I'm not dead!
I am however, the worst author of all time.
Life has been insanely stressful for the last couple months, but I know you don't really care about that.
Anyway, i'm not sure how frequent my updates will be for the next little bit, and for that i'm sorry.
I hope you all have had a great couple weeks and i'm sorry it's so late but without further ado: i présent to you, Chapter 3.
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Felicity had been working with Oliver and Dig for a little over two weeks, and so far she'd only ever seen him perform medicine on himself. He'd stitch up his own wounds, remove his own bullets, and even reset his own bones. It still shocked her how high his pain tolerance was.
She knew that they had a lot of medical supplies, and that Dig was trained, but she had never really thought about using those things. So when Dig rushed in carrying Oliver bridal style and started talking a mile a minute about all the things he needed, Felicity found herself rooted in place.
"Get the AED!" She was snapped out of her daze the second Dig had Oliver connected to the heart monitor. The single ominous beep that filled her ears and invaded her brain until it was all she could focus on.
AED. AED. Oh! That's the electricuter thingy! Where the hell do we keep that anyway?
She looked around frantically trying to remember where it was.
"Bottom drawer!" She immediately sprinted over to the drawers they stored their medical supplies in, trying to avoid looking at Oliver, who's ribs were now definitely broken from Dig's enthusiastic CPR.
"Got it!" She grabbed the box and quickly stuck the pads on his chest.
"Charge to 200! Clear"
Dig and Felicity took a step back as Oliver's body jerked and arched on the table. They watched the heart monitor expectantly.
"Damnit! Charge to 300! Clear!"
Once again they watched with bated breath as Oliver spasmed even more violently than the previous time. However, the shock was quickly followed by a consistent beep as his heart returned to a normal rhythm.
"Oh thank god!" Felicity couldn't hide her relief. "He's not out of the woods yet. Get me a suture kit for this wound and make some island herb tea will you?"
Felicity did as Dig asked and they soon discovered a bullet wound in his arm as well as the deep cut across his chest. Once he was all fixed up Dig and Felicity flopped down on their chairs in exhaustion.
"John, you look exhausted. Go home and get some rest." Diggle was prepared to argue, but he really didn't think he could keep his eyes open much longer. "Alright. Will you be ok to watch him?"
Felicity laughed. "You worried he'll wake up and decide to go back out on patrol?" They both chuckled for a couple of seconds before realizing that was definitely something Oliver would do.
The two sobered for a moment as Felicity said in a completely serious tone, "Yes, I'll watch him."
Dig gave his favourite blonde a quick hug before climbing the stairs and exciting the club as stealthily as he could manage.
Meanwhile, Felicity sat down in her favorite chair in front of her babies and began doing mindless research. However she was having trouble focusing, and eventually gave up.
She rolled her chair over so she was sitting next to the med table and just watched Oliver breath, listening to the steady beep of the heart monitor.
She sat there for close to an hour and had almost fallen asleep when she began to hear mumbling. Her exhausted brain took a moment to realize it was Oliver talking in his sleep.
She leaned in to try and hear what he was saying, but she couldn't understand him. She continued to listen as his voice got louder and louder, until a minute later it reached a volume that finally led her to realize he wasn't speaking English.
At first she thought maybe it was just random gibberish brought on by a mild to severe concussion, but she soon realized that it was a real language.
Although she couldn't be sure, it sounded like he may have been speaking Ukrainian or Russian.
It was almost amusing to listen to him. She liked trying to guess what he was saying just by the tone of his voice.
However, after a couple minutes she began to grow concerned, as his tone grew darker and more frantic. With every word he got louder, to the point where he was almost screaming.
He began to thrash on the table and Felicity grew concerned that he may roll right off. So, she made a decision.
She cautiously stood up and pushed her chair back. She inhaled a deep breath and held it as she place her hand on Oliver's shoulder.
"Ollie, Ollie wake up. It's just a dream."
His screaming grew louder and he pushed her arm away quite violently, much to Felicity's surprise.
His voice wasn't just angry however, it sounded pained. She also noticed that he appeared to be trying to protect his head with his hands.
Unable to bare watching him suffer anymore, she woke him up. She planted her arms firmly on his shoulders and shook him while yelling his name.
She had seen Dig do it before when Oliver was having a nightmare, but there was one thing that was different. In their haste to keep his heart beating, Dig and Felicity had forgotten to cuff Oliver to the table.
He continued to thrash against her grip for a couple seconds before he shot up into a sitting position. Before Felicity could react Oliver grabbed her neck with both hands and whirled around so she was pinned to the table.
