Chapter 13: Sepsis
The first second brought shock. The next brought denial and sharp anger.
Oliver drew his body up and glowered at Dr. Henson. He spat, "I thought you said the goal was to put off a diagnosis of AIDs for as long as possible? You said you thought we could do that for a year or more! It hasn't even been a month since then!"
Dr. Henson didn't try to defend himself. He said earnestly, eyes sympathetic, "I am so sorry."
"What does that mean?" Felicity asked, voice quaking from behind Oliver's back.
"I've explained to Thea in the past that developing AIDs is a marker for disease progression and severity. It is serious, but it isn't hopeless. We have better pharmacological responses for opportunistic infections than we ever have before, and we have protocols to keep her healthy and active for as long as we possibly can."
"Does she look active and healthy to you?" Oliver demanded furiously, waving his hand towards Thea's bed.
Dr. Henson nodded. "I understand that this isn't the time or place to have any kind of discussion about next steps. For now, your sister is in good hands with Dr. Nash. He will keep me updated, and I will plan to make myself available to talk with Thea when she is ready."
After repeating his sympathies for Thea's AIDs diagnosis, Dr. Henson stepped quietly out of the room, leaving behind stunned silence.
The fuzzy feeling Oliver had experienced at Thea's clinic visit was back in full force. The sound of the machines monitoring Thea lost their sharpness and became muffled. As his head turned, his vision seemed to double, not lining up quite right.
His mind churned, remembering the dire warnings that AIDs still meant three-year average survivorship, malnutrition, brain damage, and more. Oliver's eyes fell onto Thea. No.
Oliver felt a hand grasp at his arm and he jerked away. He glanced over to see Felicity looking back at him with hurt from reddened, damp eyes. The idea of being comforted by his wife was completely repulsive at the moment. Imagining being touched, or hugged, made his skin feel on fire.
Oliver's eyes darted to Laurel, who had fallen back into her seat and was holding both hands over her mouth like she was trying to hold in a cry. The beeping of the machines sounded incessant and Felicity was saying his name.
"I need air," Oliver said sharply. He turned without looking back and shoved open the door to Thea's room.
In a daze, Oliver found himself in a cab heading for City Hall.
Oliver stepped out of the cab, taking a moment to steady his footing, and then strode inside, giving a mumbled greeting to the security guard as he tossed his keys into the small tub, pushing it through the x-ray machine before stepping through the metal detector. Grabbing his keys, Oliver strode down the hall.
Until last night when he was speaking to Laurel, Oliver had been unaware that Thea and Lance had been working on building the cases against Thea's abusers in Lance's deputy mayor's office. But Laurel had specifically said that she and Josh picked Thea up from City Hall.
The halls were quiet, and a glance at his watch told Oliver why: it was the middle of the morning briefing, held in the main board room. Oliver had called off work to Alex and Lance as soon as Thea had been somewhat stabilized that morning. No one would be looking for him.
Oliver reached Lance's empty office. Tugging open desk drawers and scanning through folders on his desk, Oliver tore the space apart, looking for any hint of Thea's case. In frustration, Oliver stood up straight. He took a few slow breaths to center himself. Then he started again. Oliver stepped away from the desk and looked over the room searching for anything out of place.
Working his eyes up and down, Oliver noticed more wear on the carpet on the right side of the room. He turned to look at the wear-patterns. The carpet was faded in an area away from the desk, chairs, or any other furniture.
Oliver stepped forward and felt along the paneling which covered the wall. He knocked lightly and noted the sound was more solid than the typical drywall over 2x4s should have.
Oliver began gripping around, pressing in some areas, pulling in others. With a sharp "schnick" sound, a panel came lose in Oliver's hand. Holding onto the panel, Oliver peered into the space behind to see a photograph of a set of eyes staring back. Oliver made short work of the other panels and stood back to take in a murder board.
Behind the false wall was a corkboard covering nearly the entire length of the room, with five pinned names that Oliver had burned into his memory: Paul Smith, Nathan Petty, Alex Neuman, Seth Aubrey, and Tyler Schuler. He had the same list tucked away in the Bunker. Under each name were lists of men sharing those names along with their dates of birth, addresses, and phone numbers. There were also photocopies of lined notebook pages filled with childish handwriting – Oliver's heart pounded as he recognized Thea's handwriting. Her journal entries. There were other photos too, these were smaller. Arranged by date, they showed male body parts, but no faces. With a shock of horror, Oliver realized that the photos looked so unsettling because, in each one, large sections were blurred out. These were the photos of Thea.
