Author's Note: Hey guys! So I've had this chapter mostly written for about a week, but it still needed some editing and then when I sat down to do that I ended up deciding it needed to be a little longer. Oops. As a reminder, this story is set in the hiatus between seasons 2 and 3. I've decided that I'm going to keep a few things canon has given us so far (like the bed), but for the most part I'll probably be ignoring the rest. So if you were confused at all, I hope that clears things up a bit. Anyway, read on, and leave a review if you'd be so kind. They mean a lot, and really make my day. Oh, and happy Thursday!

Felicity remembered very quickly why she hated working in retail: people were, generally speaking, idiots. Also, she had not graduated from MIT – with honors, no less – to spend eight hours a day repeating the sentence "did you turn it off and then on again". The words literally hurt her soul.

Then again, it was nice to know that she had a revolving income again. Her savings account was still in fairly good shape, but she worried less knowing that she wasn't relying on it completely. And it was easier to keep up on the latest technology releases when she had nearly every one at the tips of her fingers. Besides, it wasn't forever; just until she found a position she was really suited for.

There was no denying that life had certainly taken a strange turn for Felicity. In the last two years she'd gone from being a nobody IT tech at a fortune 500 company, to being an Executive Assistant for her CEO slash vigilante boss, to being a retail store worker. That wasn't even touching on the whole "Hurricane Slade" ordeal, or any of the other ordeals they'd either endured or averted in the course of their less than legal activities.

Her iPod chose that moment to switch songs and the words "Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy" filled the confines of her car.

"Oh, now that's just ridiculous," Felicity growled, but she turned up the volume anyway. Apparently now even inanimate objects liked to give her grief over the strange state of her life.

She was on her way to the lair for the night. Oliver had his eye on the leader of a weapons trafficking ring that had popped up in the city over the last month or so. The mission was pretty straightforward in her opinion – it hadn't taken her long to get enough off of a closed circuit security camera to identify the guy – but Felicity was grateful for that. Cleaning up Starling City was what they did, but it was nice to think they were getting a bit of a break while they tried to recover from the last few months.

They weren't doing too terrible on that front, though. The lair was mostly built up and on par with their expectations again, although Felicity's computer system still left a little to be desired. She was going to fix that tonight – she'd finally just bitten the bullet and used some of her paycheck and a chunk of savings to buy what she needed. Originally she'd planned to just rebuild another computer and upgrade the system bit by bit, but then it had occurred to her that the option wasn't really a viable one. Digg and Oliver relied on her computers, and the machines absolutely had to be able to do what she asked them to do.

Felicity parked in her (new) usual spot. The new building had a delivery bay and loading dock in the back that Oliver and Digg had retrofitted with a ramp large enough to drive a vehicle up, and they'd turned it into a sort of secret garage. The room was large enough to fit all of their vehicles and a few of Oliver's mysterious trunks, which lined one of the back walls. Felicity had wired the security system herself, with a little help from the boys for some of the trickier parts, and patched it into the lair.

Felicity gathered up what she could manage to carry on her own. She'd have to ask for help and come back for the rest of it. The walk wasn't terrible until she got to the door and had to punch in the security code, which was difficult to do with an armful of computer parts that she absolutely could not afford to drop. She finally managed to finagle the code, and then sighed in irritation when she realized the door was too heavy to open with the two fingers she could spare.

"Clearly, I did not think this through," she muttered.

"You look ridiculous."

Felicity startled. When she turned to glance over her shoulder (and the pile of stuff in her arms), it was to find Roy Harper standing behind her with folded arms and raised eyebrows.

"Such a charmer," Felicity deadpanned. "Give me a hand?"

"No, I thought I'd just stand here and watch you struggle," Roy answered.

"Isn't that what you're doing right now?"

Roy shook his head and stepped forward. He had to reenter the code before he could hold the door open for her.

"Thanks," she huffed. She was already eyeing the flight of stairs and trying to decide the best way to navigate them when one of Roy's arms snaked in front of her face and pulled away half of her wares.

"You really thought I wouldn't help you carry this crap?" he asked, and he almost sounded offended.

