A hell of a week

If Felicity would've know the week that was waiting for her, she probably wouldn't get out of bed. Or maybe she would?

Monday

When her alarm went off at six forty five, Felicity couldn't help a grunt. She had been sleeping for less than four hours, after spending the night trying (without success) to catch a robber/bomber that had desolated Starling city the last four days. Oliver, Diggle and she herself tried to catch him last night, again, but they were too late and he went away with the money after almost killed the security guard. She had stayed in the foundry trying to find something that would help them until Oliver had compelled her to go home.

She grabbed her phone and turned off the alarm with a growl and walked to the shower, hoping that it would wake her up.

Oliver wasn't there when she arrived to QC, as usual, so she sat on her desk with a coffee and a donut while looking up the agenda for that day.

Soon her thoughts were lost in the events of that night, she knew that there was something that she was missing, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She tried thinking of how did all started. One week before, a coffee shop had blown up, and soon after a library. Fortunately the bombs weren't too powerful and the places were closed, so there weren't victims. What they did had, was a recording of him, and with facial recognition they found out the man was Max Lowell, a low life criminal. The next bomb was set in a bank -Diggle said that he thought the first two bombs had been try outs- he had robbed two banks already putting bombs in the vault doors, not minding if he hurt anyone on his way.

She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Oliver approached to her until he clasped his fingers in front of her, making her break her trance.

"Earth calling Felicity" Oliver was in front of her, a grin of amusement in his face

"Oh, hey... Sorry" She shocked her head

"Don't worry, what were you thinking?"

"This Bomber is making me crazy, I know that I'm missing something and I just... I feel useless" Oliver placed his hand over hers and said

"We are going to catch this guy Felicity, I'm sure, and that will be thanks to you, you're not useless, far from it, you've kept Diggle and I alive more times that I can count, you just have to relax okay?" he squeezed her hand before let it go.

She took a deep breath, he was right, she just had to ease her mind, so she would try to focus on their QC day.

"Thanks" She smiled at him, he did it back

"Always, " he winked

"Okay, " she sighed "You have a meeting in half an hour with Mr. Pratt about the new investments, the files are on your desk, and I would read them If I were you, if he asks you something you should know and don't he will get angry, and for him it would reflect bad on me for some reason, and that man can be mean, so please, read them, so I don't have to listen to his grunts" Oliver smiled again at her rambling, and with a nod he went to his desk.

Soon after his second meeting Oliver went back to his office, exhausted, he knew Queen Consolidated was his responsibility now, but so many numbers talk gave him a headache.

Five minutes later, after rubbing his temples he was about to ask Felicity for some painkillers when through the glass he watched her raise her fist and smile triumphant. So he got up from his chair and walk the small distance between the two desks, when he stood up in front of telicity, she was still smiling.

"What is it?" he asked

"You were right, as soon as I cleared my mind I could think properly, and I think I found out the way to stop him" felicity looked again at her computer screen, meanwhile Oliver looked at her, proudly. 'That's my girl' he thought, but he didn't say it out loud, he just stared at her, smiling.

Four hours later his smile was completely vanished

"Absolutely not, we are NOT doing that!" Oliver was looking at her, almost angry.

"Why not?"her eyes were pleading, she wanted to do this, it was important to her.

"Because it's too dangerous" Felicity looked at him, frustrated.

"Oliver, I saw in the SCPD archives that this guy's bombs have an electronic timer that has to be activate in a 15 meter radio at least, which makes sense for him, because he has to be near to take the money and get out but far enough to not be caught in the explosion. He's smart, he's very smart, and that same timer can go boom if you try to deactivate it without a password. But I'm smarter than him, and If I find the frequency of the timer I can send a magnetic pulse that mix up the timer, making it 'believe'" she said making the quotation marks with her hands " that it already exploded and deactivate the bomb" Oliver glanced at her in disbelief

"You want to hack the bomb?"

"No, well, yes, … short off"

"Can't you do it from here o teach us how to do it?" He pointed to Diggle and himself, he just didn't want her on the field again.

"No, I need to be there with my tablet to find the right frequency, it would be too long to teach you guys, beside, there could be complications in site... I need to do it myself"

"I don't like it"

"Where's the problem Oliver, I've been on the field before?"

