Note: Hello everyone! :) Thank you for being so incredibly patient with me when it comes to this story! I know I haven't updated for a while, but you know how it is with school and all that... Still, those of you who follow me on tumblr know that I announced that I would be updating on Christmas Eve, so here we are! ;)
Now, this chapter is on the long side, so I hope it makes up for the time that has passed since my last update. I can't promise regular updates, but I have to tell you that the next chapter (which I've already started) is probably going to be a little shorter than this one, but it'll be VERY Olicity-centric, so I hope that makes up for it! ^^ Either way, I really hope you enjoy this one and I'll be taking my free days before New Years to write as much as possible! School starts again in January, but until then I'll hopefully be free enough to write, write, write! ;)
Thank you for your lovely reviews so far and for all the support! :)
Hunted
Supernatural hunter Oliver Queen's latest mission's name is Felicity Smoak; a new born hybrid who has gone rogue and left her master. The new hunt brings unexpected twists and turns and when the young hybrid saves his life, Oliver realizes that there might be more to the girl than meets the eye. The hybrid might not be the biggest monster in Starling City and as their unexplainable bond grows stronger, he learns that you can't plan who you fall in love with.
Chapter 11: The Fallout
The sweat was beading on his forehead as he stared at the masked man in front of him. He was almost impossible to spot in the darkness, but after his eyes adjusted, Oliver could see the outline of the Dark Archer perfectly.
Oliver reached for his arrows in his quiver, but his hand met air. He looked down at his hands and found that he was no longer wearing his leather suit and his bow was nowhere to be seen either. The Dark Archer chuckled, his voice heavily disoriented by the voice modulator he was wearing, but somehow, it made the whole situation even more eerie.
"I guess now we can finally see who is the best," the other archer said.
"This is hardly a fair fight," Oliver retorted, knowing he was going to lose this fight, no matter what he tried to do.
Without replying, the other archer raised his bow, aiming at Oliver's chest. There wasn't much Oliver could see, but he did see the wicked gleam of the Dark Archer's eyes, right before he released the arrow.
It cut through the chill air and Oliver closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable impact, but it never came. Instead, he heard a loud thump, as if something had dropped to the floor and when he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.
Felicity was laying by his feet, eyes open wide, unseeing. Her mouth was hanging open and a small drop of blood fell from the corner of the hybrid's mouth. Oliver dropped to his knees, looking over her dead body, seeing the arrow that had been embedded into her heart, causing blood to ooze from the wound.
"Felicity, no!" Oliver cried, touching her blonde curls gently, but even those were turning red. "What have you done?" he mumbled, more to himself as tears began to flow freely from his eyes. "What have you done!" he screamed, looking up at the other archer, who was still standing on the other side of the room.
"You did this to her," the man said. "She gave her life to save yours."
Oliver frantically shook his head while clasping Felicity's shoulders. "Felicity, you need to wake up. Wake up, Felicity! Wake up!"
He never wanted this; he never wanted her to die. Not for him, not for anyone.
"Please," he pleaded, dropping his forehead against her now cold one. The other archer was long gone by now, but Oliver couldn't bring himself to step away from the blonde's body. Without even realizing what he was doing, he pressed his lips lightly against her forehead, then her cheekbones. He closed her eyes, making it look like she was asleep and proceeded to kiss her eyelids, her nose, the corner of her mouth and finally, as he leaned down to her cold lips, he whispered in vain again, "Wake up."
-§-
"Oliver? Are you feeling okay?" Felicity whispered to him, shifting nervously on her seat. Oliver rubbed his fingers together before laying his hands flat on his thighs, wiping them on his pants as he tried to once again catch up on what Mr. Williams from the Public Relations Department was telling them.
"Mhm," Oliver hummed, forcing a smile while not daring to look over at Felicity who he knew was watching him worriedly.
He couldn't exactly blame her for being concerned for his well being considering that he had been dozing off for the better part of this meeting. It annoyed him a little that she seemed to care so much and he hated the fact that she seemed to be able to look right through him and sense that something was off.
The truth was that Oliver had been having that same dream for almost every night since he had first encountered the Dark Archer, and that had been about a week ago. He didn't enjoy the fact that Felicity was a constant appearance in his dreams, but he also didn't like the fact that he got the most horrible feeling in his gut after he woke up because of dreaming about her death.
It was strange to feel like you both accepted a person while at the same time hating what the person was deep down. It was both confusing and exhausting and he still didn't know how to feel about her, especially considering how he acted around her nowadays.
Nevertheless, their problem with the Dark Archer had gotten even more problematic after the night that Oliver had fought him; mostly because the archer seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Oliver had been forced to go back to Detective Lance as the Hood and explain that he had had no luck in finding the assailant and well, it may or may not have led to the detective attempting to arrest him yet again.
Still, during the week that passed, Oliver, Felicity and Diggle had had no luck in tracking the other archer. They had discussed the issue last night in the lair and both Diggle and Felicity has shared that they didn't see a point in looking for a ghost. However, they wanted to keep taking down the big shot Nightcrawlers that were listed in Oliver's notebook in the meantime, hoping to be able to pressure some of them on information regarding the Undertaking. Oliver expressed his opinion on the matter by telling them that he thought that the Dark Archer somehow played a part in the threat, even though he wasn't sure how yet. He knew that the archer had taken out Christine Alpert a mere second before she had told the hunter something about the Undertaking and in Oliver's mind, that was suspicious. It wasn't clear what the lamia vampire had intended to tell him, but Felicity had insisted that there should be more Dark Ones in the city with her knowledge and that they should move on to trying to find them. In the end, Oliver had reluctantly agreed to letting go of the hunt for the Dark Archer.
Now, he was stuck in a meeting, and he knew that there was a reason to Felicity's squirming next to him. He had shot his mother a pointed look when he had noticed her staring Felicity down when his Executive Assistant had taken her seat next to him but despite that, his mother had continuously been sending Felicity looks during the meeting and it was clearly making the hybrid nervous.
