Because of how patient everyone was waiting for the last chapter, decided to kick out two today. Enjoy!

Oliver walked into the hospital room, but immediately was brought up short by the scene in front of him.

Roy was sitting up, looking slightly bruised, but in good spirits, laughing at something Thea had just said to him. Diggle was standing off to the side, smiling, but his body contradicted the easy look on his face. He seemed ready to jump in between the two young people in a split second if needed.

At the sound of someone entering, Thea turned to see her brother, launching herself into his arms, a look of relief on her face. "I told Diggle you didn't have to come, but he insisted you would want to see for yourself that Roy was up and fine now," she said, giving him a huge smile.

Oliver stepped over to the young man, perusing him from head to foot. "How are you feeling, Roy?"

"I actually feel fine, if you can believe it," he stated, taking Thea's hand as she came to sit next to him again.

Oliver smiled, trying to look as casual as possible. He turned to his sister. "Hey, Thea, can you get me a bottle of water from the vending machine?" he asked, reaching into his wallet to pull out some money. "And get whatever you want, too," he said, handing her the dollar bills.

She eyed her brother suspiciously. "Why are you trying to get rid of me?"

Oliver laughed, trying to give her his most reassuring look possible. "I'm honestly just thirsty. If you want me to go get it I will," he added, holding his hand out to take the money back from her.

"Fine, I'll go get it. But you guys behave while I'm gone," she added, heading to the door.

He smiled at her as she left the room. As soon as she was gone, he strode over to Roy, turning the young man's head to look at the injection site on his neck where the needle had plunged into him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Roy objected, pushing Oliver's hand away from him.

Diggle stood to the other side of him, watching to make sure Thea was not coming back immediately.

"Do you remember being injected before your attacker took off?" Oliver asked, looking at Roy sternly.

Roy looked between Oliver and Diggle, panic creeping into his face. "What did they put in me?" he asked quietly.

Oliver looked at Diggle, who gave him a nod as if to say he agreed with letting Roy know what was going on. He had already been a help to the Hood, so now maybe he could help them as Oliver figured out where the serum was coming from. "We think you've been injected with an experimental serum that could have some serious side effects," Oliver said.

"What kind of side effects?"

"We're not a hundred percent sure," Diggle stated, "but we have a mutual friend who may know."

Roy looked confused at first, but then it dawned on him. "You guys know the vigilante?"

"Let's just say he's helped me in the past, and he's offered to help me in the future," Oliver stated.

"So did he contact you, too, after he saved you?" Roy asked, thinking back to the time when Diggle had impersonated the Hood to throw suspicion off of Oliver and his fake kidnapping.

Not sure how far to take the lie, Oliver decided to just run with it. "Yeah, he did, and he knows the last people who had this serum. Apparently it didn't end well for them."

"Because of the side effects?" Roy asked, his face showing panic again.

"No, they were trying to weaponize it, like they're trying to do now, so he had to kill them," Oliver stated flatly.

Roy's jaw dropped, the blood draining from his face. He started shaking his head, fear AND panic all over his face now.

Oliver put a reassuring hand on him. "We need you to help us figure out how to counteract the serum, before it can be mass produced. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise."

Roy nodded as Thea made her way back into the room.

At the look on Roy's face she immediately made her way across the room to stand between Oliver and her boyfriend. "What is going on?" she asked accusingly at her brother.

Roy recovered quickly, impressing Oliver. "It's okay, Thea, I just didn't feel well for a second and Oliver was coming over to hit the button for the nurse, but I'm feeling better already," he added, smiling at her.

She looked suspiciously at Oliver, who had a total look of innocence on his face. "I was just trying to help," he stated, lifting his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm sorry," she said, giving Oliver another quick hug. "I'm just a little on edge right now. It just seems like the city is going crazy lately," she added, sitting back down next to Roy.

Roy gave her a shaky smile, then a slight nod at Oliver in acknowledgement of their agreement. Oliver then said his good-byes, walking out with Diggle. He instructed his friend to stay close to the hospital to keep an eye on things to make sure whoever had infected Roy wasn't sniffing around in case they figured out he had survived the attack.

The next day…

Oliver sat in his office at Queen Consolidated, staring at Felicity as she sat at her desk, typing on her computer. The memory of the night before brought a smile to his face, remembering their kiss at her apartment and the way she had opened herself up to him, despite the many reasons he gave her for walking away from him and his messed up head. She caught him looking at her, a slow smile coming to her face, and an attractive blush making its way from her neck all the way to the top of her head. How was he ever going to get used to that?

