Thanks for everything you guys are AMAZING!
Thanks to Niagaraweasel for translate and for the awesome present. I love Chocolate and this special Arrow one shot chocolate is so cool. ;)
Felicity woke up from a strange beeping sound. Where was she? Slowly she opened her eyes. The light was so bright that it took her eyes a moment to adjust to it. Was she dead? Was this heaven? No, it couldn't be, heaven was supposed to be quiet and peaceful, not filled with an annoying beep-beep-beep. She tried to sit up, but something was holding on to her hand. Slowly she turned her head to the side and looked down. Oliver was sleeping in a chair directly beside her bed, his fingers tightly clasped around her hand. A smile appeared on her lips. She was alive and he had found her. After a closer look she noticed that he looked tired and unshaven. Even in sleep he seemed tense and restless, like the Oliver of the past, the one haunted by nightmares of the island.
Carefully she stroked his hand with her free one. Oliver jerked upright. Felicity hadn't expected a reaction like that and reflexively sat up, making a sharp, stabbing pain shoot through her entire body. "Owwww, damn…"
"Felicity, I'm sorry, I…." Oliver began, but Felicity raised her hand to let him know that she was okay and that the pain was already receding. Oliver stroked her hair, placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and gave her a smile. "I'm glad I have you back."
Felicity returned his smile. "How did I get here?"
Oliver dropped down into the chair again. "We searched the forest with infrared cameras and Lance's search teams. Diggle got a map from Lyla, showing the location of all the huts, which made the search easier." Oliver rubbed his hands across his face. "They found you unconscious and tied up on a bed. The paramedics and a doctor were already there when we arrived. I gave the doctor the antidote. Thank God it was the right one, but after they had injected you with it…" Oliver lowered his eyes.
Felicity took his hand. "Oliver, I'm here and I'm alive." She knew that he felt guilty that she had been abducted and that he hadn't been the first one to get to her.
The CEO looked up again at Felicity with glassy eyes. "Felicity, after they had given you the antidote, you went into an anaphylactic shock. They had to reanimate you. I….I thought I had lost you forever. How could I have explained that to our daughter?" Tears were running down Oliver's face as he spoke. "I survived a shipwreck, repeated capture and serious injuries. I fought against supersoldiers, but I couldn't protect the woman I love more than anything."
Felicity swallowed hard. "Oliver, I'm here, you don't have to explain anything."
He showed no reaction to her words, but instead kept talking in a flat, toneless voice. "It took almost two minutes before the monitor showed a heartbeat again. To be on the safe side, the doctors put you into an artificial coma for three days, but when they tried to bring you out of it again, you just didn't wake up. They said that your body and your mind needed more time to rest and heal."
Felicity felt hot and cold. Not only she had gone through hell, but her husband as well. Just like her he had suffered physically and emotionally.
"How long?" she asked in a thin voice.
"Five endless days", Oliver said.
"Five days", Felicity repeated. Five days of which she had not a single memory. "Have you been here the whole time?"
Oliver nodded silently.
Of course, she thought. From the way he looked she hadn't expected anything else. Oliver was only a shadow of his old self. Tears pooled in her eyes. The pain in his voice and in his eyes broke her heart. "I am so terribly sorry, Oliver, I…."
"You don't have to apologize for anything, Felicity. You're the victim here, you have gone through hell. It's just so damn different now that we're married and have a daughter", Oliver interrupted her.
Felicity looked at him, confused.
"It's so hard for me to control my emotions and think clearly. I have always worried about you and tried to protect you and every time it didn't work, I blamed myself. But this time it was different. I couldn't think clearly, every call that came tore out my heart, it was as if I was dying. I love you and our daughter so much and to lose one of you…I realized I wouldn't be able to survive. This feeling of vulnerability is something I have to get used to."
"It's no different for me, Oliver", Felicity answered. "I have never been more afraid in my life than at the thought that I would never see the two of you again. But I'm here and I'm alive, Oliver, so please let's not waste our time together with what if…"
She looked at him with hopeful eyes and Oliver had to smile. This was one of the reasons he loved her so much – she could always lead him away from the dark places in his life and back to the light.
There was a knock on the door. Oliver wiped the tears from his face and went to open it. Moira and Thea with Abigail on her arm came into the room.
"Hey, my little princess." Oliver reached out to take his daughter, but Thea stopped him. "Good heavens, Oliver, go home and take a shower. You really smell and I just gave Abigail a bath."
Oliver threw his sister a stern look. "Forget it, that look doesn't work on me", his little sister said, grinning at him, and walked past him with Abigail to Felicity's bedside. "Look who's awake, Abigail, your mommy."
Carefully Felicity reached out and took her daughter. The little girl immediately began to gurgle happily.
"She missed you so much, and I did too. Shit, Lizzy, I was so afraid for you." Tears flooded Thea's eyes.
"I am glad as well that you are finally back with us", Moira said, coming over to Felicity's bedside with Oliver.
"Believe me, I am, too." Felicity looked down at her peacefully resting daughter. Abby had immediately closed her eyes and fallen asleep in her mother's arms.
"Maybe we can lure Oliver out of your room now," Thea said and looked at her brother with a grin. Oliver threw her another warning look.
"He hasn't left the room since you were brought in. If we hadn't brought him food and drinks, you'd have found only a skeleton at your side when you woke up."
"Thea, stop talking, you're just upsetting her", her big brother threw in.
Felicity watched the two of them with a smile. She knew that Oliver had spent every free second at her bedside, that was just typical of him.
"He hasn't showered or shaved in the last few days. He doesn't look like a billionaire, more like a homeless person." Thea pulled a face.
"Thea…." Moira now said, firmly, but she had a hard time to suppress a smile.
"I don't care if he sat here for ten days unshowered and unshaved, I just love him." Felicity looked at her husband with soft eyes as she said it.
Oliver leaned over his wife and placed a kiss on her forehead. "I love you too, babe."
"Oh my God, you two really deserve each other. You should do a reality TV show about your love. You know, I have a friend who…."
"Thea!" Oliver and Felicity said simultaneously.
Thea raised her hand in a gesture of innocence. "Okay, okay, it was just a thought…"
Moira finally put her foot down. "That's enough, you three. Felicity still needs a lot of rest and not reality TV. I would say Thea, you take Abby and Oliver home with you." Oliver was just about to say something, but one look from his mother shut him up. "No argument, Oliver, you don't quite look like a homeless person – yet -, but I don't want to let it get that far. Go home with Thea, take a shower and sleep for a few hours. I will stay here with Felicity and when you get back we can swap."
"Moira, that's not necessary, really. I'll be alright for a few hours alone", Felicity said.
"I don't want any argument from you either. I like spending time with you, you're a part of the family." Moira gave her a smile and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I organized a TV set and a DVD player, and once the other two are gone, Diggle will bring us ice cream, popcorn and a couple of movies."
Whoever said anything against mothers-in-law obviously doesn't know mine, Felicity thought. Oliver and Thea must have inherited their big hearts from her.
Oliver was reluctant to say goodbye to Felicity, but he was powerless against his mother. So the Queen children left the hospital and Moira settled in for a DVD marathon with her daughter in law.