Author's note:
There is a song near the beginning of the chapter directly under the second break. Feel free to skip it if that sort of thing bothers you.

ALSO! Italics in this chapter indicates either the use of Korean or a text message.

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A few more turns and.... THERE! Leah put down the screwdriver and turned the computer right side up. Four down, another twelve to go. She quickly glanced her phone, checking the time. Ok, she could probably do one more before she'd have to head home. It was movie night after all, and Cisco would be waiting. She stood up and headed to the pile of broken computers sitting in the corner of her office. Selecting one from the top of the pile, she walked back over and set it on her desk. She reached her arms up and stretched. Sitting in the stupid chair all day working on stupid computers sucked.

Her phone buzzed mid-stretch. She dropped her arms and grabbed the phone. New text from Cisco.

Not gonna make it tonight. caught a really weird bug. stuck at home

Well that was odd. He'd seemed just fine on Wednesday when they'd gone to get something to eat. She still felt terrible about that. She'd dragged him to Waffle House and practically talked his ear off. But that was what she did when she got stressed. She talked A LOT and ate. Man, stress eating was her thing. Ugh, why did she have to drag Cisco into that whole mess? Now he probably thought she was just flat out weird or something. Her phone buzzed again.

Don't even think of starting twd without me. i need to see your reaction

TWD? Oh, The Walking Dead. Right. Leah wrinkled her nose in displeasure. She was not looking forward to that. Zombies weren't her favorite thing in the world, but... it was better than Star Wars she guessed. She started typing.

Trust me, I won't. Was that good? Should she...? Yea. She quickly added another line and hit send. Get better soon.

She flopped back down into her chair. Well, That solved that problem. Now she could stay late. She set the phone back on her desk and started on the next computer.

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Sometime around the 6th computer, she'd turned on some quiet music. Repairing the computers was easy enough. Today, she'd chosen to listen to Korean music. It always reminded her of Jamie and Adam. And with all the crazy stuff happening lately, she really missed them. A familiar song came on. She couldn't help but to sing along, a soft smile on her face as she worked.

"(I'm walking barefoot through the memories) Maenballo gieogeul geonilda
(With the fallen leaves) Tteoreojineun nagyeobe"
(I'm letting go of the people I haven't been able to forget) Geugan itji motan saramdeureul bonaenda

(I'm walking barefoot through the memories) Maenballo gieogeul geonilda
(To the red-stained sky) Burkge muldeun haneure
(I'm raising up the people who I haven't been able to be with) Geugan hamkke motan saramdeureul ollinda

(Time passes like water flows) Siganeun mul heureudeusi heulleogago
(I'm building a dam called memories) Nan chueogiran daemeul noha
(There are memories that I couldn't hold onto) Micheo japji motan gieogi isseo
(It's the reason why I look beyond the horizon again today) Oneuldo supyeongseon neomeoreul boneun iyu"

A male voice cut her off before she could start on the chorus. Leah practically dropped her screwdriver as she looked up. Red hair, a dead giveaway.

"ADAM!" She jumped out of her chair and awkwardly dashed into his open arms. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shirt as he scooped her off the floor with a bone-crushing hug. Why did he have to be so tall... Wait... why was he here? As he set her down, she pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "Adam, what are you doing here? Why aren't you in Starling? Shouldn't you be working?"

"I am."

"You are? What does that mean?"

"Well..."

Another man entered the office behind Adam. Leah backed away from Adam and turned to face the man. "I'm sorry, but were you speaking Korean? I couldn't help but to overhear. I like Korean, I mean Korea. They have good barbecue. "

Leah stared at the man standing her office. He looked familiar. Tall, extremely well built, and short brown hair. He looked like he was dressed for a business meeting. Compared to Adam, who was wearing boots, jeans, flannel, and his 'Flynn Lives' t-shirt, this guy looked like he had his stuff together. "Adam, who is this?"

The guy turned to Adam. "What did she say? Does she only speak Korean? That could be a problem...." He turned back to her and stuck out his hand. "Ray Palmer."

"Uhhh...." She didn't know what to say. So this... THIS was Ray Palmer, the guy who seemed to take her office every other week? THIS WAS HIM?!?

