A/N: Sorry it once again took me over a month to update! I went on holiday for a bit, so I was fairly preoccupied. You know what's funny though? My friends could be reading this right now and they wouldn't even know it was me who wrote it... hello friends ;)
Oliver leaned against the railing of the balcony and trained his eye on the vault below, wondering how Ruther was going to be able to break in without triggering security.
Just as Oliver was about to move to get a better view, Felicity's voice spoke in his ear. "The security cameras show that Ruther is right outside the west door, so he should be in any second now," she said.
"Got it," Oliver replied, and then he fell silent.
There was a small hiss of air, and Oliver quickly snapped his head in the direction of the sound. He watched as the silhouette of a man stepped inside the bank, pulling a square device off of the door as he went. If that device worked like the skeleton key they dealt with earlier this year, Oliver knew he had to destroy it.
The man stepped further into the bank, and when a ray of moonlight passed over his face, Oliver recognized him as Ruther. He started to stand up when Ruther suddenly paused mid-step and jerked his head in Oliver's direction. Oliver immediately froze. He held his breath and hoped that the shadows were dark enough to hide him.
When Ruther was satisfied that no one was seemingly there, he turned and started towards the main vault. Oliver quietly let out a sigh of relief and stood up behind a pillar. He peered around it and saw Ruther put the same square device onto the door of the vault. A soft whirring cut through the thick silence as Oliver crept closer to the stairs. Once he had a clear shot, Oliver raised his bow and notched an arrow.
Back at Verdant, Felicity swiveled around on the bar stool anxiously. Everything was silent with Oliver, so she figured he was probably watching Ruther and waiting for the right time to strike, and Diggle and Roy's trackers showed that they were just leaving the office space. She glanced at the door leading down to the foundry for the hundredth time and continued to debate whether or not she should go see how Laurel was doing. Felicity knew that if she went downstairs she would be cut off from Oliver, but she couldn't ignore the little voice in the back of her head that was telling her to go.
She stared at the door for a few more seconds. "Aghh, fine. I'll just check and see if she needs anything," Felicity said to herself as she got up and walked to the door. She quickly typed in the code that she had long ago memorized, and hefted open the heavy metal door. "Laurel?" she called, standing at the top of the stairs and keeping the door propped open. When there was no reply, Felicity walked down a couple of steps and called again. "Laurel? Are you okay down here? Do you need anything?". Felicity could already hear bursts of static coming from the comm in her ear as the signal got weaker.
She quickly cleared the rest of the stairs leading down and looked around the foundry. "Laurel?" she called once again. She was greeted with silence and an empty basement. Felicity walked over to her computers and noticed that multiple tabs were open when she was positive she had closed everything before she went upstairs, but she didn't get a chance to get angry at Laurel for messing with her computers because a small little detail across the room caught her eye. The drawer of guns was crooked.
Felicity had lost track of the number of times she's had to remind the boys not to slam that one drawer. It used to get crooked all the time, until Diggle discovered that if you closed it gently, it would straighten out. From then on, no matter how quickly they needed to be out the door, it became a habit to gently close the drawer that held the handguns.
She slowly slid open the drawer and peered in. Right away she noticed a gap in the neat row of guns. "Oh no," she murmured, piecing it all together. She gently shut the drawer and ran up the stairs.
Oliver exhaled and steadied his arm. His fingers were ready to let the arrow fly, when Felicity's voice exclaimed, "Oliver! Laurel's gone!"
Had he not been brutally trained he would've jumped at Felicity's voice suddenly in his ear and probably dropped his arrow, but instead he just clenched his teeth and sucked in a sharp breath. Oliver let the bowstring go slack and crouched behind a pillar. "Oliver?" Felicity said with a worried voice when Oliver didn't reply immediately.
"Track her," Oliver whispered. He peered around the pillar and was relieved when he saw that Ruther hadn't gotten the vault open yet.
"Wait, have you caught Ruther?" Felicity asked.
"No," Oliver said sharply between clenched teeth. "Where is Laurel?"
"She's heading towards the bank," Felicity said. "And she's less than two blocks away right now."
Oliver growled. "Call her and try to talk her out of it," he commanded. "I've got to go. Tell me if she gets to the bank."
"Got it," Felicity replied quickly.
Oliver swiftly stood up and drew back his bow, but when he turned his head, he saw that the vault door was already open and Ruther was no where in sight. His jaw tightened in frustration and he launched himself over the railing, bending his knees to help with the impact as he landed with a 'thud' on the floor below. Oliver ran towards the vault the moment his feet his the ground.
Looking inside, he saw a white slip of paper left in the middle a section that was obviously missing multiple stacks of cash. Oliver went in and picked up the paper.
Thanks for the money.
