A/N: So happy that everyone else is happy that Sara is back! And she is here to STAY, do not worry. Let's get this ball rollin' on the rest of this! Also , I don't anticipate any changes in my posting schedule, but I am leaving on Wednesday and heading to Atlanta to hang out with my sister for a few weeks, so I cannot promise anything. Sisters make us all a bit insane, AMIRITE? Just kidding, she is my best friend in the entire universe, but on the off chance that it does push me back a day or so, I apologize in advance. :)!

Enjoy this chapter and everything that is to come!

She had to admit that she felt a million times better after her nap and that feeling only intensified as Oliver held her hand and let her back down the stairs to the the lair underneath Verdant. In the past few months there had been a lot of changes down there, most notably, to Felicity, the way it smelled. The somewhat musty scent the air used to have was replaced with a more sterile, clean scent, due to the heavy antiseptics that the men used religiously to ensure a clean habitat for Felicity. She was surprised when she walked in that this new smell now registered with her; this new scent now signified her home just as much as the old did. Strange how something so small could make such a big impact on her.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Sara teased from her spot on the training mats, sparring with the very dummy that Oliver had battled after he discovered her diagnosis. Her words lacked any heat behind them and instead just reminded Felicity of earlier times, when Sara would often say that to her when she'd come to the lair right after work, still donned in her typical short dress and heels.

She wasn't up for wearing heels these days, unfortunately, but she was pleased to note that she didn't look absolutely horrendous. A pair of jeans that had seen better days clung to her hips and legs, probably because they were dug out from her college days when she was barely a size smaller, and she had opted for a soft emerald green v-neck longsleeve shirt. The lair had a tendency to get hot, especially with so many people down there, but she was prone to feeling chilled lately, so she had opted for more layers. She knew that more than likely she'd end the night swaddled in the super-soft chenille blanket that Oliver had bought for her to keep down there anyway. She had made an effort that night to put on a light coating of makeup and her wig was in its rightful place on her head and something about that night just felt right to Felicity. Like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

She sat down in front of her computers, switching on the monitors.

"I trust you and Dig didn't break anything when I was gone?"

"Hey, I could've broken something," Oliver chimed in.

"You used my computers?" She asked skeptically, well-aware of his aversion to technology.

"Well, no. But I could've."

"Mmhmm. Roy?"

"We didn't break anything. I don't think."

"Why does that not make me feel any better?"

"I didn't even tweet from there!"

"Much," Dig clarified for him. "What he meant was, he didn't tweet much."

Felicity gaped at Roy. "You know the rules! This is a cob-"

"Cobalt encrypted workstation, I know," he sighed.

"If you know, then why do you make me tell you so often?"

"Because I like the way your voice sounds when you get all grumpy," he cajoled with his trademark smile that melted Felicity's heart. He really was such a sweet kid and right when she was about to tell him so, she was interrupted.

"Go let Sara kick your ass," Oliver pushed Roy towards the training mats. Dig was waiting for him too, apparently looking forward to the spectacle of Roy eating the ground repeatedly. "So, I was thinking…"

"Yyyyyyes?" She watched as Oliver rested his arms on the top of her monitors. It was a true testament to how good he looked that she didn't yell at him for that right then and there. "Is there something you're working on? Anything you need from me right away?"

"Not really. But I thought maybe you wanted to go through the hospital footage." He held a USB port in between his fingers, dropping it into her opened palm. "It's all on there. There's hospital video surveillance plus all the emails from the editor of the news station and his contact with the pictures. If anyone is going to be able to find something, it's you. Dig mentioned some algorithms you had…"

"Yeah, some sifting and number recognition software that I've been working on. It's a bit rough, but…"

"It's better than we have right now, which is nothing."

"Oliver...you don't really think it was someone looking to get to me, do you? I mean, what are we really expecting me to find on here?"

He looked her in the eye, intent on remaining honest with her. "I have no idea. It could have just been an opportunity thing, where someone saw me in the hospital and took advantage of that, or it could also be someone following me around, waiting for the right time to leak this. I don't think it really is connected to you particularly, but your relationship with the Arrow and the police is becoming known in certain circles. I just don't want to leave any stone unturned when it comes to this." When it comes to you, he let hang unsaid in the air.

"Okay. Just let me know if you need something else, alright? I don't want this to take priority."

"You are always a priority, Felicity," he told her sincerely, before taking off his shirt and making his way to the salmon ladder.

"That is so not playing fair," she mumbled to herself.

She almost had a heart attack when he turned around and winked at her before picking up the bar and starting his workout.

Hot damn.

