A/N: A DAY (ALMOST TWO) LATE BUT HERE IT IS NONETHELESS. Vacation is going well, obviously :) I need to respond to a lot of reviews and messages (I haven't forgotten about you, Sam!) and thank all you wonderful people but I just probably won't have time this week. But do not think I will forget! I won't.

Now, for something I know many people have been waiting for...read on ahead!

She slept most of her third day, a Wednesday, away, with Oliver in the bed with her resting as well. She assumed he probably got up when she was sleeping because every now and then he'd be wearing different clothes or have a different magazine in his hand, and he definitely ate at some point, something she was too nervous to do, but she didn't care about that. What she cared about was every time she went to bed, he was there, a solid, heavy presence beside her, and whenever she woke up, he was with her too.

Thursday was more of the same, except her muscles and bones ached something fierce. It wasn't as bad as it had been after waking from the infection scare (while she was unconscious during that, the doctors had given her huge shots to stimulate her white blood cells to be made and she never wanted to re-live that pain ever again. Or those bruises.) she was still just miserable. Her friends trickled in and she found herself trying to encourage conversations between them whenever she could.

She felt crazy guilty for feeling so upset at them for talking and enjoying each other's company when she was going through chemo. She didn't know how to explain it and she was immensely grateful that no one actually called her out on it. No one except her own brain, which replayed her actions and words constantly. She had been a bitch, but no one seemed to hold it against her, which was great.

A lull fell in the late afternoon when she was still feeling ill at ease, but couldn't get to sleep. It was just Oliver and her, watching some mindless Netflix series that was a little too intense for her, but he seemed to be really interested in it, so she didn't have the heart to tell him to turn it off.

"So are you going to do it?"

"Kill people?" She said the first thing that came to mind, which was a sign that maybe she had watched too much of this show in the first place.

"Call your mom."

"Oh."

Sara had mentioned it briefly, saying that now was the time to do it if she was going to, but Oliver hadn't looked like he was paying attention. That was a flub on Felicity's part - he was always paying attention, and she should know that by now.

Her phone materialized in her hand, even though she never saw Oliver even look away from the TV. He was just that on top of everything.

"Will you stay?"

He gave her a sort of curious look.

"Of course I will."

He muted the television instantly and even got up to let Marcus know that they weren't to be disturbed until he told him it was okay, save for a medical emergency. He came back over to the bed and sat down on the side of it, nudging her to move over so he wasn't hanging off the side of the bed completely.

Somehow that simple action made her feel better. Oliver might have always been in his chair beside her, but sitting on the bed with her made it more...together. She truly felt like he was in her corner at that moment.

She flicked the phone to speaker, and hit the speed dial for her mother. And they listened to it ring.

She didn't mean to let out a huge sigh of relief when the machine picked up, it was just reflexive. As prepared as she was, she never wanted to tell her mom something like that. Unfortunately, it didn't last long because before it beeped for her to leave a brief message telling her to call her back, the harried voice of her mother picked up over her recorded message.

"I got it, I got it, I got it, hold on, I got it, hold - ah, there we go. I'm good. Hello?"

She didn't have to look to see Oliver's eyebrows raise towards his hairline. She knew that was inevitable.

"Hi mom."

"Felicity! Why are you calling? Is everything alright? You don't usually call - I mean, I can't remember the last time you called me instead of sending me one of those phone e-mails!"

"Texts, mom. I send you texts."

"Yeah, well, it's made up of text, so I think that word is confusing. Anyway, how are you, sweetheart?"

"I'm g-" Oliver nudged her hard before she could even get the word out. She looked up at him, confused, but he shook his head slightly. Right. Her default answer wouldn't really work in this situation. She was decidedly not good. "I'm okay right now, mom."

"Well, I'm glad. Are you still working for that sexy billionaire because darling, if you won't make a move, I wi-"

"I have something to tell you!" Even from hundreds of miles away, her mother could still make her blush. Just figures.

