Chapter Text
"Felicity!" Oliver yelled.
"Felicity!" Digg yelled over Oliver.
"Guys! Hey guys! I found her! She's over here!" Roy said from halfway across the warehouse.
Diggle and Oliver took off at a run from where they had safely put Felicity to where Roy was helping her halfway across the building. Roy was bent down talking to her but the look on his face was one of confusion. Oliver reached her first and bent down running his eyes over her making sure she was okay. His hands followed where his eyes had been just so he would feel better knowing that she wasn't hurt. Other than a few scrapes and scratches, she seemed to be fine.
"Felicity, are you okay?" Oliver asked her.
She just looked up at him with big eyes and started to tear up. "I can't hear! Why can't I hear? I see you and Roy talking to me but I can't hear what you're saying!"
"Hey, it's okay." He told her gathering her into his arms and stroking her hair to calm her down. He pulled back and looked at her again saying slowly, "Let's get you back to the Foundry so we can get checked out."
She must have understood him because she nodded her head and he scooped her up to carry her to the van. She started to protest but the look on his face stopped her before any words could come out.
They were silent on the way back or maybe it was just her. She was tired and sore and the loud ringing in her ears was inducing a headache. She just leaned more into Oliver and he tightened his arms around her and she dropped her head to his shoulder. He was stroking her back and she soon realized that he was talking to Digg or Roy because she could feel his chest rumbling under her hand.
They pulled up in the alley and he didn't put her down until they were in front of the med table. He set her down softly and she saw Digg moving to get the medical supplies. Digg then moved Oliver out of the way so he could check all of her vitals. Everything looked good so he moved to get the gauze and antiseptic ready to clean and bandage her cuts, when Oliver was right back in front of her. He wasn't fighting him on this so he just passed everything over so he could do it.
Oliver used two shaking fingers under her chin to get her to look up at him. "Felicity, I'm going to clean you up now, it might sting a little."
She grabbed his shaking hands in both of hers saying, "Oliver, this is not your fault. We couldn't have known that the carjackers would have explosives. That hasn't been there M.O. in any of their previous jobs and look, I'm okay. Well, as okay as I can be considering I can't hear anything but ringing in my ears."
He smiled at her and took a calming breath, squeezing both of her hands, "I know but when you weren't where we left you, I just, I panicked. I don't want to ever experience that again okay? Now, this might sting a little bit." He said picked up the antiseptic bottle.
She shook her head, "No, how about a shower first? I mean me take a shower, not with you, I know you have to take one too but just me alone, not us together. 3..2..1...I mean it doesn't make sense for me to get my face clean when I'm still dirty. I can take a shower and get everything clean and then I can get patched up otherwise it's just crazy because then I'll have to concentrate on not getting my face wet and washing off all the medicine and then I'll have to make sure that no shampoo falls down and--"
Oliver touched her shoulder and she stopped, looking up at his face. "That's actually a good idea. Go on in and if you need anything, we'll be close by." She looked from him to Diggle and Roy who were both nodding their heads in agreement.
She slid off the table and lost her balance, Oliver caught her around the waist and straightened her up. She looked down and realized she only had one shoe on. Not really caring at that point, she toed the other one off and made her way slowly to the bathroom.
Oliver, Digg, and Roy watched her walk away and then looked at each other. Silently, they moved around putting up their equipment and keeping an ear out for Felicity in case she called out for one of them.
"Oliver, we're going to need her to look at footage as soon as she's able. She was right when she said that there was nothing in our intel that said they would have any type of explosives. These guys are carjackers, why would they even have anything like that?"
"I know," Oliver responded looking back at the bathroom door when he heard the shower turn on, "but only when she's comfortable doing it. I don't want to push her."
"Neither do I," Roy piped in, "but I don't want to ever see Blondie like that again so the sooner we can get information about what's going on, the happier I'll be."
They all went about putting the rest of their equipment away, and Digg called Lyla and Roy called Thea letting them know what happened. They were all lost in the own thoughts when they heard a "dammit" come from the bathroom. Oliver ran to the bathroom door and knocked to see what she needed when Diggle reminded him that she couldn't hear.
"But I need to see if--"
Oliver was cut off by the bathroom door flying open with Felicity standing there in nothing but a towel, her skin flushed from the heat of the shower, hair still wet and he thought she'd never looked more beautiful.
"Oh, hey, um, I don't have anything but a torn, dirty dress to put on and that would kind of defeat the purpose of the shower. Can I borrow something of somebody's please?"
"Sure," Oliver moved over to where he kept extra clothes and got out a Henley and Roy threw him a pair of sweats from his foot locker.
"What?" Roy asked when Oliver just looked at them, "you two are much bigger than her and it wouldn't take much for her to drawstring those up."
Oliver walked back to the bathroom door where Digg was looking at Felicity's freshly washed face and handed her the clothes. He looked over at Digg who said, "She's lucky, just a few scrapes that we need to make sure all the bacteria is out of and she'll be as good as new."
Oliver let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding as Felicity shut the door. Digg turned and looked at Oliver and asked, "Do you think you can patch her up? I really want to get home to Lyla and Sara, I think I could use a good baby hug right now."
"Yeah, and I've already called Thea and told her that as soon as we knew Felicity was okay, I'd be by to pick her up. Hit a few parties and raves tonight and see if we can learn anything."
"Sounds good, you two go on ahead. Digg, see if Lyla can get anything from her ARGUS contacts and Roy as soon as you and Thea find out anything, let me know."
Roy and Diggle left as Oliver made sure that he had everything ready. He was finished and leaning up against the table when he heard Felicity's phone ring, it was Captain Lance.
