Chapter 19:
Katya screamed out in agony as her arms were pulled upwards.
Tears blurred her eyes.
"You bastard." she screamed.
Joe laughed.
Katya closed her eyes and breathed deeply. The pain was unbearable and she wanted nothing more than to continue falling apart but she knew her loved ones were watching and she needed to be strong for them.
She breathed in and out over and over ago, calming herself while trying to ignore the pain.
She opened her eyes and glared directly at Joe.
He was by the camera, watching her with sick enjoyment on his face.
"Why are you doing this?" She demanded.
Joe walked slowly towards her.
"Your father destroyed my father." Joe told her.
"Your father was a monster." Katya yelled.
Joe moved quicker than she imagined his fist came in contact with her stomach, with such force she was left swinging back and forth. Pain shot through her body and she couldn't help but cry out in pain. Tears of pain slide down her cheek.
"Oliver Queen made my father that way." Joe told her.
Katya bit her lip to prevent herself from answering back. Talking back would only make things worse in the long run.
"Now he must pay for that." Joe told her.
Felicity froze. Her daughter was in agony, it was clear on her face. Katya bit onto her bottom lip probably to keep herself from crying out.
"Oh god." Felicity cried.
Her whole body shook with fear. She had no idea what to do.
"Felicity." Oliver's calm voice washed over her.
She looked at him. She could see how Oliver was tearing apart on the inside just as much as she was on the outside but he was being strong for her.
Oliver gathered her into his arms in a bone crushing hug. Her face buried in his chest, his buried in her hair.
"I know you're scared." He whispered.
"Because I am too." Oliver added. She knew it would take for Oliver to love Katya was to know she existed.
"But I need you to be strong." Oliver told her.
"Katya need's you to be strong, because you are the only one who can find her." He added.
Felicity knows his right. Yes she found nothing on his computer but that never stopped her before. She finds the unfindable and right now they need that more than ever. Katya needs her. She has never let her daughter down before and she isn't about to start now.
Felicity nods into his chest.
She breaths him in. Somehow Oliver always gave her strength even when he was struggling to find his own.
She slowly pulls away from Oliver and walks back over to her desk. She looks over at the screen one last time. Her daughter is now alone in the room dangling like a piece of meat in a butcher shop.
Katya needs her. She reminds herself over and over again.
Felicity closed her eyes before taking a deep breath and focusing herself.
"Let's do this." she opens her eyes and gets to work.
Jay has never been so scared in his entire life.
From the moment he met her Katya became his everything.
Katya Queen is the greatest thing to ever happen to him. She is his best friend, she is the only person in the world who knows all his fears and worries. She is his family, she takes care of him when his sick. Makes him laugh when he is sad. Calms him down when he is angry. She would do anything for him and he in turn would do anything for her. She is his everything. But above all that Katya Queen is also the only women he has ever and will ever love. He has never been surer about anything in his entire life then he is of this.
Watching her, and seeing the pain on her face is killing him, because he has no way to help her, because he can't find her.
Jay shakes his head.
They can't find her.
Felicity is working harder than he has ever seen her work. Oliver standing behind her whispering words of encouragement. They make a good team, taking strength from each other so they can be the best they can be, for Katya. It amazes him that even though there is so much talking that needs to be done they can both put all that a side and just be there for each other.
A hand on his shoulder brings Jay out of his thoughts. Jay looks to his right to find Diggle standing there Roy next to him.
"We are going to find her." Diggle tells him.
Jay nods but he is so unsure and so scared that the club was the last time he will ever see her and he never had the guts to tell her he loved her.
"There are so many things I should have said." Jay finds himself telling the older man.
Diggle seems to have a way of bringing things out of people.
Diggle gives him a small smile.
"There always is." Diggle mutters more to himself than anyone else.
"But we will find her and when we do make sure you tell her everything." Diggle orders him.
Jay nodded.
His eyes go back to the screen. Joe has been gone for a while now but watching Katya dangling there is just as painful to watch as it is when Joe is hurting her.
"I hate not being able to do anything." Jay tells Katya's Uncles.
Roy steps forward.
