From CHAPTER 5:
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."
CHAPTER 6 – Finding Serenity
Felicity was airlifted, with Oliver and Diggle at her side, to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where she was admitted to intensive care. Because her symptoms indicated serious reaction to what was, in all probability a rattlesnake bite, she was given ten vials of antivenin before her vital signs began to level out. Oliver refused to leave her side.
After Felicity's condition started to improve, Oliver agreed to be admitted for the gunshot wound and dehydration. He underwent emergency surgery to remove bone and bullet fragments embedded in muscle tissue.
By the second night, Felicity had been moved from critical care to a private room and felt well enough to check out the tv channels. Discovering a Firefly marathon was a happy touchstone that made her begin to feel like herself again. She was craving a big bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream when John Diggle stuck his head in the door.
"Hey, John," she greeted him with a happy smile.
"Hey, girl," he answered. "You're lookin' better."
"Feelin' it, too," she said. "Come on in."
Diggle stepped over to Felicity's bedside, gathering her hands in his.
"I kept my promise, Digg," she said, earnestly looking up at him.
"I never doubted you would, Felicity," he replied, drawing up a chair and settling in it.
"How's Oliver?" she asked.
Diggle grinned and answered, "Cranky and uncooperative."
"He really is the world's worst hospital patient," Felicity giggled as Digg nodded, joining her laughter.
"Oliver just doesn't understand that some injuries can't be fixed with spit and duct tape."
Diggle glanced up at the tv screen above them and commented, "Big damn heroes, huh?"
"Yeah," Felicity replied, turning wistful as she looked back to Digg. "I'm kind of an expert on those. I think I owe them my life."
"That debt is forgiven, Felicity. You're the best part of us," Diggle said, rising to return to her bedside. He bent down to kiss her cheek and she stroked his arm.
"Thank you, John," she said, her eyes brimming with new tears.
His thumb caught a falling teardrop as he shushed her. "Now, none of that. You just get well. I'm catching the red-eye home tonight so I'm on my way to the airport. I will see you and Captain Grumpy Pants in Starling City."
"I'm going to tell him you called him that," she teased.
"Go ahead," he grinned. "I've got his bow and arrows."
It was after midnight when Oliver slipped into her room. Felicity was asleep, her face framed by a cloud of blond tresses. Oliver, wearing jeans and a dark Henley with his arm secured in a sling, reached up and turned off the television set before stepping to her bedside. He was mesmerized by her lovely face that had regained her usual healthy glow, so different from the pale, suffering girl he had cradled in his arms two long nights ago.
Not wanting to wake her, Oliver leaned down, softly kissing Felicity's lips and whispering, "I can't live without you."
In Russian.
When a frazzled nurse from Oliver's assigned ward finally located her obstinate missing patient, she found him asleep in a chair pulled next to the bed with his head resting by Felicity's hip, his free hand covering hers. For the first time since a bloodied Oliver Queen had been admitted, his face was at peace, free of the anxiety and pain that had so hardened his features. He had finally found serenity in the presence of the remarkable woman who slept unaware at his side.
The nurse did not wake them.
EPILOGUE
Jean-Paul Valley would never forget the first time he saw Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak.
Known as Azrael, Jean-Paul was the Gotham City vigilante who sometimes stepped in for a wounded Batman. He had recently been assigned by Amanda Waller to "retrieve an asset" from the Nevada desert. Like all ARGUS missions, it was a "black op" focused on capturing the master sniper Gunhawk with the intent of controlling and exploiting his deadly skills.
Hawkleigh revealed his location in the Nevada desert when his strafing attack on Team Arrow was captured by ARGUS satellite imagery. Jean-Paul and a support team were dropped into rugged Nevada terrain that night to hunt down Gunhawk. The footprints of his heavy military boots led them to his body, lying in the hollow of a dry creekbed, with a green arrow lodged in his neck.
When Jean-Paul met the steely gaze of Oliver Queen, he saw an exhausted, wounded yet dangerous man in a protective stance, guarding the slender woman who now lay in distress at his feet. Oliver's arrow was knocked and ready to fly with the release of the bowstring.
"I am not here for you," Jean-Paul called out. Looking down at Hawkleigh's body, he clarified, "This is the man I came for." He signaled to the other men, who began loading the corpse into a body bag.
"I can't offer you a ride, but do you need me to call for help?" Jean-Paul asked.
Oliver did not lower his bow or relax his pull on the bow, giving only a terse answer, "Contact first responders for a snakebite victim. And set some flares."
With military precision, the ARGUS team removed the body along with evidence of Hawkleigh's presence and death. Jean-Paul took a final glance back towards the embankment, a tableau now glowing from the ignited flares. Within seconds, he saw The Arrow transformed, from lethal weapon to the man – Oliver Queen – tenderly lifting his beloved into his arms.