AN: I can't tell you how much I appreciate and love your comments and follows/favs on this fic. It makes me so happy to see others enjoying this fic as much as I love writing it. Seriously, you're all amazing and have given me so much inspiration when it comes to this fic. THANK YOU!

This chapter is a little shorter, mainly for the cliffhanger at the end. My sincere apologies. But I am already hard at work on the next chapter and I do promise that a major player is about to enter the scene (next chapter) that I have gotten quite a few questions about.

Chapter 9: The Escape

"Let's blow this popsicle stand?" Felicity mimicked. "Really?"

Sara cocked her head to the side with a laugh. "What? You always say cute things like that."

"Yeah, but not on purpose." Felicity shuddered, suddenly self-conscious. "Do I really sound like that?"

"Felicity," Sara enunciated. "Handcuffs."

Felicity rolled her eyes before glancing over her shoulder at where John Diggle sat. He was focused on the laptop screen in front of him which made Felicity wonder what he was looking at. Maybe he wasn't even paying attention to the computer. Knowing that the man who killed his brother was potentially involved in their current predicament must have been altering.

She felt for him.

"Felicity," Sara hissed, dragging her back to the present moment.

Felicity began working the lock with the paperclip she always kept in her pocket. No one ever thought to check for a paperclip.

Without even raising from her seat, Felicity was able to twist the spring of the lock with ease. One click later and the lock released, freeing Sara's left hand.

"Here, I'll get the other one," Sara paused as she held her hand out, palm up. "If you try to do it, he'll see for sure."

Felicity gave a silent nod before shifting her gaze back to where John sat, immobile. She knew Sara was right. Once they all returned to Starling it would only be a matter of time before Oliver and John turned them over to the police. They were trying to do the right thing.

But there was still time to change their mind. Sara and Felicity, together, could still alter the outcome. They didn't have to go to jail.

They could work together with Oliver and John. They didn't have to run.

"Sara," Felicity whispered. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

Sara looked up in confusion, her concentration still etched in her furrowed brows. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the Triad already know our identities. What's to stop them from coming after your family whether we are outed, or not?" The logic of their situation hadn't been lost on Felicity.

No matter which option they took the Triad was going to prove to be a difficulty. There was no way around this now.

But Sara was her friend, her sister. If Sara wanted to run, she would follow her.

"Are you saying you want to let Oliver and his friend turn us in?" She must not have been expecting Felicity's change of stance as she narrowed her eyes. "Absolutely not."

"Sara," Felicity tried but was halted by Sara's objection.

"Listen, the Triad has no reason to go after them right now. All we do is get out of here, contact Chien, and go from there." Sara tried. "Right now, we are their only problem. Once we bring the police into this, their problem gets bigger."

"And you thought my plan was stupid?" Felicity muttered under her breath.

"Felicity," Sara turned on her, affronted.

"No." Felicity's voice was strong for a whisper. "Either way we are screwed, but why not be screwed back home where you can at least see your family and maybe have a decent shot at protecting them?" She knew Sara missed her family. She knew how much it hurt Sara to be away from them, even if it was her own choice. "Oliver seems like he can help at least."

"Do you hear yourself?" Sara asked. "Felicity, it's too dangerous. If the Triad even thinks we've told the police anything, my family is who suffers."

Maybe it was her time spent with Floyd and on the opposite side of the law that caused Sara to be resistant to actually following it. Maybe it was pure fear that made Sara hesitant to use the only logical resource they had. Felicity knew that Oliver and his friend, Mr. Diggle, could help. They only had to convince them to.

"And that's where these guys can help."

"Felicity, I'm getting out of here, and you can either come with me, or go to Starling City to get thrown in prison." Sara challenged. "I'm not going to force you, but I'd hope you'd come with me."

Felicity stared at Sara, her friend, her sister. This was the woman who did everything in her power to protect Felicity, who helped train her. Floyd took Felicity in, but Sara kept her.

Could she really go against her now? Her heart at war with the logic in her head, and she already knew which she would side with.

"Ok … but we should hurry, before they outnumber us."

"You mean before your boyfriend gets back and you start making googly eyes again." Felicity pressed her lips into a thin line, not amused at Sara's timing or choice of joke.

"Sorry." Sara winced before changing the subject. "You make a run for the door at the back, while I distract him."

Felicity gave a nod before glancing back to John once more. Once she did this, she couldn't take it back and all the bad things he must have thought about her would become true. She didn't know why his opinion of her mattered so much to her.

But it did, and once they ran, he wouldn't think much of her.

