= December 2019 - Star City =

"You do remember that we have packages by the door," Felicity reminded Ray as she motioned towards it. She had been letting her mother handle everything to do with Hanukkah and the girls handle the Christmas things. It worked out well for her because that left with her doing little, especially cooking and prep. Though, her mother had found a few times to criticize her not being more involved with the Hanukkah decorating and prep. It wasn't that she didn't care about her heritage, she did...it was just always a stressful time when her mom was there.

"They're from the Diggles," Ray told her.

Which she knew.

She'd told the girls that they could stay by the door until Christmas, mainly because they didn't really do presents under the book tree. It was more a small gathering of things around it and the package that the Diggles had sent them was rather large. So, it was just a lot neater to keep it boxed up until Christmas.

Felicity watched for a moment as Ray opened the box and started to unpack it. It was a year of Hanukkah and Christmas coinciding, which the girls had told her that they thought was more fun. They'd baked earlier with her mother and sang songs for both holidays. Quentin had timed all of the baking to ensure nothing burned, which was mostly because he had been very vocal about eating the cookies. There had been a solo with Etta quietly singing a song about peace in Latin that had absolutely floored all of them and then her mother had been even more shocked that Etta had known what each word meant in English. It was a blending and it was perfect as far as Felicity was concerned.

"You know that I could help with the cooking, right?" Quentin asked.

"I was counting on it," Felicity told him with a smile.

He smiled in return. "Just don't expect anything spectacular."

"Your knife skills are enough," Felicity said. "I am horrible at cutting things up into uniform pieces and small enough."

Ray came back by and paused for a moment, obviously having overheard their conversation. "Please, please...do the chopping," Ray seemed to practically beg Quentin, which got a chuckle out of the older man. "You should see it when she helps me with a salad...they'll be half a mushroom and then a whole mushroom and then actual sliced mushrooms...but they're sliced the wrong way."

"Does it really matter which way you slice the mushroom? It all goes to the same place, no matter…"

"It still matters," Ray insisted before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "But I still love your weirdly chopped vegetables."

"But you prefer them cut the proper way...which I'm totally fine with," she said with a smile.

"Because that means she doesn't have to cut them," Ray pointed out.

Felicity just beamed at them before moving to check on girls. She found a donut being handed to her and Felicity happily accepted it from her mother before she was kissed on the cheek. It was unexpected, but most welcome (the donut and the kiss).

"I'm so proud of you, Sweetie," her mother told her.

That was even more unexpected.

"I love you," Felicity told her mom.

"I'm making the latkes tomorrow."

"Oh-kay," Felicity said slowly and slightly surprised. "Are you having Quentin help?"

"Well and Raymond, of course," her mother said with a smile before patting her shoulder and walking off.

Okay.

Felicity really didn't care what they were eating which day, she just hoped that it didn't end in some kind of kitchen disaster or fire or something… She already had researched all the local places that were open even on holidays most places were closed that could deliver (just as a back up during her mother's stay).

"Does this mean we can open presents now?" Clara asked brightly as she bounced a bit. "I mean, it's not like we have a set time, right? You said on Christmas we could open the presents from Uncle John and Aunt Lyla-"

"Okay," Felicity found herself saying quickly. "But let me get Ray before we open anything...and Liv-"

"I'll get Liv!"

Before she could say anything else, Clara was off to gather her sisters. She closed her mouth and shook her head for a moment before going to retrieve her husband. She knew that her mother and Quentin wouldn't care so much about them opening the presents from the Diggles, but Felicity liked to make sure she got pictures at the very least if not also video. It was nice to send to them, it sometimes made them feel a little closer. John and Lyla did the same when it came to gifts for Sara.

She found Quentin and Ray chatting about food and cooking and about how neither one of them thought they were very good. So, she just listened for a moment, a smile spreading across her face. Her mother had been pursuing Quentin for years now and Felicity had to admit, having him for her stepdad really wouldn't be so horrible. He already felt like a dad to her and he was definitely a grandpa to the girls… They seemed to notice her and Ray looked up at her. "The girls wanted to open the presents from John and Lyla…"

"I've got this," Quentin told Ray. "You go."

