I hate spoilers myself with a passion, but I feel like starting with one of those and a challenge. So if you haven't seen episode five of season three yet, skip this first paragraph. Because I need to ask: What was your favorite little detail about this episode? The one thing that was completely irrelevant to the plot, but still awesome? To me it was the Robin Hood poster in Felicity's living room. That really made me laugh. ;-) I also tried to come up with a short fic that explained where Felicity learned those self-defense moves. Until now I haven't managed to create anything I'd dare to post. But if any of you has an idea - consider yourself challenged.

But now on to more pressing matters, which are actually pretty easily summed up. I love you – in a very platonic, but still very passionate way. You are amazing and I cannot thank you enough for the wonderful reviews. They mean the word to me. Thank you: sakura-blossom62, Jessimicah, schrooten5, lizb1813, onetreefan, vituska7, cruzstar, ReaderKas, lovelove94, 11-Dino, NorthernLights25, ChaleseWinchester789, TygTag, LanchesisBenton, Yelena89, KillingMEsoftly, CJ and the guest. A big thank you also to all the people who started following this story after the last chapter!

I hope all of you enjoy this!

9. Last words in moments of uncertain death

Water should be the best thing for two dirty and thirsty people to find on a deserted island. But this here proved: There could be too much of a good thing. Oliver let his eyes wander over the river that was streaming past them. It was wide, at least ten meters, and its current was very strong. The surface was unsteady, slight waves were visible and the blue was speckled with white where the water broke. That explained why the map they had acquired ended by the river: Crossing it was something only people with suicidal tendencies would attempt.

He shielded his eyes from the rays of sunlight reflected by the water surface to glance at the other bank. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary – grass and more trees, always more trees –, still, he couldn't shake off the feeling that they needed to get to the other side. The only question was how they should do that while avoiding the danger of one of them being swept away by the water.

They were following the river for two hours now – upstream as Oliver had decided in hopes that it might get smaller. Until now it hadn't.

"How much longer 'til we give crossing a try?" Felicity asked from his right.

The question was her version of 'Are we there yet?' She was repeatedly asking him that every twenty minutes. Still, he tried to keep from snapping at her, he clung to his patience as he said, "It's still not a good idea to try that."

"Oliver, this is our ninth day without a shower. And I know that peeing in the woods comes naturally for men, but wom-"

"Felicity!" He couldn't cling anymore, his patience was used up. "I am aware of the fact that you feel dirty. You happen to have mentioned that. A lot! We are also running low on drinking water, which is a more pressing matter than the fact that your hair is not as shiny as it usually is. We will NOT get into the river, because the current is way too strong!"

She huffed next to him, but said nothing. They continued walking in silence. The sun was shining from the perfectly blue sky. For once it was pleasantly warm, which had resulted in Felicity wrapping the stolen sweater around her hips and made it more bearable that she was walking barefoot. Felicity had thrown the socks out yesterday. They had practically consisted of holes and dirt. Her first action afterward had been to catch a splinter. Now she was walking with the faintest limb and still refusing to take his shoes. She was so goddamn stubborn he wanted to shake her. He, of course, didn't. Instead, he had decided that next time he won a fight on this godforsaken island he would remember to take his opponent's shoes.

It had been three days since they had last been faced with their gun-wielding pursuers. Oliver didn't trust this sudden peace, he couldn't believe that they had actually shaken them off. He was always alert, watching for hints that they were followed, especially when they were as visible as they were here by the river, which was flowing quickly next to them. The sound of the gurgling water was mixing with the wind moving through the trees and a few birds calling out. It would be nice, if the circumstances weren't so bad.

Suddenly, Felicity's voice cut into his thoughts and demanded his full attention. "It's been two days since we started dating and we-" She stopped right there, when she noticed his reaction and looked at him honestly consternated, "Are you laughing at me?"

"No." Still, there was a smile playing around his lips as he now met her eyes. "I just wouldn't call it 'dating.' I think we're way past dating."