"Oh, are you with him now? Oliver Queen? Are you dating him?"

She let out a small moan at the turn this conversation had taken. It was reminiscent of her awkward conversation with Sara but somehow much, much worse. She didn't think she could handle the mental imagery of her mother and Oliver together. It was too much. Way, way too much.

"No, mom. I'm not. I just - this is really important, okay?"

"Sure, sweetie, whatever it is, you can tell me, you know that."

She most definitely did not know that, not if her entire childhood was any indication, but she knew she didn't have much of a choice.

"I was feeling a bit off a few months ago...just kind of sick and stuff, so I went to the doctor and after a lot of tests, they figured out what was wrong with me."

"Oh, and? It's not one of them nasty STDs, is it? Because my friend Sandy just got one and man, that sucker is with her 'til the end of time!"

"Mom, no, no, it's nothing - it's not that. It's cancer."

Oliver took her hand in his and held it just as tightly as she was grasping his. He hated hearing those words come out of her mouth almost as much as she hated saying them.

"Baby, did you just say cancer?"

"Yeah, I did, and I just - I've been getting some treatment which is good for me and everything is going fine but I didn't want to not tell you…" She had to stop before she started to cry. She needed to be strong for this, strong for her mother.

"Treatment? You mean like, like they give out on those medical drama shows? Chemotherapy and all that?"

"Yeah, mom. Chemo and all that."

A long pause drew out between them. Felicity looked up at Oliver and his kind, patient, understanding eyes. He wasn't judging her for not telling her mother sooner, he wasn't yelling at her for going about it a certain way, he was just...there. With her. He was present.

"So what do I - what do I do?" Her mom sounded how Felicity felt: completely lost, like you were floating in the middle of the ocean without a paddle.

"You can, if you want, maybe come visit me?"

"Oh, sweetheart, yes, yes, I do!" She heard her mom blow her nose loudly through the line and she almost smiled at that. Her mom never changed, despite any situation. "It's just, well, my hours were cut at the Palace and I've been working so hard, getting myself in a better place after Charlie…"

Ah yes, Charlie. The 'high-roller' from the casino Donna Smoak worked at, except he was better at getting high out back than he was at rolling. He had maxed out a lot of her mom's credit cards trying to gamble the money back, and in a move that surprised no one, ended up in jail for his efforts. Her mom was still trying to dig herself out of the financial pit that he had flung her in.

Oliver's knee collided with her's again and she looked up at him, confused. He rose his eyebrows at her, to which she scrunched up her face at him. For all the nonverbal communication they had excelled at in the last few months, she was having a hard time deciphering what she should do now. Was she supposed to reassure her mom that it was okay, that she didn't have to come out now? Or was she supposed to demand her presence? She had no idea what Oliver wanted her to do.

He clearly grew frustrated with her inability to understand what he was saying without saying anything, and finally he just cleared his throat, sending Felicity an apologetic look.

"Miss Smoak? This is Oliver Queen."

"Mr. Queen, hi, are you with - are you with my baby right now? Is she okay?"

"Yes, she is fine, she's doing well, but I wanted to offer you the use of the Queen private jet in order to make your visit to Felicity possible."

"The, uh, the what now?"

"Queen Consolidated has a private jet that we use for various business needs. It would be no trouble at all for it to pick you up in Las Vegas and have you here for say, next week? I understand that the weekends are your busiest time at the casino and I of course would never want to do anything to jeopardize your financial wellbeing."

Financial wellbeing? Felicity mouthed the words back at him, trying to decide whether she wanted to kiss him or slap him.

"Are you sure that's okay? I mean, I wouldn't want to be any trouble…"

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it," he repeated the phrase he said to Felicity so many times before. "QC also has a penthouse suite at a local hotel, I'll go ahead and put your name down for that."

He offered that before she could insist that she stay with them at the apartment, using all the knowledge about the lady that he had gleaned from Felicity to know that she wouldn't turn down accommodations such as that.

