A/N: Oh akjfhskdgjsdgk
"We have to go to the hospital, Felicity."
"No, I don't wanna," she moaned. "I'm fine, see?" She pushed herself up, ignoring how the room spun slightly.
"I don't care how fine you think you are," he told her gruffly. "Your temperature is too high. We're going to the hospital."
"Fine," she muttered, holding on to him tightly as she swung her legs over the side of the bed.
"You need to use the bathroom?"
"Yeah," she slurred.
"Okay, I'm going to help you in there. Think you'll be okay?"
"I don't care how high my fever is, I'm not letting you see me pee, Oliver Queen."
He walked her to the bathroom, leaving once she began to glare at him, and rushed to get everything she would need for the hospital. They kept a bag packed for chemo treatments but this wasn't like chemotherapy. Figuring that he could just have someone come by and get anything that he actually did need, he dropped the bag he held unceremoniously and ran to the living room. He grabbed their phones and quickly sent a 911 text to Dig, the one thing he felt like he was doing correctly. He knew that the protocol they had set up for this was to alert both Roy and Detective Lance and meet them at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Felicity managed to use the bathroom and flush the toilet, not to mention grab her wig. If Oliver was going to make her leave her apartment, she was sure as hell not going to go out there without the only thing that made her feel better on. She stood in front of the sink, gripping it tightly, trying to ignore the shakes that were running through her body almost violently. She felt cold and hot all over and the ache in her bones was enough to make her cry, but she didn't think she could muster the energy to at that point. With trembling hands, she got her wig on, but she couldn't make out her reflection clearly in the mirror in front of her. She went to turn on the faucet to splash some water on her face, clear her eyes a bit, but her hand missed the handle and she slipped forward, almost hitting her head on the sink.
She room started spinning and black dots danced in front of her eyes.
"Oliver…"
He heard the soft thump over her cry to him. He ran to the bathroom, heart sinking as he saw her lying there on the floor.
"Fuck, fuck, Felicity, fuck, wake up!" He tilted her head to side but it simply lolled back and forth. She was still breathing, but was completely unconscious. He bent down and picked her up, carefully minding her head and limbs, unsure of what he was going to do.
Did he wait for an ambulance? Did he call Detective Lance? Did he say 'fuck it' and just drive her to the hospital himself? It took less than a second to decide on option three, taking comfort in the fact that he knew he could drive faster than any ambulance in Starling City. He gently tucked her into the mini's passenger seat, buckling her up before tearing through the streets, trying to focus on one thing, and one thing only: getting her to the hospital.
"What the hell happened?" Dig rushed through the Emergency Room doors, immediately running into Oliver who was pacing in front of the swinging doors that led to the rooms.
"I don't know!" He was damned close to whining but he was trying his best to keep it together. "They won't tell me anything!"
"Queen!" Lance ran in, looking uncharacteristically rumpled, clad in jeans and a wrinkled henley shirt. "Just saw your sister and Roy parking. What the hell is going on?"
It was almost 2 a.m. and Oliver felt like he had been up for four days straight and ran a marathon on top of it. He rubbed his face before turning to the two men that were there for the same reason he was.
"She wasn't feeling well all day, but she didn't - I was monitoring her temperature. It didn't spike until this morning, and she felt okay enough but then she was unconscious and I took her here and they took her from me and I don't know anything…"
He was vaguely aware of his words being nonsensical, but he couldn't stop seeing Felicity lying on the bathroom floor, not moving, not responding to his voice.
Suddenly there was a flying blur of brown hair and he found his baby sister in his arms, hugging him tightly.
"Is she okay? What's going on?"
"We don't know," Dig responded for Oliver, relaying all he knew to the newcomers.
"Shit," Roy mumbled, saying what was all on their minds.
Suddenly, the doors to the ER wing swung open.
"Oliver."
"Dr. Fox," Oliver breathed. "What's going on? Is she okay? Can I see her?"
"We've stabilized her," Dr. Fox explained, although he didn't look as reassuring as Oliver had hoped he would. "But her condition is still classified as very delicate."
"What. Is. Wrong. With. Her."
"She seems to have contracted an infection, and with her immune system being what it is right now, it spread rapidly and she has gone into septic shock."
"I-I-I don't know what that is," Oliver told him helplessly.
