Title: A Life of Fighting Crime
Pairing: Olicity
Rating: K+
Summary: Takes place during 2x23. A bit of Olicity. A bit of what happened when Slade came for Felicity. A bit of fluff. Hope you enjoy!
A/N: Based on a question from a tumblr blog about any fics of the time when Slade had Felicity captive.
Knowing there was a plan hadn't made this any less difficult. Well, it wasn't really a plan, just Oliver making sure that Felicity was really alright with this. Really, because if not he could find another way. But she assured him she was up for it, even though she had no idea what 'it' was. Whatever it took to bring Slade down once and for all. They had all lost too much to not be one hundred percent invested in the war on Slade Wilson.
She'd been so caught off guard by his words, so surprised by what he'd said, that she hadn't even felt what he was pressing into her hands. In fact, it wasn't until he'd broken their gaze, leaving her there, dazed and expressionless that she felt the tube that her fingers were now curled around. The cure. She had slipped it into her pocket immediately.
Apparently Oliver never intended to keep her out of the action. After all, hadn't Felicity herself told him to force Slade to out-think them all? She was bait. She knew that now. But standing here now in the Queen manor, waiting for Slade to find her was more nerve wracking than anything she'd done before. At least every other time she'd helped on a mission she had some sort of tech to keep her busy. But now it was just sitting on the couch, waiting for someone to storm in and kidnap her.
And even though she knew Oliver said what he had to say- it didn't make it any easier to hear. Those three little words. Eight letters. Too much meaning. They were her only companion now; the oversized elephant in an otherwise empty room. In the heat of the moment it was easy to overlook the words, knowing they were part of the trap. But now that she was alone, it seemed that the words still lingered in the air, taunting her.
Felicity knew Oliver well enough by now to know when he was lying. But this night with everyone's tensions running on overload, it was easy to wonder just how honest he had been when he spoke them. He had fooled her, either way.
"Ms. Smoak," a voice cooed from the darkened hallway.
Felicity sat straighter, knowing that she would have to run, to play the part of the helpless IT girl that Slade thought she was. She was grateful he had come himself. If he'd sent one of his mirakuru soldiers she might not make it in one piece. But Slade knew what was at stake, and he wouldn't want to hurt Felicity before Oliver could watch, and besides, he had learned to control his actions on the drug… hadn't he?
She glanced at the stairs when Slade chuckled. "It will do you no good to run, my dear," he said through a laugh. "It will only make things harder for you."
Felicity swallowed hard, pushed her glasses further up her nose as she peered into the hallway, seeing the darkness now take the shape of Slade. There was a gun in his hand, which was clearly unnecessary and just meant to scare her. Job well done, she thought bitterly.
"What do you want with me?" Felicity croaked, feeling foolish at how helpless and scared she sounded.
Another chuckle from the shadowed figure moving toward her. "I think you know," he said. And then two men were beside her, pulling her to her feet, out of the house, into Slade's limo. They shoved her in the back and Slade got in beside her. Felicity sat against the leather seat, feeling her heart drumming out a panicked rhythm in her ears.
"You want me to get to Oliver," she said, her voice slightly less hopeless now.
Slade ran a hand down her cheek in mocking intimacy. Felicity shrank away from him, pushing herself up against the door. She reminded herself over and over that she had told Oliver she was okay with this. That she would do whatever it took. Somehow, in the back of her mind, she was shocked and awed by the thought that Oliver trusted her enough to make her such a crucial part of his plan. No, not a part of the plan- she was the plan.
They drove for what seemed like hours but must have only been moments before Slade grabbed a hold of her wrist- hard enough to leave a bruise she was sure- and pulled her out of the limo and into a building.
I love you, do you understand? His words still clung to her skin like rain after a storm; like heat after his touch had disappeared. She did not understand. She forced herself to think about Oliver, to train her mind on him, instead of everything going on around her with Slade.
