A/N: Hi everyone! I just wanted to thank you all for the awesome support and reviews. I'm going to start writing back to you all again I promise, I was just in a bit of a grump lately. But the reviews helped with that SO much and I really really appreciate all of you :)

To Clear something up: I will be continuing the story past season 1. In fact, it won't be too far now as this chapter covers the remainder for ep 22 ( SPOILER ALERT) So after this chapter we will be covering the season finale and then off to open, uncharted waters. You'll probably see those early next week as I want to show my Torchwood story some love over the weekend.

Thanks again for being awesome!

Disclaimer: All characters and anything recognizable belong to CW and DC.

Tommy was having a rough morning. After seeing Laurel at the police station the day before he had gone back to his place and drank far too much scotch. This was becoming a habit, one he knew he was going to have to break if he was going to prove to his father he wasn't a screw up. Currently, Tommy's main job was to network. He was hired to take meetings that were important enough to need a Merlyn, but not quite crucial enough to warrant a place in Malcolm's schedule. He didn't have any actual responsibilities yet, but he was assured they would come in time. Getting out of bed today had been painful. He was also worried that he was starting to hallucinate. He could have sworn he saw Oliver's bodyguard Diggle in the group of new hires getting shown around the building a few days ago.

When he got into work he found that one of his assistants had already put a bottle of water and a couple of Tylenol on his desk. Was he really that predictable? He was reading his schedule over when she walked in with his coffee. His eyes fell to the last slot before lunch. "You've got to be kidding me." He muttered.

"Is there a problem Mr Merlyn?" Tommy looked up, slightly surprised. He had thought he was alone.

" No Ang, nothing for you guys to worry about. Just bad timing. Thanks for the set up this morning by the way."

"I aim to please." She smiled flirtatiously. "Your teleconference with the Coast City office is in twenty." Tommy nodded slightly and picked up the applicable file as Angela sauntered away. The old Tommy would have been all over her, now he couldn't be less interested. He was trying to decide if that was a good thing or not.

Oliver had checked in at security and everything was going to plan. He stopped into the washroom to buy Felicity the time she needed to deliver the food to security and met her at the elevators. They were almost foiled by a flirtatious grease ball in a suit who took a shine to Felicity. One flick of Oliver's wrist sent the man's files flying across the lobby, and the couple alone in the elevator again.

"Mr Andrews got his lunch?" He asked.

"One Belly Buster with benzodiazepine, hold the mayo." Felicity glanced at him briefly. " I could have put up with the suit guy for thirteen floors."

"Who says I wanted to?" Oliver glanced back.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you were jealous." Oliver's mouth tightened. "Seriously?"

"Updates Dig?" He asked into his earpiece avoiding the subject. The elevator stopped on the 24th floor but the doors did not open.

"Mainframe is on the 25th floor guys, this is as close as I can get you." Oliver looked up and assessed the best way to get out of the elevator. He found the maintenance hatch on the roof. He pushed it open and hoisted himself through. Felicity passed him his briefcase before he lifted her up as well. Oliver opened the briefcase to reveal a grappling hook. He climbed to the beam separating the two elevator shafts and took Felicity's hand to help her.

"Don't look down." He warned

"Too late." She gulped. " I should have mentioned I'm afraid of heights. Which I just discovered now." If they didn't do this quickly she was going to throw up down 24 floors of empty space.

"Felicity" Oliver spoke clearly and calmly "Hold on to me tight." He ducked under her arm and put one of his around her waist pulling her closer.

"I imagined you saying that under different circumstances." She said wrapped one arm tightly around his shoulders having a death grips on her tablet with the other.

"Raincheck?" He flirted to try to distract her. It worked for about half a second until he pulled the trigger on the grappling gun and swung them to the next beam. Once he was sure she had her footing he let go of Felicity and pushed open the doors from the inside. After a quick check down both directions of the hallway he escorted her in. He looked down to see his blue eyed girl looking a slight shade of green. "Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"I'm fine." She said swallowing down the bile trying to creep up here throat. " This is my about to hack face, I always look like this when I'm about to" she gulped again. "Hack."

"Security patrols are every ten minutes, I'll have my meeting with Tommy and be back here in nine. Ok?" She nodded and murmered an Ok before he ran for a working elevator around the corner. "Dig you got eyes on her?" Diggle confirmed he had her covered leaving Oliver open to create a distraction, and keep his word to a old friend.

