It started as just a little stray thought that she immediately dismissed- because this was definitely one of those 'she probably could but should she?' times- but the more she thought about it the more she realized this could be the answer to her biggest problem.

Not the problem where she couldn't stop thinking about Oliver Queen, but the other problem that she tries her hardest not to think about. The problem where Walter Steele went missing and she still has the secret and most likely dangerous book of names he had her look into.

As soon as she had found out he was missing she thought about handing the book over to the police but it was obviously very important and really, police records? Not that hard to get into if they are kept online and unless she handed it in anonymously, her name would be on record and what if someone came after her for that? Maybe she was just paranoid but the other guy that looked into it did die so she kinda had the right to be paranoid.

Her next idea had been to hand it over to Oliver Queen just to get it out of her hands and let him deal with it but there were two major flaws with that idea. The first one was that she hadn't seen him at all since he first brought that laptop in. Not that she had really seen him that often before but now he seemed to be actively avoiding her when he was in the Queen Consolidated building. The second problem was that she was an avid reader of mystery novels and started to think what if Oliver was in on whatever it was his mother was or had been doing? If he was and she just handed over the book he would know that she was looking into it and if it really was that important she had no doubts the Queen family could make her disappear way too easily.

Then, since at the time she hadn't had anymore ideas of what to do with the troublesome little book, she stuck it in her underwear drawer and tried not to think about it.

Until now.

Because now she had an idea. A completely stupid idea that could fail so many different ways but it was the only one she had right now.

A little over an hour later, Felicity was starting to realize that "Team Hood"- because she really hoped he wasn't working alone- was really lacking in the tech security department. She didn't know if the Hood had a book like the one she had but she knew that a lot of his targets were on the list so it was scarily easy- for her at least- to track down the locations of computers that had searched for information on all of the hoods past targets and then when she decided to throw a few more names from the book into the mix, she was able to narrow down the list of computers to just a few.

A little more not so legal hacking ruled out each potential computer one by one until there was only one left which, from what she could tell, was operating out of an abandoned factory.

The perfect place for a secret vigilante hideout.

It took another hour or so, but eventually she was into their system and could pretty much see everything they did. On the computer at least, she couldn't actually see, see them. Well she could, if she wanted to by clicking over to their security cameras but she didn't actually want to do that. She didn't want to know who the Hood was- if she wanted to do that she could have just peeked under his hood earlier when he was out like a light on her fire escape- she just wanted to basically throw the book at them and run far, far away. Hopefully, without them ever knowing she was involved.

Or that she hacked into their system. Somehow she didn't think the Hood would like that very much.

Felicity really didn't want to see what was going on in the secret hideout, but fate had other plans. Watching what was basically the feed from their computer wasn't that interesting so she had grabbed her phone and was checking her email when the phone slipped out of her grip, landing on the keyboard and mashing some keys. The screen flashed and Felicity looked up at the screen just in time to see Oliver Queen's bodyguard standing next to the Hood and before she could look away, the Hood pulled off his mask to reveal Oliver Queen himself.

Well, she thought, that certainly makes things easier.

The next evening found Felicity back at her computer engaging in her not so legal hobby. She had tried all day to talk to Oliver but he refused to talk to her on the phone once he figured out who she was and he had nearly trampled some poor intern in his haste to get away from her when she tried to corner him after finding out his mother had pretty much forced him to come visit her at work.

Seriously, what was up with him? Did he think she had the plague or something? Though, judging by all the snickering and talk going on around the company it sounds like everyone thinks she is just some one night stand that won't leave him alone so he probably thought she had fallen in love with him when he brought her that laptop. Or maybe he was afraid she would start asking questions about the laptop and that horrible excuse for an excuse he gave her. He did have quite a secret to hide, after all.

Either way, his avoiding her caused her to resort back to her original plan which is why she was watching the video feed once again. From what she can gather from the video feed and from what they had been searching on the computer she was pretty sure they were going after another person on the list tonight, or at least check things out so they can take him out another time.

It made her feel very uneasy knowing that they were probably about to go out and kill someone but the guy they were going after was bad, really bad. Bad as in she wished she hadn't read half the things she had read about him via the Hood's computer. That didn't mean she wanted him dead though, but it's not like she could tell Oliver not to kill this guy. It wasn't like she was a part of the team or wanted anything to do with this vigilante business.

