Outtake 2
Family
12.00 Pm
Oliver Queen was terrified.
It was nothing like the moments he spent on the Island, or during his training with the Bratva, when Felicity was shot or even when his sister was kidnapped.
He couldn't do anything against the thing that was terrifying him and even if he could, he didn't want to, he wouldn't want to.
And if it wasn't for his best friend's support and the wall behind his body he was sure he would be once again on the floor right now.
He saw Sara approaching them with quick strides and behind her Roy and Thea, the last one almost running to accompany her boyfriend's speed.
When the three arrived he was bombarded with quick questions from Thea, while Diggle tried to explain what happened.
"Isn't this too soon?" Roy asked and Thea cringed beside him.
"Nice one, Roy!" she said sarcastically, nodding towards her brother's pale face.
"I mean… soon is good, right? It means he is strong already, right?" Roy tried to say, while Diggle shook his head and Sara sent him a look that clearly said "You are not helping."
"I just need to know if they are alright…" Oliver said and no one had the courage to try and say everything would be fine, because they couldn't make that promise and all of them knew what a promise meant to Oliver.
"Mr. Queen?" someone called and the group parted to let a man in a white coat step closer to Oliver.
"Your wife is ready, do you want to be with her during the process?" the newcomer asked and Oliver breathed deeply.
"Yes." he replied, while Diggle tapped his shoulder and Thea hugged him.
"She is strong." Sara said, kissing his cheek.
"Yeah, she had to put up with you…" Roy replied and Oliver had to smile at the younger man's antics.
"Follow me…" the doctor said and Oliver walked away.
As soon as he disappeared the group felt their shoulders sag with a heavy feeling.
"If something happens to her…" Thea started saying, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.
And no one had to complete the sentence. They all knew what the missing words were.
If something happens to her, Oliver dies.
Three hours earlier
9.00 pm
"Oliver, you will find two men inside the next room. They are sitting and don't know what happened. They are playing cards on the computer…" Felicity said, with a smile tugging at her lips. Seriously, this mission was so easy, she could do it herself.
"No, you couldn't!" she heard the roar coming from Oliver and realized she said the last words out loud.
"Sure, Mr. Grumpy…" she sighed and heard Diggle's laugh from the coms.
"Please, let you marital problems out of my comm, please…" he asked. "It's bad enough that I had to be the lookout… I'm getting tired of staying in this car…" Dig sighed.
"Do you really wanna have that conversation?" Felicity asked and she could almost hear the man rolling his eyes. "Good!"
Suddenly, they heard the distinctive sound of someone kicking down a door and the growling voice of Oliver threatening the two criminals.
"Where are the kids?" he roared.
"Downstairs…" one of the men whispered.
Felicity couldn't see exactly what Oliver was doing, but the sounds she could hear looked like he punched the two men and handcuffed them to their table.
She could hear his steps echoing through the silent house and descending some stairs. When he opened a door, she heard him sigh.
"The kids are here. They are alright…" Oliver said and Felicity smiled openly.
The girl and boy were the daughter and son of a very influential politic, trying to come up with a harsher law against the drug dealers in the Glades. They were taken 24 hours ago, from their school, to try and blackmail the man into giving up his plans.
The Arrow would not let that happen.
They had already find the mastermind behind the plan and now, with the children safe, the mission was complete.
"I already called the police… They will be there in ten minutes…" Dig announced and Oliver was ready to wait until he could hear the sirens to make his escape when a sudden gasp followed by a scream echoed inside his ear.
"Felicity!" he yelled, and he heard her breathing deeply with gasps of pain permeating her side.
"FELICITY!" he yelled more violently, when she failed to answer.
"Oh gosh, aaaaahhhh!" he heard her try to suppress her scream of pain and immediately started running.
"What the hell is going on?" Diggle asked from his ear and Oliver cursed out loud.
It couldn't be. It was too soon. They still had two months until the date.
"Is it…?" Dig asked and Oliver cursed once again.
He left the building, while Diggle ran inside. They couldn't let the children by themselves, but Oliver couldn't stay there any longer. He had to find Felicity.
"Oliver…" he heard Felicity whispering, her voice so frail it broke his heart in tiny pieces. "There is blood…" she said almost imperceptibly and Oliver felt like his insides suddenly disappeared. He felt hollow inside. His lungs no longer there to give him oxygen, his blood missing because of his heart's absence…
"I'm coming!" he growled, jumping into his motorcycle and not for the first time he thanked for Felicity always making them have two escape vehicles. The motorcycle would be quicker than the car.
When he arrived at the foundry, he found Felicity sitting on the floor, her legs stretched and her eyes closed. For some terrifying moments he thought he was too late, but then she gasped again and he kneeled beside her.
"Felicity, I'm here…" he said, combing her hair. He saw the small pool of blood between her legs and immediately grabbed her body, careful not to squish her big belly.