"On my mark," Sara stated. "One …" Felicity glanced back at the door, a clear shot away. "Two …" Sara could take care of Mr. Diggle. "Go."

Her voice was no louder than a whisper, but it felt as though it echoed through the almost empty warehouse. Like a gunshot to her heart, Felicity felt a surge of adrenaline propelling her out of her chair and towards the exit door.

She hadn't made it far when she heard Diggle's rushed "Damn it," along with the slapping of metal, probably his chair or Sara's against the concrete floor.

"Go, go, go!" She heard Sara yell behind her.

She knew better than to turn around, lest she fall or trip over something, Felicity kept running until she slammed into the door. Finding the handle was its own misadventure but after her handed searched frantically, she found it and pulled hard.

With one last breath, she threw herself out of the door and into the frigid night.

"Damn it!" Diggle heard the motion behind him, felt the hair on the back of his neck begin to stand at attention.

They were trying to escape. They got out of the handcuffs. Damn it, Oliver sure knew how to pick em.

Diggle turned in a flash as Felicity ran, with a slight limp he imagined would hurt her later, towards the back door. Sara was advancing on him with a look of determination on her face.

Not wanting to be the one to shoot Laurel Lance's sister, or have to be the one to explain that to a clueless Tommy, Diggle ejected the magazine from his glock just before Sara brought a metal pipe down towards his head.

Diggle let the gun fall to the floor and brought both hands up to block the eventual blow while gripping the pipe with one hand and swinging it, and her, in a circular motion. Sara took that motion to her advantage and landed a solid kick to his side, loosening his grip on the pipe.

With a grunt, Diggle blocked another attempt by Sara and her pipe. This time she aimed for his abdomen.

Diggle jabbed right and crossed left, landing at least one punch before Sara hooked one of her own, connecting with his nose with a shuddering crack.

The pain and cool rush of blood, from his now injured nose, distracted him long enough for Sara to give a swift swipe to his knees, effectively knocking him to the ground.

"Don't look for us," Sara told him breathless.

And just like that she was gone. The side door to the warehouse slamming shut with a bang, leaving him alone.

Felicity didn't stop running until her lungs began to burn and her feet began to ache. Sara told her to run and that was what she did. Felicity made no secret of her lack of enthusiasm for physical training, no matter how hard Sara persisted.

Felicity could be clumsy, and sometimes uncoordinated. To her that added up to a bad experience. Usually it meant Felicity landed on her ass, or her face, two or three times a lesson.

Sara would promise to go easy on her, but Felicity never hesitated to say 'no.' She would stick to her forty minutes on an elliptical – to which Sara would reply "we don't have an elliptical."

Felicity cursed herself as she began to slow, the pain in her injured leg flaring to life. It was as if her leg was giving her a not-so gentle reminder that she had been flung through a window early that evening.

She knew she had to find the train station, though. The cold of Russia didn't seem to let up either. If anything, it was even colder from the last time she had been outside. At least then she had been wearing Oliver's jacket to help keep the bitter feeling away.

Felicity paused in her movements to look back towards the direction from where she came. Oliver probably wouldn't forgive her after this. When she stole the earrings from him she at least had the excuse of not knowing him, and not owing him her life. This time was different.

This time she ran away from a man who she knew to be a good person. Being around Oliver hadn't changed the feeling of normalcy that rose up within her each time she thought of him. The feeling he brought out in her. She had never felt that before.

He made her smile without even trying, he took care of her when she was hurt, he frustrated her, and he pushed her buttons like no one else.

With him, though, it all felt right.

And she just ran away from it.

Felicity looked back towards the warehouse, ducking her head as a car passed her. She couldn't go back now, though. Sara needed her to see this through.

The train station was busy, which she assumed was normal. Normal train stations in big cities were crowded fairly regularly. They anticipated this, practically depended on it. It was the perfect place to blend in and not be found.

After disappearing through the side door of the warehouse, feeling regretful for having to break John's nose, Sara made her way through Moscow's streets until she could find the train station. She and Felicity set his up as their rendezvous point weeks ago, and planned their trip to the minute.

The double-cross inhibited their plan only in the smallest of ways. They missed their original train, but there would be another one in twenty minutes.

All she needed now was Felicity.

"You know, you're very conspicuous in all that black." Felicity's too chipper voice sounded off behind her. Talk about timing.

Sara turned to see Felicity walk towards her in a burgundy winter coat, knee high black boots, and a black cloche hat. She could see the limp Felicity wore also, even though she tensed her jaw each time she stepped. Felicity didn't want Sara to know how bad she was hurting, probably.