"You're sure?" Ray questioned, obviously not wanting to just abandon his kitchen duties to Quentin.

"It's just for a few minutes, right?"

"Right."

"I'll be fine."

Ray beamed. "Thanks."

God, she loved having them all together...even if her mother sometimes drove her nuts.

Felicity waited there for Ray until he got to her, she took his arm, and then they walked into the other room together. The girls were all already gathered around the presents under the book tree. Her mother was sitting nearby, seemingly amused by the girls. Felicity and Ray sat on the floor, completing the circle. "Okay, we're going to open them one by one," Felicity told them all as she got her phone ready.

Alex set gifts out in front of everyone and Felicity got it so she was ready to record Liv. She was only one, but she sort of knew about tearing paper, at least if someone started it. The girls knew that that was how they were doing it, since that was how they'd been doing everything, so there was no discussion beforehand. It was better this way. She pressed record and gave Clara a nod, who helped Liv get the first tear going. A moment later, Liv was tearing the paper and giggling. She seemed to be having more fun in that moment with the paper and hadn't even noticed the gift inside. Clara held up the robot toy that had been inside and pressed the buttons, as soon as it lit up and made a sound, Liv was grabbing it and squealing in delight.

"Let's get it out of the box first," Etta said as she immediately went to work to help the youngest Palmer sibling to free her toy.

Felicity had stopped the recording while the girls got the robot out. Once it started to roll around, light up, and sing...that's when she started to record again and Liv was absolutely in love with it. "Tank you tank you tank you," Liv kept repeating over and over again in between fits of giggles as she played with the robot. She knew that Lyla and John would be glad that it went over so well.

Everyone just enjoyed Liv playing with her new toy before each of the girls took turns opening their presents. They all received books that were about survival and adventure with strong female main characters. The girls had been telling Lyla about how they'd discovered Jolabokaflod, an Icelandic tradition of a book on Christmas Eve. The girls absolutely loved books, so something like this was absolutely exciting to them.

Ray went next and was immediately grinning. It was a blue shirt that said 'Never trust an ATOM they make up everything' and the 'O' in ATOM was the atom symbol that had been on Ray's suit all those years ago. "This is the best thing," he beamed.

Felicity was glad that she caught his reaction on video. She was certain that Diggle had been the one to pick it out. Ray was immediately pulling it on over his button up shirt and tie. Shaking her head, a bright smile spreading across her face, she knew that that was now his new favorite shirt. It was a nice blast from the past, though.

"I don't get it," Clara said as she squinted at his shirt.

"Because atoms make up everything," Etta explained. "The whole world."

"Oh," Alex said, still frowning and sort of squinting.

Clara just blinked. "I still don't get it."

"It's cool," Etta told her older sister with a pat to her shoulder.

"So cool!" Ray enthused maybe a bit too much in that moment, Felicity also got that on video.

Now it was her turn. The box was small. She removed the paper and then found that it was a little wooden box that just barely fit in the palm of her hand. Opening it, she gasped and nearly dropped the box as her hand shook. Her eyes immediately teared up and she struggled to keep it together.

"You okay, Mom?" Etta asked.

"What is it?" Clara pushed.

It was something that reminded her of the old days too.

"It's an arrowhead," she managed to get out, even though she could hear that she sounded sad and cry-y. It was more than just an arrowhead, though, it was something that very much reminded her of Oliver. It was rough and obviously something that had been found.

"Is it dirty?" Clara questioned as she peeked at it. "Why would they send you something that looks like they dug it out of the ground?"

And she was right.

"It's the meaning behind it," Felicity said and then realized as she looked up at the girls and her mother that they were likely now going to want to know that meaning. "It's just something that reminds me of the times when John and Lyla were here."

"Weird…"

That was fine, everyone else could think it was weird. She looked over at Ray and saw the sympathetic look he was giving her. He knew. He understood. It was killing her to stare down at it, but at the same time...it was comforting too. So much of their past had been boxed up and locked away. It was good to have reminders of the past even if it was one that made her want to cry over it.

