Work Text:
“And that should do it.” Sara said as she put the last stitch in Oliver’s upper back, just below his right shoulder blade. A thug had gotten in a lucky strike before Oliver had been able to pin him down by putting an arrow through both the man’s arm and leg. Oliver stood up from the stool he had been sitting on and gingerly moved his shoulder around to get a feel of his mobility. “Try not to screw up my stitches.” Sara said as she sighed and pulled him back down to bandage the wound, “I take pride in my work, so don’t go screwing it up by doing something stupid like repelling off a roof or using the bow. I was even generous enough to use lidocaine on it for you.” She said as she cleaned up the medical supplies that she had used. It was an ongoing issue between the two of them. Oliver always said that he didn’t need the area numbed, but Sara always insisted on using it not wanting Oliver to suffer needlessly. Reiterating her statement she pointed at him and firmly told him, “No vigilante business for at least a couple of days. Give yourself time to heal up.”
Oliver shot her an inscrutable look as he pulled his hoodie on and zipped it up. “Don’t worry. Currently my only plans are to spend time with Olivia today.” It was almost daybreak, Felicity and Dig had left as soon as he had gotten back to the Foundry so they would be able to get some sleep before having to wake up. Sara had stayed behind to patch Oliver up.
“Good,” she stated as she grabbed her duffle bag and glanced at her watch. “I’ve got time to hit the gym before my shift starts.” She threw Oliver a flirty look. “The new trainer that they brought in is hot.” She waggled her eyebrows at him and started up the steps. At the top she threw back “Night, Morning, whatever.” And then, with a bang of the door, she was gone.
Oliver enjoyed having a team to help him with his mission, but he also enjoyed the quiet of having the lair to himself. He eyed the salmon ladder, but decided against using it as he didn’t want Sara to yell at him. So, he settled in to sharpen some arrows before tidying the place up. His phone beeping pulled him out of the hypnotic state sharpening his arrows had put him in. It was his get ready alarm. The plan was for everybody to have breakfast together and then he would have Olivia to himself. Saturday mornings were Daddy Daughter time, giving Felicity time to nap and catch up on some much-needed sleep. Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to be a few minutes late he silenced the alarm, finished sharpening the arrows, then started on cleaning up the lair.
A text from Felicity alerted him, she asked, “Breakfast’s almost over. You okay?” Glancing at his watch he was startled by the amount of time that had passed. With a muttered curse at himself, he grabbed his jacket and sent back. “All good, on my way.” With that done he stuffed the phone into his pocket, turned off the lights, and was out the door.
A short while later he roared into his family's large parking garage and parked his motorcycle beside Felicity’s mini-Cooper. Hearing voices coming from behind the house he made his way out to where his family was. In the backyard Thea was pushing Olivia on the swing set while a bleary eyed Felicity, clad in her cartoon cat pajamas stood beside Moira who was already impeccably dressed for the day.
Spying Oliver, Felicity strolled over. “You, okay?” she asked with a frown as she looked him over.
Giving her a reassuring look he said, “Sara patched me up. I’m good.”
Assessing him one more time Felicity nodded, “I’m going to go back to bed, since you kept me up all night.” Realizing what she said she hastily added, “Doing vigilante stuff, like arrows and bad guys. And not doing, doing bad guys, but like putting them away and stuff.” She paused shaking her head, “I’m too tired for this, John will be here in a few hours, bye.” She said letting out a huge yawn as she turned around and headed back inside the house.
Staring at her retreating back Oliver gave her one of his rare smiles, her rambling had always made him smile, especially when she got flustered and tried to correct what she had said. Coming over to stand beside his mother, Moira turned to look at him with an inscrutable look on her perfectly made-up face, “Nice of you to join us this morning, Oliver.”
He didn’t get a chance to reply before Olivia yelled “Daddy” and ran up to him jumping into his arms as he tried to hide a wince.
“Auntee-a was pushing me high, but I told her that Daddy could make me touch the sky!” She jumped out of his arms and grabbed his wrist pulling him towards the swing set. When he didn’t move fast enough, she frowned back at him and demanded, “Come on!” On the way to the swings, she talked a mile a minute. Another smile crossed his face, there was no denying that Olivia was Felicity’s daughter, through and through.
After he had pushed her on the swing set for a while his injured shoulder started to ache, but he pushed the discomfort away as he was enjoying spending time with his daughter. When she got tired of swinging, Olivia wanted him to play tag. They chased each other all over the yard until she was ready to go back inside.
“Piggyback?” she asked with her little lip out.
“Sure baby, hop on!” He said as he laughed at her antics, and helped his daughter climb onto his back, wincing slightly as her little knee found the wound that Sara had so recently stitched. Clinging to his back like a monkey she giggled and then used that same knee and foot to kick him like you would a horse, causing him to grunt as the kick aggravated his wound.