"You changed?"

Felicity shrugged before tossing a black bag to Sara. "You should, too."

Sara unzipped the bag to find the clothes she packed yesterday before dropping their belongings into a locker in the terminal. All part of the plan.

"There's less eyes just outside. It's an old utility shed, I think." Felicity began to swipe at her tablet, not making eye contact. "The ladies restroom was full of nosey gossips who couldn't help but stare as soon as I walked in."

"Sounds about right." Sara nodded, moving towards the exit with Felicity on her heels.

"But we're going to have to hurry if we want to make the next train to Paris."

Sara nodded again without turning back. She heard the slight bite in Felicity's tone and knew her friend well enough to leave it alone. For now.

They had plenty of time on the train to air out any grievances and get back on the same page. There would be more than enough time to figure out how to go against the Triad and how to clean up this mess. Maybe they could even rescue Floyd, which was the original agenda.

It was well past time to get some answers from the man who trained her.

But first, they needed to focus on minimizing the Triad's influence. She knew there was a syndicate in Starling, which was half of the reason she hadn't wanted to go back there. Keeping distance from her family would protect them.

Sara knew she couldn't do this alone, even if she had Felicity on her side, they were still outnumbered. Oliver and Diggle were too focused on being heroes to see the big picture on this one.

She needed the only person, besides Felicity, she could trust on this. She needed someone who would protect her family the same way she would.

With a glance over her shoulder to see Felicity engrossed in her tablet and not paying her any mind, Sara slipped around the corner of the shed. The burner phone she kept in her go-bag was right where she left it, tucked into the right shoe of her low boots.

She dialed the number she committed to memory last month before lifting the phone to her ear. A silent prayer was sent into the ether that the person whose voice she needed to hear would answer. She would know exactly what to do.

But the ringing of the phone kept playing until a resounding 'beep' told Sara she wouldn't be speaking with her beloved. Not this time.

"Hey, it's me," Sara whispered, cringing at how weak her voice sounded. "I wish I was calling for a better reason than I am. One like, I miss you and I need to see you, which is true but not in the way I wish it were. We, Felicity and I, are in trouble…" Sara paused. "I messed up, and I know you told me not to call on this number, but I need you, Nyssa." Sara paused to glance over where Felicity stood. "We need you. And you know I wouldn't ask if…"

The sound of crunching gravel caused Sara to pause. She moved around the corner, phone held low in her hand to put eyes on Felicity. She didn't seem to notice anything, happily swiping away on her tablet. It must have been her imagination.

As Sara turned back to her call she her the click before she felt it.

An immediate sensation of pain ripped through her abdomen. It was a blinding flare of agony, causing her to cry out before crumpling to the ground, her phone falling only inches away.

"Felicity." Sara tried to warn her but failed as the pain choked her into a tortured whisper.

The pain in her abdomen brought on a cold sweat across her brow, her world tilting on its edge. This was happening quicker than she thought it would.

She had been grazed before, once or twice on jobs early on in her career, but this was new. She never knew a gunshot to feel this nauseating. It was like her whole body was on fire and it was all she could do to not scream out in pain.

Sara cradled her stomach, the feel of a thick, slippery liquid coating her hands. It was coming too fast. It was all too fast.

"Sara?" She saw Felicity round the corner, but her vision began to blur. "Sara?! Oh God!"

She tried to keep her eyes open, tried to tell Felicity not to run to her. She knew the gunman was still behind her. Felicity needed to run in the opposite direction, not towards her.

All Sara could do was watch Felicity run towards her as the darkness began to take her.

Oliver let the handcuffs in his hand fall to the floor with a dull thud. He was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around the fact that Felicity and Sara escaped. He lost Felicity, and Sara, again.

"You ok, man?" He heard Diggle behind him.

Oliver wondered if the eventual 'I told you so,' would make its way to the forefront of the conversation. Diggle had been quiet ever since he told Oliver what had happened. In part due to the swelling of his nose, and in part due to the feeling of failure. Although Oliver would never blame Dig for this, he knew his friend blamed himself.

"I can't believe we lost them, again." Oliver wiped his hands off on his jeans before rising to his full height. "You ok? That looks like it hurts."

"I've had worse. I don't think it's even broken." Diggle gave a nod, the ice pack still placed against his swollen nose, before turning to look around their temporary base of operations. "It's not your fault, Oliver."

Oliver watched as John turned back, a look of dismay in his own eyes. "It's not yours, either."

