Rainforest Preservation Foundation, Metropolis
While Chloe's looking after Oliver until Davis returns with the heart monitor, Clark's back at the foundation, looking for Nicholas Cain and some answers about Oliver's condition. Seeing that the party's still thriving after Oliver's abrupt departure, Clark makes his way into the centre of the room, dodging incoming partygoers and half-naked waiters that look ready to jump him at any moment. Phoning Nicholas' cell again he allows it to ring, and once it does, he uses his superhuman hearing to hone in on its whereabouts. Blocking out all other noises, he hears it along with the sound of an ambulance and a siren in the distance. Moving out onto the balcony he stares down and watches as someone, obviously Nicholas, is wheeled out on a stretcher into a nearby ambulance.
"What happened to him?" Clark asks the policeman once he pushes through the entrance doors, the officer turning to answer him, "Someone found him passed out in the bathroom and OD'd on something or other."
"Did he say anything?"
"He's barely breathing. He'll be lucky if he makes it to the hospital alive."
This does nothing to reassure Clark about Oliver's fate, as he follows the ambulance back to the Metropolis General Hospital to see if he can find out more.
The Isis Foundation, Metropolis
With the heart monitor bleeping softly in the silence of the room, Chloe sits next to Ollie, watching over him and the machine as he tosses and turns, his skin burning up.
"Come on Oliver. Whatever's inside of you, you can beat it," she said, unsure whether he hears her words or not as he continues to stir.
His mind flashes back to his past, to a time when Oliver was shipwrecked on a somewhat deserted island, lying on his back on the shore, and spluttering out water that he'd sucked in on his way there. Turning over onto his front, Oliver crawls along until he raises his head up, noticing what's left of his yacht scattered about the beach. He's confused as he stands up, his vision a little blurry while he tries to focus on his surroundings.
Back to reality, Oliver seems to have quietened down, his heart rate stable and his breathing normal as his mind drifts back to that time in his past…
Crawling through the undergrowth of the island's jungle, Oliver, his clothes dirty and his skin clammy with sweat, spots a slimy centipede and grabs it, wrapping it around his hand. Oliver looks at it in disgust, stomach turning at the revolting thought of eating it. "Alright here's the deal. Normally I don't eat anything with more than 99 legs on it, but I haven't eaten for days. Kind of a bummer for both of us, right?"
Trying to urge himself to eat it, Ollie quickly rejects the many-legged insect, "Okay, you win," before placing it back on the ground again, the insect disappearing into the undergrowth. He then hears a grunt coming from somewhere to his left, and when he crawls around and forward a little bit, he can see a plump, wild boar feeding off a leafy bush through the thicket. Crawling ever closer to it, Ollie bides his time before finding the right moment to strike. The boar's surprisingly too fast for him, as it runs off into the other direction and through the trees. Ollie stares after it in disbelief, stomach growling for attention.
Flash forward; Ollie's now making himself a makeshift bow and arrows out of wood and stones found in his vicinity whilst the heat of the sun punishes his body. Once his weapons are made, Ollie draws himself a bull's-eye on a nearby tree and starts training to use his bow and arrows efficiently. His first attempts are obviously futile, but as the hours pass he gets better, the arrows nearer the centre, before he finally hits the mark. Now garbed in just his shorts and wearing a green hood of some kind over his head to protect him, Ollie fires another arrow with swift precision, hitting the bull's-eye again and splitting the arrow he fired before in half. He takes off his blindfold, knowing now that he's ready, before voices in the distance distract him, his instincts telling him to check it out.
Running as fast as his legs can go, Ollie jumps over fallen logs and vaults over small crevices in the ground before gradually slowing down and lurking behind a large bush decorated with pink flowers. Moving closer, Ollie pulls back a branch, one suddenly pricking his palm but he shakes it away. Peering down the small hill, Ollie bares witness to what seems to be armed men setting up camp, but before he could watch anymore, a strange feeling of light-headedness and nausea overwhelmed him. Eventually, he collapsed on the ground caused by the effects of the flower that pricked him. Soon the world around him turned to darkness…
Back to reality, Chloe watches over him when a faint knock at the door distracts her. Knowing that nothing's going to change in the next five minutes, Chloe lifts up her dress in order to walk over to the door. Opening it, she's surprised to find her cousin, Lois Lane, standing behind it, a concerned look on the brunette's face. "Hey, have you seen Ollie? Apparently he's boozed his way into a -- ," but she stopped when Chloe pushed the door wider to show Ollie lying on the recliner, sweating and with his shirt open.
Pushing by Chloe, Lois strips off her work jacket on her way to the chair beside Ollie, "Whoa! Who's he been parting with? Motley Crue?"
Closing the door behind her, Chloe speaks out. "Lois, it's not what you think," but Lois doesn't seem to be listening. "Find me a 24-hour market. I need a sports drink, as much Vitamin B as you can get your hands on and one dill pickle. Let's go! Tick tock!" Lois demands, ready to help Ollie out of his hangover.
Chloe just shakes her head, the expression on her face telling her that it's not what it seems. "He's not hung-over, Lois."
Lois stops, turns back to Ollie and really takes in the scene this time, noticing that he's hooked up to a heart monitor, his eyelids flickering intensely every so often.
"What's going on?"
"Clark's trying to figure it out, but we know that it's serious."
Lois looks back at Ollie again, just about hearing Chloe's voice as the shock of his condition finally hits her. "He's been poisoned."
"Oh my god," she whispers, Chloe barely hearing her as the reporter takes the seat next to Oliver. "Ollie? It's Lois," hoping against hope that he can hear her, the voice of one of his closest friends.
When he doesn't respond, she looks over her shoulder, gets up grabbing Chloe gently by the wrist, and pulls her into the next room."Come here. What is he doing here Chloe? He needs a real doctor."
"He specifically told us no hospitals," Chloe replies defensively.
"Well, I'm actually conscious, and I'm saying he needs one, for Clark's sake."
Chloe lets out a breath, "Lois, I know what it looks like, okay? But right now, Ollie needs people he can trust and this is what he wanted."
Her words getting through to her, Lois nods her head in agreement. "You're right. If he said no hospitals…" she takes a moment to pause, looking back at him. His condition remains unchanged and she walks back to him, "…then I guess we just have to take his word for it."
She takes the seat next to him again, a small smile forming on her lips at the thought of how Clark can stand Ollie's stubbornness when she hears a faint voice, coming from Oliver himself. "Mercy," he whispers.
"Ollie?" Lois asks, leaning in to hear him better, "What are you saying?"
"Mercy," he says again, this time a little louder.
"Hey, can you hear me?" Lois asks again, her voice seeming to merge with another inside his mind as it lapses back into the past…a red-haired woman with piercing green eyes calling to him as he wakes…