Oliver POV
I hated this, the idea that my mother was somehow involved in Walter's disappearance. I couldn't wrap my head around it, she seemed to love Walter and yet she should aid in his kidnapping, or even murder. I tried my best to remain hopeful of her innocence, but all evidence appeared to be pointing to guilty. So I took a deep breath and entered my mother's office at QC and began my hood charade.
"Moira Queen, you have failed this city!" I yelled as I shot an arrow above her head clearly missing. "Where is Walter Steele?!"
"I don't know where he is!" She replied as tears began to fall. I was making my mother cry and it was killing me. "Please I have children. A son and a daughter, they already lost their father, they cannot lose me too."
"Who took Walter Steele?" I yelled, trying once again to get some kind of answer from her.
"Please he'll hurt my family. I want my husband back, but the man who took him will hurt my children." She cried. "Please I can't…"
She didn't finish her statement. Instead she pointed a hand gun and shot at me. The bullet grazed my shoulder. My own mother had shot me. I ad driven my own mother to shoot me. And in that moment everything hit me. The realization that my mother was definitely involved in Walter's disappearance, and someone was forcing her hand...Merlyn. Aubrey's premonition must be right, Malcolm must have had Walter taken as further leverage against my mother. I quickly gave my head a shake trying to bring myself out of my own head. She will have pressed the silent alarm and security would no doubt be on their way. I managed to escape the offices and made my way down to the parking garage. I happened to notice Felicity's car was still there so I decided to hop in the back and hoped she would be heading home before I bled out in the trunk. About 10 minutes later I heard the door open and let out a sigh of relief.
"Don't scream Felicity." I said in a hushed tone. I was getting a bit weaker due to blood loss, but at least I knew that I would not die in the back of her car.
"Jesus...Oliver what the hell!" She scolded, but quickly noticed the blood seeping from my shoulder. "Oh my god. You need a doctor!"
"No take me to the club Felicity." I said sternly.
"Oliver you need a doctor, We are not equipped to handle this situation back at the lair." She said, her voice filled with concern.
"Felicity take me back to the lair. I have medical supplies there and John was a soldier he knows basic first aid." I said, the tone of my voice stressing the importance of not being taken to a hospital.
"Fine! But you bleed out and die, know that Aubrey will probably kill me and then bring you back to kill you herself." She said with a sarcastic tone.
I let out a quiet laugh and a soft smile spread across my face. She was right Aubrey would kill me for not going to see a doctor. I thought about telling Felicity not to tell her, but I knew that was too bold a request. They were good friends and Aubrey would be beyond mad if Felicity kept this from her. We pulled up to verdant and Felicity carefully helped me out of the car and down the stairs as best as she could with her small frame.
"John! Help!" She yelled as we reached the last step. That was the last thing I heard before I passed out.
Aubrey POV
I had a real sense of panic rushing through me as I made my way over to Verdant. Felicity's text was short and provided very little detail, so I knew it had to be something important. She also was not answering my calls now. I was assuming that my coming down would have something to do with Oliver's or the hood's confrontation with Moira. I hoped that he got the answers that he needed, and I really prayed that Moira had nothing to do with Walter's disappearance. I looked around before entering the secret side entrance of the club, punching in the code that felicity have given me. When I opened the door I could hear voices, and they sounded panicked, which did nothing to ease my nerves. Thankfully I was not wearing heels right now so I ran down the stairs and felt the air leave my lungs at the sight before me. Oliver laid out on the table bleeding, with diggle stitching him up.
"What the hell happened?" I said as I finally made my presence known.
"Moira shot him" Felicity said sadly.
"She what? Since when does she even have a gun?" I asked as I stepped closer to the table taking in his injuries.
"It's really not that bad Aubrey." John said as he continued his work. "The bleeding has stopped, I treated the wound to prevent infection and now I am just stitching him up."
"So why is he unconscious?" I asked placing a hand on his wrist checking for a pulse. I knew he wasn't dead, but for my own piece of mind I had to check.
"He passed out from the blood loss. Felicity found him in the back of her car and he insisted she bring him here instead of a hospital." Dig said as he placed the gauze bandages on the freshly stitched wound.
"Well I'll be giving him a piece of my mind on that matter for sure." I said pissed off. How could he be so careless. Running all the worst case scenario's in my mind was not helping my anger at this man. "Why don't you guys head home. Leave me any of the supplies I might need and I will stay with him. You can take my car Felicity, Oliver will be getting yours cleaned before he returns it."
