Oliver nodded his agreement. "Yeah." He tilted his head slightly to the side and narrowed his eyes at her, looking past the mask she tried to throw over her features to hide just how exhausted she really was. "What if we tried something different in terms of your current sleeping arrangement?"
"What do you mean? Different how?" Felicity glanced around at her surroundings and came up with no viable options other than the one they were currently trying. "I don't want to try sleeping on the floor…"
Oliver's lips quirked into a smile. "Good because that wasn't what I had in mind." He reached across her and easily raised the bedrail on the far side of her hospital bed, then did the same with the side he sat next to.
She began to grow worried...slightly. "You can't trap me in here, I'm wily. I'll get out and then you'll really understand what it means to feel my wrath," she warned, hoping it was a joke on her part and not the beginning of a real threat.
"I would never dream of inciting the wrath of Felicity Smoak."
"Good. 'Cause let me tell you, mister, it wouldn't be pretty." She wagged a finger at him to accentuate her point.
Oliver hid a chuckle. He snagged the pillows from his cot and dropped them behind Felicity without ceremony, slipped his shoes off, and propelled himself over the rail and onto the bed next to her with a minimum of fuss.
"Hey!" she yelped, quickly scooting over as much as the narrow bed allowed. "Shoving me out of my own bed isn't going to convince me to get any shut eye, you know."
Oliver held his tongue as he rearranged pillows and the tilt of the bed until he could lay back comfortably. Once he had settled himself, he pulled Felicity down against his chest. When he was finally done, Felicity's head was tucked under his chin and he had managed to spread the blankets back over her. He smoothed her hair with one hand as she wriggled into a more comfortable position. "Now," he began, "go to sleep. I'll be right here the whole time. I promise."
Felicity wanted to argue but his body heat combined with her increasing exhaustion was too intoxicating to ignore. "But," she managed to get out before a huge yawn escaped her. Her eyes were playing traitor and refusing to stay open.
"But nothing," Oliver insisted. "Go. To. Sleep." He rubbed slow circles across her shoulder blades.
"Maybe...just a little nap," she allowed. "But if I start to have a nightmare…"
He stopped her before she could get herself worked up about the possibility. "If you begin to have a nightmare, I'll wake you up. I promise." He kissed her hairline. "I'll keep you safe. Please, sleep."
She could feel the world slipping away from her as she sank gratefully against Oliver's solid chest. He would keep her safe and protected...at least to the best of his abilities. She would have to be content with that.
She woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee, a smile spreading across her lips as her consciousness grew. She stretched her neck, her head pushing against something soft but solid, something warm, something very definitely not her pillow. It took her a moment to remember her current sleeping arrangement and quickly try to push herself up and off of Oliver.
"Hey, hey, hey," he soothed. "Slow down."
She felt his hands on her back and shoulder as she tried to find where her glasses had disappeared to. In a flash, her hands were caught up in a strong grip and her glasses were placed in her palms. She shoved them on without ceremony, finally blinking rapidly to clear her vision.
She turned to face her bed companion more fully, noting that he seemed to be fully awake and smiling. "How long was I asleep?"
John answered her before Oliver had the chance. "Almost ten hours. Feel better?"
"Oliver, I'm so sorry."
His face reflected his confusion. "Sorry about what? Finally getting a decent night's sleep? Don't be. I know I'm relieved and so is John."
John nodded from his place in front of the bank of computers.
She was still too groggy to work out the full thought behind her words. "You stayed with me the whole time?" She was reticent to believe him even when the proof of his presence was pretty much undeniable.
"I slipped out of bed twice...to visit the facilities," he admitted. "But I came right back both times and rejoined you here. I promised you I wouldn't leave you and I meant what I said."
"Frack!" She tried to sit up but Oliver wasn't cooperating with her intent. "I'm so sorry...ten hours?! You've been stuck here with me for ten hours?"
"Here? Yes. Stuck? No." Still refusing to allow her to escape, Oliver readjusted his position beneath her. "I stayed because I wanted to. End of story. There's no place else I would rather be than here...keeping you safe and protected."