She just wanted to get rid of that damn book.

It was supposed to be simple.

All she was going to do was wait until they left to go take down this guy then she was going to go over there, leave the book lying mysteriously on a table in the hideout, and then leave and never think about Oliver Queen or the Hood ever again while, of course, covering her tracks so that they never knew she was there, by not leaving finger prints and by altering their video footage a bit.

Oh it had gone fine and according to plan right up until the whole leaving part. They had left and she had arrived at the old factory and found the door she could see them going in and out of on the cameras and pushed in the code for the door. The code for the door happened to be the same as the password for the computer. At this rate, she thought they might as well have set their password to "password".

Felicity walked down the steps into the hideout and didn't even go all the way into the room, she just gently tossed the book onto the table and turned around to leave.

But as she got over to the stairs she found that she just couldn't turn her back on this. On them.

She couldn't just leave them with such an open security system. And seeing their computer setup? That hurt her soul.

She didn't really want to get involved in this and they probably didn't want her help either but they definitely needed it.

Why didn't I just throw the book away? That would have been so much easier, but at least I still have my backup plan, she thought as she set to work doing what she could without new hardware for their security systems.

It had taken a fair amount of convincing on Diggle's part but after canvassing the next target's place, they decided to head back to the lair and take out the target the next day when they had a better opening and when they were completely sure all the Vertigo was out of Oliver's system.

Once Diggle was sure that Oliver was actually going to go back to the lair and not for whatever reason go back out and try to take out any bad guys without him, they parted ways and Diggle left for his apartment, hoping to get a full eight hours of sleep for the first time since he had joined Oliver's mission.

Oliver, however, didn't exactly look forward to long periods of sleep so he took his time going back to the lair but once he got back and opened the door, he was immediately on guard.

The lights were on in the lair and someone was...humming?

He made sure his hood securely covering his face and with his bow at the ready, he creeped slowly down the stairs. Once he got about halfway down he could see a figure lying underneath the computer desk messing with the cords.

The legs of the table obscured most of the figure's body from him but at one end he could see long blonde hair and at the other end he could see the panda flats that had been stalking him the moment he stepped foot into the QC building this morning.

He knew exactly who was in his lair.

As soon as he realized who it was, he felt more emotions hit him at once than he had ever had since he coming back from the island. Anger and awe along with a heavy dose of fear and more anger.

He wanted yell at her and demand answers but he just couldn't get the words out. He didn't even know what to say or where to start so instead of talking for the moment he stalked over to the computer desk and in one swift motion, bent down, grabbed a hold of her ankle, and quickly yanked her out from underneath the desk.

Which, of course, caused her to start screaming bloody murder.

Felicity's free foot immediately kicked at the hand around her ankle and when he was forced to let her go she dove back under the table and out the other side, putting a bit of distance between them while he nocked an arrow.

"Stop! Don't shoot!"

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't," he said as he drew the bowstring tighter, aiming for the center of her chest.

"Because," she slowly lifted a hand up to the collar of her shirt and pulled it away a little bit to reveal a patch attached to her skin with cords sticking out of it, "if my heart stops beating or these are removed it's set up to automatically send everything I know about you directly to your friend Detective Lance at the SCPD." It was a brilliant back up plan at the time but now she was pretty sure she had made him mad enough to shoot first and deal with the police later.

"You know nothing," is what he said but even he didn't completely believe it. After all, she did manage to get in here.

"I know more than you think, Oliver Queen." Felicity regretted that as soon as it left her mouth because an arrow went flying, missing her by mere inches.

"You lied to me. You knew last night. Why did you wait until now? Who are you? What do you want? Answer me!" Another arrow was already pulled back and ready to fire but Felicity was slowly becoming more irritated than anything else. Couldn't he just listen for a minute before shooting people?

"Look, Mr. Paranoid, I didn't peek under your hood. I found out because-ah well, you know what? Why don't we just leave it at that, huh? I don't think you really want to know how I found out."

Felicity slowly started making her way towards the stairs because no matter how irritated she was at how he was acting, she was still aware that he could seriously shoot her at any moment and that maybe sticking around had been a horrible idea so it was time to go.

