In case I forgot to mention, I own nothing.
Now, this was orginally supposed to just be a 2 part fic, but then this really got away from me so hey guess what?
There will be a part 3. It may take a little longer, but it is coming.
You'll need to know that, by the ending on this one, which I apologize for. This fic will have a happy ending though, promise!
Thanks so much for reading, and doubke thank yous to everyone who has reviewed/commented! Please let me know whay you think!
An incessant ringing noise is what brought Felicity back to awareness. There was a pause, and then it started up again. She blinked slowly, looking down as she realized she was in her car, and that ringing noise was her phone, which she should probably get...
And then it all came back to her. The sudden earth shaking, the bridge, the cables snapping...her car falling.
So. Apparently she hadn't died, that was a plus.
Felicity shifted and reached out to find her phone, which was in her purse, which was amazingly still in the passenger side seat.
"OW! Oh, oh bad idea, bad idea..." Felicity grumbled, withdrawing her hand with a wince and bracing her whole right arm against her chest. She feared it may be broken, given how much the dang thing hurt to even move. It must've taken most of the impact when she'd landed in the water...or, something. She scooted to the right a little in her seat and let out a groan. Her whole right side really, really hurt. The ringing paused again, and promptly resumed.
Steeling herself with a deep breath, Felicity reached over with her left and grabbed the bag, bringing it into her lap and fishing out the phone. Seeing Oliver's face light up the screen, she couldn't stop the smile that came to her lips. Seeing him, even just a picture, filled her with a sudden peace. She hit 'accept' and, voice shakier than she would've liked, she answered with,
"Oliver?" She heard a slight noise, and then the voice that could give her hope even in the darkest of situations...and the one she was in, was pretty dark.
"Felicity." He breathed out her name like a prayer, and she felt this relief unwind inside her; now that Oliver was with her, if even just by phone, everything was gonna be ok. Somehow. "Where are you?" He demanded, and well, she wasn't quite sure how to answer that.
"Uh.." she started, then halted. Where was she? Right, she'd been on the bridge...and she was only now realizing the car was starting to fill with water. "I...was on the bridge." She heard herself say, but when she tried to lift her heels out of the water a sudden sharp pain came to life up her right side. She sucked in a sharp breath, not wanting to overly worry the man on the other end of the line. The fact that she was in this car, trapped at the near bottom of a huge river, with said river water seeping in, was enough to worry on.
"Oliver I...I'm in the water. My car, the water's coming in, it's up to my ankles." The fact that she was truly in this situation had not quite settled within her yet. It was like she was watching this experience happen to someone else, because how could this possibly be her life, seen through her own eyes? Really now.
Except it was. It was just now getting through to her foggy brain that this was indeed happening and she was in quite a bit of danger. She reached out with her left hand, which was still holding the phone, and quickly tried to force the door open. The weight of the water this far down must've been too much, because it wouldn't budge. She began to panic, as she knew she was well and truly trapped, and the car was still slowly sinking lower. She couldn't get out, she was gonna drown down here, in her own car. The thing that had such a great crash test report, and was supposed to keep her safe, was going to become her coffin. The phone went back to her ear as she started to freak out.
"Oliver, I can't open the door. I'm stuck! I'm stuck, I'm gonna die down here..."
"Felicity. Felicity! Listen to me. You are not going to die down there. Do you hear me? You're not allowed to. I'm on my way, but Felicity...you need to move, you have to get out of there." His steady voice helped to refocus her, and she sat still, focusing on her breathing. But the question still remained...
"How?" She whispered, and hated that her voice broke on the one word.
"Remember that screwdriver Diggle and I always made you carry in the glove box? Well now is the time to use it. Find it and attack your side window with everything you've got...right in the middle, but make sure to face away, when the glass starts to break the water will come rushing in." Oliver told her, and she wondered how on earth he was able to keep so rational and calm when all she wanted to do was have a panic attack.
But, ok, right. Glove box. Now, how was she supposed to do this with one hand?
"Can only use one hand right now," she found herself muttering, already starting to lower the phone. There was also no way she wanted Oliver to hear how painful it was gonna be for her to reach all the way over there, using only her left hand, to open that stupid thing. "Gonna have to put the phone down, just for a minute.."