It took her hours to pare down the hospital video footage and enhance the quality into something that she could work with in facial recognition databases. It took even longer to decrypt the emails from the news station and make sure that they weren't traceable, and she took it a step further and decided to just hack the entire network's servers to make sure that no one else had anything noteworthy on their email either.

It wasn't until the next night, hours into her banking algorithms that were tracking significantly large deposits of cash into any accounts, linked or not, when she finally found the break she had been looking for.

Two hours after that and she had figured it all out. And she wasn't happy with what she found.

"No way," she breathed, her hand dropping the mouse and falling into her lap as she stared at the data on the monitors in front of her.

"You find something?"

It was late and Oliver and was putting away his quiver and bow, having just returned from a patrol with Roy and Sara. Diggle had ducked out a bit earlier, trying to get some quality time in with Lyla, since their schedules were so hectic lately.

"Yeah. I mean, no. Not really. It's nothing."

"You did or you didn't?" He stepped to her side, unzipping his signature green jacket and looking at her quizzically.

"What's going on?" Sara returned from the bathroom, now dressed in street clothes, including a flowered shirt that was very un-Sara. "Don't ask. I have a thing with my dad later."

"Felicity was just about to tell us what she found on the person who leaked her photos to the news." Roy and Dig had filled Sara in on the more dramatic events that occurred in her absence, and she was well versed in the mystery that surrounded Felicity's short-lived celebrity status in Starling. She nodded at Oliver and turned to hear Felicity.

"She was?" Roy bounced across the room, his red hoodie slung over his arm. He was dressed to go up to the club and help Thea out, but he definitely wanted to hear what Felicity had found.

"I-I just-" She floundered for a second, words escaping her. Three faces looked at her expectantly. She felt trapped. "Is it really important, knowing who did it? I mean, nothing else has happened since then and they didn't even tell anyone that I had cancer, so…"

"So?" Oliver didn't understand where her sudden reluctance was coming from. "That doesn't mean that they won't once they find out. This could put you in some serious danger. It could put us in some serious danger."

"But if it didn't? If it was just some sort of mistake then it wouldn't really matter, would it?"

"What did you find, Felicity? Tell me."

Roy's eyes darted between Oliver and her as he internally debated if this was something he had to stick around for. As curious as he was, he didn't savor the thought of Oliver lashing out again, especially since a lot of times it ended up coming down on him, and the man looked like he was getting frighteningly close to that point again.

She knew she had to tell him, tell everyone, what she found, but that didn't make it any easier. She quickly reminded herself that they were being honest with each other as of late, and she didn't want to risk the trust that came with that. It was better to just bite the bullet.

"It was Stephanie."

"...Who the hell is Stephanie?" Oliver racked his brain for a familiar name but was drawing a blank.

"Stephanie Cassidy."

His mind still remained empty of anything associated with that name. Suddenly, Roy started snapping his fingers, the name on the tip of his tongue.

"Cassidy, Cassidy - the kid from downstairs at the hospital! That's her mom, right?"

"Yeah," Felicity said quietly. "That's her mom."

"Get me her address," Oliver commanded, zipping his jacket back up.

"You can't - you can't go after her as the Arrow, Oliver!"

"The hell I can't. She took those pictures of you, she sold them, she put you in danger."

"Which is something the Arrow wouldn't care about!" She watched him pause and reached out to touch his arm gently. "The Arrow doesn't care about Felicity Smoak or Oliver Queen."

"Fine," he bit out, quickly unzipping and throwing the jacket on the table next to him. "I'll go as Oliver Queen then."

Felicity looked to Sara, who was more than a little confused at the turn of events.

"You can't!" She cried, effectively halting his progress as he crossed the room. "I think we should just let this go, okay?"

"No, not 'okay,' Felicity. Just last week you were ready to find this person and turn them in. What changed? Why are you suddenly giving up?"

"I'm not...I'm not giving up, I just think it's not that big of a deal. I mean, she knew I had cancer and didn't say anything. That counts for something, right?"

"Yeah, it counts as leverage the next time something happens to you, do you understand that? Who's to say she's not just biding her time, waiting for another fucking infection to set in and scare us half to death before leaking that bit of news too? I'm not going to just sit around and wait for that to happen!"

"Well, I'm asking you to." Her voice was low and strained; she could feel the tears threatening to fall at any moment.

"Why?" He finally asked. "Tell me why. Give me one good reason."

"It's...it's complicated."

"That's not a reason."

"Just don't do anything tonight," she pleaded with him. "Please."

He looked at the ceiling for a long time before responding.

