AN: Thanks all for the great reviews, and thanks for sticking with this story! This is by far the longest FF I have ever written.
Chapter 13 – Everything Falls
Oliver tried to focus his mind beyond the wooshing in his ears that had nothing at all to do with the fire burning in front of him.
She was gone.
He felt like he should be doubled over, the pain was so strong. But on the periphery, he heard her voice. Oliver. Thea . . . She had been trying to save Thea when last he spoke to her.
His sister. Someone had been coming after his sister. He took a breath and turned. Thea. He had to find his sister. As if his mind was just waking up to the situation, he remembered he had sent Digg upstairs to find Thea.
He turned and was moving past the bar, then cutting a left to the stairs when he saw Digg. And then he almost ended up on the ground, because his knees went weak with relief. Digg wasn't alone—Oliver could see him half dragging, half carrying Felicity down the stairs. She looked terrible, charred and covered in ash, but her eyes latched on to his as she saw him standing there, frozen, at the bottom of the stairs.
She was alive. Alive. Alive. Alive.
Then Digg was there. "We have to move, Oliver!" Digg shouted, and Oliver looked back up the stairs. Where was Thea? The relief he had felt seconds before flooded away again, and he wondered if he would need to morn her instead. No. Not his sister. Not Thea. Even he didn't deserve that circle of hell. He was definitely too far inside his head, because Digg was already almost to the door, and he quickly moved to catch up with them. They were outside, and the cool fresh air seemed to clear his head.
Digg stopped by the car with Felicity, and Oliver was there in an instant. His hands found her face, and he wished he didn't have his gloves on. He also wished his hands weren't shaking, but he couldn't help it. Her hands fisted in the green leather at his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Oliver," she choked out. "I was too late, they took her."
Felicity was alive, but Thea was gone. His thumbs caressed her cheeks. Jesus, he had almost lost her. It was a huge miracle that he hadn't—especially given the fact that the place she should have been was absolutely decimated.
Her hands left his chest and went to his wrists. "I need to get to my apartment," she said. "And you need to go home."
Nothing she was saying was making sense to him. He needed to find Thea, and he also needed to not let her out of his sight, because his hands were still shaking at the thought of how close he had come to losing her.
"We need to find Thea," Felicity echoed his thoughts. Maybe he had said them out loud, he wasn't even certain. "I can access the backup servers from the desktop at my apartment and try to get a plate off their car. And you need to go home." Why did she keep saying that? That was the last place he needed to go. "Your mother is going to hear about Verdant and she has to know that's where Thea went. She's going to freak."
He coasted his thumbs over her cheekbones, which were sooty and dirty, again. She had just been pulled from a burning building and she was already thinking proactively. Unlike him. He had never been rendered so utterly useless, not since that first year on the island, as he felt now.
"Oh, fuck," Digg said succinctly, and Oliver looked up to follow Digg's gaze. Oh, fuck, indeed, because that was Roy's ugly old red car barreling into the lot. He stepped back from Felicity and reached up to make sure the hood was in place. And fisted his hands, because he could still feel the tremor there. It became worse the moment he was no longer touching her, too.
Roy threw his door open, screaming Thea's name. Oliver stepped into his path, putting his hands out. "It's okay, Roy, she's not in there." But Roy looked like he had probably looked as he had rushed into that building minutes before—frantic and scared and desperate. Oliver knew that he was going to barrel directly through him, so he threw back the hood and pulled off the mask. The Arrow didn't care, or even know about Thea, but Roy would listen to Oliver Queen. Roy froze, his eyes widening. "She's not in there, Roy," he repeated.
"You?" Roy said in disbelief. Oliver nodded.
Felicity stepped next to Roy then, placing a gentle arm on his wrist. "Someone took her Roy, but we're going to find her. Why don't you come with Mr. Diggle and I, and we'll find her together."
Oliver watched as Roy looked at Felicity in utter confusion, then back at him. "Ms. Smoak will explain," he said, and even as the words were out of his mouth he regretted him. He wanted to send Felicity off with Roy, who was still a loose cannon, even less than he wanted to let Felicity out of his sight.
He could hear sirens now. They were nearly out of time. Felicity was now staring at the wreckage of the foundry, and there were tears in her eyes. Digg touched her shoulder. "We need to go."
She nodded, and then turned her eyes on Oliver. He was on her in a second, pulling her into his arms and crushing her against him as he kissed her. She cried out, and he froze, quickly letting go of her. "You're hurt," he said, and it sounded like an accusation, even to his ears.
"It's nothing," she said. "You have to go to your mother." He started to shake his head. "You have to Oliver. I'm okay. I'll be okay."
He gently put his hands on her shoulders and let his forehead fall forward until it touched hers. "Felicity . . . "
"She'll be terrified. She needs you there."
