Chapter Text
When Diggle finally heard the door at the top of the stairs open, he didn’t know whether to relax or tense up. Felicity had called an hour ago to let him know that she and Oliver were “okay” - which Dig took to mean that everything he worried had happened between them last night actually had.
Three minutes after he’d pulled the Arrow van away from the curb and attempted to follow that asshole with the spray can, he’d realized he’d made the wrong call. Part of that was because the guy had run underneath the underpass next to St. Elmo’s and not down a road he could drive. Diggle parked and ran after him, but by the time he’d hauled ass through the road construction and between the concrete pillars holding up I-195, the guy was long gone. St. Elmo’s was not a new location for him. He probably had a well planned getaway route. This was obviously not a dude who left a lot up to chance.
Back in the parking lot Dig traced his boot through the tracks Oliver’s Ducati had left in the thin layer of crusted snow. They trailed their way out of the parking lot and then went left. Chances were good Oliver had taken them both to Felicity’s apartment, but it was probably too late to intervene. What was he going to do anyway? Pound on Felicity’s door and yell, “I know what you’re doing in there! Stop having sex right now!” If her bra was off by now, it was too late. And her bra was definitely off.
You didn’t have to be a super genius to know that.
The trouble with these two is that they didn’t realize how close they teetered on the edge of making that bad call all the time. Their meaningful looks, all the times Felicity had stabbed Oliver in the chest to make a point, the many soft glances Oliver shot her way when she was busy clicking away at her keyboard - their relationship was already not platonic. It might not be romantic, but it was definitely not platonic.
Dig worried about them sometimes, and he worried about himself too. He’d seen enough close-quarters, in-the-heat-of-the-moment affairs crop up during his time in the military to know that, under the wrong circumstances, love could turn deadly. Marriages ended, the IG got called, leave ended with police visits and restraining orders, and soldiers got sloppy in the field and lost a limb or died.
Love was a distraction, and his team couldn’t afford to get sloppy. They were out there every night busting up drug deals and chasing down crazy psychopaths. He needed Oliver to keep his head in the game, and he needed Felicity not to route his Ducati off a bridge because she was pissed about some dumb thing Oliver had done. They were better off being whatever they were now, and not lovers.
If he was right - and Dig knew he was right - it was too late for that. He went over to the salmon ladder, grabbed the metal bar, and started working his way up the rungs. It felt good to grasp something solid. He might as well work off some of his nervous energy. Waiting for confirmation of his fears was taking too damn long, and what he’d learned digging through the police files on the YouWAN2 rapes did not make him feel any better.
The bar in his hands went clang, clang, and then cla-clang as he hit the last rung off balance. He dropped his body weight and hung there, his arms bearing his weight. This was his fault. The sex chemical hadn’t been his idea, but he’d backed Felicity against Oliver’s objections, and - even worse - he’d left them behind when they’d needed him to be responsible for them. Yes, they were adults, and he hadn’t been afraid they’d die, but you didn’t leave a couple of toddlers alone in a glass factory and not expect blood and panic.
God damn it. Usually he could rely on Felicity’s good judgment, but not in this case. She’d been sprayed first, and it had been dark and at a distance, but he’d seen the way she’d slid her hand across Oliver’s shoulder after he’d been sprayed. That had been a “Hey, baby” touch if he’d ever seen one. This stuff acted fast, and he’d made the wrong call.
The upstairs door wrenched open, and Dig heard Oliver’s heavy footsteps come down the stairs. Dig dropped to the ground and walked back over to Felicity’s workstation. A few seconds later he heard Felicity’s softer tread. Usually her heels made these staccato noises as she tip-tapped her way down the metal steps, but today the sound was a soft thud-thudding instead. Her lavender Keds came into view. The rest of her, clad in a gray tracksuit, then appeared. Oliver had a too-small M.I.T. sweatshirt on over his Arrow pants. He pulled that off as he cleared the last couple of steps, then went over and found a green hoodie in their spare clothing stash. He handed the shirt back to Felicity as he walked over to where Dig was standing.
“Thanks,” she said distractedly. She folded it up and put it back in the clothing box. “May as well keep this here. Sometimes I get cold.” She closed the lid of the box and stood leaning against it.
No one spoke.
Dig took them both in. They looked exhausted. Their eyes were tired and red lined. Felicity’s hair was still wet, she was wearing no makeup, and both Oliver and Felicity were apparently finding the concrete floor of the lair very interesting all of a sudden. Dig didn’t think this was the right time to whip out his Mama’s “Do you know how worried I was?” speech, although both of them clearly expected a good tongue lashing.