"Sepsis - think of it as whole-body inflammation due to an infection. I won't know for sure until her blood cultures come back, but I've seen it before in immunocompromised individuals. She's sedated right now and we're giving her a lot of broad spectrum antibiotics to combat this, but you have to understand that the chemo has damaged her immune system beyond what is healthy."
"Why-why-why do we have to understand that?" Lance spluttered. "You're fixing her, right? Antibiotics and all that?"
"We're moving her up to ICU and we're going to do all that we can for her, but…"
"But what?" Diggle asked.
"But it's still very touch and go right now."
"Touch and go?" Roy echoed.
"I can't give you anything more definitive until I know more. I'll have a nurse escort you all up to the ICU waiting room once she's moved and you'll be able to see her through the viewing theater. We can't allow anyone to get too close right now until her immune system is functioning at a higher level."
And he was gone.
Oliver's first instinct was to hit something - and hard. His muscles itched to, his hand was reflexively opening and closing, but he couldn't. He didn't have the luxury of letting go right now, not when everyone was looking at him like that, like he was about to break.
"Let's go," he heard himself say, herding the group towards the elevators. The ICU unit was a few floors up, he knew, and it didn't do them any good to be standing around in the ER of Starling General.
They made their way to the waiting room by the ICU, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with the other solemn patrons there. No one wanted to be in that room, waiting for news that would change their lives. No one.
"Ollie…" He turned around from his vigil against the wall, waiting to see if he'd be able to watch them bring Felicity up if she wasn't already there, and saw his little sister standing in front of him. She was wearing loose pajama pants and a tank top covered by Roy's red hoodie, which she was swimming in.
"She'll be okay, Speedy. I know she will."
"How?" She cried, twisting the long sleeves around her arms. "How do you know that? The doctor made it sound like...made it sound like..."
He grabbed her tight and held her to his chest, letting her cry out her fears and worries. "Because she's Felicity. She's not going anywhere. There's a lot more stuff that she wanted to do, and she wouldn't leave the world like that. She wouldn't leave us like that."
He rocked Thea gently for a few more long minutes before she got herself together enough to go sit with Roy, who looked suitably lost. They held each other's hands tightly, not saying a word, just holding onto that connection between the two of them. It hurt Oliver's heart to see that.
"Lyla's on her way," Dig told him quietly. "Figured she should be here…"
"That's good, man. I'm glad."
"You don't have to be here, you know." Oliver's head shot up. What exactly did Dig mean by that? "I just mean - if you have to go, if you have to...I know you, Oliver, and I know you want to hit something right now."
"I can't leave."
Dig nodded at that. "If you need to, just let me know. Security is about a half hour out."
Oliver was barely aware of any other words that might have been said to him as he spotted a team of five nurses and doctors carting a bed to a room. Felicity. His Felicity. He moved almost robotically down the hall, stopping in front of the huge window that opened to Felicity's room. Someone must have spotted him because after a few words from a doctor, they opened the curtains more fully, in order for Oliver to have an unobstructed view. She looked so...different. She hadn't looked this vulnerable even after her major surgery. She was pale and somehow looked thinner than she had earlier that day, and there was a goddamn tube down her throat to help with breathing. This wasn't the Felicity that Oliver knew and loved. This was someone else.
"Mr. Queen?" Dr. Fox was suddenly next to him. "I need to go over some things with you, as her health care proxy. It won't take that long, I just need to talk to you with the trauma team."
"Yeah, of course, of...yeah. Sure." He stepped away from the window, away from her. He didn't want to look away for fear that when he came back, she might not be there.
"I'll stay with her, son." Quentin Lance appeared in front of him. "Go talk to the doc. I'll stay."
He wasn't sure if he even said thank you.
He tried his hardest to pay attention to everything the doctors were saying, but he had to admit that it was more than a little difficult. He was signing papers and agreeing to things he felt like he had no right to be agreeing to; it shouldn't have been his decision as to what medicines went inside Felicity, that was her choice. Her choice that she couldn't make right then because she was unconscious. He walked back in a sort of stupor to the waiting room, giving a half smile to Lyla who was sitting by Dig's side, rubbing his back idly.
"What now?" Roy asked softly.
"We wait."
Oliver Queen had never been a patient man.
It was about 8 a.m. when a thought occurred to him and he sat straight up in the uncomfortable chair in the waiting room.