Ray turned back to Adam. "Seriously, does she only speak Korean?"

"No, she speaks English. Leeee...." Adam nudged her with his elbow. "C'mon. Introduce yourself. Simple social interaction here....."

"Oh...OH! Sorry!" She broke from her thoughts. "Leah, Leah Elms."

"Well it is very nice to meet you Ms. Elms. Though, from spending time in your office, I feel like I already know you. You have a very nice plant." He glanced over in the direction of Genesis. "Though, right now, it looks dead."

"Genesis will come back," she said without even thinking. That stupid plant. It couldn't decide if it wanted to die or live. Lee glanced in the direction of the plant.

Adam let out a quiet cough.

Ray suddenly spoke up. "Right! The reason why we're here!"

"We?" Leah turned from Ray and stared at Adam. "We?"

"Yes, we. We came together." Adam stared right back at her.

"Ok, you two have some sort of secret thing going on here..." Ray looked back and forth between them. "Please tell me you two aren't like secret lovers or something, because that would really complicate things if-"

It was Adam's turn to be confused. "Complicate things? What do you mean? And no, we don't. We've been friends since..."

"Elementary school." Leah quickly interjected. Just what was this? It was confusing.

"Yea, what she said...." Adam scratched at the back of his neck. He'd forgotten again. Leah rolled her eyes. "But what do you mean it could complicate things?"

"Well..." Ray walked over and sat down at her desk. Leah watched as he hooked up a drive to her computer and started going through files. "It seems that I have encountered a problem." Ray reached the file he was looking for and opened it. A blue screen with an atom logo popped up on her computer. Wait. Oh no. OH NO. Leah shifted so that she was slightly positioned behind Adam, effectively adding a barrier between herself and Ray. "So, tell me, does this look familiar to either of you?" CRAP.

Adam spoke up. "I have never seen that in my life." He turned to Leah. "Lee?"

"Uhhh...." She shifted nervously. This was what she had feared the most. How did he find out? She had been so careful! Wait, was this his project? That would explain how it got on the servers. It had appeared when she was out of office on the days that he was in her office. The whole thing suddenly made sense. Ray Palmer was behind Project A.T.O.M. She slowly intertwined her fingers with Adam's out of habit. This had the potential to get ugly.

"I take it you have then?" Ray turned to face her.

"Yes."

"When... did you find it?"

"August. During the week you were here."

Ray's eyes went wide. "You found it that fast?"

"I was doing server maintenance in the middle of the night and I found a strange file. I had no idea what it was, so I called Adam. Then, it disappeared."

Ray faced Adam. "That would explain the traces on your computer."

"Wait, you traced our computers?!?" Leah shifted slightly moving out from behind Adam. Did he even have the right to do that without proper paperwork?

"This file..." Ray spoke again, his voice low and unsure. "I didn't know who you were or what you were capable of doing."

"What we were capable of doing?" Anger welled inside her. "Do you even know what is in that file?!? Do you know how dangerous that thing could be in the wrong hands?!?" Leah took in a deep breath. So, this man... he knew the entire time?!?

"I am very aware of what it does." He paused, his eyes turning to her, suddenly filled with panic. "You broke the encryption?"

"How else would I know about it? Look, I was expecting to find fraudulent tax papers or a list of embezzlements, so I opened the file. I was NEVER expecting to find a.... wannabe Iron Man suit." The words came out of her mouth like venom.

"How long did it take you to break my encryption?"

"I don't know, maybe 3 months? Does that even matter?!?"

Ray paused again, looking back to the screen. He spoke quieter, as if mumbling to himself. "You broke my encryption...."

"You put an encrypted file on my server! I was simply doing what I felt was best to protect the integrity and reputation of the company..."

Adam suddenly spoke up, turning to Leah. "You never told me you broke the encryption..."

