Arrow: Reckoning Part 2

Testament to Heroism

Nearly a week had passed since Slade made his presence known to the team and he had dissapeared as easily as he had appeared. The tension in the Foundry had been extremely thick with fear, everyone becoming a slave to their own thoughts of what Slade had in stored for them. The nightly patrols had come up empty, as did all of Felicity's attempts to track his movements. By all accounts Slade was a ghost with only one goal, to haunt them all.

Felicity rubbed her tired eyes, fighting every urge of her body that was begging her to sleep. Once again Oliver had forced her to leave the Foundry after she had spent her entire day searching for any clue that would help them find Slade. She had spent a few nights in the Foundry last week as she setup new search programs, Oliver never once leaving her side. After a few noticeably difficult days at the office however he did his best to keep her on a functioning schedule that wouldn't effect her during the day. Tonight however she had returned to her apartment and went straight back to work after Oliver had dropped her off and carefully searched her home for any dangers. Felicity sat on her couch with her laptop on her legs and her tablet sitting beside her. The extra cup of coffee she had made gave her the much needed boost of energy she needed to continue her task. After striking out at every other possible way of tracking Slade, she had decided to try a different approach. She thought back to all the knowledge Slade used against Oliver the last he was in town, and it lead her to attack the problem from a different angle. Up to this point Felicity had been trying to find Slade as one of his targets, now she decided to try as one of his assets. The man knew very intimate details about Oliver's life, even things Oliver didn't know for some time such as Thea's true parentage. Felicity had searched through dozens of possibilities that might have lead Slade to that information, but nothing was helping yet. She removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling the realness of what they were all facing weigh on her shoulders. One of the most dangerous men in the world was hunting the love of her life, her mind was unable to truely focus on any one task at the moment. The fear of losing Oliver again stung her heart, the pain she felt before after hearing of his death at the hands of Ra's Al Ghul was slowly creeping it's way back into her life. She pushed all the thoughts away and returned to her work, knowing the only way to keep Oliver alive was to find Slade and she was their best hope at doing so. She browsed through her previous searches and paused, thinking back to how she had discovered the truth about Thea's father being Malcolm Merlyn. Moira had kept it a secret and Felicity had discovered the truth by hacking into her past, perhaps Slade did the same and better yet maybe he left a trail for her to follow. Felicity went to work, furiously entering commands to both her laptop and tablet as she narrowed her approach and attacked the problem with every last ounce of energy she had left for the night. After hours of searching and tedious algorithms running over the files, Felicity hadn't found any evidence of Slade's possible hack into Moira's past. She did however discover a very interesting piece of information revolving around several specific and well hidden bank account transfers nearly twn years ago. Felicity dug deeper into the mysterious act, pulling up every bit of information surrounding the activity as she could. The transfers had been covered up almost immediately and they had been from the Queen's personal bank account. The amount of two million dollars had been deposited in two seperate transfers nearly a week apart from one another. Felicity checked the timestamp on the files, dating them on 9/13/2007 and 9/22/2007 nearly two months before the Queen's Gambit was lost at sea. She searched for the recipient of the transfers and broke through the dated firewall that was protecting the data, discovering the name.

Sandra Hawke

Felicity didn't recognize the name, she wondered if the woman had been paid off by Moira to keep quiet about a possible affair she might have had with Robert Queen. Her fingers moved to her tablet where she brought up a search program where she typed the woman's name and executed the program to sift through numerous organizations and collect as much information on her as possible. Felicity ran through dozens of scenarios in her mind as the program searched for the woman's background. The amount of secrets Moria had was exhausting, Felicity hoped she would never had to keep that much from her loved ones. The toll it took on the Queen family was painfully obvious, Felicity couldn't imagine having to do something like that to her own family especially if she had children of her own. The program finished as Felicity scanned through the woman's history, beginning with the dates revolving around those of the bank transfers. The data explained how Sandra had returned to Central City a few days before the second transfer, where she remained to this day. Felicity read through the files until she came to a hospital record nearly eight months following Sandra's return from Starling. The birth records of her son filled the screen as Felicity slowly pieced the puzzle together, cursing to herself for digging deeper into the woman's past. The dates all aligned perfectly, as did the locations and mysterious events surrounding the entire ordeal. Sandra Hawke hadn't had an affair with Robert Queen, she had one with Oliver. Felicity brought up a photo of the woman's son, her curiosity driving her at this point. The recent image of Connor Hawke appeared before her, bringing a gasp to her lips. The boy resembled Oliver almost too clearly, there was no hiding the boys true parentage. Felicity sat in shock, reeling from the startling discovery. Hundreds of thoughts flooded her mind, each combating the next. She searched for a proper course of action that wouldn't lead to disaster, but somehow managed to meet the same end with each one. The news would be life altering to Oliver and the team, and to their relationship for that matter. She didn't know what this woman meant to Oliver, perhaps she was a fling or possibly a long lost love. The thought of losing Oliver to another woman was painful, almost as bad as the night she had found Oliver and Sara in the Foundry after she had returned. She pushed all the thoughts aside and came to the realization that the man she loved had a son, a son that he had no knowledge of. Memories of growing up without a father quickly attacked her, bringing with them familiar tears and the agony of loneliness. She buried her head in her hands, fighting to stop the tears that were leaving her eyes. For the first time in as long as she could remember she felt completely helpless. Oliver wasn't rushing in to save her and her skillset wasn't going to assist her any more than it already had, she was truely and uterly helpless with this newfound knowledge.