A/N: Just wanted to let everyone know how appreciative I am for all the follows and reviews, and for suffering through the slow burn. I've mapped out the story and we'll get some serious Smoaking Canary in chapter 14, so we're almost there I promise! When they get together, it's going to be fast and intense. Also, let me know your opinions on having an M-rated chapter in the future. For now, keep reading! Thanks!

–Transitions–

It was a few days later and things seemed to be getting back into full swing for Team Arrow. A whole new week had brought with it a whole new catastrophic mystery, and Felicity and Diggle were forced the shelf their research into A.R.G.U.S.'s elusive 'Dark Archer II' to focus on the mayhem at hand. There had been three armed robberies all of which involved the 'accidental' death of a police officer, and while the police were investigating it, the team had begun looking into it themselves. It was a job that hit close to home, especially for Laurel and Sara, who were worried about their father's safety, as Chief Lance had unofficially appointed himself the primary investigator of the cases.

Felicity had dropped everything else to put all her focus on getting ahead of whoever was killing cops in the city and find the link between the three dead policemen. She worked both from the protective proximity of the precinct and from the foundry depending on where she was needed most at any given time. She wanted to catch this guy, if not for Laurel and Sara, than for herself.

She had her own relationship with Quentin Lance now. They had grown close and worked with in tandem, but it was more than that. As ridiculous as it might sound to anyone else, Felicity had never had a steady father-figure before, and she had found that figure in Chief Lance, who was perhaps the steadiest man she had ever met. She envied the Lance sisters for this reason especially.

The first thing Oliver said when he walked into the lair Saturday morning was, "Felicity, have you found anything?"

It had been expected, but Felicity groaned at the question all the same. "Only that the bullet shows no indication that the shot was fired from any particular direction or anywhere near where the robberies took place," she told him. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Felicity rubbed her temples like she always did when she was stressed. "I even had Lyla check with Waller to verify that Floyd Lawton was in lock down during all three occurrences. Aside from Deadshot, I've never seen anyone be able to fire a shot this way. "

"Was he?" Oliver questioned.

"Yes," Felicity answered tersely. "There's no trail for me to track. Meanwhile, every second I spend not figuring this out is another second that every cop in Starling City is out there walking around with a target on their backs."

She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Felicity, you're remarkable. We've never come across a problem that you haven't been able to solve," Oliver told her supportively. "This one is no different."

"I know that," Felicity replied. "It's just . . . It's like these bullets are bending to the shooter's will or something." A second later, Felicity's whole body froze and her head popped up abruptly. "Maybe that's it."

"Maybe what's it, Felicity?" he pressed.

Oliver felt like Felicity's train of thought had departed and left him in the dust and, though he ordinarily would have just trusted her to run with her idea, she had been taking on a lot lately. If he could help, then he wanted too. However, it seemed that Felicity was already rolling full steam ahead.

"I've been going through some of A.R.G.U.S.'s more . . . private files recently, and, at some point, I came across this," Felicity said, pulling up design blueprints for a specialty bullet from the Weaponized Warfare files of the Research and Development Division. "It's a high-caliber bullet that can be remotely controlled to search and find any target within a half-mile radius of its firing point. Basically, it's a drone, only tinier and much, much more target-specific. Its use was being researched as an alternative to drone strikes," Felicity explained. "A way to take out the intended target without the collateral damage of taking thousands of innocent lives in the process."

Oliver looked more closely at the files on Felicity's computer screens. "It says here, though, that it never made it to the 'development' stage of 'research and development'," Oliver pointed out. "Do we know whose design it was?"

Uh . . . give me a second," Felicity said, typing away at her keyboard with lightning fast strokes. "And go! Dr. Rudolf Limerick, PhDs in Physics, Technology, and Mechanical and Technical Engineering. And . . ." – with a dramatic flourish of her fingers, Felicity brought up a second document –"it looks like the cost of education for those degrees was paid in full with a GI Bill, compliments of the U.S. Armed Services for two tours served overseas."

"Any idea where we can find Dr. Limerick?"

