End of a Season
A/N I couldn't help myself I'm sorry. I wanted to let my imagination go wild about the end of season 2. I hope you guys like it.
Oliver Queen had been through more than his fair share of life and death situations in his life but he had never experienced fear the way he was feeling now. There were those that assumed that because he donned a leather outfit and a hood that he was immune to the emotions that gripped people. He was the Arrow, a masked vigilante who spent his nights doling out justice to those who dared to prey on the weak, on the helpless.
In this instance, however, he was the weak one. He had been helpless as he watched Slade Wilson trigger an explosion that destroyed the very bedrock that Verdant had been built on. It was not the loss of the club that disturbed him or even the destruction of the Foundry that seemed more of a home that Queen Manor.
No, what mattered to him was that the people he cared about where all there at the moment the explosion had been triggered. That had been Slade's plan from the beginning and Oliver cursed at himself for being blind to it. In his madness Slade blamed Oliver for the death of his beloved Shado. Slade, or Deathstrokke, as he now was being called believed that Oliver had betrayed the brotherhood that they shared. For him not choosing Shado, even if he was trying to protect Sara, was the same as pulling the trigger himself.
Slade did not consider himself villain and that his war against Oliver was a righteous one. That belief made him made even more dangerous for Slade did not want to kill Oliver. At least not yet anyway. First he wanted Oliver to experience the same pain that had been inflicted on him and that meant destroying the lives of all those that had managed to scale the walls Oliver had built around himself.
There was Thea Queen, the sister who had been blissfully unaware of the war going on around her. Oliver knew she had been working on the books at Verdant that night. He thought she would be safer there than at home with his team down below the club. He knew Roy would give his all to protect his sister.
Roy Harper was the ex-con boyfriend turned vigilante worshipper/side kick. He was quick to anger but his devotion to his team and his sister were absolute. He may not have liked Roy at first but he had proven himself an invaluable ally.
Sara Lance, the Black Canary, was more than just his former lover. She was his friend. She had stood by him even though his decision took to take her aboard the Queen's Gambit all those years ago had changed her life irrevocably. Like him, she had forged herself into a weapon, an assassin that was prepared to do what was necessary in their crusade.
John Diggle was the first person to join his team after first returning from the island. He started out as a body guard that his mother had hired to protect him. In Dig he saw a brother in arms that would watch his back when needed. Eventually Oliver opened up to him and the two became friends. It wasn't the type of friendship with Tommy Merlyn where the two sought out trouble wherever they could find it. Dig was more of an older brother that guided when he needed guiding but also scolded him when necessary.
Then finally there was Felicity Smoak. There was simply no way to describe who she was to him. She held many titles: IT girl, friend, partner, and even executive assistant but in their time together Oliver realized that she transcended all of that. Of everyone in his life he had come to rely on her most of all. Not for her talents and skills which were considerable but for who she was. Unlike everyone else around him Felicity had always accepted him for who he was. He wasn't Ollie, or Oliver Queen CEO, or even the Arrow. She saw past all the personas he had erected in order to accomplish his mission. Slowly but surely she had chipped away at those walls until she had uncovered the troubled and broken man underneath. That he was damaged, possibly beyond any repair, did not keep her from offering him her friendship. It was a friendship that eventually blossomed into something so much more. He was unsure when it was exactly that he realized that he was in love with her. He supposed it wasn't one particular moment but the culmination of a flood of events and emotions that brought about the conscious awareness that she was the light in constantly dark world.
He had been denying feeling something for Felicity for so long that coming into grasp with it was breath taking. He could actually be happy, he thought to himself. For the first time in as long as he could remember he had something to look forward to. He could almost imagine he and Felicity spending their lives together, walking hand in hand as they tackled life together. It was a future he wanted.
Life, it seemed, had other ideas. When Slade had suddenly appeared during one if his routine patrols Oliver readied himself for the fight of his life. He knew his odds of defeating Slade on his own were minimal at best but that didn't bother him. If Slade took his vengeance, if Slade killed him then he would have no reason to go after those he loved. The would be safe. Felicity would be safe and that was all that mattered. As before there was no choice to make.
