like Barry Manilow."

"Just get us a table," Oliver instructed before striding towards the cashier. Halfway there he paused and then came back towards her. "On second thought, I'll get us the table, you get us the coffee."

Felicity looked passed Oliver, up the long line of customers, to the counter where a young blonde girl was working. Felicity recognised her instantly. She works or maybe used to work for the coffee shop that they visited regularly.

She had a very bad habit of flirting with Oliver and trying to feel up his forearm. Oliver always tried to politely extract his arm from the girl so as not to hurt her feelings. Eventually he just started avoiding the place all together and always sent Diggle to get his coffee.

"Is the big mighty Oliver Queen afraid of a girl half his size?" Felicity teased.

Oliver snorted, "The only girl I'm afraid of is you when you use your loud voice. I would rather not spend the next ten minutes trying to place an order for one coffee with low fat milk and extra sugar for you and one black for me."

Felicity sighed while shaking her head from side to side, her blonde ponytail swinging behind her, "The sacrifices I make for you Queen!" An amused smile spread across Oliver's handsome face. He walked off to get them a table and Felicity joined the long line.

While in the line she looked around from Barry but she didn't see him. He must have gotten held up at the station. Oliver somehow managed to get them a table in the corner that gave him a great view of the door and her in the line.

As she reached the cashier the girl frowned, "Where's Oliver?" Felicity arched an eyebrow at the question and then gave her order as the cashier looked around the room for Oliver.

When she spotted him at a table, a large smile drew across her face. "Since you're regulars we'll deliver the coffee straight to your table," she declared as she took Felicity's money.

"I bet you will," Felicity said dryly obtaining her change and her bill before walking away from the counter. How you could be a regular when the place only opened up two days ago was a mystery to her? She sat in the chair opposite Oliver.

"Where are our coffees?" he asked confused.

"They're delivering them to the table," Felicity explained.

"Felicity, the point of you going to the cashier was so that I wouldn't have to interact with her!" Oliver said tersely. Felicity cocked her head to the side, "When we first met you never had a problem with women fawning over you.

Ever since the Hannah incident you've sort of pulled away from female attention."

"No I've pulled away from the women that wish to use me. I'm no longer interested in maintaining my previous image," he stated. He folded his arms across his chest, an action that drew Felicity's eyes to his bulging biceps.

"So you're going for celibate priest now?" Felicity teased. He cocked his head to the side in exasperation, "No I'm just being pickier. I want a certain type of woman now."

"So leggy and brunette is out?" Felicity asked knowing full well that leggy and brunette would describe Laurel to a tee. "Felicity, when I decide what I want, I guarantee you'll be the first person to know!"

She spotted Barry coming in through the door, "Barry!" she called out loudly waving her hand in the air to try and attract his attention. "Felicity!" he said his whole face lighting up.

He rushed over and took the seat next to her. "Sorry I was late. I was working on a case and I lost track of time." "Do your parents know you're here?" Oliver interrupted rudely. He was staring intently at Barry sizing him up.

"Oliver!" said horrified. She turned quickly to Barry, "I'm sorry. Oliver doesn't play well with others. I called you here today to anonymously give you a few leads on the Harper case."

"You should speak directly to the Detectives in charge." Barry indicated.

"I would but they are not listening to the story the evidence is telling. Adams was shot with 6 bullets but the video shows Roy firing 5 shots. Roy is seen leaving the crime scene and tossing the gun aside. There is no video showing how Adams got out of the park.

If you go back to the scene of the assault, there's a tree with five bullets in it, which is what Roy was aiming at. We found a route through the park that avoids all the cameras but there is no way Roy could have followed that route and carried a dead body. That leads you to conclude that Adams walked out of that park alive.

There's an official police report from residents living a block away from Adams residence that reported hearing six gunshots later that night, followed by a white van stuffing a body into it. Cameras in the city show the van heading towards the bay area then returning ten minutes later.

