From CHAPTER 3:
"Felicity, what is it?" Oliver asked, his hands reaching for her. "Did you fall?"
"Something hit me," she cried. "Hit my leg."
"Hit you," Diggle repeated, sounding concerned. He pulled a small flashlight from his backpack as he knelt at Felicity's feet. "Oliver, we need to shield this light."
Oliver yanked his jacket off, tenting it over Diggle who flipped on his penlight to look at Felicity's injured shin.
"Oh, god. This night just got so much worse."
CHAPTER 4 – Hello Kitty
Oliver and Diggle recognized the puncture wounds already bleeding in rivulets down Felicity's calf. At first, they did not voice their suspicions but exchanged worried looks.
"It's good that it's bleeding," Digg said.
"Bleeding! When is bleeding ever good?" Felicity demanded to know. She had sat up with her injured leg resting in Diggle's steady hands.
Oliver knelt beside her, his hand skimming down her arm. In a calming voice, he explained, "You're going to be alright, Felicity. But you may have been bitten."
"Bitten!" she cried.
"Felicity," Digg began, "It's important that you stay calm. You know we'll take care of you."
"It really hurts," she whimpered and both men heard the tears catch in her voice.
"I know, sweetheart," Diggle comforted her. Then, to Oliver, he said, "We need to keep the wound below her heart and keep her as still as possible."
Oliver slid behind Felicity, yanked his injured arm from its sling and lifted her into his lap as Digg carefully lowered her legs. Oliver kissed her temple and stroked the loose hair away from her face, noting with concern that her skin felt clammy.
Diggle grabbed a fresh water bottle and emptied it over the wound to clean away any venom that might remain on the surface of her skin.
"Felicity, which bag has our first aid kit?" Digg asked.
"Mine," she answered. "The Hello Kitty one."
The two men, even in crisis, couldn't help the weak grins her answer sparked. This is my Felicity, Oliver thought. God help him, he loved this girl.
Diggle dug through her bag, his hand quickly finding the box of medical supplies. It was not optimal conditions for dressing a wound, but his Army service as a field medic served him well. He applied an antibiotic salve on her bleeding wound and wrapped it in gauze.
"Oliver, I need your sling," he said, reaching towards his friend.
Oliver hesitated before asking, "A tourniquet, Digg? Aren't you afraid..."
"I'm not tying it off, Oliver," Diggle explained as he wrapped the leather strip higher on Felicity's calf. "We want to allow some blood flow. As long as you can easily slip your finger under the leather, it's not too tight. You'll need to watch for swelling though."
At that, Diggle pulled his knife and opened the blade. Felicity jerked, seeing the knife in her friend's hand. "Whoa! What are you doing with that?"
Diggle gently patted her other knee and spoke calmly, "I'm just going to keep you comfortable, darlin'." Oliver stroked her tensed shoulders and kissed her hair.
Diggle sliced the hem of her capris, then jerked the side seam to rip the pant leg open to just below her panty line.
"Hey, you ruined my favorite capris," she weakly protested.
"It's in case your leg swells, Felicity," Oliver explained, noticing that she had begun to tremble.
While Digg stabilized Felicity, Oliver's attention was divided between providing comfort, making a new plan and the gut-wrenching fear that threatened to overwhelm him. He knew enough about snakebites to understand that, without antivenin, this could go bad real quick. And they were a long way from the medical intervention she needed. Felicity was suffering, her life imperiled, and he had brought her into this God-forsaken place.
"Oliver," Digg pulled him back from the brink. "We can't keep moving. I'm going to look for better cover nearby. I won't be gone long." He waited for Oliver's slight nod of understanding before he slipped away into darkness.
Diggle had flicked off the flashlight and carefully propped Felicity's wounded leg on Oliver's folded jacket. She was restless in Oliver's arms and he feared she was moving her legs as well. "Felicity, you need to stay still, baby,"
"It hurts, Oliver. It's bad," she sobbed.
"I know. Give me your hand," he said, his large hands reaching down to grip her small ones. "Hold onto me. I'll help you carry the pain."
