A/N: I was surprised by how many of you guessed correctly as to who it was beside her! Unfortunately, there is little Oliver in this chapter, but trust me, he more than makes up for it when he finds out. Not only that, but I've written a few different chapters of his perspective which I will keep in another story that I'll post once it intertwines with this one. We're getting there, I promise!

Thanks again for all the lovely reviews and follows and favorites. I'm glad that you guys are hanging in there for this story, especially when it isn't the happiest of topics. Hope everyone had a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Felicity looked up in surprise, half expecting to see Oliver standing next to her. He was always there for her when she needed it and lord knew she needed it right then. But she wasn't disappointed when she saw Detective Lance standing beside her, his eyes soft and curious.

"Are you okay?"

He was standing right beside her but still needed to raise his voice, the cacophony of rain ricocheting everywhere easily swallowing his words. For a brief moment, Felicity thought that perhaps he knew. Perhaps he had heard the same world-crushing words that she had. But when her eyes drifted down to the pamphlet that still lay at their feet (in two complete pieces, not even marred by the rain. The stupid pamphlet wasn't even fucking biodegradable?) and she saw his own eyes widen as he read it, she knew that he had been unaware. Someone else's day had just been ruined too.

"Oh. Oh." His grip on her arm tightened. "Let's get you inside, okay?"

He walked her back to the stupid sliding doors, ushering her to the side a bit so they weren't standing directly in a walkway. Before either one of them could say a word, Felicity's phone went off again, attracting the attention of everyone around them.

With no pamphlet in her hands, she quickly took the phone out of her pocket and silenced the ringer, staring at the phone in horror.

"It's him." She didn't know if Detective Lance assumed it was Oliver or The Hood, but he just nodded at her encouragingly.

"He's going to come down here if you don't answer it," he reminded her softly. "Tell him you're getting coffee with me."

"Hello?" Her voice was shaky even to her own ears. She might have fooled Oliver before, but there was no hiding that there was something wrong right then.

"Felicity? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied, her voice a bit stronger. "What's wrong with you?" She winced. "You know what I mean." Good to know that her diagnosis hadn't changed everything.

"Are you sure? I'm just calling because HR came up here looking for you, and they wouldn't tell me what it was about. It seemed weird so I thought you should know. What are you doing right now?" His voice was suspicious, and Felicity looked to the detective for encouragement. He nodded for her to continue.

"I'm just getting coffee actually with uh, Detective Lance."

"Really?" Oliver knew that the two of them had a working relationship that sometimes excluded him, but he didn't realize they were on a coffee-getting level. "Is your mom already gone?"

A quick glance at the clock on the wall told her that it was later than she thought, and she could get away with not being with her mom.

"Yeah, she left already. I hope it's okay that I'm-"

"No, don't worry about it, of course it's okay. Are you going to come by later?" She knew what he meant and while she might not have to be admitted overnight - which wasn't exactly a given at this point - she knew she wasn't going to be up to going to the lair tonight.

"What am I doing later?" She repeated louder, for Lance's benefit. She needed him to tell her what to say or else she was going to either lose it right there or come up with an even more convoluted story that she would regret later.

Detective Lance, to his credit, put it together fast. He saw her eyes dart towards the reception area where her coat and purse still sat, and he took in the eyes of the employee that was clearly waiting for her to return. He held out his hand for the phone.

"Give it to me."

"Uh, Detective Lance wants to talk to...you?" She still wasn't sure who he thought was on the phone and she prayed that Oliver was prepared to go into voice modulator mode if necessary.

"Hey, it's me." The tone of his voice quickly told Felicity that he thought he was talking to the Arrow. He might not like the Arrow, but he had come to respect him. He begrudgingly respected Oliver Queen, but usually went out of his way to pretend not to.

She could only hear his side of the conversation, which left her feeling more than a little agitated.

"Yeah, I uh - do you mind if I keep her this evening?" Keep her?

"No, no, she's fine, it's just, uh, it's a me-thing."

"She offered her services once as a surrogate daughter. I'm just taking her up on it is all. That ok?"

"Great. Yeah. Thanks." He held the phone out to Felicity, and the line was still open, but she couldn't help the look of pure gratitude that was plastered all over her face. Detective Lance was an exceptionally good man.

