A/N: Firstly - thank you all so much for your positive thoughts towards my aunt. Treatment for her leukemia - CML - has come a long way in recent years, which is excellent! Still awaiting staging results (she had a 'dry' bone aspiration - aka she didn't get put under, like Felicity does before every chemo - but it didn't get enough cells, so she's gonna get put under next week. I'll know more then!) but the best thing about this is that we have a huge family vacation planned for a few weeks from now, so everyone will be together. As much as I was dreading this vacation before ("no, grandma, I don't have a boyfriend or a husband or any children in my womb at this current moment") I am really grateful it'll give us all time to be together in light of the current circumstances.

AS FOR THE STORY - duh duh la laaaaaa - here comes Laurel. Yeah, she sucks in the beginning, but if she and/or Felicity doesn't make you smile by the end of the chapter, well...they should, ok?

I love all of you a lot!

"Laurel is going to drop by sometime this week and see me."

Felicity watched as Oliver's fork paused as it was almost to his mouth before he slowly lowered it back towards his salad.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"You don't seem too surprised." It was hard for her to get a read on his emotions at that moment; his face had a million different microexpressions flashing too fast for her to interpret.

"I was aware she wanted to see you, yes."

"You talked to her," she accused.

Oliver took a bite, this time choosing to chew slowly and deliberately.

"I'm not going to forget you talked to her just because it's taking you a decade to chew your lettuce."

He swallowed. "This is kale, and it is actually closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms of vegetables."

"Is this how you feel when I talk? Just tell me when you talked to her, Oliver."

"It was two days ago, when I went out to get some different soups for you to try."

"And you weren't going to tell me because...?"

"Because it wasn't important. She caught me at the cafe and we talked for maybe five minutes before I left. That's it."

"Well, it's important to me." She hated how small her voice sounded just then. "I thought we were doing better with the talking. We were doing more of it. And it was talkier. Lots of talking."

"Hey, we were - we are," he reassured, leaving his fork on his plate and taking her hand in his as they sat at the small table in her room. "I didn't mean to hide this from you or to keep it a secret. It really wasn't important to me. She wants to use you to get to her father and I'm not going to let that happen. Simple as that."

"Is it?" She questioned, searching his eyes. "There's nothing simple about this, Oliver. I know you think she wants to 'use me' or whatever, but it's more than that. You know that Lance hasn't talked to her since she yelled at him at the coffee shop? That was like, weeks ago! I may not like Laurel, but I like him, and he needs to talk to her. He needs her in his life. She just doesn't understand right now. And I can help that."

"And you think seeing you here, in the hospital, will help her understand?"

"I do. And I mean, I won't lie, there's a part of me that wants to see the look on her face when she realizes how ridiculous it is that me and her dad could ever be sleeping together."

He smiled at her, brushing his thumb along her knuckles one last time before resuming eating. She had to control herself to not fan her face. She felt like the room was way too hot, despite the goosebumps that had suddenly erupted on her skin. This damn man and his damn touch.

"Do you want me to be here with you?"

"I think that is an awful idea."

"Had to offer."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."

The next morning, Felicity wheeled her way down to the pediatric oncology ward, intent on seeing Trey. She wasn't disappointed, finding him in the small computer lab with one of the computers entirely taken apart, pieces and parts scattered around the room.

"I guess we can skip the 'organized chaos' lesson I had planned out in my head," she joked, taking in the scene before her.

"Hey, Homegirl! Look at you, up and about!"

"Can't hold me down for too long. What are you working on?"

"Oh, let me know what you think - I was thinking that if I just replaced this motherboard with a slightly modified one, using those tricks you showed me, I can get this computer running fast enough to stream some games online!"

"'Tricks' makes it sound like I'm teaching you magic, but that's not a bad idea. Maybe I can get you a refurbished graphics card, too, and that'll help with the frames-per-second. You're just going to want to divert a bit more energy using that wire to the fan to make sure it doesn't overheat. It's gonna have to work a bit harder to keep up with that processing speed."

"But you think it'll work?" He looked at her sincerely and she couldn't help the smile she gave him.

"I think not only will it work, but it's a great idea, Trey."

"Sweet!" He held his hand out for a high five, which she obliged him with. "Computer magic, baby, that's what it's all about."

"Just don't tell them who taught you this when you start streaming GTA V, okay? I do not want to be responsible for corrupting the minds of minors all from within a hospital."

"But outside of a hospital?"

"Eh, that's not too bad. I can get away with that. Speaking of, I feel like you're always in here. Don't you ever go home?"

He shrugged, intently rewiring the motherboard in front of him. "Sometimes. But most of the time I'm here. My immune system is pretty shot and my house in the Glades is a bit of a mess. Anytime I spend more than five minutes there, I get pretty sick anyway and land right back in this place."