"Queen," Quentin said quickly when Oliver answered, "why are you answering her phone? I'm at the warehouse and saw a couple of arrows so you want to tell me what happened and why are you answering Felicity's phone?"
"Captain, she's fine but she can't hear. We think it's temporary but won't know for sure until she can see a doctor tomorrow. As far as the warehouse, we were tailing a carjacking ring, Digg and Felicity were in the van and managed to cut them off and they ran into it. They always seem to have a spotter who we couldn't find so Digg brought Felicity inside putting her behind some crates and barrels. I had one end, Roy had the other and Digg had the floor covered. There was an office up some stairs so we figured that's where they were. Next thing we see is all of them running down the stairs and towards the other end of the warehouse. Roy told us in the van on the way back here that after the guys started running, one of them yelled at where Felicity was. She came out from behind the barrels and started running too. The next thing was an explosion and with the exception of the car they left behind, they were gone and we were trying to find Felicity."
Quentin sighed and said, "We've been getting information from some of our CIs about a threat in the area. They didn't have anything specific but I'm thinking that this is it. Once we get the scene processed, I'll email Felicity everything we have and see what she can do with it."
"Thank you and whatever we find out on our end, we'll keep you in the loop." Oliver assured the older man as he heard the bathroom door open.
As he ended the call, he looked over at her and had to remind himself to breathe. He'd never been a possessive man but seeing Felicity in his shirt brought about all kinds of primal instincts that just washed over him in a wave.
She was looking around for him until she finally spotted him by her computers. She must have had a confused look on her face because he walked over to her and took her face in his hands saying, "Your phone was ringing and it was Captain Lance. He's at the warehouse and noticed we'd been there. I let him know what was going on and he said he'd email you everything they process but right now come sit and let's get you cleaned up."
He took her hand and led her over to her chair that was now by the med table. He eased her down into it and sat on a stool in front of her, reaching for cotton balls and antiseptic. She sat back, closing her eyes as Oliver administered to all the scrapes and scratches, treating them and giving her a couple of small bandages. She slowly opened her eyes when he stopped touching her.
"Hey, give me a few minutes to put all this away and I'll drive you home." Oliver told her as he went about putting up all the medical supplies.
"No, I don't want to go home. I'll just stay here, you can set the code for the door when you leave."
"Felicity, I am not leaving you here. You are tired and sore and--"
Felicity put her hand on his arm to turn him around. "I see your lips moving but I have no idea what you just said. Probably something about me not staying here but Oliver, I can't go home. I can't hear and at least no one can get in here without the code and my computers are right there. I can tap a few keys and see everything, inside and out. I don't know if I can deal with any more surprises tonight and it's just until I can hear again anyway. It's not like I'm moving in forever."
He stops what he's doing and looks down at her. He always forgets how small and fragile looking she is because her personality is so large it overwhelms you. She's barely keeping her eyes open and bruises are starting to show. He reaches over and cups her cheek and she looks up at him, "How about a compromise? You don't want to go home and I don't want you to stay here. I'll take you home with me, there is plenty of room and Thea won't mind having a female around."
"Oliver, that's nice of you to offer but I don't want to trouble anybody. This place is like Fort Knox--"
"Felicity, it's no trouble and I'll feel better knowing where you are and if you need anything both Thea and I will be right there. You'd have to text someone if you needed something here."
"Oliver--"
"Felicity, you only have two choices. Your apartment with me staying until your hearing returns or a nice, big, comfortable loft with two badass Queens who will take care of you. So which one is it?"
"I'm too tired to argue with the whole bossy attitude you have going on right now so I pick the loft because you are way to big for my apartment and can someone take me there to get some things? I mean I appreciate the clothing and this shirt is really comfy and soft and smells like you but these pants are way too baggy and look at how I had to roll up the hem just so I could walk. I don't have any essentials and--"
He stilled her with his hand moving to her other cheek so he framed her face again, "As soon as you wake up tomorrow, either me or Dig will take you to get whatever you want, okay?"
"Okay, can we go now?" She said through a yawn.
"Yes, let me grab the keys, your purse and then we'll be off."
He grabbed everything and then picked her up bridal style to carry her up the stairs. He knew that she was tired when instead of giving him a glaring look or sassy comment on being independent, she just sighed and snuggled her head deeper into the crook of his neck. He put her in the car and buckled her in for the ride home being careful not to jostle her anymore than necessary. And if the whole ride he had a big goofy smile on his face because she liked that his shirt smelled like him, who was going to notice?
He called Thea when he got to the parking garage to let her know where they were. She told him that she was at Roy's getting some sleep because nothing really started happening in the Glades until after midnight.
"Speedy, you two please be careful. I'll call John and let him know where we're both at and you call and let Laurel know. If you get into any trouble, call one of us to help. Felicity doesn't want to be left alone but we can always go back to the Foundry if we need to. Regardless, call me as soon as you hear anything." He looked over at Felicity who was still sound asleep.
"Ollie, we shouldn't be running into any trouble. We're just going to a couple of parties and maybe a rave so see if we can get information from anybody. We promise to be careful and to call the minute anything seems important. Right now Roy's asleep and I'm not far behind. He said sometimes these parties can go into the early hours and we don't want to be tired. How's Felicity doing?"
"Asleep, which is a good thing, it will help her body heal faster. Get some sleep and call me when you get in tomorrow morning." He heard a little huff at that but told her, "I'm still your brother and I worry, okay?"
"Okay Ollie," Thea said with a little laugh, "you get some sleep too and I'll call first thing in the morning."
Hanging up with Thea, he moved around the car to get Felicity from the passenger seat. She mumbles something unintelligible and burrows her body as close to him as she can. He smiles again when she does that, knowing that she trusts him to protect her even when she's unconscious. He grabs her bag and after locking the doors, takes her upstairs.