A/N: And we continue on with 1x19. Thanks for the support!

Felicity had been anxious since Oliver had realized the Count hadn't escaped and must still be at the mental institute. Her skills weren't needed on this mission which left her with nothing official to do after he left. Digg continued to be unreachable, and that worried her as well.

The lair was still more storage facility than high tech operations center for a vigilante hero, and she decided to put her time to good use by fixing her computers. Having only her tablet to use had been frustrating.

She stopped every now and then and checked to see if she had missed Digg, but it was silent. She was lost in setting up the cables just the way she liked when her text alert dinged.

It was from Digg and read: 'Get IV and flush ready'

Her heart dropped. She wanted to call him, ask a hundred questions and know what was going to greet her when they came through the door, but she knew he didn't have time for that just then. She abandoned the bank of computers and scanned the space.

Their med supplies were still scattered throughout the lair, disguised under tarps and hidden behind boxes of liquor. Knowing those two she should have spent her time putting that back to rights instead.

Adrenaline was a wonderful thing, and she had the bare basics of what she needed found and ready to go quicker than she thought. When the door to the basement slammed open she had just started to insert the tubing into the saline bag.

Oliver came down first. He leaned hard on the railing, and his bow almost dragged on the steps, but he was moving under his own power and she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

Digg looked like he'd been roughed up some, but was in better shape than his boss.

"What happened." she asked, and rushed forward immediately. Oliver pulled the quiver over his shoulder and thrust it and the bow into her hands before he passed by her without saying a word

She looked at Digg in confusion and he just shook his head slowly. "It wasn't the Count. It was his doctor. He figured out a way to reverse engineer the drug and tried to kill Oliver with it."

"Oh god!" she gasped, and pushed the bow and quiver at Digg.

Oliver was just standing, swaying actually, and she wasted no time in shoving him into the nearest chair. The fact that he didn't fight her was worrisome.

"Has he had the antidote?" she asked Digg, as she readied the IV. Inserting needles into veins wasn't something she liked doing, but Digg had insisted she learn.

"He had the dose on him that he made earlier, but the stuff the doctor gave him was in liquid form, not a pill, and I have no idea at what concentration. Getting it out of his system as soon as possible seemed like the best thing to do." Digg explained and sat down stiffly

"Right." she agreed, and tried to will her hands to stop shaking.

Oliver still sat, silent, and he didn't so much as blink when she fought to push the sleeve up on his disguise. This was the first time she'd had to do this under pressure, but she took a deep breath and focused on her task, and the needle was in and taped down before she knew it.

"Ha! Look at that! Go me!" she said happily, and rolled the wheel to start the fluids flowing. Digg gave her half a smile but Oliver didn't acknowledge her.

There was a tension between Digg and Oliver that she didn't like, and she didn't think she was going to be getting any answers from them that night. With a sigh she opened the med cart and grabbed two ice packs.

"Heads up." she said to Digg and tossed one in his direction where he caught it easily.

"Thanks." Digg said, "I think I'm going to head over and see Carly tonight. You've got this." and before she could voice a protest he was gone.

"Ok, then. Guess it's just you and me, big guy." Felicity said to the still quiet Oliver.

His hood was up, and when she pushed it back he flinched as her hand brushed the back of his head.

"Oliver." she said softly, "You need to talk to me."

Finally, his eyes raised to hers and a stranger stared back. For the first time since she had met him she felt frightened, and she wished Digg hadn't left already.

"I didn't kill him." his voice was rough and slightly slurred

"Didn't kill who, the doctor?"

"No. I killed him." he said coldly and a shiver went through her. "I didn't kill the Count."

"Why not?" the question was out of her mouth before she could stop herself

"It would have been murder." and her Oliver was back

She just nodded, "You're right."

His gaze fell away, and she turned her attention to the back of his head. She skimmed along the close cropped hair until she found a lump, and winced for him at the size of it.

"Did you get knocked out?" she asked, not able to keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Yeah, guy surprised me from behind." he admitted and she wisely chose not to inquire any further.

She grabbed the second ice pack and placed it gently on the spot, her other hand resting between the open hood and his collarbone to steady him.

He leaned into her slightly and when she looked down his eyes were shut. A flare of panic went through her and she tossed the ice pack to the side and pulled the cart with the heart and respiration monitor on it up to him. She flicked switches, and found the leads.

Without thinking she unzipped his shirt and pulled it open. The tattoos she barely noticed anymore, but the scars still got to her, especially the one high on his left shoulder that was still slightly red, even after all this time.

As she hooked the leads to his chest she noticed a small hole with a thin trickle of dried blood, right over his heart. "Holy crap, you Pulp Fictioned yourself!" she said aloud even though there was no one to hear her.

Injecting anything straight into the heart couldn't be good, even if it was to save your life.