That sounded fairly common with kids in the Glades; Felicity remember Stephanie, Casey's mom saying something similar. Not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that she had the friends and family that she did, and a home that she could stay in safely.

"That sucks," she murmured.

"Sure does. But hey, what about you? You've been in here for a while now too."

"Eh, doesn't seem like that long when I can't really remember the beginning part. I was mostly out of it when I was in ICU. But I did keep your transistor radio, I'll have you know. Oliver hates it, which means naturally, I love it."

"It gets mad channels now though! That thing is sick!"

"I know! Oliver's just mad that I can listen to NPR now for hours."

"So that's the roommate, huh? He looked like more than a roommate when I met him." He looked up and waggled his eyebrows at her, to which she rolled her eyes and elbowed the teen.

"You met grumpy Oliver, I think. He's not the best version. But yeah, that's the roommate."

"He looked pretty pissed about you being in there."

"He was more pissed about the photo leaking, I think. He doesn't take things like that lightly."

"You ever find out who took the photo? Your security dude was asking me like I was the one who took it! Like I would ever sell out the girl who is gonna get GTA up in this bitch," he laughed a little at the memory. "But seriously, you ever figure it out?"

"No, not yet."

"For real? I thought with all your NSA stuff and security that you'd be all over that."

Despite telling him multiple times that she didn't actually work for the NSA, Trey insisted that she did and that was the true reasoning for the security. Even now, when it was clear that it was because of Oliver's insane protective streak, he still wouldn't let it go.

"The NSA does not care about this, I promise you. But I'll figure it out sooner or later, once I get out of here."

"For real?"

"Yep. My laptop doesn't really have the processing power I need to go through footage and stuff like that, but I have another that will be able to find out, no problem. Just gotta get home first."

"You have like, a custom computer? Just for you?"

Well, she had actually been referring to the computers at the Foundry, but that was close enough. And she had built herself a pretty badass custom computer for her house, but she had sold that when it came time for egg harvesting. The Arrow computers were the only thing she had left now. She figured that was a bit too much information for the kid, so she she decided to just pretend like it was still her own PC she was talking about.

"Built it myself," she boasted a little.

"Whoa. That is seriously cool."

"You fix this thing up and I bet the next thing you do is build your own, too. It's not much harder than this, and it's waaaaaay more satisfying. Trust me."

"I don't know, Homegirl. If I can really get this thing to work, I'm gonna take apart all of these and fix 'em up real nice."

"Not a bad plan," she agreed. "Tell you what, you get out of here sometime soon and we can see about building a computer, the two of us."

"You serious?" He put down the computer parts in his hands and looked at her. His eyes were doing their trademark sparkle and she couldn't help but delight in the fact that she was a little bit responsible for the passion that was inside of this incredible young man.

"Dead serious. Not every day I find someone who wants to listen to me talk about this kind of stuff, after all. Gotta capitalize on it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Homegirl. You just wanna see what kind of flair I'll put in it. I get it, I get it. I'll let you see what's up my sleeve, just 'cause you've been so nice to me."

"How kind of you."

He didn't stop smiling for the next two hours they spent together.

Her afternoon had started with a cryptic text from Oliver, simply saying, "I'll be by after."

She had no idea what he was talking about - after what, exactly? She was due to get discharged the next day or so, god willing, and there hadn't been any complications that she knew of that would jeopardize that.

A few minutes later and Marcus, her favorite security guard, popped his head in.

"A Miss Laurel Lance is downstairs for you. Should I send her up?"

Oh. Of course Oliver knew that before she did.

"Miss Smoak?"

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Felicity?" She teased him gently.

Marcus was a huge guy, bigger than Dig or Oliver, but he was younger, too, probably around her age, always quick with a sweet smile and understanding nod. He was lighter skinned than Dig but just barely; if she was being objective and putting her feelings for Oliver to the side, she would say that he was a really attractive guy.

"Sorry, Miss Felicity," he exaggerated his apology.

"Miss Felicity? Ugh, that's almost as bad as Miss Smoak. Do you think you could help make sure I don't get tangled in these wires and help me to the table?"

She didn't usually ask anything of him, unsure of how comfortable he was with any of this, but she was happy to note that he agreed instantly.

He gently held her wires away from her chest as she slipped on a zip-up sweater, and diligently hung her saline bag to the portable pole attached to the wheelchair. (She drank tons of water during and after chemo but it was never enough for these doctors, apparently, and the saline bag came with her pretty much wherever she went until she was discharged.) When she was finally out of bed and sitting by the table, she smiled and thanked him, letting him know that she was now ready for Laurel.

