A/N: General disclaimers of I don't own anything Arrow but I do own my personal crusade to smother Oliver x Laurel stories underneath a mountain of well-written, much appreciated Oliver x Felicity stories. Add one to the tally rah?

Darkness descended upon the Glades in the form of a vengeful The Hood and light seemed to flee from wherever he stalked. His normally graceful movements were accentuated with a furious intent and more than once he broke a few shingle roofs upon his stomped landings. Despite the fact that Oliver's anger colored his vision red, his quick parkour movements carried him across the distance to the warehouse where so many of his precious people were held hostage by mob boss Vittorio Giordano.

"Slow down and get your head in the game man. I can hear your footsteps through the earpiece. We'll get him and rescue everyone Oliver. Play our game and not his."

Diggle's words didn't change Oliver's question but a steady breath later and his footsteps returned to the near silent status that had made him so infamous to Starling City's gritty, dirty underbelly. He stopped a few blocks away from the boathouse in which Giordano held the hostages captive and pulled out a pair of long range, multi-view binoculars. A quick perusal of the surrounding blocks showed the Starling Police out in force with multiple special tactics law enforcement teams as well and an entire army of media personnel. Spotlights from the helicopters cut across the rooftops in rapid fashion and Oliver knew that keeping his presence hidden for as long as possible would be the key to coming out victorious in the ensuing melee.

"Your scan was good Oliver and I have a route mapped out for you here on the desktop. Look for a single air conditioning unit on the west side corner of the boathouse and that will be your ticket in. Giordano's goons are keeping the good guys at bay with contained fire and we both know Giordano has plenty of ammo to spare so we can't wait this out. Move man. Go!"

Once again Diggle's words proved to be an excellent catalyst and with a focused, honed vision of his route, Oliver sprinted across the rooftop and leaped across the average sized gap to a nearer building. He ducked behind a chimney, waited a few seconds and when neither side called out his presence over the radio channels (Oliver had Diggle patch into both Giordano and Starling City's police channels), Oliver moved again. He flitted across the rooftop as silent and as invisible as a shadow until he reached the air conditioning unit Diggle mentioned.

"I'm at the entrance. Am I clear?"

"You're clear. Keep moving."

In under a minute Oliver had the grate unscrewed from the air conditioning unit, slipped inside and pulled the grate back into place to cover his tracks. He shimmied down the tight ventilation shaft and crouched behind a secondary grate on the ground of the second floor to the boathouse. One of Giordano's henchmen walked past and Oliver kicked the grate open as quietly as he could. He crawled out of the air duct, crouched on the walkway and looked around.

"Giordano certainly didn't spare any manpower did he? Give me another pan around the room and we can plot our next move from there."

Oliver clicked his earpiece once to acknowledge Diggle's order (a radio communication trick he learned from the former special forces operative) and when he finished his second panoramic view he slunk through the shadows to the nearest henchmen. With a vicious twist from Oliver, the henchmen's neck snapped and Oliver hid him in a maintenance room. He repeated this process twice more and ten minutes later the second floor of the boathouse was henchmen free but the maintenance room was crammed full of corpses.

"Hurry up! I want to escape into the night before midnight and the only way out of here is through that tunnel you lot are clearing. I want us to have a quick exit in case Starling City's finest or the damn Hood have quick trigger fingers. Bow fingers in The Hood's case."

"Yes boss."

As the henchmen moved to carry out Giordano's order so to did Oliver move and he began to set his traps. For this mission Oliver had designed and created special arrows that had laser tags on the feathers of the arrows shafts. When activated, the tags would pair up with their respective partners and create a laser 'net' so to speak and when the 'net' was triggered, the arrows would explode. Essentially, Oliver's arrows created an invisible wall of explosives and Oliver grimly shot four arrow explosive 'walls'. These walls were designed to be choke points and funnel as many of Giordano's henchmen as possible to make shooting them easier.

"Detective Lance is trying to convince the Commissioner to let him lead an elite special tasks force in Oliver. We don't have that much time."

Once the final trap was set, Oliver discarded his empty quiver and readjusted his second quiver, which was full of as many arrows as he could fit into the garment. He also readjusted both mini arrow bracelets on his wrists and did his final gear check with another set of mini arrow holsters on his ankles. Oliver knew that he would be a one man wrecking crew since Diggle had to man the computer network in Felicity's absence and he prayed that the arsenal he carried on him would be enough.

"Tunnels just about finished Mr.…aack!"