"Oliver!" Diggle called, and he knew his time was up. He stepped back from her, and John was immediately pushing her into the back seat of the car next to Roy. He met Oliver's eyes. "I'll keep her safe." He tossed him a bag containing a change of clothes. And then they were gone.
xxx
Felicity hissed in pain as she slid into the leather seat. Roy looked at her in concern. "Are you okay?"
She shrugged. "It could have been worse." A lot worse. If she hadn't gone up the stairs to try and help Thea, she would most certainly be dead. Judging by the haunted look she had seen in Oliver's eyes, she suspected he had thought she was. Some burns on her back seemed a small price to pay for the ability to live another day. She just wished she had gotten to Thea in time. If she'd reacted faster . . .
She watched out the window as they rounded a corner and the blaze of the foundry became obscured by buildings. The place she had thought of as their safe haven was gone—blown to smithereens.
Oh. She inhaled sharply as something occurred to her. The lair had been blown to smithereens. When the blast had happened, after she had made it into the hallway and towards the bar, the blast had come up the stairs. She was suddenly breathing too fast.
The lair had been compromised. And if the lair had been compromised, there was a strong possibility that other aspects of their life had been breached. She leaned forward and put a hand on Digg's shoulder. "Does Lyla have any traps?" She said softly. Digg glanced to meet her eyes in the rearview, and she saw confusion there. "The kind for unwanted pests?" His eyes widened, and she realized he understood. He took the next left, taking them in the opposite direction of her apartment.
xxx
Oliver ditched the bike outside the perimeter of the mansion and scaled the fence. The property was supposed to be impenetrable, but Digg had intentionally set up a blind spot, complete with a concealed area for his bike. He carried his leathers with him in his bag. It was a risk, but he couldn't afford to leave them behind. He had no idea what they were dealing with, or who, and he might need them at a moments noticed. He wondered, not for the first time, if this attack was from Slade, Merlyn, or another foe entirely. He was running across the estate lawn, and all too soon he was at the front door. There was already a police cruiser in the driveway. He cursed, took a steadying breath, and pushed through the door.
"Oliver, thank God!" His mother cried when she saw him. She stepped quickly into his arms. "The club . . . "
"I . . . I heard on the way here," he lied smoothly. Or at least he hoped it was smoothly.
Lance and another uniformed officer stood in the living room. "You're sister's car was in the lot," Lance said gravely.
Oliver shook his head. "She wasn't there."
"Oh, thank goodness," Moira sighed in relief.
Lance, though, in his typical fashion, raised an eyebrow. "And you know that how, Queen?"
"Her boyfriend, Roy. He met her there, and they went out."
Lance nodded. "That's Mr. Roy Harper, right? His car was there too."
"My driver dropped them off at the bus station." Fuck. Why hadn't he thought this through better?
"She's not answering her phone," his mother said, worry in her voice.
"I'm sure she'll call when she can," he said, placing his hand around her.
Lance's phone rang, and he excused himself.
Oliver led his mother to the couch, wishing the police would leave so he could ask her questions. He wanted to know if she thought Merlyn would do something this rash to get Thea.
When Lance strode back into the room, Oliver knew immediately something was wrong. "I have to go," he said tersely, and turned to leave. The other uniformed officer looked after him in confusion.
"Mr. Lance!" Oliver called, chasing after him. He had recognized the look in Lance's eyes. It was the look of a man who was suddenly afraid of losing everything. He grabbed his shoulder. "What is it? Is everything alright?"
Lance's eyes tightened. "No. But it's no concern of yours." He turned to leave.
"Wait," Oliver said. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he had a terrible feeling it was all connected.
"Laurel," Lance said shortly. "Laurel's friend Joanne was supposed to have dinner with her tonight, but when she showed up at her apartment, it looked like it had been broken into. I'm going there now."
Oliver's eyes widened. Most likely not a coincidence. "I won't keep you. Good luck."
Lance just tightened his lips, and then turned to hurry out the door.
Oliver wanted desperately to talk with Diggle and Felicity, to discuss what they thought was going on here. Because if Laurel had been taken too, there was no way it was a coincidence. Usually if something terrible befell anyone he knew, it could be traced directly back to him.
He suddenly remembered Slade teasing him as he looked at a picture of Laurel, a lifetime ago on Lian Yu.
It was another fifteen minutes before the second office left. As soon as he was gone, Oliver turned to his mother. "Listen, Mom, do you think there's any chance Merlyn would do something like this?"
"Like what?"
"Destroy the club . . . or try to take Thea?"
His mother's eyes widened. "Take her?"
He exhaled. "Someone tried to kidnap her. That's why she's with Roy, and not answering her phone."
"Malcolm Merlyn is capable of anything," she said fearfully.
Oliver nodded. "I have to go," he said.
She hugged him. "Be careful," she said, and he suddenly wondered if she suspected more than she let on about his night life.
He felt complete relief as he walked back out the front door and sprinted across the lawn. In less than ten minutes, he would finally be able to do something to find his sister. And he would do it with Felicity by his side.