“So,” he finally said. “What’s new?”
Felicity’s shoulders slumped. “I think you have an idea,” she said. “YouWAN2 sprayed both of us - you saw that. Oliver drove us back to my apartment, and...stuff happened.”
“How much do you remember?” Diggle asked.
“Some–” Oliver said.
“Practically nothing,” Felicity said, glaring at Oliver. Oliver raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t otherwise respond.
“The police reports state that none of the girls could identify their attackers,” Diggle said. “But I’ve spent all night going through the records Felicity copied, and I have a few questions about that.”
“Like what?” Felicity asked.
“From what you do remember, did you notice any emotional changes occurring over time? Like did the drug give you a high or a low? Did you hallucinate? Other than the, uh, sexual component, do you remember how it made you feel?”
“I didn’t hallucinate,” Oliver said. “It wasn’t like doing mushrooms or dropping acid. It didn’t freak me out. I do remember feeling really warm. I think we were sweating a lot. ”
Felicity kept her eyes on the floor. “There was an initial euphoria, I think,” she said finally. “I remember everything seemed hilarious at first. Maybe later I came down? I think I remember crying, but maybe it was a dream? Why would that matter?”
Dig went over to Felicity’s computer and opened up a window. “We knew that this guy tried to keep Kayla Whitestone silent, and she called his bluff and then killed herself, but what about the other women? Were they paying him to keep their information secret?” He brought up several files and clicked between them. “From the police timeline, it looks like Kayla was the most recent victim. I wondered if his pattern was to blackmail them all up front, so I went through the statements. It looks like a number of these girls’ parents wanted to press charges, but the girls wouldn’t do it.”
“They didn’t want to get this guy?” Oliver asked.
“No. Many of them said they had a relationship with him. A couple of them even referred to him as their boyfriend. I think that the drug was intended to be a behavioral modifier and a longer acting aphrodisiac.”
Oliver frowned, but Felicity looked uneasy. “Longer acting?” she asked.
“A behavioral modifier?” Oliver asked. “What kind of behavior was he trying to modify?”
“Do you know about Pavlov’s dog?” Dig asked. He’d gotten some training in psychology in the military, enough to recognize classical conditioning, and the internet was full of information. “Pavlov was a Russian scientist who was doing research on the physiology of digestion in dogs. He was monitoring how dogs drooled in the presence of food because the drool, as a bodily fluid, could be measured and studied. He noticed over time that the dogs he worked with started to drool when they saw the white coats of the people who fed them, and he wondered what kind of physical response could be generated by something totally unrelated.
“He found that he could make the dogs drool to the sound of a metronome if the sound was followed by the appearance of food soon afterwards and this pattern was repeated over time.”
“So what does that have to do with this?” Oliver asked.
“I think he’s using the drug to put them into a state where they are more easily conditioned,” Dig said. “I think he wants more than just sex in the moment.”
“So he’s training them while he’s got them under the influence of the drug?” Felicity asked. “How would he do that?”
“God knows,” Dig said. He understood wanting to get laid, but this was just sick. “When I wasn’t looking up this Pavlov stuff, I went over some of YouWAN2’s old posts on reddit. Are you familiar with the term PUA?”
Oliver looked blank, but Felicity scowled. “Unfortunately,” she said. “It’s short for pick-up artist. Guys who are looking to figure out the right psychological cues so they can get laid whenever without the hassle of getting to know women at all.”
“Some of those guys are probably just lonely and socially awkward, looking to figure out how to meet girls,” Dig said.
“And some of them like to fantasize about the day when sex robots become a thing, women are made obsolete, and they will regret forever that they didn’t have sex with these guys now,” Felicity said.
“How do you know this?” Oliver asked.
“I was a woman in STEM?” Felicity said. “Unlike many colleges in America, M.I.T.’s ratio of men to women is still skewed.”
“The YouWAN2 username has been active in numerous forums where they discuss men’s ‘options,’” Dig said. “Instead of virtual reality sex or robots, this guy wants a girlfriend - and not just one who will give him what he wants, but one who wants to give him what he wants.”
“A submissive sex object,” Felicity said. “A possession. Like a mail-order bride fetish, but locally sourced. Gross.” She looked over the records on the monitors. “So you think that this guy’s spraying these women and then conditioning them during their time together to do what?”