"I think that sounds just wonderful, Mr. Queen! Thank you so much! Felicity, baby, are you still there? Do you hear that? I'm coming to visit you!"

Felicity closed her eyes briefly, gathering her strength.

"Yeah, I heard, mom. It'll be great. We can talk about everything more when you get here."

"How about we count on the jet picking you up Monday morning and dropping you back off Friday morning? I'll have Felicity send you a 'phone e-mail' with all the details, if that sounds good to you."

Felicity couldn't help rolling her eyes at Oliver's charm - hard.

"That sounds so great! Yay! Felicity, sweetheart, I'll see you soon, ok?"

"Okay mom. I'll see you Monday. Love you."

"Love you too!"

Oliver disconnected the phone before another situation arose that he couldn't talk his way out of.

"You knew it was going to happen sooner or later," he reminded her before she could get a word out.

"You didn't have to offer her your private jet!"

"Think of it this way - this let's us control exactly how long she's here for, right? We'll get your counts done on Thursday, hopefully they'll be good enough for us to go out, and we can do a nice dinner out someplace fancy that your mother will enjoy, and then you still have your whole free week after that."

"I-I guess?" She looked at him, amazed. "Do you ever get tired of having the answer to everything?"

"No, not really."

A small laugh escaped her before she allowed her head to slump forward, her forehead resting against his shoulder.

"This is all so real now."

"What, it wasn't before?"

"I don't know," she looked up at him as she fought to find the words she needed. "It's just...this is it. I don't have anyone else to tell. My mom was it. And now...now all that's left is chemo and blood draws and counts and port flushes and biopsies...at least before I had this to distract me. What do I think about now?"

"You think about the future," he whispered to her, his hand running up and down her arm closest to him. "You think about beating this and moving on. You think about redoing the lair and building computers with Trey. Stuff like that."

"Stop being so perfect," she groaned.

"Never." He slid out from underneath her and guided her body into laying back down on the pillows. "You tired?"

"I guess that took it out of me," she nodded.

Oliver couldn't help but to pale at that.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just...that's kind of what you said after we told Walter. Before we had to bring you in here for sepsis."

"Well, I'm already in the hospital." She quailed under his stare. "Bad joke, I know, I'm sorry. I promise, I just feel tired and a little nauseous. Nothing different from before, unfortunately."

"Get some rest," he told her, pressing a light kiss to her forehead.

"Mmm, what are you gonna do?" She mumbled sleepily.

"I'm going to call and pray that the QC jet is in America, or it can be in the next three days."

"So you don't have everything all figured out…"

"Where's the fun in that?" He waited for her to open her eyes to give him her signature glare before tossing her a wink. She laughed before falling into an instant sleep.

Luck must've been on Oliver's side because the jet not only was in Starling City, but had no flight plans for the next two weeks at all. Oliver considered this luck, Felicity considered it the absolute opposite.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see her mother. She did, honestly, and she knew that she'd feel a certain level of comfort that had been lacking before at the mere sight of her. Just telling her that she cancer - even if she gave no other details whatsoever - lifted an unseen weight off of her shoulders. But that weight was replaced by the crushing realization that her mother was going to be in Starling City, and as the days passed, it only grew.

It was Sunday night and she was feeling good - a byproduct of the steroids she was on, she knew, because by Tuesday or Wednesday, she'd be sunk back in her normal lethargy patterns and taking naps every few hours or so - but even her good mood was sullied with the knowledge that her mother was coming. Here. To Starling City. To her apartment. To her life.

"Eat."

Oliver pushed the bowl of mushroom and asparagus risotto towards her. She hadn't developed any mouth sores with this last bout of chemo so she could eat stuff that wasn't so mushy, but for some reason Oliver was playing it safe with the meals, at least for now. He assured her that she'd be able to eat whatever she wanted to when her mother got into town, as if that somehow soothed the anxiety.

She picked up her plastic fork and stabbed it into the rice.

"12 hours. She'll be here in 12 hours."