Felicity continued searching on the computer for a moment. "Oh. Whoa," she remarked, staring at the newest document she had found. She turned her head toward Oliver, who was looking back at her expectantly. "Limerick was fired from A.R.G.U.S. one month ago after suffering a psychotic break, during which he revealed himself as a radical extremist with pro-anarchy ideologies and delusions of promoting the human race to desiccate itself via global warfare. The psychiatrist's report tells all about Limerick's beliefs that humanity is a slight on the planet that can only be righted by being 'reborn by the fire and rebuilt from the ashes'."

Oliver looked right at her. "You're making that up," he guessed with a straight face.

"I'm not," Felicity negated. "Read for yourself. It's all right here in plain old black-and-white. He's a nutcase, and what's worse: he's recognized as having an eidetic memory."

"Which means . . ?"

Felicity looked at Oliver with unease. "Which means that if he's seen or read something, he won't soon forget it. With an eidetic memory, Limerick wouldn't have even needed to steal these bullet blueprints, he would have been able to recreate them from a picture in his mind," Felicity explained. "We're dealing with a mad genius."

"So these robberies were . . were what? Diversions?" Chief Lance asked of Felicity. He planted his hands on his hips in a defensive posture as he paced the length of his office.

"Worse. They were traps," Digg explained from where he stood next to Felicity. "The robberies were meant to lure your officers in. It's rudimentary guerilla tactics."

"And since the police are mandated to answer distress calls, they had no choice but to walk right into the line of fire," Felicity added. "Although, technically in this case there was no line of fire. A group of uniformed officers trying to stop a robbery without anyone getting hurt, though . . . it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, sir. All he needed was to gather them all together and the bullet was bound to hit one of them."

Lance continued his pacing and Felicity had to look away. She was beginning to get motion sickness and she wasn't even the one moving. She couldn't image what the Chief was going to feel like when he finally stopped and stood still.

"So how do we stop this guy? And how do I keep my guys from getting shot in the meantime?" Chief Lance demanded.

Felicity stepped forward. "Luckily the tech used in these bullets means that they're programmed by a computer, and a program like that, especially when it's still in the early stages of its development, can be hacked," she explained. "If I can trace the signal back to its point of origin, we can find our shooter."

"As for the officers, Chief Lance, I'd put out an order for all responding law enforcement to be wearing Kevlar and helmets when they step out of the precinct," Digg told him. "Just as a precaution."

"That mean your vigilante crew is going to take down this Limerick guy?" Quentin asked.

Felicity knew how bad Lance wanted this cop killer to be brought down by the actual authorities, but she also knew that he would be willing to allow them to handle it if it meant protecting the lives of those who protected and served under him. It was a difficult compromise for him to come to. Felicity wondered vaguely if it would ever get easier for Mr. Lance to be a third party to a rag-tag team of archers, assassins, rogue agents, veterans, and tech specialists. From where she was standing right now, she very much doubted it.

"It's the safest option, sir," she answered him. "Limerick's not after vigilantes, he's after uniformed officers and police officials."

Lance nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, well, let's just hope he doesn't have a change of heart," he remarked grimly. Quentin looked to Digg. "Mr. Diggle, if I could just have a word with Felicity for a moment . . ."

"Of course," Digg replied respectfully. To Felicity he added, "I'll be at the car." She nodded her acknowledgment and he left, closing the door behind him.

Chief Lance leaned back against the front of his desk and looked at Felicity. "Be straight with me, Smoak," he told her. "How dangerous is this lunatic?"

Felicity took a few steps forward and stood in front of one of the chairs but didn't sit down. "You've heard the stories of the Gotham City criminals?" she asked. Lance nodded. "Limerick would fit right in with them. He's a textbook radical extremist, terrorist, psychopath. He's lost himself in this delusion where all that stands in between the world as it is now and a utopian universe is the annihilation of the human race as a whole, and he can't be dissuaded or convinced otherwise. On a scale of one to Doomsday, I'd put him at a human atom bomb."