“Giddy-up horsey!” She cried. Once again pushing the pain in his shoulder to the back of his mind Oliver made his way inside the house. Olivia leaned forward and speaking directly into his ear she asked, “Daddy, can we go upstairs to my room and play Barbies? Or maybe make up? Mommy won’t let me use the good stuff, but Auntee-a gets me some stuff and it’s really pretty! Or we can play dress-up! But we played dress up last time. Did you get any dress up clothes that you can use?”
The last time that they had played dress up Oliver had managed to get out of changing in front of his daughter by telling his daughter that he didn’t have any. He hadn’t wanted to lie to the little girl, but he was worried that his scars would scare her. “Only my nice clothes for the fancy events that Gran makes me go to.” He answered, coming to a stop in his daughter’s room and setting the little girl down on the floor.
“That will work Daddy. I can be the Princess Queen, and you can be King Queen!” She exclaimed excitedly and whirled around holding up her arms, “But first you need to fly me to the fancy dress place!” Oliver scooped his daughter back up into his arms holding her with one hand under her knees and the other under her chest and proceeded to fly her around the room before coming to a stop in front of her closet. As he set her down on the floor Oliver was surprised to find that he was breathing a bit heavier than normal, which was unusual for him, but he wasn’t too worried about it.
“I’m going to pick out my dress Daddy, so you go and change ‘cause this could take a bit.” Olivia said as she plopped down on the floor and started looking through all of the dresses that hung in her closet.
“Yes, my Queen,” he said bowing. The little girl giggled at him, and Oliver quickly made his exit. As he headed to his room, he could feel that his shirt was wet and that there was something trickling down his back. Groaning he realized that he must have popped a stitch and he made a mental note to get Felicity or Dig to fix it up so that Sara wouldn’t fuss at him. He had just made it to his room and leaned against the wall when a dizzy spell hit him out of nowhere, then Olivia called for him, “Daddy!”
With a shake of his head Oliver turned around and headed back to her room to see what she needed, but as he started down the hallway, it seemed to be moving around on him. He leaned against the wall desperately trying not to fall down and scare his daughter, but white dots started appearing in his vision and his legs would no longer hold him up. With a heavy thud he fell on the floor and rolled to his back trying to get his vision to clear and his throat working.
“Daddy?” Olivia called again, worry evident in her voice.
He tried calling back to reassure his daughter, but he was only able to grunt as darkness started to creep up on him. A concerned Olivia poked her head out of her room to see what was taking Oliver so long. When she saw her father laying on the floor, she came running out of her room with a dress half hanging off her shoulders and screaming for her mother.
“Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” She cried as she ran towards her mother’s room as a half-dressed Felicity rushed out into the hallway and saw Oliver just lying there. Rushing over to check on him, she gasped, “Oliver!” as she quickly started assessing his condition.
Taking a deep breath Oliver tried to tell her he was fine and that she didn’t need to worry, he would be OK, but he still couldn’t get the words out. He tried to move and to get his pounding heart under control, but his body refused to cooperate and all he managed to do was to get his hand up to cover his face.
“Come here, Baby,” Felicity called to a worried looking Olivia who was standing near the wall. Once Olivia was in front of her mother, Felicity turned from where she was crouched beside Oliver and zipped up Olivia’s dress as the little girl stuck her thumb in her mouth. “Daddy’s going to be fine, but I need you to run down to the kitchen and have Mr. Diggle bring the med kit up.” She looked into her daughter’s worried eyes. “What are you going to ask Mr. Diggle?”
“To bring the med kit.” Olivia replied with her thumb in her mouth.
Felicity gently pulled the thumb out of her mouth and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Perfect, now go.” Once Olivia had run off down the hallway Felicity turned back to Oliver and Not wanting to startle him she asked, “What happened?
Listening to Felicity calmly give Olivia instructions and reassure her had helped him to calm down a bit, and this time when he tried to speak, he was able to get the words out. “I think I popped some stitches.” He said with a groan as he opened his eyes and tried to grin up at her, despite still feeling woozy.
“What?” Felicity asked, frowning at him.
A bit of the old Ollie came back to him, and he managed to give her a roguish smile, “Your panties are cute.” The front had a pair of glasses with a cat nose and whiskers.
“Oh Frack!” She yelped as she lunged back to her room. She quickly re-appeared with her pajama pants back on and cell phone in her hand. “I was changing when Livy called. Normally I would have taken a second to put some pants on, but I had never heard that tone of voice from her before and it worried me. And I may have forgotten that I was changing.” She took a deep breath to stop herself from rambling even more. “Let’s get you sitting up so we can better assess how bad your back is and what we need to do.” Oliver smirked at her and held up his good arm. He still felt slightly dizzy and off balance, but he was much better than he had been before. “Knock it off” She chided him as she blushed and helped him to sit up. Looking his back she announced, “I can confirm that the stitches have most defiantly tore.” She sighed and gave him her best stern mother look. “Let me guess, you were swinging Olivia around?”