"Felicity, this guy is dangerous, yesterday he almost killed that guard, he doesn't mind if he hurts someone on his way to the money"

"Well, I know, but I have something that guard didn't"

"And what is that"

" I have you two," Oliver furrowed "Oliver I can catch the signal from the bombs from here," she pointed to her desk "but if I want to stop this guy, if WE want to stop him, I have to be there"

Oliver sighed, he still wasn't sure, for him to think that something happened to her was unimaginable. That's why it was so difficult for him having her in the field, because he couldn't concentrate, but he couldn't tell her that.

"Oliver" she continued, "I need you to trust in me and that I can do this, as I much as I trust you will protect me" Oliver stared at Diggle that was still silent in front of them.

"What do you think?"

"To be honest, I don't like it more than you do" felicity rolled her eyes "but I'm sick of this guy, I want to catch him, he's going to attack today again, and I think, she's our best option"
Oliver sighed again, he knew they were right even he hated the idea.

"Okay" felicity smiled triumphant when she heard him "but we'll do it my way, and you will do everything we told you to do okay?"

"Yes Sir" she said with a big grin in her face

They were planning their strategy for over an hour, although it was plain simple. Once the computers pick up the signal they would have about 30 minutes to deactivate the bomb and catch the bad guy. At first Diggle said he would go with Felicity to have her back, but Oliver insisted in stay with her, pleading that Diggle was more than qualified to take the bomber out, and that, in case something went wrong, he was more capacitated to deal with the explosion.

It had not past one hour when the computers started beeping. According to them, the bomb was on Starling National Bank, and after go over the plan one more time, the team was on their way in minutes, Dig with Felicity in his car and Oliver on the bike.

"Ok guys," Felicity said as they gathered at the bank entrance "I have hacked the security cameras, Lowell is already in there, and it looks like the bomb is all set up. I've set up a timer, we have about 23 minutes to do this" Oliver looked at her, he knew she was nervous, but she tried to hide it, he smiled at her, he couldn't be more proud.

They went into the bank through the same place Lowell had, a busted back door. Once they were inside, they parted. After a quick glance at the security cameras in Felicity's tablet Dig went to the front of the back, to create a diversion for Lowell while Oliver and Felicity headed to the vault to defuse the bomb.

When he arrived at his destination, Diggle saw something on the floor. As he approached, he saw in the dark, that it was a man, a guard, surrounded by blood. He checked his pulse on his neck, but he was already dead. He opened up the comm in his ear,

"Oliver, I just found the guard, he's dead, a shot to the chest" Diggle heard the anger noise that Oliver did, but he didn't say anything, and John knew why, he didn't want to worry Felicity.

"Be careful" he heard seconds later. They closed the link and John went to one of the counter and started throwing things away, trying to make all the noise he could. Soon enough, he heard steps coming towards him, so he hid behind a desk, waiting for Lowell to appear.

Oliver and Felicity were hidden in the dark, waiting for Diggle to distract Lowell and get to the bomb. They were in a corner, with Oliver arms around her, pulling her again his chest, trying to make no sound. As soon as they heard the big racket in the hall, they knew the plan had started and it wouldn't be too long till they watched him go to see what was happening, and perfectly on point, seconds later Lowell crossed the corridor, without noticing their presence. When he saw him, Oliver clenched his fists, wanting to go for him in that moment, but he couldn't leave Felicity alone, so he took a deep breath and waited.

After a few minutes Oliver let go of Felicity, and once he was sure it was safe, he gestures with his head to Felicity to get out of their hideout. After two turns to the left, they entered the room where the vault's door was. As they had imagined the bomb was already there, like a really big insect, full of lights and cables.

With just a nod he whispered "go" to felicity and in merely seconds her tablet was on her hands and she was tipping frantically to find the codes.

In that moment Oliver opened his comm. In time to hear the fight between Diggle and the bomber, it seemed it was a close combat, cause Oliver could hear clearly the sound of a fist coming upon a face, or a chest, as well as the grunt of a man getting a punch.

Oliver was getting anxious by the minute, even more when Diggle's comm. Went mute and he didn't know what just happened with his friend.

"Come on felicity" he urged her, his back to her, as he watched the door.

"Give me a minute, I'm almost there!"

"I don't know if we have a minute, you have to hurry"

"gotcha!" Felicity almost scream made him turned around to see all the lights in the bomb went off, but in doing so, he turned his back to the door, so he couldn't see when Max Lowell showed up on the door, a gun in his hand, aiming for him, he just watched as Felicity looked past him, and her smile turned fear.

And right then, in the vault, three shots and a scream were heard.
"Felicity! No!"