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He found them.
The man who was the ultimate responsible for sending his father in prison found him and Felicity.
They were having breakfast, it was a quiet day at home, well, the safe house, when the proximity alarm started to go off. Felicity said it was strange because the agents who were protecting them knew about it, so they shouldn’t be the ones activating it.
Felicity was checking the camera feeds on her laptop and William saw that she suddenly paled. His breakfast forgotten he asked “What’s wrong?”
“Run.” She whispered to him. “From the back, run!” She told him more firmly and he only had a second to stand from his chair when the front door was kicked open.
Felicity grabbed the knife that rested on the kitchen counter and stood between him and the man who just invaded the house.
William recognized him as Ricardo Diaz. His first instinct was to spit on him, then punch him for sending his father in jail, for taking away another parent from him. But he knew he couldn’t face the man. If his father wasn’t able to stop him then William had no chance at all.
But Felicity’s voice resounded in the room again. “William!”
She was telling him to run away while she affronted Diaz. He had a gun and she had a knife, the odds were in his favor that he was going to kill her. William didn’t want to leave her, he didn’t want to lose yet another person he cared about.
“Felicity…” He was scared.
“I’ll be right behind you, Will.”
She was lying. He knew she was lying, he knew she was only saying that so he’ll run away to safety, or at least to look for help. He didn’t want to leave her.
“Go!” She yelled again, and this time he did. He didn’t want to, but he did it, for her. The last thing he saw before turning around was Diaz getting closer to her.
William started to run into the woods that surrounded their safe house. That’s what it was supposed to be. Safe. But apparently it wasn’t.
So he ran. He had no idea of where he was going, but he didn’t stop, not even when his legs started to hurt or when his lungs were screaming at him to slow down.
William ran between trees, the hoodie he was wearing enough to avoid scratches from branches that stuck out on his path.
He reached a clearing, the leaves under his shoes made him slip and he fell to the ground, he tried to get up but his legs were shaking. Fast steps were approaching him from behind. He turned around, keeping an eye on the path from where he came and quickly tried to crawl backwards, but fear was making his movements clumsy and uncoordinated.
Suddenly Felicity ran into the clearing. She glanced behind her and William knew Diaz was chasing them.
“Get up!” She told him. When she was just a few feet away from him she slid down to her knees beside him, her hands grabbing his arms. “Come on, we have to run!”
He was about to stand when he saw movement behind her.
“Felicity!” William indicated Diaz, who had his gun pointed to the sky. He pulled the trigger, the sound echoing in the open space. A warning shot.
He watched as Felicity froze, her frantic behavior replaced by a strange calm. A controlled calm.
“Stay behind me.” She whispered to him.
Felicity slowly turned around to face Diaz and stood.
He was walking towards them, like a hunter who had his prey just where he wanted it.
“You really thought you could run away from me again? You couldn’t be more wrong.” His voice sending a shiver through William’s body.
“Let him go. He has nothing to do with this.” Felicity told Diaz. William heard in her voice that she was scared, but she was trying to hide it. He wasn’t sure if Diaz didn’t notice that.
“He has everything to do with this!” The man yelled and Felicity slightly flinched.
Diaz was just a few feet away from them. He tilted his head on the side to look at William. “You know I am right, don’t you?”
“Don’t talk to him and don’t look at him!” Felicity screamed at Diaz.
At her words William remembered that day of more than an year ago, when his life completely changed for the first time.
“Don’t. You. Talk to him. Don’t even look at him!”
It was what his father said to a mad man, the same mad man who took away his mother from him for the rest of his life.
And now Felicity said those words to another mad man. The very same mad man who took away his father from him for the rest of his life.
History was repeating itself.
William just hoped that Felicity won’t end like his mother or his father.
“What? You think you can beat me? Not even your husband was able to do that.”
He took another step and Felicity moved more in front of William, trying to protect him as much as she could.
“Don’t you dare to touch him.” Her voice so low and threatening that William felt in his bones the fierce need she had to protect him.
Before he knew what was happening, Diaz hit Felicity with the gun and she fell to the ground. A scared scream left his lips.
Diaz walked closer to him, the gun still held loosely in his right hand.
“Oliver Queen took everything away from me.” He was standing over William. “I’m gonna enjoy…” He slightly raised his gun and pointed it at his head. “Taking everything away from him.”
William closed his eyes in fear and waited for something to happen.
His mother’s smiling face flashed in front of his eyes. Then his father. And then Felicity.
“No, stop! Stop!” Felicity crawled to him or threw herself over him, William wasn’t sure. He just knew that Felicity was now between Diaz and himself, her back to him, her hands shaking where she gripped his arms.
“Do whatever you want to me, but leave him alone. Please.” The calm from before completely gone. William knew from her voice that she was crying and he didn’t know when it started, but he realized he was crying too.
“He’s just a boy.” Felicity’s voice broke at the end.
Diaz raised his gun to her head. “I don’t care.” He said coldly.
“William, close your eyes.” Felicity whispered to him.
He shut them tightly, the only thing he could hear was the wind running past them.
A gunshot.
William didn’t know what happened. Everything just became black, his body was laying on the ground and something repeatedly hit his cheek.
“No, he’s fine. He’s fine. He just passed out.” He heard a voice from far away.
“William.” Something patting his cheek again. “William, come on. Wake up, honey.”
Felicity.
That was her voice. She wasn’t dead.
He slowly opened his eyes and she was hovering over him. “Hey.” Her hand rested against his cheek.
William tried to sit but the trees spun around him.
“It’s okay, lay down. You have to take it easy.” Felicity told him gently, her hand tenderly caressing his cheek, just like his mother used to do when he was sick.
“What happened? Did he shoot you?” He asked confused, seeing the gash on her temple that was bleeding. He noticed she was also crying.
“No. ARGUS’s agents shot him. They hit his shoulder and he ran away. They’re chasing him now.”
William’s eyes filled with tears. “I thought he killed you.” He whispered to her. He raised his arms and Felicity hugged him tightly against her chest. “It’s okay, I’m fine.”
He silently cried on her shoulder.
“We’re both fine.”