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The stress had finally taken over her. Her doctor had warned her that stress would cause problems. But she didn’t listen and continued to participate in her heavily stressed out job. And now she is laying in a hospital bed groggily trying to remember how she even got there, and then it all came rushing back, like a bad nightmare.
Everything started out great, a drug deal was going down at the docks and Oliver and John had gone down there to take care of it. No problem, and everything went down smoothly, but it was after they came back that things got dicey.
When Oliver and John returned from the back, after taking showers and changing, they had found Felicity had fallen asleep. The way her body angled over the keyboard caused Oliver pain just thinking about the uncomfortable position. Sighing he knelt down to his knees.
“Felicity” he whispered.
When she didn’t stir, he started softly caressing her hair, which caused her to slowly wake from her slumber.
“Hmm” she muttered.
“It’s time to go home my love.”
“I don’t wanna move” she said still half asleep.
At 8 months pregnant, Felicity’s energy was nonexistent, and once she was down, she was down.
They were about to call it a night when her computers went haywire. All seven of her alerts that she set for their new villain finally went off after two weeks of dormancy.
“Shaw”
Typing furiously, she finally landed a location.
“Where is he?”
“In an old abandoned house on the outskirts of the city.”
“Alright” he says already moving back to his suit.
After quickly getting the suit back on, he heads to the landing when he hears Felicity.
“Umm, guys.”
“What is it?” Oliver asks coming to stand beside her.
“I found the list of all the missile codes he stole from Argus and the FBI.”
“That’s great”
“What’s not great is that I can’t access and terminate the file, without being on site.”
“No!”
“Oliver-“
“I said no. You are not going anywhere near him.”
“Oliver this may be our only chance to stop him from destroying everything. I mean you saw the plans. He’s practically going to start World War III. From his sites set on Russia and China, to Canada to London. Oliver, we save the world, and if saving the world looks like me terminating missile codes in the back of a van, then so be it.”
“Felicity” he half begged. “Please”
“I won’t leave the van. I promise.” Giving him her most sincere look, he sighs in defeat. Knowing she won this argument, she gathers everything she needs. “We have to leave now, there’s no telling when I’ll lose the connection, and we won’t be able to get a chance like this again.”
The first signs that things weren’t going to go well, was the uneasy feeling in her stomach. The nerves ate away at her as the time passed by and the closer they got to the house. Knowing that if she failed, everything would be in absolute chaos did nothing but put her in an a near panic attack, but again, she just pushed it down. That was her first mistake.
When they arrived, Oliver and Digg went over the plan one more time and quickly began to execute it. Before he left, Oliver turned from the open door and looked his wife in the eye.
“Don’t you dare leave this van. I mean it Felicity.”
“I won’t, I promise. I promise it on our baby’s life.”
Knowing those words were the deepest promise either could make to each other, Oliver nodded once and left.
The second sign to her was the distress kicks and cramps, but with her body pushing everything into full on fight or flight mode, Felicity let the pain egg her on.
After about 10 minutes, everything went from bad to worse. Oliver and Digg had found the man and he had an army and quite the fight in him. While they were trying to stay on top inside, Felicity was having better luck outside.
Everything was going well when she finally hacked into the server and got a hold of the codes.
“I got them.”
“Good now destroy them” Oliver said over the comms.
“Already ahead of you” she mutters under her breath.
And with one final tap to the enter key, the file was permanently gone.
“Alright, it’s no more.”
All of a sudden, the comms went off resulting in a white noise over the speaker.
“Oliver?”
No response.
“Oliver?”
Without warning the van was opened un-ceremonially and everything went black.
When she opened hey eyes, everything was fuzzy at first but her sense of touch notified her that she was tied to a chair. Everything began to clear up moments later and she quickly noticed that Oliver and John were hanging from the ceiling. How he managed to do that, she will never know.
“Oh, good you’re awake. You and I have some business we need to hash out before the other’s wake up. First of all, I don’t appreciate you frying my system and destroying the missile codes.”
“Yeah, well you are the bad guy.”
