A/N: So sorry for the delay with this; I have the head cold from hell and I have been in a NyQuil haze for the better part of the last week. I meant worst part. I'm still kind of drugged.

Hopefully you don't hate me for this chapter! It starts answering a lot of questions - and hopefully doesn't create too many more - and really sets the stage for some of the drama to come. Promise the next chapter will be this weekend, so you won't have to wait that long!

She had sworn that she would never take him there, but she really had no choice. She needed someone to drive her home after the procedure.

It was the following Saturday and Felicity nervously tugged at the sleeves of her hoodie. It was one she had pilfered from Oliver, dark gray and worn in all the right spots, giving her comfort that she hadn't really anticipated on. She had just liked it because it smelled like him.

"This is certainly a weird way to spend my Saturday," Lance told her quietly as they sat in the waiting room at Starling Fertility. "No idea how I'd explain this to Laurel if she caught me here."

As nervous as she was, Detective Lance's company was appreciated. He offered her levity and even though they would sometimes talk of the most dire things, he always ended the conversation with her smiling. That was how he knew it was okay to walk away from her, to leave her with her thoughts. If she wasn't smiling, he wouldn't leave. His own personal rule.

"The press would have a field day if Oliver were here."

"You tell him yet?" In the past week or so, he hadn't even bothered to hide his consternation with her remaining mum about her condition. He used to at least attempt subtlety when it came to her choices, but he was now foregoing subterfuge in favor of bold questions.

"No, I have not told Oliver." She sighed. This was a fairly typical conversation between the two of them.

"What is he gonna do when you just don't show up for work due to a major surgery?"

"I'll tell him before that! Besides, I have his entire schedule micromanaged for the next four weeks. He will be fine."

"Pah."

"What?"

"You think the man is going to be going to meetings while you're getting operated on?" She shrugged. She had assumed yes. "You are too smart to be that dumb."

"He can't just not do his job, Detective. He has to go to work."

"Have you met the kid? He pretty much does whatever the hell he pleases. Ten to nothing, he is camping out in the waiting room with me."

She ducked her face as a smile and blush spread. She didn't remember her dad. She had no memories of him tucking her in at night, or reading her stories, or helping her put together a computer. She didn't have any of those memories with Lance, either, but somehow the man next to her had become more of a father to her in the past month than her own had been in five years. She didn't bother to tell him not to meet her for coffee anymore, or even try to dissuade him from coming that day to the clinic, so she knew there was no way she was going to get him to not come to the hospital for her surgery.

It hadn't been scheduled yet, but she knew it was approaching quickly. She would have this procedure today, and then on Tuesday she was going to have a PET scan, to determine all the cancer hot spots in her body. Judging from that, they'd make plans for her surgery. The idea of it happening as early as the end of the week made Felicity lightheaded, so she tried to not think about it.

"And what about the other guy, our friend? When are you gonna tell him?"

"It's complicated."

"No, this thing where they're - when they're gonna be scooping out your insides and freezing them. That's complicated. You telling people in your life that you're seriously sick is the opposite of complicated. Simple."

"This procedure isn't actually all that complicated, you know. They explained it to me, and they're not even putting me under for it. Even though I've looked like I'm pregnant for the last few days, which is seriously unfortunate."

"Yeah, well, not sure they send you here if you're already pregnant, kid."

It was true, she was more than a little swollen, and even with the knowledge that it was temporary, just seeing her belly barely protrude was enough to convince Felicity that she was making the right decision. Her ovaries were over stimulated to try and produce the most amount of eggs possible in order to give them the best chance of being frozen, which logically made sense to Felicity. It didn't help her wardrobe selections though, and she knew she saw Dig's eyes on her abdomen more than once in the past 36 hours.

They waited patiently for her name to be called for another fifteen minutes, all while the detective gave her not-so-subtle jabs about not telling anyone about her 'condition.' He squeezed her hand as she stood to follow the nurse and she impulsively leaned down and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered, scurrying away before he could reprimand her. She didn't turn around to see the flush crawl up his cheeks, or the quick eye roll that accompanied his smile.

"I don't want to talk about it," she told him curtly as he helped her into his car an hour and a half later.

She was trying so hard to be strong, to pretend that it didn't hurt, that she wasn't in some of the worst imaginable pain she had ever experienced, that she didn't even stop to think that maybe it hurt him to see her like that.

While they had injected her with some pain relief, it did little to mask the fact that there was a huge needle inside of her, sucking out her eggs from their happy warm home inside of her ovaries. It was the worst pain she had felt down there in a long time, like every single UTI she had ever had combined. That, plus the fact that she was still just as swollen, if not more so, than she had been before, made Felicity more than a little cranky.

