Hey, you will be happy to hear that I took Gin2a's solid advice and got myself a beta. Since she suggested it Gin2a ended up with the dreadful job of fixing my mistakes. I thank her for that – very much. She rocks!

As always a huge thank you to everybody following and liking this story. The love is spreading, I'm excited! Even more excitement was caused by the reviews for chapter five. All my love to Nrdhrd3 (I am so glad you enjoyed the previous chapter. Thanks for sticking with this story; it means a lot.), sakura-blossom62 (I agree, Oliver should just listen Digg. But we all know how stubborn he is!) and Vickstik (You're absolutely right; both Thea and Felicity have too little female company. A girl needs a best friend. ;-) Thank you for constant support. You're amazing!)

6. Reinventing the wheel to run myself over (Fall Out Boy)

Thea was a bad influence. If the ladies of the Starling City Women's Foundation knew about Felicity's Saturday night, they most definitely wouldn't let her join their thing. Not that she wanted to, but lately Felicity did many things she didn't want to.

Like drinking that many Tequila Sunrises.

Felicity had been so determined to not let this night of clubbing get out of hand. And, at first, she hadn't. She had been very aware of all the eyes on her, of the camera phones secretly and openly pointing in her direction, of the fact that everybody in this club could end up being a source for a juicy article on SGN.

Whether these thoughts were signs of beginning paranoia or absolutely justified, Felicity wasn't exactly sure. And Thea's comment that her outfit would photograph amazingly hadn't helped matters at all. But it had been nice to go out again, to spend a Saturday night doing something normal people her age did. Something normal other people her age did, other than watching TV. Felicity had broken the habit of becoming anti-social last Saturday.

Sadly, she had also broken the habit of staying sober.

In her defense: It had been an accident. She hadn't really noticed how drunk she was until she was too drunk to care.

Thea, being the boss of this partying and needing to keep a clear head as long as paying customers were around, had opened the Tequila only when the club had been about to close. That had been around the time Felicity normally left. She had felt like such a wild child for having one last drink with her girlfriend when everybody else was heading home. She had turned from wild child to giggling mess when another drink had followed the last one again and again and again. But the girls had been talking, discussing the dreadful gala and the up-coming engagement party and the bitches at Queen Consolidated that gave Felicity a hard time and Thea's worry that Roy was trying to become the next Arrow. Granted, the last topic had been touchy for Felicity, but she thought she had handled that quite well. The girls had just chatted away while drinking without really noticing it, while realizing that they both had too little female company in their lives. They were both all work and no play, and they had collectively decided that they needed to change that. At that moment it had been the logical thing to celebrate this resolution with more alcohol.

It had been around noon, when Detective Lance had called – and quickly ended the call again. Felicity dimly remembered telling him that he was one of the few people who actually called her and that this was another proof that she needed to go out more. Somehow she had continued talking and ended up assuring him that she wouldn't drive right now for obvious reasons and that she always buckled up. Safety first! How she had ended up there... She honestly didn't know.

She did know that not much later Oliver and Roy had shown up to get the girls home.

It had been nice of Thea to tell Oliver what a good taste in women he had and that Felicity was the best sister-in-law ever. That had been really nice. Felicity remembered intense hugging that had followed between the girls and the promise to be besties from now on. And then Oliver had thrown Felicity over his shoulder to get her out of there.

After that... There was nothing.

The next thing she knew was waking up in her bed, because her alarm was ringing. She had slept through till Monday morning and it was time to go to work.

She got to work late.

This morning had been the first that Oliver Queen had ever been at Queen Consolidated earlier than Felicity Smoak.

Her latte was waiting for her, at her desk – cold. Felicity was taking a sip of it right now anyway. It wasn't half bad actually. What made it even better was the double choc muffin that had rested next to the paper coffee cup. She chewed happily, enjoying every moment of the unhealthiest breakfast ever. Who cared?! It was a heavenly treat. And it was amazing that Oliver had treated her to it. She owed him a huge thank you – and most likely an apology. She didn't know for sure, but the odds were incredibly high that she had said something incredibly stupid; she just couldn't remember.

