Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow.

Okay, notes on this universe.

Obviously in this, Felicity was on the island instead of Oliver, whom she was married to at the time, with infant son William (who is her and Oliver's child in this. They met when she was at MIT and he at Harvard-college Number 4, started dating and had a shotgun marriage. Oliver started to grow up/stop being an ass after meeting her.)

Oliver is engaged to Laurel now, but things are difficult with her, especially after Felicity's return. I don't like Laurel, and that will probably come across in my writing. Tommy (who is doing a medical residency in this S1-got the idea from the Dominators' alternate reality) isn't with anyone at the moment, but I was thinking maybe McKenna? Haven't decided yet.

William was seven months when the Gambit went down. Sara was Felicity's BFF and had gone with her.

Donna died when Felicity was young (because I believed for ages that Felicity was an orphan, maybe in foster care, and just never managed to reconcile myself to the backstory they ended up giving her, even though I liked Donna well enough.)

Felicity's vigilante outfit in this is like the one she wears in the LoT episode Doomworld. She wears a long purple coat, a purple half-mask, a black wig and knee-high boots. She also has a scar on her face from her glasses breaking in the wreck. While she will kill if she considers it necessary, it's not her first resort if she can incapacitate instead (I'm trying to keep her close to Canon!Felicity, while still making her harder due to the island). Also, she doesn't follow the List as religiously as Oliver, as while she and Robert were close, I can't see any version of Felicity being able to ignore 'ordinary' criminals when she could stop them, just because she didn't think they were the 'source' of the problem.

Canon!Oliver had 25% of his body covered in scars, but because Felicity is smaller than him physically, more of her is scarred.

So, I think that's all. I hope you guys like this.

Read, enjoy and review!

Chapter One

Pilot

Felicity could hear the doctor whispering to her mother-in-law (was Moira still her mother-in-law? She was legally dead, after all.), giving the older woman a rundown of Felicity's injuries.

"Approximately 65% of her body is covered in scar tissue," the doctor stated. "She has second-degree burns on her back and arms. X-rays show at least 12 fractures that never properly healed, possibly more. She's suffering from malnourishment and various nutrient deficiencies, and probably has some sleep deprivation as well. She refused to speak with a counsellor."

Of course, Felicity had refused to speak with the counsellor they had offered her. She didn't trust them anymore, not after ARGUS, and she was still technically a part of the Queen family. She wouldn't put it past whomever they sent to sell anything she said to the press, even if she only said the bare minimum.

"Has she said anything about what happened?" Moira asked, voice unsteady.

"No, she's hardly said anything, save to ask about her son, ask for a pair of glasses, and answering questions as shortly as possible," Doctor Lamb replied. "In that order."

"I see," Moira sighed. A moment later, Felicity turned at the sound of the door opening.

Felicity felt her lower lip tremble as she stared at Moira. Originally, the Queen matriarch had been polite but cool towards her, fearing that Felicity would turn out to be yet another gold-digger seeking to gain access to the family fortune through Oliver. But as it became clear that was not the truth, and that she and Oliver weren't just a fling, Moira and Robert had both opened their hearts and homes to the young woman whom everyone credited with making Oliver grow up (even if Felicity had always genuinely believed that was wrong, and something would've kicked him into gear sooner or later). By the time of the wreck, Moira and Robert had become the parents that Felicity barely remembered having.

"Oh, Felicity," Moira breathed, her eyes welling with tears as she covered her mouth with her hand delicately.

Felicity sniffed, trying to keep from weeping herself. "I'm sorry, I just, I didn't know who to call," she stammered. "The only numbers I could remember were the mansion's and Oliver's old cell. And William-"

"Don't apologize, Felicity. You're family, and you always will be. I am so happy to see you." Moira interrupted. "William is away at the moment, unfortunately. Oliver had to go to Coast City for the week, and took William with him for a short vacation. But they're already on the way back."

"I'm so happy to see you too," Felicity admitted, the news that her son would soon be in her arms again making her lose the battle against her tears and falling into Moira's embrace, hugging her tightly.