"So let's do something." Roy suggests.
Jay looks at him confused.
"We train." Roy said and before Jay can reply Roy is already walking over to the training mats.
"We train so that when we find that son of a bitch and we will, we can take him down." Diggle explains.
Jay nods.
It's not what he wants to be doing and if he had his way Katya would be in his arms laughing at something stupid while he contented himself watching her smile, but it's something and something is better than nothing.
Jay makes his way over to the training mats.
They train for a good couple of hours before Felicity shouting grabs their attention,
"We have audio."
Jay hurry's over to her desk.
"Listen out for distinctive sounds, like trains or running water. It might help us find where she is." Felicity orders them.
"What are you doing?" Oliver questions.
"This is a live feed which means it has a signal and if I can trace it I can find Katya." Felicity replies.
Oliver had never wanted to kill someone in his entire life. When he got his hands on Joe he was going to make him feel what Katya was feeling ten times over and then some. He was falling apart and it was taking every part of the self-control in him to keep it from showing. Katya and Felicity needed him to be strong.
Oliver put his hand on Felicity shoulder and gave her and reassuring squeeze.
His eyes flicked to the screen, just as Joe walked back into the room.
Katya sighed.
"You're an idiot you know." Katya told him.
Joe glared at her.
"Why's that?" Joe asked.
"You gave my mum a computer, she going to find you." Katya told him adamantly and Oliver couldn't help but smile at the pride in her voice as she spoke of her mother's skills.
Joe laughed.
"She can try." Joe snorted.
"But she won't find us till I want her too." Joe added.
He walked towards her. His hands raised to the chains that held her up and he slowly lowed her to a chair.
Oliver heard his daughter sigh in relief but it was short lived as Joe approached her. Joe caressed her cheek and Katya flinched.
Joe laughed.
"Our fun is only just beginning." He told her.
Oliver slammed his fist down on the table.
"I'm going to kill him." Oliver roared.
Felicity grabbed his fist in her tiny hand.
"We will find her." Felicity told him and Oliver nodded. He needed to believe her.
Katya wanted to rub her sore shoulders but the chains that bound her to the chair stopped her. Joe stared at her from across the room.
"Why me?" She asked softly.
Joe frowned at her.
Yes she was Oliver Queen's daughter but up until a couple of months ago Oliver didn't even know she existed.
"Surely someone else would hurt Oliver more?" she reasoned.
Katya had no doubt that Oliver cared for her but he didn't know her not really. If Joe had taken Thea, or even if he'd of kept her mum surely that would have hurt more.
Joe slowly approached her his hand gently tip her chin up so she was looking directly into her eyes.
"Because you're his." Joe said.
Katya shook her head out of his grasp. She didn't like him touching her.
"You are the only good thing that Oliver Queen ever did." Joe told her.
Katya shook her head.
"That's not true." she told him defiantly.
She didn't care if he hurt he she wouldn't let him bad mouth her father. She was too tried and in too much pain to care anymore.
"He may not have been a model citizen as Oliver Queen but as the arrow he did a lot of good." Katya argued.
Joe laughed without humour.
"The arrow murdered people." Joe pointed out bitterly.
Katya glared at him as she fought against her binds.
"He is a hero." she spat.
Joe rounded on her then, his fist coming into contact with her stomach with such painful force she was shoved backwards.
Katya cried out in pain as the chair hit the floor with a thud.
Joe walked over to her and grabbed a handful of her hair.
"Your father is a good for nothing murdering son of a bitch and soon he will pay for everything he has done." Joe snarled at her.
He dragged both her and the chair up by her hair.
He walked away from her but didn't leave the room.
Joe paced behind the camera. He was angry and Katya could tell he didn't like how rattled she made him. If she continued to push him maybe he would make a mistake and she could get away. She had to hold on to that hope. She knew that Joe had two triggers; bad mouthing his father and when she praised her own father.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked.
Joe stopped pacing and glared at her.
Katya swallowed back her fear.
"I mean I know you want to take revenge on Oliver for killing your father but was he really a father?" she asked.
She hated how harsh her words were but as Joe walked towards her she knew what she said was the right thing.