It ended up only taking him eight minutes to get to her front door. He had pushed the bike that much. It was Digg who let him in, and he pointed silently to the bedroom. Oliver nodded his thanks, and strode toward her closed bedroom door.
She was sitting at the desk tucked in the corner, typing furiously at the keyboard. He stood there for a minute, just watching her. She had showered, cleaning the soot and ash off her face and hair, and changed into a plain blue button up shirt and jeans. Her hair was pulled back into a wavy pony tail and she peered over her glasses at the screen in front of her. He wondered how on earth he had gone nearly a year keeping her at arms length. After tonight the thought of all that wasted time made him ache. He had almost lost her. It was an absolute miracle that she was sitting there, just a few feet away, working her magic and tracking down his sister. He had faith that they would find her, because there was nothing Felicity couldn't do with a computer.
He stepped forward, and she jumped, obviously not having heard him come in. He started to apologize, but she held up a finger to her lips. She picked up a device from the desk and reached into his pocket. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her when she pulled out his phones—the one belonging to Oliver Queen and the one belonging to the Arrow. She ran the device over each of them. When it beeped, she pulled the case of each phone open, and extracted a chip from each phone. A bug, he realized, as she picked them up and carried them to the bathroom. She dropped them into the toilet and flushed, then leaned her shoulder against the door frame.
"It occurred to me that the blast at the foundry originated in the lair. Someone breeched our security there, and I thought maybe they breached everything."
"And you were right," he said, the sick feeling from earlier returning.
She nodded. "I found some traces in our system. He's been watching us for months."
He closed his eyes and exhaled. "Not Meryln?" But he already knew the answer.
She shook her head. "I traced the hack back to 1527 Alan Street."
He sighed. "Slade." She nodded, and then she was reaching for him.
God, he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and just forget about everything else, even for a moment. But her cry of pain as he had pulled her to him the last time was still echoing in his mind. He put his hands on her hips, gently holding her away. "Where are you hurt?" He asked.
She let her head fall against his chest. "Just some burns, on my back."
He closed his eyes and took a breath, then gently turned her. He lifted her shirt, and saw four large gauze bandages covering her back. He ran his finger gently over the angry red skin peaking from the edges of the bandages.
"Too damn close," he ground out, lowering her shirt and turning her to face him again.
She nodded. "Yeah, way to close."
He held her face in his hands, but this time he didn't have the gloves on and he could feel her soft warm skin under his fingertips. She tilted her chin up and looked up at him searching his eyes.
"Felicity . . . " He felt the need to tell her how he felt, because he had come so damn close to losing her tonight . . . to losing her without ever telling her how much he cared about her. "Felicity, I . . ."
But she stopped him, reaching up and placing a finger across his lips. "No, Oliver." He froze in confusion. "You don't get to make life altering declarations after near-death situations," she clarified. "It can't be healthy. I don't want you to say something now you'll regret later."
He started to argue, but then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, and he kissed her back with all the desperation borne from those moments when he had thought she was buried and burning under the rubble of the foundry.
When they finally separated, she took a steadying breath and again laid her head on his chest. "Okayyyyy," she said on exhale. "Back to work."
She stepped around him, back to her computer, and pulled up a screen. "This is the car they put Thea in. I used traffic cam footage to trace it to Adams and Grand." She clicked and pulled up a map with a three block radius outlined in red. "This is an area of the Glades where there isn't any traffic cam coverage, and here's where we lost them. I've dug through the rest of the footage with a similar timestamp along the perimeter, and the vehicle hasn't re-emerged, so it's probably still there."
"That's where they took her."
"Maybe," Felicity agreed.
"Can you pull up any footage from in front of Laurel's building?"
Felicity looked up at him, eyebrows raised in confusion, before turning back to the computer.
"Her father was at my house when he got a call. She's missing."
"You think he took her too?"
He nodded. "I used to carry her picture, on the island. He said one day it would get me killed."
"Oliver, look," she said, gesturing to the screen. The same black sedan that she had tagged in the footage earlier was now shown in front of Laurel's building. The time stamp read early afternoon. "Oh no . . ." Felicity said as they watched two men drag Laurel to the car. "Those are the same two who came to Verdant." She started pulling traffic cam footage again, and he figured she was going to trace this car as she traced the last one.
An unexpected knock at the door had his head flying up. He looked down at Felicity, and she shook her head with wide eyes. She wasn't expecting anyone. "Stay here," he said, and moved quickly to the living room. Digg was already positioned beside the door, gun drawn. Roy stood in the center of the room, hands fisted as he worked to control his breathing. Oliver moved to the other side of the door, then nodded at Diggle, who moved slowly to look through the peep hole.
"Holy shit," Digg breathed.
He stepped aside, motioning for Oliver to look.
Oliver looked through the peephole, and was shocked to see Malcolm Merlyn standing on the other side a blue baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
AN: Sorry/Not Sorry for another cliff hanger. This one isn't nearly as bad as the last, RIGHT? You didn't really think I would kill off our girl, did you? I would never do such a thing.