Chapter 17 The Choice

Felicity

"Oliver? What are you doing here?" She kept the gun trained on Malcolm but her resolve wavered slightly.

"Felicity you can't do this," he said and she could hear the worry and fear in his voice.

Oliver and Diggle slowly made their way into the room. Diggle's attention immediately went to Lyla and he walked over in her direction. He was trying to talk her down but Felicity couldn't hear what he was saying because she was concentrating on Malcolm and Oliver. Oliver inched his way closer and closer until he was only a few feet away. Malcolm still had his head pressed firmly against the barrel of the gun and he had not moved a muscle. He still wore a grin on his face like he was enjoying every second of the situation, which just made her angrier.

"Oliver you need to go. I'm doing this so he doesn't hurt anymore people and so you don't have to."

"This isn't you Felicity. You're sick, whatever they injected you with is making you act like this. Don't let them do this to you, he wants you to do this because he knows it will destroy you. Let me help you Felicity please."

Her hand was shaking, she was sweating, and her head was pounding. Two separate voices were having a war in her mind and she couldn't tell which was the right decision. She was always able to choose what she thought was wrong and what she thought was right. That's how she helped Oliver, she was his moral compass when he was at a cross road but right now she was broken. Something was wrong but she didn't know if she could fix it. Her head was causing her so much pain and she felt like it was going to explode.

"Ms. Smoak don't listen to him he doesn't know what he's talking about. If you let me go I will come after all of you again and this time I won't hesitate to kill all of you. So do it!" He made sure to emphasize the last sentence and looked her right in the eye with a smug grin on his face. She knew he would do it or die trying. He would never stop.

"Felicity look at me!" Oliver was pleading with her trying to get through but she felt like it was too late. Her anger and fear were winning the war inside her head. She tried to close her eyes and drown everything out, she squeezed them tighter and tighter but nothing seemed to work. Then her eyes shot open as she felt Oliver's hand wrap around her's. He didn't move to take the gun away even though he easily could, he just looked at her with all the love in the world in his eyes. As he looked at her everything came into focus. Her head stopped pounding, her vision cleared up and she could focus her attention on Oliver.

"Felicity I know you're lost right now. I know because I've been there. When you're faced with the choice to kill or not to kill. Killing sometimes seems like the easy way out but it ends up haunting you in the end. Yes if you let him go he might try to do something like this again but we will be ready and we will know we did the right thing today. We make the hard decisions and we keep living to fight another day. You helped me choose the right way to do things Felicity. You helped me come into the light. You chose me when no one else would have given me a chance and now I'm choosing you Felicity. I know you'll make the right decision."

She turned to look at Malcolm one last time but she had already made her choice. The voices had quieted and she was in total control. The gun barrel slowly lowered until the gun was hanging in her hand by her side. Without even a second thought she turned and wrapped her arms around Oliver's neck and he quickly returned the embrace. She felt the warmth of his body rush through her and she nuzzled herself into the crook of his neck. Their bodies were pressed so tightly together they looked like one.

Oliver

Engrossed in the moment they barely heard Malcolm clapping behind them. Without a second thought Oliver took the gun out of Felicity's hand and pointed it at Malcolm. "Don't move."

"And what are you going to do to stop me? We already established you aren't going to shoot me so what's your big move Oliver. Do you really think I was going to let Ms. Smoak kill me? This is a trap and you fell right into it."

All he could do was smile because he knew they had won. "The difference between you and I Malcolm is that I have a team, a family even, that always has my back. So if I were you I would worry about what's behind your own back because you clearly have no true allies or friends."

A look of confusion arouse on his face but he didn't have time to say anything back before he was stunned by Diggle, who had snuck up right behind him.

Malcolm was so distracted by Oliver and Felicity he forgot about Diggle and Lyla who were on the other side of the room.

"This tazer is amazing I got to get one for myself."

"Dig I can tell you from experience that those things pack a punch."

"I'm sorry about that Oliver I don't know what I was thinking," Lyla said. It seemed like she was back to herself for the time being but she looked as worn out as Felicity, he could feel her trembling in his arms.

"Don't worry about it Lyla I know it wasn't you. Now let's get you two out of here and figure out what was in that poison they gave you."

"I'm sorry too Oliver I never should have did that to you and I hope you can forgive me some day."

"Already forgiven babe I know it wasn't you."

They all turned to leave the room when Oliver heard a beeping sound coming from one of the monitors. His gut told him that wasn't a good sign so he quickly made his way over to the computers and he saw a countdown that said 3 minutes.

"Felicity come look at this." She quickly came over and started doing her thing and within seconds it looked like she had figured it out, but the look on her face sent a wave of dread through his whole body.

"We have to get out of here now. It looks like he's planted explosives throughout the whole building and I can't disable them. If I had more time and I wasn't so foggy I could do it but Oliver I just can't we need to run."

"Alright. Diggle take Felicity and Lyla I'll grab Malcolm."

"What?" Felicity said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "You're coming with us."

"I can't leave him Felicity that's just like killing him. We know these bombs are going to detonate and he can't get himself out. I need you to go with Diggle and trust me I'll be fine I promise."

A moment of indecision passed over Felicity's face before she said, "Ok I love you."

"I love you too." He pulled her in for a quick kiss, which she eagerly returned, before he gently nudged her to the door where Diggle and Lyla were already waiting. As soon as she was out of site he quickly turned around and grabbed Malcolm. He was still unconscious so he hoisted him over his shoulder. When he turned to leave the room he saw the computer screen said 1 minute and 30 seconds. He needed to move and fast because he didn't have much time and with Malcolm on his back it would make this much harder.

Running out the door he turned the corner and headed for the stairs. He considered himself fast enough to get down 3 flights of stairs in 1 minute but with dead weight on his shoulder he wasn't so sure but he had to push himself, he made Felicity a promise.

1 flight down and 2 to go but he could feel his legs burning from the extra weight. He tried to keep a countdown going in his head but he didn't know how accurate he was. He thought he had 40 seconds left. 2nd flight done. 30 seconds.

Finally down to the first floor with 15 seconds left. With everything that had happened he couldn't remember which way they came in and everything looked the same. He made a split second decision and turned left. Pushing his body to the limit he started to pick up the pace and finally saw the exit when a blast flung him forward. Malcolm's body landed on top of him as debris came pouring down. The light from the exit was quickly ousted by the debris and as the building came crumbling down around him he was filled with regret because he had lied to Felicity. He wasn't going to be alright.