A little note: I know the previous chapter was short, but I try to end them when I feel it suits the story better. So please understand that. :)

Thank you for all the responses to this story, they make my day better.

As always, sorry for the mistakes.

Happy reading!


Oliver carried her back to their camp to eat and pack their things, and an hour later they were on their way towards the lake.

The path was worse than expected. They had to stop more than a few times and go unbelievably slow.

The snow reached his knees at all times and the weather was getting worse and worse, which was saying something since it was already terrible.

After walking for hours, it was night when they decided to stop.

He took one step toward a spot under a tree.

Just one step, after thousands before it.

That's all it took.

He placed his foot on the ground, and the snow collapsed under him.

He fell in a hole of snow and the blow took his breath away, leaving him gasping from air and his ribs burning in his chest.

He couldn't stop Felicity from being thrown to the ground either. She rolled a few steps away from him, and she screamed in pain when her broken arm hit the terrain.

By the time he got himself back up and kneeled beside her, she was curved in a ball, her eyes were closed and she was biting her lower lip trying not to scream again.

Oliver cradled her in his arms, whispering apologizes into her hair while he checked her arm. The second his fingers grazed her skin she jerked away from him, more tears escaping her eyes. She looked like a caged, wounded animal, afraid to be hurt again. Her eyes were moving back and fort frantically, and she curved her body to protect her arm against her chest.

Seeing her like this was breaking his heart. He raised his hands, his voice trembling. "I'm sorry- I know it hurts. I know it hurts…it's okay. I need to see if the bone is still in place Felicity, please. Please, let me help you."

She kept her eyes shut, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth so tight that blood started to came out. But she nodded.

The bone was still in the right place, thank God, but the hit had the muscles twisted and inflamed again.

Without medications this pain had to be almost unbearable and she was shivering in shock.

"I'm going to move you. Just breathe."

He laid her in a spot a few feet away.

Felicity stayed curved on herself without making a sound, while he lit a fire. He tried to make her eat a little, but she refused and after a while she just fell asleep from the pain. He was drenched, so he took off his jacket and his boots, putting them by the fire, and he covered himself with the blankets.

He sat beside her with his elbows on his knees, until he dropped his face into his palms.

If their previous situation was bad, now it bordered a tragedy.

They were both in pain, and without strength left.

And not only physical, they're exhausted emotionally as well. Nothing was going their way. Absolutely nothing.

Maybe they made the wrong choice. They should have kept going down the other way.

If they couldn't find something to help them really fast, they would die. And it wasn't just a possibility now, it was reality.

A fact.

They would die. Right there in that goddamned forest.

After all he went through in his life, after so many times he escaped death…now it was just there. And it wasn't by a gun, or an arrow to his chest, or a sword. But by nature. Oh, the irony.

And the worst thing was that he dragged Felicity with him as well. He just couldn't see her in more pain. Every tear that escaped her eyes was a stab to his heart.

Olived pressed his palms to his eyes with more force to erase the image of her despair from his mind.

Their only choice was to keep moving and hope.

Just keep moving.


The next morning he woke early, he got dressed and ate a little while Felicity was still asleep. He took a moment to watch her. She was pale like a ghost, her lips a scary shade of blue and she had dark bags under her eyes.

She shivered in his arms all day, and when he brushed his lips to her forehead, he knew that she had a high fever again.

If the cold and the starvation weren't killing her, the pain and the infection must certainly would.

She needed a hospital and he was terrified.

They walked almost all day and when he finally stopped, he was covered in sweat and dead on his feet.

That night, he slept seven hours without blinking once.

When he opened his eyes in the morning, Felicity was awake next to him. She was shaking and watching him with pained, glassy eyes.

"Oliver-" A few tears ran down her cheeks. He wiped them away. Her skin was hot.

"Don't. Don't say it." He murmured against her forehead.

She shut her eyes for a second, before refocusing her blue orbs on his.

"Please...you can still make it."

He shook his head. "Without you I can't."

She turned away from him and started crying silently.

And he knew that she was angry at him. But he simply couldn't do what she was asking. He would cheerfully die rather than leave her.

He raised, taking his clothes near the fire and moved away from the camp. He needed to find some more herbs for her fever, and then leave again. They were almost there. They walked almost all the valley, it had to be there somewhere.

It had to.

He surpassed a wall of trees and found himself in front of a giant frozen lake.

The view took his breath away, and when his eyes landed on it…

He laughed.


A hand brushing her cheek had Felicity raise her watery eyes to Oliver. He was smiling.

"You need to see something."

Before she could speak, he took her in his arms.

"What's going on?" She whispered from his chest. He didn't say a word for minutes, and then, the only thing she could see instead of trees, was ice.

The lake.

Oliver turned to the side a little and his lips touched her temple.

"Look." He whispered the word on her skin, before dropping a kiss to her hair.

And when she saw it, the breath caught in her throat.

On the other side of the lake, there was a house.

Well, a cabin to be exact. The front side was made of glass, big windows that went from the bottom on to the roof. The rest was wood.

They found it.

A safe place.

Finally.

Felicity buried her face in Oliver's chest and sobbed.