Chapter Text
The first thing Felicity recognized as she regained consciousness was the familiar low beeping coming from the heart monitor nearby.
Instinctively, she opened her eyes. In hindsight, this wasn't one of her brighter ideas. Wincing at the brightness of the room, she gasped when a sharp pain shot between her eyes.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she heard Dig say from her left.
Blinking repeatedly, she turned toward his voice. He was sitting next to the bed, just a few inches away from her. Relief engulfed her at the blurry figure Dig made.
“Hey, there,” she managed to say before a coughing attack took her by surprise.
“Have some water,” Dig said, holding out the glass from her nightstand so she could sip some through the straw. “Your doctor will be here soon.”
“Thanks,” she muttered as she tentatively drank it. She relished the cool water as it quenched the thirst she hadn’t realized she felt.
“How do you feel?” Dig asked with a note of concern in his voice.
“Like my head's about to explode.”
“Well, you gave everyone quite a scare, Felicity.”
She took a deep breath, trying to piece together what exactly happened to end with her at the hospital, but there was just a huge blank in her memory.
“What happened?” She asked, trying to not panic from her lack of recollection.
“You were getting into your house when you were drugged and kidnapped by Slade’s men.”
Her whole body froze at the revelation. She didn’t remember being attacked or any kidnapping. Actually, her last memory was of watching Oliver and Sara spar together and feeling a bit resentful at her inability to fight like them.
Well, Sara mostly. But, she was trying to avoid comparing herself to Oliver’s current girlfriend and how she was a total badass ways that Felicity couldn’t ever dream of... Which was totally beside the point right then.
“I-I don’t remember that,” Felicity confessed. “The last thing I recall is being at the foundry and...that’s it.”
Dig sighed, before speaking again. “The doctors warned us it was possible you’d forget the whole thing.”
“Why?”
“It was a mix of drugs that they kept dosing you with over and over again. The doctors weren’t even sure if you’d wake up from it.”
Felicity felt a lump forming in her throat, trying to assimilate the information.
“It was bad, Felicity,” Dig said in his very serious tone. “It was incredibly bad.”
“How bad?” She asked in a shaky tone.
“You disappeared without a trace for two weeks. It was a miracle we managed to find you,” he hesitated for a second before continuing. “I’m not a religious man, but I swear I prayed every day that we’d find you and you’d be okay because I don’t know what would’ve happened to Oliver if...”
“W-what do you mean?”
He took another breath, rubbing his hand over his chin. “He just...lost it.”
“Can you be more specific?” She requested, annoyed at Dig’s hesitancy.
“He beat several men that were involved in your kidnapping to death, Felicity.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, guilt and anguish washing over her body as she assimilated Dig’s words.
“So he killed again because of me,” she declared in a shaky voice.
“Don’t blame yourself, Felicity. That - unfortunately - is on him. It was his choice, not yours.”
“But it was because of me, John!” She insisted, her eyes welling up.
“And you’re not responsible for the actions of other people, only your own,” Dig said firmly. “You didn’t choose to be kidnapped, just like you didn’t choose the way you’d be rescued, Felicity.”
“How did you rescue me, Dig?” Seeing Dig’s hesitancy, she warned him, “Be honest with me.”
Dig huffed, rubbing his chin with his hand. “I honestly am not sure how we pulled it off.”
“I hope you have a better explanation than that, Diggle.”
“Oliver pulled a lot of strings with ARGUS and the Bratva to make it happen,” Felicity’s eyes widened at the mention of the Russian mafia and their sometimes-allied shady governmental agency. “All I know is that three nights ago he arrived with a name and a location and that was it.”
“And what? You just burst me out of wherever I was and Oliver beat people to death?”
“Yeah,” Dig nodded. “Pretty much what happened.”
Felicity sighed, feeling suddenly tired. “Did Oliver manage to get Slade Wilson?”
Dig shook his head. “No, he wasn’t anywhere close to the place you had been kept.”
“Where was I, anyway?”
“Slade confined you in a psychiatric hospital as an in-patient. They kept you drugged in one of the basement rooms the whole time. You were completely out of it when we found you.”
“Right,” Felicity said, trying to internalize everything that Dig had just told her. It seemed she’d had a hell of a time and she didn’t ever remember half of it.
She’d literally lost weeks of her life and she hadn’t even had the slightest idea it was happening. That was a troubling thought.
“Felicity, listen,” Dig started, drawing her attention back to him. “We were all worried about you and we would do everything we could to get you back, okay? Don’t blame yourself for things you didn’t play an actual part in.”
“It’s just…” she paused, trying to reorganize her feelings and thoughts. “Every single time Oliver has to rescue me, he always break his promise and ends up killing. He did it with the Count and now with Slade’s men. I just…” She shrugged her arms, not finding a way to express how she felt about it.
“With Oliver, there’s a line. If someone crosses it, they end up dead.”
“What are you implying, John?” Felicity frowned at his alarming suggestion.