"You don't seem too afraid to take this guy on," Lance noted.

Felicity sighed. "I'm tired of being afraid," she admitted, "but yeah, I'm kind of freaking out on the inside. Luckily I know more about him than he knows about me. That'll give me a little bit of an edge. All we need is for you to let the unies know that this isn't going to be a real emergency, we're just trying to call this guy out. That being said, they should still treat it like they would any other call."

Lance nodded, looking like he still wasn't entirely convinced. "You be careful now, you hear?" he told her. "No more buildings caving in on you or shots to the chest or dives into the harbor."

"I'll see what I can do, sir," she agreed, smiling at his concerned face. It reminded her so much of Sara's.

Just as Felicity walked to the door and was about to leave, Lance called after. "Felicity?" She turned around to look at him and he continued, "You'll keep an eye on our girl right? A close one?"

Felicity smiled. "Always."

. . .

Back at the car, when Felicity climbed into the passenger seat, John looked at her and asked, "What did Lance say to you?"

Looking out the window to avoid John's gaze, Felicity schooled the soft smile out of her features and answered, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

It didn't take long to pull everyone together, and before they knew it, they were all back in the Arrowcave going over the plan. Digg and Roy were standing next to each other looking every bit the part of the robbers they were pretending to be. Oliver was pacing the center of the foundry in his green hood and mask looking brooding and dramatic just as he always did before they were about to make a move. Thea had followed his example, donning her yellow hooded cardigan and painting red around her eyes. Sin was sitting in Felicity's computer chair while Felicity was leaning against her worktable with Sara sitting atop it at her side. It felt strange and yet completely natural and reassuring to all be together and back to their old tricks again.

"Digg and Roy are going to stage a robbery. When the cops show up, I'm betting the opportunity is going to be too good for Limerick to pass up and he's going to fire a shot," Oliver explained. "Felicity will hack into the bullet's programming. Sin will have to simulate the bullet continuing its intended trajectory so that we don't tip off Limerick before Felicity can get a lock on his location. Sara, Thea, and I are each going to be at a designated point within the half-mile radius so that at least one of us gets to him before he drops off the grid again. Once Felicity is able to locate him, she and Sin will redirect the bullet to a safe target."

"Hack a government-grade computerized bullet and trace its signal back to the origin point in under twenty-six seconds?" Felicity began sarcastically. "Yeah, no pressure. Piece of cake."

"Hey," Sara said, leaning to the side to bump against Felicity's shoulder, causing Felicity to look up to her. "We all know you can do this. But if it gets to be too much and you feel like you can't, just tell us. Sin will put the bullet in a safe zone, and we'll come up with a Plan B. Okay?" She gave Felicity a reassuring one-armed hug. "Don't be nervous."

"Too late," she told Sara.

Oliver looked at her. "Just stick to the plan and do what you do best and everything will work out," he said to her. "Remember, Felicity, you're remarkable."

Sara tried to stop herself from frowning and glaring at Oliver, but she knew she wasn't doing a very good job of it when she looked back to Felicity and Felicity was looking at her questioningly. The Canary just shook her head dismissively and refocused herself. Digg and Roy were already on their way up the stairs and Oliver and Thea were packing up to head out. Sara jumped down from the table and landed agilely to her feet to follow them, but she felt a hand on her arm stop her. She turned her head to look at Felicity.

"Please be careful," Felicity told her. She tried to joke, but her eyes held a troubled look. "You're only allowed one near-death experience biweekly. It's my new rule. Non-negotiable."

Feeling herself smile despite the seriousness of Felicity's request, Sara grabbed Felicity and pulled her into a tight hug. "No near-deaths until next week, got it," she reaffirmed. Sara noticed Felicity look down a little forlornly, and she put a finger under Felicity's chin to lift her head once more and draw her gaze. "Hey, you do your thing and I'll do mine, we'll take this guy down, and I'll be back before you know it. Safe and sound."

"Is it awful that I'm hoping he's located anywhere but in Sara's zone?" Felicity asked Sin as her fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to track down the IP address Limerick was using.