"You think?"

"I do."

She thought for a moment. "Well, I guess that's a good thing. Considering we're on a dangerous island. I mean, where would we go on a date? It's not like the mercenaries' camp has good service."

"They had a camp stove and metallic pods."

She pursed her lips to stress her teasing, "Oliver Queen, you know how to win a girl's heart."

He just smirked and said nothing to that, letting her have the last word. He felt a happy warmth inside him. She did that to him; in the middle of the most impossible situation she lifted his spirits and made him smile. The fact that they could be here on this island – running out of water and not knowing where to go exactly, being hungry and dirty – and share a laugh despite all of that, made him feel like they could conquer anything. With her by his side he could do it. And he knew that not even their volatile tempers could change that.

He let his eyes wander over the scenery again. "So," he picked up the conversation, while he watched the nearby trees, "we're past dating for two days..."

"Yes, we-" She stopped walking and talking as her eyes snapped to him. Oliver understood why she was reacting like that; he had heard it, too. Instinctively, he stepped closer to her. His face turned hard from one moment to the next, his eyes were still glued to their surroundings. That had sounded like birds fleeing, a huge number of them had left the trees and flown upwards with alarming cries. It had come from his left, but now he also heard something from his right. He couldn't see anybody yet, but he knew right then that he had been right: They hadn't shaken their pursuers off.

"How I hate it when you're right."

He kept from nodding to Felicity's muttered statement. As true as it might be, he had other things on his mind; things, like deciding what their next best move was. First, he reached for the gun he had tucked into his waistband with his right while using his left to direct Felicity to stand behind him.

"Denk nicht mal dran zu springen. Wir haben deinen Kopf im Visier!"

The shout came from somewhere to his left and Oliver wondered if that guy would ever learn that it just wasn't smart to do things for show only. He was giving up his position, because he was trying to intimidate them by talking in a language neither of them understood. That it was an intimidating-tactic – Oliver was sure of that. The German was putting on a show; he thought he was so cool.

He was an idiot.

Sadly, even an idiot could get a lucky shot. Sadly, Oliver had nobody to really aim at. As he had told Felicity, aiming was the most important thing. If you shoot at an enemy, you want to hit him – generally and especially when you're on an island with very, very limited ammunition. Oliver knew that he had to make every shot count.

"What do you what?" Oliver yelled back. It was an attempt to play for time as much as it was a try to distract their opponent who obviously liked to talk – and when he talked he kept from shooting.

Laughter was the first answer. It fit the idiot perfectly, Oliver thought; it was another showy mannerism, another cheap cliché to prove how much he had this situation under control and that they were at his mercy. "From you? Nothing." The accent was thick. His struggles with the 'th' were confirming Oliver's theory that these people were Germans. But at least he now understood what the other one was saying. And right now he said, "Just give us the girl and you can go."

Oliver felt his blood freeze and Felicity stiffen behind him. This guy had to be fucking kidding him! Oliver's face had hardened as soon as he noticed that their pursuers had caught up with them, but now his expression turned into stone. "That won't be happening," he spat and tightened the grip on the gun.

"Oh, we can let it happen!"

The first guy in a black cargo-outfit appeared in Oliver's line of sight. Not hesitating, Oliver pressed the trigger with the calculating precision he had learned in the last years. He fired once and hit the man square in the chest. A second man stepped from behind a tree and Oliver fired again. Suddenly he felt Felicity stuff something into the side pocket of the backpack. He couldn't let it distract him – the second man went down –, not when he had exactly fifteen, no, fourteen bullets left in his gun. The third shot brought the third hit, but before Oliver could land the fourth, the others started shooting back. A bullet flew dangerously close by Oliver's head. He had stood upright all this time, shielding Felicity with his body, but he knew it was only a matter of time until the first bullet would hit him and then he would be no use in protecting her.

This here, he knew, was certain death. He knew he had to choose uncertain death.

