Chapter 17
The next two hours were a blur of panic and fury for them all and Diggle couldn't help but feel for his friends. When he and Layla brought their first child into the world they made a vow to each other that no child they had would be brought into their world of work. They both loved what they did and wouldn't change if for the world but neither of them would wish their lives of constant danger and unknowing on anyone.
In those two hours Felicity worked none stop at her computers looking for any sign of Katya and Tommy. Thea and Roy went home only to return an hour later with Thea in tears and Roy a mess. Roy had explained the sight the greeted them when they returned home and Diggle could see the guilt in both the boy's parents faces. They had all be so determined to protect Katya that they had forgot there was other ways for Joe to get what he wanted. Oliver looked ghostly white as he waited for something to do. Being helpless wasn't something Oliver Queen was used to or could cope with very well. There had only been one other time that Diggle had seen Oliver like this. It was when Malcolm Merlin returned, and took both Thea and Felicity.
FLASHBACK;
Diggle walked down the stairs of the foundry to find Roy punching the life out of the training dummy, Oliver pacing behind Sara who was working at Felicity computers.
Diggle frowned, Felicity would kill them both.
"What's going on?" Diggle questioned.
He a received a call from Oliver to get here now about twenty minutes ago.
Oliver stopped pacing and looked over at Diggle.
"No one can get hold of Thea or Felicity." Oliver told him.
Diggle frowned.
Felicity had Thea had gone to lunch today but looking down at his watch, Diggle noted that was over six hours ago.
"Neither of them are answering?" Diggle asked and Oliver shook his head.
"All of us have tried." Roy muttered walking over from the training dummy.
Diggle nodded.
"Why are you so worried, maybe they just got carried away?" Diggle suggested.
When Thea and Felicity got together time seemed to get away from them.
Oliver handed Diggle his phone.
"One of Felicity search came back." Oliver told him.
Diggle looked down at Oliver's phone.
Target found. It read with a picture of Malcolm Merlin.
"Dam it." Diggle cursed.
"I found them." Sara said grabbing their attention.
Diggle followed Oliver and Roy over to Felicity desk.
"What you got?" Oliver asked.
"This is the camera from across the street of the restaurant they went for lunch at." Sara told them.
They all watched in silence as they saw Thea and Felicity chatting over lunch. Sara fasted forward the video but stopped it when the saw two men in suits approach the table.
Felicity stood up and pulled Thea behind her ultimately protecting Thea with her body. One of the men said something but Felicity shook her head.
"Can we get sound?" Oliver asked.
Sara shook her head and Oliver cursed.
Diggle looked back at the screen just in time to watch one of the men backhand Felicity.
Diggle watched Oliver hands ball in to fists as Felicity tried to keep them away from Thea with little success.
"Shit." Oliver yelled pounding his fist into the desk as the men drag both Felicity and Thea off.
"Where are they now?" Oliver demanded.
Sara looked over him a grim look on her face.
"Oliver this was over six hours and there has been no sight of them since." Sara informed them.
Oliver looked like someone had kick the air out of him.
"What do we do?" Roy asked.
But no one had an answer for him.
END OF FLASHBACK
It had all worked out in the end and Diggle hoped this time wouldn't be any different.
Jay had left shortly after they found out what Katya had done. Diggle had gone to follow him but Felicity shook her head.
"Jay has his own way of doing things." Felicity told him.
Diggle had nodded but that was over two hours ago and no one had heard from him since.
Katya came to with a pounding headache and some calling her name. Katya blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light.
"Katya." The voice begged.
Katya moved her pounding head to look for the source of the voice as she tried to remember what was going on.
"Your awake, I was worried then for a second." Tommy said just as her eyes fell on him.
That's when everything fell into place. Tommy was here because of her and Joe had lied to her.
Katya tried to move only to realises she was bound to a chair.
"Shit." Katya cursed fighting against her bindings.
Katya looked around the room, Joe Wilson was nowhere in sight.
Katya looked back over at Tommy. He was really pale but it looked like the gash on his head had stopped bleeding.
"Are you ok?" Katya asked him.
Tommy nodded.
"I thought you were dead for a second then." Tommy said.
Katya gave him a soft look.
"I'm sorry I worried you." Katya replied.
Tommy shrugged his shoulders.
"It's not your fault." He told her.
Did he think this was his thought?
"It's not yours either." Katya reassured him.
Tommy sighed.
"It kind of is." Tommy argued.
Katya frowned.
"My dad and Uncle Ollie are the arrow." Tommy told her.
Katya gasped. Thea told her that Tommy knew nothing about their other life and that is the way she wanted to keep it.
"How did you know?" Katya asked.
Tommy met her eyes.