It was Thea who greeted them. She was beaming broadly from ear-to-ear, grey-blue eyes shining with delight. Oliver wasn't surprised that she was so happy. She had worshipped the ground Felicity walked on, and Felicity in turn had doted on the younger girl, always happy to play games, tutor or shop with her. Naming Thea as godmother to William had been Felicity's idea. Thea had been as devastated by Felicity's death as by their dad's, demanding lessons in computer programming to honour her memory, telling Will everything she could about his mother, tending her grave faithfully. She had always insisted they were still alive.

Thea had been furious when Oliver had agreed to go on a date with Laurel, and enraged about them moving in together and getting engaged. She made it clear that Laurel was nothing but a (bad) substitute for Felicity, and that the brunette lawyer would never be able to replace the dyed-blonde IT specialist. She was probably one of the happiest people alive now that Felicity was back. For himself, it hadn't really sunk in yet for Oliver. He half-thought he must be dreaming.

"Hi Ollie!" Thea sang, flinging her arms around his neck in a hug, ignoring Laurel entirely. "Can you believe it? I knew she was still alive, I knew it!"

"Where," Oliver faltered and cleared his throat. "Where is she?"

"Upstairs, getting changed after having a long bubble bath," Thea replied. She looked down at William, who was hopping from foot-to-foot in excitement.

"Hey there, Kiddo!" she squealed, holding out her hand for a high-five. "Excited to meet Mommy?"

"Yeahyeahyeah!" Will cheered. "I knew she'd come back! I asked Santa, an' the tooth fairy, an' it was my birthday wish!"

"Clever boy," Thea ruffled his hair. "All of that must have done the trick. Your mom is so excited to see you, the first thing she did was ask where you were."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh," Thea confirmed as they entered the foyer.

At Oliver's side, Laurel was tense and silent, gripping his arm tightly. Truthfully, he barely registered her presence. His thoughts were full of Felicity.

His wife, the love of his life. To think that she had been alive all this time, struggling to survive on a deserted island, broke his heart into pieces. God, she must have been so frightened, so cold and hungry. They'd spent millions searching for evidence of survivors, finding nothing. The closest had been when the alert on Felicity's private email had gone off in 2010, sending Oliver and Tommy on a mission to Hong Kong. After the kidnapping had shattered his hopes of finding her alive, Oliver had resigned himself to accepting that she was lost. He'd called off the searches, and tried to move on with Laurel. If he hadn't given up, could he have found her earlier?

"How is she?" he forced out, throat dry.

Thea's beam faded a fraction and she gained a more serious demeanour. "She's-," Thea hesitated. "She's got a lot of scars. I heard Mom tell Walter that, like, 65% of her body was scar tissue. There's one on her face, and she's malnourished."

Oliver flinched, feeling sick. He rubbed a hand down the side of his face. "Does she know about-?"

"Yeah," Thea confirmed. She sent Laurel a cold look. "She got her hands on a laptop while at the embassy in China, and looked up the family. She saw the announcement."

Oliver winced again. That wasn't how he'd have wanted her to find out.

Moira appeared, smiling at him softly with his stepfather on her heels. "Darlings," she greeted them, kissing his and Will's cheeks and giving Laurel a polite greeting. Moira had liked Laurel, up until meeting Felicity. And while Moira had been gently urging him to move on over the past few years, he knew she was less than impressed with the way Laurel acted on occasion. Oliver didn't like some of her actions either, such as acting as if she were William's mother. It was something they had argued over several times.

Felicity was William's mom, whether she was alive or not. Nobody would ever be able to take her place, and Laurel shouldn't try.

"Felicity will be staying here for a while," Moira informed them, while William babbled excitedly to an indulgent Walter about his mother's miraculous return. "She doesn't have anybody else, and she is still family, regardless of the circumstances."

Laurel at last began to speak, but just then William let out a cry, and they all turned to follow his wide-eyed gaze. Felicity had gotten three-thirds of the way down the staircase without anyone noticing her arrival, she was so silent.

The sight of his long-lost wife hit Oliver like a punch to the solar plexus.

Her blonde hair, the golden locks she had cared for so intently with a hundred strokes twice a day ("a woman's hair is her crown in glory, Oliver!" she would exclaim whenever he teased her about it, often throwing her hairbrush at him jokingly.) was her natural brunette once again, still damp from her bath and hanging to her hips with a bunch of knots that she had tried and failed to remove. No doubt Thea had already organized a hair appointment for her.