We believe that will confirm Roy's innocence. The evidence tells a different story but the Detectives are deadest in their thinking. They refuse to read the actual story," Felicity said sliding a folder that detailed all of their evidence over to him.

Laurel also had a copy of the folder.

At this point the blonde cashier appeared with one coffee in her hand which was obviously the black coffee for Oliver. Before the woman could say two words to Oliver Felicity pulled her bill out and demanded that she get her coffee or she would go straight to the manager and have her fired for harassing the handsome customers. The blonde skittered away quickly.

Barry sighed, "I became a CSI because my father was accused of killing my mother. I was waiting for him to come home the night she died. My bedroom window had a view of the street and I could see when my dad car's turned the corner to come home.

As soon as he did, I called out to my mom that dad was home. There were some strange sounds like a fight and then a vase dropped and my mom shouted for me to call 911 immediately.

I ran down to my parents' bedroom and called 911.

I heard my mother cry out in pain, followed by the back door being slammed shut. I was still on the phone with the operator when I dropped the phone and ran downstairs to my mother. I was on the stairs when I saw my father run passed the base of the stairs towards her.

My father is a doctor so he tried to save her. He tried to stop the bleeding. He told me to call 911. There was a bloody knife near my mother and my father moved it out of my sight. In hindsight that was a bad idea because that put his prints on the murder weapon and permanently sealed his guilt in the investigator's minds."

"But you heard an intruder?" Felicity said.

"Nobody believed me. They said I was confusing events.

When I called 911 I told the operator that my mother told me to call 911 and that my father was home. They brought in expert child psychologists to say that I had turned around the events in my head and made up the intruder so that my dad was innocent. They said I couldn't face the reality so I invented a sort of fairy tale where my dad was innocent.

My dad was convicted and went to jail but I firmly believed he was innocent."

"I'm sorry Barry. Is he still in jail?" Felicity asked squeezing his hand to offer him support.

"My foster dad was a cop. When I was fifteen I convinced him to give me access to my father's case. Based on the evidence collected and some additional work on my part I was able to prove my father was innocent and he was released from jail a few years ago so I understand all too well when you say the police aren't following the evidence properly."

"Who was the real killer?" Oliver asked curiously.

"It was a man my mother worked with Dr. Eobard Thawne. There was evidence he was stalking her. My mother never told my father about her concerns and the police never released the information to my father's attorney.

A search of Eobard Thawne's apartment revealed a secret room where he had several trophies from women who he had killed. My mother always wore a crystal pendant around her neck. It belonged to her grandmother and she never took it off. The only way he could have gotten it is if he was there that night."

"They arrested him?" Oliver asked.

From the frown on his face Felicity knew his Arrow sense of justice was kicking in.

"He ran and they still haven't found him," Barry said with a sigh.

"I heard a rumour he was in Starling City. There was a six month exchange programme between Starling City PD and Central City PD. I applied to be able to look for Thawne."

"Any luck yet?" Felicity asked. "I tracked him to a motel just outside of town," he revealed his eyes downcast looking at the table. Felicity nodded her head. She knew that motel well. It was the preferred choice of cheating husbands.

"But I lost the trail. I'm not sure if he moved or if he's still in the city hiding somewhere else.

Everywhere I go I look around for his face," Barry admitted. He lifted his gaze away from the table and look directly at Felicity, "I'll review what you've compiled and see where the evidence takes me. I promise I won't let the assumption of guilt cloud my judgement."

Felicity gave him a brilliant smile, "That's all I ask."


Felicity hated waiting for news. She knew Barry was a good guy and she trusted that when he said he would follow the evidence provided, that he would do just that but that had been three days ago and she was going insane. She had no more nails to chew on, if she chewed any further she would draw blood. Repeated checks of the SCPD system showed no update on the case and the update from Laurel yesterday was the case was still being investigated.

To keep busy Felicity was running a facial recognition programme to look for Eobard Thawne on all of the cameras in Starling City. It was a very big task and equivalent to looking for a needle in a haystack. The CCPD picture of Eobard Thawne had been awful so she hacked into one of the placed Thawne had worked and pulled his photo off of his ID badge. It was a much better photo and one the police should have used.

