Disclaimer: Please see chapter one
Please see my A/N below for further information.
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Chapter 20 – Ghost – Alive!
Before he even had time to think, Barry Allen (although he did not miss the deep pain in her expressive blue eyes) found himself thrown into the battle for Oliver Queen (also known as the Hood, Vigilante and if you were being frowned at by a blonde I.T. genius, the Arrow)'s life.
"Hold him!" He raced to the bedside as Diggle held the convulsing form of the green suited Oliver on the med-table as Felicity reached round him to hold the unconscious man's hand.
"He's not going to make it!" Diggle growled worriedly, something he immediately regretted on seeing Felicity turn even paler even as she snapped "He will, we just have to find out what's in his system?"
Barry ran his hands through his hair as he looked down at the flexing Oliver, stammering. "I... I only usually work on dead people."
In response, Felicity snapped his name, much like an older sibling to a younger but with all the authority of the Amazon princess she was (which for some reason always impressed Diggle because she used it so rarely – unless of course it had something to do with Oliver!)
Diggle watched in stunned astonishment as all of a sudden, the stammering CSI disappeared and the confident scientist emerged as Barry ran through all the options up until he picked up the box of rat poison. He turned stunned eyes to the blonde, her eyes still fastened on the unconscious form of the man she loved.
"Felicity?"
"Do it." And with that tone, no-one argued with her (Diggle also realised in that moment that she would do anything to save Oliver's life and she would allow no arguments, not even from him – actually the abstract thought crossed his mind that not even Oliver's stubbornness would stop her either!)
Oliver was aware that someone was working to save his life, he swore he heard Felicity say "Stay with me!" in a tone so plaintive, if his heart wasn't already in trouble, it would have broken at that.
But even as he did so, he swore he could hear Shado say "Let go Oliver," and he turned his head to see her suddenly standing there reaching out to him, "Don't fight anymore, stay with me."
Only for her to be pushed aside suddenly by his Amazon princess, dressed as she had been on the island. "Back off, sister, he's staying with me!" He smiled as he murmured her name "Princess!" before slipping once more in to unconsciousness as the warfarin worked on his system and his mind fastened on Felicity.
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Diggle knew it was going to be bad when Oliver finally came to but there was something in the way that Felicity was keeping a watchful eye on the man in green that told him she was going to pull out all the authority invested in her not only as his friend but as the woman he loved with an addition of Amazon princess.
And just a small part of him was looking forward to the confrontation even as he knew that it was not going to be pleasant. (The fact that it might just fully convince the young man from Central City that she was truly and most definitely off the market as it was clear that he still had hoped that there was a chance for him also didn't hurt either!)
He most definitely did not expect her to slap Oliver round the face with all her strength (and with some considerable force from what he could see) as he yelled at her. "It wasn't your choice, Felicity."
"You were dying, Oliver." She slapped him again as he tried to argue with her. "YOU. WERE. DYING. And there was no way in Hades I was going to let that happen now that I've got you back so when it came down to one person finding out the truth about you or the entire Starling City Accident and Emergency, I made the decision and it was the right one. I don't care what you say, I was losing you and I wasn't going to let that happen."
He glared at her for a moment but when he caught the anguish going through her eyes, he pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. "I'm still angry, Felicity," He murmured so only she would hear him, "But I understand. You know..."
He felt her relax slightly as her arms wrapped around his waist and she pressed a kiss to his bare chest. "I know, you would do the same for me, I know that Oliver."
He drew back slightly and looked down into her still worried eyes. "And I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you, it was out of order and damn girl, you still have some power in that right arm of yours."
Diggle shook his head as the couple literally forgot that they were alone (and that one of the people watching them had a serious crush on Felicity and a serious case of hero-worship on the Arrow!).
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He had hoped that seeing Shado in the Foundry had just been the delirium from the anti-coagulant drug but seeing both her and Felicity (dressed as she had been the last time he saw her before everything changed) was beginning to weird even him out.
"Give in, Oliver, take off my father's hood and find a life, you cannot beat what you are about to face."
"Back off, Shado, he never gave up back then, he won't give in now." The Princess literally poked the other girl in the shoulder, pushing her back the way she had been wont to do on the island. "And your father would be proud of what he's doing to honour his memory by wearing the hood."
"He should just give up, let it go and come back to me."
"Now you listen to me, you..."
Just as the Princess was clearly gearing up to shoot her down again (and Oliver was unsure whether the illusion was going to do it physically or verbally, if he was honest with himself – something both women had been prone to do before they found a balanced friendship) Thea drew him back.
He swung round to look at his sister before looking back and finding the corridor empty. Ten minutes later, he shot in to the lair and stood face to face with Barry. "Are there any side effects from that rat poison you gave me?"
"Hallucinations, yeah hallucinations and excessive sweating – are you sweating excessively?" Barry asked far too inquisitively.
That earned him a punch in the arm from Felicity before she moved to Oliver's side, resting her hands on his chest. "Oliver, are you hallucinating? What are you seeing?"
"Do you remember Shado?" He said softly as he rested his hands on her hips to reassure himself that she was real this time. At her nod, he continued, "And you..." He cupped her cheek, "Dressed as you were on the island."
She closed her eyes resting her forehead on his chest and sighed. "Sometime I think you; we were stranded on Fantasy Island, Oliver, if it wasn't for all the nightmares and scars."
Barry looked at them in astonishment before he glanced over to Diggle. "Felicity was on the island he was stranded on as well..."
Diggle held his hand up, stopping him in his tracks. "You didn't hear that, Mr Allen."
"And why doesn't he wear a mask?"
"Find me/him one that doesn't interfere with my/his ability to aim and remains on my/his face while I'm/he's on the run." The couple say at exactly the same time as they part with a soft kiss and a caress of her cheek.