Oliver could feel Felicity's leg moving, brushing against his own once in a while as she nervously tapped her foot against the floor, looking anywhere other than Moira, who was now making giving her response on Mr. Williams' suggestions on how to improve Queen Consolidated's image. The hybrid was taking notes, but every once in a while when Oliver looked down at her notebook, he noticed that she scribbled Hood-related reminders in the back, always using code words that he was sure only he would understand.
When her knee brushed against his again, he reacted and put his hand on it to stop her from moving. Naturally, he hadn't taken into consideration the rather short skirt that the blonde had decided to wear that day and he most certainly hadn't thought about how warm her skin would feel under his hand. Felicity's breath hitched; the sound so incredibly low that he was sure that he was the only one who had heard her.
Move your hand, his brain tried to tell him, but it didn't seem like his body understood the command. Finally, his thumb moved across her knee and Oliver glanced sideways, only to see a light blush appearing on Felicity's face.
Not like that, idiot, he cursed himself, moving his hand away from Felicity as quickly as he could, hoping she would never bring the occurrence up.
The meeting ended half an hour later and Oliver stood up from his seat, pulling out Felicity's chair for her automatically. She met his eyes with a questioning gaze, but didn't say anything and yet gain he found himself thankful for the fact that she was a genius who understood when to not ask questions.
"I'll transcribe my notes and send the file to you before we head home tonight, Mr. Queen," Felicity told him, acting out her role as the professional assistant. "Separately, that is. Heading home separately," she added quickly and Oliver could do nothing other than stare at her.
So much for being professional.
"Mr. Queen!" Andrew Michelson, one of the board members exclaimed, walking over to where he and Felicity were standing. "And the beautiful Ms. Smoak," the older man added, giving Felicity a shameless once over that would honestly make a sailor blush.
Oliver turned to the man who had divorced his wife and had numerous affairs with young blondes and raised an eyebrow at him, trying not to, but judging him with every fiber of his being. "Can I help you with something, Mr. Michelson?"
The older man tore his eyes from Felicity, who politely smiled at him and turned to Oliver," I was very impressed with how quickly Ms. Smoak here scribbled down her notes. I honestly couldn't tear my eyes away from her and I promised myself that I would ask you where you managed to find such a beauty, in case you have their number so I can find one of my own."
The entire comment was degrading and Oliver wondered why his mother kept people like Mr. Michelson around the company. Next chance he got, Oliver would make sure to buy the man out of the company, if only to get rid of him.
"I assure you, Mr. Michelson," Oliver glared. "I hired Felicity for her technical expertise, not for her good looks." Oliver caught his mother looking up with interest, having overheard the comment but he continued still. "I suggest you stop bringing up such foolish notions unless you want to become the subject of some serious accusations of workplace discrimination for hiring people who are esthetically pleasing to look at."
The man stared at him dumbfounded for a moment before nodding curtly and excusing himself, walking out of the room. Shooting one last look toward his mother, Oliver watched her give him short nod herself, her face covered in approval, which surprised him a little.
He turned to Felicity, who was yet again watching him curiously.
"Shall we?" he suggested, motioning for her to move ahead in front of him. The young blonde began walking, and he followed her without looking back.
"There you went again," Felicity said as they reached their joined offices. "Defending my honor and all that. I've told you several times over that I can take care of myself."
"I wasn't taking care of you," Oliver told her as she rounded her desk and sat down in her chair, putting her notebook on the table. "I was merely making a point to show everyone that I didn't hire you for your good looks."
"I only got one thing out of that," Felicity told him, "and that is that you think I'm pretty."
She was teasing him and he knew it and she knew that he knew it because he almost groaned at her. "Well, Ms. Smoak, I'm sure you've had your own fair share of ogling me when I work out," he decided to tease back, putting both of his hands on her desk as he leaned forward a little, "and you're not exactly subtle either."
She seemed to slip into a dream state for a second and Oliver was a hundred percent sure that she had just imagined him using the salmon ladder, which she nowadays didn't even bother to be subtle about being her favorite part of his daily routine. She simply turned in her chair and outright stared at him whenever he was doing it, and if Oliver was to be honest with himself (and he would never admit it to anyone else) he kind of liked that he could at least have that on her, since she plagued his dreams nightly with a bunch of inappropriate situations.
"Ha ha," Felicity sarcastically said once she snapped out of her thoughts. There was an amused look on her face though and behind her glasses, Oliver saw her eyes flash for a second with that mischievous yellow glow. "Don't worry, Oliver. We both know the real reason that you hired me for." She leaned forward a little in her chair and his body seemed to have its own will, moving closer to her too a his tongue darted out to wet his lips.
He noticed the way the motion drew her attention to his mouth, before she peered up at him from under her glasses, which only made her look even more like the definition of trouble.
"Oh, and what is that?" he played along, raising an eyebrow at her.
Felicity smirked as her eyes turned yellow, black veins appearing around her eyes for less than a second before turning back to her normal blue, "To keep an eye on me, of course, since you were afraid I would start ripping people apart."
The brutality of her truthful response took him aback and he searched her face for a hint of bitterness, but found none.
"True," he admitted, standing up straight again. He figured that whatever moment they had been having was over, but as he met her eyes, he noticed that it was far from done. Somehow, the combination of the look of acceptance that covered Felicity's face and her eyes shining with something that told him that she wasn't the least offended, made this moment even more charged. There was something passing between them that Oliver didn't understand and as he finally turned his gaze away from her and walked back to his office, he wondered, if he really needed to.
-§-
Oliver was weighting his options back and forth while he slammed the dummy down in the Foundry a couple of times. Ever since the night that he had confronted the Dark Archer, the man hadn't left his mind at all. He wanted to do whatever it took to find him and pressure him into telling him what Christine Alpert had never gotten to speak before she had been killed.
Things were different now though– different than how they had been two years ago when he got to decide all by himself what he would or would not do.