"Yea, well, I didn't want you getting involved once I saw what it was. After all that happened with QC and the Undertaking, if it turned out bad, I didn't want it linked back to you." She turned back to Ray. "But, it looks like that didn't even matter. So tell me Dr. Palmer, what exactly do you plan to do with Project A.T.O.M.? Because if you plan to harm anyone, I will not hesitate to alert the proper authorities..."Anger filled her entire being. Each word she spoke burned with frustration and rage. She let go of Adam's hand and stepped forward. Normally, she never would have been this aggressive, but this... this could mean that the lives of hundreds of people, if not millions, were resting in her hands. She would not be a Moria Queen in this situation. Ray stayed silent. "I'm not going to ask again. What do you plan to do with Project A.T.O.M.?"

Ray eyed her, his mouth slightly agape.

"Well.....?"

He blinked a couple of time, as if he was waking from a trance. "I have no intention of hurting people. All I want to do is protect the people of my city. I want to protect Starling City."

Leah was about to start with another round of accusations, but Adam cut her off. "Wait, is Project A.T.O.M. related to The Atom? The one who flies around Starling and fights with the other vigilantes? The armor guy?"

"Actually, it's more of an exosuit." Ray interjected as he looked back at Adam.

"But I'm right, aren't I? Project A.T.O.M., it's the project file for the Atom's suit, exosuit. Right?"

"Right."

"So that means you're The Atom..."

"Right."

Leah turned to Adam. His face was lit up, giddy with excitement. Seriously? How could he be happy when... "Adam! What are you even talking about?!? This... suit has the potential to hurt people! It-!"

"Lee." Adam slapped his hand over her mouth in a swift motion. He took a deep breath and attempted to calm himself down. "Be quiet and let me explain." His eyes flickered to Ray for a second before they settled back on her. "You remember the Arrow, right? He and the Canary fought for Starling durin' Blood's Siege."

Leah nodded. She remembered the siege very well. She had been troubleshooting a down server for nearly 16 hours straight when two men in masks forced all the night shift workers into the room and locked the door, trapping them all inside. There was no indication as to why it happened. No one knew anything of the chaos outside the building. So, she had spent the next three hours working with several of the other IT workers, trying to break the security profile on the door's electronic lock and get it open. It was only later that she heard the full story about Blood and Deathstroke, and how the Arrow and the Canary saved the city. She never did find that stupid intern who downed the server though...

"Lee, they work to save the city. You know as well as I do that they don't want to harm it." She nodded again. "The Atom works with them. Trust me. I know you're having a hard time with this, but please, you have to trust me. Ray doesn't mean to harm anyone with the Atom suit. The Atom has done nothing but save people. Trust me on this, ok?" He removed his hand from her mouth.

Leah drew in a deep breath, and then nodded. If Adam was insisting, then fine. But still, why was the stupid thing on her server? Shouldn't it have been kept in Starling? She turned back to face Ray. "I'm choosing to trust Adam, for now, but answer me this. Why place the file on my server? Why not keep it in Starling, or just on that drive, like you already do? Why keep it nearly 600 miles away on a server that doesn't even have a remote link?"

Ray smiled. "That's exactly why I keep it here. If you weren't aware, Staring City isn't exactly the safest place in the world to keep files that could, as you said, hurt a lot of people. Because I'm there, and I fight for the city, I make enemies. And my enemies are always looking for ways to take me down. So, I decided to open this office to keep this file, Project A.T.O.M., here. The location is perfect, and your servers are very secure. You coded them in Perl. Smart move. Took me a week to figure out the right level of code to hide them on. And because they're LAN only, it makes remote breaches nearly impossible. And anyway, no one suspects a server that only has invoices for-"

"Toilet paper and soap." Leah finished that sentence for him.

"Exactly!" Ray beamed.

Adam suddenly jumped in. "But why did you wait so long to put the file on the server if that's what you built the office for?"

"Last Spring... was a bit busy for me. And I spent the entire summer shrunken. So, I had to invent my way out of that. But once I got back and had time, I came here to place the files...." Ray started going through the project file.

"Wait, you were shrunken? Is that what that explosion was? Everyone thought you were dead!" Adam moved forward, trying to get a better view of the computer.

"Not dead, just shrunken."

"Sooo... like Ant-Man?"

Ray spun around, his face falling. "Not quite. I'm still working on perfecting it. It's definitely more complex than Pym Particles, I'll say that." He turned back to the computer and began clicking around again, going through different sections of the suit.

