Hope is a Four Letter Word

Chapter 3 – Of Hostages and Heroes

By JTrevizo

Disclaimer, rating, spoiler warnings in chapter 1

A/N: I continue to be supported by the invaluable beta services of ScarletDeva.

Summary: Who exactly attacked the wedding, and is there more to it than money?

Hi all. Thank you again for your continued support of this work. I hope that this new chapter not only continues to meet your expectations but starts to give you some hints on where we're going on this journey. Now let's get to the story…

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Hope is a Four Letter Word

By JTrevizo

Chapter 3 – Of Hostages and Heroes

Felicity wakes up to the feeling of rough canvas against her cheek. Her hands move to the material she's laying on and recognize the hard sensation of stretched fabric. Her fuzzy brain wonders if she fell asleep on the cot that Oliver keeps in the lair. Then her wrist brushes against satin and beading and her eyes widen in recognition.

She launches herself up from the cot she's sprawled on and feels a bit dizzy even as she forces herself to look around and she sees that she's in a plain white room that she doesn't recognize.

Crap, she thinks to herself.

Her eyes feel like they've been coated in sand and she scrubs her hands over her face and rubs her fingers against her closed eyelids for what seems like forever. Her contacts itch, even though she'd put in her long wear ones, thinking it might be a while until she wanted to have her glasses.

She unconsciously lets out an audible sigh as she realizes that all those plans for a Bermuda honeymoon with sunglasses, sunhats, drinks and bathing suits are now out of the cards. Not only did the wedding not happen, but she's the prisoner of some military group looking for a payday from Oliver.

She opens her eyes and stands up carefully, her head feeling heavy on her neck. Slowly, she looks down over herself. She's still in her wedding dress, which she figured out when she'd woken up, and is actually relieved when she sees that the dress doesn't seem ripped or damaged. She loves this dress and would really be pissed off if they'd torn or ruined it!

Felicity finds that, the longer she stays upright, the better her head feels, and she wonders if they drugged her or if she got hit in the head. She does her best to scan over her arms before rubbing her hands over her neck, searching for a sore spot where a needle mark could be before moving on to feel her skull, finding no lumps or painful areas. When she doesn't find anything, she guesses that perhaps they used chloroform to knock her out. It would make sense considering that they had to know that she wasn't going to go willingly with them.

As her mind clears and she works to remember what happened, panic starts to bubble up within her. Her heart starts to slam harder in her chest as images from the wedding come back to her and dread begins to fill her. There had been so much gunfire and she recalls seeing Dig and Roy fall during the scuffles with the masked men and gunshots… She thought Lyla had gone down too but Thea running over to her and grabbing her hand had drawn her attention away from her matron of honor. Then she'd ended up singularly focused on Oliver as he'd done everything in his power to keep her and his sister safe from the men who'd attacked them.

The last thing she remembered clearly was being yanked away from Thea, screaming for Oliver even as she'd watched him fall to the ground after being hit by the leader of the masked gunmen. They'd dragged her through the carnage of the wedding and the mansion and then shoved her in a huge black SUV that was parked outside the front door. Inside the panel van, she remembered that she yanked one arm free and jabbed an elbow into the chest of one of the men holding her and then her head had been wrenched to one side, and then everything went dark.

Her eyes slam shut as recalls the look on Oliver's face right before he'd fallen; anger, fear and frustration filling his eyes even as he kept fighting. She'd already been afraid when he'd been shot twice, and he was still struggling with the gunmen, blood seeping through his tux, but watching him fall had scared her horribly. He's her Oliver, the Arrow. The man that laughs at pain and doesn't let little things like getting shot or stabbed keep him from completing the mission. So having him fall and not get up... She swallows thickly at the thought but she knows in her heart that he's alive. But besides the fact that she knows he's survived worse, the men that kidnapped her needed him in one piece to get them their ransom money, which is why they'd taken her and not him.

And she's also reasonably sure that she'd know if something truly bad had happened to him… if he was… dead…

Felicity shakes her head, dislodging the dark thoughts but also aggravating her still scattered mind, forcing her to sit back down on the plain, military looking cot. She rubs her temples, trying to get her brain to fire on all cylinders and to focus on what she can figure out in the here and now of her situation. She can either start freaking out or she can use her intellect to try and find a way out of this mess or at least determine where she is, so if she can get a chance, she can somehow tip off Oliver.

Slowly, she opens her eyes and she looks at herself once more, taking a more detailed assessment. She's beyond relieved that she doesn't feel any kind of pain or injury of any kind other than some aches in her wrists and arms. She notes some dark bruising around her biceps and realizes that it's where she'd been grabbed when the men hauled her away. The light reddish marks around her wrists that look to be from zip ties. She expects that they did that after she was out and they must have cut them after they'd moved her here.

She looks up at the door opposite her and recalls suddenly that she has no idea of where exactly "here" is.