The teen, who had been staring at her watch and counting backwards from twenty-six, kept her eyes fixed on the timepiece. "If my girlfriend had a one-in-three chance of being the first to go up against a super smart raging lunatic, I'd probably be hoping chance didn't fall into her thirty-three-percent too," Sin replied nonchalantly.

Just as they reached t-minus five seconds, Felicity's computer finally locked onto the origin point and generated a location. "Sin, put the bullet in Farris Pond!" she yelled. "I've got the location: 1855 Commerce Street!"

"He's in my zone!"

Felicity's heart plummeted when she looked at the map of Oliver, Sara, and Thea's three sectors. Evidently fate really hated her today, she thought, because Limerick was located in Sara's zone. Felicity glanced up at the computer generated city grid with the team's respective dots showing where they were located. By the look of things, The Canary was already en route and moving fast. Felicity was just about to remind Sara to be careful and stay on-target when the sound of the motorcycle engine and honking car horns stopped abruptly, only to be replaced with crackling static.

"Sara?" she asked, waiting for a reply back. All she heard was the sound of another motor bike go silent, and then the third one as well and everything grew completely silent. "Sara? Oliver? Thea?!" She looked up at the city grid and saw that Sara's dot, as well as Oliver's and Thea's, had dropped off the grid. She looked at Sin and pointed to her ear, "Can you hear me? Not me me. I mean, my voice on the the comm- me?"

Sin nodded and pointed to her screen that showed the three heroes' communication devices had all gone offline. "Sara's connection got cut off first. Ollie and Thea went radio silent after that."

Felicity put her elbows on her desk and dropped her head into her hands, groaning loudly. "I hate it when they do this," Felicity ground out. She turned her head to the side and locked eyes with Sin, "And Sara is not my girlfriend! Don't even try it, kid! I'm onto you."

Sin looked substantially chastised and her face turned into a scowl. "But I'm Team Felicity–!" she argued.

"Uh-uh!" Felicity cut her off. She pointed a stern finger at the teen. "No."

The young girl glared at her before turning back to the screens and muttering, " 'Still Team Felicity."

Sara kept half of her promise. She was back before Felicity knew it; mostly because Felicity was left completely clueless after their comm connection was lost. The 'safe and sound' part however, was really up for argument as Sara walked into the lair with Oliver and Thea, pressing gauze to her shoulder and bicep. Felicity had just been about to yell at them for losing communication and not contacting her some other way sooner, but she apparently decided her chastisements could wait until later when Sara wasn't spouting blood.

"What happened?" Felicity asked as Sara jumped up on the table and Thea brought the med kit over to Oliver. "The last thing I heard was Sara saying she was the closest to Limerick's location and then I lost all of you."

"Limerick must have jammed the signal," Thea said, "because we couldn't hear each other either."

"And Sara went off book," Oliver ground out angrily, cleaning the perforation on Sara's shoulder and the graze on her bicep.

"Oh spare me the hypocrisy, Oliver!" Sara snapped. "You would have done the same thing!"

"Chasing after a man with a gun who had already killed three people – policemen, no less – when you're unarmed, is reckless and stupid!" Oliver scolded her loudly.

Thea came over to stand next to Felicity as they watched the two heroes bicker incessantly. If Oliver had been a cartoon character, there would have been steam coming out of his ears, and Felicity caught onto the glint in Sara's eyes like she was contemplating all the different ways she could literally kill Oliver with her bare hands. In a different context, it might have been funny, but with every traded retort and retaliation, things seemed to escalate between them.

"They've been doing this since we caught Limerick," Thea told Felicity, her eyes never leaving her brother and Sara.

Felicity turned to look at her. "In the state they're in, I can't believe either of them were actually able to take down Limerick."

Thea shook her head. "They didn't. My first shot knocked the gun out of Dr. Crazy's hand, then I fired a bola arrow and he went down," she explained. A proud smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "I took down my very first bad guy."

"How did it feel?" Felicity asked her knowingly.

"Badass," Thea answered with a devilish grin.