Oliver walked into the grand office to see his former best friend standing by the window with a file in his hand . "It sure beats the back of a bar." Tommy glared at him.

"I saw your name in my schedule and thought it must be a typo" Oliver didn't respond. " Why so serious? Did someone decide they didn't want you putting an arrow in them today?"

"I thought it was past time we talked." Oliver was remaining calm which just angered Tommy more.

"About what? Me leaving the club? You being a serial killer? We're not lacking for topics."

" Let's start with Laurel since you're still in love with her."

"And so are you." Tommy countered.

"No, I'm not. I'm with Felicity." Tommy's eyebrows narrowed.

"Well good for you and Felicity. But what does that make me the consolation prize? I'll pass."

"She's not anyone's property. Laurel makes her own decisions and she chose you until you couldn't handle it. Lord knows I'm guilty of a lot of things between us. But not you and her. I tried to tell you that the night we got attacked but you were too caught up in your own head to listen." It was Tommy's turn to stand silent. "That's all I came to say." Oliver turned to leave but couldn't help one last shot. "What exactly do you do here?" Tommy mouth was in a tight line. He wouldn't let Oliver get under his skin any more than he already had.

"I work closely with my father." Oliver nodded and left. He simply hoped the Merlyns weren't working close together on all the projects.

After their narrow escape from overly prompt security guards, the team met up back at the club to go over the information Felicity downloaded from the mainframe. "I also took the liberty of uploading a Trojan to the system, might come in handy."

"That's smart, if Merlyn thinks he's been compromised it would be good for us to know." Oliver was pacing again. It was a habit that had grown in recent weeks along with his anxiety over the undertaking.

"Can you locate the seismic device?" Oliver wasn't even looking at the two of them now.

"I'm working on it, but there is at least a teraflop of data to go through." Oliver turned and walked over to his island trunk.

"You alright?" Diggle asked. Oliver picked up the list.

"My father said he had failed the city. He wanted me to right his wrongs but I never knew what he meant until now. It's the undertaking." Diggle and Felicity listened to the stream of consciousness coming out of their pacing leader. "Merlyn's plan is what I returned from the island to stop." He turned suddenly and headed upstairs.

"Dig you might as well go home. I'll be sorting through the files and He'll be back, eventually. You go rest." The bodyguard nodded and left. Felicity sighed, stretching before she dug into the first directory of files.

About an hour later she heard the door. "Oliver?"

"Hi." She heard quietly from the stairs. "Where's Dig?"

"I told him to go home. Figured you would keep me company whenever you got back." She kept working as she heard him approach. "Where did you go?"

" I just had to think." He pulled up a second chair close to her.

"About?"

"Us." That got Felicity's attention. She turned and faced him concerned. Oliver took both her hands. "The night of the wedding, you asked me if we were ever going to have normal days. Days without the hood. I realized that if I stop this, I'll be able to give you that."

"You would give up the hood?" She asked.

"Why not? I would have done my father's wishes. What else is there?"

"What about the rest of the problems? What about vertigo? What about crime? Just because the city is saved doesn't mean it is safe."

"Felicity, you deserve someone you can give all of themselves to you. I want to be able to give all of myself to you." Oliver looked deep into her eyes.

"I already get all of you. It's not like you are keeping this a secret for me. We're doing it all together. So if you are done after this, fine. But I do not want you to think you have to out of some misguided attempt to save or protect me. I can save myself." As they had several times that day, words failed Oliver. This was the first time however that it was joy and hope that were holding back the words. Without the words to express himself he did the next best thing, he kissed her. He captured her mouth in a passionate, hungry kiss, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her onto his lap. She ran her fingers through his hair and down his sculpted chest. He moved from her lips to her neck making her sigh and moan his name. She was starting to work on getting rid of his shirt when an alarm on the computer caught their attention.

"What's that?" Oliver asked. Felicity slid off his lap and back to her chair, pulling it up to the computers. She tapped a few buttons.

"I had set up a search parameter for key words like Markov. The computer found something" She tapped a few keys. " The device is being stored in a warehouse in the glades."

"OK. Call Diggle, give him the co-ordinates to the warehouse. I'm going after Merlyn." He grabbed his gear bag and bow.

"He's in his office. His computer is logged on to the network." Oliver walked over to her and gave her another, slower, deep kiss. " Be careful."

"I'll be back soon." He ran up the stairs while she dialed Diggle's number.

That was the start of everything going wrong.