The crusade he had started on had been his own and he hadn't ever needed to discuss anything with anyone. The first few months that he had been the vigilante, he had decided for himself and simply been taking down the people on his father's list, no questions asked. After Diggle joined him, he had to adjust a bit because the man had pointed out pretty early that they were supposed to be partners in their fight against the Dark Ones, which meant that none of them should be superior to the other. Still, at times Oliver continued to make reckless decisions that later came back and bit him in the ass when Diggle had to intervene because he had miscalculated the dangers of going into a building crawling with Dark Ones. Sometimes his choice of going in alone worked out well though and he always got smug with Diggle, which usually ended with a rougher than usual sparring session.
Now, he had two people who were working with him and both of them believed that it was better to let go of the search for the Dark Archer. Oliver wanted nothing more than to go out alone and handle it like he normally would have when he had been alone, but he knew that he couldn't. He respected Diggle too much to do that, especially after working together for two years and Felicity... Well, he didn't feel like doing anything that might betray her trust.
He could feel her eyes trained on him as he slammed the dummy over and over again. The two of them had worked out together a few more times since that first one, but it always seemed to end the same way and the tension between them always sky-rocketed afterward so he had declined her offer tonight. In his mind, he told himself that it was the logical decision because of what had transpired between the two of them in the office earlier that day. He hardly needed to have her hot and sweaty body pressed up against his after the way he had barely been able to keep his hands to himself during the meeting.
Oliver knew that Felicity was worried about him, which only made it more difficult for him to remind himself of the fact that she was still a hybrid. No matter how nice she seemed and how much he trusted her, that would always be hanging somewhere in the back of his mind, forcing him to distance himself and his emotions from her.
"I can't do it," he finally said, breathing heavily as he put his hands on the dummy, taking a moment to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. He looked over at Felicity and Diggle. The blonde hybrid was sitting in her chair, playing nervously with her fingers while Diggle stood by her side, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back against Felicity's desk. "I'm not ready to let go of the search for the other archer," Oliver clarified, turning toward them.
Diggle nodded curtly, acknowledging that Oliver had finally made up his mind and let them in on what he had been thinking about all day and Felicity's lips turned up in a small, almost encouraging, smile.
"I figured as much," she told him, looking over at Diggle. It was clear that the two of them had talked it over while Oliver had been too deeply concentrated on putting dents into the dummy while he worked out his anger and confusion.
"We'll have to put it on out to-do-list," Diggle said humorlessly. "But we're with you, Oliver. If this is what you think is best, we'll support you."
"Thank you," Oliver nodded curtly. "I want us to keep looking for clues. There must be some way to find out more about the Dark Archer." He looked over at Felicity, who bit her lip. For a brief moment a look of something flashed across her face and she looked a little dazed. He wondered what she was thinking about, but never asked her about it, knowing that the hybrid would come to him if it was something important.
-§-
"Congratulations, you two," Oliver smiled at Laurel and Tommy. He embraced Laurel first, who hugged him back tightly and then went to clap Tommy on the back before he sat down next to his best friend. Thea took a moment to hug Laurel a little extra tightly before sitting down next to her.
"I can't believe Tommy finally built up the courage to ask you," she grinned.
"Hey! I would have done it sooner if I hadn't been planning your amazing birthday party," Tommy defended himself.
"I suppose they are right when they say that men can't multitask," Laurel quipped, earning a laugh from the younger Queen sibling. Oliver grinned at his sister, happy to see her smiling, while Laurel shot her fiance an endearing look. She reached over and covered his hand with her own, "I'm just glad you asked, Tommy. I would have waited however long it took."
"Yeah, I'm not so sure that patience is your strong suit, Ms. Lance," Tommy grinned. "I'm lucky you said yes after I made you wait for so many years though."
"Aw, aren't you two cute," Thea cooed, grinning at them. "Don't you think they're cute, Ollie?"
Oliver smirked at his best friend, "Very much so."
Tommy shot him a look and elbowed him, "Stop that or I'll have to start giving you a hard time at the club."
"Speaking of Verdant, I don't think I ever thanked you for taking the reigns there," Oliver said. "Better late than never, right? So thank you."
"Don't worry about it, man," Tommy shrugged. "I love working there and it's going really well."
"Yeah, no thanks to me," Oliver muttered.
"You contribute just fine," Tommy told him. "You show up from time to time and mingle with the guests, something that I no longer have time to do. It helps a lot and a lot of people come there in hopes of taking a picture with you. You're still famous, you know?"
"And I hardly think that Tommy's lovely fiancee would allow him to mingle with the people partying," Thea teased, easily joining their conversation.
"Tommy's fiancee doesn't mind," Laurel interjected. "She knows that he'll always be faithful and he knows what will happen to him if he isn't."
The four of them laughed but Oliver could tell that Tommy looked a little nervous. It was no secret that Laurel Lance knew how to take care of herself, and if she ever failed at that, her father would always be there to fill in. If Tommy ever hurt Laurel, which Oliver was a thousand percent sure that his best friend would never to, it would most likely end badly for him if Detective Lance had a say in it.
"Speaking of the club," Thea drawled. "A friend of mine is looking for a job and it would be really nice if you could hook him up with something, Tommy."
"Oh?" Tommy quirked an eyebrow. "What can he do?"
"Roy's good at a lot of things, so he can probably do anything from clean to wait tables," Thea said.
"Wait, did you just say Roy? As in Roy Harper, the kid who stole your bag?" Laurel asked, a grin forming on her face.
"He stole your bag?" Oliver frowned, shooting a glare at his sister who just brushed him off.
"Save me the lecture," she said. "Felicity has already expressed her opinion on me suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome."
"For once, I agree with Felicity," Oliver told her. "You sure this kid is good for you?"
"Please, Oliver, if anything, you always agree with Felicity," Thea joked, "and yes, I do believe that Roy is a good guy who was just going through something. Besides, he gave me back the purse and only took a pack of cigarettes from me."