"Hi there," she spoke to Oliver again, feeling a little better about controlling the conversation.

"Is Lance okay? He sounds a little...shaken." That makes two of us, she thought sourly.

"Yeah, yeah, he's just…"

"Hey, I can relate to the healing properties of Felicity Smoak's presence when you're in a bad way," he told her softly.

"So you don't mind if I…?'

"No, of course not. I'm glad you're there for him, and I'm sure Sara would appreciate it too. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Bye."

She hung up and just looked at Detective Lance, unsure of where to start. Finally, she settled on simplicity.

"Thank you."

"No problem," he replied gruffly before nodding to her things still abandoned on the counter. "Let's go get you settled in and then we can see about ordering us up some really terrible hospital coffee."

"I'm uh, not sure if I'm allowed to have coffee before my...stuff."

"Well then you can sit and watch me suffer through a cup of some really terrible hospital coffee, how does that sound?"

"Sounds good."

It wasn't totally awkward, lying in a bed in nothing but a hospital gown, staring at a SCPD detective who was scowling pretty hard at a styrofoam cup of coffee, but it sure wasn't comfortable for Felicity.

It was a lot of 'hurry up and wait' at the hospital, which didn't surprise her in the least, so she felt pretty confident that her and Lance would have plenty of time to talk. She had just gotten a cannula placed in her nose and they had told her they'd be back in a moment to start up her IV, but that had been over ten minutes ago.

"Did you have another appointment at the hospital today?" Felicity broke the silence and the staring contest Lance was engaged in with his coffee.

"Ah, no." He had the good sense to look a little abashed at that. He must have heard her making her appointment the day before and taken the time to come see her. She didn't relish in the idea of being followed, but a part of her warmed at the thought of someone caring enough to do that.

"You couldn't have known all this," she motioned around the room, to the monitors and equipment set up everywhere, "was going to happen."

"Nah, but it's never a good thing when they want to see you the day after. They only do that to me after they find out that I've been eating more cheeseburgers than I should. Then they call me back and have a whole panel of doctors yell at me."

She smiled at his attempt to bring levity to the situation. It was much appreciated.

"I, uh...I didn't know all this was going to happen either."

"No?"

She tried to smile, to give a tiny shrug and play it off, but her voice cracked on the last word. "I don't feel sick."

Lance reached over and took her hand in his, and she surprised herself with how tightly she latched on to it.

"Sometimes you don't," he told her. "Sometimes you just don't."

She hadn't cried yet, but she knew it was coming, and she honestly didn't know if she wanted the detective to be there for it or not.

"You gonna tell him?" She knew he was referring to the Arrow.

"I don't know," she whispered. "These tests...they'll tell us more and I wouldn't want to tell him what's happening without all the information. So I guess I'll just wait and see."

He nodded, before clearing his throat. "You gonna tell Queen?"

The nonexistent dichotomy was almost too hilarious for her at that moment, and she let out a strangled laugh.

"He'll freak. And I don't know if I can handle that."

"Kid's lost a lot of people in his life," Lance acknowledged. "But he's not too bad of a guy to have around. Just keep that in mind." She nodded. "You uh, have any family you want me to call? I know you're not from around here, but…"

She shook her head and pursed her lips but offered no other information as a nurse finally entered and set about getting an IV into her hand. When she was finished, Dr. Markowitz came in, followed closely by Dr. Monroe and an orderly in scrubs.

"Glad to see you're not alone in this," Dr. Monroe smiled. "Are you Miss Smoak's father?"

An awkward chuckle tittered out of both of them, laughably similar given the circumstances, but the detective was the first to speak.

"Friend, actually. Just a friend."

"Okay then." The doctor didn't look the least put out by this. "Well, unfortunately, this is the boring part for the friend. Marcus is going to take you down to anesthesiology where you're going to be put under, and that's when they'll do the lumbar puncture and the bone marrow biopsy. Both procedures should only take about an hour total, which is the good news. You'll wake up after about an hour, depending on how you react to the anesthesia, and then you'll need to stay here for at least another two to three hours for recovery. You haven't eaten since the last time we spoke, correct?"

