Felicity walked calmly in through the front door and made her way straight to the office. The building was set up to lock down all exits as soon as the perimeter of the building was broken, but she had managed to hack into the system from the lair, giving Oliver thirty minutes to get in, get what he needed and get out before the building would lock down. It was supposed to be clever and smart. The drug-dealer-pimp would then arrive with a time lag on the system so it would show the building had locked down immediately. He would then have been completely stumped as to how the perimeter was broken, the building was locked down, his files had gone and yet there was no sign of a break out. A break out was impossible. Unless you were Felicity Smoak and then she might have a chance of breaking out.

Oliver was locked in the office of the mansion, where the files he needed were kept, which was it's own little safe room with an extra security measure of lock down. She had warned him before the mission. She had warned him during the mission.

"You touched something, didn't you?" Felicity spoke into her comms as she started removing panels from the office door. She imagined Oliver pacing in frustration just on the other side of the door and it amused her far too much.

"It's sort of difficult to find the right files without touching things." He did not sound happy and Felicity chuckled to herself. "What's so funny?"

"I'm rescuing you."

"Just get on with it, Felicity," he warned.

"Yes, boss. What do you think I'm doing here? Telling you off and laughing?" She had removed the panel from a circuit board next to the door and then started looking at all of the wires and connections.

"Guys, we have company!" Sara warned.

"That's impossible," Felicity paused in her work and turned to look behind her. "They can't know we're here. Not yet."

"Well they do," Sara countered from outside. She was already out of breath.

"Hurry up, Felicity!" Oliver ordered and she knew that tone. The worry and fear had already set in within Oliver in the room. First of all he was trapped and helpless, alone; Felicity knew that he would be hating that. He was not claustrophobic, but after five years on an island of space and being such a man of action, being trapped was not something Oliver liked. Secondly, she knew that he was already aware that she was right outside of the door and helpless.

Connecting her pad to the circuitry, she ran a program for a code breaker and quickly heard a click as the door began to open. He was already standing ready, eyes roaming behind her before the door could even open. "Need a rescue?" she smiled brightly despite the imminent danger.

"Felicity! Get down!" he commanded.

ARROW-HOOD-QUEEN

"Felicity, I'm here. Come on, stay awake." He had no idea why she had come to and said chime to him. All that mattered was that she had come to. Her eyes fluttered open and he could not help but smile. Weakly, she smiled back and he stroked her cheek, trying to hold her head still with one hand as the other continued to press down hard. There was blood left behind on her pale cheek, marring her perfect skin.

"What…?"

"You got shot."

"Water?" she requested.

"I don't have any. And I can't let you go." Her eyes met his and he could see a question in them. Opening his mouth to speak again, Oliver paused and instead gave a good fish impression. At that moment he had no idea if he meant emotionally and metaphorically as well as physically. She would bleed out if he stopped applying pressure. What would happen to her if he were ready to metaphorically release her? As if that thought reminded him of his new goal in life, he pushed down harder on her abdomen. The material he had ripped from her sleeve to staunch the bleeding was already soaked through and his hand was covered in blood.

Her blood.

She did not wince or react whatsoever as he pressed down more. "Does that hurt, Felicity?"

Shaking her head, tears brimming in her eyes as she must have realized that there was something wrong. A voice came through loud and clear in both of their ears. It was Roy.

"Is she going to be okay? I should never have brought her."

"Shut up, Roy!" Oliver commanded.

"I shouldn't have let her go in there alone," he continued.

"Shut up!" Sara and Diggle yelled at the same time. Oliver's wet hand released Felicity's cheek, her head fully resting back on the carpeted floor and he pulled the ear comms from his own ear. He then did the same to her. Her eyes were already filled with panic from hearing the panic within Roy's voice. She could probably see it in Oliver's eyes, too, no matter how hard he was working at trying to hide everything from her. Oliver was suddenly aware of the silence. He could hear his own breathing, loud and faster than normal. Deep to try and keep him calm. In his ears, Oliver could hear his own heart beating faster than it should be when there had been no physical exertion.

His blood stained fingers, still wet, moved to Felicity's neck to check her pulse again. Her eyes had closed, a solitary tear had already fallen and merged with the blood on her cheek. It was still there, weak, thready and slow, but it was still there. He cupped her cheek again. "Felicity," he commanded softly. "You need to wake up again."

"I don't want to," she mumbled as if she were merely sleeping. He wished that she was simply sleeping and he was trying to rouse her from a good dream, not from death's tightening grip. "I don't want to go to the Ball!"

It was just a whisper, but Oliver heard it and was further confused by her ramblings. They had been invited to the Queen's annual Autumnal Ball that morning, perhaps her blood lose was so severe that it was causing memory confusion. He needed to get her out of there.

"Felicity, I need you to wake up." His voice had a sterner tone to it, but there was still a softness. There was still compassion and sympathy. "I can't get us out of here. You can. Wake up, please."

Her eyes shot open and he smiled down at her again. "Who am I?"

"Felicity?"

She huffed out a breath which seemed to hurt, but then relief filled her face. "Thank goodness."

Her eyelids started to flutter shut again. "Felicity, how do we get out?"

"Panel. Door. My tablet."

Eyes scanning the area, Oliver saw her tablet in arm's reach and grabbed it. He looked up at the door and saw the panel, it was at shoulder height. There was no way that he could reach it without moving her, and even then, he would have to either let go of her or force her to stand. She was still bleeding too much to release the pressure on her wound. The fact that she could not feel the pressure was never going to be a good sign. If he tried to pick her up or help her to stand, the low blood levels within her would cause her to pass out immediately, which he would not risk. "Can Diggle do it from the other side?"

He knew the answer already. If Diggle could, Diggle would have been there to rescue Oliver in the first place. Slowly and painfully, Felicity shook her head from side to side once. "Only me."

"Only you," he repeated and bowed his head. She was going to die.