The first henchmen fell with an arrow sticking out of his throat and the two henchmen that flanked Vittorio Giordano on either side fell with a single arrow apiece lodged in fatal areas. Panic swept over the inside of the boathouse, orders were shouted and grown men with itchy trigger fingers screamed like little boys. The scourge of Starling City's underworld, The Hood had arrived and Death graced his lethal bow.

"Turn on all the lights! Find this blasted son of a bitch and put a bullet in him! Now!"

The inside of the boathouse lit up like the noontime sun and Oliver ducked behind a tall stack of crates. A large explosion ripped through the warehouse as the first trap went off and rapid moving debris cut down anything in its path. Thirty seconds later the second trap went off and Oliver shot a henchman that sprinted up the stairs to the second floor. All out chaos and terror reigned in the boathouse and Oliver kept a steady stream of arrows flying out from behind his cover because he knew the police would sweep in at any moment.

"He's behind those crates! Shoot him!"

At the sound of rapid gunfire Oliver dove over the railing to the ground floor below and rolled to reduce his impact when he met the dirty boathouse floor. He broke a henchman's nose with a vicious knife hand and used the other man as a shield to absorb the bullets headed his way.

"You're outnumbered you idiot! If I die then so do you!"

Knowing that the mob boss was trying to steady his own confidence as well as the confidence of his men, Oliver didn't respond and leaped over a low rising wall on his way to the last two traps in the room. His baiting trick worked, both traps exploded in spectacular fashion and Oliver killed a henchman with a fist to the other man's throat. Vittorio stumbled back, pushed two of his remaining bodyguards in front of him and dashed off further into the boathouse.

"Oliver the police are setting breaching charges. You only have five minutes tops."

Time really was of the essence now and Oliver fired off two arrows in quick succession to drop two straggling henchmen. He kicked in the first door that he came across on the ground floor of the boathouse and ripped off the hood of the person who knelt on the floor.

Laurel.

Oliver didn't say anything, didn't even bother to untie his former girlfriend and moved onto the next room in the long, narrow hallway because the clock was still ticking. A lone henchman spotted him and the two men entered into a brief scuffle but Oliver came out victorious. He kicked in the next door and ripped off the hood of the second person that knelt on the floor. He repeated the process with the second person in the room and breathed easier.

Thea and Moria.

Oliver wanted to comfort Thea as the terror in his younger sister's eyes twisted the icy knife in his gut a little bit more but he had to keep moving. He hoped that his mother would regain her wits soon enough and be able to comfort Thea. An explosion echoed on the far side of the boathouse and the sound spurred Oliver into continued action. He ran out of the room and down the hall to the final room in the hallway.

"Easy does it there Robin Hood. Don't want to have any more premature deaths now do we?"

"Let them go Giordano. You're finished."

"On the contrary I think I should be saying that to you. Drop the bow."

Oliver scanned the room with a slow, measured gaze and despite the fact that Vittorio Giordano stood behind one of the hostages with a pistol pointed at their head and so did his final two henchmen, Oliver liked the odds. He set his bow on the ground and complied with Vittorio's second order to lie down on his back with his hands underneath his head.

"Hit it."

Oliver couldn't see what was going on but a massive explosion ripped through the warehouse and echoes of falling debris could be heard right outside the door. Vittorio laughed and a detonator was tossed by Oliver's head.

"That's the problem with you hero types. So quick to cave when innocent people are in danger. The police can't save anyone now as the entrance to this hallway is now closed off. Now, this is how it's going to work-"

Oliver didn't wait for Vittorio Giordano to finish and fired off two mini-arrows from his ankle holsters. The two remaining henchmen dropped to the ground, dead, and Oliver rolled over a second before Vittorio shot where his head just used to be. Without looking, Oliver fired off another mini-arrow and smiled grimly when he heard Vittorio's shout of painful disbelief.

"Vittorio Giordano, you have failed this city."

Oliver grabbed his bow, stood up and notched an arrow as he stood in front of a now kneeling Vittorio Giordano. Oliver's last mini-arrow had pierced through the hand that Vittorio held the pistol with and Oliver pulled the arrow back as far as it would go.

"No! No please! You don't understand! I was working for-"

Vittorio Giordano fell silent as Oliver shot an arrow through the man's left eye and turned away from the fatal scene. He ripped off the hoods of the last three hostages and the icy fist gripping his chest disappeared at the identity of the three hostages.

Tommy, Walter and…Felicity.

Oliver cut Felicity loose first, followed by Tommy and then Walter. He activated his voice modular and made sure to stand in the shadows as the three former hostages stood up.

"How do we get out? That lunatic sealed us in."

"Stay put until the police arrive and go free the other hostages."