She wasn't wearing any make-up, so everyone could see the dark circles beneath her eyes. Oliver had seen sticks with more weight on them than her, and her physique, once that of a young woman who spent her days in front of a computer screen and who's idea of working out consisted of thirty minutes of yoga per week, was now pure muscle, with callouses on her former-soft hands. She wore some of her old clothes (Oliver had had all of her stuff boxed up, and put in the attic, unable to bear throwing anything out. It seemed that at least her clothes had been retrieved). But the pink blouse and denim jeans didn't seem to suit her anymore, and not just because of the way they hung off her thin frame, a belt on the tightest notch to keep the jeans from falling off.

There was a vicious but old scar curving around her left eye, splitting her eyebrow in half and apparently barely-missing her eye.

She was the most beautiful sight that Oliver had ever seen.

"Felicity," he breathed her name like it was a prayer for salvation.

She didn't look at him. Her gaze was fixed on William, the same reverent look she'd had when he was first born in her eyes.

"Mommy?" Will asked tentatively, stepping closer to the stairs as she reached the bottom. Felicity knelt down, smiling softly and tenderly at him.

It seemed as if nobody dared to speak a word, as if they feared to break the spell over the two.

"William," she answered gently, carefully reaching out to brush a lock of hair out of his forehead. "Hello, sweetheart. I love you, so much. I'm so sorry that I was gone for so long, Baby."

"But you're staying now, right?" Will half-checked, half-demanded. "I don't want you to go anywhere else, ever again! I want you to stay with me!"

"I will," she agreed promptly. "I am never gonna leave you willingly, Baby. Not ever again."

William beamed broadly and flung himself at her chest. Oliver took a step forward, worried that the force would knock Felicity over, but he was both surprised and relieved when she deftly kept her balance. She pulled their son close to her chest and buried her face in his dark hair, stroking his back. Her body trembled faintly, and Oliver realized with a sharp pang that she was crying.

There was a flash in the background, and Oliver looked to see that Thea, who was also crying slightly, had snapped a photo of Felicity and William's first embrace in five years. His own eyes felt damp, and even Moira was sniffing slightly.

The only person who wasn't overcome by emotions at the scene was Laurel. When Oliver looked at his fiancée, he saw her tight jaw, and felt his stomach twist.

One look at Felicity had told him that he was still head-over-heels for her. But he loved Laurel too, he had promised to marry her.

What the hell was he gonna do?

Felicity woke silently, the way she had gotten used to waking up on the island. From the ache she felt, she had been tasered and probably had a mild concussion. There were four men in masks surrounding her, and she was tied to a chair. Most importantly, William and Thea were in the warehouse as well, also tied up. Unlike her, they had yet to regain consciousness.

Fury began to build in her chest, and she began subtly fidgeting with her bonds. The idiots had clearly way underestimated her, because they hadn't even frisked her. She still had her switchblade, hidden beneath her long sleeves.

"Did Robert Queen survive that accident?"

Felicity ignored the question, more focused on trying to see if Thea and William were breathing and getting out of the ties.

"I asked you a question, Miss Smoak! I expect an answer!" The head masked man, armed with a stun gun, snarled at her in an attempt at being menacing voice, but Felicity could spy the anxiety in the men's body language. These guys were amateurs, hired by somebody else.

In most cases, she'd probably have let them go, but they had hurt and kidnapped Will and Thea. No way would she let them live after that.

Her lack of an answer earned her a shock from the stun gun, and she hissed, more in surprise than anything else. Pain and her had had a little chit-chat several years back, and now Felicity was well-able to ignore far worse than a few stings from a low-powered taser. This was nothing compared to some of the stuff she had gone through.

"Did he make it to the island?" the leader demanded. "Did he tell you anything?"

Felicity refused to answer, and it earned her another shock. This one lasted longer, but Felicity had withstood worse torture than their meagre attempts, and she stayed silent, not even grunting.

The man stepped back and huffed in contempt at her.

It gave her the room she needed, so she looked him in the eye and replied at last. "Yes. He did."

All three of the men went silent. "What did he tell you?"