He wasn't surprised when his comms lost their signal. Slade was a soldier, a tactician. He would not allow Oliver the chance to call for back up. This was the reality he lived in. He wasn't the star of a fictional television show on the CW where the good guys would always find a last minute way to prevail. In those shows something always happened that would suddenly tip the scales in the heroe's favor. But Oliver was no hero, he was just a man. A man whose life had been marred by bad choices. The latest one being that he never told Felicity that he loved her and that she was everything to him.
Slade stood over him, gloating that Oliver would at last would taste the bitterness that Slde had tasted when Shado was killed. He positioned himself as a gladiator would in the old days of the Roman Empire. He stood above the vanquished and prepared to deliver the killing blow. In Slade's tortured mind Shado was there cheering him on to avenge her. Her voice echoed in his mind until it rose to the frenzy and bloodlust that gripped the Roman Coliseum as they prepared to judge the defeated. The decision was clearly written in Slade's maddened features. Kill! Kill! Kill, kill!
"I'm sorry I couldn't save her." He whispered to the man he once called brother.
"I'm ready." Oliver said truthfully. It was far time that he paid for his sins. He knew he had lived far longer than he had any right too. At least this way far more deserving people would have a chace to live.
"She would live." He repeated to himself, not realizing that he had actually said the words out loud.
It was Slade's insane laughter that brought him out of his thoughts.
"Oh no, brother." Oliver noticed the sarcasm and hatred that laced Slade's voice as he called him a brother. "You will die but not before you watch the woman you love die."
Fear unlike anything he had ever known wrapped itself around Oliver's heart but he tried to harden his features anyway.
"I don't love anyone in that wa-" Oliver's bluff was cut short as Slade delivered a powerful kick into his midsection. Hs breath left him as he felt several of his ribs break with the force of the impact.
"Do you think me a fool, boy?!" Slade's voice boomed above him. "I have watched you for a long time. Just because you deluded yourself into believing that you do not love her that does not mean that others have not noticed. The love sick looks you send each other when you believe that the other isn't looking pathetic. Even someone with only one eye can see that you love this Felicity Smoak."
Slade produced a small remote from the confines of his suite and Oliver did not have to be told what it was.
"No!" Oliver begged as he tried to sit up. "Don't do this!"
Slade simpky smiled as he enjoyed watching the boy beg. He had been imagining it for a very long time.
"I'll do anything!" Oliver gripped what he could of Slade's outfit. "Don't hurt her, please. You can torture me for what I did. You can torture me for the rest of my life and I won't fight you."
"But this will torture you, boy. This will hurt more than anything I could ever due to your body." Slade placed all his weight on the foot on Oliver's chest, pinning him where he was. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Slade's finger moved to the button. The click that sounded as the button was pressed was deafening.
That was the last thing Oliver heard as fury unlike anything he had ever known filled his entire being. He did not know how he did it but suddenly Oliver was on his feet. In the years to come when people asked how he defeated Slade he would have no answer. His body moved faster than he ever thought possible, his blows seemed too strong for what his beaten and broken body was capable of delivering.
He did not know he was even screaming until with a final roar he plunged an arrow into Slade's remaining eye. Oliver welcome d the blood the washed over them both but he did not stop there. He had made that mistake before. He pulled out the arrow and brought it down over and over again as Slade's body crumpled to the floor.
Oliver's trembling hand finally stilled when Slade hit the floor. His face was gone, an unrecognizable husk. Oliver didn't even stop to take a breath. Leaving the arrow in Slade's mangled face, Oliver took off as fast as he could towards his motorcycle.
He jumped onto his bike and sped through the Glades. The fact that he was going way too fast and that his blood slickened hand was barely able to grip the handles barely registered. For some reason all he could think off was to get to her. He had to have enough time. There just had to be enough time.
He didn't even think to stop once he reached the burning rubble that had once been Verdant. Instead he jumped off and raced off to the ruins. The bike itself skidded across the road and eventually crashed into some parked cars.
A secondary explosion, probably from a compromised gas line, knocked him off his feet. The fire burned so hot that he could barely get close. That did stop him, however, from trying. He pushed himself forward as he felt his skin start to burn as the parts of his leather outfit singed off.
He was taking another step forward when an arm yanked him backwards, hard. He landed on his back with a hard thud. The pain that shot up his torso reminded him that his ribs were broken. He tried to pull himself back up and race towards the building but arms and a body held him in place.
"You can't go in there." The familiar voice of Quentin Lance told him. The older man was having considerable trouble holding the Vigilante down despite the extent of his injuries.