This is where it got really bad. Felicity already looked pissed. Dig didn’t love getting into this guy’s head either. “I think he’s looking for the perfect girl,” he said. “But he doesn’t want to make his decision until he’s had the full experience. He sprays these girls, spends the night with them. So far he hasn’t found Miss Right. But if he conditions the rest of these women, he has a stable of girls to draw from.”
“A stable of girls?” Felicity said.
“Their words, not mine,” Dig said. “He’s picking a certain type of girl: young, very attractive, and socially popular. This is the type of girl who, generally speaking, doesn’t go for guys like him. So if one - or all of them - doesn’t turn out to be what he wants for a girlfriend, he still gets to have control. If this experiment works, he’ll be able to elicit the conditioned response in the future whenever it suits him.”
“Which means?” Oliver looked irritated.
“It means he’ll be able to crook his little finger, and they’ll drop their panties for him. Whenever,” Felicity said.
“I think that’s the goal,” Dig said. “But this isn’t exactly the scientific method, so who knows how this has all turned out for him.”
Felicity nodded slowly. “It's not like he can compare the physiology or psychology of his subjects before and after. There’s no control group. He can only do his thing and then see if it gets the result he wanted.” She clicked through a few more files. “I wonder if Kayla was less susceptible. Maybe she told him where he could go. He’s probably taking the pics and videos so he can get off later, but perhaps money isn’t the goal. Do we know if he’s actually blackmailed the other girls?”
“Kayla’s is the only file that mentions a blackmail attempt. The other ones are rape accusations filed by these girls’ - and some of them are minors - parents.”
“So we jumped to conclusions based on the reddit post,” Felicity said. “If Kayla’s the one he blackmailed, what does that say about her?”
“I’m more concerned about the bonding effect the drug seems to have,” Dig said because that was the immediate issue that neither Oliver nor Felicity seemed to be picking up on. “Since you were both sprayed and out of it, I’m sure you didn’t spend your time trying to train each other to respond to a specific stimulus.”
“I told you,” Felicity said, “We can’t remember it.”
Oliver opened his mouth and then closed it.
“Okay, but here’s the thing,” Dig said. “Regular sex has a bonding effect. People associate good experiences with good feelings about the people they experienced them with, so they often mistake sex for love. But if this drug messes with your head and there are multiple, uh, good experiences, then the whole Pavlov thing could maybe work. Sex and feelings and a specific person plus a heightened state of consciousness? See where I’m going with this?”
“You think we’re bonded now?” Oliver asked.
Dig sighed. “I’m afraid that might have happened. Who knows about the conditioning or how long the drug will remain in your system. We don’t understand how it works.”
“So the microwave dings, and we’ll drool,” Oliver said.
“He’s more worried about me jumping you when my cell phone goes off,” Felicity said with an annoyed look.
“I did call you all night,” Dig said with a shake of his head. Of course, that wasn’t what he was really worried about. Just because you were conditioned to react didn’t mean you didn’t have the ability to fight that conditioning. “I think we have to focus on how this could affect the team.”
“It’s not going to affect the team,” Felicity said.
“Look,” Dig said, “we can’t be good together if we don’t trust each other, so now is the time to be honest.”
“I am being honest,” Felicity said. “Oliver and I have already talked, and we’ve agreed that this will not be a problem.”
Dig looked at Oliver and his “What can you do, man?” look matched his light shrug perfectly.
Dig sighed and crossed his arms. Way to nut up, man. “I know this isn’t how things usually work,” he said, “but I’m the only one not compromised here. I’ll take responsibility for making the wrong call with regards to you two last night, but what happened happened. For now, though, I think we have to lay down some ground rules.”
“Ground rules?” Oliver asked. “What kind of ground rules?”
“If this was Afghanistan, and you were under my leadership, I’d move one of you to another unit like that,” Dig said. “But we only have one unit and need both of you for it to work right. We need both of you. This is your mission, Oliver, but without Felicity we’re operating blind, so we’re just going to have to push through.”
Dig shifted on his feet. “I wish I had a blackboard so I’d have something to tap.” He looked down at the ground and then up again. “You two had sex. This was not a one-night stand. You have a relationship. There’s nothing wrong with you if what happened makes you feel things. Now or later.”
Oliver looked intently at the wall, and Felicity sucked in air. Dig held up a finger. “Just hear me out. I’m older than both of you.” He smiled in an attempt to lessen the tension. “I was fully prepared to let whatever this thing is between you guys take its own sweet time and play itself out. I hoped it’d take awhile. Workplace relationships have a tendency to distract from the work, but what can you do?”
“Diggle, what are you talking about?” Felicity asked, with an embarrassed laugh. “We don’t have a thing.”