"DAMMIT, OLIVER!" Sara finally screamed. She reflexively jerked away from the needle Oliver was using to stitch her up. If Sara – of all people – had reacted to the pain, then Felicity knew Oliver must have really stabbed her.

"O-KAY!" Felicity told them in a yell. She crossed the room and walked over to the two, looking at them the way a mother looked at her children when they had been bickering. "Oliver," she began with barely concealed impatience, "you should go take a shower and put on your other suit, because you have a dinner with Maxwell Meyrfield from the board of investors. I will finish stitching Humpty Dumpty here " – she tilted her head toward Sara – "back together again." She looked over her shoulder at their newest hero. "Thea, sweetheart, do you think you could go check in at the precinct and have Chief Lance let Roy and Digg out of lock-up please?" Felicity asked, being pointedly sweet and polite to the younger Queen.

Thea was trying to hide her quiet laughter as she answered, "Sure." She looked at her older brother and friend with a smug face. "This is why I'm the favorite," she told them proudly.

Frowning deeply, Oliver looked at Felicity with betrayal. "I thought I was your favorite!"

From her seat on the tabletop, Sara swung her foot into Oliver's knee. She scoffed. "Please, everyone knows that I've been the favorite since I joined up," she declared with a practiced cockiness.

"Stop," Felicity told them with an amused smile. "As much as I'm kind of loving being fought over, you guys know that I love you all equally. Now," – she looked at Thea – "you, to the precinct." Thea walked off to retrieve their missing members. "You" – she looked at Oliver – "shower, dinner party, schmoozing, go! The fate of our future company depends on it!" Oliver ambled away toward the showers. "And you,"– Felicity turned toward Sara, who was still sitting sheepishly atop Felicity's desk.

"Before you saying anything," Sara began loudly, "I would just like to say that I tried to be careful. A very conscious effort was put into it. Oliver's totally embellishing!"

Felicity remained unmoved and unconvinced.

"Did you chase after Limerick when you knew he had a gun?" she asked reasonably.

Sara lowered her head a little. "Yes."

"And were you unarmed at the time?"

"Well, technically, but–"

"And am I or am I not stitching up your multiple gunshot wounds as we're having this conversation?"

"You are," Sara relented defeatedly.

They were quiet for a few minutes while Felicity continued the sutures that Oliver had started on Sara's bicep. Sara hated the silence between them as it stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, until Felicity finished stitching up the angry graze on the outer part of Sara's upper arm and wrapped it in gauze. The younger woman looked up at Sara with her lips pressed into a thin line and an unreadable look in her pale blue eyes. Then Felicity ran her hand down the graceful slope of Sara's neck and gently swept Sara's bra strap off her shoulder. Sara knew that the sole purpose of Felicity pushing aside the bra strap was to give the tech better access to the perforation just under Sara's collarbone, but there was something that felt distinctly intimate about the action and the caring way in which it was done. Sara suddenly felt very exposed, sitting in front of Felicity without a shirt, the other girl's breath ghosting over Sara's chest as she took a closer look at the wound.

"Another three millimeters higher and that bullet would have shattered your collarbone. You're lucky it didn't tear any major arteries, Sara," Felicity told her with a certain tone in her voice that Sara couldn't quite distinguish. She could, however, hear the disapproving choler.

"Are you extremely mad?" Sara asked softly as Felicity began suturing her shoulder.

"No," Felicity answered.

It wasn't a complete lie. Felicity wasn't really mad per se. She didn't really have a right to be, she kept reminding herself. After all, Sara wasn't actually hers to be mad at. Oliver may not have had an issue with yelling at Sara for her recklessness like an over-protective boyfriend or husband, but after Felicity's out-of-line overreaction to Sara's near-drowning at the docks last week, she never wanted to feel that much fear and anger and resentment and loss and genuine love for Sara so violently again. As much as it wasn't Oliver's place to be mad at Sara, it really wasn't Felicity's either.

"Felicity," Sara said to regain the other woman's attention. When Felicity looked up and their eyes met, Sara asked her, "Tell me the truth. It's okay if you are."

