From CHAPTER 4:
"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."
CHAPTER 5 – Fifty Shades
Felicity's pain, swelling and fever did not abate through the ensuing hours and Oliver's despair for her was worse than the torture he had endured in his darkest days. He felt helpless and guilty that he'd led them into this nightmare.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair.
She made a half-hearted attempt to pat his hand without opening her eyes. "Oliver, why do you do that? You're not responsible for everybody. Bad things happen to good people. There was even a book about it. We should read that book. When we have internet again. And Amazon..."
He marveled that her words and whimsical thoughts rambled even when she was so sick.
"We should," he agreed, his fingers softly threading through her long hair. "I'd like you to read to me."
"I can," she volunteered with a tiny grin. "I'm quite the little reader. I've got lots of books. All kinds. Not the fifty shades kind. I mean, I have those too, but can't read those out loud. Not to you. Because you wouldn't want. Well, of course you would want that sort of... Oh, no. These are words that should not be coming out of my mouth. Or anybody's mouth. At any time."
How she could make him smile in this desolate place, at such a critical time, amazed him. Oliver knew he would never find anyone like her, who could unburden him the effortless way she did. And he was terrified that he would lose her in the darkest hours before dawn.
When Liam Hawkleigh stepped into the creekbed to face Oliver and Felicity, her turquoise scarf fluttered from his hand in glaring contrast to the commando gear he wore and the custom, lightweight machine gun in his grip.
"Well now, this is just sad," the ex-Marine sneered. "Team Arrow, all broke down and burrowed into the sand like desert rats."
"We don't call it that," a Felicity mumbled, repeating the phrase out of habit.
Gunhawk frowned at the delirious girl who lay nestled in Oliver's lap.
Glancing around, Gunhawk snidely asked, "So, Hoss, you got abandoned by your third Musketeer?"
"Gone for help," Oliver said, revealing no malice.
"That's too bad, friend, 'cause it don't look like help is gonna get here in time," Gunhawk drawled in a mocking tone.
"We don't need 'em," Oliver replied, his voice calm and cold.
"I heard that about you, hoss, how you run around like a caveman with a bow," the sniper smirked.
"It's not the bow you should fear, "Oliver said. "It's The Arrow."
Hawkleigh's laugh died in his throat because that's where the first arrow struck him.
Felicity stilled toward daylight and her breathing became more labored. At times, her beautiful blue eyes would flare wide as she pulled a deep gasp for air, searching for Oliver's reassuring presence.
His voice, the sound she loved most, would calm her. "I'm here, Felicity. You are safe."
He struggled to mask his fear and the shame for this lie. Felicity was not safe because he had allowed them to be lured into danger. He had let his guard down, trusting in a false assumption that this was a routine surveillance mission. There were no routine missions and Oliver forgetting that fact might have cost her life. The loss of Felicity would surely destroy him.
Shortly after the sun's first rays broke across the horizon, Oliver heard the unmistakable sound of helicopter blades beating the air above them. His heart leapt into his throat, much as it had when he had first seen the fisherman's boat in the North China Sea years before.
He kissed Felicity full on the lips, startling her into full consciousness.
"Oliver!" she croaked. "Now! When I'm half-dead? I'm sick and gross. Now you give me a real kiss?"
With a rare, genuine smile, Oliver leaned down, his arms embracing her, and whispered against her lips, "I promise. There will be more to come."