"- I don't want a wheelchair!"
"Ma'am!"
"Felicity!" it's Oliver, with his stern boom and soft eyes, ready to take over and get his fiance in a wheelchair and out of the hospital. Thea sinks down in the nearest chair and sighs in relief. Finally. "If the kind nurse here says it's hospital policy, maybe we should assume, she knows what she's talking about."
"Oliver - " Felicity's protests aren't necessarily because she hates wheelchairs, but rather, because she's having trouble adjusting to life without use of her legs.
"I know, Licity." he shuffles in between a petulant Felicity on the bed and the nurse rubbing her temples with one hand and holding the wheelchair with the other. "I know this is hard but this is how it has to be."
"I hate this." Felicity's eyes fill with tears behind her glasses.
She's scared and vulnerable and yes, he's seen her like this, but not under these circumstances. Not because she is the injured one. Not because she was the target, not him. She's so used to the roles being reversed that being in such a position, where he's helping her nurse an injury, is making her feel weak and frightened.
"You start physical therapy, next week." Oliver reminds her, pulling her glasses off and passing them to Thea, who puts them in her purse without question. "We'll get through this, Felicity. I promise you. But, in order to burn bridges, you have to cross them. So can you, please, get in this wheelchair and let's go home?"
Felicity nods.
Her shoulders slump forward and her eyes close in defeat. Despite the fact that his heart is currently shredded by her seeming loss of willpower, he carefully gathers her crumpled and fragile frame into his arms, pulling her up into his chest. He presses a kiss into her hair as he lowers her into the wheelchair.
"Felicity Meghan Smoak," he hooks a finger under her chin, lifting her head to face him. "You are a strong, beautiful woman and I have no doubt, you will beat this. You will walk again."
"I hope so."
"You will." Oliver looks up at the nurse and nods, before standing up and moving to Felicity's side. "Thea, you ready?"
"Yeah."
If she notices the white-knuckled grip Oliver and Felicity keep on each other's hands, she says nothing. They are each other's strength; when one falls, the other is there to pick them up, to make them whole again. Thea has no doubt that Felicity will walk again and she knows her brother enough to know that he'll do whatever is necessary to make Felicity feel whole again.
Oliver will be there to take every single step Felicity does.
Without question.
Without complaint.