Oliver scoffed. He did a quick 360 of the vault to check for more clues, but when he found nothing he stepped out of the vault and ran to the door Ruther came in earlier. "Felicity can you unlock the west door for me?" he said into the comm. After a moment there was a small 'click' and Oliver pushed it open. He immediately caught sight of a dark shape in his peripheral vision and whipped his head to the right. He watched for a split second as a man who was standing right by the door sprinted down the alleyway, and then Oliver took off after him. He wasn't even sure if the man was Ruther, or if he was even involved with the robbery, but Oliver wasn't taking any chances tonight.
As Laurel drove to the bank, she stayed at a constant ten miles over the speed limit and hoped that she wouldn't run into any cops. She was methodically taking deep breaths to try and calm her adrenaline filled body and pounding heart, when her phone started to ring. She picked up it up from the passenger's seat and saw that it was Felicity. Laurel debated whether or not to pick it up, but then she figured Felicity probably already knew she was gone, so she might as well tell her not to worry.
Laurel pressed 'answer'. "Hello?" she said, as calmly as she could muster. She heard Felicity suck in a sharp breath.
"Laurel, are you okay?" Felicity burst out.
Laurel sighed, not sure if she should be thankful that Felicity was concerned for her well-being or annoyed at her. "I'm fine. I'm guessing you've figured out I'm not in the foundry?" Laurel said dryly.
"Laurel," Felicity said slowly, as if she was still trying to gather her thoughts. "This is dangerous. What Diggle, Roy, and Oliver are doing has a lot of risks involved, and you told me yourself that every time they go out in the field there are chances they won't come back."
Laurel started to speak, "Felicity, I have-", but Felicity cut her off.
"No, you don't understand what you're getting yourself into, Laurel! You could get seriously injured-or worse," Felicity paused and sighed. "And Oliver's worried for you. He told me to call you because he doesn't want to see you get hurt."
Laurel's eyebrows went up when Felicity mentioned Oliver's name. He was worried for her? That meant he still cared for her and had feelings for her. Laurel knew what she had to do. If she helped stop the robber, Oliver would understand that she cared about him, too.
She pulled up in front of the bank. "Sorry, Felicity, but I have to do this for Oliver. I listened to the whole phone call from Ruther, and at the end he mentioned that another man was going to help him rob the bank. I need to help Oliver stop him." Laurel said with finality, and before Felicity could reply, Laurel hung up and shut off the engine of her car.
If Laurel was being honest with herself, she would admit that she had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea if the robbers were still in the bank or if they were long gone by now, she didn't know where to start looking for them, and what would she do if she managed to find one of the robbers? But Laurel pushed all of these thoughts to the back of her head and focused on the one thing that fueled her to jump into her car in the first place: Help Oliver save their city.
Hoping he wouldn't trigger any alarms, Oliver quickly scaled the side of the bank. He ran across the rooftop in hopes of intercepting the man who ran in the alleyways below. Oliver stopped just before the edge and studied the dark alley below- keeping an eye out for even the slightest movement.
Not seconds later, the man came running around the corner and slowed to a stop, oblivious that Oliver was watching him from above. When the man stopped and looked around, Oliver caught sight of his face. It was Ruther. He quickly jumped down from the roof and landed directly in front of him. Arm pulled back and bowstring taut, Oliver growled, "Jacob Ruther, you have failed this city."
Oliver could see Ruther visibly pale even in the low light of the night. "I-I… I'm innocent! You've got the wrong man," Ruther stuttered. Oliver growled and took a step towards him, but when Ruther tried to take a step back, his back scraped against the brick wall of the bank- Oliver had him cornered.
"You're guilty. I saw you break into the bank and open the vault," Oliver said, as he noticed Ruther's empty hands. "Where did you put the money?"
Ruther shrugged and a smirk twitched at the corner of his lips. "Looks like you have no proof," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Oliver let out a low laugh that closely resembled a growl. "I don't need proof..." Oliver said as he stepped closer and held the tip of the arrow right against Ruther's throat, "to kill you."
Ruther's smirk quickly dropped off his face as he shrunk back. "I don't have the money on me, and I currently do not know where it is," he said, choosing his words carefully.
"I can deal with the money later," Oliver said, "I want to know why you're stealing the money in the first place."
Before Ruther could answer, Felicity's voice filled his ear. "I couldn't talk Laurel out of it, Oliver, and her tracker shows that she's right in front of the back," Felicity paused and took a breath. "I went back through the phone call from Ruther, and it turns out Laurel was right. There is another man helping out Ruther, and I think she's going after him."
Oliver let out a long breath. He knew he had to go help Laurel, so after casting a sidelong glance at Ruther, he whipped out an arrow and quickly shot it in his direction. Ruther yelled out and flinched, but the arrow simply tied him up and trapped him against the wall. "I'll deal with you later," Oliver said, and then he leaped on the dumpster and climbed back up to the roof.
