Survive - Arrow Fanfiction

Chapter Four

They find shelter just as daylight fades into night. Olivia is exhausted, her body craves sleep and yet her mind can't seem to stop playing the events of the afternoon over. The terrifying certainty that she was about to die. The look on Slade's face as he realised that she was standing on a mine. His feigned betrayal as he walked away from her and the touch of the soldier who soon met Slade's blade.

But mostly she can't stop thinking about how it felt to have Slade's body pressed against hers. She has been deprived of a man's touch for months, and to feel the hard bulk of a body on top of hers was a welcome comfort she hadn't realised she had missed until Slade's face was inches from her own.

She's never thought of him like that. He's Slade. The man who can barely stand her presence, who calls her 'kid' all the damn time and was ready to kill her when they first met. He is a bastard of a man who doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body.

And yet in those few seconds he had been her savior, her protector. He could have walked away. Many others would have. Sure he would not have been able to carry out his plan with only one person, but he would have carried on surviving. But he didn't.

He put himself in danger for her.

"You should get some sleep. I'll take first watch," Slade says, his deep voice disturbing her thoughts. Olivia meets his intense eyes and appraises him with new eyes. Her cheeks warm despite herself, and she quickly turns away.

She goes to put out the fire but Slade stops her. "Don't. The fire keeps the wolves away."

"There are wolves here?" Olivia replies in dread, imagining their ravenous teeth tearing into her warm flesh.

Slade only looks to her, but she can see the mirth in his eyes.

"Right. Of course there are wolves on the worst place on earth. Let me guess, there's also ten foot trancherlers too!"

Slade smiles at her - actually smiles without scorn - and replies, "I have yet to come across ten foot trancherlers."

Olivia smiles back and looks into the fire. It's in that moment that she realizes with a shock that she's going to miss Slade Wilson and his mood swings if they do get off of this damn island.

--

Briefly, she hesitates outside of the door, thinking of everything she has done to survive these last months in hell. This one man's life is all that is standing in the way of her returning home. A man who is part of an organisation that has hunted her, tortured her and attempted to kill her from the moment she stepped foot on this island.

The blade in her hand is steady. She is ready for this, ready to go home to her warm bed and her friends and family.

And she wants to make Slade proud. She can do this, for herself and for him, so he can get back to his son and his life. If he can take out ten men to get home to his family, then she can kill one to get back to hers.

Clutching the knife tighter, she opens the door quietly, the guard too invested in his work to notice her. She creeps up behind him, quickly grabbing his hair and forcing his head back.

Olivia slits the guard's throat before he can utter a single cry.

The guard's lifeless body slumps across the desk. She waits for the guilt and remorse she had expected to feel, but instead she feels nothing.

"I'm not sorry," she whispers to the lifeless corpse.

The door opens making her turn in surprise. Instinct has her scrambling for the gun in her belt and pointing it at the figure in the doorway. She breathes a sigh of relief when she recognises Slade and holsters the gun once more. She notices the surprise on his face as he takes in the dead guard, and she wonders if he had truly expected her to fail her part of the plan.