Author's notes: Yeah, I know it's been awhile, so sorry about that. This one's just to get us moving forward. Also, I'm no expert hacker or coder so just bear with me. Chapter title comes again from Bastille's "Pompeii" 'cuz it's just such a great song and fits so well with where the story is right now. Hope all is well with all of you! :-)

Chapter 6: Clouds Rolled Over The Hills

As soon as the doctor allowed it, Felicity had her mother to bring her beloved tablet from home. She researched everything she could on both Oliver Queen and the Arrow. She looked into his history before he'd been lost at sea as well as his activities after. The criminals he'd taken down, reports of people he'd saved, witness sightings and criminal testimonies about him . . . She familiarized herself with everyone in his life - which is also how she found out that his mother lost her battle with cancer on the very day that Felicity gave birth to Finn.

It was also how she found out that – coincidence upon coincidence – Oliver's middle name was Jonas. Oliver Jonas Queen. She hadn't known that when she'd named her son. She'd found the name before she even knew who he was. It was just another way that the universe seemed to keep drawing them together.

It didn't really take long to figure out who he was working with as the Arrow - his "bodyguard" John Diggle, his ex-girlfriend District Attorney Laurel Lance (who was also Det. Lance's daughter), and the boyfriend of Oliver's younger sister Thea - Roy Harper. She also found information on Laurel's sister Sara who at the moment was presumed dead (again). From there she'd just had to decide how to approach them.

Well, first she had to get out of this hospital.

Her doctor was being as stubborn as he was before she'd given birth. She wanted to go home, she wanted out of this sterile prison. She wanted to see and hold and take care of her son without nurses and doctors hovering around her. Finley had been in this world for five weeks and she'd only been allowed to hold him a handful of times.

She spent her time now in this bed or walking around her room or to the bathroom (which was all the physical activity her doctor allowed her). There wasn't anything on tv – she was so behind on her Netflix queue but the hospital's wifi wasn't strong enough for video. She didn't have the focus or patience for reading right now – other than researching. Even mindless internet surfing wouldn't appease her boredom or wish for her child.

She hadn't seen or heard from Oliver Queen or the Arrow since he'd shown up in her hospital room and saved her. Nor had she been attacked. Detective Lance kept as steady flow of police protection around her mother, Finn, and her but she hadn't heard from him either. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in Lance's policeman . . . it was just that she didn't think they'd be able to protect her form Wilson.

She was restless, she was sore, and she was sick and tired of this damn hospital.

Her family were sitting ducks in this hospital. She needed to get out and get her family somewhere safe from the demons attached to the Palmer name. When she'd first awoken from the coma, her doctor had implied that she'd be released right away – but that was before the incisions from her surgery developed an infection. Now she was stuck here indefinitely until the infection was under control.

From what her nurses tell her, though, the infection should heal quite nice very soon – at present moment she was taking their word for it. All she knew was they'd stuck way too many scary needles into her skin and she had no interest in seeing the mess that was her multiple incisions.

As much as she loved them, the nurses had been hovering around her all day and night, every day and night. Finn's weight had dipped a little more than the doctors liked, so Felicity left her mother with strict instructions to remain glued to his side and give her any updates about her son. She just wished the nurses would leave her alone at least for a little bit.

She finally decided to contact the Arrow – now that she knew more about him, his team, and what they stood for. She would (hopefully) be out of this hospital soon and it was time that they all put their heads together and took down these monsters who'd attacked her. Instead of going through Detective Lance, she'd opted for a more direct approach. A short demonstration of her skills would show the Arrow and his team what she capable of and that she could help them. She was a little worried about whether or not they would trust her – she had been married to one of the people behind it, after all, but she had a feeling she'd be fine.

With Oliver especially, she felt that she could trust him to see the real her like she already could with him. And if he was the hero and the leader than she thought he was, it wouldn't be long before his team would see that they could trust her too.

The message was already sent out to them – they wouldn't receive it for a little while but she knew it wouldn't be long after that she heard something from them.

OFOFOFOFOFOFOFOFOF

The team was at a total standstill.

Oliver and his fellow vigilantes – his fellow heroes – were sinking into the dead end of this investigation into Ray Palmer, Grant Wilson, and whatever the hell they were involved in. They'd run out of leads, there weren't any witnesses to anything, and before long the trail would grow even colder than it already was.

The team was ready to abandon the case altogether – leave the SCPD and the FBI to take care of it while still checking in to it from time to time.

There was a new wave of criminals taking root in the Glades – pushing people around, dealing out drugs, even kidnapping a few people. They were apparently calling themselves the 'saviors' of the Glades, removing the toxic people ruining the Glades. Religious semi-extremists or just simple drug pushers who've caused a few people to overdose? They weren't so sure yet. As far as they knew though this new group was totally unrelated to the Palmer/Grant situation. One of the friends of Diggle's sister-in-law Carly was missing but the police wouldn't look in to it because she'd run off before only to come back a few weeks later – Diggle believed the new group in the Glades was behind her disappearance. The team believed it would be more fruitful to chase an enemy they could see than the one that could be way bigger than they knew.

Oliver, however, while sympathetic to Diggle and Carly, was a little more invested in the Palmer/Wilson case than the team knew. Of course, that was his fault – he hadn't told them about Felicity Smoak or her family or her connection to Palmer. He knew he had to, he just . . . He didn't know how to set about it without the team ending up mistrusting her or unwittingly exposing her to more danger.