Before she'd actually finished with that sentence, there was a small explosion of Oliver's growly voice, not unlike his Arrow voice, on the other end of the line that made her pause.
"NO! Do not hang up, please, you need to stay on the line and talk to me, Felicity!"
Ok. So maybe he wasn't quite as calm and rational as she'd originally thought. He was concerned, she knew, and with good reason. The fact that he was concerned for her, made her heart warm a little more, and ever more detirmined to do what she could to get out of here and back to him. Still, he didn't have to go all growly, but she understood. With a sigh, she nodded, then remembered he couldn't see and gave a verbal response.
"Fine," she spoke as if it were the biggest inconvenience in the world, which in a way it was because she was more concerned about his hearing this than the actual things that she'd have to do. "I'll just.." She shifted the phone to wedge it between her right shoulder and cheek, and pressed it there even though this angle was really making her head throb and oh it was so hard to even think right now... Felicity reached out through the pain, unable to hold back the groans as the movement shot agonizing bolts and burns through her whole body. After actually wrenching the thing open, which was a small miracle in itself considering that the front of her car had taken some damage and it was wedged in an odd way, all she could do at the moment was blindly feel her way through the box until her fingers wrapped around the nessecary piece of equipment. She paused, breathing carefully through her nose, eyes closed, and then started to withdraw her hand. She sat back in her seat at long last, and just took a moment to breathe, letting the pain wash over her until it finally began to fade.
"Ok, I got it." She finally announced, and then hesitated.
"Felicity?" She could hear Oliver ask and his voice sounded funny and a little far away. Her hazy mind began to wonder if that's what dying felt like. Speaking of which...
"Oliver, if I don't make it out..."
She didn't even finish, because then Oliver was barking out at her,
"You are going to make it, Felicity! Listen to me, you're gonna make it, because you're a fighter, and you've got to get back to us." 'To me,' remained unsaid, but she heard it all the same. There was a pause before he continued, "I'm on my way to you, Felicity, but you've got to get out..."
"Oliver. I will." She whispered a promise that she wasn't entirely sure was even within her power to keep, and then paused again. She had to say it, she just had to. Voice full of tears, she squeezed the following out. "I just wanted to say...I love you. So much." Her voice went high on the end there, and she scrunched up her nose as she tried to calm her breathing, holding tightly to the small tool in her hand.
"I love you too. Now get out of there so I can keep on showing you how much." She heard Oliver reply, hearing the sound of his motorcycle coming to life in the background, sounding strangely distant. She held back a sob as she realized that he really was on his way, she just wondered what to. If she really did perish down here, she knew he would not take it well. It wasn't about a pride she had or anything, it was a simple fact of the knowledge that she'd gained about him over the years. She had to survive this, for him, and for everyone else as well.
Also, it wouldn't hurt, the fact that Oliver had spoken about how he desired to keep on showing her just how much he loved her. Their future - she wanted that, so bad. The thought of simply being held in his arms again filled her with peace. If she died within the next few minutes...at least she'd die happy.
"Ok." She heard herself agreeing, to what she wasn't quite sure, but she knew she needed to do something. She lay the screwdriver in her lap and switched the phone back to her left hand to rest her neck for a moment. "Ok, I'm gonna do it now...I'll have to hang up, but...see you on the other side." She whispered, hoping, really hoping she hadn't just lied.
"You'd better." Oliver told her, his growly voice coming out again. She sat there and simply listened to the noise of the bike and his soft breathing for a moment, before she closed her eyes, and hung up on her lifeline.
Taking in a few deep, shuddering breaths, Felicity curled in on herself just a little bit, pressing her phone to the bridge of her nose, where her glasses were somehow still sitting, yet very askew. She knew they'd be gone in the next few minutes, though, and honestly couldn't bring herself to care.
She was scared out of her mind at the moment, but she had to try. She had to live, for Oliver if for no one else. Resolving to do the best she possibly could, she put the phone back in her purse and zipped it up, planning on taking it with her because really? If some psycho mad man came down here looking and had the proper techie at his disposal, he just may be able to get some things off her phone or tablet that she did not want anyone else seeing. Arrow things. And yes, they were about to get severely water logged, but if someone made the effort of coming down here to get them, then they probably had one good techie to look into it. It was a risk she wasn't willing to take, broken arm or not.
