Oliver rolled over in bed, automatically reaching for Felicity’s shoulder as he always did to reassure himself that she was okay. In his drowsy, mostly asleep state, he searched for Felicity with his eyes still closed. But his hand only met with blankets, not her smooth skin. Oliver’s heart started beating faster with adrenaline and his eyes snapped open.
“Felicity?” He looked around the room. “Felicity?!” He jumped out of bed, hearing his heartbeat in his ears as he became more frantic. She couldn’t walk. Where was her wheelchair? He grabbed his phone and in his haste, dropped it on the floor. He bent to grab it and started to call her, but then he remembered. Felicity had left him. He had lied to her (or at the very least had hidden a very important secret from her) and she had told him she couldn’t do it.
Oliver set his phone back down gently and deliberately. He sat on the floor with his back against their, no. his bed, put his head in his hands, and swore to himself. He always did this. He always managed to screw up everything good in his life.
He stood again to grab his phone to call her, then set it down again. This time he swore out loud. He had promised he wouldn’t chase her and he intended to honor that. She deserved her space. There was a reason she had asked for time off. Or more accurately, told them she was taking time off. Oliver punched the bed, but it didn’t give him the satisfaction he hoped for. He resisted the urge to punch the wall, so he left to go to their lair, even though it was 3:00 AM.
When he got there, he was immediately put on guard when he saw that some of the lights were on. Keeping his back to the wall, he slowly and silently made his way over to where his bow and quiver sat. He quickly grabbed his quiver and swung it over his shoulder, grabbing an arrow, then took the bow and notched the arrow to the string. His muscles tensed and ready to pull the bowstring back, he swept the room. The fact that the person (or people) had only turned on the dimmest lights was not sitting right with Oliver. His entire body was tense and every sense was alert to every movement. He heard footsteps and swung the around towards the intruder, drawing it in the same motion.
“Oliver!” Diggle said. “It’s me! Don’t shoot!”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Oliver hissed, still on edge.
“I’m guessing the same thing as you,” Diggle waved his phone. “Felicity texted me and told me to meet her here.”
“Where is she?” Oliver asked, finally lowering the bow.
“Don’t know. What’d she tell you?” Diggle made his way over to the computers to start booting up the system.
“Nothing,” Oliver responded. “She didn’t text me. I just felt the need for a punching bag.”
“Well, if you want to go a round, I’m game. At least until Felicity gets here.” Diggle started sliding out of his jacket and Oliver followed suit. They squared off and Oliver made a quick jab at Diggle’s face, more to loosen up his muscles and get into his rhythm than to actually try to make contact. Diggle ducked and as Oliver’s fist went past, he took the opportunity to get in a solid punch to Oliver’s ribs. He knew he wouldn’t be able to land too many hits, so he took the ones he could get. Oliver grunted with the force of it and rebalanced himself, about to go for a real attack. Both men paused when they heard the static coming from the speakers on the computer.
Oliver sighed. He had wanted to go for a real round that would result in bruises and possibly a broken rib or two. He needed to feel something, anything, to remind himself of what real pain was. He went to go shut off the speakers so they could continue when he saw Felicity’s face on the monitor. It was fuzzy with the static and it looked as if she was somewhere dark.
“Felicity?” Oliver asked.
“This message is for Spartan,” Felicity said.
Oliver turned to see Diggle coming up behind him to watch the screen.
“Do not involve the Green Arrow or both he and I will die,” Felicity continued. “Felicity, where are you?” Diggle asked.
Felicity appeared to ignore him as she continued, “Do not try to trace this message. You will not get very far.” The image zoomed out and they saw her tied to a chair with various cuts all over her body, blood stains visible through her clothes and some still oozing. “Bring the documents to the address texted to your phone and I will be released.”
“Felicity!” Oliver yelled. “Tell me where you are!”
A tear fell down Felicity’s cheek as she finished what Oliver and Diggle then realized was a recording. “Do this right, or all of you, including Canary and Speedy, along with the kid, will die.”
The screen cut to black and Diggle turned to Oliver. “Stay here. I’ll take care of it.”
“You’re crazy if you think you’re going alone,” Oliver said. “And we can’t give those papers back. Those were the plans to completely decimate the entire county. We cannot tolerate that!”
“But you can tolerate losing Felicity?” Diggle asked accusingly.
“No! We’ll go together and get her,” Oliver said, starting towards his suit. Diggle sighed, but followed Oliver’s lead.
They arrived outside the address and did a quick lap around it. The men weren’t even trying to be subtle. They were wearing black and had guns out of their holsters, pointing at the ground, obviously ready for Diggle to come. Oliver ran up to one of the five men and said “looking for me?”
The man started to raise his gun, but was stopped by Oliver’s punch to his throat. The others converged on him and he quickly knocked all of them out besides the first one, who was coughing and trying to catch his breath. “Where is she?” Oliver demanded, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt.
“I don’t know,” he replied, still short of breath. Oliver slammed him into the wall of the building and asked his question again. “I can’t tell you,” the man said. Oliver used his foot to swipe the man’s legs out from under him so he landed on his back on the hard ground. He kneeled on his chest and aimed an arrow point blank at his head.
“I won’t ask again,” Oliver growled. “Where is she?!”
“Stop!” the man coughed. “I’ll take you there, just please don’t kill me!”
“Just tell me where she is!” Oliver quickly moved him aim to the man’s forearm and released the bowstring. With the spurt of blood, the man began to scream. “Where is she?!” Oliver aimed another arrow at his face.
With no reason to think the vigilante wouldn’t kill him, the man tried to tell him. “She—she’s over—over there.” He looked over to the building across the street from where they were. Oliver leapt to his feet and the man rolled over, holding his bleeding arm to his chest.
Oliver and Diggle headed across the road and into the building the man had indicated. Silently, they quickly went through the building, checking every room. When they got to the fourth floor, Oliver opened a door and they saw Felicity, tied to the chair in the middle of the room. With barely a glance around the room, Oliver headed over to her.
“I’m gonna check the rest of this floor,” Diggle told Oliver as he backed away from the open door. Oliver didn’t acknowledge him, his eyes only on Felicity, taking in her battered body and starting to untie her.
Then they heard the click of a gun cocking. Oliver froze for a moment before turning to see a masked man pointing the weapon at them. Oliver lunged toward him, trying to grab the gun but before he could, it went off and Oliver gasped, feeling the burn in his shoulder where the bullet grazed it. He wasted no time in grabbing the gun out of the man’s hands before breaking his elbow and knocking him out.
Leaving the man on the floor where he fell, Oliver turned back to Felicity, ready to try to stop the bleeding from her numerous cuts. When he saw her, he let out a cry. “No!” He tried to stop the bleeding from where the bullet had ripped through her throat, but it was too late. She was dead and it was his fault. If he hadn’t lied to her about his son, if she hadn’t moved out, if he had protected her, none of this would have happened.
(Prompt from allthingsweirdandnormal: Felicity is captured by someone and Oliver figures out where she is but as he is saving her the other person shoots Felicity but the arrow/bullet was meant for Oliver. So Oliver feels guilty that he wasn’t able to save her.)