"What's wrong?" Dig kept his voice quiet, as Thea and Roy had curled up into a fitful sleep on the nearby couch and Lyla's head rested gently on his shoulder, eyes closed.
"I...I need to talk to Lance."
"He's making calls at the other end of the hall."
Oliver silently got out of his chair and made his way down the hall, nodding at the suited man that was now standing sentry at the door to Felicity's room.
He was talking softly on the phone, but ended the conversation as soon as he saw Oliver approach.
"Just clearing my schedule is all. Any news?"
He shook his head. "I need to talk to you."
"Okay...about what?"
"I didn't know who else to talk to about it - and I'm not even sure, I just don't know what to do…"
"Spit it out, Queen."
"Shouldn't I be calling Felicity's mom?"
"Oh." Lance's face fell with the implications of that. "She hasn't told…?"
"No."
"Oh, man."
It gave Oliver a strange sense of muted pleasure to see the detective look just as conflicted as he felt. He wasn't alone in this anymore.
"As a parent, I'd want to know, but…"
"But Felicity hasn't told her for a reason. And I don't want to break that trust."
Quentin Lance let out a low breath. What a clusterfuck this was, and it had only just started. He wished he knew what to tell the kid in front of him who looked so overwhelmed with every second that passed, but he didn't have any words of wisdom for this situation.
"What are you gonna do, kid?"
"Wait it out, I guess. If she doesn't -" He swallowed thickly. "If things don't start looking up, I'll call. I have to."
"Okay." He looked at him curiously. "You're not alone in this, Queen. That entire waiting room over there is filled with people who want to help you. Don't forget that."
Oliver hung around for another hour or two before yet another stray thought occurred to him.
"I didn't grab her tablet."
The group was indulging in terrible hospital vending machine coffee in the waiting room, crowded around one of the tables that had an assortment of donuts on it, courtesy of Lyla's earlier trip.
"Hmm?" Dig looked across the table at him.
"Her tablet. If she wakes up and doesn't have it within reach..."
"Think she'll understand that you were in a bit of a rush," Lance commented wryly.
"No," Oliver muttered softly, almost to himself. "I have to go get it."
"I can go," Roy offered. "If you want."
"No...I...I'm gonna…" He stood abruptly. He couldn't explain why it was suddenly so important to him, or why he had to go get it just then, when Felicity was still fighting for her life in the nearby room, but he just knew that he didn't have a choice. He had to get it for her.
While everyone else looked perplexed at the sudden change in Oliver's mood, Dig just nodded resolutely. He tossed him the keys to the town car.
"Take Ballard. He's stationed down by the elevators. I parked out front."
"It was pretty quiet when I got back," Lyla volunteered. "You should be good to get out unnoticed."
He nodded his thanks and took off down the hall, confident that he was making the right decision. He was absorbed in thoughts about where the tablet was in the apartment - he didn't think it had made it to her bedroom the afternoon before, after their QC outing, and he thought he had spied it on the end table in the living room, but he wasn't sure.
A true testament to how lost in thought he was, he didn't even notice until it was too late. Suddenly, he was bombarded with shouts and lights and camera flashes. He was aware of Ballard's arm on his chest, slowing down his progress and shielding him from some of the more unruly photographers, but nothing was comprehensible.
Finally, the words began to become unmuddled, the sounds became more than just a cacophony of noises.
"Mr. Queen, who was she?"
"Mr. Queen, are you being treated here?"
"Oliver, was it Thea? Was it your sister and her friend that ended up here?"
"Mr. Queen, was she drugged?"
"Oliver, did she have too much to drink? Was she at your club, Verdant?"
He allowed Ballard to push him back into the hospital, the automatic doors sliding closed and effectively silencing the crowd. Lyla had said that everything was quiet - what had changed? How had anyone found out?
"Get them out of here," he growled to Ballard, who nodded curtly and took off towards the uniformed hospital security guards that were standing nearby. He turned to go back to the elevator and was acutely aware of the camera phones that had been taken out among the many that were sitting in the ER waiting room, monitoring his every move. Careful to give nothing away, he schooled his face to a blank mask and silently made his way back to the ICU floor.
"That was fast," Roy commented as he saw Oliver walk purposefully towards the waiting room. Dig and Lance, on the other hand, noticed his mood and posture immediately.