"You know about that too?" Tommy wondered and Katya nodded.
"Your parents think you don't know." Katya told him.
Tommy laughed.
"It really wasn't that hard to figure out." Tommy pointed out.
"Whenever the arrow got hurt dad or Uncle Ollie return with a similar wound." Tommy added.
Katya smiled at him. She wondered if she had grown up with Oliver whether she would have figured it out or not.
"It's not your dads fault." Katya told him honestly.
Tommy nodded his understanding.
"So this has something to do with the time Uncle Ollie was the Arrow?" Tommy asked.
Katya nodded slowly, unsure how honest she should be with him. Thea didn't want this life for him but he had been dragged into it because of her. He was stuck in this mess, surly he deserved the right to know everything.
"Sort off." Katya replied.
Tommy frowned and Katya sighed. She told him the story of Slade and her father. She told him about Slade's original plan to use her to hurt Oliver and how Joe had taken over his father's plans as revenge for his father's death.
"That's stupid." Tommy pointed out and Katya couldn't help but laugh.
Here they were being held hostage by a madman and all Tommy could say on the matter was that's stupid.
"Why did you come here?" Tommy asked his voice serious.
"He told me he would kill you if I didn't." Katya told him honestly.
Tommy looked at her confused.
"Don't get me wrong I'm grateful, but you don't really know me why would you hand yourself over to help me?" Tommy asked.
Katya looked at him softly.
"Because in a differently life, I think we would have been friends." Kayta replied her voice filled with regret for not having the chance to know her cousin.
Tommy gave her a sad smile.
"There is still time in this life." Tommy told her his voice filled with hope.
"I hope so." Katya replied.
Jay shivered as the rain hit his face. He hated this feeling. The moment you realises the love of your life was in danger and the only thing you could do to save her was something she would hate you for in the long run.
Katya would have gone to save Tommy in every situation, Jay knew that without a shadow of a doubt. Whenever things got bad they always had each other but now she was alone and this was the only way he could think off to fix it.
"Baxter?" A voice called out bring Jay out of his thoughts.
Jay looked around to find his training officer Jackson Kent walking towards him. Jackson was tall African American man in his late forties with broad shoulders and strong masculine frame. Jackson's warm hazel eyes met his.
"You ok kid?" Jackson asked.
"Did you get the information I asked for?" Jay countered.
Jackson levelled him with a look that told him he was stupid for even asking that question.
"Tell me what's going on kid." Jackson demanded.
Jay shook his head.
"I can't." Jay told him honestly.
Jackson shook his head and went to walk away but Jay grabbed him and turned him back to face him.
"She will die, if I can't save her." Jay yelled.
Jackson looked at him softer.
"Katya?" Jackson asked and Jay nodded.
Anyone who knew him knew that ever since his mum passed away, Katya was his life.
"What's going on kid?" Jackson asked again.
Jay cursed.
"Please Jackson, this information will help me save her." Jay begged.
After a moment of hesitation Jackson reluctantly nodded before handing him a folder.
"This is everything the military has." Jackson informed him.
Jay nodded and turned to walk away.
"Jason?" Jackson called.
Jay froze but didn't turn back.
"You know what taking this folder means right?" Jackson asked and Jay nodded before continuing on.
When Jay got back to the lair everyone was still waiting.
Jay put the folder onto Oliver's desk.
"What's this?" Oliver asked.
Everyone looked at him, waiting for an answer.
"Everything the military has on Joe Wilson." Jay told him.
Felicity walked over to him.
"What did you do?" Felicity asked.
Jay looked at Felicity, just like his own mum she could always see right through him.
"We need the information to stop him." Jay replied.
Felicity glared at him.
"That is not what I asked you." Felicity pointed out.
Jay shook his head.
"I did what I had too." He yelled.
He moved back towards the stairs.
"Call me when you have something." He told them.
Katya may hate him in the long run but at least she would be alive to hate him.
Felicity watched Jay leave and cursed.
"What the hell just happened?" Thea asked from the sofa.
Ever since they had found out Tommy was missing and Katya had gone to save him she had been working nonstop to give them something to go on but all Felicity could find was that Joe had gone after Tommy then called Katya from Tommy's phone to use Tommy as leverage to get Katya to go to him. She had seen how Katya used the people in the club as a distraction to escape, before getting into a cab. Felicity was attempting to find out whose cab Katya had got into when Jay returned.
"Jay did something stupid to get information about Joe." Felicity told her.
Thea frowned. She was distort worrying about Tommy but she was trying to hold it in as much as she could.
"It's just information." Thea pointed out.
Felicity shook her head.
"This type of information doesn't come free." Oliver said from his desk. Felicity looked over at him.
He was reading the file.
"What does it tell us?" Roy questioned.