"Hey." Felicity jumped in the air. "Oliver! How many times do I have to tell you not to use your Arrow skills on me!" He chuckled, "I have some good news that I know you've been waiting to hear." Felicity sprung to her feet immediately, "They're dropping the charges against Roy?"

"Yes! They're charging one of Church's lieutenants with the murder instead," he revealed before he had an armful of blonde jumping up and down in his arms excitedly.


Felicity was seated at the bar at Verdant waiting for Thea to arrive with Roy for the surprise party she was throwing her boyfriend. As soon as Thea got the good news about the charges against Roy she went immediately into party planning mode. Tasks were handed out to everyone.

Felicity and Moira were in charge of decorating, Tommy was in charge of the bar, Oliver catering and Diggle was given the task of inviting everyone, including Felicity's clients that had called to express concern about Roy.

Tommy was forced to close the club for the night so Thea could throw her private party for Roy. In an effort to distract her boyfriend she took him on a celebratory shopping trip that, from the texts she saw on the guys' phones Roy was not enjoying at all.

Tommy made the careless quip of saying jail was preferred to shopping trips. Of course Tommy's latest fling laughed at the joke and tried to cosy up to Oliver. It seemed like she was trying for a threesome with the two guys.

That definitely wasn't happening. Oliver preferred his threesome with two women.

She spotted Digg in a corner with Lyla and she made her way over to say hi. She discovered that Lyla was back at work after fully recovering from her injuries. They struck up a curious conversation about her FBI arrest and the deal she made when Roy finally arrived with Thea.

Everyone screamed surprise but Roy seemed more interested in getting a drink from the bar as soon as he could. Felicity spent most of the night moving slowly around the room observing everyone. Sara had come with an exotic brunette that she learned was her girlfriend.

Also previous discomfort she had felt about Sara and Sara's friendship with Oliver had miraculously disappeared. She caught sight of Oliver trying to slip out early through the back exit and she headed him off. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I have something to do. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Lunch at Table Salt on me," he said softly before quickly side stepping her and exiting. Felicity thought he was being anti-social until she noticed Laurel slip out the front a few minutes later. Her mind couldn't help but come to the conclusion that she was meeting Oliver somewhere for some sexy times.


The next day she received a text from Barry asking for her and Oliver to meet him at Jitters.

She thought it was strange because when she had called him after she received the good news about Roy he had brushed it off as just him doing his job.

They arrived at Jitters on time but Barry was nowhere to be seen.

The blonde was at the cashier again but the moment she saw Felicity she took a bathroom break and had a coworker deal with her instead. Oliver got them the same table.

As soon as she sat down, Barry came running in and took the seat next to her again.

"Sorry I'm late," he said breathing heavy.

"Barry, why did you call us here?" Felicity asked.

"I wanted to thank you," he said earnestly.

"Thank us for what?" Felicity asked confused. "It's us who owe you."

"Last night Eobard Thawne was delivered to the SCPD by The Hood with a note explaining who he was and what he was wanted for," Barry explained happily.

"We had nothing to do with that Barry," Oliver stated quickly.

"Sure you didn't. You two are the only people that knew why I was here. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I got approved to escort Thawne back to Central City. I leave tonight and I should really get started packing but I couldn't go without thanking the both of you," Barry insisted. And just like how he appeared, he was gone in a flash.

"Felicity this is me noticing you staring," Oliver said to her.

"You helped Barry," she said proudly.

"That's kind of what we do at nights," he said brushing it off.

"Oliver Queen you are the most remarkable man I know," Felicity stated in awe. She noticed a pink tinge cover his face and ears. "Is the great Oliver Queen blushing?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said standing up, picking up their empty coffee cups and walking away.


An: Thanks for reading. The next chapter is titled Robert Queen. Wonder what he wants?

If case you're interested, Meagan is also going through all of my posted one-shots and editing them. I'll start posting the edited versions next week.