Oliver had to fight for air for a moment. As he steadied, forcing the rage aside so he could focus, Oliver was drawn to the largest photo – an enlarged driver's license photo, hanging underneath the name "Seth Aubrey".
Lance and Thea had done it. They had identified one of their perps.
Oliver pulled out his phone and quickly snapped pictures of the board and then neatly replaced the wall panels.
An hour later, Oliver was poring over information on Seth Aubrey on Felicity's computer terminal in the Bunker. Spread across the screens, were the images from Thea and Lance's perp board, zoomed in on the details in Thea's journal which Cisco had used to vibe Aubrey's name.
Oliver heard but ignored the sound of the elevators opening, then closing. Steps steadily approached Oliver at the Hub.
"Felicity texted. Said Thea's in the hospital with sepsis."
Oliver didn't even bother to turn towards Digg as Digg made his way up the Hub's stairs.
The steps stopped and Oliver could feel Diggle's presence beside him. Digg seemed to be taking in the information on the screens. Then in an urgent voice, Digg said, "What are you doing here, man?"
Oliver didn't respond.
"You don't think Thea's going to miss you being there?"
Nettled into answering, Oliver replied sharply, "Thea doesn't know anything. She hasn't woken up since Laurel found her at 4 am."
The response caused Digg to fall silent for the moment, but Oliver could feel from the tension in the room that Digg was far from done. Oliver did his best to shut out his friend and instead focused on the fact that Aubrey owned several warehouses on the outskirts of town, ostensibly as part of a transportation business.
"I don't know much about medicine," Digg tried again, "But I do know that sepsis is serious." He paused. "Don't you want to be with her, in case -"
"Thea is fine." Oliver snapped. "She has Felicity and Laurel with her. I can't do anything there, but I can do something here – starting with this man." Oliver indicated Aubrey.
Digg's voice was low and dangerous. "This one of the guys?"
"Umhm," Oliver said, knowing that now he had Digg on his side. "And I've got addresses to recon."
"Mom," Thea cried out through a phlegm-choked gasp.
Laurel started up, realizing she had nodded off in her seat beside Thea's hospital bed. Laurel looked down to see that she still held one of Thea's hands in her own, desperately trying to anchor her to life.
Each breath Thea took sounded watery and strained. Thea had developed double-pneumonia, and each inhale was being forced into lungs clogged by fluid and inflammation. Her fever was still far too high considering the powerful antibiotics and fever reducers steadily dripping into her port. Thea's hair was damp and lifeless from sweat and her cheeks flushed with the heat consuming her body. Thea kept shivering and Laurel guessed she felt uncomfortably chilled, even while her body needed to cool down.
Looking at Thea, she appeared as still as she had the past eight hours since Laurel and Josh had rushed Thea to the hospital. Laurel was beginning to think that she had heard Thea's voice in a dream, when Thea opened her mouth and groaned out, "Mom!"
Laurel's eyes grew wide and her heart nearly stopped. "Thea?" she asked softly. "Honey? Are you awake?"
Thea didn't respond to Laurel. Thea's hand in Laurel's trembled, likely with cold, but … Laurel wondered if it was more than being chilled. Was Thea remembering…?
As the thought crossed Laurel's mind, the door to Thea's room burst open forcefully.
"That impossible man!" Felicity raged as she streamed into the room, avoiding her seat and beginning to pace with pent-up energy. "Oliver has evidently fallen off the face of the earth. Again."
Laurel, less interested in whatever Oliver was up to and more interested in if Thea was coming back to consciousness, didn't reply. Felicity, in her fit of passion, didn't seem to notice Laurel's lack of engagement.
"What's worse," Felicity continued, "is that Thea isn't even stable and Oliver is her medical proxy. He's the only one who can make medical decisions if Thea is incapacitated – which, she clearly is!"
Thea must have been closer to consciousness than she had been in preceding hours, because Felicity's rant seemed to agitate her. Thea began to whimper and stir in discomfort. Felicity noticed immediately and her voice dropped, saying, "Oh, no no no, Thea, I'm sorry, sweetie!"
Felicity crossed the room with hurried steps and clasped Thea's other hand, brushing her hair away from her face. Thea's body tensed up and her brow was furrowed in discomfort. Felicity looked over at Laurel with concern and asked, "Did you find out if they can give her any kind of pain-reliever?"
