Felicity - Day 50
She opens her phone to a text from Roy. "Get to Verdant. Now. Oliver."
Felicity doesn't stop for breath. She is in the elevator and down to the first floor before she realizes her keys are on her desk. Too much time. She gets in a taxi, hands over all the cash in her wallet and says to get to Verdant in the Glades in ten minutes or she'll kill him. Then she apologizes and says to hurry. He does.
By the time she's pushing through the door, her legs are shaking and she thinks she might vomit. The first thing she sees are the backs of Diggle and Roy and a mess of blankets. Then his ear. Then he's there.
"Oliver," she says breathlessly, coming to a stop.
He looks up at her, unsure. In the movies people run to each other. Felicity wants to do that. But something in his gaze keeps her where she is. Oliver doesn't move a muscle. His hair is long, he looks haggard. That's one thing, but it's the stillness, the hardness that makes her freeze. Something is wrong. Something is really wrong.
"We should go downstairs," Diggle says, his voice in soldier-mode.
Oliver stands up and turns automatically, removing the blanket. Felicity looks him over for injuries but can't see anything. Not even a scratch. Roy gives her a look, worry. She returns it.
His story is terrifying and simple: He fought Ra's al Ghul and lost. Ra's crushed his throat and stabbed him through the heart and lung. He died. Until he woke up on the train this morning. That's it. That's all there is.
Felicity tries to think through the injuries. It's possible the blade could have missed both heart and lungs, but not likely. Even if it were, Oliver would have been awake. Unless he was put in a coma, she considers that. But there's no reason to induce a coma. When she runs out of explanations, she looks to Diggle, his eyes are fixed on Oliver and full of disbelief.
"There's something else..." Oliver stands, drops the blanket and removes his shirt (plain, basic, nothing he owned before though). Felicity is studying it when she hears Diggle mumble something. When she looks at Oliver, she thinks she might faint.
Felicity, for better or for worse, knows his body well. It's hard not to look at. She's counted the scars, imagined the horrors and wondered the stories behind the tattoo's. She has a mental list of them, complete with explanations for certain ones. Except now none of them are there. He's untouched and unmarred.
"That's not possible," Roy says.
"Oliver, what happened to you?" Diggle says.
Felicity's phone buzzes in her pocket. She ignores it.
"I don't know," Oliver says, upset and angry. "I just, I woke up like this. I don't feel anything that I usually feel. I don't look like I normally look. I'm just... here. And the last thing I remember is dying."
Roy looks to Diggle. Diggle looks to Felicity. But Felicity can't seem to take her eyes off Oliver. "Merlyn knew you were dead, he's who told us," Felicity says, her voice strange and indistinct. "Merlyn knows."
This gets Oliver to look at her and Felicity reluctantly pulls her eyes away from his torso. When their eyes meet, the familiar pull is there and for a moment the entire world is Oliver's face, alive in front of her. Except his expression, his expression is blank. This isn't right: Oliver smiles at her, he frowns at her, he furrows his brow at her, none of that is there. Felicity looks away, uncomfortable. Oliver puts his shirt back on and then turns towards the door.
Diggle grabs him. "Hey-"
"I'm going to talk to Merlyn."
"No you're not," Diggle says.
"I need to figure out what happened to me."
"No, you need to sit down, eat something, get checked out and get a haircut. Oliver, something happened to you. Something big. There could be effects, things... you can't go out there until you know everything," Diggle says.
Her phone buzzes in her pocket.
"Felicity, answer your phone," Oliver says angrily.
Felicity regretfully goes to her phone. A text from Thea. Two texts from Ray.
Thea: Hey, someone said they saw Oliver. It can't be true, right?
Ray: Have you ever been to Tulum? Wanna go? Are you a beach person? I don't know this yet.
She knows she's not in a relationship with Ray. Oliver had proved too distracting for that. Yet when she sees the text, she feels an immediate sensation of guilt. Like she's been unfaithful to Oliver all this time. Like she's now being unfaithful to Ray. "Thea knows your back."
Oliver now looks at her, the anger apparent in his eyes, "since when do you and Thea-? How long was I gone?"