The lucky one

Chapter 4

 One week later, the team exited the elevator of the bunker with Diggle and Slade helping a wounded Oliver walk in. Felicity covered her mouth with her hands when she saw the dark green kevlar protecting his chest now riddled with holes and dripping with blood. 

And yet, even if far from being in good shape, Oliver lived on. He was still breathing, somehow. "Quick! On the table!" ordered Diggle

Behind them, Rene, Curtis, and Dinah walking behind them, very worried looks on their faces. Felicity could only stare from the central platform, frozen by the sight. Yes, she knew that he had been reckless but for him to get this injured, he had had to have simply acted stupidly this time.

"Wha-what happened?" she finally asked

"Diaz was really there, but it was a trap. And..." began Dinah, before she swallowed, shooting a side glance to Curtis, Diggle, and Slade as they were ripping Oliver's Green Arrow suit open.

"Boss didn't wait for us. He dove right in there."

"The door shot close. By the time I could take it down with my cry, Oliver was on the ground."

"Right beside Diaz," added Rene

"He killed Diaz?" asked Felicity, wanting to make sure she had heard right

"Yeah..." nodded Dinah

"I just hope he'll be able to savour his revenge"

"Oh my god... I knew it would end like that" said the tech-support as she fell right back in her chair "Ever since William..."

"Felicity, it's not your fault!" said Dinah, kneeling in front of her

"But if I hadn't been stuck under the table, I could have-"

"Felicity!" Dinah cut her short "You had been shot in both legs and were trapped under a heavy wooden table. You could not move! There's nothing you could have done!"

"And still, I watched Diaz execute William in front of Oliver. I watched as Oliver was struggling to free himself from that monsters' men as he made William kneel and shot him square in the head!"

"Felicity, he's dead! Diaz is dead! We made sure of that!"

"What does it matter if Oliver dies too! The idiot thought that breaking up with me would make me safe! And now, I can only watch from this chair as he is fighting for his life. The life he has been putting on the line at least 20 hours a day, searching under every fucking rock of this city while I was crying my eyes out in here. I'm so useless!"

"We all know that's not true! You trapped around 40 people in a room and made them blow up with it! You saved my and Curtis's asses tonight!"

"I-I-I-I...." Felicity tried to say, failing to do anything else but choke and start crying again. Dinah and Curtis shared a look and the police captain nodded, giving Felicity a hug as Rene put a hand on her shoulder.

Many hours later, all of them were sleeping somewhere, Nyssa keeping watch on Oliver and the bunker. She had arrived only 20 minutes after Rene's call, finding Spartan and Deathstroke still trying to keep Oliver alive, their own injuries and tiredness messing with their focus. As she had been investigating another of Diaz's hideout, finding enough proof of his criminal activities to put him behind bars, no matter how much he would pay the jury, judges, and lawyers.

On Oliver's orders, she had gone to deliver this to agent Watson, receiving the call from Wild Dogs that they were already back at the bunker as she was about to go join them. The second she was in the bunker, she had taken over on stabilizing the Green Arrow, giving a much-needed break to the two formers soldiers.

And now, after stopping the blood flow and pulling most of the bullets out of him, she couldn't help but wonder what he would do now. He had lost all of his kids, lost his sister, and her boyfriend, who had moved away from Star City after she had learned of her father's death and now, Nyssa knew that Felicity would never forgive him for pushing her away this time.

All she hoped now, for him, was that he would found something to cling to life. And maybe the girl in the picture could do it. At least until he found her, for that the team had lost the count of many times he had escaped the Reaper's grip with seemingly impossible odds. If anything, her picture had brought him enough luck to survive the rampage of his own, interior, demon.