Gripping the screwdriver firmly in her left hand, she closed her eyes and looked away, swinging with all her might and grimacing painfully when the blade came into contact with the glass of her side window, and... ...nothing happened.
Opening one eye, Felicity turned to look and could see it had cracked but evidently not enough. Huffing, she looked away again and swung again, right in the same spot, and this time. It worked. Felicity shrieked as water came pouring in, and it quickly broke the glass the rest of the way. She dropped the screwdriver and held tightly to her purse. Through the water that was pouring onto her lap and threatening to blind her - she gasped, because it was unpleasantly cool, and it always had to be cold, didn't it? - she held up a hand and looked and saw the hole made was big enough for her, and, brushing back some pointy glass shards from the window with her purse, Felicity took in one last, large gulp of air and tried to lift from her seat.
But she couldn't. Only then did she remember she was still seatbelted in. A flash of desperate panic hit her hard and she reached across with her left, frantically trying to get it to release her.
She was going to die down here, Oliver was going to find her body still seatbelted into the dang car! Because, she had no doubt he would find her eventually, living or not.
There was only about an inch of air left toward the roof of the car when she finally felt the belt release her. Glorious. She immediately floated to the top and greedily sucked in that last breath, before she closed her lips tight and focused on squeezing through that window. Now the water wasn't rushing in so much it was slightly easier, and using her purse as a grip so that she didn't have to get her hands cut by the glass, Felicity pushed off and through the window. She'd used both hands though, and almost opened her mouth in pain at the agony that was her right side once again.
Before she knew it she was out of the car. Not even bothering to look back, because she honestly couldn't see much in these dark murky waters, Felicity began trying to swim with one arm, her purse hooked about her hurt one.
The movies made it look so easy...and seriously? Swimming in high heels and carrying a purse?
So. Not. Easy.
She could feel her high heels slipping off anyway and she let it happen. With a sadness she allowed herself only half a moment to morn the loss, as they had been one of her favorite pairs, before she focused again on trying to rise through the dark water. Her car had been further down than she had realized. Suddenly, she banged into something, her left hand hitting hard metal. Thinking it was possibly another vechile, Felicity followed it along the side, finally reaching the cab. It was the 18 wheeler. Her lungs were beginning to burn quite badly, but if there was a hope of saving the driver, helping another living being somehow, she would take it.
Coming up to the window, she could barely see inside, but it was enough. Not only was his face covered with red, but a window had broken, and the water made his short hair wave slightly in the current. There was no hope for this man anymore. With a heavy heart, Felicity left his side and continued her journey upward. She kicked through the pain, used her left arm to guide her the best she could, and just as her lungs were burning too much and she just wanted to open her lips to let something in, her head broke the surface.
Greedily, she gulped in the precious air in big, long gasps. She tried to keep herself afloat with her left hand, while her whole right side screamed at her so feircely again. She took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the sunlight, but she quickly came to realize something. Her glasses had indeed disappeared somewhere along the way, and she could not see the shore. She did not know which way to turn. If she chose the wrong way, she'd be going up the river instead of towards its banks. There was no way she could last that long.
Was she in the middle of the river, or closer to one bank than the other? What if she was so close to the right side and chose left and ending up drowning when she'd been so close?
Frozen with indesicion, Felicity bit her lip and wondered what she would do now, she couldn't well tread water forever, when she heard Oliver's voice echoing in her head again.
"You'd better."
He expected her to get out, and she had, but now she just had to make it to the shore. Knowing he was on his way, she picked a direction and started to kick.
It wasn't even a full minute before she was tiring; her head kept slipping under and her body hurt so much and there was no rescue in sight. She kept trying to force herself onwards, but it was getting harder and harder. Her strength was leaving her, and there was nothing she could do. Her eyes stung with tears, as she realized this was it. She'd made it out, but not to safety.
She never heard the splash behind her. If she had she may have tried to hold on for another second, knowing it had to be him, but as it was...
An apology was on her lips as she closed her eyes and stopped fighting the pull of the water. She let herself sink.
She was just. So. Tired. . .
She never heard the frantic call of her name, the muffled curses as she'd already slipped beneath the surface of the water. Never felt the arms encircling her waist, never heard the growl in her ear nor the thundering heart of the man that held her.
