Chapter Six: Frustrated Fears

"How did it go?" Diggle asked, as Oliver entered the hideout hours later.

"It was a trap," the billionaire sighed. "I should have known it would be. Felicity traced the arrow to that warehouse way too easily."

"So you're at a dead end?" John asked. Oliver nodded.

"Which means the ball is in his court. There's nothing I can do now until this other archer makes his next move."

"Given what he's done so far, his next move is probably going to be to frame you for another murder," Diggle frowned. "There has to be something we can do to prevent that."

"Believe me, I'm open to suggestions," the vigilante replied. He glanced down at his phone. "In the meantime, I think I owe someone an update."

Quentin started to reach for his regular cell phone before realizing that it was his new phone that was vibrating. Oh… he hadn't been expecting another call, not when the Hood had already gotten what he wanted from him.

"What is it now?" he answered the phone.

"Hello to you, too, Detective. I thought I'd keep you informed of my progress."

Come again? It's not like he held any authority over the vigilante, who thought he was above the law.

"Did you make any?" Quentin said aloud.

"I traced the black arrow to a warehouse."

"Where is it? Give me the address," the cop demanded.

"It was a trap. If there was any evidence to find before, it's gone now. Our copycat blew the place up."

"That means—you were almost killed today, weren't you?" Quentin asked. His heart did not lurch at that. It was indigestion; he really needed to cut down on all those greasy foods.

"That's part of my job description," the Hood answered him.

"Job," Lance snorted. "No, see, a job is something that you're hired to do. What you've done is anointed yourself as the fucking Lone Ranger."

"You're not worried about me, are you, Detective?"

"Don't be ridiculous! By the way, you have until the end of the week to find this son of a bitch. After that, I'll content myself with hauling your ass off to jail," with that, he ended the call and put the phone down on his desk.

Him worried about the Hood, what an absurd notion. Why, because this other archer had tried to kill him? Maybe he'd come close to succeeding. Okay, that just meant that when they did catch this guy, they could add an attempted murder charge to the growing list, that's all.

He blinked down at the two halves of a pencil in his hands, wondering how he'd snapped it without knowing he'd even picked it up.

Alright, so he didn't want the Hood dead. Big deal; he still wanted to bring the Hood to justice. Arresting criminals was part of his job description.

"I don't know why I let you talk me into these things," the Cape grumbled as he skulked through the corridors of Queen Consolidated that evening. "I'm supposed to be going for a second interview at the Starling Police Department tomorrow. I can't keep pretending to be anti-vigilante by day and go around in a cape and tights at night!"

"If you want to stop wearing the cape when this is over, that's up to you Vince," Orwell's voice came over his earpiece. "But first I need you to find out what Queen's after."

"This just better not end the same way as the night I broke in to go through your father's computer," Vince muttered. Being poisoned and falling from a penthouse window in quick succession was not an experience he wanted to repeat, ever.

"Turn left," Jamie instructed him, ignoring his complaints.

"There's something I don't understand. You couldn't find anything on their computers when you hacked in earlier. Why would I find something you missed?"

"You can't be too thorough. The I.T. Department should be straight ahead."

"Uh, Orwell, we've got a problem."

"What's that?"

"There's someone in there," the Cape whispered, after sneaking a peek inside. Curse computer nerds and the strange hours they kept; everyone should have gone home for the night.

"Then knock them out! Geez, Vince, we're talking about a computer nerd, how much of a threat could he be?"

"She," Vince corrected. He didn't exactly have a strict no-fighting women policy.* He just doubted that the petite blonde he'd glimpsed was engaged in anything nefarious. Just seeing him would probably give the poor thing a heart attack.

Felicity must have sensed she wasn't alone because she got up from her desk and started making her way cautiously towards the door.

"Is someone there?" the blonde called out, trying to keep the nervousness from her voice. No reason to be paranoid just because all of her co-workers had left a while ago and the place seemed a little desolate at night. It was probably Oliver. Or who knew? It could be Mr. Steele; perhaps he'd already been found and wanted to let her know he was okay. Yeah, right.

"I'm out of here," Vince muttered to his old partner.

"The hell you are! Get your ass in there and find out what she knows!"

"Knows? Like she would even know that her boss is the Hood!" the Cape exclaimed just as the door opened to reveal a very confused tech support person.

Outwardly, at least, Felicity regained her composure pretty quickly.

"That actually would explain why he asked me about custom-made arrows earlier…and the bullet holes in that laptop…and why I had to analyze the components of what had to be Vertigo," she shook her head, as if to clear it. "You wouldn't be the guy that was hacking into our computers by any chance, would you?"

"Oh for god's sake…"

The computer screen behind them flickered, before the all-seeing eye came on.

"No," Orwell's modulated voice came through the speakers, "that would be me."

"You're Orwell," Felicity approached the computer, recognizing the symbol from the infamous blog. Orwell's technology skills were legendary. No wonder he'd gotten into their system. "I don't understand. Since when are you working for ARK? I thought you and ARK were enemies."

"Who said anything about working for ARK?" The voice modulation didn't translate uneasiness, but it was clear the blogger had been caught off guard.

"I traced your IP address back to ARK's offices. It wasn't that hard to do," Felicity started to cross her arms, then remembered that the person she was speaking to couldn't see her…could he? God, there was a creepy thought.

"Maybe it's time we laid our cards on the table," the Cape suggested, startling the blonde, who had almost forgotten the intruder was there.

The computer screen flickered. Jamie's voice came through Vince's earpiece once more.

