Roy Harper grunted in pain as he stepped over the threshold of the Arrow's cave. His head started to swim painfully and his hand shot out to catch his wavering body on one of the cement walls surrounding him on all sides. His legs started to give out and his weight was held up only by pure force of will and the sheer strength his biceps possessed.
"Roy." He heard a gruff, equally exhausted voice call out from behind him. A muscled arm slid around his waist, hoisting him to his feet. Fire spread through his body, starting in his ribcage, rekindled by the pressure Oliver accidentally applied to the breaks. He absently recognized that Oliver was slowly helping him across the concrete floor, kicking a chair out of the way and helping him onto a metal examination table. Oliver eased his sister's husband onto the cold metal surface, eliciting an excruciated exclamation of pain from Roy.
"Thea okay?" he asked, voice strained, breath hitching in his throat as his chest heaved.
"She's fine. You got her out." Oliver answered immediately, turning away and nodding Dig over. John Diggle crossed the floor without hesitation, spreading his compact medical kit out across another table beside them.
"What's the damage?" he asked shortly, eyes raking over the kid's body.
"Tape up his ribs before anything else." Oliver answered. "Fever's spiking in reaction to the drug in his system. I'll have Felicity…" the billionaire began to slip into his subconscious planning state of mind as Roy's body arched off the table and a agonized groan of pain made its way past his gritted teeth.
"Oliver." Dig called warningly as he brought his forearm down on Roy's upper chest, forcing him down.
"On it." He responded immediately, ignoring the way black spots were dancing in his eyes as he pulled his phone out of one of the pockets in his green costume. He never got the chance to dial the long since memorized phone number before his little sister's terrified voice echoed off the walls.
"Get off of me Felicity." He heard her yell angrily.
"Thea, let the boys take care of him. They know what they're doing." He listened to his wife try to reason with his sister echoed by the sounds of his son's panicked cries. Oliver crossed the room in record time blocking Roy from view before Thea could make her way over to him. He didn't need to turn around to know that Dig had gotten around to taping up the kids ribcage, it was written across Thea's face and teary eyes and clear in the grunts of pain coming from his brother in law behind him. Oliver wrapped an arm around Thea's waist, pushing her back and blocking her view of her husband.
She fought his hold, clawing at his leather clad arm, protesting incoherently. She had seen what had happened to him. She had thought he was dead. That man had slammed him against the concrete wall with his metal fist, jammed a needle into his neck and let him fall to the floor. It was the only thing she could see every time she blinked.
He ignored Felicity and their son for the moment as he dragged Thea against his chest and held her tightly as tears rolled down her face.
"He's okay, Thea. I can't let you in there. Not until you calm down. You know what he's going to do when he sees you so upset?" he asked softly, leaning back and smoothing her hair away from her soaked cheeks. She nodded and took a deep breath, rubbing her hands across her face to get rid of all evidence of her breakdown. Oliver loosened his grip on her, letting her take a step back, glaring at the black eye Gregory Osborne had given her. His jaw tensed in mounting anger at the sight of the evidence of the doctor laying his hand on her. "I'll be right there, Speedy." He told her tightly, nodding towards the table. Thea pushed past her big brother, rushing over to the table behind him.
"Thea..." He heard Dig protest.
"Ollie said its fine." His sister's strained voice replied followed by another groan from Roy and murmured words from Thea. Oliver took a deep breath and finally met his wife's teary eyes. Felicity was swaying their three year old son in her arms as he fussed and reached for his dad.
"Are you alright, Oliver?" She asked quietly, switching her sons weight to the other arm and reaching for his face.
"Fine." He answered shortly.
"Oliver..." She hedged. He held something out to her as he deflected her question and lifted Connor out of her arms with a wince. "Oliver." She insisted with rekindled worry as she took the glass container from his hand.
"I need an antiserum for whatever was in that vial." He explained, hugging Connor to his chest as he continued to whimper softly. Connor leaned back in his dads arms, and pain flashed in Oliver's eyes. "The..." His voice caught slightly. "Osborne injected it into Roy's system." He finished.
"Daddy." Connor whimpered, reaching out to touch his dad's face. Oliver smiled at him and squeezed his side gently. Connor giggled and dropped his hand to play with the strap of his father's quiver, leaning his blonde head against Oliver's chest. Oliver's breath hitched in his throat and he flinched.
