A/N: A quick oneshot that wouldn't leave me alone until I had written. Leave a review if you liked it ;)
Disclaimers: I don't own the characters, they belong to their respective owners.
Okay, so maybe he shouldn't have snapped at her like he had yesterday. But at least he'd apologized. That's gotta count for something… right?
Usually not one to talk about his feelings he'd even told her more than he'd intended to.
It had been Diggle who'd guilt tripped him with his very judgmental glares into following up on his apology and doing something nice for her.
Which explains why he was standing in the executive elevator with a freshly picked bouquet of flowers riding up to the top floor while Diggle was parking the car.
Instead of opting for the easiest solution and buying flowers in a shop on his way into work, he'd enlisted Raisa to walk through the green house with him where his mother grew her favorite flowers. He'd pointed at the ones he liked and in the end Raisa had arranged a nice bouquet out of his selection.
The elevator pinged, indicating he'd reached his floor. Taking a deep breath he exited through the opening doors.
"You're late," Felicity greeted him, getting up from where she'd been perched on the edge of her desk and walking up to him with her tablet in her hand. "You were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago. And believe me when I say that there are more fun ways to start my day than by having Isabel pin me with one of her disapproving and, frankly, condescending glares, because I can't manage to get you to your meetings on time." She stopped right in front of him.
While she took a breath she let her eyes wander over his body to take in his appearance. Her eyes lingered on the bouquet in his left hand for a second before shooting up to meet his gaze.
Her eyebrows knit together in a deep frown. "You… you bought her flowers?"
He looked down to the colorful arrangement. "Uh, no, I actually picked these myself this morning. Well, technically I had help from Raisa, but you know… And yeah, this is also why I'm running late."
At that he could see her face morph from the previous exasperation at his tardiness into… resignation?
Before he could analyze her reaction further, she huffed out an "oh" and turned around to head back to her desk, shoulders slumped a little bit.
But before she could make two steps, Oliver's right hand darted out and his fingers curled around her wrist, effectively stopping her in her tracks.
"Felicity," he said softly, unable to keep the smile off his face.
"What?" she asked and turned around, scowl firmly in place.
"I didn't bring the flowers for her. I brought them for you." With that he lifted his other hand and held the bouquet out to her with slightly raised eyebrows and a little nod to encourage her to take it.
The scowl was replaced by surprise. "For me? That's… uh… why?" she asked, genuinely curious.
He let out a deep breath. "Because I still feel bad for yesterday. I shouldn't have snapped like that…"
"No, Oliver, it's fine, we talked about this. It's all good," she said with a smile, while giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. "You don't have to do this."
He nodded his head lightly and considered her words for a moment. "Okay. But I want to do this," he replied, offering her the bouquet again accompanied with a genuine smile. "Plus, Diggle gave me some of his best disapproving looks on the ride home yesterday and this morning."
Felicity let out a laugh. "Yeah, I think that he liked that I told you to get your head out of your ass."
Her eyes fell down to the flowers and she finally took them from his hands.
"Thank you, they're beautiful."
"I figured you're not the store-bought-bouquet-of-roses type of girl. And this," he nodded down to the multicolored wild flowers, "seemed more like you."
She stepped forward and engulfed him in a hug that took both of them by surprise, the flowers squashed in between their bodies.
"Thank you," she murmured into his chest. "This means a lot."
He was about to answer when he felt a sharp prick at the side of his neck. Out of a reflex one of his hands shot up to smack his neck only to feel his fingers crush something small. He furrowed his eyebrows and look down at his hand where he found the little assailant.
Felicity let go of him and fixed him with a skeptical look. "Did it get you?"
"Yeah, the little guy packed quite a punch. That actually hurt a little bit."
"Oh, don't be a wuss, Oliver," she huffed out. "And who says that that wasn't a little girl with a mean punch? The lighting isn't good enough here. Come on over to the windows and I'll take a look at it."
"Nah, it's fine," Oliver replied, lifting his other hand to scratch at the sting, but Felicity was faster and swatted his hand away.
"Don't do that." She grabbed his hand and dragged him over to her desk where she put the flowers down.
"Really, Felicity, this isn't necessary. Isabel is literally gonna rip my head off if I don't meet her in the conference room soon."
"Sit," she directed him to her chair and put both hands on his shoulders and pressed him down gently. She leaned closer to examine the wound, leaving him with front row seats to stare down her cleavage.
He quickly averted his gaze but a lump formed in his throat and he cleared his throat, squirming under the light touch of her fingers against his kin. When that didn't seem to help he cleared his throat again. He felt his pulse rise.
"Is it just me or is it getting hot in here," he croaked out, shocked to find his voice reduced to a hoarse whisper.
She looked at him pointedly, but wasn't able to hide the small blush spreading over her cheeks.
He swallowed heavily, still not able to get that lump out of his throat. "That's not…" he started, but Felicity quickly interjected.
"I don't see the stinger, but the area around the sting is red and a little swollen."
Oliver just nodded, not really hearing what she was saying over the blood rushing in his ears. His hands moved up to his collar to loosen the tie.
He took a shaky breath, only to realize it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe.
"Oliver?"
"Fel…" he started but quickly realized that he was barely able to form the words. "Can't…."
His hand moved up to his throat that was currently absolutely failing at cooperating with him.
His mouth hung a little open, croaking noises but no words coming out. His eyes widened in shock and an uneasy feeling of panic started to surround his chest.
He felt Felicity's fingers searching for his pulse point at his throat while staring down into his panic filled eyes.
"Oh shit," he heard her grind out between clenched teeth.
"Oliver, look at me," she said firmly and he could feel her cool hands coming to rest on his cheeks, framing his face and forcing him to look at her.