“And I may have given her a piggyback ride.” Oliver answered with a grimace and seeing Felicity’s look, reluctantly added “and maybe carried her like an airplane...”
Felicity sighed, “Oliver, we’ve talked about this. You have to tell her that you need to take it easy when you are injured. Your body needs time to heal and recover and you don’t have to push it anymore. You can’t just ignore what your body is telling you, and she will understand. She’s just happy to have her father back.”
Oliver sighed and bowed his head. He knew that Felicity was right. When he was on the island he had no choice but to ignore his injuries if he wanted to survive, but as he had to keep reminding himself he was no longer on the island or in China or Russia anymore. He started to answer Felicity, but Dig arrived with Olivia right behind him.
Dig stopped a few feet in front of Oliver and a worried looking Olivia peeked out from behind his leg. Seeing that Oliver was no longer laying on the floor but was sitting up, she asked quietly, “Are you feeling better Daddy?”
Oliver smiled softly at his daughter, “Yes, sweetie. I’m feeling much better. Thank you for getting Mommy and Mr. Diggle.”
“Come here baby girl,” Felicity said as she moved out of Dig’s way. Olivia started to go over to her mom but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the blood on the back of Oliver’s shirt.
Olivia’s eyes got huge as she urgently looked at her mother, “Daddy has bleed!”
“Yes, Daddy is bleeding. But Mr. Diggle and I are going to get him all patched up.”
“Like you did when I felled in the driveway riding my bike? I had bleed then.” The little girl said as she hiked up her dress and showed them the now healed knee.
Felicity smiled at her daughter, “Yes, just like then. While Mr. Diggle and I help Daddy can you go play in your room please?”
Pausing for a second Olivia smiled sweetly at her mom, “Can I play on my tablet in you room instead?” Wanting her daughter distracted so that she wouldn’t see the damage to Oliver’s back Felicity sighed and agreed. “Thanks you, Mommy!” Olivia said as she beamed at Felicity and gave her a big hug. She started towards the door but then darted over to her father and gave him a quick hug and kiss before disappearing into Felicity’s room.
Scowling at Oliver, Felicity said, “I blame you. I swear that grin is genetic. A Queen gives me that smile and I can’t help but to say yes.”
“You look like crap man.” Dig said to Oliver as he tried not to laugh at Felicity’s comment.
“Thanks.” Oliver said dryly.
“What happened?”
Oliver shrugged a shoulder, “I got a bit lightheaded, may have ripped some stitches.”
“May have?” Diggle asked.
“Oh, he definitely did.” Felicity said, glaring at Oliver for underplaying the situation, as usual.
“Alright, and when was the last time you ate?” Dig asked, arching his eyebrow, and knowing that Oliver would often get involved in something and forget to eat. After thinking for a second Oliver just shrugged. Shaking his head at him Dig laid out his plan. “Let’s get you back to your room. Felicity is going call Rasia for some food, and I’ll get that back fixed up. Then you’re going to rest.” Oliver opened his mouth to protest, but Dig cut him off, “Don’t make me call Sara and tell her that you ruined her hard work, you know how she feels about that.”
Oliver snapped his mouth shut and gave his friend a mulish look but extended his hand so that Dig could help him stand up. Felicity got up and went ahead into his room, taking the med kit with her and calling Rasia on her cell phone. Oliver was glad for John’s support as they made their way into his bedroom as he felt a bit more lightheaded than he wanted to admit and it was a relief to sit in the chair that Felicity had pulled out for him. After sitting quietly with his eyes closed for a second to get the black dots to go away, he unzipped his hoodie and Dig helped him slide it off his arms. Both Felicity and Dig hissed when they saw the full extent of the wound. He imagined that it was quite red and irritated looking because that’s how it felt. He just hoped that it wouldn’t get infected.
“Here,” Felicity said handing him two of the pain pills from the med kit. Noticing the refusal in his eyes she softly said. “You’re not on the island anymore, you are safe here. We will watch out for you so you don’t have to be in pain.” Not saying a word Oliver held out his hand for the pills and dry swallowed them causing Felicity to gag. “I would have gotten you something to drink.”
“Knock-knock,” Raisa’s voice called out from the doorway. “O, Bozhe moy!” She exclaimed in Russian. “Mr. Oliver!”
Oliver replied in Russian, “It’s worse that it looks Rasia. Don’t worry Mr. Diggle was a medic and can take care of it.”
