Oliver's body was pushed to the limit, he barely slept, couldn't think of eating and spent most of his time in the Lair working out and sparring with Roy, Sara and John. Roy was the first to refuse to spar when Oliver was like this, John followed seeing that Oliver was blind with rage and not noticing that he was hurting himself and them. It was Sara, trained brutally by the League of Assassins, who still continued to spar with Oliver.
Sara could keep up with him, his hits and kicks didn't hurt her as much as Roy and Diggle, she could match him and she did so until they both could hardly breathe.
"We will find her Ollie!" Sara signalled for Oliver to stop after an hour of gruelling training "but you doing this to yourself isn't helping anyone! You need to stop now!" Sara said in a calm voice laced with a dangerous tone that said 'don't even try to keep going'
"It's been a week! A week and we haven't found anything!" Oliver grabbed a towel and angrily threw it over himself "I'm going to do another patrol, maybe I can find something in the lower part of the Glades, someone there has to know about a rouge doctor"
"I'm going with you" Sara started to suit up ignoring Oliver's annoyed glances "glare all you want but you're not doing this alone, I want to find our girl as much as Roy and Diggle"
"Fine" Oliver didn't argue and began to suit up himself
Roy entered the Lair panting slightly but looking very pleased with himself "I think I may have something!" He went over to Felicity's computers and began typing and searching through a list and maps of old buildings on the fringes of Starling "a couple of old friends of mine are really into old abandoned buildings and they showed me one that might help us" Roy couldn't help but smile
"How does an old building help us?" Oliver said clearly annoyed
Roy ignored him and spoke to Sara instead "they showed me maps and gave me a list of buildings and said that last night when they were going to explore one, they had to split pretty fast because all these lights were on and people were in there! It wasn't fully functioning but a good part of it was"
Sara realized what he was saying "It could be where Felicity is! Her father is a doctor and would most likely want to test her where there is medical equipment! Roy, this is amazing!" Sara affectionately hit Roy in the arm and turned to Oliver "let's get Diggle and check it out!"
Oliver called John and told him to meet him at the Lair, once they were all there the made a plan using Roy's information and finding the old medical centre "looks like it's a while out of the city, three hours in fact"
"Let's get moving then and get Felicity out of there!" Oliver made his way to the stairs with Diggle following and was about to call for Sara and Roy to hurry up when a gasp sounded from the computers
"Ollie! Look at this!" Sara gestured quickly for Oliver who bounded to her side and nearly fell over when he saw what was on the monitor. A black screen with a message to the Arrow.
Preston yawned tiredly as he took the steaming precooked meal from the microwave and peeled back the lid, his stomach growled but he ignored it determined to finally give Felicity something else other than a dry sandwich and water. He smiled at the tray laden with steaming hot risotto and a tall glass of lemonade "they might not go together but at least it's something different" he reasoned.
Preston was also pleased with this meal because it wasn't laced with drugs, he knew Adam wouldn't approve but maybe he would think the drugs were working? He wanted her to have a nice meal she wasn't afraid to eat.
Felicity looked like she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep and after last night, what she went through he didn't blame her at all "You hungry?" Preston asked setting the tray down and pulling up a chair beside her bed
Felicity took one look at the tray and rolled over turning her back to him without a word "Come on" he encouraged "You have to eat, I promise it isn't drugged" Preston picked up the fork and took a bite washing it down with some soda "see? Although, how could you see it when you're not looking at me?" he tried to joke but went back to encouraging after Felicity didn't say anything "I thought you could use a hot meal that didn't make you shake and scream"
Felicity tried to ignore him, after last night she wanted to die. The hallucination was so strong, felt so real that even though she knew it wasn't real by now, it still hurt her to think about it. Felicity told him to leave her alone but Preston refused and spoke with a whisper "even if this food isn't drugged, it's still part of my job to make sure you eat every bite of it"
It took more coaxing but finally Felicity rolled back and faced the food feeling her stomach growl, she hesitantly took the fork and started eating. Preston smiled as he watched her not trying to make any more conversation until she finished eating.
"Your hallucination last night? Seemed pretty bad. What happened if you don't mind me asking?" Preston asked gently
"Just a hallucination" Felicity shrugged gulping down the last of her lemonade
"Tell me about it anyway, it'll be good for a report"
Seeing that he wasn't going to give up, Felicity began to describe it "My friend said that he didn't need me anymore" Felicity could feel the burning lump in her throat and felt like it was choking her making talking nearly impossible
"Lucky it was a hallucination then. When I found you on the floor like that it…it was the most painful thing I've ever seen and I'm sorry you went through that" Preston sighed regretfully "Felicity, I've been trying to –"
They both jumped when the door banged open "And how is my daughter going? Any breakthroughs?" Adam looked from Preston to Felicity
"No hallucinations this morning, Sir" Preston stood up and smiled at him "It all seems to be going smoothly, in fact I was wondering if we could set up the webcam with her friends. I'm sure they would want to see…how much good you're doing for Felicity" an idea formed, he hoped his smile was taken as one of pride in their work "it's only fair after all"
Incoming video call to The Arrow…do you accept?
Oliver nodded to Sara who clicked 'YES' and turned her face away to conceal herself. The way Oliver's eyes widened ever so slightly and his sharp intake of breathe told her who it was straight away. There seated in a chair, dressed in a hospital gown, looking completely exhausted and broken yet somehow still with a small smile on her face – Felicity.
Oliver felt his heart flutter for the first time in a week as he looked at Felicity and noted all of her injuries, most of which weren't physical but there was bruising on her wrists and dark circles under her eyes. Oliver couldn't even begin to imagine what was going on in her mind but he could see only one emotion in her eyes: fear.
"Hello Arrow!" Adam Ryde came into view next to Felicity and placed a hand on her shoulder, Oliver wanted nothing more than to put an arrow through him but kept his voice calm
"Ryde" he said curtly and ignored him briefly "Felicity, are you hurt?" it nearly killed him to see her like this and the fact that she was trying to put on a brave face and shake her head 'no' only made him feel worse "Ryde I swear, if you hurt her anymore I'll kill you myself!"
"I thought you didn't kill people anymore, Arrow?"
"I can make an exception!" Oliver growled
"You won't have to kill me because I am making a difference and curing my daughter. You'll have her back in no time" Adam smiled, his face lit up like a kid in a candy store
"Oliver?" Felicity's voice was small and weak
"Felicity I'll come for you, I promise!" Oliver held on to the monitor almost breaking it in his grip
"Oliver!" Felicity was pulled from the set and dragged away by Adam's assistant, hearing her scream for him made Oliver's blood boil and the connection was broken. Nothing but a black screen now.
Oliver paced up and down "We leave now!" he grabbed his quiver but noticed a beeping sound coming from the computer and looked back to find a bunch of numbers and a message that read help her. It was coordinates to the same address Roy had.
"We get her tonight!" Oliver didn't need to tell the rest of them twice, they followed Roy's map and rode off to find their IT Girl.
A/N: Yes I know that this ended rather dully but I couldn't think of a better way to end it but PRESTON HELPED TEAM ARROW! (He didn't know about Roy's friends and is separate from them if you want to know, I just wanted Preston to help our girl!)
A/N2: Now that were caught up to the first chapter (the non-linier one) the next chapter will be the first chapter but from Oliver's POV is that Okay with everyone?
Let me know what you think! Read and Review and suggestions for future chapters are more than welcome! I will credit you if you write an idea and I decide to write it up.