She caught a glimpse of Laurel in a nearby room as they passed, but Slade kept her close to him, and when he called Oliver and told him that Felicity was there with him, she imagined she could hear the tense silence through the receiver, Oliver's fear for her life. And just like that she could see them there, back in the mansion, standing so close her fingers ached to reach out and push through his hair. The concern in his voice when he told her to stay there, that he couldn't let her get hurt. He had seemed so adamant, so motivated, so sincere. And those three little words, the ones she had imagined him saying countless times- hearing them come out of his mouth she almost wondered if she had imagined them again. If her mind were putting words in his mouth instead of them really coming from him. Her stomach fluttered thinking about it, wondering about it. Had they been truthful? It was usually so easy for her to tell. But tonight with everything else going on around them, even those few quiet moments were charged with so much energy it was hard to tell what was real.
I love you too- the words had been on the tip of her tongue, and the moment he was gone she was instantly grateful that she hadn't spoken them aloud. How foolish she would have felt if he had been just acting. Felicity swallowed hard; she was done feeling foolish around Oliver. She had learned the hard way that her feelings for him were unrequited. So now why did he once again have her questioning that?
"I have to say, if I'd known about his feelings for you weeks ago, this could have all been over back then," Slade said with a grin, stroking her blonde hair and sending a shiver down Felicity's spine. "I had my suspicions of course, but between you and the Lance sisters it was quite a toss up for a while."
Felicity narrowed her eyes. "Oliver will come for me. He will save me. And he will beat you once and for all."
Slade let out a hearty laugh. "You've got sass," he said. "I'll give you that much." And then he leaned in close, his breath against her ear. "But the only way your 'hero' and you are leaving here is without a pulse."
Felicity tensed as Slade grabbed a sword, pulled her close to himself and pushed the blade to her throat. His voice boomed through the empty air but she knew, out there, somewhere, was Oliver. He had come at last. Come to save them all. She still wasn't sure how this was going to end. The cure was nearly burning a hole in her pocket. Slade was so close to finding it. All he had to do was move his hand three inches to the left and he'd have it grasped in his hand.
And then there Oliver was, coming around the corner, bow drawn ready for the showdown that Slade had been foreshadowing for so long. Felicity forced herself to keep her composure. One wrong move could send Slade or Oliver into an attack. One wrong step could force the cold blade into her neck. It wasn't that she wasn't scared, although once Oliver arrived, she couldn't help but feel relief flood every fiber of her being. She knew that Oliver would protect her- whether or not she was his 'beloved' as Slade called her. She was still his friend, still his ally, still his partner. And Felicity knew enough about Oliver to know that all of those things still meant that he would put her life above his own; that he would protect her at any cost.
Much of what happened after she shoved the cure into Slade's neck was a blur. Someone tried to take her home, but the only place she'd let them leave her was the Foundry. Despite being broken into and ruined, it was the only place she really felt safe. And so, when Oliver returned hours later, stumbling, bloodied and soaked through with sweat, he found her righting tables and replacing lightbulbs.
Without a word between them, Oliver folded Felicity into his arms, and she could feel his heightened heartbeat against her ear, the ferocity with which he held her, grateful that in the midst of losing so much, he still hadn't lost everything.
Felicity felt tears stinging at her eyes but she forced the emotion to stay locked up, and when Oliver finally released her and told her what a great job she'd done, she thought that there was just a bit more pride in his words then there would have otherwise been. His eyes shone a little clearer, his mouth ticked up in just the hint of a smile.
She fell asleep on the plane ride to Lian Yu. She woke up with her head on his shoulder and his even breathing beside her. When she opened her eyes and found that he had been sleeping too, she laid her head back against him, and after an exchanged smile with Diggle, closed her eyes again. Felicity knew that in this line of work there would always be danger; there would always be heartbreak and there would always be the threat of death. But if in the quiet moments between the chaos, they could have this… she might just be okay with a life of fighting crime after all.