Author's Note: So apparently, when your sister is celebrating her birthday, 'I have a fanfic to finish!', is not an acceptable reason to not go. So, my apologies that this so late. What a time to develop a social life!

Thanks again everyone who reviewed. This chapter was annoying, because it's important, but it's also the one thing standing in the way of the chapter I really want to write... I rewrote this like four times, trying to get the tone right, and frankly, at this point I just want to go to sleep.

Chapter Four

The drive back to Starling City was spent practically silent. Oliver had turned the radio on at a low volume as he drove, eliminating the need for small talk. Helena was sitting in the front with him, while Roy had been forced to join her in the back. She'd heard Helena and Oliver have a short whispered conversation at one point. She couldn't make out what they were saying and she hadn't bothered to try, but it cut off abruptly and the tension was palpable.

She didn't feel like talking. Roy had silently begun to collect all the discarded supplies and clear away the first aid kit. Felicity busied herself with collecting their head-cams and ear-buds and making sure that all their footage was saved and uploaded to their cloud. She'd have to sort it out later and synchronize all the footage. Her hack into the apartment's system wasn't active anymore, but she'd copied all the directories and she uploaded that as well.

Diggle's cam was still online as he waited on the roof of the library. He'd donned Oliver's hood and the expected squad car had already arrived. They'd found Walter and the money plates and called it in, and now it was just waiting until Detective Lance and his people arrived. A second police unit had arrived and was keeping the apartment structure secure. It would take hours before everything was processed. She kept a wary eye on the footage until Diggle left, and then focused on her hack of the police frequency, listening in on their progress.

They made it back to the foundry in a little over an hour and Felicity made her way to the computers as the others went to change. She settled into her chair as she glanced at her watch; it was a quarter to ten. Had it really only been a few hours? A few hours ago that she'd received Diggle's call. A few hours ago that she'd been so hopeful. It felt like a lifetime ago now.

How quickly things changed. How quickly everything had fallen apart. Felicity rubbed at her forehead as she pulled the computer out of standby mode, entering the password. Her screens reactivated and she was confronted with Danny Brickwell's files. All the files, directories, building plans and emails were still pulled up on her screens.

She stared numbly at it for a moment. The thing that started it all. It was perhaps the last thing she wanted to see and she angrily minimized the windows to clear the screens. Shaking, she pushed the mouse away and placed her elbows on the desk, dropping her head into her hands and breathing hard.

They were supposed to bring Walter home. Get him out and bring him home. One way or another.

"Felicity?"

Felicity took a fortifying breath and raised her head, turning to look over her shoulder at Oliver. He was back in his civilian clothes and was looking at her with concern. "Do you want me to take you home?" he asked tentatively.

Felicity frowned. "I drove here." She reminded him.

"Diggle can drop your car off later." Oliver said.

Felicity sat back. "It's not necessary." She told him. "I need to go through the footage from the cams, and I have the directories from the computer in the apartment complex that need to be sorted. Plus we still don't know who actually owns that place, so I still need to finish digging into that."

Oliver was shaking his head as he stepped closer. "That can wait." He said seriously. "It's been a long day, you should go home."

Felicity shrugged. "It doesn't matter." She said. "Diggle won't be back for at least another forty minutes and he has Helena's bike, which means that she's stuck here. So, I can't leave until he's back anyway."

Oliver frowned. "You don't have to stay just for that." He said. "If that's what stopping you, I'll wait until he gets back."

"That's not,-" Felicity faltered. "You need to get home." She reminded him. "I just want to make sure that we have everything. That all the footage and the files are sorted. I need to get this done."

Oliver's face went carefully blank. "Of course." He said quietly and Felicity stared up at him.

It had been a long time since he'd pulled back from her so obviously. Walked away in anger or irritation? Sure. Purposefully projected composure and certainty when things went pear-shaped to keep her calm? Definitely. But pulling back his thoughts and emotions behind the mask he wore for the rest of the world? That hadn't happened in a long time.

She narrowed her eyes as she considered him. She didn't like it.

Before she could call him on it, Roy returned from the back room in jeans, a sweatshirt and his hoodie. "So," he said to Oliver, "any chance you could drop me off at home?"

Oliver nodded at him over his shoulder. "Yeah, sure."

Helena emerged from the back room as well, and made her way over to them. "Is there anything to eat in this place?" she asked.

Oliver pointed at the small kitchenette in the corner. "I think we've still got some food." He said. "Diggle will be back in about 40 minutes with your bike, you okay to wait?"