‘Careful Felicity’ her conscious was yelling at her.
He gives her a humorless chuckle.
“You have quips. Now I understand why everyone loves you. The badass business woman by day, taking down terrorists by night. Quite the catchy life if you ask me.”
“Well it’s a good thing I wasn’t asking then.”
‘FELICITY’ she internally screamed at herself. Usually she was fine in situations like this; she could keep her emotions in check. But that bad feeling she had at the beginning of the night reached maximum capacity and she just knew something unforgettably bad was about to happen to her.
“You know, I had a plan B & C and somehow you managed to ruin those too and you’re gonna pay.”
As he’s declaring his threat, two things happened. Oliver woke up and Shaw walked towards her while simultaneously pulling out his gun.
Felicity’s breathing was growing quicker and quicker and her heart was hammering in her chest so hard she knew it would fall out any moment. But the thing that scared her the most, was the way her baby was kicking at her stomach. The kicks were hard and it almost felt like the baby was trying to claw their way out. And it was in that moment that she knew in her bones, that she would never meet her baby.
The look in Shaw’s eyes was murderous. She never saw herself going out this way, especially when another life was literally relying on her. And she knew that if she died right this second, she would never forgive herself for letting this baby die with her. But deep down she knew she had to make peace with her demons because soon it wouldn’t matter.
“FELICITY” Oliver was screaming as Shaw got closer and closer to her.
She couldn’t see the look of anguish on his face because her eyes were closed, as she slowly prepared herself for her demise. Wanting it to be as painless as possible for her baby’s sake, she mentally sent a prayer to any God who would listen.
Shaw stopped inches from her and held the gun to her temple.
“You know it’s such a shame, because I have a real soft spot for women and children.”
“Says the same man who was going to nuke multiple countries filled with women and children.”
“But for you, I’ll make an exception.”
As he begins to cock the gun, Oliver breaks the chain holding him to the ceiling and quicker than he has ever picked up and nocked an arrow, he aims and shoots without so much as a thought.
Taking what she thinks is her final breath, Felicity squeezes her eyes shut and awaits the pain. But it never comes. Instead a chocking sound erupts from above her. Opening her eyes, she sees the arrowhead bright red with blood, pointing out directly from his heart.
The gun clatters to the ground and so does his body. When she looks up to Oliver’s face for the first time, she sees the fury raging in his eyes, but it quickly dissipates when he sees her.
“Felicity” he says in a whispered cry, as he runs and kneels down to get her out of her binds.
Not really processing, Felicity can’t hear anything. She imagines this is what it feels like when someone at war has that defining moment that would haunt their dreams forever. She doesn’t even register the roughness of his hands when they come into contact with her cheek. Instead the only thing keeping her conscious of her body, is the feeling of her baby going still.
“No” she whispers so low that it’s the only thing she can hear.
And without warning, her body shuts down and goes limp into Oliver’s arms.
The first thing she realized when she became attuned with her body, was the absence of weight on her stomach. Her hands immediately went to the now flat and soft surface of her belly. The next thing she noticed was the big scar that hurt like hell.
“What? My baby?”
When she turns, it is the first time she notices she’s not alone. Oliver was sitting beside her, with his hands in his lap, like a scared little boy afraid of touching anything. His eyes were glazed over and he was avoiding eye contact with her, and she had no idea why. This was not Oliver.
“Oliver?”
Nothing, he acts as if she weren’t even here.
“Oliver? Where’s my baby?”
At the last word, his eyes slowly ascend up until they meet hers.
She doesn’t like the look he’s giving her one bit. It is a look of shock, anguish, and unbearable heartbreak.
“Oliver? Wher-e’s my baby?” she full on cries out.
And when she thinks that he’s going to answer her this time, she is very wrong. Instead his reaction is one she’s never seen in her 8 years of knowing this man. The strongest man she has ever known, was bawling right in front of her.
His cries were pure agony to her ears. The tears were overlapping one another as they left streak after streak upon his tan cheeks.