"Oliver." Felicity snapped again, more forcefully then before as she watched his face go from pain to unreadable mask.
"Momma." Connor cried, whimpering turned to crying as he pulled his little hand away from Oliver's shoulder. Oliver sighed as Felicity's eyes widened then flashed angrily at the sight of the blood on her toddler's fingers.
"Shh baby. It's okay. It's not yours, buddy." Felicity murmured calmly, snatching Connor out of her husband's hands as he leaned heavily on the wall. Roy groaned an incoherent word through his pursed lips as his fisted hands slammed into the metal table top, causing Connor to cry harder.
"Roy." Thea whispered helplessly, encasing one of his balled up hands in both of hers. He dragged a few ragged breaths past his teeth before he forced his eyes open and met hers.
"Hey." He gasped.
"Hi." She laughed softly as tears streamed down her cheeks. Roy forced his hand to uncurl as he reached across his body to trail his hand down the side of her face.
"Tell Felicity…" he hissed quietly and flinched. "Only side-affects thus far are pain. Almost like Vertigo." He tilted his head back into to the metal he was laying on, wrenching his hand out of her grip and curling his fingers around the edge of the table. He distantly felt Thea pry his white knuckled grip off of the edge and squeeze it between her hands but was too focused on keeping quiet to pay much attention.
Thea watched her husband, tears streaking down her face and body shaking with suppressed sobs as he rode out the waves of pain the drug was causing him. She looked up at Dig as he draped a blanket over her body, nodding in thanks before turning her full attention back to Roy. By the desk, Felicity moved towards Oliver, one hand on his abdomen and the other still holding her son.
"Dig." She shouted as Connor cried into her chest and Oliver staggered from blood loss. Diggle glanced back at the small family and left both of the Harpers' sides for Oliver's.
"Felicity, I'm fine. Roy won't be though. Go." Oliver told her. She glanced up at Dig with a torn look in her eye as she shifted her fussing son in her rapidly tiring arm.
"Give me the kid." Dig instructed, nodding behind her at her computer. Felicity groaned in frustration and handed her son over to Diggle, picking the vial up off the chair she had set it down on. "Thea." He called calmly. She glanced back at him. "Connor." He explained. She dropped Roy's hand and kissed him quickly before jumping off her chair and hurrying over to her brother and nephew, taking the latter in her arms and wrapping her own blanket around him before moving back to her seat beside Roy who was tense with the pain tearing through his system. Connor Queen clung to his aunt's shirt and shook in her arms as she rocked him, holding tight to Roy's stiff hand.
Dig helped Oliver into Felicity's desk chair, easing him out of his green leather top and dropping it on the floor. Oliver stared unwaveringly at his sister as she simultaneously comforted her husband and nephew. Her lips were pressed to the top of the toddler's head and her eyes were trained on Roy as he watched her in an effort to block out the excruciating pain. He focused on them as Diggle stitched up the hole in his shoulder, staying silent as he always did.
"That's because it is Vertigo. Or a rendition of it. Same affects, not as addictive. Really brilliant chemical makeup actually. Seriously, impressive. Especially for a crime lord. A dead crime lord. Because you killed him. Or Roy did. Both of you did. With your arrows." Felicity rambled to herself.
"Felicity." Oliver interrupted, voice tight as Diggle tied off the last stitch.
"Right." She muttered, clearing her throat as she printed off the antiserum formula and hurried across the room to her makeshift chem lab.
Dig taped gauze down over the stitches and nodded sharply at Oliver, telling him he was done. Oliver stood up and rolled his good shoulder, the corners of his eyes tightening slightly.
"Ollie..." Thea whispered worriedly as she rested her hand on Roy's cheek. Oliver walked over to his little sister and put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently and smiling at his son as Connor blinked up at eyes that were identical to his own.
"How's it coming Felicity?" He called calmly, staring at Roy and at his face which was scrunched up in pain.
"Almost there. Five more minutes." She responded quickly. He nodded slowly, breathing evenly into Thea's hair as she rubbed Connors back with one hand and Roy's arm with the other. Roy turned his arm over under here and squeezed gently, his fingers trembling slightly.
"He do that to you?" He asked tensely, glaring at Thea's black eye with venom. The brunette nodded with a sad smile.