"Okay!" she said a moment later, trying to push the sad emotions out of her voice as she closed the box. "Let's get back to things! Quentin probably thinks we've abandoned him in the kitchen to prepare dinner all on his own…"

The girls were immediately on their feet, mainly to discuss their books amongst each other, but were definitely making their way towards the kitchen. Her mother moved to her as Felicity also got to her feet and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her to her until she could press a kiss to her daughter's forehead. "You okay?" her mother asked with concern.

"Yeah…" Felicity whispered. "Just… I just need a minute," she said and hoped that her mother wouldn't push, even though her mother was really good at that.

"Okay, I'll get Liv and I'll make sure that Quentin is properly supervised," her mother told her all too seriously before scooping up both Liv and her robot.

That phrase brought a smile to her lips. "Properly supervised?"

Her mother didn't reply to that, but instead just smirked and her eyes sparkled before leaving them alone.

Felicity looked over at Ray. She wondered at first if he was upset at all that she'd been upset about her gift since he knew what the arrowhead had to mean for her. Oliver. She'd loved him all those years ago. His loss had been so hard on her, on the entire team...but Ray, her darling Ray knew that the arrowhead brought complicated and complex feelings within her. He knew it without even discussing it, she could see it in his eyes as he looked back at her. "All those years ago," she started with a whisper. "I never thought that I would grow so close to Oliver or John...and I hadn't even met Thea, Roy, Sara, Laurel, or Quentin…"

He moved over to her, his arms wrapping around her. "I miss them too, well...except Quentin because he's in the other room."

She smiled at that and for a moment, allowed tears to fall. "I knew death came with what we did...but I never thought that we'd lose people… That we'd lose Oliver...and Sara…"

"But we haven't," Ray whispered as he pressed a kiss into her hair. "They live on inside of us, in what they did, and the city that they brought about…"

"No one talks about them anymore…they don't know who they really were."

"No, but I don't think either of them would have wanted it that way."

And he was right.

They had never been in it for fame.

He held her for as long as she needed, but Felicity knew that they couldn't be left alone for long. She breathed slowly, calming herself down, the arrowhead still in her hand. When she pulled back, she sighed and pulled her glasses off to clean them. Ray pressed a kiss to her forehead. She still felt blessed, all these years later, to have Ray as a husband and to have the family that they had. It hadn't always been easy and it hadn't have been something that she would have thought she'd be happy with (if someone had told her years before), but she was. "I love you," she told him.

"I love you, too."


"I don't understand why gelt is both chocolate coins and real money," Clara said in confusion as she stared down at a wrapped piece of chocolate that looked very much like a golden coin.

"I don't even question it," Alex countered in the middle of eating one of her chocolate coins.

Felicity shrugged. "Me either."

That didn't seem like something her mother was too thrilled about, but she was far too involved currently in supervising Ray and Quentin in the kitchen. They were on latkes duty and though her mother had said that she'd be cooking dinner, but her cooking dinner either really meant that it was going to involve a fire, be inedible, or her supervising. Felicity really preferred the supervision part and neither Ray nor Quentin seemed to mind in that moment.

"You know, I feel like we should make sure that we have baking soda handy, just in case," Ray said. "I feel like a grease fire might put a damper on our festivities."

Her mother didn't argue and she watched as her husband retrieved the box from the cupboard and set it next to the stove. Felicity's phone beeped and she looked down at the message. A smile instantly spread across her face, instant excitement filling her. "Digg wants to know if we can video chat," Felicity announced. "He wants us to see Sara."

"You go on and go ahead," Ray told her. "Take the girls. I'm going to work on this."

"You could go," her mother told him.

"No, I want to learn how to make these properly."

The journey to perfecting the latkes to her mother's standards was something that had already surpassed one holiday year. This was just one thing that Felicity knew that Ray was really trying to get right and impress her mother, though she honestly felt like it was kind of a lost cause.