Helena shrugged. "I can't make it back tonight anyway." She said.

Oliver considered her. "Do you have a place to stay?" he finally asked reluctantly.

Helena chuckled. "I'll manage." She said as she turned away.

Oliver shook his head in resignation and turned back to Felicity. "Are you gonna be okay alone here with her?" he asked skeptically.

Felicity smiled darkly. "I'll grab a taser gun." She said. "I think I'll manage."

Oliver winced as Roy perked up. "You know," Roy began, "on second thought, I could stick around here a while longer."

Oliver rolled his eyes, "Car, now." He said pointedly.

Roy glared at him. "Seriously man, spread the wealth!" he turned and sulked off towards the stairs.

Felicity bit back a smile as they watched him go. Oliver scrubbed a hand through his hair as he looked at her hesitantly. "I need to go." He said regretfully.

Felicity nodded. "Do you want me to send Diggle over to your house when he's done here?" she asked.

"No. He should go home." Oliver sighed, "My family is going to need me. I don't think I'll be leaving the house much the next few days."

Felicity nodded as the melancholy that had been so briefly chased away, returned. They were quiet for a moment before Oliver took a breath. "I'm sorry." He said softly. "For the way this turned out."

Felicity blinked rapidly and forced the emotion down. "Me too."

They stared at each other in strained silence again. Oliver looked away first, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Don't stay here too late." He said.

Felicity nodded slowly. "Goodnight Oliver." She said quietly.

Oliver inclined his head. "Goodnight Felicity." He said, and then pivoted and made his way to the stairs.

She watched him take them two at a time and then he was gone, the door falling shut behind him. Felicity turned back to her computers and rolled her shoulders, wincing at the stiffness. She didn't relish being stuck here with Helena, but the thought of going home was even less appealing. Besides, there was work to be done. Work was good, it required attention, focus. Her mind couldn't wander if she was working.

She logged onto their cloud and started a download of the files. It would take a few minutes and with a scowl she pulled up Brickwell's files again. She'd need to back these up and work on them at some other time. She frowned as her eye caught something on the screen. That couldn't be right. She quickly typed out a refresh command and waited. The information on the screen didn't change.

Felicity felt the blood drain from her face and she clapped a hand over her mouth as emotion welled up. She swallowed down the bile and blinked away the tears. 'Stupid, stupid, STUPID.'

"What's wrong?"

Felicity whirled around to find that Helena had silently returned and was now standing behind her, holding a mug of tea.

Helena frowned at her distress. "What's happened?" she asked.

Felicity shook her head and pressed her lips together. There was no way she was talking to Helena of all people about this. She turned back to her screens and stared once again at the damning evidence.

Helena narrowed her eyes. "You're upset." She said as she stepped closer. "And Oliver will no doubt blame me. Which could turn out to be hazardous to my health."

Felicity glanced at her as Helena took a sip of her tea. "He's very protective of you." Helena mused. "And Diggle is just waiting for a reason to shoot me."

Felicity snorted. "He'd be better off shooting me." She muttered.

Helena raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Felicity bit her lip. "I screwed up." She admitted. "I missed it."

Helena glanced at the screen and then back at her. "What did you miss?"

"Brickwell." Felicity said. "I think he set us up."

Helena set her mug down on the table. "I don't follow."

Felicity hesitated, but what did it matter. "Last night Oliver hit a guy on his list and when he went through the guy's laptop he found email correspondence with Brickwell. The emails were about Walter, and implied that Brickwell had information on where Walter was being held." she swallowed. "I got into Brickwell's email, but there wasn't enough time to hack his files from the outside. So, I had Oliver upload my sledgehammer virus to his system."

At Helena's look she waved her hands. "It's basically a worm with a Trojan virus. Put simply, it implements a self-replicating, self-deleting subroutine that accesses all the drives connected to the system and uploads copies of all the files to a secure cloud through the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection."

"Put simply." Helena remarked drily.

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Okay, the subroutine is the worm. It's scanning the computer for files that are new or edited since the last time it scanned. Once it finds one, the Trojan is activated and uploads the file to the cloud." She paused. "Got it?"

"Let's pretend that I do." Helena said. "What did you miss?"

"It's not subtle." Felicity explained. "I mean, the worm is, that's virtually undetectable, but the Trojan is uploading files, so anyone with a decent firewall will know that there's unauthorized access."

Helena considered that. "So Brickwell knew that we'd gotten into his files." She said.

Felicity nodded and Helena frowned. "But you knew that he would."