Narrowing her eyes, she stands up and heads to the door opposite her, her hand flying to the handle of the door. She wrenches the handle and it barely moves in her hand; she isn't surprised to find it locked. What would be the point of having a prisoner if you left the door open? She examines the knob more closely - it's a handle style door knob with a flat nickel finish. It has no key hole or any screws, which means she's not going to be able to pick it or otherwise crack the casing open to get the knob off. Her eyes move to the door frame and she notes that the hinges aren't on this side, so that means knocking the pins loose as an escape option is out.

With a frustrated sigh, she turns away and really starts to catalog the room carefully. There's nothing much in the room itself other than the cot and there are no windows or what could even be boarded over windows, so she guesses that she's in a room that is possibly either inside a warehouse or other industrial building or it could be an interior room of a residential location. She presses a finger to the wall next to the door and notes that the white painted walls aren't fresh, so she knows this place wasn't built or set up in the last twenty four hours… whomever took her has been planning this for a while.

That thought makes sense; they were way too prepared to have not been planning for a while. If it was her sending Dig, Roy and Oliver out on a mission, she would have taken all the precautions as early as possible. Which means that this place has to have been leased or bought a while ago, which means a paper trail. If she was in the lair, she'd be looking for recent purchases, leases or even building permits to areas…

She stops suddenly, realizing that she was just assuming she is still in Starling City. She has no idea how long she's been out. It could have been hours, maybe even a day, and who knows how far they have taken her from her home, from Oliver.

Her hands fly to her face as she feels herself start to fall apart, realizing that she could be anywhere, and that, even though the men that took her said they wanted her as collateral, there's a possibility that they were lying and that, even if he pays them what they want, she might not make it back to Oliver. She fights hyperventilating at the thought and forces herself to put it behind her… she will get home, somehow.

She blindly walks a few steps to where the cot is and sits heavily, her head falling farther in her hands as she lets herself panic a bit. This was not how this was supposed to go.

It had been hard to even get to this point with Oliver. Every little bump in the road - any real or perceived threat to her life because of his alter ego and her support of that job - had made him try and step back from them. She'd done everything she could to keep him from running once he'd finally realized he couldn't keep hiding the truth from her or himself on how he felt.

Of course, she'd had her own roadblocks too, and it had been hard to let herself believe him and let him past the walls she'd put up after Russia, Sara and the "I love you" and everything that came after until they'd both succumbed to the inevitable.

A harsh chuckle breaks past her lips as she thinks of her ramble on the beach at Lian Yu following that declaration and how she'd called them unthinkable. How wrong she was in her denial.

God, all she wants to go home and wrap her arms around him right now.

Suddenly, she hears the door knob start to turn and she jumps up, anxious of what will be on the other side of the door. Heck, for all she knows, it could be Oliver, Dig and Roy to the rescue…

The door opens and instead of a rescue party, a man with caramel colored skin, slicked back hair and a neatly trimmed beard walks in, wearing a suit and tie. Her eyes widen, shocked at how civilized the man looks. He closes the door behind him and stares at her before giving her a small grin.

"Ms. Smoak, I'm glad to see you awake and well. You have my apologies for this... inconvenience," says the man, and she immediately recognizes his voice as the leader of the gunmen.

"I want to know if they're alright," she demands, not acknowledging his words as she finds herself more angry than afraid now.

If he's surprised that her first words aren't a question about where she is or a demand to let her out, he doesn't show it. He just looks at her calmly.

"Your fiance is alive, as are most of the wedding party and guests. However not everyone was so… lucky. I would recommend you focus on your own continued well being right now."

The veiled threat doesn't go unrecognized, but she's too furious right now to care, so she takes a step forward, using every ounce of righteous outrage within her as she replies, "You need me alive if you want your money."

"True," he replies as he slides his eyes up and down her in a manner that makes Felicity's skin crawl, "however I did not say you would return to Mr. Queen… intact."

Felicity's breath catches in her chest as she tries to keep her mind from generating all the horrific things that single word could imply. She knows she's afraid and this would be the perfect moment for a nervous ramble but she needs to try and be calm. She keeps her lips pressed tightly together even as she tries her best to stare him down.

After a long minute he gives a smile and a chuckle that make her shudder before he lifts his arm, bringing up a plastic bag.

"I've taken the liberty of bringing you some things to make your stay a bit more… comfortable. I doubt you want to ruin your lovely gown by wearing it until we resolve matters with your fiance. And I'm sure you are hungry."

At that he hands her the bag. She takes it, automatically looking inside where she finds a set of basic blue medical scrubs, a pair of hospital socks, two bottles of water and some energy bars. She brings the bag up to hold it protectively against her chest. He hasn't moved and she suddenly worries that he might be expecting her to change in front of him. He raises a brow and smirks before taking a step towards her, making her step backwards, her legs hitting the cot behind her.

"I'll be taking my leave to let you get changed, but, before I do, I'll need that," he says, pointing to Felicity's hand.

She looks down and realizes he's looking at her engagement ring. The custom ring Oliver gave her has a two karat, emerald cut diamond flanked by two one karat, triangle cut emeralds set in a platinum band. She had never asked him how much it was worth, knowing that if he'd told her and she'd argued the cost of it, he would have simply shrugged and told her money was no object when it came to her.