"Okay," Felicity said. She got up and the girls were already heading over to the desktop computer that they had in the common area of the house. Liv was playing on the floor, so Felicity figured she was easy enough to grab and show off, but that she'd let her play for the moment.

They logged in and waited a moment until the Diggles started a call with them. Lyla's hair was short, John had some scruff, and Baby Sara was definitely not a baby anymore (though Felicity had a feeling that she'd always think of her in that way). "Happy holidays," she greeted brightly. This was exactly what she needed. She needed to see them, to feel like (even if it were just mere moments) that they were closer than they actually were. She adored Lyla, but she missed John so much. There had been a time (a good chunk of it, in fact) where they'd spent most of their days (and even nights) together (and with Oliver...and the others).

"Hi!" Sara excitedly announced.

"Sara!" all the girls exclaimed together.

"How is everyone on your end?" Lyla asked.

"The house hasn't been burnt down," Clara said quietly.

"Yet," Etta added.

"Thank you for our presents!" Alex chimed in. "Seriously, books are the best presents ever...I will fight anyone who says otherwise."

"Feisty," John commented.

"And Liv absolutely loves her toy," Felicity said.

"Sara was trying to figure out how to attach a camera to her droid in order to spy," Lyla said a bit flat.

"What? They should make them with cameras," Sara said. "Also, thank you. I do love it...even if Dad took it away."

"He's probably playing with it when you're in bed," Alex teased.

"I'd have to know how to work the thing first," John grumbled a little.

"And the books are really cool, though they just seem to confuse Dad too," Sara said. "And my tent...is amazing."

"You got a tent?" Clara questioned.

The Diggles moved around their camera so that Sara's tent could be seen in the background. It wasn't the kind that was for camping, but rather one that was for playing in and that could be rearranged into any layout that you wished. "Now if the droid would just stay in the tent...we'd be set," John said.

"Johnny tripped over it the other day," Lyla commented.

"Which is the real reason it got confiscated," Sara spoke up, clearly irked by her parents' punishment.

"I'm still jealous by the fact that you have a tent," Clara stated.

Felicity shook her head. The girls were all at the age where they hadn't wanted to do anything with tents (especially the camping type) and they all had their own individual rooms. She hadn't heard them voice the need for such a thing, so she had no idea why Clara would be jealous.

"Did Ray enjoy his present?" John questioned, a bright smile on his face.

"Oh! I haven't sent the videos yet! You have to watch it for yourself, I'm glad I was doing videos instead of photos because a picture just wouldn't have done it justice. Felicity pulled out her phone and was immediately forwarding the videos from the day before to Lyla and John.

"Have you heard from Thea and Roy?" Lyla questioned.

"Not in the last two months," Felicity told her honestly.

"They're fine."

"You talked to them?"

"No, but I redirected satellites and saw it with my own two eyes. They're volunteering," Lyla filled her in.

As creepy as it would sound to probably anyone else, it brought Felicity a sense of peace to know that they were okay. "I was going to reach out to her in the next few days if I hadn't heard anything from them."

"I'd still do it."

"I will."

"And tell them that we haven't heard from them in longer than that," John spoke up.

"It's just because I harass Thea."

"I'll have to do that more," Lyla said.

"It's good for her," John added.


Her mother and Quentin had left for the evening. Felicity still felt like it was odd that they wouldn't even label whatever their relationship was as dating. It seemed silly, but she was just glad that they both seemed happy. Sometimes it was enough that Felicity actually wished that her mother lived in Star City permanently because of how happy Quentin was as well.

Sometimes.

The girls were asleep and she had been asleep, but then had woken up not long after falling asleep and had slipped out of bed. Felicity was standing in the living room with her robe wrapped around her. The arrowhead in hand as she stared at the pictures on their mantle. The picture of her with John and Oliver made her want to cry. They were so happy in it, but it was something she missed. Not the crime fighting so much, but them… She set the arrowhead up against the frame on the side that Oliver was standing on.

