Preston watched Felicity and Oliver embrace warmly by the swings. They looked so happy to be back together. Preston couldn't blame Oliver, for in his few days of knowing the blonde IT Girl he had become attached to her too. Preston had wanted to protect her and now that he was away from Adam Ryde, he could offer information to her or the police to help them catch him. Preston smiled at his idea and watched as they drove away.

Knowing that Oliver Queen was The Arrow stopped Preston from simply getting out of his car and approaching them. If he did try and talk he was sure that Oliver would kill him without a second thought "I don't exactly blame him" he sighed to himself. How would he get to Felicity? Would she even want to see him after what he reluctantly put her through? Preston shook his head at his stupid wishful thinking; of course she won't want to see him!
However, Preston knew that his information was important and if Felicity wanted to help The Arrow take her father down then she needed to hear what he had to say!

Preston shifted his car into gear and drove off not having to think about where he was going before he ended up at Felicity's house, turning the engine off and settling in for a long wait for Felicity to return.

When Oliver brought Felicity back to the Foundry at first, everyone was talking softly and calmly but when Felicity happily flung her arms around Diggle everyone was all smiles and happy to see their IT Girl again. Felicity hugged them all in turn and had felt more alive than she had in days but that smile faded when she saw Sara reaching for a needle "What're you doing?"

"I just need to take a blood sample, to be sure that what was in your system is gone" Sara explained and watched as Felicity jumped up as if she had been stung

"Why? Can't you see that I'm fine now?" Felicity flinched as Oliver placed a comforting hand on her arm but she couldn't take her eyes off the needle

"Felicity, it's Okay, you're safe now. Try to think of something else" Roy offered kindly

"Sorry" Felicity shuddered before allowing Sara to take the sample "It just…surprised me"

Sara smiled at the IT Girl and filled her in on what happened to the Team, how they tried to find her and how Roy's friend had accidentally found where she was being kept. Diggle spoke up and told Felicity about the message and seeing Felicity on the screen with her father "Not one of the greatest Skype moments" he tried to smile

"I'm sorry I said your name Oliver" Felicity stared sadly at him "I wasn't thinking I…I just wanted" Oliver came forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder

"You were scared, it's okay. I'm pretty sure Adam knew who I was anyway"

"What happens now?" Felicity asked "if my father is still out there shouldn't we find him? And if he knows who you are isn't that kind of a problem?"

"You come first and then we take care of your father" Oliver's voice was soft yet had an air of authority that said that his word was final

"The blood test should be ready in a few hours, we'll be able to see if the drugs are out of your system and if it's not we can work out what it is" Sara said confidently "we know one of the drugs already so that's handy"

Felicity nodded her thanks but all she wanted to do right now was go home and sleep, she would deal with all of this tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Oliver saw how exhausted she was and opted to drive her home. Diggle wanted to get home to Lyla and offered to give Roy a lift. With everyone sorted Oliver took Felicity by the arm gently and escorted her to his car.

Felicity could hardly keep her eyes open on the ride home. With everything that happened to her in the past week she wasn't surprised at all. Oliver kept glancing at her and told her that it was alright to sleep but Felicity refused – using the stupid excuse that she didn't want to be rude in the car by sleeping and leaving him alone.

Yet when they pulled up to her house Felicity felt wide awake. She became alert and tense and fearful of walking up her front steps and tried her best to hide it; were the drugs still in her system? Felicity felt Oliver hold her arm as they walked to her door and opened the front door with her key.
Oliver helped her inside but only when he was sure that it was safe and sat her down on the couch

"Felicity?" Oliver asked gently "Talk to me"

"I-I-I don't want…"

"I'm not letting you become me, you're not going to go through this alone. Please, talk to me" Oliver took her hands in his and stared intently into her eyes

Felicity knew that there was no escape from him, not that she wanted to escape, and who else had been through bad stuff that they refused to talk about? There was Sara, Diggle and Roy but Oliver was here with her now. Felicity figured that she would have opened up to any one of them if they had been there; but Oliver was here now.

Felicity searched her mind for when all of this started. It started with her going behind Oliver's back again and betraying him. Then she was drugged and had to endure horrible hallucinations, Felicity closed her eyes sharply as everything came flooding back, she was dimly aware that Oliver had placed his hand on her cheek and was talking calmly to her

"It's alright now Felicity" Oliver spoke softly as Felicity shut her eyes and began to shake slightly "You don't have to talk about it"

"Oliver…" Felicity opened her eyes and nearly cried when she was met with his own "Oliver it was my fault. My fault-" and before Oliver knew it she was talking a mile a minute and barely leaving space to breathe "IwentbehindyourbackagainandI'msosorryIwassoscared!IhadtoprotectyouguysIdidn'twantyoutogethurt!"