She exhaled, preparing herself. "He told me that I'm going to kill you."

There was a long moment of silent before they broke into chuckles, genuinely amused by her claim.

Years ago she would have been insulted, but now she was grateful for society's ingrained misogyny. Often, it was her most useful weapon. She waited patiently, poised to strike as the masked man turned back to her.

"You're delusional, Princess. You're zip tied to that chair."

Taking that as her cue, Felicity slowly raised her hands up to show that she was now free. "Not anymore," she smirked, before jumping into motion.

At her sudden movement, they too sprang into action, but far too slowly. Their guns had been hanging off their shoulders, and they scrambled to try to pull them up to aim as Felicity swung the chair toward the closest masked man, shattering it over his head. Palming her switchblade, she twisted and buried it in the chest of the second man as he came up behind her. He fell away with a surprised grunt as the first man tried to grab her, but she jabbed upward with a broken chair leg she'd just grabbed, shoving it into his chest.

She turned just in time to use the man's body as a shield from the gunfire from the third man; panicked, he turned and ran like the hounds of hell were at his heels. Felicity paused long enough to check Will and Thea's pulses before hurrying after him.

Felicity cornered him just outside, on the roof of the neighbouring building just as his gun ran out of bullets, and she took advantage of his uncertainty by swinging towards him on an old, rusted chain and kicking him onto the ground. As he tried to recover, she put him in a headlock, and he choked out a pleading, "You don't have to do this!"

"Yes, actually, I do," she responded coldly. "You hurt my son, my sister. If you hadn't touched them, I would have let you go. Now, who hired you?"

"I dunno," he wept. "Some guy in a mask offered us a million each to kidnap and interrogate you about the wreck. Called himself Grayson, probably an alias. I don't know anything else! Please!"

Felicity snapped his neck. She stepped back and let the body fall to the ground, staring at it hollowly with her shoulders slumped.

Then she turned and left, rushing back in the direction of her son and sister-in-law.

Oliver sprinted into the hospital room, chest heaving and heart racing in his throat.

"Daddy!" William exclaimed, sniffling and reaching out for an embrace from his position on his mother's lap. Oliver was quick to oblige, scooping Will into his arms and hugging him tightly, kissing his head.

"What happened?" he asked Felicity, who was leaning back against the bedframe and looking exhausted. Thea was in a chair, sipping at a soda and also appearing strained.

"I'd like to know that too," Quentin Lance interrupted, entering the room alongside his partner, Lucas Hilton. He gave Felicity, who had gone pale and rigid at his arrival, a soft smile. "How are you doing, sweetheart? Helluva way to welcome you home."

"Detective Lance," Felicity choked out, tears welling. "I-I'm fine. I-Sara-I'm so sorry, I tried to grab her, but it was so sudden, and-" Oliver flinched at the pain in her eyes and voice. Will peeked out at them, concern for his mother wrinkling his little brow. Thea reached out to clutched Felicity's trembling hand.

"Felicity," Lance said, reaching out to take her free hand. "Don't apologize. It's not like you can control the weather. I've never blamed you, not for anything. I miss Sara more than anything, would burn the world if it brought her back to me, but it's not your fault. You were her best friend, the pair of you were closer than she and Laurel. Don't blame yourself, I know you would've saved her if you could."

"I tried," she confirmed lowly. "Thank you." Lance nodded, and they switched to questioning Felicity, who had been the only one conscious during the event, about the kidnapping.

The whole thing terrified Oliver. To think that, a mere day after getting her back, he might have lost her again? William too. No, he couldn't do it. He couldn't lose her twice.

He had promised to protect her, and though he had failed so terribly (the scar on her shoulder that had been revealed when her top slipped, the others he hadn't seen, her flinches whenever she was touched, all of it practically shouted that her claims of being alone the whole time were complete bullshit.) he was determined not to do so again.

"Alright then, honey," Lance patted Felicity's shoulder. "Get some rest. For what it's worth, welcome home."

"Thank you," she murmured.

Lance gave Oliver a brisk nod as he left. Their relationship had become strained after Laurel and he got back together, as had Quentin and Laurel herself's relationship. Lance didn't approve. He had once said that they brought out the worst in each other, not the best.

