Flashes of what seems to be real, but she only knows it is a nightmare from the bright and hazy back grounds. Yet she cannot escape from them. "Oliver!" She screams as she sees Oliver tied up with cuts all over his arms and chest. He stands on a ledge that is thirty or maybe possibly forty feet high. For some reason she is glued to her spot and she watches Oliver in horror.
A shadow figure appears behind Oliver and complete fear takes over Madeline. "No – stop!" She nearly chokes on her tears. "Please! Take me!" She pleads with the shadowed figure. Oliver is then stabbed in the back; he releases an unreal horrific, ear piercing scream and plummets off the ledge. She screams as tears drench her face, her whole body trembling. Oliver is a foot from hitting the ground and everything snaps to black.
Madeline jumps as a hand is pressed against her shoulder. She opens her eyes and she realizes that she has fallen asleep. She pushes herself from the desk, her back popping as she straightens her back. She looks around groggily and sees Roy. "Have you been here all night?" He asked with a raised brow. She nods rubbing both of her eyes, trying to get the drowsiness away. Roy gives her a concerned look and shakes his head, with either disappointment or maybe with concern. Madeline doesn't know.
"What time is it?" She asked with a cracked voice. Her throat is pretty dry, but nothing a few sips a water can't fix. Roy takes out his phone from his back pocket and gives it a quick glance.
"It's um… nine fifteen." He says shoving the phone into his back pocket. Madeline nods and swivels the chair to face the computer. "What are you doing?" He asked giving her a strange look. She shrugs and begins to research away. "You – need a break." He says pulling her arm gently, which makes the chair pull back on its wheels.
"No, I need to find Oliver." Madeline says pulling away from Roy's grasp. She pushes the chair forward and begins to research on the computer again. "Roy… I can't stop until I find him. He's going to die tomorrow and I'm his only chance." Roy frowns at her yet again. Madeline can't recall Roy frowning at her this much ever before.
He looks to be in thought and then he pulls her arm, taking the chair with him. "Roy, no!" Madeline says angrily as she tries to pull away, but Roy doesn't let go. "Roy, stop please!" She tries to pry his hand off but he won't budge. "Roy, please!" A tear leaves her eye and she can't shake the feeling that she won't be able to find Oliver.
Roy stops suddenly and then quickly gets on his knees in front of her. She covers face with her hands, her elbows pressing on her knees. Tears begin to drench her cheeks yet again, but this time she cannot stop them. She can't see the hurt look on Roy's face or even face Diggle and Felicity without even feeling like she failed. It hurts her more than she ever imagined possible.
She feels Roy pull her head to his chest, pulling her into a small embrace. Trying to comfort her in any way possible. She sobs into her hands, letting out her pain and frustrations into any tear she can. She never thought she was going to lose Oliver again or even come so close to it. Now here she is, about to lose her older brother once again; now with an opportunity to save him. She's going to save him, no matter what anyone says. She has to save him.
After a few minutes of crying into her hands and Roy being there to comfort her, she finally stops and she feels some pressure off her shoulders. She wipes her tears away with the palm of her hand, knowing she probably looks like a wreck. But she doesn't care. Roy releases her, which gives her a slight disappointment, because she still wanted him there. He gently holds her head in his hands and gives her a sincere look.
"Madeline, you need to listen to me, okay?" He says making sure he as her full complete attention. She holds onto one of his hands, allowing herself to kind of lean on it. She gives him a nod, so he knows she's listening. "You need a break! I don't care how you spend it, but you need one. Felicity, Diggle and I can look for Oliver. But you need some rest."
Madeline nods again so he knows that she isn't objecting. Yet she still wants to deny taking a break. "Roy, I have to-"
"No!" He cuts in, without giving her the chance to even object. "You have to take a break. There's no point of you searching for him if you can't concentrate." He pauses, staring into her eyes as if burning the orders through her eyes. "Oliver wouldn't want you to be like this." He says truthfully, letting go of her head.
She nods, looking down at his hands that now lay on her legs. He's right; Oliver wouldn't want her like this. And she cannot keep working in this condition. If she does, it'll hurt her and her chances to finding Oliver. "Okay." She finally says breaking the few minutes of silence. Roy looks relieved to see her agree and he gives her a small grin.
"Good. Now go home and get some rest." He says standing up to give her a hand up.
"No. I can't." She says shaking her head. She doesn't want another nightmare. She can't have another one like that. Roy gives her a questioning look and sees that she looks upset. "I don't want another nightmare." She mutters.
"Hey, sorry I'm late. I somehow slept in." Felicity says as she clearly enters the lair. Madeline flinches, since Felicity came in as silent as a cat. "Are you doing okay?" Felicity asked as she saw the puffy look and how red Madeline's eyes became from crying.
"I'm fine." She says plainly. "Um… I'm getting some air." Madeline pushes off the seat and walks from the chair. "Oh and look for any-"
"Underground access through the sewers or underground tunnels, and check access to the boats. Yeah I think I got it." Felicity said quickly as she pulls her chair with her to sit at the front of the monitor. Madeline smiled, a first actual smile that she's had ever since Oliver was kidnapped.
"Thank you, Felicity." Madeline says sincerely. Felicity nodded and headed straight to work. Madeline picked up her black leather jacket off the table, where she through it yesterday morning, and then she slowly headed up stairs with the jacket draped on her arm.