"No, it's not," Felicity told her firmly, tying off the thread she had used to stitch Sara's wound and cutting the line. "I don't want to be mad at you," Felicity confessed quietly. "Not like I was last week when you nearly drowned. That was . . . I . . was out of line. Screaming at you and shoving you like that was wrong, and I don't even know what came over me. I completely overreacted." She poured iodine onto the stitched wound and wiped antibiotic ointment on after it, before placing a few gauze sheets over the wound and putting tape over the four sides it hold it there. Her eyes rose to meet Sara's gaze. "I'm not usually a violent person, and I hate abuse in any form. I saw and heard too much of it when I was growing up, and I promised myself that I would never let myself be a part of that again." Before Sara could even register the tears welling in Felicity's eyes, she had cleared her throat and pushed them back. "You were just trying to save my life because you thought I was in trouble, and you didn't deserve the way I treated you."

Understanding reflected from Sara's eyes. "You scared yourself," she realized aloud. Felicity averted her gaze but Sara kept on looking at her, slowly putting the pieces together in her mind. "You never talk about your family. You don't talk about them because you don't know what to say. Because you don't have anything good to say." The more Sara thought aloud, the more Felicity seemed to withdraw inside of herself, so Sara stopped speaking about it. "You may have scared yourself, Felicity Smoak, but you did not scare me," Sara told her. She took Felicity's hand, drawing the girl's eyes back to her. "I know who you are. I know how you are, Felicity. You would never hurt me. And not just because I'm a former-ninja assassin and you're a genius computer specialist," she added to give some levity to the conversation. "You got angry because I had just scared the hell out of you. You didn't overreact, Fliss."

Felicity took a deep breath and nodded. "I just really wish you would be more careful out there," the younger girl said.

"I know. I really am sorry," Sara replied.

Shaking her head, Felicity argued, "No. No, you don't have to be sorry." She paused. "I just . . . I worry about you, Sara. That's all."

Sara felt her heart flutter a little at Felicity's soft-spoken admission, but before she could respond, Felicity was taking Sara's hands delicately in her own and helping her down off the table. As Sara dropped to the floor, the tin tray that Oliver had put Sara's removed bullet into clattered to the floor as well. When Felicity bent to pick it up, she stopped.

She took the bullet in her hand and looked more closely at it. "It's rubber," she said. "And it's shaped like a queen."

"What?" Sara asked bewilderedly.

Felicity stood up, subtly slipping the bullet into her pocket. "Uh, nothing," Felicity answered offhandedly. The tech-girl went over to her desk and grabbed one of the spare button-down shirts she kept in her drawer, before walking back to Sara and drawing it around the older blonde's shoulders. "There," she said as Sara slipped her arms into the sleeves and Felicity buttoned up a few of the buttons. "Come on. Let's go home."

A warm feeling spread through Sara when she heard Felicity refer to her apartment as 'home' instead of 'my place' or 'my apartment'. It was such a small thing, Felicity probably didn't even realize it, but to Sara, the thought of sharing a 'home' with Felicity, the thought of Felicity not even thinking anything of the fact that she was welcoming Sara to share her 'home', meant the world to the former castaway.

As they were leaving the foundry, Sara slipped her hand into Felicity's open one.

The next day, Felicity called Digg first thing and asked him to meet her at the pier and not to tell any of the others (except for Lyla, of course. Felicity didn't want John's pregnant wife to think that she was making a move on Digg because that would be ridiculous and– she had cut herself off abruptly at that point). She was awake and on her way out before Sara even stirred, which was a small miracle since Sara was just now starting to not sleep with her eyes open (it had really freaked Felicity out the first time she saw it) . On the table in the livingroom, she had left a couple of aspirins and a cup of coffee set on the mug warmer within Sara's immediate reach. Felicity snuck out the door, down the stairs, and out to her car and she set off for the pier.