"It's got everything from his training scores to his missions and psychological discharge information." Oliver informed them.
Thea frowned again.
"How does that help us?" She asked.
Felicity walked towards her friend.
"It helps us figure out what type of man Joe is and how to bring him down." Felicity told her.
Katya wanted to jump in front of Tommy as Joe Wilson walked into the docks. He was bigger than he was in his photos. He was around 5'8 with broad shoulders and masculine frame. He looked a lot like his father. His jet black hair cropped shot. His dark cold eyes met hers and he smirked.
"You really are pretty." Joe told her.
Katya cringed.
"Go to hell." Katya yelled.
Joe laughed. He walked over to Tommy.
"Don't touch him." Katya screamed.
Joe smirked at her again.
"I am only doing what I promised and letting little Tommy go." Joe replied.
He untied Tommy's bounds and dragged Tommy to his feet.
"What about her?" Tommy asked.
"Miss Queen and I are going to have some fun on our own." Joe laughed.
Tommy tried to shove him away but Joe just held on to him tighter.
"I am not leaving without her." Tommy yelled.
"Yes you are." Katya told him.
Tommy met her eyes.
"Please Tommy." Katya begged.
Tears filled Tommy's eyes.
"I'll be ok." Katya promised.
Tommy looked hesitant but nodded anyway.
Katya watched as Joe led Tommy towards the exit and she prayed Joe would keep his promise.
"Tommy?" Katya called.
Tommy turned towards her.
"Tell them I'm sorry." She said and Tommy nodded.
"And tell Jay..." Katya said her voice trailing off, what could she say to make this better. There wasn't anything.
"Tell him I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise." Katya begged as she thought about their last argument.
Tommy nodded.
"They will come for you." Tommy promised.
Katya nodded.
She knew they would try she just hoped it wouldn't be too late.
Oliver studied Felicity, she was exhausted they all were but while they others had gone home Oliver knew that there was no chance that Felicity would. But what made things worse is that they were getting nowhere.
"You need to rest." Oliver told her softly.
Felicity looked at him and blue eyes filled with tears.
"I can't." she whispered.
Oliver walked over to her knelt down in front of her.
"I know you want to find Katya and Tommy just as much as I do but you are no good to anyone like this." Oliver replied.
Felicity shook her head.
"I can't." she repeated.
Oliver frowned in confusion.
"Felicity?" he called softly.
Felicity stood up and walked away and Oliver followed her.
"I can't because then all this would have been for nothing." she cried.
Oliver stood in front of her to stop her from pacing.
"What would have been for nothing?" He asked.
Felicity met his eyes.
"Lying to you, keeping Katya from you is the hardest thing I have ever even done." Felicity stated.
Her hand touched his cheek hesitantly.
"You mean everything to me." she told him and Oliver leant into her touch.
"But I had to protect her and if anything happens to her all of this; lying to you, leaving you would have been for nothing." Felicity added.
She crumbled then, big sobs shaking her small frame.
"Oh god." she cried.
"What if her hurts her?" She added.
Oliver pulled Felicity into his arms then, holding her tightly as she fell apart.
"I'm not going to let that happen." Oliver promised and he hoped he could keep that promise.
"I am going to get out daughter back." Oliver added.
Felicity's arms tightened around him.
Thea tried not cry as she took in the mess of her house. Her little boy had gone through all this because they had been too occupied to notice and to make matter worse her niece had handed herself over in hope of protecting her son.
"Oh god." Thea cried.
Roy arms wrapped around her immediately.
"Will find him." Roy promised.
Thea buried her face in his chest.
"Mum, dad?" A voice called out.
Thea turned to find Tommy staggering in. A deep worry gash on his forehead.
"Tommy." Thea and Roy shouted together.
They hurried over to their son, gathering him in her arms and Roy kissed his head over and over again.
"There is no time." Tommy said pulling away.
"He has Katya dad you have to go save her." Tommy told them.
"Will call the police." Roy promised.
Thea knew Roy had no intention of calling the police but they need to protect their son from the ugly in their world. Well more than he had already seen anyway.
"No dad." Tommy yelled.
His pale face tensed.
"Kaya doesn't need the police she needs the arrow, she needs you." Tommy told Roy adamantly.
Thea gasped.
"You know?" she asked.
Tommy shook his head.
"It doesn't matter." Tommy replied.
Tommy grabbed his father's shoulders and shook them desperately.
"Please dad she handed herself over for me, she did it so he would let me go." Tommy begged.
Roy nodded.
"Ok." Roy promised.
Tommy let out a sob and Roy crushed their son in his arms.
"Ok." Roy repeated over and over again.
There was no doubt it Thea's mind that Roy would keep that promise.