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No-one had expected the chain of events to lead Oliver and Felicity sneaking into the hospital that night to see Quentin Lance injured in bed, his partner dead in the morgue after going after Cyrus Blood.
Reaching the room, Oliver silently opened the window and jumped in as silent as a jungle cat then turned to help her into the room, holding her to his side as they waited in the shadows. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed silently as they waited for Lance to wake-up.
The moment they could see him stir awake, she moved from his side and to the bed. "Detective, how are you feeling?"
Lance looked at her for a moment and then over her shoulder at the man in green. "Now him I sort of expected but Ms Smoak..."
"Did you really think I would not come and see you after I heard...?" Felicity actually straightened his sheet and to his amusement, he was sure that he could see her finger itching to do something with his pillows as well. "And the Arrow back there, he knows that your elder child does not like me very much so he decided to help me come in his way."
He raised an eyebrow at that but decidedly he was not mentally fit enough to try and work that into his on-going theory so nodded. "As for how I am, I'm alive - which is more than I can say for the rest of my squad."
"I'm sorry about your partner." Oliver moved forward, still being careful to keep his face in the shadows. "You took him in there because of me."
"I hate to disappoint you kid but not every death in this city is down to you." Lance shot back quickly, not missing the guilty sound in the taller man's voice. (He did not miss the silent thank you Felicity gave him as she squeezed his hand.) Reaching underneath him where he had hidden it, he pulled out the bronze key and gave it to her. "I got this off Gold in the tussle, maybe you can see if you can do something with it."
Felicity looked back over her shoulder at Oliver, caught his nod and started to rise to her feet. Lance however caught her hand. "I know you kind of talked him into not killing now but Felicity, this Gold, he's not human."
Felicity closed her eyes for a moment, squeezed his hand back and moved to Oliver's side. She looked up at him (directly into the hood, unlike everyone he had ever come across, Lance noted) before the Arrow turned a sideways look at in his direction. "What is necessary will be done."
Lance nodded, closing his eyes as he relaxed slightly. When he opened them again, the couple were gone and there was no evidence of them ever being there – unless you counted the small green arrow head on the bedside table.
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The final death knoll in Barry's hopeful thoughts regarding Felicity (because regardless of what she herself had told him and everything he had seen even in the Foundry and elsewhere) came with Felicity's reaction to Oliver going after Cyrus Gold again.
"Where are you going?" She drove out of her chair and literally grabbed hold of his hood, holding onto him. "You can't go out there in your condition."
"I have to stop this." He sighed covering one of her hands with his as he looked into her worried eyes.
"Oliver, Gold left you half dead which is fifty percent better than he left Detective Hilton."
"Felicity, I don't have a choice." He cupped her cheek. "I'll come back."
"Promise me." They stared at each other, saying things that they could not say out loud before he moved around her to leave the lair.
"I really didn't have a chance, did I?" Barry said so softly only Diggle heard him.
"I'm sorry kid." The sincerity in Diggle's voice meant more than he could say.
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The confrontation with Gold over and Ray safely delivered back to Thea's bedroom at the mansion. Oliver walked back down the stairs to the lair and held his arm out to receive Felicity as she threw herself into his embrace, holding her tight as Diggle came from under the stairs. "Still have a ghost problem?"
"No, I got the message." He looked down into Felicity's relieved gaze and smiled softly. "There was a final ghost waiting to talk to me at the right moment." He ran the back of his bow-holding hand down her cheek. "Tommy said hello and thank you."
She closed her eyes, tightening her hold around his neck as she sensed that he was finally at peace with himself once more before she moved back slightly to look up into his eyes. "Why do I get the feeling there's a but in there somewhere, Oliver."
"It wouldn't be us if we didn't." Diggle added.
"Because we do, Roy's been injected with the serum but he survived." Arm around her waist, he drew her across the room and put his bow away then turned so that her back was against his chest as he wrapped both arms around her waist, reluctant just at that moment to release his hold on her. "So we're going to have to keep an eye on him."
"And Cyrus Gold?" Diggle asked.
"Died on a Saturday, buried on Sunday," Oliver replied as he rested his chin on Felicity's shoulder for a moment. "But he was working with someone; he wore a mask with an image of a skull. He's trying to mass-produce the serum to build an army."
"That's not what I wanted to hear, Oliver." Diggle shot back. "An army means war."
Oliver nodded and then raised his head to look around the lair as if suddenly realising that there was someone missing. "Where's Barry?"
"Central City, he wanted to get home to see them turn on the particle accelerator." Felicity turned in his embrace, cupping his cheek with her hand. "He left something for you."
She managed to worm herself out of his embrace, clearly to Oliver's great reluctance and amusing Diggle exceedingly, to cross to the table Barry had just about claimed as his own and picked up the box he had left there. Turning she held it out to him.
Eyebrow raised, he joined her and lifted the lid of the box, handing it to Diggle so he could pull out the green mask inside. "Even the Arrow deserves a Christmas present." The note of laughter in Diggle's voice was clear.
Felicity merely took the mask and began for the first time the ritual she would always perform for him. She placed the mask on his face, making sure it was comfortable and then stepped back, smiling softly at the man before her.
"How do I look?" He asked her as he raised his hood.
"Like a hero" was her soft response as she rested her hands on his chest. "The hero I've always known you were."
A hero unaware that an ally to be had just been created and that a friend turned foe was plotting to destroy him.
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Well, here it's - I know you were all expecting something yesterday but hey RL, it kicks in at the most inconvenient times you know!
I hope you like the way I changed this chapter to AAA it, I know you may have wanted a little more Mr Harper but just not yet! I have it worked out how I'm going to add him in, so be patient.
As always love to see your reviews, I really would like to see if I can hit 90 with this chapter! Challenge any one! ;op