The last time she had felt like this, she had still been in college. Exams had been finished and they had gone really well and she and Sally felt like making up for the time they had spent locked away in their dorm room studying and... Let's just say it had ended with Felicity's first hack into a police server to delete the mug shots of Sally, which were seriously unflattering... Poor Sally. Felicity had always been good at running in high heels.

The rumbling of her phone vibrating on her desk pulled Felicity out of her thoughts, which were kinda slow today. She reached for it and saw a message from Thea: Kill me now.

Felicity smirked and typed, Can't. Too much effort. She was about to lay the phone down again, when she saw that she had six missed calls – all from Detective Lance. Immediately, Felicity felt caught and guilty. She was Lance's way of contacting the Arrow. If something bad happened, or rather, hadn't been prevented from happening, because she had spent a night in a drunken alcohol haze, she would be so pissed at herself. She quickly pressed a button and brought the phone to her ear.

It took some time till the Detective answered. "Miss Smoak, back in the land of the living?"

"Detective, I'm really sorry I didn't answer your calls."

"Don't worry about it. I already discussed everything with the person I wanted to get information to. It's all good."

No, Felicity thought, nothing was good. She had acted irresponsibly and hadn't been there when she was needed. She might not be able to fight or shoot or arrow somebody, but she did her part. She liked doing that, liked being a part of this, a part of something bigger. And in her try to find her inner rebel, she had neglected that. She felt awful.

She swallowed, "Oh, okay. I'll talk to him then."

"Do that, Miss Smoak. I have to go."

"Bye, detective."

"Bye."

She hung up and unhappily took another bite of her muffin. Chewing, she reached for her phone again. She had just pressed the sent button to beam another message to Thea – okay, what are friends for: I'll kill you, if you kill me first –, when she saw Oliver leave the conference room and head toward his desk.

Quickly, she wiped her mouth. She didn't want to make talking to him even more difficult by having to worry about muffin crumbs sticking to her lip. Trying to seem determined, she got up and walked toward his office. He was standing next to his desk, greeting her with a small smile. "Hey, how're you feeling?"

"Like I should apologize."

He made a dismissive gesture. "We all have to blow off steam from time to time."

He should know: He had to blow off steam all the time. She frowned involuntarily as she really registered what he was saying. Had that been what she had been doing? Okay, right. When Scott had broken up with her, Tequila had been of more help than punching a pillow. But back then she had had obvious anger to vent, dark emotions to work through. Neither had been true on Saturday. It had just been fun to get mindlessly drunk, to slow her thoughts down, and to just be carefree with Thea. Okay, maybe she had been tense after the last few weeks-

Oliver stopped her rambling thoughts right there, "Don't worry about it."

"But I do worry about it. Detective Lance called me-"

"I know." He still smiled. "He called me Sunday around one p.m. to tell me to take better care of you and get you home safely. He was in full father-mode."

Really?! That was strangely nice, but beside the point, "No, he didn't want to talk to you when he called. Not really, I mean."

"I know," Oliver was serious immediately. "Something came up. I will fill you in later."

Felicity slowly nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't do my part and-"

"Felicity." He stopped her right there. His voice was strict. "Stop apologizing. It was your day off. You deserve some fun. You did nothing wrong."

"Did I say anything embarrassing?" The question just tumbled from her lips before she could stop herself. She dreaded the answer, but she did need to know. "When you brought me home, I mean. Thank you for doing that, by the way. I think if I had stayed any longer, I would have needed to get my stomach pumped. And I was there when Sally drank that whole bottle of Ouzo. The second hand experience was bad enough." She shuddered.

"I can tell you first hand, it's worse than it looks." Seeing the surprise on her face, he shrugged, "You didn't know me before the island."

"Sounds like pre-island-Oliver was more fun."

"Let's say more reckless."

"I said something awful, didn't I? That's why we're changing the subject."

"It wasn't awful."

"Tell me." She needed to know just to decide how big a rock to hide under.