Which, of course, might have been true physically, but emotionally she was anything but ready. She had debated a long time with how she should present herself to Laurel - should she stay in bed, looking every bit the invalid she didn't want to be? Should she have her wig on, or leave it off, making the first encounter as awkward as possible? She finally decided to be by the table near the gorgeous windows that overlooked Starling City, and the wig was firmly in place. It gave her strength and confidence, two things she knew she was going to need in order to get through this little meeting, and besides, this was her room. She wanted to dominate it in the way that she knew how, and she couldn't do that from a bed.

Once she figured out how she was going to position herself, the only thing left to determine was what she was going to say. Turned out that was a bit trickier than she had expected. A part of her was dreading this meeting for the obvious reason, which is that she didn't want to tell another person that she had cancer, and she definitely didn't want that person to be one that was so intertwined with everyone else in her life. Also, that person accused her of sleeping with a man that was old enough to be her father, so that didn't help matters either. But beyond that, she was dreading the impact that this might have on the rest of her life. Would Laurel and Oliver bond over this? Would Lance feel as if he could be completely honest with his biological daughter now, and spend more time with her, leaving Felicity alone in the dust?

They were ridiculous thoughts but also realistic ones, and they were wreaking havoc with her delicate emotional balance. She knew she needed to do this, but man, did it suck.

A sharp knock interrupted her musings and she mentally shrugged off her dark thoughts. She knew she was going to end up saying something that didn't make sense anyway, might as well get it over with.

"Felicity, Miss Lance is here to see you," Marcus told her with a wink. She couldn't help but to give him a genuine smile, murmuring her thanks.

"Whoa." Laurel took in the room, and Felicity remembered the same feeling she had when she first saw it. That felt like an eon ago. Now this room was more like home to her than she wanted it to be. "Nice digs."

What was she supposed to say to that? 'Thanks?' She had nothing to do with this room and they both knew it wasn't her that was paying for this room and it wasn't her who had even chosen to have this kind of set up. Instead, she settled for nodding silently, pursing her lips and praying for this be over.

"How are you doing?"

"Better." An honest answer if not a detail-laden one.

It was Laurel's turn to nod, unsure of what to say. Wanting to hurry this entire situation up, Felicity gave her an out.

"What are you doing here, Laurel?"

"You uh, probably know that my dad's not talking to me right now. Or Ollie, actually. And you're kind of the only thing they have in common, so…"

Oh, brother. This was going to be harder than she thought, especially if she hadn't given up any of her ridiculous notions about her relationships with either man.

"I don't tell them who they can and can't talk to. They're grownups, they can make their own decisions," she explained, not unkindly.

Laurel sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth but didn't comment on that, instead, choosing to try a different approach. "You wanted to say something to me the other week, at the coffee shop. My dad interrupted you and said it wasn't any of my business but...I'd really like to know what it was."

"Curiosity killed the cat," Felicity muttered, before her eyes widened as she realized that Laurel was standing only a few feet away from her and definitely heard what she said. "Not that you're a cat! Or that you're going to die. Because you probably won't. I mean, if anyone in this room is going to die, it'd be me, which is a little morbid, but I heard that gallows humor is kind of common in these types of situations which works out pretty well for me because everyone is always telling me that my sense of humor sucks so now I think it still sucks but at least it's kind of expected now and what...was the question…?"

"I thought you said you were better?" Laurel was looking at her curiously and it was enough to make her fidget in her chair. She had known that her little diatribe was inevitable, so she wasn't surprised with herself, just casually embarrassed, per usual.

"I am! For now. It's not really a…"

"Not really a what? What aren't you telling me, Felicity?"

Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with just how ridiculous her entire life was: this conversation, this disease, this insane urge to keep everything a secret when it was so completely obvious under the mask of her fake hair and makeup.

She let out a frustrated sigh before just going for it.

"This is stupid," she mumbled. And then she reached up and pulled her wig off. She had known that she was eventually going to take it off to show Laurel, since that seemed to be the only way to convince people these days that she was indeed sick, so she had foregone the wig cap she usually wore, and winced as the scratchy wig scraped her sensitive head. Her hair was still buzzed but it had thinned quite a lot, with a few patches looking more bald than she was comfortable with. "I'm sick, Laurel. I have cancer."

She wasn't sure why it was so easy to just blurt the words out right then, but she suspected it had something to do with the fact that she wasn't that worried with hurting Laurel's feelings at that moment. She just wanted her to see and realize so she could get back to her new-normal life, which didn't include spontaneous visits from Detective Lance's eldest daughter.

"Oh my god."

"That about sums it up." She looked down, idly playing with the silky strands of hair in her lap.

"And Oliver and my dad know…" She was talking to herself but Felicity felt like this was something she needed to work through on her own. Until her next sentence. "And that's why they're both dating you."

"Are you kidding me, Laurel? I'm not dating your father! I understand that this is hard to grasp because trust me, I am still struggling with it and I've had like, months, but you're going to have to get used to it. I am sick. I am not dating your father. He is my friend, and he has been nothing but amazing to me through all this."