With the pulse oximeter attached to his finger, and the heart monitor turned on she watched the screen until it showed a normal rhythm, even if it was a bit slow. She cleaned up his smaller scrapes and cuts and let her hand rest on his chest. The rise and fall of his breath, and the warm skin the reminder she needed that he was alive.

Her legs were wobbly, at everything she'd had to do and the worry that it wasn't enough. She drew a chair up next to him and held the ice pack back in place. And she waited.

The bag of fluids was nearly empty when his eyes flicked open. She still had one arm resting on his right shoulder so she could hold the ice in place, and the other hand cupped around the left side of his jaw to give him support.

Their faces were close and she held her breath as he focused on her.

"Felicity," he said slowly, sounding confused

"Hey," she replied, "How do you feel?"

"Like I was on a really bad trip." he admitted. He blinked several times and lifted the arm with the IV in it up to rub his eyes. When he lowered it he seemed to notice the IV and everything else he was hooked up to.

"Did you do this?" he asked

"Yeah, Digg made sure you got back, but..." she bit her lip to stop herself from speaking. She didn't want to rat Digg out. "You seemed out of it, but ok when he left. But...then you passed out and I was worried so I put you on the monitors and I didn't know if you were going to wake up or if you needed more of the antidote, or maybe something else. Or maybe it was your head. I mean, it looks like you got hit pretty hard, which surprised me since you're like a ninja, and I didn't think that happened to ninjas. And then I saw where you stuck the needle into yourself, just like in the movie, and that's when I wondered if maybe you'd damaged your heart. But that's way above my paygrade, so..." as she'd rambled her eyes had glazed over with tears, and with him awake and talking and not scaring her anymore, the reality of the past hour hit her full force. She tried to stop it, she had cried more in the past six months since she'd started working with him than in the six years prior, but it was no use.

She made to get up, under the guise of unhooking him from the heart monitor, but his hand caught arm.

"You did good." he assured her and then tugged her forward. It was awkward, and slightly uncomfortable with the arm of the chair between them, but she didn't care. As soon as he had pulled her down she didn't resist. Her forehead came to rest in the space between his neck and his shoulder and she pressed herself in.

She let out one long shuddering breath, and tried to get control of her emotions. She felt a broad hand span her back, and she turned her face into him further. When she breathed out again the hand on her back tightened. A peek through her lashes at the monitor let her know that his heart rate had increased.

She gave herself one more long moment and then sat up, and adjusted her glasses "Thanks"

"Always." he replied and it hung between them, the connection they had that she was too scared to pursue, at least not yet.

He let her take the leads off and remove the IV even though he was perfectly capable of doing it himself.

Oliver just sat there, lost in thought, and she had a million questions she wanted to ask. So she started with the one that affected her the most. "What's going on with you and Digg?"

"Nothing." he replied automatically and she resisted the urge to yank the lead she'd been gently pulling off. She just looked at him over her glasses and he sighed and leaned back further into the chair.

"Doesn't he have as much right to avenge his brother's killer, as you do with your list, or whoever is making vertigo? He's not just your personal soldier." she was upset for Digg, but she was torn because she understood where both of them were coming from.

He shot a glare her direction and tore off the lead she'd been working on, but before he could bolt from the chair she put her palm on his chest and held him in place. She knew if he really wanted out, she wasn't going to stop him.

"No. You don't get to run." she licked her lips nervously and locked her eyes on his. She was in this now, she might as well finish it. "You owe it to him. And you know it. You're not on the island anymore, Oliver so stop acting like you are." and without waiting for his response she spun on her heel and left him there.

She only made it as far as her desk. All she wanted to do was shut off the computers and grab her stuff. She didn't know what had made her talk to him like that. He made her feel and say things she'd never imagined before and it left her unbalanced and out of control and it was probably best for her to just leave right then.

"Felicity," his voice gave nothing away, and she had to silently admire the control he had.

She pulled her coat on and put her purse on her shoulder before she turned to face him. He stood only a few feet from her, his shirt still undone, leather pants still on, and she hated her traitorous thoughts for straying to how damn good he looked right then.

"You're right." he said, "I'll talk to Digg."

She just nodded and went to walk past him to the door, but as she stepped by him she laid a hand on his upper arm, "Thanks for not dying on me. And thanks for not killing the Count."

Their eyes met, and a bolt of desire went through her at the look his held. He leaned forward, so slowly, until his cheek brushed hers, and he could whisper in her ear. "Thanks for saving me." and god help her she didn't know if he meant that night or something else.

His lips grazed her cheek as he pulled back, and she tightened the grip she had on her purse strap so she wouldn't do anything foolish: like kiss him the way she really wanted to.

She took a deep breath before she spoke, "We are going to have to talk about this." she said.

"We are." he replied calmly

"But not right now." she stated

"But not right now." he parroted back in agreement.

"Good night, Oliver." she said, and as she finally made her way to the stairs, her mind whirled with exactly how that conversation could go.