He turned around quickly, forcefully, and grabbed Felicity. When she jumped with him, he realized that she had anticipated his next action. They crashed into the river and instantly the current grabbed them, pulled them under water and took them with it.

Water was all around them, for a moment Oliver wasn't sure which side was up as he tumbled around; but then he felt ground under his feet and pushed himself off. Oliver held on to Felicity as tightly as he could. They both broke the surface and gasped for air. Felicity coughed, which only caused her to swallow more water. She angled her head so it was over water and managed to take a deep breath through her nose. Only after that did Oliver dare to take his eyes off her. He struggled to turn around, but he didn't see any angry men in black clothes standing by the river. They were already too far away from the spot where they had jumped in.

The current was tearing at them, dragging them along, mercilessly. Suddenly, Oliver felt a pull at his feet, it was too strong for him to do anything against it. He didn't even try to fight it, instead let himself be pulled to the ground. He took Felicity with him, still not daring to let go. Again, he felt his feet touch ground, bent his knees and pushed himself off, upward, away from the pull. It worked. They reached the surface again, water gurgling aggressively around them.

Oliver was just getting air into his lunges, when it was knocked right out of him again. Pain shot through him as his left side connected with a rock. The shock and the acute pain caused him to loosen his grip on Felicity the tiniest bit. It was enough for her to slip from his grasp. No, no, NO! He ignored the pain that was spreading from his ribs through his body and stretched his hand out toward her, straining to reach her. He saw her do the same, struggling against the power of the water to take his hand. There, nearly there! Only the tiniest gap was separating them, he felt hope, but then he felt himself being pulled under again. This time he really had to push down the instinct to struggle against the downward pull. For a third time he went down and came back up again. When his head broke the water surface, he looked around instantly. He couldn't see her. Panic slowly rising, he trashed around the water. This couldn't be happening! She wasn't there! "Felicity!" he yelled against the crashing water and again, "FELICITY!" There was no answer. Panic took an even stronger hold of him and no matter how well he knew that this wasn't helping, he couldn't help it. "FELICITY!"

"OLIVER!" There, he had heard her. And then he saw her. She was awkwardly holding on to a rock a little further down. He was quickly pulled toward her.

He struggled to get closer to her position and got ready to grab her outstretched arm. Relief crashed through him, when he felt his hand close around her wrist just as hers closed around his. Her nails dug into his skin as she held on to him with all the strength she could muster. He held on tightly too and pulled himself toward her. How she managed to cling to the rock, he had no idea, but she did. She looked at him, blinking against the water in her eyes, and strangely the first thing that entered his mind was that she had lost her glasses. Not that it mattered; nothing mattered as long as she was still fine and with him. He felt like hugging her, but it wasn't the time for that. The safety of dry land was barely one meter away. He watched the bank and their surroundings carefully, then he looked back at her. "We'll push off this rock and then we need to try to get closer to the bank. There's a low hanging branch about twenty meters farther down, I'll try to grab it, okay?"

"Okay."

He hesitated for a moment. She had slipped through his fingers and out of his reach before. He couldn't stop his mind from going there, from contemplating that it might happen again and that the last words he then would have said to her were 'I'll try to grab it, okay?' He looked at her. "I love you."

She had been trying to make out the branch he was talking about, but now her eyes snapped to him. She tried the smallest smile in the middle of the water tearing at her and pressing her against the rock. "And I love you."

He took another second to enjoy this sentence that still was so excitingly new coming from her, before he did as he had told her before. His grip on her wrist was tight as he let go of the rock. Swimming while holding on to each other wasn't easy, but with forceful kicks they managed to not just be pulled along by the water but to get a little closer to the bank. The branch was getting closer and closer and closer and… His hand closed around it. The current was still pulling them along and Oliver just prayed that the branch could handle their combined weight dragged along by the water. He nearly held his breath as he waited for the snap to come. He waited and waited and...

"I guess we didn't drown, again," Felicity sounded pleased, "cool."