"You don't have to stay," she told him as she relaxed into the couch, biting her lip so hard that she was pretty sure she tasted blood. The cramps had begun and she felt a sweat break out along the top of her lip. She was in for a rough rest of the day.

"Yeah, sure." He laughed her off, filling a Nalgene water bottle for her at her fridge.

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

She was starting to get frustrated. She really wanted to be left alone so that she could just cry and be in pain by herself. She wanted to curl into a little ball and have no one judge her, least of all the man with two of Starling City's strongest daughters.

"Quentin, you don't have to be here." It was the first time she had ever used his first name, and it definitely caught his attention.

"Yes. I do." He put the water bottle on the coffee table in front of her. He had years of practice of knowing when a daughter wanted to fight with him, and he was happy to let her get it out of her system. He was surprised she had made it this long, actually, with no one else to talk to and only him, constantly hovering over her.

"I'm fine!" She snapped.

"You're not fine!" She had never heard him use this voice on her. She didn't have much experience but she knew that this was definitely a 'dad voice.' Loud, with his accent more pronounced, he paced in front of her, ranting. "You girls always think you're fine. Always think that you're untouchable because you're strong and smart. And you are. You are one of the strongest people I have ever known in my life Felicity, but that does not mean that you are fine. You are going through something no one should ever have to go through and you're doing it alone! So excuse me if I don't think you're fine."

"I can do this!" Her voice was loud but shaky. She was trying not to come undone.

"I know, sweetheart." He came over to her, sitting on the coffee table next to the water. "But you don't have to."

That was the tipping point.

She fumbled for his hand, holding it tightly as she felt three weeks of fears and frustrations and confusion overwhelm her. Of all the times she had cried before, and there had been plenty, she had never been comforted. She had never had someone hold on to her and tell her that it was okay to feel what she was feeling. She had no idea she needed this, no idea that her body craved it, until Detective Lance stood and scooted her over, gathered her in his arms, and let her cry out every single feeling she had ever felt.

"For you," Oliver dropped a coffee cup in front of her desk on Tuesday morning.

"Not that I am complaining at all, but what is this for?"

Oliver shrugged. "You don't get coffee with Lance on Tuesdays or Thursdays."

"Aaaand you wanted to try your hand at being an EA on me?"

"EAs do not necessarily get coffee," he pointed out.

"How right you are."

She was pleasantly surprised when Oliver didn't immediately go to his office, instead perching on the corner of her desk. Her surprise turned to suspicious, however, when he opened his mouth.

"Is everything okay with you lately?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You just seem - I don't know. You practically ran out of the lair on Sunday, I thought maybe you weren't feeling good again."

"Just tired is all," she reassured him. "I am sad I had to miss that pizza though."

"Celebratory pizza. All thanks to you."

"It's true; I'm not sure where this city would be if it wasn't for me sitting behind a computer." She was happy they were able to get Dr. Franz Lloyd off the street, and she was more than willing to accept any credit that Oliver gave her, even if it wasn't due. She had just figured out where the drugs were going; Team Arrow did all the hard, scary work. She had bowed out as early as possible because she was still experiencing some pretty bad cramps and the last thing she wanted to do was to be in pain around a group of vigilantes.

"I kind of, uh," Oliver cleared his throat, loosening his tie a bit, "I kind of miss you lately."

She slid her hand over his where it was propped on her desk, allowing herself the comfort of two fingers locking with his.

"I kind of miss you too." Making a split decision, she decided to take the plunge. "Maybe we can eat pizza together this week, if that's okay with you? Talk about some things?"

She felt her heart melt at the way his head cocked to the side briefly, his eyes searching hers as a small smile graced his face.

"Yeah, we can definitely do that. How about Thursday? Pizza at the lair? My treat."

"I balance your checkbook. Trust me, it will always be your treat."

And just like that, Felicity felt a weight lift off her shoulders. Sure, she hadn't told him yet, but she had made definite plans to. She just needed to get through the PET scan that afternoon and then Wednesday, and she would feel a lot better. She was under no illusions that telling Oliver would be easy; it was bound to be one of the hardest things she's ever had to do, but at least then he would be on her side when she told Dig and Roy. That was what she really needed. Another body in her corner.

Felicity was bored to tears. Even though she knew that the hospital never ran on any type of schedule, she was always disappointed when her tests were pushed back. Then there was the test itself. She hadn't realized PET scans were so boring too. The X-rays she had done plus the CAT scans that would be used in conjunction with this only took a few minutes. With this dumb test, she had an IV drip of a radioactive solution that took over an hour to reach all of her organs, when she couldn't even move with it in, and then the scan itself took another 45 minutes.