He had stopped in at Verdant after leaving the hospital to see if she had come up with any new information on Roy's attacker, or what the hospital had found out from the blood work they had done. Luckily Diggle was able to get into the lab to replace Roy's blood samples with another sample of the same blood type with no oddities to make it look like his blood was completely normal, with Felicity changing the results that had been recorded by the machine the blood had been run through as well. As Roy was slated to be released the next day Felicity was keeping an eye on the hospital records, and Roy was to report if any more blood was being drawn before his release. So far all of their bases had been covered without incident.

He and Felicity had been working the traffic cameras for a few more hours in the hopes of finding where their mystery attacker had disappeared to, but with no luck. By about two that morning they decided to hang it up for the night and try again the following evening with fresh eyes and Diggle's help. Felicity, in typical fashion, had informed Oliver that she wasn't ignoring what had happened earlier in the evening, but was still processing it, so wanted them to both try to get some rest and revisit what was going on between them with a fresh set of eyes as well the following day. They decided to meet at Verdant that evening to talk over some take-out food while they did more research, then parted ways after a brief kiss that left Oliver wanting more.

Just as Oliver was thinking of that last kiss, it was at that exact moment that Isabel decided to come storming into his office. The look Oliver had been sending in Felicity's direction was not lost on Isabel, and she gave a disapproving frown in his direction as she approached.

"I thought you said there wasn't anything between the two of you," she stated matter-of-factly, giving a glance in Felicity's direction. Felicity had already turned her back on them, not wanting to get caught in Isabel's crossfire.

"What do you need, Isabel?" Oliver asked belligerently, not in the mood to put up with her antics.

She threw an envelope in front of him. "I understand you haven't responded to the invitation that came to us as acting co-CEO's of Queen Consolidated. It's from SW International, a potential investment group for our operations in Australia. I don't think we're in a position to be ignoring any potential investors given our recent track record," she finished, leaning over his desk to stare him down.

Oliver picked up the invitation, noting the date for the end of the week. "Isabel, I'm not interested in accompanying you to any corporate events. If you want to go, be my guest," he finished, throwing the invitation back across the desk toward her.

She straightened, crossing her arms. "Is that what you think, I'm looking for a date to this? Please, I've got better things to do than spend my time reminiscing about a one-night stand, Oliver. It wasn't even one night; it was more like ten minutes," she stated sharply, letting out a small chuckle. Oliver glared at her, regret over his misstep in Russia eating away at him. "Oh stop looking so self-righteous. It meant nothing to you and less to me," she threw at him.

"Fine," Oliver stated through clenched teeth. "Put me down for two," he added, looking over briefly at Felicity, who still had her back turned to them.

Isabel rolled her eyes, then grabbed up the invitation and marched out of his office without another word.

Felicity came in after seeing the other woman leave. "What was that all about?" she asked, placing some papers on Oliver's desk.

Oliver smiled at her, leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head, looking very pleased with himself. "We are going to a charity event next Saturday evening being hosted by SW International, a potential investor," he stated.

Felicity looked at him with shock, and then all emotion fell away from her face. "I hope you two have a wonderful time," she stated, turning to leave.

Realizing her misinterpretation, Oliver quickly jumped from his chair and grabbed Felicity's arm before she could escape his office. "No," he corrected, "when I said 'we' I meant you and I."

Felicity's eyes popped open wide, her mouth forming a visible 'O' at his statement. Shaking her head to clear it, she finally found her voice again. "You mean you're taking me as your administrative assistant, right?"

He smiled at her, taking a step closer, brushing the back of his hand along her cheek. "No, I mean I'm taking you as my date, Felicity." The frown that she gave him had him bringing up both hands to cup her face. After taking a moment to look her in the eyes to make sure he had her undivided attention, he leaned down to give her a soft, slow kiss. He smiled slightly during the kiss, enjoying the way she melted into him when their lips were joined.

Felicity let out a soft sigh as he pulled away, trying to remember what she was about to argue with Oliver about, but coming up empty-handed, or empty-brained in her case. Then it came back to her. "I thought we were waiting to discuss our situation in more detail while working tonight?" she said, scowling slightly at him.

Oliver couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. "I guess I'm too impatient."

She grinned up at him, knowing there was no way she was going to talk him out of going to the event with her, and realizing that she didn't want to talk him out of it. "Fine," she conceded, "just let me know where I need to be and when."

His grin widened, if that was even possible. He wasn't sure where this was going with Felicity, but he was certainly enjoying the thought of having more time with her. Typically at this point he would be running the other direction, not interested in an emotional entanglement with a woman, regardless of how beautiful or interesting she was. However, with Felicity he was already past the point of no return, and the thought of getting to know her better and evolve their current relationship was something brand new to him that he was truly looking forward to.

She gave him one last kiss, and then turned to go back to her desk.