There were already people out on the pier, jogging or casting out fishing lines or just enjoying the view, when Felicity got there and started looking for Digg. She spotted him leaning against the safety rail and looking out across the waves that shimmered in the early morning sunlight. Her heels clacked on the wooden planks as she made her way over to him. He must have heard her coming, because when she leaned against the wood wharf rail next to him, he took a moment before he looked to the side to see her.

"Morning," he greeted her, as if they were just meeting for brunch or something equally mundane.

"Hey," she replied tensely.

Digg kept looking at her expectantly. "So what's with the secret-spy-rendezvous routine?" he asked, cracking an amused smile. Felicity reached into her bag and pulled out the bloodstained rubber bullet and set it on the flat top of the rail. Diggle looked from the rubber object to Felicity quizzically. "You want to play a game of chess?" he jested. "Kind of hard with only one piece."

"That's the bullet that Limerick put in Sara yesterday," Felicity told him with complete seriousness. She waited for his reaction and he didn't disappoint.

"That's a bullet?!" Digg questioned incredulously.

Felicity nodded tightly. "Sara was hit right here," – she indicated the spot on her own chest – "right below her clavicle. I was wondering why a bullet that was shot at point-blank range and never hit bone wouldn't go right through her or at least in deeper. Then I saw it and I knew. Limerick wasn't shooting to kill, he was sending a message."

"Could this whole thing have been a test?" Digg theorized. "He designs a crime that involves the death of police officers. The Canary's father is a police official and The Arrow and Co. have had a sort of alliance with a specific member of the SCPD since you joined us and started acting as a diplomat. He knows it'll draw our attention and we'll try to stop him, so he tests us to see what we're capable of and how we operate, like in a game of chess. The piece he used as a bullet to shoot Sara was a queen, as in Oliver Queen."

"But why would he want to test us? And how would Limerick know that Oliver Queen is The Arrow and that Chief Lance is The Canary's father?" Felicity countered. She shook her head and leaned against the railing to look out over the choppy waters. "No. This is something bigger. Limerick isn't the king, he's just a pawn. Someone else is calling the plays here."

Diggle studied his friend for a moment before he spoke, "You think you know who it is."

Felicity breathed in deeply and nodded once. "When I was going through the sealed A.R.G.U.S. files, I came across the documents and profiles of a smaller top-secret agency within the A.R.G.U.S. agency, similar to the Suicide Squad. This one deals mostly in intelligence and covert ops," she elaborated. After a short pause, Felicity turned her head to look at Diggle. "They call themselves Checkmate."

"You think they're trying to take us down?" Digg asked.

"No," Felicity answered, "but I think that bullet is their way of telling us that they've got their eye on us. And clearly they're not opposed to dropping innocent bodies to do so."

With a deep frown set in his face, Digg looked grim and wary. "Yeah, but for what reason?"

"That," Felicity said darkly, "is the part that worries me the most."

That entire rest of the day, Felicity's mind leapt between her morning discussion with Digg and her plans for Thea. With everything that had been set on the backburner or pushed to the side in the aftermath of Starling City's second tragedy in as many years, and now with the looming potential threats of a possible Merlyn-mimicker and now a secret cell sanctioned by the nation's most powerful government organization watching their every move, Felicity thought it might be conducive for Thea and the rest of them to have something positive to focus on in light of all the death and violence and chaos and corruption. Sooner or later, Felicity and Diggle were going to have to tell the rest of the team about Dark Archer II and Checkmate, but for the time being, Felicity felt like they needed some good news for a change. Luckily, good news was what Felicity had for them, and it couldn't have come more promptly. It just so happened that today had been the day that all of Felicity's hard-earned favors had paid off, and when she walked into the foundry that afternoon with a gift box in her hands, she had a smile a mile wide despite last night's grim revelation.

