Felicity Smoak sat in mute horror as the foundations of the foundry and the rest of the eastern Glades shook around her. The shocks and quakes rolling continuously threatening everything around her to collapse in on itself and swallow the entirety of the Glades along with her. Her horror growing greater with every passing second, as the camera CCTV footage from across the Glades blinked from sight on her computer monitors.
Perhaps it was this rapid loss of visuals from across the Glades which made that sinking horror so much a reality. It was proof that it wasn't Felicity's over-active imagination playing tricks upon her as the remaining sources of footage showed the worsening situation taking place outside the lair.
She watched helplessly as hundreds fled in terror, desperately trying to out-run the gaping chasms which split open the roads and pathways. She dimly registered in the back of her mind that the damage to some extent was at least contained.
A sudden and violent aftershock caused the ground beneath her the lurch alarmingly, jerking her back to reality making her realise that although she was safe for now in the foundry, Digg and Oliver were still out there, in the midst of all this chaos.
Gasping in fear, Felicity hurriedly flicked on her comm link, "Oliver!?" Felicity sobbed, praying for a reply, she desperately tipped her head back slightly, blinking repeatedly as Oliver demanded in return, "Are you Okay?"
Felicity gulped and nodded in reply before answering verbally, "Yeah." A bang behind her caused her to jump with a gasp as a light exploded from falling debris. She tried desperately to hold back her sobs but one escaped as she tried to continue to talk to Oliver. She needed to hear his voice again, prove to herself he really was okay. "The damage seems to be contained-". She stopped abruptly to shallow harshly before continuing, "On the east side, past Pole Street."
Despite bracing herself before she finished, Felicity still flinched as Oliver breathed Laurel's name over the comm link. She distantly heard Digg assuring Oliver he was fine and to go. Rationally she knew, that, of course Oliver had to check on Laurel, that the Glades, at the minute was like hell on earth and that Oliver needed to be sure that Laurel was okay, just like he'd do for anyone else. But it still hurt none-the-less.
She wasn't sure how long she sat there as the ground and walls shook around her, as the debris fell but she was jerked back into focus by the sounds of screaming in her ear. It was then that she noticed that Oliver in his hurry had forgotten to disconnect the comm link, but as she began to turn her own comm off, she registered Laurel voice screaming Tommy's name in the background. For the second time that day, Felicity Smoak found herself frozen, unable to move.
She distantly heard Tommy speak, his voice weak and strained, "I'm sorry…"
"Don't apologise." The agony and sadness Felicity heard in Oliver's voice caused her to unconsciously rub her own chest over her heart. How desperately she wanted to be there in person, to comfort him, both of them. She couldn't help but feel this dreadful, awful pit building in her stomach.
"I was angry and jealous, I …. I am my father-". Biting her lip she listened to Oliver fervent response cutting over whatever else Tommy was trying to say. "No, no you're not!"
There was a brief pause before she heard Tommy's voice again and she flinched at his question. Tommy sounded like a little boy and not the good, torn man Felicity and discovered him to be over the past months. As she had gotten to know Oliver, she felt in a little bit, she had also gotten to know Tommy as well.