Laurel shook her head, feeling tears prickle at her eyes. Watching Thea thrash and groan in pain was making her stomach nauseous. "They said that they can't sedate her anymore due to the risk of it slowing her heart too much while she's fighting off the infection."
Thea began to draw air in quick pants, struggling to get enough air. Her head raised up from her pillow for a moment, then dropped as she moaned out, "Mo-om!"
Laurel couldn't take it. She stood abruptly, swiping at her eyes and mumbled a quick, "Sorry," to Felicity, and pushed out into the hallway.
The coolness from the hall helped considerably, but even so, Laurel felt herself teetering on the edge of a full breakdown. She wasn't prepared to have that happen in public.
"Laurel?"
Laurel spun around to see her dad standing there, concern in his eyes.
"Daddy!" Laurel said, not even realizing she had slipped and called to him like she had when she was little.
Without a word, Quentin pulled her into a hug. "Oh, baby girl," he said softly, voice full of understanding and hanging on as she began to sob. As her tears subsided, Laurel pulled back, using her sleeve to wipe at her eyes.
Laurel gave her dad an update on Thea before stopping suddenly, remembering the thing that was disturbing her now. "Laurel?" Quentin asked. "What is it?"
Laurel sniffled and said, "Thea was calling for Moira." Quentin paled. Laurel explained, "I don't know if she's just calling for her mom because she's sick, or … if the fever is giving her nightmares and she's seeing Moira's murder."
Quentin let out a long puff of air. "Hoo boy."
Laurel studied her dad's face and said, "I know we've never really talked about it, but when you called me to sit with Thea at the hospital the night her mom died – I remember her being completely in shock and unable to speak. She was covered in blood. That was … that was Moira's?" Quentin nodded slowly, clearly remembering that night too. "I just sat with her. In silence." She sighed, "Until Walter got there and took Thea and Oliver back to the manor."
Quentin looked serious. "I don't know how someone lives with a memory like that," he said slowly. "I remember how helpless I felt when Mathis got ahold of you …" He shook his head, clearly still pained by the memory. "I don't know how I coulda lived with myself if I'd watched you die feet away from me. Powerless to help."
Laurel swallowed, sickened remembering those horrible moments where she was so sure she was going to die horribly at the hands of that sick man. She forced the memories away.
Laurel asked softly, "What happened to the Queens that night? The night Moira died?"
Quentin's eyebrows went up as he considered the question and he drew in a long breath. "Well, the best we can put together is from the evidence and Oliver's testimony – Thea never gave a statement. Bless her heart, she wasn't saying much of anything that night and Walter was a bulldog about protecting her from reliving it after that." Laurel nodded in understanding.
Taking a deep breath in, Quentin began, "Well, the Queens were victims of an abduction by Slade Wilson. That night, he t-boned their car with his. Oliver says he was knocked unconscious in the wreck and we don't know how aware Moira and Thea were, but all three were bound and taken to the forest. When Oliver woke up, he says Moira and Thea were on their knees on the ground and Wilson was holding a gun to their heads, telling Oliver to choose who he should kill. Oliver said he refused to choose and told Wilson to kill him instead."
"Seems that at some point, Moira figured Wilson wasn't gonna let them go until someone died, so she offered herself up if it meant Oliver and Thea would live. Wilson stabbed her through the chest with a sword, told Oliver it wasn't over and implied he was gonna stab Thea. Instead, he cut her loose and vanished. When we made it to the scene, Oliver was still bound, on the ground, and Thea was crying over her mom's body." Quentin shook his head weakly. "I swear, it's not an image I'm likely to forget anytime soon. It took two officers to pry Thea off Moira's body and she screamed bloody murder. That was the last noise I heard from her the rest of the night."
Laurel said quietly, "I'll never forget the night Sara was killed – finding her on the street just minutes after we had talked." Laurel fell silent.
Quentin said gently, "Hopefully when she's callin' for her mom, she's not seein' that night. Maybe it's because somehow Moira's right there with her."
Oliver crouched thirty feet off the ground on the roof of Aubrey Transport United, a large garage on the far outskirts of Star City, where Seth Aubrey stored his fleet of semitrucks when not in service. He peered down again at the man-door besides several large garage doors, yet to see any movement.
