Driving On

As Oliver was pushed down onto the ground Sara grabbed Laurel, not even bothering to untie her, and pushed her into the car.

"We need to go now," She said to her father. He was staring at Oliver, who wasn't resisting as he was roughly manhandled. "Now." That snapped her father out of it and the two of them got into the car, Sara grabbing Oliver's hoodie on the way. Through the windscreen she watched as Oliver went limp – he had been injected with something. She wanted to see his face but there was a bag over his head – his flaccid body sagged against the ground and it looked like he was dead (maybe he was). Her father reversed the car quickly and then turned it around, with some difficulty on the narrow road, and sped away. The armed men didn't even spare them a glance – they were allowed to drive off intact (except, of course, they weren't; Ollie was left behind alone and vulnerable).

Sara turned round to Laurel, who she had pushed into the back of the car. Laurel was struggling, trying to get her gag off. Sara reached over and untied her hands, allowing Laurel to pull the gag off herself (because Laurel always did like to do things for herself).

"Sara, dad," Laurel whispered, her voice hoarse. She was shaking gently – the shock and confusion of the whole situation getting to her. Sara wondered what she knew, if she could help them find Ollie; but first and foremost she felt fear at what had happened to Laurel (because sometimes you could be hurt in ways that you could never forget).

"Did they hurt you sweetheart?" Quentin questioned Laurel gently. He was clearly thinking along the same line as Sara.

"No. But they told me things. Things that they were going to do… they said that they would do them to me but if Oliver came they would do them to him instead," Laurel said tearfully. "Awful, awful things. I was so afraid that they would hurt me. And now they're going to hurt Oliver instead."

"Did you get any idea of where you were?" Sara asked with her voice strong, but inside she was shaken; she had known that Oliver was going to be tortured but from the way Laurel was talking it would be bad. But at least if they wanted information they wouldn't kill Ollie until they had it.

"I don't understand. Ollie is the vigilante? Or was he just pretending?" Laurel asked, not really listening to her sister.

"Oliver is the hood," Sara said simply. She didn't have time for messing around with lies. "He can handle himself. You need to focus and then I promise I'll answer your questions later. Do you have any idea where you were?"

"I don't know. I was drugged for a lot of it," Laurel sighed, frustrated and exasperated.

"Think carefully," Sara said patiently.

"I don't know! I'm sorry!" Laurel snapped. Then she covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh God. Ollie. They're going to do all those horrific things to Ollie and it's my fault."

"It's not your fault, honey. You were only targeted because they wanted him," Quentin said, soothing his daughter. Laurel wondered if Ollie really had traded just because he loved her, or because he loved Sara and she was Sara's sister. The relationship between Sara and Ollie was making much more sense now – the two of them must have been together from back when Sara was 'dead'.

"They're going to hurt him," Laurel told her sister. It seemed important that she got this across.

"I know," Sara said stiffly. "He can handle it. But we need to find him." Because Ollie had been hurt so much that he understood pain, he knew how to face it; but everybody has a breaking point and she hated the idea of somebody working towards Ollie's.

"How?" Laurel exclaimed. "How are we meant to find him when we know nothing?"

"We have a name: Marcus Black. We need to regroup, work things out. Felicity might be able to think of something, she's good at working things out," Sara assured. She had the address of the safe house and she leant over and gave it to her father.

"Who's on the team?" Quentin asked.

"Ollie and me, obviously. Then there's Felicity, who you've met. There's also Diggle, who's Oliver's bodyguard, you've met him as well. Lastly Roy Harper; he's just joined," Sara said.

"Him I know," Lance growled.

"You're a whole team," Laurel said slowly. "How long have you and Ollie… were you together on the island?"

Sara paused. She and Oliver both possessed the same deeply ingrained reluctance to talk about the island. Eventually she settled for a simple nod.

"I don't understand. I thought you said you were separated when the boat went down. Why he say you died on the boat?" Quentin asked, looking confused.

"I told him to say that if I died. I wanted you to remember me the way I was," Sara said shortly.

"But you didn't die," Quentin pointed out. But she had, the Sara he had loved had died a long time ago and Ollie had told the truth when he had said that she had drowned.

"He thought I did. We were separated when the boat went down and then again after we met up."

"You met up? Was this island a vacation camp?" Laurel snapped. She hated that both Ollie and her sister had lied to her.

"Don't talk about things you don't understand," Sara snapped back.

"How am I meant to understand if you won't tell me anything?" Laurel yelled, raising her voice. It echoed around the enclosed car. The volume calmed both sisters down, as they realised how heated their words were becoming.

"Look, Ollie and I don't talk about the island for a reason… Things happened to us…" Sara said slowly. Her father and Laurel hung on to every word. But Sara didn't carry on. She didn't know what to say, where to begin. There was silence for a long while. Eventually, Quentin spoke up.

"Who was Shado?" He asked quietly, glancing over at Sara. She let out a long sigh before she spoke.

"She was a girl… she and Oliver… they were a team: Oliver, Slade and Shado. But things went wrong. Oliver had to choose – he was made to choose between me and Shado," Sara said softly, her speech halted as she thought of what to say.

"Choose? What do you mean?" Laurel asked.

"Somebody pointed a gun to my head and at Shado's and told Ollie that only one of us would live." Sara shivered at the memory.

"And Oliver just chose," Laurel sounded appalled. "How could he?"

"He didn't just choose," Sara retorted, her voice low. "He begged and pleaded. Then when the gun was aimed at me he stepped in front of it in desperation; he was just trying to protect me. That's when Shado was shot in the head. So don't judge Ollie and blame him for something you couldn't possible understand. He already blames himself enough." After she finished speaking there was silence as everybody tried to process what she had said. It was uncomfortable, nobody sure what to say.