Felicity just shrugged. Though Roy was now considered a full-fledged member of the team, she didn't think she'd gotten the full measure of him yet. They were friendly with each other for the most part, but their relationship seemed to be built on a foundation of sass. Roy also appeared to have the same penchant for stoicism that Oliver had; he shared little of himself beyond the work that they did. Privately, Felicity wondered if part of that didn't have to do with the fact that their new teammate was still pining over the voluntary disappearance of his girlfriend. Roy rarely mentioned Thea, but she never failed to notice the way he reacted whenever Oliver mentioned his sister.

As they made their way down the stairs together, Felicity decided that if Diggle was like her big brother, then Roy was like her little brother. What a strange little vigilante family we've built, she mused.

The only one she couldn't properly place was Oliver. He certainly wasn't her brother. He was her friend, and her partner, but beyond that … she didn't know. They were more than nothing, but less than something – if that was possible. Sometimes she thought there was something there, skirting the edge of possibility, but she wasn't sure what it was. Felicity did her best not to, but every once in awhile she remembered a moment in the shadows of an abandoned mansion and a half whispered confession of love. The memory never got to stay more than a few seconds before she pushed it away, though. His words had been a ploy to catch a madman and nothing more.

Still, Felicity would probably never be able to forget what it sounded like to hear Oliver say those words: I love you. Once or twice, she'd caught him looking at her in a way that made her feel like he hadn't forgotten either – but that didn't bear thinking about.

"Did Hanukah come early this year?" Digg called out then.

"Hanukah?" Roy repeated.

"I'm Jewish," Felicity supplied. "You can just set it down on the table." She turned to see Digg and Oliver on the sparring mats, each one with a long staff in one hand. They were shirtless, of course, because at least one of them seemed to be allergic to being fully clothed. "I bit the bullet and picked up all the stuff for the computer system. I figure that we'll need them, if we're gonna get back into the swing of things."

"I thought you were trying to save money?" Digg challenged.

"I am, but this is kind of a necessity. Speaking of which, could one of you give me a hand bringing in the rest from my car?"

"There's more?" Roy asked incredulously. "How much of this crap do you need?"

"Hey!" Felicity groused, pointing an angry finger at him. "Do not call my babies 'crap'. They save lives, thank you very much, and they're worth more than at least half of the people I've met."

Roy held up both hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, sorry." One of the corners of his mouth turned up in a half smile. "Are you always this weird?"

Felicity tried to glare at him, but she recognized the teasing note at the end of his question. "Ugh, you're gonna be like the little brother I never wanted, aren't you?"

She was surprised to realize that Oliver was laughing quietly. "I'll help you, Felicity." He handed his staff of to Diggle and retrieved his shirt from where he'd tossed it earlier. "You two sound like Thea and me when we were kids."

Predictably, the half smile disappeared from Roy's face. He stepped away from her without a word, presumably to get outfitted for the night. Oliver had surprised them all by declaring Roy ready for what she called "field work".

Felicity waited until she and Oliver were partway up the stairs to quietly say, "I think Roy is a little heartbroken."

Oliver did not seem surprised by her statement. He pushed the door open for her and then followed her out into the alleyway and toward the garage without a word.

"I know you weren't crazy about their relationship, Oliver, but Roy really misses Thea."

The answer Oliver gave her was not the one she expected. "So do I."

Three small words, uttered so innocently, were a powerful reminder for Felicity of all the things the man next to her had endured. His mother was dead and now his only sister was halfway across the world, effectively leaving him completely alone. The realization was so heavy – so painful, and it wasn't even her life – that Felicity couldn't take it. She reached for him, catching his forearm with one hand and pulling them to a stop.

"Hey," she said. "I'm sorry." She was apologizing for so much that she didn't know how to qualify it. She was sorry for what life had put him through, and kept putting him through; she was sorry for all of the things he'd lost, and all the things she couldn't fix, and the complete inability of such small words to express how deeply she really meant them. She squeezed his arm comfortingly. "Of course you miss her. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. But you're not alone, and neither is Roy. We might be a family of misfits, but we're still a family."