Felicity cast a forlorn look at her stomach but shook her head. She was starving.

"What do ah, what do these tests do?" Detective Lance asked timidly. Felicity felt another stirring in her heart for the man sitting next to her. He didn't need to do any of this - he didn't need to talk to Oliver, or stay here with her, or even take an interest in her tests, but he was, and it meant more to her than she actually expected.

"They are both pretty much designed to tell us the same thing, which is if and where the cancer has spread. The lumbar puncture will let us know if anything is in the brain or spinal fluid, or the central nervous system at all, and the bone biopsy will let us know if any cancer cells are in the bone marrow. Both aren't considered really invasive, and both tests are routinely done as outpatient procedures."

Lance nodded, absorbing the information.

"If neither of you have any other questions, Marcus here is going to go get you a wheelchair, and we will see you on the other side, Felicity!"

Left alone for a brief period, Felicity rushed to say the one thing that had been on her mind since she had run into him.

"You don't need to stay, Detective. I mean, if you have other things to do, or shifts or whatever, you can feel free to-"

"Nah, I think I'll stay here for a while, if it's all the same to you." He propped his feet up on the other chair in the room and reached for a magazine. "Besides, you are way too smart to be reading this trash. Someone's gotta protect you."

She grinned as Marcus returned with a wheelchair, helping her get in and still maintain her dignity with a hospital gown on.

"Thank you for taking up the mantle."

He gave her a two finger salute. "The SCPD way. I'll see you when you get back, kid."

She woke up slowly, and more than a little confused.

She was on her stomach, which was not her preferred way to sleep, with one hand tucked underneath her and the other lying limp beside her face. She wiggled her fingers a little but immediately regretted it after feeling the IV tug lightly. The hospital. The procedures. Right.

She didn't have her glasses on but she could still make out the figure to her right, a man hunched over a magazine but with his hand over his eyes. She couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just mulling over the dumb magazine he had been reading.

"Detective?" She croaked out.

His hand instantly dropped away from his face and the magazine was discarded to the side.

"Welcome back, Miss Smoak."

She used her free hand to wipe her eyes, frustrated when they still remained blurry. He quickly offered her the glasses on the table beside her, even helping to slide them on over her ears.

"What time is it?"

"Little past six. You were out for a little longer than they thought you'd be, but they said something about it being better for you to not move anyways, so...I should tell them you're up though."

Her head still felt foggy so she didn't even argue with him when he stepped out of the room. She was genuinely surprised he was still there. He must've read every magazine in the room by this point.

He returned quickly with Dr. Monroe and a nurse who quickly set about getting her vitals.

"How did it go?" She wasn't even sure what she was asking but it seemed like a pretty good opening statement. Her tongue felt heavy and her mouth was dry and the world was still just a liiiiiittle fuzzy around the edges, but it was gradually becoming more and more in focus.

"It went well; no issues or problems came up. You reacted pretty strongly to the anesthesia but not adversely, so we will consider that a win at this point. You-"

"Can I move?" She knew only the rough details that they had told her about the procedures beforehand but she remembered seeing something that said you weren't supposed to move after a spinal tap or else you would die or something like that.

"You can move," she told her with a smile. "We ask that you remain lying for the next two hours until you are discharged, just to prevent a headache. Unfortunately, only on your front or back, not on your side, which may prove to be a little uncomfortable for the area of your bone marrow biopsy, which was done on the back of your left hip. So if you want to roll over, try to do so on your right side. We can get you an extra pillow to put underneath your hip if it's uncomfortable."

Felicity nodded, slowly shifting to her side. When a flare of white hot pain shot up her side, she couldn't stop the gasp of pain that escaped her mouth.

"Other right, other right, other right," she gasped out as she made to move the other way. She could tell that the pain was dulled by whatever medication was flowing through the IV, but that didn't make her look forward to the recovery at all.

Detective Lance stood as soon as she had gasped and helped her to roll over, holding her IV tubes away from her body to prevent them from getting tangled. He grabbed a pillow from the chair he had been resting his feet on and gently slid it underneath one side of her hips, and while she was dimly aware of a throb that pulsed beneath the surface of her hip, she had to admit that she felt better in this position.