"You should have seen them. That Sara can sure pack a punch," Diggle said, a tone of pride, maybe, ringing in his voice. "Maybe if I didn't react that way to Lawton's name," he paused as the name swirled around in his mouth, his face distorting at the bitterness he felt. "Maybe we could have at least got them back to Starling."

Oliver shook his head, pursing his lips. "The news that Deadshot was involved could have come at a better time, but I don't think we could have kept tabs on them for long."

"Well they can't run forever." John moved to the chair Felicity had been sitting in, a heavy expression gracing his features. "We'll get them back, it's only a matter of time."

Oliver stared at his friend, a guarded expression hollowing out his own features. He had only been gone for a half hour and things still went to hell. He succeeded in clearing them with Anatoli and taking any heat from the Bratva away from them. Why couldn't they had just trusted them?

"She just didn't seem all that interested in turning herself in, you know?" Oliver answered his unspoken question.

"Felicity?" John asked.

"When we were in the woods, trying to get back here, she just kept fighting." She had been so frustrating, so obstinate when they first started out. He could see a stubborn streak a mile wide as they disagreed. "I just thought she was being bull headed."

"And now?" John asked, sensing a 'but' coming on.

"Watching the way she and Sara were with each other, and how she tried to fight for Deadshot," Oliver shook his head. "She was never going to let us take her, or Sara, willingly. Was she?"

"Don't beat yourself up over it, man." John told him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Lyla used to rebuff me like that too."

"What?"

"She used to fight me on everything," John paused to think. "Well not fight me, but challenge me. She would always know exactly what buttons to push and how to push them."

"What are you saying?" Oliver felt an exhaustion come over him as she felt himself fall back into Sara's chair. That must have been it because he was not making the leap from Felicity running away to Diggle's wife.

"When I met Lyla I wasn't prepared for her." Dig explained. "I wasn't prepared for what it all meant, to find that person. I damn near lost her when we came home."

"Well, you did get a divorce."

"But we found our way back together." Diggle told him with a pointed, yet serene expression in his eyes. "If I had been ready, if I hadn't been trying to fight any war I could find, I wouldn't have lost all that time with her."

Oliver knew Diggle had come a far way. He was someone Oliver hoped to be, one day. He had the family, the self awareness Oliver lacked, and the ability to put his past into perspective.

Yet Oliver still could not make the connection.

"Not that I don't enjoy hearing about your marriage but, is there a point to this?"

"Give it time, Queen." Oliver didn't understand the humored expression on John's face. "Girl's just not ready yet."

"Since when are you team me and Felicity?" He guessed. "You've done nothing but say how bad of an idea it was since we met her." Oliver challenged.

This time Diggle didn't say anything, but merely shook his head. "What did Anatoli say when you gave him the egg back?"

Apparently, they were changing the subject now.

"He just shook his head," Oliver said as he moved to stand from the chair. "Said he had a feeling I would pull through."

"You're a good foot soldier," Diggle teased.

"Funny." No matter how backwards this trip had turned out, at least he had Diggle. "He also told me that the Bratva wouldn't take this attack laying down."

"Did we expect anything less?"

"At least they aren't sure who stole it." Oliver winced at what he was about to tell his friend.

He was sure John wouldn't have approved of the way he chose to handle the situation or the method he used to get Felicity and Sara off of the Bratva's radar.

"And I played it off as though the man in the green hood tried to steal it."

He watched as Diggle's face lit up in frustration before he shook his head in dismay. "Is that wise? Putting yourself in their cross hairs?"

"Anatoli isn't stupid." He knew that Anatoli knew him well. Almost as well as Diggle did. Anatoli couldn't outright admit what he knew without placing the younger man in danger of his own organization. "He knows more than he lets on, and he knows I wouldn't be the one to steal the egg. He'll trust me."

"Can we bet Felicity and Sara's lives on that?"

Oliver let out an exhausted breath. "We're going to have to right now."

John didn't seem to appreciate that answer as he pushed himself to his feet, giving Oliver one last 'you better be right' look before moving towards the table with their supplies. Oliver knew he was right. Betting Sara and Felicity's lives on the assumption Anatoli would not double cross them was a risk. Especially considering the girls had just been double crossed themselves.

It seemed as if that was the sole lesson in this trip – no one could really be trusted. At least not in the world Sara and Felicity lived in. He wondered, once again, how Felicity ended up doing what she was doing. How did someone as smart and capable as her become a thief on the wrong side of the Triad? Why wouldn't she let him help her?