"Breakfast?" John asked, waving a white paper bag their way. "I got a selection, plus some donuts and coffee."
Felicity accepted the bag and was finally allowed to sit up in the bed. She eyed Oliver with curiosity. "I'm awake now, you can get out of my bed." She shoved feebly at his shoulder in a shooing gesture.
Oliver chuckled but climbed over the railing just the same. "At least you're sounding better. Do you feel any better?"
She nodded distractedly, fishing different offerings out of the bag John had given her. Finally selecting a suitable breakfast, she unwrapped the paper and began to slowly eat.
John barely suppressed a smile and tossed a second bag to Oliver. "I saw Quentin Lance when I was on my way in this morning."
"And?"
"He asked about how our girl here was doing. He also said that he may have a new lead or two about the identity and whereabouts of the Master if we were interested."
Oliver's head snapped up. "What did you tell him?"
"That he knew damned well we would be interested." John stated simply and sat back in his chair. "He agreed but he was concerned that our hands were full taking care of Felicity and I had to agree with him that he might just be right."
Felicity lifted her head from her breakfast long enough to shoot them both a glare. "I don't need constant babysitters, you know. You can leave me alone for a few hours here and there. I'm sure I'd be alright."
Both Oliver and John looked at her as if she were simpleminded. "Maybe you would be," John allowed, "but we're never going to find out on way or another because it isn't going to happen."
"Not ever," Oliver amended. "Leaving you alone is not an option."
Felicity popped a piece of bacon into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "That's going to make showering a very eye-opening experience."
John smiled. "You are feeling better."
She smiled slightly. "Yeah, but we're going to have to find a better way for me to get some sleep." She looked apologetically at Oliver. "I can't expect you to just hang around and be my personal security blanket."
"I prefer to think of myself as a giant-sized teddy bear."
She quirked an eyebrow. "With deadly archery skills."
He nodded. "And don't worry about it, if it helps you sleep, I don't mind. As a matter of fact, it made me get some more sleep myself. I haven't felt this rested in a very long time."
Her face crumpled slightly. "Why not?"
"Do you really think we were going about our lives as normal the whole time you were gone, Felicity?" John rose and crossed to the bed.
She didn't know if she should admit that she really had thought exactly that.
"For the first few weeks, we were too busy tearing this town apart to sleep or eat or to do much of anything besides try to find you. Then we were too busy tearing the world apart for the exact same reason. We're all sleep deprived."
"Oh."
Oliver shook his head. "You really have no idea how valuable you are to this team, do you?"
Felicity shrugged noncommittally and picked at the weave of the blanket that covered her legs. "Well, I mean, yeah I guess I do. You'd both be lost if you had to do the tech thing full time."
"You are far more than just Team Arrow's resident IT girl," John admonished gently. "You know that."
"Maybe."
"I could just get a new IT girl if that was all you meant to the team," Oliver pressed even as Felicity shot him a glare. "You're the heart of this team." He pressed a hand to her cheek and smiled. "And you're my girl, remember? You always will be."
She was still relatively unconvinced but didn't want to press the issue so she opted instead to change the subject. "So are you going to let Detective Lance keep his Master information to himself or are you going to invite him to share?"
John grinned. "I'll be meeting up with him at the station later this morning. I told him I'd trade hima better update on how you're doing for anything he's uncovered about the Master."
Felicity wrinkled her nose.
"What?"
"It's just the name - the Master. It reminds me of bad British television scifi. Scifi that I used to like, mind you." She was caught off guard by a yawn and set her unfinished breakfast aside. With a sigh, she bit her bottom lip, not wanting to lay back down alone but not really wanting to fight her growing exhaustion either. Her eyes traveled around the room, alighting on anything that wasn't Oliver.
"You know, Diggle, I think I'll let you go see Detective Lance on your own." Oliver effected an exaggerated yawn of his own. "I think I could use some more sleep." In the blink of an eye, he had situated himself in Felicity's sick bed once more.
John nodded and lowered the lights. "You two behanve yourselves now," he added as he slipped out the door.
Felicity was asleep again before he threw the latch.
to be continued...