Oliver reached over to cover the hand that she'd placed on his arm with his own. Felicity's expression was so open, so sincere, that it made him smile a little. A family of misfits, she had called them, and Oliver liked the title.

He liked knowing that this life they had built meant so much to her. "I know," he assured her. "And if anyone can make him see that, it's you."

Felicity felt rooted to the ground. Oliver had clearly let his guard down, and the way he was looking at her made it hard to breathe. She didn't know when the action had started, but she was suddenly very aware of the way Oliver's thumb was brushing over her knuckles. The shiver that shot down her spine was completely involuntary.

Oliver attributed it to the chill night air. "Let's go get the rest of your stuff," he said, breaking their contact and resuming the trek to the garage.

Felicity sucked in a breath until her lungs burned and then fell into step beside him again. "Are you sure Roy's ready to be out there with you guys?" she asked after a while.

"He'll be fine," Oliver answered. They had reached Felicity's mini Cooper. He crossed to the passenger door and waited for her to load his arms with computer parts. "You said yourself this should be a routine bust, and Digg and I will be there to bail him out if something goes wrong."

Felicity sighed. "I know. But you know I'm a worrier. With good cause, I might add. It was bad enough with just two of you. The three of you are gonna give me an ulcer before the year is out, I just know it."

The end of her sentence was distorted as she leaned into her passenger seat to gather a handful of loose cords, a large monitor, and a hard drive. When she righted herself, she handed the pile over to him without actually looking at him; she was looking for something.

"Did I already take in the other hard drive? Never mind." She swept what was left into her own empty arms and then pushed the car door closed with one of her hips.

"This stuff looks expensive, Felicity," Oliver chided as they made their way back toward the lair.

"It was," she answered nonchalantly. "But it has to be the best if I'm gonna cover your ass." Oliver was already smiling when she realized her mistake. "No! Not cover your ass … not literally cover, like … I wasn't coming on to you, I wouldn't … well, I …"

Oliver was laughing at her. Well, he was grinning – actually grinning – and chuckling quietly as she dug herself in deeper.

"Feel free to jump in at any time," Felicity snapped dryly. "Help me save even a shred of dignity."

"Why would I do that?"

Felicity tried to glare at him, but it was almost impossible to do in the face of such lightness from him. Oliver was happy, or showed his happiness, so rarely. More than that, he seemed to be teasing her – which was odd, because he rarely teased anyone.

"Because it's the nice thing to do?" she supplied.

"Ah," he breathed, entering the code and holding the door open for her again. "I must not be that nice," he murmured as she stepped past him.

The words were a jest, and Felicity knew that, but there was something about the way he said them. His voice dropped a little at the end, as though he was sharing a secret with her, and fixed her with a gaze that was a little too dark to be innocent. The look was sort of predatory, but in a way that made heart flutter.

Was Oliver flirting with her?

The moment passed when she heard Roy say, "I am not helping you set those up."

Her heartbeat was a little too erratic for her liking when Felicity responded. "Good thing I didn't ask you to, then." She and Oliver descended the stairs and deposited their bundles next to their counterparts on her workstation.

Roy had changed into his red leather ensemble. Seeing him in it only served to remind Felicity that he really was a part of their team now, and she started to worry all over again. Oliver and Digg had spent years learning how to work together and rely on one another out there; how was Roy going to fit in to the mix? What if he messed up? Or worse, lost his temper, or panicked? The list of things that could go wrong was so long that it gave her a headache just thinking about it.

She couldn't do much in the field, but she could be certain that any and all of their technological and support needs were taken of.

"Actually," Felicity segued, glancing at all three of them. "I'm gonna need your help."

"What did I just say?" Roy retorted.

"I don't remember," Felicity shot back, meeting his sass with her own.

"All right, children," Digg interrupted, already looking exasperated. "Fight nice."

"Seriously though," she continued, serious again. "If any of you thinks I'm going to let you leave this lair without a properly working computer system, then you could not be more wrong."

Oliver raised an eyebrow, but it was Roy who spoke up. Which did not surprise Felicity one bit. "Seriously? What difference does it make?"

Oliver knew that the other man had irked her when Felicity barreled into his personal space like a wildcat on the hunt. He would have found it funny, if Roy hadn't looked so thoroughly confused.