"Anything?" Oliver hissed over comms.
"Negative," Digg's voice returned gruffly.
Oliver shifted uncomfortably, glancing down at his old League of Assassins garb. He hated to admit he missed his Green Arrow suit, but it had been readily clear to him and to Diggle that this particular vendetta could not be connected to Star City's sometimes hero.
"Wait," Digg said. "I got something." Oliver dropped onto his stomach and scooted to the edge for a better view. "Looks like a man – fits Aubrey's description. He's got a kid with him. Looks like she can't be more than twelve. They're coming your way."
Two figures entered Oliver's line of sight. The hair on the back of Oliver's neck stood up. Even from his vantage point from above, Oliver recognized the man from the driver's license photo. And the girl – Digg was right. She was young. She should definitely have been in school on a Friday and her clothes belied the October chill, with shorts that scarcely could be called shorts and a cropped Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt.
Even watching them walk together turned Oliver's stomach. Unbidden, Oliver remembered the words from the journal page on Aubrey. As he had gone to leave the seedy hotel room, how this pervert had hissed in his sister's ear, "Thanks for a good time, honey," leaving behind a broken and scared little girl.
Now, the man was busy fiddling with a key in a comically large lock while the girl beside him wrapped her arms around herself, trying to withstand the autumn chill. With the door open, Aubrey gripped the girl, who wasn't resisting in the first place, by the upper arm, harshly enough to leave bruises and shoved her in ahead of him.
Oliver whispered, "I'm going in."
"Hood, wait," Digg said urgently through comms.
Oliver ignored the warning and slipped through the now unlocked door. The space he found himself in was large and open, with two semi-trucks without trailers filling two of five large bays. There wasn't much in the way of cover, but Aubrey and the girl were already out of sight. Oliver ducked behind the first of the trucks and waited, listening for a sound to indicate where his quarry had gone.
As he stood in the darkness and quiet, a previously hidden door opened in the wall. Oliver watched as Aubrey slipped out, pressing the door shut behind him, and then walked out of the front door. Oliver heard the lock bumping into the hollow metal door and knew he was being closed in.
Oliver ordered over the comms, "Call the police. The girl is still here. I'm on Aubrey."
"Copy."
Oliver inspected the room and noted at the top of each bay were narrow windows allowing for small pockets of light and ventilation. Scrambling atop the first semi, Oliver fired a grappling hook, sending it ricocheting around and tightening on a ceiling rafter. Oliver aimed a gun at the window, firing three times through the glass, breaking the tension. Then he gripped onto his rope and swung, feet first, breaking through the window.
He clung onto the window's ledge, peering out at a nearly thirty-foot drop to the parking lot below. Using one hand, Oliver reeled his grappler back, then connected the length of rope to the window, belaying to the ground. Just as he ducked behind a large dumpster, an old Dodge Challenger peeled through the parking lot. Oliver aimed carefully and fired, watching in satisfaction as his tracker connected solidly near the tail pipe.
With the car out of sight, Oliver straightened up. Eyes set, he looked back towards the window he had just left. He needed to find the secret door again ahead of the police. Today was that girl's last day in captivity.
Dusk was falling outside of the ICU room. Felicity's back ached from sitting still for so long, but it seemed like every time she got up, Thea roused. It was stupid, she knew, but without Oliver here, Felicity felt responsible on his behalf for letting Thea know she wasn't alone. The idea of Thea waking up to find both Oliver and Felicity gone –
Oliver. Felicity fluctuated wildly between concern for and anger at her husband. His phone was off. Whenever he turned it back on, he would be flooded with voicemails and text messages.
Part of Felicity understood. She and Laurel were still reeling from Thea's unexpected AIDs diagnosis and her google searches in the past few hours hadn't helped her feel any better. Oliver had been struggling over the past month with coming to terms with Thea's HIV status and was still enraged with the fact that she had been trafficked and used by those who were still living as free men. It made sense that this newest development had been enough to knock him off his feet.
But he had promised he would be here. He promised that he wouldn't let Thea go through this alone. That he wouldn't let Felicity go through this alone! And sitting without him in a hospital room was forcing Felicity to remember another time he had left her alone ….
Felicity stopped her thoughts before they took her back there, back to the painful days and weeks after Damien Darhk. She dropped her gaze back to Thea and was shocked to see gray-green eyes staring back at her, weary, but lucid.