Oliver had just opened his mouth, when he glanced past Felicity at something behind her. He frowned in question, which caused Felicity to turn around and freeze in pure shock. She had to be hallucinating. She had never done that from too much alcohol, but she hadn't had a real drink in a long time, and maybe the Tequila had been bad. She had to be seeing things, she just had to, because as illogical as this may sound, it was the only thing that made sense. It was the only logical reason why there, following Diggle, her mother was walking toward her.

Her breath caught in her throat, she felt panic rise inside her. The thought that "this can't be happening" popped up in Felicity's mind and she repeated it quite a few times 'til it turned into an unanswered prayer. She helplessly watched as Diggle lead her mother into Oliver's office.

The blond older woman entered the room with a huge smile and her arms stretched out wide, "Lizzy!"

Felicity managed to force out a "Mom," before her mother pulled her in for a big hug. She felt the men's eyes on her and imagined Oliver's stinging more than Diggle's.

Her mother let go. "Let me look at you." Her eyes wandered over Felicity, who immediately felt warped back to high school, when her mother had checked her outfits to make sure they were cool enough. Spoiler alert: They never were. Her mother, on the other hand, looked ten years younger than she was as she stood there showing off her flawless figure in blue jeans and a red blouse that should both be considered too tight. But this was her mother and she somehow made it work. "You look tired, baby," her mother observed now, but turned to Oliver in the next moment. "Is this one keeping you up all night?" She nudged her daughter with her elbow, "Good for you."

With every other person this would have trigged a denying rant, but this was her mother and Felicity knew her and she knew that there was no use. "Mom, this is Oliver Queen. Oliver, my mother, Donna Smoak."

Felicity hadn't dared to look at Oliver yet, but now she glanced at him. She was a little bit miffed to find him absolutely collected and cool. He held his hand out, "It is very nice to meet you, Mrs. Smoak."

"Pleeease," the older blond woman said now, as she ignored the outstretched hand and instead went in for the hug, "call me Donna. After all, we're going to be family." She kept her arms around Oliver for a little longer than was polite. And when she finally let go, she put her hand on his upper arm, testing his bicep. "Wow, you are firm!"

Felicity knew where this was going. She had witnessed it too many times to still be surprised by her mother acting like this. But right now they weren't at a casino in Las Vegas, and Oliver wasn't some tipsy high roller away from wife and kids her mother could flatter into a bigger tip. "Mom," Felicity brought the other woman's attention back to her, "what are you doing here?"

Donna Smoak let go of Oliver and turned to her daughter, "What does it look like I'm doing? I am meeting my future son-in-law. Who you didn't even tell me about when we last talked on the phone."

"That was four months ago."

"Don't try to tell me you weren't with him back then, Felicity Meghan Smoak, because marrying a boy you only know for a few weeks wouldn't be like you at all... Even though," she glanced around the room, "many things here are not like you at all." She motioned to her daughter, "What's with the secretarial outfit?"

Subconsciously and self-consciously, Felicity brought her hands to her purple dress and straightened invisible crinkles out before she realized that she was falling back into teenage behavior she was supposed to have grown out of long ago, "I like it. It's a pretty dress. Plus: I got it on sale."

"And you're still insisting on the ponytail. At least you spiced it up a little, brought it up to make it bounce."

"Mom..." Felicity made that word sound like a sigh. She couldn't have the discussion, again.

But, obviously, her mother didn't agree. "I always told you; your hair is an asset!" As if to prove it, Donna smoothed her own golden locks back, which fell over her shoulder in styled perfection. "You're lucky you got my hair, which," she glanced at Oliver to make sure he got that very important piece of information, "I got it from my mother's side. Thank the heavens! My father's sister had really thin strands, it was awful!" Felicity had heard this too often to count, and she knew about the big conclusion, "She had to wear a wig, the poor thing. Never could afford a good one, it always looked like a poodle had died on her head. Just dreadful." Her mother shook her own head and let her own hair flow around her face, before she turned her attention back to her daughter, "Which is why you should be happy you have hair like this. You need to flaunt it, not tuck it away."

"I don't have to flaunt anything." Only as this sentence left her lips did Felicity realize that she was back to her old habit of defending her actions to her mother.