"But I wasn't paying attention. Once I got his files, I needed to decrypt them and I was only focused on that." Felicity said desperately. She waved at the screen, "Nothing else has been uploaded. Not a single file has been accessed since the virus went active. He hasn't logged onto his email, he didn't even run a virus program or bother to purge his system."

Helena tilted her head. "Which means what?"

"That he's smart. He knew his information was compromised and cut his losses." Felicity said. "All our intell was useless."

"But Walter was at the apartment structure, just like you thought he would be." Helena pointed out.

"Yes. Along with twenty-one guys on high alert, because Brickwell told them someone could be coming." Felicity dropped her head into her hands. "You guys walked right into a trap. They were waiting for you."

Helena raised an eyebrow. "Did you think that we didn't consider that it could be?" She asked and Felicity raised her head to stare at her.

"What?" Felicity asked incredulously.

Helena shrugged. "You hacked his system, of course he knew we were coming, that's why Oliver called in back up." She leaned against the table. "What Brickwell didn't know, is what our target was. He had a lot of files and a lot of places that the Hood might hit. If anything, going in tonight prevented him from adding extra security or moving Walter."

"But it didn't work." Felicity said miserably. "We didn't save Walter."

"And what else could we have done?" Helena said. "This only proves that there really wasn't time for anything else. They thought we were there for the money and we were almost at the van when Walter was shot. They were clearly under orders to kill him, rather than allow him to be rescued." She shook her head. "That wouldn't have changed, no matter what we did differently."

Felicity turned away. "So you're saying he was dead from the start." She said flatly.

"Yes." Helena said simply. "From the day he was taken. Nothing you did today changed that. He was just leverage. The chances of finding him and getting him out alive were always slim. Oliver should've told you that."

Felicity stared at her hands. "He didn't have to." She whispered. 'One way or another.'

Helena gave her a considering look. "Don't kill yourself second guessing." She said quietly. "Don't try and find something that you missed or should've done differently. In your head every scenario would have ended with Walter alive, but there's no way to know. Don't second guess the choices you made, you'll just drive yourself crazy wondering."

Felicity laughed humorlessly. "Too late." She muttered and Helena gave a quiet snort of agreement.

Felicity glanced up at her and Helena met her gaze with a pained smile. "You can't change what's happened." Helena said as she stood. "Just remember that you made the best choice you could, with the information you had."

Felicity nodded and Helena walked away, moving over to the training area. How badly off was she, if Helena pitied her enough to comfort her? Felicity turned back to her screens and took a breath. Work, just focus on the work. Helena was right, if she started to think about it she'd drive herself crazy.

They still didn't know who owned the apartment complex, so she buckled down and began working on that again. She completely lost track of time and jumped when a door slammed closed. She looked up to see Diggle walking in and she rubbed at her bleary eyes.

Diggle paused as he caught sight of her. "You're still here?" he said in surprise.

"She's keeping an eye on me." Helena called, from where she was sitting reading a book on the couch. "Did you refill the tank?" she added.

Diggle rolled his eyes as he tossed her the keys to her motorcycle. "Yes, I did actually." He answered.

He turned back to Felicity and regarded her critically. "You look exhausted."

Felicity winced. "Thanks." She muttered.

Helena chuckled. "Such a charmer." She said, as she pulled on her jacket.

Diggle eyed her warily and she smirked. "It's always a pleasure seeing you again." Helena said. She turned to Felicity. "Good luck." She said simply.

Felicity nodded. "You too."

Diggle's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing as Helena gathered her things and left. He waited until the door fell closed behind her before he glanced at Felicity. "You two bff's now?" he asked.

Felicity snorted. "Not even a little." She said. "We just reached an understanding."

Diggle nodded. "And Oliver?" he asked.

Felicity sighed. "He went home." She said. "But so far the police haven't notified them yet. I've been checking the police chatter and they're being discreet. No one has mentioned Walter's name."

Diggle scrubbed a hand over his head. "In case any reporters are listening in." he said. "They're probably waiting until the coroner has transported the body back to Starling City before notifying the family, in case they want to see him."

Felicity nodded. "At this rate it'll be the middle of the night." She said quietly.

"Yeah." Diggle agreed. He glanced at her. "You should go home." He said gently. "There's no reason you need to stay here much longer."

Felicity shrugged. "I don't mind."

Diggle patted her on the shoulder. "I mind." He said. "And so does Oliver."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "He texted you, didn't he."

"No comment." Diggle answered, as he waved her out of her chair. "But I'm not leaving until you do."

