A.N.: I can't promise that the next update will be just as quick, but the scene setting for the next stage in the story seemed to just rush on the paper.

Meanwhile in Starling

"I really don't see the problem," Isabel said, airily. She had been pulled away from her duties at Queen Consolidated to listen to Slade rant about some minor hiccup in minor operation in far off country, and it really was nowhere near her top priorities. Because – yes – the hiccup involved Thea Queen (Isabel had no interest in Laurel Lance), but it involved her being dead or captured. A cause for champagne. Isabel flipped an annoying curl of hair behind her shoulder and opened her smartphone to browse her e-mail.

"Well, that is very shortsighted of you," Slade growled and turned away to stare out of the window, because if he had to look at Isabel lazily lounging against the counter at which Laurel had sat that night for a second more, he might bash her face in. Violence was thrumming under his very skin fueled by…

"You could take out her eyes, that would show her, wouldn't it?"

Slade shook his head simultaneously wanting to hear more of that soft, malicious voice that only he could hear and to get rid of it entirely. "She's an ally, Shado," he whispered under his breath. "For now."

"Did you say something?" Isabel glanced up from her phone.

"I said that you should get our contacts in Chile in hand, we might have to purge the operation," he replied, staring out the window.

"You think Oliver will go after it? That he will find it?" Isabel asked, then shrugged, "You're right, he might. What – that woman and his little sister? If he finds out what exactly happened to them, he could be led to us sooner than expected."

Slade grimly stared out the window. Nothing has happened. Yet. He hoped. It was an odd feeling and it felt uncomfortable. He reasoned that it was because the control had slipped from his grasp. After all he had plans for both Laurel Lance and Thea Queen, and what was happening just wasn't part of it.

"Or we could use what has happened and just speed the whole plan up. I mean, that does save us the work of getting them killed," Isabel continued.

"She talks too much."

And this time Slade visibly startled, because that was an entirely different voice in his head. And an entirely different specter to his right. Shado was gone and now it was… No. He swallowed. No, you're not dead, you can't be dead, he thought, surprised by how pleading his own voice sounded in his head.

"Need I remind you that we do not have the necessary control in Queen Consolidated to move further with our plans due to your failures? Get me the contacts in Chile and try not to mess it up," his voice was deceptively calm, his gaze on a woman only he could see.

Like any potential prey, Isabel sensed threat in the air. Goosebumps rose on her skin. "Yes, of course. I'll get right on it," the heels of her shoes dictated a fast rhythm as she exited the penthouse. She was on the phone already as she was getting in the elevator.

"Pity, you let her walk."

Slade turned towards the voice. Her green eyes burned with violence; her lips were curled in a sneer that Slade had never seen on the living version. "No...," the sound came out so strangled, he swallowed any further words.

"We both know what you wanted to do to her."

The bloodthirsty grin looked so out of place in her face that Slade found himself suppressing a shiver. "You can't be here. You can't," he shook his head, fished his phone out of his pocket and called the operation manager in Chile. Again. Beep, long pause, beep.

"You can't be here," he repeated to the vision in front of him. Beep. Long pause. Beep. He stared at her, unable to look away.

The woman dropped her gaze from Slade to her hands. Her suddenly bloody hands, pressed to her stomach. Pain replaced violence in her eyes as she looked back at Slade. Beep.

Long pause.

The call ended without connecting. Slade was alone in the room. "Laurel," he breathed, alone in his penthouse and in his mind, his phone a useless lump of plastic and metal in his hand.

IKYWT

"Oliver, you should really think before doing this," Diggle said tired, repeated words, but still managed to convey some force with them.

"What is there to think? It's been nearly three weeks, enough is enough," Oliver said, anxious to move. It felt like the wind on the open airfield was pushing him towards the plane, approving his decision. "It's been one obstacle after another and I've listened to you, I've listened to Felicity, but none of you know Laurel like I do so you have to believe me when I say, I know what I'm doing."

"It's been three weeks of constant trouble – the kidnapping attempt of the Chief of Police, the attack on the alderman, the blackmail attempt on that judge, the bomb threat on that mall – it's been a mess," with all of that Diggle was saying what he had been saying to Oliver for weeks – you are needed here. The Arrow is needed here.

"It's Slade, I know it," Oliver also went through the motions in their argument. "When I go away – it will stop, he is doing this to gain my attention." Because he swore to make me suffer. Oliver was reasonably sure he was right on this, but to tell the truth – he was getting so anxious that he was willing to risk a medium sized disaster.