"Did you kill him?" Her heart beat heavily in her chest, she could practically feel the pounding sound imitated in her own head as a roaring sound filled her ears. Despite it, she heard Oliver's whispered white lie. "No." She barely registered Tommy's whispered, "Thank you". Before that building feeling of dread erupted from her stomach and an ache enveloped her chest as Oliver's anguished voice cracked over the link. "Tommy!?" Felicity couldn't help the sob that caught in her throat and she quickly muted her comm before the sobs that were caught, broke free as she listened to Oliver whisper, "It should have been me." Her breath catching, Felicity squeezed her eyes shut as she listened to Oliver beg. "Open your eyes Tommy." Felicity slumped back in her chair as the ruckus from behind her caused by the falling debris of the foundry disappeared, cupping her hands over her eyes and sobbing. She heard Oliver brokenly beg once last time, "Open your eyes…"
Suddenly a high pitched screech and rumbling groaning filled her ears, as a large piece of debris fell, crashing onto her desk and smashing her monitors. Felicity tipped backwards in her chair and crashed to the ground away from, her now collapsed desk and workbench. Her head throbbed painfully but she pushed herself into a sitting position and her hand landed on her tablet. Luckily it had been, as far as she could tell, spared from the damage of the falling debris. Felicity knew that the foundry, although it may still be standing and could in fact remain that way throughout the rest of the aftershocks, the foundations had to be, to some extent compromised and that she would be better off away from the Glades. She had to get out now, before the aftermath of the earthquake truly began, looters, thieves and violent elements would emerge quickly, taking advantage of the situation. Anyway, she needed to find and somehow get to Oliver. Gathering her tablet and coat off the back of her chair and handbag, felicity spun on her heel towards the staircase.
But as she reached the stairs leading to the club entrance a violent aftershock caused her to lose her balance. As she hit the ground a louder crash echoed, and the staircase that had been her exit route from the basement crashed to the ground narrowly missing Felicity's frozen form. Perhaps it was that moment, that Felicity's fear truly was made real, and panic overwhelmed her as she desperately scrambled towards the back hallway that led to a rarely used back entrance that had only recently been installed, so that Felicity, Digg and Oliver could come and go without raising suspicion from the club staff and patrons. Felicity couldn't help the sob that broke free when she saw that part of the ceiling had not only collapsed and blocked the doorway but the big passageway that should have been present had been reduced to a small limited gap. Desperately Felicity turned her comm back on and called repeatedly for help. But no one answered. Digg was probably being patched up due to the injuries he'd sustained and Oliver, Oliver was too wrapped up his grief to think, let alone come to her rescue. She was alone, trapped.
When the remaining lights flicked and the industrial bulbs blew, throwing sparks wildly before the entire foundry fell into darkness. Felicity tried but could no longer hold herself together any more, crumbling against a wall. The sobs built in her chest and tore raggedly from her throat, tears sliding unendingly down her face and dripping off her chin. She didn't bother to try and stem the flow, the despair was overwhelming. It was only when she had gotten used to the deafening silence of the foundry once her sobs stopped that she heard it. "Felicity, Felicity? Can you hear me?" perhaps it was the fact that she was in shock but it took her a few minutes to realise that she could in fact hear a voice, it was coming from over the comm link. "H-Hello?" felicity stammered in a broken whisper. "Felicity, what's wrong? Where are you?" A voice demanded hoarsely. It was Oliver, he'd heard her. "I-I-I'm still in the F-foundry. The aftershocks, the tremors. Oliver I-I-I'm trapped. The doorway its-" her voice cut off as wrecking sobs overtook her.
Felicity distantly acknowledged that Oliver was saying something else, but her mind struggled to grasp what it was he was trying to tell her. The fear and all-consuming terror that she had been so desperately fighting had overtaken everything, especially now that she knew there was no way of escape. All that Felicity now knew was that she was terribly afraid, so just like she had done when she was a child when her mother often went through one of her bad patches, she slid to the ground, curled herself up into the foetal position on floor and rocked herself. Felicity knew that she would mostly likely die here, alone. Her childhood, although not the worst had been dismal. She'd lost her innocence and joy long before other children her age, caring for herself and her mother when she'd been in no fit state to care for her own daughter. The amount of friendships in Felicity's life had also been strongly lacking, perhaps due to her high intelligence which had showed from a young age, which combined with her unstable home-life made making friends her own age next to impossible. Her adult life had been little better, despite graduating with not only honours but distinctions from MIT and landing a job at QC, promotion had eluded her and her life had been little better until Oliver Queen had returned from the dead. There was so much she still wanted to do, travel the world, meet someone to fall in love with who would love her in return, get married and have a family. Do all the things for her children that her own other should have done for her daughter but had failed to.