Tommy nodded at Oliver, keeping up his terrified expression and he mouthed 'thank you' to Oliver. Oliver nodded and kicked in the hidden door Diggle had dug up from the schematics. Before anyone could say anything, he disappeared and the door swung shut behind him.

Oliver shot up in bed, the sheet falling to his waist and out of a long trained habit he checked his torso for any wounds. When the cool air from the fan blew across his sweaty skin Oliver knew that the vivid experience hadn't been real but was one of the worst nightmares he had experienced…even while on the island. He swung his legs out of bed and sighed heavily as his feet touched the cool wooden floor.

"Oliver?"

In contrast to the cool air from the fan and the equally as cool wooden floor a warm, feminine hand reached out and traced warm paths down his bare back. Slender, nifty fingers eased their way through and past the scars they could reach and Oliver shouldered when a pair of full, pouty lips kissed the crook of his neck.

"You're all sweaty and it's freezing in here. Did you just finish a workout or something?"

"No Felicity."

Despite the shortness and gruffness of his tone Oliver was thankful for Felicity's physical and silent support. He took another deep breath, which he knew she felt and crawled over Felicity while simultaneously pushing her to the other side of the bed. She made a cute sound of confusion but Oliver laid down and pulled the sheet over them both. He knew the gesture was small, but small, heartfelt gestures like shielding Felicity from the fan he insisted they keep on at night showed what he couldn't say at times. He cared for her deeply.

"You had another nightmare didn't you?"

"Yes."

"You're not crying, excuse me, have something in your eye so I think it's safe to guess that you saved everyone?"

Oliver chuckled and pulled Felicity's nearly naked body towards him. Despite the sweltering summer heat, Oliver slept better if he had a hold on her in some fashion and the contrast of her short silk nightgown versus her smooth skin soothed him as equally as it turned him on. Felicity made herself comfortable in his arms and traced nonsensical gibberish on his bare shoulder with her finger.

"You were allowed to move in with me on two conditions Mr. Queen. Need I remind you again what they were?"

Oliver chuckled and ran a hand down Felicity's back. The woman shivered and pressed a kiss into the crook of his neck.

"Since you're being your normally stoic and silent self, I will remind you one more time. The first condition was that you actually get some sleep and that if you do have trouble sleeping you talk to me. Not shut me out or push me away to try and protect me."

"Felicity…"

"Don't. Don't use that oh so seductive tone of yours and try and steer me away from the conversation to naughty things. Naughty things can come later to good boys who listen to what their girlfriends tell them to do. This is the third time this week you've woken up from a nightmare and I'm worried. So talk to me."

Oliver watched as Felicity wiggled out of his arms and pushed herself up to hover above him. Her nightgown fell away from her chest and despite knowing he teetered on the edge of pissing his girlfriend off, Oliver snuck a glance down at the tempting view. Felicity's full, unsupported breasts almost fell out of her nightgown and the rosy tips teased him.

"Eyes off the fun bags mister or I will make you sleep on the couch. Talk to me Oliver."

With a sigh Oliver pulled himself up and pressed his face into Felicity's generous cleavage. He buried one hand in her hair and ran his other down her back. It took a couple of moments but he sighed as he could feel the tension draining out of him.

"It's the same nightmare for the past couple of nights and it gets more real the more times I dream about it."

"Who's the target?"

"Vittorio Giordano and no, he's not on my father's list."

Oliver felt, more than heard, the relieved sigh she gave but chose to ignore it. Instead, he focused more on how easily her body melded to his and smirked when she lowered herself to sit in his lap. Felicity not so gently pinched him and Oliver sobered up quickly.

"Everyone I care about is a hostage to this mob boss and I team up with Diggle to bring him down. It's a mess because the police are there and he has a small army."

"Somehow though you get through his defenses like you always do and what happens?"

"I rescue Laurel first, then my mother and Thea and burst into the last room. There's three hostages kneeling on the floor with guns pointed at their heads. I kill them all and take the hoods off. It's Tommy, Walter and you. Then I wake up."

By this time Felicity was trying her best to hug Oliver, which resulted in further pressing his face into her breasts, and she let him go with an embarrassed squeak. Oliver didn't say anything to spare his girlfriend even more embarrassment and watched as she tried to dissect him with her eyes.

"I'm good Felicity. I'm good and we're good."

Oliver sat up to meet Felicity halfway for a deep, soul-searching kiss and he laid back down when he had to catch his breath. Felicity let herself fall onto his chest and Oliver grunted as his arms automatically wrapped around her.

"What's the second condition for me staying here again?"

"Oh you have no trouble fulfilling that one mister. None at all."