Jay was going to kill her if she ever got out of this alive. What was she thinking baiting a mad man? She had to know Felicity would trace the signal. She had to know they would come for her. All she had to do was hang on.
"What the hell is she doing?" Roy demanded.
As they all but Felicity watch Joe walked towards her. The hatred for her so clear on his face.
"I mean it takes more to be a dad than just blood and let's face facts yours wasn't even around very much." Katya said and Jay winced when Joe backhanded her.
"Shut up." Joe roared.
Katya laughed coldly.
"I think someone has daddy issues." She added in a sing song voice spitefully.
"What the hell is she doing?" Oliver repeated, Roy's earlier question.
Joe's hand balled into a fist and Jay saw Katya tense her stomach. She was expecting him to hit her, she was waiting for it. She was baiting him on purpose, but why? Jay couldn't understand why she wanted to make Joe lose control like that. Didn't she realise she could kill her?
Joe fist pounded into her stomach and she was sent flying backwards again.
Jay cursed as her head hit the floor and Katya never moved.
"Shit." Joe muttered to himself, as he leant down next to her for a pulse.
Jay heart stopped.
"You stupid bitch." Joe muttered as he pulled her chair into sitting position once again her head fell forward but by the calm look of Joe face, Katya thankfully wasn't dead yet.
"I found something." Felicity soft voice called.
They looked over at her.
Felicity looked grim and afraid as she took a quick glance at her daughter. Out cold tired to a chair. Joe watching her like a hawk.
She took a deep breath.
"He is bouncing the signal all over the place but I found a few places that I think Joe would have taken her." Felicity said.
She turned back to the computers and the others followed to look but Jay couldn't bring himself to look away from Katya.
"I took into count everything from the file Jay got us says." Felicity told them.
"How many places?" Diggle questioned.
"Five." Felicity replied.
Shit. That was too many places for them to do alone. They needed help.
"There is too many places and if Katya keeps angering him like that she won't last long." Felicity told them grimly.
"Then it's a good job I'm here." A voice called from the stairs just as the lair door slammed shut.
Jay turned slowly. A women walked down the stairs slowly. Jay recognised her from Katya family pictures.
"Sara." Felicity breathed.
Sara Lance had always believed Felicity would one day return. Sure she hadn't imagined it would have been like this, or that she would have left being pregnant but Sara knew Felicity would be back eventually.
From the moment she meet Felicity, Sara knew she would have a friend for life. Felicity was like a little ball of sunshine that you couldn't help but get attached to. It took a couple of months for Sara to realise that Felicity was just as damaged as the rest of them. Maybe not in the same sense as her and Oliver, or even Dig but she was damaged and she hid behind her ball of sunshine just like the rest of them. Only Felicity hid it better than the rest of them. But that just taught Sara that, Felicity Smoak needed them just as much as they needed her.
Finding out Felicity was gone was like a kick in the gut. She had been so strange those two weeks before she left and Sara had made a mental note to check in with her but things got busy and before she knew it Felicity was gone and there was no trace of her. While over the years the others gave up hope and moved on with their lives Sara never did. She couldn't she had felt like she let Felicity down.
Felicity was a fighter. She fought for what she believed in and she believed in Oliver more than any of them and although at first she had been just as mad at Oliver as Diggle had been, Sara new deep down that Felicity had left for a different reason. To what that reason was at the time Sara had no idea, but Felicity loved team arrow but more than that, Sara had never seen anyone love someone the way that Felicity loved Oliver and she just knew that Felicity would return. She had too.
"Sara," Felicity breathed.
Sara looked at her best friend as she got to the final step.
She could see Felicity's pain. She saw how broken her friend look and she couldn't help but gather the woman in her arms. She looked over at Oliver from Felicity's shoulder. Things had not been the same between Oliver and Sara since Oliver married Laurel. Sara had known that was a mistake from the beginning and because she had refused to watch him break her sisters heart again, all they had done was argue. But now Oliver needed her just as much as Felicity did.
"We will find her and we will stop this once and for all." Sara promised them both and that was a promise she intended to keep.