"Cigarettes?"
Thea realized her mishap and offered her older brother a sheepish grin, "He got me to quit smoking, so how bad can he be, right? Besides, we are just friends."
"Is this 'just friend' of yours going to be your plus one to the wedding, Thea?" Oliver inquired, eyebrow raised.
"Hope so," Thea said, clearly not the least ashamed of admitting that she might like the boy a lot more than she had previously let on. "Speaking of plus ones..." she trailed off, grinning at Oliver again. "Who are you bringing, Oliver?"
Oliver's mouth shut and his lips pressed together into a thin line, already knowing where his sister was going with the conversation. "Isn't it a little too soon to decide that?" he asked her and he hated his brain for filling with images of Felicity walking by his side the entire evening, her hand resting on his arm as they danced.
"I'm just thinking that a certain blonde would look very good all dressed up," Thea pointed out. "But maybe she'll have to wait for years like Laurel waited for Tommy."
"Thea, I am begging you to let these thoughts go," Oliver groaned. "If you really think Felicity's is so amazing, why don't you date her yourself?"
"I've always seen her as a future sister-in-law," Thea deadpanned, making Oliver's cheeks heat up against his will.
Tommy clapped his shoulder lightly, "Not fun being the one to receive the teasing treatment, is it?"
Oliver didn't say anything. Instead he shot his sister a glare and changed the subject back to the wedding itself, trying desperately not to think about Felicity in a wedding gown, her infectious smile on her face as she walked toward him.
-§-
"How did breakfast go with Thea, Tommy and Laurel?" Diggle asked after picking him up.
"Good, I suppose," Oliver shrugged.
"It's good that you're starting to hang out with them more again," Diggle told him. "With the life that you lead, it's good for you to have something normal in there too."
"Yeah, well, it might be even better if my sister would stop implying that I have a thing for Felicity," Oliver bit out.
"Oh, she did that?" Diggle raised an eyebrow.
"Mhm..."
"Is there something going on between the two of you?" Diggle asked, earning himself a look from Oliver. "Hey, I think I would have the right to know whether there's a risk of me walking in on the two of you–"
"There's nothing going on, Dig," Oliver sternly said. "No need to worry about walking in on anything."
"So what's the problem then? You can just brush Thea off and she'll leave you alone about it," he said. "Unless of course there is something going on but even you don't know what it is."
Oliver glared at his partner, almost hating the way that the older man had gotten to know him so well these last two years. He didn't need someone to tell him that he clearly had something going on inside of him when it came to Felicity. In fact, Oliver knew that he would be foolish to try and convince Diggle that nothing was off with him when it came to the blonde. Diggle was way too observant to miss that Oliver's behavior had changed when it came to the hybrid.
"I trust her," Oliver admitted slowly, contemplating whether or not he should continue.
"I know that," Diggle grinned. "I trust her too. She's proven herself time and time and again and to be honest, I don't think there's a mean bone in that girl's body."
Oliver thought back on the night of Thea's birthday party and the way that Felicity had looked absolutely horrified at the fact that she had wanted to rip the men who had attacked Thea to pieces. Even if they were monsters, the blonde obviously didn't want to become like them and she had told both Oliver and Diggle multiple times that she would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose.
"It's just that–" Oliver cut himself off and stared at the road ahead of them. He hadn't needed to go to the office today which was why he had gone to breakfast with Thea, Tommy and Laurel. Since he had a day off he had told Felicity and Diggle that they could spend the day in the lair to prepare a hunt for tonight. He needed new targets that may know the whereabouts of the Dark Archer and he wanted to be well prepared before going after them.
"Just that what?" Diggle asked.
"Sometimes I get these weird thoughts in my mind," he finally said.
"Weird thoughts about...?"
"Felicity."
Diggle groaned, "Ah, man. I definitely did not need to know that."
Oliver would have laughed at Diggle's face if the situation hadn't been so serious. He had just admitted that he thought about Felicity sometimes, not going in on details, but it didn't change the fact that Diggle now knew that the blonde sometimes consumed his mind.
"It's not what you think," Oliver quickly said.
"Doesn't matter," Diggle said. "Not any of my business as long as it doesn't affect the way you two work together."
"Still, Dig, it's not what you think," Oliver argued. "I just mean that I never expected that one of them would become a part of my team. I never thought that I would actually accept having one of them on my side, but accepting Felicity has been...easy. Almost too easy."
"And it has you worried?" Diggle concluded. "You're worried that you're going soft?"
"Should I not?" Oliver asked, that weird feeling in his gut again whenever he thought about being stabbed in the back.
"I think it's a sign that you still believe in the goodness of people," Diggle said. "That's not necessarily a bad thing."
"But Felicity isn't just 'people', is she?" Oliver quietly said. "She's a hybrid. What does it say about me if I simply abandoned all my hatred for those monsters, just because she turned out to be a good one?"
"I don't think you do anything simply, Oliver," Diggle sighed. "It took you time to accept Felicity and you certainly didn't trust her as fast as I did. You shouldn't doubt whatever it is that made you trust her. I think that Felicity is loyal to us and more importantly our mission. She doesn't want innocents to suffer and that makes her good."
"So you think that I'm worried for nothing?"
"I think that even you don't know what to think anymore," Diggle said. "I think you should let things fall where they may, but don't start doubting yourself just because you decided to accept Felicity. Choosing to trust her was not a mistake."
Oliver allowed himself to think about what Diggle had said. He knew that he trusted Felicity and he was aware of the fact that he was letting her in slowly. That honestly wasn't his problem though.
The main problem for Oliver was that he didn't know why his heart would beat extra hard whenever the blonde hybrid was close to him, or why he found his touches lingering on her a little longer than necessary. He didn't know why or when he had begun looking forward to seeing her again and it made him feel so many things that he didn't even know where to begin sorting them, which made him even more uneasy than anything else.
