The next day, Laurel woke up, not in her dad's apartment like usual, but in Oliver's bed and she smiled as she thought about last night.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty awakens." Oliver said as he entered the room, putting his dress shirt on.
"Hey, how long have you been up?" Laurel asked.
"About an hour. Breakfast is all set in the kitchen and William is fine with the fact that you stayed over last night." Oliver assured her.
"You make it sound like you aren't staying." Laurel said.
"Wish I could, but I have to get to City Hall." Oliver said.
"And I should probably start studying for my entrance exam into the SCPD." Laurel said.
"You'll do great, hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we got a new Detective Lance soon." Oliver said as he leaned down and kissed her before heading out.
Oliver was surprised when he found Dinah in his office when he arrived.
"I don't believe you were on my schedule." Oliver said.
"I need to talk to you about something regarding the investigation of the SCPD." Dinah said, getting Oliver's full attention.
"What is it?" Oliver asked.
"Captain Hill, we've recently discovered that she's on Diaz's payroll. That's how Diaz was able to get in and murder James and stage the cover up. It's also why there are no new cases regarding Diaz's latest product, Vertigo. Hill dismissed them all." Dinah said.
"You're about this?" Oliver asked.
"Positive." Dinah said.
"Get Hill here now. I want to speak to her now." Oliver said and Dinah nodded.
"Just out of curiosity, what are you going to do when you speak with her?" Dinah asked.
"Give her a chance to explain herself. There has to be a reason for this and I want to know what it is before I make any action against her." Oliver said and Dinah nodded as she walked out of his office.
"Lieutenant Drake said you wanted to see me." Hill said when she entered Oliver's office.
"I did." Oliver said.
"May I ask what this is about?" Hill asked.
"This is about you working for Ricardo Diaz." Oliver said.
"Who? I'm not sure I've ever heard that name?" Hill said but Oliver wasn't buying it.
"You're smarter than this. You're better than this. Talk to me." Oliver said and Hill sighed.
"Less than 24 hours after you promoted me to take over Pike's command, I got an e-mail- surveillance photos of my niece, my father, and my sister." Hill said and it all made sense to Oliver now.
"So he found a way to apply pressure." Oliver put together.
"Yeah." Hill said.
"Ok. Well, we can protect your family if you tell me everything you know about Diaz's operations." Oliver said.
"How can you protect my family? The city is bankrupt and unless the accusations of you being the Green Arrow are true, you can't protect anyone." Hill said.
"I never said it would be the SCPD or myself protecting them." Oliver said, shutting her up.
"What?" Hill asked.
"I have a contact within the government organization Argus. They can arrange to give your family completely new identities to protect them until Diaz is behind bars." Oliver said.
"And how exactly do you have a contact in the government. Unless you really are the Green Arrow." Hill said and Oliver snorted.
"Hardly. My best friend and my head of security John Diggle is married to the Director of Argus." Oliver said.
"Prove to me that you can protect my family and I will gladly help you bring Diaz down. But until then, I'm not saying a word." Hill said.
"Then you'll understand why you're suspended from the force until then." Oliver said.
"Excuse me?" Hill asked.
"I'm sorry, but you can't work for me while you're working for Diaz and while your demands are not unreasonable, I will not allow someone under Diaz's thumb, either willingly or otherwise lead my police force, so for the time being, you're suspended." Oliver said, truly sorry about having to do this.
"Yes sir." Hill said as she walked out of his office.
"So, let me get this straight, Hill is working for Diaz and you're just suspending her?" John asked after Oliver brought him and Laurel up to speed on things.
"Diaz is threatening her family. John, you of all people should understand that considering you killed your own brother when he threatened Lyla and JJ. And when you shot Gaynor to save Carly." Oliver reminded him.
"Fair point. But anyways, how do you plan on fixing that situation?" John asked.
"I need you to talk to Lyla, see if Argus can put Hill's family into witness protection to remove Diaz's power over Hill." Oliver said and John nodded as he walked out.
"Everything ok?" Laurel asked.
"Something's up with John. I don't know what it is, but ever since I told him I'm keeping the hood, he's been acting weird. Unlike himself." Oliver said.
"Well to be fair, you did string him along for 2 months." Laurel said.
"Still." Oliver said.
"Look, John's an adult. I'm sure he'll figure things out eventually. And in the meantime, he's still your partner." Laurel said.
"Speaking of partners, think we need to talk about last night?" Oliver asked her with a grin.
"What's to talk about? We slept together and that's that." Laurel said.
"What I mean is, after all this time, do you still want to give us a chance?" Oliver asked.
"It's all I've ever wanted. I was an idiot to push you away in the first place." Laurel said.
"You did what you felt you needed to do to move forward with your life. And now, since I am free of both my marriages, I think that maybe it's time to give this thing between us a shot." Oliver said.
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Laurel said as they kissed.