Her mother was smiling. "Lizzy, I saw those pictures of you in that green dress – and you flaunted your girls in that one." She looked at Oliver, "She looked great that evening. Sadly, she didn't get my boobs, but she really worked well with what she has." It was a compliment her mother was very serious about, but it horrified Felicity on more levels than she could say. And the older woman was still talking, turning back to her daughter, "But you should have put in contacts. You need to pay more attention to stuff like that," she pointed her thumb at Oliver, "being the wife of this one kinda makes that part of the job description."

"It's not my job to be a wife!"

"No, you're a secretary."

"Executive Assistant."

"Potatoes – potatoes. Same difference." Donna obviously knew what her daughter wanted to say to this and added, "and spare me any empowerment speeches. I knew you spent too much time with Candi at the blackjack table. Her feminist views weren't good for a young and impressionable girl like you."

"Not wanting old men to slap her ass is hardly a feminist view."

Donna brought her hands up, her plans facing upwards. "See, that's what I'm talking about. That's not something men find attractive."

"Well, this girl with her unattractive ponytail and her glasses and her feminist tendencies still managed to bag a billionaire." As her ears registered what her mouth had said Felicity flinched instantly. She turned to Oliver, who she had ignored in the last few minutes, "not that I did bag you. Or..."

Her mother had never let Felicity go into rant-mode, "Oh, shut up! Of course, you bagged him. He proposed to you!" She smirked, "And good for you! First Smoak girl to marry money. And it comes with such a sexy, muscled hunk. That's a win-win, if I ever saw one."

Felicity blamed her own tendency to say absolutely inappropriate things on her mother, but unlike Felicity Donna Smoak never apologized for them.

Instead, the older blonde kept talking, "Which reminds me; I heard there'll be an engagement party on Friday. Is there a special dress code, because I might need to go shopping?"

"The engagement party?" Felicity felt a shiver of panic go through her. "You want to stay for that?"

"Of course, I came for that. I figured my invitation must have gotten lost. After all, I am the mother of the bride. I thought Oliver would like to get to know his mother-in-law." She winked at him, "You must be relieved to see how gracefully Smoak-women age."

Oliver just ignored the last statement. He was in his CEO-mode, "Of course, why don't we have dinner tonight?"

"What?" Felicity snapped, "No!" Feeling the eyes of the other three people in the office settle on her, she hurried to add, "I mean, we can't tonight, we have an important meeting concerning recent developments."

"That is true, but if Donna doesn't mind a late dinner, we can do both."

"Oh, I don't mind a late dinner. I live for the night."

Felicity barely kept from rolling her eyes. When exactly had she turned fifteen again? "Fine!"

"Take the day off," Oliver decided now. "Spend some time with your mother. I'll see you later for our meeting."

Sending Oliver one last angry glance, she turned around. "Come on, Mom. I'll show you Starling City."

Donna Smoak didn't move. "Aren't you going to kiss him goodbye?"

Felicity saw Diggle bite back a grin, but Felicity ignored it and kept on moving away forcefully, "NO!"

She didn't kiss Oliver hello either. Not that anybody present would expect her to. She had left the weird twilight zone that surrounded her mother behind. Instead, she had returned to the real world. The irony of the fact that the lair, where her fake fiancé kept his equipment needed for his secret identity that involved a bow and leather, was the real world to her wasn't lost on Felicity. However the last six hours she had spent with her mother left her too exhausted to be amused by this.

Her mom had always been like this; easy-going, flirty, most comfortable surrounded by people, without a care in the world. All of that had forced Felicity to care; about paying the rent and filling the fridge, about school and grates, about getting out of Las Vegas to start living her own life. It wasn't like she had left Nevada to never see or speak to her mom again, but she just didn't feel like seeing her now and hearing her say all these things that reminded her so much of things that she wanted to forget.

"How was the day with your mother?"

The real answer to Oliver's question was a long and heated rant, but Felicity really didn't feel like this right now. "I don't want to talk about it." She placed her purse on her desk and turned around to see two men frowning at her.

"You don't want to talk about it?" Diggle's voice sounded disbelieving.

