Arrowheart 2

It’s been a few weeks since everything happened, and we finally figured out where Oliver is. So now, Diggle, Felicity, and I are in a very rickety plane with a couple of parachutes and Felicity is freaking out in the front seat that she just had to have. Our pilot can only speak Mandarin and I have to be the translator because Felicity and Diggle have no idea what he’s saying. Diggle: “Felicity, if you’re so scared, why did you insist on sitting up front?” Felicity: “It was the only seat with a seatbelt.” I whisper my sarcastic remark from behind Diggle, mostly to myself. Elizabeth: “Because that was totally going to make this flight safer.” Diggle: “Which will come in handy when we hit the water at 180 miles an hour.” Felicity: “What?” Diggle: “Which will not happen.” Our pilot tells us we are approaching the island. Elizabeth: “He says we’re here.” We finally lay eyes on the island through the clouds. Felicity: “Lian Yu.” Diggle and I start putting on our parachutes. Felicity: “What… You said the parachutes were just in case! Diggle: “Yeah, just in case we made it here. Come on.” Felicity: “No! Liz, why aren’t you freaking out?” Elizabeth: “I did this with Tommy and Oliver for Tommy’s 18th birthday. It was quite an adrenaline rush so we did it two more times.” Felicity: “You’re crazy!” Diggle: “You can go down with me, Felicity.” Felicity: “No!” Elizabeth: “Would you rather stay on this plane that feels like it’ll fall apart at any second or make it to the ground to see Oliver?” She hesitates before joining us and Diggle attaches her to his harness while Felicity has our travel pack on her chest. She’s about to start crying as we open the door and I decide to go down first to show her it’s not that bad. Diggle pushes out of the plane almost immediately after. Felicity won’t stop screaming but Diggle and I manage to grab hands, pulling each other’s cords, allowing the parachutes to guide us down to the water right off the shore of the island. Once we make it to the beach, we disconnect the harnesses and Felicity is vomiting on the sand while we are gathering the parachutes. Diggle: “Thanks for waiting until we touched down.” Felicity: “My pleasure.” Elizabeth: “I thought it was fun.” Felicity: “Like I said, you’re crazy.” Diggle: “Let’s move.” He picks up the backpack, and we make our way into the jungle. Felicity trails behind me while I follow Diggle. He stops, putting his arm up to stop us and shushes us. Felicity: “What is it?” I look around us but don’t see or hear anything. Diggle: “Thought I heard something.” We cautiously continue on our way, until a couple of steps later I step on something metal. I nervously look down at my foot and Felicity almost knocks into me, barely managing to stop. Felicity: “Why’d you stop?” Elizabeth: “Dig, I need you.” He looks back at me and drops the bag, putting a hand out toward me. Diggle: “Don’t move.” I bite my lip, hoping to god I don’t accidentally move while Felicity is breathing heavily, clearly scared. Diggle takes out a knife and kneels down, moving the dirt out of the way from around my foot. Diggle: “It’s a landmine. I’m gonna try to disarm it.” ?: “You can’t!” We look behind us to see Oliver in a tree, shirtless with the sun shining behind him, making it seem like he came from the heavens to save us with a bow in hand. Oliver: “Diggle, Felicity, back away! Elizabeth, don’t move.” Diggle pulls Felicity away from me, shielding her with his body as Oliver shoots an arrow with a rope at another tree and swings down toward me. I lift an arm, and he sweeps me off the landmine, making us land on the ground as the landmine explodes behind us and his body shields me from the explosion. I breathlessly look up at him, completely dazed for a moment. Elizabeth: “You are quite the guardian angel.” He just looks down at me for a moment. Diggle: “You’re a hard man to find.” He shakes his head, looking over at Diggle and Felicity. Oliver: “You shouldn’t have come here.” Felicity: “A little late for that, don’t you think.” He helps me up and leads us back to his hideout in a broken-down plane. Diggle: “Would have emailed, but this isn’t exactly a Wi-Fi hotspot.” I look around to see so many vines hanging from pretty much everywhere. Felicity: “Is this where you lived when you were here? I mean, the-the first time you were here.” Oliver: “For some of it.” He puts a shirt on. I silently thank god he did, because I’m having the hardest time determining how to react to finally seeing him again. Felicity: “Could you at least pretend you’re glad to see us? We spent weeks tracking you down. We’ve traveled halfway across the world. And this morning we flew in a plane so old, I’m pretty sure we were safer once we jumped out of it. You could…at least offer us a water. Or…coconut.” He walks over to a container and brings a canteen to Felicity. Oliver: “Fresh out of coconuts.[Hands her the canteen.] I am happy to see you three. But I know why you’re here.” Elizabeth: “Oh, I doubt that.” He looks at me, very confused. Oliver: “I’m not coming back to Starling City. I can’t. My mission, my father’s list, it was a fool’s crusade. And I failed. Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Glades. Tommy died. And the Hood couldn’t stop it. So don’t ask me to put it on again. Ever.” Elizabeth: “Because that’s all any of it was to you. Just a mission you needed to complete. You came back from the dead for that. You met your daughter and the second, Tommy, your best friend and my brother, died, you left us. Guess what Oliver, I could’ve handled being on my own before you came back, but now, I can’t even give Hannah a proper response as to why you left; why Tommy is gone; why she can’t see any of her grandparents; or even why I’m so absent now…” I take a breath trying to calm down enough to actually speak to Oliver, but my anger is just raging too hard. Diggle puts a hand on my shoulder. Diggle: “This isn’t about you being the vigilante. This is about you being Oliver Queen. Your mother’s in prison, Oliver. Her trial’s coming up. Thea’s out on her own. Elizabeth is struggling to stay afloat. Hannah needs her father. Worst of all, your son is still lost in the wind. Your family needs you.” Oliver: “What son? Elizabeth told me our son died at birth.” Elizabeth: “And before you fought my father, he told me it was a lie. He took our son and I haven’t been able to find him.” Felicity: “The family business needs you too. All the bad press after the undertaking left Queen Consolidated ripe for a hostile takeover by Stellmoor International. They’ve gutted every company they’ve taken over. Once they gobble up Queen Consolidated, 30,000 employees are gonna be out of a job. Including one very blonde IT expert. Diggle: “Listen, I get why you had to leave, probably better than anybody else. I’ve been there. And after what happened, nobody can blame you for leaving. But it’s time to come home.” We manage to get him to agree. Felicity and Diggle step outside for a moment to give Oliver and me a chance to talk. Oliver: “Liz, I’m sorry, I had no idea.” Elizabeth: “I know, Oliver. I didn’t get the chance to tell you. I’m furious, but I can’t hate you. We have too much history for that. And Hannah still needs you. [He pulls me into a hug and I lay my head on his chest, finally relaxing for the first time in weeks.] I also need you. You and Hannah are all I have right now.” Oliver: “We’re going to find Luke. No matter what it takes.” I nod, taking a breath and inhaling his forest scent. God, I missed him. I’m more tired than I thought, but now is not the time for that. I was so infuriated by him leaving, but finally seeing him again, I can barely hold onto my rage. It just melts away the longer I am in his arms.