Laurel took a deep breath and stepped out of her car. She glanced around at the seemingly empty street alit with the yellow glow from the streetlamps, but Laurel instinctively shivered when she spotted the many dark alleys between the buildings.
She began to walk towards the further alley of the bank, when she saw a man walking down the street in her direction. The man cocked his head to the side when he saw that Laurel had noticed him and he walked closer to her.
"What are you doing out here so late?" Laurel asked him, narrowing her eyes slightly.
The man raised his eyebrows. He appeared to be in a hurry. "I could ask you the same thing," he replied.
Laurel tried to subtly shift her jacket so that it would better cover the gun tucked into the waist of her jeans as she sized up the man. He was maybe a little less than 6 foot, balding slightly at the top, and by no means fat, but it was obvious he did not regularly hit the gym. Laurel figured she could probably take him if the situation called for it. "I'm running an errand for a friend," Laurel lied as she noticed the man's fingers starting to twitch.
He nodded distractedly and looked back over his shoulder. He turned back and focused his eyes on Laurel's car a couple meters away. "I need you to give me a quick ride somewhere, hun," he said nodding his head towards her car.
Laurel tensed up. "I'm sorry, I can't do that," she answered tensely.
He stepped closer to her. "I've got to get to the airport to give my friend the bags he left," the man said, getting considerably closer to Laurel.
Laurel turned and finally caught a glimpse of the bags the man was holding. Her eyes widened as she considered the chances that this might just be the other robber she was looking for.
When Laurel didn't answer him, the growled loudly, "C'mon, girl! I've gotta get to the airport!"
He looked as if he was going to lunge at her, but before he could even move a muscle, Laurel pulled out her gun and pointed it at him. "Don't move," she threatened, trying to steady her voice, "Open up the bags."
"You have no right to go through my friend's stuff," he said taking a step back. "And since you aren't kind enough to give me a lift, I've gotta go find another way to get there."
The man turned around and started to walk away, but Laurel didn't lower her gun. Instead, she stepped closer and shouted, "I said, don't move!"
The man chuckled and turned around, a smirk playing on his lips. "'Laurel Lance holds innocent man at gunpoint'. I wonder how that will look in the papers," he said, watching Laurel's face for a reaction.
Laurel's mouth dropped open as she stared at the man, fear starting to creep into her. "How do you know who I am?" she asked with a quivering voice. She tightened her grip on the gun. "I was made aware that there's a robbery happening at this bank tonight, and that means you are a suspect, so I do have the right to interrogate you." Laurel added.
The man studied her and said, "You're smarter than I thought. I figured you would've let this case go by now, but it seems like you hold onto grudges for quite a while."
Laurel clenched her teeth. "What are you talking about?" Laurel asked angrily, "Who are you?"
"You don't need to worry yourself over that," he said, and he swiftly knocked the gun out of Laurel's hands.
Adrenaline rushed through her as Laurel jumped out of the way seconds before a gut wrenching blow would've landed on her abdomen. She gasped and scrambled frantically for her handgun. Laurel swiveled her head quickly to her left and saw the man reaching for her gun. She growled and promptly kicked his hand away, while slamming her elbow into his temple.
The man groaned and grabbed his head, dropping his bags in the process. Laurel took advantage of the man's current state and snatched up her gun. She crouched by the bags and began opening up the first one.
Before she could even get a glance at the contents inside, she felt a kick so painful that she saw stars before collapsing on the sidewalk. Laurel took gasping breaths as she clutched her side, which she was sure would start bruising in seconds. Against her will, her hand started loosening its grip on the gun, and she felt it being jerked from her hand. Laurel let out a strangled noise as she tried to get up and push away the pain.
As she watched helplessly, the man pointed the gun at her and said something, but the only thing Laurel could hear was her ragged breathing and her racing heart.
"Stop," she gasped, staring up into the man's cold eyes. "Please."
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(if you don't want to, just leave a letter (a,b,or c) in the reviews)
A/N 2.0: I know, I know, I cut it off again like I did in the last chapter, but I really wanted to put something up. Since you guys are super amazing for putting up with me even though I'm terrible at updating, it's up to you, what I'm gonna put up next.
Possibilities:
a) Laurel gets shot and dies (A little morbid, I know, but I was actually considering this and I have a pretty good plot to go with this.)
b) Laurel is a total bad-ass and takes the man down.
c) Laurel gets severely injured (or just a little injured...), but makes it out alive.
I'm not gonna let you guys pick how Oliver is involved in each, because that's up to me ;)
All you have to do is leave a letter in the reviews. If you feel the need to you can leave me an idea or pm me one :) Thanks for reading