Oliver suspected that he was right. Laurel had known him as the fuck-up Ollie, the one before Felicity had come into his life and made him care about more than himself and his family. She wasn't surprised when he slid back into old habits, and so it was easy to do so. Sometimes Oliver wondered why they were still together at all.

"Let's go home," Felicity sighed, climbing off the bed.

"Mommy, carry me?" William requested, making her lips twitch upwards into a smile. "Please?"

"Gladly, my love," Felicity breathed in response. She didn't look at Oliver as she took their son and placed him on her hip in a display of strength she wouldn't have been capable of five years ago.

Not for the first time, Oliver wondered what had happened to her on that godforsaken island.

"Felicity, wait!"

Felicity stopped and turned, raising an eyebrow in bemusement at the sight of Oliver hurrying after her with a muscular black man following him.

"Oliver, what is it?" she asked mildly. "I have an appointment with the mall. It's very urgent."

"Here, take my card," he offered in response, holding out the black credit card.

She shot him an annoyed look. "I don't need it," she replied stiffly. "Thea's loaned me hers."

Felicity hated to have to rely on her (former?) sister-in-law for money, but until she was declared alive again, she couldn't touch any of her savings, meaning that she needed the charity.

"Please, just take it," Oliver begged.

"Fine," Felicity muttered, accepting the card and mentally vowing not to use it. "Is that it?"

"No," Oliver replied slowly. He hesitated a second then gestured at the man standing silently and patiently beside him. "This is John Diggle. He's your new bodyguard."

Felicity's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped. "He's my what?" she hissed.

"Your new bodyguard," Oliver repeated. "You haven't been home a full week yet, and already you've been kidnapped. The paparazzi are dying to get a hold of you and interview you about the wreck and the island. Mr. Diggle can protect you. Keep you safe."

She scoffed and flipped her once-again blonde hair over her shoulder, eyes blazing behind her glasses. "I can take care of myself," she gritted out. "I don't need a babysitter." She shot an apologetic look at Mr. Diggle. "No offence." Then she looked back at Oliver. "You have no right to assign someone to follow me!"

"I'm your husband!"

"You lost the right to call yourself my husband when you kissed your ex-girlfriend at my funeral!" Felicity spat back, remembering the photo of Oliver and Laurel kissing in front of the empty coffin with her picture on top of it.

Oliver recoiled, looking stricken. "That wasn't what it looked like," he croaked out.

Felicity glared, crossing her arms. "Either way," she pointed out. "You're engaged to her now. Bigamy is still illegal as far as I know, so you are no longer my husband. Soon as I'm legally alive again, we can arrange for a divorce."

She forced herself to sound indifferent when she said that, ignoring the hurt she felt at the prospect. She'd known that he would move on while she was gone, but that didn't mean it didn't still hurt. And did it really have to be Laurel Lance? What was it about that woman?

"Meaning that you have no right to assign me a bodyguard," Felicity finished. "If you're gonna go around hiring security details, why not assign Mr. Diggle to protect our son instead?"

"Because Will has security already," Oliver snapped back, frustrated and upset.

"Good, so Mr. Diggle is free to find some other person to protect," Felicity declared in a voice full of fake cheer. "'cause I sure as hell don't need him. Again, no offence."

"None taken, ma'am," Mr. Diggle replied mildly. Felicity gave him points for his calm attitude, at least. Though whether that'd hold up in a firefight was another question entirely.

"Do it for William," Oliver pled.

"Excuse me?"

"He's already lost you once," Oliver reminded her. "W-he has just got you back. Don't make u-him lose you again. Please Felicity, I'm begging you here."

She clenched her jaw, glaring furiously at him, and gave a sharp nod. "Fine," she gave in curtly. She turned and forced a smile at her new problem, holding out a hand for him to shake. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Diggle was it?"

"Diggle or Dig," he responded, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you too ma'am."

"Felicity," she requested. "I'm not old enough to be a 'ma'am', and I need to get my surname sorted out."

Oliver flinched at that, but she ignored him. "Well, I have to go shopping," she said. "I desperately need one of these tablet things, plus a new laptop. So, shall we, Dig?"

She didn't look at her (sort-of) husband as she left.