"You CAN'T be planning on telling her who we are. Oliver Queen didn't even trust her enough to tell her his secret and it looks like he's been using her for his missions!"

"She already traced you back to ARK," Vince replied. "How much longer before she makes the leap from that to-?"

"Wait, wait a second!" Felicity threw a hand up. "You are not trying to say that Orwell is a Fleming. That makes zero sense." Peter Fleming wouldn't have sabotaged his own reputation. That left his daughter, but no, that couldn't be. Surely no one could hate their own father that much?

"We're wasting time!" the distorted voice echoed through the room once more. "What does your boss want with Peter Fleming?"

"Oh my god, you are his daughter, aren't you?" Felicity asked. The timing fit. Orwell's blog had gone silent suspiciously close to the time that Fleming's daughter had come to Starling City. "You're Jamie Fleming."

There was a lengthy pause during which the I.T. girl began to wonder if the blogger had logged off. Then the eye vanished to be replaced with a video chat, revealing a pale brunette in a red dress, legs crossed at the knee. The heir to ARK Corporation crossed her arms, brown eyes looking balefully at the screen.

"Alright, I'll rephrase. What does your boss want with my father?"

"I don't know," Felicity swallowed, looking between the ice-cold woman's visage and the masked (and probably very strong) man standing very close to her. "That's the truth. Until now I had no idea he was even the Hood! …Holy shit, I've been helping a murderer. Oh crap. Does that make me an accessory? Can you be an accessory without knowing the person you're helping is a killer?" she started to babble. "I don't think I'd look good in orange, or whatever color it is the uniforms are—" She jumped as she felt a hand land on her shoulder.

"Take it easy," the Cape rasped, before releasing her. Concluding that his continued presence was not going to keep her from being hysterical, he turned to go.

"WAIT!" Felicity called after him. He turned and stopped, looking at her. "You're the Cape, right? I mean, if your partner there was Orwell, and you're wearing that then you'd have to be the Cape—I'm babbling again, sorry. Just, you're not like O—the Hood. You're actually a hero. I think I need your help. My boss—not Mr. Queen—Walter Steele, he's gone missing. He may have been kidnapped. I thought at first it had something to do with our being hacked, but if that was your friend behind that, then she wouldn't have had anything to do with kidnapping Walter." ARK Corporation might have painted Orwell as a cyber-terrorist in the press, but Felicity didn't buy that. "Can you find him?"

"I'll try," he assured her in the same rasp, before swirling his cloak and disappearing before she could say 'thank you.'

Felicity heard the sound of a throat being cleared behind her.

"And I'll see what I can do, but in exchange I want your help in finding out why Queen's targeting my father. What time did Steele disappear?"

"What are you brooding about?" Laurel Lance asked Tommy as she drove him to work in the morning.

"I was just thinking," he started. He knew Oliver had told him that he was over Laurel, but Tommy wasn't feeling very reassured. It would help if he had proof that his friend had truly moved on. "We should find a girl for Oliver."

"Are you serious?" Laurel asked.

"Think about it—the guy hasn't been in a stable relationship since…before he was shipwrecked."

"Think part of that might be because he's bad at relationships? Honestly, I'm more worried about my dad. I don't think he's seen anyone since the divorce."

"But Oliver was the one that went five whole years without sex," Tommy countered.

"We're assuming, and of course that would be the end of the world," Laurel chuckled. "But if anyone needs someone to play matchmaker, it would be Dad."

"Too bad they don't swing the other way. We could've handled two birds with one stone," Tommy joked as they pulled to a stop in front of Verdant.

Laurel doubled-over laughing at the thought.

"Mom, are you alright?" Oliver asked, sitting down beside his mother on the living room couch. He couldn't remember her having been this distraught before, though, to be fair, he hadn't been around when she'd been told the fate of the Queen's Gambit.

"I'm just worried about Walter," she admitted, wishing she could remain strong.

Oliver frowned. He'd been so distracted by this mysterious Dark Archer that he hadn't even tried to find Walter yet. Not that he would know where to begin…

…But Felicity thought Walter's disappearance might be linked to the Flemings. Maybe it was a long shot, but he owed it to his stepfather to investigate the possibility. Even if Peter Fleming had nothing to do with this kidnapping, they were overdue for a chat.

* He had had to deal with Dice. Although, come to think of it, he'd allowed Jamie to be the one to take the psychotic savant down…

Author's Note: I'm baaack. Sorry for the delay, but you know how it is, especially when you're writing other fics, and working, and never sit down and plan out fics. This is now the only WIP that I have, for a change.

Thanks to DixonVixen93 (formerly known as Orwell), IronAmerica, amber. flores .549, and JacquieSabatier for reviewing! And thank you again to those who have added this story to your list of alerts and/or favorites!

Thoughts on the new chapter? As I told amber. flores .549, I don't currently have any plans for bringing in the Carnival of Crime. I don't have anything against the gang, honest (except for Ruvi, who needs to shut up before Vince has to teach him a lesson), it's just that I'm trying to work with enough elements at the moment without trying to figure out how to fit them in, too.

I know it's been so long that the new season has started. And now Summer Glau is on the show, except her character is more like Fleming Junior instead of Orwell. Eh, just as well. I wouldn't be predisposed to like any character that would dare to challenge Quiver. (Well, maybe I'll make exceptions for Laurel and Felicity.)

The new character is not going to pop up in this fic, though there is a ready made explanation for the doppelganger courtesy of IronAmerica. You can ask IA or yours truly if you like. All I'll say is: "Deveraux's genes."

Chapter title is from Pink's "Just Like a Pill."