Until an arrow shot between her and the stairs and his voice echoed through the lair, "Felicity Smoak, you will answer me."

He was suddenly right behind her but she did her best not to let her voice crack, "and if I don't?"

There was a beat of silence then in the lowest and creepiest voice she had ever heard, "I will make you."

His gloved hand reached out to grab her arm but the second he made contact she took off to the other side of the room with her hand pressed against her heart. If her heart started beating any faster the sensors- that she had scavenged from a junk pile anyway- might not be able to register it and think she was already dead, releasing the information to the police which she really didn't want at the moment because she thought she might still have a chance at living.

"Look, can't we just sit down and talk this out like normal, civilized people?" He was still just staring at her so she continued on, "I have some information you might want about your targets."

"What could you have found out that I couldn't."

"A lot actually, I mean I did hack into your security system, that's how I found this place, so I'm pretty sure I could find out a lot more about any of your targets than you ever could but that's not what I'm talking about right now-"

"You did what?" He interrupted her with an incredulous look on his face.

"I was trying to fix it! I swear! That's what I was doing before you so rudely pulled me out from underneath the desk- not that it probably would have helped, there is only so much I can do with a system that looked like it should have been scrapped in the eighties- but anyway, not the point. The point is, I came to give you this," she said, slowly walking over to the table she had tossed the book on earlier and he was slightly ashamed to admit that he hadn't even noticed it until now. She picked it up and tossed it to him, watching as he carefully looked through it even though he knew exactly what contained.

"Is this what you were trying to talk to me about earlier today?"

At her nod, Oliver closed the book before walking over to sit down on the chair in front of the computer desk. Once seated, he pushed back his hood and gestured to the chair that was across from him, "okay, let's talk. Why do you have this book?"

Felicity looked at the chair warily, "it's not going to like, suddenly sprout straps to hold me down while you painfully and creatively torture the information out of me, is it?"

"It's just a normal chair, Felicity. And it was your idea to 'sit down and talk'." He still wasn't sure what to think of this woman who had suddenly barged into both of his lives but the look on her face while she looked at the chair almost had him cracking a smile. Almost.

Felicity gently sat down on the chair and once she was sure that it wasn't going to attack her, she took a deep breath and told him everything she knew about the book and then about how she found out where the hideout was and who he was.

Once she was finished, the only thing Oliver could think for the moment was that that had been the longest he had ever seen anyone talk without needing to breathe. Or if she did breathe, he was too busy paying attention to her fast speech to notice.

Oliver was quiet for a long time but eventually the silence started to make Felicity uncomfortable so she started talking again.

"Um, so now what?"

He thought about it carefully, "Well, that depends on you."

"Me?"

"What are you going to do now that you know who the Arrow is?"

"The Arrow? Well, I guess that is a little better than the Hood. Or the Hood Guy-" he was just about to interrupt her when she held up a hand to stop him and continued, "I'm not going to tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me."

Oliver was pretty sure he was going to regret it but it slipped out before he could stop it, "So does that mean you are in?"

"Do you mean 'in' as in in your little group here?"

"Yes."

"I have three conditions for joining and I don't think you'll agree to all of them. One: I want to find Walter, he was nice to me. Two: No more killing unless it is absolutely necessary." Felicity crossed her arms, determined to stand firm on her conditions.

"We have already been looking for Walter, I want to find him too. As for the second one, I will...try. That is all I can promise right now."

"Okay, I can accept that. Now for number three which is probably the most important one of all," he raised an eyebrow at her, trying to figure out what would be more important than no killing, "You have seriously got to buy new computers for down here. I can't do anything with this hunk of junk you call a computer system. Well, I probably could but I really don't want to."

Oliver shook his head slightly as he stood from his chair, thinking that he should have seen that one coming.

"That's easy enough. So, do we have a deal?"

"I think we do if you will come pull your arrow out of my wall."

It took him a second to respond, "What?"

"Your arrow! The one you shot into my nice undamaged wall last night. I've tried everything to get it out and it will not budge so since you put it there, you need to go pull it out."

And so Oliver Queen ended up at Felicity's apartment for the second night in a row and they both had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last time.