A.N. So, I wrote this a couple of weeks ago but edited the ending today after that fantastic, awesome and otherwise perfect sneak peek. I stuck to my own imagination for how the team got there though. I hope you enjoy.


Trees. Everywhere around here there were trees. And a rocks. Lots of rocks.

Felicity squinted to see what else she could make out in the fading twilight. Nope. Not much else. Just trees and rocks. She could feel the boat engine trembling below her feet, and then a stronger whirring sound signaled the anchor being lowered. She looked at Diggle standing next to her and she so could relate at the expression on his face.

Frustration. Concern. Hope. Determination.

It had been five months since the Undertaking and it was time. Time to drag Oliver Queen back to Starling City, kicking and screaming if they had to. Diggle's words but she was totally on board with that.

"You're sure you want to come with?" Diggle's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"One hundred percent," she replied shortly.

Diggle nodded and started patting first the side pockets of his cargo pants and then the ones on his vest taking inventory. Felicity looked down at her own similar outfit and marveled how she had ended up looking like a SWAT team member. Then again Oliver Queen had that effect on women. Not transforming them into SWAT members, she amended, maybe just making them do things they didn't think they ever would. She kinda missed that about him, one of the reasons she had come with to take him back home.

"You ready?"

"Yes," she said and followed him to the craft that would take them to the island.

A few minutes later they were stepping on dry land.

"You got your tablet?" Diggle asked on a low voice, already scanning their surroundings.

"Yes. Satellite imaging showed no one on this island for the past months save our fearless and may I add crazy leader."

"Last chance to stay here, Felicity."

"Oh, please!" she sighed in exasperation and motioned for him to lead the way.

For the next couple of hours they trudges through all those trees she had looked at from the boat. On and on they went farther inland with Diggle leading the way, guided by a map and compass.

"Okay, so even if we had a destination in this island, that turns out to be freakishly big after all, how are we supposed to find him? He may be pulling a Cullen and hiding on top of the trees or something!" Felicity exclaimed in irritation after putting up with their silent trek for too long.

"We'll find him," Diggle reassured her. He was the steady one, the peacemaker and he always succeeded in making her focus, both when they trained and in situations like this one. Right, she thought sarcastically, as if she had been in similar situations before. Stupid Oliver.

Stupid, wonderful, hurting Oliver…she reminded herself. Her resolve strengthened at the memory of how broken he had been the night of the Undertaking and couple of days after that, before he upped and disappeared. Each of them were scarred from what they'd been through that night.

Even she found herself changed. The reality of the city she lived in had cracked the rosy lenses through which she had looked at the world before. So here she was now. She knew that the city needed Oliver back. His family needed him. She didn't though. She didn't need him to be what he was before. She just wanted him back whole. In all the ways that counted. She stepped over the millionth root. Yes, she wanted him to heal, and isolation wouldn't help him with that, not anymore.

She had known where he was headed as soon as he boarded his jet to China. Through satellites she had followed him here and then kept an eye on him never telling anyone where he was, except Dig. Oliver had needed this, she had reassured herself. But now, five months later enough was enough. He had to come back, and if they had to come here and get him so be it. If she had to personally deliver him to his family's –and Laurel's she thought and tightened her lips- arms then she'd do it. Because that's how he'd heal.

Absorbed by her thoughts she noticed Dig stopping just in time before she bumped into him. He had his fist in the air, and she rolled her eyes. She leaned to look around Dig's bulk and then froze. "What?"

"I thought I heard something," Dig said, already relaxing to make her know it had been a false alarm.

She started following him once again, and hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when her she heard the click. She froze on her tracks, quickly deducing exactly what Dig was saying.

Land mine. Disarm.

The words the only ones penetrating her momentary terror. And then a voice from above.

"You can't. Diggle step back. Felicity, don't move."

Oh for God's sake! He was pulling a Cullen.


A.N. 2: I hope you liked it. I swear that I had written the Cullen part before the sneak peek, and laughed so hard when I saw Oliver on that tree. XD I love this show.