Chapter Fourteen:
Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow, kinda wish I did though… This is raw, no edit, no beta..
"What do we do Oliver? Leave this alone?" Diggle asked standing up against the kitchen counter in Thea's apartment.
Diggle replayed the images through his mind of when they were transferring Felicity from her apartment to the loft. She had an extremely bad panic attack and was shocked to see Oliver was the one able to calm the blonde. Felicity was his friend and he couldn't even be around her and that hurt. John didn't know what to do anymore, he felt better when he wasn't in the room with the blonde. At least he wouldn't have to see the coldness in her eyes when she looked at him, or the panic attacks that he simply caused because he was in the same room.
"No, I won't stop until that monster is put to rest." Oliver spoke while putting ice into a large cup with a straw, he poured bottled water into the cup and closed the top.
"Laurel and Thea will stay hidden with Felicity here in the loft. I don't think we were followed or anything so I think it is safe to say we are good here. That leaves me and you."
"I'm not sitting helplessly to the side Ollie." Laurel finally found her voice. After the day's events she wanted nothing more than exactly what Oliver wanted and especially after reading the letter Gray Collins had sent the team.
"No Laurel, what if…"
"I'm stronger than Felicity, Oliver I know how to fight, Felicity didn't. It never occurred to anyone of us to train her to fight. We just always expected she would be behind that computer screen didn't we?"
"We can't blame ourselves Laurel." Dig said taking the bottled water that Thea offered.
"Why not John? Think about it, we have always kept her hidden, even before Thea and I. You and Ollie kept her hidden in the dark dungeon behind a computer screen. Why didn't you two teach her to defend for herself?" Laurel was angry but she was taking that anger out on the wrong people.
"Because she didn't need to know that, because she was behind a damn computer screen, she was safe there. We would had never let nothing happen to her Laurel and you know that..." Diggle found himself getting mad, maybe because Laurel was hitting to close to home for him.
"Yet how many times has she been hurt John? Almost blown up, almost injected with the drug she craves for now. Come on use common sense here." Laurel interrupted Dig with her voice getting louder with each word spoken.
"That's enough you two, you will wake Felicity." Thea tried to reason with her friends.
"I won't sit here and babysit because let's face it, Felicity is gone, the Felicity that we knew is no longer here and I'm sure the best place for her is a mental institution."
"Laurel You don't mean that!" Thea was now mad; this was not her friend talking.
"It's the truth Thea just face it. Felicity will never be that person again and I will be damned if I sit here and wait for the same outcome for myself. I will not be that person up there." Laurel said pointing toward the stairs of the loft.
"Laurel that is so unfair, do you realize how you sound right now? Felicity is our friend." Thea tried to reason with her friend.
"And I love her enough to let her go. She needs help that we can't offer her. What am I supposed to do sit here and be the helpless victim to? This is all of our faults for tucking the little blonde girl away thinking she was safe while all along making her weak."
"That's enough Laurel!" Oliver finally spoke. He had enough self-blame he didn't need any more added to him.
"You all deal with this but I will not sit by and be hidden away, it never got Felicity far did it?" Laurel said before grabbing her jacket from the rack and leaving the loft.
"I got it." Oliver said holding his hand up to stop Thea and Diggle from running after Laurel. He knew the girl; he had once loved her. He knew she could get dramatic sometimes but he knew that she was hurting for her friend. He also knew that Laurel was scared, who wouldn't be after seeing images of what happened to their friend.
"She did make a valid point John. We could have taught Felicity to defend for herself." Thea said playing with the lid of her water bottle.
"I know, but Felicity is strong and she will make her way back to us I have faith in that, if nothing else Thea have faith in that." John said leaving the kitchen, he went out the apartment door. He wanted to check around the apartment, he wanted something to do. Something that would make him stay away for now. The team was falling apart and that left Gray Collins to blame.
Thea walked over to the couch and sat down staring at the fire that blazed in the fireplace. Laurel was right, the team wasn't protecting Felicity, they were only making her weak by keeping her hidden away and she didn't want to be that person as much as Laurel did. She wanted to bring Felicity's attacker to an end. She had been in contact with her father, letting him know what they had found out. She knew that he would help protect her and would go to the ends of the earth for her. He may be an evil person but he was her father. Thea would sit this fight out though; she would be the friend that Felicity needed. She would be the person that her brother needed and she knew that he needed her to protect the woman that he loved. She pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and pushed the contact of her father. She didn't know if she was doing the right thing but she had to do something or the team was going to pull apart and lose each other forever.
Oliver had just caught up with Laurel when his cell phone started to vibrate in his pocket. He quickly looked to see the caller ID was that of Detective Lance. He held his finger up to Laurel indicating to stay put for a minute.
