Buzz… Buzz…

That was the sound of his world ending.

Sparring with Digg was interrupted by the text sound. Usually he'd keep going but Felicity hadn't shown up to the foundry yet and he was starting to worry. After what happened with Blood a few months after what happened with Slade he was uneasy when she wasn't in his sight. It was a ludicrous way of being but it was what it was.

As he opened the message from Felicity there was a sinking feeling in his chest. Normally she called. Normally she wasn't late. Normally he didn't feel so sick at the thought of reading words on his phone. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. And when his mind registered the words that were on his phone the breath rushed out of him.

"Oliver... I know this is the worst way to tell you this but I love you too. I love you so much. I'm sorry my timing is the worst. You're gonna be too late. The Count found me, revenge for what happened to the old one. It was a double dose. My phone is telling me I'm at 138 W Homer St. I'm not going to make it but this is my fault. Not yours. I love you. And the passcode on my phone is the date we met. Tell mom I love her."

It felt like someone had ripped his chest apart and threw his heart onto the ground. He'd endured so many forms of torture in his time away, and even since he'd come home but this… this was the worst kind of pain he'd ever experienced. Despite it all he was determined to make Felicity wrong for once in her life. He wouldn't be too late. He couldn't. Not when he hadn't told her yet that he loved her in circumstances that wasn't a ruse. The way she phrased it hinted to the fact that she knew it was real but there couldn't be a doubt. She had to know.

He was moving before Digg had even gotten a chance to finish his question. There was no time to fill him in. There was no time to put on his suit. He just grabbed a t-shirt, his quiver, and his bow. When he turned to face Digg it was as if they had a silent conversation. The older man was in action in the blink of an eye. Shirt on, gun tucked in his pants, and keys in hand they ran up the stairs to the foundry door. The warm summer night air hit them like a brick wall as Oliver held his hand out impatiently for the keys. Digg dropped them in his hand before taking Oliver's phone to read the text.

The trip to W Homer Street took all of two minutes. They were only a couple of blocks away and for some lucky reason traffic was at a minimum. The door was flung open before he even got to a complete stop. Not to mention how bad for the transmission it was the way he threw the car into park. It didn't matter though. All that mattered was getting to Felicity in time.

Her screaming was why he found her. She was on the cold, hard ground in a heap. The puncture marks on her neck fueled the rage that was boiling under the surface. He would make it his life mission to find this man and kill him as slowly as humanly possible. And that was only his plan if she survived. If he lost her, there would be more than just hell to pay. People would be wishing for hell when he got through with them. Her whimper of pain pulled him from that rage and brought him back. She always brought him back.

Dropping to his knees he looked over her once more. She was a mess. A beautiful mess. Felicity Smoak couldn't be anything but beautiful, no matter what. It broke his heart when he realized she didn't even notice his presences. In an instances his hands were on her cheeks, pulling her up off the ground. "Felicity," his voice was thick and raspy. He wasn't ashamed of the tears that quickly cascaded down his cheeks. He was a broken man but seeing this strong, unwavering woman like this shattered him to pieces. "You have to stay with me."

She didn't listen. Her eyes slid shut behind her glasses and he couldn't help the sob that tore through his chest. "It should have been me!" The words he used when Tommy died echoed through the empty warehouse, this time with even more conviction. He was the one who had fired those three arrows into the chest of the original Count Vertigo. That dose should have been plunged into his neck. Not hers. This wasn't the way she was supposed to go.

His head rested on her chest as he cried. How long? He had no idea. Digg had leaned in over him, his fingers pressing to her neck for a pulse but the beating of her heart had stopped. He couldn't hear it anymore, or feel it. Oliver really just suspected that Digg needed to check for himself.

"We gotta call Lance," John finally spoke, his voice thicker and deeper than usual. Oliver didn't have to look up to know he was crying too.

"I love you, Felicity" was all he could keep saying. The older man had to pull him from her body. He had already called Captain Lance, who had arrived at some point that he hadn't noticed. Crime scene investigators canvases the area, searching everything as the coroner started prodding at Felicity. A pang of protectiveness shot through him and John had to fight to hold him back.

Questions were asked and answered all night long, at the scene, and at the station. It was a long night, most of which he blocked out. By the time he'd been dragged back into the lair by his best friend and body guard the sun was coming up. Her computers buzzing and he knew that she would kick his ass for letting them stay on all night long.

Everything was just so much darker now. It was as if the sun had been snuffed out. His sun was anyways. Unable to bare the thoughts that plagued him anymore he rose from the chair he'd been sitting in and crossed the distance to the computers. Methodically he shut them down, just the way she would have. The little post-it note that was stuck to the edge of her monitor caught his eye though. In her lively hand writing read the words "Team Arrow". Sinking into her plush black computer chair all he could think was that they weren't "Team Arrow" anymore. Not without her.