"Let me go!" Oliver screamed. "She is in there! I can still save her!"
He was on the verge of throwing Lance off him when three words brought Oliver's world crashing down.
"It's too late." Lance told him. "It's too late."
Tears rolled down Oliver's cheek as he finally stopped struggling.
"I came as quickly as I could. I swear I did." Oliver sobbed.
Officer Lance looked uneasy at the agony in the Arrow's voice. He lloked like he wanted to say something but the gathering crowd and the closing sirens made him hold it in check.
"C'mon, you can't stay here." Lance pulled the Vigilante's arm around his shoulder and helped stand him up. With considerable effort the officer was able to half drag and half carry the Arrow into the back of his squad car.
Oliver didn't resist as Lance shut the door behind him. His gaze never left the wreckage even as the car's engine roared to life. Oliver's last vision of the club that had housed the foundry were the burning letters VERDANT.
He didn't know many minutes passed as he stared out the window of the speeding police car. He watched as they drive through the city that he had given so much too save. Thinking back now he wasn't sure if it was worth it. Not when it cost Felicity her life.
"We'll be there in a few minutes." Lance said suddenly. At first Oliver thought that
Quentin Lance was speaking to him but the finger on the communicator in Lance's ear told him otherwise. He supposed he should have been concerned where he was being taken or who Lance was speaking too but it hardly seemed important. Lance could take him to jail or even the electric chair and it would not have made a difference. His team was gone. They were his family. Felicity was gone and it was all his fault.
"I should have told her that I loved her." He hadn't meant for his thoughts to be spoken but they came out anyway.
"You mean Miss Smoak?" Lance asked.
Oliver only nodded, not caring anymore if he gave out clues to his identity.
"I don't know if telling her would have done much good. It's pretty obvious that the woman is head over heels over Queen." The constantly oblivious Lance kept talking. "Personally though I don't see what a smart young woman like that sees in a train wreck like Queen"
Lance suddenly stopped talking, his finger going back to the communicator. It was clear that he was getting instructions from somewhere.
"Fine. I'll just keep the channel clear. Of all the ungrateful..," Lance continued grumbling to himself and since Oliver could no longer hear what was being said he returned to staring emptily at the city as he let grief consume him.
Only when the car screeched to a halt in front of a random apartment did Oliver focus on his surroundings. He was still somewhat in a daze as Lance pulled him out the back and all but shoved him forward. He was grumbling again but this time it was about how he would explain a uniform covered in blood from where the Arrow had brushed up against him.
Oliver was about to look back at Lance when out of the corner of his eye a metal garage like door slid up. The emanating from the door caused him to squint. At first he couldn't make out the figures standing just beyond the threshold but then suddenly his eyes adjusted and just like that he saw them, his family, grinning from ear to ear. A feisty blonde pushed herself to the forefront, ignoring the people she nearly knocked over.
"Oliver..." Felicity whispered as she wiped the tears streaming down past her glasses.
He was moving fast again. The distance between himself and the door disappeared in what seemed like an instant. He skidded to a halt in front of her. He reached up to touch her face in an effort that it was really Felicity standing in front of him and not something his scarred psyche had conjured up.
"Oliver..." She sobbed again. She looked like she was about to kiss him when all of a sudden Oliver felt her hand slap across his face, causing his hood to drop back against his shoulders.
"That's for saying that you would allow him to torture you!" Felicity was half crying and half screaming at the same time. She was about to slap him again, this time for trying to run into a burning building but her hand never made it down. Oliver clasped her hand tightly and pulled her towards him.
Then he was on her. Oliver's mouth crashed down against hers. It was only the two of them then. All the others were forgotten as they poured all their pent up emotion into that first kiss. His arms went swiftly around her as she similarly encircled his waist. The tear stained faces and the still fresh scent of blood and fire did not bother them. All that mattered was that they had finally found each other and they were determined to not waste this second chance.
It was Quentin Lance's grumbling that eventually reminded them that they were not alone.
"Wait, did she just call him Oliver?" A look of disbelief crossing his features.
Without removing his arm around Felicity's waist, Oliver slowly turned and removed his mask.
Sara wished she had a camera to capture her father's reaction. He seethed in anger and seemed to turn a deep crimson. The rest of them were trying not to laugh but what he said next pushed them all over the edge.