Felicity stood up and slowly stretched the kinks out of her back. "Fine." She muttered.

Diggle grabbed her coat and held it up for her and she slipped her arms into it. She grabbed her bag and they made their way out in silence. Diggle escorted her to her car and waited until she drove away like always.

Felicity sighed and turned on the radio, hating the silence in her car. She got home and closed the door behind her, locking it firmly. 'Now what?' Sleeping seemed utterly ridiculous, no matter how tired she was. Her body might crave rest, but her mind wouldn't shut up. There was no point in lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling. But she didn't want to sit listening to the police frequency all night either. No good would come of that.

She sighed, movies it was then. It wouldn't be the first time she pulled a 'de-stress' all-nighter. She filled her water boiler for tea and then moved to her bedroom, stripping down for a shower.

Twenty minutes later she was changed into pajamas and steeping her tea. She looked through her DVD collection, looking for something brainless and fun. No thinking, no emotion, just mindless comedy. And definitely no death. She grabbed 'How to train your dragon' and popped it into her DVD player, before settling onto her couch. It was going to be a long night.

There was a knock on her office door and Felicity glanced up as Jake, her colleague in the IT department pushed it open. "Have you heard?" he whispered excitedly. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

Felicity sat back in resignation. "Heard what?"

Jake leaned over her desk. "There's a rumor going around the building that they found Mr. Steele!"

Felicity took a breath. "Yeah." She said quietly. "I've heard."

It was all she'd heard. She'd managed to fall asleep after all, waking in fits and starts on her couch. She'd managed maybe a collective four hours and by six am she'd given up, deciding to go into work early. She still had the email mess for Legal to sort out and hadn't managed to do anything with it the day before.

Morbid curiosity had her turning on the TV for the 7 am news, but no mention was made of Walter. The same curiosity had led her to check the police reports. There was a new flagged and sealed report and she'd hacked it quickly. Walter Steele was no longer a missing person case, but officially a kidnapping and homicide. According to the report, the police commissioner had personally delivered the news to the Queen family at around 3 am that morning.

When she'd gotten to the office at seven thirty there was hardly anyone around. But by the time she went to get a coffee refill an hour later, people were already quietly talking about it. News leaked fast and traveled even faster. She'd closed her office door in an attempt to block it out.

Jake was looking at her expectantly over the expanse of her desk though, and it seemed that her solitude had come to an end. "What?" she asked wearily.

"Well, that's good right?" he asked.

"Oh." Felicity said with a hollow laugh. "You head the optimistic version."

Jake frowned. "What does that mean?"

Felicity sighed. "Nothing." She said. "Never mind."

Jake hesitated. "You know Oliver Queen personally, right?" he asked.

Felicity narrowed her eyes. "Yes..."

Jake winced. "Well, I was just thinking," he stopped at her dark look. "that I should probably get back to work." He mumbled.

Felicity nodded. "Close the door." She told him.

Jake nodded. "Sorry." He muttered, as he retreated.

Felicity took a deep breath. She should feel bad about that. But she couldn't muster up the energy. Her computer beeped softly as a new email came in, and she froze as she glanced at it. A companywide email had just been sent, with the subject line 'We're sure you've all heard the rumors'.

She clicked it open and read it quickly. The board of directors was emailing on behalf of the Queen family to let everyone know that Walter Steele had been found, but unfortunately, not alive. The email stated that the Queen family asked for privacy and time to deal with this tragedy. There wouldn't be a memorial service for employees, but everyone had today off to deal with this sudden news. The funeral, when it was held, would be a private, family only affair.

Felicity sat back in her chair and pressed her lips together, swallowing hard. It was really happening. Somehow, up to now it had been both frighteningly real and detachedly not. It had been real last night, when Walter's hand went limp in hers as the oximeter screamed. It had been real when they'd stood around his body on the bench, with Oliver holding tightly to her hand. It had been real this morning when she read it in the police report, and seen a time next to the 'next of kin notified' box. But reading the words now, and hearing the hush settle over the corridor, even through her closed door and the hum of servers and computers around her – now it was really real. Now it wasn't just them, their little team, that knew. Now the world knew.

She closed the email and went back to her work, willing her hands to stop shaking. Dimly it occurred to her that she hadn't actually cried. And she wouldn't, not here and not now. Everyone in Legal had lost their sent and received emails, but no other department had. It was a mystery and she was going to solve it. She tried not to think about Moira and Thea Queen, about Oliver having to be strong and support them. She focused on her task and ignored everything else, until hunger drove her out of her office two hours later.

