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He wakes gasping her name, a deep, heart-rending pain radiating from his chest as he sits up and his head spins.
“Felicity.”
He says it again, feeling it on his lips and tongue and holding on to it when he can’t even move his limbs but he can see her face in his mind and it soothes him. He latches on to it, blonde hair and blue eyes and fuchsia lips telling him to survive, telling him she’s waiting for him.
He can still feel her lips against his, the steady thrum of her pulse beneath his fingertips and he listens to it, a soft sigh escaping him as sleep pulls him back under.
“Felicity.”
He will get back to her. It’s not a maybe, it’s a promise.
Maseo just nods when he hears, and vows to help as Oliver falls unconscious once more, her voice echoing in his ears, her smile beckoning him home.
***
It takes three more weeks. Three torturous weeks until he makes it back to her.
Three weeks of waking up calling for her - going in and out of consciousness as the pit helps him heal. He can barely move the first week.
His strength is gone but she is there and he gleans it from her memory.
Every day is one more step towards her.
“Felicity,” he breathes as he closes his eyes and sleep comes. He’s so close to getting back to her. “I love you.”
***
When he finally walks through the doors at Verdant, he’s completely healed, his body and strength returned and he feels the life swirling through his veins. His heart beats faster, pounding in his ears the closer he gets to her.
It’s late, but somehow he knows…he knows she’s there as he punches in the code to Verdant - thankful it’s the same. The day they met.
He’s halfway down the stairs when he sees her, and he has to stop, his hand reaching out and grasping the railing to keep himself from stumbling.
Seeing her is more than he imagined. He’d dreamt of this moment, and now that it is in front of him, he forgets how to breath - forgets how to make his legs move one in front of the other.
Until it all comes rushing back and his body almost jumps into action.
His voice fails him, but he can already see her turning in her chair at the sound of his foot falls.
With every step, his chest is untwisting and releasing the knots that had formed ever since he’d fallen from the mountaintop, his last thought her face and the memory of her kiss.
Her eyes widen, and she’s shaking her head as she stands. Her fingers hover over her lips in disbelief, and for a moment they both freeze. Their eyes lock, and he’s not sure who’s moving first, but he can’t get to the bottom of the stairs fast enough.
His left foot barely makes contact with the solid concrete before she’s running to him.
A sob spills from her throat, echoing throughout the Foundry, and then she’s finally there, arms thrown around his neck, body plowing into his as he wraps her up tight, holding her as close as possible. She’s real and alive and in his arms.
Finally.
Her scent surrounds him, as her arms do, and he feels himself let go, his control slipping as his tears begin to fall.
For the first time in weeks, he takes a deep breath and his chest doesn’t hurt. He buries his face into her hair, whispering her name against her skin. Over and over. As he’s done for weeks.
Her body’s shaking, trembling against him as the sobs work their way through, and he feels her soft puffs of air against his neck. Quiet sobs fill his ears, and he tightens his hold on her, bringing her closer and pressing soft kisses into her hairline.
It’s then that he begins to make out what she’s saying over the thrumming of his heart.
“You were dead. You’re dead…this can’t be real…you were dead,” her voice breaks on the final word, and he can hear the weeks of sleepless nights and heartache that she’s been through. A knot re-twists itself deep in his chest as bodily lifts her off the ground, hands trailing through her hair.
“I’m okay,” he whispers, “I’m here.”
He feels her shake her head, “You were dead and i didn’t tell you…I didn’t tell you…”
“Hey,” he finally breathes, pulling back so he can frame her face in his hands.
Tear stains streak down her cheeks, and he wipes them away with his fingers. “I’m alive.”
Her eyes search his and he can see it all; every spoken and unspoken emotion - everything they didn’t’ allow themselves to day before he left. Every word of every way they’ve ever said I love you. It’s all there.
She’s fisted her hands in his leather jacket and is pulling him down to her before he can completely comprehend it all, but he knows, and he falls into her kiss.
Her lips are just as soft as he remembers, and he trails his tongue along her bottom lip as she gasps and he tastes her, sweet and spice flooding through his veins and he knows he will never be able to get enough of her.
Her tongue tangles with his, emotions pouring through them as they both realize the second or third chance they’re being given, and he knows neither of them are going to walk away from it.
Not now.
He can’t walk away from her again. He can’t let her walk away.
She’s everything he’s dreamt of for the past three weeks. She was the last thing he thought of before he fell over that cliff, and she was the first thing when he woke.
“I love you,” she murmurs against his lips. “I love you, Oliver.”
His entire body stills, and his chest expanding and then halting as he tips his head back so he can look at her, his eyes finding hers and holding them.
“I love you,” she breathes, staring straight at him, her blue eyes swimming with so much love and happiness.
He knows he’s never felt this way before; blanketed in a warmth of words, truths he’d long believed but having them spoken aloud hits him harder than he expects.
Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he leans his forehead against hers and smiles.
“I love you, too,” he breathes softly, her hands winding up and into his hair as she pulled him back to her, taking control of the kiss.
He lifts her, peace settling over him, deep into his bones and if he could sink into her in this moment, he would.
Her name is a mantra that he speaks for the rest of his life. His partner. His love. His life.
It’s all wrapped up in her.
Felicity.