"I can't believe it! I finally had Oliver Queen in the back of my squad car and I let him go!" His eyes never left Oliver as if he could not believe that Oliver had fooled him for so long.
"Why didn't you tell me they were alright?" Oliver asked after a minute.
Lance scoffed. "Why didn't you stop me when I was going on about you being a train wreck?"
"Because I am a mess and she deserves so much better." Oliver tightened his arm around Felicity. "But I'll never stop trying to be what she needs."
"What I need is you." Felicity rested her head across his chest. It still had blood on it but somehow she did not think that Oliver would mind if a few stains of blood would get on her hair. He would just have to wash it off her in the shower.
"Aww gross. My brother in a shower was the last image I needed to add to this already very traumatizing day." Thea Queen laughed as she stepped to Oliver's other side to give him a hug, her other hand still firmly entangled with Roy's.
Felicity's free hand covered her mouth in shock as she realized that she had said what she was thinking. They all laughed as she again cursed her lack of a brain to mouth filter.
Quentin watched the small knit group and couldn't help but smile as well. He relaxed and walked over to Oliver to shake his hand, a gesture that signified a new beginning for them. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you but we had to make sure that this Deathstroke guy was really dead. I didn't want to take the risk of finding out that they were alive since he had already hacked into your comms system. You've got quite a girl there. Apparently she got your communications back up as he was gloating about getting his revenge."
Oliver looked at her curiously but Felicity shrugged. "I was only able to restore communications partially. We could hear you but you couldn't hear us. That's how I heard you offer yourself up to a life time of torture to Slade." She was going to slap him again as reminder never to say something like that again but the look on his face stopped her.
The very mention of Slade's name caused Oliver's muscles to harden as if he was preparing for the villain to attack again.
Felicity felt himself tense up so she patted his chest reassuringly. "He's dead."
"How can we be sure though?" Oliver pressed.
"My men called it on the ride over here. The body is in the morgue right now." Lance offered.
Oliver frowned. "So why didn't you tell me that everyone was okay after that?"
Felicity stifled a laugh as Quentin answered. "Well, I was going to but that I got explicit instructions not to say anything until she found out if all the things she heard about you loving her were true." He pointed at Felicity accusingly.
Oliver should have been angry but all he could do was smile. "You could have just asked me."
Felicity smirked at him, mockingly. "Please, it took you this long to just admit that you loved me. There was no way I was going to leave something like that to chance. You never were very good with words."
Oliver's response was to pull her up for another breathtaking kiss.
"See what I mean?" She said after she was able to regain her composure.
"I love you." Oliver whispered.
Felicity did not even wait until he had finished speaking for she uttered, "I love you too."
They hugged each other then, reveling in the other's presence. It wasn't long before Oliver and Felicity pulled their little family in close to join in on the embrace. Even Quentin Lance allowed himself to be pulled in, all the while still complaining.
They stayed like that for at least a few more minutes. Each was eternally grateful that that fate had not been as cruel as she could be and despite the odds their little family was still together.
Later that night, as Felicity lay panting on top of a similarly breathless Oliver, their naked bodies blissfully pressed against one another. The rest of the team had finally ushered them off knowing full well from the looks that Felicity and Oliver were giving one another that if they stayed any longer they would be witnessing some very inappropriate behavior.
The new couple started off with the shower that seemed so long overdue. They took their time, rubbing and soaping one another as they both explored that which they thought would only ever be a fantasy. They, of course, did not stop in the shower. Oliver let his impatient side show and did not even let felicity dry her body off before he carried her into the bed. His ribs still hurt but it seemed like a small price to pay for finally being able to caress her smooth skin. He explored every inch of her , tracing the curves of her body and finally stopping at the lone scar she had, a bullet wound she had received from pushing Sara out of harm's way. He kissed it then as he was reminded how truly beautiful and brave she was.
Felicity did the same with his body. She traced each scar as if memorizing the pattern. She still did not know the story behind everyone but she knew he would tell her in time. For the moment she was happily content as he moved inside of her.
Eventually night gave way to dawn and their phones started to ring as they were reminded of their various responsibilities. With a quick glance at one another they simultaneously turned off their phones. The outside world would have to wait because Oliver and Felicity had finally made their way into each other's arms and they were determined to make up for the lost time as much as possible.
A/N So…. What did you guys think? Please review…