"What's wrong?" Dig stood instantly. "Where's Ballard?"
"Ballard is dealing with the news crews that have taken up residence outside the hospital."
"I'll call the PD," Lance said instantly, standing and pulling out his phone.
"What happened? What changed?" Oliver questioned the room at large.
"There was no one when I left at around 9," Lyla repeated. "Not even a news van."
"Well, they're here now. I want to know why."
"I think I know why…" Thea spoke up, holding her cell phone. "You're on the cover of every single Starling City gossip rag."
"What?" He grabbed the phone out of Thea's hand and scrolled down. Sure enough, the picture that was dominating the news cycle was of him carrying an unconscious Felicity into the ER and of the subsequent transfer of her to a gurney, and then a bevy of shots of a very emotional Oliver Queen prior to being greeted by Dig and Detective Lance.
While he was looking through Thea's phone, Roy had turned on the TV in the corner of the room that until then had remained off.
"In breaking news, Oliver Queen was spotted bringing in what looked to be an unconscious woman to Starling General's ER early this morning. Witnesses say that he was visibly distraught, with some suggesting that he needed to be sedated. Inside sources say the female is now in the Intensive Care Unit, with KBTV having the exclusive photo to prove it."
A photograph flashed onto the screen. It was of Felicity, taken from the window outside her room, showing the girl laid out and vulnerable on the bed, attached to all of her monitors. Oliver, who had grabbed the remote out of Roy's hands to turn up the volume, threw it against the wall, watching it shatter satisfyingly.
"The hell kind of security is this, Diggle?" His voice was eerily calm.
"We don't know when that photo was taken, Oliver."
"The hell we don't, we have been sitting here the entire time. I was watching the entire time before security showed up!"
"Just like you were watching your surroundings downstairs, when you brought Felicity in?" Dig wasn't trying to be unkind, he was just trying to get the man to see reason. "You didn't see that person take photos of your downstairs either. So you missed something. It happens. No one here blames you except for you."
Oliver blew out a frustrated breath, pacing the small waiting room.
"Until we know when that photo was taken, I'm not risking yelling at two of our best security guys for fucking up. As far as we know, that was taken the second she was brought up here. She still has her wig on in that photo, and you and I both know that they didn't let that last very long. Let's just work from there, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Oliver acquiesced. "Is there anyway we can know who took the pictures?"
"I can try, but…" The unspoken words were left hanging. The only person who could definitely find out the origin of that picture was currently in a medically induced coma twenty yards down the hall.
"You guys are taking this really seriously," Thea commented.
"She didn't want anyone to know, Thea," Oliver explained. "Her mom doesn't even know. If they find out who she is and this is made public knowledge...she just wanted to have a low profile. Me being here is going to attract nothing but attention and speculation."
"Okay, sure. Yeah, I get it. What can I do?"
He was so very proud of his little sister in that moment.
"Uh, stay here? I know you've got the club tonight, on a Friday, but -"
"No worries. Megan can handle it. Roy can go get me some clothes," she volunteered him with a sweet smile.
"Roy can go get everybody some clothes," Oliver instructed, grateful that the boy just agreed without putting up a fight. "And don't forget Felicity's tablet."
He nodded seriously before disappearing down the hall.
"Dig, you and Lyla want to go see if you can figure out who knows what about this?"
"Sure thing, boss." And they too were gone.
Before Oliver could say something vaguely reassuring to his sister, Detective Lance reappeared.
"I've got Starling PD down there trying to disperse the crowd and trying to make sure no more information is leaked. You got your guys working on it too?"
"Yeah, Dig is going to see what he can find out. Thea, maybe you should call mom? Let her know not to worry."
She nodded and hurried off down the hall to make the call in private. Oliver took that time to sink into the closest seat, burying his head in his hands.
"It had to happen sometime, kid."
"Of all the days, though…"
"Yeah, of all the days."
Detective Lance rested a hand on Oliver's shoulder, offering him all the strength he could.
A/N2: Not the easy resolution that I'm sure some had hoped for, but it raaaaarely is when you get an infection like this. Like I mentioned last chapter, other things will take a bit longer to be resolved with Felicity's health taking priority - Laurel, for instance, and now we've got some picture drama and Oliver is STRUGGLING. Poor guy. If it seemed like he was handling everything really well before, well - everyone just pull up a chair and get ready to see what is to come!