Raisa nodded and after putting the tray on the dresser she turned and patted Dig on the shoulder, “Take good care of him.” Then turning back to Oliver, she scolded him, “You need to eat, you are far too skinny. You too Ms. Felicity!” With that she left the room.
Felicity smiled at the motherly housekeeper as she went to make Oliver a plate. “Mommy, why does Daddy have all those bumps on his back?” Olivia was standing in the open doorway, her tablet in her hand and headphones around her neck. The three adults just looked at each other for a second before Oliver called Olivia over to him. She frowned, “You have more here.” She said pointing to his chest. “And why did someone draw on your chest too?”
Oliver smiled at her genuine curiosity. “The bumps are scars from where I had boo-boos on the island and couldn’t go and see a doctor. They have healed and left those marks.”
Olivia’s eyes got big, “Wow Daddy! You’re so strong and brave to have gotten so many boo-boos! Did someone kiss them to make it better? Mommy kisses mine and they feel better afterwards.”
Tears prickled Oliver’s eyes. He pulled her close and placed a kiss on her forehead, “Thank you, Baby. And no I didn’t have anyone to kiss them better.”
Still leaning against his chest she traced the Bratva tattoo on his pectoral. “Don’t worry, Mommy can kiss them better now! But why did you let someone draw on you? Mommy and Grams gets mad when I draw on myself and then they make me wash it off.”
“They are called tattoos, and they are there to remind me of things.” Oliver said evasively.
“What kinda things?” Olivia asked, pushing for an answer. It was in times like this that he really saw a part of himself in Olivia.
“Grown-up things,” Felicity cut in as she set a plate of food and a glass of orange juice beside him.
“Mom!” Olivia protested. After seeing Felicity’s face, she quit whining and asked, “Can I get a snack too? I’m hungry.”
Felicity tousled her daughter’s hair. “Sure. Why don’t you go back to my room and I’ll bring you a plate?”
“But I wanna stay where with you and Daddy.” The little girl protested. She gave them both her best pleading face, “Please?”
Oliver surprised himself by being the one to give in. “You can stay as long as you stay on the bed and if one of us tells you to leave you do without whining.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” She scrambled up on his bed and put her headphones back on and was soon absorbed in whatever it was that she was watching.
“And people think you’re this big bad vigilante.” Dig muttered. Felicity laughed as she brought over a place for Olivia. Oliver had methodically eaten and drank what Felicity had brought him, not paying attention to what it was that he was eating. “I’m going to stitch this up now.” Dig warned. Oliver nodded, the food had made him feel better and he could feel the numbing effects of the drugs he’d been given.
On the Island he’d eaten what he could, when he could. It had gotten better with both Slade and Shado helping hunt and teaching him how to hunt properly, but Ivo had wrecked that. In China once he went to live with the Yamashiros he’d once again had access to food whenever he wanted, but as they say all good things must come to an end. Once he was a prisoner, Reiter wasn’t too concerned with making sure that they were fed and when he was working for him all they had been given were MRE’s, which had led to his hard times in Russia. Once he was reunited with Anatoly, his friend made sure that he never went hungry. But the damage had already been done. Thinking about food always reminded him of sitting in that cave when he first arrived on the Island, starving and in pain. He would look at the ultrasound picture that Felicity had given him, hoping that one day he would be able to meet his child. Sometimes he would dream of what the child would look like and act. Olivia was better than anything he had ever imagined.
One night when they were sitting around the fire Slade had asked what was one meal that they couldn’t wait to have once they were off the dammed island. Oliver had answered with a hamburger and a milkshake. Slade had laughed at him and called him a typical American, but Shado knew he wasn’t giving the entire answer. Later after Slade had went to bed she had dug deeper, he admitted to her that the one thing he wanted most was to share a tub of ice cream with his child while they watched a movie together. Dig clapped him on the shoulder, startling him, bringing him back to the present. “I’m done, so try not to mess it up again.”
Oliver gave him a tight nod as he straightened up and looked at his daughter and Felicity who were both smiling at something on the tablet and lounging on his bed. He was hit with the realization that he was off the island. It was time to eat ice cream out of the container with his daughter while they were watching a movie.
Several hours later saw Oliver, Felicity, Thea, and Olivia in their pajamas eating ice cream together and watching a movie Moira and Walter even came and joined them. Looking at his family Oliver savored the moment knowing that at any point the other shoe could drop.
Additional Ice cream recipe:
Lemon Ice Box Pie ice cream
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 Tbs. lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
1 can sweetened condenced milk
graham crackers
Mix first four ingredients together and freeze according to manufactures directions add graham crackers after churning. (Works great in a Creami! Makes 2 containers)