Chapter Text
There was nothing seemingly different about the night everything changed. It had started so normally, Oliver had picked her up from the Smoak Tech offices, they stopped and got Big Belly Burger on the way to the bunker. For all accounts it was a perfectly normal Tuesday night. Oliver was filling his quiver, she was prepping the comms, while they waited for the others to trickle in for patrol. They had been asked by the SCPD to investigate a string of arson attacks through out the city, all seeming to be linked to the Bertonelli Crime Family.
The night was exceptionally quiet, there had been no fires set, and the docks were a dead end too. At two AM Oliver had called it for the evening and they were headed back to the bunker. Felicity left the platform at this point to make a quick run to the bathroom while it was calm. She was just washing her hands when she heard him cut the engine on his Ducati.
She could hear Diggle grumbling to himself, “Flamethrowers? Why flamethrowers? Couldn’t they be like normal criminals and use bombs to start their fires!”
She pulled up the CCTV camera for the corner they were on, and like Diggle had said, they were surrounded by four guys with flame throwers. Oliver, like normal, was able to avoid their fire and knocked two of them out. Diggle had down one and was scrapping with the last one, who at the last second had turned his flamethrower on Oliver. He was able to dodge the flames for the most part but the flames licked at his arm, setting his for arm mounted monitor on fire.
Oliver quickly pulled off his vest so he could get the jacket with the onboard monitor off before it burned his arm too badly. He was standing in the middle of the road now with just an athletic top on now. As he was bending down to retrieve his Kevlar vest, alarms started going off on Felicity’s monitors.
“Green Arrow! There is a fifth assailant on the roof to the west!” She yelled into the comms, but it was too late, gunfire rain down on the street. Felicity watched in horror as he was hit, directly in the back, and he collapsed. “Spartan, get him out of there. Starling General is closer than the bunker.”
She switched her comms into remote mode and was out of the bunker and on her way to the hospital before she even realized what she was doing. When she ran through the doors to the emergency room, Dig was there, still decked out in spartan gear, smelling of smoke and blood. She sat him down and started fussing over him.
“Felicity, I’m fine, it’s not my blood.” He grabbed her hands and steadied them in his. “He’s going to be fine, they have him in surgery now. Oliver has survived worse than this.”
She laid her head on his chest with a sigh, “You’re right, give it two days and I’ll be trying to convince him not to leave AMA.” They both let out a small laugh.
At three AM Dinah and Rene came in with coffee. Together the four of them waited for new on Oliver.
At four AM a doctor came out and moved them to a private room. She told them that Oliver had lost a lot of blood, and they were still working to repair the damage. He had been hit six times, two were through and through, three had buried themselves in his back muscles. It was the sixth bullet that they were worried about, it had hit him right at his L1 vertebrae and they were still assessing the damage.
Diggle pulled Felicity close when she started to cry.
“The bullet hit me at the L5 and I was paralyzed! It’s higher on him! After all this time, all that he’s been through, it’s some thugs with flamethrowers that takes him down.” Felicity sobbed, pulling away from Diggle, she passed the room for about a minute before sliding down the wall onto the floor.
At six AM Diggle called Raisa to let her know what was going on. William demanded to be brought to the hospital. Rene met them at the entrance and brought William and Raisa, with Mia toddling in tow, to their private waiting room. When Mia saw the tears in her mom’s eyes, the two-year-old ran as fast as her legs would take her to her mom. Felicity lifted Mia into her lap, Will and Raisa took a seat on either side of her. Will leaned his head on her shoulder, comforting her.
At eight AM, Felicity made Raisa take Mia to daycare and Will to school. Their two kids protested but eventually gave in. Dinah left to go to the SCPD and start the paperwork for the evening’s failed patrol. Rene had to go home to make sure Zoe got to school, which left Felicity alone with Diggle.
At nine AM, Doctor Schwartz came to get them.
“He’s out of surgery, he hasn’t woken up yet, but I can take you to see him.” Felicity followed the doctor into the ICU, bidding farewell to Diggle when they were told only one visitor at a time.
“Felicity, I need to tell you some bad news. The extent of Oliver’s injuries was worse than we were hoping. When we went to remove the last bullet, we discovered that his spinal cord was completely severed. Oliver will never walk again, at least not without a lot of mechanical assistance.” The doctor motioned to the chair next to Oliver’s bed. Felicity sat and took Oliver’s wedding ring out of her pocket and slipped it on his finger.
“What about a spinal implant like mine? Palmer Tech and Smoak Tech have a partnership for this project, there have been about a hundred recipients of the chip, all successful. I could have a chip ready for him in a week, two weeks tops.” She brought his hand to her lips, knowing he wouldn’t be happy o wake up and be told he couldn’t be the Green Arrow anymore.
“Unfortunately, that is not an option in his case. Your injury, and all the other spine implants that have been done, are incomplete, meaning your spinal cord was damaged, but it was not severed. I’ve been following the advancements in the project, and even if you could make the chip work for a complete injury, there are no doctors who would be able to implant it. It’s beyond the ability of medicine right now. I’m very sorry, I wish there was more I could do.” Dr. Schwartz stood there for a moment while Felicity took in the reality of the situation, “I’ll be around, I’ll get one of the nurses will page me when he wakes up.”
She tapped the door frame before leaving Felicity alone with Oliver.
“Don’t worry Oliver I’m going to find a way for you to keep being the Green Arrow. We made it work when I was in my chair, we’ll make it work for you. I promise.”