"The difference is that it's my job to make sure that you're covered out there. Whether that's unlocking doors or hacking security cameras or saving your ass from the police, or whatever else you need. I can't do that if my computers can't keep up with what I need them to do, and I'll be damned if I let you go out there without my support. This team is a family, and that makes you family too." She punctuated the words by poking him in the chest with a finger. "And my family comes home when the mission is done."

The lair was silent for almost a full minute. Now that her rant was over, Felicity felt a little embarrassed for her words; she hadn't meant to come down on him so hard, but it rankled her that Roy either didn't see the importance of what she did for the team, or shared Oliver's disturbing lack of a sense of self-preservation. Still, the words had gotten away from her a little, and she could feel the blush creeping up her neck and spreading over her cheeks.

"When you say family, do you mean like a mob family? Because I kind of feel like I just got yelled at by the Godfather. Well, Godmother." Roy finished the sentence with a crooked smile.

For a second, Felicity just gaped at him. Then the sharp bark of deep laughter startled her: Oliver had started to laugh, and Digg quickly joined him. Though her face was on fire, she joined in after a second. That had not been the response she expected, but it was pretty funny.

"Sorry," Felicity managed to huff after a minute. "I get kind of intense sometimes."

"Whatever you say, Godmother."

"Oh, shut up and give me a hand with the damn computers."

She couldn't entirely regret the rant, though, because after that Roy's attitude seemed to lighten a little. Everyone needed to know they belonged somewhere, Felicity thought, and that their presence was noticed.

"I think we should just pick new aliases," Roy said with perfect calmness. "How do you think Detective Lance would like calling Oliver the Godfather from now on?"

"The Godfather?" Oliver repeated.

"Well, you're kind of the ring leader of this 'family'," and Roy made a face at Felicity when he said the word. "And Felicity's obviously the mob mama."

"I think I preferred 'Godmother'. It sounds more …"

"Terrifying?" Diggle supplied.

"Sure, if you mean like being chased by a Chihuahua," Roy quipped.

"Dignified," Felicity said simultaneously. She glared at Roy. "I will hurt you."

He shrugged. "The mob takes care of their own, right?"

"This is the most ridiculous conversation I've ever had."

Oliver directed a very pointed look at her. "Somehow I doubt that."

"Well," she hedged. "It's pretty high up on the list."

Between them, they managed to get the system up and purring like a kitten in short time. Felicity had to stop what she was doing more than once to double check that her friends were doing things correctly, because the computers really were her babies and she was nothing if not a paranoid parent. The only reason she was letting them help at all was because she knew they wanted to get out in the field sometime before tomorrow morning.

When Felicity was satisfied with her new set up, her counterparts gathered their equipment and headed for the stairs. She followed them to the stairs, wringing her hands anxiously as she listened to them outline their action plan one last time. Roy sounded confident and in control, but Felicity knew that it was one thing to be that way in the safe confines of the lair, and another to be that way when staring down thugs and criminals. Granted, Oliver and Digg would be there with him and they had plenty of experience with this sort of thing, but still. She worried. She made an Olympic sport out of worrying.

Felicity added chewing on the corner of her bottom lip to wringing her hands.

"Felicity."

Her little mafia family – damn Roy for putting that thought in her head! – had stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Roy was standing a few stairs up, his hand on the railing as he looked over his shoulder at her; Digg was smiling reassuringly, which did help her nerves a little; and Oliver had fixed alert, serious eyes on her face.

"We'll be fine," Oliver told her quietly.

She nodded once, quickly. "I know that. Of course you will be. I'm not nervous, I'm just …"

"Nervous?" Digg finished for her.

"Ridiculous," Felicity puffed. "I'm ridiculous. Now get out of here already."

In an effort to hide her nervousness, Felicity waved her hands through the air in front of her in a shooing motion. Roy turned and resumed his trek up the stairs and Digg winked at her, but Oliver took a step forward and snatched one of her hands out of the air. He gave it a gentle squeeze and tipped his chin down to catch her gaze.

"Hey. We'll be okay."