Even by starlight, he saw her give him a classic side-eye as she looked over at him. "I don't think that's how it works," she said in the same no-nonsense way she frequently called his bluff. He surrendered a slight breath of laughter.
"You may be right, but it's all I've got to give you at the moment." And so she gripped his hands, white-knuckling through the pain as he held on in the darkness.
When Diggle materialized to crouch beside them, Oliver had no idea how long his friend had been gone.
"There's a dry creekbed two clicks northeast of us," Digg reported. "It's a deep enough ravine to hide her from view."
Diggle laid a large palm to Felicity's forehead. "How you doing, sweetheart?"
"Pretty rocky," she croaked.
"You hold on, girl," Digg said. "We're going to get you to a safer place."
"There better be Wi-Fi," she joked weakly.
Staying low, Diggle gathered their things, bringing a backpack to Oliver, who still held Felicity as they prepared to move her.
"I will lift her by the shoulders," Digg offered, "if you can manage her legs?"
Knowing that Digg would be carrying the majority of her weight, Oliver interjected, "No, I've got her. You just..."
Diggle cut him off. "We don't have time to argue about this. You've got a bum shoulder and I can't have you bleeding out with her in this condition. So, just shut it."
Oliver was stunned into silence, his temper rising, but Felicity's spasms of pain quickly leveled his male pride. "Okay."
Diggle knelt beside him, smoothly accepting the burden of her upper body as Oliver shifted around to gingerly lift her legs. They kept as low a profile as possible, creeping in darkness over uneven terrain while pointing Felicity's legs to the desert floor. They had to stop once, lowering and turning Felicity when she became violently ill.
"No more Cocoa Puffs. Ever. Again," she moaned.
As they neared the ravine, Digg warned Oliver, "Watch your step. We're here."
They crab-walked down the sandy incline, searching for the deepest inset to serve as their natural hideaway, eventually choosing a site beneath a wide embankment.
Diggle and Oliver gently lowered Felicity, trying to keep her leg immobilized although it was darker and harder to see in their new burrow. "I think we can risk a light in here, at least until she's more settled," Digg suggested with Oliver grunting in approval.
Working as a team with the help of flashlights, the two men spread a blanket beneath their patient and checked her condition. The leg had swollen significantly so they loosened the leather wrap and replaced the bloody dressing. Deep tremors racked her body as a fever spiked. Oliver leaned into the desert wall and again lifted her into his arms, her back and head resting on his chest, her swollen leg stretched out before them.
Diggle noticed fresh blood stains spreading on Oliver's shoulder, but he knew his partner well enough to hold his tongue.
"Can we give her anything?" Oliver asked, desperation in his tone.
"I'm flying blind here, Oliver, because we don't know what type of bite this is. I'm afraid to use painkillers. It's probably safe to give her sips of water to prevent dehydration," Digg confessed with a shake of his head. "But she's getting worse. I'm walking out of here to get help. Keep her as still as you can."
"I should go, Digg," Oliver offered. "You're the medic."
"Stay with your woman, Oliver," Diggle said, dismissing him. "You're the one she wants. You're the one she needs."
Diggle knelt beside Felicity, slipping a hand to cradle her neck as he gave her a gentle goodbye. "I'm going to get you help, sweetheart. You wait for me, okay?"
Felicity gave him a wan smile, whispering, "I'll be here."
"That's a promise," Diggle said, kissing her forehead before rising. He dropped a hand to Oliver's shoulder, vowing, "And if I hear it from Felicity Smoak, I know it's true."
"It is," she sighed, her weary eyes closing.
"Digg," Oliver called. "I need my bow."
Diggle brought the long bag, unzipped it and laid Oliver's weapons at his side.
"Leave a sign out there so you can find your way back, " Oliver told his friend.
Diggle reached into the Hello Kitty tote bag and came up with a bright turquoise scarf in his grip. Oliver nodded in answer to Diggle's unspoken question.
"What if Gunhawk sees it first?" Digg asked.
Oliver's jabbed three arrows into the sand beside him and, with a murderous glint in his eyes, growled, "Let him come."