Chapter Seven: Never Want to See You Unhappy

"Mrs. Faraday?" Laurel caught Dana Faraday banging her head against the wall near the elevator of CNRI.

"I'm sorry, I just. I can't believe how stupid I sounded during that interview," Dana said when she had finally stopped hitting her head. The disaster of an interview had ended minutes before. "I should have given you more details when answering those questions about your hypothetical—in fact, I could probably give them to you now." Why had her mind gone blank when it had counted?

"Oh, that's really not necessary," Laurel said. "And the interview wasn't that bad."

"Are you kidding me? I couldn't even tell you the name of the head of CNRI, god. Don't pretend that you're considering me for the job," Dana looked the other attorney in the eyes.

"Okay, it was a pretty crappy interview," Laurel conceded. "But you said you were happy at the Palm City Public Defenders!"

"Yes, I am, but my boyfriend is moving to Starling and, hang on," Dana checked her phone. She'd just received a text message from Vince. "Shit and my ex-husband just got hired by the Starling City Police Department! We have joint custody of our son," Dana added.

"Oh…oh," Laurel frowned as she realized the older woman's predicament. "Look, I'm sure you're a great attorney and you just froze up earlier, but I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

~SC~

"I think this is what got Mr. Steele kidnapped," Felicity announced as she handed a slim brown-covered volume to the brunette. The blonde had gone to Jamie Fleming's office in search of assistance.

"What makes you say that?" Jamie asked, as she began inspecting the journal, noting the symbol on the cover that she couldn't quite place before opening it up.

"He came to me for help in deciphering it—turned out the writer had used invisible ink." They had since held the pages to a heat source so they wouldn't need to wear special goggles each time they wanted to read it.* "Walter warned me that getting involved might be dangerous; he didn't say why, but within a couple of days, he gets kidnapped. There's no way that's a coincidence."

"Probably not," Orwell conceded. "So we have a list of names that…wait a second. Where did you say Steele found this?"

"I don't know…somewhere in the Queen Mansion, maybe? Why?"

The blogger flipped back to the page that had caught her eye. There at the bottom was the name Peter Fleming.

She hadn't found any insight into the Hood's vendetta against her father on Queen Consolidated's computers because the data she was looking for was never entered into a computer. It was here, right in front of her.

"Because," she said aloud, "I think this list is property of the Hood."

"No," Felicity shook her head, following the other's train of thought. "No, something's wrong."

"Felicity—"

"No, listen to me! I know Oliver's been keeping secrets from me. I know you told me that he's a killer, but you have to trust me when I tell you that he would never do anything to hurt his stepfather. There has to be some mistake!"

"If that's the case, then there's no harm in asking Mr. Queen," Orwell folded her arms.

~BB~

"Ladies, not that it isn't lovely to see you, but I came here to see Peter Fleming," Oliver Queen said, as he took a seat opposite the two women at the conference room table. "What's going on? Felicity, why are you here?"

For once, Felicity's words had dried up. She glared down at the table, as if it had done her a personal wrong.

"My father will be here later," Jamie put in.

"Felicity, what's wrong?" Oliver demanded.

"Don't talk to her," the blogger snapped, knowing he was only aggravating her newfound friend.

"Excuse me—she works for my company," Queen retorted.

"It's hardly your company. You don't work there," Jamie pointed out. "Besides, she won't be working for Queen Consolidated anymore. ARK made her an offer this morning. Looks like you're down one I.T. specialist," she jutted her chin out.

"Is that true?" Oliver asked Felicity.

"Yes," she cleared her throat. "I mean, I haven't accepted yet, but I'm tempted."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" the vigilante demanded, getting irritated. "Have I offended you in some way? Is there a lawsuit I don't know about? You got a process server hidden around here waiting to hand me a summons and complaint?"

"Sorry I'm late," Peter Fleming chose that moment to enter the conference room. "Have I missed anything?"

"Only ARK poaching one of my employees; what's going on?" Ollie repeated.

"Why didn't you tell me you were the Hood?" Felicity countered.

Oliver closed his eyes for a moment. Of course; Fleming had told Felicity his secret. He should have figured that out for himself. Maybe he would have, except he didn't see why Fleming had chosen her, of all people, to expose his charade to.

"Really, Fleming, wouldn't you have done more damage to me by going to the police?" he looked at the engineer. Hell, if the man's game was to do damage to his personal life, there were still better targets. He could have gone to his mother or his sister or his best friend or his… well, he didn't actually have a girlfriend at the moment… But, "why single out Ms. Smoak?"

"I'm not responsible for her finding out. I've never met her before," Peter narrowed his eyes, examining his daughter. Evidently the Hood's secret identity was no revelation to her. How had she learned Queen's secret when he hadn't said a word to her?

Don't ask, Peter, warned the voice in his head.

"Does it matter how I found out?" Felicity asked. "I think you may have lost perspective at some point. You kill people!" she exclaimed. "You extort and you terrorize and the police are hunting you down. Your stepfather has gone missing and you don't even care. Maybe you did kidnap him."

"What? I would never harm Walter!" Oliver was indignant; he didn't know where that accusation had come from.

Felicity nodded, believing him on that count.

"So that's where you draw the line. Those other things, the murder and the mayhem, that's all okay." She stood up. "I can't be here for this." She turned to Jamie. "If you find out anything about Mr. Steele, please let me know," she said before heading towards the door.

Queen rose to follow her. They needed to hash this out, preferably without an audience.

"Not so fast, Queen," Jamie called out. "I believe you and I have business to discuss." Oliver ignored her, chasing after the bespectacled blonde.

"How did you know Queen was the Hood?" Peter asked his daughter when they were alone.

"A little bird told me," she replied.