Felicity leaned forward, asking, "Thea?" Laurel's head jerked up from where she had been reading a book on her phone. "How are you doing?"
Thea's eyes roamed around the room, like she either didn't hear or didn't grasp what Felicity had said. Air steamed the inside of the oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth, but through it, Felicity could have sworn she saw her mouth form a word. Felicity leaned forward and pulled the mask down to Thea's chin so Felicity could hear her.
Thea said something so softly Felicity couldn't understand. "What was that?" Felicity asked.
Voice faint and cracked, Thea asked, "Ollie?"
Instead of a flare of anger at her husband at Thea's desperate question, Felicity just felt a painful ache, suddenly feeling like she was in the ICU bed herself. Almost without thinking, Felicity responded, "Oliver just stepped out for coffee. He'll be right back."
Felicity felt eyes on her and looked across Thea's bed at Laurel. Laurel's furrowed brow said she clearly disagreed with Felicity protecting Oliver. But, Felicity admitted to herself, that wasn't what this was – Felicity was protecting Thea. Thea, who was knees deep in debilitating fever, struggling for air. Thea needed to believe that her brother cared. That he had stayed. Felicity couldn't hurt her with the truth, not now. And if this was it -
Thea's rasping voice pulled Felicity and Laurel from their silent argument. "Water?" she asked.
Laurel picked up the large water bottle the hospital had provided while Felicity raised the head of the bed up. Laurel held out the straw to Thea's lips. The room was quiet as Thea sipped three times and then leaned back to cough and then took a deep, rasping pull of air.
Felicity lowered the bed back slightly so Thea was further reclined. Thea's eyes began to dull again as sleep tugged at her. She fought it to look around the room, past Laurel and Felicity.
"Sweetie? What is it?" Laurel asked softly. "What do you need?"
Thea asked in a confused voice, "Was my mom here?"
Felicity raised panicked eyes back to Laurel. Lying about her still-living brother being in the building was one thing. But how to address the missing presence of her murdered mother?
Laurel's eyes became wet with unshed tears, but her voice was steady as she said, "No – I'm sorry."
Thea's voice became a whisper as she said, "I heard her." Laurel didn't respond, but leaned over to take Thea's hand and gave it a squeeze. Thea's eyes began to blink shut and she murmured again, "Ollie."
Felicity, unable to lie again, spoke around the lump in her throat, "You need sleep, Thea. You're safe. Just rest."
As Thea's eyes fell shut, Laurel carefully seated the oxygen mask back over Thea's face. Felicity watched as Thea's heaving seemed to lessen with the additional airflow.
Laurel stood up and, looking at Felicity meaningfully, nodded her head towards the far wall. Felicity reluctantly stood up and followed Laurel away from Thea's bed.
"Why did you cover for Oliver?" Laurel whispered, eyes dancing with emotion.
Felicity, working hard to keep tears out of her voice, said softly but urgently, "I'm not! I'm protecting Thea!"
Laurel opened her mouth to respond, but Felicity cut her off. "Look – when I was in the hospital after Darhk …" Felicity drifted off, feeling a throb in her back like a shot. The memory remained potent even a year later. "I remember who was there. My mom almost never left. I have these bits of memory, of waking up in pain and seeing you, and Thea, and Digg, and Curtis – hell, even your dad! But rarely Oliver. I was weak, I was hurt, and my world had been turned upside down. And you were all there, but I felt so alone. Because the person who should have been there, my person, was gone." Tears began to trek down Felicity's cheeks and she swiped at them with her fingertips. Laurel took a step closer and rested a supportive hand on Felicity's shoulder.
Felicity continued, "When he showed back up – god, he was wonderful. He was supportive, and sweet, and promised he was there to stay. And he was, enough that I can sometimes forget about those first weeks. But – then Thea," Felicity gestured at the bed. "And it all comes back. And if I can protect Thea from that same hurt, even if she catches on eventually – Laurel, I'm going to!" Felicity looked at Laurel with determination. "Thea is sick, she's in pain, and if I can take one hurt from her, I am going to."
Laurel turned away from Felicity to look back at Thea. She wrapped an arm around herself and with the other she pressed a hand to her temple. Then she breathed out, "Okay. I won't lie, but – I won't say anything."
Felicity nodded, grateful. She could only hope that Oliver would make his reappearance before Thea was aware. Because the only outcome of this hospital stay that Felicity would accept was bringing Thea home.