"But what were you saying earlier about our relationship complicating things?" Leah stepped up beside Adam, crossing her arms over her chest. There was something that he wasn't telling them.

"RIGHT!" Ray spun back around and faced them. "I need your help. Both of you."

"YE-"

Leah stood on her toes and slapped her hand over Adam's mouth before he could finish his sentence. "What exactly do you need our help with? And why us?"

"Well, you're both very competent in your respected fields; Ms. Elms with servers and hardware, and Mr. Mcclellan with information security. I need experience in all of those fields. And like I said earlier, I did trace your computers. I figured if you had seen the files, and you hadn't said anything, then I could trust you. But I had to make sure. And your statement from earlier proves that to me. I can see that you don't trust me. But right now, I need you to trust me." Ray looked her in the eyes. She looked away.

Adam removed Leah's hand from his mouth. "So earlier, that was a test?" He kept his voice a little lower than normal. Apparently, this was news to him as well.

"Yes, and if you wanted to know, you both pass." Ray muttered a quiet 'yay!" as he threw up his hands and smiled.

Leah and Adam both stared at him in silence.

"Sorry. I've been told that Central City is the fun city."

"It's really... not...." Leah ran a hand back through her hair with a sigh. What had she gotten herself into? "So, what did you need help with?"

"A database. More specifically, storage and delivery. I already have the database designed and implemented. I just need to put it on your server. And get access to it from my suit. Preferably over a private internet connection."

"A database? Of what?" Adam asked, his face riddled with curiosity.

"Anything I need really. Police records, facial scans, background checks... I have information on nearly every person in Starling City, and more if I need it."

"On my server?" Leah questioned.

"Like I said earlier, no better place for it really. Unless there was a 100% secure location in Starling. But with everything that has been going down with H.I.V.E. lately, it's better for it to be here. They don't really have a strong presence here in Central..."

"So you need a secure connection between the suit and Lee's server....?" Adam spoke and started to snap his fingers quietly. He was already working out solutions in his head, Leah knew him well enough to know that.

"Yes...?" Ray was obviously thrown off by the snapping. He looked to Leah.

"He's thinking. It's what he does." Leah nodded her head in Adam's direction.

"Oh."

"You know, if you had access to a secure satellite, you might get a faster connection between the server and the suit..." Adam stopped snapping and spoke quietly.

"What?" Leah spoke first, but Ray repeated her words. What was Adam talking about?

"Yea, like, you know how J.A.R.V.I.S. is in the Internet, but then there is Veronica in space on a satellite? Just patch through to the satellite, then back down." Adam was trying to explain, using his hands, but Ray looked baffled. Leah got it though.

"I think what Adam is trying to say is that if you go direct from server to satellite to suit, you'll get a faster connection. You wouldn't have to go though KCIX or ChIX or AMS-IX Chicago or any other IXP. Taking the Internet connection out entirely would most likely speed up your return time. You wouldn't be fighting with consumers for speed. Plus, it would be much more secure that way. Once again, you wouldn't be passing through any IXPs, or over any wireless frequencies." Leah glanced between Adam and Ray. Adam was positively giddy, but Ray...

"So you're suggesting that I get a secure satellite?" Ray turned back to the computer and reopened another part of Project A.T.O.M.

"I don't know, do you have one already? I swore QC had a satellite at one point..." Leah's voice trailed off as she tried to remember. There seriously had to be one. She remembered it....

"They did, but then the Undertaking occurred, and Applied Sciences got... trashed pretty much." Adam spoke as he walked over and stood behind Ray, watching the monitor from over his shoulder.

"I think I have access to one, but I would need some help building the link." Ray turned and looked between Adam and Leah. Adam turned and looked down at her. Oh no. She was not going along with this....

"Adam, no." Leah switched to Korean, hoping that Adam would follow, leaving Ray out of their conversation.

"Leah, what are you talking about? Why not?"

"Why not? Because it's a surefire way to get yourself hurt or killed! You know what happens to people who associate with the heroes..." or simply Ray Palmer for that matter. She had a scar on her arm now, thanks to that incident with the box, and she still