"You've been speaking with the Cape?" he asked.

"…Apparently he thought I should know that someone tried to kill you the other night. By the way, were you planning on saying anything to me about that?" she demanded, letting anger seep into her voice.

"He was unsuccessful and I'm quite alright. There didn't seem to be any point in worrying you," Peter replied. He wanted to ask her how long she had known the Cape, but Chess called to him.

Leave it be, Peter. We all have secrets.

~GA~

"Felicity!" Oliver caught up to her at the elevator. "Felicity, wait!"

"Do you know I spent last night trying to get pictures of you in leather out of my head? …That didn't come out right," Felicity blushed, jamming her finger against the down button. Hurry up. Her feelings of betrayal weren't helped any by clashing with her attraction to the billionaire.

Luckily for her, Oliver had become adept at selective hearing.

"Felicity, I can explain."

"I hope you can. I really do. But I can't deal with this just now." The elevator doors opened and she stepped in. "They're waiting for you in there. If you want to prove that not everything you told me was a lie, maybe you should help them find Mr. Steele."

~GA~

"Felicity was here because she wanted my help in locating your stepfather," Jamie began as Oliver reluctantly resumed his seat. "I arranged this little get-together after I saw this," she produced the list.

"Where did you get that?" Oliver asked, his eyes widening. It couldn't be. He'd left the list underneath Verdant, he was sure of it.

"Felicity brought it over; told me that this is what got Walter into trouble. She didn't want to believe me when I said that it had to be yours. This is your list of targets, isn't it?" the young woman asked.

"Wait a minute," Peter spoke up before Oliver could start denying it. "Let me see that," he held his hand out for the book. Jamie handed it over. "I've seen this before."

"What?" Oliver asked.

"Where did you see it?" Jamie inquired.

Oh, sure, go ahead, Chess whispered in Peter's mind. By all means, tell them how you were planning a murder. Peter shook his head.

"I can't." He looked at his daughter. He couldn't let her know what a monster he was. "Get a message to our mutual friend. Tell him I need to see him tonight."

"Dad," Jamie bit her lip. She couldn't tell her father she knew he was Chess, at least, not in front of Queen. "You know you can tell me anything." They could just tell the archer to leave.

"I'm sorry, Jamie. I'll tell him what I know this evening. That's the best I can do," he placed the book on the table before leaving.

"Your dad doesn't trust you much, does he?" Oliver remarked.

"The last time I found out something about my dad that I didn't like, I stopped speaking to him for eight years," she replied, her tone flat. "Dad's a lot of things, but paranoid isn't one of them."

~BB~

"Welcome to the S.C.P.D., Sergeant Faraday," Quentin congratulated Vince.

"Thank you, Detective Lance," Vince beamed. This job was going to be perfect for him. And now he wouldn't have to worry about Dana relocating Trip to Starling City because he'd be moving, too.

"You're going to be with me, on the task force investigating the Hood," Quentin continued.

"Uh, great," Vince said, his smile somewhat dimmer. His job was now to hunt down the Hood, whom he knew was Oliver Queen. That was probably the sort of information he was expected to share with the other cop…

~GA~

Oliver barged into the yet-to-be-opened nightclub, his body wound up. He had gotten nothing out of his meeting at ARK Corporation other than knowledge that a certain I.T. specialist wasn't talking to him and that the Flemings had come into possession of an exact duplicate of the list, which had apparently passed through Walter's hands at one point. Peter Fleming was refusing to shed any light on the situation, despite obviously knowing something.

This day was just not going well. He started to head towards the door that would lead him downstairs, when he found Tommy blocking his path. Oliver blinked. He'd forgotten that Tommy put in a lot of hours of work here.

"Hey, Tommy," he greeted his best friend.

"Hey, Oliver; you alright?" he asked, noticing the other man seemed troubled.

"I… Ask me later. Can I help you with something?"

"I have someone that I would like you to meet," Tommy replied.

"What?"

"You remember Ben, from high school? His sister, Maria, just moved back to Starling—"

"Wait, Tommy, are you trying to set me up on a blind date?"

"Guilty as charged," Tommy shrugged, his smile showing that he didn't feel the least bit guilty. "It's all set, all you have to do is pick her up on Saturday night—"

"Tommy," Oliver sighed. "I appreciate the gesture, but I don't think this is a good idea. My life is kind of hectic right now."

"Ollie," Tommy shook his head. "Your life is always going to be busy and somewhat stressful. You don't put off dating because of that. You carve out time for it, so that you have a nice, healthy balanced life. Otherwise one day you'll snap and go on a homicidal killing spree."

"I think 'homicidal killing spree' is redundant," Oliver snorted. He supposed he should try to find time for dating. For that matter, he should make more time for his friends. "Alright, I'm still not convinced that blind dates are the way to go, but since you already put in the effort…"

"That's the spirit!" Tommy grinned.

*Don't remember if they actually did in the show, but let's assume it, ok?

Author's Note: I would like to thank IronAmerica for reviewing!

Re: the anonymous Guest's complaint, after being assured you were critiquing the use of "blonde" to refer to males, I went back and changed the term to "blond" when referring to Mr. Queen. If you're going to continue to leave criticism, may I ask that in future you clarify why you believe something needs to be changed, rather than just giving me the impression that my fic has left your eye twitching?

Thanks also to those who have added the story to your list of alerts and/or favorites!

Chapter title is from A Fine Frenzy's "Almost Lover." (If anyone's worried, this fic is still going to be Quiver. I'm merely acknowledging that one-sided Olicity is canon.)

Can someone with season 1 on DVD do me a favor? Please check the scene where Quentin is demoted and let me know if the phone was confiscated from him. Thanks!