"Detective?"
"Oliver, we never got a chance to interrogate the men we brought in fully."
"What do you mean?"
"We found each one of them dead in their cells, we are investigating how this happened. No one was entered into the holding cells, they were alone."
"Damn it."
"I know Oliver, we will find out what we can and I will get back to you."
The phone call went dead and Oliver looked to Laurel. "The three men we found at the equipment business is dead. They were in the holding area by themselves."
"Ollie?"
"I don't know how this happened, damn it I thought for sure we would get information from them. Back at step one and I'm starting to get pissed." Oliver said walking around the street before the loft.
"Laurel that little show you put on back there, yes you can fight and yes you have an advantage that Felicity didn't have. But what you said was unfair."
"I'm sorry Ollie but I meant what I said, I'm not going to be that person."
"Laurel I know your scared but ..."
"I know Ollie." Neither Laurel nor Oliver had to say anymore, Oliver knew that Laurel would help the team and she would help Felicity.
"Our Felicity is gone Ollie…."
"It's up to us to bring her back Laurel."
"You love her don't you? I can see it in your eyes, I can feel it surround the area when you two are together."
"Yes… yes Laurel I do love her. I love her very much and it took me a long time to realize that. I don't know if we will ever see the same Felicity but that won't stop me from loving her any different."
"Oliver, those pictures of the men with Felicity, the pain that they all caused."
"That is something we will deal with, together."
"What was that?" Oliver asked Laurel putting his hand to her arm. There was what sounded like a scuffle at the end of the alley. Both Oliver and Laurel took off toward where the noise was coming from and was met head on with four large men fighting Diggle.
John Diggle was slumped against the brick wall of the loft entrance. He held his own for as long as he could. He did his best to fight them all. To see his friends coming was a huge relief. Full on fight was going on outside while two men slinked their selves up to the loft where they knew the women were by themselves.
Oliver caught a glimpse of the two men out of the corner of his eye but couldn't get away, he couldn't pull the large man from him.
"The Loft!"
"I got it!" Laurel took off running toward the stair case that would lead her to the loft where Thea and Felicity was but before Laurel could make it to the door she heard the commotion coming from the loft. Felicity was screaming sounding like an insane feral woman losing everything. Thea was doing her best holding her own inside the apartment. Laurel instantly jumped into the fight, Felicity screams being heard in the background.
Suddenly the man Oliver was fighting fell toward him in a slump. Oliver allowed him to drop to the ground at his feet looking around confused. Malcolm stood in front of Oliver holding the bow that the arrow came from in the man's back.
"Malcolm!" Oliver said surprised. He hadn't seen the man since they had found Felicity and didn't know where he had gone. Oliver didn't take another chance he took off running toward the loft where his sister and Felicity was. He knew without a doubt that Malcolm and Diggle would take care of the other men.
He ran into the apartment to see Laurel and Thea fighting, the coffee table laying in shreds in the floor. He grabbed one of the men off of Thea pushing him toward the wall. Thea instantly ran up the stairs where Felicity was. Oliver fast on her heels.
Where did this other man come from Thea thought as she ran into the master bedroom. She jumped on the white man's back jerking him away from her blonde friend. The duo fell to the floor against the wall of the bedroom Thea never once letting her grasp go. Oliver went straight to Felicity but when he touched her arm, she went into another screaming fit. He backed away from her has if he had been burned from a hot poker. He didn't know what to do, he looked toward the man fighting his sister and that was all it took for him to finally lose control.
Oliver grabbed the aluminum baseball Thea kept in the corner of her bedroom and attacked the man that was fighting his sister. The built up anger he had been doing his best to hide came to a boiling point, the hurt that he hid from his sister, from Felicity and from his friends came to a head. The images of Felicity from the pictures, the images from when he found his love came to the top. The thoughts of Felicity being held captive by a monster, by her own demons came flooding out. The pain he had to see the blonde go through every single day after her attack wasn't to be left out either. The thought of every dream Felicity ever had coming to an end as she wanted to end her life. Every emotion Oliver had been fighting came out of him and he fought with everything in him. It wasn't the man he wanted but he didn't care at this point. There was no turning back now, he was beyond gaining control anymore.
He was knocked from the man and pushed into the brick wall of the loft. The adrenaline running fresh in his body he was ready to fight another. He stood up swinging the baseball bat for the next person to come toward him but was held off by Malcolm. He could hear Felicity's screams trying to break through his mind telling him to stop. He finally was able to hear his sister screaming his name. He focused his eyes on Thea and could see clearly that she was hanging on to Felicity both women crying. His team was falling apart and there was nothing he could do to hold them together any longer.