"Oliver, I'm scared…" she whispered, while he transported her through the stairs. He took her into their spare car and answered her only when they were already on the move.
"Me too…" he replied and he felt her hand coming from the back seat to grab his arm.
"What if something happens to the baby?" she asks and Oliver had to stop the anguish from sipping under the form of a sob.
He stood in silence, while driving around town. At least the club was not so far away from the nearest hospital.
"We are already here…" he said, not wanting to make false promises. And Felicity knew, when he failed to answer her, that he had no idea how this night would end.
During the entire time of her pregnancy they always skirted around one deep, complex question. If something happened, who would Oliver choose to save?
And now, that the situation arose, they had no idea what to do.
"Please, I need help! My wife is bleeding and she is having contractions!" Oliver yelled as soon as he entered the hospital.
A flock of nurses joined them, while yelled orders were given.
Oliver saw a hospital bed being rolled towards them and without a second to spare he laid Felicity there. She was pale and sweaty, her hands fisting her dress when a contraction hit her again.
"What is going on?" Oliver asked to anyone and no one, but he was ignored. He saw the nurses taking Felicity away and tried to run after them, but was stopped by a man with a white coat.
"You can't go in there, now…" the doctor said. "As soon as we can talk to you I will come here…" he said, and before Oliver could say anything, the man left.
Oliver started pacing the hallway, his hands fisting his hair, while his eyes jumped wildly towards every direction. He could feel the sting in his eyes and the tears running from them, but he couldn't worry less about that.
His wife and son were in danger!
He could lost one or the two of them!
What was he going to do if that happens?
He can't live without Felicity! She is his rock, his flicker of light in the middle of darkness, his everything… And their baby, their Thomas, their dream, their hope in having a better world…
Oliver fell against the wall, his body stopping only when it reached the floor. He could sense other people's stares but he couldn't make himself worry about that, when Felicity and Thomas were on the line.
He could still see her pale face and the doctor's expression when he left. It was that of a man that was already seeing the outcome, and it wouldn't be happy.
"Oliver…" a deep voice said somewhere over him and Oliver opened his eyes and looked up.
Diggle was there, his face sad and worried. He could see the haggard expression on his best friend's eyes.
"They took her… Dig, I saw the doctor's expression…" Oliver said and Diggle felt like he just stabbed himself. "There was blood… There shouldn't be blood…"
Dig kneeled in front of Oliver and pulled him up with him.
"Look at me!" John said and Oliver looked up. "Felicity is a strong woman! When the doctor comes to take you to her, you can't let her see you like this! You have to be strong as well! Fight, Oliver!" Diggle said and Oliver's throat felt like it was going to close.
But Felicity's smiling face when she felt the baby kick for the first time and how she ran to him, so he could feel as well, helped him keep a grip on himself.
"Mr. Queen?" a man called and Oliver turned around to see the doctor that left with Felicity.
"Your wife had Placental abruption, this is a separation of the placenta and the uterus, it explains the pains and the blood loss. We have to do a C-section… The mother and the baby are in danger… We are already preparing your wife… In a few moments I will come here again and you can decide if you want to be in the room or not…" the doctor said. He turned around and left once again.
Oliver could feel the strengths leaving his body once again. The man didn't say anything about outcomes…
And it was in that moment that their friends and family appeared.
12.20 pm
"She is receiving the proper medication." The doctor said, when Oliver squeezed Felicity's hand and saw her eyes focus on him.
"It hurts…" Felicity whispered sleepily.
"I know, sweetheart… I'm sorry…" Oliver said and he saw her eyes widden.
"You never call me sweetheart…" Felicity replied and Oliver saw her eyes saddening. "Am I going to die?" she asked dazed, and he knew the meds were already taking an affect over her. Felicity, in her sober state, would never ask such a question.
"Mrs. Queen..."
"It's Smoak-Queen..." she said drunkily and Oliver smiled sadly.
"Okay, Mrs. Smoak-Queen, I'm going to ask you to count from ten to zero, okay?" a petite nurse said and Felicity looked at her.
"Okay…" she said softly and Oliver heard her voice start the count.
Ten... nine... eight... seven... six...
"Five…" and her hand fell limp inside his hand and her eyes closed.
"She is asleep…" the woman said and Oliver realized it was time, it was now or never.
If someone asked him what happened inside that room he could describe every breath Felicity took and nothing else. His attention was solely attached to her sleeping face, her pale cheeks, the puffs of air released by her lips… until a whimper followed by a cry made him look up so quickly he thought he would have a wryneck…
The doctor was looking at him with the now silent child over his arms.
"Do you want to hold him?" one of the nurses asked and Oliver gave a step back, instinctively.
Not because he didn't want to hold his son, but because his hands were shaking so badly he feared he would break the small baby. How could he protect and take care of such a fragile being? He must have been crazy to want a child! What if he hated him? What if he hurt this human being? What if…?