And all the pent up emotion she had been holding in all night caught up to her as she watched her husband suffer through his pain, and she felt the beginning of her own endless waterfall begin to make its descent.
“Oliver?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. She- she didn’t make it.”
And to think she couldn’t have been broken anymore than she was when she was sitting in that chair awaiting her death, she was wrong. Four little words, absolutely obliterated her.
“She?” she whispered in disbelief.
Oliver simply nods.
And surprising herself, the most inhumane scream fell from her lips, as her heart shattered into a million tiny little pieces. She lost her baby.
As she sobbed into her hands, she slowly felt Oliver engulf her into his arms. They stayed like that for what felt like forever, but was simply a couple minutes, before she lifted her head from his chest.
“What happened?”
“After you fainted, John and I rushed you here to the hospital, and they immediately took you into an emergency C-Section. They were so worried because your body literally shut down and they were afraid that if you didn’t wake up soon the baby would die, so they delivered her.”
“And?”
“And she was fine… Until they delivered her. I snuck into the room to make sure were ok, and they were giving her CPR.”
What he wasn’t telling her was that when he saw Doctor Schwartz giving his baby CPR and the look of worry on her face, his life was slowly crumbling. That when he heard Dr. Schwartz sigh in defeat with her head hung low, his body went into shock. But the moment that truly broke him was when the words “Time of death 4:59” came out of her mouth and her look of sorrow when she said “I am so sorry I couldn’t save your daughter Oliver. I am so sorry.”
He has suffered through a lot of death in his life time. More than a person should go through in ten lifetimes, but out of all the deaths, this one had to be the hardest.
“I want to see her. No. I NEED to see her.”
“Felicity”
“Please. I just need to see my baby.”
After a moment of silence, he grabs her call button and pushes it. A few minutes later, a nurse walks in.
“Mrs. Queen welcome back.”
“I wanna see my baby.”
Without a word, the nurse ducks out of the room and comes back five minutes later with Dr. Schwartz rolling a bassinette. Finally stopping in front of the bed, she hesitates before picking up the lifeless baby and slowly handing her to her mother.
When Felicity makes contact with her daughter, she feels like coming home. She feels like everything was complete, except it wasn’t because if it were, she would be crying and looking at her with big eyes.
But that was not the case, instead she was pressed against her chest right on her heart, motionless. Looking down at the greyish blue tinted skin, Felicity couldn’t help but feel a whole new kind of heartbreak. She didn’t just lose her baby that she never met, but she was saying goodbye to her heart and soul.
Pulling her tight, she ducked her head into the little puff of blonde hair and sobbed. All while this was going on, Oliver watched every move and felt the pain become worse and worse as time went on. Finally he took Felicity back into his arms and let his hand rest atop his daughter’s body. And the family just cried.
Looking over to the window Dr. Schwartz saw the beginning of a new day, as the sun began to make it’ s presence. As it made it’s way into the hospital room, it almost seemed as if it were on a mission. It traveled through the white floor, to the chairs, to the bed, and then finally landed over Felicity, like a warm blanket. But Felicity didn’t feel the warmth, but someone else did.
What happened next would overtake any shocking discovery he ever made. A man running as fast as lightning; time travel; aliens; and multiple Earth’s.
After moments under the ray of sun, right before her eyes, Dr. Schwartz started to see a change in the baby girl, her skin was no longer greyish blue, but a soft pink.
” Felicity” she whispered.
And without having to say another word, the sound of a baby’s cries filled the room. Looking down, Oliver and Felicity saw their daughter squirming and clutching tightly to her gown. She was alive.
Her cries were music to their ears, and briefly making eye contact with each other new tears formed from their eyes but this time, they were tears of joy.
From that day forward, they would never understand what brought back their daughter, but whatever it was, they were forever grateful.
They named her ‘Ada Hope Queen’ and would cherish every second of every day of her life. That included William too, who was just as thrilled when he met the miracle baby.
While her life didn’t start out good, it definitely would be lived out extremely well. She was loved, so loved and no one would ever be able to take that away.