-§-
Felicity nervously tapped on her desk as Oliver and Diggle listed all the places in Starling City where they knew the People of Darkness resided. They had been going over Oliver's list for the past couple of hours, trying to decide which Dark One to target in order to find out more information on the Dark Archer.
"We can't go after Bertinelli again," Oliver said. "Especially not since Christine Alpert is dead."
"Yeah," Diggle agreed. "If Felicity is right and Christine actually was his mate, or whatever, we would not want to run into the Black Rose with ours nocked and guns loaded."
"So where does that leave us?" Oliver frowned, looking over at Felicity.
She bit the inside of her cheek and fiddled with a pen on her desk, looking away from him for a moment or two.
"Felicity?" Oliver's voice was calm but Felicity could hear some worry etched in there, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
If there was one thing Felicity knew for sure, it was that her hybrid senses had never failed when it came to recognize people's emotions. Sure, she hadn't been a hybrid for very long, but the ability was there for even the simplest of werewolves too, which meant that she had had it since she had been born.
Her only problem was that Oliver was fairly good at confusing her by mixing a lot of emotions together, but she didn't know whether it was conscious or if he was just generally confused about what he was feeling himself.
So when he spoke to her like that, she couldn't help the bubbly feeling that rose inside of her. She had always been aware of how attractive he was and yes, she had had her fair share of inappropriate dreams about him. Sometimes she even flirted a little shamelessly, like earlier that day in the office, but she knew that she would never cross any lines with him and it wasn't just because she knew how much he would loathe himself for it...
But the feeling, in her gut... It wasn't just attraction, and when she had realized that a couple of nights ago, it had scared her enormously.
She wouldn't go as far as to say that she was in love with him, although she would admit to herself that it wasn't just a simple crush either. That night when he had returned injured after fighting the Dark Archer had been horrible for her and she hadn't been able to sleep at all after he had left, mainly because she could still smell him in her bed and sense the remnants of his blood in the air.
All night she had stayed up thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong and the few hours she had managed to close her eyes had been plagued by nightmares of past events as well as seeing Oliver bloody and unconscious on the cold floor of the lair.
It scared her; the things she was feeling. Naturally, that made her push them all down and file them away to look at at another time; preferably when everything with the Undertaking was over.
"Felicity?" Oliver repeated and finally she looked up and met his eyes. Her hand froze mid tap and she felt her breath catch in her throat. "Are you okay?" Oliver continued, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Felicity balled her hand into a fist and let it rest on the table for a while before spinning around in her chair as she began typing on the keyboard. She could feel Oliver's eyes boring into her back and she heard Diggle move closer to her as well. With a few taps, she had a picture up on one of the screens along with a location on a map.
"There's an underground casino here in Starling City that is run by a hybrid that isn't on your list," she informed Oliver, her nerves getting the better of her once again when she couldn't meet his eyes. She cleared her throat and continued, "His name is Dominic Alonzo. I think he might be a good shot at trying to get more information on the Dark Archer. He's sort of like Bertinelli, I guess, so he knows a lot about what's going in in the city."
She glanced up at Oliver and Diggle to try and read their reactions, but Oliver's face remained neutral. Diggle seemed pleasantly surprised at the information though and at first Felicity had almost dared to hope that Oliver would let it slide that she hadn't told them anything about it earlier.
But that wasn't the case.
"You knew about this Alonzo and you never told us about him?" Oliver wanted to know. "Why would you protect him from us?"
"I wasn't trying to protect him, I just made the call that he was too dangerous to deal with when you were still injured from your last fight with the other archer," Felicity defended herself. "I've crossed paths with Alonzo once before, at the Black Rose, and I promise you, he is not a hybrid you want to deal with."
She could still recall the way the monster had roamed through the nightclub, preying out in the open on humans who hadn't known better when they had walked in there. It had almost become a bloodbath before Bertinelli personally stepped in with his guards and threw the hybrid out. Alonzo hadn't liked that very much and had instead started the casino where he lured humans indebted to him to come to and once they lost their final dime, Dominic and his men would drain them of blood before dumping them in the river.
"You should have told me," Oliver said, still as stubborn as ever.
"Alonzo is a hybrid made from a blood wolf line," Felicity said. "Those are the most bloodthirsty monsters that exist, as far as I know. Last time I checked, you weren't exactly well enough to be able to handle him alone, much less considering how many blood wolves he keeps around himself. They are savages, Oliver."
She knew that Oliver could tell that she was right, but she could also see how much it annoyed him that she was.
"Felicity made the right call," Diggle finally said. "You can't go in there alone. This isn't a hunt you can complete by yourself, Oliver."
"What do you suggest?" Oliver asked through clenched teeth, still shooting arrows at Felicity with his eyes. She knew she was right though and she silently thanked Diggle for agreeing with her. As she looked over at the older man, she could see a plan forming in his mind and she immediately knew that one way or another, Dominic Alonzo would be visited by the Hunter tonight.
-§-
"I don't like this," Oliver said as he pulled his hood over his head. He looked over at Felicity who was hooking up her tablet to one of the laptops they kept in the van while Diggle loaded his weapons.
"We're here as backup," Felicity reasoned. "That doesn't mean that we'll have to go in... But we probably will considering who it is that you're going to hunt."
"Still don't like it," Oliver growled as a response.
"You've got the special arrows I made you, right?" Felicity asked, her tone showing how worried she was about this. Oliver was still mad that she hadn't outright told him about this casino sooner, but he couldn't think about that because then he would get distracted, which would most likely get him killed.
"The ones with the hooks that can cut through skin? Yeah, I got them," Oliver mumbled, memorizing on which side he had put them in his quiver. "Aiming straight for the heart will do it, right?"
Felicity nodded, "They should cut right through and take the heart with them on their way out. Safest way to kill a hybrid is to remove their heart or their head and the heart is just less messier... Wow, that sounded horrible out loud." Oliver watched as Felicity's face paled, but he knew that she understood the gravity of the situation.
