When they reached the building, Diggle remained in the car whilst Oliver, suited up as The Hood, approached the building. There was someone waiting at the front door. Oliver raised his bow immediately.

"Kill me and she dies, Vigilante."

He lowered his aim, but kept the bow out. His reaction time had not been fast enough before and he would not let it be a problem again.

"You got the files?" Oliver nodded and the man held his hand out.

"Not until I see the girl."

"Show me a file first." Oliver passed one file over, the man read it over and then nodded, handing it back. "Seventh floor, west side of the building. There'll be someone there waiting for the files." Nodding, Oliver continued into the building. The west side overlooked the water, leaving escape to be a problem if he was walking into a trap.

"Diggle," Oliver said into his earwig. "Are you in?" Covertly, Diggle should have found a second entrance and be making his way through the building. If it was Cellino that wanted answers then he would need to leave the building somehow. Hopefully Diggle would prevent that.

"Yep, finding a secondary route to the seventh floor."

The entire seventh floor was open plan, and devoid of furniture with just some odd bits of debris scattered around. Except for on the west side in the far corner there was a small office with one boarded up window. It had probably been the floor manager's office back in the day. Quietly, but feeling incredibly exposed Oliver made his way across the abandoned floor and listened at the door. He could hear breathing on the other side of it, rapid and shallow; Felicity was afraid. Turning the handle, Oliver pushed the door open with his bow and saw Felicity sitting in the middle of the room, gagged and tied to a chair. There was a couch to her left and a desk to her right, but there was no one else in there.

She was shaking her head and mumbling something through the gag at him so he moved to her and knelt down in front of her. Dropping the bow to remove her gag.

"It's a trap!" She nodded her head behind him and he turned immediately seeing the explosives lining the wall and the timer which had twelve seconds left on it.

"Dig, get out!" he commanded, pulling her to her feet with the chair still tied to her. He dragged her to the boarded up external window, one hand around her arm as she could barely stand and his other hand holding his bow.

"Oliver, we're on the seventh floor!"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes, but seven!"

"Then trust me."

And he jumped, pulling her with him.

ARROW-HOOD-QUEEN

As they flew through the air, his hands kept a tight grip on her and his bow. He looked down and watched as the water approached. The impact was going to hurt. As she fell downwards, she kept her eyes tightly shut and wanted to flail her limbs around, but they were still tied to the chair. Moments before the impact, the building exploded from the seventh floor upwards and debris began to rain down around them. As they hit the water, the chair broke from the force and he lost his grip on his bow, pulling her down with him as he sought to swim deeper. Her lungs burnt with the energy expenditure as she attempted to fight against him to swim upwards to air. Her hands were still tied together behind her back, his hand gripped tightly on her arm, making her escape to the surface impossible.

His swimming made them change direction, but the lack of oxygen was making her confused. She thought he was swimming away from the building and the explosion, away from the debris, but her brain could barely think anything. His head broke the surface of the water a fraction of a second before hers did. As he began swimming to the opposite shore, he pulled her on to him and backstroked his way to dry land. She coughed and spluttered as they moved and Oliver did register the fact that she was clearly alive. Once at the side, he dragged her up and out of the water, sitting her up to remove the ropes around her wrists. He set about untying her ankles as she rubbed at her sore wrists, coughing up some of the water she had swallowed, and stared at the collapsing building.

"He said he'd make sure he got the truth out of me."

He followed her gaze and his hood fell down from atop his head.

"He didn't believe me and he said he knew The Vigilante would come, that he would destroy The Vigilante, the files and the woman who ruined his carpet."

"He didn't believe what?" Oliver asked, sitting next to her and putting an arm around her as she shivered without even really noticing.

"That I was mugged and not in his house. He was adamant I'd been with you in his home, stealing the files and almost dying. I was the only person admitted into hospital with a gunshot wound that night."

Oliver cursed himself for that mistake. "You lied to him?"

She met his eyes as they looked at each other, his arm around her shoulders and only a few inches separating their cold faces. "Is that surprise in your voice?"

"Pride. You lied for me."

"I lie for you every day, Oliver."

"But you lied under duress."

"I'm cold." She turned away from him and he brought her closer to him, her head resting against his shoulder.

"Diggle will be here soon." He hoped anyway. "Did they, did they hurt you?"

"Not really," she shook her head. "I was lucky." She laughed. "But I think we missed the Ball."

"We'll use pneumonia as our excuse. My Mom should forgive us that."

"As long as we can have some time off work to snuggle up in a cosy, warm bed and enjoy chicken soup until we're warm again." She tried to pull away from him and sit up straight. "By we, I mean you and I separately, of course, not together, in separate beds, in our own homes. Alone."

"I know what you mean." He chuckled and she relaxed back into him. "And I'll take you to the next Ball."

"Promises, promises."