There'd been times in the past of disagreements between Oliver and the rest of the team. Sometimes Oliver was willing to do more, go deeper, choose violence over reason whereas the rest of the team believed there was a better solution. He just couldn't help but feel that if the team disagreed with him about Felicity Smoak it could be catastrophic.

So while he decided the best way to tell them, he entertained the idea of chasing the Glades kidnappers even as he continued to watch over and protect Felicity, Donna, and newborn Finley Smoak.

"So Carly says that Shayna has had drug problems in the past but she's been clean for over a year." Diggle told the rest of the team as they were scattered around their "lair" under Oliver's club Verdant.

"People relapse all the time." Oliver let out a breath, twisting the bamboo stick around and hitting the practice dummies they had set up.

"Apparently Shayna was really serious about it this time. She was trying to get custody back of her kid from her jerk of an ex." Diggle held up a picture of Shayna and her son – Tyler? Ryder? Oliver couldn't remember.

"So some parents are jerks," Roy shrugged. "Maybe she decided the drugs were more important than her kid – again."

Laurel just shook her head, her eyes never leaving the computer screen she was glued to. "It doesn't really work that way, Roy. Drug addiction is a disease – just like alcohol addiction. She can't get clean until she's ready." Roy just shrugged, knowing better than to argue with her and went back to the bag of chips he was currently munching on.

"What connection does she have to the Glades group?" Oliver said.

"None that we directly know for sure about – except that she lives in the area where a few others have disappeared from." Diggle said. "Those people have direct connections to the group."

"It's a long shot – but it's definitely more concrete than the case Palmer was involved in." Laurel sighed. Oliver disagreed but kept his opinions to himself. The police could handle a few drug dealers and missing people – Wilson was into way heavier things that could quadruple the numbers of bodies the drug pushers would ever drop. "From what I've seen at the courthouse and heard from other attorney's—wait, hold on . . . what the hell is this?"

The others stopped what they were doing to focus on the Black Canary. A screeching sound erupted from the computer Laurel was working at, the screen a bright green. Laurel pushed back in her chair, startled. Roy's bag of chips dropped to the floor.

"What is it, some virus?" Roy said.

"I have no idea." Laurel stood, still backing away. "I was just on some news sites, looking for more information on the people that were missing. Nobody should be able to get into our system – Cisco set it up to be un-hackable."

"Well someone definitely hacked." Roy shrugged.

"It's got some kind of message." Oliver noted, seeing the print that flashed across the screen in large, bold black.

"Whatever it is, it's not good." Diggle looked around the room, his hand reaching down to the holster on his hip. "If they can get into our system, who's to say they can't get in here."

Oliver had already thought of that, his hands finding his bow and arrows as soon as Laurel noticed the screen. Once he saw the message on the screen, he immediately tensed.

More than that, he knew who the message was from.

"Maybe the Glades group figured we were on to them." Roy shrugged.

"No . . ." Oliver breathed.

"Oliver, what is it?" Laurel looked back and forth between him and the screen.

"This has nothing to do with the Glades case," Oliver dropped his bow and let out a breath.

"How do you know?" Diggle didn't look convinced.

Oliver sighed again – this wasn't how he'd wanted to do this. "Look . . . there may or may not be some things I haven't told you guys . . ."

"Big surprise there." Roy mumbled, rolling his eyes. Diggle just looked at him and then lightly smacked him upside the head. Roy rubbed his head, letting out a breath. Laurel shook her head, not surprised.

"You better let it all out now or we're going to have a problem." Diggle grunted. From anyone else, Oliver would take this as a threat. From John Diggle – his friend, his fellow vigilante, his brother – he knew it was just a disappointed warning.

"I stumbled on to some information about Palmer." Oliver let out a breath. "I was simply waiting for the right time to let you guys in."

"Tell me you didn't do something stupid." Laurel crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. While once his girlfriend, now his ex, Laurel Lance was more his sister than anything else.

"It's . . . complicated." Oliver shrugged.

"So what does it have to do with this computer thing?" Roy said.

"There's a woman . . ." Oliver started.

"Here were go . . ." Diggle shook his head, chuckling. Roy laughed.

He told them somewhat of continuing to run into Felicity Smoak at the hospital while his mom was there – how he'd never really seen anyone with her. He left out the unspoken connection between them. Then he told them about he scribbled signatures he'd found in the Palmer Tech paperwork – the assistant turned into the co-owner and wife. It was harder to tell them about seeing her at the hospital the day his mother died, but he did and he told them he'd seen her chart and put it together. He also didn't tell them what Det. Lance told him – they didn't need to know his involvement and he didn't need to be in any more danger than necessary. He finished with telling them he'd been watching over the Smoak family and the night he'd stopped Grant's man from killing her as well as the brief conversation they'd had.

Oliver had told her to contact him though Det. Lance but apparently he'd underestimated her true skills.

The team was shocked silent as they all thought about the message that had already disappeared from the screen:

Oliver Queen is the Arrow. The former Mrs. Palmer is aware of this and has minimal information into her dead husband and Grant Wilson's criminal activity. The former Mrs. Palmer knew nothing of the activity until after her husband's death and now believes her family is in grave danger where they are. She wishes to make a deal – the Arrow and his team's protection for the information she has. She would also wish to aid in taking Wilson down so that her family will be safe for good. You've already seen that she can get in to your system – if the Arrow and his Team won't help her she'll expose them for who they are to the world – John Andrew Diggle, Dinah Laurel Lance, and Roy William Harper Jr.

Everyone just looked at Oliver who truly didn't know what to say.

To Be Continued.