"I don't," she assured, and the look that crossed the faces of Oliver and John spoke silent volumes: You always talk about everything! Felicity ignored that and did what the other two normally did when personal matters were discussed – she changed the subject. "So, what was this new development that arose while I slumbered away?"

Oliver and Diggle both visibly hesitated. Felicity could see that Diggle wasn't willing to let this go, but – thankfully – Oliver was, "Vertigo popped up again."

"What does that mean?"

Diggle sighed and answered her question, "It means that an altered version of it was found during the autopsy of the people who committed mass suicide on Saturday."

Felicity needed a moment to take that in. "Altered? Altered how?"

Oliver took a step toward her, "We're not sure. That's why I need you to contact Star Labs. Lance gave me a blood sample. We need to know how this new Vertigo affects people."

"So these suicide victims-" Felicity frowned, "is it okay to call them victims, if it was suicide? Sounds, kind of strange. After all if it was suicide they probably wouldn't call themselves that." Seeing the look on Oliver's face, she caught herself and got back on track, "Are we sure it was suicide when these people were hopped up on Vertigo?"

"I'm not." Oliver now walked over to her and motioned to her computers. "That's why I need you to pull up plans of the supply circuits underneath the building where the bodies were found."

Felicity sat down while he gave her the address.

"You were there last night and checked the place out?" John asked now.

"I was," Oliver confirmed. "And something felt off."

"What did?"

Oliver didn't answer his friend's question as Felicity had already found the plans. "Are there gas tubes underneath the building?"

Felicity typed in a few more commands and then looked at the plan she had pulled up. "Not directly under the building, but they are running underneath the street."

"But that building is connected to them?"

Diggle crossed his arms over his chest, "If you told us what you're looking for, this might be a bit easier."

Oliver, whose hands had been resting on Felicity's desk as he had bent down next to her to have a good look at the screens, straightened up again. "I was in the apartment where they found the bodies. Officially, they killed themselves using gas. An empty canister was found in the middle of them, the nozzle stuck so it sprayed constantly. But there was blood spatter on the walls. Not much, but... It didn't feel like these people just fell asleep because of gas, it felt more violent than that. Detective Lance had the same suspicion, which was confirmed by the Vertigo found during the autopsy."

"And now you're asking yourself why somebody would bring a gas canister when the building was connected to gas tubes which would have done the same trick," Felicity said while she was typing and her eyes were placed on her screen. "Which is a good question, because you're right; the building has gas heating."

Diggle's posture stiffened, "You think this version of Vertigo is gaseous? That would move it from dangerous drug to chemical weapon." His till now crossed arms fell to his sides as realization hit, "And that would make this mass suicide really a test, if this weapon worked."

"That is my suspicion." Oliver looked at Felicity. "I need you to check the victims – and I think it's okay to call them that. Try to find anything that explains why they were chosen. And contact Star Labs."

Felicity watched as Oliver walked to his bow, "And what are you going to do?"

"I'll have a little chat with Dent Bradfort."

"The board member of Queen Consolidated? What do you want to chat about with him?"

"About his factory in Bangladesh that collapsed last week and how he should care for the families of the victims and the survivors."

"Wow," Felicity frowned. "That sounds very old-school-work. Like we're back with the Hood."

"Dent Bradfort was on the list, yes. But this is a newer development."

Felicity felt like asking him, if this newer development was a result of Bradfort's constant criticism of Oliver's CEO-skills and the fact that it only stopped after Bradfort thought he was engaged, but Oliver spoke up first, "Don't worry. I'll be back on time for that dinner with your mother."

"Oh," Felicity turned to her computer, "you don't have to hurry."

"But I will," Oliver moved back to the desk and bent down next to her. This caused her to look at him and when their eyes met she saw an amused sparkle in his. She felt slightly unsure about this and knew she was right to be suspicious in the next moment, when he said, "This morning so many things about you just became so unbelievably clear."

She should be prying into other people's lives. That might be inappropriate, but that was what she should be doing. What she should not be doing is witnessing her mother empty her glass of overpriced red wine with one swing while the waiter watched with a disapproving look on his face. Her mother pointed her index finger, with its long fingernail colored in bright red, at the glass, "You can fill that right up again."