She had just finished having the scan and they wheeled her into the hallway. She was itching to get out of there, but bit back a growl of frustration when they told her it would still be a few minutes. They wanted to make sure the scan picked up everything so she wouldn't have to redo it. Seeing the wisdom in that, she pulled herself up and dangled her feet off the edge of the gurney. She hated the feel of the cold air against her back, but tried to tell herself that she had to get used to hospital gowns, and forced herself to remain sitting up.

She had expected this would take longer than the allotted time, but a quick glance at a clock on the wall told her that Oliver would be done with his meetings at QC and heading to the lair soon, and he would expect to see her there. What she hadn't expected as hearing someone call her name from down the hall.

"Felicity? Blondie?"

Her first thought was how bad she was going to kick Detective Lance's ass for telling Roy of all people she was here, but as he made his way down the hallway, she could tell that he was just as confused as she was.

"Hey Roy, what are you doing here?"

"Oliver had me bring back the medicine we found at the raid the other night," he told her quietly. "I'm just stopping by to make sure it's being used as its supposed to. What about you? What happened?"

"Nothing," she blurted out way too fast. She saw his brow furrow in confusion and decided to spin one last web of lies before she confessed to Oliver later that week. "I fell. At work. Outside of work, actually. Up the stairs. I'm fine. But someone saw me. And they gave me the option of either telling Oliver or coming here for an X-ray, just to be sure. I chose the less painful option."

"Damn, they made you change into this just for an X-ray? What was it, a full body one?"

"Hah hah."

"Okay, well, feel better." He leaned in, hugging her. "I'll see you tonight?"

"Yup, as soon as I get out of here. And uh, do me a favor and...don't tell Oliver you saw me? You don't wanna waste my X-ray, do you?"

"Secret's safe with me. Later, Blondie."

She let out a huge breath, which only serve to make her cough and almost hyperventilate. Still, she couldn't believe it had gotten that close. She had no idea what she would've done if Roy had spotted her talking to a doctor or a radiologist. She needed it to be Thursday night right then and there. She had to tell Oliver and get this secret off of her chest before it killed her. Literally.

After getting the all clear, Felicity raced to change and get over to the lair. She knew Oliver was going to have some questions about where she was, but she felt fairly confident that she could distract him with some new security protocols she was thinking about implementing.

When she typed in the passcode and opened the door to the basement, she was surprised to hear loud voices greeting her.

"I'm telling you, this thing doesn't lie!" Roy was getting dangerously close to shouting at Oliver (she assumed, anyways), and Felicity tried to hurry her steps down. She had already rushed across the parking lot, though, and she didn't want to be a panting mess when she interrupted them, so she was forced to take the stairs one at a time.

"It's broken then."

"It's not broken! It works perfectly fine. Or at least, it did. It's a one-time use sort of thing, so I'll have to get another one."

Felicity had gotten down the steps far enough that she could see Roy, Oliver, and Dig facing off in front of her desk, with Roy holding what looked to be an ID badge up to Oliver's face.

"What's going on?"

"Felicity," Oliver sighed, looking sincerely happy to see her. He turned to Roy. "See, it would've gone off. Assuming you didn't break that one, too."

"Not if she didn't get close enough to it, man."

"Whaaaat are you two talking about?" She was at the bottom of the stairs but still held on to the railing, steadying herself.

"Roy has lost his mind, apparently." Oliver threw his hands up in frustration.

"What is that?" She nodded to the badge in Roy's hands.

"It's a film badge dosimeter."

"...Does it have a microchip?"

"No, it doesn't work like that. It's a personal radiation detection device. And it went off in the hospital. After I hugged you."

She felt her heart drop. She was an idiot, she really was. For all her degrees and certificates and smarts, how could she have forgotten the one thing they had told her an hour or so earlier? She had very specific instructions from the radiologist: drink lots of water afterwards to flush the radiation from her system and avoid getting too close to anyone she knew that might be pregnant until the radiation was gone. The solution that they gave her in her IV was very strong, and there was a high chance of it seeping through her skin. They hadn't warned her of hugging anyone with personal radiation devices on them, but she figured that probably wasn't a FAQ.

"Felicity, you don't look surprised by this," Dig commented. Oliver spun around and Roy was just staring at her with a mixture of fear and curiosity on his face.

"Felicity, if you were exposed to high levels of radiation, we need to know!" Oliver looked more than a little concerned at this point.

"No, no, I wasn't, I promise!"

"Then how do you explain this?" Roy dangled the badge off his finger.

"Uh."

"Fe-lic-it-y."

"Oh, boy."

I wish you all could've seen the look on my doctor's face when asked if it was possible for a personal film badge dosimeter to go off after someone receives a lot of radioactive solution for a PET scan. He said it certainly was possible, but that he really didn't think it was healthy for a friend of mine to have a personal radiation detection device. I probably should have said it was for a story and not have posed it as a hypothetical. Poor Roy is officially unhealthy :(