"There's Queen Consolidated..." Diggle took a new breath.

"And Felicity has already been tearing into me about that, and that is why," Oliver took a step closer, he would not be dissuaded again, he counted off each item on his fingers, "And that is why I did all the paperwork to have an official vacation so that Rochev can't follow again, why I'm taking a charter plane not a Queen Consolidated plane, why I jumped through endless hoops to do this exactly the right way that Felicity was going on and on about. Enough is enough!"

"That still leaves one thing," And Diggle was loath to take over Felicity's part in the argument, but she had made him promise to make one last attempt in her name, since she couldn't be here as she had to hold down the fort at Queen Consolidated.

"No, no…," Oliver shook his head, put his hand on Diggle's shoulder as if that would physically stop any argument that his bodyguard-turned-friend was about to make. "I get it you mean well. I get Felicity means well, and, honestly, I'm very touched if somewhat confused about how you guys seem to be sticking up for Laurel, but I can assure you, both of you, cause I'm sure you're listening in from that earpiece, Felicity, that I have only the best of intentions."

"It's not your intentions!" Felicity hissed and Diggle winced, because it was his earpiece, his eardrum.

Oliver grinned when he saw Diggle's expression, guessing that he had been right. "It's been nearly three weeks," he said it like it was forever. And to him it was. He could easily go weeks without speaking to Laurel, but he had to see her even if secretly, he had to know how she was doing, he had to… It just was different when the space between them was not his choice. He couldn't stand it. It made him yearn for her like he had on the island and in the years that followed. Chile was just too far. It had been just too long.

Time and constant busyness had made the circumstances of his parting with Laurel fade in his mind. He less remembered the tears and the anger and the pain, and more the fact that someone had been watching her. No doubt that it had been on Slade's orders.

He liked to think that he wasn't an idiot. He wasn't expecting a happy reconciliation. He was perfectly prepared for Laurel to be angry with him. For Thea to be angry with him when he'll show up. He was fine with their anger. It was not the first time. And surely wouldn't be last, not with the way he was leading his life, but he just had to see them.

Diggle sighed. Oliver was an unmovable object once he picked a stance.

Oliver grinned, sensing victory. "I'll be back before you know it. The city will be fine," he almost wanted to bounce on his toes, energy coursed through him. I'll have to tell Laurel that she wasn't disbarred. The Arrow had used a bit of the goodwill gathered in the last few weeks to grease those wheels and Oliver Queen had done the rest.

The stewardess motioned that the plane was ready for takeoff. Oliver rushed to board – he didn't want to wait a spare minute. The small charter was taking off straight from the private airfield. There was a smile on his face that had been missing for years.

These weeks – they had been busy and tortuous, but the time had also helped him put things in order in his own mind. He had been reactive, in pain and he had pushed when he shouldn't have, and of course, all the things Diggle had told him way back when Laurel had gone missing for the night – all of that was true and Oliver just wanted a chance – just a chance to tell her all those things that had somehow gotten lost between the lines. He even toyed with the idea of telling her who he really was, but… Let's not go crazy.

As the plane lifted from the runway, Oliver felt like he could breathe for the first time in a long time.

As the plane lifted from the runway, Diggle couldn't help but feel that this was just the beginning of things.

As she saw the plane appear flight tracking app on her screen, Felicity couldn't help but say, "This is such a mistake."

"Will you now tell me what this has been all about?" Diggle spoke up barely a second later, still tracking the plane with his eyes.

Felicity startled; she had forgotten that the communication channel was open. "Well, obviously, it's about Starling, and…"

"Don't bullshit me," Diggle replied. "I know you and I know as much as you care for the city, there is something else. You've been set against Oliver on this since the start."

She opened her mouth for another excuse, but then sighed, shoulders sagged and she leaned against her desk, "Is there any chance you'll believe me if I say it's because I'm madly in love with Oliver myself?"

Diggle laughed. "No."

She bit her lip. She had thought as much. "I don't think it's my place to tell."

"Then whose is it?" Diggle lost his amusement. "You've been like a dog with a bone on this, I can't help but worry that…"

"Laureltriedtokillherself," Felicity pushed it out in one breath. Before she could change her mind. Or lose courage. Or think too much on it. Because – it wasn't her place to reveal it, but Diggle was right – she had been acting suspicious all these weeks, and they really couldn't afford mistrust in the team, but most of all… This thing that she knew was just crushing her. She dreamt of Cooper nearly every night these weeks.

"What?" said Diggle.

"What?!"

And Felicity startled because that second exclamation came from right behind her. From Sara.