The boys were sparring on the mats when Felicity came in, and Digg's shock at seeing the smile on Felicity's face wound up losing him the match with Oliver. Laurel, who was spending her sacred Saturday sitting on a steel table in the sublevel of a closed down club, looked up at her and smiled knowingly (Laurel was the only person aside from Diggle who knew what Felicity had been plotting and Felicity had called her the moment she closed the deal with the shareholders). Sara was laying down across the steel table with her feet in her sister's lap, tossing a tennis ball up and catching it in her good hand, while all the other tennis balls in the foundry were being thrown in the air by Sin, who was watching with amusement as Roy and Thea competed to see who could put the most arrows through the lime green spheres as they fell and bounced against the floor. By the color of the arrow fletchings, Thea appeared to be winning so far, as her red-and-yellow checkered arrows were pinning dozens of tennis balls to the wall already.

"Thea!" Felicity called to the younger girl. "I've got something for you." She raised the box in her hand and waved it.

Though she looked confused, Thea smiled a little. "You know my birthday was weeks ago, right?" she questioned.

Felicity shrugged as she handed Thea the box. "We were all scattered and reeling still. We never really celebrated, and I just managed to acquire this today," she explained. "So open it."

Eyeing Felicity with playful suspicion, Thea took the box from the tech's hands and lifted the lid. When she looked inside, she saw a single piece of paper that looked like a legal document of some kind. Thea lifted the paper from the box, giving Felicity a wary look.

"Felicity, was is this?"

"Read it," Felicity answered.

Still looking wary and cautiously, Thea looked down to the document and read aloud, "'Quit Claim Deed. On April 2nd, 2014, the grantors: Elias Orville Barnes, Victor H. Foxx III, Virginia Lowell Foxx, Martin Aldren Mansfield, and George Matthew Sumner, respective shareholders of Properties of Queen Consolidated, for an in consideration of: One Dollar plus services rendered and other good and valuable consideration coveys, releases, and quit claims to the grantees: Thea Dearden Queen, primary grantee, and Oliver Jonas Queen, secondary grantee, the following described real estate situated in Starling City, County of Starr, State of California: 10,000 square-foot decommissioned foundry estate situated on 1.7 square-acres of land, which is commonly known as: 411 Mill Street, Starling City, California, 98765," Thea read. She glanced up to meet Felicity's eyes with a bright smile before she continued reading.
"Grantors do hereby grant, bargain, and sell all of the Grantors' rights, titles, and interests in and to the above described property and premises to the Grantees and Grantees' heirs and assigns forever, so that neither Grantors nor Grantors' heirs, legal representatives or assigns shall have, claim or demand any right or title to the property, premises, and appurtenances or any part thereof. Subscribed and sworn this 2nd day of April, 2014'." By the time Thea had reached the end of the document, she had figured out what this piece of paper was and what it implied. "Signed by all five of the joint owners with Walter Steele and Felicity Smoak as witnesses."

Everyone was quiet as Thea processed what she was holding in her hands, and then her eyes found Felicity's face again. "You got me back my club? How–? What–?" she stammered.

"I did a lot of people a lot of favors," Felicity answered nonchalantly. "I'm pretty sure that's what they mean by 'plus services rendered'. There's also a private loan agreement for a sufficient amount of money to restock and reopen that you'll need to sign with Walter. He trusts you, of course, but it's just smart to have all business agreements properly documented."

Thea gaped at her. "You got me my club back?" She was visibly touched by the lengths Felicity had clearly gone to in order to make this happen for Thea.

"It's a lot of work," Felicity said, "but I think you can handle it– that we can handle it. Plus, you've already got a ready-made bartender." Felicity cast her eyes toward Sara, who looked every bit as excited as Thea did.

Unexpectedly, Thea threw her arms around Felicity and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you! God, thank you so much, Felicity!" she cried. Thea held the paper in front of her as she walked over to stand between her brother and her boyfriend, then she slung an arm around each of their shoulders. "I've got my club back, I've got my guy back, I finally have my big brother being honest with me, and I've got an entire fully dysfunctional, dramatic, crazy, crime-fighting family looking out for me," Thea announced, looking around at all of them. "I think I might just be okay."

From across their circle of friends, Digg shot Felicity a look. They were both thinking about the ramifications that the Dark Archer II and Checkmate might have in store for them. Felicity wondered if maybe Thea had spoken too soon.