If Alonzo really was a hybrid made out of a blood wolf' line, he was a danger to all of Starling City. Oliver would try his best to get information out of him, but if he failed and there really was nothing to learn, then Oliver would need to dispose of him in order to keep the innocent people of Starling safe. Felicity might not like killing in general, but Oliver knew that she understood this, otherwise she never would have made him the special arrows in the first place. The specialized weapons had been made for killing hybrids and Oliver hoped that they would work.
"We'll stay in the van and keep in contact over the comm-links," Diggle said, pushing the little devise into his ear. "If anything starts going wrong, you just call out and I'll head in."
"And you stay in here and monitor," Oliver instructed Felicity. "I don't want you to be recognized by any of the Dark Ones inside. Is that understood?"
Felicity only nodded curtly and turned back to the tablet. "There are quite a few of them inside," she explained, "but you should be able to get through them if you release one of the wolf-mist containers that I made you. It should weaken them to the point of fainting due to the new, higher concentration of both wolfsbane and vervain."
"You just have to take out the two guards in the front and then you can head inside," Diggle said. "Alonzo's office should be somewhere in the back when you reach the end of the first hallway."
Oliver nodded, giving Diggle a last look before glancing at Felicity, who was intently staring at the screen in front of her. She was biting her lip and Oliver could tell that she was nervous. The hybrid clearly didn't like him going in alone and he recognized the fact that she was concerned for him. He wanted to tell her that he would be fine and encourage her to just trust him on this, but he knew that he had expressed enough of his own distaste for the plan, so she would probably never believe him if he told her it would be okay in the end.
He had to do this.
He needed answers and right in that moment, Dominic Alonzo was his best shot at getting them. If it turned out to be a dead end, he would still have managed to kill one of the Dark Ones and in Oliver's book, that would always be considered a win.
Felicity raised her head and met his gaze, her blue eyes shining inside the van, even if there was a lack of lights. There seemed to be a hundred questions in them and Oliver had to swallow hard and take a step back from her so that he wouldn't step forward and do something stupid like embrace her.
What was he even thinking with? He would be coming back. Going into that casino didn't mean that he would be coming out dead.
"I'm going," Oliver said, sending one last look Diggle's way before he stepped out in the cold night air.
-§-
Oliver took out the two guards in front of the entrance to the underground casino. Felicity disabled the security cameras and made sure that they were down so that the same thing that had happened at the Black Rose a few months back when he had been looking for Felicity, wouldn't happen again.
"Okay, now all you have to do is release the wolf-mist grenade and then you're good to go," Felicity instructed in his ear.
"Mhm..." Oliver hummed, stepping through the doors. His bow was already up, in case any other Dark Ones had heard him, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, there was soft music playing in the room, people were laughing and having a good time, it seemed.
Then he looked a little more closely, only to see a man, most likely a lamia vampire, compelling a woman while he slit her wrists and filled a whiskey glass with her blood. Next, he took a bite out of his own wrist and gave it to the woman, and Oliver could only watch as her wounds healed and the blood stopped flowing.
Oliver reached into his jacket and took out two of the wolf-mist grenades that Felicity had built and rolled them out on the floor. It didn't take more than five seconds for the highly concentrated gas to be released and the next couple of seconds, the humans that had been inside of the room fled in panic while the supernatural beings crumbled to the floor.
"Should we worry about those humans that are getting out of there?" Felicity wondered. "I mean, what if they call the police or something and get even more people dragged into all of this?"
"Don't think so," Oliver muttered. "People who see Nightcrawlers usually keep it to themselves. They don't want to sound crazy, I guess."
"Yeah, besides, the SCPD is kind of corrupted as it is," Diggle added. "There are a lot of dirty cops who are willing to do anything to cover up the fact that the People of Darkness exist."
"Okay, okay. I get it. No need to worry about the humans," Felicity sighed. "Are you going in, Oliver? I mean, Arrow. Code names and all that, right?"
Oliver's lips twitched, "Yeah, I'm going in."
He was able to get into the casino without any problems. The Dark Ones that were laying on the floor would be unconscious for approximately an hour, if Felicity's calculations were correct– which they usually were. Either way it would give him plenty of time to confront Alonzo, but Oliver knew that he needed to be careful.
He had dealt with blood wolves on Lian Yu before and in Russia, he had crossed paths with them quite a lot too. It was just like Felicity had said back in the Foundry: they were savages. Pack wolves, or family wolves as they were sometimes called were a lot calmer than blood wolves. The blood wolves hunted people for the fun of it, even though they didn't need them to survive. Werewolves in general could live like any normal human beings, except for the fact that they turned into a wolf every full moon. They had temper tantrums sometimes too and blood wolves were in general more aggressive than any other kind of werewolf.
Oliver didn't want to imagine what it would be like to fight Dominic; a blood wolf who had been made a hybrid.
When he finally reached Alonzo's office, he kicked the door open and walked in with his bow raised, "Dominic Alonzo, you have failed this city!"
The man who was sitting in the chair by his desk slowly turned around to face Oliver. He was wearing a well-tailored suit and at first sight, he looked almost normal. Until, of course, Oliver looked into his eyes and saw that instead of being colored in a normal human color, or even the shiny golden hue that Felicity sometimes got, Alonzo's irises were blood red. The hybrid grinned at Oliver, revealing his set of canines and fangs that seemed to have remnants of blood on them.
"If it isn't the Hunter," Dominic clapped slowly. "I've been waiting for the day that you find my little operation and try to take me out. This is going to be so much fun."
"Tell me what you know about the man who calls himself the Dark Archer," Oliver demanded, his voice disoriented due to the device he always had with him.
"The Dark Archer?" Dominic leered. "You don't mean the other arrow happy maniac that has been killing Dark Ones and humans in this city? The one that killed Alpert?"
"What do you know about him?" Oliver asked, tightening his grip on his bow. "You know he killed Alpert, so you must know more about him. Tell. Me. Now."