Now though, she finds herself wondering what it's worth since this… mercenary seems interested in taking it from her.

"Why?"

"Consider it a down payment on your continued well being until we begin the process of negotiations with your fiance."

Frowning, she holds the bag tighter to her chest with her arms even as she pulls the ring from her hand and drops it in the man's waiting palm. He wraps his hand around the ring and smiles.

"I'll be back in a while. It will give you a chance to change and eat. As you can see… you have some… facilities for anything else you might need to do."

His eyes flick to the covered bucket that she'd barely noticed before and realizes that it's her toilet, and she noticeably balks. He gives her a wide smile that makes her feel dirty before he steps to the door, turns the handle and leaves. There's an audible click as something outside locks and then silence.

She drops the bag on the cot and fishes out the clothes. She slips the shirt on over her head and then steps into the pants and pulls them up under her skirt, carefully hiking them so not even a single sliver of skin shows. Once covered by the scrubs, she reaches under the shirt to unzip her dress and it pools at her feet on the bare concrete of the room's floor. Bending down, she picks it up and carefully folds it, setting it at the foot of the cot.

Sitting beside her dress, she slips the socks on, her mind recognizing belatedly that she must have lost her heels at the house or even in the van. She frowns but figures, if she can't find them, replacing a pair of $100 white satin heels isn't the end of the world. Once the socks are on her feet, she realizes that they were cold, pressed to the concrete and shakes her head, realizing how such a small thing hadn't even penetrated her mind considering everything else.

She dives back into the bag to pull out a bottle of water, opens it and takes a long drink. Again, she'd been so focused she hadn't realized how thirsty she was. Her hand digs back into the bag and pulls out a protein bar. She's a little surprised to note that it's chocolate, and, when she flips it over, she notes that there's no nut products or warnings included. That means they did their homework before taking her. What good would she be to them dead from an allergic reaction?

When she's done with half the bottle of water and the whole protein bar, she puts the empty wrapper and the bottle back in the bag and sets them aside. Her eyes study the room again, looking for any clue or vulnerability. She's been a member of Team Arrow long enough to know that one small piece of information can be the thing that makes or breaks a mission.

She has no concept of time but, before she realizes it, the door opens once again and the same man returns. Standing, she watches as he pulls a generic looking, basic blocky cell phone from his jacket pocket and begins pressing buttons. A second later ,he lifts the phone to his ear and, a few more moments later, a smile creeps across his face that reminds her of Malcom Merlyn; it's a smile that sugarcoats a core of evil.

"Mr. Queen. I hope I'm not bothering you while you're recuperating."

Felicity feels her heart leap in her throat as she realizes that Oliver's on the other end of the line, and suddenly she can hear his voice even across the few feet separating her and her captor. Instantly she feels relief, knowing he's alive and the little voice in her head that had told her he might not be is silenced viciously. She knows that Oliver's more than likely shouting, and guesses that he's in full-on 'hood' mode.

"She's right here," says her captor, looking at her. "No harm has come to her… as of yet. I'll let you speak with her for a moment."

He pulls the phone from his ear and holds it out flat as he presses a button turning on the speakerphone option. Immediately Oliver's voice fills the space.

"Felicity?!"

A rush of love and happiness fills her bones at hearing him say her name.

"Oliver! I'm okay. Are you alright? Dig and the others?"

She hears in his voice the moment his fear turns to worry tinged with hope. "We're okay. Don't worry about us. I'll take care of everything and you'll be home soon."

"I love you," she barely gets out before the man turns the speaker off and pulls the phone back to his ear. She wants nothing more than to grab it back from him so she can hear Oliver's voice again but she forces herself to stay still, not sure what kind of retribution the action would garner from the man before her.

She can hear Oliver yelling again even though the phone is muffled against the man's ear once more. She shudders a bit as the man laughs lightly, the sound almost menacing. "Now now, Mr. Queen. I thought you were going to be reasonable. The price for your fiance's safe return is 250 million dollars. Now I am aware that this is quite a large sum, so I will give you forty eight hours to procure it. I'll call you in twenty four to make sure you're on track to securing it in the timeframe allotted."

He moves the phone away and she can still hear Oliver's angry voice before the man disconnects the call. Smiling, he slides it back into his jacket pocket before he moves back to the door, his head turning to Felicity as he gives her a polite nod.

"Thank you for your cooperation. We'll make sure that you continue to be fed, and I have no doubt that, when we call back tomorrow, your fiance will want to hear your voice again, so I will look forward to seeing you then."

He lays a hand on the door handle, and Felicity considers rushing the door as he exits. She slides her foot ever so slightly towards him as he turns the handle and cracks the door open a bit. Then he looks away for a second, through the open space between the door and door frame, and she moves a bit closer. His head whips around and looks at her, a sympathetic expression crossing his face that startles her.

"Oh, I forgot… I have a guest for you."

He swings the door open all the way and her eyes widen even as her mouth falls open and her heart drops. Standing on the other side of the door, Slade Wilson stands and smiles at her.

-end chapter 3-

So… yeah…

And please leave a review if you enjoyed, have thoughts, etc!

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