"But I found your hair-"

"Oh my god! Chemotherapy! Have you ever seen an episode of Grey's Anatomy? Or Scrubs? Or okay, you kind of look like a Private Practice kind of girl, but it's hard to tell when you're glaring at me but seriously, I lost my hair because of chemotherapy. That's all."

"Why wouldn't he tell me?" Laurel sat down hard in the chair adjacent to Felicity, who looked towards the door. This would have been a really nice to be interrupted by just about anyone. The last thing she felt qualified to do was give Laurel advice on her family, and unfortunately, Laurel looked absolutely stunned. As if she really didn't understand what was happening. It was a feeling that Felicity could relate to.

"He wanted to, but he was respecting my wishes. I trust you not to say anything to anyone else, Laurel. I'm not really crazy about people knowing."

"So you two never…?"

"No! And that's weird! And gross! So stop suggesting it, you're making everyone feel really uncomfortable whenever you do."

"I really thought though…"

"I know what you really thought and let me reiterate: weird. And gross."

"And my dad has been...helping you?"

"He's a really great guy. He's been with me for all my doctors appointments and surgeries and he comes and brings me lunch every other day, not to mention coffee when I can have it."

"And when you said that you were 'better for now,' you meant...what? That you're not going to be better forever?"

She shrugged. This was the part that she wasn't really good with. Explaining to people that while she might be okay for now, it wasn't a guarantee. "I meant that I still have a long road ahead of me. 5 more rounds of chemo plus radiation. And even after that, no one knows if I'll be cured. It doesn't really work like that."

She knew that her chemotherapy was working, her last lumbar puncture and bone biopsy showed that no cancer cells had moved into her spinal fluid and he counts were down from 87% in her bone marrow to 34%, which was great, but there was still such a huge question mark hanging above her future. She had no idea which way the pendulum was going to swing, and her infection last week only drove home that point. 'Better' was such a subjective term at that current moment.

"I'm so so-"

"Don't apologize," she rushed to cut Laurel off. "At least, not for me having cancer. You didn't know and it's not your fault. But you should apologize to your dad. I know I'm not part of your family or whatever, but he was really hurt by what you said to him. He doesn't like not talking to you, but…"

"But I was a royal bitch. Got it."

"That's not what I was going to-"

"It's okay, I know, that was all me saying it. I was so sure and now...this is just a lot to take in, you know?"

"I have an idea, yes."

She had the good grace to look chagrined at that. "Sorry."

"For assuming that I didn't know what this was like or for accusing me of sleeping with your father?" She had been serious before when she told her that she didn't want an apology for her simply having cancer, but that didn't excuse the things she said to her at the coffee shop. Some of those words still stung.

"Both?" Laurel tousled her hair, causing a stab of jealousy to burn through Felicity. She had gorgeous hair. Real hair. "I'm sorry about a lot of things I said that day. About everything. You and my dad, your hair, you and Ollie."

"He's just a friend. He's helping to take care of me too during all of this. I'm not - I'm not his 'sloppy seconds,' or whatever you said."

"No, that would be me." Felicity stiffened in her chair, unsure of what to say to that revelation. "It's okay. Most girls in Starling City are at this point, and it's about time I get used to it. I just felt like...it was as if everywhere I turned, everyone in my life was flocking to you and I just assumed…"

"That I was amazing at sex, I get it." She actually clapped her hand in front of her mouth, willing the words to return back to their origin. "I have no idea why I said that. I am so sorry."

Laurel actually smiled at that. "You're funny."

The phrase sounded so familiar, so Sara-like, that it caused a pang of longing in Felicity. She missed her other Lance, but she knew that the time was coming near when she would return home, and she was under no illusion that their conversation would be as easy as this one. If this could be considered 'easy' in any sense of the word.

They sat together for a long while, both lost in their own minds and mulling over the implications of their brief, yet very deep, talk.

"I should go," Laurel eventually stood. "I have to go apologize to...everyone I have ever met, I think." She paused at the door. "I know you said it wasn't my fault but still. I'm sorry this happened to you, Felicity. You don't deserve it."

"I don't think anyone does," she responded, her mind drifting a few floors down to where Trey and Alex and Casey were still battling for their lives.

They shared another small smile and then once again, Felicity was alone with her thoughts. And exhausted beyond belief. As she crawled back into bed, she kept reminding herself that she thought that conversation was 'easy.' Easy, easy, easy.

A/N2: So there will probably a little tiny blurb on For Darker Days this week where Laurel runs into Oliver while he's buying soup, but I'm not gonna count that as one of my bi-weekly postings. Mostly because it's shorter than most, and also because I love posting real long stuff for y'all to read. ALSO - because guess who shows up next chapter?! kjfhsdjkghskglskdh