BLUE EYES: Chapter 25
A/N: I'm finally able to post something, which I hope you will like. Another minor character is introduced here, and I thought it would be nice to give him the name of the guest star in 6x15 and 6x16 because I am really excited that his character on the show is back. ;-)
Summary: John Diggle badly needs Oliver's help, which requires him to leave the village...and Felicity.
Felicity nodded, giving Oliver permission to get up and meet Big John outside their house. She didn't want him to. But Big John was their friend, and he sounded like he desperately needed their help. It would take her some time to put on her usual clothes, so she made Oliver get up first to see to what Big John wanted so urgently.
Oliver kissed her chastely on the lips and slid out from under the blanket that covered them from the waist down. He stood up and grabbed his trousers to put it on, not bothering to wear his bahag underneath anymore.
Felicity blushed in admiration of her husband's impressive uncovered frame, watching in the daylight as he put on his trousers quickly. The first time she had seen him with just his loincloth on, that night in the inn, she'd felt so awkward and shocked at the same time. It was different now. She looked at him now with pride and felt no shame, in the same way that she had felt nothing but mirth when Oliver beheld all of her for the first time in the faint glow of moonlight just a few hours ago. They had already been married, but it had taken them longer to earn the right to look at each other this way, with all the love and delight bursting from their hearts. How amazing it is to be married to someone like Oliver, she thought.
At the doorway, Oliver turned back to look at her, asking a second time if it was alright with her for him to leave. She smiled. He smiled. No words were needed.
By the time Felicity emerged from inside their fale, Big John had already finished telling Oliver about the terrible news of Ms. Lyla Michaels' suspicious and sudden disappearance. There was a white man with him, a younger man, whom he had introduced to them as Roy Harper, one of the hired hands at Lyla's general store and inn. Roy had become John Diggle's friend in the last couple of years. He had also been the one who had brought bad tidings from Christentown.
"Ms. Lyla has been missing for two days," Roy had reported. "No one has seen her since she retired for the night the other day. No one saw anything, but her room upstairs… everything was a mess! We tried looking for her all over town to no avail. I tried to find you, Mr. Diggle, but the workers in the tobacco plantation said that you haven't returned since you left so suddenly a few days ago." The young man had paused to take a breath.
Roy had climbed the mountains on foot. All throughout the night, he was looking for the Kinanyao village. The natives who were John's co-workers in the Merlyn plantation had suggested that he would most likely find John there, since John himself had asked for directions from them to find the village in the mountains. For quite some time, Roy had had an inkling that John cared for his mistress in a special way; he believed John would help to find Lyla.
"Please, Mr. Diggle, you have to help us find Ms. Lyla. Without her, we can't run the store and the inn. Everything she and her father have worked so hard for all these years would be lost," Roy had begged.
When Felicity joined them, she easily construed what the trouble was just by listening to the conversation. She felt awful that someone else had been dragged into this huge mess just to draw Oliver, John, and herself out of hiding. She started to worry about Lyla's safety, and to fret over the logical hypothesis that Malcolm Merlyn and Yao Fei were behind the intentional abduction of her new-found friend. From her own experience, she feared that this must be a harrowing experience for such a kind woman like Lyla, who had absolutely nothing to do with all of these.
"Do you think Lyla's disappearance has to do with the present threat on our lives?" Felicity asked Oliver and Big John.
"Yes," Oliver immediately answered. "My father warned me that this might happen. I tried to tell you… last night, but we…"
His words came to a halt at the vivid remembrance of the night they had spent intimately together for the first time. Their gazes locked, and when she realized what her husband was referring to, she tried in vain to hold back the smile and the blush that quickly colored her face and neck. She bit her lip to keep herself from uttering a remark that might embarrass her (or him) unnecessarily.
John cleared his throat to clear the air and bring their conversation back to the urgent matter at hand. "Asintado, we have to find Lyla as soon as possible. Who knows what Yao Fei or Mr. Merlyn might do to her? At this point, they would do anything just to get us out in the open," he pleaded. "I can't find her and rescue her by myself. I need your help."
"I will help you find Lyla," Oliver replied.
"Yes, we will help you bring her back," Felicity concurred.
