Teamwork

Chapter 39 - Most Powerful Weapon

Diggle stood and stretched as the end credits of the movie started to roll. As he looked to Oliver and Felicity he noticed that the other man had fallen asleep sometime during the movie and was thankful as this would allow his body time to heal some more. As he looked up he noticed Moira sitting in the other room and headed that way as she caught his eye and it looked like she wanted to talk to him about something.

"Mr. Diggle." Moira called to the man as he walked towards the room that she was still sitting in with Detective Lance and Walter.

"Yes Mrs. Queen?" Diggle answered, realizing that Moira had something major on her mind.

"How is he?" Moira asked quietly, knowing that the man would know she was talking about Oliver. "How bad are his injuries?" She had to know just how bad he was this time. They had not taken him to a hospital so it couldn't be life threatening, but still, she had to know how her boy was.

"He has quite a few new injuries." Diggle stated as he sat in a chair where the other three people in the room could still see him, yet he could still look across to the room where the rest of his Team was. "In a nutshell he has cracked ribs, new lacerations and stab wounds to his chest and torso, a nice bruise on his jaw and a split lip, as well as a lot of new lacerations to his back from being whipped again, he also has a bit of fluid in his lungs. Not to mention the damage that Slade did emotionally." He had decided to be as honest as he could with them. He was not surprised when he saw the tears well up in Moira's eyes at the list of new injuries.

"What emotional damage?" Walter asked, having caught that comment and became worried for his step-son.

"Slade tried to convince him that we were all turning our backs on him." Diggle explained, knowing that this information was just as important as the list of physical injuries. "He tried to take away all the ties that keep our team together. He tried to turn Thea against him by revealing the truth about Roy working with him. He tried to turn Roy against him by curing him of the Mirakuru, in front of Thea. He tried to turn Sara against him by attempting to drown her, as well as make Oliver relive the two times that he saw Sara supposedly drown. He tried to make Oliver think that I had turned my back on him and wasn't going to try and rescue him. Slade attempted, and miserably failed, to turn Felicity against him by giving her the dragon tattoo. However, I have a feeling that that tattoo is going to be the hardest thing for him to get past. Seeing that on her shoulder is going to remind him of one of the hardest choices he ever had to make and that's not going to be easy to get past."

"Felicity will make him I think." Lance said with a bit of a smile as he remembered just how convincing Felicity could be when she set her mind to something.

"Will my boy be okay?" Moira asked, worried for her son.

"He's going to be fine." Diggle answered, using Oliver's favorite word for lack of a better one. "He will just need time to heal from this." As Diggle finished this statement he noticed Sara quickly standing in the other room, shooting him a concerned look. He immediately stood and walked quickly to the other room where the rest of the Team still was. As he approached the back of the couch where Felicity was sitting, and Oliver sleeping, he realized why Sara was concerned.

"He's having anightmare." Felicity said with concern, recognizing the increased heart rate and ragged breathing that signaled that Oliver was reliving something in his dreams. "What do I do?"

Diggle knew why she was concerned. They all knew that you couldn't just wake Oliver from a nightmare without risking injury. However, he was asleep on Felicity's lap and they were all concerned that he would hurt her. On the flip side though, if she moved, they risked waking him anyway and he could still turn violent. He looked to Roy and Sara, asking for ideas.