Alonzo stared at him for a moment before breaking out in laughter. There was a crazy look in his eyes as he stood from his seat and leaned over the desk. "I'm glad that bastard killed Alpert. She and Bertinelli were getting far too comfortable running the Black Rose. Now that Bertinelli is unbalanced, I might have a shot at taking over the place and secure a spot higher in the hierarchy," Dominic said.
"So Alpert's death was convenient for you? That makes it seem even more like you hired the Dark Archer to do your dirty work," Oliver said.
"The Dark Archer follows no one," Dominic snarled, a wild look on his face suddenly. "I've tried to send my own men out to find him, to try and recruit him, but they've all been dropped on my front door with their hearts in a bag!"
"That only means they got close enough to have them ripped out," Oliver stated.
"I don't like you very much, Hunter," Dominic mused. "You're boring me and I can smell the fear off of you. Do you really think you would be able to come here and overpower my men and then kill me?"
"I'm not afraid of you," Oliver snapped, releasing one of his arrows which flew straight into Alonzo's stomach. The hybrid grunted, but didn't seem very bothered by it. Instead, the monster only laughed, pulling the arrow out of him, inspecting the bloodied tip.
His red eyes seemed to glow in that moment and Oliver watched as the hybrid's tongue darted out to taste his own blood. "Hmm, I think my blood would taste a lot better if it had some of yours in it," he grinned, looking over at Oliver. "The end is coming for your kind, Hunter, but for you, it'll be here a lot sooner."
The next thing Oliver knew, the room was crawling with Dark Ones. He didn't even see where they had come from, but the back door to Alonzo's office had opened, so he was pretty sure that was where they had been waiting for their cue. Firing two arrows, he managed to take out two of them, but there were still about ten more Nighcrawlers besides Dominic in there. One of the faster ones, probably a vampire, tore his bow from his grip and he barely managed to push him off before the monster could sink his fangs into his neck. He fought them off as well as he could, but it didn't take long before two of the stronger wolves had caught his arms and forced him down on his knees.
"Oliver!" Felicity's voice yelled out through the comm and Oliver closed his eyes when one of the Dark Ones kicked him in the ribs.
Alonzo walked around his desk and knelt down in front of Oliver, whose face was still covered by his hood. "Isn't this an interesting turn of events, Hunter. I can hardly contain the excitement of finding out who is hiding under your hood..."
"Felicity, don't!" Diggle's voice echoed in his ear and Oliver opened his eyes just as he felt Alonzo's hand come to rest on his head.
Suddenly, one of the wolves that was holding him down was ripped away from him and Oliver used Alonzo's momentary surprise to punch the monster in the face. The hybrid stumbled back and Oliver took one of the smaller arrows he had inside of his vest out and disposed of the other wolf that was holding him down, embedding the weapon inside the monster's heart. He lifted his head and watched both in awe and in horror as Felicity fought off the other vampires and werewolves that worked for Alonzo. She was so fast that it almost looked like she wasn't moving at all. They were charging at her, but one by one they fell to the floor, darts- most likely filled with vervain or wolfsbane- lodged in their necks. She spun around and threw one dart toward Oliver, who flinched in surprise when it embedded itself in the forehead of one of the vampires that had been about to attack him from behind. Instantly, he woke from his daze and began helping her take care of the Nightcrawlers. While she dropped their unconscious bodies to the floor, he started killing them one by one with the arrows that were still in his quiver. He found his bow in the midst of fighting, but just as he turned, aiming at Alonzo, he froze when he saw that the mad hybrid had gotten a hold of Felicity's golden locks and had an arm around her throat, a wooden stake resting just underneath her chin. The mad man was breathing heavily as he stared at all his fallen henchmen and Oliver didn't dare to put his bow down now.
"It wasn't supposed to end like this!" Alonzo yelled. "You ruined everything, you foolish little monster!" He glared down at Felicity who was struggling in his grip. Oliver tensed suddenly when he saw Alonzo's expression change to one of recognition. "Wait a minute... You're her, aren't you? The blonde little bitch that escaped?"
"Let her go, now!" Oliver growled out, aiming right at Alonzo's head. His body was sheltered by Felicity, so he couldn't very well shoot him through the heart. The head would be the next best thing, but for him to actually kill Alonzo, he would need to decapitate him.
"No way," Alonzo laughed. "The Master is going to love hearing about his blonde girl working with the Hunter! Considering how much trouble she's been causing, I hardly think he would mind if I played a little first though..."
"Don't–" Oliver started but abruptly cut off by Felicity's agonizing scream when Alonzo lowered the stake he was holding and pushed it into her stomach. Without even thinking, Oliver released his arrow which hit Alonzo right in the forehead, causing the monster to stumble back. His grip on Felicity loosened and the blonde hybrid fell to the floor, removing the stake from her stomach as she gasped out in pain. There were tears building in her eyes, but Oliver moved past her, seeing red as he towered over Alonzo's body that lay on the desk, staring up, empty. He didn't even know what he was doing at first, but the next thing he knew, Felicity was yelling at him to stop.
"It's okay, Oliver! Stop!" she called out desperately, but he just couldn't. There was a rage inside of him that he had only felt when he had come back from Lian Yu and he didn't know what do do with it anymore. He stared down at his bloodied hands and looked down at Alonzo, whose face was now barely recognizable.
"Oliver," Diggle said from behind him and Oliver just wondered when his partner had made it into the room. "It's over. You don't have to keep hitting him. He's dead."
Something washed over Oliver and he finally turned around to look at Diggle and Felicity. The older man was crouched next to Felicity, who was still sitting on the floor, her shirt still bloody from where Alonzo had stabbed her with his stake. She was staring at him wide-eyed and he hated himself for letting her see him like that.
But he was still angry.
Angry at himself for going after Alonzo in the first place, angry for it all to have turned out to be another dead end. He was angry for getting caught off guard and angry at Felicity for intervening. He was angry that he had allowed Alonzo to hurt Felicity.
He was just... Angry.