"Don't worry about it." She told him with an air of order.
"Roy." Connor whimpered, cocking his head, blonde curls covering his eyes as he reached towards his uncle. Roy smiled and reached over his body to touch the kids hand. "Hurt?" He asked quietly. Roy shook his head and had to shut his eyes for a second to choke down the nausea.
"I'm fine kid." He muttered. "Taking care of Thea for me?" He asked with a forced smile as sweat beaded on his forehead and his bare chest. Connor nodded enthusiastically.
"She sad." He pouted in confusion, glancing back at his aunt who smiled and kissed his hair, looking down at the floor as Roy looked at her.
"Well that's crazy." He told Connor.
"Yeah." The baby agreed, nodding.
"Because she knows I'm going to be okay. So I don't know why she would be sad." He told Connor while looking at Thea. She sighed.
"I wadn't scared Roy." Connor denied randomly. Roy smiled a little and nodded.
"I'm proud of you kid." He smiled. Roy took a deep breath in his moment of reprieve from the poison in his system which caused burning pain to shoot through his ribcage. A low cry of pain escaped his mouth and Thea was shifting Connor in her lap as she leaned closer to him. Oliver lifted Connor away from Thea as she tried to distract him.
Thea put two hands on Roy's shoulders and pressed her forehead against his, breathing evenly over his face as she whispered quietly to him. His arm snaked up around her waist and his hand fisted in her shirt.
"Roy, you're okay." She whispered. "You can breathe. It's in your head." She whispered as his eyes filled with borderline panic. "It's all in your head. Relax." She murmured softly while tears filled her nephews eyes behind them. His tense arm relaxed slightly at her back and she smiled slightly. "Who knew you'd actually ever listen to me." She chuckled halfheartedly. He gave her half a smile as he continued to try and get his breathing under control. Thea sat back in her chair once he had succeeded and clenched her now trembling hands into fists to try and stop the shaking that had taken over.
"Thea." Roy called breathlessly. She glanced at him, inhaling slowly.
"Yeah?"
"M' okay." He whispered unconvincingly as a flinch shuddered through his body.
"Felicity." Oliver called again, more urgently this time as he held his son to his bare chest as he whimpered. Oliver rubbed his back through his pale green long sleeved shirt as he watched Felicity run around her small lab.
"Done!" She shouted, taking it in her hands and running over to the examination table Roy was almost passed out on. His blue-green eyes went impossibly wide as he noticed the needle in her hands. Thea immediately stood off of her chair and leaned over him.
"Eyes on me." She snapped, tapping her fingers lightly against his bruised cheek. He dragged his eyes away from the syringe in his sister in laws hand and locked eyes with Thea's instead.
Behind her back she held up one finger, then two before she pressed her lips to Roy's, and poured all her fears of losing him into the kiss while Felicity slid the needle into his shoulder and depressed the syringe. Roy slid his hand down her arm until it closed around her waist and he used it to pull her weight down on him. She tried to pull back instantly for fear of hurting him but was held in place by his sometimes terrifying strength.
Felicity tapped Thea's shoulder blade once she had retracted the needle, letting the girl know she was done. But Thea only lowered herself down onto the edge of the bed so that she was closer to him and continued to kiss him as tears leaked from her brown eyes. Felicity dropped the syringe on the counter beside her computer and closed the distance between her and Oliver. He shifted Connor to his side as Felicity barreled into him, trapping her hands between his incredibly toned abdomen and her body. Oliver wrapped his free arm around her and nodded his thanks to Dig as he lifted Connor out of the way. Oliver's other arm immediately wrapped around Felicity and he crushed her against his still bare chest, burying his face in her hair then inhaling slowly. She shook just barely as he held her, muttering indecipherably against his skin. He winced internally as the embrace pulled painfully at the new stitches but stayed silent and still otherwise.
"I thought you were dead." She stated as she leaned back. "Which looking back now is illogical and impossible given that I could still hear your breathing in the comm even though the surveillance camera went black. I thought I fixed that. The cameras aren't supposed to die unless destroyed. Unless Gregory Osborne shot them out. Or you. Did you? Of course not. Why would you? Point is-" she rambled. Oliver arched an eyebrow at her and just sighed. "I was scared." She admitted. Oliver smiled softly at her and kissed her forehead.
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