Felicity answered his gentle squeeze with one of her own and pressed her lips into a thin line before answering. "I know. Now go, clean up the city."

The upstairs door had no sooner closed than Felicity zipped across the room to her computers and brought up all of the traffic cameras that covered their path of travel. She slid the Bluetooth in her ear and started scrambling the frequency.

"Digg?"

"Loud and clear."

Felicity patched into Roy's frequency. "Roy?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

She flipped to the last one. "Oliver?" The engine of his motorcycle was a quiet growl in her ear.

"The others?" he asked by way of an answer.

"Ready and waiting."

Felicity joined the open frequencies into one channel to the sound of a motorcycle engine revving up.

Then, Oliver's voice carried over the background noise. "Talk to me, Felicity."

The chase was on. Her fingers whisked over the keyboard as she directed them through the streets and toward the target. Digg and Roy broke off as they got closer to take up tactical positions, and Felicity relayed information to them as it came in. The computer genius always enjoyed this part of their job: they operated as smoothly and efficiently as the best computer system, and she took pride in that. Her team had the information as soon as she did.

Felicity lost visual contact with them just outside the perimeter of the condemned meat packing plant the weapons traffickers were using as a base of operations. She made a disgusted face as she pictured what such a building would look like on the inside.

"I've lost visual," she informed them. A few hurried keystrokes and then, "I can't turn it on remotely. It might be damaged."

This was the part Felicity didn't like. Without a security or recording system to hack into, she was blind. She studied the building's blueprints to pinpoint any likely hideouts or prime scouting positions. Their past missions had taught her to scan the duct system and main power wiring schematics as well.

The wordless chorus of grunts and muffled hits and twanging bowstrings was not unlike her personal symphony. Felicity was never certain if it was more stressful or comforting to listen to: on one hand, she felt like she was sitting through some twisted horror movie that had gone all out on sound effects and forgotten to actually film any scenes; on the other hand, the steady rhythm of the sounds and their continued presence reassured her that things were going as they should.

The eventual gunfire and shouting were expected, but they filled Felicity with dread. She drummed her fingers nervously against the tabletop. The report of Digg's gun as he returned fire was sharp over the communication line; two bowstrings whistled alternating tunes, Oliver's moving faster than Roy's.

Nearly twenty minutes after Felicity lost sight of her team – not that she was counting – Oliver's voice rang clearly over the line.

"Tell Detective Lance we've left him a present."

Felicity let out a relieved breath. "I feel like Santa. Or maybe one of his elves. Not the Will Ferrell kind, though, because that's too much, even for me."

Just before she opened another frequency to call the detective she heard Roy mutter, "You are so strange."

"Buddy, you have no idea," Felicity muttered.

"Buddy?" A new voice repeated. "Are you talking to me?"

"Detective Lance! No, sorry, that wasn't aimed at you."

"What can I do for you?" He didn't use her name, but the slight emphasis he put on the last word assured Felicity that he knew whom he was talking to.

"Christmas has come early, Detective."

Digg, Roy, and Oliver stayed with their apprehended thugs until Felicity told them the cops had passed over the outer perimeter of the building. She followed their separate routes home on the traffic cameras until they were a few blocks away, and then set about closing down the long list of operations her computers had been running. Felicity keyed in several new commands for self-diagnostics, system performance checks and remote security measures to run over the next half hour or so. She didn't shut down their communication link until the growl of Oliver's motorcycle went silent in her ear.

Three sets of footsteps pounded loudly down the stairs not long after. Felicity turned her chair to face them, smiling as they came into view.

"Limbs?" she called.

"Intact," Digg responded.

"Wounds?"

"Negative."

Felicity clapped her hands together happily and sprang out of her chair to join them as they de-weaponized themselves.

"Did you just inventory us?" Roy deadpanned.

Felicity glared at him.

"I've joined a mob." He sounded somewhat horrified.

"Mafia," Felicity and Digg corrected simultaneously.

Oliver had no idea that he was going to speak until the words had left his mouth. "Welcome to the family."

Felicity grinned at Oliver over her shoulder and then turned the grin on Roy. Then, she leaned toward him and stage whispered, "No getting out now."