Oliver instantly spoke whilst shaking his head in disapprobation, "Felicity stays here. In the village. I will go with you."
"Felicity will not stay here. In the village. She will go, too," she spoke sternly, cringing a little upon realizing that she had just referred to herself in the third person – something that she herself had specifically taught Oliver not to do when speaking. But she was not going to let them go without her. Lyla was now her friend, too. Of course, she wanted to help find their friend.
"No, you will not," Oliver countered firmly.
"Yes, I will," Felicity protested just as firmly.
"Please don't make this hard, Felicity," he requested, exasperation evident in his voice as the words came out in between clenched teeth.
"You're the one that's complicating things, Oliver. I just want to help."
"I want you safe. And safe is here!"
"No! Safe is with you!"
John and Roy looked at the two of them, arguing as if they were playing an intense game of lawn tennis, an outdoor sport that was just beginning to be popular in their home country. Amused at the sight, the younger man wondered which of the two was going to win the argument. The older, darker man, on the other hand, knew that Felicity had a fighting chance, what with the way her hands were firmly anchored on her hips. She looked up at her husband as if it was she that was taller than him, and the way her voice thundered in remonstration told them that she was not backing down so easily.
Oliver closed the gap between him and his wife. He held both her shoulders and gazed down upon her with an intensity that was mixed with earnest affection. He lifted her chin so that she would look up at him, and when he saw his wife's countenance, he knew that with just a little push, he was going to have his way.
"Felicity, you will stay here. Safe. I need you to be here when I get back," Oliver said, his voice retreating from stern to sensitive in a graceful decrescendo.
"But I…" She stammered, hoping to say more, but Oliver kissed her, in a manner reminiscent of the night before, rendering her speechless for a while.
Then, he whispered so that only she would hear, "My beautiful Blue Eyes, I love you. I will do my best to come back to you."
"You promise?"
"Yes. If you promise to stay here until I come back."
Felicity nodded and said, "Alright. I'll stay."
Oliver had been right. He had sensed that her insistence on joining the mission had not been just to help them find Lyla, but also to keep an eye on him. He had felt her anxiety and tension over his safety, so he had thought it was wise to allay her fears and apprehensions.
He smiled at her like a parent rewarding an obedient child with candy or a toy. He pulled her in for a tight embrace. "I will ask Amihan to be with you. The warriors and the entire village will keep you safe," he spoke near the back of her ear.
He felt her nodding against his chest, and he was relieved that his stubborn, headstrong wife finally acquiesced. He knew that they had better chances of finding Lyla faster if they didn't have to constantly think of her safety along the way. He was surely going to miss her, but he'd rather miss her than see her get hurt or caught in the middle of a skirmish that might put her in danger. Before he claimed her to be his wife, the only reason he had tried to stay alive in the midst of battle or armed conflict was his desire to rediscover his identity and his roots. Now, his beautiful Blue Eyes was all the more reason to come back from possible danger in one piece.
In less than an hour, Felicity bid Oliver, Big John, and Roy farewell. They left the village and traveled down the Abu Mountains towards Christentown on foot. Good ole' Starling was of no use because there was only one of him and three of them.
Chief Muidatu had offered to send a small contingent of Kinanyao warriors to escort them safely and protect them in case the search and rescue mission resulted in fighting against Yao Fei and Merlyn's men. Oliver had declined, convinced that bringing along tribal warriors armed with native weapons might provoke the enemy or start a battle with the foreigners that they might not be able to come back from. He had also reasoned that the resulting bloodshed in an armed encounter might undermine future peace efforts that he might try to initiate between the tribe and the foreigners. Hesitantly, the Chief had let Oliver go to help John Diggle and Roy Harper find Lyla Michaels, praying to Kabunyan to keep his favored son safe and bring him back to the village alive and well.
Oliver had not left without having a short yet serious talk with his brother Wandatu. Oliver had made Wandatu swear by the gods of the Kinanyao to protect Felicity at all cost. "Brother," he had said in their native language, "I know that you do not like me. And you do not like my wife. But I have but one request, and I am counting on you to fulfill it. If you do this, I will not ask you anymore for another favor. Please, keep my wife safe." Wandatu's face was emotionless, but he had indicated his willingness to do what Oliver had asked through the traditional hand gestures.