After seeing how big Sara was, it made the picture of her with her parents when she was just an infant like a lifetime ago. They always got newer pictures, but it wasn't the same as when they'd all been living in the same city. Everyone was so spread out now and it felt like they didn't get to really talk to each other (let alone see each other). It was something that they'd all taken advantage of when they were all in Star City.

"Felicity?"

She turned to see Ray standing there with the throw from their chair wrapped around him. His hair was messy and he looked half awake. "I didn't mean to wake you," Felicity apologized quietly.

"No, you didn't...but why are you out here?" he asked as he continued to walk towards her.

"Couldn't sleep."

"You could have woken me up."

"No need for both of us to lose sleep." It was very true. Liv didn't sleep through the night yet, so sleep was still very much a precious thing to the both of them.

Ray just shrugged before wrapping his arms around her from behind. "Why couldn't you sleep?"

"I miss them."

"Is this because of the arrowhead?"

"No," Felicity said quickly. A thought later, she decided that maybe that wasn't completely true. "Yes. I mean, I always miss them, but the arrowhead did make me think of Oliver and think back to when we were all part of Team Arrow…"

"We're still part of Team Arrow."

Felicity turned in his blanket covered arms and stared at him in confusion. "No…"

"We will always be Team Arrow, Felicity," Ray told her. "Because you know...one day we might need to come back together and fight evil...or something…"

A small smile pulled at her lips. "We're retired, I thought?"

"You make it sound like we're eighty…"

"Sometimes it feels like it."

"Okay, that's fair…"

It wasn't that they'd let themselves go. They had a gym in their home that they both used, but their lives weren't like it had once been. She and Ray were parents and they both worked for Palmer Tech. Their lives were routine and the closest that they came to needing a weapon of any kind was when a spider randomly appeared in the shower.

"Next year will be better," Ray told her.

She just stared at him, not quite sure she believed him...or even knew what he meant by it.

"I promise," he continued. "I'll call Lyla and John...Roy and Thea...and we'll get everyone to come home next year. We'll throw a huge holiday celebration," Ray promised. "It's been a long time coming anyways. We always said that we'd all stay in touch and stay in each other's lives...and that hasn't exactly happened." He shrugged. "By then maybe Quentin and Donna will have decided to label their relationship...and with how things are going...I'd say married."

"What?"

"I'm just saying that I wouldn't be surprised if they eloped off to Vegas and just got married without telling us," Ray told her. Felicity just beamed at that image. Though, she'd honestly not be surprised at that. He pulled his arms away from her, his hands emerging from the blanket he was wrapped in so that he could do air quotes. "You know...they're go from friends...to married."

That just made her smile all the more. "The sad part is that I can see that happening…"

"Come back to bed?" Ray asked gently.

Felicity gave a nod and his arm wrapped around her as they turned to head back to their bedroom. The idea of everyone being together the next holiday was something that brought a lot of hope, joy, and general excitement for her. Felicity didn't think it would happen...at least not in the way that Ray was describing it, but she knew that he'd try quite hard to try to make it happen.

She slipped back into bed, pulling the covers over her after discarding her robe on her glider only a few feet away from the bed. Felicity sighed as she looked at the time on the clock before setting her glasses on the bedside table. Ray got in on his side and immediately scooted towards the middle, his arms pulling her into an embrace. Felicity's head just rested on his chest and she tried not to think too much about things. "You know, we should take another quick trip…" she brought up.

"Where to?"

"New York?"

"Just vacation or work and vacation?"

"Vacation," Felicity told him firmly. "And we use the sitter we used last time we were there."

"Or we could take your mom and Quentin?"

"Or we could use the sitter we used when we were there last time."

Ray just smiled. "Or we can use the sitter."

"I just want to go and spend time together. Walk around the city. See all the shows. Go to new places," Felicity told him. New York was perfect because it was far enough away and big enough to feel like a huge vacation without it really being that. They'd used a great babysitter for Liv previously, which would be perfect for when they'd see shows. She just really felt like they needed to get away and to do something.

They needed more than routine.

"I'm up for anything...as long as we're together," Ray told her before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Next year will be better."

"It will."


TBC in "Paths"...