"I'm so sorry honey. That's awful," Quentin finally said. Sara hated telling him about the island, hated him knowing the things that had turned her from his sweet daughter into this cold warrior. She didn't want or need him to hear about things long since passed.

"It was to punish Oliver, not me. I barely knew Shado. She was the one who taught Ollie how to shoot. I think that's why he tends to stick to his bow," Sara mused. That was again met with silence.

"Poor Ollie. I can't even imagine…" Laurel whispered. She looked heartbroken. But now she was wondering – was this why Ollie felt he couldn't be with her? Did he really want her, deep down

Meanwhile, Felicity was not happy. Oliver was being reckless and, although he probably wouldn't admit it, emotional – he was so concerned about Laurel he wasn't thinking about his own wellbeing. She knew that Oliver was quite capable of looking after himself, and that it was probably better for Oliver to be in custody than Laurel, but that didn't stop her from feeling nauseous.

Not for the first time, she felt a pang of resentment for Laurel. Why did she have this ridiculous influence over Oliver? The second that the thought came she regretted it – of course it wasn't Laurel's fault that she had been kidnapped. Oliver would trade for anyone he cared about, including her? Or would he? She wondered what he would have done if it was her in Laurel's place; would he have rushed to save her in quite the same way?

Diggle was silent as they drove to pick up Moira, Thea and Roy – this was quite possibly an attack on Oliver himself and everybody needed to be kept safe. He had already called Roy and told him to get Thea and Moira to a pick up point; he would simply tell them that a situation had arisen and that they needed to be somewhere safe. Oliver had a safe house set up, which he was sure nobody would know about, in case of a situation just like this. Diggle wasn't looking forward to the questions that would no doubt arise; hopefully this would all be over quickly so that Oliver could do the explaining.

His phone rang and he reached down quickly to answer it, hopeful it was Oliver. But it was Roy.

"What is it?" Diggle asked as soon as he picked up.

"There are people at the house. They've taken out the security. I'm in Oliver's bedroom with Thea and her mom," Roy said quickly. "We've barricaded the door but we're trapped. I tried calling Oliver but he didn't pick up."

"Oliver and Sara are out of range. I'm on my way," Diggle said; for a second he thought panic might set in but then he remembered himself and kept calm. He could do this without Oliver. He sped up, even though driving and talking was always a bad idea.

"What is it?" Felicity asked, across from him.

"There's people at Oliver's house," Diggle explained. He flicked the phone to speaker and dropped it into his lap so he could focus on getting to the house fast. Then he turned his attention back to Roy. "How many are there?"

"At least five," Roy told him. "Armed."

"Alright. Don't try to take them on alone Roy, you aren't ready." Diggle ordered.

"Which room are they in?" Felicity asked suddenly.

"Oliver's," Diggle informed her. Felicity took out her laptop, bringing a floor plan of the house up on screen.

"We're only two minutes away Roy. Just keep safe," Diggle said, "Felicity have you got something?"

"What about the window? Can you jump down?" Felicity said loudly, asking Roy.

"I could. But not the others. I suggested I jump and then catch them but they won't. I could maybe lower them down with the bed sheets but there's two men standing outside with guns and if we even go near the window we're sitting ducks."

"Get ready to lower them," Diggle ordered.

"What are we going to do?" Felicity asked, looking like she had a rough idea and wasn't particularly happy about it.

"Get down," Diggle advised.

"This is a bad idea, but alright. If we get shot I'm blaming you," Felicity sighed. Then she did as she was told; she really didn't want to get shot again. Once was enough to prove her commitment.

Diggle drove straight through the gate and round the house, over the grass, to directly below Oliver's window. Like Roy had said, there were two men standing below it. They turned as they heard the car, and raised their guns. But they weren't fast enough. Diggle drove straight into them; there was a sickening crunch and both of the men were thrown backwards into wall. The car lurched to a halt. Roy's face appeared at the window. Diggle quickly got out of the car, checking that both men were down. They were (although one of them was making groaning sounds).

"Okay, lower them quickly," Diggle called up. Thea came over to the window, gripping the sheet wrapped round her waist tightly. She looked pale and scared, younger in her fear. Roy lowered her easily, his strength making the task quick. Diggle caught Thea and untied the sheet, so Roy could do the same for Moira. Then Roy jumped down and they all got into the car.

"Where's Oliver?" Thea said, at the same time as Moira said "Where is my son?"

"Oliver told me to get you to a safe house," Diggle said quickly. He didn't mention Oliver's current situation.

"Who were they?" Thea asked. "What did they want?"

"I don't know," Diggle said truthfully. He glanced at Felicity, who was as clueless as him. Thea and Moira followed his gaze and seemed to notice Felicity for the first time.

"What is she doing here?" Moira asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Oliver told me to go with you," Felicity said quickly. "In case you needed… technical support." She finished lamely. The lie had sounded better in her head. Moira stared at her.

"This is unacceptable. Mr Diggle, I want to speak to my son now," Moira ordered.

"I'm afraid that isn't possible," Diggle said simply. "He hasn't got his phone on him. But I assure you, his instructions were very clear. He wants you safe."

"Is he safe?" Thea asked, looking doubtful.

"When I spoke to him he was fine. Just worried about you," Diggle said truthfully. Good lies were just the truth with omissions – he had learnt that from Oliver. "Now I'm going to drive you two to the safe house. Roy will stay with you. Then I'm going to go and find Oliver."

"What safe house? Why was I not told about this?" Moira asked, her eyes narrowed. She looked like she was about to snap and start shouting. Diggle braced himself – Oliver really owed him for this.

I haven't actually decided who Oliver is going to end up with! If you have a preference, please let me know in a review and I'll take it into account. Even if you don't have a preference, please let me know what you thought of this, reviews make me happy.