She gasped and tried to pry his arms off, but he only squeezed tighter. She opened her mouth to tell him to stop but found that no air could get past his firm grip.
Meanwhile he stood calmly, eyes glazed over, obviously everywhere but there. Felicity scrambled to think of a way she could ground him back to reality. Finally she took a hand off of Oliver's arm and cautiously brought it towards his face.
He seemed more confused by the hand than anything, and she was both surprised and relieved when he allowed it to graze his cheek.
The gentle gesture had the desired effect, and Oliver's vice grip on Felicity's neck immediately loosened.
He removed his arms completely and stepped back in shock. Felicity took a moment to catch her breath before rasping out in a voice that was barely there, "Oliver…"
He stepped back even farther, looking down at his hands and mumbling, "no...no...no…"
Felicity took a deeper breath and made her voice much more confident as she said "Oliver it's ok."
He finally looked up from his hands, and Felicity could make out faint tear tracks running down his face. "No. No it's not ok. I hurt you Felicity. I hurt you."
He turned away and buried his head in his hands, pushing against his forehead until it hurt. He deserved pain.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Felicity's heart broke when she saw how his shoulders shook. "Oliver it's alright. It's not your fault."
He couldn't handle it anymore. Without responding, the archer quickly made his way to the punching bag and began to beat the crap out of it.
Felicity could faintly make out the fact that he was mumbling under his breath, but whatever he was saying was lost to the continuous rapid thuds created every time his fists made contact with the bag. After what had to have been at least ten minutes of non stop punching, Oliver paused for a moment.
Felicity opened her mouth to once again reassure him, but before she even had the chance, he was standing under the salmon ladder rubbing chalk on his hands.
She remained silent as he did the entire ladder four times in a row (the most she's ever seen him do at once) until he finally dropped back to the mat underneath. She gave him a moment to catch his breath.
However, instead of walking back over to her, he proceeded to pick up a bow staff and walk towards one of the dummies. He raised the stick and got into a fighting stance.
"Wait." He froze. Not coming out of his stance, but also not yet beating the shit out of the dummy.
"Oliver please. Stop punishing yourself and talk to me." He contemplated her request for a moment, before dropping the staff and walking towards her.
"Why didn't you restrain me." His gaze refused to leave the floor and his voice was barely above a whisper.
"You crashed. We were a little preoccupied with trying to get your heart beating again." Oliver shrunk in even farther on himself.
"Oliver it's my fault. I should have checked that you were restrained before waking you up-" Oliver cut her off with a yell.
"I SHOULDN'T NEED TO BE RESTRAINED!" When Felicity flinched away from him, Oliver made sure to reign in her anger before continuing. "I should be in control of my emotions. Of my actions. I'm so sorry felicity."
He finally lifted his gaze, and the first thing he noticed was that she wasn't afraid of him. The second thing however was the bruising that had already started appearing along her neck. He looked away.
"What do you need? Ice? Tea? I'll get you some island herbs! Sit down and relax please." Felicity laughed.
"Oliver I don't need island herbs for a bruise, although i would appreciate some chamomile?" Oliver smiled but still couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. "I'll make you some chamomile."
The rest of the night was fairly silent, as Felicity fell asleep shortly after finishing her tea. Oliver, of course, stayed up all night, making sure Felicity kept breathing. Wouldn't be the first time he accidentally crushed someone's windpipe.
At around eight the next morning, the door to the basement opened and a familiar veteran carrying three coffees and muffins to match made his way down the stairs.
Felicity woke up to the sound of the door closing and spun her chair to face Diggle.
"I see our beloved hero survived the night," He cast a quick glance at Oliver, pointedly ignoring the copious amount of bruises adorning the mans knuckles.
"And my favorite blonde IT g-" He stopped short when he finally got a good look at Felicity. Dropping the food on the nearest table, he ran over to her and began examining her neck.
"Holy shit Felicity! I swear to god when we catch the person who did this I am going to punch him out on the spot!" Oliver stood up.
"I'm right here. Have at it." Diggle just stared in disbelief, before looking towards Felicity with a questioning glance.
"It's not his fault though, you forgot to restrain him." Fury blazed in his eyes for no more than a moment, before the statement really sunk in and he looked over to see how heartbroken and guilty Oliver looked.
"I'm sorry man. This is all my fault." Oliver kept his head down as he brushed past the man's shoulder. Just before he got out of earshot, his partners faintly heard him mutter, "Nobody's fault but mine."