Dr. Monroe gave her a litany of do's and don't's and things to keep track of during her recovery for the next few days, assuring her that it would just be sore but as long as she stuck to the rules, she would be be healed before she knew it.

Once the doctor took her leave, Felicity couldn't help but looking at Lance. His eyes were red-rimmed and her heart warred with emotions about that. She felt bad adding to his burden; the man had gone through enough in his life. But at the same time, she got the feeling that the detective liked spending time with her, and was actually glad to be there in some way. She was certainly happy that she wasn't doing this alone.

"It's all happening so fast," she murmured, drawing his attention. "Before I came in today, I thought...I thought I had mono. I thought I was going to be out of commission for a few weeks and that was bad enough. And now I have a hole in my hip and needles everywhere and I just...I want it to slow down."

"But fast is good in this case, yeah? I mean, I don't have any experience with this, but...from what they told me and I read, fast is for the best. They seem to have caught it in time and this means that your treatment can start sooner, even though that doesn't seem like a walk in the park…"

"You got all that from reading US Weekly?" She joked, before spying a pile of pamphlets on the small table next to him.

"Figured if you were gonna destroy 'em, somebody might as well read them."

Again, she was at a loss for words.

"Thank you."

"If you're going to be thanking me every time I read a paragraph on this business then I think we're both going to be frustrated as hell," he grumbled, but the tips of his ears did turn pink. "Listen, now that you're awake, can we watch some TV? I didn't want to turn it on when you were sleeping."

"You mean when I was under anesthesia and completely unaware of what was happening in the world?" A small but genuine smile tilted her lips up. "Yeah, I guess we can watch TV now."

They passed the next few hours watching criminal procedure shows with Detective Lance pointing out all the flaws and inconsistencies. It was surprisingly enjoyable to Felicity, who usually preferred nerdier sci-fi shows, but she figured it was more fun due to the company than the actual content.

At around 8 p.m., she was informed that she could go home. The doctors had all told her that she needed to take Tylenol fairly regularly for both the pain and to regulate the low-grade fever that she now knew was due to cancer and they armed her to the teeth with free samples when she doubted aloud if she had any at home. Detective Lance rolled his eyes halfway through her offer to call herself a cab and herded her out the door as quickly as possible.

"I assume you will be going to work tomorrow?" He asked as he walked her to her door. Her steps were still stilted and awkward, due more to the threat of pain than any actual discomfort she was currently in.

"Yup." She popped the 'p' at the end, not even willing to consider calling out yet again.

"I'll pick you up around 7:30-"

"That's really not necessary, Detective."

"You've got some other plan to get your car from the hospital that early in the morning?"

Well, crap. She had forgotten about that completely. Seeing the resignation on her face, he nodded resolutely.

"7:30 a.m., Miss Smoak. I'll see you then."

That night, she dreamed of arrows as syringes.

She felt better than she had expected the next morning. Her back was tender to the touch, but as long as she didn't sit down against anything too hard, it was manageable. She had been meaning to work on her posture lately anyways. Her hip was a little bit worse off, but again, nothing she couldn't handle. She just needed to remember to keep her steps short and light; if her gait became too long then her hip protested loudly.

Detective Lance greeted her bright and early at 7:30 with a cup of coffee waiting for her in the cup holder.

"Am I allowed to thank you for this?"

He let out an exaggerated sigh. "If you must."

He stopped her before she could get out of the car in the parking garage, her red mini waiting patiently for her. "Here," he thrust something in her hand.

It was the biggest bottle of Tylenol she had ever seen. Over 1,500 tablets inside. She looked at him to see if he was actually serious with it, but he was studiously avoiding her eyes.

"Keep this in your car, too." Next was a small black bag, fastened with velcro. Inside was a travel size bottle of Tylenol, a thermometer, and an ice pack that could be activated by crushing it. "Just in case, you know. Cops keep something like this on them at all times too. Just seemed like a good idea, what with all they were saying yesterday."

This man just kept surprising her. She bit her lip, nodding once.

"This is me not saying thank you for any of this. I'm not saying it really loudly."

"Get to work, kid."