"Hey, man," Diggle's voice caught his attention. "Phone's vibrating."

Oliver moved to pick up his phone which he deposited on a corner shelf after coming in to find Diggle holding a towel to his nose. He hadn't been too focused on anything besides what had happened to his partner.

"Queen," he answered, not recognizing the number which was calling his personal phone.

There was a rustling on the other end and a lot of heavy breathing.

Great, Oliver thought. Tommy must have decided their trip could use a little prank calling. "Hello? Tommy?"

As Oliver was turning to let Dig in on the prank he heard a whimper over the other end.

"Oliver?" It was Felicity.

Her voice sounded choked with tears.

"Felicity?" He asked urgently. He knew it was her but he couldn't believe she was using his number, or that she even had it. "Felicity, I'm here!"

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, her voice shaking as she spoke. "I'm so sorry."

He shook his head, even though she couldn't see him, as Dig came to stand at his side. "Felicity, it's ok. Just tell me where you are."

"I'm sorry," she cried once more. "Sara, I'm sorry."

He felt a desperation begin to claw at the base of his neck. It was an instinct honed over several years of dangerous situations. "Felicity, I need you to listen to me." He heard her audibly gulp on the other end, her whimpering growing faint. "Where are you?"

"We're at the … train station," she said. He heard her try to stabilize her voice. "Sara was shot."

Oliver cursed before turning to Dig so he could signal they needed to move, and bring supplies with them. Diggle must have overheard as he was already headed towards the table, a look of determination set in his brow. He wasn't sure how bad it was, but considering the circumstances he assumed pretty bad.

"Felicity, I need you to stay on the line, ok?" Oliver tried as he shrugged into his brown leather jacket. "I need to hear your voice."

"There's so much blood," he heard her cry.

He heard her panic and felt it as if it were his own. Only a few minutes and he would be with her. He watched out of the corner of his eyes as Diggle began throwing gauze and various items in a bag before zipping it closed.

"We're on our way." He promised, Diggle already two steps ahead of him.

"Felicity!" Oliver didn't care how loud he was as he ran through the seemingly empty train yard, following the directions Felicity gave him.

She had managed to tell him they were outside, behind an old shed. Her teeth were chattering and her sobbing had slowed before stopping all together, which only made him more nervous. Diggle had broken, what Oliver imagined, at least a dozen traffic violations, but neither cared.

By the time they rounded the corner, with at least five sheds in his line of site, Oliver felt his nerves only double. Felicity had been talking to them on the phone but stopped as they pulled into the empty lot.

What if she had been hurt too? What if the adrenaline of helping her friend caused her to ignore a potentially fatal wound?

He felt an overwhelming fear grip his heart and threaten to squeeze. He needed to see her.

"Oliver, over here!" Diggle yelled, a yard or so behind him.

He hadn't been looking and ran past where the shed let in to a small walkway. It was barely visible.

"Felicity," Diggle urged as he dropped to his knees beside her. He carefully felt Sara's neck to find her pulse, a look of relief washing over him when he did.

Her hands were stained red while her eyes stayed focused on their task, ignoring their arrival. She held a cloth to Sara's wound, now saturated through with Sara's blood, in order to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood, Oliver thought. So much blood from a woman he grew up with. Laurel's little sister. Felicity didn't look too much better as stains of red on her cheek and knees stuck out in his view.

"Felicity," he cried out, sinking to his knees beside her, his hands framing her face before he ran them down her shoulders. "Are you hurt? Were you shot?"

"Felicity, let me help." Diggle's voice was soft as he tried to replace her hands. "You take a break."

Felicity shook her head, tears tracing well-worn tracks down her cheeks. It was the first time she acknowledged their presence since they arrive. "I can't let go."

Diggle dipped his head, angling to meet her eyes. "Yes, you can. I'm right here, and I promise I won't let her die."

Oliver watched as she slowly let Diggle replace her hands, murmuring a 'you did good' as he did. He felt his hands squeeze her shoulders of their own accord before he continued to visually inspect her for any wounds of her own.

"I'm fine," she whispered, her voice cracking as she turned to meet his eyes. "Oliver, please help her. She's my family. "

He knew in that moment, hell he probably knew before then, that he would never deny her anything. Staring into her eyes he found a look of haunting innocence deep within. There was so much more to this woman than he ever thought there would be. More than he thought possible after she first tricked him out of millions of dollars. More than he even dared to hope for.

He knew with one hundred percent certainty that if she was the one asking, he would do it – and that terrified him.