The coolness of her hands felt good against his overheated skin and he closed his eyes at the momentary relief. He took another unsteady breath.
"Oliver!" His eyes snapped open again. "Just concentrate on me, okay?" It was more an order than a question and so he obliged, letting his eyes settle on hers.
"I think you're having an allergic reaction. It's very important that you stay calm, so I can help you. Do you understand?"
His miniscule nod was enough for her and she swirled around to grab her phone, always keeping one hand on the side of his face, her thumb stroking gently over his sweaty skin.
"Felicity?" Diggle's voice came over the speaker.
"Dig, where are you?"
"In the elevator. What's going on?"
"Listen, I need you to call an ambulance for Oliver, I think he's having an anaphylactic reaction. He has difficulty breathing and he's hot. Not 'hot' as in I wanna jump him because he's ridiculously handsome… not that he's not…"
"Felicity, focus!" came Diggle's sharp reply over the phone.
"Right, just call an ambulance and get here fast," she said and hung up to turn back to Oliver who was barely managing to gasp for air.
"No, no, no. Oliver, I need you to breathe," she pleaded and seeing this usually strong man in front of her fighting for his life, let the wall of false bravado crumble down and shatter into a million pieces. A few stray tears made their way down her cheek at seeing the look of pure panic in his eyes.
And then he didn't take another breath.
"Oliver! Breathe!" she basically screamed at him, both of her hands gripping his head firmly. "Breathe!"
And he wanted to. If only to stop the anguish that was rising in her eyes. But he couldn't take that lifesaving breath. His throat felt like it had swollen shut and he just couldn't get his body to react to his commands to fight this. To fight for his life. Like he had so often on the island and after coming back.
He looked at the woman standing in front of him, with tears streaming down her face and a desperate look in her eyes. He could see her mouth moving, could even make out that she was saying his name, but he couldn't hear her.
With a last surge of concentration he brought up one hand to cup her face. His finger sifting through her blonde locks and ghosting over her soft skin.
That's when it hit him and his eyes widened in shock at the realization. For the first time in so very long he didn't want to die.
Now that his fate was out of his hands. Now that there wasn't anything he could do to delay the inevitable.
He didn't want to die.
He had something to live for. Someone to live for. Someone who truly cared about him, despite knowing what he was capable of. Someone he truly cared about. Someone he really wanted to be with because he could actually picture a future with her.
A tear slipped down his cheeks. There was so much he wanted to tell her and now because he had been too stubborn he'd never get to tell her.
And then darkness settled over him.
"No! Oliver! Do not leave me. Do you hear me? Do not leave me!" She screamed at him, shaking his lifeless body frantically.
From a distance she heard the distinct 'ding' from the elevator.
"Dig! He's not breathing."
The older man rushed over and moved his hand to feel for a pulse.
"Damnit." He quickly grabbed Oliver by his suit and heaved his lifeless body out of the chair and down to lay him on the floor. "The ambulance is four minutes out."
Starting chest compressions he stared up to meet Felicity's scared gaze. "Felicity, focus. When I say 'now' I need you to ventilate him twice, okay?"
She nodded in response and crouched down next to Oliver's head.
"Now!"
Her one hand lifted his neck and tilted his head back a little bit, while the other pinched his nose. She took a deep breath only to blow it out into his mouth and quickly repeating the action. Yeah, this was really not how she imagined 'kissing' him for the first time.
Diggle started the chest compressions again.
"Is there a first aid kit on the floor? Our best chance is to give him epinephrine to reverse the symptoms."
"Epinephrine. Holy shit, why didn't I think of this?" she cried out and slapped her hand to her forehead.
"What?" Diggle asked irritatedly.
"I have freaking Epipen in my purse. I'm such an idiot."
"No, no, no, Felicity, that's good. That's perfect. Go get it after the next ventilation."
She quickly nodded and waited to ventilate Oliver again. After that she moved over to grab her purse and held up the Epipen triumphantly.
"Now." She ventilated Oliver again and moved down to his legs. Taking off the safety cap of the pen and pushing it into his clothed thigh. Ten agonizing seconds later she removed it and rubbed over the injection site.
She moved back to his head waiting for Diggle's sign to ventilate him again.
After 15 more torturously slow seconds, Oliver suddenly came to with a shuddering intake of breath.
"Oh thank God", she whispered and cupped his face.
He took a few more steadying breaths, never breaking eye contact with her, while her fingers skimmed through his short hair.
The 'ding' from the elevator informed them of the arriving paramedics. After briefing them on what happened, they decided it would be best if he'd be checked out at the hospital just to make sure everything was fine. When Oliver opened his mouth to protest, Felicity fixed him with a stern look and in the end it took threatening to quit both of her jobs to make him finally cave in.
Standing in the elevator, because obviously Oliver had refused to lie down on the stretcher, Felicity pushed him into the corner so he could at least lean against the wall, still looking like death warmed over.
Facing him and holding one of his hands in her own to reassure him and herself that everything was going to be okay, she finally let out a shuddering breath, letting the events from just a few minutes ago wash over her.
"Hey," she heard his voice, still a little hoarse. One hand cupped her face and made her look up to him. "Thank you."
She just nodded in response, overwhelmed by the sincerity in his voice and the raw and unfiltered emotions in his eyes.
A smile spread across his face.
She tilted her head in an unspoken question.
"So…. you think I'm ridiculously handsome, huh?" he asked with a cheeky grin.
She let out huff of air and swatted his chest playfully, before her expression turned serious.
"We'll talk about that later."
He felt her hand settle over his heart, her index finger tapping lightly, mimicking his heartbeat.
"Later," he breathed out, realizing that there actually was a 'later' and maybe even a 'happily ever after'.
***** The End *****