I can see Felicity quickly send a distress signal using her tablet to Detective Lance. One of the robbers notices also. He quickly approaches her and puts a gun to her head, while snatching her tablet. She winces as he throws it on the ground, crushing it under his boot. I can see her face turn red in anger, and I give her a gentle squeeze and a glare, letting her know to keep silent.
The robber then, turns his attentions away from Felicity, and on to Laurel.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Our very own district attourney! Now doesn't this make things interesting!" The man sneers.
I realize that my grip must have tightened considerably on Felicity, because she reaches over with her hand on mine, and gives it a light squeeze to comfort me. It relaxes me some, as only she can. A surge of emotions well up in me, knowing that Laurel is placed right in the aim of his gun. I am silently begging the brunette to keep quiet, though I have no such luck.
"Correct! And I am going to enjoy prosecuting you!" She says defiantly.
Laurel looks over to me, she has this confidence, because I am here. I can't do anything right now! I don't have my bow, and I am here as Oliver Queen, not the Arrow. What is she thinking?
"Honey, you have to live in order to do that!" The criminal shouts at her, obviously angered. He is still standing next to me, Felicity, and Walter.
That's when it happens. I don't know how she reacted so quickly, but she did. My beautiful, brave Felicity. She saw him squeeze the trigger, aimed at Laurel, and before I could react, she stepped in front of him, effectively taking a bullet for my ex girlfriend. I took him out in an instant, but before I could grab his gun, I felt the barrel of another gun pressed against my temple.
"Don't even think about being a hero Queen!"
My hands go in the air in a form of surrender.
"Please, let me check on her!" I beg him. I hate the neediness I can hear in my own voice towards this man. All I know is that Felicity is laid on the floor with blood pooling around her, and I have to get to her.
He waves his gun hand towards her as a gesture of letting me know that I can approach her.
Kneeling beside her, I can see that the gun wound is a through and through on her left shoulder. I breathe somewhat of a sigh of relief, knowing that it did not hit any major organs. She looks up at me from the floor and smiles, asking if Laurel is okay. How can this woman possibly amaze me more? As she is lying on this floor bleeding, while asking about Laurel's welfare. The woman she doesn't like to begin with! Even after the way Laurel dismissed her, she still saved her life.
"Shh, she's fine. Felicity, I have to stop the bleeding. This is going to hurt. I'm sorry." I pull off my jacket and place it over her wound, putting pressure on it. She is fine for right now, but if we don't get this wound closed up soon, she could bleed out.
"I'm fine Oliver. Please help me sit up."
"No! You need to stay down." I plead with her.
"If she says she's fine, then she is! Get up Blondie!" The second robber shouts, waving his gun at her frantically.
"She needs medical attention!" I shout. My anger is radiating off of me in waves. At this point, I want nothing more than to kill these men. No one, and I mean no one, hurts Felicity!
"Well then, I guess we had better hurry this along! Stand up Blondie! You are coming with me to the vault." He says angrily.
I have no idea why he wants her going with him. My only thought is that maybe because of her injury, it would make things go faster. If she was out of his sight, then he would urge everyone to give them what they want. It is obvious to everyone how much her life means to me at this point. I will not let her go with him! I can't!
Felicity looks up at me, while wincing as she sat up. She gently places a hand on my face and tells me that she will be fine. I know what she's thinking. There are only 2 left, and if we can separate them, then the odds are more in our favor.
"Felicity no!" I harshly whisper.
"My life, my choice!"
I have never hated hearing those words come from her beautiful pink lips, more than I do now.
"Please don't do this." I beg her quietly.
"Oliver, I have to" she softly states. She then reaches over and places a kiss on my cheek, whispering in my ear.
"I believe in you. These people need you."
Resigned, I let out a harsh breath, that I didn't realize I was holding.
"Promise me that you won't do anything stupid." I look into her intense blue orbs that were slightly hidden behind her square framed glasses.
Before she can answer me, the second robber grabs her by her good arm, and harshly brings her to her feet.
"Enough! Let's go Blondie"
With one last look towards me, she then looks at Laurel as if to ask her to take care of me. I knew what she was thinking. A tear ran down my cheek as the gun waving criminal lead her out of the room, and out of my sight.
I knew this was my chance. There was only one robber left in the room. He was standing back, with his gun pointing at a woman holding hands with her young daughter.
"Point that gun at me" I say grabbing his attention as I slowly approach him.
"Don't come any closer, or she dies!"
"I'm Oliver Queen. I am worth so much more money than she is! Let everyone go, and you can keep me. I will stay, then you can have whatever you want!"
"Ollie no! Don't do this!" Laurel sobs.
I have to get the others out of here, and quickly. If I have any chance at all of diffusing this situation, I need everyone else to be safe.
The third criminal seems to consider his options, then says
"Okay! Everyone out, but Queen!"
I breath a sigh of relief as his gun trains on me.
"I'm not leaving you Ollie!" Laurel yells.
"Laurel, I need you to leave. Now!" I try my best to tell her with my expression, that I have this under control. I need for her to get everyone else out. If I am going to do what I have to do, then my identity cannot be compromised. Finally, a look of understanding flashes in her eyes.
"Okay, be safe, please" she quietly begs me.
The third robber, then approaches me and places the gun at my temple. Everyone else leaves the building in a rush.
After everyone is gone, an eerie silence covers the room. It only takes me a few seconds to disarm the robber, and I quickly tie both of them up. Taking his gun, I make my way towards where Felicity is being held.
As I come around the back, I can see the vault door opened. Walter must have given her the code on their way there.
As I make my move on the guy, he swiftly pushes Felicity into the vault and slams it shut. I am relieved at this. I know now that she is out of harms way, for the time being. This enables me to quickly take down the last of the three criminals. After I tie him up, I proceed to let Lance know that all is clear in the building. As I approached the vault door, I ask felicity through the closed door what the code is so that I may open it from the outside. She informs me, that she has already tried the code from the inside to open the door, to no avail. I mutter a silent curse.
"Lance! Get Walter in here now!" I yell out frustrated. I know that I have to get Felicity out of there, and quickly to get her medical attention.
When Walter approaches me, he has a grim look on his face.
"Son, the vault's fail safe has been activated. There is no way to get in, or out for 2 hours." He gently says with a hand on my shoulder.
"WHAT? What do you mean? The door was open a minute ago!" I shout at him.
"One of the tellers must have activated it before she left. The door was probably opened before she did." He replies.
"She's bleeding! We have to get her out of there right now!"
Then I am surrounded by officials, bringing in equipment, to try to get through the door.
"Felicity, just stay calm. We are getting you out of there. It will be over soon, I promise." I am trying to comfort her, but I know she can hear the worried undertones of my voice. It is impossible to hide it from her.
"I'm okay Oliver." She faintly replies.