“Come on, Felicity,” he shook his head. “You’re smarter than this, right?”
She remained in silence, expecting Dig to elaborate whatever he was trying to tell her.
“First, Helena threatened his family and Tommy. Even with them, Oliver tried to work around it and talk sense into her. But the second she put her hands on you, she was done. Thea and Laurel were both in danger a few months ago, and none of the people who tried to hurt them ended up dead, but both times you were the victim, none of your attackers walked away alive. Do you see where am I’m going with this?”
“Yeah. And that’s a scary thought,” she muttered, aghast.
“It was scarier having to witness it,” Diggle declared. “I thought I had seen Oliver at his worst, but the way he was... It was just disturbing.”
A sinking feeling settled in her stomach at Dig’s words and the tone of his voice. She had no idea how she could even start to make sense of that kind of information.
She always knew that he’d be worried and probably drowning in guilt if something ever happened to her in their line of work, but she never expected...this. Honestly, she couldn’t even picture Oliver losing his head over her the way Dig was implying.
“How is he now?” She asked, afraid of the answer.
“Sara had to dose him with a strong sedative to force him to sleep, so he won’t be here for a while. God knows he needs every opportunity possible to rest.”
Felicity opened her mouth to speak, but the arrival of the doctor interrupted her words.
“Hello, Ms. Smoak. I’m Dr. Decker, I’m the doctor responsible for your recovery.” The blonde woman offered Felicity a smile. “How are you feeling now that you’re awake?”
Felicity threw a last glance at Dig before turning to the doctor and smiling. They’d have time to talk about the Oliver situation later.
Except, later didn’t come because the next time she woke up it was to Oliver watching her.
She was not only surprised by his presence, but also his appearance. Apparently, Dig had forgotten to mention Oliver looked like he was mauled by a big animal. He had bruises all over, around his eyes, chin, and neck. Added to that, there was a brutal cut on his lips, which were incredibly swollen in a way that was more I-fought-a-bear-and-only-kinda-won than I-had-a-hot-make-out-session-with-my-assassin-girlfriend. Topping this all was the realization she could distinguish all of this without her glasses and - wow - did that speak volumes about how bad his situation really was.
“I thought it was impossible for you look unattractive, but you look awful,” were the cringe-worthy words that slipped from her mouth as greeting.
A short chuckle escaped his lips, a spark of amusement flashing in his eyes.
“Hello to you too,” he said in a soft voice, leaning closer to her bed.
“Hi,” she said. “And sorry for that... Pain meds let my tongue loose.”
Oliver raised an eyebrow and Felicity felt her cheeks redden.
“Well, looser - if that’s even a word,” she tried to amend and his only response was to shake his head with a small smile on his lips.
“How are you feeling?” He asked, extending his arm to take her hand into his.
Felicity dry swallowed, licking her suddenly parched lips before replying sincerely.
“My head isn’t killing me anymore.”
“I’m glad to hear.”
“And how are you?” She threw back his question. “Not very good if your wounds have anything to say about it.”
“It was nothing,” he shrugged her off. “You were the one who was kidnapped and kept under drugs for two weeks.”
“You look like you were mauled by a bear, so I think my question is valid.”
“I’m fine, Felicity,” he said in that dismissive tone she hated so much.
“Yeah, right,” she retorted, but didn’t say anything else. She knew when it was useless to push him to open up.
He squeezed her hand, offering a placating smile. “You’re alive and awake. So, I’m honestly fine.”
Her breath lodged in her throat at the way Oliver spoke those words. Although Dig’s implication seemed a bit far fetched at the time, it seemed to hold some truth now. There was something about the intonation of his voice combined with the way he was looking at her that left Felicity… stunned.
“Diggle told me you’re going home this weekend,” Oliver said after a beat of silence.
“Yeah,” she nodded at him, pushing away whatever that happened from her mind. “Dr. Decker said my blood tests came back almost clean, so I’ll be completely free from the cocktail drug they gave me by Saturday.”
“Good,” he replied with an intense look in his eyes that Felicity couldn’t decipher.
Silence fell between them for a couple of moments until his fixed gaze drove her to such uncomfortable levels that she had to do something to fill the void.
“Thanks, by the way,” Felicity said with a smile. “For rescuing me, I mean.”
“You never have to thank me for that,” he said in a tone that didn’t leave room for argument. “I will always come for you, Felicity.”
A heavy silence settled over the room at his declaration, filling it with some kind of energy that not even Felicity had courage to disturb with her normal babbling. In response, she just nodded.
“You should sleep,” Oliver suggested.
“I’m not tired.” And, because the universe hated her, a big yawn escaped from her mouth.
Oliver only raised an eyebrow in return.
“Fine,” she relinquished. “Maybe I could do with some rest.”
“Sleep, Felicity.”
She told herself she’d only close her eyes for a few seconds, she needed to talk to Oliver about a few things. But then slumber engulfed her and the last thing she remembered was the sensation of fingers caressing her forehead.