Before leaving Felicity with his sister Amihan, Oliver held his wife in his arms and tucked her blonde head under his chin.
"Please be careful, Oliver," she told him. "Find Lyla and come back to me. That's all I ask."
Rubbing his hand up and down her back, Oliver replied, "I will. Pray to your God for our safety. Pray that we will find Lyla in time. I will see you soon."
"Ay-ayaten ka," she whispered, pulling back a little to look straight into his eyes.
"Ay-ayaten ka."
Two full days had passed. Still, Oliver had not returned with Big John and Lyla. Chief Muidatu was worried. The elders of the clan and the warriors of the tribe were beginning to worry.
Yet, no one in the entire village was more anxious than Felicity. She had not ceased praying to God to protect her husband and her friends, and to grant them success in their search and rescue mission. But even if her faith was strong, she also knew that sometimes, things did not go the way she wanted, just like it had with her father when he perished in the ambush that she had survived. There was a significant part of her heart that hurt, not knowing what was happening to the man that she had just learned to love and cherish. She had just begun to know him deeply, and she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life getting to know him even more deeply each day.
Lord willing, she would also have his child – his children, preferably. She wanted this with all of her heart, and she prayed, too, that God would grant the desire of her heart before the second harvest comes. She had high hopes of this happening, especially now that she knew how pleasurable it was to be intimate with her husband. Thoughts of a little white boy, with blonde hair and blue eyes running around the village and playing with a miniature bow and arrow, helped to distract her from her worries. Perhaps their first child could be a girl. That mental image had made her smile more – the one where a little version of her could beat the other Kinanyao boys in an archery contest. If their first child would be a girl, Felicity wondered if the tribe would let their daughter become chief someday in place of Oliver.
The sound of crickets broke her wishful reverie. Felicity realized that Amihan had not yet come to fetch her for supper at the Chief's house. Something must have delayed her sister-in-law, she thought. She went out of Amihan's fale to see if she was anywhere near, but it was already dark. She could not see very far with her naked eye.
She contemplated going ahead instead of waiting for Amihan. After all, she already knew her way around the village for the most part, especially down the dirt path that led to the Chief's house. She and Amihan might even cross paths along the way. For a moment, she hesitated, noticing that there weren't too many villagers passing by. If Amihan came for her from another direction, no one would be able to tell her sister-in-law that she had already gone to the Chief's house. Deciding to just wait for Amihan, she turned back towards the house to sit on the steps and wait.
As Felicity approached the ladder that led up to Amihan's house, someone sneaked up from behind her and grabbed her by the waist, dragging her to the back of the house, away from the view of anyone approaching from the dirt path. She struggled to break free and scream for help, but the stranger's other hand quickly came up and covered her face with a damp cloth. The foul smell of the moist cloth disoriented her, causing her attempt at breaking free to fail. In a matter of seconds, Felicity felt herself fading away into unconsciousness.
The last thing she remembered thinking of was her husband's name.
Sorry about that cliffhanger. I thought I'd spice up the sequence of the events in the plot line a bit to generate more interest or curiosity, since I have missed hearing from y'all in the past few chapters. I still would appreciate some feedback.
So sorry too for the delay in posting. RL has been tough. And it's not just work stuff. I've just begun healing from the loss of Papa, and yet here I am, about to lose my friend from work due to cancer. I've said my goodbyes to her, as she's expected to go anytime. I can't even begin to describe the pain of seeing her suffer...so much. I appreciate so much that God spared my father from further suffering like this and just took him home. I'm learning a lot, pondering on a lot of things. "Sometimes trials of this life are His mercies in disguise." (Laura Story)
Author's Notes:
1. If you recall, a bahag is a loincloth or a g-string worn by tribal men in northern Philippines to cover their private parts.
2. Notice in this chapter, Oliver has started use a pet name for Felicity. He calls her Blue Eyes as a sign of endearment, yet another reason why this fic has the same title.
3. The damp cloth used by Felicity's abductor was presumably dipped in a kind of herbal concoction, meant to sedate her.