She stops and turns to Roy who's going to escort her out, and she knows he's only making sure that she leaves the vicinity. "Roy, can you come with me?" She suddenly asks without thought. He looks to her as if he's in thought, then nods a few seconds later. "Felicity, is Diggle on his way?" Madeline shouts to her.
"Yeah, he'll be here in a few minutes." She answered with a concentrated voice. Good, that means that Felicity will be safe. "Be careful!" Felicity managed to say before Madeline walked out the door.
Madeline's stomach twists as Roy closes the door behind them. She doesn't want to abandon Oliver, not at this time. She completely freezes in place and she wants to turn back. But Roy has other plans in mind; he grabs her upper arm gently and pulls her with him. She lets out a sigh and allows him to guide her out of the bar.
"Where do you want to go?" Roy asked releasing her arm as they get to the bottom of the stairs outside the bar. Her gaze slowly led back to the bar. "Other than going back there." He adds, knowing her motives. She frowns at him and gives him a shrug. "Okay, Big Belly Burger's it is." He places his hand in between her shoulders and takes her with him, so she doesn't get any ideas to go back.
Roy opens the passenger door for Madeline to get in; she hesitates but slowly gets into the passenger seat. She knows Roy won't allow her back in the club until she gets a break. But a few minutes is more than enough for her right now. Roy hops into the driver seat, inserts the key, lets the engine roar and off they went. She taps her foot impatiently, feeling that every second she's not looking for Oliver, is a second closer to Oliver dying.
Every once in a while, she will give Roy small glares and then lead her gaze back to the passenger window. They don't say a thing to each other. Roy knows not to bother her when she's in this state. He's learned that just the past few days. Because then she'll just get hostile and try to convince him that she's the only one who can help Oliver. But she tends to forget that she's not alone.
They pull up at front of Big Belly Burger's, which is surprisingly short on customers. Because it's always busy. They both exit the car and the smell of chili fills the air. Madeline did not realize how hungry she was, her mouth waters heavily and her stomach growls. She gives Roy a half satisfied grin that she has taken the break to get this. But then quickly swipes it away as Oliver comes to mind.
They enter the building, quickly greeted by smiles of the staff that are cleaning up their register counters. "What do you want to eat?" Roy asked before they stop at the cash register. Madeline scans the menu a top, playing with her pinky nail over her stomach.
"Whatever you're having." She says with a shrug. She likes practically everything on the menu and she can already guess what he's buying.
"You want chili fries?" He asked with a raised brow. She gives him an 'are you serious?' look and he shrugs. "Okay two chili fries and two medium drinks. That'll be it." He says quickly as he stepped up to the counter. The lady smiled, finished the order and money transaction with him. And the two got their cups to fill. "Are you going to be silent the whole time?" He asked filling his cup with Cola.
"I don't know. Maybe I will." Madeline responds with a hint of sarcasm. He smiles at her and puts the lid on his cup. She fills hers with Lemon-Lime soda and heads to a table with Roy. "What number are we?" She asked casually playing with the straw in her drink.
"We're number… seventy-two." He says checking the number the lady had handed him. Madeline practically felt normal for the first time in days. She feels like taking a break was the right thing to do, but there's still guilt floating around in the pit of her stomach.
The table fell silent once again as she let herself drown in thoughts about possible places as to where Oliver could be. She stares blankly out the window, watching as people and cars go by, occasionally taking a sip of her drink. He's got to be somewhere obvious. She thought to herself. He's has to be on a boat or some underground passage. Maybe even a docking house.
Her thoughts got interrupted by the cashier lady who just placed the tray of chili fries on the table. They often take the trays of food to the people if it is extremely slow or extremely busy. Most of the time they just call out your order and you have to go pick it up. Madeline grabs her small basket of chili fries and places with the first fry on top.
"Mads, you need to eat." Roy says, already shoveling in a second bite of chili fries.
"I don't need to necessarily eat as fast as you." She joked with a grin that seems to make her face light up. Roy lets out a small chuckle, either because he thought it was funny or just to maybe make her mood more up-lifted. Either way, it made her feel a bit less gloomy. "Thank you Roy, for taking me here." She says as she finally grabs a fork and scoops a bite into her mouth.
"You needed a break." Roy says shrugging as he swallowed his third bite. He fell silent as he took a few more bites of his food, both not knowing what to say.
She stops eating as she is halfway through her food and she cannot make herself eat another bite. Her stomach is churning and she feels at loss of hope once again. "Roy… do you think we'll ever find Oliver?" She asked with a defeated tone.
Roy gives her a sympathetic look. She truly has practically given up all hope. But this is the worst time for her to do it. "We'll find him, Madeline." He says with the most sincere look he's given her. "I promise." She grins at him and nods.
Her text message them goes off and her phone vibrate, she looks down to see who it is. The text is from Felicity. "I think I've found something." She reads under her breath at the bold lettered text message.
Author's note:
Part three is here sooner than I had anticipated! Which I am totally happy that I've made it this quickly, I hope you all enjoy this one! Any pointers about my writing would surely be useful! Thanks for reading!
(Also for more information, regarding to Madeline, it will be on my profile. (I'm still working on her character though, so there may be a few broken parts.)