"Are you sure? We don't mind staying Bri." John said with a sigh.
"You guys look beat. Go home get some rest and we can all regroup tomorrow night to find out what Oliver learned on tonight's excursion." I said with a smile. I hugged them both grateful for helping Oliver and always having his back. "Thank you both for everything you did tonight, and everything you do to have his back."
"Try not to kill each other when he wakes up." John said with a laugh.
"I make no promises you know that John." I said in return.
They headed out the door and I pulled up a chair to sit next to the cot that we had moved Oliver to before the gang all left the lair. I held his hand in mine, and just stared at the heart monitor Felicity had hooked him up to. Each beep brought me relief, because it meant he was still alive. This man was going to be the death of me, and that death would come from worrying. Everytime he goes out on patrol or on a mission I am terrified he won't come back. In a moment like this I really applaud women whose husbands work in the military, I feel their pain, but at least I get to see Oliver almost every day. I settled myself back in the chair and did my best to get some sleep. I could yell at Oliver for getting shot tomorrow. Oliver must have woken up while I was sleeping, and somehow managed to move my ass from the chair to the cot, because when I woke up I felt the softness of a pillow underneath my head and a blanket wrapped around my body. I blinked open and looked around to find Oliver sitting over at Felicity's computer typing away.
"You better not have moved her chair around. You know how mad she gets about that." I said as I pulled myself up from the cot. "What are you doing?"
I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his strong shoulders. Snooping I placed a kiss on the his right shoulder and then began snooping at what he was typing. There was information on Malcolm Merlyn, Merlyn Global and Queen Consolidated all across the screen. I let out a soft sigh as I felt him lean back into my embrace, and placed a hand over one of mine. I kissed his shoulder again softly before moving myself over to the seat next to him. He looked at me sadly before responding.
"Research." Was all he said.
"I take it from that look on your face and the gunshot wound that the confrontation with your mother did not go well." I said with a raised eyebrow.
"You going to yell at me now or save that for later?" He said with a smirk.
"I want to yell at you. God I want to scream and hit you, for getting shot. You put yourself into these deadly positions and one day I am going to get the call that I've lost you for good this time." I said as tears came to my eyes. "But I am trying to support you. I know this is all important to you, to right your father's wrongs. I just don't want to see it cost you your entire life."
"I'm sorry I scared you." He said as he moved to face me.
"Scared? More like terrified!" I said, moving from my chair to his lap and placing my hands on either side of his face. I leaned forward and kissed him passionately to drive home how much I need him here. "I can't lose you again Oliver. I won't survive it."
"I'm not going anywhere Aubrey. I will fight tooth and nail to always come back to you." He said before claiming my lips with his own. The kiss grew even more heated, and before I knew it we were back on the cot too wrapped up in each other to worry about what transpired tonight.
As we were pulling our clothes back on I finally decided it was time to find out what had actually transpired between him and his mother. The arrow clearly got information from Moira, and it was not the kind of information he wanted. I couldn't be in the dark anymore, I had to know what happened.
"So are we going to talk about what your mother said tonight? I mean I got that it was bad news, but what exactly did she say?" I said as I pulled on my shirt and followed him over to the computers.
"Someone is blackmailing her." He said sadly. "I didn't want to believe that she was actually involved in this Bri. My own mother was involved in the kidnapping of her husband."
"Oliver, your mother isn't perfect. We both know that. None of our parents are or were perfect." I said as I stood before him, my hand on his shoulder. "But at the end of the day your mother will do anything she possibly can to protect you and Thea. You know I'm right."
"I know Aubrey. I just...what kind of mess has she gotten herself involved in. What could be such a threat to Thea and I that she would stoop to hurting Walter?" Oliver said sadly.
"Well that is what we are going to find out, and when we do we will find Walter and bring him home." I said before kissing him softly.
"I love you Aubrey. Thank you for coming along for this crazy ride." Oliver said with a sad smile.
"How about I ask your mom for girls lunch or something? I can free up my schedule and see what kind of information I can get out of her." I said with a smile. "Now you need to get some rest. Let's go home."
"That sounds like that best idea you've had all night." Oliver said before taking my hand in his. We left Verdant and headed back to the manor to get some sleep. Team Hood had some serious investigating to do on Moira, and I hoped that blackmail was the extent of what she had gotten herself involved in, but my gut told me it was only going to get worse.