The baby started crying again, this time with a desperate tone.
Oliver jumped forward without a second thought.
"What is going on? Is he okay?" he asked frantically, snatching the baby from the doctor's arms and putting him against his own chest.
The nurse that had asked him if he wanted to hold Thomas smiled at his reaction and Oliver gasped. He had done it. He had hold his son and he hadn't break him.
And the baby calmed down…
"He likes the sound of your voice…" the nurse said softly and Oliver smiled goofily at his son.
When he looked up to eye the doctor he saw a smile all over the man's face, a smile that clearly said he just witnessed a miracle.
"They will be just fine…" the man said and Oliver couldn't control the big smile that appeared all over his face. He was doing that a lot today… he had to be careful or people would think he was turning softie…
"When will Felicity wake up?" Oliver asked, while the nurse took the baby to wrap him in a towel.
"Half an hour…" the doctor said, while Oliver watched the woman cleaning his baby. His skin was alabaster just like Felicity's.
"Can we stay with her?" Oliver asked and the doctor nodded.
"We just have to take some measures of the baby and you can take him to Mrs. Smoak-Queen's room…" the doctor said.
When Oliver found himself and Thomas beside Felicity in a private room, he couldn't control the tears that were threatening to fall.
"That is your mommy…" he whispered to a sleeping Thomas. "She is so brave… And I was so scared of losing both of you… She always sees the best in people… she brings this light into my life that I thought I had lost… You will love her so much… And she will worship you…" Oliver said. He knew it would happen, Felicity would love every little detail of their baby.
He stood there for forty minutes, until her eyelids trembled and finally opened. Oliver immediately took her hand, careful not to jostle Thomas.
"Oliver…" Felicity whispered, her eyes trying to focus. "Where are my glasses? I need my HD!" she said and Oliver laughed.
Felicity turned to look at him when her eyes fell over the bundle inside his arms.
"Is that him?" she whispered, like she was scared of the answer.
"Yes… let me help you…" he said, when Felicity tried to sit against the headboard.
He helped Felicity sitting and then transferred the baby into her waiting arms. Thomas, feeling the change in holder, opened his eyes. Felicity gasped, when Oliver's eyes looked back at her from a small face.
"He is perfect…" she gasped reverently. She couldn't take her eyes from the baby and she wasn't sure if she wanted to.
"He looks just like his mother…" Oliver said.
"And has his father's eyes and charm…" Felicity replied, finally taking her eyes from the baby to look at her husband. "Thank you… for helping me bringing this being into the world."
"No, thank you for not giving up on me!" Oliver said fervently and without a second to spare he kissed her passionately. And he would have done more if not for the small squishy thing inside Felicity's arms.
They heard a knock on the bedroom door and a second later, Dig's head popped into the room with a big smile all over his face.
"Thank you, man, for telling us she was alright!" he said, while walking into the room. Oliver had the graciousness of looking ashamed, but Diggle laughed. "No problem, the doc let us know…" and without waiting he peeked into the bundle and smiled at the newborn.
"Meet uncle Dig…" Felicity said and John's smile opened even more.
"Oh, I was almost forgetting…." He said, putting a big brown teddy bear with a black tie next to Felicity.
"Can I enter?" a female voice asked and Sara entered the room.
She looked at Diggle with a defying look and when her eyes landed on the teddy bear she looked back at him with disdain. It was not lost on Felicity and Oliver, and they were ready to ask what was going on, when Sara put on the other side of Felicity a big canary and locked eyes with Dig.
"Are you…?" Felicity started to ask, when the door was open once again and Roy entered with a bear bigger than himself wearing a red vest, and all her doubts were erased when she heard Thea's words.
"Are they here already? I told you, you should be quicker choosing the bear!"
"Are you racing to see who gives the first toy to Thomas?" Oliver asked, while Sara gushed over the baby and talked softly with Felicity.
Thea ignored him in her haste to see her nephew and Roy choose not to answer, while peeking at the baby beside his girlfriend.
"Because, if you are, you lost. I was the first, I bought him a fox right after Felicity told me…" Oliver said, his chest puffing out.
"Hum…" Felicity said, while Thea rocked the baby from side to side under the mesmerized look of Roy that looked like he had never seen a baby before. "Actually…"
Oliver looked at her with a dismayed smile.
"The elephant was just too cute…"
If you are confused about the fox, the idea came from Disney's Robin Hood, and about the elephant, it's one of the most intelligent animals and when he gets a scent he can go for miles until he finds the being it belongs to (a bit like our Felicity and her computers when chasing a criminal)
I know Oliver is very emotional in this one, but c'mon, he thought he was going to lose his wife and kid, and Thomas is just too cute (in my head)! His father couldn't hold the waterworks.