The halls were deserted and the offices were dark. Felicity made her way to the break room and quickly made some sandwiches from the ever present fillings in the pantry. Her phone was blinking when she got back to her office and when she glanced at the screen it showed a missed call from Diggle. She considered calling him back, but if it was urgent he would've left a voice mail.

She went back to work, absentmindedly munching on her lunch as she considered the screen. Queen Consolidated had been hacked, that much was obvious. And it had been done by a pro, because their firewall and security hadn't caught it. But why would someone hack them so proficiently and then only delete emails in one department. She'd done a full system scan and it didn't look like anything else had been approached. Not the Applied Sciences department, not Finance, not even their patents.

'I'm missing something. Again.' She scowled.

Her door opened abruptly and she started as a security guard poked his head around the corner. "Oh." He said in surprise as he saw her. "Miss Smoak, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said, recognizing him, "Uhm, Simon, right?"

He nodded, with a chuckle. "Yes, ma'am." He agreed, and Felicity tried not to think about how much time she spent at work if she and the security guard knew each other's names. "Did no one tell you that you have the day off?"

Felicity grimaced. "No, I'm aware." She said. "I just wanted to finish up."

Simon nodded. "Well, you're one of the last ones." He said. "There were a few people who had a video conference with Europe that couldn't be postponed because of the time difference, but they just left. I'm just doing a sweep."

Felicity tried a smile. "I shouldn't be much longer." She said.

Simon shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He assured her. "But I think you're the only one on this floor, so keep your phone with you. And if you need me, just hit nine."

Felicity nodded. "Thanks, Simon." She said.

"No problem." He gave a playful salute and then left.

Felicity sighed and turned back to her screen. Right; hack, Legal, weird. She determinedly focused on her work, putting everything else out of her mind. Her phone buzzed twice more and she ignored it. When she finally looked up again it was almost eight o'clock at night. She rubbed at her eyes and sat back. She wasn't any closer to figuring out who had hacked in, but she did know how, and that virtual back door had been hammered shut. There was no way to retrieve the lost emails, so she'd made a report and sent it off to her supervisor. She needed to try and trace back the hacker, but she also really needed to pee.

As she stood in the ladies room washing her hands she glanced at herself in the mirror and winced. She looked like hell. If Diggle or Oliver saw her looking like this they'd freak. The make-up she'd put on that morning could no longer hide the lack of sleep. And she hadn't eaten enough and she was pale from low blood sugar. The last time she'd pulled an all-nighter at the foundry and worked through three meals, Oliver had forcefully rolled her chair away from her desk, turned off her computers and escorted her home. Even her protests that she was really close, and that she'd drunken a few smoothies and those had fruit and calories hadn't helped.

Of course, Oliver had other people to take care of right now. And she was avoiding Diggle's calls. She grimaced as she made her way back to her office. If Diggle was checking up on her and he couldn't get through to her, he'd eventually tell Oliver. And Oliver had other things to deal with, he didn't need to worry about her.

She typed out a quick message to Diggle. 'Sorry to miss your calls, been working.' She hesitated. Well, what else was there to say really? It wasn't like the Hood would be making an appearance in the next few days, Oliver had said so himself. And if they did need her, Diggle would leave a message or Oliver would call her himself. She just didn't feel like talking to anyone right now. It required too much effort. She sent the message.

Felicity began to gather her things and shrugged on her coat. She was going to go home, and eat some dinner and watch a movie that didn't require an IQ of any kind. And then she was going to try and sleep. She was certainly exhausted enough. She made her way to the elevator and rode it down, waving to Simon on her way out.

Home, dinner, movie, sleep.

And then maybe she would be able to sit down and go through the head-cam footage. She would read the police report for the scene and look at the processed evidence. She would look into Danny Brickwell and see if she could figure out what he'd done after she'd hacked him. She'd try and figure out who owned that damn apartment complex. Because Helena was right; she shouldn't second guess herself.

But that wasn't what this was. She just needed to know. If she'd made a mistake, if she'd missed something, if they'd screwed up somehow – she needed to know. Because Walter was dead. And she wanted, no, she needed to know why. She got to her car, checking her backseat out of habit before getting in. She gripped the steering wheel tightly for a moment.

Knowing why wouldn't change anything and it wouldn't make her feel better. But it would give Oliver something to go on. It would bring them one step closer to putting an end to this. She started the car and backed out of her parking space.

Home, dinner, movie, sleep. And then, back to work.

To be continued