“What’s your point, Dig?” Oliver took a step towards him.
Dig plowed on. “We count on each other. For this mission and everything else. What we’re doing? It’s not exactly normal. We spend our free time chasing criminals. Oliver has his mission, yeah, and it’s been a way for me to get my head around some of the shit I brought back with me stateside too. I don’t know what your reasons are, Felicity, but you’ve been hiding your light under a bushel. I’m not asking questions, but don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
She looked startled. “I’m not just a potted plant down here. I have eyes,” Dig said. “Look, neither of you are seeing anyone right now, are you?”
“No-o,” Felicity said.
“You’d know if I was,” Oliver said.
“Good,” Diggle said. “We dodged a bullet there. For now, let’s keep it that way.”
“I don’t see how that matters,” Felicity said. “What if I meet someone? You’re saying just because,” she jerked a hand towards Oliver, “this happened, I can’t date?”
“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, Felicity. You see what I’m saying? You and Oliver having sex? You can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. How will you feel when he escorts a supermodel to QC’s Christmas party?”
She opened her mouth, “I-I’d be fine with it,” she said, jerking her chin up. “Oliver can see who he wants. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” Her eyes were a little too focused on Dig’s chest, though.
“If you run him into a bus because you’re angry at him for that, it’s gonna be a problem.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Felicity said.
“You know I don’t sleep with every woman I meet, right?” Oliver asked, scowling. “Felicity gave me the third degree about this before.”
“Only every other one,” Felicity mumbled.
“See!” Dig said. “That’s what I mean! If you’re going to be hurt by him seeing other people–”
“Seeing other people?” Oliver asked.
“Seeing people,” Dig said, “then we’ve got to keep a lid on it. For now.” When it came to his efforts with women, Oliver had the savoir faire of a 4th grader, but it didn’t seem to stop him from messing up his life or theirs. The thing is, he needed Felicity.
When Dig had met Oliver a year ago, he’d noticed the sense of aloneness the other man had dragged around with him. Oliver, even while he’d smiled and shaken hands and put on a show, had been keening on the inside, his loneliness so tangible it was like a third person in the room. The Oliver they’d retrieved a few months ago from Lian Yu was still removed - he still stood like a guard on watch - but some of his smiles were real now. Dig knew he’d been a part of that, but Felicity had been too.
Oliver only trusted a handful of people, but she was one of them. He softened when he was around her. His iron will gave way. Dig had beaten his head against Oliver’s brick wall of a will trying to get him to reevaluate his methods. Felicity, in the first week of their partnership had simply walked out when Oliver got pigheaded and didn’t listen. When she suggested he take on the Dodger, the man had automatically switched gears. Neither the team nor Oliver could afford to lose her.
He turned to Felicity. “And you can’t let your thoughts go down the ‘All men are pigs’ trail. You have to remember that Oliver didn’t sleep with you and dump you. That asshole,” he pointed to the computer monitor, “drugged you, and something bad happened.”
“It wasn’t really b–” Oliver said, but shut up when Dig shot him a look.
“Alright,” Felicity said.
“Alright?” Dig asked.
“I guess that’s fair. We don’t date, and we don’t blame. I can handle that. It won’t be that long anyway. We’ll forget this even happened and get back to doing our jobs.”
“One more thing, and I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Dig said. “If either of you need to talk about what happened or how you feel, you come to me. Like I said, I was the only one who wasn’t sprayed. We’ll get through this.”
He’d just finished saying that when one of Felicity’s monitors gave a beep. All three of them turned their attention to it. Felicity went to the keyboard and clicked a couple of keys.
“It looks like our chasing him down didn’t stop this guy from trolling for another victim last night,” Felicity said. “He just posted another pic - a new one.”
“We’ll get him,” Dig said.
“We’d better,” she said. “I’m 110% done with this piece of scum. I’m going to start going through the police database looking at headshots. I kind of remember what he looked like. At the very least I can rule a bunch of people out.”
“I’m going to hit the streets,” Oliver said.
“It’s broad daylight,” Felicity said.
“I can’t just sit here,” Oliver said. “I’ll go back to St. Elmo’s and look around. Ask if they know a short, skinny guy with reddish facial hair. Whatever.”
“Change your pants,” Dig said. “That leather look is for nighttime only, bar or no bar.”
Oliver gave him a rueful smile, and headed for the lair’s bathroom. Felicity clicked away at her station. And Dig worried about the pair of them.
Despite everything that just happened, it was good to know that some things stayed the same.