Abducted

Chapter 13 - Nightmares

Mixed POV

Oliver was thankful that Felicity was here with him, even if he didn't want to admit it. She was his anchor, his light, his joy. He didn't know what he would do without her right now. Just the touch of her hand in his was comforting. He leaned his head back, hoping to get at least a bit of sleep before a nightmare woke him up. He had a feeling that today's events would bring on another nightmare.

Diggle sat and watched as Oliver and Felicity held hands. He knew that his friend would need her touch to keep him from going back into the dark places of his memory. As Oliver leaned back to go to sleep Diggle sincerely hoped that he would be able to get through the night without a nightmare.

It was several hours after the conversation between Oliver and Moira that Felicity was awakened by Oliver's moans beside her. His hand had fallen from hers a while ago and now he was clearly in the middle of a nightmare. She quickly looked to Diggle for help.

"Don't touch him Felicity, you know what happens." Diggle stated, clearly worried that Felicity would touch Oliver and that the younger man would hurt her.

Suddenly Oliver cried out in pain, fully waking everyone else, before he sat straight up, breathing heavily. He looked frantically around, clearly still not fully awake.

"Oliver, wake up. Please, Oliver." Felicity said quietly from beside him. She and Diggle talked to him quietly and calmly for a couple of minutes before he seemed to snap out of his dream fully.

Oliver turned to Felicity, an apology evident in his face.

"Are you okay Oliver?" Felicity asked, concerned about what it was that plagued his dreams tonight.

"I'm…" Oliver started.

"Fine, I know." Felicity finished for him slightly exasperated. "You're always fine. I should know better than to ask by now."

Diggle laughed from across the cell and teased. "You already knew that answer so why did you even ask him?"

"Oliver?" Moira asked, concerned for her son.

"I guess I owe you another explanation." Oliver stated sadly. He knew that they deserved to know what had caused him to scream in his sleep again, he just didn't like the thought of having to let them in on another fact about his time away.

"Do you remember me telling you yesterday that I was held on a ship for a while?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, you said that was where your friend tortured you." Lance replied, he remembered how hard it was to hear that story and he knew this one wouldn't be any easier to hear.

"That's right. That wasn't the first time I was on that ship though. The first time was before that. There was a man named Ivo that came to the Island on the ship. He was looking for something and his men captured me during their search for it. They brought me back to the hold of the ship and threw me into a cell." Oliver started telling them. He paused to take a calming breath, looking to Felicity for support. She gave him a small smile and nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"Within my first few hours on the ship the captain came down into the hold and shot me in the side. It was the first time I had ever been shot with a gun." Oliver stated, careful not to say that it was the first time he had ever been shot because he had experienced an arrow in the shoulder before that. "I probably passed out from the pain and when I came to I noticed a small bowl of medical supplies just outside the bars of my cell, not too different from the ones Felicity just used. I was told that only the strong survive and came to realize that they expected me to take care of it myself, wanted to see if I'd survive. I didn't do a really good job, but I got the bullet out and was able to get some stitches in."