"Fine. I have to go get some things at the Queen manor. I'll see you later at home. Sara will take you."

She appreciated the way he waited for her to nod in acknowledgment before storming away. At least that was progress. She rubbed her temples, trying to stave off the headache she knew was coming, like it always did after a tension-filled conversation with Oliver.

"You wanna tell me what that was about?" Sara finally asked.

She let out a weak laugh. Where the hell would she begin? She saw Roy glancing at his watch and she gave him a smile.

"Go find Thea."

"Are you sure? I could stay if you want."

"I'm sure. Go on, Sara and I will be fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

He gave her a quick hug and disappeared up the stairs, the heavy door closing with a loud click behind him.

"The mom, Stephanie, she- her daughter, Casey, is in the hospital with me at Starling General, in the pediatric oncology unit. She has cancer, too."

"Wow. Why do you think she took the pictures?"

"I don't know, but I can tell you why she sold them. This is her daughter's third time with this. The cancer just keeps coming back, never fully going into remission. She's only 13."

"So you think she just needed the money?"

Felicity shrugged. "She lives in the Glades. Far away too, probably on the outskirts at the edge of town. She's a single mom and I'm not even sure if she has a job right now; she's always at the hospital with her daughter. They're there a lot. I'm sure this money would make a big difference for them."

"Why don't you think Oliver would understand that?" Sara wondered. She had never seen her friend doubt him like this.

"I think Oliver has never had to resort to robbing or extorting people for money. That's usually what he stops. I don't think what she did was right, but I think she's just scared. I think she didn't know what else to do and she saw an opportunity and she...she took it."

"That's what you should explain to Oliver. I've seen the way he looks at you, Bug. He would do anything for you. Including robbery or extortion or...well, he's already committed murder for you, you know."

"Don't remind me," she muttered.

"He wants to protect you, to save you. Just like this woman wants to do for her daughter. So I think that's what you should explain to him. He'll understand it if you put it that way."

"And if he doesn't? If he wants to arrow her or get her kicked out of the hospital? I couldn't live with myself if that happened."

She smiled faintly. "Then he's not the man that we know. Then he's not the man that you love."

"I don't-"

"Don't even try that with me. The others may let you get away with that but that's just because they don't know any better. Nope, now that I'm back, things are going to be getting real, okay? Starting with you and Oliver."

"Oh, boy."

"Now, what do you say we get out of here?" Sara squinted at her, as if she was sizing her up. "Burgers?"

"I thought you had a thing with your dad?" Felicity asked even as she was standing up and turning off her monitors, grabbing her nearby jacket.

Sara slipped on her trademark leather coat as she spoke. "Not until later. Don't worry. I think he'd understand, anyways. You're like, his new favorite kid. Behind me, of course," she joked.

"Coming back from the dead trumps cancer every time, huh? Damn."

"What can I say? Life's a bitch."

She was feeling pretty tired but she didn't want to just go home and wait for Oliver to come back and rant at her, so she agreed to the idea of burgers. It was late though and her tastebuds were pretty much always on the fritz, so she knew that there was nothing at Big Belly that was going to appeal to her. Still, some quality time with Sara was going to be nice.

Or so she had thought.

"I thought I told you that I didn't want to talk about Oliver," she all but whined.

"I'm not talking about Oliver and this crazy photo lady, I'm talking about Oliver and the crazy cancer lady. That's you," Sara unnecessarily clarified.

"Thanks."

"I just thought maybe you'd want to talk about it since that seems to be the thing that you seem to actively avoid talking about."

"Oh, so you thought that the one thing I'm going out of my way to not talk about is the one thing that I'd really want to talk about?"

"Yeah, exactly."

Felicity laughed freely at that. "Oh, come on Sara, it's still just Oliver. He's been really great this entire time. I don't want to ruin that by overthinking it."

"If I know anything about that brain of yours, its that as soon as you tell yourself not to think about something, it is all you can think about."

She wasn't entirely in the wrong, but Felicity had spent the last few months steadfastly not thinking about Oliver or what it all meant between the two of them and she wasn't sure she was willing to risk all that just yet.

"Okay, fine, we don't have to talk about you and Oliver and the babies you two want to so desperately make together."

She could feel her eyes rolling in her head.

"Where's your mom?"

Wow, Felicity thought dourly. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"I haven't told her yet."

"Whoa," Sara grabbed a fry from the plate in between the two of them despite Felicity not making a move to touch them. "When are you going to do that?"

"I'm not sure. I was sort of focusing on telling one traumatic person at a time, and you were at the top of that list."