"Felicity, slow down. Talk slower" Oliver emphasised taking a deep calming breath and gestured for her to do the same before continuing

"It was my fault, I went behind your back and I'm sorry" Felicity didn't fight the tears that clouded her sight "I wanted to keep you safe, I contacted my father and told him to take me and spare all of you"

Oliver listened quietly, his hands never leaving hers, if anything her story made him want to hold her tighter.

"They started the tests right away. My father and his assistant would drug me and then try to cure, since I'm not sick the cure wouldn't work and they just upped the dose of drugs and the hallucinations kept coming and coming" Oliver saw that Felicity was in pain and it hurt him to hear that all of this was done to her but when she was on a roll it was hard for her to stop "The first one was you simply coming to save me. I wanted to see you so badly"

Felicity listed all of her hallucinations "In one of them I had spiders all over me, the next one was snakes and another was that I simply couldn't move. Then I started having hallucinations of people; mainly you guys. I saw Dig with Lyla at their wedding; I danced with Roy and Barry at their reception. In another Sara was simply mad at me and wouldn't talk to me and…the worst one was when-"

Oliver stroked her hand with his fingers, silently telling her that he was there for her and would help her in any way he could.

Felicity continued: "the worst one was when…you were right there in front of me, I wanted to run to you but you stopped me. You said that you didn't need me anymore, Sara and Laurel would replace me and that–" Felicity hated that she couldn't hide the hitch in her breath "that I meant nothing to you" she shook her head and began to cry "it hurt so much to lose you"

Oliver quickly brought her into his arms and soothed her with his words "It wasn't me, Felicity. It wasn't me, I would never say that and no one could ever replace you. Do you understand?" Oliver made Felicity look into his eyes "Felicity I–" a pounding knock at the door interrupted them, making Oliver tense up and instinctively stand up and in front of Felicity "are you expecting anyone?" he asked

"No" Felicity said simply and shook her head

"Hide" Oliver approached the door quietly and reached for the door handle, Felicity got up and went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, if it came to it Felicity would defend herself and Oliver.
There was a hesitant hello from the living room then sounds of a struggle "I'm here to see–"

"Who are you and what do you want with Felicity?!" Oliver growled, Felicity came back in and saw Oliver had pinned a man to the ground "tell me now!"

"Please! I'm here to see Felicity! We met before!" the man pleaded

"Oliver stop! Let him go! I know him" Felicity sprang forward and pulled Oliver off of him "Preston" she sighed in relief "are you alright?"

Preston groaned as he stood up again and eyed Oliver "Yeah, I'm just glad that you're the same and have The Arrow here to protect you, you need it"

"You know who I am?" Oliver asked not liking this man at all or how he looked at Felicity

"I'm Adam Ryde's assistant, my name is Preston and I was…helping look after Felicity"

"Out of all my father's men, Preston was the only one to show me any kind of kindness, he helped me through my hallucinations. I'm happy you made it out but why are you here?" Felicity assured Oliver before looking back to Preston and waiting for an explanation "where is my father?"

"Something's snapped inside him Felicity. When we first met I didn't see it, but we did more and more research together, we worked together and I refused to see it because I trusted him and he seduced me into helping him make sick people better. Adam nearly lost it when I went to him and told him that the cure didn't work with you, he was or rather still is 100% sure that you have the same illness as your mother"

"But, I don't! I'm not sick I–"

"Adam can't see that. I tried to tell him, I tried to make him see that what he was doing to you was in no way right with anything we had worked towards. I tried to bring in other people who were sick but he refused. It had to start with you" Preston ran a hand through his hair as he continued "when your friends came to rescue you, Adam finally snapped" Preston looked at Oliver "he wants you, The Arrow, dead for interfering with Felicity, if he can't have Felicity to test on he'll go after another he knows he can cure" Preston said sadly

"He wants my mother…" Felicity could feel fresh tears at her realisation "Adam is going after my mother!" Oliver placed a firm and comforting hand on her shoulder "he can't get to me so he's going after her! I won't let him! I'll find him and he can have me!"

"I'm so sorry Felicity, I tried to stop him but –" Preston tried to speak but was rudely cut off by Oliver who came around so that she could look at him and wrapped his arms around her

"Your mother is going to be fine, we won't let him get to her or you, we'll stop him" Oliver vowed

"How?" Felicity sobbed

Oliver vowed to take out Adam Ryde and destroy him for hurting Felicity. He was already forming a plan and was unaware of the look between Preston and Felicity and the slight nod from her over his shoulder – they had a plan too.

A/N: This chapter took some time to write out but I got there in the end. Updates may be later and later due to personal problems at home and trying to help another friend in her personal stuff too. Life just gets in the way sometimes and I'm sorry.

A/N2: I loved the tension between Preston and Oliver in this chapter! Preston has feelings for Felicity but Oliver is all 'grrr!' and talks of her mother!? Hmm let's see how it goes!

Read and review! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!