Felicity smirked in satisfaction as she watched the numbers in Adam Hunt's bank account drop to zero. If he'd complied with her demands, she'd have simply taken the $40 million and given it to the people suing him. But he hadn't, so instead she'd taken the money and everything else too, giving the extra to various charities.

She turned to the notebook, opening it to the page with Adam Hunt's name, and drew a neat line through the name, a pleased smile on her face as she put the book away.

"Mommy?"

Her smile turned from coolly smug to bright at the title, and she turned to look at her son, hovering in the entrance to her room.

"Yes, Love?" she asked gently, heading over to him.

"Will you sing me to sleep?" Will asked her. "And read a story? Daddy told me that you'd read and sing to me when I was a baby. He has a recording of you, but now you're back so I don't need it anymore, do I?"

"No," Felicity confirmed, feeling like she was on cloud nine to remember that fact. "And I would love to. Will you go and pick out a book for us? I just need to turn my computer off."

William beamed, hugged her for the millionth time (not that she was complaining. She had five years of cuddles with her son to make up for, after all.), and rushed to his bedroom to pick out a book for them to read.

Felicity, meanwhile, switched off her laptop after deleting the history and tucked the notebook safely away. She was crossing the hall to William's room when Laurel cleared her throat, making her stop and turn to look at the other woman.

Laurel gave her a forced smile, one so obviously fake that Felicity nearly scoffed. Felicity, meanwhile, didn't bother. She didn't like Laurel, and she saw no reason to pretend otherwise. Laurel had treated Sara, who was at least thrice the woman her sister was, terribly, and had constantly thrown herself at Felicity's husband while they were together, even kissing him at her funeral from the photographs. It was hard to believe that a bitch like Laurel was related to Sara and Quentin Lance.

"Is there something that you wanted, Laurel?" Felicity asked indifferently.

"I just," she paused and sighed. "I know it has to be hard coming back to a whole different world," Laurel sighed, "I want you to know that Oliver and I didn't intend to -"

"Disrespect me?" Felicity offered. She kept her voice indifferent, hiding the hurt she felt at knowing that the love of her life had moved on while she was being tortured and forced into killing to stay alive and come back to her son.

"Right," Laurel confirmed, looking uncomfortable. "Well-"

''- Now you feel your relationship shifting and you want me to stay away but you don't know how to ask without being a bitch," Felicity stated, arching her brow. "Look, Laurel, I never expected Oliver to be alone for the whole time I was gone. He'd never manage, he's not the type of person who can be alone forever. But I just want to clarify something. Marry Oliver, don't marry him, none of my business anymore. But if you ever try and tell my son that you're going to be his 'new mother' again, I will make you regret it. William is my son, you have no rights to him, even if I wasn't alive, you still wouldn't be his mother, and you definitely aren't now. Understood?

His teacher, his aunt, his grandmother and even Walter, they all have the right to give input on how he should be raised. Oliver and I are the ones with the ability to make the actual decisions for him. That's it. You have no right to William, and if you try to replace me, I'll make you pay."

She kept her voice steely and full of conviction, suppressing a satisfied smirk at the unsettled expression that Laurel wore. That the brunette had dared to say she would be Will's mother infuriated her. Felicity had lost everything else, but she refused to lose her son.

Laurel Lance had already stolen Felicity's husband, she wouldn't get her son as well.

Satisfied that Laurel had gotten the message, Felicity turned on her heel and went into William's room, a smile once again jumping to her lips at the sight of him in his bed with some sort of superhero sheets and holding a copy of Artemis Fowl in his small hands. Felicity realized it was her old copy, and had to suppress her tears.

"Ready? Did you brush your teeth and everything?" she asked affectionately as she perched beside him, swinging her legs up onto the bed and wrapping an arm around his slim shoulders as he cuddled into her side.

"Yup!" he confirmed happily. "Mommy?"

"Yes Baby?"

"I'm so glad that you're home with me again."

Felicity exhaled shakily and kissed the top of his head. "Baby, I have never been happier than right here with you," she responded.

She could sense Oliver's presence in the doorframe, leaning against it and watching them, but she ignored him, focusing on opening the book to the bookmarked page and beginning to read.