"More like 15, but yes. She will be. Whether you eat or don't eat, so you might as well put that bite in your mouth."

She shoved it in and rolled her eyes at him. "Happy?" She asked with her mouth full.

"Ecstatic." He actually did look ecstatic though, beaming at her despite her poor manners.

"You know, you could look a little less happy that this is happening. Of course, it's easy for you - she's going to love you. She already does love you."

"I will never be happy that you are feeling stressed about something, but I think this will be good for you. You don't have to look so miserable about this. She's better than my mom, at least."

"If that is the standard that we are holding all mothers to, then I am concerned for the next generation of children."

"Touche."

"Promise me you won't leave me alone with her?"

He looked apprehensive. "She's going to want some alone time with you, Felicity. You're her daughter."

"I know - and we will! Just not in the beginning. Please?"

"I'll be here all day tomorrow, how's that? No promises on the rest of the days."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"She just wants to take care of you."

She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye as she stirred the risotto some more. It didn't taste as delicious as she remembered it from a few weeks ago when Oliver had first made it, and that only depressed her.

"I know, Oliver. I know she means well. Its just...hard. We didn't really have a typical mother-daughter relationship growing up. She never really...got me, I guess. She never understood my love of computers and science and school, and I never really understood the allure of trying to make myself all dolled up for people who didn't care about me. And don't say a thing about my current wardrobe." Oliver bit his tongue. "She's just a lot to handle, my mom. And I was finally feeling good about where we were - and I mean, not we, like you and I, although I kind of like where we are too, not like, physically, because we're not physical - or, well. Um. But you know, um, I was also thinking we as in everyone and me and my treatment, I was even including doctors in there too, but you know, we found a routine and Laurel is finally coming around and just...a lot. Lots of people. Lots of 'we.'"

"I know what you meant." Sort of, he silently amended. "Are you done with that?" He motioned to the bowl in front of her that was now more mush than rice.

"I'm sorry, it just - it just doesn't taste that good to me anymore. I really am sorry!"

"Fruit cup?"

"Sure," she nodded, more to appease him than her actual desire for the citrus.

"That reminds me - Thea was thinking of doing something for you on Wednesday night. Down at the club. Your mom could come too."

"But I won't have my counts done by then-"

"The club isn't open, there will be no one there except Team Arrow and Lance, maybe Laurel if she's really coming around like you say."

"Is that...safe? I mean, for me?"

"We're going to sterilize it as clean as humanly possible. It'd just be easier to do it down there than it would be to do it here. I would never do anything to endanger your immune system, you know that."

"I do know that. And, uh, do what exactly down there?"

"...It's a surprise."

"A surprise."

"Yeah. Thea came up with it after Sara said something and it - it's their way of doing something for you is all."

"Is it going to hurt?" She vaguely recalled a time in her life when Sara would 'surprise' her with a new self-defense move, and those surprises usually left her bruised and sore for a few days.

"No, it is not going to hurt. Eat your papaya."

"Bossy," she muttered, but speared the fruit anyway, chewing it slowly. She watched Oliver clean up the kitchen, methodically putting everything away, choosing to hand wash their dishes over using her small dishwasher. It was so domestic, so natural to see him there. She could hardly remember the time when she thought him just sitting on her couch was the craziest thing she'd seen.

When he was done, he grabbed her trash and plastic utensils, pitching them in the nearby trash can, before planting his hands on his hips and looking down at her.

"You don't look tired."

"I'm not."

"Steroids?"

"Yes."

"Anxious?"

"...Yes."

"Will playing video games take your mind off of things?"

She lit up at the prospect. "Yes!"

A/N2: MAMA SMOAK IS COMING. Next chapter delves into their relationship a lot and hopefully explains why Felicity made the conscious decision to keep her mother in the dark for a while. And there's plenty of Detective Lance in the next chapter, too, in case you were missing him (WHO WOULDN'T?) Lots of stuff coming! I'm excited for you to read!