The waiter did and left after taking their orders with one last nod at Oliver.

A moment of silence settled over the three people. Unsurprisingly, it was Donna ending it. "The wine's good." She motioned to Felicity's glass filled with table water, "You should try some."

"I'm laying off the alcohol for a while."

"Why?" The sound in her mother's voice made her absolute misunderstanding clear.

"I'm still recovering from the weekend."

"What did you do? Live it up at the country club?!" There was so much judgment in her mother's voice that Felicity felt her defensive instincts kick in, but her mother wasn't done talking, "Can't beat some of the parties we had in Vegas. Like your graduation party. Remember that?" No matter how hard Felicity tried she would never be able to forget that. "That boy puked all over the pool table." Donna laughed at the memory of that. "What was his name again?"

"Craig." The name fell from Felicity's lips in an automatic answer. While she was asking herself why she was even doing it, she added, "Craig Riddlemeyer."

"Cute kid," Donna said, now to Oliver, while she moved her right hand with her half-full wineglass through the air in a broad gesture. "He was Lizzy's first."

"Mom!" This gasped outcry proved it; Felicity was still 13 at heart.

"What?" Her mother looked surprised. "He was your first boyfriend, wasn't he? And I knew about the rest when you bought that silky underwear. Before it was always boring cotton."

"Sexy underwear isn't all that." Felicity's mouth was once again quicker than her common sense. "Because there is nothing sexy about a guy fumbling with hooks and-" Her brain caught up with her mouth and she shut it immediately.

"Lizzy always came to the casino with me." It was a random thing for Donna Smoak to say, but the topic change seemed to make sense to her, "Oliver, did you know she knows her way around a casino?"

"I happen to know that, yes." It was the first thing Oliver said in the last few minutes.

It seemed to stun Donna. She let her glass sink a little. "Really? You knew?"

"She told me."

Donna looked at her daughter. "You told him?" Now she actually put her glass down. "That must be a first." She really studied Oliver, "Normally, Lizzy's too embarrassed to mention it. Which is a good thing, really, because she got in the habit of counting cards, which you shouldn't get caught doing."

"It's all probability theory and mathematics, of course, Felicity is good at it." Donna studied him again. Oliver tried his polite smile, "It was nice of you to come out for our engagement party."

Donna instinctively reached for her glass again, "It started to become obvious that I had to take the initiative."

This sentence caused a sour feeling to rise inside Felicity. She didn't want to feel guilty over it, but she somehow did – a little. Her and her mother weren't overly close. If they managed to talk on the phone every other month, they were doing well. It wasn't like Felicity didn't love her mother or care about her. She did, but they had a rocky past, and Donna Smoak was many things Felicity Smoak fought very hard not to be. There had been a reason why she had moved from Nevada to Massachusetts – aka to the other end of the country – as soon as possible. She had literally put much space between them to also figuratively distance herself from her mother.

It had obviously worked out too well. Never had Felicity stopped to consider what this must look like to her mother: her being engaged without telling her. It might be a fake engagement, but it was a very public one and her mother finding out wasn't very surprising. Still, Felicity hadn't even thought about picking up the phone and informing her. And that wasn't because it was a fake engagement and she didn't want to involve her mother in it, it was because involving her mother was never a thing Felicity wanted to do.

"I know, I know. I'm not as, classy, as your new family," Donna said now. She emptied another glass of wine, and it reminded Felicity that her mother was a sentimental drunk. Donna Smoak took the wine bottle and refilled her glass yet again. Her eyes were accusatory and heavy lidded, "But I am your mother, and I shouldn't hear about your engagement from the girl who does your Aunt Gloria's hair!"

Felicity swallowed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I should have called you."

"Yes, you should have!" Donna took another sip of her wine and when she sat the glass down again there was once again a smile on her face. "But don't worry. I bought a new dress for your engagement party. I tested it with the rich people at the casino – was a huge success. You'll see. People will love me."

Now Felicity could use some of that red wine herself.