-§-
Oliver glared at the computer screen in front of him while he waited for Felicity to get out of the shower. As soon as they had disposed of the bodies in the casino, they had gone back to the lair and Felicity had instantly gone to change her clothes and clean up. Diggle had tried to talk to Oliver, but Oliver had told him not to bother, because his words of wisdom wouldn't change anything tonight. He had gone after Alonzo and followed the plan they had made up together, but it had all gone wrong anyway and Felicity had almost ended up killed because of it.
Because she had once again saved his life.
The door to the bathroom opened and Felicity stepped out, wincing a little with every step she took. Oliver stood from the chair he was sitting in and headed to the small fridge where he proceeded to pull out a blood bag. He walked over to Felicity and wordlessly handed the whole thing to her.
"Thank you," she mumbled, looking at him questioningly.
"It'll help you heal faster, won't it?" he asked, his voice coming out angrier than he intended.
Felicity narrowed her eyes at him, "Yeah, it will."
"That's good," he said. "Maybe it'll also heal your brain enough to that your common sense returns to you."
"What the hell is your problem?" Felicity snapped, shooting him a glare. "If it wasn't for me, you would have been dead now, Oliver!"
"You should have stayed in the van!" he yelled back at her. "Diggle could have helped me–"
"He wouldn't have been fast enough, and you know it!" Felicity growled at him. "Alonzo was crazy and he would have told his men to rip you apart, Oliver! So no, I am not going to apologize for intervening!"
"He recognized you," Oliver pointed out. "He knew who you were and you risked everything; not only your own life, but our mission as well!"
"Our mission?" Felicity questioned. "Is that what you're worried about? That the Dark Ones might have found out that I'm working with the Arrow? Is that it? We killed all the Nightcrawlers that were in that casino! There's no one alive to tell the story!"
"Someone could have escaped, and what would we have done then?" Oliver snapped at her.
"What did you expect me to do? Sit tight and just watch you get torn to pieces?" Felicity yelled back at him, taking a step forward as she got in his face.
Oliver was breathing heavily and somewhere in his peripheral view he could see Diggle moving a little closer to them, most likely trying to be prepared in case the situation got out of control. Oliver didn't back down though, instead, he took a step closer to her as well, their noses almost brushing as he glared down at her. "It's better than you dying over nothing," he told her, so low that he wasn't sure she would have hear him.
For a moment, something flickered across her face and Oliver wanted nothing more than to just forget about the whole argument. But how could he, when he had come so close to loosing her tonight?
"You are not nothing, Oliver," Felicity replied, her voice equally low. "I'm a part of your team now, whether you like it or not, and I'm willing to do everything to keep both you and Diggle safe. I don't care if you think that it's reckless or stupid, but I consider you a part of my family and I'll do everything to protect you."
"Even if it means risking your own life?" he wondered, the question slipping out before he could stop it.
"Yes."
He had never heard such warmth and coldness mixed together in one word at the same time. Felicity cared about him... Him and Diggle. She was willing to do anything to keep them safe and Oliver honestly couldn't understand it. Sure, they trusted each other and he had admitted that they were a team, but for Felicity to actually tell them that she would give her own life if it meant that they were safe? That was a whole new level of something.
"You're their loose end," Oliver stated. "If Dominic had gotten out alive, he would have gone to the Master and told him about you. He would have taken you to him and what would have happened then?" Oliver took a step back from Felicity and looked away. He met Diggle's eyes and the man looked at him worriedly. A lot of things had come to light tonight, but a lot of things still remained a question mark.
"I was asking the wrong questions," Oliver realized. "Alonzo didn't know much about the Dark Archer, but when he saw and recognized Felicity, he mentioned the Master. He must have known about the Undertaking and we could have used him to get more information... Now, he's dead and we're back on square one."
"We can't think about that now, Oliver," Diggle sighed. "Whatever happened tonight, happened. We can't go back and change things. You took a dangerous, mad hybrid off the streets and made Starling City at least a little bit safer. We need to see this as a small win and not as a set back."
Oliver nodded despite not really believing it. "I'm going to let go of the search for the other archer," he finally said. "My obsession with finding him led us to that casino tonight and it almost got us all killed."
"Oliver, I was the one who told you about it," Felicity stated. "I'm just as much to blame as anyone..."
"You told me that Alonzo was dangerous," Oliver said, looking back at her. He felt a little calmer now, but he could still see a storm raging inside of Felicity's eyes. "You warned be about him but I still underestimated him because I was too stubborn to..." he trailed off and shook his head, pinching the brig of his nose. "We should all head home and get some rest. It's been a long night."
"Okay," Felicity whispered, but Oliver knew that their conversation was far from over.
"Do you want a ride home, Oliver?" Diggle asked.
"No, I'll take the bike," he told his friend. "I need to clear my head a little."
"Are you sure that's good for you? You're still pretty injured," Felicity pointed out calmly.
Oliver just gave her a look and she sighed, looking away from him, knowing that there was no point in arguing with him again.
When he got on his bike later, he pulled on his helmet and started for the mansion. The entire argument with Felicity was still echoing in his mind and he couldn't forget about the determined look on her face when she had told him that she considered him and Diggle to be her family. The things she had said and the way he had acted... He didn't want to believe that it had all been charged in the moment because of the fear that he had felt when Alonzo's stake had penetrated her stomach. It was difficult to admit for Oliver, that he had actually grown to care about the hybrid that was residing in his secret lair, but deep down, he knew it was true.
Oliver didn't even realize when he had stopped by the side of the road, motorcycle still turned on as he stared down the street he had been driving on. Honking cars passed him and people around him that were returning home from a night out in the city were laughing and pushing each other along the way, but all he could think about was the blonde that was down in the Foundry.
Without thinking, Oliver turned his bike around, heading back toward Verdant, not knowing what would happen when he once again talked to Felicity about what had happened tonight.
All he knew was that it needed to be settled and that it couldn't wait any longer.
Note: Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to leave a review!
And Happy Holidays to you all! :)