Diggle checked how much Oliver still felt by pulling a little at the stitching of his wounds.
"Mmm... I feel that, but it doesn't hurt too bad...", Oliver slurred quietly.
At least he hadn't jumped through the roof or anything, so Diggle was satified. He knew he could probably not get all the pain away, but Oliver had quite a high tolerance so he would probably manage. It wouldn't hurt if he just gave in and went to sleep, but of course he had to be too stubborn to do that.
"Okay Felicity, let's try to get this done as quickly as possible now that he's not in too much pain", Diggle said. "We have to remove the old stitches first, so could you please cut the thread as I lift up the knots for you?"
"Yeah, sure, I can do that", Felicity answered nervously.
They managed just fine although they had some minor problems with a couple of stitches that had really embedded themselves in the inflamed flesh. Then Diggle started to clean the edges of the wounds by cutting away the dead looking tissue with a sharp, surgical knife.
At that Oliver cringed a little, but stilled and seemed to be relatively fine as Felicity took hold of his hand and tried to calm him down.
"You feel so nice...", Oliver mumbled to Felicity, who blushed a little at his words. He normally didn't ever say stuff like that, but of course now he was sick and a bit drugged.
Diggle finished his mini-surgery and cleaned the area once more with a strong disinfectant. He almost would have liked to keep the wound open to let it breath and avoid further infection, but he knew this was not a sterile hospital environment and that it probably would lead to even more dirt getting in.
So he took a new pair of sterile gloves and did his best to make neat stitches and get the edges close together. Of course Oliver didn't really care about how his body looked anymore with all the other scars there already, but it couldn't hurt to try to do a good job.
"Felicity, could you help speed this up by cutting the thread after every stitch? He's gonna need quite a few to cover this mess", Diggle asked and of course she obliged as well as she could.
Then they just put new dressings on and Diggle started to look in his bag for the antibiotics that Oliver no doubt would need.
"Ok, my job here is done, but he's still gonna need looking after. It's really important that he takes these antibiotics four times a day for at least two weeks, and his dressings are gonna need to be changed and the wounds cleaned at least twice a day until the infection gets under control", he instructed Felicity. "Can you handle it or should I arrange someone else for him?" he asked.
"Of course I can do it, you don't need to worry about it. I mean, I'm not really good at this stuff but what can you do when your boss needs round the clock care? Not that I do this because he's my boss, I'd do it for anyone. Well, not anyone, but ... Oh, I'm hopeless. The point is I'll look after him as long as he needs help", she finished her ramble.
"Good, then I'll call you both in sick for at least a couple of days and bring some of his clothes over here. I really hate to bother you with this, but I don't think he should be moved right now and this is the place he chose to collapse in for some reason", Diggle said shaking his head at the stubborn man lying on the couch seemingly asleep.
"If his fever gets too high then just try to get him to take some medication or cool him down in some way. I'm leaving some stronger painkillers here too, but I doubt he'll agree to take any no matter how much pain he is in. If you have any questions or he's giving you trouble then you can always call me", he continued with a smile at Felicity as he went out the door.