"Well, thank you very much. I guess you can't escape me since I live here now. But you're going to have to tell your mom sooner or later."

"Emphasis on the later."

Felicity was well aware that the time was quickly approaching when she would have to tell her mother about her illness. She had only got this far because everyone was willing to cut her some slack with the knowledge that Sara was coming back or she had that tiny life-threatening infection. She knew that it was only a matter of time until someone pressed the issue and she didn't have a better defense aside from 'it makes me sweat a lot when I think about it.'

"I think maybe sooner has passed and it is later, don't you think?"

She was actually surprised when she had to bite back the bitter response on her tongue - Sara hadn't been there in the 'sooner' phase. It was stupid and it wasn't her fault at all, but Felicity felt for a second that Sara had no right to say what she had. She knew she remained silent, but something must have crossed her face.

"It might not be my place to say anything though."

"No, I mean, you're right. I know I'm going to have to. It's just complicated."

"I'm sure."

"I need to...after I get through this next round of chemo. I only have a few days left before I have to check back in to the hospital," she explained. "It would take her a few days to get some time off and come see me, and I really don't want her first time seeing me to be in the hospital. So maybe….we'll see after this next round."

"Okay." And odds against odds, Sara dropped the subject entirely. Felicity had never known her to be that complacent, but perhaps she sensed her reticence to talk about it. "Is it bad?"

"Is what bad? The shake is good." Vanilla wasn't her favorite normally but it was all she could really stand to think about at the moment. It was okay, at best.

"Chemotherapy?"

Sara's voice had gotten small and she wasn't meeting Felicity's eyes, which spoke louder than the question itself. This prompted Felicity to take the time to actually think about the question. No one had ever asked her that, usually because they were privilege to front seat tickets to the horror that occurred within her body at every session. Thea had asked briefly what it was like, but she hadn't had to elaborate on much since the girl was sitting right next to describe it to someone who hadn't seen it or had to endure it...it was an unexpected challenge.

"Yeah," she finally settled on for an initial answer. "It's bad. I try not to - I don't like to think about it after it's over. But I get medicine and stuff to help me through it so sometimes I can sleep through the beginning, or I'm sort of so foggy that I don't remember it. But the rest of them have to see it and it's not pretty. I get super sick, I get like, mouth ulcers or whatever, which by the way, this vanilla shake is making feel so awesome right now, and I don't know - it's like the worst hangover you've ever had for the three days that follow the last bag. Sorry, I mean the last day. Sometimes I forget that you…"

"That I wasn't there in the beginning? It's okay. I feel like I should know this stuff, but I don't and it's just...you've kind of got this life set up without me, and I'm not sure where I fit in."

She wasn't sure if she had ever heard Sara speak so candidly, but the words did strike a chord with her.

"That's kind of my biggest fear."

"...That I don't fit in?"

"No, no," Felicity laughed.

"Good. I mean, I was going to say, very sweet, but maybe you should worry about other things."

"I just mean that I barely recognize my life anymore. And everyone else is making their lives so much about me right now it's just...what happens when this is all over? Not that it's really easy for me to think that far out - I kind of just live in the weeks between chemotherapy right now and don't let myself think too much ahead but...what if I can't fit in afterwards? What if everyone just starts back up their lives, no big deal, and I just...can't?"

"I think...do you want to know what I think?"

"Yes, yes, by all means, yes!" Shut in her own head for so long, she was desperate to hear what other people thought of this.

"I think that this is a huge chapter in your life. And looking at it like it's a detour isn't going to help when it's over. Think about it like...like when Ollie got back. Everyone just wanted him to step back into this role that was still carved out for him, but he couldn't. It's not that easy after you go through something that big, that life changing. Some people are going to want you to go back to the way things were and to pretend that nothing happened, like you weren't just fighting for your life for five- a year, or however long this will take." Felicity ignored her slip up and just nodded, encouraging her to keep speaking. "The people who matter, the people who are important to you, they'll be the ones that understand why you can't just go back. And they'll be the ones that help you find your new role, your new place."

She wasn't sure when it happened, but sure enough, Felicity looked down and saw her hand tightly grasping Sara's. This woman who had been through so much was still willing to be there for her, to help her through things, and that was just amazing to her. Just like with another incredible person in her life who had been through way too much, she was constantly awed with the depth of her compassion and love.

"Thank you," she told her sincerely.

"No problem." She shared a sweet smile before reluctantly pulling back, clapping her hands together. "Okay, so now can we talk about Oliver?"

A/N2: Up next - CHATTING. And duh, someone is gonna find out some stuff soon, y'all